And the hand of the people of Israel pressed harder and harder against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan
Judges 4:24 (ESV)
Thoughts Here
Gang, I am doing a read-through of scripture, and this text really hit home for the Exhorter, especially given it deals with an aspect of breaking the Canaanite Curse, one of the Seven Curses against design.
Time after time, I, and others, have encountered those who believe the only thing necessary to break a curse is to utter a renunciation, or have a court case, or __________ (fill in the blank with tour chosen thing to utter). And frequently, Exhorters who are built for the long haul of endurance are hunting for the magic spell or incantation or eight key. THE SOLUTION TO ALL MY ILLS.
And while renunciations are excellent, they are not the whole picture.
There must be, resident within the Exhorter, a commitment to grow and increase through consistent righteous actions of sowing and reaping in order to break a stronghold through overcoming.
Exhorters MUST, non-optionally, and non-negotiably, build a reservoir of endurance and strength.
They have to develop life-strong, sinewy muscle (Muscular System of the body is Exhorter) in order to win at many situations.
Press HARDER AND HARDER. Over and over and over. Keep pounding. Hammer to nail. Pull and push and develop. There is a reason that well-built people are referred to as chiseled and cut and ripped. Such adjectives speak of a PROCESS that happens layer by layer.
Such an appearance is pleasing to the eye.
And such an appearance will be the result of building out groups of musculature. In the gym. In the kitchen. In the community. In the secret place. In all of the places.
Gang, especially Exhorters, it’s time to get cut and peel back some things that you have tolerated in previous seasons.
In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the great deep, and the Spirit of G-d was hovering over the face of the waters.
And G-d said….
Let there be light…and G-d separated the light from the darkness and principle from principle and idea and concept from idea and concept and complexity from complexity so we can see each building block as it is.
Let there be a dome to separate waters from waters
Let the waters separate from the land, and let the vegetation appear…
Let there be signs to separate days from months and seasons from years….
Let there be well-timed creatures in both the heavens and in the seas…
Let there be systematized animals on the dry land that are constant in their presence that are sensitive to the justice of G-d
Let there be fulfilling respites and strong pushbacks against futility and let those regular respites form a boundary between vigor and apathy.
Genesis 1:1-2:4 paraphrased
Seven boundaries, gang.
Each causing and allowing factories of thought and ideas and action to coalesce and weave together so that we can stave off the serfdom of darkness from the Kingdom of Light.
For, and I surmise you will agree, you do not wish to take the road to serfdom.
For that road is full of stubborn taskmasters, and futilely unproductive pain without respite that continues to grind in a choppy, oilless mess.
You were made to glide as a well-lubricated machine and a joyous son in the mindset of a Light-hearted and systematic Kingdom of Love.
And while Prophets bash, and Givers and Rulers /Judges/Deliverers and Servants order, and Teachers, Exhorters, and Prophets and Mercies reveal and Mercies find flow, and Exhorters gather, and Teachers plumb down….
And Givers/Stewards manage and provide….
There is a deeper connection and division and lines and boundaries that are given to each of the seven gifts to make.
And we will cover those in depth in the coming weeks and months.
But as for now, as I have stirred the pot between the six-colored rainbows and the seven-colored rainbows, I will ask you to consider one thing:
What does white truly look like?
And what are all the different types of light and frequency created on the first day, and how are those different from the waves in the fifth day?
The following may get ignored because I didn’t use the phrase “thus saith the L-rd to Salt Lake City”. But prophets don’t need to announce they are prophets in order to speak the truth the King gives them. And “thus saith the L-rd” has often preceded manipulative words. So, you each can have the freedom given to men and women to decide what you are going to eat as manna from the King and what you are going to spit out as bones.
I have never lived here in Salt Lake, or Provo, or Orem, or anywhere else in Utah, and I have never had a need to live here, but I think a few things, and I am going to share those things that were thought, about this precious patch of bee-busy land.
Salt Lake City Thoughts
Part of the stronghold built around this city revolves around finding legitimacy around the capacity to bring resources and provide for others and be independent for so doing.
They are great at doing and working with INDUSTRY (the state motto), but the independence that means they, or we, do not need to rely on the counsel and friendship of the L-rd and place our anchor in Him often leads to a form of legalism.
It is good to know your design. But it is horrible to make your design your anchoring place.
So, what may help in dismantling that stronghold is, for those that love and work in Salt Lake City, to come in the the opposite spirit by leaning into a radical partnership with the L-rd in everything that y’all do. Blending your design with and submitting it and it’s flow to His input in all things.
If you do not live and/or work here, or pay taxes here, you have substantially less authority to deal with the junk in the land.
Resist Non-Reality
We have a non-reality in some of the bedroom communities in Charlotte that people who do not pay a cent of taxes to Charlotte can exercise significant authority over Charlotte spiritually.
What you pay taxes on, you own. What you do not pay taxes on, you do not own.
If you want to exercise significant authority in the realm of a business or a city, you might first have to pay some taxes. You might need to live in a place in order to impact it significantly.
Different strongholds exist in different cities, and for those with a victim spirit (none of that here in SLC) they have to learn some independence and building with what the L-rd has already put in their hands, and the L-rd May be wanting to teach them radical Industry.
I know, some may stone me for saying that because “aren’t we all supposed to only depend on G-d and ‘lean not on our own understanding’, David?”
Not when the stronghold is a Victim Spirit and the L-rd is trying to break you of magic wand, welfare Christianity. If your sin of choice is a stronghold of Industry that says “no” to the counsel of the L-rd, you need to learn partnership.
On the other hand, if your sin of choice is the victim spirit and codependence on the L-rd (which is no partnership), the L-rd may be trying to get you to stand up and walk and use the tools He has put in your hands to build with.
May I Cut In, Cuz’ It’s Time To Dance
I know that, in my expression of these two dynamics, the “stay in love with Jesus/Brides Only” crowd will likely be offended with the paradigm of inddustry and work and being sent out by the L-rd and standing up and walking out dynamics.
This is why this is a dance between the two dynamics. Son mode and bride mode.
Sons build and use tools. Brides do intimacy and stay close and receive.
But we dance between receiving and giving.
We dance between bed chamber and kitchen/living/meeting room.
The Mary And Martha Dance
We dance between Mary and Martha.
Martha was a Giver. She owned the house where people met in Bethany. Mary was likely a Mercy.
You need both. And had Martha invited Jesus in to help her with the work (Jesus was a friend and family), Jesus would have come into her world and worked with her. Thanks to C.T. Meyers for that picture.
Jesus did not respond to Martha’s serving. Jesus responded to Martha’s perverted view of Mary’s design.
And we will have to do the dance and find the treasures between the closeness and the industry that is connected as a partnership.
So to the Industry crowd, learn how to partner with the King in your work, and how to invite Him in to that work. He will come to you in tour work where you are.
And to the Intimacy crowd, learn how to be about the BUSINESS of your Husband. You are intimate and in the intimacy, you receive tools so you can take the Kingdom and the Garden to the non-Garden parts of the world. Stand up and start swinging.
It’s not just about being intimate or trying to figure it out (understanding and wisdom and knowledge are not a hierarchy; they are tools).
It’s about doing the dance….
Transformation of Materials Used For Idolatry
And Salt Lake City has Treasures.
To hell with the mindset of “stay away from Salt Lake City because it’s loaded with demons.”
Oftentimes, the only reason a city eats your lunch is because 1) you were not called there, or 2) you are compromised in the area of the stronghold that holds that city or land captive.
Stay in the society where you are and cultivate the opposite spirit and the cardinal virtue tied to the land where you are and the stronghold’s optic, followed by its grip, will shrink.
Deal with the camoflauge and the issues if inaccurate perception.
They are clowns, and the circus deserves to leave town.
Which means SLC deserves a contingent of salty, rugged Christ-followers who will grow in some Giver Virtue.
We don’t cede land to the clowns as unredeemable.
California. Colorado. Massachusetts. New York. Fill in the blank. You don’t cede what you think is one damned inch of land.
Freaking. G-d. Was. There. First.
And just because treasures have been taken and carved into idols does not mean that there are not proper ways of using and working with those treasures.
You want to break the stronghold here? Avoid the slope of turning industry and the can-do attitude into Mammon.
Work, but work with Him. Be intimate, you intimacy people, but when the season of intimacy is done, move out and build and work. Sweat as Adam did. And drink your cold drinks, little ones.
The unique stronghold here is reliance on AND ANCHORING TO the Giver Free Money of Resources that flow to you effortlessly, and Independence.
As you are working to reconcile to your land and reconcile the land to the King, part of that reconciliation might involve having a conversation with the land and asking it what is going on in it. Consider the history. Consider the founding. Consider that the King sent you to a place.
A Blessing For The Industrious Ones
Beloved, I invite your spirit forward.
Spirit, listen to the Word of G-d for you for today.
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The L-RD G-d took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to WORK it and keep it.
Genesis 2:10–15 ESV
Spirit, you were made to work. Work is not a sin. Figuring out and pondering, and thinking are not sins. Your mind is not less than your heart, nor are the two of those less or greater than your reins (the RJD/Servant combo of your Adrenals and Kidneys).
They are just different.
Spirit, your place of dwelling is in the Seat of Dominion, in the brain in the Frontal Lobe. And yes, the heart and the reins also are thinking and feeling organs along with the brain
Spirit, the emotions and the toughs are designed to work together. As much as the first six gifts need the emotions, so also the Mercy needs the thoughts.
And all serve different functions.
Spirit, I went on that rabbit trail because this blessing revolves around one thing.
Tools, spirit.
Can I substitute a drill for a hammer in the matter of nails?
Can I sub a screwdriver instead of a wood chisel in the case of woodworking?
Screws and nails instead of glue in the case of broken ceramic?
In all of these cases, the answer is the same. No I cannot, if I am looking for excellence.
Spirit, you are made not only for tools, but also for intimacy. And you are made for kingly interactions in all areas of your life. No matter your Redemptive Gift, you are needed and all of your tools are needed.
And you were made, not to lean on your tools, but on the King.
For those of you with an independent streak, not all of those streaks are demonic or “soulish”. Some of those streaks are out there by the King and they demonstrate and display His goodness to the Giver tribe.
That said, that design of yours is meant for partnership with the L-rd.
So I bless you when you hear the L-rd say, build.
I bless your perspective to be fuller and to go for what is missing.
I bless you to see with the King’s eyes as He releases you to build using your tools.
But I also bless you with the capacity to slow down and hear what the king is saying to you.
I bless you to find all the King has for you in each Sonship and Kingdom assignment.
I bless you to hear the birds and see the light and to feel the wood and to wisely allocate the raw materials as you transform them into something different.
I bless you with the skill to apply gas and brake in sequence.
I bless you to partner with the land where you are and to see your gifts Marshall these tools, gifts, and raw materials and resources to come in the opposite spirit of the stronghold in place where you live.
I bless you to smile at the land where you live, no matter how much junk there is.
Spirit, no matter how much junk there is, the devil cannot tarnish the reality that “G-d was there first”. Not one damn clown beat G-d to any single patch of land on earth.
Even in Deseret, G-d was there before Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the clowns of that perversion.
G-d put Industry in the land.
And G-d created us for incessant relationship and partnership. Partnership with Him. Partnership with others. And Partnership with the Land.
Spirit, I bless you to smile and show the land a bit of your sunshine as the King imbues YOU WITH HOPE!
I bless you to interact with the land and to speak to the land, not AT the land.
I bless you to listen to the land. And I bless you to take the tools give to you and to flow from stand-up-and-go on the one hand, to partnership and dependence to on and receiving from your bridegroom on the other.
I bless you to WORK the land and WORK WITH the land.
I bless the dance, as my sister from the Old Northwest was blessed in her capacity to receive her daily food from Her Bridegroom while she waited for her passion to take off.
I bless the tools to be connected to the capacity to flow between partnership when you check back in with the King periodically to receive from and being sent out from Him on assignment that means you might trailblazing alone in the wilderness, when the work is hard and the sun is hot.
I bless the land to facilitate you with its gifts without you falling into any traps created by anchoring to those gifts instead of the King.
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.
What do you have in your hand? What do you bring to the table?
That is a key question, gang. And it is potentially dangerous to ask and answer unless we answer it carefully and thoughtfully. Why is that? Because we frequently have a very small idea of what we mean by “tools” and “resources”. We hear resources and we too often think of cash, or liquid assets we see. We often do not think about our relationships, our understanding, our knowledge, in part because we misapplied Paul’s exhortation, and just because we call those things (degrees and licenses and all that other stuff) shit (the Greek word σκύβαλον translates to “shit”), does not mean we reject the idea of using those items to further the plan of G-d in our lives.
Is It Really Junk?
Just because something looks like junk in your life, does not mean that G-d cannot use it.
So, at the outset of your working through approaching the work G-d has for you, toward your places of destiny, remind yourself of all the resources you have at your disposal. Truly, G-d gave you money to manage…
But He also gave you skill (Deuteronomy 8:18), friendships (Proverbs 17:17), work (Genesis 2:15), plans (Jeremiah 29:11, Proverbs 16:1, 3, 9; 19:21), rest (Mark 2:27), and family (Psalm 68:6).
And that word “skill” covers everything you do with your hands, mind, feet, anything you move to act on. The capacity to work and do something, and to do it with skill is a gift from Him. It is not just about being able to do something; it is about recognizing, discovering, and honing your strong suits so that you can do, with maximum effectiveness, the very things you love.
Our capacity to see everything we have in hand becomes a stepping stone.
“Away from what, though?”, you might ask.
The Poverty Spirit
When we only think of resources in terms of a very narrow band of things, then we might miss something G-d wants us to use. For example, the heading above brings to the minds of many Charismatic followers of Christ the conviction and curse that we will not have enough money, that we will constantly be in lack and that it is a demon that is causing this financial lack. While that is part of what the Poverty Spirit does, its full trafficking is in the arena of blinding us to everything to which we have access; its design is to keep us from seeing all of the available resources.
Stewards Don’t Rule, Or Take Authority That Is Not Theirs; They Manage and Protect For Those That Will Come
“Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the King, Steward!” “The rule of Gondor is mine! And no others!”
Yeah…
Truly, Givers are Stewards. And a Steward is a manager, not an Owner, and not a King. They are meant to recognize, gather, and protect resources for the return of the king. Further, a Steward is also given authority to allocate resources in accordance with what he or she knows about the king’s nature. And note what the King gives the Steward to do; The king will usually give the steward a great deal of latitude, provided the Steward is sober-minded and possessed of sound judgment.
Put succinctly, the Steward has the freedom to manage the king’s resources, and they may abuse those resources for a season, or they may manage those resources shrewdly for a season, but at some point there is going to be an accounting of his or her handling of the resources.
Not Indentured Servitude
Our interaction with the King, at many points, does mirror a partnership. Partners discuss and connect. Partners each bring things to the table. Partners work together. Partners walk in transparency one with another. Partners usually have chemistry if they are to survive. Partners walk in loyalty. Partners are authentic. Partners have open communication with one another. Partners synch. Partners love each other. Partners solve problems. And Partners walk in collaboration and encourage one another.
However, we are duty-bound to find the principles that are explicated in Scripture and to EXECUTE. Obedience is part of the equation.
Stewardship is part of the equation.
And awareness and allocation of available resources are also parts of the equation. Adapt and overcome. Sonship. Semper Fi. Do your job, and stop with the complaining that you do not have what you need.
Right now, without extra and added gifts given to you by others, you have treasure, gifts, resources, wealth and assets around you.
How are you managing what you are managing?
Stewardship Is Management of The Resources Given To You
Furthermore, our job and our responsibility are not to steward the resources that are not given to us. Management is not ownership, nor is it control, and the sooner we get that as a church, and especially Stewards (Givers), for whom the ROI in Stewardship is bonkers disproportionate, the sooner we will quit having the stupid effects that manifest from controlling and dictating resources. Take that, William H. Gates III, thou cankerous kakanthropist!
Stewardship is not management of the resources that are not give to you.
It’s not about screwing up the Servant (the atmosphere and the weather patterns) and blocking out the Exhorter’s impact on the planet by spraying ANY FREAKING THING, NO MATTER HOW “SAFE” IT IS.
The second you start managing resources that are not yours, like thrones, or weather patterns, or money, or emotions, or members of a church under your apostolic oversight (which is a satanic contradiction of terms, apostles do not oversee or cover anything), or networks, or families, or nations (the President is not a king)…is the second junk gets Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.
On one level, Stewardship is accomplishing someone else’s agenda with someone else’s resources.
However, let’s boil it down a bit further.
Stewardship is using given or possessed resources to accomplish an agenda.
So, two things that every Steward (Giver) must answer for themselves, in the context of the Cardinal Virtue of Walking By Faith.
Whose resources are currently in your hand?
Whose agenda are you accomlplishing?
What Resources?
Everything that we have, from the breath in our lungs; the money in our pockets; the books on our shelves; and the knowledge in our brains, minds, hearts, reins, and spirits; to the relationships with our friends, to the bit of creation with which we interact, to the skills in our minds and hands and the understanding we have in both our spirits and souls are all resources. And we are managing each a vast pool of talent and garage full of tools and resources.
Whose Agenda?
Whose agenda are you fulfilling? If you can accomplish the King’s agenda while simultaneously blessing one or more people or creation or time in so doing, whether or not those people see your actions as a blessing, then youu will have accomplished much.
Couple All This With….
Righteous communication…
How did Denethor, son of Ecthelion actually die?
Read the books….seriously, Return of the King, Chapter 7: “The Pyre of Denethor”
“‘Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death,’ answered Gandalf. ‘And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death.’ Then passing through the door he took Faramir from the deadly house and laid him on the bier on which he had been brought, and which had now been set in the porch. Denethor followed him, and stood trembling, looking with longing on the face of his son. And for a moment, while all were silent and still, watching the Lord in his throes, he wavered.”
“Then suddenly Denethor laughed. He stood up tall and proud again, and stepping swiftly back to the table he lifted from it the pillow on which his head had lain. Then coming to the doorway he drew aside the covering, and lo! he had between his hands a palantir. And as he held it up, it seemed to those that looked on that the globe began to glow with an inner flame, so that the lean face of the Lord was lit as with a red fire, and it seemed cut out of hard stone, sharp with black shadows, noble, proud, and terrible. His eyes glittered.
“‘Didst thou think that the eyes of the White Tower were blind? Nay, I have seen more than thou knowest, Grey Fool. For thy hope is but ignorance. Go then and labour in healing! Go forth and fight! Vanity. For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched. All the East is moving. And even now the wind of thy hope cheats thee and wafts up Anduin a fleet with black sails. The West has failed. It is time for all to depart who would not be slaves.’”
from The Return of the King by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Chaoter 7: The Pyre of Denethor
After these things, Denethor takes the palantir and jumps headlong into the funeral pyre.
He was corrupted because he allowed his communications with the palantir to become corrupted by the tempting of Sauron and as a result, his capacity to hear people’s hearts rightly became corrupted. He was a Steward who wished to become a Ruler.
Givers, also named Stewards, your portion is to release the revelation of wise and skillful management without being fleeced and taken advantage of by hucksters (which are a dime a dozen) to the house of the L-rd and the Bride of Christ.
There is a life-giving agenda that can only be accomplished by the Stewards of the Realm of Messiah, and they have to teach skillful handling of communications media and sound in order to help hearts be heard and fine print be seen.
Denethor failed at his job of communications, holding a device of communication.
Will you fail? I dare say NEVER!
I encourage you Givers to KEEP POUNDING AND KEEP RUNNING IN RIGHTEOUS COMMUNICATIONS with the tools of communication the King has given you.
Your forté is skillful and subtle. To teach people a gentler, more well-timed touch and word. Kindness and gentler touches.
It is no coincidence that Arthur’s Teaching of the Giver in Redemptive Gifts of Individuals was with a lighter touch.
Everything Giver is with a lighter touch.
So, take this important principle, gang, and especially you Givers/Stewards and marshal those skillful words and touches.
“The L-RD said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.”
Exodus 25:1-7
We often hear the dynamic of financial giving to the church, and frequently, when those gifts are given to the church, she does not steward them well.
Often, when the giving of offerings is mentioned, it is most strongly connected with money. However, from the above passage, money is not the only thing to give, the only medium for exchange, nor the thing the L-rd likes the most.
And frequently, churches in the circles I have run in most recently function on an emergency week-to-week basis. There is no slush fund for widows, orphans, or fatherless. There is zero investment in college students’ tuition so as to assist them in avoiding the evils of debt, something Scripture explicitly commands us to avoid. And college students are missionaries, whether or not we like it, and we are responsible to see to it that their monthly support is met. And the church does not often preach or teach giving passages with a view toward garments, textiles, time, presence, or service. And those garments and leather mentioned in the double fractal of seven in Exodus 25 is treated as wealth.
In short, our view of giving is exceptionally narrow, and our view of what consititutes a legitimate need is even more narrow. Moreover, our views of justice are equally narrow. The church, not the government, was designed to be the primary safety net for the poor.
Another View of Romans 13: Past vv. 1 and 2
Romans 13. Let’s crack a piece of this one open in our next flyover, because it is likely to make us a touch uncomfortable.
And, let us bypass the usual griping about vv. 1 and 2.
The text reads:
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is G-d’s servant for your GOOD. But if you do wrong, beafraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. FOr he is the servant of G-d, an avenger who carries out G-d’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
Romans 13:3-4 ESV
Each of you know that I do not hold Washington as the leadership, because the Constitution, being our foundational set of principles, set the citizenry as the leaders, and our representatives are those who serve us.
Of course, some have a very twisted view of how authority works, which is why we are in the predicament we are in. We bought into the twisted idea that a politician’s moral fiber was not important during the presidency of Bill Clinton, and now we are stuck with the immoral in Donald Trump. Our lack of consistency in dealing with elected officials is legendary.
That said, even were I to humor the idea that the politicians are the closest analogy to Paul’s use of “kings and those in authority” in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, I would say the following.
The king is supposed to be G-d’s servant for good. And if he is corrupted, or better yet, if they are corrupted, then we do not have a servant for good.
The king is supposed to be an avenger who carries G-d’s wrath on the wrong doer.
Earth’s mightiest heroes….
Yes, I went there….
If those in the government have chosen to expend their authority, then they will lose out on the authority given to them, and the L-rd will hand that authority over to those who will steward it, and to those who will be the avengers for good and for justice.
If elected officials continue to bastardize their offices, then at some point, the L-rd will hand the lion’s share of that authority to those who will move the wheels of justice and those who will seek for the river of righteousness to flow like a never-failing stream.
I speak from personal experience. A prophet threatened me and several of my closest friends at the time. She defiled her office, and the L-rd put a stop to that, stripped her of her authority, and gave it to others who would steward it rightly.
For the good of the Kingdom.
Authority can be seated in offices, it can be seated in our position in Messiah, it can be given for special tasks, and it can be earned.
And when stewarded well, the Kingdom is further extended.
And when the Kingdom of G-d is expanded and increased, it will benefit other people.
We were made to extend the authority of G-d in the context of His kingdom.
And kingdoms are not built by slaves who are grasping for ready-made, completed solutions born out of the simplicity of what we think is the gospel.
The Kingdom of G-d is not built on miracles.
It is built on principles.
It is built with a variety of resources, not merely financial, that are woven together.
It is built inclusive of the frame of suffering. You have to have skin in the game and awareness of the building blocks, mortar, and other materials that make up the structures in the kingdom.
And it is built by sons, sons who understand the εξουσια coupled with δυναμις.
By sons who look for the resources, not just some of the resources, but every single resource.
Poverty is not merely lack of financies and money. Poverty is a mindset that refuses to look for resources because it is convinced of the reality of lack.
Relationships are a resource.
Knowledge and knowhow are resources.
Marriage, family, relationships, friendships.
Land, time.
Humility, perseverance.
Keeping at it when you have parts that beg for suicide.
How well can you succeed at being who you are?
Who He designed you to be.
For as many days as remain to you.
Open your eyes. The eyes of your spirit.
Find all of the resources that belong to you.
You need not just money and gold and precious gemstones coupled with the presence and power of G-d. You need wood, fabric, friends, companions, tenderness, time, land, and authority. The principles that are woven together.
We do not help someone out of poverty by permanently giving them liquid resources.
We permanently help someone out of poverty by giving them the drive, tools, intangibles, and connection that reminds them of their purpose and drives them toward that purpose.
There may be a season where we provide finances for them, but that is not a permanent fix. In order to fix the root problem, we have to help them get at the spirit, the clown, the mindset of poverty that they are stuck in, and root that bastard out.
And we must be willing to play our best long game at helping them out and overcoming.
This is why I ask so many questions. Not so anyone can question my motives, but so we can have a framework to discuss artful solutions to emerge from the mindset that is poverty.
It takes not merely a one-time in-the-black monetary surge. It takes perseverence when you have nothing. It takes forward movement when all you have is a two-dollar yellow pad and a nub of a pencil.
There are scads of unlocked resources in between your ears, in between your lungs, and in your gut.
And your thoughts and emotions, coupled together, can work massively.
We are often taught in the church, by too many people, in two broad and broadly opposing segments among Christ-followers that thoughts are primary or emotions are primary.
The first six redemptive gifts do lead with and work out their problems through the mind, while the Mercy leads with and work through their emotions.
And G-d is trying to couple these two with the kidneys and adrenals and create a trifecta of solutions.
And, indeed, a Mercy can work through their mind effectively.
And a Teacher can work through their heart.
As both should. We lack no resources, and neither does our great King and Father who fathers us through that bevy of resources.
And G-d connects with all seven redemptive gifts on the level of the spirit NOT the level of the soul.
Our trouble is that we have such a hard time unpacking the light G-d put into us, and we desperately need to.
So, here is a blessing to that end.
A Blessing With Respect To Resources and Authority
I invite the fullness of your spirit to come front in all of it’s 6-and-1 glory.
White, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple…..
Or your chosen color set.
Massively given to parallel the variously named spirits of G-d, led by the confluence of the six called the Spirit of the L-rd, paralleling the Prophet portion.
And I bless you to shine all the confluence of that prismed light toward the path across the stars Father has you on, richly-treasured and endowed with the resources of the King of Glory, for whom the gates open up.
I bless the broken-apart system in your soul and spirit, for those who have parts and those who are the victims of ritual abuse.
I bless you with the love of infinity. I bless you to be safely moored in your desired haven, aboard the ship the King gives you to conduct business and Kingdom affairs.
I bless you like Solomon, who trafficked in a bevy of resources, ivory, gold, silver, bronze, cedar, apes, peacocks, science, proverbs, wisdom, writing, medicine.
I bless you, even in the hardest and worst of seasons, to find something that is of use, and to celebrate that something of use. I bless you to fly with the wings Father gives you. I bless you to synch with the weather Father gives you.
I bless the storehouses of snow, and that Father puts every flake precisely where He wants it.
I bless you with knowledge of the galaxy that Father put into you, and the marshalling together of every resource you have, including the wilderness that is given for your quietness.
I bless the seasons of barley, and the seasons of wheat, and the seasons of both burlap and cashmere.
I bless you to recognize the reality that like the Scarecrow and Tinman in the Mercy continent of Oz, Father has, completed aspect as seen from the present, given you a New Heart and a New Mind.
I bless you to know that you are His son.
I bless you to fight and, with the resource of supernatural strategies, to know how best to allocate your warring resources.
I bless you to know on the battlefield when you are to conserve resources.
I bless you not to react to the clowns and donkeys.
I bless you to RESPOND to your KING’s agenda.
We were not made to react to anything the devil does. Rather, we were made to flow in step with the King’s agenda.
I bless your resources that have been made subject to the negative heads of Leviathan to untwist, and I bless you with the resources that are untwisted and undefiled by the negative heads of Leviathan.
I bless you to fight in accordance with the L-rd’s mandates.
I bless you to find the untapped treasure.
I bless you with the moxie to recognize when it is a season for material and fianancial resources, and when it is a season for immaterial resources.
The Wright Brothers started with a bicycle shop. That bike shop, their day job, financed their mad scientist lair and shed behind the shop, where they ran their experiments. And the city of Dayton MOCKED them at first.
Spirit, at first, people ain’t gonna take to kindly to your thoughts and words.
Do not heed their idiotic kvetching.
Be aligned with the glorious King’s adoration of your initial cries. Even if they sound like infant screams or cries.
I bless you spirit, to grow, as the garden of the L-rd, like the cities of the lush Jordan plain. I bless you to grow like the land of Egypt, which was described as lush and fertile in Genesis 13:10.
I bless you to be comforted with His comfort when others say you are not worthy.
I bless you to ignore the stupidity of others’ soulish counsel.
I bless you to find and execute for the good of others, and as you earn greater authority, even if you are not in elected office, as Deborah, others will come to have you decide their cases.
When other politicians are squadering their official authority, the authority of their offices, I bless you to earn authority and to not squander your authority, so you can steward greater authority, an authority that flows out of love and compassion.
And as you pick up and ask the king to cleanse the authority that others have wasted, I bless you to flourish in the deep places. And I bless you to not just have the authority that gtives you warm fuzzies.
But, rather, I bless you to have measureable, verifiable, sustained change in the areas to which you speak.
Spirit, you are the one in authority that Romans 13 speaks about. May you govern for good, and not evil, or selfishness, or vain ambition.
May all of y’all govern as builders, spirits, collectively, where every politician, including the President, Vice President, and others, have wasted whole swaths of their birthrights.
May you know deep and transofrmational change, and not mere warm fuzzies.
May you experience ROOTED CHANGE in the spirit that is permanent, and in accordance with the finest the kingdom has to offer.
I bless you each with the concordant authority that is each of y’all’s collectively and corporately, and ruggedly individual as well.
May you do the dance between the individual and secret on the one hand, and the corporate and public on the other hand.
I bless you each, spirits, with those blessings, and revelation, in the name of Yeshua ha-Mashiach.
Before I realized I was a Mercy the first time, about 3-ish years ago, I pondered the Prophet, Teacher, and Exhorter relentlessly.
Of all the gifts, I speak to the Teacher the strongest, because of the relentless nature of the specific attacks and accusations against them. And because of my mind for the Scripture, I have landed as Teacher before with a number of people. But then I realized that I carry the office of Teacher, and Scribe, beyond everything else, and so, that actually explains my penchant for writing and the things of Scripture adequately.
Further, every time Arthur or anyone else discussed Mercy, my Mercy portion (which I now recognize sharply) would always speak forth about it to me. You sometimes just know.
I was not able to see this about myself, because of a number of issues, particuarly woundedness, not the least of which is I frequently have an opinion about most things all the time, and I am pretty good at articulating with a great deal of words what my views are on a particular topic.
Most of the time though, my private life, and my interior castle, are things that have occupied a considerable amount of my reality. Just because I can cut like a Prophet, or hold forth like an Exhorter, or process like a Teacher, does not mean I am always like that. My default, contrary to the views of others, is toward gooey intimacy, and without exception, I have always went the way of mothering and pain avoidance.
But under the plethora of words, and open sharing, and scribal editions, and parchments, and ink, and quills, no one would have guessed that.
As a matter of fact, when I first articulated Jesus coming into my office with a scribal desk, quill, parchments, and ink, it was during a deliverance session, and the person ministering to me assumed that was a negative manifestation. Accusations /insinuations of a religious spirit soon followed.
Most don’t understand that one of my intimate places is in my office, with ink on my hands, writing, penning. It was the first place I hated, because in Kindergarten, I was always losing my box of crayons (my first writing/creating utensils) and when Mrs. Hartley had us writing paragraphs, I recall deeply loathing the exercise. It was indeed my first place of suffering. And the first test I clearly recall knowing where I was constantly being resisted in the spirit by clowns.
I love the slightly-bitter aroma of ink, and the feel of my hands sticking as I lift a sweaty palm from a quickly-written piece. I have never lacked for words to say. The pen
The second time I discussed Jesus as a Scribe, joining me at my desk and scribing with me, and what He called me, I was again reproved, during an inner healing session, where I had to fix and correct in the spirit the work of inner healing being done on me. It’s bad enough to have to ask for help from people who are engaged with inner healing. But to have to pinch-hit and ad-lib counter-deliverance from people who think what you are seeing is demonic is just one of the things I have grown used to doing.
But it is okay. I will continue chugging along with or without others who either understand me or do not understand me.
Some Markers for the Mercy
Instead of my usual list of bulletpoints, for the Mercy, I wish to highlight some dynamics that are not really better-articulated through a list, and rather are better for more fluid writing, and in no particular order.
Beingness
So, we talk about the Prophet being identified for the bold, and ideological way they look at things. Always with a sword out, as Megan Caldecourt once told me in Dalton, GA, back when I was discussing being an Exhorter (yes I have been back-and-forth over several gifts, and it is a running joke within the tribe about which gift I am this month.). They have a sword out even when they don’t want to. The sword is usually draped across their lap, or like a pistol at a poker table.
And the Servant bustling about and taking care of the felt needs and apologizing for existing, or because the gravy is too thin, or the mashed potatoes have a lump in them (for your information, if you have no lumps in your mashed potatoes, you need to repent because lumpy potatoes is correct doctrine of mashed potatoes).
And the Teacher’s obsession with primary sources and their preference for the original langauges and the exposition and the references, and their slow butts and their deliberation, and their big frame.
And the Exhorter’s capacity to derive truths and revelation and their social butterfly status. and the capacity to hold forth and deal with large and diverse groups and get them moving in a particular direction.
And the Giver who just looks for a deal, and sniffs out hidden agendas, and always wants to renegotiate, and has a plethora of divers interests.
And the Ruler/Judge/Deliverer who sets up systems to take over some aspect of the world.
Mercy Gravitations
So, where does that leave the Mercy?
I am glad you asked.
Bryan Trapp, my close Exhorter friend, would tell you about their discussing things in ethereal otherworldly terms.
Mercies are designed to understand beingness. Ethereal. Rest. Satisfied fulfillment. Fullness. Their expression of the character of G-d is in His, pardon the iinvention of the word, isness.
You heard me. Is. Ness. Isness.
In the beginning, G-d did not merely exist. He was. He is’ed.
And we with all of our Ruler-season apologetics and defense of the faith and exposure of heretics, and, and, and this movie that proves his existence, or this book that talks about the manuscripts. That does not prove the existence of G-d, and we do not need to somehow prove that G-d exists or defend Him. Seriously.
As if G-d was like a bump on a log without effective actual kinetic movingness and flow. And as if He needed us poor, witless souls to defend Him.
God does not exist. And those passages that use that term in Scripture are inadequate.
Rather, G-d is the root of all that is. And G-d is the foundation and ground of all being. And, again, if I told you that the remark “G-d is the ground of all being” came from Neo-Orthodox theologian Paul Tillich
G-d IS.
G-d BE.
I AM.
He is ever moving, ever-revealing, and every is-ing.
G-d is not a rock that sits around and does nothing, but THE Rock in a weary land.
Neither are rocks mere inanimate objects. According to Jesus, they have the capacity to speak. It is not a freaking metaphor to say “the rocks would cry out”.
So what was G-d doing while creation was humming along on the seventh day?
He was BEING. He was G-dding along.
He was emantating effulgent, active, effective, holifying, radiance.
Now Bryan Trapp sees my Mercy-ness with my esoteric language bursting forth.
His essence and light were humming forth.
Digression
And now that I have used that word “humming”, I understand that some are going to make the link between sound and light.
There is a connection, but the connection is not as much of a two-way street, or one-to-one ratio as one might think.
Sound is a vibrational wave.
Light is both a wave and a particle.
Sound does not have mass. Light does.
Sound is a disturbance. Light impacts more deeply.
Back to Mercying along though.
More Ether and Greater Fulfillment
Mercies are frequently the most aware of the concepts of being and existing. And they are capable of feeling all the weird feely things all at once. They are usually the ones who peer with ease, deeply into people.
And nature.
And animals.
And creation.
And they love a deep problem. And the subjects they love they love to research deeply, and they love to curate the best books and materials on that subjects.
This is why I have 85 billion commentaries on Scripture.
This is also why I do not have a Nintendo Switch Lite. I have a Switch.
Many times, a Mercy can be pointed out by their tastes in that which is a cut above.
Sometimes, a Mercy can be pointed out because they are often the odd one out that everyone else is making fun of their points of view.
Sometimes they seem as if they are on another planet.
And the frequent obsession with purple. Purple is correct doctrine.
And many a male Mercy has been cast from his dad’s side because he was perceived as effeminate, and if I let that weird son of mine into my garage, he won’t understand, and he will break something because he doesn’t know how to fix things like my other more analytical son over here.
Often, Mercies are not the jacks of all trades.
Though some can surprise you.
And then there is Albert Einsten, and King David.
And the maker of empanadas and street food extrordinaire, John Walquist.
With his gift for fragrance, and his capacity to cultivate ambiance.
Many a Mercy’s love and need for physical touch and intimacy is mistaken for homosexuality. And so the accusations get hurled. And they often either have too many relationships that turn into trainwrecks, or they go to the opposite extreme to prove they can be like every other believer and not need physical touch.
And so an unmet need gets stuffed, lest they get mistreated or misunderstood by others.
And all they want frequently is one loyal friend that will not hold them in judgment as weird as they and their ideas might seem, who can jive with them, and with whom they can build somethng unusual.
Loyal Friends Who Are Registered Democrats And Republicans
After your heads stop exploding, conservative evangelicals, read the following.
One can be a Christian and a Democrat. Or a Jew and a Democrat.
I have a friend who is a Mercy and they are also a follower of Christ, and they happen to be a registered Democrat.
God-For-Freaking-Bid.
Here is the thing. If you are able to handle being friends with someone and suspend judgment based on their denominational or political affiliation, there is no telling what treasures G-d will bring you.
My Giver grandmother, once wanted to host the Democrat Governor of Florida, Bob Martinez, at our local Chamber of Commerce in Starke, and the Republicans who got wind of this got up in arms. And she responded saying, she did not care what their political affiliation was, she was going to connect and work with whomever the governor was. And she got to host him.
Gang, sometimes the best thing, and the most G-d-Oorchestrated thing you can do is withhold judgment. You never know what the L-d will do in your midst and whom He will connect you with, if you just walk with Him.
And Mercies are capable of restraining judgment quite skillfully. And they are judged frequently because of the mentality that it is better to live in a bawdy, gonads-out manner, with not a lick of shrewdness.
What was the line from that movie?
“I would rather stand with G-d and be judged by the world than stand with the world and be judged by G-d.”
The problem with that quote is not the quote itself. Rather it’s this idiotic perception that a dichotomy must always be present.
Well, of course you would rather stand with G-d and be judged by the world.
What you might be missing is there are a crapload of ways to spread the gospel than just with an apologetic-driven and a tract-driven form of ministry.
Some methods of sharing the gospel are so 1920’s that they need to be ditched because they simply do not work anymore. The reason certain movies do not appeal to or convert present-day postmodern, Mercy-season people is because the capacity to coherently speak propositional truth is not the prevailing factor in bringing someone into the kingdom.
Showing an atheist the movie G-d’s Not Dead and G-d’s Not Dead 2 will not convince them.
Rather, not being a serial rapist, adulterer, or child pimp is what is going to win them. In other words, it is about consistency and integrity and grit.
It is about relationship and intimacy, not whether or not they see you as a credible authority or whether or not you have dotted ever I or crossed every T in our presentation of the Romans Road.
In other words, did I bother to give a shit about actually wanting a relationship with that person and connecting with them, and putting up with their mouths and behavior, or am I just in it to put a notch in my belt.
One With the Spirit and Six With The Soul. That Is Not How It Works. That Is Not How Any of This Works.
One other dynamic is that Mercies are often known for leading with their emotions, where the other six gifts frequently lead with their minds.
I know I am likely going to catch grief because I didn’t use the same language here that Arthur used about a Mercy receving something first in their spirits.
There is a large reason for that.
In Nurturing Your Spirit: Basic Seminar, Level 1, Arthur made the comment that “G-d does not deal with us on the level of our souls, but rather on the level of our spirits”.
This is different to what he said in his video on the Mercy that says the Mercy connects with G-d on the spirit level while the other six connect with G-d with their minds.
So, why the disparity? I think I understand why.
When I have watched G-d work with each of the gifts, I have seen Him or felt Him attempt to connect with each first on the level of their spirits. And with a Mercy, the first evidence this has happened is a touch in the emotions. With the other six, there is another point of registering that they have gotten the memo.
Again, this is my take, as is this entire post. And y’all are welcome to take or leave as much as you want.
I am just reporting I have seen, and I think there is a better way to articulate this interaction and differentiation between the Mercy and the other six gifts in how they interact with G-d.
Data Vs. Gut
One other dynamic of the Mercy that differentiates them from the other gifts, is that while the other six like to present data for proving G-d is over here, the Mercy doesn’t do that, but insteads has a gut reaction and knowledge that G-d is somewhere and often cannot expian why or provide a litany of hard data proving G-d is in a certain thing or place.
And this often extends to a lot of their interactions with others. If they have a friend who is getting ready to do something, and there is a danger that no one can predict or see, the Mercy will often get a…something somwhere….and they tell their friend that it might not be wise for them to proceed along that course of their plan.
Mercies can often feel the what without knowing why.
Another indicator you are dealing with a Mercy or that you are a Mercy, has very little to do with how much Mercy you show.
Good, now that I have that out of the way….ahem…
Magnets For Wounded Peeps + Feelings
Mercies also are magnets for every wounded or rejected person in an area. If you have ever been in a situation where someone who is a stranger comes up and dumps their complete lifestory onto your lap, you might be a Mercy.
And Mercies often double as empaths. Or burden bearers. Pick your term. Some might get up in arms because “empath” is too New Agey, and “burden bearer” is a more Christian term, to which I have to shrug my shoulders and let them figure it out.
That is, they feel when people share things.
They feel all the feely feels.
And for those who are irritated with the feeling language and how we have a generation of men who are effeminate. No, we have had feminine men who are in touch with their emotions in every generation, including President Lincoln, and instead of calling us gay or castrated, you need to learn how to accept our love, affection, and embrace, and feeling through a problem, and maybe recognize that some of us are not going to look the way you think a typical man should.
Handling “Incompetence”
By the way, if you are dealing with a Mercy, though they might seem incompetent to help you in your workshop, if you give them instruction on what to do and you are willing to coach and teach a LOT, you might have a reliable worker who because they connected deeply with you, might also be willing to do the DEEP research necessary to help your projects arrive and a place of excellence.
And I know many who will say Prophet and Exhorter are the only visionary and verbal expressives of the bunch, and Mercies are generally soft-spoken, but if you get a Mercy going on a topic they love, or you cross something about which they are zealous, they can get really lippy and mouthy (think King David with Goliath). I know many a Mercy who by their talk can peel the stubborn paint off of a wall, or command a stop sign to say GO. Give them a track and they may outvision and outtalk even a Prophet or Exhorter. Doubly so if they are given to socialization or slightly extroverted.
Granted, that is not the usual way with a Mercy, but I have seen it happen.
On the topic of Churches in Revelation here is your fractal of the names of G-d from Revelation, each with its Fractal of Two
Prophet: G-d of the Seven Stars/G-d Who Walks Among the Seven Lampstands Servant: The G-d Who Came to Life/ G-d The First and Last Teacher: G-d of the Sharp Two-Edged Sword Exhorter: The Son of G-d/G-d with Burnished Feet and Fiery Eyes Giver: G-d Who Has the Seven Spirits/ G-d who Has the Seven Stars RJD: G-d the Holy And True/G-d Who Has the Key of David Mercy: G-d the Amen, the Faithful Witness, and the True Witness/The Beginning of G-d’s Creation
Can G-d Use Me?
The dynamic of this Mercy Season is not whether you are hot or cold, as if cold was a bad thing. The question is “can you be both hot and cold by turns, as needed?” The question is whether or not G-d can used you as the situation demands.
Laodecia was not rebuked for being for or against. Cold was just as good and useful as hot, depeding on the context. The only thing G-d hated was lukewarmth. Sloth. Entropy. Devolving to only ever hunting for the path of least resistance.
So, gang, I bless each of you in this sequence to consider your gift, as you read through the sequence. May your day be blessed and filled with all His fullness and may you walk in extravagent fulfillment.
If you are reading this, I am assuming most of you are coming from my post on the Prophet. If you have not read that post, then I would strongly recommend going here. If you are unsure what a Redemptive Gift is, then go here.
Death Grips, Destroying Rough Drafts, and Writing Better Works
I had a thought of updating what I had written, but I understand that frequently, the best work we can do frequently comes from doing work afresh, with no previous frame. Dr. Witek, my Poetry teacher from college once said, that sometimes you have to be willing to destroy your most precious work of writing in order to bring out an even better work. And that thing which you grasp so much with a death-grip can keep you from doing the thing you were meant to write that pulls from a deeper place.
In the last post, I updated my post on the Redemptive Gift of Prophet and said I was going to do one post on each of the seven gifts of Romans 12:6-8 in sequence in order to give you some ideas. In the next to the last post, on my introduction, I covered the Servant as an example of how the fractal (repeating pattern) of Seven works in Scripture, and I covered the Servant’s capacity to cleanse things above all the other gifts.
Well, between posts, I decided that I was going to cover not only the attributes of the gifts, but some of the fractals as they come and are important to highlighting each of the gifts. And writing, as it is for my friend, the Man From California, is cathartic for me. I have experienced a massive trauma, which was partly my fault this past weekend, and, sitting here in this espresso bar in the mountains of Western North Carolina, or rather, standing here, at 9:47, writing is a salve to me. So, with one remaining non-sequiter, the Servant.
Oh Yeah. About that Non-Sequiter
And that non-sequiter is that I am planning on writing a longer piece on the Redemptive Gifts, given there is much more to consider and mine that has not been mined, as it pertains to relationships, marriage, family, and parenting, and it is quite possible that I am going to partner with some peeps in writing these works.
The Patterns of the Gifts
Because the gifts are tied to a fractal, and fractals repeat in nature, we see the patterns of the gifts, from research, repeat in nature and reality. Just as every person has a Redemptive Gift, so we also believe, thus far, that every organization, grouping, and other entities parallel these gifts. One example of the parallel. Look at the Teacher and the Digestive System. Or the Servant and the Excretory System (including the Integumentary System, that is, the Skin).
Just like the Digestive System helps us to digest the solid meat and food to derive nutrition, so also the Teacher helps us digest all manner of truth in order to derive nourishment.
Just as the Excretory System cleanses us of garbage and waste from our bodies to keep up clean, and the Integumentary System cleanses us through sweat, and also helps protect and regulate body temperature and the organs, so also the Servant helps protect and cleanse the body, people in all manner of walks of life.
A Disclaimer
Before I jump into the Servant, I would like to reiterate the value Yeshua put on His words testifying and His works. When the Pharisees, who represent the very worst of the Teacher tribe, wanted him to justify His lawbreaking, He presented them with the statement and exhortation that the believe the works, if they could not believe the words He spoke. That is, He was putting the works He did on a par with the words he spoke as valid evidence His testimony was true.
I said that because we might be tempted to ask, “where is this found in the Bible”. And not everything we say about these gifts is found explicitly in the text of Scripture with three references so you can have enough Scripture passages to back up this teaching. The reality of these gifts are found in the analogies, types, and shadows of Scripture and in over 30 years of many of us working with and observing these gifts not just in Scripture, but also in real life and experience. The principles work, and the patterns work. This explanation might seem sacrilegious to some, but it is the best explanation we have. We will do our best to cover as much as we can from Scripture, but sometimes, the best we are going to find will be limited to the works of G-d in nature and real life. And after all, Paul did say that men who have never heard the gospel preached would be held accountable and without excuse due to the proofs of G-d in nature. The patterns are found throughout the design in creation and nature. So men, whether or not they have the written Word, are still without excuse. They are accountable for the revelation they have, and the law of G-d is indeed written on their hearts and in their design (Romans 1:19).
About the Servant In Particular
The Servant is, above every gift, probably the most overlooked, the most unseen, and probably the most dishonored (Joseph in the New Testament, the Servant, evidenced because he took in stride, without contesting it, that his reputation would be destroyed. Why this is is not universally known. My theory is because they allow it, and the enemy is only so willing to oblige the body in its own systematic destruction. And without the Oceans and the Atmostphere, we cannot breathe and cannot survive, as both are critical for temperature regulation, cleansing, and overall life. Indeed, very few regularly think about air until their airway isn’t patent and functional.
And the Weather patterns, which were created on day two, don’t rouse our ire, until there is a hurricane, or a tornado, or too much humidity, or not enough moisture, or too much rain, or too much snow. And then we rouse our mouths from their slumber, without checking first to see if the L-rd has determined that this or that weather pattern is necessary. Further, we curse the humidity and rain until there is a drought.
And frequently, Father uses the Weather Patterns to judge areas and regions. In 2004, California, when they signed the multi-billion dollar bond for stem-cell research, then received destruction to the state economy, which liquidated the funds from that bond, through the droughts, then the heavy rains, then the overgrowth, then drought, then forest fires. And no matter how much the church pleads with Him to reverse His judgment and send rain, in spite of the fact that the change in weather patterns was brought on by the iniquity,
The Servant is usually the one placed in the hardest assignments in terms of dysfunctional people groups, families, and social situations, precisely because the Servant is the one who is equipped above all other gifts with the tenacity to see the good in the garbage. Put a Servant in a family, and watch the rest of the family talk down about the worthless, deadbeat, do-nothing, underachieving black-sheep of the family. When this condescension happens, something in the Servant will rise up, speak to, and make much of the one or two positive traits. They have to hunt for something and make much of it.
Servants will usually do one of the following two things in most situations. They will push through more than any other gift (yes, Prophets, even more than y’all) for something that they believe in. They will also push through for someone else’s stuff, and insist on helping others to possess their birthrights and inheritances, frequently at the expense of their own. They will also give up on their own stuff.
Why is this? Because we have taken that passage that says “prefer one another ahead of yourselves” (Philippians 2:3: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves) and we have twisted it into this perverted thing where we act to take care of others at our own expense, when that is not what the verse is talking about.
Servants do not need to read Philippians 2:3, because they already have it in their DNA, just like Prophets do not need to be told to have faith. Prophets, likewise, have Hebrews 11:1 written into their DNA.
Philippians 2:3 and its context is designed for us to put to death the concepts of real selfish ambition and vain conceit. IT IS NOT MEANT TO PUT TO DEATH OUR DREAMS OR THE GOALS THAT FATHER HAS PUT INTO OUR HEARTS, OUR SPIRITS, OR OUR SOULS.
Servants, you have a nasty habit, because you can go longer and stronger than any of the other gifts without honor, of killing G-d-ordained dreams and purposes that are for you, in the pursuit of helping others achieve their own goals. This is a bastard offshoot of the best of your gift. You are required to pursue and possess your birthright as are the other six gifts. If you do not, your spiritual and physical seed will have a hard problem to fix. Go, find your birthright, and possess it, and in the process help others according to your design, but know that if you neglect your stuff in your pursuit of helping others find and possess theirs, it will destroy a major purpose of your life.
Read the following very carefully. This helping others at the expense of what G-d gave them to possess is not what Servants were designed to do by G-d, but is rather a perversion and twisting of their design. We have adopted this twisted and satanic mentality in the church, and especially in the American church of feeling like we have to choose between two things in a sick sort of zero-sum win/lose situation. We have not learned how to skillfully play for a win/win scenario. Turning everything into a sordid form of competition where there are winners and losers. We have let the business world, the sports world, and the super-alienating political world (every 4 years we have this cycle of alienation we call the Presidential Election: who can alienate the greatest number of people from the political opponent?). This spirit of alienation twists us into Abimelech and the City of Shechem, and meanwhile, Jotham laughs at us. The Servants among us can teach us how to supplant this nonsense of win/lose, and look for the best in each person in a situation.
Servants were made to cleanse, above all the other gifts, cleanse leaders, land, time, things, people, birthrights, families, and other defiled junk. This is why Servants are usually placed in close proximity to other dysfunctional people, and other leaders, and other situations that need cleansing. Think of the Bronze Laver and The Brazen Sea (Exodus 30:18-28; 1 Kings 7:23-26).
Servants at their most twisted can slip into embracing a savior mentality.
Servants do not usually seek the limelight. They prefer the fringe, and the hidden.
Servants are usually given to working with the environment in some way, whether animals, or trees, or land, or weather, or the oceans, or the waters, or some dynamic. They usually are treated as a safe place for the non-human creation. It’s like a sixth sense. I know one Servant who had a massive green thumb and is effortless when it comes to planting vegetable gardens.
Servants, as with Queen Esther, are the gifts that are most without guile. Esther repeatedly did not play to see how much booty, gold, and gems she could make off of her one-night stand with the king. Rather, she dressed simply. Servants give a straight-up answer, and don’t usually know how to play the angles with finesse, and work the room the way some of the other polished-up gifts can.
Servants, as exemplified in Esther, are most gifted in the area of cleansing leaders, and breaking the spirit of premature death. Often, Servants will be paired next to the Giver because of the Giver’s birthing anointing, and the Servant will protect the new thing G-d is doing.
Servant Organizations will tend toward the color brown a lot (UPS, Birkenstock) and an unassuming or underwhelming presence, as well as a bad utilization of space. Birkenstocks are not the most elegant-looking shoe, but dang they are some of the most comfortable and durable shoes on the market. They were also manufactured in the German Region of Hesse, whence came the Hessians who fought as hired troops for England in the American Revolution, and they were also roundly cursed by the American colonists.
Let me give some textual bits that speak to the Servant here. “When the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised (Esth. 2:15). Most women got a one-night stand and then got to keep whatever they wanted. Esther wanted none of that ostentatious gold or jewelry. She told Hegai to “take care of it”.
“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” (Esth 4:16). The Esther Fast, the most severe type of fast, is the one instituted by this Servant, and is used to turn back the spirit of death. It is the Servant who embraces the fasted lifestyle, and the Esther Fast specifically, when someone’s life is on the line and the death is not supposed to happen, that earns the authority to turn back the spirit of premature death.
The Servant not only becomes the catalyst against the spirit of premature death, but also is the catalyst for G-d’s retribution against the enemies of G-d’s people. “The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark” (Genesis 7:20-23) When G-d wanted to wipe out the depravity of man and rescue his people, it was to the Servant Day, with its weather patterns, that G-d turned in order to cleanse everything and set it back into place.
Because of their tie-in with the Atmosphere and the Oceans and Weather Patterns, the Servant is G-d’s go-to in order to set everything into array with the environment of a situation in order to make others feel welcome. From hosting company, to taking care of animals, the Servant has this extra boost to run circles around the non-Servants in order to meet the felt needs and to create a living space that is comfortable and well-put-together.
And most importantly, the Servant is the one above all the gifts that is designed to create the space where G-d feels most comfortable showing up. The Servant, beyond the other gifts, has no ambition or hidden motive for wanting G-d to show up. She or he just wants the King to show up, not so the Servant can have warm fuzzies, or great meetings, or “have church” or “revival” or any of the other legitimacy crutches the other gifts hunt for in the presence of G-d with their ambition. Rather, they want the King to show up simply because the King wants to show up and is comfortable showing up. And they will do whatever they can to get whatever obstacles are in the way that keep the King from being comfortable showing up. Servants, in their highest function, are designed to create an environment where the King would WANT to show up. Our text for this, is illustrated in the Tabernacle, but it is rooted in the Seven Trees of Isaiah 41:19. The Presence of G-d shows up in the tabernacle, but think about the wood which is covered in gold or other metals out of which the furnishings of the Tabernacle are made. It is acacia wood. Now, look at the fractal of the Seven Trees: “I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together.” And ALL of the 27 other references to this word deal specifically with the putting together of the Tabernacle, and it is the only wood used in the construction of the Tabernacle. This shows the value that G-d puts on this wood, as a picture of what G-d thinks about the Servant.
The Servant, because they are good at creating a life-giving environment for others, frequently will work well with anything that can be construed as an environment, and they will work well with the ecology, the environment, and animals and plants. My MIL, who is a card-carrying Servant, has a gift for understanding dogs and cats for example, and she has more than a green thumb. Her working with vegetable gardens and bringing them to a place of flourishing is effortless.
Because of 23, the Servant may prefer to work with animals and ecology more than with humans. And given that we are called as a church to redeem the entire ecosystem and the whole creation, it is good and useful to have people who are willing to work with non-humans and bring the dominion of Our Father to the physical environment. There are other gifts that are capable of working WELL with the ecology, but the Servant has a larger capacity and a greater chance of doing this more frequently with a greater chance of success.
Granted, this is not an exhaustive list, and for another set of attributes, look here. That said, there is always more.
In the previous post, I discussed the concept of Redemptive Gifts and lightly touched on how they are tied to the other groupings of seven in Scripture. We covered one of those groupings, the Seven Days of Creation. However, there are others, such as:
The Seven Signs of Christ in the Gospel of John
The Seven Parables of the Kingdom in the Gospel of Matthew.
The Seven Last Words of Christ
Seven of the Ten Compound Names of Jehovah
The Seven Trees of Isaiah 41:19
The Seven Items of the Believer’s Armor
The Seven Things the L-rd Despises
The Seven Items of Furniture in the Tabernacle
The Seven Gifts of Joseph to Jacob
The Seven Letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation
The Seven Names of Christ in Revelation 2 and 3
The Seven Treasures of Christ in Revelation 2 and 3
The Seven Spirits of G-d
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
The Seven Actions of Wisdom in Proverbs 4:6-10 (Wisdom will keep, guard, exalt, honor, give a garland, give a crown, give many years)
The Seven gifts of a godly woman, the serial entrepreneur, which array her home, from Proverbs 31:13-26. (Understanding in textiles, food, real estate, vintage, fitness or self-stewardship, dexterity, and instruction)
Seven Questions of Moses to the Burning Bush
Seven I AM Statements in the Gospel of John
The groupings, most of which form a pattern tied to the Redemptive Gifts, have themes and patterns that repeat, and we refer to any pattern that repeats as a fractal.
So, as a refresher of the last post, let us leap into a brief description of the gifts.
DEFINING OUR FRAME
So, what exactly are the Redemptive Gifts? And what is their purpose?
They are the gifts mentioned in Romans 12:6-8, which reads:
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Some call these the Motivational Gifts.
They are called Redemptive, because G-d uses our hardwiring to redeem creation. They are called Motivational, because they describe our motivation.
There are seven different types of hardwiring that each have a different motivation.
And they are motivated to share the King of Kings in a different facet, and each of those facets is good.
From the business side of things, because businesses are often extensions of the people who receive the vision for the companies they found, I have mentioned various people and organizations that I think have this or that gift. This post series will not address the business side or the land side of things.
Before I get into the expression of how the gifts work in individuals, however, I need to address three items so our heads and hearts are in the right place.
THE THREE REALITIES OF UNIQUE HARDWIRING, FILIAL IDENTITY, AND WHOSE TEACHING THIS REALLY IS
1) Unique Hardwiring: We are discussing that special hardwiring that G-d put into each of us when we were conceived and then born, that purpose and role that we each have in effecting G-d’s ultimate plan of redemption. I don’t know how many of y’all realize it, but all of y’all were put on this earth to solve a particular problem USING YOUR UNIQUE HARDWIRING, and not someone else’s hardwiring. A Prophet is designed, for example, to drill down with a simplistic worldview. A Giver, on the other hand, is designed to see the shades of gray and complexity and not to be black-and-white. We are not supposed to be forcing the black-and-white person to see the shades of gray and vice-versa. We are supposed to see the unique designs, embrace them, celebrate them, and see them set up to succeed, not cast stones at them or tell them how they have to be part of a sausage factory and become like everyone else.
2) Filial Identity:
fil·i·al
ˈfilyəl/
adjective
of or due from a son.
There is no mold for the kingdom work. G-d makes us, knits us, and crafts us. One mold per person, and then G-d breaks that mold. You have a unique design, it is good, it is unique, and while it is one of seven (because that is reflected in creation), there are an infinite number of ways that each unique son of the Kingdom expresses himself or herself in their unique design.
And yes, I did use the term “son” and “herself” in the same sentence. We are sons in the kingdom, and we are each the bride of Christ. Congratulations, life is uncomfortable for all of us.
Woman of G-d, you are the son of G-d.
Man of G-d, you are the bride of Christ.
And I am sorry, but I will not sugarcoat that reality.
3) Whose Teaching: There are people who assume that this teaching is solely the product of Arthur Burk. This is not his signature teaching. He moves from research project to research project, looking at new paradigms. Further, he does not rest on his laurels. It is a teaching of his, and it is not the center of his teaching, though it is a major part of his paradigm. And while many of us that have accepted the Redemptive Gift teaching are friends of his and track with SLG, it does not mean that we are his groupies or that we hang on his bell waiting for him. The teaching on the Fractal of Seven and the Redemptive Gifts belongs to all of us, and it is the responsiblity of those of us who walk in the light of those revelations to find our own place in the constellation that was articulated by both Arthur and Bill Gothard, who, if you recall what Arthur said on the original Redemptive Gift teaching, was provided the original source material that Arthur used for about 25 years.
This is the teaching that was gifted to the body of Yeshua ha-Mashiach. It’s not one man at the top and we all sit at his feet, nor is it one man at the bottom and we all stand on his shoulders. Rather, it is one of our number who shared this with us, and we walk along side him as just fellow believers. It is G-d’s revelation that G-d gave to some men and they in turn, dispensed it to us in order for us to become factories and produce new revelations and paradigms using the same principles.
Do not put either Bill or Arthur on a pedestal. And do not put any one of your friends on a pedestal either. I will explain with each of the gifts.
Now, having said that, let’s jump into first of the Redemptive Gifts.
THE PROPHET
I would like to start by covering the first of the seven gifts, the Gift of Prophet, which is different from the Office of Prophet in Ephesians 4 and the Manifestation Gift of Prophesying in 1 Corinthians 12-14
BEHAVIORAL CHARACTERISTICS
Binary, Didactic Worldview-everything is black and white, right and wrong, in and out, up and down.
They decide what they like and do not like and they are quite comfortable telling you in a hurry what they think and why, even if they have not spent as much time as you would have spent thinking about that issue and question. And they don’t care if you think what they said took them 2.5 seconds to say.
Prophets think in terms of absolutes. So, when you are dealing with those kids that are absolute and black-and-white, DO NOT CURSE THAT PART OF THEIR DESIGN. DON’T force them into a mold and DON’T CURSE them by saying “once you grow up, you will see there are shades of gray” and “you can’t be so black-and-white”. THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR GRAYSCALE. Loose those young Prophets and let them go.
Now, at some point, it will help them when they have a friend or three that is patient and willing to help them see some complexities in life, but they are very good at taking the complex and boiling it down to a practical solution.
If you want a problem-solver, make sure to make friends with a Prophet, because they are the ultimate problem-solver, bar none. They eat, drink, breathe, sleep, and live problem-solving. In fact, by the time you have gotten your first cup of coffee to your face for a sip, they have solved twenty-five problems that no one asked them to solve. It is just that the problem-solving engine was conceived running. G-d conceived them in their mothers womb, and gave them a V12 with 28 speeds in the transmission, and that engine runs faster than a Formula One car.
They may suffer from an insufferable amount of tunnel vision, as in the case of George Washington Carver (go to this video link and watch from 2:10 to 5:30). They may not see any other dynamic or detail on the way to solving the problem that they are focused on and passionate about with a laser-focus.
Because of their intense drive, they also have to go somewhere. They have to have a point, an objective, a reason, a purpose, or a goal. They cannot just be not moving along without know where they are going and why. The need to have a destination is usually a non-negotiable for them. They are always going somewhere. They have to be proceeding. They have a direction. Frequently, they are in motion.
And about these goals and purposes, Prophets are legendary for, and are usually reviled for, being turbocharged in terms of their intensity.
They are designed to see the results of cause-and-effect relationships, and as a result they use those cause-and-effect relationships to solve problems. Think of George Washington Carver and the Peanut as the solution for the soil depletion. Think of Thomas Edison and the light bulb as the solution for creating light after the sun went down. And as a final example, Henry Ford who was an inventor, shut down his factory so that he could work on this new thing of which he had conceived and called it “the assembly line”. It revolutionized the automobile industry. And that was Ford’s gift to the automotive industry.
Prophets make decisions very quickly and can shift to the execution of those decisions with blazing-fast speed, not always realizing the full implication of those decisions and executions. George Washington Carver and the peanut and then creating the mess of not having an economy for all those peanuts.
They are often seen as bold and brash, but that is because they readily see far and have vision for the distance, which means they often lack at seeing broadly.
The Prophet also does not do fear. Everything they do they do with confidence. They are no-fear with respect to their relationships, with respect to solving problems, and with respect to their giving. They are often are the most generous of the gifts, even more so than the Giver, because unlike the Giver who will give wisely and with an eye toward bettering infrastructure, the Prophet will bypass his brain in his impulse to give. They will lead the charge on all sorts of things.
Prophets will initiate the building of new things, the articulation of new ideas, and the expression of new things. Nicola Tesla, for example.
Prophets are interested in the new way more than they are the old. They like a blank sheet of paper to do something new. If they are put in charge of something existing, they will enlarge it, improve it, fix it, change it, or quit from it. They don’t do maintenance. They fix. If you try to give a Prophet something to maintain, the odds are high that, if he doesn’t do one of these above things, he or she will break it.
Prophets direct and show direction. They direct the church and show the path or many paths, depending on if direction is needed, or if options are needed. Think of the skills necessary in driving versus chess. One path versus survival on many fronts.
They move toward brokenness and chaos, in order to bring order out of that chaos. Broken people, broken situations, broken spirituality.
Prophets will move toward the darknesses that intimidate other gifts.
They will care compassionately for the broken and for the roadkill.
Their greatest battle is with bitterness, offense, and the maintenance of their joy.
They have the greatest range of emotions and volcanic expression of those emotions.
Because they are intense fixers, they will see what is wrong in a situation and they will judge what is wrong and make a running list of all the things that need fixing, and if you let them fix, they will fix those things.
Prophets have an intense judgmental spirit typically.
Prophets can be completely condescending without realizing it. Because they are usually right in their assessment of a problem given a set of principles, they know they are right and this can irritate some of the less sure gifts.
They take the initiative to judge. They will judge situations, things, and also other people, and themselves. Because of this tendency to pass judgment, they can come across as judgmental. This can lead to straining and fracturing of relationships.
They are also brutally honest to a fault and while they may also be harsh with others, they are even more harsh with themselves. When they do wrong, or when they sin, they beat themselves up, and they will seek to root every single detail out. Their mindset can turn into a graceless or merciless one where they say to themselves, “it must be because of this or that sin that I am getting punished this way”, and they will hunt for all the sins they recently committed plus the ones they thought about committing but never got around to doing.
Coupled with the compulsion for honesty, is the personal ethic to which Prophets hold themselves, in all dealings. In the parlance of today’s culture “a man got to have a code.” They hold to a set of unwritten expectations and ethics/morals that they will not violate. This also ties back to their intense sense of right and wrong.
When you are dealing with relationships, you have to divvy out the Prophet and the other six. The other six gifts are relationally-driven, and the Prophet is ideologically driven.
They extrapolate based on a given set of principles to predict future events. And they see at a distant. Because of this tendency, paired with the quickness of passing judgment, they will often be treated with contempt or wonder by others. “Why are you freaking out over such a small change here?” He or she is not freaking out over this minor deviation here. He or she is freaking out over the implications over there in that MAJOR catastrophe.
As a result of being misunderstood, one of potential results of that is the bitterness above.
They are very hard working as a result, and sometimes may slip into the sin of trying to help G-d out through their capacity to work very hard.
While your right-brain dominant Prophet presents as very emotional and very expressive, your left-brained Prophet is more reserved. Yes, I know a lot of people that would say, “a Prophet is very verbal-expressive”, but I know a particular Walking-Tall Prophet, who sets the bar in my eyes for all Prophets, and he is L. E. F. T. B. R. A. I. N. E. D.. He definitely skews the curve for the tribe as a whole. Also, because he is left-brained, he is very reserved and has patience to listen to everything. Very, very tender.
Laterality (the study of left- versus right-brained thinking) is a huge marker for how these gifts present. In your left-brained Prophet, you are going to have analytical thinking and more computer-y, sense-oriented thinking. In your right-brained Prophet, the presentation is going to present more emotionally, more intuitive, more gut-thinking, etc. They will both be able to solve problems, and they will both have a truth indicator, but their method for arriving at that truth and solution will differ radically.
Following the pattern that sets out the combined teachings of RGI, RGC, the RG YouTube videos, and MOHA, (all of which you should really view) coupled with my own observations, the Prophet and the Exhorter both flow in principles. The difference is how they use them. While an Exhorter points out cause-and-effect relationships to move people in the Principle of Reality (A/K/A Principles of Sowing and Reaping) dealing with realistic usage of time to accomplish a task, the Prophet will use principles woven together to build and move into something new. Think of Wilbur Wright, the Prophet, and his Teacher brother Orville, and you have the weaving together of a massive amount of principles to achieve something theretofore unachieved:fixed-wing flight.
So, how do I know when someone is a Prophet? Easy. He eats, breathes, drinks, sleeps problem-solving.
A couple of those characteristics to hit here. First, hopelessness. Hope is the gas for any prophetic gift. When hope is not present, despair and destruction that set in. Destruction of the Prophet’s spirit and soul. If despair overtakes this person when there is no goal purpose or point, then the odds are high you are dealing with a Prophet.
Second, when a Prophet is high-functioning, he or she can be very good with relationships, if he is careful to guard against running and fleeing at the first, second, or third sign of trouble, and if he has people who understand those temptations and will be life-giving to him.
Turn On The Magic of Colored Lights….
You know, imma throw out my thoughts on the colors of the rainbow and the Redemptive Gifts, though they may stir up some controversy and though Arthur may disagree with me.
I am of the opinion, and current science will read this way as well, that there are six colors in the rainbow.
The Prophet then, because he runs with Principles, and flows in them, parallels the Principle of Design. Now Design is another way of saying Principles.
“The Principle of Design is foundational to all other principles. In fact, the very phrase, ‘the Principle of Design,’ is redundant. There can be no Design without Principles. There can be no end product without the underlying, abstract concepts that supports that product. So Design is the art of weaving Principles together in order to produce change” (Arthur Burk, The Seven Principles, Disc 2, Cut 1, 0:48-1:10).
“The challenge for the Prophet is to embrace all of the Principles” (Arthur Burk, The Redemptive Gifts of Individuals, Disc 2: Prophet, Cut 1, 0:25-0:29).
Therefore, the Prophet’s color of light is White.
The weaving together of all the colors of the rainbow produces white light, so the weaving together of all the Principles that produces change is the reality of the Principle of Design.
Second, the Prophet, because he is designed to flow in all the principles, is also designed to flow in the Principles that govern human relationships. If a Prophet is high-functioning, he can really engage well in effective and strong human relationships. He is not designed to fail in his relationships.
Third, my mother once heard from Father, when complaining about the color white the following statement:
You have no idea what white actually looks like.
And as I ruminated on this conversation between my mother and the Almighty, I saw white the way the L-rd envisions it in part.
Like unto an opal that is dazzling in its array of many different colors.
Heaven’s white might be likened to something that is like a mixture of pearlescent softness, and opalescent, rainbowed brilliance, with the spread of colors hidden just beneath the surface of the unified white, but always looking for an excuse to shimmer in polyvareigated radiance.
This is the beauty and majesty of white, and the beauty and majesty that MAKES the Prophet the spectacular picture of holiness that reflects the unstained robes of the King and parses out between the black on the one hand and the….
WHITE….
on the other…..
And in the inky blackness of utter darkness shines the brilliance of His white, very colorful light.
#LetThereBeLight
So, there are some things for y’all to think about. Just my take, gang. What say y’all?
NOTE: At the end of each post, I will provide a link to the next post on the Prophet, and each subsequent post in the sequence of the Redemptive Gifts, and following the Prophet, I will link at the top of subsequent posts where you are coming from. Thus, the set of Redemptive Gift Posts will form a chain link. And now, the introductory post.
“Wait a minute, what do you mean by ‘redemptive gifts?’ “
“Why are you calling that person a Mercy? I thought Mercy was an adjective.”
“How is a Redemptive Prophet different from an office Prophet?”
“What is this goofy language you are using, David?”
“It sounds like you are part of a cult.”
Well, not really. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we might be doing that we forget who came along for the ride.
Allow me to back up and to partly explain why you are here.
You are here in part because of my doing.
You see, I have an unusual capacity to draw people in. When I want to draw a crowd or group, it can be useful. But when I want to do one-on-one with people, it can be a little bit………frustrating?
I have come to some startling realizations among those people that call me friend. I have this uncanny knack for being able to draw people who are absolute strangers to a given concept, and helping them grow into an understanding of the concept, and then helping them segue to the next season using that concept or those concepts as tools in the next season.
To the place where they are ready to transition to a larger season, set of relationships, or set of truths. In fullness, we move from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18), from strength to strength (Psalm 84:7), and from faith to faith (Habakkuk 2:4), for as it is written, “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17). And part of my job description is to help people increase their capacity to receive, store, apply, and utilize.
Kind of like a bright star….more on that later.
I came to this realization in the last few weeks while working to walk well with a new set of friends who are relatively new to the concept of the Redemptive Gifts. And, since the concept of the gifts and their associated terms are common conversation points on The Paraclete’s Hammer, I figured that I would give a ground-zero entry-point, an intro post for those people who might not know what the gifts are, what we mean when we say “Redemptive Gifts”, and how they hook in to the rest of Scripture.
So, without further adieu, the Intro:
When we discuss Redemptive Gifts, we are referring to those seven gifts that are found in Romans 12:6-8.
“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”
Romans 12:6–8 ESV
From that Scripture passage, we pull the following list of seven gifts.
Prophet
Servant
Teacher
Exhorter
Giver
Ruler
Mercy
First delineated by Bill Gothard of the Institute of Basic Life Principles decades ago as Redemptive Gifts, these gifts have several associated parallel patterns throughout Scripture were discovered by Mrs. Judy Lee and the Gifts and their parallels were popularized by Arthur Burk of Sapphire Leadership Group.
So, at the outset, before anyone decides to label me a heretic for mentioning Bill Gothard in anything other than a “stone-the-heretic-with-stones-that-he-may-die” tone of voice, please go jump in a freaking creek or take a cold shower.
These gifts were not only seen as distinct from the Manifestation Gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, and different again from the Office Gifts of Ephesians 4, they were also connected to many of the other heptadic (“heptadic” means “seven-fold”) groupings found throughout Scripture. A pattern that repeats. Also known in mathematics as “a fractal”.
Yes, I know I could probably nuance the definition and terms a bit better than that, but for our purposes of looking at patterns and types and symbols in Scripture, such a definition suits the purpose, and I know the definition might break under overanalysis, but this is not the time for that. I am plenty armed for that work at a later date.
In Scripture, there are patterns among the heptadic groupings throughout scripture that link together. For example, Teachers are often found in medical and research arenas, and most medicines derive from some plant life on some level, and when were plants created?
The Third Day, and the Teacher is listed third among the seven gifts.
Further, in Scripture, we see the Bronze Laver used for cleansing in the Tabernacle as the second of Seven Key Objects In the Tabernacle of Moses.
And the Servant and the Second Day, where the weather patterns and atmospheres were created, occupy the second position of the Fractal of Seven, and both have unusual capacity to cleanse.
Further, the Seven Days of Creation show us the following parallels, if you will pardon the repetition of the Second Day. Granted, this is not going to be an exhaustive list, and it is only going to be a getting-your-feet-wet intro:
For Day 1, we see the Creation of Light. But consider this. Not only did G-d create light on that first day, but He also created everything that was necessary for that light to exist on that first day. Now, reasoning from principle and using a little bit of science, what is required for light to exist? Understanding that “all different types of light are part of an electromagnetic field that flows across time,” and understanding that light is both a wave and a particle, you have to have four things: Time, Space, the Laws of Science, and then the Matter that operates within in those natural laws. And as Time, Space, the Laws or Science, and Matter are necessary building blocks, or Principles with which G-d built everything and which He utilized in order to get His Light to every dark place, so the Prophet is known for, using the principles governing all of reality as tools and building blocks, putting a million of them together in order to produce something that is useful and new. To illustrate, it was was not a simplistic “up” and “go” that got the first airplane into the skies. Rather it was a complex weaving together of dozens upon dozens of principles and variables. Thrust, lift, birdflight, gliding, kites, behavior of different wingforms in the air, windspeed, catapults before the first airplane wheels were considered, weight, loft, temperature, weather, and on and on and on. The Prophet’s ballpark and expertise is in the area of everything embodied by that first day and so much more.
For Day 2, the Servant’s Day, G-d created the waters above, the waters below, the expanse between (the sky and atmosphere) and the weather patterns. And what do the weather patterns and the atmosphere and sky and oceans do? Quite simply, they perform massive cleansing and massive life-giving functions. They are not readily seen usually, but they keep us alive in ways we do not understand. Likewise, the Servant carries this massive capacity to cleanse people, above all the other gifts.
For Day 3, G-d created the dry land and Vegetation, which is where we get the first concept of the Teacher. The dry landforms, dens for animals, tree homes for woodland critters, desert landforms for desert critters, polar and rainforest areas for those critters, all the safe places for each animal was created on this day. In addition, the vegetation that provided sustenance and medicine was provided on this day. Here is the picture we draw from this; the Teacher was designed to be a safe haven, a safe place, and a safe person emotionally. There is a massive amount of medical tie-in with a Teacher, and as stated above, most medications derive from things created on the Third Day. Also, the dry land, the dens and homes for animals that were all created with the dry land on the Third Day, the Teacher is a refuge for those who are overtly oppressed. They are typically emotionally incredibly safe.
For Day 4, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, we move to the Exhorter, and the picture here is of broad scope. The Exhorter has, of all the Redemptive Gifts the capacity for working with the widest cross section of differentiated humanity. And, the sun, moon, and stars, control tides, give warmth, provide radiance, give a broad light, and attract people to study them, wildly divergent people who would not otherwise gather. Don’t believe me. Remember the solar eclipse a few years ago in North America. It caused EVERYONE to stop and stare and talk. That is what the big, bright, massive, sparkly things do, they move masses of people to a bunch of places. Just like the Exhorters.
Day 5, the Birds and the Fish, brings us to the Giver with one key trait: timing. The Birds (including everything that flies: don’t shoot me down over bats) and the Marine Life ( everything that swarms the oceans, again, with the whales) both have MASSIVE seasonal and timing components to working together.
Day 6, the Land Beasts, deals specifically in the concept of Systems with a million moving parts that all have to synch together. Herbivores, carnivores, and humanity all living together on land having to organize themselves and engage in the work of dominion.
With the 7th Day, we come to the concept of rest, and the Mercy was made to just be and experience the depths of intimacy.
Granted, that is just one overly-simple expression of the pattern of how one grouping of seven parallels the Seven Redemptive Gifts.
But, what I want you to see as we move into this is that each gift is unique and plays a VERY valuable component, without which, the whole creation would descend to utter chaos.
And, please draw the parallel, no matter who you are or what your gift is, (and I think we each only have one Redemptive Gift as our dominant driving force) you are EXCEPTIONALLY valuable and have a real place where you can make a difference. Not to be all things to all people, nor to be nothing at all, but to do that one thing you were made to do.
To fix the one major problem G-d made just for you to fix.
To possess the one thing that will bring you the greatest fulfillment.
To possess that thing we call your birthright.
That is the reason we discuss these concepts of Redemptive Gifts so readily.
Helping you to discover what your gift is, and what it looks like on Monday morning, functioning highly and expanding the Kingdom is one of the things that brings me intense satisfaction. And with that, we will jump into each of the gifts as they come.
Consider these things deeply as we file through each gift. Ask a ton of questions.
Think about the implications, and let’s really explore what these mean for us as a tribe.
Be blessed, and sleep the sleep of the righteous.
And for those with insomnia, here is my post on the Prophet.
