Tag: intimacy with God

473. Why Do We Assume? | Questioning Our Beliefs and Practices

Mike Parsons

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We often make assumptions simply because we’ve never thought to question things, or even paused to ask, “Why am I doing this?” It’s so important to consider our motives. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t gather, worship, or take part in services—if that’s how they want to express themselves, that’s perfectly fine. But it’s worth asking ourselves and one another, “What’s at the heart of this? Why am I really doing it?”

A friend of mine, for instance, shared how God told her and her husband not to attend the Sunday meeting anymore. Her husband was delighted—he could use the time for other things—but she was horrified. Every time Sunday rolled around, she felt guilty for not going. It took her six months to work through that guilt. Guilt doesn’t come from God—it stemmed from her conditioning and an internalised mindset of what she thought she ‘should’ be doing. Once she processed those emotions, she found incredible freedom and began enjoying life outside of that obligation. She also found that her relationships changed: there were genuine friends who stuck by her whatever she did, and ‘church friends’ who were only present if she attended church. Real friends are those who stand by you through thick and thin, not just casual acquaintances from shared routines.

Whenever we feel compelled or would feel bad for not doing something, it’s worth asking ourselves: why? What is driving that feeling—guilt, compulsion, or freedom? God never wants us to be in bondage to something because we’ve assumed He desires it when it may not be His intent at all. Asking “Why am I doing this?” is always helpful, and I’ve had to do this myself many times. God has nudged me out of many such patterns. For example, a few years ago—around 2022—He told me to stop doing my annual Vision Destiny teaching series. The idea was that people should discover their own destinies with God and engage in their own conversations with Him, rather than relying on mine.

I realised that, even after stopping public teaching, I was still journaling out of habit. When I asked whether God wanted me to continue, He made it clear that it was up to me—He didn’t require it as a condition for our relationship. It was freeing to realise that my sense of duty was self-imposed, not divinely required. Eventually, I let go of journaling, and even changed how I approached my time with God in the mornings.

This shift wasn’t about having a better or worse relationship with God, just a different one. I learned that intimacy and union with God doesn’t depend on set routines or religious disciplines; it can be experienced just as deeply in everyday life, in the garden, the workshop, or wherever I am. Sometimes that connection comes through a conversation with God, but just as often it’s a felt sense of His presence throughout the day.

Since embracing this freedom and releasing the conditions I thought were required, my experience of God’s unconditional love has grown so much deeper. I realised that the expectations I thought God had of me were really just conditions I’d placed on myself. As I allowed those to fall away, I became freer, more connected, and filled with joy in everyday life, knowing that God’s love is unconditional and not dependent on any ritual or discipline.

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All Mike’s books, including Into the Dark Cloud and Unconditional Love, are available to order from online and local booksellers; or you can buy them as ebooks and download them instantly from our website.
More info at eg.freedomarc.org/books

307. God’s Unconditional Love For You

FREE – 2020 Vision Destiny

442. Unconditional Love – NO GUILT, NO SHAME

460. The Dark Cloud 2 | The Surprising Power of Surrender

Mike Parsons –

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God does not want to keep us at a distance. He wants us to be safe and secure in His presence—but that requires transformation.

Of course, Jesus wanted to share many things with His disciples, just as the Father desires to reveal amazing things to us. But we may not yet be ready to experience them. In John 16:12, Jesus said, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” That was certainly true for me. God wanted to reveal so much, and eventually He did, but at the time I simply could not bear it.

There is revelation, truth, and encounter available to us—but, like the disciples, we may not be ready. It is not because we are unworthy or not good enough, but because our minds need renewing. There are still things in our souls that need to be dealt with so that we learn to trust God—not based on what we see or understand—but simply because He is God. Our relationship with Him must be based on who He is, not on what He does for us, nor on what we do for Him.

Visiting or Dwelling?

God prepares us to dwell with Him in face-to-face intimacy—not just to visit from time to time. At one stage, I was visiting His presence. I was engaging with the realms of heaven, but I was not able to engage with His person—at least, not until I had been through this process.

My encounters in the dark cloud were preparing me for what was to come, though I was completely unaware of that at the time. I did not know what He was doing, or what He was going to do. I thought I had experienced everything there was to experience—how wrong I was!

Once, during one of those dark cloud encounters, I saw my destiny scroll. There was an event marked on it by a blue flame. The Father called it the eternal flame. I was deeply curious—why was I being shown this? At the time, I had no idea it would relate to what I was about to walk through. I saw my life flash before me, leading up to that moment within the flame. I just knew that nothing would ever be the same again. But I did not know what it meant, or how it would unfold. God was showing me something important, something intriguing—an invitation. And, as I sometimes say, Jehovah Sneaky knew I would not be able to resist.

He did not tell me what He was going to do—He simply invited me to engage the eternal flame for a life-changing experience. A friend of mine later painted a picture of someone in a blue flame. When I saw it, it resonated so strongly—it felt as though she had painted me, right there in the midst of that flame that had changed my life.

True Identity and Redemptive Gifts

As part of that process, the Father wanted to reveal my true identity to me—an identity closely linked to my redemptive gift. That redemptive gift is how the Father has wired me, as a son, to engage with the world around me and to mature into His fullness. It is how I see, perceive, and interact with life.

My true identity is connected to my redemptive gift, but it needed to be freed from the performance-based, soul-driven tendencies that had developed through my life experiences. Trauma, nurture, and upbringing can all shape how that gift functions—often making it impure.

In my case, I was using my redemptive gift to create and validate my identity. My redemptive gift is prophet–teacher. That is not the same as the spiritual gift of prophecy. This kind of “prophet” describes how I perceive and process the world. And I am almost equally prophet and teacher—every redemptive gift survey I have done reflects that. That is how God wired me to function as a son: curious about how things work, with the ability to explain them to others. That is probably why He chose me to be a forerunner in heavenly engagement—to open up that realm for others. Hopefully I can share my experiences in a way that is not too weird, so that people can see what is available to them too.

But I had gained my identity and security from the knowledge I received by doing that. I was using my soul to engage heaven—to see and know what the Father was doing, which in itself is good. But my soul would not allow my spirit to engage heaven on its own. Though we are seated in heavenly places, the consciousness of my soul was limiting my spirit’s ability to dwell and remain there. I was tethered to myself, and to the earth.

The Surrender of Self

So the essence of who I was, redemptively, was being used to create a false identity—and to bring me security and independence from my spirit. What I discovered was that me, myself, and I had to surrender. My soul and spirit had to be separated so that they could be reintegrated into oneness—spirit, soul, and body—joined and one with God. From His perspective, we are already one with Him.

As it says in 1 Corinthians 6:17,19-20: “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

This is what God desires: union so complete that we are one. But I could not experience that union—because my soul would not allow it. In my own understanding, I was alienated.

The Mirror Bible puts it beautifully:
“In our union with Him, we are one spirit with the Lord. Do you not realise that your body, by design, is the sacred shrine of the Spirit of God echoing within you? You are not the sole owner of your life—you are bought and paid for. All of you is His. Live your life conscious of how irreplaceably priceless you are. You host God in your skin.”

Gifted by Design, Not Performance

God wants to free us from the need for our soul to find identity in works—what the Bible calls the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the path most of the world is on.

The purity of who we are redemptively must be tested and refined by fire. I believe our redemptive gifts will grow beyond just one or two, eventually reflecting all seven—to become more like Jesus. As the fruit of the Spirit matures in us, we will function more fully as sons—engaging not just in one way, but in every way.

The redemptive gifts listed in Romans 12:6–8 are prophet, servant, teacher, exhorter, giver, ruler, and mercy. These are not spiritual gifts for ministry. They are who we are. We are God’s gift to the world. The refining process reveals those gifts and frees us from the need to earn our identity through our own works. We can finally be who God intended—no longer performance-driven, trying to earn His favour.

That testing will look different for each of us. When I first studied redemptive gifts—through the teaching of Arthur Burk—I began to see how God uses testing to purify each one. When I taught on the ketubah in church, I warned people: If you go down this road, you will be tested.

I knew ruler-gift and servant-gift friends who had their ability to rule or serve removed—just like that. Then they had to face the question: Who am I without that? Who was I, without being able to see, understand, and teach?God was trying to show me: I am not who I am because of what I do, but because of who He made me to be. Even if I never did any of those things again, I would still be who I am.

A Restoration of Original Design

God took me through the dark cloud because He loves me.
He wanted to restore me to my original condition—so that I would know myself as He made me.
He wanted to bless me fully.
He wanted to reveal my heavenly identity and position as a son.
He wanted to release me into the fullness of sonship authority to engage creation.

But to do that, He had to do something quite drastic -it may be easier for you than it was for me.

All Mike’s books, including Into the Dark Cloud and Unconditional Love, are available to order from online and local booksellers; or you can buy the ebooks and download them instantly from our website.
More info at eg.freedomarc.org/books

Activation: Resting in Unconditional Love

I encourage you to just close your eyes.
Get relaxed.

You may want to lie down.
You can relax your body.

Begin by focusing on your breathing.
Breathe in slowly… and hold it…
Then breathe it out… slowly.

And as you breathe in… and breathe out…
Start to focus your thinking on God the Father, who is love.

As you begin to breathe in,
You are breathing in unconditional love—
The love of the Father for you,
As a son,
As a daughter,
As His child.

Breathe it in.

As you do, that unconditional love begins to flow
Through your whole being—
Touching every cell of your body,
Your mind,
Your emotions,
The whole of your soul, spirit, and body.

Let yourself be still,
And let God love on you.
Let Him show you how much He loves you.

As His love fills you,
Joy and peace come—
They overwhelm you,
They cocoon you.

All of His being begins to flow in you.
An atmosphere forms around you—
A cocoon of love, joy, and peace.

You are just resting in it.
Relaxing in it.

Be still.
Wait.
Rest.
Wait expectantly.

Whatever God wants to do with you—right now—
This is a safe place.

You can get out of the boat—figuratively.
You can choose to abandon yourself,
To sink into that vast ocean of unconditional love,
Where God’s love is so strong, so powerful—
You can trust Him.

He is a good God,
And He wants the best for you.

Just go deeper and deeper into that love
As He restores first love to you.

You can sink deeper…
And deeper…

There may be things around you that you sense or feel.
Be willing to go deeper and deeper…
Into love.

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459. The Dark Cloud 1 | Why Would God Hide From Us?

Tuesday 29 July 2025, 1:00 pm 0 boosts 0 favorites

281. Scroll of Destiny: Just Being

217. Redemptive Gifts (1)

207. Restored to Original Condition

452. Your Authority Will Increase

Mike Parsons

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God just wanted relationship. He did not make a contract but invited them into a covenant relationship. He did not want a business arrangement—He desired a relationship of love.

In the context of Hebrew marriage, the bride and her father, and the groom and his father, would come together to make an agreement. This agreement defined the boundaries of the marriage. The bride could include anything she wished in the ketubah, as long as the groom agreed, and vice versa. Once both agreed, the contract became binding. These were the terms of their union, and to break them was considered ‘marital unfaithfulness’.

Marital unfaithfulness was not limited to adultery. It meant breaking the agreed terms of the contract, which is why people could issue divorces for such breaches. This was a contractual arrangement—not a relationship. Once the agreement was made, the couple would stand and face each other. The groom would say to the bride, “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you may be also.” He was referring to preparing a new room at his father’s house, a place for them to live, joined to the family home. This is the context we see reflected in John 14.

The bride would then ask, “When will you come back to receive me unto yourself?” The groom’s response would be, “I do not know the day or the hour, but when my father approves the wedding chamber, he will send me back to receive you unto myself.” These words should sound familiar—Jesus used them (in John 14).

These words place Jesus’ death on the cross within the context of marriage and covenant. “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places…”—this is all part of the same imagery. The new covenant is a preparation for us to become a place of intimacy, a marriage dwelling, so that God can live in us. On the day of resurrection, they would know that Jesus was in the Father, they were in Him, and He in them—this wonderful union that was to take place.

So what Jesus taught, as recorded by John, would have been clearly understood in terms of covenant. They would have recognised that God still wants to marry us. That is such an amazing truth.

This is an excerpt from Mike’s current teaching series, ‘Restoring First Love.’ Get the full series up to date, plus a new session each month as they are released, at eg.freedomarc.org/first-love

The ‘Ten Commandments’ as Covenant Invitation

Now think about the ‘Ten Commandments’ as a marriage invitation. The ketubah was God’s promises to His people—not His expectations of them. Have we made vows or promises to God as if entering a contract? Do we have expectations of God based on that contract? I did—wrongly. I made my ketubah with wrong intentions and motivations.

If you have made vows to God based on performance, I encourage you: retract those vows. Do not let those past vows become a hindrance or restriction to your future. God is not looking for vows. He is looking for relationship.

We need to see the Ten Commandments from the right perspective, and understand ketubah and our relationship with God. Many people still live under a mistaken Old Covenant view of God. The commandments were never meant to be a restrictive set of rules—they were the foundations of a relationship intended to bring freedom.

From Slavery to Sonship

Remember, these people had been slaves for 430 years—a heritage of slavery where their opinions did not matter. Every day for 430 years they rose to make bricks, beaten at their masters’ whim, treated as inhuman. Seven days a week, twelve hours a day, every single day of the year. They had no human rights. They were property.

The Ten Commandments were God’s way of helping a nation of slaves rediscover their true identity. He was not trying to control them. He was forming a culture based on His way of living—a culture so attractive that the world would look at it and desire it for themselves.

It was also a wedding proposal. God was proposing marriage to a people who still thought like slaves. In this new culture, God respected their dignity—unlike Pharaoh or their former masters, who could abuse or kill them at a whim. God honours His image in us. But it is very difficult to live as a son while still thinking like a slave or an orphan. God wants to heal us from these ways of thinking, from these internal emotional bondages.

The Ten Commandments were truth given to free them, not laws designed to control them. That is still true today. God does not want us to live in fear, under a legalistic system. After centuries of oppression, this was a radical shift.

“You shall not steal.” No one thought of that as a restrictive rule. In the new culture, it meant you cannot take things from me just because you can. That alone would have been an incredible revelation. But there is an even deeper meaning to these stipulations within the ketubah. It carried the implication: You do not need to steal—this relationship contains all your needs and provision.

That beautiful verse in 2 Corinthians 9:8 says, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” That is God’s provision within the relationship. He wants us to be blessed—empowered to prosper and succeed in every area of life.

This remains true under the new covenant. Matthew 6:33: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” If we simply pursue God in relationship, everything we need will be added. There is no need to strive in our own strength.

All they knew was four hundred years of slavery. When they heard “You shall take a day off,” imagine how that must have sounded. They had not had a day off in 430 years. Yet God was saying, Take a day off every week! He was teaching them that their identity and value did not come from how many bricks they could make or how productive they were. Their worth was rooted in the relationship. But sadly, they did not value themselves as He did.

“You shall not lie.” In the new culture, integrity in business and relationships mattered. Corruption was not good trade, because no one wants to deal with someone they cannot trust.

God was not trying to make them good by restricting them.
He was trying to make them free.

He was showing them that there was a different way to live—freedom, not bondage. He was not presenting conditions for His love. You do not propose to someone you do not already love. This was God’s marriage proposal, His invitation to a love relationship with Him.

Unconditional Love – new book out now
Mike Parsons’ new book, Unconditional Love, is out now. Order it from your favourite local or online bookseller today, or get the ebook instantly from our website. More details at eg.freedomarc.org/books.

A Relationship Built on Love, Not Law

God is not and was not trying to make us good. Compared to whom—Him? He was and is trying to make us free. His whole goal was to deliver people from slavery, from whatever held them captive, and to bring them into freedom. He was not offering a list of requirements for acceptance, not a series of how-to steps to qualify for heaven one day. This was about enjoying relationship with Him now—in all its wonder, freedom and joy.

God never intended to establish a relationship through fear and guilt. He is not saying, You must marry me whether you love me or not. We love because He first loved us.

The law says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength, and your neighbour as yourself.” Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Just allow Him to love you. That love will empower you to love others.

God has always wanted to form relationship out of freedom, not restriction. His laws, rules and principles were not conditions for relationship; they were confirmations of His desire for us to live our best life within that relationship. Relationship establishes relationship. You do not establish a relationship through rules. If you do, it is not a true relationship. True relationship is always built on love. God’s grace promises keep us safe and secure within that covenant of love.

This was a radically new concept for them—and perhaps even for us. It certainly was for me.

The First Word: Intimacy and Increase

“I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.” In Hebrew, this begins with the words Anokhi Yahweh Elohim.

God wanted to create a culture in which everyone possessed basic dignity, as children made in the image of God. A culture so good that the whole world would desire what they had. He was establishing a community of people who would become a light to the Gentiles and would one day bring forth the Messiah through a new covenant.

Of course, they got it wrong—completely. They did not enter into a relationship of grace and love. Instead, they entered a system based on rules and law, in which they believed they had to earn relationship with God by making sacrifices and offerings.

God wanted a culture and values in place so salvation would come to the whole world; to establish a kind of life in a community of people so the world could see what God’s love is really like. I do not believe the church today has truly presented to the world who God really is and what his love is like.

So the first word of the ‘Ten Commandments’ is anochi. Four Hebrew letters: alef, nun, chet and yod. Hebrew was originally a pictorial language. Each word is like a comic strip of images. Alef is the image of an ox-head in a yoke—representing strength and authority. Nun is a fish—symbolising multiplication and fruitfulness. Chet is a fence or hedge—indicating boundaries, protection, or separation. Yod is an upraised hand—the first letter of Judah, meaning praise or submission.

So the very first word of God’s covenant invitation, anokhi, communicates this: Your authority will increase inside the hedge of praise and submission.

“I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.” Why would they want other gods, when He was offering them a relationship where their authority would grow within the protective hedge of praise and trust? That single phrase sums up the invitation of the ketubah—an invitation into covenant relationship. I am the Lord your God, choosing to bless you with freedom from slavery—not because of anything you have done, but because I love you. And I want the whole world to know that I am a loving God.

Reclaiming the Heart of the ‘Commandments’

This is the power contained in the very first word of what we now call the Ten Commandments. Religion has turned it into “Thou shalt not…” But what if we reimagined that? What if our lives became a response to anokhi?

If we truly knew that we have authority within the wonderful hedge of God’s love and protection, we would live differently. We would be a people who turn the world upside down by being authentic, generous, compassionate and kind—committed to helping the poor, the sick, the disadvantaged. And that was the early Church. That was their testimony. It changed the world. It spread across the known world within a generation. Amazing.

What would that look like today?

Activation: Let the Father Lead You

Some of you may desire to experience the Father and let the Father lead you. If so, begin to fix your eyes and thoughts upon the Father,
seeing him face to face.

Let those thoughts form in your imagination.
There is a door in your spirit.
Choose to open that door.
Invite the Father in—
to hug you,
to breathe his very breath into you.

Breathe in… and breathe out.

Breathe in deeply the unconditional love of the Father.

As you breathe it in,
just as oxygen is absorbed by the lungs into the bloodstream,
let the unconditional love of God begin to fill every part of your whole being, flowing through you.

You can just be still,
as God loves you and loves on you.

 

 

432. From Within: Cultivating Your Relationship with the Father

Mike Parsons

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Love begins to flow

If you start by developing your internal relationship with God—recognising that He dwells in you and allowing that relationship to expand within—you’ll ultimately discover the union of Father, Son and Spirit with your own spirit, soul and body at the core of your being. This forms the foundation for all other experiences. It’s the source of abundant life. You’re no longer just sipping from the well—it becomes a river that flows from within you. As that inner relationship grows, love begins to flow from you. The more you experience God’s unconditional love, the more you become unconditionally loving. What you’ve received begins to pour out of you.

My personal journey started with an unexpected experience. In 2008, I was simply sitting at my desk when I had a sudden encounter—I was drawn into heaven through what felt like a portal. It was overwhelming and surreal. The first thing I encountered wasn’t scenery or angels—it was love. A level of love I’d never experienced before. My whole being—spirit, soul and body—was immersed in it. I was completely saturated, and that moment transformed me. I knew there was something more than I had ever known, and I couldn’t ignore it. For the next two years, I kept seeking it, longing for that connection again. It ruined me—in the best way.

Eventually, in 2010, that experience became a lifestyle. My daily life began to open up to spiritual realities. I engaged with God, with heaven, with the garden, the River of Life, the Tree of Life—all these beautiful things. But the most important revelation was this: I was His dwelling place. And as I dwelt with Him, and He with me, I began to understand myself.

He showed me how my soul worked, how I had formed my identity around what I knew and did. Eventually, I surrendered. I stopped striving to know and control. I just trusted Him. And that trust opened the door to a deeper journey—one of daily, ongoing transformation.

Love began to expand

That intimate love began to expand within me. I experienced healing, not through ministry from others, but directly from Him. Inner healing became personal and profound. It was no longer something done to me—it was something He and I walked through together.

Over time, He led me into a union that felt like a marriage—something I never expected or imagined. And it all began from within. That’s the invitation: engage with what you already carry. Let it grow. Because it will not stay contained. It will flow into your relationships, into your life, and others will see the reflection of your relationship with God.

You don’t need to prove anything to anyone. It’s God’s job to reveal Himself. Our part is simply to love. Jesus said the world would recognise us by our love for one another. He didn’t say we’d be known by power or knowledge or supernatural gifts—but by love. And to love like Jesus, we first have to let Him love us. That means letting go of conditions and assumptions we’ve picked up—mindsets that need renewing. Many of us are deconstructing, but God may still want to go deeper within us.

Seated with Christ

Yes, there are external experiences—heavenly encounters, visions, spiritual senses being awakened—and I’ve walked in those. I can activate my spiritual eyes and see what’s going on in the spirit, but I rarely do that now. Not because I can’t, but because I don’t need to. I know where I dwell. I know where my spirit is—seated with Christ in heavenly places. You may not have caught up with that reality cognitively, but it’s true all the same.

Most people aren’t taught this, so they never fully grasp the reality of the spiritual realm or their identity in it. But Jesus ascended into that realm, and we ascended with Him. We’re seated there—not just in Him but with Him. We have a position of identity and authority as sons.

Part of my journey was discovering that, at the centre of my being, God has placed spiritual “gates”—like energy centres, if you will—connected to the River of Life that flows within us. They bring vitality, health and wholeness. This internal structure connects us to heavenly places, and it all flows from the relationship we nurture within.

Grounded in love

So, start there. Cultivate intimacy. Let His unconditional love dwell in you and grow in you. From that place, everything else will open up. Every journey is unique—God doesn’t deal with us like clones. But His work is always grounded in love. He always seeks our best. Even when we make mistakes, He brings good from them, because He is merciful and kind.

His mercy triumphs over all. His grace is without limit. His love is totally unconditional. And when we rest in that love, it opens us up to so much more within relationship.

Mike’s latest book, Unconditional Love, is out now as an ebook on our website and will soon be available to order in paperback from your local or online bookseller.

More details at eg.freedomarc.org/books

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424. First Love | From the Inside Out

Mike Parsons

Not seeing the video? Click here.

First love at the very centre

We are tripartite beings, made in the image of God to be in union with the Father, Son and Spirit. We have gateways that connect our spirit, soul and body, facilitating the flow of abundant life within us. Most of you will probably be familiar with the gateway diagram. Usually, it consists of four concentric circles, each one inside the other, representing body, soul, spirit and the glory of God— that place of first love at the very centre of our spirit.

Discernment is essential

The body is how we experience world consciousness. The gates of our body—our five physical senses—include the eye gate, nose gate, ear gate, mouth gate and feeling gate. These are designed to help us interact with the world, but not to interpret what we experience from the outside in, without spiritual discernment. If we rely solely on what we see, hear, smell, taste or touch, those things can deceive us if not interpreted correctly.

Our soul represents our self-consciousness, how we become aware of who we are. It too has functions that help with this self-awareness, but again, it’s not meant to function based only on external information or independently of revelation from our relationship with God. The soul gates include conscience, reason, imagination, mind (conscious, subconscious and unconscious), emotions, choice and will. If these operate independently, they can lead us to create an identity based on what we do and the programming we receive from the world.

The River of Life flows

Our spirit also has senses or gates that are meant to work together with the flow from that place of first love, where God’s glory dwells. This is where the River of Life and the life energy of the Spirit flows, to touch the soul and engage our whole being—so that we interpret the world only through the lens of the spirit. That was how Adam lived originally. He experienced the physical realm through the discernment of the spirit, because he was clothed with the spiritual glory of his identity in the union of relationship with God.

Now, instead of walking with God in a garden, we have His presence within. Our spirit is within our body, and our body relates to the world. This is the picture illustrated by the four concentric circles. We have spirit gates such as the communication gate, prayer gate, fear of God gate (which is not about being afraid, but about awe), intuition, revelation, worship, hope, faith and reverence. Each of these relates to a corresponding soul gate. For example, reverence and fear of God engage our conscience. Communication may flow through intuition or revelation. Worship helps us to engage with the world around us from a place of relationship with God, echoing how Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing.

Three spheres

So it is helpful, but that image doesn’t fully capture the reality. It’s more accurate to think of three spheres—spirit, soul and body—that overlap and connect. So rather than seeing these interactions as two-dimensional, we can see our spirit, soul and body as spheres in quantum entanglement—connected in such a way that our spirit can be anywhere and still instantly relate to our soul. There is a place – our innermost being – where all three are connected. That is our core, the centre of our being, where our union with the Father, Son and Spirit takes place.

This video and blog post are taken from Mike’s current teaching series, Restoring First Love. Get the full-length videos every month, ad-free and with many extras, only at eg.freedomarc.org/first-love

Only a trickle

At the core, in our spirit is the glory of God’s presence within the first love gateway. God dwells within everyone, but often that gateway is closed or restricted, with only a trickle of life flowing through—like the stream under the threshold in Ezekiel’s temple. But that flow can increase: ankle-deep, knee-deep, waist-deep—until it becomes an overwhelming flood. This is God’s desire: that we be saturated with His love and presence.

We have the choice to open that gate. It’s a daily decision. In my experience, this daily opening of the first love gate led me into deeper intimacy with God. Often, Father, Son or Spirit—or all three—would embrace me, and that hug would lead me further. The flow would often carry me into my soul.

I walked with Jesus

When I first started engaging with these gates, I walked with Jesus through each one, asking Him to help me understand how I function. We are all different, and the interaction between our gateways is unique. I learned why some of mine were blocked or inactive. For many, the first love gate may appear chained or overgrown, seemingly impossible to open. That image is often a projection of fear or trauma—a deception of the soul. But in truth, the handle is on our side. We can open it.

When opened, the first love gate releases an increasing flow of life—no longer a trickle, but a flood. Most of us have lived on a trickle for too long. This flood can energise us at the core of our being, through the energy gates and the merkabah, leading to a state of immortal life.

Mike’s latest book, Unconditional Love, is out now as an ebook on our website and is available to pre-order in paperback from your local or online bookseller.

More details at eg.freedomarc.org/books

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