Thursday 1 October 2009

The Curse,It's Purpose and Overthrow (Part 1)

Lydia Joy did a post in the rather quiet month of August in which she hoped the pause was a regathering of strength for another onslaught in all of our blogs. This is no truer than in the start of this series by Daniel Yordy.


Just as with my material, or any others whose work is on this blog, this material is for weighing, for planting as a seed, for keeping your heart open on. Because one thing is for certain. God stuff grows and has increasing relevance.


Apart from being born again, Daniel has a strand of spiritual DNA in common with me, yet like me is open to where the Holy Spirit might lead to fill out his learning of Christ. Just as I have taken in a lot through Morris Cerullo events, Daniel has found a lot of what has been forming within him has come in the context of Joel Osteen's church. As he describes here, Joel's teachings are strongly opposed by many in the States. But I would like to think it is the same type of opposition that Rob Rufus goes through for preaching a raw grace message.
The DNA strand that we both share is a history which includes input from Eldred Linden,Sam Fife,John Clarke,Buddy Cobb - who sadly at the moment is not speaking with him, and some input from Ed Miller and Annie's Visions. (see my booklist)



The Curse, It's Purpose, and Overthrow (Part 1)
From: Daniel Yordy
www.dyordy.com

I want to start this letter with a phrase from Revelation 12:5 ". . . and her child was caught up to God and to His throne."
This line describes the normal Christian life; a life we are only now beginning to understand and live in. The first half of Genesis chapter 3 is known as "the fall" of man; Revelation 12:5 is describing his return.


The fall of man did not happen in a moment. It began when the serpent opened his mouth to speak; it did not end until, maybe, the moment Cain killed his brother, Abel. I don't know that there is a lower point than that.

But God set an incredible sign post inside the first "day" of man upon this earth, the first one thousand years.

Genesis 5:24. "And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him."

God is not a respecter of persons. What was available for Enoch has always been available for every descendant of Adam.

This event with Enoch happened 57 years after Adam's death, and only 13 years before the end of the first "day." God does things like this, setting a testimony, planting a sign post, pointing out His intention and purpose.

We cannot understand the revelation of Jesus Christ, the 'apokalupsis,' without understanding the curse. The curse is found in Genesis 3:14-24. It is exactly what Paul was referring to in Romans 8 when he said that "the creation was subjected to futility."

Inside this curse are 7 particular things that came upon the human race. All of these things were broken in the cross of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, the Christian church has continued to live under and submit to the curse. God has a purpose for the curse; it brings us to Christ. But we must understand God's full purpose for it.

The curse is no more a part of us than a chrysalis is part of a butterfly. The chrysalis is a holding place until such time as the butterfly is ready to cast it off. Then, the purpose of the chrysalis is to be cast off, for in the casting off of that outer shell, the life that is inside the butterfly flows in strength to every part of its being.

God is a fighter and the ethos of the victorious warrior is written all through His word. God's purpose for Satan is that we might defeat him. God's purpose for the curse is that we might cast it off. God cannot form Christ inside of us by speaking a word, only. In the unsearchable wisdom of God, Christ in us needs an enemy to defeat and a restraint to cast off. And inside of this incredible crucible are the wondrous ingredients of affliction, of devotion, of pain, and of endurance.

Here are the 7 parts of the curse. I will share my present thoughts. I do not think for one moment that I have the full picture.

Part 1: Verse 14: "On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life."

Lucifer was created as the highest of all angels. He was larger in size and glory than the greatest of all the stars. The earth was nothing more than a speck of dust to him. From the beginning he despised the very idea that God had created him to serve this lowly worm that God called "man." Now he is bound to the earth, he cannot leave it. His only sustenance, his food, his energy, must come from one source alone, the misery and suffering of man. God gave human flesh to Satan for his food, the dust of the earth. So long as we live in a consciousness of separation from God, we are food for fallen angels. That's just the way it is. And we escape that curse by one means alone, by living fully in the consciousness of our complete union with Christ.

The flesh and Satan's feeding on the flesh are just like the tar baby in the "Brer Rabbit" story. You see that there is something wrong with your human nature, so you knock it about, get it under foot, bring it under control, and what do you discover? Now, you are stuck to it even more. And the more you try to suppress the flesh, the more you struggle to get it into "obedience" to God, the more stuck to it you become and the bigger deal it is.

Stop it. The cross is sufficient for us. We turn our backs on "the flesh" and give ourselves utterly to the only life we now know, the life of Christ inside of us.

The whole world lies under the sway of the evil one. (1 John 5:19) The dragon deceives the whole world. (Revelation 12:9) There is not one point of knowledge or understanding in this world that is not bogus. All of mankind is living in the matrix. We do not help anyone by trying to "fix" the world. Certainly, we see things that are false. But the moment you fix one thing that is false, it becomes something else that is just as false. I am much more concerned about the dangers coming from Christians having control of the US government than I am about "socialists" gaining control of it. (And it is not the beast that makes me weep, but dear precious believers in Jesus trying to ride the thing, trying to get it under their control.)

Part 2: Verse 15: " . . . and you shall bruise His heel."

The heel that Satan bruises is the heel of the Seed of the woman, which is Christ: Christ as He walked the earth 2000 years ago, and Christ as He reveals Himself in us.

The heel is the part of the body that carries the weight of the body upon the earth. Under the curse, Satan has the authority to wound the Redeemer, to wound that part of Christ's mature body that walks upon the earth.

Revelation 12:4 ". . . And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born."

This wounding is part of God's plan. In whatever way we have ever been wounded, yes, it is by the barbs of Satan, but we are utterly in God's hand and He with us works all things together for good. This is not a platitude; it is the determination of God.

Part 3: Verse 16: "In pain you shall bring forth children."

Yes, there is the physical individual element of this that every woman endures when faced with childbirth. As I watched my tender wife bear our first son, I knew no man could ever hold a candle to the strength of a woman.

But that is an outward result of the curse; we are much more concerned with its larger purpose and its casting off.

Revelation 12:2 "Then being with child she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth."

When my first son was born, there were several women in the same hospital wing giving birth that day. Ours came last. We heard horrifying screams and curses. "Make it stop!" Then, when all the ladies had their babies in hand, they asked my wife what was wrong with her. She had not screamed.

My wife entered the birthing room as prepared as a new mother could be. She did not want pain killers. I was there, and though useless outwardly, I was a strength to her. But she also had a close friend there with her. They had been working together for months, practicing breathing, practicing letting go, practicing pain.

Those who were unprepared rejected the pain of the birth. My wife, though she certainly did not welcome it, understood its purpose and knew how to yield herself to it. To let it do its work and to bring herself into the flow of its rhythm. To yield, to release, to submit. And to focus on her friend and on the breathing.

This is the hour we are in. It is Jesus who holds our hand and says, "Put your eyes utterly upon Me and trust Me. Breathe in when I say; breathe out when I say. Relax when I say, and push with all your might when I say, "Push.'" And so we must. What is about to hit this world is beyond any of our abilities to prepare for it or to cope. Don't tell me everything is going to be all right. It is not! Being in "the secret place of the most High" is where we live; but staying calm while 10,000 people drop dead around you is no simple thing. (Psalm 91).

Part 4: Verse 16: ". . .your husband, and he shall rule over you."

This is not a blessing, it is not God's 'order,' it is a curse.

"In Christ . . . there is neither male nor female . . . for you are all one in Christ." Galatians 3:26-29

Yes, outwardly, women have been brutally and shamefully mistreated by men for these 6,000 years. Those who walk in union with Jesus have no part with such a thing, no matter what legalistic, poorly translated verses they come across, it's not in them.

But that is not what this element of the curse is talking about. Notice that there is no husband in Revelation 12. Do you understand what that means, bride of Christ? What happened to your husband? He was put to death upon the cross of Jesus Christ. You have no more tie to him than any long-forgotten corpse. Name a person who died 2000 years ago and tell me what power their broken, unknown skeleton has over you or me. So it is with that old husband, Adam. He is long millenia dead and forgotten. We do not carry him on our backs.

And yet, and yet, so very sadly, for 6,000 years, and especially, for the last 2000 years, the woman, the church, the bride of Christ has lived as if she had that old dead husband chained to her back.

When Paul said in Romans 7, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death," he was referring to an ancient Greek practice of punishment. The Greeks would take the corpse of a murdered victim and chain that corpse to the back of the murderer. The murderer was then free to go, but he could not escape the rotting, horrid, vulture-picked corpse chained to his back.

Paul was voicing the mentality, the thinking, the mindset of the "carnal mind," of the one who sees himself or herself as a "self" walking separately from God. Paul thought he was dismissing that whole way of thinking, first, when he said, "I thank God through Christ Jesus my Lord," and then in Chapter 8 when he made the emphatic statement that the carnal mind, the thinking that we have a corpse, the Adamic nature, our old husband, Adam, the fallen human nature, chained to our back, that that whole way of thinking is DEATH! Paul thought he was setting the believer in Christ free from that mentality.

But that is not what worked out in Christian theology. No, the thinking that we who are married to Jesus Christ, are still also married to Adam, that we still also have a fallen human nature that we cart around, that we are responsible for, that stinks, yes, but we can never get rid of it, not in this life. That whole way of thinking that Paul called "DEATH," became central to Christian theology, in Catholicism, in Protestantism, and in much of evangelical Christianity today.

Dear Christian people make placards of our pastor with devil's horns on his head and stand with loudspeakers declaring that we will all burn in hell. More than once in the last 3 years, my children and I have walked through that gauntlet to enter the worship service. And these people who do belong to Jesus, think they are sent to do this because my pastor does not teach that Adam is chained to our backs. They honestly and sincerely believe that anyone who does not teach that Adam is chained to our backs is not teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amazing! Indeed, Christians are more dangerous than socialists.

I have come to the end of my writing time; the other 3 parts of the curse, the 3 most critical parts, will have to wait until next time.

But I do not want to end this on any negative note.

I will speak more later of Revelation 12:5 "And her child was caught up unto God and to His throne," much more, but I will say this much of this, most precious of all verses in the Bible.

I am filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3), God flows out of me like a rushing flowing river (John 7), He surrounds me like a mighty fortress wall. I walk always in Him and He in me. It is not possible for me to "go" somewhere else in the universe, or in heaven, or anywhere else, and find God more than what I walk in right now.

In all of His holiness, there is no more holy place than where I stand right now. In all of His heavenly glory, there is no more glorious place than the place I live in right now. In all of His almighty Power, there is no greater power than that which is working in me right now.

These words that I speak are not strange. They are as true of you as they are of me. I am describing the normal Christian life. If I have to "go" somewhere to find God, then God is not here, and if God is not here, then God is not.

God, open our eyes, that we might "see" that which IS and has always been.

"The expectation of God."

These words are, for me right now, the very breath of God. Let God breathe them into you as well.

"The expectation of God."

In all things, in all ways, at all times.


ADDENDUM

The New Creation By: Norman Grubb

Friday, 18 September 2009 at 16:30
"The Lord God called to the man, `Where are you?"Genesis 3:9The effects of (Adam and Eve's) disobedience were the opposite to what the natural guilty world would expect God's reaction to be. We would think God would, in anger and wrath, turn His back on the two. But it was precisely the other way around. It was Adam who hid from God, not God from Adam. Here was God "walking in the garden in the cool of the day" and looking for Adam. But where was Adam? Hidden in the bushes. Nor was God displaying some wrathful retaliation, but only questioning Adam ... to bring the reality of the disobedience home to him.For when He came face to face with the three; the serpent and Adam and Eve, there was not a word of condemnation or wrath against the two, but only His full curse on Satan. To Adam and Eve everything God said was to clarify to them the "beneficial" consequence which they, thankfully, could not escape - a way of life which always has sorrow at its roots. God said in effect, "Eve, you will have sorrow one way; Adam, you will have sorrow another way." That was all.And of course, the point of the sorrow would be that the whole human race through all its centuries of history would always be inwardly miserable, always knowing they were missing the mark and meaning of life, always seeking a phony happiness which would always escape them ... and thus, always at the heart of every man, however covered up, is a sense of lostness and a longing for fulfillment. That alone was God's judgment on His disobedient children, a judgment totally for their benefit.Yes, I Am posted on FB by Megan Anne Fey 19th Sept

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