Emotional Maturity +

His Presence In Me, a takeaway from BroSummit Aguascalientes Mexico - contributed by Ron Graves

Years back I found myself high centered on the verse from the gospel of Luke,

'the kingdom of heaven is within you'. Each of us are familiar with this phenomenon,

the way a verse can stay with you; there truly is nothing else like it.

    I first met brother McClelland in Puebla MX. I met him at a leadership conference Es Tiempo in the early 2000's and we have continued our brotherhood ever since. Both the verse and our meeting ocurred in the same timeframe. These sorts of things over time have left a trusted familiarity of how the Spirit moves among us; I for one am grateful. In my walk with Christ, I've embraced this as a lifestyle of being His. I grew up with 3 brothers; meeting other ones and walking with these is one of the greatest gifts I've ever received. It too is a lifestyle. Fast forward to now, and our time in Aguacalientes only deepens the importance of walking as one...particularly now.

    Brother Ken led off with his sharing a question pertinent to now.. what does masculinity look like today in Christ ? For brevity's sake his offering was / is emotional maturity. Many of us have spent years in church navigating our respective learning curves, all neatly folded into life and all it's hurly whirls. (sometimes even being folded by these) I'm convinced that the Lord allows much we don't readily appreciate to reinforce His choice of each of us as well as His way of revealing Himself to us. I've often thought He and I had 2 different scripts. I've had a more than a few brain cramps tryna reconcile what He says is our truth while I wonder 'really'?

    His answer has steadily, unswervingly remained 'Really'. We were created in His image AND likeness. His choice of us stands full on in the face of everything that disqualifies us and if I'm reading my verses correct, we've been His from the get go. Thankfully in the brotherhood, these sorts of things and questions life and our hearts raise are able to be answered. They've already been answered by the Word incarnate.

    The question life and our time together raises for me in this present is 'have I been minimizing the truth of His presence in me'? A tip of an iceburg. How many of us have had similar questions that keep coming to the surface as we find ourselves neck deep in life where we seem to be more outta place than prepped and ready? and ready for what? I am wondering if emotional maturity is our process of moving from hope to knowing. And not just knowing Him but knowing our identity in Him.

Ron Graves

St. Helens, Oregon

You can reach Ron to comment or the like at rwgraves @ gmail