Maturity

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

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

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

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

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

Rich

Learn of Me

Here is something that vividly stands out to me, borrowed from Tracy over at.

“It's sort of sad, really, that we even need to be taught this. But the reality is that most of us were raised is some pretty dysfunctional families. We were either taught: To never acknowledge there was a problem: Or we were taught how dangerous it is to dare to bring up some issue that might raise conflict: Or we lived in constant conflict that was never resolved.”

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

We are learning from/off Him, poor grammar maybe, being learned by Him, will dismantle the identity the matrix of religion, that each of us has been plugged into and still operates within our soul in many cases long after being re-born.

This quote here; “But the reality is that most of us were raised is some pretty dysfunctional families.” The multiplicity of sins dysfunctional manifestation in all of humanity is never seen for what it truly is. The father of lies is the substance to this illusion, he resists exposure at all cost.
There is NO one who is ‘good’ the so called ‘good’ we think we see in flesh is but an elaborate cloaking device trying to keep us locked into the Land of Oz indefinitely, meaning all blatant bad-evil and good is but from the same source apart from the Life of the Father in us as us, coming from the knowledge of good and evil.

Again from Tracy; “This week I read this line and it brings me to fresh tears just reading it again now: "Wounded souls often have no history of other people fighting for the relationship...." (page 96, Come Follow Me workbook, Thrive Ministries). I think that is the power I feel when we gather. Finally, finally, finally to be meeting with people where we will fight for the relationship. Not fight with each other or take flight from each other, but fight for the relationship. To say, by our words and actions, You are worth it. Every human being is a wounded soul and we all need people who are willing to fight for the relationship.

I wonder if I'm alone in having had so little of this in my life? I've had it with my husband and with a few friends along the way, but on the whole, I find it a very rare and precious thing that I am experiencing right now. Have you had many people in your life that were willing to fight for the relationship? Have you been part of groups or churches where this was common practice? Or has your life been much like mine? I'd really love to hear your stories or experience in this, if you'd care to share them with me.”

Regarding my propensity on quoting others, here is a comment I made to Tracy.

“This quote so moved me, thank you.
I love quotes and quoting others and what stands out to me, like seeing a beautiful arrangement of wild flowers and wanting to take few back to share the beauty and warmth I experienced with others.

But I know that if it’s just quotes without detecting the living spirit of the Father in and through them, then is it any different than trying to fill up on looking at the wonderful pictures on the restaurant menu?
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they shall be filled.

I feel so much like what our brother Nehemiah must have felt like in being brought into a horrific sight of devastation, debris, and rubble. What was ahead of him was a mammoth task, and he knew this.
Out of the complete holocaust of sins devastating destruction within my soul, I am seeing Him the one who says, “The glory of the latter house will far exceed the glory of the former one, and we are His house.”

Daily being drawn into seeing this Glorious One, Christ IN us the hope of glory, causes my heart like ripened wheat to bow in the deepest gratitude….Abba-Father.”

Rich

Ultimate Good

It has always been the Father’s intention that we experience His heart beat, Life and life in its fullness.

I’m speaking here primarily to those who have had an encounter of the most holy kind, having been reborn. At one time as the Scriptures succinctly put it, we were, “by nature children of wrath, and son’s of disobedience.”The only source of guidance we had operating within us before being reborn was the moral guidance from the father of lies, ‘you are of your father the devil” Jesus said.

There are many who see it this way in being reborn, Satan out when God comes in. Unfortunately I do not see the devil being vaporized in our being saved, but his moral guidance was NO longer our source for living. Nonetheless he is very much present within our flesh, and if we so choose to not abide in Him our only life, then because there are No vacuums the amoral soul-self will be governed by the one who use to be our father, the devil.
It is important to realize that Satan never was a real father; in fact he was the one who usurped the rightful place of God in our lives through our free will choice.

The knowledge of good and evil has so corrupted our thinking we are no longer able to discern or recognize the truth apart from having to discover it as a result of going a way that appears to be right, only later to discover, how could I have been so blind to not see?
This is usually after much hurt and pain that was self inflicted through our blinded choices we made in trying to live independently from the life of our Father.

I was finally finishing up a book by Paul Anderson-Walsh, ‘Until Christ is Formed in You’ when I came across some thoughts that seemed to confirm what I believe I am seeing to BE the truth of Christ being fully formed in us.

“Of all the grace lessons I have ever had to come to terms with, this is certainly among the most difficult. I was so wedded to self-effort and self-authentication that it was necessary for Him to allow me to be swallowed up with the pain of trying to make my life work apart from Him before I would turn to Him.”

“The only desire of the Lord is to bless us but He blesses on His terms and herein lies the conundrum- what He calls a blessing, we often think of being accursed and vise versa.”

I am seeing more and more the wisdom of my loving Father allowing me full freedom to choose His way or mine, and often it does come down to wanting my way. The beauty of this is He is not neglecting me, but knowing full well that there will BE consequences to those choices, and hopefully the intense pain and anguish from this will be a wonderful motivation in turning from self-reliance to Him, a goal He is ruthless in His pursuit of.

Rich