The Ultimate Test
Who we truly are is revealed not by what we do but by what we want.
That is the ultimate test. What we want is the measure by which we will be ultimately judged.
Truth and facts don’t matter when they conflict with what we want.
Reason is not pure. It is merely a device to justify our desires. We have a breathtaking capacity for rationalization.
Not what we do, but the condition of our heart is the principle thing, which is exposed by what we truly want.
What we want indicates who we’re with which in turn is indicated by what we’re willing to lose.
If we’re with Jesus we have a new heart that wants the kingdom of God, first—that is, above all.
The test of whether we have that heart and whether it truly wants the kingdom of God is what we’re willing to lose to get it.
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
— Mark 8:35
“So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.”
— Luke 18:22-23
“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
— Philippians 3:8
“But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.”
— Hebrews 10:32-34
So, test yourselves, whether you’re in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).
And we can do that with one question:
What do I want most?
For me, I want to be in God with you,
I think.
God will test that. Am I willing to lose comfort and convenience for that? Am I willing to lose “being right” to be reconciled?
The demonic industrial church with her false teachers and prophets teach that the indication of your relationship and favor from God is what you gain.
But the whole counsel of God revealed in the person of Christ says His heart is indicated by what you’re willing to lose for Him.
What do you want most?
How To Hear God
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
— Hebrews 11:6
We look for God to fall like rain when He is like deep waters that have always been there.
Were it not for the layers of rock deposited by sin, the ground of our hearts would be watered by a gentle mist springing from the deep.
We are given the Word to break our hearts so that the well, which is Christ, may be revealed, connecting us to those deep waters. When we drink from Him, rivers of living water spring forth, giving life to us and everything around us.
“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'”
— John 7:37-38
God is not out there.
“Now when [Jesus] was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, “See here!” or “See there!” For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.'”
— Luke 17:20-21
God is near, within you.
“so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us”
— Acts 17:27
So, we do not look out.
We dig in, guided by the Holy Spirit, identifying hard areas of our heart that are not submitted to God, confessing sin, plowing through rock.
The Word is the implement.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
— Hebrews 4:12
Tearing down obstructions, resisting lies, casting off the pride of life and its busyness, and seeking the Lord in sacred silence, laying our hearts bare, until Christ is revealed—the Well that was dug before the foundation of the world, is how we are watered from the inside.
First, His voice comes to us as dew—sweet, personally satisfying expressions of God that are characteristic of the Word. Then, it comes as a flood, flowing into rivers, producing action and carrying life into others wherever it flows.
This is how we hear God, like the sound of many waters.
My most earnest desire is that we not only know about God, but that we would know God personally, hear His voice, and share Him together.
Father, please let it be so according to the will and authority of Jesus, Your Son and my Savior, all for Your glory. Amen.
Beware The Gospel Of The Demonic Church
Any preaching or teaching about God as a way of getting anything is demonic,
a car, a job, success, “leveling up”,
or even things that are considered good or godly such as a better marriage, or peace.
“[Those] who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourselves.”
— 1 Titus 6:5
But, the purpose and offer of an introduction is to know the person.
How utterly selfish and evil is it to look past a person in pursuit of what they can do for you?
And that is exactly what so-called churches all over the world, America especially, are doing this morning. They’re busy with many things but forfeiting the good part.
“Jesus answered them and said, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.'”
— John 6:26-27
The sole offer of Christ, therefore the sole aim of any pure and undefiled ministry is God, it is encountering, knowing, and having Him.
“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
— John 10:10
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
— John 17:3
The benefits we enjoy are not the true treasure but are merely its effects.
I see this beautiful day simply by virtue of being in the presence of light. The benefit of seeing the beauty of this day cannot be had apart from the light.
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
— James 1:16-17
The benefits we enjoy come by virtue of being with a person in whom there are so many wonderful things.
So, the principal thing is the person, not the benefit.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
— Matthew 6:33
The common misunderstanding of this verse is “put God first” and then go after “all these things”.
And, we low-key look over God, seeing Him merely as a means to get “all these things”.
But if you read the entire passage, Jesus says don’t seek “all these things” at all:
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
— Matthew 6:31-32
Jesus says, therefore I say,
“Seek God”
Full stop.
Pray for a heart that does not seek anything else because it sees that God is everything and then walk with God through YOUR life rather than wishing, stressing, scratching and clawing for a different one.
Beware The American Leaven
When we raise hell for something that’s not in heaven, we’re guilty of loving the world and reveal ourselves as sons of hell and that we are not sons of God. (1 John 2:15)
There is no America in heaven.
Sons of God preach and seek above all the kingdom that is not of this world.
But instead we speak as the hypocrites Jesus rebuked,
“If something is not done, we will lose our place and nation!” (John 11:48)
Rightly did Jesus say of us,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
— Matthew 23:15
REPENT!
Come out from among the blasphemous religion of American idolatry in the name of Christ. They are hellbound.
Come out from this kingdom of darkness that is counterfeiting light and into the true light of His Kingdom that is not of this world and be saved.
Who Told You That?
“For Love to be experienced, I have to be exposed.”
That’s the word that came to me.
It’s an answer to an almost two-year-long prayer where I asked, “Father, show me You. Please let me see You the way Jesus sees You so I am likewise driven by a love, an awe, a reverence, an adoration, and an unwavering commitment to You.”
Two years ago, the Holy Spirit gave me, “Seek Me in the face of My people.”
I obeyed, and it was transformative.
A new fire has been kindled in my heart by the Holy Spirit.
I am experiencing God.
Now, I believe that the Lord is calling me to a new level of intimacy with Him through people, to move from “meeting at”: meeting at church, meeting at Bible study, meeting at marriage ministry, meeting at this event, meeting at that function, meeting at lunch, to “living with.”
Honestly, I don’t know what that means yet. All I get is the sense that it involves uncomfortable risk, letting down my guard, and leaving the places of safety that I’ve constructed. He is my shield.
To do that, I have to go, I have to show up, I have to be present, and I have to expose myself—all things that are horrendous to a self-proclaimed introvert.
But, I gladly, albeit reluctantly, step forward to learn obedience (love in a new way – 1 John 5:3) through the things I will certainly suffer that I may know Him.
So, I will show up. I will let in. I will expose myself.
But why haven’t I been showing up before now?
To understand that, I have to understand what the opposite of showing up is:
Hiding.
This revelation comes out of Genesis 3:9-11, which recounts Adam’s interaction with God after the sin of taking someone else’s word over God’s. As a result, he hid.
“Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’
So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’
And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?'”
— Genesis 3:9-11
Observe that Adam and Eve’s fear and shame were NOT the result of anything God did or said. They were ashamed BEFORE God said anything to them. They became ashamed because of the information they accepted from another source, namely about themselves.
“I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is like watching porn rather than being taught about sex by a loving father.
Rather than seeing your bodies and the beauty of sex in the context of sacredness, awe, exploration, acceptance, appreciation, safety, promise, and commitment, through porn you receive a distortion framed in selfishness, objectification, subjugation, trivialization, comparison, performance, perversion, and risk…
What was peddled as freedom results in fear, which is often the case when we get our information from those who don’t love us. And fear results in hiding.
“I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
God’s response absolutely leveled my heart:
“Who told you that you were naked?”
This is what God chooses to say among the infinite options of things He could have said in response. So, it begs the question, why?
In a single statement, I believe God wages a war that He’s already won, starting His attack on the source of all sorrows—sin, which separates us from Him. God exposes the root of sin and takes an axe to it:
“Who made you afraid, telling you that you are anything less than loved and accepted so that you needed to hide?”
-And the crux of the matter-
“Why did you believe them over Me?”
THE problem is believing someone other than God, and believing something other than what God said.
The result is fear, which causes us to hide.
I know a lot about hiding. I’ve been doing it for nearly forty years now. All because I’ve believed a series of someones over God and believed something about myself that God didn’t say.
God said, “Who told you that you were naked?”
“Naked” is representative of all the damning things we’ve come to believe according to the distorted value system of this world.
We can take whatever that is, especially things we’ve come to believe about ourselves: ugly, worthless, poor, stupid, unwanted, unlovable, alone… and plug it into that sentence:
“Who told you that you were ______?”
Mine is: a disappointment.
In my heart of hearts, I believe I am a disappointment.
I go into every interaction with people assuming that I’m going to disappoint them in some way and ultimately be abandoned. So, naturally, I avoid interaction, and it causes me to hide.
It has affected every relationship that I have.
It has caused me to put burdens on others to make me feel like I’m not a disappointment, especially in romantic relationships, including my wife.
But that’s an impossible task when at the heart of the problem is I’ve believed someone other than God. If I didn’t believe God, how can they possibly convince me?!!
I repent.
The lie I believed is deep-seated from a very early age. I’ve believed the scowls. I’ve believed the isolation at a time when I should have received nothing but love. I’ve believed that I am only embraced and accepted on the basis of merit rather than for just being. I’ve believed I have to look a certain way and have certain things.
It became a part of me, too intricately interwoven to remove without killing me or making me utterly unrecognizable, which is precisely why I have to die.
I have to die to the person who lives according to the word of demons, what this world says and Satan, the ruler of it, and be born again according to the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, which is Christ, by His Spirit, with a heart that believes Him.
Therewith, I will make war with every thought or emotion that causes me to want to hide, accounting the old me as dead. I will live in newness and counter it with the question,
“Who told you that?”
And, I will believe God.
God says you are accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6). Full stop.
I am not accepted on the basis of performance, appearance, or merit, but simply because of who He is.
When we see God as He is in truth, we see everything else appropriately, and it casts out all fear.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
— 1 John 4:18
“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
— 1 John 4:16
Now, I endeavor to realize this Love and to know Him more fully.
The Spirit tells me that requires others.
“For Love to be experienced, I have to be exposed.”
So, I press.
I can’t be exposed if I’m hiding. So, I will confront every suggestion that causes me to want to hide with what God said, “Who told you that?” And, I will fight to believe Him.
Knowing and believing the love of God for us, accomplished through Jesus Christ, is glorious, but obedience: experiencing, expressing, and expanding on the love with others will be difficult, and I will suffer because that love will be opposed.
As I present myself naked and exposed, standing on what God says, there will surely be others that will mock me, ridicule me, and assert what the adversary says—that I am not loved.
But, I will fight to believe God.
Please pray for me.
And, if you’re so prompted by the Holy Spirit, join me.
#perfectourlove
Protecting My Peace: I Have To Fight For It Every Day
If Jesus has given me peace, why is my soul disquieted? Why do I struggle?
The peace is there and cannot be taken away.
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
— John 14:27
But, I have an adversary who attempts to obstruct it. So, I have to fight to overcome the obstruction by believing His Word.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.”
— Psalm 42:11
We have an adversary who is an obstructionist that incessantly tries to block God’s gifts to us.
But, we have weapons to tear down obstructions.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”
— 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
We have to fight for what’s ours every day.
The Way To Paradise
The Garden of Eden was paradise, created and sustained by the Word of God.
Everything was good until Man believed that God could lie and accepted a message from elsewhere with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
This is how we became separated from God.
And, it is impossible once a fruit has been plucked for it to be reconnected.
We were hopelessly condemned to an inevitable death.
But, God.
But in the unsearchable wisdom of God, He provided a Branch who, if we believe, makes us new fruit that are grafted in.
We fell from a place, but God permanently secured us in a Person.
At His right hand are pleasures forevermore.
God has provided The Way to paradise, created and sustained by the Word of God.
Paradise is being with Him.
Being with Him begins with believing Him and then walking with Him in obedience to His example which is love.
#perfectourlove
Stop Living Biblically
A lot of Christians living biblical lives are condemned to hell.
Without the Spirit, the Bible becomes whatever we want it to be.
“we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting”
— Ephesians 4:14
There’s a lot of deceitful plotting going on by so-called Christians today.
We need to stop being Bible followers and become obedient to the Word.
There is a difference between the Bible and the Word.
Scripture is vital. It is God’s communication, but
The Bible is what God said.
The Word is what God means.
Never forget that the Pharisees Jesus rebuked live biblically.
We need to stop being Bible followers and become obedient to the Word which is a Person.
What we need more than the memorization of scripture and exegetical sophistication is a relationship with God granted through a heart quickened by the Holy Spirit that allows us to know Him.
No matter how clearly I think something is said, if I don’t know the person saying it, I will misunderstand their communication.
“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”
— 1 Corinthians 2:11
Read scripture and ask God what He meant, which acknowledges the Person of God rather than approaching faith like a philosophy. Keep doing so until the eyes of your heart are opened (Ephesians 1:18) where God reveals Himself, we receive the Holy Spirit and are granted the ability to know Him.
Then we can walk according to His Spirit that conveys what He means by His Word rather than what we, according to our desperately wicked hearts without His Spirit, wants the Bible to mean.
Good Suffering
“Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” from Hebrews 5:8 speaking of Jesus is a breathtakingly astounding statement.
What did Jesus, being God, have to learn?!
The scripture says, “obedience”. But, what does that mean?
I believe it means love in a new way
because,
“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments…” — 1 John 5:3
I believe that from before the beginning the love between the members of God is perfect —lacking nothing. Put bluntly, man does not exist because God needs us in any way.
I believe everything exists as a means for the members of God to express, explore and expand their love for one another. Man exists as a result of that love and we get to be a part of it.
It is remotely similar to how parenting, especially the challenges that come along with it, allow me to know my wife (and myself) in beautiful new and novel ways.
The love of God is a perfect, beautiful, boundless, growing love, eternally demonstrating itself with every circumstance and under the most extreme conditions.
For those who don’t know the Answer the question is
“Is love true?”
Or, said another way,
“Will love continue to be love, even in this?”
The answer is what God declares; The Father giving the Son as revealed by the Holy Spirit.
It is what the life of Christ demonstrates.
Always, Yes.
I AM ⟺ I AM
It’s a proof that proves itself.
So, what did Jesus have to learn?
Obedience. Love in a new way.
Love under the violent assault of an adversary and that must endure the ravages of sin without becoming any way diminished by it.
These are the means by which He learned.
Jesus did this perfectly, and by it became the first fruit, the model, and qualified to be the Redeemer for all born under such conditions, having been tempted (tested) in every way that we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
“And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him”
— Hebrews 5:9
Now, as He was sent, I am sent.
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
— John 20:21
So, the question my life strives to answer is
“Is love true?”
Or, said another way,
“Will love continue to be love, even in this?”
Everything is for this purpose. For love to be declared and for me to experience, express, explore and expand on the love I have with God —to participate in the beautiful communion of God’s love.
Oh, thank you Jesus!
All things do indeed work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28) because whatever I face, good or bad, is an opportunity to experience, express, explore and expand on the love I have with God.
Could this be why the Apostle Paul writes that he WELCOMES the fellowship of His sufferings THAT. HE. MAY. KNOW. HIM. (Philippians 3:8-14)
So, whatever I’m struggling with, the question in the midst of my suffering is:
“Will He love me, will I love Him, even in this?”
God’s side of the equation has already been answered through Christ. Always, Yes. (Romans 8:35-39)
So, I strive to respond,
“Yes, Lord, I will love you even in this.”
Which means obedience to Christ’s example
That the truth of Your love may be declared and that I may experience, express, explore and expand on the love I have with You.
NOTE: The artwork is something I created as a fan of anime with some help from AI. (It’s not all AI. I did a lot of work in Photoshop to create it. This is the kind of stuff I want to help students to learn as a means of expression, personal investment in their education, and meaningfully engaging with the technology). It’s for an original series called Shizukana Kishi or Still Knights that I was inspired to create by my son Chris Luckett (hopefully I can get him to help with the score).
Because manga is a Japanese art form, it is traditionally read from top right to bottom left. For those who prefer to read it the way we typically do in the United States, I’ve included a version of the panels in a western format below.
#perfectourlove #shizuka #shizukanakishi #stillknights
God In Three Dimensions
God the Father is the broadcaster.
God the Holy Spirit is the transmitter.
God the Son is the message.
Jesus is the Word, the mark we must tune to to get the right broadcast: the image, sound, and substance of God.
Jesus is God broadcast in three dimensions.
And, our hearts are the receiver.
“Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; “nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
—Luke 17:20-21
#KnowGod #KnowingGod