In the Torah, the process for returning a leper back to the full community was an involved and multi-step process. It speaks to the celebration of one who has been cleansed.
In much of the modern-day church, the process of restoration is very stripped down, and there is very little in the way of process.
Many times, we come of the law and because we have one or several preachers’ voices yelling in our ears “you are not under the law but under grace” we our of respect to their vehement overapplication of Paul’s counsel, ditch several books’ worth of good teaching, reproof, correction, and training in rightousness, and instead we, with that ditching of counsel, we also have a radically stripped-down version of moving someone, who was separated from the community, back into the community. Our salvation mechanism by which others become entertwined with a household of faith, Roman Catholics, Anglicans Orthodox, and other high-church traditions excepted, has become a community-minimal-investment, five minute prayer at an altar with little deliberate celebration in the life of the church.
Frequently, anything that is more than this is treated as a nusiance by the church because we are not under the law but under grace, and so we do not have much material from which we pull real celebration of someone’s addition to the church.
One area where the Catholics, Anglicans, Orthodox, and like sectors of the church get chatechism (discipleship and integration into the community) right is they draw out the process over the course of weeks and months, make much about someone’s first communion, involve the family, set out special clothing and rites for the occasion, and involve a number of individuals.
We we cut the law out, we cut out, for example, the passage on how lepers are reintroduced into the community.
In Torah, the leper was inspected several times, the priest made several pronouncements, a number of sacrifices were brought, the priest involved with his process left the camp and entered his space, blood was sprinkled on the leper seven times, cedarwod and hyssop were picked, birds were selected, and one of the birds was killed while the other bird was dipped in the sacrificed bird’s blood, that bird was released into the open field, and the leper was pronounced clean. His hair was shaved, and he was reintegrated back into the community.
Contrast that with someone who raises their hand to accept Jesus.
It is just left feeling a little thin.
And our modes for reconciling the backslidden believer are equally thin.
Gang, we have to do better. There could be more of a process that we engage in, so that our celebration more nearly matches that of the angels who rejoice.
I wonder, what that process would look like.
A celebration and a meditation and a retreat where a group of new converts takes away with a priest or rabbi or pastor to a place where they have connection of the deep truth of who G-d is as Father, who Jesus is as Husband, and who Holy Spirit is as Counsellor.
There has to be something more than what we currently do for many new believers.
Part of the Teacher Tribe. Deep, soulful eyes. Chewing the cud. Providing life-giving nourishing deep and solid food. Solid meat for chewing, and unbelieveably safe and tender hearted.
Responsibility…..
Who is going to take care of the mess they make?
Yes, I know. This is a pic from the Redwoods in Northern California, and no one needs to rake after them. But when you own a yard and a piece of land, there is an extent to which you are responsible for making sure the leaves that fall on your property do not kill the grass.
It takes responsibility that maybe you do not want to deal with, but when you deal with it, the results are that the grass that you spent a lot of time caring for and manicuring will grow more prolifically.
Raking the leaves is a really good picture of what the Teacher is made to do even if they want to select to not do it.
In an e-mail exchange with a mother in the faith, I recalled calling this principle, paralleling the Redemptive Gift of Teacher and the Third Head of Life, “not the sexiest principle”. Maybe it is because we do not think of “do the tasks that are assigned” as the most supernatural method in existence.
But it is critical for us to walk in. And bearing and breeding this principle into all of our people and practices as followers of Christ is critical for us to walk in all He has for us.
“So, David, when did this become attractive as a principle for you?”
A good question, and I will connect some dots for you here.
The Dots
Hewlett-Packard’s early history helped draw me to this principle.
I will explain.
There are several items, found in this teaching that explains a grouping of businesses, that some in the circles in which I run call Onyx Businesses, that at their best, foster environments where people can tinker and experiment and adjust to get their products to a place of perfection, AND, on a global scale, influence the culture of their business and others to a place where they become responsible for executing justice in an arena of society. These companies have qualities about them that parallel the Redemptive Gift of Teacher listen in Romans 12:6-8 and about which I have discussed at length here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Thinking about the passages in Scripture that parallel the Teacher in Sequence (being the 3rd in the fractal of 7), Genesis 1 brings out the Third Day, in which the dry land and vegetation is created. Being very simplistic, when the leaves fall in autumn, a mess naturally happens. Piles of leaves everywhere that can kill the grass if those leaves are left in place. So we take up the responsibility to rake up those leaves and bag them.
In Hewlett-Packard, David Packard and BIll Hewlett pursued a vision beyond the profit motive:
In 1949, David Packard, attended a gathering of business leaders. As the day wore on, Packard became increasingly frustrated with the parochial, small-minded perspective of his fellow CEOs. Peering down from his 6′ 5″ frame, the 37 year-old Packard voiced a contrary view: A company has a responsibility beyond making a profit for stockholders; it has a responsibility to recognize the dignity of its employees as human beings, to the well-being of its customers, and to the community at large. Packard later reflected in a 1964 Colorado College commencement speech: “I was surprised and shocked that not a single person at that meeting agreed with me. While they were reasonably polite in their disagreement, it was quite evident they firmly believed I was not one of them, and obviously not qualified to manage an important enterprise.”
Hewlett and Packard rejected the idea that a company exists merely to maximize profits. “I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money,” Packard extolled to a group of HP managers on March 8, 1960. “While this is an important result of a company’s existence, we have to go deeper to find the real reasons for our being.” He then laid down the cornerstone concept of the HP Way: contribution. Do our products offer something unique—be it a technical contribution, a level of quality, a problem solved—to our customers? Are the communities in which we operate stronger and the lives of our employees better than they would be without us? Are people’s lives improved because of what we do? If the answer to any these questions is “no,” then Packard and Hewlett would deem HP a failure, no matter how much money the company returned to its shareholders.
Most entrepreneurs pursue the question “How can I succeed?” From day one, Packard and Hewlett pursued a different question: “What can we contribute?” and thereby HP attained extraordinary success. This success, in turn, enabled them to invest even more in making a contribution, which produced even greater success, which led to increased contribution, which created even greater success. This virtuous cycle eventually enabled Packard and Hewlett to personally contribute at levels far beyond what they would have dared to imagine as young men. In 1995, Packard attended a dinner at Stanford University. Former engineering dean Jim Gibbons mentioned to Packard that, by his rough calculation, he and Hewlett had donated on a present-value basis as much to Stanford as Jane and Leland Stanford had given to fund the university. As Gibbons related in the June 1996 issue of Stanford magazine, Packard showed something he rarely allowed: a moment of visible pride. It passed quickly, and all Packard said was, “That’s very interesting.” Later, upon his death, Packard bequeathed nearly all of his $5.6 billion estate to a charitable foundation.
From the forwaard to “The HP Way”, written by Jim Collins
If you see the capacity of the business to move beyond the profit motive to work with transforming and caring for their employees and the outside culture, then you would see some things that caused HP, as an Onyx (Teacher) company to shine.
We move from merely taking care of ourselves to getting married, having kids, establishing a profession, maybe leading a company, a church, a nation, an army, or a club, to expanding and bettering at least some part of society.
This is kingdom economy. Sustainable, responsible impact on something greater than ourselves.
Tinkering Creativity
One thing for which HP was known for, was hiring and retaining a workforce of tinkerers. There are stories of HP employees in the early days having side projects at home that they were working on, and that discretionary time is necessary for tinkering in order to increase overall tinkering. And with HP, who had access to various expensive tech tools, they would loan out those tools to their employees for brief periods so they could use them on their tinker projects at home.
That curious tinkering streak leads to perfection, which is the gift of a Teacher company, characterized many a Teacher company like HP. Rolls Royce was another example. Sir Henry Royce would take his engineers onto the beach and draw pictures and diagrams and they would figure out how to unpack a series of problems that led them to engineer automotive….perfection. In a Teacher company, the Product of Perfection has a thousand different facets.
And creating tinkerers multiplies creativity, however expensive that process may be.
Employee Care Through An Environment of Trust
What that loaning out of tools and other manifestations of this behavior in the company cultured created was this: an environment of trust. The company sowed in trust to its employees, and in return, reaped much.
I will say it again, a bit differently now; HP, before the unions, cultivated an environment of trust.
In one story, someone had checked out a very expensive piece of equipment from the comapny for a tinkering project, and locked the cage that led to the tool room. Bill or Dave found out about this when they went to check out another tool, and, frustrated with the lock, cut the lock with a pair of bolt cutters, go the needed tool, and left a note saying something to the effect of “Do not ever lock this cage again.”
One other aspect of this in HP. They refused to make college students, who needed additional training, sign forms promising to work for the company for a series of years after HP paid for their training. That is, after trainning was paid for, the employees were free to leave and work for a competitor. The idea was that the company was so confident that employees would stick around based on how the company treated its employees that they didn’t need to create barriers to leaving.
This sort of thing is virtually unheard-of these days. And that trust sown, coupled with a competitive salary and benefits package, led to people who were loyal to the company, and that loyalty created a bulkhead so strong that unions were never an issue for the company as long as that culture was in place.
It was only when the trust eroded, and the responsibility shrank that unions encroached on the comapny.
Cultivating Responsibility That Effects Social Transformation
Some people hate the term social justice, especially because they hate a particular political party, but Isaiah and the L-rd of Hosts were zealous for justice being brought to various people groups in various seasons. And Teachers were made to skillfully execute and expound how to carry out a burden for a segment of society. Anisha Cruz, anyone (she knows of what I speak)?
The question I have to ask of each of you in the tribe, especially those who spend inordinate amounts of time asking G-d to intervene when you are doing disproportionately little to unpack what He has already given you is this. “Are each of the spheres in which you are involved increasing or decreasing as a result of your action. Not His action. Your action. Are you taking on responsibilities that you may not have been directly assigned by someone, but you know (through your zeal or burden) that you are supposed to take those burdens, causes, or assignments up and make an impact that will outlast you.
Teachers are one of the three generational gifts, along with Givers and RJD’s with the capacity to impact and reproduce at a greater rate in their descendants than the other four gifts (Prophet, Servant, Exhorter, and Mercy).
When you take on a measure (not in insane amount that you cannot handle, but rather an amount that is a STRETCH FOR YOU but you can manage with execution) of responsibility that was not yours to begin with, and G-d and man may not have assigned you that responsibility, but you see a facet of that topic to which the rest of society is blind, but is something for which you have a vision, then life will be the result.
And for those who choose the responsibility that leads to life, the one thing to the exclusion of many other good things, to them will belong some of the hidden manna.
Picture of Responsibility: Samuel
Samuel, who was not in the bloodline for the priesthood as a Levite, of the tribe of Ephraim, took up the priesthood after Eli and judged Israel.
He took on a responsiblity that was not his in his office of priest, because Eli had abandoned his office. And Samuel was what G-d had to work with.
Samuel judged Agag, because Saul refused to stepped into his office and responsibility to execute.
Responsibility is what leads to the unusual execution. Responsibility is the execution of mishpat where G-d has orchestrated it to happen. And we can partner with G-d to effect change.
Conclusion
So, in the area of responsibility, I have an assignment for us.
What is one thing that you want to happen that you are zealous for that no one has taken up the responsibility for, that you have the tools to execute on, and that you know will result in something that will increase the kingdom of G-d?
It could be that that one thing is one thing G-d has for you, because either no one else sees the problem, or, if they see it, they think “not it!”.
Just some thoughts here, gang.
Samuel’s responsiblity was not the priesthood by bloodline, but at that time G-d had no one else and Samuel was set apart.
Gang, it is time for us to stop making excuses as to why we are not doing the things.
And it is time for us to try some things out that may be a stretch.
The Principle of Responsibilty is the “last stand on earth” principle. (Relevant timestamp below is 2:30-3:30, and putting aside the politics of the 1964 election, focus on the principles here)
The Principle of Responsibility is the wall of the Kingdom that protects it from enemies foreign and domestic.
The Principle of Responsibility is the meat, heart, and bedrock that causes us to do something.
Take your stand, gang, and do your thing, whatever that thing that you may have avoided for days, weeks, months, or even years. You have a responsibility.
And realize that, in order to have life, you have to have the willingness and the testes or ovaries to fight. Jump into the fray and strap your sword or tool belt, and cause the battle to be joined.
If you wonder if what I have been saying about the Teacher and the Prophet holds any weight, start at 10:50 and move on from there. For quite a few minutes, he describes something that could have only come from America.
Speaker Gingrich describes “something that is very fundamental about the nature of America” (11:32). He launches into how the Wright Brothers handle their problem for learning to fly. Updrafts are continuous from Kitty Hawk. They had to use skill, and they had to take THEIR OWN resources with their own money and did something.
This poverty spirit in our country where we have the mindset of “I need, therefore, Uncle Sam, give me” is unnerving.
This mindset that big-government types have that wishes to keep the American public dependent on government agency counters the spirit that makes America what it is.
Note: I did not name parties, and my audience naming party names will kill the capacity of those who are in my audience to hear and receive something from this post.
Note again, the Wrights with little backing and finances and resources learned how to fly.
Somehow, when the floor drops out from under you when you have the resources, and you fail, and fail, and fail, and then eventually succeed, you have the capacity to anticipate, to experience, to savor, and to tell.
So, please, do not beg the government for what you think should be a permanent handout. Do not buy the lie being fed by the left and the right that you must be dependent on an all-powerful government who is supposed to fix your problems and keep you from failing.
You find out what your design is, and then you go and do whatever you need to do in accordance with how you are hardwired in order to succeed.
If you need help with figuring out your design, I will help as I have time.
Beloved, you were not made to depend on others.
Go, find what you were made to do. And be at peace, gang.
What if this season of COVID-19 is being used by the enemy to exploit our words, our gaslighting, our mistreatment, our maligning of one another in order to lay a sticky trauma bond in order to mess with our timeline and create artificial time or Luciferian time, and to pervert and twist and mess up and fray our three strands of time (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Life, Dominion, Honor)?
What if, instead of redeeming the time, we are instead defiling it with our words and actions?
What if, instead of responding to the L-rd, we are reacting to the enemy?
What if, instead of allowing the L-rd to set the agenda and calling out His goodness and His work in this, we are calling out how evil the enemy is and therefore allowing the clowns to set the agenda?
What if we are missing out on the opportunity to unpack this segment of time because we are merely reacting to what is happening in the natural?
I am not suggesting that we stop protesting and only return to being nice and sweet, because nice is not a fruit of the spirit.
I am suggesting that what is happening in the natural with our civil liberties is not the only thing negative happening now.
What if we are assuming socialism is just an election away when in reality it has already come?
What if we have been a socialist state for some time and many of the manifestations and superstructures of the police state were put in place by a conservative president?
What if it only took an invasion (Bull Run, 1861, or September 11, 2001), to get us to accept the control of a police state?
What if that superstructure was built upon a great society and an older deal with which we have grown comfortable?
What if we are speaking out about what is happening in the natural, but we have grown comfortable with a panic culture that was based on a spirit of fear in the supernatural environment, and we are just now getting to the point where we will be made uncomfortable by the spirit realm and we are just now walking in discernment?
What if G-d promised us we could walk with Him and we have for decades proclaimed we are comfortable without Him?
What if our attention span has grown so increasingly short that we cannot see beyond one election cycle, and therefore cannot see the Socialism in our current legislation, airports, cities, and military strategy?
What if the current wave of mistreatment of the US is based in a predatory foreign policy?
What if the military can get us used to their prevailing presence in our major cities?
What if there is no end in sight for our men and women in uniform and we are just getting used to the price of endless deployment?
What if Donald Trump presides in a nation that cannot see past the next tweet or the next election?
What if our attention span keeps us from interceding prophetically over the long-term because we have been distracted in our short attention span from election to election with clarion calls to 40 day fasts that only take into account an election, but do not take into account the long-term reality that in one way or another, we have already embraced socialism by turning away from our fundamental principles and embracing a domestic and foreign policy of safety at any cost?
What if we have been conditioned to believe abortion is the only evil, and that we have chosen to pay any cost, even if it means we embrace a culture that embraces death in other areas?
What if, in order to break abortion, we have to make a deal with Monsanto?
What if the promise of overturning a bad SCOTUS is actually a genetically-modified carrot that is a complete violation of His deisgn, and that we have gotten so used to trading one set of principles in order to have another in place, we have bargained the source of our light away?
What if the very thing we have feared happening in this nation has already happened?
What if the prophets of the prophetic movement who have shown to be accurate 13 percent of the time and that we are still getting our north star from concerning single elections turn out to not be hearing the voice of the L-rd from election to election?
What if our prophetic voices are not hearing the voice of G-d?
What if the enemy is, during the last 4, 8, or 12 years, while we willingly listened to televised debates over new networks that were full of the spirit of lewdness, the enemy sowed seeds of destruction while we thought we were sowing the seeds of democracy, and also, what if during that time, he set up surrounding tripwires behind our battle lines and all it will take is one wrong move to realize we have been set up?
What if we have been pointed in the wrong direction this whole time by a ruling charismatic class that has only heard the L-rd 13 percent of the time?
What if the enemy can set off a trip wire that traumatizes us and sends us back through a loop that is upstream of our healing and deliverance and keeps us stickily embedded in the curses we have spoken over time such that we are bound to time by the trauma we have collectively suffered.
What do we have to fear if I am wrong? Nothing
What do we have to fear if I am right? Nothing good.
And the priest who offers any man’s burn offering shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering that he has offered.
Leviticus 7:8 ESV
This is the only time the hide of the animal is mentioned as being gifted in the text of Scripture.
For me, this has stood out for a few weeks, and I have been pondering why the skin of the burnt offering?
What is being done here?
The whole offering is being offered to the L-rd, so why is the skin so special here to be singled out as a gift.
Skins turn to leather, which has a boatload of uses. Perosnally I love the smell of tanned leather.
So, let’s grab some commentators and see what they have to say.
Roy Gane mentions nothing about the skins (NIV Application Commentary). Richard Hess only mentions the fact of the skins transferring to the priest with no exposition as to why (Expositor’s Bible Commentary). Allen Ross, author of “Holiness to the L-rd: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus) mentions the L-rd took care of the practical needs of the priest in the offering. “Not only did they eat the meat, but they also received the skins. In addition to providing clothing for the families of the priests, no doubt a lively trade could have been sustained from the skins taken from the sacrifices. G-d takes care of those who minister thorugh the giving of worshipers.” There, in the sacrificial system instituted by Moses, is found “spiritual satisfaction [for] the worshiper and practical needs [for] the priest in service” (Ross, 176).
And finally, Jacob Milgrom says nothing as to the purpose of the hides, though he does mention it is passing, and talking about the volume of hides produced from personal burnt offerings, he menitons these all belong to the priests.
So What?
What is the purpose of the hides from the burnt offering.
Being left to speculate with my gut based on the rest of the text. I will note that the L-rd covered the first man and his bride with skins from a sin offering:
And the L-RD G-d made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Genesis 3:21 ESV
I wonder if the L-rd’s assignment of hides from the burnt offering to the priests was designed to be a perpetual reminder of his mercy to the first couple in the garden, a memorial of His mercy. And as we hand Him everything in that portion called the burnt offering in recognition of all He has done, as the children of Israel handed the L-rd the whole of the burnt offerings in regonition of His transplanting and sustaining the nation of Israel in Mizraim, perhaps it ws a reminder of the extent of His mercy in making sure the priests, and we by extension, as members of a royal priesthood, are covered, regadless of our behavior, perpetually by His mercy. The burnt offering is also the only offering that has to be executed morning and evening regardless of the state of Israel. The other offerings are only executed WHEN an event happens. The burnt offering, however, is mandated without respect to event. Therefore, baked into the process of the burnt offering is a picture of Father’s unfailing love toward us.
This is speculation, but it is speculation that makes sense.
Consider this today as you read the text, that His mercy and his love must always burn, and there is never a time when that fire does not burn out (Leviticus 6:13), and that fire is powered by the never-faiing burnt offering, morning and evening.
DISCLAIMER: You know, there are going to be some in my audience that, because of the Teacher and Researcher nature of some of them, are probably going to function as boo birds for this, making links to New Age, or Law of Attraction, or other things because I–and the supplier of the floral essences that I have begun to use–utilize terms like “vibration” and “frequency”. I have also long stated that some of my material and thoughts are a bit on the edge in the esoteric.
That is okay, because most of what I post on pretty much focuses on the text of Scripture and this carries a lot of weight with those who are Evangelical Christians, which form much of my target audience.
But I do look at, consider deeply, and ponder a lot that is a bit too out there for many evangelicals. And I do not share much of that, because our movement to deeper things in Christ, where the L-rd moves us from one level of deep to another level of deep often comes where He establishes a set of paradigms that we can handle, and then moves us into a larger or deeper paradigm which requires him to remove some “training wheels” off of our bikes.
This will likely be one of those deep-end things that might come across as New Agey to some. And for those who are concerned about that, I would recommend Disc 2 of a Teaching Series by Arthur Burk called MOHA (The Majesty of His Artistry) where he discusses Christians that open up yoga clinics in order to reach New Agers and witches.
Just saying that sometimes our means of reaching people gets stale and we need to embrace something that is part of our design that the crunchy church culture might look askew at so we can challenge that religious superstructure that some of us have come to depend on. And we might have to remind ourselves that because G-d was there first and G-d created all that is a frequency, and all that is light, and all the universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationships, He is well-aware of what happens in creation and what is utilized in various fields and the multiplicity of tools that are available to move us from one area of being into another area of being.
By the way, what follows is more of my personal point-of-view and I am not preaching this as “you have to swallow everything I say or else be branded a heretic”. I present these things for y’all my audience to mull over and either utilize or discard as you see fit.
And with that, let’s begin this review.
A Path To How I First Met Seneca and Her Company
About a 18 months to two years ago, I was in the process of moving my way through a group on Facebook that the owner of Freedom Flowers is also a part of. And somehow she chimed in that an interest she was looking at was cataloguing all the emotions in the book of Psalms in Scripture and considering which emotions were tied to the spirit and which emotions were tied to the soul.
And so, I chimed in that I was interested in collaborating with Seneca on cataloguing a spreadsheet of the emotions in the Psalms. That is currently a dormant project but it is still of interest to me, so I occasionally look in and read a Psalm for that purpose.
So, we got connected and I figured out that she owns a business that works with manufacturing what she describes as essences using various plant materials, which is something she has been doing since she was a kid, and she found a way to turn this passion into a buisness.
This is not the same thing as essential oils. If you asked for a brief rundown, go here.
At the point when I started connecting with Seneca, I was already transitioning from working exclusively with people as a pastor to working with land, which is a bit more esoteric.
However it works, I personally pick up on the emotions of most of the various pieces of land that I visit. For example, when I visited Cape Hatteras and the lighthouse, the land felt wounded because of the way the land has shifted and moved and how a mile’s worth of the treeline has been swept away due to currents of the Atlantic near the island of Hatteras have changed. So, I began responding by asking the L-rd to speak and to sing His love over the island.
I have two prominent trees in my yard at home, and they communicate after their own fashion to me. One is a Japanese Cherry and the other is a Tulip Poplar.
And this year, after I had planted my vegetable garden, I started by planting sunflowers. After they had popped up and begun to bloom, I was dealing with some negative memories pertaining to my late father, and I happened to wander out to the vegetable garden to do something (mowing or weed-eating I think), and when I went to stand in front of the sunflower, my emotions toward my father began to lighten. Something began to shift through my interaction with the sunflower. Cannot explain better than that.
Vibrations and Frequency: Please Do Not Shoot This Down
So, according to how this works, and you can do the research on your own, each member of the plant kingdom gives off its own frequency, and affects certain things. As certain medications (the lion’s share of which come from substances that were created on the Third Day, plants or green life of some sort) affect certain interactions in the body, so also plants function in a similar fashion. The research behind this is more than I can explain, but I can tell you from personal experience that it happens to work somehow.
Frequencies and vibrations affect the body all day long. And these frequency given off by the particular essence I have been using, when introduced into the body, shifts and realigns around the area of being able to work with paradoxes.
In my case, it also positively unearthed and helped me deal with a number of things pertaining to spiritual and emotional trauma that was generations old.
All because I introduced the essence which contained the material that resonated the frequency of the flower in question.
The Trial Posted to Facebook and The Review of Double Delight Rose
About a couple of weeks ago, Seneca posted somewhere that she was going to host a trial and wanted to know who among us struggle with some sort of paradox found in Scripture. Well, I have a few of those that I struggle with, but the most prominent one deals with the twin reality that we as followers of Christ are both sons and servants, and both realities are present at the same time. So, I said “sure, send me some of this essence as part of your trial”. The essence is called Double Delight Rose.
So, she sent me some, and the instructions call for it to take 4 drops 4x a day. So, I began taking it. And I am currently still taking it.
And not only have I begun to have a breakthrough on recognizing that I am treated as a son of the King, but I am also able to carry that and do stuff for the L-rd that He asks, serving him with the mindset of being both a son and a servant. That is, living as a son in Father’s embrace and doing the work that a servant would normally do without feeling like I had to do the work in order to maintain my position as a son. Rather, the work of serving flowed from the place in which the L-rd had already positioned me as a son.
In addition to this, the L-rd in this season has begun to push some generational strongholds to the surface so they can be dealt with, specifically rejection. My grandfather suffered from rejection from being abandoned by his blood parents. My father suffered from rejection as well. and I did. But something happened in the taking of this essence that has caused that stuff to be dealt with as well.
It strikes me, that given we have an electrical machine called the human body, and it runs at a certain frequency, that if we change that frequency, something else will also be affected.
As the adage goes, “the proof in the pudding is in the eating.”
My take is, something is either going to work or it is not. And staying in our dysfunction is not working, but when we have tried everything and nothing works, the new thing on which we risk a trial period may not be better than staying exactly where we are.
So, my tl;dr review for Double Delight Rose is as follows: outstanding for helping to resolve my particular paradox.
And while there may be some flakiness to some of the material out there in the interwebs as it pertains to vibrations and frequencies, that does not wholesale negate everything that is given as a possible solution that utilizes frequency or vibrational language.
I have had a block in the paradox and rejection arenas, and in the last 2 weeks I have begun to actually and really address the blockages in a big way. Seneca’s essence has helped as a really solid tool for dealing with that and getting to, as her passion is, a place of solid freedom.
As a side note, I checked out her other essences, given my wife and I are going to become regular customers of hers, and I stumbled across the Sunflower essence, and guess what it helps the user deal with?
Father issues.
Just….wow…..exactly thing thing addressed by my sunflowers.
So I have ordered that essence and a couple of others.
So, that is my fuller review.
Seriously, skeptics, give her a try and see if there is anything to her work.
It was really worth my time, especially given I have seen a bit more of a release to write and act more in accordance with my design, and I handle seeming contradictions week in and week out.
If you have further questions, I will be happy to field some of those myself as best I can, because I get some of the more esoteric stuff that seems weird, and may be able to put it in terms that are less weird.
A number of people have speculated on how senseless it is for vandalism, theft, and destruction of property to occur, given these structures have often been instrumental for the betterment and edification of society.
And they often hurl observations like
“Real smart of you to destroy your own community.”
“How stupid can you be to loot and pillage and destroy that which is meant to help you?”
And I ask the following question:
“What real recourse do these men and women have?”
We have militarized the police, made certain of them untrustworthy, so much so that we cannot breath.
And we have made it so they cannot petition the government for a redress of greivances, especially in light of terrorist attacks.
What other recourse do they have?
If you wound an animal, it is going to write and destroy the nearest vulnerable thing, regardless of the sense it makes.
If you treat someone or a group of someones as totally subject to your whims, you should not be surprised when they engage in behavior that does not make sense.
A slave does not believe it has property, rights, an inheritance, a birthright, or a home.
Jack Frost said that each of us would either live like we have a home, or we would live like we do not have a home.
Gang, these people who are responding in this way in an unhealthy way are acting as if they do not have a home.
Just because the wars are over does not mean we have been delivered from slavery and our chains internally.
We have to lean, not into a flesh-and-blood father for freedom, but into our Heavenly Father for freedom. And we need to be damn sure we are helping those who are bound in a mindset of slavery to a place of freedom in the Father’s affectionate embrace.
Confession: what follows is one of my soapbox topics.
I really, really love reading about the nature of G-d as it is found in the Torah. There is so much that we do not skillfully tease out of the text because we think the only question we should ask is the grossly inelegant and broad-reaching question, “will doing this send me to hell?”. What I am going to say below can be summed up in one way of handling our life: namely the question we really might want to ask is something along the lines of, “ what does an abundant life of embracing and incarnating all of G-d’s principles look like and how fruitful will my life be in the context of embracing all He has for me.
I have a few friends who say that the New Testament abrogated the Tanakh and/or the Torah
Some say that because, in the Tanakh, the dietary laws and the clothing laws were a salvation issue, as were the moral laws dealing with adultery and homosex, we should delete the whole thing.
Others would suggest that G-d of the Tanakh was a cruel monster (Sodom and Gomorrah, stoning for sexual deviance, genocide of the Canaanites, etc.)
I would like to offer a brief response to a couple of these points.
I cannot answer that every question in the Torah is a question of whether or not those people who violated the Law in OT times went to Hell, or what the afterlife looked like. However, I will say that everything G-d said in the Law and the Tanakh has a present-day purpose. That is, the principles once violated, can lead to dangerous consequences in at least our temporal existence. Take the mixutre of fabrics. Don’t mix textiles, no cotton poly/blends, no crops mixed in fields, a field of wheat may have no corn in it, etc.
Two things. First, for the mixing of textiles; there is quite a bit of evidence that mixing materials leads to respioratory distress. This is not a law dealing with salvation or going to hell for wearing that smashing top you found at Gordman’s or Ross or on Amazon. Rather, this is a question of a cause-and-effect relationship.
Next, dealing with mixing fields. What was going on there? One of my takes out of many that presents itself is the idea of mixing essences. Namely, G-d likes the essences of things to be uniquely singular. He is zealous that your essence should be 100 percent YOUR essence, not mixed around with anything else or anyone else.
This is why marriage is so critical to Paul and others. He does not want you mixing light with darkness. He does not want two people who have divergent visions and designs for life traveling along two different paths mixing. When He designed you, assuming you are destined for marriage, He made you with the express intent that you would marry someone who is a complement to you though not divergent.
I had the unfortunate curse of marrying someone like that the first time around, and as a result, my first wife and I never really became one. There was never a full joining of purpose. This is why I specifically warn people aboutr marrying the first person that turns them on.
The end result is she controlled me, made me leave a fruitful season for a season of her control, and then ultimately our marriage ended with her cheating on me and both of us self-destructing.
G-d also intends you to marry someone of the opposite sex so you can be fruitful and multiply: so that you have a LEGACY!
And let us quit using the argument of the barrenness of some as an argument to advance sexually deviant relationships that violate Father’s design. It does not work like that.
Next, dietary laws. Leviticus 11. This is not a hell issue. Rather, there are reasons, medical reasons for many of those meats and foods being considered not kosher. One can starve to death eating rabbit, for example.
Again, the issue here is that whatever G-d said has uses and applications in current-day life. There are cause-and-effect principles that go into effect regardless of whether or not we want them to go into effect, whether or not we agree with the effects, and whether or not we are aware of the effects.
We have this mindset that takes the text of Scripture, and because we say it is infallible, we make every text carry equal weight and carry equal implications. And in that “G-d said it, I believe it, that settles it” mentality, we fail to cultivate skill in reading the nuances of the text and skillfully applying those nuanced applications where they are pertinent.
Our job is to look at the text, understand what G-d said to the original audience, understand what G-d is communicating to us, and to parse out heaven and hell implications from cause-and -effect implications.
The form of our worship, ecclesiology, diet, worship rituals, and clothing may not have heaven and hell implications, but we we ignore the concept of G-d wanting our essence being 100% our essence, we are going to have a harder time. To use the old adage “if you are going to be dumb, you gotta be tough”. Tranlsation, if you are going to willfully walk in ignorance of the cause-and-effects, or ourright reject those cause-and-effect relationships, then you are going to have to be tough enough to handle the fallout from violating principles.
Again, gang, Leviticus 11 is not a redemption salvation issue; it is a cause-and-effect issue.
And while some people may want to tell G-d what the form of human relationships should look like, violating his principles for relationships are going to make your life more difficult. Leviticus 18 does not care if you agree with the principles there for human sexuality, incest, beastiality, and the like. If you are choosing to ignore those principles, you will have to put up with the product of your choices. You do what you want.
And textiles and mixing fields, same things. You can ignore what’s written there, but there might be fallout from choosing to do or not do certain things.
The issue is not a salvation issue. It is a quality of life issue.
Nadab and Abihu chose to offer something the L-rd did not ask them to offer, and it cost them their lives.
The Sodomites and Gomorrites chose a lifestyle that polluted their land, and the cost was their lives and the freedom to live on that land that G-d gave them.
It’s not always about salvation, and we spend too much time, in my opinion asking how much we can get away with and still go to heaven, when really we should be asking what G-d’s best for us would look like, and what it would look like to flourish walking in sequence with G-d’s principles.
We indeed have this twisted idea that G-d is a tyrant with all these laws.
Further, for one final point, some also think that G-d’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Canaanites was G-d being a monster. Those same people refuse to read passages like G-d’s comment ot Abraham when He has given the Amorites a season of 4 CENTURIES to repent of their sin. And they also do not see G-d’s discussion with Abraham to spare the city for the sake of the righteous. Because of the rampant iniquity of the cities in the Jordan Valley, G-d chose a different plan. He removed the righteous from the city, and he handled the iniquity that polluted the land. Sexual sin in this case.
I think we have a drastic need to justify our rejection of G-d and we allow ourselves to be blinded to His mercy and grace and attempt to execute justice in both Testaments and in our midst.
G-d is not some bipolar monster. Rather, He is abounding in steadfast mercy, and expects way less than we think in the canon, and even in the Torah. He spelled out how he wanted to be worshipped, and Nadab and Abihu did something that He never asked them to do. Jephthah never asked G-d if G-d wanted him to sacrifice his daughter. he already had the favor of G-d, and like a jackass, he made a stupid vow in an attempt to buy the favor of G-d that HE ALREADY HAD.
Gang, I do not know if your perspective is twisted but I think that we need to really reevaluate whether or not G-d is truly mean-spirited, or if because we are choosing a place of rejection, we are just looking for an interpretation that synchs with our biases.
My job is to approach the text of Scripture (all Scripture, not just the ones I like) and allow Him to transform me from further darkness into greater degrees of His marvelous light.
We do not wrestle with flesh and blood. We wrestles with clowns, demonic entities.
There are going to be days when you engage in long-range warfare.
There are going to be days where you are WRESTLING.
It may be because the L-rd is wanting to develop other skills for you.
The L-rd has for you a full-orbed manual for doing the work of warfare and building.
There are some clowns you shoot, and there are some you pin into submission.
I bless each of you to see the progress you are making, even when that particular battle feels more sluggish or hard. I bless you to know when the L-rd is putting you through the paces of the basketball court, versus the football field, versus the wrestling mat, versus the weight room and the gym.
I bless you to discover which sport the L-rd is teaching you and I bless you further with the skillfulness, speed, and quickness to adapt.
“Blessed are the πραΰς , for they shall inherit the earth.”
Matthew 5:5 ESV
Eric Hatch pointed me to the following article, which provides a fascinating study.
I will note that war horses, and we, as followers with, our Shepherd were made for war.
“My anger is hot against the shepherds, “and I will punish the leaders; “for the L-RD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, “and will make them like his majestic steed in battle.”
Zechariah 10:3 ESV
A warhorse has to be poised. A war horse is a tank. A warhorse has to be able to handle all sorts of conflict and chaos and follow his rider’s instructions and lead and bit. A warhorse is powerful. And all of that power must be brought to bear and under control. When Paul writes the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23, contra the works of the HUMAN flesh, is a reference to the fruit that indwells and is cultivated in the human spiriti) is self-control. To have all that power under control, is to demonstrate meekness in the face of chaos.
This may not be your design, but this can become the result of plenty of training under the right rider. The right rider is in touch with his horse, and can direct them well and skillfully with a touch of the hair.
There are four types of touches in the world of horses, and this applies to humans. Get the analogy.
They are, in increasing order of severity, the touch that is felt in the hair, the touch that is felt in the skin, the touch that is felt in the muscle, and the touch that is felt in the bone.
Thanks to Joanna Lo for that analogy.
The L-rd works to handle us, as bruised, broken, and beaten as we may be, and as fright-filled as we may have grown over the years from woundedness and trauma, so that we respond to the hair touch. Gentle.
Meek.
πραΰς, gang.
Be at peace, knowing at some point, as the L-rd gets you used to a gentle touch, He will send you into battle to liberate others.
Be willing to allow him to remove the shackles of woundedness from you.
