Relentlessly in love!

When the ray of God's grace pierces through the cracks of a religious system, the goodness and wide open spaces are enough to either offend the "successful" products of the religious system, or release them into a roller-coaster journey, in the pool of the ACTUAL fullness of His Glory.

Within the confines of GOOD, there is always an unknown when walking by the Spirit. That  is the peace-filled excitement of being a FOLLOWER of Christ. Sadly, however, many want to LEAD HIM.

I have no doubt that the Spirit moves in many institutional churches. It's a pitty, though, that He is prohibited from moving any further than the pastor's office and the passionate band practice (those are truly glorious and supernaturally intoxicating moments, but I've seen and been in the wake of its destruction..."But wait! Holy Spirit, I will take the Glory from here and administer it in an orderly fashion when the meeting starts."

Bitterness?

Maybe 3 years ago, but my choice of adjective right now would be...relentless! Relentlessly in love with Him and His bride.

"He has put our lines in pleasant places".

Holy Spirit is a positive charge of abundant, reckless, exciting wind of transformation.

I have asked myself before, "Surely His grace must be a global phenomenon by now, within the church", but I look to my right and find a crowd of brothers and sisters splashing each other with the moisture of a puddle of mud, when within themselves is a crystal clear fountain of uncontrollable living waters.

I used to be selfishly aggressive  and spiritually egotistic when trying to understand why other PEOPLE were not understanding things the way I was.

But now I find myself being painfully prodded by His love for His bride. The barrier between Christ and His bride was once impossible to break...so He came down and smashed it, once and for all. But now there are barriers he cannot tear down, because WE continuously put them up in our thinking.

It's not PEOPLE who need to be torn down, it is, among others, the religious spirit that needs to be exposed and torn down.

Make no mistake, it is this very spirit that martyred 11 of the apostles and killed Jesus Himself (amongst many others). It is a relentless spirit that has divided many families, broken many friendships and pulled many who tasted of God's goodness, back into a poverty-stricken mindset...slave mentality.

Sure, the scent of freedom may very well set those who have been trapped in the choke-hold of religion, running off to actually find where, in fact, those gracious boundary lines are. Surprisingly, they will still run into God's grace in that place, but the stench of sin will frustrate them and they will return.

What are we to do?

We are to love them, follow them, build them up in the faith and pick them up when they recognize the smell of "pig sty" on them:

"But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!

Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven." (Jude 1:20-23 MSG)

I am not bitter, but I will not hesitate to expose the malignant cancer of religion that eats the life of the church from within! Jesus didn't mind His P's & Q's when it came to this either, He loved all people, but He recognized the thread of destruction.

You belong to Christ - "His name is Jealous, and He is a jealous God". 

You HAVE BEEN redeemed!

He will NEVER hold your sin against you!

His Kingdom is WITHIN YOU. Despite how you feel or what you've done, my brothers and sisters, HE has decided to make His abode; His home; His place of residence IN YOU!

His love for you as an individual person is beyond what you could ever imagine. He Has washed you and presented you holy and blameless...HE has made the executive decision to call you His FRIEND!

Much love and grace to you!

Balance??

‎"Balanced grace" is a denial of the gospel. Balanced with *what?* Law? Personal responsibility? Moral behavior? By nature, grace is unilateral. Grace is the pure expression of the Father's agape delivered to us through His Son and experienced in His Spirit. Beware of warnings that "grace must be kept in balance" because what comes next is likely to disavow true grace altogether - Steve McVey

The skewed theology of Grace being balanced with anything is the element that confuses much of the church. The logic around that reasoning calls for people to leave grace for a moment in order to find the "missing piece" that completes it - it happened when Paul preached the pure gospel of Gods grace, and it's happening today too.
Nowhere in scripture is there the sharing of tension between Gods grace with anything else, not even faith.
This tension between Grace and faith is not biblical. It's 100% grace and it's 100% faith - i.e 100% God's favour and 100% us trusting that it's God's favour. It's at this point when true, peace-filled productivity begins to reveal itself (as a FRUIT).
I love what Charles Spurgeon says, "We hold that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel he can do nothing at all."

The arm wrestle evident in scripture is between faith and works, not faith and grace...and faith is the product of 2 sources:
1) A gift from God (each is given a measure).
2) Renewing our minds with the gospel of His grace.

Faith is a response to His Grace, not the completion of it.

Have you got the right perspective?

‎'Why do Christians who earnestly desire everything that God has for them, never receive the blessings promised to them?
The answer: they await and strive after a reward for their service, but because they are heirs, the Father can never give them as a REWARD, what belongs to them as a BIRTHRIGHT!'

Man's primary call is to be reconciled; find rest in His reconciliation and discover true identity which is already existent IN CHRIST.

Holy Spirit will take us on His journey for us (almost always brewing within us as desire).
We are not primarily called to discover "our purpose in life" - this ambitious mentality has crushed many young believers. Believers who burn with desire, but since they are not informed and discipled to walk in the Spirit, they pursue the "ministry" and not the Maker. Is there a journey mapped out for us? Yes there is, but HE wants to take us on it.

It's interesting, in this regard, that Jesus Himself (a man whose purpose was dripping with prophetic confirmation) only spent 11% of His life fulfilling His "calling" (at least as our modern day church culture would recognize it to be).

Despite the anticipation and desperation in all of creation for one man to fulfill His ministry and calling...there He was, throughout His entire twenties...carving stuff out of wood.

Many adamant believers (ironically in their twenties) have "backslidden" from "ministry".
Why?
Because they were discipled to believe that "carpentry" is a selfish waste of time; that they are called to perform a responsibility that supersedes their selfish desires.

Are we then to leave people to their own desires without a care in the world? No. But are we to force people onto our desires? No.

Lead people. Not merely according to biblical principles, but offer them something better - a personal encounter with God...a gift of personal relationship where they are free to walk, and respond to Christ, and this not as our next series entitled "Walking with Christ" or "living by the Spirit", but as a lifestyle of faith and rest. Knowing that the good we increasingly desire as we are lead by the Spirit of grace and truth, is the good God desires.

Let's sow the seeds and water with love, but let Him bring the growth. It's what He so wants to do.

Grace and love to you!