TOM and the Goldfish Bowl, Part 3
MAKING IT PRACTICAL
In this the final section of this small book I want to be informal in my tone and direct in my approach to this question: How do we make these encouragements practical right now and apply them to our lives?
What follows are collections of activities, actions, and other practical steps towards becoming a Kingdom person. For myself, I call it “becoming a family man.” Others might call it becoming a family woman, or a family leader, or a family pioneer, or a family member ... I like them all. I have written a statement for each one in the first person so they all will be comfortable in our mouths as we read them aloud, pray them, and make our declarations. In other words, I start each action with an “I” statement so we can personalize each one.
Try them all.
Do them all at once, or spread them out over time—all the time—like I do.
Repeat until the desired affect is achieved.
Practical Prayers
Praying really works. I prefer to pray aloud so my own ears can hear the truth coming out of my mouth. I repeat myself often when I pray for the same reason we sing songs over and over again. Repetition is convincing. I invite you to pray with me the following Kingdom prayers.
I want more of the Kingdom.
I grew up in an environment where the tradition of Church life was everything, and so I fell quickly into perceiving my value and future only from that viewpoint. Of course, I was learning some Kingdom values, and yes, the Kingdom was coming in my life from the very first moment I saw Jesus ... but I sensed there was more. Tradition whispered to me, “This is all you get,” but I remained, and remain, unsatisfied with its offer.
I want more!
I want to pray as Jesus taught me. I want more of the Kingdom to come here on earth as it is in Heaven! As a result, I have decided to pray like this:
Jesus, in this situation, may your Kingdom come. Let your Kingdom come here in this place as it is in Heaven. May the power of the Kingdom come right now and destroy the works of the enemy. I want to see your Kingdom. There is not enough family happening here so Father I pray for more of your Kingdom to come! I want more.
I ask God to give me hunger.
Sometimes my heart grows tired and my vision dim. Sometimes I have little or no interest in the things of God.
I have found that it is perfectly acceptable to ask God—who gives me even the will to obey him—for more hunger for heavenly things.
So I pray, Dear God, give me a hunger for you. Help me hunger for your Kingdom. Give me a hunger for intimacy with Christ. I want a deep hunger for the Holy Spirit. I want to desire your purposes in my life. I am not afraid to ask. I love to say, “More, Lord, more of you!” when I pray because it will be much better than, “Less, Lord, less of you!”
I ask for the Spirit of Adoption.
Many ask, “Why do we pray for the Spirit of adoption when we are already saved ... haven’t we already received it?” Of course we received it, but I am still challenged now to be filled with it, to walk in it. Romans 8 says with emphasis, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.” Even in this one verse I can see that some, like myself, have battled fear in the arena of trusting in God’s adopting love. This passage goes on and puts the work of the Spirit of adoption into the present tense: “And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
The Spirit of adoption is the Holy Spirit.
The more I receive the Holy Spirit, the more the Spirit of adoption will be released in me!
My Father wants to have an ongoing relationship with me. He sent the Spirit to help me cry out, “Daddy, Father God!” not just one time, but always and for the rest of my life! And so I pray:
Father, I want more of the Spirit of adoption to be poured out on me. Just as I want more hugs and kisses from my natural family as an assurance of their affection, I receive the Spirit of adoption which stirs my heart up for you as a son.
I receive you, Holy Spirit of adoption!
I love you, Dad!
I pray for the sick and the demonized.
When Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom, the blind were healed, the sick mended, and people were set free from the bondage of satanic power. He went about “proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness” and in Matt. 12:28 he makes clear, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come to you.”
He taught his disciples to do the same. In Mark 6 Jesus, “calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits [...] They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.”
I am his disciple, too. I expect to do the same.
The Kingdom is powerful, and it transforms the broken world all around me. Everywhere I go the Kingdom is going. The Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing as the dominate, ultimate Kingdom. So why would I be timid around the powers of darkness?
Jesus makes it very clear when he first tells Peter “I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” that the Church is a sure thing—a strong thing. I know that when the Church agrees with the Kingdom its power is unmistakable. I agree with the Kingdom, and so I pray for the sick, asking God to heal them.
I cast out demons. I will discern the spirits of darkness and exercise my authority as a Kingdom son over them.
I demand that the suffering world around me submit to the authority of the Kingdom of God.
I pray for the unity of the family.
I do this in agreement with the Spirit of God and the prayers of Christ in John 17:
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
I agree with Jesus.
This is our heart for one another in prayer.
Let it be.
Practical Receiving and Believing
Sometimes we need to take our hands off the hammers and saws, stop working, and just receive. When we are at rest and we pray about receiving the Kingdom, we sometimes just need to sit with our palms up and open as a physical expression of our hearts to God—just as if we were going to receive a gift from someone. We can imagine that our hands are still open, like our hearts are open, to the giver of all good gifts. It is good to receive his gifts and then to believe they are for us and good for us in every way.
I receive the Kingdom.
Jesus claimed the Church as something tangible that he could see with his eyes. I can claim her and see her, too.
The Kingdom, however, is different. It is a heavenly Kingdom. I need to exercise my faith in it. I choose to receive it by faith! Whenever I see the Kingdom reality around me I receive it. Whenever I understand a Kingdom value I adopt it into my heart. Whatever Jesus says about the family Kingdom I say, “Yes, Lord!” I encourage myself to not argue with the Kingdom.
When I read the parables of Jesus as he describes the Kingdom, I look for ways to receive and walk in the family truth they proclaim. These stories often begin with the Kingdom of Heaven is like or the Kingdom of God can be compared to. After I read them I say aloud, “This is the way the family works. I submit myself to the Kingdom.”
I receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus, baptize me with the Holy Spirit!
I ask for it by name. I know it is a gift from the Father for me, and I know that it is good.
The disciples waited in Jerusalem for the Spirit to baptize them even though Jesus had already breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” in John 20. In the same way, my walk with Jesus is not a formula lined out on a flow chart. I do not fret over timelines. I am free to enjoy and engage Jesus as my Lord and friend at all times. Jesus wants to baptize me with the Holy Spirit. So I ask for it.
I expect to speak in tongues and see miracles. Why not? I am not a second-class Christian. Why would I, in a desire to be progressive and modern, throw out the very thing that gives me the power to love and to be an agent of change? The Holy Spirit is Christ’s joy to give. I don’t want to diminish his joy by refusing a gift because my tradition has set up electric fences around it. I can never say, “Oh ... the Holy Spirit ... I got my dose. I’m good. Don’t need any more.” That would be so unnatural for a Kingdom son. I just receive, and I pray like this:
I ask you Jesus to baptize me with the Holy Spirit. I will allow others to lay hands on me and pray for me to receive the Holy Spirit. I receive the Father’s good gift that convinces me I am his to come into my life and to surround me, fill me, and equip me in every way to walk as a Kingdom son.
I receive leaders.
The leadership graces listed in Ephesians 4 are people. I am open to living and loving people who are sent to equip me, challenge me, and lead me into maturity in Christ.
I will not allow unforgiveness or judgement against leaders to steal my ability to receive the people that Jesus has sent to me as apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers, and evangelists. They are given to me to build me up in Christ.
Also, I will not get locked into only one leadership grace. If I only receive from one of Christ’s graces for the Church then I will grow up abnormal and unfit for service, according to Ephesians 4. I have seen missionaries with hot, happening projects become debilitated after a while because they only had evangelist leaders. I have seen those who only received the leadership grace of the pastor-teacher, and they grew soft and immature in many areas. I have also seen those in prophetic camps sit still and grow satisfied with only seeing new visions, but they missed their time to labor and love and plant and work because their only leaders were prophets. No single grace-gift should ever be left alone in charge of God’s people for long.
I will receive Christ who reveals himself differently in all of these leadership graces, and I will pray:
Father, I love leaders, please send me more.
I receive the apostles.
I receive the prophets.
I receive the pastors, the teachers, and the evangelists.
Practical Actions
Naming everything that Kingdom sons have the permission and ability to do is too long for a short book like this one. It is really not the stuff of books, either. It belongs in the space between family members who love one another and impart family values to one another. It is the stuff of fathers turning their hearts to their sons and the sons turning their hearts to their fathers. However, I have chosen to list a few basic Kingdom actions that will set us in a Kingdom direction.
I will continue to meet together with believers.
I will not let the enemy of my soul isolate me in some sort of personal spiritual journey track. Sons love to meet together for teaching and worship and prayer. I am a son.
In fact, Hebrews 10:25 makes it clear: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” So what if the last fellowship I went to offended me in some way? I was judging with human eyes and reasoning and now I need to forgive. I want to move on and obey God and connect with my family. I know that I can’t fulfill God’s dreams of family if I choose to walk alone, nor can I if I choose to sit lonely every Sunday in a room full of people I don’t know. So here’s how I pray:
Jesus, I want to be your friend. Help me make friends with your people. Help me to overcome past hurts. I will forgive them just as you have taught me. I will pursue deep Kingdom relationship with other believers and I will trust in no tradition to establish those relationships for me.
I will go where the good voices are helping me.
If every time my present leaders open their mouths they are diminishing others and dividing the family, then I will choose to stop listening to their teaching. I can still love them, but I can’t follow immaturity. I will find another place to worship and fellowship.
I am not bound by tradition, but I am bound to seek and reconcile with healthy family. It isn’t that hard to move—even across the country—and ultimately it is worth all the effort for the health of my own soul. I think I am agreeing with the spirit of Jesus’ prayer in John 17: “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.” I want to be protected because I am worth protecting in the eyes of Jesus. Again, I choose:
Father, I receive your good gifts of good leaders. For the health of my soul give me the courage to move and connect with good people wherever they are so I can mature in your family.
I call out the names of the good leaders in my life and thank God for them on a regular basis. I send them gifts of thanksgiving and love. I serve them to show them I love them.
I will proclaim the Kingdom of God.
I am called to follow the model that Jesus set before me. I have received the Spirit of God that bubbles out of me in agreement. I will claim and love the Church as the Bride of Christ, and I will commit to proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom of God.
To proclaim the Kingdom is to first announce that the King is here! He is not my teacher like Buddha. He is not my prophet like Mohammed. He is my King and his Kingdom knows no worthy adversary.
I let people know that the power of God is here to heal and that help is available now. I encourage them to repent from a self-led, self-promoting life and to turn to God.
I touch the sick and pray for their healing, I pray over the demon-possessed and they are set free, and I pray over the broken and they are put back together. Why? Because the Kingdom is advancing and I have no choice but to agree with it.
I don’t work in my own authority but under the direction of my Father who has sent me as his son to do his heart’s work. His heart is my heart. I am his son.
I will give generously without prejudice.
One of the ways that sons combat prejudice and division is through joyful giving. 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us God loves a cheerful giver, and so I will cheerfully give toward love and connection in the family even more.
I will give to the Church of my city, not just the Church in a building.
I will give to those who watch over my soul first, but I also will give to those who faithfully lead others in order to encourage them and bless them. I will give to those in my spiritual family that I disagree with, just to give division no room to grow.
Anytime the devil tries to get me to shrink back from a Kingdom relationship I will give even more until he learns his lesson. Anytime the liar attacks me with fear of loss and bankruptcy, then I will give more just to make him look stupid.
I am writing a check right now.
I will claim the Church.
Jesus set a clear example for me in simply seeing and claiming the Church. I don’t wish to claim it like I own it, as though it was an organization, but I do wish to lay claim to healthy relationships with the believers that I can see!
I will write down the names of believers around me that I can have a relationship with and claim them as my spiritual family. I am making that list right now.
I will call them Church.
For some I will parent, with some I will partner, and from some I will learn. I don’t mind mixing that up a bit because our spiritual family life is fluid and intensely relational and is not set in static positions as some traditionalists like to pretend.
My Church of responsibility will be as big as my ability to receive them by name.
The Church in my imagination will go on to receive all of God’s beautiful people around the whole world into my heart.
I will be a hero of reconciliation.
In 2 Corinthians 5 we know that “we regard no one from a worldly point of view,” which is to say that we see according to the Spirit instead of the prejudices of the temporal world.
The passage continues: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
And just what is the result of this re-creation? “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
I can be sure that I have been given one ministry that I am expected to become great at: the ministry of bringing people together! So I choose to say aloud:
God, help me become a great reconciler of people with you and of people together with one another. I am your ambassador of family love and healing forgiveness.
Practical Thinking
Here is a short review of the foundation stones for Kingdom thinking. I suggest writing them onto individual notecards and digesting each one over time. We could take some time to find our favorite Scripture for each one.
The Church and the Kingdom are not the same.
One is the people and one is the purpose. One is the body and one is the DNA code. One is finite, one is infinite. One is revealed in the earth; one is poured out from Heaven. I claim one, and I proclaim one. The Church has the choice to agree with the Kingdom in real time, but the Kingdom is a concrete, eternal reality that is unchanging in the heart of God.
I will choose my battles wisely.
I will not not war against people who are trapped in the traditions of men because this is wrong thinking. I love people. I may refuse their weak ideas, but I can still love them. I should feel free to reject being owned by any system that sets itself against the knowledge of Christ and the Kingdom of God, but why would I burn down buildings when there are good people inside? I am not an anti-tradition person; I am a pro-Kingdom person. The difference is important.
The way it really is.
When I come to a new situation or face a new problem I ask, “What is really happening here?” The first impression I get from my eyes and ears is not as important as what is really happening. It is the Kingdom view of a situation that is my reality.
My favorite everyday definition of the Kingdom of God is this: The Kingdom of God is the way it really is. The way everything meaningful and lasting and good really is—is the Kingdom.
It is time I simply begin to look for it and to agree with this heavenly reality everywhere I go. I am a son who belongs to a heavenly Kingdom, so I can act, at any time, in accordance with the way it really is. I don’t have to act the way others expect me to act or the way others would see a situation and act. The Kingdom gives me new vision.
New ways of “doing Church” do not impress me.
There are many ways of meeting together as believers, and there are different structures and leadership styles. It is foolish to attach myself to only one with prejudice toward the rest.
Small, big, young, old, formal, casual, basic, or wild, the Church is always God’s people. If they do things differently in different places, well ... so what?
I am interested in helping others mature in Christ. I hear and partner with Paul’s heart for the Colossians:
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins [...] We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.” (Colossians 1:9-14,28)
I don’t war against those who are not like me.
I don’t rage against other Christ-loving peoples.
I have stopped competing with other fellowships. I quit bashing the charismatics. I quit lampooning the quiet traditionalists. It was a waste of time, and it is just not what Kingdom sons do.
So what if that other bunch has done and taught some crazy things that I don’t agree with? My traditional environment is far from perfect.
I have never met a family whose membership was built on agreement. Families are built on blood and adoption. I want to get my mind renewed with a vision for God’s family. I will work out my own salvation with fear and trembling and not let judgement and prejudice stunt my growth or bring harm to his family.
I choose the Tree of Life.
There were two trees in the garden and I can still choose to eat from either one today. If I only want to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, then I will live and die inside of the judgements and divisions that I bring to everything, and frankly, no one will want to invite me to their parties.
When I choose to eat from the Tree of Life then Christ pours out on me the wine of joy and the oil of healing. I am a joy to be around. I can leave the old ways of measuring and striving and fear behind.
I find that choosing to worship God with abandon helps me eat from the Tree of Life. I can say goodbye to all judgements and focus on the beautiful face of Jesus and worship him!
Practical Tradition Tester
Everywhere I go I meet two distinct kinds of people: those who want the life of the Kingdom and those who don’t. Some really want to see the Kingdom come more and they welcome the revolution. There are others, however, who just want to defend what they have known according to their traditions. Here are questions that will help us discern ourselves.
Do I refer to a building as the Church?
I repent for using the beautiful word Church to identify a building. I won’t do it any more. I will use the word Church only for the people of God.
Do I say, “I am going to Church.”?
Well, of course, this is craziness. It is like saying, “I am going to family” when we get off work and start the drive home. So, I repent for ever “going to Church” and I won’t do it any more.
Do I use possessive words in reference to Church?
The words “mine,” “yours,” and “theirs” are possessive pronouns. The Church is neither mine nor yours. It is neither theirs nor ours. The Church belongs to no man because it belongs completely to Jesus. We belong to it.
I repent.
Do I love to be mentored or do I shy from leadership?
I repent, God, and I ask you to show me the root of my rebellion. Is it wounding? Is it pride? Is it hiding from the light? Is it just poor training in my youth? Whatever it is, I am willing to face it and see myself healed so I can receive good leadership.
Am I more obsessed with projects or with people?
I repent for ever serving projects before I would serve people. I pray that people would grow larger and larger in my imagination and more beautiful to me every day so that I can have your eyes, Jesus. I want to be the person who shuts down projects when people are hurting, never the other way around.
Do I struggle with understanding the Kingdom?
I confess that I am a product of my tradition, and I have a weak mind. I need help. Help me, Jesus, to embrace the Kingdom message and the Kingdom truth so that I can both love the Church and proclaim your Kingdom.
Do I fence in the Holy Spirit so others will be safe?
Dear Holy Spirit, I want to be your friend. I do not want to treat you like an unruly child—or a untrustworthy adult—anymore. You are beautiful, necessary, trustworthy, and you are God. I release you in my life and in the world around me to be yourself.
Practical Meditations
Meditation in its simplest form is an idea worth repeating. Here are some ideas worth repeating. We can repeat them to ourselves. We can write them in our journals and put them in our songs. Let’s find a quiet place, close the door, and repeat these beautiful meditations aloud.
I am my Father’s favorite son.
Yes, I am my Father’s favorite son. We are all his favorites! This is the way Dad loves us. He loves us so much that we are each his favorites. I am his dearly beloved and I will be carefully taken care of. I have no fear about his preserving love ever losing its power or affection for me.
I am in agreement with God.
I am an instrument that makes a beautiful sound, and my most beautiful sound is the one that harmonizes with the heart of God. The Kingdom is like a song and I am carefully listening so I can join in. Since I have been reborn into the Kingdom of God, this song is so natural for me. It sounds like home. I am coming home. I live in harmony with God as Christ surrounds me. I agree with God.
The Holy Spirit is full-on.
The Kingdom of God is here when Christ appears, and now, by the Holy Spirit, he appears in us! The Kingdom advances as we, the sons of God, continue to receive it and proclaim it. The coming of the Kingdom is a fluid, present reality and the sons of God are authorized to act in accordance with it. I am a Kingdom agent. I can release what is in Heaven right here on the earth! I have abandoned the misinformed teachings on how gifts, miracles, and graces died with the apostles of the Lamb in the first century A.D. Most have done this to excuse their own lack of power, but not us—we are empowered sons and a people of faith! We are full of the power of the Holy Spirit.
I expect the miracle of salvation all around me.
We call out to the lost and invite them to join us in the heavenly family, not just to join us at a Church meeting. We invite others to repent and believe in Jesus, be reunited with Father, and enter the Kingdom of God. They will become part of the Church as a relational byproduct. We believe for all to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit as the obvious gift of God to empower us to live according to the Kingdom’s expectations, just as the apostles in th e New Testament expected it for anyone who chose to repent and follow Jesus. Salvation is available for everyone around me.
I am ready for rejection, but it does not define me.
Jesus quotes the mission statement of the Kingdom in Isaiah 61 when he first speaks publicly in a religious meeting. He was in his hometown of Nazareth, in Luke 4, and the meeting did not end well. In fact, it ended in religious folks trying to throw him off of a cliff. As soon as I begin to proclaim the Kingdom some will be immediately ready to throw me off a cliff, too. If I teach Kingdom responsibility some will receive it as an offense. Some will see it as the giving of a new law or a new way for people to fail. This reaction is common, even among good people, when believers have learned to love and protect their form of Church more than they understand proclaiming the Kingdom.
I will not judge those who do not hear. I receive my charge to equip the saints and encourage the family, even the judgmental members of the family. I am going to take up my personal responsibility, and I am going to mature in Christ.
I will not glory in being rejected. My glory will be my love for the family of God.
I am like my Dad.
I am like my Dad. It is natural for me to obey him, and it is unnatural for me to disagree with him. I am a son who is destined to become like his Father, and I will show my transformation by saying that I believe that I am a son now through my faith in Christ alone. I will receive the Kingdom and enjoy my favored position in the eyes of my Father. I am beginning to shine as it says I will in Matthew 13:43:
“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”
AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK: TOM AND THE GOLDFISH BOWL
BY: BEN PASLEY
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