A word on the prophetic spirituality: a spirituality of friendship with God.

“I tell my friends what I will do.”

 The prophets are called friends of God. Their basic spirituality is friendship. They model or are patterns of what it means to actually prioritize intimacy with God above all else. They minister before Him, yes, but mainly they are more concerned to be with Him and get to know and love Him and His Ways!

I remember having a vision of Jesus on a battlefield. He had nothing to drink, so I asked Him, hey do you want something to drink. Yes. Why is no one here to offer you a drink? Many are called, few are chosen-few choose to put my needs above their own, He responded. I wanted so desperately to offer Him a good refreshing drink. It’s not as if we can meet Jesus’ needs, but if we really love Him, we will care about how He is and what He needs. His concerns. That’s a spirituality of friendship! That is the spirituality of the prophets.

 Seek God while He may be found. Go ahead and pray and build prayer support before you are in trauma or the heat of it. This is wise. Seek God when it’s easier to find Him. Not that He goes anywhere in our traumas, but we do. Pray and seek beforehand. This is just spiritually smart. Build prayer support around projects that you know will need them, which is most projects or things we “do”.

 Seek God while He may be found. Then trust, that if you don’t lean on your own understanding, but rather trust Him and His Ways, that He will protect and reveal to you what you actually need to know. God reveals Himself to His Friends.

Jesus told His people, to them it is hidden, but to you, I reveal My Kingdom. He blessed Peter, for receiving the revelation of His Own Identity! That’s the ultimate revelation. But the principle remains: we draw near, to hear and be transformed by Him in the process. Our delivering what we hear, is also part of our getting to know and love His Ways!

 I often worry more about getting my choreography, direction or message right, or my own perfect timing, than I do just trusting Him, that if I lean into His Understanding, He will direct my path, and reveal in me, and then out to others, what are His words or communications. God likes revealing Himself. He has promised to guide us, and change us in the process; and is able! Able to communicate to us our steps etc. We are responsible for the trust, and seeking and climbing the mountain of intimacy to be near Him.

I confess being more focused on getting it right, than in trusting Him at times. I think many of us do this. We are worried and caught in some form of performance orientation or spiritual perfectionism with God. He is concerned but never worried. He wants to know our hearts more than to minister with us. He likes to minister to us as much as through us! Ministry is overflow from communion and intimacy, and our own formation of His Life in us!

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will and is able to direct your path!!!

True intimacy with God, always precedes revelation from God. We go to the garden, we go up the mountain, we draw near to hear! From that place we encounter His Ways, His Why’s, so that that particular directive becomes part of our formation and discipleship in Him.

Our “getting words” should be part of our true spirituality or relationship with God. But that intimate relationship is a priori or is the priority—getting closer to God; what messages we get from God, then become clearer in the light of who He actually is (His Ways are revealed, so that His Works He is asking us to do, make sense and are part of getting to know Him.) Ask why when He tells you things to do. And then trace that back into who He is and His Ways. And be amazed once again! I always am!

His Ways are higher in Him than His Works, but they are attached or integrated! It’s wisdom to seek His Ways!

Some of us are given visions and words often while with Him, but we have to remember that Moses, Samuel and all the other prophets were up the mountain with Him firstly. Jeremiah, at his prophetic calling, was taught that first He was knit together in the womb by God, therefore he was called to do the particular good works he was called to do. Intimacy is higher, and precedes our good works. Our intimacy creates the atmosphere where we can truly hear from God and be transformed by Him as we listen well. Then we have something to offer others which will transform them and us!

 We get to know Him, by delivering what we have received-by bubbling forth or fountaining (the two words for prophecy, both speak of very flexible living imparting life forms of communication) His Nature and Communications! That is the art of the prophetic. Learning to deliver the message in His Ways! In His Tone of Love—what I call prophetic orientation. Over half the knowledge is revealed by giving it in His Way!

The prophets are often on the ridges rims and rivers. They are always running up and down the mountain, then and now. That is the way of the prophetic. To be His Friend, and run around manifesting His Messages. But their first love is up on that Mountain! That’s home, the rest is a cascade from that high and intimate space with The Father. The secret place of the Most High is our true eternal home.

I often get visions of a cosmic elevator going up to heaven. When I pray it starts going up until I am up near Him in His Throne Space. Then He starts showing me things and telling me things in His Presence. Then He will point towards the elevator when He wants me to go back down and share or just return in light of what He has revealed. It works like that for me. Everyone has unique spiritual experiences, but I think He understanding that the images and metaphors make sense to me.

Other times, He uses a balloon image, especially when I am praying for cities. I often pray from a spiritual balloon over neighborhoods and sections of cities.

Other times we just fly around together, sort of like He is superman. Regardless of how you meet Him, He is always there waiting for us to draw near. When we do, He will tell us what we need to know, and direct our feet as to what to do.

My highest thrill is to be getting closer to My Lord each day by drawing near to hear and be with Him, and then when He directs, sharing His Presence and messages with others. That’s my basic spirituality. I love Him, and I like sharing with people all that He is thinking, feeling and desiring for them. Everyone is different, but that is my basic passion. Which is a prophetic passion, I’m at home with. My worth doesn’t come from how well I serve Him, it comes from Him, and His Love and formation of my real life. The rest is overflow.

I remember when He directed me to be at 911 in NYC, there was a clear timing aspect and a three part mission; one of which was just to behold it, and consider global ramifications. Other times, the word is much less urgent or about exact times. That day, He made it very clear, which plane to take, and how long to stay where. There are moments in which He quickens timing and gives us specific objectives. But it is never about how well we do the job, and much more whose Name we are in and with as we are doing it. I often have to remind myself of that spiritual fact.

I think prophetic people specifically are responsible to keep the main thing the main thing—intimacy with God. We are His friends, and that has to continue to be our priority no matter what stunts He allows us to collaborate with Him in. Once, I got to talk a suicidal man off a bridge in Paris. The whole thing occurred in tongues ( sort of french prayer language, i had never spoken). That evening in Paris, He was very specific about pacing, what to do, how fast to walk, what to draw on a napkin etc. (very cool prophetic drawing for that dear man). Sometimes God is urgently communicating. But for us, there is this inner Peace of being in and with Him, which is our basic practice. Apart from Him, I can do no lastingly good thing. Draw near, while He is Present, and draw his Life into our hearts, then share His Life and messages with others. That’s the basic prophetic practice, a basic friendship spirituality. I’ve had many other God stories like this, but each time, it has come from that place of Peacefully dwelling with Him beforehand.

God is One, so His communications are not separate from who He is, and our priority is to be getting to know love and live very closely with who He really Is! When we are with Him, we hear His Voice and know His Heart. They go together in life and ministry! If we live in constant confession, into thanks, into praise into His Presence, and into His transformation, then we can more fully, freely and in joy baptize the nations and others into the There Names of the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit!

Works versus Ways of God!

To trust God and lean not unto our own understanding is our operating system! (Wolfgang Simpson) He shared His works through Israel, but His Ways to His friends, like Moses, Abraham etc. God’s spies. Works versus ways.

To know the Ways of God not just His Works…Ways is why He is doing certain works. He reveals that to those He chooses. The prophetic. The cost of hearing is the mountain! You have to go up separate yourself like Moses, climb up the mountain away from the people….In my own life, my first prophetic calling vision was of sitting on His Lap He would give me a message, and i would run down the mountain into the valley and deliver it. He took great pleasure in how I would do it. We collaborate! This pattern of drawing near to Father first, then we get His messages, and can deliver them in His Ways, hasn’t changed for me. We want to offer the messages in His Ways—the Tone and Nuances of His Love!

Seek God while He may be found. Go ahead and pray and build prayer support before you are in trauma or the heat of it. This is wise. Seek God when it’s easier to find Him. Not that He goes anywhere in our traumas, but we do. Pray and seek beforehand. This is just spiritually smart. Build prayer support around projects that you know will need them, which is most projects or things we “do”.

Seek God while He may be found. Then trust, that if you don’t lean on your own understanding, but rather trust Him and His Ways, that He will protect and reveal to you what you actually need to know.

I often worry more about getting my choreography or direction right than I do just trusting Him, that if I lean into His Understanding, He will direct my path. He has promised to guide us and is able! Able to communicate to us our steps etc. We are responsible for the trust, and seeking and climbing the mountain of intimacy to be near Him. I confess being more focused on getting it right, than in trusting Him. I think many of us do this.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will and is able to direct your path!!!

True intimacy with God, always precedes revelation from God. We go to the garden, we go up the mountain, we draw near to hear! From that place we encounter His Ways, His Why’s, so that that particular directive becomes part of our formation and discipleship in Him.

Our “getting words” should be part of our true spirituality or relationship with God. That is a priori or is the priority—getting closer to God; what messages we get from God then become clearer in the light of who He actually is (His Ways are revealed, so that His Works He is asking us to do, make sense and are part of getting to know Him.) Ask why when He tells you things to do. And then trace that back into who He is and His Ways.

His Ways are higher in Him than His Works, but they are attached or integrated! It’s wisdom to seek His Ways!

Some of us are given visions and words often while with Him, but we have to remember that Moses, Samuel and all the other prophets were up the mountain with Him firstly. Intimacy is higher than good works. Our intimacy creates the atmosphere where we can truly hear from God and be transformed by Him as we listen well.

Then we get to know Him, by delivering what we have received. That is the art of the prophetic. Learning to deliver the message in His Ways! In His Tone of Love—what I call prophetic orientation. Over half the knowledge is revealed by giving it in His Way!

Gathering some stories and teachings in seed form towards a larger collection of the tale and adventures in God series…

Why tongues can be helpful.

My God story about talking the Parisian guy off the bridge in tongues and three images. What a God story—I’ve told it many places, but hope to write down more the nuances later—here’s the rough cut:

I speak in tongues sometimes, when led, usually just in prayer when i can’t fully understand or overhear what Jesus is actually praying for someone. The Spirit fills in the story, and it keeps us humble to realize we just don’t really know how we ought to pray, but this day, it was actually helpful in a unique way to someone.

This story all started on a rainy night in Paris. I was prayer walking and the spirit drew my attention to a man on the edge of a bridge . He was shaking and very unstable and immediately i knew he was about to kill himself.

First the Spirit slowed my steps. Walk towards but not at him. I did. Then something odd happened. I started just talking to him in what sounded to me like french tongues. I had explored different prayer languages over the years, but never heard this one.

What was more amazing-the man understood everything I was saying. I paused, and kept talking to him from a short distance, then he turned towards me, and i felt led to walk closer to him, while still speaking in french tongues.

He started asking me questions. I would pause and reply in these tongues an answer that evidently made perfect sense to him. He was not crazy either. Then I felt God say, draw a picture of a door and steeple and an arrow as I recall. I did and started pointing at the images and explaining them in these tongues.

He started crying and hugged me and went walking towards this enormous church building in the neighborhood.

God has a thousand thoughts towards each of us daily, and that day i got to express some of His Thoughts towards this desperate man. God is able to communicate to His Own creatures, whatever the language.

Also, working on a piece about’s and  the directional right left’s of the Holy Spirit and how I found my wife after 911.

How I found my wife after 911. God had led me to be at 911, told me the flights to take and where to land, but this is the story after 911. I had bought a red scarf for my wife in London before going to NYC.

I knew i had to deliver this very special red silk scarf as part of my courtship of my soon to be wife, but had never been to the city where my fiancee lived and did not know where she lived.

As I approached CIncinatti, He said, turn right, then left and park in a particular parking lot and wait. I did so, and then a woman arrived in a car. He said ask that woman if she knows Amy MacDonald. Well, a bit stunned the woman replied, yes she is my best friend, are you Derek? I said yes, and then followed her to their community house. Amy was not there, so to be romantic I left the scarf on her bed. Actually I had her friend put it there, as i didn’t want to be intrusive.

Then I had to leave, as there was one more assignment on this mission. I had to go tell a friend in Denver to move to the west coast. So I didn’t linger.

On the un-fear of Death since we know Life:

Are you afraid of dying?

We think of death as the monster at the party, but what do we really think about it?

I think death is just a passage way into a continuum with Jesus. He doesn’t stop loving us as we go into a new form.

And I’m not so sure we just stop and rest for a long time. All my visions have taught me, that my elders are all up above and still growing and transforming and becoming, and helping us out…just a thought.

We really don’t just not need to fear death, we need to welcome that transition! I know there are many mysteries around it all. But we are fearless in Him who has already overcome it. Not just fearless, as if it were an enemy, but trusting that the One who grabbed our hand and held onto our heart down here, when we were blind, will continue to do so into the next!

And we, from my experience, get to continue growing and learning and transforming in Him when we are up above where He is. I’m not fearful, but sort of excited about this great adventure of crossing over the Veil that He has already ripped open.

I’ve had many experiences of my own elders above giving me counsel. So I know they are active and still concerned with what is happening on earth now. They lean in, and help us out! They have more to teach to us down here. This makes me think that even their discipleship of the saints on earth doesn’t end. They keep teaching me many things!  That makes me hopeful that we too will get to continue to grow and bless into that realm.

I’m not afraid of death, i actually see it as a transition, and I trust the One who is guiding me over to the other side or spaces in Him. I think He really did go to prepare a space for me. But I also think i will continue to transform and grow in Him.

The One we trusted down here in this rehearsal, is surely able to guide us into the real play! Don’t fear death, fear God-in the best sense.

Be in Awe of Him, and you will gladly enjoy the transition from this life into the next forms of who you are in Him!

Deliver us from a fear of death, and let us trust You in the transition from season to season down here, and up there! I have no doubt of the continuum of our identities in You! We keep growing, learning, becoming and being satisfied in Our Lord forever.

It just starts here, where our faith is proven or tested or forged, or whatever other word you want to place on how our faith is made genuine and authentic down here in our three days on earth! Let us live before the One we will always live before! Now and forever, Amen.

Reading Dallas Willard again. I like reading seasoned teachers, who no longer have anything to prove. As the American poet William Stafford wrote: “my mother told me, you don’t have anything to prove to God”. There is something nice about older teachers who aren’t in competition with the world or other leaders. It usually comes later in life, but I can always note the tone when i hear it!  A close friend of mine met him before he died and described how humble Dallas was and thankful, and a listening teacher—those qualities, always makes we want to sit under a teacher!

“All of the spiritualities that are now clamoring for attention, from explicit Satanism to what we hear on Oprah, are concerned with the two issues of identity and empowerment. Who am I? How can I have the power to live? Those are the questions everyone has to deal with. If we don’t come to terms with these, we lapse into some form of human decadence and failure. Renovation of the Heart is simply an attempt to say, “Here’s the Christian picture. It’s all true. It works. It’s accessible to everybody. And there’s nothing that compares with it on earth.”

Dallas Willard

What we are? And how we live well? Who am I, what is my purpose and what empowers me to live out that purpose! Spirit, soul and physical body. How they work in tandem with God:

The spirit is meant to direct the whole person. I received a teaching years back on  the chain of spiritual command (as heaven has a hierarchy, and Jesus is actually the Name above all others, and The King!)—the short version of this chain of command was something like this: Father, Jesus, Spirit, Bible in the Spirit, our own spirit’s responding, our co-ruling our souls with Jesus, our outwardly blessings others and our world. That’s the basic hierarchy, and the Kingdom does work in a hierarchy. Even in ourselves, our spirit or will must be in charge. King David tells his soul to be still, and know God. We have to do the same daily!

The spiritual mechanics of a thorough incarnation of the life of Christ in His People, is what Willard is writing about in Renovations of the Heart. How we get Jesus into our “embodied will and heart”. How we really live out from the Life of Jesus.

Just read a great interview with Dallas Willard about his last book. I love overhearing in interview form, just what people have really learned and embodied in their spiritualities and lives. Something about the format, allows people to be frank about how far they have gotten in understanding and living life well. It’s a window into the possible in terms of spiritual growth. We need those who are out in front of us, who are still growing spiritually right up until the end of this life. Perhaps, we keep growing less interruptedly in the next!

What I took away from his interview: If we want to change society it must begin with our inner life being transformed and incarnated by Jesus Christ. We need to actively participate in this process. To the degree we have allowed the formation of His Life in us, collaborated in His forming of our own identity (Merton would call that partnering in making our own identity with Christ) we will be useful to others, including society. He also has a holistic model of transformation or sanctification which includes the whole person—mind, emotions, the physical body etc. He distinguishes between the soul and spirit, and teaches that the spirit is the real Ruler in the inner life, and must ally with The Holy Spirit to be guided properly, and then guide the whole self. This stuff is basic, but needed in His People and in the world.

At the end of his life, Dallas Willard really emphasized the formation  of the life of Christ in people, and the practicals of how that happens, and some of the ramifications of His fuller incarnation in His People-the true Church. Getting Christ into every area of my own life has always felt to me to be the goal of “Christ”ian life.  A deeper formation or incarnation into what he called the embodied will. I like that someone was trying to name a deeper version of the Life of Christ entering into people, and that he noted practical practices to help facilitate it. Good teacher, and a kind man whose last words were thanks!

When I was in seminary, I had a vision of a deeper incarnation of Christ being made available starting at the Reformation (re-formation of His Life in His People), and that He wanted to increase this level of incarnation of His Actual Life in His People in our day. I saw a deeper baptism into His Name for us who are willing. That He had a deep desire to go deeper into us in every area of our lives, and this would bring a profound transformation in His Body and then out into society. That people would start being more concerned with knowing Him, than doing things for Him. That the church’s core focus would become being discipled in order to be real authentic disciples of the nations.

This vision made it very clear to me, that my main task in life was to partner with Him in allowing His actual Life to form in me firstly, and then to partner with Him in bringing His Life to others. I can only offer to you what aspects of His Life, He has already formed in me! And if I wanted to make a real impact with my life, i needed to focus on His forming in my inner life first! This made it clear my inner life was more important than my outer life, and that it was the place to start. Outer expression flows from inner Reality. To the degree we are formed in Christ or His Life actually lives in us, we are able to bless outwardly.

It is nice to find teachers finally focused primarily on the Life of Christ actually forming in people, not just number or initial salvation, but true lasting formation of the character and Life of Jesus in His People. So that the character of the church will match her calling. All my mentors basically taught the same thing, before there was a developed language of “spiritual formation”. Your friendship with Jesus should effect and infect every area of your life. Then you may be given or useful to others and your part of society or sphere of influence. If we don’t start there, we end up with mere religion, but not essential Christianity.

Of course, there will be controversy around this renewal as there are in all revivals in the life of His Church. God has always wanted to know us, and we have always needed to know and love Him, and be transformed and made new by our friendship with Him-nothing has really changed about the human predicament. But we are being built up as His Temple, His House, His Holy Portion, His Own inheritance (who are we to refuse His Life in us after all He is and has and is doing!) and He is able to finish what He began in us. He who called, is also able to cause us to stand! And become in Him who we truly are. Our faith requires us to believe in Jesus ability to form His Own Life in His People. And then outwardly through His People into the world. We as participants in the Divine Nature, as Peter put it, need the faith to actually be becoming the sons and daughters of God in a practical way down here, while living on earth.

Renewal movements and revivals (God quickening a word to His People) in church history always, begin with true revelations from Heaven, yet start in immaturity and grow into maturity. You see this with the Messianic movement the Welsh Revival, the great awakenings, Azusa, or whatever movements you happened to be seeded by—the “missional” movement etc; but if you go to the original seed, you find the Truth that God was trying to restore to His Body, before the distortions made by humans! You want to focus on what God was actually saying and wanting to download into His Body before we distorted it. When looking at church history, we should be slow to throw out The Baby with the bathwater!

In this area of spiritual formation, which God has been trying to re-emphashize to the true church in our time, you can start to hear a more mature version of this spiritual formation movement through the writings and teaching and, more importantly, the life of Dallas Willard. A tree or teacher is known by his fruit! I’m always thankful for those who walked the walk, then talked the talk! This who actually manifest and walk out what they teach! It makes a way in the forest of The Father for us all to go more easily, and grow into His True dimensions we are meant to be becoming. The sons and daughters of God, we are! Let us learn to live well in Him, in every area of our beings. Let us enjoy His deeper formation of His Life in us, in our days! It will bless the world when we do!

Who am I? And how can I have the power to live that out! Identity and purpose are still the core issues of being human. Who I am, and why does that matter, and then how do I live. Willard gets to the core stuff of being people. If I come to think that the way to find myself and walk out my purpose is to come into deepening intimacy with Jesus, how do I do that in every area of my life? That’s discipleship. If we don’t know how He is discipling us, how can we disciple the nations? Discipleship is holistic. It includes our thoughts, feels and senses in dialogue with a Living and Forming God!

Who are you? What are you meant to do in life? And how do you receive the power to do that—to walk out the path prepared beforehand to be your way? Identity, purpose and empowerment to live it! Jesus claims to and answers all these in His Own Being! Jesus claims to not just save, but then to whisper who you are to you, and empower your standing into who you are in Him. He who justified is also sanctifying or forming His Life in us; and is able to do so, as we partner and collaborate with Him, in an absolutely yielded being.

Prayer for a deeper formation in us all! May He form Himself ever more fully in each us who want to go into that collaboration of transformation into our forever selves! May we know Him in our thoughts, feelings, imagination and physical bodies in an ever increasing and tangible practical way! We know you desire to know and commune into and with the deepest aspects of who are. And we believer that this communion will transform us into what You have intended, and that this will bless the world. Then, perhaps, we will be of use to others and our world, and creation itself. We are free to prophecy from our future selves in Him back into our current stage of development! Let’s!

Willard is right, that Christ offers the best solutions to the basic and universal issues of being human and living well. If this way is true, it will offer the truth about how Reality really is, and how to live in proper relation to it! And in his last book, he offers some very practical methods of meeting Christ in that process of becoming what we truly are. I appreciate teachers like that. Always great to sit under old trees!

Another, a bit fuller en-Lightened, word from an older saint, about ministering which I came across today, which struck my spirit’s fancy:

“I’m nearly weightless as I serve with and in Him…

Heavy week of counseling here, but what I learned again, is that His Burden is light, and that His burden is Light! He carries our burdens and other’s, and He brings understanding and freedom to those we are carrying in our hearts, and to us as He does—He is always forming and discipling Himself into every direction-into the situation and into us! He brings understanding and love, and we ourselves don’t have to carry it all, but rather be formed by the participation in it. Life is His ministry of Himself to others and us, we get to collaborate and be formed by and with Christ,  as we walk alongside and with and in Him!

So, true ministers are nearly weightless beings! Our tiny crosses are levitated by His. Our small sufferings are informed by, and an opportunity to touch and commune with His. We disappear and re-appear as ourselves into the density of what He is, and what He is carrying through us!”

I’m nearly weightless as I serve with and in Him…

Heavy week of counseling here, but what I learned again, is that His Burden is light, and that His burden is Light! He carries our burdens and other’s, and He brings understanding and freedom to those we are carrying in our hearts, and to us as He does—He is always forming and discipling Himself into every direction! He brings understanding and love, and we ourselves don’t have to carry it all. Life is His ministry of Himself to others and us, we get to collaborate and be formed by and with Christ,  as we walk alongside and with and in Him! True ministers are nearly weightless beings!

His True Image: why the art really matter still! And how our creativity relates to our cities!

From an article I’m working on about seeing and being in love with cities: Mending the imaginations of our neighborhoods and cities into His True Image.

I’m in love with cities!

“Each city and country has its gifts, and struggles, and unique broken but redeemable reflections of certain aspects of The Real. Finding their particular nuances and what aspect they reflect of God, has become part of my spirituality.” (from a book on the theology of cities, I’m reading; to disciple the nations you have to know them and love them first like people!)

Cities are like people to me-on a journey of becoming, in need of love and revelation to know themselves, just like us. I like walking alongside them, and enjoying what they already know, and seeing what they need. Listening to them on their own terms, not mine. Trying to hear them for what they truly are, not through my projections or needs on them.

In my life, I’ve fallen in love with many cities…

Each city reflects unique aspects: Antwerp has creative curious friendship; berlin a strong house for all nations and bold leadership-arm of God stuff; Prague, that sweet song of solomon fragrance, a lover’s attire, and a place of mystical exchanges in conversation; Austin, creative incubator, entrepreneurial catalyst haven…each city has their gifts and their struggles to become. It is a joy to get to know so many places well. So many places still yet to know and love in this life. Perhaps we never finish in loving…

Of course, like people, our very strengths unredeemed are also our greatest weaknesses, or areas of life which are hardest to live out. So the biggest wounds are often where the greatest strengths reside. I like looking there first to know and listen. So a place of friendship, can become insular; a place of leadership can become presumptuous, a place of curiosity can become mentally unstable etc—but just on the other side of these shadows, is the redeemed identity, standing in the Light, and reflecting upwardly. I like to bring salt and light right there. So I can see who the other really is.

I also like to think of how individual’s stories who live in a city, relate to the city’s biography. How our personal stories relate to our city’s narrative has always fascinated me. Why am I here in this place at this moment of our journeys. What developmental stage is my city at, and my own—how do they match and where do they not? I love asking these sorts of questions as I travel.

I have an insatiable appetite to love more places people and things, and to come to know God through them, and let them be loved by God into their true shining..let’s take off our outer masks and get to know one another deep to deep friend. I’m in love with what that outer expression is coming from! As Van Gogh said, “The way to know God is to love many things deeply.”

“We are trying to encounter and mend a fuller image of who God is by seeing and loving one another and places more precisely-to see things true, helps them to become truly themselves, for God’s perception heals places. We are doing a repairing of the imagination—how we image God, one another, and the earth itself. One way to do so, is to see one another more accurately through His Eyes. When we see well, we are engaged in healing the imagination of Reality. To baptize our imaginations is an act of healing for the world. When we see accurately, we help things be more truly themselves.”

When we were told to disciple the nations, it included cities. We were to disciple them into all three Names of God—the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. Part of this holistic baptism into all three Names, is to see one another in love. We see through His Love, this lens made for the aperture of the spiritual imagination. We must wear it, or put it on, so we can see one another more as He does. This is the use of the imagination in discipleship. Blessed are you church, Jesus says through Peter, for The Father has revealed this to you. The Father had revealed the true identity of Jesus to Peter, so He could see that He was The Son of God. We are equally blessed when the Father shows us the true Identity of His Son, and as He reveals the true identities of one another through His lens of Love.

This is a key part of the role of imagination in discipleship of the nations. The baptized imagination sees more as He sees, the true identity of other. And can therefore call it forth and bless it into His Name. He is healing the nations through the imagination. We are no longer just using the imagination to carry gospel information, we are actually allowing Him to look out through the imagination and heal the nations. The sanctified imagination is part of what Christ uses to heal the nations. the cities, and the world itself.

Ultimately, we have to get a clear picture of who God is. When we do, we will see what parts of His Life are reflected in others around us, and our cities. And which parts are still being brought into alignment with His True Image. Then we ourselves can start to try on our eternal images, and we can help others put on theirs. By starting to wear our eternal clothes, we begin to imagine ourselves more as He sees us. By helping others try on theirs, we get to partner with Him in healing the nations!

Practices: When we pray, write down or draw what we see about whatever or whomever we are praying for. Gather them, and ask the Holy Spirit to amplify them towards a fuller picture, to fill in the poem of its true being.

Then our seeing becomes a way of getting to appreciate how God sees.

When we walk around our neighborhoods ask Him to draw your attention to things which represent the aspects of Him He wants to draw out and bless in that neighborhood. And which sins still need to be confessed for that area to become a clearer reflection of Him!

When we prayer walk our cities, start to enter His creative dialogue with her central symbols or meeting places. Be part of mending the imagination of your city! See what He wants them to be, if the patterns of sin were removed. Pray and confess those blocks of sin in each place which keep Him from expressing Himself more accurately.

Praxis:

You can do this in small groups or by yourself.

Try to paint or draw, dance, photo, or write how that place would look whole.

There are many other exercises I use, but these are a few.

I often take a camera and sketch pad out as I walk through a neighborhood. I try to photo basic objects which represent the identity of that place. If your neighborhood had three basic symbols to represent itself, what would they be. I focus on that, and then ask Him how He sees them, and try to make my art in response to His answer. Or as a response to what He reveals. The art often becomes an answer. My technique may not be perfect, but the conversation itself reveals things to my spirit about who this place really is, and who it wants to be! That is entering His making it more whole, or healing.

Creative prayer walking, or walking with your imagination engaged in your relationship with Christ, can change the atmosphere of your sphere or domain of influence—your neighborhoods and cities can become a clearer reflection of His True image there. We become reconcilers of the cultural expressions with the core identities of our cities. That integration process is the same which happens on a personal level as you allow God to talk to you through your imagination, or in your creative process. Most artist don’t think about their art making as a place of meeting God, but it is meant to be.  As you do so, you find that you yourself also become clearer, and more clearly formed, in this creative collaborative partnership and dialogue with God in mending the imagination of people places and things.

One of the purposes of art is to encounter and know and therefore end up loving God. This is the purpose of every area of Life, but is often overlooked with the creative aspects of our relationship with God. Ask Him to help you meet Him in your creativity. You will be surprised by the increase vibrancy of your own imagination.

The Romantics made the mistake of idolizing the imagination. But since the enlightenment, or before, the church has made the mistake of distrusting the imagination. If you throw out the imagination in your relationship with God, you miss out on much of who He is. Creativity has His Life in it, and that birthing power. We need that force even to re-imagine God Himself. We need our image of Him corrected firstly. One way to begin this process is to make art with God.

Jesus is Lord over the whole Person. God is One, and wants to love our whole selves. Our creativity is included in our relationship with God! Most artist don’t contextualize their creative process in their relationship with God. But that is exactly where it flourishes most. There is also an overt relationship between art and healing.

In graduate school I studied arts and healing. What was missing there was the key Jesus Factor. But when we bring Him into the center of the creative process, when we ask Him to baptize our imaginations, we do find that He heals us through our creative activities. The arts can become both part of our healing, and the healing of the imaginations of our cities!

Some artist are so talented, that they struggle to put their talents on the altar. Others are so intimidated by their own creativity that they never get playful with God and their gifts. Most artist struggle with the need to be seen in their process, and often an acute sense that they were born as outsiders or observers, and often they don’t know why they are in that marginalized position. Of course, Jesus loves the freaks and marginalized, so He is always there waiting to meet them. I’ve discipled artist for over 20 years now, and some of the patterns are the same.

The general enemies in the art world, celebrity culture or entertainment spirit, witchcraft and sorcery are all obvious in most art school programs. How do you value or contextualize your art making process. Is it number of successful gallery shows, is it becoming famous, as it often is for musicians for instance; is it having collective books of your work, is it meaningful collaboration with your heroes? There are many gauges of success offered in art school. But rarely is the depth of which you met and where formed by God the highest aim.

The general enemies for artist in the church world have been named well. Using the arts only for evangelism, to decorate the building rather than express the church’s core identity; the prostitution or using the arts as propaganda for God; the worship entertainment machine, which uses artist’s gifts to entertain people in order usually to get higher numbers in the pews etc. Christian artist have to find a way to place their creativity in a larger Kingdom context, in order to not grow bitter or boxed in by the church’s poverty of imagination concerning the arts. Of course, much has changed in the church over time in regards to the arts, and there is positive expansions of imagination going on even within her more institutional walls. Still, the artist must find a way to keep art making as part of their authentic spirituality, and not get lost in the narrow purview the church often has towards the arts.

I work with people in both the art world and the church world, both ultimately have to contextualize their creativity in their personal relationship with God and in His Kingdom. Since my father is a minister and my mother an artist I have grown up knowing both worlds intimately, and tried to integrate them in Him, and His Kingdom. Since, Jesus is Lord over all the realms and the whole person, and the church and the art world, we are free to create as those in His Image. But we often have no clear spiritual context for our creativity. I see this struggle for christian artist as well as others. The challenge is always to bring your whole self to the One God. And be in relationship and conversation, allowing His Holy Spirit to guide you into understanding and interpretation of your creativity. That is true across the board.

Over the years, I’ve met many very high impact artist and leaders in the arts; some have been part of leading cultural movements. Many of these, still do not have a full understanding or context for their creativity and how it fits into their personal spirituality. I like helping them find His Kingdom context for their creativity. Something bigger than worldly versions of success. And bigger than the church’s “use” of the arts. He is growing the imagination of the church to see how creative He actually is, and how He enjoys dialoguing with His People through their creativity.

Prayer is creative! And a place where His Imagination touches ours. Prayer itself then can become a place where you get to know more of who God is, and how He sees yourself, your home, your neighborhood, and your city. Prayer becomes a way of getting to know and therefore love God more! And your place becomes a medium through which you come to appreciate all He sees. For the eyes of Lord are always watching, and caring for what He Himself made, knows, redeems and loves.

Jesus is Lord over the art world and the church, His Body. His book in which He revealed Himself is a work of art, and we ourselves are said to be His masterpiece poems (Ephesians 2:10). Our very identities are His art. Thus, we are free to create with and in Him in order to be more fully formed into His Nature.

The fuller incarnation of His Imagination in His People, is one of His goals in our times. He wants us to see and create with Him and in Him. When we do, you will see some of the greatest art of all time emerging. Here it comes. He is birthing and incarnating His Imagination more intensely in His People in our times. If they are not open, He will use anyone open to download His Images and Perceptions onto earth!

He wants to incarnate in our imaginations more intensely in our times. This is happening as the darkening of imagination through pornography and false advertising, propaganda, and banal uses of the imagination are increasing—the wheat and tares grow together; the darkness increases, but so does the Reality of His Light! God wants to enter in to our creative dimensions, and make us more fully human in this key area. The arts are not just for artist anymore. They are part of His deeper incarnation on earth, and are a place i which He is preparing a way for His Kingdom to come.