So, yesternight, I and a friend went to a Switchfoot concert in Birmingham at Avondale BrewCo. What I originally thought was this was a concert. What it turned out to be was an assignment to understand some land dynamics present.
While I did enjoy the music a LOT, there were some aspects of this city that captured me, especially given my grandfather was adopted in Birmingham.
Sometimes I am in a place and the land speaks to me. Other times it feels like the land is receiving from the King.
In the case of Birmingham, there as an aspect that felt like home.
But that was not all that’s as there.
Instead of being in the middle of the crowd, we were on the edge of the crowd, and the people around us ended up moving away from us.
Further, in the course of the evening, the people moved from a disorganized crowd to arranging themselves in concentric circles around the stage as if they were in an amphitheater.
In the spirit, however, on the ground of the location where we were, I actually discerned the presence of a sound portal that was built into the ground and part of which was arranged like an amphitheater.
Grass terraces and concrete steps for the levels.
Sound portals parallel the Redemptive Gift of Giver, and they focus the sound of Heaven, and especially the star song that is communicated by the Sons of G-d in an area to resonate the sound of G-d’s justice in a situation: Justice and dominion as embodied in the Son, Yeshua. When they are misaligned, a number of bad things happen, much of which can be chalked up to an increase of lawlessness. When they are aligned, they cause the area in which to resonate with frequencies that are Kingly.
Also, beer as a industry and beverage strikes me as Giver, and in Giver communities like Charlotte and blue-collar communities, beer has a heavy presence.
And, in brewing companies, there is usually live music as well as lots of SOUND and carrying on, and people generally enjoying themselves in conversation or connection of some sort.
That was no exception in this case.
Pondering what this means, I am certain the King was doing things with us there to bring cleansing to the land.
Further, I also became aware of what I can only classify as a portable fire portal, as there appeared in the spirit a column of fire around us. My friend also had relayed to me that there are times when they are frequently in a place and people will not be seated anywhere near them. In those instances, the King is at work.
And that night was definitely an occasion for us to go vertical. And the words to Dare You To Move definitely hit differently, and they felt like exhortations to sonship and building the thing or engaging with the thing you have always been intimidated to build or engage.
“I dare you to move I dare you to move I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor I dare you to move I dare you to move Like today never happened Today never happened before”
“Welcome to the fallout Welcome to resistance The tension is here Tension is here Between who you are and who you could be Between how it is and how it should be, yeah”
Also, Switchfoot concerts have punctuated SIGNIFICANT events for me, marker stones at intervals of about 10 years. The last time I saw them live was July 2013. And that preluded a significant season then, as now. A transition is taking place.
From this, I learned a very valuable lesson.
Sometimes, the reason the King sticks us in a certain place is completely different from the reason we originally planned on in going to a place.
So, gang, I will share more on this as the days progress, but I share all this to say, the reason you are in a place may not be the reason you originally went to that place. Find out what the King wants you to do in this season, and go do that.
I do not know how deeply this will land and how much sense it will make to those who read it, but for those of us who work with land, the concept will likely make sense.
People tend toward one of seven major designs, we call these Redemptive Gifts. For more on that, start here.
And for the “why” of calling them Redemptive, go here.
Now, as to the rest of the story.
Father has placed some patterns in Scripture that are pretty consistent.
One of those patterns follow the number 7.
10 is another, and so is 12. And so on.
Sidebar: I do not spell the numbers smaller than 100 out because in the midst of a wall of text, numbers stick out visually. I write with mostly proper grammar and syntax, as I am an English major by training. And a grammar cop.
However, as a Mercy, I write for people’s visual comfort as well. And those cues remain important for those who, in this generation, read or take in information visually. Therefore, if I deem using a numeral serves my purpose better than spelling it out, then you, the reader, are going to have bo be okay with that.
To wit, if you do not like that I do not spell numbers (read: I refuse to abide by those standards) or use the Oxford Comma, then you are in the wrong place.
So, back to the topic at hand. Among the patterns that show up in Scripture, 7 is so implicit to the text that lists and groupings show up repeatedly. Even the structure of canon follows a heptadic structure and rhythm.
And many of those lists of items parallel one another and feed into one another. So the Redemptive Gifts of Romans 12:6-8 parallel:
The Seven Trees of Isaiah
The Seven Spirits of G-d
The Seven Patriarchs from Adam running Inverse from Adam as Mercy to Enoch as Prophet.
The Seven items of furniture in the Tabernacle
The Seven Feasts of Israel
The Seven of the Ten Compound Names of Adonai (Names Four through Ten)
The Seven Letters of Adonai to the churches in Revelation
The Seven Presents of Jacob to Joseph
The Seven Statements of the L-rd in the Burning Bush
The Seven Statements in the 120 years preceding Noah’s Altar
The Seven Actions of Connection with the L-rd in Psalm 23
The Seven seasons of the Book of Judges tied to the Seven Curses
The Seven Last Words of Messiah
The Seven Voices in Psalm 29
The Seven Stages of Brain Rot in Romans 1
The Seven Things the L-rd dislikes in Proverbs 6:16ff
The Seven Signs in John’s Gospel
The Seven parables of the Kingdom in the Gospel of Desire
The Seven Items in the Believers Armor, including the Shoes of READINESS
The Sevens galore in Revelation
And more besides.
So, given the L-rd has imbued all of reality, per the biblical text in multiple places, with this pattern, is it really a leap to suggest that certain people of a kind would gather in places that feel like home?
Treasures In the Earth
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place
Acts 17:26 ESV
And let me add from a chunk of Job 28 to illustrate a concept embodied in the natural by Sutter’s Mill and the Comstock Lode.
Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold that they refine. Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the ore. Man puts an end to darkness and searches out to the farthest limit the ore in gloom and deep darkness. He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro. As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it. The proud beasts have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it. Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
Job 28:1-11 ESV
There are treasures in the land in the natural, there are plants, animals, ecosystems, and under the earth are minerals, gemstones, precious metals, and valuable substances placed in various places. Bauxite, Diamonds, Sapphires, Emeralds, Topaz, Lead, Uranium, Gold, Platinum, crude oil, Cobalt, Rare Earth Elements.
As the San Joaquin Valley led to the founding of Union Oil, and Salinas and Gilroy led to Garlic and Cherries, and Silicon Valley led to silicon-rooted-technology, and South Africa led to Diamonds, and Northern California led to Wine and Gold, do we not think that there is a spiritual application to this concept. Can G-d place treasures in the land, unique to the land that will draw certain people to that land?
The answer is yes. And, given what we see in the natural reflects the reality of the spiritual realm, then I surmise He distributed his treasures to chunks of land, and as a result, determined that people who resonate with those treasures are going to live there as well.
There are places that look good to a person, and then there are places that feel like home….and there is a difference.
Illustrating the Gifts In the Land Using the Teacher Gift
Now, let me use my beloved Teacher gift as an illustration for this.
Two things we know about the Teacher for these purposes that are easy enough to see. Teachers tend toward 1) Medical arenas, and 2) education and research arenas. Fair enough?
Let’s take the medical, since the education does not really need to be expanded at this point. Teachers teach, right?
Look at the Third Day….
Plants, Vegetation, and Dry land…
Most medical compounds derive from elements found in the Plant Kingdom, things found in the third day.
Thus, the medical arena has this imprint of meticulous research.
Typically.
And the Levites, who were the Teachers of Israel, and handled the Tabernacle, also handled the diagnosis of various ailments, home sicknesses, molds, plagues, and were responsible for the removal of those with plagues from the camp…..well, you get the idea.
This pattern of medical and healing appears over and over with the Teacher.
Johns Hopkins is a good example of this. In Baltimore, a city full of research and medicine. A city full of greenspace. A city full of those dynamics.
A Teacher city.
And these institutions that are typically founded by Teachers, typically reflect that connection with the Third Day, and other teacher dynamics. As patterns emerge in the fabric, when I see something that has that meticulous quality to it and lots of details, I move in the direction of Teacher.
For as G-d enables Teachers to tinker and process slowly, they tend to move together and find their own tribe. Then, they tend to take residence on a chunk of land that feels like home and resembles their design.
As with Prophets, Servants, and the rest.
The Purpose: Manifestation of Sons In the Kingdom To Bring Redemption
And the King intends, per Romans 8, for creation and land to interact with us, you see personalities show up in nature and land and cities.
That is, creation, which includes land, cries out for the manifestions of the Sons of G-d. And the purpose of sons is to bring redemption to bear on all facets of reality. And those that do not know the L-rd can even be instruments in His hand set up to bring the purposes of G-d into a place.
Thus says the L-RD to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
Isaiah 45:1
But he [that is, Pharaoh Neco] sent envoys to him [that is King Josiah of Judah], saying, “What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you.
2 Chronicles 35:21. ESV
Meaning, G-d can use anyone with their design given by Him from conception, to accomplish his means, and he can humble anyone he darn well pleases.
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the L-RD;
he turns it wherever he will.
Proverbs 21:1 ESV
In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.
Daniel 2:1 ESV
All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.
Dan 4:28-33 ESV
Design shows up in these gifts over and over and over again. And there are carnal manifestations that are not submitted to the King, and there are high-functioning manifestations in people who are submitted to the King.
In the carnal Ruler, we see empire building and we see them emotionally unstable.
And in the healthy Ruler we see a fathering aspect that builds sons into effective builders and fighters.
Manifestations of the Gifts in Particular Cities
New York has a nice grid set up, there is an access to the city. It’s a Giver city.
Boston however, these tiny roads curve and go every which way. And they do not care about your opinion about their geography. And they excel in bleeding-edge technology and engineering, and they served as a flash point, together with South Carolina, for revolution. And you better not be a Yankees fan wearing a Bucky Bleeping Dent Jersey in Beantown.
Boston Robbed in 1978
Typical Prophet.
And In Business
And we also note that organizations take on the personality of the founder.
Even4One, founded by an unmistakable Prophet, carries the feel and image of her founder, who from my viewpoint of Prophets, carries some of the sweetest and highest-functioning expressions of the gift.
Sapphire Leadership Group, carries Arthur’s imprint, and churns out ideological material rooted in principles tied to the founder.
And a thousand different organizations, founded by people, who, under the prevenient grace of G-d, are being prepared for expressions of His redemption, even while they do not seek him (Romans 5:8), show the DNA of the founder, and the design of the founder.
And many other organizations do this.
The aviation Industry as a whole, carries the Prophet and Teacher imprints by turns, some see the new cutting edge, and some see the tinkering.
Even the aircraft have feels to them.
And this is just one more expression of the pattern of things created by humans with one of seven designs, designs that were given in their Mother’s wombs (Psalm 139).
Whether or not they like it, humanity, redeemed or not yet redeemed, shows forth his eternal nature and divine power, so that no one may be without excuse.
Creation everywhere sees this pattern everywhere.
Witnesses to his goodness and majesty and love are everywhere, and therefore no one is left without an excuse that will hold on That Day.
The Purpose of Redemptive Patterns And Messaging
Redemptive messaging, placed E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E., and which is the King’s specialty (Luke 16:19; Romans 1) is strewn throughout all of creation and everywhere in the Biblical text, and even in non-biblical texts. What, do we think His arm is slackened or shortened that it cannot redeem no matter what the situation?
And the purposes of these patterns that crop up everywhere, are as witnesses that will testify to the King.
Such as the words of one healed Exhorter:
“You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. Now that I’m trying to protect the people I’ve put in harm’s way, you’re going to walk out?”
And because all of these institutions and landforms are peopled by humanity and patterned after the rest of creation, and because they all serve His purposes ultimately, and because the land reflects people, and Chicago is not New York is not Boston is not JAX, we see the trends and patterns. And we are responsible to partner with EVERYTHING the King has made available to us in order to bring the section of creation under our jurisdiction back to Him.
A few more thoughts here, gang. First, from Genesis 19
“The outcry of Sodom”
It wasn’t the people. The Hebrew there literally reads “Sodom’s outcry”. That Hebrew word for outcry was a distress call, such as you would use to call the police. The land was in distress, and the land cried out due to the people’s iniquity.
Second thought beyond that.
Numbers 35 talks about polluting the land, and the consequences for polluting the land (Leviticus 20:22). THE LAND shall vomit you out. Not the L-rd. Not the people. The land will behave as a human whose stomach has become sickened and it itself will reject the people.
The land itself responds to things.
Now, for those who would take this to mean I am arguing for the sentience of the land, well, that is not where I am going.
I am pointing out that the land functions in many ways the way we function at times. We who have redemption and redemptive agency flowing through us.
So, maybe, land responds in some way more than we have first thought….
Also, 2 Chronicles 7:14 refers to G-d healing the land. And this strikes me as the L-rd doing something beyond mere metaphor, and it would behoove us to discern and hear and look at what He is doing in a patch of land for which we are responsible.
Just as land can carry defilement and pollution, so it can also carry a blessing, and we are commanded in Scripture to bless the land and the dwelling places with which we associate.
I realize this second half is a potpourri of land items. And one might say what does this have to do with gifts and treasures in the land?
Well, it strikes me that with the exhortations of promised LAND having treasures in it (milk and honey) that we can see, perhaps there is a mirror of this in the spirit, and in a particular patch of land there is a strong enough pull of those treasures in the spirit that it gathers people of a kind to it to care for it. Maybe the land knows something that we do not…..
These are just my thoughts….feel free to consider and ask questions. And be blessed, gang.
Gang, I first stepped into this work quite by accident, and then I started hearing the land speak, even when I did not have the words to describe what was going on. It was not Arthur or Megan who clued me in to the idea that land or landforms speak to us.
Rather, it was an old friend from college named Kristi, who told me and a group of then-friends that “the trees were speaking”. She was part of a ministry with which I was involved in on campus.
And so, beloved, what do you do when you think you hear the land and the trees and the mountains and the oceans speaking to you? What do you do when you fear the response of a church that may be so devoted to stoning those who hear creation speak.
Well, beloved, I invite you spirit to hear the following passage afresh and I ask your soul to step to the side as I speak to your spirit.
Spirit, listen to the word of G-d for you for today.
“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
Isaiah 55:12 ESV
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, ALL THE EARTH; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together
Psalm 98:5-8 ESV (emphasis mine)
The earth makes noise to the L-rd, spirit!. The various land forms speak in praise to the L-rd. And they are willing to speak to us, and hear from us. We are capable of hearing not only when the land is feeling good, but also when the land is feeling terrible and responds in reaction to the negative feeling:
“…and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.”
from Leviticus 18:25
“…WE KNOWTHAT THE WHOLE EARTH HAS BEEN GROANING together in the pains of childbirth until now.”
from Romans 8:22 ESV (emphasis mine)
Spirit, you are not crazy. Beloved you are not crazy. That thing you are hearing may be the creation speaking.
Beloved, I bless you in your capacity to hear when the creation speaks, both when it speaks in the positive and when it speaks in the negative.
Spirit, you aree permitted to speak to the land, and you are permitted to find out solutions to the problems of why the creation is having trouble. You are permitted to be and to do and to flow in every aspect of the fullness of who G-d made you to be.
I bless you, spirit to hear the emotions of various parcels of land. I bless your discernment to increase to the place where Father wants it to be. I bless you to know what the L-rd wants you to know about the land.
I bless those who are created to be ornithologists, and park rangers, and botanists, and agcriculturalists, and horticulturalists, and farmers, and ranchers. I bless you each to flow in your design. I bless the fullness of you, spirit, to come online and express itself in zeal in the professional pursuits for which you were made.
I bless you to interact with the land, and hear the land, and to work to whatever degree you were designed to work with the land.
Beloved, I invite your spirit forward in the name of Yeshua.
Listen to the word of G-d for you for today.
Now the L-rd said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your fathers hours to the land that I will show you.
Genesis !2:1 ESV
Spirit, there will be times when the L-rd sends you away from land that you have known into land that you do not know. And, spirit, there are going to be mysterious and idstant places into which you are headed that you do not know. You are first going to have to do what Abram did: Leave your homeland. Now you might have other relatives that come along with you:
…and Lot went with him…
from Genesis 12:4
but these relatives can provide some of the comforts of home and still be distractions from your ultimate goal, Abram’s design was not to play with his relatives and rescue them, but to see the land that G-d was promising to his descendants. And by descendants I do not mean chief servants or shirttail relatives. And I do not mean trying-to-be-sons like Ishamael. I mean actual flesh and blood, after the manner of Isaac.
Spirit, I bless you to engage with your spirit when it is time to leave the comforts of home to pursue the adventure and vision G-d has for you, and to create a home for your expression of that dynamic we call “family” in accordance with G-d’s alignment of your new family.
I bless you to find the land and context where this growing of family should take place. I bless you to find where you belong, and the place where you best align with the purposes of G-d. I bless you to hear the land speak to you, when you finally arrive at a place that feels like home to you. I bless your journey not to settle for lesser plots, but to find that right and righteous parcel.
Spirit, I bless your focus to be intense and with purpose. I bless you to ignore family members who are not speaking with and thinking with their spirits, but rather give you every good plan that isn’t a G-d-sized plan.
I bless you to flee the spirit of settling for less than G-d has for you.
I bless you to find the perfect vision G-d has for you, and to pursue connection with the land.
I bless you spirit to enlarge and rest once you find that piece of land where you belong, either for a season or permaently.
I bless those roots of yours to dig deep and find fertile soil and much water.
I bless you with that peace and freedom, in the name of Yeshua.
Beloved, I would like to invite your spirit to parley.
And by way of this illustration, to understanding.
Spirit, there are lands that have been so beat down that they have not the desire nor the will nor the courage (because they have not been encouraged well, regularly, and properly, nor deeply) to deal with humans in such a way that they are willing to muster a response.
Listen to the Word of G-d for today:
A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish
From Isaiah 42:3
Spirit, like some of your portions MIGHT BE, or the portions of some with which you deal, the lands that form some of your assignments might be inwardly turned through theft, raping, pillaging, or other mistreatments, that they cannot muster a response.
Some land is going to be quite silent and incapable of speaking to you.
I think of Sutter’s Mill and the California Gold Rush, and the land and soil of Northern California that is was so raped by the forty-niners that it does not provide arable soil for planting crops. There is much land in Northern California that will not respond to DRILL SERGEANTS.
Much in the way that there are many of y’all that don’t respond to “I CALL YOU TO ATTENTION AND NOW LET ME DECLARE AND DECREE MY WORD SALAD OF APOSTOLIC COMMANDS AND NOW YOU HAVE BEEN MINISTERED TO SINCE I TALKED AT YOU SPIRIT LETMESELLYOUAHONDAANDBUYMEAKIA.”
Is this making sense, gang?
Spirit, you deserve someone who will converse with you.
And is there a time and a place for the real decree of those who have authority? Yes!
But is there a time and a place to sit with someone who is oozing with pain and is in desperate need of a pastor who will allow them the latitude to weep or be angry or cry or just be present as they process? Absolutely.
So, spirit, I give you freely, the dignity to be present and heard.
I bless you to hear the internal land and to sit with it until it makes the choice to turn to you and opens up at its choice.
I bless you to be sensitive to pieces of land that are so damaged they do not realize their internalizations and the way they have gotten so inwardly-turned that they do not realize they can or should respond.
I bless you to sit with that piece of land as you would with a coma victim and just be present and open to help and serve.
I bless your Servant portion to teach the rest of your portions the depth and pause necessary to just breathe that which is life-giving though barely visible to the piece of land that is inwardly-turned.
And I bless you with the skill to walk in silence as you hear what is happening to the land.
I bless you to know when to life the sword, versus the scalpel, versus the seed driller, and the bare hand to touch the land that has felt so violated by tools and soulish nonsense and avarice that the land is able to trust you because you were loud and stupid.
I bless your trust to increase and I bless you to go to the lands you are supposed to in due season.
