Month: July 2023

My Second Encounter With Premature Death, and Blessing of Stillness #WhateverTheLatestOneIs

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

March 21, 2002….

There are some days I would as soon forget, but then I remember, it is not about forgetting the days that forge us, but being removed from the trauma and redeeming the pain that came with those days. And this day was no exception.

This event, during my Senior year of college, followed another, June 1, 2001, in which I hit a drunk pedestrian, and in which he died.

And I still remember faces and incidents from both days, for the first was during Pentecost Weekend and I had just made the decision to drive south to spend time with a close friend who was going to become my new roommate, as June 2 was his birthday.

I do not remember much of the birthday, but I do remember the blood on the road, the moment when I laid hands on him, and asked the King for a miracle, and standing up because the Sheriff’s Deputies wanted me to take a blood test, and I remembered nearly passing out and the feel of being….mauled by something.

It was the spirit of premature death….

And in the first, it came about because someone wandered out in traffic in front of me.

In the second, I made the mistake of U-turning when a number of cars were behind me.

And in one motion, The Box (the name of my 1980 Toyota Corolla), was t-boned and totalled, and I should have been dead or seriously injured.

And I just had some bruising to my calcaneus (heel bone). That’s it. And a sore and pinched left foot.

This coming after a gospel choir concert in which my ex-pastor and his wife were present….

And I learned, the King allows Father-filtered pain simply because He is working through situations to grow us to know His love and connecting with Him in the middle of the furnace and the crucible.

A crucible for silver, and a furnace for the gold.

And these are the only ways the gold and the silver emerge purified, in the midst of the fire and in the presence of the flux.

And thus, began a multi-part story in which the L-rd began exposing me to how spiritual leaders can engage with witches in order to work nasty things against the King’s kids.

And I am not grateful for the damage and the suffering and loss, but I am grateful for the King being with me in the midst of the tragic circumstances to show me how to build and how to fight.

And this is another lesson in sonship.

Gang, the hard stuff is going to come.

But I can still repeat the refrain of the King through Isaiah the Teacher.

  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

Isaiah 43:2

He is not going to allow all of you to be overtaken, gang. There is still a core center piece at the root of you that, no matter how divided, traumatized, wounded, or overthrown you are, the enemy is INCAPABLE of violating or overthrowing.

So, spirit, I bless you,

I bless you with the courage to see and to hear Him, as you rest in Him, as the hard things come.

I bless you with fearless understanding and love.

I bless you with the place of stillness following the destruction and the beating waves, and the pounding waters, and the burning furance. I bless you to allow Him to pour his balm and oil and wine into your wounds.

There is a balm in Gilead. And that balm is a mercy to your afflicted spirit and soul.

There is a love for you even when heartache happens.

I bless you to know even as you are fully known.

I bless you to know you are being fought for by Love and Life Himself, even in the midst of when death seems to be poured out on you from every angle.

I bless you when you are being covered by predators, to know the Christ Himself is THERE to show you how to push back against the ANTI-Christs.

I bless you with skill, savvy, and truth, and wisdom, and eternal and unfailing lovingkindness.

Spirit, at your core, THEY WILL NOT OVERTAKE YOU.

I bless your confidence in Him to grow.

I bless you, not with shrewd strategies of avoidance, but with real and tender and bold LOVE and the EMBRACE of the Bridegroom when you feel hammered.

I bless you to not stop, even as you must embrace moments of stillness. I bless you with the cup of cold water from the One Who Feeds You Hand To Mouth With Ravens and Corvids, precious Elijah….

I bless you spirit with this reality in the name of Yeshua….

Amein.

How G-d Wounds And Then Heals a Servant

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

Servants….

They like to help….and help….and help….and help….and help….

And will not stop helping…..

Meeting tangible needs…

Cleaning…

Praying…

Cleansing…

Praying off death spirits…

No guile…

Willing to stand up to bullies…

And they do not quit when a fight is involved and others are damaged beyond repair…

The just do not quit…

And they have no guile and no agenda…

Until or unless someone breaks them out of that tiny and small vision of serving and obeying…

Like a trauma…

Or a hard word of some sort from a friend willing to deliver that message….

Redemptive Gift Prophets are usually the ones with the chops and the authority to speak to both, and if mature, the blow can be softened by the Servant seeing and hearing the heart of the Prophet…

Candidly, Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, was, in his early years, possessed of the heart necessary t take on the task of making the world a safe place from bullies, but while his best friend, Bucky Barnes, was present in the early season, Barnes was a constant distraction for Rogers from his missions:

It took the grueling adversity of believing Barnes dead to get Steve into the right place of focus.

Then, being frozen in the ice for 70 years after interacting with another Prophet (Peggy Carter) got him more focused, as he was given the mission of leading the Avengers.

And with us, especially with the Servants, we have to be broken from our lesser goals and embrace the deeper things the King has for us, if we are to walk in our highest calling and the best version of ourselves.

And maybe, just maybe, we will in the process, regain some of what we lost.

In Rogers’ case, he received back his best friend, and then the love of his life, and after the Infinity War and Endgame was able to go onto a third act and another shot at many of the things he had missed out.

Those events, if they do not let the King in to heal them or the memory, can leave them in a low place for much of their lives.

The King attempts to break so many of us out of the mediocrity of the Grand Central Station of Obedience and into something deeper, but sometimes the higher, deeper, broader, more colorful place requires we endure a large measure of productive pain.

And as to Bucky (Prophet), the Prophet’s pain is of a different type and a different pathway, but it is no less significant.

In the case of the Servant, “throwing myself in, follow orders, serve” is NOT enough once the dissatisfaction with the low goal of obedience is quashed for a vision with purpose and an adventure.

The tracks or road or path get laid through obedience, but the adventure only gets embraced through creativity, and that comes only through sonship. Slaves obey, sons create.

Servants, who are so used to settling for something secondary, helping others, or BEING PUSHED INTO THAT ROLE AND ACCEPTING IT, were made to be dialed-in for one thing…

Yet….

GREATER…

…than meeting the felt needs of others: to create an environment wherein the King would be happy to come and dwell. They ultimately must be pulled from their secondary purpose, as with the Prophet from theirs (solving problems and fixing things), and get dialed into their primary purpose (creating the one environment that matters to provide a place that is comfortable and inviting so that the King’s purposes might get accomplished).

It took Steve losing his best friend and his former reality to move into something deeper.

It will take the Servant losing their smaller reality to move into the deeper purpose.

And, sigh, it will not be easy, but it will be worth it.

#PrincipleOfAuthority

The Example of the Servant Who Missed It and Lost Out Bigtime

I am going to leave one line here from one account, and I want you each to catch it, and i want it to sit with you, and I want you each, Servants, to move into greater things, because the typical Servant is adept at the ecosystem and working with the earth, incredibly well, or some dynamic that can become settling, if they are not careful.

Then Saul, went back to his father Kish at Gibeah, having received the kingship and the office, and resumed his lesser task of farming….

And you know the rest of the story…..