...and holiness

 The Scripture above describes the paradigm for birth that our deliverance is meant to be received through.

Have you ever noticed reading Psalms, in all the distress, sickness and anxiety David experienced, it was always the Lord, and only the Lord, that he acknowledged as his help and deliverance? 

If we are seeking deliverance in a way that looks exactly like the world around us, and is based on mere earthly principles and knowledge, are we set apart in any way?

I listened to a podcast recently defining all of the different (controversial) terms that mothers and caregivers are tousling over. (2 Timothy 2:14) As believers, we are to be fully set apart from the ignorant quarrels of man. Faith, love and holiness are worth continuing on in, and require full attention enough! I realize that faith (trust) is something I ramble on a lot about here, but what about holiness? 

As I listened to sisters define their desired birth as "holy", and the intentional act of bringing our decisions to the Word (Yeshua) for all purposes, the story of Nadab and Abihu came to mind. 

Finding this odd, but ruminating nonetheless, I wanted to see how this applies to "consecrating" our decisions to our Master Yeshua, our Father YHWH. 

Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them. Fire came out from before Yahweh, and devoured them, and they died before Yahweh.

Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what Yahweh spoke of, saying,

‘I will show myself holy to those who come near me,
and before all the people I will be glorified.’” Leviticus 10:1-3

I think this means we need to be careful about what we are offering up, asking blessing over, and what is done in His Temple (our body).

I've considered over the last few years, the way that The Nations (gentiles) have attempted to consecrate/sanctify certain practices, traditions, holidays, etc unto The Lord, "Christianizing" various idolatrous practices. (For the record, this was done in ancient Babylon when the "Jewish myths" and the Talmud [commands of men] were formed in the silent years--a prophecy of what would also happen to form the Christian Tradition) I have become sure that this cannot be done, because His holiness cannot be mixed with the profane. He needs nothing that has come out of demonic religions, nor does He tolerate it. See Revelation 21:8 (if we think that idolatry is dead and gone, the word eidos [root of "idol"] simply means "what is seen")

Are we "sanctifying" practices, consecrating something that He neither authored nor does He endorse, as Nadab and Abihu? I have no doubt that their intent was to worship, to be seen as "good" in His eyes...and yet He destroyed them in the middle of their irreverence for His holiness. 

Do we want to revel in our anxieties, make choices based on faithlessness, and then hold them up to Him as though approval comes by our desire, not from His blessing and Authority? What happens when we do this? (See 1 Samuel 13)

Faithfulness is receiving His Word over all else and submitting to His Authority. As I listen to folks debate autonomy, it occurs to me that as yet, the revelation held in the book Why We Eat is still foreign (probably even considered heretical) thinking to Christians. We are not autonomous, if we belong to YHWH because of Yeshua's identity and blood. This means:

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 1 Corinthians 6:15 NIV

What right do we have to take our anxieties, desires and needs elsewhere, for methods of deliverance that are idolatrous in nature? Israel's prostitution had to do with seeking other authorities for help. Ancient Greek porneia, rendered "sexual immorality" in the verses preceding the one above, has a broad meaning which involves any kind of unfaithfulness of the physical being. All through ancient Hebrew prophecies and Torah, "prostitution" was idolatry, not just sex. It was putting their bodies before other gods for help, fertility, they would cut themselves, they would offer their children in return for various needs or desires. The Holy One of Israel instructs us to seek Him only. Turning to what is visible in our fears, desires or needs is the very definition of idolatry. 

We really aren't so different, we are just blind to the nature of idolatry today (images, machines, physical manipulation of genetics, chemicals, and physiology in order to press for a certain (perceived "safe" or desired) outcome? Can we sanctify our turning to a model that is based on an idol? Do we have need of it, according to The Word? What is our Father in Heaven offering? 

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us into his own glory and excellence 2 Peter 1:3

There is peace in rendering my whole being to His Authority and realizing, no amount of knowledge can assist His power and purpose.

Avoid irreverent, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of so-called “knowledge,” which some have professed and thus swerved away from the faith. 1 Timothy 6:20-21

As I sought The Word and dug into ancient history, He revealed that the very ones Paul is talking about here, and in Acts 17, are the same who established the foundations of Western Theology, Medicine and Education. These same philosophers, not joined to The Head, worshiping Greek and Roman "gods",  have informed the thinking of our entire culture. This is why its so disastrous to be so firmly embedded in their ideas and what gives the world their sense of security. Why is it that the system we've trusted in for generations is proving so broken, so corrupt, so lost? Is it not the fruit of a demonic religion?

This is the root of the issue. We can point our finger at the providers, the lack of wisdom, the money, and everything else, but if we don't look at the root, we cannot fully understand:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Eph 6:12

It's never been about the philosophers (how physicians began), its always been about the spiritual realm and who said philosophers were worshiping as they received their "knowledge". The demons are very real, still very present, and still very ready to offer false signs and wonders in order to deceive the world, and if possible, even the elect. 

It is powerful to be alert to whose shenanigans, understand the source of the fear, and simply opt out, not blaming the people under the influence, but confessing that I am under One Authority and my entire being (body included) has no need of what they can offer, their earthly knowledge, opinions, devices and help. 

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Let my teaching fall like rain
and my speech settle like dew,
like gentle rain on new grass,
like showers on tender plants.
For I will proclaim the name of the LORD.
Ascribe greatness to our God!
He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
all His ways are just.
A God of faithfulness without injustice,
righteous and upright is He.

…He abandoned the God who made him
and scorned the Rock of his salvation.
They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods;
they enraged Him with abominations.
They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
to gods they had not known,
to newly arrived gods,
which your fathers did not fear.
You ignored the Rock who brought you forth;
you forgot the God who gave you birth.

…He will say: “Where are their gods,
the rock in which they took refuge,
which ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you;
let them give you shelter!
See now that I am He;
there is no God besides Me.
I bring death and I give life;
I wound and I heal,
and there is no one
who can deliver from My hand. (Isaiah 32) 

Did you know the medical/pharmaceutical tradition began (under the names astrology/sorcery/magic) in Egypt?

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD. Isaiah 31:1

Hippocrates legacy and identity , and name meaning (see Isaiah 30:16 )

The goal of this post is not condemnation. Yeshua did not come to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be delivered! The goal is to raise awareness that as His belonging, we have access to something far better than anything idols have to offer.