Hesed
Thriving and the Steadfast Power
of the Covenant
"You have made known to me the ways of life:
You will enrapture me,
diffusing my soul with joy
with and in your presence."
Acts 2:28 Introduction
A hypersensitive person with a new heart is a person who is now a citizen of the Kingdom of God. As a citizen of the Kingdom, you are given everything you need to make steady progress, to prosper and grow vigorously in the Spirit and heart and to flourish. This is often referred to as thriving. To thrive is to experience the reality of heaven on earth -now- . It is a continual awareness of God's active presence in the supernatural and natural order of life. It is also an awareness of the active presence of the Holy Spirit when a person is involved, affected or engaged in and by the paranormal and preternatural.
The awareness of this continual presence occurs as the hypersensitive person builds and responds to an experiential relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is only possible because God, through the heart of Jesus Christ, has made covenant with us. This heart of power of the covenant is called in Hebrew Hesed. To experience, know and understand thriving, it is important that we understand and experience covenant and Hesed.
A covenant is a binding, unbreakable obligation between two parties, based on unconditional love sealed by blood and sacred oath, that creates a relationship in which each party is bound by specific undertakings on each other's behalf. A covenant is not a contract. A contract is a vehicle whereby properties and goods are conveyed from one person to another. Contracts are negotiable and can be changed or canceled. A covenant is far and above a contract in that it is the giving of one's whole person and life to another along with the receiving of that other person and their life.
When a person is transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God, they receive unfailing and unending mercy, love and loyalty that is expressed and lived out in a relational way with the Triune God. The word that best describes this covenant experience is "lovingkindness" because it is an unconditional expression of love. As a hypersensitive, relationally "tuned" to the spirit and the natural realm, I began what I can only describe as an ever-deepening journey into the meaning and experience of devotion and faithfulness. Along with my experiences with God's process of redemption, my experiences with His lovingkindness, mercy and grace are transforming my life and molding and shaping my hypersensitivity, bringing it in line with God's will, plan, principles and way.
Hesed is love, warm-hearted generosity and goodness. It is a covenant not only of love, but also of strength and steadfastness. God is constantly looking at us now, planning ways in which He can build us up. With Hesed, hypersensitivity now is transformed into learning how to see myself and others as God sees us. It also means learning to speak to others the way God would speak to them by building into the Spirit and not against the flesh. It is the profound discovery that God wants to be something and someone for us and relentlessly pursues us. He is interested and focused on who we are in Christ, not what we are in the flesh.
Hesed forms the foundation for relational thriving because it is a love that binds people together, which includes belonging to a circle of love called a faith community or spiritual family. This also provides a "spiritual covering" of mutual caring, receiving and giving and protection so that we may see and experience that His heart is lovingkindness.
People of the Spirit
Thriving is about walking out our hypersensitivity as image-bearers and friends of God and living from the heart Jesus gave us. Because the gift of hypersensitivity is now relationally based through Hesed with the heart of Jesus, we share the Lord's burden for releasing people from whatever imprisons them. We express His heart because we have received His heart and we speak to the hearts of others because we want to see and experience a people of promise and power emerge who know their God and are living in His fullness. Because we now have the heart of Jesus, our very life as a hypersensitive is a message of truth and grace to others.
For people of the Spirit, thriving becomes the consistent ability to experience, maintain and return to joy and peace. It is a deep appreciation and gratitude about being alive physically and in the Spirit. Before receiving Hesed some hypersensitives may have experienced life in terms of "surviving" and "just getting by". It may have been a life of trauma and the assaults of evil. Identity may have been shattered and a profound failure to thrive may have been rampant.
Living as Children of the King
Because we now have life and freedom through Christ we can begin to thrive. Thriving is designed to restore identities as individuals, families and communities as we begin to truly live out the heart of Jesus. Thriving is about receiving and giving life, reaching a higher level of spiritual and relational maturity and receiving healing for the traumas of life.
Thriving is especially the daily experience of a life governed by the joy of the Lord. Joy is inseparable from a relationship with God. In fact, joy itself is a pure relational experience from the heart because it is one of the Fruits of the Spirit. It is not pleasure, which comes and goes. Instead, it is a persistent state of beingand an integral experience of thriving. Joy is often tempered by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Through Hesed we have God's presence with us, which is the source of our joy, even through suffering.
Recent research has also revealed that there is a part of the brain that only grows according to the amount of relational joy in our life. Joy is what God has set our nervous system thermostat on. Belonging, receiving and giving, resiliency and a coherent identity are all vital in terms of thriving. As we remain (abide) in joyful relationship with God through Christ, with family, significant others and a spiritual community, we become and live out His invitation to others.
Conclusion
To thrive is to continue to grow in the experiential knowledge that we and our hypersensitivity are now in Christ, abiding in Him and "in the Spirit". We are joined to Jesus so that His history is our history. The Spirit pours out divine love at the center of our being (Rom. 5:5), which makes John 13:34,35 and thriving possible. Thriving is the experience of what life in the Kingdom of God is all about.
In my next post I will continue to explore spiritual thriving. We will look at how thriving and redemption go hand-in-hand and begin an in depth study of the various aspects of thriving beginning with belongingness.
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