ARCHIVE: Volume One

SHARING AWARENESS WEEKLY
EIDO, because of its visionary core, has, in essence, had to be a one-man out working for the past three decades. Now after 23 years waiting upon the Lord in a personal desert, the first true signs of green pasture have appeared in my heart. Discovery of what God has done deep within is being revealed daily and I humbly invite you to join me, on my journey, 999 Words at a time. My hope, for any reader, is that each main article will add, to you & me, an ever-deepening spectrum of insight into the Heart of God our Father & what He is representing through His EIDO Vision.
The Call to EIDO is not about me, it's about God's Plan For You!

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:"
                                                       Ephesians 1:17 KJV

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Full Transcripts - Main Message From All Emails:
 
ARCHIVE Volume 1 : Issues 0001 - 0020

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ISSUE 001: What is True Unity?  
Issued 14th March 2017

Greetings, in the Most Precious & Powerful Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

May the constant prayer of our hearts be that the Good Lord continues to Bless & Keep us as we continue to move on in faith pushing through the multitude of issues that seem to surround us continually.

For, in Christ, is it not our excellent service to share in His Sufferings, to take up our cross daily & follow Him.

We love you in Christ Jesus & want you to know that you do not suffer alone for as the Bible tell us when one member of the body suffers, all members suffer with it.

For even though having been brought into each other’s lives through Christ and the Power of His Love, the absence of any ability to physically assist each other often engenders a sense of helplessness when news comes of a brother undergoing trial in his life or walk.

Parents well know the feeling, at times quite overwhelmingly, that instantly arises in them when their child, being out of their physical reach, is suffering a burden in life.

In such a circumstance, their constant longing for the best for their child rapidly undergoes a passionate intensification that only serves to undergird their love with a steadfast hope, even in seemingly hopeless situations.

Blood, through familial ties, is the strongest bond known to humanity for it produces a love which was neither actively pursued nor personally achieved, but rather inherited or given, motivated in its purest form by a simple compelling, rather than any compulsion.

So, therefore, the greatest power of human blood lies in its familial ties, its ancestry & the resultant love of family which serves to benefit, but never able to completely fulfil, our essential emotional need ‘to belong’.

The Bible tells us that God is Love & that He made us in His Image & Likeness.

The concept of the family unit is the universally accepted, indisputable central basis to human existence, having known no cultural nor moral barriers & perfectly reflecting the very core of Gods Kingdom, the GodHead.

For the very nucleus of God’s Kingdom is the oneness of family, both in Heaven & on earth, for within it multiple parts become one.

In this life, we soon learnt of its irreplaceable worth through being an anchor to our lives, providing a place of belonging that we all find we need.

Correspondingly, whenever man devalues it, a tremendous toll is extracted upon the whole of humanity whether perceived or not.

When we were born again, we underwent a Beautiful Exchange, where in the blink of an eye, our once dead spirit man came alive again to the relationship with God through the revealing of Jesus to us.

There, through our Blood Bought Adoption, was Revealed our Sonship, through Jesus Christ into the Family of God.

Once dead but now Alive in Him, our spirit now bears True Witness to Blessed Assurance & hope of the salvation of our souls.

Now, in having been delivered from the penalty of all our sins, past, present & future, we now have become aware of the Eternal Family that first was the template to the core concept of human families as we know them.

For in Jesus, we all, regardless of function, are now an equally valuable part of the Body of Christ Jesus, embraced in Eternal Family, providing us with means to take hold of the One sure anchor to Eternal belonging.

God is Our Father in Heaven. In Jesus, we are His Sons. All believers the moment they first Believed became brothers & sisters in Christ.

We cannot pray or work for unity as it is already ours through Christ. However, we can, & indeed must forever exercise it in love.

John 13:34  King James Version (KJV)
34 A new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Please, receive our love as we have received yours and let us together continue taking hold of Jesus’ Yoke which is light & easy so that we may continue to love one another freely without constraint in Unity.

EIDO … Seeking Conscious Awareness of God, His Kingdom & True Unity

This phrase I believe is God’s encapsulation to me of the essence of His Purpose for the Spiritual Movement known as EIDO.

Read naturally it seemingly denotes that the EIDO Vision has three progressive steps in the process of its fulfilment, seeking God, His Kingdom, True Unity.

‘True Unity’ kept jumping out at me, often questioning how it is any different to Unity in the Body of Christ already made complete in Him.

Pondering the question again, some two years later, these words came.

One God, One Plan, One Purpose.

Never can we be One with God, for there will always be an infinite distance between man & God, for Christ is the only express image of God’s person, whereas we are more akin to a shadow.

Neither are we ever to be One with His Plan. God prepared everything before creating Adam. We are never privy to His Plan. for Job 38:4 KJV says “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.”  

In fact, on the other hand, we were specifically Created to be One with His Purpose, made to be His Good Pleasure, seeing Him in His creation surrounding us & knowing Him in the cool of the day.

It has always been about God, His Kingdom & our True Unity with His Purpose.

Luke 12:32 KJV says “ Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

His Plan only came about because of man’s fall into sin.

Isaiah 46:10 says ‘Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:”.

He is going to awaken us from our slumber to Stand in True Unity with His Purpose.

ISSUE 002:  Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 1  
Issued 21st March 2017

One of our grandsons suffers a spectrum or degree of autism which is a developmental condition affecting how he relates in social communication, interaction & his environment.  

His mother, before he started his schooling, was the only one who at various times managed to understand what he was saying or trying to express.

He was continually repetitive with his actions, such as watching the same video or show, over & over again. Finally, with the proper diagnosis, we were to find out this is normal behaviour for the autistic.

We came to visit one day during the earlier times, still unable to decipher a word, he said no matter how hard we tried.

We were sitting in the lounge & the television was playing his favourite video, but at the time he was not interested, running back & forth with his sister.  

Eventually, he came from behind the lounge & stopped suddenly with his back to me, standing some distance away to my right.

Having grandchildren, I know that every grandfather would know this was the perfect catalyst for igniting the dormant 'parent without responsibility syndrome' that rises in us all.

That split second when the compulsion to reach out overcomes you,  snapping up the child in an adamant tackle, relentlessly tickling & poking, provoking him to hysteria, which just might produce another variety in his mother when taken too far.

All the while of course, you interpret his frenzy as the visible evidence of mutual willingness in the escapade, convinced that the kid is enjoying it all just as much as you, the other kid, is.

However, on this occasion, that's not what happened, but instead, it was to become a unique & never to be forgotten experience.

To begin with, I had no thought as to why he was standing there, other than something onscreen had caught his attention & soon he would be off again.

With his back to me, I sat idly looking at him while basking in warm thoughts of the mutual love & affection we enjoy with our children.

However, here he was, totally unable to understand or respond in any usual manner.

However, little did I know this was to be a rare moment where love was to transcend normality for a fleeting moment, crossing the great divide between humankind & where True Love resides.

After remaining still for some time, suddenly he took a tiny step backwards, positioning himself now at the limit of my reach.

In that moment I was overcome by an urgent compelling.

It came as a loudly resonating 'knowing', without voice or confirmation.

A 'seeing' so pure & simple, devoid of facial enticement or physical inducement.

Remembering the moment always reminds me of my grandfather who was an extremely silent man, in voice & nature, always making you feel loved & welcomed without words or gesturing.

At age eight I was bedridden for many months. Being alone most weekdays, he would bring my lunch & with little conversation not only quenched my hunger but also my need to feel loved.

I had a time where I would, almost daily, sneak out in my pyjamas to visit my grandparent's home one street over, ending up in their bed with Nana listening to & telling stories, while Papa, read the paper.

He had no disability; just happy to live quietly yet with a unique ability to exude love & peace that compelled your honour.  

I was seventeen when we buried him & my declaration in the public notices was that  "To Know Him Was To Love Him”.

It was the simple truth.

A humble life lived by a simple man who worked hard & appreciated his family & the little he had, yet left an undying legacy of his memory with me that time could not erode.

Being as quiet as he was he was probably seen as socially inept by many, however he had what my grandson lacked, a choice.

There I was sitting as a grandfather myself, somewhat accustomed to seeing my grandson's back because of his inability to foster anything more than a quick acknowledgement on arrival, then off to play repetitively, often alone.

Since his birth, the only one he has shown open, free & obvious affection & dependency for is his mother.

Indeed, an acceptable level of ability with his speech only came once he started schooling & from there in a new found ability to communicate, he began to attain a much better level of basic social functioning.

On that day, it was not just the little move backwards that spoke, for many a time, a child has played coy in a deliberate baiting game, but he was not capable.

For the first time, I was to hear his heart breaking forth in silence seeking mine & I took him into my arms & his response was evidence enough.

It was in his eyes; so excited that I had understood.

For the first time in his life, he had drawn nigh to me, and I was drawn nigh to him, in a new truly profound way.

To this day a quiet affection remains in him toward me, faithful to a shared moment of connection, borne through the rarest of love languages, an authentic heart.

I believe that God that day,
bestowed Mercy on that heart of pure intent
& gave a boy & his grandfather a way where
there was no way.

Anyone who has been Born Again knows that their
backs were  turned to God when His Mercy came
in a shared moment of connection.

Praise God who changes not, still reading & listening to hearts, not our words!

Like a ring,
True Love is an endless circle,
giving & receiving devoid of self,
anything else is a form of love.

God Is Love!

James 4:7-9  (KJV)
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you.
8a Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

May we remain with a deep sober faithfulness &
affection, always presenting an authentic heart
to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

ISSUE 003:  Draw Nigh Unto Me … Part 2
Issued   28th March 2017

Overview of Part1
I spoke of both my grandfather & my grandson both of whom, devoid of all means of common expression & whilst in silence, managed to convey love to me. One through the exercise of his free will, the other curtailed from free will through disability. One giving love to me, the other seeking it from me. Now revealed to me that in both instances I had been given a glimpse of the Ways of God’s True Love.

PART 2

As I shared with you last week, we lived only one street away from my grandparents, so I was often assigned to take messages to my grandmother.

Especially when the weather was pleasant, I would find my grandfather sitting on the garden bench under the verandah reading a book.

He would say hello & not much else & continued his reading unless he felt the rare need to enquire of anything.

After delivering my message to my grandmother, on the way out, I would sometimes sit myself back down there with him for a while as he continued to read on.

At times it would be for an extended period without ever being asked or made to feel that I should leave.

Admittedly, I could sit in my parent’s presence in silence & feel peace & comfort, but it was a very different kind like it was normal & expected, but with my grandfather, it was something uniquely different.

Truthfully, I was never to experience anything remotely like it till I learnt what it was like to sit in the presence of our Heavenly Father & only now have come to see God had seeded something into me for a later harvest.

Even as a young boy it just seemed comforting to sit with my grandfather & feel acceptance devoid of even a hint of compulsion to employ any effort to acquire it.

Unless failing to recognise what it is,
it’s impossible to seek what you already have!

It was much more akin to a gentle, firm compelling, causing me to willingly remain in physical silence, to experience again & again, that unique form of deep peace real honour generates.

A simple truth for life:
Let Honour come forward & self will step back.

Philippians 2:3
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Blessed with a comforting childhood, being part of a very ordinary family, I believe we children all appreciated the little we had due to the example our elders demonstrated through their actions.

I am well aware that many of you who are reading this may have had a much different experience than mine.

Please know that I write not to boast nor to denigrate anyone else, but rather with a Hope that through it God is opening a way to give us all deeper Sight of His Great Love that is there for all.

So a point I want to make here is that I also dearly loved all my family just as many others are blessed to do.

However, I am finding as I share with you that there was a much greater lesson to be learnt from the ever present silent love that always exuded from my grandfather toward me.

Ironically, it was, in fact, my father whom I loved most dearly & who was first to mind if having thoughts or speaking about the loss of dear ones. He left us as I turned twenty-two & it was my father who left the biggest tear in my heart which took many years to ease the sharpness of the pain of his sudden loss.

Since only last year, and now sixty-six years old, I know it is God who has repeatedly unearthed hidden feelings to cause me to speak of my grandfather on spasmodic occasions while sharing with others about how I have come to see God & His Ways.

The lessons of our lives previously lived can suddenly reveal purpose in God if we are open to Him, for there is purpose in everything.

Luke 10:22
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

Without God, personal experiences, coupled with a keen observance of life, serves only to develop traditions & cultures meant to establish mutually agreed upon foundations of wisdom of men, upon which the inherent need of community found in all humankind, resides in fragility.

Luke 16:15
And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

With God, personal experience of Jesus first destroys the wisdom of men, to descend us up into the True Unity of His Purpose, revealing the Oneness of His Kingdom, unveiling God’s Wisdom, upon which our inherent need of oneness will reside for an Eternity.

John 8:28
Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I amHe, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.

All our experiences, before & after Christ, now with His Spirit of Wisdom & Revelation in the Knowledge of Him will build upon that same measure of faith He gave to us all, bringing us into Unity with Divine Purpose according to His Will.

Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom
Ephesians 1:15-17
15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

One God, One Purpose.

ISSUE 004:  Draw Nigh Unto Me … Part 3   
Issued 4th April 2017

All that God has shown me, writing on this subject of Drawing Nigh, has stemmed from one moment in prayer two weeks ago when I again saw the picture of my grandson standing with his back to me played out in my mind.

My hope in the weeks to come is that God might lead me into giving His expansion to the mere snippets, or seeds, of thoughts He has been planting in my heart since.

God is the God of the Increase & there is not one of us devoid of the need to See&Know more Truth about God & His Ways.

We ALL, every last one of us, fall so very far short of the Glory of God & we all, in what we have made it in these days of rampant overindulgence, need to gain True Sight through active remembrance of our First Love.

Now, in setting the foundation, I have so far been led to establish a path of illustration using my personal experiences with two of my family members, being my grandfather & my grandson.

In both parables, their stories reveal three common points of action typically employed to firmly fend off any undesired attempt to gain contact with us.

In contrast, both their actions, although having emanated from different causes, held no subjective intent to retard & so their unselfishness birthed openness between us.
 
If asked to describe each point using a single word they would be
Distant, Silent & Defaced.

The day my grandson approached attempting to receive my love to satiate his own through giving it, he took up a remote stance that signified everything opposite to his real intent.

The tactic he employed to hopefully open the door, under the weight of his disability, had three definite negative aspects to it, he was
Distant, Silent & Defaced

To introduce another different character at this point, allow me to share that at eighteen, I was sent to work in an isolated small town some 700 km's from home. One day I was with friends when the huge room suddenly became way too small for the massive influx of the post-football crowd. After some time had passed, a middle-aged, seemingly prominent man of substance, broke through the crowd to greet me warmly & began a robust conversation. Some minutes later I was asked by him if I played football, to which I replied no. Instantaneously he turned his back on me & aggressively pushed through the crowd seemingly desperate to distance himself from me as quickly as possible. Thankfully, it proved to be a rare moment in my life where someone displayed a total & utter disrespect leaving me with nothing but a momentary sense of unworthiness to deal with.

However, to him, he was very successful in backing away from the approach he had made fuelled by his assumptions. The tactic he enacted held three positive aspects for him in that he became Distant, Silent & Defaced.

Two separate occasions where steps were taken to foster a relationship with me, both using the same discouragement tactics, with one using it to end contact, the other to start & both ended with different effects.

One came forth displaying openness, yet left with the door firmly closed, because the approach covered hidden conditions, while the other came desiring transparency & achieved it, for, in spite of the fact the approach was flawed, it was condition less.

One employed the tactics to bail out, while the other used them through lack to build with the natural result being negated only through the pure intent of love.
 
One's intention was to fill his personal want alone & so brought death;
the other was to fill a mutually genuine need & so brought life.

One with selfish intent, revealed to only ever have been about himself, approached proudly using all the worldly welcoming tactics, yet failed through being motivated by selfish gain.

Luke 18:9-12  (NKJV) The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’

The other with little intent, revealed to only ever have been about his need to share so as to give in return, approached humbly using ineffective tactics, yet succeeded through being motivated by the need to love & be loved.

Luke 18:13-14  (NKJV)
13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In summary of what has come forth to this point, we have looked at my grandfather, my grandson & the mystery man.

The man embraced the haughty ways of the worst of sinful man having his motive rooted in selfishness harbouring no live desire for an actual love relationship now consumed with a desire to only get what he wants giving no heed to the effect upon his fellow man.

My grandson living within an enforced expressionless environment through disability somehow from deep within his silent world broke through every barrier his naivety constructed to shed his love abroad between us.

My grandfather possessing a quiet nature &  gentle disposition managed in silence to command my honour developing a deep reverence for him & enabling him to shed his love abroad between us.
 
The man failed through lack of love, my family triumphed through love.
1Peter 4:8 (NKJV)  8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”

ISSUE 005:  Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 4
Issued 11th April 2017

Part One gave insight as to how two family members both managed to transfer love despite giving off signals prone to repel affection rather than create it to any degree.  

Part Two revealed that to know my grandfather was to love & to honour him. It further revealed my new understanding that sitting with him was a shadow of what I now experience in God's Presence.

In Part Three I shared of a man I once met who used the very same tactics to end personal contact swiftly, revealing there had been a hidden ulterior motive to his friendly approach.

Having identified three common aspects employed by all of them, three single words came to describe each aspect of behaviour:

Distant, Silent, Defaced

One person had skilfully executed the usually desired result, yet the others somehow negated its power to overcome & bring love.

So let us now take a moment to consider three single words to describe the three opposing aspects that one would consider as very conducive to the action of engaging personal contact & love.

Closeness, Communication, Image

1. Closeness
Due to the concept of self in us, we all walk with an invisible border around us; we call it our personal space. That line is moving all the time dependent on our assessment of the person trying to invade it & therefore to get close a conducive atmosphere is required. So to give or receive human love, open, welcoming closeness is deemed an absolute necessity so that our five senses can come into play to gain & give full personal satisfaction. Closeness is imperative to allow touch as in a welcome hug, a kiss, a gentle touch along with non-physical contact through gesturing & facial expression to translate our happiness at seeing each other.

1a. vs. Distant
To remain distant, not necessarily physical distance, but whenever we hold back on any of the above, would usually generate anything but the sense of a loving approach.

2. Communication
So many relationships of all kinds fall apart due to lack of communication. We can communicate in many different ways, but one of the most common of course is speech. We mainly use speech as our uppermost communication tool & sometimes rely on it too much to gauge or express our thoughts. The art of speech can often be like a warm blanket in winter, a cool breeze in summer, a cold drink in a desert. Such a comfort to us & well used. Speech, oh beautiful speech. It builds us together; it unifies our ideas & great things grow out of it.

2a. vs. Silent
To the contrary, silence negates progress & can immediately pull everything down. Silence is so often read & used as a hostile action against us. Most certainly not a language of love & usually counterproductive to any approach to seeking affection.

3. Image
We, humans, identify each other & ourselves primarily by our faces. Identity brings comfort to us, knowing who we are even if only facially. It is the beginning of our identity & then we add to it with an image. Some are what they are, but many make a great thing of building & promoting an image, usually if not always because either they want something or are hiding something. We make up an image to be cool, accepted, in sync with our surroundings, to get attention, to gain that partner to do life with, or on the other hand to hide our insecurities, to cover up our perceived blemishes or even to play the victim for attention. In personal & social contact, of course, we are forever using facial expression to convey our feelings, our moods, our wants, our pleas, our joys, our satisfaction with something.

3a. vs. Defaced
When someone fails to employ these methods & consciously presents a defaced persona, it also is very counterproductive to any approach to seeking affection or attention.

Closeness, communication & image are heavily utilised human expressions for social contact & the successful transmission of love between us, deemed essential to living out our lives with & alongside others so that in essence we might obtain what we all actually need:

Acceptance, Community, Love

However, want so often surpasses need, only to contaminate the intent & thereby to lessen the power of the love generated from the encounter or relationship.

Sometimes, as was in the case of the man, it is one sided & eventually becomes apparent, however, when want is mutually embraced real loss remains unaccounted.

The significant loss is in failing to establish anything akin to a circle of love which is the true exchanging of love founded in any sense of a purity of intent.

We all need to be needed & we all love to be loved.

Romans 12:10 KJV
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

In summary, three final questions now arise in me, regarding how these three adverse actions, as enacted by my family, succeeded while being utterly averse to the promotion of any form of love.

Q1. DISTANT - How did love prevail under such adversity & while lacking any conducive atmosphere in which to even demonstrate a desire for closeness, especially by being distant?

Q2. SILENT - How did each person involved manage to complete the circle of love, fulfilling their need to give & receive love, without a single word spoken?

Q3. DEFACED - How being devoid of any flaunt of personality or facial presentation or expression did love engender so deeply as to engrave those moments forever in my memory?

Well, in all honesty, in human logic I completely fail to have any true answer unless I am to convince myself I have indulged in a romantic fantasy utilising my imagination to concoct a couple of lovely memories. However, being a man of faith, I know that I do not lean on my understanding.

Therefore I invite you to continue on the journey with me to discover God's Wisdom waiting for us in what He brings forth, as I know an answer lies in Him.

ISSUE 006:  Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 5  
Issued 18th April 2017

My grandson, under a burden of disability, had a need for love & achieved it, through pure heart intent & real need.

God took Mercy & interpreted his need to me His vessel.

My grandfather had no such disability & did not know God. So let us look closer for an answer to how peace, love & acceptance broke through to me. My earliest memories are of our family of six living together with my grandparents in their one bedroom cottage.

My grandfather came from a bygone era of respect & honour, being a very stoic man. I remember him going to work, kitbag in one hand & the wharfie's tool of trade, a grappling hook, in the other. Every morning I watched him rhythmically stroke his cut-throat razor to&fro on a huge leather strop, before beginning the intriguing ritual of shaving from another era. Fascinating sights, sounds & aroma's so invigorating to a young soul. Special memories remain from his timeworn homemade garage with its fascinating array of old-style tools. I would investigate everything with awe as he silently worked on at the bench. Other times I spent with him as he watered his garden. I would study every detail of their small enchanting garden & the fascinating large grotto/fish pond he had built. He always went about his business quietly, in fact, I don't remember him ever complaining about anything personal. He was simply there, reliable & dependable, always accepting. His stoic silence was never intimidating but in contrast always produced a calm contentment flowing from him to you. He forever displayed an entirely peaceful & gentle nature & demeanour which simply enveloped you, like a blanket, in a complete sense of that peace you get when unconditionally accepted. Over the years absolutely nothing ever seemed to change with him. I believe his stoic, loving, peaceful eldership, gave a strong reassurance of a solid, reliable heritage silently supporting me in my growth to adulthood in the midst of the rapidly changing world of the early sixties.

Conversely, my grandmother wore her crown as the matriarch of the family in a proud, assured & somewhat regal manner. Always pleased to see you, she welcomed you with all the usual hugs & kisses, forever spoiling you with her just baked goodies. She somehow always 'knew' the imminent danger of choking to death on that gumball I had bought 'again', sending it for pulverisation beyond any recognition or further appeal. She loved to sit & share stories, listened intently to mine, gave kisses & cuddles to show her love. She enjoyed being close & having you around, always talking & communicating as we all do through eye contact, facial expression & gesturing. Meanwhile, my grandfather, if free, would sit reading or be out on the verandah peacefully passing the time away.

It was his peace & the love it engendered that stands out in my memory as robust & unique & made it something to be soberly cherished & remembered.

The loss of it was what caused me, at 17 years of age, to buckle over with grief, falling to the ground in my father's arms, the day I came home for his burial.

He was always patient & kind with everyone, never envious, never overt nor pretentious, never rude nor self-seeking, never induced to respond, never evil in thought or action, never immoral.

Forever truthful in character, holding, believing, hoping & enduring, continuously exuding peace & love that never failed us.

1 Corinthians 13  (NKJV)

4 Love suffers long and is kind;
love does not envy;
love does not parade itself,
is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely,
does not seek its own,
is not provoked,
thinks no evil;
Six does not rejoice in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things.
8a Love never fails.

Here now, I begin to understand why I previously stated that being with him was a minuscule foretaste of what was to become known when I first felt the Presence of God.

Please, do not interpret all this as having been some grandiose fantasy life, for back then it was simply life, accepted & enjoyed devoid of any need for fanfare.

If happy with someone or something,
you simply live in the truth of it.

It is not hidden,
for light cannot be consumed by darkness
for darkness is absence of light.
 
TRUTH IS LIGHT & RESOUNDS IN SILENCE.

When in God's Presence,
the Resounding Silence of His TRUTH
envelopes us & engenders
Divine Peace & Tranquility to our souls
for 'I AM' is with us at that moment.

In writing this, His Light revealed to me a deeper revelation to be considered by us all.

I was pondering what in fact may have added to the cause of my doubling over in emotional pain when personally confronting my grandfather's death.

My father comforted me in that moment of unbridled grief, telling me I did all I could for him & he had known my love through my actions toward him.

In the eyes of men, all was well, but the conviction that now befalls me primarily refers not to my relationship with my grandfather, but our relationship with God Our Father.

Has 'Self' led us to read His silence as reticence
& furthermore to believe we are Honouring Him by
Seeking what He is to us rather than WHO HE IS,
what He can give us rather than
WHAT HE REQUIRES FROM US.

I now see what I may have had with my grandfather except for the fact that self in us can only ever provide a single perspective to anything.

It's for this very reason that
many come to the foot of the cross,
yet few take up the Purpose of The Cross,
many take up the cross but fail to first go
Through The Cross.

Jesus & His Sacrifice, His Cross, His Death, His Resurrection is the Door to God Our Father & True Unity with His Purpose to bring His Children Home.

Are there clues for us hidden in being:
Distant, Silent, Defaced?

ISSUE 007: Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 6  
Issued 25th April 2017

Before we continue in the same vein, I feel I need to try & provide some traction for the road ahead.

Due to the direction God has forged in my life, I feel some insight may help you to possibly understand, in part, my perspective & what formed it.

Since 22nd November 1988, I've walked in Christ.

I hold no recognised position, title or credential & you can call me whatever you want, for I don't know what to call myself either, as only God Knows who we Truly are.

God Chooses us for His Glory!
 
1 Corinthians 1:25-29 [KJV]
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Shouldn't it be fruits displayed & borne out of our relationship with God, rather than any title, personality, charisma or exalted name that identifies us for what we are in Him?

If you Know Jesus, then I'm your brother, & together we Stand Before The Throne Of Grace, covered by His Cloak Of Righteousness, for none is found in us having been arrayed as His Body, fitly compacted together as One with Jesus the Head.

We were all given the same measure of faith & God is not a respecter of person, we are the Brotherhood of Saints.

In Christ & through Christ Alone, we are One with Him, this is the Spiritual Truth, it is Light & it resounds in Silence!

However, Spiritual Truth & our perceived truths are two opposing perspectives & True Victory, in anything, can only come when our personal paradigm shifts to align with God's Spiritual Truth on the matter.

In all honesty, throughout my 28+ years having a relationship with Father God through Jesus, I can attest to the fact that, in this world, I have not seen anything much resembling us moving together in Unity with His Divine Purpose.

Jesus lived to do His Father's Will at any personal cost & we need to ask ourselves, honestly, do we?

Looking at my world, at the situations I have experienced & further afield to the whole Christian world, I keep my Peace in Him, but am not at peace with what I see.

I anguish, first over myself, a chief amongst sinners, & then over what I see displayed in the visible church worldwide.

Thank God my faith is in Him, not myself nor the Church. I am no better than anyone else, for we all fall short, but are we openly admitting that to ourselves & others through humility before Our God?

We have been awoken from our spiritual death, the separation from Our God, but are we Slumbering with The Truths of the Resurrection Power that raised Jesus and ourselves?

Continually, I find myself taken back to ponder on the situations that went on between the children of Israel, Aaron, Moses & God.

Why is it that the hardest thing for the Church to accept is anything coming directly from God & the person obediently trying to walk in His Call to deliver it?

One God, Purpose & Body?

1 Corinthians 12:21 [KJV]
And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee:
nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

I have seen so many Christians cry for God & when His Spirit of Wisdom & Revelation in the Knowledge of Him comes near with a Truth, they flee, being more accustomed to accepting twisted or half truths.

Are we, the church still celebrating, rather than Truly Worshipping God, in ways formed by the prevailing circumstances around us, just as they did with Aaron in the desert?

Are Pastors still collecting from us to provide their perceived or received demands, accommodating the people instead of teaching them they must wait upon the Lord?

The famous preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,
“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” I believe we are firmly in the midst of that time now.

Are we, lacking the patience to await God's Timing, just as the Israelites did when saying, we don't know what happened to Moses, so Aaron make us gods to follow and he made them a golden calf?

I have found so many, contrary to God's Word, that walk under a broad umbrella of freedom for themselves, personally & corporately, but not so much for others.

I, along with my family, have over the years been prayed or frozen out of several churches & sat unused for years in others here in Australia, the only transgression seemingly being we steadfastly stand in the Call God Gave Us.

Also in Uganda, we have been thrown out with nowhere to go & all we gave to God's work there was twice turned to personal gain, eventually resulting in losing our house here in Australia.

We have been continually waylaid in our ministry, denigrated as being 'impoverished' & not heading in the 'same direction', all for the sake of the image, whether corporate or personal, befitting their current prevailing circumstances.

From home to Africa six times, & back again, most of which were without external funding while receiving only passive support from the Churches we were attending at the time.

God Spoke & only by His Grace, my family & I obeyed & everyone wondered, not the least being me.

Despite all this, The Lord kept the EIDO Vision & Ministry not only alive in Uganda but also spread it throughout all of East Africa.

ISSUE 008:   Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 7  
Issued 2nd May 2017

Please do not read what I shared last week of our experiences here in Australia & Uganda in a wrong context.

I believe, with all my heart, that we have travelled a road purposed by God for His Glory!

Otherwise, I would have just walked away from it, so many times, yet have never contemplated it.

If I am correct, & only time will tell, all will eventually be seen to be for the good of all who are in Christ Jesus especially in East Africa & my homeland, the Mid North Region of South Australia.

Whether that be in my lifetime or beyond is of no concern for me, playing my part is.

God most certainly has been with us.

We have never lacked a need throughout our experiences both here & in Africa. Sure there are many times when we could imagine better for ourselves.

However, when a need is fulfilled anything beyond is only want. This line of thought, of course, flies in the face of the postmodern false gospel.

We found the need for rest & sleep could be met just as equally squashed together on a single bed in a tiny room in Merikiti Village, as on a King Size bed in an overly spacious Bahrain Hotel Suite.

If you listen to what others say you should have, you only condemn yourself with deprivation. It's all a matter of perspective, something God is always Willing to change in us if we are.

The Lord spent my first four years in Him intensely preparing me to go to Africa & sent me there twice in September'90 & May'91.

I resigned my employment September'92 & my family joined me to 'sight Uganda' in December'92 in preparation to obey His Call to uproot & move to Uganda on 14th February'94 & stay till called back.

Five of us arrived at Entebbe on that very date given, after having left our eldest son [15] behind to join the AirForce, which he eventually did.

The building of our storied home on our brother's land was well under way, but within five months we were 'chased away'.

A month later we both simultaneously received that Call Home, for our son's sake, taking two more to return.

Five years we spent re-establishing home & family while continually loving our Ugandan family in the hope of a reconciliation.
 
Eventually, repentance was to come & we returned to
Uganda twice within a year, being, for now, our final
to date due to lack of funds & support.

Throughout, all our needs have been met, never missing a meal, nor having to ask anyone for a handout for no such real need ever existed.

Despite living on a small fixed income since 1992, no account has been overdue or unpaid & all debts paid on time. Still 'banker's' for our children & enabled to give to our East African ones throughout. In everything we have been through, including visits to death's door, mine in Australia & my daughter in Uganda, I have never lost a wink of sleep, never been disturbed, never been troubled.

Yet some, without Knowledge of Truth, deemed us impoverished!
 
2 Corinthians 12:9 [KJV]
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

To me personally, the Light of Spiritual Truth when not focused on myself, but rather on my life in Christ, Stands as a Living Testimony of God's Powerful Grace & quantifies the Living Hope I have in Him.

So what then has borne me on Eagle's Wings & kept me aloft through all these sparse years?

Once when attending a medical appointment my having been to Africa had to be divulged. The nurse wanted to know what took me there & I replied, God.

She excitedly made the declaration that she loves hearing of people with true faith in anything, because so many have nothing they believe in.

It is the EIDO Vision, which I know came from God, that has kept me aloft on the winds of the faith He gave me.

 So what is it essentially?

EIDO is .....

not just a Ministry or an Organisation, it is part of an end time Spiritual Movement Of God

EIDO operates in a God Given geographical region whilst Spiritually being part of an overall Movement of God Destined to eventually cover The Church Worldwide.

EIDO was Spiritually assigned to an International Region comprising the East African Community & the Mid North of South Australia.

This region, therefore, embraces the nations of Australia, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya & Rwanda.

EIDO, therefore, is but one part of a Coming Worldwide Move Of God destined to uplift the Body of Christ through its Specific Anointing to a Conscious Awareness of God, His Kingdom & True Unity.

In accordance with His Divine Will & Purpose, it is intentionally designed to shake the True Church from its slumber, thereby releasing the shackles that have previously kept such clarity bound.

Through it, God shall position the True Church into its rightful place, thus enabling it TO SEE the dawning of His Bright Morning Star & TO KNOW that in His Hands it is to be the beginning of the final preparation of the Bride for Christ.

EIDO is a Ministry Birthed By God, but not a Ministry in the form we have grown accustomed to.

It's Apostolic in its nature & a vessel carrying a Message of God's Intent beating in & engendering from His Heart.

It is a Spiritual Movement.
An Impartation of Spiritual Power,
A Spiritual Shockwave
Sent out specifically designed
To engender an Awakening
A rapid escalation of deep desire
In the hearts of the Saints

It is part of
A Reckoning
A Preparing,
A Call To Arms,
The Final Assault.
 
It is the opening of the churches eyes to the Kingdom & its True Unity & the Call God has placed on His Children to usher in the Day Of His Son's Second Coming.

EIDO: 'TO SEE & TO KNOW'.

ISSUE 009:  Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 8  
Issued 9th May 2017

Through the EIDO Vision & what I have come to understand in it, Hope Is Truly Alive in me through Christ My Saviour, that Our Father has a Glorious Purpose, which Shall Be Done According To His Divine Will.

Romans 11:33-36
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

There's nothing anybody can do to make it happen, or stop it happening, but what we the Sons of God can do is stand together in True Unity with God Our Father & His Purpose to See His Prodigal Son Home Again.

The first Adam had to leave God's Presence; the second Adam is working to bring us back to be with Him for Eternity.

How can we stand in this True Unity with God's Purpose?

Romans 12:1 [KJV]
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

I  now stand resisting the shadow of the overly accommodating church & gospel that smothers us today, that grew rapidly in the post-modern period that started only in the 1990's.

After being Called back from Africa, we increasingly felt something had substantially changed in the brethren but initially dismissed it as a possibly contorted view due to our recent experiences.

Increasingly we became more & more convinced that in fact, the perceptions of the brethren were rapidly bending to a post-modernistic view touted as 'being relevant'.

This view gave rise to the concept of the seeker-friendly church now revealed as only the thin edge of the wedge to all the dismantling of the foundations of faith now growing worldwide.

It is my heart that God will cause us all to try to discern all things in The Pure Light Of Truthfulness, rather than blind acceptance based on a combination of pseudo-positive thinking & motivational sayings all wrapped in the name of Jesus.

Titus 2:14 [KJV]
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

If I have a Hope in Him, then I have a Hope in His Word that on a day of Our Father's Divine Appointment, His Son shall appear in the clouds & every knee shall bow & every tongue confess that He Is Lord.

For He is the Glorious & Powerful Lord God Almighty & my Father in Heaven, revealed to me through Christ His Son Alive in me!

When all is over with, Jesus shall remove His Garment of Righteousness to reveal the Fully Sanctified Body of Christ, now released from our bodies of death to be Truly One with Christ, Eternally grafted into His Seamless Circle of Love with God Our Father for Eternity.

God Is Love!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Now resuming our journey that began with the Parables of my grandfather & grandson. When I digressed, we were left with a question as to are there clues for us hidden in being Distant, Silent, & Defaced?

I have felt led in my heart to address each aspect singularly but once again in reverse order.
To understand why let us go to the result which befell man immediately after his fall in Genesis.

Genesis 3:22-24 [KJV]

22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

God said [Verse22] the man has become as one of us knowing good & evil, the first covenant was now irreparably broken & the way of spotless innocence gone forever.

Quotes from Matthew Henry's Commentary:

"The tokens of God’s favour to him and his delight in the sons of men, which he had in his innocent estate, were now suspended; the communications of his grace were withheld, and Adam became weak, and like other men, as Samson when the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him.

His acquaintance with God was lessened and lost, and that correspondence which had been settled between man and his Maker was interrupted and broken off.

He was driven out, as one unworthy of this honour and incapable of this service.
Thus he and all mankind, by the fall, forfeited and lost communion with God."

"It is not said that the cherubim were set to keep him and his for ever from the tree of life (thanks be to God, there is a paradise set before us, and a tree of life in the midst of it, which we rejoice in the hopes of): but they were set to keep that way of the tree of life which hitherto they had been in; that is, it was henceforward in vain for him and his to expect righteousness, life, and happiness, by virtue of the first covenant, for it was irreparably broken, and could never be pleaded, nor any benefit taken by it."

Our Father's Divine Purpose is to guide us back to the Tree Of Life, the first step being Salvation.

Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden & man began a journey leading away from God, in Christ, we now have a means to return.

The way forward is found in the reverse!

ISSUE 010: Draw Nigh Unto Me ..... Part 9
Issued 16th May 2017

1. DEFACED

Previously, through the parables of my grandfather & my grandson, I was led to describe the way that they presented themselves to me as being 'defaced'.

The younger, lacking in wisdom, turned his face from me.
The Elder having had a lifetime of observing man's ways, chose to present himself to the world utterly devoid of any form of self-image projection.

Now let us closely examine the word 'defaced'.

Well, in reality, you can disfigure a person's face, but it's physically impossible to deface it.

However, you can deface the image of a person, such as the defacing of a photo or sculpture of them or by defacing any image of them held by others.

When you spread unwarranted rumours or gossip about them, then you are defacing their image, being their good name, reputation & standing before others.

The correct linguistic word to use for my grandfather & grandson's actions would have to be 'efface' which means to make oneself appear insignificant or inconspicuous.

Similar meanings for the word efface would be to keep out of sight, keep oneself to oneself, keep quiet, keep out of the public eye, avoid publicity, keep out of the limelight, keep a low profile, regard/treat oneself as unimportant, be modest, diffident, retiring or withdrawn.
In light of the fact it's an inappropriate use of the word, the question now is, why did Holy Spirit lead me to write defaced.

The answer to that I believe can only be found with a shift in our paradigm or perspective.

In fact, any unwillingness to allow such changes in our direction of thinking or perception is always the true root cause of every ongoing dilemma we will ever encounter in trying to understand & obey God & His Ways.

If we, are truly in Christ, then we should know that a search to find any Truth of God, first demands a willingness to undergo a paradigm shift.

We must allow ourselves to be taken away from what we have learnt in this world to be directed towards His Divine Perspective of all things.

When we discover who we are in Christ & whose we are, our entire outlook can surely never be the same again.
[Courtesy of Belinda]

God's Wisdom is Absolute, & Truth cannot move, not one iota, for it simply IS & Stands Forever.

Hence, this is why God told Moses to tell the captive children of Israel in Egypt that 'I Am' had sent him.

Exodus 3:14 KJV
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

As we touched on last week, real Truth is always found in the reverse perspective, for all answers lie in where we came from, not in where we are going, for that is the carnal way of thinking.

Galatians 2:20 KJV
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Corinthians 2 5:17 KJV
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Now you may be asking yourself how can we possibly think we are going back when in fact we are going forward unto God?

Yes, we are, but in Truth, we are on a return journey, the final destination being where we all originated from, in the Divine Presence of God Our Father.

Christ is Coming Again to take us back to where we belong.

Isaiah 46:1 KJV
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

In the world, we ascend into greatness or our perceived greatness, but in Christ, we must descend into His Greatness if we are to ever again stand in Our Father's Presence as Adam once did.

Man's wisdom must always be reversed or inverted in any genuine quest to touch on True Wisdom.

We're now in Christ, yet we still sin but we no longer have a sin nature.

If we say we have no sin, we know not the Truth & continue to believe the lies of this world, we are deceived.

1 John 1:6-12 KJV
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Whenever we take steps toward drawing unto God & His Wisdom, His Promise is that He, in turn, will draw nigh unto us.

James 4:8 KJV
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

The Power of God, through Divine Grace,
enables Him to bestow unwarranted favour upon us,
that He, The Almighty through His Holy Spirit,
should draw nigh to us as our Comforter,
at any sight of a genuine approach of heart to Seek Him.

Luke 15:20 [Prodigal son]
And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

Let us continue the journey together to see where He Leads us!

ISSUE 011:  Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 10
Issued 23rd May 2017

We who know Christ as Lord have all experienced His drawing nigh to us as we have drawn nigh to Him in our hearts.

It is the cumulative effect of such visitations of God's Presence in our daily lives that serve to greatly empower & consolidate our faith & personal relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ.

For what real strength or longevity could possibly exist in any form of deep personal relationship if continually devoid of any mutually cherished, intimate moments, of shared togetherness.

We are not to be captive to the knowledge of the Kingdom, but rather to the Love of God shed abroad in our heart through Christ.

Christ took us captive in chains of Love, so therefore our salvation is a love affair.

As parents, we know only too well, the many gestures of love & compassion that naturally stem out of parental love which often go unacknowledged, unnoticed, unrealised or taken for granted.

However, we also know the overwhelming joy that erupts in us when the love we gave is returned thereby completing the circle of love.

Such as when we are holding our infant child in our arms, eager to transmit all the love we have for them, to them.

We then long for the day of its return which carries the acceptance.

To his father, the prodigal's return was his love finally received.

We all need our love to be returned to us.

When our need is fully realised such moments are priceless & to be cherished, for regardless of the circumstance, they solidify the bond of love between us.

For True Love is not an exchange, it is given & returned.
Otherwise, it is a mere mutual transaction.

So it is with God for His Love Is True.

The love a parent immediately has for their unborn child which then lasts a lifetime defies human understanding.

It's merely accepted as a 'natural' thing but viewed in the light of Spiritual Truth sound understanding unfolds.

1 John 4:8 KJV
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Love at its conceptual root is Spiritual as every human is composed of a body, a soul & a spirit.


1 Thessalonians 5:23 KJV
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our spirit man, once dead to sin, is now Alive Again in Christ Jesus who indwells our spirit through the Power of the Holy Ghost.

Our bodies came from the earth & shall return, but our souls are eternal, for they are spiritual.


Hebrews 10:39 KJV
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Captive to Jesus In Love, we have now been given the spirit of power, love & sound mind that equips us to take a stand in & with Him.

To actively seek restoration of our relationship with Our Father in Heaven through Obedience to His Word & the reconciling of His Image in us through the revealing of His Righteousness now alive in us through Christ.

John 3:30 KJV
He must increase, but I must decrease.

The Gift of God to us is God Himself, or for now at least the Way to Him, being Christ Jesus Our Lord & Saviour.

John 14:6 KJV
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

God Is Love. Therefore the Gift of God is Love. Jesus Came as the expression of God's Love toward humankind.

1 John 4:16 NKJV
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

God first drew nigh in revealing Jesus as His Son & His Eternal Love for us.

Now as we draw nigh to Him, He draws nigh to us.

Like the prodigal son, we draw nigh in an effort to restore & reconcile what we have now discovered was taken from Him because of our sin.

Our Father responds by drawing nigh, continually reaffirming that His Love for us has, is & always will be Eternal.

1 John 4 NKJV
19 We love Him because He first loved us.

Love is the Golden Thread of Simplicity that runs from Genesis right through to the Book of Revelation.

His Love was there in the beginning, even as He was driving Adam & Eve from the Garden of Eden, for through their disobedience they had now defaced His Image in themselves.

Humankind was now devoid of His Righteousness.

However, the Love of God for His Children remains forevermore.

Hebrews 13:5 KJV
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

His Love for humankind, made in His Likeness is Faithful & True, for He Is God.

The Gift of God is not so that we may overcome our fears to become outstandingly influential people, appearing to one & all as 'loving freely & openly', 'stable of mind' & 'impressive in our wisdom'.

Rather, it was given that we might live content in knowing His Love & Knowing Him more through the faith He gave us.

Colossians 2:6-10 (New International Reader's Version)
6 You received Christ Jesus as Lord. So keep on living in him.
7 Have your roots in him. Build yourselves up in him. Grow strong in what you believe, just as you were taught. Be more thankful than ever before.
 Make sure no one captures you. They will try to capture you by using 8 false reasoning that has no meaning. Their ideas depend on human teachings. They also depend on the basic things the people of this world believe. They don't depend on Christ.
9 God's whole nature is living in Christ in human form.
10 Because you belong to Christ, you have everything you need. He is the ruler over every power and authority.

ISSUE 012:   Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 11
Issued 30th May 2017

Last week I shared that God's Greatest Gift to us was the Opening Of The Way to His Love & Forgiveness through the Shed Blood Of Jesus & our believing He is the Son of God, our personal Lord & Saviour.

For now my soul knows the Most Precious Gift of Jesus Christ & God's Love that has evoked great passion in me to know my Father in Heaven & His Kingdom.

I am acutely aware of the fact that I did not go looking for Him but rather He came looking for me.

Ever since that fateful day, I fight the good fight in an endeavour to value nothing above Christ Alive in me.

In the blink of an eye, my formally unrecognised Spiritual need became both realised & fulfilled.

I was now a new creation, Spiritually Alive in Him with my void filled forevermore with His Presence.

Colossians 2:9 (NIRV)
God's whole nature is living in Christ in human form.

He Is Alive in you & me! Hallelujah. Amen.

Other than life itself & my personal salvation, my biggest gift was to have loving parents & family, a place to belong, a foundation upon which to find a footing in the midst of this troubling sea of humanity.

It enabled me to have my primary emotional & physical needs met within the family unit that my father had established & in the image thereof I went forward in hope to build & develop a family of my own.

Is, or was, any of this as perfect or wondrous as it sounds when written.

Of course not!

For life, inside or outside of Christ, is full of complexities, multiple pluralities stemming from a single seed of thought or action.

For instance, love is one word but is there a single answer as to what it is?

Far from it for nothing exists singularly in this world.

For instance, who has ever been married or had a child & discovered it was everything they expected it to be.

The single thought of attaining is everything until in reality it is quickly overtaken by a myriad of different aspects requiring seemingly endless solutions.

So the answer is a resounding no, absolutely nothing is as perfect as it might sound, apart from God Who Is Perfect in every way.

Having said that, of course, we always live in the hope of something being made manifest out of it all that at least resembles in some way that which we desired to achieve.

Desire sets a light before us that directs the path we are to tread toward our goal; hope is the vehicle that takes us there.

Psalm 119:105 NKJV Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

The pinnacle of most basic human desire is mutually agreed upon however the results thereof are as individual as we are.

Humankind, having been made in the Image of God, Who Is Love, has a mutual need & desire to be a part of a family, to love & to be loved.

The underlying mutual desire at the core of every parent is that their love, honour, respect & catering to their child's needs shall be reciprocated to them through obedience to their needs.

When we ask our child to do something for us, we rightfully expect obedience as the expression of their returning our love to us.

Our hope is that they will love us only because first, we loved them.

A singular desire capable of producing a myriad of manifestations in the plurality of its outworkings.

While the fullness of that desire, in truth, can never be fully realised, the fact does not lessen the pure intent of the original desire.

That is why when surrounded with examples contrary to the ideal we continue to have children, love them & hope.

Matthew 18:14 (NIRV)
It is the same with your Father in heaven. He does not want any of these little ones to be lost.

God knows many will be lost but that does not lessen the Truth of God's Spoken Desire but rather keeps Hope Alive for those yet to come.

Every parent desires for all their children to outlive them. Does the loss of one child then negate the desire they hold for the remaining children? No!

Desire is aligned with hope, trust & confidence of fulfilment & therefore cannot be destroyed while hope is still alive.

A desire to birth a healthy child cannot be destroyed by a miscarriage or a stillbirth as long as any hope of further pregnancies remains.

Accepting & dealing with the plurality of life is maturity or wisdom.

In my father's house, I occasionally endured a refresher on the need for obedience in the home, as did we all.

Disobedience comes naturally. Obedience certainly does not!

Through a combination of my father's perseverance & my weakening arguments, I did manage to gain discipline & wisdom from him.

Contrary to popular belief today, the setting of boundaries is a silent yet an active expression of love, consisting in the Image of God.

I learned to love my natural father for he gave love to me & I often found myself expressing it in unquestioning obedience to his need.

In loving relationships of all kinds, we discover that the strongest areas of love expression engender through obedience.

If we love God, then we desire to serve Him in obedience to His Will, not ours.

Obedience is the manifestation of love as it strikes at the very core of what love is.

If you truly love someone you want to obey them.

Unfortunately, self or sin, which we all have in us is the singular cause of our inability to either give or receive love in its purest form.

As Christians, our hope should always be in God.

The more that we learn to die to self, the more the Power of Love releases through us.

Selflessness is a Principle of God which like so many others when honestly applied, can have a real tangible effect even in secular life.

ISSUE 013:   Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 12
Issued 6th June 2017

Defaced Week 4

I previously declared that selflessness, being a Principle of God, can have a real tangible effect even in secular life.

However, just like when trying to describe what love is, how indeed do we define selflessness without becoming entangled in a myriad of pluralities.

There's a saying that one man's rubbish is another man's treasure.

Perspective is shaped by so many factors in each person's life so what is right to one is not so to another.

Let's all Praise God for these pluralities that so often entangle us also afford us the freedom of thought & expression that constitutes the wildly fascinating, magnificent & extremely varied tapestry that humanity is.

During my six trips to East Africa, I loved to sit in International Airports & watch a virtual kaleidoscope of humankind parade before me, everything from peasants looking as though fresh from their fields to wealthy Arab Sheikhs.

So how can anyone hope to give a universally accepted explanation of human selflessness? For what I truthfully consider to be a selfless act on my behalf may well be interpreted by others as selfish.

Honestly, we all at times have selflessly given only to experience having our action or motive questioned or rejected.

At this point remember we are looking at selflessness in secular life, therefore I feel led to share with you a true story that I believe we can all agree to be a real example of prolonged human selflessness.

Not surprisingly it is the story of a woman & firstly to introduce her to you I will reproduce here a paraphrased version of an article printed on Page 4 of the Adelaide Legacy Newsletter dated June 1999.

NOTE: Legacy provides charitable help & services to the spouse & children of deceased or injured Defence Force Personnel.


A REMARKABLE LADY
Mrs Alice Jessie HILL  1887 - 1968
First President of the Mothers' & Guardians' Club

Mrs Jean Milner, a fellow member, recalls her experience of this remarkable lady.

Mrs Milner & her husband, following the birth of her second child in 1947, were offered accommodation of a room and use of the kitchen by Mrs Hill.

They stayed with her for two years, and that was how she got to know Mrs Hill.

The creed by which Mrs Hill lived was spelt out in a caption prominently displayed in her kitchen:-

"Trouble is an ounce or trouble is a ton
Trouble is just what you make it I
t's not the fact that it hurts that counts
But just how did you take it."
[An excerpt from the Poem 'How Did You Die?' by Edmund Vance Cooke]

Harry Roger Hill, (born 1884) a cabinet maker and Alice Jessie Woolbridge (born 1887) married in Sussex UK on 16 April 1910. 

They migrated to Australia in 1912 bringing with them a son and a six-week-old daughter.

The son died during the long sea voyage to Australia.

They settled in Adelaide at St Marys where their two sons Robert and Ronald were born.

Harry Hill joined the Army serving in 50th Battalion AIF in France. He left Australia in January 1917 and was killed in action on 26th September 1917.

In 1918 his widow Jessie Hill bought a two-bedroom house at 402 Cross Rd, Clarence Park.
When the events of the war settled, she packed up her family and goods, rented the house and returned to her family in the UK.

After two years she decided to return to Australia to live out her life there.

She met and became friendly with a Mrs Roberts.

Following the birth of her seventh child, Mrs Roberts developed health problems & became institutionalised for the rest of her life.  

Her six children, three boys and three girls, were sent to live with two aunts. This arrangement proved to be unsuccessful & their father was at his wit's end to know what to do with his family, especially as he was a country traveller in his business.

Mrs Hill volunteered to look after his family.

Mrs Hill had no sooner taken in this family when the father died only to leave Mrs Hill with the task of raising a family of 9 children. [as shown in the 1923 photo below]

Her adopted family looked on her with great affection and respect and called her Auntie Hill.

Legacy began in SA in 1928, and during the early stages, the records were scant.

Jim Roberts the sole survivor of this family, now 87 years old, remembers that Legatee John McLeay had looked after the family. Legatee John McLeay entered Federal Parliament in 1949, was the speaker in the House of Representatives for 15 years and Knighted in 1961.

It was undoubtedly John McLeay who steered Mrs Hill to Legacy as when Legacy proposed the formation of a widows group for the purpose of self-help and a meeting was called, 39 widows attended and one was Mrs Hill.

Thus "The Women's Branch" was formed on 10 March 1932 with Mrs Hill being the Secretary, its leader from 1937-1943 and its first President when it established its Constitution and was re-named the Mothers' & Guardians' Club in 1947.

Jim Roberts recalls that Mrs Hill was often called upon to help a family where a girl was in trouble. She would take off on such an assignment and usually returned with the task satisfactorily completed. It seems that Legacy used her in the capacity of a Welfare worker.

Jessie Hill saw that all the nine children she cared for stayed at school until they completed their QC (Qualifying Certificate). It was the general practice in those days for at that stage children were accepted into apprenticeships.

After leaving school, the children sought jobs, with the older ones sending back money to help Mrs Hill care for the younger ones.

When World War II came, all the boys joined up. Her two biological sons died during the war, Robert in the Navy on HMAS Sydney in 1941 and Ronald in the RAAF in 1943.

Their deaths left her with only one child of her own, her daughter Gwen, along with the care of the six Roberts siblings.

ISSUE 014:   Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 13
Issued 13th June 2017

Defaced -  Week 5

I have a personal connection to Auntie Hill for the boy standing at the far right of the photo I shared last week is my father, Arthur Roberts. 

Obviously, I was not around through the events described, but my family & I had the distinct privilege of knowing 'Aunty Hill' & so I can vouch that she was everything the story depicted & even more.

Throughout my childhood, it was our family tradition to have a short visit with Auntie Hill every Christmas morning before spending the day with Uncle Jim & his family.

We came from a very common working man's area & Uncle Jim lived in one of the elite areas of our city, so to spend Christmas Day with them was something unique & very special in itself.

Our family of six lived for many years in two rooms behind our shop, using a sleepout for a kitchen & a storeroom sink as a bathroom between our weekly bathings.

In stark contrast, our Uncle Jim, a greenkeeper, lived in a lovely Stone Villa where the lawns were like bowling greens & the gardens picture perfect. The backyard had a gigantic fig tree with a rope swing & a children's cubby house standing under the spread of its large branches.

Christmas lunch was traditionally a huge turkey with all the trappings, served up on fine crockery with the best silver cutlery while being seated in a separate dining room with beautiful Christmas tree & decorations throughout the house.

Even though we came from different 'ends' of town, there was much love & respect between both our families so Christmas Day was always a very special time for us. 

In fact, any visit to or from them was highly regarded & anticipated.

However, I believe, for all of us, nothing was more revered than the brief visitation with Auntie Hill every Christmas morning.

Even as a small child these visits were unlike any other to family or friends & even now almost 50 years since her passing the aura that she generated remains as an enduring fascination to me & so many others.

We would arrive at her two-bedroom maisonette, the same home where she raised the nine children alone & anxiously await her answer to our knock.

Every year the door would open to reveal this refined, genteel, perfectly spoken elegant English lady, always dressed in the same manner as the photo seen above depicts her.

We would follow her into the dimly lit living room where she would position herself on the padded window bench with both her hands resting on the top of her walking stick.

Following her general greetings, both adults & children would stand across the room awaiting their moment of personal interaction with her.

The atmosphere was thick with mutual respect & honour of the highest order.

When you had your audience with her, it was as though no one else existed in that room. You were the absolute centre of her attention.

All I can say is that even as a child you knew that you were in the presence of a beautiful soul & experiencing something unique & precious.

Some years, from one Christmas to the next, that was all we saw of her. 

In growing older, we came to know the marvellous testimony that her life was & to understand the awe & respect the adults around us always held for her.

All of which only served to engender the same from us, their children.

Like discovering more of God, how precious it is when the revealing of Truth serves only to build upon the foundation already laid.

Auntie Hill was never a part of our daily lives but rather always remained like a precious treasure revealed only on special occasions.

Even as I have been led to share her story, I have become aware of aspects that had never previously crossed my mind.

I was always fascinated by the overall story of the selfless giving of her life to these six children of a friend.

Also, I suppose I was subconsciously aware of what her love & care prevented my father from experiencing & what those experiences may have made him to become if it were not for his Auntie Hill.

Her love & care extended even far beyond her 'nine children' as was related previously in her role as Welfare Officer for Legacy girls in trouble.

We also heard stories in the family that she would be seen boarding the tram 'alone' with all nine children & more than a dozen of their friends for a 'lovely' day at the beach. 

At times she would even take them away for weeks at a time, again taking other children with her.

We wondered at the realisation that came with our maturing of how a single woman could raise nine children, alone, in a tiny two bedroom home, so soon after losing her child & husband.

All this was taken on in the shadow of the aftermath of World War 1 only to then struggle through the Great Depression of the 30's followed by the rigours of World War 2.

A war that was not only going to rob her of both her sons but also cause her to endure the knowledge that Jim Roberts, taken as a prisoner in Singapore, was now being held in the Burma Railway Prisoner of War Camp. 

He was to spend four years there building the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai only to come home like a walking skeleton & bury his new bride that he had to leave to go to war. 

As he was stepping back on Australian soil in Sydney, she died of meningitis in Adelaide.

So much tragedy & tribulation in one lifetime, yet she wore absolutely no sign of it on her countenance or her soul.
 
The woman I knew as my Auntie Hill was an impeccably spoken English Lady with a supremely peaceful nature that always enveloped you.
 
Honestly, she would have been perfectly at home in Buckingham Palace as she was there in her well-used maisonette on Cross Road.

Her memory is an enduring picture of a serene human soul, her life a mirror to the very Character of God.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

ISSUE 015:   Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 14
Issued 20th June 2017

Defaced Week 6

Let me share with you Auntie Hill’s final words so as to epitomise why I have seen her as an ultimate expression of human selflessness.

In fact, her story is far & above the most radical example of such that I have personally encountered in my lifetime.

My mother once shared with me that the day Auntie Hill died she & my father were in the hospital room with her.

Auntie Hill feebly gestured for her to come over to the bed & as my mother brought her ear down to her she struggled to whisper:
“ You hair looks lovely today Nance”.

My mother said that within the next five minutes she had passed on.

Selfless to the very end.

Am I saying that this woman’s life stands as the prime example of the full measure of absolute human selflessness?

Certainly not, for only one has, or ever will achieve that in Truth, & he was called Jesus, the Son of Man.

What I am saying is that when I was still lost in my sin & struggling to engender a strong faith in myself & humankind, Auntie Hill’s story was always a clarifying influence in developing in me an assurance that man must indeed possess an inherent goodness.

Now, as a Christian, the testimony of her life serves more to resonate to me how far short I fall of living a selfless life such as she did, sadly, even with having Christ Alive in me!

Back in Part 12, I posed this question: “So how can anyone hope to give a universally accepted explanation of human selflessness?”

I have declared that for me it is Auntie Hill, however, in your case, it is probably someone else & all are just as valid from our perspectives but therefore far from universal.

As a further example of the multiplicity of pluralities in all things I now pose another question.

In worldly terms only, what indeed could I possibly see as my epitome of human selflessness if I had never known Auntie Hill, who was surely the indisputable personification of it to me?

Under such a circumstance my answer could lie anywhere for without a true focus our view is always blurred.

Psalm 119:105 KJV
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path.

Her selfless life, once a light unto my path, is now relegated to being but an excellent although very distant way station on my journey.

In my human mind, it remains as an ultimate example of self-denial.

In my spiritual mind, it accentuates great personal lack that only serves to arouse in me a truer & much deeper appreciation of God’s Grace Given to my life, not ‘me’, my life.

For if as a man, I could only hope to be found standing in the deepest darkest shadows of what Auntie Hill so effortlessly achieved with her life, then what chance would I stand, without Him, to conquer my selfishness.

How do we conquer the adversities without, if we are not first also willing to overcome the adversity remaining within?

The word sin, is it not, held together by the ‘I’ in the middle, therefore what we need to conquer is the enemy within, self.
 
1 John 1:9 KJV
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The Call of God upon man is to:

Mark 12:30-31 (KJV)
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
In being led into these writings & what God has brought forth, it may appear to you the reader, that I have always had an apparent idolisation of Auntie Hill & her story.

If so you would be far from the truth.

Like the rest of my family we all remain with an enormous amount of respect & admiration for the fine human being she was, the example she left us & the memory of her that we all treasure.

Her story gives so much to those possessing it & its value demands thoughtful & respectful handling of it, for surely the essence of it reflects the second commandment referred to in Mark 12:31 shown above.

Having said that, I am now led to take a divergence away from the actuality of the story of Auntie Hill to ponder upon some possible ramifications on our behalf of what her life may have revealed.

A poignant question arose in my spirit during these writings, something I have never even contemplated before.

Was Auntie Hill a true Christian? That is one that has had a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.

She passed on when I was only 18 years old & due to having had a Catholic upbringing I suppose I subconsciously held the core philosophy that if Johnny is a good boy, Johnny goes to heaven.

Therefore I guess I always naturally assumed she was such a wonderful loving person her destination was a foregone conclusion.

Not even after becoming a True Christian at age 38 have I pondered the question at all until now.

I am in no way about to judge her or her motives for it is never my or your right to judge for the only Just Judge is Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Let us continue in this week to week journey together in the Hope that the Lord might unravel some of the misconceptions of Truth that are holding us back.

One thing I am sure of is that the Lord will not be laying judgement upon anyone but rather challenging us on some of our concepts & beliefs we hold.

If you find any judgement in it then I or possibly you are guilty & that becomes another matter entirely.

So let us pray that the Lord take us together on an objective journey into the deeper understanding of Truth.

ISSUE 016:   Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 15
Issued: 27th June 2017

Defaced - Week 7

To proceed, let me address some more facts, not about Auntie Hill as much as rather to establish the limits of my factual knowledge of her.

I would assume you have seen that my conceptual view of her is simply the by-product of the fruits of her life affecting my life.

Matthew 7:16-18 KJV
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do
men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can
a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

I’m confident that after reading her life story you have come to realise she was an exceptionally ‘good tree’ that produced exceptionally ‘good fruit’.

One so good in fact, it causes you to examine yours & challenges your outlook on life.

By now, I would assume that none of us would even question the validity of her having more than adequately fulfilled the second part of God’s Call to man.

Mark 12:31a (KJV)
And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Now we need to consider whether any possibility could even exist
that this command could have been fulfilled to that level without the first being firmly in place in her heart.

As I related last week, this is not a question of analysing Auntie Hill’s actions but rather an objective look in the hope of gleaning some wisdom to enrich our perspective of God & Who He Is.

Now at this point let me clarify one important point. I honestly don’t know whether Auntie Hill was even a Church goer, much less a True Christian. As I previously stated I may always have naturally assumed she was, but I cannot categorically say one way or the other.

Strange as this may seem, I will share some questions from my perspective of Auntie Hill, which arose in me only during this journey of ours.

Firstly just let me establish the following as a reference point to the opposite of what is to follow.

We all know very well that some of the fundamental creeds of life for selfish humans are:
1] I can be good or evil whenever I choose to be.
2] I only give if there is something in it for me.
3] My effort correlates with the level of honour I receive.
4] My effort often translates to ownership in my mind.
5] My level of sharing regulates others reliance on me.

All perfect lyrics to the Ode of Self, a tune we warm to so quickly at times.

As I said, questions have now been raised in my mind which beforehand had never even crossed it.

1. Why was Auntie Hill not ‘Mum’ to my father as my maternal grandmother always was to him?
Even though there may have been an element of respect for the children’s mother, her friend, who was still alive but institutionalised, I believe she never contemplated taking ‘ownership’ of them, but rather to actually love them & honour their freedom to choose when the time came.

2. Why was she Auntie Hill & not Grandma to us?
Because like wounded birds she gave her all to take them under her wing until they could fly on their own & then she gave them their liberty to choose from within their free will. She knew that if you actually love someone let them go & if they truly love you they will return. Titles she did not require but rather lived in the hope of love fulfilled, & it came pressed down & overflowing just as hers was to them.

3. Why was it that to be with Auntie Hill was a ‘special occasion’ & not just part of our family life?
When Adam was in the Garden, he walked in freedom to live & explore to his heart’s content. God would visit with him on the special occasion of the cool of the day. In Adam’s freedom & liberty Jesus Christ, God’s Love for man was always there for his spirit man was then still alive with His Presence. The ‘spirit’ of Auntie Hill’s love was/is always alive deep within all of us but to be with her was always the special occasion.

4. Why was Auntie Hill’s only remaining child after having been raised alongside my father not an Auntie to us?
In a selfless wisdom, she understood not to coerce the course of their journeys of possibly returning her love to her. She gave them the liberty & freedom to choose for themselves whether to honour what had been given to them by learning to love the giver. Or not. They all found their way & each became a better person because of it, formed in the shadow of the lesson that her life was.

5. Why when Auntie Hill never demanded honour & respect from us did simply being in her presence command it?
Fearful Respect. The beautiful fear that engulfs you when you know you are in the presence of someone whose being illuminates every flaw in your character yet simultaneously covers every blemish through forgiveness amid a torrent of soothing mutual love & respect. The knowing that you are in the presence of someone so far removed from you yet all you feel is immersed in their unwarranted favour as you ride on the waves of a purer form of love.

6. Why did Auntie Hill not ‘claim’ the Roberts boys as her own after the loss of both her sons?
Selfless wisdom again dictated to her heart that she could never replace what she lost, but if the way were left open for those made in their image to find the way to declare themselves her children in their hearts, she would then have sons indeed. All three became so by their free choice, drawn by the unprecedented pureness of her form of love.

7. Why were we content to treasure & admire Auntie Hill from a distance & not crave more presence of such a person in our lives?
True Love & Respect demands their way, not ours because it is really about them not us.

In her presence, we all became one family in a way unknown elsewhere in our lives. On those Christmas morning visits, everything centred on her while she somehow managed to make everyone feel the focus of her attention simultaneously. It was as though there was no adults & children in the room; it was now the children & Auntie Hill.

ISSUE 017:   SPECIAL EDITION
Issued: 4th July 2017

Ready to cast into the Greater Things Of God?

A Third & Final Net?

The Bible relates to two instances where Jesus told Peter to cast his net back into the sea despite having spent the night fishing without any success. All scripture has many aspects embedded within, but for now we only need to draw out the following two points.

In Luke 5, the Teachings of Jesus had begun to gain a following & now He had come for those His Father had given Him to be His Disciples, Peter, James & John & to commission them to evangelism - to be fishers of men.

Then in John 21 Jesus, now Risen from the Dead, came in the shadow of His impending Ascension, to commission His Disciples, to pastor - feed the sheep.

In both cases after having exhausted their own best efforts, Jesus demonstrated to them how He could supply all their needs in life & service. His supply was displayed in abundance to them only after they Obeyed Him & cast the net, despite the fact that to do so was contrary to all they knew in the natural.

In the eve of my first 15 months in Christ, I received an almost audible Command from God to "Go to Uganda in October". To contemplate such a thing was most certainly contrary to all I knew in the natural, however like Peter it came with an overwhelming compulsion to obey.

I was waiting in faith to see how He might unfold that which I could not even envisage, when on 1st June 1990 He came upon me with the Call to EIDO (Evangelical Inspiration Directed Overseas) Rev. 21:1.

He later revealed the Call was to a specified region covering my home area, the Mid North Region of South Australia, along with all East Africa, comprising Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania & Kenya.

In obedience, I stepped onto Uganda soil for the first time, of what was to become six visits by 2000, some seven months after receiving the Call To Go. I worked in the role of the cameraman for a Brother the Lord had brought across my path, but I was also carrying 450 handmade EIDO business cards the Lord had led me to produce. At that time EIDO was nothing but a Call & Vision held in my heart which I knew had come from God.

During that first trip, I travelled more widely than during any of my later visits & distributing those simple business cards birthed the EIDO Letter Ministry. I have since handled a vast number of communications annually & many personal relationships formed on that first & subsequent visits are still active.

It was not until 2005 that the Lord opened to me a wider aspect of what EIDO is by revealing through a brother's written prophecy something that He immediately confirmed in my heart.

Try to imagine a giant Spiritual Net stretching from my Mid North home area to eventually cover all East Africa in a wave of Anointed Revelation & Understanding [EIDO - ToSee&ToKnow]. Thus opening a Simplicity of The Word through the revealing of previously veiled Truths so as to generate real fellowship of unity with God's Purpose.
# An Impartation of Spiritual Power # EIDO is but one part of an overall end time Spiritual Movement, a Coming Worldwide Move Of God destined to uplift the Body of Christ through its Specific Anointing to a Conscious Awareness of God, His Kingdom & True Unity.

Now imagine God simultaneously causing Spiritual nets to be placed over other regions until covering the entire earth. Furthermore, imagine the pouring forth of diverse Anointings in each region all relevant to the same Intent of bringing The Church into true unity with His Divine Purpose, inducing The Body of Christ to truthfully desire His Will Be Done in earth as it is in Heaven.
# A Spiritual Shockwave sent out specifically designed to engender an Awakening into a rapid escalation of deep desire in the hearts of the Saints.

Now, in God's Perfect Time, imagine all those nets Knitted Together In Love to form one, embracing the whole earth to envelop & enrich the Body of Christ within further unveilings of deeper revelations & understandings to produce a True Full Body Ministry.
# A Reckoning, A Preparing, A Call to Arms, The Final Assault

Now imagine The Church Age, by God's Divine Plan nearing its end & His Purpose now Calling for the pulling in of His Net to reveal & array the True Body to Stand as the Bride awaiting Christ. Many individuals & ministries may slip through that net, but it will not break, just as in John 21, & every True Believer & Ministry held in Christ shall remain standing within it.
# It's the opening of the Churches eyes to the Kingdom & its True Unity & the Call God has placed on His Children to usher in the Day of His Son's Second Coming.
# References are corresponding quotes from EIDO Is ... [see bottom of email]

In Luke 5 Jesus called them to discipleship, to evangelise & be fishers of men. Furthermore, in John 21 He called His trained Disciples to pastor His Church & Teach His Flock. Now for 2000 years the flocks & the shepherds have developed & spread the pasture to cover all the earth.

Now, God Our Father's Call is to the maturing of The Church by coming into True Unity with His Divine Purpose in this threshold to the closing of The Church Age & the moving on into the Fullness of His Divine Plan of delivering us to Eternity with Him.

A third & final net is being let down, but this catch belongs to Him. It is being cast out to take the last catch, the Body of Christ to Rule & Reign with Jesus.

In obeying His Call, I innocently went to Africa more akin to a young, naive boy, handing out my makeshift business cards unaware of the net God was letting down. Even in our extended absences from Africa God by His Spirit has used some diverse brethren to carry the message of The Call to many parts of East Africa. In the past twenty-seven years, it has been let down over most of Uganda & as far as Kigali in Rwanda, Bujumbura in Burundi, to Mwanza, Arusha & Moshe in Tanzania, to Mombasa, Nairobi, Eldoret & Kisumu in Kenya.

In Luke 5 Peter in obeying Jesus said he would "let down the net" in verse 5 &  further the net 'enclosed a great multitude of fishes' in verse 6.

In obeying God in 1990, I also let down an unseen net in Uganda & He is using it to enclose a great multitude across East Africa.

A further part of the EIDO Vision is that many East Africans shall cast their nets back over to the Mid North of South Australia.

I, of course, had a heart for my homeland even from the beginning but the Lord told me to Fear Not as EIDO is a 'boomerang' Ministry, & would return here as a net has to enclose itself.

I love my home & its people & in truth, I had more visions regarding the Mid North than I have ever had about East Africa. The desire to assist in seeing them eventually fulfilled here at home was one of the major factors that sent me forth to willingly walk in EIDO, for I like everyone who Loves the Lord, wants to see their homeland enriched in Him.

I have seen & believe that when the work is complete in the Mid North region, it will become one with the rest of the Spiritual net covering all four corners of the earth & God's Final Preparations of the Bride of Christ will take place.

Everything Peter knew as a professional fisherman told him that to cast his net again into fishless waters would be a fruitless exercise. However, he answered Jesus by saying: "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word, I will let down the net" Luke 5:5 KJV

In Luke 5, Peter when still naive in spiritual matters, first made his point that he had worked all night without taking anything before obeying Jesus. However, in John 21, having been taught in spiritual matters, Jesus added an explicit directive saying the net was to be cast to the right side of the ship yet Peter immediately obeyed without saying a word.

I believe that the Lord is Calling for our obedience to the casting out of the third & final net so as to encapture the True Church with a spiritual awakening from its slumber as time is near for the releasing of His shackles that previously have kept such clarity bound by God's Divine Purpose.

——————————————————————————————————————————-
THE DAY OF THE LORD
Joel 2:29-32   New King James Version
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
32 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,
As the Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.

Joel 2:28-32 Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)
Verses 28-32 The promise began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and it was continued in the converting grace and miraculous gifts conferred on both Jews and Gentiles. The judgments of God upon a sinful world, only go before the judgment of the world in the last day. Calling on God supposes knowledge of him, faith in him, desire toward him, dependence on him, and, as evidence of the sincerity of all this, conscientious obedience to him. Those only shall be delivered in the great day, who are now effectually called from sin to God, from self to Christ, from things below to things above.
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In Luke 5 an undisciplined Peter voiced his view before obeying his Master, only to then discover that obedience brought a multitude of fish that almost sank two boats.

Then in John 21 the Disciple Peter not only obeyed without questioning but to the letter of the Command given him which resulted in a specific Spiritual outcome of catching exactly 153 fish, the reasoning of which still causes contention up to the present day.

I would contend that a specific Command embodies a specific result.

He had now learned & understood that it was not necessary for him to comprehend or need to know specifically why, but rather to hear the command, obey it, knowing by whom The Increase Comes.

God has, because of His Love for His Children, always chosen to work through them even though He could have done it all Himself. Just as Jesus shows us in John 21 where He already had what He needed, being a fish to cook, for He was found with it already on the coals before they brought any of their catch to Him.

Furthermore, in Acts 2:15-16 KJV Peter was to proclaim that "For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;"

God has always foretold of all significant strategic Spiritual events before they came to pass, even many centuries apart & so many are still yet to be fulfilled.

Peter learned there on the waters of Lake Galilee that when the Master spoke he needed to Obey.

We who Know Jesus as Our Lord & Saviour & serve Him, have also found the need to learn to throw Spiritual Nets of Faith in Obedience when He Calls.

For instance, just one example is when a man is Called by God to become a Pastor. Does he not in fact cast out a Spiritual Net of Faith shrouded in Obedience & girded in a Living Hope of enclosing all the Lord intends from it, not for the pastors sake, but rather for that of the Kingdom.

On 1st June 1990, the Lord engraved the Call of EIDO on my heart, & with no idea of what was to come in the future, He caused me to let down a Spiritual Net upon the Living Waters by faith alone.

As in Luke 5 that Spiritual Net began its journey to enclose the multitude destined by God & that net is still moving down & outward, growing in preparation to enclose all that He Purposed.

While still in its infancy after twenty seven years, many have already thrown their spiritual nets into the EIDO International Fellowship Of Unity, extending the reach of God's Ordained Work.

Now, I humbly extend to you an invitation to throw your spiritual net of support out to meld & become one with God's EIDO net through this International Fellowship Of Unity, to stand not in unity of our togetherness, for that is already sealed in Christ, but rather to unite in proclaiming that Our Father God's Divine Purpose needs to be outworked in our hearts & across our nations.

May His Will be Done in & through us in accordance to His Divine Purpose.
Love Mwesigwa

There is such a thing called The Church Age or the Age of The Church. It began with the Coming of Jesus & will end with the Coming of Christ. This period is a Spiritual Movement more commonly known as The Latter Rain period. A Spiritual Movement started it when Mary conceived Jesus & a Spiritual Movement will end it in accordance to God’s Divine Purpose when Christ appears in the clouds to receive His Bride The Church. Other Spiritual Movements have occurred in between bringing God’s Plan into different levels of fulfillment such as the birthing of The Church, the Reformation & Modern Pentecostalism. All serving God's Love to take The Church on a journey to full maturity just as our love steers our children into their maturing. Every journey takes steps. If I am to open my front gate I have to take many steps to get there but it is the last step that reaches the goal. I believe from what I have come to know in serving God in His EIDO Vision is that we are now moving through the threshold to the last step for The Church Age. There is now a Spiritual Movement at hand that will be powerful enough to draw in The Church to its Purposed End.

 
You are free to choose what to do with what I share, you can walk away from it carrying nothing, walk away carrying the seed of it in your heart & lift it to God privately or reach out to EIDO International Fellowship Of Unity to become spiritually inclusive of its progression through inviting future enlightenment be shared with you within its fellowship & take a journey together in Hope of the Awakening of His Church to True Union with God's Purpose.

Join or Support EIDO International Fellowship Of Unity Here

ISSUE 018:   Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 16
Issued 11th July 2017

DEFACED Week 7

You've seen my knowledge of Auntie Hill's persona is limited for my honour & respect emanates from her fruits, not her personality.

Luke 6:44 KJV
44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

I wasn't there while she gave her life for the sake of others, but stories they told certainly justified the reverence I felt for her.

I believe anyone would agree she loved her neighbour as herself, and those she loved so dearly would argue it was so much more than herself.

Once a Minister was speaking at Church & I saw a vision of an artist brush in her mouth, moving as she spoke as though painting.

A revelation came of how much we all paint our own enhanced or even false images with our tongues, painting pictures in people's minds of what we want them to perceive of us. Worse still & many go there, is when we paint such excellent pictures of ourselves we believe it.

Matthew 5:37 NKJV
37 But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

Auntie Hill had no need to create an image, for her life alone painted it. Words of self-promotion or image making never touched her lips, her fruits alone testified to who she was.

Philippians 2:3-4 NIV
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  

I never heard a word about herself or her deeds, & every Church & every Christian would do well to take heed of that.

Matthew 7:16-21 KJV
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes ofthorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Evenso every good tree bringeth forth good fruit;  but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewndown, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Now let us address the question of whether a life so abundant in goodness is possible outside of Knowing Christ.

Mark 12:30-31 (KJV)
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

Here, I reiterate that we are not analysing her life personally but rather pondering the question now raised.

Genesis 1:26 KJV
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise) makes the statement:
"It is the soul of man that especially bears God's image."

We all consist of a body, a soul & a spirit & without Christ; our spirit is dead to sin as surely as Adam was dead once he ate of the forbidden fruit.

God Commanded him not to eat of it, or he would surely die, which he did, spiritually but not physically.

Life without Christ in it is the real death.

Philippians 1:21 KJV
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.


Matthew Henry Commentary further states:
"Man was made upright, ( Ecclesiastes 7:29 )
His understanding saw Divine things clearly and truly;
there were no errors or mistakes in his knowledge;
his will consented at once, and in all things, to the will of God.
His affections were all regular, and he had no bad appetites or passions.
His thoughts were easily brought and fixed to the best subjects.
Thus holy, thus happy, were our first parents in having the image of God upon them.
But how is this image of God upon man defaced!
May the Lord renew it upon our souls by his grace!

Our desire to Truly Worship God with our whole being, just as our first parents did before the fall, should be the basis of our Hope in Jesus for the Salvation of our souls.

If it were, we would be set free to practise them through Christ in us instead of busying ourselves in living up to or creating images.

Being in Christ doesn't stop us from using our tongues to paint pictures of ourselves, bringing every word captive to Jesus does.

Indeed Adam died in the spirit for his sin cast him outside of God's Presence to live now unable to walk with God as he did.

Jesus, Innocent & Pure was to experience the same death of separation from God when he willingly forsook all to take our sins upon himself & pay the price we couldn't, shedding his body & blood for us.

Mark 15: 37 KJV
37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.

Glory to God that Jesus was Resurrected to Life & Restored to Glory & now those Called of God are resurrected to Life, restored to personal relationship with Him in Christ & by His Grace the Power of God, unwarranted favour has been Given unto us.

Sin caused man's understanding to no longer see Divine things clearly or truthfully; with errors & mistakes permeating his knowledge; his will now resisting the consenting of all things to the will of God. His affections now being irregular, man now embraces bad appetites & passions. His thoughts are now extremely hard to be brought and fixed to the best subjects.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 KJV
29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

ISSUE 019:   Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 17
Issued: 18th July 2017

Genesis 1:26 KJV 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
 
Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete) says [note that the emphases are mine]:
"Man was to be a creature different from all that had been hitherto made.
Flesh and spirit, heaven and earth, must be put together in him, and he must be allied to both worlds.
And therefore God himself not only undertakes to make him, but is pleased so to express himself as if he called a council to consider of the making of him: Let us make man.
The three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, consult about it and concur in it, because man, when he was made, was to be dedicated and devoted to Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Into that great name we are, with good reason, baptised, for to that great name we owe our being.
Let him rule man who said, Let us make man."
 
Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise) says [note that the emphases are mine]:
"Man was made last of all the creatures: this was both an honour and a favour to him.  Yet man was made the same day that the beasts were; his body was made of the same earth with theirs; and while he is in the body, he inhabits the same earth with them.   God forbid that by indulging the body, and the desires of it, we should make ourselves like the beasts that perish! "
 
Previously we saw in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that man is made up of body, soul & spirit.
 
The body is physical being a temporal container for the soul.
Genesis 3:19 KJV
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Ecclesiastes 3:20 KJV 20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
 
The soul is spiritual & bears God's Image in man.
James 3:9 NLT
9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.
Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise) makes the statement: "It is the soul of man that especially bears God's image."
 
The spirit is spiritual & can only be alive with the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:9 NKJV
 8 But you are not in the flesh but in 9 the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
 
I now broach the question once again of whether someone not knowing Christ Alive in them could enact, over many decades, the selfless acts that Auntie Hill endlessly produced.
 
The simple answer to me is a resounding 'Yes' for the fact is that men are all made bearing God's Image in their souls, we bear His likeness.
 
That is why we love, live in families, have authorities in place, etc. because they are just some of the concepts of human life borne out of His Image, His Ways carried in our spiritual DNA if you like.
 
Who in Christ can honestly say that they have never at least once encountered a non-Christian whose way of being evoked the thought that they would make a great Christian because they see a reflection of God's Ways in them.
 
Genesis 3:5-6 KJV
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
 
They ate & their eyes indeed were opened & they saw their nakedness for they now became 'like God' knowing good & evil.
 
Last week we closed with Ecclesiastes 7.29 which told us that God made man upright, but he has sought out many inventions. [ Inventiveness means productive imagination Ref. Merriam-Webster Dictionary.]
 
The serpent beguiled Eve through subtlety activating her inventiveness by encouraging fertile imagination that caused her to see the tree as good for food, pleasant to the eyes & desirable to make one wise.
 
Seduced into an intentional act, their disobedience did not disfigure the Purity of God but rather flawed the reflection of His Image that they carried in their souls.

Her imaginings started to destroy her simple consent to God's Will in all things giving rise to irregular appetites & passions. Through this disobedience came, & their spirit man died, just as they had been warned it would.

In this defacement of God's Image in their souls, they gained the fruit of their inventiveness at the cost of losing the Spirit of Christ dwelling in their spirit.
 
They gained the knowledge of good & evil not realising that in their hands alone it was now all evil because it made them now to 'be like God' without His Presence to Sanctify them.
 
If through conscience one dwells on the right side of the moral scale they're regarded as being upright human beings however in Truth they are still unrighteous because True Righteousness is not present in them. They are in fact self-righteous for that is what to 'be like God' without God is & why the Pharisee was not justified in his prayer but the tax collector was. Luke 18:10-14
 
Many stand upright before men but not before God for only with Christ Alive in man is the Image of God within his soul held upright in His Sight through Christ Alone.
 
For light overcomes darkness, but darkness cannot absorb light for darkness is simply the lack of light.
 
So yes, very much yes, I can say with all surety now as a Christian man that Auntie Hill's life reflects aspects of the Image of God to me for I know what the Bible tells me, that ALL men have been made bearing an Image & Likeness of Him.
 
All I know is that she raised my father who carried a reflection of her simple philosophy of life yet he was never religious in any way & did not attend Church with his wife & family.
 
As was quoted in the Legacy article [see issue 013 Part 12] her motto for life hanging prominently in her kitchen was not scripture but in fact a secular poem on graciously accepting troubles in life. There is no question regarding the integrity of her actions, rather the question we as Christians are exploring is whether it is, in fact, possible for such levels of self-denial to be enacted simply out of a keen sense of moral uprightness without the Righteousness of God indwelling her.
 
Not I, nor anybody else, has the right to judge for there is only one Just Judge being The Lord Jesus Christ for He Alone knows what is in the heart of all men.
However, we can discern & with it; I declare that I had the privilege of knowing such a beautiful human soul who so powerfully revealed a reflection of God's Image that all humankind carries & I shall never forget her.
 
In sharing her story so much has been illuminated that I Thank God for revealing in simplicity the inherent goodness He places in ALL humankind to help us understand why & how He can Forgive & Love us, no matter what we have done or are doing, if we respond to His Call to repent & receive Christ to Live again in our spirit.
 
John 3:16 NKJV
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

ISSUE 020:   Draw Nigh Unto Me ….. Part 18
Issued: 25th July 2017

Defaced Part 10

Some 18 weeks ago we started on this journey together to open ourselves to what the Holy Spirit might teach on the subject of Drawing Nigh Unto God.

We have been led through the parables of my grandfather & grandson to reveal that while both came to me being Distant, Silent & Defaced they uniquely managed to convey strong love to me.

Further came the parable of the disappointed mystery man who used the very same tactics to skillfully utilise them for the common purpose of withdrawing all signs of love or care to ensure a swift end to any further personal contact.

When I came to see that my family members succeeded in using tactics accepted as wrong at any level of human interaction, curiosity became aroused in me as to how.

In light of their success, the question now arose as to whether there could be insights for us to gain from any closer examination.

Is there something that inherently blinds our understanding of how to express real love toward God that is hampering our ability to Draw Nigh To Him as we should?

We discovered they had presented themselves to me being Distant, Silent & Defaced & I shared that so many times I find the path to Truth is in reverse to what we accept as normal behaviour in this world.

So we began by looking into the word 'Defaced', a journey now into its tenth week.

Furthermore, after some study, we eventually concluded that Selflessness is a Principle of God which like so many others when honestly applied, can have a real tangible effect, even in secular life.

I was then led to share & examine the story of my Auntie Hill, the most selfless person I've personally known, to study the question of whether it is possible for someone who is not in Christ to enact such a genuine and sustained level of self-denial.

The answer we concluded was yes for all men are made in the image & likeness of God.

In sin & possessing the knowledge of good & evil, man's level of goodness relies on the personal or social conscience he possesses, however, all are capable of actions variously ranging from magnificently good all the way to the vilest evil or vice versa.

These acts whether good or evil, then become the 'works' of men & therefore in the Light of God's Righteousness all is evil.

For what is a human life without God but a cork bobbing about on the ocean waves, going where the winds take it, & what is it to boast of for without God the Truth is it would have failed even to exist?

2 Corinthians 10:12 KJV
12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

We also looked into Genesis to see man was made up of body, soul & spirit & for Adam before the fall having his spirit man Alive in Christ through the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Though his soul was made in the Image & Likeness of God, it was this Presence of God Alive in his spirit that made him & all his actions righteous in God.

He had no knowledge of good & evil for in God he was innocent & pure being one with God through Christ.

Everything was available to him except for the fruit of one tree that the Lord God commanded he must not eat.

Genesis 2:16-17 KJV
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Of course, we know they disobeyed & ate of that tree & neither did they die, just as the serpent foretold Eve, at least not in body or soul.

Rather, just as God had forewarned Adam, their spirit man died &  through their sin of disobedience were cast out of God's Presence.

For the Spirit of God, because of His Purity, now had to withdraw from them since the presence of unrighteousness now pervaded them.

Their disobedience vandalised, disfigured, spoilt, ruined, deformed, sullied, tarnished & blemished the Image of God upon their soul.

Through the Powerful Presence of God in their spirit, they were once whole & pure within but with the Image of God in their souls now DEFACED He cast them out of His Presence.

They were now spiritually dead to sin for their disobedience became the fatal betrayer to the Pure Love God had bestowed on them.

The only Real Death is to be devoid of any living personal relationship with God & Real Life only exists when the Spirit of God is Alive in our spirit through Christ.

No one has trouble taking hold of the fact that our image & likeness of body & soul live on in our children or the deep relationship it generates.

Therefore, in knowing God, we should be able to have a firm, solid understanding of the basis of the spiritual relationship between God & man.

John 4:24 KJV
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God is Spirit & He made our souls, also being a spirit in His Image & Likeness & gave Jesus Christ to bring our spirit man Alive in Him.

Isaiah 61:10 KJV
10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

So the Spirit of Jesus who is the Righteous One becomes our righteousness enabling us to be seen upright before God through Him.

When Our Father looks upon us, He sees Jesus!

Ephesians 2:8 KJV
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

In that moment of first belief, we repented deep within as The Light of Him revealed our disobedient hearts & The Truth of Him uncovered what our souls knew very well, that we belong to God.

For as Jesus became Alive Again in our spirit man we deep within became aware that our disobedience had vandalised, disfigured, spoilt, ruined, deformed, sullied, tarnished & blemished the Image of God upon our soul & repentance took place.

To repent means to turn away, & so we began a journey of turning back to God & through obedience to Him live in the Hope of the full restoration of His Image & Likeness in our soul.

1 Samuel 15:22 KJV
22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams

Disobedience of Him DEFACED it,
Obedience to Him RESTORES it.