I Believe… I Can Fly!

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When you were little, didn’t you have great dreams? Great ambitions? Great hopes? The line blurs for a child, between “dull reality” and “vibrant creativity”, whether one sees a professional athlete, or astronaut, or the greatest singer EVER, or a knight in shining armor conquering dragons and saving those in distress!

But then, we grow up… We learn… There are limits to the possible. We learn to build our boxes. We learn the myriad of things we “cannot do”. We learn the bumps, the bruises, the batterings of the world and people around us. We learn… all there is… is this. Just little, dull, mundane, me… and you… and them… and this! (With a decidedly NOT “capital T” in “this”.)

But then, one incredible day, Jesus enters our own little, dull, mundane, me-and-you world. And He says things like… “To what shall I liken the Kingdom?” and somewhere, deep inside, there is a heart stirring… a tiny leap of hope… a whisper (too small, too timid, even to be fully “heard” or acknowledged, but still really there)… the child’s heart whisper of… “Maybe… just… maybe…” And old dreams, forgotten dreams of Kingdoms, and knights, and deeds of unrelenting courage and adventure rouse again deep inside…

Beyond this, on just as incredible a day,.. “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?^‘ And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” [Matthew 18:1-4]

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What if….

What if your Father were King of the Universe?

What if He had crafted and designed you, from before the beginning of time, to live fully as Prince/Princess in Him, and your perquisites and authority came into play as you learned to embrace and wield them with grace, love, and wisdom?

What if all those “heroic dreams” of your childhood were not simply aspirations TO Him, but hints to your actual nature FROM Him?

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What if all the greatest dreams you ever dreamed were the barest inkling, just the slightest hints, of what you truly are and can embrace right here, right now?

Because… I have come to believe that all those dreams of greatness, heroism, adventure… are simply true. I believe I can fly. I believe I once allowed the truth of my humble childhood to be dashed and devastated by those around me who taught of limits, and boundaries, and boxes for Our Father and His embrace. That those same people BELIEVE in “limits”… that there’s only “so much to go around”, and that for ONE person to acknowledge the reality of Infinite Grace… that must somehow “diminish the availability” for others!

This was the error of the disciples noted above. This was what they needed to learn to “see another way”, to “be converted” from…

They wanted to know… “Who would be greatest in His Kingdom?” Because for the answer to be “ONE” of them… the answer could NOT be “ALL” of them.

Little children do not worry about such things. Little children don’t think such questions.

Little children just ask, “Am I? May I be? May I have?”

They haven’t yet learned the shrewd and measuring “sidelong look” at others around them, and begun the calculation that… “If He gives ME this… then THEY won’t get it!”

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Can you find and release your Inner Child?

Can you believe?

Can you fly?

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He only awaits your testing your wings, for He’s always holding us up, saying… “Trust Me.” We LIVE in the fullness of His Kingdom, called and equipped to rescue, to seek and save, that which is lost. The greatest adventure any can ever know!

Joy and grace to you!

The Little Monk

 

Whatcha Know?

All right, Gentle Reader…

Today I’m going to request your patient indulgence. Just go with me here a moment, ok?

Now, here is an interesting idea that followed my discovery of Gentleness last week. Ready?

Content Warning: I’m about to say an outrageously arrogant thing. (At least on first blush.) But bear with me. This may surprise you!

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“I know everything.”

I mean that. I know ALL. All there is to know and be known.

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Now, if that were said boastfully, said in a tone of “neener”, said as children sometimes say, “I know something you don’t know…”, then I’d be in a great deal of trouble right now. That would be a prideful arrogant lie, said to exalt myself and put others down. Perhaps that would offend you (which I would not do), and I’d certainly earn some “quiet time” with the Lord. He does not do well with His children in boastful ego games.

Look here a moment, at these verses, and forget that you’ve ever heard or seen them before. Just let the words speak for themselves…

1. John 12:50
   And I know that his command is eternal life. So whatever I say, I speak just as the Father has told me.”

   John 12:49-50 (in Context) John 12 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

2. John 17:3
   And this is · eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.

   John 17:2-4 (in Context) John 17 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

3. 1 John 3:15
   Everyone who hates · his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

   1 John 3:14-16 (in Context) 1 John 3 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

4. 1 John 5:13
   I am writing these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life—you who believe in the name of the Son of God.

   1 John 5:12-14 (in Context) 1 John 5 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

5. 1 John 5:20
   And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in · his Son Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.

   1 John 5:19-21 (in Context) 1 John 5 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

Let me repeat one of those verses, and then we’ll follow up with a couple questions:

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.” Jesus said this to the Father as He prayed out loud in front of the Companion Disciples on their behalf and for all those who believed in Him based on their words. (Like us). I have always looked at that verse, John 17:3, in “One Direction”. That is… I have sought to know God, that I acquire eternal life. Like I had to “earn” eternal life by “acquiring” knowledge of God.

See the problem? See how it reflects in all those verses there? See how many of us in ministry suffer from this same malady?

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You know? I’ve just taken a few minutes break from this post. To pause. To be quiet. To listen…

I had planned to go into a big exposition thing. You know, moving through those verses focusing on “eternal life”, and “knowing”, and the Holy Spirit.

But you, Gentle Reader, have no need of any of that. You are an Indwelt Bible Scholar. Interested and literate.

Really, for me to do as I was planning, would rather deny the entire point, so here it is.

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Here’s the critical questions, and then tell me what YOU think…

Are you, personally, Indwelt? Does the Holy Spirit reside in you? How much of Him… all… or part?

Do you have eternal life? Do you know that for sure? Good.

Then… WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

Or rather… WHOM do you know?

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Look at Jesus’ words! Both of the Father and of the Spirit in those chapters. You KNOW GOD. He is IN you. And He cannot be “parsed” or “separated” or “dissected”. God… is a rather All or Nothing proposition.

Here is the shocking conclusion the Lord led me to…

I know everything. Yes. Because yes, I have eternal life… truly. And, with that IN me, I know God… fully.

But there’s no brag or boast in that, because all who have eternal life, know just as much as I do. And all who know Christ, who are Indwelt, have such eternal life.

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So what does this mean? What is this all about? Is this just Little Monk playing with semantics and being cute with words? Trying to shock everyone?

No. By no means. May it never be!

What this is, is my own shocking realization that I’ve spent so many years trying to “acquire the knowledge of God”, like a pearl trying to grow by accretion of layer upon layer of truth. When God clearly said it doesn’t work like that.

The Holy Spirit brings All Truth with Him, along with eternal life and the assurance of that. THAT becomes like “treasure in one’s field”. The task then, is not to LEARN new “stuff”. The task is to settle quietly, and realize (make real), experience, and comprehend… what one already KNOWS!

It’s not to dash hither and yon through one theology after another, one book after another, one school after another, trying to “collect bits and pieces of the knowledge of God”.

The task is to stop, listen, align the heart, mind, will. Surrender to His love and trust to that. Allow His love, His grace, His priorities to soak through us, our psychologies and neuroses, our fears and insecurities… with trust and love. That we understand how firmly and securely He holds us in HIS embrace… that we then be equipped to embrace others in that same love.

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So yes, I will again say the shocking thing I’ve come to understand…

“I know everything.”

BUT, Gentle Reader, so do you! Now let us carry on “bringing to our remembrance” what we already know, that we may understand and live it out, walking.

Amen

P.S. Whatcha know? 🙂 Everything!