Garden Ministries

Janet Smith © 1-22-16 edited 11-13-19 gardenministries.org

The 4 Living Creatures are representative of the government of God which consists of 3 branches and manifests in a 3-in-1 relationship. The face of the lion represents the branch of the King. The face of the flying eagle represents the branch of the Prophet and the face of the ox represents the branch of the Priesthood. All three of these branches are manifested in the face of the man, who is fully represented in Jesus Christ and His body.

This same governmental setup is what served as the backdrop for the setup of the American government: Prophet (Judicial Branch), Priest (Legislative Branch), and King (Executive Branch); representing the people (Man).

God has prophetically promised to restore the “Prophets, Priests, and Kings” governmental structure in the earth. This article focuses on the Priesthood component of that structure.

In the government of God, the priesthood’s main function and purpose is to minister to the Lord of Glory in response to His initiation, leading, and Lordship as our Great High Priest. The church-age ministry of the priesthood comes to us through Jesus Christ Who is from the Hebrews 7 priestly order of Melchizedek. This priesthood is ethnically non-exclusive within the human race (Hebrews 7:3 “without genealogy,” meaning without genetic and ethnic exclusivity such as the Hebrew Aaronic-Levite priesthood).

1 Peter 2:9 describes this priesthood as a holy nation set apart unto God as His own possession with a specific function; to declare His praises: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

The submissive and responsive priestly heart requires sensitivity to discern the will of God and to instantly obey the Holy Spirit in all things and in all His ways. Interaction between the priestly nation and their God is one of union and ministerial pleasure.

Psalm 133 eloquently describes the priestly blessing upon the body of believers: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! 2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. 3 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”

This glorious union and interaction between God and His priestly temple in the earth is the manifestation of heaven-on-earth, glory-come-down dwelling and habitation of God! (Exodus 25:8, John 1:14, Revelation 21:3, Zechariah 2:10, Psalm 132:13-14, Ephesians 2:19-22)

The vigorous and oftentimes grueling process of becoming fully yielded to Jesus will continue until His priestly bride is fully surrendered and mature. Once she has made herself ready to marry Him, she can be filled with His fullness and walk in His glory.

We are created for Jesus, not the other way around. He first chose us. We did not choose Him. He first loved us and asks us to respond and make Him our First Love. This idea that we are, on any level, in charge of ourselves more than God is in charge of us must go undergo the complete work of the cross. He’s in charge. And His ways are not our ways. Humility is the complete realization and deep appreciation of this truth.

Hebrews 12:1-14 connects Father God’s discipline with love and holiness. The first 13 verses tell us to appreciate God’s discipline and then verse 14 follows with the connection between discipline, peace, and holiness.

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

The Father’s loving discipline is what works His humility into us. Humility is the highest virtue by which God’s holiness gets into us, whereby His glory can then rest within us. By trusting and receiving God’s love through His discipline, we receive His humility, which opens the door to His holiness, and that is where His glory enters us. Humility, holiness, love, and the glory—they all go together. Without holiness and humility, we cannot see God, receive His transformative love, and be transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

The key to sustaining His Presence understands the importance of the initiation and response protocols of heaven:

He invites us to come.
We come.
He asks us to wait.
We wait.
He reveals.
We receive.
He asks us to obey.
We obey.
He helps and blesses those who obey.
We release praise and thanksgiving back to Him.
He releases loving discipline and trains us.
We respond and say yes to His leadership—He’s in charge!
The Veil lifts. He reveals Himself.
We become more like Him.

As a Romans 12:1 living sacrifice, the priesthood chooses to daily yield and respond to God’s invitations to come and minister to His heart. We sacrifice our rights and compulsions to do our own thing and set apart time and energy to give to Jesus. We come. We wait. We receive. We obey. We release our worship and praise. The veil lifts. We see more of Jesus. We are changed to be more like Him.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Gentleness is at the heart of our High Priest and King Jesus. He is able to deal gently with those who respond and come to Him.

Hebrews 5:1-4 “Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.”

Janet Weaver Smith © 9-26-2015 gardenministries.org

We have been invited, chosen, and prepared to be an integral part of God’s execution of His end-time plans and purposes in the earth. Just like Daniel, we too can study the end-time prophecies of Scripture, ask to enter the Revelation 4:1 open Throne Room door and, like Daniel and John and Ezekiel, we can be shown from heaven’s perspective, how to pray and release God’s divine purposes in the earth. By entering into Throne Room intercession and praise, we are directly participating in and releasing on the earth in our time, the prophecies of ages past that we have found in scripture. In some cases, like Daniel and Esther, we will literally be saving people’s lives because of our prayers, and in other cases, we will see the impact of God’s judgments lessened in certain places in the earth.

Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

In praying like Daniel, we are not seeking to stop what is prophesied that “must be.” We are, however, praying for people to receive the grace and divine awareness of God’s truth so that they can “reposition” themselves and align correctly with God and His Word, and thus, lessen the impact of how they experience the released judgments of God against the enemy. The less we have of the world, the flesh, and the devil in us, the less there will be in us that will be judged by God with appropriate consequences for rejecting Him. Aligning with God’s Word is our sure protection. God’s mercy always has precedence and place throughout His judgments and we are a part of releasing that “repositioning” opportunity in the earth through our prayers and by shifting the spiritual environment through praise and worship of the Lamb, Jesus.

Our Sovereign God has chosen to release His authority in the earth to a people He has prepared and anointed to pray and petition Him about His heart and desire for the nations. There is a Sovereign Head. And there is a Team that He heads up! Amazingly, the God of the universe has chosen to move in response to His sovereign vessel’s prophetic prayers and petitions. These end time servants, who know their God, and know the times and seasons, are constantly searching the scriptures and are engaging in Throne Room prayer, establishing heaven’s Golden Altar on earth, as it is in heaven.

Revelation 8:1-5 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Psalm 141:2 May my prayer be set before You like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

Daniel 9:2-3, 17-18 … in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. … 16 Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. … 17 “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name.

When the Golden Altar is filled with the prayers of the saints, heaven makes a contribution of “much incense” that combines with these prayers and then an angel prepares it all to “go up in smoke” to God. It should be noted that “much incense” implies that there is “much prayer” that fills the Golden Altar. And until it is full, not-good-stuff [i.e. much evil] will be allowed to happen because we are not engaged in our place of prophetically inspired, of-one-heart, personal and corporate prayer. Once this incense/prayer offering finally finishes and goes up to God, then we see in scripture how good things begin to happen. This is when the Ancient of Days responds and sits down and rules on behalf of the saints (Daniel 7:21-22) and the judgments of God against “the horn” (the murderous spirit of antichrist) that is destroying God’s people will be swiftly dealt.

Revelation 13:7 It [the beast] was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.

Daniel 12:1 At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people everyone whose name is found written in the book [not just Israel] will be delivered.

Daniel 7:21-22 As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, 22 until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.

This divine intervention by the Ancient of Days reconciles the apparent contradiction of Revelation 13:7 with Daniel 12:1. For a time, bad stuff happens (Revelation 13:7) but then it is stopped in certain places (Daniel 7:22 & 12:1) because the Golden Altar prayer-and-incense offering has been completed, the Ancient of Days has responded to His people’s fervent cries (even Jesus had to cry out!), and justice against the enemy has been swiftly dealt. What seemed to be going in a very bad direction has stopped, and is now reversed because Daniel assures us that a time comes “when the saints possess the kingdom!” Just like Daniel’s prayers affected outcomes and released global revelation, our engaged Throne Room prayers and worship have direct cause and effect! James 5:16 confirms that effective, fervent prayer of faith-filled, righteous people has great impact.

Now when we read the sequence of events described by Jesus in Matthew 24, they make more sense because He told us about all of this stuff and said, “Don’t be alarmed by it!” When we are tuned in the heavenly counsels within the Throne Room’s Golden Altar intercession and worship, we will prophetically see much of it before it happens and be sent as witnesses of the Gospel of hope to the nations right in the midst of all of the chaos, fully empowered in God’s love. Isaiah 43.

Haggai’s prophetic promise is another end-time scripture to activate as we engage in Throne Room, Golden Altar harp-and-bowl worship and prayer. This beautiful prophecy belongs to our generation to personally and corporately take responsibility for it, and to actively and aggressively believe and pray for its fulfillment!

Haggai 2’s message was addressed to three “types”: 1.) Zerubbabel 2.) Joshua 3.) The Remnant. Zerubbabel symbolizes the apostolic kings who are anointed to build the end-time House of God as wise master builders with plumb line revelation. Joshua represents the Golden Altar high priestly worship and prayer anointing. The Remnant represents the end-time prophetic bride of Christ who sees through the eyes of the LORD and serves Him faithfully as His kings and priests unto God. Together, these three “types” form the capstone that finishes the bridal Mountain of God. Zechariah 4:10 “For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel, these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the earth.” Zecharaiah 4:7 tell us what Zerubbabel brings to the building process, “What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!'”

Haggai 2:1-9 …on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 2 “Speak to Zerubbabel … governor of Judah, to Joshua … the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, 3 ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? 4 But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD. ‘Be strong, Joshua … high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty. 5 ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.‘ [i.e., do not fear the shaking!] 6 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, ‘ says the LORD Almighty. 8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. 9 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace, ‘ declares the LORD Almighty.”

Mountains in scripture can symbolize kingdom authority and cultural influence. The Zechariah 4 capstone is the top of the Mountain of God. This Mountain rises above all other mountain’s as the Micah 4 governmental center of the world from which Jesus and His bride rule and reign together. The capstone on this mountain is now being placed in our generation! Fulfilling Jesus’ prayer in John 17 for complete union, this glorious remnant forms the Bride-and-Bridegroom capstone in which the Psalm 24:1 / Micah 4:1 “Mountain of the House of the Lord” is completed and makes way for Father God to come and dwell in His house with His people and grant them peace. You, the Bride of Jesus Christ, are the set-apart remnant called to work to this end. The Cloud of Witnesses are pouring into the earth to actively witness this crowning day. Will you perceive them?

1 Peter 2:9 tells us why a royal priesthood is formed and chosen. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We are chosen to offer up heaven-on-earth, one-with-Jesus, Golden Altar praise and prayer to the One who called us out of darkness (Who extracted a remnant) … into His wonderful light.

This is not a time to procrastinate, be lazy or self-centered. Our assigned angels are ready to get to work and fight the greatest battle of all time right along our side. This is the time for the REMNANT to RISE AND SHINE and get to work.

Let’s enter the Revelation 4:1 Throne Room door and fill the Golden Altar with our prayers and praise and stop evil. Let’s join the great worship scene of heaven and build a house on earth for Father that He’s excited to come and fill with His glory!

Janet Weaver Smith ©gardenministries.org – June 25, 2015

In my article entitled, A Faithful Bride for the Faithful Bridegroom, I describe Phase 1 and 2 of the believers walk with Christ. In this article, I introduce Phase 3.

The 3 phases of relationship with Jesus are as follows:
PHASE 1.) THE EVENT of SALVATION = Eternal LIFE
PHASE 2.) THE PROCESS of SANCTIFICATION through SURRENDER = Eternal GLORY
PHASE 3.) THE BEGINNING OF THE END = Fullness in Christ. The blameless, spotless bride.

In Phase 1, a person has accepted and come to know Jesus as their Savior.
In Phase 2, a person has entered into the process of sanctification and surrender to know Jesus as their LORD.
In Phase 3, a person has continued through Phases 1 and 2 and now comes to know Jesus as their Bridegroom-King.

Phase 3 marks the culmination of Phases 1 and 2 and happens as our spirit, in surrendered partnership with the Holy Spirit, peaks and groans under the burden of life itself; crying out for perseverance to finish its work and to be filled to the fullness of Christ that Ephesians 4:13, Colossians 2:9-10 promises.

Phase 3 is the time when we confront the last enemy, which is death (1 Cor. 15:16) by overcoming the fear of death that Hebrews 2:15 describes as a lifelong “slavery.” We are “crossing through the valley of the shadow of death and fearing no evil,” (Psalm 23:4) and we are overcoming [satan] by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony; and we do not love our lives so much as to shrink from death. (Revelation 12:11)

In Phase 3, we have accepted the call of God on our life. When tested, we stand firm in the faith by believing His word and promises. We have passed through the Romans 8:30 bridal process of being called, and justified, and now, we are about to become “glorified.” Jesus Himself modeled this process for us before He died so, like Him, and in and through Him, we too can attain by His grace what he modeled for us—even before we die.

The Matthew 17:2 transfiguration and subsequent interaction with the Cloud of Witnesses is available to Christ’s overcomers on this side of eternity. If we hold fast to the word of life and patiently endure the intense bridal preparation process, we will enter the state of fullness, which is union with Christ Himself, and experience the light of God as we become one with Him—on this side of eternity! Like Jesus, though we are not yet in our final resurrected bodies, we can be transfigured though not fully changed into the final resurrected state. The parousia presence of God fill us as He comes to us before He comes for us. (For more on the parousia, see my article: The Spirit of Might and Power – The Fullness of Christ)

In Phase 3, the believer is entering the stage of transition into a complete new-man rebirth. They are crossing over into the fullness of Christ and are experiencing the climatic end juxtaposed by the intense groanings of their dying flesh and the Spirit’s emerging new life. And yet, the greater grace to endure and complete this phase is always available and dispensed upon request. The process of sanctification is almost done and the pure and spotless, glorified bride emerges.

Supporting Scriptures:

2 Corinthians 5:1-7, Philippians 2:15, 2 Peter 3, Daniel 12:3, 2 Peter 1:19, Matthew 13:43, Romans 8:11, Romans 8:18-23, Romans 8:30

2 Timothy 2:10-13 describes the first 2 phases: For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the [Phase 1.] salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it [Phase 2.] eternal glory. 11 It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; 13If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

Janet Weaver Smith ©9-4-2015 gardenministries.org

Not only are encounters with the Cloud of Witnesses possible, they can be so inspiring that we are moved to throw off everything that may be slowing us down. Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

The word “surrounded” in Greek is: perikeimai (pronounced per-ik’-i-mahee) and its expanded meaning is: “I am encompassed, surrounded, or clothed with, am in submission to.” Hebrews 12:1-3 tells us that we are actually “wearing the testimony” of those who have gone before us like clothes. Thus, the Ephesians 5:21 mutual submission of the body of Christ extends to and includes these from heaven, as well as those in the body of Christ who we are in relationship with on earth. We are all working together—literally!

Hebrews 11:40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they [the Cloud of Witnesses] be made perfect. In these last days, together with the Cloud of Witnesses, we will be made perfect (Greek: teleios completed). Our process of finishing well is combined into and with their well-run race. Together, by faith, we will be interacting on heavenly ground as it invades our earthly existence. That means that like Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, we too can expect to encounter those who are in the Cloud of Witnesses.

But what might be the purpose of these encounters? We need to acclimate toward a more heavenly-minded lifestyle and to know our supernatural God who promises that “no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him.” (2 Cor. 2:9) In Hebrews 12:22, Paul teaches us to expect to “come to” heavenly ground and have supernatural experiences with God with joyful expectation. He contrasted the Old Mountain of Fear to the New Mountain of Joy and described all of the heavenly encounters we can expect to “come to.”

Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

In these last days, God is sharing with us His testimony of faithfulness in and through His saints of old as our encouragement and joy. God is the God of the living, not the dead. These saints are alive. And some never actually died. And whether they died or never died, like Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, both “types” can appear in person for our encouragement. They can wear cloaks of invisibility and appear exclusively to one person and not others or they can appear to groups. It depends on the assignment.

No encounter surpasses those with Jesus Himself, however, I cannot deny the good fruit that has come from my encounters with the Cloud of Witnesses. For example, to my surprise, I encountered the Apostle John in person at a Contemplative Prayer Conference in Kansas City, MO. At the time, I did not realize that such a thing was even possible and I kept it mostly to myself. More recently, I encountered a relatively unknown missionary to China named Anna Ziese in a grocery store parking lot. I had seen her years earlier in a dream where Jesus showed me the transition between her generation and mine. I did not actually talk to either of these two but their presence provoked me to ask God why they appeared to me and I learned His message in that creative way.

Then I encountered and talked with the Apostle Paul in a deeply reverent “live-chat” as he tangibly ministered to me in a dream-vision-trance on Mother’s Day, 2015. I also saw in a dream, my own Mom come out of heaven and down to speak to a church group that she had been a part of most of her life. As she spoke, the white smoke of God’s glory came out of her mouth. She warned us of a demonic entity that was releasing a “demonic anointing” on young women and was channeling through the pop performer named Beyoncé.

And not only do the Cloud of Witnesses enjoy interactions with us and have divine purpose in doing so, the angelic realm will become more and more visible and interactive with us as well. Our angels enjoy meeting up with each other and with us. They look forward to our times of koinonia fellowship as much as we do!

The purpose of these encounters is to receive impartations, wisdom and revelation, understanding, and encouragement from what these saints learned and developed in their love relationship with Jesus when they walked the earth. Hebrews 2:12 tells us that Jesus Himself declares their name to His brothers and sister [in heaven and on earth] and in the assembly [on earth and in heaven] He even sings their praises.

Ask the Lord Jesus yourself whether these encounters are real and if you are to receive them. Let Him bear witness to your heart about the matter and then let Him take it from there. It is not something we can make happen, but we can open our heart by faith to its possibility and thus, enter into it as He leads and chooses by His Spirit.

Janet Weaver Smith and George Smith ©9-4-2015 gardenministries.org

The road toward complete dependence on God and trust in Him may include any or all of the harsh conditions Paul described in 1 Corinthians 4:11-12. For those of us who must have Christ fully formed within and who are relentlessly pressing toward the goal of winning the prize of our heavenward call, God is dealing with the last vestiges of unbelief and fear. Ironically, it is hardship that “tells on us.” When hardship hits, our response reveals how much we trust and hope in God and His goodness, or don’t.

When the storms of hardship begin to whip up around us, we cannot let them distract us from our fervent goal of completeness and union with Christ. All the more, hardship is the time to press in and fix our eyes on the Author of our faith—Christ Jesus—and let Him perfect us as we continue to believe Him. We can actually use these very hardships and shocking events to our advantage by letting them drive us deeper into Jesus.

When shocking events began to unfold, like Job, our first reaction should be to bow before the Lord in worship and thanksgiving, declaring that God is good, not because we are acting all fake and religious, but because we have learned along the way that when hardships occur, we actually want to turn to God and dive into His deep, not detach and turn away from Him in offense. In our season of preparation, God has changed our hearts to be like Jesus who always entrusted Himself to Father.

Thus, that which we “speak” about God’s word, we have come to intimately know as truth and so it will holds us when the storms blow. That is why God often speaks His word to us before the storm comes and then gives us time to believe it so that it works within us an intimate, knowing belief in who He is. When hardships come, this “knowing” place with God instantly activates and empowers us to take refuge in Him because we have learned to love and trust Him in all circumstances. And this is how we have come to know Him; we know, believe, and obey His living and active word.

Ephesians 6:13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

True love and devotion for Jesus is and will be the only thing that holds us when we are opposed. No human compassion or love can hold us in what is coming in the earth. The revelation that we are about to begin seeing is how much God personally and intimately loves each one of us.

Jesus is going to begin to reveal to each individual the true Bridegroom heart—His intimate passionate longing for me as an individual… and who I am in what He has assigned me to be within His body. When we begin to get that revelation—the empowered knowing of how much Jesus loves individually us—we will be, by the Holy Spirit, empowered to respond back to Him with an equal love. But it will never be human love; it can only be divine love. God loves God. Jesus came and made the way for God to literally be put in us so that Father could love us and show it and have a relationship with us that reveals the truth of our Father’s love.

It is a great mystery in the Throne Room of Father; how it is all about Him, beginning to end, yet He has chosen to take it “being all about Him” and make it all about us. But in making it all about us, we are freed by the Spirit to give it back and make it all about Him. That’s intimacy. That is a truly interactive, intimate relationship. Because as much as I sit and long for Jesus, it’s such a pale shadow of His longing—His waiting for me to want Him the same way He wants me. We do not have the capacity in our own human physiology to generate that kind of love so He put His love in us by the Holy Spirit so that we can love God with the Love of God so that we can partake of God’s love for God in us.

Janet Weaver Smith © 8-11-2015 gardenministries.org

Revelation 10 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. 2 He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. 4 And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.” …

8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.'” 10 I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. 11 Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”

Ezekiel 3:1 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

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What is this scroll or open book? What are the 7 Thunders and why did they need to be “sealed up” and remain undisclosed until the end of the age? I propose that the 7 Thunders are bridal in nature and thus, their intimate nature, and what they impart are sealed up in this book until the bride is ready to receive them. I propose that this 7 Thunders revelation begins to happen when the Revelation 8:1 7th seal is opened. The Apostle John is a bride-type. As such, he is the one who took the now open book that was sealed, which means that both he and the end-time bride of Christ are ready to receive what the 7 Thunders are about to declare and impart. These impartations release the necessary changes for the bride to carry out her Romans 8:19 calling of manifest sonship and her 2-witnesses-empowered assignments in the earth. This ready bride can receive the release of the 7 Thunders because the Holy Spirit has made her ready for Jesus. Empowered by the impartations that the 7 Thunders release, as Jesus’ own agent of change, the Christ-filled bride can now release on earth in the prayer room what is ignited in heaven on the golden altar of incense and prayer.

Prior to this release, it is no surprise that many in the body of Christ have experienced an unprecedented and extraordinarily long, extremely hard, faith building, death-to-self, alive-to-Christ process. The groaning nature of a birthing bride has culminated to its peaking point. Those who have said “Yes!” to Jesus as His cleansing Word sanctifies them through and through, they are crying out in pain as He prepares them for birth and for that change when they become fully conformed into His likeness and ready to receive His fullness of love poured out. They are passing through the last layers of the veil of Satan’s religious spirit that has separated earth and heaven all this time. The jezebelic religious spirit is Satan’s attempt to counterfeit God’s Holy Spirit, holding to a form of “godliness” but denying the power of transformation that only the Holy Spirit can deliver. As the church repents of her double-minded tares and puts off the religious spirit within her in favor of believing and obeying the entirety of God’s Word, the bride emerges clean and pure, unstained by the world. The confrontation of the ages has come to an all-time-high head and the final squeeze before the push is upon us. Some people are even feeling spinning and nausea as they spiritually pass through this last layer of the veil.

This extreme process points toward an unprecedented event that is about to happen that will be epic in nature and of which the 7 Thunders will likely be released to a ready bride. To prophetically symbolize the process, both the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel and the New Testament Apostle John were both instructed to eat a scroll that contained the living, active Word of God which was sweet to the taste and for John, sweet but also bitter in his belly. John experienced the future Laodicean-age nausea from the eaten scroll (Revelation 3:16: lukewarm “Christians” who would not receive the love of God’s corrections and rebukes caused God to vomit them out). Both Ezekiel and John were commanded to release the prophetic unction they had eaten when the time was ripe. Ezekiel prophesied in his time and John has prophesied and will again prophesy “in his time.” Later in this article, I disclose how John’s “time” may have a 2,000 (plus or minus) year time span.

This sets a Biblical precedent for a prophetic and apostolic body to be asked to “eat the Word of God” and be ready to prophesy. For those who have “eaten” the Word of God and, like John, are asked to seek and eat the end-time bridal revelation of the Daniel 12 and the Revelation 10 scroll containing the yet-to-be-revealed 7 Thunders understanding, this is the time to enter through the Revelation 4:1 “open door” and access heaven’s unlocked mysteries especially those of the 7 Thunders. All believers in Jesus Christ are invited to seek God in this way. This is the time to seek the Word of God and let it go into us and divide out our soulish, world-entrenched ways of living and bring us into the fullness of a Spirit-led life. It is a struggle but one that is promised a tremendous, historical outcome. The Cloud of Witnesses that have gone before us rejoice over this day and pray for us to enter into this bridal reality and finish our course so that they can finish theirs with us. The fullness of Hebrews 12 and Isaiah 26:2 is at hand. “Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.”

One current minister who has been seeking the 7 Thunders revelation is Paul Keith Davis from WhiteDove Ministries. In a very vulnerable openness, he is boldly releasing his prophetic pursuit of this message so that what he gets, others can chew on and see how the Lord owns it (or not) in their own heart. This is an example of the prophetic body of Christ working their “parts and pieces” together in prayer and scriptural grounding to discover together what the whole message is for our times. Paul Keith Davis proposes that the 7 Thunders are likely to be what heaven is listening to as it falls silent for one half hour after the breaking of the 7th seal. (Paul Keith’s message: https://vod.whitedoveministries.org/the-seven-thunders-part-2-paul-keith-davis-august-4-2015/)

It is important not to prematurely conclusively judge something that may still be in the process of becoming a full revelation but is yet in its unfolding and partial stage of revelation. To prematurely stamp as “right or wrong” what may still be in the process of discovery, without letting the fruit of its end point come and reveal its wisdom (or not) is what 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22 warns us not to do; that is “to treat prophecy with contempt.” “Contempt” in Greek: exoutheneó means to: ignore, set to naught, despise.

1 Corinthians 13:10 but when completeness [teleios] comes, what is in part disappears [katargéō]. The “completeness” has not yet fully come, but when it does, what is “in part” will fall away. In the meantime, we are in a process of maturing and discovery that will culminate in a Christ-like fullness and a maturity that empowers us to let go of what is partial because we have been filled by the One who has makes us completely whole.

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child [Greek: népios: unlearned, immature], I talked, thought, and reasoned like a child [immature]. When I became [Greek: ginomai] a man, I put the ways [Greek: katargéō] of childhood [immaturity] behind me.

So let us press on to discover the revelation of the 7 Thunders bridal mystery and not be afraid of the challenging process it may entail. Be warned though! Eager false accusers stand at-the-ready with insults and dis-accreditation of character for anyone who may attempt to pass through this open door by seeking the greater revelation of this now-open bride’s book. Self-centered people who say they are Christians but are afraid of experiencing the mystical supernatural of God will try to undermine, and even oppress those who believe that God is mystically supernatural in nature and that the revelation of His Word can still unfold into a greater understanding of God’s eternal purposes, i.e., the bridal paradigm.

But who made these unbelieving, I-know-better “believers” our judge? Shall we succumb to the fear-of-man and unbelief grounded in the pride of intellectualism and religion rather than align ourselves with our ever-unfolding and revealing, mystically profound and supernatural God? This is the time to aggressively pursue the revelation that completes our understanding of God so that the fullness of Christ’s love can be poured out into us. Romans 5:3-5: “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

All the more, let us seek to know the all-powerful, mighty Spirit of wisdom and revelation and find out more about the Ephesians 5:32 “profound mystery” behind the bridal paradigm of Christ and His church. What is it that has been sealed up and reserved for us who live at the end of ages? We must lay hold of it. We must not be way laid by name-calling insults. They are par for the course. We cannot be put off by our frustrations with our own personal incompleteness either. He who began a good work in us will complete it!

Fixed on the promises of God, we are to look upward, worship God, pray, and regularly get together in fellowship with like-hearted people. For those pressing in for the fullness and the unveiling of knowing Christ and His hidden treasures, we are to both seek and give time for the ripened fruit to become clear before we make definitive conclusions about unfolding revelation that is not contradicting scripture. It is tragic when we shut the creative process down by swooping in with our editorial fear-hats on, slicing and dicing what has not yet been fully formed. It’s best to wait until the baby is born before we start cleaning it up from its bloody, beautiful birth!

Not all revelation has to be established as doctrine and taught in every basic Christianity classroom. Paul said that there were mysteries and concepts that were for the mature that would overwhelm baby Christians (Hebrews 5:11-12). An example of an unfolding revelation that I don’t need to form into a doctrinal teaching would be something like this: I personally believe that the Apostle John did not physically die but was transfigured into a pre-resurrection-body “fullness” that allows him to access both the physical and spiritual realm like Jesus had before he went to the cross. When Jesus’ physical life was threatened, and because His “time had not yet come,” Jesus could disappear into crowds. Thus, when necessary, Jesus manifested a cloak of invisibility. (Luke 4:30, John 8:50 and 10:39, Luke 24:31) I personally believe that the Apostle John is still alive and walks the earth while being fully clothed in his transfigured state and has a “cloak of invisibility” from which he can appear to one person and at the same time no one else around that person can see him. He can also translate to various places around the globe and traverse between heaven and earth as the fullness of the Holy Spirit empowers him.

This is a remarkable ability and will be characteristic of those who become fully matured and transfigured into Christ’s fullness. This is what the remnant overcomer bride can expect to happen to her when the fullness comes to her before she receives her final resurrected body form at Christ’s second coming. Jesus had 3 phases to his bodily changes. Phase 1: transfigured. Phase 2: resurrected from death with am 11 (or more) dimensional body that was able to pass through walls and yet eat physical food. Phase 3: ascended resurrection body and eternally crowned with all dominion, authority, and majesty.

Like Jesus before His ascension and like John as our bride-type, there will be Phase 1 and 2 overcomers walking the earth in their rewards, supernaturally infused with unique abilities. Abilities such as having their youthful vigor completely restored because they are able to eat from the Tree of Life and not die or be killed unless they are led by the Spirit to let themselves be martyred, or the ability to translate from place to place (as the Apostle Philip demonstrated) as the Spirit leads them, or the ability to employ a cloak of invisibility when needed, and best of all—the ability to discern and release the perfect will of Father God in the moment. And all of this will be experienced before they receive Phase 3 of their final resurrected body changes that happens at Christ’s “every eye will see Him” return. One of the benefits of being transfigured is that the tyranny of time that the spirit of this age subjects people to no longer affects that person. Time is no longer painful because the power of its limitations has broken off of the transfigured bride.

The married bride of Jesus lives above the power of time and no longer lives inside of it and subject to time’s limitations. Thus, the Apostle John who I believe has lived nearly 2,000 years does not experience long periods of time as painful because in his eternally transfigured state, the tyranny of time, aging, and the power of death do not affect him. This will happen to a transfigured, Phase 1 and 2 bride as well.

This same Apostle John, and those transfigured as he has been have yet to fulfill end-time assignments. Revelation 10 tells us that John is yet to prophesy what he heard the 7 Thunders say. When the seal that kept him quiet is opened, he will do just that, and so will the bride! The Revelation of the 7 Thunders will not in any way contradict scriptural truths but will unveil a bigger scope of bridal understanding. John does not act alone. He also represents a company of unshackled lovers of Jesus who will not rest until they are fully known by and who intimately know Jesus.

An example of how the mystery of a “Thunder” can be revealed, executed, and remain completely within the context of scriptural truth could look like this: I propose that one of these bridal thunders, and perhaps the first of the 7, is the declaration of truth that Jesus Christ is LORD of His bridal body and that as such, it is time for the release of the supernatural empowerment of God to fully transform the faithful wise virgin bride into Christ’s own image. Those who stayed faithful to Jesus as He completed His LORDSHIP process in them receive their overcomer reward(s). Perhaps the 7 Thunders are directly related to the 7 churches overcomer rewards.

For example, the church of Thyatira was commanded to repent of sinful compromise by tolerating “jezebel” who taught that sinning was ok. This false doctrine, prevalent in the religious system of today, has “fed” the dark veil of the religious spirit (the tares within us) and is fueled by fear, doubt, and unbelief. Overcomers are commanded to utterly repent of such beliefs and shed all compromise with sin by embracing the cross and the grace of God. From this baptism of repentance, a pure and spotless bride emerges with, in this case, the promise of authority to rule and reign in the intimate knowledge of the Morningstar Himself.

As with all Revelation church age promises, the in-working of the Holy Spirit in the overcomer completely supplants all other “loves” and “gods” in the bridal heart of Christ’s followers.With a fully circumcised heart, the bride of Jesus cries out in union with the Spirit, “COME!” Released by the Father, Jesus, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, impassioned for His bride, does indeed “COME!” and releases His marital benefits to His trusting, submissive bride as His fullness enters her sanctified faith and transforms her into His image. One with Jesus, the bride is now unveiled having become the very transfigured and transformed flesh and bone of His body on earth.

This royal exchange of the LORD Jesus’ bridal declaration of thunder serves as the final thrust that ousts the dragon from middle heaven having been completely purged from it by Michael and his angelic company of warriors. What goes up must push down! The completion of the Phase 1 and 2 bride supplants Satan and a loud voice in heaven says: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” (Revelation 12:10)

To Fully Know and Be Known: The “Teleios” Completion and Church of the Open (Heart) Door – Janet Weaver Smith ©7-20-2015 gardenministries.org

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

As long as I can remember, I have had a deep, and often painful longing to “fully know and be known” by those I love and cherish. When the deep-to-deep longing triggers within me toward a loved one, I feel pathetically inept in my effort to communicate how mushy-much I love them. This gift of love within me was supposed to be a relationship builder but instead seemed more awkward then welcome. Turns out, mushy, openhearted, gushing is not most people’s gig! Invading their ice palaces is not cool!

I have come to understand that though these longings often come as joyful explosions, they come from and belong to the Author of Love, Jesus, and are His to lead, guide, and direct. The longing to know and be known gets me in trouble if I direct them toward my own self-fulfillment. I get rejected or used or some of both. Once I learned that the people who’s deep-of-God has triggered my deep-of-God are not my Source for true and lasting “knowing” satisfaction, I came to peace with Whom and through Whom these deep heart longings must be processed. They come from God, they belong to God, and are how I come to fully know Him and become fully known by Him. If God is left out of this equation, it gets messy real quick.

Scripture validates such longings. The deep desire to know and be known is a part of a much bigger picture—a God picture. This is how God feels about the people He created to enjoy relationship with Him. Those “Sons of Korah” who wrote Psalm 42 for the Music Director describe this painful longing. The Psalmist tells us that God’s impassioned deep calls out to our deep and it isn’t a tiny little pipsqueak. No. God’s deep roars like a waterfall and sweeps over us with crashing waves.

Such powerful longings need leadership. Now, when relational longings trigger and spark within me, I understand that God is letting me into His rich treasure temple and dwelling place—the very heart of His people. I get to feel God’s deep desire for His beloved family. He shared this intimate place of His heart with me so that I would return it to Him in intercession and praise. I get to swim with Holy Spirit leading me through His vast ocean of love and if I keep the relationship simple and surrendered, my prayer love for God’s people enjoys successful outcomes. The Holy Spirit’s deep intercession is at work weaving the parts and pieces of His people together into peace-enriched wholeness and “Teleios” completeness.

There is coming a day when that work will emerge from its womb of hiddenness and become visible for all to see, encounter, and enjoy! And this completeness can happen before the second, visible coming of Jesus Christ to earth. Whatever Jesus modeled for us while He walked the earth is available to those who believe in Him and, at all cost, seek union with Him. He was transfigured into the fullness before He went to the cross and died. We too can experience that same fullness in Him before we die or before He visibly comes again.

1 Corinthians 13:10 but when completeness [teleios] comes, what is in part disappears [katargéō].

The Greek transliteration of “completeness” in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is “teleios” which biblehub.com tells us means: “perfect, (a) complete in all its parts, (b) full grown, of full age, (c) specially of the completeness of Christian character—mature (consummated) from going through the necessary stages to reach the end-goal, i.e. developed into a consummating completion by fulfilling the necessary process (spiritual journey) [This root (tel-) means “reaching the end (aim).” It is well-illustrated with the old pirate’s telescope, unfolding (extending out) one stage at a time to function at full-strength (capacity effectiveness).]”

As I was praying and worshipping the Lord on 7-14-15, I briefly saw a vision of a man holding a long, trumpet-looking, monocular telescope. I knew “the man” was angelic and wondered if his name was or meant “Teleios.” The “man’s” message was the “message of completion” and he was looking through the telescope for those who would recognize, welcome, and celebrate his message of becoming teleios—perfected and complete in Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child [Greek: népios: unlearned, immature], I talked, thought, and reasoned like a child [immature]. When I became [Greek: ginomai] a man, I put the ways [Greek: katargéō] of childhood [immaturity] behind me.

Paul is saying that as we emerge into spiritual adulthood we will be compelled and empowered to leave our immaturity behind us. The Greek word katargéō means: to idle down, render something inert (“completely inoperative”); i.e. being of no effect (totally without force, completely brought down); done away with, cause to cease and therefore abolish; make invalid, abrogate (bring to nought); “to make idle or inactive.”

1 Corinthians 13:10 but when completeness [Gr. teleios] comes, what is in part disappears [Gr. katargéō]. In other words, when God’s completeness (perfected maturity) comes, I will deactivate and do away with the results of my brokenness. Once His completion comes, my frustrating “not-yet’s” will become clear and easily deactivated [Gr. katargéō].

The maturing process is an emerging process. Paul said, “I became a man.” The Greek for “became” is gínomai, which means: to emerge, become, transitioning from one point (realm, condition) to another. When we live by faith, we are living heaven-downward. Our Christ-centered identity is exercised and emerges into our earthly existence—not the other way around. Crucified with Christ means that we are seated with Him in heavenly places and living heaven-downward by faith in Him. (For more on “ginomai,” see my article “The Visible Invisible”)

Scripture tells us that completeness leads to putting away and deactivating weaknesses. The responsibility for empowering me to deactivate my crap is on God to release in His completion and is on me only in the sense of waiting, hoping, and believing that He can and will do it. That means that the full responsibility is on God to complete me with Himself and the only responsibility I have is to believe that He wants to complete me and that He will do what He has promised to do. Even the grace to wait patiently and believe this truth is on Him to release to me. My simple “Yes” to God is all I’ve got to give Him. “Yes!” is what God asks of me to become my All-in-all.

So now, when I run into my insufferable “not-yet’s” (or someone else’s), I can turn to Him and lay these “not-yet’s” at His feet and say, “Come and complete me!” “Come and complete them!” I cannot change my own heart or anyone else’s, but God can. Praise the LORD! I will see some of my “not-yet’s” deactivated during the maturing, emerging process and the rest will be deactivated on the day of His full completion.

Thus, the famous 1 Corinthians 13 “Love Chapter” of the Bible is telling us a big secret! God stands at the door and knocks and initiates love by activating our deep longings for Him through the fire of the Holy Spirit sparking and triggering our deep, creative center. This is the time to become vulnerably open, honest, and “fully knowable” by God in our thoughts and desires. This is how we invite Him in. No excuses. No cover stories. Just, “Come on in Jesus. Know me (especially in the places where I am afraid of knowing You).”

We do this with the hope that one-day, His completeness will come and we will be empowered to gladly deactivate all former, immature thinking, reasoning, and speech. When His preparation for completeness process comes to the “teleios” end and the fullness is poured out upon our prepared heart, our face will be empowered to unashamedly and directly initiate toward His face and respond to Him in utter dependence and complete trust with no more separation, no more excuses, and no more holding back.

When Jesus knocks on our door and asks for more, we respond to His sweet, and sometimes painful initiation of love and open the door—even if we have to pry it open. The Church of the Open (Heart) Door means that as His body, we are opening the door to our hearts and letting God “know us” and complete us in our deep, core places. As we grow in our trust of Him, we will stop hiding from God in any area of our lives. Deep-to-deep, “fully known and knowing” means that like Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall, God has completed us and as such, we are able to gladly deactivate all shame, pretending, hiding, and hypocrisy. Nothing and no one holds our hearts but Him.

Sealed forever in His love, we are simply free to be utterly honest and transparent (i.e., “naked”) with our loving Creator God. Face-toward-face and deep-to-deep, we, the longing parts and pieces of His heart and dwelling place, have finally become heart knit and one with Him. Together, we are at rest in the One who is Love.

Janet Weaver Smith ©7-7-2015 gardenministries.org

Three words should describe the character and heart posture of those who follow Jesus and encounter opposition to their beliefs: Gentle. Steadfast. Immovable. Ephesians 4:2-3, 1 Corinthians 15:58.

There is a sizeable culture shift underway in America in relation to how the 66-books of the Bible are viewed and practiced as a legitimate source for moral guidance and truth. There are those who are rapidly distancing themselves from the literal nature of this holy book and there are those who are ready to stake their very lives upon the Biblical moral code and upon the God of creation who wrote the book through inspired humans. With the very fabric of our nations foundational ethics shaking, how do believers in Jesus Christ stand firm during this tumultuous time and how do we deal with the “fine sounding arguments” that disbelievers use to contradict and undermine the spiritual authority of the Bible? Colossians 2:2-4, 8

It is moral compromise to only partially believe a Biblical truth while also agreeing with a “fine sounding argument” that denies, undermines, or diminishes what the Bible clearly says about a matter. Suppose a parent writes a note to their childcare provider clearly defining what, when, and how to care for their children while they are gone. After the parent’s are gone, can you imagine the caregiver changing the plan without asking the parent’s because they decided that the parent’s did not actually literally mean what they said? In a healthy, thriving family environment, who has the final say for how the child is treated and raised and who is ultimately held responsible for how they raised the child: the parent’s or the childcare provider? The parent’s.

The Bible was given to humanity as a Tutor to lead us into an intimate relationship with God’s Word—Who is a Person named Jesus. When we reject this holy Tutor, we are rejecting it’s Author. But there is no neutral in making this distinction. By rejecting Jesus and undermining His Word, we are accepting another belief system. When we do not hold fast to the Word of Life, we open the door to a spirit of empty religion, which causes spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical instability because it is full of hypocrisy and delusional excuses because there is no real power to transform us into someone better—that is Christ Jesus. Empty Religion merely “holds to a form of godliness but denies the power” of God to change us to become like Him.
2 Timothy 3:5

Empty religion is like the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” cliché since the loudest, most dominating and controlling force demands all the power and attention and establishes the lists of “do’s and don’ts” that best support the ideology of the biggest squeakers. There is no neutral in power struggles. An outside-in, fear-based, control-and-domination rules-and-regulations legal system must fill the void whenever people’s own hearts and consciences cannot hold them to a moral center. When the law written on people’s heart’s becomes seared and jaded, all access to the fruits of the Holy Spirit has closed. Because there is no real love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control that rule the heart and create a safe human environment, laws are put into practice to replace what the Spirit-filled heart is supposed to supply. Galatians 5:16-26

As soldiers of Christ, we “follow the rules of engagement” and bend our knee in gentle submission, holding fast to God’s Word. In doing this, “we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5, 2 Timothy 2:5, Colossians 2:2-4,8, Proverbs 30:5,6, John 14:6, Galatians 4:3

Take for example the increasing number of “fine sounding arguments” concerning the church’s position on the issue of homosexuality. Christian churches must now decide whether or not the Bible is God’s literal word and whether or not they abide by it as their resource for God’s truth about this and other matters. For those of us who hold fast to the word of life and believe that the 66-books of the Bible are the Holy Spirit spoken, trustworthy words of God, we can refer to those scriptures that define human sexuality and abide by God’s commands concerning them. We don’t add to them, redefine them, or subtract from them. We respect that God says what He means and means what He says and because we love Him, we obey Him, knowing and trusting that our Creator’s commands are good for us. Proverbs 30:4-5

So what do the 66 books of God’s gracious word to His created humanity say about human sexual union?God revealed His created design for sexual union when He first created mankind as a “male-female” person named “Adam.” Genesis 2:22-24. By separating the female from out of the male, God solved Adam’s state of “aloneness” by giving him a counterpart; a woman, made in God’s image, who of her own free will, could rejoin herself and come together with her husband in love to conduct a unique, interdependent, collaborative, productive relationship.

The emotional-physical part of coming together in loving passion through sexual union even created new life and innately provided a new life with a holistic male-female, God-like family environment in which the child could grow. A light bulb needs a male-female connection for power to light it up. The original blueprint for human procreation requires a male-female contribution and God’s design made it so the “connecting parts” fit perfectly together as male and female. This design forever reveals God’s original “It is good” plan.

For a time, because the sinful fall of mankind introduced unfavorable human conditions, especially for women, as a form of protection and preservation, some men had multiple wives. Though not the ideal one-man-one-woman marriage, this “workaround” was preferred to the existing alternatives of prostitution, slavery, and homeless wanderings. By the time the Apostle Paul wrote his instructions for church overseers, culture had progressed enough for him to require overseers to return to the ideal setup and to “be the husband of one wife.” 1 Timothy 3:2

Ephesians 5 further elevates the symbolic value of marriage when Paul likens a godly marriage to represent a heavenly one: that is, Jesus Christ as the bridegroom and His devoted first-love followers as His bride. The marriage bed was to remain unadulterated and pure as it was learned that this form of intimacy directly represented Christ’s unadulterated love for His bride and her devoted love for Him. The Holy Spirit also led Paul to write extensively about the sinful consequences of rejecting God’s created design for marriage and human sexual union. Hebrews 13:4, 1 Timothy 1:9-11, 1 Corinthians 6:9, Romans 1: 25-27

And what is a Christian’s gentle, immovable response to Bible-demeaning “fine sounding arguments” about human sexuality? We are to follow Jesus’ example and discern the motive behind the conversation. Is this a discussion where the people involved are truly seeking a greater knowledge of the truth of who God is or is the motive to prove opposing views wrong using “fine sounding arguments” that cause division and striving. It’s all about motive and the overall objective behind the discussion. Discern but don’t condemn. This is how we remain gentle and immovable.

The motive behind what the Bible calls deceptive “fine sounding arguments” is usually to discredit its spiritual authority in order to justify what the Bible calls “sinful actions” so as to eliminate the need for repentance and turning to Jesus for forgiveness or to relate to Him from a position of surrender and reliance.

Some believe the 66-books of the Bible is God’s inerrant word. Some do not. And some hold a fuzzy line and believe parts and pieces of the Bible are God’s word, but not the whole. Most people go through a process in believing that God exists and that the 66 books of the Bible are His literal words to mankind. Once that has been decided, the relationship with God’s word begins and followers of Jesus Christ learn that the Bible contains clear personal guidance to help them grow in their realization of how profoundly God loves them.

Wherever a person is at in that process directly affects where his or her moral compass finds its “true north” and determines how they process and make moral decisions when presented with “fine sounding arguments.” These arguments get their “fine sounding” status because they often capitalize on the tender sides of human nature, such as compassion and justice, but create confusion and hypocrisy because what is “right and wrong” is subject to change. And because “right and wrong” is fuzzy so is its rhetoric.

Empty words are spoken because the speaker has no sound, anchored bearings from which they speak. Truth cannot be divided or split up into hypocrisy. It is whole and complete and imparts peace. All that does not come from truth will not resonate and hit a person’s moral tuning fork within them and thus, its empty words ultimately become subject to enforcement by intimidation rather than peaceful trust.

In stark contrast to morally floppy messengers, Jesus has never spoken an “empty” word? At all times, even while under great duress, Jesus, led by the Holy Spirit, either remained silent or only spoke and acted in total and complete, reverent submission to the Father. Just like Jesus, we are to guard the integrity of our words and are to follow the Holy Spirit as we speak or remain silent. Matthew 10:19-20, Hebrews 4:12-13, 2 Peter 1:20-21, 2 Peter 2:1-2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

If we want people to trust the words of Jesus in us, then we must let Him teach us how and when to speak what He is saying. We must overcome the compulsion to “save” people in our own fearful and impatient striving to defend and prove ourselves “more right” in times of dispute. Instead, as we sink into complete gentleness and patience and restfully wait for the Holy Spirit to speak (or not) and simply follow Him. Ephesians 4:2

Referenced Scriptures (New International Version):

Colossians 2:2-4,8 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments [Gr: pithanologia = persuasive speech.]. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world [i.e., worldly principles] rather than on Christ.

Ephesians 4:2-3 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Galatians 5:16-26 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

2 Timothy 2:5 Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.

John 14:6 “I [Jesus] am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Galatians 4:3 So also, when we were underage, we were held in bondage under the elemental spiritual forces of the world [i.e. worldly principles held us in bondage].

Proverbs 30:4-5 Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. 6Do not add to His words Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.

Genesis 2:22-24 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

1 Timothy 1:9-11 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality [Greek: arsenokoites = a male engaging in same-gender sexual activity], for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

1 Corinthians 6:9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men.

Romans 1: 25-27 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.

Revelation 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Matthew 10:19-20 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

2 Peter 1:20-21 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit

2 Peter 2:1-2 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

1 Corinthians 2:13-14 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:17-25 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility [Greek: mataiotés = emptiness, unreality, purposelessness, ineffectiveness, instability, frailty; false religion] of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. 20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

Philippians 2:14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain [Gr. kenos].

Janet Weaver Smith ©2015 – gardenministries.org

How we process life’s inevitable disappointments determines whether we are growing from them or shrinking. The bitter root of unforgiveness is sewn in the heart of a person who has processed their disappointments into a state of dis- or unbelief toward God.

Unforgiveness results in striving. Because we do not trust God’s forms of justice and His ability to work everything together for our good, we create our own “justice plan” through judgments and vows. We say something like, “thus-and-so was wrongfully done and I will NEVER do that! This-or-that is what I will do to counter that injustice.” And then we go our way thinking we have settled the matter.

Rather than come to center and trust God’s justice, because we mistrust God and broken people, we swing all the way over to the other ditch and form a self-reliant “who and what I am against” justice rather than a God-reliant, word-centered “who I am for” justice.

If we skip the first step of forgiveness, our judgment against perpetrators and subsequent vows to “never do that ourselves” are founded on our own strength which literally sets us in motion toward doing the very thing we vowed not to do, but usually in a different way than was done to us so we deceive ourselves into thinking we are upholding our vows.

Until we are willing to humble ourselves and forgive, we will “excuse” our hypocrisy of doing the same thing, or worse, that we vowed not to do. And until we can admit to our own hypocrisy and failure to bring true justice, we will keep striving to fulfill our judgmental vows by attempting to prove that we are right in our conclusions. Eventually, proving our “rightness” becomes equally or more important than the actual getting of justice.

Tribulations either drive us toward God or away from Him. Hardship is how Jesus learned and modeled obedient love. To become an overcoming bride for Jesus, we are to follow Him through life’s obstacle course in an ever-increasing, reliant trust.

God uses trouble and difficulties to create a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him. It is the fiery trials that prove our faith as genuine and what creates real relationship with God and others. We are less harsh when we learn to forgive and remember how He has forgiven us.

If we are finding it difficult to forgive someone, we can simply ask the Lord to remind us of the times and areas where we currently need or have needed forgiveness or where we are justifying our own bad behavior toward someone. This levels the playing field pretty quickly and helps us better value God’s mercy. Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Forgiveness protects us from the pain of becoming judgmental, vindictive, and hypocritical. Forgiveness kills bitter roots and gives us clear vision to see the truth of God that sets us free.

For more on “Judgments – Vows and Bitter Roots” see:

Teachings

http://www.cornerstone.ag/pdf/PDFIsaiah61BandF/bitter.pdf

Everyone has their process in believing that God exists and that the 66 books of the Bible are His literal words to mankind and contain personal conduct guidance to help us grow in our love relationship with God.

Some believe the Bible is God’s word. Some do not. And some believe parts and pieces of the Bible, but not the whole. Wherever a person is at in that process directly affects where his or her moral compass finds its “true north.”

We can say from our experience where we are at in our process:

We believe that the 66-book Bible is the literal and true word of God. As believer’s in Jesus Christ, our personal relationship with His Holy Spirit helps us better understand what God is saying in His word and how we can become more like Him by listening to Him and obeying His word.

We have learned first-hand that we can trust the 66-book Bible to help us love God and love people more compassionately and fairly. We believe that it is God who directs our love relationship with Him and who lays down the moral and ethical ground rules, not the other way around.

We prefer the New American Standard (NAS) or the New International (NIV) versions of the Bible but also enjoy The Message and the New King James (NKJV) versions. In our more robust times of study, we especially enjoy looking into the original Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek.

2 Timothy 3:15-17 from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Philippians 2:15-16 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life

Revelation 22:19 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.