How to Fly: Understanding the Dynamics of the Spiritual Life

HOW TO FLY

Understanding the Dynamics of the Spiritual Life

Scott K. Stephans

First Fruits Press

Wilmore, KY

c2025

ISBN: 9781648172663

How to fly : understanding the dynamics of the spiritual life

Scott K. Stephans

First Fruits Press, ©2025

Digital version at https://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruitsbooks/23/

First Fruits Press is a digital imprint of the Asbury Theological Seminary, B.L. Fisher Library. Asbury Theological Seminary is the legal owner of the material previously published by the Pentecostal Publishing Co. and reserves the right to release new editions of this material as well as new material produced by Asbury Theological Seminary. Its publications are available for noncommercial and educational uses, such as research, teaching and private study. First Fruits Press has licensed the digital version of this work under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/.

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Stephans, Scott K.

How to fly : understanding the dynamics of the spiritual life [electronic resource]/ Scott K. Stephans. – Wilmore, Kentucky : First Fruits Press, ©2025.

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1 Spiritual life Christianity 2 Spiritual formation. I. Title.

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Tis book is dedicated to the memory of my dad whose interest in fying rubbed of on me.

References

All Scripture references are New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise noted.

Te Message (MSG)

New Living Translation (NLT)

Good New Bible – Today’s English Version (TEV)

J.B. Phillips Translation (JBP)

King James Version (KJV)

Revised Standard Version (RSV)

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Common English Bible (CEB)

Acknowledgements

I am deeply grateful for the path my life has taken. So many people have blessed my soul with the joy of living. I thank my wife and my daughter for their constant love and support. I thank my mom and my grandma for always lifing me up in their faithful prayers. I thank my pilot friends, Lenne and Kirk, for giving wings to my dreams. I thank the professors and staf of Asbury Teological Seminary for so deeply saturating my mind and heart in sound Biblical theology that the Spirit was able to inspire, equip and empower me in pastoral ministry for forty-fve years.

When I felt God’s call to ministry, I was in my fnal year of engineering school. I decided to leave engineering and head to seminary. Transferring required that I meet with my academic advisor, Dr. Tad Smith. He told me something that day I’ve never forgotten. Upon leaving engineering for ministry he said, “I guess you’ll go from designing bridges and buildings to designing souls for the Kingdom of God.” And it came to pass.

About the Author

Dr. Scott K. Stephans grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. He excelled in math and science in high school, then attended Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology where he majored in civil engineering. Called to pastoral ministry, Dr. Stephans entered seminary afer college graduation. He received both his Master of Divinity and his Doctor of Ministry from Asbury Teological Seminary. In between those two degrees he spent forty years in fulltime ministry as a Christian pastor.

INTRODUCTION

I heard a noise outside. “ Tat’s a 747!” I confdently blurted out in junior high shop class. A few doubting classmates took a break from sanding their projects and looked out the window. Te Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet had just been put into service when I was an eighth grader. It was a spectacular sight to behold. Even the teacher rushed to look up in the sky at this amazing aircraf. Tey confrmed my confdent blind assessment of the blaring noise from the low-fying jet. I knew I was right.

I grew up six short miles from the busiest airport in the world. Every thirty seconds a plane either takes of or lands at O’Hare International Airport. Flight paths ofen went right over my house. I would lie in the summer grass in the backyard looking up at the blue sky. As the big jets few overhead I felt the roar of the engines rumble over me like an earthquake in my soul.

I learned what each of the most popular aircraf looked like. I studied the Boeing and McDonnell Douglas feets. I could easily spot a Beechcraf, Leer or Piper model. Once in a while a foreign made jet, like a Caravelle or DeHavilland, or a military plane, like a C-130, would stump me. I would run inside to look up a plane I didn’t recognize and read all about its design. I could name nearly every plane I saw.

I paid attention to sounds too. Te drone of the jet turbines became as regular around the house as the noise of my brothers and sisters running up and down the stairs. I learned to hear the

subtle diferences between the engine noise of each kind of jet. Without seeing the plane, I could tell the diference between the Pratt & Witneys of the 727 and the Rolls-Royces of the L-1011. One of my younger brothers, always looking to challenge me, quizzed me. We would be watching television, hear a plane fy over, and he asked me what it was. I would smugly tell him. He would go outside to check my accuracy. But then hated to come back in to tell me I was right.

Once a year Dad would take us to the Observation Deck at O’Hare (back in the pre 9-11 days when there was a public observation deck). I could not contain my enthusiasm to be that up-close to all the sights, sounds and smells of the tarmac. Some kids got excited about a day at the beach or the zoo or the mall. Give me a Saturday morning at O’Hare and my life was complete. Te almost unbearable thunder of the jet engines, the smell of the jet fuel fumes, the wave of heat of the concrete, the screech of rubber on the runway, how those things made my twelve-year-old heart pound!

In my fervor for airplanes there remained one puzzling mystery. Trough all the backyard observation, the study of aviation books from the library, and hours spent at the airport, I marveled at the fact that these gigantic machines could stay up in the air. At times I wanted to run underneath a jumbo jet and help it stay up with a push from below. Te giant jet appeared cumbersome and slow. It seemed like it hung motionless in the sky. I yelled at the pilots, “Pour on the gas! I can ride my bike faster than you can fy your plane.” My young mind could not comprehend the dynamic forces involved to keep a huge jet, loaded with tons of passengers and cargo, up in the air.

Since those days, I passed high school physics and studied engineering in college. I now know how planes fy. Even so, I am

amazed. Whether I see a 747 sailing high in the sky or a robin gliding across the backyard, fight thrills me. I watch a hawk efortlessly soar above the trees and my senses go berserk with awe.

According to science, fying may not be a miracle. Yet fying is miraculous. Te ability to overcome gravity and move through the air is wondrous. Tis wonder was once reserved only for our feathered friends. Now the human species has the know-how to fy higher, farther and faster than the birds. Te dream to be free as a bird and rise far above the ground seems wired into the human psyche. Over the past century that dream has come true – with the help of machines of course.

Oh to fy without a machine! How marvelous it would be: to be lifed up without any artifcial, man-made contraption, without needing to sit aboard an aircraf, without needing to be strapped into a tight seat in a cramped row alongside other passengers. Air travel is amazingly possible, but it’s bound by the physical limitations of aerodynamics and airline regulations. Te freedom with which fying teases our imaginations has boundaries.

Yet fying can occur beyond the “Friendly Skies”. Te ability to be free and to rise up is not limited to using some sort of aircraf. We are not dependent on spending money for a ticket or going through security in order to fy. Spiritually speaking, the human soul has been fying for thousands of years.

Whether or not you like to fy, whether or not you are afraid of heights, you can be released from the things that hold you down and keep you grounded in the Slough of Despond (as Bunyan put it in Pilgrim’s Progress). If your heart longs to be lifed up and “soar on wings like eagles,” this book is for you. Flying is not a superpower that any person is born with. But freedom is a

deep-seated desire of every human soul. Anyone can learn to fy. Unbuckle your seatbelts and prepare for takeof.

SECTION ONE: THE BASICS

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“ Te Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Ten he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. Te eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulflled in your hearing.”

Luke 4:14-21

Chapter 1: Why Fly

Te purpose of fying is to get from one place to another. In the spatial dimensions of this world that means from city to city on a jet, or from the earth to the moon via a rocket, or from an accident site to the hospital roofop in a helicopter, or from clif to clif by hang glider. We can fy from Pittsburgh to Atlanta for business, from San Francisco to Honolulu for vacation, from New York to Paris for romance, from Denver to Detroit to visit Grandma, from runway one-eight back to runway one-eight for two hours of sightseeing. Sparrows fy from tree to tree. Geese migrate from north to south and back again. Eagles soar from mountain to mountain. Whatever the destination, for whatever the reason, fying means to go somewhere.

I was thirteen the frst time I took to the skies. It was on the evening of the Fourth of July. American Airlines few a half-hour tour out of Midway Airport around Chicagoland. Dad and Mom treated me and my siblings to a spectacular color-flled fight. Instead of lying on the grass in the park looking up at the freworks, I pressed my nose against the small window of the Boeing 727 to look down at the explosions of light. Tis new perspective made the Independence Day celebration more profound. We witnessed dozens of communities scattered everywhere celebrating American freedom all at the same time. From high up in the sky it looked as if people on the ground were tossing up handfuls of multicolored glitter into the air. Tis perspective flled my heart, in a wonderful way, with the pride of my country’s national solidarity.

Te uniqueness of traveling by fying is, of course, that it is through the air – above the surface of the earth. Cars, trains, boats, buses, and bicycles are locked into two-dimensional movement on the ground. Flying frees motion to experience the third dimension. In the air there is more than north, south, east, and west; there is up and down. Tis vertical aspect of traveling awakens the hope of freedom.

Besides reaching destinations much faster than driving and avoiding headaches of snarled trafc, fying unlocks humanity’s dream to be free. Ages before the Wright brothers made the jump from theory to practice people longed to soar through the skies. Te mythological Icarus few to escape imprisonment from the island of Crete. Tough wax wings were ill-advised, the desire to be free from captivity motivated his fight.

Longing to rise above our world and be free is a universal aspiration. Built into the human psyche is a yearning to experience a release from the chains of the two-dimensional and enter the third dimension of movement – up. We all get our start foating around a few feet above the ground in amniotic fuid for nine months. Ten at birth gravity takes its toll on the womb. Te next twelve months or so we roll and crawl around on the ground until we begin to toddle. Gravity becomes our enemy. For a while our sense of balance is allergic to gravity as we teeter and fall and bump and bruise our way to walking. Once we gain control of our center of gravity and grow in our coordination, walking and running become second nature. We give little conscious thought to the act of putting one foot in front of the other in a sober manner. But the soul never loses touch with its origin of being born from above. Freedom from gravity, moving up in that third dimension – fying – may bring us a subconscious joy that’s tied to our very frst heartbeat. King David, author of many ancient

Hebrew songs in the Book of Psalms conveyed the longing of our souls, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit” (Psalm 51:12, KJV).

Why fy? “ Te desire to fy is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacle, on the infnite highway of the air,” wrote Wilbur Wright. When we take advantage of the science and technology that allows travel through the air we participate not only in the advancement of human progress but also in the fulfllment of the human dream.

Te deepest aspirations for fying are to do so without the aid of a vehicle. Beyond the present scope of technology into the realm where only fctional writers have succeeded, there is a fantastic vision of people fying unassisted by machine. Like Peter Pan going to Neverland or Superman leaping over tall buildings, fying is a superpower only accessible in fairy tales or comic books. Tough only imaginative, those wild dreams refect the human desire to be free.

Te closest thing to realizing that desire physically is by using some form of fying apparatus. Science has found no substitute for wings. For an object to fy something is necessary to catch the wind beneath and lif the object up. Te human species is not naturally equipped to fy. Even little children know this. No nine-year-old jumps of the roof without a well-thought-out plan. Boards strapped to the arms or a blanket for a parachute must be part of the experiment. Everyone knows people can’t fy. But amazingly, that fact doesn’t bury the desire to fy.

Our predicament is that while we long to be free to fy we are not built for fight. All around us are other creatures that fy

efortlessly and instinctively such as birds, bugs, and butterfies. It seems unfair to be the most developed animal on planet earth yet not be able to keep up with a pesky housefy. However, there is a solution to this seemingly cruel injustice. Even though we cannot physically fy, we do possess a spiritual nature that can experience the freedom we long for. Only human beings have the ability to engage the soul in ways that produce freedom – spiritual fying.

Being a person in all the glory of humanness means having dreams and desires that move life. Te freedom to pursue those aspirations is necessary for the fulfllment of life. Our basic, innate, universal birth right in this world is to have the opportunity to follow our heart’s desire. Unfortunately, narcissistic and materialistic philosophy suggests that seeking riches and fame and pleasure (the American Dream) will make our hearts full. But in pursuing these dreams we limit ourselves to life in two dimensions. People never experience the wholeness of life when they confne themselves exclusively to fulflling their physical comforts.

Te spiritual side of our humanness completes our life. Matters of the heart fy on the wings of grace and love. Tese inner qualities move deep within us and are what being human is all about. Tey defne the third dimension of our existence, the “up” where we long to be. Without them, life is a downer.

Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest, theologian, spiritual writer, professor at Harvard and Yale and Notre Dame, spent the last fve years of his life enthralled by the circus trapeze act of the Flying Rodleighs. He wrote in Flying, Falling, Catching (published afer his death), “To be a trapeze artist symbolized for me the realization of the human desire for self-transcendence – rising above oneself, glimpsing the heart of things.”1 Nouwen’s soul was captivated

1 Henri Nouwen, Flying Falling Catching, page 19.

by the aerial dynamics of these talented performers. A person fying free through the air defned for him a spiritual reality that he had previously never fully grasped. He became so intrigued and obsessed with the Flying Rodleighs that he attended every performance and every practice session while they were in town. “I knew I had found something that was going to take me a big step closer to the understanding of the mystery of being alive!”2

Te Bible teaches that the human species came alive when God3 breathed life into our being. “ Ten the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7, RSV). Without God’s breath of life in us we are grounded, unable to fy. Created in the image of God,4 we have a divine side (of the air) and a human side (of the dust). Jesus Christ5 perfectly refected both sides of that image – fully divine and fully human. Eventually, believers will be just like him.6 Christ himself taught that God is Spirit7 and that divine Spirit resides in those who believe in him.8 He also taught that human fulfllment is only found in pursuing the spiritual dimension.9 Te complete fullness of our soul and the satisfaction of life is found inwardly in matters of the spirit. Te inward journey is a pilgrimage up in the third dimension. Te only way to make that upward journey is to fy.

2 Ibid, page 37

3 By “God” I mean the orthodox Christian understanding of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Trinity.

4 Genesis 1:27

5 By “Jesus Christ” I mean the orthodox Christian understanding of the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, who is fully, entirely, perfectly and completely both God and man.

6 1 John 3:2

7 John 2:24

8 John 14:17

9 Matthew 5:6

Freedom and fulfllment are conjoined soulmates. Tey require being lifed up in the spiritual sense. Whether we travel above the clouds in an airplane or we overcome the dark clouds of depression, we do so by being lifed up. Flying means to move through the air above the ground. Science and technology have provided machines that can do that in the physical realm. God has provided the means to do that in the spiritual realm – the realm of human being and of human relationships. God’s great fight plan for life is all about freedom. “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Jesus goes on to say that freedom comes from him, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Te great mission of the Lord is all about our freedom.

God’s plan for those who wish to live a life above the world’s injustice, hate, and despair is to set them to fying. “ Te Lord lifs up the downtrodden” (Psalm 147:6). Of the ancient Israelites, God’s people in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah recorded, “In his love and in his mercy he redeemed them; he lifed them up and carried them” (Isaiah 63:9). Many of the people healed by Jesus and the Apostles in the New Testament were told to “arise” (see Matthew 9:6, Mark 5:41, Luke 17:19, Acts 9:34). In Scripture God’s blessing of wholeness is couched in terms of being exalted. Te Lord promises fight for those who seek him: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lif you up” (James 4:10).

Why fy? Because it’s the way we move upward to becoming a fulflled, complete, whole and holy person. Flying, in the context of the inner life, means a total freedom of the heart. In experiencing the lif of God’s power, we discover grace, love, healing, hope, and salvation. We go well beyond “the sky is the limit” to fnd the great consummation of our life in Jesus Christ. Te Lord proclaimed that securing our freedom was his commission when he read

from the prophecy in Isaiah, “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18).

Not to fy would mean disregarding God’s plan for our lives. Not to fy would be ignoring our spirit’s desire for liberty and fulfllment. We can be grounded due to ignorance, fear, and doubt. Failing to board the plane which takes us up as the third dimension of life imprisons the soul in a world of heavyheartedness and futility. Te excess baggage of strife, greed, foolishness, addiction, or unrest weighs us down. We are not meant for such a life. “Freedom is what we have – Christ has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves (grounded would be my word) again” (Galatians 5:1).

Te resurrection of Jesus Christ is a convincing display of God’s victorious power over the forces that hold us down. Te same power celebrated on Easter is available to all who believe in Jesus. “If the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you” (Romans 8:11). Like a boat that pulls the parasailer up out of the water, God’s resurrection power pull us up to live above the murky waters of this world.

Charles Lindbergh was the frst person to fy solo across the ocean. His historic fight from New York to Paris in 1927 turned what was once only a dream into reality. He proved it could be done. His accomplishment paved the way for others to muster the courage to pursue their dreams to fy. Lindy named his tri-motor plane “ Te Spirit of St. Louis” in honor of the bravery of the early American pioneers who traveled west to pursue their dreams of freedom.

Amelia Earhart was one of those inspired by Lindbergh. In 1932 Earhart attempted to be the frst woman to fy solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Tree men had died attempting to accomplish the same feat. Not content to let men pilots be the only recordholders, she infamously completed the 2,000 mile trip. Afer setting over a dozen aviation world records for speed and distance and altitude, Earhart set her sights on fying around the world. Although she and her plane went missing over the Pacifc Ocean southwest of Hawaii, her legendary fying career proved women can fy too. She opened the door for everyone to dream of fying.

Nineteen centuries earlier, the historic empty tomb turned what was once only a dream into reality. Christ’s resurrection paved the way for us to travel to the side of life where we fnd fullness and freedom as human beings. He proved it can be done. Tat great accomplishment of God is the core foundation of the Christian faith. Now, by faith we participate in the freedom that the resurrection attained. For those who desire to pursue their deepest longings, Jesus has pioneered the way to fulfllment. Te Spirit of the resurrected Lord is the vehicle by which persons travel to fnd freedom.

Air Force Colonel Walter J. Boyne was director of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution and Chairman of the National Aeronautic Association. Tis decorated pilot who authored over ffy books on fying wrote: “Flying is the avenue to a thousand good feelings about yourself and the world.” Te same was said by the Psalmist a thousand years earlier, “O that I had wings like a dove! I would fy away and be at rest” (Psalm 55:6). Tat yearning is the right stuf of a life ready to fy.

Chapter 2: Flight School

Te deep desire to fy is one thing, actually fying is something else. Many paper airplanes look slick enough to make it to the chalkboard at the front of the classroom. But ofen the maiden voyage takes an immediate nose dive to the foor in front of the desk of the designer, sadly incriminating the budding Boeing engineer.

Flying requires strict attention to the basic dynamics of aviation. Tere are physical laws of nature which, when engaged in proper balance, produce fight. Tese laws are observable, predictable, and repeatable. Once the right combination of these laws was scientifcally and successfully applied to heavier-than-air objects, soaring through the air became a reality for people. In 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright produced the right combination afer years of trial and error. Teir study and experimentation led them to their historic frst fight on the beaches just south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Since then, science and technology have refned the Wright brothers’ formula to make fying a safe and universal experience. Every day ten million people all over the world take to the airways.

Te physical laws that factor into the equation of fight are gravity, lif, drag, and thrust. When these four dynamics are properly harnessed controlled fight is possible. Every bird that fies is ftted with the aeronautical equipment necessary to capitalize on these laws of nature. Wings, tails, even bone structure, are of such perfect design that the miracle of fying is commonplace for

our feathered friends. Birds fy by wire. Since the beginning they have been hardwired with the equation for fight designed into their makeup. Only in the past century or so have humans fgured out the formula.

Te proper balance of physical dynamics is crucial to successful fight. Lif must overcome gravity and thrust must overcome drag with precise accuracy for a bird, a plane, or any object to fy. Tere are birds that do not fy. Te penguin’s size and weight are too bulky for its tiny fippers of wings to provide lif. Tere have been planes designed that could not fy. In 1907 an inventor thought that since wings were necessary for fight then the more wings the better. With that in mind he built a plane with six wings stacked one on top of the other. Te plane barely taxied down the runway a hundred feet before the entire wing structure collapsed.

But when lif exceeds gravity and thrust exceeds drag in the proper proportions, “We have lifof !” Exactly the same principles are true in the spiritual realm. For us to fy in the sense of fulflling our human potential and experiencing freedom of the soul, lif must overcome gravity and thrust must overcome drag. Te spiritual laws of freedom and wholeness closely parallel the physical laws of fight. Te only adjustment needed in the formula is to defne lif, gravity, thrust, and drag as they exist in the dynamic of being human. Te prayer in Ephesians is focused on just those dynamics:

My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnifcent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted frmly on love, you’ll be able to take in

with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19, MSG

Gravity and lif are the vertical forces involved in fight. Gravity imposes downward pressure on everything. Lif opposes the downward pull of gravity to push objects up. In the spiritual realm sin is like gravity and grace is like lif. Sin imposes downward pressure on everything. Te Fall of humankind is the result of the gravity of sin. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But grace provides lif. In direct opposition to sin grace overcomes the downward pull of sin. “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life” (Romans 5:20-21). Part of the amazing power to rise up comes from the grace of God. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gif of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

Te horizontal forces involved in aerodynamics are drag and thrust. Drag pushes back on everything that tries to move forward. Like trying to run in a swimming pool, drag imposes resistance. Trust opposes drag by providing the power to push through the resistance. In the spiritual realm hate is like drag and love is like thrust. Hate resists life and rejects love. “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). Hate propagates darkness in the world. “But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. Tey do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them” (1 John 2:11). But the dark-heartedness of blind hate is overcome

by the light of love. In direct opposition to hate, love supplies the power to light up the darkness. “Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light” (1 John 1:10). Part of the amazing power to rise up comes from love. “In his love and in his mercy he redeemed them; he lifed them up and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:9).

In the Great Commandment Jesus identifed these vertical and horizontal spiritual forces involved in living life in God’s Kingdom. “Jesus replied, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ Tis is the frst and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). Love of God is the vertical dynamic. Love of neighbor is the horizontal dynamic. Spiritual fying, the freedom of the soul, depends upon properly and purposefully engaging these two forces.

More will be said about each of these forces in the following chapters. Understanding the dynamics of the spiritual life will helps us engage more fully in the blessedness of how God designed us to live. Te forces of grace and love are available to lif us above the powers of sin and hate. You are designed to fy. I am designed to fy. We all are designed to fy. But to secure our license and assure success of our airborne-ness, we need fight school. Tis book is the fight school curriculum providing the necessary information about everything you need to know about fying – spiritually. Te Flight Manual from which all the content is taken is the Bible. Our Flight Instructor who will help us put all the information into practice and actually get us fying is the Holy Spirit. We cannot fy without proper instruction from God’s Word; and we cannot fy without proper help from God’s Spirit.

Believers are people of faith. Our identity is as people of the resurrection. Being lifed up by the power of grace and love is the result of faith. “Faith is confdence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Appropriately, “the leap of faith” is what spiritual fying is about. Faith calls us to trust in forces we cannot see with the hope of experiencing what God has promised. Tis fight school will provide the confdence necessary to make the leap.

Confdence is desperately needed in the church today. Too many people who claim to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ are perpetually parked in the hangar and never fy. Tey never live above dirt and dust of this world. Seemingly content to conform to the pattern of worldliness, many ignore the transformation that enables fight – which is God’s will for the believer.10 Eugene Peterson expressed concern for the erosion of our resurrection identity. In his book Living the Resurrection he wrote (page 59)

Christians are conspicuously inattentive. We have this rich tradition of formation-by-resurrection – why are so few interested? I’ve been a pastor for forty-three years now, and I’m appalled by my brother and sister pastors who are just not interested.

You are designed to fy. It’s time to learn how to fy.

Romans 12:2

SECTION TWO: GRAVITY

Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you: “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no one to lif her up.”

Amos 5:1-2

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18

Chapter 3: Weight Limits

As the story goes, Isaac Newton had an apple fall on his head and discovered the law of gravity. Anyone who has dropped something (keys, phone, glass of water, toast jelly side down, a squirmy kitten) has discovered the law of gravity. Built into the very fabric of the universe is this force called gravity. On earth it pulls everything down toward the ground and fghts hard against anything that tries to go up.

Step on the scale. Go ahead. What’s the number? Tat’s the amount of force your feet apply to the ground you’re standing on. Tat force is a result of the gravitational pull of the earth on your body. And you thought it was a result of all those chocolate covered cream-flled donuts. A pound is a unit of weight that measures the force of gravity. Te bigger the number the more pounds. Te more pounds the greater the force at work keeping you on the ground.

Jump. Go ahead. Can you get the muscles in your legs to overcome the gravitational pull on your body and propel you up into the air? How high? An inch or two, or maybe twelve? If you’re like me, simply jumping rope is a challenge.

Gravity is strong. Tings are heavy because the force of gravity is unimaginably immense. If the moon could be weighed on earth scientists fgure its weight at 162 septillion (that’s twentyfour zeroes) pounds. It speeds around the earth at 2,300 miles an hour. Even at that enormous weight and that blazing speed,

it stays right in its orbit, held there by the incredible gravitational pull of the earth.

Now think about fying. Try lifing a jumbo jet of the ground. Te plane itself, empty of passengers and luggage, weighs nearly 400,000 pounds. Loaded down with people and cargo a 747 can weigh close to a million pounds! NASA strapped a 200,000-pound Space Shuttle to its back and expected the big bird to long jump clear across the country, from California to Florida. Imagine the gravitational pull on a machine that size – it’s ridiculous!

Gravity makes fying impossible – at least really really hard, at least without the proper help. No one has ever jumped of a clif or a bridge or a roofop or the couch or the porch and fown up in the air (without help). Even the well-equipped Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear knows he can’t fy. He calls it “falling with style.”

Tat’s what happens to us due to the law of gravity, we fall. Te most natural thing in the world for people to do is fall down. In learning how to walk as a toddler we fall down – a lot. Even afer we become profcient at walking we still fall: of the bike, out of bed, down the stairs, over the rug, on the ice. Seems we are allergic to gravity. Fortunately, there are emergency rooms to help those hurt in a fall. Tere ought to be a Fallers Anonymous program to help cure our wounded pride when we fall. No one plans to fall; it’s usually accidental. When something causes us to lose our balance and we can’t recover, gravity is right there to pull us down with a crash. Ouch…and embarrassing.

Te same dynamic applies spiritually. Tere is an immense force that pulls us down. It pulls down our morality causing us to do bad things. It pulls down our thoughts causing us to think wrong things. It pulls down our relationships causing us to hurt other people. It pulls down our self-esteem causing us to hate

ourselves. It pulls down our sense of justice causing us to ignore the oppressed. It even pulls down our faith causing us to replace a relationship with God with empty religion. It’s a force that pulls so hard with such power and intensity that it’s capable of grounding the entire human race into the dirt. Tat force is called sin, the frst law of spiritual dynamics.

Sin is the spiritual gravity that makes us fall. Te prophet Amos announced that God’s people had succumbed to the pull of sin. “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no one to lif her up” (Amos 5:2). Te people of ancient Israel were called on the carpet for a multitude of sins: arrogance, injustice, unfairness, greed, idolatry, oppression of the poor, human trafcking, breaking treaties, meanness, ignoring God and refusing to live by God’s commands. Te Old Testament prophet Amos painted part of the ugly picture:

Woe to those who live in luxury and expect everyone else to serve them!

Woe to those who live only for today, indiferent to the fate of others!

Woe to the playboys, the playgirls, who think life is a party held just for them!

Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain! those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles! Tey could not care less about their country going to ruin. (Amos 6:4-6, MSG)

Te tremendous force of Israel’s sin was pulling them down. Tey were on trajectory to crash and burn. Amos was trying to warn them of their freefall to destruction. But since they were past the moral point of no return, the prophet had these somber words, “Prepare to meet your God!” (Amos 4:12). Tat meeting was not going to be fun. In fact, in 586 BC Jerusalem was ransacked by the

Babylonians. Solomon’s great Temple was demolished, and the people of Israel were taken away from their homeland to captivity in a foreign country. Te prophecies of Amos had come true. Te gravity of their sins made fying impossible. Israel fell down. Ouch…and embarrassing.

Te weight of Israel’s sins had consequences. Tey stepped on God’s scale and weighed the moral equivalent of a lazy, selfsh, fat cow (Amos 4:1). No jumping over the moon for them; they were grounded. God tried to warn them by sending prophets to speak the truth. Besides Amos, God sent Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, Hosea, and others. Each messenger passed along the same warning from God about the reality of the spiritual law of gravity. But, as Amos put it, “Raw truth is never popular” (Amos 5:10, MSG). People ignored the messages, ignored God, ignored sin, ignored the truth, and fell down hard. Anthony DeMello put this way in Taking Flight: even though our hearts long for Truth that brings us liberation and delight, our frst reaction to Truth is hostility and fear (page 11).

Sin takes away our ability to fy. Te soul carries the overweight baggage of original sin. Our carnal nature exceeds heavenly weight limits and so keeps us from lifing of the runway. We have so much junk in the trunk that we are unable to overcome the force of spiritual gravity to fnd freedom and fulfllment. We weigh a septillion tons and are held in our self-centered orbit by the massive power of sin. We are doomed to muddle in the dirt and live a fightless existence. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Bishop Mack Stokes of the United Methodist Church was an enthusiast of the founder of Methodism, John Wesley. He afrmed the burdensome and unmanageable weight of sin. “We are inefective in solving our own basic moral and spiritual problems.

Wesley was very strong in his emphasis on the universality of sin and on the fact that a gravitational pull away from the kingdom and righteousness of God exists in all of us.”

Te doctrine of the Fall is aptly named. Adam and Eve, representing human beings made in the image of God, were created to fy. And fy they did in the Garden of Eden. Tey enjoyed an intimacy with God unlike any other creature on earth or in heaven. Every need was lavishly provided for them. Every desire of their hearts was perfectly flled for them. Every day was full of the glory of the Lord. Teir life was abundantly full and free. Too free because they were free to choose.

Adam and Eve originally orbited around God, held in place by holiness – Godlikeness. Tey were created in his image (Genesis 1:27). But the perfect union between them and God came crashing down when they chose to act unholy. Given the choice to disregard God’s instruction, Adam and Eve chose to disobey. Tey imposed their will over God’s will. Tey cut the tether that kept them close to God and tumbled violently out of the Garden. For the rest of time all humanity is fallen, sufering the consequences of that original sin. Te unholiness (un-Godlikeness) of our spiritual, moral, and social corruptness is strewn burning across the earth like crumpled wreckage of a once glorious fight.

Like the Old Testament prophet Amos, Jesus in the New Testament warned his followers of falling due to the dangerous spiritual law of gravity. In the Sermon on the Mount he warned against the downward pull of disobedience. “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. Te rain fell, and the foods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!” (Matthew 7:26-27). In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus warned the disciples against the downward

pull of temptation. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. Te spirit is willing, but the fesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). To the people in Ephesus he warned against pride and arrogance and hypocrisy. “You have forsaken the love you had at frst. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at frst” (Revelation 2:4-5).

Just like gravity makes fying impossible without the right help, sin makes wholeness (freedom and fulfllment) impossible without the right help. Te Apostle Paul discovered this principle as he wrote to the Christians in ancient Roman.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I fnd this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. (Romans 7:14-23)

In physical dynamics there is the law of gravity. In spiritual dynamics there is the gravity of the law. Te burden of keeping all of the Lord’s commands, of always being obedient, of constantly

trying to be perfect, of doing everything right to stay on God’s good side, it’s all too heavy. No one can take of with all that weight onboard. Indeed, God created us in his image to be like him. And certainly God gave us parameters and direction on how best to live free and fulflled in that Imago Dei. But we have no ability, no willpower, no human wherewithal to accomplish that in our own life. We all fall down, the consequences of Te Fall. Our sinful depravity has corrupted our once divine-like nature. Like Paul, we know that built into the very fabric of humanity is this force called sin. It pulls down everything good and holy, and fghts hard against anything that tries to rise up.

If we’re honest, we are painfully aware of our weight. We know we’re not perfect. Even the best of us messes up. Good luck fying to heaven with an oversized carryon flled with sin and guilt. “My guilt overwhelms me – it is a burden too heavy to bear,” (Psalm 38:4) cried the great ancient king David, a man afer God’s own heart. If he had trouble with the gravity of the law (and he did – big time), how can anyone fy? Paul asked the same question, “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Tank God! Te answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24-25, NLT).

Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Te help needed to overcome the gravity of sin is found in Jesus Christ. He supplies the spiritual force that lifs us up so we can fy. Before exploring the dynamic of lif, one more aspect of gravity needs to be addressed.

Chapter 4: Fear and Flying

I boarded a plane on a dark January morning in Indianapolis. Te subzero temperatures overnight explained the deicing as I took my seat and looked out the window. When the departure time drew near the fight attendant announced that we would be delayed a few minutes because of a slight mechanical problem. Twenty minutes later the pilot updated our wait time to an hour due to a frozen water line. Great…we’re stuck on the plane, confned to our seats, can’t use the bathroom, the windows are frosted over, and we’re going to be late. Two hours afer boarding, the plane fnally pulled away from the gate and started to taxi to the runway. “Wait!” I thought. Don’t we need another shot of deicer? What if ice has reformed on the wings? I saw this on an episode of Why Planes Crash on the Weather Channel. We’ll be too heavy at takeof…we won’t have enough lif under the frozen wings…we’re going to crash in a farm feld a mile from the airport…

None of those problems materialized. For certain, there are things that can go wrong on a fight. Worrying about them doesn’t keep them from happening, but it does keep us from enjoying the ride. In fact, the potential for problems keeps some people from ever setting foot on a plane. Tey are far more comfortable connected to terra frma than fying free at 30,000 feet. Who can blame them? Hit a big pothole in your car, you might knock your lunch on the foor. Hit some serious turbulence over the Rockies, you might lose your lunch in a hundred-foot bump.

According to the American Psychological Association twenty-fve percent of Americans have some degree of aviophobia. Most people’s fear of fying stems from claustrophobia or from not being in control or from wondering if the door might pop open or if the engines will fail or if the plane will break apart when it encounters some turbulence. Airlines, pilots, and fight attendants stand ready with suggestions on how to overcome the fear. Although their suggestions help people manage their worries and gut out a fight, many people never fy because they are afraid.

Jesus addressed a similar fear that besets many who might step onboard the faith fight. One day, the Apostle Peter, a disciple of Jesus Christ and a professional fsherman well acquainted with the sea and an expert in maritime travel, was invited by Jesus to take a leap of faith and fy. While the disciples were sailing in a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told Peter to get out of the boat and walk on the water. Peter started down the runway but experienced some turbulence and aborted the takeof.

Early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrifed, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:25-31, NRSV)

Peter had his boarding pass in hand. Sure enough, he got out of the boat and walked on the water. Only person in history (besides Jesus) to accomplish such a miraculous feat! But as soon as fear overwhelmed him, Peter pulled the ripcord and bailed. Jesus made the most of this moment to contrast faith and fear. His point was not to embarrass or rebuke Peter. Nor did Jesus have any intention of establishing walking on water as the litmus test for genuine faith. Te disciples in the boat were afraid. Peter, blown of balance by the forces around him, was afraid. Jesus keeps Peter from going under and then makes a comment about his lack of trust and ties it to a probing question about doubt. Six chapters earlier (Matthew 8:23-26) he told the disciples the same thing about the incompatibility of fear and faith when the boat they were traveling in was about to sink in a storm and they were frantically worried.

Storms of life can take the wind right out of our sails and twist us up in knots. I remember fying from Chicago to Louisville one night. As we began our descent we few right into a thunderstorm. Lightning fashed all around. I thought, “Okay, besides being tossed around by strong wind gusts, we are essentially in a metal tube, drenched in rainwater and passing directly through billions of volts of electricity. Anybody else worried about that?” Tough scary, that doesn’t compare to what I felt the night I stopped breathing.

I woke up from a dead sleep around one a.m. gasping for air. I sat straight up and could not catch my breath. I panicked. My wife woke up and asked, “What’s wrong?” I couldn’t tell her; I couldn’t talk. I jumped out of bed hoping that hopping around would trigger normal breathing. It did not. As I stumbled into the bathroom my wife called 911, an ambulance was on the way. I looked into the mirror and peered into the eyes of a frightened man.

I remember thinking, “Goodbye old man. It’s been nice knowing you.” Ten it happened, I took a breath. Te spasm that closed my airway relaxed and I could breathe. By the time the paramedics arrived in my bedroom with a gurney I was doing better. But I was totally embarrassed. Embarrassed by how scared I was, and embarrassed to have panicked enough to take an ambulance ride to the emergency room.

Life can be a wild and scary ride. Sickness, brokenness, disease, peril, death are all part of life. Much of what is normal, albeit difcult, begets fear. Ten fear begets worry and worry begets panic and panic when full-blown causes our spirit to crash and burn. Fear is debilitating to the freedom of the soul. Worry and anxiety drown the human spirit. We can be so overwhelmed by being afraid that we sink, like the Titanic, down to the bottom. Sinking is not fying. “Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said, ‘Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fy away and be at rest’” (Psalm 55:5-6). Fear is devastating; fying is restful. How do we escape the gravitational pull of fear and fy free?

First let’s be clear, fying is not escapism. Faith in Jesus is not about avoiding pain and heartache and sufering. Planes and birds alike, even though they travel through the air and above the ground, are still afected by the pull of gravity. Living by faith, we are still afected by the forces in life that would pull us down. Even while walking on water, Peter’s feet got wet. Even while securing eternal life, Jesus was crucifed. Remember the purpose of fying is to get from one place to another. Similarly, the purpose of faith is to transport us from a place apart from God to a place where we are connected to God. Te objective is not to achieve escape velocity and foat around free and weightless hundreds of miles above the world. Te goal of faith is to connect us to the Lord

so that our Christ-fulflled life, in its freedom and wholeness, can make a huge and eternal diference in this world.

Fear, worry, anxiety, and doubt may plague our soul. But there is no need to remain out of commission under their pressure. Te resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our faith. Yet, in the gospels fear is most ofen how the eye-witnesses respond to the resurrection. Tankfully, those same eye-witnesses overcame their fear, embraced the resurrection, and were commissioned to make disciples. Over seventy times in Scripture people are told, “Do not be afraid.” Te law of God’s love overcomes the law of sin and spiritual gravity. “ Trough Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Tat’s fying!

Te Apostle John also understood how this works: “ Tere is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life – fear of death, fear of judgment – is one not yet fully formed in love” (1 John 4:18, MSG). Learning to fy means learning how to be “formed in love.” As the word implies, formation is a process. It’s not a pill we take or a microwave meal we make. Learning to fy means embarking on a journey. As the Psalmist so powerfully wrote, “Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staf they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4, ESV). Walking the path of life means being willing to trust God along the way.

Fear brings us down. Faith is learning how to be lifed up by God’s amazing love. “ Te Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? Te Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1-2).

SECTION THREE: LIFT

A new power is in operation. Te Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnifcently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

Romans 8:2, 11 (MSG)

Chapter 5: Know Your Ship

Human beings do not have the natural ability to fy. We are not birds, nor do we arrive on earth from the planet Krypton. Gravity holds us down. But we can travel through the air from place to place with the aid of a plane or a helicopter or a hot air balloon or a hang glider. By the power and the aerodynamic design of some sort of airship we can fy.

Aircraf designers utmost priority is to pay attention to the engineering properties that help a plane overcome gravity. Te physical force that acts in opposition to gravity is called lif. Lif provides the upward power to get a plane (a bird, a kite) of the ground and keep it in the air. Te most common way to engage that power is with wings. Te wings of a plane are designed to harness the force of lif and make fight possible. Te wings of a bird are similarly designed. Te curved airfoil shape (which is typically thicker and rounded at the leading edge and thinner and pointed at the trailing edge) helps create the dynamic, when moving through the air, that pushes the wing – and what it’s attached to – up.

Without going all technical, there is an easy way to demonstrate the power of lif. Tear a piece of paper into a sixinch-long, one-inch-wide strip. Hold one end of the strip so that the paper falls limp, curved downward. Place your fngers just below your lips and blow out across the top of the paper strip. Te downward curved strip rises up and straightens out. Isaac Newton’s third law of gravity (1687) and Daniel Bernoulli’s fuid

dynamics law (1738) combine to explain the science of when the velocity across the top of an angled object is faster than fow beneath then pressure from below will push the object up. A similar thing happens when you’re riding in a car and stick your arm out the window. Tilting your hand a bit up or down afects the “fight” of your arm. Wings of planes are designed to make the air fow in such a fashion as to create upward push and lif the plane. Cool!

Te Wright brothers understood the science of lif. Tey spent years working to put the principles discovered by Newton and Bernoulli into practice. In 1903 Orville and Wilbur were the frst inventors to succeed in crafing a winged machine that could actually fy with a person onboard. Teir Wright Flier was a biplane with two curved wings that provided lif.

One key thought to remember in this dynamic is that air is necessary. Flight does not happen in a vacuum. Planes cannot fy where there is no air. Birds cannot fy where there is no air. Put a drone in a vacuum (a space where all the air has been sucked out) and it will not lif up of the ground. Test pilots who fy experimental aircraf to the upper reaches of the atmosphere report losing control of the plane in the thin air of high altitudes. Where there is no air to move over the surfaces of the wings there is no lif. Where there is no lif there is no fight.

Spiritually, we do not live in a vacuum. Tere is a dark force surrounding our souls that tempts us to sin, that infuences bad choices, that sits on our shoulder and whispers lies. Our inward being is immersed in air that is polluted with the poison of corrupt morality. “For our fght is not against any physical enemy: it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil” (Ephesians 6:12, JBP). As much as we would rather not think about the dark side of our

world, we need to recognize the reality of impure spiritual air. Tinking that everyone is basically good and there’s no such thing as hell or the devil, sucks the oxygen out of the truth. Ten in a truthless spiritual vacuum, there is no atmosphere for spiritual lif to work.

Lif in the spiritual realm is the power that overcomes the gravity of sin. Tat power is called grace, the second law of spiritual dynamics. “In his love and in his mercy he redeemed them; he lifed them up and carried them” (Isaiah 63:9). By the grace of God the downward trajectory of our sinful nature is reversed. Sins are forgiven and souls are set free to soar. Paul describes it best in Romans 8:2, “A new power is in operation. Te Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnifcently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death” (MSG). Tat brutal tyranny is the gravity of sin. Its burden of guilt weighs us down and keeps us grounded. But here is the good news: we are grounded only until we catch the wind of the Spirit of Christ beneath our wings. Ten we fy!

Te human soul is designed like an airfoil. When the breath of God blows across the soul it rises. We might call it a spiritfoil. Like an airfoil moves through air, or a hydrofoil moves through water, the spiritfoil moves though the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:11 explains the science behind it:

It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-andpresent God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!” (MSG). Even though we are dead due to the gravity of sin, we are brought to life by the

lif of grace. “Now you are free from the power of sin … For the wages of sin is death, but the free gif of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:22-23, NLT)

Free to get of the ground, free to live above the dirt, free to be alive and whole and healed.

Grace is the free gif of God whereby sins are forgiven, hearts are set free, lives are transformed. Te Lord in is mercy, under no compulsion, gives us everlasting life. We are under a death sentence due to sin – the frst law of spiritual dynamics. Guilty as sin, separated from God, destined to suck dirt forever, “we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us” (Romans 3:23, MSG). But God has commuted our sentence completely. By his grace we have been rescued, pardoned, freed from death to experience life – the second law of spiritual dynamics. “God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifce for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrifced his life, shedding his blood” (Romans 3:24-25, NLT).

Te ship that God has crafed that overcomes the gravity of sin and lifs up humanity is the Cross of Jesus Christ (held sideways it looks like a plane with wings). Christ’s death removed the death penalty for our sins. Trough his death the power of sin is cancelled and we are released from sin’s gravitational pull on our souls. When we step aboard the ship of faith – “We remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us” (1 John 2:24-25) – we step into life, lifed by the resurrection of Christ. We believe in the redemptive work of the cross and we are freed from the twisted,

destructive, disastrous power of sin. “When we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin” (Romans 6:7, NLT). Tat’s fying!

Flying is made possible by God. What we thought was impossible, God in his grace makes possible. Jesus alluded to that when he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Yet fying only occurs when God’s grace is coupled with our faith. Faith extends the wings of the soul so that it catches the wind of Heaven and is lifed up. But retracted, in a position of doubt and unbelief, our spiritfoil is useless. Flight is impossible without extending the wings. To put it another way: you can fy when you believe. “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed… nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

Peter Pan nearly had it right, “ Te moment you doubt whether you can fy, you cease for ever to be able to do it.” Indeed, doubt as the opposite of believe prohibits fight. But he gets it wrong here: “So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fy on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!” Faith is not about thinking happy thoughts. It is not wishful thinking. It’s a commitment to accepting and trusting the truth of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Our forever destination in not some fairyland. It’s no less than residing in the intimate and eternal presence of the Holy Creator who lovingly frst breathed life into our souls.

Te faith required to fy embraces the grace provided by God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). Remember fying is a gif from God and needs to be received as a gif. A person receives it and is free; a person rejects it and never gets of the ground. To fy you must be airworthy. Your ship must be crafed in such a fashion that its wings are in position to accept the airfow. Extending those wings means believing that

God loves you and sent the Son to secure your forgiveness and to blaze the trail to a whole and holy life. Jesus tried to make that clear to a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus in John chapter three when he said, “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above” (vs 3, NRSV). Ten he elaborates:

When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch – the Spirit – and becomes a living spirit.

So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’ – out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. Tat’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God. (John 3:6-8, MSG)

Tink of it this way: “Faith Lifs You” – FLY. Faith means trusting in the God of all grace, because it all starts with God’s grace, revealed and delivered to the world through Jesus Christ.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning…He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. Te Word became fesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth…Grace

and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:1-2, 10-14, 17)

Chapter 6: Airborne!

Wheels up! Once takeof occurs and the plane is of the ground the pilot must pay attention to many things to keep the big bird in the air. In the early minutes of a fight the pilot is busy with gaining altitude, watching airspeed, tracking vertical rate of climb, assessing attitude, turning to the proper heading, communicating with the tower, keeping an eye out for other planes, and much more. Until the plane reaches cruising altitude and can fy on autopilot, the captain has a whole checklist of procedures to follow.

Te instrumentation in the cockpit provides crucial information to the pilot. Te pilot must be aware of everything the gauges are displaying. Traveling safely through the air requires that many dynamics synchronize perfectly. A car on the ground goes fast or slow, forward or reverse, right or lef – that’s it. In normal conditions a driver simply presses the pedal for go or stop and turns the wheel. But for a plane to stay airborne the pilot holds in balance forces that no driver on the ground, traveling in a two-dimensional world, has to deal with. Up in the air, pilots must manage the three-dimensional forces of pitch (up and down motion) and yaw (horizontal spinning motion) and roll (side to side motion). To control those motions the pilot watches a minimum of nine indicators: airspeed, altitude, attitude, angle of attack, artifcial horizon, air pressure, compass heading, turn indicator, and vertical speed. Tose dials and readouts make visible to the pilot the invisible forces pressing on the plane.

A well-trained pilot trusts the cockpit instruments. A plane can safely takeof, fy and land in the dark, in blinding snowstorms, in dense fog because the science involved in fying does not depend upon the pilot being able to see or feel what’s happening to the plane. Navigating the plane up into the air and through the air to a destination is a function of the pilot responding to what the instruments indicate is happening. Certainly fight is possible without instruments. Birds do it. Bees do it. Wilbur and Orville Wright had no instruments aboard their fights. But since their time instrumentation and fy-by-wire technology (computer assisted controls) have greatly enhanced aviation performance and safety.

Upon successful completion of fght training, all pilots receive their certifcation to fy under conditions set by the visual fight rules, or VFR. Pilots who receive extra training to fy in all conditions receive an instrument rating (IR) which qualifes them to fy under conditions set by the instrument fight rules, or IFR. All commercial airline pilots must be IR certifed because once airborne the pilot relies on several instruments to identify the magnitude of various forces working on the plane. To keep the plane fying the pilot needs to take action based on the signals from the instrumentation. Tus the instrument rating is essential.

Te same thing is true of those lifed by faith through grace. Once air-born (from above) by the power of grace, believers must pay attention to what keeps them fying. We rely on spiritual instrumentation to signal the action we are to take. Engaging various means of grace helps us fully cooperate with God’s power that lifs us up. A soul can soar to a free and fulflled life in spite of a blizzard of blinding circumstances, in spite of the dark fog of sin because the science of salvation does not depend upon a person’s ability to see or feel what is happening inside. Instead, it depends

up faith that trusts the instrumentation of grace. “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Believers are IR certifed.

Te grace of God is applied to each individual through the work of the Holy Spirit. Te unseen yet powerful and lifechanging force of God’s Spirit lifs the believer up into the wild blue yonder of life in God’s Kingdom. Redeemed and set free, the whole being of a person – heart, soul, mind and strength – is transformed from a life rooted in the worldliness of humanity to a life energized by the wind of grace. Trough God’s Spirit “we are immersed in God, like birds fying through the air” according to Eugene Peterson. Staying up in the air requires following proper fight procedures. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). Te way to keep in step with the Spirit is to track what the spiritual instruments tell us and respond in an airworthy manner.

Airworthiness means a plane conforms to a strict standard of design that deems it safe and in good condition to fy. It is the pilot’s responsibility to verify the aircraf’s certifcate of airworthiness. Not every plane that is fyable is airworthy. Similarly, for us to fy – to live free and have life abundantly11 – we must conform to God’s design. God’s design is crafed within us by God’s Spirit. “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Te bad news is that there was a time when the Holy Spirit was removed. As a result of sin and disobedience in the days of Noah, people everywhere were rebellious and corrupt. Te Lord began to regret he had created human beings.12 Instead of fying people drowned in the Great Flood. Tey paid no attention to the presence of God that could rescue them. Te Lord said, “My Spirit

11 John 10:10

12 Genesis 6:6

will not abide in humans” (Genesis 6:3). Te withdrawal of the Holy Spirit was a consequence of the Fall and led to the depravity of humanity. Without the lif provided by the presence of the Lord we cannot fy.

Te prophet Joel (around 800BC) revealed that God had a plan to restore the Spirit make fying possible. God would deal once and for all with the gravity of sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ten he would arrange for the power of lif to be available to all.

And aferward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions…I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth… And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (fy). Joel 2:28-32

Te good news is that since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit has been poured out into human hearts. Pentecost13 was the reversal of the Fall. Te Holy Spirit is now deposited into believers by faith. “We who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14, NLT). Te lif necessary for fying is available by faith.

As our airworthy design comes to life through faith, it becomes our responsibility to fy by that newly imparted design. Not every person who jumps of the deck will fy. Not everyone who faps their arms will takeof. Not everyone who calls out to God will soar. Jesus explained in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of

Acts 2:1-5

heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

Obedience is our part of the fying equation. Paying attention to the spiritual indicators means following the will of God. Te Holy Spirit works to impart the truth upon our minds and in our hearts. “When the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). As good pilots we take those spiritual signals seriously and respond obediently. If we become comfortable in having our own way, we risk missing our fight. Unwillingness to see the error of our way will certainly result in never leaving the ground.

Humility is essential for the successful quest. Te man who is perfectly adjusted to this world and completely comfortable in his grey fannel suit can rarely be touched by God. Indeed no one gets very far on the spiritual journey who does not have the genuine and deep inner motivation of the man who can say, “Something is lacking in me which I must somehow fnd.”14

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lif you up” (James 4:10). Humble here translates the Greek word

(tapeinōthēte) which means surrender, submit. Give up doing things your way – or any way that’s not God’s way – and surrender to always and only following the Lord. Tat’s how we cooperate with God’s uplifing grace.

Our role in fying is to accept the gif of lif and follow the fight plan. Pilots must be trained to follow procedure or the plane and its passenger will be in serious danger. Flying a kite requires us to hold on to the string or else the kite will spin wildly out of control and crash to the ground. Likewise, believers in Christ

14 Morton Kelsey, page 177

must be trained to follow the Lord and hold onto the teachings of Scripture which have been inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Traveling in the air is not the same as traveling on the ground. Te journey as a heaven-bound person of faith is not the same as the journey of an earthbound unbeliever. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2). Our airworthiness is other-worldliness. When we fy we become diferent than those who do not fy. We “do not conform to the pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2).

Tose who trust God’s action in them fnd that God’s Spirit is in them – living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. Tat person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.

But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells – even though you still experience all the limitations of sin –you yourself experience life on God’s terms. (Romans 8:5-11, MSG)

Te lives of those who do not fy are self-centered. When self is the center of gravity the load is too heavy to lif of the ground. All of Satan’s temptations dangled in front of Jesus were about

putting self ahead of God.15 Jesus responded to each temptation with a corrective that kept him on a true fight path. In the three temptations in the wilderness, the devil attempted to critically disrupt the pitch, yaw and roll of Christ’s fight. Being an expert pilot, Jesus was able to control his plane by obeying the will of God and abiding by the truth of Scripture.

Know that when you are airborne you will be bufeted by the turbulence of temptation. Downdrafs and rough air will threaten the control of your life. Watch your spiritual indicators. Lock on to Jesus. “Let us strip of every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NLT). Keep your eyes on the gauges that indicate the presence of Christ’s Spirit. Submerge yourself in prayer, participate in worship, absorb the Word, enjoy the fellowship, and focus on service. What do you hear? Are you aligned with the Lord? Are you in step with the Holy Spirit? Are you fying straight and level? Do your job pilot. When you do, that’s fying!

15 Matthew 4:1-11

Chapter 7: Tis is Your Captain Speaking

I’ve always been bothered by the bumper sticker that reads, “God is my Co-pilot.” Delegating the Lord to the second seat essentially removes his lordship. It reeks of self-aggrandizement: “I am the pilot. I’m in charge of my life. I’ll fy this plane wherever and however I want. But I’m proud to say, I’ve got God close by to help me in case I run into trouble.” In other words, God is not in command of my life. Te Merriam-Webster defnition of copilot is: “a qualifed pilot who assists or relieves the pilot but is not in command.”

A friend invited me to go fying with him one beautiful summer morning. He owned a Cessna R182 Skylane RG and knew about my interest in fying. Of course I cherished the opportunity. We did some sight-seeing around the area. But I was far more fascinated with what he was doing as a pilot in the cockpit than what could be seen on the ground. Afer about thirty minutes of me asking a bunch of questions, he asked if I wanted to fy the plane. I said, “Sure!” In his premeditated wisdom he had fown to a large lake. If something went wrong with me at the controls and we went down, we might scare a few fsh but we wouldn’t do any damage or harm to others.

He masterfully instructed me to gently take the yoke (like a steering wheel) in-hand and lightly push forward and then lightly pull back. No matter how gently I tried, my palms were sweaty and my knuckles were white. But I loved it. He had me make a couple slight turns while teaching me which instruments to watch.

I was fying a plane! (at least partly, he was working the pedals and the throttle). I few for several minutes across the entire length of this gorgeous blue lake. Eat your heart out Orville and Wilbur!

My friend was the pilot. He was trained and licensed. He knew the aircraf and could expertly maneuver it through the air. He had years of experience and logged thousands of hours in fight. He invested not only in the ownership and maintenance of the plane, but also in his knowledge and ability to transport people safely. He was the captain, I was his guest along for the ride. For me to assume that I was in charge of fying the plane would have been ridiculous, even disastrous.

Te same holds true when we are lifed up by the Spirit of God. When our hearts are set free and our lives made whole by the transforming power of grace, God is in charge – not us. He is our Captain, we are his guests. Jesus is Lord. He sits in the pilot seat of our lives. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He can expertly maneuver us: “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:2-3, RSV). He has logged an eternity of fight. He completely invested all of himself – “emptied himself” through his death on the Cross (Philippians 2:7) – to secure our safe passage to heaven. Jesus is the true FAA: the Final Airborne Authority. “God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:9-11, NLT). For you or me to assume that we are in charge of fying is ridiculous, even disastrous.

Te heartbeat of the Christian confession is “Jesus is Lord.” Tat means we not only believe he is Lord of all, but we trust him

as our Lord – the Authority, the Pilot. He is in charge of our lives as he helps us fy. Te reason it makes sense to trust the Pilot is due to the perspective he has from above. It’s amazing how far you can see from 30,000 feet above the ground. Te crazy details of life below disappear. Te air above the clouds is clear, crystal blue, and distraction-free. Te earth looks peaceful. Te trees and rivers and mountains and prairie all fow together in harmony. God sees the big picture from his perspective on high. Not that the Lord doesn’t care about the details of our lives. He cared about his friend Martha fxing lunch.16 But he wants us too to see the big picture. Tat’s part of fying.

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shufe along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective. (Colossians 3:1-2, MSG)

Because God is the Captain, we pay attention when God is speaking and obey his instructions. Sometimes those instructions are difcult. Tis is what happened in chapter six of John (vs 60f ).

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “ Tis is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

Jesus said to them “ Te words I have spoken to you –they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.”

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

16 Luke 10:38-42

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

As difcult as some teachings may be, fiers listen and obey. We do not give commands to the Lord. God is not our copilot. God is the Pilot and gives direction to our lives. Tere is no greater expert pilot than the Lord – no more profcient fier than Jesus. No one else knows better how to fy. Te Lord is risen. We believe in him and we rise too (second law of spiritual dynamics). Terefore, in order to safely navigate life in the air we follow his instructions. He says turn right, we turn right. He says pull up, we pull up. He says more throttle, we push the throttle. He says gear down, we put the gear down. “Follow me,” Jesus said to the fshermen on the shore, “and I will teach you to fy.” Tis is your Captain speaking.

Remember, God’s Word is full of grace, and grace is the power that lifs you up. Add those two together and there is power in God’s Word to help you fy. Te Captain speaks through the Holy Scriptures. Te words in the Bible emanate from the Holy Spirit (John 16:12-15) whose presence within imparts uplifing pressure. Te words in the Bible provide a convicting warning when fying of course (Hebrews 4:12). Te words in the Bible are exactly what every person needs to know to learn how to fy.

Tere’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another – showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Trough the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us. (2 Timothy 3:15-17, MSG)

Te Bible is the indispensable PA system over which our Captain speaks to us. From its words we hear the good news of God’s love and salvation. We hear about the nature, power and majesty of God the Father. We hear about forgiveness, redemption, sanctifcation and resurrection ofered through the Son, Jesus Christ. We hear about the power of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible to live in love and peace with others. Best of all we hear God speak to us about how to fy. “ Tis is my Son…Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5).

Sometimes we listen but we don’t hear. We misinterpret or misunderstand what the Captain says. Failing to accurately hear the Pilot makes fying dangerous. Jesus brought this to the attention of his followers one day when he noted, “ Tough seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (Matthew 13:13). He was talking mostly about the Pharisees and other religious leaders of his day who, though very familiar with the Scriptures, did not understand the truth about faith and the Messiah and God’s Kingdom.

A case in point today: though not a bumper sticker, the phrase “God is in control” is popular in Christian circles. But that idea is not found in the fight manual. In fact, just the opposite is true. “ Te whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). God does not control everything and everybody. Te universe in not a machine where God pulls the levers to make the sun rise, or stirs the atmosphere with a fnger to whip up a hurricane. People are not marionettes manipulated by God to behave in any predetermined way. Circumstances are not programmed into each day to fulfll a prearranged destiny. Is God able to afect nature? Of course. Does God infuence the behavior of people? Sometimes. Can God arrange special serendipitous situations? Certainly. Does God do this all the time? No.

If God was in control, Adam and Eve (and you and me) would still live in the Garden of Eden, Noah wouldn’t have had to build the ark, David and Goliath would have been bfs, King Herod wouldn’t have ordered the murder of so many children, Hitler would have been a nice guy, and I would still have a size thirtytwo waist. God’s desire is for what is good and right and holy to rule above all. “ Te kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). “He does not willingly bring afiction or grief to anyone” (Lamentations 3:33). “He does not want anyone to perish” (2 Peter 3:9).

If God was in control, Jesus would not have been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fght to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36). Where Christ rules completely would be a perfect place. Obviously we don’t live in a perfect place. In this world where we live and move and have our being, we have trouble and heartache and pain and injustice and hate.17 It’s not what God wants for us. But it is what it is because God is not in control. In this world Satan and sin are more in control than God.

However, God is in charge. Tere’s a diference. God will ultimately reign supreme. Te good and perfect Will of God will one day supersede everyone, everywhere, in every matter, for all eternity. Te Final Airborne Authority is Jesus Christ whose power will rule victoriously over all. “ Tis God will bring about in his own time – God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15). Until then we sufer. People have free will. Even though we can choose to align our life, our self, our choices to match God’s plan, some choose not to. As

17 John 16:33

such, sin ruins everything. Faith-planes crash and burn every day and the collateral damage is tremendous. “ Te great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (Revelation 12:9). Satan is not in charge. His doom is sure because God is in charge. But Satan’s infuence in this world to lead people away from God creates a spiritual black hole that sucks life out of this world and its inhabitants, and causes souls to crash and burn.

God is in charge, not in control. A good way to think about that is to image God as the Captain of a cruise ship. Te ship has a set destination (the New Jerusalem of Rev 21:2). Because God is in charge, the ship will arrive at its destination. Nothing will divert the ship from arriving at its fnal Port of Call. Tose legally onboard have purchased their tickets by believing in Jesus Christ. However, many stowaways come along for the ride, but will be discovered and eventually end up in the brig. During the cruise travelers have the freedom to choose to stay on the ship or to jump ship. God is not in control of people’s choices. Tough extremely difcult for ticketholders to climb over the railing and abandon ship, it is possible. Because God is not in control, those on the cruise have the freedom to eat, sleep, work, play, worship, as they choose. Also because of free will, violence and crime and prejudice and other social maladies will breakout on deck. Some forms of mercy and justice will appear as passengers try to please the Captain. But hate and oppression will also surface, because the Captain is not in control. Sin will not be exterminated until the end of the cruise. When the disciples asked Jesus about this cruise he said, “Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12-13).

God is in charge, not in control. God’s Will will ultimately prevail. Until then, because of humanity’s free will, evil and the darkness of our depravity will proliferate throughout the world. Being confused about that can cause garbled communication with the Captain. Poor communication with the Captain will diminish our capacity to fy. If we are unclear about what the Captain is saying, fying will not go well for us. To correct that problem we become students of the Word. We take the Bible seriously and fnd a good fight instructor – Bible teacher/preacher. Hearing God speak is necessary to learn to fy. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?” (Romans 10:13-14, NLT)

Chapter 8: Filing the Flight Plan

Every fight needs a plan. According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, every IFR fight needs to fle its route, and VFR fights are encouraged to do so (though not always mandated). Besides the date and time of the trip, the fight plan includes origin and destination and stopping points along the way. It describes the type of aircraf, the planned cruise speed and altitude, the estimated fuel usage, and the identifcation number of the plane and pilot. Besides allowing the pilot to appropriately prepare for the journey, the fled fight plan aids fight controllers in assessing and managing air trafc, and aids frst responders should an emergency occur along the route. Te pilot (commercially: fight operations ofcer, fight dispatcher) is responsible for fling the fight plan.

On March 25, 2019 a non-stop British Airways fight from London to Düsseldorf, Germany landed in Edinburgh, Scotland. Tough the pilots successfully followed the fight plan, they landed at the wrong destination because the wrong fight plan had been fled. Te passengers had no clue they were in the wrong place until the captain said, “Welcome to Edinburgh.” Even at that, most thought he was just joking. Te fight crew had to convince all onboard that they were actually in the wrong city. Te incorrect fight plan took a whole plane full of people in the wrong direction landing them at an improper end to their journey.

Jesus addressed this same problem as it occurs in the spiritual realm. Te religious leaders of Jesus’ day fled a fight

plan for all the Jews. Teir plan to help people access God was to follow a compendium of oppressive rules and religious regulations. Tat is not grace. It is lethal legalism that forms ice on the wings of the soul and burdens would-be fiers with insurmountable weight. And, lands them at the wrong destination! Jesus strongly reprimanded the leaders for missing God’s fight plan.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

(Matthew 23:13-15)

Spiritually speaking, our Pilot has a fight plan fled for us. Following God’s fight plan ensures we will arrive at the proper end of our journey. Following an incorrect fight plan will take us in the wrong direction in life and will land us at the wrong aferlife destination. Jesus also talked about the fight plan in terms of sheep and goats. In chapter twenty-fve of Matthew he said that those who follow him (sheep) will land safely, but those who do not (goats) will crash and burn. “ Tose ‘goats’ will be herded to their eternal doom, but the ‘sheep’ to their eternal reward” (Matthew 25:46, MSG).

Tough the exact details are diferent for every person, God’s plan for our journey is to keep us moving higher. Te destination is always the same for every believer. We are destined to be like Jesus – whole and holy, resurrected, and perfected. “We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Tis Christlikeness has been designed into the very fabric of our being since creation. “ Ten God said, ‘Let us

make human beings in our image, to be like us’…So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27, NLT). In fact, the Scripture is not above calling that image “perfect.” “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Or calling it “holy.” “I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45).

Being made perfect/holy is God’s fight plan for us. When Jesus was lifed up on the cross, he provided the lif necessary to make our heart fy. Te grace available because of Christ’s death on the cross makes holiness possible. “For by one sacrifce he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14). God has fled our fight plan since before time began. “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy” (Ephesians 1:4, NLT). When we accept and embrace that we are destined to be like Christ, we discover we are fying! “It is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifed up – and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life” (John 3:14-15, MSG).

Holiness has gotten a bad rap over the years. From the two hundred years of the holy war Crusades (1050AD – 1290AD) to the two hundred years of white gloves and black ties of the holiness movement, being holy has stood in people’s minds for everything from radical prejudice to grandma’s pacifsm. Biblical holiness has nothing to do with those images. Te Biblical idea of holiness represents a condition of the heart wherein a person experiences an inward transformation. John Eldredge calls it the “utter relief of holiness.” Being holy brings freedom from our fallenness, freedom from struggling with our corrupt human nature. Being

holy brings people to a place where they can say with Jesus, “He (the devil) has no hold on me” (John 14:30).

Morton Kelsey, Episcopal priest and professor at Notre Dame University, studied, wrote, and taught extensively on the role of the Holy Spirit in shaping our lives. In his Encounter with God he details the power of God’s Spirit at work in our subconscious to transform us. “Operationally, when the power of the Holy Spirit comes into a life, the conficting, like and unlike forces, converging into the psyche, are brought into harmony and wholeness, and the person is transformed morally, psychologically and physically.”18 Tat transformation is from unholy to holy, from sinner to saint, from fallen to risen. Our encounter with God is authenticated by being on the fight path of holiness.

Te divine is that which has power and autonomy, gives meaning and purpose, and at least contains the qualities of our inner and personal nature. If man has no experience of such a reality, then, as far as men are concerned, God is dead.19

It’s important to remember holiness is a journey – a process. You don’t take of in fight as a new believer and instantaneously zoom to perfection. Reaching the 30,000-foot stratosphere level requires an appropriate rate of climb. Too steep an ascent can lead to engines stalling and planes falling out of the sky. Too shallow an ascent can lead to collisions with hills, trees, buildings, and other planes. Holiness requires steady growth; and growth in grace that lifs you up takes time. Both Apostles Peter and Paul encouraged believers to pursue maturing in the faith: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow

18 Morton Kelsey, Encounter with God, page 159.

19 ibid, page 27.

to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

Te spiritual growth process not only requires time, it requires intentionality. Rodleigh, of the Flying Rodleighs trapeze act, told Henri Nouwen, “Ten minutes in the air requires a lot of work.”20 We must choose to mature in faith. It doesn’t happen by osmosis. Just like our doing is a result of the decisions we make, so is our being. Who you are, who you become, is shaped by choice. You choose to be patient or not, to be kind or not, to be loyal or not, to love or not. Te journey to a free and fulflled life is a choice. Holiness is a choice. To fy “make every efort…to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).

Agreeing to and cooperating with God’s plan to shape our lives puts us in the fight pattern of holiness.

Unfortunately, the worldly fight plan fled at our birth is not God’s fight plan. Many unholy infuences can shape us. Trough no fault of our own we may have dark places in our souls that bankrupt our spirituality. Due to the twisted consequences of sin in this world our DNA may be distorted, or our upbringing may enslave us, or disease, injustice, oppression or prejudice may derail us. Sin and corrupt human desire are our birthright (frst law of spiritual dynamics). To change course and chart a path skyward we must accept God’s uplifing grace (second law of spiritual dynamics) and commit to following the fight plan fled under the heading of holiness. Faith in Jesus puts us on the right course. We become God’s holy people and are set free to fy.21 Coattails are not aerodynamic. Neither are good intentions, nor are claims of being a good person (“No one is good but God alone,” Mark 10:18).

20 Nouwen, page 47.

21 1 Corinthians 1:30 (TEV)

Fortunately, we have help in making and keeping our commitment to holiness. It’s not something we do for God, as John Oswalt remarks in Called to Be Holy (page 192). Holiness is what results as God dwells in us. Te divine presence of the Lord flls our souls like helium flls a balloon. We expand in the spiritual dimension because the Holy Spirit saturates our inner being. Jesus confrmed this truth when he said, “You know him, for he lives with you and is in you” (John 14:17). Because of this powerful presence, we have the power to overcome the weight of sin. “You have overcome because the Spirit who is in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4). God’s presence through the indwelling Holy Spirit provides the guidance system required to follow the path of holiness. “When he, the Spirit of the Truth, comes, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). In this way we can be sure we are following God’s fight plan and fying to a destination of freedom, fulfllment and wholeness. Te Spirit of God shapes our hearts and minds. Only by God’s Spirit are we given the inward wings to fy. “No one can confess ‘Jesus is Lord,’ without being guided by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3).

God’s fight plan has a name – sanctifcation. Sanctifcation is the process of becoming like Christ in what we think and say and do. It is the perfecting of our fying ability. “May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tessalonians 5:23, NRSV). Sanctifcation is the fight plan that the Lord fles for every believer. “It is God’s will that you should be sanctifed” (1 Tessalonians 4:13). So being in that process – not completing that process – is God’s perfect will for us in this life. Calvin Miller wrote, “getting there, not being there flls our life with meaning.”22

22 Miller, Becoming Yourself in the Making, page 186.

John Wesley, the eighteenth-century founder of Methodism, called it Christian Perfection. He described it this way: “I saw, that ‘simplicity of intention, and purity of afection,’ one design in all we speak or do, and one desire ruling all our tempers, are indeed ‘the wings of the soul,’ without which she can never ascend to the mount of God.” Wesley thought holiness of heart and life was the central characteristic of a soul lifed by God’s grace.

“Be flled with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18, NLT) is a fight directive. It is not an option. “When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it flled the whole house where they were sitting…Tey were all flled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1-4, GNT). Later that day, Peter preached about believing in Jesus the Christ. People listened to him and wondered what would happen if they believed. He told them: You will fy. “Your sins will be forgiven; and you will receive God’s gif, the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38, GNT). Your sins which hold you down (frst law of spiritual dynamics) will be forgiven by God’s grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (second law of spiritual dynamics); and you will be set free by the Holy Spirit who provides the necessary lifing power that keeps you on the proper fight path.

Just as on the Day of Pentecost when the church was born with a big bang and all were flled with the Holy Spirit, every Christian since then requires the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to be able to fy. Tat transformation from ground dweller to airworthy, from worldly to holy, means your desires and behaviors are converted from selfsh to saintly.

Let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Ten you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. Te sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of

what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. Tese two forces are constantly fghting each other… Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. (Galatians 5:16-17,25, NLT).

“ Tese two forces are constantly fghting each other” – these two forces of worldliness and holiness, of sin and grace, of gravity and lif. When God’s grace overcomes our sins we are lifed up. “Rise!” said Jesus to the healed paralytic. But don’t simply stand there, “Pick up your mat and go home.” You have things to do, places to go, people to see. You will need the Lord’s help with the things, the places, and the people. Tat’s okay because he has a plan “to prosper you and not to harm you; to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

We board the heaven bound fight not to simply get a ffycent tour of the plane. We fy to become like Jesus – whole and holy in heart and life. As we are saturated with Christ’s Spirit, soaking in the holiness of God, we become whole and holy. Tat’s fying!

SECTION FOUR: DRAG

Ten the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘ Tis is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the feld—on your horses, donkeys and camels and on your cattle, sheep and goats. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.’”

Te Lord set a time and said, “Tomorrow the Lord will do this in the land.” And the next day the Lord did it: All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died. Pharaoh investigated and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.

Exodus 9:1-7

Chapter 9: Turbulence

Riding along in the car on a beautiful day with the windows down, what does a dog do? He sticks his head out the window and enjoys the breeze in his face. What do you do? Stick your arm out the window and do what…? Take your arm for a plane ride of course. With palm fat and parallel to the ground your wing is fying through the air. Tilt your hand up a bit and your arm fies up. Tilt your hand down a bit and your arm descends. Oscillating between up and down, your arm goes on a rollercoaster ride. Whee!

What happens if you tilt your hand too far up or too far down? If your hand goes vertical one way or the other, you’ve got problems. Once your palm is perpendicular to the ground your wing loses its aerodynamic performance. Te rush of the wind around a car traveling above forty miles per hour presents so much resistance that your arm is forced violently backward. Serious pain and even injury may occur. Tere should be a warning about this in the driver’s training manual: “To prevent injury when fying your arm out the window do not tilt your hand beyond a plus or minus forty-fve degree angle of attack.”

A plane experiences the same air resistance in fight. For the wings to produce lif air must fow smoothly across the wings’ horizontal surface. To create that airfow so that the airfoil design of the wings can lif the plane up, the plane needs to move forward. Tat forward movement is generated by the engines – propeller or jet. Tough necessary for lif, that forward movement also

encounters a tremendous amount of resistance. Tat resistance force is called drag.

Imagine you are in a swimming pool. It’s a wonderful summer day and you’re glad to be up to your neck in clear, clean, comfortable water. Someone shouts “Marco!” You yell out, “Polo!” and try to run away from being tagged and becoming “it”. But it’s so hard to run in water up to your neck. You move in agonizingly slow motion, worried that you won’t be able to avoid the tag. Tere is strong resistance when you try moving in water. Tat opposable force is called drag.

Drag is a horizontal friction that opposes forward movement. In air, like in water, the pressure drag imposes can be signifcant. Commercial airline jets cruise between fve and six hundred miles per hour. Stick your arm out the window at that speed and see what happens! Te drag force on a typical cruising passenger plane is equal to nineteen tons. Tat’s the equivalent of four large African elephants sitting on the wings. Aeronautical engineers account for drag in the design of airplanes. Smooth, rounded, aerodynamic surfaces help reduce the resistance, and strong, powerful engines help overcome the force of drag. All fight must reckon with the inescapable power of drag.

Pilots are well aware of the force of drag on the plane. Airspeed and wing fap settings are the pilot’s main tools in keeping the plane moving forward in the face of drag. Lots of speed is necessary at takeof to overcome the initial drag. Te faps (movable sections at the trailing edge of the wings) are used on takeof to increase lif. Lowering the faps slightly (set at fve to ffeen degrees) helps to increase lif yet it also increases drag. Increased drag requires more speed to get airborne, usually around eight-fve to ninety percent of full throttle. Upon landing speed needs to be reduced. Since drag is a natural speed-reducer,

lowering the faps signifcantly (set at twenty-fve to forty degrees) along with pulling back the throttle helps slow down the plane to a safe airspeed for landing.

Flying would be simpler if drag forces were only in play during takeof and landing. Te reality is that planes experience resistance in many ways. Bad weather, strong headwinds and tailwinds, downdrafs and updrafs, microbursts and wind shear can pummel a plane in the air. Turbulence is the general term for rough air that disturbs a fight. Every pilot and every passenger experience turbulence. Air is never completely stable. Drag is always present, and bumpy sections along the journey are to be expected.

Te third law of spiritual dynamics has to do with drag. Tere are horizontal forces of resistance that oppose forward movement. If our relationship with God can be thought of in a vertical dimension, then relationships with others can be thought of horizontally. Severe relational friction called hate is the third law of spiritual dynamics. Hate takes many forms: prejudice, oppression, violence, rage, discrimination, and so forth. It is the ever-present spiritual turbulence that beats down and bumps people around. Hate keeps people from fying. Sometimes the angle of attack in relationships is so steep and drag is so extreme that souls become unstable and crash.

Moses and the Israelites encountered intense drag preceding the Exodus. For four hundred years the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. When the time had come for them to be delivered out of slavery and set free to establish their own nation under God, the Lord sent Moses to tell the Egyptian Pharaoh it was time to release the Hebrews from captivity. Pharaoh refused to let God’s people go. “His heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go” (Exodus 9:7). Some translations say Pharaoh’s heart

was “hardened”. Hard-heartedness keeps people from moving forward. Proverbs 28:14 says, “Whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.” Moses approached Pharaoh ten times about freeing the Israelites. Nine times he met a fve-ton elephant sitting on the wing that prohibited God’s people from moving forward, down the runway to takeof. But, on the tenth and fnal time, Pharaoh’s resistance broke down and he allowed Moses to lead the Israelites out of bondage to freedom in the Promised Land.

Hate drags people down and holds people back. Hate in the heart is a sure sign of not yet being airborne – not yet free to live a whole and holy life, not yet fying. But when God sets us free we are transformed (part of the second law of spiritual dynamics). A hard heart of stone is sofened by grace. “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (Ezekiel 36:26, NLT). A changed heart, one flled with the Holy Spirit, is ripe with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Tat redeemed heart moves relationships in a positive direction.

But there are hearts, like Pharaoh’s, that are rotten. Jesus said resistance to moving forward in relationships resides in the heart. “For from your heart come the evil ideas which lead you to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others” (Matthew 15:19, TEV). Te drag of hatred stalls relationships and sends them plummeting to the ground. Hearts unyielded to God, unchanged by grace, unredeemed by the Cross, untouched by the power of the Holy Spirit, are hearts grounded in evil.

Te turbulence of evil and injustice in the world produces waves of rough air everywhere. Trying to fy in the face of war or poverty or discrimination or abuse or violence or crime is like

trying to fy a kite in a tornado. Life is torn to pieces even before having a chance to get of the ground. Flights are routinely diverted around thunderstorms due to the inherently dangerous weather conditions. Nasty winds and lightning and rain can fatally cripple a plane’s fying capabilities. Pilots are warned by radar and fight controllers on the ground about storms and serious turbulence. Flight paths are ofen altered to avoid treacherous, unstable air.

On December 21, 2023 a fight into the airport at Birmingham in the U.K. was attempting to land amid 45mph winds. Te strong gusts blowing across the runway made the landing tricky. Te plane was an Airbus 380, the world’s largest passenger plane. It was being tossed around like a rubber duck in the bathtub with a two-year-old. As the cockpit crew brought the plane down, a safe landing was highly questionable. Twenty feet above the ground the pilot decided to abort the landing. He applied full power to the engines and the plane head back up into the sky. Crisis averted, for a moment. Te second attempt went no smoother. Te landing aborted again. Te great plane was no match for the squalls of mother nature. Finally, afer forty-fve minutes, the third attempt to land was successful. All went safely.

Te early church needed to be warned of dangerous turbulence. Te Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus, “We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be infuenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth” (Ephesians 4:14, NLT). Te human spirit can be fatally crippled by the nasty winds of deceit or oppression or prejudice. Te moral radar of society needs to pick up storms of evil and fash red warnings when the severe fronts of unfairness and inequality and wrongdoing are blowing across the land. People need to be mindful of brewing or existing turbulence. Civic systems and laws and cultural values

and governmental regulations, which ideally should provide safe and humane conditions for all, can be sources of evil and injustice. Awareness and confrontation and accountability help steer fight paths away from wicked turbulence. Fliers need to identify the hurricane named Immorality and then avoid it when it comes ashore.

Te ancient Hebrew king David defned evil turbulence this way:

I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: Tere is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they fatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin. Te words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or do good. Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong… See how the evildoers lie fallen thrown down, not able to rise!

(Psalm 36:1-4, 12)

On August 2, 1985, Delta Air Lines fight 191 was on fnal approach to land at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Te Lockheed L-1011 with 165 souls onboard encountered serious turbulence. Te aircraf crashed a mile short of the runway as it few into a thunderstorm. A microburst wind shear (a sudden strong downdraf of wind) slammed the plane to the ground killing 137. Te National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash resulted from three things: the fight crew’s decision to fy through a thunderstorm, the lack of procedures or training to avoid or escape microbursts, and the lack of hazard information on wind shear. Since that crash, pilots have been required to train to react to microbursts and to quickly take evasive action in order to safely land the plane. Technology has been developed to identify when microburst conditions are imminent.

Evil people, who harbor hate in their hearts, and evil systems/governments, which foster injustice and oppression, are the dangerous wind shear blowing against building peaceful communities and mutually edifying relationships. Just as calm air is safer than turbulence for fying, peace is the preferred environment for living. Training in peacemaking is necessary in order to react appropriately to the slamdown of evil microbursts. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

We cannot completely avoid turbulence in this world. Yet we can take action to safely fy through the turbulence. Tat’s what the Bible has in mind in this verse: “Make every efort to live in peace with everyone” (Hebrews 12:14).

Chapter 10: Pilate Error

Living in peace and working for peace are not about trying to make everybody happy. Jesus is called the Prince of Peace but he certainly did not make everyone happy. In fact, he himself said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34-36). Te sword he referred to is the disruptive power of the message of salvation and the truth about Christ and the reality of God’s love. Tat power shakes the foundation of the human soul (Hebrews 4:4). Tat power, though redemptive, is not meant to make everyone happy (John 15:24-25). Tat power causes division within families, among religions, and between nations. Not a century has passed in the last two thousand years where blood has not been shed in the name of Christ. Some nobly for heaven’s sake. Some deplorably for wrong and selfsh reasons.

Even in the frst century, as the Gospel was preached and the Christian faith was gaining traction, the early church had to be reminded to avoid turbulence and pursue peace.

Turn your back on the turbulent desires of youth and give your positive attention to goodness, faith, love and peace in company with all those who approach God in sincerity. But have nothing to do with silly and ill-informed controversies which lead inevitably, as you know, to strife. (2 Tim 2:22)

Tere is no place in a believer’s heart for self-centeredness. Tere is no hierarchy of holiness that puts followers of Jesus on a

higher plane. Christians are never to be the source of arrogance that leads to judgmentalism or prejudice. Such an attitude divides church, country, communities and families. “Don’t cherish exaggerated ideas of yourself or your importance” (Romans 12:3, JBP).

Tat’s the error that Pontius Pilate made. When Jesus was arrested he was taken to Pilate, the ruling governor of the region around Jerusalem, to be judged and sentenced. Te Jewish religious leaders had underhandedly orchestrated Christ’s arrest and wanted Pilate to have Jesus executed (crucifed). Pilate asked Jesus some questions. Jesus was judicious with his answers. At one point Pilate’s frustrated arrogance showed up when he said to Jesus, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” (John 19:10). Of course, Pilate had no real power over the Lord of heaven and earth.

To Pilate’s credit, afer a lengthy interrogation (including sending him to King Herod for a second opinion), he found Jesus guilty of nothing. He addressed the mob gathered in the courtyard.

“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

“Crucify him!” they shouted.

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” (Mark 15:914)

Ten the Pilate error surfaced. “Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus fogged, and handed him over to be crucifed” (Mark 15:15). Pilate knew that the corrupt Jewish leaders were acting out of evil intentions. But, instead of doing the right thing by freeing Jesus, Pilate succumbed to the turbulence. To keep the crowd from rioting and to make everyone happy, Pilate forfeited a relationship with the Prince of Peace. Pilate washed his hands of Jesus (Matthew 27:24).

“Pull up! Pull up!” An audible warning automatically sounds when a plane is in danger of crashing. Pilots have but moments to respond appropriately to avoid disaster. Tough many factors are involved when a plane crashes, a large majority (75%) of aviation accidents are due to pilot error. If Pilate heard this warning, he wasn’t paying attention.

On July 16, 1999 John F. Kennedy, Jr. died when his plane, a Piper Saratoga, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean of the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Also killed in the crash were Kennedy’s wife, Caroline, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette. Te NTSB ofcially declared that the crash was caused by “the pilot’s failure to maintain control of his airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation.” Pilot error.

On November 12, 2001 American Airlines fight 587 lef New York headed for Santo Domingo. One minute afer takeof the Airbus A300 encountered heavy turbulence from the wake of a Boeing 747 which took of from the same runway ninety seconds earlier. Te co-pilot over-applied the rudder pedal, turning the plane on its side. Te excessive stress caused the rudder to fail. Te A300 spun and crashed into a residential area, crushing fve houses and killing 265 people. According to the NTSB, the aggressive use of the rudder controls by the co-pilot caused the vertical stabilizer

to snap of the plane. Te investigation also reported that the copilot’s predisposition to overreact to wake turbulence caused him to panic. Pilot error.

Pontius Pilate panicked in the face of public pressure. Te powerful wake of hateful turbulence caused him to overreact and lose control of the situation. He heard the warning “Pull up! Pull up!” from his wife who advised him to change his course. She had a bothersome dream about Jesus that prompted her to alert her husband of the danger of condemning an innocent man. Pilate also heard his conscience nudging him to release this innocent man. Nonetheless, the governor allowed evil to rule the day. He passed the buck of Jesus’ fate to the violent mob. It was his decision that sealed the horrible death of Christ. Pilot error.

Pilot error occurs on our faith fight when, due to our stubbornness or arrogance or self-centeredness, we become an obstacle to peace. Flying in the wake of others who are disturbing the peace is difcult. Patience and restraint are required to safely navigate rough air. “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).

Jesus ofered pilot training on how to fy in the wake of hateful turbulence.

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your

enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

(Matthew 5:38-45)

Love your enemies. It’s not easy to love anyone, even those dear to us. It’s difcult to make the commitment and sacrifces necessary to perfectly love other imperfect human beings. At best, we love most of our family and friends most of the time. Loving enemies is a whole other ballgame, requiring immense self-control, humility, and grace. But that’s the secret to handling turbulence.

Listen to what Paul tells the Christians in ancient Rome.

Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath… Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good. (Romans 12:14-21, MSG)

Keeping ourselves from crashing means handling the drag of hate and prejudice, oppression, and injustice. From Jesus’ statement in the Sermon on the Mount and Paul’s encouragement in Romans, four cockpit practices will help prevent pilot error in the face of turbulence. Tey align with the four positions of an automatic transmission: P, R, N and D. A transmission helps move a vehicle by transferring energy to the wheels. Spiritually, PRND keeps relationships from stalling and keeps people fying.

P-ray when parked. Jesus said, “Pray for those who persecute you.” When facing turbulence the best frst action is no action. Do not overreact to evil. Instead, park any rage and vengeful feelings inside the garage of Remain Calm and Call on the Lord. Pray at all times, especially in times of rough air. Pray in the Spirit, especially because praying outside of the Spirit of Christ will only be counterproductive – spiteful and full of self-pity. “Do no harm” is the frst of John Wesley’s General Rules for Methodists to follow. Avoiding evil behavior was evidence that a person’s salvation was genuine. Praying is a way to prevent pilot error.

R-evenge is going backwards. Both Jesus and Paul said, “Turn the other cheek.” Getting even with someone escalates resistance. Retaliation severely increases the drag coefcient in the aeronautics of spiritual wellness, wholeness, holiness and peace. Payback and backbiting and slander reverse the forward movement of relationships and are certain to cause serious turbulence. If people are to work together productively to make a positive diference in this world, then there’s no place for evening the score in government or in churches or in neighborhoods or in families. Again, the Methodist rule “Do no harm” means avoid returning evil for evil. Surrendering any right (no matter how righteous) to avenge a personal wrong keeps a soul airworthy. Remember: “Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lif you up” (James 4:10). Being humble is a way to prevent pilot error.

N-o judgmentalism; stay neutral. God is the Judge. No one else is worthy to pass judgment on the soul of another. Paul reminded the Christians living underground in Rome (who had every reason to want the downfall of the oppressive Roman government) to leave reprisal and retribution up to God. “‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Te fnal Revelation makes it clear that divine judgment will, with

certainty – in the end, come upon this world’s evil. “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants” (Revelation 19:1-2). Te great prostitute referring to the powers of wickedness that lures people into sin and rebellion against God.

Another General Rule of Methodist societies is to “Attend upon all the ordinances of God.” Believers are to do what they’re called to do, and let God do what only God can do. Te faithful are to publicly worship God, study and follow the Scriptures, regularly observe the Lord’s Supper, pray in private and with family, practice fasting and other spiritual disciplines that bear the fruit of salvation. What believers are not called to do is sit in judgmental condemnation of others. Tere is a place for constructive accountability which assists someone in their spiritual growth. Tere is a place for inviting people to repent of their sins and seek mercy. But, there is no place in the air for harsh, hypercritical attacks on another soul.

Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults – unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Tat critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling roadshow mentality all over again, playing a holier-thanthou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer of your own face, and you might be ft to ofer a washcloth to your neighbor. (Matthew 7:1-5, MSG)

Being gracious toward others is a way to prevent pilot error.

D-o good, even to those who disturb the peace. Beyond chillaxing there are some positive proactive steps to take when fying in heavy turbulence. Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” Paul put it this way, “Bless your enemies.” Pursuing peace means taking an active role as a servant to all. Troublemakers, no less than peacemakers, stand in the need of the means of grace that only comes through Jesus Christ. Christians provide the conduit through which that grace fows.

“Love your neighbor” is part of the greatest commandment. Neighbor was defned by Jesus in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. To the Judean Jew, a Samaritan was a no-good rotten troublemaker who didn’t deserve the time of day. Samaritans felt the same way about the Jews of Jerusalem. But Jesus exalted the idea of doing good to those you consider enemies. He put it on par with loving God.

A third General Rule of Methodism is “Do good.” John Wesley put it this way, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” Tat pretty well describes peacemaking. Taking the initiative to be kind and helpful to those who are ofensive and cause problems lowers the resistance in relationships. Doing good is a way to prevent pilot error.

At 3:25pm on January 15, 2009, US Airways fight 1549 took of from LaGuardia airport in New York with 155 souls on board. Two minutes afer takeof the Airbus A320 few through a fock of Canadian geese. Te bird strike caused both engines to completely lose power. Te pilot, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, had less than a minute to decide what to do. Air

trafc controllers gave him two options of airports to glide in for a landing. Captain Sully knew the disabled plane would not be able to make either of those options. He decided to land the plane on the Hudson River. Normally, big aircraf and bodies of water do not mix. But in this case, the pilot made the right choice. Captain Sully skillfully landed the passenger jet on the river. Te plane did not “crash” and all 155 people survived. No pilot error. Tat’s fying!

Chapter 11: Air Trafc

On the ground, around thirty-six thousand people are killed in automobile accidents every year in the United States. By contrast, in the air less than ffy people are killed in airplane accidents on average each year. For four years, 2014-2017, there were no fatalities on U.S. soil due to commercial airline accidents. Per mile traveled, deaths occur 750 times more in cars than in planes.

Even though planes are a far safer way to travel than cars, planes do collide with each other. Te worst accident in aviation history occurred, ironically, on the ground. On March 27, 1977 in the Canary Islands at Tenerife Airport two 747 jumbo jets were taxiing around the busy little airport. Trafc was congested due to a terrorist bombing at a nearby larger airport from which these two planes (along with several others) had been diverted. As instructed by the control tower, KLM fight 4805 taxied to the end of the runway and turned around in preparation for takeof. Pan Am fight 1736 taxied right behind and, as instructed, was to clear the runway at the next exit. Te Pan Am pilots missed their exit and proceeded up the runway to take the next exit. Te KLM pilots were anxious to get of the ground and began takeof down the runway before being cleared by the tower. Dense fog made the two planes invisible to each other until it was too late. Tough hurrying to the exit, the Pan Am 747 was not able to clear the runway. Tough airborne, the KLM 747, fully fueled, was not able to clear the Pan Am 747. Tey crashed into each other. All passengers and crew on the KLM plane perished. Nearly all on the

Pan Am plane perished (sixty-one survived). In all, fve hundred and eighty-three people died in a horrible and fery collision.

Te cause of that disaster was ultimately due to the pilots not staying in sync with the control tower. Air Trafc Control (ATC) is responsible for directing the path of planes in the air and on the ground. Controllers work to manage the fow of air trafc to avoid collisions. Teir job is to clearly communicate to pilots the proper paths for safe takeof and landing. Tis is a massive job at busy airports like Chicago’s O’Hare or Atlanta’s HartsfeldJackson where 2600 fights a day come and go at an average of thirty-second intervals. It’s like a huge, complicated ballet. Dancers must be precisely choreographed to match the rhythms and timing of the music. A leap out of step or a pirouette out of sync with the composer’s score causes Swan Lake to lay an egg. Te ATC choreographs planes bounding in and out of airports. Controllers keep the trafc pattern in sync by directing the safe staging of aircraf.

Te pilots’ job is to follow the direction of the ATC. On the ground or in the air pilots must obey the instruction of the air trafc controllers. ATC is the only source of the big picture. Controllers have eyes on all the activity around the airport. Pilots trust the ATC to tell them where and when to takeof and land – what runway to use, which taxiway to follow, when it’s time to go. “Plié, en pointe, pirouette, sauté.” As captains take instruction and dance to the music directed by the ATC, planes perform the airport ballet beautifully. Bravo!

Te same holds true for fying in the spiritual dimension. Tere’s lots of trafc in the Christian airways. All kinds of people coming and going. Te Lord of the Dance says “Let’s dance!” and believers takeof in all directions. How is spiritual fight orchestrated to avoid collisions? Because even within the church

there is drag. Poor relationships within a congregation can hold back the forward progress of spiritual development and efective ministry.

Te Apostle Paul ran into this form of drag when he preached in Ephesus. As was his custom, when he preached the gospel in a new area he went to the Jewish synagogue regularly to talk about Jesus the Messiah.

Paul then went straight to the meeting place. He had the run of the place for three months, doing his best to make the things of the kingdom of God real and convincing to them. But then resistance began to form as some of them began spreading evil rumors through the congregation about the Christian way of life. So Paul lef. (Acts 19:8-9a, MSG)

He was unable to help people get airborne due to the strong drag of the naysayers. Te air was tense, relationships were strained, harmony was disrupted. Paul moved on to a place where there was less resistance. “He set up shop in the school of Tyrannus, holding class there daily. He did this for two years, giving everyone in the province of Asia, Jews as well as Greeks, ample opportunity to hear the Message of the Master” (Acts 19:9b-10, MSG).

Years later, Paul counselled Timothy to watch the radar for persons in the church who caused havoc for other fiers in the air trafc pattern.

Tey have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to fnancial gain. (1 Timothy 6:4-5)

From Paul’s day to today the history of the church is replete with the wreckage of mid-air collisions within the church. It’s so sad that a place where dreams of fying are given wings is also place where contention and confict bring people down. Dangerous drag from turbulent forces of evil outside the church is to be expected. Jesus noted, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it” (Matthew 11:12). But drag from the resistance of fiers who crash into other believers is not supposed to happen. Why does it happen and how can it be avoided?

An explanation of mid-air collisions from Wikipedia interestingly provides a spot-on understanding of what can happen in Christian circles.

Te potential for a mid-air collision is increased by miscommunication, mistrust, error in navigation, deviations from fight plans, lack of situational awareness and the lack of collision-avoidance systems. Although a rare occurrence in general due to the vastness of open space available, collisions ofen happen near or at airports, where large volumes of aircraf are spaced more closely than in general fight.23

Here’s the spiritual rewrite: Te potential for a serious disruption in the health and wellbeing of a congregation of Christian believers is increased by poor communication, lack of trust, arrogance, deviations from God’s plans, undisciplined spiritual life and the lack of forgiveness. Although not always blatant in general due to the passivity of being nice to one another, debilitating clashes ofen occur in the church due to the high

23 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-air_collision

volume of personal agendas which confict with the preferences of other members.

Unity is the missing piece in congregations where the peace is missing.24 Quoting chapter-and-verse in the Flight Manual, unity is a high priority in fying. Psalm 133:1 puts it, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Ephesians 4:3 says, “Make every efort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Te Master Flier prayed that other fiers would be formed by a divine oneness “so that they may be brought to complete unity” (John 17:23). Flying in the formation of a divine oneness is the key to unity. But to accomplish that formation pilots must pay strict attention to the ATC. In the church that means being Accountable To Christ.

Jesus Christ is in the control tower. “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Staying surrendered to Christ – following his ways and obeying his teaching – is the way to navigate the trafc around the church. God is the only source of the big picture. Te Lord has eyes on every person and every situation. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable” (Hebrew 4:13, NLT). When believers accept the lordship of Jesus Christ, he guides them in peace. Peace with God comes with accepting Jesus as Savior (Romans 5:1). Peace with others comes from accepting Jesus as Lord (Romans 8:6). A willingness to be accountable by all in the trafc pattern around church is the way Christians live in peace. Tat means every member of a community is willing to be held responsible to:

24 For a detailed look at unity in the local church see my doctoral dissertation Christian Unity in Church Mergers, the Missing Peace.

• talk openly and honestly with others,

• trust others,

• live humbly,

• follow God’s design for the church,

• seek the fullness of the Spirit through prayer, worship, and the Word, and

• be quick to repent and ofer forgiveness.

“Each of us will give a personal account to God. So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall” (Romans 14:12-13, NLT).

ATC puts Jesus in the control tower. With that collision avoidance system in place souls have a safe place to take of and land, refuel and retool. Personal preferences are no longer the priority. Instead, everyone sees the big picture of God’s Kingdom and denies their own self-centered ambition. Jesus taught his followers to deny themselves.

Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat – I am. Don’t run from sufering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifce is the way, my way, to fnding yourself, your true self.

(Luke 9:23, MSG)

Self-sacrifce is the way, Christ’s way, to fnding your wings and fying. People ofen have their own ideas about how to fy. Ofen they are the wrong ideas about how to fy. To avoid midair collisions, believers need to listen together to the Lord. Tis happens best by being submerged in the Scriptures. Reading and

studying the Bible – alone and with others – is how we discover the Lord’s preferences.

Personal agendas (hidden or open) are not the way. Instead, everyone aligns their thoughts with God’s thoughts and their plans with God’s plans. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). It may be that people may have the right ideas about how to fy, but then go about it the wrong way. To avoid mid-air collisions believers need to follow the Lord in holy obedience. Tis happens best by being committed to a life in the Spirit. Staying in step with the Holy Spirit – open to encouragement and correction from above – is how we dance gracefully with others.

Spiritual maturity is the key to fnding the missing peace. Christians weak in their fying abilities cause confict. According to Scripture “the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13). Peaceful unity is the goal of Christ for his church.

No insults, no fghts. God’s people should be bighearted and courteous. It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. (Titus 3:2-4, MSG)

Jesus is the only one who can save us from accidents that cause us to crash into each other. “He was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Our self-centered sin which puts a huge drag on relationships is healed by Christ. No thing and no person have the capability to eliminate the power of sin, reduce the friction between people and impart peace because no one else has the capacity to “so love the world.” Love overcomes the drag of hate. “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 3:8). It makes fying less turbulent and more peaceful.

SECTION FIVE: THRUST

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. Tis is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. Tis is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifce for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:7-12

Chapter 12: Full Trottle

“I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” Te Little Engine Tat Could chugged its way up and over the mountain. Other larger train engines refused to take on the task of pulling a long line of train cars up the steep hill, the drag was too great. But the Little Engine, fueled by determination, strong will and optimism, accomplished the seemingly impossible task. Tough the moral of this children’s story is inspirational, it loses steam in the operational. Of course, much good can be accomplished with optimistic willpower. But willpower will not power a soul to fy. Neither will positive thinking transform a rail train into an aero plane.

Te Wright brothers knew that fying would require something never thought of before. Tey knew that forward motion was necessary to overcome drag. Tey needed to invent a machine which was capable of such a feat. Lif would be provided by the wings but only as air fowed over the wing surface. Tis airfow required forward motion of the plane. Te forward motion is called thrust. Trust is the force provided by the engine(s) which powers the forward movement of a plane. Only when thrust overcomes drag can fight occur.

Orville and Wilbur came up with two ingenious ideas to produce the needed thrust on their 1903 Wright Flier. First was a propeller. Tey surmised that if the airfoil design of the horizontal wings could provide lif, why not turn the design vertical to provide thrust. Like the blades on fan that blow cool air on a hot

day, a spinning propeller concentrates the air movement. Replace the rubber feet on a desktop fan with wheels, turn on the fan and watch it move all around the desk. Tat’s thrust. Te Wrights handcrafed two eight-foot long propeller blades out of two layers of laminated one-inch spruce. Now all they needed was a motor to make the propellers spin.

Te second propulsion innovation was a light-weight motor. Several engine manufactures in and around Dayton were asked to manufacture a motor for the Wright brothers’ airplane, but none were able to provide one to ft the bill. So the Wrights built their own. Teir version used aluminum for the crankcase which greatly reduced the weight of the motor. It generated plenty of horsepower to turn the big propellers – 12hp (compare that to the 110,000 horsepower of each General Electric GE90-115b on the Boeing 777). On Tursday, December 17, 1903 with the engine running and the propellers spinning, the Wright fier took to the sky – frst carrying Orville, then Wilbur. Four successful fights were fown that day down the beach of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Te fnal one at noon was the longest, lasting 59 seconds and covering 852 feet at an altitude of 20 feet. Trust into history!

Trust is necessary to fy. Even a paper airplane needs thrust. No matter how it’s folded, every paper airplane needs a fick of the wrist to propel it on its way. Trust is necessary to get a kite of the ground. Charlie Brown knows running with the kite is the launchpad for a successful fight (although, knowing it and doing it are two diferent things – AAUGH!). A push is necessary from mom to send a toddler swinging. A toss is necessary by a quarterback to get a spiral into the endzone. Trust from an engine accelerates a plane through the air, overcoming drag, and providing the airfow over the wings to produce lif.

On takeof pilots “put the pedal to the metal.” Tey engage the engines nearly full throttle to generate immense power. Te engines turn the propellers, or the blades of a turbine in the case of a jet. Te spinning blades push air backwards and the plane moves forward. Te forward movement increases the airfow over the wings surface – the faster the airfow the stronger the lif. Getting of the ground requires as much propulsion as possible.

Te fourth law of spiritual dynamics has to do with thrust. To overcome the relational drag of hate (the third law of spiritual dynamics), the thrust of love is necessary. Love overcomes hate. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). J. B. Phillips put it this way, “Don’t allow yourself to be overpowered with evil. Take the ofensive – overpower evil by good!” I would put it this way: Put the pedal to the metal of love and overcome the drag of hatred and evil. Jesus put it this way,

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:27-31)

Love is the power that moves relationships forward. In the face of disagreement and confict and prejudice and abuse, love lifs people up. But love is not all valentines and fowers. Te propulsion of love is hard work. It’s very difcult to love enemies and do good to haters. It requires tremendous horsepower to ofer forgiveness and turn the other cheek. Tat horsepower is beyond any human being’s ability to generate. What is required is an engine more powerful than the Saturn V rocket that took men

to the moon (160 million hp!). What is required is a power source that moves the human heart. What is required is the power of God.

“God is love” (1 John 4:16). God is the power that can move the human heart. Only God’s love has the horsepower to overcome the evil and hatred in this world. Only God’s love provides sufcient thrust to move people beyond the selfshness of greed and revenge, of bigotry and arrogance. Relationships not powered by the love of God will not get very far.

One of my favorite childhood toys was a balsawood airplane. It came packaged in a long fat plastic sleeve. It required some assembly. Te wing was slid through a slot in the skinny fuselage. Te tail was inserted in a slot in the rear, same with the stabilizer. Te plastic propeller assembly which included the wheels was secured to the nose. Te fnal piece was the engine – a rubber band. Te rubber band was looped on a rear anchor and stretched to a metal hook attached to the propeller. Te engine was revved up by turning the propeller blade round and round which wound up the rubber band. Takeof would occur by simultaneously releasing the propeller and tossing the plane in the air. Flight! Well, for a few moments anyway.

Te rubber band provided very little power to sustain fight. Te same is true in the case of love. Without the power of God love is like a wound-up rubber band. Love that lacks eternal divine combustion has no horsepower to sustain healthy human relationships. Tere are not enough rubber bands in the world to lif an airliner of the runway. In the same way, the heavy lifing of peace and harmony and reconciliation is only accomplished by the infnite and amazing love of God working in us and through us.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. Tis is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. Tis is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifce for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12)

Tis is love: sacrifce, not self-serving but surrendering to do what is best for others. Tat’s the example Christ set for us. He surrendered his life on the Cross so we could fy. His atoning sacrifce for us provides the thrust we need to overcome the forces of evil. When we love others as Christ loves us – sacrifcially – we soar. Jesus explained it this way to his followers, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). Loving one another was not new. God had instructed people to love long before Jesus appeared on the scene. “Love your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:18) was a command from God given by Moses to the Israelites around 1400 years before Jesus was born. But the part where he says, “As I have loved you” is new. Love others like Jesus loves us. Fire up your heart and life that way – full throttle – and see how much horsepower is generated!

We are meant to fy. God lives in us through the Spirit. Te same Spirit that lifed up Jesus on Easter morning provides the same power to lif us up. Remember Romans 8:11 “ Te Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal

bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” Tat is fying! Te indwelling engine of God’s presence supplies the power to love one another in ways that defeat the resistance of hate and evil in our world.

Tis is how to fy. When all the dynamic forces are properly aligned then fight is possible. In the physical realm, when lif overcomes gravity and thrust overcomes drag fight is possible. In the spiritual realm, when grace overcomes sin and love overcomes hate fight is possible. Sadly, in both realms disruptions occur that cause planes/souls to be grounded, or worse, to crash. In the physical realm those disruptions are ofen beyond anyone’s control, like weather or mechanical breakdowns. However, in the spiritual realm those disruptions are usually due to the poor choices people make, like ignoring God’s instructions or failing to care for others.

Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher/theologian (18131855) wrote a poignant story about our tendency to stay grounded even though we are meant to fy. It goes something like this.

Once upon a time, there was a little town inhabited exclusively by ducks. Every Sunday the ducks waddled down Main Street to Duck Church. One Sunday, the duck minister delivered a particularly inspiring sermon.

“Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fy! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles!”

“Amen!” said the ducks.

“No walls can confne you,” he continued. “No fences can hold you!”

“Amen!” said the ducks.

“You have wings! God has given you wings, so YOU CAN FLY!” he shouted.

“Amen!” shouted the ducks.

Te ducks felt excited as they fled out of the church, thanking the duck minister for a wonderful sermon.

And when church was over, they all waddled home. Te end.

We are meant to fy, not to waddle. Besides the Spirit in our hearts, God has gifed us a with place in this world where we can take of, a place where we can fnd encouragement and instruction on how to fy. Let’s go to the airport.

Chapter 13: Airports and Runways

Spruce Creek is a large neighborhood of nearly 1400 homes located just outside Daytona Beach, Florida. Uniquely, instead of a car in every garage, half of the residents of Spruce Creek have an airplane in their garage-hangar. Tere are fourteen miles of taxiways and a four-thousand-foot military-grade runway in the Spruce Creek subdivision. Instead of fghting the trafc to drive to work, many people in Spruce Creek fy to work. Tey understand that the purpose of fying is to get from one place to another. Where they live allows them to taxi down their driveway, takeof right in front of their house, and skip the morning drive.

Tere are approximately fve hundred fy-in communities (called airparks or aviation communities) across the United States. Ofen private and gated, these neighborhoods are designed to meet the needs of airplane owners/operators. Onsite amenities can include mechanics, fueling service, fight school, and a plane-wash (like a carwash). Some airparks ofer a Fixed Based Operator (FBO) center and a pilots’ lounge. Residents of aviation communities enjoy being neighbors with other aviation enthusiasts. Pilots and former pilots share their stories which deeply connects them to one another.

As nice and convenient as it might be to live in an airpark, very few of us can aford to live in fy-in communities. Instead, the vast majority of us are relegated to use airports in order to fy from one place to another. Even though airports can be intimidating and crowded and inconvenient at times, without them very few would

have access to the airways. Airports are the essential gateway to fying. Tey are the hub through which everything necessary for planes and passengers to fy safely is provided.

Spiritually speaking, the church is like an airport. Te church proclaims the message of fight: “God wants you to fy and has prepared a way for you to be lifed up. Jesus Christ is the way.” Once the message is heard, a wannabe fier approaches the ticket counter of the altar and buys a ticket using the currency of faith. Trusting that Jesus died to forgive personal sins (grace overcoming sin) and trusting Jesus rose to life conquering death and darkness (love overcoming hate), the soon-to-be fier has a boarding pass. Te fying adventure begins when you purchase your ticket by believing in Jesus Christ.

It’s time to check your baggage. Everyone has baggage. Everyone carries problems and regrets and shortcomings and sins (by thought, word, or deed). “Everyone has sinned; we all fall short” (Romans 3:23, NLT). Tere is no weight limit to the baggage we check. However heavy the matter weighs upon your heart, God can lif it. “Let’s throw of any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up” (Hebrew 12:1, CEB). Jesus carried the weight of all our sin on his shoulders on the Cross. “If anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifce for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s” (1 John 2:1-2, MSG). And, on this fight no carry-ons are allowed because God “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault” (Jude 24). So as we begin our adventure, we confess our sins and trust the message of the church: “If we admit our sins—simply come clean about them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing” (1 John 1:9).

Once we buy our ticket through faith and check our baggage at the Cross, then it’s time to pass through security. Security in an airport is a checkpoint to ensure that passengers are fying in accordance with certain travel standards. In church we call those standards holiness. Being held accountable to those standards is a way to keep our lives on the right fight path. Moses miraculously led the Israelites out of Egypt, through the parted waters of the Red Sea, and through forty years of wandering in the desert. As God’s people stood at the threshold of entering the Promised Land, the Lord told Moses, “You broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites” (Deuteronomy 32:51). Moses was held accountable by God to be holy. Tough his spectacular fight took him a long way, he was not able to pass the fnal security checkpoint and land at the airport in Canaan.

Te church provides accountability to living holy lives. Tat holiness is not superfcial religiosity but living and loving as Jesus lived and loved. No one can do that on their own. We need the instruction and encouragement of the church. We need the aviation community of fellow fiers and seasoned pilots. Te wisdom of Proverbs puts it this way “People learn from one another, just as iron sharpens iron” (Prov 27:17, TEV). Faithful Christians and mature leaders teach us and correct us that we might travel holy. Using God’s Word as the source of authority and the basis of faith-training, leaders in the church help us fy Christlike. “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the faith and correcting error, for re-setting the direction of a man’s life and training him in good living. Te scriptures are the comprehensive equipment of the man of God” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, JBP).

Te airport-church is a God-ordained place where those who fy learn to work and grow and fy together. Te Apostle Paul described the church this way: “He handed out gifs of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efcient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13, MSG). It would be nice to be able to walk through something like a metal detector and immediately assess the strength of our faith. Yet there is no spiritual detector in a church. However, we do have a way to detect our mettle. From the beginning of the early church in ancient times Christfiers have openly displayed their servant work, their unity, their maturity, their Christlikeness. Tese are the characteristics (from Ephesians 4) that set of the mettle detectors in church.

Te one outstanding feature of every airport is the runway. Takeofs and landings require adequate space. Tat’s why runways are long, wide, and fat stretches of concrete. A 747 jumbo jet needs almost an entire mile (5,000 feet) to takeof, and nearly that much (4,200 feet) to land. Airports are constructed with runways of proper length for takeofs and landings. Te church is constructed to provide the proper space for people to take of in faith and launch their fight-lives. It also provides the proper space for people to land their faith in the practice of ministry and mission. A short runway can be a disaster for a pilot. Trying to live and love like Jesus without enough space – enough time spent in spiritual formation – can be a disaster for a believer. Getting up to speed through study and prayer and worship and fellowship is critical for takeof. Churches help people get up to speed.

I did my Masters and Doctoral work at Asbury Teological Seminary, just a few miles south of Lexington, Kentucky. So what happened in the early Sunday morning of August 27, 2006 hit close to home. Comair Flight 5191 out of the Bluegrass Airport in Lexington tried to take of from runway 26. But it was too short. Te pilot had taxied to the wrong runway, a shorter one than what his plane required. Te fight crashed into the woods at the end of the runway, killing all forty-seven passengers and two crew members. A beautiful sculpture of forty-nine stainless steel birds in fight stands in the University of Kentucky Arboretum as a memorial to those who lost their lives.

Te church must be intentional about providing the proper space for people to take of on their journey of faith. Being “rooted and built up” in Christ requires training and mentoring. “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught” (Colossians 1:6-7). Te church cannot shortchange the runway of discipleship and spiritual formation. Too ofen we settle for sitting in the pew on Sunday morning as the sign that people are on the right runway. More is needed for someone to fy.

Every major airport, and many small ones too, have the resources to evaluate the airworthiness of a plane and ready it for fight. Expert mechanics who specialize in airplane maintenance are busy day and night rotating planes in and out of hangars for regular check-ups. Refuelers truck jet fuel or aviation fuel to each plane flling the tanks between stops. De-icing crews work tirelessly on cold snowy days to spray the surfaces of the wings, tail, and fuselage to prevent the buildup of dangerous ice. Air trafc controllers manage the safe separation of all planes in the air and on the ground. Pilots do a walk-around before a fight to visually inspect the outside of the plane. Tey also have a checklist in the

cockpit that prepares the instruments and controls (the brains of the plane). Flight attendants pay close attention to every detail in the cabin. Te comfort and safety of the passengers is their priority.

According to the latest numbers, 1.2 million people work at the 485 commercial airports across America. Tey help the nearly 3.0 million people who fy every day – every day! Flying runs on community. One airport, Hartsfeld-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, employs 55,000 people – one airport. Tat’s over 10% of the population of Atlanta.

Likewise, churches, large or small, provide the resources to evaluate the faith-worthiness of believers. Flying runs on community. Tere are the people, as mentioned, who teach and preach and lead and mentor those who seek to fy. But what the church employs to keep people fying is not found in the staf –as professional as they may be. Churches use something special to fx brokenness, to refuel souls, to de-ice hearts, to manage relationships, to check thinking, and to provide assurance. Tat something is koinonia. Koinonia is the New Testament Greek word for how airport/churches keep planes/souls fying/uplifed. Te closest English word used to translate koinonia is fellowship. Unfortunately, the modern understanding of fellowship lacks the power of the biblical word.

Love that overcomes needs more than a doughnut and a cup of cofee at eleven o’clock on Sunday morning. “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another” (Hebrews 10:24-25). Koinonia spurs on love as fiers meet together at the airport. In the Holy Instruction Manual (Bible) there are clear directions about healing and forgiveness and reconciliation, about calling

out sin and evil and injustice, about caring and encouragement and blessing. Flying runs on community, and community runs on koinonia.

In the life of Jesus as told by Saint Mark (chapter 2), the koinonia of a community helped a man to fy. Te airport in Capernaum was crowded, the parking garage was completely full and the ticket line was out the door. Jesus, the Master Mechanic, was working in the maintenance hangar. Four crew members had just landed, but their next fight was unable to take of due to broken landing gear. Tey pulled their disabled craf to the hangar, but because of the crowded conditions they could not get in. With great difculty the four climbed onto the roof of the hangar and cut open a large hole. Tey managed to rig a series of pulleys and ropes and lifed the broken plane up on the roof, then lowered it down inside the hangar where Jesus was.

Everyone was astonished at the determination of these four fiers. It was obvious that they cared deeply about the brokenness of another. Jesus was especially touched. He walked over to the plane and noticed the obvious malady. He looked straight into the cockpit and said, “Wheels up! Fly!”

Before anything could happen, some bogus FAA (Fake Authentication Administration) ofcials in the crowd said, “Wait a minute! No one can fy unless we say so.”

Jesus said, “Really?”

At that, Jesus told the plane, “Get up of the tarmac, raise your landing gear, and fy!” In plane sight of every person in the crowd the aircraf did just that. What was broken became strong, the engines roared to life, and the plane few out of the hangar and

of into the sky. Tis amazed everyone. “We have never seen such a demonstration of fight!” they said.

Te power of koinonia in community brought what was broken and fightless to Jesus. Jesus made it fy. “ Tose who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. Tey will soar on wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31).

Chapter 14: Te Final Blue Yonder

“Of we go into the wild blue yonder; Climbing high into the sun.” Tese lyrics begin the ofcial song of the U.S. Air Force. Since World War II this song has inspired the hearts of thousands of service men and women. Te stirring music and the powerful lyrics evoke strong feelings of dedication and patriotism.

“Into the wild blue yonder” has become a way to describe a long journey of exciting adventure. 1 blue, of course, represents the sky. Flying up into the blue sky is always an adventure. We leave behind what we’re most comfortable with: the ground. We travel away from our routine base of operations: home. We travel along a path through the air that takes us where the temperature is ffy degrees below zero and the oxygen level will not sustain life: 30,000 feet. But “Hey!” (part of the song) we’re going somewhere!

It’s amazing what people will endure if they have a clear and stimulating purpose in mind. Te challenge and the risk involved in heading into the wild blue yonder are met with strength and courage when the purpose of the journey is glorious. Spending big bucks to sit in a middle seat on a crowded fight for nearly ten hours non-stop is worth leaving behind the blustery Chicago winter for the warm tropical beaches of Hawaii. Te purpose of fying is to get from one place to another, and the destination makes the trip worth it.

Te ultimate destination of the human journey is even greater than Hawaii. Te blue yonder for the spiritual pilot is the

place where God dwells. Te prophet Ezekeil was given a special vision of the Lord.

Above the dome there was something that looked like a throne, sky-blue like a sapphire, with a humanlike fgure towering above the throne. From what I could see, from the waist up he looked like burnished bronze and from the waist down like a blazing fre. Brightness everywhere! Te way a rainbow springs out of the sky on a rainy day—that’s what it was like. It turned out to be the Glory of God! (Ezekeil 1:2627, MSG)

Blue sapphire is a common description of the glory that surrounds the Lord. When Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, he “saw the God of Israel. He was standing on a pavement of something like sapphires—pure, clear sky-blue” (Exodus 24:10, MSG). Even the foundation of the Heavenly City in Revelation 21 is built with sapphires. Maybe blue is God’s favorite color. When we look heavenward, what color do we see?

We are of to the fnal blue yonder. Heaven is our spiritual home. We fy through this life as grace overcomes sin and love overcomes hate. Tose are the spiritual dynamics involved. But fying is more than spiritual mechanics. Flying has a purpose. And that purpose is to reach the eternal destination of Heaven. Dorothy understood that about her journey on the Yellow Brick Road. Her destination was more than the Emerald City to see the Wizard. Her ultimate destination was home sweet home. Our ultimate destination is to “dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). Tat house of the Lord – our home sweet home –is heaven. “We have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

Destinations to nowhere have become popular in recent years. People board a fight with no luggage to go sightseeing. Afer a few hours in the sky the plane lands back where it started. It can be lots of fun and a reminder of the miraculous nature of fying. But it seems like a trip without much signifcance. Going nowhere is not purposeful. Te same thing applies to lives without a ticket to heaven. Life can be lots of fun and even flled with years of activity. But if life is always taking of and landing in the same meaningless spot, it’s missing its eternal signifcance. Jesus succinctly explained that we are destined to travel beyond this world. “You do not belong to this world,” he said, “I have arranged to transport you out of this world.”25 God’s great plan is to fy us home. “ Te Spirit is headed somewhere and wants to take us along.”26

When Jesus knew he was but mere hours from dying, he tried to prepare the twelve disciples for his departure. He plainly told them he was going to die. Ten he told them not to worry. Tis is what he said to reassure them: “ Tere is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live” (John 14:2-3, MSG). Te Father’s house is the residence of God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), the eternal home of the Divine Creator. We call that house Heaven. Jesus told those who believed in him that there is room for them in heaven, a place beyond this world especially prepared for them to enjoy being with him forever.

Te question then becomes: How do we know how to get there? Try entering “heaven” in the GPS and see what results.

25 John 15:19, my loose translation

26 Bishop Mack Stokes, page 240

Or, try to buy a ticket to heaven on united.com. “No matching locations found.” Tat’s what happens. But it’s still a good question. Doubting Tomas asked the same thing. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (John 14:5, NLT).

Jesus responded, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Tere is no way to access the back country of the kingdom of heaven except to fy in. Troughout life fyers do as the Apostle Paul did. We “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). But the fnal waypoint for holy pilots who follow Jesus is LIFE Airport in Heaven. When we’ve logged all our miles in this world, it’s time to fy to the fnal blue yonder. Late in his life, Paul wrote in his second epistle to Timothy that he had fnished his fying days in this world and had kept the faith. Now it was time for the Lord to bring him safely to heaven.27

A few years ago I few back from Seoul South Korea into Detroit Metropolitan Airport. It was a long fourteen-hour fight, but safe and uneventful…until we landed. Te pilot put the 747 comfortably down on the runway and began to taxi toward the terminal. I had a window seat and could see fretrucks lining up on each side of the taxiway. “Oh my!” I thought. Are we on fre? Is there an emergency at the airport? Te fretrucks began spraying our plane with water. Tey formed an arch of water over the tarmac through which the pilot steered the plane.

Ten the copilot came on the intercom and announced that our pilot was retiring. Tis had been his fnal fight. As a show of honor, the fretrucks celebrated the pilot’s service with a parade of water. Te passengers were invited to come to the upstairs deck

27 2 Timothy 2:18

to greet and congratulate the pilot. Tens of thousands of hours of faithful, dedicated, excellent service were honored that day. Tat pilot had fown the good fight, fnished the race and kept the passengers fying.

Te parade at the end of our fying days will feature a shower of heavenly blessings – no pain, no tears, no sickness, only joy, peace and glory.28 As we taxi to the gate of eternity, the banner arching over our runway will read “Well done, good and faithful pilot. Come join the everlasting party!” Tat’s the inspiration for a life of Christ-centered faith. “Of we go into the fnal blue yonder” is the rally cry of our hearts that motivates good and faithful fying. In fact, all Creation longs for that endpoint. “ Te whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own” (Romans 8:19, JBP).

Tis deep-rooted longing is built into all that God has created, including the human soul. It’s a longing for the fulfllment of God’s grand design for Creation. It’s a longing for God’s will to be done, as in the Lord’s Prayer.29 It’s a longing for God’s justice to right all wrong and destroy all evil, as in the cry of the martyrs in heaven.30 It’s a longing for the restoration of the perfect union between God and his people, as seen by the Apostle John in the Revelation.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

28 Revelation 21

29 Matthew 6:12

30 Rev 6:10

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:3-5, NLT)

It’s a longing for peace and harmony between every human being, as Jesus prayed for.31 Te great prophet Isaiah saw the fulfllment of this longing when he prophesied about a day when the wolf and lamb live together, when the leopard and goat lie down together, when the bear and cow graze together, when the snake and child play together.32 It’s a day when love will rule eternity.

“Love is eternal” (1 Corinthians 13:8, TEV). It is the essence of the blue yonder. “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and he has arranged for our fnal destination to be only love forever. Love binds all things together in perfect unity33 and in perfect peace.34 With all drag (resistance to God) removed and with no friction between people, the thrust of God’s perfect love will propel us to infnity for eternity. Tat’s fying! In this world we have trouble and pain, but in the next world of the blue yonder Jesus has eliminated all but love.

31 John 17:21-23

32 Isaiah 11:6-9

33 Colossians 3:14

34 1 John 4:18

CONCLUSION

I am ready for anything through the strength of the one who lives within me.

Philippians 4:13 (JBP)

Flight engineers have said that there is no way a bumblebee should be able fy. Its bulky, non-aerodynamic body is too heavy for its wings. Its wings are too small and fragile to be able to produce adequate lif. In fact, in 1934 French scientist August Magnan declared the fight of the bumblebee to be impossible. I guess someone forgot to tell the bee. What seems impossible to science, is made possible by God.

One summer afernoon I stood dry and protected just inside my garage with the door open as a thunderstorm dropped a vicious deluge of rain upon the area. It rained so hard I could not see my neighbor’s house across the street. But what I did see still astounds me to this day. Just a few feet in front of me, not in the garage but outside in the pouring rain, a delicate butterfy few across the driveway. How can that be?! What seemed impossible to me, was made possible by God.

One day a greatly respected Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus heard Jesus talk about fying. Tat night he met with Jesus to ask him how it’s possible for people to fy (see John 3).

“Surely people can’t sprout wings and take of like a bird!” said Nicodemus.

Jesus answered, “No one can get from here to God without the wind from Above getting inside and lifing them up. Why does this surprise you? Just because you can’t see the wind doesn’t mean it’s not real. Have you ever seen the wind? No, of course not, no one has. But you can see it whip up the dust and you can hear it whisper in the leaves. Te same is true with entering the great blue yonder. Unless the wind from Above lifs you up, you will not fy.”

“But that’s impossible” Nicodemus protested.

“You of all people, a spiritual fight instructor,” replied Jesus, “you should know that what seems impossible for people is possible with God.”

A couple years later, Jesus said the same thing to his followers (see Luke 18). A young man who had it altogether – even owned a Learjet (though he didn’t know how to fy it) – walked up to Jesus and asked him how to fy. Tis man was well-of, was a person of position, had grown up in the church, and lived an upstanding life following a strong moral code.

Jesus told him, “You are so close. You need to do one more thing to fy: empty your cargo hold, push it out the door and let it all go. Ten let me pilot your life.”

Te young man said nothing. He just turned, face to the ground, and walked away. Jesus said to those around him, “It’s really hard for someone who has everything going for them, who is tethered to the world’s defnition of success, to ever get of the ground.”

Someone in the crowd blurted out what everyone was thinking, “ Ten who can fy? If the young, kept-their-nose-clean,

rich and famous can’t get of the ground, who can? Flying seems impossible!”

Jesus answered, “What seems impossible to you, is possible with God.”

What makes fying seem impossible to you? What makes trusting God to lif you up by his grace and love seem impossible? What makes salvation seem impossible? What makes receiving the gif of abundant life35 seem impossible? Do any of the following seem impossible to overcome:

• Stress from the problems in your life

• Overcoming sin and temptation

• Terrible relationships

• Being bullied by others

• Trying to please everyone

• Health struggles

• Financial hardship

• Worry and fear

• Doubt

In this book I have outlined how God’s grace and love can lif you up. God can raise you up in spite of what weighs you down. You can rise above what seems impossible, because what seems impossible to you is possible with God. You can fy.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within

us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

EPILOGUE – PRAYER

None of us can fy on the coattails of another. All of us need help getting of the ground. Praying can lif us up. Jesus gave us Te Lord’s Prayer as a way for everyone – for anyone – to draw closer to the Father. In the same way, feel free to make the following prayer your own.

Loving God,

Some days I feel afraid to fy. What if I develop engine trouble afer takeof ?

Some days my baggage is too heavy. I’m jealous of the birds who are so free.

Some days I don’t know which way is up. I don’t want to crash and burn.

Remind me in the airways of my mind that you are always with me – always.

Refuel my heart with the joy of being saved.

Fill my soul with the eagle power of your Spirit and set me to soaring.

Help me catch the updraf of your grace. I trust you to lif me up,

Trough the One who taught us to fy, Jesus Christ. Amen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DeMello, A. (1988). Taking Flight. New York: Doubleday.

Eldredge, J. (2013). Te Utter Relief of Holiness. Great Britain: Hodder & Stoughton.

Kelsey, M. (1972). Encounter with God. Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship.

Miller, C. (1987). Becoming Your Self in the Making. Old Tappen: Fleming H. Revell.

Nouwen, H. J., & Whitney-Brown, C. (2022). Flying, Falling, Catching. New York: Harper One.

Oswalt, J. (1999). Called to Be Holy. Nappanee: Francis Asbury Press.

Peterson, E. (2006). Living the Resurrection. Colorado Springs: Navpress.

Stokes, M. (1985). Te Holy Spirit in the Wesleyan Heritage. Nashville: Graded Press.

How to Fly is an instructional travel guide to the journey of faith. The Flight Manual – typically referred to as the Bible –promises travelers will be lifted up (James 4:10) and will rise to live (John 5:29) and will soar on wings like eagles! (Isaiah 40:31) What does that mean? How does that work? This book will answer those questions.

There is an amazing correlation between the spiritual dynamics of faith and the physical forces at work in aerodynamics. Understanding how a plane flies sheds light on how faith works. How to Fly provides a paradigm to better grasp “the breadth and length and height and depth” of God’s grace (Ephesians 3:18).

The author has spent over forty-five years as a faith-flight instructor – typically referred to as a pastor. His college work was in engineering, his seminary work in ministry, and his doctoral work in applied theology. He has taught thousands of travelers how to live life lifted up. This book can help you learn how to fly.