Author: theparacleteshammer

Provocative Thoughts for the Morning:
After Abraham stood still before the L-rd (Psalm 46:10), Genesis 18:23 does not merely say that Abraham spoke to the L-rd.
Rather, it says that Abraham DREW NEAR and said…
Genesis has up to this point in several ways established that, not only had G-d given instructions for Abraham to obey, which he did fairly well in many ways, but also another dynamic had germinated and grown between the L-rd and this subtle, Bedouin herdsman.
We are talking about friendship.
Pick up a couple of the subtleties of Genesis 18:22-23 with me.
What does it mean to “stand still before the L-rd”?
Possibly that Abraham was considering what his next statement to his friend the L-rd should be.
The Father hadn’t moved on and he asked himself whether he should share with Abraham the thoughts of his heart and mind, knowing Abraham’s bend toward commanding his legacy toward a posture of righteousness. Would that heart cry for righteousness and that authority to call for the same extend to the place where it interfered with G-d’s plans for the cities on the plain?
G-d’s sharing of his plans with Abraham reveal a dynamic of His nature that we don’t often think about when it comes to reading the Tanakh. Even though he is indeed Sovereign Judge, he is still quite vulnerable and has emotions the depth of which and purity of which we fail to understand, much less be willing to wrap our arms around. This is not some heartless and cruel taskmaster who enjoys roasting the wicked in hellfire and brimstone. G-d , even as Sovereign Judge takes no drunken pleasure in the death of the wicked, as we are so won’t to do.
Rather, every single one of his decisions is made in the context of sobriety.
And Abraham, standing still, was likely pondering what he knew about G-d. This is an illustration of the principle of Psalm 46:10 at work.
Then, he spoke to the one in whom he could trust.
“Shall the Judge of all the Earth do what is just?”
Wait a minute, sparing people is a form of justice?
Yes, it can be. Especially when some of those people can be considered righteous the way the L-rd reckons righteousness, which is a homiletic exhortation for another day.
Abraham made a heart connection with G-d that day, and here is how I arrive at that conclusion, in the spirit of James 4:8.
“Then Abraham DREW NEAR and said…”
Draw near to him and he will draw near in return.
I imagine that drawing near captured something in G-d’s heart. For Abraham, there was plenty of risk. His nephew was living with the wicked. He must have loved him dearly, given the sequence of circumstances that led to this point. He was concerned with all of his legacy. And He knew something about G-d that maybe we have since forgotten. Drawing near To someone that powerful and holy is a scary proposition.
And G-d, in response, fulfilled a win/win both ways. The righteous were spared, and the wicked were destroyed, WITHOUT GLEE OR GLOATING.
If you wish to ask something of Him, are you willing to risk drawing near and considering His nature in order to ask what you need of Him?
He doesn’t promise your interactions with him will be free and easy, but he does promise you will grow and change and be transformed in the process.
Be blessed.

I purchased a copy of this teaching while I was in Toronto on March 19, 2016 for the live event When Your Call Is Blocked.
And on the way home from Toronto to Springfield, Massachusetts, Father told me to pop this series into my CD player for the trip home.
And in one word…WOW!
The concept of legitimacy is directly tied to and forms the root of our identity. For years, I have been beating the drum of identity, and in so many words, this teaching was just confirmation of things I had taught, but never really internalized.
Of course, Arthur pulls no punches in this teaching, specifically because his yearning is for people to be free, even if that means they are uncomfortable momentarily.
That entire trip home, I found issue after issue to deal with and repent of, and following those issues I dealt with, I learned one ver simple truth, approached at from a multiplicity of angles.
I am legitimate specifically because God is and because God loves me.
Not that God loves me in the trite way that we like to talk about love. But that God loves me as in God really is tenderly affectionate towards me and is concerned for my well-being.
The Father has a genuine concern for what happens to his children, and when we use things other than his love as measuring tools for whether we are legitimate or not, then we have bought into the enemy’s lies.
We are not legitimate because we are born in to a certain nation, into a certain family, or even because we have a specific spiritual gift or skillset.
We are legitimate because God is and God is loves us.
Yeah, I know this may come across as mushy, but Father just really is radically taken with us and is jealous over us with a jealousy that rages against anything that is a lie and is designed to harm us.
Get this CD album. I cannot recommend it highly enough!
https://theslg.com/cd-albums/503-legitimacy.html

My wife and I have a very precious friend in Massachusetts.
She rarely speaks, but when she does, there is is life and heart and outstanding refinement in her words.
She, IIRC, is a Texas native.
Below are her unedited words on the topic, and they are flawless:
“I read my newsfeed and can tell that a lot of you went through hell. How you’re still alive is a flippin’ mystery. Neither of us knows how that happened. And you’ve found your voice after it was stolen, or broken, or lost. You’ve plowed through and found healing, and now you’re invested in helping other people. And that’s super cool, but don’t let that stop you from even greater heights. To take the healing that you’ve gotten and call it good is to sabotage how much further you could go. Don’t stop seeking the truth. Don’t lie to yourself and call the work complete when it’s not. Don’t turn into a semi-healed, compromised person helping totally broken people. It’s just another way for darkness to win by keeping you from greater victory, and thus, the people you help from greater healing. Keep climbing. Keep pushing. Keep seeking. Yes, you flippin’ can, because this isn’t as far as you can go.”
The words of prophecy are for edification, exhortation, and comfort. These are those sorts of words. Bang-on-the-dot, sister.

Pardon the tedious in this post.  
I have a friend from Louisiana who lives in West Virginia.  
And I also have some different views on inerrancy and infallibility than most evangelicals.  
Moreover, I am fairly sure I have irritated my friend with my views on the topic because they more or less redefine the concepts.
Take the beginning of my post title, for example.  That number is a specific reference to the beginning of the book of Numbers, where the Lord instructs Israel to number the children of Israel by their clans and by their families, and to get a tally of their resources.  Now the numbering of these resources is a post all to itself for another time.
But the number itself is fairly precise.
And there are a number of critics of inerrancy that like to push the debate on inerrancy/infallibility to places it was not designed to go.
For example, “if that number–603,550–is off by even one, then the number isn’t exact, which constitutes an error, and thus the argument for Scriptural inerrancy falls apart.”
Or, “you forgot to include women and children, therefore you are pushing a repressive, patriarchal agenda”.
While I do not attempt to address every concern in the debate with one post, I propose–hopefully, with some measure of humility–to address better definitions of both inerrancy and infallibility that are based on a particular shade of meaning found in the words’ roots.
Errors and Failures or Fallacies
The root of “inerrant” seems to be “err”, whether that is an erring of judgment or an erring of direction or purpose.
The root of “infallible” seems to be “fail”, whether that is a failing in terms of failures or a failing in terms of fallacies (cut the 14 different ways that students of logic like to cut it).
Thus I define inerrancy as “the incapacity of Scripture to provide us with bad judgment and causing us to err in discerning God’s and our directions or understanding God’s and our purposes”
And for “infallibility”, “the incapacity of Scripture to provide us with counsel that is fallacious or leads to our ultimate failure.”
I’d say the issue with “erring” and both senses of the word “fail” is one of motive.  Was it intentional on the Father’s part, that we ultimately make errors in judgment, and thus fail in life?  
Given redemption is the heart of the gospel, does it make sense that the Father would intend that for us, erring and failures?  If we are going to assert these books are our sacred texts, and thus authoritative,  then does it make sense that we assert that the Author meant for that to happen to us?
If we are going to be part of Jesus’ plan of redemption, does it benefit him or the Father if we fail or end up in a place of futility.
I don’t think so.
Therefore, is it possible that we have hinged our debate on the details of Scripture rather than in the character of the one about whom they speak?
In my view, it is better to discuss inerrancy or infallibility from the position of whether or not God intends us to err and fail, rather than asking if all the bricks make the building that we think they are supposed to make.
God never means for us to fail.
We often like to repeat that the Bible is the Word of God in church, but often times we forget to include in the same breath that Jesus is the Word of God.  And that is to our detriment.  Our basis for faith in the Scriptures is the character and nature of the God described in the Scriptures.  They have to work together, because the voice of the Lord is what helps us understand the Scriptures, and the testimony of Scripture is what helps us understand the nature and character of God.
True,  lots of bloodshed did happen in the Old Testament.  However, did you see that the bloodshed was executed because of rebellion and sin?  And further, did you see that God doesn’t enjoy roasting us over the coals in hell?  He does not take pleasure in the death of anyone, especially the ungodly.  The judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah came because of the distress call that went up to the Lord.
These judgments were ultimately executed because of the redemptive nature of God.    Because he is concerned with the redemption not just of humanity, but also all of creation, he will discipline and judge those people and attitudes that willingly choose to defile time, land, individuals, communities, and offices.
God’s plan does not include gleeful torture.  Our foolishness leads us to accuse him of that.  He does not revel in the separation from one of his kids anymore than we revel in our separation from our source.
If we get that point nailed and set in our hearts, then we can trust him not to let us err and fail.  He also will not provide us with writings that err or fail.
He will also provide us the gifts of the Spirit and the gifts of our design that help us along the way.  
Our job is to first follow Him with the assertion that the best God we can conceive of is the God who redeems.  He fixes and makes things right.  He will take care of us, if we let him.  And He will take care of the jots and tittles.

Recently, a preacher posed a question for discussion concerning church leadership abuse.  The assumption (not without precedent) was that many mainline churches along with independent churches (those that are more given to the “fivefold” expression of leadership) both walk in a great deal of abuse.  In these immigrations, the church member is exchanging one form abusive leadership for another, though both use different titles.
What do you think accounts for the shift from mainline churches to fivefold churches when the abuse is virtually identical?
Below is my response:
“The titles have switched, but the dynamics have remained the same.
“This may be a massive swallowing of non-reality.
“I would suggest we look at what the concepts of pastor and apostle look like from the whole of the Canon.
“And given the Greek word for pastor is only translated as “pastor” once, in Ephesians 4:11-12, I think we ought to include all reference to the character of a shepherd, such as from Psalm 23 and John 10, a d we should table some of the fivefold office terms until we really get a handle on what they mean.
“I observe we are far too casual and lackadaisical with throwing around those terms.
“Give you a good example, I know my best friend walks in the apostolic office. I do as well, My wife is a Teacher. And my best friend’s wife is a legit prophet.
“However, I just, without fear or offense or exploitation, refer to him as David and her as Wendy.
“We are just friends, and we are so far past being enamored with those things that we just walk and flow in those things as the situation arises.
“Part of what we are dealing with in the church may be one of three dynamics. In no particular order:
“1) Woundedness-we got hurt so we leave one hurtful situation for another.
“2) We have become groupies, to make ourselves and our covering feel legitimate.
3) That doctrine of covering-from a study of the Scriptures, “cover”, “covering”, and their synonyms have to do with on thing, atonement for sin with blood.
“Love covers a multitude of sins.
“The mercy seat covered, and was sprinkled with blood to provide atonement for Israel’s sins.
“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for sins.
“Etc.
“Head in the Greek does not mean ‘covering’, but rather ‘source’ like ‘headwaters’.
“Oftentimes, for the sake of legitimacy, we may place our leaders into a position they were never meant to occupy. And we in the Charismatic movements can become just as guilty of the Roman Catholics, in our desire for a spiritual father and mother, of seeking to treat our leaders as intermediaries.
“But there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
“We want a ‘covering’ in the (from my experience) unbiblical senses because we may be relying on a legitimacy crutch.
“This is part of the turn-off for me in many evangelical Charismatic churches.
“Some of those in the midst of this imbalance appear to like to incessantly ask, ‘are you submitted to your covering?’. Then, if you negate the question, they retort with, ‘without your covering you are unprotected!’
“Um, excuse me, sir/ma’am, but Jesus is my love and he covered everything that needs to be covered.
“Covering in context is used with respect to blood and atonement, not leadership.”
From the above, I would be curious to know what your thoughts on the subject are, even if we disagree.
 
Blessings.

My current readings find me in Exodus. 
More recently, I have been in Exodus 25, which discusses the items of the Tabernacle. 
And I am curious. Exodus 25 discusses the construction of the Mercy Seat that goes on top of the Ark of the Covenant. 
The Mercy Seat. 
What a curious name for something that pertains so readily to an object known as being the symbol of the Law of Moses, which,  in the minds of many, has nothing to do with mercy. 
I wonder if it is so-called because the L-rd really wanted us to grasp that the concept of mercy really was a critical part of the dispensation of His law to Israel. 
Put another way, just as the exposition of the Beatitudes could be summed up in the Tenth Commandment, to beware of and keep far from even those thoughts that lead to unrighteous desire; so also the Law was really meant to convey a Mercy that the Pharisees and Saducees neglected to also skillfully exposit. 

The Bible never says that anyone will ever ask you a question about anything. Not “why should I let you into my kingdom?”. Not ” what have you done?”. Not ,”did you acknowledge me before men?”. Not, “did you do this or that or anything else?”.
It only says that He will judge, and he will do it well. It will not be our job to present any sort of case before Him who judges righteously.
Rather, all of ourselves will be laid bare before Him and He will do what He always does. He will judge, and He will do that correctly. He will handle everything, and He will consider whether you obeyed what He told you to do.
And in that day, there will be no Q and A on His part. No goofy questions that preachers like to use to manipulate you and me into the kingdom. No inane stuff about whether or not you were a Marine or a Soldier. Nothing embodied in these goofy and inane pictures that try to manipulate us into sharing them in order to demonstrate our lack of shame for Him. None. Of. That.
Just you, your life, and He who authorized that life.
The kicker is, what did you do with the life Jesus gave you? Was the direction of your life, mistakes and all, obedience to what He has told us plainly, or was it disobedience?
Mind you, every single thing He ever told you and me, not just in Scripture, but by the Holy Spirit, was told to us and shared with us for exactly the same reason fathers impart wisdom to their children: Tenderest, unfailing, loyal, abiding affection for us.
Father wants the best for you, and He hardwired you to walk in his enjoyment, his pleasure, His love.
The question today, while it is still called “Today” (Hebrews 4), is, “are you ultimately walking according to the design of the manufacturer, or you attempting to modify the perfection He has wrought by making it “better in your own eyes” ?
He knows, adores, and gives what is best.
You cannot improve on that design with control, or connivance, or hypocrisy, or addiction, or homosex, or avarice, or theft, or fornication, or adultery, or simony, or policy change, or amendments, or anything else that changes the outside circumstances while leaving you in the same broken and sinful state.
You must always, ultimately, continually change. We are constantly on the move, by degrees, either from glory to glory, or from death to death. That is part of Father’s design in us.
You will not ever be the same person from day to day.
And He has a “no-eye-has-seen” series of moments of encounter in store for you.
So, go and search out Jesus, and when you find Jesus, remember that NO ONE KNOWS JESUS BETTER THAN HOLY SPIRIT. So, if you want to get to know Jesus, get real intimate with Holy Spirit.
He is, after all, the Revealer of Scriptures. By Holy Spirit do you get to know what is in the Scriptures, and what they teach about the Word of God, Jesus, and the Father of lights, the Father.
The only way we are able to interact with the Father and the Word of God is by Holy Spirit. He is the One given and sent.
So get to know Him really well, and He will run you on a crash course as to your identity, your makeup, your giftings, and the things that really will make you come alive. Better than that bottle, habit, addiction, or sinful lifestyle.
Be blessed.

“Arrogance… I hate”
-Proverbs 8:13-
Four dynamics that Wisdom, the Lord, hates. Pride, arrogance, the way of evil, and perverted speech.
Arrogance…thinking you know and understand well enough to not need any help in a situation and that you view and treat anyone offering help, understanding, or counsel as inferior or worthless. This destroys the body’s interconnectedness (1 Cor. 12:21-26).
The Paraclete’s Hammer

“for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips.” -Proverbs 8:7 (ESV)-
Wisdom utters truth, not lies (Proverbs 8:7 above).
But these true utterances are done with prudence and discretion, in such a way that finessing, manipulation, or attempts to control a situation with fleshly, soulish, or even spiritual means to ensure a positive outcome for the one engaged in the situation.
Jesus (Matthew 10:16) invites finesse, manipulation, and control to die (Proverbs 3:5-6, Mark 8:34-35). By wisdom are the simple and foolish made wise.
Are your hands behind your back?
Some may ask,”What do you mean, David, are my hands behind my back?”
Let me explain.
Are you trying to use your finite resources and ingenuity to fix a situation so that it comes out in your favor?  Or are you letting God work on your behalf and defend you?
If your hands remain behind your back and you are refusing to take the bait to defend yourself, God will step in, in His timing, and work on your behalf.  He will put His hands into a situation and work.  However, If you attempt to defend yourself and put your hands into the situation in order to fix it, God will step back and let you “handle” the situation, and He will put His hands behind His back.
So, whose hands are behind the back? Yours or His?
Whose hands are stronger? Yours or His?
Whose hands are more capable of fixing a situation? Yours or HIs?
Who do you want at work in a situation, even if the timing makes you uncomfortable? You or Him?
Put another way. Do we depend on our own resources, or do we depend on what Father give us a solution to work with, either in the form of a finished product, or raw materials with which to build?
He will make everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11), but you must give Father time to work.
This is one of the tests that believers must endure.
The test on waiting on vindication.
The Paraclete’s Hammer

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention’s President, Russell Moore, wrote a stellar piece in response to the SCOTUS decision on gay marriage in Obergefell V. Hodges recently.  In it, he enumerated why the Church should neither cave to the powers that be, nor panic with respect to the decision made.
You can view that article here.
Concerning all the activity this week, I have some observations.
1) No matter how people choose to marry, or how elected officials choose to recognize the right to marry, marriage is an institution that God set up with certain parameters, and no one can actually change those parameters. The kingdom recognizes only those marriages between a husband and a wife, as consistent interpretation of Scripture details.
2) Any setup that violates the design is a farce, and is not recognized, no matter the codification of laws or the orders of the state.
3) Those who choose to walk in a violation of that Principle of Design–whether homosexual practice, fornication, adultery, or pornography–do not know what they are doing and are stumbling around in darkness, sadly.  
4) As a result of this lack of knowledge, refusal of knowledge, or willful violation of the principles set down by the Father, they have opened the doors to greater bondage.  It was the Father who set all of these principles down out of love, so that we would walk in liberty, free of bondage, deception, and offense.  
5) Moreover, to consider another nuance of this discussion, perhaps some large portion of those people who walk these various sinful lifestyles out, do so out of abuse by parents, or members of either the same or opposite sex.
6) As a result of those areas of wounding or trauma, the victims described in #5 require prayers for healing or deliverance, instead of words spoken out of due season against them. And, where the church has failed in this area, it ought to repent.
7) There is a place for us as the Church to pray for release of those in sexual bondages of all kinds, whether through trauma or choice.  Moreover, we also should pray for the deception to roll back from their eyes.  
8) Moreover, we as the Church should minister to the sexually compromised variously in tender affection, love, and with the truth nonetheless, AFTER we fled our youthful passions; pursued righteousness, faith, love, peace, and purity; and have thoroughly bathed them in prayer, that they might be freed, after the manner described in 2 Timothy 2:22-26.  Credibility for ministry comes following personal sanctification.  NOTE: Please do not heckle me if you are a Christian about the impossibility of sanctification.  God would not tell us to walk in something (Matthew 5:48) and then not give us the resources (He gave us Himself, what is a little bit of personal holiness?) to help us attain that progression (Matthew 6:33).
9) We are ministers of love, grace, holiness, truth, righteousness, faith, and a really great path, that does happen to be narrow.  Let us do this well.
10) The Constitution and SCOTUS butchering of the same are not going to change hearts.  Lowering a flag is not going to change a heart.  Only the Lord can do that.  But, he is capable of softening a heart.  So, let’s work at cultivating more of the Fruit of the Spirit, and walking in more of the principles of the Lord found in Scripture, though not at the expense of realizing the depth of what has taken place in the SCOTUS decision.  They have usurped authority that was not theirs to take.  Our responsibility is to discern what has just happened, and to really grasp hold of what the Spirit is saying in this hour, including the shift that has just taken place in the Spirit realm.
It is time, Church. It is time for us to fight that the sexually-bound might be redeemed and returned to Him, healed and restored, and repentant.  They need us to walk in our identity, and the fullness of the authority Christ has died for us to possess, in order for them to walk in liberty and out of the deception so completely foisted upon them.  Remember, the enemy has sold the gay/adulterous/fornicating/porn-addicted community a Ship-High-In-Transit bill of goods.
It is time for us to pray for liberation.  
That means it is time to walk in liberation, and to begin to strap on some armor and a sword on our side, and enter into His presence, abide in Him by the cool waters (Psalm 23, Psalm 91) as the sheep of His pasture, and let Him come among us, and transform us into His majestic horses fit for battle (Zechariah 10:3).
Are you ready?

Humility and holiness are the bedrock for this fight.
The Paraclete’s Hammer.