“But you said…”
The moment those words escape your lips, you are no longer under my spiritual covering. You would have left the community covenant. Of course, it’s not those words in themselves, but what they betray regarding your spiritual condition. When you imagine that my words are magic, that they have the power to bind me, then you are practicing the Dark Arts.
In the Kingdom of Heaven, God is not bound by His own words. Word magic was a Zoroastrian concept specifically, though it also manifested elsewhere, such as in the secularism of Hellenistic thought. For Christians, there is no useful distinction between “pagan” and “secular”. God’s words, and those of His servants, are not binding in themselves. Rather, they are merely a manifestation of the living truth of the person who uttered them. Words have no power; the power is in the person. God’s words mean nothing if the Word is not alive.
If you see a conflict between something I said and what you see me doing, then your Christian duty is to assume you misunderstood what I said, or that I am compelled to retract. Learn the distinction between your perception of my words versus who I am. Pay more attention to who I am. That’s true of God, as well. We do not form relationships with the words, but with each other as persons. Ideas are not people.
The “rule of law” concept is Satan’s idea. The rule of persons is the fundamental nature of Creation (AKA reality). You assume that the presence of any kind of power is the signature of personhood. Thus, what we have been taught to call “anthropomorphism” of natural forces is actually following Jesus, who commanded the natural elements, and those elements obeyed. This is how we are supposed to think and talk.
Surely we are flawed, but this is how God does business with His people. If you do not find a path that includes some level of submission to other humans, then you are not following God’s Path (Hebrew: torah). Every human serves some higher authority, and in practice, you must juggle the claims of multiple authorities. The mythology of free men and their human rights is straight out of Hell.
It boils down to this: I am an elder, a spiritual shepherd. I didn’t seek that role; it fell upon me. I obeyed my Master by giving vent to my convictions. Other people received my words as an expression of God’s Word, and drew closer to me. We formed a bond whereby they assumed I had some spiritual authority and we formed a community. At some point, I offered a written expression of covenant. That covenant does not bind any of us; it is merely an expression of who we are as a family. It helps to crystallize and synchronize however much of our thinking as is possible.
No matter how much I write, regardless of any supposed talent for clear expression in words, there remains a necessity of spending time talking about the implications. The personal interaction is the whole point; the written record is simply a time-saving device so that our conversations can get to the point. That’s how “church” is supposed to work. It is people interacting in real time, using resources to keep the connection alive, because God says that’s how we keep our connection with Him. He uses His servants, which includes us fallen humans, but that stretches out widely to all Creation. This is why we exist.
We use the label “Kiln of the Soul” for our community. To be a part of this requires you submit first to the Covenant of Christ, with Him as your Lord. Then, you need to communicate to me in some way that you wish to submit to my spiritual covering — me, a living person. We are all in flux here in time and space, so things might change. God’s Person is eternal (“unchanging”), but it is unavoidable that we never stop changing until we die. The root concept of mortality includes “variable”. In order to be a part of this community under our covenant, you’ll need to emphasize the personal element of connection, where it is now. You need to connect to the others, as well.
If you cannot connect to the rest of the family, then you stand outside of my primary reason for living. You are not under my covering and I cannot do very much for you. You cannot separate community and covenant. If Jesus the Messiah is the Living Word of God, then I am the living word of this covenant community, Kiln of the Soul.
Don’t like what I say? Follow your own convictions. If doing so interferes with my eldership, I’ll try to tell you. I’m just a mortal, and I have my own failings. You can tolerate them and receive my blessing, or you can move on. Some boundaries are hard and clear; a great many boundaries are by necessity soft and negotiable. At any given time, there may be some variation in what is and isn’t required for peace with each other. That’s how real families of faith operate.
I was nothing before a community formed around my ministry. I have been glad to serve and will continue serving until I die. Some day this will pass to someone else and adjustments will be made. This is Kiln of the Soul.
