A God of Purpose - A God of Provision

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L.D. Turner

I am convinced that few of us truly understand our true potential as children of the Father of Lights, the Living God. By remaining ignorant of who and what we are, we end up limping through life rather than soaring. We end up settling for scraps from the table when we should, in fact, own the table and the house that it sits in.

For many years I either failed to understand the blessings of the full gospel or I misunderstood it. Either way, I wasted a lot of time thinking I knew what I was talking about when, in fact, I didn’t. I would be greatly saddened if that happened to you and this, my friend, is one of the main catalysts that gave birth to Sacred Mind Ministries. God etched upon my heart the need for sound teaching and quality educational materials that would foster deeper awareness of the Christian’s true potential and identity “in Christ.” Further, I began to understand that the primary purpose of having this blessed gift of a new identity and new personal power in Christ is to assist in the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. It is to this mission that we at SMM remain committed.

Understanding our true identity is intimately connected with the realization of our divine potential. These issues are among the deeper things God, working through the Holy Spirit, wants to impart to us. All we need to receive these vital revelations is an open mind and a receptive heart. We don’t need to wait until we arrive in heaven to gain awareness of these gifts – in fact, by the time we get to heaven we will have already been utilizing our divine power here on earth for many years. Dr. Myles Munroe speaks clearly to these themes:

God has prepared so many deep things about who we are. Our eyes can’t see them, nor can our minds conceive them, yet God is revealing them to us through His Spirit. God doesn’t want us to wait until heaven to know our full potential. He didn’t give birth to us so we can develop our potential in heaven…..God wants us to realize here on this planet who we are. That is His purpose in creating us. We need the Holy Spirit because eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, nor has it entered the minds of men who man really is. Only the Holy Spirit searches “the deep things of God.”…..God beckons you to take another step into a deeper, more relevant knowledge of your potential in Christ – Though you may have been saved for years. You need to take this step because you still don’t know who you are.

You see, friends, most of us claiming to be followers of Christ are well intended but poorly equipped to make those intentions a reality in daily living. This statement is not intended to be a criticism of the modern church or a slap in the face of well-meaning Christians who are committed to bringing God’s kingdom out of the spiritual realm and making it manifest right here on earth. Instead, I say these words because they are true. Most of us do not have a clue as to what we can do to not only make our lives more fruitful and productive, but also to bring success to the calling that God has placed in each of our hearts.

The good news is, however, that we serve a God of purpose and provision. The Father of Lights has a well-planned purpose for this world which involves redemption and restoration. He is proactive in redeeming what was lost in the Garden and, joined at the hip of this plan of redemption, is the reality of restoration. Each of us, and that includes you and me, are being redeemed for the purpose of restoring God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. We are being redeemed in order to bring about the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth.

Please note that I use the word “redeemed” not just in the past tense, but in the sense of an ongoing process. We were indeed redeemed when we acknowledged and accepted Christ for who and what he was and is, but it doesn’t stop there. The process of redemption continues and goes deeper and deeper as our bodies, our minds, our wills, and our spirits, become properly aligned with those of the Master. In essence, we were given new life and a new identity at our second birth. Now each of us is in the process of growing into that life in increasing measure. The goal is that we have, as Paul so aptly puts it, the “full measure of Christ” within us.

We are given this new life, this new status, and this new power for the primary purpose of continuing the incarnation that we saw so vividly in the life of Jesus. The Master announced the coming of the kingdom and then proceeded to go about the work of making it manifest in this world. And hear this, he charged us with the task of carrying on where he left off. Furthermore, he sent the Holy Spirit to live in us, empower us, and guide us forward in that holy process. God not only has given us a calling and a purpose, he has provided the power we need to meet that purpose and make it a living reality.

In 2 Peter 1:4 we are told that God has put us in a position where we can share in his divine nature. No, that doesn’t mean he has made us Gods, or even little gods as some have suggested. It does mean, however, that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead now resides in each of us. The Father of Lights, as stated earlier, is not only a God of purpose, but also a God of provision, enabling us to meet the challenges of doing those things that he has called us to do. Friends, if you can understand that principle, make it yours through faith, and take action based on it, you can succeed at any God-directed, God-ordained calling.

© L.D. Turner 2010/ All Rights Reserved

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Radical Acceptance and Holistic Optimism

L. Dwight Turner

One of the key principles that we emphasize at Sacred Mind Ministries is the importance of optimism. The reasons for stressing the development and maintenance of an optimistic outlook on life are many, but perhaps the most important benefit of optimism is obvious.

Optimism is the womb of hope.

More significantly, as Christians, we have every reason to be optimistic. God has given us, through his grace and love, everything we need to live a complete, fulfilling, and rewarding life. Further, the Bible tells us repeatedly that we are now wholly redeemed and acceptable to the Father and that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. In and of itself, that should be enough to allow optimism to works its roots deep into the soil of our hearts. Moreover, in Romans Paul reassures us that all things work for our benefit, even if we are sometimes blind to the fact.

In brief, God accepts us and blesses us. So, why is it that many of us have trouble fully accepting this free gift of grace? Why is it that a significant number of God’s family displays such a negative mindset? Why is it that church pews are often filled with people wearing either plastic smiles or, even worse, displaying such a sour countenance that visitors might think these folks had been baptized in vinegar instead of water?

Perhaps the problem stems from the fact that many of us, deep down in our spiritual hearts, just don’t believe that we have really been accepted. If we are among that number, our situation is such that we are actually rejecting the very gospel we proclaim.

A renowned Christian theologian, I think it was Paul Tillich, once said that the key to the whole Christian gospel was the fact that we are accepted by God. In fact, he went on to say that the way to appropriate God's grace was to accept that we are accepted. I am no theologian and, at best, possess a second or third rate mind. But I am capable of comprehending the truth of this statement. We cannot begin the spiritual journey as outlined by Christ until we accept the gift of grace. And the most fundamental aspect of accepting God's offer is to accept that we are accepted. Yet many Christians don't seem to get this point. In fact, in their broken, weak state they can't fathom that they are in any way acceptable to God. Something is wrong here. Very wrong.

The crown jewel in the center of the Christian message is that the lowliest, neediest, and most broken people are accepted if they have faith in Christ. Just take a look at the kind of people he chose to hang out with when he was on earth. He associated with thieves, lepers, tax-collectors, prostitutes, cripples, paupers, and even a woman married five times. It now strikes me as absurd to think that I, even with my hang-ups, sins, shortcomings, and defects of character, am beyond the loving pale of God's grace. However, many people both within and outside the church feel they are unworthy of God's grace and thus reject the gift that was designed for them in the first place.

Consider the familiar story of the Prodigal Son as told by Christ in the fifteenth chapter of Luke. We are so familiar with this tale of a wasted life saved through love and redemption than we often loose the impact that it should have on our lives. Especially if we are wastrels and rogues like the wandering Prodigal. Perhaps more than any other passage in Scripture, the parable of the youngest son of a wealthy landowner illustrates the incomprehensible, counter-intuitive love of God. Brennan Manning speaks succinctly about the Prodigal in all of us and God's incredible acceptance:

“When the prodigal limped home from his lengthy binge of waste and wandering, boozing, and womanizing, his motives were mixed at best. He said to himself, "How many of my father's paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of Hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father". (Luke: 15:17-18). The ragamuffin stomach was not churning with compunction because he had broken his father's heart. He stumbled home simply to survive. His sojourn in a far country had left him bankrupt. The days of wine and roses had left him dazed and disillusioned. The wine soured and the roses withered. His declaration of independence had reaped an unexpected harvest: not freedom, joy, new life but bondage, gloom, and a brush with death. His fair-weather friends had shifted their allegiance when his piggy bank emptied. Disenchanted with life, the wastrel weaved his way home, not from a burning desire to see his father, but just to stay alive.”

Yet even with these mixed motives, borne as much from desperation as from contrition, the wastrel was accepted by his father and a celebration ensued. Of course it is best if we respond to God's offer with a pure, contrite heart and full acknowledgement of our failure and powerlessness. Yet how many of us are actually capable of this? Not many I suspect. I know I am not. But God accepts our response to his offer in spite of our conflicted hearts and spirits. In fact, if one is to believe what Christ teaches in the parable of the Prodigal, then he in accepts our desperation just as much as he accepts our repentance. This is truly “radical grace.”

So what is our response to what God has done? What are we to do if we truly and sincerely want to partake of God’s marvelous offer to accept us, love us and empower us to be better people? What are we to do if we genuinely desire to become Children of the Light? First, we should deeply reflect on just what it is that God has done through Christ and what He is continuing to do through the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit. Brendan Manning again puts it in cogent and moving words:

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that he should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at his love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.”

Just how do we go about accepting this radical offer made by God? We just accept it. It is really that simple. There is no great mystery here, no elaborate initiation rites, no secret oaths or pledges. We just accept it because God offers it. We accept it on faith and leave God to work out the details and understanding later. The comfort we find in accepting God's love comes after faith, never before it. Remember, it all begins with and hinges on faith.

Christians seem to have an uncanny knack for taking simple truths and complicating them through debate, dogma, and doctrine. The “Doctrine of Grace” is one thing; the reality of God’s grace is quite another. It is freely offered to all who would humble themselves enough to receive it. I suspect that each of us has his or her own way of resisting God’s grace. Some of us, as mentioned above, feel we don’t deserve it; some of us are too prideful, feeling that we can fix ourselves on our own; others think the concept of grace is just too simplistic. Whatever our reasons for struggling with this basic Christian principle, until we resolve our conflict, we will not advance very far on the spiritual journey.

I can attest to this fact from my own experience. Paul says that the idea of “Christ crucified” as the means of salvation would be foolishness to the Greeks. Well, for many years it was foolishness to me. I much preferred the complexity of Buddhism and Hinduism, or the sanity of New Thought. Still, somewhere down in the pit of my being, the Hound of Heaven was chewing on me. God was unrelenting in his pursuit of me and I, like Jonah, headed for the hills more than once. Still, God’s grace kept surrounding me and I could not escape. In fact, I came to treasure the comforting feeling of being surrounded by God. Finally, I accepted that I was accepted.

Once I stopped running; once my struggles with God came to a halt, it was like a whole panorama of spiritual reality opened before my eyes, including a deep sense of optimism and hope. As a result, I began to view the world, including its problems and pain, with a greater degree of compassion and a genuine desire for healing involvement.

With the help of the Holy Spirit, I came to understand at a deeper level that I was in fact accepted. Accepted in my weakness because this is where the strength of Christ is seen. Accepted in my brokenness because this is where the healing of Christ is seen. Accepted in my faithlessness because this is where the fidelity of Christ is seen. Accepted in my wandering in the wilderness because this is where Christ's true and stable mansions are eventually discovered.

(c) L.D. Turner 2009/All Rights Reserved