Your Life Story and Father's Love

In our modern culture we have relegated story telling to books, plays and drama, and maybe to children.  I believe we have lost a dimension of life in being a people of story, it is only in story and journey that we truly find context and understanding for what God is doing in our lives.  We can often find ourselves frustrated with the current chapter of our life because we fail to see the next chapter.  Failing to see the next chapter can mean we lack the endurance to walk this chapter well.  Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him.  In other words without having a revelation of us being united to the Father through His work on the cross, He would not have the joy to get through the cross.

Being involved in counseling and ministry I see people who feel like this chapter of their life is more the end than a transition into a new season where more life is released.  Where our story intersects God's story through our being "born again" is the beginning of new life for us.  In covenant His life becomes our life and we exchange our shame, pain, loss, hurt, disappointment, lack, fear, anger, frustration and, failure for victory, freedom, love, and all the dimensions of new life.  So in each chapter of our story and journey God is wanting to manifest His nature to us and through us.

In the ancient Hebrew culture story was a way of life, as most truths about God were passed down in an oral tradition and thus testimonies of God's faithfulness where given to another generation.  Although in passing down story it wasn't always the most accurate way and thus having it written down greatly improved consistency but we lost some of our love of story.  Story allows us to pull back from the details of everyday life and see the bigger themes, struggles, and who God is for us in each chapter.

God is able to redeem the chapters of our lives of darkness, loss, or brokenness.  He has the ability in redeeming these chapters but revealing what Jesus has done for us, so that there is lasting fruit.  If there is only fruit from the places of victory in our life, then we have limited God because He is our Redeemer.  He is the One who makes beauty for ashes and turns our mourning into joy.

In a culture that celebrates the instant, the quick promotion, the flashy, and the finished product; God in contrast celebrates the process, the journey, patience, and a lifetime.  Your life is a story that has intersected with God's redemptive story of humanity through Jesus Christ.  No dimension of you life will ever be the same as His redemption saturates every dimension of your being.  You are a New Creation, who is continually being created by the Holy Spirit in newness and freshness to encounter the various struggles, demands, and problems of life.

In His Story,
Bret

Agreeing with Father's Affirmation

For the average believer 80% of our thinking is negative.  In Proverbs 23:7 it says "For as he thinks within himself, so he is."  As Dr. Caroline Leaf says in her books, thoughts take up mental real estate thus these thoughts can be releasing life or death.  On an orphan planet some boast of who they are while others secretly look at all they are not.  Orphan ways is that there must be a winner and a loser but in God's kingdom everyone is amazing because of who God is for them and in them (even if they are not a believer but still created "in His image").

Is Father like this seemingly bipolar planet that elevates people to extreme heights of fame, idol worship, and star struck then only to celebrate their demise, fall, and failure.  Is He so willing to turn on His sons and daughters when they don't behave right?  As a good Father does He not believe more who we are then we do at times.  As an earthly father I don't throw away my kids destinies because of they mistakes, sin, selfishness, or failure.  Our Heavenly Father is the source and beginning of all fatherhood, so isn't He an even better father than I am.  We see the picture of Father in the story of the prodigal son longing for reunion with both His sons, not giving up on them even when they completely reject Him and act completely like orphans.

Father is continually affirming who Christ is for you and who you are in Him, not focused on what you are not.  How do I know that because Jesus came to reveal them Father and Jesus was continually encouraging the disciples even when they completely missed the boat.  Jesus first interaction with Simon (known as Peter) was to give him a new name based on his destiny and who he would be in the Body.  In other words Jesus saw Peter prophetically and based on his destiny not on mistakes, history, or sin.

If the truth is that the Father is continually affirming, blessing, and encouraging us in who we are "in Christ" why do we not agree with Him.  I believe the enemy of our souls seeks his own fatherhood, which Scripture says is the father of lies seeking to discourage, render powerless, and ineffective.  See you are a threat to the kingdom of darkness if you affirm and agree with who you are "in Christ".  This is why confessing the truth of who you are "in Christ" and declaring what God says about you in confidence of who He is in you (not arrogance) is powerful in propelling you forward in your destiny.

Agreeing with Father's affirmation,
Bret

Barriers: An Upgrade in Our Identity

As we step out into our destiny, it does not take long till we run into barriers.  How we approach barriers, difficulties, and adversities will significantly impact how far we go in our destinies.  Different personality types will have a default way of reacting when they hit a barrier.  For example, those driven personality types will get frustrated, angry, and tend to redouble their efforts.  Those more introspective types will tend to perceive it in their mind's eye as bigger than them and become discouraged.  More extroverted types may tend to ask people around them and when there is not an answer just simply move on to something else.  Some barriers or problems we may not be called to solve but those God has a purpose for in our life need to be addressed.

Our Father in heaven knows these barriers will come in our path, He is not overwhelmed by them or discouraged.  He has a plan, barriers and problems are included in what He is doing in us and where He is taking us in Him.  In Ephesians 2:6 Paul tells us by the Holy Spirit, "...and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,"  Part of God seating you "in Christ" in heavenly places is so that we can see from heaven's perspective toward earth and then as Jesus said in "The Lord's Prayer" bring heaven to earth (Your Kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven).  God perspective of us seated in heavenly places "in Christ" is beyond most of our view of ourselves, yet this is the way God relates to us.  The Lord revealed to me that we often try to figure out the problem or barrier at our current level of revelation and living, yet the answer is contained at a greater level of revelation and a whole new realm of living.  God is inviting us to experience Him at a whole new level.  For example, those who have struggled to have enough provision for what God has called them to are in need of experiencing God as their Provider.

What if our inadequacy, weakness, inability, discouragement or needs are really an invitation from the Father to experience more of Jesus for us and through us.  When God led the people into the Promise Land, they quickly came up against what I call the "Ites", the Amelikites, Hittites, Amorites, etc.  Each of these battles against enemies that occupied the Promise Land required the Israelites to rely on the Lord for the strategy or promise to overcome.  I believe every barrier, adversity, or difficulty I believe comes with a promise "in Christ" to take us to a new level of knowing Him and a new dimension of living.

In His Promises,
Bret