Martha Keys , The Fisherfolk who came to our school for a week.
This was striking because while I was away I have been reading more of "From Eternity To Here"by Frank Viola.
Probably the best way to understand this book is to imagine a time of praise which leads into a time of intimate worship.....like a Key of David meeting...or whatever your equivalent is...
then while some instrumentalists are playing gently....someone may be reading beautiful words to meditate on over a microphone. Those words could be any section from Frank's new book.
Let me put it this way. All of us now have the mechanics of lovemaking described and taught in biology or other purpose-built formats in school lessons. But how many take that biology book into the marriage bed with them? Nobody I think. If you take anything at all it is more likely to be poetry.
In the same way...we've heard a lot "about" the Church and Jesus. Many manuals have been written. But what I am saying is when the Presence of the Lord comes, how many of those manuals would you read from at those precious moments!!!!
No, at those moments...if you read from anything at all...it will be from the Bible itself...passages like The Song of Solomon...or Psalms.
Or from a rising tide of books that now includes "From Eternity To here."
they are books to be read...in relationship....in worship
and when God's presence comes. Individually. Corporately.
They began here and there...with Madame Guyon for example.
Then her influence touched countless but one was Jessie Penn Lewis, who in turn influenced Watchman Nee, which I guess Dan has finally got his fingers into.
This in turn led to The Divine Romance by Gene Edwards, which like From Eternity To Here, broadens the scope to capture the grandeur of the purpose of God towards His Bride from Eternity past, through and into creation, to be consummated in the heavenlies; in other words taking in the whole sweep of scripture.
And as Dan has discovered ,this includes unearthing the picture of a Jewish betrothal. Frank Viola describes the process in Chapter 10. In other words Song of Solomon describes this whole betrothal process, where there is quite a time lag between betrothal and actual consummation.
Here again is another example of where the devil-inspired world system scoffs at the very beauty of God's way of doing things. The devil doesn't understand anything other than impulse driven sex. Or worse rape even or violation. This idea that a couple would prepare for each other just is not even in the same horizon, no solar system. He only understands "try before you buy".Partnering without commitment; love without covenant.
Push and shove.
Marriage, he just can't conceive.
So little wonder that the world scoff at a Bridegroom who goes off and leaves His Bride for 2000 years and counting, while his "manservant" (to use the Isaac example) the Holy Spirit prepares a beautiful bride.
My little testimony in all this is that while waiting for the right time to bring out "Early Harvest", about 5 years ago I began to be quickened again to put a track on there about the Bride and Covenant Love. So this took me back to my roots of actually seeking out the double tape message of Ern Baxter at Capel Bible Week 1976 entitled Covenant Love: a Study of David and Jonathan. Well I googled for this and found Dan's blog in the summer of 2007. I had no idea that it would lead on to all this that has taken place. Meanwhile the 2nd cassette has been found in our attic!!!Which means that the 1st one may be in there. Last time we looked I bust the heating system!!!So we'd prefer it if someone else had a copy.
Now Frank's book has come my way....which in many ways is the verbalization of what was going on in my spirit. My task is to get some of this down musically. Over 37 years I have received 2 or 3 songs which are appropriate as well as having it in mind to link them musically.
The other link in my spirit comes from Kenneth Copeland's Blood Covenant series. If you can get these...hear them. Kenneth is part Cherokee , so the concept of Covenant agreement is in his lineage.In fact it was very much a part of why Cherokees did not get/understand Americans who in practice were such Covenant Breakers.
All these aspects of God's love for us come alive as we move out of sin...into Syn.
As we fuse with our Lord and with one another we begin moving in another dynamic.
It is revelation.
It is a way of living.
It is the true Jesus.
It is the real deal.
People who go on and on about morals. And trying to live a better and better life just haven't a clue.
We move out of sin, not to remain in some pure whitescape expanse like Greenland...marooned and guarding our "concept of purity". No I began this series by quoting the whole of Romans 12.
We are saved out of something to become part of something else. If we are not part of something else, we are deceived. If you are not connected to me and I am not connected to you...and so on and so on...the world over....we are all deceived. Jesus is real and he is One. He is not divided.
We can waffle on in churches or on blogs. But I just ask. Are we connected? If not we have a ways to go.
Rob and Ryan Rufus state we just pass through Romans 3 to 5 grace, then a repetition process of grace Romans 6-7 ,then we arrive at Romans 8.
Well two things prove whether they are correct. In Romans 8 living our environment which was formerly barren, starts to crack open. It starts to look more redeemed. We begin to set our immediate surroundings a bit freer. And in Romans 12, having had chapters 1 through 8, we can truly start to operate in this syn life....naturally...and ofcourse supernaturally...what I mean is it is not forced. We find it is normal for us. So these are the two proofs. Romans 8 and Romans 12.
In between by the way...the Jews start getting jealous!!! (More on another occasion!)
What my blog is about is that Romans 6 and 7 are real experiences also. There's a "reckoning/believing/confessing" of our spiritual realities...which often leads to a manifestation of the very opposite....until eventually the reality of the heavenlies crashes through the skies to bring a Romans 8 breakthrough for us. And in the reality of this, we can then sow into other's lives to see the same happen in them. This is the Kingdom chain reaction. This is true multi-level marketing! 2 tell 2 tell 2 tell 2etc etc. This is the picture of leaven, not as sin as in the Pharisees, but as Syn, the Kingdom leaven!
So in the spirit of this I was knocked for six by the manifestation of the love and anointing on the Fisherfolk when they visited our area and school. (1973)If ee cummings had written poetry about the reality of the Body of Christ: it would have looked like this Martha Keys poem.
-Probably my favorite poem to date on the subject of the Body of Christ .
I have uploaded the instrumental "Algeria" from Early Harvest CD1, here compressed for the internet(copyright AC Welch 1990).This contains fragments from Martha's poem, but really it is to listen to while reading the whole poem below.If you are interested in more details about Algeria, to save information overload it is put at the bottom of this post.Enjoy!
seeds of war and seeds of peace by martha keys
peace, peace, there is no peace
we've cried, we've tried
we cannot find it
not just the peace that glows inside: for that we have the power
in a flower or a little weed
i can find the peace i need inside
where is the peace
that can free me not to hide from you fearing to be found?
i see you coming down the street
paralyzed by fear of meeting another barricaded face
i pass by
on the other side
i return to the fear
i've learned
to live and sleep and breathe
peace, peace, there is no peace we've cried, we've tried
we cannot find it
we are whirling silences
touching circumferences
retreating
into our own orbits
we return
to the fear we've learned
to live and sleep and breathe
we need a strong peace
not a treaty
to keep us each
on our side of the line
we need a peace that flows between us
giving me to you and you to me
we need a very gentle peace
that reaches back
to when we were children:
peace that touches us
when we were hurt and couldn't cry
and when we cried and no one came
peace that holds us till we are loved free
of all the aching memories
that make me afraid of you
and you of me
we need a strong peace
breaking down the wall that stands between us
stone and cold and overgrown
with ancient vines
choking hope
we need the bond of peace:
unbreakable unshakable fact:
me given to you
you given to me
we are one
the old walls fall the old hurts heal
war-weary world
come
and see
maybe our lives can be a sacrament
love's presence in a world that's bent
the first foothold on the way to hope
we have learned to repent
not just relent
from doing what we want to do:
you hurting me
me hurting you
we've turned touched each other and we see
we are one
i am part of you
you're part of me
war-weary world if only you can see we live at peace
maybe the hope you've held inside
afraid to breathe
afraid to quench the fragile candle flame that flickered
in the fury of the war storm
maybe you could begin to breathe
maybe you could begin to believe peace can be as strong
as the killing and the wrong
we all have lived and died through
maybe you could see enough
to seek peace with us and trust that we are given to you
you're given to us
maybe we can be the life bread to fill the hole
that hope left when it died stabbed by jagged edges
of promises that broke
maybe we can be the phoenix risen from the war ashes
to pursue peace
with the passion
of the fury war unleashed
maybe our life can be a sacrament
love's presence in a world that's bent
the first foothold
on the way to hope
january 20 1973
just before Martha and the rest of the Fisherfolk came to my school Dr Challoner's Grammar School Amersham Bucks England with Graham Pulkingham . You can find it and a whole load of community testimonies in "They left Their Nets" by Graham Pulkingham 1973.
ALGERIA - instrumental Music : © A. Christopher Welch 1990. A TV documentary on RAI music in Algeria,(a sort of underground movement extolling wine, women etc., in a strict Muslim culture), still had an underlying futility and hopelessness, prompting this melody.Keyboard Cello and Piano: Michael Thom.Flute: AChristopher Welch Administered by No Name Ltd. 1991. Unlike Brother Andrew, I had no idea that the Muslim restlessness conveyed here would grow to threaten world stability,first in 1991, then in many of the incidents in the following years. Perhaps I was picking up the burden later expressed in Prayer for the 10/40 window.
1 comment:
YES!!!! Great stuff here...
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