Law and Lucifer

The Law is a description of God's character.

We are created in the image of God so His description also describes how we are designed.

Lucifer was the closest created being in the universe to the presence of God so he know God's description (the law) better than anyone else.

When the law is divorced from its source, it loses its connection to life. That is why it is impossible to keep the law by trying, just like it is impossible for a branch to grow and thrive without connection to “perform as designed” as he moved away from close relationship to God. So the substitute power he attempted to use was force. Since being close to God while not in sympathy and submission to Him was found to be impossible, Lucifer began to weave more and more force into his “theology” of government that he was developing among his subordinate angels. What he discovered in the process of using force on others was the new reaction of fear, the unholy kind, that was elicited in their hearts. He was familiar with this fear because he had begun to experience it himself more and more as he fell out of harmony with God. He also discovered that fear was a powerful motivator and seized upon it as a most valuable tool in the formulation of his “alternative” plan of living that he was piecing together.

The recipe he developed was designed to achieve most wonderful results of perfection apart from dependence on God. He claimed that beings had inherent life enough to achieve the external results of “law-keeping” without being subjected to the “humiliation” of submitting all rights in worship to the Son as well as the Father. As rebellion quickly grew like a cancer hidden deep in his heart he moved to infect as many as possible to share his feelings and convince them of the superiority of his new “insights”. Since he had been God's appointed being to be the chief revealer of Himself outside of Christ, the deception was intensely overwhelming and confusing to all the intelligent beings of the universe. There were now conflicting assertions about how to live and how to relate both to each other and to God. Lucifer's arguments were forceful, logical and very appealing in some respects. But something inside felt strange and dissonant like a warning light. But to complicate things, warning was itself something new and strange since there never before had been anything evil to be warned from.

The basics of Satan's government relies on these counterfeit principles from God's government:

Prideful independence, force or control and fear. The counterpart of these in God's family-based government is selfless love, faith and hope. Satan's government found it necessary to admit that rules were needed to keep things functioning so it launched into the throes of legalism, his attempt to achieve “perfection”, utopia, outside of a relationship with God. Since his emphasis was on externals, due to his new-found infatuation with himself and his beauty, he combined his tools of force, pride and fear in a claim that these would be the necessary elements that would provide everything needed for life apart from God. Of course the use of deception was growing exponentially to keep all of this intact. And by the time critical mass was reached in his campaign to convince the universe of the merits of his alternative government of force, one-third of all the angels of heaven had been convinced that his plan was viable and they would buy into his grand scheme.

In his now intense pride that had its unquenchable appetite for attention and worship, Satan launched the great war in earnest. One of his key points for success was to divorce the obvious need to “function as designed” (law-keeping) from an intimate connection with God, the Source of all life. If beings were to do this it would take away from Satan's source of worship and control. Since control by force was foundational to his legalistic philosophy of life, then all who understood the need for “law” would be steered to achieve that end by control and force. They would adopt not only heroic attempts to force themselves to be like God (keeping the law), but given the unavoidable failure that would bring they would then take stringent measures to control everyone possible around them by fear and force to make them feel more fulfilled. This would perfectly mimic Satan's own history and mirror his own intense emptiness and dissatisfaction. By imposing force on those under their control through abuse, guilt, violence or any other means, they would be in essence trying to induce worship to themselves thereby following Satan's example and suggestions.

The essence of worship is making something or someone of highest value above other objects of attention. The Great War is all about worship. Satan craves our worship, and when we follow his example and suggestions we give him the worship he craves and give him momentary pleasure. But because he has no life to give in return for worship we then find ourselves in a deficit situation in the economy of life itself. The absence of life is death. The wages of sin is death. That is not a punishment, it is merely a statement of reality and fact.

The great discussions of Paul in the Bible about Law and Grace are often confusing because we do not understand them in the context of the bigger picture. The law is a description of God, sort of like a picture shows us to some extent what someone looks like. But any attempts to become like that description ourselves will short-circuit our designed mental apparatus just like the debilitating effects of pornography addiction degrades and destroys the systems of those trapped in that imitation of intimacy.

Humans were designed first and foremost for intimate relationships. This must be understood clearly as foundational to any other proposition about life. Ignoring this fundamental fact of life is what enrages and frustrates millions who reject God and Christianity as a fraud. Inherently and intuitively they understand that they need meaningful relationships far more than they need rules and control by some outside meddling, threatening force. They are absolutely right in this assessment. This is the most misunderstood element in religion today. Because we have bought into the lie of law divorced from its source we reject everything having anything to do with all of it. Our society reinforces this lie by producing millions upon millions of laws divorced from relationship with their source that are mostly not only ridiculous but often pernicious in their nature.

But the mountain of lies that keep us in dense darkness still do not change the real facts about God and life and how we are designed. Our hearts still crave satisfaction and fulfillment and real love. We cannot escape our design anymore that a computer can function without its circuit-boards. What we desperately need is a fresh revelation and re-connection to the One who designed us this way. He is the great socket that has the correct configuration for our plugs to connect into. Though nearly every representation of Him has been severely distorted into grotesque pictures of fear and disgust by the lies of the enemy, often through the channels of our parents, our churches, our abusers etc., the truth still stands unaffected and undisturbed outside of all that, waiting for any opportunity to break into our emptiness and ravish our hearts with the affection and joy that we so deeply crave. There is no heart so damaged or ravaged that there is not healing and grace more than enough to restore it to wholeness and beauty. There is no history to dark and full of shame or fear that cannot be filled with light, hope and peace. The lies about God must be shattered by the exposure of His perfect and never-ending love. Every attribute of God's true character has been slandered, and every slander has been subtly incorporated into various aspects of religion to keep us from knowing Him as we should. We must challenge every assumption, every rendition, every rehearsal of God's acts and attitudes to discover the real truth and consistency of the real God.

Every one of us carries latent lies in various ways about who God is and how He relates to us. But if we give Him permission He will reveal Himself to us progressively and draw us into an amazing intimacy with himself that surpasses any intimacy we have ever know as much as the sun surpasses the moon in brightness and more.

Problems with Packaging Truth

Maybe God is looking for human tubes of faith, like fiber optic strands, long enough to punch holes in the dark covering surrounding us and conduct rays of light into our hearts, our families and communities. But even then, if we punch through to the light but focus primarily on only receiving light for ourselves we may become clogged and overheated from the light because we are not enjoying the blessings that come from being free-flowing channels. None of us can see all the light, our tubes will never have that capacity in all eternity. But collectively when all the tubes convey the light that is given to them and freely allow it to pass on to others, the artificial dark sky that blocks our vision of God will begin to shine with lights brighter and brighter like ever-increasing luminous stars. This is the harbinger of the glorious day when everyone in God's family will shine with the intensity of fully blazing suns when His glory is fully revealed. And even in that day, each person will simply be a fully transparent conduit of light that displays a unique aspect of God's life-giving power and passion, His character and glory that perfectly compliments all the other “fiber optics” receiving and displaying the glorious love and beauty of God.

This morning I was thinking about the penchant for religious people to pre-package truth into carefully arranged clusters and labeled according to denomination or system. Each package arranges different truths in their own preferred priority and highlights two or three items that they insist are the most important. Then they often attach a pocket of explosive condemnation powder to the trigger of their favorite doctrines or maybe to one's non-acceptance of their whole package. If a person is not ready to embrace the package deal and submit to the groups foregone conclusions and research then they are subject to the explosion of condemnation which is considered an appropriate consequence for “rejection of light”. This tends to make many people very gun-shy of looking at different packages other than what they are familiar with, or if they are coming from outside of religion they are skeptical of all the packages.

The religious groups insist that the explosive reactions to disagreeing with them are due to the light inherent in truth. They believe that if you reject their brand of packaged truth then you will suffer the pains of guilt and condemnation and despair deserving to anyone so brazen or foolish as to reject them. Each group exercises a reservoir of condemnation and guilt to lay on any and all rejectors of their “truth” to reinforce and amplify any natural feelings of guilt to dissenters. They label these dissenters “rejectors of mercy” or “rebellious” or “defiant and proud” or any number of other titles.

This whole arrangement is purported to be the difference between light and darkness. Everyone not inside the group and submissive to the spiritual authority of the promulgators of that system are considered in a lost condition and in opposition and rebellion against God. “You are either for us or against us” they loudly proclaim. And so honest-hearted people searching for God or just looking to make sense of the confusion and questions in their own heart are kept at a distance from each of these packages because of the explosive potential and damage to be suffered if they get close enough to evaluate and consider the viability of truth for their own lives.

In contrast, my mind was directed to Gideon's army and the “weapons” God instructed him to equip them with. Their primary and initially exclusive weapons against the enemy were two instruments alone – torches and trumpets. At first the torchlight was hidden inside some sort of breakable container that could be easily shattered to release the full, glorious light of the torch in stark contrast to the deep darkness of the night. The trumpets were to give “a certain sound” all together in perfect unity as the light was revealed. There was no explosions, no fearfulness on the part of the participants, no defensiveness and not even any aggression. There was only the clear revelation of undiluted, unobstructed light and the startling, clear sound of music so harmonious and so loud that it could not be ignored. The light overcame the darkness and the sound aroused everyone from sleep or confused stupor. The sides were clearly defined by those who were trusting God and those who turned to fight each other.

Covenant Training

I realize that most of the time the ones to whom I speak words of affirmation and blessing to are people generally make me feel better about myself or that I think will give me a sense of worth. Those who are difficult and negative and are hard for me to live around or who are just bland and not very life-giving, with these people I struggle to think of anything to say to be life-giving and affirmative. This is quite normal for most of us and nothing unusual. This is the result of contract thinking – responding in kind to how people make us feel.

I was reminded of what Jesus said. It is easy to bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. But being children of your Father in heaven we are to bless those who curse you and do good to those who misuse you. That is covenant living in contrast to contract living.

We are here this weekend in Branson, MO attending a Marriage Covenant Weekend by Mannalife and Family Foundations. Last night and this morning Craig Hill explained the different aspects and elements that are involved in covenants. It is very fascinating and enlightening and has enormous implications for all of life if taken seriously.

One of the most important differences between covenants and contracts is that contracts are bilateral promises that are contingent on performance by the agreeing parties involved. In contrast, covenants involve unilateral commitments by each party that are binding irregardless of the performance or non-performance of the other person. In contracts each party hires lawyers to take their side and work to defend them and protect their rights and privileges. In covenant there is one enforcer who does not take the side of either party but is there to defend, protect and look out for the interests of the covenant itself.

When I put on these glasses and again look back at the Bible, I am amazed to see how much of the teachings of Jesus are an urgent invitation for us to leave our contract-based religion and relationships, particularly with God, and enter back into covenant relationships and ways of thinking. This can be very frightening at first because it strips away all our reservations and alternatives and leaves us completely vulnerable in every way to the person we are in covenant with. But when the benefits are realized and the amazing potential for growth and increased satisfaction and fulfillment are taken into consideration, it becomes obvious that this is really what we were designed for in our deepest hearts. This has been God plan for His people since before the beginning of time and will always continue into eternity. Contract-based relationships are the basis of Satan's counterfeit government and lead to fractured hearts, disappointment and incredible pain.

Jesus, in myself I do not find the capacity and natural tendencies to be a faithful covenant keeper. My mind and heart often draw a blank even if I choose to try. This is definitely where You are going to have to live out through me Your own character and desires, overriding my natural tendencies. Train my heart, open my heart, cause me to live from my heart with You abiding there so others will receive Your blessing in their lives in spite of my emptiness and brokenness.

Be like your Father in heaven – He does not treat us as we deserve or based on how we treat Him – that is contract thinking – but be like Him in how He unilaterally loves and blesses all because that is what it is like Him to do. If we are His children, then we learn to act like His family in covenant thinking in the way we treat our enemies as well as those who love us.

Jesus Stuck in the Heart

What happens when, after I genuinely invite Jesus to live in my heart, I fail to practice daily living from my heart? It looks to me like I would be trapping Jesus into a box that was never designed to contain Him. I would be starving the life of Jesus in me, because His life would not be able to receive nourishment from doing the things Jesus does for nourishment.

Where does Jesus get nourishment? He stated that clearly several times when he was here on earth. He told Satan in the wilderness that 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' He also explained to His disciples His source of nourishment after thrilling the heart of the woman in Samaria. “His disciples urged Him, saying, 'Rabbi, eat.' But He said to them, 'I have food to eat of which you do not know.'” When they seemed confused Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”

The apostles John and Paul both go to great lengths to explain and emphasize the importance of having Jesus dwell within us. Our heart is where Jesus dwells when He comes into our life. But religion has all but annihilated our experience of living from our heart, and this puts tremendous constraint on the ability of Jesus to express His life through us.

If, after we have received Jesus as our Saviour, we continue to insist on only living from our head and reject God's calls for us to open our hearts to each other so that Jesus can be seen in us, at some point in time that life that was placed within us will be crowded out and we will discover too late that we are again in a lost condition. Eternal life is entered into when we accept Christ. But it is not irrevocable on our part. It is like the seed in the parable of the sower. If we harden our hearts by living from our heads in religious activities and formal routines we do not allow the seed to take root and the enemy of our souls will steal it away.

Of course, there are other ways we can shut out the life of Jesus from surviving within us. The parable explains that a heart that is too shallow, that refuses the life of Jesus to go deeper into the heart can eventually starve out the life of Jesus within our heart and cause it to perish. Also allowing other emotions and pressures to take priority over nurturing the life and growth of Jesus' desires in our heart and life can have a similar effect. While the seed will do everything it can to survive and take root, it is ultimately our choices to live from our heart in openness and honesty that will allow Jesus to continue to grow His eternal life within us.

So it is apparent that living from the heart is a very important practice if we want to fully experience eternal life. It is not enough to just accept Jesus as our Saviour and do nothing more. However important that is, it must be followed up by a willingness and honesty to bare our hearts both to ourselves and to others in the body of Christ is He is to incorporate us into the dynamic community of saints, the living organism of the great mystery of redemption.

If Jesus is living in my heart, and I know He does because of the confirmation of His Spirit, I need to allow Him access to all my equipment so He can produce fruit that will testify to His power to transform. It's His specialty and He is faithful.

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Cor. 1:9

Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 1 Thess. 5:24

Celebration Holiness

As I lay in bed this morning trying to work up enough energy to get up I talked with God about my feelings, my family and my relationship with Him as I usually do when I wake up. This morning I had a noticeable feeling of longing for a deeper conversion and closeness to Him, a dissatisfaction with my current condition, an increased hunger for the real presence of God. I asked Him to bless me, to tell me directly Himself who I am and how He feels about me. I chose to restrain myself from bringing to mind verses that explain what He thinks about me even though I realize there is a place for that. I want a fresh, personal message of affirmation from Him that I know I did not generate myself.

After I got up and dressed I settled into my chair for my morning time with God. I always try to avoid allowing my devotions to get too much into a rut. My Dad got so much into a routine with “worship” that it seemed to me that the routine had become far more important than God Himself – maybe even a god itself. I do not say this to be critical, but it has been a lesson of warning for me. So even though I do have a routine that I generally follow, two devotional books and an organized sequence of Bible study, I try to always remember that everything I read is primarily for the purpose of listening with an open heart and emotions to catch what God may want to share with me through what I read. I try to stay alert for impressions inside of me. I take careful note especially of emotion words and descriptions in what I am reading so I can better understand the sense of what people were feeling and especially what God is feeling. This has greatly enhanced my devotions and is helping me to better synchronize my heart with His heart which is what I pray for every day.

I want an experience with God that is far beyond a mere intellectually correct understanding of “truth”, though that is a good structure. I want to experience the beauty and passion of God in the context of truth – I want the best of both and I believe that's what God wants for all of us. Doctrinal truth is like the bones inside our bodies. It is crucial to have all the bones in the right place and in healthy condition. But if that is all you are interested in you will have a spiritual condition that may more resemble a scary Halloween party than a love affair with the ultimate Lover.

This morning I listened for what God might have to say. It is like Him to answer this kind of prayer after He puts the hunger for Him inside my heart early in the day. So I listened and read and dealt with the mental distractions and diversions and brought my mind back to pay attention to what I had missed while reading without concentration. Then I opened to Nehemiah where I had left off yesterday and began reading chapter eight.

This is the story of Israel after they had returned from captivity in Babylon. Ezra and Nehemiah and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah had been working hard to encourage the people and retrain them in the ways of God. There was a lot of problems going on, not only in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem (which I found strong parallels to rebuilding the walls around our families in blessing and holiness), but there was a lot of abuse and major spiritual problems going on. The rulers and the rich were exploiting the rest of the people (sounds very familiar) and a lot of arrogance and hypocrisy was evident. At the same time there was a hunger for returning to God and a life more in harmony with Him so they would not have to suffer the terrible consequences that they had just come out of for the sins of their ancestors.

Chapter eight tells about a large gathering of all the people soon after the walls had been rebuilt and they were feeling a bit more secure. It says that “ all the people gathered as one man at the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the LORD had given to Israel.” This looks like an interesting event. Something compelling is going on here. There seems to be an undercurrent of strong desire that resonates with what I am feeling this morning.

The next ten verses paint an emotional picture of people very hungry for God and very involved and emotionally connected in their worship. “Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen!' while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.”

Wow! I wish I could participate in a powerful worship experience like that. I believe I will sometime somewhere when the time is ripe.

Then I read something that really grabbed my attention. It lists a number of men – Levites – who it says “explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place. They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.” This is exciting to me. This is the kind of thing that we need today. We need Levite-type people who can read, translate and make sense of what God is really trying to say to us. I realize we have an over-abundance of preachers and writers claiming to do just that, and some of them actually do. But I found this fascinating taking place in real-time in an assembly where people are gathered specifically to discover God for themselves. And I believe there is a big difference between explaining and making sense of the Word of God like I have experienced in inductive Bible studies, and those who want to pre-digest the Word and then insist that their interpretation is the voice of God and you must agree with them completely. The first is a real heart-sharing and opening experience and the second is no more than dogmatism.

But the real bombshell exploded my emotions open when I read the effect that this experience had on all these hungry people soaking up the Word and presence of God. For whatever reason it says that “all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.” What was really interesting was the response to this situation. The leaders led by God's Spirit pointed out that this day was “holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.”

“Then he said to them, 'Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.'

So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, 'Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.'

All the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival, because they understood the words which had been made known to them.”

The Lord spoke to my heart and melted it this morning. I was overwhelmed that He is the kind of God that would lift up the chin of someone who was weeping, like I am when I read these words myself, and say, “There is more than what you thought! Don't just be sad in your repentance. Go past that and celebrate the incredible goodness of God to you. Celebrate by indulging in the blessings God has given you and by sharing those blessing with those who don't have them yet. When you get this close to God, when you encounter the real holiness of God, instead of fear I want you unleash your heart in celebration, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”

Thank-you God so much for that blessing, that affirmation that you primed me for this morning. I feel rich just because you honor me with personal revelations of Yourself like this. I feel grief much of the time because I am so unlike You and feel so stuck in my stuff. But you are telling me something very different here than what I expect you to say to me. Please help me to live more fully from my heart free of the suffocating inhibitions that have held me in lies about you all my life. You have lured me to Your heart for years, inviting me to live with abandon in the safety of your love. I give you permission to continue what You are doing inside me. Now its time to go eat some fat and drink some sweet and send gifts to someone who has nothing prepared, who doesn't realize the truth about Your goodness and is still living in terror of You. O God, make my life a better celebration for Your glory.