Filter Shield

I am aware that around each of us there exists an atmosphere. I am not referring to the physical aroma that emanates from our bodies, though that may be somewhat of a factor, or maybe more of a symptom. I am speaking of the spirit, that elusive part of us that may be more real than the physical realm that we usually assume is reality. The word “spiritual” really means anything in reference to this spirit realm.

When we start throwing these words around the idea of “spirits”, as in ghosts or angels, also comes into the question. They definitely are a factor that strongly plays into this issue at times, but what I am focusing on here is the immediate sense or flavor or “spirit aroma” that is created and surrounds our own unique individual spirit and the effect that it has on both ourselves and others. This is an area that is often completely outside the awareness of many people. Because they are not aware of their own spirit or may even be hostile to even believing that it exists, they lose the ability and cognizance of what is going on in this realm, how they are being powerfully influenced by others and how much of an effect they are really having on their surroundings.

Some in the spiritual healing ministries have drawn pictures to illustrate the condition many of us find ourselves in with locked hearts. They sketch a drawing of a person with something like a force shield around their body that has been put in place to keep others from getting to their heart. This is usually erected very early in life as a barrier in our attempt to keep our hearts from being further damaged after repeated abuse and pain. It is a natural part of our human experience to act this way, but it is also very damaging and obstructive to the process of healing and growing in maturity.

This “force shield” around us is really an atmosphere that acts as a very selective filter that blocks out or allows in only selected ideas, emotions and communications according to the evolution of the damage done to our hearts previously. It is constructed in our mind through the various experiences and traumas that we have been through, many of which we are no longer aware of. The healing process involves undoing the locks and bars that have been constructed over the years so that we can once again begin connecting meaningfully with others at the heart level and begin to understand and experience life as God intended for us.

I have been thinking about this filtering shield the past few days and some of the ways it operates as I observe it in action both in myself and in those around me. I have noticed that this filter is built mostly on assumptions about life, about others, about God, about what is good and bad, about what if desirable and what is threatening. Most of the time many of these assumptions are at best partially wrong if not totally, but we believe them very strongly in our heart even when our head knows otherwise.

These filters seem to have the effect of allowing us to only see and hear what is important to us and also what are serious problems of our own. Though we almost never think of it this way, this is why we most often focus on the problems and issues in those around us that are the biggest problems of our own but that we have the least ability to see in ourselves. This seems to be a very pronounced attribute of this filtering phenomena. I think this may be because these “mutual” problems are where our mind dwells, either consciously if we are working on them, or unconsciously if we are in denial of them.

This filtering atmosphere around us often causes us to focus on the negative problems we perceive in those around us, those we work for, people in the store, people in church or in our families. We talk about them to our friends and complain about their faults while our friends silently are wondering when we might wake up and realize that what we are so accurately describing is really ourselves more than the people we are complaining about. But often our friends or family are too intimidated of our reactions to express what they are seeing us do so they just quietly let us vent until we have exhausted our energy or time. Or, worse yet, they may join into the pity party and began telling their own stories of the faults they see in their co-workers or others, being careful to not include us in their list of complaints at least for the time they are with us.

It is really amazing to me how very accurate the complaints a person has about those around them often fit the very character of that person themselves. It is also very frightening because I realize the same truth must apply to my complaints about others and I begin being much more attentive to the things I feel compelled to say about others and asking God to show me why this is such an intense feeling inside of me. The more intense my frustration is with someone else's problem, the more likely it is that this issue must be a part of my own nature and needs to be discovered and healed.

I also begin to think about how this same principle applies on the opposite side of the equation. When I choose to break out of the rut of focusing on the negative in others I can begin to create a new atmosphere that will invite people to see in me what I am seeing in them which in turn becomes motivation for that positive thing to be strengthened in me. For instance, how many times have we heard an unexpected, genuine expression of deep appreciation and suddenly felt to urge to be more appreciative ourselves? When we hear someone receiving affirmation, especially when they don't seem to have obviously earned it, we become aware of the incredible power inherent in affirmation to transform a life and we want to both experience it and give it. We feel the warm glow of life surging through our body and spirit and for a short time we resolve to be more positive and more loving. But habits die hard and we too often find ourselves back in the rut of negative thinking, criticizing and fault-finding with our filter locked solidly in place.

This filter not only is composed of assumptions but is knit together with expectations. We have compiled a list of things we expect to hear from people about us and we simply cannot hear or believe anything that is not on our list. It is simply beyond the realm of possibility. If we believe we are ugly we will discount and disbelieve every word anyone says to us to the contrary. If we believe we are stupid we will only allow messages into our hearts that agree with that foregone conclusion. If we believe that our real identity is found in the faults and sinful desires of the “flesh” that lives inside of us, we will gravitate toward those who point those things out in a spirit of condemnation to reaffirm the condemnation we already feel even though we may strongly resent them. What we believe about ourselves and our true identity is the filter we use to screen out all messages that disagree with the assumptions and expectations locked into that particular filter. And will tend to use the same filter to view others and judge their character. “To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted.” (Titus 1:15 RSV)

Our words combined with our spirit take on creative-like powers. In judging others we craft the very filter that will be used to judge us because it is the only thing that will be allowed in. “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” (Matthew 7:1-2 NRSV) We reap what we sow.

Law or Principles

I observe that when people try to make a covenant with God based on externals the result is often rule based. We think we know what God wants for our life, we want to align our lives to look like godly people so we set up rules so that the people in our group will behave and look like what we believe to be correct. These rules are oriented necessarily to dictate outward activities and relationships because rules simply can't be applied by humans to the heart. How could you arraign someone in court for not following a rule in their heart? Since it is impossible for any human to see into another person's heart accurately no one would be able to make an accurate determination about such a matter. Therefore, man-made rules always apply to externals.

God's way of operating is based on covenant relationship. (see FFI for excellent resources on understanding covenant vs. contracts) Although humans most always try to turn covenant arrangements into rule-based contracts, true covenant relationships are based on the heart. God has promised to exchange our hearts of stone for a heart of flesh. This new heart with God's “laws” written into its DNA is flexible and adaptable, unlike rule-based formula-oriented relationships.

The major problem with ruling the external with the focus on laws is that life and times change but rules are much slower to follow. What seems to work for current circumstances does not translate well to other people or to future generations. The result is a whole lot of rules and laws that quickly become obsolete and even ludicrous. Because of the obvious irrelevance of so many rules to practical life combined with the reluctance of the rule-makers to remove the old laws, most people adapt by learning to ignore some rules while carefully following others. This is usually based on the arbitrary enforcement of selected rules by whatever enforcers are nearby to do so.

This principle is at work both in secular society and religious communities. The proliferation of rules is like a plague that is constantly increasing the confusion and complexity of our lives. It is the essence of what is known as tradition. This increasing obsession produces more and more stress which slowly erodes our emotional strength and debilitates healthy relationships. Strict attention and focus on rules hardens the heart while professing to produce goodness and correctness in people however those are defined by the particular group or person in charge.

This strategy is at the heart of the Babylon system. And it is important to understand that it is not God's plan or method. And although God has stooped to meet us in our ignorance and set up systems of rules for us to observe because of our strong insistence toward this orientation, His original and perfect plan is based on heart relationships and heart motivation. His rules and laws are descriptive in nature instead of proscriptive. Man's laws are almost always proscriptive.

What is the difference? Proscriptive laws involve arbitrary commands requiring an enforcer and arbitrary punishments for infractions. The unholy trinity described at length in other places on this site (see labels) uses this system as its modus operandi. Rules, in fact, become a sort of deity in and of themselves. It is assumed that every problem can and must be solved by creating another law. (If you have any doubt about this, just casually observe how congress operates over a period of time.)

Once rules have been formulated based on some select group or person's opinion of what everyone else must do to be “right”, then some kind of punishment must be created to frighten everyone enough to obey the rules. The punishment often has no relationship to the law except its arbitrary imposition and attachment to that law. It usually has very little to do with natural cause and effect. In our society the two most common punishments that have condensed over time are fines and imprisonment. It matters very little what the law was that was broken. The punishment is almost always the same. Only the amount or length of the punishment may vary.

Now that the punishment has been formulated for the arbitrary rule, it is passed on to an ever-expanding group of enforcers to impose the punishments. This is usually deeply immersed in the “economics” leg of the unholy trinity. The system of law enforcement is almost exclusively a means of enrichment of the elite groups of “insiders” of society, those involved in making more laws, controlling most of the economics or acting as the enforcers. This encourages segregation of society into class systems between those who can get inside the privileged groups and those who are exploited outside the groups. There are all kinds of groups that are usually overlapping, but the grouping is very apparent most of the time.

This whole system of external rule-based living is inherently designed to harden hearts and make us cynical and callous. The “Babylonian” system designed and implemented by the greatest enemy of our souls is intent on destroying the image of God implanted in our hearts. It purports to have a better alternative to God's relational family-relationship system because it focuses on external performance and results more than God's system seems to. It teaches that the externals are the most important thing about us and that our value is based primarily on our ability to exalt ourselves at the expense of others.

Descriptive law is a completely different order of thinking and living. Descriptive law is not so much law as we are used to thinking of the word but is simply descriptive of the underlying principles of reality as it really is. In fact, God's laws, if understood correctly, are not really laws as impositions but are simply explanations of the great principles of cause and effect inherent in creation and the universe. These have been condensed into written descriptions in the imperfect and incomplete language of men adapted enough to get us to begin to understand how things work outside our limited understanding. The “laws” of God are like the laws of nature, which in fact are the laws of God. But unlike human arbitrary laws, God's laws do not require the system of arbitrary enforcement and oppressive enforcers to impose irrelevant punishments. God's laws are completely natural and His guidance (received through the heart) is designed to align us correctly with these principles so that we do not run crosswise to them and suffer the natural consequences of doing so.

God created the universe with immense power built into the various aspects and forces. These “natural” powers must stay in the synchronization and balance that was designed for them so that they accomplish what they were intended to do. As long as all the elements and intelligent entities stay in harmony with each other as originally designed they act as a blessing to each other and glorify the amazing skill and love of the Designer. But as soon as choices are made to violate the inherent principles in place, the incredible forces built into the system are in danger of breaking out of their boundaries and causing harm and unintended consequences that God never intended.

For instance, take the “law” of gravity. Gravity is not an arbitrary rule with arbitrary punishments for violators and with enforcers standing ready to impose the punishment. It is not at all like man's system of rules. It you violate the “principle” of gravity you unleash power inherent in gravity that results in consequences that are directly related and proportional to the violation incurred. We do not usually accuse God of arbitrarily punishing someone for violating the law of gravity, we are usually observant and open-minded enough to admit that the resultant pain and problems were directly the responsibility of the “violator”. We understand, usually, that if we stay in harmony and live within the constraints of this principle we can actually use it for our advantage and blessing. The inherent and immense power in this principle or law is woven into nearly everything we do. We know how to apply other principles that at times may supersede the normal constraints of gravity, but we understand our relationship to this law as simply a description of reality, of how things are in the world we are placed in.

When we apply this concept to all the rest of God's “laws” and begin to view them in the light of natural principles, that they are simply descriptions of reality that describe the boundaries of dynamic forces kept in balance, we will begin to unmask many of the lies about God as being an over-powering enforcer of capricious arbitrary edicts looking for opportunities to punish us and condemn our hearts.

In reality, God is passionate about restoring the balance of power in the universe to the model He first created. This model is based solidly on interconnected hearts in perfect harmony and joy with each other, drawing abundant life from the Creator and blessing everyone around them with life. This is our destiny and design. This is the identity built into to us called the image of God. When we realize the blessing and identity implanted within us that God longs to grow in our hearts we will re-connect with the real Source of life and begin to flourish and thrive within the natural constraints of all the mighty forces of nature and relationships.

Some people become alarmed at this perspective because it sounds in many ways like New Age thinking. New Age does teach a lot about inherent forces in the universe and living in harmony with natural principles. Like all false systems of thought, New Age has a great deal more truth in their understandings than most Christians are willing to accept. But the higher percentage of truth a belief contains the more deceptive potential it carries to smuggle in the small but deadly errors. In this case, the main embedded error that is fatal in this system of belief is the original lie given to Eve that we can be our own god, that God is not a separate entity from us but is our collective consciousness. This is largely reinforced in their minds because of the horrific lies about God that Christians still teach and believe in today.

But we must be very careful not to discredit the true part of something simply because it has been coupled with something erroneous. This is a very strong tendency among many but prevents us from embracing many concepts that are actually based in true reality. Every one of us is incomplete in our knowledge of truth and we all harbor lies that make us potential agents of deception ourselves. I have observed that many people associated with New Age are far more open-minded about learning new things than most other “religious” people. The prejudice against God that I see in most people who embrace New Age thinking is almost always based on terrible lies and abuse heaped on them by others claiming to represent God while acting more like demons. In response to this abuse, these people find the harmony and common sense that is more prevalent in New Age circles a refreshing breath of fresh air compared to the oppression and nonsense perpetrated by “religious” abusers.

The laws of nature are the laws of God because God created nature. This applies to all the universe. But sin has disrupted the balance of powers originally set up by the Creator and we now see some of the natural results and consequences everywhere we look. I personally believe that even some of the chaos we observe far out in space may possibly be continuing catastrophic results of sin on the part of some of the angels who fell so long ago. There are strong hints to this effect in the book of Jude and elsewhere in the Bible.

Sin is, in its essence, a crossing or violation of natural principles of harmony with the powers set up in original balance. The Bible defines sin as “transgression of the law”. “Trans” means to go crosswise to and “gress” involves movement (such as pro-gress or re-gress). When the law is understood as descriptive of natural principles with inherent built-in power, then to go crosswise to these natural principles will result in suffering the consequences of the power released in the wrong way. Sin disconnects us from not only from our only source for continued life but from the only reliable guidance system that will keep us aligned in harmony with all the forces surrounding us.

We are so ignorant on this subject that we are pitiful. We have tried to reduce all these concepts into religious talk and meaningless phrases strung together like so many mantras. We assume that if we can find the right religious recipe then we can maneuver our way into escaping pain and into favor with God.

But we must realize that God is already on our side, He is not the one against us. He is passionately doing everything imaginable to attract us to Himself and allow Him to bring us back into healthy alignment with the rest of creation so we can thrive and reconnect with all of the channels of life He created for us. This is the plan of salvation, to restore us to our proper place and function in the life-giving circuit of power. If we insist on remaining mis-configured and continue to trust other sources for guidance and life in place of trusting Him, we violate and break open the natural boundaries of intense but largely unknown forces in place all around us and unleash those forces into destructive results they were never intended to accomplish. God's incredible grace is the only thing currently protecting us from the disastrous affects of those forces even now. He is waiting and working within this atmosphere of grace to draw every person who is willing back into the protection of harmony with Him and His principles.

The time is soon coming when the level of sin and its effects on these forces will result in terrifying consequences that are inevitable when the grace of God is pushed firmly out of the way. Those who still cling to their barbaric lies about God will insist that God is a punisher and executor. They firmly believe that God operates His government like men do and therefore He will enforce His laws with stern punishments just like evil-hearted men do. The terrible thing is that this is largely the view and belief of most Christians right now. These lies about God become the filter through which everything is viewed and interpreted. Because this false picture of God is cherished so strongly, they will in fact experience the very results of the false ideas they impose on God.

Only those who are willing to radically be transformed into a completely new reality and perceive God from His perspective will be synchronized enough to survive the effects of nature's forces out of control because of sin. And more important, they will be fitted in heaven during the millenium to come into perfect harmony with God so they can not only look on His face in the final day of reckoning but will, amazingly, become part of His very body. They will participate in the greatest exposé of God ever to take place in all of time.

Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. "Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?" He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, He who rejects unjust gain And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; (Isaiah 33:14-15 NAS95)

New Age and Critical spirit

New Age thinkers see the image of God created in man and worship the image instead of the Creator. (see Romans 1:20-25) This could be, I suppose, maybe an improvement over worshiping hand-carved images that are greatly demeaning to humans, but still misses connecting to the Source of life. God's plan is to re-implant His perfect image (seed, incarnation) inside of us and grow it into maturity to become like Himself. “In all who will submit themselves to the Holy Spirit a new principle of life is to be implanted; the lost image of God is to be restored in humanity.

“But man can not transform himself by the exercise of his will. He possesses no power by which this change can be effected. The leaven --something wholly from without--must be put into the meal before the desired change can be wrought in it. So the grace of God must be received by the sinner before he can be fitted for the kingdom of glory. All the culture and education which the world can give, will fail of making a degraded child of sin a child of heaven. The renewing energy must come from God. The change can be made only by the Holy Spirit. All who would be saved, high or low, rich or poor, must submit to the working of this power.” (SD 34)

One of the striking differences between New Age philosophy and real truth of reality is pointed out right here. New Age spiritualism observes the inherent image of God within us and believes that along with that image is inherent power like God's. But this was lost to us in the Garden of Eden when we became corrupted by sin. Since that time our only hope is in the redemption by Jesus and an outside power infused into us through a vital and constant connection with Him to salvage us from the destructive effects of sin.

Criticism immediately places me in an adversarial relationship with others. It forms in my mind an image of them as an enemy to be overcome, changed into my image or attacked. The spirit of fault-finding, of focusing on the weaknesses and short-comings of others is an attempt to compare them with myself with the presumption that I will appear better in the outcome. But instead, the result is that those very problems and weaknesses and faults that I look at in them become more and more integrated into my own soul as a result of my prolonged attention on them. And as they do they increasingly distort my vision and bias me to amplify those problems until I have assembled a log in my eye – a petrified log – that biases me to view more and more people with critical assumptions. And in the process I also begin to judge God Himself as having faults and weaknesses like my own. Hence one of our continued methods of creating God in our own image.

This was brought home to me today as I read these words in My Utmost for His Highest this morning. “God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. 'I know this is what I should do' – and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We have shown our ignorance of Him in the very way we determined to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, we hurt Him by our advocacy for Him, we push His claims in the spirit of the devil. Our words sound all right, but our spirit is that of an enemy. (MUHH 1/29)

Truths from the New Age

I watched a video that my daughter wanted me to see on quantum physics and our mind. It was purporting to establish the New Age self-god philosophy. I could see a great deal of truth in the presentation, much more than most Christians want to believe. I thought back over the overall plot line and reasoning and realized that they teach that because God is behind good and bad, because of the lies about hell, because of all the lies about God taught in Christian churches (they didn't label them as lies of course) then the solution lies in believing that we are god collectively. There is no good or bad. They contradicted themselves several times but that goes unnoticed by most observers. They said we shouldn't create a god in our own image, inferring a god who is good and evil like ourselves. That statement is true, and unfortunately that is what Christians have indeed done. But then they turn around and create god in their own collective image.

They said they didn't endorse sin, violence and aggression but they offered no cure for it except to say that you can escape it by simply changing your thoughts. They teach that there is no reality outside and separate from us, that all reality is a creation of our brains. They teach that the internal reality is more real than the physical world around us. They demonstrate through the plot line of the story that the evil consequences of falling into sin (in their illustration getting drunk and waking up nearly naked the next morning with all its implications) are just bad emotions and feelings that can easily be eliminated by simply choosing to think differently about yourself thereby changing your reality. They correctly point out that your life unfolds according to the choices you are making and the root problem is how you think and perceive yourself. However, they strongly avoid the existence of sin and of a God distinct from us to whom we have to be accountable. They insist there is no judgment or condemnation, that evil is something to be avoided by simply changing what we believe about ourselves.

This is very strong delusion mingled with very strong truths. A very large part of the reason it is so tremendously attractive and deceptive is that it builds itself on the foundation of many of the lies about God. It sets those out as facts of religion and then presents itself as the only viable alternative to all the negative effects those lies have produced. This is spiritualism in its pure form. And this philosophy is the heart and soul of Babylon, fallen Babylon, the unholy alliance between Catholicism, corrupted Protestantism and New Age spiritualism predicted in Revelation. Protestantism is the compromising link between the legalism and God-lies on which Catholicism is founded and the seemingly best answer promoted by spiritualism. It won't take much adjusting to create an overwhelming magical spell of deception from this lethal mix. The result in the soul is intense attraction but underlying confusion which is the meaning of the word Babylon.

What is our reaction to be if we are to escape the magic and the deception? Certainly not more infusion of intellectual knowledge, though that is usually what is attempted. While it is important to not be ignorant of Satan's schemes, we do not have to dissect them, analyze them and disassemble them to determine what is true and false. Eve tried that and started us on the road to where we are now.

The only hope and safety we have is to know the real truth about God and allow Him to transform us to be spectacular demonstrations of grace that will draw hungry, empty souls to the real source of life. Satan's lies about God had to be accepted and become presumptions before his lies about how we should live could take hold in our souls. That is why it is crucial to first focus on undermining his lies, not by lengthy exposés and dissections of what is wrong with error, but with ever-expanding revelations of the truth of God's beauty, consistency, faithfulness, compassion, justice and the truth about consequences. This cannot have real effect against the enemy if it is only a “religious” activity. It has to be a heart-transforming demonstration of inward power effected by the Spirit of God. The confusion of Babylon will never be overcome by force, by unmasking all the errors and uncovering the conspiracies like so many Christians are addicted to doing. Babylon will fall, will collapse in ruin, when its foundation of lies are exposed by the overwhelming revelation of the beauty and glory of God, not only in the beliefs but in the lives of the people who allow Him to dwell in them richly.

There were many fascinating insights and truths in this video that greatly strengthen the truth about the real God of heaven and how he created the universe and us. Many of these truths are rejected by many Christians for various reasons. Some because of their tenacious clinging to the lies about God deeply rooted in religious traditions, and others because we tend to reject any new insights if they are discovered first by our opponents. This puts us into a seeming quandary. If we study into New Age ideas to extrapolate genuine truths about God we are not immune to becoming infected with subtle deceptions along with them. If we avoid knowing anything about these things because they are promoted by deceivers it appears we will take much longer to discover them for ourselves. But this logic itself smells of a possible subtle deception. It assumes God is not eager to share the truth about Himself with us directly. The real obstacle is not so much our access to information as it is our prejudices and pride that prevent us from integrating new truth and insights into our current beliefs about God and reality.

If we were to release our prejudice but still screen every idea through the objective filters of the Word of God in the Scriptures and the Spirit of God dwelling within us, we would grow much faster in our perceptions of God and reality. Many of our prejudices are rooted in strong opinions about Bible translations or traditional, unchallenged assumptions about what the Bible means by various passages. When we allow the true Spirit of God to unlock our hearts as well as our minds when we study truth from His Word, we will be amazed and delighted to see lie after lie unmasked as truth emerges more and more perfectly interlocked and synchronized with creation and reality. As we focus on connecting our hearts in vital communion with the heart of God – the real and only source of life and truth – we will be filled with not only amazing knowledge about how reality works in the physical, mental and spiritual worlds but will become a living exhibition of the glorious results of that transformational truth. This is my desire and choice. I choose to open myself to the Source and draw heavily on those resources of life. I want to be made an exhibition in the trophy train of Jesus' captives. I want to become a slave of love completely swallowed up in the life of the Lover who stopped at nothing to redeem my life from deception and death. I give my permission for God to do anything and everything He needs or wants to do to bring about this end. Make my life a flaming passion for the glory of God.

Heart Capacity and Writing

The heart that has once tasted the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draught, and as you impart, you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love. (SD 32)

Only the Holy Spirit of God can quicken the perceptive faculties.

Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive. (SD 33)

As I read these statements over the past few days it occurred to me that what is going to happen at the point in time referred to as the “close of probation” is actually a time when people have so hardened their hearts that they have lost all capacity to receive the Holy Spirit. This loss of capacity is what some refer to as the locked heart syndrome. It can be locked by irreparable damage (by refusing repair) or by suffocation from an overbearing left-brain religion. Hearts of stone have no ability to expand in capacity like hearts of flesh.

On the other hand, God's plan for us is to be continually increasing our capacity by the exercise of joy in community and with Him. The latest brain science has discovered that joy (someone delighted and desiring to be with us) dramatically increases the capacity of the most important part of the brain and is what the brain craves the most. The whole plan of salvation is designed to restore our capacity so we can again mirror the face of God in our lives.

I have also been pondering the very act of writing itself, that is, writing about what one believes in particular. Writing locks ideas to a fixed point in perspective and does not allow for growth in understanding or shift in time and circumstances. In contrast, living in God's presence enables one to always live in the present allowing His wisdom to always be up to date.

Writing by its very nature also reduces the content of the thoughts and feelings of the heart in the very process of being condensed and filtered by the left brain to get the feelings and concepts small enough to express in language familiar to others. The left brain does not have near the capacity that the right brain possesses for expression but the left brain is where our means of language is based – another good reason to live from the heart. The heart – that I currently believe is primarily rooted in the right brain – is the only part of us equipped with large enough capacity to live life as we are designed to live it in vital connection with God's heart.

The right brain is the only soil suited to properly grow the seed of God implanted into us. The left brain is more like the hard ground or rocky ground where seeds are analyzed and displayed, stolen or left to flounder with very little emotion and passion available for the roots to grow into or from which to receive nourishment. The weedy ground person may be living more from a heart orientation but allows many other distractions to consume all its resources so very little is left for the image of God embedded in His word within us to flourish. (see Matt. 13:18-23)

Writing is useful to convey expressions of identity from a fixed point in our experience. But it must be remembered that those descriptions are neither complete or reflective of subsequent growth. To the extent that writing reflects the thoughts inspired by the Holy Spirit it can reveal valuable insights that can inspire others. But one must be careful to listen with the heart while reading someone's writings and focus on discerning the heart of God that inspired that person more than focusing on the agent who expressed those insights that are now frozen in words while their heart continued to move on in expansion of capacity through new experience.

This involves the issue of judging as well. When we make a settled opinion about someone's character based on their expressions without allowing for unknown evidence and growth since that expression, we judge their heart and often attempt to force them into a static mold based on our judgment. This creates an atmosphere conducive to hardening of the heart. This is the concept of judgment that we have typically assumed God will do at the close of probation. We sometimes think He will simply harden everyone's heart at an arbitrary point in time and they will be forever stuck with the character that they were caught in at that moment. That point in time, though never spoken about in this manner, is often assumed to be likely at a time when God finally runs out of patience with us and decides to change tactics with this rebellious planet to get on to the next phase of bringing an end to the Great Controversy. But this is another one of those damning lies about God that keeps us away from Him in our hearts.

Relearning Identity

A realization hit me last night. I guess it sounds sort of obvious when it is stated, but sometimes things feel like a new revelation when a left-brain fact suddenly sinks into the right brain. It is about the principle that you reap what you sow.

When I think and speak critically I create an atmosphere that encourages others to think critically of me. When I feel negatively toward the church and pastor they will tend to feel the same way toward me. That does not lead to unified efforts or reconciliation.

If I want a church to accept changes in their ways of thinking and embrace new ideas and attitudes, then I have to demonstrate those changes in myself by adopting a positive attitude and relating to all of them with grace and forgiveness and compassion no matter how they act or treat me. My spirit in my interactions with those who disagree with me plants the seed that will lead to creating the atmosphere that eventually I will reap. This is so hard to perceive with my spirit. Sure, its easy to outline it intellectually, but when it comes to actual practice I usually default to the natural tendencies of the flesh.

Craig Hill teaches that the most crucial time to plant new seeds is right after a failure. The ideas about yourself that you internalize at that moment are the seeds that are planted to be reaped in the future. For instance, if I berate myself for being so stupid, such an idiot, brainless etc. right after I make a mistake, my soul hears those messages and they become implanted to quickly sprout and bear like fruit the next time I find myself in a similar situation. I will more strongly perceive my identity as a stupid idiot who can't ever do anything right and somehow subconsciously I will more accurately live up to those expectations which will further reinforce those beliefs about myself, seemingly affirming my analysis. This is a most familiar scenario for most of us.

However, the same principle of sowing and reaping works just as effectively if used to plant good seed from the Spirit of God. When we choose to believe in an identity revealed to us about the heart Jesus has implanted in us and speak forth that identity in the face of what appears to be the opposite based on our recent behavior, we plant seeds that also can sprout and take root in our soul and began to crowd out the negative plants so predominant in our lives.

This at first feels like hypocrisy or positive thinking therapy. But it is not hypocrisy. And although positive thinking techniques draw heavily on these basic principles they often don't go far enough to tap into the real power Source of God's revelation of our true identity that we need for transformation. But when we choose, particularly right after a failure where we have once again disappointed ourselves and fallen for some temptation or indulged in some weakness, when we choose at that very moment to take our attention away from the failure and defeat and fix our attention firmly on the qualities of our true heart that God designed within us, we will breath life into those attributes and allow them to begin to flourish and thrive and come into fruition.

How much am I doing this? Very little so far. But it looks like a dynamite way to blow apart much of my old patterns of self-defeating behaviors and habits of failure. Of course it would be nice to have people around me reminding me of who I am in these moments as well. It would be just as wonderful if I would use the eyes of heaven to see the true identity and hearts of those around me and remind them of who they really are and their true value when they can't see themselves that way too. That's what real community is all about – reminding one another of who we really are when we forget to act like ourselves and our people.

Thoughts on Blessing

My wife and I had a discussion with Linda a few days ago about birthdays and how to relate to them. She had written a piece on her blog about it and I expressed some of my misgivings about the traditions and expectations that surround the event.

I have often wondered why we make such a big deal out of birthdays anyway. I'm not saying we should or shouldn't, I just wonder why, what the underlying motives are. It even seems more logical that we should celebrate the day of conception more than the birthday. After all, birth is simple a transition from one environment to another. Conception is when one actually comes into existence. It seems that is far more eventfully important than simple a change of position. Of course, times of conception are not only usually difficult to trace back to but are also surrounded with circumstances that almost no one wants to talk about especially in public. So maybe that is one reason it is more convenient to focus on the day of birth.

Birthdays are also usually much more prominent in the mind of women than they are for men. I suspect that is partly so because mothers are so intimately and painfully involved in the process that culminates nine months of very close companionship. It tends to make a much deeper impression and memory for them than it does for most men. That may be why mothers have little trouble remembering birthdays.

We have been learning that there are at least seven very significant times in a persons life when they need to receive a blessing. A lot of time needs to be spent elaborating and explaining what that word even means. One of the best resources I know right now is Family Foundations (found in my resource page). In short, blessing means empowerment to prosper and an impartation of identity. This identity is the unique one God created for this person and reinforced by important people in their lives. Cursing, the opposite of blessing, is of course the exact opposite. It is imparting a negative identity, messages of worthlessness and shame that discourage, dishearten and disempower one for life.

When this is understood it is clear what God's desire is for every one of us. Jesus stated unequivocally, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (curse). I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (bless). (John 10:10) Our role as parents, friends and even siblings is to reaffirm and remind each other of the identity that God wants to draw out of us that will reveal His glory. This is how we bless each other. And this is also how we can bless God.

The first time of blessing in life is at conception. When two people come together in harmony with the Spirit of God in themselves and celebrate the intimacy that God designed for them to share in marriage and conceive a child in the image of both God and themselves, the new life is infused with a blessing that will make a radical difference for the rest of life.

The second important time of blessing is at birth. It is at this time that the child joins not only his parents in person but all the community of family and friends. Everyone celebrates the visible addition to the joyful community that makes up families. Each person brings their unique perspective of blessing to the child and to the parents empowering the family to thrive and strengthening them for the struggles ahead. Again, identity is imparted in a powerful way to the child and an unseen energy and strength is imparted into the soul of that individual.

To understand just a little of the effect of blessing, just consider the Jews as a culture. They have been practicing blessing in their families for thousands of years. It is no accident that on the whole Jewish people are generally more prosperous and influential than any other group of people in history. It is because they have followed the ancient principles that God built into human design and they are enjoying the benefits. But blessing is not restricted to Jews anymore than being a fully alive human is restricted to Jews.

In my ponderings about birthdays I have wondered if a person might be better served if they used this day to bless others in various ways. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive. I guess I haven't come to any hard conclusions or profound insights on this idea. But the traditions of expecting gifts, cake and parties and the total obsession of wanting all the attention certainly has produced a lot of selfishness on the part of many children that is similar to the self-obsession surrounding Christmas. That is a whole other topic that I certainly don't want to get started on right now.

So I sat down this morning and opened the devotional book and was startled to read the scripture for today. “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” (Isaiah 11:2) It reminded me strongly of the specific blessing given to me both times that I attended an Ancient Paths I seminar. “And the spirit of the Lord will come on you with power, and you will be acting like a prophet with them, and will be changed into another man. And when these signs come to you, see that you take the chance which is offered you; for God is with you.” (1 Samuel 10:6-7 BBE) The Lord impressed me both times that this was His word, His blessing that in some way reveals something about my true identity and my future. When I first glanced at the text in the devotional I had to look again because it was so similar to the second. And what added to the significance was that this is my birthday.

It was like the Lord wanted to give me an affirmation and a reminder of who I really am to counteract the constant assault of lies from the enemy and from the world around me. As I have read further in the book Wild At Heart this struggle is becoming much more exposed. I am receiving many very important insights from this book and recommend it to anyone who wants to perceive more clearly what is really going on within and around us.

So what will my birthday be like today? How will I relate to it? I don't know yet – ask me at the end of the day and I will know better. I think I will choose today to listen carefully for words of blessing from Jesus. I would hope to hear affirmations and positive identity messages from those who can see me from a different perspective than mine – which of course is anyone outside my skin. But I doubt I will go fishing for them. I hope they are more than just words of “happy birthday”, that they are specific reminders of attachments and value and connections. I hope that God will use me as a channel today to impart blessing and life in specific ways and times to others who are dying for lack of blessing. Because I am realizing more and more that when I am a conduit of blessing I myself am blessed and strengthened myself. Today my wish and deep desire is to experience joy (being glad to be together with people who really love me) in community in very tangible ways. Somehow I think that is what we all want. And that is God's desire as well.

Driving Lesson

This morning as I was driving to work I had one of those experiences that I usually only hear in a sermon. I found myself following a line of four or five cars going below the speed limit on a two lane road – you get the picture. It looked like the car in front was afraid to go any faster though the road conditions were not that bad. Of course there was no good chance to pass the whole line of cars so I engaged in internal dialog and discussed the situation with the Holy Spirit.

My natural instinct was to feel frustrated and impatient, but then I thought about all the instructions I have received over the past few years about such situations and how I should relate to others, even if I don't know them. I checked inside to analyze the condition of my spirit and unravel what was driving this natural compulsion. I realized that it was a desire for the person in the front car to go faster so I would not be inconvenienced. Looking deeper, I recognized that there was probably an addiction to force at work underlying this desire. It was time to adopt a new way of thinking at this point.

I decided that what I needed to do in place of indulging in complaining and impatience was ask for a spirit of peace. That would be facilitated by adopting an attitude of forgiveness for the slow drivers. This was a choice that I could make, to relax and remain in a non-judgmental mode. But it was a choice I had to make repeatedly as the urge to become impatient kept returning.

As I drove on down the road continuing this internal conversation, suddenly the whole line of cars slowed down and began to pull off onto the shoulder. I had to brake hard and quickly looked around to see if there was some serious problem up ahead that I hadn't noticed yet but I saw nothing unusual. Then I saw the answer. The line of cars was pulling into a cemetery where there was a tent set up for a burial.

As I went on down the road now unhindered by slow traffic I could almost see God's face, but He did not need to say a thing. I simply said, “I hear you, I think the point is obvious”. I then thought back over the last few minutes in self-analysis to see what I could learn. I realized I did not make all the wrong choices that I could have made. What I did remember was that knowing the circumstances is not important in choosing how to relate to others in situations like this. My attitude should not be based on knowing whether or not someone deserves my sympathy or consideration. I need to remain in peace and in connection with God irregardless of external irritations.

This may seem like a silly little incident. But life is made up of little lessons learned daily that go into building character and habits. So this was one more little lesson for me. And it reminded me of......

Salvation Revisted

We have long thought that salvation is about getting us to heaven so we can rest and be out of range of evil. Then we will be able to coast along in perfection because there won't be anyone there to cause us to do wrong. We will no longer need grace because we will not have any evil desires or impulses to resist. But for now, we have to strive hard to hang on to God's strength and by His power resist and overcome evil both within and without until we are safe on that distant shore. We have to fill our minds with lots of truth that will outweigh or expose all the wrong information that may still be in our minds. Or, if we have been in the church long enough some people actually have the audacity to believe that the only job left for them is to convince others of the truths of doctrine so they can come into line with what we know to be true. Since there is very little truth that we haven't heard repeatedly from the pulpit or in our writings, then our emphasis shifts from learning to teaching (or arguing) to spread the “gospel” to all the world. Pretty much the outline of the good, solid left-brain religion I was brought up in.

As I read My Utmost yesterday morning the realization began to deepen that our dependence on God will not cease when we get to heaven as we have subtly assumed but not necessarily taught. In fact, salvation is the relationship itself of learning constant dependence and enjoying continuous intimacy with our Creator and Lover. Our preparation for heaven is not achieving perfection of behavior and outward conformity or even a perfectly disciplined imagination. We are not using the plan of salvation just to get us out of the mess of sin so we can be independently wealthy and happy in the new earth in fellowship with other like-minded saints. Salvation is the experience of living in a vital connection with the Source of life which results in the symptoms of life growing naturally out of our lives. This process is called Salvation and the condition itself is called eternal life. That's why Jesus said we would enter into life eternal NOW when we believed in Him. (see John 6:54 & 17:3) Our intimate relationship with Jesus, our continual surrender to be governed by an outside Source of authority in that relationship is the essence of eternal life. It begins to reconnect us to the Tree of Life that we have been deprived of for millenia. And the same relationship that we experience and enter into here is the one that will continue for all of eternity while strengthening in deeper and deeper surrender, being swallowed up in the identity of God Himself.

All throughout the Bible there are indications that the people of God are being formed into a united “dwelling” place, a building, a sanctuary for God to dwell in. Salvation is not turning us into gods who will take over heaven. Salvation restores us into eternal life which is being swallowed up into the body of Christ that God is assembling to be fully revealed at the great wedding day at the end of the millenium. (see the Great Controversy overview)

Weakness of Law

Last night I was reading a court case about a man attempting to get a birth certificate because he had completely lost all memory of his history and identity through an accident. He had looked for months for someone who might know him and fill him in on his past and appealed to every official he could think of to help him but no one could solve his problem. He was trapped in legal limbo because he could not get a job or leave the country without first getting a birth certificate to prove his identity. But he could not get a birth certificate without finding someone who knew him or producing paperwork proving his identity. The only paper he had was a card from the hospital where he awoke with his presumed name, age and possible place of birth. Since he had lost all memory of his life before the accident he could not verify any of these facts. He appealed to the court as a last resort to give him an identity and a birth certificate so he could function in society and get a job to support himself.

As strange as the case seems, what struck me even more profoundly as I read this case was the underlying, unchallengeable presumptions implicit in the arguments that the only solution to his identity crisis had to be uncovered in the immense maze of legal opinions and laws based on literally centuries of legal code and court actions. Any sensible person even with a hard and callous heart could look at his case and see what other human beings should do to help him. But society is so completely committed and entrenched to the system of relating to each other only under the rule of ridiculously complex legal codes that it is impossible to perform one simple little request that would allow this man back into a functioning place in society.

To me, this case is a classic example of the failure of the whole concept of law as part of the unholy trinity. It reveals that we have set up law in place of God. This belief insists that every decision for every situation must be condensed into a legal code or opinion that becomes not just a guideline but an enforcement on humanity from this time forward. It is a counterfeit to being led by the Spirit. It is counterfeit wisdom. It assumes that the accumulated decisions of men over time are of greater weight than the wisdom that God wants to impart through His Spirit to those who will live from their heart. Sin's illusion that humanity can achieve perfection through collective formulas that are in turn forced on everyone around us is fatally flawed. It is the ultimate “living from the head, or intellect” in place of living from the heart. It is much of the make-up of the “beast” described in the book of Revelation.

As addiction to law is expanded to smother out the last few remaining pockets of “heart-livers” on the earth, it will be asserted that its long-promised goal of a perfect society under law is almost within reach. In the urgency to rush to the finish line it will be decided that the last remaining holdouts who have chosen to prioritize living from their heart and placing their allegiance in God instead of law must be eliminated from society so that there will be no dissenters to the grand utopia of perfection under law. Since force is the foundation for the counterfeit trinity of law, kingship and economics, then force is the logical means to accomplish its perfection. This is the final deception that is fast closing its last few loopholes in its final push to rule over the whole earth.

We can see the outline of this development in current politics and war, the caustic tone of the media and the blind obsession for fame and money permeating nearly everything and everyone around us. The unholy trinity is not just a theory through which one can interpret history, it is a powerful reality that fully intends to lock the whole world and every last person into its vice grip by either deception or force. The book of Revelation prophecies that anyone who refuses to submit to its demands will be evicted from its benefits by being cut off economically in the earth. “He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:16-17 NIV)

While there are many beliefs about what constitutes the various elements of this important prophecy, it is absolutely true that this prophecy is about to be realized. Notice the element of force. This is the trademark of the unholy trinity, the counterfeit government set up in opposition to God's way of relating to His people under the family model. Also note the two options presented under the system of accepting “the mark”. You can have the name in your forehead, which is fully embracing internally the identity emanating from this beast, or you can have the number, which implies the idea of living by formulas in place of living from the heart and being led by the Spirit.

At this point many people may immediately exit onto a sidetrack of arguing about what constitutes the correct interpretation of these words thereby missing the whole point here. In fact, they will jump into their favorite formula and quote their favorite authors to prove their correctness and justify their conclusions. But is this not a demonstration of more formula-based living and thinking? I'm not suggesting there is no right or wrong way to look at this most important passage. What I am saying is that the spirit with which we come to it may be even more of a problem than the conclusions that we end up with. It may be the classic example of desperately looking everywhere for the cause of our distorted vision while ignoring the lenses we are looking through which are the cause of the distortion.

He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-- not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6 NIV)

It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (John 6:63 NRSV)

But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:6 NIV)

Transfiguration

I've been thinking for some reason about what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration and how Peter acted during that experience. I am starting to realize that one of the reasons Peter's comments were so hopelessly out of place is that he was living primarily in a religion of the head and the transfiguration was an event almost completely oriented in the heart. This is why Peter was at a complete loss as to how to act or what to say and ended up with a bunch of blather coming out of his mouth that was immediately embarrassing even to himself.

Peter, like most of us, had not yet learned to live from his heart. He was in training and once in a while he could synchronize with what Jesus was doing, but most of the time he would just blurt out whatever he thought was important and often make a fool of himself. This incident was certainly no exception.

But then I remember how Jesus related to Peter even though He knew what Peter was like and often even got Jesus into hot water. I am amazed at the patience and compassion with which Jesus always related with Peter even though Peter was so clumsy and spiritually inept many times. Jesus believed in Peter and saw his heart. He was drawing out the real Peter from deep inside that even Peter did not know about yet. He always included Peter when only three were selected on various occasions to accompany Jesus at crucial moments. And even though Jesus knew ahead of time that Peter would stick his foot in his mouth on the Mount, he took him with Him up the mountain to experience what few men have experienced in the history of the world.

The event of the transfiguration was not about putting on a show to impress three of His followers and convince them that He was indeed God. The reason for this crucial event in the life of Jesus was to strengthen His heart and dramatically increase His joy strength and capacity to be able to go through the intense conflict of the final events just in front of Him. Joy is being happy to be together and the strength that is derived from that experience. In this moment Jesus brought together the family of heaven and His family still on earth for a few minutes of very intense joy that is almost, if not completely, only an experience of the heart, not an intellectual exercise. Moses and Elijah did not come down to inform Jesus of vital information that He would need for His time of trouble. They came down to reassure Jesus of their support as representatives of both heaven and humanity. The three disciples were included as current and future representatives even though at the time they were clueless as to why they were there.

The transfiguration was a visible demonstration of what the kingdom of heaven is all about. It was a foretaste of the unity and glory that God intends for all of His family. It was shared with His disciples to break the stranglehold of formalism from their minds and cause them to think radically outside the religious box that they were so used to living within. And after the Spirit filled them at Pentecost and they looked back on this event from the perspective of the final events of Jesus life on earth and His ascension to glory, it all began to come together and make much more sense in their minds. Then they were starting to make serious progress learning to truly live from their hearts like Jesus had demonstrated before them for three and a half years.

Yes, they still had issues that came up and prejudices to overcome and blind spots to be unmasked. But they had made a distinct shift from a head religion to a heart spirituality that soon shook the entire world. And until it became contaminated with error and selfishness a few years later, the power of that heart-based spirituality compelled by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit was an unstoppable force that swept over the entire civilized world.

Sometimes I think I act like Peter. Oh, I may not be as bold and outspoken as he was, but I am certainly capable of speaking religious talk while disconnected from my heart. I often soon regret many things I say and advice that I give or offhand comments and criticisms that so easily slip through my tongue. More and more I find myself trying to hold my tongue while trying to perform an internal check to see what my current motives are and the condition of my spirit. Very often I realize, sometimes too late, that my spirit is quite selfish and hasty and eager to make myself look better in comparison to others. I come across as condescending or patronizing. And always, my motives have at least some degree of self-interest mixed in to even the most noble motives that are prompted by His Spirit. I am never completely free of bias or prejudices no matter how hard I strive. I realize more clearly that without total dependence on the untainted merits of Jesus' motives and character alone to recommend me to heaven, I am a goner for sure.

But the wonderful good news is that every one of us have been freely supplied with more merit and righteousness than we could ever use or need. If we will accept it, claim it and believe God wants us to have it, we will be transformed by it. In doing so we will become participants in the transfiguration ourselves. The glory of God and of all heaven will infect us and emanate from us and attract others to the beauty and truth about God.

Satisfying God's Heart

“'Give Me to drink.' How many of us are set upon Jesus Christ slaking our thirst when we ought to be satisfying Him? ...'Ye shall be witnesses unto Me' – that means a life of unsullied, uncompromising and unbridled devotion to the Lord Jesus, a satisfaction to Him wherever He places us.

...The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him.... The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, no a call to do something for Him. We are not sent to battle for God, but to be used by God in His battlings. Are we being more devoted to service than to Jesus Christ?” (My Utmost for His Highest 1-18)

After reading these thoughts yesterday I guess my mind began cogitating on them in the background. For when I awoke this morning the Spirit picked them up and began to impress me with the extreme importance of the concept of satisfying God's heart. So much of the time we think of religion and God as a means of bringing us relief from pain and satisfying our own desires but very seldom think of trying to satisfy God's heart or desires. Or when we do, to often it is associated with a strong sense of duty and obligation which translates into just another issue of performance that we must fulfill.

To think of the possibility that I could actually have an effect on God's heart by bringing Him satisfaction in an emotional way almost sounds bizarre but also exciting. My mind was directed to the story that Jesus told in response to His disciple's request for more faith and I got even more excited. For this story strongly reinforces this relationship and the importance of satisfying God's heart. In fact, Jesus teaches that this kind of relationship with God is precisely what creates great faith within us.

The story is found in Luke 17:5-10. When this is studied very carefully word by word, phrase by phrase, it can be seen that the relationship between the servants and the master in this story is very unique and different than what most of us are used to. On the surface, the masters words even sound harsh and demanding if the close, intimate relationship with his servants is not perceived. But if it is carefully pondered it can be seen that in fact this story contains one of the most powerful secrets to unleash a dynamic and growing faith relationship with the Almighty Creator of the whole universe.

The secret unveiled is the importance of making the satisfying of God's heart our highest priority. When we have our hearts in sync with the desires and feelings of God's heart and learn what brings satisfaction to Him and creates a big smile on His face, we have entered into a whole new dimension of existence. The next logical question that has continued to lodge in my mind is, “what kinds of things does God crave that I could satisfy Him with?”

As I sat down this morning with these thoughts chasing around in my mind I was a little reluctant to start reading for fear I would lose these insights before I could get them captured in writing. However, I decided to read the day's devotional from Sons and Daughters of God. I was delighted, but not too surprised, to find that instead of being distracted, the reading was strongly reinforcing and adding to what was already expanding in my heart. God was telling me in strong, sensitive words what He could really get pumped up about, excited about, things that I could grasp that would bring deep satisfaction to His heart.

Christ was strong to save the whole world. He wanted all. He could not endure the thought that one should be lost. He wept at the grave of Lazarus, that He could not save every one whom Satan's power had laid low in death. He had given Himself a ransom for many, even all who would avail themselves of the privilege of coming back to their loyalty to God. (SD 25)

I sensed an intensity of feeling for a few moments while reading these words. I caught a glimpse of intense passion in the weeping eyes of Jesus longing to draw every person into His love and intimacy. His great, frustrated heart yearns for every soul to experience life and thriving in growth and strength, bonding with each other and living in harmony and unselfishness. When I choose to live in loyalty to God, believing in my heart that He cares about me and never wavers in His passion to save me from sin and its effects in my life, I can bring satisfaction to the heart of God. I can lessen the intense pain revealed in the weeping eyes of Jesus at Lazarus's tomb longing to save every person who had been lost to the terrible curse of sin. In the words of Luke 17, I can bring food to the table so the master can eat and be satisfied. And the promise is implicit in the words of verse 8 that afterward I will eat and drink and be satisfied myself.

When spirituality is understood as primarily a relationship of the heart and our relationship to God is viewed through these lenses, all of the Word of God can be perceived and understood in radically new and refreshing ways.

Implications of Fear

When someone tries to make us afraid, they are trying to be important in our thinking. It reveals something about how they feel about themselves. Deep inside, people who intimidate others to fear them are craving more of a sense of value. They want to appear powerful and important and valuable and effective. Because they do not have the inner peace and character qualities necessary to have the respect they crave, they resort to force, intimidation, anger and threats to command attention.

Fear-brokers are people who act as assistants to the intimidators by making sure everyone around them is afraid of the same things they are afraid of. This increases the power and influence of the person initiating the fear. This oppressive atmosphere creates a sense of power over others both in the originator and the fear-brokers. But it also is a strong indicator of inward shame, worthlessness or low self-esteem that is desperately trying to be filled with worth.

Fear-tracking is a function of a small part of our brain called the amygdala. Its primary purpose is to alert our consciousness to what it considers through training and experiences to be the most important thing to pay attention to. It screens all incoming information from our senses for what is good, bad and scary. When it sees something that it considers a serious threat developing it tags that information before passing it on the the next level of the brain as high priority. People who have been raised in an environment where fear was the primary motivator become fear-trackers. That is, they ignore what is good in favor of focusing on what is bad or especially on what is most scary.

The amygdala forms very strong opinions about what is scary at a very early age and usually through some type of trauma. Once embedded, this opinion never changes throughout the rest of the life, no matter how illogical and unreasonable the fear is. The only thing that may change what we fear the most is when something even more fearful presents itself and then the amygdala transfers its attention to the more intimidating subject of focus. The fear messages are generated below the conscious level so they are not affected or changed by updated contradictory new information about that thing. The only way our mind can relate differently to that fear is to acknowledge it and then make arbitrary decisions to override it based on more mature information in our belief system.

This interesting dynamic of our mind plays into a great deal of our behaviors and beliefs. It helps us understand some of our irrational fears and why some people seem to return back to the same self-defeating situations and behaviors time after time even though intelligently they know better.

The fear-tracking part of our brain has been one of the primary aspects of our human nature that Satan has exploited the most. Because he knows that what we are conditioned to track we will pay the most attention to. What we pay the most attention to becomes what is most important to us. What is most important to us and what we pay attention to will have the strongest influence on shaping our lives, our identity and our view of what constitutes reality. And ultimately, what is most important and what we allow to consume our attention and shape us becomes what we worship. For worship is simply the giving of our highest priority. What we worship is what we become and also what we will influence others to become. It is an irrevocable, unchangeable principle of life that what we focus on the most has the greatest power and influence over shaping who we are.

Because our minds operate in this way, it is easier to perceive why Jesus made the statement that He did in Matthew 10 in the middle of some comments about fear. "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." If we have been so trained to give highest priority to fear, then the only way we can shift our fear-bonds off of what is designed to destroy us is by temporarily seeing God as even more fearful. In our minds we ascribe power to what we are afraid of. This is what Satan craves and in fact what empowers him to have so much influence in our lives. Proverbs 9:10 states that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” If God cannot get our attention and priority through the attraction of love and the truth about His character, then we are invited to use our well-developed fear-tracking circuits to shift our attention away from Satan's power to the ultimate power of life and death in the whole universe. Notice that this is just the beginning of wisdom. For when we do give our attention to the One who truly holds and sustains all of life itself, after a time our focus will cause us to realize there is much more important things about God than what first attracted our fear.

When we better understand the insight that inducing fear in others betrays internal emptiness, it is interesting to apply this discernment to Satan himself. Since Satan is the greatest intimidator in the universe it becomes obvious that he has the greatest amount of inner turmoil and lack of value more than any other creature. He desperately craves the worship and attention of every intelligent being. He uses every form of lying deception, force, seduction and intimidation available to accomplish this. He does everything possible to cause every person to be afraid and fear-track what we believe threatens us the most. Many of us can observe this about Satan and accept that he operates in this fashion even while still somewhat under the confusion of his delusions.

But there is another far more subtle application of this understanding that we have overlooked and that Satan has succeeded in implanting into our thinking. What does our popular theologies about God that are based on fear imply about our belief of who God really is? Most of us grew up more or less taught ideas about a God who uses some level of threats and fear to gain our attention and respect. For most people this method lies very near the center of their beliefs about God. It is displayed quite obviously when tragedies strike and people immediately react by wondering why God imposed or at least allowed this terrible thing to happen. All sorts of conjecturing is stimulated about what is in God's thinking, but the bottom line effect is usually a propagation of more lies about a God who carries mixed motives toward his subjects.

Given this pervasive system of beliefs in a fearful, unpredictable God who keeps his children in line with regular doses of intimidation, trauma and punishment, what does it say about our subconscious belief about this God? Does it not belie the fact that if we were completely honest, we might actually believe that a God who has to make people afraid of him to serve him is a God who harbors self-doubts and may be hiding dark secrets about himself, who craves, even demands, the worship of his subjects to make him feel more valuable? This sounds at first like blasphemy and heresy, but even that reaction may be based on a deep-seated fear of analyzing our real motives for serving God and the nature of the God that we perceive. This is, in fact, the very lie that the serpent sold to Eve which first got us into the deep mess we are in today. These things may be a strong indication that very possibly the God in which we claim to believe may in fact be a god we have collectively created in our religion to actually reflect us, our own feelings, self-doubts and manipulative ways.

Along this line it is interesting to note some statements that reveal that Satan has indeed projected onto God's reputation the very attributes that he himself possesses. Carefully consider the following insights.

In Isaiah's day the spiritual understanding of mankind was dark through misapprehension of God. Long had Satan sought to lead men to look upon their Creator as the author of sin and suffering and death. Those whom he had thus deceived, imagined that God was hard and exacting. They regarded Him as watching to denounce and condemn, unwilling to receive the sinner so long as there was a legal excuse for not helping him. The law of love by which heaven is ruled had been misrepresented by the archdeceiver as a restriction upon men's happiness, a burdensome yoke from which they should be glad to escape. He declared that its precepts could not be obeyed and that the penalties of transgression were bestowed arbitrarily. {PK 311}

Sin originated in self-seeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven. He sought to gain control of heavenly beings, to draw them away from their Creator, and to win their homage to himself. Therefore he misrepresented God, attributing to Him the desire for self-exaltation. With his own evil characteristics he sought to invest the loving Creator. Thus he deceived angels. Thus he deceived men. He led them to doubt the word of God, and to distrust His goodness. Because God is a God of justice and terrible majesty, Satan caused them to look upon Him as severe and unforgiving. Thus he drew men to join him in rebellion against God, and the night of woe settled down upon the world.

The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan's deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan.{DA 21}

When it is seen that force, intimidation and fearfulness are some of the chief elements of Satan's government, then when we use those methods in the name of God or insinuate that He uses them, we join the enemy in perpetuating his lies about God and further blacken His reputation. Not exactly what could be considered truthful and faithful witnesses. But such is the testimony of most Christians and even non-Christians today.

It is time to challenge the underpinning assumptions of fear and force and all related elements in our religion, our theologies and our personal relationships with each other and with God. It is time to grow and mature in our thinking, acting and beliefs. It is time to discover and demonstrate the real truths, the glorious truths that have remained buried for millenia under the rubbish and lies about God that Satan has piled up as high as heaven. It does not matter how deeply entrenched they are in our traditions and religions or how adamantly they are defended by carefully constructed strings of texts and quotations (often very restricted to only one version of the Bible), the real truth about God and what he is like will, and is, emerging with or without our acceptance. But if we choose to believe and grow and be transformed by this refreshing breath of reality we can be privileged to become like Him and enter into the experience termed “the joy of the Lord”.

This is what we were created for. It is what only will truly satisfy the deepest cravings of every human being in existence. This is the experience of knowing what it means to be fully alive, thriving and connected. “Until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.” Ephesians 4:13.

Fear and Righteousness

Last night men's group was a bit better than sometimes. It seemed that there was more heart talk by more participants than is often the case. We got into the subject of fear and had a lengthy interaction about some of our fears and trying to understand what fear really is. The idea of walls around our hearts came into the discussion the leader brought out the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem after the return of the Jews from exile. It was noted that each family worked on the section of the wall nearest their home and the wall had to be interlocked with all the other sections of wall to be effective.

Another interesting observation was that the gates were built first before the rest of the wall. When we wondered how this story could relate to the walls we build around our hearts to keep everyone out, John made the very perceptive insight that God's walls have gates and ours don't. That struck me as very profound and I knew it would resonate in my mind for a long time to come.

The kingdom of darkness has counterfeits for every truth. God is in the business of tearing down walls but He is also in the work of building walls around us to protect us. The understanding that God's walls have gates manned by discerning gatekeepers to accept or reject what comes to us is very important.

Sin causes us to insulate ourselves from anyone touching our heart in an attempt to avoid our pain being reignited. We build our walls based on fear and mistrust. The walls take on all kinds of facades like bravado, pride, cruelty, piety, anything that seems to work. But they are built with the intent of self-defense because we don't believe anyone else will protect us or defend us. We believe from our past observations and conclusions that there is no one who cares enough about us to do the job right. If we don't look out for our own protection we will receive more irrepairable damage to our heart. So we build our walls thicker and higher as the blows continue to come and the missiles sail in over the top.

So my interest was piqued when I opened the devotional this morning and read this statement. “When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan.” (SD 23)

It struck me suddenly when I read this that while our walls are built in vain attempts to protect ourselves, God's wall, His fortress, is designed to protect His reputation in our lives. When we allow God to make us His dwelling place with no other god, no other authority, allowed to stay, then He creates the wall that is the only really effective wall that can protect our hearts so they can thrive and live. If our gates are connected by a vital link to the Holy Spirit we will experience not only protection but freedom to interact and connect to others without fear. We will still experience pain and disappointment and heartache, but our value and identity will not be crushed and mutilated by shame and guilt. We will begin to experience what it means to be truly alive.

There was one more sentence in this reading that startled and amazed me. “There is no election but one's own by which any may perish.” As I read on I was attacked by old feelings of legalism when I read “that His life and character should be a pattern for all to copy, that they might have the precious gift of eternal life.” At first it seemed inconsistent with the previous, positive statements. It seemed like more double-talk that I was so familiar with and has turned off so many of my friends.

But then I realized – a copy is not a new original. When I get a copy from a copy machine I do not go through all the work of producing a new original document. I simply take full advantage of the work of the first original and make full use of it. Just the same. Jesus created the original and only perfect human life. All the rest of us can simply become a copy of His life when we trust His life for our merits. We don't have to create new righteousness in our life. We just let Him do His thing in us by the Holy Spirit and we become perfect, synchronized with God.

Personal Conviction

I woke up early again this morning this time with a strong conviction growing in my heart. I spent a lot of time yesterday evening downloading some of my favorite Christian music off the internet. These songs are a real inspiration to me. But I was now convicted that I am stepping across a line of integrity that may well interfere with my quest for intimacy with God.

This is a very subtle area that can become very confused if I don't keep my focus on the bigger picture. Many would argue that the benefits of listening to wonderful worship music would outweigh any uncertainty about the ethics of how it was acquired. With nearly everyone seemingly approving of such activity it is very easy to rationalize.

But that is for me the very essence of the danger. I grew up fine-tuning the art of rationalization, and though it exercised my ability to think, it also ingrained the habit of self-deception on the way to achieving what I craved. The Spirit impressed me that my credibility will be called into question on this issue sooner or later.

I analyzed my natural response to this conviction and saw the familiar outline of a false god inside of me. It is too easy to protect these gods because they are often there to make me happy. That does not mean they are interested in my long-term satisfaction, just immediate pleasure. That is their trademark signature. In this case, my immense enjoyment of this particular music, no matter how “spiritual” it is, can become a deceptive decoy promising to be a source of life when in fact it can turn out to be a deadly liability when I am exposed to the pure presence of God's passion. Ironically the very music that I want to listen to that may help me better enter into His presence could become my worst liability. Not because the music is wrong, but because of the hidden virus of motive I cherished to excuse the means of acquiring it.

Yesterday I commented to a friend how I felt while sharing with someone recently about my favorite subject, the real truth about God in my growing understanding of the truth about hell. I notice that when I share this liberating truth with someone who is interested that I start to feel more alive and fulfilled. I am starting to see that it gives me a reason – more than that, a passion – to live and love and connect with other hearts. I get excited when I see the light seeping into dark minds that have been deceived all their life as I have been on this subject. It is liberating because it unties and exposes so many other lies about God and presents Him in a context of perfect consistency with the love and compassion that we claim are the center of His nature.

I sense that God is preparing thousands of hearts and minds with this truth to all merge into a surprise offensive on the enemy's massive cathedral of lies assembled over centuries of deception. It will expose a level of glory for God unseen before since possibly the beginning of the world. The question He has for me is, am I willing to release and let go of any false sources of life to trust Him alone to satisfy me, or am I going to rationalize and protect any source of pleasure that I have allowed to be more important to me than my trust in God's love and plans for me.

This is what I am seeing going on in my heart right now, not just my mind. As I read the two devotional books this morning both of them had important things relevant to what God is saying to me. I could hear His voice reinforcing the words and making application to me personally. The first book, Sons and Daughters of God, had a series of very helpful insights.

“Christ's office work is to introduce us to God as His sons and daughters.

“There is an inexhaustible fund of perfect obedience accruing from His obedience. In heaven His merits, His self-denial and self-sacrifice, are treasured as incense to be offered up with the prayers of His people. As the sinner's sincere, humble prayers ascend to the throne of God, Christ mingles with them the merits of His own life of perfect obedience. Our prayers are made fragrant by this incense. Christ has pledged Himself to intercede in our behalf, and the Father always hears the Son.

“He...will look with pity and compassion upon every soul who realizes that he can not save himself.

“His hand holds you much firmer than you can hold His hand.” (p.22)

Then I meditated on the reading in My Utmost for His Highest and was reminded of the call God had hinted at earlier this morning.

“The call is the expression of the nature from which it comes, and we can only record the call if the same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God's nature, not of our nature. There are strands of the call of God providentially at work for us which we recognize and no one else does. It is the threading of God's voice to us in some particular matter, and it is no use consulting anyone else about it. We have to keep that profound relationship between our souls and God.

“...As long as I consider my personal temperament and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of God.... The majority of us have no ear for anything but ourselves, we cannot hear a thing God says. To be brought into the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.”

I faintly sense that there is tremendous excitement and intensity in the heavenly world that I am not well atuned to yet. But God is inviting me into a deeper experience and possible soon a more active involvement if I am willing to cooperate with His preparation of my heart. The most encouraging words to me were the assurance that His hand holds me much firmer than I can hold His hand. That's wonderful good news.

“God, hang on to me.”

Ice Art

I walked around town last night taking pictures of all the ice carvings that had been created the night before. In the intervening hours we had experienced unseasonal temperatures just around freezing (warm for the middle of January) and intermittent rain. This of course seriously compromised the fine details of these sculptures but most of them still retained a fair amount of beauty.

I observed one of the craftsmen last evening carving on his blocks of ice with a grinder. My daughters pointed out to me that on the face of the blocks was white paper containing the outlines of what the object was to look like. The artist then followed the pattern as he carved away the frozen ice to reveal the beauty that already existed in the mind of the creator. He grinds, chips or melts away the excess ice according to the pattern design to create a beautiful object of art in a third dimension that before only existed in two dimensional outline.

As I reflected on it this morning and looked at the photos I had taken, I was reminded of the admonition to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Though that text has likely been misused to justify a great deal of legalistic activity through the years, I have pondered for a long time what it really does mean. As I compared it to what I was observing here it helped to make a little more sense.

Do not be too rough on the ice. Ice can be very fragile even though it seems very hard. Rough treatment will mar and ruin the original design. Of course a master craftsman could still create an alternate piece of art that could be very useful, but a lot of problems could be avoided with patience and carefulness. This art is very fragile but under the careful, persistent work of the craftsman can become very beautiful.

Do not be too resistant. The ice is shaped over several hours with sharp tools, saws and even hot flames at times. The true beauty of the object is difficult to see until it is nearly finished

This analogy has some good lessons for me. But in the end, like most analogies, it breaks apart. While I want to cooperate under the skilled hands of God in bringing out the beauty and glory that God designed for me, in the end I want to be much more than a frozen, melting piece of frigid water. I was designed to have a heart aflame with the very passion of God, that is warm and caring, soft and vulnerable, connected to the very Source of life itself.

These pictures are after almost 24 hours of semi-warm temperatures and intermittent rain.