Category: Biblical Studies/Exegesis

40 Years a Son, Living With the Word

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis

I was reading something in the biblical text this evening and I had a bit of something like a revelation.

Sometimes the one thing the King wants to emphasize, is the one thing we as translators and the writers of the original canon treated as an afterthought. We treat things as an afterthought because of the way they are phrased. And simply because of the smallness of the word, maybe the original writers did, too, if we take the words in the text at face value.

Allow me to explain.

It was Genesis 1, and always with the Fourth Day, there is something with the Fourth Day the King likes to highlight for me, and it is a kiss from him. It is a small phrase, only three words, and I have never heard the phrase emphasized, thus it seems to me most people do not treat it with emphasis when the read it, because it takes up such a small percentage of the text.

Maybe the original writer of the Creation Narrative, whether you call him Moses, or JEDP (ahem), or anyone else, just wrote this one phrase and gave it no further thought, but I would like to think it meant something, especially since these entities feature prominently elsewhere in the Tanakh, and in the Revelation and the First chapter of James.

So, here is the text for the Fourth Day of Creation:

And G-d said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And G-d made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And G-d set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And G-d saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Genesis 1:14–19 ESV

Did you see it?

And the Stars

I wonder, gang. I wonder if we know of this in this way. For He is the G-d of the Seven Stars, Who Walks Among Them, and knows the starways, and walks among the starlight.

And it is the stars as the Sons of G-d that shout for joy in the book of Job, and the Father of Heavenly Lights that gives every good and perfect gift from above as He walks among the stars, which are themselves heavenly lights.

With rain, with sun
With much, with less
With joy, with pain
With life, with death

The only things that satisfy come from You
They come from You

Everything that’s beautiful
Everything that’s wonderful
Every perfect gift comes from You

Your grace, Your heart
Your voice, Your touch
Your word, Your peace
Your hope, Your love

A thousand words could not explain
A thousand worlds could not contain
Every perfect gift comes from You

It comes from the Father of Lights
It comes from the Giver of Life
It comes from the Heavens above
It’s coming straight from Your heart
To the people You love

“Everything” by Chris Tomlin

When I was 18, the very first time I got to see the starways and the pitchblack of the heavens, I was in ROTC in college, and we were in Camp Blanding in Northeast Florida. My batallion was on a night march, and that was the very first time I was able to identify more than 12 constellations just based on patterns I had seen in books as a kid. And it was radiant, though not radiant like the sun. Sparkly.

And on the Fourth Day, as with other things pertaining to the Redemptive Gift of Exhorter, G-d usually highlights things in patterns of threes.

The nature of G-d

The Three major Exhorters of Scripture: Moses, Solomon, Paul.

The Sun, the Moon, the Stars

For me this highlights something that I wish to give to you as a gift in the arena of how I do hermeneutics, and precisely why the tagline of TPH is “Into all truth by the Spirit of G-d”.

It’s not the whole of scripture, written with a 1-to-1 mindset, with each word having and sharing equal weight with all the others. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit is going to highlight or lowlight certain words of phrases, depending on what is going on with you, and where He wants to point you in a given matter.

Sometimes, a phrase waits 10-30 years to emerge and glow off the page.

And this phrase “and the stars” just hits me in all the right places, moreso now I have seen stars and auroras and other entities with proper telescopes.

I put to you, as me reader, that, when you are reading, that you allow Holy Spirit the lattitude to highlight or emphasize something differently than you have allowed Him previously. If you allow Him to guide you along the river, you have no idea where He will pull the canoe up so He can take you exploring. Reading the text, as with other parts of our life, should be an adventure that is completely life-giving.

He may emphasize a piece of the text you never thought He would.

For example, when was the last time you heard there were three “veyahavtas” (the Hebrew Phrase translated as “You shall love”) in the text of the Torah.

And for you who are Torah haters, how many know the heart of the bible is the law, and the heart of the law is Deuteronomy, and for those who want to get intimate with how blessings and curses operate, you have to be intimate with how Deuteronomy operates?

I know we are not under the law and G-d abolished the law completely without exception, but maybe there is something of value in reading the law.

Just some thoughts. And yes, some of what I wrote above is a bit tongue-in-cheek.

But seriously, maybe it would behoove us to see, instead of a bipolar book, where the G-d on the Right Hand Side of the Book apologizes for the acts of the G-d on the Left Hand Side of the Book, perhaps we are dealing with the outworking of a very complex WHOLE COVENANT.

Perhaps there is life and fathering that will break the bastard curse off of us, if we will begin to obsessively hunt for the Father in the Tanakh, and in the Torah.

It’s not a list of rules and regs, gang, appended by Talmuds and Mishnahs and Gemaras. It is a arkload of principles and relationships available to anyone with the cojones to hunt for Dad’s mind AND heart within its pages.

For example, the first time “Father” is specifically implied in the pages of the Biblical Text is Exodus 4:22.

“Thus says the L-RD, ‘Israel is my firstborn son’.”

From Exodus 4:22 ESV

I wonder if one problem with too many of us that want to run from the Torah and the Tanakh and Whole Covenant into Better Covenant/Worser Covenant is that our relationships with our own earthly dads were so messed-up that we cannot bear the thought of beginning a relationship with G-d the Father in His fullness without a social worker present. And truly, if we were abused by our fathers, we might need someone who will take that role in the spirit for a season.

But, really, the gems are in the Torah for us to find if we are willing. The fat of the land, all of the fat of the land, is present for those of us who look to be transformed from disobedient to obedient, with hearts that are FILLED with the earnest of the Kingdom.

His heart is for us to know all of Him, and not just the parts with which we are comfortable.

The starsong….proclaiming the justice of G-d….

“And the stars”

May the King give light in strange and unexpected places for His kids to walk.

Just some thoughts.

Victim Spirit, Part 2: Genesis 11:31-32, 12:1, Matthew 23’s Fractal of Seven, and Not Far Enough (Settling)

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Matthew, Victim Spirit

Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. Now the L-RD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

Genesis 11:31–12:1 ESV

Victim Spirits Make You Settle

Gang, when we are begin setting ourselves to engage with the L-rd in a particular way He has given us, and then we choose to settle….bad things happen. Truly, it is the Victim Spirit that causes us to begin to settle.

Settling means we have reached a place of believing the prevailing attitude of contentment with the provision of the natural or soul-based realities of life are enough, so much so that settling results in us not moving forward to possess the fullness of what the L-rd has for us. We allow ourselves to walk in so much Deyanu (the Hebrew phrase from the Seder of Pesach that, roughly translated, means “it would have been enough”) that we allow ourselves not move forward to possess the whole of what Father intended for you.

Is there a place for Deyanu and having peace with current circumstances? Yes, provided we are not settling and refusing to go after all the King has for us? If there is something more for us, then Deyanu can be deadly. If He has called us to rest for a season, Deyanu can be good for a season. And we need to discern what is needed in the current season, versus transition to new season.

It means, in the sevenfold parlance of Matthew 23, that we ultimately and progressively preach and do not practice….

The Victim Spirit will tell us to preach/confess things, while simultaneously laying a sort of suffocating cloak or mantle around us that will begin to progressively mess with us, choke the life from us, strangle us, push our spirits in such a way that they move away from us because we no longer have sufficient life to support their presence, and eventually become the burial shroud or grave clothes around us.

This is why the Prophets and Exhorters and Mercies and Givers among us are so critical. They will realize that something is going on and will sound the alarms that not all is well, in order to provoke us to fight for the whole picture, each in their own various ways. They are the Four-Alarm Fire Alarms to the rest of the body.

So, in Matthew 23, here is that settling of the Victim Spirit that wages against godly desire (For those who have not heard me teach through Matthew yet, I call that gospel the Gospel of the Tenth Commandment or the Gospel of Desire. It is godly desire with which the King infuses us, that causes one to wage war against settling.

On the other hand, the Victim Spirit tells us the following:

  1. Do not enter into the responsibility of the Kingdom to Build according to Design (23:13), and you keep others from so doing (becoming factories, which empowers the Third Head of Leviathan, which I will deal with in a future post).
  2. Make proselytes of your incomplete settling and do not engage in the full execution of your G-d-given Authority. Teach those proselytes it is okay to not follow through to press toward and move after their own fullness and fulfillment (23:15). As long as they attempt to do so. Give up at the first sign of any resistance. Contentment with the resources we already have on the natural or soul leel will cause us to stop moving toward birthright, which requires we embrace a certain level of pain which have been filtered and allowed by Father to refine and prove us, testing our mettle and our endurance. Feeling fulfilled and content and BEING fulfilled by possessing all He has for us are not the same thing.
  3. Make oaths and do not engage with the fullness of the Responsibility for walking out the fullness of that oath, and you set up altars and spiritual structures for connecting with G-d via the fence laws and rules but there is not real and complete and riddle-solving encounter, but you end up blinding others in the process to all else except the rules and as a result, the Religious Spirit comes in and makes them do everything except the one thing they were supposed to do (23:16-22) And as a result, you are now a blind guide and a blinding guide.
  4. Tithe all the right money but give no thought to your current Reality and teaching others according to justice (decision-making process: an aspect of love), mercy (staying your hand from vengeance or revenge or vindictive retribution: an aspect of love: Luke 17:1-5, See The Bait of Satan by John Bevere for more material on the execution of this topic), and faithfulness (constant AND consistent treatment of your fellow: an aspect of love) (23:23). This is not managing the reality of your time in the right way, because you are settling for the partial managing of your reality (I am a good boy or girl because I gave my ten percent to the church and can ditch the rest or my Responsibility to engage with Reality as not a priority, which can lead to a nasty devouring of time as you seek for time that feels like it is getting extracted from you as the taxes set in.
  5. Make your Stewardship to look right but still be partial in it because you are full of avarice and self-indulgence (23:25). Settilng for the appearance of looking like a faithful steward while harboring an altar of avarice, which is something the dirt poor can do as effectively as, if not moreso than, the wealthy.
  6. Erecting edifices and systems that look living on the outside (looking at you, Jeff Bezos), but internally are full of grinding death, destruction, exploitation, and break Freedom, instead of the more painful work of moving toward the heart of the Father, Adonai Tsidkenu, Who Makes us Righteous and Who Is Our Justice and who is Eternally the Father Who Teaches Us How To Build and How To Fight.
  7. And finally, treating the exhortations of the past as if you heard them, while embracing a heart that would see the exhortations of today killed off, and settling for a lesser form of fulfillment that ultimately leads to futility (23:2932). This fills up the measure the fathers who were muderers, and that word there for “fill” is the Greek word πληρώσατε from πληρoώ, pronounced like “play-rah-oh”, meaning “I fill” or “I fulfill”. These settlers are fulfilling not the life of men, but the mission of those who in previous generations brought death.

And truly, the Victim Spirit does not want us to engage with our inherent authority and power as G-d’s vice-regents. He does not want us to own our own portion of responsibility for our current problems. So, whatever the Victim Spirit can do to cause you to come up short, change directions, or oscillate, or vascillate, or to go partway, he will bring his friends, the Spirit of Heaviness and the Spirit of Slack (which will masquerade as the Spirit of Peace), and we can, from time to time, mistake vigilance and readiness and pressing through for not having peace.

There is more than you have been taught there is, gang. Desire and do more. The DESIRES OF YOUR HEART are so important to the King, because they given you motive to push through and to fight.

Do so.

THE WHOLE COVENANT AND MERE FOCUSSING ON YESHUA WHILE NEGLECTING JUSTICE IN THE HOUSE OF G-D

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Covenants

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.

Internals as well as externals.

Just some thoughts here.

Miscellaneous Thoughts on Matthew 6 And Being Used

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Matthew

When the King gave counsel in Matthew 6, as with the rest of the gospel of Matthew, he was not advising us in the arena of the sorts of physical things we tend to obsess over, though physical assets are important on some level for living here.

Rather, repeatedly we see a predilection for the internal, the location of the heart, the emotions, the spirit, the soul, the unseen things, the desires on the inside that lead to our actions on the outside.

Matthew was taken up with a 28-chapter exposition, not to give us a new covenant, or a new command, but with exposition of the Tenth Commandment.

Chapter 6 tells us where our desires ought to be. And then the basics of life and everything necessary for life and godliness are added to us.

It is interesting, given the reality that so many struggle, and especially the Giver, with the physical assets, and again, resources we touch are not unimportant, and those who say they are, well, there is something wrong there, with an unhealthy hyper-worm bastard Calvinist theology that says, I do not deserve anything at all. This “total depravity” even of believers flies in the face of the reality of what Father (who strikes me with a massive streak of Giver) did for us, in yielding up His Most Precious Resource for our sakes.

Men and women, you are sons of the kingdom. And the King gives you resources with which to build, and those even include the skillful allocation of the temporal. He does not expect you to be guilted into giving all you have away. He does, however, look to see if you are willing and available, not to be used (as if you are His ho to be used: praying “use me, L-rd” strikes me with a prostitutionary vibe, I almost never pray that, that is devoid of the partnership language the King intends for us).

I do not want to be used. I already had enough issues with rejection and abandonment. Rather, I want to partner with the King who Is Love, and does not USE us, but rather connects with us.

So, let’s look to connect with Him and walk with him.

And, just in case women are irritable at being called sons, just remember, men are called the Bride of Messiah, and I am very comfortable with my Bridal Identity.

So, congratulations, life is uncomfortable for everyone.

Seek first, and all these things will be added.

#LetsBuildSomethingTogether

The Process…..And How G-d Wounds and Heals a Marriage

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Covenants, Marriage, Matthew, Third Principle

Whelp, the Teacher post is again delayed….But that is okay for the moment.

If you are coming from the previous post in this chain, you will know I just dealt with the Mercy, Spider Man from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because I love dealing with and analyzing the culture for patterns of the Redemptive Gifts.

Two cuss words ahead….

Reality…..

It’s a difficult thing to grasp….

In fullness…

Frequently, it doesn’t end the way we want it to end.

But, all our curses, and all our pain, and all our offenses, will not change a thing. Our Only one thing present can redeem us, our pain, our offenses, our curses, our janked-up lives.

The Root of Reality….

He sets the lonely in families, but he first does this by giving us battle buddies, partners, lovers, wives, husbands, brothers. Pairs. It takes a couple to make a family. And that couple started, if redemptive, by Father’s initiation, at the Bridegroom’s response, by wooing us to Himself first. And then by enabling us to see reality if we will embrace it. And that may take us embracing a great deal of pain in order to get to reality in fullness.

Families come because Father places us in proximity, and enables us to fight for one another.

And this unity starts and leads to endurance in fullness because husband and wife will fight for one another according to truth and principles. Unity can only come between husband in wife when they will fight for one another first, and then in the context of that, to fight for those given to them. If we stop being foxhole buddies reloading against the real enemy together, then we are fighting with half our fucking resources.

And I am done watching people fight with half their hands tied behind their backs.

I am done watching people insisting on a fighting with a handicap, and resisting the whole of what Father has given us.

You must fight alongside, pointing your weapons at the true enemy.

That’s reality.

Christ does not fight without his bride.

Why would we expect to be able to fight the enemy of our souls without the keeper of our hearts and lovers of our spirits?

In both of my marriages, my wives and I fought on our own.

I have spent 38 years watching couples fight one another with their earned authority or neglecting their earned authority, focusing on one another with their weapons, rather than partnering against the true enemy.

And I am done with this broken-ass paradigm.

If a marriage is to succeed fully, husband and wife must be joined as partners in the fight. Completely.

If there is a division, then that marriage will be hamstrung. Which means G-d must get us to the place of radical interdependency on one another, partnered with the Executing Spirit (whereas Defilement means “to break apart and violate principles”, Holy and Holiness means “to weave together principles to produce change”, and thus, “to execute”; G-d doesn’t just set us apart to leave us in a place, but rather sets us apart TO DO SOMETHING: it’s a number-line and a vector (direction plus motion) not a boundary line like a fence), then the threefold cord can proceed to the set of works for which we were designed.

Gang, you don’t do this without your partner. Which means G-d has to enable partnership.

Russian Epic of Cinderella……

If shoe fits, wear it….

And in this case, the shoes are the shoes from the Armor of G-d, and no they are not called the Shoes of Peace. The Shoes, which parallel the Redemptive Gift of Teacher, are called the Shoes of Readiness.

καὶ ὑποδησάμενοι τοὺς πόδας ἐν ἑτοιμασίᾳ 

And having bound on the shoes of/in readiness/equipment/preparation

Aaaaaannnnddd cue Teacher rant, because I know that gift…..

DISCLAIMER: If you think this is only directed at the Teachers, you are sorely mistaken. I only talk about the Teacher because it is the gift I love and know the best.

The Principle of Responsibility is tied to being ready and equipped and capable of handling the situations in perfection and excellence with a well-thought-out-and-well-revealed strategy from heaven that is multipronged and give consideration to a breadth of factors.

Boy Scout Motto….Be Prepared….

Deliberate, intense, thoughtful, thorough, perfect….

Take the text the knowledge and do what Del Tarr said and allow the Trinity to turn that knowledge into “KNOWLEDGE ON FIRE”.

Teachers, your job is to lead the charge on this, as did the sons of Levi did at the foot of Horeb, and put your sword to your belt and handle business. Reading the law and hoping it will deliver on the thing on which you should be acting with skill and zeal is not sufficient.

You must do that thing yourself.

And those shoes, which are part of the equipment of every believer and follower of Messiah means that each believer must also get ready and be ready.

That flows from a Gospel of Wholeness/Shalom, but the outward quality that shows itself in the EXECUTION is readiness…..and that skill must predominate between couples that are the root of a family.

And readiness is how you establish a kingdom. Are you ready to run and fight and build and move and work with what you have been given.

That is the work of sons.

And just as men can be the Bride of Messiah, women too can be sons. Congratulations, life is uncomfortable for everyone.

Matthew 24:44…

Get ready……

And now, maybe I can get to the Teacher in due course.

Thrown for a Loop: An Addendum To the Previous Post on The Gospel of Desire

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Matthew

When the King gives you an opportunity, tools, training, and vision, there are some options in which you can engage with those things:

1) complain about what seems to be missing.

2) leave aside His input entirely.

3) continue with what you have in hand and ask His counsel along the way.

4) build something with those items.

5) consult your spirit about what he or she wants to do with those.

6) write out a plan.

7) brainstorm.

8 ) fly by the seat of your pants.

9) consult with your friends about the situation.

10) wait and discern the timing.

11) develop a strategy with the tools while we wait.

12) ponder waiting for further resources.

13) wait and rest while giving our whole person time to catch up to where the L-rd has placed us. 

14) Reorient

15) Leverage what we have to something greater

A few days ago, I posted from The Paraclete’s Hammer, my website, a blog post on εκβάλλω, the Greek word employed by John Mark, who wrote the earliest Gospel.

It describes Yeshua getting thrown or driven into the wilderness by the Spirit, following His baptism and evoking the Father’s pleasure. It is possible, given Messiah’s full humanity, that He needed to take a moment and reorient Himself to His new surroundings.

And the same holds true for us.  When we are disoriented, we need to take stock and assess.  Maybe even develop a plan. And that’s not just a plan for in the wilderness with survival. It’s a longer-term plan for the seasons beyond the wilderness.

Sometimes, we turn waiting in a passive thing, which is fine if we need to rest and recoup and we are  a touch disoriented about the plan going forward.

However, waiting can also be an active exercise, depending on the needs of the season.

Waiting can be a developing season.

Removal of junk, clarifying of perspective, removal of obstacles, distillation of identity.

So, if you are thrown, ponder what the King has for you.

The Gospel of Desire: Part 9; Matt. 4:1 _______ By the Spirit, The Spirit’s Desires, And He Does Not Always Gently Lead Us

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Matthew

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

Matthew 4:1 (ESV)

You know, gang, there is a word in this verse that I like to look at, especially because of the Markan account’s differentiation.

Gang, sometimes there is a wilderness….

And sometimes there is a gentle leading….

This wilderness and temptation is not that gentle leading stuff, and this is also not necessarily tender and affectionate. This is εκβάλλω.

See the Mark account, which is the language of a Prophet. Mark was, in the language of some, taking down the recountings of Peter, who always entered a room mouth-first. Peter, as a Redemptive Gift Prophet wasn’t know for his gentleness, but rather his boldness. And in Jesus retelling of his wilderness experience, Peter got the sense that the King wasn’t being tensely led out or slowly led out, as a bridegroom does for their bride.

The Spirit immediately drove him out (threw him out) into the wilderness.

Mark 1:14 (ESV)

“Drove”, or, as the Greek says, “thrown out”, which is the same word used when Yeshua talked about throwing out demonic entities.

Yes, this was a fathering approach. It was this dynamic pregnant with “get thee thence eftsoons”. Without delay, with purpose.

Gang, yes, this isn’t the kind language of Hosea, “who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her Beloved?”. And there is a time and a place for soft and gentle language and action. But there is also a time for us to get thrown into situations that the King knows will make us uncomfortable.

So, as squishy as He might make you, and as lovesick as His interacting with you might make you, those memes about the L-rd will never push you, drive you, are simply untrue.

They are memes, which is why they make a quick attention grab, but they are usually trite and overused.

Also, rememeber (pun intended), this getting thrown is to a specific purpose. Truly, the L-rd may suddenly move you into a place, and you will feel a driving force. He may order a separation or a push that He won’t tell anyone else about.

And it can look or feel like an internal drive or an external drive.

Or He might assign to you a task with a specific timeframe, and tell you to get cracking on it.

But, be encouraged, because there will be wild beasts there to connect with and malakim to minister living water. 

And that season will feel full of focussed intensity. As in the case of Yeshua, it was 40 days.

As each of these masculine seasons ought to.

The Spirit of G-d Will Not Violate the Word of -G-d…What’s Wrong With This Statement?

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Principles, Whole Counsel

Most of you who know me, know I am an obsessive texualist; I love the written Scriptural text of both the New Testament and the Tanakh. In their original languages (Hebrew AND Greek).

However, I have also noticed a disturbing reality.

What do I mean by that?

Well, it’s a trend toward incompleteness.

For example…

“The Bible is the Word of G-d.“

“One interpretation…many applications…“

“G-d will not violate His Word.“

“To equip the saints for the work of ministry….”…silence on what happens after that…

“A team of scholars worked on this translation” …silence on identifying the names of the people who constitute this team…

“G-d is moving up here…”…people fall out, BUT there is little change in their lives weeks later to indicate G-d was moving.

“So-and-so is ready to return to ministry….”…same minister also didn’t reconcile with the first wife or husband he or she cheated on to begin with…

And so forth…

Oh yeah, and the only two political parties in America that merit prophetic words are red and blue…

It remains problematic when we refuse to dig into the nuance of a statement and do not ask what is and what is not being implied in that statement…

It is asinine when we are either ignored when we question the statements being made…

called religious or critical when we look for clarification…

or gaslit when we refuse to accept what is said without question…

It is one of the main threads of my calling to not settle for halfway or partial answers when they are given.

Carlene Prince once told me that I have to look for what is missing…she noted that that is something I do.

And she is right. I hate half-assed investigations.

And I know I sound rude when I question what is stated…

But I cannot accept partial answers or perceived partial answers when they are given.

Especially when some of my friends have been seriously damaged by partial answers.

And my second wife is dead because of partial answers.

These partial answers are the Reasons when you say, “obey my covering”, that I respond with a glorious middle finger.

Gang, one of those statements that is maddeningly incomplete is “the Spirit of G-d will not violate the Word of G-d.”

And we are left with Zero discussion about which “Word of G-d” we mean.

And Zero curiosity about the inverted statement.

And Zero desire to ask if there are any other immutable items which the Spirit of G-d will not violate.

So, here has always been my thought to add to the statement “the Spirit of -G-d will not violate the Word of G-d.”

“Neither will the Word of G-d, both living and written (two forms of λόγος), violate the Spirit of G-d.”

And equally important and immutable as testimony to the Word of G-D’s veracity, and equally admissible as testifying of the Word Himself, are His Works.

…that is, what He does (John 5:36) is as important as the words about him.

And Yeshua BEING THE WORD OF G-D, is blasphemously ignored in this statement in Josh’s gospel. (Hebrews 4:11-16).

We refuse to investigate it because we are told to investigate it is heresy.

Gang, it’s not enough, especially given the regularity with which we ignore the Spirit of G-d, for us to merely assert thus-and-so about the words He speaks WITHOUT ALSO AFFIRMING His WORDS that His works are admissible as much as His tesitmony. It’s ironic that He would speak words about the veracity of his works and we would ignore those words about His works.

Tree carcasses and e-carcasses, if not attended to in reading by the Spirit, who alone gives understanding, will not bring life.

Rather, they will kill.

And that suddenly.

For those who have been so traumatized by the Scriptural text, as one who walks in the authority of a scribe, I would implore you to get out into nature and allow the King to meet you there where He is also. Or whereever you find him.

His Words and His Works…

What is missing from your regular routine that is life-giving and points you back home to Dad?

Go and do that.

And know you are so loved, gang.

And, as someone who reads the text and enjoys it, I would encourage you to do things that are life-giving to your relationship with the King without feeling guilty.

Be blessed as you recover your own walk with Him, gang.

The Gospel of Desire: Part 1

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Matthew

I come back to this now, at the end of some things, and the beginning of others.

Having read an old post on transformation and metamorphosis, I recognize that, via my YouTube channel, I have partly stored the lessons I spoke on the Gospel of Desire (Matthew). But I realize that the other portion of those lessons were downloaded from BookFace, so in the interest of providing access to my thoughts about the central theme of Matthew, namely desire, I will attempt to start a process of chronicling those thoughts here.

And to those who are irritated with the rerun of old content, I offer an apology. And now, given the woman formerly known as Peaches is gone, and Tirzah is running with the horses and speaking with the Naiads and Dryads, in accordance with the King’s desires and her design, I realign those thoughts here in keeping with the new season.

Desire

Why do I use the word “desire” to describe Matthew’s central theme? Because too much of the teaching of this gospel’s texts are devoted to talking about how Yeshua was giving them new ways of interpreting the Decalogue.

I do not think Yeshua is doing anything new. I think too much of the church’s obsession with the New Covenant or being a New Testament Church has kept them from seeing the wholeness of the covenant Father has given His children, and the grace Father gives us, as well as His concern for the internal workings that is found in the Tanakh.

The frame that leads to the execution of the first nine commandments is the Tenth Commandment: the work done in the three hearts (Brain, Myocardium, Reins all three think and act and desire). It is our desire internally, our zeal, and our passions that lead us to act externally. They color our interaction with the King; our days of rest; our parents; and our interpersonal ethics touching life, sexuality, property, and verbal integrity. That commandment is all about the internals. No desire for things G-d has forbidden shall even be permitted to enter your heart. “Guard your heart with all dilligence”, saith the Exhorter Solomon. It is the execution of this Mercy commandment that shows the other commandments have stuck in their place. It is the yearnings of our hearts that show Whom we have chosen to be our G-d.

So, what Yeshua is trying to do repeatedly throughout Matthew, with sharp focus on Matthew 5-8, is to get his audiences to handle the heart of the matter and encourage us to see execution flow from our inner man.

Matthew 1:1

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham…

Matthew 1:1 ESV

Genealogy. Legacy. Those things that began in the heart, flow into a cascade of elements on the timestream. The intense reaction of those visceral elements lead to the creation of new humanity. Desire. In the case of the Matthew text, we consider the desire of Abraham and David.

Are we genuinely blocked or do we just feel blocked? So let’s look at Abraham. Was Abraham blocked? No. G-d assured him several times, “Everything’s on course. I got this wired. I know what I am doing.” But he felt enormously blocked because he was using a human grid. There’s this pesky little thing called menopause that was bothering him…but he’s looking at this situation and saying “according to the human grid that I know, I am blocked”. G-d operated outside the human grid. He was not the least bit concerned about biological time clocks ticking, because he had a bigger plan. The problem was that Abraham and G-d had very different objectives for his life. Abraham had a small grid; he wanted to be a dad. That’s all he wanted…. “Just give me a son”. He’ll even settle for the son of a slave, and be a happy camper. And G-d said, “well you may be a happy camper, but I’m not.”

Arthur Burk; When Your Call Is Blocked; Disc 1, Cut 4, Timestamp 0:13-1:24, Toronto City Church, Toronto, ON; 19 March 2016

Abraham was willing to settle because his desires were in a different place, and G-d in His mercy, forced His agenda onto Abraham whether or not Abraham agreed.

Sometimes, G-d is a gentlemen, and sometimes, He’s downright pushy. Some places on universal timestream from the vantage point of Gallifrey are fixed and cannot be moved, and some can be moved. And the good Doctor is intent that those places that are fixed come to pass, come hell or high water.

And our small grid may get in the way of the execution of that fixed point.

Building into Abraham the superstructure that was necessary for laying the foundation for an entire nation of priests was a tall order; it was more than the mere passage of sperm into ovum. It was the careful setting in place of 100 years in Abraham, followed by the interaction of that which is spiritual by design with that which is also spiritual in the womb of Sarah. That zygote/baby knitting, gestation, and birth was followed by 75 years of G-d’s intent Abraham would pour ONLY into Isaac, followed by Isaac begetting and then pouring into Jacob, and then the promise came to pass with the birth of twelve sons.

Likewise, we have to take our agendas and set them into alignment with His agendas. Desire. What are our internals saying to G-d, and are they listening to Him and receiving not only G-d’s word spoken to us, but also our reins, cleansed and set into alignment delivering right counsel in the night seasons? Both the interaction between us and the King, and between us and our reins must be operant, especially since He has designed the reins, the kidneys and adrenals, to give us counsel while we sleep (Psalm 16:7: in the night my heart (Hebrew for “reins”: AKA: the kidneys and adrenals) instructs me).

Is it any wonder the enemy assaults our dreams as children in one of the first overt attacks of our lives?

For example, consider the following. Starke, Florida, in the small neighborhood of Saratoga Heights. Sukkot 1984, though no one in this home knew it was Sukkot. This family of sometimes three, but usually four (these days) is getting ready to carve pumpkins and welcome the annual neighborhood romp with some 20-50 of their best friends. Many of the families are knitted together on some level. These are families that embrace the rhythm of fundraisers, and the county fair, and Dan and Cleo Harley’s watermelons in the summer, and campouts in the backyard belonging to Wayne Wynn, just a year before Shigeru Miyamoto throws their non-education seasons into all-night digital raves, complete with soundtracks that will deeply mark this generation, causing them to thank the L-rd in Heaven above for the presence of a Japanese Sapphire Company with enough petty cash and legal armies to choke every T-Rex on earth.

And they know their neighborhood will be visited, as happens every year, by families who travel from as far as 20 miles away. And to their knowledge, not a practicing witch in sight.

No thoughts of anything horrid cross the mind of the youngest of this family, a small boy, hair blond as the vaults in Kentucky and Sutter’s Mill five generations ago.

He only knows he hates writing and loses his 16-count Crayola boxes every other week. He also knows the autumn days in Northeast Florida are their usual just crisp and getting ready to turn for the cooler, and though no Berkshire festive oranges and browns and candy-apple reds will cause leafers to commence their peeping in these sub-tropical lattitudes, he knows there is enough chill in the air for the aroma of bacon, Velveeta, and corn to commingle on the gas-powered stove. And that glory is the work of this woman.

This night, October 10, sets itself to mark the boy permanently, because on this night, the Man From Nazareth appears in the boy’s bedroom in a plain white linen robe with brown beard and long flowing brown hair and asks him what he wants. Blank check. Keys to the kingdom. Maserati. A little boy who knows only to believe what he sees without questioning if there are hidden motives blurts out the first thing he feels: a deep longing for a father, for what reason he does not know. Except he knows something (masculine?) has been missing from his short existence. And though he knows there is currently a man in the house, he also intuits the man cannot give what he does not have. But this Man, Himself a Son, can.

And he hears words that awaken his spirit.

“I will be your father.”

And for a few minutes, the Gardener and the boy discuss the most important item of the moment: the boy’s pillow and the Sesame Street pillowcase.

And following that night, the boy knows without anyone telling him so, and confesses as such, that this Man was the Son of G-d.

And then the very next night, he is visited by another, but strangely dark, female entity, who shares no name. And for the next 14 years: abuse (emotional, physical, sexual, mental) by that entity and her fellows.

With no explanation, and no solution, for he does not know how to repel or fight those attacks, the boy has to, in his spirit, grasp for whatever he can find.

But he still knows about the Son, and refuses to stop looking for the Son, though some seasons are easier than others. And several months after the initial encounter with the son, the boy’s father leaves with little understanding.

So, what happens to that boy?

Well, he grows with a huge amount of pain without explanation, but he also is given a keen capacity to memorize huge chunks of Scripture and teach those chunks. He is also able to remember all kinds of things the L-rd shows him. And, while he is not taken too seriously by those around him, because of his age, yet he knows there is something awake in Him that most people live their entire lives without.

The King’s embrace and intimacy in that fight are tangible assets for this young boy in the fight against the forces of darkness.

Past year 14 of the spiritual abuse in his dreams, he meets another teenager in college who was the victim of childhood epilepsy, and was delivered by the L-rd from the enemy and a spirit of epilepsy with not a single instance of the dreaded disease past the age of seven. And this friend, this college roommate, teaches our young lad, now 18, how to respond to these very unjust assaults. Our young lad learns how to fight, and fight he does.

The Desire of David will come in the next post. But I want to leave you all with the following.

Aligning of Desires With the Author of Desires

Gang, no matter what happens, your life with the King is one of aligning your desire and drive to find what you were made to do, so that you can leave a legacy. And to you is apportioned a group of gifts and tests designed for you. And you are made to be forged so that “no weapon that is fashioned against” you can prosper.

We are each placed into a forge so that we can handle the gifts and the tools the King gives us with sobriety and a ready mind, heart, and set of reins.

The key to Isaiah 54:17 is found in the desires that are encouraged in Isaiah 54:1-16.

Sing, oh barren woman.

Break forth into singing

Your children, o desolate one, will be more that those of she who is married.

Enlarge the place of your tent.

Stretch out your curtains.

DO. NOT. HOLD. BACK.

Lengthen your lines

Strengthen your stakes.

Spread abroad to the right and the left.

Your offspring will possess the nations.

And people the desolate cities.

Do not be afraid.

For you will not be ashamed.

Do not be confounded.

For you will not be disgraced.

For you will forget the shame of your youth.

And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.

For your Maker is your husband (brides make better warriors than subjects).

The L-rd has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit.

For a brief moment I deserted you

But with great compassion I will gather you.

Know that even should the mountains be removed and the hills depart, that His steadfast love will not depart from you.

And these are the promises, o afflicted one.

Stones of antimony

Foundations of the sapphires like to the appearance of the Shammayim

Pinnacles of Agates.

Gates of Carbuncles.

Walls of precious stones, and not walls of text.

All your children shall be taught of the L-rd, and great shall be the wholeness of your children

In righteousness you shall be established

You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;

And from terror, for it shall not come near you.

If anyone stirs up strife with you, they shall fall because of you.

SEE I HAVE CREATED THE BLACKSMITH

WHO BLOWS THE FIRES OF COALS

AND PRODUCES A WEAPOM FOR ITS PURPOSE.

The point is that the blacksmith, the Paraclete, takes His hammer and forges us and tempers us in order that the weapons forged by the ancient enemy, the clowns, will not ultimately prosper.

Gang, no matter what has happened to you, there is a center and a core of you that the enemy is incapable of touching or molesting.

So, I bless you each to receive HIS desires and that the design and desires HE put into you, you would reflect those desires back to HIM and WALK IN THE DESIRES YOU HAVE WHICH HE PUT INTO YOU.

I bless you to see the key to Isaiah 54:17 in the previous 16 verses, and the necessity of being proven and refined and forged so that you do not fall apart at the first sign of trouble, but rather that you become a trouble to the enemy of your souls.

I bless you to hold your peace as best you can while you are being fashioned and forged, and I bless you to grow into the safe place to hold that treasure in the earthen vessel that you are.

Be at peace, dearest and lovliest of friends.

Alleluia….

That Awkward Moment When…..

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Principles, Revelation 3

…you are not anyone’s flavor of the month because you have to confront everyone.

So, because you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out.

From Revelation 3

Sometimes, there are occasions when we have to take care of others, and other times, there are occasions when we have to impose responsibilities on others in order force or provoke growth in them.

I appear to finish this sabbatical in the same place where I began it: being a goad in the lives of those who need to mature.

I have seen a lot of good come from showing silence or gentleness to community, especially when community grows indifferent or unreceptive. However, there are times we need to shake or stir or provoke community so that it does not entropate.

The verb form of “entropy”, coined by yours truly.

There was a reason the only people vomited from our L-rd’s mouth were those who refused to decide between two useful states and attempted to mix the two into a state of apathy.

Lukewarmth defeats the twin purposes of hot and cold and leads to a destroyed twisting, much like the bile-laden and undigested garbage that is rejected by the king.

Gang, I would like to issue a challenge.

Cold is useful. As is hot. The text of Revelation and the rest of the canon never rejects the idea of “cold”, and, indeed, if we read the context, we will appreciate that reality.

But if you find yourself in a doldrumous place of apathy or refusal to fight or stir up what is needed to stir up, I would urge you to consider asking the King to shake you up in some fashion.

He might just surprise you.

Be blessed to receive His stirring of your spirit.