Maturity

We must be convinced that both God and life will maturity. But they do more than passively will our maturity; they conspire in every possible way, short of breaking down our wills to make us mature. Life makes us discontented and unhappy in our immaturities. Suppose we could settle down happy and contented in being a half-person, then that would be a tragic situation. But we cannot. Divine discontent is a goal that impels us into higher, fuller life. Life won’t let us settle down-to nothingness.

And what kind of Father would God be if He did not disturb us toward maturity? No earthly parent could be content to have a child who refused to grow up. The parents’ joy is in development, in growth, in going on toward maturity. God cannot be otherwise and still be God, our Father. So the disturbances we feel in our immaturities are not signs of His anger, but a manifestation of His love. He loves us too much to let us settle down in half-wayness.

But if God should stop at that point of making us discontent, then He would this side of being God, our Father. To be our Father, He must provide literally everything for our maturity. And He has! He has put at our disposal all the resources for our being what we ought to be-everything except coercion. There He draws the line, for if he coerced us into maturity-then of course we wouldn’t be mature. The will to be mature must be at the center of our maturity.

If God and life and we ourselves will maturity, then there is nothing in heaven or earth that can stop us from being the mature persons we ought to be. We are destined to be mature, and that destiny is written in every cell of our bodies. We can slow down or block that destiny. The choice is ours.
Hope begins to spring up within my heart, for if I am destined to be mature then I can and do accept that destiny and make it my own.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity (perfection).
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect (mature) man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:

Rich

A Working Model-Pattern

Please read these thoughts first if you can, to enter into the flow of what I sense Father saying.

Within the revolution happening amongst so many people wanting to embrace the only truth and reality found in the person of God’s son, Christ Jesus, there are so many outer expressions that folks are trying to manipulate into a “working model-pattern,” that will somehow differentiate them from the religious clubs they exited from. At best a mere cosmetic makeover will never replace or substitute His divine imprinting upon our soul.

“Unless the Lord builds (establishes) the house, the laborers work in vain.”
Without seeing His divine perspective, calling upon our lives, we will inevitably try and clone a lifeless facsimile, (working model) template instead of that which can only flow out of/from His purpose for us!

Without the Father initiating at a spirit-heart level, His divine Pattern, Purpose for us individually and corporately, simply moving out from, out of some religious establishment will never bring lasting satisfaction. Our calling far exceeds a mere cosmetic rearrangement of meeting with one another, and hopefully I might capture some of what that might look like.

If the veneer were to be stripped away from us “Chrischuns” there would be in most cases a very visible display of emptiness and artificiality. It is simply we have tried to change our minds without having a change of heart or nature. The New Testament standard of conversion demands regeneration-and this we have largely missed in our man-centered appeal for decisions. It is true the religious vocabulary is used, but one essential has been by-passed. God cannot change the heart and nature where there has been NO governmental change-no turning from our own lordship to His lordship. With a true change of government comes a change of purpose and appetite. Instead of seeking to use God for one’s own purpose this means giving one’s being to Him for His purpose. In this crisis of giving ourselves unto Him, God begins the impartation of His own divine nature, and our responses change accordingly.

As long as man still desires things, he cannot be satisfied with just God. Was it not so with Abram? God had first offered to give him Canaan land, to make of him a great nation, to bless him and make his name great. How responsive was Abram to all this? He forsook his homeland and in due time left his father. But it was not until Abram had deliberately refused to take the spoil of battle that God could move in to announce to him: Abram, “I am your exceeding great reward” (Gen.15:1).

Until God changed Abram’s inner desires and helped him to say, “I will not take any thing lest you should say I have made Abram rich”; what would it have meant to him to offer Himself as an exceeding great reward?
God’s way then is to change our inner being-to make us partakers of the divine nature so we will have an appetite for spiritual things. God does not change goals to fit our appetite, but works upon our inner being that we might truly come to have a hunger for God Himself!
Until that inner change has been fashioned, all religious life is completely exteriorized. Those who have no longing for God Himself, become preoccupied with things and events-nor can they understand or appreciate the song writer’s depth of meaning in the following lines: “My goal is God, Himself, not joy or peace, Not even blessing, but Himself my God.”

There is more to follow, as he continues to open the eyes of my heart.

Rich

Divine Vision

“Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish.”

Where there is NO vision, the people disintegrate-go to pieces-cohesiveness breaks down.
The divine foundation of the Church as a whole is a revelation, a vision-a “having seen the Lord.” The Church started with this and took its rise from a seeing the Lord, high and lifted up, exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The Church went forth on the basis of that vision as a cohesive testimony, as a corporate vessel, and what is true of the Church must be true of the relationship of all believers. You and I can never hold together by certain rules and regulations, or by a creed. It can only be as we are one in vision, one in revelation of Him.
If this vision is necessary to hold us together as individuals and to keep us from falling apart in ourselves, it is equally necessary to keep us together as the Lord’s people-and that is going to be one of the tests of these days!

There can be no doubt that we are soon to face some desperate times. We can hardly imagine (nor would we predict) just what might come to produce the “shaking.” Consider the scattering now taking place amongst God’s people. On every hand there are little groups forming and seeking to become a New Testament expression of Christ. Some are merely seeking escape. Others are really after fulfillment of God’s purpose. The old line of corporate expression and fellowship along creedal or denominational lines is breaking fast.
Now, is this outward breaking apart going to be the end, or is there going to be with all that a spiritual cohesion triumphing over apparent division? Is there a larger spiritual vision which can truly unite these smaller group expressions to become one glorious expression? What cohesive element will manifest a living testimony to the religious world?

As this “shaking” progresses, it will be seen that all the work of the enemy, all the division and confusion, all the breaking up and outward disintegration can have NO effect upon those who have really seen God’s purpose and His methods. There still remains, in the unseen before God in heaven-and here on earth as a testimony-that oneness and cohesiveness of God’s people which Satan cannot destroy. Those who have begun to live in the divine vision know its cohesive power.

Rich

Perfect, But Incomplete

Like most things, I think we see just about everything incomplete, especially that hidden within the scriptures. I can just hear those saying, “But it says were complete in Him.”
I see it much the same way only different in respect to the creation of Man, God saying of his handiwork,” This is very good,” but as good as this was, man, was incomplete.

What is the reasoning that most of us have that seems to negate the ongoing needed transformation of that part of who we are, e.g. our soul, it is yet very incomplete, but His grace that in a instant perfected our spiritual union with God becoming our loving, caring Father is the same grace wanting to bring that perfection into this part of who’s we are!

“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.”

An apple in the middle of the summer is perfectly right for where it is in its growth (transformation), but I sincerely doubt you would enjoy eating it, but wait until it is fully processed in its continued maturation, and then, wow, what a delicious treat.
How much more so us in our continued maturation, moving, being changed from ‘glory to glory’, we’re either settling for a form of godliness or we’re pondering on the Mystery of Godliness and our being intertwined in this forward, onward God journey.

I’ll have more to share on this soon.

Rich

I Relinquish

I am so grateful for the deepness of His love for me speaking into those unknown, unrecognizable places within me, bring forth an undeniable definition to who’s I am!
Father in his most perfect way was messing with my heart the other day, Saturday morning, as I took my over the speed limit excitable Breaded Collie for walk out into the winter wonderland of over a foot of freshly fallen snow.

I guess at a heart level I have been secretly harboring a real loathing/resentment toward winter, the coldness, ice etc, especially having to work out IN it every year.

As I was walking Atticus, my treasured friend and pup, I was awestruck in the pristine splendor and beauty that captured my heart. I stopped and saw Him right there in the midst of something that has never been a friend to me, Mr. Winter. It was like breathing what then came forth from my heart, “Father I relinquish this dislike/hatred for winter, I choose to let it go, I no longer want to miss seeing/knowing you in any season that I must go through.

In a heart beat, I was instantly freed to further experience His abiding closeness in and to me as I breathed in the cold morning winter air, knowing that a door had just been opened up to me to dive even further into experiencing His love for me, even within, “Winter.”

Rich

Broken Dreams

I have been reading the story of Joseph lately and wanted to share the following.

Joseph is entering God’s rock tumbling machine. He’s going to be between a Rock and hard place for many years.
When God’s purpose is at work, you can expect others to be jealous. In reading the story of Joseph it is clearly visible that he was insensitive and not without sin, and we see the wickedness of his brothers. But in all of this, God’s higher purposes were set into motion.

Often we have no idea what God has in mind for us, but his purposes will be fulfilled. Where sin abounds grace does much more abound (Romans 5:20). God’s eternal purpose is at work whether we consciously feel it or not. Sometimes when we don’t fell something we wonder if God is working. But the fact that you don’t feel something proves nothing. God works silently behind the scenes.
At the bottom of the brother’s motivation (regarding Joseph) was: “We shall see what will become of his dreams.”

Rich

Discovering His Love

A situation occurred last week wherein my attention was drawn to discovering something that happened after the fact.
I’m not even sure now looking back on it as to what it was; all I know is Father pointed it out to me. “Do you know why you didn’t react in that particular situation; it was because of my love freeing you.”

The weird thing about it was in pondering this situation it seemed perfectly natural for me to simply respond the way I did, and had it not been for Father pointing this out to me I would have totally missed it.

What I saw in this was a wonderful sense that He was doing far more than any of my senses were able to detect from deep within me.
It became startling clear to me if this most natural response came forth from me as a result of His love freeing me, then I could continue to rest in the security of this same love to bring forth all He desired in my life.
Wow, what a discovery!

I found what Darrin and Amy where sharing over at the Free Believers Network so illustrated even further what Father was making real to and in me. Take a listen to, "The Essence of Christianity."
In my opinion Father is so wanting to bring further revelation and understanding into my/our lives regarding the fact that we are alive only because of the life of another living in us as us.

Rich

Preoccupied

Don’t you just love it when you get past the clouded symptoms and begin to see what might be causing them?
Such is the case with me, in further reading from Brennan Manning’s book, The Signature of Jesus; Father put His finger on a real nerve.
The following is but a quick quote from much more I want to share possibly later, bottom line, this unveiling from within me was and is so liberating.

Rich

“In my personal life the greater part of each year is devoted to writing, thinking, and speaking about God, Jesus, faith, contemplative prayer, the gospel lifestyle, and so forth. It is a curious phenomenon that such noble Christian enterprises distance me from God. (I assume that this is true for all Christian writers, preachers and teachers, as well as songwriters, musicians, and singers). Constantly holding forth about God does not of itself lead to being with God. Writing about God somehow takes me away from directly responding to God in the present moment. Preaching about Jesus somehow clouds my presence to the Reality I am proclaiming. In both situations what is missing is any sense of felt intimacy with God through faith. Yet my beliefs remain vigorous and rooted.”

“Seek first the kingdom of God.” This requires taking time out from family, friends, career, ministry, even ‘doing good’ to enter into the great silence of God.
Alone in that silence, the noise within will subside and the Voice of Love will be heard. Without such silence we will drown in the inner cacophony of dialogues, encounters, meetings, discussions, and conferences where there is much speaking and little listening.”

Myth-Understood

These lines from The Signature of Jesus speak of His doings in my life-that you Father!!

The pernicious myth “once converted, fully converted” creates the impression that in one blinding bolt of salvation Christ expects our lives to be freed from contradictions and perplexities. The curse of perfectionism triggers episodes of depression and anxiety.
Who will acquit us of guilt? Who will deliver us from the bondage of perfectionism and failures? Once again, it is the signature of Jesus that rescues us from ourselves.

The crucified Christ reminds us that despair and disillusionment are not terminal but signs of impending resurrection. What lives beyond the Cross is the liberating power of Love, freeing us from the ego-centeredness that says, “All I am is what I think I am and nothing more.”

Mature Christians are those who have failed and learned to live gracefully with their failure.

I love how Father spoke this to Brennan: “I expect more failure from you than you expect from yourself.”

Rich

"A little child shall lead them....."

“For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me.”

When the disciples were discussing who should be thew greatest, Jesus took a little child in His arms and said, ‘Unless you become like that, you will never see the kingdom of heaven.’ He did not put up a little child as an ideal; if he had, he would have destroyed the whole principle of His teaching. If humility were put up as an ideal, it would serve only to increase pride. Humility is not an ideal, it is the unconscious result of the life being rightly related to God and centered in Him.
Our Lord is dealing with ambition, and had He put up a little child as a standard, it would simply have altered the manifestation of ambition. What is a little child? We all know what a child is until we are asked, and then we find we do not know. We can mention his extra-goodness, or his extra-badness, but none of this is the child himself. We know implicitly what a child is, and we know implicitly what Jesus Christ means, but as soon as we try to put it into words it is escapes.
A child works from an unconscious principle within, and if we are born again and are obeying the Holy Spirit, we shall consciously manifest humility all along the line. We shall easily be the servant of all men, not because it is our ideal, but because we cannot help it. Our eye is not consciously on our service, but on our Saviour. There is nothing more awful than conscious humility, it is the most Satanic type of pride.

Rich

Trouble and Peace

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.” (John 14:27)

As sure as the sun is coming up today, we will experience what Jesus said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
We are surrounded on all sides by distress, trouble, seen and unseen forces but, in the midst of all of this He the Prince of Peace is there IN us wanting, desiring to awaken within us a knowing though these things are actually touching our lives, they are not the final reality.

At no point are we kissing our brains good by pretending that what I see, feel, sense, is but an illusion, but in the very midst of all of this there is a way of escape, and that is in knowing something! This something is the overflow of being called by God the Father himself into an eternal ever lasting relationship that begins now. It is in this secret place He shares the secrets of His love for us. Perfect love is His prescribed medicine.

Here is something to ponder on where you are at, what you are facing, going through. “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Have we allowed the wonder of it to enwrap us round and soak us through until we begin to realize the ample room there is to grow there? Let’s live in the secret place of the Most High, absolutely secure and safe.

Let Him the Father of your spirit speak peace to your heart this day!

Rich

Blinded By Truth

The caption that came with this image was; “we are often blinded by the truth, even when it is right before our eyes.”

I find the Truth defined in the person of God the Father’s son, Jesus Christ is most relevant no matter how many years have gone by or will pass.
“Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
The quotes I’m using here are from about ten years ago or so from the book, The Signature of Jesus, by Brennan Manning.

“There has never been a time in Christian history when the name of Jesus Christ so frequently is mentioned and the content of his life and teaching so frequently ignored. The seduction of counterfeit discipleship has made it easy to be a Christian. In a climate of mutual admiration, the radical demands of the gospel have dissolved into verbal Alka-Seltzer, and prophetic preaching has become virtually impossible. By and large, American (and please know that this is not relegated to just the USA) Christians today are spoon-fed on the pablum of popular religion.”

“The gospel of Jesus Christ is no Pollyanna tale for the neutral: It is a cutting knife, rolling thunder, and convulsive earthquake in the human spirit. The Word lives. But in the words of Bonhoeffer, many Christians “have gathered like ravens around the carcass of the cheap grace and there have drunk the poison which has killed the following of Christ.”

“If the gospel were proclaimed without compromise, the roster of card-carrying Christians in this country would shrink. Most televangelist distorts the gospel. Therein lies the Cross except as a theological relic, no clarion call to the body of Christ that we are crucified to the world and the world to us. In half an hour the electronic evangelist has to convert you, heal you, and guarantee your success. Everybody is a winner; nobody loses his business, fails in marriage, or lives in poverty.
If you are an attractive nineteen-year-old and accept Jesus, you become Miss America; if you have a drinking problem, you conquer alcoholism; if you are in the National Football League, you automatically go to the Pro Bowl.”

Incredible as it may sound, the Word itself has become a source of division and self-righteousness. Jesus said that the foremost sign of discipleship would be our love for one another. “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). His teaching is unequivocal here. We would be known as his followers not because we are chaste, celibate, honest, sober, or respectable; not because we are church-going, Bible-toting, or Psalm-singing: We would be recognized as disciples primarily by our deep and delicate respect for one another, our cordial love impregnated with reverence for the sacred dimension of the human personality.”

“We have come a long, sad journey from the first century, when pagans exclaimed with awe and wonder, ‘see how these Christians love one another!’ to the twentieth century, when all over the world nonbelievers dismiss us with contempt; ‘see how these Christians hate one another!’
We have deprived the world of the only witness the Son of God asked for during the supper of His love. Our present disunity cannot be God’s will for us; it is a scandal to angels in heaven and human beings on earth.”

Rich

Hidden With Christ

The caption under this picture reads as following; "A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him to find her."
This spoke powerfully to me of Him hiding as it were Himself, not from me but for me, to seek Him with all that is within me!

"I remind every follower of Jesus that discipleship means nothing less than being ready to obey Christ as unconditionally as the first disciples. Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes. Never confuse success in ministry or knowledge of the Bible or mastery of Christian principles and ideas with Holiness and authentic discipleship. They may well be the corruption of discipleship if your life is not hidden with Christ in God."

Rich

An Opened Door

For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
Yikes, commandments, what’s that got to do with grace and living outside of a yoke, is there something I’m missing here?

Every prayer the Son of God prayed is going to come true, not one word will fall to the ground; it will accomplish that which it was sent to do!

The Father has opened a door for any and all to fully experience his offer of life in its abundance all revolving out of His heart of desire and intimacy with us.
I so appreciate how Father was making his heart more real to me from what I read here in Brennan Manning’s book, “The Signature of Jesus.”

“Further along in his ministry, Jesus would say: “The Father and I are one,” indicating an intimacy of life and love that defy description. To Phillip he would say, “He who sees me sees the Father.” And again, “It is the Father living in me who is doing this work.”
Jesus is the human face of God, with all the attitudes, attributes, and characteristics of the Father.
So many Christians I know stop at Jesus. They remain on the Way without going where the Way leads them-to the Father. They want to be brothers and sisters without being sons and daughters. In them, the lament of Jesus in John 17 is fulfilled: “Father of all goodness, the world has not known you.”
As the Father loved him, so Jesus would love us and invite us to do the same. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Rich

The Secret Things

The secret things belong to the Lord and unto those he chooses to reveal them to.
Our true identities will forever at least this side of heaven remain a well kept and guarded secret, as it were a secret identity, and no one apart from God the Father is able to share this secret with us.
Who we are will only be defined in and through His heart of love for us, a love that knows no short cuts in going the distance to win our trust and affection.
Although the lies we may still believe are designed to bring havoc and destruction into our daily living, it is His nature to destroy that which is trying to destroy us.
What a Saviour this one who calls me Brother and his friend, who whispers in my ear. "You Are Loved!

Rich

Celebrate the Darkness

“The contemplative is not the man or woman who has fiery visions of the cherubim…but simply he who has risked his mind in the deepest desert beyond language and beyond ideas where God is encountered in the nakedness of pure trust, that is to say, in the surrender of our poverty and incompleteness, in order no longer to clench our minds in a cramp upon themselves, as if thinking made us exist. The message the contemplative offers is not that you need to find your way through the language and problems that today surround God, but whether you understand or not, God loves you, is present to you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing you have ever found in books or heard in sermons.”

Rich

Now Faith Is

In our words and deeds we give shape and form to our faith every day. We make people a little better or leave them a little worse. We either affirm or deprive, enlarge or diminish the lives of others.

Rich

Fire

I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

When disciples surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, when we submit to the truth that we reach life only through death, when we acknowledge that the grain of wheat must vanish into the ground, that Jonah must be buried in the belly of the whale, that the alabaster jar of self must be broken if others are to perceive the sweet fragrance of Christ, when we respond to the call of Jesus, which is not come to a church meeting but “Come to me,” then the limitless power of the Holy Spirit will be unleashed with astounding force. The discipline of the secret will be a compelling sign to the Church and the culture. The body of Christ will be plunged into a revolution.

Our God is a consuming fire!

The rule of His reign is not a matter of words but of power, a source of transformation and information. The spiritual life is simply life itself lived with the vision of faith.

From the book, Storytelling, Imagination and Faith, William Bausch shares this.

“An old Mississippi country preacher believed in his bones that the Word of God is a two –edged sword. One Sunday morning he mounted the pulpit and prayed: ‘Oh Lord, give thy servant this mornin’ the eyes of the eagle and the wisdom of the owl; connect his soul with the gospel telephone in the central skies; illuminate his brow with the Sun of Heaven; possess his mind with love for the people; turpentine his imagination; grease his lips with possum oil; electrify his brain with lightning’ of the Word; put perpetual motion in his arms; fill him plumb full of dynamite of The glory; anoint him all over with the kerosene of salvation, and set him on fire.”

Rich

Though He Slay Me

This is going to be brief, my good friend Ron who had spent some time with us coming all the way here (to Ontario) from the Maritimes back a few weeks ago has been back home trying to walk out what Father has been bringing to light regarding his circumstances and situations within his family/marriage.
I spoke with him three times over this past weekend, the last call from him yesterday was from all human perspective very heart crushing news.

When there is more to share, and with his permission I will continue with updates, in the mean time I am asking for Father to continue to comfort him, and trusting Him to touch Ron in any way he chooses to do this.
If Father is speaking to your heart regarding this situation without knowing any of the facts, please embrace His nudges.

Rich

Finding our Place

The unobtrusive and unbreakable connection that is happening through out the earth is one of the heart, and the designer and choreographer is no less than God the Father. Scripture talks about, “A three fold cord is not easily broken.” I see that three fold cord being Father, Son and Holy Spirit, (faith, hope-love) intertwined with me and with so many others that I am slowly meeting this side of heaven, wow, talk about God having a very big house.

I was out this morning walking my dog Atticus (a Bearded Collie) communing with Father, basking in the unseasonable warmth for the 2nd of November, but also savouring the warm and deep affection of his heart for me. Aren’t you glad that He is the one that defines what it means and how it looks to have a spirit-soul and body connection with Him? The kicker is that each and every day it could look just a tad different if in fact a relating, connecting with Him in a way/s that you’ve not yet experienced.

As I continued with my walk it was still resonating within my heart something I read the other day while waiting for Margi to come back from her shopping.
I am slowly but surely becoming more and more a ruined and broken man as Father continues to invade my soul.
Here a few of the things that lovingly wrecked my day.

“The following year, Dominique, a lean, muscular six-foot, two inches, always wearing a navy blue beret, learned at fifty-four that he was dying of inoperable cancer. With the community’s permission he moved to a poor neighbourhood in Paris and took a job as night watchman at a factory. Returning home every morning at 8:00 A.M. he would go directly to a little park were the marginal people, drifters, winos, “has-beens,” dirty old men who ogled the girls passing by.

Dominique never criticized, scolded, or reprimanded them. He laughed, told stories, shared his candy, accepted them just as they were. From living so long out of the inner sanctuary, he gave off a peace, a serene sense of self-possession and hospitality of heart that caused cynical young men and defeated old men to gravitate toward him like bacon toward eggs.
His simple witness lay in accepting others as they were without questions and allowing them to make themselves at home in his heart. Dominique was the most non-judgemental person I have ever known. He loved with the heart of Jesus Christ.
One day, when the ragtag group of rejects asked him to talk about himself, Dominique gave them a thumbnail description of his life. Then he told them with quiet conviction that God loved them tenderly and stubbornly, that Jesus had come for rejects and outcasts just like themselves. His witness was credible because the Word was enfleshed on his bones. Later one old-timer said, “The dirty jokes, vulgar language, and leering at girls just stopped.”

One morning Dominique failed to appear on his park bench. The men grew concerned. A few hours later, he was found dead on the floor of his cold-water flat. He died in the obscurity of a Parisian slum.
Dominique Voillaume never tried to impress anybody, never wondered if his life was useful or his witness meaningful. He never felt he had to do something great for God. He did keep a journal. It was found shortly after his death in a drawer of the nightstand by his bed. His last entry read: “All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me. I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness. If he wants it to, my life will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices. But the usefulness of my life is his concern, not mine. It would be indecent of me to worry about that.”

In Dominique Voillaume I saw the reality of a life lived entirely for God and for others. After an all-night prayer vigil by his friends, he was buried in an unadorned pine box in the backyard of the Little Brother’s house in Saint-Remy. A simple wooden cross over his grave with the inscription “Dominique Voillaume, a witness to Jesus Christ” said it all. More than seven thousand people gathered from all over Europe to attend his funeral.

Any spirituality that does not lead from a self-centered to an other-centered mode of existence is bankrupt. For many of us the journey out of preoccupation with self begins with self-acceptance. In order to live for others I must be able to live with myself.
Years ago the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung asked:
What if I should discover that the least of the brothers Jesus, the one crying out most desperately for reconciliation , forgiveness, and acceptance, is myself? That I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness, that I myself am the enemy who must be loved, what then? Will I do for myself what I do for others?

Rich

A Passion for Truth

Do you share in this same passion of desiring with all of your heart, a longing to know what/who the truth is. Remember that there is no ability to know the ‘truth’ apart from the person who declares he IS the ‘truth,’ God’s son Jesus Christ.
It’s out of the generosity of his spirit we are invited to pursue the one who has been pursuing us from before the foundations of the world. Hopefully we can be as generous with one another as we share our experiences of how the truth of who’s we are and what it means to be loved and to live loved. What an opportunity to see so much more of who He is, the Truth.

There’s a couple of things I want to point out here in a way of trying to see things a bit more objectively in our journey of discovering the truth, take a peak at this from Barb over at ‘A Former Leader’s Journey’-Same God-New Covenant: Speaking to the Church, and over at The Free Believers Network with Darin Hufford in the pod cast, “Tradition.”


The traditions and teachings of men have according to Jesus made the word of God of none affect.
As Barb so clearly pointed out in her thoughts, there was a time when God spoke to people within a group, or as a nation, it was a uniform blanket, and one size fits all sort of thing. The door that Jesus opened up to us within this dispensation of grace, has moved us away from the group dynamic speak. It is a personal one on one engagement between Him the Father of our spirit and the individual believer, knowing and experiencing Him personally.

To borrow a quote from Albert Camus, “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that our very act of existence is an act of rebellion.”
It was and is for freedom that Christ set us free. The offer he extends is totally available to us in this hour no more or less than it was 2000 years ago, “If you continue in this relationship I have called you to be engaged in, you will know the truth, and the truth will make/set you free.

Father I pray you will apply the saving, keeping, delivering caustic grace and love we stand in need of to strip away from within us those traditions that are lifeless and have stolen our heart affections from you our living Hope!

Rich

His Palpable Presence

Blessed are the disturbed, for they shall know the God and Father of all comfort.
The storm was brewing even before going to bed last night, it wove its relentless burrowing way deep into my inner being even after entering the land of snooze. The energizing of His spirit was already starting to get my attention before I went to bed, in so much as I felt directed to put up a new piece on my blog that deeply spoke to me.
While sleeping, a world of the unexplainable opened up to me, as it is most often that way when I dream, all I know was as I was waking this morning I was certain of these words which I kept saying over and over, “I will not apologize anymore.”

Reflecting on this and sharing it with my wife as she was getting ready for work I began to see this erosion that had been creeping into my soul, as it were a drifting away somehow from the One who is my ALL. The subtlety of this invasion was most disturbing, but sobering.
Somehow I had given over to entertaining thoughts that had nothing to do with the truth of Who’s I am, almost as if I was allowing myself to become invisible, blending in much like a chameleon does in camouflaging its-self and for all intents disappearing.

I sensed Father lovingly but most firmly speaking to me, "Is this who I have called/made you to be, are you going to settle for fear misshaping and disfiguring you? Are you going to hide behind the lies I have broken over your life, or are you going to rise up in my strength, and BE the man/son I have purpose you to be?"
In answering from deep within my heart-YES, there was awakened a surge of power/strength I knew was not due to anything I could muster up.

Your signature of love is deeply written into my being, Father you’ve called me to BE a communicator, to speak forth your heart of love and encouragement to those whose arms are falling at their side, whose knees are beginning to buckle, whose hearts are about to cave in.
As Peter launched out onto the very word Jesus spoke to him, “come” and stepped out of the security of the physical and walked on water, I too am stepping out and embracing Him and in so doing embracing His delight in ways I have yet to imagine.

Rich

An Opened Heaven

The following excerpt from Austin Sparks has sparked something wonderful in me. First I want to share a few ‘heavenly’ scriptures to consider.

“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.”

“Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased."

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

I wonder if this heavenly realm we now live in, in Christ is all part off why we need the eyes of our heart opened to see what is ours now. “God's thought is not merely that we might go at last to heaven, not just that, but that now we should know what life in heavenly union with Himself means, and what all the resources of heaven mean for our lives here on this earth, that we should enjoy now every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. That is a great word of the Apostle Paul. Heaven is something vast for present enjoyment, for present experience.”

Rich

“If there is one thing more than another which the Word of God makes clear it is that heaven is closed to man in his unregenerate state. You will find that to be the case wherever you may look in the Word of God. The very elaborate provision made for man to draw near to God at all is itself a declaration that access to God cannot be taken for granted. It is not a thing available without very special provision. Associated with everything provided for man in the Old Testament is the warning: Stand back! This is for you only on very special grounds. There is no advance. There is no approach. There is no access. I think it hardly needs labouring that the Word of God hammers out this fact, that to man in his unregenerate state heaven is closed.

Heaven is not only a place to which we may go. So many people have but one idea of heaven as the place to which you go at last if you are good. Well, it may be. We are all hoping to go there, but it is not in that particular sense that we are speaking of its being closed. The question of a closed or opened heaven is a very much greater matter than that. Heaven is a realm of God. A realm of everything belonging to and related to God; the realm of God and His things. It is the realm of fellowship with God, communion with God. Everything of meaning and value, of necessity and blessing for man's spiritual good, for man's eternal well-being, is bound up with heaven.

That is not something future, that is something for the present. God's thought is not merely that we might go at last to heaven, not just that, but that now we should know what life in heavenly union with Himself means, and what all the resources of heaven mean for our lives here on this earth, that we should enjoy now every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. That is a great word of the Apostle Paul. Heaven is something vast for present enjoyment, for present experience. The Psalmist said of Zion: "All my wellsprings are in thee." That is what the believer says of heaven, of Christ in heaven. That is heaven in present possession, and present enjoyment, and unless that is true now, before we leave this world, there is not much hope of our going to heaven at last.

These things of eternal value for our well-being, these things of God for our blessing, for our good, are not to be found in the world. Men have searched for them, and sought them in the world, but they have never been found there. They are in heaven, and can only come to us through an opened way to heaven.
But all this - and it is far more than ever we could detail, even were we to stay to speak of it for a very extended period - all that heaven means of resource and of blessing and value for time and for eternity is closed, is behind a closed door, as regards unregenerate men and women, even though they may be religious. One of the great snares which will keep multitudes out of heaven is religion. To be religious does not necessarily mean to have a heavenly life in union with the risen Lord."

Blinded by the Symptoms

One of the most tripped over words being, “obedience, only to be followed by submit,” has in my opinion successfully kept many outwardly responding to God, but a vacancy sign operating at a heart level.
It’s almost a no brainer when asking anyone as to what they think God required from Adam and Eve in the Garden, “obedience.”
I don’t doubt that God wants obedience, but maybe their disobedience was but a symptom of something He cared about far more deeply.

Reading from He Loves me (by Wayne Jacobsen) it says, “One can obey God and yet not trust him. We shall see that all disobedience flows out of mistrust in God’s nature and his intentions toward us. Thus the experience in the Garden wasn’t to demand their obedience but to incubate their trust.”

Relating to God out of love rather than obeying him out of fear is only possible where real trust presents itself, but without having the option of rejecting it, is there any real freedom?

“If obedience had been God’s only issue, don’t you think he would have made the whole scenario far clearer? He told them not to eat from that tree or they would die. He didn’t describe that death in detail. He could have told them how it would destroy his creation by bringing sin, disease, and relational brokenness into his world. It would cause them incredible pain, and not just for them but for all their offspring for thousands of years to come. He could have told them that all they needed to do was to eat first of the Tree of Life, so that they would be eternally innocent in his presence.
But he didn’t tell them. If he had they might have been obedient, but not because they trusted him. They would have obeyed only because it served their self-interest. God would merely have become a tool for their own fulfillment. Self would have still been at the center of their choice, and self would prevent them from discovering the full vitality of life in him. No, God didn’t tell them because he wanted something far better.
Neither did he interrupt the serpent to set the truth firmly in mind again. After all, he was there, wasn’t he? Or do you imagine him busy in heaven with his back turned at that critical moment? We know what Adam and Eve could not know then. They recognized him only when he cloaked himself in some physical manifestation and walked the Garden with them. They didn’t know that this God was present everywhere in his creation.
So why didn’t he intervene? Could it be the same reason Jesus didn’t send Peter home instead of letting him follow along to Caiaphas’s courtyard and the betrayal that would devastate him? God sees something redemptive even in letting us fail. He seems less concerned about our mistakes than how we respond to them. Do our mistakes lead us away from trusting in our own strength or wisdom and toward seeking what it means to put our trust in Him? If so, then he finds our failures worth the pain they cause.”

This is good news, the Father wants to have a relationship with us based solely on trusting Him instead of our self, and this will be done with NO compulsion on his part! We are free to reject his loving offer of life and its abundance.

Rich

Additional Thoughts-Prophetic People

I want to share some additional thoughts that Father has been speaking to me about.
I want to start here as a point of reference, please read the following first, if you haven’t already.

There has never been a separation or divorce between the “letter or the spirit,” from the Father’s perspective:
“who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
We are prone to establishing things such as using a word/s to try and definitively state what we mean using that word or words, but maybe much like the line from the movie, The Princess Bride, “maybe that word doesn’t mean what you keep saying it means.”
And one of those words is ‘the prophetic.’

I want to share something from a book by Brennan Manning, and in his case he is using a word, ‘discipleship,’ that I see tying in with my thoughts. Manning is in this portion quoting William Berry. “After the cure, as Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:18-19). The man apparently did not bemoan this ‘rejection’ as an injustice. Rather, the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And ll the people were amazed.”

Apparently, this man was not called to radical discipleship. Yet he was called, as we are all called, to LISTEN attentively to God’s first word to us. This word is the gift of ourselves to ourselves: our existence, our nature, our personal history, our uniqueness, our identity. All that we have and are is one of the unique and never-to-be-repeated ways God has chosen to express himself in space and time. Each of us , made in his image and likeness, is yet another promise he has made to the universe that he will continue to love it and care for it.

However, even when faith persuades us that we are a word of God, we may remain ignorant of what God is trying to say through us. Thomas Merton wrote: “God utters me like a word containing a partial thought of Himself. A word will never be able to comprehend the voice that utters it. But if I am true to the concept (reality) that God utters in me, if I am true to thought in him I was meant to embody, I shall be full of his actuality and find him everywhere in myself and fine myself nowhere. I shall be lost in Him.”

With endurance and perseverance we must wait for God to make clear what he wants to say through is. Such waiting involves patience and attention, as well as the courage to let yourself be spoken. This courage comes only through faith in God, who utters no false word.
It is this highlighted part here, He has spoken once again into the deep places of my heart, and I invite those whom He, the Father of your spirit has spoken to, to share any thoughts you might have on this.

One thing I know for sure, “there is no way we can straight jacket the Holy Spirit no matter how much we would sometimes like to. The Holy Spirit is the bearer of gifts and these gifts are sometimes lavished in peculiar places.” God bestows his grace abundantly but unevenly. He offers no explanation why some are called to radical discipleship and others are not.
Let’s continue to see a new depth of understanding in the words we are so familiar with, within the scriptures, perhaps there is a fresh-new discovery therein for you and me!

Rich

The Certainty within Uncertainty

I love this image, I looked for something under the search of unshakable, and this gem undeniably spoke of its power.
The spirit of our Father speaks from and into the deep places within us, far deeper than mere logic or common sense, he cuts through the uncertainties with an assurance that He can be depended upon. Let's look at that spoken by Him, this promise for us way back then, and its living unshakable evidence for us today.

Though the cherry trees don't blossom and the strawberries don't ripen,Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted,Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty,I'm singing joyful praise to God. I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.Counting on God's Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength.I run like a deer. I feel like I'm king of the mountain!

The scriptures like life are filled with apparent incongruencies or more to the point seemingly flagrant oxymoron’s.
One thing that is becoming undeniably clear to me is the uncertainty of daily life/events as well as it being unmistakably seen in flesh and blood people.

Does one as a Christ knower, have to apologize for the assurance, certainty that becomes the very fabric of their disposition as a result of becoming a new creation initiated through the finished work of the cross?
The following words, certainty, certitude, assurance, conviction, are nouns meaning at their root, freedom from doubt.
Maybe because so few of us as a Christ knower understand so little of how God the Father designed us in our physical makeup (spirit-soul-body), we are inclined to accept that when we are outwardly tossed to and fro in an ocean of doubt, all certainty and assurance is but wishful thinking?

Is it because we have been ruled by the prince of the air for most of our lives not only before being received of the Father, but in many if not most cases long afterward as well, meaning, if our point of reference is our soul instead of our spirit and it being in a union with God who IS a Spirit, what we think, feel, etc is the basis of reality then no wonder we resemble the tail shaking the dog-us!
Peace is a person, as is Truth, Life and Love are, but, peace is NOT the absence of war, conflict, disturbances, unsettledness, or any other thing that can unsettle our fragile world.

I love what Father is etching into the hearts of His children, it says within the Scriptures: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he rewards those that diligently seek him.” Does grace have its own built in reward system?
Is faith something outside of the believer, is it a proverbial and vague “concept,” or is faith like everything else inseparable from the person of Christ in us as us?
Maybe what is freely available to us in Christ is this, “Now faith IS the substance of things hoped for, THE evidence of things not seen”!
Could it just be that because of sin and its corrupting, blinding influence upon all of nature as well as all humans included, there would be nothing more predictable than a steady diet of uncertainties?

Maybe as Papa is permitted to continue opening the eyes of our heart we WILL discover a resident unshakable, unmovable, and confidence and certainty of His stubborn and passionate Love for us that will Be the stability in the face of every uncertain myth-understanding?!
I would like to dive back into these very deep waters in the near future and further discover more hidden wonders and treasures He has waiting in the thick of all that is labeled as uncertain.

Rich

I had already posted this new entry before seeing this from He Loves Me, by Wayne Jacobsen. What I’m quoting here was the result of a tremendous battle Wayne was going through with nagging bouts of insecurities and as he said;

“Though I could sustain the increased burden (of redoubling my efforts to be more committed) for a few weeks or months, I NEVER had any certainty that the things I was doing were enough to cause him to be delighted with me.”

It was because of a fresh revelation of the perfect work of God the Father on the cross through His Son that produced the following.

“That’s when it became clear. It is not the fear of losing God’s favour that takes us to the depth of fellowship with him and transforms our lives with his holiness. It is the certainty of knowing his unrelenting love for us, even in the midst of our weakness, and failure, that leads us to fullness of his life.Fear had never taken me to the depths of his life or his transforming power; discovering his delight has. I now know that the key to God’s favour doesn’t rest on what I give him but on what he already has given me.”

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

Look at me Dad

Even as I begin to write these words, I can barely see through the heart brokenness within spilling out through a flood of tears. Not tears of shame or guilt but of a sobering reality of my loving Papa saying to me, “Son, look at ME!”

How many of you that have kids and maybe there all grown up now remember back through their growing up years would reach out to you by saying, “Look at me dad?” Weren’t they wanting to see mirrored back to them through our hearts, eyes and waves, I am valued, I am special, my dad just said SO.

I missed out on mirroring back to my two precious children that total loving affirmation and acceptance of them for who they were and not for what they would be or could DO.
I was a father needing so badly a father to love me, I was alive but dead in not knowing I was totally loved, this prevented me from giving what I did not possess.

In reading more of He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen, I suddenly heard the voice of my heavenly Papa saying, “Son look at me, I’m here for you, I have never taken my eyes off of you, you are and have always been in my heart and thoughts.”
I sensed in a new way Father saying, “keep looking at me son, see mirrored in my heart/eyes, everything you will ever need. Son it is my delight to make known to you in the deepest places of your being, how pleased and proud I am of you, let’s explore together all that is, and yet to be yours.
As you learn to freely drink deep of my love, freely you will have me as your source to liberally give away!"

I feel very much like a small child learning the wonder of crawling, and yet hearing my Papa shout out, “That’s my son, look at him go!”

Rich

What’s Love Got to do With it

I am so enjoying the book He Loves Me, by Wayne Jacobsen, the words from so many different songs are chiming within me, “Love is all you need.”

As Father continues doing what he alone does best, opening eyes to the reality of Him being Love, suddenly we begin to discover in Him in us as us a substance/evidence (Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen) we tried to obtain in having the right terminology/theology/facts!

As Jesus was soon approaching why he came, the cross, he succinctly and clearly pours out his heart to his disciples/friends about the necessity/urgency of his soon departure. Here is a sample of Jesus not wanting to leave them in the lurch. “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

From He Loves Me: “Could the invitation be any clearer? Jesus told his followers about a house, with a Father who waits for them to come and take their place in his home. Does this sound familiar?
We so easily miss the point of his words when we mistakenly relegate them to the distant future involving a second coming and mansions in heaven.”
The cross stands as the pivotal event in opening the door for us to dwell in the Father’s love.
He was going to open a door and return after the Resurrection to show them how to live in his Father’s house-the place in the Father’s heart he’s prepared for each one of them.
The disciples, however, couldn’t make sense of his words.

He went on to tell them they knew the way and where he was going. One of the disciples spoke up, “we not only do not know where you are going, but how can we know the way?”
The quick to the heart comment by Jesus: I am the way and the truth and the life!
He knew they were confused. He knew they didn’t understand all that he spelled out for them. But he cut through their fear based paralysis by saying, “You know me! I will get you there.” Notice how he focused not on the process they would have to follow, but on a person they would need to know. He took it right back to relationship again. “Stay with me; you’ll know everything you need to know.”

Is it really any different this side of the cross/resurrection, meaning if we do NOT know we are loved, is it any wonder that we resort out of fear and cling to establishing the right answers, theology having a great form but experiencing little to no substance?
Maybe it has never really changed, Him calling us into a living vibrant growing learning of him relationship. See the following.
Without knowing the author of the scriptures, is it any wonder why we flounder like fish out of water merely quoting what He said verses hearing Him the true and lasting Peace in us as us, in a world of turmoil/trouble?

Peace I give unto you!

Rich

Is it Just a Head Thing

A bloging friend/sister, free spirit has posted something I believe needs looking into, “Where Are You in All This.”

In reading her heart cry this morning, I saw not by my physical eyes but a much greater sight, the Father of her spirit doing the impossible within her, transforming her from within, freeing her to BE like a simple, trusting child-His! Actually it was as if I was seeing what it must be like when a woman becomes pregnant and the life of another beginning to be formed, put together within her. As David said in the Psalms, the inner, secret workings of the Father is all about knitting our unformed substance into fearfully and wonderfully expressions of His Father’s heart, one in who His declares before heaven and earth, “This is my beloved child in whom I AM smitten by, and I rejoice over your birth and re-birthing!”

“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works; And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skilfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written; The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are; your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!”

The secret things belong to the Lord and unto those He chooses to reveal them to. Is there anything deeper than His unfathomable love for us-No!
It is imprinted, stamped within our spiritual DNA, the cry for Truth-Reality, it is all part of our ‘birth-right,’ the Father of our spirit is making Himself REAL to those who will NOT settle for anything less than Knowing Him, whatever it takes, its almost as if one is possessed in this holy/wholly pursuit.

Once again from our brother David; “Chaos calls to chaos, to the tune of white-water rapids. Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers crash and crush me. Then GOD promises to love me all day, sing songs all through the night! My life is God's prayer.”

I want to speak into some of what free spirit was longing for, the reality of His closeness, his embrace, not merely a vicarious relationship with Him via mere truthful speak.
For those who have read in my earlier posts some of what Papa has been doing within my dear brother and friend Ron’s heart, as he has stayed here with us for a period of time, this is one of those sudden real, living, tangible expressions of Him coming into what we call the ‘real world’ and embracing us.
Ron had left our place last Saturday evening to go back to his home town (actually our home town) to visit with family and cam back here early yesterday morning.
Father has done so much in such a short while in establishing a friendship between us that has far exceeded anything we have known in 26 years.
While we were sharing before he left to go back to Nova Scotia, there was a strong sense within my spirit that what I was about to say to Ron was more than just a warm fuzzy feel good inspirational buzz.

As I began to get the words out of my mouth, I turned and said, “Ron, I believe this is not a thus says the Lord thing, but you need to hear and know this, you have failed big time, but NEVER has your Father ever, ever seen you as a failure-NEVER!" Ron’s eyes welled up as his heart was invaded with just what he needed, and mine too, the reality of His intense closeness!

I so want to encourage my siblings in Christ to become His fool, no matter what it takes, no matter how you appear in your own minds reflection or in the eyes of others, be like that salmon that gives into that innate inner compulsion to do the impossible swim up stream knowing full well it will cost you your life. Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus!!!

Rich

Prophetic People

I don’t know about others, but for me I have seen over the years in my own life a tendency to throw out the baby with the bath water.

It is truly amazing how easily we can take a word and petrify it making it to mean only one thing, and at best a static lifeless thing. Such a thing/word is this one, “Prophetic.”
In finishing up reading the Naked Church by Wayne Jacobsen which I have thoroughly enjoyed, I have been drawn to something Father is making clear to me that I have unintentionally thrown out with the bath water long ago dealing with the prophetic.

In my past I was used heavily in the so called prophetic, it was a common experience for me and I gravitated with those of a kindred disposition.
I will be right up front here; much if not all of whatever the Lord might have been doing through me in this arena was me trying to fit in, trying to establish an identity based upon this phenomenon happening through me. Who knows how many other things I have like wise dismissed in coming to know Him as my life, bottom line is, I am learning that my identity is and has nothing to do with what I have or don’t have but has everything to do with Who has me!

I want to quote from the Naked Church things that Father is greatly exciting me with dealing with the Prophetic.
“In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered people. All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the life and power of the kingdom of God. It has happened before, it can happen again. (Wayne quoting Richard Foster).
You can’t have a hope like Richard Foster’s if you also don’t share his assessment: Individuals can be found here and there whose hearts burn with divine fire. But they are like flaming torches scattered in the night. As yet there has been no gathering of a people of the Spirit….Our century has yet to see the breaking forth of the apostolic church of the Spirit.”

“God desires to equip a generation of believers who can be what I call a prophetic people.
By that I don’t mean they are fortune-tellers, or angry people screaming about God’s wrath, but those who move outside the safety of church structures and terminology and into our starving world.
Church people think about how to get people into the church; kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; kingdom people work to see the church change the world.”

“Prophetic people recognize that the work of God always begins in someone’s life, where they are.”
“Prophetic people are preoccupied with Jesus. Regretfully, Christians often get sidelined by various aspects of the Christian experience. They jump on bandwagons such as spiritual gifts, apologetics, pet theologies, or specific methods of prayer or ministry.
Jesus in the believer is what this prophetic people are pointing to, He is the main attraction!”

“Prophetic people are of necessity courageous people. They are always going past their own sense of personal ease or competence to obey the Spirit. He wants us to touch the world with his power. This doesn’t mean that prophetic people are never afraid; they’re always afraid, but they find the courage to obey in spite of their fear.
The flow of God’s spirit lies beyond our own personal comfort. What Jesus did for us wasn’t comfortable, and if we don’t risk discomfort ourselves we’ll never discover the wealth of God’s power or the fruitfulness of incarnational ministry.”

“Prophetic people are led by the Holy Spirit-not plans, formulas, or learned techniques. In becoming prophetic this means I will be speaking what God is speaking. The gift of prophecy is the gift of insight. They Are learning to bring God’s insight into situations.
This is the heart of being a prophetic person: We bring God’s mind into the very situations in which we are involved. And the only way to do this is to be led by the voice of the Spirit.”

We are here so that others might see Him in us. None of us can escape that call, but if you’re growing in intimacy you won’t want to.

There is so much of His heart he longs to make known to us. The secret things belong unto the Lord and unto those he chooses to reveal them to.

Rich

A Special Work

Reading from Oz Chambers, this was one of those laser beams thrust into the nether regions within my heart, you know that hidden land where the motives and intentions and attitudes of the heart reside!

“There are no nations in Jesus Christ's outlook, but the world. How many of us pray with out respect of persons, and with respect to only one Person, Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced by distress and conviction of sin, and this is the harvest we have to pray that labourers may be thrust out to reap. We are taken up with active work while people all round are ripe to harvest, and we do not reap one of them, but waste our Lord's time in over-energized activities. Suppose the crisis comes in your father's life, in your brother's life, are you there as a labourer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? "Oh, but I have a special work to do!" No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ's own, one who is not above his Master, one who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls to no special work: He calls to Himself. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest," and He will engineer circumstances and thrust you out.”

How many special things have identified me, a special work, I have a calling to do thus and so, continually being defined by still seeing myself after the flesh. It’s amazing the bull shit lies we are all so quick to imbibe in.
Any secret hidden faults undetected by us within our soul will become a landing pad for the lies of the enemy of our soul to bring us into his captivity! Those lies are always going to be dressed up and exude a tantalizing desire from within us to reach out and take whatever is being offered.

“There's more: God's Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure. Otherwise how will we find our way?
Or know when we play the fool? Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work; then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin. These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, O God, my Altar-Rock, God, Priest-of-My-Altar.”

“Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.
Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.”

If there is any other love other than His working within my heart, it’s only a matter of time before we wake up in just another expression of imprisonment/bondage.

This is NOT being shared with a underlying message of fear laced tactics, I see it being a wake up call to allow our hearts to BE engaged with his! This is pointing to Him our Prince of Peace, thing is, He has a very sharp sword in his hands, and he is most skillful in its application to that within our hearts!

I want to close with this freeing, but sober picture, and know this in what Father is saying through our brother Paul is an opportunity to experience the freedom from the deceptive inner heart divorce and simply going on doing all the “right” stuff, but totally lifeless!!!

“Will you put up with a little foolish aside from me? Please, just for a moment. The thing that has me so upset is that I care about you so much—this is the passion of God burning inside me! I promised your hand in marriage to Christ, presented you as a pure virgin to her husband. And now I'm afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth patter, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ.”

Rich