Tongues awaken our inner man to the realities of heaven. As the spirit of God speaks through us our spirit comes alive and begins to realize our position in Christ in the heavens. It’s not so much that we “ascend” but that we fully appreciate that we are standing with Him in His presence. Indeed heaven is the place which is where our spirit lives 24/7. We are able to step directly into deep worship at the drop of a hat, there’s no need tow “work it up” that’s thinking with our mind.

Tongues unhinge our mind from the physical world because they disconnect our senses from it. That is one of the reasons they are such a hurdle for many Christians when growing in their faith walk. In fact it’s probably why they are such a stumbling block for whole denominations in the body. So many of the other gifts of the spirit have been co-opted by the new age such with its counterfeit manifestations that the gifts of the spirit have been shelved as being from the devil. Spoiler alert, satan can’t create only mimic and or twist. All good gifts come from the father of lights, you know Papa? THE CREATOR.

So step into the gifts, exercise them on purpose, diligently and regularly.

The passion of our heart; the destination of our desire, the goal of our longings, the focus of our love. How deeply are you enraptured by the love of Yahweh?

The energy of our being; our inner driving force, the lilt in our step, the fire in our belly. How stoked are you about your walk with Jesus?

Every thought; the source of our dreams, the focus of our eyes, the meditation of our heart. How intentionally do you dwell on thoughts of Holy Spirit?

All our strength; the wind in our sails, the oil in our lamp, the endurance in our bones. How much do you hold back from giving your all?

“Jesus answered him, “The most important of all the commandments is this: ‘The Lord Yahweh, our God, is one!’ You are to love the Lord Yahweh, your God, with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, with every thought that is within you, and with all your strength. This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself.’ You will never find a greater commandment than these.””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭12:29-31‬ ‭TPT‬‬
https://www.bible.com/1849/mrk.12.29-31.tpt

How are we walking these commandments out? Its not a long involved list but it takes everything in us to accomplish. In fact without the indwelling Holy Spirit it would be impossible. Lean on Him and listen to His voice we can do this!

Loving your neighbor as you love yourself; This one will be in another post….

Like a lost wandering child you lead me by your hand through the dry wasteland. Showing me the hidden springs of life and bounty in what appears to be desolation. Your presence with me is life and comfort, your voice is the song of heaven, your words like dew on the leaves in the morning sun. Be still my heart, be silent mind storms of fear and worry. Yeshua is here at hand leading the way into peace and joy regardless what I see with my natural eyes I know my way is smooth and safe.

Listen to the sounds of heaven, frequencies of life and love, healing and restoration. Rest in the presence, do not be swayed by the physical realm and what’s happening there, hold fast to my promises and to what you see in the heavens. That’s what is true and real.

My heart is overwhelmed by the beauty of Your countenance.  That is a fancy way to say I’m totally undone by Papa’s glorious presence.  All those Christian-eeze terms make things sound flowery and all, but when it comes down to it plain language is best.  Just remember when you first fell in love, how you couldn’t spend enough time together how you longed for their company, the sound of their voice, the look in their eye, the tenderness of their touch.  Simply sitting together, even without a word exchanged is completely enjoyable.   Be captivated by His extravagant love….

Why do we think a little time, here or there, spent reading our Bible or praying over our meals constitutes intimacy? The picture of intimate relationship pictured in Song of Solomon is so intense and even a bit racy at time. But it pictures our relationship with Papa inside the marriage covenant.

“Then may your awakening breath blow upon my life until I am fully yours. Breathe upon me with your Spirit wind. Stir up the sweet spice of your life within me. Spare nothing as you make me your fruitful garden. Hold nothing back until I release your fragrance. Come walk with me as you walked with Adam in your paradise garden. Come taste the fruits of your life in me. I have come to you, my darling bride, for you are my paradise garden! Come walk with me until I am fully yours. Come taste the fruits of your life in me.”
‭‭Song of Songs‬ ‭4:16‬ ‭TPT‬‬
https://www.bible.com/1849/sng.4.16.tpt

We ARE the apple of His eye, the Bride to His Bridegroom.  Song of Songs has so many passages that show our enraptured passion for Him in the words of the Shulamite.  But what is truly outrageous are the passages from the Bridegroom expressing His undying desire for the Bride, in other words, us!  He wants to be intimate with us even more than we want to be with Him.  I know, that doesn’t really surprise me, if I look at my life, I know how luke-warm I’ve been over the years.   Keeping our passion alive is impossible under our own power but when the Holy Spirit awakens desire for Him it is impossible to resist His wooing…

We went to a lovely Christmas Eve candlelight service with family this year. It was the first time in years we had been in an institutional church. The preachers did a tag team message on, “Why?” and it got me thinking of how my understanding of the Gospel has changed.

Traditional evangelical teaching says Papa had to send Jesus down here to die for us on the cross. The standard message is, Papa was locked into sacrificing His only beloved Son to assuage His wrath. However, what if the whole sacrificial system was really instituted by man as our way to appease our perception of God? Did Papa really setup the whole sacrificial system? It just sort of appears in the Genesis story as a thing we humans do, not necessarily as a thing God commanded initially.

It is a universal concept that we must appease God, but does He really want worship through sacrifice or is it worship through fellowship that pleases Him most? Would it not be that He prefers fellowship, by virtue of the revelation of His all consuming love through Jesus? In the Garden, “before the fall”, Papa walked with Adam in the cool of the day. What better image of perfect fellowship could there be?

It makes much more sense to me that God sent Jesus to obliterate our misunderstanding of worship. To show us exactly what Papa is really like through Jesus’ life here. To let us let us know how much he wants fellowship with us. Jesus submitted to our twisted sacrificial system to break through our traditions and prove that God’s way of Love and Grace are indeed higher than our systems of religion.