September 1, 2024

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

August 26, 2024

Protecting My Peace: I Have To Fight For It Every Day

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Protecting My Peace

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.

August 25, 2024

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

August 24, 2024

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.

August 22, 2024

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.

Shizukana Kishi - Still Knights anime by Paul Luckett - Western Format

#perfectourlove #shizuka #shizukanakishi #stillknights

August 21, 2024

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

Originally shared on Facebook on June 26, 2023.

August 18, 2024

Stress Test

Under what conditions does love stop being love?

This is what this life is designed to test:

our love for God,

and under what conditions does the love we have fail? What thing, if lost, would cause our love to end?

We are not subjected to fiery trials to test our love for God because God is a sadistic megalomaniac,

but because the first commandment:

‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
— Mark 12:30

is necessary to perform the second commandment:

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
— Mark 12:31

and is the only bond strong enough to accomplish God’s grand design: His ever increasing glory through Oneness, making us inseparably one with God.

“Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.”‘”
— Mark 12:29

“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
— John 17:23

The love that you love God with is the source of the love for everyone else, and however strong your love for God is, it is the limit of how strong your connection is to the person dearest to you.

If the love you have is less than God’s love, everything supported by it, everything built around it and everything connected to it will fail at some point.

There are some weights in life that anything less than love will not survive.

And there’s a coming day, the great and terrible day of the Lord, where whatever is within anything less than love will be destroyed.

So, our love is tested FOR OUR GOOD, so that our love is perfected,

because God’s love never fails
— 1 Corinthians 13:8

so that we, and everything built on and connected to that love lives and not dies, that our communion as One may be perfect

all for the wonderful glory of God.

What an amazing thing it is that we can be a part of that!

So, I encourage you to count every hardship you’re enduring as all joy! Remembering the point of the test.

August 16, 2024

Achieving Greater Enjoyment By Not Allowing Its Obstruction

The sun is massive.

Yet, it does not take much to obstruct its view.

Whether the sun’s light is obstructed can be the difference between whether something thrives or dies.

I’m talking about God.

There is so much good.

But whether we see it depends on whether we allow something to obstruct its view.

And, Satan is an obstructionist.

Satan can not stop the good, but he can hinder our enjoyment of it by focusing our attention elsewhere.

Even when Man was in Paradise, Satan was able to convince them that it was NOT paradise. And amazingly, Satan did not achieve this by pointing to a real existing problem -because there were no problems, he did it using only an idea, a hypothetical, something that wasn’t even real.

Satan was able to ruin paradise simply by focusing our attention elsewhere, obstructing our view of God which is the beginning of sorrows.

Romans 5:14 says that “death reigned from Adam to Moses”, the consequences of which are devastating and far reaching.

But, God.

Because of God’s goodness, lovingkindness and His faithfulness to His original purpose, God moved toward us even after we moved away from Him!

God moved!

God moved to overcome the obstruction for His glory, that a right view of Him would be had throughout the cosmos, the result of which is Life!

Isaiah 11:9 put it this way,

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.”
— Isaiah 11:9

Today, we have plenty of actual problems to point to because there is still sin in the world and the death that results from it, but there is now a refuge in Jesus Christ —a place where there is more life than there is death in the world.

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:6

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
— 1 John 4:4

Because God who was a far off has been brought near through Jesus Christ and accepted by faith, I now have so many wonderful things.

I now have a place of love, joy and peace that I can even bring others into which makes it even better!

In my Christian walk, I find a duality where there is simultaneously the suffering of deep pain and the enjoyment of depthless love.

The ancient wisdom for enjoying the good even in the face of real and significant suffering is to deal with my suffering in the context of that good.

I refer to this as “grieving in context”.

Satan is an obstructionist.

Every moment of every day, Satan attempts to place something in our view, very often using the real and significant pain we are suffering, to block of our view of God, so that we die because we lose the life-giving benefits that come from a right view of God.

But rather than allow Satan to use our suffering to turn us from God, what if we turn WITH our suffering to God, obeying 1 Peter 5:7 “cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you”? Then we can enjoy, Philippians 4:6-7,

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Yes, we experience hardship.

But there is so much good that is far greater.

We can live with so much greater joy and satisfaction if we keep this in view.

Our moment by moment battle is to reject the obstructions that Satan attempts to put in our view and instead believe God and enjoy Him.

“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

#joy #suffering #spiritualwarfare

August 15, 2024

What Is Hope?

Hope is a desire for something better and having reason to expect that it will be attained.

I’m still camped out at Hebrews 11:1,

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

My “hope” is for the kingdom that results from Jesus being King.

My “faith” is the evidence because of the observable effect of His government in my life.

A test of my faith is that His Kingdom should be evident in my life.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, but perfect is the goal and it should be more perfect, year by year.

In my marriage, in my family, in my dealings with my neighbors, in my work, it should be evident that His Kingdom has come. It is “the substance of things hoped for”.

So, my “hope” is for a world where He rules, and the abundant life, love, peace, joy, justice and the glorious harmony that results from that.

I hope because I’ve had a piece of that.

I can’t go back.

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”
— Hebrews 11:13-16

#hope #heartwords #heartdictionary

August 13, 2024

Dealing With Feelings Of Failure

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Feelings of Failure
Paul Luckett playing building with Legos at his desk

I don’t feel like I’m doing a great job, right now.

It’s a good thing that the work my Father has called me to do isn’t about good, better, or best in a moment in time.

It’s about finishing.

“But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”
— Matthew 24:13

If I can just continue in His process to the end, I will be perfected. I will become the finished product, identical to the Picture according to His plan.

“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”
— Philippians 1:6

So, if all I can do is take another step, I press. And, if I can’t even do that, I look to Him and I trust.

#struggle