The Free Believers Network - Into the Wild

Darin and Aimee discuss how easy it is for the revelation of God’s heart to become secondary to the millions of other teachings that spring forth in Christianity. We must never forget that ALL truth is born from the revelation of God’s love for us. The FBN can be summed up in three words; “God is Love.” It is from within the fire and substance of THAT ONE TRUTH that everything we do and teach is derived. The Free Believer message is NOT “You don’t need to go to an institutional church.” The Free Believers message is “GOD IS LOVE.” Everything else is secondary and sadly there are people who mistake the secondary stuff to be the actual revelation. Nothing we believe or do will ever make sense until it is viewed through the lens of “GOD IS LOVE.”

Darin and Aimee talk about how their former religious mindset had rendered them legally blind to God’s presence because they were taught the He didn’t exist in anything outside of church or the bible. The most exciting thing about becoming a Free Believer is the renewed vision that comes from shedding ourselves of dogmatic teachings and self righteous rituals. It turns out that God’s beauty and presence can be seen in just about everything. Amazingly, we can even learn about His heart from people and things that don’t have the Christian emblem flashing all over it. If we have a heart after Him, we will see Him in everything. Having the freedom to see the heart of God in places that were formerly off limits is one of the most beautiful things about living in the wild.

Autism is an extremely magnified focus on self. Autistic children typically cannot be reached by anything from the outside world because they’re lost within themselves. The very signs of this disorder are many times mistakenly cherished by the parents as personality characteristics rather then characteristics of autism. Modern day Christians are many times bombarded with impossible behavioral expectations and they find it easier to retreat within themselves into a state of unreachability.

Darin and Robert talk about the freedom of living apart from the religious template we all grew up with. Embracing freedom in all areas of life is what makes creativity and exploration real and vibrant. One of the greatest freedoms that we have as Christians is the freedom to be who we really are at all times. Understanding full acceptance and Agape love from the Father breeds a realness and transparency in each of us that is imperative to our survival.

Darin and Amy Ramos discuss the power of tradition and how tossing is out is not always the answer. Many Free Believers have gotten into the habit of throwing out everything that looks like, feels like or tastes like tradition. It’s easy for us to believe that anything tradition is wrong. Some things became tradition and some things were born tradition. Finding the difference and embracing the power of real traditions is important and powerful. Free Believers in the wild can and should find what traditions are helpful and good. This is a subject that has been overlooked by many of us. This discussion takes a second look at traditions and why they’re important.

Darin, Amy Ramos and Aimee Dassele talk about how the institutional church has taught us to “win souls” by pressuring people to be born again as soon as possible. Everyone moves at their own spiritual pace, so when we manipulate other people’s growth, we are actually inducing labor in the Spirit and the results are devastating. Then the conversation takes a turn to how this principal applies the Free Believers world. Many times Free Believers pressure people in the church system to get up and leave, years before they are ready. Leaving the institutional christian system is a process that is different in everyone’s life. It’s important that as Free Believers we commit ourselves to patience and understanding. Each person grows at a different pace and whether or not they ever leave that religious system is between them and God.

Darin and Amy talk about what propels the Christmas Spirit and how each of them fan it into flame. This is a great talk about how we raise our children to be people with hope and something to look forward too. What is the essence of walking in the Spirit? Sometimes we can find ourselves going through all the motions in an effort to rekindle the Spirit of excitement in our lives. The key is not necessarily to recreate what you did last year, but to create something new out of the Spirit of Christmas you have in you today.

Darin and Aimee discuss how difficult it is to stop using God as an excuse to not connect with others. Institutional Christianity is notorious for finding ways to retreat from relationship in the name of God. One of the things that happens when we commit to living in the wild is that we no longer allow ourselves to blindly use Christian lingo as a way to hide from intimacy with others. We also begin to take a more serious look at what actually IS God moving and what is people moving in love. Finding the difference it key to true relationship and intimacy.

Darin and Robert discuss growing up and maturing in our understanding of what spirituality really is. The institutional church has taught us that we need to be totally dependent on God for everything. Real spirituality is a picture of a an unborn child in the womb, still needing the mother for food, blood, oxygen and life. Growing in our spirituality cannot happen until the cord from mother has been cut. For many people getting to a point of maturity seems wrong because it goes against everything they’ve been taught in church.

Darin and Aimee discuss a blog post that Darin recently put up on the topic of “involuntary Spirituality.” Most of Christian teachings having to do with life in the Spirit are in relation to things that God has designed to happen on their own without our assistance. Getting to the point where we don’t worry about things like our purpose, our inner healing and our spiritual growth is a freeing place to be. It’s nice to know that God has set everything up in our lives to run by itself without our having to monitor it minute by minute.

Darin and Aimee talk about what exactly a Free Believer has the freedom to do or become. Sometimes it’s easy to not see beyond the immediate freedom we experience when we swallow the message of love and grace. That immediate freedom has such a light and easy feeling that it’s easy to think that, that is what it’s all about. The truth is that our freedom continues to grow in every level of life and the longer we live in the wild, the more we begin to see how many areas of our lives are yet to be free. The freedom to finally be ourselves and to explore the depth of that is perhaps the most exciting prospect yet.

Darin and Aimee talk about the difference between going through the normal stages of leaving the institution, and allowing your pain to become the lens through which you see everything. It’s easy to fear institutionalism so much that you be begin to see it in everything. As always, we are all wanting to heal in such a way that we have a healthy balance in our lives. We will only see what we’ve set our hearts to see.  

Darin talks with two of the three authors of Windblown Media’s recently released, “Bo’s Cafe.” Bruce McNicol and John Lynch discuss the heart of why this book was written and what they want to contribute to the world through it. The purpose behind Bo’s Cafe is truly astounding and perhaps a first. Rather than just talk about Grace, Bo’s Cafe was meant to show the reader how Grace actually plays out in the context of daily life. It gives a picture of Grace in action.

Darin, Brian and Robert talk about the popular Christian notion that our actions and reactions either add too or take away from the message of the Gospel. Many well meaning people keep quiet because they are afraid that their imperfections will somehow hinder the message when it comes from their lips. The Message of God’s love and Grace stands on it’s own. It doesn’t rely on our sinless behavior to validate it’s power. It’s power comes from God and Him alone.

Darin, Amy and Tricia Reiland talk about learning who you are and what spiritual diet you need in order to become the most potent version of yourself. Defining the difference between you and everyone else is sometimes difficult when you’ve come out of an institutional setting where everyone is defined by the cookie cutter mentality. Tricia had to come to grips with who she was and she had to stop comparing herself with others in her life. There is a danger in comparison thinking that can steal your very soul if you don’t stand up and shout out your own language.