Newness of Life

By Nancy Thompson

Organized church become cults when the love and salvation of the institution (its beliefs, values and traditions) becomes paramount to the love and salvation of the individual. All its ‘good’ works become tainted and subsumed to the former while ignoring the latter. What this does to persons is to enslave them once more to the ‘basic principles of the world’. ‘We are in the world but not of it’.

“I am the Alpha and Omega”. There is a beginning and end to everything, for God Himself, is its beginning and end. Participation in God’s own house, not built with human hands, becomes free when this is recognized. Nothing remains the same.

Instead of being sad, we become joyful. “See, I am doing a new thing”. And being participants as new creatures in a new creation, we live, love and laugh in all this newness and see that God is All and in All.

Only Believe

Yesterday I was reminded about the three men (the trinity) who came to Abraham, had a meal with him and encouraged him in his personal faith commission. It struck me that it is no different today. God comes disguised as persons He sends our way - who cross our path, and who encourage us in our faith walks. In other words, hearing them speaking words of wisdom and encouragement is God speaking as them, and this revelation or insight gives tremendous weight to their words. And it has to be this way since we so often are wrestling with doubt.

Not everyone who crosses our path is a positive. We will encounter our share of negatives who doubt us and who question our commission. But, they are also sent of God to test our faith, to test our commitment, to strengthen our faith, to press us into faith, and, not least, to press us into God. More than that; this opposition, as it were, will in the long run produce a wonderful fruit: we come to learn that it is God’s own faith we are exercising.

But, what is our part in a faith commission? We have been given a word, and we cannot help it; it wells up in us on a daily basis. This welling up is nothing less than the kind of hearing Jesus outlined in John 8. It is a faith hearing. Outside faith we think it is only ourselves, but faith sees this as a flow from Spirit to spirit. A spontaneous thing in other words. It is not like that we have to strain our ears to hear what God has to say to us. He is much greater than that. He will get His point across and it will be totally natural. Okay, so what is our part?

In several instances Jesus said: “Only believe.” He didn’t say: “Believe and do your part” or “Believe and make some faith action”. Our basic modus operandi is one of fixing stuff. We are so used to taking “responsibility” and to handling things ourselves, that Jesus’ words: “Only believe,” seems, well, too simple. But, there we have it in plain simplicity: Only believe.

But, of course, like Abraham we feel we have to aid God. So we create some Ishmaels, but they are a part of the learning curve. No need to take any condemnation for those. They are necessary negatives to press us into the positive which works by God’s abilities and His ways, which we surprisingly find are our ways since there is no separation of wills between us and God. That we are giving up our way is merely an illusion, because there is only one will and one way and we are walking it every day.

We notice that God didn’t rebuke Abraham for his Ishmael, and neither does He rebuke any of us for ours. He knows only one thing about His sons: This is my son in whom I am well pleased.

We are now going to have a closer look at what I call the circle. In our first great faith commission given us by God we often start out by saying that we have spoken OUR word. However, this idea has to die. Again, a death is involved in this process until we say we have spoken HIS word. Through this we get a feeling of losing ourselves, and we certainly come to know our nothingness by it.

At this point we are only halfway through the circle. What comes next is a most glorious thing. It is the emerging of the son who has taken possession of his inheritance. It is the one in whom Christ is fully formed. He says: I have spoken my word, and it is done. The I returns. But, it is a knowing I. It is an I that see no separation. When it hears itself speak it hears God speaking. God has totally filled the vacuum the nothingness created in the person. When Abraham came to this point of knowing He said: “I and the lad will return!”

Allow me a small digression: There is no future tense in the Hebrew language. Thus I believe Abraham said: “The lad and I are returned.” The thing is done!

Faith is a indeed a choice. It is a commitment to something. It is a joining of hands with God in something that is far bigger than us. And this commitment is so serious that we say the thing has happened even though we see no results in the visible. In a sense it is a contract between us and God, and God cannot lie.

Words of Faith and Hearing God

By Linda Bunting

Ole Henrik:  I assume you have spoken several words of faith of which some have been easy to speak and you have most likely forgotten all about them rather swiftly, whereas others must have cost you a lot both in waiting, opposing circumstances, suffering and travail. Concerning the "difficult" ones; what was the greatest challenge for you after you had spoken the word?

Linda: The greatest challenge to me after I had spoken a word of faith in a general way about the problem was that I heard the Spirit answer with a promise that my word was fulfilled.

His total healing HAD come for us.

For 2 years after that every outer appearance screamed at me that it was not true, but at the same time I would remember Norman's precious words through the years; "Dahling, This is just a little mist on the mountain." Somehow, miraculously, the appearances became small in contrast to the God who had promised, and better yet, HAD ALREADY FULFILLED HIS PROMISE. Not was going to, but had already done it.

Exercising faith is like exercising a muscle. At first it’s easy and doesn't hurt, then comes the ache and pain; BUT as the muscle proves its strength, ease comes and we no longer have to struggle. Same with faith!

Ole Henrik: You heard the Spirit answer with a promise? Did you literally hear His voice or was it more like that He gave you a personal promise from the Bible? Yeah, appearances have a way of screaming at us.....

Linda: No promise from the bible. It was not the first time it had happened to me. I was talking to DeeDee one day about Kim and Karen and the small voice said in my head and heart; "I have healed her." I told DeeDee I had to hang up ... I had just had a word from the Lord.

I immediately said back to Him, how have you healed her? He said "Spirit, soul and body." I am referring to my youngest who had been on Heroin etc. From childhood she also had a tendency to have mood swings.

With that word, I knew God had spoken. But as I said, the next two years’ appearances raged against what I had heard.

But one day, out of nowhere, she called and asked to come home.

The last 4 years have been blessings beyond anything I could have ever hoped to even ask for.

Years and years ago, the same problem presented itself to another one of my children.

I heard it over the TV at that time. I immediately called Harriet to tell her, because I knew if I didn't tell it, I would begin to doubt myself and what I had heard. Just that! I wasn't even interested in what I was watching... in fact it was an advertisement ... but the Spirit overrode my brain and spoke in my spirit saying: "John is NOT an alcoholic." Two nights before he was drunk on my kitchen floor ... the next morning I was telling about his condition, that he was going nowhere in life and needed to go to AA. So when the 'WORD' came IN me, I had to rise up to what the Spirit was about to do in both of us.

I had told my child everything I could think of on the appearances of his problem. But after hearing that word I had to write him a letter telling him the truth about himself and what had been accomplished for him at Calvary. That he was no longer a slave to alcohol etc. He was perfect in God’s sight, but that it was not good enough for God to know it: God would not stop until he knew it about himself.

A year later the same appearance happened and when my accusing finger went up,
John, my son, spoke right back to me saying. ... "Mother, have you forgotten what God told you in His promise?"

Well, that shut me up and all these years later, alcohol hardly ever touches his lips and he is well adjusted in his faith journey.

Need I say more!

Ole Henrik: Many of us have heard God speaking to us, but then doubt overwhelms us and we dismiss what we have heard as if it is a product of our imagination.

Linda: No imagination here, darling, for we are spirit people. What God speaks, although faint at first, we sheep hear and know His voice! Right? Right!

(DeeDee is DeeDee Winter who runs the normangrubb.com website. Norman is Norman Grubb. Harriet is Harriet Wearren who is Linda’s neighbor and good friend. Linda runs the christasus.com website. Both DeeDee and Harriet have contributed with magnificent articles on this blog. DeeDee on the rightness of our souls, and Harriet on faith. Linda's children mentioned in this article have given their permission to have their stories on print.)

Leveled up with the Son

By Linda Bunting

Ole Henrik: You once made a brief talk which you called: “Coming back as YOU.” What was your main idea in that talk?

Linda: The stress put on us to 'be like Jesus' ... and 'what would Jesus do' and all the other suggestions to put us up against Jesus, much less BE Jesus, are misdirected and deny us our own personhood. We were created to be who WE are, no two of us alike.

It infers that someone had thought up a code or life style that would become the model for us to follow. Let’s take a look at Jesus, son of man, to see how he lived. He had no one to follow because he boldly said: "Of myself, I can do NOTHING." "As I see the Father do, I do." Take that in!!! "OF MYSELF, I CAN DO NOTHING" "As I see the FATHER DO, I DO!!

If he lived knowing that within his humanity, he could not produce one act, and that he was solely dependent on the Spirit within (which was Holy) then who are we to think we are left alone to 'act' a certain way.

The point of Jesus coming in human form, in the first place, was to bring MANY sons unto glory. He came to take the place of who we were, and placed within us His Holy Spirit that leveled us up with Him in sonship.

Now that we are a family of sons, Jesus being our older brother, why are we held in the bondage of a great lie telling us we are to be like him?

What would your father say if you came daily asking him IF he was really sure that you were his son; much worse that you did not want to be yourself, but the elder brother in the family. Your father would weep saying ... I don't want 2 of him, I want YOU ... to be who you are.

My eldest son did his work which was final and finished.

Now it is your turn to take your place as a son. Rise, take your inheritance and use it wisely. And exactly what does that mean, but to watch daily by faith (which IS how Jesus lived) to see how the Spirit will live out His life in your mortal flesh. Only He knows how to die and rise again and again as us.

When Jesus said "Don't you know ye are gods, to whom the word of the Lord comes" he was speaking of our level of sonship.

In a recent bible study a friend, alarmed by hearing that statement, brought up the point of us leveling ourselves up with God, to which my reply was "NEVER EVER the transcendent God, but FOREVER the immanent God. We didn't rise up, He came down and filled us with Himself .... Little gods, with our spirit joined to His Holy Spirit. Filled, made perfect to fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ

What is Faith by Harriet Wearren

Ole Henrik: What is faith?

Harriet: I am thinking about it, but it is hard to explain. We have the verses: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (What a contradiction when you look at it with physical sight). Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. Then we have the strong verses in Hebrews 11.

It has always been easy to speak a word of faith for someone's salvation and know that God will bring it about. In one of our meetings, years ago I really heard the verse Romans 4:17, about Abraham calling the things that are not, as though they are. It pricked me at the time, but I did not really understand it.

Sometime later, I hit a stone wall in my marriage. Things were awful and I felt that God presented me with the verse to do as Abraham and call into being that which did not exist. I stepped out, by faith, saying our marriage was whole and complete. Everything then went the opposite....to hell!  But God showed me to trust him and know that I walked by faith and not by sight!

When things looked particularly hopeless, the verse I hung onto was "Let God be true and every man a liar". I knew that I might go to my grave saying my marriage was whole, but never seeing anything tangible. You know, Ole, I only told a few people as I ventured out. I felt it was between God and me and I did not take that lightly. I must say, as I spoke these words over and over, and knew that God was fully able to do this but I just had to trust Him, however it went.

The up and down of all of it really killed me, and I thought, though you slay me, yet will I trust you, I felt I had nothing else. Something happened in me and made me solid in what I had entrusted to God, long before I saw any evidence that the marriage would survive. It made me strong, and really showed me that appearances will lie to me, but God is true and is in charge.

Just some musings....

Ole Henrik: I find this "law" in operation that when I have conquered another piece of the Promised Land there will always be some sort of a counter attack. I have come to see that these seasons of darkness and suffering are meant to establish us in the obedience of faith. Another way of saying this is that our faith is tested. Each new level of faith contains a testing of that faith until we are established on that level, and by the Spirit move on to a new mansion. Funny this paradox, because we can confidently say in faith that we are already on the top, but, nevertheless, we go through these stages of faith.

When Jesus began his public ministry he had taken possession of his position as a son. What I mean is that he boldly asserted his I. Most Christians are still like the son who remained with his Father in the parable of the prodigal son, who never have possessed their son-ship freely asserting their I as an I that takes for granted that all what the Father has are theirs. This "I" that says that it only does what it sees the Father is doing - the no separation self. It took Abraham 25 years to come to this point of recognition, but when he was there he could say "I and the lad will return" knowing he spoke as God.

Just some afternoon musings......

DeeDee: Those are some good musings! Yes….always tested to settle further and strengthen further….much like a tennis or golf stroke that is practiced over and over until one day it is totally natural.

(DeeDee is DeeDee Winter who wrote the two magnificent entries on our soul a month ago)