The First Prophet: Abel - Part 1

This is the very seed and beginning of what it means to be truely prophetic.  No matter what we think of the Prophet or the Prophetic, we must deal with its inception in the bloodline of humanity. Here, it starts with Abel, and the first expression of anything in scripture is the anchor for anything that follows (Matthew 24:34-35). Take heed if you wish to understand the 'Prophetic'. The Prophet comes first before the Prophetic, from which it derives its nature and name. To be sure, the Prophet always comes first before the Prophetic: the noun - then the adjective; the Person - then the People. The whole house, the whole Nave and Ark rest upon such men who are laid in the dirt . . . and here is the deepest of them, the lowliest of them, the first of them. LISTEN! He still speaks. And the prophet can never speak unless it is by "the blood".

Born to an avaricious woman, who kept a superficial faith despite seeing the Lord God face-to-face, Abel was the younger of two bothers who may have been inconsequential to his mother - given his name: breath, vapour, vanity, emptiness, transitory . . . one might even add "pointless". A second labour for Eve could not have been easy, and no doubt the novelty of bearing another man had worn thin. Could Eve's naming of Abel (she named Cain) truely reflect her state of mind, that the burden of life on earth was exhausting? Did this affect how she saw her weaker son? If so, was it that Cain picked up on this? That from Cain's mother Cain absorbed - from young - the entitlement and right to possess and to have. To this point, I doubt Eve experienced pain like this and the words of the Lord God would have echoed sourly in her ears: "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children." (Genesis 3:16) Was her heart barren and empty for her younger son? Indeed, she had the fine, strong Cain; why would she need another? It was not until Abel's untimely and cruel removal would her heart be provoked to mourn for her son, but too late. Abel's evident weakness at birth belied his strength, yet provoked Eve's disgust and contempt for the first weak human on earth; Adam and Cain were magnificent specimens of physical humanity. Eve relished the physical; she could see little else. The breath that she thought so fleeting that would soon evaporate was the very stuff of life itself.

It is into and from such situations that a prophet is born: whether in family, community or national estrangement; whether in self-doubt or ideological barrenness. He is given into such circumstances as an unacknowledged gift, and out of those circumstances is he formed. He is the goodness that comes out of the cradle of sin, totally ignorant of his effect on those around him. Even his mother considers abandoning him for the pain he inadvertantly inflicts upon her. He is wanted by no one. This, and this alone is the hallmark of the Prophet: complete and utter weakness.

'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Part 5

"Power" is the exercise of might and is not necessarily synonymous with authority, but with control and influence. It is that which flows from the explicit ability of "might". It is firmness and hardiness, together with the fruits of such labours. It may even be used in relation to the fruit of the vine or the quality of meat: all derived from the strength of the soil, of the earth, of Adam. Ultimately, it is cold-blooded and morally neutral. It does not care as long as it achieves its required end - to bring something about. It is no surprise one other use of this word refers to a large lizard - also present in the Garden of Eden, that also slid across the ground and ate the dust of the earth. "Power" and "Might" are masculine and earthy; they are from below and speak from the viewpoint of the world with the wisdom of this age. They are potent and seductive and are an ever present temptation to God's people in every work of His church. If such things are utilised the World can make a claim in the Church, the World can exercise influence with the Church; the World becomes a part of the Church.

No!

What must be born must be born from above, and not of this world, so it can be clearly seen as being from God Himself. It is entirely appropriate that the word for Spirit - Ruach - is feminine.

It is clear, given the judgement of the Lord God in the Garden of Eden and the subsequent history of mankind through war and work throughout the world, that these two words, "Might" and "Power", should be allotted as masculine. The exercise of might through power is an overtly masculine thing.

Masculine nouns in Hebrew are often concrete, and feminine nouns - abstract. Still, it is the language that God chose to express His Testament of Promise. Man's essential relationship is with the Earth and the woman's is the man as they were taken from both. For both male and female, their origin of creation was cursed. There is only one hope here and it is through the woman. The fruit of the earth can produce nothing. Salvation will come through women. Feminity is the conduit and canal of salvation. She who was taken out from inside now gives birth. "Power" and "Might" are from below. The Spirit is from above. Out of the darkness of the womb, out of the unseen comes forth God's plan of salvation, and His heel shall crush the head of the serpent, that former "Power". Power and Might are in direct opposition to God; they are enemies of God. Even that term "Power" suggests explicitly the spiritual identity behind such Might and that it derives itself from the spirit of the air - even when that "Power" is sincerely considered to be God Himself; God will not lend Himself to such schemes of men.

Out of the smallest seed in the Day of Small Things where there is a watery darkness, through the travail of birth and the agony of contractions - those involuntary pulses that cannot be controlled, comes a nation of priests, comes the line of David, in the Ark of Noah through the waters of the Flood, sealed in pitch, squeezed through the Sea of Reeds, and finally up out of the River Jordan after going down into the waters of baptism, breaking up out of those waters comes New Life. God gives birth in no other way; any 'work of God' that was not born was manufactured.

Of Dreams and Log Jams Part 1

Last night I dreamed; I have been dreaming a lot recently. A friend once said to me that a person only dreamed when they weren't listening to God - when God couldn't get their attention. The implied criticism at the time was that I wasn't listening to God. It may well have been true, but I think my friend was simply stating that they didn't dream and they listened to God and He spoke to them clearly.

I have always dreamed, big swirling epics and little flashes. It occurs most often when I'm deep in thought and mulling things over, when something concerns me, when I search or yearn for something, when there are rocks in my heart and I hate myself for something, when something is frustrated and the life of God does not flow easily, when peace has seeped away, when I doubt, when I am in disobedience, when I have neglected prayer, when a burden will not let me go. Somewhere there is a log jam and something has to come out, otherwise I'll go mad.

The conclusion being: when I dream something is wrong, in me or somewhere else. If God isn't digging up the rocks in our heart, what is He doing? Do we assume to be so prigishly perfect that this will never happen? We must keep up our facade of being 'spiritual' and holy. Sometimes a hard questioning cynicism(distrustful of the presented virtue of yourself and/or others) is the only cracker that will crack the nut of prudish religiosity, to provoke what is truely inside.

If we are on a even keel then the waters haven't risen yet; we are still in dock. The door of the ark may be shut and we may be sealed in pitch but we await the deluge. We cannot see what is happening let alone understand it. We can only hear it when it starts to fall. Will the seal hold? It starts with a slight movement, then a jolt and a judder, a bob. We are afloat in a waterproof nave being taken by God through the difficulties of life - not taken out of but through - with walls of gravity-defying water hanging beside us. Nevertheless, we must look at the pillar of fire, not at what surrounds us.

Beware of harsh metallic faith, like Paraoah's chariots, that reduces life with God to a succinct dismissive rule - when it rests upon a person. Flee from them. They cut you open like a surgeon, gutting you like a fish while they themselves remain immutable and untouchable. A rough ride awaits you upon the good ship 'Ark' rather than upon the smooth chariots as a captive. Beware of smoothness, ease, convenience, routine that lulls, inward neatness and tidiness. Nothing will remain the same while the ark bucks and tosses through the waves.

"It is dangerous to get into a settled state of experience. It is preparation and preparation."

Oswald Chambers.

So dreaming occurs when everything is in flux, when something that means everything has been tossed into the air . The music starts again and we are up and running, not knowing where to go, only knowing we MUST go and go now. Respond now lest our hearts congeal and become hard. Dreaming is God's kneading of the heart before the oven, it is his pressure and hands upon you in an unseen way, getting your attention, especially when you think deeply. The heel of his hand rolls into you again and again, flattening and moulding, spinning and throwing into the air: His - not to play with but - to do with as He pleases. Dreaming comes when there are phases of resistance to this. His fingers press in. Respond to Him now before He sends circumstances to shape you, respond in the small and mundane; be faithful in the little. The perplexity of that dream will nag and annoy, it is meant to be inscrutable until your heart keeps pace with it and then it unfolds (or evaporates into nothing as it was born of the worry of your soul). It forces you back to God knowing He is the holder of yours secrets. You have been trained by the sheepdogs of God's dreams, hounding you into submission; He tracks you down and corners you into a decisive moment in time and the decision is not left or right but it is down: down and submit, yield!

He MAKES me to lie down in green pastures!

Then the peace will come.

Walls and Gates Prophecy

"Gates have been thrown open so wide that they cease to be gates; doorways widened that the very pillars of the building are removed without thought to the integrity of the structure.

A church without walls is a church that will fall down, a church that will implode on itself and many destroyed in its collapse.

The narrow way has been exchanged for the broad way in the name of ‘love and acceptance and grace’. Many will come in and will not be wearing wedding clothes. Many will be surprised to find themselves there, for they will blunder their way in without realising, for there is nothing to mark their way, nothing that announces their entrance into God’s Ark.

The hedge around My Church that separated Her from the world has been torn down and neither can one tell the difference between her and the world - they have been so fused with one another. Their words are Her words and She touts Her wares in the streets like a trader, like a huckster selling something fake. She attempts to allure, She tries to beckon but She will be trampled by the heathen and the pagan in her midst that She once called ‘saved’, for She has treated as saved those who are not; She has exchanged, She has trafficked, she has swapped her glory for something commonplace and profane. She has left her position of grace, She has abdicated her throne and gone down into the valleys to make herself more accessible, more ‘real’, more ‘relevant’.

My loved one has become a whore and I find prostitution where I should find prayer, worldliness where I should find holiness, noise where I should find quiet, work where I should find rest, lip service where I should find repentance, faith in man’s strength where I should find the faith of Abraham.

Is not My Ark a holy vessel to save utterly through? What would it be if She were holed? How would She float if She leaked? How could She possibly survive any storm that was sent against Her. That sacred boat needs to be sealed by Her Lord and covered in pitch; She must be watertight against the ingress of the world. My unction and My oil does not mix with the world, it sets apart. My Spirit seals those I know and they shall be delivered through the storms. You have called ‘saved’ that which is not; you have called holy that which is profane; you have committed a fatal reversal.

The true vine has withered and in its place is an imported vine, one that I did not plant and that will not produce any fruit – just itself, there will be no bud, no flourish. It will creep and crawl and bind up everything in its midst, it will demand ad demand like a baby that will not wean, like a child that will not learn and all the while it grins and demands more proof of love, “if . . . if . . . if . . .”

Your sin started at the gates and how you think people enter the courts of the Lord. You thought it wrong to judge but does not the man of God judge all things? You thought it wrong to divide but doesn’t the man of God rightly divide the word of truth? Doesn’t the Son of God separate the goats from the lambs?

Isn’t a wall in place to show that which is and that which is not?

Remove that and you remove the courts of the Lord and it merges with the space around it to mean just what the space around it means – nothing! If there is no wall or no hedge then there are no courts of the Lord, no entrance through which to enter. Did I not tear down the only wall that mattered in my own flesh? Did I not rent the veil in two as my body was torn? This was the only rending required.

You have torn away the steps for a man to know me. How is he to find Me if he is treated as one who already knows Me? The hand of the wicked is strengthened and he feels he is justified before God, when he is not.

You have entertained when you should have praised and prayed. You have put on a show when you should have grieved and mourned. You have advertised when you should have kept you mouth shut, but you boasted proudly of your inheritance without living in it or giving thought to how it was obtained.

My baptisms are mere rituals to qualify for church membership. My baptisms are for wholeness and for healing. They have been neglected in this age like no other and I find it an abomination. Where can a man go to dip himself in sorrow for offending me? Where can a man go to be united with me in depths of the waters of baptism? And where can a man go to be sealed with that unction that seals against the world and that jealously possesses a follower? You must go through the former to get to the latter, there is no short cut, no convenient or easy way. It must be whole-hearted, but you have made disciples for yourselves and of your selves to mirror what you are before me . . . tepid.

You speak and your prattle on and on, you discuss theology and doctrine in mere theory, you discard it for you do not see its value, therefore this holy doctrine and theology will not save you. You will go down into sheol and there you will remain like Pharoah’s chariots, rusting. You don’t cherish my word, though you have a doctrinal statement. This is a mere technicality.

It will not save you, none of this will save you, not one jot, for you have abandoned my plan of salvation, you have abandoned me and who is it that saves? Is it not I, the Saviour of Israel? I am the only one who saves. Man does not save though he portrays every day that he does; he speaks of salvation but he shall see none.

Let a man come to me, let him seek me, let him exercise his faith, let him approach the throne of grace in his hour and perhaps he will find me, if he seeks me with all his heart. I knock and I wait, but here is always a door, a wall to separate a place ‘that is’ from a place ‘that is not’.

Did I not divide the day from the night, but you have mixed it together; did I not divide work from rest, but you are in continual upheaval; did I not appoint the sun and the moon to govern day from night? Did I not separate man from the other creatures? How much more the my chosen vessel to reveal Me in the Last Days? How much more my chosen Bride but She has dissolved in anticipation of the end, She has backslidden and not trusted Her Saviour.

There are always walls and there are always gates.

Bring each one to Me; bring them all: they are mine - not yours! Make them disciples of me - not your church: they are mine, you are all mine. They are all mine, if they have the Spirit of Christ and if anyone doesn’t, he isn’t mine.

There is a way and it is narrow. There is a gate and it is narrow. There is a lock and Only One is worthy to open it – even myself. It is by constraint - not by throwing off restraint; it is by tightness and squeezing; it is by passing-by and passing-over that I save. If anyone does not come through Me, he is not mine and you are not to welcome him. Let them come and let them tremble at your holy assembly.

I am the Only Saviour."

Given 02/12/10