Recap our Journey

In the beginning, Humanity lived in our Garden State. We had close, trusting relationship with our Creator; in his presence, we knew our true identity: his Beloved Sons. Then, a new character entered the story. The Adversary asked Humanity a question, intending to drive us away from the Path of Sonship. We could have gone to our Creator for an answer. Instead, we took the question to ourselves and trusted the Adversary's intentions. In this moment, we broke our close, trusting relationship with our Creator, separating ourselves from his presence in fear and shame. We stepped onto a new path that drove us into our Fallen State and onto an Imposter Path, where we began building Imposter lives by going to sources apart from our Creator for answers to our questions.

On the Imposter Path, we experience confusion about our true identity because many sources claim to have the "right way" but ultimately drive us further into our Fallen State, separated and confused. Thankfully, our Creator hasn't given up on us. We are his beloved sons, and he desperately wants to restore us to our Garden State again. So, he invites us into a life full of adventure, where we can learn to walk the Path of Sonship again!

On each adventure, our heavenly Dad leads us through three stages: The Call, the Wilderness, and the Return. Our heavenly Dad says at the call to adventure, "I know who you truly are; I know what you were made for. Listen and follow my voice; trust that I know the best way, and if you do, you will live life as I made you to live it." This call is an invitation to restoration - to put aside the life we build by going to other sources (magnets) so He can restore us as sons. Here, we come to the same crossroads that Humanity did in the Garden. We have two choices in response to this invitation. Will we trust our Creator as our True Source and accept his Call to Adventure? Or will we reject his call and continue to place our trust in sources apart from Him? We reject the call when we continue allowing sources apart from our Creator to get between us and him. These sources act like magnets to our hearts, driving us away from our heavenly Dad's presence onto Imposter Paths. To accept his call to adventure, we must detach from these magnets or remove them from our hearts. In doing so, we calibrate to the Path of Sonship and our Creator's presence.

The act of detachment ushers us into the second stage of adventure: the Wilderness. In the Wilderness, we learn to deconstruct the Imposter Life we've built so we can live as sons. This is hard work, and often, we find ourselves stuck and unable to change in the ways God desires for us. This is because the opposition from within and without opposes that change. The Adversary, his minions, those who consciously and unconsciously work with them, false beliefs, and young places oppose us, intent on driving us away from the Path of Sonship. To overcome the opposition, we need help, and our True Source provides exactly what we need through the Mentor and the Guide. The Mentor is our example of what it looks like to walk the Path of Sonship. As God's Son, Jesus is that example because he lived as a son in every area of his life. By his life, we can see what it looks like to be a son. The Guide helps us take each next step in our adventures. The Holy Spirit helps us in many different ways- all of them are day-to-day, like helping us apply Jesus' life to our daily decisions.

Our heavenly Dad (our True Source), Jesus, and the Holy Spirit help us overcome the opposition and gain victory in the Wilderness. We learn to live as a beloved son when we listen and follow the Mentor and Guide. At this point in the adventure, we're no longer the same person that accepted the call. We've changed and restored more to our Garden State. We're living in close, trusting relationship with our Creator, and we have clarity about who we are.

Once we do, we step into the third and final stage of adventure, the Return. In this stage, we go home, but things aren't the same. We aren't the same; looking back, we can see how far we've come. Now, we're ready to step into a new adventure. We're prepared to accept a new call and step into a new round of change.

This is the cycle of our Heroic Journey, and it will unfold over the course of our lives. Through many adventures, our heavenly Dad will teach us how to walk the Path of Sonship so we can live IN and FROM our Garden State every day- restored to the creations he made us to be.

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Video Discussion Questions

• What stuck out to you in the video? Why?
• What did you not understand or have more questions about? Discuss them together and write them down somewhere for our meeting together.
• In your own words, what does it mean to "Return" in the third stage of adventure?