What if you walked into the market and all you saw was bananas?
Or maybe just banana chips? Stale, dried out versions of something once living, sweet but a little like cardboard.
Here is what I keep hearing about the Spirit of God. Fresh. Alive. Hydrating. Nourishing.
EVERYTHING EVERYONE IS LOOKING FOR. You guys...can we shatter the light show and cut the drama? We do not need to enhance the incredible richness and glory of God. It doesn't look anything like a show. I have to be brutally honest. If I found myself enhancing something, I can point at that thing now and tell you it was because I sensed my own lack and felt responsible for it.
I've had experiences at churches like walking into a store with only banana chips. At some point, that fruit was attached to a tree somewhere but what I see before me is shelf-stable mimicry. You have to watch out for pockets of people that seem to all be displaying the same kind of fruit that isn't very vibrant. You kind of sense that they're bored with Christ. Everyone seems to be producing the same sort of "fruit" and seem really spent and dry doing it.
I'm going to tell you something not commonly known: Jesus is the exact opposite of boring.
Church can be boring. I'm not even going to lie. I remember times it was a relief to have to take my first daughter out and walk around outside because I was bored stiff.
That's why the people of the world are totally unappetized at the idea of partaking in "church". Because "church" is eating stale crackers, not the Bread of Life. We've got religious practices of communion that are a mockery of the body and blood of Christ. I've participated, I'm pointing no fingers.
It's a disaster. Why do we have this mono-culture idea of who God is, when you can walk into a field of wildflowers, or a fruit orchard, or a grocery store produce section, and see vitality, diversity, and hydration?
Nothing is dead unless it's man made or cut off from its Source.
I imagine that if our essential elements had representatives, God the Father, or His love is water. Jesus is the sun. The Spirit is air.
Nothing lives without the three. You can cut a flower and put it in a jar and it will have the appearance of life for a little bit, but then it droops, molds, and stinks.
This is why we have to STOP trying to make a "thing" out of the Living God. These scripture plans and sunday school songs are reminding me a lot of chicken nuggets and ketchup. Like we won't like it if its real and raw. We have to mask it and sugar coat it and do it up or hold our noses. The life of Jesus Christ is insanely energetic and beautiful, services are boring and dry. The life of God in living food is insanely energetic and beautiful, crackers are "easy". I have always felt the food predicament was a curse, but now I see--its visible prophecy. You know how God would have the prophets do wierd things to show them what they were doing? It's exactly what religion is doing to The Life. And it's causing death. Child sacrifice. If we depend on Sunday school and Hide Em In Your Heart to teach our kids about God like we depend on factory chicken nuggets for "kid food", we will have children who do not know that "chicken" is an actual animal, and who do not know that God is actually LIFE. It is rare to find children who even eat vegetables, but these are the things God declared good. Why are we sacrificing our children for our own pleasure or in order to impress an unbelieving culture like Israel did? The reason we do this (cutesify the Word of God or pull out "cool stories") is because we make the assumption it is not palatable on its own--raw, real, living, or misinterpret it altogether.
I'm fully convinced western (American) religion is a part of preparation and delusion for the anti-Christ. It is very convincing and inviting but I'm here to tell you it's a valley of dry bones. The amazing thing is that at this very moment, the breath of God is awakening dry bones. The child sacrifice, the pursuit of fame, the idolatry--the old testament is a trailer and the gravity of what this means is bringing me to my knees for all the people I love. Please, please, wake up.
We are representing Jesus like a box of stale crackers. Yuck.
I was preparing a whole chicken the other day. The cool thing about abiding in Jesus is that His Spirit whispers wisdom to me while I do things. The word flaccid came to mind, because I used to get these "organic" chickens from Costco. The flesh was flaccid. A life of eating "organic" but likely moldy substance that would fatten them up faster, sitting still where the air is dead and the sun is not upon them, resulted in quite a bit of fat and muscle tissues that seemed to have had no activity. It had occurred to me, that while organic, the chickens are likely quite sick since corn feed is not their natural food source, and moldy corn especially would cause a sick bird. So rather than keep eating sick meat, we decided to cut it down by a lot and instead, get birds that eat what God created them to forage for--bugs, grass, etc. Life. As I prepared the Polyface chicken, I observed the useful quality of the muscle tissue. You can actually tell that it hasn't spent its life sitting down. This article explains what happens when an animal eats a substance not designed for it.
The Church is flaccid. I know that's a gross word. But this is prophecy. Have you heard what Ezekiel was supposed to do? Human dung. Cook his barley cakes over human dung. "They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay"
I don't think we are comprehending the meaning of what is going on with food. "Processed food" is the least of our worries. Yes, it is causing an exorbitant amount of digestive malfunction and disease. What else could you expect a deceiver to do with provisions and goodness of God? What if we just looked at what is happening as prophecy? Further in Ezekiel 4 God declares they will "waste away". This is the definition of cancer. A person is wasting from the inside out. Now. We could just make it about the food and only eat what God has made. That's certainly not a bad idea, and is definitely a path toward healing a physical body. Consumption matters.
What disintegrated food has done to health and the capacity to energetically serve the King, processed "Bible", lacking it's living quality only offered by the Spirit, has done to the Bride. What we see on the physical, this explosion of wasting disease and fear is just representation of what we are ingesting and allowing to inhabit us.
I'm not saying the pastors have evil intent. They may be fully integrated in the vine, bearing fruit. But it can be very tempting to mimic the fruit of someone else coming out of what God is doing in them, instead of getting into the vine. Unless we get there though, there is no way to know if the pastor is actually what Christ would call a "blind guide". Smooth talking and a good show.
There's no shortage of fruit when Jesus is nearby. Taking bread, handing it out. Taking bread, handing it out.
I had never liked bananas. Now I love them...but I still think banana chips are nasty. Right alongside with the way The Life has broadened my physical tastes for living food, my appetite for ways He invites me to enjoy rendering His kindness to people has diversified, and it isn't robotic or dead. When I begin to feel like I "have to", or have any fear or resistance, I know I've put on a religious yoke.
Ok, real talk about idolatry. This is a warning. I was fully indoctrinated in the idea that integration and healing were things that I needed to get myself. The Spirit said to me today "If you feel like a result is up to you, you are religious.". I spent time yoga-ing, breathing, eating, therapy-ing--all for my own healing. Read: focus on me. I didn't once consider that God is who He says He is, the complete, ultimate Healer of every wound. Yes. Even physical problems. The thing about Daniel and his friends was that their physical appetites and physical posture represented the position of their confidence, WHOM provided their physical safety in the furnace. Call me crazy, but I'm putting all my confidence in the One who made me, that my body is His business. Yes, thank you pelvic floor therapist...I'm putting my faith in Jesus.
I was so busy striving for the results I was hoping would please God that I did not take the time to ask Him what He wanted. The reason I didn't, is because of a fear that He would take something I wanted. I see now that this is orphan thinking. I see it in my son when he's being demanding or greedy. I tell him "Here is what I see. You feel like you have to demand what you want and hold onto it selfishly because you don't really trust that I will offer you all you need, whether you give some away or not."
I couldn't acknowledge and submit things like my cooking skills and my body as Good Things before Him because I was afraid of His demands of them, yet it was this same withholding that prevented me from producing the fruit I wanted. Generosity. Humility. Peace. Love. Connection.
I was reaching for fruits, instead of drawing up from the Source. I wrote on my fridge scrap paper "Love: meek, gentle, patient, kind, bears all things.....if the fruit is wrong, check the connection to the Vine".
Pursuing fruit itself is totally fruitless. A byproduct of eating Life is a strong and detoxified body. There is nothing to add or subtract when The Living Word is energizing the body. Church, can we please stop manufacturing banana chips?
I suddenly heard it today when I was putting my daughter to sleep. I was burying my minas. I heard that parable this morning. The gifts He gave me--the ability to make nourishment, the energy and strength in my body to spend and engage for His glory, the capacity I have for ruminating wisdom...all of these have purpose. I got stuck on the looks. We have to be really, really careful that we do not take our minas and make ourselves idols with our own hands.
Vulnerability is required. I held up my grocery budget to the Lord. I am not sure, but I think we spend more on food than most households. This is not a prideful statement, this is just what I think is likely. I could be wrong because I haven't asked. However, our budget has been set for a while, and for a long time (when I was stingy and stuck on appearances--my indulgence moved from collecting stuff to collecting food and appearance of godliness through "clean eating"...whew doesn't that smack of the Pharisees?) , I consistently went over our budget.
God has changed us in radical ways, and as I've released my entire self--mind, body and spirit--I've come to finally, with gravity and full confidence, know that God is really, really merciful. Despite my idolatry, God isn't out to take my health away, make my body weak, or make me feel ugly. In His kindness, what He has done with the same amount of grocery budget, has been to multiply. A direct fruit of casting out my idols has been a 180 degree turn in my desire to be hospitable. I've had for a while now, a sneaky suspicion that He's been multiplying food in the cabinet...today, He made more beautiful broth than I have ever made in my slow cooker. Do not ask me how, I'm just human. That's who He is. This is what rendering does. The tighter I held to meat itself, the scarcer it seemed to become--and suddenly, while holding loosely, it keeps abounding, but because I'm very interested in the energy He gives me from Living Good Things, I'm now not that interested in consuming it ourselves. He gets so much pleasure that I get to feel, loving people in our home and it is an incredibly generous gift from Him that my hands get to participate! The provisions refuse to even seem the least depleted. Standing in the multitudes, also satisfied myself and wondering how there are leftovers. That's how I feel most days.
He has generously abounded our energy, strength and capacity to spend ourselves on His Kingdom, eating living food. Number one living food being the body and blood of Christ. This is where all the other fruit and detox comes from. Real selfishness crucifixion? Body and blood. Real humility? Body and blood. Real discipleship of children? Body and blood. Anything real only comes with Jesus.
My husband has been chopping vegetables and Spirit-inspired originals show up many times a week. This is what happens when our energy: mind, spirit, body are under proper authority. Abundance. Life. Diversity. Hydration. Nourishment.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
The attitude I had receiving and rendering Good Things has been saturated and transformed by the Holy Spirit.
I offered to spend less on our food. I wasn't convicted, but I needed to see if I was holding onto good food too hard. He says to me "I don't inhabit money. The light, water and air energy from the Good Things that I have made allows Me to love people. When you are depleted, it affects your capacity to serve Me. When you are chronically sick, your ability to think of someone else is reduced. I do not inhabit money. A person's ability to love me cannot be diminished by their lack of money, but it can by their lack of energy."
If I'm in a hurry, I'm under the wrong authority.
If I'm scared I'll run out of food, I'm under the wrong authority.
If I think my appearance is reason for confidence or lack of, I'm under the wrong authority.
Whatever is placed before Him abounds. He increases my understanding, compassion, generosity, food, wellness, depth of vision and passion for His Kingdom.
That's fruit. Living, breathing, nourishing, energetic.
Or maybe just banana chips? Stale, dried out versions of something once living, sweet but a little like cardboard.
Here is what I keep hearing about the Spirit of God. Fresh. Alive. Hydrating. Nourishing.
EVERYTHING EVERYONE IS LOOKING FOR. You guys...can we shatter the light show and cut the drama? We do not need to enhance the incredible richness and glory of God. It doesn't look anything like a show. I have to be brutally honest. If I found myself enhancing something, I can point at that thing now and tell you it was because I sensed my own lack and felt responsible for it.
I've had experiences at churches like walking into a store with only banana chips. At some point, that fruit was attached to a tree somewhere but what I see before me is shelf-stable mimicry. You have to watch out for pockets of people that seem to all be displaying the same kind of fruit that isn't very vibrant. You kind of sense that they're bored with Christ. Everyone seems to be producing the same sort of "fruit" and seem really spent and dry doing it.
I'm going to tell you something not commonly known: Jesus is the exact opposite of boring.
Church can be boring. I'm not even going to lie. I remember times it was a relief to have to take my first daughter out and walk around outside because I was bored stiff.
That's why the people of the world are totally unappetized at the idea of partaking in "church". Because "church" is eating stale crackers, not the Bread of Life. We've got religious practices of communion that are a mockery of the body and blood of Christ. I've participated, I'm pointing no fingers.
It's a disaster. Why do we have this mono-culture idea of who God is, when you can walk into a field of wildflowers, or a fruit orchard, or a grocery store produce section, and see vitality, diversity, and hydration?
Nothing is dead unless it's man made or cut off from its Source.
I imagine that if our essential elements had representatives, God the Father, or His love is water. Jesus is the sun. The Spirit is air.
Nothing lives without the three. You can cut a flower and put it in a jar and it will have the appearance of life for a little bit, but then it droops, molds, and stinks.
This is why we have to STOP trying to make a "thing" out of the Living God. These scripture plans and sunday school songs are reminding me a lot of chicken nuggets and ketchup. Like we won't like it if its real and raw. We have to mask it and sugar coat it and do it up or hold our noses. The life of Jesus Christ is insanely energetic and beautiful, services are boring and dry. The life of God in living food is insanely energetic and beautiful, crackers are "easy". I have always felt the food predicament was a curse, but now I see--its visible prophecy. You know how God would have the prophets do wierd things to show them what they were doing? It's exactly what religion is doing to The Life. And it's causing death. Child sacrifice. If we depend on Sunday school and Hide Em In Your Heart to teach our kids about God like we depend on factory chicken nuggets for "kid food", we will have children who do not know that "chicken" is an actual animal, and who do not know that God is actually LIFE. It is rare to find children who even eat vegetables, but these are the things God declared good. Why are we sacrificing our children for our own pleasure or in order to impress an unbelieving culture like Israel did? The reason we do this (cutesify the Word of God or pull out "cool stories") is because we make the assumption it is not palatable on its own--raw, real, living, or misinterpret it altogether.
I'm fully convinced western (American) religion is a part of preparation and delusion for the anti-Christ. It is very convincing and inviting but I'm here to tell you it's a valley of dry bones. The amazing thing is that at this very moment, the breath of God is awakening dry bones. The child sacrifice, the pursuit of fame, the idolatry--the old testament is a trailer and the gravity of what this means is bringing me to my knees for all the people I love. Please, please, wake up.
We are representing Jesus like a box of stale crackers. Yuck.
I was preparing a whole chicken the other day. The cool thing about abiding in Jesus is that His Spirit whispers wisdom to me while I do things. The word flaccid came to mind, because I used to get these "organic" chickens from Costco. The flesh was flaccid. A life of eating "organic" but likely moldy substance that would fatten them up faster, sitting still where the air is dead and the sun is not upon them, resulted in quite a bit of fat and muscle tissues that seemed to have had no activity. It had occurred to me, that while organic, the chickens are likely quite sick since corn feed is not their natural food source, and moldy corn especially would cause a sick bird. So rather than keep eating sick meat, we decided to cut it down by a lot and instead, get birds that eat what God created them to forage for--bugs, grass, etc. Life. As I prepared the Polyface chicken, I observed the useful quality of the muscle tissue. You can actually tell that it hasn't spent its life sitting down. This article explains what happens when an animal eats a substance not designed for it.
The Church is flaccid. I know that's a gross word. But this is prophecy. Have you heard what Ezekiel was supposed to do? Human dung. Cook his barley cakes over human dung. "They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay"
I don't think we are comprehending the meaning of what is going on with food. "Processed food" is the least of our worries. Yes, it is causing an exorbitant amount of digestive malfunction and disease. What else could you expect a deceiver to do with provisions and goodness of God? What if we just looked at what is happening as prophecy? Further in Ezekiel 4 God declares they will "waste away". This is the definition of cancer. A person is wasting from the inside out. Now. We could just make it about the food and only eat what God has made. That's certainly not a bad idea, and is definitely a path toward healing a physical body. Consumption matters.
What disintegrated food has done to health and the capacity to energetically serve the King, processed "Bible", lacking it's living quality only offered by the Spirit, has done to the Bride. What we see on the physical, this explosion of wasting disease and fear is just representation of what we are ingesting and allowing to inhabit us.
I'm not saying the pastors have evil intent. They may be fully integrated in the vine, bearing fruit. But it can be very tempting to mimic the fruit of someone else coming out of what God is doing in them, instead of getting into the vine. Unless we get there though, there is no way to know if the pastor is actually what Christ would call a "blind guide". Smooth talking and a good show.
There's no shortage of fruit when Jesus is nearby. Taking bread, handing it out. Taking bread, handing it out.
I had never liked bananas. Now I love them...but I still think banana chips are nasty. Right alongside with the way The Life has broadened my physical tastes for living food, my appetite for ways He invites me to enjoy rendering His kindness to people has diversified, and it isn't robotic or dead. When I begin to feel like I "have to", or have any fear or resistance, I know I've put on a religious yoke.
Ok, real talk about idolatry. This is a warning. I was fully indoctrinated in the idea that integration and healing were things that I needed to get myself. The Spirit said to me today "If you feel like a result is up to you, you are religious.". I spent time yoga-ing, breathing, eating, therapy-ing--all for my own healing. Read: focus on me. I didn't once consider that God is who He says He is, the complete, ultimate Healer of every wound. Yes. Even physical problems. The thing about Daniel and his friends was that their physical appetites and physical posture represented the position of their confidence, WHOM provided their physical safety in the furnace. Call me crazy, but I'm putting all my confidence in the One who made me, that my body is His business. Yes, thank you pelvic floor therapist...I'm putting my faith in Jesus.
I was so busy striving for the results I was hoping would please God that I did not take the time to ask Him what He wanted. The reason I didn't, is because of a fear that He would take something I wanted. I see now that this is orphan thinking. I see it in my son when he's being demanding or greedy. I tell him "Here is what I see. You feel like you have to demand what you want and hold onto it selfishly because you don't really trust that I will offer you all you need, whether you give some away or not."
I couldn't acknowledge and submit things like my cooking skills and my body as Good Things before Him because I was afraid of His demands of them, yet it was this same withholding that prevented me from producing the fruit I wanted. Generosity. Humility. Peace. Love. Connection.
I was reaching for fruits, instead of drawing up from the Source. I wrote on my fridge scrap paper "Love: meek, gentle, patient, kind, bears all things.....if the fruit is wrong, check the connection to the Vine".
Pursuing fruit itself is totally fruitless. A byproduct of eating Life is a strong and detoxified body. There is nothing to add or subtract when The Living Word is energizing the body. Church, can we please stop manufacturing banana chips?
I suddenly heard it today when I was putting my daughter to sleep. I was burying my minas. I heard that parable this morning. The gifts He gave me--the ability to make nourishment, the energy and strength in my body to spend and engage for His glory, the capacity I have for ruminating wisdom...all of these have purpose. I got stuck on the looks. We have to be really, really careful that we do not take our minas and make ourselves idols with our own hands.
Vulnerability is required. I held up my grocery budget to the Lord. I am not sure, but I think we spend more on food than most households. This is not a prideful statement, this is just what I think is likely. I could be wrong because I haven't asked. However, our budget has been set for a while, and for a long time (when I was stingy and stuck on appearances--my indulgence moved from collecting stuff to collecting food and appearance of godliness through "clean eating"...whew doesn't that smack of the Pharisees?) , I consistently went over our budget.
God has changed us in radical ways, and as I've released my entire self--mind, body and spirit--I've come to finally, with gravity and full confidence, know that God is really, really merciful. Despite my idolatry, God isn't out to take my health away, make my body weak, or make me feel ugly. In His kindness, what He has done with the same amount of grocery budget, has been to multiply. A direct fruit of casting out my idols has been a 180 degree turn in my desire to be hospitable. I've had for a while now, a sneaky suspicion that He's been multiplying food in the cabinet...today, He made more beautiful broth than I have ever made in my slow cooker. Do not ask me how, I'm just human. That's who He is. This is what rendering does. The tighter I held to meat itself, the scarcer it seemed to become--and suddenly, while holding loosely, it keeps abounding, but because I'm very interested in the energy He gives me from Living Good Things, I'm now not that interested in consuming it ourselves. He gets so much pleasure that I get to feel, loving people in our home and it is an incredibly generous gift from Him that my hands get to participate! The provisions refuse to even seem the least depleted. Standing in the multitudes, also satisfied myself and wondering how there are leftovers. That's how I feel most days.
test me in this...
He has generously abounded our energy, strength and capacity to spend ourselves on His Kingdom, eating living food. Number one living food being the body and blood of Christ. This is where all the other fruit and detox comes from. Real selfishness crucifixion? Body and blood. Real humility? Body and blood. Real discipleship of children? Body and blood. Anything real only comes with Jesus.
My husband has been chopping vegetables and Spirit-inspired originals show up many times a week. This is what happens when our energy: mind, spirit, body are under proper authority. Abundance. Life. Diversity. Hydration. Nourishment.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
The attitude I had receiving and rendering Good Things has been saturated and transformed by the Holy Spirit.
I offered to spend less on our food. I wasn't convicted, but I needed to see if I was holding onto good food too hard. He says to me "I don't inhabit money. The light, water and air energy from the Good Things that I have made allows Me to love people. When you are depleted, it affects your capacity to serve Me. When you are chronically sick, your ability to think of someone else is reduced. I do not inhabit money. A person's ability to love me cannot be diminished by their lack of money, but it can by their lack of energy."
If I'm in a hurry, I'm under the wrong authority.
If I'm scared I'll run out of food, I'm under the wrong authority.
If I think my appearance is reason for confidence or lack of, I'm under the wrong authority.
Whatever is placed before Him abounds. He increases my understanding, compassion, generosity, food, wellness, depth of vision and passion for His Kingdom.
That's fruit. Living, breathing, nourishing, energetic.
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
Comments
Post a Comment