In Today’s Corrupted World
After having my eyes opened in 2002, I’ve studied and written extensively about The Way. But I’m not yet living it.
Why? Am I a hypocrite? A philanderer? A Pharisee? Weak “in my faith”?
To the last, I’ll say yes. I’m weak in the Faith because I’m not living The Way. Grace does not manifest in my life in extraordinary ways because I’m not living The Way. Sadly, this can be said of almost all “believers.”
A disclaimer: Yes, I’ve tried in the past to live “The Way.” I failed. The world, my acquaintances, my wife (at the time), my family…all came against me with a vengeance when I attempted to live The Way.
Why? Because to live The Way is the ultimate threat to those who are of the world and to the powers and principalities.
But Yeshua said, “Be of good cheer – for I have overcome the world.” In other words, “Don’t be disheartened! I have overcome the world as a man – and you also can overcome the world.”
1 Corinthians 13 tells us that without agape’, we’re nothing. Agape is the Spirit of un-self and the Love of the Truth all rolled up in one Spirit. Yeshua said, “There is no greater love than this – that a man would lay down his life for his friends.” Agape means to lay down our lives so that others can see the truth. This is the essence of the Spirit of YHWH at work.
So, stepping back a bit, what right do I have to talk or write about walking in The Way if I’m not doing it myself? First, I’ve tried and failed – and learned by my mistakes. Second, I’ve learned that I can not do it alone. It takes two or more who are united in Him by agape’ in His Way. And that is scriptural. And third, I know that I must walk in the Way and stick with it before I sleep the sleep. Otherwise, my belief is groundless – and dead.
I won’t provide the Scriptural proofs for what I’m saying here because I already did in the book that I wrote that is entitled “On the Way” (http://www.thewayoftruth.net/on-the-way/). So I’ll move forward to the subject of this chapter:
…How to actually live The Way in today’s corrupted world.
I would say that given the state of the world that we live in that there are several possible ways to live The Way, depending on our circumstances.
Can it be done? I would say yes, with a great deal of difficulty and self-sacrifice. But isn’t the Way difficult and isn’t self-sacrifice the same as laying down our lives for our friends? I would say, and Scripture says, yes.
So, let’s examine a few ways that we may be able to live The Way.
Way #1 – In the City
I’m starting with probably the most difficult way because most of us probably fall into this category. Let me say up front that I believe, from Scripture, that living The Way is to be un-entangled from self and the things of the world. Yes, this means electricity, machines, plastics – all the things that go against YHWH’s natural laws and that we all take for granted as “conveniences.”
But how can we live without these things? Well, we would have to learn to live without them. But first we would need to have our understanding opened so that we see, in the Scriptures, what Jeremiah was saying when he wrote: “Stand in the ways and see, and look for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”
I would recommend beginning with hard core minimization. Clean house of everything that is un-natural (yes, TVs, computers, refrigerators, ranges, washers, dryers, microwaves, all manufactured items, etc.). Learn to live very simply. Paul wrote, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” We should read the rest of that chapter – line by line – if we’re not convicted then there is something seriously wrong with our faith. What are we hanging on to because it is convenient? Did Yeshua say, “Convenient is the Way…”?
Next, invite others to sell their homes and possessions and come and live with you. Form a leadership and collect whatever money is gained from selling the homes and distribute the money to true believers who have debt. Why? “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?” Don’t believe me – read the Scriptures! Debt is a bond of wickedness, a heavy burden, an oppression, and a yoke. We are explicitly called to deliver others from their bondage. Yeshua said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” No one can serve two masters, so we must deliver others from the worldly master so that they can be free to serve the true Master.
Jerusalem was a great city at the time that The Way was born among those who believed. There were rich men and poor men among the believers of Acts Chapter 2 (and Chapter 4). Yet, look carefully…”No one considered anything their own…no one had need…they ate their bread with joy and simplicity of heart…” and on and on. “And great grace was upon them all.” LOOK AT THIS!!! What do we want? Really, what do we want? Comfort? Or great grace?
There are two types of comfort, and one of them is not of The Way.
Self-comfort is of the spirit of self, of the spirit of the world, and of self preservation. It stores up into barns, it concerns itself with tomorrow, it tends to be legalistic (our “own righteousness”), and it produces two deaths. Neither of these deaths is the death to self.
On the other hand, the comfort of un-self is the manifestation of the power of the presence of YHWH in our everyday lives: “…and great grace was upon them all.” It is the comfort of His Spirit that answers obedience by dwelling with us as long as we walk in His Way, continue in it, overcome, and persevere.
So, returning to The Way in the city, I believe that it can be done to begin with, but eventually those who do this will need to move away and flee to a remote place. The city will vomit them out.
Why? Think about the laws, ordinances, and zoning, and statutes that exist within city limits. Having clean food and water is a real issue. Who’s tried to raise clean animals and veggies in the city lately? How’s that working out for you? How about sanitation? Have we thought about how man’s sanitation system is destroying the works of YHWH’s hands? Think about it – everything that we flush or that goes down any of our drains is adding to the destruction of the Earth of YHWH. We may want to take a look at Rev. 11:18 about who Yeshua and His Saints are coming to destroy:
“The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,
And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,
And those who fear Your name, small and great,
And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”
Who are they coming to destroy? “Those who destroy the Earth.” Who is destroying the Earth? We are.
Before you object, let’s take a look at the Essenes as written by Josephus about their sanitation practices. Don’t jump to conclusions – we’re going to look at some Word and some natural science and apply it to the following:
“Moreover, they are stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on the seventh day; for they not only get their food ready the day before, that they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they will not remove any vessel out of its place, nor go to stool thereon. Nay, on other days they dig a small pit, a foot deep, with a paddle (which kind of hatchet is given them when they are first admitted among them); and covering themselves round with their garment, that they may not affront the Divine rays of light, they ease themselves into that pit, after which they put the earth that was dug out again into the pit; and even this they do only in the more lonely places, which they choose out for this purpose; and although this easement of the body be natural, yet it is a rule with them to wash themselves after it, as if it were a defilement to them.” Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, 2.8.14 vs. 9
That’s right – they didn’t have a sanitation system. They each carried a little shovel tied to their belt, and when they had to “go”, they would go to a remote place (further study will reveal that they had specific places near their communities), they would dig a hole about a foot deep, then throw some grass and some powder in it (something like lime), do their business, then cover it with their shovel.
So first, the science part. BTW, yes, I’m being serious with this. There is good reason. Because of “convenience,” we’ve been severely polluting our own drinking water! YHWH’s water!
So, what does natural (YHWH’s) science say about this practice? Well, for one, you can’t get any cleaner. The waste, plus the grass and lime and dirt on top, produce a natural synthesis which over the course of about a year renders the waste completely sanitary. Yes, poop is transformed into good soil. No need for major infrastructure systems that end up polluting our entire water supply. Not only that, but the ground is fertile! Crops can be safely grown on this ground after a year. So think about it. If a section of ground (according to the Law) is to be rested from growing crops every seventh year and is to be revitalized, how best to use that section of ground during that year? Hmm?
But just try doing this in a city……
Now, I would ask that anyone reading this go to Josephus, War of the Jews, 2.8.14, and read the entire section. You’ll see some things that line up nicely with Acts 2 and Acts 4. It seems that the only thing that the Essenes were lacking was the Blood, and Yeshua provided that.
Next, Away From the City…..
I was talking with a dear Sister the other day about what I wrote above and about how it was received when I posted it on my group page. She, by reading, listening, and replying truthfully, helped me to understand that even though I see these things clearly in the Word, most other people, even those with a sincere belief, do not yet see these things. She helped me to understand that I have to do a better job of showing the Scriptures that reveal these things. I knew that when I wrote “On the Way.” I had misplaced that methodology because sometimes I feel like I’m writing the same thing over and over again. But isn’t that what YHWH di by His Spirit? He wrote the same things over and over again so that us clueless mortals might see it! And it’s up to Him, not me, to open peoples’ eyes. For now, it seems that He just wants for me to write and to let Him do His job.
The second Way to live The Way as instructed to us in the Scriptures is “away from the city,” which, honestly, is where I believe all who walk in The Way will end up in the long run anyway. Why?
“All things are full of labor;
Man cannot express it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing.
That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new”?
It has already been in ancient times before us.”
The cities have been bad news for those who fear God from the beginning. Look at Tubal-Cain. Look at Lot. Let’s look at these verses:
“Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.”
“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”
“Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.”
“You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.”
“I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas.”
“I will lay waste your cities And you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”
And let’s look at this interesting note from the writer of Hebrews:
“Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.”
And let’s look at John the Baptist, of whom Yeshua said that “among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.” Here is what is written of John:
“Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.”
There is also this interesting exhortation in Hebrews:
But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
“For yet a little while,
And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by (the) faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.”
Throughout both biblical and secular history, it has always been the cities where the “kings and the rulers of the Earth” have prospered, manipulated the populace and used them for the strengthening of their own power, and have introduced “the goods of this world” to further bind the inhabitants thereof to their system of enslavement to them and away from YHWH.
It was the descendants of Cain who first established the cities. If the present day Book of Enoch is to be believed, the cities were the locations of the first “principalities” (also mentioned in Daniel with the prince of Persia) which were established, and of which we who want to serve YHWH are still to this day in a spiritual battle with the “establishment” that controls the cities and the populace thereof. Enoch describes how “the watchers” taught those living in the cities how to make weapons and jewelry and even women’s make-up, and those initial “lessons” have resulted in the “military-industrial complex” that we have today, as well as the film industry, the music industry, and all of the other outlets through which we learn to worship “the beautiful people” as though they are gods and goddesses.
Some of us may not have studied the development of the modern world enough to see the patterns that exist, plain to see, in the Word of YHWH. A small, simple alcove of a town is situated in an economically strategic location. It was originally planted there because of easy access to water (for drinking, crops, and transportation) but eventually “someone” with a bit of money or power (same thing, really) decides to build a store, then a bank, then a factory, etc. As the population grows, the merchants of the world’s goods move in with their fashionable clothes and the latest marketable inventions for our “convenience.” As it grows, then even more rich and powerful people with associations in the governing authority see an opportunity to advance their own agendas, and so come utilities and bureaucracies, the military and law enforcement (for our “protection”), courts and jails, zoning and transportation “authorities,” laws and ordinances, and a cesspool of additional “benefits” for the people who live within its jurisdiction.
What was once a small group of people farming the land, living rather simply, with at least a modicum of freedom to control their own lives and worship their own god has become “a great tree filled with the birds of the air (demons)” and have very little control over their lives except perhaps for what they choose to buy with their money. And even in this, they are enslaved by what is made available to them and at what price.
And I don’t mean just “money” when I mention price. There is a more costly price to be paid for their enslavement.
“How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those that are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.”
“And it will be when you say, ‘Why does the Lord our God do all these things to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.’”
Let’s take a look at a few more clues about “modern living” and our possessions and the chains that bind us to one master so that we cannot truly serve the other Master:
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation (belief), and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’ (overcome)? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace (mercy). So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake ALL that he has cannot be My disciple.”
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
“He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
What does YHWH have planned, what has He sworn to do and made an oath that it will happen, concerning this world?
“Come near, you nations, to hear;
And heed, you people!
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
The world and all things that come forth from it.
For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations,
And His fury against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to the slaughter.
Also their slain shall be thrown out;
Their stench shall rise from their corpses,
And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
All the host of heaven shall be dissolved,
And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll;
All their host shall fall down
As the leaf falls from the vine,
And as fruit falling from a fig tree.
“For My sword shall be bathed in heaven;
Indeed it shall come down on Edom,
And on the people of My curse, for judgment.
The sword of the Lord is filled with blood,
It is made overflowing with fatness,
With the blood of lambs and goats,
With the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
The wild oxen shall come down with them,
And the young bulls with the mighty bulls;
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
And their dust saturated with fatness.”
For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance,
The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
Its streams shall be turned into pitch,
And its dust into brimstone;
Its land shall become burning pitch.
It shall not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke shall ascend forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it,
Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.
And He shall stretch out over it
The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
They shall call its nobles to the kingdom,
But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.
And thorns shall come up in its palaces,
Nettles and brambles in its fortresses;
It shall be a habitation of jackals,
A courtyard for ostriches.
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals,
And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion;
Also the night creature shall rest there,
And find for herself a place of rest.
There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs
And hatch, and gather them under her shadow;
There also shall the hawks be gathered,
Every one with her mate.
“Search from the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail;
Not one shall lack her mate.
For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”
Also,
“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”
I must ask, what happens to the fruit tree that bears no fruit? I think we all know….
“And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.”
“Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
“But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power.”
There are hundreds more verses that I could utilize here, but hopefully we’re getting the point and will dig more into the Word for answers.
Before we move on, I’d like to mention the men who lived in caves of which the world is not worthy from one of the verses above.
I find it interesting that the Qumran Texts, aka the “Dead Sea Scrolls,” were found in the caves of the Essenes. And when one studies the way that the Essenes lived, and compare it to Acts 2&4, several things are identical. I have wondered if the Book of Hebrews was written by an Essene believer. We’ll take a look at this as we continue….
More to come on “how” to walk The Way……