Thou Shalt Not Overspiritualize

Overspiritualize.

That's a "caution" word I remember being tossed around in the church a lot: "Don't overspiritualize things". It usually meant, "You don't have to take that part so literally," and it usually had to do with some kind of supposedly rigid and outdated command the Father gave like only eating certain things or keeping Saturday as a holy day.

The more I seek to take the Father at His word, and find that His commands aren't actually rigid and outdated, the more I realize that the more we try to make the Bible abstract and figurative, the more we overspiritualize it. 

When I was a little girl, I had a gold bracelet with charms hanging off it in the shape of Charlton Heston's 10 Commandment stones. Each one had a commandment written on it. The fourth charm said, "Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy." If you ask most Sunday Christians, "What is the Sabbath day commandment?" That's what they'll say: "Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy."

But, if you ask most Sunday Christians, "What does the Sabbath command mean?" They'll have all kinds of overspiritualized answers:

"The Sabbath is all the time. Jesus is my rest."

"Jesus changed the Sabbath by resurrecting on a Sunday."

"This is the church's tradition. It trumps God's word."

"Besides, that's just for the Jews."

None of that is true and none of it can be found in the Bible. Try and find it. I dare you. I triple dog dare you with a hundred million dollars to back me up. 

Here's what can be found in the Bible, on multiple occasions even, but I'll quote it from the Big 10 just so we're all in agreement that this matters:

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates." Exodus 20:8-11

In Leviticus 23:3, the Father gives a little more clarification on the point of keeping the Sabbath:

"Six days shall work be done but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings."

Rest. Do no work. Don't require others to serve you, either directly or indirectly. Read the word. Fellowship. Practice holiness.

These are simple, easy, straightforward, and literal commands. 

Anything that would change these words to make them "more modern", "more applicable", "more Christian", would be overspiritualization. Do you see? It's not the literal and exact keeping of the simple commands that are overspiritualizing things---it's the making them out to be figurative, outdated, and Jew-centric. (You do know that "the Jews" are just one tiny part of Israel, right? But that's another post…)

Don't be guilty of adding or taking away from the Father's instructions. Do you truly believe He is unchanging? If you do, then don't overspiritualize things. Just take Him at His word. Yeshua said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. No need to make things bigger than they are. Just do the things in the simple way He clearly laid out, word for word.

Consumed

"Incline my heart to Your testimonies,

And not to covetousness.

Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,

And revive me in Your way."  Psalm 119:36-37

I have really big ideas. I get a plan or a project in my head and it consumes most my thoughts until it's either completed or replaced by a new grand idea. Sometimes it can be really hard to focus on following the Father's leading---going where He says, saying what He prompts, waiting when He's clear I should wait---especially when I'm distracted by less important things. 

But most times, I find it hard to focus on anything BUT the things of the Father. I'm consumed by His wonders and warnings, tracking His prophetic timeline, pulling new things out of Scripture every time I sit down to read. I could spend hours of my day reading and writing about His word, the world going on around me while I wile away in my study. I often think I'm better suited to a dark robe and a measly diet, sequestered away somewhere in a remote monastery, with no one but my pen for company. 

Which brings up the obvious---why has the Father given someone like me an outgoing husband, nine children, a new grandson, real friendships, and an increasingly public ministry? These things do tend to get in the way of the life of a devoted monk.

I believe He's calling me to balance. Left to my own devices, I really would hole up in remote hibernation, avoiding everything that irritates me---and thereby avoiding everything He's called me to. Because everything irritates me.

In the Psalm above, the word "covetousness" can also be translated as profit and the word "testimonies" means God's law. Thus, the basic gist of the passage speaks to the desire to focus on God's ways and not be distracted by what lesser gains can be made. While I don't covet actual things, I definitely covet times of quiet solitude.

And that's just what He wants them to be for me---times. Not days or months, but moments, even a few hours on the occasional day I can have my husband or adult child fill in for me. Coveting is essentially wanting what we do not have and it can be applied even to the things of God. While it's a noble idea to close myself up in a turret with just a candle and a scroll, would I really want to be cloistered away from all the life, laughter, and loud of the people around me who bring me such joy? Well, maybe the loud…

I think the Father intentionally puts us in situations that we wouldn't naturally choose for ourselves for our growth. The closer I get to Him, the more I want to excavate His word and see what treasures I can pull up. It's becoming my natural inclination and if I really want to do this, I will find the time---regardless of what else is going on around me. In His great mercy and grace, He's surrounded me with so much life so I don't become that hermitting monk; but instead, that I would grab hold of just enough life around me to balance me out.

After all, what is the point of knowledge, wisdom, understanding if there's no one around to share it with?

 

Persecution

 

Persecution

I like to think I have a pretty thick skin---or at least that I'm pretty good at faking it and letting hard things slide off my back. Truth is, depending on the day, sometimes I let people really get to me. 

It's different now that I've left the socially acceptable way of following God and have gone rogue with a bunch of other zealots. In the church, there was mutual acceptance. I accepted what was taught for that particular denomination, they accepted me as a member and let me minister there. Now that I've taken ministry into my own hands, it's not unbelievers who come against me---it's churchies.

I'm thinking of Paul. He wasn't imprisoned for bringing the nourishment of Scriptural truth to a society that was starving for it; no, he was imprisoned for stirring the pot, for shining the light of truth on a society that wanted to continue living in darkness. Paul tried to open the eyes of the willfully blind and the purposefully ignorant---he was a thorn in the side of every person who fleetingly felt convicted by his words.

I've been mocked for comparing myself to Paul (like he's some kind of higher saint, rather than just a regular dude serving God) but he's our biggest example of faithfulness in the New Testament, besides Yeshua. He was literally put there as an example to follow. When I think about how much it stinks to question whether I should share truth today and risk having to fight bad feelings toward former friends, I think about Paul in Philippians chapter 1.

"But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel…and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear."

I know the persecution I'm facing as a minister of the gospel on social media is laughable in the face of what Paul went through---but the emotions are similar. Reading that portion of Scripture this morning, the Father showed me a couple reasons why He's got me in the stocks, 21st century style:

Through Paul's example of faithfulness in the face of persecution, others were made bold to share the truth, too. If I will keep my temper, stick to Scripture, and pick my battles, the Father will use my example to embolden others as witnesses, also. 

Additionally, we need to realize that this is just the beginning of persecutions. The narrow path is unpalatable to anyone not on it, but especially to those who think they are but are shown they're not. In short: compromisers don't like to have their reasons debunked. The persecution is gonna get a lot hotter and a lot heavier---and it's going to come mainly from those who've "Got Jesus" but don't understand what it means to surrender to Him.

To those of us who are truly walking out this narrow path and trying to reach those around us, let's be so careful to keep our temper, stick to Scripture, and pick our battles. There are arguments out there that just. don't. matter. and we clutter up our ministry by focusing on the noneternal. If you spend more time on flat earth or calendar arguments than you do on ministering about Yeshua and His ways, (Matt. 28:19-20) you're wasting your time. Stop picking apart the little things the enemy is distracting you with and train yourself to go after the really big spiritual warfare stuff. You were shown the narrow path of Revelation 12:17 for a reason.

There. There's my pep talk for the day. For me and maybe for you. Shalom.