Smiling on the Outside

Late last night I was on Face-Book, a medium of great interest to many demographics, only because someone wanted me to include them amongst my friends. I did not know this person at all, and in trying to maneuver around in Face-Book which is very awkward for me, only because I’m hardly ever there, I saw a chat thing pop up and my son wanting to chat.

My son lives out on his own and not far from us in the same city. Because of the sensitive nature of what he wanted to talk to me about, I will not go there, other than to ask those who know me at least through this medium of the www, to please pray for my son, as our Father would speak to you.

What happened last night seems to be just one of many cascading continuations of what Papa is making real in my heart these recent days. So often I feel as if my heart is going into a melt down, sensing how much He cherishes me.
As I said to my wife, how can I NOT cherish you, or our son, or our daughter, or those around me in light of what I am discovering about being loved and cherished myself?
All the languages of the world could say the word ‘cherished’ and yet not touch me in the depth of how He is defining what cherished really means!

As crushing and painful as it was, hearing my precious son divulge is internal devastation, there was a deep knowing, an assurance this was not meant for death, but for LIFE.
Because of the chat feature on Face-Book cutting in and out, I decided to call him, only because of the nature of what he was sharing with me. He did not answer his phone, but came back on the chat device and said, no, I don’t want to talk on the phone, I only want to talk this way, I said ok.

I believe with all my heart Papa allowed me (in my total, complete helplessness) to speak Life into my son, and sensing that once again the Lord’s indestructible life would soon come forth from this death experience my son was buried in.

He is our Living Hope, or its all just Bull Shit!!

As I have reflected on what Papa wanted to say to me about this hellish night mare last night, he brought back to my remembrance this story. This part in particular is what gripped my heart for my son; “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." All that he can NOT see right now, only because of who God my Father is, can I see for my son, and on the basis of that alone, I can by His spirit in and through prayer, begin to see that anything and everything that would try and keep him buried alive, will be pushed aside as the Father’s life not only raises him from his death, but into the fullness of his awaited Birth-Right.

Right from the get-go when I was apprehended of the Father, a dimension of his heart that seemed to become a very natural expression of Him in me as me, was ‘encouragement’. If there was ever a time to be an encouragement to His body, which is the Church, is now.
I know this is not some isolated thing being spoken to me alone, I know the same spirit is nudging, prompting many to BE His encouragement to those being awakened from the Matrix sleep of religion through out the earth.
This transition of grace I have likened to in the following; "Having gone through the portal of grace and into His family, we are ALL adjusting to what is REAL, and discovering for the very first time, what really is normal.”

His spirit is working now, in you in me, no set of circumstances or situations are able to stop, prevent Him from making His heart known, and trust me on that.
He is ‘opening’ closed eyes to behold Him right where we are.

I love this heralding trumpet sound of grace coming from the heart and lips of our dear brother Paul; “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
There are so many times Paul referrers to himself as, “I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus, not the prisoner of Rome.”

Dear friend, brother, sister, you are NOT a prisoner of your circumstances or situations in light of the Truth, my prayer for His body, the Church is to SEE, and in seeing, we are FREED!

All of creation is standing on tip-toe, with baited breath and beating within their heart is a knowing, the long awaited manifest sons of God are coming to liberate them from their imprisonment.

Rich

Satan’s Influence

I should have started with this before posting “The Flesh is a Personality”, live and learn is what it is all about.

We should not be surprised by the fact that the idea of Satan in the flesh is inherently offensive to us in our worldly understanding. This offense is, in a curious way, one more bit of evidence that this is a true representation of our condition in this world. I can say this because Satan is a liar and the father of lies: John 8:44

The most dreadful prospect for a liar is exposure. For this reason we would expect a swift and strong reaction of the flesh to exposure of its true identity. The clear light of truth is death to one who lives by falsehood. The only power a lie has comes from our belief in it. Once the truth is known and accepted, the liar and his lies can no longer exert any influence over our living.This is why Scripture tells us that the truth is liberating to us: John 8:32 Given the gravity of this situation, it would be naive for us to expect the truth about the flesh to come to us without some considerable resistance.

Recognizing the true identity and condition of the flesh is a great step toward the reduction of the evil one’s influence in our living. Once we see the true condition of our being we are well on our way to constructively dealing with Satan’s influence in our daily life. It is true that the devil will always need to be resisted but our proper recognition of his working in us makes that dealing much easier and more effective. Any danger that is recognized for its true potential for harm is not nearly as much of a threat as an unrecognized or unappreciated risk.

Another aspect of this truth that Satan dwells in our physical body as the flesh is our reaction to this truth. We have all been the victims of years of exposure to the lies of the evil one. This exposure to falsehood has biased us in our thinking and understanding of how the world operates. The last thing that Satan wants is for us to see the truth about anything—especially the truth about our need to be healed and spiritually completed. As long as the evil one can keep us convinced that we are spiritually healthy or at least very nearly good in our natural state, he can block us from turning to the one true source of life and spiritual health—Christ. This includes not only interfering with our salvation but also complicating our daily surrender to letting Christ operate as our only effective source for living.
I would be more suspicious of the validity of the idea of Satan in the flesh if it were easily acceptable to my intellectual understanding than if it came as it does with some conflict. The devil will never give up his resistance to God and to our well-being. The only way we can ever know if our objection to an idea is due to its truth or falsehood is by spiritual discernment.

Rich

His Shining Light of Life

This is a continuation of what I posted here from my friend Art.
What a wonder our Papa is as he lovingly walks us through His maze of Grace!

Rich

My Personal Testimony Concerning His Shining Light of Life


Just such an exposure to the light came to me by my stress induced heart attack that occurred November 6th 1994. Since that heart attack, I’ve come to see my “self,” that is my real condition, in His light and as He had long seen and known me. The veil has been rolled back to allow me to now see how I, as an independent self-abled self, who had been attempting to live my secular and even my Christian life by my self-will and self-strength; apart from trusting Christ as my all. I saw that my self-life was one of always trying to control everyone and everything around me. I saw that it was rooted in my insecurity – because I had not yet come to trust God for my daily life. Living by self-effort, I was making the Christ who lives in me essentially of no beneficial effect in my life – and so the load was heavy. I never found rest when I attempted to fix and control things on my own. Even when it seemed all was under control, I was still not at rest for fear that something might be about to go out of my control.

The day after I left the hospital, after the heart attack, I sat with my Bible open, seeking Him to show me why such a thing had happened to me. I then felt I was under His loving divine illuminating radium as He spoke to me saying, “I’ve dealt with you and your relationship to the world, but now I’m dealing with your very “self.” I did not at that time understand His words but I melted with tears flowing, as I innately knew that He was not condemning me, but rather I sensed His unconditional love, and that he was bringing me onward to know Him in a deeper way. This realization came to me by His exposing me and diminishing my independent “self,” my self-godhood, which long had been in the way of my finding rest in Him.

I had always lived by my own self-strength and control. To understand the basis of the independent self in a Christian, we must know the true condition of all men before and after they come to Christ. 1.) We’ve all been raised under a merit system of sorts, “Little Johnnie or Susie, you do this, and you’ll get this”. We’ve been trained to “perform” or else. 2.) We’re all born into this world incomplete until our spiritual rebirthing, when Christ completes our creation (Col. 2:10). Once and for all, the Fathers love and grace births Christ into us when we are born of Christ’s Spirit (Jn 3:6, Rom 8:8-10). Yet, glorious as that spiritual rebirth and reconciliation was for me in 1968, my “soul-self” was still at that time totally in control and untouched…awaiting His later work of renewal, a “saving of my soul’s way of living” (Rom 5:10).

Thankfully, God is faithful to His task of renewing our sick souls. It may come 10, 20 or 30 years after our initial salvation, nevertheless, He is working to set the stage for the renewing our soul, bringing us into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. God is at work in those darkest hours of our lives, into which the light of His life can shine with its divine, curative, radium (His light).
Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you…. 2 Peter 1:19 … ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.