Tag: relationship

336. Get out of the boat… and SINK!

Mike Parsons

Video Summary

Restoring First Love

In this new series, as the world awakens to love, grace, joy, peace, and the truth of God’s nature, I will be sharing my journey of rediscovering my identity as God’s child and breaking free from self-imposed limitations. It is time to discover who we truly are and embrace the depth of unconditional love to find genuine connection with God. Are you defined by others or by your past? In the ocean of unconditional love, we discover our true identity and realise that as His beloved children, God is drawing us back into intimate communion with Him.

First love, whether with God or another person, is a captivating experience that consumes our thoughts, leaving us eagerly anticipating the next encounter.  First love signifies a prioritisation, placing it above all else in our lives – before family, work, or possessions. If our relationship with God is our top priority, everything else falls into place. First love is our eternal identity, originating in Perichoresis.

God’s pursuit of intimacy with us is like a marriage, symbolising the deep union He desires. This journey is personal, inspiring each of us to embark on our own. Our union with God is not just spiritual; it involves a profound connection of spirit, soul and body, becoming one flesh. Jesus’ promise of preparing a place for us speaks of dwelling with Him presently, not just in the future. This intimacy transcends physical union and gender, restoring our true identity as beloved sons and daughters of God. The process leading to this consummation is like a betrothal.

Intimacy with the Father

As individuals and humanity, we’ve strayed from God’s path, seeking independence, yet He relentlessly pursues us like a good shepherd. His love remains constant and unwavering, demonstrated in Christ. Through the Spirit, we’re adopted as God’s children, heirs with Christ, experiencing profound intimacy with the Father. First love isn’t merely an emotional state; it’s our eternal identity, essential for our destiny. Like the Ephesian church mentioned in Revelation, we may have prioritised duty over intimacy, but God invites us back into that deep, intimate relationship with Him.

Sacrificial love

In Greek, eros represents erotic love, absent in the New Testament; phileo denotes deep liking or friendship, affection and camaraderie; storge reflects natural affection within families and spouses in a healthy marriage; agape, God’s love, is characterised by deliberate action, choosing to love even our enemies, mirroring God’s selflessness. This sacrificial love, evident throughout Scripture, calls us to restore first love for God, ourselves, and others.

My friend Lindy shared that God had been asking her how much she loved herself. That is an important question for us all to ponder.

More than a fleeting emotion

Love is more than a fleeting emotion; it embodies the essence of God and is the most potent force in existence. As Jesus instructed us to love one another as he loved us, we see that true love originates from God and manifests in our actions. This agape love cannot be manufactured independently but springs from our connection to God. It is practical, selfless and unwavering, seeking others’ highest good without expecting anything in return. Love confronts challenges with truth and humility, inspiring kindness and reconciliation, even amidst opposition.

Resting in His love

Ultimately, God’s love encompasses every aspect of our being, forming the bedrock of His kingdom and leading us to experience His presence and purpose fully. Love is described in the Song of Songs as unquenchable flames of fire, stronger than death. It is the ultimate force for good, offering acceptance, affirmation, and worth. God has sung an eternal song of love to us since the dawn of time. To embrace this love, we must surrender completely, casting aside our fears and insecurities to trust in God’s unconditional love. Resting in His love is key.

333. Unveiling Our Divine Identity

Mike Parsons – 

There’s so much more in sonship to our role in bringing creation into freedom from its corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. If we do not know the fullness of our glory, our true identity, then we will only be limited to what we can do on earth or what we can do in heaven. But we’re called to be multi-dimensional beings, immortal in both quantity and quality.

My heart filled with joy when I experienced this. I sank deeper and blissfully into rest, but at the same time, I was so excited by this revelation that I could hardly contain myself. I mean, can you imagine, in a moment, God showing you all that I’ve described? It was mind-expanding in that I was able to contain and believe what He was revealing. That is the reality of who I really am.

And the Father said, “See how easy it is to just be.” There’s a statement! And it was like, wow. When this happened to me, it didn’t feel easy. It was just like, whoa, my mind was going round and round, but I was also at rest in the same moment. So, “It’s easy just to be. This is just a glimpse of what it is to be I AM that I AM, that you will ascend to when you become an ascended father”. And I think for all of us, don’t be limited to just the thought of being a good son. God wants us to become co-creators in an ascended state of fatherhood. Do I understand that? No, but it’s in my heart, and I know that that is the reality of His intention for us.

“Son, learn to become aware of multi-dimensional reality but always stay in rest, living in love, joy, and peace within. Be balanced by the tree of life in the union between your spirit, soul and body”. I always anchor myself within that core of my being, with spirit and soul and body being equally in union and oneness and in harmony. I don’t put a value of the spirit or the soul above the body: I equally value every part. And that tree of life brings a balance between soul and spirit so we don’t just get caught up in all the spiritual, or get caught up in all the things in the world around us, but we are balanced and in harmony, one with the other.

“As you expand your spirit’s boundaries, practise expanding your consciousness to become more aware of the dimensional realities that you are mandated to govern in”. I have done that. It’s not something that I do all the time, but it’s something that I am aware of, and I am rejoicing, thankful, and grateful for all of that.

“All you learn to do as a son, made in our image with creative abilities, will equip you to become an ascended father in the ages to come. Son, the true authority of a son is realised through surrender, not service. So abandon yourself totally to just being.” Which is why I’m not focusing on all the doing, I’m focusing on ‘this is who I am, this is who you are, this is who we are’. We are called to embrace this level of expanded awareness and consciousness that frees us from being earthbound (or even heavenbound). God is unconditional love; that is why we can trust in His faithfulness, trustworthiness, dependability, reliability, consistency, constancy, steadfastness, diligence, and perseverance.

Unconditional Love

God is good. This is the dimension of the whole dynamic of unconditional love. There’s more I could probably go on to, but I feel that I want to move to something else. But unconditional love—stay in it, embrace it, experience it. Go beyond. Rest is that state of being where we are totally trusting in the Father’s love, His goodness, kindness, faithfulness, loving-kindness. The Father is 100% totally reliable, trustworthy, and dependable. To rest is to be in a state where there is no fear, worry, doubt, or unbelief. We just dwell, abide, and rest within that place—face to face, heart to heart, mind to mind.

All that I’ve experienced and discovered has deconstructed my mind, thinking, and beliefs, totally transforming my worldview, unlocking my identity as a son, and revealing my creative sonship abilities. I’m absolutely no different from you. You have the same abilities, capacity: the same sonship. You are unique and wonderfully made, and God wants you to experience and know that reality and truth for yourselves.

So I ask the question: Have you experienced unconditional love? Are you living in unconditional love? Are you demonstrating unconditional love by the way you live? Do you have this heavenly vision of unconditional love and the reality of who you really are? Do you know the vast sum of God’s thoughts about you? Embrace them, pursue them, seek them, and you will find them. Keep knocking, keep seeking, keep looking. Don’t give up, but be at rest and let Him lead you so that you follow Him by walking together with Him. This gets outworked in love, in that experience.

(This video clip and blog post are taken from the conclusion of Mike’s teaching series Unconditional Love.)

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332. Embracing Multi-Dimensional Living

Mike Parsons – 

So the Father said to me, “It’s time for true reality in multi-dimensional living, so you can fully enjoy the bliss of rest from your labours by learning to just be.” Now, I could meditate, and I did meditate on that for a long time, but I still didn’t get it. I didn’t get what He was trying to say. But I never give up; I just treasure things in my heart, and I got the fact that it would be blissful to be at rest. I didn’t quite understand what my labour of learning was, but I discovered that all the things I learned to do by engaging Heaven were labouring to enter that rest of being, to just be.

Glimpses

The Father went on, “I have shielded you from the knowledge of what you are as a nonlinear, multi-dimensional being.” That is important because if I had known, I would have tried to do it or figure out how I could do it, and that’s not possible in my own strength. So He hid from me some of the knowledge of what I was doing in a nonlinear, multi-dimensional way and what I was accomplishing in the spiritual realms by giving me small glimpses that provided limited understanding, which began to expand my belief system and my consciousness to accept more that was coming.

He said, “I will take the blinkers off your mind so your consciousness can expand to take in multi-dimensional reality, so you can truly appreciate your capacity as a mature son of God.” I believe God can do this for all of us. This is the immortal quality of our lives. God was trying to show me that I was not limited to what I could see or feel or operate in a one-dimensional way of thinking. This was a process; it didn’t just happen all at once. When God said that, I began to embrace my desire to encounter it. Through meditating and embracing it, I eventually became aware of who I was. That happened as an experience, built on all that God promised was going to come, which I treasured.

I began to brood over it, and it began to become pregnant within me. Eventually, it was brought to birth. That’s the sort of process God does in my life. He says something I don’t get; I meditate on it, and it begins to grow and form. And eventually, it comes to birth.

Quantum moments

What happened in that moment? I began to become aware of what I am doing at higher levels of consciousness in an expanded state of reality. Now, that sounds weird and a bit ‘out there’, but that’s the only way I can describe it. My mind expanded to begin to perceive what I was capable of being in multiple places, at multiple times, doing multiple things. I wrote, “I am, therefore I exist in manifoldness like my Dad, in nonlinear quantum moments that are the fulfilment of my destiny.” (A quantum moment is a particle of time, the smallest particle of time that can be. It’s not a second followed by another second. Within that moment, all moments exist, and therefore you can live from a perspective of expanded moments.)

I’ve given testimonies about contracting and expanding time and all of that: this was a way of being, a way of thinking that embraced what this meant. I can’t say I understood it all at the time, but I began to get some experience of it. I began to realise that my capacity for understanding it was growing, so I was fulfilling my destiny in the spiritual realm and the physical realm, which were totally connected.

Unrestricted

In those moments, I began to see all the things that I was doing. I became aware of the amazing scope of who we are as sons of God, what we have the capacity to become: nonlinear, multi-dimensional beings unrestricted by the limitations of time and space. I am within I AM, therefore I am in multiple places, doing multiple simultaneous things.

Before my mind was deconstructed and I had the capacity to think nonlinearly, and before I was engaging in the Eternal Now (which I couldn’t do consciously at first), I could only go there in the spirit. Eventually, I could engage it consciously because my ability had expanded to be able to rest there without trying to figure it out. If I had tried to figure out living in the Eternal Now, I would have probably gone crazy, but I didn’t. I parked my understanding—my desire to understand—and I just embraced the experience. That began to change and expand my thinking, enabling me to take in all that would have been too much for me.

You may not understand all the terminology of what I share, but all the things I speak of are places where I have encounters with the Father, the Son and the Spirit. They were all linear; they happened in time, sometimes expanded time in a heavenly perspective. Sometimes hours here meant days and weeks there, but they all happened sequentially, one after the other. I learned to function as a son in the realms of heaven in all the places I share.

Engaging God programme

This was ten years of my life, and it took time to learn all those things one after the other. Sharing my testimony of that journey is what the Engaging God programme is all about, which aims to help people go on their own journey to discover who they are and express that as sons of God.

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331. Embracing Being Over Doing

Mike Parsons – 

When you’re in the process of transitioning from being a doer to ‘be-er’, it can be quite disorientating because the previous ways you learned were mostly about being directed or feeling that you needed to do what God said—the dos and the shoulds. When you come to a more intimate place, there’s a transition into knowing, sensing, and being connected to the Father’s heart.

You start feeling His heart, and He gives you more space just to be, often removing a lot of the ‘doing’. It’s not that doing things is the issue, but they can be driving you if you’re so used to living that way. Until you get some space to find this other way and become more comfortable with it, sometimes God removes some of the doings. You find you’re losing some of your anchor points, which were likely based on the familiarity of the shoulds and dos, and your mindset towards God probably came from a more works-based way of thinking.

Hearing His voice does become more instinctive, more about knowing and being at one with Him. Instead of external directions to go this way or do that, He’s giving you more freedom to be you, to mature, and to grow in sonship. That is a great thing, although I understand it can be disorientating, and I’ve gone through it myself. However, the closer you are to Him, the more your heart’s desires will align with His heart’s desires and with your destiny and the way He made you to be. You’ll find you operate more in a way of rest. You won’t need the absolute confirmation of everything; you will just know and be at peace and at rest. That stems from dwelling in His presence, where your spirit is continually engaged in and living from that realm, even if your soul comes in and out.

Living from that realm might feel scary and different at first, but that’s what it feels like when the old goes and the new is not fully come. It feels like a vacuum. But that vacuum will be filled with what is coming out of heaven and out of your relationship with God. You’ll begin to feel whole and one as you pursue it. When people talk to you, you’ll resonate with it or you won’t, so you won’t need direct confirmation in the way you used to. You won’t need the Father to tell you everything; you will know His heart, feel His heart, and engage His heart in a more intimate and knowing way.

As you grow into this, things will begin to open up because you’ll see more possibilities and realities. You’ll begin to choose and find more creativity released in those choices. You’ll start seeing things from the multiple perspectives of all the possibilities that exist, rather than feeling restricted to one thing God says. He is giving you a lot more opportunity to choose from a wider spectrum of choices, rather than the one path that may keep you safe but may restrict you if you only see the one thing He says rather than the multiple possibilities that do exist and that you can enter into.

Summary

God is offering you more freedom, based on your heart-to-heart intimacy with Him, rather than just one safe path. This might feel risky, but it allows you to see and choose from multiple possibilities as a son, expanding your understanding and experience of living in relationship with Him.

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330. Find Truth Within: Trust Your Own Connection with God

Mike Parsons –

[In this online conversation Mike was talking to a particular individual, but it has relevance for all of us.]

Stop Listening to Others’ Opinions

You need to stop listening to other people – that would be where I would start! People have different views based on where they are in their journey, so some of the things they are saying are from their own perspective. They may say “the Father said this,” when actually He didn’t. Not every time someone says “the Father showed me this” is it the truth. Jesus is The Truth, not everything people say.

I would not look for people to affirm what you are hearing from the Father yourself. That is what you need to focus on. Maybe you had a wonderful experience, and then it feels like you let that be robbed from you because other people were telling you different things about certain important matters. But there is nothing more important than having time with God and enjoying His presence.

Measuring Truth by God’s Love

How do I measure whether something has the frequency of God on it or not? I use love. Is this loving? Is this a reflection of a loving God? If not, I am not going to believe it. There’s an American prophet who recently said horrible things towards the US President. He is not a prophet that spoke from God (that time). Has he spoken from God before? I’m sure he probably has, but that was not from God – it was coming from his own political agenda on the inside. That doesn’t faze me – because I don’t accept it as God since it’s not love. You can’t be cursing someone and it be from God. Sometimes you have to use love as the measure and say “okay, is this aligned with love?” If not, just reject it. But I would stop looking to a lot of different people to talk to you about different things.

Focus on Your Own Relationship with God

Personally, I don’t listen to anybody. I’m not saying that arrogantly – I spend time listening to God. Yes, I hang out with some people sometimes and talk, but I don’t listen to other people’s sermons, messages, or read their books generally. I have too much invested in my time with God and enjoying life to spend all that time looking at what God said to somebody else. Now if God asked me to listen to something, I would. I did listen to something recently from Brad Jersak on understanding why God seems so different in the Old Testament versus the New, and it was very helpful – it affirmed what I already knew. But generally, I am not looking for other people to give me that. You can become double-minded because you’re trying to understand what others are thinking and come into agreement with it, but you have to accept that some people are not talking from God, although they say they are.

The less you hear from people, the less you have that problem. It is not a problem to question what someone is saying and measure it against love. I am not going to publicly criticise those people, but inside I’m not going to accept what they’re saying because I’m questioning it and measuring against love. I would absolutely doubt what those people are saying. That’s not a problem… but doubting what God is saying to you because others are saying something contradictory or trying to sway you – or tell you what god ‘must’ be saying – now that is a problem. Don’t be swayed by the fear of man. Don’t think you need someone to affirm what God is telling you, because maybe He’s not saying it to anybody else. You need the courage of your convictions to say “I’m going to trust You, that when I come to You, what You’re saying to me is true.”

Think on the pure, lovely and good

So don’t allow things to make you crazy by letting other people affect you, whereas I won’t allow other people to affect me. Maybe the cloud of witnesses speaking to someone has a different message for that person at that point on their journey than for somebody else. Or maybe that person is just interpreting what they thought they heard through their own filters, coming to their own conclusion – it may not be what was intended at all. I don’t believe it is for us to judge somebody else, so don’t let it make you crazy. Just say “Okay, I don’t know, it doesn’t sound loving to me so I’m not going to listen to it.” Leave it there – you don’t have to go through it, it’s not your responsibility.

If it’s making you crazy, it is because you are allowing it to. Don’t focus on it. As Paul said, think on things that are pure, lovely and good. Where there is conflict, confrontation and differences of opinion – those are not good things to think about. Just let it go. Focus on the good. Focus on being that bride, that person who Jesus just wanted to make feel special, because you are special and He wants you to feel that way. Other people may not want you to feel so special – some will always be negative. Don’t doubt your own experiences and thoughts with God just because someone else contradicts it. Don’t allow them to make you sad, or struggle thinking “this isn’t right.” You had that experience, you know it was right, you know how good it was. Don’t be robbed!

Conclusion

So I feel that for a time or season, it might be good to have a period where you shut off listening to other people, including me! You don’t need to listen to anybody – give all that time to just listening to the Lord, just listening to the Father, engaging Him. Set aside a day, week, month – whatever time you want – and just focus on that, excluding all the other voices from your head. Listen to the one voice – the Voice of Love, the Voice of Truth. Then I think a lot of these things will fall into place, and you’ll realise “Hey, I don’t need this. I don’t need other people’s opinions in my life. I’m just looking at God’s opinion – that’s all that counts.”

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327. Reflections on my Journey with God

Mike Parsons

My own journey and the experiences I have described to you over many years are just one example of what can happen, not something that everyone has to go through in the same way. Walk in relationship with the Father, and let Him set the agenda.

When I was fasting and engaging with God for the first time in 2010, I went through an exhaustive process of applying the blood of Jesus to the gateways of my soul, as I had heard Ian Clayton explain. It worked for me because of my disciplined nature, but I wouldn’t necessarily advise everyone to take that same approach. Instead, allow the Father to show you what He wants to deal with, and provide you with the right tools for that specific work. It’s about using the appropriate method for the job, rather than trying to force something that doesn’t fit.

Flexibility and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit are the key, not trying to impose a rigid, one-size-fits-all process. In something like Engaging God I can provide some resources, but nowadays I would advise letting the Father direct how they are applied in each person’s unique journey. Simply surrender as a living sacrifice, and allow Jesus, your High Priest, to prepare you. Keep walking in relationship with the Father, and let Him set the agenda. I have found that a formulaic, systematic approach is not the way God does things. Use the tools provided as the Spirit leads, not as a program to work through. Each person’s journey is unique, and the relational, responsive approach led by the Father is far more effective than trying to systematically fix ourselves. So be at rest and do not strive.

The finished work of the cross is indeed complete, but we may not always be fully aware of (or benefiting from) everything that Jesus accomplished. Transformation comes through the renewing of our minds, as we come to a deeper realisation of God’s amazing unconditional love, limitless grace, and triumphant mercy. That is what enables us to change, not because we have to in order to be acceptable to God, but because the revelation of what He has already done for us leads us into transformation.

The journey of restoration and wholeness is a relational one, and the pace at which it unfolds is relative to each person’s unique circumstances. Some may experience swift breakthroughs, while others who are deeply broken may need more time to fully trust God and allow Him access to the depths of their being. The key is to simply follow God’s lead, without setting your own agenda. Present yourself daily as a living sacrifice, and let Him guide you on the path He has for you. Resist the temptation to compare yourself to others or try to figure it all out through your own knowledge and strength. Trust Him, enjoy the journey, and allow Him to bring things to the surface when the time is right. This keeps the process relational and joyful, rather than heavy or burdensome.

Summary

I believe that God will lead you into the wholeness and restoration He has for you, at the pace that is perfect for your unique journey. The invitation is to rest in His love, walk closely with Him, and let Him do the work. When we do that, the transformation He desires to bring about in us can unfold in a positive and life-giving way.

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323. The Judgment Seat of Christ

Mike Parsons –

Video summary

Some people may not fully live out their intended destiny, but encounter purification at the Judgment Seat of Christ, where that which is of lasting value is distinguished from what is not. The Lake of Fire symbolises purification rather than eternal damnation, a place of refining in God’s presence, not the end of the world or the fate of the devil and fallen angels. In context, it relates to the persecution faced by early Christians, particularly at the hands of non-believing Jews in Jerusalem.

Entering the realms of heaven involves engaging with the Father, who comforts and purifies. Regrets are addressed, tears are wiped away, and the scroll of your life is cleansed. This leads to an ongoing relationship marked by unfolding knowledge, truth and engagement as part of the cloud of witnesses.

I do not subscribe to the concept of Purgatory, but I do believe in the Judgment Seat. I have experienced it personally, engaging with my scroll under the fire of God’s scrutiny. However, there was no guilt, shame, or condemnation – only love and a process of addressing missed opportunities and wrong motives. Our sins are forgiven through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and every accusation against us is nullified. From God’s perspective, He always sees us as innocent, justified and righteous.

When we engage with God relationally, we begin to understand our true identity and undergo transformation through the renewal of our minds. I encourage you to spend time with the Father, seeking to discover the truth about Him and yourself. This understanding frees us from negative thoughts about our imperfections: perfection, to God, is simply being who He made us to be. It’s not about striving or achieving but about resting in our identity as His children.

Unconditional love and forgiveness are in God’s nature, freely given without the need for works or religious practices. As children of God, we already enjoy His love; and our Dad delights in us. Drawing nearer to God’s heart unveils the depth of His boundless love, liberating us from guilt and performance-driven mindsets. This freedom allows us to rest in our identity and embrace life fully.

Jesus promised complete joy, and left us His transcendent peace. He loves us without conditions, empowering us to love Him and others in return. The key is to allow Him to shower His love upon you, revealing it in ever-deeper ways, leading you into true freedom. The truth that you know will set you free: not mere intellectual knowledge but personal experience. Encountering the Truth embodied in Jesus renews our minds, enabling us to embrace our true selves, live abundantly, and flourish in every aspect of our being.

Key Takeaway

Perfection, from God’s perspective, is simply being who He made us to be.

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322. Spiritual Listening: Beyond Biblical Meditation

I find joy in spending time in God’s presence. I have moved beyond the need to only meditate on the Bible, because interpreting it can be complex and subjective. Instead, I allow God room to speak to me in various ways. I  relax, clearing my mind and focusing solely on the Father or on Jesus. I open my heart and mind, ready to receive communication from Him.

This can take various forms, whether it’s a thought, a picture, a vision, or simply a knowing. I have had visions that were vivid encounters, although they weren’t visual in the traditional sense. When we perceive spiritually, it’s not about light bouncing off objects into our eyes; it’s about tuning into a different wavelength and interpreting the impressions received by our spiritual senses. Just as different tastes or smells can be unfamiliar until we learn to recognise them, spiritual experiences require us to train our spiritual senses to filter out distractions and focus on what the Father is communicating. Whether it’s ascending into heavenly realms or standing before the Arc of the Presence or whatever else it may be, I am not seeing any of it with my physical eyes because I always journal these experiences with my eyes open. Yet, I am there. I am an active participant, but I am also translating my spiritual perceptions into descriptions of my experiences.

I have found that it’s more about enjoying being in the presence of God. Instead of focusing on visualising or hearing something in a specific way, simply relax and see what unfolds. Talk to God and listen for His response, asking Him to reveal something to you in His own way. For me, understanding doesn’t always come through visual or auditory experiences.

Even the word ‘see’ can refer to more than just visual perception: it can also mean to perceive or understand. The main idea is to grasp the concept, regardless of the method. In the early days, there was often a strong emphasis on ‘seeing’ as a prerequisite for spiritual experiences. Ian Clayton, for one, was quite insistent about this. But no-one else knows what exactly he sees or how he sees it. He shares what he has seen, just as I too share my own experiences! For me, it is about a deep knowing – an intuitive perception that comes from engaging with God repeatedly over time. I sense and feel His presence, and my emotions are often deeply intertwined with these experiences, with moments of intense emotion when I feel the waves of His love rolling over me.

Analysing or dissecting spiritual experiences can make it more challenging to receive them. If you rely heavily on logical, analytical thinking, you may struggle with this. It’s understandable to want to understand and control the process by seeking a set protocol or method to follow. However, spiritual connection is inherently relational, and it’s best to allow the relationship with God to unfold naturally.

I made a conscious decision to let go of my own agenda and simply ‘be’ in God’s presence, with no particular expectation of seeing or hearing anything specific. Every night before I go to sleep, I intentionally connect with God in the garden of my heart; surrounded by green pastures, beside quiet waters, with the Shepherd by my side. As I drift off to sleep, my spirit remains open and receptive to experiences in the heavenly realms, while my soul is restored as I rest securely in the Father’s embrace. When I wake, I may sometimes retain memories from my time in God’s presence. But if there are mornings when nothing comes to mind, that too is perfectly okay.

Key Takeaway

Find joy in spending time in God’s presence, and allow your relationship with Him to unfold naturally.

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319. Face to Face with God

Mike Parsons –

I am not against miracles, and God still does them: He works to bring people into a relationship with Him. I have experienced all sorts of amazing things, like rolling around on the floor and laughing, being translated in the Spirit and more. These experiences were part of my journey, part of my coming of age, or maturing; but they did not change me in any dimension compared to encountering God face to face.

I can do anything I see the Father doing, and if that’s a miracle or a healing, then that’s great. However, I wouldn’t do it just because I thought it was something I should do. I am only going to function out of what I know the Father’s heart is expressing. I will ask Him and be directed by Him on every occasion, rather than just doing something.

I am not trying to put you off ministering healing or other miracles to people. I would not say you need to do it as ‘gifts of the spirit’: your spirit is quite capable of operating in those things. Discernment comes through training our senses to experience how to see in the spiritual realm, and obviously I am not against engaging in the angelic realm or any of those activities. I just feel we have to be careful that we don’t create another mediatorial system which people need to enter God’s presence.

Let’s bring people directly to God and let them experience God for themselves: then they will find the power of His presence and His love transforming their lives. There is no need for a mediator or a third party. We have to be careful that we don’t become the third party that other people become dependent on.

The prophetic movement has created a “you need to come and have us prophesy over you” mentality, rather than teaching people how to prophesy themselves. We mystics need to teach people to be mystics, to be able to live in intimacy with the Father, to have an experience of Heaven and Earth. In that way they can demonstrate God’s power and love in that way to others by leading them into an experience of Him, rather than doing things for them.

There is a real a danger in mixing the covenants, and mixing what was in the transition (between the old and the new covenants, in the first century AD)  with what God wants for today: which is that Heaven is open, Jesus is the door; anyone can walk through that door at any time and experience God for themselves. Therefore they don’t need faith. Faith is the evidence of things not seen: I have seen God, therefore I don’t need faith. I experience Him. It’s His faith that I am living in, His faith in me. I live by the faith of the Son of God: who He says I am as a child of God. I don’t live by my faith in Him – that is all about works!
and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 NRSVUE).
How much faith do I have? And some of the healing ministry, especially the Word of Faith movement, was about generating faith. I live in an awareness of my sonship; therefore I don’t need to have faith. All those people in Hebrews 11 died in faith, having not seen the promises. You don’t need faith when you have experience. When I encounter God, that experience brings a realisation of what is true. That generates faith, if you like; but in what is true, not how much faith I’ve got in something.
I live by the faith of the Son of God; I don’t live by my faith in Him – that is all about works!

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318. Not the End of the World

Mike Parsons – 

Understanding Realised Eschatology

Realised eschatology, for me, is also heading for an understanding of Christian universalism. The same scriptures Jesus referred to concerning hell (Gehenna) are in the same passage as those that speak of the end of the age – not the end of the world, but the conclusion of their Old Covenant age. People faced being cast into Gehenna if they remained in Jerusalem when the Roman armies invaded. They would be crucified, and a few hundred thousand were thrown into the literal Gehenna.

This is the concept of hell, as commonly understood in English. Of course, Christian Universalists would say hell is a different thing, and some deny its existence altogether. Personally, I see it as a place where those who haven’t come to know Jesus in life still have the opportunity to choose him after death – death is not the end of choice. Rather than a realm of punishment and torment, I see it as the fire of God’s loving presence which purifies and refines.

The scriptures that mention Gehenna portray it as a consequence of staying entrenched in the old covenant ways, not some future judgment scenario. It was a warning of a physical manifestation of death. Jesus warned his followers to flee Jerusalem when they saw certain signs: they understood this and ran to the hills, to find safety in Pella. By heeding his words, they were physically saved from the destruction that befell Jerusalem.

Signs

All that being said, I believe God introduces concepts like this to steer the church back to first principles, into a deeper relationship in which we experience Him intimately, face to face. Once we do, we no longer need the signs which pointed us towards this reality.

Experiential connection

In my preaching of the gospel, I aim to introduce people to Jesus in a way that facilitates a tangible, experiential connection with the Father. It is only  through this intimate relationship that someone can truly understand and experience God’s unconditional love, find spiritual healing and wholeness, and embrace their identity and inheritance as a child of God. I believe God is gradually weaning us off an over-reliance on healings and miracles, so we can live in mystical experience with Him. This shift is not about abandoning miraculous manifestations altogether but that we use them for the purpose of outworking what God is doing in the earth.

We have the ability to govern and rule, to establish the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. This process begins first within our own lives, then thorough our lives, and ultimately leads to the creation of places on earth which do not operate under the government of earth but under the government of heaven. There will be no sickness there, no disease, no lack, no poverty: nothing contradictory to the fullness of life as children of God.

Cultivating relationship

In the Mystic movement, there is a shift away from seeking outward manifestations like healings towards cultivating a deeper relationship with God in which health and wholeness naturally flow, and the focus is no longer on individuals performing healing. God is our healer.

Early Christians underwent a profound shift in their understanding of God, moving moved away from viewing Him through the lens of an outdated religious and political system. Instead, Jesus revealed God as love incarnate, challenging their preconceptions and inviting them into a relational encounter with the Father. He came to undo their whole understanding of God from an Old Covenant mentality. This shift from a legalistic mindset to one grounded in relationship and experience to which Jesus is the door,  empowered them to operate in sonship, seated in heavenly places, and to manifest the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

The God that we know

When we are introducing the reality of who God is, we do not need to do so through miraculous healing, but through introducing the God that we know. They can experience the God that they will then know, and then they can enter into that life themselves. Now I am not saying there are not amazing things. I have done all sorts of transrelocation, time miracles and other things; but in the purposes of outworking my relationship with God, not to prove who God is or to demonstrate to others how good God is. I can help them experience God themselves, so they are not dependent on me testifying by doing anything like that.

Key takeaway

Preaching the gospel is about leading people to encounter the God we know, so that they can embark on their own journey of discovering His love and life-changing power for themselves.

Want to learn more about ‘happy’ or realised eschatology? Get Mike’s book The Eschatology of the Restoration of All Things from your favourite bookseller, or download the ebook from our website at https://eg.freedomarc.org/course/eschatology-ebook

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