What's Wrong with Amazement?

Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' (John 3:7)

So this question comes to my mind when I read this verse, Why did Jesus tell Nicodemus to not be amazed or to marvel? What is it about this word or the implications surrounding it that is something we are not supposed to do in certain situations?

I looked up this word in Greek and then followed each time it was used throughout the New Testament. What I discovered were some very interesting applications, especially when we are instructed not to do it or are warned about it. Here is Strong's definition of this word along with some ways it is translated.

To wonder; by implication, to admire:– admire, have in admiration, marvel, wonder, surprise, astonished.

Many times this word is used to describe people's reaction to the miracles or the words and wisdom of Jesus. It is sometimes even used to describe Jesus' reaction to certain situations. But what interested me was when it was used in close association with the issue of belief. Notice especially when Jesus experienced this emotion.

Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. (Matthew 8:10)

Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, "I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith." (Luke 7:9)

And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching. (Mark 6:6)

It has long intrigued me that something could amaze Jesus. And the only places that I find record of that is when either someone had unusual displays of faith or when the majority of people seemed so devoid of faith that it prevented Him from conveying the blessing to them that He desired to do.

The following texts are grouped around instructions or comments that seem to warn of something.

Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, (John 5:28)

Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. (1 John 3:13)

But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, "Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? (Acts 3:12)

Then there is this interesting twist using a command to be amazed in relationship to belief.

Beware, therefore, that what the prophets said does not happen to you: 'Look, you scoffers! Be amazed and perish, for in your days I am doing a work, a work that you will never believe, even if someone tells you.'" (Acts 13:40-41 NRSV)

The following verses actually have this Greek word doubled in the original which is always done for great emphasis. The effect is largely lost when translated into English.

Jesus answered them, "I did one deed, and you all marvel." (John 7:21)

I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; (Revelation 13:3)

And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the angel said to me, "Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. (Revelation 17:6-8)

Now here are some texts where people were amazed at Jesus in ways other than just for a miracle He had performed.

When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. (Luke 11:38)

While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" (Luke 24:41)

At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?" (John 4:27)

For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. (John 5:20)

This next verse includes the element of fear which also is often related to amazement.

And He said to them, "Where is your faith?" They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, "Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?" (Luke 8:25)

We humans have this inherent assumption that miracles will somehow cause us to believe. We are often very excited and even addicted to the ideas of miracles sometimes and quite often pray for miracles to happen in our own lives or with those around us. That is not necessarily wrong, but I have noticed that there seems to be a subtle deceptive power often linked with amazement and miracles that God tries to warn us about. It is simply not true – even though it feels like it should be true – that genuine belief and faith will naturally spring up in reaction to stunning miracles.

I have experienced this strange twist of logic in my own life on a number of occasions. I can distinctly recall the sensation and even frustration inside emotionally whenever it became clear to me that God had answered some prayer, even in a dramatic way in my life; but upon examining my heart at that moment I realized that the faith that I expected to see springing up had suddenly become full of questions and rationalizations. I realized then that there was a foreign voice inside of me that was quick to offer up reasons why maybe this wasn't really a miracle after all or maybe it was just a coincidence or maybe....

It is at those times that I am reminded of my fallen nature that will never acknowledge the truth about God and His power in my life. Another lie that I have noticed inside of me is a hope that maybe given enough miracles and proof that my fallen nature will finally admit that God is right and change its opinion. But upon reflection I realize that is never going to happen.

Faith then becomes a choice that I have to make that is not dependent on irrefutable evidence. There are very many examples in history of those who failed to believe even in the face of overwhelming miracles and providences of God. Faith is not the by-product of miracles but is a choice to believe the truth about God in the face of everything insisting the opposite.

As I have spent time contemplating this I feel that I am just beginning to perceive this important link between amazement and belief. I realize that Jesus warns us to not be so keen on wanting things to marvel at as crutches for our faith. In fact, marveling and amazement may actually become a substitute for faith which may be why God warned Nicodemus about getting sidetracked into this mode of feeling and thinking.

Marvel and amazement may often actually become obstacles to faith. Wow! What does that say about our incessant desires for miracles in our lives and churches? But if we look at the history of salvation all along it can be seen repeatedly that faith and belief often had to thrive in the absence of miracles and even emotions of amazement many times. And often miracles are used to attract people away from the real truth about God instead of confirming it.

Yes, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for amazement and marvel when God unexpectedly shows up. We will be repeatedly amazed as God moves in hearts and performs wonders in response to our requests of faith. But when it comes to securing the foundation for faith it appears to me, at this point anyway, that amazement and even miracles are the wrong things to depend on as a stable footing on which to build our house.

Do not be amazed that I said to you... Evidently amazement can sometimes get in the way of really listening to what God has to say to our heart. When our emotions get so caught up in the external power of God and demonstrations of the supernatural, it can prevent our heart from hearing the still, small voice of God to our souls. Elijah had to learn that in his retraining exercise on the mountain and it is a lesson that has to be repeated again and again in all of our lives.

Belief is more important than amazement.

As I think about this I realize that amazement and wonder are things that tend to happen to us, that are induced in our emotions by external exhibitions of power or stunning performances. On the other hand, true belief and faith involve choices that we must make with or without the aid of evidences of God's glory and presence. Since true religion is both heart-based and intellectually rooted in truth, faith that bonds us to God's heart will require ongoing choices to continue to respond to the drawing of Jesus. Sometimes that will be easy in the light of glorious and exciting miracles and other times it may be excruciating when everything seems to scream that God is far away and has forgotten us. But faith, hope and love are the precious stones upon which we must build our experience if we are to be prepared to live in God's presence. And cultivating those things in our lives will require paying attention to what God is saying no matter how amazed we feel or how dull life appears.

God, I really enjoy being amazed like most people do. But thank-you for reminding me that there are even more important things to pay attention to. That does not mean that it's always wrong to be amazed, it just means that I must be careful not to depend on those kinds of feelings to be the basis of my relationship with You. Fill me with Your love and surround me with Your presence today to bring glory and honor to Your reputation.

Dual Identity

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)

Coming from where my thoughts led me yesterday, I see in this verse new perspectives about heritage and identity.

There are a number of different ways to view what this text may be indicating, and it may not be necessary to assume that it must only mean one particular thing. I have heard discussions presenting various interesting ideas about what these words may be implying and most of them have good merit to validate them. Right now what I sense here is that being born of flesh means that I am first born as a human being and being born of the Spirit involves embracing my identity as part of the new race of humans that was formed in the person of Jesus Christ the Son of Man.

What I have been learning in recent years that was never part of my upbringing is the fact that all of humanity has been redeemed at the cross. Jesus revealed on Calvary that God has unconditionally forgiven all sins as far as what is in His heart is concerned. But what remains is the effects of sin in our hearts that yet needs to be removed and healed (the English word forgiven) before we are safe to come into full fellowship with Him.

While it is becoming more clear to me that salvation is far broader and more real than I have ever perceived before, it is also clear that just because everyone has been given eternal life does not automatically mean they will all experience that for eternity. There is a choice that has to be made by each person in regards to this new reality created by Jesus. There is a choice to embrace and experience this thing that Jesus describes as a new birth in order for humans to benefit and accept personally from all that God has put into place to save us from the effects and infection of sin. It is like receiving medicine for fatal illness that is guaranteed to cure us but failing to take that medicine. Unless we believe and continue to embrace the salvation provided for us we can still suffer the wages of sin that infects our hearts and lives.

Looking at this from the perspective of entering fully into a new kind of humanity, I see this verse as alluding to my need to believe both the truths about God and the truths about my own new ancestry in Christ. In fact, it may be that I experience something like dual citizenship, though my loyalty must be firmly placed only on the new family/kingdom that I have been adopted into and not have conflict of loyalties with my old kingdom inherited from sinful Adam. Paul elaborates on this considerably when he talks about the old and new Adams and how it relates to our identity. But all of this is to say that Jesus formed the foundation of this new kingdom and literally fathered in the spirit realm a new race of humans into which everyone is to be adopted or grafted in, whichever analogy we wish to choose.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)

My choices as to how I perceive my heritage through ancestry is very important, for they strongly influence my sense of identity and worth. Humans are wired to cling tenaciously to their association with their ancestors and draw their sense of purpose, identity and destiny from their past. God made us this way, so in order to provide us with a new sense of identity and destiny He also had to provide us with a new history. In this new breed of humanity we can learn that our history can effectively be viewed now as really His-story instead of the sordid past that we assumed was ours by birth from our sinful human fathers.

This is something that I really want to understand and experience much more clearly myself. I was introduced to this a number of years ago and the effect on my spirit was profound. But because it was not real clear and not reinforced enough, the effects on my life have been far too limited. I find myself being reminded of this again as I look at this passage and again desire to experience much more clarity about my true identity in Christ. I want to more deeply rest and rejoice in this new kingdom/race that Jesus is drawing me into.

Re-incarnation

Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" (John 3:4)

There really are all sorts of threads to follow in this passage that take one on different routes to arrive at the same place. As with most conversations, this one between Jesus and Nicodemus contains two separate dialogues – one that is going on at the surface and another going on between the lines. But the second one is always the more important one to learn to discern because that is the conversation of the heart, the real discussion taking place that is usually masked by the external things being talked about.

After Nicodemus' initial introduction, Jesus immediately addressed his blind spot. He did this because He could see the heart of Nicodemus, past his outward courtesy and diplomacy and deep into the inner longings and true desires that were growing more intense in the mind and feelings of Nicodemus. Instead of playing along with the line of reasoning that Nicodemus introduced, Jesus chose to go straight to the point of exposing what was really blocking Nicodemus from experiencing real life and thriving spirituality. But as He did so Nicodemus found himself reacting with typical religious resistance to such candid and open talk about frightening and sensitive issues in his heart that were almost never mentioned with words.

Sadly, religion has become one of the biggest obstacles to connecting our hearts with God, our Father, Redeemer and Lover. Masquerading as the means of getting saved and becoming more like God, religion has far more often done just the opposite because of its penchant for clinging to mistaken views of what God is like. Nicodemus was a man steeped in religion very much like many of us today and displayed similar symptoms of confusion and distorted ideas about reality and God. That is partly why many of us struggle so much today to grasp the real meaning and power of these words of Jesus. It is because we, just like Nicodemus, find ourselves automatically resisting the plainness of Jesus' approach and the radically different nature of reality as viewed by God from what we assume.

Jesus stated very bluntly that unless a person is born again, born of the water and of spirit, there is no way that they can either see or enter into the real kingdom of heaven. This is in stark contrast to how easy it is to become identified with professed religion which claims to be the kingdom of heaven on earth. Even the most stringent and exclusive kinds of religion are easier to identify with than true spirituality God's way because religion is so often formula based, externally oriented, left-brain heavy and humanly measurable.

Even emotionally-oriented religions depend on external measurements and human controls to elicit counterfeit ways of producing effects and emotions that simulate what we suppose a really spiritual person might look like. But the common denominator in all of these counterfeits is that we still remain self-focused, we still to some degree are depending on our own efforts and achievements to save ourselves, we want to keep at least a little of our own pride in tact in order to cling to our own sense of worth. For at the bottom of our hearts, we all desire to feel valuable, to be viewed as important to someone else, to be seen as worthy in some way of being loved and cherished, at least a little bit. But the human heart has been wired by sin to believe that we must do something ourselves to contribute to our own value, at least to some extent, and so we subscribe to whatever label of religion that most closely fits our assumptions about what God demands of us to achieve that.

Jesus is confronting these assumptions generated by religion and false views of God. He is presenting a starkly different path to reconciliation with our Father, the very thing that our heart really wants the most but does not know how to do. We have all been born as sin-tainted humans and because of that it is impossible for us to naturally be able to figure out how to extricate ourselves from the inherent deceptions, fears and twisted thinking that sin has preconditioned us to believe. As children of fallen Adam we have all inherited the iniquities of our fathers all the way down from him. Only the man Jesus has the inherent ability to perceive humanity and reality from God's perspective without the distortion of false lenses, because He did not have a human father through which to inherit iniquities. Although He was fully human through His mother, He was not partaker of our sinful propensities and rebellion against God that everyone else received through their fathers from Adam.

Jesus did something very amazing when He was born as a human being without a human father. What actually took place was the formation and rebirth of an entire species – humankind. Jesus literally created an new species that had a divine origin clean of all infection and iniquity by becoming a human without the inherited contamination passed down through fathers. In doing so, He created an alternative form of humanity that would be completely free of all the curse that other humans found impossible to escape. That is why there is no other way to be saved except through Jesus Christ.

Religion has assumed that when the Bible teaches that we must be saved exclusively through the name of Jesus only that it means that people must externally acknowledge some list of facts or beliefs about Jesus being the Son of God. But this is very typical of external religion and misses the main point of why Jesus became human. It also misses the many explanations by Paul and other apostles about the idea of being “in Christ” and that salvation has come to every person. When we begin to really grasp what it means to be in Christ – not the confusing ideas bantered about by popular Christianity but the really powerful, life-transforming, heart-based new-birth version of this concept – then we will begin to experience the reflection of the face of God beginning to glow through our lives and countenances – everyone who has begun to really experience this new species of humans.

Jesus is stating here that every person who wants to enter into full participation in this new species called the kingdom of heaven has to begin by being born into it. This involves an incarnation very much like the one Jesus experienced. It is not enough to only be born as a human to start with, though that is a prerequisite. This new species is only for those who start out as humans. Of course, by default all humans except Jesus start out infected by sin and rebellion and selfishness. Jesus is here laying out more clearly God's plan to save everyone who will embrace the real truth about how God feels about them and how to enter into God's way of rescuing them from their hopeless, lost condition.

Entering into this kingdom is through the means of being born a second time as a different kind of human, a human that contains the reincarnation of God Himself. For to be a real Christian a person must experience the birth of Jesus Himself incarnated within them, not just as a historical figure to talk about or emulate. Entering into this kingdom requires a radical change in belief in our own identity based on God's redemption through Jesus. And it also requires a transformation in the way we view God's feelings towards us.

Sequence

I just noticed something in John 3 here that I have not noticed before. This discussion seems to talk a lot about what we can or cannot do along with what must happen if one wants to be a part of God's kingdom. Now that I think of it it seems a little unusual for Jesus to be so intent on talking about the word do. Many other times when people came to Him and asked what they must do He often steered the conversation to the issue of belief. But here He seems to start out with the doing discussion.

...no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus *said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:2-5)

What I see next seems to focus around what we know or don't know.

"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony." (John 3:8-11)

At this point I now see the transition into what we do or do not believe. It is very like Jesus to guide nearly every discussion to talking about what we believe.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

...so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:11-12, 15-16, 18)

The last thing I see in this sequence is a discussion about judgment. Judgment at its core meaning is a revealing, an exposure of what is believed deep in the heart, far beyond our mental profession or claims or systems of intellectual beliefs. Judgment is all about revealing for everyone to see the real motives and attitudes and gut-level nature of what is actually going on inside of us.

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name (truth about His character) of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." (John 3:17-21)

Why does this last part talk about deeds instead of motives? I always assumed deeds referred to external behavior that was evident to the public to start with. But if that is true then it would make no sense to be afraid of Light for fear of being exposed.

I believe what is implied here is that those who are afraid of the Light of real truth exposing what is deep in the heart are afraid of having their selfish motives exposed that underly all of their external righteousness. The Pharisees were quite intent on their outward deeds being evident and public, but their tended to get very upset whenever Jesus came along and began to expose their true motives and the real condition of their hearts. So it seems to me that Jesus is here using shorthand to link the word deeds in this case to the real motives of the heart that underlies those deeds. Otherwise there would be no reason for fear to be involved.

I also find this passage very instructive about the true nature of judgment. Jesus stated very clearly that God never condemns us. We have assumed that judgment and condemnation are one and the same thing. Because of this deeply embedded assumption we have, the Bible sometimes uses judgment interchangeably with the more accurate use of the same word in regards to revealing, so one needs to examine the context to see which way it is being intended. But here Jesus lays out heaven's perspective on real judgment which is simply the exposure of what is hidden inside of us.

As I take a broader overview of this passage it is finally becoming more clear to me that this whole discourse really is a synopsis of the gospel as it is in Jesus. I have spent years very frustrated in not being able to crack the “code” that seemed to enshroud this passage for me personally. I have heard many discourses on it, memorized sections of it, been taught all kinds of doctrines and ideas from it and heard it thrown around like candy for nearly all of my life. But it was so vague and generalized and lacking in demonstration that I felt inoculated to experiencing the real significance of these words of Jesus.

Even now I feel like I am only getting slight glimmers of the real meaning of these words. I have to confess that I feel very much like Nicodemus when I read this. I am baffled, confused and even somewhat dismayed as I hear what sounds like a secret code or a foreign language that is so strange and different from the familiar religion that I have been taught all of my life. And even though these words have been used very often in the Christian culture that I grew up in, the real meaning behind them is nearly just as confusing for me as they were for Nicodemus when he first heard them.

I feel somewhat sad that it has taken nearly 50 years for me to begin to figure out what this passage is really saying to my heart. It is also a sad commentary on the effectiveness of the religions around me, that they are so distracted by other priorities (like behavior control) that even though they have nearly worn out this passage they still are unable to get across to many people the real life-changing truths about God so close to the surface in this passage. I suspect it is not from lack of trying but much more from a lack of personal experience of this truth so that the life of the speaker is congruent with the message they are attempting to convey.

Along that line I still have to confess that I have the very same problem. One of my areas of greatest discomfort is that my face and my vocal inflections are all too often out of harmony with the exciting truths that I try to share with people. This is so much of a problem that it often even irritates me while I am talking sometimes. I feel trapped in a body and a personality that is partially stuck in the past while my heart is trying to move on to something very new and different and passionate. When I get close to God's presence my insides feel like they come alive but my outsides feel like a hardened shell and refuse to allow most of what is inside to be evident in my demeanor and expressions. Sort of sounds a lot like Romans 7 to me.

One more important thing I want to mention before I close this out. What I see this morning here in this passage is a clearer picture of the sequence that someone else pointed out to me recently. They used these words to describe the sequence in this way:

• Our actions and behaviors are caused by what we feel. We tend to do things because we feel like doing them.

• Our feelings come from the things we think. The way our thoughts flow produce feelings which then lead to actions.

• Our thoughts are a product of what we really believe. Our beliefs form the guidance system for what we choose to think about or the direction in which our thoughts gravitate. These beliefs do include our intellectual beliefs but much more so our gut-level, emotional belief system that has much more influence over us than our professed beliefs.

• Our beliefs at the heart level are formed by our perceptions of what we see. This means that how we perceive reality, how we really view ourselves and most importantly how we perceive God and how He feels about us are the foundational basis for our real beliefs.

So how we see God determines what we believe which determines how we think which affects the way we feel which causes most of our behaviors.

The real problem lies in that we tend to usually focus more on trying to control or change our behavior instead of paying attention to the deepest root cause back at the other end of this chain of motivation.

The more that I have thought about this sequence the more I sense that it is absolutely true. And given this truth I begin to see that to make any real lasting change in my life or to help anyone else effectively, I must always focus on addressing the root of this sequence instead of wasting a lot of time at the other end trying to manage the symptoms of external behaviors. Behavior management generally produces a lot of hypocrisy because it fails to address the core issues, the heart beliefs linked with our distorted pictures of God deep in our soul.

As I looked over this passage this morning I noticed for the first time a very similar outline of this sequence. Jesus started where Nicodemus was focused, on the externals and his desire to be a good religious person and be accepted by God. This is in the realm of behavior which is where most religious people think all the important stuff exists. But Jesus quickly took Nicodemus back through the sequence all the way to what was going on at the heart level and his mistaken views about how God felt about him in order to show Nicodemus where the real problem lay.

Nicodemus was focusing on the outward signs that he had noticed in Jesus' life and was attracted to possibly be a part of this intriguing new kingdom emerging before him. So Jesus started there and led him back through the fact that these signs could not be experienced until things at the heart level were radically different – as different as being born all over again as a new person. Then He shared with Nicodemus that what you do comes from what you know, and what you know comes from what you believe at the heart level. What you believe about religion and about life will be shaped mostly by what you believe about God and what you think about God will be seen in whether you are willing to come closer to the Light or are afraid of being exposed.

The Light is the fuller revelation of the truth about God as revealed in the attitudes, actions and spirit that surrounded the life of Jesus while on this earth. The main purpose Jesus came to this earth was to reveal the real truth about God which is really judgment. This new, greater revelation about how God feels about us is such a strong light that everyone who clings to other ideas about God become very nervous whenever this Light begins to expose their false opinions. Jesus says that men loved darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

Again, I believe that when Jesus speaks of deeds here He is strongly implying both outward actions, but even more so the inward motives behind our actions. He is saying that our righteous deeds are actually rooted in evil motives of selfishness and desires rooted in pride. When we are living in a counterfeit religious system – which is all religions other than what Jesus demonstrated – we are going to find ourselves fearful whenever the real truth about God comes close to us. We naturally resist the truth about God because it always threatens to expose the falseness of our deeply cherished opinions about life, reality and religion.

But anyone who is ready to let go of false and ineffective religion and allow the real truth about God as revealed in Jesus to come into their heart and draw them toward God's heart, those people are going to be the ones who will want to come to the Light. Jesus says that they practice the truth. This is not a talking about lots of effort to be a good person or having the right list of facts. This means that when a person is willing to be real, to be transparent about what is really going on in their heart and is willing to have God expose their insides and connect to their heart, they can be drawn closer to this revelation of God's true character and will not be afraid of real judgment.

To live from the heart and allow Jesus to do the work He wants to do at that much deeper level is to let go of all fear of being manifested and exposed. And when we live from the heart and are open and honest with God and ourselves as God is increasing the level of light in our souls, that kind of living is what Jesus says is wrought in God.