It is is a treasure when you find a friend who is sensitive enough to parts of your design that they will pick up on those sensitivities and check in to make sure they haven’t hurt you.

I am learning that…

While I revel in fixing things aand using tools to build and getting my hands dirty doing what is considered traditionally manly work, as that was something my father never helped me unpack growing up…

I also have a very soft segment of my inner person that really gets easily run over.

I had a situation today where I didn’t realize that I needed someone to make sure I was doing okay because they felt like they might have run over me verbally, and I immediately offered a knee-jerk response that I was fine.

A portion of my spirit spoke up today and said that this friend picked up on this very sensitive aspect of my design and checked in with me accordingly.

I said all this to say the following.

Men, if you have a softer side to you, it is not you being gay. Rather, it is you just being more sensitive. That emotional side that feels like a “girl” responding may be your spirit responding because you were made to be tender and emotional in many cases and able to pick up some of the subtler dynamics out of you.

Attempting to reprogram the “unmanly” or “feminine” parts of you can do great damage.

Likewise, if you have some more more masculine, son-like, filial parts that need to pick up a tool and do grunt-trench work, likewise unpack those.

The aim is to be the whole person God made you, and to embrace the builder/fighter dynamics AND the sensitive and emotional, mothering, bridal aspects.

Just some thoughts, gang.

“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.”

(Gen. 3:8–14 ESVi)
https://accordance.bible/link/read/ESVi#Gen._3:8

So, while engaging with reading the Scripture this morning, I had the following thoughts. And in other places, I have said these things before, but it may bear repeating.

There are preachers, teachers, and others who like to take Adam’s quote, “the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me…, and I ate”, as a joke in sermons or teachings, saying, “and men have been blaming women ever since.”

But, if you will notice in the passage, does the Lord ever stop to sort out the interpersonal relational issues of mistrust or trauma at this moment. Not at all. Rather, what He does is respond not by saying “shame on you for blaming your wife, or passing the buck”.

He also does not ask the serpent for his side of the story, which tells you that He knows something about this serpent that we may not know.

A Bit Of Background For the Unaware

For those of you not familiar with the serpent described here, that term “serpent” is a reference to Satan.

In very simplified terms, Satan was a messenger who stood in the presence of the Divine Council.

He started a rebellion, and deceived many other created heavenly beings into following him, and they sought to overthrow God. He was beautiful at that time, before the rebellion began, and the pride and iniquity that was found in him twisted him into the serpent that we meet in Genesis 3.

Granted, there is more I can say, but that is a brief read on this critter. Below are a couple of good links that will discuss things like the Divine Council that will further you understanding on the serpent.

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch

What God does is begin the process of responding to the situation in the garden by continuing from the story that was started before the garden.

He starts by addressing the serpent.

He does not start by addressing Eve’s behavior, or Adam’s behavior.

He starts with the serpent.

Let that sink in. When you screw up and do what the enemy gives you to do, the Lord is not going to burn you or beat you to begin with. He is going to handle the clowns first. He is then going to gather you up and because He is your Father, He is willing to coach you to a place of victory, and show you the process for undoing the mess in your life, piece by piece, and step by step. He is Father, not Slavedriver. A father instructs, counsels, and does not provoke their children to wrath ( Ephesians 6:4), and given God is the ultimate father, He is going to work according to that reality, and is not going to exasperate or provoke us to wrath.

Now, He might lead us in ways we do not understand, and some things we might question. But it is not God’s way to needlessly do things in order to frustrated or exasperate us as an end in themselves.

God responds to the situation, not by asking the serpent what he has done (God knows what the serpent has done, both in heaven, and on earth), but by telling the serpent what is going to happen in response to the serpent’s attempt at continuing the rebellion begun in heaven here on earth.

The Lord, for the moment in Genesis 3, is not interested in the squabbles and the jokes that we can make about how men are or how women are; rather, He starts by mentioning:

• That the serpent will ultimately be defeated,
• How the serpent will be defeated (using the fruit that came from the woman), and
• That the Lord will accomplish this using these fallen creatures.

Translation: we humans are still part of God’s purpose to transition all of creation from glory through fall into further glory.

To be sure, in our preaching and teaching of this passage, for us to take the points that are deemphasized, and to emphasize them at the expense of the areas that God emphasizes, is problematic.

For us to make a joke about how a woman is (gullible, easily deceived, led astray, unintelligent) or how a man is (liars, blame-shifters) is anything but redemptive.

And our instruction and dealing with the text must be wholly and finally redemptive.

And for us to further miss the punchline from God’s perspective, namely that He was still going to use Adam and Eve, and that they were still his A-Team, that He made for Himself no other choice than they, and that they were still part of His plan for redemption, is for us to miss the point of the story.

For Us, A Picture of The Redemptive Power of Our King and How He Deals With Us As Sons

Redemption takes place in the midst of our mess, in the midst of our blame-shifting and our shirking of responsibility. And in that truth we can celebrate and move into enjoying God and watching Him triumph over the foe and the avenger (Psalm 8:2), and watching Him choose to maintain a connection with Adam who was still the son of God.

Remember, you are God’s son. This day he has begotten you, dear one (Psalm 2:7).

Furthermore, I would exhort you to allow the Lord to decide how He wants to handle your adversaries.

And finally, realize that, even in the midst of your deep sin, Father stands with you and really adores you. There is a tenderness in Father that is runs toward you, and does not beat or abuse you maliciously.

Do not miss the forest of expounding on the extravagant fullness of God’s love and affection for the trees of a couple of callous and glib remarks on “how men are” or “how women are”.

And don’t make your life’s work a disproportionate mess of telling people how sinful they are, at the expense of exclaiming how unfathomably amazing our King is, gang.

He puts the focus on the many places where he wants to place the focus. He handles the serpent, and the man and woman’s failings, and then he reframed their perception of reality in accordance with the truth. Pertaining to the truth, I will continue this discussion in the next post.

Other Resources For Consideration

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The above is a link to a really good video on the Divine Council

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Above is the Bible Project video on Spiritual Beings: Mind you, two areas where I disagree with the BP authors of this video are the ideas that we are told to “rise above our dirty origins” and that we are “lowly humans”. Making fun of the fact that we were created from the red clay (Hebrew Adam) and calling the origins of our bodies as “ewww gross dirty” curses the dirt, and we need to learn as believers and followers and stewards of this planet not to curse the dirt. Otherwise, this is a very solid video.

https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-Realm-Recovering-Supernatural-Worldview/dp/1577995562
This is a book by Michael Heiser discussing many of these topics and more in-depth.

Continuing from the previous post, I wanted to emphasize a couple of things.

God not only corrected the junk of the man and the woman, but he also reframed the larger picture of the situation before Adam and Eve in accordance with the truth, with the fullness of reality.

Why is this important?

Well, Genesis 3:7 gives us a clue.

It reads:

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:7

So, why is this important? Well that word there for “loincloths”, חֲגֹרֹת, which is really well-translated, can be understood not as “aprons” or “garments” but most nearly as “belts”. “Loincloths” that cover the loins would be the best fit here, because “belt” does not fully or accurately portray what is being talked about here. We are talking about something that covers the waist here.

And in Ephesians 6, Paul tells us to cover our loins with truth.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt (“the protective piece that covers your loins” is a more accurate way of rendering this. “Lionpiece”) of truth…

From Ephesians 6:13-14

Do you see the connection here?

This is why the reframing in accordance with the truth is so critical. They were believing that they could fix their problem with a patch of fig leaves. And God wanted them, and us by extension, to walk in truth, the light, which is what really protects our body and our spiritually vital organs. Namely, those organs that cause us to unite spiritually with others.

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

1 Cor 6:16 ESV

Gang, we need him to provide us with the protection we need, because we can’t do this thing called flourishing in the spirit realm out of our own strength. We must seek him and lean on him in order to make this thing work.

When we are caught up or overtaken in a mess, we need the truth as a plum line so that we can own what is our an no more than that, and then ask Father to show us how to fix the mess. He really does want to help us, and He is really against His enemy, who is also our enemy, that clownish serpent.

My encouragement to you is to run to Him.

Words from the Exhorter, Winston Churchill, that bear us Reframing Ephesians 5:11, where Paul is quoted as saying:

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Now, there is nothing wrong with exposing what needs to be exposed, but you MUST do so in the context of making sure that that exhortation of the Scripture does not devour your life and time.

Go after your purpose, and quit griping and exposing heretics.

You can busy yourself by exposing heretics and heresies, so much so, that the practice of exposing devours your time and resources, and you never actually get around to doing what you were ultimately made or designed to do.

Do you want to do what Father has for you, or do you want to accomplish what others have for you?

Camups Crusade used to have a tract that read, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”.

Arthur Burk’s wife used to reframe that by saying to her husband “Arthur, everyone loves you and everyone has a wonderful plan for your life”.

So, my question is, “is your life so far out of equilibrium that you are doing this one thing AT THE EXPENSE OF your limited resources of time?”.

Think carefully about where you are going and what you see going to do.

Slow down, take a breath, and get your ratios of exposing heresies to underatanding/developing your purpose, design, giftings, and destiny right.

Get that ratio right.

My counsel:

For every 5 minutes per month you spend exposing, spend 3 hours daily in the same month investing, understanding, and nurturing your design, gifts, talents, what you were made to do, your purpose, your treasures, and your birthright

Put differently: Expose once if you need to, only as Father leads, and then move on with what you are in favor of and what you are doing with your life.

Explicate what you are for way more than what you are against.

If we spent more time working on us and our relationship with Him, then we would not have the time to write freaking reams of paper on what is wrong with Todd Bentley.

Granted, he needed to be exposed and brought to repentance, but 98 percent of y’all that complained about him did so without the earned authority necessary to say where he needed to be put after repenting. You did not embrace the process of reconciliation for him, but only kvetched about the wrong he did.

Granted, I am not justifying what he or any other heretic did it person you don’t care for. But dang if we spend too much time focusing on and being mesmerized by the wrong rather than moving into the FULL process of how to restore someone, and not use more of that time and paper and ink developing the fullness of what is necessary in us.

So get that ratio.

Heretics and heresies get no more than 5 minutes per month of your attention. No, it is not your calling to solely expose. That will wear you out and turn you into a cynic fast. It will sap your strength and time, and you won’t be able to develop as you should, which WILL strengthen you.

Just my take, gang.

Many of y’all know I don’t celebrate Christmas anymore. What many y’all may not know is that, contrary to eyars gone by, and due in large part to Arthur Burk’s influence, I no longer critique others’ choice to celebrate the same, whether or not it is unbiblical, though I have reasons stated for no longer so doing.

That said, if Jesus is going to be made the center of your celebration, whether you celebrate Christmas or Chanukah, or account all days the same (Romans 14:5), and if it is going to be an act of warfare, given we do not needlessly cede anything to the enemy that God created, including the time span that happens to be labeled December 25th, then we simply must regularly exercise a quality of spiritual warfare that we commonly call by the name “thankfulness”.

Carl is a man of God whose walk with God is robust and makes many of my generation’s walks appear anemic by comparison. He assigned me and my now-ex-wife to do altar ministry 10 years ago at our then-home-church, and his formerly-regular, now-occasional counsel due distance are among the best I have received.

Concerning thankfulness, he writes:

Growing up, my mother was the oldest of 4, raised by a widowed single mother and poor would not begin to adequately describe their circumstance.

Those days instilled an attitude of thanksgiving for the little things that never left her.

Looking back, I now understand one of her little idiosyncrasies at Christmas.

She would watch everyone else open their gifts and when that was over, she would take her little Keen Kutter pen knife, and carefully slice the tape, slowly unwrap her gift, and neatly fold the wrapping paper to be saved for another year.

I often wondered why she took so long to open her gifts, but as the years pass I think now I understand.

It was the savoring of something good, An attitude of joy and appreciation that centered as much on the love that brought those gifts as on the gift itself.

“We didn’t have a lot in those days” she once said, “so we wanted to make what little there was, last as long as we could.

In her eyes, an orange and a pair of sox held the same esteem as the grandest, most extravagant gift imaginable.

When she passed, she left a drawer full of neatly folded wrapping paper, some of it so old it was yellowed and brittle and now I know, tucked away in the folds were a lifetime of memories made more precious by thankfulness.

I didn’t save the paper this morning, but I did use her little Keen Kutter pen knife to carefully slice the tape and as I unwrapped my gifts, taking care not to damage the paper, I remembered to be thankful for all the good things in my iife, even the little ones.

Jesus is Lord

Merry Christmas.

I can only add a hearty “amen”. And this post honors the deposit of thankfulness and gratitude in even the small matters.

Philippians 4:8

Two sets of thoughts.

One.

I do realize that the Charismatic Movement has in many places grown abusive or tone-deaf to the fullness of Scripture.

And many of those of us who are associated with Bethel, have grown to treat the part that they have as synonymous with the whole truth.

It’s not, gang.

They have a small piece.

And many have become uncritical, unjudging, undecisional groupies of everything that comes from Bethel, MorningStar, or [pick your denominational influence].

However, two

Jesus didn’t command us to dwell in perpetual powerlessness.

He charged us repeatedly to pray.

He also charged us to dance between intimacy and principles. Many of us in the Bethel constellation have dropped the complex weaving together of principles for an oversimplified answer to every problem.

Bill Johnson, the Heiligenthals, and others, however, have held onto the principles of 1) resurrection that Jesus said would happen, period, and 2) to love not in reaction to the devil, but rather in reaction to the Father.

I am not saying Bethel got everything perfect. Some of their material on the fivefold ministry is absolutely dubious.

Much of the teaching on the fivefold ministry is downright toxic because it is not couched in the language of “this is what we have seen”, “let’s discuss”, and “what have you seen?”.

But this, a desire to see healing and miracles take place, is one area where they shine. A transformed mindset.

Meanwhile you Calvinists and Reformers have taken all sorts of verbally and spiritually abusive shits in Bethel’s and the Heiligenthal‘s front yard.

And Now Comes My Greta Moment To the Calvinists

Your brother and sister didn’t ask you to bash their dignity or their theology. They friggin asked you to pray for resurrection, in accordance with John 11, and you are acting like Mary and Martha who were allegorized resurrection.

How dare you….

Your responsibility is to, in light of God’s sovereign hand, to ask Him, based on the possibility that it might be given, in alignment with the Sermon on the Mount.

To jump on board and seek for His hand to move in this family’s life and not to decide the frame of what that looks like.

The sovereignty of God was designed to embrace God’s capacity to do what He wants, which includes resurrection.

If the parents determine to pray for resurrection, your job is to get off of your lazy asses and pray as they request, in accordance with the full kingdom agenda.

It is not to bash them as crazy, and tell them how heretical they are.

Jesus didn’t die so we could have the opportunity to doubt whether or not He would work, paired with the fear of our perverted view of His sovereignty.

It is to rest our lives in the hope that He just might do something that is different than your expectations.

We are sick of chronically powerless, inauthentic, partial Christianity that treats God as a dictator who has ceased to work now that the canon is finished.

We want more and we affirm Scripture and the nature of God demand there is more.

That is all.

“Where are all the real men?” is regular fare for talk shows and new books. You asked them to be women, I want to say. The result is gender confusion never experienced at such a wide level in the history of the world.

How can a man know he is one when his highest aim is minding his manners?

-John Eldredge, Wild At Heart, p. 7.-

I am a fairly sensitive and empathic soul. And yet, the westward expansion of this Antichrist spirit that wants to destroy women with misogyny also wants to destroy men with misandry.

Whether or not we realize it, and we may only deeply realize it when we understand the war has pitted men and women against one another’s inherent dignity, the critters (namely the Mesmerizing Spirit and the Spirit of Antichrist) have pitted male and female against one another.

They have made us out to be a laughingstock, and our responsibility is to speak truth to power that is being used to abuse and desensitize male and female to affection for and defending of one another.

We as a culture are in need of recovered masculine and feminine souls. Souls that have war chops and bedside manner.

Souls that love deeply and are willing to risk one for another.

Gang, our highest aspiration as men is not to be swell guys or subservient women.

It is to mirror image our dangerous and beautiful King who will not extinguish a smouldering wick, but rather will pour gas on it.

Our responsibility is to handle each other well, and to equip and release.

Sometimes a person’s soul is like a King case, and sometimes a person’s soul is like a Blessed Furnace.

Can we adapt to both, as the season demands?

Or shall we continue along this path of declawing the lions?