JESUS THE BENCHMARK – #2 BECOMING A SON

by | Mar 3, 2025 | Sonship, Walking With God

#2 BECOMING A SON

Jesus was not acknowledged as a son until He was thirty years old, which was the custom of that time. Until then, like other Jewish boys, He was considered a child of Mary and Joseph. When a child reached a certain age, the child was then introduced to all that he was now a son. It was a type of rank that held much honor. It meant that this son could function in the capacity of the father in everything, including legal matters. Their voice was as good as the father’s voice.

When Jesus was thirty years old, after having fulfilled all requirements of their father in learning the traditions of the culture and family as well, He left His home with His earthly family to continue the fulfillment of the religious practice as well. He was to be baptized by John, the baptist, into the baptism of righteousness.

As soon as He came up from the waters, (Matthew 3:16) something phenomenal took place. The heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

THIS IS MY BELOVED SON…

The same privilege He had as a son of Joseph in His natural father’s house, he now enjoyed in His relationship with His Heavenly Father.

Jesus saw the Spirit of God descending on Him. He heard the voice of His father proclaiming His position as a Son…and His Father let Jesus know that this was His desire.

From that point in the Gospels, as much as we can see, everything for Jesus appeared to go much differently than His first thirty years in the home of Mary, Joseph and His siblings.

There was still work to be done in Him, even though God had proclaimed Him as a Son. There was still a test or two to be accomplished.

Something we do not always grab hold to right away when we are positioned into anything that requires trust and allegiance, is the test of belief and commitment.  Jesus was to be tested, not as a son, but as a bond servant. Jesus was in flesh and blood and had chosen, according to the Book of Colossians, to lay aside His deity and walk in the earth as a human being, just like you and me.  At every turn of His Life in this earth, He could deny His position with Father and choose to walk away. This is important to understand.

The thought often comes to people that because Jesus was God, that He could not deny God. If it were not possible for Him to walk away, then we have no authentic redeemer. He did not simply change uniforms at will to fight the enemy. This is why His first thirty years with His earthly family was so important. If He would not submit to the natural leadership of Mary and Joseph, He would not be qualified to be a leader in the Kingdom.

He was driven into the wilderness by Spirit for the purpose of being tested by the devil. The word, “driven” denotes a strong action, implying the possibility of Jesus preferring not to go into the wilderness. We must not forget that Jesus functioned as a human being to be led by the Spirit of God, the example for each of us. He did not function out of miraculous power belonging to Him. He functioned out of miraculous power given to Him by the Father. As a Son he had access to all that Father possessed…and all that He was. All because He was not only His Son, but a son.

The purpose was to show us the way to the Father. He was and is the pattern son. If we are not allowing our lives to be directed by Jesus’ path to the Father, then we have not yet begun true maturity toward Father.

The scriptures never say that Jesus was the way to Heaven. It says He was the way to The Father.

Back to the wilderness. A book can be written about the wilderness, however, it is not the purpose for this writing. As the devil made himself known to Jesus the temptation was for Jesus to question His relationship with the Father. If that became the problem, He would then have to deal with the pride of life, lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. In other words, He would have been consumed with what He wanted for himself. Eros would have dominated His every decision. As you read those verses in Matthew 3 you will discover that Satan was humbled by the eventual words of Jesus…you (satan) must worship the Lord (your) God. Once, put in His place, satan left the wilderness.

All that has transpired in what seems to be a few verses and lots of paragraphs is the same route each of us must take to follow the pattern of sonship that Jesus followed.

Our walk in righteousness – Jesus baptism fulfilled the law of righteousness and immersed Him into it. Righteousness is an ongoing process in our lives, walked out through our salvation. It is the culture in which the Kingdom is pollenated. Let it be done in the earth as it is in Heaven.

The acknowledgement of the Father that we have entered into the  classroom of sonship (John 1:12). We not only acknowledge who He is, we also acknowledge who we are. The wilderness is always a testing of who we are in Christ, from Christ and because of Christ.

The commitment of becoming a son in this earth is hinged on God’s way, not our way. We could not choose our natural parents and we do not choose our spiritual parents. There is a difference when one is drawn to someone because Holy Spirit is at work and when we pick out someone for ourselves. It has been my experience with Fathering Leaders God chooses and the ones I thought I would rather have is that the Fathering Leader God chooses has the characteristics of what we need; not necessarily what we prefer. We must maintain a constant developing relationship with Holy Spirit. According to the Gospel of Luke, when Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, He remained upon Him.

As we explore Jesus’ relationship with His disciples you will find that Jesus was drawn to those whom Holy Spirit sent and there were those who came because they thought it would be nice to be associated with Him.

I have seen over the years many people who wanted to be associated with ministries and ministry leaders they hoped would lead them into a fruitful ministry. The hurts and disappointments as well as shallow and fragile ministries developed. The leader of those ministries were not evil…many were stronger in display then in demonstration of the word. As I look back I am grateful that Holy Spirit intervened just in time in many situations. Many of those ministries today do not have the strength necessary to help others move forward in the ways of God.

Building a ministry and knowing God are not always partners.

JESUS THE BENCHMARK #1

by | Mar 3, 2025 | Sonship, Walking With God

JESUS IS THE BENCHMARK FOR THOSE WHO CLAIM TO FOLLOW HIM…

Everyone who follows Jesus is not a son. Everyone who claims to be a son does not always understand what that means. It is my desire that the following series of articles will help the simplest of us to understand what a son is; how will they know they are a son and what is expected of them. In this same study we will define the role of the Fathering Leader and God’s expectations of the Leader.

Moses tells us in Exodus 17:15b that THE LORD IS MY BANNER.

The word “banner” is defined from the Hebrew language as “The Standard.”
It is from this thought that all thoughts are either based on “what is above” and either pleases the Father or it pleases us and our own thoughts.

We like the idea of thinking that we have great control over our thoughts, emotions and reactions. This is only true when the Word of God is at the forefront of all we think, see and do. If this were not the case, there would not have been a need for Jesus to be driven into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tested by the enemy, nor would it have been a need for Him to go to the Garden of Gethsemane to be tested, even by some of His disciples as well as the enemy. Both events affected His response to His physical and emotional needs or His response to the commitment He had made to His Father.

Jesus going to the cross was Father’s desire and Jesus commitment. Jesus left the Heavenly surrounding, agreeing to become a member of the human race. I do not understand how this works, but by making that agreement He would forever be of the human race and forever would He be the Christ, the anointed priest, members of the sacred God Head. Yet, He still has the scars on His hands, feet and side to prove His humanity experience.

It is not Father’s desire that we become like Him once we leave this earth and return to heaven. It is His desire that the image (all that Jesus did in the earth) becomes a normal part of our everyday walk with Him. Once this thought becomes flesh, we will function much differently in the earth and in the heavenly. After all, we are seated with Him in Heavenly Places, so we must be able to function in that atmosphere.

As He is the Benchmark our actions are based upon what He has already done; completed and has sustained for the Father. We do not celebrate the Passover…we live the Passover daily. It is not an event on the calendar. God’s people find it easier to celebrate and commemorate an event rather than live it out as an eternal happening. This is what has made being a son so difficult. We learn to do this by placing Jesus at the forefront of our tutorship as we learn and enjoy becoming a joint heir with Jesus as the Son of God.

Jesus is the first born of many brethren. We do not know how many brethren. We know, however,  individually our inheritance rests on being one of His brethren.

If the sum of everything is in our knowledge of going to heaven, our life in the earth has been minimal in comparison to what Father intended because of His Son. Jesus is the Pattern Son. The Apostle Paul said he prayed for the image of Christ to be formed in us. If He is not formed in us, what is our foundation for going to a place where you may not be recognized? Salvation is not your ticket into Heaven. Being Born again is. Salvation teaches us how to develop into the righteousness we have acquired through the blood of Jesus so that we will understand the language and lifestyle of the Kingdom.

As we continue this study, which is quite light in comparison to the full biblical details, we will discover why John was called the “disciple whom Jesus loved” and why He did not give that same affection to the others.

This series will be posted on my blog as each article is completed. You may get to the blog by going to [https://ireflekt.com](https://ireflekt.com “Jesus The Benchmark”).

Dishonest Love

by | Nov 28, 2024 | God's Love, Walking With God

We must be very careful when we confess our distaste or dislike for someone and there is no love in our HEARTS in harmony with God’s love for them. Words are cheap. We have said we love people when we really did not. God does not put His stamp of approval on us when we claim to love, yet we really do not. We must be ruthlessly honest with ourselves, for it is easy to lie to ourselves…

I focus on this topic more, now, than ever. I am still learning and intentionally attempting to come into line with Father on this subject. We are faced with the issue of God’s love versus the love of man on a daily basis. Our feelings are hurt. Sometimes our families are hurt…and in our self-justification, we do not always understand why God doesn’t do something about our pain. Well, He does. He will heal you from the pain, the scars and all around you, yet He will not relinquish His love from anyone. 

He does not condone what people have done to hurt any of us. It still does not remove His love for them. I asked Him, one day, why this was the case. His answer, for me, was like trying to explain the godhead. I understood it enough to believe Him, but not enough to make the process any easier.

As a result of this effort (and He must help me daily), my relationship with Him began to change. One day I found myself without reaction to some situations that, in the past, were crushing. It was not a numbness…it was a knowing. I spent less time licking my wounds and trying to understand people and began focusing my time on understanding Father’s purpose, for that is where the crux of the matter is. As we mature in Him, we discover that He says He is not like a man, who lies…The words, I Love You, have been used manipulatively for a long time, and in our own desire to be loved, we believe it. I do not believe everyone who tells me they love me anymore. I do believe God. I believe that there are people who want to love me unconditionally; and then a condition shows up that severs that connection. I am not as bothered by that as I was years ago. 

My discovery has been that the longer I walk with God, my understanding our desires concerning love have grown with that walk. I do not have a need to hear those words all of the time from people..and if I never hear it again, I am solid in knowing that I love God and He loves me. When Paul made the statement that “he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him” was referring to the fact that if the disciples had not brought to him the financial need he needed, his reliance was upon Father…not just for the needs being met, but the attitude displayed by Christ because He was quite able to meet Paul’s needs. (Php 4:13)

Throughout scripture God worked with and through ungodly people and those who had no covenant with Him to bring about His tremendous purpose for all of us.

For God’s purposes, He loves everyone, even those we may wonder about. He does not accept any behavior that is not in harmony with Him or His purposes. He, however, never stops loving them (us) and doing everything possible and necessary to woo us back into His ways. To understand and embrace this, we must allow Him to reveal to each of us what this means and what it looks like.

You can forgive people and never lose God’s love for them, and patiently wait out the transformation God will do in you and in them. 

We must be very careful that we do not indict people without God’s permission. This is why praying for someone without counsel with God can cause more problems for that person and yourself. With counsel, He will give you His direction of prayer…but never assume that praying according to an individual’s behavior is always the correct way. I have had to learn this the hard way.

If it ain’t broke, they say, don’t fix it.

by | Nov 27, 2024 | Uncategorized

Well, it is broke…and most do not know it. You know why? The word “broke” like “w.o.k.e” has been redefined.

All of my websites broke a few weeks ago…they went out on the same day. This is the second time I have had to redo one of them. Amazingly, it is the one with all of my blogs…things I have written for over thirty years. It is more frustrating than anything. I know it is technology…however, I am listening to see if Holy Spirit is telling me something.

MINISTRY RESET does not mean to redo your ministry so people can see progressive changes in the cosmetics of our ministries. It is a waste of time to start from where we are and repaint the building and buy a new keyboard…and change the service times for the younger ones…and call it reset. 

MINISTRY RESET means to first find out what MINISTRY means. David’s lack of attention to this instruction needlessly cost him the life of a man who was trying to help him move a cart. 

We are leading precious people who are waiting on instructions, demonstrations and explanations on what to do next. If our instructions are to continue as they are, we are in for a rude awakening. Like David, we will lose valuable people who came to help, but are dying at the expense of our ignorance.

If we are still doing ministry the same way we did a few years ago when we encountered the dreaded disease…we are, then, in the same boat as before. We talked and complained more than we demonstrated the word of God we had taught prior to the devastation of people’s lives. Many just caved in, not able to properly divide the word of truth.

MINISTRY RESET requires our willingness to stop where we are, go back to the instruction manual and listen to what God has said…and is still saying. Actually, it requires more than that. 

Andrew Murray equates being spirit-filled as being fully surrendered to Holy Spirit. How can we be fully surrendered to Holy Spirit and fully surrendered to what we want at the same time? Scripture reminds us that we will love one and hate the other as we cannot serve both God and mammon. Who wants to admit which one is hated?

I suggest that many of God’s people are illegally in ministry because they are not in harmony with God. He reconciled Himself to us…Paul then says for us to reconcile ourselves to Him. In other words, we cannot walk as one if He is the only one who entered into reconciliation. Oh, we accepted what He did for us based on the hope and assumed promise we can go to Heaven. That is not why He did what He did.

Until we are in harmony with Him, His word, and His purposes, we can only function with the gifts HE GAVE us because without the Gifts and no harmony, we must rely on our own power. 

We can build meetings without Him. We can even establish some form of government without Him. It is what some have already done. That is what social justice is all about…build in our own power, meeting the needs of the people…and not the purposes of God…like Gen 11 as the people attempted to build their own tower to sit in their power. 

Did you notice what God did when the folks were trying to build for themselves? He said in Gen 11:7 ampc:

Come, let Us go down and there confound (mix up, confuse) their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

Wonder if He came down and we cannot discern it.

The Interrupting and Ferocious Power of “God Love”

by | Nov 27, 2024 | God's Love

People have a puny idea of God’s Love. Any time the word “love” appears there seems to be an expectation of soft, tender, fluffy and agreeing emotions that huddles and cuddles one into oblivion. And that is exactly where most are today.

God’s Love is ferocious and interrupting. In the minds of those without understanding, He appears to be brutal and non caring.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

In the book of Genesis God interrupts the chaos…there was no distinguishable form in the earth, it was empty and the dark went to the deepest. THEN the Spirit of God invaded this emptiness which was not empty at all by interrupting the surface of the waters and with His energy His frequency reminded the deep that the seeds in there were eternal…thus He recreated or brought forth what was already in existence. 

God starts with nothing and brings forth…yet He never starts with nothing, for He is always in existence.

His voice, heard by Himself first, brought forth from the darkness, commanding the light to come from where it could not be seen to where it could be seen.

Whenever God is ready to make a presentation He is not pretentious…He is direct, and it is up to those who see the results to realize His intentions went beyond anything common.

People often say that they have never heard the audible sound of God’s voice…yet, they are aware He has spoken. How deep was the deep that the sound of His voice was energized by His very movement and presence hovering over it…such as a hen would over her eggs? The sound is irrelevant in comparison to the effect of the energy which is usually experienced prior to the sound. 

LIGHT BE! was His proclamation. He did not create the Light. He is light and He is not created. To that which was yet to come forth, He said…SEE ME!

He did not stop to see if anything or anyone felt good, fluffy or warm and cuddly from all of this activity that was experienced before it was seen and heard.

Ecc 3:15  That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

The result, the purpose is the result of a power that we may never fully understand. You cannot hold it in your hands, yet, the eternal seed existing in the empty space was framed by His words as what was once existing now appears again. HaHa…the enemy created chaos…the enemy did not win, for Our Almighty and Powerful One never lost what was spoken before the beginning.

Isaiah 53 says It pleased Him to bruise (crush) His Son. Where is the fluffy, cuddly experience in that picture that appears to be so brutal? And, yet He then speaks of the fruit of the crushing.

Isa 53:10  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

The Love of God will pulverize every barrier impeding the progress for His purpose. The splitting of a woman’s womb to bring forth a child too big to come through…the ferocious impact of the deep (where life is experienced openly) the child is born into brings forth compelling sounds that causes the child to be quickly placed on the mother’s breast as a reminder that at one point they were both sharing the same space…and that sound broke through to free the start of another generation. 

Take a closer look at what seems to be a display of destruction, anger and pain coming from the one WHO IS LOVE and trace it back to Him, His Heart and His Purpose…and we may begin to cooperate with Him (perhaps shakingly) to witness the Power of a Being who always is, always was and will always remain the same…GOD IS LOVE. Incomprehensible yet enjoyed as we grasp His presence in the most difficult situations. What looks impossible to you and me is because we do not totally understand His Love, though He wants us to have enough of an understanding to say:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that LOVE God, to them who are the called (hear His Sound) according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)

This can only happen as we intentionally give our being to Him and let Him, at His pace, infuse us with the LOVE that is Him.

When you relinquish your everything (Mark 12:23) there is nothing left for you, leaving the place for you and Him to be in Harmony with each other blessing others.

Most of our lives have been spent trying to get something we have always had…the adamic nature requires us to feed ourselves on our love for ourselves that we overlook the true power of God and His Love. Love for ourselves is as destructive for our purpose, as His Love is destructive for His purpose. 

He is God. He wins. All things work together for good to them that LOVE GOD…NOT SELF.

God is Love…and in that knowledge I rest, believe and know.