An Extended Conversation

Part 3

Please read part 1 here, and part 2 here.

Rich


Rich: the formulas will never do what he can and is doing destroying in us the lies of fear as we learn to walk out living loved
Rich: not sill at all
Rich: silly
yahdavea: right
yahdavea: I guess it would be like asking if going to school is wrong because it would look like one was being less dependent upon Him
Rich: again, in your wonderful uncertainty and weakness He will prove himself to be gloriously strong in and on your behalf
Rich: hahaha
yahdavea: Well He was with me last week in that but I'm not so sure now.
Rich: fear/lies blind us to see Him in the now directing, guiding us moment by moment
yahdavea: Being facetious... but that is where my head was at
yahdavea: right
Rich: i hear ya and that is a reality that touches us because we're still in a world of money making things necessary
yahdavea: The Good News... I Am the Way... Truth... Light... and Am with you always
yahdavea: right
Rich: but what U R openly talking about here Bro is imo mostly swept under the rug by most of us believers, not wanting our uncertain humanity sticking out
Rich: YES
yahdavea: right
yahdavea: the elephant under the rug
yahdavea: And I am grateful that He has caused me to spill my guts at will.
Rich: didn't you witness the nerve you struck in others as you shared what you did on face book?
Rich: amen
Rich:
yahdavea: I think so yes
yahdavea: I think I gave freedom
yahdavea: it surprised me really... seeing the responses
Rich: well living is not apart from any of that, but sadly most christchuns think much differently
Rich: hahaha
Rich: He is allowing whatever it takes in each of our lives to bring us out of our druknen stupor, and to b 4 some us real 4 the first time in our walk with Him
Rich: I see way 2 many Jesus impersonators
Rich: and why is that, we do not intimately know the God and Father that loved being human
Rich: in His son as a man
yahdavea: That loved being human. Wow... now there is a thought
Rich: But Bro, it was His delight to be as us
yahdavea: Can you imagine the awareness of something that was actually new to Him?
Rich: it was the only way he could let us know that his love wasn't just a word
Rich: hahaha
yahdavea: So much there that just blows the mind
Rich: mine 2
Rich: it is that which I just shared that Margi will put into another book she will write about the God who loved being human as the son
yahdavea: Very cool
Rich: but that reality so escapes us all, and in so doing we live a life not based upon what it means to be His son, cause our humanity still freaks us out
Rich: make sense?
Rich: your, my humanity is where he lives, it does not twist his head or heart at all
Rich: He knows fully about all that we R now facing as being sons of God and still having top carry around this earth suite
yahdavea: and that's a headfull
Rich:
Rich: when we live, is it because we feel, sense His pleasure?
Rich: most of us will say no
Rich: Eric Liddell was talking about experiencing His pleasure that ignited in him a pleasure in all he did
Rich: not just running, or the mission field\
Rich: it will B in these times of fearfulness etc that there is a revelation with our names imprinted on them 4 us
Rich: the treasures of darkness await us all
Rich: those who R led of his spirit
Rich: anyhoo
Rich: white man speak way 2 much
Rich:
yahdavea: But bro..
yahdavea: I so want that "running" through my veins.. That passion for Him... and not some successful design business
Rich: Bro, you have been ruined by Him and 4 Him
Rich: let Him do all that is in his heart 4 you and your fam
Rich: whatever and however that turns out to look like
Rich: let him deal with the logistics of it all
yahdavea: yeah
yahdavea: ha
Rich: U just do what U need to do
yahdavea: At times I have this vision
Rich: He will look after the other stuff
yahdavea: of how what I am going thru and what He is doing
yahdavea: ... how it will affect others... and I keep hearing... that they may know HIM
Rich: YESSSSSSSSSSSS
yahdavea: Because if this is just about Dave and his success or no success...then I dont want any part of it
Rich: they want to see reality not what Christchuns have made out of Christianity
yahdavea: right
Rich: and that reality is transforming us as we have to face some very ugly things in this broken down world we live in
yahdavea: If there is a dream I have its that the design biz will be successful enough so that Deb and I can travel to visit others freely
yahdavea: yes
Rich: YES!
Rich: go 4 it Bro with all U have
Rich: i pray that it would B that and so much MORE for you and your fam
Rich: Only He knows the uncountable numbers of orchards in just one seed
Rich: and that One seed is Christ in Davey
yahdavea: thanks bro
Rich: my pleasure as always
Rich:
yahdavea:
yahdavea: I wish I had the freedom right now to head north to visit you!
yahdavea: how wild would that be??
Rich: it is the knowing of His heart felt deep pleasure for you that will ignite in you a fire that will shake your world and those around you my dear brother
yahdavea: I am trusting so
Rich: living in the wild, yeah baby
yahdavea: Hey it's only a 10 hour ride
Rich: religion in any form emasculates us, especially us men
Rich: rock on my man
yahdavea: yes... because we have this dire need to be validated by the work we do
Rich: if we really discovered what the man Christ Jesus was really like, we would not try and hide or bury our manhood either
Rich: right
Rich: it was imo because of the bursting at the seems of the Fathers great pleasure for the son, that Jesus found pleasure in all that he did or didn't do
yahdavea: yes wow
Rich: and that imo was why so many discovered that pleasure in coming into his company-presence
Rich: Jesus was inviting us into the Fathers pleasures
yahdavea: in a way, maybe it's like my opening my heart, life to others, allowing them to see in and saying, "It's okay, people, it's okay."
yahdavea: yes
Rich: YESSSSSSSSSSSSS
yahdavea: Fear begets fear but Life begets Life
Rich: the imprinting is in our DNA to live loved
yahdavea: yes
Rich: YES
yahdavea:
Rich: it has to B worked-walked out as we face what we have to face daily
Rich: and each day is the day of discovery, His overflowing pleasure for us
Rich: and of us

An Extended Conversation

For those wanting a little sneak peek into the lives of two madly in love brothers with Jesus, then jump into the water, the temp is great and so is the heart to heart musings.
This was some of our sharing this morning via Yahoo Messenger, Dave from Rhode Island sitting in a Panera’s coffee shop bakery and me, Rich here in Stratford Ontario without my first cup of coffee.

Rich

Part 1

Rich: Bro the essence of that reality unfolding in our lives the lost and found ones is consuming me in my writings
Rich: I will not back down from the only thing that spells freedom
yahdavea: He who has ears to hear
Rich: His love spoken to us in truth
yahdavea: I love you and your passion
Rich: tanks Bro
Rich: I love that line from Field Of Dreams
Rich: where Terry Mann says to Ray, Ray, as misguided as you R, I wish I had your passion
yahdavea: yes wow
Rich: because Terry use to be consumed with passion, but it died in him
yahdavea: wonderful moments in that movie
yahdavea: right!
yahdavea: He was once so passionate but the life and its cruel realties hit him hard
Rich: without knowing how passionate he is about us, religion is what we've opted 4
yahdavea: yes
Rich: He too needs to know the Truth as we all do
yahdavea: enjoying your post, Achilles Heel part 2
yahdavea: yes
Rich: and Ray in that movie was a type of the Holy Spirit wanting to set/make so many free from the Matrix of lies
Rich: thanks
yahdavea: Yeah, Ray, the passionate one, seeking the "what-if?"... Something greater than himself, pulling on him.
Rich: Jesus is saying, I will build the church, and I know they will come
yahdavea: not all but those who seek will find
Rich: yes
yahdavea: This week I have gotten so blinded bro
Rich: ?
yahdavea: the worries had set in
yahdavea: And I so need just to chill with Jesus
Rich:
yahdavea: Last week I could have conquered the world with Jesus it seemed
yahdavea: This week the cares and worries came in
Rich: the fresh assault of worries or whatever is a great place to discover the realness and closeness of Him right inside of us
yahdavea: yes
Rich: thank God you haven't evolved past this Bro
yahdavea: evolved past this?
Rich: meaning
yahdavea: you mean trying got just dismiss and try to move on?
yahdavea: It didn’t make sense there
Rich: you're either going to have slick, pat Jesus answers for you and whomever, or you will dispense Life and grace to all out of this hounding what appear to be setbacks
yahdavea: Dismissing what is happening to me and just trying to move on without stopping
yahdavea: Yeah, I have been so reminded how easy it is to forget our First Love
Rich: it is out of each of these being plunged into worries/fears we have the freshness of Him wanting to draw us so much deeper into reality
yahdavea: Geesh, the Rich Young Ruler sure plays into this
yahdavea: yes
Rich: not taking us out of the world, but while we're in, Him causing us to discover all that is ours moment by moment
Rich: YES!
Rich: Jesus' so called hard word to him was full of Truth and freedom, but the depravity that was exposed in him through Jesus' words , he chose to give into the lies instead
yahdavea: and succumbed back to self-effort
Rich: the young guy was on a mission, to B more God like
yahdavea: that's exactly what has been tugging at me bro
Rich: Jesus in love 4 him, had to show how that was suicide

You can read Part 2 over here.

Achilles Heel

I love this saying, but the first time I heard it I said, what the heck! “There never was a you, you.”
From my understanding the first man, Adam (and Eve) were never created with a (human) nature, I know, I can hear the hair pulling, teeth grinding already, but please just hold onto your underwear from getting all knotted in a bunch. There, take a deep breath, isn’t that much better, whew?

I see the two trees pointed out by God, placed in the middle of the Garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, pointing to a reality so much larger than just eating or not eating of its fruit. Each of these trees represented an nature, one being the very nature of God, the ‘zoe’ life that is much more than what Adam had, as all created things became alive by having what I will call the ‘life-spark’ in them, but in man’s (Adam’s) case, when God breathed the breath of life into Adam, he according to scripture became a ‘living-soul’, having what I will call, ‘life on loan.’
He, man, was of the highest order of all that God had created, making man in His likeness and image.
Before going any further I need to say this, it is a necessity to ask God the Father to bring revelation to our understanding of our composition, how we were formed, put together, and believe it or not, he is only to obliging. It is with this revelation coming from him that we gain true understanding and needed insight of the Mystery our brother Paul was delivered, Christ in you the hope of glory.

In the act of defiance (it was a mere defect in man) man died, “IN the day you eat of the fruit you shall surely die, speaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
What filled man was a ‘death-life,’ yes I realize this is an dissident sounding set up, but it was just that. It was the father of lies and religion, Satan disguised as the serpent who entered man, the sinner from the beginning, he took up residence in man as man, ergo, there never was a you, you!
We were designed to be governed by having to have a nature, not just a life-spark, but an actual nature.

The last Adam, the second man Christ Jesus, came to be a life (quickening) giving spirit. Apart from availing ourselves of His grace while its called today, our ‘life on loan’ will be returned back to its source God, when we have taken our last breath, otherwise in availing ourselves of his offer of Life, (he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit) we become eternal with an everlasting indestructible ‘zoe’ life.
There are so many different ways of verbally trying to use the ‘right’ words to describe what I want to say, but none of that will matter at all without His living giving, quickening spirit to breath upon what we see or are trying to say.
Many believe that in our re-birthing it went something like this, God coming in, and Satan going out! According to so many, we are operating with but one nature (and with this I am going to close here with these first thoughts) but that is NOT true. As I said earlier without Father God giving us revelation to our created physiology in the beginning, body, soul and spirit, this will be but a moot point, and believe me so called much wiser wise guys could so easily make spin in my tracks in their sound and founded teaching on us having but one nature.

What a profound delight knowing you Father, and that you have hidden all truth from the wise guys, and yet made it readily available to mere babes.
I will share more of where I want to go with some delightful thoughts still percolating in my heart.

Rich

Turkish Delight or, His Delight

Caution, long post ahead, don’t say you weren’t warned~ha!

The following is some back ground insight to what I am going to tie in with later, the story is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Because of the length of this, this is going to be part 1.

Rich

With some prodding, the Queen discovers that Edmund is a human child. Though she had looked stern and threatening to Edmund at first, when she hears that he is a human she suddenly becomes very attentive, and invites Edmund to sit in her sledge under her fur mantle and talk with her. Edmund does not dare disobey her orders. The Queen conjures up food and drink for him, which consists of a hot drink and a box of Turkish Delight (a type of chocolate). As he eats and drinks, the Queen asks him many questions. Edmund might have been wary of trusting this strange, imposing woman, but he is completely fixated on the sweet food. The narrator explains that the Turkish Delight is enchanted, causing whoever eats it to feel an insatiable greed for more. This chocolate compels the unfortunate eater to keep on eating it until he is prevented from doing so or until it kills him. Since Edmund is distracted by his desire, he does not notice the ominous signs when the Queen interrogates him sharply about his family, particularly his brothers and sisters. She seems intrigued to hear that there are four children in his family, two boys and two girls. Edmund also tells her that Lucy has been to Narnia and met a faun.
When Edmund finishes the Turkish Delight, he desperately hopes that the Queen will offer him more, but she does not. Instead, she asks him to bring his brother and sisters to Narnia to meet her. The Queen does not give Edmund an adequate explanation for why she wants to meet them, but she tells Edmund that she will give him all the Turkish Delight he wants if he brings them to her. This is reason enough for Edmund. The Queen sends him back to the lamppost. There he meets Lucy, who tells him she has been with Tumnus, who is well and has not been punished by the White Witch for his treachery. Edmund asks her for details about the White Witch, and he realizes that the Queen of Narnia is the same person. Edmund, however, is still obsessed with Turkish Delight and rationalizes that the Witch and the Queen are not the same entity. Edmund and Lucy go back into the wardrobe to the Professor's house. Although Lucy is ecstatic that now Edmund can support her story, Edmund is not eager to look like a fool because of his original skepticism.

The Witch's manner when she meets Edmund is initially unfriendly, and for a moment she seems close to killing him. Once she has given him the magic Turkish Delight, however, Edmund cannot see the Witch's cruelty and viciousness. The Witch's kindness and generosity is artificial, but Edmund does not seem to notice or care. Significantly, the narrator says that the magic Turkish Delight causes greed, not that it blinds Edmund to the Witch's true character or alters his perceptions of the Witch. If the narrator had said that Edmund's mistake was directly caused by the Turkish Delight, then Edmund would not have been truly responsible for his actions. Instead, Edmund falls victim to his own gluttony. He does not have to allow the Turkish Delight to control him and cloud his judgment. If Edmund's concern for his siblings had been deeper or his sense of morality stronger, he might have understood the Queen's character despite the enchantment of the Turkish Delight.
The Turkish Delight is a symbol for the sins of the flesh—for example, greed, gluttony, and lechery. These sins of the flesh are not devastating by themselves. Rather, they become destructive when the sinner indulges in them and then is unable to distinguish between right and wrong as a result. The act of eating the Turkish Delight is not Edmund's real sin. Edmund is unable to choose to eat the chocolates, so he has no free will. Edmund's true sin is in allowing the Turkish Delight to distract him and obscure his thinking and his notion of morality. When Edmund allows his greed to get the better of him, he shuts his mind to the belief that the Queen is really the White Witch. As we will see more clearly in the next chapter, the power of sin to corrupt and influence a person's behavior extends far beyond that person's first sinful act. Edmund's first sin in this case is his greed for the Turkish Delight. While he was not under the direct influence of the Turkish Delight, Edmund had the choice to regain his equilibrium and moral awareness. Instead, Edmund dwells on the memory of the chocolate, allowing it to taint all his subsequent actions and decisions. This scene shows the power of sins of the flesh to cloud the sinner's judgement in other, more important, matters of morality. The resulting sins are far more damaging than that of the original sinful action.

Made For A Purpose

I have always loved this line from the movie Chariots of Fire, "I believe that God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. When I run, I feel His pleasure."
This was Eric Liddell trying to console his distraught sister Jennie (who feared her brother had become negligent regarding his “calling” to be a missionary to China), and yet wanting her to see a much bigger picture of who God is right then, right there in his participation of the 1924 Paris Olympics.

What I am surmising is only conjecture and yet I do not see it being so far removed from the truth of this same God and Father that Eric was discovering while he was likewise being drawn ever deeper into knowing whose he was.
From what I can detect, Eric was living and walking in a knowing of whose he was, the security of that unconditional love freed him to allow Christ in him to supernaturally naturally express himself as Eric, and that was going to be done there at the Paris Olympics no more or less than when he eventually arrived in China as a missionary.

I believe Eric’s involvement as a runner before, during and after the 1924 Paris Olympics was only a natural metaphor or expression of something far grandeur in scope, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” As his and our sibling in Christ, Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,”
This is a race to the finish, fighting the good fight of faith (trust) in the one who has called us to be His!

What unimaginable delight and pleasure must cause our God and Father’s heart to do cartwheels as we discover His delight and rapturous joy in what he has made fully available to us? When we begin to tap into, discover the purpose he made us for was for him alone, there is poured into that moment a series of continued moments of delight our minds can not keep up with.

I want to close this by saying, this world is “filled with guns and war” to quote an old song by Larry Norman, and if this mystery of Christ IN us is not broken down to us and for us right where we are, live, and folks there are some nightmare dark and putrefying shit holes in this world, then it is a gospel, a message that only works for a few good people.
Joseph’s world of shattered dreams and illusions while still incarcerated discovered a reality that defied human reasoning; his prison became a palace only because of His living presence!

Rich

Measuring Ourselves

I’m not trying to nail anything down here just thinking, but the stirring that is happening throughout the earth regarding the massive exodus from established expressions of religion and trying to launch something new is it because there was a knowing in measuring themselves they came up short?

If we have not grasped the truth of His love, life, in us as us, won’t it be the same old thing only wrapped up in a new set of duds? Who told you were naked in the first place?
The longing for God the Father that has been awakened in so many, wanting to gain a whole new dimension of closeness is not found in anything short of his spirit making known, revealing His heart for us!
It’s going to take whatever it takes to bring each and every person in this freshly awakened journey to come to the end of being sick and tired of swallowing a whole new batch of gos-pills marketed in an enticing format.

Rich

The Allure Of Rules

Why wouldn’t hidden but subtly disguised rules be an alluring attraction to us when resident in our flesh undetected, lies the father of religion and lies, the same one disguising himself before Adam and Eve to take a bite out of his tasty alluring tidbit, to become like God, unless of course the wonder and beauty of this irresistible Christ in us is there, but not recognized. There must be some pretty strong magic altering our minds within these poor substitutes. Isn’t that some of the alarm and concern Paul voiced over some believers, “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.”

There is no contest to this, Jesus has never and will never be in a pout over the hucksters peddling their make belief wares, in fact, he is allowing it all to happen, why, so that there is right in front of us an opportunity to see that we do have a free willed choice, life, or death!

Why do bad things happen to “good people,” so that we will have the privilege of actually having the ability to freely choose, death, or Him, in the face of some very nasty life altering circumstances and situations? The Father has no intentions of bringing down the visible exterior expressions of what we refer to as religion and its institutions, but if permitted, he will in fact set us free from the inside where all of this other crap is birthed from. Without there being presented us one of two ways to go, please, do not say we have made a choice.

No matter how alluring and attractive the outer showings of being ‘like God’ become, when He is detected in the life of one of His, there will be no need for any Jesus impersonation.

Rich

What's Love Got To Do With It

Let’s sing it again, second verse same as the first, “All we need is love, la, la, la, la”!
Tina Turner did a great spin on that in her song “what’s love got to do with it” a powerful sharing of her liberation from a road of abuse and torment.

For those interested, a view of previous thoughts, look here.

We in the Christian church and I use that word “church” loosely, have been exposed to the foundational corner stone of love, His love, from its very beginnings, and yet we have at best dismissed it or better yet, turned it into a great theology of methods, principles and precepts, something geared especially to those with sharp minds.
Speaking of minds, the necessary renewing of them, the transformation of our soul revolves around the elusiveness of that indwelt corner stone, Love, it is not a picnic basket chalk full of tantalizing principles or precepts of how-to’s! Grace His grace resoundingly remains truly amazing.

What hasn’t taken a prominent place, center stage within the church down through the ages, tongues, prophecy, miracles, signs and wonders, and in so doing crowding out (it would appear) the shinning brilliance of the source of all that really matters, God the Father and his son the living Christ of love? Whole denominations, movements, clubs have sprung up revolving around any of the a-fore mentioned tokens of his deep love for us, and have you like me asked why is that? Doesn’t it all come down to ego’s, honestly isn’t it really more about us, look at me, look at my gift/s that I can clearly demonstrate to you, and in fact I can teach you to have it.
The distribution of the gifts is done by the Father, they are not taught!

In the catalogue of gifts described by Paul in the scriptures as wonderful as they are, pale in comparison to the greatest of all gifts, the one that is NOT ALL about me, love. The one that will endure forever, the one called the greatest and is really all about others, being what they need in the moment.

This message of the Father’s unconditional love is simply way to explosive to be caged within the confines of organized religious hoop jumping, touched upon by so called great expository teaching or preaching limited to a ‘teaching’, remember, it’s an unfolding revelation, not a seminar.

As I said on my last blog entry I would try to share further thoughts on what I observed at the conversations with Wayne gathering last Saturday, so here goes.
One out standing thing I heard was with regards to the fear of being mislead, possibly even deceived, the fear of letting go of all that we thought was able to bring us, keep us alive and without fear. Trying to juggle this love message of the Father’s love for us and trying to make it fit within the already deeply established methods we have used. I could almost hear the grinding of the gears as this processing was taking place and yet outwardly the poker faces would not indicate my illuminating discerned intuitive gleanings.
Maybe the life-support system of the matrix of religion with its methodology of principles and precepts has in fact robed us of our rich inheritance in Christ, I say with tongue firmly embedded in cheek.
The gifted one Christ was there in our gathering, that is unquestionable, and yet without Him opening our hearts to his living words, much of what was shared primarily through Wayne might be nothing more than seen and heard as that which was going to launch some further into “their” calling and ministry!

As I sat there (coming in after they already started) I felt like a Cheshire cat, grinning from ear to ear soaking, bathing in the living shower of a highly recognizable voice of the Father slinging grace all over the place through Wayne.
Within this intoxicating overflow of His heart for us all, it was as if I could hear echoed those infamous words asked by the early disciples of Jesus, “what must we do to do the works of God” in other words; give me a method, formula so that I can Velcro it to myself.
Please hear me, my heart, this is in no way an indictment of or against anyone of my siblings, always with the revealing of the heart comes copious amounts of healing, deliverance, restoration, reconciliation and so much more. There is one who does condemn the hidden undetected one in us all, in our flesh, the father of lies and religion; he alone is the accuser of the family of God.

Father brought such tremendous healing to my own life (heart) being a part of this reunion. The metronome of his heart beat that rhythmically sends forth the clear and distinct unforced rhythms of His grace is working powerfully where it appears that nothing is happening, in the desert of lives overcome with the fatigue and barrenness as a result of the religious cocktail of intoxication.

Rich

Fascinating, But Illogical

Isn’t that our mind set apart from His spirit, being allured toward something so much more real but almost instantly dismissing it as illogical? Fear once again kicking in and keeping us constrained to a three dimensional realm although we have within our spirit “slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.”
It stands to reason that any level of understanding of a ‘realm’ so completely different from our own requires a total rethinking (transformation) of our view of reality. The vast difference between what appears to be but isn’t really real, is much akin to, a clouded mind seeing nothing but what the matrix wants us to see/believe.

Is it true or simply a fable, Jesus having any credibility in telling us the truth, that which has the power to free our earth bound limited thinking and liberating us from deep within, making room for us to venture out into so much more that is already ours, but not yet fully realized?
Doesn’t it say that although we’re in this world, we’re not of it, and, that we have been raised up in Christ far above this earthly realm of existence seated in Christ at the right hand of God the Father?

We are told that faith only operates in the absence of direct, observable evidence: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

Within the Old Testament temple language the natural illustration being but a metaphor for a much greater reality was as follows, there was an outer court, an inner court and then the scared of all, the Holy of Holies.
In both of the outer courts there was available to the ones working there a natural light freeing them to do what was assigned to them, but in entering the holiest of all which by the way, was assigned to only one man/priest who had gone through the most stringent screening process to not only protect himself but the people.
Within this setting there was NO outside natural illumination; God himself would be the light, as I said, this early shadowy picture points to a light that is now our only source of life for living, resident within each of His sons. This is all part of our birth-right and the father of lies-religion, is determined that the sons of God will not discover their impetus for ruling and reigning IN this life!

From my continuing and increasing knowing of whose I am, I can truthfully tell you, Father is not in a hurray to do what he will do, as it was with his only begotten son Jesus, having him as it were hidden away for 30 long years in obscurity, then permitting him to walk out into the remaining three years, what kind of marketing strategy is that?
These were as in all things, our father demonstrating that those 30 years of obscurity were not wasted time, in Christ there was being established so much more than meets the eye, and like wise is being done within those he has sovereignly appointed to a similar obscurity.

Without knowing the true source of our life for living, we so easily loose heart, grow faint, our knees begin to buckle, our arms and hands begin to grow limp, much like a plant that has begun to shrivel up only because of its daily required need for water, light being omitted.
Everything that He has NOT planted will BE uprooted; he is allowing the tares to remain in amongst the wheat whereby we will always have the freedom to choose His way over any other way that would appear to be right.

Rich

Let My Sons Go

I loath labels, tags applied to anything pertaining our relationship with God, but for conversation sake I will have to use them.
One of the things I see that have been more and more visible is man once again getting his grubby itching fingers all over what God alone is doing. Some might refer to this new understanding of our Father’s heart activity as a “grace awakening” unfortunately I see the same old thing, the naïve, gullible believers being seduced and funneled into a cause, a movement, rather than simply allowing the Father to BECOME the ruling reigning true parent to these being awakened to his grace!
Haven’t we all had enough of being brought up under the tutelage of surrogate and foster parenting?

Wasn’t it a very similar scenario with Paul in his broken heartedness over the church in his time, “Who has bewitched (charmed) you.”This staring out was the direct intervention of God almighty in their re-birthing and then slowly and subtly drifting away from their birth-right to continue to grow in the grace and true knowledge of their loving caring Father. Their true heart felt affections were being redirected toward religious mind sets beginning to once again carefully observe the rudimentary elements of touch not, taste not, and so much more.

The religious mind is convinced that without their assistance simply allowing God the Holy Spirit to reveal and make Jesus Christ real to them is much akin to believing in magic or osmosis.
I’m convinced that anyone messing with His own is about to experience the wrath of His grace, and when and where it will be applied, please understand it will as in all things BE for their own personal freedom as well.

Rich

Power and Control

Quoted from Life After Death, by Bill Landon, “All, nearly all, religious organizations begin with noble motives but they all fall victim to the same slide down the slippery slope of the wish for power and control.”
History seems to repeat itself almost as an inevitability; learning from it is beyond being beneficial to us.

Long before there was any outer visible recognizable facility tagged as a religious meeting place, it was already a reality being conjured up within the heart of some person, and that person like us all, was blinded in recognizing the author and instigator of its crafty designing, the father of lies and religion, residing within their flesh!
Because of this unseen, undetected impetus toward religious activity, simply removing oneself from the outer practices of it does not negate the reality of it waiting (wanting) to spring up in those outside of any religious box, camp.

Without continued and direct intuitive revelation (man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word form our God and Father) the enslavement of many of God’s sons will simply be repeated, the bait remains the same only the presented packaging is in vogue with the current hour we live in.
There is much right here I would love to illustrate with a period of time touching a huge demographic that my wife and I were a part of, but it would take away from it being written about in my wife’s forth coming book.

All I know is this, the ignorance of the resident evil one in our flesh, the father of religion, is working without any direct resistance because of a no-brainer most have accepted as truth, as in, “Jesus in, Satan out”!

This is for those who have labeled themselves definitively that they are not religious but in fact wanting to know Him alone, a few examples are, out of the box, free rangers, home church, missional, organic and others. Are these names any different than those that arose 30 or 40 years ago, para-church, shepherding, and many others that saw that the established churches of that time were not fully doing what they saw as God’s directive.

Their motives according to these people were pure, noble, honorable, they were only trying to assist, come along side of the churches to see them come into the place they deemed to be at. Sadly the history lesson was not even noticed, and if it was, hey, why question the ‘anointed ones?”
Today there is a ravenous no nonsense stirring in many hearts , unwilling to accept any ones word of finality, they want to know the truth as it pertains to God himself, I applaud and endorse this unrelenting fire that burns within so many hearts that desire to know the Truth, not mine verse yours, but Him!

Rich

The Religion of Politics

Over at Kent’s blog Faithfully Dangerous he has shared some thoughts entitled “The Political Distraction.”
I have commented on his piece and I thought I might put it up here for others to read that might not visit his most excellent site.

After reading and commenting on these thoughts, it was a jerk me up straight moment realizing the extent of the title he chose to use, Political Distraction, wow, I thought.
Why is it that whether in the USA or any other country so many seem to think, especially the Christian demographic that our residing political government figures should be angelic like, people full of integrity etc, are we mistaking this world for the Heaven of which God has for us? Did Jesus actually come with a prioritised agenda specifically to see that any democratic establishments would truly be a government of the people, by the people and for the people? As I offered in my thoughts, I thought it was all about a door being opened up for who so ever chooses to have a full blown encounter with this one whose offer was Life, Love now and forever. And it somehow is having nothing to do with making this world a nicer, safer place to live.

These were my thoughts I shared on Kent's blog.

The political tyranny that you speak of is interesting as I see it being but a metaphor for a far more all invasive inner tyranny. Look at the children of Israel being extricated from their Egyptian bondage, talk about a corrupt demoralizing system. In my opinion this perverted and corrupt system was but an outer shadow of a sinister monster hidden within the lives of those who saw themselves as being exempt from this reality. It wasn’t long after exiting what they saw as their taskmasters that the real one came rushing to the forefront of their supposed freedom, they were slaves of the inner tyranny of sin.

Fast forward this same picture to the totality of the corrupt system assimilating anything that stood in the way of Rome’s total dominance. The Jews in Jesus’ day were convinced his appearing in their real estate (neck of the woods) was to kick Roman ass, once again they had a deliverer who would set things right, and I’m sure in the faint historical memories of their mind this was of a similar undertaking through one of their great patriarchs, Moses!
Bottom line, Jesus as you know was coming to us for the purpose of Life, something ALL dead humanity stood in need of. The Jews of that hour differed in no way to their ancestors held captive to Pharaoh back in Egypt, they were under the tyranny and complete slaves to SIN, Jesus was aiming far higher than trying to establish a decent and just government for the people!!

Rich

I Just Don't Get It

Shhhh, just in case anyone is overhearing our conversation Jesus; you know this could prove to be a highly combustible outcome for me if any of my colleagues ever caught wind of my actions.
I’m so nervous about my meeting you at this very late and ungodly hour, and yet at the same time my heart is beating not so much with the fears I have, but with something else that has drawn me here. Ever since I heard the voice, I haven’t been the same!

I know you are from God, no man could say and do what you have done without that being so, but, you have to give me something to work with, please. Some principles, precepts or concepts, otherwise I just don’t get it. You know the deal of my having to get back into my mother’s womb is no longer possible, she died a year and half ago, so this being ‘born again’ matter isn’t a viable option anymore is it?
What I see you offering us is a highbred version of Judaism and God knows we need to be revived from the staleness and lifelessness of our air-tight orthodoxy. So, if you could help me to try and fit what you have to offer and make it work within our religious system, I just know after the leaders within the high council get a taste for this new way, they’ll love it!

Nick, you are right, you don’t get it, this isn’t me offering who I am and turning it into another add-on, pin the Jesus onto the lifeless system and jump starting it, I’ve come that you might have life. I haven’t come to make your programs more effective and more attractable to those with a lingering bad taste in their mouths because of religion. Much more to the point, this new wine has to be put into new malleable, supple wine skins, otherwise it is merely trying to make life fit into the rigidness of your already fossilized programmes, the end being a horrible mess.

I woke up this morning with this story playing in my heart and boy does it ever sound like the Nicodemus’s of today, although born-again, trying to replicate what the Nick of old was fixated with trying to make work. “Brother, I, we, just love this grace message you have come to share with us, but, we need to have something more than being ‘wind-blown’ by His spirit, we need some principles, precepts, workable concepts to integrate this vibrant and living message of grace and fit it into our already existing fine church programs.

What we have offered to us in Christ is something so totally unfamiliar to us, our deep fetish of loving rules is an unseen undertow always there like gravity just waiting to pull us under, back into a more secure and knowable way of doing “church.!

Rich

Charming Appearances

Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier if somehow those with serious problems were tattooed in a highly visible way (maybe on their foreheads) to denote these unobservable issues?
This goes along well with what I shared here on my other blog, Warning Labels.

Say for example a person was a child molester and tattooed with C M, a rapist R, a crack addict CA, wife beater WB, a religious-moral-ethical-good person R etc, but unfortunately there are no magic solutions to readily being alerted to that hidden deep within the heart of humanity.

What none of us sees apart from the exposing discerning view of God is our total and complete depravity which has permeated all of those born from the loins of the first Adam, we were born in sin and shaped in iniquity!
It is imperative that this be understood from the get go, Jesus did not come into the world to condemn or judge us, but to bring out of his unconditional love for us, a way of escape, but that way would be meaningless unless we owned up to what he exposed in the heart. This was unmistakably presented to those who claimed they could actually see or know what was in their hearts. The story revolves around Jesus healing a blind man, he pushes the envelope in saying, “I have come into the world to bring sight to the blind, but for those who say they ‘can’ see, they will remain in their blindness.”

Another case in point is when Jesus called the religious guys the offspring of Satan, “You are of your father the devil” he said to them. Please keep in mind this description was not pined solely on this demographic.
The flesh Jesus said at best only replicates the flesh, thing is, that hidden impetus within our humanity known as the father of lies and all religion, is a shape shifting lying prince of darkness, masquerading as an angel of light. The overt readily recognizable depiction of what we commonly call the flesh observed as a killer, a drunkard, a prostitute, a thief etc. is quite visible but, the shape shifting one in humanity is equally great at morphing himself through others as he did and continues to do and the recognition of this is much harder to discern.

The story of the two sons in the gospel account in Luke 15 is a classic highly defined picture of what I am saying here. The overt in your face fleshly behaviour of the younger son who runs off into pleasure-vile with his father’s money is not easily mistakable, but the older son who stayed home was seen as righteous, good and a loving son.
The bewitching or our being charmed is as close to that which is hidden within our flesh, thank God he has made a knowable way of escape!

Rich

Life

From my dear brother Bill Landon: “We should know that the physical body alone does not have life and animation. If we look at a dead body we see that it takes more than mechanical pieces (organs etc.) to make life. A dead body may have all the physical parts of a person or animal but it does not have animation (life). The part of us that gives us animation is separate from and in addition to our physical being. This is what the Bible refers to as the “breath of life” (Genesis 2:7).

“This other part of our makeup came through the Father’s impartation to us of the “spirit of life.” This is not the Holy Spirit and it is not our human spirit. Rather, it is the life spark that the Father bestows on all living things. This exists to some extent in every living thing including plants. However, there is a higher expression of life that exists in animals and a still higher expression of life that dwells in human beings. The Father is the sole source of all life in the creation: “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.” This is the life that God grants to every living thing for as long as the Father determines that they should have life. Without a life touch from the Father nothing can be said to be alive. We may think of our life in this world as being a “life on loan.”

“The life spirit part of living things comes from the Father and returns to the Father causing physical life to cease: “When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104:29-30) and again: Ezekiel 18:4) In the end, there is only one life spirit in all creation-God. And all life comes from the Father and belongs to Him. This life includes all aspects of being-physical, soulical and spiritual. Apart from the Father’s giving of life there is no life of any kind anywhere.”

From this I see Adam and Eve being just that, “a living soul” but not yet fully alive by being joined to Him! The last Adam (Christ) was life quickening spirit, bring immorality to our being, not just animated but fully ALIVE!

Rich

Hidden For You, Not From You

Follow with some additional thoughts posted on Unfolding Mystery, “I Don’t Have All The Answers” I see that our designed dependency upon the only source of real, true life is the safest, most secure place to be, in Christ.
The continuous assault that barrages our thinking that somehow I must be missing “it” coming short or not measuring up is because I don’t yet have the privileged info, in other words, God has hidden this key from me. On the contrary, I see it is out of His great love that He as purposely hidden it for us!

From Life After Death, “I firmly believe we have the truth that God, in His wisdom and love, means us to have. We unlock this great treasure when we seek openly and honestly from the Father for this understanding. If we do not have some particular fact or understanding then I must believe it is because this fact or understanding is not healthy or constructive for us to have at this time. I firmly believe that we can all walk in the assurance that the Father provides all that we need right now for living moment by moment. This is an integral part of our being the dependent and well-loved children of God. I also believe that God will never set us up to fail. We can trust that the Father will never ask us to do anything that He is not fully prepared to equip us to do. We will never be held accountable for any understanding that has not been made available to us.”

Speaking of the Bible (Scriptures), “He had this book constructed in such a way as to make it completely useable only when we study it in surrender to His teaching through the Holy Spirit’s revelation. I understand at least one reason for doing this. This is a safeguard to prevent us from unraveling the mysteries of the spiritual out of our own intellectual efforts alone. This prohibition is not a mean-spirited act on the Lord’s part. We are kept from successfully discovering spiritual truth on our own because the whole purpose of life in this world is to develop a personal, living relationship with God. As such, it would be counterproductive and even harmful for the father to allow the truth of reality to be accessible without some collaboration with Him. In God’s plan, our growth in intellectual understanding is only a secondary attribute in the larger area of developing our living relationship with the Father.”

Rich

Fill All My Vision

O Divine Madman, you who are crazed with love, drunk with love for me, open my eyes to see the fullness of Christ in me the hope of glory.

Stephen long ago saw Jesus in the way, we (I) today need to see you in a new and living way, fill all my vision with You!

Rich

The Kabod (Glory) of God

After reading The Naked Gospel by Andrew Farley, it became increasingly and startlingly apparent to me that because there are NO vacuums, if the “Kabod” aka, the glory (transcendence) of God is missing, then the only option available is but a form of godliness!
This in my opinion is pandemic throughout the body of Christ; this is not an indictment merely an observation.

I believe the spirit of God is in everything, but, that is not to be mistaken for being fully alive. In the Garden, Adam possessed the spirit of God, yet, he was not made fully alive, fully saturated with the glory of God.
The Kabod, glory of God was his externally, it was his covering, clothing, whereby in his nakedness there was no shame. This glory was to become his experientially as an inward reality made possible through eating from the tree of Life; “he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Instead he opted to “be like God.” From that point forward it was all about trying to cover up, ergo the naked gospel has vital significance to us today who have become sophisticatedly clever in our religious cover-ups!

The inner reality of the Kabod, Christ in you the hope of (Kabod) glory is that transcendence that becomes the impetus for our progressive transformation. Without revelation (it’s like breathing) of this One who has joined me to himself it is but a matter of time before this scenario becomes our daily ration, “Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!”

I will share more on this in another post.

Rich

How To

How do we please God, by resting in the finished work of the Son.
Perhaps as He has his way with us, and of course that way is Love, unconditional love, the spirit of truth and grace will lead us into ever greater depths of all that he has accomplished for us!

Rich