the death of liberty.

I want to pose a probable truth concerning ‘freedom’ as we know it.  Too often when I write out my thoughts, I’m overly quick to make excuses for my point, attempting to preemptively disarm the thought that I might be a heretic.  I will make a concerted effort to prevent myself from such insecurity in this post.  You are welcome to decide I am a heretic if it suits you.  I would still like to be your friend, regardless.

I believe that freedom for humanity is the gift and reality of God, not a reward.  I am convinced, after a number of years pursuing it in every other venture, including supposed ideas about God, that freedom is a human satisfied in God…discovering Him in every facet of life; in blessing and in trial.
It was the obvious heart cry of Paul in scripture:

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
– Philippians 3:8

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
– Philippians 4:11-13

Paul, the apostle given the privilege of welcoming the gentile world into the family of God (a.k.a – the reason most of us know Jesus) not only called the knowledge of Jesus the highest pursuit of his life, but the only true life in itself.  He was not simply running after an ideal, or a means to an end, He was responding to unmitigated love.  From Eden to present day, the heart of heaven has been declaring the same message: Love the Lord your God.  I’ve heard sermon after sermon concerning this commandment, and seen so many different expressions of the pursuit of it.  It is my personal belief that it’s within that very endeavor that we’ve gone wrong; better said, that we’ve gone missing.
In Galatians 5:16-17 it says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”  It has been fed to me since I can remember, that we are sinners; that our inability to love God is because of our submission to the flesh, as it could seem this passage from Galatians is saying.  WE have to crucify our flesh, that we might walk in the spirit, because they are contrary to one another.  Language like “The Lord has already done enough, He’s just waiting for you to respond.”  We take stories from scripture like the story of the epileptic boy with a demon (Matthew 17:14-21), and the famous verses from them (“…this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”) and create formulas that elevate the admonition of scripture until it becomes the mandate that is going to save the world.  It becomes about the amount or degree to which we pray and fast, unto the end of power or anointing, rather than the truth that the high purpose of such disciplines is intimacy with the Father.  Jesus was pointing to a reality that prayer and fasting were an expression of a longing to draw near to God, which is the ONLY place we are endowed with anointing and have power over darkness.  In the same way that we might misread this scripture from Matthew 17, I want to suggest we’ve looked at freedom from sin the same way.  We’ve taught that freedom is the absence of sin, but I would like to suggest that it is rather the presence of God (Francis Frangipane; Holiness, Truth, and the Presence of God.)  This verse from Galatians 5 advises us clearly in freedom from fulfilling the lust of the flesh: walk in the spirit.

The context of innocence (the garden of Eden) was man unadulterated by the knowledge of good and evil.  Adam and Eve, responding to the love of their Father, and enjoying being with Him in the garden of their pleasure.  Nothing more; nothing less.  They were living in ‘righteousness’, or right relationship with God.  So, if Jesus came to restore us to that very garden and quality of life, what causes us to think that the intent of God has changed?  Our freedom died when we came to know the differentiation between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, and gave ourselves to serving its oppressive reality.  Our liberty died when life became about anything other than God.  So where do we get the idea that ‘freedom from sin’ is only attained if we live in direct opposition to it at all times?  As far as I can break it down, that is basic, grade A, knowledge of good and evil.  To live in constant consciousness of our sin in an effort to run from it will only lead us back to it.  We become that which we behold. The war-strategy, then, is simple: BECOME FASCINATED.  The demon called religion has not sought primarily to bind us in routine, or divide us with denomination, although those are very real expressions of the enslavement wrought by it.  It has primarily sought to keep us fascinated with our SIN and BROKENESS, so that we would never discover the beauty of God.  The guise of the “process of sanctification” (by the way, that phrase is NOWHERE in scripture) has been a plight of the army of hell to make the christian life more about how little we can do that how much He has done.  If you look at scripture, it is GLARINGLY OBVIOUS that humanity was never able to save itself from sin.  Hebrews says that the blood of bulls and goats could never satisfy.  Jesus was the goal of the law; the only hope for a humanity that had fallen short of glory.  The law was given to prove our need for a messiah.  In His resurrection, we have been raised to the newness of life.  Romans 8:11 says “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”  The wages of sin are death, and we know that the spirit of God was given to us to lead us into truth; He lives in you to lead you into all truth, the knowledge of Jesus, the only eternal life (John 17:3).  The only problem it would seem, is that most of the body has read these scriptures, but has never lived them.

Galatians 3:2-7 says “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?  Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?  Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”  Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.”   It’s the good news of every protestant and evangelical denomination in America: you’re a sinner, but you’ve been saved by grace.  While the best intentions were always in the heart, it has left most of the church a groveling mess of self-loathing and spiritual dullness that has looked a whole lot more like the death and carnality in the world around them then Jesus.  But I would like to suggest it isn’t because we haven’t “tried”, but rather because we’ve tried so hard.  This passage from Galatians 3 speaks to the heart of the issue in most of us.  We began in the spirit, and then began to lean on the flesh to overcome.  However, in scripture the only method explained for ‘overcoming’ is the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, both of which witness to the power of Jesus.  Our good efforts to turn from our sin, to consciously live in ‘freedom’, have time and time again led us to the same bondage.  Recurrent sin is nothing more than spending more time with your failure than your beloved.  He will finish the good work He started in us, so why do we not give our lives to be enveloped in Him? (Phil. 1:6)

Here is my point:  It was for freedom that Christ set us free, so lets BE FREE.  He’s after your heart, and He cleansed your hands.  He has done it; it is finished.  This is liberty.  The magnification of sin will wear down your soul, and steal the throne He was always meant to sit on.  If He isn’t there, you’re bound in religion.  It’s the master plan of hell masquerading as holiness.  But I tell you that HE is holiness, and you are in Him.  End of story.

Life, and life abundant.  Pleasure forever more.  The spirit of truth who leads us.
Bless the Lord. I’m free at last.

UPDATE: LINK

Update on life as of now…

In pursuit of love: July 7, 2011

Momentum

Tonight, I find myself in a strange suspension of emotion.

I have so much ahead of me that requires me to leave a proportionate amount behind to run into, and I can’t seem to decide which is the greater challenge.

After 3 1/2 years of pounding the earth here to see God move on our base, in YWAM, and by extension the nations of the earth…I’ll lift myself from the dust to look on the multitudes that stand here in my wake, and then turn to walk toward what the Lord has for me.

So uncomfortably warm, the familiarity of sudden transition. But the essence of momentum is that it keeps moving.

I remember walking off the plane on January 1st of 2008, to the hospitable wall of humidity and the scent of warm asphalt.
My immediate response was not gratitude, unfortunately.

Oh, but how my heart has moved here…

I’ve always heard the sound in my soul groan for people, not places.  Accordingly, I have gone deeper with people in this place than I had ever expected.  Every bittersweet emotion stems from the reality that I can’t just take them all with me.

Being called to “family” seems to negate its own purpose when it calls you away from the ones you love most.

I have such sweet anticipation for the unimaginable plan of God in the months ahead, but my heart can only see through this glass, and dimly at that.  My soul remembers the strength of laughter, and the unifying of hearts in His manifest presence; tears, and joy, and pain, and empathy.  Weeping together on behalf of one another’s burdens, and relinquishing our voice to the volume of a heart rent for brotherly love.  Making way for the joy of a life newborn, or a covenant finally realized.

If I’m honest, the humidity never made a mark.  You all did.

Life had its course, and we were simply caught in the wake together.
It was the great privilege of my life.

But one thing I know of this gospel we wear so proudly:  Let any man that desires to find his life, lose it for His sake.

I am not my own.
Your way is higher.

I have faith, and a stirring within me…there is long-suffering desire to be fulfilled on the other side of this pain.
For now though, I love all of you so dearly, and I will just have to settle for being uncertain how to leave a part of my heart in a place my body is not, and stay alive.

Thankyou all for sharing yourselves with me.
This is how they will know we are His disciples…this is how I found Him here.
Thankyou for loving me.

 

the likeness of men

I have been fascinated by the concept of humility as long as I can remember.  I haven’t always had language for it, or even known it to identify it in those around me or myself.  But the emotions provoked at its appearing, and the epic romance of its selflessness, evidenced in plot lines of movies and the responses of humans just rarely and randomly enough to intrigue my affection…those things I knew.  For the longest time, I thought I loved it because it reminded me of my mom, unaware that its origin far outlived her and her World War II stories about my grandfather.  No. I’ve long since realized that I loved her partly because she reminded me of it.  The simple and beautiful fragrance of its nearly imperceptible presence tugged at my tiny human heart, and I wish now that I’d known better to run into its unconditional hospitality.

This is where I believe I lost sight of who I was…who I am.

I’ve heard humility defined many different ways. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines humility as “a modest or low view of ones own importance”.  The Miriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “the quality or state of being humble”.  Ken Blanchard says it like this: “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, its thinking of yourself less”.

I like that one.

As well as sort of loathe it, because I can honestly say I’ve never felt like I’m very good at it…which is still thinking of myself.  Case and Point.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery (something to be held onto) to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
– Philippians 2:5-8 (parenthetical comment added)

Scripture says that the love of God is demonstrated toward us in that while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8).  It was love that sent Him to the cross, and joy that kept Him there (Hebrews 12:2).  I would like to suggest that the love that was demonstrated toward us in Jesus’ death on the cross was first demonstrated in His humility, and the joy by which He endured the cross was accessed and maintained by way of His humility.  Accordingly, the call to share in the cross of Christ as those who love Him (Luke 9:23-25) begins in sharing in the humility of Christ.  I don’t believe it to be solely external suffering and persecution that denotes a believers measure of Christ-likeness, for the Lord Himself looks at the hearts of men (1 Samuel 16:7).  But rather a mans willingness to die to himself, and more pointedly the sin nature, on the inside that speaks of the life truly resident within him.

Jesus was obedient, laying down His entitlement to defend His innocence and to act in His power (an entitlement that only He had).  It was obedience, a fruit of the internal quality of His heart, that lead Him to death.  We see in Hebrews 5:8 that “…He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”  The sequence then would seem to be humility unto obedience, and obedience unto death…a death that was the atoning sacrifice for all of mankind.  In essence, His humility then was the salvation of all of humanity who would believe on His sacrifice.

I google image searched the word “humility”, and what I found illustrates something to me.

There were 3 primary categories of images:
1. A human frame silhouetted against a form much larger than themselves, such as a mountain, great expanse of sky, or star-scape.

2. Humans in life-threatening or humiliating circumstances; men in a boat in the middle of the ocean unaware of the shark about to surface and violently destroy their vessel; a skinny little man being thrown around by a sumo wrestler; a very muscular man standing on the beach in the sun, having wet himself.

3. Images of Jesus, primarily washing the disciples feet.

I want to suggest that while all three are accurate, one is more irresistible than the others.

In light of His person, the grandeur and magnificence of the uncreated God, we can most likely agree that we are nothing and have nothing good apart from Him.  That being said, this same God chose not only to come in the likeness of us, but He delights in living inside of us.  Love sent Him to the cross, and the joy set before Him kept Him there…the promised Holy spirit, third person of the God-head, coming to make His dwelling on the inside of men.  The longing of God to be as close as possible to the ones He longed for, fulfilled in a moment and because of His willingness to do whatever it took to get there; because of His willingness to be humble, and therefore obedient, even unto the death of the cross.

I think it would be a heinous crime to camp on the issue of the sacrifice of Christ in forfeiting His deity, however mind-blowing and life-altering it may be.  If the Lord humbling Himself was to become nothing and live as a man, I want to contend that it was not an expression of His valuing man in a lowly fashion, but rather an expression of the high value of lowliness within the heart of God.  When our hearts and minds are rearranged to look like His, we don’t choose the walk of the cross simply because it is a command, but because it is the place of greatest joy…because we know Him more in that way (Phil. 3:10-11).  This is the mind that was in Christ Jesus: I will die if I have to for the sake of true love.

The God-man opened His mouth and said “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do”(John 17:4), and all this before He gave Himself to the cross.  But the reality was that He was given to the cross already.  He had already died on the inside, so His flesh had to follow suit.  He was first humble, and then obedient, even unto death.  The way of the cross begins in the internal and secret place of every believer.  It is not only the way of life, but the only appropriate response to the knowledge of Him.  Too often we “decide” we will DO the things of the kingdom, or BE holy as He is.  But in light of His person, we cannot help but be humbled.  A human being either partially or completely unaware of their state of existence, strength and weakness, will be made accurately aware in the brilliant and revealing light of His countenance.  True humility is the knowledge of God.

The essence of the kingdom is that it is governed by a King, and the essence of being holy is that He IS holiness.  A man infatuated with Jesus will look more and more like Him by default.  It is what we were created for.

I am still infatuated by this humility, the emotions provoked at its appearing, and the epic romance of its selflessness…I see them more readily now than as a little boy.  Sometimes in my own heart..not often.  Ask my girlfriend.

But I remember Him, and His desire to wash our feet, and I forget about myself.  How does He do that?

Thankyou momma, for reminding me of humility; for looking like Jesus.
Simple, beautiful fragrance.  Unconditional hospitality.

Favor the wind in my direction…I’ll run in this time.

Toward the upward.

Welcome to the visible internal dialogue of an extremely verbal processor.

If I know my own heart, it would be a half-truth to say I know all of what will come out of it on this blog.  My desire is to have a place for people that I know and love, as well as those who’d venture to look on, to know what is happening in my life…most of which will be the consequence of what the Lord is doing in my heart.

Revelation. Direction. Celebration.

Simple, and probably overly wordy. I’ll just be true to what I know to be true, and you can decide for yourself where you stand.  Even so, truth is not relative, and no man has the market on it.

Well, one man…the one in whom we realize truth is one man.

Here is an attempt to welcome you in to my pressing on.
Toward the upward call in truth.

 

Thanks for coming.
Levi Miller