47. Resolving the Curse

Revelation 14 & 15 are no longer “fillers” to be hurried through, but rather, they are an unveiling of the Victory of Christ Jesus through us, His Church.

Our problem is this. We humans hate the curse almost as much as we hate being like God. Every aspect of rebellion and curse in Genesis 3 MUST BE resolved among a firstfruits of humans BEFORE the resurrection, and it must be resolved through faith. This resolution is not the achievement of humans, but the proof of Christ Jesus faithful and True. – By man death, by man also the resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15).

Two Words. In order to understand what is going on, especially as we proceed into the vials of Chapter 16, we must deal head-on with two words used of God that we have avoided. Those two words fill these three chapters, 14-16, and they are found inside of the Heart of our Father wherein we have ventured. – Those two words are thumos and orgé.

They are both typically translated as “wrath,” but they also carry the meanings of anger, passion, opposition, rage, impulse, indignation, and so on. The two words are different only in that orgé is a settled and angry opposition whereas thumos is an outburst of emotion.

Pain. God is divinely emotional, and everything humans say and do affects Him deeply. You see, humans cannot be separate from God. There is no such thing as we over here and God over there. Every human moment, thought, and action happens only inside of God and out from His life force.

I am convinced that the underlying emotion inside the Heart of God caused by human perversity is pain. That inward pain, then, shows itself outwardly as absolute opposition to the practice of hurting others and as an outburst of anger when such practice continues. Twice in Revelation 15 the word telos is used concerning God’s anger, meaning that it comes to full completion, making the completion of wrath part of the fulness of times.

Resolve the Pain. And the right English word to use to understand the completion of God’s outward anger is the word “resolve.” Resolve/resolution/resolving, this concept, then, brings answer first to God’s pain, and thus an end to His anger.

Think of the story of Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw. A great lion is in pain. Androcles thinks more of the lion than of his own fear and thus he braves the removal of the thorn that causes that pain. Later, when Androcles, a Christian, is thrown to the lions, that same lion protects rather than eats him. The point is this. Do we care about God? Or do we, as Jesus said, hate Him without cause or reason?

Caring about God. We now see that Revelation 14, 15, & 16 work together as one unit of thought. Here are the seven lessons for these three chapters; I am seeking for a complete understanding. The Lamb through Us; Settling the Real Issue; Resolving the Curse; We Reap the Harvest; The Social Fabric; We Defeat the Beast; and Resolving the Age of Folly.

A most amazing thing is happening to Revelation 16; it is drawing ever closer into our Love for God. God is as Androcles's lion, filled with pain showing as wrath. Do we care enough about Him to brave all that in order to remove the thorn causing it all? Do we care about God?

Resolve. To care about God is to bring a full resolution to that which causes Him so much pain. Resolve/resolution/resolving is the right word. I want to bring in the etymology of “resolve” from etymonline.com rather than Webster’s definitions.

~ Late 14c., resolven, "melt, dissolve, reduce to liquid; separate into component parts; alter, alter in form or nature by application of physical process," From c. 1400; from Old French resolver or directly from Latin resolvere "to loosen, loose, unyoke, undo; explain; relax; set free; make void, dispel." ~

Settling the Dispute. ~ This is from re-, here perhaps intensive or meaning "back,” + solvere "to loosen, untie, release, explain," root *leu- "to loosen, divide, cut apart."

From the notion of "separate into components" comes the sense in optics (resolution). From the notion of "reduce by mental analysis into its basic forms" comes the meaning "determine, decide upon" after analysis, hence "pass a resolution"; "decide, settle" a dispute, etc. ~

We then arrive at the thought of taking apart the dispute of man against God, going back to its original cause, settling that dispute in order to loose and set free both God and humans from its horrors.

Without a Cause. This layout flips our understanding around to reality. God has never been at war against humans. Right from the start, humans have waged war against God with NO reason. They hated Me without a cause.

Paul said that Adam was unthankful before he sinned, and that he knew exactly what he was doing. Adam seized control over his wife out from his heart-accusation against God, that God had done him wrong. Then humans blame God for committing the crimes against them that they themselves are committing against God, with all ferociousness and with no reason.

Removing the Offence. I want to use two specific metaphors from literature, Tolkien’s ring of power, the one ring to rule them all, and Shaw’s thorn in the lion’s paw. I have thought much about what that “ring of power” might mean in the human experience, such that, when it is destroyed, the power of evil is gone.

But our focus cannot be just on evil. The thorn in the lion’s paw turns our focus upon God. The evil must still be removed, and thus thorn and ring represent the same thing. Our goal is not to “bring down” evil. Our goal is to bring resolution to our Father through the removal of that which offends, that which causes Him so much pain.

Receiving Jesus Sent. Yet it is not even an issue of “removing the thorn,” as if the offence is what everything is all about. The issue is one thing only – receiving (not refusing) God in His intentions right from the start. They hated Me without a cause.

The issue in the garden was the Tree of Life (Jesus) and nothing else. The issue could not be “obedience” because God cannot command anyone to receive the Lord Jesus. And so we “remove the thorn,” we “cast the ring into the fire,” not by “getting rid of evil” ourselves, but by receiving Jesus Sent into us, by loving Jesus with all great and wondrous cause, and by being just like Him inside of God.

Or Receiving Sin. What is the opposite, then, of receiving Jesus Sent into us? Humans must receive something, for we are created symmorphic, we are created to be filled with another. If we do not want Jesus Sent into us, then we must receive sin sent into us in His place. Sin sent into us or Jesus sent into us, it’s really that simple. Either we attach Jesus to our symmorphic receptacles or we attach sin to our symmorphic receptacles. Share the same form with Jesus or share the same form with sin.

The evil becomes truly evil to us only when we KNOW God’s wondrous intentions. In this lesson, we will emphasize God, reserving the evil for lesson 52, “A Golden Cup.”

From Repentance to Grace. When we know the glorious reality of God’s All-Salvation-Now, then we see ever more how EVIL death-thinking is. God has a clear path, a very clear path, of New Covenant repentance and a very clear definition of New Covenant obedience. I want to trace out and define exactly what those two things, repentance and obedience, really are. Only true repentance and true obedience remove the pain of humans always attacking and cursing God with lies.

Now, as we define Gospel repentance and obedience, we are moving towards God’s wondrous solution for the problem, which is Grace as God means it. Grace is ALIVE! Grace is where we live.

Our Entrance into Grace. Here is Moses’ explanation of our entrance into Grace, Exodus 14:13-14. – And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

We combine Moses’ description of this entrance with Paul’s, from Romans 3. – That every mouth might be closed, and the entire cosmos brought under judgment before God. Then, the Gospel directive – “Repent and be baptized.”

Impunity. The ring of power that Bilbo took from Gollum carried first the power to make the wearer invisible. This meant that you could commit crimes and no one could see your guilt. The ability to claim “I am NOT guilty” and get away with it is called impunity. – Can’t stick that on me!

Eve blamed the serpent, and she was not wrong, for the serpent should not have deceived her. But Adam was not deceived and his rebellion was hard. Adam’s “ring of invisibility” was to blame first Eve and second God for the very crimes he himself was committing against both of them – without a cause.

The Real Crime. But what was Adam’s REAL crime against God? You see, the serpent’s definition of Adam’s crime is 100% false. Yet it is the definition Christianity has pushed.

God WANTED Adam willingly to choose to eat of the Tree of Life, to receive Jesus into himself, to bear the cost of love for his wife, to be the revelation of God as Love to all creation. God wanted to envelop Adam into His Love. God wanted all creation to see and to know God-Love through Adam, just like God. But Adam despised God (was unthankful) and hated being like God, seizing, rather, the power to control and calling that evil power, “God.”

Blaming God. And so, from the moment we were conceived in our mother’s womb, we have lived inside of a spirit-bath of accusation, accusing us of all fault. We then interpreted that accusation as “God against us,” and responded in kind, by throwing our hatred against God.

We have seen the three devices humans use to blame God for the very crime they are committing against Him. First, blame self and thus Jesus (for making me sinful) and God (for being against me). Second, deny it outright, “I did nothing wrong.” And third, lie. “I will try to do better next time.”

Be Guilty. God cannot save anyone who will not be saved. God ALONE removes sin, but He cannot remove sin contrary to our human will. God comes to everyone over and over, wanting to take from us our false cloak of invisibility, our wicked “ring of power,” so that we can see how much we NEED His Love. “Just be guilty, My son, nothing more.”

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge (Psalm 51 & Romans 2).

Shut Your Mouth. Then shut your mouth, be silent, hold your peace, not one more word. – NOT ONE MORE WORD about yourself. God has one purpose, to draw you into His love; that’s it. He will do that the moment you agree with Him.

The turning point of my life was in the summer of 1996, when God said to me, “Son, you have a sectarian heart.” And I said to Him, “Yes, Father, You are right.” In my mind was no thought of blame or of denying or of lying and pretending. And a few weeks later, in the greatest TESTS of my life, Korah was gone from me. God had removed from me already all that opposed Him and left me entirely and only inside His Heart.

Repent. Gospel repentance includes NO weeping over sins. In fact, crying about having a “sin nature” is the very essence of worshipping sin and self. Blame is self-worship. (And I am not speaking of true Godly sorrow over having hurt another person, a sorrow with no self-worship in it.)

Gospel repentance has two related meanings, first, to turn from one to another, and second, to change the thoughts of one’s mind, from one source of thoughts to another source of thoughts. Here is how Moses put it. – Stand still (Hebrews 3 – stand upon firm) and SEE the Salvation of God – Christ Jesus.

Sufficient. If Jesus is not all that we see, if His thoughts are not replacing our thoughts as we spend time with Him, then, NO, repentance has not happened. There is no such thing as “a life of repentance.” Rather, towards ourselves, we place no need for sufficiency, and towards Jesus our only Life, we place all-sufficiency.

“My Grace, My presence with you, inside of you, is sufficient for you; it is all that you need. For My strength, My ability to remove from you all that offends, My power to connect you utterly with the Father and with His love, is made complete, comes to its full outward perfection, inside of your very human, God-created WEAKNESS!”

Be Baptized. New Testament repentance is always followed immediately by baptism. In fact, without the meaning of baptism, repentance cannot actually happen.

BE IMMERSED into Jesus’ death. BE RAISED as Jesus’ life. Or – Galatians 2:20. I am already crucified with Christ, now Jesus is my only life.

Here is how Moses put it. – The Egyptians whom you see today, you will see no more forever. And here is how Paul put it. – The one who has died is freed from sin – you are married to another. Jesus said. – You must be born (come alive) out from God.

Gospel Repentance. It is easy to identify a Christian who has actually repented. Such a one is filled with Joy and laughter. Kindness shines upon their face and Life flows out from them. Why? Because they have turned utterly to Jesus. Such a one lives only inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of them. 

Read Psalm 51, except read it in utter confidence in God. Read it as God answering David instantly and totally in everything David asked – BECAUSE He did! I am washed. I am clean. My sinfulness is GONE from me. My heart is clean; my heart is filled with Jesus. Truth is written all through my heart. I hear only joy and gladness; I rejoice utterly inside of the God of my Salvation.

Gospel Obedience. The first and only commandment of the gospel is – Put the Lord Jesus Christ upon yourself and – give no thought, shut up – about your flesh and its desires. Paul’s gospel puts us into Jesus and Jesus into us, and yet that is Jesus’ statement – according to John.

Putting Jesus upon ourselves is our act of faith towards God and our act of war against all accusation. Jesus connects us absolutely with the Father, even as He removes all disconnect from us by His Blood. Thus, living inside of God is the proof of our obedience to Jesus. And that brings us now to Grace.

The Meaning of Grace. Sadly, this is the first time I have ever looked deeply at the meaning of “grace.” I am much more than astonished. Grace is charis, a noun, meaning the gift of God. It is used as a verb twice, tied to the entrance of Jesus as good-speaking.

The angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly graced one, the Lord is with you; blessed and spoken well of are you among women!” (Luke 1:28). – …the One having blessed and spoken well of us with every spiritual speaking of goodness and blessing in the heavenly realms inside of Christ… into the praise of the intrinsic value of His grace, with which God has freely graced us inside of the Beloved One (Ephesians 1:3 & 6).

Blessing and Eucharist. Here is what etymonline.com says about blessing and to bless. ~ This word was chosen in Old English bibles to translate Latin benedicere and Greek eulogein, both of which have a ground sense of "to speak well of, to praise," but were used in Scripture to translate Hebrew brk "to bend (the knee), worship, praise, invoke blessings.“ ~

Benedict – good speaking. Eulogein – good speaking. In Old English, to bless was the same as to hallow with blood. – to make devoted. Eucharist, the Mercy Seat upon which we sit, means the gift of good grace, that is, giving thanks – or, to bend the knee.

Gift. There are two Greek words meaning “gift,” charis and doron. One is inward, God in us as gift. The other is outward, the giving of good things. Yet “give” – didomi – is the nature and existence of God. In Luke 6:38 Jesus could have said, “Give God, and you will receive God in return.”

But look at grace as a verb – the entrance of the Lord Jesus, literally and actually, into Mary’s womb, yet as the good-speaking of God – the One who sustains all by Word. Then, the same entrance of Jesus into us, literally and actually, except now one flesh with Him, yet as the good-speaking of God – ALL Good-speaking that is God.

Sharing and Reciprocity. God gives, and God receives the same in return. This is how God lives, reciprocity, sharing together. Symmorphy, then, is another word for the same concept, sharing all form together, all of God’s form and all of our form merged together through Jesus. That form is “gift, giving, grace,” and it shows itself in the eucharist, as we speak good grace into many. Yet that is a “we,” that is, our sharing together the same reciprocity that is God, that sharing is the source of good grace into creation.

I have two books I yet want to write. I see now that both are GRACE, one inward and the other outward.

Living in Life. Grace, gift, is God Himself. Living in Grace is living utterly connected together with God through Jesus. It means our energeia as humans, fitting together with and directly connected to God’s Energeia as God, sharing Life with God.

Through Jesus we already possess entrance through faith into this grace (God-Life) in which we stand (Romans 5:2). Grace is sharing life with God, that is, Paul’s “hyper-grace,” a super-abundant, shared together giving of all and all. Here is the Flow of the vibrant Energia that is God; there we are as a vital component in that Flow, connected utterly through Jesus. This is Covenant Union.
 
Living out from Life. Then Grace going out from us to others, God-enablement upon and through our human form, is the ministry of Christ through us, a ministry we share together. This is the Eucharist, the Mercy Seat, the unfolding of the Kingdom. Yet it is moment by moment, every next step we take shared utterly with God, living out from Life.

We give LIFE. We speak – Be connected with God. We impart the knowledge of God. We cause all creation to see God by our love for one another. This is GRACE, hyper-abundant God through us into all creation. This is Kingdom Unveiling.
 
The Curse. In an upcoming lesson, we will defeat the beast, but to do that, we must first resolve the curse. In the lesson, “Placing the Beast,” we said this about the curse. ~ Satan and his demons were bound to human lust for their sustenance. The woman, that is, the mass of the population, was bound to the rule of tyrants and psychopaths. And the man, that is, human productivity, was bound to ruin and loss. ~

Specifically – (1) Stop giving your energy to accusation, give it instead for the sake of others. (2) Love your brethren reciprocally, set forth your soul for their sakes. (3) Give thanks and expect God sharing all with you in every step.

Turn Around. To turn around upon the Mercy Seat is to resolve the curse. To turn around upon the Mercy Seat is to acknowledge the absoluteness of Grace, to live only inside of Grace. To turn around upon the Mercy Seat is what I have taught you to do. It is the only True repentance.

And for those who hear and practice what I teach, I am bringing you into the most wondrous action in all creation. You and I together are bringing resolution and comfort to God’s broken Heart. We are bringing an end to all the pain humans have so wrongly inflicted upon our Father.

Finally, I want to look at the three parts of living in Grace.

Energeia. By God’s grace, I will never again give my energy to demons, that is, I will not groan over loss or feel bad about lack, neither will I lust after gain or long for acquisition. The flow of God-Energeia, flowing through my human energeia as a direct and vital component of that flow, shows itself through my giving thanks and expecting God in all. That word “thanks” is actually “giving good grace,” the Eucharist, that is, God-Grace through me for others.

This is all God wanted for Adam. God WANTED to share energeia with Adam, to bless others through him. Adam had to CUT God in PAIN away to get his energy from demons. We LIKE God, and receive Him as our own energeia in all.

Visibility. God made visible is humans loving one another; reciprocal Love flowing back and forth among believers in Jesus (grace) is God made visible. God WANTS to be seen and known. God wants all creation to be embraced, outwardly and practically, in the knowledge of His love.

The lust to control others was Adam’s savage blow against God’s deep Desire (Jesus – I Desire them with Me). Tolkien’s ring of power was a “grace,” an enablement, an enhancement of power given to the lust to CONTROL. Love sets all others free of us; Love is God made visible. It is our LOVE for the Church that defeats the beast.

A Home. God WANTS to belong. He wants a Home in which to live. God wants family and sharing and laughter and song. These things are who He is. Humans cursing the curse is what drives God out into the cold. God is given no place in which to dwell.

When we bless our every next moment, whatever it may hold, and regardless of what has just happened, we give God a place in which to live. “Jesus, Your Grace is enough for me.” And in giving God a place to dwell inside our every next step together, we also give all creation a place to dwell inside of God – the Mercy Seat.

Resolving the Curse. The hatred of humans against God is beyond comprehension, and pain inflicted by humans is first inflicted upon God. All human war against God is without cause or reason. Our task is to bring resolution to God's pain and thus to His expression of anger. We do that by receiving Jesus Sent into us as our only Love and Energeia and then by giving that same Love back to God by loving one another. In this way, we go back to the root cause in order to loosen God and us from the curse of needless rebellion. When God shows us our sin, we agree with Him without blame or hiding; God alone removes all offence. We live inside of His Grace, utterly connected with the Father through the faith of Jesus. We walk out from His Grace, bringing all of our circumstances into the goodness of God for others.

A Golden Cup. I must point towards the upcoming lesson, “A Golden Cup.”

God’s interest and intent is to save, but that is a two-way street, that is, reciprocal. For God, Salvation is a Home where He can know and be known, for us it is a full connection with God, sharing Life with Him. The more we know the Father and His Salvation, the more we see Nicene theology at war against God, against His very Heart. But it is worse, even, than that.

You see, Christians have taken the precious gospel truths of Christ and MIXED them with the arguments of the serpent against God, creating a brew that makes people drunk, and thus willing to rage against Salvation – WITHOUT a cause.

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled, “We Reap the Harvest.” For that lesson, read Revelation 14 again. Also, read Matthew 13, some of Jesus’ many explanations of the harvest. “Harvest” carries the same meaning as “inheritance.” We are bringing into the secret place of the Most High, living only inside of God, sharing all with Him, all who belong to us, all whom we carry in our hearts with great CARE.

I saw a white cloud, and upon the cloud was sitting One who resembles the Son of Man, having a golden crown upon His head and a sharp and eager sickle in His hand.

Ask and Believe. God, our Father, You have given us Jesus in all that He is so that He might connect us utterly with you. Father, You share our lives with us even as we share Your life with You. Father, You alone have removed from us all that offends so that we might love one another in all liberty and joy. Father, we ask You to be at Home among us in singing. Father, seal us into this wondrous Grace of sharing Gift with You in everlasting reciprocity. We are confident that You answer us, oh God. Let our confidence in You bring resolution to all Your pain. Let our Love for one another be Your healing balm. We know that it is true, in Jesus’ name.