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The BIG Picture
"Collected
wisdom from the journey."
from Doug
Perry - www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
- May, 2007
Chapter Three
– Spirals
(excerpted from a
couple of different books – plus new additions) (Printable
PDF file)
In my humble
opinion, one of the big roadblocks to understanding the Bible is the
tendency to see stories in the Bible as only having application to
that particular person or audience or time period.
There were
certainly things that prophets said to a particular person that only
had application that one time, but it makes sense to me that if it
made it into the Bible, it had a wider audience to whom it would
apply. A lot of time has been spent arguing about
"replacement theology," that is, whether the modern church
has inherited the promises of the children of Israel and thus the Old
Testament applies to the modern church and not to Israel
anymore. Some for and some against. It divides up the
Body of Christ into camps that won't even talk to each other any more.
There's also a LOT
of arguing about whether the book of Revelations (and Ezekiel and
Daniel and others) is about something that happened in A.D. 70 with
the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans or if it is about some
future event in history - or both. A lot of wasted time being
distracted with this that could have been spent spreading the
Gospel. A lot of best selling books, tapes, videos, etc., that
sucked money away from more pressing needs – like reaching the
two billion people who have never ONCE heard the name of Jesus.
Look, I'm just a
businessman that was given some insight. I was allowed to see a
little bit more of the big picture. All the glory to God, it's
not by MY power, that's for sure. My brain tends to process
things in equations, as math problems. I see much of the Bible
as computer code. That is, it's a lot of "If/Then"
statements. IF you will abide in me, THEN I will abide in
you. IF you lie, steal, envy, murder, commit adultery (etc.),
THEN bad things will happen. IF you have other gods before me,
THEN there will be trouble for your land. IF you will humble
yourselves and seek my face, THEN I will restore your land.
See? The whole thing is full of them. It's all full of
formulas. All interconnected. (More about that in the
Axioms chapter.)
The thing with
code like that is that the variables you input affect the output, but
they don't affect the equation. I know this is a little hard to
follow. Let's try it this way.
If you have a
behavior for which God has said there will be a specific consequence
and you do that behavior a lot more, you should expect a lot more consequence.
|
Behavior A x 1
= Consequence B x 1
Behavior A x
100 = Consequence B x 100
Behavior A x
1,000,000 = Consequence B x 1,000,000 |
 |
So, you see, the
more people you put into one group, the accumulation of their
sinfulness creates a certain mass of badness that's hard to
overcome. By myself on a desert island, I might be out of step
with God, but it's easy enough to hear from Him and change my
ways. When I'm attached to a group of a million (or more), I
might be doing great personally, but I'm still subject to the danger
that others are reaping bad consequences for which we'll ALL be
punished cumulatively.
The prophets in
the Old Testament warned the whole nation of Israel of the coming
judgements upon them. In fact, the prophets often warned many
other nations as well. But even the righteous remnant of Israel
had to go into captivity and slavery and death. Have you ever
thought about the children of Israel wandering in the desert because
of their lack of faith? No, I don't mean the "Children of
Israel" as a nation, I mean the children themselves. ALL
the grownups died before their eyes. The kids weren't at fault,
but they still had to suffer the loss of every single grown-up they
knew - parents, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles - before they could
go into the Promised Land. See? They were subject to the
consequence brought upon them by the mass of sinfulness of their
group, even if they themselves were behaving as they should or were
innocents at the time of the provocation.
Sure, there are
times when God saves the few good ones (Noah, Lot, Rahab, etc.), but
most of the time everybody has to suffer together. That's why
it's so important to be accountable and watch out for each
other. That's why the folks that are doing right can't just
quietly sit by and think they're going to be free of judgement.
If they hold their tongue when they should be speaking out, then
they're not really doing right, are they? So they're probably
not safe either. The darkness is THEIR fault if they had the
light and didn't take it to the world. Why would God reward
that kind of behavior?
OK, now here's
where it starts to get more complicated. I think it's
reasonable to assume that:
IF the
Bible is in the inspired Word of God, THEN nothing is in there
by accident.
IF nothing
is in there by accident, THEN it must have some future application.
IF
something irritated God at one point in history, THEN it
probably irritates Him all the time.
IF God
knows everything, THEN He must be able to plan ahead and see
future applications for that warning.
IF the
nation of Israel did something that brought judgement on them, THEN
other children of God doing the same thing should also expect
judgement when they mimic that behavior.
IF there
was prophecy and warnings about Israel related to their misbehavior, THEN
we should assume that that same prophecy relates to other folks doing
the same thing.
We know God is
great at conservation of resources and reuse of assets. Look at
the ecosystem, everything has a purpose and is recycled from the
elephant to the maggot to the dirt to a tree to a leaf to an elephant.
So, it seems to me
that when God says something in the Bible it's likely that it could
be recycled and used again and again. That's what it means to
be a Living Word. The Lord's Prayer is good for kids in Sunday
School, but it's also good for somebody worried about getting bread
on their table. It's good for a Christian martyr on his way to
a firing squad and it's good for someone like Jesus praying in the
biggest possible terms for the Bride, the universal church (Our
Father, Our Bread, Our Sins, etc.).
History doesn't
really repeat itself in equal measure since we're always growing. So
rather than it being circular, it's spiral. There are always
more of us to screw it up than last time! Our World Wars are
getting progressively smaller and less deadly.
And something in
the Bible that had application at a particular point will probably
have application again when the spiral pulls back around. So
when an Old Testament prophet spoke judgement on the 10,000 people in
a town or tribe that had taken on idolatry and then we see God's
consequences on them for it - we should be able to predict that if
100,000 do the same exact thing it will be 10 times as bad. And
if 100,000,000 do it, it will be 10,000 times as bad. Eventually, if
enough of the earth is bad, the only choice is a flood (Noah) or a
massive reboot (Revelation, fire, black sun, red moon, earthquake,
2/3 of population dead, other badness, etc.)
You see, the book
of Hosea CAN be about us. Revelation can be about AD 70 and it
can STILL be about the Last Days. Much of it was fulfilled, but
some of the big, bad scary stuff can't happen until the final
rotation. At some point the spiral hits a dead end because the
consequences are too great for the Earth to contain them.
The Church of
America is doing every bad thing in Hosea only MANY, MANY times
worse. Go read it. See that the judgement could apply to
us today. God doesn't change and there is no remission of sins
without repentance. Then cry like a baby and repent of your
part in it. Commit to trying to do something to push back the darkness.
The Word of God is
crammed packed full of lots of spirals. That is, repeating,
increasing echoes of the same concept or behavior. So I look
for the patterns of scripture, not just the direct instructions.
If something someone is telling me isn't consistent with all the
echoes and spirals, then I know it's man-made. A dear friend of
mine says that if a particular theory or opinion can't bounce like a
ball all the way through the Bible without hitting an obstacle or
dropping, then it's not pure Truth. (If you want to see some DEEP
spirals visit Eleanor's site - http://www.voiceofthekingfisher.ca )
I want the Lord to
open my eyes so that I can see how a particular verse speaks on all
the different “legs” of the spiral. How does it apply to me
personally, my family, my city, the local body of Christ, the
country, the world, the Bride, the future, etc.? I can assure
you that it does. It can mean all of those things at the same time.
God is VERY complicated. If the Bible is just a dead history
book, then it's useless. If a verse can't speak to our lives
right now – and again in a completely different way tomorrow
– then it's was not written by God.
For example, we
normally think Passover was first visible when the Children of Israel
put the blood over their doorposts and the death angel killed the
first born of the Egyptians. But when Noah and his family
closed the door behind them and were saved from the flood, that's a
Passover. (Genesis 7) When Abraham offered to sacrifice Isaac
and he was saved and the ram given instead, that was a type of
Passover. (Genesis 22) When the Assyrians are about to destroy
Jerusalem and Hezekiah repents and they leave, that's a kind of
Passover (I Kings 19). When the Jews were faced with imminent
destruction under Haman, but Esther turned the tide, that was a
Passover. (Esther 8) When Jesus as a child avoided being killed
by Herod because of Joseph's obedience, that was a kind of Passover.
The Jewish tradition instituted by God to celebrate the Pessach
(Passover) was a reminder of all the times that God had covered them
and they had escaped sure death. But the big fulfillment of the
Passover “spiral” that was Jesus, the Lamb of the World
that was slain and His Blood spread on the doorposts of our hearts so
that we might not die. All those other mini-spirals were
pointing to Him. And we still don't fully understand what He
did for us because it's not complete. There is yet a restoration of
all things and a new heaven and new earth to come. The Book of
Revelation speaks of another global Passover when the remnant of the
Bride raises glorified and spotless and pure. The Church is the
spiritual body of Christ. The natural body went first, but the
spiritual body will raise glorified as well.
In the same way,
there are lots of examples of water baptism spirals and ritual
cleansing and the need to be washed clean so that the Lord can use
you. The Children of Israel had to put the blood over the
doorposts in order to be saved, but then they also had to obey and
leave all behind and go, and they had to go through the waters of the
Red Sea and come out the other side. This is a type of baptism that
cleansed them – and their Egyptian pursuers were trapped below
the water. They arose from the water as free men (and
women). The anointing on King Saul that made him a new man was
a kind of baptism. (I Samuel 10:1) The ritual cleansing of the
priests before they could be useful to God is another example (Exod. 29:4).
You getting
this? Spirals. Like ripples in a pond when you throw in a rock.
These repeating patterns help explain and understand what God is
doing and will do. Consistency with the spirals is VERY important to
Him. If something used to annoy Him, it still annoys Him. If
something used to please Him, it still pleases Him. It's just a
matter of the quantity involved. If America does something that
is just like what Israel did and it brought massive judgement down on
their heads, then we shouldn't expect it to be any different with
us. You just have to insert the quantity to get an idea of the
expected severity. Because we are three part beings –
Body, Soul and Spirit – these spirals can have application
across multiple levels all at once. Some can be physical
manifestations, some spiritual – sometimes both at the same time.
One can use the
spirals to better understand and predict what God is saying. For
example, He made them man and woman. Jesus is husband to the Bride,
who is the Church. The Holy Spirit impregnated Mary to have Jesus so
that God would be His Father. Over and over you see God refer to
Israel as His Bride. The Song of Solomon is all about Jesus wooing
His Bride. All of the spirals are about a man and a woman – and
not only that, but a man in a role as the head over the woman. There
are all kinds of examples of how badly things go when the order is
reversed. Adam obeyed Eve and original sin came in. Abraham obeyed
Sarah and Ishmael (and the Arabs) were the result. Ahab listened to
Jezebel and was killed for it. Over and over we see what is God's
order and what happens if consistency with the spirals is violated.
But the enemy
always wants us to step outside the spirals and reverse God's order
– or corrupt it completely. The enemy wants to foment
homosexuality and feminism that disrupt the spirals. God's blessings
come when you are walking on His path. And His path isn't linear, and
it isn't circular – it's spiral.
Anyway, I want to
illustrate just a few of the spirals about lighting a fire.
The fire of
sacrifice that Abraham was willing to light, even if it cost his own
son is an early example. That fire transformed the world.
Without his willingness to light that fire, who knows what would have
happened. (Gen. 22)
The Lord also lit
the fire on the burning bush that didn't consume the bush. That is
what got Moses' attention so that he would come to God and get
drafted into service. It wasn't as big and flashy as the pillar
of fire, but it was just for a personal application, not
nationwide. Still, it's a spiral.
The Lord also lit
the fire that led the Children of Israel out of Egypt and protected
them from the Egyptians. The Lord Himself provided a cloud by
day and a pillar of fire by night. This directional beacon
guarded them, was a witness to their enemies of the power of God, lit
their way and generally reminded them of the constant presence of
God. (Exod. 13)
At the bottom of
Sinai, the people watch as Moses goes up to meet God. The Lord
doesn't need to light the fire, He IS the fire!
Ex 19:18 (KJV)
– And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD
descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the
smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
The seven pronged
golden lampstand in the Tabernacle and the Temple are foreshadows and
spirals of the seven independent golden lampstands in Revelation.
(Exod. 25; Rev. 2-3) They were one lampstand when it was one
people worshiping God in one place, but now WE are the
“church” and we are independent one from another because of
locality. There is no single temple. It jumped from the
“natural” to the “spiritual” because of Christ.
And yet, Christ walks among us and amongst all the Lampstands. In
Leviticus, the priests were to tend the lamps all the time and make
sure they never stopped burning. Christ didn't come to revoke
the Old Covenant, He came to spiritualize it – to transcend it
and make it even harder. Not it's not just actions, it's even
thoughts that are judged.
The Ark of the
Covenant itself is a type of spiral because it is a symbol of the
power and presence of God in a place. When the Ark went before them,
no enemy could stand against them. And it was untouchable, lest
someone die. (2 Sam. 6:6-7) God's fire is real, but the power
of it is too much for any man to try to harness – much less make
DVD's and books and try to profit from it. It WILL reach out
and kill you – and you might not even know you're dead. Be warned.
When the Children
of Israel first go into the Promised Land, the VERY first thing the
Lord has them do is light a fire all together. He sent them
against a pagan capital, Jericho, told them how to crush it, then had
them light it up like a giant sacrifice. (Judges 6) This
is very much like the bonfire the Ephesians have in Acts 19 where
they burn all their pagan idols. There was lots of good stuff
in Jericho that they could have used, but it was a kind of First
Fruits offering to God, so all of it was off-limits and to be
sacrificed. This is a communal, nationwide, Lamplighting
ceremony to go ahead of the Children of Israel into their Promised
Land. And it worked, it scared the pants off of all the people who
lived in the land!
Another good
example is Gideon in Judges 6. The Lord had sent the Midianites
to oppress Israel because they all had altars of Baal in their
backyard. But He hears their cry and decides to free them
(after sending an unnamed prophet to tell them to repent), and raises
up Gideon to do it. But before Gideon can go, he has to get the
altar of Baal out of his own backyard. God will not send him out to
conquer 150,000 men while he still has a fire burning to a foreign
God on his own land! So God doesn't require Gideon to go and
preach to all of Israel and get rid of ALL the altars, just that he
get ONE fire burning properly. Get one altar to God doing what
it's supposed to do and then the MASSIVE weapons of war you get
access to when God is your defender will kick into gear. So
Gideon and ten servants go under cover of darkness and knock the
altar down, use their own resources against them and burn the Asherah
poles (big pointy, male fertility symbols that God hates – much
like the steeples on churches) and then he used his dad's second best
bull as the sacrifice.
Judges 6:25-31 (KJV)
25 And it
came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy
father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old,
and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down
the grove that is by it: 26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy
God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the
second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the
grove which thou shalt cut down. 27 Then Gideon took ten men of
his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was,
because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city,
that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. 28 And
when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the
altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by
it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.
29 And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And
when they enquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath
done this thing. 30 Then the men of the city said unto Joash,
Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the
altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.
31 And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead
for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be
put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead
for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.
Immediately after
this, Gideon blows the trumpet for war and the whole tribe shows up
to help. Now, get this, they wanted to kill him, but why didn't
they? Why didn't they convert the altar back? All Joash said
was “Aw, c'mon guys, let Baal fight his own battles.”
And they left. And THEN they answer Gideon's trumpet for war a
verse later! The answer is, they HATE change. Their instant
reaction was to kill whoever disrupted the altar they were so used
to. But something inside of them knows that the kid has a
point. Yahweh is their God and this altar is better anyway. So they
leave him alone. They don't go home and knock their own altars down,
but they wait and watch. When God gives Gideon victory with 300 guys
and the craziest warfare plan in history, then ALL the altars to Baal
in all of Israel get knocked down and the people live at peace with
God – until Gideon dies.
The Lord began
speaking to me two years ago, “Give me ONE altar. Light ONE fire
and I'll give you victory over the world. Fix the altar in your
own backyard and then see what happens.” My backyard is
Liberty, Missouri. That one Lampstand needed to be lit. And it was
lit – Praise God – on October 31, 2005. It's not a physical
fire, because Jesus transcended the natural boundaries and walks
among the spiritual Lampstands of the City Churches.
Other examples
include times when the Lord lit the fires of repentance and
restoration Himself. Like the showdown between Elijah and the
prophets of Baal. (I Kings 18) The whole nation got to watch
God light the fire and they repented substantially and killed all the
prophets of Baal.
When Solomon
builds and dedicates the Temple, the Lord lights it up Himself.
2 Chron 7:1-3 (KJV)
1 Now when
Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven,
and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of
the LORD filled the house. 2 And the priests could not enter
into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled
the LORD'S house. 3 And when all the children of Israel saw how
the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they
bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement,
and worshipped, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his
mercy endureth for ever.
There's also
practically no end to the number of times in the Bible when God is
REALLY mad about all the times we light fires to foreign gods. Even
when we have high places to the Lord that aren't where He intended
them to be or aren't doing it right! If you complain and grumble too
much, He might even send His consuming fire after YOU! (Numbers 11,16)
But God is
faithful and He says He will never let it go too far. And yet,
even embedded in this verse is a symbolism that references the
spirals we're talking about – baptism with water and with fire.
Isaiah 43:2 (KJV)
- 2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with
thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou
walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the
flame kindle upon thee.
Here it is
specifically laid out. Can't deny it – it's right there in the
Word. (Did you already get the “fire” part? Still waiting?)
Luke 3:16 (KJV) - 16 John
answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but
one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not
worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:
The Lord Himself
lit the first City Church Lampstand when He sent down tongues of fire
on the people.
Acts 2:1-4 (KJV)
1 And when
the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in
one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a
rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were
sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as
of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance.
That was a change
in the spiral from lighting fires on sacrifices and inanimate objects
to putting the fire directly into all people. Now that WE are
the temple, the fire itself doesn't change, but the vehicle
changed. He didn't change. The Holy Spirit didn't change. But
because we were ready and it was His time, the fire could manifest
inside of us. There's no reason to believe that this fire in us
stopped being necessary when the Bible was completed. These are
increasing spirals with increasing applications across broader and
broader groups and in more powerful ways. They don't ever dead end or
go backwards. They might jump back and forth from natural to
spiritual, but they don't stop increasing. See?
Matt 5:13-16 (KJV)
13 Ye are
the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour,
wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but
to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 14 Ye are
the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but
on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
In Acts 19, God
uses an encounter with a demon to motivate the Body of Christ in
Ephesus to come together, get cleaned out and light a fire that
changes the town forever.
Acts 19:16-20 (KJV)
16 And the
man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them,
and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked
and wounded. 17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks
also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of
the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18 And many that believed came,
and confessed, and shewed their deeds. 19 Many of them also
which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them
before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it
fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So mightily grew the word of
God and prevailed.
The final
application of this spiral is when we are all in One City with One
Lampstand – and it's the Lord Himself.
Rev 21:23 (KJV) - 23 And
the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in
it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Won't that be
great! All together in one New Jerusalem with one Lampstand
– and it's HIM!! All we need to do in order to see what He
wants from us is to go out to the final spiral – the biggest
possible application of the City Church and the Lampstands - and then
backtrack through the spirals and see how it applies to us now.
What we need to do is get everything that we have now to act as much
like it will in heaven as possible. Sounds reasonable, right?
If you pray the
Lord's prayer, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in
heaven.” - then shouldn't you want us to be One Body under
His headship with His fire burning right now, just like we will be
later? Are we going to have denominations in heaven? Are
we going to have strife and dissension and division and sects?
Are we going to try to hide HIS light under a bushel?! So why
is it OK to do that stuff now?
If you can't pray
it and really mean it, it's probably better if you just stop praying
the Lord's Prayer at all.
More Spiral Stuff
Most of the
arguments across the Body of Christ are pointless. They are
because people see an application for scripture and believe it is the
one and only application. They dig in their feet and insist that they
know God and they are 100% sure of what He is trying to say in a
particular verse! At it's root it is a huge pride problem!
Not only do we think we can get our heads around God, but we're sure
we know exactly what He meant and He only meant the one thing that He
has thusfar revealed to us. We break up into “Schools of
Opinion” over things like this. Galatians 5:19-21 says
those are “heresies” and those who do such things WILL NOT
inherit the kingdom of God. Why? Because it's pride at it's
root and it grieves God. Stop putting Him in a box.
Let me
illustrate with an illustration.
The point is that
there are all kinds of repeating echoes of the same things throughout
scripture. We divide up into factions about whether or not A.D. 70
was the fulfillment of the coming of the antichrist. After all, a man
stood in the holy of holies and defiled it and destroyed the temple
and caused sacrifices to cease and blood ran in the streets. So was
that the fulfillment of the vision in Revelation. Yes? Despite
that, can there be another greater spiral still yet to come when an
antichrist defiles a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem? Yes. Can it
mean that when we have setup an antichrist in our own hearts (our
bodies are the temple of God) and he defiles it that we should run
for the hills? Yes. Can it mean that when the spirit of
antichrist takes over our congregational churches and the sacrifices
stop and it is spiritually defiled that the end is near? Yes.
So why are we
fighting and insisting that our one single leg of the spiral is the
right and only possible interpretation? Because we're full of pride
– and because the enemy of our souls will use anything to keep
us from working together and being one body.
If you want to
understand God, don't stop at the one single application or
interpretation of a passage. Look for all the repeating spirals.
Don't say, “Well, that only applied to the Jews or to Israel at
that moment and is meaningless to us today.” That's a
crock. If it's in the Bible it's because the Lord wants you to
read it and learn from it. It ALL applies to you in some way
– the harder it is to see the application, the more you need to
seek God to explain it to you.
2 Tim 3:16-17 (KJV)
16 All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works.
At that moment,
the New Testament wasn't compiled, so that “scripture” that
Paul is talking about is the OLD TESTAMENT. If you come at me
with that, “The Old Testament doesn't apply to New Testament
believers” argument, I'm going to ask you to hand me your Bible
and then I'm going to start at Genesis and rip pages out and quote
you 2 Timothy 3:16 over and over until you make me stop. It's
arrogant in the extreme to dismiss giant chunks of God's word. And
probably a violation of Revelation 22:18-19. Just in case, you
might want to knock it off.
Rev 22:18-19 (KJV)
18 For I
testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this
book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him
the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man
shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God
shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy
city, and from the things which are written in this book.
That doesn't
exhaust the topic. Maybe someday I'll write a whole book just about
the spirals. But I think you get the idea. God is a lot more
complicated then you want to believe. He's not as easily
compartmentalized and you don't know Him nearly as well as you think
you do. And if you're sure that you do, then you have a giant pride
plank in your eye and you have God in way too small a box.
Dear Father
God, please show me how to rightly divide Your Word. Show me all the
applications and how it relates to me on all the different spirals.
Open my eyes to see the complexity and majesty of Your design and
Your Word. I'm sorry for having listened to men. I'm sorry for
teaching people things as if were absolute truth when in fact I was
guessing based on my limited knowledge. Please purge it out of me and
let me walk in humility and brokenness before You. Let me speak only
Your words and let them be True. Please Father, I'm sorry. Please
forgive me and wash me in the Blood of Jesus. Please give me wisdom
and expand my understanding of You. I know this prayer is inside Your
will, so I thank You in advance for answering it. I pray all of this
in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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