Overcoming Frontal Assault

Sometimes I think I am slow-learner but the Holy Spirit is so persistent than even slow learners can come into amazing wisdom and revelation.  The Kingdom of God is advancing and moving forward, retreat is not part of His vocabulary.  I have heard it said that the armor of God in Ephesians 6 doesn't have an armor for your back side, in other words the armor is only effective in advancing.  As I was getting ready to step into a new realm of ministry (radio), amazingly the day before I am while working on a plumbing project (something else I have done little of) I was assaulted with lies saying "I am a failure."  I am not saying this is true for everyone but I have found that when Father is taking me into a new area of ministry and identity, the enemy seems to assault me with lies to try to intimidate me.

Could it be that the areas that Father wants to bring breakthrough also include lies that need to be displaced.  In other words often before a breakthrough we often come to a place of weakness because this is the very place His power is made complete.  Father is much more concerned about your identity being upgraded than even the fruit because He knows that good fruit comes from the work of His Spirit in you (good root).  Christ being manifested in us always means that we must come into agreement with the truth of who we are.

What if we were to see the frontal assault of lies by the enemy as our next upgrade.  I believe this is how the Father sees it because in Romans 8:28-29 He is chiefly concerned about us being conformed to the image of Christ using all things in our lives to this end.  Since Christ overcame sin, death, betrayal, the Law, other's sickness, and the enemy then Christ is our victory.  There is only one victorious and overcoming life, that is the life of Christ manifested.

As for the rest of the story I did the radio interview and it was going so well, we ended up doing three radio shows in a row.  There was a great flow of the Spirit and I believe there will be many listeners who will be touched.  I celebrate Father's goodness and love being manifested in and through my life.

Advancing the Kingdom,
Bret

Momentum

As we had the Memorial service for our neighbor (her and her two boys), the night before I was deeply triggered by the trauma and found myself in the middle of the abandonment, rejection, and uncertainty of my father's suicide.  Showing up at the Memorial service on 1 hours sleep I was in a raw place as the grief, abandonment, feelings of being overwhelmed by the tragedy, and rejection were all very one the surface.  At one point I believe like many who are on this journey that Jesus would heal you and you would simply live life gloriously healed and whole.  The rawness of experiencing a dimension of my deepest wound in life reminded me that this is certainly not the reality for me and not the reality for others as well.

I believe for us to have momentum we must see the times when we get lost in our wounds or overwhelmed by shame in the perspective of Father's love.  There are times it's like we are driving a jeep through the jungle with so much mud and rain on the windshield that it seems impossible to see.  Just when we catch a glimpse of the road ahead the windshield wipers streak mud and water across the windshield clouding it over again.  It seems we must navigate by the glimpses between the completely clouded windshield.  This is why our journey is to "walk by faith and not by sight", we must trust that Father is "causing all things to work together for our good."  Even when there are emotions that "trigger" us to drop into a painful place, He is forming us into the image of His Son. God spoke to Graham Cooke and said, “Graham, I want you to get to a point where there is no such thing as a good situation or a bad one. There are no good days or bad days, just days of grace.”

We only have one true identity and that is our identity "in Christ", every other identity is based on a lie or something that want last.  God is not working on your old self, this self has been crucified and He is now developing your new self, throwing off the old ways of thinking and living.  I believe continuous momentum is knowing who God is (revelation) and experiencing who we are in Him.  Identity is central to momentum because otherwise we will rely on what will fail, like our works, fleshly efforts, or the performance of others.  God is always writing our story and that is always one of Redemption because Christ is our Redeemer and we are in Him.  Our story is forever intertwined in our story and every interpretation of life apart from Him will fall away.

In His Story,
Bret

In Tragedy: God is Love

A mother and her two boys were found yesterday in the family's minivan dead, they were our neighbors (I can see there house from my front window).  Overwhelmed and shocked by the tragedy yesterday morning, we were led to a have a "prayer vigil" for our neighbors.  There were 24 of us plus kids crammed into our living room, sad, bewildered, overwhelmed, and suddenly awakened to the reality of our need for one another.  The father and husband who lost his family joined us and there was an outpouring of love, care, and concern for him.  As I continue to grow in the revelation "God is Love" this seemed in exact contrast to a God of love.  Yet I am convinced when darkness strikes, it is the silence of those who know the "Light" (God is light) that allow the darkness to grow.  Just the night before I was reading a book to my daughter "The Prayer of Protection" based on Psalm 91 where he quoted Isaiah 60:1-2 which says, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you."  As those who have the "light" we need to arise and shine, especially when the darkness seems to invade.

In the midst of a room of people impacted by tragedy, it was time to declare "God is Love" not loudly but simply to allow Him to shine through our family and our other believing neighbors.  The world though it is covered in deep darkness doesn't even understand why or how it happened, there is just simply continued agreement with the darkness.  Nothing dispels darkness but light and the true light is Jesus Christ and He is in us.  It is not so much our actions as our identity that brings light.  Of course actions that are life-giving and light filled come from an identity that is in agreement with the light within (Jesus Christ).  We are told in Scripture in Colossians 1:27 that, "...Christ in you, the hope of glory."

We naturally have a tendency to use our experience as the lens that we see God through, which when it is tragedy begins to deeply distort His character.  God reveals Himself as love through Jesus Christ and unless we are looking through His chosen lens we will have distorted view.  I believe knowing the nature of God is fundamental to us knowing who we are but also being able to show others who He is accurately.

In His Love,
Bret