The Walk is a daily writing to inspire you in your own personal intimacy with Abba.
Listen, my radiant one—if you ever lose sight of me, just follow in my footsteps where I lead my lovers. (Song of Songs 1:8)
The Three Leavens
(9 minutes)
Now, the disciples had forgotten to take bread with them, except for one loaf of flatbread. And as they were sailing across the lake, Jesus repeatedly warned them, "Be on your guard against the yeast inside of the Pharisees and the yeast inside of Herod!" But the disciples had no clue what Jesus was talking about, so they began to discuss it among themselves, saying, "Is he saying this because we forgot to bring bread?" Knowing what they were thinking, Jesus said to them, "Why all this fussing over forgetting to bring bread? Do you still not see or understand what I say to you? Are your hearts still hard? You have good eyes, yet you still don't see, and you have good ears, yet you still don't hear, neither do you remember. When I multiplied the bread to feed more than five thousand people, how many baskets full of leftovers did you gather afterward?"
"Twelve," they replied.
"And when I multiplied food to feed over four thousand, how many large baskets full of leftovers did you gather afterwards?"
"Seven," they replied.
"Then how is it that you still don't get it?"
(Mark 8:14-21)
In this scripture, Jesus gives the disciples a very important warning. One that the disciples didn't understand at the time, but that we should really try to receive today because it's still a reality for us. He tells the disciples to be on guard against two leavens that exist in the world. The leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Jesus is saying that the most dangerous things on the earth (which surprisingly is not behavior) are these two leavens or systems that are at war with a heart that loves God.
"Leaven is the influence from the world that you're receiving from. You can either be receiving the leaven from the Kingdom of God, or the leaven from the Pharisees, or the leaven from Herod. What does this mean? What do those two terms stand for? The leaven of Herod is the political leaven, it's the political realm. It's for those of us who think our answers are going to come from who we vote for on November 4th. It's the leaven of sitting on Fox News or CNN and consuming political ideologies continuously, as if that's your answer, as if that's what's controlling your life...The leaven of the Pharisees is the religious system that tells you that you can have a form of God, but you cannot be close to Him, you cannot be intimate with Him, and He has no power in your life." (Pastor Tim)
What do you believe the most dangerous thing in the world is? What, on the earth, threatens the love affair between you and Yahweh the most? We must have a shift here, because the political and religious leavens would have us convinced that the most dangerous thing on the earth is the people who don't think or behave like us, but the danger lies much deeper in the leaven or influence that these two systems have on our heart. This is an area where we need to change our thinking. Jesus is telling us to be on guard against the political leaven and the religious leaven, because they are at war with the leaven of the Kingdom of God that's expanding within you. These two leavens will squash what the Kingdom is trying to produce is us.
Why is it so dangerous?
Because the unrenewed mind can be deceived into believing that it has a real relationship with Yahweh, but all it really has is a relationship with the political and religious spirit, something similar but not the same. A form of godliness, but it's devoid and empty when it comes to the power to see anything changed. The political and religious leavens only have words and thoughts and ideas, but never any fruit. The Kingdom of God actually has the power to produce the transformation that it preaches. Again, Jesus didn't pray for people to be healed, He healed them. What are we carrying? The leaven of the Kingdom of God, or the leaven of Herod and the Pharisees?
I'd say that's the most dangerous thing in the world - thinking you have a real relationship with God, when you're really in a relationship with something completely different. It's Jacob thinking he's intimately connected with Rachel, when he's really been in bed with Leah the whole time.
The Kingdom of God is right here and right now. It's available to us in every moment. Yes, it will require us to metanoia, to have our thinking changed. We can't keep our old perspective and inherit the Kingdom of God. Our unrenewed mind will always be at war with what the Kingdom is trying to produce in our heart. It's the goodness of God that leads us into the place of metanoia. It's encountering Abba's goodness that draws us into the place of having our minds renewed. And as we allow this process to take place, we need to be on guard against the two leavens that would try to creep into our love affair with Him - the political leaven and the religious leaven.
Do you know what activates leaven? Heat.
As we experience adverse situations and difficult circumstances, the leaven that's inside of us activates and expands. The storm has an interesting way of revealing what leaven has the most influence in our lives. When difficulties arise, what is our perspective? Like the disciples, do we only see what we don't have and what we lack? Or do we have a Kingdom perspective, that is imagining all the ways that Abba can get glory from the situation?
Our hearts and minds were made to partner with the Kingdom of God to bring restoration, healing, and hope to ruined cities. But the first place we have to partner with the Kingdom of God is in our own lives. It must become a way of life in us first.
Abba's goodness is inviting us into metanoia today. Let's take the walk with Him!
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Worship: "Good Good Father" by Housefires
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Jesus, We Don’t Have Enough Bread?
(7 minutes)
After a long day of feeding thousands of people from just seven loaves of bread and a few small fish, it was time for Jesus and the disciples to depart to their next destination. Remember, this is the disciple's second time seeing Jesus feed multitudes of people by multiplying food. They climb into the boat and set sail to another region of the country, and here's what happens next:
Now, the disciples had forgotten to take bread with them, except for one loaf of flatbread. And as they were sailing across the lake, Jesus repeatedly warned them, "Be on your guard against the yeast inside of the Pharisees and the yeast inside of Herod!" But the disciples had no clue what Jesus was talking about, so they began to discuss it among themselves, saying, "Is he saying this because we forgot to bring bread?" Knowing what they were thinking, Jesus said to them, "Why all this fussing over forgetting to bring bread? Do you still not see or understand what I say to you? Are your hearts still hard? You have good eyes, yet you still don't see, and you have good ears, yet you still don't hear, neither do you remember. When I multiplied the bread to feed more than five thousand people, how many baskets full of leftovers did you gather afterward?"
"Twelve," they replied.
"And when I multiplied food to feed over four thousand, how many large baskets full of leftovers did you gather afterwards?"
"Seven," they replied.
"Then how is it that you still don't get it?"
(Mark 8:14-21)
"The disciples have seen on two separate occasions Jesus, multiplying bread, feeds twenty-thousand in one crowd and eighteen-thousand in another crowd, and the first thing their mind turns to is what they don't have, or how little they have." (Pastor Tim)
If we're ever wondering what kingdom we're feeding from, we don't have to look any further than our first response to hardships that come into our lives. If you want to know the default operating system that your life depends on moment by moment, just pay attention to the first thoughts you have when a troubling situation arises. That will tell you all you need to know.
The disciples had front-row seats to the multiplying of bread and fish to feed thousands, but when they climbed into the boat, got comfortable, and felt their stomachs rumbling, their minds immediately turned to what they lacked. They're sitting in a boat with Jesus, and they're worried about the shortage of bread. Now, we could shake our heads in complete disapproval over the disciple's behavior, but how many times has our mind defaulted to fear and anxiety after experiencing countless miracles in our own lives?
What does this show us? Well, I don't know about you, but here's what I can see: it doesn't matter how many times you witness Yahweh perform miracles on your behalf, if you don't allow your mind to be renewed you will always default to the kingdom that you have been most intimate with in your life. See, we say things to ourselves like, "If I could only see God come through in this area, it would change everything." Well, this scripture, and plenty of others, tell us a different story. Because the problem isn't really our shortage of powerful encounters with Abba, it's that we don't allow those encounters with His goodness to lead us into metanoia, the changing of our mind. We have powerful encounters in His presence, but we don't allow those encounters to shift our perspective and usher us into a new way of thinking.
Are there still areas where you can only see what you lack and what you don't have? That should be a witness to you that you're still feeding from the kingdom of this world. That is Abba's open invitation to you to come into His presence, experience His goodness, and let Him lead you into the renewing of your mind. By the time Abba's goodness is through with you, your default way of thinking will be that of His Kingdom, and His Kingdom never starts with what we lack and what we don't have.
Beloved One, you have a history with Abba. You have a long line of previous encounters with Him that were powerful. What if you took time today to remember those encounters, but this time ask Abba to use those moments to change your perspective? Abba, we don't want to waste any encounter with Your goodness. Lead us into metanoia!
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Worship: "Million Little Miracles" by Joe L. Barnes
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
What Is God and What Is Not? The Renewed Mind Knows
(5 minutes)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2 NKJV)
Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God's will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes. (Romans 12:2 TPT)
"If you worked 80 hours on your job, you would be applauded. If you prayed for 80 hours, you would be looked at as peculiar. You see how we have come into agreement with what the world says about what is possible, what is approved, and what is unapproved." (Pastor Tim)
What kingdom are we allowing to influence us and make our decisions? What kingdom are we being intimate with to determine what is acceptable and what is not? What kingdom is forming our perspective and thinking about every area of life?
Renewing the mind is so significant. Having our perspective changed is vital if we're ever going to see the benefits of the Kingdom of God in our own lives.
"An unrenewed mind will not have the ability to look at two things that look similar and pick the one that is God. Unrenewed minds will not be able to look at two scenarios that look very similar, one is not God and one is God, and make a determination. This is why we have so many churches, and we can't discern whether they're godly or not. The unrenewed mind will pick what it likes over what God says to do. Your renewed mind from His Kingdom, your mind that feeds from His Kingdom, will be able to discern what is Him and what is not Him." (Pastor Tim)
The renewed mind has the ability to approve of what is actually Yahweh. The renewed mind can see what God is doing and hear what God is saying about a matter. And the renewed mind has the ability to choose that thing over what it likes.
An unrenewed mind lives by the rules of the kingdom of this world, and reaps the benefits that this kingdom has to offer. A renewed mind lives by the rules of the Kingdom of God, and reaps the benefits that His Kingdom has to offer. Jesus is able to walk on water and multiply meals. Why? Because He was living by the rules of Abba's Kingdom. Jesus didn't pray for sick people, He healed sick people. Why? Because He was living by the rules of Abba's Kingdom.
What if what we're experiencing and not experiencing is being determined by what kingdom we're feeding from? What if the key to experiencing the benefits of the Kingdom of God is having our mind renewed? Maybe this is why Jesus came saying, "Metanoia!" Stop focusing on the behavior that is flowing from your unrenewed mind, and start staring at Yahweh's goodness that leads to the transformation of that mind.
Your only responsibility today is to pursue intimate encounters with Yahweh. His Goodness will do the rest!
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Worship: "I Lose My Ability" by Jonathan David & Melissa Helser
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
The Mind Is Worth Renewing
(7 minutes)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2 NKJV)
Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God's will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes. (Romans 12:2 TPT)
"The mind is important or it wouldn't be worth renewing." (Pastor Tim)
But what happens when the mind isn't renewed? What happens when the mind continues to feed from the kingdom of this world?
Did you know that the first thing formed in a baby in the womb is their heart? That's significant. As important as the mind is, it was never supposed to be our true north.
"Let me tell you what happens in the spiritual realm. You're going to hear the anointing and the presence of God. It's going to strike your heart. You're moved and stirred in the innermost being of who you are. You just heard something that rattled your cage and all of a sudden you can't keep yourself from crying, and you love everybody in the room, and you love everything, and you're going to go all out for God. Then the Spirit of God takes the word that was deposited in your heart and it starts making a trip to your mind. And you're mind says, 'Oh no, we can't do that. We have a life to live. We can't be fanatical about the things of God. We still have to go to work. You can't abandon everything. You can't think about God 24/7.' And then the anointing, the Spirit, the seed that God deposits gets cut off, and nothing changes." (Pastor Tim)
This is why the mind must be renewed. Because we'll hear something from Abba and it will resonate with us and stir our hearts, but if the mind remains unrenewed it will shut down and war against the things that Abba is speaking to us. Believing happens in the heart, but an unrenewed mind can be in opposition to what our heart is trying to receive from God.
And it's not just the emotion in a room that stirs our hearts.
"Your heart hears something it was made for and it responds the way it was designed to respond, but that word has to make a trip to your mind and if your mind is not renewed it will not make it back to your heart. And a renewed mind is not designed to control your life, your mind is supposed to be used to emphasize what your heart is already saying. To make clear what your heart is already decreeing. To say 'Yes, everything you just felt is true, now these are the steps we're going to take to implement what your heart just said.' But if you don't have a renewed mind, all you see is obstacles, you your life and other concerns and cares of life. An unrenewed mind will prioritize those things over what your heart cares about." (Pastor Tim)
An unrenewed mind will always prioritize other things over what your heart is receiving from Abba. The mind is not supposed to be in control. It's supposed to support what Abba is doing in the heart. But the unrenewed mind simply cannot do that.
This is why Jesus steps into the cosmos with one message, "Metanoia! Change the way you think! Because the Kingdom of God is right here, right now." The Kingdom of God is available to anyone who's willing to have their mind changed, anyone who's willing to have their mind made new.
Soaking in the healing waters of Abba's presence will be the thing that causes our perspective, and our thinking, to shift. Our intimate encounters with Him are meant to change our perspective. It's how we see the mind renewed. Are you willing to step into those waters today? The soaking can happen anytime that you're ready to step in. Abba is waiting to take a walk with you today.
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Worship: "You Always Restore" by UPPERROOM
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
The Grace to Change Is Right Here, Right Now
(5 minutes)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2 NKJV)
Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God's will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes. (Romans 12:2 TPT)
"Do not be conformed to this world. That means do not let this world be the thing that tells you how your life is supposed to look. That's what the scripture is saying. Don't let the rules of this world be the one that you feed from, that you become intimate with." (Pastor Tim)
We've all heard this scripture at some point, but like Pastor Tim mentioned on Sunday, I don't believe we've learned how to actually do it. When Jesus comes to us with the message of, "Metanoia! Change the way you think, because the Kingdom of God is right here, right now," we have to understand that with that word comes the grace, the permission, to see that word become a reality in our own lives. Abba never brings us a word, or whispers our name, without giving us the grace to see that word become flesh in the garden of our own life.
This is another step into metanoia. Do we actually believe that there is a grace being given to us in this season to see our perspective changed in a significant way? Do we believe that with Abba's word, comes the permission and power to be transformed?
This is why it's so important for us to respond rightly to the words we're hearing in intimacy with Abba. Because that word carries more than just some opportunity to feel good in the moment; it carries the grace we need to see that word become a way of life for us, and in us. How we respond to the word, or how we honor the seed, determines what we will get from that seed.
There is a grace being given to our Kingdom family, right now, to metanoia - to change the way we think - to shift from feeding on the kingdom of this world to being exclusively intimate with the Kingdom of God.
As we show up to the walk with Abba today, let's ask Him about how we can honor the seed of His word so we can eat its fruit, after it's been established in our life. Abba, we don't just want to hear a word, we want to become the word. Abba, show us how to honor what we're hearing!
All the grace we need to change is right here, right now.
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Worship: "Make Room" by Kim Walker-Smith
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done
(7 minutes)
In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen
(Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV)
Pray like this: "Our Beloved Father, dwelling in the heavenly realms, may the glory of your name be the center on which our lives turn. Manifest your kingdom realm, and cause your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is in heaven. Forgive us the wrongs we have done as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us. Rescue us every time we face tribulation and set us free from evil. For you are the King who rules with power and glory forever. Amen." (Matthew 6:9-13 TPT)
The disciples witnessed so much power in the life of Jesus that they assumed it had something to do with His prayer life, with His intimacy with Abba. And they were right in their thinking. So they asked Him how to pray. This is so right! When we see something in Jesus that we do not yet see established in our own life, it should cause us to go to Him in intimacy and say, "How? Teach me! Show me!"
Jesus opens this prayer with the most offensive words to the culture of His day. Calling God "Father" or "Dada" would have easily gotten you kicked out of the synagogue. The fear of religion kept the Father at a distance, only referred to as "God" and "Master" and "Lord," but never Dada, never "our Father." Everyone needs an encounter with the Abba revelation - He is the Beloved Father and we are His Beloved Sons and Daughters.
Then Jesus says, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This is the heart of theFather revealed to us. We're not biding our time, waiting on some end-of-days escape plan. We're ushering in the Kingdom of God on the earth, just as it is in heaven.
"Is Jesus giving them something that could not be accomplished, or is He telling them it can be accomplished? If Jesus is saying that His will could be accomplished on earth, why have we been looking to escape? Why have we be parroting out of our mouth that it's going to get to worse, that His will has no chance in being done here? Because we became intimate with delusional thinking. We became intimate with what this world is parroting. And what this world was telling us gave us the theology of 'it's getting worse.' And Jesus is telling us that we should be in the secret place asking for His kingdom to be here now." (Pastor Tim)
Either Jesus thinks that it's possible to have the Kingdom of God established on the earth, or He's lying. Which is it?
Abba wants His will to be happening on the earth in the same way that it's happening in heaven. He wants everything that's happening in heaven to be established on the earth. When? Right now.
"How many of us grew up thinking that it was possible to have heaven on earth? So what kingdom have we been eating from if none of us thought this?" (Pastor Tim)
What we're meditating on is being reproduced in our lives. Whatever kingdom we're living more aware of is having more influence on us and the decisions we're making. The things we're seeing reproduced in us, in our kids, in our families, and in our lives all originate from what kingdom we're being most intimate with.
Jesus is inviting us to see the Kingdom established on the earth. He's inviting us to be a part of the restoration of all things. He's asking us to change the way we think, and start feeding from the Kingdom of God that is available to us right now. Our intimate encounters with Him can shift our thinking so much that we could literally begin seeing everything that's happening in heaven established in our own lives.
Abba, let Your kingdom come and Your will be done, right here, right now! Start declaring this over your life, over your kids, over your family, and over generations to come. Beloved Sons and Daughters are starting to believe that we could actually see Yahweh’s Kingdom established on the earth. We don’t need an escape plan! We’re going to witness an invasion of heaven in the cosmos, and the glory of God will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea. We will see the restoration of all things, and we will see it in our own lives first.
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Worship: "I See Heaven" by Bryan & Katie Torwalt
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Waking Up With Dysfunctional Vision
(5 minutes)
"What's your appetite look like? What's controlling your appetites? Is it the Kingdom of God or is it you? What we feed from is what we reflect. So if we're feeding from this world and we're listening to the doubt, fear, and anxiety that this world provides, this is what we reflect, this is what we reproduce. Whatever you're intimate with is what you reproduce. So think about this for a moment: am I exclusively intimate with Him or am I intimate with a multitude of things? The issue is when you become intimate with something that's dysfunctional, when you become intimate with something that's not of His kingdom, you lose your ability to see that it's dysfunctional. This is why Jacob thinks he's marrying Rachel, and wakes up with Leah." (Pastor Tim)
We've all walked through moments where we couldn't see the dysfunction right in front of us. We all have things in our past that we look back at and say, "Why couldn't I see it?" This is why we couldn't see it: because when you become intimate with and start staring at something dysfunctional, you lose your ability to see correctly. Your perspective is twisted. It's called delusional thinking.
When you're right in the middle of delusional thinking, Jesus will even have a hard time convincing you otherwise. We literally become blind to the truth. And like Pastor Tim mentioned on Sunday, there's only one way to wake yourself up from this kind of deception: you have to look at what your life is producing. Fruit doesn't lie. It's always a truthful witness to where it came from.
"Is what I'm reproducing in God's kingdom? So if I'm experiencing doubt about a situation, fear, anger, or any of these things, I ask myself the question: is this going on in God's kingdom?" (Pastor Tim)
If what you're producing can't be found in God's kingdom, you've become intimate with dysfunctional vision.
This is why Jesus' invitation is, "Metanoia! Change the way you think, because God's kingdom is here and available to you right now." But it can't be accessed while you're still feeding from the kingdom of this world. We've already established that our relationship with Yahweh has been patterned after a covenant marriage. And just like us, He doesn't want there to be any mixture in this union. He's after exclusivity, our whole heart. He's patient with us, but He's also jealous and constantly pursuing His beloved Bride. He's coming after everything that hinders the love affair between us and Him. He's coming after our delusional thinking.
If He's lured you into the wilderness, that's a sure sign that by the time this is over you're going to be transformed into a radiant Bride, and His name will no longer be "Master," but "Husband." Let Him pull you even deeper into this intimate, exclusive union. His kingdom is already expanding within you!
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Worship: "I Love Your Presence" by UPPERROOM
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Peripoiesis: Exclusively His
(5 minutes)
"He's only ever asked for our hearts. The whole thing." (Pastor Tim)
Abba wants exclusivity.
Pastor Tim introduced us to his favorite word this past Sunday. It’s found in 1 Peter 2:9.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9 KJV)
Do you see the word "peculiar" in this verse? The Greek word is peripoiesis (per-ee-poy-ay-sis). And peripoiesis doesn't mean peculiar. Peripoiesis is a way to describe something that belongs exclusively to you. It's a possession that has been paid for in its entirety and belongs to no one else, but you.
What if I told you that we were meant to be exclusively His? Like a husband and wife, only ever belonging to the other? We are not meant to be shared with others; our heart is designed to be exclusively His, the whole thing. This idea sounds peculiar and far-fetched, which is probably why the writers of the King James Version used the word peculiar in the first place. Peripoiesis doesn't mean peculiar, but the thought of devoting one's entire existence to only one other person is certainly on the list of peculiarities. But this is the word that Yahweh uses to describe us - exclusively His.
"We expect this in marriage. Think about it: you wouldn't be married to anyone that wasn't exclusive to you. You mean God expects the same thing from me that I expect from my spouse? You mean I can only be His? That means I can't have a thousand obsessions, I can only have one? You mean I can't run after this or feed from that kingdom, I can only feed from His?" (Pastor Tim)
Let's ask the question: are we exclusively His? Do we belong to Him completely? Is He in control of every area of our life? Does He decide what our lives look like, or do we? Does He have a say? Is He the first one we run to when making a decision? If our relationship with Yahweh was a marriage, what would it look like? Are we all in?
Our hearts are uniquely designed to crave peripoiesis: an exclusive, intimate relationship with another. It may be the deepest longing of our hearts, and it can only be found in Yahweh. Our time in religion taught us how to pretend to be exclusively His while we were giving our hearts to other things in secret. That's why it was wrought with suspicion and fear and hiding. That's the same thing you find in a marriage where someone is secretly giving their heart to other things.
But Abba has lured us into the wilderness. He's speaking tenderly to our hearts and He's giving us what we've always cried out for... peripoiesis. What does this intimate, exclusive relationship produce? A radiant Bride who reflects the marvelous light that she's been exposed to in the presence of the Bridegroom King.
Are we mingling? Or are we married? Are we partially His? Occasionally connected? Or are we exclusively His in our entirety?
Take this word, peripoiesis, into your walk with Abba today and let Him talk to you about what exclusivity looks like. We've never been told that our relationship with Him was supposed to look this way. That's okay! But He desires to teach us the ways of His kingdom. Remember, Jesus is extending an invitation to us today, "Metanoia, the Kingdom of God is here!"
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Worship: "Have My Heart" by TRIBL
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
What Kingdom Are We Most Aware Of?
(6 minutes)
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent (metanoia), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17 NKJV)
"So when Jesus shows up and He says, 'Change the way you think, the kingdom of God is available to you,' He's telling them that there are two kingdoms available: His and the kingdom of earth. Begin to become aware of His Kingdom over the kingdom that you have been aware of up to this point." (Pastor Tim)
What kingdom are you most aware of right now?
Take this question even deeper because there are some areas where our perspective is shaped by the Kingdom of God, but there are others that are shaped by the kingdom of this world.
What kingdom are you most aware of when it comes to your finances?
What kingdom are you most aware of when it comes to your marriage and your family?
What kingdom are you most aware of when it comes to your future?
Abba is coming after your perspective. He's coming to have a conversation with you, not about behavior, but about the thing that determines your behavior...how you think. Look at this verse in Romans 12:2 and hear God's heart for you today.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2 NKJV)
Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God's will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes. (Romans 12:2 TPT)
"Whatever world you're most aware of is the one that will have dominance in your life. Let me give you an example: how much fear and anxiety is in heaven? How much fear and anxiety is in this world? So whichever one you're experiencing tells you that's the world you're more aware of...You get to decide which world you will feed from. Whichever world is having the most influence on you, you have become intimate with." (Pastor Tim)
We have to wake up to what world, what kingdom, we're most intimate with. We have to wake up and see what kingdom is having the most influence on our thoughts. That's not hard to do, but it takes intentionality. Our life is already reflecting the traits of the kingdom we're most aware of because we become what we behold. That's a Kingdom principle that never fails. If you want to know what kind of tree it is, you can look at what it's producing.
What thoughts are we meditating on the most? What kingdom are we most aware of right now?
There's a daily invitation being extended to us from Abba's presence to come and have our minds changed by His goodness. Do you remember what lures us into metanoia?
Do you realize that all the wealth of his extravagant kindness [goodness, sweetness] is meant to melt your heart and lead you into repentance [metanoia, changing how you think]? (Romans 2:4)
Come and have an intimate encounter with Abba's goodness and your perspective will naturally shift towards His heart and His Kingdom. Let perfect love lead you back to where you belong - your original design!
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Worship: "Gratitude + I Love Your Presence" by UPPERROOM
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Metanoia: Jesus’ Invitation Into The Kingdom
(5 minutes)
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent (metanoia), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17 NKJV)
"Metanoia. That word means to change the way you think. But we got repent. Repent causes you to look in your past. Metanoia asks you to look into your future. Which one do you think is more likely to come from God's kingdom? Him asking you to look in the past, or Him saying let's look in the future? In the future." (Pastor Tim)
How we think determines how we see and perceive what's going on in our lives. Our thinking shapes our experiences.
Why does Jesus come to the earth and spend so much time saying, "Change the way you think, because the Kingdom of God is at hand?" Well, the 400 years before Jesus came, there was no Kingdom revelation on the earth. The mouths of the prophets were shut, and no one was hearing anything from heaven. If nothing was being heard from heaven's Kingdom for that long, then everyone must have only been experiencing and learning from the only other kingdom that's left: the kingdom of this world.
"So when Jesus shows up and He says, 'Change the way you think, the kingdom of God is available to you,' He's telling them that there are two kingdoms available: His and the kingdom of earth. Begin to become aware of His Kingdom over the kingdom that you have been aware of up to this point." (Pastor Tim)
Jesus is inviting us to become more aware of and more intimate with the Kingdom of God. And to even venture in this direction, we must change the way we think. Jesus is telling us that everything we've learned from our time in the previous kingdom is diametrically opposed to the Kingdom of God. They are completely different. We will have to let go of the one to inherit the other. Both perspectives will not be able to co-exist together.
"Metanoia starts you on the path of learning how the Kingdom operates, what Jesus is trying to teach us, and what He's trying to say. You're going to have to start thinking differently than you thought before. The Kingdom looks differently than you ever thought it looked. The Father's different than you thought He was. The Father's different than you were taught He was." (Pastor Tim)
Metanoia is our first step into relearning who Yahweh is and what His Kingdom is like. Jesus' message is still the same for us today, "Change the way you think, the Kingdom of God is at hand, the Kingdom of God is within you."
The walk we take with Abba today is the encounter that will facilitate the changing of our minds. Through intimate encounters with Him, our perspective will begin to change.
Beloved One, just show up for the walk with Yahweh and let the intimacy pull you in.
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Worship: “I Love Your Presence” by UPPERROOM
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Encounters That Change Perspective
(8 minutes)
"Unfamiliar things always war against familiar things. And the enemy of the current move of God is always the last move of God. We must let ourselves question some things about the way we think. Is this producing fully alive? Because the Kingdom's idea of life and life more abundantly is you, fully alive. Let me ask you a question: what area would you consider of your life, fully alive? Because the Kingdom's saying every area of your life can be fully alive, but maybe what's keeping it from being fully alive is the way you think. This is why encounters are so important. But encounters can also be worthless. How many people in the Bible encountered Jesus and it produced nothing in their life? How many times have we had an encounter with God that produced nothing in our life? How many encounters have I wasted because I did not respond correctly? Well, how do we respond? Encounters are designed to change the way you think. It's an opportunity to let the encounter with God change something in my life that He wants to change." (Pastor Tim)
Encounters are important, be what we do with the encounter is equally important. How we respond to our encounters with Abba can mean the difference between the hair standing up on the back of our neck or our entire life being changed and us being brought more fully into abundant life. How are we responding to the encounters that we're having with Yahweh? Are we allowing the encounter to do what it's intended to do: change our thinking?
"Understand that any encounter that you have with Abba is an invitation into transformation, into metanoia. This is the soaking that takes place." (Pastor Tim)
And this soaking can happen every single day, throughout the entire day. Encounters are available every moment of the day. We just have to step into it. No matter where we are or what we're doing, we can invite Abba into the moment. We can start a conversation with Him in the morning that can go with us all day until we lay our head back down on our pillow at night. This intimate, unbroken fellowship is what we're made for, designed for. We just have to learn to practice the presence of God.
"I don't want you to get discouraged or allow shame and condemnation to come because you have some values out of whack. Encounters are meant to change that!" (Pastor Tim)
Let's talk more about metanoia.
Repent [metanoia] therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19-21 NKJV)
And now you must repent and turn back to God so that your sins will be removed, and so that times of refreshing will stream from the Lord's presence, and he will send to you Jesus, the Messiah, the chosen one for you. For he must remain in heaven until the restoration of all things has taken place, fulfilling everything that God said long ago through his holy prophets. (Acts 3:19-21 TPT)
Abba's idea of restoration is returning all things to pre-fallen conditions. That's His heart for the cosmos. He intends to restore everything, and this scripture tells us that once that happens He will send Jesus again. That's not how we've heard it preached for the last hundred years in American Christianity, but here it is in the very first message that was preached after the Holy Spirit was given to the world.
"We have to be allowed to rethink some things. We have to be allowed to rethink some theology. If you believe things are supposed to get darker in order for Jesus to come then you will have no hope for restoration to take place. You can't hold these two things at the same time. You can't believe that things are supposed to get worse and at the same time, Jesus is being held in heaven until the restoration of all things. They can't coexist with one another.... We have to let God's word challenge some things that were said from the pulpit. We have to let the truth of God ask us some questions." (Pastor Tim)
Are we allowing our encounters with Abba to change our perspective? Are we allowing the truth of God to challenge some things we thought we had settled? Or are we having encounters with Yahweh, but not allowing those encounters to change how we think?
Why does it matter? Why does it matter that we allow Abba to change our thinking? Here's why:
Don't you know that when you allow even a little lie into your heart, it can permeate your entire belief system? (Galatians 5:9)
These little lies are affecting everything. Our current perspective is permeating our entire life and shaping our reality. How we see determines what we experience. This is why it's important to Abba. This is why Jesus comes to earth and His message to mankind is, "Metanoia, change the way you think!" This is why we must start allowing our encounters with Abba to go deeper, until they change our perspective.
It starts today, on your walk with Abba. Practice His presence today. Take every step with the dove in mind. We are walking in unbroken companionship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the soaking on happens when you step in!
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Worship: "You Walk With Me" by Housefires
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Every Circumstance An Opportunity
(5 minutes)
"When we believe that we are truly God's favorite, that thinking determines how we respond no matter what the circumstance says. If we really believed that we were God's favorite and we were beloved, any and every circumstance would be an opportunity for us." (Pastor Tim)
Just like Joseph was able to excel in every environment because he knew he was his father's favorite, every circumstance we face will become an opportunity to see Abba's favor when we start believing that we are truly beloved sons and daughters. Believing that you are loved by the Father will change how you think. It will change your perspective. It will change how you see things that happen in your life.
Think about Joseph's life - sold into slavery by his own brothers, becomes a slave in someone else's home, targeted and accused by his master's wife, and thrown into prison. Let me ask you a question: would your current perspective allow you to see these circumstances as opportunities to excel and experience Yahweh's favor? Or would your current perspective keep you stuck as a slave to hopelessness?
It all goes back to how we think. Remember, how big you dream communicates how deeply you believe God loves you. Knowing you're favored of the Father will change your perspective.
"So imagine this: what if you so believed that you're His favorite that the circumstance did not determine how you responded to the circumstance? So when rejection comes, it doesn't feel like rejection. It feels like an opportunity. What if the flat tire is no longer an inconvenience, but you see it as an opportunity? What if a health crisis comes up, and you don't see it as a crisis at all...you see it as an opportunity? What if you find yourself trapped in a conversation you don't want to be in and it no longer says you're trapped...it's an opportunity? How you think determines where you are." (Pastor Tim)
What if the circumstance is not overwhelming at all, it's just an opportunity?
Are you a slave, or are you Abba's favorite?
You can't be both.
Beloved One, what circumstance in your life is waiting on you to believe you're Abba's favorite? The entire cosmos, all the way down to the circumstances you're walking through right now, are waiting for you to believe that you're Abba's favorite, because they want to experience His goodness, too. As long as we're enslaved in our thinking, they're enslaved. But when you put your coat on and start walking in your beloved identity, everything changes.
The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God's glorious sons and daughters! (Romans 8:19)
While you're on your walk with Abba today, take a look around and let Him point out every opportunity that He's brought into your life. You may be surprised at what He calls an opportunity, that you've been calling a trap.
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Worship: "Beauty for Ashes" by UPPERROOM
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Unless You Become Like A Child
(5 minutes)
"This is the invitation into the wilderness. Every single time God wants to speak to someone, He draws them into a place of unknowing. 'Abraham, I'm going to send you to a place you know not of. I'm not even going to give you a map to tell you how to get there.' But we hate that. Why do we hate that? Because we have to trust. Every step is about hearing and obeying. The wilderness is an invitation for you, me, us, we to go into the unfamiliar. And He doesn't let you bring what you thought you knew before with you. You have to let the unfamiliar challenge what you thought you were certain of, and we don't like that." (Pastor Tim)
You have to let the unfamiliar challenge what you thought you were certain of. This is what most of our encounters with Jesus feel like because so much of what we've learned isn't the way of the Kingdom. Pastor Tim illustrated this on Sunday when he shared Jesus' thoughts about children. Listen to Jesus' words:
Learn this well: Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable like a little child, you will never be able to enter in. (Matthew 18:3 TPT)
Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3 NKJV)
So Jesus shares this Kingdom-truth, and what did we do? We removed the children, who were supposed to be an example to us, from our gatherings and stuck them in a back room. The very expression that Jesus said we needed if we were going to experience the Kingdom, we removed from our sight "so we could be undistracted." This is what we learned in American Christianity, but it was not the way of the Kingdom. These are the things we're unlearning in the wilderness.
As we venture out into the wilderness with Abba, He begins to undo so much of what we thought we already knew. At first, these interactions can be uncomfortable. Trusting can be uncomfortable. Having your previous perspective undone can be very uncomfortable. It can cause you to be unsure and question everything, and that's okay.
The beautiful thing about taking these wilderness walks with Abba is that you may be the most unsure you've ever been in your life, but you're closer to Him and His presence than you've ever been in your life, too. You may be spinning, but you're spinning in the Potter's hands. And like Pastor Tim said on Sunday, Abba can handle your questions and He can handle your doubts. This is what unlearning feels like. And now Abba can speak to you Himself about what the Kingdom is really like.
Beloved One, don't run away from these encounters just because they challenge what you thought you already knew. This is Abba inviting you into a new way of seeing. This is Abba inviting you into trust. Trusting like a child.
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Worship: "Preference" by Rachel Morley
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Metanoia: Moving Beyond Behavior
(5 minutes)
"We thought 'repent' meant 'change your behavior,' but you can't change your behavior until you change what produces your behavior. It's how you think. How you think produces behavior." (Pastor Tim)
It's so important that we see that Jesus did not come saying, "Repent, change your behavior!" The word "repent" is the Greek word metanoia, which means to change the way you think. This isn't a small thing. When you read the word "repent" in the scriptures, what comes to mind? Because if the default meaning for you is still tied to you turning from sinful behavior, we need to soak in Jesus' perspective a while longer, because behavior was not top of mind as He preached the message of the Kingdom. Behavior is the byproduct of what you believe and how you see things. Jesus came saying, "Metanoia, change the way you think!"
"You know, when the enemy with his deception came along coupled with the spirit of religion, he tried to convince us the problem was our behavior. So for a long time in the Bride, we focused heavily on behavior." (Pastor Tim)
Isn't that the truth? Haven't we just been licking our wounds in the church for years? We designed entire weekends around having an encounter with Jesus, and then ended up diverting our eyes to our own behavior, listing on paper our most troublesome sins and even the "unknown sins of past generations." Now we're not just focusing on our own sins that we can't shake, but grandad's sins that could have been passed down to us. Instead of gazing into the eyes of Jesus, we were cheek-swabbing past generations trying to find where the sinful behavior started. The funny thing is Jesus never used this strategy when healing or delivering someone. He simply asked them, "Are you ready to believe that you're healed?"
"Scripture tells us that whatever you behold is what you become. What you stare at is what's produced in your life...So for the longest time, the church focused on behavior, and everybody got really frustrated because we couldn't stop behavior. We find ourselves slinking back in this area and that area, because nobody was willing to go into the scriptures and find Romans 2:4, which says it's the goodness of God that changes the way you think. It's His goodness - not your discipline, not your behavior, not you focusing on your behavior. It's staring at His goodness that naturally causes your behavior to change. Well, how does that happen? Because it changes the way you think!" (Pastor Tim)
Jesus never came saying, "Change your behavior." But that's the message we've heard the entire time in American Christianity. And on the backside of everyone breaking themselves, striving to change, we find ourselves dealing with the same behavior, but now we're neck-deep in hopelessness and broken lives because the whole time we were staring at the wrong thing, and we ended up becoming what we were beholding.
Jesus' message, the message of the Kingdom, is "Metanoia, change the way you think." Abba wants to take a walk with us today, and the conversation won't be centered around your wrong behavior. The conversation is going to be about your thinking. It's going to be about what you believe, and how you see. Abba's going to ask you what you're staring at, the long list of problems...or His face? Because only one of those leads to metanoia.
Beloved One, don't let shame and condemnation keep taking you back to what's wrong with you. Let Abba's goodness lead you into what's true about you! Don't worry about behavior right now. Just focus on having an encounter with Abba, because that will be the thing that changes your perspective.
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Worship: "Abba, We Let You" by The Wilderness Place
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Metanoia, The Kingdom of God Is Here
(6 minutes)
"No, it's not a church. It's a family of beloved sons and daughters. It's a family, and we are endeavoring to embrace the unfamiliar. That's what the wilderness is. It invites you on a journey of you not knowing where you're going. The wilderness is an invitation into the unknowing. But also with that, it's an invitation into the undoing." (Pastor Tim)
How much of our thinking, believing and seeing needs to be undone? This is Jesus's invitation to every person. He didn't come asking, "Are you saved?" Jesus came with a singular message that was always in His mouth, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is within, the Kingdom of God is at hand." The Kingdom of God is right here, right now, ready to be accessed and embraced. All that's required is metanoia - what the word "repent" should actually be. Metanoia means "to change the way you think." Meta means "beyond" and noia means "mind." Jesus' invitation is for us to abandon what we currently think and believe, and go beyond our own mind.
Why is how we think so important? How you think determines how you live your life. It determines every how you make every decision in your life. Everything flows from what you believe and how you think.
Here's a simple story that Pastor Tim shared on Sunday to illustrate the importance of how we think:
Years ago, Reader’s Digest featured the true story of Nick Sitzman — a strong, healthy, and ambitious young railroad yardman who was a hard worker and had a loving wife, two children, and many friends.
One summer day, the train crews were able to end their workday an hour early. While performing one last check on some of the railroad cars, Nick was accidentally locked in a refrigerator boxcar. When he realized that the rest of the workmen had left the site, Nick started to panic.
He banged and shouted repeatedly, but no one heard him. With his knowledge, he predicted the temperature inside the car to be zero degrees. Nick’s thought was, “If I can’t get out, I’ll freeze to death in here”. Wanting to let his wife and family know exactly what had happened to him, he found a knife and began to etch words into the wooden floor. He wrote, “It’s so cold, my body is getting numb. If I could just go to sleep. These may be my last words.”
The next morning, his fellow crew slid open the heavy doors of the boxcar and found Nick dead. An autopsy revealed that every physical sign of his body indicated he had frozen to death. And yet the refrigeration unit of the car was inoperative, and the temperature inside indicated 55ºF. Nick had killed himself by the power of his own thoughts.
What a powerful story. So, how important are your thoughts? How important is what you believe?
"Do you understand why Jesus' first statement to us is "metanoia" - change the way you think? Do you understand that when Jesus shows up to people who have been trapped in dysfunctional bodies - broken bodies - hopeless situations for many years - the very first question that He asks is, 'Are you ready to believe that you're healed?' There is a correlation between what we think and the reality of our lives, is what Jesus is saying. He's saying how you think and how you believe is what's produced in your life. How many of us are tolerating things in our lives because it's how we think it's supposed to be?" (Pastor Tim)
How many things in our lives have we convinced ourselves will never change, and they remain the same because that's how we think and believe it's supposed to be?
Maybe the problem doesn't lie in the circumstances we find ourselves in, but in what we think and believe about those circumstances. And Jesus is showing up to invite us to change how we think, how we believe, and how we see. He's inviting us into metanoia.
Beloved One, are you ready to believe that you're healed?
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Worship: "I Love Your Presence" by UPPERROOM
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Wrapped Up In Abba’s Love
(7 minutes)
This is the story of the family of Jacob, who had settled in the land of Canaan, where his father Isaac had lived as an immigrant.
Jacob's son Joseph was seventeen, and he served his older half brothers, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah, helping them watch over the flocks. One day Joseph went to his father with a bad report about their behavior.
Now Israel's love for Joseph surpassed that for his other sons because he was born to him in his old age. So Israel had made him a richly ornamented robe (a coat of many colors).
When Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved him more than he loved them, they hated him and would not speak a kind word to him.
One night Joseph had a dream, and when he shared it with his brothers, they hated him even more! (Genesis 37:1-5)
This bears repeating! Something was made available to Joseph that was not made available to the other kids, simply because he was identified as one beloved of his father. If you believe that you are God's favorite, it's going to open something up to you.
What will it open up?
The ability to dream. Joseph could dream big dreams, and it turns out Joseph was the only one who could identify himself as Daddy's favorite. That's no coincidence. Abba is trying to give us a key in this story. What if our ability to have hope and dream Kingdom-sized dreams depends solely on our ability to be rightly identified as Abba's favorite?
"How big you dream communicates how deeply you believe God loves you. And if you're not dreaming, and you're saying that God loves you, I beg to differ. This is a danger for every single one of us because of this reason: we fall into traps we think we're supposed to be in, we walk a few years down the road and all of a sudden the thing that brought fulfillment no longer brings fulfillment. And you know what happens? Your eyes start wandering. You start looking for something else to bring some sort of fulfillment into your life. And until you get a coat that identifies you as beloved, you will run after anything that looks shiny. This is why beloved identity is so important. This is why it's so important that you fall in love with Jesus and you realize how much He loves you. You let Him smother you with kisses before you do anything." (Pastor Tim)
Jesus did nothing for thirty years. He didn't do one single thing until He was fully immersed in the Father's affection. If Jesus needed to be wrapped up in this coat, how much more do we need to be identified as one beloved of the Father?
Your getting wrapped up in Abba's extravagant love will release you to start dreaming extravagant dreams. If you aren't dreaming, it's not because you don't have dreams, it's because you don't believe you're really loved. Dreams are the natural byproduct of believing you're deeply loved by Abba.
Joseph was beloved and dreaming big dreams, but was still immature. So Yahweh took Him on a journey of maturity, a process that He loves to walk out with us. I think Joseph is able to withstand the process because of the foundation he had - his beloved identity and the dreams that Yahweh had given him. Joseph finds himself on the other side of his wilderness walk with the maturity he needs to handle the anointing that Yahweh put on his life. When it comes time for his dreams to be realized, to have all of his family bowing down before him, he has the grace and compassion required to bring transformation, healing, and wholeness to his people. A nation is saved because of Joseph.
Would you believe that the healing of a nation is wrapped up in you? Would you believe that the entire cosmos is standing on tip toe, waiting with great expectation, for you to be revealed as a fully alive, fully mature, beloved son and daughter of Yahweh. The earth is groaning and anxiously waiting for you to be planted as a Mighty Oak of Righteousness. And it all begins right here: letting Abba fully cover you, from head to toe, in the coat of beloved identity so you can dream again. Will you let Him smother you with kisses? Will you let Him fully immerse you in His affections for you?
Don't be surprised when you start feeling hope rise inside of you, because a beloved son and daughter cannot help themselves - they must dream big dreams.
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Worship: "Beautiful Jesus" by Melissa Helser
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
The Coat Of Many Colors
(7 minutes)
This is the story of the family of Jacob, who had settled in the land of Canaan, where his father Isaac had lived as an immigrant.
Jacob's son Joseph was seventeen, and he served his older half brothers, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah, helping them watch over the flocks. One day Joseph went to his father with a bad report about their behavior.
Now Israel's love for Joseph surpassed that for his other sons because he was born to him in his old age. So Israel had made him a richly ornamented robe (a coat of many colors).
When Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved him more than he loved them, they hated him and would not speak a kind word to him.
One night Joseph had a dream, and when he shared it with his brothers, they hated him even more! (Genesis 37:1-5)
Israel lived in the wilderness with his twelve sons. Joseph was special to Israel because he was born to him by Rachel, his original love affair. And one day Israel gave Joseph a coat of many colors. Listen to the way Dr. Simmons describes this coat in the footnotes of The Passion Translation:
"a long-sleeved tunic that went down to his feet. Most tunics worn by men would only go down to the knees and were often made without sleeves. This robe was not something one would wear at work but was considered to be a robe of special significance for a prince. The same Hebrew word is found in 2 Sam. 13:18 referring to the robe of a princess."
I think it's important to note that this coat/tunic/robe was long-sleeved and went down to the feet. This coat was designed to cover every part of the wearer.
"Joseph is his father's favorite. Joseph is loved more than everyone else by his father. His father identifies him as the one whom he loves. The difference between Israel and Abba is that Abba is big enough for all of us to be His favorite. And I need you to understand this: the fact that Joseph is being identified as his father's favorite is going to open something up to him that's not open to the other kids." (Pastor Tim)
Something was made available to Joseph that was not made available to the other kids, simply because he was identified as one beloved of his father.
"It matters that Joseph is identified as the favorite. It matters what you believe God believes about you. It matters if you believe God loves you the same way He loves Jesus. We say these things out of our mouths, but do we believe it in our hearts?" (Pastor Tim)
If you believe that you are God's favorite, it's going to open something up to you.
What will it open up?
The ability to dream. Joseph could dream big dreams, and it turns out Joseph was the only one who could identify himself as Daddy's favorite. That's no coincidence. Abba is trying to give us a key in this story. What if our ability to have hope and dream Kingdom-sized dreams depends solely on our ability to be rightly identified as Abba's favorite?
Joseph had a significant realization at age seventeen that set him on a different path than his brothers. When his father wrapped him up in a costly coat of many colors, Joseph understood that he was beloved. And Joseph's coming into this understanding that he was deeply loved by his father gave him permission to dream big dreams.
"If I asked you if God loves you, you would nod your head in agreement, but here's how you determine if it's true. How big you dream communicates how deeply you believe God loves you. The dreams you dream communicate how deeply your heart believes that Abba loves you. What does that mean if we aren't dreaming for anything?" (Pastor Tim)
This is so significant. This truth deserves to be pulled into intimacy with Abba today as you take the walk with Him. Because the foundation for having hope restored is getting wrapped up in your beloved identity. Have you allowed Abba to place this coat of many colors on you? This coat is designed to touch every part of you. Is beloved identity covering every area of your life? It matters. Because having hope restored and dreaming dreams again relies on our being fully convinced that we are deeply loved by Abba with the same exact measure of love that He has for Jesus.
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Worship: "I Am Your Beloved" by Jonathan David & Melissa Helser
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Something Is Shifting, Hope Is Rising
(5 minutes)
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when desire comes, it is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12 NKJV)
How do we have hope restored? How do we believe for the impossible again?
Like Pastor Tim said on Sunday, this is about us getting into intimacy with Abba and allowing Him to bring up the special things He's put inside of us, things we enjoyed when we were children, things that we're uniquely designed to hope and dream for. Abba will uncover these areas in intimacy with Him and hope will be restored. This is all about finding our original design and original passions that Abba placed inside of us, because we had hope once, when we believed anything was possible.
We were designed to enjoy life. We were designed to be full of hope, seeing trees of life being planted in our lives that are actually our dreams being realized. That's the Kingdom life that we're called to be living right now. "Joy in every step we take." (Pastor Tim) Will we still go through hard and difficult things? Sure. But there's something different about how we walk through those things. "There's purpose, even in the steps that hurt. Even in the rejection, there's hope in it. There's purpose. I can endure anything if there's purpose." (Pastor Tim) And you can, too. The reason we don't endure is that we're not seeing our lives as full of purpose. Hopelessness has convinced us that our lives are meaningless. Abba is coming after this way of seeing in us. He will not stop until we are fully alive, and full of hope.
And this is not just about us getting hope inside of ourselves. It's about becoming hope. Your life is supposed to become a hope for others. It's designed to be a living witness of what it looks like to walk with Abba. "There are millions of people going through the same thing, who have gone through the same thing, that feel like there's no hope, until they see how you walk through it, with hope." (Pastor Tim)
"It's God's will for you to have a headdress of hope. It's God's will for you have bliss. It's God's will for every area of your life to point back to Him, and be a reason somebody wants Him." (Pastor Tim)
We don't dream because we don't have any hope of things changing. But something is shifting. We're beginning to see Abba differently and ourselves differently, and hope is right around the corner. Everything we need is locked up inside of intimacy with Abba.
Tomorrow we will look at a story that will be so significant in seeing hope restored in our lives. A key will be given to us in this story that will change everything. As you walk with Abba today, let Him prepare your heart for hope. Can you get your hopes up that hope is coming? That hope is rising up in you? Things are shifting in you, whether you can see it or not. You've been heading in this direction for some time now, and Abba is about to reveal things to you in intimacy that will unlock the hope inside of you. The only thing that's required from you is a, "Yes and I do!"
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Worship: "You Saved Me" by UPPERROOM
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
What If It’s True?
(4 minutes)
"We never come out and just say, 'I'm hopeless.' We're too smart for that. But you can see it in the way you respond when you hear God's truth. You can see it when someone tells you something that even Jesus himself said, but you have no hope to see that established in your life. Because hope is required to even step over into faith." (Pastor Tim)
When hope's dream seems to drag on and on, the delay can be depressing. But when at last your dream comes true, life's sweetness will satisfy your soul. (Proverbs 13:12 TPT)
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when desire comes, it is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12 NKJV)
How does your heart respond when you read verses like Isaiah 61? When you read verses that say you're destined to become a Mighty Oak of Righteousness, planted by Yahweh, restoring ruined cities and devastated places, how do you respond? Do you feel excited by that truth and hopeful to see it come to pass in your own life? Do you feel something vibrating within you? Or do you respond with empty despair - maybe for someone else, but not for me? Hopefully my kids or grandkids will enjoy that, but not me?
How do you respond to God's truth about who you're meant to be?
We must stop long enough to ask ourselves these questions. If we don't, we will be carrying hopelessness and not even know it. What if the source of our depression is our unwillingness to acknowledge our hopelessness over who Abba says we are? We just read it in the above verse, if hope's dream keeps dragging on and on, the delay will make us sick. We will fall into despair the longer hope keeps getting deferred.
What if we don't have to wait any longer? What if our heart can be healed and hope can be restored? What if we can witness some Kingdom-sized dreams in our lifetime? Like Pastor Tim said on Sunday, "What if it's true?"
Bring these questions into your walk with Abba today. Sometimes the adventure of a lifetime starts with the question: What if it's true? What if this is really out there? What if I could really have this in my life? If you allow your heart to be open to the possibility, I believe Abba will meet you there and make the greatest exchange with you. He wants to plant trees of life in your garden that will nourish you and your family for generations. Before it ever happens in a ruined city, it must happen in you. Let hope be restored today!
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Worship: "Sound Mind & Turning On The Lights" by Melissa Helser
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
Honoring Words Until We Become Them
(5 minutes)
"Everything you get from the Kingdom of God comes in seed form. Your part is, will you honor it when it looks like it's worthless? Will you honor it when it looks like it's small? Will you honor something that can do nothing for you in the moment? Will you value it when it can produce nothing for you in the moment? Everything from the Kingdom comes in seed form, and a lot of times we waste the seeds that come from the King because it doesn't look like we want it to look. It's not full-grown. It's not what we asked for. So this is why we're going to review. We believe everything that we're sharing and teaching is from the Kingdom of God and is due honor. That's why we stay with these things. We want to be people who hear a word, receive a word, and become the word. " (Pastor Tim)
We have to hold on to the words we're hearing from Abba. We have to treat them properly and treasure them until we see that word fully mature in us. Are you holding on to the words that Abba is speaking to you?
Our Kingdom family is treasuring Isaiah 61 right now, because we can see Abba's process of healing and wholeness in it. This is the process He has us all in right now.
The mighty Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is wrapped around me because Yahweh has anointed me, as a messenger to preach good news to the poor. He sent me to heal the wounds of the brokenhearted, to tell captives, "You are free," and to tell prisoners, "Be free from your darkness." I am sent to announce a new season (eon) of Yahweh's grace and a time of God's recompense on his enemies, to comfort all who are in sorrow, to strengthen those crushed by despair who mourn in Zion -- to give them a beautiful bouquet in the place of ashes, the oil of bliss instead of tears, and the mantle of joyous praise instead of the spirit of heaviness.
Because of this, they (you, me, us) will be known as Mighty Oaks of Righteousness, planted by Yahweh as a living display of his glory. They will restore ruins from long ago and rebuild what was long devastated. They will renew ruined cities and desolations of past generations. (Isaiah 61:1-4)
Can you see Abba's process of healing and wholeness? This is where we are! We've heard the gospel, but we're not stopping there. We're allowing Abba to heal the wounds of our broken hearts, so we can experience the true freedom of the Kingdom. We're on our way to becoming Mighty Oaks of Righteousness, planted by Yahweh Himself. We're moving towards being beloved, fully alive witnesses in the earth. A people who can shift the direction of an entire city just by being planted there. People who are changing generations with the Kingdom solutions they are carrying. We're letting hope rise inside of us.
As you walk with Abba today, allow Him to take you deeper into the words that you are hearing from Him. You've heard Him whisper your name in certain truths. Take those to Him today and ask Him to take you deeper. Abba, help us descend into these words and honor them until we become them! Ruined cities are waiting on fully alive, beloved sons and daughters to have enough hope to see things changed. It starts right here, with us honoring the Kingdom seeds that we're holding in our hands.
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Worship: "You Restore Everything" by Rick Pino & Abbie Gamboa
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!