Receiving as a Son or Daughter

I was struck by the Holy Spirit that receiving is one of the big keys in the Christian life, yet when we see ourselves as orphans we are unable to receive.  Believing lies also positions our hearts to not receive because John 8:32 says, "... and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  The word "know" in this passage is about intimate relational knowledge or experience of the truth, where the truth is received and then we are set free.  Living from an "orphan heart" means that we dwell in lies about God, others, and our identity rather than living in the truth.

The only way that lies have power in my life is that I empower them through my agreement.  The enemy is seeking to gain my agreement, so that he can use my authority against myself and then others.  An "orphan heart" believes that God is somehow withholding so has trouble receiving from Him because an "orphan heart" perspective on God is that He is distant, demanding, punishing, or unavailable.  As we daily repent and turn from orphan thinking, we see ourselves as a son that God has not withheld anything from and is teaching us how to receive His goodness and grace in increasing amounts.

When we realize that God is the source and giver of life, then we have so much to receive from Him.  I believe this is part of why thankfulness is so important in life because it positions our heart to see God as the source.  The lack of thankfulness moves us into a place of seeing life as an orphan where everything we get is based on our own achieving, effort, or striving.  Even thankfulness for the little things in life lead us to grow in our trust in God and who He is for us.

Since all of life in Christ comes by grace, then the Christian life is really about receiving more new life from God but we must let go of the old orphan life.  Watchman Nee once talked about the "thing in hand" and that it was whatever we are holding onto which keeps us from receiving what the Lord desires to give us.

Receiving as a son,
Bret

Father's Love: Alive through Risk

A dimension of Father's love that we can think logically doesn't fit with love, is taking "RISK".  I think of the tremendous risk of rejection that God has taken in His love towards His children throughout His Word.  Starting with the risk to give Adam and Eve a choice in the Garden of Eden by putting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil right in the middle.  God was willing to put Himself out there by displaying that He wants intimate relationship with mankind but in order for love to be possible choice is required.  Jesus displays the heart of a lovesick Father in the story of the prodigal son, where this Father is willing to go through rejection, betrayal, and even being disowned by the prodigal.  Yet the Father is on the porch searching the horizon for His son to come home, when He sees him He throws off all restraint risking rejection again by embracing him.  In Father's embrace He extends forgiveness, acceptance, and reconciliation.

I believe the more we have revelation of the radical love of the Father "in Christ", the more we will become like Him.  Oh how the world is looking for radical laid down lovers that will display the love of the Father that is irresistible.  Writing the last sentence gives me a hunger for greater revelation of Father's love for me personally that He would be more manifest through my life.

Father's love is one that has risked everything to be displayed to us giving His Son as a sacrifice to manifest His love.  As we step into this kind of risking love for others we are sharing in His life.  Since the beginning God has desired that we be conformed to His likeness, it was how we were created.  Yet Father has given us the free choice to give ourselves to Him and by receiving His radical love we are transformed to be like Him.

Avoiding risk at all costs to live a life of security, safety,pride, and comfort is a slow death, since risk is a dimension of God's divine love.  We must risk in order to share in His Divine love flowing through us but this risk is not initiated by us but by the Holy Spirit in us.  In 2 Corinthians 5:14 we are told what is to compel us, "For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died."  If we are not compelled we will be motivated by fear or selfish ambition for these are the other motivations of the heart.

Compelled by His love,
Bret

Feelings

I have to be honest with you that I have less than a love relationship with feelings, simply because in my life I have had so many negative feelings.  Yet to deny, hide, or suppress feelings, as Dann Farrelly in "Brave Communication" says, is to be less alive.  This also takes a tremendous amount of effort and is one of the roots of an orphan heart.  Jack Frost often talked about living in "numb-numb-ville", the place where we deny or suppress what is really going on inside of us.  When we live as orphans we don't feel "safe" to express what is truly going on inside of us, which not only damages our connections with others but also puts us in a place of feeling cut off from the Lord.

Holy Spirit began to remind me of some of the things the disciples said, asked, or expressed in Jesus presence.  Things like "who gets to sit on your right and left in Your glory", disciples say to Jesus "don't you care that we are going to die", or Peter rebuking Jesus when He said He was going to the cross.  Amazingly the disciples seem very bold in expressing what they wanted, felt, or thought without much editing.  The religious pharisees of the day were always looking to say the exact right thing, in the right way, and to the right group of people to make them look godly.  Being in the Presence of perfect love gives us the freedom to express our deepest feelings, fears, and questions.

Dann Farrelly also says that if we are not able to identify what we feel and express it, then our feelings will rule over us.  Interesting, since as believers our call is not to live based on our feelings but by on the truth of Jesus that is revealed.  Our feelings are like a thermometer indicating what is going on in our soul and what we truly believe.  The challenge is to present our feelings and the beliefs that drive them to Jesus.

Many people have turned the Christian life into a "knowledge" about God (information) and rejected feelings all together.  This can often be elevated in intellectual circles of Christianity, like Seminaries or some churches.  Then there are others who go from Conference to Conference searching for the feeling of God's Presence or an experience of Him.  These are not bad but I believe God wants us to experience Him (involving our feelings), know Him (through experiences and encounters), and know more about Him (through study or teaching).  Could it be that God is bigger than the box we have put Him in and He wants to be more for us than we could ever imagine.

Blessings,
Bret

On The Adventure

As I took a day off in the middle of the week to take a day trip to the mountains with my family, the Holy Spirit reminded me that life is an adventure.  Seeing the snow-capped mountains, the roaring rivers, and the lush green valleys I was reminded of the wildness of God's creation.  Often times in our human culture we seek to turn life into a problem to be solved, a puzzle to be figured out, a future to be controlled and predicted, or simply fulfilling a planned out routine.  Every one of these remove the adventure and seek to reduce the risk element of life.

Yet God's invitation to Abram was one of adventure, listen in "Now the Lord said to Abram,'Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house,to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.'" (Genesis 12:1-3)  Even Jesus invitation to the disciples one full of adventure, unknown, and leaving the familiar "...Come follow Me..."  Inherent in Jesus invitation is relationship mixed with adventure, not a call to a role or a job.

Why do we resist this dimension or aspect of life?  I will tell you the reason for me.  Growing up in an environment of trauma, crisis, darkness, fear, and poverty one major need that often went unmet was security/safety.  So though my heart is sold out to knowing the Father's love, I often find myself looking to hold onto security and safety which means control.  This dimension of orphan living comes out of the wounds of unmet needs but continues where there is a lack of revelation of the Father's love.

A dimension of adventure that we would like to leave out is adversity, obstacles, and barriers.  Adventure means an adversary that must be overcome in order for us to advance into our Promise Land.  Father stripped the enemy of his authority and now we engage with a defeated foe.  A little secret, he often does not appear as a defeated foe (the truth about him) but appears big and scary blocking our path through the lies he tells us.

On the Adventure with Father,
Bret