Category: Principles

Strong Men and Power Vs. Weak Men and Power: The Respect For Power That Comes Because of the Struggle

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Humility, Third Principle

Dr. Erskine: A Good Man

“This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power, but a weak man know the value of strength. And knows compassion.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing, That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.”

Abraham Erskine and Steve Rogers, “Captain America: The First Avenger

Too often, we have grown comfortable witpower after being used to powerlessness, and we allow that power to grant us legitimacy, and we never get healed in our heart, our mind, and/or our spirits.

I think G-d wants to grant us His power and his authority, but He wavers when it comes to granting power to those who are not yet healed or who rely on their own talents, powers, authority, ability, skill in order to create a place where they feel legitimacy.

It is a hard place to be when you trust to your own design and then lose respect fot the power that comes with that design.

But when you allow Father regular and constant input into how you use and allocate the gift of your design (which is one way to define humility), then you are capable of executing when you need to execute, and you are capable of restraining when Father wants you to restrain.

Sure, you can fix a problem, but the question is, “Should you?” And what are the effects that will roll out if you solve that problem for others, instead of allowing them the opportunity to struggle for the solutions? Are you shortchanging others of the struggle they need to earn, not only the power to solve a particular problem, but also the respect that comes with struggling for the power that will ultimately come with mastery.

Sometimes, G-d allows us a struggle so that we earn respect and cultivate humility that is critical in order to skillfully weild the power to [fill in the blank].

“I’ll tell you the probelm with the scietific power that you’re using here. It didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You know, you read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even know what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you are selling it. [Your scientists] so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t bother to stop and ask if they should .”

Ian Malcom, “Jurassic Park”

From ´Ολα Τα Ονόματα: Name of G-d #179: G-d of the Land Now

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Seven Principles

The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.

Leviticus 25:23 ESV

The earth is the L-rd’s and the fullness thereof,

the world and those who dwell therein

Psalm 24:1 ESV

Arguments of Futility

I am not in alignment with most of the realm of theology that says “what is the point of stewardship when the L-rd is going to destroy this world anyway? This world is going to burn up and not be redeemed and restored so what is the point.”

That sort of mindset seems to bring with it the baggage of the carelessness and apathy toward the current creation, and it smacks of a prevailing attitude of futility.

I simply cannot get on board with that.

What the L-rd Means.

It occurs to me that the L-rd has a purpose for us here and now and us on the land here and now. I realize the above passages, the first written about the Promised Land, and the second written by a king from the Promised Land, seem to not be written to us, but there is a deeper principle that is worth unpacking, regardless of how we think Revelation should be interpreted, with its account of the destruction of the earth and the appearance of the new heavens and the new earth.

We are placed on this earth, not to allow stuff to happen with zero input from us, but to be redemptive agents of the King as He unpacks the processes in us, and through us, and to us. Through those processes, He redeems and brings us to fullness, and all of creation to fullness and fulfillment.

We are not passive agents, but active agents. We have, in many places been taught to be passive, but that is not the King’s way.

We might have been taught that we are supposed to completely divest ourselves of a hustle-and-grind mindset, and while this is a new season in history both for the kingdom of G-d and for the church, there is a level of intentional behavior we are supposed to take on and keep. True, the King doesn’t primarily work through systems of authority and protocol, or hustle-and-grind, but rather intimacy. However, in this reality, we cannot take that gooshy intimacy to mean we can get rid of being active and industrious and working to impact the world around us. G-d wants us sustained, sustaining, and concieving things that are sustainable.

Sustained

G-d is the one responsible for providing resources to us, and He has given EACH of us something that will enable us to step into a place of provision. That “something” might be a skill, a network of relationships, or the understanding of how to do a task, but in each of us is a means of providing for us.

Sustaining

As we increase from using those tools G-d has give us, we sustain others around us, which includes us taking care of the land that is His, and is a resource to us, given to us to manage for Him. If that means you spend time with the land blessing it or using a shovel and gardening tools to cultivate it in the spring; or a lawn mower to make money in the summer; or a snowblower in the winter; or a rake in the fall; or wine, salt, and oil combined with the spoken word in the season of desperation to free the land; or seeding the soil, or planting plants, flowers for the pollinators, or vegetables and fruits for your family, or working with the portals on your land, all sorts of things can be done to help sustain others around you.

Sustainable

On the seventh day, when G-d rested, we hear about how He sanctified time and made it holy, which is the first time that word “holy” is mentioned, but we also may miss what else is happening because it is not spelled out in the canon for us, so we have to feel and sense and know what else that is unreported, yet is happening, in the gap between Genesis 1:31 and Genesis 2:4.

Can you hear the hum of the bees and the stretch of the grass, and the fluttering and seed cracking of the birds, and the song of the whales and the Leviathans in the oceans, and the rattles of pit vipers, and the stroke of whale flukes, and the groaning yaws of mid-ocean ridges, and the flowing of springs as the boils crackle with ice-cold water as the surfaces of the waters are disturbed and stirred?

Can you hear the starsongs as the hosts proclaim the justice of the crucifixion as those sounds of light, darkness, groaning, laments, laughing, forgiveness, and the sound of the hammerstrikes and the execution of pericardial effusion echo through the hum of creation as the Son’s first reality pierces the Holy Peace of Eden?

The portals each echo with some dynamic of that deathsong and subsequent lifesong, because they are the foundations of the earth, and the Son’s work impacts the holding points between the foundations and each of those portals.

The Light Portals weep over the loss of light and shine all the more brightly in celebration over the Lamb’s Victory that is coming and as warfare against the outer darkness.

The Weather Portals and the Water Portals feel the invisible flow of realities we call air masses moving, producing winds and humidity movement, as they produce the various manifestations we see along fronts, and they know the deluge that approaches, and they feel the tension, though rain has not yet happened.

The Fragrance Portals sense the deep things of the Riddles of G-d as the Lion sings creation into existence with her fragrant wisteria, stargazer lillies, apple blossoms, citrus blossoms, roses, and over flora, and they wait for the Son to flick the combiation, as the ingredients of the bread dough are kneaded together and milled and fermented in order to unlock the full rising of the Kingdom.

The Time Portals know what is present, past, and future, and days of future already past, and so they spiral to show a broader picture.

The Sound Portals Fill their vicinity with the voices of the hosts of heaven who illustrate truths from reality about the Son’s rightful place given his past suffering that root the newly-reborn world.

The Earth Gates open wide to permit the movement of celestial messengers trafficking in Freedom and Righteousness as they systematically execute the will of the One Who Sent them.

And the Mist Portals, well, those provided pockets of rest for those who need a Sabbath rest.

And as we are present now, we must see that in creation, there was created a hum of sustainability that is disproportionate to the hard work that was sown into the creation.

And we work to repeat that sustainability elsewhere.

Not as a devil-may-care, “I-don’t-give-a-damn” what happens to creation, but as a Son of the G-d of the Land Now, we use this reality now as a lab to unpack our fullness, rejecting the idea of futility, and the encroaching heresy “It’s already all been decided, so what change can I have” nonsense.

And we step out as agents of the G-d of the Land Now, and we engage with the Land NOW, and we do not stop until WE. ARE. FULLY. UNPACKED. The point is, as we work to unpack land, we are ourselves digging into us and unpacking and healing and restoring our treasures. The work with land does redeem and restore the creation now, but it also is a tool by which Father shows us and helps us in ourseves.

And those of us with a creation calling, reject this nonsense of “there is no point”.

Because that “there-is-no-point” mindset belongs on the lake of fire together with all of those rebellious Leviathans that rejected the seven pillars of wisdom and so found themselves hurled from the King’s presence.

If you will stand, gang, with the seven pillars of Wisdom in your right hand, and work with creation, you will see more keenly the G-d of the Land Now.

The following blessing can be useful for anyone, but I am particuarly focusing it to those who are designed to work with land.

A Blessing

So, I bless you, spirit, to find the G-d of the Land Now. I bless you to hear Him as He shows you the soil not just of His intentions for creation now, but also for you now. I bless you to find all that He has made for you in creation and the land He has for you now.

Proverbs 31:16 says that we consider a field and buy it.

That means each of you are meant to interact with land on some level. That may not mean that land is your primary purpose, but you are still made for land on some level.

I bless you to unpack the kingdom in you and in the land to the degree you were made to unpack it.

I bless you, spirit, to know which portions of you are made for the land in which you find yourself.

I bless you to turn your face to Father and know what tools He means for you to sow into and reap from the land.

I bless you to know the Redemptive Gift of the land where you are.

I bless you to resist and fight and war against the spirit of futility.

I bless you to renounce the judgments that are leveled against you because your love for land is “getting in the way of the important work of dealing with winning lost souls of humanity to the L-rd”. Spirit, you are not crazy. You are doing what you were made to do.

I bless you to see land where you are and where you go redeemed.

I bless you to read about the results of your land work in the papers on Monday Morning.

I bless you to feel and experience the pleasure of the Holy Spirit as you work at restoring the land to the L-rd’s original design.

And I bless you, together with the Righteous Leviathans that are turbocharged by the execution of the Seven Pillars, to carry those Seven Pillars in your right hand and to walk in the strength of those Pillars, the Principles of G-d.

Be at peace, spirit, in the name of Yeshua.

Tourette’s and Yelling Ad Hominem Attacks At Believers…

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Cancel Culture, Principles Of Relationships, Uncategorized

Calling someone [insert your chosen adjective here]phobic just because one follows the L-rd and chooses to practice and teach biblical standards of morality is intellectually lazy.

This nonsense of yelling ad hominem attacks “transphobic” and “homophobic” just because one believes what Scripture teaches about G-D’s design for human relationships when they also demonstrate love of people, regardless of their choices, instead of having an honest and frank discussion about the disagreements is the epitome of sloth and it is choosing to be half-blind and enslaved to the opinion of cancel culture.

If you cannot handle divergent beliefs but are willing to move along from the disagreement, that is one thing.

However, it is quite another thing to accuse people of a phobia because they refuse to bow the knee to your every whim…

and if they refuse to bow the knee, for you to stick them in a box that forces or mandates they remain silent. This has been your PSA.

Leviathan Post Series Prequal 4: The Principle of Stewardship

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Fifth Principle, Leviathan, Seven Principles, Stewardship

The Tools In Our Hands

“What is that in your hand?”

G-d to Moses on Mt. Horeb. Exodus 4:2, ESV

What do you have in your hand? What do you bring to the table?

That is a key question, gang. And it is potentially dangerous to ask and answer unless we answer it carefully and thoughtfully. Why is that? Because we frequently have a very small idea of what we mean by “tools” and “resources”. We hear resources and we too often think of cash, or liquid assets we see. We often do not think about our relationships, our understanding, our knowledge, in part because we misapplied Paul’s exhortation, and just because we call those things (degrees and licenses and all that other stuff) shit (the Greek word σκύβαλον translates to “shit”), does not mean we reject the idea of using those items to further the plan of G-d in our lives.

Is It Really Junk?

Just because something looks like junk in your life, does not mean that G-d cannot use it.

So, at the outset of your working through approaching the work G-d has for you, toward your places of destiny, remind yourself of all the resources you have at your disposal. Truly, G-d gave you money to manage…

But He also gave you skill (Deuteronomy 8:18), friendships (Proverbs 17:17), work (Genesis 2:15), plans (Jeremiah 29:11, Proverbs 16:1, 3, 9; 19:21), rest (Mark 2:27), and family (Psalm 68:6).

And that word “skill” covers everything you do with your hands, mind, feet, anything you move to act on. The capacity to work and do something, and to do it with skill is a gift from Him. It is not just about being able to do something; it is about recognizing, discovering, and honing your strong suits so that you can do, with maximum effectiveness, the very things you love.

Our capacity to see everything we have in hand becomes a stepping stone.

“Away from what, though?”, you might ask.

The Poverty Spirit

When we only think of resources in terms of a very narrow band of things, then we might miss something G-d wants us to use. For example, the heading above brings to the minds of many Charismatic followers of Christ the conviction and curse that we will not have enough money, that we will constantly be in lack and that it is a demon that is causing this financial lack. While that is part of what the Poverty Spirit does, its full trafficking is in the arena of blinding us to everything to which we have access; its design is to keep us from seeing all of the available resources.

Stewards Don’t Rule, Or Take Authority That Is Not Theirs; They Manage and Protect For Those That Will Come

“Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the King, Steward!”
“The rule of Gondor is mine! And no others!”

Yeah…

Truly, Givers are Stewards. And a Steward is a manager, not an Owner, and not a King. They are meant to recognize, gather, and protect resources for the return of the king. Further, a Steward is also given authority to allocate resources in accordance with what he or she knows about the king’s nature. And note what the King gives the Steward to do; The king will usually give the steward a great deal of latitude, provided the Steward is sober-minded and possessed of sound judgment.

Put succinctly, the Steward has the freedom to manage the king’s resources, and they may abuse those resources for a season, or they may manage those resources shrewdly for a season, but at some point there is going to be an accounting of his or her handling of the resources.

Not Indentured Servitude

Our interaction with the King, at many points, does mirror a partnership. Partners discuss and connect. Partners each bring things to the table. Partners work together. Partners walk in transparency one with another. Partners usually have chemistry if they are to survive. Partners walk in loyalty. Partners are authentic. Partners have open communication with one another. Partners synch. Partners love each other. Partners solve problems. And Partners walk in collaboration and encourage one another.

However, we are duty-bound to find the principles that are explicated in Scripture and to EXECUTE. Obedience is part of the equation.

Stewardship is part of the equation.

And awareness and allocation of available resources are also parts of the equation. Adapt and overcome. Sonship. Semper Fi. Do your job, and stop with the complaining that you do not have what you need.

Right now, without extra and added gifts given to you by others, you have treasure, gifts, resources, wealth and assets around you.

How are you managing what you are managing?

Stewardship Is Management of The Resources Given To You

Furthermore, our job and our responsibility are not to steward the resources that are not given to us. Management is not ownership, nor is it control, and the sooner we get that as a church, and especially Stewards (Givers), for whom the ROI in Stewardship is bonkers disproportionate, the sooner we will quit having the stupid effects that manifest from controlling and dictating resources. Take that, William H. Gates III, thou cankerous kakanthropist!

Stewardship is not management of the resources that are not give to you.

It’s not about screwing up the Servant (the atmosphere and the weather patterns) and blocking out the Exhorter’s impact on the planet by spraying ANY FREAKING THING, NO MATTER HOW “SAFE” IT IS.

The second you start managing resources that are not yours, like thrones, or weather patterns, or money, or emotions, or members of a church under your apostolic oversight (which is a satanic contradiction of terms, apostles do not oversee or cover anything), or networks, or families, or nations (the President is not a king)…is the second junk gets Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.

On one level, Stewardship is accomplishing someone else’s agenda with someone else’s resources.

However, let’s boil it down a bit further.

Stewardship is using given or possessed resources to accomplish an agenda.

So, two things that every Steward (Giver) must answer for themselves, in the context of the Cardinal Virtue of Walking By Faith.

Whose resources are currently in your hand?

Whose agenda are you accomlplishing?

What Resources?

Everything that we have, from the breath in our lungs; the money in our pockets; the books on our shelves; and the knowledge in our brains, minds, hearts, reins, and spirits; to the relationships with our friends, to the bit of creation with which we interact, to the skills in our minds and hands and the understanding we have in both our spirits and souls are all resources. And we are managing each a vast pool of talent and garage full of tools and resources.

Whose Agenda?

Whose agenda are you fulfilling? If you can accomplish the King’s agenda while simultaneously blessing one or more people or creation or time in so doing, whether or not those people see your actions as a blessing, then youu will have accomplished much.

Couple All This With….

Righteous communication…

How did Denethor, son of Ecthelion actually die?

Read the books….seriously, Return of the King, Chapter 7: “The Pyre of Denethor”

“‘Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death,’ answered Gandalf. ‘And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death.’ Then passing through the door he took Faramir from the deadly house and laid him on the bier on which he had been brought, and which had now been set in the porch. Denethor followed him, and stood trembling, looking with longing on the face of his son. And for a moment, while all were silent and still, watching the Lord in his throes, he wavered.”

“Then suddenly Denethor laughed. He stood up tall and proud again, and stepping swiftly back to the table he lifted from it the pillow on which his head had lain. Then coming to the doorway he drew aside the covering, and lo! he had between his hands a palantir. And as he held it up, it seemed to those that looked on that the globe began to glow with an inner flame, so that the lean face of the Lord was lit as with a red fire, and it seemed cut out of hard stone, sharp with black shadows, noble, proud, and terrible. His eyes glittered.

“‘Didst thou think that the eyes of the White Tower were blind? Nay, I have seen more than thou knowest, Grey Fool. For thy hope is but ignorance. Go then and labour in healing! Go forth and fight! Vanity. For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched. All the East is moving. And even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up Anduin a fleet with black sails. The West has failed. It is time for all to depart who would not be slaves.’”

from The Return of the King by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Chaoter 7: The Pyre of Denethor

After these things, Denethor takes the palantir and jumps headlong into the funeral pyre.

He was corrupted because he allowed his communications with the palantir to become corrupted by the tempting of Sauron and as a result, his capacity to hear people’s hearts rightly became corrupted. He was a Steward who wished to become a Ruler.

Givers, also named Stewards, your portion is to release the revelation of wise and skillful management without being fleeced and taken advantage of by hucksters (which are a dime a dozen) to the house of the L-rd and the Bride of Christ.

There is a life-giving agenda that can only be accomplished by the Stewards of the Realm of Messiah, and they have to teach skillful handling of communications media and sound in order to help hearts be heard and fine print be seen.

Denethor failed at his job of communications, holding a device of communication.

Will you fail? I dare say NEVER!

I encourage you Givers to KEEP POUNDING AND KEEP RUNNING IN RIGHTEOUS COMMUNICATIONS with the tools of communication the King has given you.

Your forté is skillful and subtle. To teach people a gentler, more well-timed touch and word. Kindness and gentler touches.

It is no coincidence that Arthur’s Teaching of the Giver in Redemptive Gifts of Individuals was with a lighter touch.

Everything Giver is with a lighter touch.

So, take this important principle, gang, and especially you Givers/Stewards and marshal those skillful words and touches.

Alienation Is Not the United States’ Inheritance Or the Intended Destiny of Any Of Its Inhabitants, Native Or Otherwise… Do Not Buy Off On It In Your Political Zeal

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles, Principles Of Relationships

People, especially followers of Christ in the United States, are going to certify and legitimize massive alienation beyond what the L-rd has commanded in this season.

Granted, in the case of Saul and Samuel, the removal of G-d’s Spirit from Saul and His commanding Samuel to stop grieving over Saul is one example where G-d legitimized alienation as a result of persistent rebellion–

And DO NOT get it twisted. This blog post is not an opportunity for people to say one political party or another is damned by G-d for its behavior. so do not use it as your time to grandstand for your chosen model

Rather, it is an opportunity to remind you, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, Progressive; Anarco-Capitalist, Keynesian, Smithian, Austrian economists, Communists, etc., to work for reconciliation and for removal of your pet ideology and to look for the execution of the Kingdom of Our L-rd in your life and with your fellow man.

Granted, various partisan and “non-partisan” groups have taken this time to attempt to alienate you from followers of Orange Man or Sniffit.

But Orange Man and Sniffit are not the point.

Your political ideology is not the point.

The point is the “kingdom of G-d”. Thank you, Judge Barrett, for reminding us of the chief end of man.

Gang, if you regularly digest ANY of the news that is out there now, you are getting fed a regular and mandatory mindset of alienation and fracturing of relationships, when, as a nation, we were meant to build something constructive and help other men and women to a place of sonship rather than a mindset of poverty.

The fly on VP Pence’s head during the debate serves a point.

You are getting manipulated by Beelzebub. He is a threshold guardian.

Do not fall for his trap.

Do not get victimized by saying “because Trump/Biden is in the White House” I cannot move forward.

Damn the mask….put on the damn mask.

Slave to the government. F*** the goverment.

Big Government. Small government. No government.

Stop it.

Granted, we have a need to execute the kingdom.

But, gang, no matter who is in office the next four years.

Look around you on the ground in your immediate vicinity and in/with/among your relationships, and FIND THE RAW MATERIALS that you can use to build something.

Your best work as an American is to be a builder in the life of another human. To help them unpack what they are made to do so they can go do it.

SCOTUS is not your g-d. It is become a golden calf.

Yeshua ha-Mashaich is your G-d, who has made you and predestined you to good things and to help others unpack their things inside of them.

This political theater between two sides of the same coin, intending to control you through fear and alienation, is not your end.

Some of you are hardwired for government and leadership and service.

For a season, or for permanence.

I remind you that the archetype of the husband found in Proverbs 31, and he is a type of the idea, the Proverbs 31 husband was a career politician.

Your job and my job is to find what we were each made to do, and to snub the distractions that seek to bind us to the kingdoms of this world.

And we were made to shake things up.

There were things that Barack Obama did to cause alienation and racism as much as there were things Donald Trump did to bring us together.

I know there people will call that previous statement garbage.

But can you find the good and the bad in a presidency or a politican and still call them by G-d’s intended design for them and call that design good?

If you can, then you have resisted the pull of the Mesmerizing Spirit.

The Mesmerizing Spirit that calls us with its siren song and begs us to label the part that we see as “the whole of the matter”.

Even if you are on one side or the other and you call your side right, you are still only seeing through a glass darkly.

Your job is to reflect His light.

Find what He is doing and where He is operating in you, and go do that.

I understand, this post is way more political than I sometimes like to get.

But my job is to help remind you that you still only see a part of the whole, and others that a part of that whole. G-d intended you each to gather and bring your parts together so you can see the whole more clearly.

Be at peace.

From….To….

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

Thank you to my friend in Iowa who helped provide the impetus for this set of posts.

The next few posts, while I am continuing concurrently with my series on Leviathan, will cover some dynamics that I like to refer to as from/to principles.

We are designed, not to remain in addictive sin and in junk, but to emerge and move from one reality into transofrmation that is incremental and substantial. By degrees we were made to leap, not merely crawl, into a place that is, to paraphrase Jack Lewis, “HIGHER up and further in”.

I prefer this way of structuring Lewis’ concept from what I consider to be his substantial flop of a book called “The Last Battle”. Pardon my honest take on that book, because it really did a disservice both to its title and Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, when I consider the concept of “battle” in Scripture….

Unless you consider the last battle not to be between Christ and Antichrist, but to be the one we have against sin and death, as we wrestle with recognizing who we are in Meissah and in moving into the place where we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. To the place where we are executing our fight with the clowns from our rightful place as the sons of G-d.

A completely appropriate tune for this process…

We move from being the dregs of the earth to the apostles of Christ (that word for ambassadors in 2 Corinthians 5:20 is, unvarnished, the word apostoloi, the plural of “apostle”).

The apostolic office has not ceased, gang. It dwells in a measure in each of us.

However, most teaching on the fivefold done in the Charismatic movement is a twisted bastard offspring of the spirit of Antichrist.

More on that in several other posts.

Out of the Silence of the Last Season

I got the wind knocked out of me in the last season. I have a friend who did not realize the voice they had, and the extent to which I had encourage them to not hold back but speak in fuller authority that was given them, accuse me of stifling their voice, and as a result, I entered a season of loss where I had to grieve the loss of a friendship. I am still wrestling with that loss, but I have finally begun blessing them, even in the off mindset, and releasing them.

And now, I must continue writing.

The Design of Forward Movement In Seasons….

Believers were made to move forward. Drive, walk, run, fly, crawl if it comes to that, but always to be pressing forward and upward. True, there are emotional and relational valleys into which we must descend for a season, but valleys and seasons of sin are not designed for us.

There are a few dynamics in which we grow ever-forward and ever-upward.

In faith, in depth, in strength, and in glory.

As we move into these ensuing bits, I would like to offer the encouragement that each of you keep pressing and contending in concert with the L-rd against the clowns that would seek to arrest you and oppress you.

Be at peace, gang.

And be reconciled to the L-rd who Purchased Both Heaven and Earth. He purchased both heaven and earth so that you would have a safe place to expand in your life in Him.

Trauma Bonds To Time and Land: COVID-19 And Short-Term Memory Edition

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

What if this season of COVID-19 is being used by the enemy to exploit our words, our gaslighting, our mistreatment, our maligning of one another in order to lay a sticky trauma bond in order to mess with our timeline and create artificial time or Luciferian time, and to pervert and twist and mess up and fray our three strands of time (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Life, Dominion, Honor)?

What if, instead of redeeming the time, we are instead defiling it with our words and actions?

What if, instead of responding to the L-rd, we are reacting to the enemy?

What if, instead of allowing the L-rd to set the agenda and calling out His goodness and His work in this, we are calling out how evil the enemy is and therefore allowing the clowns to set the agenda?

What if we are missing out on the opportunity to unpack this segment of time because we are merely reacting to what is happening in the natural?

I am not suggesting that we stop protesting and only return to being nice and sweet, because nice is not a fruit of the spirit.

I am suggesting that what is happening in the natural with our civil liberties is not the only thing negative happening now.

What if we are assuming socialism is just an election away when in reality it has already come?

What if we have been a socialist state for some time and many of the manifestations and superstructures of the police state were put in place by a conservative president?

What if it only took an invasion (Bull Run, 1861, or September 11, 2001), to get us to accept the control of a police state?

What if that superstructure was built upon a great society and an older deal with which we have grown comfortable?

What if we are speaking out about what is happening in the natural, but we have grown comfortable with a panic culture that was based on a spirit of fear in the supernatural environment, and we are just now getting to the point where we will be made uncomfortable by the spirit realm and we are just now walking in discernment?

What if G-d promised us we could walk with Him and we have for decades proclaimed we are comfortable without Him?

What if our attention span has grown so increasingly short that we cannot see beyond one election cycle, and therefore cannot see the Socialism in our current legislation, airports, cities, and military strategy?

What if the current wave of mistreatment of the US is based in a predatory foreign policy?

What if the military can get us used to their prevailing presence in our major cities?

What if there is no end in sight for our men and women in uniform and we are just getting used to the price of endless deployment?

What if Donald Trump presides in a nation that cannot see past the next tweet or the next election?

What if our attention span keeps us from interceding prophetically over the long-term because we have been distracted in our short attention span from election to election with clarion calls to 40 day fasts that only take into account an election, but do not take into account the long-term reality that in one way or another, we have already embraced socialism by turning away from our fundamental principles and embracing a domestic and foreign policy of safety at any cost?

What if we have been conditioned to believe abortion is the only evil, and that we have chosen to pay any cost, even if it means we embrace a culture that embraces death in other areas?

What if, in order to break abortion, we have to make a deal with Monsanto?

What if the promise of overturning a bad SCOTUS is actually a genetically-modified carrot that is a complete violation of His deisgn, and that we have gotten so used to trading one set of principles in order to have another in place, we have bargained the source of our light away?

What if the very thing we have feared happening in this nation has already happened?

What if the prophets of the prophetic movement who have shown to be accurate 13 percent of the time and that we are still getting our north star from concerning single elections turn out to not be hearing the voice of the L-rd from election to election?

What if our prophetic voices are not hearing the voice of G-d?

What if the enemy is, during the last 4, 8, or 12 years, while we willingly listened to televised debates over new networks that were full of the spirit of lewdness, the enemy sowed seeds of destruction while we thought we were sowing the seeds of democracy, and also, what if during that time, he set up surrounding tripwires behind our battle lines and all it will take is one wrong move to realize we have been set up?

What if we have been pointed in the wrong direction this whole time by a ruling charismatic class that has only heard the L-rd 13 percent of the time?

What if the enemy can set off a trip wire that traumatizes us and sends us back through a loop that is upstream of our healing and deliverance and keeps us stickily embedded in the curses we have spoken over time such that we are bound to time by the trauma we have collectively suffered.

What do we have to fear if I am wrong? Nothing

What do we have to fear if I am right? Nothing good.

#justthinking

Honor Is Meaningless If Dignity Does Not Lead…

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Dignity, Dignity Before Honor, Honor

Until we recognize the primacy of dignity,

AND that honor without regular reference to dignity is precluded from existence, we will never have an actual culture of honor. And the Holy Spirit will continue to be glaringly absent.

Dignity is what cures shame.


Dignity is inherent and must be recognized and celebrated in each person we meet.

We have mission statements that talk about honor and cultures of honor and apostolic this and prophetic that, and Danny Silk this and Bethel that, but until we heed the warnings and intentionally deal with the perennial LACK of actively and aggressively proclaiming the message of and breaking the anorexia of dignity endemic to the body of Christ, Honor will be a worthless pile of shit.

“Honor is for what you do. Dignity is for who you are.”

I see a whole lot of lip service given to honor, and comparitvely and vanishingly small is the attention given to dignity.

We must AGGRESSIVELY vocalize and actualize dignity.

And that is the only thing that will handle shame and put it in its place.

Just saying.

From the Desk of Stacy Sims: Women Are Not Small Men

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Design, Principles
Plyometrics and Resistance Training….

Principles Vs. Correct Thinking/Philosophy/Doctrine

For a biblical studies blog, it might seem unusual to y’all for me to post a video that deals with kinesiology. But, if you will look at the category of this post, you will see it listed under “Principles”.

A principle is a universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationship.

So, let’s explode your thinking that your prime job is to correct false theology and bad doctrine. Your job is to build the right thing, and fight the right enemy. True, exposing false teaching is a part of the Christian/Jewish experience. But it is only a part. And many of us have come to believe that it makes up most or all of our job description as Jesus’ followers.

The Bible teaches a principle-based faith that executes beyond mere doctrine, what we believe. We move past expounding on what we think, and we move into expounding on how we respond, act, grow, and build, in response to what we believe.

We move into the arena of cause-and-effect.

Stacy is countering a lot of bad thinking. She is verbally warring, and in her life, practically meleeing, against improperly-executed principles: widely-held, cause-and-effect relationships that are completely unrelated (message to women: eat soy and engage in low-impact cardiovascular activity in response to not losing weight during perimenopause). And she combats it with real execution of real principles that have brought real results.

And principles are what we are followers of Jesus Christ build with. Not theology. Not doctrine.

Protecting Fences Vs. Using Them and Building Other Things…

Do we erect fences at times? Yes.

But do we build everything in our lives using the materials that are designed only for fences? Absolutely not!

Theology and doctrine are a fences. They are not a comprehensive set of building materials.

And fences make a great boundary marker, but a lousy airplane.

As Christians, we need to move merely beyond protecting theology and defending theology. We need to move into using principles to build with.

Again, what are principles?

Answer: Universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationships.

If we are so interested in how false everybody else’s theology is, but we are not interested in doing anything that is of practical value, we cut out about 90% of what we were designed to do with Scripture, which is FULL of principles, and all of Reality, which is also FULL of principles, and we reduce the life Christ purchased for us into an anemic shadow of merely erecting a dead edifice that is only constructed of the propositions we agree to, and we don’t bother scaling the mountain the culture has placed before us by using the principles to build the ladder, rope bridge, or carved staircase.

And how do we use the principles (ALL of the principles) to effect and produce change.

We need to desperately understand the principles Scripture teaches, such as:

  1. how women teach and preach, vs. how men teach and preach,
  2. how men parent vs. how women parent,
  3. how singles parent vs. how marrieds parent,
  4. how we connect with one another differently based on sexual differences,
  5. how we connect based on our varied designs from man to man and woman to women,
  6. how we weave the principles together to build: an auto, an airplane, a ship, and a shoe,
  7. how we each connect with various aspects of creation,
  8. those who connect with animals or plants vs. humans,
  9. those who connect with individuals vs. groups,
  10. how different people lead their companies, churches, countries, families, and schools differently, based on their unpacked design (Saul’s leadership vs. David’s Leadership, vs Solomon’s Leadership),
  11. how woundedness stunts our growth vs. how sin affects our growth vs. how demons, Leviathan, Nephilim, unclean spirits, or alien human spirits affect us (NEWS FLASH: it is not one or the other, but it frequently is facets of a couple of things. Your over simplification of a problem to only all sin, or only all demons does not help matters,
  12. and why a man’s body responds differently than a woman’s body when exposed to identical activities.

How Change Comes

If we want to produce change, we do not accomplish it by building more fences in order to show others how we are different from or better than them.

If we want to produce change, we do that by building cities, buildings, roads, professions, vehicles, communities.

Take the analogy, listen to. this video, and consider where you have been erecting fences instead of building homes, gang.

We Preach What Jesus Is Preparing…And It Ain’t Merely Fences

To finish, consider the following. Jesus never said, “I go to erect a fence in heaven to protect my very vulnerable kingdom”, nor did he say “when you preach, make your primary focus showing others their fences are in the wrong place and showing them how your fence is superior to their fence”.

And, before you shout at me, yes, I know there is a wall in heaven, and a fence, and a gate to keep undesirables out.

But that was not the sole focus of Jesus discourse on the kingdom.

Kingdoms are all about building, building blocks, and other masculine-type work.

They are not merely or only or primarily about fences.

Rather, the focus is:

What does that wall protect?

Instead, Jesus said:

I go to prepare a PLACE for you…

That place, though protected by a boundary, is, in fact, a home not built with fences, but a whole host of raw materials.

Gang, are you only erecting fences, or are you making a difference? For the focus has been on building fences. And it has needed to always be, instead of fenses (see what I did there?).

Are you driving others and impacting them to focus on returning home, or to merely obsess over whether or not they are engaging with the fence the way they are supposed to be?

Are you building with fence pickets, or are you using EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO YOU?

Are you incorporating both the fence and the building blocks.

It is time to grow the whole property, and the whole of what he has given you.

Not just the fence, which is a fraction of what Father has given you, but also the home he has given you the raw materials to build.

What are you protecting? The protection device, or the building and city inside? And what percentage of your time should be devoted to protecting the kingdom instead of preaching its nearness and impact? I dare say…..
Very little

Blemishes on the Skin

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles, Principles Of Relationships, Uncategorized

I was reading Leviticus 13, and then it dawned on me.

“You have leprosy.”

Now to frame this, I don’t actually carry any form of physical Hansen’s Disease or anything that the Scripture deals with when it discusses various forms of leprosy.

But here is the punch line and the principle. I have been carrying something that has gnawed at me and has negatively affected how I present to others, and it does not reflect well.

I understand that there might be those that say “what does presentation matter?  G-d allows us to come as we are (oftentimes taken to mean, any old way we damn well please).

And ther are others that might say, “yes, we present our best to G-d”, complete with the religious spirit of dressing in a suit or summer dress for Easter and looking down one’s nose at anyone else who should dare to wear anything resembling shorts, t-shirts, or flip-flops.

And yet both miss the mark.

ἕκαστος ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ νοῒ πληροφορείσθω.  Let everyone be fully convinced in their own thought (Romans 14:5).

Again with the Romans passage, how many times will David continue to harp on that old horse?

Until each and everyone quits measuring the holiness of another by outward appearance, festal holidays, celebrations, and personal convictions on matters of conscience.

Now, with that under our belts, consider this thought.

How many of us carry something that, for years, Father has been on us about getting rid of?  How many of us have been hounded by the HOLY Spirit to drop that crappy thing that has been keeping us from a new level of HOLINESS.  He is the Spirit that wants to make us HOLY, and implement a new way of living in every aspect of our lives, such that our presence and fragrance cleans up that which is around us and not in alignment with G-d’s best.

How many of us have leprosy in our hearts, our minds (brain rot), our sexual lives, our skin and appearance and presentation, or our relationships, or even our reins?  What is toxifying our capacity to sanctify others so they can be the best versions of themselves?

What is holding each of us back?

That thing will keep the Priest from pronouncing us clean, gang.

Clean in order that we might proceed into that next season.

Lest we forget, sowing two different fabrics, or two different crops, or two different natures together causes the thing in question to become defiled.

G-d wants our essence to become 100% our essence.

We should be possessed of zeal toward those many ends, and transforming from glory to glory, and from strength to strength, from deep to deeper, and from everlasting to everlasting.

What is defiling you that is causing your spirit to cry out to others “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!”?

These are universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationships.

Just in case we forget, there is the next thing that Father wants to highlight and remove.

He wants us equipped both not to care when the fear of man may be the issue, and to care, when a lack of the fear of G-d may be the issue.  He wants fullness and the capacity to walk when we need to walk, in the manner in which we need to walk.

“To walk with kings yet not lose the common touch” (Rudyard Kipling).

To care when it is time to care. And to give no care when it is time to give no care.

Being held hostage to the taskmasters of either disdain for appearance, or vanity towards appearance are not our aim.

Rather, we ought, nay, we must needs, walk with a higher goal in view.

The fullness of capacity to walk as the context demands.

A Greek to the Greek, and a Jew to the Jew.

“There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”