The Matrix of God
Matrix • noun (pl. matrices /maytriseez/ or matrixes) 1 an environment or material in which something develops. … 4 a grid-like array of elements; a lattice. — ORIGIN Latin, ‘womb’, from mater ‘mother’
My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. Song of Sol 2:9
I am excited about what God is doing in His elect in this day. Through our intimate fellowship with Him, the Father is imparting His personality to His Sons and creating in our spirits and in our very cell structure the promised new heaven and new earth.
I wish to examine one aspect of how this process is being accomplished. As I have pondered this question, I am struck by the image of the warp and woof that creates the “fabric” or matrix out of which we are emerging into the fullness of His stature. I therefore find it useful to employ a weaving metaphor to explain how God deals with us.
In order to create and enlarge our heaven, or our spiritual understanding, God utilizes two directions or modes of communication: the vertical, which I will refer to as the prayer closet and the horizontal, which involves ministry within the body of Christ. A problem arises in our spiritual growth when we form an over-reliance on one direction at the expense of the other. There needs to be a perfect balance of “warp and woof” in order for God’s life to be manifested in every aspect of our beings.
The Warp
I want to first discuss the vertical dimension of our fellowship with God. Those of us who have come out of the Woman to embark on the path of development as Sons are firm believers in the necessity of getting alone with God to hear a Word that is devoid of the teachings of man. This relationship is key, essential and the hallmark of true Sonship. Many in this Sonship walk, however, because of their traumatic experiences with Babylonian ministry, are very resistant to receiving a fresh Word from a source other than the God of their prayer closet. As for those still in the bondage of religion, there is a fear of receiving anything from outside their prayer closet that contradicts the teachings of Babylon.
I have to confess at this point to being something of a spiritual voyeur or peeping Tom. I am perplexed and fascinated by other peoples’ relationship with God. Many times I have pondered why it is that Christians whose walk I respect, who have a true and vital relationship with the Lord, who apparently can hear His voice, who can prophesy in spirit and in truth, and whose spirits are loving and fruitful cannot receive new truth. You can dismiss the whole issue by saying that it has not been given to them to understand the deeper things of God, and this is true. But in light of their fierce opposition to kingdom truth, the question arises in my mind: who are they fellowshipping with when they enter their prayer closet?
For both those in the system and those who have come out but who are locked into a paradigm (dispensationalism, for example) that limits their understanding of the fullness of what God is doing in this day, the key to unlocking the dynamics involved is to recognize two things. First, we must understand that our ability to hear the voice from the heavens that we call God is limited to the degree that our heavens need to be cleansed by the blood and purged by fire.
19For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 21Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 22And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 23It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us… (Heb 9:19-24)
The image of Jesus sprinkling the mercy seat in the spirit realm with his own blood in order to “purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb 9:14) speaks to me of the cleansing process that is taking place in us as he delivers us from everything that is unlike him and from all aspects of the works of the law. Our heavens need to be cleansed in order to hear what God is saying in this day. In fact, Peter speaks of the elements burning with fervent heat and the heaven and the earth being destroyed to give way to the new heaven and the new earth because our old heavens, or the realm from which we draw our spiritual understanding, is outdated. We need to be cleansed from all judgmental and religious spirits and we need the fire of God to purge us of old concepts and the traditions of men. Many of those who have come out of the system of religion err in thinking that they are free from religious bondage. The spirit of religion is tenacious, subtle and is referred to as the “more wicked” spirit for a very good reason. (Luke 11:26).
Secondly, we need to grasp the truth that the God of our prayer closet is not necessarily the Most High God. The cry of Paul’s heart was this: that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. These words were spoken by a man who had greater insight into the plan and purpose of God than any man in his day and very few since. Paul is here acknowledging that there are realms and dimensions in God that he had not gained entrance to. He hints at this in his reference to being caught up into the third heaven where he heard things not lawful to be uttered in that day.
Another apostle who had penetrated the deepest mysteries of divinity, John the beloved, experienced a revelation of Christ on the island of Patmos that shattered all his previous conceptions. The figure in the midst of the candlestick caused this man who had known the physical Jesus to tremble with fear. The Jesus that was now being revealed to him had the voice as the sound of “many waters” or nations and peoples and it was radically unlike anything he had ever fellowshipped with in his prayer closet. As the revelation unfolds and culminates in the unveiling of the holy city, the lamb’s wife, John is about to worship the angel who had unfolded the vision to his wondering eyes when he is admonished not to worship the angel, that he is a fellow servant and a prophet.
I mention this to illustrate the principal of agency. Many times God communicates with us through agents or ministering spirits or angelic messengers who for all intents and purposes are God because they dwell in realms of Glory where they know the will and purpose of God as it relates to us. There are a number of examples of this in the Old Testament where the angel of the Lord is synonymous with the Lord. (Gen 18, Judges 13:17-22, Zech 3). As we are cleansed and purified by the fire of God, He can send us angels of higher order to minister to us in our prayer closet experience.
The Woof
To expand our understanding and to break through the limitations of our prayer closet, the angel or messenger of higher order that He sends into our life may come, not through the vertical dimension but through the horizontal dimension in the form of another believer. It is essential that we keep ourselves open and humble enough to receive from a “fellow servant and prophet” that God might send into our lives to usher us into a higher spiritual dimension. This requires not only humility, but the ability to receive spiritual food from an unlikely source as Elijah did when he took sustenance from the ravens, which were considered unclean under the law. I am convinced that the secret of Elijah’s translation was this radical openness to the unconventional. The ability to set aside our preconceived notions of how God works, the willingness to look beyond outward form or fashion, the faith that God will not be put in a strait-jacket by that which is written because He is the Word, will not go unrewarded.
I find disturbing the radical rejection of all aspects of what they consider an outdated “Church Age” that characterizes so much of the thinking of those who have supposedly come out of the system. I say supposedly because I see so many of the facets of the religious spirit – factionalism, pride, ego, self-righteousness, elitism – reproduced in those who have received (or partially received) the kingdom message. The five-fold ministry is considered to be of the old Babylonian order by those who have in no way entered into the fullness of the stature of Christ and who could certainly benefit from anointed ministry.
The office of pastor is especially targeted for reproach and condemnation by those who cannot discern the difference between the system’s control-oriented hirelings who have no meat to feed their flock and divinely appointed and anointed shepherds. I know from first-hand experience that God has some kingdom pastors who serve a valuable function in helping many make the perilous transition from the bondage of religion to maturity in Christ.
The office of evangelist is also disdained. Many are more focused on their hatred of Babylon than on the need to minister to those in the system who are destined for Sonship. And the way to draw them out of the system is through evangelistic outreach using every avenue available in this day and age (TV, radio, the internet, meetings, conferences, revival services, etc.) When you have the heart of the Father, you begin to see that His desire is to meet people where they are and to bring them from point A to point B in their spiritual growth. I know from personal experience that the most effective way of bringing deliverance to those held captive in Babylon is through loving outreach, not through shrill exhortations to “Come out of her, O my people!”
Many of those who have come out of the system resemble scattered lone wolves living in a splendid isolation to avoid contamination by the system or by anyone who disagrees with them. Their only form of “fellowship” is on-line chat rooms or e-mail correspondence. God does take us through a time of wilderness or solitude but I feel that real spiritual growth takes place in the context of true fellowship or through the horizontal dimension. How do we develop the heart of God living in isolation? In my own experience, the revelation truth the Father has unveiled to me would be worthless without the experience of having my heart enlarged through personal interaction with members of His body and with those who oppose this kingdom message. It is difficult, demanding, frustrating and mortifies our flesh like nothing else. Truly, as the French philosopher observed, hell is other people. But then, in a certain sense, so is heaven, because it is only as the Father enlarges our hearts through interaction with others that we are prepared for the heavenly communion of saints as we learn to manifest the unconditional love that will ultimately heal the creation.
(I recognize that many who have come out of the system desire to be a part of an anointed fellowship, church, or ministry but have not been able to find such in their geographical area. I am not referring to these Sons but rather to those who feel they are beyond the so-called Church Age.)
Just as the lone wolves, who tend to disdain the offices of ministry and to reject the necessity of the assembling together of the saints, are out of balance by an over-reliance on the prayer closet experience, many more Christians are in bondage to ministry and to fleshly “fellowship” and neglect the intimacy of fellowship with God. They flock to the prayer line, to Christian “counselors”, to the anointed man or woman of God in order to get the miracle they need. Ministry under the Babylonian system encourages this dependence. Instead of providing God’s people with the spiritual food they need to grow up and create their own miracles, the hirelings of the system foster immaturity in order to perpetuate their control. Unfortunately, even those who have come out of the system through transitional ministries are often over-reliant on the revelation truth coming forth from the man or woman of God who occupies the office of teacher or pastor and they become complacent and passive. In certain aspects we can see reproduced the cleric/laity split, which thing God hates (Rev 2:6).
The Matrix
What then is the answer? The answer is humility, balance, seeking God’s face for ourselves yet being open to a new Word from outside our prayer closet. The answer is loving the brethren as we love God for truly those who say they love God but avoid the nitty-gritty of loving the brethren (and not from a safe distance!) are fooling themselves. The answer is allowing God to weave his personality in us through the intimacy of our communion with Him and through the fellowship with the members of His body. The creation is groaning to see – not a scattering of doctrinally correct lone wolves – but a united army of fully matured Sons who embody the love of God in flesh form.