I am going to be perfectly clear, gang.

I have seen more Facebook ads against abortion and glad that the President spoke out against abortion in the last few days than in the last dozen years combined.

The stand for “do not murder” is admirable.

But in the words of a good friend of mine, when you are for one commandment but against the other nine, you aren’t doing your job.

I don’t expect to win a popularity contest with this blog post.

The danger of what has happened in the last few days is as follows.

If the pro-Trump-anti-Democrats among us are right in their partial judgments for the stated Trump agenda, then this post will do what any incorrect material should do: fade away.

But if my hypotheses are correct and we are only hearing a part of the truth, then the effects of that cause reach to some very negative ends.

When you post about how good it is that we are against abortion, but refuse to also speak against unconstitutional, undeclared wars that are also unjust, then I do not believe our G-d is using these politicians in office, nor our President.

And when you want to support a regime (the United States in this case) that in silence permitted the sadistic bayonet sodomy of a leader because they thought regime change was a good idea, then I don’t think G-d used that set of politicians either (Ezekiel 18:23).

If we save the aborted, and talk about overturning this or that SCOTUS decision, but do not make a Mercy-Season case to transform the hearts of men and win the war in the individual souls, then the soil can and may still remain locked up.

And if we save the aborted but continue to condone, in our silence, the killings of innocents abroad through gross violations of our nation’s founding principles, then we have a serious problem.

And when we only speak correction to–and scoff–one political party or caucus, garbed in white, but refuse to speak of the judgment that awaits those on the other side of the fence for their sons of omission, then we may be engaging in the Prophet’s Root Iniquity: Fractured Relationships. And in our hypocrisy, we may be doing more harm than good, by reinforcing our echo chamber.

If you only accept half of the truth or half of the revelation G-d gives you, and reject the other half that is uncomfortable to receive, then what you stand to reap is a Canaanite Iron Bowl and a lack of or devouring of revelation.

The President and all of Congress has some serious issues, and uncritical support of his actions is not a recipe for renewal.

And the insanity of our political discourse is tainted by the Curse of Jotham.

So, call me divisive. Call me whenever you wish. But our behavior on social media is not identifying the whole problem, nor will it break the Mesmerizing Spirit, nor repair the breach.

#stopthemadness

THE USUAL DISCLAIMER: These are just my thoughts, some strongly-worded as they are. I very much appreciate differentiated thoughts from y’all. So, feel free to share those disputes and share as you wish.

The Problem

Something that peeves me about the Charismatic Church on the whole.

If we hunt for a new prophetic word every week for one year, and we never take any time to develop the first word that we get to see if really is true, then we are left with 52 prophetic words that are left untested, or, if tested and approved, they are undeveloped.

Why would G-d do that to us?

Sometimes the prophets need to shut up and let us take the time to develop a word or they need to flat-out reject the word given because it is off-base or tangential to what G-d is doing in them.

Reasons For the Problem: Little Testing, Process, or Proving

Call me crazy (yes, David has said some crazy and off-the-wall things), but I think one of the reasons we have only a 13 percent (Arthur Burk pulled this stat in one of his teachings and he once stated, either to me personally or in one of his other teachings that this stat came from Elijah List) success rate in prophetic ministry is the following lack of discipleship.

We have little to no process of walking with young up-and-coming prophets and prophesiers through a process of testing and proving of words, long-term, combined with a crazy lack of focus. This in part results in an abysmal rate of failed words.

Failure to test and approve words leads to a lack of success in the department of the prophetic. Furthermore, failure to develop what has been tested and approved leads to immaturity in the prophetic. This is why the prophetic giftings critically need the gift of teaching to help them deepen. And the job of those with the office of Prophet are designed

“to nurture the young prophets coming up, and, goodness knows, young prophets coming up could seriously use some nurture.”

Arthur Burk, The Redemptive Gifts of Individuals, Disc 2: Prophet, Cut 1: Three Kinds of Prophet, Timestamp 0:28-0:35 (2000, Sapphire Leadership Group).

Often times, we look at a word through an overly-simplified lens of:

Is it right or is it wrong?

If it is right, we immediately apply it, whether or not it has germinated, flowered, grown, been harvested, and processed. If it is wrong, we burn the word up in the flames and if we are not careful we shut down someone who is learning to operate in gifts the L-rd has given them, and they can become dissuaded from operating ever again (Ephesians 6:5 NIV).

Rather than shutting down a young prophet, it is a good idea to walk with them through a long-term process of seeing if what they are hearing carries a value. Coaching them through some sort of process where they are able to themselves judge what they are hearing.  This will help them to deepen what they may be hearing, and also to help develop the words they hear so they can be applied in the life of the local body or community where the words originate.

The Right of Correction and To Whom It Belongs

From here, let’s consider correcting the prophet that is wrong, even the broadly respected voice. If we are not allowed to correct the nonsense that we get from the “prophetic voice” if that voice is wrong, then we are enabling something that is off to flow in our midst.

My thought: slow down and don’t be quick to swallow everything that comes from every big name out there.

Our job in part in receiving words, first and foremost, should come through not the filter of the Scripture, but through the Filter of the Holy Trinity. My own view, no one else’s necessarily, is that we do not worship a book and use a book as our primary filter. Rather we let He Himself, the Word of G-d, filter this stuff. We worship G-d, not a book. The Bible is not the Fourth Member of the Trinity. We listen to Father (Exodus 20:1-20, Son (Revelation 1:15), and Holy Spirit (John 14:26, 1 John 2:27). Truthfully we have gotten away from hearing the Voice of G-d Himself, and we have done a horrid job by saying “the Spirit will line up with the word” and “if it doesn’t line up with the word, throw it out” and we have failed to see that we better run our thoughts through the two way street. We have neglected the other lane. We have in many places rejected the fact that our view of the word on the page had better line up with what G-d himself is saying. Many believers have chosen a hermeneutic that is only the Bible, and reading the bible with our brains, or interpreting words with our natural brains, and many times we have rejected the principle of letting the Holy Trinity read the Bible with us and to help us interpret the text. As a result, we read the text apart from the Spirit, and we let that natural, mental or emotional, feeling or cerebral, heart or brain soulish interpretation govern our view of G-d’s doings, and as a result, we call that which is G-d heretical.

If we have the filter of Scripture for interpreting experience, we need to only do so if we are reading the Scripture and asking He Himself what He means by that statement. We are to read the text in the context of a living, breathing, vibrant relationship with the Holy One of Israel.

Secondly, and only after the Trinity is firmly in place, do we add the filter of Scripture to our interpretation. Because it is only with the vivifying power of the text read in the presence of G-d Himself that we can rightly divide the text, correctly handle it, and rightly apply it to a situation that requires the list found in 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Hunting For the New Word

Further, if we go hunting for a new word from this or that major voice, then we are buying into a pernicious form of welfare Christianity. When we depend on someone to hear for ourselves, when we will not do the work of hearing Him for ourselves, we have opened a bad door up.

Now, granted, let us be reasonable. There are times when we need some outside counsel to help clear up a situation, but those are the exceptions, or, if there is not a curse or covenant or agreement operant, they should be the exception. We do work in community and community can help, but the company of the prophetic community should not be our go-to, or our firstfruits stop. The need to have someone speak to us counsel is not what I have in view. What I have in view is those situations where believers hunt for the word from someone else, or need this or that anointed person to bless them with a word, or else their lives are going to fall apart if this person prophesies over the person on either side of them, but passes by them.

Look, it is entirely possible that the reason that person has passed you by is because the L-rd Himself wants to lay hands Himself on you and prophesy over you.

Just some thoughts, gang.

Be blessed. And I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

#Sonship

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath…
-from Mark 2:27-
Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the 👽, may be refreshed.
Exodus 23:12

Put another way…
Just think about this concept.
Dwell in this concept,
Abide in it,
Meditate in the fields of Beer Lahai Roi, gang.
(David’s getting creepy, talking about dwelling in concepts and using alien Emoticons. I think he has been hanging around Elvis Mack for too long)
♠️♥️♦️♣️ Suit yourselves. Ahem. Giggle. Yes, I have been hanging out with him a bit long.
Here it is, do not miss it.
The Sabbath was designed to carry you, not you to carry the Sabbath.
From the Torah, it was designed to be a time of refreshment. You were meant to be carried along in rest by the Man of Rest, by Yeshua, the L-rd of the Sabbath.
Let Him and the Day of Your Rest carry you and breathe new life into you.
Let Him 🎁 you a season of refreshment and cleansing.
Let all of your beasts experience a day where they don’t have to work, but they can be.
Six days give, One day receive.
Raw materials, an extra day’s manna, deepening revelation, and extraordinary farther down in the depths of Him Whose depths cry for your depths.
And ask yourself, “Is the Sabbath carrying me or am I carrying the Sabbath?”
Carrying the Sabbath is something you were not designed to do.
It makes about as much sense to carry the Sabbath as it does to carry the Missouri River.
Your job, on the day of rest, is to just float along and let the Sabbath and the L-rd of the Sabbath surround you and cool you off.

This right here is worth five minutes of your time. Just as an affirmation of those who are designed to flow with the L-rd and not be subjugated to a perverted ministry Leadership structure that thinks it really is a manifestation of true Fivefold ministry.

This is Arthur Burk, from his series, “Life After Church.”

I am receiving in the mail a book from Peter Enns, his latest, tomorrow. And it is my intent to share a full, honest, and unadulterated review of it both good and bad.

Now, as an ever-devoted follower of all things good and godly, I must say that this book is guaranteed to carry some of Pete’s trademark Teacher humor and provocative thoughts. And doubtless, some of those thoughts will raise a few eyebrows.

That said, I like to read broadly, even with things whose points I may not fully agree. The first two chapters have proven one thing: he knows how to write an engaging and entertaining work, and he excels in forcing us to see the Bible as pointing us toward wisdom and searching matters out, rather than viewing it as a magic answer book, the Instructions, or Cliffs Notes to life, which it most assuredly is not.

Furthermore, given Pete has written one of the best Commentaries on Exodus, and given the premise of this book is that the Scripture means to point us toward wisdom, I would highly recommend all of y’all grab a copy as it becomes available and see what there is in it. I look forward to reading the rest of the story. Thanks, gang.

TPH

#harperonepartner

#wisebible

#howthebibleactuallyworks

Consider the following verses:

The L-RD said to Moses and Aaron, “This month shall be for you beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you….”
Exodus 12:1-2

So, the L-RD promised a new time line for Israel, and a feast to be celebrated every year at the same time.
Now look at the following:

“Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?”
From Exodus 14:11

So, considering Exodus 12 and 13, the L-rd told the children of Israel that this month was the start of a new time line for them, and, from Chapter 14, we see, yet, that they were obsessed with believing they were going to die in the desert.
When Father, the G-d of all Time, commands you to annually celebrate a feast, and tells you what any part of your future looks like, and he commands you to celebrate in the land where you are going, then if you have set it in your mind that death is your portion, then you have evidently and indeed begun to demonstrate you didn’t understand the implications of that command.
Wrapped up in the command to celebrate is the truth that you are going to last and live another year, and it means you will not die within the next 365 days.
If G-d intends you to celebrate Him every year forever, then that implies He has made provision to keep you alive for at least another year.
Gang, if He promises us something, a new time line, then let us, no matter how much pain we are in now and what we may not be able to see with the natural eyes, see with the eyes of the spirit and move into the new season and not complain about or obsess over death.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the L-RD.
Exodus 12:12
Now I know that the L-RD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people
Exodus 18:11

What is the pronoun antecedent for “they” in 18:11?
Pronoun antecedent: the word preceding a pronoun to which the pronoun refers.
Look closely at the verse.
It’s not “the Egyptians” who dealt arrogantly per this particular text.
Rather it is “the gods”.
The spiritual rulers of the Egyptians were those about whom Jethro/Reuel was speaking.
It was ultimately the principalities and powers against whom Adonai was fighting, per 12:12 as well (Ephesians 6:12).
Though real Mizraimites died in the Reed Sea/Red Sea, and though they were indeed affected by the plagues, it was the spiritual enemy that was the primary source of Father’s contempt.
I think this is neat.