Breaking more Agreements…

This happened at work last week, it is funny how God will come when you least expect it, sometimes wishing He would wait for a more convenient time for you (I had to hide in the server room while I cried after this)…

A friend told me he was going to buy us some tobacco pipes to try. I was bummed because he wouldn’t tell me what kind he was going to get. I tried to not worry about it, trying to just blow it off.

Then while I was sitting at work trying not to fret about it…

God asked me, “Is his Heart good?” “Do you trust his Heart?” “Then what are you so anxious about?” Ouch! That was it, deep down inside there was this lack of trust. I didn’t want to not trust him, and I thought I did. There was the Father’s voice “Don’t you trust his Heart?” I know how He communicates to me, He was saying that “You don’t trust his heart”.

Then the Father revealed something…

…My whole life I have hated getting surprise gifts, especially when someone would tell me they are getting me something and I had to wait for it. I think it has something to do with the fact that when I was a kid it always ended up being something like hand me down socks and underwear. Granted, they had less holes and stains then my current ones, but it always fell short of my expectations.

God shown me that deep down inside, there are still some agreements to be broken. Now most were made as an effect from my shitty childhood. (Aren’t they all?) But there they laid, quietly, in the dark, affecting even my relationships with Good Hearted, Spirit-Filled friends.

Agreements broke! Wounds healing!

You see, even a year now into the Wild at Heart message, God is still Fathering me, healing wounds, helping me break agreements. The beauty of being on a journey with the Father.

Wow, sweet Liberty!! Thank you Dad.

I Love you Brother (you know who you are).

Rohon!

The Battle Rages On...

That was funny, I was just getting started to write this when my oldest daughter comes up to me, asking to work together on getting lunch ready. Right there satan started in with his arrows “you ain’t got time for that, you got to post this blog” - Jerk - So I went into the kitchen with her and we got some lunch on!

Anyway to the post…

This has been an eventful week for me. Monday there was a leak in an office soaking some network equipment, taking two days to get it back online. Wednesday I worked with a consultant to upgrade a major application. Before that though, Tuesday as I was making sure some prerequisites where complete on one of the servers, I found Windows was all fubar’d, I had to re-build it from scratch.

A good thing in the midst of that though was God met my wife Sandy and I as we were reading through Sacred Romance together. (read all about that here.) So by Thursday, I was emotionally, mentally, and physically tiered. I was in a “fog”.

I did some talking with the Father and battling with the enemy, but the fog was still there. By late afternoon I was finally able to find the phone through the fog (mystically speaking), to call an ally. We talked and prayed, eventually discovering the key attack of the enemy. It all started to made sense! The sun came out, the Fog lifted, and the mist cleared. It was good.

You see, earlier in the week Sandy encouraged me to have some friends over since she was going to be out with the girls. I sent an invite, and all week I got “sorry can’t make it” or no response at all. The lies sneaked in unnoticed - “No one’s going to come. They don’t even read your email. Who would want to waste their time with you?” Even from work the lies were there - “If you were better at your job, non of these things would break”. Satan was working all week to soften me up and attack me at my weakest point. He knows that the Father has been healing the deepest wound of my heart this past year; Validation. I was caught off guard, satan hasn’t attacked that area in a long time…

It didn’t finally come together until later that night, when Sandy and I got back into Sacred Romance. Three paragraphs in I read…

…”In fact,” we continue, “if I am not pursued, it must be because there is something wrong with me, something dark and twisted inside.” We long to be known and we fear it like nothing else.

Yes, I have had great healing in my heart, being validated as a man by the Father. But just like how fleshly wounds leave scars, scars that are sensitive to the touch. That scar was attacked this week by satan.

As I laid in bed, my Father spoke…”I know who you are, I love who you are”. Wow, Thanks Dad.

My Birthday (well sort of)...

Sandy and I have been reading through 'The Sacred Romance' by John Eldridge. Last night was a good night, in the fullest sense of the word. Although I cannot quite put into words what happened, I realize now that "nor should I try". So, as we were plugging our way through chapter six, titled 'God the Ageless Romancer', we approached the end of the chapter in the section subtitled 'Act III: His Heart on Trial', and in the middle of that, God came for us ... both. It was beautiful.

Can you imagine if on your honeymoon one of you sneaked out for a rendezvous with a perfect stranger? Adam and Eve kicked off the honeymoon by sleeping with the enemy. Then comes one of the most poignant verses in all Scripture. "What is this you have done?" (Gen 3:13) You can almost hear the shock, the pain of betrayal in God's voice. pg. 78

I started to picture that scene, focusing in on God's face, seeing the pain and anguish of his love betrayed. I wept. Sandy wept. We wept not because of what we did, or that part we played in that 'first sin', but because we saw into an intimate part of the Father's heart. In fact he was right there revealing His heart to us. Not focusing on the pain we caused Him, but the Deep and True Love He has for us, even still after that betrayal. It was beautiful.

So we started talking about the bible in whole, and Sandy asked about all the rules and commandments, why did God put all that in there if He didn't want us to follow them? Well John points out some scriptures just a little later in that chapter, and one is from Ezekiel...

"I will answer you according to your idols [your false lovers] in order to recapture your heart."

Wich is from : Eze 14:4-5 [NIV] Therefore speak to them and tell them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet, I the LORD will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry. 5 I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.'

Be patient with me as I try to get the words that are in my heart out of my mouth (or fingers)....

The Father has been showing/teaching/speaking/fathering me in something for about 4 years, I'll try to summarize it - that life is about God's love for us and our love for Him. Basically what the Father has been showing me is that His Word, This Life, is about Love. A Love relationship with Him. Intimate, Passionate, Full. - although only this past year have I begun to truly understand and appreciate His love for me.

The truest thing about His heart is that He Loves us and wants us to Love Him. That because of our mistrust of His heart He has had to conform to the way we are bent on getting to Him. Does that make sense to you? Man cannot simply love God or be loved by God, he insists on a system to use, in order to prove his love and guarantee God's. So God, in His pursuit of us, will do (stoop to) whatever it takes to capture our hearts.

It is out of man's rebellion that God creates any of these rules and laws, if you will. Stay with me here. It is not His original intent. It is not the truest thing about His heart. Those things came after man's betrayal against God's love. All the law of the prophets was a result of man's betrayal of God's freedom and Love. When I look at all the old stories I see God lavishing His love to man, man betrays that love, then God creates a way for man to return to Him.

The truest thing of God is that he wants to walk with us in the garden as lovers. That is beautiful! The Father was right there saying "Rocco, Sandy, just know that I love you, and I simply desire your love for me.

Now don't go make agreements with the enemy as if I am saying you can go live a life of sin, cause God's gonna love you anyway. What I am saying is, I know God's love for me and my Love for Him. With that - all the other shit doesn't matter.

Mar 12:28-34 [CEV] One of the teachers of the Law of Moses came up while Jesus and the Sadducees were arguing. When he heard Jesus give a good answer, he asked him, "What is the most important commandment?" 29 Jesus answered, "The most important one says: 'People of Israel, you have only one Lord and God. 30 You must love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.' 31 The second most important commandment says: 'Love others as much as you love yourself.' No other commandment is more important than these." 32 The man replied, "Teacher, you are certainly right to say there is only one God. 33 It is also true that we must love God with all our heart, mind, and strength, and that we must love others as much as we love ourselves. These commandments are more important than all the sacrifices and offerings that we could possibly make." 34 When Jesus saw that the man had given a sensible answer, he told him, "You are not far from God's kingdom [God's Heart]."

To have Sandy hear, feel, and be a part of what God did last night, words cannot express what that did for my heart! So we laid there in bed talking, listening, pondering, praying, it was beautiful!


Rocco

So whats up with the title? - March 18th 1991 at 7:30p I gave my heart to God!

From John Eldredge...

I get the intercessor emails from John, and this one is "Profound" (in the words of my wife Sandy)...

The primary enemy of the Gospel (and of our message and ministry) is the Religious Spirit, which, sadly, has a large part of the church in the U.S. under it's influence. This is nothing new. Where did the most constant and most intense opposition against Jesus come from? It wasn't Rome. It was the religious leaders. I mean, good grief, he heals a guy on the Sabbath and they want to kill him for it (John 7:14-24). You can see how intense this hatred and jealousy is. The enemy doesn't want the true Gospel getting out there. He's fine with all sorts of false versions (church-ianity, legalism, religion) but man o man does he hate the real thing. You see this down through church history, how men and women bringing the true Gospel are persecuted not by pagans but by the church. Paul is dumbfounded by the Galatians, who so quickly turned from the Gospel to add to Jesus "circumcision and keep the law." That's the Religious Spirit at work, bringing in something that sounds like righteousness and truth just enough to snare God's people back into bondage. And to de-fame Paul and his message to prevent it from spreading.

A friend just shared with us a story, how the leadership of her church told her "Captivating is from the pit of hell." Another man is reprimanded and then "silenced" by his pastor for teaching Wild at Heart. We also just learned that a denomination just banned our books from their church bookstores. This is the work of the Religious Spirit. I could tell you a lot more stories but I think you get the idea. It is so sad and it makes me really mad, because what we have to say is healing so many, drawing people back to God, bringing a genuine revival to God's people. Because it IS so powerful and so true, the Religious Spirit is defaming us, and trying to shut it down. He comes directly against us with assault and oppression of various kinds; he comes subtly out there to cause people to "question" the message. ...

John finishes the letter with a call to bind the religious spirit from Ransomed Heart. I would like to encourage you to do the same in your own life.

Mat 7:22-23 [CEV]: On the day of judgment many will call me their Lord. They will say, "We preached in your name, and in your name we forced out demons and worked many miracles." But I will tell them, "I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!"

Rocco