Wow! Can just a few words actually summarize what the "Set-Apart Training Retreat" really meant for my life? Talk about opening the door and seeing God in a whole new wonderful and spectacular way, talk about coming alive to the reality of the most exciting existence that anyone could hope to live, talk about laughing and crying and praying...praying like I never have before with a team of youth come alive with the passion of Christ. Words fail me to describe the experience. It was a glimpse of Heaven, a taste of the promised land! And to think, it was only the first step! Wow!!!
Eric has a 20 part series that he's been developing over the last months and year, but due to time, we only covered about half of the material. Thankfully he gave us all the notes as well as a stack of CD's that he'd already recorded with their ministry team. So that's a blessing.
In a Nutshell (If this is possible), I'll give a run-down of the important points.
The Endless Frontier
- Never pitch your tent spiritually, even if you are ahead of 99.9% of the rest of the world, we must always be pressing ever upward and onward. Choose to be a pioneer rather than a settler.
- Always allow scripture to define the potential of the Christ-life, not other Christians. Don't limit what God can do in your life.
- Make the destination the promised land, and don't settle for the wilderness experience. God has so much more in store for us.
The School of Christ
"The school of Christ must break us before it can build us. It must exact so that it might fill. It must first conquer so that the Almighty King can rule. It must bring storm before it invades with triumphant peace. For the gospel to be understood aright and to be exercised in its fullness in the soul of man, the ruin of man's inner domain must first be exposed. For the benevolent takeover of our existence to commence, we first must realize the vast extent of our need of rescue. God has a plan to regenerate our lives, to wholly and completely reconstruct and reform us, to in a sense, rebirth a whole new existence within our being. He has a design to conform us to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29), to pattern us after the perfect temple (Ezek 40:3). His expectations and desires for our human lives are nothing short of a pure and perfectly undiluted replication of His own life. But for man...these expectations are impossible to fulfill.
Thus, before we can reach the promised land, we must realize three basics.
1. We must realize the greatness and vastness of God's intent in our lives
2. We must realize how sinful and unworthy we are of His great plan
3. We must realize that it's humanly impossible of ourselves to ever achieve the plan
The fullness of Grace and what it means
We should be perfect (Matt 5:48)
We should be holy (1Pet 1:16)
We should be slaves to righteousness (Rom 6:19)
We should be dead to sin (Rom 6L10-12)
We should be pictures of supernatural love (Luke 6:27-31)
We should not shrink back from death (Rev 12:11)
We should deny self, pick up the cross and follow Him (Matt 16:24)
But how can all this be?
"And when Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life." Matt 27:50-55
"We are to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect, but not by struggle and effort, but by the impartation of that which is perfect." - Oswald Chambers
Check out the following verses:
Col 1:23-29
Eph 3
Gal 2:20-21
Matt 21:11-13
John 2:18-21
1 Cor 3:16-18
1 Cor 6:18-20
2 Cor 6:15-17
The theme of scripture? Ruin, Redemption, and Regeneration!
"The whole purpose of the Redemption is to give back to man the original source of life, and in a regenerated man this means "Christ formed in you." Am I willing that the old disposition should be crucified with Christ? If I am, Jesus Christ will take possession of me and will baptize me into His life until I bear a strong family likeness to Him. It is a lonely path, a path of death, but it means ultimately being "presenced with Divinity." The Christian life does not take its pattern from good men, but from God himself, that is why it is an absolutely amazing supernatural life all through." - Oswald Chambers
Scripture
Eric then showed us through scripture the battle between "Flesh & Spirit." Although I've known about this battle, it was never so clear as he went through the different layers of scripture.
Ishmael versus Isaac
Essau versus Jacob
Wilderness versus Promised Land
Amalekites versus Israelites
Saul versus David
Sinai versus Moriah, Zion
Then he talked a lot about the covenant shift, from laws written on tablets of stone to lives made complete through the indwelling of His Spirit in our lives today!
He shared how we need to recognize the Amalekites in our lives that are trying to keep us from the promised land. They represent the things of our flesh that keep us from being completely surrendered and overtaken by God.
He talked about the work of "tribulation" and how important it is in our lives. I had to admit that I had been praying that God would NOT allow tribulation into my life, as I'm afraid of more loss and pain. But God convicted me over this weekend that I need to open my hands to allow whatever He needs to bring into my life to humble me, build me, and re-create me. Wow!
Probably the most important part of Eric's series was the sections titled "To Tremble" and "Canon" validating the authenticity and power of scripture. He made a statement that I will never forget.
"The way you treat and value scripture is the way you treat and value Christ!"
Scripture is very important to me...I read it every day, I memorize portions of it, and I talk about it with my friends. But is it my very sustenance, my very life...is my soul close to death without it? I have to admit, I often take it forgranted, and don't value it as I hope I would Christ were He in my presence! Lord help me, Lord forgive me!!
Finally - what about the THREE RIGHTS?
First Right
"In God's mysterious language, the right side of the body denotes far more than a mere compass direction or physical appendage; it denotes strength, power, salvation, control, will, lordship, kingship, holiness, cleanliness, correctness, correction, social propriety, honor and wisdom. Therefore, if man claims this "right side" of his being and refuses to release it unto God, he is despising the offer of God's strength, power, salvation, control, will, lordship, kingship, holiness, cleanliness, correctiness, correction, heavenly propriety, honor, and wisdom and is determining to seek those things by means of his own machinations. Therefore, the right side of one's being must be relinquished in order for man to become as he ought to be."
"Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." Exodus 15:6
Second Right
"Humanism emphasizes the natural born rights of man for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These inborn, inherent, innate rights of man are reasonable and proper to uphold in a human society. But God's business is pressing us into a heavenly, not an earthly society - a heavenly and not an earthly pattern of living. Every man has these reasonable and naturally inherited possessions - a right to control, decide his own course, engineer his outcome, design and build his fortune and fame, create and stimulate his happiness and pleasure, keep or relinquish his assets. But as long as man holds onto this perceived right, he cannot enter into the pattern of Jesus Christ, who asks for everything, including even that which is reasonable to keep, to be poured out as a sacrifice upon the altar of devotion. Therefore, the natural born inherent rights of man must be relinquished in order for man to become as he ought to be."
"Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth." I Cor 10:22
Third Right
"Man has a way which he perceives is correct and proper, but God must prove that man's opinion is unholy and wholly unlike his own. God must redefine "correctness" in man's existence. God's ways appear foolishness to man's natural mind, but in reality, God's ways are "right and correct" and it is man's ways that are actually foolish, incorrect and wrong. The "right" idea is, by scriptural definition, the perfect and inviolable opinion of God; never wrong, never perverted, never polluted, and always, without exception correct. God is right, His Word is right, His Word became flesh is right, and everything that opposes this "right" is, without exception, always wrong. Therefore, the way that seems right to a man, must be relinquished in order for man to become as he ought to be."
"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov 14:12
"Each way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord ponders the hearts." Prov 21:2
Summary of the "Rights"
-We must allow God to strip us of everything that might cause us to think we have saved ourselves by our own right hand.
-All our human faculties must be overtaken. Our mind must submit to things that may appear foolish, our hands and feet must now do the bidding of a New Power within, for no longer is our right arm our own.
-Our every possession must be handed over, poured out with rediculious extravagance upon the feet of our King. We must learn to abide, to rest at His feet, and though the world bustle about in the strength of their own right-handedness and call us crazy, we must choose the good part (the holy pattern) in order to fully apprehend His strength, salvation, abundant life and amazing love.
-We must willingly become fools in the eyes of the world. We must forsake popularity for the applause of The Man of the Right Hand. For the Kingdom and for the Glory we must pronounce the Truth that we know will sound foolishness in the hearts and minds of the world. We must choose to live a life that seems not merely strange, but repulsive to the right-handed men and women that look on. But through this foolishness. God will ultimately prove that the true fools are those who lean upon their own right-handedness to save them.
-The right hand of God will not work on behalf of the rich, but He will certainly rescue the poor. When our right hand is consecrated unto Christ, then it must fall in line with what Christ's right hand would do - it must reach out, it must extend itself to fight against injustice, to fight for truth, to protect the fatherless, to feed the hungry, to comfort the sick, and to provide for those who have nothing. A righteous life is a life wholly spent, not partially spent, on the work of the right hand of God.
"I have set the Lord always before me: Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." Psalms 16:8
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt 6:33
That is my greatest desire...and from this day forward, more than ever before, my plan is to "Seek Him First" in all that I do!
Watch out, because there will be more wild radical changes ahead!!!!
*Note* - To check out some of the powerful "Set-Apart Life" sessions online, go to:
http://www.ericandleslie.com/discipleship.php
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