Luke 11:2
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
John 8:32
32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
NKJV
What we experience deeply shapes us. We are who we are today largely because of our experiences. We each have fundamental assumptions about reality we rarely articulate or examine, but which serve to define the boundaries of our expectations. At our core, we believe what we believe because of what we have experienced. Each new experience is at least defined, and in some cases determined, by these experience based beliefs. Repeated experiences shape us deeply. Crisis experiences do the same.
For example – The person who has repeatedly or traumatically experienced rejection has a core expectation of rejection in new relational situations. The various defensive behaviors learned over time to protect their wounded heart from additional injury actually serve to perpetuate the cycle of rejection, thereby reinforcing their core beliefs with each new experience of rejection. The entrenched expectation of rejection becomes the filter through which new experiences are evaluated. Rejection is perceived even when none is actually present and the trap is secure.
Environments designed to help believers grow in Christ often prove ineffective because they fail to understand the powerlessness of information to transform the heart. We teach doctrine, memorize scripture, identify biblical principles, and develop action plans to walk it all out. But no amount of correct data from the Bible combined with even the best of good intentions, planning, and effort, are effective at bringing transformation to the human soul. We are who we are because of what we deeply believe in our hearts. These beliefs are not shaped by information, principles, action plans, and sincere effort. Experience forms us. Experience transforms us.
So what exactly is it that Jesus offers? A Sunday School class? A doctrinal statement? A regimen of spiritual discipline? No. Jesus offers an experience summed up within the phrase “…on earth as it is in heaven.” There is a heavenly reality that can invade our earthly existence. Jesus offers us experience – an experience of his presence, goodness, and power. This experiential life of his heavenly Kingdom is within reach, at hand. Our experience shaped beliefs can be transformed by an ongoing experiential revelation of the truth of his goodness, nearness, and power. It is this kind of experience that brings freedom.
6 Comments
a word picture of human life and the shaping factors while gently leading a soul & heart to want more than just what they can see or have known before…
This is really great, Alan. There’s about a bazillion people (including 50+ siblings from my fathers polygamist family alone!) I’d like to share this with. I’d love if they could hear this message with their spiritual ears opened and really *get* this. (*sigh*)
Anna Heyen
I like that he sometimes lets me experience humor and I’m free to laugh at “inside jokes” that just me and him share. Like one time, I was going through the part of being single where you pray incessantly for God to bring you a husband, so I was on the desperate side of the thing. I told God, “Look, he just needs to have all his teeth and a job.” Then the next day, I’m at the store and this way , way old guy was walking to his car with a buggy of nothing but beer. I looked at him and offered a polite “Hi.” This man, who I never met before in my whole life and looks old enough to be my grandfather, says “You wanna get married darlin. I got all my teeth and a job.”
WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Jesus for good laughs.
That’s really good Alan. It all boils down to freedom. Without it, nothing else really matters because all that we “do” just becomes a rote set of spiritual exercises commonly called religion. Experiencing Him is the key. Good word.
I just want to know how to increase the speed of Jesus’ invasion, in which heaven on earth removes/replaces/heals the earthly experiences within me.
Also, how does the scar get removed? I can’t undo the damage I and others have done to my soul, just like I couldn’t regrow a leg if I was to cut it off. There would always be a part missing, replaced by a scar and a modified way of walking.
Alan…thanks for that post.
I’m a baby Christian…4 years–3 years where I really made God my focus. But I EXPERIENCED true TRANSFORMATION when I totally, completely surrendered…but it was a choice I had to make. I couldn’t hang on the fence…total healing doesn’t come when you only ingest half of the prescribed medicine!
Cindy, I kinda understand where you are with the “speed it up Jesus” process; unfortunately, Jesus doesn’t operate in our time zone, He’s got his own, and [I believe] when we totally surrender…total true abandon to Him…that’s when the work begins within us through the Holy Spirit.
A wise man once said “Whatever you’re focused on, organizes your life.” If you’re focusing on your past pains, then that will organize your life and becomes a bit overwhelming and your identity is “that pain or who you are because of that pain” rather than identifying with being a child of God who loves you and wants to heal you. You’re not leaving room for healing.
Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;”
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“He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted…” Babe, give Him that broken heart, He’ll transform it, fix it, heal it and release it to trust again…but all in His time.
Cindy, I don’t know if you’ve been to any of the Freedom Ministries Freedom Foundations classes @ Gateway…but girl…they’re awesome classes. We have the foundations classes at my church in Somers Point, NJ–we show them on dvd on Sunday nights and they are amazing. Life changing content that leads to freedom. You’ll be blessed.
God bless you girl! Peace out!
Debbie