Fixing our eyes on Jesus, not on our sin

let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith  - Hebrews 12

I am not worried about your sin, or my sin, or anyone else's sin... and I don't believe God is either.

My expereince in my ministry is, folks do their spiritual work: actively deepening in God and letting God heal them...  and they start dropping sin/addictions like crazy:  sugar, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, sex, caffeine... One day, they just show up and say: "I don't need, want or enjoy this anymore," Then we work with the energy and 'demons' associated with the issue, and they drop it and they are free.  I watch this happen over and over.

It isn't about working with me, I am just blessed to watch.
It is about fixing "our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith."
It is about allowing God to Fill us with Blessings and Grace and Mercy and Fruit, 
and allowing God to wash away So Much Pain and Fear and Striving and Doubt and Lies.

From my perspective, a focus on SIN is a stumbling block, there are many wisdom warnings about this:
What we resist, persists.
What we run from, pursues us.
What we focus on, we become.
What we give our attention to, grows.

My favorite Christian minister, who helped pulled me through years of challenges with his teachings, Dr Bruce Morgan; used to say:
"enjoy your sin as long as you can, because it will fall away before you know it" 
something like that... I thought he was quoting someone like Luther, but I can't find it - I found this quote instead, and with this I will close:

Be a sinner and sin boldly,  but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here [in this world]  we have to sin. This life is not the dwelling place of righteousness,  but, as Peter says,  we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. It is enough that by the riches of God’s glory we have come to know the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.  No sin will separate us from the Lamb, even though we commit fornication and murder a thousand times a day. Do you think that the purchase price that was paid for the redemption of our sins by so great a Lamb is too small? Pray boldly—you too are a mighty sinner.  - Martin Luther

Out of the Box: GOD alone!

Face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire Jehovah spoke with you (I stood between Jehovah and you at that time, to declare to you the word of Jehovah; for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up to the mountain) - Deuteronomy 5: 4-5 (precursor to the "10 commandments") .

This 'trick' of getting a mediator between ourselves and God is a very Old Game.

We are not alone in avoiding God, in wanting someone else to stand between us and God.  The FIRE is HOT.  Going 'up' the mountain can be treacherous!

It is a common mis-step, from my perspective, but it is lethal to our spiritual growth. We must allow ourselves and others to risk relying upon the living God.

It is important to know the bible – some of God’s interactions and revelations to God’s servants are very instructive to us!  But I believe that the bible points us to God, and the so-called word of God (the bible) is not the *Word of God*... The Word of God is the Living God speaking to us directly here and now.

The bible is not the Word of God. I did a bible study on all the instances of Word of God in the New Testament (rather easy in the computer age) and I became convinced this is true. Go ahead and do it yourself. Notice what you read in context, and keep in mind the only 'bible' they had at the time, Christians now call the Old Testament.

I believe modern Christianity has made an idol of a book, and this trips us in our deepening in God. Instead of SPIRITUALLY looking unto God, instead of fixing our  spiritual "eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” we are told to PHYSICALLY use our intellect to read a paradoxical book.  From my experience this Does Not Work if we want to be disciples of Christ, only if we want to be disciples of Christianity.

The BOOK tells us to go to God - if we want to listen to the book, how about we GO TO GOD?

Does Satan, and the world, and the flesh try to snare us? Absolutely.  But the bottom line, IMO/E is that Jesus says “my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” and I believe him! Absolutely.

Do we have to grow up into this knowing, be trained by God? Absolutely.  Is this learning and growing obligatory in the Christian life? Absolutely.  Any individual who does not do this ends up as a big fat sheep, a Christian who lives an entire life and never leaves Kindergarten.

Churches of almost every stripe exacerbate our laziness and rebellion by telling us we don’t have to go to the living God, that there is some other way. But there IS NO OTHER WAY to be a disciple of Christ, to live the unique journey that is our call.

SO many say the way to know God is to read the bible. That occurs as dung. The bible is not God.  If we want to know God, we need to be still, and know God.

The bible is not God.  We are not called to a relationship with the bible. We are called to a relationship with the living God!  There is no other way to grow up in God than to go TO GOD and let God grow us up. No Other Way.

I believe Protestants went awry when they separated from Catholicism.  And the Catholic church went awry right near the start.  The Catholic church likes to say it is is/was built on scripture and tradition.  Protestants said – No – scripture alone.

I say they are all missing the mark! It is God Alone.  God Alone!  God alone can not only save us, but also keep us.

The bible is a tool God uses in our journey deeper into God. The bible is a tool God can use in many ways in our growing up in God. But it is only a tool and it doesn’t matter. In the end it is only a book and it is dangerous to allow it to become an idol!

Modern Christianity is so off the mark on this, IMO, that it is hard to even communicate about it, because it is so far from our programming about what Christianity IS.

May God teach us to look to God Alone.
Amen.
.

Spiritually: Choose Life!

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways ... I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days

Two points I would like to make about this amazing finale of Deuteronomy 30:

1)
Application of the wonderful Gift of our Free Will is the most important aspect of our life and creativity in our bodies and our lives.
My teacher often said something like this, and I am just starting to grok how wise were her words:

• Just Choose!
• You can't do it wrong.
• If you don't like the result: Choose Again, and keep choosing.
• Movement IS Healing: GO!

2)
We are spirit (souls), a part of God.
If we identify with merely the flesh we are 'lost at sea' in this world.
When we identify with Spirit- our Oneness with God, in God... our life, and our world, is transformed.

We are spirit and we have spiritual senses and abilities that go WAY beyond our physical senses and abilities.
This is foundational to most every word in the bible
and a key to understanding what God is saying to us over and over and over.

In the case of the quote above: GOD is Speaking, and saying the way of LIFE is to:

• Be in Loving Relationship with God
• Walk in God's Paths
• Listen to God's voice
• Cling to God.

We CANNOT do this as flesh,
we cannot do it with physical-focus;
that has no meaning.

Consider it: one cannot live with God, walk with God, Listen to God, Cling to God as a BODY!!!
The body can only pretend these things, desire these things, think about these things, have feelings about these things, doubt these things...
and follow rules and structures and teachings, as a child is trained to do.

This is not a spiritual life!
This is not the beautiful message of the prophets and mystics through the ages.
This is not the Good News that inspired spiritual evolution and revolution in Jesus day...

Rather, we must do these things as spirit, in our soul, with a spiritual-focus! 

As Jesus said:

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

We must relate to God and follow God Spiritually - not physically!

Let us ask God to open our spiritual eyes more and more to read scripture from a spiritual point of view and it will become more and more Life-bringing to us.
Exponentially more importantly, let us ask God to open our spiritual ears more and more to hear God's voice directly... and respond directly.

We must relate to God and follow God Spiritually - not physically!
This is what we are asked to do, let us do it!
If you don't know how, find out.

as David and Paul said:

Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts

.
First - hear/see God and God's leading
Second - follow, do not resist

We relate to God and follow God as Jesus did:
seeing what God is doing and doing that;
hearing what God is saying and saying that.

IF we want to relate to God and follow God, we Must do it Spiritually - not physically!
This is what we are asked to do, let us do it!
If you don't know how, find out.

.
SO, I encourage us all, deeper and deeper, to:

Choose Life:
Get our free-will back, and learn to apply it.

Choose Life:
Align with God, behold and reflect the Glory of God, from right-relationship with God be filled and healed and matured by God.

Choose Life:
Open to our spiritual senses to See the Way, Hear God's voice, and then Act from there - Being the Hands and Feet of God in our world. 

.

From this place, we can engage our Unique Process of Soul Maturity, Teleios 

Realizing who we are in God, into our body, life, world...

.
IF we want to Choose Life, we Must do it Spiritually - not physically!
This is what we are asked to do, let us do it!

If you don't know how, please find out.

It is the Pearl of Great Price. 

Blessings on you Journey!
Wendy
.

Abundantly!

Often, when I see the title of this blog,
I sing this old song to myself,
which I used to utilize in my personal worship a lot in my late teens:

    Abundantly!

From mountains high, cool waters flow,
The singing breeze, green meadows grow;
Shine tall pine trees, blue sky above,
Are all expressions of my Lord’s love.

And this one God who made all these,
Is interested in you and me;
His greatest gift is to make us free,
New self, more life, abundantly.

God speaks, He acts, what He says He will,
His promises He will fulfill,
Through Christ His focused love appears,
To put at ease the life that fears.

Relationships to all He brings,
The solid feel inside me rings;
No phoney do I have to be,
For God, through Christ, accepts just me.

The dawning sun, a bright new light,
For folks to join, no need to fight;
Creation through variety
Displays God’s plan for unity.

And this one God who made all these,
Is interested in you and me;
His greatest gift is to make us free,
New self, more life, abundantly.

Law of the Spirit, Life, Grace

It is my understanding that one of the major conflicts within early Christianity, was the question of what to do regarding Judaism and the Law, basically:
- Do Gentiles have to become Jews?
- Do Christians have to follow the Law?

Some said Yes. Some said No.
When push came to shove, folks seemed to generally align in 2 camps:

Live Jewish and keep the Law as a prerequisite to being Christian
OR
Live according to the leading of Spirit in the Freedom of Christ - whether previously Jewish or not.

The watershed for this choice was seen starkly around circumcision:
- if you were non-Jewish, did you get circumcised?
- if you were Jewish, did you encourage non-Jewish believers to get circumcised?

Under pressure to deal with this issue, the (Jewish) Christian leaders realized that folks didn't have to become Jewish to follow Jesus, but they felt the need to add a few caveats for acceptable behavior from non-Jews, a compromise, if you will:

abstain from food polluted by idols,
from sexual immorality,
from the meat of strangled animals
and from blood

To see read this story for yourself, see Acts 15.

I don't know how much these decision-maker(s) were in the will of God to choose this path, or not. It seems to me this ruling was made from CONCEPTS/pictures/hooks of the most onerous, unacceptable and un-Jewish behavior; these became the guidelines for non-Jews... But whatever, that is what was decided.

Notice, these are the only rules the Jewish leadership asked the non-Jewish Christians to follow. This is important to note, IMO, in the context of modern Christianity:

• not all the Law,
• not the 10 commandments,
• just 4 rules...

BUT as experience clearly shows, from that day til this, there continues to be struggle within Christianity on this point: the Law. Most folks take some kind of middle ground... which i find sad.

Paul was a Major advocate for Freedom, Grace, Living by Spirit, not by Law; for ALL being welcome to live in Christ, not just Jewish people. I really appreciate the place that Paul evolved to about this question. A LOT of what he wrote touches on this issue, because his ministry was TO the non-Jews... that would be almost all Christians, these days!

When I was finally brought to an understanding of this, back in college, my reading of the NT letters, changed. It all made a lot more sense to me. For those not aware of this information, perhaps this distinction will be useful for you as well.

For example, the entire book of Galatians revolves on this issue.

And it contains one of my favorite verses in the bible:
Paul invests almost the whole book saying WHY we are free from the Law, to live by Spirit of Life, in Grace, and then says in chapter 5:1:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then,
and do not let yourselves be burdened again
by a yoke of slavery.

From my perspective, and Paul makes clear - we have to CHOOSE:
live by LAW or live by SPIRIT;
as children or as mature, spiritual adults;
as slaves or as heirs...
CHOOSE!

Meanwhile, we CAN NOT live by the Law, Jesus made sure of it - that we had to be clear it is IMPOSSIBLE to do: letting us know it wasn't just about the outside, but also our inner experience.
Humanly, by the flesh/body living by the Law is ridiculously impossible!

On this point, I highly recommend the hilarious and insightful book by AJ Jacobs on this subject: 'The Year of Living Biblically' is about his quest to live the ultimate biblical life, to live under the Law. To follow every single rule in the Bible – as literally as possible.

So, we Must live by the Spirit...
BUT, from the flesh, from our physical point of view, we CAN NOT live by Spirit. It makes no sense to our intellect or our everyday experience, and it doesn't WORK to TRY or theorize about living as Spirit. Most Christians don't even have a useful concept about what living by Spirit MEANS.

TRYING from a physical perspective, to live a spiritual life, to live as as Christ lived, has been proven for at least 2,000 years, to not work.
I believe Chopra covers this untenable situation well in 'The Third Jesus', where he focuses on Jesus as the cosmic Christ who speaks to us who want to find God as a personal experience, to attain what some might call Grace, or God-consciousness.

SO, it is my strong opinion:
from a body-focused / flesh / intellectual perspective we cannot live by Law
... AND we cannot live by Grace.
What is to be done, then, to live as a disciple of Christ???

The church has tried to solve this paradox by pretending it doesn't exist.
Christianity has invested the last 2,000 years in trying to find some middle ground, to live by Law AND Grace, to live by Flesh AND Spirit.

From my perspective this is a ridiculous and offensive 

undermining of Jesus mighty gifts to us. 

This makes for a toothless spirituality, 

a domesticated Christianity, 

a relationship to/with Jesus that is shackled by earthbound concepts and mundane limitations.

Do I feel strongly about this? You BET!  

Because there is a spiritual LIFE beyond the necrophilia that is preached as Christianity every Sunday.

Jesus had little patience with folks who pointed always to the flesh and not to Spirit! 

 Jesus was ALL about the Kingdom of God, 

not the ways of people, religion, physical-focus; 

in the bible this often seen in Jesus interaction with the Pharisees.

If you want to see focus on the Law differently than we have been programmed about, falsely;
and let go of 'Jesus meek and mild' that we have been taught in Sunday school, I suggest doing a study on Jesus' relationship with the pharisees.  Here is one source: I recommend skipping all the commentary and going 2/3 down the page to the listed verses.

Jesus' answer to this paradox of Law and Spirit was very different from ours.
HE constantly pointed to living as spirit, in spiritual reality: the Kingdom (Reign) of God/Heaven.

Jesus did not trip on the flesh, he did not trip on the LAW:
he operated Spiritually and exhorted us to do the same!

Jesus incessant focus, his core message was 

The KINGDOM: the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God.

I believe the use of this translation ‘Kingdom’ diverts us from the truth with which Jesus was so committed to enlightening us.
I believe Young’s Literal Translation gives a much better picture for us about what he is pointing to. Let me give an example:

For Luke 17:20-21, the King James version, and most other translations, say something like this:

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

But look how Young's Literal Translation translates the same verse:

And having been questioned by the Pharisees, when the reign of God doth come, he answered them, and said, 'The reign of God doth not come with observation; nor shall they say, Lo, here; or lo, there; for lo, the reign of God is within you.'

It is difficult to speak about the Kingdom/Reign of God - it is all too easy to be misunderstood.  Many believe we are ALREADY on the path of Life; but for most of us, the FRUIT in our life seems to say otherwise.

The WAY of the Kingdom/Reign of God, as Jesus lived and taught, 

goes through a Death of the body, the flesh and physical-focus; 

and Awakening to True, Abundant Life and spiritual focus. 

The FRUIT of this process is very clear, in the fruit we see: 

are we living the life of Christ in us?

Jesus invested most of his ministry as 'a finger pointing at the moon' on this subject of the Reign of Heaven, by utilizing parables.  

At the same time, he actually taught his disciples spiritually, to LIVE  and to ACT in the Reign of God: 

and they taught others, and the world caught on FIRE.  

But mostly we are left with the archeological remains of this fire 

- dry bones of The Way of Christ, with no LIFE in them.

Fortunately there are some with a spiritual perspective, and the Spirit of God is, of course, unstoppable.  

I have been blessed to find a path that serves me in this process and I have experienced this process watching and supporting many others.  

I pray that each of us does not STOP, 

until we each find our unique pathway to LIVING the Abundant Life that God has promised us; 

a life of ripening and spiritual fruition.

A life of engaging our Unique Process of Soul Maturity, Teleios 

Realizing who we are in God, into our body, life, world...

May we each leverage the Freedom that Jesus provides us, to live in Spirit an Abundantly Fruitful Life.  If you need assistance or resources, Ask and Receive.
Amen, Wendy

Want to read more, about the process of growing up - learning to walk spiritually?

the Healing Power of non-Judgment

Someone posted on a Christian Seer & Healer Site:

"Celestial justice". Anyone out there believe that if someone is nasty to others all of the time that after a while, the universe will drop something nasty on their heads and will keep doing so until they learn their lesson?

I responded:
I think the general rule is: we reap what we sow.
Fortunately Mercy and Grace mitigate some of that, or most all of us would be in pretty sorry shape.

'Ye heard that it was said: Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and shalt hate thine enemy; but I -- I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those cursing you, do good to those hating you, and pray for those accusing you falsely, and persecuting you, that ye may be sons of your Father in the heavens, because His sun He doth cause to rise on evil and good, and He doth send rain on righteous and unrighteous.
- Jesus in Matthew 5:43-45

Since we all have evil within us, and we all act un-righteously, it occurs to me as fortunate that God gives us all what we need, even when we are unjust and seemingly undeserving.

***

My experience in general, and what I have noticed on a spiritual level:

1) people who do terrible things on the outside are usually pretty messed-up on the inside Already, and when people do bad stuff, it just makes things worse on the inside.

2) the best thing i can do for the mean-people is love and care-for them as best i can - and if there is any possibility, assist them to open to healing and Light.

3) the more i am tempted to stand in judgment, the more I point my finger outside at others - the more I am led back to look into Myself about the issues I am judging so harshly. (as the saying goes, whenever I am pointing my finger out, there are always 3 fingers pointing back at me... gotta hate that! : )

Am I secretly like Them in some way, in some way that is currently unconscious to me? DO I want to be like them in some way, but I don't let myself?
Or is there something about their 'wrongdoing' that I am unhealed about - so I am hypersensitive? Someone hurt me in a similar way in the past, and now I want them ALL to PAY?

When I am hooked on Their sins, Their not-doing-it-right, there is Always something for ME to allow to be healed and made whole. Otherwise, I would, as Jesus does, love them and heal them if they can have it, and invite them to go and sin no more- i.e. open to living in more alignment with God.

4) I am not saying this is always easy or natural or the default response. But, in all these things, it is becoming easier and easier for me to stand in compassion for others (and myself) because the more I heal, the more I let God fill me with Light, the more I face and own my OWN Shadow...
the more I find all the evil that I happily believe is Out There;
I find the evil In Here... in my own space.

And the more I allow God to shine Light and Mercy and Grace into my Own Shadow, the more I Let Go and Let God about even this DARKNESS within ME -
I become more peaceful with the evil and shortcomings Out There,
and miraculously the evil and shortcomings Out There have More ROOM (they are invited to change) and Sometimes they DO shift!

Bottom line:
there is Real Power in Compassion;
and when I face my self, open to the Light and allow God to Heal me, I am also opening up an invitation, a healing-space for those around me to Heal and to Open to the Light!


****

The essence of my ministry is to assist us to allow God to open our spiritual ears, and spiritual eyes - to communicate with and know God, directly - to be Seers.  I am called as a Healer, it is the essence of my path, and I believe we are all called to be healers on some level. 

I believe it is essential, absolutely fundamental, as Christians, as those with Soul-Senses, and as Healers:

1) for us to allow healing for ourselves, if we want to be a healing influence in the world; we must allow ourselves to operate from a spiritual perspective, rather than a physically-focused perspective: particularly allowing ourselves to be healed of judgment and seriousness.

2) because, the more we See (hear, know, etc) spiritually - the more there is for us to get Hooked on - there is a LOT of challenging crap happening in the world. It is detrimental to US to be viewing it all from a physical perspective, which is the perspective of judgment.

3) AND it is hard enough for someone to come to us for assistance and healing, believing that we See their shortcomings and secret sins, etc. People Already live in SO Much Self-Judgment and Invalidation - it is crushing for them, for all of us!

If I cannot see and relate to people (more and more over time) from a spiritual perspective, without judging and resisting them and having my Own agenda for their improvement, then I am offering them anti-healing: I am not serving them and I am not serving God.

Again: I believe if I am judging them, I am doing the opposite of serving them and serving God.

These are some of my perspectives and experiences around judgment, all of which I feel very strongly about. YMMV.

Thank you for the conversation.
best, wendy