Affirmation is a Big Deal

Because of sin and the impetus of its source entering into humanity there was set into motion this insatiable craving for identity, purpose, definition, worth, value, significance, and affirmation to mention just a few things.
Self in the fall became blinded in having its eyes opened, blinded to the reality of knowing that true lasting acceptance and affirmation had nothing to do with our feeble efforts but everything to do with His unspeakable total unconditional love for us!

This week I was listening to a pod cast that Father used to spell out, flesh out in my thinking some wonderful additional insights to something I harp on a lot, “the Matrix of religion.”
If you are interested you can listen to this here at the Family Room Media, entitled, Spiritual Abuse. Just scroll down until you see the pod cast.

As brought out in the pod cast, our need for affirmation is genuine but apart from the Lord himself unveiling, revealing to each of us, all that we have been looking for became ours when we were received of the Father and we received the spirit of adoption, the spirit of son ship.
What none of us saw in becoming part of the religious system, and please know it matters not what label you prefer to pretty things up by calling what and where you went as this church or that church, you where blindly imbibing from a system whose intent was to keep you from knowing who, and whose you where!

It doesn’t matter how sincere you were or the leaders were in the system you were apart of, bottom line we were all sincerely wrong in giving allegiance to something other than Christ alone. This is not an indictment; rather it is a picture of our blindness.
Just a thought for you to chew on, when Jesus said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” what do you think he was pointing out? In my opinion he was revealing that which is in man to make him into one of these people, ‘leaven.’
It only takes a very small portion of leaven to do its invasive undermining in the soul of a believer, trust me on this.

Rich

Free to Choose

We have all been indelibly stained within our thinking; the basis of truth (reality) for us is founded upon and defined in a lie, how we see/perceive ourselves according to our fleshly mind sets.
These fleshly mind sets are bummer birth marks we wish we could ignore, cover up or remove, and in fact we do our best to do just that. There is NO escape apart from the Truth.

I love the story about Gideon and how he was adamant in going ‘toe to toe’ with the Angel of the Lord who had cut through the lies he had grown up believing about himself. What nerve!
The Father of our spirit is not into flattery or trickery; he only speaks the truth of who He is and who we are in Him.
What we do is to try and set God straight by informing him of our inconsistent at best track record, usually things that define who we are in contrast to the conflicting message God says to be true about us.

In the case of Gideon, this other worldly encounter with the angel interrupts Gideon by calling him a ‘mighty warrior, or mighty man of valor,’ and this is not based upon whether or not it has come to pass yet, nonetheless it is the truth. Our Father always agrees with and rejoices in the truth.
Was it or is it any different now as it was then, was God talking about what was possible in the future, or was he telling him/me about our future?

I love this quote from Darin Hufford; “When God looks at you, He calls you by a name that has nothing to do with your present situation or mindset. Be excited about that and stop calling yourself the lying names of your present. There is a truth about you that is so wonderful and enticing that God cannot contain Himself whenever he looks at you. He sees that and only that. God truly rejoices with the truth about you.”

It is very easy to get all hyped up on a buzz we think is God especially after coming out of what my friend Dave said here: “And we know how easy it is, when once we've come through a fiery trial, to see and think more clearly and say how we should think/act/react,” but the truth our Father speaks to us is founded in reality and reality more often than not seems to violate what we think or feel. Any progress in moving forward if rooted in an emotional high of coming out on the other side of a dark night of the soul will soon leave us out of gas on the side of the road.

The truth of my future is rooted in the Truth of what Father says about me right now, this moment, and in my case He says to me, “Richard, I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind!”
Is He asking me to agree with Him, to believe this is true based upon some emotionally charged atmosphere or because He cannot lie? I am choosing to believe it is the latter. Like wise, the choice is yours.

Rich

Coming Into The Light

I wonder if we view our Father's correction through the eyes/mindset of shame, how can we not perceive Him actually rejecting us?
Without the needed ongoing correction being brought into our lives (the proof of His love is in fact, Him correcting us) we will have His image in us but not His likeness.

Hebrews 12:7-9 (The Message)

In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?
My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects.
God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

Maybe it's because of not knowing/seeing the truth of who we are (how we ARE accepted in Him) and who we are becoming, that the only recourse for so many is in trying to obey the rules, making the outside of the cup to look so pretty, while all the time hidden inside is one cowering in shame.
Without coming to know of our acceptance in the Father's love, we will work hard at being known for who we're not....'If folks really knew me, they would reject me.' If we believe God (the Father) sees us as losers, then why try to be someone we're not?

One of the greatest benefits of walking free of this shame, is being set free to BE the person He has called us to be, before sin ever entered the world.

Rich