The Power of Light

It seems that when God wants to do a new thing in us that He first seeks to remove the old.  By inviting us to discover a dimension of His nature, the unveiling comes as we let go of the veil (lies) that have kept us from seeing.  God has fully revealed Himself through Jesus Christ, He is hiding in plain view.  Scripture says it this way in Hebrews 12:14, "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord."  Sanctification means the removing of the old being replaced by the new person "in Christ".  As I was recently ordained there were several people who spoke over me that there was an anointing for deliverance on my life.  Some think of deliverance as focused on demons but I believe true deliverance is to be delivered from the domain of darkness (Colossians 1:12).  Darkness is where lies, fears, bitterness, lust, selfishness, sin, unforgiveness, hopelessness, control, and many others rule over our thinking, our feeling, and our life.  Yes, the enemy of our souls does work in the domain of darkness.

The Lord began to invite me to experience and know Him as Light, yet Light exposes us.  I realized that I had learned how to walk in the darkness, simply by hiding my feelings, my thoughts, and the places in me that I felt ashamed of.  As a child I also was deceived to partner with hopeless thinking, self-pity, and isolation leading me away from openness, honesty, trust, and love.  As God, who is Light, was calling me out of the darkness I had to admit that I chose the darkness (men loved darkness) because it provided some protection (although deceptive).  The lying promise of the dark is we will be covered and no one can see the things we do in the dark.  I heard of a picture of this:  there was a cave a mile down underground where a river flowed through it.  You could drink from the river in the cave because it had nothing growing in it because there was no light.  Yet farther down river where the river flowed on the surface of the earth the river was teaming with life because the sun shone on the river.

The Word of God says in Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinks within himself, so he is."  The thinking that comes out of the darkness that infects our mind and heart will come out as sin in our life.  As the Holy Spirit reveals the nature of God as Light, we are invited into a place of being transformed into that same image of Light.  When light comes into the place of darkness, darkness always is displaced.

Delivered from darkness,
Bret

Victims or Overcomers

I was in a meeting talking about Identity and the Holy Spirit began to speak to my heart about not being a victim.  I have read books on the "Victim Mindset" and yet there was a deep belief in my soul that the reason I still had struggles was because of what someone had done to me in my past.  Yet the Holy Spirit began to remind me of Ephesians 2:1-2, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,  in which youformerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience."  I began to get revelation that I was still in bondage in some areas of my soul because of my sin and my agreement with the lies.

I had learned to be a victim early on with my father committing suicide when I was 6 years old but also internalized a sense of powerlessness in life.  Even though God had done significant work in my life, I still felt in bondage to worry, fear, self-pity, and anxiety.  It was revealed that I was 100% responsible for my response to people's sin against me in my life and that I had chosen to come into agreement with lies.  For those of us who have had painful and damaging childhoods, we often feel like victims but when we were placed "in Christ" we were infused with the DNA of an overcomer.  One of the biggest enemies we must see that has been overcome by being "in Christ" is our sin.  Romans 6 shows us that we were once slaves to sin but now by being place "in Christ" sin no longer has mastery over me.

Since I still believed I was a victim at some level I didn't fully acknowledge the depth of my sinfulness.  In other words being a "victim" was a good excuse but excuses don't set you free, having the penalty paid for sin sets you free.  As I remembered, before salvation, the depth of my sinfulness, curses, lies, shame, fear, disobedience, unbelief, distrust, doubt, lust, selfishness, and all else that came with it I could see it was sin that was robbing me of life.  Seeing myself united to Christ in His death because of my sin put on Him and me dying with Him, the true grotesqueness (is that a word?) of my sin became evident.  Only in Jesus could I be forgiven and resurrected from my sin, I was powerless in my own ability to overcome.  Praise God for resurrecting me in Jesus Christ to newness of life.

Resurrected to New Life,
Bret

The Heart

The Holy Spirit reminded of Proverb (4:23) that is important to me, it says "Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life."  Actually the heart has an important role throughout the Word of God.  I even have a Board Member that says he has discovered where the heart is, it is the connection between the soul and spirit.  I believe this is an important discussion with equally important revelation, yet this is not what I am after.  I also was reminded by the Holy Spirit of the multiple ways Jesus said to, "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, ...."  Our hearts are very important in our connection with God but also in our connection with others.  Yet as I have met with leaders over the years and for myself as well, one area that we often fail in is watching over our own hearts.  

I know I have tended to sacrifice myself by giving too much of my time to clients, not valuing the most important relationships in my life, and most importantly putting more resources into other people's relationship with God than my own.  I know being in full-time ministry means I get the joy of navigating this and making my fair share of messes in this area but I don't think I am alone.  I believe one of the reasons we live in such an orphan hearted culture is that we don't watch over our hearts but they often lead us.  As believers "born again" in Christ we have a new spirit united with Him, it is from the place of the spirit that the Holy Spirit actually watches over our hearts.  Yet often we can ignore, suppress, deny, or not be interested in what He is reporting.  At times the Holy Spirit is sounding the alarm like a "check engine" light on our cars, yet we just keep going hoping it will go off.

The second part of Proverbs 4:23 is important, "...For from it flow the springs of life."  The New King James Version says, "...For out of it spring the issues of life."  Boy do we have issues, in our country we have economic issues, we have political issues, we have immigration issues, racial issues, crime issues, and issues upon issues.  Could it be that as country since we have so many issues, that there is something wrong at the heart level.  Our same Board Member that talks about where the heart is also talks about what brings hardness of heart, which are wounds and choices.  It is the affections of the heart that can lead us towards God or can get us far away from Him.  I believe the call of God on this generation is to not only have a revival that brings life to our spirit but touches our very hearts where all the issues are springing forth.  Remember that from the Father's love, He sent Jesus out of His bosom to be the manifestation of His love to us.

Responding from my heart to God's love,
Bret

The Power of Receiving

As I was between wake and sleep the Holy Spirit kindly gave me the impression of Romans 5.  As I began to read Romans 5, I was drawn into verse 17.  I love that walking with God is truly an adventure, even though many times I want it to be all planned out and safely boring.  God is too amazing to fit in my box of boring, so He is constantly getting out of the box to show me who He is.

All of us through our lives in our story seem to hit a dimension where it turns darker, more tragic, and there doesn't seem to be a way through.  In other words it was not only Adam and Eve that experienced a Fall.  It may be that the relationship we were pinning our hopes on for love is not working, our dreams for success seem to be crashing, our financial situation closes in on us, or the secret sin habit seems to rule more of our life.  Tragedy and Fall is not unknown to most people's story, yet many cover this over only to redouble there effort to overcome but you can only do this so many times before reaching utter exhaustation.

Romans 5:17 speaks to this place in our stories, the passage says "For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ."  Could it be that when we reach these places of tragedy we are only simply discovering the condition "death reigned through the one."  This phrase speaks of Adam as a type of king who ruled over the entire human race and that his fall was all of our fall.  Our destiny was tied up in his destiny.  Some proudly say, "if I was Adam I would not have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."  Yet if we are to examine their lives, in theirs like mine we all have a fall.  It is amazing that as a people (apart from Christ) who are actually functioning "in death" call it life.

In this passage God points us to life, which is the God-kind of life (zoe).  God-life is one that is completely tied up in relationship, majesty, beauty, love, kindness, goodness, and eternal grace.  I have found that God is overly concerned about my circumstances as He is about His relationship with me.  In this relationship He is growing us in our identity in Him as His sons and daughters, where everything about our lives are caught up in Him.  It is not making sure your circumstances go the way you want but finding Him in whatever circumstance you find yourself.  It's amazing how Joseph has a dream, in his youthful exuberance shares it with his insecure and overly jealous brothers.  These same brothers sell him off to get rid of him but the favor of God on his life leads him to become the chief of a rich man's house.  Joseph seems to be at the top of his game, when the darkness enters in to steal this favor and Joseph is cast out of the house accused of adultry.  Joseph finds himself in a prison, more like a pit with a few others guys.  Joseph again finds God in this place and turns this prison into a palace because he knows who His God is and who he is.

Receiving life, which His grace, His love, His kindness, and all that He is changes everything in our lives.  Our life is now bound up in the destiny of another, fortunately Jesus was destined to reign over all humanity.

Receiving His grace,
Bret