Pillar 1: Intimacy, Oneness, and Connectedness with God
We believe this is the foundation of the Kingdom and therefore the fundamental pursuit of every image bearer. Intimacy, oneness, and connectedness are what we are made for, and therefore they are what we most desperately long for. Where we take this longing and core desire matters. Other image-bearers cannot handle our need for love, though they are great secondary sources. God is the only one who can repair what was severed in the Fall and fulfill that hope we carry within us to be seen and known. The entire story of Christianity, the work of redemption, salvation, justification, and sanctification serve to restore us to a place of intimacy, oneness, and connectedness with God (John 17 and John 13:34). This intimacy is violently opposed by the one who would rather we not experience it, much less live to tell about it.
How is the Trinity pursuing you, meeting this core longing and desire of your heart?
How is God showing you His affection and validating you as a beloved son or daughter?
Pillar 2: Who You Are, Where You Are, and the Good God is Up To In Your Life
The Christian life is a journey of the heart to becoming Oriented to the Kingdom way. An oriented person is one who holds fast to his or her identity as a son or daughter of God (Galatians 4:7), who understands the gravity of the spiritual battle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, and who is aware that God is always up to something good in our lives, no matter the external circumstances. Not everything that happens to us is God's will ... people sin every day, and sin isn't God's will. But where His will isn't being done, His way is. Romans 8:28 says ...
And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose. (AMP)
There is a false-self (what the Bible calls "the flesh" or "the old self") that dwells within every believer. The enemy has long been at work forming this little anti-christ, and is committed to keeping believers disoriented - unsure of who we are, unclear on what is going on in us and around us and making sure we question whether or not God is good.
At Zoweh, we try to hold fast to this belief: If it isn't good yet ... then God isn't done yet.
Pillar 3: Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Prove, and Nothing to Fear
The fruit, the result of an oriented life, is a man or woman who lives with nothing to hide, prove, or fear. That is a man or woman who lives like Jesus. One of the greatest promises to a Kingdom Life as a Christ-apprentice is that God is restoring us into who we truly are. As image-bearers, we are made for Him to inhabit our hearts. Once there through our invitation, God sets to work, redeeming, restoring, and setting us free. "The Good God is up to" is re-making us into who we are, how each of us uniquely bears His image. The more we are transformed, the more we can release our need to (1) hide who we "think" we are; (2) prove we have what it takes or that we can control people and circumstances; and (3) fear that someone will ultimately see through our façade and deliver packages of judgment, condescension, or love that based on conditions. Jesus lived with such freedom. He knew who he was, where he was, and the good that the Father was up to in His life, and walked with the Father having nothing to hide, nothing to prove, and nothing to fear.
Pillar 4: More Love, More Life, and More Freedom
We were made for more than just trying not to sin. The Larger Gospel (the full work of God to restore and rescue humanity) is just that ... larger. The smaller gospel is one that never goes further than the cross, sin and forgiveness. Certainly the cross, sin and forgiveness are a critically important part of the gospel, thank goodness for the cross! But staying there leads to a smaller kingdom life, usually just trying not to sin and somehow giving more, doing more and serving more. This is not the Life we were promised and it is not the Life God is offering (John 10:10). There is more. The Larger Gospel invites us to experience the love of God that transforms us, elements of the full work of Christ - the cross, yes, but also the resurrection and ascension. When we become believers, we are given Christ's power and authority, and we are going to need it. We are the beloved sons and daughters, and are invited to live as such in freedom, deployed into the Larger Story to invite others to experience the same! More Love, Life, and Freedom are the delightful results of an Oriented Life: an increasing awareness and enjoyment of God’s love, God’s constant goodness and generous grace, and the incredible freedom that comes to a life lived in intimacy with Jesus – freedom from fear, shame, insecurity, and isolation; and freedom to live and love wholeheartedly, to be courageous, and to remove the masks and fig leaves we’ve hidden behind.