I think it's so important that we stop focusing on what we DO and start focusing on who we ARE. Because what we do FLOWS from who we are. You can't address the issue through behavior modification. That was the Law's big flaw--it was external and couldn't bring about real, internal, lasting change. But once you know who you are, that's when you begin to BE who you are NATURALLY. That's when what's inside begins to overflow out of you. I guess what I'm trying to say is... it's all bout the genes. All about the DNA. The Divine Nature of the Almighty. It's all about the blood. And look at what Jesus said in John 6:53-54, "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." This is important. Vital. Because you can't experience Jesus' eternal, everlasting, abundant, Resurrection Life until you completely identify with Him. I don't think Jesus was talking about canibalism. I think He was talking about getting Him into us. Past the head, and into the heart. (And I know He's already IN us. I'm talking about receiving the gift we've been given.) And this is in direct contrast to the Old Testament way of looking at things. Jesus said we have to drink His blood if we want to be a part of Him. Genesis 9:4 says, "But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." And then Leviticus 17:11 echoes that sentiment, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood..." God didn't want us to partake of THAT blood because He didn't want us to be part of THAT flesh! Just like He warned Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He wanted something better for us. A more excellent way. The blood of the Lamb. The Tree of Life. He wanted us to know who we really were. And that's why He said, "Let there be light" when the heaven and the earth (the mind and the body, US) were dark, and void, and without form. That's why Jesus came at the appointed time to show us who we are, by showing us who God is. Not a distant, angry taskmaster who is always out to get us (which is what the Law of Moses might have you believe), but a loving heavenly Father who is not mad AT us, but mad ABOUT us! He didn't want us to have life... He wanted us to have ABUNDANT life. Don't drink the blood of the flesh. Drink the blood of the Lamb. Don't identify with Adam. Identify with Jesus. 2 Peter 1:4 says what I think I'm trying to say like this, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." According to Genesis 3:6 the woman found the tree of knowledge of good and evil pleasant to the eyes. She lusted after it. She wanted to be like God and thought that was the way to do it. When in fact she was already like God, and just didn't know it. She tried to earn something that can't be earned. Because, again, it's not about what you do. It's about who you are. It's about partaking of the divine nature. Knowing and believing that God's heart beats with love in our chests, and the blood of the Lamb carries that love throughout the entire the body! (Our individual body and the corporate body of Christ.) Life is in the blood. Our DNA defines who we are. To say it another way: You are what you eat. What you fill yourself with is what will overflow out of you. Love inside comes out!

Love is the creative force of the universe. You can't make something out of nothing. So when God--who, remember IS love--made the heaven and the earth, He was simply creating an extension of Himself. And I know that it seems like love is hard to find, but that's because it's underneath the surface. Deep down inside. That's why the deep calls out to the deep. And that's why the Spirit, which is within us, works from the inside-out. Love is so big, and is ever expanding (get it? Eternal... everlasting...) that it fills us to overflowing. And while this particular analogy may make it seem like bridges are unnecessary--we are supposed to flow in the river of life, right? Even as it flows out of our bellies, or our innermost being? Well, that's true. But we also need that bond to connect us. We need to be able to get to the other side of the river, so to speak. Because while everybody is on this same journey (whether they know or not) harldy anybody is at exactly the same point in the journey. But since the journey is never-ending, that's ok. It's not about the destination. It's about moving forward. Walking by faith. Not getting stuck. It's about that connection where even when we don't agree on things, we can still fellowship. And that connection is called love. I can love you whether I agree with you or not. And truly loving you comes from understanding you and accepting you, NOT trying to change you. I've never felt the need to MAKE someone agree with me. I heard a preacher say this one time and it really kind of defined my take on my ministry: "I believe what I believe because it makes me happy. And even if I'm wrong... leave me alone! Because I'M HAPPY!" That's how I tend to deal with other people. If you want to know what I think--not to argue, but to understand--then I'll tell you. But otherwise, I'm pretty much content to do my thing and let you do yours. I've actually had people on FaceBook deny my friend request because I wasn't willing to jump through their hoops and declare my allegiance to what they believe. Man... I think that's crazy. I don't agree with half the stuff I read on FaceBook. But that doesn't mean I go on a deleting spree. You're allowed to think what you want to think. For real. You are. And if I build walls, cutting you off, because we are different... that says a lot more about ME than it does about you. Think about how boring it would be if everybody was exactly the same. Variety is the spice of life. It makes things interesting. AND, for the record, while 1 John 2:20 tells us that, "...ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things," I don't understand everything I know. There are some things that I have some insight in. And there are some things that I am clueless about. Yeah, I admit it. But if I have a piece, and you have a different piece, and we put those pieces together, then we start to see more of the big picture. Almost every religious denomination came from someone getting a revelation, coming out of where they were, and then stopping right there. They used a bridge to get out of where they were, and then immediately started putting walls up. They started with the creative force of the bridge, but then moved right into trying to keep what they had safe. And while that is a very natural motive to have... the execution is all wrong. You don't protect what you've got by hoarding it. You protect it by sharing it. That's what love is. Love is giving. And bridges help us reach other people, so we can share what we've got with them!

Love is what connects us. Love is the ONLY thing that CAN connect us in a true, pure, holy way. And in a world where it seems so easy to destroy things, to build walls, and condemn others... love is the only thing that builds relationships. Love is the foundation we build on, and love is the bridge that allows us to cross the gaps that seem to seperate us. Major on the majors and minor on the minors, right? Let love be the thing that's the most important, and everything else will fall into place. In fact, everything else will simply reveal itself to be in divine order. Because love IS the divine order, and Jesus already remade the world in His image. The consuming fire that is God already burned up everything else. When the light shines, we see things clearly. Not as we hope they are, but as they really are. Not as we try to make them, but as GOD already made them. The kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of heaven. The Kingdom of love! It's all about love. Love is the "debt" we owe to each other. And the only reason we can pay it is because we are connected to the source. Because the God who IS love first loved us. Love is the glue that holds us together. Even when we don't agree on everything. ESPECIALLY when we don't agree on everything. And I think that's key--we don't have to agree on everything. In fact, we don't have to agree on anything. My love for you really doesn't have anything to do with you. Now let me explain. What I means is: My love isn't DEPENDENT on you. It's not conditional. If you act a certain way (or DON'T act a certain way) it doesn't effect my love for you. Love remains. It covers the multitude of (all) sins. It takes condemnation completely out of the equation. When we're standing on the bridge of love all that stuff that we let get in the way is beneath us. It's under our feet. And it can't trip us up because it's WAY under our feet. A life of love is the ascended life. The abundant life. The eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life! That's why the Holy Spirit is so important--He is our love receptor, He equips and empowers us to receive the love of God. And once we receive it, we can release it. We receive it BY releasing it. I think people are always looking for connection. Looking for a safe place where they won't be condemned, but where they'll be accepted. And that's what the bride does. It connects us. That's where the bridge leads: to the Kingdom. To safety. To righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. To the place where we know that we are loved, and then out of that love we CAN love. Lots of little things can seperate us. But only love can bring us together. Only love can make life worth living. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. Life IS love. Connection. Relationship. Not you vs me, but you AND me. We're in this together. And we're all different parts of the same body. Nobody hates their body but loves it and cherishes it. We don't need more walls. We need more bridges!

Bridges connect us by making a way over the gaps. Love binds and holds us together. It seems like "human nature" to either build walls--to keep things in or out--or to destroy everything in sight. Burn it all to the ground. Scorched earth. What we don't seem to understand is that GOD is the consuming fire, and He doesn't burn down... He burns UP. He consumes everything except Himself--remember when Moses saw the burning bush the thing that stood out was that the bush itself wasn't being consumed--and He leaves only Himself. Only love. That's what happened on the cross, at the Messianic rebirth of the world. That's what happened when Jesus gave His life for us and gave His life to us. He built a bridge. Do you know why the book of Hebrews can boldly state that everything is under our feet? Because we have ascended. I like the idea of being "in the world, but not of the world," but the truth of the matter is that the world passed away. We're in the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom is within us! We don't have to operate by the world's standards. We don't have to stumble around in the dark. The light is shining! The light that's in us, and the light that IS us! It always blows me away that when Jesus said, "You are the light of the world--like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden" (Matthew 5:14 NLT) He said it BEFORE the cross! He was looking INTO us, instead of looking AT us, and He was revealing our true identity to us. He was speaking that same Word that God spoke in the beginning: LET there be light. The light was always there. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But what needed to happen was for us to let it be. For us to stop trying to be someone we're not and just be who we are. But we had to see it in order to be it. Jesus had to shine the light before we could shine. Like the butterfly, remember? He fluttered His wings, showing us how to fly. It's always upward and God-ward. Fire burns UP. Bridges carry us OVER things. We have OVERcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our (His) testimony. And what is our (His) testimony? That He loved us so much that He'd rather die than be without us. That He poured His Spirit out on all flesh in order to build a bridge so that we could connect on that eternal level of Spirit to Spirit, holy to holy. We don't have to agree on every little thing. We can major on the majors and minor on the minors. As long as we build on the foundation that is Christ. The foundation that is love. Love covers the multitude of sins right? Love covers ALL sin. We don't have to let anything come between us. And I'm not saying we have to participate in everything, but I am saying there's no condmnation in Christ. We can let people be who they are without judging them or trying to change them. We can build bridges instead of walls. Because that what Jesus did for us. And that's what He continues to do IN us!

I don't know why this is, but is seems like it's so much easier to break things than it is to build them. And I think maybe it's because there are so MANY ways to break things, but really only one way to build them. Remember yesterday we were looking at the negative things that we use to try to bind people to us. Guilt, and whatnot. But that's not relationship, that's bondage. In the same way, we seem to let the smallest things separate us. We make mountains out of molehills and let the smallest slight tear us apart. We assume that if someone does something to us (or doesn't do something for us) it's because they have some sort of personal agenda against us. But it's my experience that most of the time we're just too busy thinking about ourselves to even think about each other for good or ill. And that, my friends, is where love comes in. The bridge that connects us. Because love is what it's all about. It's what everybody wants. What everybody needs. It's the only true connection there is. Hebrews 13:1 says, "Let brotherly love continue." In the Message Bible it reads, "Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love." Love is what brings us together, and what holds us together. Love is the foundation that everything else must be built on. Love is the deep calling out to the deep. Love is Spirt to Spirit, holy to holy. Love is the true me and the true you lining up with each other because we are lining up with Jesus--who IS love. God in the flesh, love in a body. And when we know that love is IN our body, that's when it starts to come OUT. When we fill ourselves to overflowing with God's love it comes out naturally and gets all over everybody we come into contact with. The problem is when we look for love in all the wrong places. When we try to get love from someone else. Because love is never about getting. It is always about giving what we already have. Receiving and releasing. Because love IS giving. Giving your life--yourself--to your neighbor, or your friend, or your family. Laying your life down. Lifting someone else up. When we're too preoccupied with ourselves (self-centered) that's when we miss out on being focused on others (Christ-centered). Let me say it like this: There seems to be a great mystery about the mind of Christ. And about how even though it's already in us, we still need to let it BE in us. How do we do that? Look at Philippians 2:4-5, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." We let the mind of Christ (that's already in us) BE in us... by looking out for others. And here's the best part: When I look out for you, and you look out for me, neither one of us has to worry about ourselves! Because we're covered. And watch this: Me taking care of myself can be construed as selfish (I'm not saying it is, I'm saying it can look that way or feel that way sometimes). But if I look out for you--even if I go over the top with it--that's called being generous. That's called loving you. And that's the only debt we owe each other. That's the only commandment for the New Man. The New Commandment. Love one another as Jesus loves you. Don't worry about yourself. Daddy's got you covered. He fills you up and all you have to do is share what you've got. You don't have to change people, or make them agree with you. All you have to do is love them. Knock down the walls, and build some bridges. Don't push people away, but offer them a safe place to be!

This Rant series is about the ties that bind. And, unfortunately, like just about everything else we make this much more complicated than it needs to be. In our carnality we use just about anything negative we can think of to tie people to us. Guilt. That's a big one. We guilt people into doing things for us. Relationship--which, as we will see, is NOT supposed to be negative at all. "You have to do it because you're my friend..." In one of the Rocky movies Paulie says, "Friends owe." And Rocky responds by saying, "Friends DON'T owe. They do because they want to do." And that's my point. That's what I want to say. The bridges that connect us--truly connect us--all have one name. Love. Romans 13:8 says it like this, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." We don't owe anybody anything... except love. And the reason we owe each other love is not because we've taken love and need to pay it back, but because God has given us love, and it's all we have to give! It's like that picture--I actually saw this on a t-shirt--of somebody offering their heart to God and saying, "I know it's not much, but it's all I've got." That's what we think. We think we owe God our heart. And I get that idea. Because with everything He's done for us (saving us from sin and death, for starters) it seems like we would owe Him quite a bit. But really it's the reverse of that picture that's true. God doesn't require anything from us except for us to share what He's already given us. To receive and release His love. We didn't want our heart. In fact, He circumcized OUR hearts--cutting away the flesh of human effort--in order to reveal HIS heart beating with love in our chests! He tore down the wall, if I can say it that way, and built a bridge. And do you know what a bridge does? It connects two things that otherwise seem very far apart. That's what love does. It breaks down walls and builds bridges. It brings us together on a level that we otherwise couldn't reach. Because the deep calls out to the deep. I was convicted of this truth a long time ago: The only way for me and you to really line up is for me to line up with Jesus and for you to line up with Jesus. Because then we'll automatically line up with each other. And then it won't be about personal differences or what have you. All of that small stuff will just fade away. A pastor friend of mine says it like this, "Major on the majors and minor on the minors." As long as we're building on that foundation of love it doesn't matter if my house looks a little bit different than yours. Variety is the spice of life, yeah? And what matters is what's IN the house. You know, the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God. It's not without, it's within. And it flows out when we fill ourselves with the fulness of God by testing out the height, and length, and depth, and breath of His love by loving one another as big as we can. By letting God love US as big as we can and sharing that love with each other. Love builds bridges. Love IS the bridge. It is the only thing that truly binds us together!

We were created in the image and likeness of God. It says so right in the Bible. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:26-27). More or less that's all I want to say today. And I want to let that breathe. We were made just like our Daddy. And, really, what else could have happened? You can't make something from nothing. A seed can only produce after it's own kind. See, we have this idea that God is WAY up there somewhere. Good, and pure, and perfect, and holy. And we have this idea that we're WAY down here. Dirty, and ugly, and doomed, and damned. But the truth of the matter is, we're just like Him and we always have been. He made us LIKE Himself, and He made us FROM Himself. Everything that exists is simply an extension and an expression of God. Of LOVE. And, listen, I'm not saying things don't get twisted. Obviously people don't always act like they are loved. Because people don't always know and believe that they are loved. That's why the Holy Spirit--our love receptor--is so vitally important. That's why the first thing God is ever recorded as saying is so important. "Let there be light." Not so that we could change into something we weren't, but so that we could SEE what we really are. A butterfly starts out as a caterpillar, and has to go through a transformation, but a butterfly is a butterfly. We start out as babies, and have to go through a maturation process--not BECOMING complete, because we are already complete in Him, but learning what it means to BE complete--but a Son of God is a Son of God. Whether he knows it or not. Whether he acts like it or not. And here's the key: Can a caterpillar flap its wings and fly? Nosir. Can we love before we are baptized (immersed) in the name (love nature) of Jesus? Nosir. You can't BE who you are until you KNOW who you are. So in the beginning, when it was dark (and we couldn't see), and we were void and without form, the Spirit brooded over us. Fluttered over us. Like that butterfly flapping its wings. Starting the effect that would culminate on an old rugged cross. That would culminate with a great rushing wind as God poured out His Spirit on all flesh. Not changing us in the sense that we were "bad" and needed to become "good." Jesus didn't come to give us better morals. He came to give us LIFE and that more abundantly. He didn't come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive. He came to give us life. HIS life. Not the crawling life of a caterpillar that we had accepted--even as we tried to change through our own power and effort--but the ascended life. Where we fly because HE flies. And because He lives in us and we live in Him. 1 John 4:17 says it better than I can, "...because as he is, so are we in this world." We were created in His image. That's why Jesus is the truth. The truth about God, and the truth about us. I think what I'm trying to say is: Stop crawling around in the dust like a caterpillar. Stop believing that you're a dirty sinner who needs to run from an angry God. He's not mad AT you, He's mad ABOUT you. He fluttered His wings to show us how to fly. And now we don't have to let anything hold us back, or hold us down!

Here's the thing about a butterfly: It doesn't start out that way. It starts out as a caterpillar. Then it has to go through a transformation. I don't know exactly how long THAT transformation takes, but I know how long OUR transformation took--three days. And we transformed from sinners to saints. The fluttering of the Holy Spirit's wings in the beginning manifested at the appointed time on the cross. And we weren't just transformed, we were translated. Colossians 1:13 says it like this, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." In the beginning it (we) were void and without form. Because it was dark. We were under the power of darkness. We stumbled around in the dark doing the best we could with what we had. But the problem was that we didn't KNOW what we had. We didn't think we had anything and were constantly trying to earn something. Then, in the next breath, God spoke. He said, "Let there be light." He sent His only begotten Son into our lives. He sent the light of the world so that we could see things as they really are. And Jesus didn't just shine the light. Jesus told us that WE ARE the light! I always like to mention that Jesus proclaimed our true identity as the light of the world--the same light that HE is--BEFORE the cross. Because while a translation, a transformation, DID take place, it wasn't making something entirely new. It was making US new. RENEWING us. Bringing us back to the original state of being--which is fellowship with God. Bringing us back to relationship. Not GIVING us the light. We always have been and always will be the light. Not giving us the light... but SHOWING us the light. So that we might let it shine. God said LET there be light. The light has always been there. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was already there. God just had to speak it. The light was always there, we just needed to let it shine. We were always butterflies, we just needed to stop crawling around in the dust like caterpillars and start flapping our wings. Start flying. Stop letting the world hold us down and hold us back and start moving on the never-ending eternal life-long journey that is the Father/Son relationship with the God who is love! Start moving upward and God-ward. Start BELIEVING that we are loved, and in that way start loving one another. BE transformed into what we've already been transformed into. That's what this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life is all about. Not about becoming. We have already become. We are complete in Him. That work is finished. But about coming into the knowledge (heart knowledge, not head knowledge) of WHAT we have become. God didn't make all new things. He didn't throw the sinners away and start over. He made all things new. He washed us clean. And by giving His life FOR us, He also gave His life TO us. So that we could experience it. So that we could partake of the Divine Nature. Having our (Spiritual) eyes opened by the shining of the light doesn't change anything. But it does reveal the change that took place 2,000 years ago on that old rugged cross. We're not catepillars trying to change. We're butterflies that are simply learning what it means to BE a butterfly. Simply learning how to fly. Simply learning how to love as we let Jesus love us. As we let God fill us to overflowing with His love. That's when it flows out of us naturally. Like a river of living water for everyone who is thirsty!

Creation. Where and when it all began. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. He created the mind and the body. He created... you. And since He hadn't yet created the sun or the other stars... and since He hadn't yet spoken (Let there be light)... it was dark. Too dark to see. In fact, it wasn't just dark, but we were under the POWER of darkness. Darkness ruled and reigned in our life. We did the best we could with what we had (or, more accurately, what we THOUGHT we had), but the problem was that we didn't think we had anything. We were stumbling around in the dark. Not knowing who we were and not knowing who God was. We thought we were dirty sinners, and we thought God was an angry taskmaster who hated His creation and wanted to punish it. This idea can even be perpetuated by the story of Noah and the ark. Because God did say He repented in His heart about His creation. And He sent flood water to wash it all away. But that's not exactly right, is it? He didn't wash it ALL away. Noah--who found grace in His eyes--was put into the ark (Jesus) and delivered from the evil world. See, God wasn't washing it AWAY. He was washing it CLEAN. Not dealing with wicked men, but with the wickedness OF men. I can't stress how important it is that even when we were void and without form... God's Spirit brooded over us. The dove (the Holy Spirit) fluttered His wings and started (to mix my metaphors) that butterfly effect that culminated with God pouring out His Spirit on all flesh at the cross. Jesus breathing on the disciples. The Holy Spirit coming with the sound of a great rushing wind. Something started way back in the beginning. And it grew and grew until it culminated, and manifested in it's fullness, on the cross. The light of the world shined, and all of a sudden we could see clearly. We could see God clearly--not as an angry taskmaster judging us (rather harshly) by our actions, but as a loving heavenly Father who had been with us the whole time, even when we ran from Him and hid from His presence. I once heard a preacher proclaim that God is a stalker. He won't give up on us no matter how far we run. No matter how low we go. Remember the old Psalm, "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there" (Psalm 139:8). He was there in the beginning, even though we couldn't see Him. Then He spoke light--Jesus, love--into our lives and we then we COULD see Him. He brooded over us, protecting us like that mother hen protecting her chicks. Wherever we went, He was there. Wherever we go, He IS there. And when we see Him, we be Him. The fluttering of His wings empowers us to flap our own wings. To partake of the Divine Nature. To live His life as we let HIM live it in us, and through us, and as us. And guess what: Just as the fluttering of His wings started something tremendous, so to does the flapping of our own!

Maybe I should have called this Rant series "Wings." Because in the Scripture there are lots of pictures of birds, and wings. I called it butterfly, because of the effect a butterfly fluttering it's wings can have. And because that's how the Spirit brooded over us in the beginning when we were void and without form. The Spirit fluttered... and then in the fulness of time the Spirit came with the sound of a great rushing wind. The smallest thing can have the biggest impact. In the beginning we didn't know who we were. Because we didn't know who God was. Because it was dark and we couldn't see clearly. So even though God was with us--of course He was, where else would He be?--we didn't KNOW He was with us. And then, worse yet, after what is commonly refered to as "the fall" we HID from His Spirit. Because we thought our disobedience would lead to Daddy getting mad at us and punishing us. This really wasn't the case though. God didn't say, "If you eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil I'll get mad and punish you." He said, "But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eastest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). It wasn't an ultimatum. It was a warning. God didn't want us to die, so He didn't want us to eat of the tree of death. Death wasn't God's punishment. It was the natural consequence of eating from the wrong tree! What does this have to do with the butterfly? I'm simply pointing out that our decisions didn't--COULDN'T--undo God's plan. In fact, He didn't even say IF you eat of it. He said, "...in the day that thou eatest..." And there's a lot to be said about the DAY. The day of the Lord vs the day of man. Jesus, the Sabbath day, the day of rest. Knowledge of good and evil as a basis for trying to earn something through human effort being the WRONG day. But I want to focus on the truth that God didn't say "if." He said, "when." It didn't sneak up on Him. In fact, I believe it was PART of the plan. You can't have a redemption story without something to redeem. And you can't make an informed decision until you've seen both sides. Experienced both days, if I can say it that way. See, even when man hid from God's presence, God didn't leave. God's Spirit was brooding over us. And THAT phrasing makes me think of a chicken brooding over her hens. Wings, right? Look at Psalm 57:1, "Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast." Hiding in the shadow of His wings until HE cleans up the mess WE made. Guys... that's what the cross was. That's when the fluttering of the wings became the wind of the Holy Spirit. The wind in Song of Solomon that unlocks the secret garden and blows all of the goodness that's inside all over the place! Here's what I think I'm trying to say: It's not about what YOU did. It's about what HE did. In the very beginning. When the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. When, on the cross, that sacrifice was manifested in it's fulness and everything came into completion. When the light of the world shined and instead of being under the power of darkness we could finally see. See who GOD is (and He's love), and see who WE are (we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased). The Holy Spirit is our love receptor. It makes the love of God--which seems too good to be true--so good that is must be true! And much to good to keep to ourselves! So then we begin to flap OUR wings, and receive and release that which we've been given! We are loved... so then we love!