Waking Up Quotes

Rate this book
Clear rating
Waking Up: To The Way of Love Waking Up: To The Way of Love by Ted Dekker
1,352 ratings, 4.25 average rating, 133 reviews
Open Preview
Waking Up Quotes Showing 1-28 of 28
“THE TRUTH 1. God is infinitely good, far more loving and gentle and kind to His children than any earthly mother or father imaginable. God is infinitely complete; nothing can threaten or disturb Him. Nothing can be taken away from Him, making Him less than complete, nor added to Him who is already complete. 2. You are remade in the likeness and glory of your Father, finite yet already complete in union with Yeshua—you in Him and He in you, risen with Him and seated in heavenly places. Nothing can separate you from His love. THE WAY 3. Your journey now is to see who you truly are. You are the light of the world, the son or the daughter of your Father, a new creature flowing with more beauty and power than you dared imagine possible. 4. You will only see who you are and thus be who you are as you surrender your attachment to all other identities, which are like gods of a lesser power that block your vision of your true identity and keep you in darkness. THE LIFE 5. Love, joy, and peace are the manifestation of your true identity and the Father’s realm, on earth as in heaven through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“As Paul wrote, a love that is patient, showing no jealousy or arrogance, keeping no record of wrong, not seeking its own and not provoked by another’s behavior. These are the evidences of true love which flows from those who know the Father and His limitless love for them.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“I believed all the right things about God, but could I really let go of everything and trust Him in all things? If so, I would not experience fear. There is no fear in love and God is love.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Among a rising tide of millions of Christians, how we label ourselves isn’t nearly as important as how we actually experience and demonstrate Yeshua’s incredible power in and as us, beginning with the power to love our enemies. To us, this is what it means to know God and the One He sent. Words only reflect an intellectual dogma, but the expression of our lives shows our true dogma, which matters far more.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“You will only see who you are and thus be who you are as you surrender your attachment to all other identities,”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“I never doubted my standing in the next life, but I often felt shame in this life, constantly disappointing God in my failure to love as He asked me to love. As such, I was caught in a kind of stupor of unworthiness.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Yeshua shows us the Way to be saved from all that we think threatens us on the dark seas of our lives. Only when we, too, see what He sees can we leave the treasured boat that we think will save us and walk on the troubled waters that we thought would surely drown us.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“I was lost, starving for intimacy, desperate to be valued, swallowed by a sea of lonely hearts, thinking that perhaps I was the only one who was lost.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“It seems as though we Christians have developed a nasty habit of leading people into a radical encounter with God’s unconditional love, forgiveness, acceptance, and union only to spend the ensuing years teaching them how to become close to God to earn his approval.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Any time you find yourself worrying about anything, or upset because someone has dishonored or betrayed you, it is only because you have placed your faith in something other than Jesus.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“But the more I succeeded in the world’s eyes, the more I realized that that success itself was only another prison, fashioned by the values of this world. More wealth only demanded I maintain that wealth. More status only begged me to rise higher. And fame . . . What a cruel and jealous mistress fame is.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Our challenge isn’t in becoming more than we are, because we are already risen and complete. Our challenge is to remember and abide in who we are, each day and each hour.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Finding Superman In today’s vernacular, Yeshua’s Way is indeed the way of superheroes. In this sense, was He not the first superhero, and we now His apprentices, born into His identity and learning to fly? Would we not rush to see and experience this truth about Yeshua, our Father, and ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit? Think of yourself as Superman or Superwoman. If Superman were to forget that he’s Superman, he would only be Clark Kent and Clark Kent can’t fly. Only Superman can fly. And having forgotten that he’s actually Superman, Clark no longer knows he can fly. How then does Clark Kent go about flying again? Someone would need to tap Clark Kent on the shoulder and say, “Umm . . . excuse me, but you’re Superman. If you take off that shirt and tie (surrender them) you’ll find you’re clothed in another suit in which you can fly.” Then Clark Kent would need to believe this is true. Only then could he go about the business of rushing to the phone booth, letting go of his old Clark Kent costume, and fly once more as Superman. In the same way, we who are clothed in Christ have great power and none greater than to love—without which, to quote Paul, the rest is nothing. But only in surrendering the old business suit do we see who we really are. Who are you being right now, at this moment? Do you want to “fly” again? Or maybe you want to fly for the first time, because our life ‘flying’ is loving God with all your heart, loving yourself as you are loved, and loving all others as yourself. As much, it is operating in the dimension unbound by space and time, called the miraculous.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“What is love?”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Consider another core teaching of Jesus. It was he who said that all those who followed him would be known by their radical ability to show kindness to those who were cruel to them2 and to love without holding record of wrong. In fact he said that this kind of love would be the primary evidence of those who know and follow him.3”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Thus to believe in Him is also to believe in your true, glorified self.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“I see now that in my search for love and acceptance, I slowly began to enslave myself to various identities, which I mistook for my real self in many arenas—sports, church, relationships, career, wealth. These identities became like gods of a lesser kind, all of which I hoped would save me from insignificance in this life.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Let go of all that you think you know about Me, so that you can KNOW Me.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“In the same way, we who are clothed in Christ have great power and none greater than to love—without which, to quote Paul, the rest is nothing. But only in surrendering the old business suit do we see who we really are.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“To follow Yeshua’s Way is to let go of this world’s systems to see and experience a far greater one—one that is closer than our own breath. It is to surrender what we think we know about the Father, so that we can truly know Him. It is to let go of who we think we are to discover who we really are. It is to let go of our continued striving to invite Yeshua into our hearts and instead place our identity in the fact that He has already taken us into His heart. It is the great reversal of all that we think will give us significance and meaning in this life, so that we can live with more peace and love than we have yet imagined. As such, The Forgotten Way isn’t a set of facts or labels or dogma, but a living, breathing journey on which all Christians find themselves. A journey of experiencing great triumph in this life, not only in whatever life awaits us, by awakening to our true identity. The journey from hate to love. The journey from fear to faith. The journey from insecurity to rest and peace. The journey from crawling to flying. Being in the eternal realm of the Father’s sovereign presence here on earth, we will find peace in the storms; we will walk on the troubled seas of our lives; we will not be poisoned by the lies of snakes; we will move mountains which appear insurmountable; we will heal all manner of sickness that has twisted minds and bodies. Love will flow from us as living waters, because the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven on earth is love. And when we love, all will know, there goes one who can fly. In the end, the journey is letting go of who we think we are, to see and so be who we truly are right now, in this moment.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Think of your life as a boat on the stormy seas. The boat represents all that you think will keep you safe from death by drowning. Dark skies block out the sun, winds tear at your face, angry waves rise to sweep you off your treasured boat and send you into a deep, watery grave. And so you cringe in fear as you cling to the boat that you believe will save you from suffering. But Yeshua is at peace. How can He be at rest in the midst of such a terrible threat? When you cry out in fear, He rises and looks out at that storm, totally unconcerned. Why are you afraid? He asks. Has He gone mad? Does He not see the reason to fear? Does He not see the cruel husband, the cancer, the terrified children, the abuse, the injustice, the empty bank account, the rejection at the hands of friends, the assault of enemies, the killing of innocents? How could He ask such a question? Unless what He sees and what you see are not the same. And what does He see instead of the storm? He sees another dimension to which this one is ultimately subject, though the two are also wholly integrated. He sees the Father, who offers no judgment nor condemnation. He sees life and love and joy and peace in an eternal union with His Father, manifesting now, on earth, in the most spectacular fashion. He sees peace in the storm. And so can we, if we only change our beliefs about what we are seeing; if we only, through faith, see as He sees. His question is still the same today. Why are you afraid, oh you of little faith? Yeshua shows us the Way to be saved from all that we think threatens us on the dark seas of our lives. Only when we, too, see what He sees can we leave the treasured boat that we think will save us and walk on the troubled waters that we thought would surely drown us. I wasn’t seeing what He saw, you see? I was seeing the storm clouds.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Our revelation is for the sons and daughters of God, realizing now that the greatest manifestation of the Spirit in our lives is love—the kind that holds no record of wrong—without which everything else we do is worthless, as Paul made so plain to the Corinthians. The Spirit of truth comes to show us the Father’s love and our union with and in Christ, because only in this awareness can we love as He loves and so show ourselves and the world the love of the Father.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“My journey wasn’t becoming more than I was, because I was already complete. Rather, it was to awaken to or see who I already was because when and as I did that, I found myself rushing to my Father’s table where His fruits were peace, love and power in limitless abundance. It is as Jesus taught: The eye (perception) is the lamp of our body (earthly experience.) If we see clearly, our earthly experience is full of light, but if our perception isn’t clear, the light within us is dark, and how deep is that darkness. We are the light of the world, but we cover up that truth and so cannot see it. This was why Jesus came to bring sight to the blind. He came to bring sight to me! I also discovered that the only way I could see (and be) who I truly am in this life is to let go of my attachment to all other identities. However alluring they are, they only block my sight to who I already am in the light. As I see who I am as my Father’s son and His extravagant love for me, my natural experience and expression of life always leads to a staggering kind of love, on earth as it is in heaven, right now, right here. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. In fact, love is surely the whole point of our union with and in Christ, even as He prayed: I have given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one, just as we are one. Why? So that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me. It is only in the awareness of how I am loved by the Father and of my union with Christ that I can share that same love… so that the world would know how they are loved, and that Jesus really was sent by the Father. All of this was incredibly good news to me, the one who seemed to fail every day in his own efforts to become worthy, just like the Pharisees did with all their laws. Perhaps this is why they called it gospel, which simply means “good news.” It was far better than I had dared hope. I can now see that my Father had been gently leading me to that place of surrender for over forty years. In fact, it was my own separation from my earthly father at age six that first set me on that journey. It is said that suffering gets our attention. So then, what a blessing, however much suffering I experienced on the path of awakening.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“I determined my significance by their perspective of me.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Christians aren’t generally known for their love any more than their neighbors are.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“So many Christians today see a system in which they cannot measure up and so they feel unworthy. The church seems to have failed them.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“What matters isn’t our stated belief and doctrine but how we live and what we experience in the story of our lives, as Jesus, John, James, and Paul all make so abundantly clear. It’s our actual experience and expression of life that shows us and the world what we truly believe and to what extent we truly love, not what we say we believe or who we say we love. If we say we have faith, but the workings of our life don’t reflect that faith, that faith is either asleep or dead.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love
“Mine was less a crisis of doctrine than a crisis of experience.”
Ted Dekker, Waking Up: To The Way of Love