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Just Say Yes – Part 2: The Cost and the Gift

For me to just say “yes” is not a DO NOT GO TO JAIL pass allowing me to continue with life as I had been living it. Father might give me healing to demonstrate His love, but there is a need for me to desire and allow change. Otherwise, what’s the use? Why should God grant me my “wish” only to have me remain in the state in which I began? What good is that? How does that help me to remain healed?

I have found that my saying “yes” to God has two parts. The first is an expression of my desire. More importantly, it is permission for Him to be involved. The second aspect of “yes” is the desire to grow and change. I cannot overemphasize this enough; my life in relational-faith with Father God is a life of growth and change. That’s why I left the organized institutional church in the first place. There I found no impetus to grow. Here in relational-faith, I am loved by Him and He loves me. I want to grow out of love for Him.

No, this is not a free gift in the sense of me doing nothing to invest some of myself. I must float out of the way in yes and submission. In the midst of all of this work, I must continue to stay out of His way and keep saying, “yes.” I must do whatever it is that Father counsels me to do or invites me into. I must be proactive in this process. I must be willing to be transformed into the new, whole being that Beloved God designed me to become in the first place.

I have also discovered another fundamental aspect to this process of transformation. That is always the case. I must be willing to give up something I neither need or actually want in order to make spiritual room for what I do want. I’ve found that there is a need to let go of whatever it is that’s hurting me to make room for what it is that Father wants to give me. This too is a big part of saying “yes”.

There is a simple process of letting go that a friend of mine leads me through to help me. I’ve come to understand now that I can do this on my own in Father’s Presence. But at times, I don’t always see what is needed or how really very simple this release is, and so my friend’s help aids my focus.

What she has me to is in the Spirit. I see or visualize the thing that I am willing to release. I hold it out offering it to Father or to Jesus in both hands – palms up. I then see Him take it from me. I wait because His gift for me is then placed in my open, upturned hands.

Often I don’t know what it is that I’ve received. For me seeing in the Spirit is somewhat abstract. No matter, I almost always understand the precious power and significance of His gift to me. I know in my heart that this gift is many times more precious and more powerful than the misery that I’ve just let go of.

It’s interesting to me how all of this happens. On the one hand, God is willing and able to provide all that’s needed for my healing – spiritual and physical – but there is always something I must be willing to give up to receive what He has for me. I don’t always know what His gift will be. I am very often pleasantly surprised.

Release is the central aspect of the “yes.” I must freely let go of what it is that’s making me sick, spiritually or physically. I need to allow Father to make room within me for the new healed reality that He wants to give me – Amen.

God is not going to just zap me into becoming some new healed person so that I can just go out and destroy myself all over again. That’s not what will help me to become something new. That’s nothing more than codependency – He gives, I take, nothing changes. Nope, that’s not how love works.

Love offers the best of things, not items or objects, but things which empower us to become our true selves as God Himself designed us to become. That true self is a reflection of Him – period. That true self knows something of and lives in His Presence and His love. That true self loves to do what it is that it is designed to do and be – especially the be.

Always,

Lew Curtiss

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Just Say Yes – Part 1: Allowing God to Heal

 

Yesterday I discovered yet another area of my life where I’ve been getting in God’s way. I tend to do that sometimes. But He lovingly showed me how to stop blocking Him and just say, “yes”. I thought that I was doing well by “trying” to do what was needed, but now I realize that I was cutting God out of the mix and trying to do something on my own strength. It’s what a friend calls D-I-Y religion.

Last night I was reading Thomas Merton – New Seeds of Contemplation. Something that he said in that book struck me with revelation. He was talking about contemplation being a gift from Father. My job was simply to be fully present and to allow Him to bless me. This idea is what lead me into thinking about my need to be the “yes” for both my growth and healing. Merton further said something that lead me to grasp that my growth was my healing. They are one in the same thing. If I will simply turn toward growth, the healing happens all by itself.

I’ve come to realize that “yes” is my first and simplest expression of the powerful freewill that Father God has given me. Because He will never override or violate my freewill, this simple first expression is my permission to Him that I am willing to receive whatever He wants to bestow upon me. After that permission, it is imperative that I remain in “yes” and stay out of His way as He helps me. Lastly, a big part of my “yes” is that I want transformation. I want to change.

The other day I got a rather serious medical report from my neurologist telling me that I have problems. Some of them are in my brain. Some are my body. Most, if not all, of them are reversible, and it’s up to me to just get on with it. It’s up to me alone. This is my own choice.

Okay, back to my being the “yes”. It has to do with the idea that at times I get in God’s way when He has simply wanted to help me all along. My various doubts, challenges, and fussiness all add up to my blocking Him and not allowing Him to guide me into full health. This is the barest essence of what Merton was talking about. Many times I get in God’s way. Somehow I seem to think that it’s up to me alone to do the doing without a full submitted reliance upon Father God. Even though I know better from other ares of my life, I’ve found that I have still been doing this with regard to my physical healing.

I had to ask myself, has my health improved in the last few years? The truthful answer is no. On my own effort, nothing has changed long-term. I’ve not become the new person physically that I can and want to be. I’ve been doing all of this work on my own strength. And that’s what Merton was talking about in his writings on contemplation; it is God Himself who brings me into the relational experience, the intimacy, and the revelation through contemplation. It’s a gift pure and simple. All I need do is say, “yes” and receive – Amen.

Lew Curtiss

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Do you Need Fellowship? Have hope.

The number of home fellowships, small fellowships, faith communities, or ekklesiae (whatever you choose to call them) are increasing across the globe. These groups are not house churches with regard to current church concepts. There’s no three songs, a prayer, offering, and a senior leader preaching. This is family and community in action. All participate in one form or another. All are responsible for their personal growth. These groups are not church small groups governed by a larger organization which tells them the agenda and what to teach. The fellowships that are organically popping up all over seek the Lord with regards to what He wants to reveal to them.

In a matter of a few years, the concept of the global faith community will encompass the earth. There will be no denominations or hierarchies which stipulate regulations for these fellowships. It will be comparable to families that unite and share with each other what God is saying and doing. Families that agree by the inclination and conviction of the Holy Spirit. Believers will have a common goal to see the Kingdom of God manifest.

These fellowships will be unique. They will have their interests and characteristics. All this is wonderful. But, what does it look like? John 13:34-35  “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

Love! The core people in NW Ekklesia feel like they have found genuine relationships, family, and yes love. We adore each other. We trust each other with our deepest problems. These groups are defined by the Hebrew word qahal, community, and family. We’ve heard other fellowships tell us the same.

Personality! Each group has its own personality. Freedom, the group Mike Parsons belongs to operates what they call a therapeutic community. They help homeless and drug addicted individuals. We tease about NW Ekklesia. We say we are an artist’s commune, even though we don’t live together. But, somehow almost everyone is a writer, visual artist, or musician. Every fellowship finds it’s own identity, purpose, and personality. There is no formula as to how we function.

Kingdom Government! Most small groups will have benches of three. Three leaders seeking God’s direction. Groups that are a bit larger will have councils of ten. They will have a leadership or governmental bench of three plus seven others to make up the ten. The two function separately and together. Individuals in their groups will find that they have specific tasks within their community. Tasks such as benevolence, records keeping, mentoring, healing, etc. In order to mature to this level, they have studied and done activations with people like Mike Parsons, Ian Clayton, Justin Abraham or Nancy Coen just to name a few.

Communion! We have found that there is more to communion than a cracker and some wine. Communing is one to another and to God. We have learned that a spiritual family has parents and younger members that eventually grow into parents. So, pretty much, it’s based on peer relationships. Families sit in the round when they eat and talk. So do we. The communal meal, which is dinner for us is very important. (You may meet in the morning. So breakfast would be the communal meal.) Within that meal, just as they did in the last supper, we serve the bread and wine. We usually ascend and participate from the Kingdom realms when we take communion.

Ascension! Yes, this is another earmark of this kind of fellowship. We see in the spirit and travel in the spirit. We’ve been to heaven. we function in the courts of heaven. We carry out God’s directions.

It sounds so simple. But, it is difficult to transition to this kind of fellowship. Old mindsets get in the way. Years and years of programming make us stumble over the simplest things. Lately, we have been helping other groups that ask us about ekklesia. We are also meeting individuals that want to start an ekklesia. We are now seven years functioning and we want to help them steer clear of many of the mistakes we made.

I believe there is much more coming. These groups are popping up all over the globe. I heard about one in Germany made up of theater people. I think one day soon there will be something akin to family reunions. Members from various groups will get together to share what God is doing with each fellowship, and you know there’s always a communal meal. It could be a Barbeque, a banquet, or a potluck. Putting it in simple terms, there will be big parties in the Holy Spirit. As Ephesians 4 says, I am waiting for the day that we all reach unity in the faith and we all attain the whole measure of the wholeness of Christ.

How about you? Do you need community and spiritual family? Is there nothing happening in your neighborhood? It’s really simple to start. Invite your best friend over for lunch or a snack. Spend time sharing what God is doing in your lives. Watch videos together from Kingdom minded speakers. Participate in the activations the speakers have at the end of their videos. In a short time, you will be saying to others, “Guess what happened? God changed my life or I got healed.” You’ll find that others want to join you. If you have questions, ask us. We will be glad to help.