Power and Protection

This morning, as I thanked יהוה‎ for His perfect knowledge and order in knitting together the new person within my womb a scripture from Proverbs came to mind:

“The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, By understanding He established the heavens.” Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬ 

Then this morning, the Spirit took me to Jeremiah, & I heard this echo: 

“It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.” Jeremiah‬ ‭10‬:‭12‬ ‭‬

As the only One competent and capable of creating the heavens and the earth, designed the human body in its completeness and all life and symbiotic relationships between every living thing, isn’t it preposterous to believe that He should need our supervision ensuring His work is good? 

““Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker— An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?”Isaiah‬ ‭45‬:‭9‬

I had a silly thought—what if I asked my two year old, Cormac, to keep track of my bread-making process—giving me formulas, times, instructions to be sure I was doing it right, letting him toss in random ingredients as he saw fit? What if I listened to his ideas? I’ve been baking since before he was alive…doesn’t this describe us in our sheer incompetence to even try to witness the process of fetal development and decide for ourselves if it is going well?

Can we, who do not have the wisdom, understanding or knowledge to design and create life, be trusted with such deep mysteries as how a baby “should” be growing and birthed? 

 I’d been ruminating some words that I would regard as prophecy (an uncomfortable warning) and this is what has rendered:

The Holy One is the Author of all life. As His belonging, we agree to His wholeness and integrity, the Word who is Faithful and True. If we attempt to take this out of His very capable hands, He will let us. Back to Proverbs:

“Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be glutted with their own devices. For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil.” Proverbs‬ ‭1‬:‭29‬-‭33‬ ‭‬‬

The Nations (anyone not belonging to YHVH) have always had to consider “what if…” and as a result carried amulets, and saw their priests, making sacrifices to their gods in order to get protection, fertility, wealth, food. 

I don’t think we realize what an affront it is to His authority and goodness to take our questions, anxieties and desire to know the unknown, the future through our devices and formulas. Our fear of the unknown reveals the authority under which we are living.

Are we challenging His trustworthiness by our “curiosity” and our (misguided) trust in the man with the needles, drugs, tests, images, scalpels, stirrups and speculum?

During my third pregnancy, I felt my daughter flip breech. I had told myself beforehand that breech is a variation of normal and that I would follow where He led. But her head was up in my ribs in such an uncomfortable way at only 33 weeks, I could hardly bend over. We prayed about it and the Spirit showed us how to work together to rotate her gently. It was a powerful experience in His affirming that I was hearing His instruction, and that my husband was at ease listening to Abba’s authority. This established complete and quiet trust, without ever seeing a screen to confirm positioning. I realized just yesterday, it was probably this experience that has allowed me the freedom to trust that Drew was competent to catch and I have not felt the need to try and both push and catch at the same time.

All along, Yah is making it clear that our confidence in falsehoods and images is destroying, even killing us. Are we too stubborn to see it?

Only if we turn a blind eye to the outcomes and results of trusting our images could we actually believe that they are of Life and Truth. This is not only true of prenatal screening but ALL KINDS of diagnosis. 

We KNOW it is our desire to know which comes out of our fears (which are a fruit of seeking control over anything we don’t have the strength to hold), which causes us to seek them, and that it is no different from old style idolatry. As long as we refuse to confront and repent this, we will get whatever our idols can give with a lack of true power.

There is only True Power and false power. They don’t cross nor do they operate in the same way.

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine.” Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭12‬-‭14‬ ‭

Do we see it as pride and arrogance when we reject His Word in how a seed comes to grow in a woman, with our hormone manipulation and artificial insemination by way of human hands? What is the end of this and how is it different from believing that a woman can become a man and a man become a woman?

After reading a grievous birth story in which toxic trust in the image and authority of humans resulted in major harm, I wonder, is the Lord becoming angry with us for declaring our desire for His protection and then revealing our lack of trust by seeking knowledge to make sure he kept his part of the bargain? 

“Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations?” Jeremiah‬ ‭7‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ 

“Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons; the turtledove and the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration; But My people do not know the patterns of the Lord. “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the Lord is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and caught; behold, they have rejected the Word of the Lord—so what kind of wisdom do they have?” Jeremiah‬ ‭8‬:‭7‬-‭9‬

Our eyes need to open to the falsehoods in our ways, we are greatly deceived into believing that our own ideas and order are good when they are grossly counter to The Word and His design. If we have fallen into a pattern of believing that we need the help of idols, we have inherited a religion, not faith.

Do we actually believe He sets His angels to guard over us? Do we ask boldly like the centurion, that He assign and send  these warriors over our beloveds and trust that they are capable and obedient to The Father for the purpose He assigns them?

We may not immediately see the results of our distrust in our Maker, but the risk of doubting is much greater than the risk of trusting! 

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭8‬ 

What I see in scripture is a whole lot of evidence that YHVH’s protection and deliverance is very dependent on our exclusive and absolute trust in Him. It is a curse to man, to trust in a human as a result of lack of trust in the Creator. As soon as we start to think “what if something happens?” We know we have already decided that we are not altogether covered by the Hand of Yah. What if something goes wrong? He already said things WILL go wrong if we don’t trust Him enough not to take idols also. (See Deuteronomy 28)

“You ignored the Rock who gave you birth; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.” ‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭32‬:‭18‬ 

“Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God.” Psalms‬ ‭90‬:‭2‬