killthestatic.com

Someone recently told me they were concerned that they didn’t really have a “specialty” in the Kingdom and didn’t really know what they excelled at. It got me thinking of several things. Let me start by saying that if this person saw what others see this would never be a question. This person does so much in the Kingdom it makes me feel like I need buy my own cape and ramp it up for myself.

Fist off it revealed to me the importance of having people in your life that act as a mirror when needed, also the importance of encouraging each other daily. The thing is though having others encourage you or tell you all the good they see in you will only get you so far. At some point you have to see it for yourself. As it is this person doesn’t have many people around them right now and is having to rely pretty much solely on Yahweh’s word to them and their own relationship as opposed to others. It is funny that we can so easily be prophetic to others but when we need it the most in ourselves we can’t seem to be our own prophet. Typically we become our own greatest critic.

It also brought into my gut the question of timing. There is a pattern and flow for everything in the Kingdom. A season for all things. I have seen this many times in my life. There are times I am very prophetic, other times I pray much in the Holy Ghost. Then there are times when it would seem that if I laid hands on a sick person they would get worse. (Of course this isn’t true. Yahweh is faithful and awesome so therefore I am too)

I do realize that there are times in my life when I can tell a draw is being put on the Christ anointing in me and my life. Things just seem to flow out. Then there are times when it would appear to be all quiet on the western front. The question here though is what happened to the anointing? Where did it go if anywhere and what does other people interaction if any have to do with it?

I began to think about the water in my faucet at home. I love hot water. I despise it when I go to get a shower or wash dishes (**cough**) and there isn’t anything there. What I love is when I turn on the hot water and boom! Through my interaction with the handle there it is! The fact is when it comes to my water it is always there. All that remains is for me to turn it on. The water never disappears. It never dries up. It is there waiting for me to make a draw. Important note-The value of my water never increases or decreases based on weather or not it is running. The value is in it being there when I or someone else needs it.

So maybe like my friend who is in a season where the main draw is from themselves it doesn’t lessen the value or importance. It doesn’t mean they don’t have a specialty or certain something we don’t all need. Maybe we need to make a draw on it. Maybe we haven’t seen the value in the priceless gift this person is. Maybe it is a season of these giftings and callings maturing. Time will tell. I do know that getting down (not the dancing kind..the bad kind..mullygrubs kind) isn’t the answer. The answer is knowing it is always there and can be activated at any time to further the Kingdom and bless the Father.

So make sure you first activate the Christ anointing in yourself. Be your own cheerleader. Build yourself up. Then do it in others. Build them up. Then take it further and draw out of them all Yahweh has put in them for you hidden like a treasure. Turn on there water faucet and watch it flow. You will both reap the rewards. And if no one is drawing on you draw on yourself. You’ll be blessed by what comes out.

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“Hey dad, smell my finger!” and so without any thought or pause I did. I still regret it. Needless to say my son had an unpleasant who-knows-what-or-from-where smell on his hand that made me gag. I don’t even want to know. Seriously.  I can’t believe how quickly I had responded without thought. He had got me good.

More on that later, moving right along….

A while back while working a long stretch of weeks and 12-14 hour days I had about had it. I wasn’t really mad at my employer. I bless them for providing me with the work, but I sure was frazzled. (Everyone should just take note right now that when you are tired or in need of a break your emotions and decisions will pay the price if you aren’t careful) I was at my wits end. I had no control. I wasn’t in control of my schedule. I couldn’t decide for myself when I got to see my family. I didn’t have a say whether or not I got to go to church or not. Life seemed to be blowing past me.

While voicing to my smoking hot wife that I had no control over my schedule and that I was tapped she made a statement that really rocked me and has stuck with me. She stated that “no matter what, when it seems you have no control or say in a matter, you can always control your response and how you respond.” Wow! What insight into my attitude.

So realizing my schedule was a finger being waved under my nose and that I was having a poor reaction without any thought I chose to change how I was reacting. I had the revelation that when all else fails I can still control how I respond. So I chose to be grateful and at the same time declaring great change and blessing over me, my schedule, and the ones who make my schedule.

How many things are there in our lives that happen out of nowhere that cause us to react without thinking. When things happen that aren’t what we would choose do we respond in the right way? Do we dictate to our emotions and soul or do they tell us how to behave?

I can tell you this…we will all have things hit us. We don’t live in a perfected world. But a Spirit led life that has been lived with great amounts sown into the Spirit will react much better than a life devoid of the Holy Ghost.

So choose to respond right. Remember you are always in control of how you respond. When the world or someone sticks there stinky finger under your nose and tells you to smell, take a moment and choose to respond right.

And if you have a son or are planning on it, never EVER smell anything they present to you. Seriously.

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This is not something you will see on this website very often, if in fact ever again. These are a few quotes from a man we have all heard about. He has changed the world in more than just a few ways, and after reading a few of these I feel it fits directly in with the vision a direction of this website.

Regards,

Kill the Static.

• “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
• “I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”
• “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
• “A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
• “Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”
• “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
• “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”
• “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
• “The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”
• “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” (Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton)

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“How did I get myself here? Sure, I was a little pretentious but a dream is a dream. It’s not like I chose to dream it, I didn’t ask for the tunic. I need to get out of this mess, out of this hole and back to my dad”. These must have been the thoughts running through Joseph’s mind sitting out in the middle of nowhere, looking up from some dirty hole in the ground and wondering just exactly what his brothers plans were for him. It’s easy to read this story and not really understand why Joseph’s brother were so mad at him. He had a few dreams that placed him in a position of authority over his brothers and eventually his whole family. That wasn’t the whole story, there was more to it than a few restless nights for his brothers. It was the tunic, the infamous “coat of many colors”, as a child I sat through many Sunday school lessons intending to use this story to show how Yahweh can use the worst situations to bring blessing. The story is good for that, what I have never heard anyone teach is why things went so bad, so quickly.

It was the tunic that sparked this fire, and it didn’t have anything to do with the colors. When Joseph told his dreams to his brothers it says “and they hated him even more”. Not a tunic of many colors but a tunic of many pieces. These extra pieces were long sleeves, the word that was translated into colors really meant “stretched out or wide” and implied a long and sleeved tunic. This wasn’t the kind of thing you could exactly do a lot of work in, It would get in the way. What the tunic really said to them was “I am my father’s favorite and he intends for me to be in charge” They saw this and knew it instantly, anger and jealously were the order of the day from that point on. These men probably had children as old as Joseph, who was he to rule over them? Yet there he was, literally wearing their fathers approval and authority. He put on that tunic and took on the burden of running the family and threw down the burden of physical labor.

A lot can be learning about what was going on in the various stories written in the bible simply by understand the importance and value of clothing during those times. Most people only had one set of clothes at the time unless they were wealthy or at least well-to-do, and shoes were a luxury. So important were certain items of clothing that they were one of the few items you were actually allowed to save from a burning house on the sabbath. The cloak for example could be given as a pledge for a loan but had to be given back before nightfall because it may be the only thing the person had to keep them warm while they sleep, it could then be taken back the next day. The Jewish courts at the time could award nearly all a persons possessions as a settlement, but never the cloak. Understanding these and other things about what was going on culturally can give tremendous insight to what they were writing about.

Another good example, and one used many times over in the scriptures is in tearing clothes to represent remorse, grief or anger. Job after hearing that all his children and possessions had been taken from him, he “arose, tore his robe and shaved his head”. The robes he was wearing was all he had left, he up to that point had been a wealthy man. His clothes would have been the nicest you could get, they would have been made of the finest material, rich in color and like Joseph’s tunic it would have been long made from large amounts of the best cloth. This would have been the Armani suit of the time. Knowing that he had nothing left to his name, he could have taken even just his outer robe and sold it and probably eaten quite well for more than just a few days. Yet he still tore it in his grief, imagine suddenly having nothing left to your name only moments ago being a wealthy man. All you have is what you were wearing and the cash in your wallet. In that wallet is several thousand dollars, you could go get a cheap hotel some food and probably be “OK” long enough to at least find some  sort of employment to survive on. On hearing the news of collapse of you empire, in a blind rage you take your wallet out and throw it into a river never to find it again. You would have ruined any chance of comfort while trying to get back on your feet.

There are so many things going on “behind the scenes” in what we read in the bible and honestly as it relates to a written word, there is just no good way to gain a complete understanding of what the person was trying to communicate. You don’t know the tone of his voice, if he was rolling his eyes or the level of importance that the author was putting on the topic he was writing about. There is no body language or facial expressions and punctuation can only translate so much emotion to the reader. But with at least a rudimentary understanding of the day to day activities in the lives of the people, you can read and even understand the subtle points of what is being represented by the words in front of you. The simplest of phrases can take on a deep and valuable meaning, it can change the entire direction of what we always thought was true.

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Ugh, I’m sick….again! Seriously how many times am I going to have to go through this. I remember a conversation I had with my dad. I was trying to explain an idea of over coming sickness I had, long before  any idea of revelation or an open communication with Holy Spirit was part of my life. I was busy telling him that I could convince my body to stop being sick. He said something to me that I didn’t understand then, but I do now with a new clarity. He said, “Well I see what you are trying to say, but you will forget”.

At the time I was almost insulted, but I let it go. I can in all honesty look at various points through out the last few years that I came to that revelation, in differing degrees of fullness. Each time I went through  periods of good health, watching people around me becoming ill with whatever bug was going around. If I did get sick it would only be for a day or even a few hours.  I would continue on like this happy in my well being for awhile then all the sudden, BAM I would be sick.

So as I sit here, blowing my nose and sucking down the NyQuil before bed I was struck with a sudden thought. Maybe I was sick so that I could remember what I once knew but had forgotten.  We talk about different trials and difficulties in our life, we attribute some to attack, some to lack of wisdom and insight, and some to just a natural reason. These bodies are after all still subject to the laws of the world, spiritual though we may be.

Maybe, just maybe we need to be reminded sometimes of lessons we have learned. We get so used to using the calculator that we forget how to do long division.  So now I set my resolve, speak health over my body and my family. I will try to never forget again what I have learned so many times before.

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Edit:

I repent for writing a few things that I wrote in this article. I DO NOT believe that Yahweh made me sick nor do I believe he would make anyone sick. I was sick because I repented of my repentance. I forgot the revelation of healing that I had.

That and that alone is why my body has been subject to illness lately. It is not a mistake I will make again. I stand as the path to healing for my family as the head of the household and I will not block that path by allowing my self to be sick.

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Today I get to celebrate the anniversary of my wife’s birthday. It is a funny time this go around since my schedule won’t allow for secretly running around for gifts and the likes. Also, this year living away from any friends or family we don’t have any sitters so no date night. Understand I am not complaining, just pointing out how different this year is. This December I will have been gone from home for 1 year! Can you believe it? 8 months of that were without my smoking hot wife and children. I am so grateful to have them with me now.

Back to the main reason for this writing- My wife Faith is celebrating a birthday today. She is the most amazing woman you will ever meet. There are some things you who know her still may not know about her. She has trophies and awards for basketball. She was also a sprinter back in the day. To this day I won’t play basketball with her so as not to show my inadequacies. She has visited several different countries. Before we got married I gave her a jar of coins to help send her to Russia. It was secretly a bribe. She knew it and still took the money.

She is a wonderful cook. For fun she reads cooking magazines. While eating a meal we just cooked she will talk about then next meal or one she remembers. She plays piano. Yeah it has been a while but it is still there. She also use to sing publicly. One day she will lead in music and help direct the prophetic flow. She has a beautiful voice. She loves some pretty hardcore bands (thank God) and is also a lover of R&B songs. Back At One- Brian McKnight Helloooo??

Her sense of humor is almost frustrating. She looooves romantic comedies and will laugh when people fall or drop stuff no matter how many times she sees it. One time she woke me up shaking the bed laughing while watching True Lies for like the 17^th time. She tells very corny jokes that she thinks are funny. I laugh at her laughing at herself. It is great.

Spiritually speaking she is a giant. She has been healed of a disease related to her thyroid and never looked back. She has spoken over people who have been healed. She moves prophetically and has an insight that is so poignant that at times it hurts.

My frustration (leave it to me to air a frustration in a birthday post) is that she doesn’t always see herself as she really is. I know we all do this so it isn’t a fault; I just am excited for her to see what I see. A woman who has faced adversity. A woman who married a man when others told her I wasn’t the one. A spiritual creation with the anointing to speak to the heavens and see movement on earth. Someone who has walked out of and left behind all the fears most people put up with. A beautiful lady who has qualified herself through perseverance and faithfulness.

Honey, you have stuck with me through 12 years now and every year you increase in faith as well as authority (and hotness).You have not only stayed by my side but are raising 3 passionate children as well as facing the logistic of being away from your home nest.

I know Yahweh has so much more for you. That is something knowing how great it is now. You’ve got nothing to fear. You have stared it all down and won. You are called to so much I hope I can keep up.

I love you all ways, always. I would not and could not be who I am without you. You are the balancing half of my equation. Happy birthday babe- Meet you when the kids nap?

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So there I was, that’s my favorite way to start a story. There’s just so much potential, so much that could follow that. Again, so there I was. Happily plugging along through my day as a cable guy. When I came to an enclosure I needed to open, it was ground level and it looked like it had not been opened for a long time. When I did open it, inside was a giant red wasp nest! Wasps crawling all around it obviously agitated by this new occurrence. I was however unafraid, two months ago this would have sent me running away like a little girl to fetch my can of hornet spray.

Why was it so different you ask? Well the weather is different, it’s colder wasps are harmless when it’s cold. they can’t move fast enough or even really fly to sting my delicate skin.

So my point in saying all that is that the circumstances in our life exist within an environment, and the current state of that environment has a whole lot more to do with how the given circumstance effects us than the circumstance it self.  If I have prepared myself to face the day ahead of me, then the things that may come to shake me are given an observed response and quickly disarmed, not a knee jerk reaction that ends up making more of a mess out of an already potentially bad situation.

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Here I am three days in to this, and I’m still just pressing in. Praying much in the Holy Spirit, and expecting greatness to just spew forth from me. Well let me tell you brother, sometimes greatness comes in the most mundane packages.

I was talking this over with my mom, yes my mom. I’m 29 years old with a wife and two kids and I still call on the experiences and wisdom of my parents. She said something that just hit me like a ton of bricks.

Max “blah blah blah not going as planned”
Mom “maybe you’re just learning how to be spiritual in the mundane things”

BAM! There it was, I couldn’t believe it, it was so simple, so elegant, and more importantly it was right on. I had overlooked what is possibly one of the most important habits I will ever learn. How to be spiritual when nothing else is, after all if I can’t be spiritual while cutting the grass. How will I ever learn to handle the bigger issue in life with the grace and wisdom needed? So I will continue on the path laid before me, confident in the fact that it will lead somewhere. It may not be grandiose, but it will be the destination that was planned from the beginning.

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Astonishingly uneventful, very busy day at work and I got sidetracked like crazy. It’s a good lesson, even the most well intentioned people are still human and will fall short from time to time. I keep waiting for that crazy command like “Max, I’m going to need you to go over there and give that cashier a cupcake.” I suppose I’m looking too deeply into something is really only about a choice for obedience.

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If you have been keeping up, you will know that today is the first day of my one week commitment to Holy Spirit, a commitment of complete unquestioning obedience. You can read more about it here and here. What I am starting to understand about the season that I’m in, is that a lot of people around me are in the same place. I hope this helps them understand what’s coming.

After the harvest there are two steps before the grain is stored, the first is the threshing. The threshing is a violent process, it was done with either a flail beating the grain and straw. By oxen walking on the grain and straw to separate the two, or in later years with a threshing sledge. This was all a means to separate the grain that was valuable to the people for food and trade, from the straw for the animals.

Then there is the winnowing, this is where I am. The winnowing was done at the end of the day when there was a cool breeze. The grain and straw that remained after the threshing was gathered into a pile and prepared for its last moment of chaos. This chaos is not a painful time, but really for me it represents a refreshing time.

The straw and grain was thrown into the air and caught by the breeze, the breeze would pick up the straw and blow it to the side, the grain carried enough weight to fall back to the floor.I feel like things are up in the air right now, I look around me and see the bits and pieces of a few situations flying around. All I have to do is let that breeze move through me, let the Spirit of Yahweh do his work and when it is all said and done, everything that remains is of value. Everything that was blown away is fit for animal fodder.

So I encourage you, in that time when you feel you have been waiting for too long. When it seems like there is no end for your current situation. Stop, press in, and wait for the breeze. That’s what this week is about for me, learning how to feel the breeze. Learning how to move past what my mind is telling, and just let Holy Spirit move in to the situation.

Edit:

Something I missed when writing this originally was that this is really the last step in the current harvest season. At least in a spiritual sense, I think this is where we tend to drop of in our tenacity. We sense the current task is near completion and tend to slack of a bit. How can we go on to the new harvest leaving work undone? We can’t, not without robbing ourselves of the peace that we so badly need and deserve. Certainly not without risking our own walk, and dooming ourselves to live in circles.

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