When the King gave counsel in Matthew 6, as with the rest of the gospel of Matthew, he was not advising us in the arena of the sorts of physical things we tend to obsess over, though physical assets are important on some level for living here.
Rather, repeatedly we see a predilection for the internal, the location of the heart, the emotions, the spirit, the soul, the unseen things, the desires on the inside that lead to our actions on the outside.
Matthew was taken up with a 28-chapter exposition, not to give us a new covenant, or a new command, but with exposition of the Tenth Commandment.
Chapter 6 tells us where our desires ought to be. And then the basics of life and everything necessary for life and godliness are added to us.
It is interesting, given the reality that so many struggle, and especially the Giver, with the physical assets, and again, resources we touch are not unimportant, and those who say they are, well, there is something wrong there, with an unhealthy hyper-worm bastard Calvinist theology that says, I do not deserve anything at all. This “total depravity” even of believers flies in the face of the reality of what Father (who strikes me with a massive streak of Giver) did for us, in yielding up His Most Precious Resource for our sakes.
Men and women, you are sons of the kingdom. And the King gives you resources with which to build, and those even include the skillful allocation of the temporal. He does not expect you to be guilted into giving all you have away. He does, however, look to see if you are willing and available, not to be used (as if you are His ho to be used: praying “use me, L-rd” strikes me with a prostitutionary vibe, I almost never pray that, that is devoid of the partnership language the King intends for us).
I do not want to be used. I already had enough issues with rejection and abandonment. Rather, I want to partner with the King who Is Love, and does not USE us, but rather connects with us.
So, let’s look to connect with Him and walk with him.
And, just in case women are irritable at being called sons, just remember, men are called the Bride of Messiah, and I am very comfortable with my Bridal Identity.
So, congratulations, life is uncomfortable for everyone.
If we struggle with hearing others or being heard by others, we might have an issue with how we are managing those things we have been given.
Exhibit A
“My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.”
Sheep can either choose to listen or they can choose to not listen. As sheep who are more accurately sons rather than servants (though “servant” is a small aspect of what we do in the kingdom) we have been given the freedom to listen to the voice of the Shepherd and either execute or not. And, whether or not we are satisfied without the outcome of listening or not listening to the communication the King gives us, the results of our listening or not will come.
In Illustration
I am not the usual one to give any sort of gloom-and-doom message, in case one is tempted to read the following as an invective.
A couple of years ago, a regional communications grid was knocked out in a major American city. Now, am I going to say that this was the judgment of G-d definitively. Not at all. But I notice when G-d attempts to communicate or speak to His children and they resist hearing that voice…
…when scripture plainly teaches, from the mouth of the Word Himself, that followers HEAR his voice….
…and that hearing is plainly a gift of the King to His bride…
…and, as such, is meant to be stewarded well…
…to the best of the skill and ability with which He endows us…
…then our communications networks of various types risk disruption…
And:
People who normally hear us fail to hear us clearly.
Our capacity to receive in prayer is hindered.
Our cooking in the kitchen is messed with.
Our technology and electronic devices, most of which involve some form of communication, foul up worse than usual, or sooner than usual.
“The wires get crossed” between even good friends.
Our tone of voice or text is misheard.
Our parents, siblings, spouses, close friends, or kids begin mishearing our plain verbal cues for something completely foreign.
Gang, the land in this city cries out for someone or more than one someone’s to help straighten out the mess that has happened in the spirit.
And, while there are those who are called to work with people, there are also those that are called to work with creation.
Be encouraged, if your communication is messed up in one or more ways, then the ultimate reality is that Father wants to help you fix the problem areas.
There is no mess that cannot be repaired or renewed.
The kicker is we have to be willing to quiet ourselves and listen for His voice.
He is always speaking something or communicating to us.
The real question is…
Are we listening and did we treat as important what He said, such that we write it down and consider what He has said.
Another passage to illustrate this concept.
Judges 4
Deborah did not tell Barak anything he did not know at the start of their interaction in Judges 4.
Rather what she said, in our vernacular, might be rendered as:
“Bruh, the L-rd already said this to you. So what are you waiting for?”
Barak’s response: “Woman, I am waiting for a woman to validate me.”
The L-rd already spoke to Barak, and Barak was sitting on his arse waiting for the chick to validate him.
A man who is a son and to whom the L-rd is already speaking, don’t need anyone to validate him. He is responsible to go.
Seriously, and we do this same thing.
Personally, I delayed in coming to town myself. So I am culpable for my delaying.
Likewise, is there something of which the L-rd has already spoken to you and about which you are delaying because you are waiting for a dude or a chick or your covering or some grand poo-bah to validate you?
Stop waiting for a ring to kiss.
And stop going around in circles with the same stupid crap you have been talking about for the last several years.
And stop with that years-old offense that you are using to justify your inaction.
Not all of those statements were for every one of my readers. Those each of those statements do have a targeted audience and then me of them may speak to you. Or none of them may speak to you.
Your job is to engage in Russian epic of Cinderella: “If shoe fits, wear it”.
I am here to be G-d’s mouthpiece to you and say, go and do what you have been assigned to do and stop waiting for someone to tell you you are allowed to do that thing.
Count the resources and capital which Father has given you and use those wisely to begin the process and be ready to partner with the additional resources He will bring.
There is a time for waiting (Isaiah 40:31).
However, there is a time to cease waiting and to start doing.
And our job is for each of us to hear which season it is for us, and to act accordingly.
Blessing
Beloved,
I invite your spirit forward to treat with me in this window of reconciliation, for reconciling with community, and for being at peace with all men, if possible.
And, spirit, I bless you to hear what the Spirit is saying to the seven churches. I bless you to know and recall the voice of the King. And I bless you to obey the voice of the King WHEN the right timing happens.
I bless you to instruct soul and body to ignore the voices of those who are either naysayers or who command you to wait when their voices are out of step with the voice of the King.
Spirit, I bless you with the boldness to move forward in your purpose, even if it makes waves with others.
Spirit, I bless you to move with the Lamb when he moves, and to sit when He sits, and to flow where He flows.
I bless you with kindness, but also courage and forthrightness to hear those voices that accord with the King’s voice, and ignore those that are out of accord with that Voice.
Be at peace, spirit, and keep pounding, or begin pounding if you are supposed to be pounding at an assignment.
You are loved, and I bless you with a pastoral blessing.
Find His Voice and do what He tells you, in the time and season He tells you to do it.
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.
A letter from Henri Nouwen to Fred Rogers ie Mr. Rogers
Dear Fred,
I have just returned from Europe where I received permission from my Bishop to stay at L’Arche. I am now back here hoping to settle more definitely and find a new rhythm of life that is a little more livable than what I have had in the past. I read the article you sent me and can very well understand how much that must have hurt you. It must be really painful to be confronted with a total misunderstanding of your mission and your spiritual intentions.
It is these little persecutions within the church that hurt the most. I simply hope that you are not too surprised by them. They come and will keep coming precisely when you do something significant for the Kingdom. It has always struck me that the real pain comes often from the people from whom we expected real support. It was Jesus’ experience and the experience of all the great visionaries in the Church, and it continues to be the experience of many who are committed to Jesus.
I don’t think it makes much sense to argue with the writer of this article. He speaks from a very different plane and will not be open to your explanations. Some of the criticisms we simply have to suffer and see as invitations to enter deeper into the heart of Jesus. I won’t send you some of the reviews I get of my books, but some are not very different from the tone of this piece. So I certainly feel a unique solidarity with you.
Let us pray for each other, that we remain faithful and not become bitter and that we continue to return to the center where we can find the joy and peace that is not of this world. Thanks so much for staying in touch with me.
Much love, Henri Nouwen
H/T Scott Sauls and Mo Thomas
Gang, Scripture reads:
For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him.
But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.
We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.”
Psalm 55:12-14 ESV
Truly, there is a level-up opportunity emblematized here, against the Fifth Head of Leviathan here.
This is in part because some just want to make a sound that does not mesh with the sound the Holy Spirit or their human spirit wants to resonate. Twisting sounds emanating from those who name Christ is precisely what the Fifth Head of Leviathan is about.
We must seek for what our spirits and the spirit is saying.
And we must help by correcting sounds that are twisted and originating sounds that are untwisted.
Be at peace, spirit, as you learn to flow with the Spirit’s guidance and illumination. Run and speak alright. And keep your rudder amidships though others might seek to push you into a bad place.
Why are we deciding what someone is based on a small set of decisions that are held under a million power magnifying glass?
Where is the Mercy Season Fragrance and tenderness in all of this?
The desire to make news is so devouring that you have to litigate a gymnast’s actions and ask the question of whether or not heroism is present??
And, some ignore the socialist actions of a governing board that refuses to celebrate excellence, but rather attacks excellence?
Or worse yet, we focus of secondary issues, such as whether or not she was good for her decision, and ignore the attacks on her dignity.
This proves the entire fourth estate (a term used for legacy news media) does not have anything better to do with their time except lead us to a place of fostered discord.
And I don’t want their evaluation of her decision.
Rather, I want them and us to celebrate the honed skill of an athlete who is a cut above the rest.
Mediocre journalism has become what the masses thinks is fresh manna, and they don’t realize they are devouring maggoty, stinking bread.
FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC….the whole lot of them are peopled by predators with an agenda that is unredeemed.
And many of our current modalities in the culture are governed by modalities that deny redemption and kill nuance and refuse to make a way for robust discussion.
Picking apart a person that you should be protecting and honoring as the weaker vessel (the way Christ protected and protects us as His Bride) is the summation of what should be in our mouths.
Managing our words, or better yet, STEWARDING our words and communication when it does not matter to us will determine whether or not others hear our heart when it finally does matter. There is a wealth of sound present in the earth, and a landfill of noise given off by the fourth estate
And we will reap what we sow.
The problem here, is how are we enabling sound and clear communication to emanate from us in such a way that it gives life rather than takes it away.
Are we supposed to never speak anything that is negative or indicates our anger? G-d forbid!
But if we are frustrated, let’s really weigh our words and measure them with frugal economy so that they do not spill over into dishonor of others.
Slaves obey…..and they have zero creative will or desire or tools….and they have access only to what their master gives them…..
Sons create…..
I have a few questions for you. And I have hammered and pounded and beaten this drum forever.
Why the impotent focus on what Bezos and Gates do with their money?
Shouldn’t the focus be on unpacking your own stuff?
Is our job to handle other people’s stuff and see to it other people pay “their fair share”, when fairness is not in the Bible anywhere?
Is our job not to unpack the massive amount of treasures G-d has given us?
Or is it to wonder why someone else had any fulfilling OUR vision and OUR plan for their lives?
Your problem is not Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.
Your problem (or problems) are issues that you personally deal with….
Your problem is between your ears…
Your refusal to see what G-d has given you….
Whether or not we realize it, these issues we have been dealing with for YEARS….they already have a slew of answers to them.
I will again mention two things.
We froth at Amazon, Disney, or other company C, and we miss the issues in government, or we froth at government and miss the evil companies.
But it seems we never put the two together.
And deal with the cohesive whole.
Our excuse? We like either the red or the blue solution. One of two Republicrat solutions.
And we ignore the reality that “what you pay taxes on, you own.”
Meaning, we have paid massive amounts of money into services and companies that have done evil things, and I rarely hear believers attempting to leverage the financial investments in these companies to ask the King to steer these companies in a direction that better aligns with His will.
Further question.
Can we leverage our investment to intercede for that alignment of those companies without coaching G-d as to what his purpose and direction for these companies is?
And we rarely ask Father to shine His light whereever He damn well wants to shine it.
And we rarely down a corporate womb of agreement long enough to ask Father to steer companies or governments because we’d rather talk about the injustice as if a yutz of a businessman can or has gassed Jews.
Or we Yell about the penis-shaped ship long enough to say, “he could end world hunger with those billions.
Forgetting world hunger IS….
Because of mindsets…..
The problem of world hunger and creating the foolish solution of confiscating wealth to end it won’t end it.
You will end world hunger when you end personal hunger.
And you end personal hunger when you stop saying “the answers to my problems belong to someone else”.
And when you stop trying to force people to care for the poor or hungry.
That damn spirit of jealousy that has caused fascists to loot and pillage and burn whole cities is a real problem.
And jailing or interning or concentrating or exterminating a race because you think another race is superior.
Calling for reparations when you fail to heal your own wounds is precisely what gets us to ripping all kinds of things apart.
Failing to understand your Southern brethren because you think you can talk down to him or her and they are backwards…
And using the fire of the world to confront what is ultimately a spiritual problem is how you ensure fractured relationships will continue.
The problem is not billionaires or millionaires.
The problem is misfocussed attention on the gifts and resources of others and a failure to unpack, steward, or use your own.
I just recently pulled out a major cork to some large-scale problem I have been dealing with for 3.5 decades.
And you know what?
I am going to keep on pursuing solutions to problems that have not yet been answered.
Gang, this peanuts of the Billionaires is going to get us nowhere.
The problem is the spirit that wants to keep us blind to our own resources (spirit of Jealousy)
The problem is the spirit that says we have no resources (the spirit of slavery)
The problem is the spirit that says other people are responsible for fixing our own problems (the welfare spirit)
You are not a slave, unless you stop creating and start pointing the finger and expecting that your solution is what Jeff or Bill have.
And world Hunter proceeds from a mindset that I cannot do anything to change my station.
And when Scripture shouts:
HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN US EVERYTHING THAT IS NECESSARY FOR LIFE
And yet we continue to act as if some people were given the goods and others simply were not….
We can quit making excuses that the solution is someone else’s responsibility….
That is a damn carnal Teacher with selective responsibility or a half-blind, non-principle-weaving and severely-wounded Prophet speaking.
And I simply will not make excuses for the juxtaposition of anyone’s radically-gifted-for-life life and “my problems are solved with their crap”.
This is not how any of this works.
And you won’t work if you think your problems are supposed to be owned by someone else.
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.
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.
Gang, when you hear about the end times and the end days, what do you typically hear from when speaking with the standard prettiness rapturist as it pertains to nations, governments, and land?
“This nation, all nations, and this earth are going to one day burn up and be consumed by fires, so there is really no point in doing anything except trying to win as many people as possible to Jesus.”
And yet, one of the premiere scriptures that is used for revival is 2 Chronicles 7:14.
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their people.
“Wait a minute!”, you say. “That’s not the verse!”
It ends with the phrase “heal their land”
And we missed the punch line, so much that Rebecca St. James has codified everything BUT THAT PUNCHLINE into a really catchy cut.
Jesus I am broken now Before you I fall I lay me down All I want is you, my all
I cry out from the ashes Burned with sin and shame I ask you Lord to make me whole again
For you say if I will come and will Pray for you There’s forgiveness when I Turn from me and pray For you say if I will come and will Pray to you You hear me and heal me when I pray
Your ways are not my own But I long for them to be So this what I pray One with you you’ll make me
Melt me away ’til only you remain
For you say if I will come and will Pray for you There’s forgiveness when I Turn to you and pray For you say if I will come and will Pray to you You hear me and heal me when I pray
Did you see it?
Read the verse again.
If they will Humble themselves And pray And seek me face And turn from their wicked ways Then I will hear from heaven Forgive their sin And heal their land.
Now the sin being forgiven is one thing. Even being healed is another. Us redeemed? No problem.
But land that will one day burn up?
That land being healed?
That’s a bit outside of our zone, comfort, and theology.
How many sermons have you ever heard preached about revival in this age before the age to come that involve the land responding to revival?
Not many stories of how the land reacts are our there.
Of those those that do get told, the land often doesn’t fare well from our consumer-oriented, human souls-first-or-only revivals that focus on building buildings by taking on further debt.
