Backward Teaching ***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  My life is full of energy brought by a group of little people known as "grandchildren".  It is one thing to have them visit once in a while and another to wake up to their delightful presence each morning.  Circumstances have opened this great opportunity to share life with them.

Today the Holy One speaks about the importance of raising our children in the admonition of the Lord.  It is a huge undertaking and responsibility especially with the world and all it's seduction calling us into the web of carnal fast living and spiritual apathy.

As I consider the religious teaching of my own life years ago, I hear Him say, "Focus on teaching about relationship first".  

I was raised up under the generation that taught "hell fire and damnation" and the "wrath of a Holy God".   I often marvel at the sweet relationship I now have with the Lord and wonder about all that "inspired" fear I was presented with as a child.

I know that respect is born out of fear but there is a distinction between good and bad fear, and wonder if we don't get the two confused in our rearing of our children.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son".  "But if you cross Him and disobey His rules He will send you to hell in a  "heart beat."  What a confusing message that comes out of our attempts to raise our children to "do what is right".

Many parents choose to throw away the threat and promote grace and others use the threat and fail to teach forgiveness.  The Holy One today, stresses the importance of teaching relationship that the Lord longs for with His beloved people no matter what the age.  

As I look around at families in crisis within the Body of Christ, it is sad that the divorce rate is as high within the Church as outside in the world.  What that tells me is that many are missing the entire point that Christianity is about relationship and not rules.

If Jesus said, "They will know you are My disciples by your love for one another" (John 13:35),  then many have never understood what it means to be a follower of Christ.  Jesus was not referring to just the 12 when He made that statement but rather to all who would come to know Him as Lord over the course of history and time. 

We set about to teach the rules of engagement He taught us when He came in the flesh, but when our lusts and desires drive us to "break" the rules we fall back on grace and the liberty to get what we want despite what the Word of Holiness has to say on the matter.

We break out vows, trash our covenants, then worship as if that covers a multitude of our sins and we even re-define our sins and call them weaknesses or failures or little pet names that make the obvious violations of Holiness somehow acceptable. 

The problem with our Christian lives boils down to a problem with our Christ relationship.  We promote the rules but forsake the rule Giver, and in that we miss the entire point of the rules all together. 

Our relationship with Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit is the only power we have over our flesh; its drives, its demands, its depravity.  The extent to which we falter in our flesh is an expose of our real relationship with Jesus.

If we promote the rules without first learning about loving the rule Giver, we will fail in our obedience to the "rules". Jesus said, "If you love Me you will obey My commands".  There is a Sacred Romance to be enjoyed with the Lord Himself.   At every age there is a precious and priceless lesson to be taught and learned about that Sacred Romance with the King. 

Our children learn through Disney stories all about the concept of living happily ever after.  They get a picture of "the beauty and the beast" and the sacrifice of love.  They understand the "damsel" in distress, the 'knight" in shining armor, the "dragon" and the "rescue".   But do they really grasp that these are a picture of God's love, the intrigue of His kingdom,  His invasion into our struggles and His rescue of our hearts?

If these are just pictures of human love and relationship, life quickly despoils the dream.  The truth is that these are all elements of the Sacred Romance the Lord wants with each one of us.

I know the King is coming.
I know His kingdom awaits us.
I know He has prepared a place for me.
I know I will live with Him for all eternity.

I know the King and His name is Jesus.

The Sacred Romance comes first,  then the rules make sense. It's a backward teaching that promotes the rules before sharing the delight of a relationship.  And where teaching our children is concerned,  we cannot share what we do not have.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

         

The Love of Power

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Winter is finally past and I can begin to see the hope of Spring as the forest comes out of it's slumber.  Infirmity was an unwelcome  presence in our home as we were making the transition into this new season.  The forest does not respect the rest that is needed and weeds sprout up when no one can pluck them out of places they do not belong.

The Holy One uses all things in my life to teach and instruct me in the knowledge of Himself and to help me understand our relationship.   Being down during the weed fest in the forest brings up visions of the National Geographic show about earth, post humanity and how vegetation will take over all our habitations.

Being overwhelmed at the view from my back door would be the understatement of the year as I survey all the living areas overtaken by undesirable vegetation. Weeds can quickly overgrow a garden and choke out good fruit, much like wrong thinking can despoil righteous works.

The Holy Spirit begins today's lesson as I turn my attention to His gentle Presence and away from the problem of the weeds.  I hear Him say, "Many people want a relationship with Me only for the love of My power, not for the power of My love."

I have to admit, I was expecting to hear more about weeds and tares than about a "power" problem.  His wisdom begins to impact my thoughts and I realize the Truth behind the statement. At the advent of His first coming, many were looking for a powerful King Messiah, who would rescue them from the power of Rome and establish a kingdom for them here on earth.

God's chosen needed only  a powerful King for them to rule and reign on earth. Imagine the disappointment when Jesus was mocked and crucified and did nothing to defend Himself or punish those who impaled him on their death beam.

Luke 23:35, "The people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at Him.  He saved others, let Him save Himself if He is the Christ of God, the chosen One".  Even the thief on the cross voiced his exceeding disappointment that this "Messiah" wielded no power that he could tap into.  Luke 23:39, "One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him "Aren't you the Christ?  Save yourself and us".

Until Jesus came to show men the Father, God was distant and unapproachable except by a few and not very friendly or relational except to a few.  His power was not in question, but His love was.

The power side of humanity wants to have and control the power.  There is nothing new under the sun, so as we manage our relationship with our Lord we need to be aware of our flesh lust for power.  We can know God as Father, and we understand Jesus came to save, but with the miraculous model of supernatural power that laced the ministry of the Messiah, we can fall victim to the possibility that a relationship with the Creator might become a power-grab of sorts.

I am sure there were some heady moments when the Lord sent out his disciples to heal the sick, raise the dead, and evict demons from their human habitations.  Left unchecked, pride can rule our flesh life and make us altogether unfit for any assignment to serve the Holy One.

By His words to me this morning, I know the Holy One wants me to assess myself.  I know that He sees things in me that I may not detect and they are often times things about our relationship or my understanding of His being that need correction.

If I love my Lord I will pay attention when he tells me things that may be bothersome or a grief to Him.  Rather than defend myself, I must ask Him to show me what He sees.

Back in the day before His first coming, the people were looking for a King Messiah.  Instead Jesus came as a suffering one.  The cross cut through all their pride in relationship and the thoughts of being on the "winning team".  Loyalty to their friend, Jesus, cost them their very lives and so it is for us today.

For those who may be thinking that Christianity is like a "power grab" and that the power of Heaven delegated to the saved means an easy road and constant victory with temporal blessings for the asking, they might need to take another look at the Cross.

One of the clear distinctions our Lord made by His voluntary crucifixion unto death, is that He died to restore a relationship lost;  not through human power but through Divine love.

What does the Lord want me to glean out of today's counsel?  I see it boils down to a motive check.  Do I seek the Lord for what I want or need Him to do?   Or do I seek Him for who He is in relationship?  The sacred romance can be tainted by a love of power and desire to be on the winning team of this life.

Trials and temptations come hard and fast.  Some days I meet the brick wall of silence from Heaven and realize it is shaped like a cross.  These are the days when our true motives in following Christ get tested and checked.

Are we captivated by the love of His power or by the power of His love?

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

         

A Disturbing Reality

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The furnace of affliction has been hot for sure. I cannot deny His presence in the heat, but I wonder what is to be gleaned from the experience. 

The Holy Spirit speaks into the unspoken question in my mind, "Don't be afraid of the Refiner's fire nor shocked by what you see surface".

Long ago in my walk, the picture of gold being refined was etched in my mind.  It is one of the most powerful and important visuals I have of my Heavenly Father.

Gold is refined through heat. The process requires it.  As the gold heats up, it turns to liquid and in liquid form, the impurities that are fused to the gold in it's solid form, are ultimately separated and released.  These impurities come to the surface of the molten gold and are removed by the refiner.   Pure gold is what remains after the heat dislodges the impurities and the refiner ladles them off the gold.

Trials of life act like heat to our soul.  The heat goes up under our lives and we start the melt down.  All kinds of things begin to surface as we react to the heat.  Many of us have those days when we are shocked by what we say or do in the "heat" of the moment.  Things come out that shock and disturb our self image, especially our "Christian" self image.

Planet earth is our place of refinement.  We were not born in a shape fit for Heaven.  We are in a process and would do well to recognize and not forbid the Hand of Holiness from making us fit for our future habitation AKA the Kingdom of our God.

Our relationship with the "Refiner" is of utmost importance.  We come into the world complete with a will for independence and rebellion and the heat goes up.

The Refiner's fire starts low. Some things surface immediately.  Nothing shocking, just dirt that we knew was there.  Salvation brings a new awareness of Holiness and we immediately surrender what we know is corruption within. 

We get with the program: we join a church, follow the rules, sing out praises and life is sweet for a season.  We know we can do this.  The first round of the heat and we ace it.  Religious pride is satisfied and we make a note to shelf along the lines of "I am thankful that I am not a hypocrite like that other guy". 

The comparisons go on and we start to compare ourselves with others who don't live by the rules that legalism says make us Holy.  Life moves us forward and then we begin to feel it:  uncomfortable heat, strange circumstances, weird reactions from the world around us.  The rules get broken and we come to the conclusion that others don't play by the same ones we do.  We react and when we do, we are shocked.

We say very honestly, "if only they hadn't done this to me, I wouldn't have been so ugly to them.  If only they had let me do what I wanted, I would not have hurt them by my words and actions.  If only........" and we can all fill in the blanks with our excuses for failure for the lapses in our "Christian" character.  Depression can set in and self-accusation can defeat us, unless we realize that this disturbing reality is all part of the process that our "Refiner" God is in charge of.

Sovereignty knows all things.  He knows every cell in our body and every hair on our head.  He also knows our emotions and our will.  He sees through us and all our fine sounding but empty words when it comes to Holiness.  For Holiness is His.   Holiness is Who He is. And Holiness is what He is after in us, His beloved creation.

Eyes on the Refiner is the only way to tolerate the heat in life.  He enables us to see what cones to the surface of our thoughts throughout the process and then identify the expressions and actions that flow out from the corruption within.  That is the purpose for the "heat"  To discover what lies deep with our hearts and then to surrender for correction whatever is not like unto His Holiness. 

Somehow we have been led to believe in instant transformation at the moment of salvation.  But scripture says that our God is patient and that is truly the quality of a Refiner.   The heat goes up incrementally and each degree has a purpose and intent.  The Lord knows what He is after in each one of our lives.

When the heat goes up, we should look to see what rises to the surface and not be discouraged by the disturbing reality of what has been exposed.  Rather instead we should consider co-operating with the One removing the dross in our character.  We might even offer up a song of praise that the corruption has been identified and can now be removed. 

Jesus had harsh words for the legalistic Pharisees and all the rules that beat up the flesh but never changed the heart. In Mark 7:20-23, He said, "What comes out of a man is what makes him unclean, for from within, from out of men's hearts come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man "unclean"........  AKA  "Unholy".        

God is not surprised by what the heat reveals nor is He troubled by our humanity.  The Cross took the penalty for it and His justice is satisfied.   But we need to get with the process that is preparing us for eternal life with Him and react to the Refiner with a trusting and thankful heart.  He doesn't leave us where He finds us liable for judgement.  He is preparing us for another world that we cannot begin to fathom.

Today, rather than reel at the disturbing reality of my flesh or become depressed, shocked or stubborn about the effects of the heat exposing the corruption within, I choose to humbly thank my Lord for His work and trust that it is necessary to my refinement in His eyes. 

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

  

  

 

Listen Carefully

The Holy One calls to me this morning. The flesh is hard pressed to answer His call, as infirmity has hit my household.  His words to me naturally flow out of the love of the Healer, so I look for my Bible to read His reminder.

The Spirit takes me to Exodus 15:26 B, "I will not bring upon you any of the diseases I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord Who heals you".  I know all of God's promises are mine so this verse that the Lord is our Healer is a sweet comfort as we wait for the "symptoms" of the infirmity to pass.

With the issue of healing resolved, in that the Healer will heal, I know there is a lesson to be found in the Word He has taken me to this morning.  I look back at Exodus 15:26 for perhaps a deeper lesson from the Teacher.

Ex 15:26, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His eyes; if you pay attention to His commands and keep all His decrees, I will not bring upon you all the diseases I brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord Who heals you."

Since Passover, I have been seeing the symbolism of the "yeast" that is like sin, and was to be located and removed from the household before the great Exodus out of the Land of Egypt.  Yeast is a symbol of sin, and corruption. Sin can be hidden in the folds of our flesh unless it is searched out and removed, like the yeast from the house.

In the crazy world we live in, there are so many voices contending and competing for our attention.  There are a myriad of others dictating, opinionating and calling for our loyalty and obedience.   Everyone from politicians to clergymen are barking out orders and trying to gain a following that honors their lead.

But the word of the Lord is very clear:  "If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God".......  This scripture reveals much about the need for listening in relationship. 

Listening is an act of honoring.  Listening suggests an interest in what is being presented to our ears and an opportunity for impact extended to the One speaking. We can be open or closed to a relationship but listening to the one speaking is an indicator of our interest in that relationship.

It is vey telling to me, that these verses are written right before Ex 16 where God was to reveal His supernatural provisions for the entire nation. The manna and quail episode of Exodus 16, provided an opportunity to test their willingness to listen and obey the voice of the Lord. 

Rabble rousers surfaced; voices of defiance called out of the crowd and the people had to decide whose voice would get their attention and loyalty.

Is it any different in our world today. 

The voice of the Lord speaks: "Children are a gift and blessing from God.  Honor life".  The voice of the rabble rousers speak: "Children are an inconvenience and a burden.  Abort them while you can".

The voice of the Lord speaks: "If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death".  The voice of the rabble rousers speak:  "There is no good served in society by the death penalty for murder.  It is cruel and unusual punishment and must be eliminated."

The list goes on; situation after situation.  Some commands are easier than others to accept, but all must be honored as God's Word and His Will.  Rejecting God's Word as ultimate authority on any subject, causes infection in our lives.  The voice of the Lord is replaced by situational ethics.  The opinions of man outweigh the commands of the Sovereign and we end up sick;  sick in our minds, sick in our hearts and sick in our bodies.

We can argue the point and say, "but what is one voice against so many?  What is one life in a sea of millions?  To ask that question means we have no connection to our Head and we are on the verge of a cave-in, because God does not tell us to make sure others "listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God."   We are simply but profoundly ultimately accountable for only 1 life and that is ours. 

As the rabble rousers speak against the Word and commands of our God, we do not have to agree or take part in their rebellion.

The Word says, "If you (individual) listen carefully to the voice of your (personal) God and do what is right in HIS eyes, If you (personally) pay attention to His commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring upon you the diseases I brought upon the Egyptians".

The point of the lesson this morning as I search out the yeast in the folds of my flesh is well taken.  As the world plays out the final days on God's prophetic calendar, I must choose to listen to the Voice of the Lord my God and obey His commands to me.

I may or may not be able to affect any change in someone else's thinking or fix societies mistakes,  but I must always stand in agreement with God's Word and His commands with ears listening to the Voice of  the Lord my God. and a will eager to obey it.

Trials, to me, are educational.  I am not a victim but a student in school.  I am thankful today that the Holy One pushed past the temporal infirmity to show me an important Spiritual Truth. 

As I am looking for the sin in the folds of my flesh, I start with my thoughts and realize I need the Holy One to search them.  Only He can truly identify the yeast that is hiding therein.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?