Operating in Authority vs Power

 

Cardinal Flower: a wild native plant

Prayer, power, authority, witchcraft, leadership, the church, and cardinal flower... how do all these topics converge!? Sheeeeeesh. This was an interesting woods walk!

I didn't think today's audio had anything to do with being in the woods to be honest. I figured I would include a photo I took of a cardinal flower, not thinking it was related at all. I was just thrilled to see this native beauty in a swampy area of our woods walk. The blooms are such a bright, almost iridescent red, the color is hard to capture in a picture; these flowers are truly best enjoyed in person! 

As I later considered the flower a bit more as I was putting together the post- and how it was actually named after the vibrant red robes of the cardinals in the Roman Catholic church, it began to fit today's topic of prayer, authority, leadership and the church a bit more! Then-- reading a bit further I find it was used as a love charm and in potions (control and manipulation) to make them irresistible to their love interest! I couldn't have picked a better plant as a visual if I tried!

Here are a few resources that have inspired some of these thoughts and contemplations:

​What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. James 4:1-3 NLT

 But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28 NLT

When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. Matthew 8:5-13 ESV

The commentary on these verses give some incredible context!

https://biblehub.com/study/matthew/8.htm

When God delays in fulfilling our little thoughts, 
it is to have Himself room to work out His great ones.

-Lilias Trotter

Praying down rather than praying up - that is the summing up... that the velocity and power of anything that comes down, gains in a ratio of high proportion with the height from which it drops: Even from an aeroplane, a pencil falling will take on the force of a bullet. What might not our prayer power be if it comes down from the throne of the Priest.

https://unveiling.org/lily/lily7.html

Cortisol & Forgiveness

 

This picture of a plant being stunted by a lifeless leaf of the past illustrates to me how old things can hold us back in our current growth. In this audio I explore how the principle of forgiveness actually frees us from rumination which is a root of chronic stress and elevated cortisol for many people. 

There is a lot that I don't say about forgiveness in the audio. 

First- forgiveness is not saying "it's okay". It is actually fully acknowledging how wrong the offense was/is and choosing to forgive. This is a hard one for me because I can often see why someone behaves a certain way so it is hard to fully acknowledge it was STILL WRONG. I believe that in order to forgive deeply, we need to feel deeply, which is one of the hardest parts. It is hard to feel while we are actively numbing through distractions and addictions, and when the feelings come back, they can feel overwhelming. As hard as it is, this process is worth it! Get the root of the offence OUT. If it festers, it will grow into bitterness which literally rots us from the inside out. 

Second- forgiveness is not a feeling. I glossed over this a bit, but if you are waiting to feel it to forgive, it will never happen. It's a choice we make with our will, and something that often needs to be actively held there until we feel it. 

Third- forgiveness is not reconciliation. You can forgive someone and still have a very different relationship now than before the offense. There are people whom if I meet them on the street, I will be friendly with, but we are not friends and I am no longer pursuing relationship with them. Reconciliation can happen when the offending party is will to acknowledge the wrong and you can both move towards restoring relationship. I see this more as a spectrum than yes or no. And sometimes trust takes time to be built again. Sometimes you don't need reconciliation, because that season is just over. You can forgive and move on, like with an ex romantic relationship or an old coworker. 

Fourth- forgiveness doesn't let them off the hook. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. (​O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongs—O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth! Psalms 94:1) We hand them over to the Lord. There may be accountability, but not retaliation. It really is a condition of the heart. 

Fifth- sometimes forgiveness comes in layers. The more awareness we have the more we realize we need to forgive. Maybe you forgave an old offense, but you are still dealing with some of the ramifications, or a new area of wounding has been uncovered-- be ready to forgive again when it comes up. 

Want to check out some interesting research on the rumination and cortisol!? Check out the links below below:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6783329/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453024002798

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6591062_Rumination_Fear_and_Cortisol_An_In_Vivo_Study_of_Interpersonal_Transgressions

Some reference verses:

"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." Mark 11:25-26

Sometimes we forget that Jesus commands us to forgive, and it is part of His simple instruction in how to pray in the Lord's Prayer.

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Therefore

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head."

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:17-21

Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:25-32

Pruning and Proliferation

 

Balmony :: Turtle Head

Here are a few pictures of Balmony in the wild! Click the last picture for a link to the instagram video of the "Turtle Head" 

Balmony is an excellent bitter that is used as a liver and gallbladder tonic and to improve the digestion of fats, absorption and elimination. It prefers shady and moist environments and typically blooms in September. 

Focussed A Story and a Song By Lilias Trotter 

"And Satan knows well the power of concentration; if a soul is likely to get under the sway of the inspiration, "this one thing I do," he will turn all his energies to bring in side-interests that will shatter the gathering intensity."

Collecting Streams 

An excerpt from the writing of St. Gregory of Nyssa On Virginity Chapter 7

An illustration will make our teaching on this subject clearer. Imagine a stream flowing from a spring and dividing itself off into a number of accidental channels. As long as it proceeds so, it will be useless for any purpose of agriculture, the dissipation of its waters making each particular current small and feeble, and therefore slow. But if one were to mass these wandering and widely dispersed rivulets again into one single channel, he would have a full and collected stream for the supplies which life demands.Just so the human mind (so it seems to me), as long as its current spreads itself in all directions over the pleasures of the sense, has no power that is worth the naming of making its way towards the Real Good; but once call it back and collect it upon itself, so that it may begin to move without scattering and wandering towards the activity which is congenital and natural to it, it will find no obstacle in mounting to higher things, and in grasping realities. We often see water contained in a pipe bursting upwards through this constraining force, which will not let it leak; and this, in spite of its natural gravitation: in the same way, the mind of man, enclosed in the compact channel of an habitual continence, and not having any side issues, will be raised by virtue of its natural powers of motion to an exalted love. In fact, its Maker ordained that it should always move, and to stop is impossible to it; when therefore it is prevented employing this power upon trifles, it cannot be but that it will speed toward the truth, all improper exits being closed. In the case of many turnings we see travelers can keep to the direct route, when they have learned that the other roads are wrong, and so avoid them; the more they keep out of these wrong directions, the more they will preserve the straight course; in like manner the mind in turning from vanities will recognize the truth. The great prophets, then, whom we have mentioned seem to teach this lesson, viz. to entangle ourselves with none of the objects of this world’s effort — Chapter 7.

Pruning :: Motherwort

 

God Instructs the Farmer

Listen to the Teaching of God (Isaiah 28:23-29 NKJV)

²³ Give ear and hear my voice,
Listen and hear my speech.
²⁴ Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow?
Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?
²⁵ When he has leveled its surface,
Does he not sow the black cummin
And scatter the cummin,
Plant the wheat in rows,
The barley in the appointed place,
And the spelt in its place?
²⁶ For He instructs him in right judgment,
His God teaches him.
²⁷ For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin;
But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick,
And the cummin with a rod.
²⁸ Bread flour must be ground;
Therefore he does not thresh it forever,
Break it with his cartwheel,
Or crush it with his horsemen.
²⁹ This also comes from the LORD of hosts,
Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. Isaiah 28:23-29 NKJV

AI & Struggle

 

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Scent of the Future

"He found him in a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
He kept him as the apple of His eye.
As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
So the LORD alone led him,
And there was no foreign god with him. Deuteronomy 32:10-12 (NKVJ)

 Then he said to me, “This is what the LORD says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will become a level plain before him! And when Zerubbabel sets the final stone of the Temple in place, the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’”

Then another message came to me from the LORD: “Zerubbabel is the one who laid the foundation of this Temple, and he will complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has sent me. Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” Zechariah 4:6-10 NLT

If you missed the Seeds & Stewardship one I referenced:

SEEDS & STEWARDSHIP

Growth Mode

 The Mountain of the LORD
​¹ The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
² It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
³ and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2:1-4 (ESV)

⁸ “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, ⁹ and that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables. ¹¹ But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, ¹² a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Deuteronomy 11:8-12 (ESV)