Tag: Principle of Responsiblity

ANY SOLUTION VS. WELL-THOUGHT-OUT SOLUTIONS TO GUN VIOLENCE

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Poltics and Principles, Principles

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

Proverbs 18:13 ESV

Our government’s job is not to make us safe by stripping us of our natural and G-d-given freedoms.

And calling the government cowardly because of our perception of their perceived inaction in response to death is a straw man.

Our responsibility is to lead the way and initiate the instruction of the principles of responsibility as those rights and responsibilities get passed down from unconfined and godly moms and dads to sons and daughters.

FDR and LBJ engaged in a lot of “do something” that was driven by panic over circumstances and a willingness to circumvent due liberty and process.

Goading people (churches, governments, politicians, etc.) into “doing something” usually results in terrible solutions and even worse execution.

We don’t merely seek to say “do something” in response to a panic. Rather, we look for RIGHT AND PROPER solutions to problems. We look for weighed-out and thoughtful responses to problems once we have gathered all the data and considered the full nature of the problem.

Especially given the wrong theory or hastily-formed-then-acted-upon presuppositions can lead to a terrible solution or solutions that tie our hands rather than freeing them.

The false accusations that politicians are “not doing anything” likely proceeds from a mindset that “any answer is better than no answer”.

At worst it can fell like we are being gaslit into making a quick decision that is worse than the problem.

Not like we have experienced this recently anywhere. Kung flu anyone?

Yeah, I went there. Fight me.

I am not sorry to say that ANY answer is NOT better than the perception of NO answer, especially if the product of any answer is an abridgment of design or principles.

And for those who think this problem is the NRA’s fault…

I would first direct them to wonder why effective laws fail to pass, such as Beth Van Duyne’s (from the Texas 24th district) bill to prevent the expungement of minor criminal convictions upon the 18th birthday of convicted felons. Felonies make one a prohibited possessor.

The truth is, it is primarily the left is not as interested in prosecution as it is in controlling the execution of duly-granted natural rights given to us by G-d due to our inherent design as His sons (see not just the text of Scripture, but also the Ninth Amendment to the Consititution).

In the process of hunting for solutions, proposing solutions that violate the G-d initiated natural order are not advisable.

So, to you who are calling the church, government, or believers cowardly, I would urge you to back away from the keyboard and consider the broader context and all of what is happening.

And for those curious about one such example, here is Dana Loesch’s recounting of the Parkland shooting.

And for those critical of Loesch, she still maintains contact with a whole bunch of parents who lost their kids in the Parkland shooting and whose stories are not being told because the MSM is covering up their stories with propaganda.

For example, here is a book from one of the dads whose daughter was killed in Parkland.

It gets into the policies that made Parkland possible.

Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created The Parkland Shooter and Endanger America’s Students https://a.co/d/5XBEW8j

Do You? Will You? May We? I Want It This Way But Not With This Set of Implications?

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

Perception equals reality

A great lie.

When we ask questions of others, and we have the opportunity to engage in something we desire, we have then been given two things. Resources, if you will.

Rights plus responsibilities.

We do not celebrate Christmas, and this may or may not create friction with others, because there are expectations, some twisted, that frequently attend the celebration of that day.

Expectations of stuff. Expectations of purchasing on borrowed money. Expectations of rolling with a yearly pressure that may be tied to celebrating the birth of the King, or not.

That said, we as a family usually go and watch a movie. This is something that has its roots in my first marriage but makes a lot of sense. And frequently, those movies are times where the L-rd sits with me in the movie theater and talks to me about what is playing.

And I frequently see principles in said film.

This year we were delayed in seeing the film, and we finally got to see our chosen movie yesterday.

And as a huge Marvel fan, we saw Spider-Man: No Way Home.

And in this film, Peter has dealt with the reality that his secret identity has now become revealed to all. And in frustration, he visits a friend, Steven Strange, in order to ask him to make reality such that people forget who he is. During Strange’s incantation, Peter begins asking him to make exceptions, and provisos, and the balance of the movie is then given to the mess that comes from Peter wanting reality his way.

He wants the rights without the responsibilities and he continually messes things up, which then ultimately leads to a near-destruction of reality. On the way, his Aunt May dies. And other villains from previous realities come to mess with the natural order of things.

And the only way he can fix the mess is by accepting reality the way it is. And enabling Strange to cast the incantation that causes everyone including, his loved ones, to forget who he is

Gang, we have been given a reality and a set of causes that mesh together with a set of effects.

And that reality, when we don’t opt out of the whole of it, can be beautiful, though difficult.

But it is far worse to want some of reality and ignore the rest. That twists reality into something that it wasn’t made to be.

When we do that selective appropriation of reality, we avoid the problems G-d intended us to wrestle with.

And we avoid the following two passages.

“Count it all joy when you face trials of many kinds.”

“You meant it for harm, but G-d meant it for good.”

G-d, in bringing us to growth, leads us through trials and hands us problems to solve.

And He may or may not force the issue.

The issue is, when we ask Him for a chunk of reality that includes hla major blessings, are we willing to cultivate the skills necessary to scramble over and around and by that set of rocks in order to possess all He has for us in terms of blessing.

We may not fully appreciate the blessing until we have been given the curse to wrestle with.

Now, be careful when you read what I write. By “curse” I don’t mean G-d literally curses us. By “curse” I mean “problem to solve”.

Now, why did I use the word “curse”?

Two reasons. One, because the poetic nature of the way “curse” pairs with blessing.

Two, because too frequently, WE CURSE the difficult or inconvenient problem G-d gives us to solve, because He treats us as sons.

Slaves do not get problems to solve. Sons, rather, are they who get the problems to solve.

So, take heart, love. Because if you are getting problems when you pray, it is likely because G-d is trusting you as a son.

Be at peace, and if you need to solve a nettlesome problem, please feel free to reach out. I and others, as fellow sons, can help you to solve that problem.

G-d wants to bless you, but in order to do it, He has to calibrate you in order to equip you to solve problems.

Blessing 15: WOR Blessing: Reconciling To G-d: The Provider In the Wilderness

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Blessings, Principles, September Window of Reconcilaiton Blessings: Reconciliation to G-d

Beloved, I invite your spirit forward.

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.

Number the people, spirit. For Son you are.

Be at peace, that is, wholeness.

And get Ready, spirit…

With all my pastoral love and affection…

Amein

When Weapons Do Prosper

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

You read the title correctly.

Some weapons that are forged with the enemy’s intent to harm us actually do harm us.

“But wait, David. You are teaching heresy. The Word of G-d says, ‘no weapon formed against you shall prosper’. What are you talking about? I am so confused.”

Confusion comes when we refuse to read all of what is tied to a particular passage.

There can be a number of reasons why weapon prosper, but I want to focus on one dynamic of Isaiah 54:17 in particular: its immediate context.

So, the text for verse 17 reads:

no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.

Isaiah 54:17 ESV

Many sectors of the Charismatic Movement get so stuck on declaration and decrees, that they do not account for the context that builds into us that sinewy, tough, muscle in the spirit that comes through the process that enables Isaiah 54:17 to become a reality.

They miss that Isaiah 54:17 is contingent on walking well through the sequence of Isaiah 54.

The context for that passage is the set of keys to verse 17.

It reads:

“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the L-RD.

“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.

“For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.

“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.

“For your Maker is your husband, the L-RD of Hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the G-d of the whole earth he is called.

“For the L-RD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off”, says your G-d.

“For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you.

“In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the L-RD, your Redeemer.

This is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you.

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the L-RD, who has compassion on you.

“O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

“I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious stones.

“All your children shall be taught by the L-RD, and great shall be the peace of your children.

“In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

“If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you.

“Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy;”

Isaiah 54:1–16 ESV

I am of the viewpoint that Isaiah 54:17 is meant to be loaded, and, behind verse 17, is supposed to be the following disciplines:

1) Sing in your barrenness while you are giving birth.

2) Enlarge your place unto the boundaries for which the L-RD has designed you.

3) Resist fear. This leads to the removal of shame, but shame is rooted in something deeper: the absence of dignity.

4) Receive dignity first BEFORE YOU RECEIVE HONOR. Honor is for what you do. Dignity is for who you are. This might mean you need your receiver fixed, if it is broken.

5) Receive the honor of what you do.

6) Stand in your office of wife, both men and women. Just like there are no daughters in the kingdom, there are not bridegrooms of Christ. Congratulations, life is uncomfortable for everyone.

7) Recognize the seeming or believed or possibly real desertion and the real gathering of the L-RD. Meaning, recognize and walk through the seasons He gives you.

8) Recognize and be able to discern when we are being afflicted and when we are being borne up and be able to celebrate the King’s majesty in the midst of this.

9) Become life-giving in a deep and principle-woven manner. We have too much shallow life-giving abounding in too many of our churches. Too many preachers with their inch-thick understanding and wisdom, and not enough miles-deep and stone-heavy principles-woven-together Teachers who will enable us to deeply mine more from the Acripture than merely to “stay in love with Jesus: it’s that simple.” It’s not that simple.

Simple solutions do not touch complex problems that have not been understood, nor in woven to discover the principles and the opposite spirit.

10) Allow Him to set your foundations and forge you. No flames of forge and no Paraclete’s hammer, zero success against the weapons forged against you. If you are not tempered, you will break and shatter against those weapons (now you know part of where our blog name comes from).

Thanks to Isaiah the Teacher for helping contribute to this.

After this sequence, much of which will be extremely painful, then the weapons will not prosper against you. You who have been tested.

Be at peace, gang, and ask yourself, “do I want that +80 authority that can only be earned?”

Consider and then do.

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

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

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

Sons create…..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your problem is between your ears…

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

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

I will again mention two things.

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

But it seems we never put the two together.

And deal with the cohesive whole.

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

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

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

Further question.

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

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

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

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

Forgetting world hunger IS….

Because of mindsets…..

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

You will end world hunger when you end personal hunger.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The problem is not billionaires or millionaires.

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

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

And you know what?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And when Scripture shouts:

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

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

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

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

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

This is not how any of this works.

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

/rant

The Spirit of Slavery, The Welfare Spirit, and the Spirit of Poverty: Part 1

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Fourth Principle, Leviathan, Third Principle

The Vice President the following on Sunday.

Seeing it, I winced, and was reminded:

Under three things the earth trembles,
under four it cannot bear up:
a servant who becomes king,
a godless fool who gets plenty to eat,
a contemptible woman who gets married,
and a servant who displaces her mistress.

Proverbs 30:21-23 NIV

When someone with a spirit of slavery is installed into office rather than a problem-solving son, the earth, the land writhes. It does not settle down at ease.

Sidebar: And for the record, those who think I am a rabid Narnian and a supporter of the Dwarf Trumpkin, I have been an equal-opportunity offender.

Our responsibility is to hunt for an unpack what was placed into us inherently. It’s not to look for someone else to fix our junk.

When we beg for someone else to manage and fix our problems for us, we are robbed of the dignity of developing rich tools to fix the problems with which we are faced.

When people are cut off from anything that enables them to see their own dignity, the dignity that will empower them to fix a problem or set of problems, and to see the gifts and tools that are already in their own hand….

When they believe they do not have unless they or a benevolent rogue take what is someone else’s…..

They enable something far worse than real lack….

They enable the mindset of the spirit of poverty and the spirit of slavery, which leads to envy and jealousy, and as a result, they will never get ahead.

Be careful when a politician sets forth a problem, for you have no idea what their solution is to that problem, and it could involve the drafting of another’s time, resources, or gifts.

Strong Men and Power Vs. Weak Men and Power: The Respect For Power That Comes Because of the Struggle

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Humility, Third Principle

Dr. Erskine: A Good Man

“This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power, but a weak man know the value of strength. And knows compassion.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing, That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.”

Abraham Erskine and Steve Rogers, “Captain America: The First Avenger

Too often, we have grown comfortable witpower after being used to powerlessness, and we allow that power to grant us legitimacy, and we never get healed in our heart, our mind, and/or our spirits.

I think G-d wants to grant us His power and his authority, but He wavers when it comes to granting power to those who are not yet healed or who rely on their own talents, powers, authority, ability, skill in order to create a place where they feel legitimacy.

It is a hard place to be when you trust to your own design and then lose respect fot the power that comes with that design.

But when you allow Father regular and constant input into how you use and allocate the gift of your design (which is one way to define humility), then you are capable of executing when you need to execute, and you are capable of restraining when Father wants you to restrain.

Sure, you can fix a problem, but the question is, “Should you?” And what are the effects that will roll out if you solve that problem for others, instead of allowing them the opportunity to struggle for the solutions? Are you shortchanging others of the struggle they need to earn, not only the power to solve a particular problem, but also the respect that comes with struggling for the power that will ultimately come with mastery.

Sometimes, G-d allows us a struggle so that we earn respect and cultivate humility that is critical in order to skillfully weild the power to [fill in the blank].

“I’ll tell you the probelm with the scietific power that you’re using here. It didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You know, you read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even know what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you are selling it. [Your scientists] so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t bother to stop and ask if they should .”

Ian Malcom, “Jurassic Park”

Another Post On the Necessity of the Redemptive Gift of Teacher

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Redemptive Gifts, Teacher

Gang,

I realize I am in the process of a number of other things, but, Teachers, again, your unusual and unexpected capacity to:

1) Preserve life when it isn’t looked for, when you are rightly aligned and strong with the Principle of Responsibility,

2) Defend and preserve rightly-aligned sexuality,

3) Occupy your very pertinent position in the sequence of seven Redemptive Gifts, between two other notes life-givers, the Servant on the one hand, which protects new life and the thing G-d has conceived from premature (hear this pronounced the British way with the short “e” sound) extinguishing, and the Giver on the other hand, which births new blood life.

The following is a long sentence, so in the spirit of the length of the Declaration of Independence’s single-sentenced preamble, stay with me as I weave together the following thought.

There are going to be times when the other gifts are preoccupied in such ways…

that their focus will not be on the protectionary measures you easily derive from remembering the past…

and even though you might appear as though you are stuck to the other gifts, while being married to the apparently (“apparently” is the adverbial form of “appear, so by their estimation the appearance, which may not be the same as reality) valueless past, and while you may seem slow to others who don’t see the five-dimensional frame of the big picture, there is a stranger and much-less pronounced form of special discernment that the Teacher provides to make truly safe the rest of the community.

This form of discernment has brandished itself in film in the last 10 years, and it is on full display as M, who is RG Teacher here, tells the Ministry of Intelligence in the film “Skyfall” a good deal that is necessary.

Gang, are you capable of seeing the beauty of this aspect of the Teacher presented here.

Teachers, do not ever beat yourself up, and do not dare let some impulsive gift beat you up for owning and enjoying your connections to the past that give you a form of discernment that none of the other gifts can have.

And again yes, I know, seven portions, one dominant portion.

But this sort of dynamic is precisely why I argue we each have only one Redemptive Gift. And one-seventh of our tribe has the critical role of being Teacher.

So, I would encourage those of y’all who think you are three gifts because a test told you so, to stop letting the tests tell you what you are, and do find out what your gift is. As a card-carrying Mercy who has six other active portions, some of which are quite active.

And if we spread our foci too thin, we become anything and everything and therefore nothing.

Be at peace. And thanks for listening to me rant

/rant

Sincerely and Badly Executed

by theparacleteshammer, posted in The Kingdom of God

I would like to take credit for the following.

But it would be dishonest of me to say that I didn’t get prompted to write the following after I read a piece by Arthur Burk and Margaret Lehman from the Sapphire Blessing Application available for smartphones.

The link to the Google app is here. The link to the iPhone app is here.

Seriously, gang, this is one app that is worth the charge of a few bucks per month for something that would provide a deep piece of life.

With that disclaimer and credit out of the way, onto the heart of the post.

More Than Sincerity….Effectiveness.

It takes more than our own capacity to do something that is the object of our dreams.

In order to take on a dream and to bring it to fruition, we not only have to dream and see the good thing Father has given us. we must also undertake and understand the process by which the dream comes into being.

It is not just something that God merely does without our assistance, or something that just happens.

It takes work….considerable work…on our part, and the setting together of many different principles to cause something to happen.

Bringing a vision to pass is not just about having the vision. It is about writing that vision down, and seeing what parts are your responsiblity, and breaking those parts of yours into measurable principles, weaving together those principles into tasks, and the tasks into something sustainable.

We don’t do more of it faster and harder if it is not working.

Rather, we change our tool, our principle that is not working for one that may work.

We were made for something, and the Lord does not bring it to pass unless….

Moses climbs the mountain.

Solomon forms a political alliance with King Hiram of Tyre.

David kills a lion and a bear.

David sings in the fields with his flocks.

Jesus learns masonry and building construction in the stonemason’s shop.

John the Baptizer dwells in the desert.

Samson keeps his hair long.

Adam communicates to Eve.

Eve comes against the serpent.

The eleven tarry.

Saul asks for Ananias.

Orville and Wilbur understand birdflight.

And make several trips.

And care for their colleagues more than their flying contraption.

And hours of being ridiculed behind closed doors while they experiment behind the bike shop.

We move into our realm of reality.

And stay in a church that does nothing for us.

Or with people that are little more than obstacles.

On the way to an assignment.

And flow outward to a church where you are not fed, but rather you do your work in feeding others.

And remember what He did for you.

Gang, we must move past sincerity, to the place where we embody principles.

Because dreams become reality when vision moves into principles.

With credit to Arthur Burk for catalyzing this concept repeatedly.

Stop being a sincere, slothful idiot (from the Greek idiotes, meaning “unlearned” or “someone who does not understand”).

You were made for more than just drooling and waiting for God to do it.

You were made for partnership with him.

Partnership means you bring some of the resources and capacity to develop skill to the table.

The Curse of One Thing

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Curses, Seven Curses

The Philistine Curse is one of those things about which I have thought very deeply, so let me see if I can over-simplify it.

A Better Definition For the Religious Spirit


Our definition of the Religious Spirit does need some refining.  We like to define it as not doing the stuffy things that certain denominations do.  And then we list our favorite denominations that exemplify this behavior.  And we bash Catholics, and Anglicans, and Methodists, and Baptists, and anybody except our own favored special group, who somehow does it right and is somehow more special than others.


Bologna.

I define the spirit of religion as “doing everything except the one thing that G-d told you to do”.

Dear Charismatic, if G-d told us to quit engaging in whatever our pet sin is, and we are engaging in this flurry of activity that includes passionate worship, flagging, dancing, prophesying, and a bevy of “spiritual” or “spirit-filled” charismatic activity, accidentally or intentionally, when we should be giving our energies to overcoming whatever that sin is, then that is a religious spirit.  We can claim to be free of a religion and yet change the color of the religion.
In another vein, the religious spirit can also be identified by those who squelch their design and act in a way that is incongruent with how G-d designed them to act.

Yeah, worship can become a sin if we are engaging in all kinds of displays of activity at the expense of the one thing.

This is why G-d through the Teacher Isaiah was so concerned about the Israelites practicing justice with certain groups (the widows, the orphans, the fatherless, etc.) and correcting their own systematic practicing of injustices.

The One Thing and Squelching Ourselves

In our execution of the One Thing G-d gave us to do from season to season, He also gives us the gift our our unique design to complete the execution. So, the same One Thing given to two different people, will probably look different in the process of its execution.

If G-d told us to quit squelching how He made us, and we accedentally or intentionally do that in order to fit in, we can end up in trouble.


When we squelch our design in order to fit in, and resist doing the One Thing or series of things He is leading us to do, we then are:

  1. Rejecting the One Thing that Father hardwired us to do,
  2. Rejecting our One Principle, One Gift, and One Design,
  3. Rejecting the One Place where we will have disproportionate ROI,
  4. Rejecting the One Reason G-d made us,
  5. Rejecting the One Pathway of His grace flowing, disproportionately in our lives (contra Romans 12:6–gifts given in accordance to the grace in our lives),
  6. Resisting the One Thing that will cause us to possess our birthright,
  7. Resisting the enthronement of the One Man, Jesus, on the land that is our lives,
  8. At risk for Empowering the Religious Spirit, the Spirit of Anything But the One Thing
  9. At risk for Empowering the Philistine Curse, the Curse of One Thing
  10. At risk for Lacking the One Thing that we need constantly, because the One Man is not enthroned in our lives, and we are rejecting the One Key that will turbocharge our lives.

All I can say is, I am guilty of doing this as well, and I am in desperate need of liberation, so I am not throwing stones at anyone before I throw them at myself.

So let’s look at the One Thing and intentionally go after dealing with it, because if we do not, and we keep doing what we have always done, then we will keep getting what we have always gotten.