Session 8 – Love your life…
God is love and we were created in the image of love. We are to aspire to emulate God and Jesus. However that is not possible on our own. We need the help of the Holy Spirit. The id tells us that we don’t need anything or anybody. The id will allow you to be dragged to the depths of Hell if you let it by the one that is out to steal, kill and destroy. God has plans for you. Beautiful plans of blessings and a relationship with Him that is sweeter than any you will ever have on earth. This course is designed to help you live less in the id and more in the spirit. We are here helping you to cultivate your awareness of His presence via communicating with the Holy Spirit, which is vital. To be truly effective, we believe that this awareness, this course, should be taken solo, or with only one other person as a guide that has already completed the course, when there is no ministry or sermon. It is to be developed in the context of an honest to goodness relationship, not as a performance/ministry. What we learn when no one is watching will qualify us to lead His people when everyone is watching. Too many inter a service with the hopes to cry out to God for gifts, breakthrough in meetings and fruitfulness in evangelistic campaigns, but show little zeal for the Holy Spirit outside of ministry. The Holy Spirit is to be encountered, experienced, known, followed and affectionately embraced. To show passion for God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit only in a formal service setting is making a mockery of God. We do not even want to cover that topic. Consider the time when Jesus went up on the mountaintop alone. Jesus had not even started His ministry when Our Father declared: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). Being obedient to His earthly parents, the authority in the land, caring for friends, family, and neighbors gained their respect, before He even divulged that He was the Son of God. Jesus had already found pleasure in the heart of His Father outside of His ministry. With the training from this course you have the same opportunity to capture the heart of Our Father. Your new ministry, your new self, comes from His acceptance of you, His relationship with you, and how you diligently grow in grace and knowledge, submission and obedience out of love for our Father, is far greater than any ministry that works ‘for’ His acceptance. Exercise 8a- When you are ready to do this exercise, close your eyes. It is time to offer love to the thoughts that fill your life. Everything and everyone you hear, emotionally or physically feel, think, and experience now we will call a thought. It could be the air conditioner, a vehicle drive by, the garbage man picking up trash, a dog yelping. We are calling all of those sounds thoughts. Maybe you feel the breeze from the air conditioner; you gave a sigh of relief that you took out your garbage or frustration because you are tired of hearing that dog. Your neighbors might be fighting. You could be experiencing pain in your back or neck, a queasy stomach, or dry throat. Possibly a friend comes to mind, or a picture of a place you know or heard about. No matter what you are aware of on any level, we will call thoughts. Just pick one or two or more and with each of those thoughts you are going to relate to them as the Holy Spirit would, with love, patience, compassion, gratitude, sympathy, kindness, and so on. React to those thoughts with, emotions, hugs, smiles, blessings, or words. Respond in whatever way seems natural but positive. You do not have to think or discern that they are good thoughts or bad, just appreciate that you are having them. Be thankful and grateful that you are even having the thought. As you give love to each thought you will feel the stress and tension of this world slip away as you enter a quiet peaceful space and time that is so very comforting. Because the space that links you and heaven, where the Holy Spirit came from, is not judgmental, condemning or cruel but loving, kind and compassionate… it is that space we are to try to enter. We are to ‘put on’ the characteristics of Christ (Romans 13:14, Galatians 3:27, Acts 2:38). We are to grow into the likeness of Christ (1 Peter 1:16, Galatians 5:22-26, Philippians 2:5, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 John 2:6). Turn from the ways of this world, the id, pride, greed, selfishness, and renew your mind (Colossians 3:2, Romans 12:2, Proverbs 4:23, 2 Corinthians 10:4, 2 Corinthians 6:17, Jude 1:19-21, Ephesians 5:11, 1 Timothy 6:3-5, 2 Timothy 3:16 Colossians 3:2.) Join the Holy Spirit, rest in Christ, and be blessed. Exercise 8b- Now repeat this exercise, think of the sensations and sounds around you, live them, appreciate them, feel them, praise God for them, snuggle into them, linger there, with your eyes closed. It is time once again to offer love to the thoughts that fill your life.
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Co-Authors:
Michael & Judy Peck Archives
February 2020
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