August 2003 archives

"..those who handle the law did not know Me." Jeremiah 2:8 The law itself was not bad, in fact Paul says that the law was good (ITim 1:8), for it made people aware of thier sin, but many replaced God with the law. And many have replaced God with religious activity. I'm looking at church doctrine and how it got separated from God Himself. So that we began to talk about what we believe apart from God. The principles of doctrines are IN Him-they issue forth from Him, and should lead us into Him. Tradition was never meant to be set apart from communion with Christ. "Apart from Him we can do nothing."

"truths" being divided from The One who IS Truth...religion re-invented as a body of doctrine, of statements about NOT FROM the actual beng of Christ-resplendent, full, radiantly awake. "Apart from Me, you can do nothing." Over and over He said this. The pharisees had doctrines. It is almost as if christian doctrine replaced the law and served in the same religious spirit--letter apart from spirit kills. Doctrine apart from His Being is not IN The Truth.
Doctrine, docere teachings...but You Christ are the Teacher and The Teaching, The Life and the Light.
So if we know the creed but we don't know The Christ what good will empty words do us-empty religious activity outside of Him. He told the pharasees that they knew the law but not the God who made the Law. It is the same problem. Eli falling dead when religion did not turn out to be God.

What do Jeremiah's day, the beginning of the medieval period, and the post modern moment all have in common? All unstable shake moments in which it became obvious what people were clinging to. Some clung to doctrine, others to pleasure, others to religious activity-and some to Christ!

Strange and wonderful summer, like a Christ centered woodstock only on about twenty different locals and at least six different nations-what lingers is a deeper sense of communion with friends-the Jones of course, and Jessica-but also deeperbonds with shannon and ericka, Linnea and others..and then to meet Bruce and Sarah and their lovely and alive clan before we left. We are blessed to be part of such a funky, colorful part of His Creative Force in motion on the earth right now! Just glad to be still swinging after all these years. Seeing Eric from out in our california days also made it all feel connected-thinking of Brad coming down to Austin and watching God link us all over time and space-what a blast to be in His Be in! Incarnate in us God, we love You!

Eli was the last priest judge of Israel. He fell dead when the ark of the covenant was taken by an enemy. He fell dead when the religious symbol was taken. He had placed his trust in religion and religious activity and put it in the place of God. This is the religious spirit. God replaced Eli the priest with Samuel the prophet who knew God Himself.
Eli's sons had another problem and followed another spirit. They put their own souls above their spirits, and in doing so rebelled against God's order of spirit above soul. They fell under the spell of carnality. To be carnal is to place your soul above your spirit, and be led by it-this works itself out as love of money, pleasure, earthly power and may other things, but the rebellion is the same-it is against the true order of things.
These two spirits prevail now as well as then: the religious spirit and carnality. They both block us from knowing God directly. When we place out trust in our religious activities instead of God, they become a block. And when we lift our soul above our spirit, we also block our knowing of God, because God's Spirit speaks to our spirits in that secret place. God wants to be known. Both Eli and his son's had placed things between them and God-one placed religion, the other carnality. These two are still the problems for most of us.

A PROPHET'S LAUNCH

Christ in the musician's chamber downloading sonic frequencies..Christ in the girls face who feels no glow...Christ between old friends..Christ in the wine...Christ on the phone line...Christ saying yes to Bryce and Sam cuddled in by the whole tribe..Christ in the subtle nuances on the live wires and the unseen currents between us all...Christ forming His Church..Christ drinking an ale..Christ making the Ale...Christ making marriage and hope...Christ teaching the musicians the use of instruments in heaven...

Christ in every domain of life; Christ in every pub, coffee cafe...undualistic Christ; unitary Christ..Christ awake in His People..Christ's Face radiant and strong beaming its holy life..in intellectual rooms with the french philosophers-Christ..among friends on a beach in the south of england, Christ..in the patterns of sound coming down from heaven in the starving studios of the levites..Christ in our own hand trying to give out His Words-to express them more roundedly awake...

So how was it that St Patrick carried so much more of the Kingdom than most of us do now? We are meant to be the place that the heavens bend down and touch the earth..the manifesting jesus ones...overcome us with Yourself..spill into and over us..fill and make us your Grace space to be in to be in to be in us and us in You..Lover Lord King Comrade..angel of Life Jesus....how is it that Patrick moved more like an old testament prophet who moved in realms of teacher theologian visionary planter dreamer poet...are we giving YOU room to move..i want Your fullest expression on earth-come Lord IMPLANT Yourself in me...grow oh Tree of Life oh Christ Himself-where else is safe..what else is living awake ebulliently streaming...oh butterfly of Your Spirit alight right on this unseen branch within me..make me Your landing...

so the words of the week spill out like cherry wine...or an older merlot from france...they have to do with pubs and golden harps in frosted glass..they have to do with holism and newer levels of Him in Us..they have to do with giving Him room to be in us..they have to do with the shattering of religious categories of expression which hold Him in..they have to do with love everlasting ebullient eruptive flowing over and out from Him through His People onto the earth..making a way preparing a space for HIM to BE--they have to do with art as an actual metaphysical space for Him to enter..they have to do with the levites (the artist) going first before the church in to the land to occupy what once was and still is His..it has to do with the war on for the whole person-it has to do with undividing people, making them more whole and more holy..it has to do with Him entering us-incarnation, recusitation, -saying be what I made you to be before the beginning..that path I prepared beforehand to be your way...it has to do then with more of Him being given room to move into and through more of us..it has to do with communion on the water, and the spiritual ways of the sea..it has to do with nautical knots tied in the spirit between people..these other ways he builds his manifest Body on earth...these invisible flexible organic ways of linking we feel forming within us these days...and it has to do with trusting the hold of the knot in wind and water through the coming storms...from spirit to spirit in HIM

So I have a heart to write a full and well rounded expression-with outilines and nuances..it would be an expression of the part of God which loves to bounce forth and express Himself. the desire is to be that expression really. To become a place for Him to cut loose and lose His religion and just be! With a war on in the heavens it is my heart to be a relief space for Jesus. I wish I could do more for Him...it is like this feeling of just being able to offer myself as a space for Him to dwell-like maybey He needs a good laugh, to ride in a funny car, or to go to six nations in two weeks-just for fun.
But yesterday, with heavy clouds lurching over sheffield, and cool air on stone-with Mark Stoney's music in the air, and friends nearby from so many seasons-I just wanted to enter that hidden place of thunder and be thankful. We are all going through so much change these days-new families being grafted in and each of us being asked what we really want-many being called out into the unfamiliar-others entering new levels of revelation of who He is...with all that, one thing is clear-we need one another, and to get to know Him in one another is a real path.
Really precious time with Jessica this week, just being so thankful for the friends He has hand chosen to accompany us on our journey. She is such a special sister-like a real sister to me...and then seeing abigail again, and remembering the caliber of people He has given us...i don't know, we are so blessed! An international accortment of the finest of the fine!
Staying with Mark and Hannah is such a richly textured blessing for us to...we feel really served in a way neither of us is used to-and by people we really just like...it is like the newer unity level in the overall Body looks and feels like this-it feels like friendship not co-ministry.
So amazing to re-converge with the Jonesw as well-they continue to be our comrades and inspiration to continue this lifestyle-so many of us have had the privelege to journey with and around them for years, and I never take it for granted-it is so freeing to just be given permission to live out your life with Christ as yourself with no religious airs-and so funkily.
Amy and I are both hungry for austin, and she maybey more than i is road weary-her spirituality is not as mobile as mine and it is near time to return to our american base...but I feel this rich song of the summer in me today and can only hum in thankfulness. A sone of friendships deepening, and revelations quickening, of new music and good monastic wine-of overabundant communions in ragamuffin hostels along the way...and of Jesus in a time of war growing fuller in His People.

"That's what I'm talkin about" in the new jersey accent of Marty Ballstein in "Zoolander"...yes, it is somehow to be led back to that place on a collective level where the church is in that secret place of meeting and listening from her spirit to His Spirit, and that dance is going on so that all her programs are flowing forth from that meeting room...then we will not discuss doctrine as being separate from His Reality....then we will BE a manifestation of His Kingdom, so that our magnetism will draw people into His World like gravity.

..remember that the secret dwelling place is that space in us where His Spirit is conversing with our spirit, and our soul's follow from that conversing (that con=with verse-to turn; so that turning with)..so how is the church to be led back into that secret dwelling place on a collective level..

So to move on into this thing...if the church has a soul and a spirit, and is currently soul dominated, so that people are making plans and programs out of thier natural thinking and sight; how would we make the transition to a place where we are being led by His Spirit in our spirits? It is like the charismatic movement was spirit to spirit but was not yet integrated with the soul parts of His Church-like all sky no earth. But if there is a newer level of Him Integrating Himself in His People then the soul parts and spirit parts of The Church need to meet-there is no dualism in Him. He made the earth, the physical body, and He is Spirit...so I'm thinking of how He is going to help us see with our spiritual eyes and hear with our spiritual ears, so that we can place the soul in proper relation to the spirit-it is not about eradicating soul, but putting it in the proper order--it is never about no cool coffee shops or great art, but letting all activity flow from that conversation between His Spirit and our spirits!

Ok last serious churchy one, but need to get these out...the church separated God's propositional truths from God Himself-when this split occured all type of religious mess entered. To correct this God wants to get us to start with Him Himself and then let Him show us His Propositions...example, the word of God is perfect because God is Perfect-any discussion of the innerancy of scripture outside a deep and full meditation on who God is-is foolish. God wants to reconnect our "concepts" with Himself, for they flow from Him. We start with God and who He is before looking at doctrine because doctrine is to lead to God; otherwise we fall on the same ground as the pharisees-who knew the law but did not recognize God standing before them. Ok I'm done being serious-now I must go make art.

All programs built from the church's soul without coming from His Spirit are going to die. The church must relearn how to listen from her spirit to His Spirit. He wants to sensitize its spirit to listen to Him again, so that she can start building as She sees the Father building. When this starts to happen you will see great increase in fruit.

To continue-His Spirit is broadcasting to the spirit of the Church. But the church must listen from its spirit-His Spirit speaks with her spirit just like in an individual. The soul of the church's life is currently largely having dominion over its spirit-this must get reversed; so God is taking many on a season of "spirit sensitization" so they can once again be "led by The Spirit"-for as many who are led by His Spirit these are sons...

So if you look at the Church as a collective with a soul and spirit and He is speaking into its spirit...

The Spirit of God comes in and converses with our spirits. When we prophecy we are speaking from His Spirit to the spirit of that particular person..what about on the collective level-what about the spirit of a nation for instance. His Spirit is speaking into its spirit and trying to get its soul to then follow the spirit-so beginning to look more collectively at the communication dynamic between God and us....i promise this is going somewhere!

...returning to this secret place teaching...where is the secret place of the Most High? that wonderous space between your spirit and The Holy Spirit-that chamber is where the dwelling is...we are promised in the psalm song 91 that when we dwell there, we are protected, blessed and caused to flourish...he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High...

Here is a short one-perhaps boring to some, but interesting to me...somewhere along the line doctrine got separated from God, so that it became possible to talk about doctrine as separate from the Reality of God. How this happened is historical, but what it means is that we no longer reflect back into and on God when we look at a particular doctrine-so most of us are no longer interested in looking at doctrine because it feels spirituallly "uncharged" or just dead-we think of dogma or church doctrine and we see dust and old books..but if we instead start with God Himself-who He is and then trace down into particular releases of Himself in doctrine that He has allowed to be revealed over time, then we start at a place of getting to know and love Him.
I'm trying to understand how doctrine got divorced from God...so we look at say sanctification, and ask-what part of Him is reflected in this doctrine...etc-this way, study of doctrine becomes meditation on God.