What On Earth is God Doing? - Daniel Yordy

What on Earth Is God Doing?
see also PDF version for download
By Daniel Yordy – July 14, 2010

"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it . . ." Genesis 1: 26-28

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." Romans 8: 28-30

"For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying . . .' Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.'" Hebrews 2:10-13

All in-partness of Christianity comes out of an ignorance of God's purpose for man in the earth. All the convoluted pathways of Christian teaching diverge into every possible direction because people do not really know what on earth God is doing.

Most Christians imagine that God is simply rescuing some of miserable man from the consequences of his sin, and out of the goodness of His heart, God is allowing a few of us to enjoy a place called heaven after we die. Others see that Jesus is an example to us and that God is making us, in some outward sort of way, more like Jesus. To these people, all the purpose of God with us is to help us to do better at obeying what God speaks to us.

To the first, God is Light, distant, bright, to some a bit cold, to others a bit hot. To the second, God is Spirit, an enabling power that comes upon us, but still, something we're not, something He has to help us to follow, somehow.

But unless we understand that God is first Love and that means that God is revealed primarily in that which we call Heart, then we cannot know either this God who fills us full or His purpose for man in the earth.

It is not apparent that Light must have darkness, nor that Spirit must have flesh. But it is apparent that Love must have a lover. If you're given the final exam with one word on it, it is not hard to answer that exam with precision and understanding.

WHY

Love must have a lover.

And all things are explained.

But since God is also Spirit, we know He must also have a body. And since God is also Light, we know He must also reign triumphant over all - and that takes winning, and winning takes a contest and opposition and the distinct possibility of losing.


The most telling statement in all the Bible is in Genesis 2:18 "And the LORD God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.'"

Everything else God had created, until that moment, was good - all of God's works. Now God says, "It's not good." How is that? Why did God purposefully create a circumstance in His perfect creation that was not good?

God is revealing to us, right from the start, that it is not good that God should be "alone." Love must have a lover.

Then in verse 19, God proceeds to give Adam a job, the job of naming every creature. And Adam saw all that God had made, that every male had a female of its same kind. That out of the nature of God, like begets like.

But Adam was alone, as God was alone. Adam did not have a female of his same kind; God did not have a female of His same kind.

Adam's purpose and God's purpose were one. Adam was created to show to us God Himself.

By giving Adam a woman who could receive his seed and bear his life, God was giving Himself a woman who could receive His Seed and bear His Life.

The Seed of God is Christ - in us. The life that comes forth from the union between God and man is called in typology by the Holy Spirit - the manchild who is "caught up" to God and to His throne.

But like can come into union only with like. The only way God could come into union with man, the only way God could plant His Seed inside of man, the only way man could bear and bring forth the very life of God into creation, was if man himself was created in the likeness and image of God.

We do know exactly what on earth God is doing because He tells us plainly. God is conforming many sons into the image of His dear Son.

Light triumphs over darkness by shining. Spirit overcomes flesh by filling it full, immersing it in itself.

But Heart? Heart is a different matter. Heart must be forged in a furnace of affliction, a vale of tears, a pathway of thorns and a laid-down life.

Heart cannot be created. Heart can only be formed. God is Love means that God is Heart. To be like God is to be filled with heart - His Heart.

Image, though, is more than likeness. Image is the visible expression of an invisible God.

God, in Himself, cannot be known. He cannot be known by men or by animals; He cannot be known by angels or even by cherubim. God is invisible Spirit that cannot be seen or known or touched or handled by any part of His creation anytime anywhere.

This reality is not to God's liking.

"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person . . ." Hebrews 1:1-3

"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him." Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works." John 14:8-10

Jesus was 100% human as God intended. Jesus was the purpose of God for man in the earth and through all creation. But we know from what we have already read that Jesus, in the plan and purpose of God, cannot be alone.

"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." 1 Corinthians 12:12

The Christ of God is a many-membered body.

The people of the Old Testament did not know God. They had no idea who He was or what He was really like. They perceived Him only from a distance. They understood a very outward form of God.

The first people on this planet to know God were Peter, James, and John. They knew God as He really was because they touched Him. They touched the physical body of a man walking among them and so touched God Himself. God was their friend and constant companion.

John said it this way: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life - the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us." 1 John 1:1-2

It is not our desire to "be like Jesus."

Rather, it is God's intention and determination to reveal Himself to His creation, from the lowest earth to the highest heaven, through us.

God is an invisible Spirit. He cannot be seen or known or touched.

God is Love; His heart pours itself out in overwhelming compassion for everything that exists. God must be seen; God must be known; God must be touched.

Forever through a company of sons who walk together in perfect harmony, filled with all the fullness of God, releasing God to His creation in a river of life that heals and brings life and joy to all, triumphing over every voice that would speak against the tenderness and kindness of God. Jesus the head, and we the body, conformed in all ways to the image of Jesus Christ.

That brings us then to everything that takes place on this planet. Everything.

God can reveal Himself as He really is only through Heart. And heart cannot be created. Heart can be formed only in a furnace of affliction, through a vale of tears.

It's the only possible way God can have what He wants. It's the only possible way God can reveal His Heart in the tender and caring way He would show Himself to be.

And so we come to God's clear statement of purpose in the New Testament.

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

A better way to say this is "God, together with us, works all things for good."

And so God deals to each one of us a life upon this earth. A life, from beginning to end, and He appoints every part, every facet, every nuance of that life.

But, just as when He created the world, God appointed a task for Adam - that of giving the animals their names and their natures, so God has appointed a task for each one of us.

That task is to work together with God to make every part of the path of our lives upon this earth "good." And that means drawing out of every circumstance that element of heart - God's Heart revealed in us - that God purposed and appointed for us to reveal.

God did not give you my heart to reveal. God did not give me your heart to reveal. Your heart belongs to me because you belong to me. My heart belongs to you because I belong to you. And together we reveal the untold many facets of the core and center of the very Person and Being of Almighty God to all whom He would touch with tenderness, with healing, and with life.

Without the fall of Adam, there could not have been a furnace of affliction and a vale of tears. And without a furnace of affliction and a vale of tears, God could not have together with us formed His Heart in you and in me.

But more than that, the son God will have, the son God has purposed and determined to have to reveal Himself through, to give as an inheritance all that He is and all that He has, that many-membered son, Jesus the head and we the body, that son cannot come into all that God is in us without open and deadly OPPOSITION.

That's just the way it is. It is the way God has made it to be.

If we are not opposed at every step of the way, we cannot become the Heart of God revealed to His creation. We see this truth written into everything God created in the natural world as a testimony of Himself and His ways.

But before saying anything more, we must have this foundation in our understanding. Affliction does not form me into the image of Christ. Opposition and casting off opposition does not form me into the image of God's dear Son. Neither does God Himself form me into the image of Christ.

No. Rather, it is God working together with me and me working together with God in a fused union of Spirit and heart and purpose, Christ in me revealing Himself as me in all the nuances of my life. This "working together" is what accomplishes the purpose of God in my life. I cannot do it without God; God will not do it without me. God, working together with me, makes all things GOOD.

Let's look, then, at this most necessary of ingredients for God to obtain His determination and purpose in the earth.

When I was a young man, God gave me two individuals in my experience that contrasted in stark terms the difference between depth of heart and shallowness of heart. I worked briefly with a young man around 20 years of age. This young man was the most mentally "ill" person I have known. He was capable in mind and in body, but he was completely flipped out. He had to have the immediate presence of another person next to him at all times because there was absolutely no internal control within him. He had grown up normal. Then, soon after he began his first job after high school, he flipped. His mother had spent her fortune taking him everywhere, trying to get some help. Finally, she brought him to us.

But here is what the elders of the community in which I lived discovered and told her. "Ma'am, you are your son's problem." And it was true. All of his life, his mother had given him everything he ever wanted. Never once had he ever been opposed or his will crossed. Then, his boss told him to do something he didn't want to do and he could no longer function as a normal human being. She could not receive that counsel and so took him on from us unhelped.

The absence of opposition in this young man's life so twisted and distorted his person that he could no longer be human. He was nothing more than uncontrollable and senseless urges.

Around the same time, I visited my relatives in Michigan. I had an older cousin (she has since passed on) who was short, large, and of very simple mind. When we arrived at my uncle's home, she was the one who rushed out of the house, arms open wide and joy written across her face, to receive us. In the living room she sat next to my mother. Soon, this simple-minded woman in her fifties had her head on my mother's breast, weeping, "I miss my mommy." (Her own mother had just recently passed away.)

I have never seen such an outward display of the depths of HEART writ large.

The first was the absence of opposition and thus the absence of any revelation of God in man. The second was the presence of a vale of tears and the revelation of God Himself through the great heart of a very simple mind. It was the Lord Jesus Himself who put his head on my mother's breast and sought comfort from her.

And so from this understanding, there is one thing I have purposed to teach my children, and that is to impart, somehow, to them, the ability to hear and to receive the word, "No," and to receive it in peace and in acceptance. When I see that quality in them, I know I can give them all that I have. Amazingly, there is only one way by which they can gain this highest of all internal qualities, momentary pain enveloped within the certainty of the love of their dad for them.

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Romans 5:1-5

Here Paul lays it out so very clearly. Redemption is behind us.

Redemption is behind us.

But now that we stand in full confidence and joy in all the grace of God, we look forward to the glory of God - revealed in us. And here is how that happens - we glory in tribulations. Because, you see, the whole purpose of God is HEART. The love of God poured out in (and through) our hearts.

And always, always, always, we define that by fullness and never by in-part in any way or at any level.

The first feast, our first experience with God, is redemption. The second feast, our second experience with God, is an in-part immersion in the Holy Spirit. The third feast, our third experience with God in the life of the church, that great fulfillment upon which we have set our hope, is the Spirit without measure, it is the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, it is being filled with all the fullness of God without limit and without end, it is to know the Father.

It is the HEART of God revealed in all fullness to all creation through you and through me.

This birthing of God's heart inside of us is an experience so high, so holy, so above all angelic realms, so beyond anything experienced by any man recorded in the Bible, save Jesus.

Through great tenderness, through unfathomable tears, God Himself is ripping open the very core of His Being and Person, taking out His own HEART, and birthing that very Heart inside you and inside me.

Such a thing is beyond our comprehension, beyond our ability to grasp. Yet we are seized in the grip of His determination to fulfill in us this high and holy purpose that has guided all the works of His hands from the beginning.

The expectation of God, the expectation of His goodness, revealed to us and in us and through us. To see God in all things is to expect goodness, goodness, goodness with all expectation and confidence of joyous hope.

And so any teaching that does not point directly to this great purpose of God that I have laid out here from His word, any use of Scripture, any wisdom of life that goes in some other direction, that flops along the ground in some lesser purpose, can do only one thing to God's people. It can only sidetrack them into "truth" that is not truth. Experience that does not take them into the fulfillment of all that is God in them.

Everything God speaks from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 finds its purpose and fulfillment inside of this great determination of God, the revelation of His heart through man.

God cannot fulfill His purpose without man. Man can do nothing without God. The determination of God comes at all times and in all ways through a fused union of God and man, man working together with God and God working together with man in a oneness of Spirit, of Mind, and of Heart to fulfill God's purposes in creation and to cause all things to become holy and pure and good.

All that God does, He works through a Seed. First, He plants the Lord Jesus Christ into the earth. Then, through that single Seed cast into the ground, He brings forth a firstfruits, a remnant, a holy seed at the end of this age of human folly. But the purpose of God for that firstfruits company, that second witness of Christ, is to then show to all creation the goodness and love of God, and through them to bring, first, all who trusted in Christ into all the fullness of Christ, and then to bring all creation into subjection to Jesus, as God ordained from the beginning. That God might be all in all.

We would not know God except for Jesus. Creation will not know God except through us.

You see, it's all very simple, really. Profound and beyond our ability to comprehend, yes, but simple in its exposition.

And so, through a series of letters, I want to explore our union with Christ and with one another. I want to show, a little better if I can, the critical role that opposition serves in God obtaining His purpose, and I want to lead us to a clearer understanding from the Word, if I am able to do so, of that great and holy experience that is just ahead - the unveiling of Jesus Christ. That moment when the Father Himself fills His fully prepared temple with all of Himself and the glory of God flows forth upon this earth as the waters cover the sea through you and through me, the fully redeemed, fully prepared body of Almighty God.

Blessings in Christ, Daniel Yordy


Daniel's writings must be read.Daniel sees through the subject of this whole blog: the third level, to take the vision on towards the utter conclusion of God's revelation here on earth.
It is for this reason that "separation thinking" is a curse and an impediment to the whole church. Any reference to the end time prophetic, to eschatology, without referencing the whole arc of how Christ gets reproduced in us as us, is not just a little bit wrong, it completely skews the reason for Christ's death and resurrection. Death is swallowed up in victory. Which is the generation who will demonstrate it? Not just in outward signs, but in inward transformation? Not just an individual here or there.....but a whole generation flooding the earth with the Knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.

I could just as easily post any of these two series, and indeed I have posted a handful.
The Great Story of God Part 1 - 9

The Life of the Age To Come Part 1 - 9

Alan Hirsch (Kierkegaard) and Peter Stanley

14th July Facebook- saw two friends cover the subject of the Stages of Growth.
From the point of view of this blog,even if people are coming in at different angles, I think it is great that such an obvious subject which has been so chronically neglected in evangelicalism, at last be covered.

HOVERING OVER 70,000 FATHOMS: Kierkegaard's Stages and Discipleship

Today at 04:15
This was edited out of mine and Mike's upcoming book, tentatively called *The Faith of Leap: A Theology of Adventure and Risk and the Implications for Discipleship, Mission, Leadership, & the Church* So might as well put it here...

Soren Kierkegaard, the now famous philosopher and prophetic stirrer, was fighting against a similar domestication of the Christianity in his day. Throughout his life, he prophetically railed against the state-sponsored, priestly, religion that so stifled the spirit and sold its soul to the spirit of the age. Always wary of the power of ‘the crowd’ to enforce conformity, he called for the individual to the courageous adventure of the spirit. One of the ways he articulated how we move to true maturity is what is known as ‘the three stages’: the aesthetic, ethical, and the religious stage.

We suggest that in the three stages lies a framework for how individual disciples, as well as churches, can move from the despair of spiritual boredom to the adventure of faith that Kierkegaard describes as being suspended above 70,000 fathoms of water.
Firstly there is the Aesthetic Stage: Here the individual lives in what Kierkegaard calls ‘immediacy.’ “At this level one lives within almost entirely devoted to the pursuit of pleasure (what he calls ‘the prisoner of the happy moment’). Life here is profoundly unreflective and lived in conformity with the expectations of the ‘crowd.’ For the person in this stage, the highest goal is self-satisfaction, even at the cost of living an authentic, consistent life. But the end result is that people made in the image of God cannot endure such shallowness and it leads to despair. What Kierkegaard calls ‘the staling of existence.’ Most people never make it beyond this stage and live lives of quiet desperation. We are the most over-entertained, most affluent, most indulged generation of all time, and yet we have the highest depression and suicide statistics among the young. This indicates something significant. Boredom is the end result of living on the surface of life…of failing to go deeper.

The next and more existentially consistent level is called Ethical Stage: Here the individual begins to get some real direction in life, and becomes aware of and personally responsible for good and evil, and begins to form lasting commitment to oneself and others. The realization of enduring values – justice, freedom, peace, love, and respect for the moral law within, propel the ethical self forward into a life of responsibility, of caring beyond one’s own immediate interests. By breaking away from enslaving hedonism and conventionalism, life at this level develops a consistency and coherence that it lacked in the previous sphere of existence. Simply put, one discovers that “there’s something more to life than pleasure or being ridiculously good-looking. But there is a catch; there is more to life than ethics and moral duty, and to get stuck here means one risks becoming the judgemental moralist that we all despise. In other words, no one will want to go on vacation with you. In fact moralism is another form of despair…this is so because humans were made for something much more. We were made for life before God. This need for to find the real meaning behind all things drives the spiritual adventurer on to the next level.

The Religious Stage: At this stage, the individual realizes that the eternal, ultimate good is not a static system of ethical rules, but a real, living being. One discovers that “there’s someone more to life”. When an individual stands before God he no longer sees himself as self-sufficient. He recognizes his own inability to transform himself. The religious person strives to allow himself to be transformed by God. Thus one who lives in the religious stage lives in faith-upheld obedience to God. Since one’s commitment is to a living God, one must at times set aside social conventions (go against the flow), and even “suspend the ethical” for the sake of living in faith.

Interestingly, and as we have indicated above, Kierkegaard said the opposite of love is not hate, but fear. Fear is the negation of love. And fear keeps us from loving, growing, maturing, and adventuring into God’s big world. Thus, by risking the journey, by forgoing our penchant for personal safety and for conformity to the masses, we move from self-love, to love of others, to love of God. All human loves enfolded in, and undergirded by, the centering love of God. We learn to love self and others properly by loving God truly.
But to understand Kierkegaard correctly here, we must not perceive these stages as a simple linear progression. Rather, any move to a deeper stage merely incorporates and integrates the functions of the previous ones—the ‘religious’ person can appreciate pleasure and aesthetics, and incorporates ethics and morality into life. It simply is not the determining center of life. That belongs to God. Nor is progress through the stages automatic. In fact, the real challenge of evolving into true humanity lies in the fact that the person must deliberately and courageously choose to engage the risks of life, negotiate personal crisis, bravely confronting even despair when necessary, in order to move from one stage to another. Thus, it can be viewed as follows...
some comments.......
Mark Stibbe These correspond roughly to John Wesley's three categories and stages: THE NATURAL, THE LEGAL and the FILIAL (see my book, FROM ORPHANS TO HEIRS: CELEBRATING YOUR SPIRITUAL ADOPTION).
Yesterday at 08:48 · Chris Welch I've been wrestling with that one Mark....ever since reading Orphans...http://080808onnowto.blogspot.com/2008/09/collision-or-embrace-or-both-hadron.html. And now I'm convinced it is filial....but not quite the huggy stuff Fatherhood has been up until now in the last 15 years. I think the huggy stuff sets the foundation....then out of the trust ... See morethat has been developed you get the "lightning" spirit words that come from God that separate soul from spirit. Either through our own rough circumstances, through spouses, friends, and committed church around us. And I think this dovetails in more with the second seal message. I never wanted the 3rd level message either much...I was too busy browsing a bookstall in Darmstadt suiting my intellectual inquisitveness. But a nun grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and brought me where I should have been, with the other Youth Helpers listening to Mother Basilea Schlink. It hurt. It still hurts. But 40 years on I am writing the blog.....so something happened.
23 hours ago · James Petticrew Alan mark is right here I think I have said it before, I think your theology is edging towards a very Wesleyan expression. Of course Wesley was also faced by a similar scenario of a national church captured largely by Deism. This theological convergence shouldn't be surprising of course as an emphasis on mission, discipleship and Kingdom should lead to the same themes and thinking in any century.
22 hours ago · Chris Welch One fascinating line of study is the four stages (last three can be religious) which psychologists are taught.M Scott Peck refers to this in "Different Drum". Dave Tomlinson also refers to this in "Post Evangelical" but relating the steps to knowing Jesus. ie you almost have to lose Him again, before you get to walk consistently with the real One, ... See morewho defies all systems.A successful denomination handles these four stages of personal growth within its infrastucture. The fascinating thing is to observe that these systems don't quite correlate. What do I mean? Well the Catholics murdered Madame Guyon, then later decided to own her.So those of you who like systems, meditate for a while on how the real version of growth (Jesus and the disciples) fails to correlate in structured church. In those precise cracks in the system is the devil active. See http://080808onnowto.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-like-itbut-it-isnt-tree-of-good.html and also a post that poses the question...is a church containing all believing stages actually possible in practice. Remember, Jesus Himself had problems moving people from stage 2 to 3. Everyone quietly withdrew, scratching their heads"Phew, this is a hard saying" http://080808onnowto.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-do-we-grow-in-safe-church.html


Peter Stanley

Stages of Faith
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I am very conscious of the need to recognise that only some committed Christians are being called outside the walls of traditional Christianity at this time. The journey is often referred to as a time of detox or a wilderness experience. You will have seen in "What is 'Church'?" that I was really influenced by the work of Alan Jamieson who had himself been influenced by Fowler's "Stages of Faith". These notes were prepared some six years ago when my emphasis was still on head knowledge rather than heart awareness. It was a couple of years later that I was reading "Adventures in Christ" by Andre Rabe and came across the following:
"If I have to teach a person how to respond to such a revelation, that person obviously did not have a revelation of Christ. It is dead religious traditions that need to teach its followers how to respond. An introduction to the living person of Christ needs no artificial protocols".
This seems to suggest that heart awareness must come first - but is it perhaps true that God in his wisdom calls some initially through the head and others through the heart?

***

Many people have attempted to describe how faith changes, matures and develops through life – a journey through different rooms of a castle – a journey through many different types of terrain.
Fowler uses ‘Stages of Faith’ (that tends to suggest a logical hierarchical approach), others have referred to styles or zones of faith (less rigid and allowing for overlap).
For many people their experience of faith changes with adulthood – sometimes radically and unalterably transformed as they move into new ‘phases’ of faith.

The great majority who attend church regularly could probably be described as in a ‘conformist stage’ where they are acutely tuned to the expectations and judgments of significant others and where there is the security of being part of a like-minded community. I see this as a valid position for many church-going Christians that should not be disturbed.
Many are committed workers with strong loyalty to their church community, often with deep but unexamined convictions. They often focus on relationships with God and the important people in their lives – a strong sense of the church as an extended family – there to support each other.
Because of this, they tend to find conflict and controversy threatening to them.
They tend to see opposites such as good and bad; sacred and secular; Christian and non-Christian; saved and unsaved. They don’t have an independent perspective.

(This seems to be a reasonable starting point although it is certainly open to discussion - perhaps it is particularly true of some Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches).

Problems are thought to arise when some (possibly prompted by the Holy Spirit) become dissatisfied or disillusioned. Because of the 'walled in' secure feeling, it often takes a major upset for any transition beyond this stage to take place. Alan Jamieson identified four such groups of people (plus some who have transitioned to a different faith):

Displaced followers – those who are hurt or angry – they have what he calls a dependent faith based on external authority – they have an unexamined faith – a bold faith – often using scripture to justify their position.
Reflective exiles – who have feelings of unease and irrelevance – questioning deep rooted foundations. They are seen as counter dependent – engaged in a ‘deconstruction’ of their previous faith. There is an ongoing reflective process that involves re-evaluation of each component of their faith – they have a hesitant and tentative faith – which they may have ‘put down’ for a time
Transitional explorers – who have an emerging sense of ownership of faith – moving from deconstruction of the received faith to an appropriation of some elements that have been tested and found to be valid and worthy of being retained – plausible beyond reasonable doubt (but what is plausible varies considerably from one individual to another)
Integrated way finders – where the reconstruction work has basically been completed – but still open to refinement – a more rounded faith that seeks to integrate all aspects of life – aware of some of the deeper issues that lie within.
Jamieson has recently suggested that the crucial adult faith-shifts involve a move from conventional faith into a period of faith dislocation, exploration, self ownership and expression and on into a new embracing of faith and life as intimately entwined and inseparable, a desire for mystery, ritual and symbolism and a relishing of the paradoxical nature of truth (the move from pre-critical faith through a period of hyper-critical reflection to a post-critical faith).

The earlier boundaries become less fixed – a greater awareness of paradox and better able to accept it – allowing different perspectives to co-exist – more open to ambiguity, mystery, wonder, and apparent irrationalities. People at this stage become less dogmatic, more willing to listen and less inclined to label those who disagree with them.

The changes that are occurring in global culture encourage a shift from conventional to post-conventional faith – but there is also an opposite response into religious, political and ideological fundamentalism!

The following table seems to be a good summary of the differing perspectives:
(don't know how to copy tables into google-ACW)
Conventional faith expression
Transitioning
Post-conventional faith expression

Focus on a black and white, right and wrong faith
Focus on the greys of faith and life
Focus on all shades of faith and life

Dependence
Independence
Interdependence

Answers accepted
Searching and questioning, doubt and critique
Understanding and relishing of mystery, paradox and wonder

Primary sense of relationship with God is hierarchical e.g. God’s servant
Primary sense of relationship with God is relational e.g. God’s friend (John 15)
Primary sense of relationship with God is intimate e.g. God’s lover (Song of Songs)

Socially constructed identity and roles
Formation of self identity and roles
Giving of self for others

Want someone to lean on – e.g. a mentor or discipler
Want someone to encourage and legitimise their personal exploration – e.g. a facilitator or sponsor.
Want a co-discerner of God’s will and leading – e.g. a spiritual director

Focus on external authority of leaders, the Bible and my community of faith
Focus on internal authority of self-understanding, experience and self-truth.
Focus on an integration of internal and external authorities of faith

The Bible, faith community or leaders are the authors of my faith and life. A need to listen to the external voice(s)
I am the author of my faith and life. A need to listen to the internal voice(s)
The Spirit of God within me is the author of my faith and life. A need to integrate external and internal voices.

Status quo confirmed
Status quo challenged
Status quo integrated into larger canvas

What and how
Why
What is my contribution?

Specific personal examples
Hearing and telling our own stories
Working with metaphor, art and poetry


Post-church groups will be able to make connections with the emerging post-modern culture – will have learned from the journey of exile – open to people who think differently – with a broad approach to worship, prayer and bible reading!

The nature of pastoral care needs change over time – the need to understand the differing perspectives – we can all be vulnerable at times – the need for patience! There seems to be a need for Safe Havens - forums can be intimidating (especially for older people?). There seems to be a need for ministry at many levels – beware of the risk of concentrating only on those in the earlier stages.

***

For many people faith or belief is something you either have or you don’t have (faith and belief are often seen as synonymous). Others see faith as a dynamic, changing, evolving process which sometimes means changing or abandoning previously held beliefs and commitments – part of a less radical maturing process! Such people have:

The ability to hold together several unmistakable polar tensions
The ability to cherish paradox and apparent contradictions of perspectives on truth – living with ambiguity, mystery and wonder
A post critical receptivity and a readiness for participation in a reality brought to expression in symbol and myth
A genuine openness – knowing that a grasp on ultimate truth needs continual correction and challenge.
There is an alternative view of these stages here

Further discussion can be found in "Stages of Faith" here on "The Room of Grace"

Letter to ex-offenders....particularly those in Christian Ministry

I sent this to various folk personally, but if there are any others who have been in prison, and in particular, have come to know Christ...this is for you.

Letter to Ex Offenders
subtitled “Burglars night in”

Elaine Waterfield kindly put me in touch with you guys.
First Steve Cattell, then others of you have been on my heart.
It’s taken many weeks to even be able to express what has been bubbling
away. I hope I can do this.

This is what I feel God saying.
A lot of you are being used to share your stories effectively to touch
people and bring them to the Lord. People are able to identify with you.
This is great. Keep on.

Just be aware that there are dangers in continually repeating your story,
going over the same ground.

God says again this:
“When you came to me I wiped everything at the Cross.
You are completely new creations.
Your frame of reference begins here.”

In a minute I want to share about the Tree of Good. I’ve just done a blogpost on this
but I want you to know the post came out of my thoughts for you, not the other
way round. That’s why I’ve been so long puzzling how to even put this on paper for you…. how on earth to explain these funny feelings concerning you.

You know….and I know God is in everything…but it is completely
random that each of you ended up in the sort of circumstances where
it became extremely likely that you would become offenders. I’m not letting you
off the hook…but it is also true that 80% of ALL those in prisons did not have
fathers while they were growing up.(Today’s gov’t statistics).

In relaying your from prison to Jesus testimonies know that this was just
God’s means of getting your attention. He allowed you to go through
this guff, in order that the Kingdom could break in on you, and through
the shattering experiences you could begin to glimpse spiritual realities,
that if you had been more comfortable you would never have seen.
But that was just His means for you.

When you were born again you received a completely different
name.
A completely different reputation.
A completely fresh start.
A completely fresh identity – actually, if you can receive it , you
completely died with Christ at your spirit centre, and He then
raised you up sort of interleaved/interwoven/hidden in Christ
as he ascended, and in your spirit now you are seated in the heavenlies
with Christ at the righthand of God the Father.


So this leads on to another subject.
Do not be conformed to this world but
be transformed……
You all know this verse in Romans 12 but what I have
to say is quite different from what you are used to hearing.
you’re all expecting me to talk about sin, and be transformed
away from sin.

But this is what God has put on my heart for you if you can weigh it up.
The world in Romans 12 IS NOT JUST talking about the common
understanding of evil. The stuff you go to prison for.

Ever since Genesis 3:5 we have been swindled into thinking
we are gods in our own right, perfectly able to find our own
way discerning between Good and Evil.

Now you are saved….DO NOT BE DECEIVED….the world
wants to suck you into its “Tree of Good”. That in the same way
as it tried to mould Cliff Richard into its image of the Tree of Good,
and was ultimately disappointed…..realise they are doing the same with you.

The Tree of Good is NOT the Tree of Life.
I’ll say that again….backwards
The Tree of Life is not the Tree of Good.

You have an alien life inside of you…because you are born again.
The world’s way of coping with it, is to try to force you to fit
its Tree of Good mould.

You are not good!
You are 100% righteous. You are ambassadors of a totally
different realm. Many times the things you stand for are not
considered good. Because the Tree of Good changes with every
generation. The Tree of Life is eternal.

Jesus overturning the moneychangers would not be considered
good. But Jesus never sinned. So we know this was a righteous act.

Some of you are getting secretly bored with the Christian life.
BUT IT IS NOT CHRIST THAT IS BORING YOU. Subtly
the devil has been squeezing you into Tree of Good situations
and calling it Christ….with the sole purpose of discouraging you.
“Well if that’s Christ…..count me out.” I can hear all this in the
Spirit.

Some of you are in Tree of Good churches.
Or with Tree of Good people.
You need to get out and find yourself some Tree of Life churches
Tree of Life people…before you’re blown right out of the Kingdom.
Some of you have literally only months before this becomes a
possibility.

Don’t believe the devil’s “Tree of Good “Lies.
The real Jesus is passionately nuts about you and He wants you
to trust Him as never before. There are several conversions in our
conversion. We continually need to be born again again.
If you see what I mean.

Any of you remember the guy that Jesus healed of blindness
within the synagogue precincts? The first stage of his conversion
was the healing….but later after his parents didn’t back him up
out of fear of the Tree of Good merchants…the religious elders,
he then made a confession “I don’t know about Jesus…but one thing
I know I was born blind and now I see.” Later Jesus came across Him
and he was ready to identify himself totally, which got him chucked out
of the synagogue.

Some of you are getting bored because you think you are waiting for Jesus.
For some of you He is waiting for that next step from you. Because He
knows what it’s going to cost you….some of you will be disowned…

because you are nolonger playing the “ex-offender converted to Jesus role”.
You are now cut loose from your past as an identity….
so no more bowed head
so no more shuffling of your feet
so no more prison identity
You may be still telling your story, but in your heart
YOU KNOW YOU HAVE RELOCATED
and you definitely ARE NOT TREE of GOOD people
You are Tree of Life people.


Do you understand what I’m saying?
God pack you with His Word and faith
Love Chris Welch

New Privacy Settings

NEW PRIVACY SETTINGS- A.Christopher Welch - May2010
Written on the day Facebook were told to change their privacy apps. Shared with a handful of Facebook friends, published in a newsletter Sylvia Pearce puts out. Printed here on the day after Facebook's Privacy Settings again hit the news in July.
--------------------

I have changed my privacy settings
From sullen
And closed
And hidden in reference
To what I expect of you,
And indeed what I expect of me.....in terms of hidden agendas that I tell no one....

In truth my privacy settings
Were reset for me
2000 years ago.....
From black hole
Sucking all into the heart of me
Hidden, afraid, always hungry

Now reset on the Cross
That 2 way switch
That reprogrammed my minus
With the one Plus sign of eternity..

I nolonger care if you know my business,
My business is your business
And.....if your settings are reset
Yours can be mine...

There is now no competition because you cannot exclude me from the Universe
Even if you try you will fail...
As I could never exclude you

For my new privacy settings
Are inclusive.
They nolonger seek to shut out the purposed
the meant..
The destined.
For me
Or for you.

My new privacy settings are just
Not that private!
It is written of me in the Book
For all to see
"I come to do your will".

___________________________

I have little time for people who think they have THE HOTWIRE TO HEAVEN.
Why? Because such a hotwire is corporate. If your Christianity does not have me in it, and mine does not have you in.... something somewhere is not on the right foundation.

You are at the stage Sarai was at with Abraham, before she became Sarah which means Princess. Sarai, means contentious or bitter.

I particularly go bananas at womenfolk who are "Jesus and me, (a bit like) Jesus is my boyfriend and you cannot touch. " But this is equally so with 2ndlevel charismatic ministries....male ones.

The truth is honey.....the truth is sir.....I can touch. You see if it's the same Jesus....it has to work for both of us.....and it has to be building us together.

If a church is stifling huge parts of your personality....the true one....the Christ breathing through you one, what's up with the Church that won't receive you? Hmmmm....something wrong with the church's privacy settings.
THEY'VE NOT BEEN RESET

It's Like it....but it isn't.... : - the Tree of GOOD

Revelation 3:9 I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.
Genesis2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
Genesis3:5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Hebrews 4:12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.






Genesis4:3 Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." .......The FIRST MURDER......


Genesis 16 :1 and 2 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."

Galations 4:21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
24These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27For it is written:
"Be glad, O barren woman,
who bears no children;
break forth and cry aloud,
you who have no labor pains;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband."[b]

28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son."[c] 31Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.


The Bible is full of battles between the similar, the like, the almost the same.
Here is a power battle. Moses first demonstrating his calling with the People of God Exodus 4.....then with Pharoah and his magicians.Exodus 7ff.
Matthew 13 :24-30
The Parable of the wheat and the tares
24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'
28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "
The 1st Commandment Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Matthew 25 The Parable of the Ten Virgins
1"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'

7"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'

9" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'

10"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

11"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'

12"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'

13"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Psalms12:6 "The words of the LORD are pure words;
As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times."

God's filter system, His Word -Refining programme is happening every second of every minute of every hour of every day, of every year, of every century of every millenium.
He is choosing between....
between ....
between.....


The above passages can scare us to the core. They can terrify us. In fact, I guess all of us that have let these passages do their work on us, have been terrified into much frantic activity. Trying to pray more. Trying to get to more meetings. Trying to read the Bible more.

But the passages themselves contain their own secrets. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him".

Jesus brings forth His Life within you.

He sees our doings. Our attempts. He honours the heart that was behind them, but as when angels came to visit in the Old Testament, and people hurriedly prepared lavish offerings, they kind of accepted them, but did this by setting them on fire and in a moment all the lavish preparation has gone up in smoke.

The real work is His Life in you. Believing on this Life. Doing, the next step that He calls you to in the obedience of faith....but really just simply "believing on this life"....that it is enough to get us where we desire to be.

Really the whole answer lies in the Old Testament in Commandment No. 1
Because this inner passionate burning love for God has this understanding and Trust that

He is God
that He knows how to get us there
How to make us fit to relate with Him

In Deuteronomy the answers weren't all spelt out yet, Jesus the lamb had not come

but it didn't matter...because the LOVE knows God the Father has it all in hand....

that He isn't as the devil lied to us in Genesis 3:5...some ugly person leaving us bereft, so we have to "as orphan Gods" make it on our own, by having to choose our own way amidst incredible obstacles of deciding ourselves between the good and the bad.
Passionate burning love, coupled with the full intensity of our strength, linked to our souls, our mind,earnestly trying to seek out , unravel His ways.....
this kind of love .....which makes us God-hangers on

(any human would soon tire of this...it'd get too much...but God can handle it, He is such a Fire Love Being Himself...He's not English)

The love has driven us already

to take of our first fruits
to take the Fat PORTIONS

to already have done this and separated it out, long before Cain is even thinking about what on earth he can spare for his offering.

What I'm saying is love finds its own way. It's already bought the spare oil from the shop. It's not thinking "I want a better offering than you!"....it's thinking there's a wedding on, I have an invitation, the Master has not come yet, I've got a Pentecostal oil lamp....but the charismatic Oil show is running low....what shall I do? So long ahead of time, you've been down the shop....used the special unlimited cheques the Bridegroom left you when He gave you the lamp....and you've purchased yet more of this wonderful oil.

The Bridegroom comes.

The Spiritual Flash Photo is taken. A moment in time. You've been earnestly waiting this moment. Because Love does. The photo shows an outer reality based on the inward one....LOVE.
The foolish virgin can do nothing. It's too late. Her photo shows a lamp, yes, but the oil is kind of pretty low now....certainly not enough to go up the dark road to the wedding celebration.

Then there's Cain and Abel. Cain:A few measly pickings from a great harvest of corn, versus Abel: the very fat offerings

from the FIRST fruits lambs. (There's only one FIRST FRUIT - hence the name). Except Abel wasn't into the versus......it was Cain who thought the whole versus up.

Abel was just....well....simply driven by love.


This blog is about the levels of Christian maturity. If you haven't got the main point of the next section...you may have some left-brain theories about what Christ living as you may be.....but you haven't got the real thing if you don't get this: don't get hung up on the next few lines ...wait for Ephesians. Here we go:
The psalms of Ascents describing the stages going up the hill of the Lord
The 3 main Jewish feasts which are further subdivided

The East to West approach through the Tabernacle ending in the Holy of holies

The Vision of the River in Ezekiel, where the person enters deeper and deeper into a river

The Book of John which unlike the other " synoptic gospels" is written from a spiritual topographic viewpoint, beginning with being born again and going right through to Union.(Topography describes maps like the London Underground that are not exact in miles but the approximate shape and order of stations are accurate.)



The Book of Romans..................
All these are written from the point of view of the delusion of the "independent self" , or locked up leftbrain, devoid of God's life, making a trek inwards into God.


This'll BLOW YOUR MIND

Ephesians is actually more accurate....

From a spiritual point of view.
It works outwards!!

Imagine a human egg subdividing. Imagine a brain being formed in greater and greater complexity. Imagine a "grain as small as a mustard seed, yet that grows to be a massively large shrub". Imagine leaven or yeast , here,Kingdom leaven, multiplying itself exponentially and spreading through dough.

This is the power of Ephesians chapter 1 and 2.

This is true NOW of YOU. It was true the very first minute you were born again. And actually since the Cross 2000 years ago, it was also true.

Only one problem. The Tree of Good.

All of us operate from an inward programme, a mesh that runs all our surface thinking.This mesh is something like the mesh they use in skingrafting for new skin to adhere to. Or perhaps a mesh on which to grow plants from seed in a favorable environment. It is situated just below the bits of you that talk to me, but not as far down as your born again spirit.
Because of the way we are brought up, this "mesh" is a performance mesh, a Tree of Good mesh, onto which we attach all our understanding of how the world operates. I can tell you all about the Christian stages of maturity being based entirely on grace. I can tell you that from the moment you receive Christ's life in your spirit, Ephesians chapters 1 and 2 is true of you. But you will hear NONE of this. Because you can only hear through the filter of your "performance based" mesh/through the filter of your "Tree of Good" mesh. This bit of you understands everything in terms of steps up into the Presence of God, like A Levels, then a degree, then a Masters.But the Tabernacle of God HAS NO STEPS. They are forbidden by God. Human performance is not what "entry into God's Presence is about"

For more on this performance-based mesh read more on Frank Lake's Cycle of Grace illustration and Mark Stibbe's "Orphans and Heirs"

Ephesians, unlike any of my other descriptions of approaching God above,works from the point of view of Reality. Everyone , but everyone, locked into our left-brain "what we see hear touch taste smell" thinking has trouble with Ephesians. And for this reason, God has revealed these other descriptions or stages in entering into God. This is only for the sake of our understanding.It is almost like humoring a person, while the real stuff is going on behind the scenes.



Ephesians is what is really going on....it's just that none but our spirit would ever believe it.It's too fantastic. For this reason God has given us the gift of tongues, of speaking in the languages of men and angels. God by the release of the Holy Spirit , does a complete conscious mind bypass. When we speak in tongues we speak these sort of mysteries directly to God without our performance - based filter continually butting in. This was our spirit becomes strong, without our ever so clever but at the same time everso dumb filter system kicking in, and arguing all the time over what it thinks is possible. With God all things are possible. Period.



So what happens in practice is that a person gets born again and feels very close to God.That's because it is true. He/she is in fact close to God. He or she is awakened in their spirit to having been inserted INTO CHRIST right there at the throne on the Right Hand of God the Father. Through nothing they ever did. It was grace!


Another time we are conscious of this is after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. For some this may be at the same time or as in my case, later on.


Or we may experience the Throne Room reality in Key of David meetings or similar where you are.....



No the problem is then twofold. Our surface thinking mesh tells us that it's all complete rubbish.And our church environment....our pastor....our church friends....put a whole fresh mesh of performance-based Tree of Good onto us. Heirarchies. Pecking orders. "oh. it's not quite as simple as just relating to Jesus" stuff on us. Jesus PLUS **** = salvation.
Beware church friends! They may be just about OK in meetings, but if their performance-based mesh is not fully destroyed yet, they are dangerous. How dangerous? As fast as they are there to "encourage you as the Day draws near", they are in fact there to pull you ever so subtly to the Tree of Good and away from the actual Living Presence of Jesus, which in other posts I have described as church operating from the Melchizedek Order, described in Hebrews Chapter 7.


This subtle bewitching process is described in Galations and especiallyChapter 3:1.
Is it possible to run church from Ephesians realities? Humanly no. But this is what the Holy Spirit's current work is, to form and birth a completely different church, a third level church.

Do you see now why a thirdlevel church is possible? Unlike any other learning based human institution which is a gradual step by step process, Ephesians is declaring God's reality.
From the moment you receive God's heavenly life you are connected with the Throne of God.The Baptism in the Holy Spirit experience transfers this reality to a group of people when they gather in the Name of Jesus. The culture of heaven which is praise and worship. Which is faith and the ACTIVE expectation that God is present and wanting move today among His people TODAY...not the millenium.

People speak of Revival as creating an "Open heaven". Imagine an open tube between the surface of the Earth and heaven, or a ladder up into heaven as Jacob saw.

More than anything else...Revival may depend on the destruction of the "Tree of Good".
Living from the Knowledge of the Tree of Good and Evil is a Lie from the Pit of Hell. Everyone knows about the Tree of Evil bit...but churches are plagued with the Tree of Good.
The Tree of Good Is Not the Tree of Life
Jesus was baptised in the Holy Spirit and made Himself fully available to the Life of the Father.
He only did what He saw His Father doing. One part of invading Earth with the Kingdom involved addressing sicknesses and diseases....another and simultaneous part was
ADRESSING and BINDING the Tree of Good
Deliberately healing on the Sabbath.
Not "turning up on time" either for the Feast of the Booths or for Martha when Lazarus died.
Speaking to people no one should speak to - the Samaritan woman......etc etc....
Now, in the Church God has given the gift of Discernment and the ministry of prophet. In the last hundred years since these were widely reintroduced again, most have been listening to God within the confines of the "Tree of Evil"......by far the most dangerous and hidden realm is the "Tree of Good". It is like the Kingdom but has no part in it.It is like the passage concerning Abraham and Hagar his maid above. It is helping God along.
But it is not the Life of God.
This blog post is called "It's like it....but it isn't..."
the phrase "It isn't " is directly related God's Name The I Am.
The Tree of Good IS NOT. It is not the I am of God. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
The third level church moves in the Ephesians 1 revelation of being seated in the heavenly places with Christ,
of having our lives hidden with Christ
of moving here on Earth
Him as me.
The Tree of Good as the passages above show try to usurp the life of God. It is vicious like Cain against the very manifestation of the life of God, Abel, actually murdering him.....before murder had even been thought up!
I put on Facebook that it was the Tree of Good...the political wing and the religious wing, that conspired together to murder Jesus. By far the most insidious obstacle ....the Ancient Door...of Psalm 24 that needs opening in Peter Stott's messages Part's 1-4 of Open Wide Ye Gates
is blocked today
by the Tree of GoodEphesians 1 and 2 declare all the spirit realities of what is true about us when we meet Christ. The third level church begins here. I began in this reality, because it was preached in my Baptist church pulpit, and because brothers recommended Watchman Nee "Sit walk stand" and "the Normal Christian Life". On April 6th 1972 I was baptised in the Spirit among a whole group of teenagers in Great Kingshill, Bucks in an an upstairs house belonging to my friend's parents the Lucases. At first, nothing happened, while everyone around me spoke in tongues immediately.Being quite locked up in my left-brain, being raised with an extreme intellectual inquisitiveness,then and there I had to learn from the outset 2 key Kingdom principles.
The key of Faith. Having asked Jesus to fill me with His Holy Spirit, as it says in the Bible, faith believes it has received and begins thanking God that He has heard. As soon as I did that, I "felt" God filling me with His Spirit. Faith in His promises comes first. But manifestation is real, and is up to Him.
Moving beyond the Tree of Good. Secondly, God deliberately wanted to move me beyond the restrictive mesh filter of my mind, so on that day, at that minute He broke in in this way. In little old suburban Britain, not too many miles from London, in a quiet, perfectly reasonable little house surrounded by others in a close, God spoke to me, surrounded by my peers and said this. "Will you take a step of obedience?"
"I want you to yell Hallelujah at the top of your voice." That's not reasonable. That's not English. That's not the UK's Tree of Good. But I did. And this for me was my Toronto, 22 years early.
I was utterly utterly drunk in the Spirit. They had to help me downstairs. And on that basis I was able with others in the summer term to preach into the atheistic intellectual, but pretty drug fuelled atmosphere of Dr Challoners Grammar School Amersham.
(Our first headmaster had been unable to contend with the drug habits of the upper school and had had a complete breakdown). Later, our head boy , David Foster became a Christian, and an active Christian union formed.
Beware! Yesterday's Tree of Life becomes today's Tree of Good. We do not live from yesterday. We live , Christ as us, from His spontaneous life received when we were born again.
We then, as Basile Schlink taught, enter into a battle of faith, to see the very union that we have entered into at the level of spirit, grow and be born in the rest of us. This Kingdom that Jesus described as a mustard seed, as a leaven, this buying of fresh oil for the whole of us.
When we are born again, the throne experience is ours, but the rest of our lives are about the rest of us , our soul and bodies being regenerated by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. If the throne experience of Ephesians 1 and 2 is not real for you...make it so. This is your Holy Ghost birthright. How are you ever going to be a thirdleveller, if you don't get the third level seed in the first place? It's this throne seed that's going to permeate your whole existence until you too become mature, rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, passing the same tricks onto other hungry people. That is why Ephesians is written the other way round, with the rest following in its logical order: chapters 3,4,5 and 6.

The flaming sword that guards the entrance to the Tree of Life in Genesis 3, is not after your spirit. Your spirit is already hidden with Christ in God, if you are born again. No the flaming sword of the Hebrews 4 word of God is aiming for the rest of you.....to slice you away from that horrible Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil "performance based mesh" that has, at its root, the very arrogance and spirit of the devil himself. The lie of the independent self....which isn't independent at all...it is the devil's misuse of God's own life (Satan can create nothing remember) turned in on itself.....self for self. God's Life is self for others.
Some like Bonnie Morris, or Stephanie McEntire, describe the process as the whole of our being entering into the Love that entered already into our spirits when we were born again.The Tree of Good stultifies.
We see this in the area of creativity. Someone makes a great film from the passionnate originality of their soul. The sequel then follows to cash in on the brand name of the first. It is often cobbled together by committee, working from the Tree of Good. The Tree of Good takes the external recipe of the first, without its inner life. Like the Madame Tussauds images on this page, it has the likeness of the real characters.....
BUT the TREE of GOOD ........ IS NOT. It does not contain the Life of the I AM.

The Church that Christ built by Darin Hufford and letter to new leaders

We've got a slightly bizarre relationship with the Church here. God is definitely building something....but for the last 11 years we've not really known whether their patience will cease and we'll be out on our ear. (It's a bit like John Clarke's and Eldred Linden's relationship was with Emsworth)God has been in this though, because before the contingent arrived from Emsworth,myself included, God warned them of our arrival in a prophetic Word. Which kind of eased the way a bit.

Apart from men's weekends, I've not spent any time with Peter and Mariette Stott, and only an hour in 11 years with John and Wendy...I've been trying to dodge being drawn into furthering any 2ndlevel churchbuilding, while sneaking 3rdlevel stuff in through the cracks in the walls.

They've tried to draw me into music, because it seaped out that I play a few things. They've tried to get me to go to other countries with them. But the only thing that interests me is the outer reaches of key of David meetings. I just do not want to be seen ever again in any way supporting the "fake" superstructure of secondlevel churchbuilding...built on the lie of the independent self. If I had enough authority in the Spirit I would pull down all the works in Spain and rebuild 3rdlevel versions that are built on knowing Christ and Him only. No Genesis 3. Nothing!!!

For the last 3 years we've conducted a household policy like Darin's article below, which I read only this week. Here is a letter I wrote to the new leaders.






Hi Roderick and Angelina (names changed)

I wasn't there on Sunday but congrats on taking on more of a leadership role.

I thought I'd share some things that became clearer the other night while Christine and I were sharing with Nicholas and Pam. This concerns some light on light!
Dovetailed with this has been much more clarity on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil versus the Tree of Life. (see facebook)

But first, a ground rule or 2.
The prophetic in us looks at situations, not at face value, but at the direction arrows that these situations point to.
It gets preachers into a lot of trouble.
So in World War 2, preachers saw Hitler as 666, and preached him as such.
Hitler wasn't 666 as it turned out, and they got egg on their face. But in the Spirit they were 100% accurate. He was moved by the Antichrist spirit....and if we'd have allowed him to continue...who knows where he would have ended up.

I got into trouble with Jeannie (Martin and Jeannie) who had just become ill , because in the meeting I had prayed over her, but first said this, which surfaced from my insides..." Jeannie, we just praise God, because the WORST that can ever happen to you is that you die and live for ever and ever and ever and ever with Jesus."

What she heard however, was a curse, which she began praying against for months afterwards. At Roger's leaving do she began telling me off really strongly for cursing her. This, from that moment on, tied my hands with having anything further to do with her...for instead of seeing me praying at the Rowans, she would have seen a warlock cursing her.

What the Spirit was really doing however was addressing this deep rooted fear she had about dying. Who knows...if we could have just unseated that one, maybe we could have prayed better. Jesus had a similar spirit confrontation when He announced...Don't fear the one who has power over the body, fear Him who has the power over the second death.

So sometimes the Spirit comes out of us to knock something on the head. This was happening throughout the gospels through Jesus.

Why is this relevant? Well, do you remember how i shared with you how frustrating I find some of the meetings? And then I said that odd phrase...which you returned back at me.."I'll smash your face in brother".
Not very Christian is it?
But in the Spirit it means.....if there's a choice between Havant running a nicey nicey meeting....and proclaiming the Word of the Lord....

You know , I'll forgo the relationship.....and do the equivalent in the Spirit of smashing people's face in....in order to get the Word out...because the Word literally brings the atmosphere of heaven down. Now ofcourse, no one's face really gets smashed in...but it is the kind of Spirit violence that makes a choice according to the scriptures

Unless you hate your mother ,brother,sister.....then you can have no part of me. We have to allow all soul ties to shatter at the Cross in order that we are free to love Jesus....and here's the surprising bit.....in order that we are now free to love each other with renewed love. More about love in a bit.
30 years ago Jorge Pradas taught me that every meeting had a key or keys, that brought the Presence of God. As I was sharing with Nicholas and Pam this week I saw these weren't just keys.....they had the same role as in Genesis 1. They were the spoken Light that bound darkness, that annhilates it. The reason the Kingdom comes tangibly when we have found the keys to meetings is because we are literally BINDING a bit more darkness, and the kingdom comes in power. We are opening up a few Ancient Doors...to use Peter's picture....and the King of Glory comes in!!! It's not just any old meeting. It is the gathering of the saints to see a little bit of history accomplished. Exciting no?

Back to relationships etc....
I spent the best part of 10 years in Christian community. 6-7 years in round the clock 7 day a week , 2 meetings per day seeking God kind of fellowship. It was a forerunner to Key of David stuff but, 30 years ago. Heaven doesn't seemed to have changed too much though!!!!! It's still brilliant.

I was rather thinking that we were building relationships. I mean you could be forgiven for thinking if you spent this amount of hours with folk...that something was forming.

Then I was chucked out. And until Facebook, just about 100 percent never talked to me again. For 20 years.

Now Angelina's probably thinking...."Aha....that's why he's weird . He's been hurt badly and needs healing."

Maybe. But I think there's a better reason.

Jesus was 24hours a day, 7 days a week for 3 years with His disciples. How many were with Him at the Cross? Did the Father then pray for Jesus's hurts when He ascended into heaven? No....it says Jesus knew what was in them (the disciples). We as charismatics just wander around blissfully naive.

How many were there standing on the Day of Pentecost,braving every human authority, having been utterly utterly
broken by their previous inability. Yup. All 12. (well one was new).

John in his letter 1 John2:12ff speaks of 3 stages of maturity.

Acts 2 was when all 12 were ready. They were mature.

How's this affect things then? Well it means I wouldn't give a bunch of charismatics like Havant house room, save for sharing more about how we reach a trustier level of maturity. Until people really know that they know that they know they are in the third level.....I wouldn't trust them as far as turning on a lightbulb. They'll sell you down the river as fast as they can.

Until people are rooted and grounded in Christ, they are NOT rooted and grounded in Christ.. When they are, they'll tell you, in loud confession,Jericho style. Until then they are just like Israelites marching round and round the same mountain waiting to die in the wilderness.

Human love is meaningless, and when it's not convenient people will just......well.....hate you. You can say what you like about Havant....but they just are not all that different from Emsworth 30 years ago . I know you feel you are. But where is that confidence coming from....flesh.....or Christ Himself?
Christ's love really breaks out in a congregation full time....when people KNOW that they KNOW that they KNOW who they are. Until then....we're stuck with the "earnest" of our inheritance which is manifest in meetings....

but because saints don't know the third level tricks of living outside of meetings....it stops there...at the meeting house door.
_____________________________

Obviously, this assertion can be taken negatively...or people can

bolshily reply "I do know who I am. I have died with Christ.It

is now nolonger I who live but Christ who lives in me"....in which

case...I'll say...the provocation worked...we got a confession out of

you ....now the Holy Spirit will overshadow you and make it more

real. (Believe in your heart, confess with your mouth....and you will

get the salvation, the realisation.") If there's a quiet sullen response

I'll know my assertion rests.

__________________________



Christine and I made a decision after Table Talk.
We will only relate with people who want to relate with us. We'll let God bring people into our vicinity.

So far we have a handful of real friends, and we're watching God add. This will seem radical to a church based in its roots on Brethrenism, as was Emsworth.

Brethrenism is all about "the meeting" imperative which is placed above relationship.
Below this is another brother who has found the same.
Something profound went on in my insides in the last glory conference. Peter never meant Greg Haslam's visit to be a kick in the stomach. But ,to be precise his book cover on preaching, which featured my 70s pastor, had this effect.

What God was doing through it was showing me that as nice as Havant is....I should handle the church with a lot of wisdom, because my relationship, which I had taken to be deep, is really one degree only above meaningless, as characterised by this "international guest speaker's bookcover". I would love God to establish me here with Christine....but it has to be Him doing it.

I've "done" with 2ndlevel churches. They are dangerous places. Roll on the Book of Acts. Not the old Pentecostal Church model....but the real one in the Bible. http://080808onnowto.blogspot.com/2010/04/actual-acts-2-without-pentecostal-specs.html

Chris

The Church That Christ Built

Darin Hufford

I am coming to the conclusion that the Church that Christ is building is something quite different than what we have been taught.
I can recall studying the "5 fold ministry" while in Bible college. At the time we were taught that
those five ingredients are what make up the Church. Where Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers are functioning together; there is Church.

Rather than understand that particular verse to mean that these things will exist in the Body of Christ worldwide, we have foolishly interpreted it to mean they must exist "underneath one roof". I've even seen Churches advertise that they have the "5 fold ministry" in an effort to draw a larger congregation. There are articles and books written on whether or not these five things are working in today's Churches. When we build a new Church great time and attention is put into making sure that all the necessary ingredients are present when the doors open. The theory is that if we have an Apostle, a Prophet, an Evangelist, a Pastor and a teacher all within our congregation, we will have everything we need to "do Church". It's very much like opening your own McDonalds or Jack in the Box. Once everyone is in place, it's time for business. You need an owner, a manager, an assistant manager, a fleet of workers and you're good to go.

About two years ago I started taking a close look at my life and the lives of people around me.
Everyone I know has their own personal circle of friends they hang out with. It may consist of family members, people from work, school, internet or their neighborhood. Every person I know has their "Inner Circle". It usually consists of between 5 to 10 people. They have other friends as well, but those people wouldn't be considered "Inner Circle" friends.

To be an "Inner Circle" friend, there just has to be something that causes a mutual connection
between the two of you. There is no recipe for it, and one can never predict when it's going to
happen. You can't force it, plan it, cultivate it or even command it to take place; it literally blooms totally on its own. I have found that only certain people can "jell" together on a level of deepness that is not necessarily shared with others. It's almost as though they were made specifically with the other person in mind. In a realm only known to God Himself, these people fit together like pieces of a puzzle. In fact, I believe that they were brought together by the Holy Spirit. Only He sees the inner structure of each individual soul and then finds another soul to connect snug and tight. It's unexplainable and cannot be manufactured or re-created by human hands in a million years.

I have an "Inner Circle" of about 10 people. These are folks that I'm super close with. Our connection didn't happen in an effort to fulfill some Christian obligation to meet together and perform relationship once a week. We all connect because we fit. We knew it the moment we first met. I have many other friends that I absolutely adore and love spending time with. I'd even die for them. They mean the world to me; however they are not in my "Inner Circle."

My four year old daughter brought out a "Hello Kitty" 100 piece jigsaw puzzle the other day and

asked me to help her put it together. The box said that it was for ages 6 and up so I knew it wasn't going to come together without my help. As we were laying out the pieces and turning them all picture side up, my daughter started screaming with excitement. She had found two pieces that fit perfectly. The problem was that though they fit, they didn't go. The picture didn't come together. As I took a closer look at all the puzzle pieces I was surprised to find that many of them were the exact same shape. This is confusing for a four year old girl. All she is thinking about is getting the pieces to fit. She is too young to understand that there is a bigger picture being formed when all the pieces are in their proper place.

When mankind sets out to "build a Church" we are very much like my 4 year old daughter. We think that "fitting pieces together" is what it's all about. It's ironic that man would even set out to build Church when Christ Himself said "I will build my Church". Only He has the blueprints and the final picture. The most we can do to build a Church is snap two pieces together that fit, but have nothing to do with each other when it come to the big picture. That is exactly what I see happening in the Institutional churches across America. They try and try with all their might to dictate and orchestrate relationship on their terms, and they do it all in the Name of Jesus. It's no wonder the Body of Christ today resembles a Mr. Potato Head that was put together by a deaf, dumb, and blind 4 year old.
There's an arm sticking out of the eye socket, the lips are where the ears go and the eyes are on top
of the head. It's a mess.

If a "men's accountability group" is meeting every Tuesday night at 7:00, YOU NEED TO BE
THERE!!!!!! We are told that every man needs to come and connect with all the other men because they need that accountability. The problem is that the pieces don't go together just because they say so. A room full of men does not equal pieces that fit. Even if they are all Christian men who know the Lord well! You can manipulate and obligate these men to "go together" all you want, but it won't work. We have been taught if we are Christians, we should all fit together with that "Inner Circle" type of intimacy. WRONG!!! Jerry and Todd may both love the Lord and be brothers in His Name, but
neither of them were made to be put together. YES they are a part of the same picture, but they

were never intended to connect with an "Inner Circle" connection.

The sad thing is that Jerry is told over and over by his group leader or his Pastor that he needs to connect with Todd out of Christian love. So Jerry tries with all his heart to make that connection. He secretly beats himself up and feels condemned because it's just not happening. He starts to feel rebellious, and eventually wonders if he has the Love of God in him at all. Each week he reluctantly shows up to the men's meeting and makes small talk while glancing at his watch and wishing he was somewhere else. All the while, his leader keeps complaining to the group because he doesn't see the men connecting and talking as deeply as he thinks they should. (This is the story of almost every men's meeting in America) Perhaps the most disturbing thing I've seen in institutional settings is when people do find authentic connection with certain individuals in their Church and it is excused and labeled as a "click." People are made to feel like they are doing something wrong when these real connections happen and many times the leadership does whatever they can to dissolve any "Christian clicks" that have formed in their congregation. How sad.

I honestly think we try to "build the Church" because when push comes to shove; we really don't believe there is a Jesus Christ at all. We can't see Him with our eyes and we can't hear Him with our


ears, so it makes it pretty difficult to just sit back and let Him build the Church. We jump in and do it

because we don't believe in Him. Think about it. I am also convinced that this is why we start

"Discipleship Groups" in our Churches. We honestly don't believe there is a Jesus. We feel that it's

our job to disciple young Christians instead of just turning them over to Christ. I thought He wanted us to make "Disciples of Christ"? Why then are we intent on making people our disciples? Where in the Bible does it say that WE are supposed to disciple people? We do this because we don't believe there IS a Jesus.

If I disciple Jim and Jim disciples Tony and Tony disciples Greg and Greg disciples Brian; who disciples

me? Who disciples the guy who disciples me?? Eventually won't it lead to Christ? Can't we just go

directly to Him or do we really need another mediator? (More on this subject at another time)

So where is the Church that Christ is building???

It's your "Inner Circle" of friends. He is the one who brought you together. Not only do you "fit" with these people but you "go together" with them. You fit together in the big picture!!! Your close friends ARE the Church that Christ built. If you look within your "Inner Circle" you will find diverse personalities. One has the personality of an Apostle, one is a Prophet, one is an Evangelist, one is a Pastor and one is a Teacher. Everyone I know has the 5 fold ministry built into their "Inner Circle" of friends!

We spend hours trying to pour our hearts into fitting pieces together that have nothing to do with the original blueprints. We focus our time and attention on building the synthetic church while we neglect the actual Church that He as already built into our lives. I hear people say to me that they need to "go to Church" because they need to find Christian people to connect with.

My advice to them is that they spend their time deepening the connections they already have in their life. I believe that everything we need exists within our "Inner Circle" of friends. All we need to do is press in even deeper to those people that God has built into our lives. Those are the relationships that came from Heaven. Those are the relationships we need to spend our time and focus on. Those relationships ARE the Church that Christ built!
----------------------------------
Christine's comment about Darin's post is valid. It's not either /or. Circle of friends/local church.
My comment would be however, Darin's post clearly addresses what was occurring in the original discipleship group...namely Jesus and the 12. It was organic church. And this foundation BECAME what we now know as the church. How the disciples originally felt about each other would be a good question in heaven , as Jesus gradually by the Spirit fingered each. The "flow was happening around Jesus, how long a "flow" developed between them as individuals we are not told.
Confusion
Remember, the dichotomy between circle of friends/present day church exists because of the confusion caused by our churches....not Darin's article.
Our present day churches - even good 2ndlevel ones - do not have Christ as their foundation, though some get pretty close.
Thirdlevel churches have the distinctive of understanding the Genesis 3 problem of the independent self and are run* by people who know within them "they have died with Christ and now live by the faith of the Son of God." Run * is a Key of David word, meaning not the current form of run _ which means "lead","make things happen", "pull strings", but instead it means "give the rhema current Word" and leave the meeting to fly. To find the Spirit key or keys, which opens some more "Ancient Doors" and the King Himself comes in...and He doesn't need "running" thank you very much.