After coming from a movement of the Spirit in Toronto who's chief value is the Father's Love, I began to wander how important is love in the Christian life. I know that I came into the faith because of hearing about the love of Christ displayed in His sacrifice to pay for my sin (though I did not understand the magnitude of what He had done). It was asked in Toronto, how many came to Christ from the "turn or burn message" vs. those who came "God loves you message. It was overwhelmingly that those who were drawn to Christ were because of God's love. Yet through the years as a believer (28 years) I have seen many things emphasized above God's love, I would agree with John Arnott's statement "Let's keep the main thing (Father's Love), the main thing." As I studied the most well-known of chapters on Love, 1 Corinthians 13 the Holy Spirit highlighted this phrase "love never ends." The passage talks about spiritual gifts, faith, hope, knowledge, and finally love. The implication is that the others will pass away at some time, in other words God's revelation is progressive and thus former revelations begin to lose their importance. I once heard a sermon talking about the movements of the Spirit across the Body of Christ, an earlier but still recent was the "Word of Faith Movement". It has been prophesied that a more current movement is one of "Hope", interesting that the President of the United States ran on this theme. It has also been prophesied that there will be an "Agape Reformation". In the Body of Christ we are seeing an unprecedented movement in the area of Father's Love, there is such a hunger to know the love of the Father. Interesting that 1 Corinthians 13 ends the chapter with faith, hope, and love but emphasizes the greatest being love. This is not the world's brand of love, ie. Hollywood where who is the star married to today because I will have to check the Tabloids tomorrow to see if they still are. Agape is the love of God, in Guizik's commentary "It is a love that loves without changing. It is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting re-payment. It is love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected." It is truly love that is heaven sent and not of this earth, Jesus came to display the Father and He displayed the Father's love for us by laying down His life to restore us to relationship with the Father. I want to submit to you that I believe the "Agape Reformation" will be one of the finest hours of the Church (Body of Christ) as the Father's Love pours out to a hurting and dying world. I heard an evangelist, Leif Hetland, who travels the nations and has seen one million Muslims come to Christ, that the revelation of the Father's Love is what is truly turning their hearts. Leif has made this his main message as he does massive outreaches that include amazing healings, miracles, and signs and wanders. If we stand in the truth of 1 Corinthians 13, "love never ends" then we don't have to worry about the "Agape Reformation" ending. One speaker at the recent Conference said we are only in the beginning days of the "Father's Love" revelation (he had been a part of it since 1976). I am not saying that the revelation of the "Father's Love" is the only revelation, I am simply highlighting what I believe God is highlighting at this point in the history of the Body of Christ. I remember one friend who came out of a legalistic ministry, which he had been involved in for 20 years, that he only remembers one sermon of the love of God. Love of Law does not promote the love of God, this is a big separation between the Old and New Covenants. I am excited to be alive at this time in the history of the Body of Christ, as Father God pours out His love in unprecedented ways. Will you be a part?
After being in Toronto for the Radical Heart Conference and delving into all the books I can find on sonship, I have been impacted by James Jordan's book "Sonship: The Journey into Father's Heart. Forgiveness is at the core of the gospel, we are forgiven for our sins past, present, and future (Colossians 2:13&14); but forgiveness has a purpose which is for us to reconcile us in our relationship with Father. When we hold unforgiveness and judgements against our parents then we are functionally are operating under the law of judgement (which is under the Law of sin and death) and therefore our hearts are hardened to receiving God's love and grace. It is important to understand that God's love and grace are not conditional but our choices do impact our receiving His grace. Our unforgiveness and judgements towards our parents also become a barrier for us relating to God as a Father because the distort who He is in our eyes. So us choosing to forgive our parents from our hearts, letting go of the judgements we have made in response to their sin against us will take us out from functioning under the Law of sin and death to being set free under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). Since Adam and Eve sinned, we have been under the bent of sin, thus it is default to judge those who sin against us but we sin when we judge them. Forgiveness is at the heart of love, God forgave us "in Christ" so that we might be brought to life while we were still sinners and we are set free to forgive others who have sinned against us even if they don't ask for forgiveness (Ephesians 4:32). This invitation to forgiveness includes that God will transform our hearts from hardness to being tenderhearted. Forgiving our parents from our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit is essential to experiencing Father's love, yet the heart of sonship is us returning in our hearts to being sons and daughters. The author James Jordan believes that 90% of the Western world does not have the heart of sons and daughters towards their parents. As I read this chapter in the book I realized that in my heart I had disconnected from my father as a son when I was 6 years old and he committed suicide. Many would feel that I had good reason to disown him, judge him, and try to distance myself from him. Yet God chose my father to be my earthly father and for me to reject him is an act of rebellion. It is no wander I have struggled to be a son to my Heavenly Father because I have not been a son to my earthly father. I could tell it pained my mother that the only memory I had was of the final act my father did while on the earth, blocking every other kindness, good word, or tenderness he showed toward me. I felt that my mother just did not understand the depth of pain my father had caused me, which holds some truth but in a way she was pointing more toward sonship than my feelings of pain, abandonment, hurt, and rejection. This disconnecting as a son has been at the core of my orphan heart, yet how could the heart of sonship be restored. James Jordan gives his life as an example of how the heart of sonship was restored in his own life, yet my father has been dead for 38 years. James was able to write a letter to his dad asking him to forgive him for how he had not been a son, dishonored his father, and had a bitter attitude toward him. Then James, led by the Spirit, returned to the heart of sonship by reaching out in love, forgiveness, and reconciliation to his father. Jesus is our example as a Son and I believe His journey is our ultimate model. The Holy Spirit began to heal my heart at a deep level as I sought forgiveness for my heart of rebellion, dishonor, judgement, and distance with my father. I long to be a son to my Heavenly Father but this must come from submission to the Spirit of Sonship in me (Galatians 4:6), not from my own ideas of what produces sonship. I also sense the Holy Spirit leading me to some healing in my relationship with my mother, there has been much in the last few years. Shiloh Place Ministries once said that 80% of our identity comes through our earthly fathers, which fits with the Hebraic traditions of the father's naming their children and also blessing them into their identity and destiny.
As I spent three days in Toronto, Canada Father began to speak to me about the centrality of His love in His redemptive purposes on the earth. One of the speakers quoted Jack Winter who had asked a question after quoting "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." The question was simply this, where are we going? The eager students fired off answers: one said "to eternal life" and another said "to heaven". There wasn't any young people in the group who said the answer, to the Father. Jesus came to be the way for us to have a relationship with the Father but most of us have been taught to focus on Jesus (and He is very important as our Savior, Redeemer, and Lord) yet a relationship with the Father has been put on the sidelines or worse yet ignored all together. As again the deep longing in my heart was stirred, the cry for a Daddy. This longing was birthed after my father committed suicide when I was 6 years old, can my Heavenly Father be everything I have ever longed for in a father. Could it be that our Christianity is incomplete without a revelation of the Father's love? I like one author, James Jordan, had heard the message of "Jesus only". Jesus was to be the center of Christian life and experience, the Father was a mystery and seemed far off. Another speaker talked about the prophet and spirit of Elijah, who was the type for the coming of John the Baptist but also Jesus. The spirit of Elijah was, "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." (Malachi 4:5-6). This same theme is repeated in Luke 1:16-17 about the ministry of John the Baptist who was a forerunner to Jesus, "And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." John Arnott then pointed out that we were saved into having an intimate relationship with the Father, not just getting saved from sin. I am so thankful for being saved from sin but the purpose of Jesus blood shed to forgive us of sin was so that we could be reconciled into a right relationship with the Father. Even if we look at the most quoted Scripture, John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." The Father gave His only begotten Son, it was the Father's incredible love that was the reason behind the sacrifice. One well-known author, Derek Prince, said "This verse [speaking of John 14:6] speaks about a pathway and a destination. Jesus is the way, the Father is the destination." Then he goes on to say, "The problem with the church today is that we have become stuck on the way!" Augustine says further, "If the written word of the Bible could be changed into a single word and become one single voice- this voice more powerful than the roaring of the sea would cry out, 'The Father loves you!'" I believe part of the relegation of the Father's love to a place of lesser importance comes from a culture that is fatherless. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 24 million children in America -- one out of three -- live in biological father-absent homes. Could it be that from our orphan hearts, we have created a functional theology that relegates the role of a loving father to being a distant but only hoped for reality. Yet the gospel's central theme is restoration of the most important relationship in all of life, our relationship with our Heavenly Father. As I was at the Conference my heart lept inside of me, this is the message that I was created to carry and live out. In Father's Love, Bret
What are you being filled with? The truth is we live in a society where we seem to have an insatiable appetite for more. It may be more entertainment, more pleasure, more of the newest, more food, more sports, more sex, more drugs, more, more, more.... We are a very hungry society, yet religion often comes in to tell us how wrong our hunger is but what a privilege to live in a time where people are so hungry. Is what they are filling themselves with truly satisfying the depths of their souls or does it leave them empty only wanting something more. This seeming insatiable hunger and appetite was not condemned by Jesus but even encouraged, He begins His first public sermon with "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their is the kingdom of heaven" and goes on to describe people in a state of absolute need. Jesus in John 7 stirs this thirst and hunger even more, "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty,let him come to Me and drink. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" If Jesus was afraid of what people desired because they desired the wrong things, then why would he stir this hunger to such depth that He would offer to fill it. I believe it is not the desire/hunger/thirst that it is bad but the system of beliefs to suppress, deny, squelch, control, and hide our deepest desires that is a problem. What an incredibly bold statement to stand up and say that you will fill people's deepest thirst, yet isn't Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. So this invitation to be filled is still resounding like shock waves through the generations, will anyway come to be filled. Paul in Ephesians 3:14-21 has gotten a revelation after visiting the 3rd Heaven of a victorious church and part of this vision is, "and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." What an amazing phrase "filled up to all the fullness of God", interesting that it does not say filled up with knowledge about God, the Bible, or my attempts to please God but actually filled up with Him. To encounter God in such a way that I am filled up with Him, wow this is amazing and yet seems uncommon. My sense is this is to be the normal Christian life, that we are to be continually filled up with God. Later in Ephesians 5:18 it's said, "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit," This verb for filled is a continual filling, rather than a one time experience. Why would there need to be continual filling, well as one pastor said "I leaked" as the Spirit of God came out of Him touching another person. Like hunger or thirst it is not forever satisfied by one drink or one meal, the picture here is of on-going eating or drinking. If I am waiting till Sunday morning church to be filled, am I going to walk around continually filled with God. Probably not. We often describe difficult spiritual seasons in our life as dry times, thus the answer is not a change of circumstances but the water of His Spirit to satisfy our dry and weary souls. Since we are to be filled to all the fullness of God, He is Light, He is Love, and He is the truth. I will explore in future blogs how we are to filled to all the fullness of God or filled with the Spirit, this is an invitation to actual experience not just a theology. I also will discuss dry seasons and what brings the dryness and lack of the water of the Holy Spirit flowing. I have known that the Holy Spirit is important in the Christian journey but more from a mental ascent than from a day to day living. Father is taking me into a season to see the importance of the indwelling Holy Spirit to bring life, joy, freedom, love, and being filled. Being filled with His Spirit, Bret
We have a society who values achievement, success, image, performance, outdoing others, unlimited information, competition, and being a person who makes things happen. It is in this same type of backdrop of a Roman society (ours is a Roman society on steroids or Performance Enhancing Drugs) that Jesus is challenged with the question of who is the Greatest in the Kingdom? Jesus like other times flips the world system on it's head and brings a little child before Him to give the disciples an object lesson. Matthew 18:1-4, "At that time the disciples came up and asked Jesus, Who then is [really] the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them, And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." He says you must become like a child (trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving) to become the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, not exactly the list of qualifications I would be looking for when it comes to the greatest. My list might be more like: quick thinker, good decision-maker, strong, together, cool, calm, collected, sharp, on top of his game, and smarter than everyone else. I think I still have too much of the world's ways of thinking. I once heard someone say that to increase with God you must have downward mobility, I rejected it as a young believer opted more for the world's view even though I could not measure up. More and more I am seeing that the key to increase in the Kingdom is humility and being childlike in faith. I have tried to strain, read lots of books, worship, read Scripture, and deal with the issues in my life to increase in faith. Yet what seems to actually work is when I cry out and confess the depth of my unbelief, it is then that the Father breaks through to pour out the faith I lack. I knew the Gospel can nearly be summarized in a verse but I am reminded of the simplicity in all the complexities of modern adult life: "for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD,BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." (1Peter 5:5) Could it be that Father is not looking for people who have all their theology right, know the Bible backwards and forwards, are trying hard to live the Christian life, but for children who come to Him with simple trust and open their hearts to receive His love and grace. In ministering to people over the years, the greatest breakthroughs I see in people's lives are when they are in that place of being childlike, at their most vulnerable, weak, and place of greatest need. It seems to me that Pharisee ism is still alive today with us posturing, hiding, and attempting to be what we think God wants. Rather He is a loving Father looking for those who will humble themselves to accept His invitation to become one of His children. We have already been given this open invitation through Jesus Christ, in John 1:12-13 "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." Scripture does not say we have the right to become adults of God but children, will you accept and follow the invitation to encounter the Father. In Abba's arms, Bret
