Who We Are:

“Spirituality is the discovery of the fundamental connection that exists between us and God- a connection that then properly Aligns us to others, the world and our deepest self.” David Benner, ‘Surrender to Love’, page 17.

Purpose of the Website:

Besides sharing the tools we have developed in aligning with God over the years for your personal use and training, this website is also meant to serve as a place that brings together various resources under one location. These can include anything that help to build an interactive two way connection with God or interactive communities among like minded believers. The website is in process, and we ask for your patience as we add more links and community connections. If you have a resource that you would like us to add that fits this description, please contact Denice MacKenzie at DMacKenzie@AlignwithGod.org.

What does it mean to Align with God?

Through a wild and unpredictable ride over the last eight years or longer, God has led a small group of Christians, seeking greater intimacy with God and each other, into some life altering truths and practices. We hope as we share our experiences and the scriptures God has led us to understand more deeply, that you will be inspired and transformed to seek an even deeper experiential, two-way encounter with the Living Christ.

Many of us have come from conservative churches that emphasized adherence to God’s word, which we seek to keep as the first and foremost revelation of God’s will and story. Yet in spite of such a solid Biblical framework, we found many Christians to be yearning for more in their walk with God, a greater reality in their experience and knowing God relationally. Although many wanted that, they were also afraid to get too far “off base” from their foundational beliefs in the Bible. As we sought God on these issues, He showed us the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and how we can access Him through prayer and the word and still stay biblical sound. He also showed us the importance of whole being engagement with God, to love and encounter him with all of our hearts, souls, mind and strength because that is how he made us to love him, as in the greatest commandment.

We first seek this alignment with God for ourselves, and then as we grow in depth and experience of God, we are able to be trained in how to lead others in this transformational experience. Alignment can also be seen as attachment or connection with God or others or creation, for which we believe God has uniquely designed each one of us, and has wired our brains specifically for rich relational capacity.

The training tools on this website are to equip you at any of these levels, whether you seek a deeper walk with Jesus and more experiential awareness for yourself, your marriage, your family, your ministry or small group, your workplace or your church. Be sure to view the testimonials and the links to other ministries that have trained us along the way.

You will see that the acronym for A.L.I.G.N closely aligns with the Lord’s prayer. We strive to make these tools simple to remember and practical to carry out. We condense the teachings from several other ministries into this simple acronym and the five-fold purpose below so that you can carry it with you in your hearts.

The A.L.I.G.N. pneumonic-and prayer

The ALIGN pneumonic is meant to serve as a simple way to remember how to slow ourselves down enough to connect with God in a deeper, two-way experiential manner.  These are the steps walked through in the podcast.

Of course, this isn’t the only way to connect with God, and it was never intended to be a formula of some kind that you need to follow in order to be close with God.  We realize everyone connects in different ways with God. God is not limited in how He reaches us. In addition to prayer and Bible study, some prefer silence, meditation, or to pray using specific prayer formats such as the Lord’s prayer, which actually covers the same steps as the Align pneumonic, as we have outlined below.  What's important is that you find a way that helps you to get connected with God.  Over time this will change for you as you get familiar with hearing from Him in a Spirit to spirit way.  You will be able to recognize his “voice” much sooner and with less effort. You can use one or several of the things that each letter in the pneumonic represents if needed, again depending on where you are at in your process of drawing nearer to God.

The following pneumonic helps break down preparation for  listening to God into the passive and active phases of listening:

In the passive phase you begin to direct your attention toward God and away from distractions, just as if you were preparing to listen to a friend in conversation.  In the active phases of listening you begin in invite, engage, ask questions, and take initiative to explore with God whatever is on your heart.  You can use these steps to improve your listening with God or with people, since it all uses the same pathways in your brain.

“A” and “L” are the more passive phases of preparing to listen, while and “I” , “G” and “N” are the more active phases, although all parts can be interactive. Find your rhythm and what works for you best in ushering you into his presence.  For example, you may find that singing, dancing, walking, journaling your feelings, being in nature, listening to music, reading his word, prayer and worship, all serve as ways you prepare to connect with God.  In any approach, the steps of the Align pneumonic may be added as needed, depending on the situation you are in.  Some days you may find it harder to connect, and that is where it may be useful to have practiced these tools and have them ready to access.

All of these steps benefit you most if preceded by at least 2 minutes of quieting and deep breathing:

A- Awe, Appreciate, Aware, Attune and Adore,  or….

“Our Father who Art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

Appreciate and Adore God-  Align yourself under Him as the Mighty, All powerful, Holy, all knowing God of heaven.  Let Him know what you appreciate about Him.  Become aware of his presence and Adore him, praise him, enjoy him for who he is.  This prepares our hearts to attune to Him and tune out the worldly distractions, turns on our relational connections, and opens our awareness to the Holy God we serve and to whom we pray. As His word states, we are to “Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.” (Psalm 100:3-4)

L- Love, Linger, Listen, Look up, or……

“Your kingdom come….”.

Let his Love draw you into listening.  As we prepare our hearts to listen to God it helps to linger in His presence, to quiet and be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10).  As we attune to God mainly through His word and His Holy Spirit, we ask God to fill us with His love for Him, ourselves and others. His kingdom is one where Love reigns.  God is love, and you are aligning yourself under His heart of Love and his good will toward you.  Before praying for anyone, or yourself, first ask God to be filled with His love for that person.  This will shift your posture as you listen for His will and His perspective on how He sees things in His kingdom.  Preparing to listen by reminding ourselves of God’s love for us, helps us to hear his heart, his intentions, and his emotions toward us so that we don't simply listen with our minds and miss important parts of who God is.  Over time as we get more and more comfortable with His love, we begin looking up more often to get God’s perspective on things, rather than looking to the problems around us.

I-Invite, Initiate, Identity, Interact, or…..

“Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Invite God to show you His Will and His ways and your true Identity.  We now move into the more active parts of listening, where we actively engage God and initiate with him, inviting him into our lives and situations, and ask him to invite us into what He is doing.  In order for His kingdom to come to earth, He needs people that will fully align their hearts with His will and heavenly perspective. This involves surrendering our agendas to Him. Part of this is done  by realizing our true identity and how God sees us, not only now, but in the age to come.  True identity empowers us to do the work He has called us to do for Him (1 Corinthians 15:10).

G-God is Good, Giving, Gracious, Guiding, Growing us, all to his Glory, or……

“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…..”

God’s goodness invites us to ask God for what we need, knowing He will give it. We can expect a two way interactive experience with God and trust him to respond.  Once we have aligned ourselves with His Good and perfect will, we can ask for anything in His Name, and he will give it to us. (John 16:23). This may include asking for greater intimacy, maturity, victory over sin and evil, power, gifts, guidance, equipping, practical daily needs, ability to forgive, other's needs, healing, insight, scriptures and wisdom. The list is endless.  The promise here is that He answers our requests about anything, including interactions with others and the world around us. There is no need to suffer lack since God has access to all things, and once we trust His goodness and align with Him, we become equipped to walk in the destiny He has laid out for us, all to His glory.

N-New and living ways, New doors, No to sin, New Life, New Creation, or……

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen”.

God’s new and living ways allow us to live life with God and not for God.  God is always at work.  The focus of this part of our listening is to ask God to show us His works, the new things he is doing in and around us, so that we can get behind them and do the work of the new kingdom, different from the world’s kingdom, which He came to establish through His church.   Jesus always asked the Father where he was working.  He said, “My father is always at work,”, and Jesus never did anything unless he saw the father doing it.  He also wanted us to have confidence in drawing near to God through His blood, by a “New and Living way” (Hebrews 10:20).  When we allow No temptation to reign, then we can co-reign with Him and take our rightful places as children of God.  When we Surrender, Listen, and Love, we are ushered into this New and Living way of Living Life to the full in his new Kingdom, all for His glory forever.   

In summary ALIGN stands for :

A-Awe, Appreciate, Aware, Attune and Adore

L-Love, Linger, Listen, Look up

I- Invite, Initiate, Identity, Interact

G- God is Good, Giving, Gracious, Guiding, Growing us, all to his Glory

N-New and living ways, New doors, No to sin, New Life, New Creation

May God bless and activate these tools to assist you in your journey in a closer walk with God :

Bob and Denice MacKenzie

What We Believe:

We believe that inviting people into a dynamic two-way relationship with God, as a foundation for everything else they do, is the central message of God’s heart. It is the gospel message.  He died to bring us His life so that we can live in abundant relationships with Him and others.  He simply wants us to know Him, to live joyfully in His presence, and to see ourselves through His eyes.  The resulting shift of paradigm is both illuminating and life-changing.  To have what is called His “God-sight” or His perspective about our truest selves, the world around us, and His father heart toward us, is truly transformative. 

Our prayer is that this simple message will change the world and create a deepening thirst for Spirit-led, life-giving, well-connected Christians all over the planet.  If everyone could experience how much God truly enjoys them as unique individuals, regardless of what we’ve done, what we believe, what church we belong to or don’t, how we “see” God, ourselves, or others, I believe it would add a depth of joy and unity among us that has never been seen since the first century. As God restores His heart of love experientially within each one of us, his great commission will be accomplished. This will also greatly subdue the division caused by issues that are not relational and only divide us from each other.

Real and lasting change cannot occur, as recent brain science has discovered, until we can each retain some kind of “glad-to-be-with-you” interaction with God and each other.  Boiling all religion down to the simplest common denominator, God fully and relationally enjoys YOU and wants to connect with every part of you! You are unique, a one-of-a-kind expression of his heart.   He longs to reveal himself to you, and heal your childhood wounds that have led you to misunderstand him. He longs to reveal your true self to you, as He sees you and as He created you to be before the foundations of the world were set in place. He wants to have the kind of relationship with you where you feel safe to abide with him, grow and mature with him and discover your purpose and the assignments he has for you to accomplish in this world. He calls to your most hidden place. Will you respond? He’s had you in mind since the earth foundations were laid. He is calling that person forth to arise and be strengthened, stabilized and inspired to partner with Him in a grand adventure for His glory! May you always enjoy the journey!  

Our FIVE Core Values:

1) To first Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to seek Him for Himself, to know and love Him.

2) To Love your neighbors

3) To Love yourself

4) To Love the lost

5) To Love your enemies

We are looking to partner with people who want to align with God for His glory, so that they can discover their true story and to help others do the same. We align with God’s heart to help our own hearts to heal, then to journey with others to discover God’s loving connections for them within safe communities. As these things are practiced, this helps us to discover our true identities and recover our destinies. This also enables us to build safe joy-filled communities of love and belonging that help us to mature as believers and thrive within the attachment to God and others that He has created us for.

If you are interested please email us at DMacKenzie@AlignwithGod.org. We would love to assist you to bring these love based, joy filled communities into your family, neighborhoods, small groups or churches in any way that we are able.

DENICE

I found what I call an interactive relationship with God when I was 23 years old.  Prior to that I explored many spiritual paths, including several eastern religions, but I was left feeling empty. One day, alone in my apartment, Jesus led me into an interactive encounter with Him that showed me all of my sin and all of His glory at the same time, flashing before my eyes. I was never the same. I asked Him to lead me to a church where I would learn to be his disciple. He led me to a non-denominational church and I studied the Bible and was baptized in October of 1978. As a new Christian, I felt fulfilled in my relationship with God and Jesus because it was vibrant and exciting.  I would talk to God daily and would sense His presence leading and guiding me. God was my closest friend and my most enlivening relationship.  I fell head over heals in love with Him.  He was wild at heart, unpredictable, but always reliable and truthful, loving and gentle. 

Yet, with the many distractions of life, after the first few years, the “romance” started to wear away, just as it can in a marriage.  I was still very committed to God, and my love was maturing and growing for Him,  but looking back I subtly started to “do” things for Him, rather than simply enjoy life with Him.  I had lost a sense of His presence and what it was like to truly experience Him. I felt something was missing.  As I tried to do more and more for Him in hopes of regaining that presence, I became weary.  I no longer sensed His involvement nor did I invite it.  But I did try to earn it.  Not only was His presence missing, but as it turned out, I was also missing a clear understanding of my God-given identity and destiny.  You noticed I said God- given.  I had heard many things about how others saw me, throughout my life, however I didn’t yet fully understand how God saw me, or who He created me to be in this period of my life.  

Without the original blueprint for who I was, I was living like a person with amnesia. I would wander in my focus, asking others where they were going and who they were trying to become, to see if it would ignite a spark in me.  I would try to work harder, please more and do things better.  I would even imitate those whom I saw living from their hearts and not their heads, but I felt like I was starring in a movie rather than living my life. It was confusing because I thought I was doing everything right; reading my Bible and praying every day, engaging in discipleship relationships, going to church services and midweeks, women’s groups, and learning more and more about God. But it wasn’t until I discovered a core compelling principle, that I started to understand what was missing. Even so, it was several more years as I started implementing that principle into my daily life, before I truly saw transformational change take place in myself and the people around me. That principle is simply this: 

God enjoys being with us immensely, and it is within this “being-with” relationship that true change really happens. It’s not in what I do for him or how much I know about him. It’s in being with him that transformation occurs.

Not only that, He loves it when we interact with Him and wait for His response, just as any friend would.  He finds joy in us! Finally, as I did at first, I began to re-build a relationship with God again that was authentic, life giving and interactive. 

I was no longer doing things for God, I was doing things with God.    

The journey to this place was not as smooth as it sounds however. There were many attachment pains, misconceptions, lies and vows I had believed about God and myself and others that had to be overcome and renounced. The first step in this journey came one day as I was praying for God to guide me into His will for my life, out of the desperation that something was missing in my Christian walk: I felt drawn to turn to the verse in Exodus 3:5-

A Holy God
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”. 

I asked God to clarify. He gave me the reference for Joshua 5:15

15 The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

With me, God sometimes has to repeat Himself. Well often, actually. Clearly God was trying to drive home a point. As I pondered the obvious, for the first time in my life I felt drawn to God in a way that mingled holy fear with childlike trust. I sensed He was calling me to truly listen to something important He had to say, to surrender my expectations, my agenda, in fact the very path I was traveling. I was torn. Which half of this strange God should I believe?  I didn’t know at first, but He was to make that very clear as time went on.

In spite of my fear, my longing for more of His presence and interaction with the deeper places of His heart, won out. Soon, after leading me through several prayer trainings, He led me to read a book called “Experiencing God” by Henry Blackabee.  It helped me to see that I needed to get behind what God was doing in my life, and open myself up to His agenda, and ask Him what that was every day.  Up until that time, I had been living life “on my schedule”, asking God to bless my efforts, my prayer requests, my desires (which seemed very holy by the way).  Somehow I knew that He was very pleased with how hard I was working and would honor that by answering my prayers.  Some of them He did, but most of the time, I felt I was pushing my agenda unto God. When I read this book, I realized that it is God’s agenda I should be surrendering to, not the other way around. When I began to pray this way, something shifted, and I asked God one day, “God it seems like you are up to something in my life, but I need to get closer to you to hear what that is.  How do I do that?  Would you show me? “

This is when the fear resurfaced that I had felt earlier several times in my life.  Already working very hard, I feared that God would just give me more to do, and that I would be even more burdened.  I also feared what He may tell me about myself that I didn’t know.  All the misconceptions I had of God began to surface along with the fears. I feared a genuine encounter with God while at the same time longing for it. I feared that He would expose something faulty under my religious world, my view of myself and my view of God.   But surprisingly none of that happened. Instead, over time, God gently guided me into some of the most wonderful interactions with Him that I have ever experienced.  All of my fears of being too busy or too burdened melted into the joy of spending time in His presence.  His promises came alive and sustained me, especially the one in Matthew 11:28-29.

  28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Prayer Ministry for Others:

Throughout my own journey in discovering God and His purpose and plan for me, He led me along a path with many twists and turns, and finally into starting and developing a prayer ministry at my church.  We had learned warfare prayer, prayer for healing diseases and renouncing lies, vows and strongholds. These were essential steps in recognizing the authority we carried in Jesus as believers. I read such books as “The Bondage Breaker” by Neil Anderson and “I Give you Authority” by Charles Kraft. We went to prayer trainings through Christian Healing Ministries by Francis and Judith MacNutt and “Be In Health” by Henry Wright and Neil Anderson’s trainings. Although I do not agree with everything in these books and trainings, it gave me a foundation from which to pray with authority, something that Jesus bestowed upon us and wants us to imitate (see resource section for article entitled “Authority in Christ”). Knowing we have this authority as believers was an essential first step that laid the foundation for all the rest.

A shift in perspective

One day around this time, I had what I call an “Immanuel encounter” with Jesus as I started to learn Immanuel Prayer (Life Model Works) (Also See Testimonies - “Encounter with Jesus in the field” for more details). God revealed to me that my focus had become skewed. He showed me that focusing on Him and connecting with Him, on our relationship, was the most important thing. Period. This focus was to be set far above seeking how to be healed of diseases, delivered from demons, seeking and saving the lost, doing “ministry”, discipling others, or knowing how to use my gifts. Those other things can become plateaus at which we park our ministries, or even worse idols, that become more important than attaching to God and loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, the greatest and first commandment (for a reason). When we connect with Him and know how to remove blockages to that connection, He will show us everything else we need.

He wants us to focus primarily on Him and learn how to draw near to Him, and the rest will follow.

From that place of connection He still spoke to us about our diseases and how to be set free of various sins and oppressions, but it came from a place of deep connection and attunment with Him and with His purposes and plans for our lives.  We found that learning how to attune with Him is the most important and most difficult first step.  

This transition to focus only on Jesus was not an easy one.   We had been trained, and then trained our prayer ministry group, in praying for others to be healed and delivered.  We had seen fruit from this approach that truly glorified God, and much healing did occur on all levels that were obvious.  Several people were healed of lymes disease with their blood work showing the results, others of eyesight issues (farsightedness), blood issues (low WBC counts), autoimmune and hypothyroid disease to the point that several were able to get off of their medications.  God blessed us abundantly and we were always praising God for His glory and goodness to a few “newbies” who had never done anything like this before!

To give up an approach that was so fruitful was a huge shift for us. The fruit from healing was exciting and encouraging. What had prepared us for this shift was that we had started to noticed that under the healed diseases were still all the “issues of life” that people needed to grapple with. The healing and deliverance was just the beginning. The maturing of character, the relationship issues that hindered fellowship with other believers, the understanding of true identity, healing of marriages and families came up first, to name a few. We also were a little frustrated that so much attention and time had to be given to “praying off demons” and renouncing strongholds. There had to be a simpler way to achieve the same results.

One day I was deep in prayer with God about this change, as I wanted to make sure that I was getting the right direction.  I asked God again to make it even more clear, even though He already had (forgive my unbelief!).  In my minds eye, I saw a picture of our prayer ministry team, all of us as sheep scattered around a pasture, each individually eating of some sparse tall grass.  We were each separated from each other by many yards and spread across quite a large grazing pasture.  All of a sudden our shepherd, who was Jesus, got up and started moving out of the pasture and up a steep side of a hill, motioning for us to follow him.  We all followed up the long narrow embankment into another pasture.  This one had short stubby grass and was quite small. It looked over the city of Denver.  He said to us that He wanted us to gather around Him in this pasture and stay close to Him, and that we would be in this pasture many days, until He told us it was time to move to the third pasture.  In this second pasture, we would find that the grass was more sustaining and we wouldn’t have to eat as much of it, and that more time would be spent gathering together around our shepherd, instead of “doing” ministry for others. In doing this, we would be preparing for the third pasture, which He would later reveal to us, but for now we needed to gather around Jesus.  And so we did for many years.  

From this time forward, our prayer ministry focus shifted and we began to align ourselves more with Jesus and less with healing, gifts of the Spirit, etc. We discovered the Immanuel prayer ministry and Life Model works and sought to be trained by their materials, (see www.joystartshere.com and www.alivewell.org, thrive today.org, kclehman.com), which teaches many of these same principles.  We learned that the most important thing in our walk with God was to seek his presence and let Him remove any blockages in our connection with Jesus. From that place of connection to Jesus He would then show us if there were lies or vows to renounce, demons to get rid of, generational issues to unload. Most of the time He just took care of it, once our hearts were aligned with His. Occasionally He would lead us in prayer to renounce these things. As we led others into this same Immanuel connection, God would heal, deliver, and align us with our true identities and destinies, helping us to see Him, ourselves, and others through His eyes, giving us the “God-sight” we needed to be set free from our afflictions and to mature into the people God had created us to be. Our relationships improved. Our capacity to stay connected to Jesus and others in the midst of difficult emotions improved. The maturity piece had always been missing in our other trainings. It is central to Life Model Works and come to find out, it’s very important to Jesus as well (see resource section and articles on maturity).  

Although the idea of lifting off blockages between ourselves and God is not a new one conceptually, it was new for many of us experientially.  The vision I received in my minds eye as we continued to pray about this shift of perspectives was one of taking people out of the darkness to be warmed by a large bonfire, which represented Jesus.  Before we had simply moved them closer to the fire, and as prayer ministers, gone to the fire ourselves to light a stick on “fire” to bring it back to the person receiving ministry.  Previously we were the ones hearing from God “for” the other people. With this new shift in perspective, now we were the ones taking His sheep to Him, to the bonfire itself, and seeing Jesus directly interact with people on His own. Truly we were on “holy ground” as Exodus 3:5 had stated we would be, and we simply needed to take off our shoes and worship (shoes representing our own ideas, where we wanted to go with the session). The shift was subtle, but the fruit was decidedly different.

Increased Capacity for Relational Connection

Outwardly we experienced the same fruit, physical healings, demonic oppression lifting, greater insight and clarity, but inwardly something very different was beginning to happen.   The relationship with Jesus started to become more important than the problem, the issue or the disease.  As our capacity grew to connect with Jesus in ‘real time’, to experience His presence as we went through our day, we no longer experienced the pain in our lives as traumatic, although painful life circumstances always remained.   We begin to grow our “capacity” and mature in our attachments to God and others. As Life Model works describes this shift, they discuss how the pain in someone’s life may or may not stay the same.  The husband that is cold or distant stays that way, or the fact that we are single still leads us to hopelessness at times.  However, even with the painful life events not changing,

If our capacity to stay connected with Jesus in the midst of difficult emotions grows, we no longer experience those events as traumatic. 

We learn to move from hopelessness, sadness and shame into the joyful presence of Jesus, understanding that He is happy to be with us right where we are at within any emotion or circumstance. This is based on how our brains are wired for attachment. We think we want “relief” but what we really need is “attachment”. Our brains work better and release “feel-good” hormones when we live from an attached place to Jesus and others. Just as a little child who is afraid to go into the basement reaches for her Daddy’s hand and is then able to descend into and come out of the basement with a smile on his or her face, we too can return to joy when we connect with God before, during and after we visit those traumatic places in our past or present.  

As we learned to do this we shed many fears (and tears), lies and vows we have made about ourselves God and others. Jesus simply “shows up” and we hold His hand and connect with His gentle presence and His perception of how He really sees us and others. We are able to safely let go of judgments and bitterness we hold about other people and learn to trust God’s perspective, “growing in favor with God and with man” (Luke 2:52).  We felt more rooted and grounded in joy and in our true identities, which is who we are in our Father’s eyes, many of us for the first time. Joy begins to spread deeper into our hearts and our relationships with others grow in greater depth and intimacy, as each person begins to align more with the truth about how God sees them and others. 

We love spending time with our shepherd as we understood more of His heart toward us and the delight He has in simply spending time with us.  As we become more grounded through knowing His love experientially (not just intellectually) we grow more confident in His grace and favor toward us and we stop working so hard to win that favor. We can do the good works He has given us to do without pressure. We no longer focus as much on the problems in our lives as His presence and the relationships He has given us. We grow in gratitude.  Our eyes became truly fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, for the JOY set before us  (Hebrews 12:2).   

Now all of this doesn’t happen overnight.  For us these transformations occurred over a period of 3-5 years, and it was about building maturity within ourselves, among ourselves and within our community, rather than focusing on outer things that the Lord wanted us to “do”.  Training our spirits and our brains takes time and diligently applied effort as well as repetitive exercises. Just as building body mass or muscles requires us to go to the gym routinely and follow a prescribed routine, we also need to persist in certain disciplines which we outline in this website.

One of the first disciplines we learned was the practice of rest (see links and resources). He would often direct many of us just to rest in Him and learn the rhythms of activity and rest in our lives and how our brains and spirits work the best when we alternate these activities.  Some of us, including me, were not allowed to get out of the rest phase for several years! Jesus kept bringing us back to it in only ways that He can do. We learned two-way journaling and the discipline of surrender. There are articles on each of these in the resource section of this website. As a result we noticed that we were beginning to mature and develop more capacity for staying present in the midst of difficult life issues.

As Life Model defines maturity, it has a different emphasis.  It is having the capacity to be our best selves, staying relationally connected with God and/or others, even in the midst of difficult or painful emotions.  Since we know Jesus is right there with us, those times don’t need to unravel us anymore. 

One of the most important things we learned in this second pasture, was to be thankful, to be joyful, and to do everything out of relationship with God and others, putting our relationships above all else and above any issue in our lives.  We learned about how relational God is and how truly robust his heart is for connection with us.  We learned about the favor we have in His eyes and what a privilege it is to walk in the garden with Him every day, learning from Him about everything in creation, and about ourselves. We learned to ask gently curious questions and became more like little children as we explored His vast kingdom hand in hand with Him.  We began to lift every question to Him, every dilemma, every concern and we heard with amazing wonder the answers He had for us, the thoughts that are above our thoughts, and felt the peace that passes understanding. We realized how immediate and available He is to us at all times.  The ah-hah moments were often about why we hadn’t recognized this before, since he had always been just as “present” as he was in those moments of discovery. There were more than a few tears shed when we realized the precious interactions we had lost with Him because we were not faithful to ask.  

In this second pasture, we focused on how He simply adores being with us.  He really gets us and loves us anyway! There is no greater explanation.  He simply loves exploring life with us.  As we begin to grow in reciprocating this pleasure, to enjoy Him “forever”, taking great delight in just being with God as Adam and Eve walked with Him in the cool of the Garden, our joy grows and our capacity to stay in joy also grows, both with God and others. It’s a journey however, often wrought with distractions and discouragement. But as you keep at it and persevere, the vistas you encounter will take your breath away.

A Place of Belonging and Community

We started to build and learn how to maintain trust in safe, confidential communities where we learned how to “check-in” with each other daily and/or weekly (See Check in Handout in resources). These communities grew and several split off from our small Tuesday night group and others learned to lead their own small groups. All of this desire to connect well with and love others came from a transformed and healed heart, and from God’s deep sense of joy in being with me.  It was something I couldn’t authenically feel with others as deeply as I wanted to until I understood how much God delights in being with me.    

After experiencing this for a few years, we came to realize that the “third” pasture that God had alluded to was the banquet table of belonging and community. He wanted us to build communities of like minded individuals, which we call “house church”. These people may or may not be aligned with a larger institutional church, and either one is fine. If done within a church setting, they can be small group meetings. If outside a church setting they can be house churches. We simply took the lead from our Immanuel times to begin to pursue and pray for those who wanted an interactive relationship with God. We realized that “where two or more are gathered” He is in their midst, and church can be simpler than we ever imagined (and much less expensive!).

What a great honor and privilege it is to walk with someone who loves and adores us, who created us and knows us, and who has only good in store for us.  What an immense honor that the God of this universe would want to spend time with us on this level.  Never again, would I ever view my time spent with God as a duty. Never again would my times with God be dampened by arduous expectations, not from God, but from myself and others such as “I have to read a certain amount in the Bible to please God today”, or “I need to do or pray something today in order to be obedient to God, or He won’t be as pleased with me”.   Instead, we are learning to dance with God and to sing with Him, to commune with Him in ways that are two-way, interactive, joyful and life-giving.  

We are also learning to interact with His Holy Spirit who is always delightful, surprising and instructive. We are learning to pray with Him, not to Him, and to learn with Him, not about Him, to reach out to others with Him, not for Him. In doing so we began to truly experience God, our Creator, and thus know Him more relationally.  We began to ask questions such as, “Who do you want to be for me today, God?” , or “What part of yourself do you want to reveal to me today , Lord?” We learned to simply Chat with God (See God Chat blog). As Dallas Willard pointed out in several of his books, there is only one way the Bible talks about eternal life, and that is through “knowing God” more intimately. In John 17:3, Passion Translation, Jesus states, “Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God,[c] and to know and experience Jesus Christ,as the Son whom you have sent.”

All I can say is that the fruit from this kind of interaction is immense.  But it’s one thing to say and another to experience. This is why the blog posts which lead you into interactive experiential exercises are key, as well as some of the other interactive resources on this website. People said things like, “I share my faith so much more easily now, it’s not something I dread, it’s a fun interaction with God.”  “I actually enjoy reading the Bible much more now because while I interact with God about a verse, He gives me His insight, which is so deep and life-giving, that sometimes I only get through one verse in a day, but it’s all I need, and I’m full of joy about that verse!”  None of us can ever go back to the way we used to engage with God, and we invite you to stay with us on this journey if you are not already experiencing this daily.  The rewards are immense, beyond what you can ask for or imagine.     

As a result, we are no longer hanging on by a thread, wondering if we are still favored in God’s sight, or trying to earn that favor as we legalistically do our Christian duties, finding no pleasure with God through them.  The goal is now connection with God, and whatever we do from that connection becomes a river flowing within and through us that we are able to share with a thirsty world. We marvel at the transparency and wonder of a God with whom we can interact with every day , every moment, every second of our lives.  Being human, we are not always wiling to do that, but just knowing that He is available in that way, makes our hearts leap with awe and wonder.  There is nothing so majestic as a God who is always joyfully with us. He is Immanuel.  And all He asks of us is to take off our shoes.

He is always given over in every aspect of His being to delighting in us, partnering with us and interceding for us, and most importantly loving us, even unto the end of the age.

Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

Matthew 28: 18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

BOB

I have listened to God since the mid 1980’s when I started searching for Him.  As an atheist prior to that, I didn’t believe there was a God, so even though I now believe God was speaking to me, I did not notice. I was too busy leading my own life and doing things my way. He had patience with me and I am eternally grateful for that. 

I remember one day in the late 1980’s that stood out to me. I made plans to ride out to the park and read my Bible for most of the day. I took a blanket with me and planned a great time with God. I looked at the weather report on the news that night and they said there was a 100% chance of rain the next day. I thought, “OK God, we’ll spend the day inside and I’ll still sit on the blanket”. The next day was a beautiful sunny day. Obviously, God is bigger than the forecast and had other plans with me.  That day built my faith that in something as small as a venture outside in the park, He sees and honors our intention to spend time with Him and partners with us to bring that about.  

We were encouraged through several trainings we went to after starting our prayer ministry to refine how we interacted with God.  One woman mentioned that people hear in different ways from God. She encouraged me by noticing that the way I heard from God was with thoughts. I began to communicate back-and-forth with God and noticed that he was eager to share his thoughts with me. I learned to check this against the filter checks that we developed in our ministry, but only after I was done with the conversation. At first I doubted whether I was hearing from God at first, but after a while I begin to recognize his voice and the efforts I made seemed to flow more easily.  It did take time because I am very left brained by nature and education (C.P.A.).  However, I noticed that His voice was very distinct and different from my voice as it brought greater clarity and insight, and also very different from the enemy’s voice in that it was not condemning or harsh.  

As we went to more and more trainings, Life Model Works helped us to see our communication with God as simply aligning with God’s thoughts, has having His mind in us.  The Bible says we can have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2).  That makes a lot of sense to me. We are made to have God’s mind and synchronize with His thinking. Of course, we do not hear on the same level as the prophets did in the Bible. But his sheep do hear his voice (John 10). We learned that these conversations we have in our own head, which we think are with ourselves, are often times interlaced with God's thoughts.  Things began to become clearer to me.   After all, why would we take all the credit for the good thoughts coming into our heads? We give the enemy the credit for the “bad thoughts” we are tempted with, so why don’t we give God the credit for the good?  For example, have you ever gotten a thought to call a friend, and when you did so, it was the perfect timing?  Could that thought have come from God? Or have you had a reminder to do something and realized later that if you had not remembered to do that, it would have had negative consequences?  I truly believe that everybody hears from God but we need to train ourselves to know which thoughts are Gods, which are our own, and which are from the enemy. Most Christians get most confused between God's thoughts and their own thoughts, and most often take the credit for thinking up brilliant things when they really come from God. God is the author of all invention, creativity, music, business ideas that work, and really any thought that unites us with Himself, others or ourselves.  He wants to co-partner with us to bring about His will and His kingdom, using our talents and personality.  I think this is a really fun adventure we are on with God! It’s one of the things I've enjoyed the most. 

Realizing that God wants us to be His partner in this exciting venture called life it's something that's hard to wrap my head around, but as I've learned to  partner with Him more and more (and I’m still learning), it's given me greater motivation and desire to do more for him. God has always looked for a partner ever since he partnered with Abraham, and chose people to work with in the Old and New Testaments to bring his kingdom to earth.  Why wouldn’t He still want to partner with us today?  The good news is, He does.  He wants to partner with you to help you complete the works He has had in mind for you to do since the beginning of time.  You are His workmanship.  Let these tools be something that will help you sharpen yourself as not only His instrument for good in the world, but as His beloved son or daughter.  You were made for this. And the result will greater and greater joy in your life!