~ Allies of Jesus

Allies of Jesus - for Notes

Allies of Jesus - PP

When we say that Jesus lives as our brother or sister, without regard to the prison of correct ideas they have built for themselves, we do not mean that God intends them to live inside of hades in their present knowing.

And so I have always said it this way – that God carries us through the darkness all the way into life. God never intends the darkness, but He does intend us in every step.

This is a stunning paradox, however. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of all, lives inside of them and lives as them. Does He not – or can He not – show Himself to them?

Redemption Is Difficult. And this is where redemption is difficult, for we have determined that God cannot sin.

Thus, we can conclude only that Jesus cannot show Himself to them against their desire. Yet He lives as them so that, when they desire Him alone for real, then they will discover, as I have discovered, that their whole life has been Christ – though they did not know.

Every knee bowing cannot be a giving of thanks unless all things already come out from God. Since all things already come through the good speaking of Jesus, giving thanks is the only appropriate response to a Savior who carries all.

We Are Jesus’ Ally. Jesus is far more eager than we ever could be to show Himself to our brothers and sisters, and He holds a far better position to do so than we.

Yet it is not we who need Jesus as our ally, but Jesus who needs us as His ally. Here is the proof of that claim. – Receive one another in just the same way as Jesus receives you. – And we also are committed to setting forth our souls for our brethren.

Yet so often we have been Jesus’ enemy towards our brethren, either by debating ideas with ideas or by being religious and demanding.

Winning Their Hearts. What Jesus needs from us, as He fills our brother and sister with His Salvation and desires to show Himself to them, is to be His help, not His hindrance.

And to know how we can help, we must know what it is that blocks this one from knowing the Jesus who already shares their life with them. You cannot force people out of their prison, for if you tried you would only break them, and thus you will be helping them forge a far greater prison.

Jesus has one job to do, and that is to win their hearts, so that they willingly let go of all they have built to know Him.

It Is a Process. What Jesus needs from us, then, is that we would speak into each individual person those specific words that win their heart for Jesus.

And we must understand that this winning does not happen overnight. It is a process. Even when Jesus said, “For the elect’s sake, the time will be shortened,” it still remains a process. Indeed, fifty years could be thought of as a “short time.”

This is a large part of my goal, then, in A Highway for God, to set out those specific words, unique to each individual, that will win their heart for Christ.

Specific Little Words. As I look across the span of my life, I marvel at the specific little words God planted into my heart as seeds of Christ scattered across the years.

The first was that a black heart covered by a red heart becomes a white heart. And thus I always knew the grace of the Lord Jesus deep inside despite all the contrary word.

The second was the most important of all since the first, give thanks in and for all things. That was NOT me; of myself, I did not give thanks. It was a Seed of Christ in me that I knew was true and that showed itself to me after I hit rock bottom, which was often.

A Trail of Breadcrumbs. I could almost call the pathway of those little words of Christ as a “trail of breadcrumbs” all the way through the dark woods to the Joy in which I now live.

And it was because I picked up those words along the way, hiding them in my heart, as Much Afraid, in Hind’s Feet on High Places, picked up the little pebbles she found along the way, that when I heard the word, “Speak what God says you are,” I already knew what it meant.

I KNEW what it meant in that moment BECAUSE of the store of Christ Seed I had carefully treasured deep inside from the age of seven.

Sow in Tears. Think of Dan Kurtz, when I was just twenty, gently pointing his hoary finger at my heart. “Christ is in you.”

When I had read that same thing in Watchman Nee, I did not know what it meant, but when I heard it again in a pig barn at Graham River Farm, I still did not know what it meant, but I then KNEW that it was true.

Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him (Psalm 126:5-6). This is speaking of you and me.

One Soil Conditioner. We are farmers and we are warriors, both at the same time .In fact, a gardener is a warrior as well as a planter of seed.

We could think of the great war, the war of words, speaking the same word as Christ against all the anti-speaking of the human, as a war of true crops versus weeds, or as Jesus put it, wheat versus tares.

Only one “soil conditioner,” then, will prepare the soil for the true words of Christ we would plant, and that is love. Rooted and grounded in love. – A climate of love in which occasional small seeds are planted!

Needing Someone Real. As I followed the breadcrumbs that led me step by step out of the dark woods of my own hades, I came to the place where Jesus was the only acceptable solution to me.

I was LOST, I knew that I was LOST, and I KNEW that I, in my own mind, could NOT find my way. I needed a real Person to help me.

Here is the one word that we plant – Christ lives in your heart through faith. Yet such a word can be phrased in more ways than one can count, finely tuned to each person in each differing set of circumstances.

We Are Farmers. Of truth, being a gardener is simply the best metaphor to use, that’s why Jesus used it so often.

And a gardener has two enemies – things that eat garden plants, false spirits, and things that grow stronger than garden plants, false words.

Be patient, therefore, brothers and sisters, until the presence of the Lord [is known]. Consider the farmer who awaits the precious fruit of the earth, being patient for it until it receives the early and latter rains. You also be patient; strengthen your hearts, because the presence of the Lord is here (James 5:7-8).

What Matters Most. Wow, James did not mean “someday,” but rather until that moment when the person into whom you are planting the precious seed awakens to the knowledge of Jesus-with-me.

Here is what I am realizing. It is critical that we understand the battle and the role that false spirits and false words play in devouring the little words of Christ that we plant. But what we must understand is that, in the end, the false spirits and false words are of little account. What matters is the precious seed, that it be rooted deep and that it spring forth into life.

It does no good to “win” against the false if the true dies.

Do Not Uproot the True. And this is exactly what Jesus meant. – The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather [the tares] up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them’ (Matthew 13).

When we fight ideas with ideas, iron bars with iron bars, words against words, what we are doing is ripping out all the seed of Christ and giving greater strength to the lies.

And when we come in a spirit of religiosity, above looking down, all we are doing is giving greater strength to the false spirits that anoint the false words.

Weeks and Months. Now, please understand that I am speaking to myself, for I want to argue word for word and rise up to look down upon. God has given me a great gift, however, in making me incapable of doing so in the moment. It leaves me humiliated inside, but at least I have not destroyed Christ in my brother or sister.

As James said, a farmer plants a seed knowing that it will be weeks or months before that seed brings forth more of its same kind, and also knowing that the right environment for the growth of that seed must be maintained.

There is only one “right” environment and that is Love.

Patience. And there is only One who loves, and that is God. If there is to be Love, there has to be God-made-known. And this, of course, is the whole point of my book, A Highway for God, God coming through.

Patience. – Be patient; strengthen your hearts, because the presence of the Lord is here. Jesus IS present inside our brother or sister, and we are His ally, not He ours.

And this is why Sun Tzu’s advice is so critical. – Fight only the right battles, do not be sidetracked into the wrong fight.

Always the Seed. My great desire, every single time, to “set my brother straight,” is always the wrong battle, and it will always result in causing my brother to harden his heart against the good word of Christ.

Be patient; strengthen your hearts. A farmer never loses sight of the seed he has planted, regardless of all that comes to destroy it. Yes, he battles the blackbirds and the weeds, the windstorm and the drought.

But far more important to him is the needs of that seed, the former and the latter rain, the sunshine, the space in which to grow, and especially the good soil in which it is planted.

Until Harvest Time. Think about the Word that was planted in me when I was but fifteen years old – Give thanks.

It was thirty-four years later when I heard the words, “Speak what God says you are,” and that little Seed sprang forth as a great harvest inside of me. Yet for thirty-four years that Seed had buried itself deep inside of me with many tears.

Think about the Word that was planted in me when I was but nineteen years old – Ask concerning any Word God speaks and then believe you have received. For thirty years that Word waited until its harvest time.

The Seed of Christ. We are in it for the long run. – And I am encouraging myself as well as you. The enemy is not demon spirits. The enemy is not false words. The enemy is the absence of the knowledge of God.

And only ONE THING brings forth the knowledge of God in full fruited-ness inside our brothers and sisters. That one thing is the Seed of Christ, many little seeds planted over time, springing forth in their due season. Little acts of kindness and gentle words of encouragement.

As gardeners, however, we get to experiment with many little kinds of good seed, good word, which we plant.

Do Not Grow Weary. …For whatever a man might sow, that also he will reap. For the one sowing into his flesh [ideas in the intellect] will reap decay and rottenness; the one, however, sowing into the Spirit [Christ words in the heart], out of Spirit will reap age-unfolding life. And we should not grow weary in doing good; for in the right season, not having given up, we will reap a harvest. So then, as we possess the season, we should work good toward all, especially toward those of the household of faith (Galatians 6:7-10).

This is so cool, that so many good words find their way onto these pages and become mighty words of the victory of Christ through us.

Fight for the Seed. We have been mistaken, I think, in this larger concern, which I have carried for some years now, of how on earth our brethren will hear that Christ is their only life, that they can let go of all the mental nonsense and know that Jesus already connects them utterly with the Father.

I mean, it is right to have the concern, the need to understand, but we have never been “groping in the dark.” The only answer has been in our hand all the way through; we are gardeners, and Christ is what we plant.

Our fight is for the Seed planted already in our brothers and sisters, that it would grow into full fruitfulness.

Nurture the Seed. Our brother is not set free from his carefully built prison cage because we cast down false spirits, as necessary as that is, but because of the Seed of Christ already planted inside. Our sister is not set free from her carefully built prison cage because we rip out false words, but because of the Seed of Christ already planted inside of her.

Nurture the Seed. Nurture the Seed.

And let the casting down of false spirits and the careful removal of false words be nothing more than necessary parts of the one task given to us, nurturing the Seed of Christ that it might bring forth what it is in its time.

The Time of the Seed. The time of the Seed is not up to us.

NO ONE who observed that fifteen-year-old boy, in August of 1972, hardening his heart against any knowledge of God and plunging into the enjoyment of wickedness, could ever have seen the result of “Give thanks” buried unknown inside his heart. NO ONE could have foreseen “sharing Hheart with God,” coming some forty years later, least of all me.

But my Father knew it was there, and He ordered every moment of those many years towards the protection and growth of that seed.

Love Already Here. The very tiniest of seeds became the greatest of treasures. Give thanks, though it was contrary to everything I imagined myself to be, became sharing Hheart with God.

We are farmers, and our battle is won in patience. Of truth, this is often how Lord Wellington thought, in his determination always to win, regardless. Patience, even to preparing for a massive retreat more than a year before it would come. Patience that won the victory.

Travail brings forth patience, and patience proof, and proof hope… Because the love of God has already been shed abroad inside our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.

Let’s Pray Together. In this final lesson of four, we continue to pray for ourselves, this time as gardeners, that God would cause this patience and this hope to be Himself through us.

“Father, we are so grateful that You are our God. We give You all thanks that Your Word is Christ Jesus and that You have caused Your Word to grow to full fruited-ness inside our hearts. Father, the privilege You have given to us, that we might share Hheart with You, is beyond our comprehension. Yet we rest in all Joy inside of You knowing that it is true.

“Father, You are the strength and joy of our hearts.

Be Wisdom in Us. “Jesus, we ask You to be all the wisdom of God inside of us, that we would know how to stand firm against all false spirits and to gently pull out the false words even as we carefully protect the Seed of Christ inside our brethren.

“And Jesus, we ask You to be all the wisdom of God inside of us, that we would know that gentle and pure word, that alongside word of sharing and friendship, that would stir all the good Seed of Christ inside our brother and sister.

“Lord Jesus, we know fully that it is we who stand as allies of You, that Your Love for each of our fellow Christians is greater than the universe. Lord Jesus, we belong to You.

Be Strength in Us. “Lord Jesus, we ask that You be all the strength of God inside of us, that we might know patience, that we might endure through the years, gently caring for the good soil, gently planting good seed, and always expecting the knowledge of God to arise in each one.

“Lord Jesus, we are Your body, we are Your hands and Your mouth, be all the gentle words of encouragement and little acts of kindness through us to those whom You love beyond our comprehension.

“Lord Jesus, all that we are is Yours; all that we are is You. Open wide the Door of our hearts as Father is coming through.”