Welcome And The Core Desire

Donald E Coleman 0:21

All right, welcome back. Hey, I hope you're ready for me because I know that last episode it went a little bit long, but there was so much that needed to come out. So I hope you got everything out of the episode. And if you didn't, just go back and listen to it because receptive poverty and receptive emptying is an incredible understanding of how God creates space in us if we embrace what is going on. Because ultimately, what does God desire from us? And what does God want from us to become the vessel that His love can fill to the brim that it might flow out to someone else in need? I just want you to think about that. Take away all the other stuff that we've learned in church or whatever it is. Ultimately, God is saying for every human, I want you to be a vessel of my love in the world. So that the world will be full of my glory, right? That's John 1:14. That's like a manifesto. That's who we are, that's what God desires. And for us to stay open for that. But I'm going to jump right in here because I I said I wanted to focus on the three details. I have other three more details. Details three, four, and five. And I want to go back. Now remember, we're in John, and we're talking about the miracle of Cana. So John 2, verses 1 through 11, but we're going to be on verse 7 through 9-ish or so. So let me get there. And I want to break this down for you. So let me read

Made To Be Vessels Of Love

Donald E Coleman 2:28

verses 6, and I'll read through, I believe like 10 or so, and then we'll just see what's going on here before I start to break down. So verse 6 says, nearby stood six stone jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water. So they filled them to the brim. Verse eight. Then he told them, Now draw some out and take them to the master of the banquet. They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink, but you saved the best until now. I want y'all to hold on to that one. God has saved the best until now. What Jesus did here in Cana was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. I just want to let me read that again. It says, What Jesus did in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. So let's pick this up on verse seven. So detail number three. Well, let me read the other two details so that I can get them all together here so that you get it here. So let me get detail two and detail one for you. So the first detail was detail one was they were ceremonial, the the jars were ceremonial, they were purposed shape vessels, they had a specific purpose. So if you go back to the episode, you can listen to that. That's number one detail, specific purpose for what it was. And detail two was they were empty. And I kind of wanted to focus on that. That's called the Christ-sented conosis posture or canonic posture. And when we hear the word kenosis, I want you to constantly keep thinking about Philippians two and seven. Well, five through eight basically is what it is. Verse five says, Paul said, Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. That's an important statement because he's saying is that we are to put on the mind of Christ. And how did Christ show up? Who, verse six and seven says, who being in the form of God did not take advantage of that? I'm paraphrasing, did not take advantage that he was God, but took the form of a servant and became human and dwelt among us. That is the definition of kenosis. It's willing, willingly letting go in order to fulfill or to love God. So he let go of his divinity, his divinity for our sake to please the Father. Did you get that? Willingly did it. And that's what God, through our walk on this earth, that's what God walks us through. We will have thousands, maybe millions of opportunities to offer kenosis or canonic worship to God. And here's the thing: I was not aware of this. I never considered it as being worship until this last journey that I'm on. And this is what COVID did. The stillness of COVID brought so much to the forefront. But here's what I will tell you is don't think about what you didn't do. Focus on now. Stay in the now and focus on what you are doing in this moment, not what you're gonna do tomorrow or what you didn't do yesterday. Always remember that God is always in the now. God is always in today. All right. So now let's go to detail number

The Cana Miracle Read Aloud

Donald E Coleman 8:01

three. And let's break this down because it's some really good stuff here. So detail three is this. It's from verse 2.7. It says, Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water. So they filled them to the brim. So the detail is this fill them to the brim, the fullness of formation. See? Formation, filling us to the brim. Everything that we are doing, our life that we're living, God is forming in us a place. He's forming in us a place or the place, right? So we might have filled up our vessel. And when we come before God and we start our relationship, every part of that relationship, God is removing the stuff that fills the space where it's designed for God to be with us. Isn't that wonderful? And he doesn't force it. God is very gentle, he's very patient, he's not mandating. And that's one of the things I think we need to understand is that we're not gonna, I want to put it out there, but people in the church did only what they knew to do. So part of what we must come to this understanding, if we get new information, and that information reveals that God is love and God does it this way, and someone else did it another way. Kenosis says, I have to let that go and honor God. See, we're we're holding on to stuff, and because we are holding on to it, that stuff, good, bad, or even indifference, is taking the space that God wants to fill us to the brim. And that's why it's important that we stay in the present. Because if we're in the present, we remain empty. You'll get it. So here's the key now about filling to the brim. Not partially. I think it's important to understand that, and not even to the place where it was sufficient. Jesus said to fill them, right? And the key was, he said, fill them with water. So the servants filled them to the brim. They understood Jesus' command meant to go all the way. So the servants understood that by listening to Jesus. The intent was not to fill it with some water, not to fill it with just enough water, but was to fill it all the way to the brim. And it's important for us to understand that God wants to fill us to the brim with agape. See, and here's what I believe is most of us, we start out and we get this, we get a taste of agape. And then we run with that and we forget that there's so much more to come. So we're running off of a small portion of the love that God has for us, and he's saying, I have so much more. But here's the key: Paul prays in Ephesians 3 19. This is the key. He prays that believers would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. I mean, did I just want you to grab that? Paul's prayer. This is man, I love that prayer, but I want you to understand what he prayed in Ephesians 3, verse 19. Let me read it here because I want you to hear this verbatim. And I want to read from let me read 17. He says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray, this is Paul, I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people. Now, watch this now, to grasp how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ. And that word love is agape. The how deep, how wide, how long, how high, how deep is the agape of Christ. And watch what comes here. He says, and he doesn't stop. The conjunction says that you may grasp all the aspects of the love of God. And here, how wide, long, high, and deep. What that's saying is if we think about it from eternity's

Fill To The Brim Formation

Donald E Coleman 13:31

perspective, there is no height, there is no width, there is no depth, there is no length that can hold the love or the agape of God. Just just just think about that. Our mind cannot perceive that the agape of God can never ever run out. It is the very fiber of the essence that how that holds the worlds together. But let me finish here. He says, he says, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that here's the key. So to know intimately this love that surpasses knowledge or surpasses our intellect or our rational mind or our emotions or our memory, that you may be filled. You catch that? Notice to the brim, filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. I just did you catch that now? Jesus' first miracle is showing us how we are to receive the agape of God to the brim. He said it, Paul re-identified it here that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. What image comes to mind when you think about all the fullness of God? I mean, just think about that for a moment. Just sit with that, filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. See, this right here, the formation, the spiritual formation journey from the time that we come into our understanding that we are the beloved of God, and then we become believers. That is what I'm calling the spiritual formation. We we identify, we receive our identity as the beloved of God, the agapitos of God. And then from that moment, from living in agapitos, and as we become believers, the spiritual formation journey of that process from agapitos to agapitan. Agapitan now is the forming and shaping of the vessel. That is God's work in us. That's what we spend most of our life on earth, God working that in us. The agapitan, so from agapitos to agapitan is the journey of allowing. Get this now. It's the journey of allowing that filling to go all the way to the brim. God is not pleased, that's the word, for you only to get a dose. Or as an example, it said that the the jars, right? They could fill twenty to thirty gallons. So let's stick with that. God is not pleased with the vessel that is willing to accept sixteen ounces and it can receive thirty ounces. But God will never force the other gallons of water on us. See, that word allowing, what I use as allowing is kinosis. It's the letting go that we may be filled to the brim. And it's not a partial filling. I'm seeing this, I got to keep repeating myself. It's not a partial filling that produces partial transformation. We have too many of us. I lived on a partial transformation. God's not interested in partial transformation. Transformation is a complete, a complete process. Think about it now. The transformation of a of a of a caterpillar to a butterfly. And part of that process is the caterpillar literally dies and becomes something completely different. That is our process. Did not Paul say, he said, I've been crucified with Christ, yet I live not oh, not I, but Christ lives within me. Did not Paul say that we have been baptized with Christ, we were buried with Christ, therefore we were raised with Christ. This is all the process. So if you've been living in that place and God has been revealing that it's it's been a partial transformation, he's saying, I have so much more for you. Take a moment to pause and say, Lord, I want all that you have for me. Everything that you want from me, Father, I want for me. Give me the courage and the strength to stay close and to stay connected. And here's what I will say to you the way to stay close and connected is to constantly keep living in the present moment to live in the now. Because here's the key. The brim level filling that produces the categorical change from water into wine, that the only complete saturation in agape can accomplish. So here's the key: a brim level filling is that produces the categorical change which we what with witnessed, forgive me, we witnessed water into wine that only complete saturation in agape can accomplish. Notice the full brim, the full jar to the brim, transformed water into wine. It has to be from the from the soles of our feet to the top of our head, the love of God is filling us and flowing. And here's the key here, because I think a lot of times we put more pressure or we allow the protective self or outside influences, influences, or people operating in their saboteurs to put timelines on us. Because this filling takes time. It's not Kronos time. I want you to understand, it's not calendar time. It doesn't matter if you've been born again or believe been a Christian for 50 years or you've been a Christian for five days. The key here is to operate in Cairo's time, which is God's time. The formation of Agapitan does not follow a schedule we set because God knows what's on the inside. And part of it may be just that, removing the idea that we are controlling the timing. We don't control our formation's timing. I know you have read books that says that you can control it. But no, God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is the one that is creating the formation. We may be led to read a book, we may be led to a prayer book or different services. Yes, that's to get the information. That doesn't necessarily mean that the book or the information is causing the transformation. Didn't Paul say it this way? Are you ready? Remember, they were having an argument and it was about, you know, seed planting. And Paul said, Paul said it this way. He said, A police planted and I watereth, but God provides the increase. I want to remind us that God provides the increase of transformation. You can't buy transformation. You can't fast forward transformation. And we have allowed ourselves to be, I don't want to use the, yeah, I am going to say it. We've allowed ourselves to be tricked into thinking that we can speed up the process of transformation to get to the end result faster than what God says is the time. And let me explain to you, that is not transformation. Go back and listen to the episodes. I taught an episode about modification versus transformation. We have modified our lives. So what that means is that we are holding on and we are controlling it. So God's not in it. So if I modified it, that means I'm responsible to ensure that it continues to work. And it's only a matter of time. And that time may be 10, 20, 30 years. It might be a good repair job or a good modification. But eventually we have to come to the place where we surrender the modification to God for his glory. And then God says, okay, you did a decent job here, but that's not what I want for you. I need to remake this over. Isn't that the story of the potter and the clay? I just want you to get this. Maybe now

Ephesians Prayer For Fullness

Donald E Coleman 25:01

is the time that we come before God and we say, Lord, I let go of my timeline and I trust your timeline for my life. Did not David say that God knows every hair on our head? He knows our coming and our going? Did not David tell us that there's nowhere that we can escape in the cosmos away from God? How are we gonna do this? We can't. That's why Jesus willingly came. Not only to be our Savior, but to be our Lord. To Lord to show us the way that we may follow and be led by the Holy Spirit on our individual paths to God. Each one of us has an individual path. No two walks are the same. There may be some similarities, but they are not exactly the same. The same way we have different fingerprints, God says that each one of us has a different journey to get to intimacy with him. But here's the key now. Return after return. Right? Here's the key because I just talked about the fact of it follows the patient, unhurried rhythm of a lifetime of intimacy with God. It has nothing to do with our timing. Spiritual formation, the forming of a Gapitan, follows the patient, unhurried rhythm of a lifetime of intimacy with God. And here, return after return to Christ-cented canonic posture. That's it, or kenosis, however you want it. Every opportunity when we're at work, when we're at home, God presents us with all these opportunities to let go and to come back, to let go and to come back. Oh, that person said something to me. Let go, come back. Oh, I thought this negative thought about myself. Let go and come back. And here's the key emptying what accumulates. So that return after return is the process of emptying what accumulates. The busyness, the performance, the anxiety. And it's not a one-time thing, it's a constant making space again and again and again and again and again. As long as we have breath, we will consistently have to keep making space because the world wants to fill that empty space with anything it can to keep us from our intimate relationship with our Father. And here's the key: the servants filled these jars to the brim. They did not stop when the jars were half full. I want you to get that because the servants are kind of allowing us a peek into what we are to do. They did not declare the task complete before it was. I like to say lifetime. This is the lifetime obedience of the spiritual journey and formation. This is what it means to abide in belovedness, to live in belovedness. It's not as it's not a passive resting. Don't let anybody tell you that that living from belovedness is passive. Do you know how hard it is for you to let go when somebody offended you or when someone did you wrong? Because, see, they've put all the action on what we do externally, and they fail to see what's happening internally. So it is not a passive resting, but it's active, it's a faithful practice of returning to the source of love until the filling reaches the brim. Notice what Paul said in Romans twelve and two, because Paul calls it, he says, It's the renewing of your mind, it's the ongoing transformation that happens not in a moment, but through the sustained, patient surrender of the canonic life, the Christ-centered canonic posture of worship. Now, all of that was just detail three. Let's jump into detail number four. Draw some out. You get it? It's not the filling is not for us just to be filled and to live in fullness. The filling is to draw some out. And I'm calling this the spirit-led release of a ga pow. And here it's a two-eight. Then he told them, Now draw some out and take them to the master of the banquet. Here's the key. This is the moment of a ga-pow. And notice carefully how it happens. Jesus does not take the wine himself. He does not announce it. He does not make the transformation a performance or a showcase. I just wanted I want that to settle. Because we have too many people making the transformation journey a performance or a showcase. That's not the Tammy on lifestyle. Jesus told us when we pray, which our life is to can be a continuous form of pray. He said, Go into your house, close the door, go into the interroom and close the door and pray to your father who is in secret. I want this to settle. Because I'm trying to be as real as I can with you. For six years we've been on this journey, and this journey is about daily living for Christ from the inside out. So here, Jesus gives a simple instruction to the servants: draw some out and take it to where it is needed. Not where you want to go, not what you want to do. Take it to where it was needed. Did you catch that? The master of the banquet needed it because what they were out of wine. And here's the understanding here. I want to let me just slow down for a moment here, just because there's a little nugget I want you to get here. The agape ton, purposely shared and formed vessel, does not choose where agape goes. It doesn't choose where the

Kairos Time Versus Self Control

Donald E Coleman 34:06

infilling of agape goes or how it flows out. No, that's modification. And let me say it this way: agape ton does not choose where agape goes, or it's not based on keyword searches. It's not based on having the right product or the right this or the right that. We draw from what we have received and obediently carries it to where it is needed. Here's what we've mistaken. We have been carrying stuff in not formed vessels, and we've been carrying stuff that we did not receive, but we made it. And that's why people are not changed. God allowed it. Yes, yeah, you might have filled another ounce in the jar, but God's saying you can't fill the whole jar with that because that's not me. And good intentions doesn't fill the jars. Did you catch that? Good intentions doesn't fill the jars. I just want you to get this because this is what this is. This is love, y'all. I want you to understand God so loved us that He is not willing to settle for us only receiving a partial filling. But get this now. This is a God Pao in its most natural and powerful form, right? The vessel receiving, and then the vessel obediently carrying. That is a God Pao, love flowing out in its most natural and powerful form, not manufactured, not managed, not performed, drawn from the overflow and released at the Holy Spirit's direction. I want you to catch that now. Drawn from the overflow and released at the Holy Spirit's direction. This is the love that the world cannot explain because it does not come from human effort or human reserves. It comes from a vessel that has been filled to the brim with the agape of God. Let that settle. The servant who carries the wine does not deplete themselves in the carrying. They draw from what was already full. This is why agapao from agapitan does not exhaust. It does not cost from personal reserves. It flows from the divine overflow that Kenosis made room for. And I just talked about it. Go back to the other two episodes. Because if you feel like you're tired or you're burnt out or you never have enough, maybe that's the sign that God is saying. Pause and allow me to start removing so that I can fill you with more of me. Oh, I hope you're getting this. Straightforward here today. In this episode, it's straightforward. Now let's go to number five, detail five. So five details in total. The source remains hidden. Did you catch that? Isn't Jesus amazing? When you really think about it, love without performance. Not one time did Jesus announce anything that he was doing. And look, John 2 and 9, the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. The head of the banquet had no idea where the wine came from. Only the servants. And here's the key the servants is talking about you and me. This is perhaps the most quietly powerful detail about the miracle at Cana. I want you to get this now. About the four movements of divine love. Because what is revealed is that the beloved self-doing, agapao flowing from agapitan, the forming and shaping, does not require acknowledgement. It does not need to be seen. And here's what I want you to get here. Because part of the emptying and living in a state of kinosis prepares us to be okay with not needing acknowledgement because we know that we are operating in the very will of God and that we are present

Draw Some Out Spirit Led Release

Donald E Coleman 41:17

with God. We don't need acknowledgement because we have been acknowledgement. We don't need to be seen because we realize that we are enveloped in God and God sees us and God knows us. I want you to please grab that. That need for acknowledgement or seen or to be beloved or heard. That is actually an invitation that God is saying you'll never get it from that source. I'm the only source that can complete you or fill you to the brim where you no longer desire or need acknowledgement or the need to be seen. I want you all woo, that's awesome. Did you catch it? The one through whom agape flows has been so thoroughly formed in agapitos in our belovedness that the protective self, a desperate need for visibility, has been displaced by the beloved self's settled identity, security, and control. Let me let me say that again. The protective self's desperate need for visibility, for the need to be seen, heard, belong, and loved has been displaced by the beloved self settled identity in our belovedness and our security in God and our handing over control to God. The command center for happiness, need for power and control, esteem and affection, and safety and security has loosened its grip. And most people never realize what this is because they've never experienced it. But this is the journey that God has us on. If you have been listening to these episodes for the last year or so, you have been on this journey and God has been teaching you how to let go and come back and return. Let go and return. That is the process of us remaining in presence to be filled to the brim. So here, look, here's the key. Notice now. Note I want you to notice here, too. Who is not standing amongst the ones who knew? John names the servants. As the keepers of the secret. Did you catch that? But he never places the disciples inside that knowledge. The disciples are never named. Their role in the account only, I mean, comes only at the close. He says they see the sign completed and they believe. Belovedness into believers. Agapitos into believers. It's right here, y'all. It's right in front of us. They were recipients of the revelation, not participation, participants, sorry, in the hidden labor. This means the hiddenness of Agapitan formation runs deeper than concealment from outsiders or strangers at the wedding. It is hidden even to the ones who the ones with recognized standings, the inner circle, the labeled followers. The Holy Spirit does not correlate the depth of formation with proximity to Jesus or visibility among the recognized. The Holy Spirit correlates it with willingness to carry water. Nobody else is watching. Let me say that again. The Holy Spirit correlates it, the formation, with the willingness to carry water. Nobody is watching. And here's the key: the wine appeared. The celebration was renewed, the banquet continued, and the source, the jars, the water, the servants, the quiet obedience of the filling remain known only to those who had participated in it. This is the character of a gap that flows from a gapitan, the shaped vessel. We don't need to announce itself. We don't need to announce, I should say, it doesn't announce itself. We as the shaped vessels, we don't need to announce ourselves anymore. Yes, I'm talking to you. If you're listening to this podcast, it's time to, you don't need announcements anymore. It's time that we start to honor God inside of that in that room, in the Tamayon and the secret place, and let God reward us. We don't need man's approval anymore. Permission is no longer needed. Acknowledgement is no longer needed. Why? Because the creator of the universe has already acknowledged us and has acknowledged you. That's the key. Nothing is going to change. This forming into a God Pao, it does not perform. And trust me, I've been on the performance track. God is doing a new thing, and it's not about performance, it's about being empty that you may be filled. And it does not require the room to be noticed. It simply appears as wine, as unexpected grace, as a quality of love that the world tastes and cannot explain. And the celebration goes on. This is the key. I want to end on this here: the water into wine. The nature of true transformation. And I pray that you get everything that's about to say here. Here's the key. Now we come to the detail that completes everything. The water does not become better water. Did

Hidden Source Without Performance

Donald E Coleman 49:16

you catch that? It becomes wine. Something categorically different. Caterpillar butterfly. The substance itself is transformed. Not improved, not refined, changed at a level of what it is. Changed at a level of what it is. This is what the spiritual formation journey from agapi toast to agapitan actually produces. If we're willing to stay with it, not a more disciplined believer. That's not it. Not a more mature version of the protective self. Not a person who has learned to manage their wounds more skillfully. But a person whose very nature has been changed by sustained intimacy with God through kinosis until the substance of who they are has been transformed by the one who turns water into wine. I want you to see that. He said, transformed into the same image from glory to glory, not incrementally improved. Transformed. See, the Greek word here is the same word as metamorphosis. I just I've been mentioning the caterpillar. The caterpillar does not become a better caterpillar, it becomes something categorically different. Something that could not have been predicted from looking at what it was before. And here's the key: in this process, as water becomes wine, believers are turned into Christians. Not people who follow Christ, but people who carry Christ's nature and are bearers of his name. This is the distinction that the formation journey is building towards. And now you understand why it takes a lifetime. The difference between imitation and transformation. Let me read that again. This is the distinction between, I mean, the distinction that the formation journey is building towards. The difference between imitation and transformation, between doing what Jesus did and being what Jesus is. Love itself embodied in flesh, released into a world by the Holy Spirit's direction. John one fourteen, let me end with this. And it said, John one fourteen, it said, the word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. So I want you to pause with me here now. Let's just let this settle in. A lot was said. I want you to pause. And whatever is coming to mind right now, I want you to just practice. Just let it go and come right back to this present moment. I want you to think about transformed versus improved. So as you breathe in, I want you to say, I am being transformed, not improved. Yep, again, breathe in. I am being transformed, not improved. And as you exhale, water is becoming wine. Got that water is becoming wine. All right now. So I'm gonna end right here, and in the next episode, we're gonna pick up on the sacred conversion. More you're gonna learn about how all of this is all working together, how everything that we are we're experiencing and what we can see in the world, the sciences, religion, theology, psychology, all of this is all working together to prove to us what God is wanting to do in us today. So until

Water Into Wine Closing Practice

Donald E Coleman 55:41

next time, stay the course, keep living daily for Christ, and remember to keep returning back to the source.