Father's Love: For us to live in Joy

I was struck by the Holy Spirit when I was listening to a teaching on "Hope and Joy", realizing the more we have revelation of the goodness of our Father and His love for us then hope and joy become normal.  There is so much for reason for the opposite in our world, hopeless and despair as we see reports of 4,000 dying in a massive earthquake and the riots on the streets of Baltimore.  Yet we need to decide which reality will tune our lives and hearts to, the frequency of heaven or the one of the earth.

I grew up in a both hope and joy impaired atmosphere and I internalized much of this as the way life is and will be.  Yet to agree with the conclusions I came to as a child is to assume my present and future will be the same.  One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives is joy.  I was particularly impacted when it was said, "your joy level determines your spiritual load bearing capacity".  I said the Lord that day that I want more joy in life so that my load bearing capacity can be greater to bring life to those around me.

There is no way that I can expect to produce joy from an orphan heart, it is only as I agree with who I am as a beloved son that I can experience the Father's joy.  In the story of the prodigal son, the Father celebrates because His son was lost and dead, now has returned.  Our Father celebrates restored relationship and intimacy, not performance, achievement, or perfection.

How can we not have joy when we become aware of and live in the truth. We have been forgiven for all our sins, Father has put us in right relationship with Himself through Christ, we have been made Holy, we are accepted into the family of God, we have eternal life, we have a new identity as sons and daughters, we have been seated "in Christ" in heavenly places, and we have been given the Kingdom of God (Colossians 2:13-14, Romans 5:17, Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 1:5-6, Ephesians 2:6, and Luke 12:32).

I am convicted that I have a lot of "orphan thinking" that are not mindsets of hope and joy but ones of hopelessness, heaviness, and despair.  Praise you Father that the Holy Spirit is on board to tear down those strongholds and build strongholds of hope and joy in my life.

Living In Father's Delight,
Bret

A Father's Love, Jesus takes the negativity

"In the Kingdom that we inhabit, all negativity has been laid on Jesus.  He bore it in His own body so that we could be free.  He took all our afflictions, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual upon Himself. In the Kingdom we inhabit there are no negatives, only positives yet to be explored and appropriated." (Graham Cooke in his book "Keys to Brilliant Focus")  Could it be that Father laid all the negatives on Jesus out of His great love, that we would be able to live in a Kingdom where new things are being created and birthed.  It has been said in several books that I have read on coming back from the dead experiences in heaven, that heaven is always growing and expanding.  While so much our negativity can emanate from losses, disappointments, and failures.

We are not being positive simply because of the "power of positive thinking" but since negativity has been taken on the cross, all that is left for us is the positive.  Now unfortunately, God did not remove my ability to choose to be negative because in order to do that He would have to take away choice all together.  The negative spiritual realm, is the kingdom of darkness and though we are no longer in this kingdom (Colossians 1:13) we are still tempted to return to it.

Speaking about and to things in our life in the negative is a curse, whereas speaking good or positive about or to things in our life is a blessing.  Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit."  The tongue is one of the primary ways we sow in our lives and then the tongues of others is a way we reap.  A very powerful, faithful, and godly man in our congregation just went to be with Jesus and he purposed to not speak negative about or to others.  Amazingly there were very few negative words spoken about him, because John spoke such life everywhere he went.  He was also a man who seemed to live in little fear, I wander if the two were connected.

When we begin to cooperate with the negative in our lives, then we are participating in the death cycle.  Some things in our lives need to come to death; like habits of sin, selfishness, and unholy patterns but this death actually brings life.  God even has used to death to bring about good for us.  Through Jesus death on the cross, He took sin upon Himself so we don't have to live in it, He took disease and sickness, and even bore our old identity that we can have a new one.

While you can choose the negative, it is not who you are anymore.  As a New Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) we are going around speaking and creating new things because we are new.  This is often why there is tension for us to conform to patterns of the world, because Kingdom believers are extremely creative because their Father is the Creator of all.  I have become convinced that creativity is a must in the Kingdom, without religion and tradition begin to drain away the life.

In His Positive Kingdom,
Bret

Presence and Rest

I have written several times about rest, which seems to be an ongoing theme from Father for me in this season of life.  An important dimension of our relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is being in a place to receive, enter into intimacy, and let go of things that keep us from communion with Him.  Since we were saved not by our own striving, effort, or achievements advancing into deeper intimacy is also by grace.  Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus gives a powerful invitation, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

I have noticed that there are so many dynamics that can keep us from entering a place of rest and living from this place of being at home in the Father's love.  One dynamic is that when our soul (mind, will, and emotions) experience pressure than our will tends to default to the negative.  Learning to live in a place of rest in the Presence of God allows our soul to be at peac and then we can receive from God, be refreshed, be renewed, and allow Him to heal our souls.

Many doctors are realizing the damaging affects of stress but stress is not directly related to our circumstances, relationships, or roles in life as it is connected to how our soul processes things in our life.  We are first spiritual beings designed to relate to God and then relational being designed to connect to one another and finally physical being designed to relate to our environment.  When this order of priorities is not followed then our soul comes into a place of stress and stress has an affect not only on my relationships but also on my physical body.

It is easy to become stressed, worried, or anxious about things in life.  Especially when I am living as an orphan believing I have to handle everything.  Resting in Father's Presence, allowing Him to pour in His love, grace, peace, and hope is powerful to remind me that life is about relationship.  Soaking is a powerful way to do this by simply putting on quiet worship/soaking music and letting go of working, striving, or doing anything else in that moment.  I believe I have so much to learn when it comes to learning to be in a place of rest but I choose not to be stressed because my Father will get me there.

Resting in Father's Presence,
Bret