I recently had the privilege of being back at Freedom City Church in Los Angeles—a city I fell in love with 41 years ago, as a 19-year-old Norwegian who arrived not knowing how strong the California sun really was (I found that out the hard way, with a second-degree sunburn and a trip to the hospital after my very first Saturday at Venice Beach). I’ve loved this city, and this country, ever since.

This time, I brought three ordinary chairs up onto the platform with me. Nothing fancy. But I wanted to give this precious church family what I call a 12-hour teaching in less than 20 minutes—because I believe every person on earth is living their life in one of these three chairs, and which one you’re sitting in determines almost everything else.

Three Chairs, Three Lives

Chair One is the Kingdom of God. It’s simple, really: you’re seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, and everything else gets added. This is the spirit-filled life—the fruit is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It was never about conquering the flesh through sheer willpower. It’s about learning to walk in the Spirit so the flesh loses its grip. When you’re in this chair, you know who you are. You don’t have to prove anything, because you already have your Father’s approval.

Chair Two is the Kingdom of Self. This is the “me, me, me” chair—give me, bless me, fill me. It’s what I call the soulish life: you’re genuinely saved, genuinely heaven-bound, but you haven’t yet learned how to bring heaven down into today. In this chair, shame will tell you that you are what you do. Fear and guilt and weariness set in. And here’s the truth I keep coming back to, because I believe it with everything in me:

“It is not what you do that makes you who you are. It is who you are that makes you do what you do.”

Chair Three is the Kingdom of the World. This is the chair of the lost—the billions who have never had an encounter with the God who looks like Jesus. My heart breaks and burns for the unreached. In a little over a week I’ll be in Turkey, then Pakistan, then a region of Kashmir where 5.4 million people have never once heard the gospel. The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time. While we wait for the second coming of Jesus, they’ve never even heard of the first.

Sons and Daughters, Not Orphans

The difference between Chair One and Chair Two was never about behavior; it’s about identity. Chair Two operates like an orphan: earning approval, competing instead of completing one another, living for love instead of from it. Chair One operates like a beloved son or daughter, resting in a love that was already spoken over Jesus before He’d performed a single miracle: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

I told the church a story from the Philippines, where I was asked to speak in front of the nation’s senators, governors, and eventually the president himself. I felt the pressure building, and I realized that pressure meant I had quietly slid from Chair One into Chair Two. In a vision that followed, I saw myself in a basketball game against a team called the Kingdom of Darkness. We were down two points, seconds on the clock, the crowd roaring, the enemy jeering. Then a man stood up in the stands and shouted, “That’s my boy. That’s my son, Leif.” In that moment, it didn’t matter anymore whether I made the shot or missed it. My Father was there. There is no failure where there is a Father.

An Invitation, Not a Condemnation

I want you to hear this: all of us end up in Chair Two in moments, and some of us live there for whole seasons. That’s not a condemnation—it’s an invitation. Jesus said it Himself in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Sick, ashamed, addicted, afraid. All of it qualifies you for the invitation. None of it disqualifies you.

So, which chair are you sitting in today? Whichever one it is, I want you to know there’s a chair waiting for you where the supernatural becomes natural, where rest becomes your weapon, and where you finally stop asking what you have to do and start resting in who you already are.

Read more about the three chairs in my book Called to Reign.