Journey — Zenith to Nadir

And Jesus was saying to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”

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(Here we see the Lord in an amazine ONE DAY journey from the Heavenly to the Demonic!)

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Six days later, Jesus *took with Him Peter and James and John, and *brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. Peter *said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified. Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone.

When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him.

And He asked them, “What are you discussing with them?”

And one of the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.”

And He *answered them and *said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”

And he said, “From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”

And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”

Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!”

But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up.

When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?”

And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.” [Mark 9:1-8; 14-29]

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Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. [Revelation 8:3-4]

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I know that is a really LONG passage to open with, Gentle Reader. But you probably know the narratives fairly well, and perhaps you rather skimmed over them, which is fine. The matter at hand here is the “weaving together” of love, faith, and PRAYER.

At the close of the day, when Jesus appeared at the fire pit, He asked me to go to my pack and bring Him what appeared at the top of “my stuff”. What I found was a pouch with three spools of thick thread inside. One spool was of gold, like yarn. One spool was black. The last was clear.

The Lord said, “You have a friend who has spoken of the ‘loom’ of his spiritual life. You’ve used a similar paradigm for years of the weaving of a tapestry in your life, and My ability to weave the threads of time through My Matrix of Creation. Now, in this pouch are three types of the threads you give Me to weave, that you and I weave together in the tapestry of your universe.

“The Gold thread is grace, blessing, and light in your words that you offer up to God and to others, that reaches God. The Black thread is hurt, cursing, shadow in your words that you offer, usually to others, but also reaches God. The Clear thread, is nothing at all… this is doubt, unbelief, empty words that have no significance or power to them at all.

“Little Monk, I’d like you to ponder this for a bit, then consider keeping only one of these spools.”

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Now, Gentle Reader, I’m not going to belabor this post with the “Rose View” the Lord granted me as I pondered this challenge in my life. I will simply say that those ponders centered on the verses shown above. The “shorthand” connections, particularly for those who may find these of interest or who preach or teach, a couple notable points were:

• You cannot “parse” the tapestry of prayer. Prayer, love, faith, belief, and authority are all bound up together as a phenomenon in God. We can “discuss” different facets or aspects of the experience of prayer, but the Reality Itself cannot be “dissected” in that way.
• The Single Day of the Transfiguration and the Epileptic Healing, is (was) an extraordinary day.
  • Jesus had revealed His approaching Crucifixion
  • Jesus took his 3 strongest “faith partners” with Him
  • They all heard the voice of the Father
• It was the “Remnant Disciples” (those who chose NOT to go with Him), who failed to cast out the demon.
  • The boy’s father lacked faith
  • The demon did not immediately obey Jesus
  • Jesus explained the difficulty to the disciples

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And ALL of this, is bound up with “the Power of Words”, which is not a discussion for this post. But…

“Prayer” taps in to the very “authority of God Himself”, but only insofar as we have woven it with love, faith, belief, and “focus” on God and His presence. If our tapestry were made like a “quilt”, of squares we prepare… if those squares are shot through with threads of “unbelief”, or “unfaith”, they will appear incomplete, as if there were bald spots there. Empty words do not bind “power” into the prayer.

Oh, as to that last little passage, from Revelation… Jesus showed me this strange thing. Every prayer uttered… EVERY WORD addressed to or about God… is raised before the Throne to Him by angels. Jesus pointed this out as a matter I’ve never noticed before. For better or worse, this is how Prayer works, and it seemed a relevant point right here.

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Bottom Line: If one is to “pray always”, then there is accountability for the threads one binds on the loom. I chose to leave behind my spools of Black and Clear thread. I’ll not generate words of curse or of unbelief. Let me weave only with the Gold Thread.

What are you leaving behind, Gentle Reader?

Grace to thee — The Little Monk