We know that Jesus gave examples in parables and we, as Christians need to use the spiritual ears and discernment that God gave us to understand the true meaning of scripture. This son was going through the normal process of learning how to define what his loving father was telling him and trying to use his own reasoning on how to start thinking for himself. He was feeding on wordily concepts and these concepts were coming into conflict to what his father had told him. In turn, he was torn between two different alternatives.

The bible says that by us going through this process, we will be fighting the good fight of faith. If we're supposed to fight, then that means we're going to have conflict. We need to stop judging this process from an outward appearance of right or wrong and realize that it's all part of us learning to grow up.

It makes no difference how much church you attend or how much bible you read or how much prayer in seeking God. We are still going to fail at times to receive God's best, be stretched and at times perplexed. This was God's intention from the beginning.

Somewhere in the process of preaching we lost the vision and purposes of God, as if we are living in some vacuum of none or wrong feelings. It's always the feel goods and all we hear is someday we will receive if we continue to believe. It becomes an endless circle of playing in the playpens of life and some how hanging on until Jesus comes back. We have to stop using Novocain on our feelings and start getting real with ourselves and others.

It's not only OK' to hurt but it's necessary.

The physical body hurts when something is wrong and it lets us know that something has to be fixed. How about our souls when it hurts. Let's start loving the real person inside us. When are we going to come to the reality that, we are all prodigals in some areas of our lives and need the tender patience and loving affection of God our Father and people around us?

I have heard more preaching on condemning the prodigal, rather then giving him credit for him trying to grow up and challenge himself to make a difference for good in this world system of man. When we condemn and judge the prodigal, we condemn and judge the body of Christ. You wonder why there are so many walking wounded in the body of Christ today. Let me make a very important point before we go on.

God is not in the problem solving business. He is in the heart healing business. This is a difference between day and night.

This parable goes on to say, while this young son was going through his ordeal and struggling with the lack in his life, he started to come to his senses and was being reminded of all that his father told him. His fathers (Loving words) brought him back to the roots or seeds that his father planted in him when he was at home, safe and secure. As he meditated on this, he wrestled with great guilt because he felt unworthy to come back as his son and heir. He thought; I will go back and ask him to make me a servant. Let's remind our self; God is not looking for servants with a servant's mentality but for friends. In this process of thinking, he made a decision to come out from his condition of denial and deal with the immaturity that still kept him bound to his childish thinking and behavior.

As he returned it says his father saw him from a far off and had compassion on him and hugged him around the neck and kissed him. He then told his father that he did not feel worthy to be his son because; he had sinned against heaven and in his sight. However, his father didn't hear him and he put a ring on his finger and gave him a new robe and shoes for his feet. Remember we can sin against our self but not against God our Father. Let's define the meaning of these words.

In the Greek the word for robe is stole: It means a long robe that represents dignity and supernatural strength and a power that enables and keeps us free from worldly entanglements. It's our righteous position in Christ that we should know how to live in comfortably. The word for shoe is hupodeo: It means bound to or in submission and hidden. We are to be hidden and our security must be in Christ. The ring he put on his finger represents a covenant of an eternal bound relationship that cannot be broken no matter what ever transpires between a father and son. The camaraderie might have been broken but the blood relationship could NEVER BE TERMINATED.

As the Holy Spirit gives me His thoughts, it makes me thankful for God's patience and mercy as He is absolutely unrelenting in pursuing every one of His lost sheep in their wanderings that are being caught up in the thickets and crevices of life. Like a shepherd watching His sheep and as a parent watches their children as they learn to crawl and walk in their physical lives. All of us in the body of Christ have to stay in a child like trust in God our Father‘s care.

You notice that the older son got his inheritance from his father at the same time the younger did. It's obvious that he did nothing with it because, when the younger brother returned and saw how his father lavished his affection and threw this big party for him, he got angry, lashed out at his father and said, "You never threw any party for me and I have been obedient, stayed at home, and never left your side." His father's answer was. "You could have always interacted with me and experienced this joyful relationship I am having with your younger brother. Why haven't you interacted with me and attempted like your brother to find the giftings and purpose of your life by using the inheritance I gave you."

Is it possible that there are many sitting in the pews of churches today going through a religious atmosphere and because they do not understand how to get in touch with themselves and do not have a passionate relationship with God, they are living in a more acute sense of denial then the throngs of Christians living out side the camp assemblies of today?

If you are finding it difficult at times understanding the will of God and you feel that you're failing in many areas. If you find that, you are dealing with a lot of anger at situations not going your way. I say too you, you are most blessed for God comes to help the ones that get in touch with their feelings and pain and begin to confess and cry out to Him for help.

Having discernment is the spiritual awareness given to us by the Holy Spirit that energizes our mind and we talk about it with great joy and firmness of belief. We have mind awareness that identifies with the Holy Ghost talking to us and it makes us know that we are walking in heavenly places. Our unity in the body of Christ comes when; all of God's children become like minded because; they can recognize the difference between what the Holy Ghost is building into their understanding verses what secular humanism and religious rhetoric represents.

1 John 2:14 says, "you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, you are now able to overcome the wicked one." The word abides does not mean having a data bank of scripture in your head that; you whip out on every opportunity to show how knowledgeable you are in God's word. This word abides in the Greek is meno: It means to stay in a relationship of expectancy or a prospect of a hope to come. It also means to tarry and continue to endure in continual visits with God. It also means in the Hebrew to be glued to and moved upon sharply or deeply with emotions of pain and joy. It also means to penetrate as if seeing into and understanding a hidden mystery.
 
Isaiah 40:31 reads like this using the Greek and Hebrew definitions we just defined. "When we wait or stay in a relationship of expectancy for God to open our eyes to new mysteries of His thinking; there is created in us great passionate emotions with pain as we are changed into His likeness. In turn, we will be renewed like the eagle and be able to run and not be weary in our growing pains. We will walk and not faint." Knowing the word of God is meaningless if, the relationship is not a living emotional oneness with God and us allowing Him to make us into a God-man like our brother Jesus as He walked the planet. If you are not going through this process, don't live in denial with a false concept of your walk with the Lord.

If you know anything about the eagle, every so often he goes into hibernation, sheds his feathers and beak, and gets new ones like a young eagle, which makes him soar higher over the earth. This is the example God gave Isaiah in this scripture. God intention is for us to constantly be renewed as His Children.

In Zechariah 4:1-6 we have a story of an encounter that Zechariah the Prophet had with an angel of the Lord. It says that, "the angel woke him up in the middle of the night and asked him what kind of a dream he was having in his sleep. He said he saw a lamp stand of all gold filled with oil on the top and seven pipes and two olive trees. The angel asked him, do you know the meaning of this. He said. "I don't know." The angel said. "This endless supply of oil that you see is the word of the Lord saying" "NOT BY MIGHT, NOR BY POWER, BUT BY MY SPIRIT" (The oil symbolizing God's Spirit.)

This word for might in the Hebrew is chayil: It means a force instituted by God or man. It represents strength, activities and a host of power. It also means to whirl, to dance, to travail in childbirth, to be wounded and tarry. The word power in the Hebrew is kowach: It means to be firm in a good or bad sense. It also means the possibility of producing chameleon people verses people who have a strength and wealth in the Lord.

A person who is planning his destiny with a discerning Spirit; their testimony will be what's stated in Isaiah 50:4. "The Lord has given me the tongue of a disciple and of those who are taught, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. Every morning when I wake up; God's voice stirs in my spirit and I recognize that I am His disciple and He continues to give me insights into Himself and He teaches me His way of thinking."

! (NOW THIS SHOULD BE OUR REALITY.)!

We have to not only be skilled in this doctrine of righteousness in our thinking but, we have to participate with the living entity of Christ‘s life that became one with our being when He came to live in us. This life of righteousness has to be fed by the Holy Spirit and we need to be taking our daily spiritual bath by being washed from the contamination of a continual bombardment of conditional love themes from the world and I am sorry to say from many of the born again churches of today. Righteousness is the doctrine that was engrafted into our spirit the day we had our first supernatural encounter with Christ because it is actually Christ's life at work in us.

Our continual persuasions from the Holy Ghost is what protects us from a continual bombardment of us leaning on our own understanding which causes us to determine our destiny rather then God's plan of maturing us.

Only righteousness, which is the Spirit and characteristics of Christ, can empower and role model a healthy and growing relationship to our adulthood.