The Infinity of God.

Eternity. Now there’s an amazingly big word. A vast, staggering word that we, as mankind, in and of ourselves, can’t really relate to. Every human has an expiration date stamped on our lives, and God has no such limit.

Our eyes only see just so far, our ears only hear in a narrow frequency band, our breath grows thin and slips away — in this body we were never meant to last forever. Yea, we can’t hardly relate to the word’s eternity or infinity. We’ve only ever known this one small existence. We were born under this sky, standing on this earth, breathing this air, eating this food, seeing and hearing only the sights and sounds of this single world.

Any ideas or dreams further, beyond this world, are inserted by God that we would relate to Him. Why? Because we have never stood beneath a different sun, lived in a different light, or walked on the ground of a place we can’t even imagine. Without help, we would have no bridge to the One who made us. Without Jesus, we’d be left trying to reach God through the law alone… and friends, that road was never going to get us home.

But because God loved us enough to intervene… we are not left empty. We are not lost in the dark. Because of Him who intervened, we are not nowhere, having nothing, blind and lost in the dark.

The infinity of God is pointed to in scripture by sequence and pattern but i think we walk all around it and don’t give it a thought. In Ephesians 3, and more specifically Ephesians 3:18, there is a sequence of four words that points to the infinity of God, showing the Lord has decisively acted and declared His love in Christ — and that love is an ever-present, ever-expanding, never-ending reality with no boundaries. When YHWH-God speaks, His speaking doesn’t stop, He doesn’t incur lost words, extra words, or meaningless phrases. When He dreams, it is so. When He speaks, things happen and His words do not cease.

In our hearts, we secretly long to try and look past what our eyes can see. We’re driven to search for some kind of ending point — a place where it all stops. Like the sequence in Ephesians 3:18, the length, width, breadth, and height, implying there is no end point in the love of God. We strain to find the edge of it, because in the world we live, everything seems to have a limit, real or imaginary, it all comes to an end.

Yet… at that place where the sea conspires with the sky, out on the horizon where the beyond of the beyond steps into a God-place, the air itself feels alive with the sky, and there is a beyond-ness, a vastness so deep our hearts can scarcely comprehend. And that… that is just a shadow of the love of God.

Ephesians 3:19-21, “And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

When Christ loves, with His four-dimensional, measureless love sequence, unlike the love of mankind, His love doesn’t stop or shrink. The grammar of Ephesians 3:18 points to divine finality and completeness, while the spatial language of Ephesians 3:18 gives us the metaphor of divine infinity. And while we’re here at vs 18, notice Paul says, “May be able to comprehend…”, “comprehend” being a Greek verb whose tense has, once again, no concern for past, present, or future which makes all this “comprehending” to be a decisive, whole act in itself — not a partial or ongoing struggle, but something only God empowers us to grasp, get that? God empowers us to lay hold of His love as a reality. We are empowered to grasp His boundless love with no edges, no end, no “side to side” or “top to bottom”, and without Jesus, without all His boundlessness, the nature and character of God ultimately escapes our grasp.

Oh, God. No edge sharp enough to cut the hem of Your robe. No number large enough to reach the hem of Your thought. You speak — and the words do not fall. It keeps traveling, aorist and perfect tense and all, all at once, finished and never finished, rolling through the dark between galaxies and the quiet between heartbeats. Breadth without border, length without horizon, height with no ceiling, depth with no floor — Your love is the room that contains every room and still has space left for more. I stretch my small hands into forever — and they do not, cannot touch the end.

Before time learned how to tick, Oh God, You were. After time forgets its own name, You will be — the same endless I AM, breathing galaxies like dust and stooping low enough to whisper eternity into even the small dust at the edge of the universe. O God, how can the finite know the Infinite? Only because the Infinite first knew us. Eternity.

Not to be repetitive, but i want us to really get the idea of sequence and pattern. Throughout the Bible there are many sequences and patterns, either in word or thematically. A sequence is an ordered list, and a pattern is like an underlying rule, or a repeatable structure that regulates. A sequence is actual data, and a pattern is the idea of rule behind it. A sequence may or may not have a pattern, whereas a pattern generates one or more sequences.

Again, take note of the sequence in Ephesians 3:18. “Breadth, Length, Height, and Depth”. Think about that. It’s a deliberate sequence that paints a rich pattern — with the pattern being: the infinite, all-encompassing nature of the love of Christ that “surpasses knowledge”. The sequence and pattern are tied to our knowing the fullness of God. Just incredible! In the book of Ephesians, Paul repeats “hope-words” over and over, “may give unto you”, “you may know”, “you may understand”, “Christ may dwell”, “you may be able”, “you may grow”, “that you may have”, “that you may serve”, “it may be well with you”, “you may be able”, “it may be given”, “i may speak”, and “that you may know”. That all speaks to God-possibilities in a future tense. They are words of hope, of becoming and overcoming.

From the infinity of God, the Breadth, Length, Height, and Depth, He calls us to enter into His fullness to comprehend the incomprehensible — the everlasting, eternal love of God. The four dimensions, length, width, height, and depth are a vivid way of saying Christ’s love has

no edges,

no up or down,

no left or right,

no front or back,

and no side to side.

We read phrases like, “God said…” and the word “said” is a type of Greek verb, as i understand it, which has no concern with past, present, or future. So where Scripture says, “God said…” as it relates to “we heard”, both “God said” and “we heard” literally means, once He has spoken, His words do not stop being said, and once we have heard God, it does not stop being heard.

In Ephesians 3, when those powerful verbs that speak of completed and continuing action are combined with words like “eternal” or “God always”, Scripture gives us language for our God whose words, works, and character are not bound by man’s created categories. Once the Infinite speaks, it does not fade, it does not “stop being said”. When He loves, it’s a well which never runs dry and remains forever inexhaustible like an ocean with no shore.

The word of the Lord runs on into eternity. We lack words to describe God, and if we find words within ourselves, God put them there. John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing”, and friends, nothing means nothing. If He did not give us words to describe Him, we would have no words.

When you lay in your bed, in that place between awake and asleep…

in that “gray” place between awake and asleep — I believe,

more often than we admit, every soul, in its own quiet way,

becomes suddenly, sharply aware of their own mortality —

how fragile our breath, how brief our flame — and at the same time,

how undeniably, how certainly, eternity exists.

It presses in. It whispers through the dark.

It refuses to be ignored.

Looking at the Bible and God from the platform of Ephesians 3:18, the page i write on seems to get wider and longer, as if infinity and eternity have taken over my vision. The closer the Lord gets to all things, the more all things become like Him. Our God is a consuming fire. i realize there is no format, other than the cross, resurrection, ascension, and Holy Spirit by which there is enough space or time, wisdom and knowledge to sufficiently cast a vision of the Love of God. Knowing Jesus is the only Way to begin to comprehend the incomprehensible. Paul says it all and captures the hope in Ephesians 3:18-19, that we “May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

Again, our greatest strength against darkness is to come into the likeness of the Son. Character, character, character. It’s not rules to keep, but someone to be. Be the people.

i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name Ministries

The following is a definition and short explanation of which i’m going to use in the opening of each of the Sequence and Pattern series. Throughout the Bible there are many sequences and patterns, either in word or thematically. Let it be understood that a sequence is an ordered list, and a pattern is like an underlying rule, or a repeatable structure that regulates. A sequence is actual data, and a pattern is the idea of rule behind it. A sequence may or may not have a pattern, whereas a pattern generates one or more sequences.

In light of that, let’s think about *why* it’s important to do more than merely read a verse or chapter, go to church and call all things good. i believe that in the industrial American church complex, generally speaking, most people don’t want to read their Bible, don’t want to pray, give a little money, and mostly want to be told what to do, and it appears they’re good with that. i’m not. That’s not enough for me. The goal is to know God, to study God, and to understand Him. i want to be God-fluent, God-loving, God-lighted, and God-life-giving, tuned into the Holy Spirit more than the world. The Lord our God WANTS to be known. From the beginning His mission was to be known, that we would know Him and He would know us. It’s a relationship. He is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, God who is the sovereign Creator who made everything good and purposeful.

Seeing and studying the theme of God opens the Bible in Genesis and repetitively underscores that the world and humanity have inherent value and design. Jesus said that you are worth dying for. Think about that.

In our lifelong pursuit of Jesus, among the themes and narratives of the Bible there are sequences and patterns, and we really need to know the Lord intentionally put them together. God NEVER sits and stares, doing nothing, for all He does has a point and purpose. If we’ll look for Him, He will find us. He, Himself is a pattern for us to model ourselves after. Jesus is about more than rules to keep but that we should be like Him. The following is one among many sequences with a pattern in the Bible, and honestly, i just picked one i liked.

2 Corinthians 12:10, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with hardships, with persecutions, and with calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Do you see the sequence of five? Weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution and calamities. That sounds awful, but what’s it about? Why would God put that sequence on Paul’s heart to write in a book that will last forever for everyone to see? “C’mon Paul, you’re always such a downer!” No, he’s not. i see it as a sequence which covers an all-inclusive range of trials — from inward struggles to outward hostility. Paul experienced all of these repeatedly and he points out his struggles that we would be encouraged to trust God and know our earthly struggles can be endured and overcome in Christ. God wants us to see His power that is perfected in weakness, when we are stripped of self-reliance, and that we learn to be content, “for the sake of Jesus”. Take a good look at the sequence: weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. It is important. Everything Jesus said is important and there are no extra or wasted words. John 16:33, Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Paul is purposely painting a dramatic picture of his life as a testimony of God’s faithfulness. He suffered Weaknesses, Greek word “asthenia”, a lack of strength, general weakness and debility, with debility generally pointing to fatigue and loss of energy. The same Greek word is linked to our English word, neurasthenia as in nervous exhaustion and mental fatigue. He endured insults that were forced upon him, but it’s worse than snide comments from the sidelines. Insults is Greek “hybris”, where we get our English word “hubris”, in this case meaning outrage, arrogant speaking, and insolent words filled with “wanton violence”.

He suffered hardships, the Greek word, “ananke”, for anguish, like being squeezed into a narrow place, choked and pressed tight. Another word is “diogmos” or what we would translate as persecutions. Paul is saying he was chased, hunted like prey with the intent to harm him combined with “stenochōria” or calamities denoting, while he was pursued like an animal he felt suffocated by his circumstances, again, as being stuck in a narrow alley with no room to maneuver.

2 Corinthians 12:9, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

2 Corinthians 12, among other themes, is probably one of the most profound statements in the New Testament on how God works through our weakness and is about “the way we go our way while on the Way” to experiencing God’s strength and living in Christ, even though we are weak and have no strength of our own.

The sequence has much more substance than a basic summary. 2 Corinthians 12:10 goes far beyond a mere catalog or random list of bad stuff that can happen to you. The literary style (which is something new to me) is called a “rhetorical crescendo” or a structured, escalating sequence of sufferings that move from internal to external, and from milder to more intense forms of hardship, and the pattern is the dramatic build-up, the theological purpose showing we are weak and Christ alone is strong, and it subtly reflects the suffering Savior pattern of humiliation, persecution and anguish. Do you see it?

His love unfolds from grace to grace, ever widening, ever deepening,

until we know at last, as we ourselves are known.”

Other than a testimony, why would Paul layout this “rhetorical crescendo” of suffering in 2 Corinthians 12:10? i suppose, it is just like Paul to take the boasting of strength by the Corinthians and then carefully show an ordered list of weaknesses instead. He was defending his apostolic calling. i have read that there were, at the time, “self-proclaimed super-apostles” in Corinth boasting about their strength, visions, and credentials, much like today in the American church. We should take the example from Paul, rather than sell ourselves for money and recognition. Let us practice our humility, and instead of competing on their terms, we boast in our weakness and the strength of Christ alone, giving glory to the one true God and not ourselves. 1Corinthians 1:31, “so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

i believe another reason was that he was modeling, for us, how to view suffering, and instead of seeing it as affliction and proof of failure, see your trials as proof of authentic kingdom service. Paul laid it out this way in order to, probably, invert worldly values, turning the local church’s desire for power, comfort and success upside down, basically saying, (my interpretation), “the real power of this life we live in Christ, is found precisely where the world sees only defeat.” Stop being ashamed of your flaws and turn them into testimonies.

Isaiah 40:26, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.”

Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name Ministries

Throughout the Bible there are many sequences and patterns, either in word or thematically. A sequence is an ordered list, and a pattern is like an underlying rule, or a repeatable structure that regulates. A sequence is actual data, and a pattern is the idea of rule behind it. A sequence may or may not have a pattern, whereas a pattern generates one or more sequences.

i think it necessary to give an example. A sequence with a pattern would mirror the powerful triplet from the Love Chapter, “faith, hope, love”, as taken from 1 Corinthians 13:13, which is three that belong together, though not a pure pattern but definitely a sequence with a pattern. Meaning they form a natural progression in our lives: We believe (faith) → We look forward to God’s promises (hope) → We live in self-giving love (the greatest). The triplet is both an ordered list, a sequence, with love being the ultimate goal and also the underlying rule of who we are in Christ, who is the personification of the pattern. “Faith, hope, and love”. Think of the three as travelling companions — if you find faith, rest assured hope and love are probably somewhere nearby — they go together. Do you get it?

i love the sequences found in the Bible and i’m absolutely persuaded that the Lord intentionally put them together. God didn’t put them together for nothing. In fact, many people say, “If God would simply tell me what to do, plainly, i would do it.” Well, there are a multitude of patterns and sequences God has given us to fashion ourselves after if we will search, and even pointed out some we should NOT reflect, like Ahab or Absalom. These righteous patterns were/are created from the heart of God Himself and hold an overarching importance to which we really need to give our attention.

It’s more than just a descriptive list, and many scholars, one of which i am not, call it “dimensionally symbolic” of a love which cannot be measured or contained. It’s about the four dimensions of the cross — left, right, top, bottom, His love is infinitely beyond the beyond and has no left, right, up, down, front, back, or no side-to-side.

So today I have a wonderful sequence to which i hope you can relate. It’s an example of how we were “far” and then God brought us “near”, going from exclusion to intimate belonging. Sort of like, thematically speaking, the parable of the prodigal son who was “far” and came “near”.

Ephesians 2:19, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” Do you see it? We were once strangers and aliens, and have become, by the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, citizens and saints. Stranger, Alien, Citizen, Saint. Do you see the progression from death to life in it? Ephesians 2:15, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” When we were strangers we had very limited rights, acting as complete outsiders or temporary visitors. No legal protection, no standing in the community, and were often viewed with suspicion. As aliens, things got a little better in that we had some ability to do business and settle down, but still lacked any rights, lacked full protection under the law, and were not members of the community. As aliens we often paid some form of fees for the right to live there, but had no political voice.

Ahhh, but now, now you’ve met Jesus, purchased with His blood, and BOOM! just like that, suddenly we find ourselves in a new, never lived in place of family reality. Suddenly we have standing, not as outsiders, but now have the status of “Citizen” and all the broad landscape of God-possibilities open before us in a great sweep of the Fathers hand called “salvation”. Now, as citizens we are also saints.

Being a citizen is represented as a vertical relationship with God, and being a saint is a horizontal relationship with the family, the household of God. Citizens and saints get full rights, protection, privileges, and can fully participate in the community (including responsibilities like taxes). It’s a strong legal and social status God has given us! As citizens and saints, we belong to the entire Body of Christ. These wonderful titles point to our shared fellowship and reminds us that we are intimately connected to every believer in God’s house as blood relatives, joined together by the blood, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus and are given the privileged status of firstborn in His family. Get that? Firstborn, no aunts, no uncles, but first born brothers and sisters in Christ

Take note of the entire idea which starts in Ephesians 2:11 and continues through to vs. 22. Paul is purposely painting a dramatic before-and-after picture. Before: No rights, no protection, no real belonging. We were outsiders. After: Full citizenship in God’s kingdom plus intimate family membership in God’s household as saints. Paul is making all efforts for us, the believers, to see the social reality behind the words. Paul probably stacks the sequence in Ephesians 2:19 for emotional impact so we can “comprehend the incomprehensible”.

Do you see it in the sequence and/or pattern? Through Christ, we are transformed: From strangers and aliens to citizens and saints as the family members in God’s household, living stones being built together into a holy temple supported by the seven pillars of heavenly wisdom. Proverbs 9:1. What are those seven pillars? Maybe James 3:17 spells it out specifically. You should go see! Herein is the support structure of the temple, who is us: Wisdom builds her house with seven pillars (Proverbs 9:1), God builds His temple (us) with the seven qualities of heavenly wisdom. When you combine Proverbs 9:1 with James 3:17 we get a pattern, an underlying rule of character: pure, peace loving, gentle/considerate, reasonable or willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. See it: not just what we are, but how we are: it’s not rules to keep but someone to be.

Friends, this is not just about individual improvement. It is about God creating a beautiful, stable, unified dwelling place for Himself — where His presence lives by the Spirit. It’s about family and being a team. The seven pillars are the internal character structure that holds this temple strong and allows us to grow.

In short: We are becoming the house that Wisdom builds — a people who reflect the character of Christ so that God can dwell among us in fullness, having gone from far to near, or death to life by the sacrifice of Jesus. We were strangers and aliens, and now are citizens and saints. Again, our greatest strength against darkness is to come into the likeness of the Son.

i’m going to be repeating the following throughout this series: It’s not rules to keep, but someone to be. Be the people.

i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name Ministries

Here, of late i’ve enjoyed a great invention by God called “quiet”. Honestly, i should have been learning to enjoy God’s creation of “quiet” long ago, but i think my internal self was far too noisy to even think about it. No, i don’t just think i was noisy, i KNOW i was noisy. There was nothing quiet about me, and when i thought i was being quiet, internally i was very noisy.

The idea of “quiet” is part of God’s sound design for the universe. In His design there are so many “rooms”, so to speak. Here’s a little context maybe: In sound design (audio production, game audio, film post, or virtual acoustics, etc), “defining a room” means specifying the acoustic properties of a space to realistically simulate or process how sound behaves within it. Some rooms are very “alive” like a music hall, and some rooms are very quiet like your bedroom at 3 a.m.. i realize that’s probably more information than most would want, but let us think about that. The goal of sound design is to assist the listener to be in the space which they are occupying. The visual and audible make for an almost complete immersive experience. If we are seeing the forest yet there is no sound of wind, birds, or any of the other sounds which accompany being in the forest, we feel disconnected somehow. So, God went to work to not only give us a visual but also the sounds of what we see in order that we would more fully engage with the world around us and other people.

In light of all that, I’ve come to greatly appreciate the idea of quiet. Quiet in my head, quiet in my heart which tends to make God easier to hear. Afterall, our goal above all things is hearing the Lord, with both ears. And let me point out quiet is not the same as silence.

We are absolutely slammed with noise these days, but our world is radically noisier than we think — street noise, the chaos of internet noise, music noise, the constant roar of all things entertainment, and just the ambient noise of all the people breathing in a large department store can be very intense. The volume is maddening and i haven’t even gotten to the noise in our heads. Even in the quietest part of where we live, there’s ambient noise like air exchange running, and the sound of the fans on the computer, etc. Most people almost never sit in quiet, and even when they do it is still not actually quiet.

On a side note, most people truly cannot stand complete and utter quiet — the noise within our own ears is suddenly too loud. it’s almost as if even the smallest things inside our mind is unnerving, so in a way, we seem to need some sort of environmental feedback which maybe lets us know we even exist and where we are. We get most of our balance from seeing the horizon and hearing our surroundings. The quietest place on Earth is the anechoic chamber at Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The room absorbs 99.99% of sound and is so silent that visitors can hear their own internal organs functioning. And, because there are no echoing sound waves to provide the brain with spatial orientation, most people inside this chamber quickly become disoriented. When all external sounds are stripped away, the silence itself feels deafening, allowing you to hear sounds you would never normally notice. In fact, with the lights off, the record for sitting in the ultimate quiet room is around 45 minutes, but most people are slowly driven insane for lack of ambient room noise or spacial orientation.

But more than just external quiet, in the Bible, God’s idea of “quiet” centers on stillness, silence, restful trust, and attentive waiting in His presence — and i believe practicing His idea of quietness is a pathway to knowing Him, finding strength, peace, and salvation amid chaos or turmoil.

Quiet is not mere inactivity or empty silence, but a deliberate ceasing of striving, anxiety, and self-reliance so that we can recognize God’s sovereignty, hear Him, and rest in His control. God’s idea of quietness pairs with trust, hope, and praise. “Be still” in Psalm 46:10 more accurately means, stop what you’re doing, let go in quiet trust, release control which leads to deeper knowledge of who Jesus is. One author wrote that when we are quiet before the Lord, “Panic and self-effort give way to expectant stillness.” Isaiah 30:15, “For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength…’”

I think we can conclude that quietness (quiet or calm) combined with trust brings salvation and strength, contrasting, what i call frantic human plans.

Karl Barth wrote that, “God’s vision of quiet is relational and empowering: it counters fear and self-reliance, fosters trust, allows Him to fight/work on our behalf, and opens us to His peace and voice.” i believe God’s idea of quiet counters the noise of anxiety, busyness, mindless chatter that seems to surround us, and striving.

In a noisy world, the Bible repeatedly calls believers to cultivate this stillness—not as escape, but as the posture for knowing and experiencing God more deeply. Many find it through prayer, contemplating Scripture, solitude, or simply pausing to remember His presence.

So here … sit down. Be still a moment or two. Stop your worry for a few minutes. You know, you need rest. Aren’t you tired of church noise, entitled people noise, the roar of church conflict, complaining noise, accusing noise? Sit with Jesus, just be still and let it go, it’ll all be right where you left everything, all your worries and grieving concerns. Just stop the Lord says. He says to come sit with Him a while and He’ll share and you share, like two friends walking together.

In Psalm 46:10, the primary term for being still or being quiet, is the Hebrew word, “Raphah” and means to slacken, relax, let go, sink down, and cease. It implies, this is good so pay attention, dropping one’s grip on efforts, anxieties, or self-reliance — going limp or withdrawing from frantic activity, grow mute and stand motionless. That’s quite a vision isn’t it? Please note, this is not passive laziness but active trust: stop opposing or striving. It connects to ideas of respite and waiting. There are a few other important words used elsewhere, one in particular means quietness, or cessation of noise and motion as in the calm after a storm. Psalm 4:4 literally is a picture of the Lord saying to stop your agitation and shaking, again, stop your agitated worrying unchecked obsession with your circumstances, and literally speak to your circumstances to “be still”, or be quiet and quiet the inner storm, trust God and rest in the Lord. Friend, find your quiet place and live there.

i think we should also see what God’s vision of quiet looks like, see thematically to understand the Lord takes quiet as a necessity for us. Consider the theme of Psalm 23. It’s a picture of quietness as God sees it. “The Lord is my shepherd”, not task master but shepherd. “i shall not want”, as in, in His presence i don’t need the endorsement of men, nor titles, nor being known. Jesus is enough for me. “He makes me lie down”, to cease from my labors and trust God has got me. “He leads me besides THE still waters”, not just any still place in the river, but THE still water. “He restores my soul”, when i was overcome with the cares of this life Jesus sets me upright and heals all my wounds and afflictions that He would be known as God who heals me, Exodus 15.26. And it continues in the words of God’s kind heart for His people. Go read it. Do you see it?

i love to walk in the light of a full moon after midnight on a warm summer evening. God’s quiet is phenomenal. i want that. i need that. Come let’s go quietly together and learn to create space to hear and encounter the Lord, whom we so desperately need. We will easily find God in the still places, the quiet places, the places we cease from our striving. Stand still and listen. He is there. Don’t you know being quiet creates space for trusting God. Live full of grace, softly and quietly. It’s beyond the beyond of the noise of this world.

i’m Social Porter for Living In His Name Ministries.

Pro-vision holds hands with vision in the same way a thesis serves as an early discovery process for purpose. The word finds its roots in the Greek “pro-thesis”—meaning purpose—where “pro” speaks of looking ahead or, more poetically, “breathing forward”. Thus, pro-vision is the forward sight that provides everything necessary to advance and fulfill the vision. It is how God brings something into being with the certainty of its existence—His pro-vision is the guarantee that establishes His vision.

Hear this: In God’s mouth, His Word carries holy weight: He speaks a thing into being with divine certainty. His pro-vision is the unbreakable guarantee that His vision will stand.

This is why, when we see God’s preparation (“He prepares a table before me”), we can know there is revealed the sacred order: vision — provision — preparation. There was first a vision and then a pro-vision. God holds a vision for our well-being, releases His pro-vision (providing all that is needed for the accomplishment of that vision), and then brings forth preparation as the visible manifestation of both His vision and His pro-vision. Preparation, the visible beauty of both vision and pro-vision, laid out in glory for all to see.

i do believe though, we often mistake God’s vision as an idea of how it’s going to prosper ourselves, and we take His pro-vision as the things He’s giving us to make us wealthy, comfortable, and living a life of convenience. That’s NOT what He means. He does love that we would do well, of course, but His idea of prosperous and our of prosperous are pretty different. The Lord’s vision for us is to be reconciled to Him, to be healthy and whole, mature, and be filled with the Spirit, bearing out all the fruits and gifts of the Spirit, that’s the vision. His pro-vision is about what He provides us in order that we would prosper His vision. Our error is that we take the wealth of God’s provision and tell ourselves, “it is all for me”, building ourselves large homes, buying huge amounts of property, fancy cars, flashy clothes, when in truth, all along, sometimes, if not often, it all amounts to a misappropriation of His provision, and i consider a misappropriation of Kingdom gifts and benefits to be traitorous. The Lord makes us prosperous not to prosper ourselves but to advance the Body of Christ, yet i do believe many of us have gotten lost in our own self-centered ways, with self-centered meaning, to be centered and focused on ourselves (as if you didn’t know that) … excluding God. Our weight is far more shifted toward ourselves then toward Kingdom purposes. Shift your weight friends.

The eyes see and the soul encourages the little eyes to see again. The mind wants, and the more it sees the more it wants until the heart follows suit and then … gradually, almost unnoticeably, we have lost our relish for righteous things and our relationships with other people have been set adrift, little by little by little, because of the destructive trajectory by which all began in a very subtle place. Many of our errors begin in subtleties, such “small little seemingly nothing things” that don’t appear to make a difference in the now, at the zero point, but out at a distance and over time, the error is staggering. It’s like the teenager who finally decides to take a hit of meth to just try it out for the first time. The first experience is so amazing they decide they’re going to have to try it again. Then again. Shortly, they’re hooked, always trying to relive the original high that will never happen again, ever. Almost all addicts spend all their time chasing that first high. It all began in the turn of a thought in their head that THEY wouldn’t be like THOSE others, that THEY would be able to just try once and stop, that certainly t-h-e-i-r lives would never turn out horribly like the infamous THEY.

In light of all that, it’s a provision all right, but the question is … who made the provision? It wasn’t the Lord. In light of that, we can safely say the vision behind the provision was one of hatred towards God with a full heart of destruction for mankind.

Arthur Bert used to say “Where God’s appointment is, therein is the provision”. Before the Lord made an appointment for you, He already possessed a vision of what He wanted to happen. With His vision of your destiny, in His “looking ahead sight”, He prepared, in advance what you would need to accomplish His purposes. We can completely walk in confidence knowing this: my creative metaphor here, that while you are on your journey, God is already waiting for you just beyond the bend, standing on the path ahead with open arms and a knowing smile. This is why it’s easy to say “the Lord has prepared a table before us”, because in the Hebrew word for “provision”, it comes to us with the idea of “prepare”, as in “from His provision we prepare a meal”. From His provision, the armies of the called prepare for intercession and action. From His provision, we prepare a timely word to the body of Christ. From His provision, we prepare to feed the multitudes of starving and excluded people. He extends us the vision of bringing medical aid to remote places, He makes the pro-vision of supplies, doctors, nurses, vehicles, fuel, food, plane tickets, border passes, and necessary facilities in order to advance the vision, so when we finally get to our destination, we use His provision and prepare to serve with all our heart. David meant something far, far larger than just getting to eat a great meal when He said, “You prepare a table before me.” With vision and  pro-vision comes preparing. Isaiah 45:2: “I will go before you and make the crooked places straight…”

In Romans 13:14, Paul writes to “make no provision” for the flesh. In other words don’t use, not one ounce of your “looking ahead sight for the things which advance the vision of sin” which so easily besets us. The Lord’s provision is always tied to His providence, and to use our gifts to advance the vision of ourselves, again, is a misappropriation of God’s provision, Holy Spirit gifts and benefits. i do not want to be an embezzeler of Kingdom wealth. Let us see His vision, use His pro-vision, as a noun, be guided by His purposes which are set in front of us, and prepare, as an action verb, preparing the way of the Lord, making His paths straight.

What do you think?

i’m Social Porter with Living In His Name Ministries.

Let’s look at salvation from a legal perspective.

Because of the choosing that happened in the Garden of Eden, sin entered in. Because of that choosing, satan held a pseudo-sovereignty over humanity and held mankind for ransom on the principal of “government by consent of the governed”, which is when we live without Christ, we consent to whatever weakens our reason, impairs the tenderness of our conscience, obscures our sense of God, or takes off our relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of our body over our mind, thereby we are governed by sin. The Supreme Judge in the Supreme Court of Heaven is sworn to uphold the demands of the law in every case.

In order for man to be free, by law, an innocent and willing substitute had to be found to take his place who could fully meet the demands of the law and represent both God and man. The only solution was for God to become man, paying the penalty, thereby letting man go free. Because God loved us from the beginning, He saved us from the legal penalty of death due to iniquity,

transgression, and sin.

We need to understand some of the principles of Redemption. Redemption means that one who is capable of redeeming and taking the place of another actually meets the demands of the law and becomes the legal substitute by paying the redemptive price for those who are condemned to death because of breaking the law. God decided that through the atonement and the substitution of an innocent victim to take the place of the guilty kidnapped race, He would free it from satan, thereby legally and forcefully evicting satan, restoring man’s dominion, so as to carry on the eternal purpose, as it was intended from the beginning.

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Jesus was sent to pay the price for the death penalty man incurred in the garden, thereby breaking the power of the pseudo-sovereignty which satan

had. It was a redemptive work based on the principles of redemption for man, who being under the penalty of death, was unable to pay.

When satan put to death the sinless, innocent Son of God, the High Court of Heaven cancelled all his claims against humanity. The Lamb of God, the Righteous Son of Glory paid the penalty of ransom, thus meeting all the demands of God and the Holy Law, defeating satan and his host with his very blood. Now then, we who believe are “alive to God, in Christ”, as Paul wrote in Romans 6:14 “…sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

For the reasons stated in Romans 6:14, if we confess our sin and consecrate our lives to God, satan loses his case in the High Court of Heaven, and man comes away from court with power of attorney by the blood of Jesus, and we are made representatives and officers of God’s law, and can dispossess and cast out, can heal and strengthen, and do whatsoever the High King of Heaven says for us to do. Because of the work of Jesus Christ, it is our legal, redemptive, blood bought, divine right to be free and resist the enemies of Heaven until the intimidating grip of false authority on mankind is brought down to the ground. The walls of hell WILL fall, all the way to hell!

But for those who refuse to believe and turn from their sin, satan gives to them the sole right and power to suffer.

Christ has once and for all hurled satan from his position of power, so that he is a conquered enemy. We don’t have to bind what Christ has beaten and bound. The might of satan, the prince of all diabolical powers, is already broken. Our greatest strength against the enemies of Heaven, is not to fight against the devil, who is exhausted and defeated, but our greatest strength is to come into the likeness of The Son, Jesus, the Christ of God. Jesus has broken the powers of satan, so that those who look to God in faith are liberated from the influences of darkness.

In the heart posture towards Christ in our hearts and lives, there is no room for sitting on the fence. Every person is either for or against Him, whether we realize and acknowledge it or not.

The privilege and the seriousness of following Christ are of such tremendous magnitude that there is no room for excuse for compromise with the world, or for half-heartedness.

By faith, we live everyday in the splendid opportunity of being citizens of the kingdom of God.

The Lord’s Prayer Expanded:

Holy God, You are The One who is near us in mercy and love and at the same time You are high exalted above us, for your Name is the expression of Your Being, the Name who is sanctified in all creation. Let Your divine rule come, Your divine sovereignty which more and more fully attains it’s rightful place in the heart and life of mankind, as in Heaven where your will is obeyed, spontaneously, with perfect joy, in a perfect manner without a shadow of unfaithfulness. Lord we ask for Your supernatural aid and blessing in all the fields of our lives where Your dominion is perfect and all the real needs of man are replenished, not just for us as individuals on our own merit but in reliance on the grace of God. We ourselves ask for forgiveness as we absolve and acquit those who are indebted to us, who act wrongly towards us on the full ground of Your grace, the sweeping love of God. We concede and admit that we are weak, and are conscious of our own weakness that You would direct our path away from circumstances in which we are exposed to evil temptations, but also celebrate and are glad in You who gives us the victory and causes everything to contribute towards the good of those who love You. Help us that our prayers and life habits would not degenerate into mechanical, and ceremonial formality. For You are the Glory and power, the Perfect Friend who reigns forever. Amen.

What do you think?

In Genesis 18 we are privy to a conversation displaying all sorts of heart attitudes which are still applicable today, right where we are, everyday.

As the conversation opens we see Abraham sitting in the door of his tent, which was his dwelling place, his home and covering. It’s probably somewhere around midday, so it’s hot and he’s taken shelter from the sun. As it goes with us, when it’s hot and we’ve gotten out of the sun for a bit, the same was probably for Abraham in that he may have been dozing a little, waiting for the heat to fade. There are some really key points in this story for us to notice.

The Lord drew my attention to a process in vs. 2, where it says, “he lifted up his eyes”, then “he looked”, and “when he saw”. If we look a little deeper than the English “simplization” of the verse, looking at the Hebrew, variations of seeing come to light. To say, “he lifted up his eyes” is an idiom meaning he was casually looking around, not looking at anything specific, like someone who is waking up from dozing, noticing their environment, with no particular focus. The next phrase is “he looked”. For some reason, something or someone has gotten Abraham’s attention, and now he’s not just generally looking around, now he’s focusing, specifically, on someone or something of special note. It would be the difference between my saying to you, “look” as opposed to saying look with a specific purpose, like not just “look”, but, “look at that tree”. Do you get what i’m saying? Three people suddenly being within his scope of vision was completely out of the ordinary of his visual environment, not to mention, i believe God was pointing them out to him, resulting in his sharpening his focus to see specifically. They were people who were not normally at his camp there in the middle of nowhere. The third phrase, “when he saw them” is a phrase used in reference to a type of prophetic seeing, it is used denoting that he was fully engaged, head and heart, like someone seeing, with eyes wide open, looking, specifically, at something amazing, something to be contemplated with intent. Using the word “when”, which is a time word, reveals that he must have rolled it around in his mind for a second as realization and revelation came to light.

i’m not saying all this to establish that i know something. It is easily understood i absolutely do not. God alone is the sole source of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and if God doesn’t give us wisdom and insight we simply won’t have it. i am saying, though, there is wisdom here to be grasped in a modern society where uncertainty is deliberately advanced by those who’s hearts are darkened to leverage others for their own advantage at the expense of those held in uncertainty. God operates in the opposite. He wants us to be certain, and to be wise and have understanding. As a result the three facets of seeing, we can see how they describe how we come to understand things, they reveal God’s process, and point to His preferences, and standards.

The Lord’s heart is not only for us to wake up and grow up, but also to be interested enough in Him to take notice and understand. Today, too much of the church is simply spending their time being continually cycled through an organized program every Sunday. Typical leadership seems to have the attitude that congregations need to be managed, and as long as people are engaged in “activities”, they feel like they’re being a part of something larger. It is government by consent of the governed.

From the beginning, God almighty desired to be known by the object of His affection, us. He not only offers us deliverance and salvation, but He shares His attributes with us. He desires we be involved with Him, doing more than simply possessing fire insurance, but knowing Him and understanding, certain and confident He is all He says and more. His ways are better than ours, higher and profitable. He will, indeed, if we are willing to do more than just casual looking, God will open our eyes to “see” and comprehend. He wants us to do more than simply go to church, His desire is for us to advance our relationship with Him and the body of Christ. That is the “having life more abundantly” part spoken of in John10:10.

Not too long ago, upon hearing the scripture from John10:10, where Jesus said that He came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly, an inmate said, “i’ve been living a two part life. A life as a rebellious criminal, and another life as a believer. All my days i’ve been in poverty on both sides of that two part life, and now you’re telling me that Jesus wants me to have life abundantly? i’d sure like all that abundantly to show up about now.” The man was looking but not seeing, he may have been focusing in general, but not on the Lord specifically. His head and heart operated independently of each other, and were not in sync. There was always the undercurrent of criminal thinking, and if he got entirely too honest then the thrill of leveraging the outcome at the expense of someone else would be gone, his eyes would be opened, and then he’d have to be responsible. Just going to church didn’t solve any of his problems, but for a while, he sure did look good without actually having to be righteous. Let us do more than just live a life of continually rising from our drowsy state, more than just looking around with unfocused eyes, but be fully engaged with God, head and heart as one.

What do you think?