Gang, this is a bit of an unusual post, but I am asking y’all to stay with me.
We look for and celebrate the design G-d places in us, and, sometimes, that means we follow some unorthodox methods to identify that design.
Now, anger has often been characterized very negatively, and that is not without good reason.
However, I want to say something about anger. In most situations that include anger, there is a choice of what we do with the anger. Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians to “Be angry and do not sin” implies that it is possible to engage in behavior that includes anger while also not crossing lines into behavior that is sinful.
Now, I am not saying that this is the case all of the time, but I believe the blanket exhortation to avoid anger is not generally helpful.
And like Clyde Fant, I am of the opinion that “righteous indignation is a twenty letter word for anger”.
Let me say that again two different ways. The need to use the words “righteous indignation” too often proceeds, from my experience, from a religious spirit or a spirit of being afraid of the full G-d-given experience of human emotion and free will.
To respond, instead of trotting out religious language for anger and USING THAT to justify an emotion of which we are afraid, it would be better to ascertain the root of our anger so we know what to do with it. Otherwise, we could be covering up a problem that our heart, mind, spirit, soul, or reins are trying to bring up.
Often, anger is rooted in two things: our sense of that which is just, and a violation of justice. It is not just because we are being selfish, arrogant, or proud.
To be sure, too often we are guilty of accusing of pride those who do not struggle with pride.
While some of you are wrestling with the idea that some believers do not struggle with pride, I will continue.
Indeed, there are qualities Father has built into certain of us that really incite zeal for excellence and effectiveness.
And coupled with those qualities are aspects that causes us to become rankled when excellence or effectiveness are mangled.
It is not pride or arrogance; rather it is anger as the King intended it to be the tool it is for provoking us to raise standards and hunt for better ways.
For example, when believers settle for a status quo try to move into something they know the King has for them….
…are corrected by other believers who either do not understand or do not want to understand try to correct us in accordance with a lower standard, then that friction creates issues.
In order to honor how the L-rd has uniquely made us, we really must move beyond avoiding all expressions of anger, hunt for and yearn for the G-d-ordained expressions of anger, nix religious expressions that blanket judge any expression of anger or frustration, and move into allowing ourselves to be pushed for “what is excellent…”. I would even bet money that those who are easily angered by slack-jawed expressions of faith have “what is excellent” in mind and are pushing for that excellent place.
Here is the kicker, gang. We can be so adept at knowing the written word of Scripture, which is a good thing, that we do not take the time to u spool and understand our own issues and weak spots and never seek to go on the adventure of sonship to unpack our design and find out our weaknesses and areas where we need to grow, especially in the area of our design.
It will usually take a well-rounded Prophet who is capable of seeing weaknesses to come to the table and teach us how to toss our boxes in the trash and show us what we are made of in order to help us move into a more healed place.
The question is, when the enemy comes with a situation we have not seen, will we sit back and allow ourselves get destroyed because we think we knew how things were supposed to be set up, or will we go back to Father, and ask Him to teach us while we sit at his feet in a new situation.
Too many are too familiar with “the way things are supposed to be”. Sonship, after we have gotten to know the heart of the Father, is all about unpacking design and learning how to creatively build and skillfully fight.
We receive revelation, but then we also develop tools.
And too many think, all we need is a little bit of Bible and that is enough. No, friends, we need to know Him and we need to know ourselves and grow not just with integrity of heart, but also skillful hands.
So, what are you going to do here?
It’s a learning curve to get beyond the book’s text and into using the principles to think and feel outside the box and grow in skill.
This is another chunk of the value an RG Prophet brings to the table.
“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.
Principles Vs. Correct Thinking/Philosophy/Doctrine
For a biblical studies blog, it might seem unusual to y’all for me to post a video that deals with kinesiology. But, if you will look at the category of this post, you will see it listed under “Principles”.
A principle is a universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationship.
So, let’s explode your thinking that your prime job is to correct false theology and bad doctrine. Your job is to build the right thing, and fight the right enemy. True, exposing false teaching is a part of the Christian/Jewish experience. But it is only a part. And many of us have come to believe that it makes up most or all of our job description as Jesus’ followers.
The Bible teaches a principle-based faith that executes beyond mere doctrine, what we believe. We move past expounding on what we think, and we move into expounding on how we respond, act, grow, and build, in response to what we believe.
We move into the arena of cause-and-effect.
Stacy is countering a lot of bad thinking. She is verbally warring, and in her life, practically meleeing, against improperly-executed principles: widely-held, cause-and-effect relationships that are completely unrelated (message to women: eat soy and engage in low-impact cardiovascular activity in response to not losing weight during perimenopause). And she combats it with real execution of real principles that have brought real results.
And principles are what we are followers of Jesus Christ build with. Not theology. Not doctrine.
Protecting Fences Vs. Using Them and Building Other Things…
Do we erect fences at times? Yes.
But do we build everything in our lives using the materials that are designed only for fences? Absolutely not!
Theology and doctrine are a fences. They are not a comprehensive set of building materials.
And fences make a great boundary marker, but a lousy airplane.
As Christians, we need to move merely beyond protecting theology and defending theology. We need to move into using principles to build with.
If we are so interested in how false everybody else’s theology is, but we are not interested in doing anything that is of practical value, we cut out about 90% of what we were designed to do with Scripture, which is FULL of principles, and all of Reality, which is also FULL of principles, and we reduce the life Christ purchased for us into an anemic shadow of merely erecting a dead edifice that is only constructed of the propositions we agree to, and we don’t bother scaling the mountain the culture has placed before us by using the principles to build the ladder, rope bridge, or carved staircase.
And how do we use the principles (ALL of the principles) to effect and produce change.
We need to desperately understand the principles Scripture teaches, such as:
how women teach and preach, vs. how men teach and preach,
how men parent vs. how women parent,
how singles parent vs. how marrieds parent,
how we connect with one another differently based on sexual differences,
how we connect based on our varied designs from man to man and woman to women,
how we weave the principles together to build: an auto, an airplane, a ship, and a shoe,
how we each connect with various aspects of creation,
those who connect with animals or plants vs. humans,
those who connect with individuals vs. groups,
how different people lead their companies, churches, countries, families, and schools differently, based on their unpacked design (Saul’s leadership vs. David’s Leadership, vs Solomon’s Leadership),
how woundedness stunts our growth vs. how sin affects our growth vs. how demons, Leviathan, Nephilim, unclean spirits, or alien human spirits affect us (NEWS FLASH: it is not one or the other, but it frequently is facets of a couple of things. Your over simplification of a problem to only all sin, or only all demons does not help matters,
and why a man’s body responds differently than a woman’s body when exposed to identical activities.
How Change Comes
If we want to produce change, we do not accomplish it by building more fences in order to show others how we are different from or better than them.
If we want to produce change, we do that by building cities, buildings, roads, professions, vehicles, communities.
Take the analogy, listen to. this video, and consider where you have been erecting fences instead of building homes, gang.
We Preach What Jesus Is Preparing…And It Ain’t Merely Fences
To finish, consider the following. Jesus never said, “I go to erect a fence in heaven to protect my very vulnerable kingdom”, nor did he say “when you preach, make your primary focus showing others their fences are in the wrong place and showing them how your fence is superior to their fence”.
And, before you shout at me, yes, I know there is a wall in heaven, and a fence, and a gate to keep undesirables out.
But that was not the sole focus of Jesus discourse on the kingdom.
Kingdoms are all about building, building blocks, and other masculine-type work.
They are not merely or only or primarily about fences.
Rather, the focus is:
What does that wall protect?
Instead, Jesus said:
I go to prepare a PLACE for you…
That place, though protected by a boundary, is, in fact, a home not built with fences, but a whole host of raw materials.
Gang, are you only erecting fences, or are you making a difference? For the focus has been on building fences. And it has needed to always be, instead of fenses (see what I did there?).
Are you driving others and impacting them to focus on returning home, or to merely obsess over whether or not they are engaging with the fence the way they are supposed to be?
Are you building with fence pickets, or are you using EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO YOU?
Are you incorporating both the fence and the building blocks.
It is time to grow the whole property, and the whole of what he has given you.
Not just the fence, which is a fraction of what Father has given you, but also the home he has given you the raw materials to build.
What are you protecting? The protection device, or the building and city inside? And what percentage of your time should be devoted to protecting the kingdom instead of preaching its nearness and impact? I dare say….. Very little
