So, we know about the Spirit of Jealousy, which is a perversion of the work of the Father; the Victim Spirit, which is a perversion of the work of the Son; and the Mesmerizing Spirit which is a perversion of the work of the Holy Spirit.
But I received a note from a friend about being afraid of something that was potentially on the horizon, and that got me to thinking the Spirit of Fear is one of the big ones that we rarely mention in the Charismatic movement as much as we hear others, like the Jezebel Spirit, and it is often the one that lurks in the shadows.
We are used to hearing about the Jezebel Spirit attacking the prophets, and oh how wicked it is, and so on.
But I am convinced the Spirit of Fear is one of the underrated ones. It is a sleeper spirit (like a sleeper fantasy player, not that you want it to do well, though).
And I think the Spirit of Fear might be the spirit that, in the Fractal of Four (made up of the Trinity and the Kingdom) that perverts the work of the Kingdom.
Fear is something against which we react. It is not real. It is a counterfeit of wisdom, and it keeps us from building (power), reaching out (love), and staying sane and under the King’s authority (a sound mind, self-discipline).
It will neuter and spay and castrate you from doing what you were made to do, and it will cause you to jump to acting in ways that the King would not have you act.
Fear is one aspect of this coin. The other aspect is the Spirit of Indifference, which is the Horn of the Dragon that affects the Mercy (I have some thoughts on the Ten Horns). On the one side is not to act or make a distinction. On the other side is to act out of panic without deliberation or discernment or to act as if you think you are following Holy Spirit and miss what He is truly doing which is operating at a less hurried pace than Holy Spirit.
This janus-faced clown does not care if you are overdoing it or not doing it at all, he is content with your missing the mark in the present because you are so focused on the the future or so locked by your past that you mis the good things Father has for you now.
The way you become dangerous to this clown is by relentless connection the King as a Noble Subject and by becoming a builder in the kingdom. In my previous post on the Principle of Stewardship, I highlighted the dynamic of what happens when we steward the tools, materials, and gifts the King has given us to manage. Our attitude with these tools is important.
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2 Tim. 1:7
A spirit of Power….with all of the capacity and giftedness that the L-rd has given us.
A spirit of Love….that shows the godly dominion and relational governance Jesus Christ has installed into us.
And a spirit of a sound mind or self-control or self-discipline whereby Holy Spirit breeds in us the skill to govern ourselves so that our actions in poise and skill build the kingdom effectively and we follow Rule #1 in my family, which was printed on the Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy.
DON’T PANIC!
When you panic, or you freak out, or you become afraid, then you act foolishly.
Just ask me how I know.
My ex-wife threatened to abuse alcoholism if I did not marry her, then further threatened to take my sons away if I did not move with her to New England. My word, I understand what it is like to panic. I married the first time because of fear and I moved because of fear.
Then, when she told me in order to reconcile with her, I had to agree to a list of 22 items. I agreed to 21 of the 22 items on the list, but the last one, which was to accept a pharmeceutical solution to a particular problem, I refused, at which point….I felt something break in the spirit realm.
And she retaliated and that began an 6-year-long trek alone in the wilderness where I was accused by a slew of pastors and “leaders” not not being a capable, safe, or competent person to teach or pastor.
Gang, you must, in those instances, allow the Holy Spirit to bring you the power, love, and sound mind and self-discipline to your spirit, and to be fully clothed in those qualities, because a whole lot seeks to shake you to your core.
That spirit of fear seeks to create indifference and panic in you. Do not let it.
Be blessed at peace.
And I bless you with power….and love…and a sound mind.
“You decide if you’re oppressed. You deci-I know I’m going to get in trouble for saying this. I DON’T CARE. Like, you can decide to get better. You can decide to leave an abusive relationship. You can decide to work. You can decide to get up. You can decide that you’re not oppressed.”
-Nicole Arbour-
Hegemonic structures that are broken aside, injustice in broken systems; broken laws; broken institutions; and broken people aside, we have a series of wars against the Victim Spirit that we must win if we are to step into the fullness of what Jesus Christ has for us.
If you are a broken person, you have a choice to move into or toward a place of wholeness.
No options beyond this.
You might be called to see a structure torn down that is unjust, but you cannot tear it down only to replace it with a structure that favors this group at the expense of another group.
Gang, and specifically Servants, your design is critical, no matter who criticizes you.
I was watching a couple of clips from Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, and while I do not generally care for the Wingnut editing of Tolkien’s masterpieces, I am compelled to share when I think Jackson hits the right notes.
Saruman made a comment in An Unexpected Journey, which is easily covered over and possibly missed in Galadriel speaking to Mithrandir’s mind, in spitting on Radagast’s design. And Radagast is the archtypical Servant.
The comment is:
“It’s not that. It’s his excessive consumption of mushrooms. They’ve addled his brain and yellowed his teeth. I warned him, it is unbefitting one of the Istari to wander in the woods…”
Here is the relevant discussion:
Saruman, on the one hand, had an idea of what is befitting an Istari (Tolkien’s term for the Wizards), and comported himself in such a fashion.
Radagast, on the other hand, was given and drawn to serving nature and the animals, and that was his design, and it actually served the White Council well.
Sometimes we need that buddy who loves mushrooms and has “yellow teeth” and “addled brain” from the POV of some who simply do not get the Servant value.
Often times, gang, when the L-rd is speaking to us, he is going to use creation (Psalm 19, Isaiah 24) to communicate the reality to us. The spiritual will be reflected in creation and nature. And Servants are often going to be among those who clue in to the germane markers first.
If you denigrate and discount those who work with nature, and tell your tribesmates who is proper and improper for them, then the chances are really high you will cut off a valuable, though weird to some, barometer to the kingdom that would alert you clearly to one of the enemy’s stratagems, especially given the primary set of markers for Leviathan is the set of markers found in nature and creation.
Gang, I encourage you, those of you who have a friend in nature, to allow them and encourage them to connect deeply with nature.
And those of us who were in organizations like Boy Scouts, likely were so hardwired because we love nature and things like conservation.
Then the L-RD G-d said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper for for him.”
Genesis 2:18 (ESV)
There are two things I would like to discuss here. I will cover this phrase here and the never phrase of interest, “it is not good that the man should be alone;”, I will cover in a future post.
Now, some might be tempted to pull a word study from Strong’s Concordance on עֵזֶר, but I do not usually go into Strong’s for my material. Just personal preference.
So, עֵזֶר is variously translated as “helper”, “helper fit”, “helper suitable for”, “helpmeet”, and the like, I would like to consider a couple of dynamics as to what “helper” and “suitable” can mean.
I think of someone who chips into/brings their cards to the table in support of/brings their tools to/brings their expertise, experience, and design to bear on a situation.
I don’t merely think of someone who is subjugated to a divine lord here. I do not think of Adam as master and Eve as servant.
Rather, someone who is made to fit, custom-built, and capable of helping Adam solve the unique set of problems that he is faced with in the Garden, problems that require another set of hands, reins, heart, mind, and perspective.
Not your “feminine touch”, women, but your godly and womanly strength. Just as men need to develop testicular fortitude, so also women need to develop ovarian fortitude.
Given Eve will be the Life-Giver to all humanity, and Adam will be central to that life, it is mission-critical that they mesh together in design and partnering to solve certain problems.
Another one of the eyes in the “wheel within the wheel” gets brought to bear on the situation at hand.
Likewise, you women, generally are not designed to have a sausage-factory approach to the life of marriage, because your designs are not identical. Not all women are designed to be barefoot and pregnant, and not all woman that are designed for that are designed for that permanently.
Your job is not merely obedience to a prefabricated set of blueprints that some dude or chick created for you. It is to follow the UNIQUE set that was given to you.
And if you let someone tell you what a woman of G-d looks like and they are not plugged in to looking for your unique design with you, they will hand you a design that is of their own POV and you will move into a zone that is not yours with an assignment and a birthright that are not yours.
Ladies, gentleman, the Father knows precisely who you need to be married to.
Your job is not to get ahead or behind that understanding.
Your responsibility is to hunt for your design and walk in it.
If you find your niche, believe me, Father will partner you with someone you were DESIGNED TO BE WITH, if you will allow Him.
A massive problem is that so many people think with their sex organs and never think with their spirits about the kind of partner that will mesh with their design. And so based on a couple of traits they marry and are miserable.
That is not what Father made you for. You must allow your spirit to think and talk to you about what he or she wants in a partner. And then YOU partner with that.
Helpers are made to work in concert one with another. Believers, especially, are responsible to share fox holes one with another. Helpers manage together; they are in business together; they connect one with another; they have a common vision; they provide a safe place and covering fire for one another; and they have understanding, wisdom, and knowledge that complement one another. That is what the Father designed in Eden, and it is our responsibility, especially as the redeemed of the King, to carry his vision for a marriage forward.
It is not merely about whether or not you’re mesh well together when you knock boots, or because you emotionally feel good around one another.
The real question is whether or not together you can accomplish more redemptive Lee and then you can apart.
Calling someone [insert your chosen adjective here]phobic just because one follows the L-rd and chooses to practice and teach biblical standards of morality is intellectually lazy.
This nonsense of yelling ad hominem attacks “transphobic” and “homophobic” just because one believes what Scripture teaches about G-D’s design for human relationships when they also demonstrate love of people, regardless of their choices, instead of having an honest and frank discussion about the disagreements is the epitome of sloth and it is choosing to be half-blind and enslaved to the opinion of cancel culture.
If you cannot handle divergent beliefs but are willing to move along from the disagreement, that is one thing.
However, it is quite another thing to accuse people of a phobia because they refuse to bow the knee to your every whim…
and if they refuse to bow the knee, for you to stick them in a box that forces or mandates they remain silent. This has been your PSA.
What do you have in your hand? What do you bring to the table?
That is a key question, gang. And it is potentially dangerous to ask and answer unless we answer it carefully and thoughtfully. Why is that? Because we frequently have a very small idea of what we mean by “tools” and “resources”. We hear resources and we too often think of cash, or liquid assets we see. We often do not think about our relationships, our understanding, our knowledge, in part because we misapplied Paul’s exhortation, and just because we call those things (degrees and licenses and all that other stuff) shit (the Greek word σκύβαλον translates to “shit”), does not mean we reject the idea of using those items to further the plan of G-d in our lives.
Is It Really Junk?
Just because something looks like junk in your life, does not mean that G-d cannot use it.
So, at the outset of your working through approaching the work G-d has for you, toward your places of destiny, remind yourself of all the resources you have at your disposal. Truly, G-d gave you money to manage…
But He also gave you skill (Deuteronomy 8:18), friendships (Proverbs 17:17), work (Genesis 2:15), plans (Jeremiah 29:11, Proverbs 16:1, 3, 9; 19:21), rest (Mark 2:27), and family (Psalm 68:6).
And that word “skill” covers everything you do with your hands, mind, feet, anything you move to act on. The capacity to work and do something, and to do it with skill is a gift from Him. It is not just about being able to do something; it is about recognizing, discovering, and honing your strong suits so that you can do, with maximum effectiveness, the very things you love.
Our capacity to see everything we have in hand becomes a stepping stone.
“Away from what, though?”, you might ask.
The Poverty Spirit
When we only think of resources in terms of a very narrow band of things, then we might miss something G-d wants us to use. For example, the heading above brings to the minds of many Charismatic followers of Christ the conviction and curse that we will not have enough money, that we will constantly be in lack and that it is a demon that is causing this financial lack. While that is part of what the Poverty Spirit does, its full trafficking is in the arena of blinding us to everything to which we have access; its design is to keep us from seeing all of the available resources.
Stewards Don’t Rule, Or Take Authority That Is Not Theirs; They Manage and Protect For Those That Will Come
“Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the King, Steward!” “The rule of Gondor is mine! And no others!”
Yeah…
Truly, Givers are Stewards. And a Steward is a manager, not an Owner, and not a King. They are meant to recognize, gather, and protect resources for the return of the king. Further, a Steward is also given authority to allocate resources in accordance with what he or she knows about the king’s nature. And note what the King gives the Steward to do; The king will usually give the steward a great deal of latitude, provided the Steward is sober-minded and possessed of sound judgment.
Put succinctly, the Steward has the freedom to manage the king’s resources, and they may abuse those resources for a season, or they may manage those resources shrewdly for a season, but at some point there is going to be an accounting of his or her handling of the resources.
Not Indentured Servitude
Our interaction with the King, at many points, does mirror a partnership. Partners discuss and connect. Partners each bring things to the table. Partners work together. Partners walk in transparency one with another. Partners usually have chemistry if they are to survive. Partners walk in loyalty. Partners are authentic. Partners have open communication with one another. Partners synch. Partners love each other. Partners solve problems. And Partners walk in collaboration and encourage one another.
However, we are duty-bound to find the principles that are explicated in Scripture and to EXECUTE. Obedience is part of the equation.
Stewardship is part of the equation.
And awareness and allocation of available resources are also parts of the equation. Adapt and overcome. Sonship. Semper Fi. Do your job, and stop with the complaining that you do not have what you need.
Right now, without extra and added gifts given to you by others, you have treasure, gifts, resources, wealth and assets around you.
How are you managing what you are managing?
Stewardship Is Management of The Resources Given To You
Furthermore, our job and our responsibility are not to steward the resources that are not given to us. Management is not ownership, nor is it control, and the sooner we get that as a church, and especially Stewards (Givers), for whom the ROI in Stewardship is bonkers disproportionate, the sooner we will quit having the stupid effects that manifest from controlling and dictating resources. Take that, William H. Gates III, thou cankerous kakanthropist!
Stewardship is not management of the resources that are not give to you.
It’s not about screwing up the Servant (the atmosphere and the weather patterns) and blocking out the Exhorter’s impact on the planet by spraying ANY FREAKING THING, NO MATTER HOW “SAFE” IT IS.
The second you start managing resources that are not yours, like thrones, or weather patterns, or money, or emotions, or members of a church under your apostolic oversight (which is a satanic contradiction of terms, apostles do not oversee or cover anything), or networks, or families, or nations (the President is not a king)…is the second junk gets Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.
On one level, Stewardship is accomplishing someone else’s agenda with someone else’s resources.
However, let’s boil it down a bit further.
Stewardship is using given or possessed resources to accomplish an agenda.
So, two things that every Steward (Giver) must answer for themselves, in the context of the Cardinal Virtue of Walking By Faith.
Whose resources are currently in your hand?
Whose agenda are you accomlplishing?
What Resources?
Everything that we have, from the breath in our lungs; the money in our pockets; the books on our shelves; and the knowledge in our brains, minds, hearts, reins, and spirits; to the relationships with our friends, to the bit of creation with which we interact, to the skills in our minds and hands and the understanding we have in both our spirits and souls are all resources. And we are managing each a vast pool of talent and garage full of tools and resources.
Whose Agenda?
Whose agenda are you fulfilling? If you can accomplish the King’s agenda while simultaneously blessing one or more people or creation or time in so doing, whether or not those people see your actions as a blessing, then youu will have accomplished much.
Couple All This With….
Righteous communication…
How did Denethor, son of Ecthelion actually die?
Read the books….seriously, Return of the King, Chapter 7: “The Pyre of Denethor”
“‘Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death,’ answered Gandalf. ‘And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death.’ Then passing through the door he took Faramir from the deadly house and laid him on the bier on which he had been brought, and which had now been set in the porch. Denethor followed him, and stood trembling, looking with longing on the face of his son. And for a moment, while all were silent and still, watching the Lord in his throes, he wavered.”
“Then suddenly Denethor laughed. He stood up tall and proud again, and stepping swiftly back to the table he lifted from it the pillow on which his head had lain. Then coming to the doorway he drew aside the covering, and lo! he had between his hands a palantir. And as he held it up, it seemed to those that looked on that the globe began to glow with an inner flame, so that the lean face of the Lord was lit as with a red fire, and it seemed cut out of hard stone, sharp with black shadows, noble, proud, and terrible. His eyes glittered.
“‘Didst thou think that the eyes of the White Tower were blind? Nay, I have seen more than thou knowest, Grey Fool. For thy hope is but ignorance. Go then and labour in healing! Go forth and fight! Vanity. For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched. All the East is moving. And even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up Anduin a fleet with black sails. The West has failed. It is time for all to depart who would not be slaves.’”
from The Return of the King by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Chaoter 7: The Pyre of Denethor
After these things, Denethor takes the palantir and jumps headlong into the funeral pyre.
He was corrupted because he allowed his communications with the palantir to become corrupted by the tempting of Sauron and as a result, his capacity to hear people’s hearts rightly became corrupted. He was a Steward who wished to become a Ruler.
Givers, also named Stewards, your portion is to release the revelation of wise and skillful management without being fleeced and taken advantage of by hucksters (which are a dime a dozen) to the house of the L-rd and the Bride of Christ.
There is a life-giving agenda that can only be accomplished by the Stewards of the Realm of Messiah, and they have to teach skillful handling of communications media and sound in order to help hearts be heard and fine print be seen.
Denethor failed at his job of communications, holding a device of communication.
Will you fail? I dare say NEVER!
I encourage you Givers to KEEP POUNDING AND KEEP RUNNING IN RIGHTEOUS COMMUNICATIONS with the tools of communication the King has given you.
Your forté is skillful and subtle. To teach people a gentler, more well-timed touch and word. Kindness and gentler touches.
It is no coincidence that Arthur’s Teaching of the Giver in Redemptive Gifts of Individuals was with a lighter touch.
Everything Giver is with a lighter touch.
So, take this important principle, gang, and especially you Givers/Stewards and marshal those skillful words and touches.
Sometimes, the L-rd wants to heal something sovereignly.
Sometimes we have a broken wrist or a gimpy foot or we are blind in an eye
And those are for the glory of G-d to be demonstrated.
And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
John 9:2 (ESV)
And expecting someone to function normally with a compromised wrist or foot or eye is going to eventually breed futility.
The L-rd wants to heal those.
But sometimes we are faced with a problem where we have a muscle that is atrophied from disuse.
And the L-rd expects us to engage in intentional behavior and to begin the process that will eventually make something happen. But for that to happen, we must do something besides waiting for His intervention.
We are, after all, engaged in a partnership with the King.
Our portion and responsibility are to test situations so that we may discern which is the flavor of a situation.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2 ESV
So, gang, what is going on in your situation?
And what is your portion?
A Caveat
I realize some may not be able to hear His voice for whatever reasons. And for those, I would suggest partnering with someone you trust who CAN hear and can help you and will walk and lean into the the problem of hearing with you.
TRIGGER WARNING: Victims of abuse and sensitive or wounded minds may be offended here.
Some people have already decided in their minds what they want this post to say, and so they might be doing the usual exercise of listening in order to construct a strawman based on what they think I am going to say, in order to knock it down.
So, for those who have made up their mind, you may move from this post to the next, or if you want to skip the offensive segment, then skip the following segment and move to the third segment.
Passages That Will Trigger Some
So, for a contextual overlay, let me requote a couple of passages.
Then I said, “woe is me, for I am undone.”
Isaiah 6:5
Possible way of translating this
Then I said “Holy shit! I am going to die!”
Or Ezekiel 23
“The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled. Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. “Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted. She did not give up her whoring that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her. Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her. “Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust. When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses.”
Ezekiel 23:1-20 ESV
Verse 20, to say nothing about the profane way the rest of chapter 23 was written
Who were hung like horses and who ejaculated the same way…
And Paul, this time without the first transation
As for those who are agitating you, I wish they would cut their penises off
Galatians 5;12
And in another place
“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as shit, in order that I may gain Christ”
Philippians 3:8 ESV
And let’s not forget that Baal was in the words of Elijah might have been taking a shit (1 Kings 18 can actually read like that), among other places, and Redemptive Gift Prophets like Elijah, and Exhorters were not know for their flowery, G-rated, sarcasm-free speech).
What the Song of Solomon Is Really Saying And How It May Set the Tone For Some Marriages
To say nothing about how raw the Song of Solomon actually reads, for all you allegorical types. Dew and dripping with myrrh and liquids in the Song are references to sexual fluids. And while the types and analogies of Scripture are at play in Song of Solomon, due to Ephesians 5, that does not supecede that the Song is a picture of the heights of intimacy between husband and wife, and it is really graphic. The “mountain of myrrh” is something the woman is saying about the man, and I will leave it at that.
The Real Point of Colossians 3:8
Paul was not saying get rid of the four-letter words from your mouth.
Paul was saying get rid of speech that abuses others.
That will be different for different people.
Our job, when we connect with others, is not to inauthentically put on a front to them, but rather is to be authentic. If that means some do not speak with four-letter words, then that is fine, and no I will absolutely not entertain a debate about whether or not that can be done.
The fact is that people need to learn how to be real and honest and sincere, because this generation can point out a fake believer 35 miles away. I do not care if you can clean up your language one whit, if you are still coming home drunk off your ass, and lying about everything else, and gaslighting everyone that you live with.
The problem is not our mouths, but the problem is our mouths, and it is not “keep away from this list of words that are contraband”.
We have enough issues with Christians trying to protect their reputations by avoiding certain words while also running in the direction of deception, abuse, gaslighting, and covering up rape, mistreatment, offense, and every other foul tarpit.
Our capacity to execute in the kingdom will be proven by the fruit of what we preserve.
If my sons or daughter tell the truth and they happen to voice their frustration by occasionally using a word, not to abuse but because they are frustrated or angry or dealing with injustice, but they never stops protecting the widow and the orphan and the fatherless boy who does not have a man in his life to show him what it means to be a kingdom man, then I sure better have the balls to coach them to a better place in all things and bless them for doing the right thing.
Now, where this turns troublesome is where the language turns abusive, and me and 100% of my friends and colleagues know when the language has turned the corner from frustration to abuse.
But voicing frustration and abusing people are two different things.
Paul and the balance of Scripture were vastly more concerned with the abuse factor than they were about whether one had successfully managed to avoid every bad word on the checklist.
Gang, it is time we do the same.
If we avoid the cuss words but run headlong into telling lies, weaving webs of deceit projecting an inauthentic image, and gaslighting others, we have royally screwed up.
So, as you are working with your kids, make sure you keep the holy checklist to a minimum and coach them to a place of being a whole man or a whole woman.
We need more of those whole people running around.
And we need more authenticity.
And we need fewer legitimacy crutches of “I am legitimate because I avoided all the bad words.”
You can walk around with a hundred gold-plated crutches, but that does not make you any less of a cripple.
Just some raw and open thoughts as I work at making my speech more fathering and less abusive myself.
And for Christ’s sake, let’s lay off the sanitizing of Scripture because we are embarrased in its portrayal of all things messy.
When the Holy Spirit touches human flesh, things are bound to get messy.
Beloved, I would like to invite your spirit forward to treat with me in the name of Yeshua.
Spirit, listen to the word of G-d for you for today.
And G-d said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Genesis 1:3 ESV
Spirit, one of the first things that the L-rd created was light, preceded only by time, matter, the laws of science, and sound. Light is necessary to see, and not just to see partially, but to see in fullness. In order for us to possess birthrights, we must be able to see rightly, see really, and see fully.
G-d is the light, and we are the light, whether or not we acknowledge it. Spirit, you may have felt like a failure or a faulty, reprobate sinner, but sinner you most certainly are not. Father does not look at us with such a lens as to only see junk and garbage. Rather, he sees the glorious light of His that He desposited into human vessels and He sighs a sigh of relief and says, “Yeah!”.
It is good, and you, the whole person, are good. As I write this blessing in Block format, I remind you, spirit, incessantly that you are a chip off the Old Block, not the block that is the Father of Lies, but the Block that is the Father of Lights.
The Sons of G-d are Heavenly Hosts, and they are made of light, and spirit, you are made of light.
Bioluminescent, spirit. You were made to be life-giving light.
And in a zillion facets, hues, tones, expressions, and manners, you, spirit, and your compatriots, fellow sons of the L-rd of the Lights, were each made to contribute several threads of the fiberoptic tapestry that is the Kingdom of Love.
You, spirit, and your compatriots are the fiber optic equivalent of the Bayeaux Tapestry. You are fullness of workmanship and a full expression of His love, even when you think you are most broken.
So, I bless you, spirit, to SHINE HIS LIGHT, not merely through effort of your own, but through cause and effect, and through allowing Him a place to shine through you and in you. I bless you with the stubborn persistence to shine and be who you are even when you are broken. A light shines because it is light. It does not have to work to shine or make light. It is light.
Spirit, you are also light, and you are a light in the world. You don’t have to manufacture something that you think is fake. If you will be who you are, then shining will be the most natural thing for you. Just as these lights on my LED keyboard were designed to shine as I press the keys and they engage, because they do not know how not to shine, so you also do not know how not to shine. Trying to teach yourself not to shine, spirit, is absolutely foreign to you and it does not feel right.
I bless you to shine always, and shine everywhere, and shine like bronze.
I bless you with the capacity to shine even when you are feeling hopeless.
“Let your light so shine before men” means “allow or permit your light to shine”. It takes no effort to allow you to shine because shine is what light does. But it takes all sorts of effort to block a light from shining.
I bless you spirit, with a deep and far-reaching shine, a shine that pushes back the demonic darkness that is a twisting of G-d’s purpose for the darkenes He brings.
I bless others to see truth more clearly because you shone, spirit.
I bless you with the revelation that your Father is not the Father of Darkness, but the Father of Lights, and because He is Your Father, you are therefore by definition, light.
I bless you with all these things, spirit, in the name of Yeshua.
Beloved, I would like to invite your spirit forward, this time to attention, and though I am not a drill sergeant, this blessing might be a bit more on the proactive side of things. And that is okay.
Spirit, I would like for you to join me for a few minutes. Spirit, if you will, listen to the word of G-d for you for today. As much as what I am about to say might sound like home to you, it’s not about home. It is about the journey.
G-d said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the G-d who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
Genesis 35:1 ESV
Arise and Go
Spirit, Qum, lechu. That’s Hebrew for “get up,” or “arise,” and “walk”. We have an excursion. Jacob’s life at this point was not about sitting on his keister and duff and allowing G-d’s purposes to come to him, because there were plenty of enemies surrounding him. His sons Simeon and Levi (the Prophet and the Teacher) had just gotten done making a mess of his relationships with the land of Shechem, after what Shechem had done to their sister. Jacob’s apparent refusal to deal in justice on behalf of his daughter led to the circumstances where his sons had to fix things, and it cost them.
Spirit, arise. Kum. Your perspective in this season is about to change, as is your geography, but only if you want them to change. G-d can give you the vision, but you have to move. Lechu. It is time to get the blood flowing into your legs as you see out the new thing Father is about to do in you.
It is not about sitting and letting life happen to you, letting it pass you by. It is, in this season about minding the gap and jumping aboard the train whereever the L-rd is going to see it.
Spirit I bless your reaction time to be speedy and full of vitality.
To Bethel
Spirit, you need vision, and open access to heaven and to see what the King is doing on your behalf.
In order to accomplish that, you MUST be seated in the right place in order to receive. You must go to the right piece of land, buy it, no matter if that land is in the People’s Republic of California (which is severely hurting after the gang-raping of the 1840’s), or if that land is on Manhattan Island, or the mountains of Bethel. It might mean that you have a journey to a land that is not in alignment with the current nature of your current set of resources. You might have to liquidate your current set of assets and change them out to a diferent set of resources.
I bless you with the willingness to go where you need to go, and I bless you with the skill to initiate trades into the resources that will suit your location.
Dwell There
Spirit, Jacob was not sent to Bethel to merely have a worship service and move on, but rather to live on and get used to the flow of the land, which was radically different than Aram Naharaim. The land was designed to become his home. And, spirit, the land of Bethel was made to feed Jacob’s spirit repeatedly, just as it had fed him in Genesis 28:11-22). He was made for that land to unpack vision and a purpose for the remainder of his life.
Spirit, I bless you to move to and dwell in the land Father wants for you in this season, and I bless you to receive from and give to the land the things Father has in that exchange. I bless you to expand and your vitality to grow.
I bless you to have the depth of well to draw from as you begin to dwell on that land where you belong, and to find in the Father’s presence, your belongingness, and in the presence of Jesus, your worth, and in the Holy Spirit, your competency.
Make An Altar
Spirit, when you get home to the piece of land where you belong, I bless you to make an altar to the L-rd. And I bless you to celebrate the L-rd’s purpose in creating you and hardwiring you for greatness. I bless your competency and your dominion. And I bless you to know that you have a place along each season of your journey where you belong.
I bless you to not neglect the gift of G-d that is in you from conception, from the new birth, and from the laying on of hands. I bless your altar and place of dedication to the King to not be corrupted or disrupted by any scheme of the enemy, and that when the enemy attempts to assault you at the altar, that the L-rd would thunder against him and all of his schemes.
I bless you with a deep revelation of the Holy Trinity and the Divine Council as you spend time meditiating in His presence.
Escape From Esau
Spirit, you cannot pursue your path fully, nor produce your G-d-ordained product for the kingdom, so long as you are allowing yourself to be subject to the spirit of jealousy. The lane, dear heart, will not be straight so long as you jealousy is permitted a place at your table. I give you permission to rout jealousy completely, spirit.
Truly, truly, I bless you to remember the L-rd’s former deliverances from the hand of those who have flowed against you in the spirit of jealousy. I bless you, spirit with comprehensive protection from Adonai Tsevaot, the L-rd of Hosts, and from Adonai Echad, the L-rd who is One, and the Father of the Heavenly Lights, which are the Hosts of Heaven, and the Father of the L-rd of Hosts, Yeshua ha-Mashiach.
Spirit, I bless you with deep peace, and I bless you with a strong and well-callibrated plumbline that helps you not take the bait of deception.
I bless you not to succumb to the temptation to throw a wet towel on yourself, limit yourself, corral yourself, edit yourself, emasculate yourself, or engage in the abominable practice of pharonic circumcision to your vitality and your fullness just because others cannot handle you, spirit.
Father can handle you, and your shipmates can handle you. The junk theology cannot handle you though. So I bless you with your hands being taught to war and your fingers to battle.
Zero Tolerance For the Deception That Takes Advantage of the Open Door Created By Jealousy
SPIRIT, I WOULD EXHORT YOU WITH THE FOLLOWING
It. Is. Written.
DO NOT BE DECEIVED
Every single good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, the Father Who Does Not Change, in the way shifting shadows ever change.
In Brilliant, real-white, opalescent light, sitting on the infinitely-colored-and-yet-Agean-Azure-Sapphire Throne between the infinitely-eye-laden wheels-within-wheels with sight in all direction. He is the Kaleidoscope Superior. And He provides the right, multi-faceted lenses, cut perfectly so you can see exactly what you need to see in sequence, as the colored chips of His polyvareigated wisdom and glory fall right into place right into sequence, in perfect alignment without a violation of your free will, as in the mystery of the syncronization between his sovereignty and your free will, there is an perfect enmeshment of light and truth.
Spirit, I bless you with the revelation that, even thought He is sovereign… He is not in control… And does not always get what He wants in the culture…
But, spirit, with you, as you partner with Him and hear what He wants to do, and it blesses you and you partner with it, and walk in agreement with it, may the light fall into place where He wants it, and may you be enlivened to action and to causes that will leave the kingdom effects in place, so that, at least with you He does get what He wants.
I bless you, spirit, to value everything that He values, and that fully includes the good things He has placed in you.
And I bless you to refrain from damning yourself in ways and areas where He has not.
And above all of this, I bless you spirit with the revelation that He is happy and pleased with how He made you, even when the Calvinists who demand a whipping boy for all of their junk doctrine of the condition of believers do not. I bless you to receive Father’s approval ESPECIALLY when dour-faced, piss-and-bleach-guzzling, jealous believers do not approve.
I bless you spirit, with the revelation that Father loves what He sees when He looks at you, and He laughs with you and helps you to ascend to the place where His blueprints are. I bless you with an enjoyment rather than a self-flagellation of your identity, because spirit, He made you, designed you, and hardwired you as you are, whether Prophet with your high-strung emotion and cranky attitude toward unrighteousness, or Servant with your knack for helping everyone, or Teacher with your Anchor truth, slow gait, and FREAKING AWESOME PLACE OF SAFETY, or Exhorter with your breathtaking revelation and breathless pace of horizontal human relationships, or Giver with your wealth of gathering resources and being able to discern the pith of a situation, or Ruler/Judge/Deliverer, with your capacity to build an empire with a skeleton crew and do much with few imperfect resources, or Mercy with your touchy-feely Ethereal affection and intimacy and erstwhile whimsy and bouts of meloncholy.
Every gift that comes from the Father of Lights is both good and perfect, even those gifts that seem hard and come with a high responsiblity, and even those gifts that may seem like they are causing pain. I bless you with the skill to parse out between the pain that comes from the clowns and the enemy, and the pain that comes as a gift from the Father to refine you.
I bless you with His light, love, and pleasure in your hunting for your right path, your right lane, and your right adventure. I bless you will all of these revelations in the name of Yeshua ha-Mashiach.
