Don’t Confuse Me

It is a lie from the evil one that we can live successfully in independence from the Father. We were created to BE containers of the Father’s life. One of the consequences of this fact is that we cannot exist in a true state of spiritual independence. This inability arises from that fact that we were not born physically with a spiritual nature of our own. We were created as a “living soul” but our human spirit is not fully functioning in its native state. We were made in such way that we must serve either God or Satan. (Romans 6:16) Paul leaves us with no third option. We must either be committed to sin (Satan) or committed to righteousness (God).

We need to let the Father bring us to a level of acceptance and understanding of this truth about human existence. We cannot live as independent spiritual entities. The Father created us this way so that we would have a need to seek Him. If we reject God we automatically accept Satan’s spiritual guidance. We have a will but this can only choose between options, it cannot create its own possibilities. All of this comes out of our having a human spirit that is largely non-functional until it is animated by the life of God through Christ. It is only the true life of God that can bring our human spirit to a fully functional condition. Until a person accepts the Father’s life through Christ, their spirit is inanimate (except for the conscience). In this condition, our moral guidance must come from the only other spiritual guide in creation-Satan.

From; “The Life That is Real Life”-Bill Landon

Rich

Pay No Attention!

The unfathomable has happened in being reborn, a miracle in my opinion that dwarfs the original creation of the world and God breathing into a dusty lump of clay that became Man.

The Greek word ktisis (creature or creation) carries the understanding of the “act of founding, establishing, and the act of creating.” In our ‘birthing’, we have been completely transformed by the Father in a deep and foundational way.

The Gospel (Good News) has to be more than just an intellectually agreed truth or reality. It is pointing to a reality far beyond anything that we have condensed into lifeless doctrines and creeds. It is a reality that will exist forever.

Mere biblical, truthful facts will be impotent in bringing about this much required transformation. Without the direct interference of the Father disturbing our natural understanding, setting into disarray our religious equilibrium, we will remain unchanged.

If we really have been just existing, at best, in a dream world - much like that of Neo in the movie ‘The Matrix’ - is it any wonder that this news of our true identity is bound to be the best kept secret in the history of humankind?

Our Father deals only in reality (truth), so does it not make sense that this invisible entity residing within our flesh (Satan) would best operate out of outright lies and deceit?

As long as the ‘truth’ is twisted and perverted into a collection of ‘tips and techniques’ the masquerade will continue to be that which keeps us, like the citizens of Oz, “paying no attention to that man behind the curtain.”

Rich

The Kingdom of Self

Bang, right off the bat someone chimes in, ‘I’m not religious, I don’t even believe in God, and there is no God’.
The interesting thing is that all of us worship self; even the child of God who turns from abiding in Christ will demonstrate this same self-centeredness. I see this trait of self-centered living as one of the most compelling practical evidences that Satan dwells in our flesh. This evidence is seen in the sadly universal demonstration of self-centeredness in all humanity. The evil one is in the flesh of both the saved and the unsaved and continually prompts us to a self-centered view of life.

In turning to self, is it any wonder we can’t see the forest for the trees, we blindly ask the Father, ‘please make me more loving’-sadly discovering that living apart from him is a placebo at best.
Not realizing we are meant to live as the result of the life of another living in us as us.
It is in turning, surrendering moment by moment to Him our only Life that we begin to discover He is an endless flow of love, a self-for-others!
This life I’m learning by unlearning is that I was designed to be dependent upon another for life and living as a 'self-for-others' is always going to be a choice. Now that’s what I call, ‘Good News.’

Rich

A Holy Rebellion

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idol-worship. Because you have rejected the Word of Jehovah, He has also rejected you from being king! (1 Samuel 15:23 MKJV)

This passage is often misused to control people: Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft!!! Is that true 100% of the time? Really? Thank God that not everything that is true is TRUTH! If all rebellion were always wrong then the world would be in big trouble. The context of this passage is speaking of those who are rebelling and rejecting God's direction. But many people rebel BY God's direction....
After all, Jesus Christ was a rebel too, and He knew NO sin!
Think about it. ( Mike Rule)

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This article from Mike provoked me greatly, thanks Mike!

Does the yeast-leaven of religion (the spirit of this age) subtly bring us into compliance, sucking the fight out of us much like a neutered dog?

In light of Mike’s article above, maybe there’s more to rebellion than what meets the eye.

The murderer, liar, sinner from the beginning of time, was and is Satan, and he has become a prisoner within the flesh of all humans - so if you’re human, you’ve got him entrapped within you too.

The kicker is that although we have but one nature - the Father’s - which causes our spirit to cry out “Abba, Papa”, there is still lodged within our physical bodies the flesh, and within this flesh is the evil one, Satan. He is the real rebel, a.k.a. the sinner from the beginning of time, who operates in and through us disguised as our ‘self’. Apart from continued revelation from the Father of our spirit we will not see this.

Satan, referred to as an ‘angel of light', does not have to reinvent the wheel or any other contraption to keep us imprisoned. He has studied mankind for millenniums at a very close range, and he knows how to mess with those who do not know the Truth.
In my opinion, the greatest lie of Satan is in trying to continually cloud and obscure the reality of this God and Father a.k.a. LOVE! Without knowing at a heart level, being able to access this love for myself, everything will have distorted perceptions. Everything!

The unconditional love of the father is blowing the lid off of the entombment of my unrenewed mind, and it is here that a royal rumble rebellion is experienced for the first time. Somehow there is an intuitive knowing that I was created or reborn for so much more than shadow boxing with myself…(or is it myself)?

I am strongly inclined to believe that when we were first reborn no human agent was involved in hearing His voice; an intuitive knowing within us pointed to something or someone far superior than a mere “religious” experience. Without discovering the source of this intuitive knowing, because there are NO vacuums, it seems to be the norm for most of us, sooner or later, to be swept up into the boxed, canned, institutionalized approach of relating to God. I know this is what happened to me. I became like a neutered dog - when my name, Richard, actually means ‘bold as a lion’!

Papa is using everything for His glory and our good - everything! There are so many who are wonderfully successful at accomplishing nothing and yet come across as the best arm chair experts imaginable. Of course without knowing we have direct access to the Father of our spirit, why wouldn’t we incline ourselves to these folk?

Discovering his ocean of love for ourselves simultaneously sets into motion an upheaval of tsunami proportions; meaning, it’s not enough to hear who others say He is. I have to know Him for myself, and in the process there will be awakened within me a holy rebellion. I am not in search of some fictional ‘Holy Grail,’ but in fact His love is empowering, motivating and directing me to seek out this one who has and is pursuing me.
It is in this process that this liar within our flesh will be exposed, and as a result all hell will launch out against us to try and fill our hearts with fear and confusion. But be of good cheer - this too is being used of the Father to further encourage and enlighten us that far greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

Rich

The Limitations of Religion

Within the static, fossilized, limited structures of religious ware-housing, there is a shocking upheaval taking place. Is it any wonder there is being awakened, stirred up in the hearts of those distinguishing, discerning, the voice of the Father of their spirit verses the voices of the foster parents a knowing, that it is was for ‘freedom’ they are being set free, and to no longer become entangled with man’s yoke’s of bondage. As they begin to drink deeply of the pure unconditional loving acceptance of their Father (Papa) it is freeing them from their intoxicated addiction, dependency of being ruled by their flesh. They are beginning to hear a sound and a melody that resonates within their very being, “In Him we live, move and have our being.”

Rich

The Limitations of Religion—Law and Organizations

More from Bill Landon, "The Devil You Don't Know".

Another religious view of God is a reliance on the law. The Bible is clear that it is impossible to achieve righteousness by observing the law: Romans 3:20. Yet the religious approach to God continues to this day to make this attempt of justification by legal observance. The legal approach to living is a near necessity for the religious because religion brings along with it organization. Having an organization dooms religion to failure because organization requires an external structure. It is because of this need for external structure that organizations are law-based and not life-based.

Organizations are rules-based because behind the drive to organize is an attempt to make things predictable, controllable and systematic. You can walk into a meeting for any given denomination anywhere and, if you are familiar with that denomination, you know exactly what to expect. Unfortunately, life is spontaneous and unpredictable. This simple difference makes organizations and life basically incompatible.

The existence of an external structure imposes its own (artificial) rules, regulations and restrictions on its members. The rules and regulations are needed to maintain the organization’s functionality and manageability. Organizations, by their very nature cannot exist in a spontaneous environment. Yet life is spontaneous. This is why organizations have no real life in them but rather, take on a “life” of their own. This organizational “life” is really a death life. I can say this because the organization’s “life” opposes the unrestricted exercise of God’s life in the believer. The proper outcome of God’s life working in our lives is for growth, not for us to maintain the status quo.

How Much is Enough

Whether I wore it as a bumper sticker on my car, or on the fly leaf of my bible or even had it tattooed on my arm that, “Godliness with contentment is great gain,” without it being explained (made real-experienced) in the actual setting of my particular circumstances and situations it’s just one more brick added to my already very heavy load in life.

How much stuff is needed to inflate my ego, to make me feel good about myself? I like how the Bible says that it isn’t ‘money’ but, “the love of money that is the root of all evil.”

How often does this very remote but persistent nagging thought gnaw at my innards that I was created for something far more than having or not having things?
I live on earth not somewhere in outer space where God might have a place, so how could these words have any relevance to me in the here and now: “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”?

It is becoming so evident to me through many painful experiences that what I’m looking for has nothing to do with finding the ‘perfect’ man, wife, woman, husband, car, job, house, country, friends, or anything of this world, but has everything to do with this God and Father making available to me right now today in this moment, His perfect unconditional loving acceptance.
We were created to be loved, and I am experiencing this energizing reality as I breathe deep of His perfect love for me, and in so doing I find myself relating perfectly with what He had/has purposed for me to BE from before the foundations of the world.

Rich

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth. It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

Is It Him

Come on now, is it really Him you want Richard, or are you wanting but a reflection of Him, as in a Jesus Buddy whereby he can save you, and you can keep in tact your reputation, your so called real identity, as in no personal insult?

What are you saying, are you asking me if I’m following Him simply for “what’s in it for me,” how dare you be so insensitive, so crass, so heartless, who do you think you are anyway, God??

The nerve of the Father getting into my personal space, now that can’t be unconditional loving acceptance, maybe I need to rebuke the devil on these uncomfortable lies right now, I don’t have to stand for this crap, I want to get to my happy place. How does that go, ‘there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.’

Is it really Him we want without counting the cost to us personally, well let me encourage Richard and those of you who will read this, you have no frame work, no inner grid work to even distinguish or comprehend the cost factor yet.

In ‘taking the red pill’ there was unbeknownst to us, set into motion the much needed extensive work of (grace) the cross now dealing with our amoral soul, and Life of the Father addressing and undressing so much inner crud, stuff that has been established within our thinking as to the ‘real us.’
Welcome to the real world of grace and its loving demolition of the false you, that which you have believed is really YOU!
This whole arena that the red pill facilitated and opened up for us, is a door wherein we are in the process of learning Him beyond having the ‘right’ theology or statement of faith or right doctrine or anything else being but a substitute for having Him ‘fully’ formed in us. As Morpheus said to Neo:"But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it."

Looking back and in this moment being lovingly reminded by the Father of a couple of things; "I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice. Tumbling down the rabbit hole?"

“Son, what part of buckle your seat belt (Dorothy) because Kansas (all that has been familiar territory), is about to go by, by didn’t you understand?”
Thank you Father for your faithfulness in reminding me that you will finish in and through me that which you have begun!

Rich

Heretical Good News

What I am about to share here from my friend Bill Landon and his book, “The Devil You Don’t Know”, is one of the best kept secrets from ever showing up on our built in radar screens.
Is this some new thing, or has it been something that has been made known by the Father through his spirit down through the centuries. But with its visibility is an assured unleashed assault from the father of lies through the flesh of even those we would call brothers and sister of the faith.
But really, has it ever been other wise, as soon as what was shown to us of the Father becomes the primary object of our heart focus rather than receiving what He wants to impart to us through the opening of our eyes, we once gain begin to worship things (even good things) instead of this lover.

My heart breaks over the blood and the lives sacrificed all in the name of the “right doctrine’ or “theology”, or something that was seen to be more valuable than rejoicing in Him the giver of every good and perfect gift he has bestowed upon His church!
There is a resounding knowing and ever increasing witness within my spirit, shouting out a loud amen to the one who said, “And I will build my church and though the gates of hell will lash out against it, they will not overcome it.”

What I am about to share I know will be offensive, and yet I know in this hour we are living, He is offending our minds in order to reveal our hearts, for it is out of our hearts-union with the Father that Life flows.
The constipation or crappy thinking we all have is going to be lovingly, but firmly addressed/undressed in each of our lives, that’s a given, aren’t we a privileged people!

Rich

God in the Flesh Jesus---God Comes in the Flesh

It may seem blasphemous to many Christians to say that Jesus had the presence of Satan alive in Him in His physical body. Many people will refuse to accept this truth out of a perceived sense of reverence. Nonetheless, I believe this exactly what happened when God came in human form as Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus got his physical body from Mary who was a sinful human being. Mary was sinful as we are all sinful: (Galatians 4:4-5). The human body that Jesus received from Mary was fully human. In being fully human, this body must have had both physical (bodily) and metaphysical (fleshly) components. I appreciate that this is extremely difficult for many people to accept. We can get some feeling for how hard it is for many to come to terms with this fact from the veneration that Mary receives in some religious denominations.

What people do not seem to understand is that if you deny that Jesus had a physical body that included a fleshly part, you deny the full humanity of Christ as Jesus. While many Christians find the idea of Christ with Satan in his flesh near blasphemy, I contend that God has a much different view of this situation. For the Father, Jesus having a fleshly component was essential to God’s plan. With out Satan in His flesh, Jesus could not have been fully human. If you deny the full humanity of Jesus Christ you deny the full glory of what God has done through Christ in Jesus: (1John 4:2).
Further, if God is all powerful He should have no problem dealing with His adversary face-to-face. In fact, the Father has no problem with this situation.

For the life and sacrifice of Christ as Jesus to make a difference at all, He needed to be made just as we are, except that He was without sin. As we have said before, to have Satan in our flesh is a source of temptation. This condition does not, in itself, constitute sin. This part of the makeup we receive as our human heritage. Sin is giving that fleshly nature the use of our minds, wills and emotions to control our physical bodies: (Romans 8:13).
We can have Satan in our flesh and not sin. This is our state of being when we give our souls over to the leading of Christ’s life in our spirit. This was Jesus’ state on earth. He always followed the leading of the Father from His human spirit and, in so doing, denied the leading of the flesh. In this act alone we see the defeat of Satan by God in our world and in our lives.

In closing, these couple of lines from two different movies speaks loud and clear to me of that which I have shared from Bill’s book.
From The Matrix: “The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.”
What truth?
“That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.”

And from the movie, The Italian Job: “I trust everyone; it’s the devil within them I don’t trust.”

Perfection

Free to Live, Free to Love

To my way of thinking this Mystery, the Message of Christ in us the hope of glory, is something that has me wanting to firmly rest in a posture of, speak Father for your son is listening.
I am learning that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the Father’s mouth, and how it is the longing of His heart to share the ‘secret’ things with those who are His.

In talking, discussing more on “Considering the Flesh-Two Natures?”, I want to highly (strongly) recommend much of what I am sharing here either directly (and from my own ponderings on this matter) from Bill Landon’s book, “The Devil You Don’t Know” from iUniverse.com, as well as anything else he has written. As a matter of fact I just had returned to me another of his books I loaned to a brother called, “The Life That is Real Life (The Search for Our Real Nature).

I love the thought that in most instances the emphasis on buried treasure is on that particular word, ‘buried,’ one has to dig, look for it, I guess if it was lying all around on the surface, it wouldn’t be buried, hidden then would it?

The following I found to be of great consolation and comfort from the God and Father of ALL comfort.

Rich

The state of the child of God in the issue of sin is the sate of freedom and love. Our true condition before God is completely and perpetually forgiven. We do not need law, guilt, judgment or bondage to appease the Father’s anger. We are free to be the children we were created to be. Our only need is to abide in the life of Christ that is our actual life source and condition.
We are not perfect because we were not created to be perfect. We are perfectly forgiven. It was never God’s intention for the Christian life in this world to be a life of sinless perfection. God desires the Christian life be a live lived in the perfect love of Christ. Perfection is God’s realm and He will grow us up in that realm as He sees fit.
We damage and stunt our growth when we try to raise ourselves to any state of perfection based on any human standard or effort. This is equally hurtful whether the human standard is ours or someone else’s.

The children of God must allow the Father to give them an understanding of the place of sin in our lives.
The child of God sins, make no mistake about that.
However, these are not errors that arise from our spirits (our nature) and that is the difference. This is why John can say: 1John 3:9. Those who are born of God are perfect in their spirits.

In my soul I may foolishly listen to Satan in my ‘flesh’, and do something hurtful to others or myself. I need to repent of that foolishness, and accept the consequences of the action and let God teach me through it. That teaching may include some unpleasant circumstances. This unpleasantness is not very important in the long term however. What is important is that I have relationship with my Father and with my brothers and sisters. What powers that relationship is something that is far greater than any folly I can commit.
The children of God can be free from all guilt and all weight of law and striving. We have been set free to live and to love. Christians should be the least bound people on the face of the earth. The children of God have the perfection of the life of Christ in us (in our human spirit). That is our empowerment to be free to live and free to love. Sin no longer has any necessary power over us.

Imagination

For an added aesthetic, click onto the youtube video below and listen while you're reading this post:

In our prolonged but frequently interrupted conversation today via Skype, Dave and I were carried aloft by a mysterious, intoxicating breeze from the Father himself. It was as if we were being effortlessly borne “on a current of the unforced rhythms of his grace”, being taken into places of thoughts and ponderings that seemed staggering to our sense of what is real or credible…and most intriguing of all was a sense that He was reaching out to us and inviting us to imagine what it means to be child-like. What He was offering in this ‘close encounter’, in a moment when we were simply thinking out loud, was so overwhelming that our senses were rapidly spinning into sensual overload. Why? Because it was as if we were no longer talking about him - but that He was there, present, pulling back the veil. I sensed we were leaves on a flowing river or feathers in the wind. Was it all but a dream, a mirage, the over-active collateral effects of cups of java, or was it a fresh introduction to “unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God”?

For the sake of wanting to provoke readers to think for themselves, I will refrain from trying to nail down the ‘right’ language/interpretation of what is meant by the phrase, “the kingdom of God” for now. All I know is that I am now pondering the spirit behind those words and how He, the Spirit of Truth, has my undivided attention, at least at this moment in time.

When I consider such writings as C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, common fairy-tales or movies such as Field of Dreams and The Matrix, I am persuaded that they are pointing to a much greater present reality. It’s as if within these stories there exists a portal to another realm. Whether it’s through a looking glass, a wardrobe door or a ploughed field of corn, these dreams and nuances depict the availability of this reality (the kingdom) being within our reach.

Dean Sherman (Youth with a Mission) states that the themes of romance, conflict and adventure are interwoven in all stories from the beginning of time. Why do these themes speak so profoundly to us, almost as ‘deep calls unto deep’ and why do they cast such magical spells upon us? I believe it’s because we inadvertently have become like Peter Pan, all grown up on the outside though still children within, and it is to these childish hearts the spirit of God speaks.

This child-like wonder sneaks up on me and surprises my heart. Jesus Himself said words to this effect: “Except you become like a child, the reality of this present realm and all that it encompasses will be hidden from your understanding”.

The Prince has prepared a sumptuous meal and stands at the door of our hearts, offering a warm embrace, bidding us to partake of this heavenly realm in the here and now. Will we accept the invitation?

Rich

Deception

Wallowing in Vomit

If a person, most specifically a ‘Christian’ can ask questions such as this, “How come people choose to live in fear, bondage and settling for the status quo, and more to the point, how can a person call themselves a Christian, and choose to continue to imbibe from this stream of lies and deceit? Then maybe they have never had a fresh opening up of all that and more within their very flesh! Yeah, you heard me right, like a boss I use to have many years ago said, “Remember when you’re pointing that finger at whomever, three are pointing right back at you!

Lets look at this true proverb, “The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”
Don’t shake your head in disbelief, thinking, how in the hell would/could anyone do such an asinine thing? Well, that’s why we so desperately need Him to become our total and objective in/sight, why, because we are apart from Him totally blind deaf and dumb. Now if that doesn’t piss someone off, I’ll try harder-ha!

We were as it were born in a ‘still born’ position, no Life, oh yeah we were alive in the physical, emotional sense, heck we even had the spirit of life in us because of what God did when he formed man from the dust and blew into that lump of dirt, the ‘breath of life’, but we were and are designed to be made fully alive by Him placing within us the Life of another-Himself.

The setting of the first man and woman was a place of innocence, they were unknowing of any shameful thing, ‘The man and woman were naked before the Lord, and were not ashamed’. But innocence was never to have been their permanent abode. They (according to what my good friend has shared with me) thought that acquiring knowledge was the only smart available option verses eating from the ‘Tree of Life’, as they figured they were already ALIVE.
The father of lies successfully baited and hooked this couple (all of humanity) with his delicious mirage of a promised smorgasbord, only to discover in supposedly gaining they lost everything.

In acquiring this false nature, the one that permeated the father of lies, a nature rooted in lies, fear, murder deception, and most importantly, independence, he, Adam, was now totally blinded by his selfishness, and becoming a self that only lived for self.
This blindness has imprisoned all of us, and no matter how much of His (the Father’s) unconditional love and acceptance we’ve experienced, hidden from sight but within our flesh is a bastion of that which will try to entice and snare us all over again, if we but give a mind to it!
Ergo, the increased need to be tender and kind hearted, forgiving, compassionate towards one another, or as Peter so aptly put it, “I know you know these truths, but as long as am able, I will continue to remind you of what you say you already KNOW!”

Rich

Living Loved

Not long ago my wife and I went to see the movie Wall*E, funny, the older I’m getting the younger I seem to feel, anyway, there was this one line from the movie where the Captain of this huge space ship said something that resonated within me: "I don't want to survive. I want to live!"

In sharing with a friend tonight this (living as the result of the life of another) came up and became a major part of our time of sharing, discussing, and pondering things such as life, and what it is ‘all about.’

If the original intent of God was to be a Father, then how could that become a reality apart from children? Well, we all know that He had/has a Son, the only begotten son, Jesus Christ, but maybe Jesus was but the ‘first born’ of many sons yet to come forth and ultimately fill the Father’s house.

If His loving design for us was to be alive and to live and not just merely survive (exist), then maybe it was not going to become a living reality apart from the miracle of another’s life placed within us to BE our ONLY life!

I want to throw this thought into this mix here for further and hopefully extended conversations with anyone who might choose to read from my thoughts here.
More often than not unless one is a ‘trained professional’ it is best to not try to do what you think you can do at home, ergo, the need to rely, depend upon another?
Here to the point is what I want to say, is it possible that for a very, very long time so many Christians have suffered, being emasculated by someone putting us in our place simply because we were NOT trained professionals when it came to spiritual things, discussions etc.
In other words, if we do NOT understand what we are talking about, then how dare we have the balls to start talking as if we did understand or know anything?

Maybe there is an understanding, (revelation) that flows intuitively out of the Life of the Father, or, the life of another that has become in fact our only Life.
As I shared with my friend tonight, I said, ‘Bro I really do not know how much of anything I truly understand in so many things I have shared with you, but I believe it all to be the truth nonetheless.'
Does that mean that everything I see-feel is the gospel truth, that nothing can be added or subtracted from what I say or see, of course not, but I have always believed it much easier to drive a bike while being on it than talking about bike riding while the bike is leaning up against the porch.

Getting back to this ‘life of another’ issue, maybe this is why so many things have been and continue to be at best just stuff that keeps us surviving rather than living, in not knowing that true, real living will only happen as a result of having the life of another being placed in us, and being led to its reality, not merely just a Jesus add on pinned on us.
I love how Paul so clearly makes this reality and its power up close and available for all. Here, and here.
What more could there possibly be available to us through His death for us than to be reconciled, and the answer is enthusiastically spelled out; “we shall be saved by his life.”

I want to encourage anyone reading this to NOT let, allow, anyone to dumb you down into a fetal position of believing that you do not, can not live a spiritually vibrant romantic loving adventure in discovering His all for you apart or without their guru and exalted saintly status of directing you as someone who is so naive and ignorant.

This ongoing, unfolding revelation of being loved, and in turn living loved is in my opinion the out working of His divine design; “until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love."

Rich

The Stability of Christ

In chapter one we were seeing Christ as the foundation and the great factor of stability. It is quite obvious to us all that if there is not real spiritual stability about us, if we are not people of certainty, of assurance, of spiritual confidence who can be relied upon spiritually, counted upon; if we are people who are of more than one mind, up and down and so on, there is something very much wrong with our foundation, our apprehension of Christ, our relationship with Christ. We saw how stability was wrought in Him to perfection; through all the storms, adversities, trials, sufferings; how sure, how steadfast He was, how unwavering. And then that the Spirit of Jesus Christ has come to work that into us progressively, and, while we will not reach final stability in one bound, it ought to be true that there is a very distinctly marked progressiveness in this matter, that whereas at one time we were easily moved, we are not easily moved about that now. Whereas before we could be shaken by certain things, those things do not shake us any longer. We have got past that. We may still have our shakings by new forces and situations which we have not met before and we are going through new experiences where this rooting, this grounding, has still to take place. Nevertheless, we have moved on, and we are no longer the old flabby things that we once were, knocked about and carried about by all those more elementary forces of adversity.

There is much in the New Testament about steadfastness in Christ, being strong in the Lord, always abounding, unmovable, and unless that is true, we are not going to get through at all. All the building that we are putting up on top of that is going to collapse. We may know all about the eternal purpose, the counsels of God from eternity, the church, its great calling and destiny, and the whole thing will collapse like a pack of cards if underneath we are not rooted, grounded, settled, steadfast, unshakable; that is, unless we are in oneness and keeping with the Foundation, the unshakable Rock, and we are taking the rock-like character from Him Who is the rock foundation.

And, while this is a call and a challenge, let it also be an encouragement, for we are going to be put through many mysterious inexplicable adversities and sufferings, things that we cannot explain, things that we cannot explain even from God’s side. We cannot see God in them, we cannot see why God should allow it, how that can be consistent with God. Oh yes, that is not saying a wrong thing, it is true in the experience of many - the mystery of God’s ways, altogether beyond finding out. We are going through things that could shake our very foundation, our faith, cause us to come to a standstill in the grip of an awful question. Now the Lord takes us that way, and the history of stability is the history of a tree which, having been planted, with every successive storm, finds for the moment its roots a bit loosened, things becoming a bit precarious, but its reaction to every such effect of storm is to root down deeper, and the mighty tree which cannot be moved by the greatest gale is simply the history, the sum of many shakings which have sent its roots deeper to lay hold more strongly. That is the way of the Lord with us. Yes, not one of us is beyond being terribly shaken, raising the greatest questions, wondering with the biggest ‘Why?’ But that is the way of being established. Do not, then, be discouraged if you pass through a time where everything for you is an open question after all. Just remember that that is the time in which the Spirit of Christ has His opportunity for bringing that mighty rock-like stability of Christ into fuller expression as the very foundation of your life.

This was taken from Chapter 3 - The Indestructibility of the Life of Christ

I liked this very much. The one consistent expression of the Father’s love for me I am seeing over and over again, is in Him subjecting me to situations that are not just difficult, but in fact impossible to deal with being that I was created to BE dependent upon another for life and living-His!

That was a great line from the movie Mission Impossible~” Mr. Hunt, this isn't mission difficult, it's mission impossible.” This discovery of His ways is only possible to discern by simply turning from self unto Him. I say simply, but you have to realize that this is going to go so against the ingrained lies that have been seemingly cemented within our soul’s history, but is it going to be just settling for the understanding of a word ‘grace’, or experiencing the power hidden within that word? And yes, it is the Word Himself that is bringing us face to face with these impossible situations and circumstances whereby there unfolds within the core of our being a fresh discovery of the I AM!

Rich

Hooked on a Feeling

Is it Christ that is being seen, made evident in our lives, or, is it the by product-effects we are clamoring over such as, peace, joy, contentment etc? The good is always the enemy of the Best, and there is NO substitute for knowing Him, the one who has called us to BE His trophy’s of grace.

The mistaken notion that God has called me to this or that, ‘office-calling-badge-button-anointing-ministry,’ pardon my French is pure shit!! He has called us to BE his and His alone, and because we do NOT yet see that if you or I can add anything to this family status we have received freely in the Father’s love, then we do NOT yet have a revelation of what it means to be a son-daughter of the Most High God, our Father!!

We utilize God for the sake of getting peace and joy, that is, we do not want to realize Jesus Christ, but only our enjoyment of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things are effects and we try to make them causes.

How much of our ‘birth-right’ is being pissed away for a bowl of trying to fit in, belonging, kissing ass, all in the name of not feeling left out, or perceived as a fruit-loop?

I loved what a brother said years ago regarding the lack of revelation we have simply because we may have been inclined to think it is held out for only a selected few~ha!
He went on to say, regarding our place in His loving acceptance is much like a person trying their level best to go-get into another room, they are straining and grunting trying to force the door open, only to discover like an epiphany that in fact they are IN that very room.

Is it possible that His ever present amazing grace is the impetus for the miracle of experiencing this, “Except you become like unto a child, in no way will you and I have any meaningful intercourse, you will miss my present and active involvement in your life?”

Rich

To Better Understand

Part 3 of 5 - TO BETTER UNDERSTAND OUR POSITION AS AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST

Let us consider the position of ambassadorship itself.

1. An ambassador is an official representative of a ruler or state. It would do us all good to realize anew that God has left us here for one great purpose: to represent His Son. Our first responsibility is not to build the Church or even to get souls saved—it is to represent Christ and to bring His message to the world. As God beholds us in Christ, so the world must behold Christ in us. As Christ represents us before the Father, so we must represent Christ before the world.

How far even the fundamental Church has departed from this! Imagine the Lord Jesus or John the Baptist or Peter or Paul using some of the methods our modern evangelists are using to attract crowds and get people saved! Let us write it down as a principle and never depart from it: We are ambassadors for Christ in this world of sin—the official representatives of God the Son. If we are true to our calling souls will be saved, to be sure, and not only saved but established and knit together in love. They will not be won to Christ merely through some emotional story or the thrill of a crowd or a prolonged invitation, but because the living Word of God has exercised its mighty power in their hearts.

We realize that this is contrary to popular opinion, but “What saith the Scripture?” Where in its pages do we find room for the shallow, frivolous entertainment which is being offered in many a fundamental church today? All about us Christians are saying: “Our first business is to get people saved.” The Church has been putting man first instead of putting God first. The result of this philosophy is that many of our leaders are stooping to the most unscriptural practices to get souls saved somehow. And as they forget the dignity of their position they lose their spiritual power as well as the respect of thinking people. No wonder the apostle exhorts us to “walk worthy of the Lord!” (Col. 1:10). Let us then remember it and never forget it: “We represent God in this world of sin.

2. An ambassador is always sent to another nation, never to his own. It may at first seem unnecessary to point this out but it is most important here, for the fact that our Lord is sending ambassadors to all the world implies that He has no nation on earth which He can call His own. All mankind has been alienated from God by sin. We speak of Christian nations, but in reality there is not one single government on earth of which it can possibly be said, “This is the kingdom of God. Christ reigns here.” Indeed, our blessed Lord is quite left out of the best governments on earth.

Israel was once on the way to becoming the kingdom of God, but she refused the King from heaven and the kingdom of heaven and has been cast out of God’s favor until “the day of His power” when He will make her “willing” (Psa. 110:3).

3. An exchange of ambassadors denotes a state of peace. It must be remembered that until the kingdom was offered to Israel, her position before God was very different from that of the Gentiles. As we have said, all mankind had been alienated from God by sin, but whereas the Gentiles were enemy aliens, God still maintained diplomatic relations with Israel. There were covenants between God and Israel and they exchanged ambassadors. There were the priests to represent Israel before God and the prophets to represent God before Israel. The Church of Rome has reversed this order, for her priests assume the position of prophets and presume to speak for God. In the Scriptures, however, the priest is the pray-er while the prophet is the preacher. From the very beginning of Israel’s national existence it was so. Aaron the priest appeared before God on behalf of the people, while Moses, the prophet, brought God’s Word to the people. Whatever may have been Israel’s unfaithfulness to God during the centuries after; there was still a state of peace, a covenant relationship, so long as God and Israel exchanged ambassadors.

There is a wonderful sense of peace and assurance I have only because of the One who said, "And I will build my Church" is the same One who said, "I will make you witnesses unto Me"!
Likewise Christ said, "I have called you to Be me to this world.

Rich

Religious Atheists

Those who don’t know the Lord are often contemptuous of those who do. They think believers are stupid at best or brain-washed at least. They don’t realize that they, too, have been totally duped by the enemy of their souls.

EVERY person alive exists within the confines of his/her own personal matrix, custom-designed to keep him/her blind from seeing the truth. What is this matrix? It’s religion, pure and simple. But how can people who don’t pretend to believe in God be entrapped in religion? It’s because we typically think of ‘religion’ as being something which goes hand in hand with one’s particular faith, when actually religion is one’s lifestyle. It’s how people choose to live their lives. “I may not be the best person in the world”, they say, “but at least I don’t abuse my sick days at work”. “I don’t claim to be religious, but I am kind to others and give money to charity.” “I don’t believe in God but I consider myself to be a moral person” etc. etc. etc. In this sense, even atheists are religious, because they live their lives according to their own personal moral code.

Religion was instituted by Satan in the garden as a means to circumvent having dependency on God. Merriam-Webster defines religion thus:

- a personal set or institutionalized system of attitudes, beliefs and practices
- a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

What better temptation could Satan have contrived than one that would persuade humankind we don’t need God? That we, by virtue of our own ‘ethics’ and ‘morality’ could decide for ourselves what is an acceptable code of conduct, or what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’? What people don’t see (because they have been blinded) is that apart from Christ, there IS no ‘morality’. Why? It’s because at the moment when Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation, a cataclysmic event disfigured their souls, and Satan has been able to replicate himself in the flesh of every person born since. That’s what the scriptures mean when humankind is described as having been ‘born in sin and shaped in iniquity’.

The truth is, without knowing Christ as our life, we are eternally, totally lost and without hope - and no religion or religious set of beliefs is going to alter that fact one whit. Non-believers (and many believers) have absolutely no concept as to the utter depravity of their own souls. They blissfully live their lives in utter ignorance, endeavouring to be ‘good’ people by following the rules, playing nicely with others and adhering to social mores.

This religious veneer, however, is incredibly thin. No one has any idea what s/he is capable of when backed into a corner. When consumed with fear, rage, jealousy or hunger, people have done horrendous things (check out the daily newspaper). It’s at those moments that people come face to face with the evil inherent in the core of their very beings. “I would have never thought she was capable of murder!” Oh, really? We are ALL capable of the most horrific, despicable acts. There is not one of us better than any other.

This is the good news/bad news scenario. The bad news is that we are irreparably flawed, depraved and rotten to the core. The good news is that we are irreparably flawed, depraved and rotten to the core! It’s bad news for those who live their lives according to their own moral code, who don’t recognize that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is the only hope. It’s good news for believers, because it testifies to the fact that we can do NOTHING to measure up or to try to attain to God’s holy standards. It sets us FREE from trying (and failing) to keep the rules and agonizing over our total inability to change ourselves – because HE HAS DONE IT ALL FOR US (but that’s another blog entry)!

My wife wrote this, but it is most definitely a collaboration of a similar heart beat.
I'm going to launch out from here using these thoughts to share some things I know Most will find extremely offensive, but hey, is it the Truth we want or just our ears tickled?
I will be sharing from my good friend Bill Landon's book, "The Devil You Don't Know" in up coming blog entries.

Rich and Margi

Faulty Perceptions

The following is a wonderful quote from Bill Landon, in his book, ‘My Father and Your Father’.
Although I would say this is even much more of a fitting quote from his book, ‘The Devil You Don’t Know’, that I am reading again.

"In Jesus' rebuke to Peter (Mark 8:33) "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." It is not the things of Satan but the things of men. Why is this? I believe that the Lord uses this phrase to express the true situation in this world. That situation is that Satan has NO ability in himself to work out his evil desires. The only way evil is manifested in action in the physical world is by people allowing themselves to be led and manipulated by Satan in their flesh. The idea of a devil exclusive of human beings that runs around creating mischief is not biblically supportable."

"We must be able to come to the Father in an intimate, personal relationship if we are to be able to turn from Satan's leading and walk in God's way. There is NO possible way that anyone of us can turn from Satan's leading if we don't see that there is something (One) to turn to."

I have always liked this quote.. “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”- (Kevin Spacey) in The Usual Suspects (1995).

Are things heating up yet, no, well then lets spice things up a bit regarding this quote. ”We have met the enemy….and is us”. To, ‘we have met the enemy (Satan) and he is in our flesh’, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Wow, what a trip this turning out to be, in discovering just how deep this rabbit hole really is.
Buckle your seat-belt Dorothy, cause Kansas is about to go by-by.

By the way, as much as I or you claim to want to know the 'truth', maybe more to the point its like this, Jesus said, "There is much I want to make known to you, but you can't bear or handle the 'truth' right now."
It will never change in how He does things, and one of those being in my opinion, He is allowing our minds to be offended in order to bring (revelation) truth to our hearts.

Rich

Our Position on Earth

I find it interesting in following along here with what my friend Art is sharing regarding the 'Mystery of the Gospel' and how it proved to be a catalyst that launched Paul into a prison ministry, by being incarcerated himself for making it known...now what is that all about, why such bent out of shape reactions from folks??
Is this mystery of Christ in us, just an elaborate disguise, a new improved rendition of Dale Carnegie's, 'How to Win Friend's and Influence People'?

Is this mystery and its unveiling alloted to only those as in some religious settings that have reached a 'higher frequency'? Interesting this is!

AMBASSADORS for CHRIST - by Cornelius Stam
Part 2 of 5 - OUR POSITION ON EARTH

Twice in Paul’s letters we find the word ambassador. In II Corinthians 5:20 the apostle tells us whom He represents: “We are ambassadors for Christ,” while in Ephesians 6:19, 20 he gives us the burden of his message: “the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds.”

Paul rejoiced in his position in the heavenlies, in Christ, but he realized that he also held an important position on earth. As Christ had once suffered and died in Paul’s stead, Paul now rejoiced in his commission to stand before the world in Christ’s stead, pleading with men to be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20 (KJV) Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

The world would not have Christ, so Paul, who had once so bitterly persecuted Him, went forth in His stead, with an offer of grace and peace. If Christ was willing to delay the judgment of the nations and remain an exile from the world which was His by right, Paul was more than willing to represent Him here. He counted it all joy to suffer in the flesh and fill up that which remained of the afflictions of Christ. He considered “the fellowship of His sufferings” a great privilege and a great honor (Col. 1:24; Phil. 3:10).

Yes, Paul was in Christ, but Christ was in Paul too, pleading with sinners to be reconciled to God through His merits. And the position that was Paul’s as the ambassador of Christ is our position too.

In fathomless love and mercy our blessed Lord has delayed the judgment of His enemies for more than 1900 years while He still remains an exile. As the world’s rebellion continues He still leaves us, His ambassadors, here to offer terms of peace to all who will accept them. And what terms! “The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace!” “Peace through the blood of His Cross!”

Still the world blasphemes and despises this wonderful Savior, but He no longer bears the suffering. The time of His sufferings is past. It is given to us, His ambassadors, to fill up that which still remains of His afflictions. Thus the apostle declares: “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:29). And notice what Paul adds to these words: “Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me” (Verse 30).

Rich

Ambassadors

The following is from my friend Art, this is just too good not to post here.
Enjoy!

Rich

Introduction to: AMBASSADORS for CHRIST - by Cornelius Stam

Part 1 of 5 - AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION

Those who seek to “rightly divide the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and “test the things that differ” (Philippians 1:10) soon discover that “the kingdom of heaven” must be distinguished from “the body of Christ.”

Concerning the former God had “spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began,” whereas the latter had been “kept secret since the world began” (Cf. Acts 3:21 with Rom. 16:25). Or, to put it in another way: The former was the subject of Prophecy, whereas the latter was a Mystery (Greek, musterion, secret), hid in God, until He revealed it through the Apostle Paul (Cf. Dan. 2:44 with Col. 1:24-26).

Or, to put it in still another way: “The kingdom” will be the fulfillment of covenants God made with Abraham, David and Israel, whereas “the Body of Christ,” the Church of this age, is the product of “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Cf. Luke 1:68-75 with Eph. 3:1-11).

We are convinced that the most important division in the Bible is not that between “The Old Testament” and “The New Testament,” but that between “prophecy” and “the mystery,” between that which concerns “the Kingdom of Heaven ” (for the believing of Israel as Abraham's seed) and that which concerns “the Body of Christ.”

Those who see this one distinction hold in their hands the key to an ever clearer understanding and an ever growing appreciation of the wonderful Word of God.

A WORD OF CAUTION

In making this distinction, however, we must be careful not to make the mistake of supposing that members of the Body of Christ have no connection whatever with “the kingdom,” or with Christ as King.

A few simple questions and answers will prove that there is a very vital connection: Where is the King today? He is in heaven, a Royal Exile, unwanted by the world. And where is the kingdom today?

That too, like many a government since, is in exile. It is vested in the King Himself. It remains in heaven while its earthly establishment is held in abeyance. And where is the believer’s spiritual citizenship today?

It is in heaven! Paul tells us distinctly that “our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20) and that God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Col. 1:13).

Why then are we left here in the flesh?

For just one purpose: To represent Christ—and the very title Christ means “the Anointed One,” the King.

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ” (II Cor. 5:20).