May 23, 2014
To the one captivated by the love of God, Jesus is beyond words. To the most normal person in our culture Jesus is irrelevant, unimportant beyond any comprehensible value to everyday life.
How is this so? And what kind of effect does this surrounding culture have on us? On or understanding and our ability to know The Lord deeply? How does the everyday in and out of our cultural mindset effect our sense of following Jesus? How does it limit our understanding of what following Jesus means?
Where does he sit in your life?
There is a lot of good talk today about the impossible. About God being the God of the impossible. About establishing a culture that believes the impossible is part of the everyday Christian life. There are just a few impossible things mentioned in Scripture. God cannot lie. Impossible. And in Hebrews it talks about an impossible thing. The impossibility of pleasing God without faith being at the forefront of all we are doing.
The current season in the Spirit requires us to kneed into our thinking and mindset new thoughts about how the Kingdom is activated in us. How love for the King thrives and passion builds.
So how is faith to be the forefront of our relationship with Jesus?
How are we to grasp the riches in the oceans filled with such little actual revelation or understanding? In my opinion, much of the water has drained out of the pools of inspired teaching and understanding. The waters that fill up the pools of resource appear weak at best in the depth and riches of the knowledge of God. Are we in transition? Are we in crisis?
Is the landscape of the Spirit changing right under our feet?
What contributes to our lack and the overall low water of spiritual depth?
Earth driven mindsets need to be replaced with throne down mindsets.
We are filled up with the earth, the practical, the immediate. Our lives rarely stop to simply dwell in the presence of the HOLY. Consider the average Christians time in the presence? Possibly two times a month at church, maybe a bible study or prayer meeting. Maybe. Kingdom first and righteousness first living? Spiritual pursuits almost seem to be two dimensional in the earth enveloped mindset. Stale hollow men and women clinging to religious ideas. We need encounter. How about resting in Scripture and meditating on the Word in an open ended environment of surrender? Living in the presence as a way of life all the time? Following the Spirit moment to moment as a living sacrifice? How about this banner over our lives, "Spend Me As You Will".
In an earth mindset our goals and imaginations revolve around achieving ends in the earth. We are consumed with dirt and work and status. We start with earth and somehow expect deep spiritual realities to simply fall down on us. What originates with earth typically produces in like kind.....earth. Earth perspectives. Earth thinking. I am remembering something from the ancient wisdom....
My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LordAs the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
The beginning of all things is Jesus. He is the Alpha of heavens originating voice. He is also the end of everything as the Omega. Everything created finds its origination and consummation in him. What begins with Jesus can also end with Jesus.
Tragically, so little of what we consider fundamental Christian living does not require God to sustain it, to accomplish it, or to see it come to fruition.
More so, the typical function and activity of a "normal" church requires very little of the Lord to exercise nearly all of its "ministry". Rarely do we actually put ourselves out there in such a way that if God does not connect with, love, encounter, heal and deliver we are empty and nothing truly happens.
If it does not originate in the Father's heart or from the inheritance of The Lord Jesus what is it? Jesus' prayer was for heaven to invade earth. For heavens reality to be seen and known in the people who bear his NAME.
How can something originating in men be infused with a measure of faith to operate it? Jesus is the King of the Kingdom of God. He is the Head. How can we originate the Kingdom without direct leading of the Spirit?
When we miss the beginning we miss the ending. Faith will always be the immediate and daily requirement for following Jesus through the leading of the Spirit.
Earth driven mindsets do not require that I deal with God, exercise faith to orchestrate them or sustain them. They feed off the earth. Culture sustains mindsets for whole groups of people. It is intended to drive us to earth perspectives; to cause us to let go any notions of faith as fundamental to our action. Scripture speaks of the kosmos or world order as ruled by the Prince of the Power of the Air. It is infused by intention of the Enemy of Love with every passion quenching and destructive element he can build into it. Or should we say into us.
Kingdom Assignments call out faith and birth deeper more mature identity.
One avenue I have been exploring for remaining in a posture of faith is to embrace prophetic identity words and press deeply into stewarding prophetic encouragements.
We function on such a low level of assignment -typically only in terms of gifting. The ekklesia of Jesus functions on the level of assignment and revolves around our heavenly identity. When assignment and identity are united in a Kingdom mindset, mixed with faith and understand a whole new measure of power, love and freedom gets released. When we mix prophetic encouragement into the picture we begin to enter into the fire of Kingdom righteousness.
Assignment by nature is derived from heaven and carries with it clear kingdom identity. That identity is forged in the inheritance and victory of Jesus. It is already part of heaven's ultimate revelation of love. We are invited to walk the assignments out in faith with a great deal of hope poured on patient endurance. Love is the fruit of this kind of life. Faith is the fuel for assignment living and following of the Spirit's lead.
Much of what is called discipleship today is far from compelling and engaging learning. To do and be what the Master Jesus did and is requires faith expressed in reality. The classroom of Jesus was the day to day following of the Holy Spirit in releasing the Kingdom of God by faith to the fallen world. We opt for a classroom. We opt for principles. Jesus opted for hands on discovery. Jesus opted for life.
Much of our problem today is mindset. How we understand Jesus and the world around us. Much of the teaching that sustained the moves of God in the past are lacking in producing zeal and passion and do not strip people in the presence of Jesus. We have such a low opinion of The Lord Jesus and the Church that we cannot see over the wall and into the glory that is being poured out.
Lack of perception is a form of divine withdrawal. It should cause us to hunger for him. Instead it produces arrogance and offense at God. The opposite. We say, "I don't need God" so God makes a life in which we don't need him. Then we say we never needed him and we live in that reality. Yet that reality gnaws away at us. Steals our souls and lead us to emptiness. We say "God is distant" so God makes himself distant as requested.
You will not serve God in your own land.
So you will serve foreign gods in a land that is not your own.
It is remarkable that God used me. When I look back into the person I was and what God did with that, I am fascinated with HIM, his ways, His wisdom and beauty. What an amazing mystery is Christ in me.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life
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