Tag: Fullness

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.

Why Some of Us Are Tired of the Popular Tripe Regarding the Angelic Realm: From The Desk of Michael Heiser

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Uncategorized

Dr Heiser writes,

This is some of the most solid work on the topic of angels. Dr. Heiser’s book on angels adds a welcome weight of obsession with the canon of biblical text that counterpoints our touchy-feels, charismatic foolishness.

Indeed, what is needed is more of an understanding of the fullness of what Scripture is saying, not less, and not necessarily more merely of what the traditions of Christianity and Judaism are saying apart from the informing plumb line of the canon.

Mike Heiser is precisely the exegetical breath of fresh air on a number of topics that we need.

Blemishes on the Skin

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

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

“You have leprosy.”

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

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

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

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

And yet both miss the mark.

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is holding each of us back?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The fullness of capacity to walk as the context demands.

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

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

Exodus 14:11 and One Point of the Wilderness

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Uncategorized

They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

Exodus 14:11

Focus for a minute on that one question with me gang.

Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?”

The obsession with death in the wilderness is the response of a group of people who have suffered from DID and PTSD.  They cannot see the issue for their woundedness, and Moses, with his emotional issues, and spiritual issues, still brought them out.
So, why did they go to the widerness?  What was the purpose of the wilderness?  The Israelites asked “why the wilderness”.
Here is my response to that question.
First of all and less importantly, to shake the dust off of their feet, because they were OBSESSED WITH SERVING the Egyptians.
Second of all, and more importantly, to learn how to handle the top priority, the thing of first importance.  There are few things in the wilderness that are not desolate.  Few oases, few plants, few animals, few things, compared with the life in the jungle or Canaanland.
The most important reason G-d got them out into the wilderness was so they could do the one thing the L-rd told Pharaoh.
To worship G-d.
To hold a feast to the L-rd.
To connect with Him.
And come hell or high wather, they were going to learn to worship.
Look, as someone with PTSD and potentially a part or two, let me speak from personal experience that G-d is going to bring you through some travesties and into a desolate place so you can be alone with Him, and learn Him, and understand Him.
He is still Father (Exodus 4:22), even when you are generatiaonally-damaged.  And He may not always use mothers gloves to bring you out of the situation that has caused you torment.
There may be a season where He uses both father’s gloves and mother’s gloves to do His purposes.
It is a good thing, gang, when we are brought out, and so we can see Him, see the cloud and the fire, and the G-d in the Pillar.
It’s not always about how badly we hurt, and it is not always about what’s wrong with us.  Truthfully, there wil be seasons of healing and softness, but the season of deliverance and liberation that precedes that season of healing may feel harsh, and it may land harsh.
This is where the work of deliverance requires, by turns, a mothering touch and a fathering touch.
It’s not going to always be a deliverance that is done in the manner that you and I want it done.
That said, the deliverance will be effective.
In the case of Israel, they had generational PTSD/DID and maybe some Ritual Abuse as well, and they were party to watching G-d kill many of their captors.
Beyond that, they had to learn how to walk as sons, and some still did not get it.
But G-d delivered them and drove them out of Mizraim.
To a quiet, desolate place.
To the place where their focus would be undivided, in order to learn Him and learn who He was.
Why the wilderness?
To learn worship, to actually worship, and to recieve what was necessary in terms of a hundred different lessons on how to grow into a place of sonship, sufficiency, and interdependence.
Likewise, with us, He determines to lead us out in order to lead us in…into His presence.  Both/and.  Sons/Brides. Giving/Receiving, Plus/Minus, Multiplication/Division, Roots/Exponents, Grammar/Lit/Comp/Vocab.
Whole package deliverance.
Fullness.

בְּשָׁל֑וֹם

That is, wholeness.
Not just their bodies, but also their mindsets, their spirits, their emotions, their engrained thoughts that were off, their strongholds, their resistances to His influence, and their expectations of Him and the Egyptians, all of which needed a drastic overhaul and realignment.
So it may be with us.
The first place we must visit after trauma is a Trauma unit in a Trauma Center.  And they may bring pain in order to bring life.  But, just the same, it will get better, if we move towards the scary process.
May we do so with the company of a mothering peeps if possible, but if not possible, let us still move toward it with a Father who can help us in quietness, and who has an abundance of the Fruit of the Spirit.