Rest

A unique opportunity came along last week. The opportunity to be discipled. I use to beg God for a mentor. I consider Francis Frangipane one, though we have only met once, and that was to hand me a diploma from his online school. But I studied everything he wrote, and got his weekly messages for years. It definitely turned my walk with Jesus in a different direction. I was on the road to being a great Pharisee. Francis was the spiritual bungee cord jerking me back to pursue a Person, not ministry.
And yet.....I still ended up pursueing ministry because that was how I thought I would connect with the Person more deeply.
I was taught that my call was my purpose. Wrong.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. So tired of being wrong....so grateful someone is investing in a total stranger to bring correction to my life. Like Francis says....if you don't like to be wrong, pray for someone to correct you!
I had a dream when I first found Jesus. Brad and I were looking at a house...and it was perfect! It had everything we wanted and dreamed of. The previous owners had even left the basement full of antiques and things we loved and wanted. The price was ridiculously low and as we were walking through, marveling and getting so excited when I felt the floor shift and move a little. Concerned we went outside. The whole house had slid partly off its foundation. I turned to Brad and asked, "can the foundation be fixed?"
I knew the Lord was pointing to my foundation being faulty, and maybe the church as well, but I just have not been able to grasp the extent and meaning of that message.
I suddenly have a feeling the fog is lifting.
So what is the purpose of our life? To glorify God? To worship Him? To minister in His name?
At IHOP I kept hearing that I was made for love. I realized I wasn't really letting God love me, but
how does one do that? All I was told was to love God. That will be a short trip, friend. We don't have much staying power on our own. I began to ask for God to help me love him pretty soon out of the gate, because I came to the end of mine pretty quickly.
So at IHOP I began to pray that I would let God love ME. To open my spirit wide to receive His love.
The spirit of legalism is so clever. He clothes himself as an angel of light. The church is saturated in it. And the foundation is beginning to crumble as ministers fall to every manner of sin, as believers worldwide begin to harvest what they have sown in darkness. Let us return to our first love, quickly.
His first love. The love we simply responded to and entered into when it was held out to us. We have fallen from HIS first love, not ours. Go ahead and stir up your emotions and see how long that lasts. No....it has to be received from our Father, and only then do we have rivers of living water flowing out. Love that brings life to others.
So let's all "give up on ourselves" as my mentor said. Let's stop trying to fix ourselves and let's return to our first love, and receive it again. Our purpose is to love Him and others. Our purpose, is to love Him and others. Our purpose is relationship.