Deeper and Wider part 5
The tricky part is that when everything is available to you... when the Spirit and the bride ring the dinner bell and say, "Come and get it..." Well, its a lot like the rule we have for family get togethers at my mom's house. We say, "Its self serve, just like at Ma's!" The trick is, you can have as much as you want. As much as you're willing to receive (by releasing). That's the seemingly upside down, backwards econcomy of the Kingdom. The last shall be first, and the first shall be last. You "get" what you have by giving it away. That's how you experience it. So as we wrap up this idea of there always being more than we think--exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or think--I want to kind of put the emphasis on US. And this is NOT a "do more to get more," religious, performance-based, earning your bread by the sweat of your brow kind of thing. Because works and labor don't work. You can't earn a gift. Gifts are freely given and must be received. What I'm talking about is fixing your mind... by fixing it on things above and not on things on the earth. Because what you magnify is what manifests in your life. Like my grandma and I always seem to find... the deeper you go, the deeper you can go. Like at my Mom's house... its self serve. Get you what you want. Get you how much of what you want. By realizing that you already have it. You can be as close to God as you realize you are. We ARE one with Him. That's the truth of the matter. But it doesn't always feel that way. Sometimes we float on the top of the rivers of life instead of letting those rivers flow out of our hearts. One translation says out of our innermost being. Man was created BY love in order to BE loved. Love is what is in our hearts, whether it feels like it or not. And what's in there comes out... when we know and believe that its in there. This six course meal (the Six Steps to the Throne that is Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection on the cross) has been prepared for us. But look at Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Remember what we saw the other day about believing being the lynchpin to the whole deal. We HAVE it all. And we can go as deep and wide as we want to go. But its up to us to decide how far we want to go. If we're ok on the surface... I'm not condemning anybody for that. Even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the children's table. But when we begin to understand that we ARE the Son of God... that we ARE God in the flesh, love in a body... that our true identity is Jesus... then we can really chow down. When we hear that knock, or that call of the Spirit and the bride... we can enjoy the entire supper. We can completely identify with the inner man. The hidden man of the heart. And then what's inside will come out. Naturally. And as we share that gift of God--gift of love--we can begin to comprehend the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of that love. By letting God love us, and by loving each other with that same love. As deeply and as widely as possible!