Asking, “did they mean it this way or that way?”, so you could compensate or fix the thing they never asked you to fix, not necessary.
There is a key to your gift, Prophet. There is a deep and abiding key.
And if you use this key, it will align your gift to its proper moorings. And to those who would be tempted to fix without using the key, well, that can hurt.
The key is intimacy with the King. Times of connection with the King where you speak with Him and He with you.
He wants to develop the rivers of living water that flow from your spirit, Prophet.
And the fire that burns.
“I would that you were hot or cold”.
Both the hot and the cold are necessary.
Both the burning and the refreshing….so we do not burn out. But especially critical to the Prophet.
And the Wind that blows us to and fro. As we align our sails to continue the adventure that He has for us.
He does not give you just life so you can solve problems.
And as much as the forbears of Reformed Theology would like to ignore what they wrote at the head of the Westminster Catechism, our chief end is NOT to glorify G-d.
No….
If I left that as the chief end of man, then I would burn out…..
No, the chief end of man is two fold.
Glorify G-d AND AND AND AND
ENJOY HIM FOREVER!!!
Your chief end cannot exist unless you have BOTH PARTS.
And enjoying Him in intimacy is part of the equation. If I only talk about glorifying G-d, and I proceed along that line, I am going to die and shrivel up and be useless.
I must take seasons apart for intimacy and bridal connection with my Husband.
If I don’t then PREMATURE DEATH WILL BE THE END, EVERY SINGLE TIME!
So, you must have those times where you need Him.
Elijah refused intimacy over his entire life, and as a result, he never attained to the fullness of what the L-rd had for him. He chose the low-hanging goal of taking down Baal and Ashtaroth.
The L-rd repeatedly wanted to give Him intimacy. In the form of the ravens by the brook.
And then in the form oof the gooey Giver Elisha as a friend and someone to mentor as a son.
He never softened.
Prophets, if you do not soften and become warm and tender in your hearts, you will rot from the anger and the harshness and the coldness and the lack of love.
If you do not return to your first love “First of the Seven Letters to the Seven Churches”, it will leave you in rotting darkness.
You must, you must, you must, cultivate a deep and tender love relationship with him.
But this is the responsiblity of the Prophet more than the other six gifts combined.
So, take that key and run with it, darling Prophets.
Here is the kicker, gang. We can be so adept at knowing the written word of Scripture, which is a good thing, that we do not take the time to u spool and understand our own issues and weak spots and never seek to go on the adventure of sonship to unpack our design and find out our weaknesses and areas where we need to grow, especially in the area of our design.
It will usually take a well-rounded Prophet who is capable of seeing weaknesses to come to the table and teach us how to toss our boxes in the trash and show us what we are made of in order to help us move into a more healed place.
The question is, when the enemy comes with a situation we have not seen, will we sit back and allow ourselves get destroyed because we think we knew how things were supposed to be set up, or will we go back to Father, and ask Him to teach us while we sit at his feet in a new situation.
Too many are too familiar with “the way things are supposed to be”. Sonship, after we have gotten to know the heart of the Father, is all about unpacking design and learning how to creatively build and skillfully fight.
We receive revelation, but then we also develop tools.
And too many think, all we need is a little bit of Bible and that is enough. No, friends, we need to know Him and we need to know ourselves and grow not just with integrity of heart, but also skillful hands.
So, what are you going to do here?
It’s a learning curve to get beyond the book’s text and into using the principles to think and feel outside the box and grow in skill.
This is another chunk of the value an RG Prophet brings to the table.
I do not know how deeply this will land and how much sense it will make to those who read it, but for those of us who work with land, the concept will likely make sense.
People tend toward one of seven major designs, we call these Redemptive Gifts. For more on that, start here.
And for the “why” of calling them Redemptive, go here.
Now, as to the rest of the story.
Father has placed some patterns in Scripture that are pretty consistent.
One of those patterns follow the number 7.
10 is another, and so is 12. And so on.
Sidebar: I do not spell the numbers smaller than 100 out because in the midst of a wall of text, numbers stick out visually. I write with mostly proper grammar and syntax, as I am an English major by training. And a grammar cop.
However, as a Mercy, I write for people’s visual comfort as well. And those cues remain important for those who, in this generation, read or take in information visually. Therefore, if I deem using a numeral serves my purpose better than spelling it out, then you, the reader, are going to have bo be okay with that.
To wit, if you do not like that I do not spell numbers (read: I refuse to abide by those standards) or use the Oxford Comma, then you are in the wrong place.
So, back to the topic at hand. Among the patterns that show up in Scripture, 7 is so implicit to the text that lists and groupings show up repeatedly. Even the structure of canon follows a heptadic structure and rhythm.
And many of those lists of items parallel one another and feed into one another. So the Redemptive Gifts of Romans 12:6-8 parallel:
The Seven Trees of Isaiah
The Seven Spirits of G-d
The Seven Patriarchs from Adam running Inverse from Adam as Mercy to Enoch as Prophet.
The Seven items of furniture in the Tabernacle
The Seven Feasts of Israel
The Seven of the Ten Compound Names of Adonai (Names Four through Ten)
The Seven Letters of Adonai to the churches in Revelation
The Seven Presents of Jacob to Joseph
The Seven Statements of the L-rd in the Burning Bush
The Seven Statements in the 120 years preceding Noah’s Altar
The Seven Actions of Connection with the L-rd in Psalm 23
The Seven seasons of the Book of Judges tied to the Seven Curses
The Seven Last Words of Messiah
The Seven Voices in Psalm 29
The Seven Stages of Brain Rot in Romans 1
The Seven Things the L-rd dislikes in Proverbs 6:16ff
The Seven Signs in John’s Gospel
The Seven parables of the Kingdom in the Gospel of Desire
The Seven Items in the Believers Armor, including the Shoes of READINESS
The Sevens galore in Revelation
And more besides.
So, given the L-rd has imbued all of reality, per the biblical text in multiple places, with this pattern, is it really a leap to suggest that certain people of a kind would gather in places that feel like home?
Treasures In the Earth
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place
Acts 17:26 ESV
And let me add from a chunk of Job 28 to illustrate a concept embodied in the natural by Sutter’s Mill and the Comstock Lode.
Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold that they refine. Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the ore. Man puts an end to darkness and searches out to the farthest limit the ore in gloom and deep darkness. He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro. As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it. The proud beasts have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it. Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
Job 28:1-11 ESV
There are treasures in the land in the natural, there are plants, animals, ecosystems, and under the earth are minerals, gemstones, precious metals, and valuable substances placed in various places. Bauxite, Diamonds, Sapphires, Emeralds, Topaz, Lead, Uranium, Gold, Platinum, crude oil, Cobalt, Rare Earth Elements.
As the San Joaquin Valley led to the founding of Union Oil, and Salinas and Gilroy led to Garlic and Cherries, and Silicon Valley led to silicon-rooted-technology, and South Africa led to Diamonds, and Northern California led to Wine and Gold, do we not think that there is a spiritual application to this concept. Can G-d place treasures in the land, unique to the land that will draw certain people to that land?
The answer is yes. And, given what we see in the natural reflects the reality of the spiritual realm, then I surmise He distributed his treasures to chunks of land, and as a result, determined that people who resonate with those treasures are going to live there as well.
There are places that look good to a person, and then there are places that feel like home….and there is a difference.
Illustrating the Gifts In the Land Using the Teacher Gift
Now, let me use my beloved Teacher gift as an illustration for this.
Two things we know about the Teacher for these purposes that are easy enough to see. Teachers tend toward 1) Medical arenas, and 2) education and research arenas. Fair enough?
Let’s take the medical, since the education does not really need to be expanded at this point. Teachers teach, right?
Look at the Third Day….
Plants, Vegetation, and Dry land…
Most medical compounds derive from elements found in the Plant Kingdom, things found in the third day.
Thus, the medical arena has this imprint of meticulous research.
Typically.
And the Levites, who were the Teachers of Israel, and handled the Tabernacle, also handled the diagnosis of various ailments, home sicknesses, molds, plagues, and were responsible for the removal of those with plagues from the camp…..well, you get the idea.
This pattern of medical and healing appears over and over with the Teacher.
Johns Hopkins is a good example of this. In Baltimore, a city full of research and medicine. A city full of greenspace. A city full of those dynamics.
A Teacher city.
And these institutions that are typically founded by Teachers, typically reflect that connection with the Third Day, and other teacher dynamics. As patterns emerge in the fabric, when I see something that has that meticulous quality to it and lots of details, I move in the direction of Teacher.
For as G-d enables Teachers to tinker and process slowly, they tend to move together and find their own tribe. Then, they tend to take residence on a chunk of land that feels like home and resembles their design.
As with Prophets, Servants, and the rest.
The Purpose: Manifestation of Sons In the Kingdom To Bring Redemption
And the King intends, per Romans 8, for creation and land to interact with us, you see personalities show up in nature and land and cities.
That is, creation, which includes land, cries out for the manifestions of the Sons of G-d. And the purpose of sons is to bring redemption to bear on all facets of reality. And those that do not know the L-rd can even be instruments in His hand set up to bring the purposes of G-d into a place.
Thus says the L-RD to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
Isaiah 45:1
But he [that is, Pharaoh Neco] sent envoys to him [that is King Josiah of Judah], saying, “What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you.
2 Chronicles 35:21. ESV
Meaning, G-d can use anyone with their design given by Him from conception, to accomplish his means, and he can humble anyone he darn well pleases.
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the L-RD;
he turns it wherever he will.
Proverbs 21:1 ESV
In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.
Daniel 2:1 ESV
All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.
Dan 4:28-33 ESV
Design shows up in these gifts over and over and over again. And there are carnal manifestations that are not submitted to the King, and there are high-functioning manifestations in people who are submitted to the King.
In the carnal Ruler, we see empire building and we see them emotionally unstable.
And in the healthy Ruler we see a fathering aspect that builds sons into effective builders and fighters.
Manifestations of the Gifts in Particular Cities
New York has a nice grid set up, there is an access to the city. It’s a Giver city.
Boston however, these tiny roads curve and go every which way. And they do not care about your opinion about their geography. And they excel in bleeding-edge technology and engineering, and they served as a flash point, together with South Carolina, for revolution. And you better not be a Yankees fan wearing a Bucky Bleeping Dent Jersey in Beantown.
Boston Robbed in 1978
Typical Prophet.
And In Business
And we also note that organizations take on the personality of the founder.
Even4One, founded by an unmistakable Prophet, carries the feel and image of her founder, who from my viewpoint of Prophets, carries some of the sweetest and highest-functioning expressions of the gift.
Sapphire Leadership Group, carries Arthur’s imprint, and churns out ideological material rooted in principles tied to the founder.
And a thousand different organizations, founded by people, who, under the prevenient grace of G-d, are being prepared for expressions of His redemption, even while they do not seek him (Romans 5:8), show the DNA of the founder, and the design of the founder.
And many other organizations do this.
The aviation Industry as a whole, carries the Prophet and Teacher imprints by turns, some see the new cutting edge, and some see the tinkering.
Even the aircraft have feels to them.
And this is just one more expression of the pattern of things created by humans with one of seven designs, designs that were given in their Mother’s wombs (Psalm 139).
Whether or not they like it, humanity, redeemed or not yet redeemed, shows forth his eternal nature and divine power, so that no one may be without excuse.
Creation everywhere sees this pattern everywhere.
Witnesses to his goodness and majesty and love are everywhere, and therefore no one is left without an excuse that will hold on That Day.
The Purpose of Redemptive Patterns And Messaging
Redemptive messaging, placed E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E., and which is the King’s specialty (Luke 16:19; Romans 1) is strewn throughout all of creation and everywhere in the Biblical text, and even in non-biblical texts. What, do we think His arm is slackened or shortened that it cannot redeem no matter what the situation?
And the purposes of these patterns that crop up everywhere, are as witnesses that will testify to the King.
Such as the words of one healed Exhorter:
“You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. Now that I’m trying to protect the people I’ve put in harm’s way, you’re going to walk out?”
And because all of these institutions and landforms are peopled by humanity and patterned after the rest of creation, and because they all serve His purposes ultimately, and because the land reflects people, and Chicago is not New York is not Boston is not JAX, we see the trends and patterns. And we are responsible to partner with EVERYTHING the King has made available to us in order to bring the section of creation under our jurisdiction back to Him.
A few more thoughts here, gang. First, from Genesis 19
“The outcry of Sodom”
It wasn’t the people. The Hebrew there literally reads “Sodom’s outcry”. That Hebrew word for outcry was a distress call, such as you would use to call the police. The land was in distress, and the land cried out due to the people’s iniquity.
Second thought beyond that.
Numbers 35 talks about polluting the land, and the consequences for polluting the land (Leviticus 20:22). THE LAND shall vomit you out. Not the L-rd. Not the people. The land will behave as a human whose stomach has become sickened and it itself will reject the people.
The land itself responds to things.
Now, for those who would take this to mean I am arguing for the sentience of the land, well, that is not where I am going.
I am pointing out that the land functions in many ways the way we function at times. We who have redemption and redemptive agency flowing through us.
So, maybe, land responds in some way more than we have first thought….
Also, 2 Chronicles 7:14 refers to G-d healing the land. And this strikes me as the L-rd doing something beyond mere metaphor, and it would behoove us to discern and hear and look at what He is doing in a patch of land for which we are responsible.
Just as land can carry defilement and pollution, so it can also carry a blessing, and we are commanded in Scripture to bless the land and the dwelling places with which we associate.
I realize this second half is a potpourri of land items. And one might say what does this have to do with gifts and treasures in the land?
Well, it strikes me that with the exhortations of promised LAND having treasures in it (milk and honey) that we can see, perhaps there is a mirror of this in the spirit, and in a particular patch of land there is a strong enough pull of those treasures in the spirit that it gathers people of a kind to it to care for it. Maybe the land knows something that we do not…..
These are just my thoughts….feel free to consider and ask questions. And be blessed, gang.
And as a new organization comes into being, there is, at its root, someone responsible for the conception and gestation of that idea. Responsible for the materials, the assets…that are used to bring that organization into being.
Birthing is the job of the Giver. And the protection of that nascent life is the responsibility of the Servant. Without the Giver and the Servant, the new thing is not sustainable.
I can hear the groans now from the crowd now. “Again with this Avengers schtick! David, what the hell does this have to do with redemption?! Or spiritual gifts.”
I am glad you asked that question, or did not ask it. Here is a lovely, protracted response.
In the case of the Avengers, the Giver that gave life to the organization was Phil Coulson. With his death, ultimately. And the Servant that protected its young life, its soul, its heart, its integrity, and kept it from getting twisted off-mission was Steve Rogers, starting from the moment he got suspicious of Phase 2 weapons created with the Tesseract, through the events of Civil War, attempted to help Tony and Bucky find their respective ways back home, through Infinity War, and he was the rallying point for the entire team.
And the purpose of the Avengers was to fight the battles humanity could not otherwise fight. They were made to take a situation that had been made horrid and to improve it, to take what was lost and regain it, restoring it, to compensate for the faults of those for whom they fought.
In other words, they fought to redeem a lost hope.
Aaaaannnnnnnd leave it to the cocky Exhorter to put forth the organization’s vision toward the villian…
Redeem…..
Sound familiar, gang?
REDEMPTIVE Gifts
I have a theory about why the gifts were called “redemptive”….so, bear with me on this as I work through this.
They were called the Redemptive Gifts because these seven designs show us seven flavors of redemption, which is a common theme in Scripture.
We seven were made to, in alignment with the covenant we have with Reality Himself, bring the best of redemption, reconiciliaton, and victory to humanity, to creation, and to the spiritual realm. We were made to redeem….after the acts of our Father, Bridegroom, and Paraclete.
Redemption is a major part of the biblical text.
2 Cor 5:17-21: the King’s chief mission is not to merely save people, according to the way we think of “saving” people. This reality is not meant to merely be one protracted altar call alone, though that does form part of the reality. Rather, it is to reconcile and redeem all of creation to the Father, as much of it as will come in accordance to the call and appeal of the Beloved Lover made through us as His conduits. I dare say too many people think our job is solely one of spiritual geographic transfer of humans; just to remove people from hell, depositing them into heaven. L-rd knows, we hear plenty of altar calls that are only for salvation, baptism, and church membership. Yet, this is not the point or the crux of the ministry we have been handed. Nevertheless, too often, consideration is not given to what happens after we have turned people from hell to heaven. However, a people that has been only relocated like chattel without thought given to fostering love and connection within them, among them, or with them is good for what?!
Exodus 6:6: Father’s ultimate mission was to redeem Israel from Mizraim. True, we are talking about the geographic movement and liberation of an oppressed people from their oppressors, getting Israel out of Mizraim. However, we are also talking about getting the Mizraim out of Israel. Dad wanted to use the season in the wilderness to deliver a nation of slaves from slavery into sonship. From bondage into freedom. Redemption is tied to the rescue from the things that oppress us externally, yes, but it is also about rescuing us from the things that shackle us internally, things that keep us from flowing in the liberty for which Father designed us.
This is another aspect of the Gifts, and the many vareigations of redemption, liberation, and reconciliation, both internal and external. Seven flavors of rescue; reconciliation; restoration; upward-and-forward motion; righteous strategy and warfare; protection; accrual of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding (none of these three are better than the other two, they are just different storehouses and repositories of acquisition). Seven designs, each unique from the other six. Seven perspectives on Kingdom execution, and each one a shadow of its potential without the other six. There is a reason the Prophet wants the news and describes things as black-and-white while the Mercy wants the details and the emotions and the “this is what I feel”. The Prophet activates the Mercy’s mind, and the Mercy activates the Prophet’s heart. Without heart, the Prophet will be a shadows of their potential, and without ethics and integrity, the Mercy’s excellence will never take flight. In another facet, The Exhorter Himself, Yeshua, wounds and activates the Teacher’s arena and brings to them encounter with the Living Word, if the Teacher will ask for it, so their mind is not only emotionally safe, but their hearts are also in play and tender toward those in their charge.
The seven gifts were made to work in tandem with one another. This is why the primacy of love. Because without love, we will not help Further, the process described in the book of Numbers following the rescue of slaves from bondage, is what the King means with all of us: taking a generation of slaves and transforming them into a generation of sons. Sonship is the next and eternal adventure that awaits us post-rescue.
Leviticus 25: Father made mention repeatedly of the concept of redemption of things, of land, of animals, of homes, and of firstborn. Meaning redemption comes to these things, meaning redemptive dynamics were made to touch all of cration.
Romans 8 tells us the following: “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of G-d. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of G-d. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Meaning, we were made to bring redemption to bear on all of creation, at some level. Now, we can argue to what end that is meant to be, but my contention is, let’s try some things and allow the King to say yes or no to us in our work, and let’s figure out how deeply we can bring redemption to each part of creation, not merely to humans.
2 Chronicles 7:14 gets overlooked. The L-rd promises that, when we repent and seek Him, not that He will heal us, but rather heal our LAND.
Ruth is a story of redemption, moving a Moabite into native Israel, and giving her a new heritage, which was her deepest heart’s cry, even though she was originally a pagan. In Ruth, we see how she showed loyalty to a despairing native Israelite, and herself was provided a home a place, a legacy in Israel, and a son that ultimately became an ancestor to the greatest king of Israel, David, who in turn became the father of the Messiah.
Psalm 26 and Job 5:20: we were made to be Rescued not just from hell, but also from death.
Psalm 130 shows the picture of redemption from generational sin, called iniquity.
And, given we are discussing the Redemptive Gifts, I would contend that, when the L-rd Himself knitted us together and designed us, and those gifts are tied explicitly to design, they were hardwired into us from the beginning. It’s the initial kiss from the King, that came hardwired into us along with our human spirits.
Psalm 139 is fairly explicit in some of its language, so let us proceed there.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Psalm 139:13-14 ESV
All of Him made all of us, for a purpose. I despise dropping a turd of exposition in the middle of one of David’s most lovely poems, but I am going to do that for those that need the cross-reference.
We are his workmanship created in Messiah Yeshua for good works, which G-d prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them, per Ephesians 2:10.
Meaning, before we knew Him, we were created originally in Him for those works, originally designed for those good works. Now, whether or not we walk in those works, and whether or not we ever come to know Him, those choices are clearly ours. However, that does not negate that we were designed by Him for those works from the moment 23 and 23 equaled 46. He gave us those drives, inclincations, momenta, and motivations (another common term for the Redemptive Gifts are the Motivational Gifts) before we even came to know Him.
23 chromosomes from each of the gametes yield a being with 46 chromosomes.
Now, I could say that we are only given gifts by the L-rd following our salvation,
but…
…knowing the King lavishes His love and His prevenient grace (the grace that intervenes ahead of time) on us before we came to know Him…
…given Romans 1 notes the L-rd’s invisible attributes, namely, “His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” demonstrating we are without excuse as to the outpouring of His knowledge, and built into ALL creations are the seeds of redemption and redemptive power…
…and given it is the heart of the Father to demonstrate His love toward us while we were yet sinners, as Romans 5:8 says, which is a passage dealing with salvation and redemption…
..and given σῴζω in its range of meaning can mean “I save”, or “I preserve”, or “I benefit”…
….it is entirely possible and within the realm of biblical reality that the King hardwired us in such a way that our designed trajectory is such that…
…momentum toward him is easier than away from him, and gifts were given to us, kisses from the King, in order to lead us to Him, that we might find Him….
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Psalm 139:15-16 ESV
And redemption was meant to be so transformative in to make things as if the bad had never happened. There is a transformational aspect that pervades all things redemptive.
Our interaction with Him is not merely a salvation issue or a leaving hell issue. It’s an issue of being reconciled to a loving Father, who yearns emotionally for us, from the point of conception. So, I would argue He hardwired us in our mothers’ wombs from conception, not for sin, which the clowns would love to twist, but rather for coming back home. Especially given we are made in His image and according to His likeness.
So, the picture of why these gifts are called “redemptive” strikes me as the Father’s loving intention to place as many marks in front of and inside of us in order to lead us back home to Him.
And, indeed, where can we honestly go that He is not? Where can we go to escape from His presence? Where can we flee from him?
Even in Sheol, the land of the dead, and in Hell, He is there with us.
Were we to make our bed with death, He could still be found with us, and He waits for us as the woman Wisdom, calling and wooing us to himself. Offering her treasures in the street. Peculiar and precious and precocious treasures.
I was going to go with a post on the Teacher, but then something struck me from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and so I had to run with it. So, here goes…
A Bit More On the Mercy From the MCU, and Then, I Promise We Will Get To the Teacher
Of course, I had to go here for a bit, because there is more than I wanted to say about the Mercy, given the material on the gift keeps bubbling up. So, because I analyze the RG’s in pop culture, there is a significant buildup of material that naturally flows. So, here goes…
Yes….the kid is a Mercy….and had the Exhorter for a surrogate/adoptive father…..
And his wound? It’s being presented with the question, “are you enough without the crutches, and the people, and the relationships, and the tricks, and the gifts, and the resources, and everything that is not the L-rd Himself who must alone stand guard over your heart without any additions?”
Because if you aren’t enough without the suit, then you’ll never be enough with the suit.”
When we first meet Peter in the MCU (Captain America: Civil War), we see as a boy with serious confidence deficit. He hides himself from those who love him and blames himself for the bad things that happen around him. In Homecoming and then Far From Home, we come to an individual with not just problems with self-confidence, but also serious legitimacy issues. From Civil War to Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, there was a deep internal struggle with both his identity, place, and purpose. He did not see himself for what Tony saw in him, even though it took Tony some time to come around to embracing Peter’s inherent value and design, and to father him effectively.
But eventually confidence bloomed and grew in Peter. This deep well took a hit when Tony died. With his father figure gone, he had to develop a different source, and dig a different well.
Unfortunately, this very negative belief about himself that he wasn’t good enough or strong enough to fill Tony’s shoes, led him to give up the resources that Tony gave to him to someone he thought could be trusted. Following that, Beck toyed with him and, because of Beck’s possession of Stark Tech, he was able to fool Peter into questioning the fabric of reality.
Though it was never about filling Tony’s shoes, but filling and walking in his own shoes, and flowing in his design.
Mercies, when their confidence is deeply tested, usually in the area of relationships, may question reality in the worst way. And this will bring them to a crossroads.
They ultimately must come to a place where they rest in the One Thing that will never abandon them, even when everything crumbles around them: the anchoring point of the nature of G-d, Who Is fiercely loving, completely consistent, will not forsake them, and commited to His covenant.
The wounding comes when they are stripped of those things that once brought them confidence, and the healing comes when their internal structure is so aligned with The One Who Is Perfect Reality that the external world deteriorating impacts them in a decreasing fashion. Dependence on the Bridegroom and no one else, not even family, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, spouses, close friends, is what stabilizes the Mercy as they grow through the season that threatens to wound them.
As a result of that, the L-rd pushes the Mercy to adopt a capacity to fix their problems piece-by-piece, without crutches, and as a result, they grow to respond to the following challenge.
As a result, they can either grow into what they were made to do, or shrink back, and their legacy be forgotten or picked up by someone else.
Mercies are going to either bloom or crack under pressure, and as a result of staying the course under pressure, something else comes of them. Something really good.
So, if they bloom in adversity, and they respond to the pressure by leaning hard into the L-rd (Proverbs 3:5-6; Isaiah 54:1-16) instead of relationships governing them, they govern their relationships. And to those relationships they add boundaries, which breaks the spirit of codependency.
Biblically speaking, I think about the confidence John got as a Mercy through living on the Island of Patmos, where he wrote the Revelation and then penned his gospel.
Just some thoughts here…..
Now, onto the Teacher….or not really…but that should be the following post…if I can get off my soapbox long enough to execute…
The major design of a Mercy is to sanctify time as it is and as the King intends for it to progress.
It is not for the Mercy to move or realign the flow of time in accordance with how they wish it would be.
There is a huge aspect of this tied to their birthright.
If a Mercy can hear from the King, and not meddle with time as they wish it were, but seek for the alignment of time as the King wants it, then there will be a huge payoff…
Even if life is pain, and seasons are full of burning, pain.
NO MATTER HOW PAINFUL YOUR LIFE GETS, TO WISH TIME WOULD SPEED UP, SLOW DOWN, CHANGE, TWIST, BREAK, MOVE AROUND, SKIP, AND OTHERWISE BE THAN WHAT IT IS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE KING’S TIME FRAME….
You stick to your guns and you leave what happened in Time be, and you redeem the days you have.
No matter if the enemy is adultery; or cancer; or a car accident; or a trauma; or an SRA or CRA; or a bloodline; or a tie-in to a demonic throne or dominion; or bloodline; or relative; or abuse; or rape; or incest; or anything else in all of creation.
If it means you soak in His love, you still do not mess with the timestream, Mercy.
Scott Lang (Ant-Man) is a Mercy. And this film is what will happen when the Mercy, in their hard portion of being reconciled to and hunting for the King’s will for Time, seeks to RUN FROM PAIN.
I cannot say how many times I wished my timeline was other than what it shook out to becoming.
That said, right now, you can impact Time and its flow to the King’s purposes, if you will partner with the G-d Who Is and Who Was and Who Is That Which Will Be.
I know it is painful. The timestream can be intensely painful. And sometimes time, instead of healing wounds, can sometimes be the vehicle that seems to inflict wounds.
3013 days one way.
3013 days another way.
Abuse.
Shattering of spirit and soul.
Death.
Destruction.
Cancer.
And then my emotions moving now up, and again down.
Some things just do not seem fair.
And, besides, “fairness” is not a concept found in the biblical text.
Justice and Mercy, however, are.
And you were given Love, not fair, and not fairness.
And G-d’s metric for kingdom dynamics is Justice/Mercy, the Twin aspects of Love.
It is not Love vs. Justice. It is Mercy Paired with Justice as Aspects of Love.
They marry together like red and blue, or peanut butter and jelly, or Linus Torvalds and Giving the Finger To The Corrupt Company NVidia, or broccoli and cheese, or Maine and Raccoons, or Poles and Cats, or Bambi and deliciousness, or Thirty and Aught-Six, or Ferdinand and Nina…
Mercy Gang, you were made for something to handle. And in order to handle yourself, your emotions, and your power under self-control and with gentleness toward yourself, you will have to go through some things that will burnish you and help you learn the meaning of endurance.
And you will either endure or not. Your life is a thread, it breaks or it doesn’t break.
You must lean into Him to endure…
In order to thrive, you must Know Him…
And if you feel broken, then fall into Him, and let Him heal you.
And walk with the King into what He has for you, deep and tender beloved.
For to mess with the timestream will mess with the fabric of essence and reality itself.
Move with you Husband. Know Him. Walk with Him. Seek Him. Rest in Him. Be held by Him. And Seek for the Timestream to flow in accordance with His design.
And give not up your design to sanctify time.
Your responsibility and anointing and design, O Mercy, is to sanctify time as no other gift can.
And you can either sanctify time, move or adjust time, circumvent time, or do nothing.
And the hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan
Judges 4:24 (ESV)
Thoughts Here
Gang, I am doing a read-through of scripture, and this text really hit home for the Exhorter, especially given it deals with an aspect of breaking the Canaanite Curse, one of the Seven Curses against design.
Time after time, I, and others, have encountered those who believe the only thing necessary to break a curse is to utter a renunciation, or have a court case, or __________ (fill in the blank with tour chosen thing to utter). And frequently, Exhorters who are built for the long haul of endurance are hunting for the magic spell or incantation or eight key. THE SOLUTION TO ALL MY ILLS.
And while renunciations are excellent, they are not the whole picture.
There must be, resident within the Exhorter, a commitment to grow and increase through consistent righteous actions of sowing and reaping in order to break a stronghold through overcoming.
Exhorters MUST, non-optionally, and non-negotiably, build a reservoir of endurance and strength.
They have to develop life-strong, sinewy muscle (Muscular System of the body is Exhorter) in order to win at many situations.
Press HARDER AND HARDER. Over and over and over. Keep pounding. Hammer to nail. Pull and push and develop. There is a reason that well-built people are referred to as chiseled and cut and ripped. Such adjectives speak of a PROCESS that happens layer by layer.
Such an appearance is pleasing to the eye.
And such an appearance will be the result of building out groups of musculature. In the gym. In the kitchen. In the community. In the secret place. In all of the places.
Gang, especially Exhorters, it’s time to get cut and peel back some things that you have tolerated in previous seasons.
The following may get ignored because I didn’t use the phrase “thus saith the L-rd to Salt Lake City”. But prophets don’t need to announce they are prophets in order to speak the truth the King gives them. And “thus saith the L-rd” has often preceded manipulative words. So, you each can have the freedom given to men and women to decide what you are going to eat as manna from the King and what you are going to spit out as bones.
I have never lived here in Salt Lake, or Provo, or Orem, or anywhere else in Utah, and I have never had a need to live here, but I think a few things, and I am going to share those things that were thought, about this precious patch of bee-busy land.
Salt Lake City Thoughts
Part of the stronghold built around this city revolves around finding legitimacy around the capacity to bring resources and provide for others and be independent for so doing.
They are great at doing and working with INDUSTRY (the state motto), but the independence that means they, or we, do not need to rely on the counsel and friendship of the L-rd and place our anchor in Him often leads to a form of legalism.
It is good to know your design. But it is horrible to make your design your anchoring place.
So, what may help in dismantling that stronghold is, for those that love and work in Salt Lake City, to come in the the opposite spirit by leaning into a radical partnership with the L-rd in everything that y’all do. Blending your design with and submitting it and it’s flow to His input in all things.
If you do not live and/or work here, or pay taxes here, you have substantially less authority to deal with the junk in the land.
Resist Non-Reality
We have a non-reality in some of the bedroom communities in Charlotte that people who do not pay a cent of taxes to Charlotte can exercise significant authority over Charlotte spiritually.
What you pay taxes on, you own. What you do not pay taxes on, you do not own.
If you want to exercise significant authority in the realm of a business or a city, you might first have to pay some taxes. You might need to live in a place in order to impact it significantly.
Different strongholds exist in different cities, and for those with a victim spirit (none of that here in SLC) they have to learn some independence and building with what the L-rd has already put in their hands, and the L-rd May be wanting to teach them radical Industry.
I know, some may stone me for saying that because “aren’t we all supposed to only depend on G-d and ‘lean not on our own understanding’, David?”
Not when the stronghold is a Victim Spirit and the L-rd is trying to break you of magic wand, welfare Christianity. If your sin of choice is a stronghold of Industry that says “no” to the counsel of the L-rd, you need to learn partnership.
On the other hand, if your sin of choice is the victim spirit and codependence on the L-rd (which is no partnership), the L-rd may be trying to get you to stand up and walk and use the tools He has put in your hands to build with.
May I Cut In, Cuz’ It’s Time To Dance
I know that, in my expression of these two dynamics, the “stay in love with Jesus/Brides Only” crowd will likely be offended with the paradigm of inddustry and work and being sent out by the L-rd and standing up and walking out dynamics.
This is why this is a dance between the two dynamics. Son mode and bride mode.
Sons build and use tools. Brides do intimacy and stay close and receive.
But we dance between receiving and giving.
We dance between bed chamber and kitchen/living/meeting room.
The Mary And Martha Dance
We dance between Mary and Martha.
Martha was a Giver. She owned the house where people met in Bethany. Mary was likely a Mercy.
You need both. And had Martha invited Jesus in to help her with the work (Jesus was a friend and family), Jesus would have come into her world and worked with her. Thanks to C.T. Meyers for that picture.
Jesus did not respond to Martha’s serving. Jesus responded to Martha’s perverted view of Mary’s design.
And we will have to do the dance and find the treasures between the closeness and the industry that is connected as a partnership.
So to the Industry crowd, learn how to partner with the King in your work, and how to invite Him in to that work. He will come to you in tour work where you are.
And to the Intimacy crowd, learn how to be about the BUSINESS of your Husband. You are intimate and in the intimacy, you receive tools so you can take the Kingdom and the Garden to the non-Garden parts of the world. Stand up and start swinging.
It’s not just about being intimate or trying to figure it out (understanding and wisdom and knowledge are not a hierarchy; they are tools).
It’s about doing the dance….
Transformation of Materials Used For Idolatry
And Salt Lake City has Treasures.
To hell with the mindset of “stay away from Salt Lake City because it’s loaded with demons.”
Oftentimes, the only reason a city eats your lunch is because 1) you were not called there, or 2) you are compromised in the area of the stronghold that holds that city or land captive.
Stay in the society where you are and cultivate the opposite spirit and the cardinal virtue tied to the land where you are and the stronghold’s optic, followed by its grip, will shrink.
Deal with the camoflauge and the issues if inaccurate perception.
They are clowns, and the circus deserves to leave town.
Which means SLC deserves a contingent of salty, rugged Christ-followers who will grow in some Giver Virtue.
We don’t cede land to the clowns as unredeemable.
California. Colorado. Massachusetts. New York. Fill in the blank. You don’t cede what you think is one damned inch of land.
Freaking. G-d. Was. There. First.
And just because treasures have been taken and carved into idols does not mean that there are not proper ways of using and working with those treasures.
You want to break the stronghold here? Avoid the slope of turning industry and the can-do attitude into Mammon.
Work, but work with Him. Be intimate, you intimacy people, but when the season of intimacy is done, move out and build and work. Sweat as Adam did. And drink your cold drinks, little ones.
The unique stronghold here is reliance on AND ANCHORING TO the Giver Free Money of Resources that flow to you effortlessly, and Independence.
As you are working to reconcile to your land and reconcile the land to the King, part of that reconciliation might involve having a conversation with the land and asking it what is going on in it. Consider the history. Consider the founding. Consider that the King sent you to a place.
A Blessing For The Industrious Ones
Beloved, I invite your spirit forward.
Spirit, listen to the Word of G-d for you for today.
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The L-RD G-d took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to WORK it and keep it.
Genesis 2:10–15 ESV
Spirit, you were made to work. Work is not a sin. Figuring out and pondering, and thinking are not sins. Your mind is not less than your heart, nor are the two of those less or greater than your reins (the RJD/Servant combo of your Adrenals and Kidneys).
They are just different.
Spirit, your place of dwelling is in the Seat of Dominion, in the brain in the Frontal Lobe. And yes, the heart and the reins also are thinking and feeling organs along with the brain
Spirit, the emotions and the toughs are designed to work together. As much as the first six gifts need the emotions, so also the Mercy needs the thoughts.
And all serve different functions.
Spirit, I went on that rabbit trail because this blessing revolves around one thing.
Tools, spirit.
Can I substitute a drill for a hammer in the matter of nails?
Can I sub a screwdriver instead of a wood chisel in the case of woodworking?
Screws and nails instead of glue in the case of broken ceramic?
In all of these cases, the answer is the same. No I cannot, if I am looking for excellence.
Spirit, you are made not only for tools, but also for intimacy. And you are made for kingly interactions in all areas of your life. No matter your Redemptive Gift, you are needed and all of your tools are needed.
And you were made, not to lean on your tools, but on the King.
For those of you with an independent streak, not all of those streaks are demonic or “soulish”. Some of those streaks are out there by the King and they demonstrate and display His goodness to the Giver tribe.
That said, that design of yours is meant for partnership with the L-rd.
So I bless you when you hear the L-rd say, build.
I bless your perspective to be fuller and to go for what is missing.
I bless you to see with the King’s eyes as He releases you to build using your tools.
But I also bless you with the capacity to slow down and hear what the king is saying to you.
I bless you to find all the King has for you in each Sonship and Kingdom assignment.
I bless you to hear the birds and see the light and to feel the wood and to wisely allocate the raw materials as you transform them into something different.
I bless you with the skill to apply gas and brake in sequence.
I bless you to partner with the land where you are and to see your gifts Marshall these tools, gifts, and raw materials and resources to come in the opposite spirit of the stronghold in place where you live.
I bless you to smile at the land where you live, no matter how much junk there is.
Spirit, no matter how much junk there is, the devil cannot tarnish the reality that “G-d was there first”. Not one damn clown beat G-d to any single patch of land on earth.
Even in Deseret, G-d was there before Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the clowns of that perversion.
G-d put Industry in the land.
And G-d created us for incessant relationship and partnership. Partnership with Him. Partnership with others. And Partnership with the Land.
Spirit, I bless you to smile and show the land a bit of your sunshine as the King imbues YOU WITH HOPE!
I bless you to interact with the land and to speak to the land, not AT the land.
I bless you to listen to the land. And I bless you to take the tools give to you and to flow from stand-up-and-go on the one hand, to partnership and dependence to on and receiving from your bridegroom on the other.
I bless you to WORK the land and WORK WITH the land.
I bless the dance, as my sister from the Old Northwest was blessed in her capacity to receive her daily food from Her Bridegroom while she waited for her passion to take off.
I bless the tools to be connected to the capacity to flow between partnership when you check back in with the King periodically to receive from and being sent out from Him on assignment that means you might trailblazing alone in the wilderness, when the work is hard and the sun is hot.
I bless the land to facilitate you with its gifts without you falling into any traps created by anchoring to those gifts instead of the King.
I realize I am in the process of a number of other things, but, Teachers, again, your unusual and unexpected capacity to:
1) Preserve life when it isn’t looked for, when you are rightly aligned and strong with the Principle of Responsibility,
2) Defend and preserve rightly-aligned sexuality,
3) Occupy your very pertinent position in the sequence of seven Redemptive Gifts, between two other notes life-givers, the Servant on the one hand, which protects new life and the thing G-d has conceived from premature (hear this pronounced the British way with the short “e” sound) extinguishing, and the Giver on the other hand, which births new blood life.
The following is a long sentence, so in the spirit of the length of the Declaration of Independence’s single-sentenced preamble, stay with me as I weave together the following thought.
There are going to be times when the other gifts are preoccupied in such ways…
that their focus will not be on the protectionary measures you easily derive from remembering the past…
and even though you might appear as though you are stuck to the other gifts, while being married to the apparently (“apparently” is the adverbial form of “appear, so by their estimation the appearance, which may not be the same as reality) valueless past, and while you may seem slow to others who don’t see the five-dimensional frame of the big picture, there is a stranger and much-less pronounced form of special discernment that the Teacher provides to make truly safe the rest of the community.
This form of discernment has brandished itself in film in the last 10 years, and it is on full display as M, who is RG Teacher here, tells the Ministry of Intelligence in the film “Skyfall” a good deal that is necessary.
Gang, are you capable of seeing the beauty of this aspect of the Teacher presented here.
Teachers, do not ever beat yourself up, and do not dare let some impulsive gift beat you up for owning and enjoying your connections to the past that give you a form of discernment that none of the other gifts can have.
And again yes, I know, seven portions, one dominant portion.
But this sort of dynamic is precisely why I argue we each have only one Redemptive Gift. And one-seventh of our tribe has the critical role of being Teacher.
So, I would encourage those of y’all who think you are three gifts because a test told you so, to stop letting the tests tell you what you are, and do find out what your gift is. As a card-carrying Mercy who has six other active portions, some of which are quite active.
And if we spread our foci too thin, we become anything and everything and therefore nothing.
If you wonder if what I have been saying about the Teacher and the Prophet holds any weight, start at 10:50 and move on from there. For quite a few minutes, he describes something that could have only come from America.
Speaker Gingrich describes “something that is very fundamental about the nature of America” (11:32). He launches into how the Wright Brothers handle their problem for learning to fly. Updrafts are continuous from Kitty Hawk. They had to use skill, and they had to take THEIR OWN resources with their own money and did something.
This poverty spirit in our country where we have the mindset of “I need, therefore, Uncle Sam, give me” is unnerving.
This mindset that big-government types have that wishes to keep the American public dependent on government agency counters the spirit that makes America what it is.
Note: I did not name parties, and my audience naming party names will kill the capacity of those who are in my audience to hear and receive something from this post.
Note again, the Wrights with little backing and finances and resources learned how to fly.
Somehow, when the floor drops out from under you when you have the resources, and you fail, and fail, and fail, and then eventually succeed, you have the capacity to anticipate, to experience, to savor, and to tell.
So, please, do not beg the government for what you think should be a permanent handout. Do not buy the lie being fed by the left and the right that you must be dependent on an all-powerful government who is supposed to fix your problems and keep you from failing.
You find out what your design is, and then you go and do whatever you need to do in accordance with how you are hardwired in order to succeed.
If you need help with figuring out your design, I will help as I have time.
Beloved, you were not made to depend on others.
Go, find what you were made to do. And be at peace, gang.
