Feb 13
11
What Jesus Is Teaching me Today; …Right NOW (14)
The art of convincing others.
LESSON FOURTEEN: “Not Everyone’s Purpose Is The Same”
What you have is not what everyone else wants. You have been given the way to live out the purpose you chose before you manifested your physical presence and to realize your true identity. The conflict, which sometimes interrupts the flow of I AM presence in and through you has to do with attempting to sway those who have not chosen your purpose and have no desire to pursue your purpose.
The foregoing is something I have somewhat recognized in the past a bit like the proverbial “seeing through a glass darkly” …which is simply a metaphor which was imported from England in the 1600s for another metaphor expressed sardonically by some in the 21st Century: “you just don’t get it do you!”
Why should you get it, if it isn’t your path or purpose? Before I directly share how I am interpreting Jesus’ words, above, given to me just several minutes ago, I feel directed to write the following.
Brad is not Christian. What is that to you?
Since several of you have written asking for the “list” I offered to send in LESSON THIRTEEN about some of the things that Paul wrote which, to me and no few others, SEEM to be direct contradictions to some of what Jesus said – I asked for direction …and I feel the need to make a correction and hopefully the following is a guided, by our (your and my SPIRIT-PARENT –bwoton-) corrective.
After struggling with several things that were taught in the form of Christianity to which I became enveloped and from which I learned many things …things which I later realized were also an impediment to my own purpose, so much so that I finally went so far as to refuse the label of “Christian” and have said over and over that the reason I no longer refer to myself as such or correct anyone attempting to attach that label to me, is because it means too many different things to too many different people to communicate anything meaningful from my rather narrow point of view.
This following definition is provided by the online “Free Dictionary by FARLEX” may help demonstrate what I mean by “means too many different things to too many different people.”
Chris·tian
Take your pick …admittedly, my narrow point of view comes from some of the purported teachings of Jesus which I read in the Bible and which purportedly came through his mouth – found by way of a rather intensive study of those things printed in red in the four Gospels, the “Book of Acts” (the fifth book in the New Testament) and the last book in the New Testament, that is, “The Revelation of Jesus the Christ” which many scholars agree was written by the same man who wrote the fourth book, which is, the Gospel according to John. For me some things just didn’t add up, again, within the different “brands” of Christianity to which I was exposed in my quest for truth.
Hear, hear, hear with your ears to hear!
I feel compelled here to underline something that came through in such clarity to me out of the Gospel of John: “Have I been with you so long and you still don’t realize that you’ve seen me, therefore you have seen the Father? The miracles you have witnessed are from the Father …the words you have heard me speak are from the Father …further, all the things you have seen me do, and you will do as well, if you believe enough.”
How I interpreted this passage was this: According to John, Jesus was saying that it wasn’t him, the man Jesus, who performed the miracles or even spoke the words, but his SPIRIT-PARENT who lived in him who did and said these things …and, therefore, to believe enough to do the same things meant becoming aware of the same SPIRIT-PARENT living in me – and thus forgetting “my ministry” and getting to the place where I was a “vessel” for SPIRIT to do HER/HIS (“SPIRIT” and, therefore, no human gender involved and, thus, “father is an inaccurate translation) work through me.
The teachings to which I was exposed came from various interpretations and traditions that, to me, had no semblance of, or relationship to, some of the things Jesus clearly taught …if the red letters were an adequate display of that. In fact, at almost every church, to which I had been exposed, the teachings and traditions were derived from various places in both Old and New Testaments and different interpretations placed on those, but most particularly from the writings of that fellow who, after his rather dramatic conversion to Christianity and who had his name changed from Saul to Paul which, he claimed, came directly from the resurrected Jesus.
It is important to remember that what I have consistently said over the years, and still believe, has to do with Christian leaders and teachers taking what Paul said in any number of places that SEEM or can be construed to be contradictory to what Jesus purportedly said – and then these leaders use what Paul wrote to justify their position to say to follow them or imitate them …which Paul clearly said about himself, in several places – particularly related to the title “Pastor” or spiritual “Father” and to refuse to even consider what Jesus purportedly had said about the issue.
What originally awakened me to this, happened while I was doing a study in a Greek/English Interlinear in preparation for a talk I was to be giving at a denominational “Christian Leadership Conference.” I had been ordained by that denomination and certainly allowed some people to call me “Pastor” …although I had insisted when I had accepted the position at a church, which I was helping build, that two conditions had to met …both the sign out front be changed from where it said “Pastor:” and had the name of a man that it be changed to read Pastor: Jesus …further, the guy who had invited me to be co-pastor would change the bulletin to read Pastor: Jesus and underneath – Co-Custodians his name and mine to which he readily agreed both in spirit as well as letter.
Back to the rude awakening: Matthew 23:10 …I was startled by the words (my translation which I have claimed for years is absolutely accurate) “…and don’t you allow anyone to call you by any title that implies spiritual authority or superiority; you are all to be brothers and sisters to one another. You have only one spiritual teacher and father, the Christ.”
I'll let you see up my skirt if you let me call you Father.
The words stung …and I realized how my ego had really been on a rampage …this led me to see other things Jesus had said in a totally new perspective – for example, about not praying publicly (pray in your own closet) I sat there stunned! …as I began praying in earnest for direction – I got it in abundance, NOT to give the talk and, therefore, I cancelled – and soon after, I also left that church and not too long afterward severed all association with the denomination – it took me awhile longer to completely “come out of her” (organized Christianity at large) in obedience …I had no idea of the seductive hold it had over me and my dalliance then and, almost succumbing to the temptation several times since, has created gentle lessons that I was being called elsewhere – to follow our SPIRIT-PARENT alone.
Okay, the primary issues that were freshly opened to me were that Jesus clearly said no man was good, including him, that only God was good; Paul went to great lengths (it seemed to me) to justify his position as “Apostle” and a spiritual “Father” – he justified praying in public, and certainly (along with Peter) justified the use of the title Pastor, which means shepherd, which Jesus clearly said there was only ONE …and to Whom I refer as our SPIRIT-PARENT. As to calling Paul a liar or say that he was misled …no thank you …that is not for me to say. Nor is it for me to say what anyone else’s calling is. If somebody believes they have been called to use the title that’s between them and our (your and my SPIRIT-PARENT) – I’ve said what I’ve been directed to say FOR ME, what you do with it is up to you.
BRAD! do I need this gramophone to get your attention!!!
Final Note which I have been given the green light to include: This personal revelation has led me to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that some of what John wrote in both the Gospel under his name, his three letters (1st, 2nd and 3rd John) and The Revelation of Jesus the Christ and what is in the other Gospels were written as correctives to what had been going on in the “early church” in apparent ignorance or even defiance of some of the things Jesus had said. Some of my reasoning for this has to do with the fact that most of what Paul wrote was in the early fifties, less than twenty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, whereas most historians place the earliest of the Gospels at around fifteen years after Paul died; and John’s writings into perhaps fifty and more years post Jesus’ resurrection. Okay, that’s it. If any of you want particulars that were significant to me …my offer extends to those as well.
Now then back to Jesus’ lesson today for me –the opening paragraph to LESSON FOURTEEN:
I have argued long and hard for almost forty years that what I have come to understand as “faith” on two fronts was available to anyone and everyone …so today’s lesson from Jesus was a glass of cold water thrown in my face. I just now asked, how do I couch this so that there is no misunderstanding for those who do feel the same call as I?
Repeat my words to you and those who are ready to hear them, FOR THEM, will.
What you have is not what everyone else wants. You have been given the way to live out the purpose you chose before you manifested your physical presence and to realize your true identity. The conflict, which sometimes interrupts the flow of I AM presence in and through you has to do with attempting to sway those who have not chosen your purpose and have no desire to pursue your purpose.
My purpose is to do what Jesus said any individual will do if they believe enough …and that, quite simply, is all the things he did by subjecting himself to a discipline that brought about his awareness of our SPIRIT-PARENT in him and doing only those things that were of the will of SPIRIT. How everyone else discovers that for themselves is for them to do so by becoming aware of their own direct connection.
Apparently this is to be continued …but not at this moment
In Freedom
Brad