Father's Amazing View of You

As I ministered to several people I realized how easy it is to see our deficits and the deficits of others.  As we become focused on our deficits we can become discouraged, angry at ourselves, and even despairing.  Does God really have the same view of us as we do of ourselves?  Father placed us "in Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:30) by His doing and now we have access to all that Christ is for us.  Since Father placed you "in Christ" is He going to relate to you as if you were still "in Adam"?

In being united to Christ, all your deficits, weaknesses, and even sins become the place for God to do His most brilliant work in us making for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8).  His power (strength) is made complete in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12), so Paul boasts in His weakness because he sees the miraculous work Christ is doing in these places.  What if in order for Jesus to get His full reward and inheritance, your deficits and weaknesses need to be places of brilliant and powerful grace.

Could it be that Father sees us glorious whole, free, fully alive in Him, and powerful.  He has given the Holy Spirit to continually take our view of ourselves to a new height, freeing us from a low earthly view.  After all we are His Beloved sons and daughters, and all creation is groaning and we are groaning inwardly for the revelation of who we truly are.  God's original plan having children in His image, has been gloriously restored in Jesus Christ and He uses everything in our life to take our view of ourselves to a new place in Him.

Romans 6 tells us that the "old self" has been crucified, meaning that God is not trying to improve this "old self" because it is dead and gone.  Part of faith is believing the old you is dead, meaning really dead. We need revelation of our "new self" in Christ, so we can be excited for who He is for us but also excited about who we are in Him.  When God wanted to rescue the world, He did not just wipe it out and start over.  He sent Christ to be the firstborn of a new race of people who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.  The answer for the world's problems is not more government programs, more natural resources, or medical breakthroughs.  Those may come but God has invested in bringing heaven to earth through Christ dwelling in a people that will spread the glory of God over the whole earth.  The world is longing for you to see who you really are.

In Him,
Bret

Letting go to Receive His Love

I have found the very place Father wants to upgrade me in experiencing His love is often the place I am holding on to.  We have four core needs in our life:  Unconditional Expressed Love, Security/Safety, Value/Identity, and Purpose/Adventure.  When our core needs are met than we experience being loved, when our one or more of our needs go unmet we experience an emptiness.  Since life (being loved) is rooted in our needs being met, if we are not receiving Father's love in an area then we have a deficit and the flesh rises up to meet that need.  Heidi Baker once said, "Love is a need met."  Holy Spirit has revealed to have one or more of your core needs not met as you grow is the place you not only have a deficit but a wound.  Unmet needs for a length of time in childhood produce a wound, it is in the wounds that identity becomes distorted (believe lies).

I was realizing this as Father has been bringing me to a point to letting go of all attempts to get security outside of Him.  Father's love fills our deepest core needs but it also means death to all the ways we have been seeking to meet our need our own way.  Romans 6 that says our "old self" is dead, this is all our orphan living and thinking.  Since losing my earthly father at age 6 and having a single mother raise me, my need for security was shaken to the very core.  Father's invitation to me is to receive the security and safety of being a son because I have been placed "in Christ".  No wander rest has been difficult for me, since it seems that flesh often rises up to meet this need for security.

It seems we must be brought to the end of ourselves (our way of meeting our need) either by circumstances or the revealed Word.  Jesus said it clearly in Matthew 16:25, "For whoever is bent on saving his [temporal] life [his comfort and security here] shall lose it [eternal life]; and whoever loses his life [his comfort and security here] for My sake shall find it [life everlasting]."  The word first used in this passage about "his life" is for the soul.  We must be willing to lose our soul life to receive the life Jesus offers.  Holding on to our soul life is filling our four basic needs based on an orphan heart, instead of receiving the filling of our needs in Father's love. 

The life Father gives us "in Christ" is so much better, yet unseen in our lives till we are willing to give ourselves to love.

Growing in His Love,
Bret

Is it Believing or Doing?

I have found that in life it is very easy to focus on what I need to be doing, should be doing, could be doing, or didn't do.  Religion (leaven of the Pharisees that Jesus talked about) gets us to focus on what we should be doing for God.  When the focus is on doing for God I have found that I quickly become like the elder brother in the story of the Prodigal.  Elder brothers are really focused on what they are doing, how good it is, comparing themselves to how others are doing, striving to perform better, pressured, and often stressed.  I know I have an Elder brother some where inside who believes it's all about performing, striving, earning, and anxiously trying to be something.  The elder brother is more of a mindset in my soul but I think you get what I mean.  Do you realize that the Elder brother was seeking to earn what he already had (the blessing of the Father) and his inheritance?  The Elder brother longed to have the Father say how proud He was of him but believed the only way that would ever happen is if he performed up to it.  Elder brothers get a lot done in the Body of Christ but often leave others around feeling condemned, judged, and simply not good enough.  Not exactly empowering.

Jesus main commandment was to believe in Him, abide in Him, and do intimate relationship with the Father through Him.  It seems at times there is a war between the believing and doing, rather than seeing that faith (belief) produces works.  The main root of this struggle is really do we save ourselves, or receive blessing from God through doing more for Him or is salvation really all God's initiation.  I believe until we get revelation our believing and doing will be at war within us.  It amazed me at one point this week when I didn't have the desire to do what I believe God was leading me to do, He reminded me that Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work." (John 4:34). I believe Jesus resolved the war that often wages within us in Himself by fulfilling the Father's mission.  I once heard Michael Brodeur say, "God be's what He does and does what He be's."

If you are anything like me, you can get caught up in life being about completing your "to do" list.  If you are involved in a work to move forward in life there are things to do but believing and abiding in Jesus is what gives life.  When the doing comes out of our abiding then God guarantees there will be good fruit (John 15).  I believe those who are better at being in Jesus can criticize those who are "doers" as not truly having intimacy with God.  I believe Jesus being the exact representation of the Father held these two in a wonderful tension that manifested a new way of living.  Jesus was always fully present to the Father but maintained a schedule that would exhaust most of us.  I believe He was absolutely compelled by love.

In Him,
Bret

Negatives & Opportunity

I believe the reason negatives exist in our lives is that we need an upgrade on who God is for us in our lives (identity and perspective).  At times it can feel like negatives can come at us like a building tsunami that threatens to overwhelm us.  Bills may be piling up with not enough income, or kids seem to be constantly struggling, health issues can slow us down, marital conflicts can be wearing, job loss or job difficulties can bring frustration, and other family issues can weigh our hearts down.  We are definitely not living in the Garden of Eden.  Jesus was not kidding when He said in John 16:33, "In the world you have tribulation (trouble) but take courage; I have overcome the world."  Notice Jesus didn't say that it is all up to us to figure out how to deal with the trouble (negatives) that come at us in life in the world, He said He overcame the world.

Could it be that the negatives that are coming your way God is not shocked by and He actually has a plan for your good.  What if in the negatives is actually an invitation to know God at a whole new level, know your true identity, and see breakthrough into a new dimension of living "in Christ."  It was John Eldredge who said that we are born into a world at war with all the forces of heaven and hell clashing.  We know through Scripture that God has the victory through Jesus but live in the midst of warfare and many times this warfare comes through the negative in our lives.

The negatives in our circumstances can often lead to either a lot of self-effort to attempt to overcome them or the negatives in our own soul begin to surface.  Jesus clearly said, "I have overcome the world", which means it's not our job to attempt to do what Jesus has already accomplished.  Our role is to rest in His victory and see His victory applied to the negatives that are coming at us.  In other words a dimension of our identity is to learn how to be warriors, which is almost as important as knowing we are His beloved sons and daughters.

What if instead of seeing the tsunami of negatives coming at us and either gritting our teeth for battle in our own strength or wanting to run away, we turn to Jesus to see who He wants to be for us in this battle.  In the Old Testament many times God instructed His people to send out worshippers to lead the battle, silly in the natural to face an army with a bunch of guys playing flutes but in His Kingdom vital.  Worship is primarily the beholding and praise of who God is, not just what He can do.  It's about focus.  We will lose many of the battles in our lives, when we do not have focus on His face.  This is why several times in the New Testament we are instructed to "Rejoice in the Lord always."  God knows that seeing who He is for us releases new dimensions of intimacy, identity, and empowerment.

Overcoming in Him,
Bret

Freedom from Obligation

"My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  It seems that obligation is often present in our lives, "I have to...", "I should....", "I got to...", "I ought to...", and "there is so much I need to get done..."  If any these words have been coming out of your mouth or those around, it could be that obligation is at work.  Some will say what about duty, responsibility, and being faithful.  I agree these often are good but when this becomes the center of our relationship with Jesus, I believe something is off.  Soon these type of attitudes of the heart, lead to words from our mouth, which form belief systems, and those belief systems create expectations, and those expectations drive our choices.  What only seemed like some things we needed to get done can become a lifestyle of obligation that is heavy.  Being yoked to Jesus is a kind yoke that fits well and is not harsh.  Jesus was declaring a battle cry in Matthew 11:28-30 to the very people who were under a ton of obligation through Law and laws, the Pharisees.  They had turned the Law into an additional laws that was such a heavy weight there were over 680 laws.  They were putting heavy yokes on people and Jesus words in Matthew 11 stood in stark contrast to the ways and words of the Pharisees to the people.

Holy Spirit began to speak to me about obligation because I seem to live under quite a bit, which robs joy and weighs down.  Often as obligation weighs down on us we look for ways of escape under the heavy weight but Jesus comes to give us a whole new yoke (form of teaching) which is both easy and light.  Romans 8:12 tells us we are not under obligation to the flesh but we live life in the freedom of the Spirit.  The flesh is based on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which often leads to us seeking to gain by self-effort what God has freely given us by grace in Jesus Christ.  "Religion" assumes separation from God and then sets out to tell us how to earn our way back.  This is not the freedom and life the Gospel proclaims but a "religious spirit" can penetrate the Body of Christ leading us away from our affection for Jesus.

From Father's love He sent Jesus to free us from the heavy chains of obligation to the flesh, law, and "religion" through an abiding relationship with Jesus.  Rules, obligations, and duty are stale compared to the brilliant wander of who God is for us.  There is such joy and adventure in this journey with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit where we are caught up in their fellowship, plans, and intentions for us.

Free to Live by the Spirit,
Bret

The Lie of Perfectionism

Father recently loving exposed how much I am still stuck in "perfectionistic" thinking and especially how He wanted to free me from this thinking in my relationships.  I heard someone say that the time you want a perfectionist is when he is your brain surgeon.  Perfectionism lies to us because it tells us when everything is perfect then we can be happy or joyful.  It lies to us because it tells us to stretch for it's impossible standard only to fail again and be discouraged.  Perfectionism whispers that if we do things perfectly than no one will reject us or be disappointed in us.  It lies to us telling us if we meet it's impossible standard then finally we can rest.  Perfectionism lies to us telling us that if we do things perfectly we can avoid failure.  Perfectionism lies to us telling us there is only one way to do things and that is perfectly.

I am convinced that perfectionism is not just rooted in high standards but in a deep fear of failure.  Let's face it if you are human living on this earth you will fail, failure can be an incredible opportunity to learn.  Yet perfectionism at it's root forbids failure as an option and thus has no way out when you experience failure.

Perfectionism when applied to other people (which is the outcome if you are agreeing with it for yourself) has destructive consequences.  If you are over 40 years old you have probably realized how much brokenness, sin, and woundedness there is in people.  If it has not deeply touched our own life, we certainly are connected to people who we see have profound influence on their lives.

So what is the antidote to Perfectionism's destructive force in our lives?  I believe Jesus as our perfect sacrifice satisfies the high demands of the Law but also our own perfectionism.  Through Christ we receive complete acceptance, transforming our sinful brokenness to a new beautiful wholeness and newness of life.  His acceptance of us was so complete it included every dimension of our sinfulness, selfishness, failure, shame, addiction, and idolatry.

I believe this radical acceptance making us righteous "in Christ", derived only from God's grace levels the playing field.  We can now accept people freely knowing that "in Christ" they are seen through the lens of new life, not perfectionism.  Let's face it perfectionism is really idolatry because it elevates our standard above God.  Worship of the complete and perfect one leads us to a place of humility and empowered to accept others as He accepts us.

In Christ,
Bret

Overcoming Frontal Assault

Sometimes I think I am slow-learner but the Holy Spirit is so persistent than even slow learners can come into amazing wisdom and revelation.  The Kingdom of God is advancing and moving forward, retreat is not part of His vocabulary.  I have heard it said that the armor of God in Ephesians 6 doesn't have an armor for your back side, in other words the armor is only effective in advancing.  As I was getting ready to step into a new realm of ministry (radio), amazingly the day before I am while working on a plumbing project (something else I have done little of) I was assaulted with lies saying "I am a failure."  I am not saying this is true for everyone but I have found that when Father is taking me into a new area of ministry and identity, the enemy seems to assault me with lies to try to intimidate me.

Could it be that the areas that Father wants to bring breakthrough also include lies that need to be displaced.  In other words often before a breakthrough we often come to a place of weakness because this is the very place His power is made complete.  Father is much more concerned about your identity being upgraded than even the fruit because He knows that good fruit comes from the work of His Spirit in you (good root).  Christ being manifested in us always means that we must come into agreement with the truth of who we are.

What if we were to see the frontal assault of lies by the enemy as our next upgrade.  I believe this is how the Father sees it because in Romans 8:28-29 He is chiefly concerned about us being conformed to the image of Christ using all things in our lives to this end.  Since Christ overcame sin, death, betrayal, the Law, other's sickness, and the enemy then Christ is our victory.  There is only one victorious and overcoming life, that is the life of Christ manifested.

As for the rest of the story I did the radio interview and it was going so well, we ended up doing three radio shows in a row.  There was a great flow of the Spirit and I believe there will be many listeners who will be touched.  I celebrate Father's goodness and love being manifested in and through my life.

Advancing the Kingdom,
Bret