Trusting Versus Responsibility

Let's talk some more about trusting.  Trusting is one thing.  Responsibility is another.  I have learned that what I deem as my responsibility is often my excuse for not trusting.  What I count as my responsibility may really be an attempt to be in someone else's business instead of dealing with my own stuff.  Love, joy, peace are the first three fruit of the spirit.  Notice the order.  It contains a principle that gives us insight into trusting.  Trusting has at it's core love.  This means that we start with love. 

God is love.  God so loved that He gave His Son.  You see, love is other-centered.  God shows us what that looks like and feels like.  We love because He first loved us.  To try to understand love by looking anywhere but God is useless.  Only He has pure motives, and it is to this deep level (even subconscious level) that we want to search out all we can know about love.  When you know that you are loved first, it really changes things.  There is nothing you can do to add to "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth."  God's love is not a business transaction.  We cannot buy anything.  We can only respond.  When you are loved in this way...so freely and purely...you can have the second fruit.  Joy.   

When you know and believe that you are a loving and lovable child of God, you can have joy.  It is so freeing to live from the place of love.  You recognize that God delights in you and you can learn to delight in Him.  In the meantime, your response to this truth that you don't have to prove anything to God is a peaceful place to be.  Joy allows you to be thankful from a place that is response instead of buying something...my work instead of His.  This love/joy response colors each day with promise and potential.  Even the hard days are better because we are loved and the joy response helps us with everything. 

The next fruit is peace.  This is amazing.  You see, when you know you are a loving and lovable child of God, you start seeing other people that way, too.   When you can really trust God with your own journey, you can trust Him with the journey of others.  The journey responsibility is God's...for me and others.  Trusting from this standpoint is done from a God-centered motive.  Responsibility is a matter of listening to God about how you help Him.   It is not about getting on your self-righteous high horse in judgment.  Intercession is your given role as a work with God in the heavenlies.   Judgment and criticism are  counterfeits for intercession.  What we see in others that we judge is because it is in ourselves...the mote and beam concept in the Bible.  If you spot it, you've got it.                                                              

Intercession does not mean that you take your punch list with everything that is wrong with people to God...a subtle way of judging.  It means that first of all you get before God and see why it is that you recognize this stuff in someone else.  You see, the recognition of their faults is an invitation to do your own personal healing so that from a pure heart you can pray for others.  This healing process gives you much insight into what to pray.  This role of intercession is really an amazing process and a wonderful opportunity.  Again, we must trust God with the work of this intercession rather than turn it into a real big responsibility.  He is God.  We are not. 

Trusting God versus assuming God's responsibility is a big issue of respect.  Respect to God, others, and self.  This place of vulnerability takes courage.  It is a place of willingness to put down the self-agendas that we have for others...invested in outcome because we think our way is the best or right way.  When we value others as God does, we will stop playing God in their lives. 

Right or Righteous?

We were talking about releasing.  I would like to share some thoughts with you on trusting.  When we start releasing...letting go...of all that we think we need to hold on to...we have to trust.  I have been amazed at how many people hold on to old beliefs that are now proven to be untrue and/or are based in dysfunctional programming which is always based in a lie.  Trust involves trusting the self, trusting others, and trusting God.  And all of this involves a great big measure of vulnerability.  Therefore, we would rather be against things than be for them.  After all, if this thing I believe turns out to be false, what else might I believe that is false?  It is most important that I be right about everything...another lie. 

I think of the Bible story of the disciples who got upset that someone else was casting out demons in Christ's name.  They wanted Jesus to make them stop.  They believed that they only had a right to cast out demons, and anyone else doing it was just wrong.  Jesus said that he that is for us is not against us.  This is a huge lesson for us.  Most of the time, what we do not understand we will call dumb, stupid, or evil.  In the case of God's work, the Bible also tells us not to call good evil.  How are we to discern between good and evil?  By the fruit.   

Vulnerability means embracing that I might be wrong.  Is it possible?  Yes.  Judging others as dumb, stupid, or evil just so I feel safe, is still JUDGING.  We are told to judge not that we be not judged, and in what we judge, we will be judged. And with what measure we measure, it will be measured back to us.  This is serious stuff.  Trusting God with others is modeled in the parable of the wheat and tares.  The question was asked...do we pull the tares out of the wheat?  The master said that it would be too easy to pull up the wheat.  His answer was to let the tares and wheat grow until they had fruit.  And, most importantly, it is the angels who do the harvesting...the removing of tares from wheat.  I am so glad that this job belongs to the angels.   

Vulnerability means trusting God with others.  Vulnerability means not judging.  Vulnerability means that the safe place of being "right" while victimizing others with all of our judgments is saying more about us than anyone else.  If we will go to a deep level, ask why is it so important to me that this person(s) be wrong?   It is not about them.  When you ask the question out loud in front of God and everyone else, it can be overwhelming.  If we will stick to the questioning long enough and deep enough, we will find that at the deepest level we are afraid that we might be wrong in what we believe.  We are choosing to be right over being righteous.  Again, we are told that others will know that we are Christians by our love to each other.   

Well, trusting and being vulnerable is big deal.  We can really only trust when we are persuaded that God can handle everything.  Ephesians 4:29:  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.  We can dress it up in all kinds of religious garb trying to make ourselves look good while we heap judgment on others, but it is still judgment and it is not ministering grace to anyone. 

If we spent as much time in talking about Jesus and His love as we did about all the wrong we perceive in others, it would be a different planet. 2 Timothy 2:23-26: But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.  And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,  in humility correcting those who are in opposition.  If God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." 

What we think is at stake (being right) is not what is at stake.  Salvation of others is at stake.  And when you are on the receiving end of the judgment, let the above words be a balm to your own wounds.  I cannot tell you how many stories of hurt and wounding by Christian to Christian I have heard.  Again, I repeat: do you want to be right or do you want to be righteous?

Loosed or Bound

Here is a wonderful word...releasing.  Somewhere along the way as we grow up, we start holding on and screaming "mine!"   Even on the emotional and spiritual level we express ourselves in this holding on or not letting go.  There are many reasons for this one of which is resentment.  I see resentment as a flip side of rejection and defensiveness.  Have you ever felt that way?  Yup!  The whole process ties you up in knots and does damage on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. 

Matthew 16:19 speaks of a law: "...whatsoever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."  When you put this with Matthew 6:14: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Father in heaven will also forgive you," you add a dimension of understanding to the binding and loosening.  I think releasing is the loosening in this context. 

So often we blame the externals of people and their situations for our binding.  It's their fault.  Before you know it, we are bound.  Then when we start having emotional and/or physical symptoms, we look for answers outside of ourselves.  We are so resistant to releasing and being released.  It is a type of self-punishment.  Actually, most of us are not aware of this dynamic.  It is not something that we have been taught even though the Bible is full of principles that allude to this. 

Resentment eats away at our intestines.  In the Chinese perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine the intestines are linked to our lungs as far as having an energetic impact.  This means that the lungs may be manifesting a symptom, and the trigger for that symptom is in the intestinal tract.  In the same way, sinuses/allergies are often triggered by issues in kidney/bladder and the issues related to those systems.  All that drainage may be related to internal weeping.    

Releasing does a body good.  I am seeing that when there is a physical symptom, ask the Lord to show you what is going on in the emotional/spiritual realm.  Ephesians 4:26 says: "And don't sin by letting anger control you.  Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry."   Often we think that is about the other person...the one we are angry at.  It is really about us and self-care.  Not releasing causes us to be sick physically.   You cannot be angry enough to change anything or anyone.  It is slow suicide.  Holding on does not solve anything.  Jesus said to forgive based on "they know not what they do."  Any place of crucifixion is also a place of forgiveness.   

Another issue with not releasing/letting go/forgiving is the matter of "investment in outcome."  This is pretty big.  It is thinking we have forgiven and moved on all the while we want the "other" to understand something about this situation.  We teachers in the crowd especially want everyone to learn the appropriate lesson, and that lesson is what we believe.  This is investment in outcome.  When our forgiveness or letting go has this string attached, we have turned the whole process into a business transaction.  Listen to your own self-talk.  Are you trying to convince someone of their wrongness or your rightness.  Is there a message to someone that keeps going around your mind.  What is unresolved with yourself...it doesn't matter about the other person.  They are not loosing sleep over it.  

 

Do you want to be right, or do you want to be righteous?  We have to hear the message to us in these situations.  God is calling us to come up higher than the expectations of this earth.  We search for fairness in Earth School.  It really does not exist.  We want understanding and appreciation.  We want to do something good for others...we think.  When it gets right down to it, our good deeds may be a way of soothing our wounds.  We are buying affirmation, importance, rightness, significance, etc.   Jesus says that they will know we are Christians by the love we have for one another.  We cannot fully love unless we are releasing what is binding us and others.

Staying on the Cross

Matthew 4:6:  Satan said: and said to Him, 'If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down...."

Matthew 27:40: those that passed by said:  If You are the Son of God come down from the cross.

Matthew 27:42:  the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees said:   If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 

I wonder if Christ's crucifixion experience may have been more intense on the emotional and spiritual level than on the physical?  I wonder if all the taunting to come down from the cross and prove Himself, was Satan's effort to get Him to abandon the mission of the cross.  These words were more than taunts.  Every power of Heaven knew what was at stake.  Both good and bad powers knew that Jesus had to endure the cross in order to be the Son of Man and our Savior. 

Have you ever endured a situation that was crazy making?  You know that what you are doing/saying is the correct thing.  Everyone around you, however, is shaking their heads and saying something to the effect that it seems to them that there is another way.  Christ was in the middle of a hellish "crazy making" scheme.  So much was at stake.  We all know what if feels like to be taunted and pushed to prove our point or position.  Prove who we are. 

I remember one time in a work situation when Overton and I worked in the same office (we had not been married long).  Something happened that I allowed to upset me.  An outside salesman was talking to me, and he realized how upset I was.   He said, "Now, girl, remember who you are."  He meant that I was Mrs. Overton Lea.  I was representing him, and that was no small matter in that company.  I will be forever thankful to him for those words of wisdom. 

When self rises up we want to come down from our crosses.   Christ endured the accusations that He was from the devil and maybe even the prince of devils.  That which was His strength, staying on the cross, was counted as His weakness.  Staying on the cross was not seen to be the position of power.  It never is.   

Matthew 10:24-25:  A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master.   If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household. 

John 17:15: I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  

Matthew 10:38:  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

 
We each have a cross.  And like the Master we will be tempted to put it down or come down when we are being crucified.  All of man's ways are anti-cross.  We do not like to be uncomfortable.  We do not like to be different.  We do not like to be accused.  We do not like to be taunted.  Man's ways are not God's ways.  God's path is via the Garden of Gethsemane and crucifixion.  His proof is in the resurrection.  You cannot have resurrection without Gethsemane and the cross.  When we are resurrected (emotionally and spiritually) there is now nothing left to prove.  You walk in the peace of knowing yourself from the point of reference of something that really cannot be explained.  Overcoming happens by staying on the cross.  Your identity and God's depends on it. 

Why Are You Fearful?

Mark 4:35 – 41  “…Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.”

There are no coincidental words of Jesus!  In these few verses are a picture of the entire cosmic conflict. 

We know that God “knew” us before we were born, and the person of Christ was “with God and was God” before we were born.  We can use our holy imagination to see something special in these verses. 

The lake represents our experience on earth…in Earth School.  In the beginning, we were on one side of the lake “with” God.  At some point, His energetic knowing of us took form in a baby.  We stepped into the boat for a journey on the lake of Earth School.

The lake, like Earth School, is subject to all that comes under the Genesis contract when we decided to be “as gods knowing good and evil.”  I wish we had not gone there.  I’m tired of experiencing the evil.  I’m sure that you are, too.

The beautiful part of all this is that God stepped in the boat with us.  Interesting, isn’t it?  He goes to sleep.  Do you ever feel like God Is taking a nap during your Earth School journey on the lake? 

Here is a beautiful promise.  If God is in the boat with us, that is the reality of our journey.  The storm is an illusion.  It is the “roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”  Truth:  That lion is defeated.  Our fears surface when we forget that the Commander of Heaven and Earth is in the boat.  It may look like He is asleep, but His divinity never slumbers nor sleeps. 

His question to the disciples: “Why are you fearful?  Do you still have no faith?”  The word “still” is so important!  It is like He is reminding us that He came all the way from Heaven to be God “with us.”  The disciples question, “Who then is this?”  tells us that they did not recognize Him as God in their midst.  Neither do we.

We often believe that if God is in our midst, we shall have no storms.  That isn’t Biblically correct and this story is just one place that tells us the truth about our journey on the lake.

This story gives us some more good news.  Jesus’ question: “Do you still have no faith?” is a lesson to us.  He is saying that the purpose of the lake…with its illusions wind and storms…serves to develop our faith in the one who is in the boat with us.  There is so much that we could say on this thought alone.

What do we believe: about God?  Our relationship to Him?  Life and life experiences?  Are our expectations in line with truth?

In the crossing of the lake, we will have calm days.  It is easy to become self-sufficient when there are no storms and wind.  It is in the storm that what we really believe about God, ourselves, others, and life will manifest.

We are going to the other side of the lake.  Our journey in Earth School has an end.  Let’s arrive there with faith.  Let’s embrace the storms – not run in panic.  The storms reveal the lies that we believe.  When we know the truth, we can be free.  Remember, the Commander is in the boat with us.

We Have an Assured Welcome!

2 Corinthians 6:1-2 (AMP):  Laboring together [as God’s fellow workers] with Him then, we beg of you not to receive the grace of God in vain [that merciful kindness by which God exerts His holy influence on souls and turns them to Christ, keeping and strengthening them—do not receive it to no purpose].  ² For He says, In the time of favor (of an assured welcome) I have listened to and heeded your call, and I have helped you on the day of deliverance (the day of salvation). Behold, now is truly the time for a gracious welcome and acceptance [of you from God]; behold, now is the day of salvation. 

One thing that makes me excited about this verse is that salvation is equated with deliverance and that every day is the day of salvation!  It is not a destination.  It is a process.  There is so much happy truth in this verse.  For instance, does it not just make your heart happy to know that the grace of God is that merciful kindness by which God exerts His holy influence on souls and turns them to Christ...keeping and strengthening them?  That feels safe, snug, and so very comforting to me.  The work of divine grace on the heart is a merciful kindness. 

Do you feel you need "keeping and strengthening?"  I do.  It lifts my spirits to be reminded that I am a fellow worker with God.  Is that amazing?  We are begged...not to receive the grace of God in vain; for no purpose.  The blood of Christ was shed for us.  Do not let it be in vain or for no purpose.  Do we realize how important we are to Christ?  God has poured out Heaven for us.  We are not a problem to be solved.  We are children who got lost and ended up in slavery.  We need(ed) deliverance.   

There are days when we look ahead to the day, we are not so excited about it.  We need keeping and strengthening.  There are times where we feel like anything but a fellow worker with God.  Maybe the job is tough.  Maybe there is no job, and things are tougher than not having a job.  Maybe there is a shortage of energy reserves.  Maybe there is boredom.  Maybe there is that self-protective edge that has crept in that just wants to stick your head back under the covers and not come out.  We need keeping and strengthening.  And it is sweetness to be reminded that we are fellow workers and God delivers us because He desires us.  

Now is the time of our favor...assured welcome.  You know when we feel down, disappointed, and discouraged, it does not feel like the time of favor.  Have you ever noticed that when a child feels this way, he usually seeks out a mom or dad to tell them about it.  And if it is a good mom or dad, they are received with favor.  Now, is the time of their favor.  I love this picture of God.  See the prodigal son returning to a father who is and has been waiting for his return...at the end of the driveway...he is looking for his return each day.  It is a time of favor.  Favor is dependent on God.   It is not about us being good or deserving.  It is about being turned to that which is greater than we are...the delivering and sustaining power of God. 

His Identity and Ours

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" Ephesians 2:10.

In such a few words, God says so much.   

Ø      His workmanship

Ø      Created in Christ Jesus

Ø      Unto good works

Ø      Which God hath BEFORE ordained

Ø      That we should walk in them. 

His workmanship.  Our identity is grounded in His.  The Creator God says that we are the work of His hands.  We did not just happen.  He is intimately interested in us.  He has a love responsibility towards us.  He started out with a purpose and plan for us.  Even the plan of salvation was not an after thought for Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth.  This is a picture of a God who will fight for us and deliver us from the Egypt's of this world.  He is invested in bringing us out of slavery.  I do not recall who said that man is a spiritual being having a physical experience.  That, to my mind, explains a lot.  The physical experience leaves me feeling like I am never at home.  This Egypt that we are in is most unpleasant.  When I realize that I am in slavery, then it makes sense.  It seems that we are always giving the mind and body preeminence for we think that our very survival is at stake. 

God is always pursuing us and putting Himself in a position of showing us who He really is.  He is not only the Creator God, He is the Redeemer God.  Christ says that if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father.  We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God from the beginning ordained that we should walk in them.  Here is another version which helps our understanding a bit.  For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]. (AMP) 

Note the recreated in Christ Jesus (born anew).  I like this so much.  What recreates us in Christ?  Christ's work for us through the cross.  God had a plan from the beginning for you and me...living the good life which He prearranged.  Something happened.  We came under condemnation, not from God, but from the Accuser of the brethren (read Romans 8).  Christ came and stood between the Accuser and the Father.  God had been challenged on the point of His law which said the wages of sin is death.  The Accuser wanted our death.  He is a legalist and will use God's own words against Him...the wages of sin is death.  Christ stepped in.  God must be both just and the justifier (Romans).  This is how He maintained the integrity of the Godhead when it came  under attack. 

 What I see happening is that man has a way of taking the scriptures and turning them into a self-centered, works orientation, and we miss completely this beautiful story of God's children who made a mistake and needed rescue (redemption).  God is always fighting for us.  He loves us with an everlasting love.  Man, because of needless guilt keeps trying to BUY the gift of God.  How can I be good enough?   What can I do?  Am I doing it correctly?  My worthiness is not the issue.  My goodness is not the issue.  What can I add to the cross of Christ.  Penance is a man-centered works orientation handed down from church fathers who saw God through their own lenses of brokenness and guilt.  We become changed by beholding the Lamb; not by looking at all our shortcomings.   

That God gives us a way back home (John 17: oneness with the Godhead) is a gift to us that was from the foundation of the world.  There is a plan for us.  God has an original intent for each of us.  As I keep saying, God is love.  We must see scripture through that lens because man's lens is guilt and condemnation.  When you change your lens to that which is truth, you will see the scriptures come alive with the love of God.  God, please give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to know You correctly.   When we really believe that He is on our side, we will be able to trust Him and move from our man-centered, works orientation; we will be able to give up our fig leaf garments.  Praise God!

Dying Daily

The Bible tells us that we must die daily.  Have you ever really thought about that?  Before the real you can live, the you that has been created in the image of man, must die.  We try to fit into life in various ways.  By being like our biological family, we connect on that level.  At some point, we question that way of living and believing.  We often "leave the father's house."  We think we have chosen a new path.  In reality, we have chosen the same path on a different game board.  We connect with many different groups only to find that it is really all the same...this person is my dad in the group and this person is my mom in this group.  We will find siblings, and we will find that the rules on this game board are not that different than those in my father's house.   

Dying to self is a slow process.  It means that we are coming to that place that we are not OK measured by all these groups.  We are OK (and better than OK), measured by the standard of Jesus Christ.  In Him we have the fullness of the Godhead.  In Him, we have the mind of Christ.  There is only one source for this...in Him.  Getting to this place, means dying daily to self.  The self needs to please others; our standing in all our tribes is dependent on it.  If you don't believe it, just try being out-of-step with the tribe on something. 

The need to be valued in our different groups causes us to sell ourselves.  What is your price today?  What will it cost you tomorrow because you sold yourself today.  It is a false/counterfeit value system.  But what about "blessed are the peacemakers?"  I see this as an opportunity of creating and sharing peace, not by giving yourself away, but by encouraging others to learn peacefulness even if you do not make them happy.  You cannot teach them this, you can only encourage them.  The other side of that peace is the peace that you find in being faithful to yourself and God.  This must always be in the context of being faithful to God first.   

At one point on my journey, God said I was a people pleaser and He needed for me to start practicing living life for Him rather than everybody else.  He said that it mattered because one day He would ask me to do something that not many people would like or approve.   If I didn't start practicing now, I would not be able to be obedient then.  These words to me put it all into a different perspective.  Daily compromise is practicing daily disobedience.   

Sometimes the only sweetness of belonging we have is that which comes from belonging fully to God.  In time, those who are really in step with the spiritual program, will understand the dying daily that you are going through.  They may even embrace it, too.  Often, our captivity feeds on each other.  When one begins to get freedom, the other can also.  It requires courage.  It requires the embracing of the Divine Mother/Father and the entering into the development of His original intent for us.  Dying daily truly becomes a way to become that new creation.  Praise God!

Manifesting Your Music

“Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out.”  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.  

Are you dying with your music still in you? 

Stress kills.  Our programming is that we must feel stressed when things are uncomfortable to us.  The truth is that we cannot feel bad enough to make things feel better.  Our programming is that "stressing" is just the way things are done.  We have bought into this lie.  Our neuropathways have been trained in the stress response.  This is our programming.   

Our programming can be changed!  What is your music that needs to manifest?  Who are you...really?  Instead of being what you think you are supposed to be which has been determined by what everyone else has dictated, who are you?  You have an original intent that maybe has not been tapped yet.   

Teachers are telling us that when we are not expressing our true self, being, doing, speaking, creating, building, growing, etc., we will express ourselves in the negative ways.  It is kind of like a child who is not getting attention...he/she will act up because negative attention is better than none.  It may be sickness, weight gain, depression, anxiety, anger, hopelessness, helplessness, resignation, etc.   

It may be that the first step to you letting your music surface is to develop a plan of self-care.  It says to us that we are important, worthy, of value, deserving, etc.  If we do not believe that, chances are no one else will.  We are often so resistant to self-care because our programming has been that to overdo makes us more valuable.  Again, our programming is a lie.   

Sometimes our first step may be to hear in our hearts and/or minds all the objections that come up when we consider self-care.  Those are our places of incorrect programming...the lies we believe about ourselves, others, God, and how life is supposed to be lived.  What music are you meant to manifest?  Make a plan for self-care.  If you need help with getting rid of all those objections, consider doing to emotional clearing work like Emotional Freedom Techniques or TAT (Tampus Acupressure Technique).  I see this as a touching the hem of the garment in the prayer process.  Need help.  Ask.  God bless!