Romans 13: 1-7 A Close Reading On Dealing With Governing Authorities

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Exegesis, Principles, Romans

Gang, what follows are going to be a close reading of a chunk of text. Let’s get to it.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from G-d, and those that exist have been instituted by G-d. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what G-d has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is G-d’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of G-d, an avenger who carries out G-d’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Romans 13:1-4

Class Is In Session

We have had people as tone-deaf as Jeff Sessions that have recently told us that we are to obey Romans 13. We have seen people in pulpits tell us that those who are elected rule over us.

However, there is a real sticking point here; namely, when someone that has been elected to SERVE and has been vested with STEWARDSHIP of the government machine, and they speak in their elected office to this sort of text, telling us to obey them, for me, that lands like the very summation of lorded authority of the Gentiles against which our L-rd Himself cautioned.

“I am in authority and you better listen to me.”

That sort of stuff butters my bacon.

Now, to what the text seems to mean.

Exegesis

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.”

Submit to those people who are actually in authority.

“The authorities that exist have been instituted by G-d.”

G-d puts people into authority. The mechanism can differ from place to place, but the King puts people into places where they are given legitimate authority.

I am under the impression that G-d respects the mindset and design of a given population. He knows if that country is going to set up a democracy, a republic, a dictatorship, a monarchy, or some other form, and He sets stipulations on the nature of that authority. And He works within the framework of that nation.

And, because of that, He knows where those people are going to set up the framework of authority and works with those frameworks if given the opportunity, for He is an opportunist indeed.

Meaning, I am of the take that He knows the framework of a republic and respects their drive to liberty, and in the case of us specifically, He works with THE SPECIFIC framework that is in place, in our case, a constitutional republic, in order to ensure maximum liberty and minimal control. Given the Exodus, and the preceding

For He is viciously committed to liberty over control.

Critical to the fabric of this nation, the United States, are the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, which guarantee Natural Law (and for those of us who are or have been connected to Sapphire Leadership Group, the natural law in Arthur Burk’s delineation refers to three levels of principles, universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationships: and those three levels are the priniciples that govern the relationship between Man and Matter; Man and Man, and Man and the Spirit Realm), which is necessitated by the reality of our humanity, remains a safeguard to us.

The Natural Law is therefore designed “to be a beast on the throat of the legislator to restrain him from writing any law and regulating any behavior and taxing any event, and transferring any wealth.”

In other words, it is designed to be a built-in backstop agains those precise excesses that would eventually subjugate us if taken to logical end.

Natural Law is part of the fabric of reality, and in Prophet Nations like the United States, principles and ideology and Natural Law in all three of its manifestations (the relationships between man and matter; man and man; and man and the spirit realm) lie closer to the surface of reality than in other nations. More than for even the Roman Republic, which was Redemptive Gift of Exhorter, we were designed to be a nation of laws. Equal rights before the law and equal accountability for violating the law.

And as a result of this reality, it is not a subset of us that rule us, as a substitute for the King, but the People themselves, the Electorate, that governs in part through the ballot box and in part through the application of Universal, Non-Optional, Cause-And-Effect Relationships, among other dynamics.

And if we govern to good and moral ends, according to the roots at our foundation, safeguarding the vulnerable and building something that is useful and beautiful and good (καλός), then we will reap the benefit of that and that form of governance will yield to the benefit of all. And if we fail in that enterprise, it will be to the detriment of all.

In all cases of political institutions, they have been endowed, elected, put in place, set up, or coronated, in order to be SERVANTS…..

MINISTERS….

EXECUTORS of the will of G-d. Protectors of the vulnerable and ensurors of the liberties given to us by our Creator, as articulated the wisdom of that beautiful Redemptive Gift Teacher, Thomas Jefferson, in both his first draft and final copy of the Declaration of Independence.

For those that question Jefferson on the slave issue, it is curious that in his first draft of the Declaration of Independence, he wrote the following as a challege to George III:

he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, & murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.

While I believe this was the mind of the Founding Fathers, I believe the reason it was ultimately left out was as follows, and I share this YouTube clip because the reputation and research of the Teacher David McCullough is unimpeachable. Franklin, the Exhorter, helped things to be made more palatable for the times in such a way that the Continental Congress would approve the Declaration of Independence, while the fiery Prophet, John Adams, listened to all that was said:

Next point.

“Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what G-d has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is G-d’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.”

Resisting true authority resists the will of G-d PRECISELY BECAUSE THEY ARE DESIGNED TO BE NOT A TERROR TO GOOD CONDUCT BUT TO BAD.

Period….

Do not come at me with “muh Nero”, “muh Nero”, “Paul wrote this while being subjected to one of the worst dictators in history, so you have to take that into account when reading this text”.

No, Paul is speaking to principles for the PROPER execution of government not with respect to his own political context, except to skillfully rebuke said context.

THE CONTEXT FOR ROMANS 13: THE PROPER AND BEST WORK OF THE EXHORTER

Romans 13, and, indeed, all of Romans, was written by the Exhorter Paul.

Note, I did not discuss his fivefold office. Rather I spoke in terms of his Redemptive Gift, which is tied to his design.

Back to the Redemptive Gift of Exhorter, for those who need a crash course of their core….

Exhorters, this is all you, more than the other six.

Exhorters WERE DESIGNED for solids in the following:

1) Because they might have a propensity below their best toward denial, G-d intends them to skillfully break BREAK DENIAL. They have an active imagination, and they usually have one single message that predominates throughout the course of their life. And that imagination was made to break the denial of a culture that cannot stay away from non-reality in terms of politics, communication, media, corporate behavior, government behavior, and the way Christ designed us to function as a redemptive body.

2) Because they can get wonky with being all over the place due to their social butterfly nature, G-d intends them for spiritual ASTROREGULATION, namely to bring the steadiness of regulation to those big-spirited people in their constellation. For the Exhorter, given the context of the Fourth Day with its focus on the rotating, revolving, and regularity of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, nay, all the galactic bodies, G-d intends them to be the most regular, and the most steady of the gifts when it comes to flow of horizontal relationships. Too many Exhorters run to their capacity to influence people to do their agenda, often at the risk of people’s stability, but the design is that the Exhorter help provide a safe place in time and in the context of the broad horizontal frame of their human relationships to have something steady, a Northern Star of sorts, on which they can count when everything else fails. Like the eclipses and the celestial phenomenon are among the most regular and predictable, and therefore worst prophetic timepieces in existence to calculate eschatological phenomenon, so also the Exhorter is MADE for predictability and reliability, if they will get their time under control and discipline themselves with the principles of time stewardship, so others can have that friend who is skilled and capable at helping to unpack the needful dynamics pertaining to human relationships.

3) Contrary to how many Exhorters function, flying by the seat of their pants and having very little under self-control when it comes to their schedule, G-d intends the Exhorter to TO USE TIME WELL (see Jesus’ usage of his time during His earthly ministry in the Gospels). Maria Woodworth-Etter had it wrong when she said, “Better to wear out for Jesus than rust out.” Jesus never meant for us to embrace that false dichotomy. We were never designed to wear out. No, we were designed to approach each day and complete each day with a mindset that we have left it all on the field of play, but not to the point of beyond exhaustion. Worn-out is not kingdom. Well-used is.

4). Finally, the Exhorter, with their many words, was made to COMMUNICATE THE CONCEPTS OF THE SPIRIT IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL, AND SHOW CAUSE AND EFFECT.

5) The Exhorter was made to speak in such a way that emphasizes the nature of G-d, most particularly as articulated in the person, work, and actions of Jesus.

In the context of Romans 13, Paul is not sharing principles based on what he saw in the empire of the time, nor any other political model. Rather, He was revealing the nature of leadership as found in the King of Kings. And he was laying out prerequisites and principles for how ultimately legitimate leadership functions.

BACK TO THE TEXT

Given this context, consider the following. My interpretation:

Translation: If an authority is terrorizing good conduct, G-d did not set that authority in place, and they will ultimately reap the consequences of their actions. And you are under no obligation to follow their edicts.

There are a variety of ways to respond to those edicts. You must learn the skill of developing creativity when responding to the behavior of tyrants.

Further, when leaders are tyrannically behaving, G-d will provide correctives.

Paging Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dr. Bonhoeffer, your nation needs action.

AUTHORITY

ἐξουσία is the legal right to act that precedes the event of acting, and Paul’s usage here of ἐξουσία throughout Romans 13 refers to the legitimacy to issue decisions. It is the common word for “authority”, meaning the word “authority” is the most common way to translate that word.

And all authority is derived or given. Given by G-d the Father through Jesus Christ to us, and we are responsible to steward that authority well. As are those in government. And those of us who are in leadership. In this nation, We The People were vested with strong authority, and we are designed to walk in that authority well, whether or not we actually act on that design.

If a governing authority uses the authority given to them for wicked purposes, for curtailing people’s capacity to speak up or advocate for those things they believe, then their authority may legitimately be called into question, and should be disagreed with, and resisted.

Either that person is G-d’s servant to you FOR GOOD, in which case he or she should be listened to and hearkened unto, or he IS NOT that sort of godly servant and should be corrected, called to account, or ignored.

We have too many people that read Romans 13:1-2 and ignore the limiting factor of verses 3 and 4. Conditionally, authorities set in place by G-d are set up precisely in order to terrorize bad conduct, not good conduct. They are not designed to control the law-abiding. Rather, they are designed to liberate the law-abiding.

FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO ARGUE ABOUT RIGHTS VERSUS RESPONSIBILITIES

Now, before someone starts talking about rights vs. responsibilities, which is a legitimate concern, we need to ask the question, “did they impose legitimate responsiblities with care WHILE ALSO respecting our rights?”

Did they honor the dynamic tension between rights and responsibilities? Are the rights and responsibilities both present and in right proportion according to the L-rd’s design?

Had our rights been curtailed for the sake of imposing legitimate responsibilities, then that would be one thing. In the case of our current institutions, I would contend that they have not legitimately curtailed a number of our rights (see, for example, the debacle surrounding the curtailing of civil liberties and the forced injection of untested foreign substances during the proliferation of the Wuhan Coronavirus), and they have imposed responsibilities that are also illegitimate (masks and injections don’t work, and things that do work, when we used those, we were gaslit repeatedly to a place of fear and intimidation).

They (after the fashion of Bushelbritches, the Honorable Sheriff of Nottingham from Disney’s Robin Hood, taxed the heart and soul out of the citizenry, regardless of social or economic status, while crowing about “fair share”, and have further used the revenues from taxation fraudulently, earning the reaping of certain curses, of whose current status we might be unaware.

Repeatedly, they have shown themselves other than properly aligned for our good, and rather against us.

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is G-d’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of G-d, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. -Romans 13:3-4 ESV-

If you do wrong, be afraid…..What are these elected officials afraid of? If they are currently not experiencing the consequences of the L-rd’s judgment, then something in the system of justice is broken, and I suggest that perhaps someone is engaging in the violations that would lead to at least two particular curses, which I will discuss at a later point: the Aramean Curse and the Canaanite Curse.

If you insist on lying and refusing to walk in the execution of the truth, then be afraid of those who have authority over you.

For they will become increasingly less charitable and merciful and will seek to execute justice and judgment. They will decide concerning you, and not necessarily in a merciful fashion.

For the kings of the nation do not bear the sword in vain. The sword could be construed as a literal sword or weapon, as in modern-day case, a firearm, or it could be symbolic of some type of authority that stops tyranny, spiritual or otherwise, by which those who are ruled are corrected.

In our nation, given the 1st and the 2nd Amendment, and given we are a constitutional republic, and given I think the L-rd respects unique forms of government, I am of the interpretation that that is a reference to us. We do not carry the authority we have been given through natural law in vain. And given we have been given the right to speak up when abuse is happening, we also have the responsibility to correct it in a multitude of ways.

Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Assemble, Freedom to Petition for Redress, and if need be, the Right to vote them out, among other things.

Ultimately, what this boils down to is we are responsible in this nation to see to it that the government is so managable, and power is kept in such check and these elected officials are held in such accountability through the execution of the natural law, that they should be afraid of the consequences of attempting to violate that law and abusing us.

And submission to someone who is committed to your best and highest level of liberty, and committed to your good no matter what should be no difficult thing.

The problem is, we have never truly seen what “the good” and “the King’s best” truly look like.

Just some thoughts.

WOR 2024: Blessing 2: On the Creation of Humanity and the Gift of Life

by theparacleteshammer, posted in September WOR Blessings: Reconciled to G-d

Beloved,

I invite your spirit to interact with me today.

Spirit, listen to the word of G-d for you for today.

…then the L-RD G-d formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the L-RD G-d planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. -Gen 2:7-8 ESV-

Spirit, there was a time when man was created in this segment. He was formed by Father, composed by Father, and then endued with the presence of the human spirit that was given to him by Father….

To the whole person reading this: You were created by the L-rd and fashioned with affection, tenderness, and with an eye toward reality. And into you, G-d placed the human spirit. And in that moment of placement of spirit into body, the soul came into being, and was designed to grow into life-giving partnership with the spirit in the lead. And too often, we bring healing to the body and to the soul, and very little gets done with respect to the spirit. And my heart is to see all three ministered to well. Hence, when I write blessings, it is for the too-often-neglected spirit I write.

Spirit, after you were breathed in, and then began the sequence of knitting together the soul and the body, following that process, the L-rd took Adam, and put the man into the Garden of the L-rd.

The text does not spell out that segment of the process, but I am under the impression He, as a G-d of Process, did not just create him and then immediately drop him into the Garden the next moment. Rather, in light of His love of processes that unpack, I wonder at the possibility that He took man to the Garden by way of a journey, and while they were on the way to Eden, conversed.

And what they conversed about, and what, as the new creation was present, what the man was thinking on the way to the garden.

Spirit, in thinking about this, I want to encourage you with the following.

G-d did not just make you in a haphazard or hasty moment. No, he took a process to form you. And that process was laced with affection and love and with an eye to your purpose and design. As many of us as there are, spirit, there are also unique designs and purposes.

So, spirit, I bless you to hear and rejoice in the reality of the gift of Dad breathing you into the body of the human of which you are part. I bless you in your leadership role. I bless you to know a revelation of G-d’s love for you. And I bless you to know that you are His gift of love and uniquely designed to solve a specific set of problems. Problems are not a bad thing. Rather, they are a good thing. And problems were given to us to be solved. And as we solve problems, tools are developed.

I bless you to find the tools you need to solve the problems you were given, spirit.

I bless you with the revelation that you were made to be unpacked more and more so that complex problems are met with complex solutions.

I bless you to know there will be a journey that G-d takes you on that is designed to unpack you as you work in growing in reconciliation to Him and in turn, help reconcile others to Himself.

Be at peace, spirit, in your growth journey, in the name of Yeshua. And as you arrive at your home, be further at peace as you receive the pieces the King has for you, and as He provides problems to solve.

Know that in his provision of problems, solutions will develop as you get familiar with the nature of the problem. And that process might take time. I encourage you to be patient as you ponder and process the set of problems in front of you.

And I bless you to always remember His love as you work the problem in front of you.

WOR 2024: Blessing For Reconcilation to G-d the Father

by theparacleteshammer, posted in September Window of Reconcilaiton Blessings: Reconciliation to G-d

Beloved,

I invite your spirit to connect in the name of Yeshua ha-Maschiach

Spirit, listen to the word of G-d for you for today.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1:16-17 ESV

Spirit, everything that you have received that pertains to life and godliness dwells in you, the human spirit. Everything that the person in whom you dwell needs resides with you. Every tool, understanding, need, resource, component, all of it, the whole thing, resides with you.

One of those gifts, one of the greatest of these gifts is the gift of Father Himself.

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

John 14:23 ESV

Way beyond the Father merely forgiving us our sins and deigning to allow Himself to see us as miserable sinners barely saved by grace, He TRANSFORMS US and LIVES IN US.

The Ancient of Days gives His whole self to you, beloved. He resides in and partners with you. He does not keep His distance. Rather, He crosses the full distance and desires to make His home within you. You are not a reworked trashcan, spray-painted white and then He tosses in a shot of bleach to kill the stench. No, my love, rather you are completely transformed into a different vessel altogether, one for glory and beauty and love and tenderness and intimacy and adventure.

And He gives you a bunch of different tools and vessels to use, some for drinking, some for planting, some for growing, some for pouring out water, and on and on.

Spirit, He does not give a single bad or seconnd-rate gift. All of His gifts to you are first-rate and special and unique.

So spirit, I bless you.

I bless you to know the depth and range of His gifts. I bless you to feel how much pleasure and love and joy resonate in Father’s heart to be living with you. I bless you with the revelation that Father does not look at you and barely tolerates you. Rather, He longs for the moment when He can talk to you about all sorts of things, and His purpose and birthright for you.

I bless you to see deeply the good and the perfect, and that they are with you, and that there is no more perfect gift He can give than the fullness of Himself in you. He lives in you and makes home the way He wants it in you, and He is fully committed to changing everything about you or about His living environment that is not in alignment with the absolute best path and place for you.

He also takes on the burden of transforming you to a vessel of honor and filling you with His love.

I bless you to be free and full of all the things He has for you.

I bless you with that in the name of Yeshua.

Amein

Problems Unpack You

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Destiny, Exhortations

There is wind that is too strong. 

There are materials that are too weak. 

The glider you built broke the arm of the photographer that was holding onto your experiment. And he is laying with broken arm in the midst of the wreckage of recently-successful dream.

There are people in your hometown that are cussing you out, even believers doing the same, saying you cannot do this.  You aren’t allowed.

You didn’t follow the protocol.

You didn’t have the permission of your apostolic covering.

You disobeyed the voice of the prophets who told you you were throwing hatchets at the moon.

You bit off more than you could chew.

The problem is, everything around you on this barren beach known for common hurricanes and the destruction of of the Queen Anne’s Revenge is also the land of your destiny.

You see, Prophet land in a Teacher State can be incredibly unforgiving. Even downright asshole-ish. Just like Prophets and Teachers are frequently.

And for those of you who are thinking I am talking about Fivefold Prophets and Teachers, I am never talking about Fivefold Prophets and Teachers as popularly described.

I am talking about Redemptive Gift Prophets and Teachers. Designed and hardwired to be two of the more unforgiving gifts when it comes to getting their crafts right.

Prophets abide by principles with relentless intensity and are obsessive with whether or not someone did the right thing out of moral considerations. Few things appeal to them as much as a blank slate or an empty canvas on which to create. Wide open spaces, so they can go wide open with the throttle.

Teachers, on the other hand, are meticulous to making sure the details are ironed out. There is no detail a Teacher does not like completely dialed-in. There is a precision and a perfection and a slow, gradual, and ponderous depth in which they check and double-check, perfect, tweak, and adjust everything.

There are people who want you to stay in your bicycle shop.

They don’t care how many years you have spent honing your skill or developing your craft.

They want to maintain the status quo.

And you do not maintain the status quo when you go looking from problems, looking for trouble.

Much less when the L-rd brings you problems, and others viciously yell at you that you should not have problems because problems are not the children’s bread.

Nevertheless, We walk with a Father who is so completely and in totality multifaceted of Himself and He is A Fire That Constantly Is Consuming Itself that He cannot help but to bring all of his greatest problems to those He trusts the most: us, humans, His sons.

You see, and yet you might not see. So, a couple of verses for you.

Gen. 22:2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 

Ex. 4:22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the L-RD, ‘Israel is my firstborn son,'”

Okay, I know some people might get ticked off at the idea of me using a Nicene line (NEWS FLASH: I dislike Constantine more than all of you combined, but I am also aware of Athanasius’ contribution to the creeds and I am grateful for his presence in the cloud of witnesses and contribution to Christian Theology), but this line communicates the eternality of the reality of the sacrament between the Father and Son.

“Eternally begotten of G-d.”

Gang, there was a time when G-d the Father was not Creator, but there was never a time when the Son was not. He was eternally begotten of the Father. Meaning, there was a time when G-d was Creator, but there was not a time when He was not Father. The Son was always there. And the Spirit was always there. And because Jesus died on the cross, the Father knew what it was like to be alone and apart from the Son. Therefore, it is not good for man to be alone….I will make him a partner, battle buddy, a helper suitable for and corresponding to him, a Ginny to his Harry, a Han to his Leia, a Eowyn to His Faramir, a red to his blue, a Prophet to his Mercy.

So much in this. Problems are made to be solved, and this causes humans to get unpacked, as happened in Dare County those 121 years ago. Problems were tackled and destiny was stepped into.

Just do it, my loves.

Love, Community, Holiness: A Potpuorri of Thoughts

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Potpourri

The more I receive protection from
Him, the less I need it from other sources.

The more I allow His blood and love to cover me, the less I need that from others.

The more I am with Him, the more I cover friendship, but not because it protects me.

Emotional and spiritual connection are what I seek with others, not protection that brings them legitimacy.

The less I need you to protect me, the less energy you expend and the more you can spend time as a son executing.

Holiness is not just “set apart”.

Biblically, holiness is execution on the cause-and-effect that produces changes and moves us from glory to glory, faith to faith, strength to strength, and deep to deep.

Movement that flows from being set apart….the process more than the product….followed by the product that leads to change….change…that is holy.

That is, holiness is way more transformational than positional.

This is why reconciliation is the point of the gospel, rather than salvation……process, not point.

The reality is, will I let Him control me, if others attempt to co-opt that authority, or will I reject the awe of man when it comes time to choose this day whom I will serve.
This is the gospel of grace in Joshua 24:15

”Choose this day whom you will serve…. But as for me and my house, we will serve the L-rd.”

From Journeys Downward to Tandems Outward

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

There are those who have spoken to the dynamics of the 18-inch journey…

From the brain to the heart…

However, I have seen too many of these that say the heart is more important than the mind…

And they move to ignore the mind increasingly and growing the heart.

So, which is it? Mind or heart?

Depending on whom one asks, and the frame of mind one is in, the answer will vary.

But, must we choose? Either/Or.

I contend no.

There is a use for both…

And this “One-or-the-Other” mindset misses another member of the thinking/judging/perceiving group: the Kidneys and the Adrenals, known collectively as The Reins.

We must grow in our understanding and skill in utilizing the gifts of the mind, heart, and reins together, and so, instead of making an eighteen-inch journey, let us engage in the tandem of 24 inches.

Be blessed, gang. Just some thoughts as we step into this season.

40 Years a Son, Living With the Word

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis

I was reading something in the biblical text this evening and I had a bit of something like a revelation.

Sometimes the one thing the King wants to emphasize, is the one thing we as translators and the writers of the original canon treated as an afterthought. We treat things as an afterthought because of the way they are phrased. And simply because of the smallness of the word, maybe the original writers did, too, if we take the words in the text at face value.

Allow me to explain.

It was Genesis 1, and always with the Fourth Day, there is something with the Fourth Day the King likes to highlight for me, and it is a kiss from him. It is a small phrase, only three words, and I have never heard the phrase emphasized, thus it seems to me most people do not treat it with emphasis when the read it, because it takes up such a small percentage of the text.

Maybe the original writer of the Creation Narrative, whether you call him Moses, or JEDP (ahem), or anyone else, just wrote this one phrase and gave it no further thought, but I would like to think it meant something, especially since these entities feature prominently elsewhere in the Tanakh, and in the Revelation and the First chapter of James.

So, here is the text for the Fourth Day of Creation:

And G-d said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And G-d made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And G-d set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And G-d saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Genesis 1:14–19 ESV

Did you see it?

And the Stars

I wonder, gang. I wonder if we know of this in this way. For He is the G-d of the Seven Stars, Who Walks Among Them, and knows the starways, and walks among the starlight.

And it is the stars as the Sons of G-d that shout for joy in the book of Job, and the Father of Heavenly Lights that gives every good and perfect gift from above as He walks among the stars, which are themselves heavenly lights.

With rain, with sun
With much, with less
With joy, with pain
With life, with death

The only things that satisfy come from You
They come from You

Everything that’s beautiful
Everything that’s wonderful
Every perfect gift comes from You

Your grace, Your heart
Your voice, Your touch
Your word, Your peace
Your hope, Your love

A thousand words could not explain
A thousand worlds could not contain
Every perfect gift comes from You

It comes from the Father of Lights
It comes from the Giver of Life
It comes from the Heavens above
It’s coming straight from Your heart
To the people You love

“Everything” by Chris Tomlin

When I was 18, the very first time I got to see the starways and the pitchblack of the heavens, I was in ROTC in college, and we were in Camp Blanding in Northeast Florida. My batallion was on a night march, and that was the very first time I was able to identify more than 12 constellations just based on patterns I had seen in books as a kid. And it was radiant, though not radiant like the sun. Sparkly.

And on the Fourth Day, as with other things pertaining to the Redemptive Gift of Exhorter, G-d usually highlights things in patterns of threes.

The nature of G-d

The Three major Exhorters of Scripture: Moses, Solomon, Paul.

The Sun, the Moon, the Stars

For me this highlights something that I wish to give to you as a gift in the arena of how I do hermeneutics, and precisely why the tagline of TPH is “Into all truth by the Spirit of G-d”.

It’s not the whole of scripture, written with a 1-to-1 mindset, with each word having and sharing equal weight with all the others. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit is going to highlight or lowlight certain words of phrases, depending on what is going on with you, and where He wants to point you in a given matter.

Sometimes, a phrase waits 10-30 years to emerge and glow off the page.

And this phrase “and the stars” just hits me in all the right places, moreso now I have seen stars and auroras and other entities with proper telescopes.

I put to you, as me reader, that, when you are reading, that you allow Holy Spirit the lattitude to highlight or emphasize something differently than you have allowed Him previously. If you allow Him to guide you along the river, you have no idea where He will pull the canoe up so He can take you exploring. Reading the text, as with other parts of our life, should be an adventure that is completely life-giving.

He may emphasize a piece of the text you never thought He would.

For example, when was the last time you heard there were three “veyahavtas” (the Hebrew Phrase translated as “You shall love”) in the text of the Torah.

And for you who are Torah haters, how many know the heart of the bible is the law, and the heart of the law is Deuteronomy, and for those who want to get intimate with how blessings and curses operate, you have to be intimate with how Deuteronomy operates?

I know we are not under the law and G-d abolished the law completely without exception, but maybe there is something of value in reading the law.

Just some thoughts. And yes, some of what I wrote above is a bit tongue-in-cheek.

But seriously, maybe it would behoove us to see, instead of a bipolar book, where the G-d on the Right Hand Side of the Book apologizes for the acts of the G-d on the Left Hand Side of the Book, perhaps we are dealing with the outworking of a very complex WHOLE COVENANT.

Perhaps there is life and fathering that will break the bastard curse off of us, if we will begin to obsessively hunt for the Father in the Tanakh, and in the Torah.

It’s not a list of rules and regs, gang, appended by Talmuds and Mishnahs and Gemaras. It is a arkload of principles and relationships available to anyone with the cojones to hunt for Dad’s mind AND heart within its pages.

For example, the first time “Father” is specifically implied in the pages of the Biblical Text is Exodus 4:22.

“Thus says the L-RD, ‘Israel is my firstborn son’.”

From Exodus 4:22 ESV

I wonder if one problem with too many of us that want to run from the Torah and the Tanakh and Whole Covenant into Better Covenant/Worser Covenant is that our relationships with our own earthly dads were so messed-up that we cannot bear the thought of beginning a relationship with G-d the Father in His fullness without a social worker present. And truly, if we were abused by our fathers, we might need someone who will take that role in the spirit for a season.

But, really, the gems are in the Torah for us to find if we are willing. The fat of the land, all of the fat of the land, is present for those of us who look to be transformed from disobedient to obedient, with hearts that are FILLED with the earnest of the Kingdom.

His heart is for us to know all of Him, and not just the parts with which we are comfortable.

The starsong….proclaiming the justice of G-d….

“And the stars”

May the King give light in strange and unexpected places for His kids to walk.

Just some thoughts.

An Open Letter to All the Redemptive Gift Prophets

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Prophets, Redemptive Gifts, RG Prophets

You are enough….

You are just enough…..

Overthinking it, not needed….

Asking, “did they mean it this way or that way?”, so you could compensate or fix the thing they never asked you to fix, not necessary.

There is a key to your gift, Prophet. There is a deep and abiding key.

And if you use this key, it will align your gift to its proper moorings. And to those who would be tempted to fix without using the key, well, that can hurt.

The key is intimacy with the King. Times of connection with the King where you speak with Him and He with you.

He wants to develop the rivers of living water that flow from your spirit, Prophet.

And the fire that burns.

“I would that you were hot or cold”.

Both the hot and the cold are necessary.

Both the burning and the refreshing….so we do not burn out. But especially critical to the Prophet.

And the Wind that blows us to and fro. As we align our sails to continue the adventure that He has for us.

He does not give you just life so you can solve problems.

And as much as the forbears of Reformed Theology would like to ignore what they wrote at the head of the Westminster Catechism, our chief end is NOT to glorify G-d.

No….

If I left that as the chief end of man, then I would burn out…..

No, the chief end of man is two fold.

  1. Glorify G-d AND AND AND AND
  2. ENJOY HIM FOREVER!!!

Your chief end cannot exist unless you have BOTH PARTS.

And enjoying Him in intimacy is part of the equation. If I only talk about glorifying G-d, and I proceed along that line, I am going to die and shrivel up and be useless.

I must take seasons apart for intimacy and bridal connection with my Husband.

If I don’t then PREMATURE DEATH WILL BE THE END, EVERY SINGLE TIME!

So, you must have those times where you need Him.

Elijah refused intimacy over his entire life, and as a result, he never attained to the fullness of what the L-rd had for him. He chose the low-hanging goal of taking down Baal and Ashtaroth.

The L-rd repeatedly wanted to give Him intimacy. In the form of the ravens by the brook.

And then in the form oof the gooey Giver Elisha as a friend and someone to mentor as a son.

He never softened.

Prophets, if you do not soften and become warm and tender in your hearts, you will rot from the anger and the harshness and the coldness and the lack of love.

If you do not return to your first love “First of the Seven Letters to the Seven Churches”, it will leave you in rotting darkness.

You must, you must, you must, cultivate a deep and tender love relationship with him.

But this is the responsiblity of the Prophet more than the other six gifts combined.

So, take that key and run with it, darling Prophets.

You are so loved.

Be blessed.

When He Brings You A Piece of Your Design: A Blessing of the Depths of Your Design

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

Beloved,

I call your spirit and ask them to treat with me for a few minutes.

Soul, I need you to stand down for a few minutes, because I really want to connect with the spirit of this person with whom I am speaking. It is okay. I am not going to bring harm to the spirit of this individual, and it is okay if you, soul, do not understand everything I am speaking to the spirit of this person. Just rest for a few minutes while I connect and bless the spirit…

Spirit, listen to the Word of G-d for you for today:

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 

How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!

I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, You are still with me!

Psalm 139:13–18. NLT

Spirit, there are going to be times when you are given a piece or a glimpse of what you were made to do, and as partner with and leader of the soul and the body, in partnership with Holy Spirit, your design is not a carbon copy, or a product of a sausage factory. Nor was it created on an assembly line, as Henry Ford made his automobiles on. It is not one OF a million, but rather one IN a million. And too often, we may be tempted to think of only a few jobs as the truly anointed occupations. However, this is not the truth.

The issue is that sometimes you may have an already-thought-of job position that works for you, and you do not have to engineer or fabricate a new position for yourself.

Teachers and preachers and lawyers and doctors are ready-made and well-known positions. The transmission fits the engine and the person pluggs themlseves into that work and the design fits, and they move along.

However, before Orville and Wilbur Wright came along in the early 1900’s, no one knew that pilots would be needed.

Today, I have been thinking a lot about the Wrights.

Wilbur the Prophet and Orville the Teacher hailed from the Prophet town of Dayton, in the Prophet State of Ohio, and they conducted their research and experiments in the Prophet county of Dare in the Teacher State of North Carolina, just to the north of the Prophet State of South Carolina.

Over and over, spirit, you will see that the Teacher and the Prophet are the interplay and the foundation for the aviation industry. And over and over, Teachers and Prophets make their presence known in the aviation and aerospace industries.

Those of us with strong Teacher and Prophet portions to our spirits always gaze upwards.

I write this to say the following.

If there does not yet exist a readily-available occupation that matches your design, you are likely going to have to develop or fabricate or engineer a space for you to execute.

And repeatedly, G-d is likely going to give you something that is not off-the-shelf, a set of strengths and weaknesses that are going to need a home to flourish. He is also likely going to give you pieces to the puzzle of your design and things that you have a fire for.

And if there is not yet a place for that, do not worry, spirit. Do not fret. Know He gave that tool or tool set so that you could enjoy this life. You were made to enjoy life deeply.

The Westminster Chatechism (a chatechism is a means of educating believers about the faith by asking questions and then answering those questions) opens by asking the following question:

“What is the chief end of man?”

The answer is two parts.

To glorify G-d…

AND TO ENJOY HIM FOREVER!

Yes, we were made to exhibit and demonstrate the glory of G-d.

BUT, spirit, we were also made to ENJOY G-D.

This life is not merely, only, solely, or firstly about glorifying G-d.

Let the Pharisees gather their stones if they want.

I am very good at dodging those stones.

Our life is about two simultaneous realities following Deuteronomy 6:5 (loving G-d)

We glorify Him

We enjoy Him.

Spirit, we enjoy Him.

We enjoy Him, and we also enjoy doing what He has put into our minds, hearts, reins, spirits, and souls to do.

So, there is a small obedience piece, but there is a greater enjoyment piece to it.

If you enjoy it, if it makes you come alive, there is a strong possibility G-d designed you to do that.

So, spirit, I BLESS YOU INCREDIBLY to know, to find, or to receive that weird thing that might cause others to question or scoff you for wanting to do because it is not on a prescribed list of holy things that believers “should want to do”.

I bless you to find what you were made to do.

I bless you to see the thing that is in front of you, and if that thing makes you to come alive, to do that thing.

I bless your enjoyment on a visceral level. I bless you to find your love and your passion. And I bless you to do more of it.

“For the world needs people who have come alive.” -John Elderidge-

The world does not need more obedient slaves, spirit. The world needs you alive and flowing.

If that is construction, or flying or space walking, or poetry, or politics, or analysis, or engineering, or SCUBA diving, or things not yet considered or pondered, go do that.

For there is so much that goes unpacked because we are intimidated by Pharisees.

I bless you, spirit, to see the backs of the Spirit of Jealousy, the Victim Spirit, the Mesmerizing Spirit, the Spirit of Fear, and the Spirit of Intimidation Broken to pieces.

I bless you to know when you have found your sweet spot even if it feels different to how you normally present.

And I bless you to find the tribe of friends that support your flow in that no matter what. And I bless you to master that about which you are deeply and profoundly zealous.

I bless you with that reality in the name of Yeshua.

Blessing of Stillness #8: Genesis 1:1: The Risk of Rejection of Perfect Love

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Blessings, Blessings of Stillness

Beloved, I would like to invite your spirit forward to connect with me in the name of Yeshua. No matter how angry you feel presently, and how badly you have felt wronged, I would still like to treat with your spirit, as they are willing, and I am not requiring you to come close or stand at attention. There are times to call the spirit to attention, and there are times not to. And this is one of those times where it does not feel right to do the military command thing.

Listen, beloved spirit, to the word of G-d for you for today.

In the beginning….G-d….

-From Genesis 1:1-

I am not going to adopt the same technique other writers and preachers have adopted previously. Rather, I am going to adopt a different strategy, spirit.

Here is my thought here, before all of the action, all of the mess, all of the fall, and all of the mercy mission, I have to ask this question at the head of all else.

Spirit, WHAT WAS G-D THINKING BEFORE HE SET OUT TO ACT? What was on His mind? I do not mean that question to lull you to sleep. I mean that question to provoke something in you to consider.

Ponder the following. Before the world was founded and the universe was measured out in a span. Before there was a devil or a man to mess with creation, G-d stepped into the reality of nothingness. Of existence that was not. Not Yet.

Father, He pondered deeply. Thought about what might be, and thought about the possibilities. He was still and quiet before He came and before the original creation was formed. Before He created, He was Father, and Son, begotten of the Father, and Holy Spirit. And the three, knowing what would happen, connected and engaged in the redemption of all that would be. They engaged in an act that predated the existence of anything else. And in redemptive power, the death and resurrection of the Son was engaged.

And provision of what would be occurred in the pouring out of Father’s eternal love.

So, the Son knew what would happen to Him, and the Father knew, thought of, prepared for, and accounted for every single kind of death and destruction that would follow in all eternity. By allowing for the place of choice and free will, the King chose instruments of execution, the time of execution, the pictures of the execution, and showed His affection by allowing sacrificial love to be the touchstone of His nature. And the thread of willingness was already present before even the first element came into being.

Messiah was indeed crucified before the first foundations, upon which the world was laid, were set.

Spirit, you were conceived and born into a world that eternally knew the redemptive power of the L-rd, and was incapable of living apart from that redemption.

The Law has as its heart, the passage that reads, “You shall love the L-rd Your G-d with all”. This passage is all about mercy, grace, and redemption. For the L-rd would never issue an edict or command that He did not Himself first execute on. Thus, the G-d of the Gospels was also the G-d of the Law. The Old Covenant is the New Covenant. There were not two covenants, nor did the G-d on the Right Side of the Book apologize for the actions of the G-d of the Left Side of the Book. Pulse-pounding, tender, affectionate, messy, deep, grace-and-mercy-filled Love was more than the watchword or a parable to be jettisoned in favor of the Law. Rather, He, Love, was the Foundation of the Law.

So that you would never have to fret about whether or not the King’s compassion was ever not present, the Death of the Son was not some cheap parlor trick, or some cook-the-books accounting transaction, the King established His Death and His DEEP and UNYIELDING Love as the cornerstone of the whole universe.

Spirit, I want to bless you with something that is without equal in existence, and with all my heart I want to say this.

You were created first with tender compassion, love, redemptive power, and life flowing through every letter of all of Scripture. Not one ounce of the biblical text was written apart from the sacrificial, warm, safe, and tender affection of the King, who saw to it you would be able to continue knowing the root of His Life.

So, I bless you with love from the beginning, from before you were born and before the first human stepped onto the world stage.

I bless you with a wealth of the Infinity that is Perfect Love in your heart that is a microcosm of the whole of Perfect Love that built the Universe completely.

I bless you to know Perfect Love so deeply.

I bless you to see the King and the way You move His heart so much that He gave EVERYTHING He had to give in order to have the chance of your love in return, even though there was no guarantee you would return that love, because Free Will, Free Love, and Freedom govern His every move.

Perfect Love, in order to exist, must suffer the risk of rejection, and so the right to choose to reject love must also be present for control and manipulation to have an antidote. Her completely loved you knowing you might not love Him back.

I bless you to receive everything needed to sustain the reception of His Perfect Love.

I bless you with that strength in the name of Yeshua, who loves you in complete strength and tenderness.