My Sheep Hear My Voice

In John 10 the Lord says that His sheep hear His voice and know His voice.  This is so terribly important.  How are we to be Spirit-led if we do not recognize His voice? And if we question that it is His voice that is speaking to us, what is that saying about our relationship to our Shepherd?  What does it say about our assurance that is in the Word?  John 8:27 – My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Ephesians 3:16-18  – that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.  That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith: that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

How many times have we not listened to the still small voice only to have regretted that we did not recognize it as from God?  It is important to know the Shepherd and be known by Him.  In Matthew 7:23, Jesus says that many will say that they did this and that in His name, He will say: I never knew you, depart from Me you who practice lawlessness!

What is this lawlessness that they are practicing even while using His name to prophesy, cast out demons, and do wonders?  John 14:15- 17: If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father; and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you….vs 21: He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me and will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. 

This is all very important.  What do we know about these commandments?  They are summed up Jesus says as love to God and love to man.  One day as I was thinking on these things, I asked God if there was a commandment that I was breaking.  Very quickly I heard Him say, “You are committing adultery.”  Wow!  I was somewhat taken aback by that word.  I knew that there was no other man in my life!  I asked God what He meant.  He said I was so involved in other things that I didn’t spend enough time with Overton.  Now, I could understand.  My purpose for sharing this is to help us understand how we might be breaking the law of love.  We may have to go a little deeper.  Love to God and love to man are wrapped up together.  He says that if we have done it to anyone (good things or bad things) we have done it unto Him. 

The Beatitudes were another way of expressing the law.  It was a way of describing how it might look if we practiced keeping His law from Christ's perspective.  It becomes a visual aid for us.  I do not want to be one of those who practices lawlessness.  What we practice, we perfect.  Law keeping is about relationship to God and man.  He says that He will write the laws in our hearts and minds.  This is an internal work.  So, unless we have this internal experience, we can be doing all the correct things, but it is not based in love and relationship.

God’s sheep hear and know His voice.  They understand relationship living.  I wonder sometimes if the real problem with lawlessness is that they have got it backwards.  They start with the doing of stuff, but forget the being in relationship.  They are like the unfaithful steward that abuses the messengers and Son.  They have no respect for the relationship or the work.  They are trying to build up the Kingdom while destroying the temple (theirs and others).  Incongruent! 

Have you ever heard the Lord speak to you, and it made no sense from the human perspective?  No sane person would do what He is directing you to do.  You can only be obedient to that message if you know His voice.  Sometimes God tells us to offer up our Isaac (our life) in some way.  Unless you know the voice of God, you are not likely to be obedient.  You will question yourself into disobedience. 

The ripening of the fruit in the wheat and tares parable speaks volumes to us.  There is the waiting time for the fruit to ripen.  By our fruit, we are known.  This waiting time has a rather large message…the filling up of the cup of iniquity.  Do you see the patience of God while He waits for all these things to ripen?  For instance, Darwin taught a lie.  It will not be until the Lord says that it is finished...he that is righteous, let him be righteous still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still…that the full impact of Darwin’s lie can be seen.  When heaven and earth sees what a disaster that lie has caused, then is God both “just and the justifier” in judgment.  (Romans).  There is much the scripture says about false prophets and teachers.  Again, the fruit in those people and the people they mislead has to come to fruition to see the full extent of damage.  This damage is lawlessness.  It creates a broken relationship between God and His people.  It creates a people who want to ascend and take God’s throne. 

We are all busy doing things.  Let us go back to the point of conviction and conversion and ask God if we are being lawless people.  What are we putting before Him?  How are we arguing our way out of obedience to that still small voice?  Are we calling His goodness in talking to us something evil?  We must be in the Word of God so that we will know truth for it is the standard by which we measure all things and by which we are set free.  Freedom is a fruit of God. 

To Live You Must Die

To live you must die means more than dying to our selfishness.  There are the things that we recognize, and there are the things we do not recognize.  I was raised to think that I was stupid.  I have spent years trying to study enough to convince myself that maybe I am not stupid.  The only one that needed convincing was me.  In the last few years, I have come to see that I am not stupid.  A very strange thing happened with this realization…nothing.  My belief system was that when I know enough, something amazing would happen.  Well, nothing amazing out there happened with this realization.  I have just come to realize that it is a huge disappointment.  Now, this all sounds a bit crazy, but it is a good example of how the lies that we believe put us in a works orientation trying to prove that the lie is not so. 

To live you must die.  This lie was one of those unrecognized places that had me working really hard to prove that I was not stupid.  It is true that I like to study and learn.  But, how much more pleasant to study and learn from a place of joy rather than from the place of fear…proving that you are not stupid. So, when I could accept that I was not stupid, I was waiting for the parade, the band, the promotion.  When you are trying to resolve a lie that came from someone out there, then you also want someone out there to be a part of the party.  The original someone who started this “you are stupid” lie is dead.  How many times are we trying to prove ourselves to someone who is dead?  Now, that is stupid, and we do not know it!!

When we believe these lies something very interesting happens in our relationships with others.  We project.  That means that the lie from a long time ago is constantly being projected upon others…we think they must think the same of us.  They do not, but we cannot find it within ourselves to really see it any other way.  No one else thought I was stupid.  No matter how many affirmations I received, they could not get by the lie’s fear that those affirmations just had to be wrong. 

You see, when the Lord says that we must die to live, it is a very positive thing.  It means cleaning out all these lies.  Then we can be a new creation living in the fullness of God’s original intent for us.  We are the temple that the Lord has stepped into.  We have become a den of thieves…that is not something we chose.  Someone else chose this for us.  The lie(s) has/have the energy to continue drawing in experiences that seem to affirm the lie.  I am hoping that we are each dying daily to the lies so that we may live from His perspective instead of the worlds.

I think that the parade, the celebration must be in heavenly realms as they see God’s children slowly learn the truth about who they are in Christ.  The power of the lie is broken.  There followed a place of disappointment and resignation as the truth encounter came to me.  I was the only one who believed the lie.  I am the one who needs to throw me a party!  I was telling my son this experience today, and he said to me, “Mom, look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are very smart.  I think that you are the smartest person I know.”  Isn’t it great to have your kids be a part of your fan club?  Are there lies that you are trying to overcome?  Listen to your heart and mind conversation.  Do you argue in your mind or heart when someone says something positive about you?  That is a signal that it is time to die to self in that area of life so that you may live in wholeness.

Trusting and TRIALS

We have daily trials.  We muddle through and even get to a position of praise. If not praise, then trust.  Then there are the TRIALS that just knock the wind out of us.  Sometimes we do not even know how we feel because we are numb.  Sometimes the cumulative effects of TRIALS can leave us so numb that we question if it is worth staying on the planet and finishing our assignment in Earth School.  I think that most of us know about the TRIALS.  They often come with truth encounters.  Sometimes, it feels like it would be better to remain ignorant.  Someone once said “ignorance is bliss.”  It is hard to write about this type of situation because there are not words to describe it adequately. 

Trapped—that may be the best word for it.  You are stuck with the stuff of your truth encounter.  It calls into question who you are, who other people are, what you believe now that you know what you have believed is a lie, and it leaves you in that place of being trapped and saying, “What do I do now?”  I cannot glamorize this process or spiritualize the process.  Trust issues are huge when you are in this place of trapped.  These TRIALS are too much!  What can anyone say?  It is like hearing someone say, “I know how you feel,” when they do not have a clue.  You enter into that cycle of grief that includes denial. 

Victimized is another word that works for TRIALS.  Even though truth encounters are meant to take you to freedom, on the front end of the cock’s crowing three times, we are devastated.  Like Peter, we throw ourselves on Gethsemane’s rock heart broken.  Then we give up on ourselves and everything else and hide in something comfortable.  For Peter, it was fishing.  For each of us it is probably something different.  The main thing is how tired a person can feel with the release of all this emotional energy.  These clearings even have physical effects. 

Reality.  Let’s see—what are the choices?  Sometimes, the fog is too thick.  We cannot see the choices.  And sometimes the choices we can see, we do not like.  Often, they seem to take too much energy to embrace.  Perhaps that is a part of the healing process, too.  Some things you cannot have a plan.  There is no plan for a way out.  It is a matter of getting through it one day at a time.  One day in the distance, we wake up one morning and realize that it is ok to be on the planet and maybe we have the energy to make some choices.  We might even smile.  On that side, we may even be able to talk about grace.

I think that when God’s kids were victimized in the Garden of Eden, and He knew what was set in motion, and He knew of all the emotional trauma that they would experience (emotions that He never intended they know), He looked into the distance of time and saw that when we all come out of the fog, we will be able to see the choices and be able to sing about that amazing grace.  This is what I am trusting.  When we cannot feel the Father’s hand on us, we can trust His heart towards us. 

Trusting and Recognition

A desire for recognition is a wound..  A sense of not being fulfilled can be a symptom.  Wanting recognition can be very subtle, and the struggle intense.  Nothing you seem to do satisfies because, surely, there must be more.  Psalm 51:12-13: Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.  Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.  This is a wonderful text, and this morning I see something in it I have never thought of before!  We have a way of being so self-centered that we cannot actually see in Scripture that it is all about Him and the wonderful truths and opportunities He is offering.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.  In so much of our journey, a desire for recognition is a driving force of doing it ourselves.  Salvation means freedom and peace and rest.  It is about being free from all man-centered works orientations.  God’s salvation includes all our attempts to get recognition.  In so many ways, we have made His temple (ourselves) a den a thieves.  We recycle sacrifices and buy and sell the Gift of God.  We are left empty.  The desire for recognition is keener.

Uphold me by Your generous Spirit.  He has a generous Spirit.  A desire for recognition comes from a sense of poverty.  He is not in that.  He has a generous Spirit and He wants to share that with us.  This desire for recognition is a type of idolatry.  We want to be seen, affirmed, respected, etc.  We want others to see US.  This is the human condition because we do not feel that we are enough just as we are.  This lie about our identity in Christ is a harsh taskmaster.  It drives us to do and to be out there searching for all those ways of getting recognition.  It is very subtle. 

Then will I teach transgressors Your ways.  Is this not amazing?  When the joy of His salvation is restored to us, we get it that it is not about us.  When we know that it is about Him, we have a gift that we can give others.  We can teach transgressors (those who are just as lost as we are and dying to be recognized like we are) a different way.  We can model and talk the truth of it being His work.  It is about recognition and embracing something already done and given to us as a gift.  We can walk in peace and joy and rest.  We know that we have everything, and the greatest thing is to have Him recognized in us.

And sinners shall be converted to You.  Sinners are those who are out of relationship…that is all of us.  We cannot teach anyone anything that we have not learned yet.   We cannot take someone where we have not been.  This is all experiential.  God is inviting us to enter into His process so that the desires of our hearts can be met in Him as we teach others this wonderful freedom of the joy of His salvation—peace, joy, and rest.  This goes to the very core of trusting in Someone else.  If you will live, you must die.  This trusting issue goes by the way of the cross.  He has already been there, and we can trust Him to walk that road with us.  Praise God!

Transformation and Grief

We were talking about Peter’s journey of cleansing and transformation.  He had an idea of what the journey was and what his role was to be.  In Luke 22:31, 32, Jesus said that Satan desired to sift him as wheat.  This is the enemy’s plan for all of us.  Our seeing eyes that do not see and hearing ears that do not hear set us up for that sifting.  The truth is, we all need a “Do Not Disturb” sign hanging around our necks.  I only want the journey to be that which is fun and full of non-disturbance.  I want to be amazing in MY work for the Lord.  Regret, remorse, ridicule, rejection—all those things that are a part of the transformation journey are too much for us to bear in the human.  It takes God’s Spirit to discern that these things are meant for our destruction by the evil one.  God, however, will grow us up through them.  He does not bring them upon us.  The devil is allowed that because we chose a path of knowing “good and evil.”  The glory of God is made manifest in bringing life out of death.  This is true in the physical realm and in the spiritual realm.  Each day has the opportunity for Gethsemane, Calvary, and resurrection.

Luke 22:32: “But I (Jesus) have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”  This is a wonderful thing that the Lord says to Peter.  In effect, He is saying: Once you have recovered from your disgrace and other wounds, strengthen others.  This is the path.  You cannot give away what you do not have.  You cannot take someone where you have not been.  Our deepest wounds are training for transformation of ourselves and recovery for others.  These wounds create compassionate and sympathetic people.  This process creates humble, non-judgmental people.  This helps us be observers rather than criticizers…discerners rather than judges.  Jesus has prayed for us!  John 17:15: Jesus prayer to the Father—“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.”  We are always devising ways, plans, and even theologies about be taken out of the world.  Matthew 10:24: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.”

Grief can take at least two paths—bitterness and transformation.  The purpose for this disillusionment is to reveal our conscious and subconscious motives.  You can watch this in the world.  How many times have people said that the Lord will come on such and such a date or this way or that?  People rally around that because they are fearful; because they want to escape something bad.  The Bible says no one knows the day or hour…except the Father in heaven.  When the day passes by and nothing happens, those who are of the Lord will use their grief as a transformation tool.  They will get into the Word and learn for themselves what it says.  Those who had others motives will turn away.  They will become hard and cynical.  Peter was convicted and became soft. 

Someone told me the other day that they were glad that I am writing about these things because we are not taught about doing the journey by way of the cross.  This teaching has done more for my understanding than anything else.  I am a black and white person.  I do not like the “gray” age that we are living in.  I need to find something redemptive in everything…even suffering.  When I go to Word and really see what is modeled by Jesus and His disciples, the gray goes away.  Thank you, Jesus!  Seeing more clearly, I can walk more correctly. 

Trusting and Transformation

Romans 12:2:  And do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Conforming to the world starts happening the moment we are born.  The family rules are about conforming to that world.  That has its importance.  We go to school and learn to conform to another set of rules.  That has its importance, too.  Along the way, we are also learning to conform, giving up our identity while fulfilling the expectations of others.  Slowly, our identity becomes the family, the church, the school, the job, etc.  None of which is the truth.  The truth of our identity is who we are in Christ.  We are secure in Christ.  We are significant in Christ.  We are safe in Christ. 

If we are extremely fortunate on our journey of transformation, we have a time in the wilderness where everything we thought we knew falls at our feet.  We realize it is all lies, and these are not serving us well anymore.  I say “if we are fortunate” we have a time in the wilderness.  Although it is a place of transformation, it is not easy.  You can only understand your fortune in this if you recognize the call of God to come out of the father’s house.  He wants to create in us His original intent.  That which helped us survive in our different tribes (family, social, spiritual, professional, etc.), eventually becomes that which will take our lives. 

What do you do when you are no longer who you used to be?  What do you do when you no longer believe what you used to believe about yourself, others, God, and life.  What answer do you give yourself to the question: Who am I and what do I want to be when I grow up?  Transformation does not happen overnight…it is the work of a lifetime.  That is good news.  Wherever we are on the journey is where we are meant to be.  Transformation is by the renewing of your mind.  This means our belief system. 

What you believe about yourself in relationship to all your tribes will show by all the relationship issues you have.  We demand of each other that we be that which makes us individually happy and comfortable.  Translated: God put you here to make me happy.  This is why Jesus said that if you love anyone more than you love Him, we are not worthy of the kingdom.  That is pretty strong, and we see the importance of breaking down these places of idolatry.

Renewing the mind is partnered with proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  The transformation journey is a proving of all God’s truths.  At some point, we will hear the call to come out of the father’s house.  We can have all sorts of feelings about this…guilt, anger, remorse, fear.  We can come up against all sorts of subconscious beliefs that we do not even know are there.  One big one is: If I do not change, then they will be happy; or if I do change, they will be happy.  People pleasing is a huge place of idolatry.  I personally like to think of that good and acceptable and perfect will of God as what we become as part of this transformation journey. Romans 8:29 reminds us that we are predestined (our creation parameters, God’s original intent) to be conformed to the image of His Son. 

Entering into the transformation journey is often like the children of Israel being led out of the land of Egypt.  They had become comfortable there and did not really want to go.  The kingdom literally was being destroyed by plaques.  They still preferred that which they knew to that which was unknown.  Even their forty years in the wilderness did not really change this.  They died in that wilderness.  A new generation that had not known Egypt went into the promise land.  There are some real lessons here for us.  The journey of transformation means that the mind must be renewed (changed beliefs).  It is the truth that sets us free, but often we call that which we do not understand dumb, stupid, or evil.  Like Israel, we do not want to go there.  We must replace fear-based living with faith-based renewal of the mind.  As did Israel, we must enter into acceptance of the Passover Lamb.  Like Abraham who went out not knowing where he was going, so is the journey of transformation for us.

Trusting and Disillusionment

Let us look at trusting through disillusionment.  I am sure that you like so many others have had plenty of disillusionment.  This world rather programs us for this.  It says, you do this and get this.  You do that, and get that.  It does not always work out like the magic formulas...and there are different formulas for the same thing in different families.  In one family, the formula gets you what you need.  In another family, the formula gets you into trouble, and it leaves you wounded and wondering what happened.  

There are at least two paths we can take with disillusionment.  Usually, the results of disappointment and being let down are cumulative, and usually we try to get our grounding back by asking ourselves questions and searching for answers.  Did I misunderstand?  Was I not playing by the correct rules?  The best example of coping with disillusionment is found in the Bible.  It is the story of those who followed  Jesus.  There seems to be a given with this dynamic of dieappointment.  Either you do not have all the information (whose rules are we going by) or you are not understanding what information you have because it conflicts with what you want as outcome.

The disciples wanted to win.  In the earthly, win/lose is the name of the game.  Jesus starts out His program with the Beatitudes.  From the first, He is turning upside down the rules.  This journey is not about what you think.  He is trying to manage the expectations of the disciples.  They hear Him, but they do not hear Him.  They keep building a kingdom on earth and trying to see if they may sit on the right or left hand of Christ.  They did not understand that they were aspiring to the cross.  Some followed Christ and then turned aside...it was too hard. 

The two paths to handle disillusionment are hardening or softening of the heart.  Peter shows us that the hardness of refusing to hear and see truth brings on disappointment that is devastating.  It leaves you escaping into your own sorrow rather than sharing the sorrow with Christ on the cross.  We know that Peter loved the Lord, and his broken heart became the softened heart that was totally surrendered...Thy will not my will. 

The hardening of the heart is modeled very well by the Pharaoh of the exodus of Moses and the children of Israel.  He was not getting his way with these people, and each step of disobedience led to the next.  In all the plaques, He would not be softened and become obedient.  You might say it was his way or the highway...that highway cost him the life of his firstborn.  You have probably seen similar situations in life today.  A relationship is sacrificed because someone will not become soft and cooperative.  There is so much that could be said about the hardening; a great deal that can be learned.  The science in this process is now being called neuroplasticity.  The step by step hardening (like Pharaoh) is setting up pathways in the brain.  That which we practice we become. 

If we could see our end from the beginning, we would probably make many different choices.  When we study the examples that we have in the Bible from the standpoint of the many lessons that are taught and the modeling given to us, I believe we have something that can show us the end of the story.  We each have the potential of being Pharaoh or Peter.  What path we choose depends on if we are invested in His outcome or ours.  To get on the "soft" path, we may have to take Peter's path of disillusionment ending in a broken heart.  There will be no earthly kingdom.  Letting go of that hurts.  The end is crucifixion.  That hurts.  When all that matters is the relationship with Jesus, we are on the journey of purification.  This softens the heart and subdues the will. 

Trusting and Timing

Let us talk a little about trusting and timing.  This is a biggie.  Jesus was "led" into the wilderness to be tempted.  I feel like I could stop here.  We could spend days in contemplation.  The three temptations are appetite, presumption, trust.  This is the whole of life.  Where Adam and Eve failed, Jesus gained victory.  He had to undo what Adam and Eve did.  Have you ever been in a situation where you feel you have to undo the mistakes of others or your own mistakes?  This has a lesson in it for us about timing. 

When looking towards our "callings," we need to see that attached to the "calling" is time in the wilderness...undoing the wounds of the past.  This purifying of motive, the letting go of self agendas, prepares us for the "calling."  We need healing in the same three areas...appetite (not just food, but anything we have a passion for), presumption (taking God's word and making it say what it does not say in order to justify our rebellion/disobedience), and trust (Satan offered Jesus the easy way of doing  what He came to do by the way of the cross...if He had knelt down and worshiped Satan that would have meant that His god would have been Satan). 

After Jesus endured the temptation (the purification of motive) process, He was a step closer to being in the timing of His ministry.  Jesus did not need the purification process.  The accuser of the brethren (Satan) demands it as proof that there is no sin that warrants our death (see Romans 8).  All that Jesus did (baptism and temptation) modeled for us the first stage of our life path and that life path leads to crucifixion.  He is showing us how to do it successfully...one step at a time.  Even with the water to wine story (the wedding feast), Jesus reminds His mother that "His time in not yet come."  It wasn't about the miracle, it was about putting Himself out there for rejection.  On the front end of Jesus' ministry, He would tell the people that He healed not to tell anyone.  Why?  He was going to be rejected, but He had much to do before that rejection.  Another lesson for us.  We are going to be rejected.  In all our visions of ministry, we rarely see this truth.

Timing is an important thing.  Beholding Jesus in His process...which is our process if we embrace His journey...is essential to laying down all our agendas.  We most often take our agendas to God and ask Him to bless them.  In effect, we are asking to not have to go by the way of the cross.  Otherwise, we would not get upset when things don't go our way.  Enter into His courts with praise and thanksgiving and blessing His name.  Here is the place to start...lifting up God.  Our missions and ministries are all His.  Trusting in His timing keeps us from being in deep water before we are ready.  It also keeps us from doing damage to the image of God because of our spiritual immaturity and motivations which really are driven by neediness and wounding. 

Looking at Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation, His guidance is not only about His work in salvation, but His work as our model for embracing the journey.  We often think that time is getting by and we are getting left out.  That is fear-based thinking.  You must be the missionary at home before you can do that job anywhere else.  It is very easy to put the home, the community, the friends and family on the back burner while we have visions of somewhere else.  Jesus started at home, and He had the disciples start at home.  It is the best place for that purification process to start.  There seem to be certain stages in life where we feel we just have to be "doing" something wonderful, and it is something other than what we have in front of us.  Look to the model of Jesus, and see the whole process.  Ask for purification and strength to move towards the cross.

Trusting and Rejoicing

Let us talk some more about trusting. In 1 Peter 4:12-13 we are told: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Rejoicing, suffering, fiery trials...these words do not seem to go together.  At least, we do not want them to go together.  I see this as a huge place of trust/trusting.  We relate very much to the "something strange" is happening to us when we go through fiery trials

Trusting and rejoicing can be manifested in the peace we can have on the journey.  It can baffle the world.  Human reasoning can look at fiery trials and find all the bullet points for not trustng and rejoicing.  This is a place of having eyes that do not see, and ears that do not hear.  It is a place measured by logic instead of faith.  The temptation in our temptations is to kick into a helpless victim.  Here is a wonderful place to do healing work for the wounds of which we have not yet become aware.

Trusting and rejoicing in the fiery trials is accomplished by understanding that we are in an education process of the Holy Spirit...the university of unlearning is what I like to call it.  Remember those days when going to school, taking a seminar or other type of education just thrilled you?  Learning is a Divine appointment.  The realization that the fiery trial is a Divine invitation into healing and transformation can change our perspective of the trial.  It does not make it easier on the earthly plane.  It does on the emotional/spiritual level.  Crucifixion hurts.

Trusting and rejoicing can come with the responsibility of the fiery trial because we can believe that our spirits are safe.   We can know that there is a purpose for all this: "...rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed."  Wow!  When His glory (character) is revealed.  His bidding is His enabling.  My spirit is safe because I am working with Him for the revelation of His character.  We are changed from glory to glory...character change.  We do not hear much about this aspect of things.  This absence of education/training has left a huge void in our spiritual awareness.

Trusting and rejoicing can come with the awareness of growing truth.  What do I mean?  More than once I have said that when I was 30/40 I thought I knew everything.  When I was 40/50, I knew that I did not know anything.  In the 50s/60s, I understood that I did not even know what the questions were.  It is more peaceful at this place than any place I have yet been. The growing truth is about trusting that God is the author and finisher of my journey.  With this established, I can relax in whatever course He has enrolled me in at the university of unlearning.  Relaxing...I have nothing to prove and nothing to defend.   This peaceful place is living proof that the miracle of God's transforming grace is being worked out in us.  It is a place of restful support.  An embracing of "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want."

Purification of Motive

The spiritual journey could be seen as a constant purification of motive until we can finally say, “I have no other reason to do anything except love of God and love of neighbor.”  Richard Rohr

 

Does the above quote help you understand something important about what seems to be the harshness of the journey?  The rain falls on the just and unjust, but I am inclined to believe that the Believer has a different standard of measurement about this harshness.  The spiritual person has to unlearn a lot that the non-spiritual person does not.  That person was not programmed with some of the misconceptions that come to us through the church. In Jesus' day, the people believed good things happen to the righteous and bad things mean that you are bad, or you have done something wrong, etc.  It is easy to embrace such teachings because it gives a sense of control...until something harsh happens to us.  Ever heard someone say that they must not be living right because such and such is happening?  This is the same lie that Jesus tried to eliminate when He was here. 

Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest says that when trials come to us it is not so much to teach us something as it is to help us "unlearn" something.  I sometimes call the Earth School journey the university of unlearning.  It is amazing how we get so enamored with the velocity of living and doing.  That feels good...in control.  In those times where velocity is impeded by person, place, or thing, we often find ourselves a bit down or even depressed.  It is all about misplaced expectations.  Our "savior" (person, place, thing, expectation, incorrect belief, etc.) has been crucified, and we are at the foot of that cross wondering what happened.  As we are dealing with the death and burial of these things, we need the grace of God to help us.  It is in this that we experience "constant purification" of motive.  We may need to be instructed by the Holy Spirit about the subconscious motives, too. 

Who am I?  What am I here for?  What is my purpose?  What is God's will for my life?  Am I in His will?  I hear these questions almost weekly from so many people.  It is like all the answers are "out there" far from us.  Knowing the truth about God and ourselves as part of God that Jesus prayed for in His oneness prayer (John 17), can help us stop feeling like abandoned children.  Romans 8 tells us that our purpose is to be conformed into His image.  We most often want the wonderful without the way of the cross, however.  I remember one time asking God about His will.  I was in agony about this issue.  I did not know what that even meant.  We are supposed to grow up, go to school, get a job, and live happily ever after.  NOT.  Life happens to all of us.  In my agony of inappropriate expectations, I cried out: What is Your will, God?  Softly, He said to me, "Linda, you are my will."  I felt such a peace flow into my heart.  What a marvelous thing for God to say to me...a person with life experiences that left me bleeding and doubting my worth, value, goodness, and significance.  More than once, He has had to remind me.  

You are God's will.  Can you hang on to that while you are on your own journey of purification?  In this world, we will have trouble; but be of good cheer I (Jesus) have overcome the world.  His victory finding application in our lives is our victory.  Let us reach out the hand of faith and grab the hem of His garment.  Let us hear His words, "Daughter (Son), your faith has made you whole.