When Adam and Eve sinned by not believing God and eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they quickly learned how to hide. In fact the first response after eating of the tree was fear, "so I hid myself". We now have many types of fig leaves to hide behind, whether it be performance, an image, a position, a relationship, or some wall that keeps others from seeing us. In the many thousands of years since Adam and Eve left the Garden, we have now come up with almost unlimited colors, types, sizes, and designs of fig leaves. Yet the invitation of Father God is for intimacy with Him, where we are naked and unashamed. In-to-me-you-see (intimacy) is the desire of every human being but also our greatest fear. How can we have our greatest desire fulfilled, to be unconditionally love if we are unwilling to be seen and completely known in all our weakness, inadequacies, and fears. I seem to learn this lesson over and over in my walk with Jesus, because like Adam I learned how to hide and even became a professional. Not a title I am proud of and not my true identity "in Christ" but comes out of an orphan heart who was not at home in love. The invitation "in Christ" is not for us to visit the land of unconditional love but to dwell in this place with Father continually. The disciple John who is know as the disciple who Jesus loved shares with us one of the secrets of walking in His unconditional love: "This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:5-7) John by the Holy Spirit is not only telling us a secret of fellowship (experiencing the Presence of God) but also a secret of connecting in loving relationships with other believers. John is the same disciple who later in 1 John boldly announces "God is Love" and he would know, since he spent the better part of three years reclining on the chest of Jesus. We want to cozy up to "God is Love" but He is also "Light" and light exposes any darkness. This passage tells us that those who say they are close to God yet hide in the darkness are lying. Our fig leaf may be fashionable in the world but it is death in our relationship with God. Since God's nature is unchanging my hope that somehow I could hide and also be in His Presence, means that my hopes are continually dashed. I must learn to walk in the Light continually as He is in the Light, we have the One who is Light in us which makes us children of the Light. I am not striving to become a child of light but resting in who I truly am. Yet there is a place as Ephesians 5 says for not participating in the deeds of darkness and to even expose them. "Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; " What is even more challenging is to expose our own deeds of darkness, not because we need the condemnation but because we have the most loving and accepting Father who is running to restore us. Even in the middle of your worst sin, if you are "in Christ", you are the righteousness of God "in Christ". Our identity in Him is eternal and thus more secure than we can possibly imagine. We are to live in the light because it is who we are and the Father of Light wants us to continually experience fellowshipping with Him and with one another.
I was recently going through a DVD series training for inner healing and they talked about the Joy Center. I had never heard of such a thing. They said there is actually a Joy Center in the brain, this center actually regulates the immune center, the pain center, and the emotional centers. Unlike the other centers that develop up until a certain age of maturity and then remains stable, the Joy Center has the possibility of growing and developing throughout your life. Isn't that just like God to place in our brains a part of us that can grow in Joy. This Joy Center grows and develops as a child looks into the face of their parents and sees the joy the parent has over the child. Also important connections back to the Joy Center are developed when a parent is displeased with a child actions but then later loves and accepts the child. The Joy Center is hindered in growing and developing when a parent is upset with a child and never returns back to that place of acceptance and love. This gives new significance to the verse, "Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) Isn't it just like the grace of God to give us the capacity even when we have been damaged in the Joy Center of our brain, the ability to grow our joy and even restore the connections back to joy. This is very important when you consider the fact that the Joy Center regulates three other important centers in the brain and also why one Teacher of the Gospel said that Joy in the Lord is a mark of true maturity. Many have criticized outpourings of the Spirit, like the Toronto Revival, where people were rolling on the floor laughing as not of God. Interesting that the brain is designed to come alive through Joy and God would encounter His people through fits of laughing, silliness, and hilarity. Maybe Father was bringing people into joy who had been stuck in seriousness, heaviness, depression, or some kind of bondage yet so many sit back in judgement. In another book called "The Gift In You" by Dr. Caroline Leaf who is a neuroscientist who has studied the brain for 28 years, she says that it is healthy to laugh many times a day. This is part of why children are so joyful is because they laugh so often throughout their days. It is no wander Jesus in Matthew 18 points to becoming like little children to be greatest in the Kingdom of God. Receiving His Joy over me, Bret
