The Spiritual Journey

Chapter 1
Our Journey’s Destination – Oneness with Christ


Each creature God made must live in its own true nature;
How could I resist my nature, that lives for oneness with God?

―Mechthild of Magdeburg


As the cliché goes, we need to start with the end in mind. What is the destination of our spiritual journey?

Have you considered what in life is so significant that it should dominate absolutely everything—our thoughts, our dreams, our feelings, our time, our energy, our passion? So significant that it is worthy of our continuous seeking and pursuit? What we truly yearn for and desire, whether we are fully conscious of it or not?

This gets interesting because Jesus is not only our Good Shepherd who empowers and helps us complete our journey. He is also our destination!

This is the one such thing. It is God’s design for us to become one with him in Christ. It is far beyond what we can even ask for or imagine. It is beyond all words and thoughts and concepts. It is the fulfillment and completion that is meant for us.

If you know this and you are on the journey, wonderful. But for many of us it can seem somehow foreign and alien. Or impossibly distant and unachievable. This may be true regardless of our spiritual or religious backgrounds and beliefs, and regardless of our current spiritual practices and activities. But we can know and have assurance it is real, it is achievable in Christ, and it is the end state of our spiritual journey.


How do we know this is true?

If we are to consider dedicating our lives to this journey to oneness with Christ, it seems only fair to have some confidence that it is indeed God’s will and plan for us, and that this state of oneness with Christ really exists.

We can be thankful that God makes it very clear in his Word that this is his will and design and plan and intended destiny for us:

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ . . .
(Philippians 2:1)

. . . we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:5)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1)

For in him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)

. . . he made known to us the mystery of his will . . . to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:9–10)

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; (John 15:5)

But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17)

It is because of him [God] that you are in Christ Jesus, (1 Corinthians 1:30)

Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:19–20)

Note that most of the verses listed are in present tense. They apply to this life, not just after physical death. We may hope that we will physically die and end up in heaven, but there is more. God’s plan is that we first spiritually enter and dwell in heaven in Christ before our physical death!

How do we know this? Because “. . . God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”. (Ephesians 2:6)