God's Triumph

Triumph...God's triumph is an overcoming of the dark with light, the lie with truth, the regret and remorse with reward.  The greatest reward is to see Him more clearly...see Him as Love...this is to overcome what man has done to the image of God. 

We have been taught God loves us BUT...  Our salvation is always in jeopardy.  Did you ever sing Jesus loves you as a child and then be told that Jesus does not like bad boys and girls.  How does a child wrap their head around that?  What is a bad boy or girl anyway?  It is all a matter of opinion....mostly...what someone else did not want you to do because it did not meet their own needs.

It all becomes a man-centered, works oriented journey.  We cannot see the love for all the fear-based living.  The tragedy is what is done to the image of God.  It is a false god that we have created.  The triumph is that God can somehow get through.  Somehow His love notes, nudges toward the Divine, a word spoken in due season, just the right reflection of love by someone else...many, many ways He finds to touch us and bring us to the truth about Him.  Triumph is what God does.

When all the stuff we have been taught breaks down because it does not stand up to the standard, God is love, and we start seeing glimpses of the Divine, and we see that what we have known does not align with who He is...that very place of questioning begins the God's  triumph. 

Jesus often said, "You have heard it said, but I tell you..."  It is time to put away what man has said about Jesus, and hear the "but I tell you."  Of some, He said that they had eyes and do not see and ears and do not hear.  Of others (the disciples) He said that they saw and heard and understood. 

"But I tell you..." is the triumph of truth over all that mars the image of God in His children.  Give us anointed eyes, ears, and hearts.

Inner Grinch

Did you have to deal with your own inner grinch this holiday?  I did.  At least we know what to call if!  The Grinch wants what others have, but he pretends it is the last thing that he wants.  I am actually glad that we have the story of the Grinch...it is much easier to swallow this truth when it is the Grinch acting this way.

It clearly shows us that the wounded inner child has created the inner / outer grinch.  One lesson we can learn from this is that our "grinchiness" (the external thing that others see) is not the real problem.   The Grinch's selfishness and hurtfulness and damage is none-the-less still selfish, hurtful, and damaging...to others and to the Grinch.

We all participate in the Grinch's drama.  Huumm...insteresting.  A lot of grace is needed whether we are playing the Grinch or not...this time.  When someone else plays Grinch, it is easy to judge them harshly...they really are mean and obnoxious.  When we play the Grinch, well we dress it up. 

Wanting what others have...I remember when I was a child and I wanted to play a musical instrument.  I was told there wasn't the money for this.  Something in me kind of downshifted.  I observed as we kids got older, that there seemed to be money for organs and guitars.

 I just realized this Christmas that the message I got was that I did not belong to this very musical family for some reason.  I felt unloved and like I did not deserve to participate.  It was very much a heart wound.  The kind that creates a type of Grinch.   I saw myself always standing on the outer edge of a family circle that loved music...never participating.

How does God redeem these type of hurts.  Only God can figure it out...I believe.  The message that I was not as worthy as others (those other kids that got to play an instrument) did something else...it left me with the lie of Cinderella.  You can clean and scrub, but you cannot dress up and go to the ball.  I have often joked that I was more functional than ornamental.  Evidently, it was not a joke.  I was me believing the lie. 

I think that part of God's redemption is that I realized that I still had this hurt.  I no longer need to carry the lie.  He helped me clear this.  I think that it is time to dress up and go to the ball! 

Merry Christmas Wish For all

Christmas Day -- What I want for Christmas is to have anointed eyesight and start today looking for and cultivating Christ within so that next Christmas we will be yet more of a reflection of Him. 

I want to live life deliberately and purposefully.   At the end of each and every day, I want us all to be able to say that we are seeing Christ in all things whether we measure them positive or negative, black or white, full or empty, and so on.  I want us to be open to seeing that even in the hard stuff of life, there is an opportunity to grow and become. 

When I am being a Grinch, I want to stop and ask "Why?"  I want to be open to hearing  about where I need healing and why.  I have seen over and over that what I judge as lacking anything, it is that very thing that I lack.  That is my place that needs healing.

I want us to move from being reactive victims to being proactive thrivers.   This takes a willingness on our part to quit blaming others for things.  When we feel uneasy about a situation, we need to ask why this has pushed so many buttons.  Maybe you deem someone unworthy or not good enough.  Given reflection, you will find that your are the one feeling unworthy or not good enough. 

So often, we are wanting others to validate us.  When we feel let down in this, we need to see that no one has let us down.  We have let ourselves down and are trying to find "salve" for our wound through others. 

Have you ever seen someone hurt or deny themselves the very thing that makes them happy because they "feel" that withholding something good from someone else will teach them something?  I use "feel" because this is not something we do consciously...we do not plan to be self-destructive; it is a program that is running in the background.  Our only indicator of the program may be feeling out of sorts. 

We can even rationalize this tendency by all kinds of psycho-babble and religious reasoning.  My Christmas day wish is for eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart of know Him.  God bless each of you.

Boundaries

As I look over the last year, I find a peaceful stillness in the awareness that I can change my mind and opinion.  I can change who I am.  I can give up being invested in outcome.  So much of what I thought was black and white has proven to be just variations of gray.  The real truth...the only light...is God is love and He loves me.

All this other stuff has proven to be another type of idolatry...that which you bow down to in order to feel significant, validated, of value, secure, safe, worthy, worthwhile, deserving, etc.  Opinions are dressed up as if they are Truth.  Our wounds are demanding that others take care of us in some way...fill up all the voids and empty places of our souls.  Man-centered coping strategies are made to seem like common sense, practical approaches.  Not!

I am amazed at how God pulls off redemption of so much of our past if we will quit defending our positions and opinions that developed as a consequence of that past.  The extreme of not setting boundaries is to see that boundaries need to be set everywhere.  Both extremes are telling us that we have not yet found out who we are in God.

Not setting boundaries and being overly concerned about boundaries is coming from the same level of pain...one extreme is doormat and the other is the person who walks on the doormat.  They are both defensive strategies for having personal needs met. 

The doormat is afraid of people, what they think, etc.  The person who walks on the doormat is an "angry" doormat.  They think they  no longer care what others think, and instead of catering to others, they become abrasive or aggressive in their anger.  They are tired of being walked on and they kick into walking on others before they are stepped on again.  Neither is a place of redemption.  Neither speaks of personal freedom.

Freedom from the past occurs when we quit letting this past rule how we live the present.  The only way we can do this is to be observant of how we are feeling about "present" situations and get quiet with God about those feelings and learn His truth.  If we find we are making excuses or explaining away our feelings and behaviors, we can be sure that we have not reached that place of redemption yet.

In our day, we are blessed to know about physical ways to eliminate negative feels and even change our programming.  Some of my favorite, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and TAT (Tampus Acupressure Technique) helps us be proactive.  I see it as a reaching out for the hem of the garment like the woman in the Bible when she needed healing.  She embraced a physical process after the established her intention.  This is the stuff of miracles. 

 How grateful I am for a patient, magnificent God who will guide us into all truth and freedom...and who has given us a physical way to touch the hem of His garment.  Praise God!

The Amazing "Yes"

I have just spent a week at my daughter's house with two of my grandsons.  It was such fun.  I was having tea one morning with the oldest, ten, and he said he could not imagine things being better than they were right now.  I loved it.  What a beautiful spiritual lesson this sweet young man shared with me.

We so often see what is NOT rather than relishing what is.  I heard someone say that no matter what is going on, he says: It doesn't get  better than this!  It always does.  I like that, too. 

Here is a quotation from a book I am currently reading.  It says something very similar, however, it is a little deeper. 

"The great teachers are saying that you cannot start seeing or understanding anything if you start with "No."  You have to start with a "Yes" of basic acceptance, which means not too quickly labeling, analyzing, or categorizing things in or out, good or bad.  You have to leave the field open.  The ego seems to strengthen itself by constriction, by being against, or by re-action, and it feels loss or fear when it opens up.  Spiritual teachers want you to live by positive action, open field, and conscious understanding, and not be resistance, knee-jerk reaction, or defensiveness."  The Naked Now, Rohr, page 50.

It is amazing that a child has this ability to see the "Yes!" in so much of life?  In people?  In situations?  And, if something seems to be a "No," they start looking for how it can be "Yes!"  No wonder the Lord said: For of such is the kingdom of Heaven.

Tea time with these two grandsons was such a blessing this week, and I learned again to be still and watch, be quiet and listen, and try to start everything with the yes of acceptance...even if we do not quite get it at the moment.  I believe this practice of faith will do much for our today and tomorrow.  Like Mary, hearing from an angel that she would have a child when she wasn't married, she went for the "Yes" and that which was born in her and of her was holy.

God's Amazing Grace in Genesis: Without Form and Void

Genesis 1:2-3 – The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

This text, to me, sums up completely the state of our hearts. Because we have been created from the earth, I believe that I can use my holy imagination with this text. I can say it this way: In the beginning God saw that the earth (Linda) was without form and void, and darkness was her covering.  

Not only can I make a personal application of these words, I can extend that application to a larger picture. In the beginning, there was a great controversy in Heaven. There was a battle between Michael and His angels and Lucifer and his angels. This is the origin of a cosmic darkness that has drawn all of heaven and earth into its drama.  

If I understand that there was a battle already in progress, and that darkness had already been initiated, I can see these verses with new eyes. In the midst of all this darkness, Elohim (the plural God), steps in. They come with a plan to do something about the drama. Praise God that His amazing grace is found even in the Genesis story of creation. Praise God that darkness is not a limitation to a God who desires to create masterpieces! This is true in the natural realm, and it is true in the spiritual realm.  

The darkness experience is significant to every human being regardless of spiritual status not because of the darkness but rather because of the Spirit’s hovering. Darkness does not mean absence of God. God’s Spirit hovers even in the darkness! Does that thought lift you? It does me, and God’s promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5) is more clear and precious to me as a consequence of this study.  

Whether we feel the Spirit or even know of the Spirit’s presence does not change the reality of the Spirit’s hovering. Coming to know this truth, however, provides assurance during those personal periods of darkness that we all experience from time to time. 

Darkness is God’s opportunity. He is always seeking us before we have sought Him. It is His drawing that causes us to turn towards Him. A favorite author of mine puts it this way, “Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done with Him…We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. ‘No man can come to me,’ said our Lord, “except the Father which has sent Me draw him.’ (John 6:44) And it is by this prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming.” (The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer). Beautiful words! Precious thought! 

Prayer in the Garden of Grace:  

Most holy, heavenly Trinity, You are an awesome God. You are the creator God who is not limited by dark places. You are a precious, gentle God who rather than being absent in the depth of darkness is hovering in anticipation. How excellent is Thy work in the world and in individual hearts. 

Thank You for being present at all times. Thank You for promises that say that You will never leave or forsake us. You were there at the foot of the cross for Your Son during incredible darkness. And You are present for each of us during our dark times. Thank You for the assurance that You are taking advantage of every darkness situation to create masterpieces…Designer originals from the Master’s hand.  

Beautiful Trinity God, we are often afraid of our dark places for we have not understood that You were there. Let the beauty of this truth of Your presence…the Spirit’s hovering over the dark…create in us the joy of Your salvation. Let it be another truth that sets us free. These souls desire rest in the darkness.  

O Hound of Heaven, You continually pursue us. As The Spirit hovers, let love’s response have full sway in our hearts and minds. In the Son’s name. Amen

God's Amazing Grace in Genesis: The Darkness of Grief

Genesis 1:2-3 – The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Applying a verse in other than that of the natural realm has an interesting and rewarding dimension to Bible study. Continuing to do so with this verse, its depth is amazing. The Spirit’s hovering over the darkness is a concept that quiets anxious souls. Personal darkness situations include several areas, one of which is the darkness of grief.

The darkness of grief is a consequence of loss of some sort. It may be the actual death of a loved one, or physical or emotional separation from those we cherish. It may be dealing with the loss of significant control over some area of our life. It may be the result of a truth encounter that shatters a lie-based reality which has been our foundation for life. When a lie crumbles, we are often left wondering who we are and where do we fit now that we don’t fit where we used to fit! 

Again, knowing that the Elohim God embraced the creation process in the midst of Their personal grief as the great controversy raged, brings my heart some amazing comfort. When I put creation into this perspective, my appreciation for God’s amazing grace in the creation process overwhelms me. I know how the devastation of grief can paralyze me. I don’t have one creative thought or feeling. How did God do this? 

The darkness of grief must be acknowledged and honored. The Spirit does not flee from it, nor should we. Scientists have shown that tears of grief and anger contain toxins which need to be released so our bodies can be clean. Grief can be uncomfortable because we have been told that being in darkness is a lack of faith or that perhaps we must have some sin in our lives because God seems to be absent. These are the same darts of doubt that Satan threw at the Savior when He was dying on His cross of grief. 

The darkness of grief is blinding; we cannot see through it. Accept that! We must, however, be gentle with ourselves during these darkness times, and, if we can “intellectually” accept that our grief is only one part of the healing process, then perhaps that will nurture a hope in our hearts that “joy comes in the morning.”  

The darkness of grief is understood by the Godhead. And God grieves with us just as He grieved when Lazarus died. Imagine it! The Son of God who would call Lazarus from his tomb in a matter of minutes so identified with the grief of His friends that He wept openly (John 11:353). The Spirit’s hovering over the darkness…may this truth be salve for the sore spots of our souls.

 Prayer in the Garden of Grace:

Precious Heavenly Father, It is staggering to my heart to see what you did in the midst of Your own personal grief. Knowing that a plan of salvation needed a platform from which it could be launched, You created the world that would become a stage to the universe.

In my grief, I am paralyzed. I cannot see past that moment in time, let alone see the big picture. Thank You that You know our grief. You know its timetable. You know its course through our bodies and minds. Thank You for being at the foot of our crosses of grief. Thank You for the Spirit’s hovering, and thank You for the Son’s personal acquaintance with our suffering.

In the darkness of grief, we do not even know how to pray, what to ask for, or how to be grateful. You know this. Grief’s consuming confusion paralyzes. You know this, too. When Your disciples were confused and depressed during Your Son’s Gethsemane, He told them to “Sleep on now, and take rest…” (Matt. 26:45).

You were so gentle to them in their grief. Surround us with those gentle heavenly arms and be to us our rest. In the name of the Son, we thank You for the Spirit’s hovering over the darkness.. Amen

God's Amazing Grace in Genesis: The Trinity God

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the beginning – you cannot go back any further than that! And there was God! The word for the God in Genesis 1:1 is the Elohim God. This is a plural God. This is a God that is an energetic community that is mutually submissive to each other.

All things were made by a God who is a community.  And in verse two, one of the entities, the Spirit, is introduced. “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Turn on your holy imagination and see the Spirit hovering. What a beautiful word. The Spirit is waiting in anticipation for something. 

Where else in scripture does the Spirit hover? At the baptism of Jesus, the dove (Spirit) hovers and then the voice of God says that this is the Son in Whom God is pleased. The Spirit hovers in tongues of flames above the apostles on Pentecost, and the voice of God was heard through the diversity of languages which converted thousands. In another place, the Spirit hovered over a virgin, and that which was born of her was Emmanuel, God with us. 

When the Spirit hovers, something wonderful is in store; God’s will is about to be accomplished. The Spirit seems to bring about God’s will as soon as the Word comes from God. God spoke, and it was so!

The Son of God – The Spoken Word – is activated by the Holy Spirit. The Word which is the will of God, becomes reality. John 1:1-3, 13, discusses this idea a bit more fully as it describes the Son’s participation in creation. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Do you see the intimacy involved here? This cosmic community working so closely together that the express will of God the Father manifests itself in the Son who becomes the Word of God upon which the Holy Spirit moves bringing to fruition the work of God.  It is a snapshot of salvation.  From the beginning,  we get insight into the working of the community God.  He/They are always revealing themselves in everything around us. 

And God smiled – they all stood back, looked at creation, and they smiled because it was good! How totally awesome is the working of this God. 

Prayer in the Garden of Grace:

Most Holy God, .how awesome are Your ways. I cannot understand; it is only a glimpse that I get of how miracles of creation occur when your Cosmic Community is present. Take me into that miraculous creation process. Hover over me Holy Spirit and create the good and perfect will of God. Let me feel the smile of Your beautiful  Oneness for in my soul the desire for this oneness reaches up to You my Creator God; speak and make it so.

What does it tell me about You, O God, that a heavenly community desired our presence so much that our Elohim God took the risk inherent in creating children?  For You so loved that You created.  You so loved that You died for us.  You still love us so much that You desire to share Elohim's oneness with  us.  The creation story is full of promise for us and for our Elohim God.  Our purpose is fulfilled in the Christ-power of this promise.  Mighty God, You have given us a majestic foundation, and You model to us that the faith walk is a mutual journey.   

This daughter of Abraham pursues your presence. To see Your face and feel the embrace of the God who is Elohim is my desire for this day. Let me walk in the energy of Your grace today…receiving and giving as the Spirit orchestrates Your will for my life today. In the Son’s name, Amen.

Holy, Holy, Holy

You know, I have been studying Revelation for a while, and one of the things that fascinates me is Revelation 4:8 which says a heavenly creature in heaven rests not day or night saying Holy, Holy, Holy.  Can you imagine saying that for twenty-four hours around the clock.  It reminded me of Psalms 22:3: But You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.   Our praises create a throne for God!  Isn't that amazing.   

In my chapel time, I decided to experience the word "holy."  My intent was to see how if would feel to be in the energy of that word for a while.  I know that science is saying that our words change our reality.   

I spoke the word "holy" and held it in my heart for a bit.  I took my time before repeating the word, but I kept speaking it.  It was really amazing.  In doing this, I moved from saying the word to experiencing God in that word.  What I mean is that just the word has put me in place to where it was all about God.   

I realized that so often in our worship it is still all about ME.  Each time I said holy...and I allowed some minutes between repeating the word...I got greater clarity about God.  His is holy.  Because we have the fullness of the Godhead in Christ Jesus, we have access to this.  Instead of wanting something from God, I found myself being content wrapped in His holiness...like a hug from Heaven.  Words do not do this justice.   

As for my prayer list, I think maybe this could be a preferred state in which to present those prayers before the throne of grace.   

1 Peter 1:16: "...be ye holy, for I am holy."  How can this experience help me understand and apply this text? 

God said it, and His biddings are His enablings.  We do not need to feel that it is impossible.  And it is an invitation into oneness (John 17).  It is an energetic hug that pulls us into a deeper experience of Him. 

Dr. Masuri Emoto did some experiments on water showing the effects of the written word on water.  Taking water from the same source, he wrote words on paper and taped them to the jars.  Words conveying positive energy (love, peace, joy, God) and words conveying negative energy (fool, hate, Satan).  Then they froze the water.  Later, when they looked at the ice crystals, they discovered the positive words had created beautiful crystals and the negative words had created really distorted crystals.   

If you have not seen his work, go on-line and look up Emoto's messages in water.  The book is also fascinating. 

Why do I bring this up?  Our body is 50% to 80% water.  If I am staying in the presence of God and bringing Him heavenly words, I just bet I am changed at a crystal level.  You know we have crystals in our body, too.  I bet that my DNA is being changed to reflect that word.  I am counting on it!! 

During this time, God gave me some real awareness for heart healing.  He showed me some more of the tendency that I have to be a perfectionist and reminded me, again, that He is there to help me overcome. 

Here I Raise My Ebenezer

There is a hymn that I really love: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.  To me it is in elegant song and a triumphant song.  "Here I raise my ebenezer..." 

An ebenezer is a monument.  It is a memorial.  Remember the stone memorials that Moses left to remind those who had been there and those who would come...God has been here and He did this. 

Prayer is an ebenezer...a monument to God.  We are told to ask.  We have not because we ask not.  So, we ask.  Often, in the asking, we have in mind that the answer will be in such and such a way.  God doesn't usually answer in a way that meets our expectations...God's ways are not man's ways the scripture says. 

We have to be peaceful with God's answers.  This working its way through our life and manifesting in our lives, is an ebenezer.  Our lives become living monuments in our wilderness wanderings.  Doesn't that just feel good.  We all want to do something significant.  We want to leave something that means something to those who come behind.

I do a lot of emotional and spiritual healing work with people.  With God's help, yesterday, I helped someone rid themselves of the disempowering pain of rape.  She has been carrying this thirty or so years.   

The difference between how she looked and how she stand was like night and day.  When she came in she wouldn't even look me in the eyes.  Her color was sallow.  When she left she was walking tall and the color in her face was returning.  She could look you in your eyes and talk.  Her friend who came with her hugged me and said that she is totally different. 

She is an ebenezer that I get to leave along this journey.  God touched someone with healing because I was on the planet yesterday.   

All of us can touch others with healing.  God has touched us...giving us victory and healing.  We are His monuments...the evidence of what He has done for each of us is on display for the universe. 

Never think that your life is small and has no meaning.  The whole universe is looking on.  We are "active" monuments, living monuments.  As such, we can touch the lives of others.  The impact for good is amazing. 

1. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

2. Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

4. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

5. O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothèd then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

God is Love

The limitations that we have in our spiritual perception as a result of not understanding scripture, causes us to live in the shadow of death...we create God in the image of that.  Scriptures have been interpreted by man and are subject to the lens through which he looks.  A good example of that is the Garden of Eden experience...Satan viewed God with distortion and promoted that.  He can stoop to lies.  God is truthful.   

Before the distortion of God's word by Satan, Adam and Eve were in a place of oneness with God because they lived in the truth of who He is. After Satan distorted God's character, causing distrust in man towards God, man no longer knew the truth of who he was in God.  Not knowing who we are in God does this, and it propels us into a fear-based, works orientation.  We traded "knowing" God to "knowing" good and evil.  Remember, "knowing" is an intimate relationship in the Bible.   

God showed up in the Garden.  Their confusion did not change God's ability or desire to show up.  It is important that we get this.  God is faith sensitive, not sin sensitive.  Luke 18:8 asks this question: when He comes, will He find faith in the land?   God has dealt with sin...His Son died...got us covered.  God is love.  Everything in scripture must be evaluated from this standpoint.  I keep saying this for my benefit because the lessons I got in the first two-thirds of my life, missed that standard of love.  Now, when I revisit the scriptures, I see them with new eyes.  

John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son and whosoever believes in Him shall not perish. Even though Adam and Eve had been in a face to face relationship with God, the delusion that Satan brought to them was so great that they no longer saw Him correctly.  It is this spirit of delusion that we are still trying to get over.  How do we get over it? 

John 8:31.32 -- "...if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  We can only be disciples of truth, if we are continuing in His word.  It is a must.  It is all about God's identity and our identity in Him.  Jesus said that if we have seen Him, we have seen that Father.  Our only work is to see Him clearly without the distortions that have come down to us by scribes and Pharisees of our day.  Jesus said to those leaders of His day: "Ye neither know Me or My Father; if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father, also."  John 8:19.   

Am I getting it?  The only truth I need...it is foundational for all the others...is the truth of who God is, who Jesus is, who I am in the Godhead.  Colossians 2:9-10:  "For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  And ye are complete in Him which is the head of all principality and power." 

I find it interesting that the struggle with spiritual darkness in Jesus' day was with the religious people...the established church of that time. They had set up man-centered religion, and that which was spiritual (Jesus) they crucified.   

It was the same in the Old Testament.  In Ezekiel 13 (and many other places), God is talking to Ezekiel about false prophets.  Prophets are from the spiritual camp.  They are not the outsiders.  These false prophets were leading the people astray.  It is interesting here that we are told what they should be doing: verse 5 -- they were not standing in the gap for God's people, and they were not building a hedge around God's people.  This is an other-centered work.  The false prophets...self-centered.  This is a good way to measure the prophets of today. 

The above text in Colossians says we are "complete" in Him.  In the Garden of Eden the devil suggested that we were incomplete because God was withholding something...something we would be given if we disobeyed.  Not trusting that they were "complete" was the problem then, and it is the problem now.  For it is the belief/feeling that there is something wrong with me...something I am missing...something I don't know...that propels us into making fig leaf garments.   

Are the messages that I am listening to suggesting "incompleteness."   Are they fear-based?  Or, are they building hedges and standing in the gap?  Are they telling you the truth about the Godhead and about who you are in the Godhead.  

 A young person that I know who has experienced the truth about Jesus this year and has come to know Him as her Savior rather than someone she can never please, told me that recently she was listening to a program at church and that in those words, she suddenly felt the old stuff of doubting her salvation creating tension in her body.  She quickly realized that she was not the problem...she was not incomplete...the message was.  In Christ Jesus, we are complete.  Anything else is a false prophet.   

Isaiah 8:19-20 -- If they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is NO light in them.  2 Timothy 1:17 -- God has not given us a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind.  Man's ways seem to promote fear.  That is a control technique.  The Lord is our Shepherd, we shall NOT want.  We must see ourselves through Heaven's eyes.  God did not shed the precious blood of Jesus over that which has not merit...His people and His character.  Thank you, Jesus!

Not My Will But Thine Be Done

I keep asking the Lord how He did Gethsemane.  This morning He said it was embracing the daily crucifixion.  We are resistant to this, and run the other way.  He was resistant, but embraced it.   

Giving up our rights to ourselves and to manifesting oneself is essential.  He came to manifest the Father.  We are too anxious to manifest ourselves because  we do not recognize that Him manifesting within is our true purpose and calling.  

I look at the picture of Jesus in the garden.  I wonder about the "not My will but Thine be done" experience of Jesus.  In the picture, it is all clean.  It does not show the blood, sweat, and tears.  It does not show the Savior coming to a place of "you do not take My life, I give it."   

My heart is so touched.  I love my Lord so much for what He chose to do for me...for each of us.  Paul says we are to die daily.  That is the sanctification process.   

I know that it is so easy to dress up our dysfunction, disbelief, and spiritual arrogance.  It will, indeed, take Gethsemane to break it all down to where I can say:  He must increase and I must decrease.   This is not a call to be less than.  It is a call to be like Him.  Open our eyes that we may see, our ears that we may hear, and our hearts that we may know Him. 

Knowing the truth about Jesus, we find the truth about ourselves.  He says that we have the potential to be as He was.  He died to give us the right to have back what  we gave away in the Garden of Eden.   In the Garden of Gethsemane He embraced a path of redemption. 

We see crucifixion as something being taken from us rather than the experience of dropping all that stuff we were not meant to carry.  The Gethsemane of dying daily gets us ready for our own personal Calvary.  This is God’s finest demonstration of Himself in us.

He Will Order Our Days

When your purpose has been about the others of life, the Lord often pulls the rug out from under you  because He sees you are being depleted in this wrong order of life or that this has become your savior.  

We are often doing and giving in order to get.  This is not functioning from a love motivation.  It is a business transaction.  It depletes us.  The wounds of the past, the neediness that we have, set us up to pursue significance, status, recognition, affirmation, etc. by what we do.  This is so much work!  It is serving a false god. 

God doesn't want you to continue in your idolatry, placating a god who uses you up and leaves you broken and wounded. The work of grace on the heart needs to woo you back into relationship with Him.

He asks you to come apart for a while, find rest in him, and enter into the honeymoon of abiding. He loves you and delivers you because He delights in you.   Anything or anyone that has the potential for being a god in our life He will battle.   These battles usually include God letting us fall into the pit of our own pursuing.  When we are all used up, when our expectations are not met, when others have let us down and we are broken, weeping, angry, and grieved, God is doing battle for us.   

He is trying to get us to see the truth of our wounds.  He wants to move us from service that depletes to service that restores.  Remember the story in the Bible about Jesus and the woman at the well.  When He started talking with her, He was hungry.  The disciples had gone to get food.  After His ministry to her, the disciples came with food.  He said He was not hungry..that He had had meat of which they knew not. 

There is a huge lesson for us in that story.  We would do well to spend some down time with God and pursue our own personal truth from this lesson.   

A Kingdom principle is: Seek ye first the work of grace on your heart, and everything else can be trusted to Him. He will order our days.

United in a Common Goal

Our differences become our strengths when we are united in a common goal like Pentecost, Overton Lea.

Before Pentecost, the disciples had their own ideas of the kingdom that Christ was establishing.  They thought it was of the world.  They were envious and jealous...jockeying for the highest positions.  They were together, but they were not united in a common goal. 

We often have to have our dreams and ambitions laying at the foot of a cross of crucifixion.  We are forced to behold the truth about ourselves and our goals...that they are so self-centered that there is no kingdom on earth that is ever enough for them.   

The disciples were chosen by Jesus.  Recently, I learned that in Bible times when a teacher called students, he would say follow me.  This meant that they were being called to take his "yoke" or set of teachings.  So, when Jesus called the disciples and said "follow me, and I will make you fishers of men," he was inviting them into a very respected position of trainee.  You see, not everyone that was called to be a student, was chosen to fulfill the role of rabbi when training was over.   

Inherent in the process is competition.  Jesus needed for the disciples to get over the competition.  His analogy of being a body with each member doing its part is very important.  We cannot do everything by ourselves.  We have been gifted with certain talents and skills, and together we can be a whole.  This process brings us lots of life lessons in letting go of having to have our way all the time. 

Matthew 6:33 -- "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto it."  There is no lack in God's plan.  We need to adjust our vision to that of kingdom living.  God takes all our different gifts, talents, skills and creates something amazing in us...unity of purpose.  Then Pentecost comes.  It doesn't mean that they have suddenly lost their identity...it does mean their identity is fulfilled and wrapped up in Him.   

They still had their differences...see Peter and Paul having their disputes.  See the early church having relationship difficulties.  Sameness is not unity.  That is a man centered works orientation.  Unity is a thing that is accomplished in us by God when we wait together for Pentecost.  Our waiting may or may not be in an upper room.  It may be a waiting on God to see where He leads us next.  It may be a waiting on God to hear what He will share..."Shall I hide from Abraham that thing I am going to do?"  He wants our involvement.  He wants our communion.   

I see all around me the beginning of a revolution in spiritual matters.  People are beginning to think on spiritual things in a different way.  They are "coming out of the father's house" in obedience...not knowing where they are going.   

There is a hungering and thirsting after righteousness that is refreshing.  I want to be a part of it.  I think Jesus is calling us again to follow Him.  He is turning over the tables in the temple as He cleans the Father's house.  He is bringing new life and vitality to His word.  People are seeing the truth of the Father.  He is breaking down the man-made image of God created in our own images, and He is establishing again the kingdom that is based on the truth: If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.   

Why does it matter?  Our identity is wrapped up in this truth. 

Resurrection Witness

"Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen." (Mark 16:14)

We are still talking about unbelief and the different ways that it can manifest in us and in others.  This text has a great deal to say to us regarding what others think of our experience of seeing and knowing Jesus. 

It is so easy to be one of those who makes light of other people's experience because it is different than ours.  And, it is also hard to be on the other end of this unbelief...others questioning or making fun of our experience.  Notice that unbelief is partnered with hardness of heart.  That is the natural progression of unbelief.  We do not want to go there, or if we are there, we want to turn away (repent) and be restored to a childlike faith that sees the resurrected Jesus even if it is in the experience of someone else. 

Not everyone got to see the resurrection.  That is why it is important to have the testimony of the witnesses.  We need to value that testimony for a couple of reasons.  One, for the message to us personally that it is bringing, and, two, it is a matter of celebrating someone else's experience of seeing the resurrection.

We may not understand the experiences of others.  The head does not understand much that is spiritual.  The opportunity in hearing someone else's experience is that it may lead to the softening of our hardened hearts.  Sometimes, we do not even know that our heart has become hard until is runs into a resurrection story and it is discomforted and negative.

I think of the disciples who were upset that someone else was casting out devils in Christ name.  They wanted to take that experience away from them.  Jesus said that he that is with us is not against us.  Why do we so often want to consolidate the power of God and keep it in our hands?  His truth and power is available to all.  It comes through Him.  Not us.  Let us be open to the resurrection even if it is experienced vicariously.

Repent -- Turn Away From the Lies

We have been considering unbelief and how that distorts the image of God and our own personal identity in Him.   I am going to  partner some texts so that we can, hopefully, see a bigger picture.

"So we see that they [the Children of Israel] could not enter in [the promised land] because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:19)

Matthew 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea [2] and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

The promised land is symbolic of the kingdom of heaven.  The kingdom of heaven is a heavenly place, a person (Jesus Christ), and a work...the work of grace on the heart.  (See the kingdom parables.)

The children of Israel could not enter the promised land because of unbelief.  They died in the wilderness.  Oh, this is sad.  Are we dying in the wilderness because we refuse the Kingdom in the form of the person and work of Jesus Christ...His work of divine grace upon the heart.

In Luke 17:2, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees who are demanding that He tell them when the kingdom would come.  You have to understand that for the Pharisees, the kingdom meant a worldly kingdom that was to their advantage.  This is the kingdom about which they were asking. 

The answer Jesus gave them was not going to answer their question.  Jesus answer was that the kingdom was "within" or in some translations, "in your midst."  I do not think "within you" fits the context of Jesus talking to Pharisees who knew nothing about the Kingdom of Heaven.    

Unbelief develops when Heavenly Truth seems too much for the rational mind.  God leading us from Egypt into a wilderness experience doesn't look like our perception of the promised land.  We see what is NOT instead of what is.  That is what happened to Eve in the garden.  The truth that she already had in God what Satan was offering her, caused her to prostitute herself to a false god. 

Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven is in our midst, is the truth.  Any implication from the world or the church that we are lacking this kingdom, is false.   Our identity must be based on the truth of God's identity.  Lordship...a right relationship with God...is the difference between the pillar of fire and light being darkness and death to the Egyptians and light, warmth, and safety to Israel.   Same power, different relationship.  What a wonderful example of cosmic principles!