9th Week - Leaving the Orphan Spirit!

Discipleship Training School. We train to be disciples following the apostles example: full-time Christian life. That's the premise of this time, that should make from us the same as the apostles were. Simple enough, isn't it?

Alright then, WHAT were the apostles to Jesus?

They came to him as disciples. They served him, because they came to believe that he was the Messiah. They learned from him, slow and steadily. Eventually, they understood his nature as the son of God. They were close. I can only guess that, at some moment, they found themselves thinking of Jesus as a friend. A close friend, in fact. The Hebrew people was waiting for a militar leader, a son of David, who would free their land from the Roman oppression. Surprisingly, he was a caring and wonderful friend who was more interested on bringing hope and good news to the despised than in rising an army. Judas rebelled against that; he couldn't stand that.

Meanwhile, the other apostles ate with Jesus. It was an usual ocurrence for them to share a same plate and soaking their bread on it. John rested his head over Jesus  chest. They were friends. Pals. They worked for him, and whenever he gave an order to them they obeyed. Again, their orders were to procclaim that the Kingdom of God was getting closer and closer, and to bring health and blessings, and rebuke demons. He was a teacher more than a boss, and finally, some of a big brother more than a teacher.

And then a Bro.

When the son of God calls you brother, what does that mean? The Bible tells us that Jesus is not ashamed of calling us, the ones who believe in Him as our saviour and Lord, his siblings. That's amazing. Not only in a "how cool!" sense; it amazes me. The Creator itself... God the Son... calls me "brother"? God the Father calls me "son" too? How can that be?

It's something too big to be understood at once. I needed to take it step by step: servant --> friend --> son. The thing is, on a normal relationship, when you arrive to a new job, you have co-workers that can eventually become friends, and good friends. Unknown people can become friends. They are potential friends. But only on very specific circumstances you can become someone's son. Or father. So, the sonship is a change on the nature itself of the relationship. It's not a natural progress of it. To become a son, you have to be born again.

In Acts 5, Peter and the apostles are being judged about sharing the Gospel by the Sanhedrin, who considers it an heresy. But then, Gamaliel -Saul's own teacher of the law!- tells the Sanhedrin that, if this doctrine is false, it will disappear on his own in a while. If it's true, opposing the apostles is the same as fighting God. That wise man was a servant of God. Probably, this show of mercy means that he was a friend of God; he understood God's mercy and closeness to His people. But he couldn't be a son yet.

Alternatively, he was just procrastinating.

After a lifetime of being an spiritual orphan, and also being influenced by human's mindset of achieving everything by ourselves -that makes total sense for an orphan who cannot ask his Father for help!- it takes time for the Holy Spirit to convince us for opening ourselves to Him. Layer by layer, our wrong mindset must go, so we can receive the full blessing of our true identity.

Being God's son means a closeness unattainable by our own means. It means that God's nature live in our own, that we receive the spirit of adoption (see Romans 8:15). It means that our dreams and desires are the same of the Holy Spirit. We'll have to lay our rights, yeah. We'll have to lay them over those God-inspired dreams. So we shouldn't stop having ambitions and desires. In fact, we should aim them higher than ever! Our Father is there to give them to us!

Of course, we should never stop the search for holiness, nor stop praying, talking and listening to the Lord. Is just that we will never need again to desperately beg, but to wait in hope and trust. We can ask passionately. Last night, I was praying with the guys from our bedroom for the finances needed for the outreach. I discerned a burden: many of us, myself included, had stopped paying the tithe for some time. Then I had a strong change of feelings.

God's definition of love is giving yourself to others: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." The outreach means that we're on our way to give ourselves to the unreached people. We love them, because God's love for them lives in us. Suddenly, I felt the urge of being able to give myself.

I wanted to. I needed to. The idea of being unable to because of my sin was unbearable. Then, crying, I repented of my sin. I asked for God's mercy, so we could be freed, as our act of disobedience was giving power to the kingdom of darkness over us, so it could block the flow of God's blessing to us. I was so sorry! I understood God's heart for the people because I shared. My Father wants to save everyone, and my sins and mistakes were hindering His love!

The prayer meeting was intense, beautiful and succesful. We're waiting for God's full provision to reach us in brief. Meanwhile, we will enjoy our time of being collected with our dear Abba.

I didn't even want to make this joke.
I was just afraid of exploding if I didn't take the chance.