Notes From The Ruach on Galatians, Chapters 3-5
(on the purpose & promise of “The Law” in the life of the believer)
When Paul is admonishing the folks in Galatians not to be in bondage to the Law, he WAS talking about the Rabbinic interpretations of Torah, the Law given on Mt. Sinai. He calls the law a tutor. He likens it to one who prepares a student to graduate. He is adamant that God never intended it to be the “final solution” for our sin. But it was both a temporary boundary, to keep our flesh from damning us entirely, and also a visible standard to illustrate what holiness would look like when we were finally granted access to it!
Reading it today, however, I see some other implications for The Body of The Anointed One. We STILL have a fleshly tendency to serve a “law”, one formed around religious doctrine. Only now, it is, in my opinion, somewhat worse than the first version! It has become a dumbed down, man-infested, bastardized, ripped off, hijacked, and slaughtered, version of Torah that barely resembles God's standard at all!
As, over the centuries since the book of Acts, “Theologians” have taken the place of the original, God appointed, “Priests”, in “interpreting” to us what God's Word says. This is NOT better! We, believers today, have done no better than the Hebrews of that time. We have NOT become holy. We are NOT walking in His power as we should. Etc.
Oh there are those who DO! Who have wrestled their way through the vast jungle of doctrinal weeds, which have effectively strangled the life out of most fellowships in America! I avoid the words “church” and “Christian” because they've become virtually meaning less to most Americans! “Church has come to mean a kind of social club, where, if you sign up and line up you can fit in! But if you “stick out”, or “stand out”, here and there they won't tolerate you long!
The proof that this system is a failed system, (an old wineskin, with some weak wine to begin with, at best; OR, a contrived work of the devil himself, at worst) is the utter lack of real, life-changing, ANOINTING!
If we were keeping the Law of GOD from our hearts – as LED by HIS SPIRIT – which is what Yeshua commanded us to DO and WHO He commanded us to BE – then our prayers would not fall to the ground as frequently! If we were fulfilling “The Great Commission” the way HE commanded us to, if we were obey HIS idea of what that was and is - then the number of people getting delivered of addiction would begin to rival the number falling prey to it, etc....!
Less face it … few of us have seen the dead raised! Heck, most of us can't get healed of a head cold without applying our fleshly knowledge! That is why people now run to the Emergency Room for a simple UTI! We have become a nation of “believers”, whose “belief” system is limited to the realm of man. Religious flesh is still flesh. And it is the worst kind, because it is the most confusing. It makes claims for God that it can not support, and dims God's Glory, Love and Majesty in the earth!
What I mean is that we still “serve the law”, but we are now serving a foreign law, and doing even that from wrong motives and understanding! One example is this whole idea of what is meant by “not forsaking the fellowship of the Brethren”. This has come to mean that you show up at whatever facility your latest “tribe”, group of “believers”, has chosen as a place of corporate worship – but not just for the times of worship, but also every time the dang doors are unlocked! It means that we must line up and sign up for something else to do! It has come to mean that some “spiritual leader” has determined is what GOD is saying to do now, whether WE have heard that from The Spirit – for us - or not!
Is that being led by The Spirit!? I think not! And I'll tell you all this right now. I will not EVER “JOIN” anything else, in order to feel that I belong! I am “card carrying” member of The Body of Christ! I am as committed as it gets! I am Blood Bought, Grafted in, Word Washed, Spirit and Water Baptized, Tongue talking, Worshiping, Fasting, OBEDIENT, Anointed, Beloved of GOD!!!! IF that isn't good enough for you people take a hike! Am I saying I've arrived? Uh. NO. But I HAVE been at this spiritual life, including but not limited to …. studying The Word (both written and living) and learning to be lead by His Spirit, and to find and use boundaries with believers - longer than most leadership have been alive! Or at least longer than they have been at those things themselves! So respect can now go both ways, or not at all! I am OVER the whole multilevel marketing approach to “leadership”. I don't DO titles! I don't require a title to obey God! I am called to SERVE the body of Christ. But how I do that is up to HIS SPIRIT. Not someone claiming to be a shepherd who seems very selective in what sheep he or she will deal with! These are God's sheep! Be careful how you treat them!
Now. If a lot of people hear, by The Spirit, the request put out by that leadership, who has indeed heard from God, and feel led, themselves, to go be involved answering that request – that, of course - is altogether different. But, what I am objecting to is the constant prodding and manipulating from the head of the room – insinuations that, if one is not showing up as often as they think they should, then that one is not connected to the body”! That is is hogwash & manipulation! Manipulation is witchcraft, according to Scripture. Notice it begins with the word “MAN”. We are to be Spirit Led, and Spirit Grown, not MAN-AGED! There must be order. There must be effort on all parts. But if I have to dig my way into a body, like I'm mining for gold, then something is wrong!
OF COURSE we are to FELLOWSHIP WITH BELIEVERS! But that is to be a daily, constant connection, not a weekly (or should that be weakly) visit – in which we all show up to worship ourselves into a frenzy, be exhorted (or manipulated -or a little of both, usually), and go home without connecting with anyone but God! I can do that better at home! Thank you!
I DO “fellowship”, a.k.a., stay in contact with believers, all the time! I reach out to unbelievers with the love of God too! But they aren't who I call on when I need prayer! But at this point in my life the believers with whom I fellowship come from all over the place, not just one “fellowship”. We need to lose this “club” mentality when it comes to “having church”, or “being in fellowship”. I am not a “Church-Hopper”, I do not run from connections. But I DO shun pretentious nonsense in the Name of Jesus!
As I have said, I have been at this gig longer than most people, who perceive themselves to be now “running” this thing (as if that were possible) have been alive! WE do NOT run this thing! We assist The Spirit of GOD in HIS WORK, as His feet, hands, mouth-piece, eyes and ears, down here! We are to be led by HIM at all times. We are not supposed to be, nor required to be, “led” by some passive/aggressive leadership, who have worked their way up to that position within the currently accepted systems of religious training! Hey, if that is how GOD has led your training that's great! Kudos to you for being able to endure that stuff and still have a smidge of His actual Anointing! But that is NOT how HE has led me! And if I am to respect your journey then you must also respect mine! He knew what He was doing when He trained me too!
I have been a faithful attender of the system called “Church” (off and on, but mostly ON) for over 60 years. When I was finally old enough to be called on for service, I willingly hupped when I was told to hup! I have cleaned, done children's church, teen-fellowship, worship, cooked for events, prison ministry, street ministry, hospital ministry, as well as laboring, hands on, in my drug-infested, ethnically diverse, neighborhood for the last 20 years!
Was I a perfect vessel? Not yet! But – if we use the analogy of “Kintsugi Pottery”, which is a Japanese art form, in which broken vessels are repaired by using gold to hold their pieces together, instead of glue – then I am a glittering and valuable piece of work, because there were a LOT of pieces!!!!! But, there is more to come, because His will, if I understand correctly, is to eventually crush ALL of those pieces, and melt it all down, until the whole vessel is made of HIS GOLD, which reflects HIS light and image exactly! So, the Work continues! I am in no way trying to take a stance of judgment. Even over the leaders who clearly abused their positions in my experience. But to shed light on a system that hasn't worked, isn't working now, and isn't going to!
God takes great pleasure in redeeming the broken ones. But this system is flawed in that it hasn't – in most of the places I have been – yet come to the place of being able to see past the broken, or to apply His GOLD to those broken pieces. In fact, most of my journey has been God sending me to these places, then repairing me Himself because they made more pieces out of my pieces! Lol But – even our LORD referred to Himself as broken bread, and poured out wine, so even that wasn't all bad. Well, at least, what the enemy meant for evil, God turned to good. So Grace, Grace and MORE Grace!
Some breaking and reforming is necessary. As I have indicated, God is at the helm to utterly redeem ALL of us, every piece, every part, and every motive of our heart! And at some point, as I have said, GOD HIMSELF melts us down utterly and reforms us into His own image once again. Which was His original intent for us!
So, I have learned and observed that these places of “fellowship” are His workshops in which we get refined, reformed and eventually redeemed. Iron sharpens Iron! Sparks fly! We die to the flesh to be raised in Him, His Spirit, and to have our, once dormant, spirit-being enlivened. I would rather be worked on there, with people who are at least trying to find God, than be the devil's cat toy out in the world. Though these people are also being worked on, and sometimes are used by God to kindle the fires which will melt us down, so that the dross, (flesh) can be removed, and the gold can be more pure, and we are the same kind of kindling to them.
BUT, also, for those of us who are in that process, and have willingly, eagerly, submitted ourselves to those processes, we are learning, and FINALLHallelujah!! We need to stop trying to manage God's work for Him.
We need to stop stoking the fire, when we're not managing the vessel. AND – on the other extreme - we need to stop interrupting His processes in the lives of others because WE think the fire is too hot! Playing amateur providences! Which usually happens because WE are resisting the melt-down process ourselves, and can't bear to see others going through it! Or because WE sympathize with the foolish flesh and insult God by insinuating that WE are more loving than HE IS?!! And we are so earnest in our belief that this is what His love looks like – our being a mediator between His fire and a fleshly “believer”! We are not called to enable sin, nor to judge it. We are called to surrender OUR sinful flesh to HIM for execution, receive the sacrifice of The Anointed One, and then work with His Spirit, in HIS WORD, OURSELVES, until our mind is renewed, and we have died to the flesh and arisen in the spirit.
This fellowship business IS a serious part of that process! And The Spirit of GOD has led me IN and OUT of it for the last six decades! He has used that system to heal me, refine me, correct me, and instruct me in His ways – but I have to be honest in saying that His Spirit was also, always, since I was a kid, tuning me into what parts of that system were HIM, and which parts were NOT of Him! And I have been weeding that mess the whole way through! I have been a SERIOUS follower of God since I was three. So serious that I led someone to Him when I was FIVE. Yes. Five years old. And I have never stopped seeking Him. I have never stopped participating in His refining process!
But, as I have said, I HAVE learned, along the way, where to submit, where not to, what IS originated by HIS SPIRIT, and what is NOT. I have learned to recognize His hand in things. To know where He is having GRACE – with me or others - because of ignorance or immaturity, and to know when He is just DONE with some things.
His judgment is on our nation NOT ONLY because of the rampant outbreak of sins by the sinners!!! But because of the apathetic, selectively ignorant, lazy, religious ruin of that system known as “Christianity”. He is tired of the stupidity. The avoidance of His Word and Presence. The Multilevel marketing approach to discipleship which HE did NOT ordain nor approve! He is OVER the hijacking of His Word by the Catholic Church, which the great Martin Luther began to address but failed to implement! And even worse, made the religious mess worse, and more confusing, by become offended with the very people he was called to preach redemption to, instead of letting God work him past that temptation!
I am not judging the man! I am wrestling a similar temptation, it is difficult NOT to be angry with the hard-headed “church”, and to resist calling down even MORE judgment! Lol To me this whole system of man-made religiosity is a sickening abuse of all things holy! Most fellowships are run on “a form of godliness while denying the power of it!” The temptation to just throw it down and walk away is huge. He DOES say to “Come out from among it, and to touch not the unclean thing.” Which sounds an awful like He is saying “Come out of this false, man-made religion, which has some things right, but too many things wrong, and just go back to the LAW.” That is the message people keep getting. But most people just go back to the world. More fun for the unchanged flesh! But what HE wants , is for us ALL to “go back to” is the Book of Acts! To flow in His power and blessing!
His followers, after being filled with His Spirit, went to the synagogue for teaching, of what written Word they had back then; giving honor to their God, and the system of worship which HE had put in place; and then they went to “fellowship with “believers” from house to house over THE LIVING WORD! They preached HIS Truth, the ANOINTING flowed, and they turned their world upside down!
Many of them gave their lives for it! But it was surely worth it! He is OVER this business of playing church, attempting to placate Him into giving them His blessing, so they can feel good about themselves, while still choosing to cater to that bit of prideful flesh, which has been allowed to be hanging about in there!
To be honest though, this prophetic gifting is a mixed blessing, because I see the difficulties, but am just learning to find HIS POWER to endure, and maybe be used as part of the solution! Sometimes I feel like Tigger, from Winnie the Pooh, “I'm see-sick from seeing too much!”
But I'm sensing that He wants a SPIRIT-Led, WORD-Fed, get out of bed, and off the couch, lose the grumble and the grouch, show up hungry, go out full, time to get real, lose the bull, serious about HIS GAME, All the Glory for HIS NAME, stripped of self, and doubt and shame – ready to conquer what remains – folks who've conquered that deceiver, who've become eager receivers, REAL, CONVINCED, ANOINTED, BELIEVERS!!!!! Folks who DO – AFTER they HEAR IT, Truly led by His Word and Spirit! Those who stand in utter Awe, of HIS Work to fit US to His Law, who's put His Law deep in our heart, from the Father it never will depart, His LOVE through us will prove that art! For if His image we truly bear, then His law will manifest from there! We can not fail His Grace for we, will walk in total liberty. We need not strain, we need not stress, we will not make the former mess! Religion will not now hold sway, it must be moved out of the way. RIGHTEOUSNESS will have her day! And GOD will have His Will on earth, through His Faithful ones will birth, a fresh Anointing, it's now here, are we tuned in so we can hear? Let's lose the forms of godliness which have denied the power, let's connect with Him in His Spirit now, so we can redeem His world, this hour. Let's find our wings in Him and fly, and kiss this worthless mess good-bye!
Selah, and Shalom Haverim
AND – Chag Sameach Hanukkah! May the same fervor which stirred the Macabees to defeat the evil Syrian army, stir His people today to stand agains the ideologies which have robbed us of His Joy and Peace. Amen!
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