Greetings,
Today I find my self with an unexpected reality of being back in Bellingham. The journey of life is always forward, with forward adjustments along the way. The journey is surely a journey and there is a story in all of this, but today I am home. I had a great time in Spain this past week activating hungry young people in the New Covenant life of God. There is an expectant generation rising with a mandate of life to the world! I am encouraged as a spiritual father with hope for the harvest of life.
People in the world are stuck in the administration of the knowledge of good and evil, but our family tree is a Tree of Life. Life chooses to love! People who know God loves them have been made free, and are continually being made free. Now we live to help others know they are free! Our purpose is to:
- Rebuild
- Raise up
- And Repair or ‘Make Things New’
Isaiah 61:4 And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.
Our mandate to build is because something has been torn apart. Our mandate to raise things up is because something has been thrown down. Our mandate to repair or ‘make new’ is because something has been ruined. We cannot approach any situation by assessing how torn apart it is, how thrown down it appears, or how ruined it is it its quality of life. We must approach every situation in life on the basis of our connection with LIFE. God is LIFE and our connection to Him and His family of life is powerful enough to bring His testimony to any situation in heaven or earth.
When we don’t walk in a living relationship with God we depend upon an administration of the knowledge of good and evil and things end up torn apart, thrown down, and ruined. It is an administration filled with judgments of others based upon who is right and who is wrong. Life is never ‘anti’ something – it is simply LIFE! It is not even anti-death. Death is actually anti-life, but it can never win. For the believer in Christ, even death is swallowed up life into glory. Nothing is more powerful than life and life is a testimony of LOVE. When we walk in a living relationship with God empowered by the administration of Tree of Life things become rebuilt, raised up, and made new again. It is an administration of mercy and grace and it measures all things by love
The foundation of the tree of life is:
- God loves me – He gives me life, He gives me breath, and He gives me all things
- God loves you – He gives you life, He gives you breath, He gives you all things
Life is the foundation of our desires, thoughts, strategies, emotions, imaginations and determined influences in life. In order for things to be rebuilt, raised up and made new, we must be willing to recognize the partnerships that God is sending into our lives for His purposes in the world. This doesn’t just involve recognizing those who bring life to us, but who we are appointed to give life to in every season and time of our lives. When we are life we can even make partnerships with those bound to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we can influence them by the Tree of Life. When we are life, who they are cannot change us, but who we are is powerful enough to influence them in a life-giving way. This is a season of partnerships for the purposes of God’s life in the earth.
Isaiah 61:5-6 Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the priests of the Lord, they shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast.
When those who do not know God become empowered to be who they are for the purposes of God, God will use them to assist in bringing His glory in the earth. I believe that the discoveries, inventions, strategies, and interventions of the world serve the purposes of God in the earth. God determines the future of the world by the altar of God in the earth; He does not determine the future of the alar by the world. We cannot change the world by natural means, but the spiritual life of the altar of God will influence the natural workings of the world. There will be counterfeits and there will be truth, but even the counterfeits are an indication that it is time for a new harvest to grow. When heaven is in the earth the earth responds to heaven’s sound. The church prevails against the influences of hell when the church is the testimony of the Tree of life.
We are in a move of God’s Spirit where He is calling humanity to come and be the people of God. This is a witness of life and hope to those who need to change the administration of their lives.
Isaiah 62:12 And they shall call them The Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; And you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.
When the people of God live by the administration of the Tree of Life they will be sought out and recognized as those who are not forsaken. People in the world will seek to partner with people of God and the purposes of God will be seen in the earth. This also means that the people of God must recognize whom God may be using in the partnerships of life. God can use Pharaoh for His purposes. He can use Cyrus for His will. Pharaoh cannot bring life, Cyrus cannot bring life, but God’s people can be facilitated to give life when placed in a position to be life in the world.
A partnership with the world does not mean we become submitted to the world. Jesus became flesh and moved into the neighborhood, but the neighborhood didn’t change who He was. The life of God within Him was enough to change every neighborhood of His residence. He was not afraid of darkness; darkness could not put out the light. Jesus’ covenant was with the Tree of Life, thus He could partner with those bound to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and influence them by the grace of life and the truth of life in who He was. His covenant was not with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, His love was simply for them. Thus His partnership with the world was an invitation for all in the world to make a covenant with the Tree of Life. When those who should be people of God make a covenant with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they seek to disconnect from the people of the world and thus the people of the world remain bound to the ways of the world. We must covenant with the Tree of Life and seek to partner with the world to make men free. Who we are, is enough to transform the world.
In order to recognize or embrace partnerships with those who do not know what you know about God means you are going to have to embrace the covenant of knowing God in the midst of human partnerships for the purposes of God in the earth. This is a covenant of who God is, not merely a covenant with what God says. The aspects of rebuilding, raising things up, and making things new involve us receiving the power to build, a testimony of bringing things to life, and an authority to make things new. This involves a covenant with God that includes a covenant with the substance that comes from the Tree of Life. This substance is a partnership of faith, hope, and love within the covenant of life in our hearts. Love is a revelation and it empowers the substance of hope in our lives. Faith is an inspiration and it involves an intimate connection with the One we hope in, the lover of our souls.
Blessings,
Good stuff Pastor Ted…thanks…HUGS
There was a cedar tree that was recently cut down along my walking route, about a month after they felled the tree I noticed saplings growing out of the stump. Life is Hard To Kill!