God’s Pipeline

Living Love

Dean Chicquette

God’s Pipeline

Copyright © 2019 by Dean Chicquette

All rights reserved.

ISNB - 9780463619209

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Bible quotes from…

The New American Standard Bible (NAS) Copyright © 1986 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

The New King James Version (NKJ).

Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

Dean and Linda Translation (DLT) Copyright © 2014 by Dean and Linda Chicquette. All rights reserved.

Dedication

I want to publicly thank a man I have never met in person, Steve McVey, for boldly declaring to the body of Christ that our God is not angry with us. I was so moved, as well as challenged by his book titled Beyond an Angry God, that I purchased and gave away nearly 17 copies.

My first introduction to his writings was by the book titled 52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday:...And Why the Truth Is So Much Better. It was on a book rack next to my store pharmacy. As I waited in line I saw the title, took a peek, then put it back.

“How bold!” I thought to myself.

A couple weeks later I purposely looked for the book, purchased three copies and shared them with two friends. The more I reflected on the contents of this work, I was sure that Steve must have known my friend Norman P. Grubb or at least been influenced by his books.

A couple years ago I was at a conference in Kentucky and met a dear friend of Steve’s, Paul Anderson-Walsh. While at the conference I purchased and read Paul’s book titled Grace For Grownups.

All these authors have helped me reclaim faith in a loving God, a God who from start to finish is Love, not just loving.

This work, God’s Pipeline is built on the following five quotes from Steve’s book titled Anchored - Five Keys To a Secure Faith.

“Grace is the unconditional love of God toward us, through which He has embraced us and brought us into His very life.”

(McVey, 2014, p. 18)

Grace “isn’t given on the basis of how good we are but on how good He is.”

(McVey, 2014, p. 20)

“…our lives are transformed when we learn how to rest in the loving acceptance of our God.”

(McVey, 2014, p. 21)

“He then completely has us—inside and out. …it is impossible to be inwardly transformed without our outward behavior being affected.”

(McVey, 2014, p. 22)

“However, grace is not only the conduit through which we experience God; it is also the pipeline to the world around us.”

(McVey, 2014, p. 22)

Through an indiscernible and sometimes seemingly violent process, and because of these men and several other authors, both men and women, we published our first paperback book in 2017 titled Simply Grace—God’s purpose has always been a Person.

This book, God’s Pipeline, was first published in 2014 with the same title. We hope you never see that book in ‘print’ again. We have reworked the foundation and theme while deleting, altering, and adding to the body of text.

Contents

Foreword

Preface

1. Grace, God’s Conduit

2. The Origins of Self Help

3. Have You Been Tricked?

4. Be Like God!

5. Our Experience

6. God’s Pipeline Defined

7. Turning the Valve Toward God

8. Impossible? No!

9. Sounds impossible!

10. Life Can Become So Trying

11. Despair Captured

12. What is that Love?

13. He is Your Life

14. The Pipeline’s Person

15. The Pipeline’s Purpose

Notes

About the Author Dean Chicquette

Foreword

God has planted Eternity in your heart.

If you are working hard to get what you already have, say to yourself, “What is this effort for? God already knows what He plans for me!” Working hard isn’t what He wants. Resignation to His will is His highest good.

Here is something to think about; He wants more than a relationship with you. Not because you in any w, but just because He loves you. Yes, He loves you! Even more. He wants union with you. Such a simple yet deep union that all your doing shows the world, even the universe and heaven itself, His very character and nature.

When looking at a newborn for the first day, week, month it really opens your eyes to His love. Being completely honest with yourself, what do you see in that child’s eyes?

TRUST!!!

It is as if they are saying, “I know I am just a little thing, but I TRUST you even if no one else does!” And you can, when you first see God, TRUST God.

In all my days I have found out that trusting God from the very beginning, and not after I have tried everything else, really works! No, it may not be the way I wanted, but it was the way I needed.

Ronal Heaps

Preface

Awesome truth!

“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”

(Matthew 10:40 NAS)

We are God’s pipeline, the conduit of His very life, alive in us and through us to others. If the valve is open, we are ready to share the Life of God.[1]

Life In - Life Out

Every good thing begins, if not indefinitely remains, with God. To the extent we are open to all that God in us is prepared to share with our world of friends and enemies, His love, grace, joy, and peace will flow through us.

The benefit of this is beyond measure. To be joined in the activity of God’s Highest Purpose is an honor that humbles the mightiest.

Really, those who receive God receive life.

1

Grace, God’s Conduit

“...grace is not only the conduit through which we experience God; it is also the pipeline to the world…” Steve McVey

It is time to stop fooling ourselves. Down deep we all think something like, “If God is real, that God needs our help.” An inner voice screams, “It’s up to you! Make it right!” This exclamation is but an invitation to be the author of your own destiny. After all, who else is looking out for you?

Let me propose that trying to become other than what God made you fosters the hate this world experiences. Why? Because every act of trying to fix what we think is broken and every instrument we devise with which to accomplish the same is in opposition to the solution devised by the One standing next to us. The outward conflict is but the child of the self’s conflict warring within, grown up into outward acts of hate.

Many ask, “If God is Loving, why is the world full of war?”

This is supposed to be a rhetorical question leaving one with the conclusion that God is not love nor loving, when it is the human heart that hates the very idea of God being their Father and wants to kill God. Not being able to do that, they kill their neighbor. It is the heart’s valve turned to distrust and hate that perpetrates death on our fellow man. We are the conduit of death when our hearts sin by believing the sense of lack, and turn toward distrust and hate.[1]

I knew of a young man who went next door to his neighbor’s back yard and killed his friend’s father because he was setting off fireworks on the 4th of July. He was found guilty of 2nd degree murder and just before sentencing the Judge said, “Young man, it is evident to myself and everyone in this courtroom that you killed this man because you wanted to kill your father. Instead, you killed your neighbor friend’s father. Why didn’t you kill your father?”

Of course, the answer was love. For all his hate, he still loved his father, while for all his friendship with his neighbor, his neighbor’s father meant nothing to him. He was but an object for the hate raging in his soul.

Why then is there so much hate in this world when God is proclaimed as love? Simple, because you hate Love. You demand Him to be your Father, yet without the ability to TELL you what to do, when, and how. After all, the highest good for humanity is freedom to do whatever they want, right? Put another way, the god of our world is freedom of choice.

So then self, acting on its own behalf for itself, is not only common, but it is the conduit of hate. This way of life invites others to die for your comfort. By living in this way, we abort humanity’s humanity and applaud the same under the flag of freedom and the banner of free choice.

Father says that by simply turning to Him in trust, we will accomplish that for which we were born. We were birthed to be a self for others. It is our love of freedom and self rule that separates us from God.[2]

2

The Origins of Self Help

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6 NAS)

The first self improvement conference held at the foot of the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ led to an international disaster still being played out today. Instantly humanity was separated from the Spirit of trust and soon proved that flesh is unable to sustain itself by its own efforts. The effort to change the flesh by the flesh created an internal battle that has raged since that choice. Humanity’s effort to become better than what God intended has been birthed in every soul with two distinct attitudes.[1]

First, humans think they are free and independent agents. They KNOW it is up to them to get the food and cook it too. They must not only gather, but with threat to life, defend what they have gathered. Every waking moment blasts in stereo, “It’s up to me. I cannot trust anyone.”

Second, we all think we are caught in the middle of good and evil and with the gaining of this or that skill we can be a good ‘Jedi’ that will never turn totally to the dark side. But that is so far from the truth we must call it, THE LIE!

We cannot train evil to be good.

On the flip side, our individual and corporate journey must re-discover trust, and live the truth. As we rest from our works and lean into Him, we let His Person in us animate us.[2] By this we can come both to know and experience God as the only capable one. This Person, who is Truth, is God.[3] That God screamed on Calvary,

* * *

“I love YOU!”

* * *

But until we believe He loves us, we hate Him and believe we can love others when we don’t even like ourselves.

Newsflash! He is capable of fulfilling His promises. To know this is the beginning of wisdom.[4] Understanding is personally coming to know the Holy One.[5]

The Holy One is Jesus the Christ. To know about Him is your opportunity to trust Him. But it is only after you have taken your trust off the back of failing flesh and placed it on the yoke of Christ that you come to know Him.[6] In flushing your heart, head, and hands of self help, you become His instrument of love.[7]

You know Him when you know that He is so alive that He can do for others through you what you cannot do for yourself. He never created you just to be alive in the world, or universe, but for Him to live within and out through you![8] It is then He becomes all you are capable of receiving and sharing.[9]

Receiving is trusting God as the One who accomplishes all He sets Himself to do. Moment by moment, this is wisdom, to receive the One Who is capable.

3

Have You Been Tricked?

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1 NAS)

How often are we tricked into thinking we must do something to qualify? Every group or family unit has rules and norms that if followed qualify you to participate at a higher level. Even some who have put their trust in God think they have the right to be the author of specific outcomes. Everyone has their own code of behavior which they believe, if expressed, will qualify them to function with more clarity and power. Everyone’s program for happiness ends up self-defined.

God is our predefined program for happiness. We are called to follow God Himself through the doorways of life and give to others His time, resources, and strength in our person. What He does through us does not define us. He is what defines us.[1]

We often ask, “What must I do to gain and express this unity? What exactly must I do to be His expression of love to others?” The answer is so simple it is ignored as immature, infantile, unrealistic, and even demonic.

“Trust God!”

Down deep, most of us still have enough of a conscience that we want to love the way we think we should be loved. We also believe we haven’t yet been loved enough. We reason, “If I had this or that, or if I were doing this or that, or experiencing this or that, or others proclaim what I do as perfect, then I could believe I was loved.” Living from this ‘if’ proves your identity is in what love can do for you, not how Mr. Love can live through you without help.

Haven’t you noticed, there is no end to self-qualifying, except exhaustion, and that only after a lot of work or rebellion? Where does all this effort come from? It comes from the ever present desire to be something other than what you are. It is Adam’s fruit in you declaring God is asking you to finish what He began. On the inside is a God shaped void filled with self effort. The only way to let that void be filled with God is to believe it has been filled with God.

It is His divine power that has given to us everything we need for life and Godliness. How did He do that? Through our coming to know Him who has called us by His own glory and virtue.[2] Seeing He has accomplished everything we can enter into His rest. We do not have to manufacture one bit of glory or virtue.

All too often, when looking at the cross, we see punishment when God wants us to see and know His love first hand. The death of Christ was Father’s cure for the death of Adam. In Adam’s death we all died. In Christ’s cross we all died. Later, in His resurrection, we were all made alive.[3] What Jesus accomplished far surpasses what Adam accomplished.

So then, the call to trust Christ is a call to accept what He has accomplished. But humanity in general, instead of surrendering to His ability, has become addicted to a cycle of creating mini-voids that we can handle in order to ward off the fear of what we cannot handle…death![4] After accomplishing anything, we feel better for a while. Then, as if out of nowhere, we again need to do something to feel safe. The last, “I did it!” wore off and the void reappears. In short, we believe that Christ’s declaration, “It is perfect, complete, done, finished,” is a lie. We do not believe we can really trust what He did is sufficient. Or can we?

4

Be Like God!

“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5 NAS)

Let me ask, ‘Why would anyone, or you yourself, ever want to be like God?’ Where does that come from?

I love the story of Adam and Eve. Taken literally or literarily it speaks volumes about every person’s experiential truth. They had all they were created to have. But after just one short chat with a trickster, they decided they needed more, they needed to take control and make something of their lives.

They concluded they had been short changed by God and wanted to gain godly attributes with which they were not created. They wanted to be like God and to escape any possibility of death, but bit into the very death they wanted to avoid. They became self-conscious, flesh-bound identities. That is, their spirit union with the creator was lost and all they knew about themselves and the world in which they lived was what their flesh senses and mind could reason. Their souls became attached to their senses and thoughts. They became instruments of unrighteousness or children of THE LIE.[1]

So, just like them, we all, early in our individual human experience became flesh-conscious selves. In fact, that was the moment we became self conscious. We no longer had a body and mind that worked, but became the one who worked the body and mind. We were divorced from living authentically, we coped.

I remember the day, spending way too much time in my crib, watching the fingers of my right hand wiggle. As I watched, I asked myself, “How is that happening?” I continued to watch them wiggle, first this way then that. In an instant I knew it was I that was moving them. I went from an observer/participant of life and became the mind behind life. My conclusion was swift. If I could control my fingers, I could control my world! I could become anything I wanted to become. LIE!

The key word above is ‘become’. Up to that fateful point, I was only ‘life’ conscious. I lived in, with, and for my original Eden. After a short discussion with a trickster, the poison of self-accomplishment and self-improvement took over.

This ‘I have to control it’ world is what we have all inherited and we gleefully pass on that lie to our children. The earth we share, instead of the Garden of Eden, is a parched earth. It cries out for life giving water.[2] Fortunately, God’s designed salvation for us is simply an invitation for us to jump into the ‘River of Life’ and live.[3] Once again we watch and witness life instead of trying to be the authors of it.

When we stop trying to be our own god, we can enter into the rest that God has purposed.[4] Then His life will flow out through us over this world, turning the parched hearts into gardens, turning dried up, empty, flesh-driven souls into branches of the vine, full of life giving fruit.[5]

5

Our Experience

“For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18 NAS)

The core of everything we experience is some expression of His ability visiting us from eternity in the here and now. We create nothing. If the whole universe were a sinking Titanic, the best we could do would be to rearrange chairs already provided by another. Every choice we have is but a presentation of possibilities already created, from which we, in our limited knowing, can choose. We have choice only because we are conscious of options. Yet, because we feel so engaged with our thinking and choices, we can believe we are creating our options. Nothing is further from the truth.[1]

Let me illustrate what I mean with a silly story.

A cat and a dog come to your front door asking to become your pets. You know you have extra resources for only one of them. Say you grew up with a dog and know how to care for it, so you choose the dog and invite it in to live with you. The cat says, “I can feed myself, all I want is a hug and to stay away from the hottest and coldest of days.” The dog says, “I’ll keep you warm at night.” What a dilemma! But then you muse, “A Talking cat and dog!” You invite both in to live with you thinking, “Viral!”

Did you create the dog or cat? Did you make them come to your door? Did you create their ability to talk?

No, no and no.

You choose what is set before you. God chooses to create that which is set before you. God has set two things before you. Can you guess what they are? That is right, life or death. Father says, “Anyone who has my Son has life. Choose life.” In short, trust this, right now you have eternal life and that life is the Person of Jesus the Christ.[2]

6

God’s Pipeline Defined

“All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:3-5 NAS)

The Kingdom of God is like a pipeline connected to a huge lake several miles away and 500 feet below the top of that lake. The lake is behind it and before it is a desert. On the end of that pipe is a valve. When the valve is opened to the lake, the water gushes out onto the desert. The desert springs up with life. All sorts of trees and grasses grow. Animals enjoy the shade and water. Birds nest, and the fish swim in ponds.

* * *

I will explain the parable.

The lake is God the Father. The pipeline is His Son. The valve is you, and the water is Holy Spirit. The desert is the world.

* * *

As the valve, we can either let flow or block the flow of Father’s life through us. Without effort, I will repeat myself—without effort, we can turn our hearts toward God trusting, believing He rewards those who diligently seek Him.[1]

God, through Christ, has connected us to His heart, purpose, and life…His Person, and as we trust Him, He pours out through us His life, satisfying the most parched soul.[2]

Watch out world! Here comes God through our humanity! This means no self improvement needed, only faith in God and what He can do.

Pause…but what about sin?

Don’t do it!

Because all facets of God’s Love are pressing on the valve to escape, we can rest in knowing that what Holy Spirit does next through us will bring Life. Just believe the Spirit of God through Christ has come with the full intention of passing through you (the valve) out onto that parched earth. He is prepared to be all you need to meet the need before you.

Rest assured!

7

Turning the Valve Toward God

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 NAS)

That is all we can do, turn the valve of our heart toward God. This is our yes to His yes! He can do whatever through you even in the face of the—IMPOSSIBLE! Once we walked in our own ways.[1] Now, in and by faith we take our next step, knowing it is His walking out what He has worked in.[2]

Our first parents could have said, “Yes”. The people of Noah’s day could have said, “Yes”. Pharaoh could have said, “Yes”. God told Israel to enter the promised land of Canaan and occupy it. They could have said, “Yes” and found rest. Instead they found giants bigger than their trust in God. The Israelites, throughout all of history, exhorted by God through all the prophets, including John the Baptist, could have said, “Yes”. You can say, “Yes”. All the righteous say, “Yes”. Jesus is our way out, as well as our way in. He is that which we seek and that which we gain.

Yes, to what?

Our ‘yes’ is all it takes to become bound to God’s purposes.[3]

In the beginning, the very elements said, “Yes” and obeyed God’s word. Abel’s ‘yes’ to God proved a better sacrifice than Cain’s and his blood still speaks. Enoch was taken up, so that he should not see death, because he was pleasing to God. Noah saw the unseen, and in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, becoming by faith, heir of the world to come. Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going. He lived with the promise of the land, but dwelled in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. He discovered he was looking for the city which had its foundations set by God. Even Sarah received ability to conceive beyond the proper time of life. How? She considered Him faithful who had promised that her descendants would be as the stars of heaven in number, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

All these said, “Yes”. Yet these people died trusting God and many without receiving the promises during their life. Having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, they confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.[4]

Jesus said, “Yes” to the impossible. He died, and was raised up and we live in His living. His life is our life and our living is His living through us. We can say, “Yes.”

Turn the valve.

8

Impossible? No!

“Grace is the unconditional love of God presented to us, through which He has and always will embrace us and bring us into His very life.”

Jesus’s teaching told us that His grace is sufficient.[1] It is not about our strength, minds, or even our choices. It is always about Him. He is enough. He has always been enough. He will always be enough. Our part is to remind ourselves that all glory and honor is due to Him. From this perspective, how can you fail if you stand where He puts you, and do the thing presented before you? He is the one putting, planning, purposing, and doing. You get to go along for the ride.

As a child and then as a young man, I worked with my father when needed. He was an electronic technician who was on the cutting edge of fixing radios, TVs, and electronic organs. He would drive around town, always first to the coffeeshop, then to a client’s home, then to the supply store, then to the shop, have lunch and then whatever was next.

Much of my time was just riding with Dad. I wasn’t his closest friend, that was Winky, our mutt, sitting next to him, but I was special. All I had to do was sit, ride, get out, help carry tools, and move TVs or organs. Most of the time I was sitting and riding with him and just going where he was going. I wish I were in his heavenly truck going to the coffee shop with him right now.

So it is with our God. He is the technician Who invites us to do what he is doing and most of the time you’re just sitting back waiting for the ‘truck’ to stop and find out what He is doing next and what part He wants you to play.

Compared to God’s ability, even the ability He shares with us by Holy Spirit motions, we have no ability. But, over time, we become familiar and comfortable in our weaknesses.[2]

I never knew as much about electronics as my father forgot, but when with him, I was like him functionally. Adam and Eve gave up their God-given seat in His truck, and sat by the side of the road, out in the rain and mud, mimicking Father by acting as if they were behind the wheel of ‘the’ truck, making engine sounds, moving their heads up to check the invisible rear view mirror, making hand signals, and even beeping their silent horns by adding some voice. They might have looked ‘like’ what Father was doing, though probably not, but Father was way down the road about to go to the coffeeshop, only by Himself.

So then, what are we to do? If someone you know needs money, give. If someone you know is in prison, visit. If anyone you know is hungry, feed them. If they are mean to you, pray for them. If someone takes your shirt, catch up with them and give them your coat too. If they smack you, and you live through it, let them smack you again.

9

Sounds impossible!

“And He said to them, ‘Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.’” (Matthew 17:20 NAS)

What good is it to have a god if that god does not thrive on excelling over the seemingly impossible? Overcoming is just like God who stepped down to earth. That God is doing the impossible through us. He is the impossible One in action, in and through us.

Think of that valve!

At one end is God...all of God, pressing down and against you just begging to get out. Knocking, pressing, even shoving, asking to get out, go through you and water the parched earth before you. If you (the valve) are closed to His desires you have a very interesting experience awaiting you.

On the one side of you is the void, the empty, the unfulfilled, dry, wanting, demanding world standing in need of everything. Crying out to you, even demanding you do something to fulfill its need. On the other side is a lot of pressure, the whole ocean of God Himself asking to get through you to the other side.

Here it is, on the one side the whole creation screaming, pining, groveling to God, demanding to see God face to face, and at the same time your person pressed down by God, like some eager dog wanting to go for ‘walkies’. We can easily despair before this challenge.

When looking at the situation, we cannot imagine the ocean of God reaching nor solving the problems ahead. We sense no strength equal to the task. We cower like Gideon before the call and hide in our own winepress threshing out a meager life in feigned trust.

We can easily declare to ourselves, “I have to do something. This pressure is too much! Life is hard, how can I escape this pressure? I cannot stand this stress!”

Then, as if we have seen a divine revelation, we glom onto any activity that comforts us. Any thoughts or activities will do. We dive in and begin to do something, hoping it will water at least one weed. But we are still faced with the impossible.

We are pressed to drown the earth with the knowledge of God, but cannot say for certain we know Him even if we know a lot about Him. Right now, as He courses through our veins and joyfully dances with each heart palpitation, His desire is to let Him pour out on the parched earth before us.

He never called us to be gods to this world any more than He desired Moses to CAUSE the water to pour out of the rock. He was told to speak to the rock but he struck it. Not once, but twice.[1] Moses and Aaron ‘got the job done’. That was the problem, their sin was self-effort which is always manifested as dis-obedience. We too eagerly begin to do God’s desire by replacing His ability with our own. Knowing His power can work through us, we try to force the valve open by works, effort, struggle, prayer, tithing, etc.

We have the truth. God wants out. But we look to the arm of flesh to turn the valve of belief. God only asks we trust Him and the valve opens.

All too often, after acknowledging His desire, we devise the plan, method, words, and music, to spit out that one drop of self-made water. We are willing to die to fulfill God’s requests, but find no ocean of resources from which to draw. We reach to the dust in front of us and forget to turn and trust the ocean behind us.

Instead of letting the ocean of God’s abilities gush out through us, we begin to drown in an ocean of trying. We so identify with the world, we become the parched earth crying out for God.[2]

10

Life Can Become So Trying

“we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;” (2 Corinthians 4:8 NAS)

By believing, whenever a God sized challenge appears, you can do all things with God’s help, you will try to fulfill it, or do what God would do.[1] But with just one peek at your innards, you again discover a void. Instantly you will try to fill the void with your mental or physical activities. You will try and try to come up with something that will fill that void. You will try to become like God. You will want to be sufficient unto yourself and at will do God-like things. Like raise the dead.

Try, try, try.

You might, after some failures, even give up and join the world of want or embrace fear and hate. The hate for being a ‘self knowing self’ coupled with a desire to show forth the impossible. Like fix this messed up world.

Finding no way to ‘do God’, you might settle with trying to be ‘like God’. You might even accept the fact that you will fail, but get up and try again, and again, and again. I say, your god will become the effort you spend in order to be like God. God will not be your god, but your effort will be your god. You will worship your effort.

Even if, at some level, you trust God, you ‘know’ you sin, but you never learn that your sin is the very effort of trying to become better. In fact, the doctrine of trying to better your self is taught and applauded by both world and church alike. It is the ‘I Do Me!’ billboards of every human activity. Since the beginning of this fallen world, humanity’s mantra has been;

I may not be perfect, but at least I try![2]

I have come to call this way of life Gerbil Theology. It teaches that the very best you can do is fail, but the trying itself pleases both God and your soul. In the end, it is the trying that saves us. What good is a Jesus?

We know that following the Old Testament’s commands cannot save us, but we believe our efforts to be a bit better tomorrow than we were today can save us, even open that valve and drown the earth with the knowledge of Father.

But it is our self-made religion that has dammed God’s ability to flow through us. The task ahead of us, like the giants before the Israelites, causes us to distrust God’s abilities, and leaves us adrift with only our puny hands to row us to an unseen shore.

We are invited to simply turn to God in trust, right now in each moment. Then the ocean He desires can flow through us. But, we look at the giants and double down, dig in, put our heads down, and like the horse in the book ‘Animal Farm’ we try harder.

As we revel in our failed efforts, we declare God’s grace saves us, not from sin, but from having to feel sad that sinning is about all we can do. We conclude that our inevitability to sin gives us a subtle right to sin. We have yet to learn that grace was not manifested to credential sin, but to abolish it.[3]

We come to believe all is well and will be well in the ‘by and by,’ but it will take a lot more effort before we get there. With the smallest seed of honesty we can conclude our efforts are not working. But what if we get everyone on the same page? If we all do the same thing at the same time, we can do it! Let’s all try harder! The call to trust, turn toward God in faith and open that valve by just trusting God to perform His desires spontaneously through our simple availability, has been reduced to “God helps those who help themselves”.[4]

We think doing something to escape the ‘pressure’ is better than experiencing it until it, in its time, bursts forth and accomplishes its desire. Because of this, we drown in a self-made ocean of needless despair.

11

Despair Captured

“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.” (Psalm 42:5 NAS)

Despair is the natural human condition, punctuated by brief lucid moments in which the illusion that fosters self aggrandizement can flee from our darkened hearts and disappear into the hands of a Loving God. Knowing that Love exists, only punctuates our despair when added to the normal state of confusion in which we doubt that it really exists.[1]

Yet unfailingly, He captures and keeps our attention through His specific acts of loving us which spontaneously foster ‘our’ loving others, especially loving Him.[2] How vacant must a heart be, which after being freed from all guilt, shame, and debt, turns and fails to render forgiveness to the soul of another who owes them a pittance.[3]

Once we turn toward Him in response to His love, we, by the fact of that turning, open the floodgates of His abundance for others. We cannot but love, when we are open to Mr. Love. The deepest despair dissipates into shouts of praise. What we had not been able to accomplish is done, and we step into the completed work of another. Christ lived the perfect life for which humanity had been gendered. Now, by union through Jesus’s death and resurrection, we, who trust the Truth, discover first hand that the Spirit who raised Him up is transforming not only our minds, but our ways, the very ways that before led to despair.[4]

When we accept His loving us through His Son Jesus Christ, the handle on that valve spontaneously turns and we immediately experience love for a new type of life, a giving life, a life flowing out for others. What had once damned our hearts, even the fear of death, has been captured, led captive, and taken away. He, who has conquered, has given us gifts, each wrapped up in Him and gushing out of each human heart.[5]

YES, we can die even to ourselves by accepting who we are, just the way we are, and equally the others just as they are. Jesus says His father treats everyone equally, and that is His definition of perfection.[6]

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What is that Love?

“Grace is the unconditional love of God toward us, through which He has embraced us and brought us into His very life.” Steve McVey

Love is that eternal act of God’s selfless Christ gushing out to overflowing. God’s pipeline is His Grace to all humanity. His Grace is His Son. Grace is not a thought, teaching, experience, or intent, but His Son Jesus Christ in action for others by His Holy Spirit expressing through those who say yes. He is the image of one who is totally committed to all and only that which His Father is committed in Him.[1]

I knew a man whom God had blessed to heal teeth. I know a couple who are very good at stirring hearts to action and demonstrate with others their love for God by walking down the Main Street of their town with crosses on the day before Easter. I could speak of hundreds more. People buried in debt now Billionaires. People of wealth and prominence cashing it in to simply obey Holy Spirit’s next suggestion.

In all my years I have never met two people motivated in the same way. Life’s proverbial finger print, not one matching. Yet each expressing from their core something unique. And each, who turn to the ocean of love and let the valve open, pour some specific facet of love on this world. Soon, in ‘their’ way, life blossoms.[2]

Jesus’s mother said, “Yes” to God’s word, and God through that yes, birthed the Living Word in fleshly form. We too, like Mary, have the call to let the Holy Spirit overshadow us and birth the Living Word through us. We too get to say, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”[3]

The gushing well of water flowing through those who turn in faith to God do not take on a new task to please God, but allow whatever task God has purposed through them, to please them, and they give thanks.[4]

Grace is God in Person showing up at your doorstep saying, “I am enough to fill any void. Want a vocation? Come! Follow Me.” His desire for your encounter with Him is always a yes to what He is already doing, but with a specific twist through you. Turning your valve toward the ocean of Life is but submitting to God’s desire to specifically touch others through you. He might even start by introducing you to a few enemies.[5]

13

He is Your Life

“He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” (1 John 5:12 NAS)

The gaining of life at conception is immediate. Maturity takes forever.[1] Maturity does not improve who we are, but allows God to be Himself. Way too many people believe the only difference between the struggle that led them to God, and the struggle they have after that encounter is that God isn’t as mad at them when they sin now as he was before their encounter with Him.

They still struggle, but now when they fail they make a religion out of it. They expect to sin, even demand that we will sin, but what is new is that when they sin they feel bad, make like a New Year’s Resolution, ask for help on top of forgiveness, and accept the grace of God as license to do it all over again.[2]

In short, they think the ocean of Love that created this universe cannot replicate His success in us as He did in Jesus. Well, the truth is that Jesus’s very Spirit is still obeying Father at every turn in and through us who trust Him.[3] If we get out of step, we do have an advocate before Father. But our appearances before Father with Jesus pleading on behalf of our rebellion ought to so diminish that when it happens, it becomes down right scary. Maturity allows Him to do it right the first time instead of us getting really good at sinning by trying not to sin.[4]

When we turn to God, we are complete in Him.[5] We are in fact perfect.[6] Perfect does not mean we are sinless, it simply means we ARE complete. We are completely capable of trusting His completeness which completes us. It is not our doing that completes Him. Is it simple? Yes, it is Love Himself expressing us.[7]

What then shall we do? Stand open to whatever Father through His Spirit in us is committed to do. We do not add nor take away from His hand by trying to accomplish His promise, that which He purposes and authors. Abraham tried helping God. That is still messing things up today. Then he and Sara trusted. From that came Mary’s trusting heart and Joseph’s obedient soul. Jesus became unto all, the things we never could be unto God nor others through effort. [8]

14

The Pipeline’s Person

“…our lives are transformed when we learn how to rest in the loving acceptance of our God.”

Bigger than You Think

Just for a few moments think of the largest known sun. It is a billion times larger than our sun which is a million times larger than the earth.

What does that make of you?

If the size of God were limited to the known universe, that largest star would not be one of His hair follicles. He surpasses measure. You express but a measure of what cannot be measured, for God is not big, but everywhere in total, forever, right now. Better yet, His love is not consumable, but only expressible. It is God Himself giving from Himself without loss or gain, but always producing change.

Say, one day, while you are very busy on FaceBook, He sneaks up behind you and calls out your name. When you turn to see His face, you in comparison to Him, would disappear.

Then He says, “I have decided to keep you for Myself, for eternity, to leap out of you like a fountain of Living water.” Go ahead, tell Him He is a liar. Tell Him He cannot do it. Tell Him it takes you to make it happen.

Oh dear, my friends and enemies, God is so much more than this universe! What God has promised, He will do.

Person, Not Influence

People are intentional. They are aware of life, see patterns, have preferences, make choices, focus efforts, spend time and energy on doing what is necessary to accomplish a goal. We are motivated to ‘do’ for various reasons. We do, not because we must, but because we can.

We are told we reflect God. We are His Person seen, not only in action but in intent.[1] Above all, God never begins what is not already finished in the beginning, even if it takes a trillion, trillion years to see the final outcome of His Word at work. In that way, He is simultaneously ‘hard at work’ and totally at rest. We are invited to that rest from which He works even today.[2]

He Has Called Us into His Rest

He has not invited us into His rest, but declared we MUST enter His rest. Like in your face, ‘I will bring you to my resting place.’ Now this is a promise. Time fulfills that promise. He has all the time in the universe. The sooner you are exhausted, and let Him be and do, you fall into His rest, which is more doing than you can ever imagine. The amount of Him flowing down that pipe through that valve to that parched earth is inestimable when the valve rests in the open position. That’s it!

In short, His done-ness is beyond any of your doing. His Person is so far past your efforts. Jesus is His Person and He declared, “It is finished”.

His design, purpose, and processes are in His Person. In your flesh Jesus Christ is pouring out through you, as you.

15

The Pipeline’s Purpose

“He then completely has us – inside and out. ... it is impossible to be inwardly transformed without our outward behavior being affected.” Steve McVey

His Being Himself

Before we look closer at God’s eternal purpose, let us first take a peek at His nature. We know He is, by nature, reflexive, which means He thinks about Himself or simply put, He can relate to Himself. That ability is shared with us and makes us who we are. We know we know ourselves, which makes us able to share our core with others. We can relate to ourselves, to others and even to God Himself by sharing this attribute.

"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."

(Matthew 18:20 NAS)

His ability to be, at the same time, with any group gathering in His name, boggles our minds yet encourages and embraces our heart. We are told we can meet His Person as we meet each other. This is not a futuristic promise, but an ever present reality to those whose eyes have been opened.

The men on the road to Emmaus thought they had met a man, but discovered they had met Jesus.[1] He came to open their eyes, but first He had to open their hearts. To what? To know His presence. We are, even as valves in God’s pipeline, self knowing and also know when we are letting the water of life pass through us.

When we say yes to Jesus’s finished work in coming and joining us to God, God becomes present. Holy Spirit becomes our ever present Comforter and eye opener to all Father has for us and is prepared to share through us.

What is true in the nature and character of God in the heavens, becomes true in our earthly experience. His willing from the throne of righteousness becomes His voice speaking through us, as we just go about being ourselves.

If we bring and reinforce our scorched earth at our gatherings, we are not gathered in His name and His Water of Life is not refreshing us. Yet, in but a split second, as we speak the truth, what is accomplished is huge. We not only have all that is needed for life itself, but godliness, which is His very presence.

We are not suggesting people change their words in order to change their hearts. We are saying, as we turn our hearts to Him, our words as well as our actions will pour life into every situation in which we find ourselves. His loving us becomes His loving others through us. In His presence, and with one another, His river of life giving water gushes through us splashing out on all around us.

By knowing this we have discovered our purpose. By His presence and in His presence we are both at home and the very home in which we find ourselves. Every heart’s door to which we come is gifted with our peace. Those at peace receive our peace. Those at war with themselves, fight the peace we have and are willing to share their hate.

Our Commission

Everything we want to be or do in His presence, we have been given to do because of His presence. Only now we no longer have to try to initiate what we do next. We, by faith, enter His everyday doing, yet remain nothing more than a valve turned toward Him gushing His love out on the parched earth. Even so, while sensing the Life Water flowing through us, we know it is not us, it is He with us.

Just the other day Linda and I met a man. Right from the first eye contact and word our hearts met and Jesus was there opening our eyes to His presence and purpose. For about 45 minutes we both gushed and drank from the well of Love and Life. I’m still, now days later, washed clean by just remembering what I can experience when with other people willing to let God be Himself through them.

My conclusion is this; when we let Him live Himself through us, we live His Self confidence in Father to do everything needed in the moment. We are, by faith, invited to live His ability and know every need has been met and will be as needed. As we pour out His comfort, by way of His Holy Spirit, we watch life take hold like a seed drinking up the rain and readied to express its purpose. What we are exploring is the fact that it takes our soul experiences with others to find He is always in the midst of us ready to spring to life.

Through us, the pipeline of His love can water every parched seed. There is nothing in the Holy Spirit to damn the flow of His love which is His Person. What is available, is always available. God is available.

In the end, He wants us to be ourselves. He wants us to know, to want, to choose, and do. We enter into a paradox. We act as if it were totally us, knowing it is totally Him. He does His ability through us as if we ‘make’ it happen. As my friend Norman P. Grubb would say, ‘We say it is I, with a wink of the eye.’

No End Without a Beginning

The beginning, through which all is experienced, is the Person of God in Christ. What God begins, He ends. What He purposes comes to pass. Yes, we are in the process, but the process is insignificant. The innumerable interactions and changes we experience only witness to us and others the End exists because of the Beginning. Jesus is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, First and the Last.

There is no first without a last, no beginning without an end, no alpha without an omega. His purpose is to be each letter of every word, every word of every sentence, every sentence of every paragraph, every paragraph of every chapter, every chapter in every book, every book saying, “I love YOU.”

As some have pointed out, this is his-story.

YES!

It is your time to say yes, either for the first time or for the billionth. Each yes is our way of keeping that valve open.

It is He who does the splashing of life, giving love to dormant souls. It is He who comes alive in us that awakens us to God possibilities. Right now you can open that valve by saying,

“Yes! You can!”

Don’t forget to wink your eye!

Notes

Preface

1 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32 NAS)

1. Grace, God’s Conduit

1 “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.” (James 4:2 NAS)

2 See Mark 12:1-9

2. The Origins of Self Help

1 “…but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’ And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

(Genesis 3:3-5 NAS)

2 “…that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26, 27 NAS)

3 “For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind And declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness And treads on the high places of the earth, The LORD God of hosts is His name.” (Amos 4:13 NAS)

4 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.” (Psalm 111:10 NAS)

5 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10 NAS)

6 “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7 NKJ)

7 “Declaring the end from the beginning And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;” (Isaiah 46:10 NAS)

8 Salvation is not so much your escape from hell to heaven as heaven finding a home in your hell and transforming it.

9 “Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25 NAS)

3. Have You Been Tricked?

1 “I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.” (John 17:23 NAS)

2 “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” (2 Peter 1:3 NAS)

3 “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19 NAS)

4 “…and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” (Hebrews 2:15 NAS)

4. Be Like God!

1 “and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Romans 6:13 NAS)

2 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” (Romans 8:20-22 NAS)

3 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:38 NAS)

4 “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” (Hebrews 4:10 NAS)

5 “ I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” (John 15:5-8 NAS)

5. Our Experience

1 Read Job chapters 38 through 41.

2 “And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:11 NAS)

6. God’s Pipeline Defined

1 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6 NAS)

2 “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’” (John 4:10 NAS)

7. Turning the Valve Toward God

1 “And in the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways;” (Acts 14:16 NAS)

2 “…but just as it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.’” (1 Corinthians 2:9 NAS)

3 “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” (Romans 6:16 NAS)

4 See Hebrews 11:1-13

8. Impossible? No!

1 “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NAS)

2 “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10 NAS)

9. Sounds impossible!

1 “and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, ‘Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?’ Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.’” (Numbers 20:10-12 NASB)

2 “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.’” (John 4:13 NAS)

10. Life Can Become So Trying

1 The scripture says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13 NAS) But it does not say I exercise all the abilities of God at will. He first strengthens, then empowers, and then by His resident Spirit in you does it.

2 Somewhere in history, the phrase ‘being perfect’ has become a social declaration of being sinless, that is that you never sin. But every Christian knows they sin and confesses the same. The word declares, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14 NAS) Notice, the emphasis is on what has been done and is being done by God. He sanctifies people and because He has sanctified them (set them apart for His service) they have been perfected (completed). They are flawless, like spotless sheep ready for the slaughter.

3 “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” (1 John 3:9 NAS)

4 It was the English political theorist Algernon Sidney who originated the now familiar wording, “God helps those who help themselves”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_helps_those_who_help_themselves

11. Despair Captured

1 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Romans 1:21 NAS)

2 “We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 NAS)

3 See Matthew 18:23-33

4 “Our faces having been unveiled reflect the glory of the LORD and we are being transformed from that glory into this glory, according to the Spirit of the LORD.” (2 Corinthians 3:18 DLT)

5 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 NAS)

6 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48 NAS)

12. What is that Love?

1 “And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15 NAS)

2 “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.’” (John 4:13 NAS)

3 “And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.’” (Luke 1:35 NAS)

“His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’” (John 2:5 NAS)

4 “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NAS)

5 “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44 NAS)

13. He is Your Life

1 Definition of maturity: The ability to let God be God without your having to help Him be God.

2 “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1:4 NAS)

3 “And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:17 NAS)

4 “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.” (Romans 7:21 NAS)

5 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1 NAS)

6 “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14 NAS)

7 See Ephesians 3:14-21

8 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,” (1 Corinthians 1:30 NAS)

14. The Pipeline’s Person

1 “By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17 NAS)

2 “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;” (John 10:37 NAS)

15. The Pipeline’s Purpose

1 Luke 24:13-15

About the Author Dean Chicquette

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Dean Chicquette holds a BS in Computer Science and an MA/ABS in Systemic Theory. His favorite things to do are hanging out with Linda, reading the Bible, visiting friends, praying for others, playing music, writing, teaching, and attending Bible Study, encouraging folk.

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www.itransformyou.com