Time Is Now, Present is Forever

[HKHaugan]

Jesus saw time as the present. It was and is always the realization of the present. The time is now. The time is always now. Now is your time and my time to be, but to be whom and to be what?
“You don’t realize 'now' what I am doing, but later you will understand (Jn.13:7).”
“'Now' that you know these things…(Jn.13:17).”
“I am telling you 'now' before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He (Jn.13:19).”
“'Now' is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him and if God is glorified in Him, God will glorify the Son in Himself, and will glorify Him at once (Jn.13:31-32).”
“'Now' they know everything you [the Father] have given me comes from you (Jn.17:7).”
Most significantly is this, “Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58).”
Jesus is the eternal 'Now.'

Time is the shadow that eternity casts across the universe. Time is the impress created by the finger of God on the mind of man. Time is the footprint of God on the history of man. Time marks a beginning and an end. Time is every self-consciousness moment in between. The self-conscious moment is God’s reason for the Cross. Why? It is not so much the moment but the consciousness of self, of who we are, of what we believe and the exposure of what keeps us from being who we really are when having to make a decision. The Cross is about the moment of choice between God or me being in control. That is what every moment is all about.

Time is the gift of being aware of yourself, your surroundings, others and the broad spectrum of the unseen. The gift of time has a purpose, to prepare us for that moment when time ceases for us and we come into the endless now of eternity, the presence of God. Awareness is the gift that opens the door to your self-conscious spiritual and relational reality. Awareness is the breath of life, and that breath is the mind breathing through learning as much as the brain can absorb. That breath is the heart feeling the depth of its emotionality. That breath is discovering the discerning power of our spirit as it wanders down the by ways and highways of the unseen currents of good and evil. That breath is the insight into the particulars that make up what it means to be a person.

Awareness is not something you do. You don't and can't control it. You can't work for it. You can't earn it. You can't conjure it or pay for it. It comes upon us unexpectedly. It just happens. It's that revealing moment when we 'see the light.' Awareness is the spiritual gift that comes in the 'oh, now I see's' that the Holy Spirit awakens us to when realization hits us.
I am aware when in a sudden moment what I had previously not known about a person comes in the light of their sharing something deeply personal. At a recent memorial service for a friend one person stood up and expressed delight in hearing the stories about the deceased person's giving nature, “I was so glad to hear what has been said here. I never knew that part about her.” Awareness is realizing, that is, getting a different slant that takes you deeper into the specifics of people and events.

Awareness opens the door to the little things that make big things out of every day living. “How did you know I liked those very kinds of chocolates you brought for my birthday?” someone asked me. I said, “I didn't but I'm glad that you liked them.” We were both aware at that moment that there was more to giving than just the act. We were aware of being good friends with a deeper sense of what it means to be friends. Another word that describes that moment of awareness is serendipity, a happy surprise that leaves you heart-filled and wordless.

True awareness doesn't really develop until we understand it as a gift always there available to us through faith in Jesus, the giver of the gift. It is He alone who identifies for us that which both opens and closes its possibilities. Jesus tells the church in Philadelphia about spiritual reality that “What He opens no one can shut and what He shuts no one can open (Rev.3:7).” He also reveals this to Peter when He asks him, “Who do you say I am?” and Peter blurts out “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” to which Jesus responds, “This was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in Heaven.” Jesus follows with these words “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven (Mt.16:15-19).” Jesus gave Peter the gift of awareness not only of who Jesus was but who Peter was in relationship to Jesus as well as the future for which he would be called both spiritually and relationally.

Jesus also reveals that sin is the block to awareness by using the binding and loosing words when we are given awareness of it in sinful behavior. Further, it can be given whenever two or three meet in His name (Mt.18:18). His desire is that we are open to His gift of awareness and all the unexpected insights that come in a relationship with Him.
Since Jesus is the giver of the gift of awareness He is the only totally aware person that has ever walked the face of this planet. In His life recorded in Scripture we find the constancy of His awareness that began as a child when He questioned, discussed and amazed Temple scholars. When He began His mission as a young adult it was His awareness of the meaning of His own life and death unfolded each day. His discussions with believer and unbeliever alike was always in the context of a special kind of awareness, spiritual awareness. He was fully aware of the particulars that constituted the kingdom of dark evil, the devil, his spirits and demons. He was fully aware of the Kingdom of God, His personal will for Him as His Son, the power of the Holy Spirit and the angels. He was aware of His role as taking human suffering upon Himself, a role no one else could fulfill. His task was to bring the awareness of who He was into the minds and hearts of all people everywhere. Awareness of Him opens us to a host of occurrences that will flood us with moments of awareness, timeless unmeasurable awareness.

Jesus is the only One who can make us aware of the real difference between good and evil, self-centeredness and love, faith and fear, being spiritual and being self-absorbed. How many times is it recorded that Jesus was aware of the authorities who were trying to trap Him into saying something they could hold against Him? Regarding taxes paid to Rome He simply replied “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's.” When a woman caught in adultery is brought before Him to be stoned to death His words to her accusers stabs their hearts, “He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” Caught up in the business of guest preparation Martha chides Jesus to get Mary who has been absorbed in listening to Jesus to be more helpful. But Jesus tells her, “You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed---or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her (Lk.10:38-42).” That incident caps the reality of awareness as the gift that is Jesus' very own nature He wants to share when we accept Him as the truly “aware One.” His Spirit is the discerner of the specifics of personal, relational and spiritual reality, the way things really are. His gift of awareness is the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

Through the Spirit I am aware of what is transpiring in my mind when I meet someone. There may be the awareness of their emotional reticence to be emotionally open which also I may be noticing at the same moment. We may be aware that we 'walk on egg shells' with some and not others. Then there are an ocean of attitudes out there. Pride, anger, greed may be just a few that cause momentary alertness and care in how we respond. As we are willing to let our awareness of human frailty emerge we tend to be more calm and discerning in how we view ourselves.

Awareness, realization, insight, serendipity; each synonimize the experience of spiritual reality.

The point here is the present, our every next conscious moment, and being aware of it and its potential. That to truly live in every next moment is to develop the kind of awareness that makes those moments growing in wisdom within and sensitivity without. It takes awareness of Jesus and His Holy Spirit. The thing is it is quite simply given when we ask Jesus to be our guide into every next moment. We live in a world of people, uniquely endowed with capacities for intellect, emotional expansion and spiritual depth. It is a world that is all about the 'now.' The present moment can be taught by the past but the present moment sets the stage for the future moments that bring more and more possibilities for filling who we are with awareness of others, nature and existence. When we die awareness becomes an eternal 'now' experience of Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit and one another. It's called Heaven.