The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.
Leviticus 25:23 ESV
The earth is the L-rd’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein
Psalm 24:1 ESV
Arguments of Futility
I am not in alignment with most of the realm of theology that says “what is the point of stewardship when the L-rd is going to destroy this world anyway? This world is going to burn up and not be redeemed and restored so what is the point.”
That sort of mindset seems to bring with it the baggage of the carelessness and apathy toward the current creation, and it smacks of a prevailing attitude of futility.
I simply cannot get on board with that.
What the L-rd Means.
It occurs to me that the L-rd has a purpose for us here and now and us on the land here and now. I realize the above passages, the first written about the Promised Land, and the second written by a king from the Promised Land, seem to not be written to us, but there is a deeper principle that is worth unpacking, regardless of how we think Revelation should be interpreted, with its account of the destruction of the earth and the appearance of the new heavens and the new earth.
We are placed on this earth, not to allow stuff to happen with zero input from us, but to be redemptive agents of the King as He unpacks the processes in us, and through us, and to us. Through those processes, He redeems and brings us to fullness, and all of creation to fullness and fulfillment.
We are not passive agents, but active agents. We have, in many places been taught to be passive, but that is not the King’s way.
We might have been taught that we are supposed to completely divest ourselves of a hustle-and-grind mindset, and while this is a new season in history both for the kingdom of G-d and for the church, there is a level of intentional behavior we are supposed to take on and keep. True, the King doesn’t primarily work through systems of authority and protocol, or hustle-and-grind, but rather intimacy. However, in this reality, we cannot take that gooshy intimacy to mean we can get rid of being active and industrious and working to impact the world around us. G-d wants us sustained, sustaining, and concieving things that are sustainable.
Sustained
G-d is the one responsible for providing resources to us, and He has given EACH of us something that will enable us to step into a place of provision. That “something” might be a skill, a network of relationships, or the understanding of how to do a task, but in each of us is a means of providing for us.
Sustaining
As we increase from using those tools G-d has give us, we sustain others around us, which includes us taking care of the land that is His, and is a resource to us, given to us to manage for Him. If that means you spend time with the land blessing it or using a shovel and gardening tools to cultivate it in the spring; or a lawn mower to make money in the summer; or a snowblower in the winter; or a rake in the fall; or wine, salt, and oil combined with the spoken word in the season of desperation to free the land; or seeding the soil, or planting plants, flowers for the pollinators, or vegetables and fruits for your family, or working with the portals on your land, all sorts of things can be done to help sustain others around you.
Sustainable
On the seventh day, when G-d rested, we hear about how He sanctified time and made it holy, which is the first time that word “holy” is mentioned, but we also may miss what else is happening because it is not spelled out in the canon for us, so we have to feel and sense and know what else that is unreported, yet is happening, in the gap between Genesis 1:31 and Genesis 2:4.
Can you hear the hum of the bees and the stretch of the grass, and the fluttering and seed cracking of the birds, and the song of the whales and the Leviathans in the oceans, and the rattles of pit vipers, and the stroke of whale flukes, and the groaning yaws of mid-ocean ridges, and the flowing of springs as the boils crackle with ice-cold water as the surfaces of the waters are disturbed and stirred?
Can you hear the starsongs as the hosts proclaim the justice of the crucifixion as those sounds of light, darkness, groaning, laments, laughing, forgiveness, and the sound of the hammerstrikes and the execution of pericardial effusion echo through the hum of creation as the Son’s first reality pierces the Holy Peace of Eden?
The portals each echo with some dynamic of that deathsong and subsequent lifesong, because they are the foundations of the earth, and the Son’s work impacts the holding points between the foundations and each of those portals.
The Light Portals weep over the loss of light and shine all the more brightly in celebration over the Lamb’s Victory that is coming and as warfare against the outer darkness.
The Weather Portals and the Water Portals feel the invisible flow of realities we call air masses moving, producing winds and humidity movement, as they produce the various manifestations we see along fronts, and they know the deluge that approaches, and they feel the tension, though rain has not yet happened.
The Fragrance Portals sense the deep things of the Riddles of G-d as the Lion sings creation into existence with her fragrant wisteria, stargazer lillies, apple blossoms, citrus blossoms, roses, and over flora, and they wait for the Son to flick the combiation, as the ingredients of the bread dough are kneaded together and milled and fermented in order to unlock the full rising of the Kingdom.
The Time Portals know what is present, past, and future, and days of future already past, and so they spiral to show a broader picture.
The Sound Portals Fill their vicinity with the voices of the hosts of heaven who illustrate truths from reality about the Son’s rightful place given his past suffering that root the newly-reborn world.
The Earth Gates open wide to permit the movement of celestial messengers trafficking in Freedom and Righteousness as they systematically execute the will of the One Who Sent them.
And the Mist Portals, well, those provided pockets of rest for those who need a Sabbath rest.
And as we are present now, we must see that in creation, there was created a hum of sustainability that is disproportionate to the hard work that was sown into the creation.
And we work to repeat that sustainability elsewhere.
Not as a devil-may-care, “I-don’t-give-a-damn” what happens to creation, but as a Son of the G-d of the Land Now, we use this reality now as a lab to unpack our fullness, rejecting the idea of futility, and the encroaching heresy “It’s already all been decided, so what change can I have” nonsense.
And we step out as agents of the G-d of the Land Now, and we engage with the Land NOW, and we do not stop until WE. ARE. FULLY. UNPACKED. The point is, as we work to unpack land, we are ourselves digging into us and unpacking and healing and restoring our treasures. The work with land does redeem and restore the creation now, but it also is a tool by which Father shows us and helps us in ourseves.
And those of us with a creation calling, reject this nonsense of “there is no point”.
Because that “there-is-no-point” mindset belongs on the lake of fire together with all of those rebellious Leviathans that rejected the seven pillars of wisdom and so found themselves hurled from the King’s presence.
If you will stand, gang, with the seven pillars of Wisdom in your right hand, and work with creation, you will see more keenly the G-d of the Land Now.
The following blessing can be useful for anyone, but I am particuarly focusing it to those who are designed to work with land.
A Blessing
So, I bless you, spirit, to find the G-d of the Land Now. I bless you to hear Him as He shows you the soil not just of His intentions for creation now, but also for you now. I bless you to find all that He has made for you in creation and the land He has for you now.
Proverbs 31:16 says that we consider a field and buy it.
That means each of you are meant to interact with land on some level. That may not mean that land is your primary purpose, but you are still made for land on some level.
I bless you to unpack the kingdom in you and in the land to the degree you were made to unpack it.
I bless you, spirit, to know which portions of you are made for the land in which you find yourself.
I bless you to turn your face to Father and know what tools He means for you to sow into and reap from the land.
I bless you to know the Redemptive Gift of the land where you are.
I bless you to resist and fight and war against the spirit of futility.
I bless you to renounce the judgments that are leveled against you because your love for land is “getting in the way of the important work of dealing with winning lost souls of humanity to the L-rd”. Spirit, you are not crazy. You are doing what you were made to do.
I bless you to see land where you are and where you go redeemed.
I bless you to read about the results of your land work in the papers on Monday Morning.
I bless you to feel and experience the pleasure of the Holy Spirit as you work at restoring the land to the L-rd’s original design.
And I bless you, together with the Righteous Leviathans that are turbocharged by the execution of the Seven Pillars, to carry those Seven Pillars in your right hand and to walk in the strength of those Pillars, the Principles of G-d.
Be at peace, spirit, in the name of Yeshua.