Category: Unconditional Love

532. Grace Over Law | The Revolution of the New Covenant

Mike Parsons

No video? Click here.

The Old Covenant System

We’re looking at a perspective where the old covenant operated in a way that they had a system in which they needed a temple which reflected a heavenly picture of a holy of holies, an inner court and outer court and that sort of thing. And I do not understand personally why David would have desired to do that, when he had the presence of God in the Tabernacle of David, which represented our day in which the gospel would be open to all people, not just a limited people. But they had a religious system and, according to their religious system, they needed somewhere where God’s presence would be, where they could offer their sacrifices and offerings and their day of atonement and all that.

So according to that system, I can understand why that was important to them; and God worked within their system. But did he intend there to be these things made out of stone, when we are the temple that he always desired to dwell within and with? So we have got to look at it from their perspective. Under their religious system, a temple made sense.

Jesus came to completely destroy that temple. That is what he said. “Not one stone will be left standing on this temple,” which was the representation of the old covenant system of law, when the new covenant would be a system of grace, not law. So Jesus said that this system was coming to an end. It would happen within a generation. It happened within a generation.

320. The Signs of Jesus’ Coming

So we have got to be careful not to read into what happened in the old covenant as anything that we should be looking for to happen in the new covenant. So God certainly allowed them to have their belief system and he operated within it for them, but he did not condone it because he said, “Sacrifices and offerings I desired not.” You know, “You wanted to do this, I went along with it, but I never wanted it.” And even in Hebrews it says sacrifices and offerings God did not want.

So why did they do it? Because they operated in their own system of belief that they created to enable them, in their view, to have a relationship with God. But they never had a relationship with God that was personal and intimate. They had a relationship with religion and a system that they thought was keeping their nation safe from God’s wrath and judgment and punishment.

419. Jesus Saves Us From The Father’s Wrath? NO!

Grace Rather Than Law

The day of atonement is where an offering was made for the sin of the nation, whereas Jesus is the sin offering for the world. So we do not need any physical temples anymore. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God dwells in us. We are the tabernacle, and corporately God dwells in our midst as well as dwelling within us individually. There is a corporate dynamic to that.

But definitely I do not believe that we should be looking to rebuild or have temples which are physical things. Now, I do not mind going into wonderful cathedrals and things like that where they have been built often out of respect and honour for God, and you can tell that people put their heart and soul into it. And they can be places where you can find peace and I have often been in them. But I do not believe in the religious system of denominations occupying them.

They did not have any church buildings for the first few hundred years, until Constantine decided that Christianity would be the Roman religion. Therefore they had a lot of temples which were now redundant, so they might as well use them for Christian things. The same with priests, a lot of redundant priests. So, let’s have a priesthood (rather than the priesthood of all believers, which is what it is).

All of us have access into the holy places of God in the realms of heaven.

445. Walking In The Spirit: A Journey Into Heavenly Realms

Reading the Bible With Perspective

Part of the problem with a lot of these things is we read what the Old Testament says and we think that must be true, the total truth. A lot of it is their interpretation of the truth from their understanding. It does not make it true. It makes it true from their perspective, under their religious system.

We have got to be so careful we do not just accept the Bible must be totally true because it says so. The Bible, you have got to understand, is a collection of books written by loads and loads of people. Some poetry, some wisdom, proverbs and things like that. Some are history, some prophetic books. They are all books written from someone’s perspective who wrote them. It does not make them right.

403. So you think the ‘Word of God’ is the Bible? Think again!

Just because they said that God said, “You need to wipe out this group of people,” does not make it right that he said it. They just used that because that was their view of God. God was going to wipe out their enemies, because that is how they saw it. That does not make it true. God was never going to wipe out his enemies in the way that they thought. God can turn enemies into friends. That is what it says, turn his enemies into his footstool, the place of worship, not destroy them and wipe them out.

531. When the Bible Becomes a Barrier

Mike Parsons

If you do not see the video above, please click here.

Get more from Mike when you join any tier at patreon.com/freedomarc.

Moving Beyond the Need for Proof

When I started this journey, everything for me had to be focused in the Bible because that was what I was brought up with in the evangelical system of thinking. And that was limiting what God was able to show me, which were things beyond the Bible. But because I needed it grounded there, that grounding then was outworked in what I knew. And so I would try to do it myself because I knew and I was confident, well, the Bible says this.

481. Beyond The Pages | Finding Truth Outside the Bible

Now, at that point, I had not gone through deconstruction, and that was still what was framing my relationship with God. But God wanted to take me beyond that, so he had to start weaning me off needing proof, biblical proof, which was where my proof came from, you know, because there were things then he started to show me. Well, if you want biblical proof about this, your understanding of the Bible needs to change because the way you see the Bible now is not going to give you the proof, which is actually the truth. Because you are framing it with a wrong expectation of me.

And I suddenly started to realise that what God was saying to me is, “You do not have to do this yourself. You just let me do it.” So presenting myself as a living sacrifice, as a priest, meant for me I was doing what I needed to do to be a good sacrifice. Whereas actually Jesus my high priest prepares me in my life. But I was doing the preparation.

Trust Jesus Rather Than Knowledge

So every day I would want to go into the tabernacle in heaven and I would want to look into the bronze laver and see a reflection. But what I was looking at was a reflection of my understanding of the Bible. I did not know at that point that Jesus was the Word of God. Of course, I knew it intellectually, but actually the Bible was the word of God. So for me, that is how it was.

403. So you think the ‘Word of God’ is the Bible? Think again!

Therefore being washed by the water of the word was not Jesus doing that. It was me, reading the Bible, who was doing it. So I was actually trying to wash myself. You know, when I was trying to renew my mind, I was using the Bible to try and renew my mind. And all of the things like “the word of God is like a sharp two-edged sword just dividing soul and spirit,” – I was trying to divide my soul and spirit using the Bible to do it.

And actually what Jesus was trying to say is “No, I am the living Word. So trust me, not in your knowledge, because your knowledge will not be enough to do it because you do not know enough, and also some of the things you think you know are not true.”

So it was quite a challenge, you know, to go through that process of him removing the evangelical framework of my thinking to trust him rather than to trust my knowledge. Ultimately that took me through a whole process where I had to accept that I was in control and I was doing it myself. And I was not trying to do a bad thing, but I was still doing it in works, and I was still doing it in the power of my soul, and I was still doing it actually because I trusted myself more than God.

489. Nine Pillars That Shaped (And Shook) My Beliefs

You know, because of the [understanding of the] nature I still had of God who was to be feared, because that was before my understanding of God was deconstructed into unconditional love. So I was still functioning in penal substitutionary atonement and all of those doctrines which were my understanding of framing the Bible. So I was framing the Bible wrongly all of that time.

Surrender, Deconstruction and Trust

So he decided to wean me off the need for biblical truth and biblical proof and show me that a lot of my understanding of what I thought was true based on the Bible was not true because it was based in a false system of belief based around a god who is not actually who God is.

So you go through seasons, and it is not always easy if we do not surrender. So what I have learned to do is just surrender and trust. If it seems to be a season of inactivity, it is okay: I trust you, and I trust you enough that if there is anything you want me to do, then you will show me. And when this season changes, then I will actually sense and feel something has shifted and now something else is happening.

But it is not an easy process when you are conditioned. And I was certainly conditioned. And I had to go through a lot of deconstruction. And I had to surrender to trust God before that deconstruction could really take place. You know, there was a degree where I had experiences that challenged some of the things I believed about God, but that was not sufficient at that point without a surrendering of my soul’s need to understand and to know and effectively to be in control.

501. Deconstructing Beliefs: A Journey to Authentic Faith

So God took me through a whole process of softening me up, preparing me, a lot of refining experiences of going into fire and going into being soaked and getting ready for the most difficult thing that ever happened when I got to the point where I had to surrender my right and need to know to just trust him. And that was such a hard thing back in 2012. But since then, my relationship with God, my understanding of who God is, my understanding of who I am has been totally transformed because I now know God at a completely different level.

So go for it, you know, go for resting. And it does not mean that you cannot say to God, okay, if you want to tell me what is going on or show me what you are doing, I am open. But that is not the driving force behind what you do when you engage God. Because there is no problem, God is quite happy for us to talk to him and ask him questions, but he is quite at liberty not to give us the answer if he does not want to. And we have to accept that there is a reason for that, whatever it might be. That is what we have to trust God in, the process.

 If you enjoy these videos, would you please take a moment to like, comment, and subscribe? It really does help. Thank you very much.

527: The Ripple Effect

Mike Parsons

No video? Please click here.

Join our Patreon patrons, who give a small amount each month and can tune in for our monthly group Zooms, get exclusive or early access to Mike’s teaching and enjoy many other patron-only benefits.

 

Transition Rather Than Revolution

I always hope for transition rather than revolution, because a lot of people get hurt in revolution. Transition is a more peaceful way of doing things, but I am not always totally convinced that transition brings about change if people do not want the change. What will cause people to want the change? They are not happy with the present situation, other than a more philanthropic view of wanting to see the world a better place, but most people are not really looking that way.

So ultimately, do I believe things will just change? I think there will be some shakings that promote people to look for a different solution, rather than perpetuating the same. It is people who will eventually bring the change. If 250 million people in the US suddenly found an intimate relationship with God as Father, things would change, because those people would demand change and they would be agents of change. They would change how they treat people, and then other people being treated differently would treat others differently.

508. God’s Desire For You | Discovering True Intimacy

Beyond Political Solutions

Ultimately, I am not optimistic of a political solution, but I am optimistic of God’s kingdom eventually, through transforming people’s lives, changing the world, hopefully transitionally. But there may well be some bumps in the road that cause people to start looking at different solutions to their life.

If you think the government is going to solve all your problems, you are looking in the wrong place, because has it ever solved everyone’s problems? Not really. So let us give them a role that they have, to make sure there is an infrastructure in the nation that can support well-being, but they are not there to control people’s lives and they are not there to make money for other people either.

433. Transform Your Life | Focus Your Energy

Discernment and Unity

We should be looking for peaceful transition, without what happened last time to divide the nation even further. You want things to come together, not be driven more and more apart. I would want people to be discerning and to be able to find out what is the truth, and not be swayed by lies and propaganda and all that goes on. The political arena is like a pigsty, everyone is dirty in it. Not corrupt, but it is just not a good environment, it just feels like it stinks. It did not used to as much as it does today.

Love as the Highest Agenda

As followers of Jesus, “love one another as I have loved you” should be the highest agenda that we have. To love one another, even if we disagree, whether we disagree politically or in so many different areas. Love should be the higher agenda and call; and if it was, things would be different.

It seems that in the last election, Christians were no better than anybody else in vilifying others, and it was not good. We need to rise above that and demonstrate love for those we disagree with, because that will change things, because Jesus said it would. How would the world know that we are his disciples? By our love for one another. And that does not exclude the world, because Jesus came to save the world, not just a part of it.

Love That Transforms

We need to love everybody, whether they are a different colour, speak a different language, or whatever differences there are. Nothing should be higher than love. Love can bring about unity and union, but only love can do it. Therefore, we need to be loved. More and more believers need to know that they are loved unconditionally so that they can choose to love each other, the world, and their neighbour.

Our neighbour may be a different colour, come from a different country, be an immigrant, or anything else. Most people in America are immigrants when you go back a few generations. So let us love each other, whatever our background or wherever we have come from. Let us choose to love one another, because that is the higher law. That is what will change things ultimately, if we choose to love one another.

510. Discovering Your Worth: The Truth of Being a Child of God

Love forgives

Jesus said to love your enemies. From our perspective we should not have enemies, but if people feel that they are our enemies, we should still love them, forgive them, and want to bless them. That is what love really is. Can you want the best for someone who does not love you? It is a challenge, but that is what Jesus did for those who put him on a cross, both political and religious. “Father, forgive them.”

I think that is what love does. Love forgives no matter what. And that would change things if more and more people who say they are followers of Jesus actually followed him by doing what he said, loving one another and loving their neighbour as themselves.

If you enjoy these videos, would you please take a moment to like, comment, and subscribe? It really does help. Thank you very much.

524. What Does Love Mean? Experience, Belief and the Nature of God’s Love

Mike Parsons –

No video above? Please click here.

Join our Patreon patrons, who give a small amount each month and can tune in for our monthly group Zooms, get exclusive or early access to Mike’s teaching and enjoy many other patron-only benefits.

 

Understanding Love Through Experience

What do we mean when we use the word love? What do we think and feel when we hear the word love? The answer to those questions will have been influenced and affected by our personal experiences. For some, you hear the word love and it is a really hard thing to hear because you may have been affected by broken relationships and promises of love which never came to fruition.

John (who I believe experienced a depth of love) when he wrote John 14, was expressing something of his own personal experience and what Jesus was revealing to him. John also wrote in 1 John 4:16, “we have come to know,” and that means by personal experience, “and have believed.” When you have personal experience, you do believe. It is not that you believe and then that gives you the experience. The experience gives you the belief.

That is why faith is not based in what we experience, but in the realisation of what is already true. Therefore, we do not have to have faith. God has faith in us, or God imparts His faith to us. So as we experience it, we will inevitably believe it, unless we have a real problem with trust and we are suspicious, and that does happen.

309. Experience love – and be free!

 

Experience Produces Belief

I have seen miracles happen. I have seen miracles performed as I prayed for people, and people have watched and observed amazing things, people’s legs growing and things like that. And then they are sceptical of whether they really saw that, whether it was really true, whether it really happened. And they were there watching it, but they did not have the experience.

I guarantee that the person who had their leg grow, and therefore were not lopsided in their walk and no longer had a problem with their back and everything else that caused, did not have a problem believing that they were healed, because they experienced it themselves.

So this verse in 1 John 4:16, “we have come to know and believe the love which God has for us,” is the key to restoring first love. It is the love that God has for us from the beginning, that we knew in the beginning.

God is love, and the one who abides in love (abiding meaning dwelling, living) abides in God, and God abides in him. When we are abiding in this love relationship, we are abiding in God, and God abides in us. This is the way God described, and John described, what Jesus said in John 14. This relationship with love brings about an abiding where we live in love, and therefore we live in God, and God lives in us.

The Meaning of John 3:16

We know John 3:16 as a verse. It is probably one of the most famous verses there is. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish,” (or actually “be lost” is a better translation, because the word perish means lost) “but have eternal life.”

So God so loved everyone and everything that He gave, because He was totally committed to the restoration of us to that love, so that we could have eternal life, which is a return to the origin of life, the eternal nature of that origin. This does not just mean that we go to heaven one day when we die. It means a return to the true origin of what life was intended to be with God.

400. Living in Union with God: Embracing Our Original Design

One Word, Many Meanings

Love is one word in the English language with many different meanings. Other languages have multiple words that differentiate its meaning. Greek and Hebrew both have different words for love.

But in English, we have one word. I can say to someone, “I love you,” or I can say, “I love ice cream.” I do love ice cream. But does that carry the same weight as loving a person? No. The words are the same, but the context gives meaning. They are very different concepts, but we use the same word, and therefore it can be misunderstood.

Hebrew Words for Love

Hebrew words for love include:

  • Ahav – spontaneous, impulsive love
  • Hesed – deliberate choice of affection, kindness, covenant love
  • Racham – to have compassion, brotherly love

These are different words expressing something that in English we describe with one word.

Greek Words for Love

Greek also has multiple words for love.

Eros – Erotic love is not found in the New Testament, but is present in Greek literature. Other words include phileo and storge (pronounced stor-gay), which are found in the New Testament and have specific meanings.

Phileo love – means to have a special interest in someone or something, often with a focus on close association, affection, or friendship. It refers to a strong liking or friendship. We love things we strongly like. So I can say I love ice cream in that context. But I am not in love with ice cream. I might say I love my car or I love the way your hair looks. These uses of the word do not convey the full depth of what love is intended to mean.

Storge – refers to the love and affection that naturally occurs between parents and children. It can also exist between siblings and between husbands and wives in a good marriage. You can have storge love in a marriage, but if you add agape love to that marriage, it goes to a completely different level.

Romans 10:12 talks about philo storgos, encouraging us to be loving and kind to each other, expressing that brotherly and familial love.

Agape: The Nature of God’s Love

Then there is the Greek word agape, which was seldom used in Greek literature but is used extensively in the Bible. It refers to the love of God, the kind of love God has for us, and the love we are to have for God and for people.

You can agape love your enemies, but you cannot phileo love them. That is because agape is not motivated by feelings or emotions. Agape is the very nature of God, who is love.

Agape love is known by the action it prompts towards others. It motivates positive action. It is not about doing things because of feelings, obligation, or duty. It is the motivation and empowerment to love; but it must be received in order to be expressed. Agape love is not simply an impulse generated from feelings. It is an exercise of the will, a deliberate choice.

That is why God can encourage us to love our enemies. We can choose to do what God has done for us, not based on whether they deserve it, or how we feel, but because of His love. He is not commanding us to feel something towards our enemies, but to act in a loving way towards them. Forgiveness is one way of expressing that.

Agape love is therefore related to choice and commitment, not just emotion.

Biblical Expressions of Love

Loving someone is to be like God towards them, seeking their long-term blessing and good.

There are many biblical references to agape love:

  • Matthew 5:43–44 – love your enemies
  • Matthew 22:36–40 – the great commandment, love God
  • John 3:16 – God so loved the world
  • John 13:34 – a new commandment, love one another
  • John 17:26 – that the love with which You loved Me may be in them
  • Romans 5:5 – the love of God poured out within our hearts

Did we feel it? Did we experience it? Do we know it? It is important that we do. Even if we have not experienced it yet, we can still come into that experience.

Love as Fulfilment and Empowerment

Romans 13:10 says love is the fulfilment of the law. 1 Corinthians 13 says the greatest of these is love. 2 Corinthians 5:14 says the love of Christ controls us; not in the sense of forcing us, but empowering us, inspiring and motivating us. Galatians 5:6 speaks of faith working through love. Galatians 5:22 says the fruit of the Spirit is love. 1 John 4:7 says everyone who loves is born of God.

God expresses His character through restoring first love, to inspire us, motivate us, and empower us to love Him, ourselves, and others. If you do not love yourself, then you have not experienced God’s love. That raises an important question: how comfortable are we with loving ourselves? How do we even think about that concept?

Some people struggle with that, but God wants us to know His love so that we can love ourselves, knowing how loved, valuable, and worthy we are, and from that place, love others.

What Love Is, and Is Not

Love is not just a virtue, a value, an ideal, or a moral principle. It is not just a feeling, a sentiment, an impulse, or a passion. It is not just romance, benevolence, or amicability. Love is the most powerful force in the whole of creation.

John 13:34 says, “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another.” And the most important part is this: “just as I have loved you.”

It is impossible to agape love someone without first experiencing God’s love. We may have emotions, and we may even sacrifice for others, but when we know we are loved by God, we are empowered in a completely different dimension to love others. That is the key. That is how the world awakens to love: when people feel and see others loving them and one another the way God intends.

328. Experiencing God’s Love: A New Approach to Evangelising Christians

The Source of True Love

Only God can express His character through love to us, to inspire and motivate us to love ourselves and others with agape. Love is not a psychological predisposition or a genetically produced social habit. That is what you will often find if you look for explanations of love. Agape love can only be expressed by us when it is derived from God.

Love is the essence, nature, and character of God, experienced by us and then expressed through our lives. God’s love has practical features to be expressed and demonstrated. Love is not defined by the act, but by the character of God within the act.

You can do something that appears loving, but not be motivated by God’s heart in doing it.

If you enjoy these videos, would you please take a moment to like, comment, and subscribe? It really does help. Thank you very much.

 

518. My Spiritual Awakening | Angels and More

Mike Parsons –

 

The Role of Angels

The angels were involved from the very beginning, because I did not fully understand what was happening. Only in hindsight can I see the cycles of change in my life, one after another. One significant moment was when I was baptized in the Spirit. I discovered several books that challenged my understanding of spirit, soul, and body. There was one particular book, probably the thickest I had ever read, The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee, exploring the nature of the spirit, soul and body, and how they interact. I devoured it because I was hungry for understanding. It began to reveal the role of the Holy Spirit and my own spirit in ways I had never considered.

By accident, I found another book, Nine O’Clock in the Morning by Dennis and Rita Bennett, written in the late 1950s in the United States. It focused on baptism in the Spirit and spiritual gifts. At that time, I was in the Brethren church, which did not embrace any of these ideas. Reading the book, I was astonished—it shared how encounters with the Holy Spirit transformed lives.

I began asking questions, but many dismissed it. Some said, “Oh, that is not for today,” while others claimed those experiencing it were deceived. It was a difficult time, and God had to change my mindset. This cycle of change, with the Holy Spirit active in my life, ultimately brought about transformation. I realised I needed confirmation for myself. I could not simply accept, “Yes, God said it, it is true.” I required evidence.

Baptism in the Spirit

I found confirmation through Martin Lloyd-Jones, a well-known preacher at Westminster Chapel in London. His recordings and his book Baptism of the Spirit convinced me theologically that baptism in the Spirit is for today—and I desired it. It still took several years before I received it, but I pursued it diligently.

Cycles of change were facilitated by both people and angels. At one point, a childhood friend I had not seen for years returned to my life. He had become a Christian and was baptized in the Spirit. He laid his hand on my head in a small group, and I experienced a powerful encounter with God.

God orchestrates these cycles; He is active, not passive, in bringing us into the maturity of sonship. Receiving baptism in the Holy Spirit opened another cycle of change. I became more open to hearing God and understanding His purposes. This led to a fresh perspective on eschatology—understanding kingdom and covenant in ways I had not encountered growing up in the Brethren church. God revealed truths beyond the futurism and premillennial rapture teaching I had known.

Community and Mentorship

After several years, I found an old book by Archibald Hughes, which affirmed all that God had been teaching me. Deconstructing my previous beliefs had taken time. I did not teach these truths for twenty or thirty years, fearing controversy. Eventually, I could no longer remain silent. The insights were so radically aligned with Jesus’ teaching that they opened a broader understanding—about covenantal judgment on the old system, the generation, and God’s ongoing work in the world.

God’s orchestration of my life was evident in these cycles of change, often interspersed with periods of rest. I saw the angels’ involvement and recognised God as the conductor of an orchestra—the symphony is the song of my life, and He directs the rhythm. I may not fully understand how conductors work, but the orchestra responds to His guidance: speeding up, slowing down, and emphasising particular movements. God’s involvement in every detail is remarkable.

Deconstructing Beliefs

We do not need to understand everything fully; our role is to participate and cooperate. Over time, I learned not to resist or demand full comprehension before embracing God’s work in me. I became proactive, recognising cycles of change and the timing of God’s intervention. He is gracious, merciful, and loving. He knows exactly what we need and when, helping us enter into His processes rather than resist them.

Our backgrounds influence how easily we assimilate new truths. Some of us, like myself, require much convincing. But as I grew sensitive to God’s work, I learned to embrace transformation willingly—stepping onto the altar to be refined and purified without hesitation. Previously, I clung to control, needing to be convinced to release things. Now, I trust Him completely. God is always good. If He leads us through something, it is for our ultimate blessing, making it easier to say “yes” quickly.

God does not intend to harm us or make life unnecessarily difficult. Often, it is we who make things harder for ourselves. Trusting Him accelerates our willingness to embrace His work in us because we recognise His goodness, mercy, and love. He is a good, loving, wonderful Father, always seeking the best for us.

Our Patreon patrons help us take this message of love and inclusion to all God’s children. Please consider joining them from just £1  GBP a month at patreon.com/freedomarc

314. Limiting Mindsets and Beliefs

516. The Poison Tree | Eschatology Unravelled:

398. Embrace Transformation and Renewal

513. Who Are You Really? Unpacking Identity

Mike Parsons –

I believe the world is beginning to experience a series of awakenings. A love awakening, a grace awakening, a joy awakening, a peace awakening. A true God awakening to the reality of who God really is. We are part of that awakening, helping people discover the truth as we discover the truth ourselves, and then share it and live it. It is important that we embrace these awakenings. As we do, we begin to carry and express them naturally.

For a long time, God kept asking me a simple but profound question: who are you? He asked it in various ways over a period of time. At first, my answers were always works-based, tied to what I was doing. Like many people, I identified myself by what I did rather than by who I was. My soul defined my identity, but God was seeking to reveal the true me. For that to happen, my soul had to accept it, and that was not an easy process.

All of us go through a process, and God reveals who we really are in different ways. At the same time, he exposes what hinders us from accepting that reality. Each of us carries things that God has to deal with. Our souls have constructed identities using the data collected throughout our lives: things that happened to us, information we received, and the programming we absorbed through culture, religion and family. Information flowed through our senses, shaping survival strategies that helped the soul cope and protect itself from harsh realities.

Those defence mechanisms, however, often become prisons. They falsely promise safety while preventing us from knowing who we really are. Until the soul surrenders control, we cannot fully trust God for protection, provision and direction. Letting go of control is difficult, especially when we have learned to do everything ourselves. Trusting God sounds simple, but it is not. I believed I trusted God implicitly until he began to challenge what trust really meant in my relationship with him.

So, who am I? That question sits at the core of most people’s inner life.

Imagine a scene. You are in a boat, adrift on a vast ocean. You do not know where you are, and you do not realise that this ocean is unconditional love. You have no sails and no oars. This is the position humanity often finds itself in, unaware of where it truly is and protecting itself from the very reality that surrounds it. This state of despair is an illusion, a deception that causes people to try to navigate the surface of an ocean of love through self-effort.

The answer is to get out of the boat and sink into the depths of unconditional love. There we discover who we really are and who God really is. We are never separated from God, because we exist within him. Acts 17:28 tells us that in him we live and move and have our being. Everything exists within God, who has created space within himself for relationship. Separation, therefore, is an illusion we have created through guilt and shame. That illusion keeps us from intimacy with God and traps us in a lost identity.

Getting out of the boat feels counterintuitive to the natural mind, which has been conditioned to follow an independent, self-directed path. Yet the question remains: who are you, and how will you find out? I would suggest that you will never truly know if you stay in the boat. Even when it feels safer to stay there, paddling with your hands requires constant effort and never brings you to truth.

Who do you think you are? Ten years ago, I would have answered differently than I would today. Five years ago, my answer would have changed again. Thirty years ago, it would have been completely different. Who do others think you are? That question matters, because if we allow it, the opinions of others can define us. Are you shaped by your past experiences, your circumstances, your parents, your friends, your boss or even your genetics?

The deeper question is this: who does love say you are?

Get out of the boat. Sink into the vast ocean of love. Surrender, be immersed and saturated in unconditional love. Return to first love, because it is there that we discover who we really are. God, who is love, defines us. He defines who you are.

So, who are you? I would suggest that we can only truly know through a restored, face-to-face love relationship with God as Father, Son and Spirit. It is that relationship which enables us to discover the truth and to live in it.

If you enjoy these videos, please take a moment to like, comment and subscribe. It really does help. Thank you very much.

272. One Conclusion: God Is Love

510. Discovering Your Worth: The Truth of Being a Child of God

336. Get out of the boat… and SINK!

511. From Selfishness to Generosity

Mike Parsons –

If you are believing for something, you cannot be negative about it or double-minded. You need to live in the reality that you have already received it. Jesus said to pray believing that you have received, and you will receive.

Of course, this can easily drift into selfishness. Bigger house, bigger car, better job, more of this and more of that. The real question is why we want something. Is it simply for ourselves, or is it so that it can be a blessing? God wants to bless us so that we can bless others. There is always a receiving so that we can give.

Some approaches to manifesting reality are rooted in self-centredness. The principles may appear to work, but they do not bring joy or fulfilment. People can have more possessions and still be no happier. Materialism cannot meet a spiritual need. At best, it offers a temporary fix. God is not opposed to blessing us, but the purpose of blessing is always relational and outward-facing.

Everything operates at a frequency. Matter, thoughts, intentions, desires, all of it carries energy. When you intentionally release a desire aligned with God’s heart and purpose, that intention carries a frequency. It can connect with another person who is aligned in spirit.

This is something I experienced personally. When God spoke to me about having another relationship, it was not even on my radar. I was content living on my own and thought I did not need the complexity of relationship. When God challenged me, I initially questioned it. But then I realised my thinking had been centred on my own contentment rather than on being a blessing to someone else.

If I am loved unconditionally by God and I do not share that love, then I am actually withholding something that was never meant to be kept to myself. My thinking shifted. The question then became how this could even happen, since I had not dated since I was sixteen, which was many decades earlier.

When I asked God how this would work, He reminded me that I already knew how to connect. That meant I had to act. I chose to release my intention, carrying the frequency of a desire to love someone, to bless someone and to make them happy. That intention connected with someone whose spirit was open to receiving love.

I am not saying there is only one possible person, but I did find the right person for me. When we eventually met, I knew in my spirit that this was the person I had connected with through intention and desire. I did not explain that on the first meeting, of course. That would not have gone down well. But within minutes, we were talking about deep things. There was an ease and depth that was unusual.

I engaged her at a spiritual level, even though she did not initially know that was what was happening. She felt it. She sensed a level of connection she had not experienced before. What I was doing was simply mirroring what God had done with me.

God had drawn me into first love, into my origin and identity in Him. That restoration opened the door for me to love another in the same way. I never believed God could restore my ability to experience first love. I thought that part of me had been lost through pain and disappointment earlier in life. I had closed down emotionally to protect myself.

God brought healing. Then He restored my capacity for first love. I fell in love, but I fell in love after choosing to love. That was the difference. I did not start with physical attraction or emotional intensity. I engaged first in the spirit.

When we met again, we sat by a lake and talked for hours. Time disappeared. I could see into her heart, the hurt, the caution, the pain from past experiences. In that moment, I knew I had a choice. I could choose to love her unconditionally and create a safe environment for her to heal and open again.

That is what God does with us. He chooses to love us. I chose to love her. I gave her time and space, creating safety rather than pressure. As I engaged her spirit with mine, she gradually opened. I fell in love, and with that came the emotions of first love, but without the immaturity, fear or hormonal confusion of adolescence. It was purer.

God restored my ability to love fully. I opened the garden of my heart and shared who I really was. She felt it, even before she understood it. At one point she said, “You are getting under my skin in a good way. What are you doing?” I explained that I was engaging her spirit, something she had never experienced before.

What had died in a previous relationship was awakened again. I discovered who I truly was. Romantic, expressive, affirming, generous, desiring to bless and serve. I realised those qualities had always been part of me, but they had been buried.

This restoration began with a simple question: how do I connect with the right person? The answer was intention. I released desire, purpose and frequency, and I trusted that connection would happen.

If you enjoy these videos, please take a moment to like, comment and subscribe. It really does help. Thank you very much.

393. Nurturing Your Faith | Preparing for God’s Blessings

477. Transform Your Reality | Harnessing the Power of Intention

360. The Reality of Unconditional Love (Meditation)

 

500. Jesus, The Ultimate Fact-Checker!

Mike Parsons –

Not seeing the video? Please click here.

Just don’t accept anything from anybody as gospel truth without actually getting that truth from Jesus, the Truth.

And Jesus said to me, “I’m the best fact checker there is”. So I take anything that is dubious, or I’m concerned about, or thinking that can’t be true, or is that true? – I take it before him. And the more I hang out with the Truth, the more I pick up things that aren’t true because they carry the wrong frequency; they vibrate at a discordant frequency that is not harmonious with the truth.

And it becomes easier to discern what isn’t and is true because we practise by training our senses to discern, by hanging out with the Truth, who helps us discern what is true and what isn’t true.

And then love is always the backstop. It is always the backstop. Love is always going to be the thing that you ultimately use in that discernment process.

344. Training Your Senses to Engage

458. Spiritual Frequency | How God Hears Your Prayers

https://freedomarc.blog/?author=0

484. Measure Everything Against Love

Saturday 11 October 2025, 2:00 pm 0 boosts 0 favorites

497. Escaping the Cult of Fear-Based Religion

Mike Parsons –

To view the video in a new tab, click here.

Deconstruction has continued to go on all the way through that period, so that I could be free from the religious perspectives that had kept me in bondage; kept me from knowing the true nature of God, the true nature of myself as a son of God and the true nature of creation and all of the wonderful things that we have embraced as being part of that. But it’s not an easy thing. You know, I’ve got to be honest, it is indoctrination.

People who have been in a cult and come out of that cult, it’s very difficult to get the cult out of them. They have to go through a process of deprogramming, which is not easy because the programs are based on reward and fear, which is exactly what the evangelical programming is based on. Fear of hell, fear of losing your salvation, fear of being punished, fear, fear, fear. But perfect love casts out fear. So where is God within that?

479. Unmasking Fear: How Religion Manipulates Belief

342. “God Punishes Those He Loves!”

254. Restored to Sonship

491. When I Let Go Of Penal Substitutionary Atonement

Mike Parsons

No video showing? Please click here.

Penal substitutionary atonement (PSA) was the first to go. When I began to express my doubts about it to others, one woman involved in mystic and mentoring groups emailed me, saying I was trying to take away ‘the cornerstone of her faith’. She was serious and angry at me because she wanted to hold onto PSA as the cornerstone of her belief.

I told her that if that’s where she wanted to remain, that was her choice, but I was moving on. Naturally, that upset some people, but many others resonated with the idea that it didn’t make sense for God as Father to kill or punish His Son. And when you investigate further, you find that PSA is actually a doctrine that only emerged in the tenth century…

299. PSA Sounds Nothing Like Jesus! (Penal Substitutionary Atonement [1])

304. Wrath is not the solution | Penal Substitutionary Atonement [2]