Spiritual Slavery to Spiritual Sonship (23 page)

In order to help you be more sensitive to whose voice you are listening to, several times a week review the Orphan/Son Contrast chart in Appendix A. The voice of the Father of Creation leads you home into a place of forgiveness, affirmation, love, and rest. The
voice of the father of lies leads you away from home into fears, performing for self-worth, self-assertion, self-judgment, self-condemnation, self-consuming, self-promotion, blame-shifting, fault-finding, justifying, and striving to prove yourself innocent in a matter.

As this revelation of orphans and sons became real to me, I discovered another important truth in displacing orphan thinking when I realized that it was time to begin to sow into my inheritance. Prior to this, each December we would get a letter from Evangel Fellowship International (EFI), the fellowship of churches I was a part of, that invited us to participate in receiving a Christmas offering for Bishop Miles. I knew what his salary was, and how often he spoke at other churches, which collected nice offerings for him. And here I was trying to raise a family of five on less than $30,000. “Why didn’t they take up an offering for me?” Definitely orphan thinking.

In those days, I did not have the revelation of giving honor to whom honor is due, thus I lacked a heart of sonship. God began to reveal to me how I was dishonoring authority with orphan thinking whenever I felt that authority didn’t need a blessing they were receiving as much as I did. It revealed that I had no honor toward authority, thus no sonship.

Sons recognize the power of sowing into their inheritance by seeking to bless those who have blessed them as well as blessing others as they have been blessed. As Paul told the Romans, “if
the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things”
(Rom. 15:27b NAS). As I encountered this verse in my new mind-set of a son, I realized that I had a debt to all the people who had put up with me in my “teenage” years, my years of spiritual immaturity when I did more taking from
people than giving. How much grief and pain had I caused Bishop Miles and some of the other people in my life because of my immaturity in valuing them for what they could do for me and in trying to manipulate them to promote my life and ministry?

The Lord yoked other verses to the one above:
“If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?”
(1 Cor. 9:11 NAS). The sixth chapter of Galatians contains a verse that is often taken out of context in Scripture:

Think about all the people you owe a spiritual debt to. Who nurtured you in the faith? Who mentored you? Who matured you in the things of God? Who modeled Father’s love for you sincerely, regardless of how imperfectly? Who tolerated being valued by you for what they could do for you rather than for relationship’s sake? Have you sowed materially into their lives and ministries? Are you making what is important to them important to you?

When orphan thinking dominated my thought life, every time it came to blessing Bishop Miles or other authorities in any way, I’d cop an attitude. As God opened my eyes to see this, I realized that I’d never repaid my debt. “Do
not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows
[into his spiritual authorities materially],
this he will also reap.”
When a special offering is received for someone in authority in your life and you grieve over it and send the least
you can get away with, this verse implies that you will reap nothing but corruption. It can reveal a heart issue of dishonor. No inheritance for orphans. But if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life. Inheritance is for sons.

I began to realize that receiving an offering for Bishop Miles and sowing into his life and ministry was not about meeting his need but about revealing my own heart issues and what I wanted to reap in the future from those who give oversight and account for my life. God really grabbed hold of my heart with this. I sat down with my wife and I showed her the whole thing. “Trisha, we’ve never joyfully blessed those in authority who put up with us in our years of immaturity. And look how much we have struggled.” We gave to the poor, we gave to missions, we give here and there; but because we felt our authority didn’t need it or deserve it, we failed to honor them. But it wasn’t about their need; it was about whether we were orphans or sons, about whether we were willing to get underneath and push up. It was about our need to sow honor in order that, later in life, we might reap honor and become an influencer for the Kingdom of God in the lives of others.

I told Trisha, “I want us to start giving to the people who have put up with us all through the years and helped us mature.” Together we made a list of about five people and began praying for seed to sow: “Father, we don’t have any money. We don’t have any way to bless these folks. So, Father, in accordance with Romans 15:27, First Corinthians 9:11, and Galatians 6:6-8, we ask You to supply seed for the sower, bread for food, that You might multiply a harvest. Bring increase that we will be prosperous in everything for liberality.” We started claiming this daily, and financial increase began to occur.

It began slowly and grew from there. If we received $20 from some unexpected source, we gave $10 to our pastor; $50, we gave him $20. Sometimes I would take the missions offering collected at one of our Encounters and send a portion to Bishop Miles for his upcoming mission trip.

We decided to not make sowing into our inheritance just about finances. It is also about our time, focus, and loyalty. We looked for other ways to bless Bishop Miles and Pastor Phillip. Whatever was important to them, we were going to make important to us and all our team at Shiloh Place Ministries. We searched out every possible way to honor, bless, support, and promote their families, work, and ministry.

When Trisha and I received this revelation about sowing into our inheritance, our income at Shiloh Place Ministries went up 78 percent in the first year. The second year it went up 76 percent. In 1999 and 2000, it went up another 74 percent. After 9-11, many ministries’ finances began to decline all over the world, yet ours continued to climb. Everywhere we go, we are astounded at the honor and finances that people entrust us with.

Our tithe belongs at our local church, but beyond that, we continue to sow materially into the people who have ministered to us. It is a biblical principle. We have a debt, and it is an honor to discharge that debt by blessing materially and with our loyalty and emotional support, each of those who have put up with us when we had orphan hearts. That is sowing into our inheritance, and it is helping to displace orphan thinking with a heart of sonship!

On our quest for movement from slavery to sonship, the final truth that I have to impart to you is the transformation that I have seen in my life, family, relationships, and ministry. That is the evidence that
makes everything written in this book real and something worth pursuing more deeply. Nothing motivates like results!

Over a period of about three years, from 1997 to 1999, the previous seven truths worked through my mind and emotions until they began to become revelation in my spirit. During this time, Trisha and I saw supernatural transformation beginning to take place in many arenas of life. But now, in 2006, it is so very clear to see the inheritance and lasting fruitfulness we stepped into through our quest for rest. Following is listed some of the lasting fruit that has sprung forth from sonship being worked through our heart.

First, I began to discover God’s rest. For most of my life, I struggled with the inability to rest and enjoy life. Something always seemed to grip me and pull me into restlessness. Some words to describe how I felt inside were tension, agitation, striving, or stressed. Let’s try to give definition to this restlessness—the feeling that there is something more that I have to do or put in order to feel valued, affirmed, accepted, or loved.

Our competitive culture tends to define
rest
as a place of idleness or being unproductive. But the biblical rest found in sonship is not a place without activity or fruitfulness. Rest is a posture of the heart of sonship that feels so sheltered in Father’s love that it does not allow itself to be pulled into a place where we strive to feel valued, affirmed, or secure. Abiding in rest is the place where all people will be drawn to us because everyone is searching for rest.

Second, feeling more secure and at rest in Father’s love displaced much of my fear—fear of authority, fear of trusting, fear of rejection, and fear of intimacy. When around those in authority or even in a group of people, I no longer feel like I am on the outside looking in and wondering what I have to do to get on the inside. Perfect love has displaced so much of the insecurity and fear of being hurt again.

Third, with fear displaced, our relationships have become much more open, real, and meaningful, and are becoming the community of love that Christ intended for them to be. We are surrounded by true friends who are there for us, no matter what, and we seek to be there for them. We have seen the yoke of independence broken and embraced interdependent friendships.

Fourth, I helped my mom and dad receive the Lord, and I experienced closure when they passed away. My father died a few years ago, and my mother last year. There is much to say of seeing them pass on to be with the Lord, and your heart feeling innocent of the sins that they committed against you and the dishonor you committed against them. Forgiveness and restitution prevents the accuser of the brethren from binding you with a guilt or victim mentality.

Fifth, the hearts of my children have been restored to my heart. When my heart was full of orphan thinking toward my parents and spiritual authorities, I reaped from my children the same attitudes and relationship. All three of my children are now seeking to walk in a spirit of sonship with me. Can you image the joy and fulfillment that I, as a father, feel in that?

Sixth, all three of my children and the spouses of the two married ones are walking with God and seeking to make His love known to the world. In my orphan years, my children went through their years of rebellion and being seduced by the world. They all have come home to God’s love, motivated by the transformation they have seen in their mom and dad.

Seventh, over the last eight years we have seen great favor, honor, and promotion released upon our lives and ministry. Following the act of confession and restitution with Bishop Miles, we have steadily matured into primary influencers in Evangel Fellowship International. We have been made elders in the fellowship and are regular speakers in their ministers’ meetings. Outside of EFI, we are looked to as respected apostolic leaders in the
nations for the revelation of God as a loving, affectionate, affirming Father.

Eighth, financial provision and increase have been supernatural over the last eight years both in our ministry and personal lives. After 15 years of poverty, the heart of sonship has made a way for us to give hilariously and to be a financial blessing to our children’s and grandchildren’s future.

Ninth, as we began to focus our life upon being a son and daughter to those in authority in our lives, many of our staff and team members began to do likewise with us and Shiloh Place. As promotion came to us, promotion began to occur in them, and we now have over 70 ministry team members who are traveling the world with the message of God’s transforming love and deeply impacting families, churches, and ministers.

Tenth, in eight years we went from a little impoverished, nobody-has-heard-of-us ministry, to an international ministry that is touching the world through our schools, encounters, and resource materials. Many people are coming to know Christ, and many more are having families transformed and hearts healed.

All ten of these things have occurred without self-assertion and aggressive striving to try and make them happen. We settled into God’s rest, focused our life upon being a son and daughter, and His love has produced the inheritance. Intimacy preceded fruitfulness. Sonship preceded inheritance and the fulfillment of the word that God gave in 1980—“Leave your identity at sea, and you shall take healing and restoration to the nations.”

A
s long as I tried to build my identity and ministry through orphan thinking, I felt like the angry older brother slaving in the fields and thought that the father had never given me anything to be merry (see Luke 15:25-30). I saw little lasting fruit and was left in a state of agitated resistance against authority and in disappointment and frustration. But as I began to sow into my inheritance by getting underneath and blessing others and earnestly seeking to be faithful with that which was another’s, I began to receive the promises of God for my life, family, and ministry.

Have you wondered why you have not seen more lasting fruit in your life? Do you wonder why you don’t have more influence in your workplace? Do you wonder why you haven’t come into the place that God has called you to in your local church and that you know He wants you to move into? Are you sowing into your inheritance? Or do you cop an attitude when it’s time to take up an offering or to bless your pastor or boss at Christmastime?