As I was struck with the revelation that those who live from an orphan heart either don't have dreams or have dreams that are so small that they can accomplish themselves. Dreams, visions, and prophecies are a manifestation of the outpouring of the Spirit (Joel 2:29). In other words God wants to co-create with us and through us by fulfilling the dreams that He gives us. Daydreaming is for children, exactly we are children of God and He invites us to have dreams that are impossible, way out there, and beyond our reach without Him. Since I admittedly have lived much of my life from an orphan heart, my dreams have been either darkened by the cloud of foreboding and fear or quickly aborted by the lies of the enemy, lack of resources, unbelief, or the fears that so easily try to take over. I am convinced that since fear was the first bad fruit (feeling) that came from believing "the Lie", choosing sin and separation, it is a tap root for the Kingdom of darkness. What would your dreaming be like if fear was not a factor? In Romans 8:15 the Word says, "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Father has brought us into His family and empowered us with the Holy Spirit to produce the spirit of adoption (mindset) as sons but what is opposed to this is the spirit of slavery leading to fear. I am convinced that fear is the absence of love from the Presence of God, because God is love. Agreeing with our fears, brings internal darkness and a sense of distance from the Presence of God. The Grace of God is so powerful that John would proclaim in 1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love." Since this is true, I honestly have to say I know very few, if any, people who are perfected in love. The world shows us the way to overcome fear is to face our fear with all our might and strength, jump, leap, or do that crazy thing you have been afraid of. I do agree we need to face our fears head on but can I really conquer fear through my own effort, since the Word is clear that perfect love casts out fear. I have attempted to face many of my core fears, making some progress but also having setbacks when I try by my own effort instead of hearing the voice of my Father. I am done trying to overcome fear by my own effort, yet surrender does not mean defeat but simply turning from my own effort to His face. Fear undermines our dreams for our relationships, our family, finances and resources, our career and vocation hopes, our hobbies, and life calling. Fear paints pictures in our mind of relationships going poorly, failure in vocation/career, disappointments, and nightmares for our future. I believe through fear the enemy has high-jacked our imaginations, using it to picture what he wants to bring about instead of dreams of Kingdom realities. Can you imagine if we, the children of God, learned how to walk with sanctified imaginations. In Proverbs 23:7, "For as hethinks within himself, soheis." I believe besides God, the human mind is the most powerful and creative tool but especially as led by the Holy Spirit. I am asking God to teach me the keys to seeing people cast out fear, dreaming to be awakened, and Kingdom realities to be released through His sons and daughters. Dreaming with my Papa, Bret
When we live in a culture where we can easily hide behind masks, have plenty of ways to fill our needs that don't involve real relationships, and as a culture we seem perfectly content to be self-sufficient and completely ignore God; then the deep cry of the heart for intimacy is easily ignored. Yet we long to be known (our deepest fears, desires, and dreams) but the true self is often suppressed behind many masks and idols. God designed and created us "in His image", the Trinity has amazing intimacy, freedom, love, and honor for one another (the perfect family). We were created from intimacy, for intimacy, and to experience intimacy with God and others. As one author says, intimacy is in-to-me-see. I find that I am okay with people knowing me when I generally feel good about myself, my performance, or my ability but the moment I am in a weak and vulnerable place there is a great temptation to hide behind a mask of being "okay" or a veneer smile that hides my inner pain or struggle. Why is it just so easy to hide? Ever since the Fall and Adam and Eve believing "the Lie" or default setting is fear and hiding, it is only through intentionally choosing to walk in the Light before God and open up with others that we are known and begin to come out of hiding. There are people who I have known for years and yet still don't know a lot about their deepest inner world, struggles, fears, hurts, and dreams. Since becoming New Creations you would think it would be simple and easy to live out of who we really are but the old masks seems to haunt us, hang on for dear life, and become our refuge when life is hard or painful. It is no wander the New Testament is strewn with commands that are: "set your mind on things above", "be tenderhearted forgiving one another", "...be transformed by the renewing of your mind..", "...rejoice in the Lord always...", "...put off your old self...", "...be thankful in all things....", and many others. These commands are given to sons and daughters as instructions for life, practical wisdom for living out of who we truly are because we have a choice to live out of the memories of our old life. Since we have a tendency to live as orphans individually, we then create relationships structured with orphan ways, and finally we create institutions and organizations that hold orphan values to perpetuate orphan culture. The Kingdom of God is a family not a bunch of individuals getting together to advance their self-interest, the Kingdom of God has a King who is both good/loving and powerful. The Kingdom of God is marked by the intimacy the Father has with the Son, the Son has with Holy Spirit, and Father has with the Spirit. We are invited into a Kingdom of intimacy, relationship, freedom, light/honesty, love, wisdom, and supernatural life. I am amazed that God does not think of life as separate from relationship but even the word Zoe (Greek for God-life) has relationship and intimacy contained within it. As God created the heavens and the earth, all the fish of the sea and birds of the air, trees and plants, and finally mankind and said it is good. Scientists, biologists, chemists, physicists, and others will tell you about the interconnectedness of things and yet we have worked hard to disconnect from God, others, the Creation that we are part of, the animals that God created, and mostly we run away from the manifest Presence of God. We seem to call our orphan culture good but does God call this kind of disconnected, individual, and self-sufficient independence good. We are designed for intimacy, there is a deep groaning within us that if we don't deny it will help to lead us to new life.
I continue to press into the Father to have revelation about rest and coming into a place of rest. In Psalm 91 we are invited into a place of dwelling, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty". One of the meanings of abide, is to cause to rest or lodge. I believe David was reaching forward into a covenant that was beyond his current day, in other words through his intimacy and desire to know God he was able to receive unusual favor for his day. Since Jesus sits on the "Throne of David", we want to see that Davidic intimacy and worship is an invitation to experience the benefits of the New Covenant in Christ. So in Psalm 91, David is reaching into a place of intimacy, protection, and favor that few in his day walked in. In fact, this type of intimacy with God is forerunner model of what we have "in Christ". In Ephesians 3 we are invited into a place of having Christ dwell in our hearts by faith and in Ephesians 2:6 we are told that we have been seated "in Christ" in heavenly places. I believe that when we live from an orphan heart, hiding our true self, there is no rest because there will always be the fear of being exposed. Living out of our true self, where we are dependent on our Father, from a place of humility we can walk in the light letting others know us intimately. After Adam and Eve believed "the Lie", ate of tree of knowledge of good and evil, and then Fell they lived from an orphan heart with no rest because they continually looked for ways to hide. I am convinced that the only true rest we can find on this earth is as we dwell and abide "in Christ" trusting Him for our needs. There are many counterfeit rests, there are those invitations for us to escape our circumstances, relational issues, and personal problems. Some of these are fantasy, places of checking out (can be TV, video games, or other things used to escape), and also can be use of substances. Obviously not all TV watching or drinking a glass of wine is used as an escape, it is discerning what is the motivation of the heart. Being comfortable has often become the goal in our culture, yet we live in the tension of putting off an old identity to walk in our new identities. This is not a comfortable process, yet every step into walking in our new identity united with Him releases new life. Then also we can all see the fruit in our lives, dwelling and abiding in a place of intimacy and rest with the Father produces good fruit (fruit of the Spirit). When we live from an orphan heart, we are constantly restless looking for purpose, acceptance, and affirmation from any source that we believe will meet our need. I believe as we spend intimate time with the Father, we know who we are, we are living from Father's mission for our lives, and we have a place of rest in His arms. An orphan heart refuses to remain in a place of submission, so finding their mission is completely dependent upon themselves so there is a lot of pressure and demands. The Lord spoke to me that there is a secret in rest to seeing His glory, all the people who encountered the glory of God ended up flat in worship. Rest is a place of leaning into trusting Him for life, as we rest in Him then we become available for Him to rest on us (His manifest Presence). In our society we often think of rest as being passive, whereas in Hebrews 4 the meaning of rest is a place that God dwells. The realm of rest is connected to relational connection with God, not on lack of activity. I pray that Father would continue to open up the realm of rest that He has stored up for you as a believer.
