Tag: Stewardship

Leviathan Post Series Prequal 4: The Principle of Stewardship

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Fifth Principle, Leviathan, Seven Principles, Stewardship

The Tools In Our Hands

“What is that in your hand?”

G-d to Moses on Mt. Horeb. Exodus 4:2, ESV

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.

Twisting Tithes and Offerings / The Reality of Poverty, and the Spirit of Poverty: Dynamics of the Kingdom That are NOT the Power of G-d. PLUS a Blessing

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Uncategorized

“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, be afraid, 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

Beloved,

Richly blessed, tenderly-endowed, bridally-endowed, corporately-destined beloved friend,

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.

RHE and the Failure Or Refusal to Listen to Critics

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Current Events, Fifth Principle, Principles, Seven Principles, Stewardship

Dear Evangelicals,

Part of the reason your sound is so roundly cursed in some circles is because of the following.

A failure or a refusal to listen.

When we reject their accusations out-of-hand without an honest conversation about if we got our viewpoints wrong.

Granted, I have heard much of Rachel Held Evans with which I vehemently disagree. That said, it is damned near impossible to utilize the death of someone to tastefully show where you think they were off or heretical. I think we might want to rethink how we approach our theological adversaries.

Many times, we tear at other Christians, and at the worst times. We refer to them as heretics, monsters, abusers, and all other sorts of things.

We did it with Matthew Warren’s family.

And others. And Father gives us the opportunity to redeem our time and days, so that we can walk well in the “days [that] are evil.”

So, evangelical church that I have left, who often speaks as though your reputation will be marred if you are not quick to share where you disagree with a major theological figure who dies, I would exhort you to demonstrate a quickness to listen, and a slowness to speak.

You do not need to demonstrate a tasteless knee-jerk response to justify your theological position in the MIDST OF AN OBITUARY.

Indeed, when we use our authority in Christ to speak insensitively about others and parts of our tributes breathe the air of criticism so close to the death of someone for whom Christ died and with whom we so greatly disagree, it can land as though we are rejoicing over their death, or potentially taking pleasure in their death, which is not the example of our L-rd, who “takes no pleasure in the death of the ungodly.” Regardless of your evaluation of a person’s life, it comes across as opportunistic to use the occasion of a person’s death in order to get mileage for your position.

A few years back, a relative of mine died who walked with a considerable double lifestyle, and I did not use the occasion of their death to bring that iniquity to light.

In light of Evans’ untimely death, evangelical leaders should not use the funeral meats to coldly furnish the dispute tables.

The body is not even in the ground and we are rushing to protect our reputation, as if it is not clear where we stand theologically.

I had a relative who was sexually molested by a pastor, and instead of protecting the victim, they fired my relative. Their argument? They wanted to protect their reputation.

Our stewardship of words would be better placed in articulating that someone is dead, and then at a later date, say where we disagreed with them.

Never pass up an opportunity to walk in discretion towards another with whom you disagree.

When we use our sound to repeatedly trumpet our disagreements with someone and the context is not appropriate, we may not be practicing the best stewardship, and may open up the door for the further devouring of our sound.

Fifth head of Leviathan, gang.

#letthereaderunderstand