The way of the Wind is the way of greatest emptiness; The way for the Water is the place of the lowest depth; The way for the Lightning is along the line of the greatest weakness. ‘If any man lack’ – there is God’s condition for His inflow. - Lilias Trotter
God’s modus operandi is usually the opposite of what we think. We tend to apply our earthly principles to heavenly matters and then wonder why things don’t work out as we think they should! But God’s Heavenly Kingdom operates on completely different principles to what we on earth are used to. If He gave us everything we thought we needed, even “spiritual” things like wisdom, love, joy etc, we would take them and think we owned them and deserved them. We would see those things as ours and would have no need to depend on God.
There is no greater gift we can give others than the gift of ourselves: our friendship, our love, our time, our thoughts, our lives… and it is exactly the same with God: He gives HIMSELF! Instead of giving us things, God gives us one huge Gift: Himself in His Son. It is easier for us to give gifts of things, than to simply be a gift to someone. Perhaps it would be easier for God to give us things than to BE Himself in us, but if He were to give us Love as a thing, we would think it was us that was loving; if He were to give us Wisdom as a thing, we would think that it was us who was wise…
For Him to be Love, Light, Wisdom, Peace, Joy and everything we not only need but also want, we need to accept His Life instead of ours, and His Way instead of ours. But His Way is not our way, and the principles of His upside-down and back-to-front Kingdom are the opposite of our own…
It is when I know emptiness, that I know Your fullness; When I know silence, I know You are speaking; When I stop, I see You begin; When I know death, then I experience real Life; Only when I know how weak I am, do I know true Strength.
It is when I trust like a little child, that I am spiritually mature; When I am bound to You, then I know true Freedom; When I am broken, I know Restoration; When I can’t carry on, You carry me on; Only when I see who I really am, do You reveal who You really are.
It is when I am in darkness, that I find Light; When I am alone in the wilderness, I have entered the Promised land; When I am decreased, You are increased; When I am stupid, I learn Your Wisdom; Only when I give up, do You take over.
It is when I know real Rest, that I am working; When I realise how poor I am, I am becoming wealthy in Your Kingdom; When I am misunderstood, I understand You more; When I am rejected, I am really accepted; Only when I am tested, do You become my Testimony.
It is when I see how wrong I am, that I discover how Right You are; When I mess up, then I know You as Grace; When I know I am lost, that I am found; When I lose my mind, that I gain Your mind; Only when I consider myself last, are You really First.
It is when I have nothing, that You become Everything; When I can’t see anything, that You reveal everything; When I stop relying on myself, that You prove everything; When I can do nothing, I see You do everything; And only when I am nothing, can You be seen in me as “I Am Everything”!
Instead of giving me wisdom, You give Yourself as Wisdom Instead of giving me love, You give Yourself as Love Instead of giving me truths, You give Yourself as Truth Instead of giving me peace, You give Yourself as Peace Instead of giving me many things You give me One Thing: everything You are…
“Don’t deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise in the ways of this world, you should give up that wisdom in order to become really wise. The wisdom of this world is nonsense in God’s sight. That’s why Scripture says, “God catches the wise in their cleverness.” Again Scripture says, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are pointless.” So don’t brag about people. Everything belongs to you… You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God… What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift? You are partners with Christ Jesus because of God. Jesus has become our wisdom sent from God, our righteousness, our holiness, and our ransom from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.” “My kindness is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.” So if Christ keeps giving me His power, I will gladly brag about how weak I am. Yes, I am glad to be weak or insulted or mistreated or to have troubles and sufferings, if it is for Christ. Because when I am weak, I am strong.” (1 Cor. 3:18-23; 4:7; 2 Cor. 12:9,10; 1 Cor. 1:30,31).
We have given up our wisdom for Christ. 1 Cor 4:10 GWT
Used with Permission. Unveiling.org
When God first called us out of religion twelve years ago, we didn't understand exactly what He was asking us to leave. Over time we saw that He was not just calling us to leave the church we were part of, but anything and everything that was a substitute for Him. Thankfully He did not reveal this to us all at once, but has been leading us on a journey, through a process, one step at a time...We consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting. 2 Cor. 4:18.
Recently Father brought me to another step which involved my use of the word “church”. Until this point, I believed that although He had called us out of religion, we were part of the church which Jesus was building; we were called to BE the church because the church was the people rather than the building. I felt I needed to constantly correct the common “misunderstanding” of the word, both to myself and others, and yet saying “we are the church” was very open to misunderstanding too. Some would think we were saying “we are THE church” or “WE are the church” or thought it was just semantics. Unbelievers couldn’t fathom it at all. They understand what the word church means in English: It is a religious place where religious people go to do religious things!
Whether we like it or not, the church is a religious system which not only substitutes itself in place of Christ in people’s lives, but also actively prevents them from knowing Him outside of the construct of itself. Jesus is building something heavenly and not earthly; He is NOT building the religious, institutional, compromising, man-created mixture that is the church. While editing a book for a friend, Father suddenly opened my eyes to see all of this and simultaneously gave me the freedom to leave the word “church” and stop trying to redeem it. I sensed that there had a been a season for that, but now I felt released to simply use the word church for what we know it to mean. The author wrote about this in chapter 8 of his book: The Irresistible Kingdom.
When I saw this, I realized we could no longer say we are the church or part of the church. While the world will be able to accept this without much trouble, those who consider themselves part of the church may not find it so easy. To me now though, it seems like saying we were part of the church was a justification to those who were church-goers - a way of reassuring them that although we were not attending a church, we were still part of the church because the church was the people of God… It made them, and us, feel a little bit better about it all!
But now we have left not only the buildings, the meetings, the system; we have also left the word. And just because we have left those things, doesn’t mean that we don’t have more religious sacred cows that need to be slaughtered and barbecued! Our religious mindsets blind us regardless of whether we are in the church or not. We have met people who consider themselves outside of the church system and yet are just as religious as anybody in a church. This is not about where we go or do not go, what we do or do not do, what we say or do not say - religion is an affair of the heart, and the heart belongs to only One. Seeing our religious prejudices how God sees them is an unveiling which begins in the spirit, and then brings change to the heart, mind and body. But change is often not easy for us to accept…
The Word: Church
English is a language which is evolving and constantly changing. There is nothing sacred about the word “church” although some may feel like there is due to their mindsets and what they have believed. The words we use are important. To use a word which means one thing to most people but something different to you and a few others, is to ask for misunderstanding. For instance, with the word “gay”, we don’t see many people trying to redeem the word to mean happy or insisting that they will use it by its original definition regardless of what it now means. Instead most people accept that the definition has changed and know what others mean when they use it. It is the same with us and the word “church”; why use a word that doesn’t mean what we think it should mean?
Most of us have thought of church as being Biblical; after all, didn’t Jesus say He was building His church? That is what our Bibles say He said and although we can go back to the original Greek and look back in time to see how we got this word “church”, it won’t achieve anything unless we have been given eyes to see things spiritually. Only God can open our eyes to see and accept Truth… so what is shared here is not for convincing you or condemning you if you don’t see what I have seen, but is given in the hope of watering the seeds which have been planted in the hearts of those who know they are called out of religion.
Most linguists agree that the word “church” is derived from the Greek word “kuriakos” which simply means “the Lord’s”. The word was used only twice in the Bible: in 1 Cor. 11:20 for “the Lord’s supper” and in Rev. 1:10 for “the Lord’s day”. It did not mean anything like what the word church means today! By the time the Roman Emperor Constantine had legalized Christianity in the year 313, another word had been added: doma. Kuriakos doma meant the Lord’s house or domicile, a building that was the Lord’s. When the Emperor declared Christianity to be Rome’s religion, he gave tax exemptions to the leaders of it, appointed Christians as high ranking officials, supported the church financially, and… built churches - “kuriakos doma”. However, the phrase “kuriakos doma” is not in the original Greek Scriptures at all.
The word commonly translated as “church” in the Bible was the Greek word “ekklesia” which simply meant “called-out ones” - those who were called out of something, for something (see the article Being Called for more on what we are called out of and into). Obviously we do have this word “church” in our Bibles and this is because in 1611 when the officially sanctioned English version of the Bible was produced by King James (who was the head of the church in England at the time) number three of the 15 rules the translators were given by him was:
The old ecclesiastical words to be kept, viz.: the word ‘Church’ not to be translated ‘Congregation’ etc. (The rules can be read here)
The reason he had to mandate this departure from the Greek meaning of the word “ekklesia” was because there had been a previous translation of the Bible into English by William Tyndale in which the word “church” did not occur at all. Instead “ekklesia” was translated as “congregation” even though there were churches around when Tyndale was alive. But the translators for King James were specifically commanded to translate ekklesia as “church” and also to not contradict the traditions of the established church of which he was the head. This accounts for many of the mistranslations still in our Bibles today.
The House of God
Some people call the church “the house of God” and this phrase occurs in the New Testament six times and is from two Greek words: “oikos theos”. The word “oikos” (translated as both house and household or in some more recent translations as “family”) means an “inhabited house” or the “household of a house”, which obviously refers to people. The instances where the phrase “oikos theos” occurs in the New Testament are interesting. The phrase refers to people in 1 Timothy 3:15 and 1 Peter 4:17 and refers back to the temple of the Old Testament in all the other instances (Matt. 12:4; Mark 2:26; Luke 6:4; Heb. 10:21). The writer of the book of Hebrews had been comparing the Old Testament temple to what we now have in Christ Who is the unseen, spiritual, heavenly House and Temple of God, NOT built with man’s hands here on earth.
The Scriptures make it very clear: the Temple of the Old Covenant was an example and parable until Christ came: “When God speaks of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete (out of use). And what is obsolete (out of use and annulled because of age) is ripe for disappearance and to be dispensed with altogether. Now even the first covenant had its own rules and regulations for divine worship and it had a sanctuary, but one of this world… Into the second division of the tabernacle none but the high priest goes… by this the Holy Spirit points out that the way into the true Holy of Holies is not yet thrown open as long as the former tabernacle remains a recognized institution and is still standing. Seeing that that first tabernacle was a parable (a visible symbol or type or picture of the present age)… But when Christ appeared as a High Priest of the better things that have come and are to come, then through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not a part of this material creation, He went once for all into the Holy of Holies, not by virtue of the blood of goats and calves, but His own blood, having found and secured a complete redemption (an everlasting release for us). For Christ has not entered into a sanctuary (building) made with human hands, only a copy and pattern and type of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” (Heb. 8:13; 9:1,7-9,11,12,24 AMP).
Stephen, who was accused of saying: “this Jesus the Nazarene will tear down and destroy this place, and will alter the institutions and usages which Moses transmitted to us” (Acts 6:14) further enraged the Jews when he said, “It was Solomon who built a house for Him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses and temples made with hands; as the prophet says, Heaven is My throne, and earth the footstool for My feet. What house can you build for Me, says the Lord, or what is the place in which I can rest? Was it not My hand that made all these things?” (Acts 7:47-50).
These verses mention a Building “not made with hands”. This was a radical and offensive shift from the earthly buildings and systems of Judaism, which were seen and made by man, to the heavenly which is spiritual and made by God. He had originally given the design for the temple but it had become an end in itself and had served its purpose; now Christ was in full view: “In Him the whole structure is joined (bound, welded) together harmoniously, and it continues to rise, grow and increase into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you yourselves also are being built up with the rest, to form a fixed abode (dwelling place) of God in (by, through) the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:19-22 AMP). This House is spiritual but we humans delight in having something which WE can make, feel, touch, see, hear, name, go to and worship in the here and now on this earth; so we have churches.
The Ekklesia of God
You may well wonder why, if Ekklesia means something different to church, the word has not been ammended in subsequent translations of the Bible. Perhaps because few people today would buy a version without the word “church” in it! It would be unthinkable. The church has deep roots in our society, traditions, beliefs, and culture. Two versions of the Bible were subsequently published without the word church in them though: Young’s Literal Translation in 1898 and earlier, in 1826, a translation of the New Testament called “A Living Oracle” by Dr Alexander Campbell. In the preface entitled “An Apology for a New Translation” is written the following:
“A LIVING language is constantly changing. Like the fashions and customs in apparel, words and phrases, at one time current and fashionable, in the lapse of time, become awkward and obsolete. But this is not all. Many of them, in a century or two, come to have a signification very different from that which was once attached to them. Nay, some are known to convey ideas not only different from, but contrary to, their first signification… that the common version [KJV] was made at a time when religious controversy was at its zenith; and the tenets of the translators whether designedly or undesignedly, did, on many occasions give a wrong turn to words and sentences bearing upon their favorite dogmas… But some are so wedded to the common version, that the very defects in it have become sacred; and an effort, however well intended, to put them in possession of one comparably superior in propriety, perspicuity, and elegance, is viewed very much in the light of ‘making a new Bible’ or of altering and amending the very word of God. Nay, some are prepared to doom every attempt of the kind, to the anathema, in the conclusion of the Apocalypse, upon those who add to the word of God, or subtract from it.” http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/oracles1st/preface.html
If you look in the Bible for the church as we know it, you cannot find it. The closest you will find is the temple system which Jesus said He would destroy and replace with Himself. That is incredibly significant and yet many continue to unknowingly believe in and support a Judaistic type of an earthly temple, admiring churches that are large and impressive and even calling them “the house of God”. Those things appeal to our human senses and to our image of what we think is worthy of God. They appeal to our mind and emotions and so people confuse the soul with the spirit, and the emotional, cultural, and intellectual with the spiritual, and end up thinking that it is all of God when it is one unholy mixture. We desperately need Discernment… to discern not only Christ, but also to discern when something is simply appealing to our mind and emotions.
Substitutes for Christ
The focus of the church is on Self rather than on Christ: Salvation is for us, Heaven is for us, Fellowship is for us, Ministry is for us, Healing is for us, the Anointing is for us, Teaching is for us, Christ is for us, etc etc. Church is a place to go and get your needs met; whether it is your need to minister or your need to be ministered to, or your need to simply belong. SELF is the centre and circumference with God being presented as being like us - made in our image instead of us being transformed into His image.
“Since the Fall, blinded man has ever continued to make himself central. From his point of view, even in the religious realm, concepts and resulting methods become twisted until it often seems the church is presenting a God whose entire working is for man - his benefit, welfare, blessing and bliss. Some will admit they frankly feel this is the true work of the church. Who else is important? What else should we preach? Who else but man is important to God? Does not God Himself expend all His energies and purposes for man? Yes, until man has had a major rectification he will, even as a believer, be the very center of his very small universe - seeking to make all things serve himself.” (DeVern Fromke, “The Ultimate Intention”).
While I am not saying that everybody in the church is like this, many do cling religiously to the mistaken beliefs, teachings and traditions of man instead of allowing God to break through and shatter those and instead lead them to Truth Himself. While that breaking is very costly and uncomfortable, surely we don’t want to be holding onto things which WE think are sacred and yet which are simply the traditions of man! Otherwise we may be in danger of making void the Word of God for the sake of our traditions as Jesus said in Mark 7.
Often church is a substitute for Christ in people’s lives. Church is their focus, their identity, what they live for, what they work for, what they love and fight for and they cannot comprehend leaving it. Ever. It is their life! We are the Ekklesia - the Called-Out ones of God - called out of all substitutes to know and experience the Reality and Truth of Christ and His Life! There is only One Who is our Life and Love and through Him God has provided the Way to free us from Sin, Self, Satan AND from all Substitutes. A substitute is a diabolical way of keeping us from the real and true because we are usually satisfied and quite happy with the substitute - because that is exactly what it is designed to do. It is only when you have encountered the Real, the Most Excellent, the Truth, that the substitute is shown to be a lie, a counterfeit and a very poor imitation.
Called Out Ones
After reading this some may concede that even if the word “church” isn’t Biblical, the institution is still obviously of God because look at how people can find Jesus there and all the good it does in the community etc. I would say to just look at how it takes the place of Christ and not only turns people off but away from God. The fact is that He not only can, but does, use many people and many things which do not even acknowledge Him or know Him. We see this in the Bible and we see it now: He is God and He can utilize anything and anyone to reveal Truth! Just because He spoke through a donkey yesterday and uses a Hollywood movie tomorrow doesn’t mean those things are suddenly holy or sacred. Just because God uses something or someone in a church to touch people’s lives doesn’t mean He either approves of it or is blessing it. I have heard Him speak through believers and through unbelievers; but what is more uncommon is holiness… God is holy, and every one who is wholly His, will have the same character.
Being “out of the institutional church” is an accepted and researched phenomena now, but the fact is that while many have heard the call to leave the church, very few have had the church leave them. Many have heard the call out, but not many have heard the call in (see Being Called). Most of us have years and years of deeply rooted religious beliefs that still need to be uncovered and pulled out. While I can no longer say that I am part of the church (which to me is wholly temporal and earthly), I can say that I am part of Christ and His Body (which to me is wholly eternal and heavenly).
There is a danger that we will stop and camp out with the last thing God showed us and not go on. Leaving church is only one step! We must KEEP listening, KEEP seeing, KEEP walking, KEEP on leaving all those things which God reveals as earthly and which are mere substitutes for the reality of Christ in our lives.
“The implications of any movement of God are not always recognized at the beginning, but if we go on with Him we shall find that much that is done here and is of time is - and has to be - left behind. The spiritual and the heavenly is pressing for a larger place and becoming absolutely imperative to the very life of the instrumentality and those concerned. It is spontaneous and just happens. We wake up to realize that we have moved into a new realm or position, and no amount of additional earthly resource can meet the need… The great pity is that so many just will cling to the old framework or partial vision. God presents His heavenly pattern in greater fulness and demands adjustment… But because it is ‘revolutionary’ or not ‘what has been in the blessing of God’ etc., etc., it is rejected and put aside… God in sovereignty will run the risk of shattering, or allow the shattering, of so much that He has used of scaffolding or framework in order to realize the fuller purpose… So, things may be taking a new and different shape, but the purpose of God is the same. We may be presented with His vision in new and further-on aspects, but it is only what He originally meant. Can we adjust? Can we leave “the things that are behind”? Without raising any questions as to the right or wrong of what has been, can we “go on” and “grow up”, “attain”?” (T. Austin-Sparks, “Vision and Vocation”).
God is delivering, separating, purifying, setting free and establishing what the enemy has always sought to destroy. Jesus IS building His called-out ones into an unseen, holy, heavenly Building of His design and making; He is calling us out of Sin, Self and Substitutes into Himself as The Place where God is… in Life, in Freedom, in Peace, Rest, Love and All that Christ Himself is!
Used with Permission. Unveiling.orgCome and, like living stones, be yourselves built into a spiritual house, for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. 2:5
I had always thought of this verse as being a description of the Spirit of God Who is like the wind, blowing where He wills, but one day the Spirit of God blew away my interpretation and I saw that the verse is not just about the Spirit of God; the verse describes the wind and then doesn't say "so it is with the Spirit" but says: "so is EVERYONE that is born of the Spirit" (KJV). He says that this is how it is with US - with everyone who is born of the Spirit/Wind! Jesus was describing to Nicodemus what those who were born from above were like; it is a description of everyone who is born of the Spirit."The wind blows (breathes) where it wills; and though you hear its sound, yet you neither know where it comes from nor where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:8
The Greek word translated as both Spirit and wind in this verse is Pneuma. It is defined as: a movement of air (a gentle blast) of the wind, hence the wind itself, or breath of nostrils or mouth. Similarly, the Hebrew word for Spirit is Ruwach and is defined as wind, breath, mind, spirit and this word is again used interchangeably for breath, wind and spirit (eg 2 Sam 22:16, 2 Kings 3:17). It can be said of us that we go where HE wills/blows, yet we don’t know how He got us there, or where we’ll be tomorrow… we are not in control of our destiny, our lives, or even our direction - He is.
So Father began to teach me something about this Wind that we are born of and live and move by…
The Spirit as Wind
The wind is often unpredictable and blows one way one minute and then changes and blows another the next and who knows why or where or when it will blow next! In a similar way, to those who are of the earth, the people of the Spirit (wind/breath) may sometimes appear unpredictable or changeable as they go wherever the Spirit blows, but to God it proves that He is truly in control of us and that we are adjustable and teachable and willing to be blown and directed according to His Wind.
As a family we recently went through a large cornfield maze and got thoroughly lost for a couple of hours! The maze was made in the shape of an America’s Cup sailing yacht and had interesting facts about sailing on plaques throughout the maze. I know very little about sailing, but one of these facts hit me with its spiritual truth every time we came across it in the field, which was, unfortunately for us, more than just once! It said:
“Apparent wind is the wind you feel as you move yourself forwards; true wind is the wind you feel when you stand still and perceive what direction the true wind is blowing.”
This ‘fact’ challenged me about perceiving what Spirit/Wind we are discerning and sensing; is it apparent wind or true Wind? Sometimes we can be so busy doing things “for God” and carrying on with what our own understanding of Him and His ways are, that we may THINK we are going with the Spirit/Wind and doing what He desires simply because we do feel the wind on our face - but we may be mistaking apparent wind for the true Wind. It may be just apparent wind caused by our own action and ability and therefore not true wind which we are sensing. In order to go on, we must stop! The true Wind/Spirit is often only discerned when we stop moving and stand still and wait - THEN we may perceive which direction the Wind is truly blowing in and can then ‘go with the flow’!
Father sometimes brings me to a standstill with a phrase which we teach our children when they are learning to cross a street: “Stop, Look and Listen”. Before taking one step, they must be sure that the way is clear. The same is true with us and our Father, He will sometimes tell us to stop, look and listen - STOP our action and be still, LOOK to see what He wants us to see now that He has brought us to a halt, and LISTEN and wait to hear what direction He would now have us go in and how and when He wants us to proceed. When we stop we no longer feel the apparent wind but can then sense the true Wind; and we may need to change direction or change course as a result.
Our self-made apparent wind may be something which was initially the direction of the true Wind. We may have begun going in a certain direction with the flow of the Spirit behind us to support and empower, only to miss the prompting to Stop, Look and Listen and so missed the Wind change and carried on sailing along in the power of our own strength and ability instead. Wind is unpredictable. It can change and blow in another direction in an instant which is why our Father will occasionally prompt us to stop so we can once again sense the True Wind rather than just the apparent wind. This is one way in which He can test us to see whether we are intent on going on obliviously or whether we are sensitive to Him and His voice. It will reveal whether we will listen and then just carry on, or whether we will not only listen but also obey and be adjustable to which direction He wishes to go in at any given point in time. We are not to be blown about by every wind of doctrine (by the breath/wind originating from man - Eph 4:14) but blown by the true Wind of God.
Going with the Wind/Spirit of God is vital. I have often told Him the obvious: “Father, I cannot get through this day if You do not go with me as my Strength and Life.” Eventually He told me to “Stop, Look and Listen” to what I had been saying… and in stopping, looking and listening I realized that I needed to turn those words around and instead say “Father, I cannot get through this day if I do not go WITH YOU as my Strength and Life.” He is going on and He knows exactly what direction He is going in! It would be ludicrous to hop onto a yacht to go sailing and say to the wind “Please go with me today, I cannot get anywhere unless you go with me” as though we were in control of where we were going and were expecting the wind to blow us in the direction we planned to go; yet we often treat the Wind/Spirit of God in this way. We first need to stop, look and listen to discern and know which way the Wind is blowing and then simply yield and submit to His direction as He blows us where He desires to, and we go with Him!
Wind is essential to nature just as the Wind of God is essential to us. One morning as I was sitting in our garden, my eye was caught by a small seed which was being blown about by the wind. It was clear from its design that it was created to blow through the air to wherever the wind took it! Eventually it landed on some stones. But it didn’t stay there for more than a few seconds because another gust of wind came and blew it up into the air again. It slowly floated back down and landed on some bricks. Again it didn’t stay there for long because the wind picked it up and carried it away; the seed was specially designed so that it would keep going with the wind - waiting until it was deposited into the right environment of moist, soft soil to settle in and germinate and grow. It had no control over where it was blown to, whether that was way up into the air or onto stones or soil. The seed did not determine where it would land or what spot was most suitable for it; that was determined by the Wind, and the same is true with us as His seeds.
In the Bible we are likened to being His garden and the Wind blows on us to bring forth the perfume and fragrance of His Life from us (Song of Solomon 4:16). However, the wind can be both very gentle and very powerful, it may be beneficial or destructive and it is referred to as both in the Bible. Strong, stormy winds can easily destroy what is made by man; but what is planted by God will stand and actually be strengthened by the storm’s winds. Ezekiel spoke of the wind of God’s anger blowing down what was not solid and of God and thus revealing their true nature and exposing the foundations (Ezekiel 13:10-15). A similar message was given by Jesus in Matthew 7:24-27 - the house (person) that is not built and established on Him and His Life, who only hears but does not obey, will collapse when the Wind blows strongly. Powerful winds can blow down, destroy and uproot - or they can test for strength and depth of roots. Wind strengthens trees and is necessary for blowing away dead leaves, branches and flowers; getting rid of the old to make way for new growth and to blow seeds to where they can bring forth new life.
May we be those who not only perceive the direction of the Wind but who also submit to His Wind and go with Him to wherever He chooses to blow us for His glory!
"You have called me a garden, Oh I pray that the north wind and the south wind may blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out in abundance for You in whom my soul delights." Song of Solomon 4:16.
Used with Permission. Unveiling.org
One of the first things we learn as we begin to know Christ is that we have to unlearn many things. This includes things we have believed about who Jesus is.
In 2003 I wrote the article “Building… But Not As We’ve Known It” where I looked into the common belief that Jesus was a carpenter and discovered that instead He was a builder who worked with stone. A book I read recently, “The Jesus Discovery” by Dr Adam Bradford, affirmed this and reveals even more misconceptions that can result from our Western mindsets.
The author says that the accounts of Jesus’ life (by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were proving to the people of the day that Jesus was truly the Son of God - they already knew who Jesus was as a man. We, on the other hand, are in the opposite position: we know Jesus as the Son of God, but have largely lost sight of Jesus as the Son of Man….
“The Son of Man” was Christ’s favourite term for Himself, it’s recorded 80 times. This suggests it was important to Him that He came from man, as well as from God - He was not only the Creator, but also the Creation! If it were us, I’m sure we would choose to call ourselves “the Son of God” instead of “the Son of Man”, and yet Jesus honoured His creation by preferring this title. He was fully a man, and yet a man full of the Spirit of God. We tend to think of Him only in terms of His divinity, but there is value in knowing Him in His humanity also.
For years now I have longed to know and see Jesus Christ as He really is; not as the church think He is, not as many Christians think He is, not as I think He is, but as He REALLY is. I’m not writing this article to tell you all I have seen of Him - I still see so little - instead I’m writing to encourage you to see and know Him even more truly yourself, even if that means challenging Who you thought He was. We often need to be challenged in order to be changed.
Hundreds of years of accumulated myths, traditions and mistranslations have very effectively brainwashed us into believing things about this Man that simply aren’t true. We need Him to come into each of our temples and overturn the tables of lies and misconceptions, drive out all that is wrong, and reveal what is true.
One of these misconceptions is that Jesus was an uneducated man. To the contrary, He is likely to have been one of the most educated Rabbis of the day. If Jesus was not educated and trained as a Rabbi, He would not have had either the ability to read or permission to read from the sacred scrolls in the synagogue (Luke 4), or teach every day in the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 19:47). It would not have been allowed. He would have been arrested by the temple guards. Nor would the religious leaders have called Jesus “Rabbi” if Jesus wasn’t in fact a Rabbi.
In John 3 we see one of the religious leaders, Nicodemus, saying to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God….” Two different words were used: “Rabbi” and “teacher” (didaskalos). “Rabbi” doesn’t simply mean “teacher”; the Greek word “didaskalos” means “teacher”. Every single translation of the Bible calls Jesus a Rabbi in this verse; it is there in plain sight and the term was used of Him fourteen times.
In Jewish culture the term “Rabbi” was, and still is, a title given after completing extensive rabbinic study over the course of many years. Rabbis in those days were not priests, they were interpreters and expounders of the Scriptures in addition to having a full-time occupation to support themselves. They would typically work for a third of the day, and then study. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia a Rabbi is a “Hebrew term used as a title for those who are distinguished for learning, who are the authoritative teachers of the Law, and who are the appointed spiritual heads of the community.”
So, why does it matter whether Jesus was educated as a Rabbi? Here is why it matters to me:
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I want to know who Jesus really is, and I want to know Him as the Son of Man, as well as knowing Him as the Son of God.
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This challenges those who believe that Jesus didn’t study the Scriptures and use that as a reason for minimising our need for the Scriptures today. Not only did Jesus know the Scriptures (and very thoroughly) but He had at least the five books of Moses memorised, as all Jewish boys did. Education was important to the Jewish people of the time and so were the Scriptures. From the ages of 5-10 all Jewish boys memorised the Torah at the synagogue, as many still do today. From ages 10-12 they learned the Mishnah (the oral law), and after that the Talmud. The rabbinic Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) says: “At five years of age, one is ready for the study of the Written Torah, at ten years of age for the study of the Oral Torah , at thirteen for bar mitzvah, fifteen for the study of Talmud…” (Avot 5:22). This was an integral part of the culture that Jesus grew up in - they were very religious people.
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Understanding the requirements of Jewish and rabbinic education explains what Jesus was doing between the ages of 12-30. There is no mention of His education in the Bible, probably because everybody in that time period knew exactly what He would have been doing until He was 30: that was the official age when Rabbis began to gather disciples, just as Jesus did. When the accounts of His life were written many years later, they probably thought it superfluous to detail the training they all knew Jesus had; it would have seemed like a waste of precious writing materials and time. And after His seeming blasphemy and betrayal of them, the Rabbis would have been sure to omit any record of Him ever having been a Rabbi.
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This also explains why the religious leaders were so upset with Jesus and wanted to crucify Him. He had seemingly turned His back on them and on all His religious training. As a previously highly respected teacher of the Law, Jesus was claiming that He Himself was greater than the Law, greater than the temple, claiming that God was His Father. Not only that, but He had the audacity to teach others this “heresy” in the temple where He was legitimately allowed to teach! They would have been furious; not only because He claimed that God was His Father or because He broke their laws, but because He spoke against them and their religion, and they felt helpless to stop Him. They would have felt that He had betrayed them.
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Knowing that Jesus was a Rabbi confirmed for me what I’ve written elsewhere; that He repented from missing the mark with their religion and left it to do what His Father wanted. This was the point when the “trouble” began, both with His spiritual enemy and His earthly religious enemies: John’s baptism was different to other immersions of the day because John’s immersion was not a prescribed immersion for ceremonial cleansing but was one of repentance… So why did Jesus need this symbolic baptism of repentance - an immersion signifying a change of mind? Why would this holy Man, who had not sinned, be required by God to be ceremonially washed for repentance? What did Jesus have to repent of (meaning to have a change of mind) that would make this act necessary from God’s perspective? It could well be that Jesus was repenting and turning away from one thing that He had done perfectly up until this point: keeping the Jewish Law! He had been subject to the laws of the Torah and this “baptism of repentance” revealed His death to all of that, and His rising to a new covenant, a new Way, a new Life in and of the Spirit for Him, and later (through the Cross) for every one of us. His baptism revealed an inward death to the old covenant and an inward rising to new Life… It was a sign before God of Him finally completing and fulfilling the Law and dying to that Law and Covenant/Contract and being raised into the new Law of Life and liberty in the Spirit with the new contract - resulting in an opened heaven. (from “Baptism… But Not As We’ve Known It”).
Accepting Jesus
Many Christians talk about "accepting Jesus" when in fact they haven't accepted Jesus, but instead have accepted a religious construct. Others claim to have accepted Jesus, but have often accepted a self-made god; a "Jesus" who is made in the person's own image, according to what they like and don't like. And He is not recognisable as the Jesus of the Bible. "You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed." (2 Cor. 11:4).Jesus said difficult, offensive, even harsh things to others, including His disciples. That challenges what many believe about Jesus today. He called Peter a devil, telling him he was offensive and that He didn’t know God (Matt. 16:23). He told His disciples that they had very little faith and trust (Matt. 8:26; 14:31; 16:8) and said to them, “Don’t you see or understand yet? Have your hearts been made like stone? You have eyes - don’t you see? You have ears - don’t you hear? And don’t you remember?” (Mark 8:17,18). To two of His disciples He said: “How foolish you are! You’re so slow to believe everything the prophets said!” (Luke 24:25).
Jesus offended many people, even His own followers (John 6:60-61). As Scripture says, “I am placing a Rock in Zion that people trip over, a large Rock that people find offensive” (Isaiah 8:14). Both Paul and Peter used that Scripture in reference to Christ (Rom. 9:33, 1 Pet. 2:8). We need to be careful that we aren’t offended or tripped up by Jesus today, just because He may not fit our ideals of what we think Christ should be like. He didn’t fit the ideals of what many of the Jews were looking for in a Messiah either - He was rejected and not accepted by most - the real Jesus was deemed unacceptable, and this is still the case with many today.
The Jewish leaders who studied the Scriptures and knew them best of all didn’t have the Holy Spirit - they relied on themselves and their own understanding and so they didn’t recognise Jesus. We, on the other hand, are in the opposite position: many of us today know the Holy Spirit, but do not know the Scriptures and so we may not recognise the real Jesus either! He still asks, “Aren’t you deceived for this reason, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God?” (Mark 12:24). He didn’t say, “Aren’t you deceived because you don’t know the Holy Spirit?” but “because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God!”
I don’t idolise the Bible, but I do recognise it as one of the ways that God speaks to us and through which Jesus is revealed. It used to be a dead book to me, but when I was brought to Life in Christ, this book also became alive. I began to see and hear Christ through it like no other book. The book wasn’t the problem, it was the reader (me) that was the problem! I needed to have my eyes opened tosee. You can’t read a book if you are blind. I needed the veil that was covering the eyes of my understanding removed (Eph. 1:17-21) and then I could see and recognise Christ and His Life in the words.
Jesus Himself said that the Scriptures speak of Him (John 5:39). Whereas many of the early believers (particularly the females) would have been illiterate, they still would have had a comprehensive knowledge of the Scriptures - they heard them every Sabbath and feast day and had many of them memorised. We, today, have no excuse like illiteracy for not knowing the Scriptures or Christ, and it is very clear from what people today say of Jesus that many do not know either Him or the Scriptures….
The early believers needed a strong emphasis on the Holy Spirit because He had just been given, and they were used to relying on their own knowledge of the Scriptures and the Rabbi’s interpretations instead of on the Holy Spirit. We, on the other hand, while maintaining our vital dependence on the Holy Spirit and knowing Him as our Teacher, have often not known, disdained, treated as unnecessary, and even brought into disrepute the very Scriptures that speak of the Jesus we claim to know and love!
Even though Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, and was the Word of God Himself, He still read, honoured and quoted from the Scriptures, and by “Scriptures” I mean the Tanakh, what we call the Old Testament. Jesus never once showed disrespect for the Scriptures. Please hear what He said: “Don’t ever think that I came to set aside Moses’ Teachings or the Prophets. I didn’t come to set them aside but to make them come true. I can guarantee this truth: Until the earth and the heavens disappear, neither a period nor a comma will disappear from the Scriptures before everything has come true.” (Matt. 5:17,18).
The God of the Scriptures (in what is called the Old Testament) is the same God as today. Jesus and His Father are One. God didn’t suddenly change - what did change was the agreement (contract) that He had made, because it was fulfilled and completed with the Man Jesus. Every legal requirement of the original agreement was fulfilled and satisfied in God’s Man and so a new contract was introduced. While the standards and requirements of God had not changed, He introduced a new Way of meeting those requirements: through this Man… Christ Jesus. Through trusting this Man, all of mankind can now know God. He introduced a new law, a new covenant, a new contract. This new law is called the law of liberty, but it is still a contract that can be broken from our end.
In any contract or agreement, there are two parties and both are responsible. In this New Covenant/Contract we are responsible for our side of the agreement; not as a matter of works that we must do out of duty, but as a matter of sheer faithfulness, obedience and love! God doesn’t tell us to do something unless it is important: “God has commanded all men to repent (Acts 17:30). It is a work which only they can do. It is morally impossible for one person to repent for another. Even Christ could not do this. He could die for us, but He cannot do our repenting for us.” (A. W. Tozer, “Paths to Power”).
There are many statements in the Bible that begin with the conditional particle “IF…” meaning that we are responsible to do something. Jesus said, “If you remain in these words of Mine you are really My disciples then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free… If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit… If you keep My commands, you will remain in My love… If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well…” (John 8:31; 15:5,10; 14:7).
If you know Him, you will know His Father as well…
Accepting the Father of Jesus
As a good Father, God is very faithful with us: meaning that He is loving and yet firm when necessary, and disciplines and trains us. Just as babies gradually get to know who their parents are, so as newborns we gradually get to know who our Father is - we learn what is acceptable to Him and what is unacceptable and what we need to do. As Peter wrote, "He doesn't want to destroy anyone but wants all people to have an opportunity to turn to Him and change the way they think and act." (2 Pet. 3:9).So who is God? Due to what we have believed, some of us need to discover His love, mercy, and kindness, while others of us need to learn His holiness, justice, and truth. His love and mercy are far bigger than we can imagine, and so are His justice and holiness. How many of us are learning to know and love Him for who He really is? How many love Him because He is holy? How many love Him because He is our judge? How many read the Scriptures to see Him as He really is?
Apart from the Holy Spirit revealing Him, God is Unknowable! To know He exists at all requires a step of faith. When Moses asked God who he should say had sent him, God said, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” That doesn’t make much sense in English. The Hebrew word “Hayah” that has been translated as “I Am” in Ex. 3:14, isn’t translated as “I am” anywhere else so I thought it warranted looking into and discovered that it could equally be interpreted as: “I exist!”
A lot of people wonder if God really does exist, and here He says to tell the people: “I exist, so I exist”! Yah-weh means “He exists” as opposed to “Ha-yah” meaning “I exist”. It seems odd that the translators, who would have known what Yah-weh meant, didn’t then translate Ha-yah as “I exist”.
Part of the romance of loving God is knowing how absolutely beyond us He is - that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts - and discovering Him as He actually is. I want to learn who He really is, not so that I accumulate mere head knowledge, but so I can love and know Him more truly in my heart. “The Greeks learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere. The modern man learns in order to use.” (Abraham Heschel). We can never fully comprehend God, nor should we try to use God for our own ends and shape Him to fit our ideas; instead, as we learn Who He really is, our love and reverence for Him increases.
We delight in God’s love for us, it makes us feel good, but when it comes to us loving God, instead of accepting Him and loving God as the Scriptures reveal Him to be, even if we don’t understand Him, many reject Him and instead make a god after their own image: one they can easily understand, love, and worship. If you love going to church, then your “God” does too. Whatever you love, your “God” loves too (very conveniently!).
The reverse is also true: what you don’t like, you believe that God doesn’t like too. If you don’t like being accountable or responsible, then your “God” doesn’t hold you to account. If you don’t like to feel convicted, then “God” doesn’t ever show you what is wrong in your life, you’re perfectly acceptable no matter what you do or say. If you don’t like what you read in the Bible, then “God” doesn’t like it either; instead you tell yourself that the book is an idol, not inspired by God, and must be avoided. And once you no longer accept that the Scriptures are important, then everything is judged by what YOU believe to be right instead. You set yourself up as judge and king in place of God (Judges 21:25). Instead of searching the Scriptures to see if what you hear is true (Acts 17:11), you search yourself to see whether you like what you hear or not, and reject or accept on that basis.
Once people begin to go down this track of creating and worshiping their own god, they become very difficult to reach - they love their own god too much and will reject anything that does not sound like what they (ie their god!) would say or approve of. If you point out this deception, you may be judged as being unloving (even though real Love always points out where we have missed the mark); called judgmental (even though real Love judges and discriminates between what is good and bad); and accused of being condemning (even though real Love does condemn whatever will kill its relationship).
The seduction, the deception, and the bondage, are diabolical and very real. “I implore you… to keep a watchful eye on those who cause trouble and make difficulties among you, in plain opposition to the teaching you have been given, and steer clear of them. Such men do not really serve our Lord Jesus Christ at all but are utterly self-centred. Yet with their plausible and attractive arguments they deceive those who are too simple-hearted to see through them.” (Rom. 16:17,18).
Not only is knowing the Father of Jesus vital, so is knowing the Spirit of the Man…
Accepting the Spirit of Jesus
Another name for Jesus is "the Holy One of God" and as His followers, most of us claim to be filled with His Spirit of Holiness. Jesus Himself told us exactly what His Spirit does: "When He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). He convicts of missing the mark, He convicts of what is right and just, and He convicts about what God has judged. There is only one word in the Greek that is translated in our Bibles as "convict, reprove, rebuke, correct" - they all mean the same thing even though in English they may mean different things to us. And this word for convicting, rebuking, correcting is used of the Holy Spirit. One of His prime functions is to: "convict... o f judgment".There is also only one root word in the Greek that is translated in our Bibles as the words “judge, discern, discriminate” - they all mean the same thing in the Greek. Real Love, the Love of God, discriminates and judges against all that will separate us from Him and calls us out of ourselves and into Himself. This means changing our minds (repenting) and leaving a lot of things that we may notwant to leave! It means a change of heart: wanting what He wants instead of what I want.
In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of Glory, the Spirit of Faith, the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, the Spirit of Truth (5 times) and the Spirit of Grace (once).
The one time He is referred to as the Spirit of Grace is: “Anyone who violates the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severe punishment do you think that person deserves who tramples on God’s Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which it was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, ‘Vengeance belongs to Me, I will pay them back,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’” (Heb. 10:28-30).
Now that doesn’t sound much like what is believed and taught about either the Spirit of Grace or Jesus today. So does the Bible need to be adjusted to fit our concepts of Jesus, or is it us who need to be adjusted?
What many believe to be grace, is often not the Grace that is described in the Bible.
"Consider how you would respond to a message exhorting you to "guard your mind, stay sober, be obedient, don’t be conformed to your former lusts, be holy, conduct yourself in fear, obey the Word and put aside all malice, guile, hypocrisy etc." If the message went on to tell you to "love and read God’s Word, grow up, tell others about God’s goodness, avoid fleshly lusts, do good deeds, do right, don’t speak about evil, be zealous for what is good, and sanctify Christ as Lord." Many within the Body of Christ today would cry out against such a message claiming it to be nothing more than a religious spirit or legalism or even fleshly works. Grace we are told frees you from all these works and liberates you so that you are no longer under any obligation of any kind. Grace, they say, is the gift that comes to us with no strings attached. But is that really the message of grace? Has the enemy blin ded our eyes through super-sizingthe true message of grace, and thereby distorting it? It may surprise you to know that all the exhortations I’ve listed in italics were taken directly from Peter’s first epistle. Now here is a most amazing truth. Peter tells us in the closing verses of his epistle: "I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that THIS is THE TRUE GRACE OF GOD. STAND FIRM IN IT!" Here we have one of the most complete and comprehensive revelations on TRUE GRACE to be found in the New Testament. Yes, grace is totally and irrevocably free; and provides us with God’s power to change us. That was its original intent. Paul in his letter to Titus explains it this way: "The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age." (Titus 2:11-12) Peter and Paul saw the Lord, who is the only true embodiment of grace and truth. If anyone had a correct revelation and understanding of grace these two men certainly did." (David Ravenhill).Grace is precious and of infinite value, but so is Truth. The two must go together. The Spirit of Jesus is full of Grace and Truth (John 1:14,17). Everybody loves Grace, but Truth may not be as popular as Grace, perhaps because Truth is often corrective; it exposes lies.
We mustn’t naively think we can have grace without truth and assume that “grace” will “cover” our sinful choices and selfish decisions. That is not “walking in the Spirit” or being governed by the Spirit; that is being governed and controlled by Self. This journey out of religion is not meant to be a journey into Self, but out of Self and into Christ. “Since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken,let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:28).
We are all responsible and accountable for our choices and actions, and for what we accept or reject. That is very clear, not only in our lives, but in the Scriptures also. King David still lost a son as a consequence of his sin, even after he had repented. And the result of Abraham’s impatience in not waiting for Isaac was not without very serious consequences; we still live with the descendants of Ishmael and the resulting religion of Islam today.
I know that some may judge, reject and condemn what I write here simply because it may not line up with what they like, or personally think is right, or what they are comfortable with. But feeling uncomfortable can lead to conviction, and conviction can lead to conversion: converting us to God’s ways and thoughts instead of our own. God shows us His Standard so we can see where we have missed the mark, we then rightly feel convicted, and this enables us to make a choice: either to humble ourselves, see where we are wrong, change our mind, be adjusted, agree with what God says and live in Truth, OR… we reject the thought that we may be wrong, reject what God reveals to be true about us, and we choose to deceive ourselves and live a lie. It is our choice.
There is no point in thinking that Jesus is in agreement with all our thoughts of Him and His Father and His Spirit; it is us that have to be in agreement with all of HIS thoughts, not the other way around! “The purpose of revelation is not to SUBSTANTIATE your illusions, but to ELIMINATE them. Do not seek confirmation from God as to your thoughts and your perception of things, but seek instead to be disillusioned; seek to be rid of all your illusions about God, all your misperceptions and misconceptions about Who He is and what He is doing.” (Chip Brogden, “Adjustment to the Government of the Holy Spirit”).
God and His character aren’t going to change; it is we who must change. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to believe things about God that aren’t true! I need my mind changed and renewed so that my thoughts and ways are adjusted to come into alignment with His thoughts and ways. We each need Christ to be revealed to us.
Jesus still asks, “Who do you say I am?” (Matt. 16:15). We desperately need Him to show us who He is because we can’t see Him or know who He is according to what we think or what somebody else says - nobody else can see Him or know Him for you. And we can’t see Him unless our blind eyes are healed. Another question Jesus still asks is, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And our response and experience can be that of the blind men in Matthew 20: “‘Lord,’ they said to Him, ‘open our eyes!’ Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they could see, and they followed Him.”
Each of us need this “Emmaus Road” experience, “Jesus explained to them what was said about Himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets… He sat down to eat with them, took the bread, and said the blessing; then He broke the bread and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised Him…”
Jesus hadn’t changed - He was still exactly Who He has always been. The Scriptures hadn’t changed - they were still exactly as they had been. It was THEM that had changed! Are we willing to be changed? Are we willing to admit we are wrong, change our mind, and be adjusted according to the Light?
We desperately need to be changed and have our eyes opened to see. Then we will also be able to say to each other, “Wasn’t it like a fire burning in us when He talked to us… and explained the Scriptures to us?” We, today, can have this same experience: having our eyes opened to know and see the real Jesus, being changed, having Him explain the Scriptures like a fire burning in us, with the same result that we too tell others what we have seen, “Jesus is alive!”
"And so, dear friends, since you already know these things, continuously be on your guard not to be carried away by the deception of lawless people. Otherwise, you may fall from your secure position. Instead, continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Messiah." (2 Peter 3:17,18)