It is not really possible to explain what a spiritual relationship with God is like and define it. It takes spiritual experience to know the spiritual. It's about like a cat chasing his tail. You can not get it from the bible, because it is not written to you. I believe it is written to the Holly Spirit who is our translator. We base most of our Christianity on emotion or worldly wisdom of the Bible. The mind can not grasp spiritual concepts, but study enough and it will think it has found spiritual enlightenment. How do we know when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us and not our mind? Two ways I have learned the voice of God by only focusing on thoughts that do not seem to be ones that are logical and by asking god to show me what his voice is like. An example of this in my life was about 15 years ago the singles group I was in at church had decided to go to Cancun for a long weekend. The first night we hit the party seen and everyone was having the time of there life, but I kept having this overwhelming sadness sweeping over me like a wave I would brush it aside and it would come back. It just felt like something very bad had happened. I resolved to disregard it and seek God in the morning about it. I was awakened at dawn and went out to ask God for answers. All I could come up with was something bad was about to happen and I should get ready by grieving with God now. It was another day of this before it happened. Two men on the trip drowned, one of them had been my room mate. I was not overwhelmed with sadness when it happened because I felt like it was out of my system and I knew it was in God’s control. I was free to deal with the tasks at hand and to help the others.
If you read the bible and hear echoes of past Sunday school lessons or sermons then it is probably not the Holy Spirit but your mind. Your mind takes events in life and tries to make them spiritual. Your mind will create spirituality to fell the void and stay in control. God’s wisdom is an uncommon wisdom. His wisdom makes sense, but it is uncommon and often outside of our though patterns.
The purpose is to seek Christ in others and grow together into His bride. While home churchs and open churchs has some good points, the meeting is not the main issue.
God's Pupose for us.
I used to wrestle with a number of questions like freewill and predestination, God’s ultimate purpose, and my role in that purpose. The short answer is God’s desire is companionship with the bride and Christ outside of time and space. The first step to understanding is the idea that God created both time and space within himself. He then can move freely through space and has seen the end of creation and sees us as a perfect bride. God sees all of creation from beginning to end as a whole. He is not looking at each point in time and saying you are blowing it and you better get your act together. He sees the end and has already made it work out to His good. I think his perspective is he wants to set you free from the possessiveness of sin that demands our emotions and mind. It gives us little time for the spiritual. God wants to share Himself with us but we are preoccupied with things, desires and knowledge. God wants to show us His place outside time and space. He would like us to commune with Him while we are on earth.
I see it as God is panting a mural through time most of the painting is grass and sky. The mural also has focal points that God puts particular effort in making. Everything in the painting is important, but some items take more effort. So if you are a focal point, you may experience more of the cross and more intimacy with Him. The two go together you can’t have more intimacy without Spiritual maturity through the cross. You can’t choose your role only ask Him to prepare your hart and support those who are being crucified. A blade of grass can not decide to be a barn and a barn to be just a blade of grass. It is God who decides and puts that desire in our hart. We must wait on the Lord and give His will a chance to grow in us. It is this that will let us fill fulfilled and give us a purpose filled life.
Christ spoke in parables because his subject matter was so foreign to his audience. But even with parables He spoke not so much for that moment in time but for latter when the Holy Spirit was in them. See not even Christ can explain Spiritual concepts without the Holy Spirit, only tell them what it was not. So we have to get to know the Holy Spirit first. The Bible does not explain any spiritual concepts it only helps the Spirit break through our emotions and logic. The Bible without the Spirit is just a playground for the mind. You can never know how simple His purpose is without an understanding of the Holy Spirit. It is the minds of the ages that have tricked us into thinking that understanding the Spirituals is complex and requires research. It is just not true. It is not in God’s purpose for us to understand everything, but the Spirit has much He wishes to share. We are part of a culturally inbreed reality that is almost two thousand years old. I’m not saying that God is not part of the culture, because like the Jews He interacted with them from time to time even though from time to time they were far off track. It is all working out to his purpose, the creation of a companion which has already been created from God’s perspective.
So our common purpose on earth is to seek His companionship and to encourage the spiritual relationship in others. I hope this encourages you to seek the Holy Spirit.
I see it as God is panting a mural through time most of the painting is grass and sky. The mural also has focal points that God puts particular effort in making. Everything in the painting is important, but some items take more effort. So if you are a focal point, you may experience more of the cross and more intimacy with Him. The two go together you can’t have more intimacy without Spiritual maturity through the cross. You can’t choose your role only ask Him to prepare your hart and support those who are being crucified. A blade of grass can not decide to be a barn and a barn to be just a blade of grass. It is God who decides and puts that desire in our hart. We must wait on the Lord and give His will a chance to grow in us. It is this that will let us fill fulfilled and give us a purpose filled life.
Christ spoke in parables because his subject matter was so foreign to his audience. But even with parables He spoke not so much for that moment in time but for latter when the Holy Spirit was in them. See not even Christ can explain Spiritual concepts without the Holy Spirit, only tell them what it was not. So we have to get to know the Holy Spirit first. The Bible does not explain any spiritual concepts it only helps the Spirit break through our emotions and logic. The Bible without the Spirit is just a playground for the mind. You can never know how simple His purpose is without an understanding of the Holy Spirit. It is the minds of the ages that have tricked us into thinking that understanding the Spirituals is complex and requires research. It is just not true. It is not in God’s purpose for us to understand everything, but the Spirit has much He wishes to share. We are part of a culturally inbreed reality that is almost two thousand years old. I’m not saying that God is not part of the culture, because like the Jews He interacted with them from time to time even though from time to time they were far off track. It is all working out to his purpose, the creation of a companion which has already been created from God’s perspective.
So our common purpose on earth is to seek His companionship and to encourage the spiritual relationship in others. I hope this encourages you to seek the Holy Spirit.
Finding Your Spiritual Gift
Christian society treats Spiritual gifts as part of your emotional disposition and talks like you are given one or two gifts at salvation and you spend the rest of your Christian life cultivating them. We have surveys that identify your gift that are more like a personality and interest survey. You are spiritually born with all the spiritual aspects of God and your “self” covers it up. It is God who decides what gift will be given to the church and by who, when I say church I mean the greater Christian community. This will be your gift for what ever length of time He chooses. The scriptures talk about spiritual gifts because Christians looked at them as personal traits not the Lords work through them. Christians saw one trait as better then another and not as they should the Lord working through them. The issue we have today is that now that our culture has defined the gifts our mind will imitate them. The mind does such a good job that it even fools itself. When I was in collage I had developed very strong empathy skills and could fill the pain of those around me. I could in a short amount of time make them comfortable with sharing there pain with me. I thought this was a gift form God. I could tell who was going through pain and share in there pain. It was wonderful at first but after the person thought about what they had shared they would distance themselves from me. They were not ready to talk about there problems. It was not long before I realized that this was a trait that I had developed and not from God. I had to set it down and move on, just as I have traits that I cultivate for work, but set aside when I’m seeking the Lord’s work. Spiritual gifts are not like traits that we have to work on or be trained in, but a spiritual gift from God if for some reason it is lacking then it is our relationship with God that is at fault. You see a spiritual gift is spiritual, so if you wish to be a better tool you work on your spiritual awareness and not on the gift. Focus on the gift and that empowers you not the spirit. You will find yourself moving from God not to Him.
We have lost our Spiritual perspective as it relates to gifts. It has become a way of personal empowerment. Once we have found what we think is our gift we act like anything we do with this trait is the working of the Lord. This is taking control of your own life. We need to seek to deepen our relationship with Christ and rejoice when God has us actively knowingly participate in His will. Don’t focus on labeling or wish He was using you as someone else. It is one of the biggest blessings to not only be saved but see that God is using us in the fulfillment of His purpose. Don’t take control by labeling your abilities as from Christ and proclaiming your use of this ability the works of the Lord. You can be trained on how to better use an ability but not a gift. You can only develop the relationship. Don’t push your abilities on the Lord, but seek and wait. It is His choice to make the working of His purpose a mystery. So don’t be frustrated with the mystery, but be thankful when He shows your actions as part of His purpose.
We have lost our Spiritual perspective as it relates to gifts. It has become a way of personal empowerment. Once we have found what we think is our gift we act like anything we do with this trait is the working of the Lord. This is taking control of your own life. We need to seek to deepen our relationship with Christ and rejoice when God has us actively knowingly participate in His will. Don’t focus on labeling or wish He was using you as someone else. It is one of the biggest blessings to not only be saved but see that God is using us in the fulfillment of His purpose. Don’t take control by labeling your abilities as from Christ and proclaiming your use of this ability the works of the Lord. You can be trained on how to better use an ability but not a gift. You can only develop the relationship. Don’t push your abilities on the Lord, but seek and wait. It is His choice to make the working of His purpose a mystery. So don’t be frustrated with the mystery, but be thankful when He shows your actions as part of His purpose.
Spiritual Eyes
Letter to a believer
You find before you a very high wall that you must and will clime. The other side of this wall you will find the spiritual Experience that changes everything. The things that torment you now you will find them to be the blessed cross. You've read many books on Europe before you went, but when you arrived you found that you had not fully understood the books. The same and more are true for the bible and spiritual books. We can not look at them with the same eyes as the writer until we have shared in the Experience that turns others into a mirage.
God's love for you does not change just your ability to see it. The Lord is expressing His love for you in the realm of reality and this is partially reflected in the physical realm. This physical reflection if viewed from the physical perspective looks deceptive. The physical eyes call this torment. The spiritual eyes call this a blessing. So this gives you an extraordinary situation, the blessed torment or blessed cross. This is how the torment and devastation will turn into a blessing.
I used to enjoy counseling and would often use the knowledge I learned to fix up my own life. I had become quite good at understanding how the mind worked so that I could work out the problems in my life. I learned how to fix some of my problems that were not Christian as the bible directs. But that is all a lie of the old nature.
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." LUKE 9:23-24
He says you must deny yourself not stop sinning. You must not try to fix (save) your life but rather set it aside (lose it). You can NOT deny or loose something that you are trying to fix.
So we are free from sin and the torment of the world only when that part is subject to torment is denied or lost. So were ever I'm stung by sin that part of me I must find and deny. The pain must not be justified with my time, but set aside for God.
The fight is not against sin and Evil but with our desire to fight sin and evil. The tree that Adam and Eve ate of was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Before the apple Adam did not know of evil so he could not know of his evil ways. He found out later that the things he was doing were wrong, he had no clothing! God had only said one thing in the garden was bad and that was the tree of knowledge. Why only this tree and not the other things. What was the first affect the tree had on Adam? The first thing is Adam saw his nakedness and wanted to be covered. Adam had the need to do good and this lead to him hiding from God. Our old nature wishes to do good not our new. God knew Atom had eaten of the tree when he was too ashamed of his "sin" to spend time with God. Genesis 3:10-11
I have seen that God's love has always been with me. I have started to also realize that I have been in union with God. I though I had to gain or earn this but found this not to be true. I have instead found that I have been on a journey to open my spiritual eyes.
Would You join me on this journey?
You find before you a very high wall that you must and will clime. The other side of this wall you will find the spiritual Experience that changes everything. The things that torment you now you will find them to be the blessed cross. You've read many books on Europe before you went, but when you arrived you found that you had not fully understood the books. The same and more are true for the bible and spiritual books. We can not look at them with the same eyes as the writer until we have shared in the Experience that turns others into a mirage.
God's love for you does not change just your ability to see it. The Lord is expressing His love for you in the realm of reality and this is partially reflected in the physical realm. This physical reflection if viewed from the physical perspective looks deceptive. The physical eyes call this torment. The spiritual eyes call this a blessing. So this gives you an extraordinary situation, the blessed torment or blessed cross. This is how the torment and devastation will turn into a blessing.
I used to enjoy counseling and would often use the knowledge I learned to fix up my own life. I had become quite good at understanding how the mind worked so that I could work out the problems in my life. I learned how to fix some of my problems that were not Christian as the bible directs. But that is all a lie of the old nature.
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." LUKE 9:23-24
He says you must deny yourself not stop sinning. You must not try to fix (save) your life but rather set it aside (lose it). You can NOT deny or loose something that you are trying to fix.
So we are free from sin and the torment of the world only when that part is subject to torment is denied or lost. So were ever I'm stung by sin that part of me I must find and deny. The pain must not be justified with my time, but set aside for God.
The fight is not against sin and Evil but with our desire to fight sin and evil. The tree that Adam and Eve ate of was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Before the apple Adam did not know of evil so he could not know of his evil ways. He found out later that the things he was doing were wrong, he had no clothing! God had only said one thing in the garden was bad and that was the tree of knowledge. Why only this tree and not the other things. What was the first affect the tree had on Adam? The first thing is Adam saw his nakedness and wanted to be covered. Adam had the need to do good and this lead to him hiding from God. Our old nature wishes to do good not our new. God knew Atom had eaten of the tree when he was too ashamed of his "sin" to spend time with God. Genesis 3:10-11
I have seen that God's love has always been with me. I have started to also realize that I have been in union with God. I though I had to gain or earn this but found this not to be true. I have instead found that I have been on a journey to open my spiritual eyes.
Would You join me on this journey?
The Church Trance
It's amazing how many church goers turn there spirit and mind off during the sermon and become excepting of what they are given. I once was part of a very large charge, one of the fastest growing Baptist church at the time, when I went through my big awakening. I would find myself in shock by how absurd the pastor's statements were almost every Sunday. He would give a message that had a good conclusion and include a verse or two. The problem was often how the conclusion was reached was wrong, often it was obvious to any Sunday school teach who's mind was not asleep. My favorite example of this was one time when he needed an example of how a martyr for Christ can make a dramatic impact on the lives of others, so he used the story of the stoning of Christians in Acts and how it turn Paul around. The problem is Paul clearly wanted to hunt down more Christian after that and it was while he was traveling to Damascus that God changed his life. I looked at my friend setting next to me who had been going to church more years them I and they thought he was making a good point. I showed them the chapter that covers this and they were shocked. I got mixed reaction from those I showed this to most stop setting next to me and a few left the Church, as maybe I should have done. Sometimes he stepped into areas that are spiritually harmful, like the time he tried to help a deacon who read his prayer from notes. What he ended up concluding is that God is busy and we should organize our thoughts on paper as not to waist His time. The biggest problem with prayer is most peoples don't take the time to quite there mind down and hear God. The pastor was a grate motivational speaker but had no spiritual depth.
Most Churches that are growing and are thought of as successful are that way because they are a good social organization. They are not growing because of there spiritual depth. We do not get to know each other spiritually but only the social side that we wish to see. Oh we swap our wisdom on scriptures at times in Sunday school, but not spiritual interpretations. Sunday school is a mindly study of the bible that does not lend itself to spiritual depth. We need church to be an environment were we can guide each other to spiritually deeper relationship and not swap our knowledge of history. We may try to apply it to today, but even this is often stretched way out of context. We need to be teaching each other how to fellowship with God.
Now I know most pastors are not like the example. My point is the state of our Christian culture. Our culture is based on actions and knowledge of the Bible. The culture is based on the more knowledge of the Bible you have the closer you are to Him. The culture works against a deeper Christian life. You can find a few trying to fight the culture but it is very difficult and the numbers are few. It is Gods desire for the number to be few as a popular Christian movement takes the focus off of His purpose.
Most Churches that are growing and are thought of as successful are that way because they are a good social organization. They are not growing because of there spiritual depth. We do not get to know each other spiritually but only the social side that we wish to see. Oh we swap our wisdom on scriptures at times in Sunday school, but not spiritual interpretations. Sunday school is a mindly study of the bible that does not lend itself to spiritual depth. We need church to be an environment were we can guide each other to spiritually deeper relationship and not swap our knowledge of history. We may try to apply it to today, but even this is often stretched way out of context. We need to be teaching each other how to fellowship with God.
Now I know most pastors are not like the example. My point is the state of our Christian culture. Our culture is based on actions and knowledge of the Bible. The culture is based on the more knowledge of the Bible you have the closer you are to Him. The culture works against a deeper Christian life. You can find a few trying to fight the culture but it is very difficult and the numbers are few. It is Gods desire for the number to be few as a popular Christian movement takes the focus off of His purpose.
Spiritual Education
Spiritual education is not a study in theology. Becoming more spiritual and closer to God is more like a process of maturing. Reading the Bible is only helpful if read through spiritual eyes or better stated through Spiritual experience. You can’t explain to a 4 year old how to act like an adult. It can only be done through experience. Our whole society is based on kids learning through mistakes. But our Christian society is based on imitation like a 4 year old imitating an adult. Some think the current philosophy that most Christians have was born in 300AD when Christianity became popular and actors of the time became preachers. That the Christians prior to that time were just over whelmed by the flood of people seeking Christ and the teachings of Christ’s experience that they handed down to the next generation was lost. So I wonder why God let this happen. The only answer I can find is He was not interested in a popular movement. He wanted Christianity to be spread to the ends of the earth for verity not quantity of Saints. I think part of the required cross is that we be small in number and not have a cross support group in every town. It is not possible for me to explain how to obtain spiritual depth because I would be doomed to mislead you. I would be like a parent trying to explain to a 4 year old how to be an adult. Guidance and teachings from other saints is only helpful if accompanied by experience.
When I was trying to find my way to Christ, I had been reading for a few years about the deeper Christian life. But I knew there was a barer that I had been unable to cross. I was unable to decide what thought was from me and what was from God. I also felt that I needed to fix things in my life in order for the relationship to grow. I had to ask God to meet me were I was and not were I though I should be. I needed to work my way to God and my theology had become the law. Then He had to teach me how he communicates with me. He did this through a collage friend’s mother, who I was distain to share a deep spiritual bond with. She was being deeply challenged by God and was having everything that was not God ripped from her. The only thing I had to offer was money so I would ask God what to do and from time to time I would send her whatever amount of money I though God impressed me to give. It was not long before my friend had guessed who was sending her mom money and gave me the feedback I needed to know it was God. My friend would explain how each time the money was received it was just the right amount for a need at the time. Later her mom figured it out and would share with me that every time she received the money that ether it met a desperate need at the time or she new in a few days an unexpected bill would arrive that would match the amount received. This was the kind of hard proof I needed to continue to trust my relation was with God and not from my own mind. It was not that I did not trust God but I did not trust my ability to understand how he was directing me. Over the past ten years He reinforced this experience from time to time, but expecting me to grow my trust in his leading. The point is you have to go through an experience like this to progress in the relationship.
Time is marching to God’s grand purpose and we are pulled into it. He does not have the same plan for everyone and much of what happens to use is meeting Gods purpose from a broad perspective and it is often our choice if God takes trials and uses it for his purpose. If we internalize it or blame others God is cutout. This is the extent we have over God's purpose we can do it easy or hard but God will have his purpose. For some reason some level of pain and suffering is required but we can give it to God to turn it into a cross that has more of a purpose.
I like to think of time as a long big pipe that stretches from creation and ends at Gods purpose. All of man kind and our experience are moving toward the purpose. We have free will to fight the flow or hang on to the side for a bit, but all we really do is tier ourselves and create pain for ourselves and those we rub up against. But the journey through the pipe is required to make His purpose. It takes hundreds of generations to travel the pipe to reach the purpose. God walks back and forth the length of the pipe that represents time. He manipulates the pipe at different points in time to produce the purpose. That is why he can talk about the future as though it had happened because it already has. He is setting at the "purpose" and looking back. His perspective by which he views everything is from the completion. He is all forgiving because of his perspective. We have consequences and repercussions while in the pipe, but after our role is completed we are set free. We are free from life and guilt because we have God's perspective. The good and the bad are intertwined to reach his purpose and can not be untangled. The pipeline which brought the "purpose" is good because that is the instrument he used to make his purpose.
I see our problems broken down into three groups:
Those that are our making or are part of the journey;
Those that are due to those fighting the flow and we bump into there consequences;
Those dictated by God.
While two of the three are not God directed, all of it is under Gods controlled and he could choose to prevent it. It is important to know that hard times are not punishment. Problems are just worldly struggles until we turn it over to God for the working out of His purpose. We need to recognize our struggle is with God’s purpose and our will to control our life.
So what I am trying to say is spiritual education comes from maneuvering down the pipeline with God and the Bible and other spiritual book is very helpful but not the focus. The focus is on the relationship with Christ and the pipeline is His tools to improve that relationship.
When I was trying to find my way to Christ, I had been reading for a few years about the deeper Christian life. But I knew there was a barer that I had been unable to cross. I was unable to decide what thought was from me and what was from God. I also felt that I needed to fix things in my life in order for the relationship to grow. I had to ask God to meet me were I was and not were I though I should be. I needed to work my way to God and my theology had become the law. Then He had to teach me how he communicates with me. He did this through a collage friend’s mother, who I was distain to share a deep spiritual bond with. She was being deeply challenged by God and was having everything that was not God ripped from her. The only thing I had to offer was money so I would ask God what to do and from time to time I would send her whatever amount of money I though God impressed me to give. It was not long before my friend had guessed who was sending her mom money and gave me the feedback I needed to know it was God. My friend would explain how each time the money was received it was just the right amount for a need at the time. Later her mom figured it out and would share with me that every time she received the money that ether it met a desperate need at the time or she new in a few days an unexpected bill would arrive that would match the amount received. This was the kind of hard proof I needed to continue to trust my relation was with God and not from my own mind. It was not that I did not trust God but I did not trust my ability to understand how he was directing me. Over the past ten years He reinforced this experience from time to time, but expecting me to grow my trust in his leading. The point is you have to go through an experience like this to progress in the relationship.
Time is marching to God’s grand purpose and we are pulled into it. He does not have the same plan for everyone and much of what happens to use is meeting Gods purpose from a broad perspective and it is often our choice if God takes trials and uses it for his purpose. If we internalize it or blame others God is cutout. This is the extent we have over God's purpose we can do it easy or hard but God will have his purpose. For some reason some level of pain and suffering is required but we can give it to God to turn it into a cross that has more of a purpose.
I like to think of time as a long big pipe that stretches from creation and ends at Gods purpose. All of man kind and our experience are moving toward the purpose. We have free will to fight the flow or hang on to the side for a bit, but all we really do is tier ourselves and create pain for ourselves and those we rub up against. But the journey through the pipe is required to make His purpose. It takes hundreds of generations to travel the pipe to reach the purpose. God walks back and forth the length of the pipe that represents time. He manipulates the pipe at different points in time to produce the purpose. That is why he can talk about the future as though it had happened because it already has. He is setting at the "purpose" and looking back. His perspective by which he views everything is from the completion. He is all forgiving because of his perspective. We have consequences and repercussions while in the pipe, but after our role is completed we are set free. We are free from life and guilt because we have God's perspective. The good and the bad are intertwined to reach his purpose and can not be untangled. The pipeline which brought the "purpose" is good because that is the instrument he used to make his purpose.
I see our problems broken down into three groups:
Those that are our making or are part of the journey;
Those that are due to those fighting the flow and we bump into there consequences;
Those dictated by God.
While two of the three are not God directed, all of it is under Gods controlled and he could choose to prevent it. It is important to know that hard times are not punishment. Problems are just worldly struggles until we turn it over to God for the working out of His purpose. We need to recognize our struggle is with God’s purpose and our will to control our life.
So what I am trying to say is spiritual education comes from maneuvering down the pipeline with God and the Bible and other spiritual book is very helpful but not the focus. The focus is on the relationship with Christ and the pipeline is His tools to improve that relationship.
Finding the Starting Place
This is two letters I wrote some time ago to a friend as I was finding a new place in my relationship with Christ. I hope you find it helpful.
LETTER 1 Feb. 17 1990
I hate to write but for some reason God has pushed me to tell you the following. Many people act the way they feel good Christians act, in other words imitation over dedication to a relationship with Him. Works without dedication to the relationship is living by laws. This has found use replacing the relationship with laws. It seems that the only way to replace the law with a real thirst is through devastation of all things that are not spiritual. Then turn to God in desperation. He will then replace our self justification by works with desperation for a relationship so fulfilling that everything else is like dust on a fine oak table. It is all to be swept away to show the luster of Christ's relationship in our lives. I fell God has started this in your life.
Things of this world seem to push a wedge between Christ and use, even after we have allowed God to destroy everything for this relationship. We seem to find ourselves in the rut of acting out the relationship instead of enjoying it. I often force feed myself with God to meet my busy schedule.
But I find if I treat Him like a wife and give Him the time He deserves He will give me back the thirst. When I feel a separation I must take time off from friends and work to rebuild the relationship, so that my thirst for him comes back. Then I feel the things that caused friction in the relationship is wiped away like dust to show me the luster of the relationship.
The worse way to kill a relationship is by consistently doing the same thing. A relationship that is kept the same dries up and dies in the most painful way possible. God wants an exciting relationship marked by change, challenge, and adventure. But often we find the relationship marked by complacency in our willingness to strive for a relationship we can't understand. Anytime a relationship is consistently done the same way it becomes a ritual. We so often find ourselves locked into spending time with God the same way everyday. We find the desire has been replaced with will power, as we try to suck every last drop of life out of the relationship. I was told one time that if you are in real fellowship with God you will feel Him active in your life every day!
LETTER 2 Feb. 20 1990
I seem to have the need to write you once more. But I need to first tell you that while I have spent many years studying about the things of Christ and have found a wealth of worldly wisdom of Godly things. I've found that Godly wisdom comes only through experience. That even though many Godly men have told me of there Godly experience, I only thought I understood. I could not really understand until I began to share in there experience.
For example as much as I may read on the political system and how it feels to be part of it. I will never really understand until I have been part of it. You would not let someone who has never raised a child tell you how to be a good parent. But yet we do all these things with our Christian life.
I will no longer be guilty of sharing from what I have studied. I will strive to share only from His relationship and the riches of that experience. I also hope that you will not try to understand with just your mind but that you will be pushed to partake in the experience.
I was once told by a very wise man that the two biggest problems for Christians in Dallas are Materialism and Individualism.
When we take the bible and individualize it, we are taking it out of context. All but three of the letters in the New Testament were written to the Church and were even read as a group. We must go back to the fact that the Christian life outside of a commitment to a Relationship with Christ in you and Christ in others is not the Christian life.
Back in 300AD Christianity became the in thing, it was the popular thing to do. This meant that no longer was the Spirit of God the driving force to the Church. Society now became the driving force and the things of the world became a part of the Church. We know the price we paid for this was great. But we do not know how great the price or if we are steel paying. I believe that the price was greater then we will ever own up to and that the church will never recover. I fell that Christ's Church will only come back to life when it is born from the relationships of His children. Then Christ will be the driving force pulling the church to meet and they will meet as long as Christ is the driving force. This is how it should be!
I once read a story about an eagle that was raised by turkeys. The turkeys had trained the eagle on how to be a good turkey. Both the turkeys and the eagle were very happy with this because he had made big "improvements." The life of a turkey is a good life but the life of an eagle is much greater. Just like the eagle we have been trained by fellow Christians to be satisfied with something much less. We don't realize that the Lord's Prayer was answered by the coming of the Holy Spirit. I think Paul would have said the Lord's Prayer like this:
"Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom has come,
Your will is being done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Continue to give us our daily bread.
You've forgiven us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
And you have lead us not into temptation,
But have delivered us from the evil one."
When the Spirit came down He started a colony from heaven. This colony was very much like the English colonies in the 1700's. When you walked down the streets of an English colony you would feel like you were in England. The way people dressed, talked, and acted was just like in England even the town was built to look like a town in England. So likewise walking into a group of believers should be like stepping into heaven. You should leave feeling like you have had a taste of heaven. This will be nothing more then a concept until a group of people are willing to pay the price for fellowship up front.
I pray you have been able to understand these letters and that Christ has used them in your life as He has for me. God has imparted some of His thoughts and desires in me, but not the words to express them to others. I have found that when I try to share wisdom with others over time it proves to be a disaster. The only thing I can do successful is share my relationship with the spirit of God to them. I hope this is what you have seen and not how wise God may have made me.
LETTER 1 Feb. 17 1990
I hate to write but for some reason God has pushed me to tell you the following. Many people act the way they feel good Christians act, in other words imitation over dedication to a relationship with Him. Works without dedication to the relationship is living by laws. This has found use replacing the relationship with laws. It seems that the only way to replace the law with a real thirst is through devastation of all things that are not spiritual. Then turn to God in desperation. He will then replace our self justification by works with desperation for a relationship so fulfilling that everything else is like dust on a fine oak table. It is all to be swept away to show the luster of Christ's relationship in our lives. I fell God has started this in your life.
Things of this world seem to push a wedge between Christ and use, even after we have allowed God to destroy everything for this relationship. We seem to find ourselves in the rut of acting out the relationship instead of enjoying it. I often force feed myself with God to meet my busy schedule.
But I find if I treat Him like a wife and give Him the time He deserves He will give me back the thirst. When I feel a separation I must take time off from friends and work to rebuild the relationship, so that my thirst for him comes back. Then I feel the things that caused friction in the relationship is wiped away like dust to show me the luster of the relationship.
The worse way to kill a relationship is by consistently doing the same thing. A relationship that is kept the same dries up and dies in the most painful way possible. God wants an exciting relationship marked by change, challenge, and adventure. But often we find the relationship marked by complacency in our willingness to strive for a relationship we can't understand. Anytime a relationship is consistently done the same way it becomes a ritual. We so often find ourselves locked into spending time with God the same way everyday. We find the desire has been replaced with will power, as we try to suck every last drop of life out of the relationship. I was told one time that if you are in real fellowship with God you will feel Him active in your life every day!
LETTER 2 Feb. 20 1990
I seem to have the need to write you once more. But I need to first tell you that while I have spent many years studying about the things of Christ and have found a wealth of worldly wisdom of Godly things. I've found that Godly wisdom comes only through experience. That even though many Godly men have told me of there Godly experience, I only thought I understood. I could not really understand until I began to share in there experience.
For example as much as I may read on the political system and how it feels to be part of it. I will never really understand until I have been part of it. You would not let someone who has never raised a child tell you how to be a good parent. But yet we do all these things with our Christian life.
I will no longer be guilty of sharing from what I have studied. I will strive to share only from His relationship and the riches of that experience. I also hope that you will not try to understand with just your mind but that you will be pushed to partake in the experience.
I was once told by a very wise man that the two biggest problems for Christians in Dallas are Materialism and Individualism.
When we take the bible and individualize it, we are taking it out of context. All but three of the letters in the New Testament were written to the Church and were even read as a group. We must go back to the fact that the Christian life outside of a commitment to a Relationship with Christ in you and Christ in others is not the Christian life.
Back in 300AD Christianity became the in thing, it was the popular thing to do. This meant that no longer was the Spirit of God the driving force to the Church. Society now became the driving force and the things of the world became a part of the Church. We know the price we paid for this was great. But we do not know how great the price or if we are steel paying. I believe that the price was greater then we will ever own up to and that the church will never recover. I fell that Christ's Church will only come back to life when it is born from the relationships of His children. Then Christ will be the driving force pulling the church to meet and they will meet as long as Christ is the driving force. This is how it should be!
I once read a story about an eagle that was raised by turkeys. The turkeys had trained the eagle on how to be a good turkey. Both the turkeys and the eagle were very happy with this because he had made big "improvements." The life of a turkey is a good life but the life of an eagle is much greater. Just like the eagle we have been trained by fellow Christians to be satisfied with something much less. We don't realize that the Lord's Prayer was answered by the coming of the Holy Spirit. I think Paul would have said the Lord's Prayer like this:
"Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom has come,
Your will is being done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Continue to give us our daily bread.
You've forgiven us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
And you have lead us not into temptation,
But have delivered us from the evil one."
When the Spirit came down He started a colony from heaven. This colony was very much like the English colonies in the 1700's. When you walked down the streets of an English colony you would feel like you were in England. The way people dressed, talked, and acted was just like in England even the town was built to look like a town in England. So likewise walking into a group of believers should be like stepping into heaven. You should leave feeling like you have had a taste of heaven. This will be nothing more then a concept until a group of people are willing to pay the price for fellowship up front.
I pray you have been able to understand these letters and that Christ has used them in your life as He has for me. God has imparted some of His thoughts and desires in me, but not the words to express them to others. I have found that when I try to share wisdom with others over time it proves to be a disaster. The only thing I can do successful is share my relationship with the spirit of God to them. I hope this is what you have seen and not how wise God may have made me.
How not to read the Bible
The focus is on the Holy Spirit transforming us and how that brings about the Spiritual relationship, in which all believers should be overwhelmed by. It all flows into this relationship that is pictured as us being the bride in the ultimate marriage that is rich enough to be enjoyed by all for all eternity. But we lose the focus and instead of trying to navigate our way to the relationship, we instead focus on squeezing much more then we should out of letters and parables in the Bible. Parables are parables because they are used to express a single point that just a few words could not. This same language barrier we have today between the spiritual and the physical world. The world labels things, feelings, and actions in the world around us, but when you have things, feelings, and actions that are not like the world then we have no worlds to represent them. You have to experience it to label it. So putting words into the speakers mouth or writer of letters to support your own Spiritual ideas is wrong, but our Christian culture supports taking such liberties. I wonder what Paul thinks of what we have done with his letters. How we have let our logic create our own flavor of legalism.
The road for believers is by way of identifying distractions and turn away towards that which is Spiritual. Distractions for one may not be a distraction for others and will change over time. I find Paul writing to churches about issues that are a stumbling block, but that does not mean it is a stumbling block for all times. But more importantly if reading the Bible and applying it to your relationship does not significantly deepen then something is wrong. We have replaced what should be unending desire for the relationship with a love for Theology. Our love for Theology is only a way to put ourselves on the thrown. This is all part of our church coulter and is supported by our Christian training system and honored by those who excel. We do not look up to those who have developed a deep relationship but those who have some logical incite to the Bible. We are on the same path as the Pharisees of Paul's time. While the law of the New Testament, that we have created, is not as stringent as the Pharisee's law its' affect is the same on Christians. It shuts down the spiritual and fuels the mind.
The road for believers is by way of identifying distractions and turn away towards that which is Spiritual. Distractions for one may not be a distraction for others and will change over time. I find Paul writing to churches about issues that are a stumbling block, but that does not mean it is a stumbling block for all times. But more importantly if reading the Bible and applying it to your relationship does not significantly deepen then something is wrong. We have replaced what should be unending desire for the relationship with a love for Theology. Our love for Theology is only a way to put ourselves on the thrown. This is all part of our church coulter and is supported by our Christian training system and honored by those who excel. We do not look up to those who have developed a deep relationship but those who have some logical incite to the Bible. We are on the same path as the Pharisees of Paul's time. While the law of the New Testament, that we have created, is not as stringent as the Pharisee's law its' affect is the same on Christians. It shuts down the spiritual and fuels the mind.
Inheritance
I leave my hopes for tomorrow at your feet,
and my worries and fears I let fade into yesterday.
Lord, these things have been my clothing.
I find myself becoming more exposed to you.
Wondering without my desires and fears,
Will you come clothe me with Your Spirit and Your Bride,
Will you protect me from the harsh worldly elements.
Lord you have been my clothing in the past.
I have faith that you will continue.
Lord you have not only clothed me
But you have turned that which once enslaved me,
That which I feared and had hoped to change.
You have made that very thing Your tool to set me free.
You have made my captor take part in my release.
Lord you have given me a forethought of You,
My inheritance in the eternal.
You have prepared me through all of this for a richer taste
The purest taste on earth is found in Your bride.
There I inherit the experience of You,
There I taste of You.
You become stronger in me.
You inherit me.
You inherit the Bride
You marry The Bride.
I leave my hopes for tomorrow at your feet,
and my worries and fears I let fade in to yesterday
and my worries and fears I let fade into yesterday.
Lord, these things have been my clothing.
I find myself becoming more exposed to you.
Wondering without my desires and fears,
Will you come clothe me with Your Spirit and Your Bride,
Will you protect me from the harsh worldly elements.
Lord you have been my clothing in the past.
I have faith that you will continue.
Lord you have not only clothed me
But you have turned that which once enslaved me,
That which I feared and had hoped to change.
You have made that very thing Your tool to set me free.
You have made my captor take part in my release.
Lord you have given me a forethought of You,
My inheritance in the eternal.
You have prepared me through all of this for a richer taste
The purest taste on earth is found in Your bride.
There I inherit the experience of You,
There I taste of You.
You become stronger in me.
You inherit me.
You inherit the Bride
You marry The Bride.
I leave my hopes for tomorrow at your feet,
and my worries and fears I let fade in to yesterday
The Parade
As I go down this spiritual river there is a parade of people that pass me by. Some I enjoy some I don't, some I love, some I fight, and some I share the Lord with. But there is one that never leaves, that is the Lord. His face may change, but the spirit is the same. Relationships are to restrictive for the Lord to restrict Himself to just one. He is bringing me in and out of many, each one showing me a different piece of Him. Not to let the Lord move us on to other relationships is not allowing Christ to continue giving us His riches. The Lord has too many fascists, like a diamond you can't just look at one spot, even though that spot may look wonderful, your must turn it to see it's full wonder. The Lord has put spiritual people in my life to show me Himself. I must stand and let the parade pass me by to see all of His wonders and not try to walk with the group I like the best. The Lord takes us from one part of Himself to show use another part of Himself.
Neglect the Key to Spirituality
The tree of knowledge of evil that Adam and Eve ate from was also the tree of the knowledge of good. We need to see that the desire for knowledge was the first sin. Satan made them think that knowledge was what made God who he is. But it's like saying emotions make me smart and if I become more emotional I will be smarter, while the opposite is true. Knowledge itself is its’ own aphrodisiac and can distract from a spiritual relationship and puts self in the driver seat. So why do we think that knowledge of scriptures or “good” is the answer. Adam and Eve needed to just walk with God and neglect the tree. Think of your mind as a large glass of water with a small drip hole. Your experiences and thoughts are poured in the glass hour by hour and mixed with the past and slowly dripped out. So as new thoughts are poured in the old ones are diluted unless they are refreshed by dwelling on them. I try to have some good thoughts ready for the times when bad thoughts come back to help me neglect them. Deal with the issues at hand and the past, then neglect them and let the riches that God gives you drown it out. You may have to neglect it hourly at first and you will probably fail many times. You just can’t fight it or beat yourself up over your failures to neglect as that empowers sin. You just set it aside and push on with your neglect. God wants to free you from the chains of sin and help you overcome the addiction.