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TEACHING:
understanding DIVINE TENSIONS WHEN SHARING OUR FAITH
WITH THOSE WE LOVE
Many years ago someone that I felt accountable to
expressed reluctance in reading my first book prior to
publication. This person did not want to “judge” my
work due to our relationship. I was unable to
understand the depth of such a statement and wrestled
with that concept for many repeating cycling with
various people until the Lord brought me full circle.
At that point I had experienced this divine wrestling/
tension several times from both sides of the fence of
being accountable for the release of others testimonies
and also being accountable to others for the release of
my own. It is from that place I feel the burden of the
Lord to share the following.
BETWEEN EARTH AND HEAVEN: LIKE FLYING A KITE
When a person starts to move higher in faith experiences
with the Lord, they start to experience a divine
tug-a-war with those they are bonded to that are still
“grounded” in their flight. It is like flying a kite,
and the tension between the person on the earth holding
the string, and the “kite” who is stretching and
yearning to go past the boundaries of what is extended
to them. As long as there is a person holding onto the
string on the ground, the kite is able to soar higher
and higher as the person releases a little bit of string
at a time. It is the very tension that brings the kite
its stability to go higher. But if the person lets go of
the string, or the tension on the string drops, so does
the kite. If not recovered or passed to another person,
the kite falls to the ground and so does faith.
The string represents several things at once: the
bonding between the two people, the trust-relationship
and discernment between the two, and last but not least,
the string represents the faith of both. It is a divine
teamship that God uses in both lives. And it is in that
place between the two that this mutual dance in the
Spirit takes place on the ground and in the air.
The person in the air is caught in the yearnings of
having tasted levels of the supernatural and wanting
release to stretch into more. They experience emotional
tragedies when what they experience is not immediately
validated by the one on the ground. They suffer the
desires to be understood and not judged, to be accepted
and not rejected. They want to be equally yoked in
experience and faith with the one holding their string.
And most of all, they feel unstable in their faith
journey and desperately need to feel validated... that
what they are believing IS a safe place, even if they
are suspended in the air without feet on the ground. It
is a very painful place to be the unstable kite and
caught between the tensions of finding God and sticking
with the person holding their string.
The person on the ground is caught in their own
yearnings to soar, but experiencing the gravity of doubt
and unbelief due to not having taken the same flight.
They suffer the self torment of condemnation and shame,
thinking something is wrong with them since they are not
experiencing the same. They worry about the one they
are watching and holding, lest he falls flat on the
ground and they have to pick up the broken pieces. They
worry that they are missing their divine visitation.
They fight their tendency of being critical, negative
and exacting. They struggle between the divine tension
of trying not to judge, yet remaining grounded in
scripture, wisdom and discernment. They feel the
tension of hopelessness that they will never experience
their feet off the ground, and the yearnings of God’s
draw upon their hearts to leave the gravity behind.
This divine call upon the two hearts, of taunt wrestling
and tension, is the string of their mutual faith,
yearning and desiring more of God and not knowing how to
gain it so they both can fly. It IS a divine call that
God uses in both lives. I have witnessed this scenario
so many times in my communications. Couples in
marriages are suffering this tension. Pastors and their
sheep are experiencing this. Parents and children,
friends with friends; any place you find a bonded
relationship where opinions matter, where faith matters,
where finding God matters.
THE STRETCHING OF APRON STRINGS
It has been prophesied that each generation is climbing
higher in God than the previous generation. In very
simple terms, it is a part of the fruit that comes from
the mystery of bonding. When I was in child growth and
development class in college, I learned that there are
patterns in human development where we advance in our
abilities to stand on our own two feet without having to
“check in” and make sure that we are OK. This need to
check in did not take place without an emotional
bonding.
They have done many studies of this, from infancy on,
where the infant needs to have direct contact with their
caretaker. As long as they are getting this check in
time, they feel like their lives are safe. When they go
through the stages of crawling, toddling, walking,
running... they have done studies of “normalcy” where
the child usually goes so many minutes before popping
back to their caretaker. I watched this with my own son
as he was growing up. He would be on the floor playing
with toys, and suddenly he would get up, run to me for a
hug, or to say something and then he would go right back
to what he was doing. Later it was not a touch or a
word, but gaining direct eye contact with me, even if in
the other room or much farther away. As he grew older,
his “check in” times became farther apart.
I watched this with my grandson the other day. He was
enjoying his new ability to crawl and he was on the
floor and up into my arms and then sliding back down
again in less then a minute. He simply needed his check
in time to make sure nothing had changed and all is
fine!
We cant really understand the mystery of this bonding,
but it also happens when we grow up in maturations of
faith and experience. When we read experiences that
previous generations had in revival or relationship,
this grounds us that our God is the same, yesterday,
today and forever. When we read His Word and see that
others have read it in like mind and heart, we receiving
a grounding that helps us check our state of being. And
of course we check in daily with God and He reassures us
we are growing fine and everything is going to be OK.
When I am with my grandson I am taking delight in each
and every progress he is making in his journey of
discovery and growing. I dont want to hinder him from
discovery and stretching his muscles and life outside
the boundaries of being directly held. But when he
pulls himself up near tables, my hand is gently resting
on the corner, lest he fall on the sharp part. He may
or may not know my hand is there. But my hand is there
because I know by experience what that corner can do.
It is the same in our faith and our relationship with
the generations who have gone through these things.
Decisions and changes of directions are corners where we
need a safe covering by a loving and watchful hand.
When connecting with another generation, common
denominators ground us and equip us to grow stable.
There is a tension to want to cut the apron strings in
order to increase territory. But cutting the strings is
not God’s perfect will. He said one generation is not
made perfect without the other.
Heb 11:40 AMP
Because God had us in mind and had something better
and greater in view for us, so that they [these heroes
and heroines of faith] should not come to perfection
apart from us [before we could join them].
God is wanting ALL to grow up into Him and find their
way and He uses the mystery of bonding to accomplish
this. The stretching of apron strings is just like the
tension between the kite and the ground. God uses the
tension between the generations to draw the one, and
pull the other, bringing both to Himself. It is not
possible without the string between the two.
WHEN THE STRINGS GET CAUGHT
There are times that snares occur when the grounded one
and the soaring one wrestle so badly that the strings of
faith, bonding and relationship wind up in a ball of
knots. All comes to a halt as we wait upon God to
unravel a mess.
In our relationships with one another and with God, all
need to repent of grieving the Holy Spirit for bad
attitudes, argument, wrong motives, stubborn opinions,
striving, judging and harsh words. Repent means to
sincerely change and walk in a different way and with a
different heart.
The soaring one needs to find a wisdom and balance
between keeping what are holy pearls meant for the holy
place, and sharing what is meant for those on ground
level.
The one on the ground needs to find the faithfulness and
patience to support the person without being critical
and negative.
The soaring one needs to trust God to bring validation
if he is not receiving any support from the one holding
his emotional strings.
The one on the ground needs to remain faithful in prayer
and work on communication skills so as not to damage the
strings of relationship.
UNEQUALLY YOKED?
In my observances of so many people, the pain and divine
tension that I have witnessed seems to be a result of
what I have called unequally yoked faith. It is where
the faith, gifts, experiences between the two
reciprocating people seemingly are not matched to be
able to validate either position. When the faith gets
balled up, it results in the hopelessness of being stuck
in the same place and without remedy for change.
After so many years of observance, I have come to the
conclusion that what God has joined together, is yoked
for a purpose: HIS PURPOSE. It is a very simple thing
for Him to catapult someone off the ground. And it is a
very simple thing for His wind to release a kite
higher. But instead, He uses this divine dance between
earth and heaven to grow up His kids into His likeness
and His love.
Earth and heaven are connected between two hearts of
faith and when both are connected, love is the divine
current that pours up and down the string, oiling and
smoothing the kinks, so that both can find their way to
God.
Rom 15:5-8 NKJV
Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to
be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ
Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore
receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to
the glory of God.
1 Cor 1:10 NKJV
Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing,
and that there be no divisions among you, but that you
be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the
same judgment.
Eph 4:1-4 NKJV
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you
to walk worthy of the calling with which you were
called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with
longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. |
