When we ask questions of others, and we have the opportunity to engage in something we desire, we have then been given two things. Resources, if you will.
Rights plus responsibilities.
We do not celebrate Christmas, and this may or may not create friction with others, because there are expectations, some twisted, that frequently attend the celebration of that day.
Expectations of stuff. Expectations of purchasing on borrowed money. Expectations of rolling with a yearly pressure that may be tied to celebrating the birth of the King, or not.
That said, we as a family usually go and watch a movie. This is something that has its roots in my first marriage but makes a lot of sense. And frequently, those movies are times where the L-rd sits with me in the movie theater and talks to me about what is playing.
And I frequently see principles in said film.
This year we were delayed in seeing the film, and we finally got to see our chosen movie yesterday.
And as a huge Marvel fan, we saw Spider-Man: No Way Home.
And in this film, Peter has dealt with the reality that his secret identity has now become revealed to all. And in frustration, he visits a friend, Steven Strange, in order to ask him to make reality such that people forget who he is. During Strange’s incantation, Peter begins asking him to make exceptions, and provisos, and the balance of the movie is then given to the mess that comes from Peter wanting reality his way.
He wants the rights without the responsibilities and he continually messes things up, which then ultimately leads to a near-destruction of reality. On the way, his Aunt May dies. And other villains from previous realities come to mess with the natural order of things.
And the only way he can fix the mess is by accepting reality the way it is. And enabling Strange to cast the incantation that causes everyone including, his loved ones, to forget who he is
Gang, we have been given a reality and a set of causes that mesh together with a set of effects.
And that reality, when we don’t opt out of the whole of it, can be beautiful, though difficult.
But it is far worse to want some of reality and ignore the rest. That twists reality into something that it wasn’t made to be.
When we do that selective appropriation of reality, we avoid the problems G-d intended us to wrestle with.
And we avoid the following two passages.
“Count it all joy when you face trials of many kinds.”
“You meant it for harm, but G-d meant it for good.”
G-d, in bringing us to growth, leads us through trials and hands us problems to solve.
And He may or may not force the issue.
The issue is, when we ask Him for a chunk of reality that includes hla major blessings, are we willing to cultivate the skills necessary to scramble over and around and by that set of rocks in order to possess all He has for us in terms of blessing.
We may not fully appreciate the blessing until we have been given the curse to wrestle with.
Now, be careful when you read what I write. By “curse” I don’t mean G-d literally curses us. By “curse” I mean “problem to solve”.
Now, why did I use the word “curse”?
Two reasons. One, because the poetic nature of the way “curse” pairs with blessing.
Two, because too frequently, WE CURSE the difficult or inconvenient problem G-d gives us to solve, because He treats us as sons.
Slaves do not get problems to solve. Sons, rather, are they who get the problems to solve.
So, take heart, love. Because if you are getting problems when you pray, it is likely because G-d is trusting you as a son.
Be at peace, and if you need to solve a nettlesome problem, please feel free to reach out. I and others, as fellow sons, can help you to solve that problem.
G-d wants to bless you, but in order to do it, He has to calibrate you in order to equip you to solve problems.
Beloved, I invite your spirit to treat with me in the name of Yeshua.
Spirit, listen to the word of G-d for you for today.
Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink.
Deuteronomy 2:5-6 ESV
Spirit, not all of the resources you see are yours.
Some resources and wealth G-d has provided to others.
And as difficult as that may be, it is a lesson in discernment and Stewardship.
G-d places certain bits of land in our midst because He is giving that land to us in order to manage.
And sometimes He places certain peoples in our midst in order to provide food or sustenance to us.
Spirit, you will meet people that have a bit of land and resources and you will have to learn the lesson of discerning when the land is your portion and when other aspects are your portion.
G-d gives us certain provisions, He writes us specific checks from specific checkbooks.
And not everything we see is automatically going to get credited to our accounts.
And One of the sharpest most perceptive lessons we can learn is the lesson of discernment between our resources and the resources of another. And we also must learn how to protect not only our resources but also the resources of another. Because when we protect the resources of another, we are shown to be trustworthy and faithful stewards which means we can be trusted with other things as well.
So, spirit, I bless you to lead in the discernment arena.
I bless you to have a strong and clear voice in the area of what belongs to your host versus what does not.
I bless you to be content with your portion.
I bless you to see the resources being provided you, and O bless you to coach the soul in the appropriate direction in which to set his or her desires.
I bless you to cultivate and lead the soul and body with a strong awareness of the Tenth Commandment, and to coach them in parsing between what G-d has given Soul and Body versus what G-d has given another.
I bless you, spirit to say “no” when “no” is right and good.
And I bless you to say “yes” when “yes” is right and good.
I bless you with revelation of reality pertaining to your resources. And I bless you with skill to utilize the resources that are you.
Be at peace with that revelation, spirit, in the name of Yeshua.
Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a servant who becomes king, a godless fool who gets plenty to eat, a contemptible woman who gets married, and a servant who displaces her mistress.
Proverbs 30:21-23 NIV
When someone with a spirit of slavery is installed into office rather than a problem-solving son, the earth, the land writhes. It does not settle down at ease.
Sidebar: And for the record, those who think I am a rabid Narnian and a supporter of the Dwarf Trumpkin, I have been an equal-opportunity offender.
Our responsibility is to hunt for an unpack what was placed into us inherently. It’s not to look for someone else to fix our junk.
When we beg for someone else to manage and fix our problems for us, we are robbed of the dignity of developing rich tools to fix the problems with which we are faced.
When people are cut off from anything that enables them to see their own dignity, the dignity that will empower them to fix a problem or set of problems, and to see the gifts and tools that are already in their own hand….
When they believe they do not have unless they or a benevolent rogue take what is someone else’s…..
They enable something far worse than real lack….
They enable the mindset of the spirit of poverty and the spirit of slavery, which leads to envy and jealousy, and as a result, they will never get ahead.
Be careful when a politician sets forth a problem, for you have no idea what their solution is to that problem, and it could involve the drafting of another’s time, resources, or gifts.
“However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find fiath on the earth?
From Luke 18:8
Sometimes you build the platform and then the L-rd repsonds, and sometimes the L-rd just shows up and you respond.
There are two dynamics that run very close, inverse of one another, and yet, we must dance between them on a constant basis as belivers.
We are told, by the one group of believers, that if we attempt to do anything for the kingdom, that “all our righteousness is as filthy rags” (even though He has transformed us (2 Cor. 5:17). What, so Jesus saved us and transformed us from one form of filthy rags into another form of filthy rags?
And we are also told by the other group of beliveers, that if we just wait for the L-rd to act, that we are lazy and not bearing the fruit that is the testimony that we are His followers.
Both camps may not understand one another, but they both adject one another in the kingdom.
See, we were made to engage with both, and not to view one or the other as better or worse than the other.
Some days you are going to feel a GRACE to do something, to build, to get a wild hair and construct something.
And some days you are going to feel a GRACE to sit still and allow Him to be with you.
A grace to work, a grace for kingdom-laden effort where you work with dilligence.
Which has the same source as the grace to not act and to see Him act.
There are going to be days and seasons when you are supposed to construct a platform for the King, to marshall resources, to bolt boards and beams and set foundations and pour concrete and run wire and follow a set of prints.
The grace to manage. And even in the midst of revivals and moves of G-d, people still need to skillfully manage resources and supplies. Just because G-d shows up with miracles and wondrous things does not mean that we can stop all management.
We need to arrive on the other end of a move of G-d having passed the test of successfully handling what was put into our hands to use. And to not be swayed by every single need that tugs on us.
There are days when the revival gives us power and authority.
And some days, the power and authority are to say “NO” to the many needs, so we can say “YES” to the specific needs WE are called to handle. Just because resources fall into your lap does not mean you fritter those resources away on the first begging hand that comes to your door.
Are you capable of blessing those G-d tells you to bless, and also of listening to the King when He says “do not bless that person”?
Are you able to pray when the L-rd says to pray (and when He tells you to pray, He will supply the grace necessary to pray) and refrain when He says to refrain, even from praying?
He has designed you to accomplish a limited number of assignments on this earth and in this season.
So, there is truly a male form of faith, in which we build something and the L-rd responds to us.
And there is a female form of faith, in which we wait for the L-rd’s initiation, and He does something that we receive, and then we respond to Him.
Which season is it for you?
Male faith or female faith?
My challenge to you is this: Don’t merely act with one aspect of faith, assuming your form will be always blessed.
Sometimes you will need to execute what seems to you a foreign form of faith in order to move forward in a seaason.
And I bless you to hear when the music changes, so that your dance step changes.
Some days, we work faith in building a platform.
And other days, we lay in our beds and allow Him the prerogative to initiate.
Beloved, I would like to invite your spirit to parley.
And by way of this illustration, to understanding.
Spirit, there are lands that have been so beat down that they have not the desire nor the will nor the courage (because they have not been encouraged well, regularly, and properly, nor deeply) to deal with humans in such a way that they are willing to muster a response.
Listen to the Word of G-d for today:
A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish
From Isaiah 42:3
Spirit, like some of your portions MIGHT BE, or the portions of some with which you deal, the lands that form some of your assignments might be inwardly turned through theft, raping, pillaging, or other mistreatments, that they cannot muster a response.
Some land is going to be quite silent and incapable of speaking to you.
I think of Sutter’s Mill and the California Gold Rush, and the land and soil of Northern California that is was so raped by the forty-niners that it does not provide arable soil for planting crops. There is much land in Northern California that will not respond to DRILL SERGEANTS.
Much in the way that there are many of y’all that don’t respond to “I CALL YOU TO ATTENTION AND NOW LET ME DECLARE AND DECREE MY WORD SALAD OF APOSTOLIC COMMANDS AND NOW YOU HAVE BEEN MINISTERED TO SINCE I TALKED AT YOU SPIRIT LETMESELLYOUAHONDAANDBUYMEAKIA.”
Is this making sense, gang?
Spirit, you deserve someone who will converse with you.
And is there a time and a place for the real decree of those who have authority? Yes!
But is there a time and a place to sit with someone who is oozing with pain and is in desperate need of a pastor who will allow them the latitude to weep or be angry or cry or just be present as they process? Absolutely.
So, spirit, I give you freely, the dignity to be present and heard.
I bless you to hear the internal land and to sit with it until it makes the choice to turn to you and opens up at its choice.
I bless you to be sensitive to pieces of land that are so damaged they do not realize their internalizations and the way they have gotten so inwardly-turned that they do not realize they can or should respond.
I bless you to sit with that piece of land as you would with a coma victim and just be present and open to help and serve.
I bless your Servant portion to teach the rest of your portions the depth and pause necessary to just breathe that which is life-giving though barely visible to the piece of land that is inwardly-turned.
And I bless you with the skill to walk in silence as you hear what is happening to the land.
I bless you to know when to life the sword, versus the scalpel, versus the seed driller, and the bare hand to touch the land that has felt so violated by tools and soulish nonsense and avarice that the land is able to trust you because you were loud and stupid.
I bless your trust to increase and I bless you to go to the lands you are supposed to in due season.
Sometimes, the L-rd wants to heal something sovereignly.
Sometimes we have a broken wrist or a gimpy foot or we are blind in an eye
And those are for the glory of G-d to be demonstrated.
And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
John 9:2 (ESV)
And expecting someone to function normally with a compromised wrist or foot or eye is going to eventually breed futility.
The L-rd wants to heal those.
But sometimes we are faced with a problem where we have a muscle that is atrophied from disuse.
And the L-rd expects us to engage in intentional behavior and to begin the process that will eventually make something happen. But for that to happen, we must do something besides waiting for His intervention.
We are, after all, engaged in a partnership with the King.
Our portion and responsibility are to test situations so that we may discern which is the flavor of a situation.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2 ESV
So, gang, what is going on in your situation?
And what is your portion?
A Caveat
I realize some may not be able to hear His voice for whatever reasons. And for those, I would suggest partnering with someone you trust who CAN hear and can help you and will walk and lean into the the problem of hearing with you.
A number of people have speculated on how senseless it is for vandalism, theft, and destruction of property to occur, given these structures have often been instrumental for the betterment and edification of society.
And they often hurl observations like
“Real smart of you to destroy your own community.”
“How stupid can you be to loot and pillage and destroy that which is meant to help you?”
And I ask the following question:
“What real recourse do these men and women have?”
We have militarized the police, made certain of them untrustworthy, so much so that we cannot breath.
And we have made it so they cannot petition the government for a redress of greivances, especially in light of terrorist attacks.
What other recourse do they have?
If you wound an animal, it is going to write and destroy the nearest vulnerable thing, regardless of the sense it makes.
If you treat someone or a group of someones as totally subject to your whims, you should not be surprised when they engage in behavior that does not make sense.
A slave does not believe it has property, rights, an inheritance, a birthright, or a home.
Jack Frost said that each of us would either live like we have a home, or we would live like we do not have a home.
Gang, these people who are responding in this way in an unhealthy way are acting as if they do not have a home.
Just because the wars are over does not mean we have been delivered from slavery and our chains internally.
We have to lean, not into a flesh-and-blood father for freedom, but into our Heavenly Father for freedom. And we need to be damn sure we are helping those who are bound in a mindset of slavery to a place of freedom in the Father’s affectionate embrace.
“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.
But it would be dishonest of me to say that I didn’t get prompted to write the following after I read a piece by Arthur Burk and Margaret Lehman from the Sapphire Blessing Application available for smartphones.
The link to the Google app is here. The link to the iPhone app is here.
Seriously, gang, this is one app that is worth the charge of a few bucks per month for something that would provide a deep piece of life.
With that disclaimer and credit out of the way, onto the heart of the post.
More Than Sincerity….Effectiveness.
It takes more than our own capacity to do something that is the object of our dreams.
In order to take on a dream and to bring it to fruition, we not only have to dream and see the good thing Father has given us. we must also undertake and understand the process by which the dream comes into being.
It is not just something that God merely does without our assistance, or something that just happens.
It takes work….considerable work…on our part, and the setting together of many different principles to cause something to happen.
Bringing a vision to pass is not just about having the vision. It is about writing that vision down, and seeing what parts are your responsiblity, and breaking those parts of yours into measurable principles, weaving together those principles into tasks, and the tasks into something sustainable.
We don’t do more of it faster and harder if it is not working.
Rather, we change our tool, our principle that is not working for one that may work.
We were made for something, and the Lord does not bring it to pass unless….
Moses climbs the mountain.
Solomon forms a political alliance with King Hiram of Tyre.
David kills a lion and a bear.
David sings in the fields with his flocks.
Jesus learns masonry and building construction in the stonemason’s shop.
John the Baptizer dwells in the desert.
Samson keeps his hair long.
Adam communicates to Eve.
Eve comes against the serpent.
The eleven tarry.
Saul asks for Ananias.
Orville and Wilbur understand birdflight.
And make several trips.
And care for their colleagues more than their flying contraption.
And hours of being ridiculed behind closed doors while they experiment behind the bike shop.
We move into our realm of reality.
And stay in a church that does nothing for us.
Or with people that are little more than obstacles.
On the way to an assignment.
And flow outward to a church where you are not fed, but rather you do your work in feeding others.
And remember what He did for you.
Gang, we must move past sincerity, to the place where we embody principles.
Because dreams become reality when vision moves into principles.
With credit to Arthur Burk for catalyzing this concept repeatedly.
Stop being a sincere, slothful idiot (from the Greek idiotes, meaning “unlearned” or “someone who does not understand”).
You were made for more than just drooling and waiting for God to do it.
You were made for partnership with him.
Partnership means you bring some of the resources and capacity to develop skill to the table.
My son, Isaac, is an outstanding example of obedience and submission and helping others.
That said, he sometimes takes it too far and it occurred to me as though he acts like he is living on a plantation.
Let me explain.
Plantation Mentality
Isaac was up this morning, and as per his MO, he was standing at the bus stop under an overcast sky that as threatening with some rain. I asked him to come to the porch in order to sit down. Now, the bus is not incredibly easy to hear, but if you quiet down, you can hear it, and given Isaac’s arm was hurt from a biking accident today, he could not play, and I encouraged him to sit down at the front porch, some 200 feet from the curb, and talk to me. He pushed back that he did not want to be left behind, and that the bus would leave without him, and I pushed back and asked him to calm himself, and not to fret or fear, and that I have a key and a car, and would give him a ride if they left him, which didn’t calm him much.
He was afraid the master was going to whip him into submission if he did not jump and sprint to the bus.
So, we talked, and listened for the bus, and a couple of times he thought the bus had come, and it was just a car. I reminded him that I taught him what a diesel engine sounds like, and just gently told him to continue sitting.
And, discerning the presence of something malicious, I said:
“That is a spirit of fear that you are walking in, and it is keeping you from being able to rest and walk with a sound mind, son. You know how I know this? I walk in the same thing, and when I get in a spirit of fear, I respond by getting angry and mean and cussing and hurting stuff, people, etc. Let’s just calm down.”
And the bus showed up, and we walked together, and I encouraged him to slow his pace and to not freak out over the bus.
It was a set of expectations that was placed on him by that critter, and he rolls over regularly for whatever the source of the pressure might be, and sometimes acts like a slave (I do the same thing myself). And I said, “you are a son, not a slave. I do not want you having the mentality that you have to sprint, risk falling and injuring yourself again, and having to, instead of going to school, going to the ER, and having a doctor fix more issues. The bus driver can wait another 45 seconds while you walk safely.”
And as we walked, surely enough, the bus waited another half-minute, while he walked at a decent pace. And as he got on, and I talked to the bus driver, I was telling her that he needed to learn how to be safer and not panic that she was going to leave him behind.
She thanked me, and drove off, with Isaac on board.
And I saw the picture of Isaac picking cotton as a field hand, and heard the words in my spirit, “leaving Satan’s plantation.”
And I recognized my plantation mindset as well. And began the process of repenting of that mindset.
The Spirit of Fear
It is the spirit of fear that keeps us on the devil’s plantation. Makes us push ourselves and those around us to just slave away to whatever agenda he has for us, and makes us drop our boundaries and our willingness to say “no” and crowds us. And that brings us to the brink of Thyroid and Adrenal Fatigue.
And it prevents us from embracing the Power of Yeshua, the Love of the Father, and the Sound Mind of the Ruach Hakodesh, which brings us to a place of security in Him. When my strings get pulled, I get jazzed up on whatever irritant is tweaking me at the time, and it’s harmful to whatever purpose Father is moving me toward in the given season. And it disconnects me from my timeline.
But…
And G-d through Yeshua did not design us for this. He did not design us to flow in fear of circumstances. And when we violate the design, we come to harm. It is the fear of the L-rd that is the only fear in which we should walk (honoring, and keeping Him our priority, as contrasted to mindlessly being afraid of Him). And when we walk out of the Fear of the L-rd, and in the fear of the enemy or the fear of the circumstances, we disintegrate, and that pretty rapidly.
Gang, it is time for us to come off of the devil’s plantation, and to see the shackles cut from around our feet.
The only way we can do that is by embracing power, love, and a sound mind through the Fear of the L-rd, which is a desire for Him and His honor, in response to the multi-colored expression of His love.
And the embrace of power, love, and a sound mind comes through repentance (which is vastly more than just the starting block of changing the way you think, and moving forward, pointing your orientation in a new direction), and working with blessing and coaching our adrenals.
The Adrenals-Future Post Preview
The adrenals are the landing pad for covenants and agreements.
They are also very spiritual organs.
And, with the brain and the heart, they are one of three thinking organs.
