As I was watching my 10 year old son, Joshua, practice for baseball I was struck by a little girl about 4 or 5 years old who came up to pet my very blond golden retriever. As she petted Shiloh, she began to jabber about something I think it was about her own dog from what I could catch which was a lab. I wandered where this innocent, sweet, adorable little girl's parents were. I later learned her dad was helping coach her brother in the other field next to where my son was practicing. The Holy Spirit later spoke to me when I awoke one morning about being childlike in faith and trust. This is a theme from Matthew 18:1-5 where Jesus gives the disciples an object lesson when they were arguing about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. In this simple act Jesus redefines what they believe the hierarchy of heaven looks like, they are caught up in the ranks of power in the world system but Jesus, perfectly connected to the Father and heaven, displays that greatness comes through humility and trust not strength, human wisdom, intelligence, or power of the day. The Holy Spirit was again reminding me that the world of the Father and how He sees things is radically different than this world and that in order to gain favor in heaven we must come to Him as a little child. Jack Winter in his book "Homecoming" says, "The simple truth is that we need a father. We need to be parented. That is why, as Jesus shares in the passage from the Gospel of Matthew, we must humble ourselves and become "like little children" (v. 3). One day I asked, "Lord, how can a grown man become a little child?" And this is His reply: "Men are just little boys, and women are just little girls, who have gotten big." Inside each of us is a little child that needs to be loved. When we humble ourselves and admit that truth, then and only then can the Father come and minister His love to us." I believe Jesus is revealing to the disciples one of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and a key to life abundantly. Yet on an orphan planet where people are constantly jockeying for position, power, prestige, and affection Jesus words are like lightening on the background of a dark sky. His words are shocking and challenge so much of our "adult" thinking which is really laced with distrust, fear, self-protection, and striving (orphan). Where in stark contrast this sweet and innocent little girl exuded a simple trust, that in this world is potentially dangerous for her. As we watch the news, we see that this world is filled with people who would take advantage of her innocence and simple trust to exploit or use her. Sex trafficking is on the rise worldwide with statistics now saying there are 27 million that are slaves in the human trafficking, most girls are used for prostitution. There is the clash of the kingdoms, the evil of sin and darkness on one side and the light of the innocence of God's creation on the other. In order to experience the Kingdom of heaven we must repent as Jesus says and become childlike in our trust, to be parented by the perfect, loving, and pure Father. Repenting and being childlike means opening up the vulnerable, weak, and wounded places in our hearts to allow a loving Father to comfort, heal, and protect. People of my day that I greatly honor, Heidi Baker, Randy Clark, Bill Johnson, and Leif Hetland seem to operate in a simple trust of God even while sharing profound and deep wisdom. They live there lives from a place of trusting Father for all of their life, yet there are human too and probably have areas that they are growing in trust. I find while I have grown in many areas of my life and faith, there is still a 6 year old child (when my dad who committed suicide) who has been walled off from God and others. It is from this place in my heart that I am truly learning about trust, not as an intellectual exercise but as a journey of the heart into the vastness of the Father's love. It is from this place in my heart where I can truly be fathered, loved, and matured. I don't believe heaven is drawn to our self-protection, striving, or latest way to fulfill our purpose apart from Him, in contrast heaven is drawn by humility, vulnerability, and weakness mixed with looking His direction. Father has issued an invitation from Heaven through His Son Jesus Christ for us to humble ourselves, open our hearts at the deepest level to trust, and be fathered into a place of love and rest (home). I believe home is not a physical building but a place God wants to make in our hearts with Him. Toddling home, Bret
I had an encounter with the Lord where I began to experience the Body of Christ with it's many members being in unity and wholeness. Such a glorious, beautiful, and powerful Bride we are to be for Jesus, so full of life with solutions to the most difficult problems. Since I have been around the Body of Christ there is often an emphasis in reaching out to those who don't know Christ, there are people all around us who are not going to spend eternity with God and love demands that we cultivate a heart for these to come into the Kingdom yet I have not thought of the powerful attraction of the Body loving one another as evangelism. Jesus in His final prayer before He is going to the Cross (what you say before death is powerful) prays, "I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." (John 17:23) Jesus emphasizes our glorious oneness with Him and the Father but goes on to say that the unity produced in us will lead the world to know Him. It is from the deep and vast love of the Father that He sends Jesus to make us one with Jesus that we may be His sons and daughters but sons and daughters are in a loving family, Jesus has paid the price for the Body to be in unity with one another. The price is paid but why is the Body still divided by denominations, theological divisions, factions, judgements against different groups, and a general sense of being disconnected from one another. I believe the fight to step into the unity that Jesus purchased on our behalf (what is in heaven) is one of the greatest battles the Body of Christ faces in our day. I believe through our oneness that the world will see Jesus like they never have before in history, it is only through a move of the Spirit on the hearts of individuals, leaders, and groups of people that we will see this happen. Most people I know who are saved, did not get saved because of being scared of Hell but be drawn in by an unconditional love that was beyond this world. The Father's love continually displayed by a company of people who on fire with Him and loving each other well will draw people to Jesus because Jesus says it in this passage. In order to see this happen I believe a key is that we need to see one another "in Christ" and not after the flesh, lifting one another up so that and others can see members of the Body of Christ in their true identity. We must have heavenly perspectives that lead to what is in heaven being manifest here. What does the Body of Christ look like in heaven? She is perfectly fitted to Christ her head, what is on the head is also on the Body, so for example in Revelation 5:12 "saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” Can you imagine what the Body of Christ would look like if we were receiving all that was on the head. We would be so utterly transformed, like Jesus was at the transfiguration. What was bestowed on Jesus for His benefit and ours was the gift of the Father through His love. Let us throw off the hindrances to being one "in Christ" and unified as a Body. Let's cast aside our judgments, offenses, hurts from others in the Body, stop overemphasizing our theological differences, and focus on the author and finisher of our faith. One In Father's Love, Bret
The Holy Spirit was revealing and speaking to me about the significance for us of Jesus being buried in the tomb and even having it sealed. The tomb would signify to the people of His day the permanence of His death and to add to this the Chief priests and pharisees requested the Roman legal authorities to seal the tomb to be sure Jesus body was not taken. The purpose of the seal was to authenticate Jesus death and prove to everyone He was not resurrected. This process included not only the Priests and Pharisees inspecting Jesus dead body but also Roman officials, the Roman guards standing watch over the tomb, and Joseph of Arimathea who placed His body in the tomb. The Chief Priests and Pharisees had remembered Jesus words about resurrection and that wanted to make sure none of His followers stole His body to stage a resurrection. In Hebrews 2:14-15 says,"Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." The Holy Spirit connected these verses with Jesus being buried in the tomb, this is when Jesus was under the power of death (buried and sealed in the tomb) and the Resurrection was when the power of death and the fear of death was broken. Hebrews 2 refers to this as a form of slavery (the fear of death) that we have been subject to all our lives. Truly, strongholds (lies we believe about God, our identity, or others) in our lives are impregnated with hopelessness and hopelessness ends in death. You could say that death is the ultimate stronghold, so how was God going to overcome this on stronghold on our behalf. Since Jesus is our human representative who died on our behalf to put us in right relationship with God, to give us a new identity, to bring our complete forgiveness, and give us eternal life by defeating death on our behalf. When we live behind strongholds in our life it is like being in the tomb sealed and secured in death, it is a place that the enemy has brought us to a powerless place. Jesus not only broke the physical barrier of death, He overcame the stone tomb that held Him, broke the legal seal and permanence of death, moved past the guards, and opened the way to eternal life (Jesus said He was the truth, the way, and the life). In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 the term stronghold or fortress of thought is referred to in the midst of the battle to bring the truth of Christ into the world, our own lives, and all the nations and tribes of the world. These reinforced fortresses where the enemy is deeply entrenched for many years are the idea of strongholds, they are the very structures that prevent the "Bride of Christ" from knowing and living from her true identity keeping the glory of Christ from being revealed. In 1 John 3:8 says that Jesus came to "destroy the works of the devil", I want to propose to you that these take up "mental real estate" in people's minds before they manifest in physical form. These strongholds are at root of depression, suicide, anxiety, hopelessness, and many other things that plague people's lives. Jesus has entered the very place of hopelessness, powerlessness, bondage, and death to deliver us. He truly understands our pain, bondage, and obstacles because He is Emmanuel "God with us". Father God through Christ demolishes the stronghold of death and then turns to us who are empowered by the Holy Spirit and charges us to go demolish strongholds in people lives that the truth of Christ would be revealed to them. First, He delivers us from the strongholds of death in our life and in the process we become a deliverer to others (just as Jesus was). The verses in Hebrews point to the power that the devil had, the power of death. So what stronghold in your life, in those you love, in those in your workplace, or of those in your family members do you need to see deliverance from. The stronghold of unbelief is a powerful one keeping people from Christ, truly Jesus is the "desire of the nations" so it is strongholds that keep people from seeing and believing in Him. In My Deliverer, Bret
