Stop Trying to Be Like Jesus — You're Already One Spirit With Him | E.W. Kenyon Teachings

For your entire Christian life, you have probably been told the same thing in a hundred different ways. Try to be more like Jesus. Imitate him.

Follow his example. Pattern your life after his. Ask yourself what he would do, and then strive to do it.

And that instruction sounds so right, so humble, so spiritual, that almost no one questions it. But there is a subtle error hidden inside it. An error that has kept sincere believers locked in a lifetime of exhausting, frustrating, never quite good enough striving.

Because the goal was never to imitate Jesus from a distance. The goal was never to copy a person you are separated from. Something happened at the new birth that goes infinitely beyond imitation.

A union took place. A joining so complete, so intimate, and so real that the language of trying to be like him actually falls short of the staggering truth. You are not called to imitate someone you are separate from.

You have been joined to him, made one spirit with him. And the difference between imitation and union is the difference between a lifetime of striving and a lifetime of expressing what is already true. This teaching is going to reveal one of the most liberating truths in the entire New Testament.

That you are not trying to become like Jesus from a distance, but that you have been joined to him in a union so intimate that the scriptures call it being one spirit with him. And when this truth breaks upon your understanding, the exhausting striving of the imitation model will give way to the restful expression of the union reality. E.

W. Kenyon understood this union as the centerpiece of the believer's relationship with Christ. He wrote, "The believer is not an admirer of Christ standing at a distance trying to copy his example.

He is joined to Christ in a union so complete that the life of Christ flows through him as naturally as sap flows through a branch. The branch does not imitate the vine. It is joined to the vine and the life of the vine produces the fruit through the branch.

The believer does not imitate Christ. He is joined to Christ and the life of Christ produces his character through the believer. The branch does not imitate the vine.

It is joined to it and that single distinction transforms the entire Christian life from a striving to copy into a yielding to express. Stay with me through this teaching because what you are about to discover about your union with Christ will end the exhausting striving that has worn you out for years. Let us understand the problem with the imitation model because it is so widely accepted that most believers have never recognized it as a problem.

The imitation model assumes separation. It assumes that you are over here and Jesus is over there and your task is to study him, observe him, and try to reproduce his behavior in your own life through effort and discipline. And under this model, the Christian life becomes an endless project of self-improvement.

You observe how Jesus loved and you try to love like that. You observe how Jesus forgave and you try to forgive like that. You observe how Jesus responded to pressure and you try to respond like that.

And every day becomes a performance review in which you measure your behavior against the impossible standard of the sinless Son of God and inevitably come up short. And here's the exhausting result. Under the imitation model, you can never arrive.

There is always more striving to do. Always another way you fall short. Always a gap between the standard you are imitating and the performance you are producing.

And that gap produces a constant low-grade sense of failure, inadequacy, and guilt that follows the sincere believer through their entire Christian life. They love Jesus. They want to be like him.

They are trying with all their might and they are exhausted because imitation is exhausting and it never ends and it never quite succeeds. E. W.

Kenyon identified the imitation model as a subtle form of bondage. He wrote, "The believer who is trying to imitate Christ has placed himself under a law he can never fulfill. He is striving in his own strength to reproduce a life that can only be lived by the indwelling Christ.

And the harder he tries, the more he fails because he is attempting from the outside what can only be produced from the inside. The imitation model is the religious treadmill. The believer runs and runs and never arrives because the model itself is flawed.

The life of Christ was never meant to be imitated. It was meant to be expressed through the union the believer has with him. The religious treadmill.

Running and running and never arriving. That is the experience of the believer trapped in the imitation model. And the way off the treadmill is not to run harder.

It is to discover the union that makes the treadmill unnecessary. Imagine an electric lamp that has been told to produce light by trying really hard. Imagine it straining, struggling, working with all its might to generate light from within itself.

It would fail completely because a lamp does not produce light by effort. A lamp produces light by being connected to the power source and allowing the current to flow through it. The light is not the product of the lamp's striving.

It is the product of the lamp's connection. And the moment the lamp stops trying to generate light by effort and simply allows the current to flow through its union with the power source, the light comes effortlessly, naturally, and continuously. That is the picture of the believer's relationship with Christ.

You are not called to generate the life of Christ by effort. You are called to remain connected to him, joined to him, in union with him, and to allow his life to flow through you. The Christ-like life is not the product of your striving.

It is the product of your union. Let us go to the scriptures and establish the reality of this union because it is far more explicit and far more radical than most believers realize. The foundational text is 1 Corinthians 6:17, but he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

One spirit. The believer who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. This is not poetic exaggeration.

This is a precise theological statement. Your spirit and the spirit of the Lord have been joined into a union so complete that the scripture describes it as being one spirit. You are not separate from Christ trying to bridge the distance.

You are joined to him, one spirit, in a union that is more intimate than any human relationship could ever be. Jesus himself prayed for this union in John 17:21-23, and the language he used is breathtaking. He prayed, "That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. I in them, and thou in me. " Jesus prayed that the believers union with him would mirror his own union with the Father.

That is the level of intimacy Jesus envisioned. Not a distant relationship of admirer and admired. A union so complete that it reflects the oneness of the Father and the Son.

And this prayer was answered at the new birth, when you were joined to Christ and made one spirit with him. E. W.

Kenyon described this union with a reverence that honored its magnitude while keeping its truth practical. He wrote, "The union between the believer and Christ is the most intimate union in the universe, second only to the union within the Godhead itself. The believer is joined to Christ as a branch is joined to the vine, as a member is joined to the body, as a wife is joined to a husband.

He shares Christ's life, Christ's nature, and Christ's standing before the Father. This does not make the believer God. The creator remains the creator, and the creature remains the creature.

But within that distinction, the union is real, intimate, and life-transforming. The believer does not strive to reach Christ. He has been joined to him.

This does not make the believer God. Kenyon was careful here, and so must we be. The union is real, but the distinction remains.

You are joined to Christ, sharing his life and his nature, but he remains the Lord, and you remain the redeemed. The union does not erase the distinction. It operates within it.

And within that union, the life of Christ flows through you, not because you have become him, but because you have been joined to him. There is a particular comfort in this union for those who are in the later seasons of life. As the body weakens and natural strength diminishes, the imitation model becomes increasingly discouraging, because it depends on effort, and effort becomes harder to summon with age.

But the union model does not depend on your natural strength. It depends on the life of Christ within you, which does not weaken, does not age, and does not diminish. The believer who has spent a lifetime striving to imitate Christ may arrive at their later years exhausted and discouraged, feeling that they never measured up.

But the believer who discovers the union can enter their later years with a fresh experience of the life of Christ flowing through them more freely than ever. Precisely because they have finally stopped striving and started yielding. Isaiah 40:31 promises, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

" Those who wait, who yield, who abide, renew their strength. And that renewal is not limited by age. The body may be declining, but the life of Christ within, accessed through union rather than effort, can be growing stronger every day.

The union model is, in many ways, the great gift to the aging believer because it shifts the source of the Christian life from the failing body to the indwelling Christ who never fails. Colossians 1:27 reveals the practical mechanism of this union. "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

" Christ in you. Not Christ beside you that you imitate. Not Christ above you that you reach toward.

Christ in you. The very life of Christ dwelling within your recreated spirit. And this indwelling Christ is the hope of glory, the source of everything the Christ-like life requires.

You do not produce the Christ-like life by imitating an external Christ. You express the Christ-like life by yielding to the internal Christ who dwells within you through the union of the new birth. Galatians 2:20 captures the union with stunning personal clarity.

Paul writes, "I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

" Not I, but Christ lives in me. Paul understood that the Christian life was not Paul imitating Christ. It was Christ living in Paul.

The old Paul was crucified with Christ. And the life Paul now lived was not his own striving to be like Christ. It was the very life of Christ being lived out through him by faith.

This is the union model. Not I, but Christ. Not my effort to copy him, but his life expressed through me.

E. W. Kenyon made the practical application of this union unmistakable.

He wrote, "When the believer understands Galatians 2:20, the striving ends. He stops trying to live the Christian life and starts allowing Christ to live it through him. He stops asking, 'What would Jesus do?

' as though Jesus were a distant example, and starts yielding to the Christ who lives within him, allowing the indwelling life to express itself through his words, his actions, and his responses. This is not passivity. It is the most active yielding there is.

But it is yielding to a life within, rather than striving toward a standard without. And the difference is the difference between bondage and freedom, between exhaustion and rest, between the treadmill and the throne. Yielding to a life within rather than striving toward a standard without.

That is the shift from imitation to union. And it transforms the entire experience of the Christian life. Let me address a concern that may be rising in your mind, because it is an important one, and it deserves a clear answer.

Does the union model mean that effort, discipline, and obedience no longer matter? Does it mean we simply sit back passively and do nothing? Not at all.

The union model is not passivity. It is a different kind of activity. Under the imitation model, the effort is directed at manufacturing a life you do not have.

Under the union model, the effort is directed at yielding to a life you do have, at maintaining the connection, at staying in the place where the life of Christ can flow. Jesus described this in John 15:4 when he said, "Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.

No more can ye except ye abide in me. " Abide in me. That is the believer's responsibility.

Not to produce the fruit, but to abide in the vine, and abiding is active. It involves staying in the word, maintaining fellowship, walking in obedience, and continually yielding to the life within. The branch does work.

It holds its position. It remains connected. It does not detach itself and wander off.

But the work of the branch is the work of abiding, not the work of manufacturing fruit. And the difference between those two kinds of work is the difference between the exhaustion of the imitation model and the rest of the union model. E.

W. Kenyon clarified this balance with characteristic precision. He wrote, "The union does not eliminate the believer's responsibility.

It redirects it. The believer is responsible to abide, to yield, to walk in fellowship, and to maintain the connection through which the life flows. But he is not responsible to produce the life itself.

That is the work of the indwelling Christ. The believer's labor is the labor of abiding. The fruit is the product of the vine.

And when the believer understands the difference, he labors at the right thing, abiding, and stops laboring at the wrong thing, manufacturing. He works at staying connected, and he rests in the life that flows from the connection. He labors at abiding and rests in the life that flows.

That is the union life, active in abiding, restful in producing. And it is the most fruitful way to live, because it draws the fruit from the inexhaustible life of Christ, rather than from the limited resources of human effort. Now consider what this means for the way you understand your failures.

Under the imitation model, every failure is a devastating verdict on your effort. You tried to be like Jesus and you failed, which means your effort was insufficient, which means you must try harder. And the cycle of striving and failing and trying harder grinds on, wearing down even the most sincere believer.

But under the union model, a failure is not a verdict on your effort. It is a moment when you stopped yielding to the life within and reverted to acting from the flesh. The remedy is not to try harder.

It is to return to yielding, to reconnect with the life within, to abide again. The failure does not send you back to the treadmill of striving. It sends you back to the rest of abiding.

And from that rest, the life of Christ resumes its flow. This is a far gentler, far more sustainable, and far more accurate way to understand the Christian walk. You are not a performer who failed and must perform better.

You are a branch that momentarily stopped drawing from the vine and must simply reconnect. Now, let me show you how this changes everything in practical terms. Under the imitation model, when you face a situation that requires patience, you grit your teeth and try to manufacture patience by willpower, asking what Jesus would do and straining to do it.

Under the union model, you recognize that the patience of Christ already dwells within you through the union, and you yield to it, allowing the patience that is already in your spirit to express itself through your response. Under the imitation model, when you face a situation that requires love for someone difficult, you struggle to produce love you do not feel, working to behave lovingly while your heart resists. Under the union model, you recognize that the love of Christ has already been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit, as Romans 5:5 declares.

And you yield to that love, allowing the love of Christ within you to flow toward the difficult person. The behavior may look similar from the outside, but the source is entirely different. One is manufactured by striving, the other is expressed from union.

And only the second one is sustainable, because only the second one is drawing from an inexhaustible source. And here is the climactic truth that should end the exhausting striving forever. The Christ-like life you have been straining to produce by imitation is already inside you through union.

Every quality of Christ that you have been trying to copy from a distance is already present in your recreated spirit, because you are joined to Christ and share his nature. The patience is there, the love is there, the peace is there, the wisdom is there, the strength is there. Not as qualities you must manufacture, but as the very life of Christ dwelling within you, waiting to be expressed.

You have been trying to bring water up from a well by hard labor, when there is an artesian spring inside you, pressurized and ready to flow, requiring only that you open the valve of faith and let it rise. Stop trying to be like Jesus. you are joined to him, one spirit with him.

And his life is in you, ready to be expressed the moment you stop striving and start yielding. E. W.

Kenyon expressed this culmination with words that should bring rest to every exhausted believer. He wrote, "The end of striving is the beginning of victory. As long as the believer is trying to produce the life of Christ by his own effort, he is exhausted and defeated.

But when he discovers that the life of Christ is already in him through union, and that his role is not to manufacture it, but to express it, the striving ends and the rest begins. He stops working to become what he already is. He stops striving to produce what he already possesses.

And out of that rest, the life of Christ flows more freely than it ever flowed from his striving. The branch does not labor to produce fruit. It simply remains in the vine and the fruit comes.

The branch does not labor to produce fruit. It remains in the vine and the fruit comes. That is the union life.

Not striving, remaining, not manufacturing, expressing, not imitating a distant Christ, yielding to the Christ who lives within. So, let this truth bring an end to your striving and usher you into the rest of union. You are not called to imitate Jesus from a distance.

You are joined to him, made one spirit with him, indwelt by his very life. The Christ-like qualities you have been straining to produce are already inside you through the union of the new birth. Your role is not to manufacture them by effort, but to express them by yielding.

The branch does not imitate the vine. It remains in the vine and bears the vine's fruit naturally. And you do not imitate Christ.

You remain in union with him and express his life naturally. Stop trying to be like Jesus by your own effort. Start yielding to the Jesus who lives within you and watch the life you could never produce by striving begin to flow effortlessly from the union you have possessed since the moment you were born again.

E. W. Kenyon left the church with a charge that should govern the way every believer approaches the Christian life.

He wrote, "Cease from your own works as God did from his. Enter into the rest of union. Stop trying to be like Christ and start recognizing that you are one spirit with him.

Yield to the life within. Express the nature you have received and the Christ-like life that exhausted you when you tried to produce it will delight you when you simply allow it to flow. You are not an imitator.

You are a partaker. You are not separate. You are joined.

Live from the union and the striving will end forever. You are not an imitator. You are a partaker.

That is the truth that ends the striving and it is yours because you are one spirit with the Lord. The distance has been closed. The separation has been healed.

The union has been established. And from this day forward, you can lay down the exhausting work of trying to be like a Christ you are separate from, and take up the restful joy of expressing the Christ to whom you have been eternally joined. If this truth has freed you from the exhausting striving of the imitation model, and revealed the rest of union, then declare it.

In the comment section below, type these words, I am joined to the Lord. I am one spirit with him. I am not trying to be like Jesus from a distance.

Christ lives in me, and his life flows through me. I stop striving to produce what I already possess. I yield to the life of Christ within me, and allow his nature to be expressed through me.

I am not an imitator. I am a partaker of the divine nature, joined to my Lord in a union that nothing can break. That is not a formula.

That is a believer entering the rest of union and laying down the exhausting striving of imitation. Leave it in the comments now. And as you enter the rest of union, as you begin to express the life of Christ rather than strain to imitate it, there is a treasure inside you that most believers never discover.

Because the union you share with Christ means that everything he is, everything he has, and everything he can do has been deposited within your recreated spirit. But here is the tragedy. Most believers walk around their entire lives completely unaware of the wealth that lies buried within them.

They're like a man who owns a piece of land he considers worthless, never knowing that beneath the surface lies a gold mine of immeasurable value. E. W.

Kenyon told a story about exactly this, a principle drawn from a piece of land everyone had dismissed as useless that perfectly illustrates the hidden riches inside every believer. In the next teaching, I'm going to share that principle with you and show you how to discover and access the gold mine that has been buried inside you since the day you were born again. If what you heard today revealed your union, what comes next will reveal your wealth.