1-14-17 Audio on Soundcloud
There are times when sitting down to write emanates from a jumble of assuredly foreign visions and revelation, born of warm but mystifying notions. Sometimes with a seemingly erratic aim and disheveled syntax to describe, the fingers are brought in touch with the keyboard for clarity’s inauguration.
Thoughts sprouting from everywhere with the idea of symmetric composition looking more like an exercise in hacking back a wild jungle than simply mowing the lawn. But in time, and with patience, a narrative begins to unfold and a path of understanding is cleared.
Yet, even after the coalition of concepts and thoughts are culled from the web of incentive to express them, the established form can hold deep recurring reverberations that shake the foundations of understanding for a prolonged period, post writ.
That might serve as an adequate description of the churning formulation and remaining ruminant of the prior missive “What Am I Doing Right Now”. If you haven’t read it I would suggest you do so now to provide a deeper background, as the lexicon has been tweaked and this post assumes new definitions and understandings of intercession and repentance.
Although it struck in a flash like lightning, meaning has been unravelling to my soul like the delay of slow rolling peals of thunder ever since. The assembly of that communication came through His revelatory blast with many intensive sessions of waiting… listening… and asking for the Speaker to make it clear and grant insight for the response sought from this poor listener and it has persisted for months now.
As the Holy Spirit asked, “What am I doing right now”?, in that very breath, He began to slash through the jungle of nomenclature and inaccurate implications I had lived under all these years. It was very freeing!
Two very good words, intercession and repentance, were discovered to be tangled among viscus vines of centuries long conditioned rote psychological thought patterns and erroneous suppositions. They had served as an obstruction to understanding and a deeper intimacy, primarily in this soul and by observation presumed to be a ubiquitous issue. It is probably why it felt like hacking back a wild jungle.
These denotative impediments formed a shadow casting canopy that embezzled the light of awareness and necessary attribution to the Spirit of God for how a relationship with God actually works. He revealed to me how deeply these two words are rooted to the Father’s heart and why it is necessary for Him to rip at the rhizomes of man’s reasoning; to strip out the presumptions and motivations prescribed, so new seed could be sown into good soil.
With these two words in the crosshairs, He led me to truly ponder and seek for the understanding of His intension and by His grace a clearing has been carved out to the open sky above. A conclusive and unmistakable view has been seen through it and in this expanding gap the still small voice has confirmed, I live off of His intercession in repentance.
Based on the protracted precepts besieging these two words some might take umbrage with that statement and brood,
”You live off of His intercession in repentance”?
…Really?
Where is that passage in the Bible…?
Honestly, I haven’t ever come across such a straightforward passage, but I hope this will not disqualify me in your eyes. He has convinced me this matters as much as anything I’ve ever been enlighten to by Him. Like the door to the Kingdom of Heaven hinges on this understanding.
While God has seen to it that man would write out His Spirit inspired testimony of the necessary historical and spiritual facts of life, one of those facts is that man will live off of every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, as those writers knew well.
Those would be the words He is speaking “right now”. His intercession, for me as I seek to convey with english words what I hear and for you as you read them and seek the spiritual understanding. So, in faith, I trust Him, believing what I have heard and I hope others will come along as they hear and seek out the understanding.
I could walk you through numerous passages that speak to what He has shown me and I will try to salt this missive with that for you. But, first it must be understood that what I am sharing was revealed to me through His intercession, no man taught me this and even if I show you a passage or three, you still might not get it. That is sad, but like all things that pertain to a relationship with God, they are driven by Him through the revelation of His Spirit and like a child, it will need to be revealed to you as well. The good news is He says if we seek, ask and knock for the understanding it will be given.
Every which way I have turned to test the validity of this disclosure He has returned it back to me with billowing credible confirmation and hopeful expectation. He has shown me that, His intercession is made for a heart of repentance and that is the core of truth as it pertains to the relationship He established from the beginning and desires to sustain with humanity.
So what is this intercession that is to be met with repentance? To me, the understanding of it has become like the treasure hidden in a field, worthy of selling off everything “possessed” so the field can be purchased.
This treasure is His continual pursuit and disclosure of Himself unsought to the souls of this world for the expressed purpose of repairing and nurturing the eternal bond He had established with us in the garden.
I believe this is one of the most beautiful things He has ever brought to me. Consider the eternal holy relationship taking place within the Almighty God; Father Son and Spirit. In the indivisible bond they share there is, among other things, conversation, consultation and supplication taking place. These are the direct attributes of intercession operating in their relationship. The communion they share, the Hebrews 4:12 living and active word proceeding from the mouth of God is intercession. It is His continual intervention, the double edged sword cutting to the dividing of the soul and the spirit, joints and marrow, on behalf of another. It is built into the fabric of creation and repentance is the invitation to participate in it!
In every moment of eternity He is sustaining all things by the power of His word, that alone is a platter of preponderance, but the splendor and magnificence of it is He seeks to engage us in it as well! His treasure is unity, the conversation, consultation and supplication of His Spirit reciprocated in those who will hear and act with Him. The genuine force of Your Kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is so warm and so attractive that when it is tasted it outstrips the savor for everything else. He brings this to us in the continual entreating of His Spirit, as He goes out to meet and fall in with us for His will to be done. And deeper still, SO His will can be done. It starts and ends there for His glory!
This is His alluring arrangement; to forever live to make intercession, to present Himself unsought to ordinary, common persons, by discharging the arrow of His word, to reach, attain and become master of the one who’s case He has taken. What remains is a soul to follow with, after and behind His voice. A soul to ponder, heed, and consider the word of life that is heard. Maybe an understanding is beginning to unfold as to why He has led me to say, I live off of His intercession in repentance?
In light of Colossians 1:15-20 let’s take a brief side step into what we “possess”. Because perception of possession is at the core of misunderstanding and failure to enter into His unity in repentance. The passage states, all things were created by Him, through Him and for Him. He is before all things in supremacy and in Him all things are held together. As mentioned prior, He upholds all things by the power of His word. Everything lives or has it’s existence because of this word spoken, this intercession that has or is taking place. So what do we really possess? More on this in a bit.
The nature of God’s desire to reclaim mankind back to the unity of fellowship He once enjoyed with us is a mystery and it is deep. Similar to the constructs of basic math upholding the enigma of quantum mechanics (is it a wave or is it a particle…yes!), so too, the simple love of God for us champions His unfathomable, enthusiastic determination that we enter the relational unity He manifests. Relationship, not just a proclamation, but a palpable submission acted out in the innocence and humility of a child, following. It is His unity that we are called to and only a child will find it. For anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it at all. Mark 10:15
It is sad, for many who have been taught of belief and faith haven’t ever really entered into the revelation of it. In much of Western Christianity, Jesus has been relegated to knowledge we possess. Like finding GPS points on a map, the recitation of biblical knowledge stands as certification for belief and faith. Children just don’t get it. But like the game of Clue, the modern aficionado can touch all the weapons, see all the rooms, explain all the players, yet still be unable to resolve the mystery.
Jesus regularly stated that it was for him who has an ear to hear, meaning I’ll tell you if you will listen like a child. He openly thanked the Father for hiding things from the wise and learned, but revealed it to babes. Matt 11:25
The prudent, the wise and learned can do the math that quantum mechanics rests upon or even tell you all about the weapons, the rooms and the individuals in Clue. However, that doesn’t designate an actively repentant heart, or the Spirit led passion and deep curiosity for the voice of a loving Father seeking to lead a desperate dependent child through His intercession.
Yes, the life we are called to live is spoken to us, it is His intercession, the voice of the Spirit that leads us into life and all truth. He’s looking for a repentant heart, one that will consider, ponder, heed and follow this voice, with great joy!
It was given to me by God back in August of 2012 that:
“The Holy Spirit is THE most important asset the bride has in this earth.”
At the time I shared this word with others in the church it was met by quite a few with rank; as in vegetation that has grown so thick and coarse a clear perspective is restricted and obscured. It was regarded as deficient, not because it isn’t true, but because it challenged men in what they believe they possess of God. There’s that word again.
Reviewing this now it is apparent why it was immediately met with the under brush of resistance because intercession and repentance suffered under a similar impeding vegetative growth that obscured our understanding of them for generations. A statement like, “The Holy Spirit is THE most important asset the bride has in this earth” became immediately tangled in the same continually budding rhizomes of man’s reasoning, power and control.
The Father’s intent was never entertained, explored or embraced. In that word He made an extra effort to call people to trust in the Holy Spirit, to listen for the voice of the interceding shepherd, the only one who can lead us to Himself for the union He desires. Ponder that one!
The Father’s desire was to create and reinforce hunger in His people, a realization they do not possess God in knowledge of the scriptures. John 5:39 To the contrary, He either reveals things by His Spirit and it is heralded as so, or it is nothing but chaff. All the while God was wanting a hungry childlike heart to reveal Himself to, so it was very sad to catch the aroma of pride that occluded this sweetness, the essence of how it is we come with, to follow after and remain.
At that time, He also began to tell me, “I am calling my people to repentance”. The correlation has now been revealed to my spirit as to why He would start with creating hunger and desire for His voice and then call for repentance. There is precedence for making a way in the wilderness of man’s knowledge, power and control before He brings the call to the glory of His Kingdom.
Bringing all this to the table in a loose form to visualize the process of living off of His intercession in repentance, it now seems necessary to dig deeper and reinforce the impetus or primary desire of His intercession for us. What is at the heart our advocate and counselor? What is He speaking of, or calling for? For a glimpse into that understanding we might journey to the end of John chapter 17 where we find Jesus praying just before his arrest, trial and crucifixion. He was praying for those who will believe in Him because of the message He gave the disciples. That would be us and those still yet to come. So, how was He interceding? What word was at the root of His prayer? …Unity. That we would be one just as the Father is in Him and He is in the Father. Singularity of purpose for us to be in unity, with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through the love they share. After that prayer came the death of Jesus, the example we are to follow. In it we are set free and by His Spirit we are invited back to Him through resurrection to live in the very nature we were created in, His image. …Steep in that …it is like the leaven the woman hid in the meal, the essence of His Kingdom.
Jesus was praying in line with how we were created and toward the restoration of that fellowship. To be “in” His image and to walk in the unity of The Father’s love, through the Holy Spirit. Relinquished by man in the garden for self will and self determination apart from the counsel and expressed desire of God, the original sin was the breaking from the unity of the Triune God. Yeah, it’s pride, but the broken unity is what God morned because His image was rejected.
In as much as Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing”, Adam was sentenced to death for not listening to and following the intercession, the voice and counsel of God. Adam did not live off the intercession of The Father in repentance and was banned from the tree of life. Adam did not consider, ponder, heed or follow the word of God. That unwillingness to be unified with His will, His Kingdom and His word carries forward today. Even amid professed belief there is untold self will and self determination contrary to God, I know because I live with myself. But God’s purpose was to present Himself again, to the common person, unsought, to recreate unity in Him through the death and resurrection of Christ, leaving us the example that the tree of life is rooted in His will. This unity is the intercession of Christ, then and now and that is why:
He is also able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Heb.7:25
Did you catch that?
Because of His intercession for us, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him. It is obvious to this observer what is being said is, He speaks and we trail behind, with and after, considering, pondering and heeding His words of life that are salvation. Because as He said, No branch can bear fruit by itself. If you remain in me and and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5 We can count on the fact that if He didn’t say it, it will count as nothing and be dead, because it will not be able to be reconciled back to Him. Big ponder stop right here.
So what stands before us now is the unrealized or worse, abandoned intercession of Jesus. His intercession is for those who would believe, to be one in Him. This is the doctrine of Jesus Christ that conforms us to godliness, yet as a collective are we one as He intercedes on our behalf? Conversely, there seems to be more splinters of “belief” today than ever. Like, my knowledge is better than your knowledge.
Maybe it just speaks to the depth of brokenness and pride, arrogance and self-centeredness we still live in? In His love He intercedes, standing at the door knocking, to draw us near to God through Him in repentance. But we listen to and follow the doctrines of men that are piled at the doorway, restricting the unified, free and open access He created. Viscus vines previously noted, this heaped up biomass obstructs the light of awareness that we should be listening for the voice of His intercession in repentance.
This accretion has a name, and at the risk of offense it is sadly called “denominationalism”. These banners that some stand by with great vigilance are born of factional self righteous spirits. Though not all under the banners revel in or even see this, but these disparate groups have fostered division over interpretations of scripture most with a zeal for “being right before God” not realizing that the very notion of a division in Christ is placing themselves right before God.
Similar to the standing definition of repentance, where men have stolen from God and turned it into feeling bad about oneself, with a need to show remorse and guilt, unity has been stolen from God as well. Men have placed themselves first, again. Making up rules based on their desires and opinions of scripture, the result has been division and obfuscation of the intercession of Christ for being one.
Righteousness has been wrestled out of the hands of Jesus as men take it upon themselves to set a standard, but end up instead as the ones who scatter. Matt 12:30 And to cover that imprudent nature, justification is found in the gathering of others believing they “possess” the truth, in contrast to the what the Spirit of truth said here:
If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. 1 Tim 6:3-5
Ouch! It does not sound like the Holy Spirit’s leading in Paul was acceptable to a bunch of men creating reasons to divide our fellowship for thinking they have gained or possess something. Being one in Him, this is the doctrine of Jesus Christ conforming us to godliness and in it there are rich full days of His leading in fellowship.
It is enough, but it is only possible if we listen for and follow the voice of His Spirit, the voice of the Shepherd. Enveloped in this understanding is godliness with contentment, great gain for He who possess truth, He who desires to lead us into all truth because it is after all, for His Glory. His intercession calls for unity in Him. It isn’t accomplished in any way humanly possible, it is only by the leading of His Spirit, THE most important asset the bride has in the earth.
Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? 1 Cor. 1:10-13
If Paul had written that letter today his chastisement would be to those who say they follow the “first council”, “Luther”, “Arminius”, “Wesley”, “Calvin” or the latest pastor/teacher or denomination du-jure to the prideful exclusion of others. He would ask the same question, has Christ been divided and the sad insinuation would still be correct, YES.
Jesus said my sheep hear MY voice and will not follow another. We are to listen for His voice and in following, we will be conformed to godliness. The doctrines of men, good as they may sound, are just that. Then and now, we will live off of His intercession in repentance. We are constantly being called back into unity with the Godhead, together as a bride to the Son, let us cast off the doctrines of division, hear and heed that word that proceeds from the mouth of God, in repentance.
Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. Matt 12:25
This is so fresh and so wonderful to my soul that I could go on for days extolling the virtues and beauty of it all. Truly, I have, as I have been speaking and writing about the contents of “What Am I Doing Right Now” for almost a year now. It has been 4 full and prosperous seasons wrapped in the mystery of the interrogative relationship He brings, but I will seek to conclude (though it’s endless) this writing with a few more thoughts and statements that center around His voice and our response.
Never have I been more free than to know I simply need to stop and be listening for His voice in repentance. His voice is the fullness of His life supplied. He is merely waiting for a response, a heart of repentance, the radiant adornment, the fragrant aroma of the bride He seeks. This is the burden that is light, this is the yoke that is easy.
Paul asked, What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it why do you act as if you did not receive it? 1 Cor 4:7 Being forgetful of these words we have subdivided Christ, if that were even possible, into factions of Christ if that is even Christ?
The breaking of His unity is in direct opposition to His intercession in the Garden,… both Gardens. Jesus says become like a child because everything the little child has was received from another. They do not posses the means to get it themselves, so they must ask for it to be given. This is the direct corollary to His intercession. He knows we don’t possess the means to get to Him so he offers His voice, the voice of truth to lead us to Himself.
We do not see without Him bringing revelation and are incapable to do the will of God without the Spirit leading in intercession. We are a child and have no means to “possess” (Phil 3:13) what He holds out to us. Only God by His Spirit can find us and lead us to Himself, it is the gift to whosoever. We don’t pursue Him, He pursues us. We have never kept up a relationship with Him. We have never desired to pray, read scripture, or love our enemies, but He has through us. We have either responded to His draw John 6:44, His intercession or we haven’t. When this is understood then the radiant beauty of God’s mercy unfolds in our hearts and the burden that is light shines on His desire,… Unity.
Hearing the question, “What am I doing right now?” brought a pregnant probe to my soul; an axle and pivot to all undertakings in Him. By test of, petition in prayer and searching the scriptures, living off of His intercession in repentance has become the fulcrum by which all understanding is balanced in my spirit. In time, I gave Him the right answer to His question, “You are interceding”, but I couldn’t solve the mystery of the word he was speaking without asking and seeking His revelation on it, like a child.
He brought the words intercession and repentance to me and dissected them in my presence. He ripped at man’s reasoning and defining lexical principles to clear an arresting, awe-inspiring, open path to Him through the jungle of religious dogma that surrounds.
Knowing He is interceding, could have led me into the trap of knowledge about God. But Clue is not about identifying and categorizing the players, weapons and rooms and placing them in a nice little box. It is about the mystery that needs to be solved. His question did not revolve around me knowing that intercession was taking place. The beauty and elegance in the design of His of the question was about unfolding the mystery of the One speaking and His desire for me to know and love His voice and join with, after and behind Him in unity. To re-enter His image in repentance. Wow!!