Here is the kicker, gang. We can be so adept at knowing the written word of Scripture, which is a good thing, that we do not take the time to u spool and understand our own issues and weak spots and never seek to go on the adventure of sonship to unpack our design and find out our weaknesses and areas where we need to grow, especially in the area of our design.
It will usually take a well-rounded Prophet who is capable of seeing weaknesses to come to the table and teach us how to toss our boxes in the trash and show us what we are made of in order to help us move into a more healed place.
The question is, when the enemy comes with a situation we have not seen, will we sit back and allow ourselves get destroyed because we think we knew how things were supposed to be set up, or will we go back to Father, and ask Him to teach us while we sit at his feet in a new situation.
Too many are too familiar with “the way things are supposed to be”. Sonship, after we have gotten to know the heart of the Father, is all about unpacking design and learning how to creatively build and skillfully fight.
We receive revelation, but then we also develop tools.
And too many think, all we need is a little bit of Bible and that is enough. No, friends, we need to know Him and we need to know ourselves and grow not just with integrity of heart, but also skillful hands.
So, what are you going to do here?
It’s a learning curve to get beyond the book’s text and into using the principles to think and feel outside the box and grow in skill.
This is another chunk of the value an RG Prophet brings to the table.
And enough experience on receiving end of what it should not look like in several dozen facets.
First marriage destroyed through adultery.
Second marriage lost due to interference from control, jealousy, and witchcraft because I work with survivors of Satanic Ritual Abuse.
January 14, 2005 to April 15, 2013: 3013 days.
April 19, 2014 to July 19, 2022: 3013 days.
And both marriages had many lessons to impart to me, and these treasures were not easily excavated. It was a crucible for the silver, and a furnace for the gold…
And I would like to offer the following bits, so thank you to those friends who enabled me to see some facets of a number of right ways of looking at this topic, and I would like to share things that maybe do not get enough daylight.
For those who ask if I am going to touch the egalitarian-complimentarian-headship debate, well, we will see.
But allow me to lead it with a couple of lines of thought….
Three Threads
Thread 0 offered, then set off to the side: Regardless of how I interpret Ephesians 5:21 followed by verses 22ff (I am very much of the view that in the context of the submission that all believers offer one to another, a wife still has a further place to submit in some way to a husband to loves her as Messiah loves His body), we are missing some critical ideas in this topic, because we look at roles, without looking at birthrights.
And design….
Women are not merely to play like they have hammers and swords….
Rather, they are to use them.
Thread 1:
A woman and her sword, once separated, leave her vulnerable in ways she should not be made so.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the L-RD G-d had made. He said to the woman, “Did G-d actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but G-d said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For G-d knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like G-d, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3:1-6 ESV
The chief clown, Lucifer (I call demons “clowns”) came to the woman with her man and spoke to the woman.
For those who say “the man should have spoken up”, I am going to stop you right there.
The attack of the clowns frequently shows us an indicator of design. Husbands and wives are made as foxhole partners. Period. Get that one into your spirit. I implore you. Wrestle with the junk that fights against both of you, and woman of G-d, pick up your sword.
Or your tent peg.
Healed Exhorter/Servant combos in action…
The Other Two Points:
At this point, the issue is not one of submission, but of dominion, and refusing the victim spirit. Also, it is not about blame-shifting, but about fighting together against the real enemy. The real question is not are you loving and submitted to one another. The real questions (and from this, submission and love will flow, as well as a whole host of other dynamics) are these:
“Are you together learning from Father how to build; and how to fight?”
“Not only that, but are you aware of the raw materials you have together with which to build in a creative fashion?”
Point 2: Building
I pose these questions to y’all, gang, because there are times when the Father is not going to give you directions to obey, but is rather going to turn the two of you warriors loose in order to make choices together about what to build creatively.
First, in the early days of your relationship, you are going to struggle because you are going to feel like there is no user manual for building. So you are might desperately struggle with working together as you slap something together because you feel like you have been thrown together with little training. And then, as you grow together, working with one another, synching with one another, you are going to get more intentional about what you are doing, and as you grow more intentional, you can begin to incorporate strategy, and timing, and understanding, and pacing, and wisdom, and you will get able to fold together intimacy with one another together with skill in building.
Slaves obey. Sons create.
Create and build together. There is something there that can be done. He wants to partner with you to enable and endue and empower you two to build.
Point 3: Fighting
Second, to fight together.
Are you also aware of the real enemy that you should both be protecting and covering one another from? Do you have your lover’s six? Can they count on you to protect them and to give the enemy an earful of the Word of G-d Himself, and a faceful of His shekinah on their behalf?
“Having done all, to stand….” As Anne Hamilton has said, have you allowed the Bridegroom Warrior to kiss you into your armor? And that is something husband and wife were made to do in tandem with He who is Adonai T’Sevaot.
Again, as with the building part, you might find yourself clumsy as you work to direct your assaults away from your mate, whom the enemy will tempt you to attack as the source of all your problems, and against the real enemy. This is why you should exercise plenty of descretion when choosing a mate. And if you already have one, then work the best with what you have. This is not a decision to rush into, but rather to wait until the markers and evidence that this will be a redemptive relationship, one in which you can accomplish more redemptively together than apart. When you have the markers there, then a lot of the marriage prophecies and dependence on other people saying “thus saith the L-rd” can fall by the wayside.
Are you a safe place for your mate, and a terror to the enemy that assaults them?
Are you a confidant?
Do you hold secrets back one from another?
Can you share the little things together?
Do you have the common interests on some level?
Is there a cause?
The biblical text that gets overlooked, and I think the King Jimmy puts this best. Matthew 19:5
For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
It’s not about the love and submission (shorthand for the Ephesians 5 text) at this point….
Go beyond the elementary principles to the roots of those things which give life to a marriage.
And at the root of every marriage, let me CAPS out three words in Matthew 19:5.
FOR THIS CAUSE….a man will leave his parents and be joined to his wife….
You have to have a cause….there has to be a reason….a purpose….for the connection….
What’s your cause…..
What’s your reason for wanting to wake up with this man, this woman…
As David said before he fought Goliath….”Is there not a cause?”
Do you have a reason? Is there something you do incredibly well redemptively with this woman that you do not do with another? Or this man?
The cause will show you what to build and what your fight is.
And are there connection points between you and she….or you and he…..?
And is there enough diversity and difference between the two of you to make things interesting.
And is there enough of a draw beyond the superficial that you will last?
I cannot believe I am sharing this cut…..
Oy,
Thanks Tiffany….
Before You “I Do”
Though, a man should be confident enough in his own identity and authority on some level BEFORE HE STEPS INTO A RELATIONSHIP BEFORE IT TURNS INTO MARRIAGE that he will not have married a harpy or yielded his authority and is asking a woman to lead him or make decisions for him OR TO OTHERWISE GIVE HIM HIS LEGITIMACY…
Conversely, a woman should be confident enough in her own identity and authority on some level BEFORE RELATIONSHIPS AND MARRIAGE HAPPEN that she does not marry either an abusive or controlling jerk or a passive, milquetoast man, or an immature manchild who will not listen to her voice when she speaks to him in fullness, honesty, and rawness.
There has to be not merely the biblical text triteism of mutual submission, but also some level of mutual vulnerability, and both parties walking in partnership with Messiah, and willing to work through the tough issues, especially of growth, healing, deliverance, and love with one another.
And G-d did not say we had to be completely healed before we step into relationships or marriage. Nobody in Scripture, including Messiah who was fully human was fully whole without emotional issues as a human before stepping into relationship.
What G-d looks for is willingness and vulnerability, not absence of wounds or scars. The three together of y’all, working through things and journeying on this adventure…G-d looks for people who will just walk with Him and put Him at the center and forefront of their lives.
And couples who will walk together with Him, protecting one another.
It really means something when we war together against the enemy of our souls. And instead of the usual dynamics, we look at life between two battle buddies, two partners in crime, two companions in this eternal adventure.
And we engage with one another without passive/agression.
Some couples choose the way of sarcasm, and that works for them.
The real clincher here though is, are you together on close to a similar page about the L-rd, and the enemy?
And the next question that I would ask is, is there a spirit-to-spirit connection between you and your beloved, because so much happens in that space, when the portions of your spirit, and the portions of your beloved’s spirit actually interact and mingle.
It’s not just about being one flesh. It’s about the joining of spirits and the connection of journeys so that things flow in alignment.
Gang, Mercies are some of the most dangerous warriors to the kingdom of darkness of all the gifts, especially when they are healed and well-trained. This is why, when you can pour love and dignity and confidence into a Mercy and help them see their design, they will flower and bloom and create nightmares for the enemy.
Those who have been healed after having been wounded are so incredible effective, regardless of whether or not they are divided.
Just some thoughts for this afternoon for y’all.
See you all in class this evening, those that wish to come.
When the Father shows you where He is taking you, He also might show you chunks of the process involved in sustaining you there.
It takes a process, and not just a movement to get to a place.
G-d may actually take you a place, due to His faithfulness to keep His word, where you had adequate time to develop the skill, but did not allocate that time to develop that skill necessary to sustain you in that place.
If you will not only ask the Father for your destination in this season, but also the willingness to embrace the character necessary to flourish in fulfillment in this season, He will gladly coach you.
But if you do not, then you may get there, but because the process was bypassed, you may not last there.
Blessing
So, beloved, I invite your spirit to be present. Spirit, if you will, the following is not issued as a command or an order, but as an imploration and an exhortation to listen. I plead with you to hear the word of El Shaddai for today:
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let ENDURANCE have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Jas 1:2-4 NAS95
Beloved spirit, you were made to occupy a place of leadership in the partnership with the soul. And in that place, you were made to receive from the Trinity the resources necessary to not merely survive, but also to thrive in a place, whereever ______ goes. They have gifts, a design, callings, and aspirations, but those aspirations that flow from their design will not be sustainable without the process that galvanizes _______ and enables them to stick it out in a place when circumstances get difficult.
Testing…trials…these are part of our portion that lead us to a place of endurance in faith. They build the hardiness of sinewy, life-strong muscle that does not buckle. And spirit, I know life can be rough. But it is even more rough when that fruit of endurance has not been cultivated.
So, spirit, I bless you with a revelation of El Olam, the Everlasting G-d, who outlasts every other god in the field and in the realms of eternity and time. He is built to Everlast, so that he might provide you with Ever-Rest.
Spirit, I bless you with a deep love and longevity that will outstrip every adversary, outdo ever accuser, and outwit every serpent.
I bless you to fight for those you love. I bless you to be encouraged against those who would doubt you.
I bless you to travel the many leagues and have strength yet to fight.
I bless you to have the endurance that leads you to overcome and conquer the ancient enemy that would seek destructions.
I bless not just the product of victory, but also the process that is difficult that is a Bessemer furnace that leads you to have and possess the strength to move toward victory.
I bless you with the skill to see what is ahead and what is in you, and I bless you to lean deeply into the heart of your Bridegroom and Father who “trains your hands to war and your fingers to battle” (from Psalm 144:1). I bless you to know what strongholds are present in a place, and what authority you need to cultivate in order to come in the opposite spirit in a place that needs freeing. I bless you also to see what issues you need to deal with personally so you can cultivate and earn the authority necessary.
And I bless you to see the land freed as a result of the endurance you will cultivate for _______.
I would like to invite your spirit to connect in the name of Yeshua.
Spirit, listen to the word of El Shaddai for you for today
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
Genesis 3:1 NAS95
Spirit, there are going to be times when you are in creation dealing with the enemy of our souls. You are likely going to hear him question your place, your love, your heart, your very design, and your purpose.
In this case, the serpent was questioning Eve’s right to stand in the place as a foxhole buddy, and a fellow warrior of her husband. And the church has been doing this for a long time.
And using hammer/bludgeon passages to silence powerful sons of the King, both male and female, when it comes to executing on their design.
Such as:
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
1 Tim 2:12-14 KJV
As if Paul, who was taught by woman was actually stating this as carte blanche for all women in all churches.
Now, whether or not Paul was a chauvanist is not my tack on this or the other passages. My issue is one of design. Our women were made to fight, build, and lead just as much as the men.
And given that G-d made us to be compatriots, male and female, we do better when we fight together and lead together, pointing our weapons at the true enemy of our souls.
Spirit, you were made for the fight, no matter your sex. You were made for community and to lead no matter what the soul says, or the culture says, or the church culture says. And this is one issue I brook not one bit of unbiblical foolishness. The King made us to be keepers of one another. And we belong, with equal rights and equal access before the blood and the love of the Holy One of Israel.
So, I bless you, when you are on the land blessing it.
I bless you to recognize the voice of the evil one, and to respond rightly to it.
When the devil opens his mouth to speak YOU HIT HIM!!!! -E.V. Hill @ Promise Keepers-
I bless you to HIT HIM!!!! HIT HIM!!!!
I bless you spirit, to be strong, no matter what, and confident, no matter what, and to HIT THAT CLOWN WITH THE TRUTH.
I BLESS THE SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD THAT IS IN YOUR HUSBAND’S MOUTH TO ALSO BE IN YOUR MOUTH, BRIDE!!!!
Spirit, I bless you with love and all the tenderness and confidence and affection and truth in every way, no matter what happens.
And after the enemy has fled, I bless you to hear the heart cry of the land. I bless you to hear the love of the Bridegroom your Husband to your heart, spirit. I bless you to hear His voice in the cool of the day. I bless you to abide as you hear and respond to the land. I bless you with His strength in your weakness. I bless you with divine strength in your inner man.
I bless you with love that transcends all your doubts.
I bless you with the revelation of the truth that transcends and CUTS the enemy’s nonsense.
And I bless you to be established in the Truth that is your Bridegroom and Lover and Husband…..For He is both romance and strength, truth and tenderness, cold and hot; mind, heart, and reins.
And He adores you deeply as you connect with the land.
I bless you in that revelation, in the name of Yeshua.
Preaching “just focus on Yeshua” while refusing to embrace the plumbline He brings to His house, when He comes to remove abusers, is not focussing on Yeshua. It is rather focussing some perverse and anemic antichrist of your own machinations.
Focussing on Yeshua means focussing on ALL of Yeshua
If justice begins in the house of G-d, then it begins with those who are designed to execute that justice and decision-making process. Us. Believers who are sober-minded, and walking with Him.
“Stay in love with Jesus” is not enough. Walking with Yeshua, however, in fullness, is precisely the best thing to embrace. Even if it makes some people uncomfortable, and makes people say “that’s unChristlike”.
What is unChristlike is permitting predators in our midst, and refusing to protect victims.
And there are those who will likely want to label me “heretic” for this one. I cannot control how others see me.
The Real Un-Christlike Issue Among Believers: Remaining Ignorant of Iniquity In the Holy Place
Num. 25:6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped.
Numbers 25:6-8 ESV
What is un-Christlike is proclaiming a better covenant…
While refusing to weave together the principles already given in the biblical text….
Failing to recognize the fullness of the Whole Covenant that stretches from the back to the front of that book we call Scriptures…
Failing to show allegiance to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and those who have been walking with the L-rd for any appreciable period of time refusing to attempt to walk cleanly with Him in this walk, with very little struggle, and an attitude that says “why bother?”, and playing with things that are deadly, especially those sorts of sins that create an ecosystem that enables predators and victims to flourish, because internal heart patters are not governed, and little to no attempt is made to take thoughts captive and make those thoughts obedient to Messiah.
I am all for a covenant that flows from the Love of the King, in which He enables us to walk freely as sons. What I am not okay with is a covenant that allows us to ignore provisions and instructions as to heart attitudes getting ignored in favor of some mysterious better covenant, and acting as thought the L-rd suddenly discovered what heart attitudes were as a result of the Sermon on the Mount.
The L-RD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5
Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4
But the L-RD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the L-RD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the L-RD looks on the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Exodus 20:17
“when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
Joshua 7:21
There is this little pebble in the Old Covenant that most “better covenant” types ignore to their own trouble. It’s called the Tenth Commandment, in Exodus 20:17. It is the Commandment that deals explicitly with the inner desires of the heart.
Messiah is not here to mediate a better covenant. He is here to show us the way that came through the entirety of the covenant etched in His blood from before the foundations of the world.
And that includes the inner desires of one’s heart.
It’s not our problem that the religious leaders of Yeshua’s day ignored the Tenth Commandment’s existence.
It is a problem, however, when a movement takes that ignoring position and forms an entire view of covenant based on shoddy exegesis that leads to a cheap and easy view of grace rooted in some sort of better covenant that abrogates entire chunks of Scripture.
Desire and the internals of the heart were a theme throughout the entirety of the biblical canon.
Here is one more example of the heart responding to not actions but seen looks of desire.
You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,
lovely as Jerusalem,
awesome as an army with banners.
Turn away your eyes from me,
for they overwhelm me—
Your hair is like a flock of goats
leaping down the slopes of Gilead.
Song of Solomon 6:4-5 ESV
It is the eyes that overwhelm, the eyes that provide a look and a view that leads the lover to be captivated as though he were surrounded with an advancing battalion of fully-armed troops.
Now, that is inflamed godly, within-the-purview-of-the-Tenth-Commandment desire, that will execute in love and affection and that soon.
HaShem came to deal with the entirety of people through the love of the Bridegroom, and it behooves us to see the fullness of what He brought, and the the reality that He completed all the sacrifices that were necessary to reconcile us to Himself.
Beyond that, there are things we individually choose to do, and everyone should be fully convinced in their own thought as to what the outworking of that process looks like.
But if, in our preaching of the covenant, we show we forgot the Tenth Commandment existed, we neglect the very reason David was able to enter in to offer sacrifices…..
It was always about what was going on in our desires and our internals…that flow into actions.
It is not what goes into a man or woman that defiles them. Rather, it is what comes out of a man or woman that defiles them.
Just some thoughts….especially given there are crowds that appear to devote themselves to forgetting the whole tapestry of the covenant the King made with us.
Do not live as if you are unaware of the capacity of the Torah, the schoolmaster, to speak of the things Messiah came to mess with.
I invite your spirit to be present, in the name of Yeshua.
Spirit, listen ot the word of El Shaddai for today:
The Earth was without form and void…
From Genesis 1:2
Spirit, you are going to come across patches of land that feel tohu ve bohu. Chaotic, waste, empty, messed-up, befouled, vexed, defiled, broken, ruined, and otherwise in not good states. This text says before the L-rd began to refill the land, it was completely wasted and destroyed. The land was in dire need and in outer darkness from a cataclysm of some sort.
Spirit, in this season, I would ask you to be open to the possibility that the L-rd has you in the land and it may be because you and soul were made to bring something to the land it would not otherwise have.
I encourage you to consider deeply whether you have a role to play in the healing of the land.
And I will note, it is not your job to do the heavy lifting, spirit. That is the job of the King. He will work at it. But He does look for human partnerships to bring transformation to creation. This is why, later, it was said, “the L-RD G-d planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed”.
Spirit, you were chosen and placed on a particular piece of land to bring the life of the King to that chunk of land.
So, I bless you to see the vision the L-rd has for that patch of land, and to partner with Him according to that vision.
I bless you to work with the land that is torn-up and chaotic.
I bless you to work even when situations are not ideal. I do bless you to see what you can contribute as you partner with the L-rd to bring the life of G-d in a spiritual wasteland, and maybe even a physical wasteland.
I bless you to see the best when you see the worst.
I bless you with a revelation of the L-rd G-d that is equal to the task at hand.
I bless you in the name of Yeshua to find the life and flow of G-d and to incorporate that life flow into your working with the land.
Be at peace and wholeness, spirit, in the name of Yeshua.
I invite your spirit to be present, forward. I am not your drill sergeant, therefore I am not going to call it to attention. That’s just not my way; that’s not how i do it.
Spirit, I bless you to be present, whether far away or near, whether divided or integrated altogether.
I bless you to be as near to or as far away from me as you need to be.
But I encourage you to listen. Listen to the word of El Shaddai…
“For G-d did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved.”
John 3:17
Spirit, there is a place for the King where He yearns not just for the people in the world, but also the land itself. He does not want to condemn. It’s not His heart to condemn. His Father’s heart is to teach, and to instruct, and to show, and to show cause-and-effect. Spirit, He wants to do this with you. He wants to show you how deeply you are loved.
So, I bless you, spirit, to receive revelation of the not-condemnation of the L-rd. He does not condemn you. He does not condemn where you live. He doesn’t condemn ________ city that anybody else might condemn. He doesn’t condemn Washington, DC. He doesn’t condemn San Francisco. He doesn’t condemn Boston. He doesn’t condemn Moscow. He doesn’t condemn London. He doesn’t condemn Beijing.
But that, through Him, through the Son, the Bridegroom, Who romances the Bride, they might come to know.
So, spirit, I bless you with that revelation. I bless you with a deep, deep revelation of what the L-rd has for you in your place, in your season. I bless you to partner with the L-rd in this season in working with the land to hear what He is saying. “Son/daughter there is a portal over there.”
“There is a structure over there.”
“There’s a Leviathan.”
“There is a Nephilim.”
“There are clowns.”
(That’s my term for demons. That’s my term, not Arthur’s. I don’t call them critters, because I do not think they merit the dignity of any of the members of the animal kingdom, and critters for me are soft and squishy and friend-shaped. I refer to the enemy as clowns because he is a circus show and he deserves to be shut down. At every stop. And thoroughly run out of town. Off the land. He does not deserve honor and worship. I might respect that he has some sort of authority or whatever the case. But there are times when I just do not have time for the crap he brings to the table.)
So I bless you to not have time to glorify overly what the enemy is doing. I bless you rather to know the purposes of G-d for the land, and to spend time on that dynamic instead.
I bless you to hear when the L-rd is saying, “check that structure over there. Look over here. Give a call to this person. Put your heads together. Devise a strategy.”
I bless you to know the strategies. I bless your toolbox to increase. I bless your toolbox of not-condemnation-but LOVE to INCREASE!
I bless your heart and your mind and the eyes of your heart to be opened and able to perceive and see what needs to be seen.
I bless you to know the King’s love and the love He has in this season. And I bless you to see the land move up from negative numbers up to zero and into positive numbers and grow.
And I bless you as you encourage and coach the land.
Be at peace, gang.
Full of the King’s purposes.
Be at peace, spirit.
I bless you with this revelation in the name of Yeshua ha-Mashiach.
That was a razz on my Prophet friends, given the tribe, when they make decisions and judgments about items, tend to have a pretty good track record of being right. Not because they are arrogant, but because they are able to extrapolate from principles and see when things are not well-put-together or well-thought-out that the rest of us miss.
Further, they have a heart for justice, and they are centrally impacted by issues of right and wrong.
And given my last post in this series finished up how G-d Wounds and then Heals a Mercy and then dealt with the same issue concerning a Prophet, I was going to start with Servant, and the King said, “no, Teacher.”
Heading In the Right Direction versus Heading In the Best Direction
Sigh….
This is my absolute favorite gift to deal with, without exception, because there is so much potential and so much that gets undersold and mislabelled with the Teacher, so much so that many do not understand themselves. They are known for keeping their heads about them and heading in the right direction, generally speaking. However, so many of them are not known for being dialed in to the best direction of many right directions, which requires some fine-tuning and callibration, that can only be accomplished with the gentle whispers of the Executing Spirit, the Holy Spirit. (Whereas sin and defilement are the violation of principles, holiness actually means “weaving principles together”, and few can tinker and dial things in as well as the Spirit-governed Teacher who leads with their human spirit.
The Teacher, universally almost as slow as the Mercy, is also very deliberate and demonstrates a preference for telling the whole story, and also has a predilection for getting the details and the account of a thing or event right.
However, unlike the Mercy, they tend toward a predilection for the old and the well-researched, as my post on that RG shows, and they often get stuck in their thoughts, whereas the Mercy tends to gets stuck in their emotions. Both gifts can appear a bit absent-minded or head-in-the-clouds, and so they each need to have a couple of close friends that see them as they truly are, and be able to reach them where they are. The Mercy tends to find this in a Prophet or another Mercy, and the Teacher tends to find this in an Exhorter, which are typical pairings for those respective gifts.
A problem with the Teacher, as with the Mercy is the issue of being in control of a situation, versus being out of control. The King will routinely give both gifts situations and circumstances that are not neat and where they do not have control, to see how they respond to those.
See Exhibit A of the Exhorter/Teacher combo: Tony Stark and James Rhodes. And the line that hits me here, is “you got your best friend back”. Rhodey was not in control during this sequence in Iron Man 2 because his suit had been hacked by the fiilm’s antagonist, and the Prophet had to fix that problem.
Again, with the lack of control. This time in Captain America: Civil War. This time, hitting much closer to home.
And then having to be faced with the reality of his circumstances.
The fight needed to be fought, and the Teacher is central to the fight. Central with their humor. Central with their anchoring presence. Central with their safety. Central with their slowness. Central with their strength to endure.
And this whole thing with paralysis sucks…..But it is his consistency that helped Tony stay grounded.
And one other Teacher….who was saved by his divided personality….
Beyond that, there is, as with all the gifts, a certain stronghold that must be dealt with, in proper order, if the Teacher is to submit to the process by which they are wounded or broken, so they can grow into the fulness of what they were designed to be.
One of the major issues with the Teacher, and an issue G-d makes with them is the question of them being in control of a situation apart from His divine empowerment.
Teachers have to get to the point where, in order to walk in fuller authority, they give up their right to know in order to control.
Rather they know intimately, in order to wash feet and be a safe place, and to break the stronghold of witchcraft and rebellion by offensively engaging with those entities directly in the spirit. Further, they must wrestle, hand-to-hand, in close quarters, and submit (think the wrestling definition of “submit an opponent”) the predator spirit that seeks to hold hostage those they love.
They have to find the way that, through the spirit, enables them to marry what they know, to the Fire of the One Who Is All Truth, and allow the Holy Sprit, who is the Spirit that Executes, not merely Sets Apart, to lead them into all truth. It is not the biblical text that leads us into all truth. It is the Spirit of Truth that leads us into all truth. Our own mind, with all its absorbed and accumulated biblical knowledge, trivia, and understanding of the truth, is not what leads us into truth. Rather, it is the Spirit of Truth alone that can rightly divide the written biblical text, and apart from Him, with Torah in hand, we will risk killing the life-giving thing G-d gave to move us into the next realm of divine understanding.
My question to the Teachers in the crowd is this:
Do you want to continue being the one that kills with your cerebrum alone, or do you want the spirit G-d has placed in you to rule over the work of your mind, marry that to the felt work of your heart, and then your reins, and together with the thoughts, allow your emotions to emerge as your heart is strangely warmed by the Holy One of Israel?”
Apart from Him, you are incapable of exegeting at all.
I do not care how much Torah you know. If you do not know Torah Himself, the Word Himself, all your supposed truth is nothing more than the Vale of Ben Hinnom.
We go into all truth and get into all truth, ONLY by the Spirit of G-d.
And trust me, it is going to look really weird, the end product, and it is going to unsettle you and those around you, but as you grow into it, you will see the King’s faithfulness, and the Exhorter Himself walking alongside you will stay with you as you undergo this healing and transformation.
It is going to take time and a process, but it can happen, and Teacher, you are worth knowing, and being more fully known, even as you so fully know so much.
The Ancient One : But you are leaving out the most important part. In order to return the stones, you have to survive.
Going beyond the science and the knowledge acquired, the Teacher has GOT TO STEP INTO THE PLACE WHERE THEY PUT THEIR HEART, FAITH, AND WILL ON THE LINE, AND RISK DANGER WITH HEART AND SKIN IN THE GAME, in order to step up to the next level of who they are, which can invite circumstances that can hurt them in the process, trusting the L-rd to make them and their very, VERY tender hearts whole again. Teacher have to risk emotional exposure in order to be made more whole, bring wholeness to others around them, and to grow reality to a place where the L-rd needs it to be, embracing a potentially painful responsibility, the one thing they are supposed to do, in order to make the potential reality kinetic.
Be at peace, Teachers, for your is the most precarious of the seven gifts, I deem.
You are truly the motorcycles among the gifts. Huge payoffs and incredibly fun when the gift is done right, but also the risk of great destruction when mishandled.
I tend to look for a more effective way of communicating concepts than the garden-variety way of describing things. Or I enjoy describing things that keep people from the rote “amen” and “preach”. The religious spirit is no different. There are a bunch of ways people have described the religious spirit, but I personally like the following description. The religious spirit, which parallels the Redemptive Gift of Teacher as the root stronghold in your gift of Teacher individual, group, community, state, nation, or organization, is the spirit of “one thing”. Do anything or anything except the one thing you are supposed to be doing? Engaging in a flurry of activity, even devotional activity…just do not engage with the one thing G-d wants you to do. There is a tie-in to this concept. The Philistine Curse….which in a nutshell is, one thing short of a full package. The one missing item that leads to a life-giving package, which is usually missing because we choose to do without the One Thing we need to engage in. And the way that curse is broken is usually with the One Weird and “does-not-make-a-lick-of-sense” solution or tool. For Samson and Shamgar they beat the Philistines with Ass Jawbones and Oxgoads. The strange or unusual. And usually along the way, you end up looking or feeling pretty foolish doing whatever you are doing on the way to disempowering the Philistine Curse, O Teacher, since this is the third of the Seven Curses. That is, regardless of all the other descriptions you can layer on top of the religious spirits and regardless of thr comparisons to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the rituals that are dry and full of dead man’s bones, the religious spirit will busy you doing a bunch of crap that is not His best for you. Just some thoughts here as I head to bed, gang. So if you struggle with the one thing, find out from the King if there is one thing you should be engaging… Benisons…..
