Revival

Revival is not a person or a place. It’s not a destination on a map or the teaching of man. It is a heartfelt mindset of living in the righteousness of Jesus. It’s not just speaking of it, it’s not just believing it is coming because someone’s prophetic words. It is believing with your whole heart that a move of God is here! Not that it is coming, that it is here! It is not preparing for it, it’s not, let’s get our ducks in a row so we are ready. No, it’s meeting God where He is and jumping on board! We are not the controller of this move, He is. We are not to just speak of it, but take action! The blueprint was made in the very first revival, when Jesus walked the earth! He brought revival, He revived the true love of God in His people! He didn’t just speak of it, He lived it! He did what the Father did! Not what He himself wanted. He didn’t have to strive, make a way or do anything other than do what God was doing! We all miss the mark, we all want to take control of our destiny and be all that we can be. What we are supposed to be doing is being all we can be in Him, doing what He is doing and doing what He has called us to do. We are Spirits sent here to love, sent here to awaken in ourselves first and then awaken each other to the pure love that is God! God can and will move, with or without us/you. Prophecy are just words of what can be, not what is. We have to act upon those words in a Godly way. We have to move as He wants us to, not how we want to. Our tongues are a double edge sword, they can cut to destroy or speak to the love of God! If it is righteous, if it is pure it is of Him, it is Him! Grace be in all we do! In all we DO, not just what we say. This is moving with God! My friends, make no mistake, revival is here, it is happening! We must remove the blinders that is keeping us held back from our purpose, from our destiny. It’s time to leap in to faith, to stop thinking it, stop talking it and start acting it! This is what I keep hearing.

Thank you Jesus!

Generational Curses

Generational Curses

God spoke to me the other day about generational curses. He said there is a misconception on what this means. It is not an actual curse but a mindset handed down from family member to family member. It is a teaching of a familiar way of being. Not just spoken, but in actions. It becomes comfortable to act this way, to hand these things down to the next person or persons in line. The kicker is, even if we know it is not righteous, we do it anyway. We find justification in it, because those before us did it. Comfort in familiarity. 

   Here is the bombshell that He showed me… 

We are all one in Him, this makes us all family. These “curses” are not just in our blood families, but in all relationships. Leaders to leaders, boss to employees, Pastors to Pastors, ministers to the body. What has been shown to us by the people we believe to have our best interests in mind, could actually be sending us in a misdirected path. There intentions are not to harm us, but the mindset of familiarity exists in them. They have it all locked up in a nice box, believing with all their hearts this is the way it’s done. It is not totally their fault, but it is their responsibility to break it. When Jesus spoke the words of “I only do what I see the Father doing” this is what He was speaking of. If we are following that blue print, we are to be rebellious to these laws and rules. Jesus did not say, well these guys over here have it all figured out, so let’s all follow them. No, He said wait a minute, is that the Father? Is that what He is doing? 

   I heard a Pastor once say, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in ministry, we can still get caught up in our own way of thinking. This is the curse! Our own way of thinking… Those words are powerful, God repeated them to me this morning. He said very clearly, have Grace, because they do not know what they are doing. Even if we see it, doesn’t mean they do. It also means they may not accept it from you. Have grace and love for them anyway. Jesus was standing fight in front of the Pharisees sand they didn’t see or hear them either.

   As believers, we have to pay attention when God is speaking to us. It can come from anywhere, anything and anyone. (He spoke through a donkey after all). We have to be open all the time. We have to see it when it comes, we cannot get locked in to our own mindset of what we were taught. 

   God is doing a new thing, it is not like anything we have seen before. There are people front running these things. Pay attention, listen and seek God before dismissing them. The box of the generations before us are been busted wide open. The religious mindsets of things are done this way, my way and the way we have been taught are gone. A new thing is a new thing! The disciples saw this thousands of years ago. Why do we find it so hard today? Because in those thousands of years, through the generations of not just blood family, but our whole family, we have been shown that it’s this way. 

   Let us look to Him and see what He is doing! Let us truly seek Him with all our hearts and break loose from the familiar mindset. Let’s embrace what He is doing, let’s trust Him and His ways. He is in everything, in everyone and through you, He going to do a new thing!

Thank you a Jesus!

Are We Who We Say We Are?

  Who am I? I am the man that when Jesus looked upon me said, he is worthy of my suffering!  

   Those who believe that the adversary carry’s power over that blood live a lie. That is this mindset of lack, this blind spot excuse of I don’t know what I’m doing! Check your heart my brothers and sisters!! For as you speak so should you act and you will act!! Woah!! Jesus!! We can no longer stand up and say, well it’s ok because I am forgiven. This is the enemy mindset. I can treat people how I wish, I can lie, gossip and fabricate. I can misrepresent the very thing, the very one that gave me freedom and use His forgiveness as an excuse! Forgiveness and freedom is not a license to do on to each other as we see fit. It is not a safety net we get to fall back into when we purposely hurt each other. It is not ok to seek our own comfort and destroy another!

““Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22:36-40‬ ‭NIV‬‬

   So love as you love yourself? Do you wish to inflict pain on yourself? Do you? Do you want to spread vicious things, lies and accusations about yourself to others? Then why would you feel it’s ok to do that to someone else? Where is Jesus in that? Where is God’s perspective? A mistake is a mistake, but malicious intent is what it is. Once you speak it into the world, it now exists! See the truth before it leaves your mouth. 

   We can’t stand up and say, I am this… then turn around and purposely act a different way. I can’t say, I believe in the blood, I believe in the power and I have it too, then give into a enemy mindset. I can’t say that freedom exists here, be you, then revoke it when someone does something that I don’t like, that I don’t except. I say let them walk that out, just as I had to walk that out. I will never believe that publicly shaming someone is Jesus! I will not ever believe that humiliation is a cure, it’s control. I will never believe that control is an answer to anything. 

‬‬ “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

‭‭John‬ ‭5:19‬ ‭NIV

   Jesus didn’t say, you do what I want. He didn’t say this makes me comfortable so do it how I want. He said, I do what He does, love them through this! We throw scripture at each other and say do this, but we don’t live it! We speak of how to do it, but do something else. We cannot be that blind that we don’t see it. The truth is we ignore our own shortcomings in this and claim ignorance, claim freedom in this ignorance. The truth is we let ourselves off the hook by claiming forgiveness will make it ok. It is not ok! 

   For years the church has wounded people. It stands under this very law if ignorance. It believes that it is righteous. It believes that it can speak it, but not live it. It says all the right things, but behind the scenes it lacks in integrity, in honor and in truth. 

“Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭23:34‬ ‭NIV‬‬

   He wasn’t talking about us who believe in Him. He was talking about those who couldn’t see Him. Those who didn’t believe in Him. Those who couldn’t see Him through their own ignorance of belief! The Pharisees saw only themselves, saw only what they wanted, saw what they had to lose, earthly things. They did not see what the Father wanted. Once again, we cannot say this and do this. We cannot proclaim we are freedom, love, truth and relational if we are not representing those things. We cannot be the hypocrites that Jesus had to face. We can’t stand there acting like we don’t see what we are doing, claim we are blind. We have the blueprint! We have the book that they didn’t have! We can’t preach the Word and then live in ignorance from the Word.  We as disciples as apostles, teachers, pastors, prophets and evangelist don’t have the same excuse as the Pharisees. We have the New Testament. The teachings of the greatest Teacher. It is a lie if we claim we are blind to our own selfishness, our own agenda coming into play. God will show you these things, He will tell you through your own words and through others. If we really want to reach people, to save others and to truly be who we are called to be, then we have to be who Jesus is… 

God said this to me a couple of days ago and today I see it’s full meaning. 

There is a difference between loving yourself and being “in love” with yourself. One is righteous the other is idolatry. Check your ego at the gate before you enter the kingdom.

God’s Lessons, so far…

   The past couple of weeks have been such a lesson. My own words from the past years months and days have been painting a picture. The brush strokes are made by God’s own hand and have carried such revelation and knowledge. Everything from my FB timeline to my Bible app past posts and others posts, have been lighting up my path. I have sat in deep meditation with God, I have listened to that small still voice and also have heard it cracking like thunder. In His revealing, I have learned much about myself, I have learned much about the way He works. The biggest thing I learned is, though I may not understand, I don’t need to. If He needs me to know, He will show it to me. I also know that when I don’t need to know, is when I learn the most. It is most useful to be silent and observe. But when He asks you to speak, do it with a boldness. I have learned to hear His voice, to see Him in everything and even when it hurts, He is in it. I guess in reality, that is the biggest lesson, He is in it all! No good, no bad, it just is. Through this walk, what looked to be a negative turned out to be positive. What looked to be more than I could bare, turned out to be just enough for the manifestation of His teaching to be released to me, to be revealed as He needed me to see it. I could not have understood or have been told this by anyone but Him. God said to me once, learn from the greatest teacher, that is Jesus! He also said that there is a lesson in everything, I just have to look for it. 

   We spend so much time inside of our own feelings, in our past hurts and in our own self condemnation that we miss the lessons. We miss what He is revealing to us. I will not walk in guilt or shame of my past. I will see His lesson in everything, positive or negative. The Bible says very clearly we are all of the same Spirit, we are all carrying the same authority and power of Jesus. No Spirit is above another, but yet in our flesh mindset, we believe differently. I leave you with this, know enough to know that you know nothing, then you are teachable. Be willing to be silent and listen. Listen to gain, not rebut or rebuke. Most of all see Him and His lesson in everything! He is amazing and His love for us never changes, but ours can! 

God Answered at 4:25 This Morning

   There was a time that I believed that the enemy didn’t exist. That sounds crazy doesn’t it, well to some of you it does. Others will proclaim that he doesn’t and I am naive for thinking so. I did a Bible study, I called it chasing the devil. I went through the pages trying to prove he doesn’t exist. I read Hebrew translations, Greek translations and listened to all kinds of people give their take. I heard very compelling testimony on both sides. All of them were very convincing, but I realized this morning, I never asked God. How did I realize this, He told me so, at 4:25am. It was important enough that He woke me up. You see before I went to sleep I prayed for peace. I prayed that all the stress that I am going through would be removed from me. So He woke me up and said “Stop the enemy that lives inside you”. I said what? “You have dominion over the enemy, you have authority, use it”. Then came the download, the response to my question. So here it is, the best way that I can describe what He is showing me and telling me.

   Wrapped around our spirit is a shell. That shell though made by God has free will. That free will is controlled by a brain that when not living out the blueprint of Jesus can become your worst enemy. The cliche “the enemy in my head” is truth. How about “I am my own worst enemy”? Does that one ring a bell? As believers we make the mistake of thinking we can do and say what ever we want with no consequence because of what Jesus did for us. This is a lie we tell ourselves so we can do the things that give us comfort. We chose to be comfortable instead of stretched in to the unknown. We chose to not be healed by the blood, instead use His blood as an excuse to be radical. Then we scuff at those who are offended by our choices. We see only what we want to see, say whatever we want to say and do whatever we want to do, then we use Jesus as our excuse. We claim it in the name of, we grab hold of a false identity and call it the Holy Spirit. The truth is it’s the spirit of man, the flesh! We cannot use the very freedom of righteousness as an excuse to be unrighteous! 

   The Bible says,

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

‭‭John‬ ‭10:10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So who can steal my joy, who can kill my dreams and who can destroy the very thing that Jesus did for us better than my own mind? He came so we could have a life in full! What does that mean? Joy and an abundance of it in this life! If we are in constant battle with ourselves, if we are unable to hear the voice of the a Father through each other, then we are our own worst enemy! If we believe the only way we hear from God is in our own head, we have lost the most valuable thing He gave us, each other! What a gift we are to each other. 

   Here is the rub, in some cases the rub becomes raw… How we talk and act to each other is important. If I come to you and say brother you are messed up, your language is awful, how is that received? The truth is there is a double activated mindset going on. First the judge, you are not acting Godly. Second the defendant, who are you to judge me? Both of these are the enemy! If I am walking in the truth, if I am following Jesus, my words are different and not full of judgement. First I am the example, how I act and my words are important, everyday. Second because I walk in righteousness, because I live it, I can say, brother, by the power of the tongue so shall we be. Some would call that self righteous. The defendant surly would. Jesus died so I could be free! Is that the freedom He died for? The freedom to do what ever we want and call it just? Is true freedom, being His light or being your light? 

“Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

‭‭John‬ ‭5:19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

   Now comes the honesty in ourselves, do we believe the Word? If you do, you now have to ask yourself the hard question, are you doing what the Father is doing? Does He lie for His own gain? Does He cuss, does He get angry at us, when we make mistakes? Does He use His power and authority to control or harm us? Does He use Jesus and Holy Spirit as a means of controlling us? I have already answered these questions for myself in conversation with Him this morning. I asked Him to reveal my shortcomings and to guide me to His path of righteousness. I asked Him to drive the enemy out of my head, to send me the Word of truth. 

   It is a tough thing to do, facing down the adversary, especially when it’s you. We get lost in ourselves, we believe what we want to, not what is true. We see what we want to see, how things effect us, not how others perceive things. We seek control through our own thoughts of truth, we see only what makes us comfortable, we project our will upon others and call it Jesus. When what we are supposed to be doing is walking in the new creation that we have become through the blood of Jesus. We seek what we already know, but act as if we don’t know it. There is power in the name of Jesus, we can use it for good and it can be used for evil. We can be the new creation that 

is Christ or be a creation we claim is Christ. What we proclaim and what we do are two separate things. But also what we proclaim to have is what we are. That is we give ourselves titles, then use them for our own agendas. We use them as excuses, I’m bad, I’m just a screw up, I am free. Free to do what? At who’s cost, at what cost? If we are truly free in our new creation, than the enemy is gone and that freedom is living in Christ, Christ like. 

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4:1-11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

   Do what God says, do not test God and worship and serve Him only.

Pain Is Freely Given And Love Is Earned. Is That What Jesus Said?

    We as humans, our humanity side of what we are, seems to have taken control of who we really are. We are a spirit having a human experience. What happens to us is we forget that, we start being a human having a spiritual experience. We begin to get so caught up in life that we forget how we got here, who put us here and what our purpose is. We allow this human thing to override the spirit of truth. Even if we are awakened to the fact that inside us lives a spirit, that we are just a shell holding precious cargo, we can still be overcome by our humanness. 

    Jesus said “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”. But yet we as humans beings instead of spiritual beings do not freely give this love. We make each other earn it. You must show you love me, you must perform in a certain manner and if you don’t, it is proof that you have no love for me. In some cases it gets worse than that, if you don’t act in accordance to my ways, you are my enemy! If you believe differently or if you have a different opinion, then by my rules are not faithful. This is the law of man. We totally disregard what Jesus said and put in place our own regulations of what love looks like. This is makes me sad. 

    When our human form does not get fed what it believes it deserves, it’s first instinct of self preservation is to retaliate. It will lash out! It will remove its love. Just as the Pharisees did to Jesus, first they lashed out by discrediting Him, then they beat Him with a whip and then they attempted to remove Him. They tried to take love right off the earth. They were choosing their law over love. They freely gave Him pain, instead of love. They chose their laws over love. We, in our flesh, do the same to each other. If someone’s actions do not measure up to our beliefs, our rules of what love looks like, we crucify them. It sounds harsh when it’s put that way doesn’t it. But isn’t that exactly what we do? No forgiveness, no grace, we yell “ crucify him”!

    “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭9:23-25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

   What does this mean to you? To me it says, I must not listen to my flesh, I must die to it daily! I must give up the ways of humanity and find the Jesus in me and walk that out. Carrying my cross of the flesh and letting it die, so I can allow my Spirit to do its work, His work. I must overcome, just as He did. I have to, even in pain, love, just as He did.

“Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭23:34‬ ‭NIV

This all sounds simple, but we see the opposite everyday. We see a self serving agenda be the ruler of man. We choose to not follow Him, but to follow our flesh, to not love freely. To not forgive. Why is that? Why do we choose to give away pain instead of love? We forget that He saw our sin, our shortcomings and our mistakes, but gave it all for us anyways. We say it, we preach it, we write it, but we don’t live it! 

   You have a choice, it is a simple decision. You have to make it daily. You can choose your humanity, hold people accountable to your law or you can choose to pick up your cross and follow Him. You can give away pain freely or love freely. Remember what He chose. 

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Truth of integrity and Honesty

  So there I was in that moment, I had a choice, to be honorable or to not be. As I wrote those words I had a certain story in mind, then all at once a flood of stories came to mind. Which one do I tell? The one where I failed or when I triumphed? Do I tell the one when I was true to my wife or when I had stolen something from someone? Do I tell when I found a bunch of money and gave it back or when I took a dollar out of someone’s car? 

   I have found just how important integrity and honesty are in our lives. Not just to those who are watching us, but to ourselves. 

Definition: 

the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

   You see you can make or break a relationship with someone and with yourself by how you handle a moment in time. If someone sees me being dishonest, treating someone poorly or talking behind someone’s back, this will have a direct impact on their relationship with me. It will also have an impact on others who have viewed these actions. On the flip side, in that quiet time alone or when I look at myself in the mirror, I may now remember what  I did or what I said. It will now game an effect on how I see myself. 

   It may seem like no big deal at the time and as you do more dishonest things, as you treat more and more people poorly it will get easier. I know this from experience. Until one day you look around and no one trusts you, believes you or wants to be around you. Then comes those mirror moments, when you can’t even look yourself in the eye. It becomes a wake up call, well hopefully it does. If not there may just be a bit a of narcissism there. 

   When I had awakened to the fact of what I had become and what I had done, I was in my first year of working on my sobriety. You see being sober is more than just not using, it is learning to love the person you are, not who you were. It is putting the old you behind you and stepping back into who you are supposed to be.  This is where it begins, with you!  The truth be told though, you don’t have to be or have been an addict to lack in integrity. You also could have been clean for years to fall back into or never have left that mindset. 

   To me integrity is putting first a value on how you treat others and yourself. Second is acting in accordance to those values in every moment of your life. When I did this, it changed the atmosphere around me, it changed my personal world. Somethings changed quickly, some slowly, but it did change. Once my relationship with myself became valued, so did my other relationships. Some mended seemingly overnight, others took years and some never did. All of this is perfect, right along with a Gods plan. 

   Just remember this, integrity and honesty are choices, but the results are not. If you choose to jump across that line, you can have no explanation of the results. No one has to understand why you did it, there will be no excuse good enough. Eventually, you will not even be able to explain it away to yourself. It is not easy, we all slip along the way, but once you start choosing wisely and you see results, it becomes the right choice! 

   I believe we can all change, I have seen it in myself and in others around me. It is a beautiful thing to see people step back into that mindset. It is so warming to see people value themselves and others. As a leader in a recovery group, I get the honor of seeing this often. It is amazing when you see it happen right before your eyes. It is a gift that keeps on giving, it is such a blessing to watch Jesus do His work. 

The World Vs Jesus


   You see it all over the place, the self serving mindset of people in the world. The I’m going to get mine or the it’s going to be my way and that’s it. You don’t have to look far to see it, walk out your door, turn on the news or you might be able to look in the mirror and see the self agenda mindset that exists everywhere.        

   Don’t feel condemned over this, it has been taught to you from almost every position and direction in your life. It is easy to get caught up in it, they make it the normal way to be. Who are they you ask?  Well let’s break it down.

   Let’s start with the news, it’s the simplest and easiest to dissect. Turn on the television and pick a channel, it doesn’t matter which one. Now watch that one for a half hour, then another and yet another. Each one is reporting on the same subjects, but each one puts their own self serving twist on it to push their own agenda. They are all the same yet different. It is no longer news, it is now propaganda. Let that sink in, how can it be that diverse, if it’s really news? 

   Then we have our honorably elected leaders.  They too are easy to dissect, well at least the less crafty ones. With them all you have to do is look at party affiliations, that’s it, you will know right then what they are pushing. Yep that’s right, pushing. It’s no longer about doing what the people want, it’s about pushing a self centered agenda. It’s what they want, not what the people want. They have gotten so good at it that they can even convince you it’s for your best interests, even if you don’t believe it to be true. 

   Now let’s look a little closer to home, the people we choose to follow or lead us. It doesn’t matter which ones we look closely at, teachers, bosses, Pastors and even our spouses. If the mindset is there, if the self centered mindset exists, they too will push their will, their doctrine upon you. I’m not saying that we can’t or shouldn’t have our own opinions or ideas about things. I’m not saying that everyone is that way. What I am saying is, that if they are only interested in pushing their views and interests on you without having an open mind to receive other perspectives, well then… it doesn’t matter if it’s for status, financial gain or just a self promoting agenda, it’s still the same, it’s bout control. 

   Being in control, having power over people can be just like taking a drug, it is addicting. Just like money, power can rule you. Put the two together and you just might throw your own mother under the bus to get what you want. It’s not far fetched, I lived that life style for a lot of years, it’s a struggle. In me created an unhappy, miserable person who lashed out at everyone around me. In some form or another, in my self serving, self promoting ways, I treated people poorly to get what I wanted, to maintain a false sense of control. Do you know that some people have no idea they are even doing this. I didn’t! 

Then came Jesus…

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:4-6‬ ‭NIV

   In a moment, well many moments, things changed for me. As I grew in Christ, as I turned to a different way of life, I began to look at things differently. First, my way wasn’t the right way. It was no longer about what I want, but what God wants. My self seeking agenda turned to His agenda, His works. Second, I began to pay attention to my surroundings. meaning who is leading me and how am I leading. This is important! If I fall under leadership that is self promoting, then by default that’s who I am. If I work for a company that seeks financial gain over serving their customers and treating their employees correctly, then once again I fall under their umbrella of self promotion. I become what they are and will eventually become that in all facets of my life. This was who I was, not who He made me to be.

   Once again, then came Jesus. I could put verse after verse on here to prove this point of view. But I will just copy a few that stand out to me.

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:11-16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22:37-39‬ ‭NIV‬‬

   We were not sent here to control one another. We were not sent for a self serving agenda. We were sent here to promote, to follow the ways of our Lord. To teach, respectively His ways! We are to show the world His love, His Grace and what His glory looks like. We do this not for rewards, but for each other, for a life of joy and love! Call me Jesus freak, call me hippie, I will gladly take on those names, if it means one more person can be at peace and at rest in Him! 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭15:13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Reflection

   As we enter into this new decade, I attempted to look back on how it began. I tried to remember what it looked like in 2010. I tried to see what my mindset was like and where I was at. I tried to find pictures, maybe something I wrote down or a letter to myself. Nothing, not one thing showed up. The truth is, I couldn’t because I was not even a year clean and sober. Nothing was making sense, I was still in a fear based mindset and was hanging on by the seat of my pants. I am certain of this, I was dug in, meaning I had my head down, not looking anyone in the face. I was most likely keeping my distance from everything and everyone I had spent the past twenty five years with. I was on probation, I was going to AA and was not sure if any of this was for me. 

   I can’t see any of this clearly, I can’t truly reflect on it because of where and what I walk in today, freedom!

“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

‭‭John‬ ‭8:34-36‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Yes I was a slave, my mindset was still so clouded that I knew nothing of being free. I had nothing to set a foundation on. But somewhere in the middle of this decade, along came Jesus. He showed up or the truth be told, I let Him in! I gave in to the stubbornness that lived in my head and let He who lived in my heart awaken! Immediately I saw and felt things differently! As I cleared my mind of all that I was, as I put the old me to rest, I stepped into who He said I am…

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:16-19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Yes, I am a new creation! In this newness, I became free indeed! The old is covered by the blood, so much so, that I can’t even see it! What a gift that is! Yes explanation points rule those sentences, because that is exciting news, it is important, it is truth! 

   I have been asked, what is different from your sobriety before Jesus, then your sobriety after you awakened to Him being in you? It is simple in a complex sort of way… complex in that I made it that way at first. I felt like I had to strive, had to do or be something in order to be “saved”. The truth is that it is far different than that. I just need to rest in the Father. That is believe that He is there for me. Believe that no matter what happens, His intentions towards me are good. Believe that no matter who I was He still loves and will always love me! 

   What happened to me as this grew inside me is an amazing story. Those things I use to strive for, I use to try work hard for, became easy and natural. The way I use to try to control my surroundings became not necessary. I was able to just be! I look to Him, just as Jesus did.

“Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

‭‭John‬ ‭5:19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.”

‭‭John‬ ‭14:10‬ ‭NIV

The blue print was walked out before us, all we need to do is follow it. What happened to me is not new. What happened to me has been happening decades before my past decade. Real people have found freedom through something so much greater than ourselves. They walk naturally in Him, with understanding of what it looks like to love one another. I don’t have to work hard today to be like He that walked before me. I am not perfect, but I am perfect in Him. Just like Jesus, I am an example of what the Father is doing. Integrity, honesty, truth and love. These rule my life, not because someone told me I have to, but because it is what He did, what He does. It becomes natural if you let Him be your guide, you then become His example. 

It is an honor to walk out a God’s vision for me. It is a gift to be a son of The Most High. Let us not take it for granted or be self righteous in these things. Let us walk this out together in an understanding of what Jesus did for us and has shown us. Be a new creation, be an example, love one another, rest in Him and just be…