We all got saved via an experience with Jesus. We came from a very rational, intellectual space disconnected from our hearts and God. Then, we experienced Jesus in a way that doesn't lend itself to explanation or need to. Yet, surprisingly, many believers who start from a very relational, supernatural experience with the Holy Spirit try to revert to an intellectual explanation for how God speaks. There are rational reasons for spirituality; we are just adding Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) to IQ, EQ (Emotional Intelligence), PQ (Political Intelligence), AQ (Adoptive Intelligence), and ZQ (Visionary Intelligence).
We all want to ask the Lord for revelation, understanding, provisions, and physical manifestations. But most of us have had an experience with suffering that made God feel distant or moral failures that made us feel distant. Those experiences left our hearts with a conclusion, God has abandoned me, and I'm on my own. The religious spirit enters at this stage and invites us into his orphanage to help cement the stronghold. We're supposed to serve a God who is distant. Others hear, have seer gifts, prophecy, and experience Father's fellowship, but I don't.
We are accustomed to asking for the presence of the Holy Spirit in meetings. We can feel His moving and hear the prophetic themes He brings. The age of Kingdom adds another dimension. Father requests the honor of our presence in the Courts and Council of Heaven. Entrepreneurial sonship has a kingly side on earth and a priestly function in Heaven.
When spiritual warfare starts, servants beat themselves up. Attacks from the enemy result in strained relationships, rejection, loss of finances, health problems, confusion, etc. Servants immediately conclude God is judging them, and they must have opened a door with sin in their life. Last night I had a dream. There was a tiny sliver in the back of my hand that was hard to see and stuck so tightly I couldn't pull it out for days. Finally, I got a clear view and pulled it out with some difficulty. When I woke up, I asked the Lord what it meant.
We've all heard that "God has a wonderful plan for your life." Most believers can't tell you what it is beyond the pablum of religious generalities (evangelism, missions, Kingdom). The theological paradigm looks like blindfolded believers depending on the Holy Spirit nudging them to stop or go, turn left or right. It sounds like, "I have no idea where I'm going, I'm just faithfully following a trail of breadcrumbs from the Holy Spirit." That's even made to sound spiritual in most charismatic circles (I'm more spiritual if I don't know where I'm going). The testimonies are always in the vein of "God spoke to me, and this miracle happened," as evidence of the success of their breadcrumb relationship.
Jesus gave us authority "to overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing will harm you" (Luke 10:19). We all face the complication of walking that out on earth; we've all experienced failures trying to do things "in Jesus' name." Here are a few of the pitfalls: When our initiative has roots in our own will, it works if it coincides with God and fails when it doesn't. The seemingly random process feels like pinball, and our "misses" naturally back us away from initiative.
The God we "serve" isn't really looking for servants. He is not the King of servants; He is the King of kings. Our Father isn't looking for compliant submission from servants. His heart is longing for collaborative creativity from sons. He treasures two things: 1) sons who are conversant and conversational about His Purpose, and 2) sons who can creatively initiate its implementation on earth. Sons know their Father's business and do it from the heart, not the letter.
In a council session yesterday, a brother "saw" an underground bunker. The scene was like Churchill's command and control center in London. Strategies were laid out, and maps were on the wall and a table. It was a bustling atmosphere. Across the room was a sliding glass door to a deck that overlooked an ocean in Hawaii. On the deck were lounges and a smorgasbord loaded with all kinds of different food. It was beautiful a vacation spot, in the same room with the underground bunker!
At any given time, I have a few friends struggling with cash flow who can't pay all the bills. Some in the business realm and others in ministry (same thing). They are not lazy or unmotivated, they have powerful attributes of success. They are in the theological space of believing they are doing God's work and that He will come through for them. Because I'm doing the will of God, He will pay the bills! (Matt. 6:33) Their testimonies are usually in the category of giving God all the glory. Their stories and hope reside in God showing up at the last minute and doing a miracle because they "believed."
We all know people who are not open or receptive to God or us. I typically move on to people that are open, to buy time for the Holy Spirit to do His job and ripen the fruit. I think they can feel the abandonment in that attitude of leaving them behind. By contrast, Jesus opens hearts and minds, and I believe it is part of our calling as sons to do the same. There is a way to open hearts – It's purpose! Luke 24:32 – They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked of us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" NIV Luke 24:45 – Then he opened their minds (nous) so they could understand the Scriptures. NIV