“22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for John had not yet been put in prison). 25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.” 31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. 34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:22-36 ESV)

The Spirit preventing, deadly weapons, holy innocence: any theology which puts Man in the driver’s seat misunderstands this key tenet of faith. More, to be Apostolic, to have Healing mission, to be Sent and Post-Encounter, calls for a much higher level of caution… rather, not worrisome apprehension, but innate Goodness. We are called to the Understanding, the Holy Things are deadly weapons if introduced too early in the would-be disciple’s trip of self-expression. More, the Kingdom Living, the Power House ministry, the Gifts Innate and Implanted, are Borne in a spiritual purity or absolute Innocence. We walked the tried and true Road. We tried and failed, again, and again, to be the Winsome Soldier as prophesied over us by the elders. But at least this much: that the petty attacks, the catty Accusations, neither of these are Effected with Holy Unction but rather plain and direct Human interface.

Because the Holy Unction, it is of deadly Power in the wrong hands, the power to Accuse and to Condemn, so much the worse if it is coming from a pulpit or a set of Holy Brothers or Sisters. That is why, we learn a certain Forgetfulness around artifice or calculated Entreaties. We learn a certain Innocence around suggestion and imposition, imputation. We impute… we treat each other as souls already Purified and already of Noble Intent, because we dare not venture into the alternative. We dare not venture into a world where Tyrants of the individual reign. Where people fuss and jabber around their own prerogative rather than that of Christ. When the parts are diametrically Opposed, when the parts don’t Fit, heyday and melee ensues. Oh, would you criticize Me? Then see me tyrannically volley back at You!

The sum total of the observation may be called Parenting, maybe Education, maybe Grooming or Finishing. That we not be taught Holy entreaties and Holy dispositions, apart from being taught of Original Sin… more than taught, to encounter viscerally our own sinful nature. So as to be Mature in the faith come Jesus into our hearts. Come Jesus into our Walk and Cadence, to be people of a posture, poise, position Prophesied and Spoken Over us: the Good Son, the Good Daughter. And the parts, they do fit after all. The bargaining chip, after all it is not in the early so-called Losses and Compromises, but in a Later back-and-forth, good deeds Rewarded, some Higher Method at work. Higher Calling, because to negotiate is to speak Honestly and with Respect, and to meet in the middle somewhere is to kneel to the Unspoken, to the Sincerity and Track-Record sublime. All of it works out in the wash, the paychecks and the commissions all are half of the point but not the entire point.