Abounding in Hope

Father by His Spirit began to speak to me about the foundational importance of hope in His Kingdom.  Most people assume they have plenty of hope, until they are personally faced with a situation or relationship that challenges that hope with what seem to be impossible barriers.  Do we have a deep and tangible hope for someone trapped in a gay or lesbian lifestyle?  Do we have a hope that is so powerful that we can see a person with terminal cancer and believe that there is healing for them?  In Hebrews 11 scripture is "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen...", so faith is tangible through hope.  As I listened to a story on the radio about the groundwater getting dissipated faster than expected in the Colorado River Valley, I was struck by how dependent we are on the provision God has created in the earth.  In the story they said most of the water that sustains 40 million people is underground in aquifers in the earth.  From God's Word we know Jesus said that if anyone is thirsty they are to come to Him and out of their inner most being will flow rivers of living water.  Throughout New Testament water is used as an analogy to the Holy Spirit, so God is looking to bring us into a place where out of our inner being flows rivers of the Holy Spirit out to a thirsty and dying world.  In Romans 15:13 the Holy Spirit says, "May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope."  I began to have this picture of groundwater in believers who have a deep hope based in who God is and what He has done for us, bubbling out as hope to all people.  This deep hope in who God is and who He is in us has the power to transform lives, change culture, bring solutions to impossible situations, and give life to the dead.  Can you imagine how different levels of society, cities, families, schools, businesses, and organizations would be impacted by people who are abounding in hope (bubbling over).  Such that when impossible, difficult, or broken lives are brought before them they actually are able to bring real, deep, and lasting hope built on the Kingdom of God.  So much of people's hope today is in what they can do for themselves or what they believe someone else can do but these hopes will come to ruin when not based on who God is and His truth.  How do we know what our hope is based on?  If I lose hope for someone walking in freedom, then I will be irritated with any choices that don't look like my version of what I think they should be doing to walk in freedom.  In other words this kind of hope begins to be frustrated by other people's mistakes or unwillingness to follow my way.  I believe hope is foundational in love, we see this from the list of attributes about love in 1 Corinthians 13.  Jesus had hope for every person He encountered, not through their own ability to free or heal themselves but in God's power and grace to them.  The Pharisees made hope dependent on the person's ability to apply and follow the Law or to be clean in their own ability.  Jesus brought a hope from God completely dependent on God extending grace to an undeserving people.  I believe as we give up on our own ability to produce hope for ourselves and others, by God's grace we can be a conduit of His hope to bring life to others.

Abounding in Hope,

Bret

The Power of Sowing and Reaping

In our fast-paced modern, civilized, and high tech society I believe we need to learn more about farming.  Why you say?  Many of Jesus' parables had to do with things learned in the context of an agrarian society, in these parables are powerful spiritual truths that can transform life.  In Genesis 8:22 from the covenant with Noah God makes an everlasting promise involving seed and harvest, "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease."  This means that until there is an new earth from Revelation, there will always be seedtime (sowing seed) and then there will be harvest when the seed grows up and yields fruit.  In the Body of Christ there has been much talk of spiritual warfare, breakthroughs, tearing down strongholds, and taking territory for the Kingdom of God; these are good and true thoughts but I believe from Genesis one of our primary roles was farmer or tender of crops.  In Galatians we pick up this theme of sowing and reaping, as Paul talks about the difference of sowing to the flesh vs. sowing to the Spirit.  Galatians 6:7-8 says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."  This Scripture challenges us to not be deceived by thinking we can sow to the flesh (everything we are apart from Christ) and believe we will not reap.  The even more important point is if we sow to the Spirit the promise is we will reap eternal life, in other words the fruit of the Spirit that comes from sowing to the Spirit will last for eternity.  As I was on a 26 mile bike ride, my mind began to ponder the principal or law of sowing and reaping and how often I had reaped things in my life I didn't want.  I sensed the Holy Spirit inviting me to go deeper in my understanding and revelation of this law, so I can become a sower to the Spirit and reap good fruit.  We are told in 2 Corinthians 9 that God provides "seed to the sower and bread for food", you don't eat (use it for your own purposes) seed you sow it.  Amazing that God does not even expect us to provide the seed, He gives us the seed but we have the choice of what we will do with the seed.  Seed that is not sown into soil does not grow and seed sown into poor soil often has a hard time producing harvest.  It is also an amazing truth that Isaac sowed in year of famine, where crops were scarce and had a lot of difficulty growing, and he reaped 100 fold in that same year (Genesis 26:1-12).  What does all this agrarian talk really matter to you for anyway?  I believe the most foundational level on which we sow and reap is in our spirit and soul (mind, will, and emotions).  Let me give you an example, let's say there is a thought dropped in your mind of fear about an upcoming event or meeting.  If this fear becomes bigger by your mind grabbing onto it and looking at all the ways the meeting could go bad, these thoughts now are sown into the adrenals and body.  Soon you are in a fight, flight, or freeze mode.  In any of these places, from a place of fear and not peace, we will tend to make poor decisions which will end up to reaping some bad results.  From the perspective of being an orphan we often have thoughts of insecurity, inadequacy, failure, or selfishness; this orphan thinking left unchecked will bring about a reaping in my own body as well as my choices in relationships to others.  This is why the highest level of spiritual warfare is to take every thought captive.  What if we can learn how to consistently sow to the Spirit, knowing the promise that we will reap eternal life will then come to fruition.  As I mentioned from the passage about Isaac sowing in a year of famine, times of lack and difficulty in our lives (emotionally, financially, spiritually, and relationally) are some of the most amazing opportunities to trust God by sowing to the Spirit when so much of our being wants to despair or be completely frustrated.  Isaac who must have been seen as a fool to sow in famine believing the covenant promise when others were headed off to Egypt where the water supply was man controlled, would have to painfully wait for harvest to get what he was believing for.  It's an incredible fact that in the midst of 400 years of drought in terms of hearing from God, God sows the most powerful seed in all of history.  The death of His Son, Jesus Christ, Jesus speaking of Himself says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (John 12:24)  Since God understands the power of sowing good seed in the midst of hardship, how much more does He want His children to get this powerful truth and live by it.

Becoming a Sower to the Spirit,
Bret

Knowing His Ways

I have been impacted by the life of Moses, particularly him encountering the Lord "face to face".  In Exodus 33 Moses is talking with God and he prays "show me Your Ways, that I may know You."  As I was just about my normal day, I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit where He spoke to me.  I was reflecting on the verses in Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  The Holy Spirit crashed in with a new thought, "This is why I had to raise you up and seat you in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) because otherwise you could not know my ways."  I have heard many people quote the verse about God's ways not being our ways and that His ways are higher than ours, in attitude of bewilderment of knowing what God is doing.  Through our being united in Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension we are now seated "in Christ" in the heavenly places and can see heaven's ways because we have been given access to heaven and invited to know His ways.  Knowing how God operates (His Ways) or the journey with Him positions us to know Him intimately and personally.  This is the ultimate privilege and destination of the Christian life is to know God but not from a distance but intimately.  One of God's ways is to forgive us for our sin through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, not having our sin be a barrier in relationship with Him.  As we receive revelation of this "way" of God to forgive, we begin to receive conviction by the Holy Spirit for the sin we still have not forgiven ourselves but also conviction of the sin we are holding against others.  Walking out receiving forgiveness for our sins and then forgiving others who have hurt us puts us in a place to walk in His ways thus knowing Him.  In the process of forgiving others for how they sinned against us and hurt us, our hearts begin to flow with God's compassion for others.  This is the point where we are truly knowing Him intimately because we not only see His ways but are walking in them and experiencing the fruit of the Spirit.  It was a time in late Fall where we had gone to Estes Park for a getaway, I was stressed because we did not have enough money in our support account to fund our salary for the next month+.  Faced with not having a paycheck, I finally broke down in the Lord's Presence crying out for an answer He led me to a teaching called "The Grace of Giving".  I thought, I depend on financial support for our living expenses why am I learning about giving.  As I listened to the message that highlighted Generosity from Genesis to 2 Corinthians 9, in my desperation I decided to "try" His way since mine wasn't working.  As we began to live a life of generosity, sowing seeds, trusting Him and believing that He would provide by multiplying the seed He gave us to sow our lives began to be transformed.  We were getting a revelation of one of His ways and in the process of following His ways, we began to know God on a deeper level.  I love that in God's grace, He provides the seed for us and also brings the increase or harvest.  It's all based on trusting Him and His grace, not seeking to do things our way.  I reminded of the Proverb 14:12 which says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death."  The emphasis is on "way", which means a path, journey, habit, or direction.  So if we are on God's path or road then we will encounter Him through participating in His way of doing life, which will transform us because we will encounter Him and thus know Him.  Often times we are on a path where we find difficulty and frustration but don't understand that we are following our own way rather than God's way.  Jesus Christ being the firstborn Son walked in God's ways: dependence on the Father, submission, declaring the Kingdom, healing, forgiveness, generosity, blessing, freedom, and love.  Then as we have revelation of Christ's ways, choose to walk in them through trusting the Holy Spirit, and finally experiencing the fruit of the Spirit's work in us then we are transformed to walk as sons and daughters of God.  Will you hear God's invitation to know His ways, that you may know Him.

Living in His Ways,
Bret

Upgrade through Obstacles

In pursuing the destiny God has for your life, you will surely come upon obstacles that seem to block your path in moving forward.  Many have wrongly concluded that if they are following their God-given destiny that it will be a straight path with very little obstacles or struggle.  People who come to this conclusion are dismayed, sidelined, strive until tired or become resentful as they encounter obstacles that are not removed right away.  I can guarantee you on the path of your God-given destiny there are obstacles that will seem impossible, if you're on a path that does not include the impossible then you are not on a God-given destiny but a human derived path.  God has certainly called us to the impossible, our call is in the likeness of Christ and He was called to the impossible that could only be accomplished through dependence on the Father through the Holy Spirit.  In 1 John 3:8 we are told, "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil."  Since this is the purpose for the Son of God and we are "in Christ", then we (as sons and daughters of God) are to destroy the works of the devil.  Thus this Scripture is telling us that we will have adversity on our to see the Kingdom of God manifest here on earth as it is in Heaven but this is not of God's making but of the enemy's.  Yet through the finished work of Christ, the enemy was stripped of his authority so we are engaging a defeated enemy not through our own effort but through what Christ did on the cross. There are many "works of devil, some of them are lies about people's identity, bondage that keeps people from their destiny, generational sins that oppress families, diseases and sicknesses, and different types of torment.

Praise God if you have hit an obstacle or barrier that you cannot seem to overcome, don't worry, stress, or strive for God through Christ has overcome where no human effort can breakthrough.  We must rest in what Christ has done on our behalf to defeat the obstacle in our path but when we are in a position of attempting to walk or overcome it through our own strength then we will not see God move on our behalf through faith in His finished work.  God does not bless our fleshly efforts to overcome what only He can overcome through His finished work on the cross.  In Ephesians there are three postures or positions in this book that are powerful for us to understand in the Christian life, sit, walk, stand.  The posture of sitting is our position "in Christ", which is referred to in Ephesians 1:20 when God raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.  Amazing that Christ was so dependent on the Father that He could not raise Himself from the dead or could He exalt Himself to the right hand of the Father, if He did these things He would cease being under God's authority but then would be submitted to an orphan spirit.  Jesus being the firstborn Son was always under the authority of His Father and lived in complete dependence and obedience to His Father.  We are exhorted in 1 Peter 5:6, "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time," this makes sense because Jesus Christ was exalted as a son not by His own hand but by God.  He is our example, so if it's good enough for Jesus it's good enough for us.  We are to be conformed to image and likeness of Christ therefore we must not exalt ourselves but position ourselves to be exalted by God in His timing and not ours.  It was the Father's doing to exalt Christ who humble Himself to the point of submitting to the cross and it is the Father's doing to exalt us from our place of bondage, trapped behind an obstacle, or from our inability to overcome.  Will we come to a place of rest, place our faith and trust in God who has already delivered us through the finished work of Christ.  Could it be that we are attempting to do to overcome the obstacle in our own fleshly strength is a bigger barrier than the actual barriers because it is a way of exalting ourselves, rather than exalting the God who has paid the ultimate price for us and our destiny.

Overcoming through trusting Him,

Bret

Love is Pursuing You!

This phrase continues to arrest my heart, "But while he was still a long way off..." because here is the prodigal son who has blown his portion of the father's inheritance, basically wanted his father dead, gone on a sin rampage, and is coming home because he is hungry and the father sees him while he is still a long way off.  The rest of the verse says, "...his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him."  What a radical love this father displays, to be searching the horizon waiting for his son to come home day and night and then in a explosion of love and compassion he pursues the son at first sight of him heading in the direction of home.  This is the amazing picture that Jesus paints of the Father in this parable, a father that in Jewish eyes was clearly wealthy (landowner) and dignified.  Yet this dignified and wealthy father bowed so low as to run out to his son, by placing the ring on his finger (a symbol of the family authority), the finest robe (the family heritage), and the shoes (that he is not a slave) the father saves the son from shame.  Actually, this father has gone a step beyond that he is really taking the shame of all that his son has done upon himself so that the son would enter the father's house recognized fully as a son in right standing.  This father goes even another step and kills the fatted calf, which probably the eldest son had been raising, which would be reserved for a very important guest (VIP).  This picture that Jesus paints of the Father is true, because Jesus descended from Heaven after being in the bosom of the Father so He alone truly knew the Father.  Every image and sense we have of a father who is emotionally distant, angry, demanding, disappointed, or absent is a lie.  Our functional image of the Father must meet the truth of who He is, for us to see Him for who He is and be transformed by connecting with Him.  After my father committed suicide when I was 6 years old, most of my beliefs about fathers were they will leave you, you can't trust them, they are not present, they don't love you enough to stick around, they will reject you if you get close, and they will always be distant and unreachable.  A big package of lies that paint a picture of Father that makes you want to run the other way, rather than cozy up in his lap.  We live out of what we truly believe and what we truly believe comes from our interpretation of our experience in life, in other words lies versus truth.  It is our most deeply held beliefs that have come out of our most important relationships and in the time our identity is being developed (childhood).  This outrageously loving Father, pursues those who have made mistakes and even blown what they have been given.  This Father is searching for you on the horizon day and night, He is coming toward you to embrace you and kiss you.  This wreck less Father is not waiting till we clean up our act, get rid of our shame, deal with our pain, finally kick that addiction, straighten out our relationships, be more responsible, be perfect, or finally really pursue Him because He is pursuing us.  He knows you hide, you are afraid of Him at times, and are confused about the truth of who He is but He is pursuing you because this is what real love does it pursues the heart of the one it loves.  I have included a video of a human father, that while flawed and imperfect, displays some of this sacrificial love to a dying daughter.  On an orphan planet, there is a cry for fathers who will display the true nature of the Father in Heaven.

Pursued by the Father,
Bret