Without Measure!

As I have been studying through John to see the Father's heart in Jesus I was struck by a simple but life changing verse.  John the Baptist is speaking about Jesus and says, "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure." (John 3:34)  The last part of this verse leaped off the page as if the word were dancing all around me!  See I had a previous day where I had as one former co-worker used to say, "slogging through the sand" day.  The Holy Spirit would come upon a prophet or man of God throughout the Old Testament but would most of the time be withdrawn.  Then there was even 400 years between the time God spoke and the coming of the Son of God.  So we see a measure of the Spirit manifested in the Old Testament, we see miracles, prophets, miraculous provision, signs, and God communicating with His people but there was always a limit.  John the Baptist is to prepare the Way for Jesus and speak of what is to come through Christ, so when the Prophet of God declares that through Jesus Christ the Spirit will be given without measure this means it is time to do the Happy Dance.  As I talked about in my last blog entry of when the Spirit flows we see that Father has chosen to pour His Spirit out through Jesus Christ (who is both grace and truth) in a specific way.  My question is :  Why don't we see the Spirit more active among the Body of Christ?  The Holy Spirit seems to be a no-show to some services, a trickle at others, and gone all together at other places of worship.  Here the Word of God says that Jesus Christ gives the Spirit without measure, so where is the dam because even in John 4 Jesus is telling the Samaritan woman that He can give her living water that "...will become a well of water springing up to eternal life."  The phrase that He will give His Spirit without measure has made me so thirsty to experience more of His life-giving Spirit.  The very life of God (the Holy Spirit) is pushing at the dams of our hearts, our churches, our families, and our churches.  The dam is not on God's side because He has already stated this and the fullness of the grace of God through the New Covenant backs this up, so the dam must be on my side.  God sure gets a bad rap about how much He is withholding from us, so this is why the earth is such a mess and people are hurting.  The Word of God paints another whole picture of the story and challenges my own heart to a new level of faith, trust, and expectation.  I admit I don't look at my future as one life-giving God encounter to the next but this is because of my faulty thinking not God withholding.  All I can say to the Lord is let this verse be done in me and I repent for my unbelief, I believe this is one of my new anchors in my soul to lead me deeper into my God-given destiny. 

Walking with Abba,
Bret

Spirit on the Move

I realized it is important to see how the Holy Spirit moves, He doesn't move through Old Covenant paradigms.  In other words you don't see Him being active in people's lives when the focus is on keeping rules, being self-sufficient, or relying on the natural order of things.  I have noticed that the Lord moves through love, humility, vulnerability, honor, worship, compassion, peace, healing, rest, faith, freedom, truth, hope, forgiveness, and grace (there are probably more).  These are principals in the Kingdom of God and where we see the activity of the Holy Spirit moving on people's heart encountering God.  Many times we wonder in the Body of Christ why we have prayed for revival so many times and yet are not seeing the manifestation of revival.  I believe we are following many Old Covenant paradigms and teaching a mixture of Covenants which does not bring the activity of the Holy Spirit.  In 2 Corinthians 3:6 the Word says, "who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."  This is a verse that seems to sum up the gospel in just a short phrase, the Spirit gives life but the letter kills.  Without the activity of the Holy Spirit there is no life imparted but it is the responsibility of sons and daughters to learn the ways of the Holy Spirit, so that we minister to others from a place of intimacy imparting life rather than bringing the ministry of death which is by the letter.  The letter imparts condemnation, shame, fear, blame, guilt, defeat, and hopelessness.  The Biblical principals of the Kingdom of God guide us into encounters with God where life is imparted because Holy Spirit is the executor of the New Covenant.  The Holy Spirit is faithful to manifest Himself when we are guided by Him through the principals found in the Word.  My heart burns to learn how to walk in the manifest presence of the Lord throughout my day, instead of living life independent of the Lord.  I was born again to carry the presence of Christ, yet my choices do make a difference in being a host for the Lord.  We who have been born again have Christ in us and He will never leave us but having the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit on us is impacted by our belief and choice.  I pray that each of us would enter into the adventure of hosting the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Walking with Abba,
Bret

Living as a Son- Honor

As I was going to work on a day this week, I sensed the Holy Spirit revealing a new level of honor.  I had turned on Family Life which was centered around the theme of honor.  As I began to study honor through the Word of God, it came alive even more than it had in the past.  I believe honor is not just a good idea or even something we ought to do but actually a manifestation of God's very life.  God chose to forgive us, cleanse us, place us in right relationship with Himself, and even seat us in Christ in heavenly places when we He found us in the place of being a sinner (before we had a new nature).  This is amazing because honor sees who you are before you even see it and relates to you as this new person.  I believe the real manifestation of honor did not fully exist on this earth until Jesus came, bringing this in who He is from Heaven.  You could say honor is normal in Heaven but only seen in dim shades here on earth before Jesus.  When Christ came into the world it was as if the windows of Heaven opened and the very substance of Heaven began to invade the earth.  I say all this to say that without Christ and then the revelation of the Holy Spirit I would have no clue about honor and how life-giving it is to walk in honor.  I believe we honor people for who they are in Christ or at least made in the image of God not because we have to but because this is our new nature (united with Christ).  I began to see in my own life how powerful it was to walk in forgiveness, releasing the debts I had held against people who hurt me but honor was even another level of living from my new life in Christ.  In the New Covenant honor is discussed in many places but I think specifically about Ephesians 6 (honor father and mother) and 1 Peter 2 (submit to authority and honor all men).  I began to see in my own life that I had spent much of the recent years walking through forgiveness but I still was not walking in the fullness of honor (life) that Christ had purchased for me.  As the Holy Spirit began to show me this, I did not experience condemnation just the sense that My Father had a lot more life to reveal to me than I was currently walking in.  I even began to get excited about this journey of Him transforming my heart to honor the people in my life through the working of His Spirit not my effort.  Honor sees people through the lens of Christ finished work, seeing who they are through eyes of redemption not fault/sin consciousness.  I don't mean that we somehow minimize sin, only that sin is not more powerful than the finished work of Jesus Christ.  The Word says in Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory, God had always destined us for glory yet sin derailed us from our destination.  Yet "in Christ" Colossians 1:27 says "...Christ in you, the hope of glory."  In Hebrews it talks about bringing many sons to glory, not through our work but Christ's.  I have heard a lot about honor in the past and new that this word was just pregnant with revelation but it didn't come fully alive til this week.  I know there is so much more than I see now but I know that My Father is good and will show me more as I go along the journey.  I pray that God would open the eyes of your heart to see into the heavenly realm, seeing the life of God in honor.

Honoring my Father,

Bret

Hitting a Wall and Flying High, Seeing Him in it all

During this week I personally hit a wall.  The wall was an internal belief that the vision I had for my life was not true for me.  I live for people to have encounters with their Abba who loves them and heals orphan hearts.  Yet my own orphan heart brought me to a place where I realized I didn't expect My Abba to show up for me but only to be disappointed again.  Growing up I longed for an earthly father and to be loved unconditionally, yet I had gone through disappointment after disappointment.  Now I found my heart in a place where I believed My Father would disappoint me also, so why have any great hope for the future.  As the Lord slowly brought me through this great fear that stood in the way to my destiny of bringing people into face to face encounters with Abba, I again began to regain hope for the future.  The Lord had given me the vision He had for me but I had been reluctant to be all in because the risk of disappointment had been too high, yet deep in my spirit I knew this was my calling.  I pressed on looking for the Lord to meet me, amazing it is not my effort that brings deliverance but my honesty and openness to Him.  I continued to work on the sermon I was giving at my church, "The Gift of Weakness".  Good timing since I seem to be right in the middle of my weakness.  To add on to the journey I struggled to sleep one night, adding to my restlessness about vision and the destiny the Lord had for me.  As I surrendered to the Lord at a deeper level and finished my preparation for the sermon, I sensed the Lord moving me into a new level of freedom to live from His strength and my weakness.  Now I would be standing in front of 80 people no longer hiding my weaknesses but actually putting them on display, so that Christ's power would be manifest and people would encounter their loving Abba.  As the moment finally came for me to deliver the Word that God had been working in me for weeks (maybe actually years), a calm and peace came over me in the midst of the lights and onlooking faces.  I said things I hadn't expected to say and even got lost in my notes at one point but the calm and peace remained.  The Lord delivered a strong word through me on "The Gift of Weakness", I could tell that many were relating to the message and others came up afterwards because they were right in the middle of their weakness.  It was wonderful to fly high as people were ministered to by the Word of God and the freedom that comes from accepting your weakness and receiving His strength.  Then it is back to everyday life as I walk with the Lord and look forward to the week.  In the high flying seasons and the times of weakness and darkness, the Lord is at work in all of them to bring me into a place of deeper intimacy with Him.  I celebrate both seasons and am humbled by the reality He is My Abba in both, that I come as I am.

In His Loving Arms,
Bret

Abba's Heart for the lonely

As I journey with my Father I have come to some lonely places in my soul, that have deep roots in childhood.  As I looked through the pain I saw a distorted picture of my Abba, He was distant and unwilling to rescue me in my pain.  Even though my mind knows much better I seemed to return to this view more times than I want to mention.  Yet finally as I cried out to Him from this place of loneliness and internal darkness, He revealed a very different view.  The picture was me alone in my house as a lonely 14-15 year old feeling very isolated in a new place (moved from Oregon to California), the spiritual picture was one of darkness even with some demonic hiding in the shadows.  The sadness of the loneliness and longing for friendship was very strong, yet there was anger that God would leave me in this place.  The Enemy's strategy to strangle me with the strategy of self-pity for comfort seemed to be very effective.  Then the Lord opened my spiritual eyes to see the truth, the Lord was right there close with a great number of angels yet He was held back.  What could hold Him back?  The Lord showed me that at the time I was an unbeliever and never cried out to Jesus in the midst of my pain.  How could a decision I make as a 14-15 year old affect me even now?  I had not given Jesus access to this place in my soul, so He was outside sad because I had not let Him in to bring comfort.  All this time from this place in my soul I had believed it was Him that was withholding His love and comfort.  Got ya!!!!  A victim of "The Lie" again, that is that God is not the good God we once knew Him to be but is in fact withholding from us.  This "Lie" so permeates our culture, even Christian culture which can expect performing for Jesus, and our own souls which have been twisted by the hideous nature of "The Lie".  I love the song by Dennis Jernigan at the top of the page because of it's honesty about the road we sometimes walk but also about our hope in our ever present Savior Jesus.  I pray that the Holy Spirit would touch the lonely places deep in your soul, so you can experience the Presence of Christ in this place and be filled with His love.  As I let Jesus into this place He took away the loneliness and sadness, at first there was still a tinge of sadness then the Lord revealed I had not let Him change the place.  He now changed the place from a place of darkness, loneliness, and despair to a place where I encounter His love and Light.  The tears in this place are tears of Joy that He chose to love me in the place where the darkness felt so strong.  I believe because I spent much of my childhood alone that the Enemy worked through my mind to distort the image of God and keep me in darkness.  I am learning by the power of His Spirit to give God access to reclaim these places as my secret place where I meet with the Lord instead of agreeing with the lie of self-pity.

In Abba's Arms,
Bret