Theme: Recognizing Christ as the substance of every expression of goodness, we look beyond the surface philanthropy of His wondrous signs and miracles into the agape of the logic of God. As good as it was to feed the hungry multitudes, even Moses gave a daily bread without which the Israelite's would have perished in the wilderness. While the word of the law maintains a separation between God's chosen people and keeps them from being defined by the rebellious and poisonous deeds of a man who is separated from God, it's powerless to enable anyone to turn away from the rebellious deeds but merely keeps him from defining himself as such in his own conscience. The law separates all sin from the definition of man, but only God's Grace Gift empowers our right action. Knowing that Jesus folded up the law and set it aside forever purges your conscience from all sin and frees you from being defined by any of your past deeds or natural identity or from being defined presently or in the future by current or pending deeds. Jesus completely frees us from the definition of a humanity defined by his own deeds but unveils us as a humanity defined by His deed of righteousness on our behalf by which our authority and sonship before God were restored. Now having been unalienably and irrevocably been given authority and sonship before God, having inherited power and authority over the natural domain as Son of God over His own Creation, we have unconditional power. Jesus defines our relationship with the natural realm and all flesh as our being above it, and it being our gift from Him to enjoy His reflection in and His gift of life with. Christian neglect this aspect of righteousness, distracted by the goodness of Jesus' miracles to the point where the authority behind it and it's deeper mysteries and heavenly keys were veiled to them. To them it wasn't given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but He's given us the key. He Himself is the key. Inhabiting His name and living from His finished work is the key. Many try to capture the His lightening into a bottle, but find themselves enslaved by the bible, having to worship it as an idol outside of itself which certainly is not God, and so they hide their flawed understanding of God behind some flawed expression or distortion of His visible likeness. Why these people try to enjoy the powers of Jesus' finished work without taking His name upon them and wearing it as the full-body robe it was destined and designed to be, they're like children playing imaginary games and like fools showering in raincoats. Like wearing a condom creates enough separation to prevent conception but still allows the flesh enough access to experience the creative eruption of life that results from the acknowledgement that as the Father is in Him, so also is He in us and us in Him... Giving reward to their friction-inspiring activities for the eruption of the flame, they neglect that the fire was a gift from God and that the spinning of the wood was not merely the currency required for the production of fire but was the revelation of fire in it's barest form, illuminating it's beginnings. The end is hidden in the beginning in raw form, like how people constructing with wood in homesteading are seemingly forming inventions from their minds in response to the needs unveiled by the processes involved in the production of what they require forming them with such ease it's as if to them, though these inventions are made from wood, it's constructed from thought itself with the infinite possibilities of the imagination given in Christ's mind and then, molded as it were by hands working with clay! But when you're as acquainted with the woodworking language as you are with your own hands and clay, you can create constructions freely within the rigid constraints of wood, understanding it and learning to work with the wood and allow wood to give unique shape to the thought creation first expressed by clay. It becomes more and more important that the idea be right because each additional layer added to it must be totally consistent with it's foundation (in the thought of God) or else the entire structure falls and there's great waste!
So, I here outline how Christians overvalued the material expression of godliness as it was the form most attractive to flesh. By doing deeds considered good or godly, these people would be considered good and godly, thus freeing them from whatever idea of themselves they'd imagined as a result of their father's and the fallen flesh. So these people, still in the fallen flesh, engage in ministry and by the ministry of goods to people, they keep focused on how they're on the outward appearances experiencing themselves doing things associated as good, so their sense of being "good" creations who are worthy of life before God is sustained by their own sense of their own goodness sustained by their own acts. Now while doing good actions is like food to one who is good, it's just that... food, like natural physical bread. You can live by eating natural physical bread every day, your sense of yourselves maintained on a daily basis by experiencing yourselves acting in consistency with what's expected by the standard your conscience approved as sufficient righteousness. However this would be no different than the lives of those who lived from Adam to Moses before the law. Not because of their right actions but because there was no Law given to mankind by God by which he must live, mankind always experienced itself as performing consistent with the standard their own consciences approved as being sufficiently righteous. Like driving on a road with no speed limit, people naturally adjusted to one another as their law, like a guitar tuned to itself but not to a tuning fork, they could still play and produce music but every tone was distorted and didn't honestly articulate the composition God originally intended because we played it in a tone other than the one it was designed to be played in. The people who drive on roads with no speed limits are all technically in the right (in their own minds), as is the band that tunes to one another but not to a standard accepted tuning, but before God's Law, are they truly right?
No. God's Law would expose all of their self-made A's as flat, the drivers as speed-law violators, and their charms and idols (through which they hope to attain access to God and blessings provided by the approval of His Will) as unacceptable. Well, the Law has been proclaimed and there are a whole lot of flat A's out there violating speed laws and giving credit to fancy radar detectors for their freedom to behave that way. In the same way, asking for forgiveness or atoning by good works are just fancy radar detectors enabling the guy behind the wheel to rebel without threat of legal infraction. So in the time period between Adam and Moses, the rebellious seed of man operated without threat of legal infraction, but before the Law of God, their infractions still produced the penalties demanded from the causal relationship they'd inherited with creation. Sin produced death, infractions produced loss, and flaws were punished by disease. With guilt free conscience, and with the right to access thought even on a level of building a tower to connect the Earth to the Heavens and to unite the world in a universal communication system (or language) based on the thought of themselves endorsed by the fallen mindset of man. God recognized that had they accomplished this, just as if they'd eaten from the tree of life after having been poisoned by the knowledge of good and evil's fruit, they'd just be trapped in a perpetual human experience of eternal poneros, dissatisfied and separated from the authentic fulfillment demanded deep in their soul of the love of their Father.
Like Ismael, who was still blessed by God but never inherited his father's blessing, there was a chip formed on the shoulder and the seeds of a rivalry were planted between the slave-child and the free-child and to this day, slave-children blaspheme the names of the free-children for how they effortlessly inherit from their father's that which they'd been excluded from by their own works. Knowing themselves as the works of their parents they're limited to experience the fruit of their own works, but the blessed child who God made Heir knew Himself as the work of His Heavenly Father and knows us the same so we are all equally blessed in Him with the blessing of the Father. This blessing is what makes the fatness of the Earth and the dew of the Heavens so good! The power is a universal thing any man who believes and doubts not in his heart his access to has ability to access, but anyone coming in through any other gate than the main gate of the sheepfold (any reason to inherit outside of our merely having been born of a woman just like Jesus was *the seed of the woman* who crushed the serpents head) would be a their or a robber (in their own minds) not entitled to the blessings they contend for (thrusting their agendas with well rehearsed moans of "son of David" and their absolution of their own consciences (searing really) by their twisted darkened distorted interpretations of the cleansing act of Christ's sacrifices. Like the OT Jews before them, the people in the world attempting to get in on God's benefits without going through Jesus are not approaching in the name of the Son and so they do not access the Father! Instead, they to raid Heaven for it's blessings and gamble for Christ's garments. Their sacrifices only temporarily distract them from their blood stained consciences, as only the blood of Jesus can make the conscience permanently white as snow they're continually reminded of their sickness and guilt by their every purification ritual and request for a forgiveness of sins outside of the one given to all once and for all through Jesus.
I mention these false spiritualists because we, much like with incenses, crystals, weed, logical thought as a foundation of our spiritual expressiveness... have given so much up to the New Agers, Institutional Christians, and other Religious World Elite. It's time to take it all back, starting with the correct relationship with righteousness. As Christ revealed, the true righteousness of His act of feeding the 12,000 had to do with why He was doing it and what the act revealed concerning the heart of the One who did the act towards the One for whom the act was done. The sign was an unveiling of the Love of God for each of us as He was unveiling Himself as our Father. However, if you go around the world handing out bread because it associates you (in your own mind) with the actions of Jesus when He gave the bread, you'd be getting no blessing other than that of giving bread to a person but you, having not understood the miracle, couldn't possibly communicate it or therefore be worthy of the association with Christ you believe your actions entitle you to because not coming from the same understanding as the One who originally performed the act, your portray of it was out of tune. Compared to an equally out of tune world, perhaps it seems to resemble a "Godly" tune, but completely out of tune with the context of Christ which was not to bring glory to His own flesh or to the ability of flesh to care for one another (how much money will it take to feed them all?) but to bring glory to His Father in Heaven and His sustaining power, revealing us as receivers and administrators of the graces and gifts our Father in Heaven provides us! And more than the goods, we desire to give them out of the overflow of our knowledge of God so they too could receive from the source all they need and more and equally bless us and all mankind with their unique portion and provision of that which they received the enablement to do in dependence upon Our Father.
You approach God as His Son. He responds to no other name but Jesus, and you are in Jesus. He responds to you as His Son, as you approach and engage Him as He is, Your Father, Your ONLY Father, Your ONLY Parent and Your ONLY Source and Your ONLY Hope for the fulfillment of your EVERY desire.
Righteousness isn't doing good deeds for people, it's knowing that you're right in God's eyes simply by being of equal value and of having word of equal weight with His not on the basis of deserving or earning, but on the basis of the free sonship and the relationship of love and friendship we have as a result of being the Offspring of God, made by default in the exact specifications of the likeness of His hearts deepest fantasy and most perfect desire. You are His dream *boy or girl* made true, and this is the only source of righteousness and the only key needed in order to approach God confidently and approach any and everything from Him. But people, mankind not having had this kind of relationship with authority or with their father's before, try to engage God in a less mushy, more technical, one and done, slot machine, wrapped jimmy raincoat in the rain kind of way instead of inviting His slobbering kisses or the uniqueness of his breath or body scent, we try to distract ourselves with our own ways and just try to get from Him anything we want, our OWN way. But that's not who God is, though He always gives, He is the Gift not only the Giver of it. It's the consciousness of Him, or rather, our having been made aware of the gift of our always being in HIS consciousness, that waters and sustains and brings to pass the prayers we ask for (and actively keep our eyes open for in expectation of) because our expectation and the joyful looking-out for of the miracles are only sustained by Him in us, His inseparable union with us, our bond with Him by being loved by Him.. how unique He is for giving us gifts though we didn't earn it or warrant it in any way other than simply being in His Son where He placed us from the beginning... wow, what grace! To not have to work for ANYTHING but ask Him for EVERYTHING because you know that He is your source of Life and also the source of everything you desire IN Life! That sustains our joy and our love for Him; our ability to ask for anything from Him completes our Joy and becomes the means by which He displays Himself, via the blessings He showers on us for no other reason than the FACT that He wants to and already paid for it all in His own blood at the cross.
So lets cross every boundary and leave all religion behind. The point was never to point to our own righteousness in our own flesh, but to our righteousness in His flesh which we inherited as the Heirs of His Life.
As great as it is to see and encounter yourselves doing good, being good, giving good things out of the overflow of good-things God constantly floods you with... it's first receiving that flood, putting on the air-mask so to speak or removing the plank from our own eyes that enables us to give what it is that is truly needful for us to give on Earth and it is not material alone, or material tied to wrong ideas of where our help comes from or what our source is or what our justification for giving is. What this already perfect, rich, and reconciled planet needs is simply the knowledge of it's glorification in Christ, which we display by BEING GLORIFIED just as He is, which we already are!
So here are some verses that made up the CLAY I've been molding, which inspired this WOODEN representation of it. Why wood? Because it reminds of papers, pencils, and because I point only the the WOOD of the rugged cross of Jesus Christ as the justification for any of my speech or any experience in this world in every gift of His goodness!
"But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?" - Galatians 4:9
"If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as [if] alive in [the] world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?" - Colossians 2:20
"Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." - Colossians 2:23
We realize every behavior or mindset we're pointed away from by the scriptures fruits of a mindfulness of God based on what our law-enforced boundaries maintained His image as in our minds. We projected Him as a hard taskmaster and authoritarian, so He addressed us as such in the Law but even from that bronzed serpent" representation, He continued BEING Grace the entire time and God was never once inconsistent with Himself or with His original promise to bless all mankind freely with the gift of righteousness as a result of His Faith and the action concluding His faith, the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. We were misled about God for the purpose of keeping distance and separateness between us and Himself (and our works and His Holiness) and separation between us and His Creation (separated from our mindfulness of it's Wholeness, of it's all having proceeded from God's goodness and about the Goodness of all that comes out of Him). A fractured creation and a flawed design are only projections of mindsets inherited by a man who experiences himself as having failed to maintain His Maker's requirements and preferences concerning him. More accurately, today's man inherited a mindset based on a consciousness of himself as one who fails to meet the requirements and preferences that their parents represented as ideal. In Christ, we go from representation to substance and from the "glory" of the dust and flesh to the "Glory" of the Spirit of Christ's Body having been given for us and His blood spilt as currency to purchase our right to uninterrupted divine expectation of God and of answer to every prayer.
I've been big on the answered prayer element, so here's a extra long bonus scripture from the Living Bible that ignites my heart on this topic, encouraging us to keep our eyes out watching keenly for the arrival of EVERYTHING and ANYTHING we asked for from God, like checking stocks daily or plants that we're watering waiting for them to show signs of life and growth, we keep our eyes open for each and every thing we prayed for from God, even the well-being of our own bodies or of others around us or even entire nations or the stocks and plants! We keep expecting because we believe it's on the way and because our expectation isn't causing it to come to pass, but is enabling our privilege to participate in ownership of what we prayed for even long before it came, like how David and others participated in ownership of the salvation we now have in Jesus long before Jesus came, we too participate in the ownership of EVERY thing we ask for from God from the moment we enter His expectation for it! What a wonderful key. It's okay to keep our eyes open for it, because we now understand why we want to, not to make sure our servant does his job properly but we're watching eagerly enjoying every step towards it's completion and eagerly anticipating it's completion, at which point we'd explode in joyous thanksgiving to God, who is the only one we expected this to come from anyways, so we get no credit nor do we divest credit away from God to the instruments He may use to bring it to pass, whether man or angel. So here's the verse the encouraged me to no longer have to look away, but to with great joyful expectation keep my eyes open all the time for the manifestation and fruit of the materialization of what I asked for from God! I'm not making it happen by paying attention, but if a tree falls in a forest and there's no one around to hear it, and I'm the one who prayed for the tree to fall down, will it still fall? Jesus says yes, just as the fig tree He cursed still fell even though He never had to confirm it and was content to walk right on by. He cursed the lie that was separating His people from seeing Him in the Law and Prophets by unveiling Himself in scriptures but then He went to continue walking on His way. He didn't have to stop to make sure or confirm that what He just said or unveiled would be enough to bring His desire to pass; it happens whether you keep around and watch it with your eyes peeled for it or not! The only required ingredient is believing when you ask that the thing you asked for was freely given by our Father in Heaven in response to the sufficiency of Jesus' blood in us. But can we keep our eyes peeled? YES! Does it slow down or hinder His blessing of us? NO! And in fact, remaining engaged with the miracle we prayed for is a source of great joy as we get to experience today in Faith that which comes at His designated time here manifest in the realm, just as surely as Christ Himself already perfectly manifested. In this way, Christ continually maintains our expectation and gives assurance and authenticity to our hope as He represents every promise of God and every miracle and blessing we'd every pray for from Him as they all came to us through Him and exactly in the WAY that He came. Jesus IS the Way and is GOD'S WAY of blessing you and I!
I belabor this point because new-ager deceit and religious receipt of that deceit makes it seem like our looking for it and keeping our eyes peeled for it translates to our getting it, but it doesn't, it just translates to our "getting" that it didn't come as a result of our work effort or labors, but in response to a desire of our hearts that we articulated before the presence of God. If He unveils the thing, take it. If He unveils the road to the thing, recognize it as from Him and if you have peace that it is, then take it! If you don't like the way it seems to be coming to you by, aka, an invitation to WORK for it, then know that it was a temptation (not from God) and turn it down like how Abraham would have turned down Hagar had he knew that it was not up to him or Sarah to help God bring His promise to them to pass! Yes, though we're the ones asking and expecting (seemingly presumptuously) we are inspired by the truth that He promised to bring to pass everything that Jesus is, and we are in Him, so He promises to complete our every desire and request of our will. There's no presumption to this, He invites us to the head of the table... we already relegated ourselves to the foot of the table but He called us up to the head and invites us into His own relationship with Himself and yearns that we require of Him everything we desire! So we don't help Him bring it to pass, but we help ourselves by remaining connected to the God who we asked for this thing from and remaining joyfully expectant of it's coming at the RIGHT Time as God always gives the right thing AT THE RIGHT TIME and often in ways that go above and beyond anything we thought or asked for because He knows us better than we know ourselves, understands our desires, and goes above and beyond and calls it "just enough!"
"Don't be weary in prayer; keep at it; watch for God's answers, and remember to be thankful when they come." -Colossians 4:2
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