Monday, September 22, 2008

Fight The Good Fight


“It's better to die fighting for freedom than to live life."


War is hell, someone once said, and the rippling affects are a sobering reminder that where we are, behind enemy lines, is not our home.

In being re-born, our greatest asset is continued revelation from that which is all part of our birth-right, the intuitive growing, and learning of this One who is now our only Life, the Father of our spirit.
None of us in this spirit learning will be exempted from falling and being hurt from within especially. Anyone can fall, but staying there simply because we swear on a stack of bibles we trusted the Lord, will only needlessly prolong our time of nursing and rehearsing how wronged we were when our motives were so pure, according to us.
We are admonished to “fight the good fight”, there are many fights, battles, but this one is not just a fight, but a good fight, why? In wrestling it is no sweat, when one knows the holds, and our Father is the only source of knowing the holds.

Being re-born is meaningless apart from seeing; knowing and continuing to grow in this unfolding eye opening revelation of Him our heavenly Father.
There are so many distractions ever present in discovering the wonder of this world we’ve entered into through the portal of grace. Things that will always present us with a choice are we going to pitch our tent here, or move on no matter how attractive and enticing it would be to stay!
There are so many things and not all of them outwardly obvious to us that by giving into them could easily disqualify us from running the race, staying the course and obtaining the prize.

One of the most subtle aspects of this warfare we are in is being drawn to see something, but in our exuberance we sadly mistake a slice, piece of what is being revealed to us and calling it the ‘whole’ thing.
So many “denominations” are doing just that, they are identified by this one slice they have grabbed a hold of and calling it something which it is not.

I want to include a quote here from Wayne Jacobsen, from his book The Naked Church, which by the way I am enjoying thoroughly.

“I tried to trust God before, but he let me down. This may be the most difficult barrier to cross. Just about everyone has a story of a desperate moment when he cried out to God but was disappointed in the response. Why didn’t God heal my mother? Why was I unemployed for two years even though I prayed every day? I suspect that for every soldier miraculously saved when he cried out to God for help, many more weren’t. Only a fool would put his life in the hand of a friend who has failed him on a previous outing. And for many people, trusting God feels exactly like that. But we cannot learn to trust God by our interpretations of past experiences. More often than not we were looking out for our interests, and not God’s; thus we misinterpret or misunderstand his actions toward us. There are many reasons why God may not have dealt with a specific situation as we thought he should, but the Bible makes it clear that he never responds to us with less than absolute love and faithfulness. That’s his nature, and he can never be untrue to it. Learning dependence doesn’t begin in our experience, but in His character.”

In writing this I am seeing afresh that at the heart of our battle, the covert, subtle erosion of perpetual lies aimed at our hearts is essentially this,; God whom you call your Father is untrustworthy.

That’s why I am emphatically stuck in being established in the love of the Father; “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.”

“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”

“Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

Rich

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Rich,
Excellent post. Let us not put down our tent and camp out in the land of condemnation. For that only delays our journey, growth, learning and does little for us. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," (Romans 8:1).

Nor should we eat only of half a piece of fruit, when Father gives us the entire portion of it to us. For in doing so, we will remain hungry, when we do not need to be. Accepting the whole piece, and eating of it nourishes us in strength and health (spiritually, mentally, physically). But eating only half of it will not enable us to see the whole picture, to know the entire Truth, will leave us partially empty and vulnerable to taking the "fruit" of some other source other than from God's hand.

Blessings,
~Amy :)
http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.com