Ownership part 3
I think the difference between how WE think of ownership and how GOD thinks of ownership really comes down to "control" vs "protection." We think, "I love you and that means I own you... I control you." God thinks, "I love you. And that means you're mine... I take care of you." Look at Jesus' heart in Matthew 23:37 (NLT), "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me." A mother hen and her chicks. A heavenly Father and His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. I'm telling you, if we would stop trying to squash the differences that make us... US and started celebrating them instead we would find the righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost that IS the Kingdom of God! If we stopped trying to tell people what to DO and started telling people WHO THEY ARE then we could love without ownership. We could let CHRIST'S love control us--lead, and guide, and protect us--instead of trying to control each other. Because whatever you try to squash you really empower. It's like... when you need to go to the bathroom. And you focus on NOT needing to go to the bathroom. It doesn't take very long until ALL you need to do is go to the bathroom! Because by focusing on it--even if you're focus is on not doing it--you've empowered it. That's why preaching the Law, preaching sin, doesn't work. The Apostle Paul said it like this, "For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Romans 7:9). When you preach sin... you get sin. Whatever you magnify is what will manifest. But in the same manner, when you preach LIFE... you get life! When you preach Christ... you get Christ. When you tell people who they are instead of telling them what to do... when you release the reins of "ownership"--that you don't REALLY hold in the first place--and you tell people the Good News of the Gospel... that's where the Spirit of the Lord is. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Freedom. Not freedom TO sin, but freedom FROM sin. Jesus came to save us from our sins. He came to save us from unbelief. From the lie that says God is an angry taskmaster and you are His unwilling slave. The lie that says you have to DO in order to BE. Jesus did it all. You don't have to DO anything to be like God. You're already like Him. Always have been, always will be. You were made in His image. That was never the problem. The problem was what you see is what you be. And before the cross it was dark. We couldn't see God clearly which means we couldn't see ourselves clearly. So at the appointed time, on the cross, the light of the world shined. Jesus came and He showed us the Father. He showed us what love really is. WHO love really is! He showed us that while the Law of Moses tries to own you, or control you, the Law was never given so that we might follow it in the first place. The Law was given to show us that we CAN'T follow it. It was given to show us that behavior modification doesn't work. It was given as a school master to bring us to Christ. And once we get past the Law--past good and evil--and get to Christ--the Tree of Life--that's when we begin to understand what ownership is really all about. We begin to understand that we were bought with a price and we are not our own. Our owner--our Creator--is not an angry taskmaster at all. He's not sitting on a cloud with a lightning bolt waiting to get us every time we mess up. He's a Father who wants to hide us under His wings and take care of us. Why? Because we're His. And we're really going to look at what it means to BE His tomorrow.