Beloved fellow disciples,
This critical teaching brings into focus some of the foundational understandings for disciples to learn and apply. The revelations regarding the Path of Least Resistance and Structures – what they are, and how they function – have been real life changers for many people who have followed Dad John’s teachings through the years.
The reason they’re so essential is that they operate ‘behind the scenes’ and are not often recognized even though they deeply impact our lives and relationships. And as they do what they’re designed to do, they can either thwart or support our goals.
As we prepare for Last Days encounters and experiences, it will serve us well if we can glean from these ‘behind the scenes’ principles. Understanding how these principles play into what is going on… and how we can replace what we don’t want with what we do… will be key as we work on building new structures that take us to new God-pleasing, fruitful ends… those ends we’ve only dreamed of in the past.
Appended at the end of this article is a copy of a 2013 article in the Renewing Our Minds series entitled ‘The Significance of Structures’ which may offer more insight on this important concept.
Love, Mum Nancy
Beloved Family… We all know that the human race is fallen, broken, and Sin-corrupted. We also know that we’re all prone to fall into various kinds of error and wickedness. Because of what Sin has done to mar and disfigure our fallen nature, we’re inherently selfish, self-adoring, rebellious, manipulative, predatory and self-destructive! So spiritually speaking, in terms of God’s Perfect Standards of Righteousness, Truth, and Justice, we’re in very bad shape… and… we are born to lose!
“Thus says Adonai: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, and depends on flesh as his arm, and whose heart turns from Adonai. For he will be like a bush in the desert. He cannot see goodness when it comes, but will dwell in parched places in the wilderness—a salt land where no one lives.
“Blessed is the one who trusts in Adonai, whose confidence is in Adonai. For he will be like a tree planted by the waters, spreading out its roots by a stream. It has no fear when heat comes, but its leaves will be green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor depart from yielding fruit.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable—who can know it? I Adonai search the heart, I try the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:5-10 TLV)
So our Heavenly Father has to take drastic measures to redirect our steps and guide us effectively into the restoration of our capabilities so we can abide with Him in His Righteousness. He must somehow restore to us our original Genesis 1 birthright, identity, and purpose for being in this world! And dear ones… for us… this is an impossible task! In light of what God’s Word tells us about the inherited shortcomings of our fallen hearts, to meet God’s Standards is far beyond our ability to achieve! So we MUST look to, and depend upon, Another to save us. To save us from what? To save us from ourselves!
“For we know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold to sin. For I do not understand what I am doing—for what I do not want, this I practice; but what I hate, this I do. But if I do what I do not want to do, then I agree with the Torah—that it is good.
“So now it is no longer I doing it, but sin dwelling in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me—that is, in my flesh. For, to will is present in me, but to do the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, this I practice. But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I doing it, but sin that dwells in me.
“So I find the principle—that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I delight in the Torah of God with respect to the inner man, but I see a different law in my body parts, battling against the law of my mind and bringing me into bondage under the law of sin which is in my body parts. Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—IT IS THROUGH MESSIAH YESHUA OUR LORD! So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of Sin!” (Romans 7:14-24 TLV, Emphasis added)
The Foundation: It Is NEVER About Us,
It Is ALWAYS And ONLY About The Living Word And His Finished Work
So what is our answer? The answer is that this can only be done by, and through, and in our Messiah Yeshua! It can never be about us, or what we do, or how well we think we can do it! When it comes to bringing about our redemption and restoration, our personal abilities are entirely out of the picture! It’s all about our risen Lord, the Living Word of God made flesh! He’s the Hero of our story because our track records rub our noses in the reality that, apart from Him, we can do nothing! But people don’t want to admit that, do they? So… notice what the Lord says:
“For you say, ‘I am rich, I have made myself wealthy, and I need nothing.’ But you do not know (realize) that you are miserable and pitiable and poor and blind and naked!” I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white clothes so that you may dress yourself and so the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore, be zealous and repent. (Revelation 3:17-19 TLV. Amplification and emphasis added.)
So God tells us in a variety of ways that, unless His Living Word is truly deferred to, and allowed to live and do His redemptive work from within our innermost being, we are hopelessly bankrupt and incapable of saving ourselves. This is why Paul, in his exasperation with the floundering Galatian believers said:
“To be courted is good, but let it always be in a good way—and not just when I am there with you. My dear children! Again I suffer labor pains UNTIL MESSIAH IS FORMED IN YOU! I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, for I don’t know what to make of you.” (Galatians 4:18-20 TLV)
Regardless of our ethnic and cultural background, regardless of the chronological era or geographical location we inhabit, and regardless of how ‘spiritual’ and ‘religious’ and self-righteous we may try to make ourselves appear, we’re hopelessly trapped within the Death matrix into which Mankind’s fall into Sin has trapped us all. Sin is the undeniable, inescapable issue between all human beings (except for One) and Almighty God! God hates Sin and will not allow even a speck of it to abide in His Perfect Presence! But our fallen nature is utterly permeated by it, and nothing we do will ever be able to deliver us from the sentence of Death that it has imposed on us! Sin can do nothing but beget Death!
So God has to be legally free to deliver us from ourselves… and remake us into brand new creations. And He can do that legally, only if and when we repent of what we are, and what we do as fallen, Sin-full creatures. We must hear God’s Gospel summons and believe, submit to, and embrace His Living Word… so that the Word can legally serve as our New and Eternal Life and Perfect Blood Covenant Covering of True Righteousness!
So our Heavenly Father must apply His discipline to our wayward Sin-loving fallen flesh. In other words, He must apply the laws of physics to our wayward souls and bodies in order to get them to go against the grain of what is their natural, inherited, Adamic thrust and desires and tendencies. When He can give us a brand new nature, we can be capable of brand new levels of being and doing. Therefore:
“It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline? But if you are without discipline—something all have come to share—then you are illegitimate and not sons. Besides, we are used to having human fathers as instructors—and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? Indeed, for a short time they disciplined us as seemed best to them; but He does so for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness. Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
“Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble! And make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame will not be pulled out of joint but rather be healed. Pursue shalom with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; and see to it that no bitter root springs up and causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.” (Hebrews 12:7-15 TLV)
The laws of physics to which I refer have to do with the laws of Creation that determine the behavior of energy. Whatever we do in our daily lives is done by the use of the energy that is available to us. This is true of all created beings. So we must gain a thorough understanding of the laws that determine how the energy we use must behave. Here are the laws of Creation that apply to this:
- Energy always travels by the easiest way available to it. (That is, it always seeks the path of least resistance.)
- The path of least resistance is determined by the underlying structure through which the energy will have to pass. For example:
- The wiring for electrical power creates the channel through which its energy will have to pass.
- The geological and architectural layouts of a region will determine the directional flow of the wind’s energy.
- A riverbed’s twists and turns will determine how the water energy that flows through it will have to behave.
- The structural layout of a building’s interior floor plan will determine how the energy of those who inhabit the building will habitually pass through it, etc., etc.
- There are physical underlying structures (for example, water pipes, streets and highways, and corrals, chutes, and pens for animals… And there are non-physical underlying structures (for example, national constitutions, bills of rights, organizational structures, such as the legislative, judicial, and executive governing structures of a nation, military codes of conduct, corporate bylaws, rules for how various games are to be played etc., etc.)
To change the behavior of energy, you must eliminate the previous structure and replace it by designing and creating a new underlying structure with a layout that will ensure that, in the future, the energy passing through it will be channeled to behave in the new desired way. So the new structure must be designed and constructed with intelligent foresight, in a way that ensures that the energy will have to behave exactly the way the designer of the underlying structure intends.
For example, to eliminate chronic flooding in an area that is prone to having local creeks, streams and rivers overflow after the winter thaws and rainy seasons begin, city planners can design a series of connected man-made lakes, and water restraining dams and reservoirs throughout the affected area that will be able to do a better job of containing the mass of water and allow it to flow in lesser, more manageable amounts. In addition, the connecting waterways can be dredged deeply enough to keep the water that will be allowed to flow through them safely within its banks. That will prevent flash flooding and eliminate the need to take emergency panic measures such as ‘sandbagging’ and evacuating previously flood-prone areas and requiring water pumps to drain them.
So when it comes to repentance, and the future self control of one’s behaviors, the same principles apply. Repentant people must forsake and destroy their former underlying structures that, in the past, would continually direct their energy to flood, overflow, and do serious damage to their spiritual wellbeing and their relational interactivity and spiritual, physical, and emotional wellbeing. To achieve this kind of change, people must develop skill in how to remove the current structures in their lives by creating and installing brand new ones to take their place. The new structures will be new Messiah-embodying lifestyle habits and different, productive usages of time, and daily schedules that leave no room or opportunity to indulge old sin habits and use their time for destructive purposes. (This is where the importance of renewing our minds and rewiring our brains with continuous repetition come in.) Habitual reinforcement and use of the new structural design of these layouts will ensure that the person’s energy will be redirected and regulated to flow in desirable directions that, in the future, will eliminate their energy’s former destructive, negative behaviors and outcomes.
This is why God provides us with His Self-Revelation, and commandments, and promises in His written Word. The Word (for example, God’s Torah, and wisdom books like Proverbs, Psalms and the New Covenant Gospels and Epistles) provide true, safe, reliable boundaries, markers, signposts, and warnings that mark off safe paths for us to follow that will maintain our safety, success, and wellbeing, on a consistent basis in the future.
In addition, the Lord gives us the Gift of His indwelling Holy Spirit who serves as our ever-present Guide, Teacher, and Divine Drill Instructor who disciplines, corrects and transforms us according to the written Word, until the Life, Nature, and Disposition and habitual behavior of our Living Messiah takes form within our innermost being. So God’s written Word provides our new structural pathway… and the Perfect indwelling Presence of His Living Word will serve as the Divine Energy that will produce His supernatural Fruit in us, and through us… for the good of everyone concerned.
So, by faithfully following God’s written Word, Messiah Yeshua, His Living Word, will become our new indwelling Life. And with our cooperation, He will be able to reveal Himself living and acting from within us. And He will create, maintain, sustain, and provide everything we will need to fulfill our identity, purpose, and birthright. And, with consistent practice, we’ll become more acquainted with, and united to our risen Lord. And He will reveal His Father and His Ways to us, and make Himself known through us, to the rest of Creation.
“At that time Yeshua said in response, “I praise You, Father, Lord of Heaven and of Earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and discerning and revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was pleasing to You.
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”(Matthew 11:25-27 TLV, Emphasis added)
“Philip said to Him, “Master, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
“Yeshua said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time, and you haven’t come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own; but the Father dwelling in Me does His works.” (John 14:8-10 TLV, Emphasis added)
As We Build On Messiah, Our Foundation, Something New and Beautiful Begins To Take Shape
So, in His Justice, Wisdom, and Goodness, God clearly reveals to His free-willed creatures what the Reality of His abiding Presence is able to do in us and for us. He shows us the difference between what is Real and True, and what is Unreal and False. He shows us how to live in line with what is True and Right and Good. He makes all of this eminently clear through His Living and written Word living and operating from within us! So through the commandments, revelations, and promises contained in His Word, God sets the proper path before us. His Son is the way, or the path, that is clearly defined and delineated by plainly placed markers that tell us what Reality and Truth are, and what is Good and Acceptable to God, to His Holy Nature and His Eternal Standards of Truth, Reality, Justice, and Righteousness.
“For what man among you, when his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or when he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him! So in all things, do to others what you would want them to do to you—for this is the Torah and the Prophets.
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
“Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes aren’t gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree produces good fruit, but the rotten tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will recognize them by their fruit.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your Name, and drive out demons in Your Name, and perform many miracles in Your Name? Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you workers of Lawlessness!’”
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and yet it did not fall, for its foundation had been built on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:9-27 TLV)
Beware of Alternative Lies, Propaganda, Alien Agendas and Misleading Narratives
The so-called ‘modern enlightened’ views of contemporary ‘liberated people’ prompt them to be incredibly dogmatic, critical, and prejudiced against anyone or anything that would dare to bring up the concepts of ‘Sin’ or ‘Fallen Humanity’ or anything to do with a ‘Creator God.’ They refuse to allow even the mention of such things into today’s narratives, values, agendas and discussions. They do this to protect their egos and personal preferred sin patterns. They do it to maintain a ‘public image,’ a façade of uprightness by which they try to maintain their stations of privilege, specialness, wealth, influence, unassailable authority, and top level status.
But they speak out of both sides of their mouths. They claim to possess some sort of self-approved ‘virtue’ and ‘uprightness’ and moral superiority. But they think, act, and interact according to the impulses of their own opinions, hunches, passions, and desires. So, the Truth is that they’re desperately trying to cover up and deny that their hearts are corrupt, Self-adoring and depraved. They refuse to admit the love of Sin that lurks beneath their perfumed, impeccably fashionable exterior facades!
“Are you also still lacking understanding?” Yeshua said. “Don’t you grasp that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and then is ejected into the sewer? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and those things make the man unholy. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. These are the things that make the man unholy; but to eat with unwashed hands does not make the man unholy.” (Matthew 15:16-20 TLV, Emphasis added)
The modern arenas of academia, science, finance, corporate endeavors, pop culture, and ‘progressive pursuits’ are filled with and managed by arrogant, manipulative, predatory people that do not fear God in the least. Nor do they revere His Word or respect His ways. Instead, they are intent on replacing God with their homemade substitutes. They ignore and bypass His Word and His ways with idols and dogmatic pronouncements and exalted paragons of their own making! They are swallowing the Serpent’s baited hooks with great gusto because they are still clueless concerning the dire catastrophic consequences to which they are making themselves liable. Despite the depths of their self-contrived delusions and defiant posturing, they will never succeed in erasing the Reality of their Creator, nor will they ever be able to negate or cancel out or eliminate the Reality and Influence of His All-Authoritative Living Word!
“Do not move an ancient boundary stone, or encroach on fields of the fatherless, for their redeemer is strong. He will plead their case against you.
Apply your heart to discipline and your ears to words of knowledge. Do not withhold correction from a child. If you strike him with a rod (that is, create a new path of least resistance for him), he will not die. Punish him with a rod (and you will change the path of least resistance for him), and deliver his soul from (ending up in) Sheol.”Proverbs 23:10-14 TLV, Amplification added)
“Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be in the fear of Adonai. For surely there is a future, and your hope will never be cut off. Listen, my son, and be wise, and guide your heart in the right way (let your life flow through a proper, God-approved structural passageway). Do not join those drinking too much wine or gorging on meat, for both drunkards and gluttons will be impoverished—grogginess will clothe them with rags.”(Proverbs 23:17-21 TLV)
‘Cursed is the one who dishonors his father or mother.’ Then all the people are to say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is the one who removes his neighbor’s boundary marker.’ Then all the people are to say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is the one who misleads a blind person on the road.’ Then all the people are to say, ‘Amen.’ (Deuteronomy 27:16-18 TLV)
“He also spoke this parable to them: “The blind cannot show the way to the blind, can he? Won’t they both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly the speck in your brother’s eye, to take it out.”
“For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again does a rotten tree produce good fruit. Each tree comes to be known by its own fruit. For figs are not gleaned out of briars; neither are bunches of grapes gathered from thorn bushes.
“Out of the good treasure of his heart the good man brings forth good, and out of evil the evil man brings forth evil. For from the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks.”
“Why do you call Me ‘Master, Master’ and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on The Rock. And when a flood came, the torrent burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.
“But the one who hears yet does not do is like a man who built a house upon land without a foundation. When the torrent burst against it, immediately it collapsed—and the destruction of that house was great!” (Luke 6:39-49 TLV. Emphasis added.)
Beloved, are there still areas in your life that remain unbridled and out of control, and that do damage to you and to those you love? If so, then it’s time to wake up! Look at the underlying structure you have adopted and created for yourself. That structure is making sure that the energy of your life keeps overflowing its banks and doing enormous damage! So repent of that life structure. Apply the Cross to it… so that it may be dismantled and destroyed and you can be free to design and create a new structure with a wise, Godly, success-ensuring layout. If you do that, then the easiest thing for the energy of your life to do in the future will be to flow smoothly, powerfully, and relentlessly in the right direction, doing what is righteous, true, beneficial, and sure to consistently produce God-glorifying, delectable and beneficial fruit!
“Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his (radically independent Self-) life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then ‘He will repay everyone according to his deeds.’” (Matthew 16:24-27 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
“As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. Upon arrival, they made their way to the Jewish synagogue. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, because they received the message with goodwill, searching the Scriptures each day to see whether these things were true. Therefore many of them believed, as well as quite a few prominent (Gentile) Greek women and men.”(Acts 17:10-12 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added).
RENEWING OUR MINDS – THE SIGNIFICANCE OF STRUCTURES
Dear Ones, as we continue to contemplate the ongoing process of renewing our minds in Christ, it’s important that we understand there are certain laws governing the workings of God’s Creation that are at work in everything people try to do. Each of us is working with or against these laws, whether we know it or not. Obviously, working against those laws brings only futility and failure, while working with them is one of the wisest choices we can ever make. Here’s more wisdom from the Ultimate Journey materials which have helped many disciples over the years. In this post, we will cover two such laws that are key in the process of renewing our minds (with more to follow in future posts):
- Energy always seeks the path of least resistance. Unless it’s trapped, it will always move along the easiest way open to it; and
- The underlying structure through which the energy must pass is what determines and creates the path of least resistance.
In other words, if the riverbed runs south, the energy will head south; if west, then the energy heads west, and so on. There are no surprises. You can predict it with great accuracy, thus whenever something is not working properly and we want to see why, we must work with these laws. First, we identify the structure and the individual parts that make up the overall structure. Then we can see what each part of the structure is doing to the energy flow. So our effective mind renewal must include creating new mental structures that produce effective change and channel our energies in new directions. Here are a few examples to look at… can you identify parts that reveal conflicting sources of self-life and Christ honoring, Christ filled thinking and choices?
- Farley is married to a lovely lady. They are raising four children. He runs his own business. He is one of the officers of a business association. He gambles at a local casino three to five times a week. He’s a boy scout leader. He’s studying computer science at a technical college twice a week.
- Dora is a member of a church. She is engaged to marry Morgan. She takes classes to enhance her real estate sales. She occasionally goes on business trips with her boss, during which they have sexual relations. She donates some of her time to help out at a home for unwed mothers. She is a vocal supporter of the pro-choice movement.
As you can see above, both Farley and Dora had some godly parts in the structures of their lives, but they also had parts in their structures that caused the energy passing through them to work at cross purposes to some of the other parts. So the energy was scattering in conflicting directions and causing severe sin and relational dysfunction in the lives of those who were close to them. And so we disciples can learn from them. When we examine our underlying structure, and spot parts of it that cause our energy to malfunction, we can clearly see which parts of our structure need to be taken out. And what new parts can be inserted to replace them.
And if we redesign the layout of our structure, making each part to be compatible with all the other parts, then our energy will flow smoothly and powerfully in the same direction and achieve the goal that we truly desire. It is very necessary that we examine our structures thoroughly and use our ‘gardening skills’ to remove what is harmful and negative, and supply the beneficial ingredients that are actually needed. Thus we can plant and develop different priorities, values, goals and boundaries that will channel our energy properly so that it accomplishes what we know will be right, true, productive, and promote our temporal and eternal states of wellbeing. Thus when we change our thought patterns, choices, decisions, beliefs, goals and choices of our minds and will, we’ll be planting the right kinds of new seeds. And the new seeds will soon begin to replace, outnumber, and choke out the old ‘weed producing’ stuff that used to ruin our times of harvest.
And, if we continually pay attention to our underlying life structures, and monitor what they are forcing our energy to produce, we will eventually create a totally new and different path of least resistance (or a new path of most acceptance) through which our energy will have to flow! And then our lives and relationships will change… because we have changed. And this is how we can move out of a self-life, self-centered path of least resistance and create a new one through which the perfect indwelling Presence and Life of our risen Lord of glory, Yeshua, will be able to flow. Then the mental ‘territory’ in our souls and brains will be safely and gloriously under His Headship.
Here’s another word picture to help with this concept: think of an old west prairie town with a building on fire. The townspeople form a bucket brigade between the burning building and the town well, passing buckets of water one to another to put the fire out. That structure will only work if each person (each individual part of the underlying ‘bucket brigade structure’, remains focused on putting out the fire and does his or her part to work toward that end. If the people do not agree on the end purpose, and if each part does not cooperate in that process, the energy passing through will scatter in crazy, counterproductive directions and the goal will not be reached… and the building will not be saved!
Now let’s look at God’s Kingdom and how He has designed its advance on the earth:
- Father gives Himself to the Son.
- The Son receives Him with zero resistance.
- The Son, being one with the Father, communicates Himself to the Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit offers zero resistance and receives all that pertains to Christ.
- The Holy Spirit begins to communicate Himself into the one who is next in line – us!
- We are supposed to receive the Holy Spirit, with zero resistance, so that we can be filled to overflowing with the Christ-Life He is here to give us, so that…
- We can apply the Reality of His indwelling Life to ourselves and our daily lives, personally. And as His Life flows into us and through us, we will be able to pass it on to whoever else we encounter in our daily experiences.
- And those who give Him no resistance, will also be able to receive the benefits His Life bestows, and those who do throw up resistance, will not be able to benefit from His nearness.
In this God-designed bucket brigade, everything works beautifully as far as God’s parts are concerned. The Father, Son and Spirit always accomplish what God sets out to do because He is one. And He is not dysfunctional. Thus, the part of the ‘bucket brigade’ process He begins never has any trouble… until… the energy leaves the Holy Spirit… and passes to any human that is in line to receive it from Him. That’s the point where things can begin to go wrong. If we receive and cooperate with the God-given energy wholeheartedly and obediently, the Good God intended to bestow upon us, will enter into that life, and proceed out from it and beyond. But if we add alien ingredients to God’s underlying structure, we will cause the energy flow to be scattered, and interrupted, and things will begin to go wrong.
Can you see what we’re saying? Can you see why this is so important? We must ‘step outside’ of the automatic flow of our natural Adamic flesh-ridden worldly thoughts, patterns and ways of operating! We must take inventory of what we’re actually doing? What kind of structure are we forcing our life’s energy to pass through? Is it in alignment with God and His Nature? Or is it a worldly, self-destructive, damage producing kind of monstrosity? Beloved we must take an honest assessment of the structures we’ve set up for ourselves and examine their interdependent pasts with new Gardener eyeglasses! Be honest enough to recognize and admit what your structure is forcing your life-energy to do as it passes through. Don’t blithely and mindlessly assume that the structure you’ve haphazardly assembled in past years is okay. It may be fatally flawed and Sin-corrupted and dooming you to eternal failure! So do not just assume that your fallen inherited operating system is okay just as it is! Make sure that you create and install a new underlying structure for yourself that truly comes from God and is in agreement with what He is here to be and to do from within you!
If we all pay close attention to this, we will be able to learn how to work with the laws of His Creation, instead of working against them. If we work with them, those laws will work on our behalf; but if we work against them, they will curse our outcomes with failure and frustration every time. (See Deuteronomy 28, and Proverbs 3:5-8, and Jeremiah 17:5-10)
So this is how we can break free from our old patterns that rob our beloved Bridegroom from the glory that is His just due. Worldly Self-adoring patterns prevent His Life from flowing into us and through us freely and effectively. So… if we truly want to be able to truly embody and accurately radiate His awesome Presence and Glory in Spirit and in Truth, we must place no resistance in His way:
“Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then ‘He will repay everyone according to his deeds.’” (Matthew 16:24-27 TLV.)
When we do as He tells us above, our Self-life underlying structure will be demolished, and a new Resurrection Life underlying structure will take its place. And that structure will enable Him to live and work from within us, and be able to touch the world around us, through our yielded flesh! When we do that, we become points of entry on earth, through which God’s Living Word can enter into this world and establish and extend the range and scope of His Kingdom on Earth. Could our lives have a better purpose and set of results than that? I don’t think so.
Once we begin installing new Yeshua-compatible mental structures and our brains begin to operate out of a new mental blueprint which contains what we really want, it will change everything. When we thoughtfully, wisely, and consistently install new parts to our structure that flow from God’s wisdom and purpose, all the parts in our structure will be congruent will ‘dovetail’ with each other. The results will become a magnificent witness to our overcoming Lord because now the flow of time and energy that will pass through our life structure will be focused and concentrated powerfully to reveal His Fruitful and Perfectly Effective Presence living and producing God’s Fruit in us and through us! Everything will be synchronized and so each part agrees with and enhances the activity of all the other parts. When Christ is our all in all, there is no friction, conflict, scattering or cross purposes. Christ, the Head, is never opposed to Himself in His true disciples. And so He will be one with Himself in disciple A and disciple B and disciple C, etc. then disciples A, B and C will also be one with each other… and the scope of Yeshua’s worldwide Body will be free to grow and multiply and spread God’s Life-giving Influence throughout the rest of His, to His Eternal Glory!
For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah. For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free; and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. For indeed the body is not one part but many.
If the foot says, “I’m not a hand, so I’m not part of the body,” that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body. And if the ear says, “I’m not an eye, so I’m not part of the body,” that doesn’t make it stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If it were all hearing, how could it smell? But as it is, God arranged each of the parts in the body exactly as he wanted them. Now if they were all just one part, where would the body be? But as it is, there are indeed many parts, yet just one body.
So the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you”; or the head to the feet, “I don’t need you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be less important turn out to be all the more necessary; and upon body parts which we consider less dignified we bestow greater dignity; and the parts that aren’t attractive are the ones we make as attractive as we can, while our attractive parts have no need for such treatment. Indeed, God has put the body together in such a way that he gives greater dignity to the parts that lack it, So that there will be no disagreements within the body, but rather all the parts will be equally concerned for all the others. Thus if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; and if one part is honored, all the parts share its happiness.
Now you together constitute the body of the Messiah, and individually you are parts of it. (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)
Amen and Selah (pause and think about this)!
I delight to be on the discipleship transformation journey with you!
Love, Mum Nancy