Receiving!!!

As I talked about becoming a Sower, the Lord has led me to an important that God provides seed to the Sower. Seed, which is revealed from Him comes in the most unique ways. In my rawness of realizing my total need for the Lord and beginning to accept living as a broken vessel I glimpse the beauty of receiving. True strength comes in weakness boldly revealed to a loving God who embraces us and strengthens us. But because we have been surrounded by rejection (a culture of rejection) our hearts often close up to being vulnerable, raw, and in deep need. It is this deep need that reveals our true beauty, to vessels to contain the living God. I am going to meet with our pastor to talk about how to prepare the congregation to receive the ministry of the Spirit from the prayer teams but also from one another. In the midst of this I am painfully aware of my own need for love, acceptance, and belonging. Here is one who was raised in rejection teaching about receiving. God you do have a sense of humor. I believe according to Ephesians 3:14-21 there is a dimension of the love of Christ that we will not see manifest unless it is together with all the saints. This is why we go to church meetings looking for the allusive "community" (a place to be real), often we are disappointed to find that the meeting is more about someone's agenda than about a group of people looking to encounter the Living God. I am convinced that true "community" does exist and that it happens by the moving and leading of the Spirit and a group of people who are available to receive. Everything that Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden was by receiving, until the fig leaves nothing had been made by human hands. God freely gave to His beloved children whatever they had need for and even recognized Adam's imcompleteness without Eve. Adam received the animals and named them, he received the air he breathed, the plants and animals for food, and finally in the crowning of Creation he received Eve. Adam did not receive Eve conditionally for a trial but proclaimed her as "bone of my bone". After the Fall and eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we seem to judge people and things by their ability to meet our needs. The eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil began rejection, whereby we reject certain people or things. If you go into any gathering of human beings you will quickly find out the rules and guidelines for acceptance into their group. Since we have such a need to belong we will conform ourselves to this image, only to find out the allusive sense of belonging and acceptance goes with our new image. Deep down we long to be received in our raw, vulnerable, and broken vessels. So the pathway to our heart (our will) closes up at times and then gets to open some in "safe" places. I dream of a place like Paul prays for in Ephesians 3:14-21 where we can be continually open to the love of Christ together with all the saints. This is the true definition of family. No program or human effort can create such "community" only the move of God Himself through the Holy Spirit. I am beginning to see that receiving and thus genuine giving are an important aspect to the Kingdom of God. This is why the Kingdom when it comes to finances is giving and receiving versus the world system which is buying and selling. In our Western culture too many of our interactions with other human beings (created in the image of God) are based on buying and selling. Jesus told the disciples that "...freely you have received, now freely give..." (Matthew 10:8). I am learning how to receive, so that out of that will come freely giving. Will you join me on learning how to receive?

In His Grace,
Bret

Becoming a Sower!!

Christmas time is always busy like so many of you. I have been out of pocket but am back to share my thoughts, life, and Him. As I have gone through challenging times around support raising (full-time support), the Lord has been doing a transforming work in my life. I have realized through the Holy Spirit that I have still seen life as a consumer (when it comes to money), looking to have my needs met rather than being a sower. We are trained in our buying and selling culture that we are to consume things to meet our needs. I believe Jesus lived in the reality of the Kingdom which was giving and receiving. Jesus was truly a sower (of the Word, of love, of healing, of money, and of God-life). In 2 Corinthians 9:6-12 we are shown that sowing sparingly leaves us reaping sparingly. Why do we sow sparingly? I believe so many of us as believers have a poverty mind-set rather than a Kingdom mindset of being rich. I am not talking primarily about money but rich in the riches of Christ. Most of us as believers have been deceived by the Enemy to not lay hold of the riches that we have already been given "in Christ". In Ephesians 1 Paul boldly says we have "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm..." Either God is lying (spoken through Paul) or we are totally ignorant of what we have. The other option is we believe that if we pray right, do the right things, talk to the right people, etc.. then we will receive. Paul states this in the past tense, you my friend are extremely rich and you didn't know it. Religion always has something for us to do to receive from God but grace shows that God has poured out on us. Faith is believing what God says regardless of how we feel, what others say, what religion says, or what we see in front of us. As God took the yoke of slavery off of me, which was "it is all up to me to raise support" I began to get a revelation of being a sower. Since Jesus was the most prolific sower in history and He is in me then I am a sower. The good news is that God also provides seed, what is seed? In Corinthians 9 there is differentiated bread for food and seed to the sower. The Word also says that "And God is able to make all grace abound to you..." What stops God from make all grace abound to you, mainly our lie-based beliefs that direct us back to earning from God rather than receiving His gift by faith. When we give seed there is a supernatural release because according to Genesis 22:18, God will greatly multiply your seed and through the seed is the blessing. This is the promise to Abraham by covenant and this is our promise because the Seed is Jesus and He is in us. It is mind blowing that God's promise according to Genesis 12 is for us to be a blessing to all nations, make your name great (put your name in their____), and that in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. That is a big vision and one that is impossible to accomplish without the supernatural release of God's power. This power is released as we are willing as John 12:24 says to let the seed fall into the ground and die. In other words when we give the seed that God provides to us, we are losing all the potential it could do for us but at the same time God is giving birth to something big. This is New Covenant sowing, whether it be your time, your giftings, your prayers, the Word of God, money, etc... God owns it all and when we live from that perspective, holding everything with an open hand it multiplies and we prosper. Prospering is not about wealth but about having everything we need to do all God has called us to. Many believers have felt manipulated by the "name it and claim it" and the "health and wealth gospel". These are unfortunate misrespresentations of Biblical truth, God's purpose in prospering us is for Christ in us to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. It is the Enemy that has come to steel, kill, and destroy (according to John 10:10), in other words he doesn't want us to prosper. May God bring a transformation in your heart for you to be a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).

In His Grace,
Bret