I think the story of Jesus--even as a boy--being about His Father's business is the best picture of what I'm trying to say in this Rant series. Let's look at it in the Message Bible. "He said, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?"" (Luke 2:49). And first things first: They ought to have known where He was and what He was about. They were surprised He was gone... He was surprised they were surprised. There is nothing in this world more natural than dealing with the things of your Father. I'm telling you, you were created for a purpose. And of course I'm going to use myself as an example. I always do so nobody gets offended. I'm a writer. I express myself best with words on a page (or screen, as the case may be). That's not just what I do, that's who I am. But while I've also wrote... it wasn't until I submitted my God given talents to, well, God that things really started to happen. Now I've published like a dozen books. Most of them about Jesus. I took what was special to me and did it in a way that is special to my heavenly Father. And obviously I'm not saying everybody needs to do what I did. Not specifically. Not as a writer. But you CAN do whatever it is that YOU do... unto the Lord. In fact, Colossians 3:23 says, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." And while Paul was saying WHATSOEVER you do, do it unto the Lord, I'm saying that when you do that thing that makes you... you... unto the Lord... man, that's powerful. Because if you're doing it unto the Lord, you're doing it in love. And love never fails. Love is the things of the Father that we are to deal with. Love is what makes life worth living. And love is what makes it possible to live. We are blessed to be a blessing, right? Called to live out of our abundance. Well, Jesus came the we might have life, and have it more abundantly. He gave us the ability to live out of our abundance by GIVING us abundance. And love is what makes the abundant life abundant. Its all about love. The family business is God and Son. LOVE and Son. That's who Jesus is--God in the flesh, love in a body--and that's who WE are--God in OUR flesh, love in OUR body. So in order to be about our Father's business, in order to deal with the things of our Father... its love. Receiving and releasing His love. Filling ourselves to overflowing with the love that we have been filled God. Its not my business. I don't try to do it myself. I don't try to go into business for, or by, myself. Its my Daddy's business. He set it up. Established it. Built it just the way He wanted it. So all of that heavy lifting is already done. All I have to do now is be a good steward. (That's where we're going to end this bad boy tomorrow, stewardship). All I have to do is take what was given to me and give it away. Share it. Because in this business its not about getting. Its about giving. Because that's what love is: Love is giving! Dealing with the things (love) of the Father means giving away the things (love) of the Father!

Being about our Father's business. Which is love. Receiving and releasing the love of God that He has already given to us. That's how we experience this everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life of love that is the gift of God. Let me say it another way, "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). And did you catch the part where God did all the work and then gave us the ministry by giving us the word? We don't go into business for ourselves, or by ourselves. We simply take our inheritance and spread it on! We don't have to reconcile people to God. He already did that. That's what the cross was. When Jesus was lifted up from the earth, on the cross, He drew us all into Himself. And He planted Himself in us all. That's a done deal. He HAS reconciled us to Himself. That doesn't need to happen. That already happened. So what we do is we spread the gospel. The good news. We tell people what is true by telling them the truth! The ultimate truth of the universe that says, "God is love and He loves you." Not, "You have to do this, that, and the other thing in order to earn God's love." That's not truth. That's the lie that the serpent whispered into Eve's ear. That's what got us into so much trouble in the first place. "Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!" (Romans 5:18 MSG). And not just into life... into HIS life. Remember when we talked about being an heir but needing to be mature? That's what it means to be about our Father's business. Taking the reins of the family business. Taking what our heavenly Father has established, and moving forward with it. Taking the ball and running with it. Letting God love us (wich comes first, and is to vitally important) and then loving Him back by loving others. Receiving and releasing His love. Experiencing and enjoy the gift we've been given by giving it away. By sharing it. By letting God be who He is in us, and through us, and as us. We don't have to try to be like Him. We just have to let Him be Him in us. That's out true identity: Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. The family business is reconciliation. And mercy. And grace. And forgiveness. And love. Letting people know that that's what they have by letting people know that that's who they are. Its not, "Do this to get this." Its, "This is what we have. This is what's available to us. Come and get it! Its yours!" The family business isn't about getting anything. Its about giving what you've got. Receiving what the Father has handed down to you and releasing it to those that you come into contact with. Telling the truth in love, because you know that the truth is love!

Once upon a time, when Jesus was little, He got lost. Or rather, His natural parents didn't know where He was. There's a big difference there. But look at what happened when they found Him. "And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:48-49). Jesus knew what He was about. He knew who His Daddy was. He knew what He was there to do. He knew what the family business was. And He was all about the family business. To the point where that was all that mattered to Him. To the point where He was even surprised that His natural parents were surprised. Like, "What do you mean what I am doing? I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. What are YOU doing?" Jesus wasn't lost. He was right where He was supposed to be. And I think that's an important lesson for us to learn: If we're doing what we're supposed to be doing--what we know in our hearts we ought to be doing--it doesn't matter if other people don't get it. It doesn't matter if even our parents don't understand. When we're doing what we were created to do... that's called living. Truly living. Experiencing the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God (life of love) that IS our inheritance. That's what the family business is: Letting God love us and loving each other with that same love. Receiving and releasing the love of God. His love, His Spirit, is His gift. Handed down from Father to Son. And I say His Spirit because His love has always, and will always, be there for us. It is the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth--that is the love receptor. It is the Holy Spirit that allows us (equips and enables us) to receive God's love. Knowing Him as loving heavenly Father and knowing ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. That's the truth of the matter. The ultimate truth of the universe. God is love and He loves you. That's what this whole thing is all about. That's why we were created. God, who is love, wanted to express Himself. So He created us. So that He could love us. So that He could express His love (Himself) to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. That's God's business. That's what He's about. So that's our business. The family business. Not going into business for ourselves. Not trying to do things our way. But simply receiving and releasing the love we've been given. That's how you experience the gift you've been given--by giving it away. By sharing it. God is love. God lives in us. We are love. The Word (which is Jesus, which is love) is made flesh every time we act in love. That's charity. Love in action. Taking what we've been given and giving it away. Loving with the love we are loved with. That's what we ought to be about. All of the time. Whether people understand it or not. Whether people like it or not. When I do a Guerrilla Gospel video I always end with the phrase, "I love you... and there's nothing you can do about it!" That's the family business!

I preach, and teach, and Rant a lot about how we are not supposed to try to follow in Jesus' foot steps, but rather to let Him make His own foot steps in our feet. That's kind of what this Rant series is about. Because when talking about being an heir, we're talking about inherting something. The Family Business. Receiving and releasing the gift we've been given. Being blessed to be a blessing. Taking what we've been given, and running with it. There are two memory verses that I want to use to set up the foundation for this Rant series. John 7:28 in the Message Bible says, "That provoked Jesus, who was teaching in the Temple, to cry out, "Yes, you think you know me and hwere I'm from, but that's not where I'm from. I didn't set myself up in business. My true origin is in the One who sent me, and you don't know him at all." And John 14:12, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." And here's how I see it: We're not supposed to try to be anybody--ANYBODY--that we're not. We're not supposed to try to be Jesus. We're not supposed to try to figure out what Jesus would do and then try to do that. That's too much trying. Too much works and labor. Labor and works don't work. Freely we have been given, freely we must receive... and freely we must give. And that's where my first verse comes in; we don't do anything by ourselves. We don't go into business for ourselves, or by ourselves. We simply get involved in the family business. We simply take what has already been established by our Father and spread it out. The works He has done and greater works. Because while we might not be able to turn water into wine... we can reach people that might otherwise not be reached. We can love people in a way that only we can love them. And that, by the way, is Jesus manifesting Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. That's simply letting what's inside--the love of God--come out. What I'm trying to say is that instead of trying to do things on our own... we can, and should, just let God do what He wants to do. Its His business. LOVE is His business. And business is good. There are always people you can love. Always ways you can love people. When we get into trouble is when we try to get instead of just giving what we've got. Its a different focus. Self-centered vs Christ-centered (which means people-centered). Most of the time business is about getting. Making a profit. Earning a living. But did you ever notice that even though you're supposed to work for a living (in the natural), most of the time you kill yourself working? We've already been given everything we need. Inherited the family business. Our future is secure. We don't need to try to get anything. We can give what we've got. Which, again, IS the family business. Giving what we've got. Loving people with the love that we are loved with. Receiving and releasing the love of God!

I don't want you to think that this Rant series has been about getting something. Because love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. But you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So we need to KNOW what we have in order to GIVE what we have. Look at Genesis 12:2, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." Blessed to be a blessing. Receiving and releasing. That's the whole deal. God loving us so we can love Him back by loving each other. That's our inheritance--love. Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection life of love. That's the gift we've been given. That's what was passed down from Father to Son. That's what we have right now. And we experience and enjoy what we have right now... by giving it away. By sharing it. God wants us to live out of our (HIS) abundance. And since love is what makes the abundant life abundant... God wants us to live out of our (HIS) love! God is love. He gave us Himself as an inheritance. We are love. Its not just what we do, its who we are. Because its not just what God does, its who He is. And we have His DNA. The Divine Nature of the Almighty. Taking over the Family Business--which, by the way, is the next Rant series coming... I think. But to finish this one strong I want to say it as clearly as I can: having an inheritance is about living a good life. A GOD life. A life of love. Because, again, our inheritance IS love. When the heir starts to mature, he is no longer a servant, or slave. He knows what he has. And, more importantly, he knows who he is. When you know who you are you don't have to try to be someone you're not. When you know what you've got you can stop trying to get something you think you haven't got. Self-awareness, I guess. But really Christ-awareness. Knowing who we are in Christ. Which is knowing who Christ is in us. Jesus is our true identity. God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. And I just want to mention quickly that our key verse, Galatians 4:1, says, "Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all." Lord of all. Whether we know it or not. Whether we realize it or not. Whether we are mature enough to experience it and enjoy it or not. And that's why that maturity is so important: God wants us to experience and enjoy what He's given us. That's why He gave it to us. He doesn't make us jump through hoops to try to earn anything from Him. He gave it. Freely. Which leads me to my last memory verse for this Rant series. "Hel the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). And I don't want to do the first part of the verse (until maybe tomorrow). I just want to hit the last part. Freely you have received... freely give. Receive it and release it. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that its in there. You are blessed... be a blessing. You are loved... love!

The point of being an heir is getting an inheritance. Right? And that has nothing to do with what you do, and everything to do with who you are. An inheritance is given (in this case) from Father to Son. God wanted the best for us, so He gave the best to. He gave Himself to us. He gave His Holy Spirit--the Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth... the love receptor--so that we might be able to receive (and release) the gift He had for us. The gift of God, which is eternal life. Jesus' everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life. And that's so key, so critical; it is JESUS' life. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. For God so loved the world He gave us His only begotten Son. So that we could experience Jesus' life as Jesus Himself lives it in us, and through us, and as us. The only way to truly experience and enjoy the gift we've been given is by giving it away. Because the gift we've been given is love. And love is giving. Look at Ephesians 1:18, "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." You can't give what you don't have. You have to know what you have. The eyes of understanding. The dove's eyes. Seeing through the Spirit. Seeing things as they truly are. Knowing with a knowledge that passes knowledge. Heart knowledge rather than head knowledge. Understanding the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance. Knowing what we have. Knowing who we are. That's the only way we can truly live this life of love that we've been given. Because what we have is God's love. Who we ARE is God's love! Jesus is God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. Who we really are is who we are in Christ. Who Christ is in us. Christ in you (and me) the hope of glory. Revealed glory. The glory inside coming out and being revealed. The LOVE inside coming out and being revealed. Love is our inheritance. That's as simple as I can put it. Love is the family business. And while it isn't exactly following in our Father's foot steps--it is really God making His own foot steps with our feet--you get the idea. We don't have to try to live Jesus' life, because Jesus is living it (one more time) in us, and through us, and as us. God made us His heir because He wanted us to have the inheritance. When you make a will you can leave whatever you've got to whoever you want, right? Well, God left is all to us. And the best part is... we don't have to wait to get it because on the cross He GAVE it all to us. Simply because He loves us. Simply because He wanted us to have it. Everything He has and everything He is. Passed down from Father to Son. Given freely. But it must be received. We must stop trying to earn it. You can't earn a gift, or an inheritance. Especially one that has already been given. We need to know. That's the deal. Know what we've got. Know who we are. Know what we're capable of. And the answer to all three of those is love!

This picks up on our key verse for this Rant series. How we are heirs, but until we gain that maturity we still act like servants, or slaves. Galatians 4:7, "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." See, its almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. We think of ourselves as anything less than the beloved Son of God and then we act like we're less than the beloved Son of God. We try to be something we're not, and that's the absolute wrong way to go about it. Maturity is not changing from something we're not to something we're supposed to be. Maturity is understanding and accepting that we are who God says we are. Look at 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." We ARE the Son(s) of God. Right now. We ARE no more a servant, but a son. We ARE God's heir. He died to give us everything He has. Everything He is. That's what love is: Giving everything you have and everything you are. That's how God showed His love to us and that's how we show our love to each other. God loves us and we love Him back by loving each other. We ARE who we need to be. Maturity is KNOWING that we are who we need to be. Maturity is knowing who we are. Who we really are. Who we are in Christ--which is who Christ is in us. Christ appearing isn't about a second coming, or whatever. Christ appears every time love happens. That's when the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) is made flesh. When the love in us comes out of us. When we act in charity, which is love in action. Our inheritance is love. God's love. The laying your life down for your friends love. That's what God gave us... when He literally laid His life down for us. So in order to experience that inheritance, we have to give our lives down for each other. Love others as Jesus loves us. And that doesn't necessarily mean literally dying for someone. But it does mean putting others first. Esteeming others higher than ourselves. Giving what we've got and not worrying about getting anything back. Knowing that we are connected to the unlimited source of love and knowing that no matter how much we give... we can't run out. Giving is what, in fact, fills us up. Remember Jesus said He had food the disciples didn't know about? Doing His Father's will was His food? That's what filled Him up. Emptying Himself out filled Him up. Giving what you've got is how you experience what you've got. Knowing that it is more blessed to give than receive is what maturity is all about. You have to receive before you can give, because you can't give what you don't have. That's why I always speak of receiving and releasing. Receiving BY releasing. Releasing BY receiving. Filling yourself to overflowing with what God has already filled you with so that it can come out. Naturally. We're not servants. Not slaves. We're Son(s). Heirs. And we have the inheritance. Now we can experience it. Now we can live that life of love that we've been given, by giving the love away!

I'm not sure I got to where I wanted to get to yesterday. But my main verse for this Rant series is Galatians 4:1, "Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all." I think this is such an important concept. Because you can have everything in the world, but if you don't know that you have it... you can't experience it and enjoy it. If you don't know what you have, or if you don't know what to do with what you have, chances are you'll rob yourself of HAVING what you have by trying to get something you think you don't have. You'll act like a slave even though you're an heir. You'll act like a sinner even though you're a saint. And, as always, I want to put my personal definition of sin out there, just so we know what we're talking about. Sin is unbelief. Believing the lie of the world instead of the truth of God. Believing that we have to do in order to be. Believing that we have to earn something from our heavenly Father. But when you're a saint--when you know that you are God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased--that's when you understand that you don't have to, and in fact can't, earn anything. Its not about what you do. Its about who you are. Its about the Father handing down an inheritance to His Son. Look at Hebrews 9:14-15, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." And, to me, the important part here is having our conscience purged of dead works. Getting to the point where we stop trying to earn it. Getting to the point where we can receive it and release it. When Jesus died--and we in Him--a shift took place. Out of the Old and into the New. The old man died and the New Man rose again to everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life. The gift was given. From Father to Son. The inheritance was handed down. Generally speaking, you only get your inheritance when your Father (in this case) dies. That's what the cross was. And the best part is, not only did He die so that you could die, He rose again so that you could live! So that HE could live in you, and through you, and as you! Jesus didn't just give us another chance at life. He gave us HIS life. HE lives it, and we experience it. But this takes maturity. Because maturity is what allows us--what equips and empowers us--to be still and know that He is God. To be still and know that God is love. To be still and stop running around like chickens with our heads cut off, looking for love in all the wrong places. Maturity is what allows us to experience that gift we've been given... by giving it away. By sharing it. By giving what we've got (by KNOWING what we've got). The heir has been blessed to be a blessing. To receive and release the love that we are loved with. That's God's gift--His Spirit. His life. Himself. His love!

I hope this Rant series will clear something up for us. That's why I Rant--to try to help us understand things. To try to help us experience this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of God. The GIFT of God. Which is what I'm kind of planning to talk about for the next few days. I want to dig in to the idea of a gift passed down from Father to Son. An inheritance. Because if we are always trying to earn something, what we are really doing is robbing ourselves of what we've already been given. You can't earn a gift. You can't earn an inheritance. An inheritance has nothing to do with what you do, and everything to do with who you are. Only in our understanding that God is our heavenly Father, and we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased, can we receive the gift we've been given. And that's what this life is: receiving and releasing the love of God. Letting God love us and loving each other with that same love. Loving God back BY loving each other. Because how you relate to people is how you relate to God. Look at Matthew 25:40, "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." What we do to people is what we do to God. Because God lives IN people. There is no separation. No difference. We are the visible expression of the invisible God. Jesus--God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. Point being, we need to stop trying to perform for God in order to earn something from Him. We think its all about us. All about our performance. All about jumping through hoops and doing religious calisthenics. We think the "better" we are the more we'll get. But that's the thing. Love is giving. Its never about getting. And, in truth, we've already gotten everything we could ever want or need. We have already been blessed with all Spiritual blessings in the heavenly Christ. We have already been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. Blessed. Given. You can't earn a gift. If you have to earn it, its about what you do. And, like I said, your inheritance is NOT about what you do. Its about who you are. Look at Galatians 4:1, "Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all." And that's kind of what I want to dig into--because even though we've been given it all--God wanted the best for us so He gave the best TO us--we need to know what we've got. We need to know who we are. And we need to know what it means to have what we have and to be who we are. So often we run around like chicken's with our heads cut off. Looking for love in all the wrong places. Trying to get what we've already got and robbing ourselves from experiencing it. So often we act like servants--slaves--because we don't know that we're heirs. And that comes with maturity. With putting away childish things and being the men and women of God that we were created to be!

Here's where we get into trouble, "You let the world, which doesn't know the first things about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2 MSG). We try to conform to the world. We listen to what the world is screaming at us instead of listening to the still, small voice of God deep within our hearts. Which, by the way, is my definiton of sin--unbelief. Believing the lie of the world instead of the truth of God. The truth that IS God. The truth that God is love and He loves you. That's what we MUST believe in order to experience the everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life of God. You can't live Jesus' life. Only Jesus can do that. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. But we can EXPERIENCE it by letting Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. And the way we let Him live His life in us, and through us, and as us is by letting the love of God--the love that IS God--come out. We live... by letting others live. By equipping and empowering them to live. By loving them. Its a life of love. And you can't experience a life of love without being loved and loving others. Letting God love you and loving Him back by loving people. That's the whole thing. The whole deal. That's what its all about. Receiving and releasing the love--the life--of God. You can only live through love. God's love is our life. And you can only let people live through love. Letting people be who they are and loving them anyway. Living and letting other people live. And I'm telling you, that's truly the only way to live. You can't control people. People are going to do what they're going to do. And they're going to do what they believe is best for them. Even people with, like, substance abuse problems. They aren't doing what they're doing because they think its bad. They're doing it because they think its the best they can do. I think people generally try their best. Not necessarily to do what you think they should be doing, but probably for what they think they should be doing. Or what they think they're capable of. So trying to impose your values, or your beliefs, on someone else... is folly. If someone's doing the best they think they can, and you're telling them they aren't doing enough... how would that help them? But if you love them, and support them (I say SUPPORT, not ENABLE), and show them who they really are--by showing them who you really are, by showing them who God really is, which is love--that's when they might see something better than they thought they were capable of. That's when they might see a more excellent way. And in seeing, want that more excellent way. So just make sure your own actions line up with your beliefs. If you believe in love, make sure you live a life of charity (love in action). And by staying in your lane, by walking worthy of your calling, you will give what you've got. You will let the love inside come out. And when that love comes out, that's when other people can experience it too. Because love is giving. Life is living. Giving what you've got. Sharing the gift you've been given. Loving people!