The video is here.
We heard something new in Paris as well as the Netherlands. France spawned the age of reason and the enlightenment after the reformation. Christians have always balanced spiritual experience with sound doctrine. Intellectualism presumes our heads should rule our hearts – the opposite is true. Jesus is not a philosophy; He’s a personality. The Bible is not a book we read; it is a book that reads us – it’s alive! God is not a cosmic force; He’s a Father. What we know about God comes straight out of our experiences with Him. Bottom line – The good news of the gospel of the Kingdom is more caught than taught. God gives us the desires of our heart (Heb 8:10, 10:16). Taking the initiative to make our dreams come true requires faith and faithfulness, but the end of the story is pure joy. The experiential realization of our destiny and the key to our personal entry into the Kingdom.
There are a few simple things that tend to keep believers from experiencing their heart’s desire. When we exchange these intellectual chains for an experience, the result is freedom… the sense of being loved by the Father and included in the Kingdom.
Can I trust my heart? – We heard this concern everywhere we went. Many in the church world have been taught that their hearts are inherently evil because they have inherited a sinful nature through Adam’s fall. Augustine had a poor translation of Rom 5:12. Sin entered the world (cosmos), not mankind, because of the fall. Yes, all have sinned (Rom 3:23) and can only come to God through Jesus, but people are still created in the image of God. If we believe we are inherently sinful by nature, it is no surprise that we will struggle to trust what God wrote in our hearts. It’s one thing to admit making a mistake(s); it’s quite another to view yourself (or others) as a mistake and perpetual sinner. Read Releasing Kings at the links below, Precious in His Sight or volume IV and V of Father-Son Theology for the Biblical basis.
Even more profound is the way we view and treat other people. God loved the world so much that while we were yet sinners He gave his life for us and asked us to show the same love for the one another and the lost. We simply won’t love unbelievers or trust believers if we believe they are wicked and have selfish, carnal hearts.
By contrast, when we see people as created in God’s image, we can look past their calamity and see a calling… and love them into it. I love this lifestyle of simply loving people and pulling them into their own heart’s desire. I’ve lived and taught the human depravity doctrine… it’s lonely, judgmental, self-righteous, hierarchical, callous and selfish. The experience of loving people is much more fun.
Love also changed my theology of leadership. I’m no longer pulling people out of their hearts and into my agenda. I experience pulling them into their own hearts. I find out what that is by listening, not teaching. All the same is true for parenting. I wish I had understood this when our kids were growing up. I would have pulled much more on the heart’s desires and focused much less on their discipline.
Full-Time Ministry – When we get saved in the presence of other believers (church), we experience salvation, the reality of God’s presence, the Bible coming alive through anointed teachers, the releasing of our own gifts and ministries, and much more. It’s so positive that our hearts nearly idolize the church and our pastors. We have no similar experience in any other mountain and we develop a theology to emulate full-time pulpit ministries and set our hearts on staff positions, church planting or missions.
98% of us are called to utilize our gifts in other mountains. The down side of full-time ministry (if it’s not our real calling) is tragic. We never allow our real heart’s desires to surface. The opportunities in the church never materialize. Our finances dry up because God hasn’t called other people to pay our bills. The result is heart-felt rejection by God, deep wounding and confusion.
By contrast, releasing our heart into the real mountain of our calling actually includes more opportunities for ministry, a multitude of open doors, fruit and financial blessing. In hindsight it is always very obvious. I was a bi-vocational pastor for 13 years. We planted two churches and ministered to many people, but my heart was not liberated until I found my real desire in the business mountain. For me it was the path to Kingdom and a role in bringing reformation around the world. Many more people have been saved, healed, taught and blessed after I stopped being pastor. I stopped living the theory of my false theology and started being myself… an ongoing experience that is much more genuine and much more fun. Our motto has become Have Fun, Make Money, and Love People.
We fell in love with Paris and the French people. We will go back and taste the fruit of what God did in precious hearts. Special thanks to Murielle Coco, Xavier Molinari, Kathryn Baxter and Grace Tiengwelieu-Schillaci.
