Session 5 – Abiding – Secure attachment in the Father's Love

 

“Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” “…These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”   John 15:4-5, 11

 

What word or phrase are you noticing? 

 

What do you sense you are being invited into?

 

How would you like to respond to God? 

 

My hope for this weekend is to help you return home to the Father’s love over you.  This is your true self.  This is the truest you.  We need to call out how each person bears Gods image in beautiful ways. 

 

There are parts of me that get so upset when I am disrespected by my kids that they feel like punching my kids in the face.  That is not my Spirit led self and it is not full of gentleness or self-control.  But speaking on behalf of that part rather than blending with it is so important.  My kids go from being sad to angry to disrespectful in milliseconds and parenting is complex and tough.  When I recognize that they are blended with parts of them it gives me compassion.  I have learned in my Spirit led moments to say… where did the real Caiden go.  He was just here.  He is kind, thoughtful, creative, generous, passionate and encouraging.  That is the true Caiden.  Where did he go?  I am trying to grow awareness of the part of him that is leading and encourage him to welcome his Spirit led self-back.  This is helpful because he is reminded of who the true Caiden is.  We all need to know that we are more loved and accepted than we ever dared believe in order to truly name and tame the emotions and disfunctions of how broken and flawed parts of us are.  This differentiating helps us to begin to integrate all these various parts of us through the Fathers unifying love. 

 

A tree draws from the deep roots it has in the soil full of water and nutients.  The True Vine supplies all the various branches and leaves with nutrients from the ground.  The trunk or vine of the tree is the source just as Jesus is the true Vine and we are the branches.  When we try to do it on our own and cut ourselves off of the love of God by being our own protector and living in independence we don’t bear any fruit.  Apart from Him and his protection we can do nothing.  This abiding intimacy requires that we become aware of the parts of us that are trying to be saviors and protectors instead of God. 

 

John 15:1-5 – What does it look like for the branch to abide in the vine?  What is its role?  Show a sapling if possible.

 

Conscious awareness of God throughout the day.  A healthy non-anxious presence.  Gods creation models this for us if we witness it.  The only time animals are anxious is if their life is threatened. 

 

Our right brain isn’t there only for sci-fi movies but much more to encounter the presence of God and each other.  What if God gave us the ability to think about two things at once so that we can be present with God while we are doing something else.  What if this is what the apostle Paul meant by praying without ceasing.  Staying connected to God through ceaseless prayer and communion.  Unceasing prayer – do not be occupied with abiding be occupied with Christ.  This requires a life of true surrender. 

 

Only when we are surrendered to him and trusting Him for our security, belonging and significance are we able to abide and truly receive from him.  If we are trying to achieve through avoiding, pleasing and vacillating to get our needs met on our own we are missing God because we are trying to be our own god.  We are trying to supply our own nutrients.

 

What happens if I pull this away from the vine? 

 

Slide - “Hence even those who aim at good goals and try to follow the Spirit in their behavior end up handling situations in the flesh because of their dominations by unconscious compulsions…”  Richard Lovelace

 

Conscious awareness of our parts and conscious awareness of Jesus.  Returning home to the Father’s love requires two things.  Conscious awareness of the unconscious compulsions that often control us.  So on the one hand it is awareness and on the other hand it is abiding intimacy with God.  You cannot die to a self that you do not know.  Jesus came full of grace and truth.  Notice the order.  Grace first and then truth.  We need compassionate awareness of the compulsions that drive us.  Then we can learn to gently lay them down and abide with Jesus. 

 

Throughout the O.T. we see people walking with God starting with Adam and Eve back in the garden walking with God in the cool of the day.  They were at home in the love of the Father because they were in the Garden of Eden… our true home. Noah walked with God and Enoch walked with God and then was no more.  This is a way of returning home/abiding. 

 

Walking at the pace of love.  Pace of creation vs. the pace of culture.  Walking in the woods.

 

The number 1 predictor of long-term mental health is the ability to calm oneself.  This involves deep breathing and the ability to calm the reactivity internally.  His presence is calming.  Pause app as a resource here teaching you to abide with Jesus and surrender.

 

Possibly – being led by a pastor who is burned out and lacks joy vs. a pastor who is actively practicing the presence of God?  Where would he lead you?  Which practice most resembles your current pace?  Spend some time in quiet prayer and discuss the life you truly desire with Him. 

 

Ways of connecting with God in the morning, afternoon and evening.  The ancients talked about union with God as the highest level of Christian maturity. 

 

Renewal – God’s renewal and his work in us.  Titus 3:5, Rom. 12:2 etc…

Col. 2:6-7

I want to do an exercise to help you connect with parts and grow in being led by your Spirit led self.  (Lead them through a meditation)

 

We need to live a life of repentance recognizing how often we turn back to trying to meet our own needs instead of truly trusting Jesus to meet our needs.  You see parts of us have surrendered but other parts don’t even know Jesus.  We need to do inner evangelism of our hearts and become gospel fluent and experience gospel astonishment internally as well as externally.  There are moments of focused abiding and then along the way abiding. 

 

An old lady at the “Beloved” gathering said… in the quiet places of the soul where few people go… that is where we meet and commune. 

 

This family camp retreat is all about returning home to your true family.  Abiding and abode are linked together.  We need to return home (abode) by abiding in the Fathers love.  His love is our home.  We need to look at the Father looking at us in love.  This is our true home and our hearts are restless until the rest in the Father’s loving home. 

 

We do this in our imagination now but there is coming a day when we will see Him as He is and we will see who we truly are as well.  “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”  1 John 3:2 – We become what we behold.  The more we gaze at the face of Jesus the more that we become like Him. 

 

In the same way that a car is meant to run on gas we are designed to run on His love.  He is our true home.  We are to dwell in His love.  When you see dwell in the O.T. in the Psalms and finding refuge in Him this carries the idea of abiding in Him. 

 

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  Psalm 91:1-2

 

Slide - John 15:11 – The result of this is joy.  The outworking of returning home to the Fathers loving face is joy!

 

When we can get to the place of saying not my will but your will be done this is a picture of wholehearted surrender.  This is reversing the curse in the garden.  Jesus the second Adam was in a garden just like Adam and Eve.  Instead of saying my will instead of yours… He said not my will but yours be done. 

 

I have heard it said that some of the messianic Jews believe that in the same way that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of the tree and received the curse of sin and death… Jesus the second Adam died on a tree and all those who come to Him and eat of his fruit eat from the tree of life.  Christ is our very life and only as we abide in Him and only do as He is doing we bear his fruit and experience joy and life to the full in Him!

 

So much of this is not analytical but it is experiential.  It is learning to surrender all parts of me and my life to Jesus.  Letting Him be Lord of my life. 

 

CASA – Abiding intimacy with Jesus

 

Joyful Journaling exercise – 20 minutes