What exactly is it that we want from our Abba Father? That is the wrong question. That question is driven by “Earth-life Bias” (ELB). We coined ELB to describe the integration of the spirit enemy’s infiltration of our entire human society. The ELB label helps prevent us from going downhill on infected people and organizations. We need to isolate ELB to defeat the enemy in our lives.

The enemy is much bigger than Satan. The enemy is all of the divine spirit world’s beings in conflict with our Abba Father and his children. The more the enemy can keep us focused on the past, the less we focus on our eternal life in paradise. We explain ELB in detail in Chapter 2, but believers make ELB possible because many believers live in the rearview mirror with Jesus.

This life is not about Jesus making a business trip here 2,000 years ago; it is about his future return for eternity. We wrote this book to help believers turn their life around and live to look forward to joy, peace, and glory in this life. The enemy of our Abba Father is so entrenched in every aspect of our lives today that we need a new label to separate and isolate it to escape from it. Chapter 3 presents our escape from ELB, embracing the supernatural world as citizens of Heaven.

 The right question is, what does our Abba Father want from us? The answer in John 15:11 will surprise you, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” That is what our Abba father designed for us. He also wants us in his Family v15:12-13 defines, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.“

More Scripture reinforces our answer. Romans 15:13, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.” Psalm 16:11, “Thou wilt show me the path of life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 71:23, “My lips shall shout for joy when I sing praises unto thee; And my soul, which thou hast redeemed.” Isaiah 55:12, “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.”

When we sew these swatches of the Scripture together, we can see the beautiful picture of what our Abba Father wants for us, to live in joy, peace, and love. Those verses tear my eyes, and I see where the pleasure comes from, “in believing.” Romans 15:13, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.”

That is where we get on a new train traveling through the Scripture. Our faith is not just about cognitively believing that Jesus’ visit 2,000 years ago is true; it is about experiencing the joy, peace, and love our Abba Father built into that event for believers. Believing and receiving Christ as our Lord and Savior is only the beginning of our journey with our Abba father that never ends.

You have noticed that we call God “our Abba Father.” That is what Jesus called him because we are a Family. That is what our Abba Father wants for us, and that works for me better than anything any human ever told me about our Abba Father because it energizes the Holy Spirit in us. Please pray for that. Since our life depends on it, the burning question for me is, how do we relate to our Creator, our Abba Father, to experience the above passages that describe joy, peace, and love in this life?

In preaching, I often move the conclusion from the end of my sermons to the beginning to ensure the flock gets to it. That made for some interesting discussions in sermon prep courses at seminary, but it is amazing how much clarity that also brings to the message. Sermons are typically structured to keep us awake in anticipation of the conclusion. Still, I have learned that people are very interested in knowing where we are going along the way so they can pay more attention to the path we are on and repeat it.

My conclusion

The Family relationship with our Abba Father in his divine spirit world is the only model for this life that delivers the full joy, peace, and glory that our Abba Father created for us. In other words, put off the focus on avoiding the fiery pit and focus on experiencing the full peace, joy, and glory created for us. Put off and put on are the central theme of biblical counseling, which shapes my ministry.

The Scripture describes our relationship with our Abba Father through his Son, who delivers us as a beautiful bride waiting patiently in perfect faith for her groom who sacrificed his life for the bride. Then, with all the joy, peace, and glory flowing through us, we share it with others as guests at the wedding. My experience is that we will achieve that if we try.

The Family relationship helps complete our Abba Father’s plan for his children on this earth because he is committed to working through the two families he created; both the material and the divine spirit families. No other approach comes close to that relationship.

As mentioned above, what I see in traditional preaching is centered on God’s promises, God’s character, God’s power, and God’s love. That leaves too many believers with him up there and us down here. We have some measure of faith while fending for ourselves in a condemned world ruled by our enemy. That is the genesis of “Earth-life Bias” (ELB) which robs us of our relationship with our Abba Father and the life he meant us to have.

Our Abba Father created Adam and Eve as a loving Family living with our Abba Father in paradise. But their relationship (and ours) was broken by sin. But we do not see it that way; we see the first two sinners who ruined it for everyone. That is not a great beginning, so I never start a new believer in Genesis. Jesus said, “For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). We do not have to wait for the new earth to experience our Family. It is enough for believers to “believe” to avoid the fiery pit, but so much more is there for us in the Family, starting today.

“That which was lost” was the Family. We are not just “lost,” like we do not know where we are. We are here to help those who want the full joy, peace, and glory that our Abba Father created for us. The fruit is strong faith to rely on for everything. If our Abba Father has already filled your faith to the brim, his book may help you share what you have with others.

Five Challenges

I see five challenges to implementing our conclusion, and our response to these challenges defines our relationships. Wikipedia lists sixty-six Christian ideologies and about 1,500 Christian church organizations worldwide. Wikipedia is not a good source for faith information; whatever the exact numbers are, ELB plays an enormous role in that diversity. The more we dedicate this life to our relationships, the greater our faith and rewards here and in Heaven will be. The Scripture answers the relationship challenges for me, and this book shares the answer I was led to by the Holy Spirit.

The Scripture is the same for all denominations, and it will help bring us together. By that, I mean the Scripture is the original ancient autographs inspired by the Holy Spirit and deemed to be Canon because of the miracles associated with the apostles in their writing. We all share that.

The first challenge is what humans in ELB have done with the Holy Bible translations. I can only speak for the English translations, but they are very problematic, as you will see. False teachings were a continuing and growing theme in the New Testament; false teaching goes back to Jesus’ time. And ELB goes back to Adam and Eve. So that there is no ambiguity, all the denominations serve our Abba Father’s purpose, and Romans 10 will keep all of their members who embrace it out of the fiery pit. I do not go downhill on any denomination; I love them all.

The second challenge is that the “Son of Man” (Jesus’ favorite name for himself) was the firstborn in the Family. No one else is naturally born into it. That leads to the third challenge. The third challenge is that we have to want to be in the Family. That challenge can be straightforward to complicated because our Abba Father has a divine spirit enemy, the creator of ELB. We are the prize and live under a constant threat of attack from the enemy in ELB. We are in a divine spirit war whether we want it or not. This book shows us with the Scripture how the Family relationship defeats the enemy in our life.

If we do not choose to be in the Family, we default to the enemy, and our Abba Father punishes us as his enemy. There are only two final options, the fiery pit or eternal paradise. The power of ELB could not be more explicit in that choice when so many people reject eternity in Heaven. Believers must understand how to overcome ELB’s false teaching. Our response to that challenge requires us to understand and be aware of the enemy and how he hides his works. That is why we coined ELB.

The fourth challenge is that the Family has a business, growing the Family. Evangelism or “making disciples” is the standard title for the Family business. And we are the labor. ELB has turned what should be an exciting experience into a dreaded chore for many believers, and I hope this book will turn that around for you as it did for me. When we immerse ourselves in the first four challenges, this season of life becomes full of the joy and peace our Abba Father created for us.

The fifth challenge is to experience full joy, peace, and glory after choosing to be in the Family. That should be a reward more than a challenge, our earthly reward for being in the Family. But so many miss it, I left it as our challenge.

Family Relationships

The change we call for is reinforcing our family relationships with our Abba Father, our spouse, and each other. I want to strengthen the family concept with the Scripture starting here. The description of the family relationship model started with Abraham and took a giant leap forward when our Abba Father revealed his relationship name, “Yahweh,” to Moses and Israel.

Why was Abraham chosen to start the Holy Family? Genesis 18:19, “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” Note the phrase, “keep the way of the LORD.” It does not say “believe” in the way of the LORD. Our Abba father calls us to participate in the Family, not just know about it and believe it is true.

The Old Testament is quite clear our Abba Father is not just a “Father,” but a Father figure to his Family. Please pray on that. Exodus 4:22, “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith Yahweh, Israel is my son, my first-born.” Exodus 4:31, “And the people believed: and when they heard that Yahweh had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.” Deuteronomy 8:5, “And thou shalt consider in thy heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so Yahweh thy God chasteneth thee.“

Deuteronomy 14:1-2, “Ye are the children of Yahweh your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art a holy people unto Yahweh thy God, and Yahweh hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.” Deuteronomy 32:6, “Do ye thus requite Yahweh, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee?.”

The Old Testament is about our Family relationship with our Abba Father. That is why I am such a big fan of King David. We see his relationship with our Abba Father in Samuel and Chronicles. The Psalms bring us all his thoughts and feelings. King David is the complete human model for our relationship with our Abba Father. Combine King David with Job and Daniel, and we have our incredible, life-changing relationship.

After Jesus’ work on the cross, all the attention was placed on salvation, celebrating his resurrection, and preaching has lost our relationship. It is time to bring it back. Let’s look at the New Testament. Mathew 6:9, “Our Father who art in heaven,” Romans 8:15, “For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Mark 14:36, “And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me: howbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt.” Ephesians 4:6, “one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all . . .” Jesus is a Son in a Family. When we walk as he walked, that includes emulating his family relationship with his Father and us. We must see the Family, not just the Savior.

The first sermon preached by Peter in Acts 2 is considered the birth of the church movement, and it reinforces my relationship with our Abba Father. Most teaching focuses on v2:36-39, “. . . Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him. . . .”

With our relationship radar, there is an earlier passage in Peter’s message that I value much more. Acts 2:25-28, “I beheld the Lord always before my face; For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; Moreover my flesh also shall dwell in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades, Neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou madest known unto me the ways of life; Thou shalt make me full of gladness with thy countenance.“

Peter is quoting David’s Psalm 16. He is known as the “murderer and adulterer after God’s own heart” and the bloodline of our Savior. David, Job, and Daniel, three Old Testament stars, show us how to be more like Jesus in our relationship, praising, obeying, and worshipping our Abba Father. But no other hero in the Scripture shows us their entire life in relationship with our Abba Father, barnacles and all, like David. Being a sinner is not how we, as believers, should see ourselves. That is ELB.

We tend to discount David’s role as an Old Testament relic, but his Psalms teach us how to be in our relationship with our Abba Father, not just to become experts on David. The New Testament brings in Jesus as the new covenant Savior, but David is still the model for how to love Jesus and our Abba Father.

David said everything there is to say to our Abba Father; being original is almost impossible. And not necessary. David’s faith and conversations are still very relevant, and believers should take what David said to our Abba Father and make it our own. Especially see his heart, praise, and repentance in his relationship with our Abba Father. Please pray on that.

The Divine Spirit World

Our escape from ELB is the divine spirit world. Conventional preaching is much too timid about the divine spirit world, and believers must learn to embrace it to live in it. First, we see the material world, the earth, and then we are supposed to see the divine spirit world into which we will eventually merge. 1 Corinthians 15:45, “So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.“

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 2:13-16, “Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with spiritual words. Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

Believers have the “mind of Christ” through the Holy Spirit, which gives understanding to believers that the “natural man” does not have. That is profound. We as believers must seek that knowledge, not for redemption but to do our job in the Family business and feel the peace, joy, and glory. Discerning that understanding is very exciting, and it strengthens our faith. S3M2 presents our spirit/soul/mind/heart “godly control system” (GCS), which makes all this work.

Believers no longer live in this world; we are already part of Heaven’s divine spirit world. Our citizenship, our passport, is issued from Heaven. And, any attack on us here is also an attack through us on Heaven. And the enemy is giving his all to keep us focused here and not there.

Exegeting our Relationship

Exegesis is the scholarly word for examining and understanding the Scripture. I present it here because believers benefit from doing it themselves with the Holy Spirit’s help. I do it in every verse. I have a unique strategy for the Scripture that starts with the same question for every verse: what is this verse telling me about my relationship with our Abba Father?

Do that one thing, and your life will dramatically change for the better. You are blessed if that is the only thing you get from this book. The conventional exegesis strategy examines what a verse means to the original audience and then brings that thought into today. That approach is fine, but it rarely leads to our relationship with our Abba Father; only more knowledge in ELB.

Look at Deuteronomy 22:8, “When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thy house, if any man fall from thence.” In ancient times, the flat roof was the coolest place in the evening, so houses had stairs to the roof. That is an easy verse to chuckle at today but don’t. See our loving Abba Father in our relationship trying to save us from harm to us and others, and he goes into great detail to help us. Please pray on that.

The Walk

This is a paraphrase of leadership guru John C. Maxwell, “a leader without followers is just someone out for a walk.” That is me. I do not want any followers. Regardless of any denomination or house of worship in our life, we are in charge of our relationships. Take your walk through the Scripture with our Abba Father and the Holy Spirit and build your relationships.

This book is about the Scripture. All Christian denominations use the Scripture, and this walk must co-exist with all in the love of the Scripture. We are not here to go downhill on any denomination. We should light a candle for the denominations to move closer together.

If there is one thing our Abba Father hates, it is arguing over his Word. And yet, he has tolerated it for over 2,000 years. I suggest there is a purpose to it. If this book is very different from what you are used to hearing, I encourage you to find your landing position with the Holy Spirit and glorify our Abba Father from there as he leads you.

In addition, keep your antennae up for like-minded people and form small study groups at home. That movement is also sweeping the nation. Each message in this book starts a path you can continue in your study with the Holy Spirit. You may be amazed at where your path leads and how your relationships grow. And most likely, you will find your true calling from our Abba Father.

I mainly refer to the “Scripture” because it means “holy writing.” And for me, it means the original language. I see the Holy Bible as a translated writing we cannot do without, but our faith grows when we keep it connected to the original.

Mathew 4:4, “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” 1 Peter 1:23, “having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth. . . .” The Scripture with the Holy Spirit is the “life” in our redeemed life until we are with our Abba Father in the new earth.

The Godly Hour

I often hear believers tell me they wake up at 6 a.m. and pray with our Abba Father for an hour before starting their day. Most then say at 7 a.m., “ok, God, I have to go to work now.” I pray that at 7 a.m., we would say, “ok, Abba Father, we have to go to work now; you and I have a lot to do today. I pray for your wisdom and guidance in glorifying you in our work today.”

The previous paragraph illustrates the difference between living inside ourselves here on earth in ELB versus living in our relationship with our Abba Father. The enemy’s work is bending the good just enough in unaware believers, and we must see ourselves living in our Abba Father’s divine spirit world as citizens of Heaven.

Take our Abba Father with us everywhere, all the time, to glorify him in all that we do. Let me rephrase that. When we live fully in our relationship with our Holy Family, we are connected tightly in a way that never disconnects. It is tough to commit adultery when we know that we have a “conjoined twin-like” Father watching us 24/7/365.

Anything less makes our Abba Father a “side hustle.” It is amazing how much trouble we can avoid with our Abba Father front and center in our lives every minute. In reality, it is a far greater “high” than anything man produces in drugs or sex. And in my generation, rock n’ roll music. The old adage, “hate the sin, love the sinner,” now includes “hate the ELB, love the ELB-er.”

Home Study Groups

Have you ever attended a Holy Bible study where the leader said, “what does this message say to you” and then they just listened to your answer? Leaders usually tell us what the verse means to everyone. You are called to form your own meanings within the Scripture and refine them as the Holy Spirit leads you. Only you can have your relationship with our Abba Father.

We designed this book to get you started on your journey unrelated to where you worship. Hopefully, you will realize that you do not need a leader to listen to you; only you can experience what the Scripture means to you; the Holy Spirit is the only leader required. Our Abba Father created teachers to help us, but the responsibility is our own to discern our gifts and callings in the Family. Our Abba Father works through his two families, both the material and the divine spirit.

I recommend getting together with believing friends to support each other, just like the new believers at the end of Acts 2. One of my major “pet peeves” is the word “church.” In my GTPE7.com URL, the “E” stands for “Ecclesia,” the Greek word for what Jesus said he was building “on this rock.” In the original Greek, Mathew 16:18 says, “On this rock, I will build my community.” That ship has sailed, churches will not change, but it’s worth understanding for small-group support.

Make no mistake; you should belong to a worship group or house of worship if you are a follower more than a leader. If you are a leader, go lead. Just do it by serving, not bossing. After our Abba Father came and got me in 2008, he told me to serve and shut up about leading. And every step after that, he taught me to serve. That was in great contrast to my old life in the wilderness when I led almost every group I was part of.

Measuring our Faith

We present faith in S5M2; it differs from what you think it is. Our faith needs to be measured. When we talk about growing our relationships, the question arises, how do we measure our faith? The concept of checking our faith level never occurs to most people. Believing is binary, 0 or 1. Faith is a gift from our Abba Father, and our acceptance is treated as a meter, weak to strong. So, where on the faith meter are we?

There are two meters. Please sit down because my answer about the first meter might disturb you. By the end of the book, you will not be frightened; you will be excited like never before. My answer to how we measure our faith is simple; how aware of and afraid of death in this life are we? That is the one big question ELB wants us to ignore, which is intentional.

When our Abba Father came and got me in 2008, he gave me a dangerous assignment. He sent me into gang territory in Los Angeles “to help out.” I had the same reaction Jonah had when our Abba father sent him to Nineveh. I was a suit and would not last the day. And like Jonah, I was soon on my way to gangland, which led to my calling in jails and prisons. I remembered enough from Sunday School to skip Jonah’s three days inside the giant fish before going to LA.

Thugs killed a team member doing our work, and we had several close calls. People often asked me if I was ever scared. My answer was, “what is the point of believing in God if we do not want to meet him?” I live by that response. I was often the entertainment for the OG’s (old gangsters) in the group because I preferred they walk in front of me.

I give ELB much attention because ELB’s negative influence is enormous, including biblical scholars and church leaders. Each believer must take control of building their relationship with our Abba Father. The book also helps us be more intimate with him and experience the full peace, joy, and glory he created, living in a sanctified marriage without fear of anything.

We now come to the second meter. How committed are we to our job in the Family business? I know, what job? That is the fruit of ELB, and it must change because of the postmodern condition of the world spoken to in the previous message. This book will lead you through the Scripture to meter readings as high as you would like. The higher the meter reading, the greater the joy, peace, and glory in this life AND our rewards in Heaven. But be aware the second meter is not 0-10; it is -10 ELB to +10 Faith. Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is.” Escaping the fiery pit is a gift; that is the first meter. Then we commit our lives to our job in the Family business; that is the second meter. Also, Jesus “coming quickly” means it will be instant when it happens, not tomorrow. Translation matters.