Let me get the usual disclaimer out of the way first. Since I have posted so infrequently, this post is subject to having a mish-mash of inspirations and personal updates melded together. I need to shake things out here in this post as what I hope is a great restart to writing effectively again. I feel like I need to find my voice in the areas God is leading me in to and I am just now coming out on the other side of a many major life changes. Part of my current scatteredness is a personal reorientation in the Spirit, and part of it is social media fatigue (ever get that affecting your attention span?).

I remember a friend asking me a long time ago what my personal mission statement is. I replied with little hesitation something along the lines of, “to build a bridge of ministry and relationship between the church in America, and the church in India.” I then thought about it for a while and realized: 1) That the whole exercise of trying to boil down my calling, promises, visions and relationships into a single statement has little merit apart from the exercise itself. And 2) I personally am not comfortable elevating a business planning practice to a spiritual plane. We are God’s servants and we miss out from His leading when we engineer our way through our calling. It is western-style insubordination. As I have written before, I want to simply have the testimony of Paul, saying “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision”. I doubt anyone would really have expected Paul to have published a condensed mission statement, but I am also sure many preachers and scholars look in the epistles for a verse they can ascribe to Paul as one and use it as a launching point to say we all need one too. The western mind seeks a marketing or success formula, but the eastern mind, which includes biblical Israel, seeks a familial infusion instead. I’ll take that, DADDY GOD!

Let me explain this a bit before I get to the big announcement. The family infusion pursuit was first introduced by the Lord. He always desired a very direct and close relationship with us as sons and daughters. Not as a teacher who lectures us, but as a father who imparts to us. We from the west tend to exalt our thinking and seek the veneration of men, measuring ourselves based on quantitative scales such as cash, customers and followers. I have fallen into this many times myself, even after being fully aware of the paradigm and tight with the Lord. These days however I happily find myself just less interested in the worldly dynamic as the Lord Himself is my intimate destination. He is wonderful!

Ok, in preparing for the announcement, here is a question I was asked online lately:

What do you think freedom is?.
My answer was:
It is first spiritual, then mental, emotional, physical then civic. It is found and birthed in conscience before God when He releases you from sin, doubt and fear into communion with Him.

Freedom has been the biggest theme in my heart in all things spiritual and relational for years now. While the doors to return to India have remained closed to me since 2008, a growing passion for understanding freedom and imparting it to others has blossomed. I have seen the beauty of it become lost over the years in the hearts and words of my fellow saints however. Perhaps it is partially due to the govt-cultural abuse of the word as code for rallying fighting wars overseas, which is repugnant. In any case, there is a hindering confusion in the ranks of the church which has lost its freedom voice in the culture, preferring instead a pursuit for a seat at the table of human power. A murky and incoherent collectivism of thought and property has taken hold as liberty is no longer seen as a virtue, but as selfish. There is a huge leadership vacuum for the prophetic in this space that I KNOW the Lord has wanted me to fill, and He has confirmed it. Perhaps soon I will find my voice on it, but the first order of business is to just let the fire of God burn in me and make me live and thrive in this freedom myself. That is where the work of the Lord is in all this right now, to free me completely from the expectations and approval of men. I AM FREE from the judgement of others, from the tyranny of men and from the oppression of culture. Scripture BURSTS with proof that the freedom we have been given is not just a side order or a feeling… it is our prized destination in this earth. It is to be appreciated as: the fruit of discipleship (John 8:32), an end unto itself (Gal 5:1,13), proof of the Spirit’s presence (2 Cor 5:17), unalienable from the opinions of others (1 Cor 10:29), something to be guarded (Col 2:16-17), something we are to identify ourselves as (1 Pet 2:16), and, as a subset of the glory we have as the children of God that the creation will be set free in to (Rom 8:21). Unfortunately, we tend to see the warnings accompanying these scriptures more than the verses themselves, allowing self-doubt powered by a false sense of self-sacrifice to devalue what God Himself has put into our hearts to long for.

As I was at prayer a few months ago at the Upper Room, the Lord laid on my heart how there are those that passionately value liberty at an external level (civic and/or societal) and a whole different set that passionately values it on a spiritual level. I had hands laid on me regarding dormant dreams to be reawakened, and I know the Lord laid on my heart to bring these two groups together. For this mission, I also need to re-immerse myself in history again. Stay tuned.

So here is the announcement. I am going to rework ChristGate.org to broaden it beyond the ‘bridge to India’ theme and make it a place to discuss these issues as the Lord leads me, while also having it remain a resource for India missions. I am praying now about how that can look. The “Nations” concept will certainly fade, as I am done venerating the oppressive institutions of men. The kingdom culture of who we are in Christ is a REAL overlay on the geopolitical realm. The life we NOW live in the body (world too) we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself up for us. One practical aspect of this is to promote food and energy independence from the world system. Gay and I are going to do aquaponics here at the house and want to video log the experience. I am still not sure how ‘christ-gatey’ that all is for the site thematically… I only know Daddy wants me to do it as a component of living free in this world.

Thanks for being a friend!

Indi-Andy (Aka Drew)

P.S.
For any that have questions about my big family changes last year, you are free to call. I am not inclined to discuss those here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 30th, 2013 at 4:20 pm and is filed under General info and Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.