The Word became flesh, and [tabernacled] among us.

John 1:14, portion, paraphrased

We live in our tents, our bodies.  Jesus, in becoming man, put on flesh as a garment.  We are not our own.  Our bodies are not ours, nor are we all that is within.

The spirit realm is complex and vast.  The inter-workings of the body and the spirit are not generally well understood by those in Western cultures.  Yet, as when two people come together in intimacy they become one flesh, there are realities that go Beyond the carnal, which the Western mindset as a whole has no capacity to account for.

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For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:8

You cannot have the Kingdom without a laid down life.  How many have heard this testimony, or had it themselves.  At the end of your rope, when you can’t take it anymore, maybe things were very grim, and God showed up in awesome ways.  The break-through of insight and revelation comes, the out-pouring of necessary power comes in like a flood, and He demonstrates Himself as the Lord of the Breakthrough (2 Samuel 5:20).  How many have had this experience of God showing up as their deliverer, only to wonder where He is the next moment?  To be overwhelmed with His goodness, only to be found back at the point of desparation, or worse, gross error or compromise from not realizing you had continued on without Him and missed a turn.

Or, perhaps a little more rare in this generation, how about standing up for what is right, and feeling the pressure, only to have the Father demonstrate His ability to deliver in the midst of persectuion?  Realizing that not everyone appears to come through such tests–having God deliver them with such power.  Whether visible or not quite so dramatic, do we know the experience where He shows up so that His Kingdom is vindicated?  Yet, the next day, to be in the same predicament as the day before?

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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:6

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:1).  He created it good, and filled it with things that He declared good.

He planned from the beginning there to be a man, and that he would rule over the Earth and subdue it.  He would walk through the lands, fields, valleys, forests, and hills, and be its master.  He would bring the natural Earth into the pattern of the garden.

This failed, when the man ate from the fruit.  It is said that the woman was deceived, and the man chose to disobey willingly, so as not to be separated from the woman.  Genesis 3:6 indicates that the man was not somewhere far away when the woman sinned, but was “with her”.

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Matthew 5:3-12 are what are commonly referred to as the Beatitudes.  They are simple phrases, which are the statement of the secrets of the Kingdom of God, hidden for the ages.  For some reason, even to myself, they seemed so hard to understand.  Perhaps it is that they are not taught that often, or looked at as not as relevant, but as I have come to know them, they perfectly describe the man in faith.

There are eight of them, all identical in form, each having four parts.  The word “blessed” is really a compound word meaning “happy” with the equivalent of the prefix “macro-”, so “macro-happy”, or “hugely happy”, or “super happy”, or, simply “Most Happy”.  ”Most Happy are” is the first part.  Second we have a group of people.  The verb “are” is always present tense.  The people are happy in these conditions.  Third is the word “for”, meaning “because”.  The people in the condition (#2) are Most Happy  (#1) right then because (#3)…  Because of what?  That’s the place of faith.  Finally, the truth of the Kingdom of Heaven.  #4. Read more…