“HE is able to divide between Joints and Marrow, soul and spirit…”
“HE is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart”
Hebrews 4:12, more accurately translated.
Real talk, gang.
Hebrews 4 is about Jesus. The whole thing is about Jesus.
And given it is about Jesus, let this reality sink in, Verse 12 is not talking about the Bible, unless the writer of Hebrews switches the implication of the objective case in Verse 12.
Proof of this? Verse 13
“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Not “no creature will be hidden from IT’S sight.”
HIS sight. He divides.
Those who incessantly say the Bible is the Word of G-d while refusing to say Jesus is the Word of G-d and refusing to give Jesus HIS due in that office as the Word need to seriously consider the strength and work of the PERSON who was the Word of G-d BEFORE giving credence to the Bible as the Word of G-d. For the Bible is only the Word because Jesus is the Word. And the Bible’s Wordness derives from Jesus’ Wordness.
He is not the testimony if it.
Rather, it is the testimony of Him.
It’s fine to know the text of the Bible.
But what makes one a follower of Jesus is the one who Knows Jesus, the Word of G-d Himself.
Know the difference. And learn to relate to the Man as well as you know the book.
For the record, I am about to ruin some bad theology.
Along with the fivefold ministry, or more accurately, the way the fivefold ministry is usually portrayed very badly, I tend to be skeptical of political prophecies and an overquick reading of the Scripture, unless there is a bit of fresh manna being discussed, as with a single point of a new truth.
So, with that out of the way, let’s consider the following.
Paul enters a discussion of the flesh vs. the spirit in Galatians 5, starting with verse 16.
There is an interesting aspect that I want to cover.
Giver we have a spirit and a body made of flesh, what if what Paul is discussing in the fruit of the spirit is not the fruit of the Holy Spirit but the fruit that comes by the work of the reasonably healthy human spirit in partnership with the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
So, Paul talks about walking by the spirit in vv. 16 and 17 and he doesn’t capitalize “spirit”. Ignore the ESV capitalization for the moment.
And Arthur talked about the desirable outcome of us becoming factories and he illustrated factories in Joy Unstoppable, Disc 5, Third Head: Life, Cut 3 “Becoming a Factory” by using the example of a fruit tree.
What if the fruits are factories of creativity from orchard supplies of those qualities listed in Galatians 5:22-23, and the more we cultivate those, the more of a factory we will become?
Only in a functional human spirit can those fruit continue to grow in a sustainable way.
But they are meant to be storehouses of resources so we can bring forth the new things connected to the work of partnership between our human spirits and Holy Spirit, for the our working of Competence (Belongingness, Worth, and Competence are the qualities the Trinity ministers to our souls).
“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.
The above image shows a parallel between these three items. Not to rule over, but to LEAD well into the things of Christ. And now, look at for each of you, what that looks like, and increase the understanding of what that love looks like.
Husbands, what does it look like to lead wives with love without demanding submission, but rather with a tenderness and affection that nonverbally commands their respect? There is a massive difference between demanding respect and commanding respect. One difference is in your earned authority. Think deeply about what it looks like to earn authority and walk in your office of husband properly.
I understand that abuse of spouses has led to lack of basic trust. I was the victim of spousal abuse.
Before we launch into a diatribe of how one side or the other of this equation is missing the boat, let’s handle our own issues, woundedness, trauma, parts, and sin, rebellion, iniquity, and abomination. We have to grow into all things in Him, which means, we speak to the fullness of these dynamics.
So, our responsibility is to flesh out the hard questions.
Indeed, we will have to eventually look at the concept of submission. Wives, once trust has been actually restored, beyond mutual respect, what does that ugly S-word a look like in the context of a husband’s affection? Affirming the design of your husband or wife (the building and warrior dynamics of your spouse) and affirming the where of their design for leadership, what does that complex thing look like?
Fathers, what kind of method includes instruction and training that does not exasperate or provoke to wrath or exasperation?
Masters, what does it look like to lead those who serve you without threats?
Believers, what does it look like to supply/making supplication for your household of fellows in Christ?
Ponder this with me, builders and warriors.
Not, “what has John MacArthur or Beth Moore or Arthur Burk said?”, but what are the Lord and your spirit saying about these items?
Today, I was connecting with my sons on Romans 1, in my intent to take them through as much as I can of Paul’s letter before the summer is done. I was reading to them the prologue, bit by bit, and making commentary, when the common salutation hit me.
Grace and peace…
I must have read these words at least a hundred times, and recalled a sermon that was stuck in my spirit from elementary school or middle school, when I was there age. Richard Nussel spoke of χαπις and שׁלום. The introductions and greetings to both Jews and Gentiles.
Indeed,
“here is a marvelous example of Paul’s Christianizing whatever he put his hand to. The traditional greeting in the Hellenistic world was chairein–the infinitive of the verb ‘torejoice,’ but in salutations meaning simply “Greetings!” (see Acts 15:23, Jas. 1:1). In Paul’s hands this has now become charis (“grace”), to which is added the traditional Jewish greeting shalom (“peace”).
Gordon Fee, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The First Episitle to the Corinthians: Revised Edition, Eerdmans, 2014, p.31.
Paul’s idea to cover both groups in his writing, given the middle wall of partition was broken down (Ephesians 2:14), and Father has made one out of the two. And now, we will discuss the liberty that happens when we see the two synchronizing together.
PART ONE: GRACE, THE FUEL FOR MISHPAT
Mishpat is the Hebrew word for justice. I don’t have time to build it out, but if you want further details, see Arthur Burk’s Audio Teaching called A Celebration of G-d.
To sum up that well-executed teaching, mishpat is G-d’s ability to execute.
We have been conditioned to think of grace in many places as “unmerited favor”. And while that is a true idea, it is undeveloped. That is one facet of grace.
<cue sarcasm>No joke, I can only handle hearing one truth expressed a single way a few hundred thousand times before it ceases to be as meangingful.
Church, pget beyond the definitions and the frames of the last 50 years, and step into something new. </sarcasm>
Back on track, David. Tell them the rest of what you heard.
Another facet of grace is found in its Greek word, which is also the root of charismata, which is the word translated “gift”.
A gift is something that you receive from the external world. And it is given, not earned, ever.
But in order to receive that gift, we have to unpack it fully, and only once we unpack that gift does it change our external world.
Grace is therefore the enablement for us to execute. It impacts our outside world. Grace affects how we interact with other humans, ecology, creation, the animals, the plants, the sun, the moon, the stars, the humidity (how many of you have cursed the humidity that causes the citrus groves and lush Floridian ecosystem to be and flourish rather than blessing it to be precisely what Father wants it to be. When we fully receive grace for the gift it is, we can impact, with our authority, more effectively, the world that surrounds us. The mishpat of G-d finds its fullness.
Grace, when we recognize it, and accept its unique flavor for the action of the day, provides the foundation for us to partner with G-d in order to create a sustainable system.
We create with G-d because we are in His image. We partner with Him in order to create with Him. That is, we are designed to be co-creators with G-d. In the image of G-d, we were made to be the thing that most resembles Him on this planet and in this universe, and, as a result, we were made to connect with Him in a way that no other created thing ever was.
And THAT whole recognition and the acceptance of THAT celestial reality of grace…
AND THE ALLOCATION of the reality of grace…
and THAT capacity to shift the terrestrial reality based on our King’s known will (on earth just as it is being DONE in heaven)…
…is the gift of G-d that is not by works so that no man can boast.
When we allow grace to flow, we recognize what needs to be shifted thorugh the use of the principles of Scripture and the principles of life, and those things that need to shift will shift.
Grace is the supernatural enablement given by the Holy Trinity that causes us to execute what He wants executed, and to build what He wants us to build. The Kingdom of G-d is a masculine expression, and it is built by sons.
PART TWO: PEACE, THE GROUNDS FOR EXPERIENCING TSEDEQAH
If grace is the external quality that brings the execution of the Kingdom to the earth, then peace is the internal result of the use of grace in the external. Peace, which in the Hebrew refers best to “wholeness” is when we are made whole as a result of recognizing the grace of G-d in our reality and walking in accordance with that grace. Sometimes the grace of G-d is on you to move to Texas for the next five years because Father has a work that needs to be executed. Sometimes the grace of G-d is on you to be a stay-at-home-parent, not because that is what your kids need, but because that is what Father asked you to do it. Sometimes the grace of G-d is for you to send your kids to public school because G-d has some things to teach them that homeschooling or private schooling cannot teach them. And G-d. Never. Wastes. An. Opportunity. Even one that might seem negative or distressing to you, parent who wants to control everything.
Sometimes, where G-d wants you is to allow Him to work. You find the flow of grace, G-d will overabundantly hammer you to the ground with a massive boatload of peace. If you resist the grace, then the peace will flee from you, though.
And when we walk in the mishpat of G-d on the external, we will experience the righteousness of G-d on the inside of us (tsedeqah).
G-d is just looking for people who have hearts to find His flow of grace so that His peace can overshadow them, come hell or high water.
“But now thus says the L-RD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my eyes,
and honored, and I love you,
I give men in return for you,
peoples in exchange for your life.
Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,”
(Isaiah 43:1–6 ESV)
He will be with us and partner with us, but we must find that grace in order to experience the partnership with Him and in order to be protected by Him. If we refuse the grace (if G-d has given us grace to do A, when we are seeking to confess the grace to do B, we might find ourselves frustrating the grace of G-d).
But if we will take the grace that G-d gives us, then with that grace, will come the wholeness on the inside.
And when the inside world, and the outside world match in us, when there is grace and peace, then the Principle of Liberty (the Sixth of the Seven Principles) will manifest, and instead of walking as servants or mere slaves, we will be walking as sons.
Hunt for the grace gang, and you will find the peace.
