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.”