What Am I Doing Right Now?

12-5-16  Audio on Soundcloud

Along with repentance, although not as long, the notion of intercession has been continually bubbling up in me.  About 5 or 6 months now.  The Spirit has been rehearsing my heart, drilling and practicing my soul in attribution for the awareness that constant intercession is taking place at the right hand of the Father and simultaneously here on earth by His Spirit for who so ever.  He has granted me a deep meditative cognizance of the words, “He forever lives to make intercession”.  Deposited in the treasury of my soul, and overflowing on my heart, the two, intercession and repentance have been operating side by side in unity and been shown to be the principle corollary characteristics of God’s intimate fellowship with those who are drawn to listen for and follow what He says.

This all came hurtling at me, as things like this often do, as I was finishing up a pad for some outbuildings.  There must be something about the methodical motion of a landscape rake running through dirt, or hay being tossed into a pile that frees up the heart and mind to sense the breath of the Spirit.  It happens more often than I can count that in an instant the Spirit will light upon me with a question like,

“What am I doing right now”?

That particular day labor ceased in that moment and the rake was transformed into a leaning post.  With the sweat of my brow falling like rain to the smooth unblemished soil below, deep consideration was given to ponder this question and give heed to His expectation of a response.

I don’t know if an awareness has been granted to you regarding questions like this, but in my experience they usually require a childlike inquiry like,  “I am not sure, will you tell me”?  The good news is He always answers questions like this, because He loves to lead His children in the way they should go.  Circumstances like these are paramount to His intercession and call to repentance.  The short answer to What am I doing right now? was, “I am interceding”.

His intercession led me to the dissection of the currently accepted characteristics and definitions of intercession and repentance.  He wanted me to see some things beyond the superficial narrative, that of course, intercession is the Jesus by-product of repentance.  After all repentance is for sin and guilt and intercession is for the believer after we’re in, right?  Well?  At the risk of being in conflict with some denominational doctrines, respected theologians or the modern man of the word,  His question, “What am I doing right now?” set in motion a continual rolling disclosure that has blown a gaping hole in everything I thought or was ever taught about His intercession and it was found in deep repentance.  My sympathies off the top if what I’m going to share messes with anyones theology, but He has brought the understanding to my soul that I live off of His intercession in repentance.

The term repentance seems to have been misconstrued by just about everyone, including myself until recently.  Have I discovered something that has been hidden for a profusion of decades sealed in a dusty book on a shelf?  No, He revealed it in a flash, and yes, it seems to have been hidden, for I have never heard or read any individual who has been shown or sought to explain what I have seen.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. Proverbs 25:2  

For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. Mark 4:22

He has fallen in with and lit upon my soul to lead me to contention with the English definition of repentance and the connotation the community of believers operates under.  The interpretation has killed and corrupted the original intent and drive of God found in the Greek roots of the word.  I will seek to prove that in a moment, but here is our English denotation that was most likely formed from centuries of tried and true religious connotation.

repent |riˈpent|
verb [ intrans. ]
feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin :
• [ trans. ] view or think of (an action or omission) with deep regret or remorse :

That is the established character, a skewed, hard and not so joyous description of the endeavor.  Just about everyone I’ve encountered hates the word, yes even believers.  The myopic interpretation and subsequent quinine turn of the stomach might need to fall squarely on the church for not seeking out the deeper treasure in the Greek roots and then passing on the man centered superficial supposition that the dictionary now sources.  Maybe this is a start for change?  Repentance is so much more than the view Mr. Webster was given.  It is far more beautiful and exposing of the intimately divine nature of the sovereign triune Godhead who desires to lead us into the deep mysteries of His bond to us.

Intercession on the other hand has not been so diluted or boxed into a corner in it’s English translation.  It is indeed a decent description, Christ through the Spirit is intervening on behalf of another as He sits at the right hand of God.  For He is forever speaking the will of God, for the Kingdom of God and those who will listen and follow.

intercession |ˌintərˈse sh ən|
noun
the action of intervening on behalf of another :

The intention of this writing is not to present a word study as much as a desire to convey a deeper hidden beauty of God within the words and offer spark to the mystery of our interrogative relationship with Him.  Because of His revelation of what these words offer us, a pregnant expectation of His voice and a deep rumination and reverence for what I might hear has been provoked in me.  It is an opening to His majesty, sovereignty and glorious intimacy like never before encountered in this soul.

Setting the English understandings aside, here is where the surface simplicity and tidy packaging of our current perception falls short of these two inextricably wedded words and their interwoven complexity that His Spirit has revealed.

No one seeks God.  There is no one who understands God, no one seeks God.  Romans 3:11.  Not you, not me; nor pope, priest or pastor;  no apostle or disciple sought God.  Without His intercession there is no response.
Without Him speaking no one can follow.  If we would just let that sink in for a moment… ponder it… consider it… heed the warning in it… the guarded pharisaical, self righteous stature so characteristically applicable to the modern community of church people might disappear and a true fellowship of Christ in the Spirit might be born,.. again.

Everything God that we have or will ever know, perceive or experience is born out of His pursuit of us and revealed by His Spirit as a gift.  A gift of love to those with ears to hear.  Simple as that.  Man can not now, nor will he ever “find God”.  Without the constant revelation flowing via intercession through His Spirit we are lost.  No one seeks God.  And this is why He has brought the understanding to my soul that I live off of His intercession, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, in repentance.

In the Greek the term for repentance is metanoeō.  It is a compound word meta and noeō.  Put together it is defined like this:

1) to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent
2) to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins

Reading this definition, one can see another reason why our English dictionary came away with the understanding it did.  To a degree, it brushes up against an understanding, but with perfectly impaired self-centered words.  Like the words of John the Baptist that get turned around when he is quoted, “I must decrease and He must increase”.  When in fact John put Jesus first by saying, “He must increase and I must decrease”.  In similar fashion, man has absconded with repentance.  The original intention was to follow on with Him in fascination and contemplation.  I have been shown something that is beyond what I was taught through our linguistic assertions.  I am led to make this conclusion: Most of our understanding about repentance and the intercession that precedes is man centered and wrong.  Let’s crack the window of understanding found in the Greek roots of the word.

Meta means:
with, after or behind.
Noeō means:
1) to perceive with the mind, to understand, to have understanding
2) to think upon, heed, ponder, consider

How in the world did we cobble together our current understanding when nowhere in either of the two root words is their any affirmative inclination to that assumption?

feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin :
• [ trans. ] view or think of (an action or omission) with deep regret or remorse
or
1) to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent
2) to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins

Does it strike anyone else as odd that, our standing definition of repentance, the first call of Jesus in His ministry on earth is not about pondering, considering or giving heed to the gift of God, the Savior of the world, the Way, the Truth, and the Life that was walking among them?  Was it not a call to come with, after or behind to perceive and understand His Kingdom and receive goodness and forgiveness manifested in Christ?   But man, to no surprise, with self-absorption has turned it into feeling bad about himself a need to show penance and his guilt.  He has stolen from God and put himself first, again.  Repentance is not about man’s regret and remorse for his actions but it sounds like it could be a really useful control mechanism.

Plainly, Jesus Christ was not walking the Earth saying, “Feel badly about yourself, the Kingdom of God is at hand”!  “Show regret and have remorse, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”!  Can you begin to see how erroneous, self-centered and possibly controlling these defining words are?  And how are you doing with heartily amending your past sins with abhorrence.  Blah!!

Moving on to the definition of intercession we arrive at another Greek compound word entygchanō   en-tün-khä’-nō.  The full definition of the root words as described in the Blue Letter Bible website are as follows:

En means:
in, by, with

Tygchanō tün-khä’-nō means:
to hit the mark
A. of one discharging a javelin or arrow
to reach, attain, obtain, get, become master of
to happen, chance, fall out
A. to specify, to take a case, as for example
to meet one
of he who meets one or presents himself unsought, any chance, ordinary, common person
to chance to be

Please note right off the top that in the Greek roots of both intercession and repentance prepositions are found at the beginning.  These words of placement, En, in, by, with and Meta, with after, behind are critical governing words that express relationship, both physical and certainly spiritual.  Primarily and most assuredly, it is God first in anything we could know, may know or understand about God.  As He comes in, by and with us, we can then go in faith with, after or behind Him to think upon and heed the call of His Kingdom.

To restate an earlier point, the reality of a relationship to God is that no one seeks God.  We are inert until the breath of God animates us.  No one comes to the Father unless they are drawn to Him.  Again, let it sink in.  It is the Word of God, Jesus, who has sought and continually seeks us in intercession by His Spirit.  Here is a word picture He gave me using many of the definitive terms to describe His intercession.

My intercession is dripping with the cry for understanding.  I speak to hit the mark, discharging the javelin of My purpose to attain and become Master over the the hearer, the one who’s case I have taken.  For My aspiration of conversation, consultation, and supplication, I present Myself unsought, the common person to reach, that one may obtain Me.

Every defining principle of this word for intercession shows that He births faith, He draws near, in, by and with desire for all to come to the knowledge of God that He has authored and will finish.  It is why we might have an inkling of Him and why He says that man will live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

The motivation of His intercession is beautiful and glorious, an inexhaustible mystery of His bountiful treasure, that is eternal life.  His word picture of intercession instills in me a hunger and yearning to consider Him first, a desire to understand, to heed and ponder Him.  His illumination is seeking a response of repentance to come with, after and behind Him to meditate and dwell on his voice.

MATT 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45” Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

In repentance the long answer has come to me over time.  But as my head was supported by the tool of my labors, Jesus through the Spirit reiterated, “What am I doing right now”?
I am sitting at My Father’s right hand interceding.  I am speaking the will of My Father through My Spirit for who so ever will listen and follow.  It is this intercession that sustains all life and is at the heart of why I taught you to hallow the Father when you pray, for My Kingdom to come and My will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  These are the very words that proceed from the mouth of God and by them you shall live and without them you shall perish, repent!  I am seeking the treasure of my Father’s heart in one who will consider me, who will ponder the sound of my voice, a people who will pay heed and incline their ear to my words. I am interceding and the repentant hear and follow Me.

If anyone is not listening for His voice in faith and asking for understanding of Him, seeking to follow Him, than quite possibly that one is on their own, under their own will and consequently may find themselves in eternal separation from Him.  If an ear is not inclined to be consistently asking, seeking and knocking for the understanding of His will and His Kingdom, than the voice of His intercession is being missed due to this lack of repentance.  It is His intercession that brings us to repentance.  It is in repentance that a soul will sit and and ponder and think upon, heed and consider what the Spirit is saying.

May I suggest that it is not a coincidence that there is no record of the any of the disciples being called to the current denotative understanding of repentance by Jesus.  He just said follow me and they did.  Repentance.  Jesus did not tell them to view their sin or think of (an action or omission) with deep regret or remorse.  If repentance meant what I’ve been told, Saul “the persecutor” of Tarsus would have been the perfect candidate to act it out.  But he wasn’t told to repent either, do you wonder why?

It’s because repentance does not mean what we have been told it means.

My sheep hear My voice and will not follow another.

But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this statement.

Repent is the alluring word of invitation, born of God in His intercession through His Spirit.  Repentance is a beautiful action of engagement with God, a response to His voice being followed into life.  The enemy of our souls corrupted and distorted the first words of Jesus’ ministry, Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, through shallow and possibly malevolent men.  The breath of freedom, the appeal of the Father to consider and ponder the wonder of Jesus, was perverted by the adversary to become a dreadful bitter taste in the mouth.  Now, hearing the word repent, our hearts are dowsed in apprehension instead of leaning into trust, loathing, or worse, resistant pride instead of humility and a recognition of our hunger.  This is a travesty, a poisoning of the mind, a perversion of God’s intent and God’s word.  It was God in Christ, who presented Himself unsought, not counting our sins against us, inviting who so ever, to come taste His goodness, to seek out the richness of His mercy and forgiveness. That is His intercession and that is repentance.

Today, if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. The treasure the man found in the field is like the intercession of God.  That man “found”, met up with, hit upon, fell in with the voice of God, a treasure!  In as much as the intercession of God is hidden, when it is found, it leavens the whole measure and drives out every competing thought and attitude before it.  He who has an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying.  He is like a merchant seeking a pearl of great price.  His treasure is the repentant heart, the one longing to hear the words of life in which to follow.  Our treasure is in heaven, the voice of God who intercedes calling for a repentant heart, longing for a soul who will hear the words of life in which to follow.  This is the Kingdom of God and the understanding must be given.  He has brought this unmistakable understanding to my soul that I live off of His intercession, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, in repentance.