Loving Like God

“…In the absence of declaring Jesus as Lord of relationship, the saints are likely, even encouraged to form their own relationships. The result is relational bondage. Whether in authority structures, old and tired denominationalism or even surrounding men and ministries of great revelation, the saints wind up manhandled where relationship is concerned. Relational bondage is the most debilitating, and painful kind of bondage there is.
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This relational bondage is fundamental to the maintenance of the division of the Body of Christ, and the primary means by which false prophets lead disciples away after themselves.  Even in the case of yours and ______  [his disciple/co-leader] ministries, in the absence of knowing Jesus as Lord of relationship, the saints are likely to be led away from the Body rather than into it.  In Atlanta, I had a very strong sense of a “we are of ____ (this man’s name)” mentality.
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This is especially important where there is great revelation.  Knowledge not only puffs up, but adds to our expectations.

In my conversations with ______ [his disciple/co-leader] about this, he shared his view that “Jonathan – David” type relationships were only for the Old Testament, at least if I understood him correctly.  I am convinced to the contrary.  Both personal experience as well as the weight of New Testament evidence persuades me that it is The Lord who does relationships, and Jonathan and David is, for me, a kind of bench mark or case in point, and shadow…”

• For more reading, see Jesus is Lord of Relationship
• And Getting It Right
  

The following clip by Jay Ferris is from a conference Q&A, and is only about a minute long.  There are approximately 10 that will be released weekly.  Press the play button to listen to the audio right now (or on your computer by right-clicking and downloading it).  Enjoy!

Track17

Written Transcript

I’d like to throw something into the mix before we get too far into the conversation because it may be too confrontational to say it later.  It seems that one of the ways of describing what we’re trying, is to do the math.  But we’ve been getting the math wrong for a long time.  A kind of a basic rule of “doing the math” is to reduce and simplify.  We are into a kind of “contrivance mentality” that’s looking for stuff to do that’s different than what we were doing, and something that maybe works.  A prerequisite, for instance, for speaking the truth is being in love.  So to begin with, we need to see if we’re in love.  Because until we are we can’t speak the truth in love and grow up.

It took about thirty years of trying to do what Jesus was wanting to do with my life before I found out who I was.  And at root, I was a lover in training. And that changed everything.  That knocks all of the programs and agendas and contrivances…because a lover doesn’t have an agenda.  The street of the city is pure gold.  It’s clear as crystal. There’s no hidden agendas there.  If we’re a lover in training… and then somebody starts tearing your face off…well, it’s just advanced work.  Like we do with each other, you know.  It’d be good to get it right at home, for instance, before we took it out on the street. I think that for openers, to see that we’re lovers in training so that whatever we do is done in love, because nothing that’s not done in love is of any value at all in the kingdom of God.  It’s not the currency of the kingdom.

The following clip by Jay Ferris is from a conference Q&A, and is only about a minute long.  There are approximately 10 that will be released weekly.  You may listen to the audio here, or on your computer by right-clicking and downloading it.  Enjoy!

Track01

Written Version

One of the things that I think we struggle with is the need to use words.  When people are one, they don’t need words.  Our words are so fallen because of our past experience with the words that we and they have used.  So it’s the grace of God if a word gets from one heart to another, and in anything like the form it was designed for.  Isn’t it wonderful that one day we’ll get to a place where no words will be necessary? We’ll just know as we’re known.  –It’s kind of an oxymoron for me to even say anything about this because I’m using words.  But I’m continuing to hear words that have been problematic in the past, and I think they contain the seeds of infection or a contamination as we move into the future.  Like “building things”.  We’re still thinking in this, “wise master builder”.  I think that we need to step back from this because there’s too much presumption as we move forward. There’s some more validity than there really was in all the understandings that we’ve had in the past.  There’s a big difference between fathers and instructors.  “Building” is not part of it.  It’s blood.  It’s better blood.  And it’s based on better promises and it’s a new creation.   Not like the old one where it’s a matter of human decision or a husband’s will.  No, what goes on in the kingdom of God or in the new creation is of God. And so we should be very careful about talking about “building relationships”. It turns out too often it’s just, “Let’s make a deal.”. It’s just more merchandising of ourselves and of people. Something that hit me some years ago was… when a prostitute falls in love she’s out of business.

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