Living From The Heart01.02.20081
Weekly ConversationLarry Napier and Alex Loyd
Living from the Heart
Weekly Conversations
January 2, 2008
Larry Napier and Alex Loyd
Dr. Alex Loyd: I want to apologize. I don’t think I’ve been here the last three weeks. A week or two I’ve had conflicts that made it difficult. Last week I just forgot. I had a lot of family holiday stuff. I apologize for not being here.
Larry Napier: I wanted to pick up where we were last week, but it will tie in with the question that was just being addressed. Alex and I had some conversation this morning that was really beneficial.
Kaye Palenchar: Would you mind repeating the questions you were discussing before? I just got here. I’m not sure if others got the question in the first place or not.
Larry Napier: Alex was asked to answer the question about what he was saying earlier and his prayer as he was growing in this. He was becoming more and more aware of the self-centeredness of his prayers. That if he would approach God he was really approaching God. Basically it fits for all of us. It has to. There’s no temptation that comes to Alex that doesn’t come to us. It’s the very essence of what the Lord’s going after in all of us. As we move closer to him we’re going to become increasingly aware of our self-centeredness. It can’t keep from happening. That’s what it’s all about. We’ve got to decrease and we have to increase. What Alex was touching was how much of his prayers and his asking from God for specific areas of things, requests, was really based off of what his heart wanted and not in the fact that he was in fellowship with the Lord, but he was trying to control the Lord with prayer.
We will grow by God’s grace in increasing awareness about him. It’s not about us. Our biggest problem from growth is we keep trying to say, “How does this apply to me?” I’m telling you, asking how the scripture applies to you is in the way of you being able to get the light that is in the scripture. I know from years of experience. This is not about me. This is about Jesus. If I focus on Jesus the Holy Spirit makes the personal application to me.
We don’t even have the foggiest idea of how self-centered we are. I mean not even remotely and from such a simple place. How much is a baby sucking its mother’s breast in deep intellectual thought of how they apply this truth to themselves?
Our problem is our left-side soulish orientation, trying to get our hands intellectually around this. I tell you I come increasingly to scripture and start with, “God, I don’t understand this.” I know from things I say people think “You must have spent a whole lot of time figuring this stuff out.” I haven’t spent a dime of time figuring it out. I can’t figure it out. I don’t have the capacity to figure it out. Scripture is not written for my soul. It’s written for my heart. It’s a foreign language to my soul. As long as I’m trying to do it like I read a history book I’m not going to get there. This is not a history book. It is a living book and it’s spirit.
Let me go one place. This is going to be developing over a process of some time for us. I’m being absolutely stunned right now. I can’t articulate enough what is taking place inside me with this revelation about dust. It’s going to become increasingly real to us. I don’t want to go there much right now. I need much more time to ponder it. It is huge. It is a major piece of this big, big, big picture that has been lost. I’m almost saying, “We’ve lost the revelation of our hearts.” The next is “We’ve lost the revelation of dust.” It’s almost that big to me.
It’s fundamentally this. One of the things that would be extremely helpful – I would love sometime to see a Bible that is written like the Hebrew says a name. We use names as labels. The Hebrew does not. Hebrew used words to describe action. Every time we see the word, “Adam” if we were saying that word accurately in Hebrew we would not say “Adam”, we’d say “Out of the Ground”. Isn’t that amazing? God called this thing that he had just breathed into this mass of clay that he’d formed out of the “dust of the ground”. It’s not the ground, but “the dust of the ground”. It’s important. He shaped and formed that clay ball into – think of a Greek statue laying there in clay. He breathed into it the breath of lives. Man became a living soul out of the ground. And he called him, “Out of the Ground”. If we did that, if we always viewed ourselves as out of the ground do you think it would help us at least a little bit with humility?
The essence of it is: here are two terms. I’ll get it in writing for you so that you can get your hands around it a little bit more. It’s become very, very clear to me. God breathed into – can you all get this picture right quick. I’m going to go over here and try to do something right fast (to computer).
(Reading) It’s essential that we understand that until God had an “out of the ground one”.
Are you getting this? We need to watch this carefully. The Lord turns to yatsar (remember that word. You need to get that idea in your being so you know that yatsar means to image, to form, to shape, to imagine). God imaged out of the dust of the red earth. We need to watch this action carefully. You notice I did say “watch it” not listen to it. I assume if I can’t do this slow enough or well enough that you can see what I’m saying then you need to go back there in Genesis 2:5 in some of your own prayer and meditation time. Go there and see this in action. The Lord God -- it’s not God. God is Genesis 1 -- this fiat being. When it comes time to deal with the creation of man it’s the Lord God, personal. It’s personal as it can get. The personal God, not just the Creator God, but the Lord God takes this dust and it’s moist because he’s keeping the top of the ground moist to take care of the seeds that were planted. He forms that clay, shapes it and breathes into it the breath of “lives”. Remember it’s plural.
I want to define that two different ways. If others have suggestions of better ways to do this, just give me help. Give me words. I’m asking the Lord for words that will communicate. He breathes into that clay the breath of lives. The first form of life is enlightened life. That is spirit alive, spiritual life enlightened. And man becomes a living soul, an activated soul. The distinction we’re going to want to make is there’s a huge difference between being enlightened and activated. It’s what? It’s enlightened dust; activated dust. We don’t ever stop being the dust. He always is the one who brings the life. Enlightened dust and activated dust is dust that he gives dominion over the rest of the dust. Lord over the dust.
I’ve been saying, “Lord, how do I do this. I’ve got it. Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Dust. I need to get to know the Lord of the Dust.” I’ll show you a verse on another time that will blow your mind of why God is so incredibly gracious to every one of us on this phone right now. He has declared himself in Psalm 103 that he had already removed (think Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world) he has already removed perfectly all our transgression from us as far as the east is from the west because he remembers constantly that we are but dust.
He knows who we are. We don’t know who we are. We’re trying to be something. We were created to be enlightened and activated dust as co-rulers with him over everything that is created out here, but only in that relationship. So what happens when Adam and Eve eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? The tree of independence. Now they know good independently of God. Now they know evil independently of God. As we said before the deception is I think the good I know is the Tree of Life. The good I know may very well be just knowledge from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that my soul has.
When the Holy Spirit leaves the human spirit of Adam and Eve they’re no longer enlightened dust, but they’re still activated dust and they live as activated dust, Adam does, for 930 years. The soul of man is activated dust, isn’t it? His spirit is still in every single person that’s alive on this planet – has to be. God says, “If I take my spirit from you, you go back to dust.” Why? Because he’s the source of life. We’re just dust. He’s life.
But he created us for fellowship with him. He created us in his image. We’ll deal with that another time. That doesn’t mean like him. That means a shadow of him. Something like him, a representation of him. He wanted a representative in the earth. That’s not the reality. He’s the reality. Out of that context comes this whole flow of life.
The minute that enlightenment stops we’ve got an activated soul. Every person born has an activated soul. Scripture tells us “You can’t understand the things of the spirit of God because they are understood by the spirit.” The whole thing about Jesus saying, “My words are spirit and life” are to wake us up again, bring us to enlightenment. Now God knows who we are.
I’m going to hop one place and then hop out of here. I don’t want to stay here for this whole call. I’ve got another place I’d like to go. Then some of you may have questions or comments. Alex may have some input here.
The fundamental place I want to go to is 2 Corinthians 3. My problem (this is not an apologetic. It just is.) I’m having real difficulty finding out where to land and to not overload everybody’s circuits. It is really, really critical that we are growing in the revelation of who Jesus is. Don’t worry about you. I promise you that you will not get behind in your life because you learn more about who Jesus is instead of who you are. I promise you – you will not be behind in any thing. He said, “Seek the kingdom first.” Your Father already knows. That’s the essence of what Alex was saying. I’m coming here with my list before God. Guess what? He has better plans for you, bigger plans for you, knows what you need more than you know. He’s saying, “If you just seek me, seek fellowship with me, seek my kingdom and my righteousness, most of the things you’re worried about you’ll forget about. I’ll take care of the ones I don’t want you to forget about.” That’s the essence of what it’s all about.
Jesus keeps getting up in the morning to find out what his instructions are for the day. Out of that context here’s what I want to go to in 2 Corinthians 3. Essentially it’s 3 and 4 to take us into “The fullness of the revelation of the high priestly ministry of Jesus.” It says that God has made us adequate; not that we’re adequate in ourselves (please hear this. We’re dust.) …to consider anything as coming from ourselves. How can dust consider anything as coming form itself? We come form the ground. We’ve been given this wonderful gift to rule over the ground. Every place that we live we’ve been given dominion to rule over that ground if we come into the awareness that we are enlightened dust. That we’ve been placed there to be illuminated dust in fellowship with the Lord of the Dust. He purposely created it this way to let us know total dependency. It’s an incredible picture.
I said do Alex this morning, we’re talking about nanotechnology, quantum physics. In Bible vocabulary before all that kind of thing was discovered there was nothing more small and spoke the essence of smallness other than dust. The dust is the most fine part there can possibly be of the earth – dust.
Now what’s staggering is this. 2 Corinthians 3: 4-5. It says he’s made us adequate, not that we’re adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but he himself has absolutely, point of fact, made us adequate. Every one of is adequate for whatever he has called us to as servants of the new covenant, the one of the spirit. It’s not from us. It’s not us. We are one spirit with Christ, but that’s his. Here’s the staggering thing, the word for servant. “Diakonos” – laborers in the dust. How many of the deacons where you go to church view themselves as “laborers in the dust”? Can you imagine that? That’s the root of that word. There’s only one commentary that even touches it because that’s not the view of left-brained academic men studying scripture. That’s only revelation of the big picture of the Holy Spirit.
Now you take that picture that those who are ministering the new covenant are ministering as enlightened dust; totally dependent servants in the dust. Now you go have Jesus wash the dust off your feet. Where is he when he’s washing the dust off your feet? He’s being a dust-worker of the new covenant. He’s being a minister of the new covenant – that is to take the dust off other people’s feet that don’t know. ______Those that are contaminated have these things.
I had two hours of dust this morning. My prayer time was the slowest time I’ve had in a long time and a real restful place for me to say, “Lord, right now I don’t know what it is, but there’s plenty of dust in my system this morning. I’m so grateful that you clean out the dust. You wash my feet. You get that dust out. My interior is clean because of your words.” Jesus on the floor in front of you with a towel wrapped around him and his clothes off is the purest picture in all of scripture of 2 Corinthians chapter 3. “You have been made adequate as servants in the dust. Dust-servants of the new covenant.” Out of that comes this ministry of life.
That’s a pretty awesome place. I’m looking for something to read for you on that. It’s pretty amazing.
2 Corinthians 3 – An interpretation of what I see there based off of Genesis 2:5
“Lord, you have caused us to be adequate, sufficient, present active as absolute fact as when laboring in the dust, serving as dust, in dust and to dust in the power of the new covenant. Not of what dust can do with the words of God (not of the letter), but what God does by his Spirit to and through enlightened and activated dependent dust.” That’s our highest place. Jesus comes. We’re conformed into his image because that is exactly Jesus role in the earth. He walked that out and then was glorified, resurrected for the dead, glorified. As the Apostle of our Confession there has nobody ever walked out what we’re talking about remotely like Jesus did.
He said it over and over, “I’m not here to do anything but serve.” Now we know what serve really means, guess what? How can you get more humble than Jesus got? You can’t it’s not even possible. Now we know what his view was that enabled him to have that great relationship with the Father, absolutely glorious.
I’ll finish this sentence. “Serving as dust (available dust, enlightened dust) in dust (we’re in the dust) and to dust (every person we meet the rest of life.) What we know about them may be more than they know about themselves that they are activated dust. They may not be enlightened dust. If they are enlightened dust, which all of us on this phone call are, we’re not remotely as enlightened as we need to be. That’s what grace is about. We grow and continue to look at this High Priest and the glory of God that’s in his face.
The rest of this says, “For written words that activated dust (ie. soul) ignorantly embraces in a vain attempt to demonstrate life….” There’s no way in the world that the soul can do anything but a cheap imitation of what the soul perceives to be a Christian.
We talked about this last week. A human can’t be a Christian. Only the Father in Jesus was living the life that later became described as “Christ-life” and then years later Christians began to be called Christians as a form of derision. It’s not a term that Paul uses for himself. He didn’t call himself a Christian. He called himself “one that died with Christ, was raised with Christ… nevertheless I live.” You know what Paul viewed himself. We’ve got this term Christian like, “Are you one?” Well, I’m not. I can’t be one. I don’t have the capacity to be one. It’s two whole life forms above me. But I’ve been born above. A Christ person is living in me. That’s the whole point here.
“Written words that activated dust ignorantly embraces in a vain attempt to demonstrate life are in absolute fact killing while they’re being read.” I hope you hear that. That’s a broadened expression of “The letter kills”. When does it kill? Present active tense, it says in the Greek. Are you reading your Bible right now? It may be killing you instead of building you. How can that be? If it’s the soul saying “How do I apply this myself? Thank you God for writing it, but I’ve got to apply it?” That’s a killing verse. It’s not a living verse even if it says, “God loves me.” How do I appropriate that love? No. It’s a declaration. He does love you. Deal with it from the heart, from the cross and there’s no debate about whether he loves me. That’s the whole essence here.