INTRODUCTION ON THE FIRST PART
NOVA put out an episode on fractals years ago, and if you like the deep understanding, then the following Fractals link will be neat. For me it is really fascinating, but for some, not so much.
What are they?
Well, Wikipedia has a very technical definition, which is fine, if you are into that sort of thing, but if you are not into technical stuff, but need someone to dumb it down, here it goes.
A fractal is a pattern that repeats and builds on itself, both in the macro and the micro, both bigger than itself and smaller than itself.
Fractals are found throughout nature and all aspects of reality.
And they are patterns.
That’s it.
FRACTALS IN SCRIPTURE
So, what do fractals have to do with Scripture?
What patterns are found in Scripture.
Well, as you might understand or not understand, there are groups in Scripture found throughout, and in my introduction to the Redemptive Gifts, I covered one of these patterns: the fractal of seven.
Sevens are throughout scripture, natural patterns that repeat.
All the groups of seven parallel and they build with each other.
There are other fractals in Scripture: 3, 10, 16, 22, 6, 8, 1, and 2 all come to mind.
One of those fractals of 7 is the Seven Last Words of Christ.
And these sayings parallel the Seven Redemptive Gifts.
The key here in each statement is that each of these seven statements are the statement that each respective gift has to wrestle with in the process of earning authority. That is, each statement reflects one of the two largest tests of each gift.
The other of the two largest tests of each of the gifts is the Fruit of the Spirit, but that is a post for another time.
THE PROPHET SAYING
“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34
This saying parallels the Prophet, and the major dynamic, and one of the key indicators that you are dealing with a Prophet is the struggle they have with forgiving others. Prophets do black and white, right and wrong, injustice really easily, and as a result, bitterness, offense, and unforgivness are things against which they must struggle. In this statement, Jesus was handling the Prophet test, which in the midst of intense pain, he still had to walk in extreme character and release those who had betrayed and denied him, falsely accused him, rejected him, abandoned him, despised him, handed him over, tortured him, interrogated him, and executed him.
Those who are Prophets, because Prophets are usually on the bleeding edge of whatever Father is doing, in terms of new paradigms and new truth and new understanding, because they are really good at analyzing problem solving, and seeing many steps out ahead, MUST give grace to those who will inevitably brand them as heretics.
They will have to not only enjoy their road, and frequently that road alone, they will have to execute their road and quickly release those who will not walk with them.
If they do not, the result will be a trail of fractured relationships, and a hot and judgmental volcano of acerbic lava that flows onto any unwitting passers-by.
THE SERVANT SAYING
Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
Luke 23:43
This statement hits the Servant in their place of vulnerability: powerlessness and the victim spirit. Servants are really good at providing, doing, meeting felt needs, and taking care of people’ and building platforms underneath people for their success.
The problem is that Servants who do not focus on their greatest expression’ but allow their schedules to be dictated for them, will both inherit and pass on a curse.
A Servant’s greatest calling is not to help others and provide a comfortable atmosphere where others will feel welcome, but to provide a comfortable atmosphere and place where God will feel welcome.
Because of their lack of guile, Servants are not usually known for hiding from the truth or lying. As a result of this refusal to finesse in your basic Servant, they are very easy for the rest of us to take advantage.
All this has to do with the above saying of Christ for the specific following reason: powerlessness. When a Servant’s decisions are made for them, and a place is carved out for them to fit, and when they are made to fit in that place, then in the blindness of those who created that space for the Servant, the Servant can be forced to fit into a place that will not permit them to execute their full package of gifts.
Jesus was powerless on that cross by choice and by design in so many ways. And one would have thought that, because he emptied himself and made himself of no reputation (Philippians 2:6-7) that he was incapable of doing and being. But he knew his authority was in that movement not to be used for miraculous signs and wonders. And he was also aware of what his authority was to be used for. He used his authority to rescue a powerless man who called him out as the Son of God and innocent, and saw him, beaten and bloodied, for who he was. No guile on the part of both parties. And just the execution of full authority in the area where it was meant to flow.
THE TEACHER SAYING
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
John 19:26-27
As with most other items when we come to the third item in the fractal of seven, this one has two parts, a binary to it. With the Teacher statements in Scripture, there is usually some illustration of two parts in it, and this piece, where the Teacher Mary and the Mercy John take care one of another is no exception. As a matter of fact, in the Mercy cradle of Benjamin is found the Teacher city of Jerusalem, and those two provide a high degree of safety and care one for another.
If you will also notice, it was the Third Day when God created biological sex and reproduction. Male and female. The plants have male parts and female parts, and as a result of the interaction of the two parts, fruit is formed. And in the nature of the plant kingdom this binary structure is repeatedly seen. Just compare and contrast:
- Angiosperms and Gymnosperms.
- Monocots and Dicots.
- Conifers and Deciduous Trees.
- Woody Stems and Herbacious Stems.
- Xylem and Phloem.
- Taproots and Fibrous Roots.
- Trees and Shrubs.
- Redwoods and Sequoias.
- Sunshine and Water.
- Dirt and Plant.
- Roots and Shoots.
- Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide.
- Humid and Arid.
- Daytime and Nighttime (both are necessary for certain plants).
And so forth.
The principle of male and female, birthed on the third day coveys a truth of nature that we need to grasp: male represents the act of giving, and female represents the act of receiving. Freely you have received, freely give (from Matthew 10:8).
John took on Mary in relationship as a result of Jesus words, and today, there is still that initiation of deep, covenant relationship between people that Jesus connects. The preacher preaches and gives and the lost receives and is transformed. The old passes away, and the new has come.
Teachers are known for deftly handling with skill, patience, and methodology, the text of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments. They must be able to not only divide the Scriptures, but also to handle the people with love and skill.
That is the Teacher’s responsiblity. Handle the people and handle the text.
Handle the Scriptures, and encounter the Spirit.
The words and the works.
A Teacher’s professional life must be on-point, and also his private, home, family life must without exception be cared for.
Attending to the one, and neglecting the other compromises the Teacher’s capacity to work at full effectiveness.
Jesus took care of wrapping up two emotional loose ends in putting Mary and John together. The Teacher mother’s loss of a flamboyant son to whom she had unswerving loyalty those many years, and the Affectionate Mercy’s loss of his dear and precious friend. When Teachers and Mercies both loose someone dear to them to whom they were supremely loyal, the loss can be immense, because of the greatness of their individual hearts.
Teachers, your test is in the responsibility you have to both parts, the giving and the receiving. The personal and the professional. The capacity to do both without neglecting either.
THE EXHORTER SAYING
“My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?!”
Matthew 27:46
The suffering of Jesus, the Exhorter, is the fight of the Exhorter. The Son, quoting Psalm 22:1, is expressing the fullness of human bewilderment as only an innocent can. The weight of the false accusation here is the crucible every Exhorter must bear as the weight of pain and suffering, and naked reality hits them full force.
And the honest question getting to suck the marrow out of all that is and what must be is the Exhorter’s portion. This is the life that moves from the Skeletal System, from the marrow and arterial system of the Femurs which supply the strength to the Muscular System (which parallels the Gift of Exhorter).
The Exhorter, if he or she is to be fully effective, MUST suck the marrow out of reality and expect a proportional realistic harvest and crop from a proportional amount of work. And they cannot just farm their work out to others. They who instruct others what to do, must lead in shouldering the work.
The Exhorter, in their core, was designed to embrace the fullness of the pain of reality, which will break the hypnosis of non-reality and denial to which so many Exhorters are prone. AND THEY MUST SQUARELY HANDLE THE FORSAKING OF OTHERS AND PRESS ON FOLLOWING THOSE FORSAKINGS!
Further, in the midst of strong pain, the Exhorter must be the most viciously consistent of all seven gifts, because frequently, given they have the capacity to move LARGE CROWDS, they must lead them into reality.
Two things here must be emphasized: LEAD. The Exhorter must set the tone by bearing the burden. He cannot just send people to conquer a task, while he sits back and sips on a cool one. He needs to bear everything he is calling others to pick up. And REALITY: not just whip people up into a frenzy with their words, but give them a realistic goal to obtain and pick up the shovel themselves or put their own shoulder to the plow and lead the rest in picking up the burden. They must be in it for the long haul, as William Wilberforce was with his single agenda of ending slavery.
This will require the Exhorter to embrace the pain, even if it means they ask God the hard questions that would make some question whether or not they are still following Him.
The Exhorter’s test is hard reality and pain embracement. Sowing and reaping.
The Exhorter cannot pawn off the hard work on others to fix their mess. They must fix their own mess, and move into it.
THE GIVER SAYING
I thirst
John 19:28
To quote my friends Arthur Burk and Sandy Landry:
Self-sufficiency will not bring you water on the cross.
The Giver is capable of radical independence, and the Giver must learn how to depend on others to help them, to bring to them, to bless them, and to provide for them. The Giver frequently wants control of a situation, or, at the very least, to impact through negotiation to get a better deal. They like to have options, choices, information, and questions answered.
They do not like to be dependent or to have a lack of information.
And for them to depend on someone to meet their needs is difficult. This test of Vulnerability is their most serious test. It is frequently hard for a Giver, unless they have been tested on this point and walk in high numbers, to rely on others, and to be vulnerable. But, as Jesus showed, it can be done.
Givers, your test is the one of sheer dependency, and that is the gateway to an explosion of your gifting and resources.
THE RULER/JUDGE/DELIVERER SAYING
Τετέλεσται (It has been finished)
from John 19:30
Perfect tense. Completed action as seen in the present. We see the idea of a completed action that has perennial and ongoing results.
Deliverance from slavery and bondage into sonship through the application of fathering is the perfect example. The Ruler (a/k/a Judge or Deliverer) is repeatedly to be seen and designed as the ultimate father, working with imperfect people to accomplish extraordinary (perfect) results, and a lot of them. A father is one by identity, and as a result, the ongoing actions of their interactions with those who are their sons yield ongoing results and transformation.
Jesus here is declaring, at his most vulnerable, even though it does not look like he has worked at something on the cross to the casual observer, that He has done something, completed something, owned something that was not His to own. He has fixed the sin problem and accomplished redemption, and now He will die and await his vindication. This push-through to the goal is the execution of the Ruler’s fruit of the spirit test, namely the test of faithfulness. Will the Ruler see through the test to the end and prove himself faithful, when so many carnal Rulers accomplish whatever soulish empire-building aims their hearts desire? Or will the Ruler father and do his best work in raising up sons who know how to build and how to fight.
The Ruler’s best work is not in the empire they build. Rather, it is in the sons they build who know how to build and fight.
The quality of sons in the kingdom is contingent, in large part, on the Rulers stepping into the FULLNESS OF THEIR ROLES AS FAITHFUL FATHERS WHO WILL RAISE UP THOSE SONS.
Rulers, your test will be one of fathering sons, whatever that looks like, and completing what has been given you in faithfulness, even though you have seen no fruit for a long time. In short, the test of vindication, and your capacity to confess that you have finished what you know you were given to do.
THE MERCY SAYING
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
Luke 23:46
Jesus experienced the fullness of abandonment and rejection as the object of God’s wrath in order that we might be transformed into new creations. He felt that sting. And beyond that sting, gang, he uttered, out of sheer trust and knowing and intimacy “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14) that He was still trusting the Father, from who he had hours earlier experienced palpable rejection, to steward his spirit well. He committed his spirit into the hands of One who poured out his wrath upon him.
Pardon me for saying it this way as a Mercy, but I cannot think of another way to baldly say it.
There was a stupid level of trust here on the part of Jesus. From seemingly out of a mysterious nowhere, no matter how much of an object of wrath Jesus had become, He still trusted this One who allowed him to be slain. That is Mercy commitment, and Mercy passing of the test of just intimately knowing, even in death, that Father would make good on the love deposit that existed between them.
Mercies, your test is trusting in God when your very will and humanity are being ground into powder. When you are given one fight after another after another, and it seems like your world has caved in around you, where will be the final resting place for your trust and the committing of your life?
With Him? Or with something else?
*is crying*
’tis powerful.
Likely several parts, Lavina. Thank you so much!
Bravissimo! This was VERY well written and I learned a lot from this read. I’ve been wanting to look at the 7 statements as I knew they were representative of our spirit portions as I knew there was much more there that I was not understanding. Your expressions of understanding have really helped me grasp our spirit portions and these statements even more than I could have done on my own. I stand in awe. THANK YOU! for taking the time to write this out as He has gifted you to do!