Okay this is just for fun. Don’t take this (or me) too seriously here.

Writing and storytelling is my chosen profession. I’ve studied the craft for roughly 40 years. One central thing I’ve learned is we humans are wired to receive and be influenced by story. I know that if I need to persuade you of something or sell you something, I’m much better off telling you a story than bombarding you with information (facts and data).

Jesus knew this. So do the best preachers and teachers. As do the best salesmen and propagandists.

Sometimes the storyteller isn’t fully aware of what he or she is selling. There are themes and agendas that can make their way into stories through psychological, subconcious, and even spiritual pathways.

I once invested several fascinated hours listening to Jordan Peterson unpack the biblical and Jungian archetypes embedded in the children’s story Pinnochio.

All of this, as my wife will attest, makes me always on alert for what script writers and documentarians are trying to sell me. We can’t watch anything on television without me dissecting the worldview, the assumptions, or the agenda of the creators. And a media creator without an agenda is the rarest of all birds these days.

Which brings me to a recent post of mine on Facebook about the trailer for Disney’s upcomng new children’s movie, Wish.

I know t will shock you to learn that I have some thoughts. But first, a couple of disclaimers.

• I’m not a fan of some online folks who seemingly specialize in trying to get people worked up, freaked out, alarmed, or enraged about {the current thing.} I’ve been pretty focused the last few years on getting my loved ones and friends to chill out a little. So for every one distressing or alarming thing I post, I try to post 20 or 30 uplifting, heartwarming, or funny things.
• Also . . . I’m not the guy who’s going to try to gin up a boycott. Sure, I quietly boycott a lot of companies and products that make it clear in various ways that they don’t want the business of my “ilk.” (I always wanted to have an ilk. Now it seems I do!) So I take them at their word. But I don’t need all my friends to join me in shunning them. I figure you can make those choices for yourself.

Having said that, I am a grandfather. And I have keen interest in what the popular culture is trying to sell my “littles” this week. So when the trailer for Wish popped up in a Twitter post this week, I watched it. What I saw stunned me. That’s not an exaggeration.

Before I continue, give it a watch.

Cute, right? Typical evil, powerful adversary being taken on by the unlikely protagonist. It’s as old a story as David vs. Goliath.

Actually, it’s a much older story than that.

Watch the trailer again, but this time mentially substitute the term “prayers” when you see “wishes” . . . and see if it doesn’t take on a different tone for you.

This isn’t David vs. Goliath. It’s Eve vs. God. (Seriously, Dave?) Stay with me, let’s break down the archetypes and symbolism here, Jordan Peterson style. Here’s what I saw in this two-minute, twenty-two second clip . . .

Exhibit A: The setting is an island off the coast of Spain. You have a King ruling a kingdom and a people called “Rosas.” The people are literally called “Reds.” In Genesis, the Hebrew word for “mankind” is a’dam (ruddy or red).

Exhibit B: The king has magical (supernatural) powers. And he loves to be adored (worshipped) by his subjects. (Is this a God archetype? And a patriarchial God stereotype, to boot?) Please note . . .

Exhibit C: All of king’s subjects send UP their wishes to the king so he can grant them. But not all wishes (prayers) get granted. The king’s explanation for this is that granting some wishes would not be in the best interests of the wishers.

Exhibit D: Our protaganist is named Asha. Asha happens to be a very important word/concept in the Zoroastrian religion that was prominent in Iran and parts of India before the Islamic conquest. In Zoroastrianism, Asha means truth or rightness or righteousness. The word/name has deep roots in ancient India and Iran, possibly rooted in myths about the cosmic conflict betwen truth and deception/lies.

Exhibit E: Asha is invited by the king to become an “apprentice.” An apprentice is a subordinate learner with delegated authority.

Exhibit F: Asha seems to learn that the king has selfish motives for refusing to grant everyone’s wishes. The King claims to be benevolent and have his subjects well-being in mind, but Asha seems to suspect that he’s really just holding out on everyone for his own vain purposes.

Exhibit G: Asha ends up under some sort of special, luminescent TREE. And there she interacts with a STAR. The brightest one in the sky. She sings: “So I look up to the stars to guide me. And throw caution to every warning sign . . .” We then hear her saying, “Last night I made a wish on a star. And the star answered!”

Exhibit H: The star comes down (falls?) and becomes her guide and empowerer in opposing the wicked king. (As you certinaly know, in biblical symbolism, “stars” represent both angels and fallen angels. And the leader of the fallen angels, Lucifer, is seemingly called a “morning star” in Isaiah 14:12. If this is indeed the veiled metaphor of the film, this chubby, adorable little star that becomes her new mentor (replacing the king) is the cutest “Lucifer” in movie history.

Exhibit I: Under the star’s direction, the newly empowered Asha begins to make “improvements” to the world. We hear the king say, “I believe I have just been threatened.” His queen asks, “Who would dare threaten you.”

Okay let’s sum this up.

Upon my first viewing I saw the metaphor of the Genesis account, but told from Satan’s twisted perspective. In Genesis a girl who had been invited to be the King’s image-bearer and apprentice is led to suspect that the King is holding out her and her fellow subjects. She questions his truthfulness.

A astral being appears and, at a tree, offers her what the King is deceptively withholding from her. Empowered by a different source of “magic” she will make everything better.

Of course, THAT is the big lie the first couple fell for and people have falling for ever since.

Am I imagining things? Perhaps.

Am I suspiciously imposing a narrative that isn’t there? Quite possibly! (But I think I come by my suspicions honestly.)

It’s only 2:22 out of a full-length movie. Will this analysis fall apart when the whole is revealed. I hope so!

All I know is that the Disney corporation has shown itself to be no friend of those who take the biblical narratives and revelation seriously as a source of truth and life. Quite the contrary.

I also know the enemy of our souls has a multi-milennia-long history of trying to portray our loving heavenly Father as precisely the kind of “king” we see in that trailer. Make of that whatever you will.

Again: My hope is that the trailer is tricking us into thinking the king is the bad guy. And that it will be revealed that the star is really the trickster here. It would make it a perfect and brilliant metaphor for the real Genesis story. But given that the folks who created Wish were behind Frozen, that’s a lot to hope for.

UPDATE: Here’s a reviewer for the San Diego Reader who saw precisely what I suspected from just watching the trailer. He says the movie “takes aim at the Judeo-Christian God.” Not surprisingly, the reviewer thinks this is a good thing.

And Amy Nicholson, a reviewer for the New York Times writes: “Oddly — and rather fascinatingly — this is a film about a spiritual revolution. Can Asha, a humanist, convince the islanders to reject the man in the embroidered robe who preaches that he alone is a conduit for miracles?”

Have you ever wondered what Jesus drew in the dust when presented with “the woman caught in adultery?” Have you ever winced at Jesus’ seemingly brusque treatment of the Syrophonecian woman with the possessed daughter. Does Jesus really expect us to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand if they cause us to sin? Did Jesus Really call Satan “The ruler of this World?” Jesus Kills a Defenseless Tree? Why? What the . . . 

If we’re being real . . . not religious . . . real . . . we can all admit that, from time to time we read a verse or a passage in the Bible and say . . . “Wait . . . what?” Or, “What was THAT?” That is even true with the “red letters” in our Bibles. Yes, even some of the sayings (and doings) of Jesus are mysterious and, when we read them, they leave us scratching our heads. Those “red letter’s contain a lot of surprises. A few shocks. Even some scandals!

Get it here: https://tinyurl.com/NewestEBook

Yesterday, it was my privilege to bring a short teaching from Ephesians to a group of precious men at a noontime gathering. I read from this tattered, falling-apart Bible I’ve had for more than 43 years.

As I opened it, I couldn’t help but think about the friend, Steve, who gifted it to me back then, having inscribed the presentation page (see pic).

Steve reached out and reconnected with me in recent years. Said he was living in Norman, Okla. and although he had some health challenges, he’d love for me to come see him some time.

With each invitation he extended, I’d mention that I do pass through Norman on my way to OKC periodically, and that I’d figure out a time to stop and reconnect.

I never did. And here’s the thing.

Today I learned that Steve passed away just the day before yesterday. I had no idea.

As my bride will attest, I occasionally say that a key to living well and wisely is minimizing regret. Well in this case I failed so very miserably.

And that window of opportunity is closed . . . for now. But we’ll have that reconnection some day. And we’ll have lots of time to reminisce about how foolish and hardheaded we all were back in the day. And at least one of us . . . still.

Time . . . is precious.

Not long ago I was leading a discussion about about how God corrects and trains us (disciplines us). The text we were exploring was Hebrews 12:4-17. I pointed out that that many believers have been taught that God is using sickness, lack, pain, and loss as His “scourge” to teach us things and punish us. But we saw that it is actually His Word . . . His voice . . . that He uses to correct and train us. 

I pointed out eight or nine examples from New Covenant scripture in which God’s correction of one of His own was spoken.

What I failed to mention was that we don’t have to speculate. We have a living, breathing example of God’s methods of correcting and chastising . . . in Jesus.

Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus was and is “an exact representation” of God’s nature. He only did/said the things He saw His Father doing and saying. Right? 

Jesus frequently chastised, corrected, and trained His disciples. So how did He do that? Did He hit them? Did He put sickness on them? Did He cause their fishing business to fail? Did He kill a loved one? 

Of course not. When they missed the mark . . . when they failed to have faith . . . misperceived the situation . . . were operating out of the wrong spirit . . . He SPOKE to them. (Sometimes pretty sternly. Sometimes in exasperation. But it was always His voice, not His hand.) 

• “Where is your faith? (Luke 8:25)
• “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” (Matthew 8:23)
• “Allow the children to come to Me; do not forbid them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14)
• You don’t know what spirit you’re of. (Luke 9:55)
• “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; but only one thing is necessary; for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
• “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9)

Jesus corrected and trained just as our wonderful heavenly Father does. With His voice . . . His Word. That means we can wholeheartedly and confidently resist the works of the enemy and the effects of the Curse.

God’s house is NOT a house divided against itself. Specifically, God isn’t simultaneously redeeming us from and rolling back the effects of the curse on one hand . . . and using those effects as His tools of discipline on the other. 

I’m sure you’ve experienced it. You hear a song you loved three, four, or five decades ago, and suddenly you’re transported to a very specific place and time when you listened to it with full focus.

That happened to me yesterday as CSN’s “Southern Cross” popped up on a playlist of mine.

In an instant I was in an Edmond, Oklahoma convenience store at 3:00 a.m. in the fall of 1983. With a mop in my hand.

I stopped and leaned on the mop handle to listen to this song because it was a favorite of mine. I was exhausted and a little discouraged and had just had several waves of drunks and addicts come through the store. So sailing the seas in the southern hemisphere sounded especially appealing.

This wasn’t a particular high point in my life.

When you’re 23; have changed majors three or four times; have managed to pile up more than 120 hours of college credit without getting a degree; feel reasonably intelligent and talented; and find yourself working the 11p-7a shift at a convenience store . . . it’s safe to say you’re not exactly killing it in life.

The truth is, I’d sort of lost my way a year earlier, had dropped out of school, started working full time, and bought an ’81 Corvette I couldn’t afford.

A few months prior to that “Southern Cross” moment, I’d snapped out of it and re-enrolled in college. I’d also taken a 400/month job as a Jr. High Youth pastor at my church. But I still needed to pay the bills and cover tuition. Thus the graveyard shift at the convenience store, five days a week.

I’d get off work at 7a, shower, go to class and struggle to stay awake, spend a few hours at the church, help with youth services two evenings a week, and sleep a few hours. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

As CSN briefly transported me back to that precise moment yesterday, I had this thought:

I wish I could go back and tell that bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived, directionless guy what a great adventure his life was going to turn out to be.

Extraordinary wife. Adult children who love God and like to hang out with us. A growing tribe of littles who call me pop. Meaningful work to do in abundance. And more blessings (spiritual, relational, and material) than I had any rational reason to dream of or hope for back then.

“Keep mopping buddy. Everything’s going to be okay. I promise.”

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 

Romans 8:15

“The fear of God.” That may be one of the most misunderstood phrases in all of Scripture, yet it is an important one, as the fact that it appears repeatedly throughout Scripture testifies (predominantly in the Old Testament). When most believers see the phrase “the fear of the Lord,” it instantly validates what they’ve likely been taught all their lives. 

Specifically, that God is angry, vengeful, touchy, difficult to please, and more than eager to dole out punishments to those who cross Him. It doesn’t help that many men had a flawed and broken father who was too quick to slide his belt off when faced with any perceived insubordination or infraction of the rules. 

But what if we’ve gotten this concept wrong? I believe we have. Often the best way to understand a concept is to contrast it with its opposite. And the opposite of the “fear of God” is the “fear of Man.” Your Bible has quite a bit to say about that, too. 

For example, in Proverbs, the Bible’s “wisdom” book, we find: “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever puts his trust in the Lord will be safe.” (Proverbs 29:25 MEV) And Paul wrote: “For am I now seeking the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? For if I were still trying to please men, I would not be the servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10 MEV)

When you’re in the grip of the fear of man, the quest for image and status becomes a driving motivator of your life. Your decisions are driven by what others will think or how they will react. You seek approval, validation, admiration, and applause from the crowd rather than the Throne.

In other words, the fear of Man involves caring obsessively about what other people think of you. In contrast, the fear of the Lord simply means caring that much or more about what God thinks about you.  It means having an intense desire to please Him, not because you’re afraid of punishment if you don’t, but simply because you love Him and the thought of making Him smile brings you joy. You want to “live up” to who He has already declared you to be. Paul called this “walking in a manner worthy of your calling.” (Ephesians 4:1)

Think of the “fear of the Lord” as caring more about what God wants to do with you than caring about what other people want from you.” By that, I mean living a life utterly unafraid of anything except the thought of living below your potential in God’s grace. It means rejecting the values of this fallen culture and cultivating a passion for the things God values. 

As with every other aspect of the Jesus life, you’re not on your own in this. Abundant grace is available to empower you to avoid the snare of the fear of Man and to live a life that makes your heavenly Father smile.   

Even so, many believers are afraid to stop being afraid of their Heavenly Father.

And there are plenty of bible teachers and itinerant speakers with books to sell who sincerely believe you should be afraid to stop being afraid of God.

In response to a blog post like this one, many will respond: “Of course, you don’t need to be afraid of God punishing you for being insufficiently good. But you should be afraid of being disqualified for God’s favor, blessing, and protection.”

The implication here is that good behavior, or not ticking God off, is what qualifies you for “favor, blessing, and protection.” Pardon the blunt language but this is a lie. It’s lifeless religion.

People who advocate that view simply don’t have a revelation of where we stand with God by grace.

The New Covenant version of “the fear of the Lord” means not wanting to disappoint our Father simply because we love Him . . . because He’s so wonderful and kind . . . and are grateful to Him. NOT because pleasing him qualifies us for favor, blessing, and protection; and disappointing him disqualifies us for it.

We always and only come to God in Jesus’s righteousness and His qualifications. And that means we always qualify for favor, blessing, and protection!

The religious mind reasons that since we disobeyed our way out of the Garden, we’re going to obey our way back into it. That’s not the message of the Gospel. That’s not “good news.”

Look at Romans 8:15-17 in The Passion Translation:

And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,”  leading you back into the fear of never being good enough.  But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,”  enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!”  For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!” And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has. 

The moment we start thinking that our good works (and abstaining from bad works) is what qualifies us for favor, blessing, and protection . . . we are being led “back into the fear of never being good enough . . .” rather than listening to the voice of the Spirit saying. “you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God.

Love is more powerful than fear. And there is no fear in love. (See 1 John 4:18)

If the desire is to not “mess up” and disappoint your Heavenly Father, or hurt others, or hurt yourself . . . then love will do a much better job than “fear” ever will. Which is exactly why Jesus said all of the Law and the Prophets can be replaced with “Love God with all your heart and love others.” And it’s why Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you . . . Love one another.”

Love will do what fear cannot.

The “If” in my headline above is doing a lot of work in that sentence. I’ve long been skeptical that reports of UFOs were signs we were being visited by advanced alien races. My suspicion has been that anything that couldn’t be explained by natural phenomena was most likely top secret, experimental projects by our government and others.

Please understand, that’s still my presumption.

I was also open to the idea that some of the phenomena people observed was spiritual (demonic) in nature. But if that was the case, no physical remnants of spacecraft or actual aliens would ever be located.

Nevertheless, there are some serious, credentialed, non-loony folks currently saying that our government, and other governments currently hold and are studying pieces of materials and technologies that seem to be of “non-human origin.”

For example, this week an article appeared in the online magazine The Debrief titled, “INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS SAY U.S. HAS RETRIEVED AIRCRAFT OF NON-HUMAN ORIGIN.” The site covers news in the area of tech, defense, and the aerospace industry.

The claim is that our government and a few others have been secretly hoarding and studying these materials in hopes of gaining a military advantage over the others. A new “Cold War” the article called it.

If the assertions in that article are ultimately shown to be true . . . again, note the IF . . . then it will trigger shockwaves throughout Christianity that will make Charles Darwin’s case for a very old earth and gradual development of lower lifeforms into higher ones look like a minor ripple.

As a Christian teacher, it seems almost irresponsible not to at least ponder the implications of such a revelation. So back to the question in the title of this post: “If Proof of Alien Intelligence is Revealed: What Then for Us Christians?”

Not surprisingly, I’m far from the only one pondering this question right now. Here’s a smart blogger I follow, Daniel Sinclair, examining it in a recent post titled: Will Christianity Collapse if Intelligent Aliens are Discovered? And another, Evan Minton, with: What Would Aliens Mean For The Christian Worldview? Both are worth your time. I’ve given this some thought as well. And I have incorporated a few of their observations into mine.

So let’s run a thought experiment . . .

Let’s say indisputable proof emerges next week that advanced, intelligent life exists on a planet other than earth. What then? Will the Christian faith or worldview be critically undermined or invalidated?

The answer is: It depends, but probably not.

The purpose of the ancient book of Genesis—particularly the opening three chapters—was not to answer 21st Century questions about the processes that brought the universe into being. It was to let the Israelite tribes (and ultimately you and me) know that the world and its people are not as God originally intended them to be. That something went terribly wrong. That creation is broken and we are broken. That there was a “Fall.” But . . .

The opening three chapters of Genesis also reveal that God immediately put into motion a plan to make right what had gone so terribly wrong. A plan that culminated in the arrival of another “Adam” who would begin to restore and repair what the first Adam had forfeited and corrupted.

So the Fall is presuppositional to the entire Christian faith. In fact, the late Charles Colson wrote that a biblical worldview had to contain three elements. Creation, the Fall, and Redemption.

What Genesis doesn’t tell us is . . .

the scope of the Fall. We know that mankind was affected. Catastrophically so. In the Genesis narrative, God’s pronouncement of the implications of what Adam and Eve had done makes that clear. We also see planet Earth impacted as well. “Cursed is the ground because of you . . .” (Gen. 3:17)

What is not clear is whether or not the entire universe was subjected to “the curse.” We know that entropy–the tendency of all matter and energy to decay, dissolve, and generally wind down—is a universal law of physics.

Is universal entropy an effect of the curse? That’s unclear. There is the line in Romans 8 about “all creation” groaning in anticipation of the revealing of the “sons of God.” (v. 22) But if . . . IF . . . God created other planets filled with life in this unimaginably vast universe, were they affected by the Fall as well?

God is just. And it would not seem just nor fair to have the rebellious failure on the part of one planet’s stewards bring a curse upon the innocent stewards of other planets.

Which presents a number of possibilities for our hypothetical aliens . . .

Possibility 1: The Fall of mankind on earth did not impact other inhabited planets (if there are any). This might explain why the (hypothetical) inhabitants of such a planet are so much more advanced than ours. Who knows how much the effects of the curse slowed down our advancement and development as a species. That would also mean such interplanetary travelers would be friendly and benevolent. Not unlike angels but, like us, would have natural material bodies and be able to reproduce.

Possibility 2: The Fall of mankind on earth DID impact other inhabited planets. This seems far less likely (or just) and it opens up a whole array of thorny questions. Did the eternally pre-existent God-the-Son, need to be incarnated as one of those other beings to redeem them, just as He had to become one of us? Or, since the Fall happened here, the Son only needed to be incarnated here, but it is now our responsibility to deliver the Good News to the inhabitants of other planets? After all, in the Great Commission, Jesus’ instructions were to preach the gospel “to all creation.” (pas ktisis in the Greek.) Those are the same Greek words Paul used in Romans 8:22 in saying that “all creation” groans to see the revealing of the sons of God. Would it be fair to have the inhabitants of another planet wait many thousands of years for our technology to make evangelizing them possible? Well, there are currently remote tribes on THIS planet who still haven’t been reached by missionaries, and they’ve been waiting 2,000 years.

Possibility 3: The non-terrestrial visitors are highly intelligent and advanced, but were not created “in the image and likeness of God” as Adam and Eve were. Over the centuries, many theologians have wrestled with the meaning of those words from Genesis 1:26-27. They call it the “Imago Dei.” I don’t believe they mean, necessarily that we look like God. I believe being His “image bearers” means we carry a spark of divine Life . . . His “breath.” But more importantly, that we also carry His seal of delegated authority. We represent Him. His intention was (and is) for His people to oversee the earth as His proxy rulers. That means this place belongs to us. But it also means it’s possible that any hyper-intelligent visitors that were NOT created Imago Dei lack the breath of God. This would make them a class of being we do not have here on Earth—essentially an animal that is smarter than we are.

None of these possibilities presents an existential threat to the Christian faith. As long as . . .

As long as we don’t make the mistake that many of my Christian fundamentalist friends have made in the past and continue to make. Namely, the belief that everything that IS has to have been mentioned explicitly in the Bible somewhere. And if it’s not mentioned in the Bible, then it cannot BE. And it if cannot be, then it’s a trick of the devil.

This is where such folks stood when the first dinosaur fossils began to emerge. They didn’t see dinosaurs in the Bible and therefore crafted elaborate explanations for why those fossils weren’t what they seemed to be. Once the evidence became undeniable, then fell back and dug in on new positions and twisted themselves into logical and evidentiary pretzels. All out of a (flawed, in my view) assumption about why God gave us the Bible and how we’re intended to read it.

So here’s where I currently stand . . .

“Currently” is the operative word in that subhead.

I suspect it takes, mathematically, a universe THIS big to end up with ONE place as perfect for life as this gorgeous blue marble is. Which means we’re alone in the material universe. Of course, the material universe is NOT all there is. Far from it.

Even though the current rumors and speculation swirl around individuals with much more credibility than the usual fringe fanatics who know “The Truth is Out There,” I’m still skeptical for reasons I won’t take the time to go into here.

But if I’m wrong, it won’t shake my faith. Not because I’m prepared to reject any and all evidence that doesn’t comport with my interpretation of Genesis. Not because I would close my eyes and stick my fingers in my ears shouting “LA LA LA . . . I can’t hear you.”

Like the two theologians whose blog posts I linked to above, I’m convinced such a revelation, no matter how unlikely I think it might be, presents no threat to authentic, historic Christianity.

I’m convinced the story the Bible is telling contains room for nearly any eventuality. There is nothing in the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed or any other ancient creed of the Church that would be negated by evidence of intelligent life on another planet.

By the way, I think about these things so you don’t have to.

I’ll be refilling the bird feeders this morning. Those little guys think the seed they see on those feeders is all there is. So sometimes they fight over access to them.

They have no idea that there is a virtually unlimited supply of bird seed in my storage cabinets and at the stores around the corner. And they have no conception that it is my delight to provide food for them . . . that it brings me joy. 

For believers, scarcity is an illusion. Abundance is the reality. In His house . . .

• Provision isn’t scarce.
• Love isn’t scarce.
• Significance isn’t scarce.
• Opportunity isn’t scarce. 

Your neighbor’s blessing, windfall, promotion, or breakthrough doesn’t diminish the pool of what is available to you. Some other person’s large slice of pie doesn’t leave less for others. The pie is infinite.

So, we can rest. Breathe. 
In Him, there are unseen reservoirs of everything we need to flourish. Our Father delights in blessing in His children

This perfectly wise plan was destined from eternal ages and fulfilled completely in our Lord Jesus Christ, so that now we have boldness through him, and free access as kings before the Father because of our complete confidence in Christ’s faithfulness. (Ephesians 3:11-12, TPT)

” . . . free access as kings . . .”

In the world of concerts and sporting events, there are tickets (good). There are front-row tickets (better). There are backstage passes (best). And then there is something called the “All Access Pass.” (epic)

When it comes to relationship with the God of the Universe, many believers seem satisfied with just having a ticket. They know they’re going to heaven when they die. And they know God hears them when they pray—although He often seems distant and disinterested.

Yet as the verse above suggests, Jesus is, in a very real sense, an “All Access Pass” to the Father and to everything Jesus died to purchase for us. One of the most significant, meaningful, and impactful realities of the new birth—a miracle which puts us “in Christ” and Him in us—is that we now have complete, confident, “free,” and “bold” access to our heavenly Father.

Yet most believers don’t think or act as if this is their reality. Too many believers let shame and guilt keep them at a distance from God’s presence. They’re sitting in the nosebleed section. From where they sit, it sure seems as though the crowd gathered in front the stage is having a very good time.

This is because they have forgotten, or have never been taught, that they never come to God in their own flawed righteousness. They can’t! They always and only come in Jesus’ righteousness. The tragedy is that it is only in God’s presence—in intimate fellowship, conversation, and communion with Him—that they can experience the transformation that changes the behaviors that cause their shame and guilt.

When I’ve acted unrighteously, when I’ve sinned, when I’ve made a mess of things, that’s when I must run to my Father. There the light of His presence will illuminate the dark, unrenewed corners of my soul so they can be made new. Only that light can expose the lies I’ve believed that are the root of my patterns of sin and failure.

Hebrews 4:16 says we can and should “come boldly” to God’s throne of grace, and there find both mercy and help in our times of need. But if I don’t understand the reality that I have received a better righteousness because I am “in Christ,” I will let my shame keep me away from the only place that can fix what’s broken.

We never again need to approach God on the basis of our own righteousness. By grace, we have literally “become” the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

All of this means we can view the door to God’s Presence as always wide open. Once we renew our minds to those truths—once we root our identities in them—we begin to feel free to fly to the Father’s arms of love at any moment of need or crisis.

What’s more, we will no longer view spending time with God as a box to be checked in order to qualify for blessing or answered prayer. Fellowshipping with our Creator becomes a privilege not a prerequisite. An opportunity not an ought.

That means our times with the Father become a source of joy in our lives. With Him we receive strength and nourishment and instruction. What’s more, in His Presence we experience transformation. Our desires begin to change. Whereas countless believers spend their entire lives trying (and failing) to change from the outside in through sheer discipline and willpower, we will experience seemingly effortless change from the inside out.

We discover a life without the fear of rejection. Without the fear of judgment. Without the fear of not qualifying for what Jesus died to provide.

That’s the epic power of our “All Access Pass” in Jesus.

I’m not a prophet by spiritual office. Teacher is my heavenly assignment and I’m gifted accordingly. Yet the Bible exhorts every believer to desire to prophesy (1 Corinthians 14:1) and, as it happens, in recent years, around this time, I’ve found the Spirit of Truth speaking to me about the year ahead. After all, Jesus said one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to show us things to come. (John 16:13)

Most of what I usually see/hear/sense relates personally–to me and my household. Some of it relates to the church I pastor, The Cup & Table Co., as a community of believers. And occasionally I get preparatory glimpses for the Body of Christ as a whole, our nation, and the world. 

What follows is what I’m getting for for myself and like-hearted believers:

We need a revelation of “authority.”

I’m not just talking about our authority in Jesus Christ, although that is a part of it. My sense is that we don’t understand authority at all. That we’re living in an age in which the spirit of the age is chaos and rebellion and individualism and autonomous willfulness. (I’m increasingly convinced that we can’t walk in spiritual authority while rejecting the truth about authority in general.)

Yes, we need to understand the authority “in heaven and on earth” that Jesus achieved through His victory (Matt. 28:18). But before we can understand that, we need to understand how God views authority in general. 

Authority is related to order. And order is the antidote to chaos. God loves order. The opening lines of the book of Genesis reveal an earth that is utterly chaotic, and the spirit of God hovering, brooding, fluttering over the chaos in preparation for God speaking and bringing order. 

I’ve always sensed there was great significance in the words uttered by the messenger of of the Roman centurion in the 7th chapter of Luke:

. . . but just say the word, and my servant shall be healed.For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under myself; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He was amazed at him . . . 

Luke 7:9b-11a)

(The Greek word translated “authority” there is exousia. It appears 93 times in the New Testament, usually rendered “authority” but sometimes as “power.”) 

A life in the Roman army had given that centurion a deeply ingrained understanding of rank, chain-of-command, and of territorial rule. That’s something a lot of believers today know very little about. 

Zoom out to 50,000 feet over the scriptures and you’ll see a picture emerge that reveals God’s ways involving hierarchy and delegated authority. 

Any people (like the Church in America) whose banner is, “No one is going to tell me what I can and can’t do,” will not . . . indeed cannot . . . effectivelly wield the authority that is ours in the resurrected, glorified, exalted Christ. We need what that centurion had.

I personally need to know more about how authority works in the invisible realm. I suspect we all do. Here’s good news. “If any one of you lacks wisdom, let them ask confidently . . . and God will freely give.” The Holy Spirit’s assignment is to lead us into all truth. That, as we’ve been seeing recently, inescapably involves exposing lies we’re believing. 

We have not because we ask not. Let’s ask for a revelation of spiritual authority and how it impacts systems of natural authority.

The centurion was utterly confident that all Jesus needed to do was “say the word.” That is, “give the command.” “Give voice to the decree.” 

As we get a clearer, fuller picture of how authority is structured and works, we’ll better know how and when to partner with God by giving voice to the commands that cause His will to be done here on earth, just as it is routinely done in the unseen realm. What, how, and when are a big deal. We generally just reflexively fire off prayers without thought or insight or perception. (See the teaching on Seeing and Decreeing) 

Our World

The Spirit of Jesus doesn’t give us insight into what’s coming just so we can say, “I knew that would happen.” We get glimpses for two reasons, so we can (1) Prepare, and so we can (2) Pray. With that in mind . . .

The believers in China and Russia need our intercession. The dictatorial leaders of both nations (Putin and Xi) are approaching the end of the line. There are ancient demonic spirits that have animated dictators through the millennia. The same unseen actors that animated the kings of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Rome, the Seleucid Greeks of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Abbasid Caliphate, Genghis Khan’s Mongols, Stalin’s Soviets, and Hitler’s Nazis . . . stand behind our current crop of despots. 

The arc of those who yield themselves to those powers is always the same. Initial empowerment and success featuring brutality and cruelty; leading to madness and fatal mistakes. We’re entering the madness and mistakes phase for both leaders. 

As the Spirit leads us, let’s be ready and willing to intercede for our brothers sisters in difficult circumstances around the planet. One side benefit . . .

Glimpsing what other believers are enduring will put our situations as American believers into perspective. Perspective is valuable. Perspective is vital. 

Grace and Truth

The election turmoil and pandemic disruptions resulted in a thin veil of deception falling over the eyes of large sections of the evangelical world, including many spiritual leaders. It is a veil that doesn’t blind but does distort the way they “see.”

The fruit of this “veil” . . . the evidence of its presence . . . was and is anger, bitterness, resentment, and despair. (It should go without saying that these fruits are never appropriate for sons and daughters of a reigning King who is in the middle of riding to victory over His enemies.)

I see that “veil” beginning to dissolve now. We need to contend for that dissolving to continue and accelerate. The truth is our friend. The biblical definition of truth is not “knowledge” or “information” but “reality” in other words, “what’s really real” in contrast to that which merely appears to be real.

In Closing

These words of Jesus to His disciples hold a key piece of God’s word to us for 2023:

“There is so much more I would like to say to you, but it’s more than you can grasp at this moment.  But when the truth-giving Spirit comes, he will unveil the reality of every truth. He won’t speak on his own, but only what he hears from the Father, and he will reveal prophetically  to you what is to come. He will glorify me on the earth, for he will receive from me what is mine and reveal it to you. Everything that belongs to the Father belongs to me—that’s why I say that the Divine Encourager will receive what is mine and reveal it to you. 

John 16:12-15 TPT