The day the church, the Ecclesia, stops Emerging is the day it becomes a religious institution. Everything we are is coming from the eternal we have tasted of an age to come, the Kingdom has come, is coming and is here, we have been saved, are saved and are being saved. We journey towards an Ever Arriving God, is this not revelation in essence, it’s still coming, the Ecclesia – church along with the Father. God is too large that we know him ALL what a great adventure we have joined.
Let GO! – part 1
Letting God
I have watched in the coming and going of life with all its unpredictable circumstances and surprises that pop up seemingly daily without warning and relentlessly appearing. In all the challenges and joys that life swings into motion I have learned or probably am still learning would be a better way of saying it, that each one of us has to deal with the ability of “Letting Go”.
We are challenged to let go at different stages of life, as we mature and change we have to let go of one stage to move into the next, trusting so much to get from this place to the next place I have to let go – life has taught me that I need to let Go or die, or fossilize.
Learning to let go becomes an art – my emotion, my mind, my inner space, my whole person is engaged in Letting Go.
I have even realised that letting go is so important in my walk with God, can I let go and forgive that lie, the wrong, the pointing finger, the accusation that is unfounded?
Letting Go helps me to make the most of now and enables me to move on with people, it is not about what I have to get right, but more about can I let go to move upward. Letting God is not about bearing the issue or circumstance, it is really letting it God to gain a condition as if it never happened, deciding not to have the ability to even recall it any longer. Letting go to gain the new ground, letting go to move away from a painful event, letting go to get certain people loosed from the entanglement of my mind these are all letting go issues.
So what lessons have I learned?
What will we all have to learn?
The way we let go of the now determines our ability to take hold of what is coming around the corner. There are questions that would help us learn and let go, I would like to share a few thoughts that are produced by each. The questions that would serve us all well to ask each other and more than that ask ourselves.
- “Is there a fine line between control and influence? And how do you know the difference”
You see letting go is also to do with empowering and influence, and the issue of control. We are not to Lord it over people or control people but rather empower people to reach their fullness. Are we free to empower others or do we discover the need of control within ourselves? Control has such a subtle manifestation in our lives? Do we find the need to have people listen to us, expecting people to do what we say, that it becomes my way or the highway as it were.
When I discover the need to control, no matter how small it seems, do I have the capacity to give up my control and allow myself to become an influence instead? Can I let go and allow things to be done differently?
Let’s consider some questions
- Can you identify the evidence of control within your life? What does it look like on a day-to-day basis? Do I get upset when things are not checked or sounded out though me, when I do not know what is going on?
- What kind of things do I mistake for control? Some times it my own rightness, my personal ideas and thoughts that I think need to be implemented, I think this is ok, but r it reality it can simply be a form of control.
- What kind of experiences make you feel out of control? What do you find fearful or threatening? How do you find you respond when people say ‘God said’, or when some one else determines the scope, agenda and running of meetings, the when, where and what is talked through?
Knowledge is power, applied Knowledge is much more powerful because it gives birth to wisdom The wisdom to know when to apply and when to wait, the wisdom to understand that no circumstance or person, including myself, fits perfectly the whole picture.
The mystery of it all throughout our lives is learning to be patient, forgiving, merciful and flexible.
You cannot control any relationship, it is a trap an illusion to think that we can. Attempting to do so is just and exercise in futility. I can not prevent disagreements, arguments or mishaps. Should we really have the power to control all of those things within our relationships it would mean that we would miss out on the advance and the bond in relationships that follows.
- What illusions do you have?
Control can stem from un-addressed pain – our efforts to avoid pain (sadness, let down, hurt etc) we may appear to be successful in our control, in that we are no longer vulnerable and exposed and therefore have reduced our chances of being hurt. But the avoidance of pain causes us to ‘step back from life’ and causes us to have a less passionate life.
Letting go is a key to your future in life, every work and relationship as well as in leadership situation.
- Let go, I have, without strings attached as I continue to do this I have found that it brings liberty for my daily life and for the future.
Selah: Before we conclude this article
Setting things Right
What do you see?
Psalm 97: 6 (Message) The heavens announce that he’ll set everything right, And everyone will see it happen—glorious!
- Announcing heavens
- Set right
- Non-restricted seeing
All to do with my heavenly Father, he is glorious.
The NASB translations says it like this “…The heavens declareHis righteousnessand all the people’s have seen His glory…”
A heavens that speak to us is our wonderful gift, a declaring, an announcing heavens, lets listen to what it declares, the coming of “…Let your kingdom come…” the arrival of a King arriving to “…set everything right…” The order, and rule, the right way up, as it is in heaven, is being declared through and by the heavens, lets listen! Letting the eternal sound catch our inner person grooming us drawing us to look beyond the moment to see what is still to arriving in God’s economy.
“Setting everything right” is this not the same as your kingdom come, you and I have been brought into asking, praying, for what the heavens and Christ are declaring, the work of a unified voice of all creation people and heavens. The Fathers order coming, the house of God arriving in all creation, the Kings way a highway through all of cosmos which includes my ‘little’ world. At the school gate, in the office during classroom time, at home with the toddlers, on the road as I drive, you see it around you as you live it. Making the far country where my abode is to be that my life is, the far country of the Kingdom of God that has arrived and is still arriving this order everything set right that is the Fathers house.
This setting in order that the Psalmist speaks of is not to be a hidden thing or in a removed place secluded small with drawn place but a place where the seeing is non-restrictive a place that “…everyone will see it happen…”
“And every one will see it happen-glorious” or “And all the people’s, have seen His glory” can this be the glory that is Christ given that is in the process of being reveled, the same that Paul writes to the Ephesus church about in the book of Ephesians that the church is to be “…the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places…” (Eph 3:10) followed by “…to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen…” (Eph 3:21). The reveling of the church, the called out ones that are the carriers of Gods glory that will fill the earth “…as the waters cover the sea…”?
The called out people of God are the display of His Glory, we are introduced and believe in Christ that is a gift giver to the church, in John 17 we note that he gives to the church two things, one being His Word and the other, wait for it this is mind bending, see now he has given, past tense, to the church……His glory. Not something to be hunted for or chased after but lived in light of, now read these two scriptures before you stamp all over me:
John 17: 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was…”
V 22 “…The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;”
The glory to make an open display of in the whole fabric of creation – every one will see it happen-glorious.
One of our Western challenges, or where ever there is the hold of consumerism in the culture we live in, that has subtle impact upon all of us in relation to our desire for God our chase of the Holy Spirit which I believe we need to be careful and wise with. If we do not we will find our journey towards maturity and desire for the Father being put off course.
Firstly let me say, of course the people of God are to deepen their intimacy with the Father realizing that he has made the way possible and it is not us that creates the possibility or means but its his grace that has done it all. Every blockage has been removed, every meandering pathway has been straightened, every chasm has been crossed by the Father. In essence there is no reason but for our own self that we cannot be deeply intimate with the Father. The work has been “…finished…” it is open to us to first enjoy and be one with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The onward chase or search for God must not come from our way of society, from our cultural paradigm. The society we live in places demands on us daily see it or not its there. A demand from leadership at the top of every organization, we are expected to increase our results against our expanding changing forms of evaluation, just look at our schooling system let alone the business world. It’s the promise of unlimited progress with the need of continuous improvement (Japanese concept – kaizen). Most of our world is competitive, we like to win and beat the competition. We must not bring this into the world of the Father.
Our world holds up individual liberties as a high goal along with the pursuit of happiness and consumer mentality but this way of life has produced a cycle that has been so below our radar. In the retail world we see first “customer satisfaction” as being a high goal and so it should, but here is the subtlety, in order to bring satisfaction we have first have to produce dissatisfaction with where we are, what we are, along with what we have gained. Paul tells us that had learned to be content with little/nothing and much, I would suggest that contentment was not based on what was still to come but on what has been given and what is available now.
We see our commitments at point of purchase only lasting until the next unit is developed and made available, when the next model or style or fashion comes on the market dissatisfaction moves in. This has a way of pushing its way into our relationship and pursuit of God which me must become fully aware of, other wise we are wanting more due to societies ability to subtly produce discontentment’s and we want more.
Of course we are to be intimate and enjoy God, for he has made a way. It’s an overflow and growing of our love that manifests in our desire to be continuously conscious of the Christ and the Father as there is never a moment where he is not present in his fullness. Which should have an effect on how we live NOW. Not because I need more as what I have is not enough due to consumer dissatisfaction
Be careful that my cry for more flows from my love and not from this invasion of the society we live in that has a subtle way of producing discontent with a promise of contentment “when I”, “if I”
The psalmist here brings an encouragement to join the declaration throughout the fabric of creation “set things right” we are to declare “Your Kingdom Come” make this place the setting of your environment o Lord as we bring your Kingdom in daily life we declare we show the heavens the glory of the Lord.
The heavens and the called out people of God announce he will set all things right, a unified voice, purpose and work come about in setting things right with an invading Kingdom that is arriving at every hand
Announcing heavens
Set right
Non-restricted seeing
Procrastination – great use of words!
Miss You
procrastination is the assassination of your motivation;
when God gives a revelation of what He wants to do in our lives, we get filled with inspiration and pledge to do things beyond imagination;
but then comes a hesitation and with it the evaporation of that determination allowing procrastination to become the assassination of your motivation;
to the student procrastination means the deterioration of your education;
in the workplace it can lead to the termination of your occupation which means the elimination of your compensation;
procrastinate on changing your all and you’ll see the disintegration of your transportation;
if it’s home repairs it’ll be the dilapidation of your habitation;
procrastinate on spending time with your children and you’ll experience the alienation of some cherished family relations ……
but the worst procrastination of all, is when we procrastinate on the things of God which may lead to the expiration of God’s offer of salvation;
…. so do don’t procrastinate, initiate and …. “Redeem the Time”
(Rick Grubbs)
Promising Sounds
What? Can't hear?
Having recently returned from Africa we are greeted with many things, meeting family, reconnecting with friends and colleagues or better co-workers in the work of restoring and redeeming this world so that it will display the Christ. How good it is to see familiar things around, things that we have grown up with, things that bring back memories of good times. What would life be like with out these?
Being away for 8 weeks brings its challenges, things that were so part of life when we left, we had forgotten, but the minute we return they rush back in on us. One of the biggest things that greets us as we arrive is a world full of sounds, some sounds bring a smile and some sounds are simply just noise. Certainly we left a world in Africa where the silence is deafening, the kind of silence that invades you and makes itself known inside, bringing tranquil times.
A world with full on noise, this is our island. We live close to the M6 by the constant drone of tires turning on tarmac highways, all the shops have their music, the bustle of people with their own internal chatter and noise, a world where you find difficulty some times to find silence. We are never that far away however from finding that silence that is stilling and ministering. I wonder what sounds are near to you as you read this, what sounds fill your world and endorse or disturb the inner Sabbath?
What is your ear tuned to now as you read, your own inner thoughts, music in the background or just the noise of your house creaking and making sure you know it’s there? What comes your way through this one channel of hearing, this gateway into your inner life?
The Psalmist presents to us a sound in his ear Psalm 92:11, he tells of what has invaded his still life, his inner listening. He tells us to open up, that a certain sound will break through a sound I would suggest that would transform many worlds.
He says “…My ears are filled with the sounds of promise: “Good people will prosper like palm trees, Grow tall like Lebanon cedars; transplanted to God’s courtyard, They’ll grow tall in the presence of God, lithe and green, virile still in old age.
Sounds of promise, our world so often volunteers to people sounds of let down, disappointment and criticism and this world is hearing a different sound a sound that our world too could embrace. A sound filled with sounds of promise, a sound that will groom and direct, that would live and empower that would change your view of God and your self, if only the promises are kept living. Sounds of promise!
Promises, be bold and recall, bring back to memory a promise, promises that have been spoken. But you don’t understand you might say they disappointed me, my challenge to believe then that creates a sound that governs once again. Let them arise promise of old that were yours once and should be again. We are to be people of promise and promise – blessing.
You see we say “faith is the hope of things” so hope is necessary to come to faith let me put into you that memory is the seed or foundation of hope. The world around knows if I can fill your memory with negative, if I can rob your memory no hope will come so faith cannot be born. The fight is not with your faith it’s often in the realm of memory. Sounds of promise let memory bring them back and let them live again. Let your era be filled with sounds of promise again. We become a promised filled people.
The psalmist in this passage outlines three things I notice here as a character of those who have turned to you in and the experience of life they are involved with.
1 What a beautiful thing – thankfulness, presence, continuously, adding to beauty by my voice and motion
2 You made me so happy – joy, magnificent work, thoughts made known.
3 Ears filled with sounds of promise – Gods people impartation to
So this person, you are to be filled with beauty, joy, promises. For they live in such a way that they look for beauty, joy and promises a trinity of life.
Looking for beauty, adding to beauty, being part of beauty that brings forth beauty and changes the environment around you. That joy then flows first by being happy in recognising Gods beautiful works towards each other. Rather than looking for more like a consumer, there is a contentment in what God has given us that keeps us pressing for more of him.
Listening for sounds – sounds of promises that they are kept in your ear in your consciousness it seems not far from your audible senses.
Living in beautiful things, happiness and joy from your realisation while keeping the ear filled with Gods word to you.
How to cultivate this life? What a contribution we would make living this way to life’s onward and upward goal.
Beauty
Joy
Promises
Attitude/disposition – Inner person – and gave thanks as a way of life.
Saw – and was happy.
Listened – held promises in my ear, keep before my mind, eye, heart.
Three lines to change your life:
1 What a beautiful thing, God
2 You made me so happy, God, I saw your
3 My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
Beauty is when I see and God fills me with ability of seeing him everywhere, happiness/joy comes when you see him in what he has done, the sounds of promise is Him so my hearing is Him – its all God my Father!
Face2Face - Gareth Duffty Blog 