Tag: Denial

Dealing With What Is Happening In Others and Overcoming the Spirits of Jealousy and Slavery

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

Slaves obey…..and they have zero creative will or desire or tools….and they have access only to what their master gives them…..

Sons create…..

I have a few questions for you. And I have hammered and pounded and beaten this drum forever.

Why the impotent focus on what Bezos and Gates do with their money?

Shouldn’t the focus be on unpacking your own stuff?

Is our job to handle other people’s stuff and see to it other people pay “their fair share”, when fairness is not in the Bible anywhere?

Is our job not to unpack the massive amount of treasures G-d has given us?

Or is it to wonder why someone else had any fulfilling OUR vision and OUR plan for their lives?

Your problem is not Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.

Your problem (or problems) are issues that you personally deal with….

Your problem is between your ears…

Your refusal to see what G-d has given you….

Whether or not we realize it, these issues we have been dealing with for YEARS….they already have a slew of answers to them.

I will again mention two things.

We froth at Amazon, Disney, or other company C, and we miss the issues in government, or we froth at government and miss the evil companies.

But it seems we never put the two together.

And deal with the cohesive whole.

Our excuse? We like either the red or the blue solution. One of two Republicrat solutions.

And we ignore the reality that “what you pay taxes on, you own.”

Meaning, we have paid massive amounts of money into services and companies that have done evil things, and I rarely hear believers attempting to leverage the financial investments in these companies to ask the King to steer these companies in a direction that better aligns with His will.

Further question.

Can we leverage our investment to intercede for that alignment of those companies without coaching G-d as to what his purpose and direction for these companies is?

And we rarely ask Father to shine His light whereever He damn well wants to shine it.

And we rarely down a corporate womb of agreement long enough to ask Father to steer companies or governments because we’d rather talk about the injustice as if a yutz of a businessman can or has gassed Jews.

Or we Yell about the penis-shaped ship long enough to say, “he could end world hunger with those billions.

Forgetting world hunger IS….

Because of mindsets…..

The problem of world hunger and creating the foolish solution of confiscating wealth to end it won’t end it.

You will end world hunger when you end personal hunger.

And you end personal hunger when you stop saying “the answers to my problems belong to someone else”.

And when you stop trying to force people to care for the poor or hungry.

That damn spirit of jealousy that has caused fascists to loot and pillage and burn whole cities is a real problem.

And jailing or interning or concentrating or exterminating a race because you think another race is superior.

Calling for reparations when you fail to heal your own wounds is precisely what gets us to ripping all kinds of things apart.

Failing to understand your Southern brethren because you think you can talk down to him or her and they are backwards…

And using the fire of the world to confront what is ultimately a spiritual problem is how you ensure fractured relationships will continue.

The problem is not billionaires or millionaires.

The problem is misfocussed attention on the gifts and resources of others and a failure to unpack, steward, or use your own.

I just recently pulled out a major cork to some large-scale problem I have been dealing with for 3.5 decades.

And you know what?

I am going to keep on pursuing solutions to problems that have not yet been answered.

Gang, this peanuts of the Billionaires is going to get us nowhere.

The problem is the spirit that wants to keep us blind to our own resources (spirit of Jealousy)

The problem is the spirit that says we have no resources (the spirit of slavery)

The problem is the spirit that says other people are responsible for fixing our own problems (the welfare spirit)

You are not a slave, unless you stop creating and start pointing the finger and expecting that your solution is what Jeff or Bill have.

And world Hunter proceeds from a mindset that I cannot do anything to change my station.

And when Scripture shouts:

HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN US EVERYTHING THAT IS NECESSARY FOR LIFE

And yet we continue to act as if some people were given the goods and others simply were not….

We can quit making excuses that the solution is someone else’s responsibility….

That is a damn carnal Teacher with selective responsibility or a half-blind, non-principle-weaving and severely-wounded Prophet speaking.

And I simply will not make excuses for the juxtaposition of anyone’s radically-gifted-for-life life and “my problems are solved with their crap”.

This is not how any of this works.

And you won’t work if you think your problems are supposed to be owned by someone else.

/rant

Mesmerizing Spirit Series: Part 1–Thoughts On Denial and Revelation

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Mesmerizing Spirit

For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

1 Corinthians 13:9 ESV

A Disclaimer

I would like to note that I struggled with where to categorize this post, but then I realized I have been on a track of dealing with aspects that blind us, which is a device of the Mesmerizing Spirit.

Also, while it’s true that Revelation and Denial affect the Exhorter more, all of us, regardless of gifts, may struggle with it. For example, Mercies like myself have some issues with this because we tend to be so ethereal, heavenly-minded, head-in-the-clouds.

“Earth to David. Are you checking in with the mother ship?”

The Problem

The root of Denial gives rise to the stronghold of non-Reality that pollutes the strong suit of the Exhorter: Revelation.

Just as English Ivy and Wisteria run amok can bring down a mighty oak or a landslide can choke the flow of a strong river, so also denial initiates a sequence of events that can choke the life flow of a robust existence.

Treating a partial perspective as the whole perspective will kill our ability to hear the voice of G-d. It can also affect our ability to hear our own spirit, which may be shouting warnings to us.

This is true no matter the arena.

The Change of Direction

If we want the light and the river of insight to flow over our lives in force…

If we want to new ideas to alight on us with fluency…

Then it remains incumbent upon us to demand to know the ways in which the partial perspective we each have fits into the whole.

Many who hear the voice of G-d never make the leap from their dream or vision to how it fits as part of a larger picture that they never considered.

The Assignment

Here we follow the G-d of the Hunt. Our mission is to look for missing pieces that will help fill out our perspective. In so doing, we must be willing willing to receive both the comfort/encouragement/consolation and the exhortation/reproof/correction. This may require us to work with others.

Helping Others Speak Even When You Have An Answer

Something that may help us to work at stewarding our words better is this: Put on humility and connect with others to find out what they are hearing from the L-rd as well.

Be willing to admit that, friend, that even though the L-rd has shown you something, someone alongside of you who is less experienced with the things of G-d might need you to listen rather than speak, so you can help them along in their journey to maturity.

The immature may tell you something you have heard one million times before. However, they might also need a more mature man or woman of G-d to encourage them as they journey. Plus, with fresh eyes, they might surprise you with something you have not considered.

To be sure, It is possible to wear humility as a garment and keep an open mind that you do not have the whole perspective.

You are part of a body with many members. This means that you will need to seek out those who have the other pieces of the puzzle. That means you will need to form relationships with other people, like it or not.

Be blessed as you work this out.

G-d Can’t Be Pro-Life, ‘Cause He Killed Babies…Or Can He (An Analysis of Some Texts, Using Other Texts)?

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Exegesis, Uncategorized

AN INTRODUCTION AND SOME CUSTOMARY PROVOKING STATEMENTS

Because New York passed an abortion law or some such thing, people all of a sudden have started to talk about and exegete the news.


It has been raised as an argument against those who might be pro-life that G-d cannot be pro-life, since, in the Bible, and specifically, in the Torah, he killed babies.


I rarely discuss current events at the same time they are happening. But today I will make an exception.
ollie north
Check that. Two exceptions.


#elliotabrams

It is uncomfortable to talk about how unrighteous our government’s actions are in the area of abortion and talking about how righteous a pro-life stance is, while turning the blind eye to the warhawking anti-life nature of conducting police state actions overseas, that are the purview of Republicans and Democrats alike.

Back to what I was talking about, seriously. Sometimes we want to excuse our government’s stupidity by an appeal to one issue, when there are a breadth of issues at play. And such exegesis gets sloppy.

Some days, our exegesis, which can turn to support one group or party over another, is only painted with broad strokes that Scripture does not use.

And when it comes to Scripture, sometimes our exegesis boils down to making sure that the G-d in the right hand side of the Bible apologizes for the actions of the G-d in the left hand side of the Bible.


But here is how I would processionally explain the actions of the G-d on the left hand side of the book, in seven elements.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

PREFACING THE SEVEN ELEMENTS: IS HE REALLY AS MEAN AS SOME SAY?

Consider also the fact that the “kinder, gentler” guy on the right hand side of the book, at the end of the right hand side, plagued the whole earth and wiped out a million here and there, in case we think the guy on the right hand side has more reformed ways.


Translation: parsing the Old Testament G-d and the New Testament G-d out from each other as distinct causes the whole book to fall apart greatly. Truly, they are one and the same. Revelation teaches us that. And His Judgment is His mercy.

BACKGROUND TEXTS FOR RECONCILING THE TWO PARTS

G-d, on the other hand, as Scripture RELENTLESSLY teaches throughout both the Tanakh and the New Testament, gives space for people to repent and reform before He executes against them.


Cue cluster of texts that show G-d’s mercy and granting people space and breathing room to repent before He judges.

  • Jonah 3-4, where G-d relents/repents after the capital of the flaying Assyrians repents.
  • Revelation 2:21, where G-d gave Jezebel space to repent
  • Genesis 15:16, where G-d gave the Amorites space to repent, that He didn’t have to, and would have caused something to work out between Israel and the Amorites had they repented.
  • Genesis 18:17-19, where G-d debated what he would share with Abraham, knowing Abraham’s righteousness, knowing Abraham’s heart to cry out for mercy, and knowing that Abraham was able to affect G-d’s heart because Abraham was the friend of G-d in only the way Givers can be.
  • Deuteronomy 2:9 and Judges 11:17, where G-d gave Moab their land, and commanded Israel not to harrass them, even before Moab fought against Israel (Joshua 24:9). This could have led to Moab’s national repentance and a reconciliation and commerce between Moab and Israel. And even when the national reconciliation did not take place, G-d STILL played out the drama that should have been between Moab and Israel in the story of Ruth and Boaz.
  • Genesis 46:4, where G-d SENT Israel down to Egypt, and G-d DWELT WITH Israel IN Egypt, and during which season, Israel had centuries to get to know her G-d, and the Amorites had space to repent and prepare the land for the ISRAELITES, which could have happened instead of their destruction.
  • Genesis 47:6, where Pharaoh gave favor to Israel in the land of Egypt and with the pagan ruler of Egypt.
  • Isaiah 19:24-25, where the L-rd will ultimately bring about redemption of the Egyptian nation, and the Egyptian nation will occupy the first place. SECONDLY, <GASP>, pagan, flaying, barbaric Assyria. And third, Israel.
  • Exodus 4:22-23, where G-d first reveals to a pagan nation His name of “Father”. He then commands, before the first drop of water turns to blood and before the first frog touches the land and dies, Egypt to LET HIS SON GO. And then the judgments start and increase.
    • And yes, one can argue G-d kept Pharaoh from repenting, because of Exodus 4:21 and 7:3, but to merely argue that is to see only part of the whole narrative. Psalm 115:16, “the highest heavens belong to the L-rd, but the earth he has given to the sons of men.” G-d has given people free will to choose what they will or will not do. He does not always get what He wants.
  • From the point above, through the entire sequence of issues, the L-rd showed the Egyptians what they had done in infant genocide towards the men of Israel (Exodus 1:22, note the waters turning to blood in 7:17-21 revealed the death that was in the water and the blood that was on the Egyptian hands). The Tenth Plague was the progressive outflow of the response of the Egyptian injustice of Israelite genocide. Again, there are causes and effects. And when you sow the cause, you will reap the effects.
  • Let me point out also the counsel of G-d in Exodus 9:19; He told the Egyptian people to gather their flocks and herds to keep them from the hail. Some listened, and some did not. There were Egyptians who had livestock that kept them in from the hail and their livestock was spared. This opened the door for some of them to turn. G-d uses every circumstance to bring people to Him, including His judgments.
  • Recall also Exodus 12:49, which could plausibly imply that, during the plagues, there were some Egyptians in the nation that chose to follow the G-d of Israel, and chose to align themselves with Israel, and celebrated the Passover. Even if there were none that did actually align with Israel, He still made provision for that.
  • The book of Joshua is completely devoted to the destruction of whole nations while the Israelites possessed the Promised Land.

Element 1: G-d’s decisions, even those decisions that result in human death, are ALWAYS executed in the context of His mercy and His justice, which are the twin facets of His love. What will drive His children to seek Him?


Element 2: G-d’s purposes are aimed at a long-game strategy. He weighs all decisions with an eye toward redemption and how they will impact eternity and His house.


Element 3: G-d aims to eradicate sin, rebellion, iniquity, and abomination from the earth.


Element 4: G-d’s yearning desire is to walk among us, be our G-d, and for us to be His people. Whatever keeps that community from happening He may remove from us.

Element 5: G-d looks for the fruit on the tree. He looks for fresh water or salt, hot water or cold, humility or assertion, upness or downness, filiality or bridality. He looks for consistency that He can utilize. He looks for and brings organized sequence.


Element 6: Sin twists and perverts the good, and that twisting is revealed in the fruit of the tree that is planted. G-d despises things that twist and mar.
Element 7: Everything G-d is, does, or permits to happen is ALWAYS with an eye toward straightening out the twistedness.


Look, it is not like G-d on a bipolar whim massacred millions of innocent babies in an unprovoked rage.

He gave all of these nations, including Mizraim, CENTURIES to repent. And when a culture of death and murder is embraced, somewhere down the line, death is going to be result, and the empire that embraces death is going to self-devour.


He exposed the Egyptian culture for the death-bringing culture it had become. Blood was already in the waters before the first plague. He just forced the nation to see the blood that was in the water. He untwisted the reality of the waters. And in so doing, He allowed all of those baby boys’ blood to testify (Hebrews 12:24).


The Golden Calf is an example of a culture self-devouring. The Levites massacred 3,000 of their own families and so were ordained through G-d’s warring against the defiled spirit of idolatry.


National sin has national consequences. Longstanding sin has consequences. G-d even showed longsuffering toward the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities on the plain, and Lot interceded for Zoar, and as a result, G-d spared that city.


And one of the names of G-d (Exodus 34:5-6) is The L-rd Who Is Longsuffering.


G-d is not Hitler, G-d is not Pol Pot, G-d is not Stalin, and G-d is not Mao.
And it is not really the church’s job to justify the behavior of G-d to others. G-d can work in, around, and through our objections and the obstacles. But we have to recognize that the principles of Scripture do work. Sexual sin has sexual consequences, murderous sin has murderous consequences. Abortive sin has abortive consequences. Actions do have reactions. Sum of the Forces, Newtonian approximations, and all that jazz.

And Jezebel’s genocide resulted in her blood being shed.


And Naboth’s Vineyard landed on Ahab’s head.


The Principles work, without prejudice, and without caring what you think about how nice G-d or anyone else is.

And ultimately, G-d can work every situation to His glory.


But for us, now is the time to wake up, acknowledge reality in the stead of hiding from it, and bless New York, as we should have, instead of cursing it.

G-d was there first, and this decision on New York’s part is not helped by cursing New York. Rather, gang, let’s not carry on with eighty-five reams of conversation, and instead work with what we know about the Giver and Exhorter design of the state and Manhattan, respectively.


Bless the Giver and the Exhorter dynamic of that state.
Just some thoughts here, gang.