Spirit, listen to the word of G-d for you for today.
…then the L-RD G-d formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the L-RD G-d planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. -Gen 2:7-8 ESV-
Spirit, there was a time when man was created in this segment. He was formed by Father, composed by Father, and then endued with the presence of the human spirit that was given to him by Father….
To the whole person reading this: You were created by the L-rd and fashioned with affection, tenderness, and with an eye toward reality. And into you, G-d placed the human spirit. And in that moment of placement of spirit into body, the soul came into being, and was designed to grow into life-giving partnership with the spirit in the lead. And too often, we bring healing to the body and to the soul, and very little gets done with respect to the spirit. And my heart is to see all three ministered to well. Hence, when I write blessings, it is for the too-often-neglected spirit I write.
Spirit, after you were breathed in, and then began the sequence of knitting together the soul and the body, following that process, the L-rd took Adam, and put the man into the Garden of the L-rd.
The text does not spell out that segment of the process, but I am under the impression He, as a G-d of Process, did not just create him and then immediately drop him into the Garden the next moment. Rather, in light of His love of processes that unpack, I wonder at the possibility that He took man to the Garden by way of a journey, and while they were on the way to Eden, conversed.
And what they conversed about, and what, as the new creation was present, what the man was thinking on the way to the garden.
Spirit, in thinking about this, I want to encourage you with the following.
G-d did not just make you in a haphazard or hasty moment. No, he took a process to form you. And that process was laced with affection and love and with an eye to your purpose and design. As many of us as there are, spirit, there are also unique designs and purposes.
So, spirit, I bless you to hear and rejoice in the reality of the gift of Dad breathing you into the body of the human of which you are part. I bless you in your leadership role. I bless you to know a revelation of G-d’s love for you. And I bless you to know that you are His gift of love and uniquely designed to solve a specific set of problems. Problems are not a bad thing. Rather, they are a good thing. And problems were given to us to be solved. And as we solve problems, tools are developed.
I bless you to find the tools you need to solve the problems you were given, spirit.
I bless you with the revelation that you were made to be unpacked more and more so that complex problems are met with complex solutions.
I bless you to know there will be a journey that G-d takes you on that is designed to unpack you as you work in growing in reconciliation to Him and in turn, help reconcile others to Himself.
Be at peace, spirit, in your growth journey, in the name of Yeshua. And as you arrive at your home, be further at peace as you receive the pieces the King has for you, and as He provides problems to solve.
Know that in his provision of problems, solutions will develop as you get familiar with the nature of the problem. And that process might take time. I encourage you to be patient as you ponder and process the set of problems in front of you.
And I bless you to always remember His love as you work the problem in front of you.
I was reading something in the biblical text this evening and I had a bit of something like a revelation.
Sometimes the one thing the King wants to emphasize, is the one thing we as translators and the writers of the original canon treated as an afterthought. We treat things as an afterthought because of the way they are phrased. And simply because of the smallness of the word, maybe the original writers did, too, if we take the words in the text at face value.
Allow me to explain.
It was Genesis 1, and always with the Fourth Day, there is something with the Fourth Day the King likes to highlight for me, and it is a kiss from him. It is a small phrase, only three words, and I have never heard the phrase emphasized, thus it seems to me most people do not treat it with emphasis when the read it, because it takes up such a small percentage of the text.
Maybe the original writer of the Creation Narrative, whether you call him Moses, or JEDP (ahem), or anyone else, just wrote this one phrase and gave it no further thought, but I would like to think it meant something, especially since these entities feature prominently elsewhere in the Tanakh, and in the Revelation and the First chapter of James.
So, here is the text for the Fourth Day of Creation:
And G-d said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And G-d made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And G-d set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And G-d saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
Genesis 1:14–19 ESV
Did you see it?
And the Stars
I wonder, gang. I wonder if we know of this in this way. For He is the G-d of the Seven Stars, Who Walks Among Them, and knows the starways, and walks among the starlight.
And it is the stars as the Sons of G-d that shout for joy in the book of Job, and the Father of Heavenly Lights that gives every good and perfect gift from above as He walks among the stars, which are themselves heavenly lights.
With rain, with sun With much, with less With joy, with pain With life, with death
The only things that satisfy come from You They come from You
Everything that’s beautiful Everything that’s wonderful Every perfect gift comes from You
Your grace, Your heart Your voice, Your touch Your word, Your peace Your hope, Your love
A thousand words could not explain A thousand worlds could not contain Every perfect gift comes from You
It comes from the Father of Lights It comes from the Giver of Life It comes from the Heavens above It’s coming straight from Your heart To the people You love
“Everything” by Chris Tomlin
When I was 18, the very first time I got to see the starways and the pitchblack of the heavens, I was in ROTC in college, and we were in Camp Blanding in Northeast Florida. My batallion was on a night march, and that was the very first time I was able to identify more than 12 constellations just based on patterns I had seen in books as a kid. And it was radiant, though not radiant like the sun. Sparkly.
And on the Fourth Day, as with other things pertaining to the Redemptive Gift of Exhorter, G-d usually highlights things in patterns of threes.
The nature of G-d
The Three major Exhorters of Scripture: Moses, Solomon, Paul.
The Sun, the Moon, the Stars
For me this highlights something that I wish to give to you as a gift in the arena of how I do hermeneutics, and precisely why the tagline of TPH is “Into all truth by the Spirit of G-d”.
It’s not the whole of scripture, written with a 1-to-1 mindset, with each word having and sharing equal weight with all the others. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit is going to highlight or lowlight certain words of phrases, depending on what is going on with you, and where He wants to point you in a given matter.
Sometimes, a phrase waits 10-30 years to emerge and glow off the page.
And this phrase “and the stars” just hits me in all the right places, moreso now I have seen stars and auroras and other entities with proper telescopes.
I put to you, as me reader, that, when you are reading, that you allow Holy Spirit the lattitude to highlight or emphasize something differently than you have allowed Him previously. If you allow Him to guide you along the river, you have no idea where He will pull the canoe up so He can take you exploring. Reading the text, as with other parts of our life, should be an adventure that is completely life-giving.
He may emphasize a piece of the text you never thought He would.
For example, when was the last time you heard there were three “veyahavtas” (the Hebrew Phrase translated as “You shall love”) in the text of the Torah.
And for you who are Torah haters, how many know the heart of the bible is the law, and the heart of the law is Deuteronomy, and for those who want to get intimate with how blessings and curses operate, you have to be intimate with how Deuteronomy operates?
I know we are not under the law and G-d abolished the law completely without exception, but maybe there is something of value in reading the law.
Just some thoughts. And yes, some of what I wrote above is a bit tongue-in-cheek.
But seriously, maybe it would behoove us to see, instead of a bipolar book, where the G-d on the Right Hand Side of the Book apologizes for the acts of the G-d on the Left Hand Side of the Book, perhaps we are dealing with the outworking of a very complex WHOLE COVENANT.
Perhaps there is life and fathering that will break the bastard curse off of us, if we will begin to obsessively hunt for the Father in the Tanakh, and in the Torah.
It’s not a list of rules and regs, gang, appended by Talmuds and Mishnahs and Gemaras. It is a arkload of principles and relationships available to anyone with the cojones to hunt for Dad’s mind AND heart within its pages.
For example, the first time “Father” is specifically implied in the pages of the Biblical Text is Exodus 4:22.
“Thus says the L-RD, ‘Israel is my firstborn son’.”
From Exodus 4:22 ESV
I wonder if one problem with too many of us that want to run from the Torah and the Tanakh and Whole Covenant into Better Covenant/Worser Covenant is that our relationships with our own earthly dads were so messed-up that we cannot bear the thought of beginning a relationship with G-d the Father in His fullness without a social worker present. And truly, if we were abused by our fathers, we might need someone who will take that role in the spirit for a season.
But, really, the gems are in the Torah for us to find if we are willing. The fat of the land, all of the fat of the land, is present for those of us who look to be transformed from disobedient to obedient, with hearts that are FILLED with the earnest of the Kingdom.
His heart is for us to know all of Him, and not just the parts with which we are comfortable.
The starsong….proclaiming the justice of G-d….
“And the stars”
May the King give light in strange and unexpected places for His kids to walk.
I invite your spirit, whether broken or who, shattered or put together, safe or hurting, on the run or at a save haven, to be present with me kn the name of Yeshua:
Spirit in seven portions, listen to the Word of G-d for you for today.
My beloved is dazzling and ruddy, the Fairest of Ten Thousand.
-Song of Solomon 5:10-
Spirit, as much as you have heard this used to describe Yeshua, I am ant you to rest in shalom and see how he sees you, His beloved bride, pure and spotless.
You, spirit, harried or at rest, sit a while with this reality. Soak in it, meditate on it.
You, right now,
You, following the harassment and abuse….
You, following the mistreatment….
You, following the hang-ups, screw-ups, sins, mistakes, misjudgments, foul-ups, and wreckage…
Spirit, you ARE dazzling and ruddy……
You ARE the Fairest of Ten Thousand.
You ARE the Apple of His eye, and His affection, tenderness, and adoration are yours. They are your treasures. From everlasting to everlasting. From the depths of His being to the depths of your being, He wants to provide a flow of water and love and when you are ready for it, fire, by turns. But He isn’t going to force anything on you. He will partner with you, spirit, in your seven portions.
I bless you to rest and to allow the King of Glory to carry you to the place where He will remove the shrapnel and the gunk and the pus and all the matter that is gumming up your inner workings.
I bless you with the revelation that Father’s lap is the surgical table, and even while you are on that table being worked on, even with all your hang-ups and deep in junk, WHILE YOU ARE DARK, you are still the most LOVELY in His eyes.
I bless you to rest in stillness and allow Him to work, and even should you pass out, He will keep you alive if you will allow Him.
I bless you to know not just the saving power of the Bridegroom, O Bride of the King and the Fairest of Ten Thousand….
I also bless you to know the KEEPING power of G-d, dear one, lovely and beautiful.
I bless you with all of that revelation, spirit, in the name of Yeshua.
I have seen multiple people claim they know what the apostolic is.
I typically either smile and nod, and tell them what they want to hear, or I roll my eyes, cringe for the moment, and smile and move along.
And the reality is that, typically, because of the counterfeit, because of legitimacy, and because of the craving for real power or authority, apart from principles, reality, and cause-and-effect, between 130 and 185 percent of what claims to be the apostolic is not.
So, kissing it here (K.I.S.S), let us be simple.
The frame, before G-d sends the Isaac, the enemy will send the Ishmael. In place of the releasing and liberating apostolic, comes the apostolic overseer and covering…..
And there is a lot of mixture, in the church, of what claims to be the apostolic. However, the truth is most of the “apostlolic” is really et up with the Antichrist spirit.
We read Ephesians 4:11-12, and we hear what the Fivefold Ministry, is for “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry”, and we FAIL ruthlessly to explain what SHOULD happen after that equipping. Paul mentions “equipping the saints for the work of ministry”, and we FAIL to build out that phrase, “the work of ministry”.
In Practice, following the precedent of the Shepherding Movement, and much of the Ruler Season (1901-2004), with its obsession with protocol and hierarchy and order and systems (to say nothing about whether or not those systems were ever truly life-giving), too much of the Fivefold was concerned with controlling other believers, due to woundedness and the lust for power.
What ultimately resulted was we allow illegitimated “covering” types to equip and then ANNEX.
If you want to know few of us trust when you say “the fivefold is the only biblical ecclesiology (form of church government)”, or “only the fivefold is the proper form of leadership”, well, this is one reason why.
Typically, whomever institutes the fivefold in a place installs themselves at the top and calls themselves the apostle over the organization.
And, unfortunately, in practicing that ministry this way, we have rejected the implied exposition that pairs the reality of Ephesians 4:11-12 with the longer ending of Mark 16 and Matthew 28:18-20.
Make disciples, teaching them to observe what I have instructed you, and lo I am with you until the end of the age.
Preach the Gospel to every creature, and send them forth with the signs following.
Here, Yeshua NEVER commanded anyone to control another human.
…NEVER commanded anyone to limit another or shrink another….
…and NEVER commanded anyone to subject what He told them to do to another person who was supposed to act as an intermediary…
On the one hand, the doctrine of covering, natch, will lead to this control. On the other hand, the Great Commission and the accounts of Luke 21 and the work of Acts lead naturally to one thing: freedom. A free people walking directly with their King, and developing into the leaders they were made to be, will increase the real, Isaacite (as opposed to the counterfeit, Ishmaelite) apostolic. It enables rather than disables.
Put differently, IN THE WORDS OF JOHN WIMBER, we equip, and then, as a result of the balance of the biblical text, RELEASE those people, and allow them to do what HE told them to do. Build a platform under them for their success and fulfillment.
Counsel is one thing.
Control is another.
….no, not allowing…..that word choice is terrible.
Allow me to share something.
I want to share part of my testimony here.
Near the end of my first marriage, when we were trying to salvage it, my first wife, who cheated on me, made a disturbing statement.
“I am a strong godly woman, and I AM ALLOWING DAVID TO BECOME THE HEAD OF THIS HOUSEHOLD.”
That statement disrupted not only my spirit, but also the spirit of Jeff, who is my adopted father and was present.
Even allowing someone, permitting someone, releasing someone, loosing someone is inadequate.
We are responsible to REALIZE and ACKNOWLEDGE that G-d designed humanity to be free, and to crave liberty, and whether or not we permit or allow it, they will move toward that direction with whatever tools they have, see, or realize are on hand.
The Book of Numbers in the Torah acknowledges this reality, because in that book, G-d shows us how a loving Father takes a full nation of only slaves, and begets a nation of sons, within one generation.
When freedom is the direction of a people who have gotten a taste of liberty, lesser structures will not satisfy. To wit, the structure embodied by the phrase “apostolic oversight” is risky when applied to free people, because it lends itself to structures that push people toward ring-kissing, boot-licking, and being subjected to the grand poobah who is more capable of hearing G-d for you than you are for yourself. It creates a spiritual welfare system that forces us to depend on a priestly caste.
That is a caste system we set up. And the priests, the Brahmins who serve their Shiva, sadly end up destroying the flock rather than nurturing it.
That’s what false apostles look like.
Now, describing the true variety.
Apostles primarily, biblically, because they establish new works, look at foundations. They do not sit at the top. They are muddy and grubby, and considering the roots of a thing. They are not bishops or political masters.
They go out and do. They might understand heaven’s blueprint. But they are most obsessed with establishing the kingdom where it is not rightly established, and pointing out obstacles to that establishment.
Believers were made to be powerful and dangerous, and walk hand-in-hand with the King and their Father. Your Father wants to be your first father, ahead of any man or woman.
Second, apostles enable an enviroment where real fathering can take place.
And in the words of Arthur Burk, let me ask this question to a fatherless generation, that includes myself.
What resources does G-d the Father lack with which to father us HIMSELF?
Anything?
Does He lack anything? No.
Now, is it fair just that we do not have access to parents or figures willing to parent us? Perhaps.
However, it is better for us if we are able to receive G-d as father leading us before we engage with another person, because that person can turn into someone we mooch from.
We were not made to mooch from them.
And if G-d in Exodus and Numbers are a blueprint for how He deals with His people.
If His first revelation to pagan humanity was as Father (Israel is my SON, MY FIRSTBORN. LET MY SON GO!, IF YOU DO NOT, I WILL KILL YOUR FIRSTBORN.)….
If He intended to break the slave mentalty by sequentially leading a generation of slaves into the wilderness so then HE HIMSELF could transform them into a generation of sons….
And that was Old Covenant, and we are under the New Covenant…
…then why would we expect Him to do anything less than amping up and intensifying the process of fathering us Himself?
He deals with us as sons, and not as slaves.
He deals with us via connection and intimacy in this season, NOT protocol.
He works at fathering us Himself.
It’s not about obedience. It is about intimacy and connction and family.
And we in the apostolic were made to foster the environment so permeated by love and kindness and justice and mercy and grace and tenderness, that it enables believers to connect more intensely with THE FATHER with HIS SONS. And yes, ladies, if I as a man can be the bride of Christ, then you also can as a woman can be the son of G-d. Congratulations, life is uncomfortable for everyone.
But it makes people uncomfortable to allow He HIMSELF to father, because we look for Him to send someone with skin on. He never promises that.
He only promises that He, as the ultimate Father will, together with the Son, make His home with us.
The apostolic does run toward fathering, and toward foundations, but all of this is to push for a twofold reality.
Apostles, put in their right place, seek to foster an environment, free of obstruction, where the parts of the engine glide past one another, much like the function of motor oil, so that what comes naturally from them is the fostering of an envionment that enables the connection and flow to be established, and happen more easily, between G-d and man. It’s not about the dude or chick that is anointed. It’s not about them protecting you and me. It is about our obsession that you meet with HIM. It’s about Him meeting with His kids. Personal relationship that is intense and intimate. For the only covering that matters, with no respect to the predatory Shepherding Movement, is the one provided by G-d the Father.
As to the Redemptive Gifts, the Redemptive Gift that makes the best Father is the Gift of Ruler/Judge/Deliverer. The Principle of Freedom that leads slaves out of bondage into freedom. Dominic Torretto is one such example of the Ruler who seeks to father well.
And his dad wanted that for his sons, even though the way he went about it was kind of messed up. You still see the fathering in this vision here when Dom is underwater, before the mother, his bride, Letty, the Prophet rescues him.
And the Prophet says to the Ruler, “none of it is worth a thing if I lose you.”
Apostles fade into the background while Dad Himself meets with His kids and the minutes just slip away as the intimacy slips away, and people begin to hear G-d more clearly for themselves. They know the Father heart, and yearn for others to have that, not to control those hearts, but to release and send out those hearts as they themselves have been.
So, whatever else has been written about the apostle, if it
Would that all the people were prophets…..capable of hearing G-d for themselves.
Moses cried out for the complete and dangerous liberation of people to pursue G-d for themselves to a place of full freedom and flow of revelation and vision and understanding (what constitutes the prophetic) in freedom.
Yet, here we are under the New Covenant, looking for apostles to be covering and our daddy’s and control us and lead us into further bondage because we may have rejected the fruit of the spirit of self-control.
Maybe we need fewer of these “apostles” and more connection with Father Himself. As people who walk in the principles, we are more than capable (Romans 8:37) of engaging personally with Him in His love and seeing that connection bring a multiplication in all arenas of our lives, causing a flourishing. Sons build and fight. Part of His fathering of us, and part of the DNA of a son, is that we learn how to build; we accrue, manage, and transform raw materials into products that are useful for the agenda of the kingdom; and we learn how to fight and who to fight. When we subject that organically life-giving connection to the caprice of another person’s discernment, as too many lived examples have shown, we retard or destroy the fullness of life, shrinking our supply, and making our spiritual life unsustainable.
This is now how we were designed, in order for the Kingdom to flourish and us to flourish, we must be free.
And G-d is the one who will hold us accountable, per about 5 referneces.
Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
Psalm 10:13
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,
Matt 12:36
So then zeach of us will give an account of himself to God.
Rom 14:32
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are cnaked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Heb 4:13
but they will give account to him who is ready lto judge the living and the dead.
1 Pet 4:5
We are responsible to be free, with the King at our side as our bridegroom., and G-d as our Father before all others.
40 years ago, when I needed a Father, it was Yeshua who introduced me to the reality of true fathering by offering that chance to be fathered by him, and in the ensuing decades of coverings doing a really bad job of fathering, many to the point of abuse, He never once left my side as He walked with love surrounding me. And Just over a year ago, the L-rd used a woman of G-d to connect me to the Father Himself. And she is one of the most important people in my life. And this last year, I have had the honor to see survivors grow in that connection. And THAT is my favorite thing in the world.
One problem, however, is that His offer to father goes unreceived, because so many want a person on this earth in this fallen world to take on that responsibility. And that is not what He has designed sons for. He designed us so he could be with us.
And that connection point, process, and moment is what we in the real apostolic live for. Period. On stronger-than-the-gates-of-hell foundations, we seek for others to connect with Father Himself.
And the ministry of the real apostolic gets ignored in favor of this Ishmaelite, lesser-than, weak substitute. We can and we must do better.
Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. Now the L-RD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
Genesis 11:31–12:1 ESV
Victim Spirits Make You Settle
Gang, when we are begin setting ourselves to engage with the L-rd in a particular way He has given us, and then we choose to settle….bad things happen. Truly, it is the Victim Spirit that causes us to begin to settle.
Settling means we have reached a place of believing the prevailing attitude of contentment with the provision of the natural or soul-based realities of life are enough, so much so that settling results in us not moving forward to possess the fullness of what the L-rd has for us. We allow ourselves to walk in so much Deyanu (the Hebrew phrase from the Seder of Pesach that, roughly translated, means “it would have been enough”) that we allow ourselves not move forward to possess the whole of what Father intended for you.
Is there a place for Deyanu and having peace with current circumstances? Yes, provided we are not settling and refusing to go after all the King has for us? If there is something more for us, then Deyanu can be deadly. If He has called us to rest for a season, Deyanu can be good for a season. And we need to discern what is needed in the current season, versus transition to new season.
It means, in the sevenfold parlance of Matthew 23, that we ultimately and progressively preach and do not practice….
The Victim Spirit will tell us to preach/confess things, while simultaneously laying a sort of suffocating cloak or mantle around us that will begin to progressively mess with us, choke the life from us, strangle us, push our spirits in such a way that they move away from us because we no longer have sufficient life to support their presence, and eventually become the burial shroud or grave clothes around us.
This is why the Prophets and Exhorters and Mercies and Givers among us are so critical. They will realize that something is going on and will sound the alarms that not all is well, in order to provoke us to fight for the whole picture, each in their own various ways. They are the Four-Alarm Fire Alarms to the rest of the body.
So, in Matthew 23, here is that settling of the Victim Spirit that wages against godly desire (For those who have not heard me teach through Matthew yet, I call that gospel the Gospel of the Tenth Commandment or the Gospel of Desire. It is godly desire with which the King infuses us, that causes one to wage war against settling.
On the other hand, the Victim Spirit tells us the following:
Do not enter into the responsibility of the Kingdom to Build according to Design (23:13), and you keep others from so doing (becoming factories, which empowers the Third Head of Leviathan, which I will deal with in a future post).
Make proselytes of your incomplete settling and do not engage in the full execution of your G-d-given Authority. Teach those proselytes it is okay to not follow through to press toward and move after their own fullness and fulfillment (23:15). As long as they attempt to do so. Give up at the first sign of any resistance. Contentment with the resources we already have on the natural or soul leel will cause us to stop moving toward birthright, which requires we embrace a certain level of pain which have been filtered and allowed by Father to refine and prove us, testing our mettle and our endurance. Feeling fulfilled and content and BEING fulfilled by possessing all He has for us are not the same thing.
Make oaths and do not engage with the fullness of the Responsibility for walking out the fullness of that oath, and you set up altars and spiritual structures for connecting with G-d via the fence laws and rules but there is not real and complete and riddle-solving encounter, but you end up blinding others in the process to all else except the rules and as a result, the Religious Spirit comes in and makes them do everything except the one thing they were supposed to do (23:16-22) And as a result, you are now a blind guide and a blinding guide.
Tithe all the right money but give no thought to your current Reality and teaching others according to justice (decision-making process: an aspect of love), mercy (staying your hand from vengeance or revenge or vindictive retribution: an aspect of love: Luke 17:1-5, See The Bait of Satan by John Bevere for more material on the execution of this topic), and faithfulness (constant AND consistent treatment of your fellow: an aspect of love) (23:23). This is not managing the reality of your time in the right way, because you are settling for the partial managing of your reality (I am a good boy or girl because I gave my ten percent to the church and can ditch the rest or my Responsibility to engage with Reality as not a priority, which can lead to a nasty devouring of time as you seek for time that feels like it is getting extracted from you as the taxes set in.
Make your Stewardship to look right but still be partial in it because you are full of avarice and self-indulgence (23:25). Settilng for the appearance of looking like a faithful steward while harboring an altar of avarice, which is something the dirt poor can do as effectively as, if not moreso than, the wealthy.
Erecting edifices and systems that look living on the outside (looking at you, Jeff Bezos), but internally are full of grinding death, destruction, exploitation, and break Freedom, instead of the more painful work of moving toward the heart of the Father, Adonai Tsidkenu, Who Makes us Righteous and Who Is Our Justice and who is Eternally the Father Who Teaches Us How To Build and How To Fight.
And finally, treating the exhortations of the past as if you heard them, while embracing a heart that would see the exhortations of today killed off, and settling for a lesser form of fulfillment that ultimately leads to futility (23:2932). This fills up the measure the fathers who were muderers, and that word there for “fill” is the Greek word πληρώσατε from πληρoώ, pronounced like “play-rah-oh”, meaning “I fill” or “I fulfill”. These settlers are fulfilling not the life of men, but the mission of those who in previous generations brought death.
And truly, the Victim Spirit does not want us to engage with our inherent authority and power as G-d’s vice-regents. He does not want us to own our own portion of responsibility for our current problems. So, whatever the Victim Spirit can do to cause you to come up short, change directions, or oscillate, or vascillate, or to go partway, he will bring his friends, the Spirit of Heaviness and the Spirit of Slack (which will masquerade as the Spirit of Peace), and we can, from time to time, mistake vigilance and readiness and pressing through for not having peace.
There is more than you have been taught there is, gang. Desire and do more. The DESIRES OF YOUR HEART are so important to the King, because they given you motive to push through and to fight.
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…
Beloved, I invite your spirit to treat with me in the name of Yeshua.
Spirit, listen to the word of G-d for you for today.
Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.
Deuteronomy 2:5-6 ESV
Spirit, not all of the resources you see are yours.
Some resources and wealth G-d has provided to others.
And as difficult as that may be, it is a lesson in discernment and Stewardship.
G-d places certain bits of land in our midst because He is giving that land to us in order to manage.
And sometimes He places certain peoples in our midst in order to provide food or sustenance to us.
Spirit, you will meet people that have a bit of land and resources and you will have to learn the lesson of discerning when the land is your portion and when other aspects are your portion.
G-d gives us certain provisions, He writes us specific checks from specific checkbooks.
And not everything we see is automatically going to get credited to our accounts.
And One of the sharpest most perceptive lessons we can learn is the lesson of discernment between our resources and the resources of another. And we also must learn how to protect not only our resources but also the resources of another. Because when we protect the resources of another, we are shown to be trustworthy and faithful stewards which means we can be trusted with other things as well.
So, spirit, I bless you to lead in the discernment arena.
I bless you to have a strong and clear voice in the area of what belongs to your host versus what does not.
I bless you to be content with your portion.
I bless you to see the resources being provided you, and O bless you to coach the soul in the appropriate direction in which to set his or her desires.
I bless you to cultivate and lead the soul and body with a strong awareness of the Tenth Commandment, and to coach them in parsing between what G-d has given Soul and Body versus what G-d has given another.
I bless you, spirit to say “no” when “no” is right and good.
And I bless you to say “yes” when “yes” is right and good.
I bless you with revelation of reality pertaining to your resources. And I bless you with skill to utilize the resources that are you.
Be at peace with that revelation, spirit, in the name of Yeshua.
Spirit, listen to the word of G-d for you for today.
For the L-RD your G-d has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the L-RD your G-d has been with you. You have lacked nothing
Deuteronomy 2:7
Spirit, there are a number of things to consider while you are in the wilderness. Where you are, the Father is. Where you are with your need, the Father is there to meet your need.
The problem begins, however, when you believe the resources are not there to meet your need, or you believe Items A through G are the only legitimate resources and provisions, when Father has provided you A through ZZ.
Spirit, out of the gate, I am not just merely going to bless you with a pleasant “there there, it’s alright”….
Right now, spirit, I am going to bless you with eye sight and eye salve, if necessary, to see properly, and maybe so also that scales might fall from your eyes so you can see broader, deeper, higher, or more profusely that you currently see.
I bless you with the Mercy Season need to see the blindness, poverty, misery, wretchedness, nakedness you formerly accepted as your portion,
And I bless you to buy refined gold and linen garments that are needful for this season.
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
Revelation 3:18 ESV
I bless you to look around and see options you are allowing others to blind you to.
I bless you to know more deeply His polyvareigated wisdom and understanding that you might accrue the full compliment of wisdom you need.
I bless you to break off any self-imposed blindness, or self-imposed affliction, or any self-inflicted punishments.
I bless you to see and fight the Third Head of Leviathan. And I bless you to know Father as the Ancient of Days who will help uncoil the twisted and prematurely decaying view of Life you might currently be accepting as your portion.
I bless you to shoe your feet, not with the Shoes of Peace, because those are not the correct shoes for the Teacher, but the Shoes of READINESS.
“Having shod your feet with READINESS” -from Ephesians 6-
“Therefore, get READY” -from Matthew 24:44-
You were not made to get peaceful with that spirit of heaviness that masquerades as peace, but you were made to put your shoes on to get ready for the excursion.
I bless you with the proper alignment to see your shoes in the spirit, and to align footwear to readiness for task.
I realize this dynamic will cut against the grain of much of the teaching on the shoes of the Armor of G-d, but my job is to present you with what you have.
The dynamic of peace is associated with the Gospel.
The dynamic of readiness is associated with the Shoes.
As you Prepare for fulfill your Responsibilities (Principle for the Teacher).
Spirit, I bless your feet, ready and beautiful as they are.….
I bless your awareness of your resources and tools to increase.
And I bless you to plug into the One Who Prepares you for Life in the Wilderness.
And I bless your shoes not to wear out, and I bless you to grasp the manna that is necessary for this season of life in the wilderness. I bless the canvas of your tent to be fresh and strong and without mold.
I bless your eyesight to seek for fresh and daily bread.
And I bless you to reconcile with the Provider.
I bless you to check the balance sheets to take a full account of available resources.
I invite your spirit forward to treat with me, regardless of what status it or they are in.
Spirit, I recognize the pain of assault and the trouble that comes when you are traumatized, and the shattering of the human spirit that takes place when ritual abuse occurs.
Spirit, listen to the word of G-d for you for today.
Be still and know I am G-d
Psalm 46:10
Spirit, there is a place following the trauma of a harsh season or following mistreatment of harsh leaders.
G-d can and often might place us in proximity to harsh leaders.
Note what I said versus what I did not say.
Consider the following also, spirit
Although he was a son, he learned obedience by the things he suffered.
Hebrews 5:8 ESV
There may be times when G-d allows you to connect with harsh leaders in order to refine you.
I don’t guarantee it will happen. In fact I hope it doesn’t happen. But in case you end up dealing with a difficult or harsh leader, I want you to remember one thing in the still place following mistreatment.
He is G-d. And He will coach you in very difficult times.
You will also note I did not say G-d sets us under harsh people in order that they would abuse us.
Abuse happens, but I don’t see it as from the hand of G-d. I do however see our response as capable of coming from the hand of G-d.
I bless you following a difficult situation to get really still and to occupy the still place and to lean into the King deeply.
I bless you to walk in stillness and to take advantage of that stillness in order to receive deep clarity.
I bless you in that season to find out how Father wants you to respond and to deeply know Him in intimacy.
I bless you to find deeper intimacy regardless of the current pain.
I bless you to speak to Yeshua, who is capable of taking all pain. I bless each of you, parts, to just be and to appropriate whatever of King’s love in whatever manner you deem necessary.
I bless your enforcers in their anger to express that anger and frustration and to ask the questions they need to ask. This is a safe space for them.
I bless you to know what is meant by fellowshipping with the King in His sufferings.
I bless you to participate with Him in a deep and satisfying connection.
And most importantly, I bless you to, in the still place, for your parts that which to occupy that space, to occupy that space in time and to fill that space with the knowledge of Him.
I bless you with dignity and grace and love and affection and wholeness.
And above all, I bless you, spirit, and relevant parts to know you belong.
You belong, dear heart.
In stillness, you belong.
I bless you to know Him as G-d, spirit, in the name of Yeshua.
