The following article appeared in our local paper last week. It is a revision of something I posted a few years ago.
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When I was new to faith, I attended a prayer meeting at church. As we prayed, the formation of the first man, Adam, came to mind: I imagined particles of dust swirling together, sculpting Adam’s body in mid air (Gen. 2:7). When the body was formed, God breathed life into the whole of him. Adam rose to his feet.
Adam’s formation foreshadowed Christ’s resurrection. Christ came from the ground (his tomb) as did Adam. He was raised by the glory of the Father (Rom. 6:4). But Jesus wasn’t raised an individual. Scripture says believers were raised with him as one New Man (Eph. 2:6, 15).
Next, the Lord showed me a few dust particles being removed from Adam’s body. He asked whether these particles had life apart from the body. The answer was, no, they did not. This is obvious enough. Separate any part of my body from me and it will die … quickly.
Call this a vision or divinely guided imagination. Either way, it continues to shape my faith: I do not have life apart from Christ’s body, the church. In the mind of God there is just one Jesus: Head and body. I cannot be connected to the Head and not the body.
The Voice of One 