Transformation

I have been thinking about what makes us change our lives once we find the reality of Jesus.

It seems pretty simple on the surface but I think its worth taking a look at but there is more to it than meets the eye.

In the environment of The Fathers House Church we see people on a daily basis "wrestle" with the idea of God and the promises of the gospel. What is told to the clients and interns is, "your life will be the best it has ever been." THAT IS TRUE, and we make no apologies for being confident of the result of following Jesus.

What I am being more aware of is people becoming part of community, following rules (for the most part!), doing the programs and meetings and seeing their lives change. Good right? Well yes....but....removed from community will they be successful?

Maybe, but I'm not satisfied with maybe.

I want to see transformation like hero's from the Bible saw transformation.

They had radical experiences from God that radically changed the way they thought, acted and behaved. Peter went from scared of losing his life because a servant girl called him out after Jesus was arrested to, being so bold as to stand up in the middle of Jerusalem, after Holy Spirit came in the upper room, announcing to everyone who would listen, "this is Jesus who you crucified"!

Peter changed his behavior from pretend bold but really scared, to really bold and not afraid. How?

Through experience with God.

If we want to see more lives changed we have to invite an experience with God.

We must have a transformational experience with God for us to have permanent success.

The key to all this is found in Acts 4 when the Holy Spirit showed up again just like He had in Acts 2. They needed to continue to have amazing experiences with God. It was never a one time deal.  

We need to have a relationship with God where we hunger for more and more experience with Him that continues to shift our thinking. Then we will see true transformation, success will not have to be about a geographical location but the reality of Jesus found through experience.

Trust

Trust seems to be an issue no matter what your background happens to be.

In the last few weeks I have been head to head with trust issues, mainly as we are 2 months into a new class and we are making some great headway in restoring peoples lives.

It comes down to "trust is earned." This is a motto I go by and a motto I teach my students. BUT, there is a catch! You have to understand that there is a catch before you can use the motto. The catch? You have to give me some of your trust so I can earn it!

Trust is not trust until it is tested! THAT is the real problem, we don't trust enough to give trust away to earn trust from people who might lead us to freedom!

Here at The Fathers House Church, Pastor Steve says, "inspect the fruit." Meaning look at the result of someones life choices and decisions and the result of those choices and decisions. We must be fruit inspectors so we can more intelligently give trust to be earned. Look at the lives of the people you call leaders, can you trust them? You will know if they are trustworthy by looking at their fruit.

If I fully trust someone then I follow without knowing the outcome but I trust that the one I am following will lead me into the best place possible. To be able to move in this level of trust I have to believe that the one leading me has good fruit.

Inspecting fruit is the key to trust. Trust has to be earned. Allow the ones with the best fruit to earn your trust. BUT, you have to give trust for it to be earned!

Jesus

I will apologize in advance for my poor grammar but I felt I needed to begin to write some of my thoughts and experiences down from the unique ministry experience of Kingdom Awakening.

I'm Geordie Mumby and I oversee, and along with my team, run Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship.

From time to time I want to share what is going on at The Fathers House Church and what I see happening in this unique community.

I'm finding more and more common in my daily talks with my students and the clients that Jesus isn't really known past initial salvation. This, it seems, leads to a dysfunctional relationship with Jesus where we begin to expect a relationship with Jesus on a selfish level ALONE.

We understand that Jesus saves us from the "fires of the pit of Hell" but don't move into a relationship with him where we see John 17 play out, "I in you and you in me", or John 15 "abide in me". We tend to keep Jesus at arms length, happy with a selfish relationship getting what we can get (a free trip to heaven). We end up begging God to not take any more away from us and become offended when he asks us to give up our "pet dragons".

 "Haven't you taken enough from me already?", we selfishly scoff at God. "I gave up drinking, drugs, girls, money and now you want WHAT?" It all becomes and looks dysfunctional to you and everyone who is watching.

What we sacrifice with this approach to Jesus is a life of what he has actually promised. A life of peace, a life of joy, a life of trust, love, faith. A life not dictated by circumstances. What he has for us is exactly what we avoid and we continue to maintain our level of selfishness which leads to dysfunction.

We need to begin to be honest about relationship with Jesus. Is he someone that is closer than a brother? Is he just your ticket to heaven? Is he your answer to your every circumstance? Is he with you all the time? Do you want him with you all the time?

What would your relationship with Jesus look like if Hell was not an option?

Jesus is our savior and he wants to more than that. He wants to know you and to be known by you.

Matt 7: 21-23 says, (and I'm going to take a lot of liberty on the translation) "many are going to come to me and say, we did all the stuff you wanted us to! We are good right? And I'm going to say, I don't know who you are....get away from me.

Lets get real with our relationship with Jesus. He is the most real thing, make him that!