Sunday, October 24, 2010

Freedom in Love - Slaves of Love

To freedom Christ has liberated us. It is the freedom to follow the flow of love which originates in God’s heart. Jesus said from the outset: “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” He was not coerced or manipulated or pushed to sacrifice Himself for the sake of mankind. Love compelled Him, and love makes it a delight to follow the laws of God. Love rises up within as a joyful and pulling desire and it is a delight to follow its drifts.


Love is a law in itself. It is not constrained by human edifices, whether it is manmade traditions, structures or how we perceive church should be. The flow of love will even decide how we spend our money, or to who or which organizations we donate them. Whenever it is a joy to give we know it is love that is moving us to bless someone or something with our means.


It is love that compels us to do the things we do. We are slaves of its desires which well up in us. We are not slaves in that old sense of the word. The level we now operate from is light years apart from when we were slaves of the old master whose lies and tricks and manipulations made us do the things we did not want to do, or the things that never brought us any gratification. When the joy of love moves us we maneuver in quite a different realm.


The old master used outer realities to coerce us or lure us to do his will – the lusts of the eyes. That was before we received our new heart where God’s law dwells. Now we are moved by the inner realities of the Spirit, and when we know that we have gotten a new heart we trust those joyful inclinations that now govern our lives.


God said: “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours.” A desire wells up and we follow its delightful promptings. Wherever it leads us is the place which the sole of our foot treads. Since we are driven by the power of love we are not stopped by setbacks or obstacles. Love compels us to never give up; it spurs us on until the reward is ours.


When we were kids we had the time of our lives in the kindergarten. Now, however, those childish games hold no appeal to us. We by and by enroll to higher education and are fascinated and intrigued by what our inner teacher teaches us, and we are attracted to those who have joined the same course as us. Love matures us, it brings us to the outermost expanses of the kingdom and it has given us back our true humanity.


Love has its own agenda. It defies man’s expectations and it blows wherever it wants. At one point we are engrossed in one particular thing. At the next spell something else consumes us. To the world we might be perceived as unpredictable, or even as wine drinkers and gluttons. Love, abundance of life and freedom are inseparable. They dance hand in hand in an eternal display of joy. We cannot help ourselves: we are captivated and enchanted by the rhythm.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

We Give What We Have

Peter said to the crippled man at the temple gate: What I have I give to you. It is the same Peter who denied Christ at three occasions not very long before, who then obviously hadn’t any inner resources to draw from. Now he stands in front of the crippled man with boldness and confidence uttering words that would have been unheard of before the cross. Peter’s transformation is stunning.


What was it Peter gave to the crippled man? To put it bluntly: Peter gave the man God. The Old Testament temple is a type or shadow telling of the human temples to come - temples not made from stone. When Salomon consecrated the temple God took possession of it and swallowed it up in Himself. Every nook and cranny was filled up with His presence. In like manner our human temples are consecrated by Jesus. We irrevocably are filled up with God whether we know it or not.


From Pentecost onwards this has become a common experience for mankind. Everywhere people are accepting Christ and are filled up with God, in fact to the degree that is runs over. Peter in this sense is in no way unique. Wherever we go we give what we have, that is, God. We make deposits of Him everywhere, and whenever we make a deposit someone is affected. Our deposits are like those ointment cloths Peter left behind and which brought healing to many.


Sometimes we witness God in action through us, and crippled are empowered to walk in broad daylight. At other times there are no explicit proofs of the effect of our deposits. What perhaps most of us struggle with is this feeling that God hasn’t taken possession of us and that we thus have nothing to offer. But, we are faith people and our inner witness, the Spirit, corroborates with our faith so that our boldness and confidence is always on the increase.


Peter gave what he had by faith and so do we. We assume by faith that wherever we are we deposit God spontaneously because He has swallowed us up. When or how what He has disseminated through us will blossom isn’t our business. All we do is trusting that we manifest Him wherever we go and leave the rest to Him. What we have is the infinite God who has created the heavens and the earth, and through the union with Him that is what we give, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Monday, October 18, 2010

And There Was Evening And There Was Morning

And the word went forth like this: And there was evening, and there was morning. God doesn’t work during the darkness of the night. He is the Father of lights and His works are undertaken in light. You cannot find this light outside yourself. Outside you is the impenetrable darkness of reason and appearances. The darkness will not provide you with the answers you seek. Nothing is created in the darkness. The light and the wonders of your existence dwell in the center of your being. From here His light permeates your entire being and you walk in the light as He is light. There in the center everything He has freely given you is waiting for the appointed time to be unfolded in light. Each manifestation of Him a natural consequence of what took place the day before. The six days are for Him to do His work. You are created for the Sabbath where you rest from your works in Christ. The light is holy and righteous. Thus you are holy and righteous since the light now originates in and emanates from you. It is not your works that define your status. You are indentified by which Spirit who is in you. If you are in Christ then the Spirit of light, God’s Spirit, the Spirit of truth has transformed you into light and truth. As light and truth you have emerged as a true son and you trust and assert your I. Without your I you are merely an indistinct shadow in the void. Your I is what gives you form and your distinct expression as light.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

In the Cool of the Day

God walked among Eve and Adam in the midst of the garden in the cool of the day. His presence wasn’t unassuming, but it wasn’t threatening or obtrusive in any way. It was more like a pleasant breeze that cools you down after a warm and strenuous day. Eve and Adam didn’t know what shame was, so despite their nakedness they were attracted to this amiable and loving presence with whom they could share they hearts.


The Fall changed everything. It wasn’t God that changed. It was man. Man’s nakedness suddenly became a distress and an annoyance in his own eyes. He was so bothered by the fact that he hadn’t anything to offer God that that crippling sensation of shame completely prostrated him. Even worse, he felt so devastatingly unclean compared to the radiant holiness of God. Shame efficiently put up a barrier where before there had been a silent torrent of love flowing between the two lovers. Shame made man hide from God, and wherever there is shame man hides from the only source which can remove shame.


Ever since that day there has been a burning desire in God’s heart to see the intimacy of the Garden restored. In Christ the objective was achieved. In Christ there is no shame. As we move further and further into this mystery of Him being in us and we in Him we find our nakedness again. Nakedness in Him connotes that our original potential is restored to express Him as sons and daughters, as His beloved heirs in a world that is craving for redemption.


When the relationship is restored God walks in the midst of our lives like a cool breeze which gingerly caress our cheeks with affection and love. As the Spirit removes those last residues of shame in our outlook and the last clouds, which have obstructed our vision, evaporate we see that we are perpetually intertwined with Him and that we are the Garden which now blossoms with a lush exuberance that is spectacular in its radiance and beauty.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

My First Book

I am very proud to announce that my first book now is published. It consists of my best blog articles so far. You can order the book by following this link: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/lonekheir
Artwork by Jessica Robertson. Introductions by DeeDee Winter, Steve McVey, John Lynch and Fred Pruitt.

Friday, October 8, 2010

We Are the Light of the World

There is an eternal outflow of light from God. It expels darkness wherever its rays penetrate. Every man who is joined one Spirit with the Father through the redemption in Jesus Christ is also an eternal outflow of light. In our ignorance we thought that we had to become light, to let our light shine brighter and more radiantly through a change of behavior. In Christ we are the light of the world and we are placed on a hill so that our light is seen by all who have eyes to see.


The question about sin always raises its ugly head in this context. Won’t sin extinguish our light? That is a question children in Christ ask, and the answer we give them is no! An adult in Christ has no consciousness of sin because he not only believe, but knows, that a once and for all sacrifice for sin has made the sin issue void and of no interest. His only concern is life in its many facets. Thus, he like Jesus exerts his right to forgive anyone his sin. Our mission is reconciliation and not sin. The light in us compels us to implore people on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled with God.


But, don’t we have flaws and shortcomings that obstruct the light? No! Those are the cracks in the jar which the light finds its way through. If God has declared us perfect in His Son, then we are perfect. As adults we have advanced past that level where we were preoccupied with our flaws. We have put that change me, do me better attitude behind us. It isn’t about us anymore, but Christ and those He loves. The light in us finds those He has given us. They are caught in our spotlight, and the darkness in and around them is expelled by the heavenly rays. We see this happen by our inner eye, that is, faith!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

No Wrath

Before we have been led by the Spirit backwards to the void we still have residues of separation in our mindsets and this illusion generates another illusion regarding God’s wrath. We repeatedly find this theme in the old testament when an unredeemed people fears God’s wrath at every corner. From Adam’s fall and onward separation from God was how the chosen people viewed their existence, and as a consequence they dreaded God and His wrath.


When we as mature people recognize our nothingness we find that our lives have been hidden in Christ all along, and there in the void we find our lives again in Him as an everlasting outflow of light. More than that, we discover that the idea about God’s wrath was another of those tricks of the enemy, but which the Spirit has used with great efficiency so that we can come to end of ourselves. The Spirit has led us backward to our origin where we find no wrath. When the illusion about separation evaporates the illusion about God’s wrath is made void and nothing.


We have come to the point which the scriptures call before the foundation of the earth. At this point the lamb was slain and God wrath evaporated. To us this point in time is now. Every now is thus before the foundation of the earth. In the temporal realm the cross is the focal point which stretches both backward and forward in time. Before the foundation of the earth can’t be expressed with words or understood in terms of time. It is in the same manner as He is, the great I AM, and we are in the eternal. Eternally bound to Him in love and a part of Him we find that our wrath was an illusion as well. The eternal outpouring of light and love is the sole and only reality. Finally we know what Jesus meant when He spoke about a peace that transcends understanding.

Friday, October 1, 2010

In the Beginning

In front of Pilate Jesus said that His kingdom wasn’t of this world. This is a kingdom which government is found inside humans created in the likeness of God. In order to understand this kingdom we have to return to the beginning where everything was void and silent. The Spirit is hovering over this nothingness which we all have to return to or be led back to before His creative forces can be unleashed in us.


Our return to the beginning is marked by frustrations, sufferings and failures. That is the only way our self activity and noise can be extinguished. We all initially thought that Christianity was all about moving fast towards some goal God had set up for us. The faster we got there the better Christians we were, and the more God would be pleased with us. We thought it was about becoming something or someone. That is was about doing the right things, having the right motivation, the right attitude. We thought we should imitate Jesus. We spoke a lot about love, but couldn’t quite find it within ourselves.


However, Christianity is about moving slowly to the beginning where we ultimately recognize our nothingness and become still. In the stillness God is moving, and we in this stillness recognize His mighty power within which created the heavens and earth. It dawns upon us that there is no separation between us and Him. He is in us presenting Himself to the world through each unique seed.


We all have the capacity for thinking, and we have a consciousness. To us it seems like our mental activity takes place somewhere on the inside of our bodies. However, we cannot pinpoint its exact location. It seems, though, as it is confined inside our flesh. But, what if we didn’t have any flesh? Where would our thinking and consciousness be then? It would just float unimpeded in the void. This is the place where we are linked to God, who is all in all, and who in His great wisdom decided to contain His all-ness or omnipresence in humans like you and me. When we return to the beginning, to the void, to our nothingness we find God and His kingdom within and all is well.