The long-lasting legacy of one's life is predetermined by the QUALITY of one's "relationships", not by the QUANTITY of one's "possessions". It's NEVER going to be your possessions that will remember you. They are decidedly indifferent. What WILL determine if you (and your life) will be remembered, depends on the hearts and lives that you have touched by the PRIVILEGE of relationship. In fact, the greatest purpose and the highest meaning of ALL life ultimately converges on the shoulders of RELATIONSHIP. It never has, nor ever will be, in the accumulation of wealth and possessions.

    Having said that, the precursor to authentic intimacy is TRUTHFUL CONNECTION. And with that connection comes the promise of intimacy. In turn, intimacy provides the sacred sugar that profoundly sweetens the palate of life. And the PLATFORM for "perpetual connection" and "sustained intimacy" is exclusively none other than RELATIONSHIP. Relationship best expresses the "greatest purpose" of life, and best accomplishes its "highest meaning" too. In fact, relationship is the one thing that is thoroughly qualified to present man at his very finest. In the answering of life's most pressing "Why?" and its most searching "How?", it is relationship that ultimately tops these great scales.

      It's crowing glory is "the way, the truth and the life." It is in its finest hour that it exemplifies the "living embrace" and the "succumbing coalescence" of "the way, the truth and the life". Nothing else on earth has either the privilege, or the pedigree, of displaying the supreme heights of accomplishment available to man quite like relationship. And by this relationship, we are specifically referring to the particular genre of "right relationship". For it is only "the way, the truth and the life" that can express and accomplish that which is RIGHT RELATIONSHIP. Because it is only the way, the truth and the life that is LOVE. Therefore, in the final analysis, love is the chief good that ultimately woos man into the clutches of right relationship. For true love is intensely relational. And it is also purposeful and intentional too. Because God Himself is both relational and intentional.

     RIGHT LOVE is therefore the intimate embrace of two souls buoyed upon the wings of RIGHT RELATIONSHIP. "Right relationship" then is when man loves with all his mind, with all his soul, and with all his spirit. And it all begins with a meeting of hearts and of minds, where in that meeting, the SOUL grows to love everything that becomes the rolling green pastures that represent relationship. And finally, when it comes to the SOUL, God has these words to say. "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your BODY and in your SPIRIT, which are God’s.” - ‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭6:19-20‬. This tells us specifically that the "body" and the "spirit" are God's. But what then of the "SOUL"? Being a tripartite coalescence of "body, soul and spirit", what then of that part of man snuggled inbetween the body and the spirit? To whom does the soul then belong?

     By not being mentioned in the scripture above, it's pointed omission tells us that the soul actually belongs elsewhere than belonging unto God. In fact, it points to the soul actually belonging to man himself. What confirms this fact is attested to by the phenomenon of the human soul being at the heart of the longest standing battle of all time. Why else would there be a cosmic tug of war between ancient foes vying for the ultimate prize that is the soul if the soul already belonged to anyone other than to man himself? Being both IN the centre of man, and simultaneously AT the centre of the ancient battle between forces of light and dark, is it any coincidence that the "prize of the soul" is at the very heart of everything RELATIONAL and ETERNAL?

     We know with certainty from this scripture that the body and spirit are God's. But the soul God has deliberately given to us. By contrast, it is specifically ours. And the obvious question at this point is WHY? In much the same way that God Himself is a tripartite God, the clue to the answer lies in us being a tripartite being. On the one hand, the holy trinity is a coalescence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, man is a three-way composite of "body, soul and spirit". In the middle, at the heart of man, is the soul. In keeping with the deliberate order of this three-way sequence, Jesus the Son, being in the middle, is therefore also the "SOUL" part of God. Having become God with skin, being thus also man with a soul, Jesus as "the soul of God" is easy to see. And the Holy Ghost is the "SPIRIT" of God, whilst God the Father is the FULLNESS that is the "BODY" of the Godhead. And as a Father, God always leads by example. By His own free will, God the Father freely gave "to man" His soul, being His Son, who is at the very HEART of the holy trinity. When we love someone, we give them our heart. In giving us His Son, in giving us His HEART, God the Father demonstrated the extravagant heights of His love FOR MAN.

     And therein lies the answer as to why the soul belongs TO MAN, and not to God. By our own free will, if we are to rise to the same heights of love for our Father in return, if we are to follow our Father's great example, we are invited to demonstrate this equal and great show of love in return by likewise freely giving to God that part of ourselves that He personally has given of Himself to us. In other words, just like He freely gave us His Son, who is His heart and soul, in "the way and the truth and the life" that is right relationship, we are called to likewise give our own heart and soul in return to God. And in so doing, we too have the privilege to demonstrate the same height of love for our Father that He has already demonstrated for us as His children. Such a gesture only has legitimacy if what we give to the Father is firstly of our own free will, and secondly, is authentically ours to either keep or to give. "Freely you have received; freely give." - Matthew 10:8. The obvious next question then is HOW do we do this? How do we get to give our heart and soul unto God? And the answer is, as with any act of giving one's heart, we give it In RELATIONSHIP. And specifically in RIGHT relationship.

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Relationship reveals what MASTERS our heart because relationship reveals what MATTERS to our heart

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     Or, alternatively, we can simply choose not to. We can choose to give our heart "elsewhere". We can choose to build relationship elsewhere. Instead of building relationship with the "Creator", we can instead build relationship with "creation". In fact, the choice between the world and God comes precisely down to this. The temptation for all men lies in establishing relationship instead with the pursuit of possessions, which is effectively placing relationship emphasis on creation, and not on the Creator. But of one thing we can be very sure. Relationship reveals what MASTERS our heart because relationship reveals what MATTERS to our heart. This is the privilege of free will. We can choose. But what we choose ultimately reveals where our treasure lies. Which is why emphasis is deliberately placed on RIGHT relationship, rather than just ANY relationship.

      And in this choice between relationship with the Father or with the world, there IS no neutral ground. The choice is an either "one or the other" scenario. This is why God says we cannot have two masters. Any house with two masters is a house divided. A house cannot be divided. Any heart with two masters is a heart divided. And this is why God says any man divided in his heart is unstable in all that he does. "A double minded man IS unstable in all his ways." - James 1:8. He cannot demonstrate faithfulness to ANY relationship when his heart is DIVIDED. This is why we are to have only ONE bride. And this is why God says that there is no neutral ground. We need to CHOOSE between relationship with our Father, or relationship with the things of the Father (the world).

     This choice is ultimately a choice of love. And specifically either the love of a Father for His child, and the love of a child for His Father. Or, instead, the choice of love of things rather. And of this latter kind of relationship, and of this latter kind of love, God says clearly: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." - 1 Timothy 6:10. The love of a Father is most certainly not placing trust or relationship in things, or self, but in placing trust in the imperative of relationship. It is not about pursuing and placing trust in the created, but in pursuing relationship with the Creator. For whilst moth and rust will destroy all that are things, neither rust nor moth can ever destroy the relationship that is the unquenchable love of a Father for His child.

     When God speaks of having "pierced themselves with many griefs", He is referring to man having replaced the living relationship of "person-with-person" with the dead relationship of a "person-with-things". And it strikes one with a certain irony that they are also called POSSESSIONS because in the acquiring thereof, they in fact possess you. You become their slave. Hence why the rich man in Matthew burst into the tears, thereby confirming his being "pierced by many griefs", when Jesus told him to sell all that he had and follow Him. This was an object lesson for all humanity in how the heart of man is easily possessed by the pursuit of things. "Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property." - Matthew 19:21-22.

      Relationship with the "world" is relationship with "creation". The evidence of increased wealth and possessions proves to man that his relationship with creation is healthy and flourishing. And the more man gets, the healthier that relationship is by definition. And it is possible for man to establish this relationship because right from the beginning, God gave Adam authority over the world. God gave man authority over creation. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." - Genesis 1:26. That is the relationship with the world. However, relationship is also the barometer of what is man's priority. It tells us where we can find one's heart. "For where one's treasure is, there one's heart will be also." - Matthew 6:21. Instead of relationship with the Creator, man in the multitudes inexplicably choose relationship with creation rather than with the relationship that can for all eternity leave of that life a long-lasting and unforgettable legacy.

     "But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." - Joshua 24:15.

In the final analysis, relationship reveals what masters our heart because relationship reveals what matters to our heart.

To God be the glory, forever and ever. Amen and amen.

#WarriorServants4God #LovingAuthentically #LivingAuthentically

"For My house will be called a house of prayer."