Prophetic Rhema – BT12:  What is the “living water” of the Holy Spirit as it relates to worship?

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

The Living Water (a) of the Holy Spirit is by definition “perpetually fresh, running water” but often used figuratively of “the fresh breath of God running into and through a person to bring zoe genuine-life.”  God is the “fountain/spring of living water,” who His people had “forsaken,” which is their first “wrong,” but then they committed a second “wrong” – they “hewn or dug out cisterns/pits/wells for themselves – [which are] broken cisterns that can hold no water” (b).  A “broken well” is one that is dried up, either because the spring that fed the water table has stopped or the walls of the well have caved in.  A pit collecting rainwater is a “broken cistern,” because it isn’t being fed by a spring, and stagnant water is not “living” – in fact, it will make you really sick and take your life!  So the prophet cries out in Jeremiah 17:13, “O Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be put to shame . . . for they have forsaken Yahweh, the fountain/spring of living water.”  <Notes> a) mayim chay, hudor zao, b) Jeremiah 2:13.

In Zechariah 14:1-8 God says: “Behold, a day is coming for Yahweh . . . I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle . . . Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations . . . On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives . . . and it shall be split in two . . . And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of king Uzziah . . . then Yahweh, my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him. . . . On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem [through the valley that was created by the splitting] . . . And Yahweh will be King over all the earth.  On that day Yahweh will be One and His name One.”

Jesus refers to His second coming as “coming on the clouds of heaven with enabling-power and great glory, coming with His angels in the glory of His Father to gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and throw them into the fiery furnace . . . but the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (a).  This is Christ’ millennial kingdom, but meanwhile during the Church age, in Song of Solomon 4:1-15, Jesus woos His Bride (the future Church) saying, “You are beautiful, My love . . . you are altogether beautiful, My love; there is no flaw in you.  Come with Me from Lebanon, My bride . . . You have captivated My heart, My sister, My bride . . . A locked garden is My sister, My bride, a locked spring, a sealed fountain . . . a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon.”  <Notes> a) Matthew 13:41, 16:27, 24:30, 26:64; Mark 13:26, 14:62; Revelation 1:7.

So in the New Testament, the Bridegroom who is Jesus uses the same language He did before, offering the Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the grace-gift of God . . . you would have asked Him (a) and He would have given you [that grace-gift of] living water . . . whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be dipsao desperately-suffering-from-being-thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a fountain/spring/spring-fed well (b) of water leaping/gushing/springing up (c) to eternal, zoe genuine-life” (d).  Certainly Jesus is using Old Testament wording to help Jews make the connection!  Jesus said, “I AM the zoe genuine-life” (e), but earlier (f) said, “The directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words that I have spoken to you are [singularly] Spirit and [singularly] zoe genuine-life.”  <Notes> a) Jesus, to be recognized as Christ, b) pege, c) hallomai, d) John 4:10-14, e) John 14:6, f) John 6:63.

Later on at the great feast of the Jews, Jesus “stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone dipsao desperately-suffering-from-being-thirst, let him come to Me and drink.  Whoever has trusting-relying-faith in Me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his innermost belly/womb (a) will flow rivers of living water.’  Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who had trusting-relying-faith in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified [after His resurrection]” (b).  Koilia (a) physically is the “interior cavity, gullet, or womb” of a man, but is translated from the OT Hebrew as “the innermost part, soul, or heart of man as the seat of thought, feeling, and choice.”  This is one of the times Jesus and other rabbis quoted scripture that we do not have today, but have been lost in time.  Contrary to Christian propaganda, the bible we have now is not complete – see Bible Info. <Notes> a) koilia:  a place of reproduction, implying that this is where God’s creative power will now reside and operate, b) John 7:37-39.

Finally, Revelation 7:1-17 describes “a great multitude . . . from every nation . . . standing before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in white robes . . . crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!’ . . . They shall peinao desperately-suffering-from-being-hunger no more, neither dipsao desperately-suffering-from-being-thirsty . . . For the Lamb . . . will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

“Living water” is physically brand-new and fresh, just as chadash and kainos describe the completely different-in-kind New Covenant!  It is a fresh outpouring of rain or the resulting streams/rivers on the surface of the earth or the fountains/springs under it.  Therefore, it never refers to water that has sat for long in a pit, pond, or well.  The Levitical laws for cleansing, physically or ceremonially, would prohibit the use of this stagnant water.  We know biologically that this water can make you sick and kill you!  But fresh dew and running/flowing water can give you physical life!  However, even dew, snow, or ice that has sat for very long can harm you, as many will attest to, so few animals can live through freezing winters.  Once winter snow or ice melts and starts ‘springing’ or flowing, the earth can dilute and filter out the harmful substances to once again make it “living.”

Symbolically, “living water” is the fresh breath of the Father or Son’s Spirit blowing zoe genuine-life into our innermost being/belly/womb cavity, for God is actually zoe genuine-life as are His directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words, “which man can live (zao) on alone” (a).  Man’s sinfulness is looking for zoe genuine-life everywhere but WHO it is!  However, if we look anywhere else, we will remain dipsao desperately-suffering-from-being-thirsty – we won’t be satisfied, but always restless.  The indwelling Holy Spirit, Jesus and the Father living within us, is the only source of zoe genuine-life.  This is the “promised grace-gift of God” through trusting-relying-faith in Jesus – see Genuine-Life page.  <Notes> a) Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4 citing Deuteronomy 8:3; cf. John 6:51-58.

I was proseuchomai conversationally-praying with a prophetic counselor once named Elizabeth Brown and she initially prophetically saw something I saw 2 days later:  a long winter of snow and ice and very few animals were able to live on this old water – they either migrated or hibernated.  But once spring came and water was once again running, life emerged!  So it is with the Word of God.  A logos message written with gramma letters thousands of winters ago, collected into books as graphe scripture, which was highly debated then and even now as to what exactly belongs in the canon, will not sustain you – you just can’t live on it!  We can only live on the fresh breath or “living water” of God, and by definition this is directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words.  Now I admit that “once in a blue moon” while reading the bible, the Lord has personally spoken fresh words or phrases, and even between the bible lines, which was certainly prophetic rhema because it radically affected me, far exceeding 1000s of hours of previous bible study!

I had a dream once of a stagnant, murky, stinky pond fed by a trickling spring flowing into it.  I was told to work with a black missionary friend to take the boards and debris out of the pond that were damming it up.  Once it could flow out, the smell went away, and life came back to it.  When I looked back, a river was flowing into what was now a lake.  This dream told me that the Church was “stopped up” because it was pre-occupied with itself by collecting money to build bigger buildings to keep up with Church growth.

In the early 1990’s I was led to challenge John Casteel of Grace Chapel that the Spirit was calling the church to support native missionaries worldwide, like the singer/evangelist Keith Green was also hearing and expressing in the “Last Days Newsletter.”  I explained that other organizations like Gospel for Asia were feeling this call and doing something about it, but He just said, “I can see you are not happy here.  Maybe you should look for another place.”  That really hurt because I was their worship drummer for 5 years!  He didn’t seem to really care.  Well, it’s sad to say that his continual insistence to preach sermons about tithing and giving to build a Christian school with a gymnasium and basketball courts, etc. apparently ruined the church.  He lost most of 100 elders when he stopped listening to them, insisting that it was “his church,” and soon hundreds of people left along with the revival.  It never did recover until he left, and still nothing like it was in the 70s and 80s!

The Church cannot live on graphe scripture as a collection of gramma writings from “thousands of winters ago” as a means of communicating the content of God’s logos message, even if that is the logos gospel message of The Truth in New Testament gramma writings.  Only the living Logos of Christ speaking to us freshly through His directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words by the means of the “Living Water” of the Holy Spirit, only by this can we experience zoe genuine-life.

Reflections:

As Christian musicians, will we drink the stagnant waters of old songs, playing them with old flesh in the same old way, or instead drink the fresh, running water of “A New Song” spontaneously and prophetically by the anointing of the Holy Spirit just as David’s musicians did?  Anybody can do the former “same old same old,” but only surrendered musicians can do the latter.  The former may indeed be done “FOR God” but the latter can only be accomplished “WITH God.”  The former is no different than the Jewish religious system of worship, year after year for thousands of years, and they grew no closer to God but instead killed all their prophets and finally their Messiah.  Little good this kind of worship did for them!  We must return to David’s worship by singular Spirit and singular Truth, which is total surrender to Jesus Christ, The Truth, and His Holy Spirit.  We cannot find the presence of God in ancient writings, only by entering through prayer and worship!

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Living Water of the Holy Spirit, Living water is always fresh never old, Living water gives life, cisterns with no fountain can make you sick, broken cisterns don’t hold water, Prophecy, Worship, Spirit-Baptism, Prophecy is rhema word in the present moment, You can’t live on old bible writings unless God speaks NOW through them

Prophetic Rhema – BT11:  Our control versus God’s prophetic control in worship

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

“Worship by the [singular] Spirit” that the Father seeks in John 4:23-24 (a) eclipses our own self-control/mastery of our own “might and power” of Zechariah 4:6 because that’s when the Holy Spirit begins to exercise His self-control/mastery (b) over us.  We may even become like King David dressed as a king but he was dancing in a twisting, rollicking manner in front of mere commoners in Jerusalem’s streets while others like his slave-girl Michal were very upset about such a king acting in such an undignified manner in the biggest parade of his kingship (c). <Notes> a) See the Intro to Promised-Spirit for “Worshipping by [singular] Spirit and [singular] Truth,“ b) Galatians 5:23 – 1 of 8 ‘flavors’ of the singular fruit of the Spirit that is unconditional-love, c) 2 Samuel 6:1-23.

Why didn’t David care about being “decent and in order,” as so many church-people have misconstrued Paul’s advice to the exuberant Corinthians (a)?  Why was David willing to look so foolish?  Because the Ark of the Covenant was being carried down the streets, and David and all of Israel were celebrating before Yahweh with songs, lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals. <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 14:40.

However, because a priest reached out to catch the ark from falling when the cart hit a rut and died as a result of the Ark’s holiness, it took 3 months before David had the courage to bring it back into Jerusalem.  He sacrificed in front of it.  David danced before Yahweh with abandonment and they shouted and sounded the horns.  David was going crazy but it didn’t bother him.  Why?  Because when you are in the presence of God, you are under God’s control/master and He captivates your attention, causing you to take your eyes off yourself and what others will think of you!  You have lost your self-control/mastery because you are under God’s self-control/mastery.  This is where our worship must take us!  <Notes> a) Galatians 5:23 – 1 of 8 ‘flavors’ of the singular fruit of the Spirit that is unconditional-love, b) 2 Samuel 6:1-23, c) 1 Corinthians 14:40, d) See also Intro to Promised-Spirit for “Worshipping by [singular] Spirit and [singular] Truth.”

God intends to control us, but are we willing to “let go and let God?”  God doesn’t want servants or slaves (a), but bond-servants by our own free-wills because of our love and gratitude for the Lord!  Ezekiel prophesied about the Everlasting New Covenant to come:  “I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall have zoe genuine-life . . . and you shall experientially, relationally yada/ginosko know that I AM Yahweh,” for “a completely different-in-kind New (b) Spirit I will put within them . . . that they may progressively (c) walk/live in/by/with My statutes (d) and progressively (c) guard/protect [against outside threat] My judicial decrees and ultimately do (e) them, and/thus they shall be My people, and I will be their God . . . I will put My Spirit within you, and completely (e) cause/make/fashion you to progressively (c) walk/live in/by/with My statutes/enactments and progressively (c) guard/protect [against outside threat] My judicial decrees and ultimately do (e) them” (f).  <Notes> a) His angels serve that purpose, b) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, c) Hebrew imperfect tense, d) ordinances, prescribed manners, customs, e) Hebrew perfect tense, f) Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:27, 37:5-6.

There is the radical difference between our own “might and power” FOR God in the old covenant and His “will being done in/by/with Him in the New Covenant.  Praise the Lord!  The “mighty hand that compelled the king of Egypt” (a)!  Paul new this control:  “For The Unconditional-Love of/belonging to Christ actually, ongoingly sunecho ‘seizes, constrains, confines, controls, compels’ us” (b).  This Greek word sunecho means to “completely ‘hold with hands’ together, constrain, hard-press in from every side, and to impel” us.  This intense pressure was how Christ felt about His “baptism (c) to undergo . . . until it is finished” (d).  Sunecho describes the smothering pressure of large crowds surrounding and pressing against Jesus (e).  It’s how Paul felt about the decision to die and be with the Lord or continue His ministry for others (f), because “Paul became continually (g) ‘seizes, constrains, confines, controls, compels’ with proclaiming the logos gospel message, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ” (h).  <Notes> a) Exodus 3:19, b) 2 Corinthians 5:14, c) baptismo means to be changed by immersion into something, in this case into extreme suffering – see Water-Baptism and Spirit-Baptism, d) Luke 12:50, e) Luke 8:45, f) Philippians 1:23, g) Greek imperfect tense, h) Acts 18:5.

Paul reminds us that “God saves us through our trusting-relying-faith in Christ, but this ‘saving through trusting-relying-faith’ is not our own doing and thus not a result of our works, but is a grace-gift of God so that nobody can boast.  In fact, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” (a), for “it is God who works in you, both to desire/will and to work/do for His good pleasure” (b).  It is God who empowers all the grace-gifts in us, service/ministry through us, and effectual workings into others (c).  God will “equip you with everything beneficial that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight” (d).  God wants control, but are we willing to “let go and let God” by giving our “might and power” self-control/master up to Him freely?  Doesn’t that take trusting-relying-faith in God? <Notes> a) Ephesians 2:8-10, b) Philippians 2:13, c) 1 Corinthians 12:5-6, d) Hebrews 13:21.

Reflections:

As Christian musicians, the worship that God is looking for doesn’t come from our flesh’s “might and power” but surrenders all of this to Christ, The Truth, for God’s Holy Spirit to assume full control.  This is “worship by singular Spirit and singular Truth.”  When we “let go and let God” we will lose self-conscientiousness and likely will act very “un-decently and dis-orderly” in the sight of those outside of God’s presence.  In order to please God we will have to stop pleasing men.  We must get to the point that “the unconditional-love of Christ seizes us and impels us” and our actions “are caused by the Lord!”

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Worship by the Spirit is surrender to His control, Worship by The Truth who is Jesus is surrender to His Lordship control, Surrender control, New Covenant where God’s controls us to do His will by His Spirit, FOR God versus WITH God service, We are God’s workmanship, God desires to work in us to desire will and do His will, Faith is the limiting factor

Part 1

Prophetic Rhema – BT10:  Prophesying is the greatest gift to zealously pursue to build the Church

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

Paul talks at length about the use of the Spirit’s grace-gifts in church meetings in 1 Corinthians 14:19-25:  “But instead in church [assembly of mostly believers] I would rather speak 5 logos messages by the means of my mind (a) in order to instruct others, rather than 10,000 logos messages (b) in a [supernatural] tongue . . . [which is] a [confirming, authenticating] sign [of the gospel logos message] for unbelievers not believers, while prophecy is a sign for believers not unbelievers . . . if, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and idiotes outsiders (d) or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?  But if ALL prophesy . . . that [outsider or unbeliever] person will be convicted by ALL, called to account by ALL, the secrets of his heart being disclosed, and he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.” <Notes> a) context: by prophecy, b) context: by the means of the Spirit: 14:2, 14.

Doesn’t it sound like Paul hoped they would ALL prophesy in church and that this would have a profound affect, even on outsiders or unbelievers that prophesy isn’t even a [confirming, authenticating] sign for?  Paul did say in v. 14:5, “I presently/ongoingly supremely-want (a) you ALL to speak in tongues, but more so [ALL] to prophesy . . . so that the church [assembly] may be built up!” <Notes> a) thelo:  desiring the best or optimal for another.

How does Paul “top” even his “supreme desire” for them ALL to speak in tongues?  By his “more so” desire for them to [ALL] prophesy!  Could it be that so few outsiders and unbelievers nowadays come to realize “God is really among” Christians in church services exactly because so many churches forbid prophecy?  Could this be another reason churches aren’t being built up much?  It sure seems that the “supreme ‘more-so’ desire” of many churches is NOT the same as Paul’s!  <Notes> a) context: by prophecy, b) context: by the means of the Spirit: 14:2, 14, c) thelo:  desiring the best or optimal for another, d) believers ignorant/uninformed of Spiritual gifts because of not regular attenders.

Moses had the same desire as Paul but also the same problem with obstinate Jews.  In Number 11:1-30, the people complained about not having the foods they ate back in sinful Egypt now that they had followed the Lord through Moses.  The dew and manna wasn’t enough for them!  So Moses complains to the Lord that he can’t handle the responsibility of listening to their complaints.  So the Lord has Moses gather 70 elders to represent the people, bring them into the Tent of Meeting, and God will “take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them and/thus they shall bear the burden of the people with you.”  And for their grumbling, the people were made to eat bird meat for a month until they were sick of it!  “And as soon as the Spirit rested on them (the 70), they prophesied.”

That’s what you will often see in every Spirit-baptism!  “But they did not continue doing it.”  However, 2 men hadn’t gone into the Tent, but still “the Spirit rested on them. . . and so they [continued to] prophesy outside in the camp.”  Another young man reported this to Moses and a “leader” called Joshua the son of Nun, a long-time assistant to Moses told Moses to stop the 2 men from prophesying.  Can you believe that!  But you see that in today’s churches all the time!  The “leaders” are the first to try to stop the move of the Holy Spirit because “it is out of order!”  Nevertheless, Moses nailed it, saying:  “Are you jealous?  Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”

Well, Moses got his wish:  The completely different-in-kind New Covenant promises that ALL of God’s people can now be prophets!  That’s what Peter declared in Acts 2:17-19 citing Joel 2:28-29 and what Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 14:5 as his “more so than his supreme desire” for Christians, and in verse 14:1 where Paul charges them in the imperative case that is a strong urging:  “Presently/ongoing boil over with zeal (a) for the Spirit-kind-of [things], but especially/more so that you might prophesy.”  Paul even tells them to “ALL prophesy one by one, so ALL might learn [the essentials] and/coupled ALL might be parakaleo encouraged-from-being-close-beside [the Holy Spirit who is the Parakletos]” in v. 14:31.

Part 2

Just in case, anybody doesn’t understand Paul’s emphasis, he summarizes with another imperative urging:  “So, my brethren, presently/ongoing boil over with zeal (a) to prophesy and/coupled do not in possibility forbid speaking in tongues.”  <Notes> a) zeloo: be deeply committed to something, completely intent on.

We see the history of the Church bearing that witness:  Paul lays hands on people, the Holy Spirit comes on them, and they begin speaking in tongues and prophesying (a).  We see woman prophets in the Church (b) as Paul teaches about “every wife who prays or prophesies” (c).  Paul teaches “We prophesy in part, but when [the possibility] the perfect comes, the partial will pass away,” but this happens when “we see face to face” and when we “shall genuinely, fully, intimately, relationally, experientially epiginosko know, even as I have been genuinely, fully, intimately, relationally, experientially epiginosko known” (d). <Notes> a) Acts 19:6, b) Acts 21:9, c) 1 Corinthians 11:5, d) 1 Corinthians 13:9-12.

We know from Paul’s other writings that “The Perfect” (teleios:  mature, consummate, complete, end-goal of a process/journey) is Jesus Christ (a) and His coming is our “blessed hope” (b) when prophecy is no longer needed!  This has nothing to do with the canon of the NT that wasn’t decided by constantly-disagreeing Catholic Church councils until 367-397 AD.  <Notes> a) Ephesians 4:13, b) Titus 2:13.

Paul taught that Christ gave the grace-gift of prophets to the Church to equip/coach/facilitate the saints for the work of the ministry (a), and in fact the prophets the foundation of the Church along with the apostles (b), as the gospel is primarily made know by the “sent-out missionaries” (apostles) and prophets (c).  Paul and Barnabas were among many prophets (d).  Cessationists who deny the grace-gifts for today have to twist the NT writings and ignore Church history!  Clearly prophesy was the dominant way God intended to make His will be known to individual Christians and to the Church in their assemblies, especially to equip the saints for ministry of the gospel.  When we ignore or contradict God, we end up using our own “might and power” instead of the “by My Spirit” tools and people God has given us to get the job done!  The modern Church has really handicapped themselves.  <Notes>  a) Ephesians 4:7-12; 1 Corinthians 12:28, b) Ephesians 2:20, c) Ephesians 3:5, d) Acts 13:1, 15:32.

Reflections:

As Christian musicians, if the NT and early Church history make it crystal clear that prophecy was the most important gift of the Spirit for the Church individually and in assembly, then why are we trying to minister with less than this?  Why are we treating it as an oddity or only for a “special” few or for those “crazy Pentecostals or Charismatics” when it is supposed to be normal Christianity?  How is prophecy less important than “shepherds/pastors who teach” when I counted 8 verses where prophecy is listed next to the grace-gift of apostle, which is a church-planting gift?  Apostles and prophets are the foundation of the the Church per Ephesians 2:19-20.

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Prophecy, Prophetic Rhema Word of God, Prophecy is the greatest gift next to tongues with interpretation in Church assembly, Prophecy is to be zealously desired by ALL Christians, Tongues is Paul’s strong desire for ALL Christians, Moses wanted all God’s people to be prophets, New Covenant promise is for ALL God’s servants to prophecy by visions & dreams, Don’t forbid tongues, The Perfect that comes is not the formation of the Bible in 325-397 AD, The Perfect that comes is the second coming of Christ or “blessed hope,” Spirit’s gifts all equip the saints to be ministers

Prophetic Rhema – BT9: Wide-open eyes gazing at Christ to be transformed into His likeness

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

In 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 Paul says concerning the Torah Law of conditional-favor, “Now if the ministry/service of death, engraved by gramma letters (a) on stones, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory (b), which was even then being brought to an end, will not the ministry/service of the Spirit have even more glory?  For if there was glory in the ministry/service of condemnation, the ministry/service of righteousness (c) must far exceed it in glory.  Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that has surpassed it.  For if what was then being brought to an end came with glory, how much more will what is permanent have glory!  Since we have such a hope, we are now very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was even then being brought to an end.  But their minds were hardened.”

Paul continues:  For to this very day, whenever they read the old covenant, that same veil remains un-lifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.  Yes, to this very day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.  But when one turns around/converts towards (d) the Lord [Jesus], the veil is removed.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of/belonging to the Lord is [context:  in Christian hearts & minds, their inner being], there is freedom (e). But we all, with unveiled faces, habitually, reflexively, gazing with wide-open eyes as upon yourself’s reflection in a mirror (f) upon the glory of the Lord, are being metamorphically-transformed into that same image [of Christ who is the Spirit they see within themselves] from glory to glory (g). For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”  This is really eido mentally ‘seeing’ to perceive to understand/know prophetic vision that Jeremiah 31:34 God promises for His people to know Him.

Here are the many Notes from above: a) gramma alphabet and any writings created by it, b) this occurred in the Tent of Meeting where Moses spoke face-to-face with God to write with ink the many scrolls of the 5 books of the Law, c) by the Spirit because of Christ’s righteousness, d) epistrepho: context implies a ‘face-to-face’ contact with, e) in context: from the slavery to the inferior Mosaic Law of condemnation and death, f) katoptrizo:  kataptron mirror + a derivative of optanomai gazing with wide-open eyes as derived from horao observing/perceiving-knowing/discerning when in the present middle/reflexive form means gazing with wide-open eyes of oneself as a reflection in a mirror, but since the object of the verb is given as “the Lord,” it is not only “of oneself” who is actually the Spirit [who is the glory of the Lord] dwelling within oneself, but also “for oneself,” that is, “for one’s own transformation!”  For more about discernment – see New Covenant Ways – BT16, g) an idiom for “one level of glory to another level of glory.”

Wow, Paul is really condemning the reading of Moses, the first 5 books of the bible, the Torah Law of conditional-favor, which makes up 97.4% of the essence of the entire Old Testament (OT) – see Logos Word of God – BT5a, because only 600 verses of 23,145 refer to New Testament (NT) realities, but that is the subject of the completely different-in-kind New Covenant.  Why are so many Christians enamored with the OT that “has no glory left” and “has been brought to an end?” – Ephesians 2:15.

However, Paul’s focus here is this habitual gazing/staring at Jesus’ Spirit with wide-open eyes.  This is when that cocoon-to-butterfly metamorphic transformation occurs – absolutely not by staring at Moses’ face by reading his OT writings, because his face-to-face encounter with God was fading away even then, the very reason he was wearing the veil.  He wasn’t wearing it just to keep people from freaking out, but to hide the fading glory – this would certainly erode his authority and their confidence in him as a leader!  He had enough problems getting people to follow him as it was!

But Paul says that “glory” finally faded away long ago!  It’s history!  So why are we trying to “see God” by reading Moses’ writings?  This path to the knowledge of God to transform us is a waste of time!  It actually hardens our heart/mind/inner-being!  Paul’s argument isn’t that with “the veil removed” that Christians are somehow NOW immune to this effect and should embrace Moses’ writings anyway, but I’ve heard many Christians tell me this to defend their reading of Moses – that with the Holy Spirit it’s somehow different!

But Paul has the Holy Spirit and yells, “Don’t do it!”  Instead the answer to going from “glory to glory” in godly transformation is to make it a habit of staring at Jesus’ face as the Holy Spirit that dwells within them with wide-open eyes, just like people love to see themselves in a mirror!  Watch people’s eyes when they see a picture of themselves – they get bigger!  Although this is the only use of this complex word, the more common word optanomai is used many times elsewhere.

The Lord confirmed the context of 2 Corinthians 3:18 to me in a dream:  Only when we meet with Jesus face-to-face by the means of the Spirit, will His glory transform us – and this time it won’t fade away like Moses!  It’s a “permanent” ministry of glory!  Reading most of the OT will just keep hiding this glory, keeping the veil of Moses in place over our hearts/minds/inner-being, keeping them calloused, precisely because most of the OT is based on the conditionally-loving favor of the old covenant’s Torah Law of conditional-favor based on obedience to 613 commandments.

This optanomai type of staring/gazing with wide-open-eyes at Jesus is very similar to Hebrews 12:2 where it says we should be “habitually fixing our eyes (a) toward/at Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our trusting-relying-faith,” which in context means “turning our eyes away from every weight of the worldly concerns that lug us down and every sin that clings so closely to us, like wet clothes, that slow us down from running with endurance the race of trusting-relying-faith in Christ that is set before us.  Jesus kept His eye on the finish line, the joy of His resurrection to come, and that helped Him get through the suffering ahead of Him.  We need to keep our eye on our “blessed hope,” our glorification and eternal life with Christ! <Notes> a) aphorao for apo away/off + horao observing/perceiving-knowing/discerning = thus turning the eyes/observation away from something to another.

Optanomai vision is supernatural!  The God of glory was ‘seen’ this way by Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia (a). This was like Moses ‘seeing’ of the angel in the flame of the burning bush (b). This was the way Zechariah ‘saw’ the angel of the Lord in the temple who told him that his son was to be named John (c). During Christ’s earthly ministry, Peter, James, and John ‘saw’ Jesus, Moses, and Elijah when they were transfigured on the mountain (d).  Near the end of His ministry, after bleeding from the strain of Christ’s prayer before His death, an angel was ‘seen’ by the disciples this way to strengthen Him (e). <Notes> a) Acts 7:2, b) Acts 7:30, 35, c) Luke 1:11, d) Matthew 17:9; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:31, e) Luke 22:43.

Nathaniel likely ‘saw’ Jesus this way, just as Jesus predicted (a).  Paul may be referring to this “seen of angels’ event (b).  Before Jesus left, He said He would depart, but when He returned after His resurrection they would “see” Him this way (c).  Indeed, Peter, then James, and then other apostles ‘saw’ Jesus after His resurrection (d).  There was fear ‘seeing’ Jesus this way that He did acknowledge would occur (e).  In fact, more than 500 hundred Christians thus ‘saw’ Jesus for 40 days after the resurrection (f).  Paul even did this ‘seeing’ of Jesus on the way to Damascus years later around 35-37AD (g). <Notes> a) John 1:51, b) 1 Timothy 3:16, c) John 16:16-17, 19, 22, d) 1 Corinthians 15:5, 7; Matthew 28:7; Luke 24:34, e) Matthew 28:10; Mark 16:7, f) Acts 1:3, 13:31; 1 Corinthians 15:6, g) Acts 9:17, 26:16; 1 Corinthians 15:8.

Optanomai vision is the key way to prophetically ‘see’ in the Church.  People thus ‘saw’ the tongues of fire that landed on 120 at the Day of Pentecost when they were Spirit-baptized (a).  Paul stood up on that day and declared that the Church Age or Last Days started, will continue, and will finish as a result of the promised Spirit through Spirit-baptism as evident by prophecy, particularly by visions (b) and/coupled dreams (c and d), promising this to ALL those who come to the Lord, even to the end of the ages (e). There is no mention of any other way God would teach us but through this eido mentally ‘seen’ to perceive type of knowledge.  In fact, Paul ‘saw’ such a vision (f) of a Macedonian urging him to come there and preach (g).  Such visions are throughout the NT (h).  Many Gentiles who never were told about the coming Messiah through the Jews will ‘see’ and get connect-the-dots sunesis understanding through their 5 senses” but especially by the Spirit (i and j).

<Notes> a) Acts 2:3, b) horasis from horao: generally to observe with the eyes, implying attention, concern, or heed, sometimes being acquainted through experience, but often emphasizing a mental ‘seeing’ to perceive/know with a discerning or ‘weighing-in’ mind – see Revelation 4:3, 9:17; See also optanomai: gaze in awe with wide-open eyes upon used in Matthew 5:8; John 16:22; Romans 15:21; Acts 13:31; 1 John 3:2 or katoptrizo that is kataptron mirror + a derivative of optanomai = gaze in awe with wide-open eyes as in a mirror, which is used only in 1 Corinthians 3:18, c) enupnion: in-sleep vision, d) Acts 2:17-19, citing Joel 2:28, e) Acts 2:38-29, f) horama plural from horasis singular from horao: observing/perceiving-knowing/discerning, g) Acts 16:9, h) Acts 9:10, 2, 10:3, 17, 19, 11:5, 12:9, 18, i) suniemi – see Knowledge, j) Romans 15:21.

Indeed, even many Muslims have ‘seen’ Jesus appear to them!  Jesus taught how we will indeed ‘see’ God and be “blessed, to be envied” – if we “are the pure/unmixed in heart” (a), a singularity of focus, not double-minded as James 1:8, 4:8 speak of.  Again, in context Jesus is preaching to Jews under the Torah Law of conditional-favor, laying the foundation for them to turn over their trusting-relying-faith inn the Law to instead trusting-relying-faith in Jesus as their Messiah who would free them from the Law and it’s condemnation.  However, the unbelieving Jews and Romans who crucified Him won’t ‘see’ Christ again (b) until it’s too late!  See the Prophetic page for much more about ‘seeing’ from the Lord through revealed knowledge!  <Notes> a) Matthew 5:8, b) Acts 20:25.

Optanomai vision will be glorious at the end for Christians. John the Baptist preached from Isaiah that ultimately “all mankind will ‘see’ the salvation of God” (a).  For sure, everyone on the earth will ‘see’ Christ’s glorious coming on the clouds with His great army to assume control of the earth (b) and to deliver salvation only for the Christians (c).  When Christians ‘see’ Him it will be glorious because Christ’s name/authority is on their foreheads (d).  That’s when Christians will ‘see’ Him just as He actually is (e) and the metamorphic-transformation is completed.  Only those who had trusting-relying-faith in Christ will ‘see’ zoe genuine-life after Judgment Day.  Otherwise, the wrath of God remains on people (f).  But it’s going to get so bad with lawlessness at the end that before Christ’s coming the surviving Christians will ‘crave’ to ‘see’ just 1 day of Christ’s return (g)! <Notes> a) Luke 3:6, b) Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27, c) Hebrews 9:38, d) Revelation 22:4, e) 1 John 3:2, f) John 3:36, g) Luke 17:22.

Optanomai vision will be terrifying at the end for non-Christians.  The end will be a terrible time for many others!  Terrifying signs will be ‘seen’ by the earth’s people right before Christ’s coming (a).  Hebrews 12:14-15 says that “without holiness (b) no one will ‘see’ the Lord.  Habitually episkopeo look-with-focus-with-real-care/interest that no one comes short of the unconditional-favor-of-grace of God.”  We know that this “grace” only comes through trusting-relying-faith in Christ!  At the Day of Judgment, all people will ‘see’ the Lord at the right hand/authority of God, even the Jews and Romans that crucified Christ (c) – way too late for them for they will be mourning/weeping!  They will be thrown out of the kingdom when they ‘see’ their believing forefathers (d).  <Notes> a) Revelations 12:1, 3, b) consecration/purification to be made holy, c) John 19:37 citing Zechariah 12:10, Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62, 24:30; Revelation 1:7, d) Luke 13:28.

The Lord showed me that this wide-open-eyed optanomai gazing, is what lovers naturally do, staring into each other’s eyes.  This is how He looks at us and wants us to look at Him that way, by the means of the Spirit.  This is the koinonia fellowship He desires in proseuche conversational-prayer!  He has told me often about the attentiveness of the watchmen on the walls, keenly looking for their enemy with wide-open eyes especially at night.  He has told me to direct this attentiveness to Him.  When Jesus said “Watch in prayer,” He is saying “Be alert and observant!”  When I go into my drum room to learn from the Lord, He tells me to “Carefully watch your hands and feet, because I will show you many things.”  So I also use a mirror!  I tell my students that a picture is worth more than a 1000 words but more like 10,000, so try to picture what you want to accomplish before setting out to do it.

Reflection:

As Christian musicians, why if the NT speaks so negatively about the first 5 books of the bible, the books of Moses or Law, even warning us not to read it, are we disobeying by reading and studying it?  And all Jews, even the NT ones, regard the entire OT as “The Law.”  Why are we glorifying that “which has faded and now has no glory at all?”  Why are we treating prophetic vision as an esoteric exception for some mystics to enjoy when it was the ONLY way for normal Christians to become holy?  Shouldn’t our obsession be of Jesus Christ, yet many churches preach far more from the OT than the NT – just count the references to Jesus compared other biblical figures!

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Prophecy, Prophetic Rhema Word of God, Transformation does NOT come from reading 97.4% of the Old Testament that is Law-based, Transformation comes from staring at Jesus within us as the Spirit, Reading the Old Covenant Law will harden your heart, Reading the Old Covenant Law hides God’s glory from you, Fix your eyes on Jesus not readings about Him, Optanomai vision, Lovers stare into each others eyes

Prophetic Rhema – BT8:  What is prophecy and how does this relate to Christian music?

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

“Prophetic” is the adjective form of the verb “to prophesy,” which comes from the original Hebrew naba’ that means “religious ecstasy under divine influence with/without singing and/or instrumental music” (a).  The Greek verb apophthengomai means “to prophesy:  to utter or declare oneself, not of everyday speech, but belonging to dignified or elevated discourse.”  Oftentimes the Greek verb propheteuo is used instead, meaning “to prophesy:  to assert by elevating one statement over another, thus Spirit-empowered forth-telling.”  When words are prophetically spoken by God directly to you so that you directly akouo hear to understand them, these are prophetic rhema words.

Once they are passed on second-hand verbally or through writings, they are no longer rhema words but fall under the term logos, which is used for general communication with the focus on message content instead of the method of delivery.  Logos messages can certainly be directly-spoken/heard via rhema words, but rhema words by themselves are not a logos message, especially since the latter can simply be written gramma letters collected into graphe books called scripture. <Notes> a) Spirit-kind-of odes in Ephesians 3:19 and Colossians 3:16 are spontaneous psalms or hymns, respectively with or without vocals, spoken by the Spirit.

Any skilled worldly musician can play an ode (a psalm or hymn) and even play it spontaneously as extemporaneously or improvisationally, but it takes God’s Spirit to make it a “Spirit-kind-of ode” (a), which then makes it anointed, prophetic, and spontaneous!  It doesn’t matter if you are a Christian musician or not, unless it’s “spoken” by the Holy Spirit, it’s simply not anointed or prophetic.  And if it’s not co-created spontaneously right then and there in the moment by the Holy Spirit, then it’s certainly not anointed, prophetic, spontaneous music.  In either case, no matter how much you want to dedicate your skill FOR God, it’s still just a product of the flesh’s “might and power,” and so it is simply not prophetic.  <Notes> a) Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16.

Church people can prophesy, cast out demons, and do mighty works in Christ’s name/authority, yet on Judgment Day Christ will say to many “I never experientially, relationally ginosko knew you; depart from Me you workers contrary to the law” (a).  What?  Is Jesus teaching the Mosaic Torah Law of conditional-favor?  No!  Remember that torah or nomos generally refers to “principles of instruction.”  There were Law-teaching Jewish false prophets then (b), even itinerant exorcists invoking Christ’s name/authority to drive out evil spirits (c), and there will be more in the future even near the end of the ages (c).  None of them were then or will be in relationship with Christ, so they were then and will be workers contrary to Christ’s “law” – ‘the law of trusting-relying-faith’ in the Son sent from the Father (e) and the ‘law of Christ’ given by Jesus (f) to unconditionally-love one another as I have unconditionally-loved you (g) – these are the only 2 entole official decrees or commandments in the law of the New Covenant (h).  <Notes> a) Matthew 7:23, b) Matthew 7:15; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1, c) Acts 19:13, d) Matthew 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22, e) John 6:29, f) 1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2, g) John 13:34, 15:12, h) 1 John 3:23.

The distinctive ministry of the New Covenant to and through people to others is absolutely not gramma writings collected into books called graphe scripture, which never referred to anything but the Old Testament until 208 AD when the Catholic theologian Tertullian referred to the NT writings as graphe scripture in order to desperately prove to the Jews that Christians also a “bible” but he was also arguing against Catholics heretics that there were “authoritative NT scriptures.”  No Jew in the NT, including Jesus and Paul, or after ever referred to NT writings as graphe scripture.

When the apostle Peter stood up on the first day of the Church when the Holy Spirit was given, just as Jesus told them that the Father had promised (a), Peter didn’t talk at all about “old scripture” or even more “new scripture,” but He did quote the prophet Joel 2:28-29 in Acts 2:16-18 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I shall actually pour out My Spirit on ALL (b) flesh and/thus:  Your sons and/coupled your daughters shall actually prophesy and/coupled [related phrase introduced:] your youth shall actually envision visions and/coupled your elders shall dream dreams – EVEN (ge = qualifying emphasis) on MY male servants and/coupled MY female servants in those days I will actually pour out MY Spirit and/thus they shall actually prophesy.”  <Notes> a) Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4, 2:33, b) As here, pas rarely means “the whole of” but more often “each of a kind or category of” – the context “whittles down” the meaning through coupling/relating phrases and qualifying emphasis to God’s “male and female servants.”

The Greek structure of Acts 2:16-18 is written in a series of qualifying phrases, as Hebrew poetry is:  “Your sons coupled with your daughters” qualifies “all flesh”  – the whole world didn’t get the Spirit that day, but only “each of a certain kind/category,” just as pas translates in many cases.  For example, Paul’s saying: “All (pas) scripture, God-breathed [ones], these are useful for teaching, etc.” in 2 Timothy 3:16 is not “the whole of” as many erroneously assume, but “each of a kind/category of,” which is clearly defined in v. 3:15, the “sacred gramma writings from childhood you [Timothy] have been acquainted with,” which is further qualified by the next phrase:  “which are able to make you wise for salvation through trusting-relying-faith in Christ Jesus.”  See Logos Word of God – BT7.  The Torah Law of conditional-favor never accomplished any of this, and so Paul forbid teaching of the Mosaic Law in churches per Romans 16:17; 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 2:16; Titus 3:9; and 2 Corinthians 3:7-15.  They did use 2.6% of the OT that were prophetic “oracles” concerning the Messiah to convert Jews to Christianity – Logos Word of God – BT6.

The next qualifying phrases of Acts 2:16-18:  “Your neaniskos youth shall actually envision visions and/coupled your presbuteros elders shall actually dream dreams” qualifies “Your sons coupled with your daughters,” clearly allowing men and women to be “youth and elders” since these terms only refer to age and experience.  The final phrase would poetically be the narrowest qualification, and it is emphasized with the Greek particle ge:  “My male servants and/coupled female servants.”  It qualifies “your youth . . . your elders,” made even more obvious by the change in pronouns from “your” to “MY.”  So God systematically refines “All flesh” to “your sons and/coupled daughters” to “your youth and/coupled elders” and finally emphasizes “MY male servants and/coupled MY female servants.”

There are only 3 active voice verbs that God’s servants shall ACTUALLY do during the Church Age:  [actively] prophesy, envision [passively] visions, and dream [passively] dreams.  The first and last statements of Joel 2:28-29 are the main point – like a thesis statement and its re-statement – see Romans 1:5 and 16:26 “Obedience of Faith”:  “I shall actually pour out MY Spirit,” and in both cases God identified how we will know this for sure: “they shall actually prophesy.”  “Envisioning visions or dreaming dreams” is a further description of what happens to us, showing how we get the ideas to thus prophesy for God.  We will either ‘see’ them during the day or at night.  There is an excellent study of this subject by Jim W. Goll in his book The Seer – The Prophetic Power of Visions, Dreams, and Open Heavens.

A careful study of prophesy throughout the bible and today reveals that receiving God’s revelation is primarily through visually ‘seeing’ in your mind’s eye what God wants to say, either words or pictures, and this happens either during the day or at night.  Even akouo hearing-to-understand directly-spoken rhema words through our ear drums are just signals processed into mental pictures in our brain that we eido ‘see’ to perceive either as words of letters or more often as word-pictures.

The Greek word eido for mentally ‘seeing’ to perceive/know is most often the word used for a prophet’s means of understanding or acquiring knowledge, which is highly favored over ‘connect-the-dots’ inductive sunesis understanding that comes from rationally understanding gnosis info-knowledge through “much study that is a weariness of the flesh” according to Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12:12.  Furthermore, when Jesus often says as in Matthew 11:15: “Let the one who has ears, let him akouo hear/listen-to-understand,” this Greek word akouo speaks of mental understanding through the ears into the brain, not just the physical act of receiving sound.

And this “listening” understanding is an action of the mind, just as all languages are processed as word-pictures.  In fact some languages like Hebrew, Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese are picture-based.  Nevertheless, there can be a lot “lost in translation” going from physically blepo seeing or akouo hearing gramma letters read to actual mental understanding, which relies heavily on the “might and power” comprehension skills of the flesh.

Since God doesn’t show favoritism or partiality, it’s no wonder there is no mention of continuing the knowledge of God through the reading, study, and comprehension of gramma letters collected as graphe scripture, and we’ve seen many verses that say God had abandoned that “old plan” because of its utter failure to communicate Him accurately to His people.  A great book about understanding directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words is 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice by Mark & Patti Virkler.

Reflection:

As Christian musicians, don’t we want “religious ecstasy under divine influence” and thus “to prophesy” even through our instrument and/or voice?  Isn’t what God has to say through us so much more “dignified and elevated” over anything our flesh’s “might and power” could produce FOR God?  It always comes back to whether we have an intimate relationship with Christ so that we can hear-to-understand His Voice or see it in “a picture worth a 1000 words” in order to communicate this to others.  Without this trusting-relying-faith, all we have is “flesh that profits nothing.”  The “promise” was never to continue learning ABOUT God through scripture or to do this with “new” scripture, but for ALL “MY male and female servants to prophesy!”  There is no other “instructions” given for the Church Age.  This is the unique, unprecedented, completely different-in-kind New Covenant “promise” spelled out so clearly in Jeremiah 31:31-34, quoted throughout the New Testament!

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Prophecy, Prophetic Rhema Word of God, Christian music, Prophetic Christian music, Second-hand Logos messages are no longer the original Rhema words, improvisation versus Spirit’s spontaneous music, religious works FOR God versus relationship WITH God, New Covenant ministry is NOT by writings but by Prophecy thru the Spirit, Prophecy is God’s Plan for teaching His servants in the Last Days Church Age, Eido mental seeing knowledge, Hearing requires the seeing mind to understand, We can’t show favoritism by insisting on reading comprehension

Prophetic Rhema – BT7:  Can God use Christian music that isn’t prophetic?

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

Christian music that is not prophetic really only contains man’s music and words, no matter how well-intentioned “FOR God” it is, but remember that Jesus said in John 6:63: “the flesh is absolutely-in-fact-no real help (a) to God.”  Jesus went on to say in contrast:  “My directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words are [singular] Spirit and [singular] zoe genuine-life.”  That’s where the Spirit-power of God is to accomplish what God says!  Christians have to make a choice between THEIR music FOR God or GOD’S music THROUGH them back up to Himself or to others.  <Notes> a) opheleo: to be useful, advantageous, profitable, helpful, beneficial.

Remember that by definition, directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words are always spoken and heard in the present moment.  When a Christian musician re-tells God’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words in music and/or lyrics, although they now have become their own human directly-spoken/heard rhema words, by themselves they are no longer the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God and so no longer have the original impact – they often fall flat!

For example, Handel’s Messiah was originally anointed – the accounts of its composition and performance are truly supernatural!  However, since then many musicians have played it and people listened to it but nothing supernaturally occurred.  However, I watched it performed by a secular orchestra and choir, and sang along to it with a 1000 others at Grace for the Nation church.  People all around me sang it like any other Christmas song, but SOME of us who were “in the Spirit” beforehand, now were actually filled by the Spirit during it!

That’s because God can spontaneously speak AGAIN through those old directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words and SOME people will pick up on this.  Certainly God can speak through even rocks in a wall, even secular musicians and singers, but it may not be His “first pick or perfect will” (a) as He states:  “in the last days, God declares that I will pour out My Spirit . . . on MY male SERVANTS and female SERVANTS, in those days I will pour out My Spirit, and they shall actually prophesy” (b).  This is His first choice!  Nevertheless, all through the bible you see God working around the “free-will choices” of man!  This is called God’s “permissible will.”  <Notes> a) Luke 19:40, b) Acts 2:17-18.

God longs to freshly speak to us directly and through HIS people!  Sure God can speak through HIS old music and words, and even through unbelievers, inanimate objects like rocks, and Balaam’s donkey (e), but it’s not His “first choice or perfect will.”  Even when God does choose an alternative path called “His permissible will” to accomplish His will, despite our poor choices, God loves to add new and deeper directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words each time, because that’s what “living water” is!  It’s the FRESH, running water of a garden fountain (a) that we can truly live on, the presence of God as a fountain of living waters (b), the presence of the Holy Spirit that can flow out of our hearts through trusting-relying-faith in Christ (c).  This water isn’t snow or an ice pack from a cold winter that few animals can live on!  It’s not found in a puddle or a pond or “hewn-out cisterns for ourselves” (d), which can actually make a person sick.  Anointed, directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema music is what God makes because this is how He speaks!  <Notes> a) Song of Solomon 4:15, cf. Revelation 7:17, b) Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13, cf. Zechariah 14:8, c) John 4:10-11, 7:38, d) Jeremiah 2:13, e) Numbers 22:22-29.

As Christian musicians, shouldn’t we long for the Lord to speak directly to us and through us to others, even musically?  Isn’t this the fresh, “living water” that will refresh us and others?  If we do play an “old song” shouldn’t we prefer those that were demonstrably anointed originally?  But more importantly, shouldn’t we desire for the Lord to freshly anoint it NOW?  Shouldn’t we be anointed while playing it?  Otherwise, all we are left with is religious “flesh that profits absolutely-in-fact nothing!”

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Prophecy, Prophetic music, Prophetic Rhema Word of God, Christian music, FOR God versus With God music, Flesh-made versus Spirit-made music, Prophetic rhema words are Spirit and Genuine Life, Originally anointed music but no longer, anointed music versus anointed musicians, God’s Perfect Will versus Permissible Will for Christian music, Living water is fresh spontaneous music

Prophetic Rhema – BT6:  God is talking, but are we listening?

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

The problem isn’t that God’s isn’t speaking directly to Christians His directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words, but that most of us aren’t listening or haven’t tuned into the right ‘frequency’ on the dial to akouo hear-to-understand Him.  A powerful prophetess from Alaska found out about a Holy Spirit class that just started at Grace for the Nations in Tucson where I live, and she prophesied over the class – you could hear a pin drop as I was sitting on my hands shaking under the holiness of God in that room!  The Lord said through her to “Keep the clear channel open.”  Afterwards, we asked her what this meant.  Evidently in Alaska many people communicate via Hamm radio and the “Clear channel” is a special frequency nobody is supposed to broadcast on unless there is an Emergency Broadcast.

You wouldn’t even get any important information unless you knew about this channel and how to tune into it, or you would be getting the information second-hand from someone who did, which then opens you up to re-telling error.  What reporter hasn’t embellished the story?  That is exactly the issue of prophetic-rhema versus retelling of it that came much later in gramma writings.  You either take the trouble of learning how to listen yourself or you hope you find out most of it through someone else, but God’s intention in the New Covenant is for the former because the latter is very untimely and unreliable, because much will likely be lost in translation.

I think most Christians and churches are more like Martha, busy running around trying to serve Jesus with their “might and power!”  This is just like the Old Covenant – busy working FOR God.  I actually heard a preacher at Vineyard Connections in Tucson say that Martha was more mature in her trusting-relying-faith than Mary, and that mature Christians are busy DOing for Jesus.  But that’s not what Jesus said:  “Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching, but Martha was distracted with much serving . . . The Lord answered Martha’s grumbling why Mary wasn’t helping:  ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is necessary.  Mary has chosen the better (a) portion, which will not be taken away from her” (b).  I’d say that preacher was a false teacher, but the problem with the modern-Church format is that nobody is allowed to “weigh in on what was said” as was the practice in 1 Corinthians 14:29.  They would throw you out because you were “disorderly and disrespectful of authority.”  <Notes> a) comparatively good, beneficial, useful, excellent, b) Luke 10:41-42.

Certainly, supernatural results will occur when you are actually in God’s presence akouo listening to the Lord speak His directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words to and through you!  One of the best books I’ve read on this subject is 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice by Mark & Patti Virkler.  It has worked tremendously for my dad, wife, and myself.  We all have many journals full of God’s direct words to us.  Kathryn Kuhlman said that we will have as much difficulty hearing God if our mind is too busy, as is an ocean reflecting the image of the moon if it is not still!

Psalms 46:10 says:  “[Definitively] be still (a) and/coupled (b) experientially, relationally know (c) that I AM the Supreme God Elohim.”  These are coupled/related ideas, or very likely one “thusly” leading to the other.  If we stop moving and stop talking and draw near (c), wait, watch, and listen in proseuche conversational-prayer for God, then He will “show up” and “draw near alongside us” (d) and we will be connected to the Vine of Christ for zoe genuine-life and fruitfulness (e).  So I was again reminded to “Come near to Me, all you who labor and are heavily-weighed down (burdened by the Law of 613 commandments), and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke (f) upon you and/coupled learn from Me . . . and you will find rest for your souls (g).  For My yoke [harness of teaching] is well-fitted to you (h) and My burden is feather-light to carry (i)” (j).

<Notes> a) raphah, scholazo: take a vacation, cease motions, be quiet, b) kai can also be cumulative meaning ‘and/thus,’ c) yada, ginosko mean “to experientially, relationally know,” d) James 4:8, Proserchomai:  a Hebraism for “seeking an audience with, approaching, inquiring of, calling on to visit, or be heard by” God, thus closely akin in spelling and meaning to proseuche conversational-prayer and proskuneo worship e) John 15:1-8, f) a harness between experienced animals and novices to train them, g) chrestos: comfortable, useful, beneficial, h) elaphros: easy to carry or move with, i) mind, emotions, will, j) Matthew 11:28-30.

The subject of akouo hearing/listening to understand will be covered at length in the Knowledge page and in the proseuche Conversational-Prayer page, because that’s what makes this dialogue unique from the monologue of deesis supplication!

As Christian musicians, we especially need to “tune into God’s frequency” and receive directly from Him what He wants to play through us.  Otherwise, we are just playing from our own flesh’s “might and power” FOR God, which is the essence of all religion.  Staying busy FOR God isn’t as important as waiting for the Lord to speak and move through us.

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Prophecy, Prophetic music, Prophetic Word of God, Rhema Word of God, Spoken Word of God, New Covenant Way of communicating God’s message to His people, Hamm radio clear channel, Tune into the God channel to hear Him, Tune into God’s frequency, Martha is the busy church-goer, Mary does the one thing necessary – listen to Jesus, 4 Keys to Hearing God’s Voice by Mark & Patti Virkler, Kathryn Kuhlman, Be still & quiet to relationally know the Godhead, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you, Come near to Jesus to learn from Him directly

Prophetic Rhema – BT5:  Rhema word is our “daily bread” we should pray & listen for

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

Do you think the “daily bread” that we are to proseuchomai conversationally-pray for in the Lord’s Prayer Model (a) is actually about God just meeting our physical food needs?  Why pray for our physical needs at all, because Jesus just said 3 verses earlier (b), “Do not be like them (c), for your Father already knows what you need before you ask Him?”  Is asking for our physical needs logically flow from asking for “Thy will to be done on earth as it is in heaven” (d)?  And how does asking for physical food logically flow into what comes right after it (e):  “And/coupled forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors” and the next verse: “And/coupled lead us not into testing, but deliver us from the evil [one]?”  Since the conjunction kai couples/relates two similar things together, how is asking for food coupled/related to asking for forgiveness within relationships in order to re-establish fellowship, or how is asking for food coupled/related to deliverance from the evil [one]?” <Notes> a) Matthew 6:11-13; cf. Luke 11:3, b) Matthew 6:8, c) Matthew 6:7 – the pagans idolaters who think they’ll be heard by their many words, d) Matthew 6:10, e) Matthew 6:12-15.

Remember there are no verse numbers in Greek – Jesus is speaking in 1 long sentence conveying 1 idea, linking all the parts together with kai, and He continues with the same idea in the next 2 verses, giving us the reason why to ask for this:  “For if you forgive others . . . your Father in heaven will also forgive you, but if you do not . . . your Father in heaven will not forgive your trespasses.”  It’s very likely that “the evil” we want to be delivered from is unforgiveness or “the evil [one] the accuser of the brethren” who wants us to hold onto unforgiveness to further his agenda, but then how does this logically flow from asking for physical food?  It doesn’t!   Everything in Matthew 6:11-15 explains our asking for God’s kingdom and will to be done from verse 10 – everything!  That’s how people speak – supporting their main point or “thesis” with details!  Have we become blind to what “daily bread” we should actually be asking for, the bread that makes the kingdom and God’s will possible, that makes forgiveness possible in order to be delivered from the agenda of ‘the evil one,’ the one who causes unforgiveness in the first place?

“Our daily bread” is obviously Jesus Christ who speaks His directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words into us to give us zoe genuine-life.  Remember what Jesus said when starving in the wilderness and Satan tempted Him to command that the stones be turned into loaves of bread?  “Man (humanity) absolutely in fact cannot actually, in the future, zoa genuinely-live (a) by the means of bread alone, but instead resting upon/by (b) every directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word that is ongoingly proceeding out thru-the-realizing-channel-of the mouth of God (c).  Now where else has Jesus talked about zoe genuine-life and associated it with directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words?  Jesus said: “It is the Spirit who is ongoingly giving zoe genuine-life; the flesh (g) actually, ongoingly profits (d) absolutely in fact nothing; the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words that I actually, ongoingly speak to you are actually, ongoingly [singular] Spirit and/coupled zoe genuine-life” (e).  Zoe genuine-life is linked directly to the Spirit, which is linked directly to Christ’s directly-spoken/heard rhema words!  Only Jesus does “have the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of zoe genuine-life everlasting” (f)!  <Notes> a) zao from the noun zoe, b) dative case: resting on, or by the means of, c) Matthew 4:3-4 citing Deuteronomy 8:3, d) is useful for, e) John 6:63, f) John 6:68, g) in context, the entire Jewish religious system.

Also, we know the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of Jesus were the exact directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God, because Jesus said this:  “For I have NOT in fact spoken on My own authority, but the Father who sent Me has Himself given Me a commandment (a) – what to say as a message (b) and/coupled what to speak in words (c).  And I know that His commandment is zoe genuine-life everlasting. What I speak in words (c), therefore, I speak in words (c) as the Father has told me” (d).  Therefore, Christ’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words that make up His logos gospel message of The Truth are the Father’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words and these are the true Bread of life that makes up God’s Logos Message to man – not a bible full of ancient gramma letters!  <Notes> a) entole: official decree – see Only 2 Commandments, b) epo: “talk about something, emphasizing the message or topic, which creates a logos message,” c) laleo: “uttering words to people, emphasizing the creation of words and the social element of conversation,” d) John 12:49-50.

This also fits the larger context of John (a), because there Jesus said: “to not work for the food that perishes (b), but for the food that lasts unto zoe genuine-life everlasting, which the Son of Man will give to you . . . for the Bread of God is He who comes down-from/according-to heaven and gives zoe genuine-life to the world . . . I am the Bread of zoe genuine-life . . . I am the Bread of zoe genuine-life . . . I am the zao genuinely-living Bread that came down-from/according-to heaven . . . and the Bread that I will give for the zoe genuine-life of the world is My flesh.”  Isn’t it much more logical and reasonable that Jesus and His directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words are “the Bread” we can truly live on?  So, maybe, just maybe, that’s what Christians should be asking to receive daily instead of their next meal at McDonalds?  <Notes> a) John 6:27, 33, 35, 48, and 51, b) then why are we praying for it?

Certainly the anointed musician needs to be praying daily for Christ’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word to be spoken to them, through their instrument and/or voice, and into the lives of the listeners!  Otherwise, they and their audience are just eating “Big Macs!”

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Prophecy, Prophetic music, Prophetic Word of God, Rhema Word of God, Spoken Word of God, New Covenant Way of communicating God’s message to His people, Lord’s prayer, Our daily bread isn’t physical bread, Our daily bread is Jesus Christ the Bread from heaven, Our daily bread is every rhema word that comes from the mouth of God, Our daily bread is the preached gospel, Christian musicians need the fresh rhema words of God

Prophetic Rhema – BT4:  My prophetic rhema experiences illustrate the need for faith to prophecy

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

Many times visions and messages came during my Spirit-baptisms so I’ve logged those on the Spirit-baptism page.  But there have been so many prophetic rhema words since and most haven’t been recorded except the early ones when I thought it was so unusual.  I’ve included many on the My Rhema & Logos Message page and Mike’s Drum Declarations.  Here are some examples of others:

In June 2012 while watching Tyler Perry Good Deeds movie, I heard the Lord call me to missions in Africa, but although I contacted Unite4Africa and took a missionary prep class at Pantano Christian Church, no church or organization in Tucson was going, so I stopped pursuing this.  Instead I continued supporting Unite4Africa and then Gospel for Asia missionaries.  In November I got very long dreams about God’s unconditional-love for His bride, the Church, and He showed me His interpretation of Song of Solomon – it’s all prophetic of Christ and His Church.  I wrote a prophetic commentary!  Amazing!

Later He showed me in another long dream that all knowledge of Him that is written down would be only be second-hand, especially after 1452.  Well, that turns out to be when the Gutenberg Bible was printed.  He told me that people were trying to climb up Christ’s cross like a ladder to reach the oldest books on top of the library, but that this was “trampling on the Son of God.”  The true theology of God was found at the foot of the cross and angels descended on it and then ascended – just as with Jacob’s Ladder.

Later on at the Gospel Rescue mission nobody but 2 out of 5 of us showed up to preach one night.  We were terrified, so the 2 of us worshipped in tongues for 15 minutes, surrendered control to “let go and let God,” and then we became very aware that God spoke right through us that night, drunks got healed and saved, and 1 kid had a prophetic vision.  Our meetings never were like this!

Then I had a series of dreams about Christ’s unconditional-love being the cure for all ills and setting people free, but the organized “church” had many rooms to captivate people’s various appetites and interests.  The Highway home just ended at this “church,” but realizing that this was to keep people distracted, I went out the back door to find a trail back to the Highway and many tired, poor, ragged, injured people were walking it.  When I walked with them I felt unconditional-love, joy, and peace as they helped each other – this was actually the kingdom and we were heading home.  I also had a prophetic dream about the demonic lies spoken to black people to continue hating white people, but the Lord was telling them: “Rise above it.”  Some of my best friends were black.  I had a dream about churchmen adding different colors to a bucket of pure white paint thinking they were improving it, but the Lord said it was then no longer His logos gospel message of The Truth.

Then the Lord finished healing me of pancreatic and adrenal issues just in time for me to get married.  After 53 years of not being married, in 2013 the Lord got me married to Charlotte who is fluent in receiving directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words from the Lord and even writing a book called What One Sheep Heard the Shepherd Say.  What’s the chances of that?  Well since then I’ve had so many prophetic dreams and visions I can hardly keep up recording them!

What’s the point?  You get from the Lord pretty much only what you have trusting-relying-faith to handle – if just the bible, then that’s only what you get!  If prophetic words, then that’s what you will get!  Of course, God can always make a rock, a donkey, or a hard-hearted high priest speak for Him, but His preference is for us to have trusting-relying-faith and relentlessly ask, seek, and knock, looking with eager expectation for His answer in proseuche conversational-prayer.  He wants to partner with us!

As Christian musicians, what are some of your prophetic rhema experiences and is there any advice you have for others to grow in this area, especially regarding anointed, prophetic, even spontaneous music?

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Prophecy, Prophetic music, Prophetic Word of God, Rhema Word of God, Spoken Word of God, New Covenant Way of communicating God’s message to His people, my history of prophetic messages, Mike’s God Messages, true theology of God is before 1452, true theology of God received at the foot of the cross, My wife has a longer history of prophetic messages, our faith is the only thing that limits us, faith in the bible only versus faith in God speaking today

Prophetic Rhema – BT3:  “The Promise” is the rhema Word of God not logos, gramma, or graphe writings

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

Do your own homework with Wikipedia’s “Rhema (doctrine).”  Rhema words are always directly-spoken/heard first-hand in the here and now, never heard or read or learned second-hand.  As we’ve seen in the previous BLOGs, logos is the common word for “communication that focuses on message content rather than on the delivery method as rhema does.” Thus “the logos of God” is best translated “Message of God” instead of “Word of God,” which not one English bible consistently does!

The relationship of rhema to logos is seen in Hebrews 12:18-21, 25 that recounts from Exodus 20:18-21 God attempting to speak personally to all of the Jews on Mt. Sinai by His “Voice whose directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words made the hearers beg that no further logos message be spoken to them.”  Isn’t that what ultra-conservative, bible-only Christians are doing when they discount modern-day prophecy in exchange for bible study?  They really are no different than the Pharisees who “diligently search the graphe scriptures supposing that you may take hold of genuine-life everlasting by-the-means-of them, but it is they that witness/testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me for genuine-life” per John 5:39-40.  Coming to Jesus is not the same as coming to the bible!  They opted for the bible!

Gramma “letters” or “written code” literally means “alphabet or words formed from such,” and is where we get the word “grammar.” Graphe is a collection of these “letters” into a book, in this case, translated “scripture” that strictly speaking makes up ONLY the Old Testament, according to all Jews and even all Christians until 208 AD when a Roman Catholic theologian named Tertullian starting applying the term to New Testament writings in order to brag to the Jews and Christian heretics that Christians had authoritative “scripture” also!

It just breaks my heart to see so many English translations obscure the radical difference – even Wikipedia states there is “a substantial distinction” – between these completely different-in-kind Greek words of rhema and logos, mistakenly translating them both as the “Word of God.”  What the NT says about each of these is completely different-in-kind, but you will never know any of this from reading many English bibles that obscure this essential truth – see Bible Info!

Every promise of God comes through trusting-relying-faith, just as “the promise to Abraham and his offspring . . . [obviously] came not through the [much later] Mosaic Law of conditional-favor but through the righteousness of trusting-relying-faith” (a).  So we are to be “imitators of those through trusting-relying-faith and patience to inherit the promises” (b), who “through trusting-relying-faith . . . obtained promises” (c), so “remember your leaders….imitating their trusting-relying-faith” (d), even that “we might receive the promised Spirit through trusting-relying-faith” (e).  How does this relate to prophetic rhema words? <Notes> a) Roman 4:13, b) Hebrews 6:12, c) Hebrews 11:33, d) Hebrews 13:7, e) Galatians 3:14.

Is your trusting-relying-faith limited to relying on God to speak to you only through a bible of men’s writings who once had first-hand contact with God, but long after this fact, were loosely collected by many other men, many who were no longer directly in contact with God, especially if you read the early Church writings to see that many of these men were very politically motivated?  Then that is YOUR limitation.  If you can still do this after finding out that countless manuscripts having been lost or destroyed by the ravages of time and warring invasions, and that scholars are still arguing over what the actual text is from those we have found (textual criticism), let alone an accurate translation of them (hermeneutics), then that’s YOUR limitation and you get what your trusting-relying-faith can accept!  Your reality is limited by your faith!

If you simply don’t believe these facts I’ve state, start using Wikipedia and other scholarly resources to dig into these topics:  Bible Manuscripts, Textual Variants, Textual Criticism, Bible Translation, and Bible Canon.  You will be absolutely shocked that many of YOUR views of the bible gathered from pulpits and Christian book tidbits is not based on much fact!  However, if you have trusting-relying-faith in God’s promised-Spirit that you can hear first-hand just as much as the original writers did, even from such verses about “the promise” as Acts 1:4, 2:17-18, 33, 39, then that’s exactly what you will get also!  Our trusting-relying-faith is the only thing that limits our genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of God!

The real promises of supernatural, zoe genuine-life are through the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of Christ’s Holy Spirit (a), which is God’s singular “Word” (b) spoken faithfully by Jesus (c) because He had the Holy Spirit without measure (d). This sure isn’t scripture but “every directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word that comes from the mouth of God that man shall zoe genuinely-live on” (e).  Many preachers claim: “The bible is God’s Word that will never come back empty-handed, but accomplish what it was sent out to do.”  However, God actually says:  “My [singular] directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word that goes out of My mouth that … shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (f).  Directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God make nothing impossible for Him (g). <Notes> a) John 6:63, 68, b) John 8:47, c) John 17:8; 14:10, d) John 3:34, e) Matthew 4:4 citing Deuteronomy 8:3, f) Isaiah 55:11, g) Luke 1:37.

Rhema words have the Spirit’s power to create universes (a).  It is Christ’s powerfully-enabling Voice that sustains all things (a).  God’s rhema word endures forever and it is this that originally made up the content of the preached logos gospel message (b).  This verbal preaching is the apostles’ witness (c) and ordinary Christians preaching the logos gospel message of God with boldness that God gave them by the Spirit (d).  Their logos gospel message of rhema words alone can save us (e), because it is Christ’s rhema words that will judge all people on the last day (f). <Notes> a) Hebrews 1:3, b) 1 Peter 1:25; Acts 5:20, c) Acts 5:32, d) Acts 11:14, e) John 12:47-48, f) Acts 4:31.

Furthermore, it is the “directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word that is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that is, the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of trusting-relying-faith that we proclaim” (a) that produces trusting-relying-faith by hearing the directly-spoken prophetic rhema word of Christ (b).”  But how?  By their preaching:  “Their voice that has gone out to all the earth, their directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words to the ends of the world” (c) – not by reading about any logos messages in a bible thousands of years later!  Rhema words need to be near us, that is, in our mouths (d) and on the tablets of our hearts as was promised (e), for this is God’s real desire (f). <Notes> a) Romans 10:8, b) Romans 10:17, c) Romans 10:18, d) by the confession of our faith: 1 Timothy 6:12; Hebrews 10:23, e) Romans 2:15, 10:8-9; 2 Corinthians 3:2-3; Jeremiah 17:1, 31:33 cited in Hebrews 8:10, 10:16, f) Proverbs 3:3, 7:3.

God’s rhema words are what washes, ceremonially ‘cleans,’ or sanctifies (a) the Church (b), not a logos messages in a bible canonized 367-397 years later!  Rhema words of God are the ‘goodness’ Christians are to have tasted and/coupled tasted the Holy Spirit’s miracles of the coming age (c).  It is what we are to treasure up and ponder (d).  Christ’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words are what is to abide/remain in us, and if they do, then our prayers are answered (e).  Rhema is the voice of the Holy Spirit spoken through the apostles and prophets (f), thus it is the very nature of prophecy (g). <Notes> a) makes holy or pure, b) Ephesians 5:26, c) Hebrews 6:5, d) Luke 2:19, e) John 15:7, f) Acts 28:25; Romans 10:18, g) n@buw’ah, prophetei: a discourse emanating from divine inspiration.

I bet you didn’t know that the “sword of the Spirit” that we are to use in spiritual warfare is absolutely not bible verses?  But I was taught that!  Despite what you have heard from the pulpit and so many fluff Christian books, quoting bible verses against the devil isn’t what Paul was talking about! Paul strongly urges:  “Take up . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of God, thru-the-realizing-channel-of all proseuche conversational-prayer and/coupled deesis supplication-prayer, [that is,] at every time routinely, proseuchomai conversationally-praying by the means of the Spirit” (a). <Notes> a) Ephesians 6:17-18.

The NET bible correctly sees this last present participle phrase “proseuchomai conversationally-praying by the Spirit” as the HOW-to step of “take up . . . the sword of the Spirit.” Hearing God speak to us directly doesn’t come from bible study but through patiently-waiting, listening, and watching conversational-prayer, and that’s how we do spiritual warfare – not memorizing scripture so we can shotgun them back to Satan!  I used to have 100s of bible-verse index cards just for this reason and I struggled even more with sin, because “the gramma letter kills, but the Spirit gives zoe genuine-life” (ba). <Notes> a) 2 Corinthians 3:6.

Once during a spiritual counseling session, my counselor-friend Elizabeth Brown had a clear vision of “a cold winter with lots of pure white snow that had become as hard as glacier ice. It once was “living/fresh water” in that it rained from the heavens and flowed upon the lands, but over a long winter it had become so hard that few animals could live from it.

God’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words were actually “fresh, running, and life-giving” water when they were first given thousands of years ago, but once it was written and communicated second-hand to others and collected by men into a canon by 367-397 AD and now read thousands of years later from copies of copies of copies of manuscripts (the number of such is unknown) now removed further from the original intent by translations into 3,324 other languages, they are certainly by definition no longer “fresh, running, and life-giving.” Do you think God meant for us to live off this “glacier ice?” Maybe if you are an Emperor Penguin!  See Spirit-Power-BT3.

When you READ written information as logos messages gleaned from gramma letters or graphe books of scripture, whether you later then speak these as directly-heard rhema words to others or write them down with even more gramma letters into a personal letter or epistle or collect them into graphe books like “scripture” for others to read, any of this reading in this long process requires rational, left brain cognition of the logos message’s content to be sunesis understand by rationally ‘connecting the dots’ in order to benefit from it. However, this largely relies on your eyesight and reading ability (or finger sensitivity for brail) and concentration skills, vocabulary comprehension, and mental prowess of IQ, cognitive skills, etc.

All of this certainly favors the “wise and learned/understanding” people but excludes the little children – whom the kingdom actually belongs to (a).  It also excludes the blind (b) or dyslexic (c), the uneducated, the poor (d), and the mentally impaired – the other “least among you.” <Notes> a) Matthew 18:3, 19:14; Mark 10:14; Luke 18:16, b) unless they can read brail, c) if they haven’t been retrained to read, d) who often can’t afford to be educated in order read.

However, God “shows no favoritism or partiality” (a), so why would God rely on a written bible in multiple ancient languages, which even the scholars are still debating about, to convey His nature and will to others?  Furthermore, shouldn’t we “speak and teach rightly, showing no partiality, but truly teach The Way of God,” like Jesus did (b)?  Did Jesus make it His ministry to teach their bible, the Old Testament?  Some Christians believe so, but Jesus only cites the Old Testament to answer trick questions and to point out its incompleteness and their utter need for a Him as a Messiah to save them from their sin!  Should our ministry of preaching and teaching show partiality to the “wise and learned” by expecting bible reading and intelligent comprehension?  Aren’t Christians to show no partiality in everything we do (c)?  Wasn’t the New Covenant Way supposed to do away with reliance on all forms of man’s “might and power,” especially that of the Jewish religion, and rely solely on the New Covenant’s Spirit of enabling-power (d)?  <Notes> a) Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11, Galatians 2:6, Ephesians 6:9, b) Luke 20:21, c) 1 Timothy 5:21; James 2:1, d) Zechariah 4:6.

Reflections:

As Christian musicians, are you looking to the wrong “word” like the Pharisees did for the promises of God?  Are you trying to fight Satan with bible verses?  Are you trying to live off of 2000 year-old water, supposing this is still “living water?”  Or will you also become a prophet and actually know God and receive the enabling-power of the prophetic-rhema words of God?  Or will you remain duped by the Catholic theologian Tertullian that the New Testament is just more scripture to read, study, memorize, and do as more Christian rules?  If our faith keeps us stuck in the OT way of understanding scripture, than that will limit our experience of God.  Are you studying to hear God when you were told to pray?  Doesn’t requiring the reading comprehension of the bible show favoritism to the “smarty-pants” people, when we are repeatedly told that God doesn’t require this, so neither should we?

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Prophecy, Prophetic music, Prophetic Word of God, Rhema Word of God, Spoken Word of God, New Covenant Way of communicating God’s message to His people, Wikipedia rhema versus logos, gramma writings collected in to graphe scripture was meant only for the Old Covenant, The promise of the New Covenant is direct rhema communication by received by faith, Bible-study way to know God has LOTS of difficult problems, The power of God is in rhema words, The Christian’s sword of the Spirit is the rhema Word of God, Spiritual Warfare, reading the bible, bible-study shows partiality against those unable to read

Prophetic Rhema – BT2:  Rhema words of God versus logos, gramma, and graphe Word of God

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

Rhema words in the original Greek are distinct from a logos messages because the former focuses on the method of delivery and/or receiving information, being 1^st person direct utterance of speech in the present moment, whereas the latter focuses on the content of a message, where the information is often received verbally second-hand or in writing with gramma letters, even collected into graphe scripture.

The exceptional case of logos message in the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant is that it primarily refers to Jesus as the personified Logos Message of God, similar to Wisdom & Understanding as the Spirit being personified in the Old Testament (OT) Proverbs.  Jesus is the Logos Message of God who faithfully speaks the logos gospel message of The Truth of God about Himself to us directly, then making it also prophetic rhema.

Not only is rhema the prophetic words from the mouth of God that is the “bread” that man can alone live on (a), it is this prophetic rhema that goes out from God’s mouth that will not return to Him empty but shall accomplish all that it was purposed for (b). <Notes> a) Jesus citing Deuteronomy 8:3 in Matthew 4:4 is NOT citing gramma writings of graphe scripture but citing Himself who said this originally to Moses, b) Isaiah 55:11.

In the OT Hebrew the word dabar can mean “of the talking of a word or words” and thus naturally corresponds to the Greek word rhema in the OT Septuagint (a).  But when dabar focuses on a “message, saying, sentence or section of discourse, report, counsel, charge, reason, a way or manner, or events explained in words” it is naturally translated logos in the OT Septuagint because it is focusing on message content, especially if it is written (b).  Only by the context can you tell how dabar is used, but you can always look at the different Greek words used because they are more specific!  <Notes> a) Jeremiah 1:1, 13:12, 14:17, 23:38, 31:23; Psalms 17:4, 30:8, 33:6; Isaiah 36:5; 1 Kings 1:7; 2 Kings 18:20; Proverbs 14:23; 1 Samuel 9:10, 9:10; 2 Samuel 3:17, and many other verses, b) Jeremiah 1:2; Exodus 33:4; 1 Kings 6:11, 10:6, 16:1, 13:20, 20:12; 2 Chronicles 9:5; 1 Samuel 15:10; 2 Samuel 7:4, 15:28; Jonah 3:6, and many more verses.

Prophetic rhema is distinct from any other word for our English “word.”  Jesus declares “the flesh is no help at all (a); the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and/coupled zoe genuine-life” (b).  Jesus was commenting on ALL of the religious gnosis info-knowledge and activities of man – all its “might and power” – even that of the Jewish religion!  There is no other place but Jesus to hear “the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of eternal genuine-life” (c).  The “bread that we can live alone on, is nothing but the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema from the mouth of God” (d).  This sure isn’t recitation from the bible.  Again, Jesus wasn’t quoting scripture but quoting Himself, the living, active, abiding Logos Message of God!  <Notes> a) is of no advantage or profit, and is useless and worthless, b) John 6:63, c) John 6:68, d) Matthew 4:4, e) Hebrew 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23.

Graphe scripture is never referred to as directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words in the New Testament!  The gospel isn’t about preaching scripture, but “speaking to the people all the prophetic rhema words of this zoe genuine-life” (a).  The apostles preached to people “a directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word by which you will be saved” (b).  “For absolutely in possibility or in fact no directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word is impossible WITH/alongside God,” (c) and we know this is about having a close koinonia relationship with God that gives us His Spirit’s enabling-power. “The directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of the Lord endures forever, that is what has been preached to you” (d). <Notes> a) Acts 5:20, b) Acts 11:14, c) Luke 1:37, d) 1 Peter 1:25.

Furthermore, “trusting-relying-faith comes from akouo hearing-to-understand the directly-spoken prophetic rhema word of Christ” (a) and this “directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of trusting-relying-faith which we preach” (b) – not bible verses!  The Church is “sanctified by cleansing her with the washing of the water (c) by the prophetic rhema word of Christ” (d) – not bible verses!  <Notes> a) Romans 10:17, b) Roman 10:8, c) likely a reference to water-baptism, d) Ephesians 5:26,

Christians are meant to “taste the good directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of God and the miracles of the coming age” (d) – not bible study!  Spiritual warfare is to be fought with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word of God” (e), not bible verses!  Jesus told us the secret of answered deesis supplication-prayer:  “If you remain in Me and My directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word remains in you, ask and it will be done for you” (f) – not bible verses! <Notes> d) Hebrews 6:5, e) Ephesians 6:17, f) John 15:7.

We can’t be like the Jewish leaders, who “don’t listen and respond to God’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema word, because they don’t belong to God” (a).  Paul didn’t just come to preach a logos gospel message of The Truth with “words of eloquent wisdom” or “plausible words of wisdom” but “in demonstration of the Spirit, that is, of enabling-power . . . lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its enabling-power” (b), but “our gospel message came to you not only by logos message but also by enabling-power, that is, by the Holy Spirit” (c).  See Wikipedia’s “Rhema (doctrine)” for more on all this. <Notes> a) John 8:47, b) 1 Corinthians 1:17-18, 2:4, c) 1 Thessalonians 1:5, cf. Mark 16:16-20.

Reflection:

As Christian musicians, isn’t the gospel message about Jesus Christ as the living, active, and abiding Logos Word of God, instead of scriptures?  Isn’t that the point of the New Covenant and that now we “eido mentally ‘see’ to know God” directly per Jeremiah 31:34 so that “you absolutely in fact have no need that any man teach you” per 1 John 2:20-27?  Isn’t “the promise” that now all God’s people should prophecy per Numbers 11:29, Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:17-19, and 1 Corinthians 14:5?  All the “promises” of enabling-power have to do with prophetic-rhema, never gramma written letters collected into graphe scripture.  Will we be just like the bible students of Christ’s day who were experts at sacred writings but were clueless about prophesy, and thus didn’t actually know God?  Are we going to be Christ’s sheep who do akouo hear-to-understand His Voice in John 10:3-4, 16, 27.

Click on Pic

Spiritual Education, Prophecy, Prophetic music, Prophetic Word of God, Rhema Word of God, Spoken Word of God, New Covenant Way of communicating God’s message to His people, Definitions of rhema logos gramma and graphe Word of God, dabar communication of God, Graphe scripture is only Old Testament writings, Rhema Word of God meant for Christians, Jesus is the living active abiding Logos Word of God not bible writings, Prophecy is the promise for Christians not bible writings, Christians hear the voice of Christ