Consider This One Understood! ~ Should I?

We all have things which we assume are "understood".  However, as sure as we assume that someone proves us wrong, don't they? More often than not that is what I find with all of us.

With this in mind we are going to search our "understanding" in regard to this scripture from 2 Corinthians verse 17:

"Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit is THERE is liberty."

While many things ARE understood, the problem is we do not all understand by way of relating in a similar fashion.  Take Liberty for instance, let ask these questions:

Would we recognize it?

• Do we know it by more than word associations?
• Do we understand when we are attempting to steal it from someone?
• Do we dare look at how this directly grieves the Holy Spirit Himself ~ beyond the human before our eyes?

If we desire to understand God, to come into a closer relationship with Christ, then we must subject ourselves to these deep ponderings and ask God:  Is this real because it is not at all like the "real world" handles things!

As an example of that statement, let's use the age old philosophical brain teaser: If a tree fall in the forest, and there is nobody around to hear, does it make a sound?  This question is directly related to how we interpret the word "sound": Is it being perceived as a physical phenomenon - the wave length disturbance or by human sense organs?

Any medium which moves air creates the "potential" interaction with a secondary medium to perceive the vibrations and assume a "sound". Sound is simply a subjective interaction with matter.  Stick with me it does get relative and interesting. Without, let's say, an ear to capture the interaction the vibration will pass by not noticed. Yet even without an ear, a deaf person would become aware due to the change in vibrations due to their heightened sensitivity to environmental movements.

Another important variable is recognition and interpretation.  We can all hear / feel things from the same source yet be dogmatic that our perceptions are indisputably correct.  The reason for this is our memories or lack of corresponding information stored in our brains.  

Can you see how limited we can become if we are not open to new thoughts?  Our perceptions limit our reality if we are closed minded; reducing us to the limited stimuli of our own.  In part this is understandable since we validate thoughts through physical sensory variables: sight, sound, taste, touch, smell and the corroborating pieces begin to form a mental picture which leads to our cohesive understanding. What we piecemeal together our brain stamps as "the real deal". It does not matter if there is not a solid form in front of us at the moment because we based our concept on things which WERE real in the past.  Somehow we decide that our best piece milled hunch is the good enough and we have "this one" covered.  

Now, before we get too far down this rabbit hole, let's apply this to today's topic Liberty.  To be sure we have all the information, let's understand the Greek word Eleutheria from which we derived the translation, liberty.  It means freedom, generosity, independence.  It is a blessing of the "economy of Grace."  It is a generosity in proportion to the Love of our God.

In order to live "there", in God's economy it is logical, based on the prior theory notes, that our brain must have the information stored and in place in order for us to become interactive with the vibrations / movements taking place in His spirit.  Do you see a bit more clearly the importance of Christ opening up His ministry with "change your thoughts" if you desire a transformed life?

If the Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit is there is Liberty, it makes sense that when we are grieving the Spirit we are actually squelching the free movement of Christ.  Egad!  We do not have a Quantum Theory to test out the philosophy but James gave us a simple test which is very relative. He explained it like this, in James 1:22-27:

But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, for he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.  

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty (notice he did not call the Mosaic law perfect. but the law of LIBERTY) and abides by it not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer this man shall be blessed in what he does.

All these thoughts brought a really old lovely tune to my mind...and I had to ask does silence HAVE a sound? Do people really prefer Silence to the Sound of the Lord??? But as I thought it I had my answer: His Spirit is within us, helping us understand the deep wisdom of our Lord God and He will not ever again be silent! But that does not mean we will freely subject our selves to the Sound of His grieving.....but there will never be silence as long as our Creator has breath and HE will NEVER leave us alone. Why would He, is He mean and wants us to blindly wait for vibrations to shimmy us home?? NO!  He grieved at our mental blindness!

I pray we take heed to what the Lord gave us through James and not allow our memories to become stained by the world ~ but instead cleansed by His Spirit so we can inherit all His wonderful memories and encouraging thoughts of eternity.  

These are very Liberating Thoughts, think on them.  

With Love and encouraging prayers ~ Kisses,

Candace

I just had to listen to Simon and Garfunkel sing "The Sound of Silence". I was amazed at what I heard after considering all this. Hope you enjoy it too!

Copyrights Reserved ©Candace Huffmaster 2014

Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc.®

It Is So Icky!

How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me. Matthew 23:37

Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" Luke 13:35

No, I will not abandon you as orphans--I will come to you. John 14:18

With God as our witness, standing before a crowd of family and friends, men and women come together daily promising to never leave or forsake each other as long as they both shall live.  And yet they leave breaking promises and pummeling hopes, dreams, commitments and the abilities of those in the wreckage to painstakingly attempt to trust in safe people ever again. 

I will never leave you nor forsake you is what our vows say – Hmmmm, haven’t I heard that promise somewhere before?  Oh, that’s right…….God said it.  This is HIS promise unto each of us.  God is not a masochist; He knows we cannot uphold relationship commitments by sheer grit.   We are made in His image; and we are ABLE to do this …..Because He lives.  Don’t you get it?  If we could do it without God, then He would not get to be intimate with people.  Not physically, because He doesn't have a body like ours. He created a loop hole though; He lives in this world now INSIDE us!  Again, don’t miss this:  It is not US who won’t leave people destitute.  It is God within us; we simply must allow His will to mature us.  But our weak will cringes at thoughts of the Spirit: having to put up with all the icky, sticky, goo of close relationships. God said He wants to wrap us under wing...some people would think that is terribly suffocating!

I had someone say to me once, “ I won’t leave you destitute.” It appeared that they felt this should be something to trust as if to ease my hurt.  This left me scratching my head in bewilderment……I said to myself, “Do they not realize destitute means left forsaken.  What does that mean; you won’t leave me - destitute?  I’m obviously not a rocket scientist, but what this person communicated was that they WERE LEAVING……and therefore any physical token tossed my way to comfort their guilt would not articulate trustworthy.  

We have discussed many times that we can only do our part – this is the reason God tells us, “Be at peace as far as it depends on YOU.”   No one can repair or reconcile a relationship without a reciprocating “you” involved; agreed?  If someone does not desire peace “with others” then they only desire comfort for them self.  The reason we get confused at times, is because some of the things others receive comfort from happens when they comfort us.  Maybe this is the reason for all the proverbs in regard to the deceptions of our feelings.    Comfort is the nemesis to maturityespecially in our maturity within Christ’s body, click link if you want more information.

The scripture from today, is the perfect example of the Love God desires to lavish on everyone.  But as we see, not everyone wants to REALLY be loved.  Who knows all the reasons why they find it terribly uncomfortable to stay close, really let others in.  So they leave;  It does hurt and it even harms them, us and anyone else entangled. And, it deeply grieves the Holy Spirit, but they say no anyway......And God keeps trying anyway.....and as trying as it is, we must keep try relying on Him.

Before we even knew Him or loved him He promised that when He had to go for a bit, to remember that we ARE His beloved, not a destitute no one. It feels so wonderful to be safely loved that we attempt to love others this way....because it's freaky awesome!   But not everyone trusts that we will stay and love them even when they are icky.  Just as they don't want God too close they will not want you there either, not if you intimately love them through and through.  Do you know why?  Because it is God loving them...not you (remember).  So, we must have boundaries, because we are peacemakers. 

We cannot force peace because then it is not kindness, it is controlling.   Do not allow yourself to be verbally bullied either, you are a peacemaker; not a mute point.   If you are attempting to relate with immaturity (or call it whatever you wish) it will repeatedly verbally and sometime physically desire to push you out the door, so to speak.  We do not have to take part in destroying relationships, but to not speak the truth in love also destroys intimacy.  As we stated, the old saying “If you don’t have something NICE to say don’t say anything at all, creates fake friends. 

My thoughts for this week are:

Don’t be pushed around, your peace is from within you.  Don’t take part in destroying lives which are woven into your relationship:  Be stable, Be reliable, Be trustworthy, Be FAITHFUL!

If you are blessed to be in close proximity to an unsafe person, remember it is easy to want to think the problems go away if you just get new people around you.  If God desires your space for a bit, let Him use it - you just might get to help someone find out that the icky, sticky, gooey space is the actual “safety rail” keeping them from falling off into the land of the lonely and unloved.

Be brave my courageous peacemakers!  We live in a war zone, no matter how proper it may appear. Don’t just say and do the “right things” say and do the really hard things because it’s righteousness oozing out of you.  And lastly, remember:  With God as your witness, in all you say and do…..simultaneously you are His witness that He is alive and well in YOU!   

This is why where Christ is there is liberty, so honor your commitments – Don’t leave God forsaken!

In Love with Christ,

Kisses,

Candace

Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc®

©Candace Huffmaster 2013, All Copy Rights Reserved

From That Which You Have

You can only give from that which you have; think about it.  In order to give a gift you must purchase it, make it or give an IOU because you don’t yet possess it to give.  God tells us that we are able to love Him only because He first loved us.  If we had not been loved by God, with Agape love, we would not have had this love in our possession to give.  We discussed it a few weeks ago:  This is Love, not that we first loved God but that He first loved us. 
 

People struggle all the time with not having the ability to give what they perceive as a “good gift”.  Who doesn’t want to give the best gift, that’s the whole purpose of “the gift” right?  At what point did we cross the thresh hold of having guilt because we cannot give material possessions and yet we do not feel convicted as we withholding what God commands us to give each other each and every moment of every day? 

In case, if it isn’t obvious, I was alluding to love. It cost nothing, yet the price you pay is your self.  It is gives liberty, but if you cannot freely give it you are in bondage. You can live within it for eternity, but you have no exclusive rights of ownership and it is very hard to live without it.  You can never out give it, out last it, demand more than it is willing to give freely because it is the outpouring of our generous, merciful, righteous, holy and pure God.  He gave us the object of His undying love.  He sacrificed His love for those who didn’t know love, us, so that we could know love and indeed love and become lovely.  What a God we have; I can’t put Him justly into words.
 

I want us to look at the Friday’s scripture from 2 Timothy 1:7:  For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.  Some translations say “a spirit of fear” but I believe the KJV most correctly translated it to be “the spirit of fear” because it moves on to state “the spirit” which He did give us: the Holy Spirit which is power, love and a sound mind due to peace, hope and joy.
 

In order not to get too long winded here, we will leave off with the definition of the Greek word didomi.  Translated we best understand it as the word gift.  Here is Strong’s definition:

Didomi  / did'-o-mee

1. to give
2. to give something to someone
1. of one's own accord to give one something, to his advantage
1. to bestow a gift
2. to grant, give to one asking, let have
3. to supply, furnish, necessary things
4. to give over, deliver
1. to reach out, extend, present
2. of a writing
3. to give over to one's care, entrust, commit
1. something to be administered
2. to give or commit to someone something to be religiously observed
5. to give what is due or obligatory, to pay: wages or reward
6. to furnish, endue
3. to give
1. to cause, profuse, give forth from one's self
1. to give, hand out lots
2. to appoint to an office
3. to cause to come forth, i.e. as the sea, death and Hell are said to give up the dead who have been engulfed or received by them
4. to give one to someone as his own
1. as an object of his saving care
2. to give one to someone, to follow him as a leader and master
3. to give one to someone to care for his interests
4. to give one to someone to whom he already belonged, to return
4. to grant or permit one
1. to commission

I pray that each of us receive this gift and allow God  through Christ, empowered by His life giving spirit properly and fully disclose all His many facets as we sojourn together toward Him.  Tomorrow we will do deeper in this one verse. 

May we all understand and be grateful that every day, no matter what things appear to be, we ARE blessed by the Lord God Almighty himself.

Shalom,

Kisses ~C

For more information the clickable blue links within the text above are as follows:

 1 - Magnificent Box
2- This is Love
3- Taking Our Frustrations Out on Objects
4- Does A Bully Even Understand?

©Candace Huffmaster 2012, All Copy Rights Reserved

Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™

Does A Bully Understand?

  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. ~ 2 Timothy 1:7
 

The spirit of God is a power force to be reckoned with.  When human power wants to tango, so to speak, with the righteousness of God which indwells in His children, I must believe they do not understand or they would be too afraid to arrogantly, tauntingly, unconscionably puff up as they do. 

But what preserves and propels our ability to pity them as we should, and not fear or be angered by their actions is the power of the Holy Spirit; His indwelling love and sound mind.  Amen!

I am meeting  with a new mission group today so I will finish this when I return later.  I have much to share with you on this verse.  For now - meditate on the power of God we have received and the might which is bestowed through Christ in the dynamic presence of His most holy spirit.

Selah,
Kisses,
Candace

Definition of Greek word Pneuma from which we derive the word used here: spirit

1. the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
2. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the \Holy\ Spirit)
3. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of \Truth\)
4. never referred to as a depersonalised force
5. the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
6. the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
7. the soul
8. a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
9. a life giving spirit
10. a human soul that has left the body
11. a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
    1. used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
    2. the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ
12. the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one
    
    1. the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.
13. a movement of air (a gentle blast)
14. of the wind, hence the wind itself
15. breath of nostrils or mouth

^{©Candace Huffmaster, 2012  All Copy Rights Reserved}

^{Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™}

Liberty, Free Will...Fear

This month has given me many wonderful opportunities to glean understanding in regard to free will and liberty.  Just when I thought I understood both concepts to the fullest, another door was before me begging these questions: "Will you turn the handle?" "Will you turn away?" "Will you take a step of faith, release your your thoughts to take mine?"  "Will you pass through the doorway and let go of all you left on the other side?"

What choices do we have in relation to a closed door in front of us?  I'm sure we're listing the obvious:  stand staring, sit down at it, turn and go the other way, OR have a new experience beyond it.  As for me, I have lived a life of going through the doorways.  Sometimes it takes a bit before I muster up what ever it is that enables me to grab the handle.  At times, my palms are so sweaty the handle won't turn all the way the first attempt.  Sometimes, I trip through it (okay many times I trip through it, which is why I loved the opening of the Dick Van Dyke Show.  I have a lot of Rob's awkwardness in me) Other times, I fall flat on my face because I couldn't catch my balance from tripping. Usually, if none of those took place and I made it through, I seem to just pause.  I'm sure this is  probably due to the prior shocking experiences, and I am just surprised that I'm there and standing.  But look, I have proof, I am here in one piece and typing away! 

As we've discussed many times, each moment is simply another experience.  There truly are no unusable ones.  It is not about being good or bad - it's about growth, maturity, having something to share with others in their time of need.  No one needs another person filled with knowledge but no skills in application.  We need people who have really messed up and know how to "get back up again" as Toby Mac sings, RIGHT?
As "they" say the only person who hasn't made mistakes is the person who never does anything - but in my opinion "there" IS their mistake!  So no one gets out of this life without one ;)


Which brings me to our topic, Fear.  We say fear is normal, but is it?  I want you to review the things we've been discussing so far.  Really, think about your fears.  Ask yourself, what is each fears purpose - because each of them has one.  We will talk more about this over the next few weeks.  Today, click these links and ponder a few sentences, scriptures, songs - what ever you feel led into.  It's only a doorway, remember this quote we discussed :

"I can throw open to you no picture gallery but your own soul. All I can give you is the opportunity, the impulse, the key. I can help you to make your own world visible. That is all". ~ excerpt from Steppenwolf

A very dear friend went to see the movie Tangled and said the character reminded her of me.  After seeing it I asked her why (not that I couldn't imagine many places which were obvious mind you).  She told me it was this scene. 



So, as you can see by this video clip, my description above about doors isn't out of character for me.  Where Christ is there is liberty, however, where human beings are there is coercion, manipulation and restraint of free will.  Are free will and liberty synonomous?  I am not going to answer that because I want you to come to your own valuable understanding of these topics.

Think on all this and we will take is one small bit at a time. 

Cowboy Take Me Away

Where Christ is There is Liberty

You ARE Clinging to Something...Discern

There is such a disconnect within the body of Christ. There is so much self preservation, due to fear. His word tells us that there is no fear in love. His love casts out fear.

As I was thinking about all this yesterday I was very aware of how much we trust in our fear - to the point of paralyzing our selves. This is such bondage, and we are so used to it that we are unaware.

I pray for us all, that as we trust more in Christ to hold us in the palm of His hand and step out in the way He has prepare for us - that we will break free from the bondage and into His freedom. As He stated in 2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).

In Christ, With Love

Kisses ~ Candace

^{©Candace Huffmaster, 2012  All Copy Rights Reserved}

^{Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™}