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.

Is

Chapter 1 of ‘Connected’

    When it comes to a relationship with God, what is it built on. When you boil it down like cooking reduction, what is left? Were it currency, could you take it to the bank? If your relationship were a house, what materials would it be made of? The quintessential goal of this layered writing is to help define what is Christian life in the Kingdom. If memory serves me, an American President famously said, “It depends on what the meaning of the word is is!”

    Is is flow, on the move, fluidly partnering with the I AM. The brightness blinding like driving into the morning sun on a snowy day, blinding light requires attention. In 1 Peter 1:16 (NASB) “because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I AM holy.””  An extreme suddenly is/I AM’ may be Paul on the road to Damascus. He surely had a sudden revelation of what is is! Acts 9 captures the sudden nature of it well. Acts 9:3 (NASB), “…and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.” Verse 5: “…I AM Jesus whom you are persecuting…” Now that is the is!

    There are many people just doing life. They haven’t experienced the I AM…what already is. The God from the Bible is not going to change; how can He? He says of Himself in Revelation 1:8(NASB), “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Your theology (and mine) aside, that is a strong statement of what is!

    The design at the beginning was simple. Jesus came as a model human, left the Holy Spirit there to guide us the same. I have long held that church should be the overflow of the prayer closet. If that is not the case, what are most people going to church for? If any stranger even just wanders in, it should be a supernatural pull of His Presence!

    Before the foundation of the world, Jesus was too. John 17:24 and Ephesians 1:4 are amazing examples. He chose us before the foundation too, so we have some of that is already in us awaiting activation. Here is a prophetic word He inspired for this writing:

“My Image

 is formed as love

My Image

 is formed from the soil I created

 My breath

is love mixed with raw elements of earthen soil

the first Adam became the is from the I AM

 The Perfect Love act of someone made in Our image

is knit together

created with immense potential

is reflecting this great light of love shining back to Us

Future Adams

 eternity ahead

expressing Us, the image of the Eternal

 this created image was good. Good, but not yet complete!”

2017 Waxing Poetic

 

It isn’t very often I free form, pretending I am writing in a journal that no one will see including myself rereading it, but a year ends and waxing poetic calls to me. I am not always quick to ponder the past year, but today I find myself looking back at ol’ ’17 as if to say ‘it’s time for you to go dang it!’

I do see that with more age comes better perspective. Most people may not respond after this years events as I would. Knowing I had to leave a group of friends and getting laid off within weeks of each other. I am surprised how much freer I am after both events. Yes, it took some healing time and willingness for true perspective, but now it is taken care of instead of an open wound. It feels now like I am grateful for it all in spite of it’s harshness, but glad it is finished too! I had to stomp my boots on the rose colored glasses I wore in regards to the old friends and be honest about my old job that it wasn’t near my heart’s desire regardless. I have long believed that God does not bring me to anything that He cannot carry me through.

In 2017 I come away with two big things about God and His nature. 1.) Sometimes I must allow Him to do hard things that are creating my good! 2.) He is truly always good regardless of my perspective at the time. So I realize that losing something that I thought was great for me is Him doing good. I don’t know about you, but I would rather hurt temporarily to avoid a continual cycle of dysfunction!!! I look forward to another year of learning about the relationship between God and myself.

 

R.W.B. Pearls 12-16-17

We have all been encouraged through the faith (church, sermons, etc) to be givers. Sacrificially, completed, as He leads we should give what He asks. But is there anything more disappointing than giving the best gift you have to someone who is bad at receiving? Be a good receiver in Christ! No one should ever doubt any prayer/encouragement they offered you by your response (or lack of one). There have been times I have had to see what God is up against! I told Him once or twice “God I love you so much, but what the blast is wrong with the people here?!!!!”