Other Thoughts

Kingdom… which one?

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As they gathered their armour shimmered in the sun light, at midday when the sun was high in the sky they stood proud upon the hill-top looking into the valley where their armies stood waiting for the agreed moment for battle to begin.    Swords ready, spears poised, shields raised, men clad in chain and battle armour, horses covered with shining metal all in battle array.   The clash of the realms of Kingdoms.   They stood one invader, one defender, the battle was for the Kingdom.    The King’s sat considering strategies and the fight for the Kingdoms began.

Perhaps this is the most familiar picture that we think of when introducing the language of KINGDOM into every day life.    Two realms attempting to establish or even usurp themselves, Knights, armour, spears, shields, jousting., maidens, chivalry, white horses and all that.     Perhaps its just the hollywood picture we all have.     For sure its two realms that belong to a distant past.

We don’t have kingdoms of this order any longer, it has even become more popular to say we live in GB rather than United Kingdom.    Kingdom seems to be an old term yet when it comes to things in relation to Jesus it is a term we must grapple with and take into our lives.    Jesus came announcing the Kingdom of God, he walked demonstrating the Kingdom of God, he was the Kingdom of God!

Today the language of the Kingdom of God is more popular than ever, declared from pulpits regularly, taught and inspired, it seems if you don’t have it in your teaching as a Christian you are strange.   I recall the day when we grappled with it as God was unfolding its truth, when it was not so popular.      Yet it is not about its popularity but more about the truth of the Kingdom.   You and I who have ventured out and began our faiths journey, submitting ourselves to King Jesus it is a real realm that we are part of.

Today Kingdom is still challenged by Empires. Empires of the mind, of people, of agendas even by an empirical church.    The teaching has sometimes been over taken to establish this one or that ones control, and certainly not to establish the Kingdom as proclaimed and practiced by the Christ of God.

The kingdom of God Is not about making any person greater, richer or exclusive above any others it is about bringing the order of God to bear on all creation, it is about making mature saints.   Humanity being mature, Christ filling all in all.

In the Matthew 6:33 passage we are told to “seek first the Kingdom of God” these were words that at the time they were spoken were aimed at confronting the world, today they still do that, they challenge our minds, they hold a plumb-line up to our actions discovering where our hearts are focussed!

The Father, from our first introduction breaks into ‘void and darkness’ with confrontation, presenting from the beginning God in action, and so it is with “seek first”.   It makes us stand up and re-evaluate, assess our days, and align with freedom, to seek first the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 6 addresses the “all” of our lives with such simple, direct words, in terms of, if we seek first the eternal, the cosmic realm our needs will be seen too.   We are met with an invitation to bring our supreme loyalty to the King and seek his Kingdom.     In seeking the Kingdom of God we create a following, with all things being added along with the significance of the Kingdom of God.

If we do not seek the kingdom of God we will be seeking first the kingdom of self.    This kingdom of self is the kingdom of subtraction, as when possessions get hold of you, you discover that owning them becomes, being owned by them.

Your biggest need is a cosmic backing and when this is lacking the house of mankind is empty of meaning and purpose and God

Seeking the Kingdom brings to us All it unshakableness, All its forgiveness, All its at homeness, All its freedom, All it’s joy, All is everything-belongs to you.    The good news-here and now

Jesus said in Luke 4:21, 22 something had been fulfilled, in a room filled with people, with all these eyes fixed upon him, he not only spoke but did something, he “SAT DOWN”, what a scandal, how ridiculous, who did he think he is?   In every synagogue a chair was given as the seat of the Messiah and in this chair the drama played itself out, Jesus sat in the Messiah’s chair!

In this sitting down and declaration he said the word of the kingdom has become fleshed out in me, the kingdom has broken through and the realisation of that is in me.      You have heard about it now see it!      I am the kingdom of God standing in the synagogue

A thought went through my mind while thinking on the Kingdom and its implications,  “We have made songs about the REIGN of Christ and his Kingdom into songs about RAIN on me”

We have been born from above to bring heaven to earth, to be the reign of God on earth and to herald the Kingdom of God in all creation, to declare, sing, live and act out REIGN ON ME!

Jesus brought a blueprint for a new World order not just salvation, he tabernacle in the mankind model,  we have now become the working blue print model of the Kingdom of God.

You Are A New World order-tasted of the age to come

Jesus called disciples of the new world order, the Kingdom of God, he called disciples to go and make disciples, we have gone out to make disciples of Jesus.   Jesus actually made disciples of the Kingdom, sons of the Kingdom.   Not disciples of Jesus but disciples of the Kingdom of God!     Now that’s got you thinking and all stirred up, we have perhaps made the wrong disciples?     My aim is to consider this next time!

 

Launched Words…

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I turned the pages of my electronic bible over, what a strange action, I am always amazed what these computers can do and sound like, I continued to read waiting and anticipating the Spirit of God to have gone deep within God looking for fresh insight to be brought into my daylight (1 Cor. 2:10).     With anticipation I read on knowing that when God revels it will have an implication for me, to make it part of my life, embracing it in every way.    Then it arrived as arrow in flight in pierced the clouded mind and thought patterns broke through into my being.   It read “He launches his promises earthward how swift and sure they come!” (Psalm 147:15), WOW, WOW! the Father launches, its trajectory set, its path calculated and course set, away it goes a promise of the Father.
I realised that the overcomer overcomes through the strength of God also by the living promises of God.     What about transforming what God has said into a pregnant promise, into words with power, into sentences that are God filled.   For is this not a promise from heaven a God filled sentence?    Not just words on a page, Biblical promises but launched, swift to arrive words, “for none of his words will return void” not sound bites to quote heave invested words!   Perhaps promises spoken long ago taken back into the face of God through my conversations with the Father, my prayer and returned as “Reverse Thunder” (Rev 16:17-21) with my words invested  into again with Gods substance  and creation is effected”
If promises have been launched towards Gods creation should we not consider what they are?    Making known what has been uttered what has been said towards creation, humanity you and me.   What has been promised as the ultimate intention of God, Gods purpose to bring about, this will of the Father we are to be given to beyond our own will.    Should we not have the duty to enquire, then we have a responsibility to make it known.
Launched promises God speaks – thank goodness God has words, this God of ours
God speakers words that work
God directs speaking words having a direction in them
Speaking must be twined to hearing, so let God speak and let us hear and take heed of promises
Promises launched in words that work!      A promise making God, a promise keeping Father an ever extending God via spoken words – literal God changing shape in us, around us by utterance, words and all within those words are God.
So where from here, take the book of words, of promise the scripture Spirit uttered words and collate promises spoken to all creation, to humanity, to the church of God, to you and me.   Begin to revel in the spoken promises, begin to consider that these are not thoughts, nice reading passages but fulfilling promises.   For though promises we will live gloriously, don’t just wait until they arrive or happen live in the glorious light of these words.

A Bridge its life, leadership & all that.

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Bridge building is an art!      I realised over the years how much of life is about building bridges, which we all have to do constantly.    If it’s the first meeting or one from a deeper relationship it’s still needs the ongoing art of bridge building.

I was trained as builder, a building surveyor, RICS was the professional qualifications we aimed for to achieve our skill.   I was trained  to have a grasp of many elements within the building industry, it was not about mastering one particular discipline, but being the coordinating point for many trades and professions within the industry.   I learned topography, out in cold and sunny days working a theodolite, walking across the landscape.   I studied quantities, working out the quantities and costs of erecting a structure.    I designed buildings architecturally, drew plans , drafted contracts, compiled specification, run multi-million pound construction contracts.   Even designed watery dams, and BRIDGES, working the stresses and strains, the forces that bridges have to carry.   Calculating the engineering of building concrete or steel even wooden bridges.    Building bridges,  the stresses and strains, the art involved in building these life long structures.

The stresses and strains of the art of bridge building I have realised  is a picture of ongoing life, that my life is involved in this complex engineer of bridge building with lives and relationships continuously.     We daily build these bridge or weaken them.   I recall being advised that I better make sure that the bridge of my relationship with others is strong enough to carry the load I wish to transport across it before I take the load up with people.     It’s of no use to end up saying “…well its the way I am, blunt…”, which might be true, when the bridge of relationship cannot any longer carry any kind of load.   Its better to take several trips across the bridge of this relationship with a lesser loads until you get it all across than rushing at it while smiling and looking back having got across only to realise when you get across that the bridge is so fragile now nothing can be carried across it!

The art of bridge building we have to learn to negotiate life and people as well as in our own lives.

I am not setting myself up as an expert, far from it, just a simple commentator on life and its challenges, I am learning, I hope to negotiate and being a bridge builder, perhaps a Biblical peace maker?

So we agree in the importance of connecting with those we work, live, partner with in life, ministry, vocation, profession, work with and meet in everyday life, particularly in this culture where new relationships can be intimidating, and 15-minute lunches are common. The following are some thoughts on how to best build a connecting bridge of partnership between yourself and another person

  1. Love people until they ask “why?” what about getting to the place that the actions of you loving people speaks so loudly that people “ultimately demand an explanation for why you do what you do.   
  2. Ask more questions than others do. Discover that asking questions is much more strategic than giving answers
  3. Spend lots of time listening. “Once you’ve asked a great question, listen. And listen more. And listen more,” O boy do we need help, O boy do I need help.
  4. Find points of connection and shared interests, Be intentional!  Make a point to discover the person’s interests, hobbies, and what truly motivates them. Then build on shared interests.
  5. Follow-up. How Important this is, as you never heard from some one will not mean thy have cut or are disinterested they are like you busy.   Come on be bigger and lest grow up.   Try this take the first step and reach out, then once you have done that, do it again.   I sadly heard a comment recently “…I tried contacting them, they did not come back so I forget about it, let it go…” Let us build  a bridge and try, try again, again!

The art of bridge building, we could build the longest, the highest, the most scenic, most significant bridge in regard to relationship that people have ever seen, let’s do it let’ s have a go, don’t give up build it.   I think a film several years ago called ‘Field of Dreams’ coined a phrase once “…if you build it they will come…” Build a Bridge.

Breaking The Sound Barriers – The Barrier of a Closed Heart

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The last time we looked at what my fingers typed we considered how a closed mind could be a barrier to the sound of God’s voice. The same is true of a closed heart. What are some signs that a heart attitude might be hindering us from hearing God?

Look what will happen – “We might die!”

In contrast to Gideon, who doubted that God would speak to him, in another account the Israelites gathered around Mount Sinai.   They had been on a journey and came to a mountain that visually turned them away, smoke, clouds, and lightening – “…very, very frightening…” was line in a Queen song called Bohemian Rhapsody and the same words came to mind and hit home here.  The nation is challenged convinced that God had something to say. But they were terrified by the prospect!    As God spoke from the mountain, the people “trembled with fear” and pleaded with Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die” Ex. 20:18–19.

Sometimes we too shut out the voice of God because we fear what God might say.    We may not worry, as the Israelites did, that God’s words could kill us.    But fear shuts out what God has to say.    We may say never me but when has the fear of the situation held us up, caused us to run away and not take up the moment?   The Father as something to say and we have wince at the possibility that He could make uncomfortable demands.

What if God were to command us to change our ways?     What if God were to call us to some great sacrifice?

That’s precisely what the Father often does.    Read the word of the Lord to the believers in the seven churches of Asia, recorded in the opening chapters of Revelation.    God praised their virtues and good works, but then there was the warning to them that the sufferings ahead would require great sacrifices, the change your ways, the come up here.       The Lord punctuated each message with the same command: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says” Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22. Nevertheless, the words always concluded with words of hope and a promise of salvation “to him who overcomes” 3:21.

If what will it mean is deafening us to God’s voice, we should bear in mind that the rewards of heeding are priceless and eternal. No matter what God calls us to, we can take courage, “for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” 2 Cor. 4:17.

All that I need I have – “We’ve got horses!”

Another heart issue that hinders hearing is that God’s people sometimes have trouble hearing because of pride.    One form of pride leads us to assume that we have things under control and have no need for a conversation with God.    The Old Testament prophets often warned against this. Zephaniah, for example, rebukes those who “neither seek the Lord nor inquire of him” Zeph. 1:6.

God has a cure for misplaced confidence in ourselves: the allowing of difficult circumstances to overwhelm us and remind us how desperately we need God’s guidance.

During Isaiah writing his account, as the nations where bearing down, the on coming of the physical threat to Judah by Assyria.    Leadership should have been asking God for protection and direction, but they lost their bearings and made a logical and calculated decision and made an alliance with Egypt, with Egypt?    What did God think of that arrangement?    “Woe to the obstinate children…to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit. Is. 30:1

Through Isaiah, the Lord called the people to trust in God’s protection. But they responded, “No, if trouble comes we’ve got horses for a getaway!”     “So be it,” God replied. “You’ll take to your horses, and your enemies will pursue and overtake you” see vv. 16–17.

God’s mercy reaches great heights, its is great. “How gracious he will be when you cry for help!” Isaiah reminded the prideful people. “As soon as he hears, he will answer you” v 19.

And how will God show compassion once we have abandoned our self-sufficiency?   By speaking to us. “Whether you turn to the right or to the left,” He promises, “your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” v. 21.

It should have come through Mr.& Mrs? – “I’m not listening to a donkey!”       Pride can also lead us to presumptions about the kind of messenger God should use.     We can close our hearts and ears to God’s voice if we consider the courier unfit for the job.     Remember the blind beggar Jesus healed?      When the Pharisees examined him, he tried to tell them that Jesus was a prophet sent from God to whom they should listen John 9.    But they had already concluded that Jesus was just a troublemaker, so they rejected the message and the messenger. “‘You were steeped in sin at birth,” they told the man who had been healed. “How dare you lecture us!” V 34

There seems to be a continuous way of God woven here that God speaks to us through people we might never, better said definitely would not have chosen?    An unacceptable person, different in culture, a fringe person to their society speaks out for Gods case.     A child makes a profound statement of spiritual wisdom beyond her years.      A so-called enemy, which can be physical enemy or emotional enemy, brings to us with an uncomfortable truth.     A stranger makes a passing remark that opens a door of direction for us.     God spoke through Balaam’s donkey Num. 22:21–34.      That means God can speak through anybody!

Whenever you or I have done the very thing of dismissing God due to the massagers, if it’s the style or what is said, as we have realized we have dismissed God and have become unable to hear the Father, we realize its really is the voice of God speaking through the vessel.    A vessel that in our mind perhaps we thought unworthy or not up to whom we wanted, or not who we wanted to hear from.    Stop for a moment, just tell the Father, confess our pride he will hear us although we could not hear God.    Without judgment or put down the Father hears you and me, just admit it and watch out as the Father speaks again.    Go the next step and thank the person, the one you said, “…never could be too…” the one God used.     This act of humility can help prevent future presumption.

Another way to swallow our pride is to habitually and humbly seek good counsel from.     Become a constant learner looking to learn from the youngest to oldest the most to the least, what ever lines you have drawn regarding whom you can learn from rub them out, learn from whom ever and where ever, “EVERYTHING IS SPIRIRUAL” remember, that is seeing God in all things constantly communicating to us, hearing God every where.   Don’t miss God and wait for a repeat God is ever speaking to us.

“You’re not the God of me!”

When we turn our backs on God, preferring to do things our way, our ears grow deaf to Gods voice. This is no new phenomenon. When God instructed the nation of Judah how to live righteously,

They turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit.  Zech. 7:11–12

The result? “The Lord Almighty was very angry”v.12. A hardened heart is at enmity with God, and in the end, those who oppose God will suffer calamity. “Listen!” says the Lord to rebels. “I am going to bring a disaster…that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle” Jer. 19:3. One way or another, we will end up listening.

So what do I do turn back to the Lord, seeking God’s forgiveness and recognizing His sovereignty. He can give us a new heart, so that we can say with the prophet: “The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back” Is. 50:5.

For me I have found helpful is discovering a view of God that the bible shows us not what we are told God is like but discovering God as God.   Learning that God constantly is bringing us to see God as God is, not what religious or Christian culture, sometimes paints.   I suppose we could say “…as God is so are we…” so we better discover a right view so we can “be”.   Our judgmental, no generous way will define for us what we do and what we don’t do and is harmful to us and others.  It paints an incorrect picture/view first for our selves next for the world around us.   Is this not what has happened and people don’t want anything to do with the church due to the view painted we better get a correct view here.   This view of Gods magnificence, Gods greatness reflect upon it and consider my smallness and be overwhelmed with God.

Consider God working in discipline different from often times  “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.   Heb. 12:10–11

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassion never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.  Lam. 3:21–25

When I need to recover my sense of dependency on God, I find help here:

What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? 1 Cor. 4:7, RSV

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.  Jas. 1:17

If I’m struggling with submission to God’s sovereignty, I consider God’s words to Job.

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!…Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?…Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. Job 38:4–5, 12, 18

Moses’ song to God in Exodus 15 is another passage that helps me adopt a submissive spirit:

Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? . . . In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.  vv. 11, 13

After reflecting on such passages that remind me of the nature of our God, I’ll find my heart opening to Gods will—and my ears opening to Gods voice.

 

Breaking The Sound Barriers

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Why we may not hear God – and what to do about it

Have you ever been in a situation when you are desperately looking for a lost item and some one speaks out and says “let’s ask God”, you first reaction could be “O, Yes but we have lost something”, even “Ok pray” but we never believe that God will speak.

I heard this story a little while ago when a four-year-old daughter, and her mother and father were raking the grass after a hot day mowing the lawn when mum shouted, “My engagement ring! its gone!”

They all looked together at the numerous massive garden bags stuffed with grass and everything else, bags that would have to be opened and dumped out one by one. Then would they find the ring.

The 4-year-old came up with a suggestion suggested, “Let’s ask God to show us where to start,” The temptation was to dismiss the notion as impractical. But what if the Holy Spirit were leading her?

“All right,” they agreed, “let’s ask the Lord to show us where the ring is.” So having sat on the grass, prayed for help, and remained quiet for a moment.

Suddenly the 4-year-old cried out, “God told me!” Then she pointed to one of the bags. “Open that one, Dad!” the Fathered turned the bag on its side and opened it. The ring tumbled out.

That day, Dad and Mum were shown that the 4-year-old had “ears to hear” what the Lord was saying (Mt. 11:15, NASB). And her parents learned a valuable lesson about the unexpected ways God might speak—if only we’ll listen.

Granted, having ears to hear may not always be as easy as it was for the 4-year-old that day. At times, God is silent. At other times, He may speak, but we’re hindered from hearing. What are the most common reasons for that spiritual deafness?

Three stand out to me: closed minds, closed hearts, and closed lifestyles.

The Barrier of a Closed Mind

Sometimes we close our minds against the possibility of hearing God. That close-mindedness can take a number of forms.

“Who, me?” When the Lord called Gideon to leadership, Gideon reacted in disbelief. As he saw it, he was an unimportant member of a minor family in the weakest of clans (Jdg. 6:15). “Give me a sign,” he insisted, “that it is really you talking to me” (v. 17).

Gideon doubted not that God would speak, but that God would speak to him. Why would the Lord of the universe converse with a nobody?

A number of years ago I was asked a question while on the phone to a car supplied who wanted to put right another breakdown of my car and said “Ask what ever you want” and I heard God saying “you have not as you don’t ask”.   So asked, I did from a new car and amazingly within 3 days a new vehicle was delivered.  It just taught me a lesson in life on asking, Jesus’ invitation should encourage us: “Ask and it will be given to you” (Lk. 11:9), I am not using it to asks for stuff what ever your need may be I am juts encouraging you to ask in the will of God and see what happens.

Jesus follows that invitation with the reminder that if even sinful human fathers care about their children, how much more will their Father in heaven do so (v. 13). This is the same Father by whom “the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Lk. 12:7). This Father cares about the details of our lives; the things that matter to us matter to Him—and He cares enough to speak to us about them.

Let’s not allow doubt to deafen us to God’s voice. No matter how small we may be in our own eyes, we can have faith that if we seek to hear from God, He will speak, for “he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

Be careful in our asking and listening as sometimes we just miss God’s communication with us is because it doesn’t come in the way we expect.

Think of the people standing around Jesus on the day God spoke from heaven. Jesus understood clearly what His heavenly Father said. But “the crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered” (Jn. 12:29). How many times has God spoken and we heard thunder then?   Apparently, their expectations about how God might speak did not include an audible voice from heaven. So when the word of the Lord came to them, all they heard was noise.

Open minds stay alert to both the ordinary and the extraordinary and surprising ways God may choose to speak. I think most of us get lost in the surprising ways or extraordinary ways that we miss the ordinary in our lives.   I would suggest to you that God more often speaks in the ordinary than any other way.    We can miss it as it can be too ordinary.   Lets hear God in all ways and let God be God shall we?

The story of Augustine may encourage us as saint of old and his experience, he is regarded a s senior father in our faith and his encounter with God.  One day in his youth, Augustine of Hippo wept alone in a garden, plagued by the knowledge that his life was not consecrated to God. He begged for divine help to break decisively from his sinful past.

Suddenly, he heard a child nearby, chanting a refrain: “Take up and read, take up and read!”

Was it simply part of a child’s game? Augustine wasn’t sure. But he was alert to the possibility that the Lord was speaking through that child. So Augustine found a copy of the Scriptures, opened it, and read the first words he saw:

Let us behave decently…not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery.…Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

—Ro. 13:13–14

The text struck him like a thunderbolt. Of that moment, Augustine later said to God, “You converted me to Yourself.”

“It might get weird!” Another consideration may cause us to close our minds to God’s voice: How many religious cults have begun with an individual claiming “God told me…”? How many unbalanced people have engaged in strange, even criminal, behavior that they thought was inspired by God? How many otherwise normal people, for that matter, have made poor decisions because they thought they were acting under God’s private, specific instructions?

Understandably, we don’t want to make the same mistake: to ascribe to the Lord our own silly notions or defame His reputation by claiming He’s told us something that proves untrue. Such caution is admirable. But listening to God is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It’s possible, even common, for Christians sometimes to hear the Lord accurately and to be mistaken at other times. Learning to listen with discernment is a form of spiritual growth. To help us in this process, God has provided ways of correcting us—or of confirming what He has said.

If we believe that God has spoken to us about a matter of doctrine or morals, we can compare what we believe we’ve heard with the teaching of Scripture. If what we heard involves a personal decision, we can seek the counsel of wise Christian friends. If we believe we heard a call to action that requires God’s provision, the arrival of that provision can be a form of confirmation.   We also have each other so learn to seek counsel and submit to each other so we can be confirmed.    Do not go looking for the ways you want and the answers that come in line with your thinking, let people be honest and even if you don’t see it.

I know Gods grace to us is not to have any aspects of our lives closed in any such ways but to be those who have come into freedom that we might have a liberated mind.   A mind that can fly into the experiences and encounter of God in every way God comes to us to give all to us all so that we can be given to the will of God as well.

Next time we can move on to the other two hearts and lifestyle