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Space Cowboys

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There’s an old leadership quote: “You cannot lead people where you have never been.” But it’s usually accompanied by another famous quote by Aristotle: “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.” Jesse Jackson said it another way: You can’t Teach what you don’t know, and You Can’t Lead where you won’t go!”

This year I’ve been asking the Lord to allow me to experience this one Scripture so I can teach others how to go there. It has intrigued, challenged and puzzled me for years. It’s mysterious and seems to be out of reach. Yet, there it remains lodged as a “splinter in my mind.” The first time I heard that quote from a character named Morpheus in the movie The Matrix: What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.

What is the Scripture? Revelation 1:10-12 I was in the Spirit [rapt in His power] on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a great voice like the calling of a war trumpet,11 Saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. Write promptly what you see (your vision) in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia—to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.12 Then I turned to see [whose was] the voice that was speaking to me,… 

I was in the Spirit [rapt in His power] on the Lord’s Day,…This is my “splinter.” I have prayed to have more understanding of its meaning. I have been praying for the experience – yet it stands removed and distant from me – like a distant planet I have only seen pictures of. Yet contrary to popular, Christian theology, the Bible was written as a testimony – a witness of what others have experienced; a testimony for future space traveling, cowboys who are willing to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Now don’t get me wrong I have prayed “in the Spirit” and I believe I have worshipped “in the Spirit” – but I’m still curious what lies beyond the door of being in the Spirit. Jesus said in John 4 that the Father is seeking for these kind of worshippers – so it must be pretty important. Which adds another piece to the puzzle. The book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, is chocked full of mystical references to doors: entry to the Garden, sin crouching at your door, Noahs’ ark door, and Abrahams’ door. The book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, has references to doors of time and space, or multi-dimensional portals. Whatever you want to call them they usher you into a dimension that is not your own. And Jesus is asking, seeking, and knocking – for someone to overcome the Laodicean Church Age and answer the Call. Isn’t it interesting the similarities between these actions of Jesus and His teaching on prayer in Matthew 7:7-8 Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the DOOR will be opened to you…. It’s as if Jesus’ “secret coded message” to anyone who will listen is that what the Father is searching for – Jesus is praying. Are you an answer to Jesus’ prayer? Referring back to The Matrix. Is Jesus like Morpheus and we are His “Neo’s?” Can you “see” the “Voice?”

Middle Earth

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If we are God’s garden, yet “our earth” is under a curse, how do we address the “cursed earth” in our lives to bring it into His Garden? Is abiding in Jesus based solely on our sentiment, thoughts, and feelings or is there a deeper more profound way to abide? SOS 8:5 asks, “Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her Beloved?” The question remains, in a Laodicean Church Age, Who, or more precisely, what have we been leaning, or relying?

1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are fellow workmen (joint promoters, laborers together) with and for God; you are God’s garden and vineyard and field under cultivation, [you are] God’s building.

There’s a Biblical principle of interpretation known as the Law of First Mention. It essentially states that to understand a particular word or doctrine, we must find the first place in Scripture that word or doctrine is revealed and study that passage. The reasoning being that the Bible’s first mention of a concept is the simplest and clearest presentation; doctrines are then more fully developed on that foundation. God’s Garden of Eden is the first mention we have of any garden and from it we can draw conclusions regarding God’s purpose for our lives. How often have we forgotten that man was made from the dust of the earth and that we are sons and daughters of that earth? According to Genesis that earth, our earth, is under a curse. There are six different Hebrew words used for “curse.” Curse being defined as to bind, to snare, hem in with obstacles, and render powerless to resist. Cursing in essence immobilizes the person and are the result of violating a relationship with God. Exodus 34:7 states …Who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation. Dt. 27:26 states Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.‘ James 2:10-11 states For whosoever keeps the Law [as a] whole but stumbles and offends in one [single instance] has become guilty of [breaking] all of it. For He Who said, You shall not commit adultery, also said, You shall not kill. If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become guilty of transgressing the [whole] Law. The Bible has a great deal to say about curses mentioning, among others things, that not only is mankind under a curse but Jesus Himself became a curse for us – to redeem us from the curse.

Yet, we have to ask: If we are God’s garden yet our “earth” is under a curse how do we address the “cursed earth” in our lives to bring it into His Garden? Since we are God’s garden we have been called to produce fruit. Jesus referred to this in John 15 stating that we are not only gardens but vineyards. He continued sharing that when we abide in Him we produce the fruit of His Kingdom. This abiding is not produced from soul power – mind, will, emotions and personality. It is manufactured through a conscious and unconscious positioning of ourselves in the Son’s Power. It isn’t accomplished through sentiment. Sentiment being an attitude which is based on our thoughts and feelings. Abiding is not mere sentiment. Abiding’s Center isn’t the damnable “me” but the Person of Jesus – Who is the sum total and definition of where our center should be. Much of the music we use in our “praise and worship” is centered around the unholy trinity of me, myself and I. These songs “feel” great to sing leaving us feeling very sentimental yet remain soulish or carnal. They are built around what we think, how we feel, and our varying personality or temperament types. For Jesus’ garden to emerge we have to set aside the soul bringing it into submission to God’s Spirit in our spirits. Like solar panels have to turn to the sun daily to recharge we have to take time daily to turn our lives, our self-centeredness, towards Jesus seeking to get into His Presence. As plants and flowers turn their faces to chase the light during the day so we have to pursue and seek His Light. There are over 85 different passages on seeking God, not to mention the number of passages that exhort people to return to God. Helping us to form the conclusion that God is aware that we all have a tendency to wander away from Who He really is. The best place to begin this turning of our faces towards Him is in His Word. But be warned: even in the reading of the word our souls are inclined to push us to search for information, or to reduce the reading to just another empty exercise. Years ago I was caught up in Last Days predictions of the best selling author of The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey. Unfortunately I was left disillusioned and disappointed by their outcome. Since, I have learned to be alert to the signs of His coming while riveting my spiritual focus on Jesus, in the Revelation of His Return. Knowing this has caused me to seek to be preoccupied with getting into His Presence and remaining. This wisdom has revealed that if we are truly occupied with Him – not the stuff that the Laodicean Church Age uses as substitutes – we will not miss a thing. As Song of Solomon records, Who is that coming out of the wilderness leaning on her beloved? In summary, we test our abiding by simply asking the question, What is our spiritual dependence based? Are we leaning on Jesus or our souls?