Journey in Hindsight
My brothers. My Dear sisters..  dear family – what joy I experience as I write these words, remembering the path we’ve traveled in 2023. With many, many downfalls, issues, stumblings, hurts, pains, distractions, unperceivable experiences – and yet in the midst of all that: inner peace, joy, insight, hope, faith, perseverance, maturity, perfection of character and love, as we get back up and take yet another step! Dear one, as we wrap this year up, the amazing strategic 2023, with all of its twists and turns, allow me .. rather.. let’s yet once again together refine our perspectives and reflect on this year’s journey to polish the purpose set before us.

 

Refinement
We’ve started out learning about how conflicts and afflictions are the furnace (purification, sanctification) of life, typically experienced by/through our close/loved ones (co-laboring as partners with our spouse), getting to “know” practically and first-hand how “..our struggle is not against each other as humans, (not against flesh and blood) but rather against  the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” {Ephesians 6:12}. We’re invited into intimacy, and the only way is letting go of all fears, lack, and illusions of this world, “so that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He completed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.” {Ephesians 3:10-12}.

We’ve visited the center burning stones (God’s Heart) remembering the original plan, where the “Husband and wife are called to venture into the great unknown; their hands, voices, and hearts interwoven in order to express the love of their Creator within each of them”, realizing the original intent of marriage: both created and designed to “enrich one another”, ultimately expressing God’s beauty, emotional power, and conceptual thought of relationship and union, defined as holiness, in the institution of marriage, between one man and one woman, uniting them both as ONE!

But as we have lost sight of the original plan, we therefore first visit the wilderness (first Red sea passing)and then must go through a healing process (second, Jordan river passing) where we get aligned with understanding our Father’s heart as we get delivered (through healing and revelation) from all orphan and victim mindsets and perceived ‘traumas’. As we mature into comprehension of the Lord’s invitation to wake up from our slumber, open our hearts back up to Him, and steadfastly keep our gaze set upon Him, we then grow and enlarge each other through this union with Him AND with one other, transforming individually and jointly more fruitful and productive in all things.

 

Purity
We’ve delved into the importance of being aware of treachery and betrayal of adultery (deceitfulness),stemming from the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. Scripture, specifically highlighting purity, commands each one of us to Flee from sexual immorality (viewing images, reading text, or imagining sexual content, especially the internal “desires” propaganda). We’re told to RUN in terror, because it has the extremely high potential and intention to destroy your holy union with God and spouse, and life itself as it was indented to be experienced.

We found that all of God’s promises line up with the purposes of heaven and that He will be glorified regardless of what we choose! We’re called to “participate in this Glory with Him (instead of perishing without), and together as a holy and influential power couple (on earth) in today’s day of age” for He is a generational Living God.

Specifically in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 we’re reminded that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that lifts itself against (above) the knowledge (intimate knowing) of God, and to bring into captivity every thought (alien) to the obedience of Christ”.

 

Heavenly Principles 
Dear sojourner, it is extremely important for us to understand and keep in proper focus the reality and truth of the God that we serve (regardless of our perspectives), and how His kingdom operates.  For we serve a King who became a slave, thus we’re called to be servants if we want to govern. He’s drawing us to search Him out, therefore we start on the inside of our hearts if we are ever to expect that life to manifest (becoming real) here on this earth. “It’s the glory of God to hide a matter, it’s the glory of a King to search it out” reminds us Proverbs 25:2.

How do we bring the hidden to light (to earth reality)?.. begin to give thanks, give gratitude for grace, live, love, truth, etc., thereby accelerating the healing process itself, enabling the soul and body to heal itself at an alarming, quickened rate. “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” {Romans 8:11}.

Gratitude opens up the realm of heaven around us as we give thanksgiving, and our soul (wounds, issues, traumas, and gnarly situations of life that we haven’t fully processed yet) are accelerated in healing. This is foundational in our faith; this forms strength and resilience in us. This is what opens the heavenly gates so that the words that follow (through prayer, intercession, or prophesy) stand tall before our Father and our Lord, for only through thanksgiving can we enter and stand boldly before the Throne of Grace (Ephesians 3:12).

 

Faith Speaks
Jesus instructs us not to be REACTIONARY to what’s happening around us. In Mark chapter 4 He warns us that “the cares of this world will enter into us and choke the Word out! But ‘my word will Never fail’ even as heaven and earth pass away, but My Word will stand forever!”

We must learn to control only the controllable and not give into the rest of circumstances and worldly expressions of experiences. The tension on the outside of our life is something that we all can survive, as long as there are no storms on the inside of our heart and our home (family). This is why we all must go through personal inner healing first.

How can we keep peace in our own lives and homes? Keep digging. Keep diving deeper and deeper personally into His love. Stop worrying about changing your spouse. The word of Christ must RICHLY dwell in me/you first. Be IN-TUNE with the spirit of God and speak to the people around you what is to minister to their hearts, what is to uplift them and encourage them! Be “raw-thentic” (raw: true, and authentic). Share your story, people already see you for you.. the question is “will you recognize that others already see and share in true sincerity what you’ve learned?”

I invited you all to set a personal goal to become a leader in your generation, a mentor, a coach, a friend – someone who can lift and edify your “neighbors” daily.  For the journey itself teaches us the best way to get to the destination and the journey enriches us as we walk its length. We’ve compared it to sexual caresses of foreplay which determine the intensity of the orgasm, for wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be. To be content and more – satisfied – pour yourself out onto others.

 

Characteristics of Godliness
Remember, that the true God is a giver, giving us all things for life and godliness to the full, always having more for us than our imaginations can fathom, blessing us in His way, in His timing, always blessing others through us, His body, His church. This is the call to be good stewards. In 2 Cor. 9:10-11 we read the following concept that “He who supplies seed and bread, will enlarge you and your impact for the Kingdom of God, so that we can be generous in every occasion, resulting in thanksgiving and glory to God (by others, by our neighbors and the ‘world’).”

The ultimate goal is to be rich in generosity as our God is, serving the people around you in whatever gift, talent, or blessing that you have – whether it’s a good word, gesture, or simple smile or a wave. Remember, it’s the kindness of God that brought us out of darkness in our own time. We ended last session with a call to allow that kind generosity to live out through you, to get over our/your offenses (scandals, snares) that linger in our hearts. To get over the so-called ‘pains and disappointments’ that what we once dreamed of or desired has not come to fruition yet, or that “someone or something has gotten in the way.”

 

Taking Your Seat
Let’s recall Joseph’s story from Genesis, which reminds us that even when our dreams are seemingly shattered, and we face insurmountable obstacles, God is still at work in our lives. He is faithful to His promises and will use even the most difficult circumstances for our good and His glory. Have you submitted to God’s plan for your life? Have you accepted His will? Have you submitted to your seat?

Contentment will follow once we submit to God’s Will. Not comfort or laziness in our current position/circumstance, but fulfillment. And when we are content in our true position/condition, God can use us as valuable tools to accomplish the dreams of others – let alone our own.

The number one blockage to being able to receive somebody else’s dream is Frustration. When we become frustrated with our own thoughts, dreams, visions, and ideas not coming to pass, we project that onto other people (our spouses and loved ones). That’s why we have to be in-tune with the God of our own dreams first. And the worst part of this all is that frustration can cause a person to forfeit their seat!

The things that revolt against us the most, are usually the things that we are assigned to change. Our dreams are a piece of how we do that. If you can hold on to your vision, dream, and ideas amid a dark season, then you gain immense power for the future. You become qualified to sit in any seat which God assigns. In many ways, Joseph’s journey from Potiphar’s house to prison and eventually to a position of power is a story of resilience and determination. He never gave up, even in the darkest of times, and he continued to hold on to his faith and his belief in a better future.

 

Sitting Together
We read that Joseph received his brothers after they had betrayed him so many years ago. Joseph felt no need for retaliation. Our character, power and position are tested when the people who disregarded our dreams, passed us along the way, or failed to create opportunities for us end up seated on the other side of our table. By not retaliating, you literally allow the moment to bring about restoration and healing in your relationships. Don’t burn any bridges. Let offense go. Let bitterness die. From your seat, be trustworthy because God will always test you in positions of power to see how you manage or how you handle power when you’re on the other side. Too often, leaders are so focused on their own dream that everyone else’s becomes subservient to theirs, but Joseph’s dream could only be fulfilled after he interpreted Pharaoh’s. That was the sweet spot.

Genesis 45 covers the long-anticipated reveal of Joseph’s identity to his brothers. When it was time – when he could no longer hold back his tears and emotions – Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers: “I AM JOSEPH!” He was secure in who he was because he had been walking in purpose, vision, and leadership the whole time, despite being in a different area than he was used to, and in different seats, he never lost sight of his identity. Your seat, your role, your performance, and your location do not define your identity! Have you lost sight of who you are due to circumstances or strife with your ‘partner’? Have you let your temporary “seat” define you?

Joseph had endured heart and spirit-breaking circumstances. His role had changed—he had sat in many seats during his lifetime (and he was only in his thirties when this part of his story took place!), yet his identity hadn’t changed. He had sat in the favored-son seat, the hated-brother seat, the slave seat, the wrongly accused seat, the problem-solver seat, and the second-in-command seat. Each was an integral part of fulfilling his destiny. He knew—and had known all along—exactly who he was.

Labels limit. Identities liberate. Every label creates a limit, but when we focus on who we are instead of what we do or how other people see us, we can still be ourselves—no matter where we are. What labels have you let other folk or culture put on you in 2023? Destiny is settled in identity, and identity is the process of life.  All those years apart, God was working on and through Joseph as well as his brothers and father. Each of us also must search our hearts during our lives to answer questions about our identity, heritage, purpose, and potential. And like Joseph, we only fulfill our purpose and manifest our destiny when we participate in the transformational life and well-being of our communities. How well are you doing that?

 

Reconciliation
Following their father’s death, Joseph’s brothers were fearful that he would now take out vengeance on them. They were even scared enough to try to trick Joseph (Genesis 50:15-21). Regardless, Joseph—again—submitted to the seats that God had put him in: favored son, dreamer, slave, household steward, dream interpreter, kingdom administrator, family benefactor, promise keeper, and now… forgiving his brothers. Can you pass the test? Are you able to forgive and forget like nothing ever happened? Joseph could’ve condemned his brothers forever. What is hanging on your ability to forgive?

When we are tempted to react in retaliation, we must reconcile. Who do you need to forgive, and for what? Joseph realized that, despite being wronged greatly, reconciliation would free himself from the pain of the past. Our natural tendency is to right wrongs—especially wrongs done to us. We must intentionally posture ourselves to give mercy to others, even if we deem them undeserving. Being in leadership means you get hurt by wounded people all the time. You get mishandled, even by those you once served alongside. If leading from the second seat can show you anything, it is that there is much miscommunication that causes pain for leaders and followers. You see how easily things can be twisted and turned until minuscule problems become major issues. Being a minister of mercy means you have the ability to help ease the pains of leaders and followers for you know what it’s like, but you also see the problem from your unique perspective in the second seat. That’s why you’re called to sit in it.

However, you can’t reign with contention in your heart. That’s a setup for failure. You have to heal, so that you can handle your role appropriately. The power of forgiveness is immense and can have a profound impact on both personal and professional relationships. Forgiveness involves letting go of feelings of anger, resentment, and bitterness toward someone who has wronged us and, instead, choosing to extend compassion, understanding, and even reconciliation, restoration, and renewing of friendship.

 

Be Unoffendable
Christians are especially good at wrapping our significance in Christian terms (in ministry terms) to avoid the impression that we’re self-centered. We all want to be significant at our core. It’s still all about us, for we are not content with what God has done and is doing in us and our lives – we want the Big Story to include us in a starring way! We all fail to notice that “if only we would all do what is in front of us, the right thing, then the Big Picture takes care of itself”. When we choose ahead of time (before conversations or meetings, and before the day begins) to be un-offendable, that is us choosing humility according to God’s standards.

Of course, yes, we’re human and so occasionally we’ll feel threatened – that happens. Anger happens too. So does jealousy, bitterness, and resentment. But if you want to be a citizen of the heavenly kingdom, the one in which God promises that all things WILL BE SET RIGHT in the end, then you may as well remind yourself of it all the time. The things you think matter so much today, really don’t matter all that much in the long run. Choosing to be unoffendable means choosing to be humble, for in reality – you truly cannot control other people.

Once you’ve reconciled yourself to the fact that the world and its people are broken, once you’ve realized your own moral failure before God and abandoned the idea that your significance comes from anything or anyone else other than God – this means then that you’re truly growing in humility and maturity, and this is Exactly where God wants us all to be. It’s contrary to seemingly everything in our culture today, but as we surrender our perceived “rights” and let go of our attempts to manipulate others, we truly will find JOY! We must stay confident in the True One who is still driving, who is still in control and in charge of it all, who loves us dearly and forever no matter what we do or do not do. Take your seat, be at rest in HIS confidence and what HE done! We cannot truly add or take-away. The case is already settled.

 

New Light on Anger
It’s truly sad to see and hear so many so called ‘Christian’ folk talking about and fostering “anger”. So many perverted and twisted messages are portrayed out of context, and so many jumping on the bandwagon of cultural medical psych professionals (so called) that it’s our right to hold onto anger, so long as we utilize it properly (another way of expression is called forth in the utilization of “boundaries”, which is way too often misunderstood and misappropriated).

But in reality, honestly, what CAN we do about our anger issues? How can we respond when we’re rubbed wrong and irritated, offended, hurt, mistreated, used, and laughed at? We find one true, proven successful medicine that rarely is mentioned now-a-days: it’s called forgiveness. Living a life of radical forgiveness is what truly impacts hearts and nations, it’s what truly transforms and releases not only YOU, but those around you, for it is an ultimate act of the manifestation of Unconditional Love (Agape).

But you know what is harder than living a life of forgiveness? Living a life of unforgiveness, which brings about high blood pressure, headaches, serious digestions issues, heart problems and even skin disorders. Cha-ching! Do you wonder where all those issues in your body are stemming from? We’re told to try just about anything really – except forgiveness, the one thing that actually gets us out of the mess we dug ourselves into.

 

True Medicine
When Jesus was with his friends at what we call “the last supper”, He told them that He was leaving them a Gift – PEACE. “Peace, I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” {John 14:27}. WOW! What a gift! It’s exactly what each of us would say we want, if we truly knew ourselves. But rather we choose the non-stop gossip, news, and social media junk that ‘stirs up our righteous anger’.

I hear many of your virtual outrage “but we’re supposed to be offended and hold onto our anger when that anger is righteous” and “we each get to discern whether our anger is righteous”. Friends – spoiler alert – it always is! There is one common theme through entirety of scripture, and that is that “anger goes along with folly/fools”. God is holy, righteous, just, and pure love, He alone has the ability to act appropriately in righteous anger – we are not; thus we are called to forgive people, especially those who don’t deserve it. We forgive precisely for that reason that they don’t deserve it, just as you and I were when we didn’t (and still don’t) deserve it.

 

Way of Life
Here’s the good news friends, as we wrap up this year – forgiveness for everyday offenses of life gets easier and easier the more we practice. It’s simple discipline. It’s practice, like a habitual run or workout or brushing teeth. The more you engage daily in this practice the more it becomes part of your lifestyle.

Practicing forgiveness daily truly helps us keep a cool head in the moment. It’s the opposite of detachment, for honestly, it’s attachment to God’s truth and heart, in deep gratefulness for what He has done for me, in me, and in my family. This practice isn’t some modern-day teaching of emptying the mind or eastern meditation or some Zen practice, rather it’s the true meditation of FILLNG the mind more consciously and consistently with God’s truth and promises, chewing on His nature and ways, allowing them to create your reality – rather than fear, lack, or orphan/victim mindsets. Be ye therefore transformed in thought, emotions, and way of living (affairs).

 

Discipline
Practice getting over yourself and the circumstances you are facing. Get over the toxicity of other voices speaking into your life about how ‘poor of a victim you are’ and how you deserve better. Trust me, I’m in the same boat, practicing while facing hell and brimstone from without as within. We all endure this same realm called “earth” with the powers of darkness set out to distract us and essentially kill us, sucking our life energy out. We have to constantly be grateful for our OWN forgiveness first for it leads to life. Living unoffendable is still a radical idea, especially in today’s culture, but it truly leads to wisdom and brings about an abundant lifestyle of joy, peace, and rest – and then true pleasures, riches and wealth follow, along with honor (which follows humility).

This is a lifestyle of Grace. This is God’s way of living. This is the so called ‘crazy table’ which the few that will hear and follow the narrow path, the chosen – not because they we’re picked apart from the rest, but because they chose themselves to respond to the call and willingfully persist, pressing into Grace, learning friendship with Holy Spirit, the One and true power and person who is able to get us through this present darkness.

 

Peace 
Friends, as I close today, let the following echo in your hearts, the one and true message that still speaks today: “Peace. Peace first with God. Then with self. Then with and for others. For we can’t make others be at peace with us.” Only the Lord is only able to change hearts, therefore let’s keep our faith in Him and stay at peace in all of those three realms (God, yourself, others/body).

We all find ourselves in a ‘waiting phase’ here or there. Allow me to encourage you therefor to find your purpose in the waiting: trust God’s perfect timing. If you are waiting on God, wait in relationship with Godand in relationship with people. Search for that connection with Him and the people around you, for in these two commandments sum up the whole Bible, “love the lord God with all you heart, soul, and strength and the second like it: love thy neighbor”. {Matthew 22:37-40}.

 

Refined Sight
In order to be secure in this life, we must first learn how to be shepherded. Learn to be a sheep, for truly we even act as them (easily offended and scared, go opposite way, stubborn, and we bite). The greatest pleasures and joys in life take fruition when we surrender, allowing Jesus to bring it (the blessing) to us.However, in challenges we’re often misled and prescribe those pains as if Jesus/God did it to us and so we get mad at him and turn away, go our own way.

There’s one rule above all else for man (humanity) – whatever comes – You face it on your feet! For you were born to save every person of this world – not just the ones you love! You my friends are the lions and the lambs! Fight and surrender like your life is on the line.. because it is! Focus is a Divine Empowermentto neutralize what God does not want you to notice. Focus is literally your key to stripping everything of its power!

May your 2024 be the greatest year yet with all those baren lands full of great harvest, fruition, and multiplication in all realms of your life affairs: perfect health, wealth, prosperity, and love! Let’s continue one step at a time until all the land is conquered and our children’s children are thriving in our harvest. Look with wonder at that which is before you.

Happy New Years!

 

 

“Divinely attuned and consciously ripe in this present moment are those with the absolute willingness to experience and process through their intense emotional turmoil, confusion, and suffering – for they shall be freed from suffering as the root causes beneath their inner divisions return to wholeness.” – Jesus Christ.

> > Friends, check out the new Melodies section for uplifting music, and Resources for life changing books. < <