Called to Reign: Living and Loving from a Place of Rest

by Leif Hetland

Chair 1 is about the kingdom of God, Chair 2 is the kingdom of self, and Chair 3 is the kingdom of the world.

your focus is never on problems but always on kingdom opportunities.

Chair 1 is about experiencing God’s pleasure without ever having to perform.

something. In Chair 1, you live from a place of total acceptance and rest.

You can hear the Fath...

He is able to gu...

you belong, so you ca...

then you live from your inheritance and walk out your destiny. You aren’t just trying to get from earth to heaven but also want to bring heaven to earth. You can live as a river overflowing righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit (Romans 14:17), overwhelmed with the things of God, because that is the atmosphere of the kingdom.

We have all been Chair 2 Christians at times,

You experience the Holy Spirit’s visitation but not His habitation as the Dove resting on you.

do, Chair 2 believers are trying to believe the right way in order to behave the right way in order to belong.

around. You’re always trying to become something because you don’t know or have forgotten your true identity. You’re trying to get to heaven rather than trying to bring heaven to earth.

Everything in Chair 2 is rooted in fear, even when it is disguised in the vocabulary of love.

I am convinced that much of the church is living from Chair 2 and doing ministry from that perspective—not motivated by love but by fear.

You engage with the “seven mountains” of culture - education systems, governments, media, arts and entertainment, families, the business world, and religious institutions -

perspective, you will recognize the next Joseph or Esther or Daniel in normal or even unlikely people because you will treat people based upon their destiny, not their history.

He is preparing the environment of His kingdom on earth not just to receive souls, but to welcome sons and daughters who fit into a family and can understand what it means to be family members. Many in the church have been busy looking for the fire, but God is looking for fireplaces. If we build the fireplaces, He will provide the fire.

And since we were on our way to heaven, we didn’t concern ourselves with much responsibility on earth.

You can know your identity, experience His intimacy, receive His inheritance, and walk out your destiny.

If you don’t have the right sense of identity, in keeping with the Father’s perception of you, everything else will be skewed.

Ephesians 1:4-5

Father. We were already connected with Him. Before any other role you live out in this world, you are first and foremost a son or daughter1 of a good, good Father who loves you intensely.

to agree with Him about who you are

You need a revelation of the Father’s love, a baptism that immerses you in His love in such a way ...

We can know who we are when we see Him as He is. Until you see yourself as God sees you, think about yourself the way He thinks about you, and feel the way He feels toward you, you cannot know Him intimately, experience your inheritance, or fulfill your destiny.

When you know who you are, whose you are, where you are, and what you have, you can live from heaven to earth rather than from earth toward heaven.

figure. As we will see, when a church becomes like an orphanage and you live from an orphan spirit, two manifestations are possible: you become religious or rebellious, legalistic or lawless, self-righteous or struggle with sin. In none of these instances do you have an influence on the world; rather, you are being influenced by it.

sons and daughters see promises, orphans see problems.

We only have authority over what we love, so loving as the Father loves puts us in a position of being able to exercise authority.

When you get to know the Father’s heart, you realize that He sees everyone according to their destiny rather than their past. When Stephen was martyred, most people saw a Saul overseeing the event. God saw a Paul.

As a son or daughter who has spent time in the Father’s presence, you bring His presence into the lives of people around you.

They are striving to achieve rather than realizing what they have received.

I am a co-heir with Him. His inheritance is my inheritance.

renewed. From the resting place—knowing our identity, intimacy, inheritance, and destiny—we reign with Him and begin to change the world.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS 1. Chapter 1 has introduced you to the concept of an orphan heart versus the heart of a son or daughter of God. Why is it that orphans see problems whereas children of God see promises? 2. The Kingdom Family Movement is about loving as the Father loves, becoming a revelation of His heart, and drawing others into the family. How does being part of God’s family reveal His heart to the world? 3. Throughout the book you will find an emphasis on entering into God’s rest. Chair 1 is a place of God’s rest. You cannot sit in the arms of the Father and be restless. Take a few moments to reflect on your ability to get into the place of rest with God in the midst of daily life. What are some of the things keeping you from a place of rest with your heavenly Father?

bath. If I could get everything in order in my life, then the Father would be able to turn back toward me. Any sin in my life would hinder my intimacy with Him.

spiritual, but it actually leads to a self-centered way of life.

That’s why this question of “Who am I?” must always begin with our view of God. We only realize who we are by realizing who He is and how He sees us.

we cannot really understand who we are and how we got to where we are without going all the way back to the beginning—to the way we were meant to be.

noun. In the beginning, the Father, Son, and Spirit were a family.

beautiful. He apparently decided that if he became like the Father, Son, and Spirit, he would feel better about himself.

Because he didn’t see himself or love himself the way the Father saw and loved him, he left the family.

The Age-Old Lie You can become something by doing something. You aren’t really who God says you are until you strive for it and achieve it. You can become something better than what God says you are.

He suggested that God was withholding something from His son and daughter, even though they had already been made in God’s image.

The orphan spirit always feels insufficient and thinks that something more must be done.

the world became an orphanage and began seeking identity in things other than God. We believed the lie that there is a higher or better identity than being a son or daughter of the Most High. But there isn’t. That is as high as it gets. That’s our identity. Everything else is an assignment.

began living like they didn’t have a home or a family,

If you don’t know how much you are loved, you will have hidden, core areas in your soul that love has not touched.

It’s good to go to Bible studies, prayer meetings, and soaking sessions to cultivate intimacy with the Father, but it’s also a very subtle temptation to do these things in order to become someone valuable.

Whatever we accomplish cannot ever validate us as sons or daughters. We keep craving more because we’re never filled until we get into the resting place where we see, hear, feel, and experience the Father and receive His blessing just for being—just like in Eden.