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Art, Bible, encouragement, prophecy, spirituality

DEATHBLOW

The deepest cavern of darkness smothered her daily, distressing her spirit day and night. The gloom hung like blackened clouds, a miserable reminder of how He lightly esteemed Zebulun and how she wished that even Naphtali were a haven of rest!

The oppression afterward, well…all the more heavily along the sea. Entrapped even here beyond the Jordan! Tears would be welcome as a relief from the doom that is Galilee. The Shadow of Death is king here, ruling with pain, torture, and despair for dessert! For her, what is the hope of God? What can even He do in this hour? How did He leave the land nearest His heart of Creation?

Alas she walks the way of the sea, her head downcast amongst the perpetuality of blackness. Suddenly, a flash of great light! She, with all the people are drawn as a moth to a flame. Powerful Light that destroys this Shadow of Death! The shadows run in fear away from this coming Light! A rescuer is here, our joy is multiplied.

The harvest is overwhelming, we divide the spoil with abundant gratitude and joy. Our dark burdens now gone because of the power of the Light. The rod of the oppressor lay broken on the ground. We can only bring the bloodied clothes and sandals from the warriors to burn and fuel a great fire. We are in awe of all we see and feel in our spirits! But, what does all this mean?

A Strong One speaks: “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

She asks, “What of the increase of His government and peace?” A Strong One: “There will be NO end! Of the throne of David and His Kingdom ordered, established with judgment and justice from now and forever. The Lord of Hosts in His zeal will do it!”

H.S. Narrative version of Is 9:1-7

Bible, burden bearing, empath, encouragement, prophetic words, spirituality, Uncategorized

DIRECTIONAL-

BEARINGS TOWED

“You must operate from the redeemed depths of your heart and not rely on your senses and what comes to them first” is what I hear Him saying today. For these weeks He has been working on my heart, my gifting’s sensitivities, and the process thereof. I sense He is teaching me what to trust in, and surprise…it’s not my feelings! It has been absolute rollercoaster bedlam! A flood of different, often disparaging, ugly, emotions flowing each and every way. This round He has definitely been working on my emotional rebuild. The other rounds were emotional, but not the focal point. I had read from one writer about burden bearing it can be equally high as it is low, and the enemy can be pushing from two sides at the same time!

I am a sucker for quoting a song when it does better than I am trying to communicate. I have a true guy room where I pray each morning. All the objects around it represent my life well. One wall is filled with pictures of Israel with verses on them, two other walls are vinyl records and cd album cover papers and also old school Christian metal ads. The fourth wall is lined with shelves full of CDs and cassettes. I have several small tables stashed with items along the journey from vacations, travels, and sentimental stuff. Not to be forgotten…Notre Dame stuff! Faith, music, and sports have always been big parts of living for me. Others may travel and do the social game, but I am content hanging at the pad these days spending time with the Lord, and then sports and Spotify as hobbies. He has really thinned my over loaded lifestyle the past few years, of which I am very grateful. Why should we kill ourselves for enjoyment? I just wanted to paint the picture before I quoted the song, I thought it a good rabbit to follow a bit.

It was Memorial Day yesterday, and I was needing to clean up this room after an entire winter of remodeling the basement around it. The dust created in the remodel was obnoxious! We did lots of custom wood cuts for the ceiling and TV center, and there was dust heavy on everything! My little room is so packed full of trinkets, it was a chore. I found the job therapeutic to being alone a good portion of the day. I see great value in being alone for bits when you are a burden bearer. I am enjoying pulling out classics from the cassette collection yesterday. I am amazed how He does this, but He will minister in a song that I have known the lyrics to for 30 years. Well…1991…pushing 25 anyhow. Hear me, I don’t resemble the Dana Carvey cranky old man character from Saturday Night Live…”in my day we…and we liked it by golly!” This is the era of music when Nirvana was tearing it up on the scene. I never was a fan of the grunge stuff, but I did like Alternative rock heavily in those days. One such act was L.S.U. (Life Savers Underground)-essentially Michael Knott. I was living a roller coaster day and the Lord spoke to me through his song titled ‘Chucky’…”and he says “tell me why, tell me why God gave me such an endless drive to fill my cup but my cup stays dry oh tell me tell me”. I might substitute one word in those lyrics to better describe my point…instead of endless drive I might go with endless job.

I would describe having an endless job as my entire life at one point. My painting profession felt like a laborious endless job with no relief. My first house was an endless job of projects (built in 1865). My tendency is to see the burden bearing gift as an endless job! I know that is patently untrue, but it isn’t a gift people are even praying for…come on man! What He did with music this day was actually speak through another song on the way to the song I wanted to hear. The title track is what was sticking in my head before I ever fired up the cassette player. ‘This is the Healing’-

You’ve tried to philosophize your pain

But the hurts in your heart

And not in your brain

You could be hit by the Spirit

And be made new

You thought heaven was a place one goes to

But this heaven on earth is true

Chorus: This is the healing

Give me tears from all your bitter years

This is the healing

Salt the wounds, the healing will come soon

The Word document count was exactly at 777, how cool is that? Something He has impressed upon me these couple of weeks is to not focus just on what I sense and feel alone, or it can drive me crazy. There must always be a raising of us above the fray, us asking to see what He sees each step of the way. I am seeing just how much a dependent I truly am. I further see that I held back parts of me from Him in how I approached people and things in general. I see that we do try and give what we have, but if our hearts are incomplete in healing, we are offering up a partial gift to people and Him. I would say obey when He says to give the partial, I know He did with me. I honor obedience above most anything else. He shows us in this process that He is always after a better heart! You and I will spend our lives in that pursuit brothers and sisters! I never realized how deep and complicated the heart truly is.

I was all over yesterday emotionally from bearing/ too heavy/ to suddenly free…to angry and to puzzled. Even after a long day of riding, He suddenly dropped on my spirit and I felt a wonderful weight of His burden of light on me. I stopped dead in that spot and just soaked in it. He assured me everything is for the journey and for better understanding. If we don’t understand what is Him and what is us, how do we know what is pleasing to Him? The end of the day was wonderful in worship and wonder. It made all the other totally worth it. He is showing me it isn’t all necessary! I only have Him to depend on. When I overly focus on people, pleasing my family, my work, even my enjoyment…it all competes with His Presence, which is what we are wanting in our walk. The intimacy is what is missing from so many believers lives…period! If you’ve ever tried to hem in an animal that doesn’t want to be, you will understand the feeling I am describing here. We are often like a wild animal not wanting to be corralled, we run and strive after the wind thinking ‘we need, we need’… He knows how to constantly work at limiting our movement, but He wants us to listen to His voice in obedience. If you have ever worked with hogs you know what I mean! A hog is hard to stop when it has its’ mind made up and putting its’ weight behind it.

I am learning that the extreme emotional days do have a b.b. (burden bearing) purpose. One often finds this out at the end of a period. I have had this several times where I find out the pressure is coming from someone inside my inner circle. Living with the unknowns are fine for me, I like to leave some room for His mysteries and I think that is one thing that hinders some believer’s growth. We all have a fenced in area we have created for God, but the question always is…how far back are your fences you built? If we allow Him to be all He is, they are wide and rarely in sight. The b.b. has been coming during the day a lot, and when you are at work and going thru your day, it isn’t always easy for me to tune in to what needs burdened. I did have a friend tell me though….”it’s called multi-tasking brother”. Another friend uses a more harsh approach that his wife throws at him if he is being a whiner…”suck it up buttercup!”

This paragraph comes nearly two months later than the prior. It appears I have been busy in the learning process and a butt load of remodeling. I was remodeling in three places there for a while…too much to keep up with! I had two residents moving in the same week and plus my home project (which is still not done!). I am realizing the importance of gratitude in the journey. It must be a regular part of your walk and journey. We are blessed to be able to put every issue of our life before the Cross and work it out with Him, but how many of us are constantly gathering up new issues and bringing them in also? He has wired us to walk in balance, but it seems like so often God has been reduced to ‘the Complaint Department Chairman’.

I am seeing that true burden bearing is rarely our own weight. We are certainly required to bear our own as it says in Galatians, which is something some people try and place on others. They are therefore unhappy. I testify that the most alive I have felt in the last year is when He gave me assignments while focusing on others with a heart to help them. It not only fulfills my purpose (which will always involve taking my eyes off of me and my problems), but helps others who, believe it or not may have real problems! He is faithful to teach us balance and what is our duty and what is our own stuff (and not). The enemy will keep you busy and you have to be on alert for his tactics. We must keep in our spirit that the enemy has a job to do and none of that is God’s fault. He has to allow in our free will some things for us to deal with, but He is not the cause of anything that is not good. I think too many believers do not see the enemy as he is…a roaring lion. I know I often get through a circumstance and think “man, the enemy was all in this mess!” I see the balance of life is to not get stuck in the past, but to always be learning from it. God has no limitations and we are to be seeking to live that way, fighting through what the enemy tries to place on us (lies). The Lord is glorified when everything points back to Him.

Something that He led me to spend some serious time in yesterday was in giving thanks. There is weight that comes off your spirit when you spend time in gratitude to Him. I keep a simple file that I add to regularly (should do more!) and that not only helps me practice gratitude, it also allows me to save it for the years ahead and look at all He has done. I started the first one four years ago, and sometime if I am feeling down a little or need to see evidence of His hand at work, I can look back at the file. We are prone to embroiling our spirit man from one battle to the next. We are embroiled, but the goal is to rest in Him as He does war. All He actually asks for is obedience and the focus on Him. That is easy, right? If it was everybody would be doing it!!! Adam and Eve were distracted and little has changed in that department in these Millenniums since. It appears to me our hearts are continually restless and compartmentalized. What we think we want doesn’t come the way we thought it would. We respond to the feelings of not being in control. We test even His best gifts in our corrupted nature.

The goal in this point of my personal journey is to remain in His balance. The heavy stuff can last too long, and the good experiences feel fleetingly quick! In this process I feel zapped of energy often, but I know He is trying to show me how to renew. I know what I am, a feeler with an analytical mind (haha, the best of both freakin’ worlds!). That alone can keep you bound tight around a circle that seems never ending.

It is presently nearing Christmas of 2019, almost 3 years later! I am amazed at the speed of life sometimes. BB stuff is always apparent in people around me. I was at church last Friday night and heard a pastor telling about how he let people get to him at times. I see with my spiritual eyes, there are different types of people in the Body. The sensitive ones are mostly overlooked as just sensitive. While pastors have a Shepherd’s heart, they would rarely have a burden bearer’s heart. It is related but more involved. It is two days later and I perceive that it took extra time for me to even burden what was around me that night. I have a daily burden bearing I do, but at times He will grace me some more, knowing I can work it for the Glory of God! In my mind it may seem negative and foreboding, but I often learn I was not focused as to what He was doing.

The spiritual ‘work’ of burden bearing can drain you physically. It is just like any intercessor will tell you: there are times of great working in the Spirit that do take energy. It is one of the wonderful mysteries of the spirit realm. Most of the known healers you have heard or read about paid a physical price for the spiritual results! Not to mention many hours of prayer and guidance. Until the New Earth and Heavens, this war will be! Discerning when it is His Grace sharing a burden and when it is a deception from the enemy are the pivots to pray through.

Where the Word says, “My people suffer for a lack of knowledge…” is an understatement! There are so many needless spiritual distractions. God never intended for there to be so many different churches and belief systems. The enemy has been successful because each different church building requires money, resources, energy, people, etc.! All of that does not add to the Kingdom, it dilutes it. Unity is a tall order at this point, but it must go far as it can. That is a separate teaching unto itself! I see each of us carrying way too much baggage that is designed to dump ONLY in one place: the Cross. Before the Cross, there wasn’t a place, but a system of management.

When I carry a burden of another, the cares of this life, or even an unknown burden, the Cross is powerless to help us. In the very same way, the Blood of Jesus is power against the enemy! I have been in church after church without power. A nugget of Truth I heard in a sermon lately rings true also: ‘we must not try and see it with our natural man, but our spiritual man to perceive it.’ Consider all the things that can burden a human being down: health, spiritual war, concern for others, unmet needs, and so many more! Jesus wasn’t spouting a clever statement when He said in Matthew 11:30: “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” It begs the question: Where is the dysfunction in the Body then? If He says it in red, why is it seemingly not easy and light in my life? I do not believe that any time period of life was easy and without challenges. I do believe we are intended to walk in ease and lightly burdened and not in heaviness! ‘He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother’ LOL!

Trust me when I say these questions are coming to me first for good old me! I always know His Word is absolutely true. Most believers who struggle with the Word being true do not use it well either. You can’t barely read a book that contains every answer to life and say it doesn’t have life. God has never changed and could not be wrong. Only our thinking about Him could be off. How many more atheists, unbelieving lawyers, etc have to set out to disprove the Bible and get saved do you need to hear about anyway? Holy cow Harey Carey! The more unbelief you blab all over to other people, the less you will be encouraged. Someone needed to read that!

Bible, encouragement, prophetic words, spirituality, Uncategorized

Body Imaging

Much can be heard in different circles of believers about the function of or the working of the Body of Christ/Bride of Christ. The newly formed clans of New Testament believers were never thought of in hierarchal form, but in a self-sustaining group of nourished believers. It never was set up around one man and growing the group larger, but to feed each believer within. The original intention was for each part of the body to feed the body. Understand this is not a set up or platform for debate, but to share what the Lord places on my heart about it. My calling is to the Body and how He speaks a word to other believers and their leaders.

Are we not highly limited striving to convince others to join our bend or theological leanings? How is each of us DESIGNED to feed the Body? Should we not be bringing petitions before the Holy Spirit to find out what He wants? What could be a better form of destiny than having the Spirit lead you/inspire you to find what He wants today? I truly see the Body best served when believers are overflowing with him BEFORE the meeting even starts! We are designed for spillover! Doesn’t mean it’s always achieved, but for far too many believers, it isn’t even on their mind. They often go to church ‘to get filled up’, when in reality it should be a time of abundant spillover.

In looking how Jesus lived, He never looked to become filled…He just needed recovery time to receive more. We have often heard at Christmastime; it is better to give than to receive. Within the Body, our thinking needs to shift from getting filled up to giving. We do need times of refreshing, renewal, and deep worship. Rest, time in the Word, and these other elements are not overlooked here. There are times when we need a word, some good worship, and some time to receive. We each fill a role in the Body; designed to give to the Body, and for the Body.

Notice, further in the life of Jesus that He did not give openly all the time. His Father told him when to do what. In some respects, I like the phrase ‘you can’t out give God’, but you can struggle to pay for things He never ordered! There is a snippet that He gave me recently, it is… The Body is designed to bring food, not sneak it! It is essential we seek Him to find out what He wants to invest in. We are not only designed to be followers, but seekers. Before Jesus was in the manger, three wise men sought Him! Cloud by day, fire by night, and the star are all physical manifestations of seeking Holy Spirit. While our design is bringing food, He did not have building a grocery store in mind!

Every part of the Body is unique unto itself. Each part has its own duties, and cannot perform the duties of another. Only support the other parts and encourage the journey. We all know the story of David and Goliath. David comes in from sheep herding and starts talking to King Saul. Saul says to him ‘hey boy, this guy is 10 feet tall and you ain’t. You’re gonna need some of my armor.’ Some Jeff translation for your enjoyment. Notice: God did not have David wear someone else’s armor to fight the battle. The Body of Christ is very similar. 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 says “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?”

If we get too enamored with others gifting’s, we cheapen the ones He gave us. Undoubtedly some part of our journey will be discovering who we are in the Body. Any time the focus is on people and ministries, it takes away from Him. It should always be as the Holy Spirit will affirm what anyone speaks into our life. It should never have any flavor from their food! While good teaching helps, good learning is better. Everything real comes from the Spirit! All the food that we bring to the Body should be out of overflow from the Holy Spirit. If you try to take on too many of the above (seven) gifting’s, the enemy will oblige in keeping you busy. I’m going to have to amen that one myself! In summary, we are designed to fulfill our role in the Body and support others in their role of the Body.

Bible, encouragement, poetry, prophetic words, spirituality, Uncategorized

Cloud and Fire Anew

(adapted from writing: A New Cloud and fire)

Bloody heart fragments litter about

Scenes many desiring life without

Creator hands delicate work

A child formed from the dirt

2020, the world on fire!

But His are submitted to this surgery

Skill and wisdom bind heart parts

Walls of hindrance removed

Amidst a large-scale worldwide war

I am His submitted workbook

His laws implanted bypass the head

Psalm 110:1 instead!

Those changed now form a firm stand

Those on man’s wisdom empty hand

Bible, empath, encouragement, poetry, prophecy, prophetic words, spirituality

Horse Tank’d

Ch. 3 of ‘Connected’

The bright, silvery surface now worn from many uses of the contents. A grey hue, now the best description of overall color. Worn metal appears nearly browned in spots of heavy use. The essence of life within this container. The only existence outside this tank is a hope of life, not the evidence of it! Until you drink from this well, you remain thirsty. You pursue and fall short. Your head will not raise to drink from this well you see. At the edge, unable to partake!

Efforts growing weary now, you sink to the ground, now looking up at this well. Lying on the ground, life begins to fade just inches from the well. Every effort and resource expended to drink from this well. Future sight shows a horror view. Where life ran and kicked, now just a pile of bones. Sun bleached as time did not wait. Every effort marked failure. All signs of life vanquished, a carcass picked clean by Turkey Buzzards.

Muck and manure cover a majority of the barnyard. The sights and smells that any country boy or girl knows! The effort a cow makes to trudge through the barnyard is substantial, this thick mixture hard to tread. Many cattle farmers will have a concrete pad for the water tank, providing the cattle with terra firma. The scenery contains most of the same elements: fencing, usually a barn (old or newer), plenty of manure, and certainly plenty of aromas! In the above description, the Spirit helped me paint a picture for you, though I saw it often growing up on a cattle farm.

When I heard the words above in italics (this well), I thought of the Truth and the water of life (as referenced four times in Revelations). I find it fascinating that this choice of words (water of life) is only referenced in a futuristic book like this! This analogy paints a picture of being close to the Truth, but not taking it in. Literally dying next to the source of life! Some believers do remind me of folks from Jesus’s home town, they knew Him only as the son of a carpenter, never accepting what He said of Himself.

One of the blocks that remain to this day is taking Truth directly from the source of life. In the imagery, the tank represents Kingdom life only accessed through the Spirit! Kingdom does not honor striving, manipulation, hustling/hard work, or position. Kingdom only brings glory to the Father! It cannot share glory with churches, pastors, or any organization/and or person! Kingdom shows favor to those who bring Him glory.

Truth as referenced in Scripture has some definitive order to it. John 1:17 (KJV) “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” John 1:14 almost seems like a follow up: “And the Word was made flesh…full of grace and truth.” He brought Truth to fulfill John 4:24 “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Jesus further passes on the Truth in John 15:26 “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.” Jesus says in 16:7 that “…if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you…” His final piece for Truth came in John 16:13 “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth…” This is a great stack of Truth right here!

Was Jesus popular for speaking Truth? Obviously not. John 8:40, yep trying to kill Him! Who did he tongue lash the hardest? He let the Pharisees know they were not good at watching for a coming Messiah! These are the people who never missed Temple. Any time the gate was open they came (sound familiar?). Jesus let them have it so hard that they set out to kill him early on! In relation to this visual, He said in John 4:13/14: “…whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Jesus was saying, ‘I have the water lady’! This to the enemy of the Jews. A Pharisee would never even talk to her. She was on dude #6 plus! This water He gave so changed her, she excitedly left the water jug to tell others. This shows us that Jesus wants every human to experience the Father’s love. To dip in the well of life. He changed several women that were enslaved by sin by showing them how to draw this water. Leprosy and legions were conquered in experiences too!

There are many outside the tank, some even at the edge of it, not drinking from it. Having a desire to drink from it, but seeking the same thing outside the tank. Growing increasingly thirsty in the pursuit of a source. Every human being has a place only satisfied by Truth. The darker a person grows, the farther from the well they have strayed. These voids will only be satisfied through Him directly. It cannot come through human institutions, knowledge, books, or any other means.