A Picture of This New Found Freedom in God

Note: Please read my previous post “Born Again Again” to get the background for this post. Love ya’.

...So, because I was starting to get it, starting to understand this new found freedom that was available all along; I asked God for a picture so I could share this with others. I wanted to know how to explain this to other followers of Christ who may be struggling with the same garbage that had kept me bound up for 27-1/2 years after surrendering to Jesus. I especially wanted to help set Christian men free from shame. I have received a lot of help in this area from my church and the messages of Paul Manwaring about son-ship and Graham Cooke about identity and living our true nature.

I asked: How do I describe that Jesus loves us? How do I portray the freedom from guilt, sin, shame and doubt that comes through dying to self, keeping the old nature in the grave and letting the Holy Spirit make the new man free so he can pursue the fruit of the Spirit and grow in righteousness? Romans 5-8, 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5 describe the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and the new life in Christ available to followers of Jesus who have surrendered to Him. If we have died with Christ which is portrayed in our baptism and been raised to new life in Him through His resurrection, then what does that yield in a practical way for us?

Tuesday, January 21^st through Thursday, January 23^rd, God worked out a picture in my head and began to speak to me in ways I never heard or knew of before. I was finally able to begin discerning God’s voice because I no longer listened to the guilt, shame, condemnation, sarcasm or negative self-talk that bounced around in my head. I also chose not to sling this dung at others. To hear God I had to separate out the lies and accusations of the enemy that bounced around my skull. The enemy won’t say anything kind to you or about others so squelch his fiery darts. I also had to remove my own thoughts so I wasn’t making up the things I thought God might say. Because God is love, He is always doing and speaking good, is perfect, gentle, edifying, encouraging, truthful, rest-inducing, peaceful and relentlessly kind. Graham Cooke has some great stuff about recognizing God’s voice. Listen for God’s heart, character and the keys of the gospel. This will help us discern what God is saying. Even if God rebukes us, it will make us feel good about how He sees us and what He is doing in us. He is always positive about us and is making us into the glorious sons and daughters that He designed and destined.

So what picture did I get?

Picture a man who is weighted down with the tremendous burden of his own sin, shame, guilt and self-condemnation. Shoulders slumped. Head down. Moping. Discouraged. Despairing. His attitude is like a combination of Piglet and Eeyore. Tiny Piglet is always fearful and timid worrying about everything. He is cowardly and yet has a big heart at the same time. The sky is falling. Everything terrible that could happen, soon will. “Eeyore is hardly ever happy and when he is, he's still sardonic and a bit cynical. Ironically, he seems to enjoy being gloomy to some extent, but nevertheless, he seems genuinely appreciative of the efforts of his friends to cheer him up.” [http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Eeyore] Eeyore is extremely pessimistic and depressed and yet loyal at the same time. This typical Christian man has many good qualities which are often smashed by the weight of the negatives.

This beaten down man is walking through a barren grey wasteland. No life. Only some dead shrubs are visible on the hard ground where many rocks and boulders are scattered. Above the man are dark grey storm clouds covering the entire sky. They seem far away and very high. Everything is grey to dark grey to black. Once in a while a small flash of lightning appears high in the sky. These cause the man to flinch and cower as he thinks these are a sign of his impending doom when God’s wrath is poured out upon this broken, wounded, weary and guilt-ridden Christian man. This is the man’s inner world of his own mind. This is how he perceives his relationship with God.

But the truth becomes clear when we pan out and away from the man. His perception is completely wrong. If we imagine a large landscape oriented painting, this scene described above takes up less than 20% of the canvas. It is a semi-circle at the bottom, a little off-center to the right. Now that we are zoomed out enough to see the whole picture things become clear. The clouds are not miles above his head as he perceives them. They are right over his head within easy reach when he stands upright. He is in a small bubble. It’s like the daughter, Violet, in “The Incredibles,” where she can make a force field just larger than she is tall and it is impenetrable from the outside. The force field he has made is to protect him from his enemy: God.

The entire scene above the bubble is filled with bright, brilliant glorious light. Everything is lit up by God (Revelation 21:22-26). There are brightly colored jewels and gems reflecting the glory of God filling up the entire rest of the canvas. The radiance is amazing. The light and reflections are so bright that it is difficult to make out the shape of the jewels and gems. These represent the blessings and gifts that God has for the man. God is ready and willing to grace him with these gifts; if only, the man would let Him.

God, ever the gentleman, does not rudely break through the cloud, the force field or the despair. But He does tap on the bubble which lets a little bit of light shine through the clouds. This is what the man mistakenly thinks is the wrath of judgment fire preparing to be unleashed from heaven. But God is willing and ready to pour love and goodness all over the man to change his barren world. All the man has to do to receive these blessings is reach his arm up to open the cloud a bit and let the light shine through his force field of his own cloud of despair so the blessings can enter his sad world and bring transformation.

God is ready and willing to pour out showers of glorious blessings of spiritual life on all His children. Grace is ready to be given once we are ready to receive. God is waiting for us to pursue holiness, righteousness and the fruit of the Spirit so He can make it happen. We need to seek Him and let Him in. God is not judging us. The hammer of the Mosaic law is gone. He is gracing us with Himself by the presence of the Holy Spirit. He is bringing us into a relationship full or grace and truth. His mercy and loving kindness are new every morning. He patiently waits to replace all the garbage of pain and sin with Himself: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Allow Him to bless you. Allow Him to make you righteous and holy. Allow Him to replace the ashes with His beauty. Everything from God is good because He is good. He is the definition of good.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

"You cannot find security in what God is doing. He calls you into the outrageous, the impossible. There is only security in Who God is." Graham Cooke. "God is good. He is good. He is good. He is good."

I tell God, “Wow, God! That is such a cool picture. That will help many people understand how bound up they are in lies and how You want them set free. So many need Your forgiveness and freedom. What a great illustration. Thanks.”

God responds, “Yes it is.” Then a moment later, “Now I want to talk to you, Scott.”…

Born Again; Again?

What if my entire Christian life up to now has been done wrong?

That is what happened for me. I had remained bound to my old life, never letting it die on the cross with Jesus. This was my fault; not Jesus’ and not the Holy Spirit’s. Even though I had obtained a seminary degree in 1995 and been a follower of Christ since 1985, I did not understand Romans 6-7 and dying to self. I have always struggled with anger, lust, alcohol…, etc. I was just a mess of a Christian. Sometimes I wondered if I really was a Christian. Had I given my life to Christ? Had I repented? If I had, why was I still doing or struggling with all the stuff I hated? There was so much shame and guilt that I was nearly useless to the Kingdom. The negative accuser voice in my head blocked me from freedom, relief and holiness. I believed the lie that I was the problem. I felt frustrated and hopeless for change or progress. My understanding of God, grace, forgiveness and redemption were shallow and flawed. But, boy did I know about sin, wrath, judgment and condemnation! I knew how broken I was. The trap was inescapable.

Then things started to change as we were getting new teachings at Outlook Christian Church. We began studying the Revival Cultures of Heaven in mid-September 2013. Slowly I began to understand with new eyes the story of the prodigal son or as Paul Manwaring calls it, the story of the extravagant love of the Father. His messages are available online and are fantastic. My hope started to grow. I started to believe that joy really was attainable. I was actually, finally starting to trust God now that I knew He IS good and that He loves me and wants me to become His true son. I had been stuck in problem situations with areas of my life portraying both the younger and the older son from the Luke 15 parable.

Then around January 7^th as we were preparing for the next teaching on the Culture of Heaven, I discovered Graham Cooke and started listening to his messages. I devoured several a day. My faith was being rocked, shattered and re-formed. [Reformation pun intended.] I was starting to understand who Jesus died for, what my proper response was and how God now sees me. This right thinking was beginning to set me free from the garbage of the first paragraph above.

This is the message that changed my life: “Graham Cooke ~ 02 'Living Our True Nature' (08/2013).” You can find it on Youtube. This is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkROc-ceLOQ

Please listen to a few of Graham’s messages. Start with the one above, then go find “01 Understanding Our Spiritual Identity.” If anything written above resonates with your life, this is a great place to start. It’s time for believers to be set free. We need to live in the new life not focusing on fixing the flesh. We need to pursue righteousness as the new man, the new person who is set free from sin, death and wrath. Because we are free from the old nature since Jesus killed it at the cross, it is time to live in joy, grace and freedom of the new spiritually re-born nature that is our true identity as followers of Christ.

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOMMMMMM!!!

…much more to follow…