The Romantic Drama: Garden of Harmony and Tree of Duality, Part 2

Part 2 to "The Garden of Harmony and the Tree of Duality"

We finished part 1 with a goal to reach the Promised Land.  In this Promised Land grows the Tree of Life, where God’s people are to have all their needs and wants met without toiling.

But God is romantic.  If the love story is too easy, we can never know if the love is true.  Romantic love faces trouble.  Boy gets girl.  Boy loses girl.  Boy gets girl back.  God originated this timeless plotline with His own story with His people.  The most interesting, troublesome, yet romantic, and lengthy portion takes place just after boy loses girl.  God lost his bride and then sent Moses to get her back.  But, like any good plot, a long series of troublesome moments occur before “boy gets girl” back. 

One of the troublesome spots is girl’s reluctance to return.  “Send us back to slavery!” she cried. “At least we had food and water there!”  “The people in the Promised Land are scary.  Let’s stay here!” 

Flaming swords guarded the entrance into this Promised Land with the Tree of Life.  God had already allowed Adam and Eve to be tested with pleasure and pride, and now He allowed their descendants to be tested with the suffering and fear of flaming swords.

Romantic God wanted to know: How much does My bride trust Me?  Is she willing to walk through a hot, sandy desert?  Is she willing to live relying upon Me for every morsel she eats and every sip she drinks?  Is she willing to climb a high mountain?  Or face a frightening army of big, strong, fierce warriors?  Does she love Me enough to face the swords?

Most of God’s people did not appreciate His romance.  Of six hundred thousand people who walked through God’s greatest miracle, only two had enough faith to face the flaming swords guarding the Tree of Life.

Only Joshua and Caleb loved God and His promise with sufficient passion to run after the promise.  They lived a radical faith that God would break through the thorns, mountains, and strong enemies for His people.  Though the brothers and sisters of their own generation never made it, Joshua and Caleb entered the Promised Land and lived into the glory God had designed for them.  “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chron. 16:9).

The metaphor of the Tree of Life transforms into the metaphor of the Promised Land, which transforms into the metaphor of the Kingdom of Heaven. Consistently, the Annointed said the kingdom of heaven "is."  Still, the majority of God’s people today think life is for tomorrow, not for today.  But drawing it into today means facing the sword.  Like the frightened Israelites, many are willing to follow the Anointed One as Moses out of the land of slavery.  Few have the courage to follow Him as Joshua into the Promised Land, the kingdom of heaven, for life today.

(c) 2011 by karina.  Please use only with permission from the author.

Garden of Harmony and the Tree of Duality

          In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  He created man and woman in His image, a harmonious whole, and it was good.  From Adam’s rib, He created Eve and told her she would be “lifesaver.”  God placed Adam and Eve into Paradise and told them they could eat of anything in it but the fruit of the Tree of Duality.

Eve encountered a test.  Would she eat the fruit of the Tree of Duality?  She did and she also gave it to Adam.  At the moment they ate, the garden lost its color.  In place of beautiful, harmonious color, the garden appeared in black-and-white.  Adam and Eve’s eyes had been cast with a veil of duality.  Good and evil appeared to be separate entities.  Adam and Eve also appeared to one another as separate.  No longer did the man and woman see one another as a single harmonious unit.

In the death of duality, God had mercy on Adam and Eve.  He sent them out of the Paradise so that they would not live forever.  Adam and Eve were now mortal. And swords guarded the entrance back into Paradise.

Knowing duality and mortality would prompt further consequences, God pronounced them.  Eve would have trouble bearing children, would desire the man as she was designed to desire her Creator, and be ruled over by the man.  Adam would toil at work through the futile frustration of thorns. 

All the rest of history is God trying to rescue Adam and Eve and their descendants from these very consequences.  Bit by bit, God’s history is a history of peeling away the consequences of thorns at work, of desire for man over God, of oppressive patriarchy, of the veil of duality, and even of mortality itself.

But the descendents of Adam and Eve often maintain their veil and are unable to see God’s hand in rescuing them from the consequences of their tests.  The veil gets thicker and guides them into deeper thorns.   Often they exacerbate their toil instead.  Anger and jealousy led Adam’s first son to stagger and wonder like a drunken man.  Tilling the soil and pulling the thorns became a much harder work for a man staggering about.  Much later, a time arose when the toil of Adam’s descendents was so great that they found themselves in slavery. 

Eventually, their cry reached the heavens and God came to their rescue through a prophet, Moses, whose name means “to draw out.”  He was sent to draw out God’s people from the worst of Adam’s toil.  Through this prophet, God performed miraculous wonders and even split a great sea in half, one wall of water to the right, one wall to the left, and dry land in between.  No longer were God’s people destined to toil the ground with the most painful thorns of slavery, but they were to walk into a land flowing with milk and honey.  All their needs – milk – and all their wants – honey – were to be flowing.  No toiling.

Stay tuned for part 2 . . .

© 2011 by karina.  All rights reserved.  Please use only with permission from the author.

Out of Egypt

Freedom to Egypt!  May it be true!  The overthrow of Egypt's 30 year control-hungry dictator in 18 days is absolutely amazing.  We pray it was the power of the people that brought it about.

I posted the following satire to two sites two days ago, the day Mubarak was expected to announce his resignation, but he had not: http://comics.beforeitsnews.com/story/411/686/Satire:_Out_of_Egypt.html; http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s3i91282.   I did not post it here then, as I felt that an introductory comment was necessary regarding my own heart of prayer for Egypt, Israel, the Middle East.  May Egypt’s tremendous display of democracy bring forth full democracy; may it s sweep throughout the Middle East; and may it bring forth an awakening of light that shines brighter and brighter. May peace with Israel continue, and may Israel live into its Torah command to “love foreigners, because you were foreigners living in Egypt.”  Finally, may Egypt’s freedom bring about a moment when Egypt, Israel, and the Middle Eastern world sheds the notion of “foreigner” and instead embrace the notion of “brother.”

With the introduction of my heart, now I’d like to introduce the satire.  It is not an LOL satire.  In a more blatant way, it pokes fun at Mubarak, but the real tease is at the world’s response to Mubarak’s “surprising” decision not to resign, in light of reports by those who work for him that he “might resign.”  Thursday morning, NPR made three announcements: (a) that Mubarak’s administration had held a meeting at which Mubarak himself was not present; (b) that highly important officials within Mubarak’s regime and within his army were announcing his possible resignation that evening; and (c) that CIA Director Leon Pinetta announced a “strong possibility” Mubarak would resign that evening.  I put (a) together with (b) and (c) and thought “brilliant!”  Sure enough, events transpired as ought to have been expected: Mubarak did not resign (check!); the people of Egypt were enraged (check!); the international community responded in astonishment (check!); the next day, Mubarak resigned (check – but an astonishingly quick check!)  I would have expected more resistance before the secret meeting’s brilliant strategy worked.  I also would not have expected everyone in the media to continue with their clueless questions regarding “the ‘contradiction’ in Mubarak’s communication.”  They themselves had reported that a meeting had taken place of top officials without Mubarak present, so why did they think his officials were speaking for him?  In any case, what I think transpired, as alluded to in my satire, turned out to be a fully brilliant strategy.  Now, here’s the satire:

“Let yourself go!”

"Let yourself go!" cried the people to Pharaoh, "So that we may be free!"  “Who are the people,” replied Pharaoh, “that they know better than me?  I will let everyone in my Cabinet go, but I will not let myself go.”

Using tools of communication, the people planned a great gathering to cry with a very loud voice.  Together, the people shouted, “Let yourself go!  So that we may be free!”

“What are these tools of communication?” asked Pharaoh “that they work better than me?”  That day, Pharaoh gave the order to break all the tools.

The people returned, “Why have you treated us this way?” and they cried again, “Let yourself go!”  “I have felt all the pain you felt,” Pharaoh replied.  And he sent the army into the streets.

The world’s most powerful king called Pharaoh and said, "I think that you need to write a letter of farewell to your people."  “Why? Pharaoh asked, “Where are they going?”

Under violence and chaos, the people grew in numbers and in strength.  Louder than ever they shouted, “Let yourself go!”  “I will deliver Egypt and its people to safety,” replied Pharaoh, “in seven months.”

Behind the scenes, the army, the world’s most powerful king, the kings of neighboring nations, and even Pharaoh’s own team shook their heads, scratched their hair, and huddled in confusion about what to do.

After seventeen days, a meeting of Pharaoh’s team was called, and all came, except for Pharaoh.  “We’ll start a rumor that he will announce his departure,” they plotted.  “With the people and the world expecting him to announce his departure, he will have to do it,” they whispered.  A call was made to a leader working for the world’s most powerful king.

That day, announcements were made by a general in the army, a leader in Pharaoh’s team, and a leader working for the world’s most powerful king.  They all spoke in a single voice: “Pharaoh might let himself go.”  The people were elated. 

When Pharaoh came before the people, he announced, “I will give my work to my assistant, but I will not go.  Outsiders will not tell me what to do.  Nor even will insiders!”  The people threw shoes at him.

The people under Pharaoh, the reporters in all countries, and the people of the world marveled at the contradiction.  Why would all the leaders say Pharaoh would announce his departure when he did not announce it?  “Why,” they wondered, “did Pharaoh change his mind?"  They knew the people speaking for Pharaoh had to truly be speaking for Pharaoh -- no one could question an assumption so clear.  Therefore, Pharaoh changed his mind!

Meanwhile, in hearing the cacophony of calls for a good-bye, Pharaoh muddles in the deepest confusion of all: "Where's everybody going?"

Baby's Cross from X to Y

The following picture was shown to my inner vision on October 20, 2007. Although it speaks in the language of the generations we use in the US, I sensed at the time it was a global message. I perceived this not only for all nations, but also for all organizational structures: political, economic, social and religious. At the time, I shared the message with only seven others. In light of the recent youth revolutions occuring throughout Middle Eastern countries, it may be an appropriate message to share at this time.   As we recall that "the last shall be first and the first shall be last," we can consider transformation here in coming years.  The picture the Spirit led me to draw appears as follows:

After I drew the picture, the Spirit led me to record the following message:

Y will rise in power and glory seemingly out of nowhere

with a message, method and direction very different from the Boomers.

Some Boomers will challenge Young Youthful Y.

Others will see their movement has promise and attempt to boom into it.

But these will claim senior authority.

Both will fall through the Pit of Pride.

Humble and discerning ones will desend through the hidden path of X.

Boomers must “cross from X to Y.”

That cross will require humility, becoming like a baby,

and letting go of visible glory for a period of time.

Booming forward will result in a loss that glory.

Shortly after receiving the message, I presented it to my husband and six other trusted friends.  We observed the narrow path of the baby to X in contrast with the wide path that booms into the Pit of Pride. In light of the drawing, we considered scriptures of entering through the narrow gate (Matt 7:13), entering the kingdom like a child (Mark 10:15), and the promise that the exalted will be humbled and the humble will be exalted (Matt 23:12). We considered the trial of the cross into the kingdom and the cross made by an “X.” We found it illuminating that Gen X is small in all ways: small in number of birth years, small in numbers, small in power, and small in perceived importance. Especially intriguing was the label given to the generation when the name “Gen X” was chosen: “lost.” Truly, Gen X is “lost” between two very powerful generations. As a member of Gen X myself, the Spirit’s message that X is not intended to be “lost” but “hidden” was an astonishing revelation. 

Finally, we considered the move from Earth, which is “grounded” into water, which moves freely as a signature for how truth, growth, and wisdom will arise. Those who find safety in the ground of earth will fear they might drown in water. These will work very hard to keep everyone on the earth and away from the water.

It strikes me today that one observation we failed to make was the image of the baby in the baby boomer! Observing this image today, we can see how easy it is for us to get stuck in the pit of pride through our minds. Hence we need more than ever today to be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2). Comically, this requires the humility of entering not by the power of our head, but by our unassuming shoulder. But the shoulder leads to the hidden glory of the upper arm and the visible glory of the lower arm and the hand.

May each of us, regardless of which generation to which we belong, cross into the move of the Spirit through humility. Amen.

© 2011 by karina.  All rights reserved.  Please use only with permission from the author.

The Redwood and the Mustard

A symbol of Nebuchadnezzar, according to his own dream:

“The tree grew large and became strong,

And its height reached to the sky,

And it was visible to the end of the whole earth.

Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant,

And in it was food for all.

The beasts of the field found shade under it,

And the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches,

And all living creatures fed themselves from it”

(Daniel 4:11-12)

A symbol of the kingdom of heaven, according to Jesus:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed,

which a man took and sowed in his field;

and this is smaller than all other seeds;

but when it is full grown,

it is larger than the garden plants,

and becomes a tree,

so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches”

(Matthew 13:31-32)

           

Two trees: both are great and both shelter the birds of the air.  One symbolizes the world.  The other symbolizes the kingdom.  One is prophesied to be cut down:

“Chop down the tree and cut off its branches;

Strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit;

Let the beasts flee from under it;

And the birds from its branches;

Yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground,

But with a band of iron and bronze around it

In the new grass of the field”

(Daniel 4:14-15)

The other lives for all Eternity and provides Eternity for all who come to it, for this one represents the Tree of Life.  And who are they who come to the Tree of Life?  The humble, for the Master tells us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).  This is why the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds. 

Likewise, the name of the Lord, YHWH, begins with the smallest of all letters, the Yod.  To us English speakers, the Yod looks like a little apostrophe, barely visible and suspended in the air, close to the heavens.  Not only does our Great Lord begin His name with the smallest of all letters, but so do a great many of our prophets: Jesus, John the Baptist, Joseph, Isaiah, Jacob, who keeps it in his new name, Israel, and many others.  No foot of the Yod touches the ground, indicating that these great prophets have transcended the world.  This transcendence does not mean, however, that they set themselves forth as greater than other beings.  No, they take upon themselves the humility of the smallest letter.

Those of the world, however, seek to present themselves as great, strong, and tall enough to tower over all others.  They are represented by the Redwood tree.  The Redwood tree, like that described of Nebuchadnezzar, is the grandest of all trees.  It can grow to be as tall as 375 feet.  Visitors come from all over the world to gaze in awe at the majesty of the Redwood.

Although it is the tallest and most majestic tree in the world, it rests upon a surprisingly fragile foundation. According to the experts at Trees of Mystery, the roots of a redwood go down only 2-3 feet. Their root system is so shallow and so fragile that signs are frequently posted throughout the park warning that too much activity around the roots of a redwood puts it into special danger.

Looking at these amazing giants, no one would expect that they – much more than traditional, smaller trees – have such a limited capacity for wear at their root system.  Unlike the strong, dense rings inside a traditional tree, the fallen redwood spreads out with bark that can be torn out by hand. It’s almost like the tree is made of all bark. You can stick your hand into the guts of a fallen redwood and pull out the innards.

Paradoxically, their fragile roots contribute to their remarkable size.  A tree with dense roots requires much water, sunlight, nurturing, and time to grow.  A tree with fragile roots can grow quickly.  The redwood, therefore, is majestic on the outside, but fragile on the inside. The mustard seed, on the other hand, appears fragile on the outside, but, on the inside, it is majestic. 

Our nation may be like the Redwood, and we may be chopped down, but for the mercy of a remaining stump.  May we who love Christ, however, call upon Him to nurture the depths of our roots to be strong and majestic on the inside, regardless of how small we may appear to those who have not eyes to see.  Amen.

© 2011 by karina.  All rights reserved.  Please use only with permission from the author.

A return to harmony

We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, 

but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. 

I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, 

and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us”

(President Barak Obama, Tuscon, January 12, 2011)

In the beginning, the heavens and the earth were one.  All in heaven and all in earth were united in harmony.  Then we ate from the Tree of Duality in order to “know good and evil” and we entered an illusion of separation.  But the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.  May we return the fruit from the Tree of Duality and eat the fruit of harmony from the Tree of Life. Amen.

Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” (Deut 6:4)

The essence of love: One

The essence of perfection: One

The essence of the universe: One

The essence of our God: One

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48)

How?

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

And what does Jesus pray?

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:22)

 And our prayer for twenty-one-one:

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

May we be one as You are One. Amen.