Hi all,
Some personal news first: Many of you received our email of March 4 about the death of our middle son, Jason, on February 28, following a fall and head injury. Brian and Amy were able to be at his bedside in the Philippines during his home-going, and we are very thankful for that. We know he is with the Lord, but his sudden home-going was…so difficult.
Thank you for your emails and donations which are helping to defray expenses involved in Brian and Amy flying there on a moments notice, transporting his remains from the Philippines to the US for burial, and state-side expenses. They have been a huge help. He will be buried with military honors in Tulsa once everything is coordinated. Thank you for your prayers!
Some have asked about Chris and his new group home – there has been yet another delay as we await the State’s final inspection and certification of the new home. Thank you for your prayers. Chris is excited, and demonstrating more patience with the process than I am that’s for sure!
We had 2 wonderful Zoom meetings this past week, with friends in many nations taking part. Each one was different though working off the same outline/study, and some of the questions people asked were pretty deep, but deepened our awe of the Lord. Thank you to those who took the time to join us!
KWOWI – I love the reports from Kenya, see the above update. Thank you for your generous support of the children of KWOWI, and our efforts to bring life and business principles to our CWOWI people there. I also want you to know our Lagos, Nigeria house churches are doing well too, in the midst of difficult times there.
Patterns in the heavens:
A couple weeks ago on my weekly YouTube short teaching I shared how Moses built the tabernacle and its furnishings in the wilderness according to the pattern he saw while in the Spirit with the Lord. We are to pray the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, meaning we like Moses perceive things in the Spirit, and those are translated into earthly results. Moses was told in Exodus 25:40: “…and you will make them according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.”
The Hebrew word for pattern is ‘tabnith’ and means ‘form, figure, likeness, pattern, plan, model’. When that verse is quoted in Hebrews 8:5 the Greek word used is ‘typon’ which is where we get ‘type’, as in: “This is the type of car we need for our family.” The Greek word was used to describe a resemblance or sample of, in figure or pattern of. Neither of these words insists on an exact duplicate. Moses was to build the tabernacle according to a pattern he saw in heaven.
Imagine the problems Moses had…
…when he saw the perfect model in heaven, and had to follow that pattern in 1400BC, in a desert, having only what wood he could find, animal skins, melted down jewelry of gold and silver, and some linen. But he was trying to make the Father’s will done on earth as it is in heaven. Solomon would later upgrade the material* used to stone blocks, purely refined gold and silver, precious stones, city-made fine tapestries, and finely machined woodwork. But both were patterns of what Moses saw in heaven, but separated by 400+ years, the materials changed somewhat. They were interpretations of what Moses was shown based on what they had, rather than exact duplicate. *I Kings 6 and I Chronicles 22
Similarly we can look at the differences between interpretation and translation. A translation is an exact, word for word, inflection for inflection, repeat of one language into another. An interpretation, such as the interpretation of tongues, allows for the interpreter to give their input, their opinion, their idea of the main point trying to be communicated. That is why in the gifts of the Spirit like the interpretation of tongues, the grammar a person uses may be King James English – ‘thus saith the Lord’. Or it may be something like: “The Lord say y’all need to get along right nice.” That isn’t a translation, it is the interpretation, so it flows through a person’s education, culture and how they normally talk, but it communicates the core truth, the essence of what the Lord is trying to say.
Moses was told to make it ‘according to the pattern/form/likeness shown to you on the mountain’. God didn’t expect an exact translation, but an interpretation, for how could one see the perfect in heaven and make that with mere earthly materials?
Consider the problems we have…
The Lord shows us His will, His pattern in heaven that He has for our life. We sense what the future can be. We see what could be for our children. We see what heaven has for a relationship of what could be. We are part of a business and see what it could be – what heaven sees as the perfect, mature, complete vision and will. We receive the kernel of truth, the core of the truth that heaven says could be, and then we try to make our life, our child’s life, our friend’s life, our business’s life, according to the pattern shown us in heaven.
So we pray that for a loved one. We pray God’s highest and best for them, according to the perfection we have in our heart for them. It may be something other than a person. We see what a house can look like all finished, or what our marriage can be, or we have in our hearts what a business or ministry can become, as we see or perceive heaven’s perfect and mature vision. When Moses saw the heavenly pattern the Father certainly knew whatever Moses constructed would not be an exact translation of heaven to earth. It would have to be an interpretation – the same with Solomon and his very solid temple structure he built. The Father knew what was revealed in heaven was the perfect, complete, best case scenario; His perfect and best will, and that the results on earth will never rise to the level. Indeed, what is seen in heaven is perfect and there is no way earth can achieve heaven’s level of perfection.
Jesus demonstrated this when He was questioned about marriage and divorce. Jesus told them divorce was also given by God along with marriage; “…because of the hardness of men’s hearts. But in the beginning it was not so.” (Matthew 19: 8, Mark 10: 5) This is just one situation where Jesus stated God’s will on earth – His pattern for marriage – was not always achieved on earth. Therefore the Father provided divorce to allow the innocent spouse to start anew. (Deuteronomy 24: 1-4)
Paul’s assistant Demas is mentioned 3 times in his letters. In Philemon v24 he says he is a fellow laborer in the Lord along with Mark and Luke. In Colossians 4:14 Paul writes that Luke and Demas greet them. But Paul’s last letter, just before his execution, in II Timothy 4:10 he writes that Demas ‘has forsaken me because he loves this present world.’ Some early writers say Demas returned to his home town of Thessalonica, away from the threat of death, to live an easier life. Perhaps our first instinct when we read Paul’s letter that he loved this present world we think of going off into sin. Church tradition suggests he was afraid of martyrdom and ran away to live an easier life outside the intense persecution in Rome. Demas had been walking in heaven’s best, God’s pattern for his life, and then he walked away. What happened to him is lost to history. Some people will back away from the pattern for their life heaven has shown them. They may settle for something less, but Demas no doubt still loved the Lord, but fear and loving his earth-life made him take the easy route for his life.
When earth’s imperfections meet God’s perfection in our hearts
This can mean the Lord shows us what heaven has for our child, spouse, business, ministry, home, and often it is large, far-reaching, and very grand. We may write books that we sense in our spirit will reach masses of people, but earth’s reality is that it reaches only a relative few. But we must realize God-breathed books and music He gives us live forever for they are of the Spirit. They will be read and listened to in the age(s) to come by many more than in this age. We write, we sing, we plan according to the pattern shown to us in our spirit, realizing earth’s best is far below heaven’s least. But we followed the pattern shown us, and that is what matters in eternity.
The appearance of what is translated according to the pattern we saw in heaven, like Moses, may be very different looking than what we ‘saw’ in heaven (in our spirit). A business may struggle but it is still following the pattern. A child may know the Lord, but not walk in the fullness of what heaven has. A marriage or friendship can be of God, but not exactly fulfill the pattern we have in our spirit knowing what it could be. We are on earth, so it won’t be heaven’s perfection.
In this we must realize it is our loved one’s imperfections that make them perfect.
The Lord has a habit of showing us heaven’s highest and best, and what can be. When the slaves were in Egypt He sent Moses to tell them He had provided a homeland flowing with milk and honey. But every one of them died in the wilderness except for Joshua and Caleb, because they stepped back from the highest and best in unbelief and hardness of heart.
The prophets told Israel repeatedly how blessed they would be if they will just follow the laws God had laid out for them. The Lord even told them if they obeyed Him their days and that of their children would be ‘as heaven on earth.’ Deuteronomy 11: 19-21
This is all normal. Our imperfections allow us to know sin, and grace, that the glory would be His and not ours. Again consider how difficult it would have been for Moses in about 1400BC in a desert, to translate what he saw in heaven into earthly animal skins, tapestry, wood and gold. There is no way what he saw in heaven could have been exactly duplicated here on earth. Even Paul said he did not count himself to have ‘attained’ that perfection in Philippians 3: 12. But just 4 verses later, in v16, he said: “Nevertheless, that to which we have attained, let us walk in that.” Walk in the light we have, realizing no person, relationship, business or ministry will in this life fully achieve the pattern we see in our spirits. But walk in, love, that which we do have.
Rest in what you have in your spirit if it is just the kernel of what God said it would or could be. In people, love that core truth of heaven you perceive in your loved one. Love that. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:9 when Peter, James, and John ‘perceived the grace’ in Paul and Barnabas, they gave the hand of fellowship, and agreed they would continue to minister to the Jews while Paul and Barnabas continued serving the Gentiles. Peter would later write some of what Paul writes is hard to understand – but he loved the core kernel of heaven’s truth in Paul’s life, calling him ‘our beloved brother Paul’. II Peter 3: 15-16 Love the core of heaven’s truth in a person. Perceive it, love it, for that is Christ in them.
The Lord may show us what heaven has for our spouse, whether a believer or not, but no one attains to perfection this side of heaven. Yet the core of heaven’s truth will be realized on earth. That spouse has those core elements that make you love them. That child has more heaven-given potential than they will ever reach in this life – but they will attain to the core elements of it. Fill in the blank; Marriage, friendship, parenting, education, job, church, business, government – God can show us His perfection in heaven, and we want His will to be done on earth as in heaven – but we all attain to just part of those higher ways. The reasons are simple: The glory is to be His and not ours, and we are already in eternity, meaning those higher things will mostly come to pass in the future. In a glorified body, with the devil bound, with Jesus ruling on earth, then we can truly walk in all the intelligence, creativity, gifts and talents He has created us with.
So take heart, love the kernel of truth, the core elements of heaven you see in yourself, your friend, your spouse, your job, school, business, ministry, and life in general. Be encouraged with the kernel of truth that IS happening, the core truth of God’s promises to you. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you are disappointing the Lord if what you see in your spirit, ‘on the mount’ isn’t exactly according to the wholeness and fullness you saw. Rest in what is there.
Thank you for your prayers and support. We know Jason is in heaven, and many of you have also lost a spouse, a child, a loved one so can empathize.
We truly love and appreciate you!
Blessings! John & Barb, Brian & Amy
