Coming Home

We love growth. You've seen the door post with short pencil marks, measuring the family tribe as each child grows. Everyday they check to see if they're taller but change is incremental and that's why we have record it. Coming back home is like encountering those old marks on a door post. I've been in school three months out of six away and there was this pressure as I returned home for Christmas. Was moving all the way across the country worth it? If I'm honest there's been internal pressure to be super powered and coming back was pressured. I know better than to yield to the pressure but it can be challenging.
So returning home causes me to ask the question. What's changed? The biggest thing is knowing God is pleased with me. As my Father He's crash hot about me and His Son thinks I rock. That's not a proud or arrogant statement, it's simply knowing that God loves me. What's even better, is it isn't about how well I do things, His love isn't about performance. What father causes his children perform before he loves or enjoys them? He simply wants his children in his presence.
Living in that reality brings a profound change in life. No longer am I striving to perfect every last shred of my life before I receive His acceptance. Maybe you think He requires your perfection, or that your sins have separated you from His presence. That's scripture but let me ask you, are you seeking Him with all your heart? If so then I would refer you to "Love covers a multitude of sins." Paul tells us we have junk but the solution is to reckon or decide not to yield to it. He tells us what we think is key to how we live. Do you want to live more? Believe that God's grace and acceptance is greater than your sin.
God is not looking for you to work out your hardest problems before He receives you. He's waiting for you to invite Him into your deepest mess. Get up on His lap and invite Him to help you work it out. As you do believe that His grace is bigger than you sins and experience His royalty at work in you. So I sum up the last six months in a message from a friend I caught eyes with on Sunday, "Your countenance lifted my spirit!" The radiance of your face comes from deep inside. The more you live in the reality of God's grace upon your life, the brighter your countenance.

Into the box

J Allen Peterson makes a profound statement "Most people get married believing a myth - that marriage is a beautiful box full of all the things that they have longed for - companionship, sexual fulfillment, intimacy, friendship. The truth is that marriage, at the start is an empty box. You must put something in before you can take anything out. There is no love in marriage, love is in people. There is no romance in marriage, people have to infuse it in their marriages. A couple must learn the art and form the habit of giving, loving, serving, praising - keeping the box full. If you take out more than you put in, the box will be empty."

That's amazing advice for couples but it pertains to our relationship with God as well. Many people bring their box to God and say "Fill it up, Lord." It's good to have Him fill it but did you know God wants you to put your heart and emotions in it as well? He's looking for more than obedient servants, He's looking for relationship. He created you for more than servanthood, He created you for fellowship. You have stuff to put in the box and He wants it, He's interested in your ideas, thoughts and friendship.

In the Old and New Testaments God called Abraham His friend; friends talk, friends exchange ideas and challenge each other. Abraham's friendship was expressed in Gen. 18 when he interceded on behalf of Sodom. Contrary to God's plan he pleaded for the people of Sodom and God listened. The relationship wasn't about Abraham's goodness, he lied about his wife over and over and by his poor decisions fathered both the Arab and Jewish people. Through that mix alone he is personally responsible for messing up half the planet, yet he's still considered a friend of God. I doubt you've messed up half the planet so there's hope for you!

Over and over God enjoys the input of His people. God was amazed when David wanted to build a house for Him, without Him asking. We are able to bless the Lord by our response to Him. You have a box that needs to be filled but you are part of the filling. If you're still in doubt Jesus told His disciples, "I no longer call you servants...but I have called you friends." John 15:15 Be a friend of God, pour your input into your box with God and watch what happens.

The Real Parallel Universe

Science fiction loves to tell stories of parallel universes, invisible worlds as close as our breath but unknown to men where every now and then a soul slips in and a wonderful adventure begins. This delightful topic of fiction is in fact reality; we live in a parallel universe where our natural world is mixed with an invisible one. The Bible tells us that we live in both a natural and a spiritual world and we can interact with both.

I believe that everyone is created to interact with this invisible realm but many have never had their eyes opened or don't take the time to become familiar with it. So the common condition is to be directed by the dictates of this natural world. God does not call us to such a one sided existence; not only does He call us into His unseen realm, He Himself gives us abilities to interact with it, beginning with the simplicity of a bended knee in prayer.

The Bible tells us about the spiritual gifts God has for us. God gives them to us as we ask but He also gives them as He wills and we might experience them without asking or fully understanding their nature or purpose. I wonder if you know what it is to see someone across a room and immediately feel their pain in your body or a burden of their heart press upon yours; to discern someone who has an hidden motive in a business transaction or to know what God is about to do in someone's life. These are expressions of those gifts. What about praying for an physical injury and seeing it immediately disappear, knowing a stranger's thoughts, seeing angels and demons or having faith to believe for impossible situations? These are some of the amazing spiritual gifts God gives us.

For many years I experienced and loved these gifts but didn't really understand the details. I was both keenly aware of Heaven's activity yet ignorant of how to interact with it. In some respect it's like being an X-Man having supernatural abilities that make me different in a good way. I talk to people about these things but it seems to be a language not everyone understands.

Now I've come to Bethel in Redding, CA, where I'm surrounded by 2,000 students who totally understand this realm. They live, eat and breathe this invisible reality. It's like coming to a school for the gifted, where once you thought you were unusual but now you realize you're normal. Even after months here the reality of this can be overwhelming. Yesterday was such a day, that day I saw the Holy Spirit guiding and leading me with more clarity and precision than I've ever known. In the last session I'm sitting at a table with students I've just met and hear one say "I'm such a feeler" and I know EXACTLY what she means. She's an X-Woman, a student with supernatural abilities, able to feel people's pain, joy, grief and longings; she knows where God stations His angels in a room and how He's feeling about someone or something. As she speaks it seems like decades of hidden understanding overwhelm me as she articulates her invisible gift.

This is Bethel, the most exciting environment for discovering God. I've heard teaching about the gifts and their operation, now I have an entire leadership team demonstrating, cultivating and awakening those gifts. Imagine what it's like to suddenly realize God has made you a seer and He speaks to you in images, or that you're a feeler and you feel things, a gift that can be so strong that some here thought they were bi-polar because of the emotional swing caused by encountering different people. As Kris Vallotton said in class, "Many of you were the most spiritual people in your church and your leaders weren't sure what to do with you. Welcome to the land of the giants!" Oh how I love this new world! If this resonates in your heart, run for the things of God. Ask Him, ask Him, ask Him questions. Seek and you will find.