Narrative – Part 2

I’ve always dreamed of being part of a ministry school in which the students who graduate are said to “Mastered By Divinity” rather than having a Masters Of Divinity.  Here the Narrative continues as if in such a setting and the reader must decide by the end if the student is ready…

Heretofore and following is a dialogue between a teacher and student.  The setting is a living room with a comfortable couch and chair.  The dialogue follows an ancient style of rhetoric.  After this test of theology the student will go to a gathering where he will be anointed by the elders, who will pray over him and anoint him with oil.  Immediately afterwards he will go to a desolate place for forty days and nights with fasting and prayer.  Then he will return to begin his ministry.  The reader will have to imagine the appropriate gestures of hands, eyes, and smiles or frowns depending on the subject, since the text will not indicate mannerisms, but follow the dialogue itself…

 

“So it is not so that man was created first and then woman?  You make it sound as if woman was created at the same time.”

“The earthling was more like man than woman, until she came out of him, since he was made in the image of I AM’s Son.  Yet she was already present in earthling and needed to complete that image of I AM, both male and female.  But all of them together make up the Great Bride.  And she must desire I AM of her own free will.

“Therefore a tree was put there, next to the tree of abundant, everlasting life; a rumor of a second and third heaven begins.  The tree was put there so that she would want Him as He wants her.  The little girl was to demonstrate her love for Him by eating of all the trees but this one.  To love I AM is to obey His Word, His Voice.  At first she did, but then adversary came as a dragon and tried to teach her the way of good and evil much too quickly before the transformation.”

“The transformation into what?”

“Into sons of I AM, into His Bride.  Adversary was trying to take vengeance for losing his high position.  But the I AM knew this would happen, and so in love and wisdom, He turned away from the perverted form of darkness within them, within the little girl also.  She ate the fruit.  Thus she disobeyed the Voice and did evil.  Now she knew evil and therefore also good.  But now she was unable to always choose good, thus she could not be allowed to eat from the tree of life.  She no longer walked with abundant life.  Her spirit died, that which communed with I AM.

“Thus He separated from her, so she would look for Him again.  He does not fellowship with shadow perverted, not with any imperfection as adversary had.  This would be the time of testing and the second heaven had nearly begun.

“Now He could have left her to simply choose again and again and die in her choices, but instead, in love and wisdom, He gave her over to her first choice, to go on choosing perversion, to lean into it always, as she would naturally do left to herself and without the succor of the Source of Goodness, in order to have mercy on her, so that she would understand separation from Him; that she could not do good apart from Him, not true good.”

“How is it merciful to give her over to perversion?”

“What could it be compared to?  What is it like?  Imagine that a family has two wells of water.  One is fresh and full, another is old, unused and makes the one who drinks it sick.  The father of that family instructs his children not to drink from the old well, but only the new one.  But a neighbor, who hates the father, comes in secret and tells the children not to trust their father, but to drink from the old well.  ‘He’s keeping the best water for himself, and doesn’t want you to drink any of it.’  So they break the cover on the well and drink from it, but they become sick.  Hopefully they learn from the sickness to trust their father in the future, but if they do not believe him and consider it a coincidence that they became sick, he will let them drink from it again and become sick so that they will know without a doubt that he has told them the truth and is trustworthy.  If they insist on drinking the water again, he will let them do so in order to reestablish trust.  It is a mercy.  He could punish them rightfully and force them never to drink from it again, but they would always doubt him and so he lets them see for themselves and truly learn it.  It is like that.  Is that understandable?”

“Yes, I think so.  But did she insist on eating the fruit again as the children insisted on drinking from the old well?”

“Yes, He knew she would.  The I AM looked down on all the sons of men, on all her offspring, outside the bounds of time.  He saw that all of them, apart from His succor, could not be righteous, not one could choose what is truly good and so be in harmony with Him.  Thus He gave them over to their disobedience, that they might grope for Him and cry out for restoration.  And then He could give it.

“He let her spirit, that which communed with Him, die.  The soul lived on, but would slowly die and finally the body also.

“Because of this I AM called out to her until she became old enough for love.  Her breasts formed and her shape became lovely.  She had been kicking about in her own blood, from being violated by those who passed by her, so He picked her up, put aloe on her wounds, clothed her, and cared for her, even offering to marry her.

“At first she responded and received from Him.  He gave her fine jewelry, new dresses, and trained her for royalty.  But then adversaries came and drew her away.  The I AM had washed her with clean water, scattered her enemies away from her, taken her into his home, nursed her back to health, even taken her through difficult times and rescued her from wicked enemies who had mistreated her.  But as soon as adversaries returned with false promises of royalty, she committed adultery with them.  They would beat her and mistreat her and she would cry out for Him again.  Each time she cried out, He would rescue her.  But as soon as she came home and felt secure and prosperous, she forgot Him and ran after other lovers.

“She sold herself to them.  She even paid them to have sexual relations with her, but He never stopped loving her and bringing her back, seventy times seven times He did this, but finally He threatened divorce and separated her from Him.  He gave her over to her lovers’ lust and they abused her ferociously.  Then she came back home afterwards, but He was not there.

“Instead He sent His Word because He so loved what He had made.  He came and spoke perfectly of Him.  He walked in the rightness she did not walk in.  He sent the Prince to the farthest borders, near the enemy’s territory.  He saw her again, as a little peasant girl, beaten and mistreated.  She was in the dungeon of adversaries’ castle.

“Thus the Prince was given as a ransom to die in her place.  He went into the dungeon, spoke kindly to her, and ushered her out.  Then He and His Father came and bound the adversary.  He broke out of the dungeon, conquered the adversary, and spoke to the young girl.  He called her a Princess and offered His hand in marriage.  She would now become a messenger, a messenger of her King and Husband to offer His hand to all who would receive Him from her.  Second Heaven was born.

“He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him, but to all who did receive Him, He gave them the power to become sons of I AM.  These He chose according to His foreknowledge.”

“So did He choose them because they received Him or did they receive Him because they were chosen?”

“This is the great mystery.  No words can explain this properly.  It is both.  When you step outside of time, both of these take place simultaneously, in the eternal NOW.  All that can be said is that He knows those who are His.  I AM decides, not them, yet she must receive Him.  All the work is His, she only receives Him and His work in her.”

(to be continued…)