Seeking the Will of the Father - pt.3 (Indivdual)

 There are lots of ways that Authority and Dominion are expressed, and as I shared last post I believe that the principles of the will of the Father are rooted in gratitude and authority. This is nearly the single most important thing that we have to look to, and how we can tell we are walking according to our Fathers will. But to ensure we have victory in gaining authority and dominion for Jesus' kingdom and royal line we must first make sure that we allow ourselves to be dominated by the groom. For some of us that might be a hard word to hear. We might even share the disciples concern for such a word when they told Jesus "this is a hard teaching to hear" when he said "my flesh is the food, and my blood is the drink that you must partake to abide in me." With the revelation that this is the communion wine and bread as it was on the final supper this isn't such a hard teaching to hear. However, I think we must still carry John 6:60 in mind when we do take communion as this was Jesus' intention when he lead the disciples through the last supper. When I say we must allow Jesus to dominate us, I mean allow him total control in our lives. It's meant to be a hard word to receive at first.

This is akin to the display of the gospel. If the person is not soft-headed and soft-hearted it will be a very hard word to receive, although it is designed to be received I believe that it is also designed to challenge the stiff-neckedness that we humans tend to have when it comes to our doctrine, beliefs, philosophy, psychology and all other things. If we aren't first willing to lay down our rights to our life, or our calling, or our desire of not eating human flesh (like the disciples were challenged with) how should we expect God to help us fulfill our birthright? David had the clear revelation in many of his psalms with saying "You desire a sacrifice of a broken spirit and a contrite heart" (Psalm 51:17). But wait, I thought that the human spirit was unbreakable? According to the bible, no it isn't. In fact God says through David His prophet that he PREFERS that you have a broken spirit. That and a contrite heart. If this word isn't hard to receive in today's day and age I don't know what is. We have so much media, so many lies to sort through and filter through that it's nearly impossible to imagine what a broken spirit even looks like. Yet we are called to sacrifice our lives to the Lord, and He makes it very clear that the sacrifice He desires is that of a contrite heart and broken spirit, along with our lives. 

That goes into the other truth of the Father. It's never about something we must do, it's about realizing truth. The truth is, we all have broken spirits we all have contrite hearts, and we all must repent. We all have souls that are downcast. Until we meet Jesus and are filled with His Holy Spirit we do not get back to wholeness. Until we understand that we must abide in Him we won't be able to receive His teaching. Until we realize that we must be dominated by Him we will never truly live. It is this truth that we must live by. It is this experience that we must seek. It is this principle that we must never let go of, and this love that will truly allow us to be fulfilled. There is no plan B, there is no ultimatum, this is just the way it is. We have the choice to believe it, or keep on running. We have a choice to receive or to reject.

On the individual level this is how we seek the will of the Father. By allowing Him to break us then we will know and discern what His will is. 

Seeking the will of the Father - Pt.2

 There are many facets to seeking the will of the Father and we can most definitely look through the narrative of the entire Bible to see what that looked like for each person interacting with the Lord throughout. In the beginning chapters we see that the will of the Father for Adam and his wife Eve was to have dominion and to be fruitful and multiply. This is not entirely specific to Adam and Eve because this was the Birthright that Jesus inherited as the Son of God as shown in Daniel 9, 2nd Samuel 7, and throughout the laws and edicts of Moses. This is the most core will of the Father, and as we see in Psalm 8 I believe that this extends to a dimension far greater than just having dominion over the earth. It is out of this will that all other commands and wills of the Father comes out of and is rooted in.

In contrast one of the most common commands in the Mosaic law is "to not forget the Lord your God, for He is the one who brought you out of Egypt." By extension, and as accentuated in Deuteronomy 8 I believe that this command comes hand-in-hand with expressing gratitude to the Lord, not just for freeing us from slavery but for giving us the riches of housing, food, family, and love. However, it is said specifically that this was so that God could fulfill the covenant He made to our Fathers. This covenant was first made to Adam in the form of God promising that He would redeem the human line through the lineage that was to come from Adam. Secondly the covenant made unto Abraham, and thirdly to Moses especially during this time were what the Israelites were to be thinking of when God commanded this thing. 

We can follow the covenantal promises but more or less they fall along the same lines of being rooted in the principles of Authority and Gratitude. This is what the Holiness of the Kingdom is about and because gratitude and authority are rooted in love when you work with God, you can even apply this to "love your neighbor, and the Lord your God."  Because everything that the Lord does is rooted in these commands and these principles, we must carry with us the mindset that Loving the Lord our God is not separable from being eternally grateful and walking in our utmost authority. 

So when I'm in a town in the south-west of France with the various immoralities that you get with a coastal party vacation town, and I'm looking to win the town for Jesus, I must first be living and loving the command to Love the Lord my God with all my Heart, and not lifting my heart up but being conscious of the things that He's given me, and then out of that flow I know I bring power and authority to the environment around me. Then we see how He presently presents presence (and presents). 

With Love, Andrew

Seeking the will of the Father

 Jesus says: "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me." In John 5:30

And

"49For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak."

I find these two verses to be connected. 

I would that you would see the connection, but allow the Lord to speak to you what He desires to speak to you through these verses. 

Love you.

Sing a lament, Son of Man

I find it fascinating that in Ezekiel 28 one of the possible representations of the word "lift up" means to "sing" or "make music in regards to". However, the literal translation of the Hebrew word there (נָשָׂא) is to lift something up. The reason that music is implied is because the very next word (קִינָה) only ever translates to a lamentation. In context of the entire passage, t's very interesting that Ezekiel had pronounced an aggressive judgment against the King of Tyre, and immediately after was commanded to mourn for the King. It's definitely an interesting tension and release that Ezekiel was no stranger to. 

In my own experience, when I've been lead to pray judgement over someone or something, immediately after I have found myself lamenting. The way that God sees and has revealed it to me in this way is very interesting. For one thing, He knows exactly what He pronounces over people, and when someone goes against His word He must move against them. He does not lament over the things that people have done, because His reaction to being betrayed can only be anger. He laments over what people could have become, if they had followed Him. I believe that God laments over potential in communion. The best leaders, the ones who change the world for the Kingdom are the ones who are in communion with the Lord. 

It's no secret that Solomon had, in kind terms, the single most negative influence on Israel than any ruler before or after him, and the reason is because of not how unrighteous he was, but how far he fell. I believe that though his intentions for the kingdom God had handed to him were good, he didn't carry communion. He didn't carry the intense legitimization and self-esteem that could only come from being with the Creator. His wisdom carried him not only into the depths of his pitiful self-loathing, but the entire kingdom of Israel as well. 

Yet, the design and the intention of God with Solomon was to permeate from Israel to the entire world. This was God's intention, and His view of the potential of the Kingdom of Israel and of Heaven becoming one which He then lamented. God wants communion with the world, with every heart, soul, spirit, piece of land, word. 

So how do we meet God where He's at with this? Two things: Lament with Him, and allow Him communion into every part of your being. Seek communion and be sought. This post isn't about the judgement pronounced on the king of Tyre, but about the lament mourned over the King of Tyre. Just as Ezekiel was commanded to lament over the state of a foreign king, we are called to lament over the state of foreign countries, over foreign churches, and over foreign cultures. We are called to 'Lift up' a dirge for those cultures that have died, for the people groups that have been destroyed by judgment and pride. Grief is supposed to be an emotion we're intimately familiar with.

Yet there is most definitely joy in that suffering, and what a joy that is.