We are coming to the end of this module of the EG programme that marks the transition between the pathway of relationship and pathway of responsibility. We need to mature as sons and take our places enthroned in the heavenly realms.
This is also the point at which we should be mature and confident enough in our relationship with God who is Father, Son and Spirit that we know Their voices and Their heart. This ability will be key as we explore and journey beyond and beyond our present knowledge and experience.
We should now be able to engage the heavenly realms without needing to ask the specific questions of where is that in the Bible? There are many things alluded to but not specifically mentioned that our spirits will resonate with and we will discover that there are many wonders beyond those specifically mentioned in the Bible.
We are walking with God on a relational journey to discover Him and ourselves. God will guide us through our actual experiential encounters with Him to discover the truth of these things. We don’t need to fear being deceived as long as we are not blindly following man’s DIY doctrines but are checking everything out with God ourselves.
If we don’t resonate with anything park it or continue to pursue the truth with God directly. There are many things that I don’t yet fully understand cognitively but that does not make them wrong. There have been many things that I was convinced were true that I now realize were merely man’s opinions.
We have the Spirit of Truth in us and with us as our guide. We have Jesus the way, truth and life in us and with us to disciple us. We have our loving Father in us and with us to Father us into our sonship. Agape Love should be what we measure and test everything against.
As sons of God we have a great responsibility to discover who we are who He made us to be. To find our identity, position and authority by beholding God in the mirror of a face to face relationship that will fully reveal our sonship.
God desires to reveal us as His mature sons on earth as we are in heaven. Creation is waiting to be set free from decay into the freedom of our glorious sonship. We are called to be restored and participate in the restoration of all things.
Acts 3:21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. The prophets said there was going to be a period of restoration. This was told as stories within a story.
Is the Bible the only source of revelation concerning the restoration of all things? – No. Is God continuing to give us progressive revelation by speaking to us today because we are now able to bear it? Yes. We continue to be woven into the story of restoration.
“We view the Bible to be a library of ancient books written by real people living in real places at real times with real agendas. This collection of inspired poems, letters, and stories speaks to their encounters with God, which leads to our own experiences with God. We seek to honour, interpret, explore, question, wrestle, and apply the Bible in fresh, creative, and healing ways.”
We need to mature beyond the limitations of “Sola Scriptura”. “We came up with the idea of inerrancy because we needed another mediator between God and man other than Jesus.” -T.F. Torrance. We need the Truth the living word of God Jesus as our only mediator.
The Bible’s narrative or story covers God, Creation, Man, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. This story is told by various writer’s using their own perspectives of their encounters with God and other people. The story of redemption is even found written in the stars.
Eph 1:3 Let’s celebrate God! He lavished every blessing heaven has upon us in Christ! 4 He associated us in Christ before the fall of the world! Jesus is God’s mind made up about us! He always knew in his love that he would present us again face-to-face before him in blameless innocence.
It has always been God’s plan to have relationship with His children so He prepared for our redemption and restoration beforehand to ensure our face to face blameless innocence. The love story of God’s relationship with mankind is the overarching theme of the Bible.
A metanarrative (also called grand narrative) is an overarching story or storyline that gives context, meaning, and purpose to all of life. A metanarrative is the “big picture” or all-encompassing theme that unites all of our smaller themes and individual stories.
God’s desire for a love relationship with all His children is the theme. The micronarrative is the retelling of the story from the perspective of our personal experiences. . We are all involved woven into the story like a big tapestry.
The metanarrative of the Gospel reframes of all of history in a light that directly affects our micronarratives . Our stories are like the irregular jigsaw pieces framed by the flat edged pieces that give us context.
The micronarratives derive from those things we believe about ourselves and the world influenced by the metanarratives . Everything we believe about ourselves is framed by the bigger picture, paradigm or world view .
Religion of all types is a type of metanarrative that frames people’s lives from the particular viewpoint that they have been exposed to . What things have framed our lives from a religious perspective? No one really has free will because we are all influenced by something.
What we all do have is choice. What is it that influences our choices? A set of values, ideals or principles revealed in a book that may be called the Bible, Koran or Veda etc.? Or a personal experiential love relationship with God? God desires all of us to have a face to face relationship with Him.
Our lives can be framed by that living relationship with Jesus who like a mirror reveals the way, truth and the life through the expression of a relational narrative or story. The word Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us fully representing the Father’s loving essence full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
The story of Moses the mediator and Jesus the mediator is the contrast between religion and relationship . Moses represented people before God Jesus introduces people to God . The law comes through Moses but grace and truth through Jesus . What story frames your life today?
To be a follower of Jesus, is to be part of the story by being the good news not just behaviourally in our outward actions, but also in how our story reveals our value and worth as a son of God . The love story where we are loved by God where we love Him, love ourselves and love others because we are loved . Live loved, love living, live loving.
Subjective relationship rather than objective law is feared by religion because it is purported to reinforce skewed DIY behaviour and selfish man centred micro-narratives . But there is nothing to fear when a love relationship with God gives us a healthy understanding of our identity.
Religion veils the true identity of free sons to maintain control systems through law. Knowing our true identity as sons is central to having a life that embodies the gospel of love. When we know our true identity we can express God’s love through our lives in ministering to others.
If we were to write our micronarrative stories in the context of our journey within the metanarrative how much of it would be the story of the restoration of our brokenness . This is our redemption, reconciliation, renewal and restoration relationally.
The micronarratives, our stories, may not always fully embody the grand narrative but express the progressive nature of the unfolding of our journey to discover true love, joy and peace . We are on a journey where we mature as sons and discover our true identity, destiny and purpose .
If the Gospel is fundamentally about moving towards the redemption and restoration of all things, then our mental health (thinking) and our awareness of our identity from beholding ourselves in the mirror of God’s face and becoming who we see ought to be a part of that grand restorative healing process.
We must learn to embed the truth of love’s good news into the fabric of our beings, to sum up our love stories, not in a superficial “Jesus loves me” kind of way, but in a way that emphasizes accepting and embracing our brokenness and fragmentation but retelling our stories of increasing healing and peace in a way that releases hope to others.
God does not expect us to be perfect and so be in the bondage of continual repeated failure because we feel obligated to an external standard of perfection. God wants us to mature through an internal desire to be sons like our loving Dad.
Rom 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ ..
If we are not restored as sons and heirs then creation will not be restored . The restoration of all things begins with Jesus working in us and then through us now not in an event put off to the future.
Personal restoration includes our identity, position and destiny as sons . We have restored responsibility with the authority for the freedom and restoration of creation from its bondage to corruption and decay.
What does the Bible record that the prophets revealed? The biblical prophets were Hebrews and for them the restoration context meant the restoration of Judah, Israel, Jerusalem, the land or the kingdom.
Most OT prophetic restoration language is associated with Israel as a nation and has therefore been mistakenly put off limits for us . Israel, Judah or the land are terms often used to represent restoration in general . The Bible uses the stories of people as a picture of what is to be restored using the narratives in their fullest sense .
The disciples were Jews their metanarrative Judaism was the religion that was their influence . They grew up within the context of the stories of Israel’s restoration to the glory of David and Solomon . They had no thought for the restoration of all things just Israel.
Acts 1:6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus came to change the grand story to include the restoration of all things.
What doctrines and theology has framed our understanding and perhaps limited our expectations of restoration? We need Holy Spirit guidance as to what has already been fulfilled and what is currently being progressively outworked to completion.
Many references applied only to Israel actually refer to the overall restoration that Israel was a only a type, shadow or illustration of . Many times the word Judah, Zion or Jerusalem are used to refer to the New Covenant and New Jerusalem which is now open and available to all.
So many of the promises that God has made to His children have been put onto Israel as a nation or applied to a future restored Israel in a literal 1000 year period in the future when Jesus is supposed to return to earth and physically rule . We have lost so much present truth to a false futurist eschatology and theology.
Matt 17:11 And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; 12 but I say to you that Elijah already came, 13 Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist. Matt 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Act 1:6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Acts 15:16 After these things I will return, And I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, And I will rebuild its ruins, And I will restore it, 17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,’ 18 Says the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago.
Col 2:2 The mandate of my ministry is for everyone’s heart to be awakened to their true identity, intertwined in love’s tapestry. This will launch you into a life of knowing the wealth of every conclusion and joint witness hidden within the mystery of God who fathered us and co-revealed us in Christ.
Col 2:4 I want to say it with such clarity that no one will be able to lead you to an inferior conclusion by bending your mind with clever words. (Any message that would divert from the revelation of the mystery of “Christ in you” is founded in error.) Let’s get our wisdom, knowledge and understanding about all things from our face to face relationship with God Himself .
We need to continually hear God’s voice in relationship to be heirs and co-heirs to see creation set free from its bondage to corruption . As sons we need an intimate relationship with our Father, Brother and Friend so we can be revealed on the earth and answer creations groan.
Issue the sound let the frequencies of harmony resound that carry the call to restoration. Son only restored sonship, identity and position will answer creations groan for freedom. Sons arise and take your places .
Let’s engage Jesus the living word of God for restoration ask Him to reveal: What religious doctrines have negatively influenced your thinking? What has been robbed from your life? What is missing from your life? What is broken in your life? What has been lost in your life? What needs to be restored in your life?
Look into the eyes of the truth the living word of God and see the way the truth the life revealed in love.
Close your eyes and begin to think of Jesus and let that form in your imagination .Look into the eyes of the truth .Let Jesus give you direct revelation of the truth about Himself and about who you are as a son.
Ask Jesus to reveal any lies, wrong thinking, beliefs, doctrine, theology that has robbed you, limited or restricted you .Ask Jesus to reveal and deconstruct your belief systems.
Ask Jesus to restore the truth of all things to you by face to face revelation.