I began walking toward the pond with the wheels turning in my head, basking in the day, and pondering all the stuff that we had talked about that day. This was the most wonderful day of my life, and was thinking about taking advantage of my two favorite people being there with me, and maybe just pounding them with the many diverse questions that was going on in that pea-brain of mine.
I wasn’t the only living thing that was enjoying this sun-lit afternoon, for the deer were around the water, and the frogs didn’t jump when approached, all seemed to pick-up on the tranquility of having our Creator there with us. Walking around the waters’ edge, thinking about the many directions that my thoughts were going, I sat on a rather large rock that was so close to the bank that I could touch the water if I stretched my leg out far enough. I was thinking about the mess the barn was in, about the love that my heart seemed to share, about how easy it was to ask silly questions and not be ridiculed, about the knot-hole that I peered in, but mostly about the way they genuinely enjoyed being with me.
I looked to my left and Joshua and Dad were standing next to each other, just laughing and talking, touching each other, sometimes giving the other a hug, just like they were best friends. When both stopped for a moment, turned, looked at me, and said in tandem with the voice of one; “we are best friends.”
There was something about their smiles that filled a body with refreshment that probably tasted like the manna the Israelites must have experienced.
They most likely knew that I was in thought, and were giving me room to sort things out. One would say something I couldn’t hear and the other would smile, laugh, or praise Him for saying it, and then the other would do the same, they really were BEST FRIENDS. And I was loving every minute of it, for I’d never experienced a relationship like the one going on with the three of us.
As I sat there on that rock I was contemplating on many different things, when a turtle, about the size of a coffee cup crawled from the water and up my leg. He just sat there, I think it went sound to sleep, at peace with his surroundings and had no fear of me, for once in a while my leg would twitch, and it would look up, but not move.
Just about the time that I’d come up with a few questions to ask, they both walked towards me still talking in the playful way they had been carrying on with. Joshua dipped His hand into the water and made a cup out of it, and a small minnow swam right in. Dad, still playing around, acted as if he was going to push him in, I think to break the silence, but they both knew what was going on.
Fidgeting around like a kid with five cents in a penny candy store, I looked up with a somewhat of a sheepish look on my face and ask; “Could you Guys answer a few questions that I’m a little afraid to ask?”
Joshua spoke first; “sure we would.” And Dad injected; “that’s why we’re here”.
“Lord, a while back, I heard you call me out of the assemblies, and believed that I was doing the right thing, for I thought that I was hearing you correct. But before I start with trying to clear up some stuff, let me ask you if indeed I heard you call me out of this façade called ‘church’?”
“You and many others heard us and obeyed.”
“Whew, I just didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot.” Why did you ask, or really should say demand, that we come out of her?”
“Babylon is the world”, Joshua spoke in this slow voice, “and when man began to step off the Rock that I established in the beginning, and intervened with his own equation, then that which I founded started to disintegrate, at least in the obvious eyes of man. Let me tell you a story before we get deeply involved in these struggles. In the early nineteen hundreds my Spirit began moving in a place in California, a place in a run-down building on Azusa Street. My Spirit had freedom to move and people were being healed and delivered from all over the world. It was asked for by two men who loved us, and were genuinely seeking us. This went on for quiet-awhile, as many were coming to me wanting a new life and found the freedom and peace by the moving of the Holy Spirit that was flowing freely there. As it grew in the number of folks coming, so the healings grew also. But one day after several men met and thought they had to organize the revival, They decided to place a sign over the front door which read; ‘REVIVAL’.”
“From that day forward, the revival came to a halt. Somehow, man thinks that he’s got to put his hands to the things that Daddy, the Holy Spirit, and I am doing, and ends up placing himself as the center of all that’s going on. Ross, this ought not to be so, but it is, and that’s called Babylon, and all they did, was make a little sign.”
“A little sign stopped all that?”
Looking at me puzzled, but knowing that I didn’t quite understand what was said, He spoke in a soft tone. “No, it wasn’t the sign that stopped the Azusa revival, the sign was a signal of mans’ intervention. My true Church moves by the unction of my Spirit and is led by me, as I follow my Fathers’ Path. As long as man thinks or tries to organize, develop, enhance, or even put his hand to Our work, it will always fail. My Church, or can say Kingdom, is not of this world, but lives only the heart of those seeking the Love of our Father, and not their own personal benefit, or prestige.”
“Lord, I want to approach a subject that I think might be a little sticky to talk about, and I’m sure not wanting to be out-of-line.”
But before I completely finished, He interjected. “We both know what you want to speak about, and Joshua and I have already discussed it between ourselves,” Dad spoke in the same soft voice that Joshua had used. “Don’t ever be afraid to talk with us about anything, we’ve heard it all, but this particular subject needs to addressed.”
“Dad, when I look at this institution that many call ‘church’, I see a lot of people trying to sell themselves, their wares, their uninformed ideas on others. Trying to get recognition and followers to feed their high minded egos, or, they are just plain and simply misled by those that came before them. In other words, disillusioned by our forefathers that have taught the many varied ways that there is to follow You.”
Joshua spoke this time, before I got my question out. “Not only are many disillusioned, but come from a long line of people that are sincere in their disillusion.”
“Then why do I hesitate so much in saying that what’s going on looks more like a whore house, than it does group of people wanting to worship you guys? Why does each preacher, or each meeting house have to try to outdo the one down the road?”
Before speaking, Joshua paused like He was putting His words together, and then spoke in that very somber way that he usually does. “Church, is a person or people, my people, those seeking a new Life, those asking for Truth, those wanting to know the Way, those that are called out of babylon, and those that want a complete relationship with me and my Father through revelation. Church is not a place, and never has been, it’s not a thing, it’s not even an avenue to walk on. It’s a person, or maybe even two or three that gather in my name, certainly not an event that can be viewed, or something that can be heard, it is that secret place in a man’s heart when he is relating with me.”
“To call it a whore,” Joshua said as He continued, “is a statement that I have spoken many times before. So to think that you’re out-of-line by saying it, it’s your lack of believing what I said in the book of Revelations. When I wrote it in the seventeenth chapter, I wanted this latter-day people to see that she sits on many waters.”
I was looking at Him intently, and I knew he saw me as eager to learn. “Waters are people, tongues, multitudes and nations, the many waters of the world are flooding with the ability to play church, and even wanting to look like me, but without the companionship of Us. No one is going to catch Our attention with their stained glass windows, or their choir in their robes, or someone dressed in a tailored suit, or the attendance in Sunday school. No, I’m looking for those that are after Our heart, those that want to walk with me, those that are filled with Our Love that conquers all. And by all, I mean everything that is in the life of each believer, for their thoughts are on things, the stuff the eye can see. My people don’t go whoring around for such idols as these.”
“Then why do so many follow this way of life?”
“Mostly because of the decades, even centuries of drummed in methods that men wanted to express, and look good to those that were seeking me. You don’t have to go somewhere that’s called church, you are the Church; my people gathered, or not gathered coming before me in companionship. It’s been taught that these methods are tried and true because of the length of time that it’s been happening. When man projected himself leading the church, he thereby walked away from me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the people, all of them, but I hate their Nicolaitan ways. There is no ritual, method, or program that I will continually use. But I will never forsake the people, for all are precious to me.”
“Joshua, I thought through the years, what the great whore on the many waters was, I’ve looked at governments, schools, cultures, and everything else I could think of, but couldn’t come up with but one.”
“You didn’t come up with it, I showed it to you.”
“Yes I see that, the only organization or institution that consistently has masses of different tongues, many peoples, and are scattered all over the world in many nations, was that of this ‘thing called church’.”
Dad injected as he was now leaning on this tree that wasn’t growing straight. “I love my people, but their methods and organizations that are used, does not get my attention, nor do I place stock in them. Very seldom does Joshua, Me, or the Spirit, do the same thing twice, we’re not big on rituals. So when man writes a Sunday bulletin, sings a couple of songs, prays a time or two, and then preaches for thirty or forty-five minutes, We are somehow pushed out of the way.”
“You mean you leave?”
“Well sort of, He answered back rather meticulously, We don’t get mad and leave, We are more or less pushed out of the way. But We Love’em anyway, just don’t get a chance to have a real visit very often.”
Looking down to the ground and in a voice that sounded more like a mumble, I asked; “I guess that makes you a little sad?”
Joshua spoke this time. “No it doesn’t make us sad, for to be sad, one has to be disappointed that what they thought should be, isn’t. I’d told you before that We don’t put expectations on people, We love them where they’re at. We might not be able to have a relationship with ‘em at the time, but our Love never fades, the one thing we’re all very good at is patience.
“What makes a harlot anyway, I know it’s not a sexual thing, so what is it?”
“A harlot, prostitute, or whore is someone who leaves their first love, and tries to find a substitute for love somewhere else.”
My eyes opened wide, my mouth was the same way, but I managed to ask; “so that makes us all whores to some degree?”
Quick to speak, Joshua shot back as He winked; “yes it does. But remember, during my walk on earth, I was kinda partial to prostitutes, they still hold a special place in my heart.”
Dad jumped in and said “yes they do, we’re not looking for those that are well to join Us, but always on the lookout for those that need a physician. What I’m really trying to say is that those that see themselves fulfilled in their ritualistic ways with their dot-to-dot-to-dot ways, won’t ever accept anything but the programmed ways, but those that see that this doesn’t work, we search out. You can’t put new wine in an old wine vessel, the wine, nor the vessel will remain. But those that are willing to be emptied, and made a new creator, can be filled because of their emptiness. So those that remain in the traditions of men, do it at the expense of our relationship with them, and that cheats us, just like it does them. It’s only because of the lust and greed of those in the high places of that thing called ‘church’ that keeps them anchored to the unfulfilling status-quo of the harlot. Many are like Mary, Lazarus’ sister, they are always close and at our feet to learn of me, but still again continue to look for us outwardly, when we live within.
Immediately Joshua jumped in and continued; “and that hurts us all. We desire a fellowship with them, just like they do Us.
“Why then don’t you do something about what man is doing, you know, step in and make us all to see what’s happening?” I inquisitively asked.
Love never forces itself, we talk, we reason with them, we even convict, but unless they are willing to put away the ‘old man’, we just wait. Some make it to Truth, some don’t, but all are Loved anyway. Joshua again spoke.
“Thank you for enlightening me, I’d thought that I’d been hearing that from you, but I guess there was some doubt, so again thank-you. Now if I could change the subject a little, could you tell me what James was talking about in his epistle when he spoke of the tongue, as it were a deadly poison?”
“That’s why we are here, to answer your many questions, and you sure have a bunch of them,” He said with a wink and a smile. The tongue of the flesh man cannot be tamed, and in its’ wildly state, the tongue becomes a poison, especially to the one speaking the words. In the case of what we were just talking about, the tongue pollutes from the preacher to the pupil, to help them procreate their messages of idolatry. Even though it is a small member, it can boost of great ideologies, programs, and any other man made invention, that sway men back to the flesh. It is a fire, a world of iniquity, and defiles the whole body, the one speaking and the body of My Church. If Wisdom ascends in meekness, the bitterness and self-seeking will not boast, nor lie against Me, the Truth. For Wisdom is from above, and is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, and willing to yield, full of Mercy and fruit that will remain. I’ve written about this in the book of James, chapter three, and it’s not hard to understand. Many brag about preaching fire and brim-stone, others preach about the condemnation of those without, others about living a life filled with candy-canes and sugar-plums, and all preach about the flesh and how it can ‘save’ you. So it’s not hard to see that the tongue is a fire, a deadly poison, and can be used in destructive ways, many times over. But through the ‘goodness’ of My Son Joshua, the tongue can the instrument of blessing, worship and praise, but only when tamed by Our Spirit.”
“Let me interrupt here,” I said feeling some pressure for the many times that I too have spoken something stupid, or stood in some pulpit and taught on a subject that was taught to me, by man. “Not often, but we do use our tongues, let’s clarify that, language, to speak blessings and restoration to others, don’t we?”
“Of course,” Dad said looking at me with a gentleness on His face, “it happens, but not with the consistency of the purpose that I have given the language for. The soul of man speaks at will, speaks of the flesh and on behalf of the flesh, It speaks the silliness of the (I wanna’s). Since the unbridled tongue is to be compared to the unwed woman in each individual person, then the woman, or better said soul is not permitted to speak. And until these two, the spirit man, and the unwed woman,(the soul), come together as one, then the woman of each man is not to hold authority, nor to speak in an assembly. She, (the soul), is to keep silent, unless the two have been united together in the marriage of reconciliation, with the Spirit as the head.”
Puzzled, I said; “I don’t understand, will you talk clearly so I can?”
“The soul is the part of man that learns from his youth up, by the environment. It is the personality, demeanor, character, and temperament of each man, it is the part of man that feels, you know, hates, loves, gets excited, is sad, laughs, and so on, it is the part that is to be in subjection to the spirit of man. When the two come together as one, then the marriage begins.”
“That’s what Jesus did, I mean Joshua, isn’t it? What I’m trying to say is that He and His soul were one, in harmony with each other, am I saying this right?”
“That is exactly right. Jesus, from His very early days saw that the soul could hinder someone if it is not in subjection to the Spirit. Him and I were in such a close communion, and He asked so many questions about this, that He learned early-on.”
Joshua jumped in and said in a playful voice and a little animated; “that was me.” He looked at me, smiled, and said very calmly and seriously; “I did learn at an early age. But I had such a heart for my Father, enjoyed very much spending my time with Him, and he gave me, as He will anyone, all that we need to know. And understanding who the soul nature is in man, is very important, for it has to be in subjection to the Spirit Man, or everything will go array.”
“Is that what happened in the Garden of Eden when the fruit was eaten? Was it that after the serpent had shown Eve what seduction was, that she tried it on her Husband?”
“Yes, that was the beginning. The tree of knowledge was an opportunity, or an ability, to obtain all knowledge of the flesh, the good and the evil, and begin to work out all problems and mysteries on their own. Eve is the soul, Adam is the Spirit, the Spirit knew the Father, but the soul only knew about the Father. That is why it is so important, actually, completely necessary, for the marriage between the soul and Spirit. The soul is to be as I was and am, in agreement with the Father, the Spirit of man, or in this case the Adam. When ones’ soul is united as one with the Spirit of each person, then she will keep silent, not hold authority, and always be in subjection to her Husband, the Spirit.”
“You know, that now makes perfect sense. I always looked it all this in the flesh, this husband and wife thing, but You were talking to us about the Man within. So our feelings and earthly nature is not to have a say in our decision making? She, with her seductions is not to play a role in our walk, unless the spirit and soul are united in marriage, as it was with You and the father when you walked on earth, right?”
Joshua spoke with no hesitation, “My earth flesh and my heaven nature were one, and I was never tempted by my soul beyond that in which I would give in to it. There were a couple of times that I thought about it, but never-the-less, I understood well that it was my Fathers’ will, and not mine that I truly wanted to follow. My soul called out, but only a thought wanted the cup to past from me, I liked pleasing My Daddy.”
“How neat,” was all I could say.