Why is Hunger important?

I was recently out at Bethel Church in Redding, California which you can find out more about at www.ibethel.org.  As we attended a Friday night service there was a man who spoke in front of the church saying that he recently was with a team of people to do an outreach in a foreign country and they had seen 500 miracles with many conversions.  Most of us as believers have seen very few miracles, maybe a small number of people healed, and some times an even smaller number who get saved.  Yet the response of this man was to cry out for more.  Now that's hunger!  It was once said about the Senior Leader of Bethel, Bill Johnson, by someone who knew him that he was the hungriest man he knew.  Through Bethel Church there has been a revival outpouring that is not only impacting the city of Redding, the some 9,000 students who come to the school of ministry, but touched many nations on the earth as many of the staff travel the globe.  There was another man two rows back from us who was talking to someone next to him who was from Australia who had driven through the night from Michigan just to be at Bethel for the weekend.  Hunger.  Hunger will cause us to take risks that we normally would not take.  Hunger for healing pushed the woman with the issue of blood to push through the crowds, risk public humiliation, face possible disappointment, be denied by Jesus, and finally to lose all of healing yet her desperation pushed her forward.  I believe we need to walk with faith but I more and more convinced that hunger is a key to see God work in a greater way.  Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  (Matthew 5:3)  This Beatitudes was the very foundation for the others, Jesus responded to hunger.  Too many of us are content to read about miracles, healings, transformed lives, or people saved rather than see this manifest in our own lives.  If your not hungry but content with the life you currently are experiencing you are being deceived by the Enemy because Jesus purchased for you abundant life, which is the same quality of life He had and called Zoe life or God kind of life.  Oftentimes we are not hungry because we have worked very hard to satisfy all our needs and insulate ourselves from those who are needy because they upset our nice little life.  If you are connected to people who are hungry and needy, love for them will produce a hunger in you for more of God for them.  Religion is a "form of godliness but devoid of power", in other words we teach, preach, and talk about transformed lives through Jesus but don't actually see this happen (for us or for others around us).  Admitting the depth of our need for love, freedom, God's power, and God's resources puts us in a humbling position but also opens us to receive grace.  I have to admit sometimes I get weary of being so hungry and desperate for more of the Lord but this is because there have been lies that I have believed that He won't meet my need.  The Holy Spirit and the Word of God must be our guide for truth, we cannot live by our feelings, opinions, or our own thoughts.  Bottom line the logos (written word) and the rhema (the spoken or revealed word) must be our source for truth.  The gap between what I am currently experiencing and the truth of the promise in Scripture is where hunger enters in, the hunger or desperation to see the Promise manifest in my life or others is where the faith plays a role.  There were times throughout the gospels that Jesus was unable to do very many healings or miracles because of a lack of faith in the city where He was ministering.  We like to think it is through my knowledge that my faith is built, thus we are the most knowledgeable American church in history yet there is very often not the fruit that the Bible points should be there.  Could it be that we lack hunger, satisfied on a diet of religion, materialism, our satisfaction with a Christianity that doesn't deliver what God promised, meeting our own needs, and pride we don't see the kind of fruit God desires to see poured out through His people.  Let's face it desperation and hunger is not socially acceptable, in our orphan culture we must have it together or it least fake it hide that we don't.  I think if there was more honesty about the depth of need that is churning in most of our souls, then we would see God respond.  God moves through faith, which is clearly what Scripture says but so often in the gospels you see faith and hunger (or real need) tied together.  It was the Roman Centurionion, dignified and a man of power, who out of his desperation to see his servant healed seeks out Jesus and through his faith sees what he longs for.  There is so much more that God has for His people, yet I believe He is waiting for us to be dissatisfied with what we have, so we can exchange it for the abundance that He has for us.

Desperate for more,
Bret

P.S. Our Senior Pastor has been doing a series on the Orphan Spirit and Sonship.  Visit www.bridgeway.us and listen under "Sermons".

Pillars of Sonship

The Lord began to speak to me about the question I had been asking, "What are the pillar revelations for sonship?"  I sensed the Lord pointing to Father's Unconditional Love, having faith and humility like a child (believing in the impossible), the importance of the heart and opening your heart, bringing things in your inner world into the light and walking in the light, allowing Father to touch the areas of inner core pain in your life, a lifestyle of intimacy and worship, and being a natural son to your father and mother living in honor towards them.  I am sure there is more but I believe these are pillars in experiencing Father's love and walking in our identity as sons and daughters.  I have blogged about many of these revelations and will continue to unpack what I believe the Lord is speaking in these areas, I believe it is time for the Body of Christ to rise up in her true identity throwing off the deceptions planted in the past, the failures they have experienced, and the timidity brought about through fear that the world and the Enemy continue to perpetuate.  There are dimensions of who God is as Father that are very unique to this dimension of the Trinity.  A father nurtures his children and grows them up very differently than mothers, a good father oversees the big picture of a son or daughters development into the fullness of their destiny.  Good discipline that is strong in building up a child is key in a father's approach, in Hebrews 12:5-13 gives us insight into how God the Father disciplines His children.  I find that many in the Body of Christ who are struggling can only see the problem, difficulty, or barrier in front of them but have not received the revelation of how Father is working this in their life for their building up and growth.  I believe the reason this occurs is because we have fallen short of intimacy with the Father, father's mature and raise up their children.  Isn't it time we know the Father and what the Father is doing in our lives so we can come into greater fullness and growth.  We again see the sovereignty and the building up of His people through Romans 8:28-30, I believe many of our prayers to change our circumstances are premature because the Father has not completed the work that this thing is part of and thus we have not been conformed into image of His Son.  I  have found that Father is much interested in my growth, freedom, and influence then He is in my convenience.  We live in a culture that glorifies convenience as a supreme value to the point that we idolize ourselves, our comfort, and our feelings.  Father is much more interested in my worshipping Him as Jesus says in John 4:23 & 24.  I recently heard a speaker, James Jordan, who has traveled the world sharing and impart the Father's love since 1976 and he said we are just beginning this revelation of the Father's love.  Since all of creation groans, we are groaning inwardly, and the Holy Spirit is groaning for the revealing of the sons of God we need a revelation of the Father's love for this to happen on the earth (see Romans 8:19-27).  The emphasis on the heart as the seat of the deepest affections and the place where the rivers of the Spirit will flow out of, makes how we handle our heart of supreme importance (see John 7:38, Proverbs 4:23, Mark 12:33, Ezekiel 36:26 and many others).  In culture in our world the heart is pulled, manipulated, enticed, and neglected but not watched over and guarded.  Even our culture in the Body of Christ can tend toward a religious spirit which values head knowledge and intellect over the heart, yet Jesus said that we are to love God with all our heart first.  I believe the Body of Christ is to have people who's hearts are aflame with a deep love for God that spills out into every dimension of their life and being.  I believe it's time for us to exchange things like unforgiveness, unbelief, and sinful choices that have hardened our hearts and receive what Jesus has in giving us a new heart of forgiveness, faith, and righteousness.

In Father's Love,
Bret

CHECK THIS OUT:  Our pastor (Peter Young) gave an awesome sermon on Sunday about "Adoption" and here is the link:  http://www.bridgeway.us/media.php?pageID=5

Freedom from Restlessness

We live in an extremely restless culture, the average American moves 11.7 times in their lifetime and 1 in 6 of us will move this year (according to the U.S. Census Bureau).  I once heard that the average American teenager receives 3,000 messages about their identity a day through the media.  I recently heard of a news story where parents of a 10 or 11 year old playing baseball attacked another parent because of a dispute about the game.  We live in a society of people on the edge:  competitive, angry, restless, lonely, anxious, driven, agitated, stressed, hurried, frustrated, and unfulfilled.  The average age of the onset of an anxiety disorder is 11 years old, 40 million people in America will be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder this year, and 43% of Americans take a mood altering prescription.  There are a whopping 77% of us who report regular physical symptoms caused by stress and 73% of Americans report psychological symptoms caused by stress.  Most will acknowledge that there are problems and yet the solutions that are being offered are not leading to the freedom so many of us long for.  I submit to you that we are so restless because we are living as orphans trying to make our own way, provide for all our own needs, be in control of life, and be independent and self-sufficient.  Yet the results of this kind of living and belief system are a society on the edge.  "The Lie" in the Garden of Eden told by the first orphan (satan) was that we really didn't need God, that we could be "wise in our own eyes" and even said that we would not die if we live a life independent of God.  Yet in 1 John 5 the Bible is blatantly direct, "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."  I think Charles Spurgeon says it well about the results of trusting in an orphan heart, “Great tribulation brings out the great strength of God. If you never feel inward conflicts and sinking of soul, you do not know much of the upholding power of God; but if you go down, down, into the depths of soul-anguish till the deep threatens to shut her mouth upon you, and then the Lord rides upon a cherub and does fly, yea, rides upon the wings of the wind and delivers your soul, and catches you away to the third heaven of delight, then you perceive the majesty of divine grace. Oh, there must be the weakness of man, felt, recognised, and mourned over, or else the strength of the Son of God will never be perfected in us.” (Spurgeon)  The only benefit in diagnosing America as an "orphan society" is to point us toward the invitation of a loving Heavenly Father who has done everything to bring us home to His love.  It was recently said by Leif Hetland a well-known evangelist to the Muslims, that there are 400,000 churches in America and 400,000 orphanages.  So we cannot condemn our culture because this culture is in our churches.  I love that in John 14:18 Jesus says, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."  Did Jesus come to us and fulfill His promise?  Yes and Yes, He has completed the work that the Father would give us the Holy Spirit, also called the Spirit of Adoption to make us sons and daughters of God.  Earlier in the same chapter Jesus talks of going to prepare a home/mansion/place for us in the Father's house and then bringing us to this place.  The Gospel has always been about a loving Father bringing his lost orphan children home to be with Him for all eternity.  We long for a true home and a real homecoming, a place where we know we are totally accepted, loved, appreciated, celebrated, and even enjoyed.  This home is not to lose 5 more pounds, have a little more money, get that marital issue resolved, have children who behave better, get that next promotion, or whatever the latest commercial says I need to have life.  Our culture and media offer the counterfeit of true transformation, true transformation involves changing some one's identity, relationship with God, and relationship with others.  The Gospel is the only way home, all other ways lead us to disappointment, depression, despair, more striving, or disillusionment.

Coming to Rest in Him,
Bret

Father's Joy Over You

I was struck as I realized that I still want to hide at times, rather than be revealed or exposed.  The reason is like many others, when I was exposed or revealed it was not for me to be blessed or because of my parents pride over me but because of things I did wrong.  Yet it was not their choices that caused lasting damage but a lie I agreed with that I am a disappointment.  I sensed the Holy Spirit taking me to the passage about the Father's blessing and baptism of love over His Son Jesus before He even began ministry.  All four gospels record this event (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, John 1) of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river and when Jesus comes up out of the water the Heavens open up, the Spirit descended and remained on Jesus, and the Father's voice from Heaven said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."  This is before Jesus did any miracles, healing, signs, wanders, or any other heavenly work.  I knew in my head that being placed "in Christ" (there are 87 times this is referred to in the New Testament) means that everything that happens to Jesus happened to us by being placed in Him, including His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.  Yet there was a block in my heart when it came to receiving my Heavenly Father's approval of me, that He is truly pleased with me.  I could blame it on perfectionist tendencies (to see my every flaw), my lack of receiving my earthly father's blessing, or some other cause.  The Holy Spirit began to reveal that the Father's pleasure over His sons and daughters is also His delight in the grace that was poured out through His Son Jesus Christ.  The Word even says in Isaiah 53:10, "But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand."  Since God is not bound to time and all time is present for Him, then His pleasure over Jesus as He was baptized could also be His pleasure over us as His sons and daughters united to Christ.  I have always struggled with the idea that Father was totally pleased with me partly because of the lies of the Enemy but also for not understanding that God's pleasure is over our union with Christ making us acceptable and pleasing to Him.  We see God's purpose in delighting over His children continued in Hebrews 2:10, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings."  This reminds me of Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6:24-27 where God blesses His people with "The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you.  The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace." which is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and talked about in 2 Corinthians 3:18 "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."  Glory among other things has a connotation of being revealed, yet shame moves us to cover or hide ourselves.  No wander there is freedom where the Spirit of the Lord is because there is no need to hide, we have been cleansed, made new, united with Christ as sons, and even raised up because of the Father's pleasure to pour His Grace and delight in who we are (New Creations).  In this video even though the son faulters in the race, you can see father's pleasure over him as he helps him to the finish.

In Father's Pleasure,
Bret

Freedom from Anxiety into Peace

As I was studying Philippians 4, I was struck by the sequence of the passage about anxiety.  We are exhorted to rejoice in the Lord always, not based on circumstances but simply that He is worthy to be praised always and rejoicing will gladden our hearts.  Next we are commanded not to be anxious but to trade our anxieties and worries for God's peace, we must bring Him our anxieties or worries in order to receive His peace.  The Holy Spirit highlighted that God is called "the God of peace" and it was as if I was whisked away back to Genesis and the beginning of all Creation.  As God created the heavens and the earth were in alignment and it was "good", meaning since He is the "God of peace" what He creates comes out of the peace that is in His nature.  Jesus reaffirms the alignment of heaven and earth when He says in the Lord's prayer, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven." in Matthew 6:10.  So a dimension of peace is the alignment of heaven and earth, which is what God says is "good".  I was struck by the phrase in Genesis 2:18, "Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."  In other words, God looked on His Creation which was good (at peace because it was in alignment) and saw that man did not have a companion like him, this was out of alignment since the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in continual relationship and communion.  We were designed and created in an atmosphere of peace and we were designed to live at peace our whole life.  It seems like in our modern world there is so many different forces that seek to take us out of a place of peace.  Since I struggled with anxiety it often felt like peace was something I had to work to make happen, rather than that my design and creation was to be at peace.  I was struck by another phrase in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."  New Creation means that we that "in Christ" we have be created as a whole new kind of people united to Him and Jesus is called the "Prince of Peace" in Isaiah.  Since we have been created through our union with the Prince of Peace, anxiety and worry are foreign to us as believers  We were initially created from God's nature which is peace, then sin and the Fall broke this harmony bringing noise and chaos and then God redeemed us from this place of noise and chaos through uniting us with His Son (the Prince of Peace) and then bringing us into a place of peace (Romans 5:1-2).  I began to realize that in my mind's eye, my worries and anxieties had gotten large and overwhelming but I had lost Heaven's perspective.  Scriptures like "Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God" began to come alive as I realized that it is who I am to broker peace wherever I go and not to live in anxiety and worry.  Since growing up in an environment where worry and anxiety were just "old hat" it had become an identity for me, which led to some hopeless thinking that I would ever experience continual peace in my life.  When you believe it is who you are to be anxious and worried, then peace seems as far as a dot on the horizon across a huge ocean.  In John 14 Jesus exhorts the disciples to "Not let your heart be troubled" because He is beginning to open their eyes to the reality of living in Heaven's peace and He knows that His leaving is going to tempt them to be troubled (anxious, overwhelmed, and worried) so He points to the provision He has made for them by preparing a place for each of them in the Father's house.  It is not who you are to be anxious or worry, it simply is no longer your nature.  You are now to be a broker of Heaven's peace into your kids lives, your neighbors family problems, conflicts and problems at work, and even tensions that has long existed between groups.  First, you need a revelation of who God is as the "God of peace" and the "Prince of Peace".  Next, you need a revelation of who you are taking off garments of worry, anxiety, and stress because these are not who you are.  Finally, as one united to the Prince of Peace you then can walk out your destiny of being a peacemaker.  I found the places that God delivers me from, become the very environments I step into to bring God's deliverance to others.  Love always gives, it simply is the definition of love.

A son of the God of Peace,
Bret