living out our full inheritance part 2

"He brought me to the wine chamber and placed His banner of love over me." Song of Solomon 2:4

I believe the best part of our inheritance is we get to live in perfect intimate union with Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. That’s really wild when you think about it. I was co-buried and co-risen with Jesus (see Romans 6). All the affection and love and joy and freedom that Father has for Jesus is mine. Their perfect love is mine. There is no separation between me and the Trinity. It’s all of me covered by all of them. Everything He did for us was for relationship.

I love to worship. I love to sing as loud as I can. I love to laugh. I laugh a lot. I love dancing with Jesus! We party together a lot. Did you know that all my singing, laughing, and dancing is in response to Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit? He is the one singing, laughing, and dancing over me! That’s wild. His pleasure and affection and passion for me knows no limits! Worship is the most natural response to His unfailing love. I’m not saying that I feel His presence every minute of the day, because I don’t. But it’s happening more and more. Even when I don’t feel His presence, I still worship. He’s so good and worthy of all my praise. Father is constantly throwing a party for me. It’s my job to say yes to His party. I love drinking deeply of the pleasures He has for me. God is most glorified when I am most satisfied in Him.

I love being a friend of God. Living in perfect union demands trust. I must trust God, and I want Him to be able to trust me. I’m learning to trust Jesus like never before. I must value His presence above everything else. I want to spend time with Him because He wants to spend time with me. Our friendship is worth everything to Him. Sometimes I have visions of us eating together. He simply loves being with me, and it’s my job to honor that. I love being with Him. I want Him to be able to trust me with His presence wherever I go. I want Him to be able to trust me with His secrets, love, heart, joy, revelation, and wisdom. I trust Him with my heart. I cry with Him and pour my soul out to Him, which can be scary and painful. But He’s so tender and so loving. He loves to shower me with kisses.

Father we thank you that we’re living in perfect union with you, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. We ask for a revelation of the love and pleasure you have for us. We trust you completely. We say yes to to your party. We want to be inebriated with your intoxicating grace. The storehouses of Heaven are ours to feast on. We value you. Thank you. You’re so very good.

living out our full inheritance part 1

I don’t know about you, but I want my full inheritance as a son of God. A better way to say that: I want to live out the inheritance that is already mine from a good, good Father. Our full inheritance is available to us right now. I want to see more of it manifested here on earth every day. Heaven will be such an adventure that we’ll be discovering new things everyday. The presence and glory of God is so outrageous and vast that throughout eternity we’ll constantly be discovering His presence in new ways. I want that adventure to start now. What does that look like? How do we live that out? I’m going to write a series of blog posts so I can go in more detail. But here are some general thoughts. I believe our inheritance can be boiled down to three major areas in our life.  

I live in perfect intimate union with Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.

I am saved, healed, and delivered.

My relationships are full of love and freedom.

I will share my thoughts about each one to the best of my ability. Not all of these are manifested in my life right now, but I’m on the adventure of that happening. I don’t have to wait until Heaven to experience them.  Like I said, even in Heaven, we'll be unpacking the victory Jesus has accomplished for us. That's really fun! Being a bored believer is definitely an oxymoron. It is a complete gift to us. We get to partner with God and unwrap the gift He has given us.

Father you're so good! We want to rise up as your sons and daughters and live out the inheritance you provided. We love you!

worthy of love

I’ve had to learn to receive love. A lot of people have a hard time receiving love. People are constantly laying down their life for me. I require constant care. It takes a lot to be my friend. My best friends pray with me, pursue my heart, worship with me, listen to me, party with me, go crazy, and love me deeply. But on top of that, they have to clean out my lungs, pick me up, help me stretch, roll me over at night, help me drive, wipe my butt, feed me, dress me, and countless other things. Sometimes it really breaks my heart that I can’t love them in the same ways. I will pursue their hearts and fight for them, and I will love them deeply. But if my friends are having a hard time, I can’t go give them a hug and just be with them. They have to come to me. Always. That’s very painful. It’s worse than any health thing I’ve ever dealt with. Because of that, I’ve had to learn to receive love. I’m getting to the point where I know how worthy I am of such incredible love.

It’s a great picture of the love Jesus has for us. My circumstances require my friends to lay down their life for me, they require us to be vulnerable and intimate, and they ignite my passion to relentlessly pursue their heart. I used to believe I was in a wheelchair for stuff like this. So often friendships lack selflessness, vulnerability, intimacy, passion, and deep love. My circumstances demand a lot of that from the get go. But that’s not why I’m not walking. My friendships are unique and powerful, but not because I’m in a wheelchair. Love suffers long. It hurts to love. It takes great courage to love deeply. My friends love me deeply in spite of my circumstances. When I do walk, that won’t change. Do you know how worthy you are of love? I am so worthy of outrageous love. So are you. I haven’t done anything to be worthy of love, I was just born. Papa God fashioned me to love me. He made me because He thought I might be fun to hang out with. He was right!!! I love hanging out with Him because He loved hanging out with me first. Thank you to my family and friends. You have shown me how worthy I am. Lets all lay down our lives for one another. Be brave. We’re worth it. Learn to receive love by hanging out with Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.

a new kind of worry

“Worry is imagining your life without God and His goodness.” -Wendy Backlund.

 I love this quote for so many reasons. We should never imagine our life a part from God. Sometimes I partner with fear and I get anxious. A common fear I have is about getting married. I will not get married until I walk, for many reasons. I want to do life with God’s greatest creation. I want to pursue Jesus with her. I want to pursue her heart and love her. I want to help awaken her dreams and passions. I want to bring Heaven to earth with her. I want to have sex with her. I want to have kids and have a family. A family of worshipers who live for His tangible presence above everything else. We will help transform our city. I get discouraged because I imagine my life without God and His goodness. If I had my way, I would have been married at 18. I’m now 28. One by one, I’ve seen incredible girls get married. Some of them I have thought I could get to know and marry them. But there have been many other girls where I’ve had very strong feelings for them. It can be very painful and discouraging. Sometimes I wrongly think that every girl will already be taken. I get anxious because I think time is running out. I don’t want to be 56 when my kids are 18. Sometimes I really freak out. What if I never walk, and never get married? What if I do walk and I’m not supposed to get married? It’s all about trust and not partnering with fear. I must stop imagining my life without Jesus. Father has the best plan for me. It’s impossible to out imagine His goodness. Lets try worrying a different way. What if the power of God is so strong on my family, that we just leak His victory wherever we go? What if the girl of my dreams is waiting for me and I find her at just the right time? What if our marriage is so free and alive that other couples are knocking down our door because they want what we have? What if I get to travel the world and see countless people get out of their wheelchairs? What if I get to make my parents dinner, and it tastes so good they want me to do it every night? What if Holy Spirit rests in my house in such a powerful way that I won’t be able to move for days? It’s a lot more fun to imagine our lives with the goodness of God involved. Our “problems” become much more fun. But it’s not just about having fun. His thoughts and His reality are the truest thing about our current circumstances and our future. Lets repent for imagining our lives without God and His goodness. Repentance means changing the way I think. It means to think like God.