I was struck by kindness of God as I listened to a message from Graham Cooke on "Identity & Inheritance" and especially as I was realizing how Father has subtly put pressure on my identity to heal broken parts in my heart. The Bible says, it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). Well that doesn't sound like the in-your-face version of God that is some times represented, such as the old fashion turn or burn. I am not saying that people understanding the reality of Hell is a bad thing but I don't believe that is how Father God is desiring to woo them into this eternal relationship of love and freedom. The message of Jesus as He was on the earth is one of grace and truth, offering mercy and grace to those who are in need and laid low. It is truly amazing to believe the reality that God is always kind, in Exodus 34 when Moses asks to have God show him His glory He declares of Himself, "Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin;" I have a hard time believing in the depth of the kindness of God because I have never met a person who was always kind. A God who can be kind to sinners, selfish people, people full of contradictions, people who are mired in darkness, and people who are tormented and tortured. Yet Jesus is unrelentingly loving and kind, even when Judas betrays Him and sells Him out, when He is beaten, when Peter denies Him, when all the disciples abandoned Him, and finally when He is crucified. Jesus intense love and kindness are displayed in the midst of the darkest sin humanity can dish out, the light shines best in the darkness. I am struck by the kindness of the Lord as He exposes another layer of deception that I have walked in but I do not experience condemnation from Him. In 1 John 3 the Holy Spirit is talking through John about how our own hearts can condemn us but God is greater than our hearts. I do experience condemnation at times but I am realizing it is not from the Lord but from deception in my heart. Since it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (change of mind), we don't see who God is through condemnation. Jesus took all the condemnation that came from sin, by Him becoming sin and taking the condemnation that we legally deserved. God is the kindest person there is, His kindness pursues us (Psalm 23:6) as David proclaims in the well known Psalm of the Lord as our shepherd. I pray that we would have a greater revelation of the kindness of God, this will bring repentance and repentance brings renewing of the mind which leads to transformation. As we are transformed we look more and more like Jesus.
In His Kindness,
Bret
Father has further affirmed the reality of my shattered heart by an example, I dropped my cell phone which happened to hit a rock. When I picked it up off the ground, the obvious had happened. The screen had shattered at the very place the rock hit, sending cracks throughout the screen like a spider web. As I picked up the phone, I sensed the Holy Spirit giving me a physical picture of the reality of my heart condition. Some believe that denial, minimizing, and hiding are actually better ways to deal with the brokenness inside. I have found those do not bring healing, life, or freedom. Since God is light and to have fellowship with Him means to walk in the light. It was hiding that was Adam and Eve's first reaction after fear arose after the Fall and separation from God. The unconditional love of our wonderful Savior invites us to reveal the broken places, places of bondage, and where we are addicted so that He can bring us into wholeness. I once heard Bill Johnson talk about how Solomon was in a place of intimacy when He asked for wisdom, true wisdom comes out of romance. Moses cried out to God, "show me your ways, that I may know You", wisdom comes from knowing His ways but leads us to know Him (this is our chief goal in life). Wisdom comes from a connection and relationship with God, in other words wisdom is the reasoning that comes from love. Father has not only been teaching me about healing broken hearts but also about living in loving relationships. The reality of the love of God is how broken hearts get healed but also how broken relationships are restored. I believe it is time for the Body of Christ to not just talk about God's love but to actually become the hands and feet of Jesus as we love one another and the world. It is very noble to desire to love those who are around us in our lives but yet another to step into the reality of having our love on 24/7 in our actions, attitudes, and our view of them. The latter requires the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, us laying down our soul-life (mind, will, and emotions), and a good dose of humility as we own our messes and seek to clean them up. As children we learned to clean up the messes of spilt milk, dirty rooms, and legos spread all over the place but did we learn the more important skill of cleaning up our relational messes (walking in love). Since we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, this means that even though we are new creations we still sin and these sins bring damage to our relationships. It is the love of God in our spirits that compels us to right wrongs in relationships, to reach out when there has been distance in relationship, and to reach out to those hurting around us with the compassion of God. Since 1 John 4 boldly declares that "God is love", when we align our hearts with His and walk in love we are walking displaying His very nature. In essence I believe that Father God is restoring what is to be at the very heart of every believer as their motivation in life, it is the love of God. My co-worker and friend, Simon Obert, did an amazing job compelling us to love the world by reaching out but not because of duty, guilty, fear of rejection by the church, or a notch on our belt but to be moved by God's very heart for people. I believe it is the tangible Presence of God in His love that that world is crying out for, the love of God that heals shattered hearts, that heals damaged relationships, that restores broken families, and even heals nations. The Holy Spirit has continued to impress on my heart 1 Corinthians 13 which says "Love never ends", this move of God's love on the earth will not end. Could it be that the love of God is that powerful, that accessible, and that enduring. I was given a prophetic word by a church member who said that God's love is not filling up storehouses in heaven (which is what I had envisioned) but His love is unlimited and continually filling Heaven as it emanates from His very being. I believe the more each of us as believer's align our hearts (deciding to love no matter what), the more the very nature of God will be manifest in us and through us. It is the receiving of God's love through Christ which brings life to our souls and then we becoming increasing conduits of His love to others. I believe my experiencing a broken heart is an invitation to encounter the love of the Father at a whole new level. It is not God who brought about broken hearts but He is the One who restores and takes the broken pieces putting them back together to make us whole.
The Father's love is so great that He came through His Son, "For the Son of Man has come to seekand to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10) Many people mistranslate this as that He came to seek and save lost people but the verse says "...that which was lost." but I believe that through Christ Father had a much bigger plan to bring the reality of His Kingdom which is established in Heaven into being on the earth. This absolutely includes people being saved who were lost but includes saving the family, cities, nations, and the world. Father has been revealing to me recently His heart to save the brokenhearted in a very personal way. It was said in an article by Janet Treadway that, "There can be many reasons why we are left with a broken heart: the death of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job, loss of status, loss of health, betrayal by a friend, loss of a child, and yes loss of your childhood." In Isaiah 61:1 it is listed as one of the conditions that the anointing came to restore, "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;" I have understood that Father has a heart for those who are broken hearted, I have seen people over the years who had been shattered by childhood abuse, loss, or extreme neglect in childhood (when they were developing their identity). This became more of a reality and began to open up as a revelation because the Father gently unveiled my own broken heart. I would say that for many years I have experienced an emotional and internal heart bleeding without an understanding of what was really happening inside. If you have no clear view of the true problem it is impossible to treat. I had received a prophetic word that God was "unlocking" my heart and another that said God was "enlarging my heart". Another prophetic word said that God wanted me to be undone in His Presence. I knew that I had emotional pain, like a tank inside that instead of being filled with love and joy was filled with pain. It is fairly universal that all people fear the unknown at some level, it was fear that kept me from seeing what was truly going in my heart. In the same article from Janet Treadway she says, "Sometimes our heart is so broken that we can't even express the words and nothing seems to take the pain away." I can attest to the last one especially, I had received lots of ministry, counsel, encouragement, and yet still was left with a pain tank in my heart nearly full. Jack Frost once said that in order for love to flow in, the pain must flow out. I can attest to this, that while I desperately wanted to experience Father's love I kept seeming to run into the pain and the fear that hid it away. In Psalms 147:3 David attests to God's healing power, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Could it be true that there are many people who are walking around living in the reality of being broken hearted, without hope of being whole, and not even clearly understanding how deeply they have been wounded. I was struck by Jesus affirmation of the Great Commandment in Matthew 22:37, "And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVETHE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND." When you are heart broken you cannot love the Lord with all your heart because your heart is shattered into pieces and the pieces of a broken heart must be reconciled (bind up) through encounters with Jesus. The anointing of the Holy Spirit on Jesus as the Son was the power for Jesus to bring healing through binding up broken hearts. So as sons and daughters of God through Christ, we have the same anointing and thus are empowered by the Holy Spirit to bind up those who have broken hearts. Yet broken hearts are often hidden away due to the fear of being hurt again, they close up to protect themselves. Amazing that Father knew that my heart needed to be unlocked to be healed and bound up. There are more ministries and approaches today than ever in history before, I believe that Father is truly empowering and raising up His Body to do the work of Jesus by binding up the broken hearted. In the Kingdom of God everything is seed, which when planted grows up into a big tree that bears good fruit. As people on an individual level are experiencing Jesus binding up their broken hearts through ministers yielded to the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit, I wander if this is the seed for the heart of the Body of Christ to be healed. Recently one of my co-workers was reading the book "Why We Eat Our Own?" which was an atheist comment to the author of why he did not want to become a Christian. I believe this is the world testifying what we in the Body may not be able to see, the very heart of the Body of Christ has been broken. As I have learned denial of a broken heart does not heal it and neither does protecting it by closing down. Could it be that those in the Body of Christ who are brokenhearted have not be able to heal because the wider of culture of Christianity still eats our own and doesn't have the Father's value for the least among us (a Kingdom value Jesus often spoke of). I know that in my life I haven't been able to function and flourish to my full potential "in Christ" I believe because of a broken heart. We were created to love the Lord your God with all our heart, this is not simply a command but our very design for coming to full life. Jesus said He came to bring life and life abundantly, could it be that this command is one of the keys to the abundant life. Not only did Jesus affirm this commandment, He lived it out and fully loved the Father with His whole heart even unto death. I believe the healing of broken hearts is much more important than the Body of Christ has seen it and has far greater implications in seeing the reality of the Kingdom of God manifest here on the earth they we have known. Proverbs 4:23 points to the truth of how God sees the heart and it's importance in our life, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." With a heart being restored, Bret
