Beloved, have you ever whispered inside,
“I don’t know how this is going to turn out… and I’m scared”?
Maybe it’s a health crisis, a relationship, your finances, your kids, your future—or even your faith itself. You look ahead and can’t see the road. You look back and wonder if you somehow missed God. Somewhere along the way, Christianity became about predicting outcomes, getting your theology “right,” and clinging to certainty… instead of resting in the Person Who is relentlessly faithful, utterly good, all powerful, one with you, and Who adores you.
In my recent Perspectives with Catherine Toon conversation with my dear friend Dr. Steve McVey, drawn from his book Beyond the Veil: My Mystical Journey with Saints and Sages, we explored what it means to live from mystical union in Christ—where Love Himself is the final word over every story, every theology, every fear, and every unknown.
This is not abstract spirituality; it’s about waking up to our mystical union in Christ in the middle of real life: hospital rooms, bills, doubts, and sleepless nights. It’s about discovering that you are already upheld in a Love so vast, so kind, and so near that nothing—not even death—gets the last say.
When Heaven Was Closer Than You Thought
Many of us grew up imagining God “up there” somewhere and us “down here,” trying to get His attention. Heaven was a distant place we might reach someday if we believed hard enough and behaved well enough.
But as Steve shared in our conversation, one of the first illusions that begins to fall away “beyond the veil” is the illusion of distance. In Christ, heaven is not far away; it is the deeper dimension in which you already live and move and have your being.
In Him we live and move and have our being – Acts 17:28, NKJV
This mystical union in Christ means you are not trying to crawl your way up to God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have stepped all the way into you. Right now, as you read these words, you are seated with Christ in heavenly places and walking through your everyday life at the same time. You are both profoundly human and mysteriously included in the life of the Trinity.
You are not knocking on the door of heaven, dear one. You are walking around inside of it.
Remembering Who You’ve Always Been
One of the most beautiful themes in Steve’s journey is what he calls the “soul’s memory”—that deep knowing that you existed in the heart of God long before you ever drew a breath on this planet.
Scripture tells us that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Mystical union in Christ didn’t begin the day you first prayed a prayer; it has always been true in Him, and now you are waking up to it.
Steve uses the picture of an acorn and an oak tree. The acorn doesn’t have to become “more oaky.” Everything it will ever be is already inside. It simply needs soil, nourishment, and time to grow into what it already is.
You are like that acorn. You don’t have to become “more spiritual” to finally qualify for God’s blessings. In your union in Christ, you are learning to live from who you have always been in His heart—a beloved son or daughter, created in Love’s image, bearing the very DNA of the One Who made you.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together – Colossians 1:17, NASB
That “all things” means all things, and includes you. Your story is not dangling out on its own. You are being upheld from the inside out by the One Who dreamed you, redeemed you, and refuses to ever let you go.
Meeting the Cosmic Christ (The One Who Created the Cosmos)
The phrase “cosmic Christ” can sound strange, new age, or even scary to some believers, but all it really means is this: Jesus is Lord of everything—not just of your private spiritual life. He is the one Who created the cosmos and is omnipresent, omnipowerful, all-good and only good, but oh so very personal.
The Jesus Who walked the dusty roads of Galilee is the same Christ through Whom and for Whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16). He is the One singing in the stars, sustaining galaxies, present in quantum mysteries, and whispering through every true insight, even when it comes from voices outside our own tradition.
Mystical union in Christ means you are united not just to a historical figure, but to the living, risen, cosmic Christ Who fills and upholds creation.
And here is the breathtaking part: that same Christ lives in you.
You are woven into a Love that refuses to be confined to our boxes, our denominations, or even our fears. The more we discover our union in Christ, the more humble, spacious, and gentle we become—because we realize Love is already at work in more places and people than we ever imagined.
Faith in a Person, Not in Outcomes (Read That Again)
For many of us, “faith” was presented as a kind of spiritual currency: if we could just muster enough of it, we could guarantee the outcome we wanted. When life didn’t go the way we prayed, we were told our faith had failed—or worse, that we had failed.
But biblical faith is not faith in outcomes; it is faith in a Person. It is a quiet, sometimes trembling confidence in the God Who is in you, with you and utterly for you and for all His kids, even when we can’t see what’s next.
Steve shared very vulnerably about moments in his own life when he couldn’t honestly say what the outcome would be—moments as tender and serious as not knowing whether a loved one would live or die. In those places, his union with Christ did not guarantee a certain result, but it did reveal a certain presence—the presence of Perfect Love.
There will be seasons where you cannot say, “I know exactly how this will turn out.” But you can say, “I know the One Who is with me, upholding me in this, and that Love will have the final word—no matter what.”
Perfect Love does not promise to control every circumstance according to our preferences. Perfect Love promises never to abandon us in any circumstance, and to weave even the most painful ones into a story where Love, not loss, speaks last.
When You’re Afraid of Being Deceived
A lot of precious believers are terrified of being “deceived,” so they keep their world very small. They only listen to people who already agree with them. They never read anything outside their tradition. They stay inside a tight little doctrinal bubble, just in case.
But your mystical union in Christ means the Spirit of Truth lives in you. You are not a helpless orphan, left to sort things out on your own. You are one with the God Who promises to guide you into all Truth. The problem is when we keep looking at capacity (or lack thereof), our understanding, and are looking to find loopholes to His goodness and mastery “just in case,” so we can prepare for the worst.
That doesn’t mean you’ll never make mistakes in your thinking and your theology—we all do. It means the One Who loves you is big enough and kind enough to correct you, protect you, and gently expand you.
You don’t have to be so afraid of the dark that you stop opening the curtains. You can test everything in the light of Jesus, knowing that Truth is a Person and that Person adores you. As Steve’s journey “beyond the veil” shows, we can even receive little flashes of truth from surprising sources—while always bringing them back to the face and heart of Christ.This is a profound part of healing shame: discovering that you are not on the outside trying to get in; you are already in Him, learning to see as He sees.
Letting Love Have the Final Word in Your Story
So what does it look like, practically, to let Love be the final word and live from your mystical union in Christ? Here are a few gentle invitations:
- Shift from “Where are You, God?” to “Jesus, You are here in me.”
In fear, we look for a distant God. In union, we turn inward to the indwelling One. You can place a hand over your heart and simply whisper, “Jesus, I acknowledge You in me, right here, right now.”
- Name the outcome you’re attached to—and hand it to Love.
You might pray, “Papa, here is what I want so much it scares me. I place this outcome in Your hands. Teach me to trust You more than what I can see.”
- Let your questions become invitations, not indictments.
Instead of, “If I’m asking this, I must be a bad Christian,” try, “Jesus, here is my real question. Will You sit with me in it and show me Your heart?”
- Remember the larger story.
When fear says, “This moment is everything,” union reminds you: this moment is real, but it is not the whole story. This too shall pass. The cosmic Christ is holding the past, present, and future in Himself—and you in Him.
As Steve so beautifully hears Jesus say in Beyond the Veil: “You aren’t defined by your theology or your failures—you’re defined by My love.”
That is what mystical union in Christ is all about. You are defined by the Love that dreamed you, redeemed you, and will never stop drawing you deeper into the dance of Papa, Son, and Spirit.
A Gentle Invitation to Go Deeper
If this stirs something in you, I would love to invite you to watch my full conversation with Steve McVey:
“The Journey Beyond the Veil | Steve McVey on Mystical Union in Christ” – watch here: https://youtu.be/pa4a_9b1SE4
And if your heart longs to see yourself more clearly through Love’s eyes, you might also enjoy this companion blog: Created in Love’s Image: See Yourself as He Does
Dear one, whatever you’re walking through, Love has not abandoned you. Mystical union in Christ means you are never alone, never outside, never too far gone, never disqualified. You are already included in the largest, kindest story there is—and in the end, Love Himself will have the final word over every detail of your life.
Love, Catherine Toon