Month: March 2022

Endurance and the Exhorter: Getting Chiseled

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Design, Exhorter, Principles, Redemptive Gifts, Seven Curses

Text

And the hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan

Judges 4:24 (ESV)

Thoughts Here

Gang, I am doing a read-through of scripture, and this text really hit home for the Exhorter, especially given it deals with an aspect of breaking the Canaanite Curse, one of the Seven Curses against design.

Time after time, I, and others, have encountered those who believe the only thing necessary to break a curse is to utter a renunciation, or have a court case, or __________ (fill in the blank with tour chosen thing to utter). And frequently, Exhorters who are built for the long haul of endurance are hunting for the magic spell or incantation or eight key. THE SOLUTION TO ALL MY ILLS.

And while renunciations are excellent, they are not the whole picture.

There must be, resident within the Exhorter, a commitment to grow and increase through consistent righteous actions of sowing and reaping in order to break a stronghold through overcoming.

Exhorters MUST, non-optionally, and non-negotiably, build a reservoir of endurance and strength.

They have to develop life-strong, sinewy muscle (Muscular System of the body is Exhorter) in order to win at many situations.

Press HARDER AND HARDER. Over and over and over. Keep pounding. Hammer to nail. Pull and push and develop. There is a reason that well-built people are referred to as chiseled and cut and ripped. Such adjectives speak of a PROCESS that happens layer by layer.

Such an appearance is pleasing to the eye.

And such an appearance will be the result of building out groups of musculature. In the gym. In the kitchen. In the community. In the secret place. In all of the places.

Gang, especially Exhorters, it’s time to get cut and peel back some things that you have tolerated in previous seasons.

Much love.

And be at peace.

Stewardship: A Few Thoughts

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Blessings, Fifth Head, Leviathan, March WOR: Reconciled To Community, Principles

If we struggle with hearing others or being heard by others, we might have an issue with how we are managing those things we have been given.

Exhibit A

“My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.”

Sheep can either choose to listen or they can choose to not listen. As sheep who are more accurately sons rather than servants (though “servant” is a small aspect of what we do in the kingdom) we have been given the freedom to listen to the voice of the Shepherd and either execute or not. And, whether or not we are satisfied without the outcome of listening or not listening to the communication the King gives us, the results of our listening or not will come.

In Illustration

I am not the usual one to give any sort of gloom-and-doom message, in case one is tempted to read the following as an invective.

A couple of years ago, a regional communications grid was knocked out in a major American city. Now, am I going to say that this was the judgment of G-d definitively. Not at all. But I notice when G-d attempts to communicate or speak to His children and they resist hearing that voice…

…when scripture plainly teaches, from the mouth of the Word Himself, that followers HEAR his voice….

…and that hearing is plainly a gift of the King to His bride…

…and, as such, is meant to be stewarded well…

…to the best of the skill and ability with which He endows us…

…then our communications networks of various types risk disruption…

And:

  • People who normally hear us fail to hear us clearly.
  • Our capacity to receive in prayer is hindered.
  • Our cooking in the kitchen is messed with.
  • Our technology and electronic devices, most of which involve some form of communication, foul up worse than usual, or sooner than usual.
  • “The wires get crossed” between even good friends.
  • Our tone of voice or text is misheard.
  • Our parents, siblings, spouses, close friends, or kids begin mishearing our plain verbal cues for something completely foreign.

Gang, the land in this city cries out for someone or more than one someone’s to help straighten out the mess that has happened in the spirit.

And, while there are those who are called to work with people, there are also those that are called to work with creation.

Be encouraged, if your communication is messed up in one or more ways, then the ultimate reality is that Father wants to help you fix the problem areas.

There is no mess that cannot be repaired or renewed.

The kicker is we have to be willing to quiet ourselves and listen for His voice.

He is always speaking something or communicating to us.

The real question is…

Are we listening and did we treat as important what He said, such that we write it down and consider what He has said.

Another passage to illustrate this concept.

Judges 4

Deborah did not tell Barak anything he did not know at the start of their interaction in Judges 4.

Rather what she said, in our vernacular, might be rendered as:

“Bruh, the L-rd already said this to you. So what are you waiting for?”

Barak’s response: “Woman, I am waiting for a woman to validate me.”

The L-rd already spoke to Barak, and Barak was sitting on his arse waiting for the chick to validate him.

A man who is a son and to whom the L-rd is already speaking, don’t need anyone to validate him. He is responsible to go.

Seriously, and we do this same thing.

Personally, I delayed in coming to town myself. So I am culpable for my delaying.

Likewise, is there something of which the L-rd has already spoken to you and about which you are delaying because you are waiting for a dude or a chick or your covering or some grand poo-bah to validate you?

Stop waiting for a ring to kiss.

And stop going around in circles with the same stupid crap you have been talking about for the last several years.

And stop with that years-old offense that you are using to justify your inaction.

Not all of those statements were for every one of my readers. Those each of those statements do have a targeted audience and then me of them may speak to you. Or none of them may speak to you.

Your job is to engage in Russian epic of Cinderella: “If shoe fits, wear it”.

I am here to be G-d’s mouthpiece to you and say, go and do what you have been assigned to do and stop waiting for someone to tell you you are allowed to do that thing.

Count the resources and capital which Father has given you and use those wisely to begin the process and be ready to partner with the additional resources He will bring.

There is a time for waiting (Isaiah 40:31).

However, there is a time to cease waiting and to start doing.

And our job is for each of us to hear which season it is for us, and to act accordingly.

Blessing

Beloved,

I invite your spirit forward to treat with me in this window of reconciliation, for reconciling with community, and for being at peace with all men, if possible.

And, spirit, I bless you to hear what the Spirit is saying to the seven churches. I bless you to know and recall the voice of the King. And I bless you to obey the voice of the King WHEN the right timing happens.

I bless you to instruct soul and body to ignore the voices of those who are either naysayers or who command you to wait when their voices are out of step with the voice of the King.

Spirit, I bless you with the boldness to move forward in your purpose, even if it makes waves with others.

Spirit, I bless you to move with the Lamb when he moves, and to sit when He sits, and to flow where He flows.

I bless you with kindness, but also courage and forthrightness to hear those voices that accord with the King’s voice, and ignore those that are out of accord with that Voice.

Be at peace, spirit, and keep pounding, or begin pounding if you are supposed to be pounding at an assignment.

You are loved, and I bless you with a pastoral blessing.

Find His Voice and do what He tells you, in the time and season He tells you to do it.

Amen

Responding to Murray Rothbard: Free Will Vs. Control

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Five Levels of Holienss, Principles, Time

Jotting some thoughts down here…

Tom Woods, arch-libertarian and Teacher, is refreshing me on sabbatical:

He writes:

Murray Rothbard described the free market as simply “the social array of voluntary exchanges of goods and services.’ In titling one of his books Power and Market (originally intended to be the closing section of Man, Economy and State) Rothbard was positioning “power” and “market” as antinomies. The market consists of voluntary transactions between willing parties; the state, or “power,” introduces compulsion into human relations, bringing about coerced outcomes that people would not voluntarily have chosen.

Noting Rothbard’s idea, I looked back at the idea of market as akin to free will, a gift we are unilaterally and without condition given, even if we mess things up.

I look at coercion by the government as akin to the overworn concept of control.

And the conscious or unconscious desire for control leads inevitable to structures and polity that lead to destruction of what would otherwise be a genuinely, disproportionately life-giving exchange (means of exchange for goods, or good for good).

In the case of our King, He exchanges our debt for His life and adoration.

I wonder if we are missing, in our desire to crown popes, presidents, and apostles (all usual forms of control) the legitimate and requisite aspect of the divine nature of which we were each made to partake, of releasing.

Father designated seasons of release, whether sabbaths, seasons, holidays, years, or other χρόνος or καιρός moments (and yes, Greek is good and both of those concepts are good) for us, as He designed both unique and non-unique timestreams in accordance with our divers designs, for us to unpack time-relative treasures for us.

And we need to hunt for those.

Another dynamic I have considered deeply is the concept of the “starways”.

Though I cannot find another reference to the concept of the “starways” outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and specifically, Guardians of the Galaxy (leave it to the Ruler Thanos to make us aware of such a reality), I know that they exist and are time-connected.

Someone, or several someones, will have to begin the process of unpacking the lightyears worth of pathways traced by the stars in the κόσμος. So that we can begin to embrace how we were MADE to be released, and not merely to control or limit or make small all sorts of things.

What is our place in being released and in giving release to others?

And what is our place in being aware of the connections between His light, His lights, the path that light and those lights travel, and the journeys which we were meant to take.

Just some thoughts here.

That Awkward Moment When…..

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Principles, Revelation 3

…you are not anyone’s flavor of the month because you have to confront everyone.

So, because you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out.

From Revelation 3

Sometimes, there are occasions when we have to take care of others, and other times, there are occasions when we have to impose responsibilities on others in order force or provoke growth in them.

I appear to finish this sabbatical in the same place where I began it: being a goad in the lives of those who need to mature.

I have seen a lot of good come from showing silence or gentleness to community, especially when community grows indifferent or unreceptive. However, there are times we need to shake or stir or provoke community so that it does not entropate.

The verb form of “entropy”, coined by yours truly.

There was a reason the only people vomited from our L-rd’s mouth were those who refused to decide between two useful states and attempted to mix the two into a state of apathy.

Lukewarmth defeats the twin purposes of hot and cold and leads to a destroyed twisting, much like the bile-laden and undigested garbage that is rejected by the king.

Gang, I would like to issue a challenge.

Cold is useful. As is hot. The text of Revelation and the rest of the canon never rejects the idea of “cold”, and, indeed, if we read the context, we will appreciate that reality.

But if you find yourself in a doldrumous place of apathy or refusal to fight or stir up what is needed to stir up, I would urge you to consider asking the King to shake you up in some fashion.

He might just surprise you.

Be blessed to receive His stirring of your spirit.