2.2.6 Heavenly Honor Culture – The Connection and Bondages in the Relationship

2.2.6 天國尊榮文化 – 關係的連接與捆綁

Life Academy Healing Course

Shared by: Ming

Where is the kingdom of God? The kingdom comes into our hearts and lives. The most important thing in the culture of the Kingdom of God is the tree of life, so what the Kingdom of God cares about is life. When Jesus came, he brought everything in the kingdom of God to us, like love, joy and peace, mercy, grace, and all this culture. The world does not understand him, and the culture of the heavenly kingdom is often offensive to our cultural background. Our earthly culture is rooted in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is a different value system. It values people’s excellence, talent, ability, academic level, and income. If one day a person fails, others can no longer respect the failed guy, this is the culture on earth. When Jesus brought heavenly culture to earth, it would be easy to offend our culture, just like we would say that there is a cultural conflict between the North American culture and the Asia culture. There are two key points in entering the culture of the kingdom of heaven.

There are two keys to developing a heavenly culture in our midst. The first is: that we need to receive a new revelation. When the culture of the Heavenly Kingdom comes, it means a new season or a new era starts for the people on Earth. However, we must overcome some difficulties, we are usually limited by our cognition (Old traditions). When the new season comes, the old must go, but often when the new comes, the old refuse to go. The Bible talks about Jesus eating with tax collectors and prostitutes. This was unacceptable in Jewish culture at that time, because Rabbis and teachers are very noble, and in Jewish culture, eating with someone means that they have an intimate relationship with the guests. That action represents respect and acceptance of the sinners. In the same way, when the kingdom culture comes, it may offend our current understandings, and it might be hard for us to embrace the change. This is our difficulty. What can we do to change this? To break the limitations of our cognition, we must have revelations from God. We need to know what God is doing in this season, and what God has done before to prepare for this new season so that we can adjust our understanding and align with God.

If we put a little goldfish in a small fish tank, the little fish will stay quite small and won’t grow much. If we put a little goldfish in a larger fish tank, the fish will eat more and have a chance to grow bigger in size. The fish might grow bigger to fit the bigger tank. The size of the goldfish is determined by the living environment and its permitted growing range. As for us today, as big as the environment allows us to grow our spiritual life and understanding, we can grow to the maximum extent. The environment (situations, challenges) God has given us is often big and heavy because God has big plans for us. Sadly, we often look at the small fish tank and think that we can only be so small. In fact, our potential is unlimited because God is unlimited.

How much we want to grow depends on the revelation we receive. How much we receive will determine how much our inner life can grow. When talking to a person, we can hear from his ideals and ambitions to tell how many achievements that person may achieve. The revelation from God is critical in our lives. At the last conference, the speaker Isabel prophesied to many of us. What is a prophecy?  It is from God’s perspective to show the big environment or big picture he has given you. Then you will know that you can reach that dream or heights. I heard that some people were prophesied to be like Moses and Elijah. It turns out that God sees us and gives us a big environment to grow. We should be like goldfish and grow as big as the Lord wants us to be.

We know the story of Joseph.  He had a dream about ruling over his brothers, and another dream was about ruling over his parents' family. Joseph believed that his dream would come true, but he did not know that his dream was not only for his own family. In the eyes of God, Joseph was called to manage a country, but Joseph himself thought those were just family dreams. In fact, we also experience similar things in our lives. When God gives us a prophetic word or a dream, we usually believe and expect the dream would come true very soon, but we often find things do not happen that way. The same is true for Joseph. When he received the dream of being a ruler, he was suddenly taken to Egypt. In Joseph’s case, being taken to Egypt was directly connected with the fulfillment of his destiny, but from a human perspective, it was not a good thing. When he was in prison, he did everything he could to escape. Whether it was interpreting the dream of the cupbearer or butler, he ultimately wanted to leave the prison. This was his perception, he thought his dream would be realized in his father's house, and he would rule in the family, so Joseph always wanted to escape Egypt, but God did not fulfill Joseph’s dream according to his wishes. We saw that Joseph was like the little goldfish and only wanted to swim in a small tank (his own family and rule his brothers). What we often see is what God did in the past. It was written in the Bible that Moses stretched out his staff toward the sea, and the Red Sea parted. But in the future, you may just use your thoughts to open the Red Sea. People might feel that unbelievable, but can God do new things like that?  Yes, God can. We must receive new revelations from God. Therefore, for the culture of the kingdom of heaven to renew us, we need to receive revelations. Otherwise, it would be like the disciples walking with Jesus on the way to Emmaus in the Bible, but they did not recognize him.

The second key to developing the kingdom culture is to know where the passage is and how to reach it. In Genesis Chapter 28 Verses 16-17: And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said, The Lord is truly here. I didn't know. And he was afraid and said, how terrible is this place? This is none other than the temple of God and the gate of heaven. Jacob had an intimate encounter with God. Jacob saw the heavens open and angels ascending and descending, so Jacob named that place: Bethel and Bethel originally meant the temple of God. Jacob said one thing about this place, the temple of God is there, and also the gate(portal)  of heaven. If we want to enter a room, we need to find the door. If we want to enter the kingdom of God, we need to find the portal. Where is the portal? That’s the place Jacob was talking about, the meeting place or open heaven portal with God. In Church communities, we often hear stories of someone’s prayers that can reach heaven in a flash. I was asked a question before: why can some people enter the presence of God very fast and easily?  The answer is that the person had found the doorway or portal and could freely enter the supernature kingdom of God.

The heaven and the earth are connected, When the heaven opens, it opens to the earth. When Jacob saw this, he saw the gate of heaven, and there was a ladder coming down from heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending. In Genesis Chapter 28, we see God’s will. God gave Jacob a vision to let him see what will happen in the future. Jacob saw the gate of heaven open and heaven and earth connected.  This reminds us of a prayer: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can see God's will in Jacob's experience, the door of heaven will be opened, and we will have direct communication and connection with God so that the kingdom of heaven can come to the earth through the open portal and what happens in heaven will happen on earth.

Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool, says the LORD. What house will you build for me, and what kind of resting place will you build for me? God’s intention has been revealed in the Old Testament, which is that God wants to live among his people. Where in the Bible talks about the gate of heaven? Mark 1: 9-11: At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. As soon as he came up from the water, he saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, saying, you are my beloved Son, I am well pleased.

This is another record in the Bible. The Greek meaning of this verse is that the heaven was blown apart, which means that the door was shaken violently, and the invisible portal burst open, and then Jesus started his ministry. When Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. When the door of heaven was opened, it was violently torn. Our heavenly Father already opened the gate and only God can close it again. What does it mean for us to understand this? After the door of heaven is opened, the enemy cannot close it, because the enemy and God are not equal, and we humans cannot shut the door. When the sky is torn open, the Holy Spirit comes down, and no one can close this door. The question is, do you have an open heaven portal over your head now or do you still feel far away from God?

Genesis Chapter 28 says the temple of God is also the gate of heaven and the portal from heaven to the earth. Jesus said that himself is the temple of God, and Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. Therefore, the Lord is the door and through him we go to the Father. It takes revelation to understand our identity. Are we the temple of God? Yes, we are. We must know that the kingdom of heaven is near, and we are both the gate of heaven and the temple of God. Therefore, Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead and went to heaven to give us this privilege. Like the Lord Jesus brought the wills of the Father to the earth, we are called to do the same and release the heavenly kingdom culture through us. It doesn’t matter whether we are important or not by the worldly standard, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The culture of heaven is built upon the ways of the Tree of Life, so we have to cleanse our lives.

Our focus today is to talk about us and our lives. The main thing in the culture of heaven is the connection of relationships. For Jesus Christ, He connects with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We all hope to be well-connected with others and have good friends around us. We desire to have an intimate relationship like the one between the Trinity God. In the Trinity relationship – the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit have mutual respect and mutual support for each other. This relationship is very beautiful, so when Jesus Christ died on the cross, His greatest pain was to be separated from God the Father. When He bore the sins of all mankind on Himself, He was separated from God the Father, because God the Father cannot see man's sins. At this time, He knew that He and God the Father were separated at that moment. When our relationship is also in a situation of isolation, we will feel the pain. Recently, I connected with a family and saw they suffered the pain.

For many of us, the relationship begins in the mother's womb. If the umbilical cord supplies alcohol and drugs to the baby, can the baby feel it? Yes. The baby feels it and at that moment the baby might experience isolation. You have already had a feeling inside you before you were born. Therefore, if your relationship with your parents is broken, you will feel isolated and abandoned. This is very painful, and the hurt might start in the womb. Humans are designed to have relationships. People cannot survive in isolation, but some parents find it difficult to have relationships with their children. Why? Because their ancestors were unable to develop a relationship with them that was in line with God's will, and under that model, they were unable to teach their children, especially in families of orphans. If the grandfather is an orphan, his children will also carry the likeness of an orphan. That is why some parents find it difficult to have a godly relationship with their children.

Originally, God gave children to a family, so the children would have enough time to learn from their parents' examples and know how to behave and how to become men and women. When I was young, I disliked my father because he was very reluctant to spend money and got angry easily. Every time he and my mother quarreled, he would go to the hospital( He was a medical doctor) and my mother would make loud noises. I didn’t like the way my mother responded, and I didn’t like the way my father behaved so in my heart I rejected my father. At the same time, I also rejected my mother because I didn’t want to be like my mother. I made an inner vow that I would not learn from them, but God created us to have a relationship with our family. Because I rejected my father and my mother, I did not want to become anything like them, so I became confused and didn’t know who should I learn from.

Who should we learn from? Many children say that if their parents don't give them a good role model, they will look for people in society to be their role models. People want to find someone who can replace the image of their father and mother. But you must know that this is very contradictory because the role models in society do not live with us and do not have a long-term relationship with us, so people may learn from those models based on incomplete information. We may end up learning from people who have a glamorous appearance but do not have any personal relationship with our lives. We may admire someone’s achievements, but we don’t know the process to be successful. For example, we imitate other people’s manners, diet, clothing styles, etc. based on secondhand or incomplete information and those actions or habits may bring pride, impetuosity, pretend, and falsehood into our lives.

Going back to using myself as an example, I was not a good daughter when I started rejecting my father and mother. We must first become a good son and a good daughter before we can be a good parent to our descendants. When there were conflicts in my relationship with my father, especially when my mother publicly humiliated my father for his wrongdoings to gain sympathy from others, those actions made other family members start to dishonor our father. The seeds of disrespect, dishonor, and hatred were sown in the children's hearts. If I want to please my mother in front of my family, I have to show that I hate my father and be on the same side as my mother. Sometimes when our parents are quarreling, as a child, you can run away, but you won’t feel good about it and you can't get rid of the feeling. Sometimes we also feel that we are being used. This is because we were all hurt in the initial relationship. This pain caused us to learn one thing, that is, we can’t let others know, and we hide the pain inside of us.

I had a painful experience in my life. As a result, I couldn’t open my heart to share with others,  until I shared it with God. I believe that God allowed such things to happen in my life and they affected me for many years. When I was in the first grade of junior high school, my mother's boss was a director, and her daughter and I were classmates. During that time, there was a rumor in the school that the director's daughter was not biological but adopted. One night I heard my parents talking about this person and adoption. One time when the students were playing games at school, this girl was cheating and quarreling with people in my group and she was getting violent. I got angry and spoke publicly about her adoption to shame her. The teachers took me to the office because of this incident, and they wanted to find out where I heard this rumor. I didn’t know that the teacher wanted to please the director and get promoted. There were also other complicated relationship things between the adults. When I was nervous, I blamed my parents were the source of the rumor. I didn’t know that this matter would lead to a big consequence. From that day on, my mother was treated harshly at the workplace and made to do many things very hard. She was excluded and the suppression lasted for more than ten years until the boss retired. Because of the consequences of what I said in the office, I was fearful to build relationships with others since then, and I have been super cautious when dealing with other people. At that time, I figured that people's hearts were ugly, because teachers used quarrels between children as opportunities for promotion, and my mother's colleagues used this opportunity to form gangs to mistreat each other. In that era, people were very good at using manipulation to gain benefits. No one told me whether what I had done was right or wrong. During that period, I was very self-blame and ashamed, and I would judge myself negatively, so I would not share anything with others because I was afraid that others would know my anger and fear, and I knew that I could not trust others. I cannot trust my parents, classmates, and teachers. Who else can I trust in all these relationships? Later, I concluded, that is, I can only believe in myself, I have to be strong, and I cannot show the trauma within me.

If we don’t have a good relationship with our parents, we can’t have a good relationship with our brothers and sisters. I'm the middle child in my family, and I'm a girl, so I didn't like wearing skirts when I was little and I didn’t get much attention. I didn't know that it was a bandage in my life, later on, I found out that I couldn't accept boys tapping me on the shoulder, and my academic performance was not good compared to my sister who had better academic performance than me. In my family, my grandparents favor boys over girls, so I feel like I am nothing and I am not as good as others. Another feeling of guilt I have is the victim mentality just like my mom, because she appears as a weakling in front of other people. I also have this feeling of guilt, I was surviving in a relationship full of tensions between my parents and I don’t want to pick one side and be the enemy of the other. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I was able to repair my relationship with my brothers and sisters at home. Only after the relationship was reconciled was my inner wound fully healed.

When the time comes to punish or discipline the children, good parents know how to comfort and admonish them, so that the children will obey. But many times parents punish their children in anger, and they often break many boundaries in doing so. They even take away valuable things from the children to force their obedience. There should be hugs after punishment, and good discipline will lead to growth at that time. However, many Chinese parents are usually very rough and violent when they quarrel. Some families simply resort to the “cold war”. This is called cold violence. Originally, brothers and sisters should eat at the dining table together, but because of the outbreak of family war, the dinner table has become the place where children want to escape most. Because the kids couldn’t stay in that place, they rather hide.

Many Chinese people, don’t find trust at home, so they shut their hearts and feelings or they don’t know how to express their feelings.  Many of those people won’t say anything about their problems. In public places, a typical woman cannot say something is wrong with her husband. Even though this woman has been abused at home, she still dares not say anything because of fear. Keeping the scandal from being exposed and hiding problems is a major wrong thing in our culture and it is not in line with God's will. We can't talk about our troubles, because we don't trust others, we just believe in ourselves. Many Chinese people suppress their emotions and hide their feelings inside. When things get worse and worse, they look very calm from the outside, even though there is a storm inside. When we have peace, we should have joy within us, but the culture bandages us to suppress our emotions. This is one common reaction.

Another common reaction is that someone might keep talking to others with no end. Such a person may try to control others and tell his or her story from 1 year old to now. Because he or she wants to dump all the garbage on the listener. If he or she can't express the feelings or dumps out the garbage, they will feel pain. When we have emotions or feel bitter, what is the right solution? We should go to God, and only God can take on this. If a person hears too many negative things from others, he cannot bear it, and he will be contaminated in the spirit. Many of the ladies are not so strong in willpower, so they may not be able to bear any bad emotions. For such people, when her husband comes back, she can’t wait to share with him, etc. This kind of people are more sensitive and have emotions. Everything in her heart will be poured out to others.

There is another kind of person who doesn't talk and trusts nobody. These are things from our ancestors that are not in line with God’s will.  Exodus 20: 5 says, You shall not bow down to those images; you shall not serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.

When we don’t love God and our emotions are focused on other things, we are worshiping idols. In this verse, it says that God will punish the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate God. We do not need to bear the sins of our parents, but we often imitate what our parents do and repeat their behavior patterns in our lives.  Some people may choose to live in a completely opposite way to their parents. If someone grows up in a good and healthy family, they will learn and inherit many good patterns from their parents. If someone chooses not to learn from their father and mother, then they might miss a good inheritance from the family.

We know that because of the curse of our ancestors, we repeat what our parents, brothers, and sisters did. If an authority figure in our family does things that are not in line with God’s will, we will be affected, but God still wants us to honor the one in authority. If we grow up in a dysfunctional family, there is another place that can help us, which is school. Because of the patterns we learn at home, we can also bring this pattern to school, and we will do the same unhealthy things, so we might become troublemakers in school. That’s why the schools must have rules to set boundaries for us. This is a healthy boundary established by God.  In ministry or church, many rules are set up to protect us and not harm us. We all come from an unhealthy earthly culture, when we entered the heavenly culture, God gave us the Ten Commandments and some basic etiquette that we felt we were offended by.

At home, it is not just about relationships and sensibility, but also about entering into the boundaries set by God. Many family rules like washing hands before eating, and doing homework after dinner are for the good of the children. This is why the Spirit of God restrains us in the Old Testament, so the people of God can behave within the boundaries. In today’s church, there are also rules, like keeping quiet during gatherings, not spreading dissatisfaction in public, respect the leaders and elders. These are the rules that appear in the church. However, if there are people who lack good parenting examples and can’t properly behave themselves, they might disturb and hurt other people in the church without them knowing that. We must have great patience and love for such people, and we must also teach and help them.

Proverbs 23: 13-14, Do not neglect a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. 23:14 You shall strike him with the rod, and you shall save his soul from going to Hades.

God has requirements for leaders, so look at Moses, Joshua, and David. We should not look like adults but act like children.

Solution:

Children want to have a friendships with adults from 4th to 6th grade, want to have their own friends from 7th to 9th grade, and want to have relationships with the opposite sex from high school onwards. Some people’s temperaments are similar to their mothers, and some people’s temperaments are similar to their fathers. Many people aren’t satisfied with their appearances.  How do we deal with our issues?

Jesus is our role model. We must go through the process of healing, break the soul ties with our parents that are not in line with God’s will and forgive. Starting from the injuries we suffered when we were children, we must forgive and deal with the hurt.  There is a difference between doing it from the heart and doing it from the will. Doing it from the will means that I know that I want to reconcile with my parents, but in my heart, I don’t necessarily really forgive. What is forgiveness from the heart? To let the Holy Spirit soften me first, and do it from the heart, is to first invite the Holy Spirit to tell you what is wrong between you and your parents. Usually, God first illuminates our own problems, and then we can see the roots.

Some people think that God had let them be born into the wrong families. In fact, God has placed everyone in the right families. God knows what is happening now and what happened in the past. He designed to put you in your family. The family environment allows you to grow into who you are, so it is the same when you join our ministry. God allows many things or uneasy situations to happen, and God allows you to rub and collide in this environment. (As iron sharpens iron)

Today we need to know that God wants to help us break the bondages that are not in line with God’s will so that we can reconcile with each other at home. When I am reconciled with my physical father, and with my spiritual father, only then did I realize that blessings flow down from people of authority so that I could inherit many blessings as a good daughter.

Prayer:

Please help us cut off the parts and connections in our relationship that are not in line with God’s will. We want to get healing and deliverance from our hearts. Jesus Christ, please reveal to us how to be good sons and daughters to our parents first, so we can be good parents to our children. The Spirit of God please enlighten us, and we are willing to repent. Forgive us God,  and cut off the unholy soul ties between us and our teachers, colleagues, and authority figures that are not in line with God’s will.  Because we ourselves really don’t understand that truth, and we don’t know how to deal with those who have hurt us before. Lord,  let us see our corruption and problems. Please help us to become good sons and good daughters first. Then we take on the role of being parents. If before we had taken on a lot of connections that were not in line with God’s messages and the impact of the culture behind us, Lord, please help us. Thank you Jesus Christ for allowing us to build a good relationship with others. Please help us to enter into the honorable culture of the kingdom of heaven. Help us to build a healthy culture of mutual love and tolerance. Thank you, Lord, and I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.