See - this is why I like Arthur Burk

A little earlier I listened to a teaching by Arthur Burk. I couldn't believe the subject matter.

Bad Hair

That's right - bad hair or more specifically the people who have bad hair and the challenge of finding someone who can cut your hair.

I so relate to that. Here's my hair.... It's neither wavy nor straight but it bends and will bend in places that I don't want it to if I'm not careful. I have two cowlicks on the front that affect either bangs or not bangs - either way is not "the easy way" to wear my hair. I'd love to pull it back but so far I haven't liked the way it looks but I'll do that if I can ever figure it out. I have a cowlick in the back on my right that literally shoves that side of my hair over onto the other side - no short hair for me, I have to have enough weight to hold it down. Same with some of these bends - I have to have weight to hold them down or they spring up in the wrong ways. My hair is fuzzy so it won't just lie and move like straight fine hair will. I use the straightener sometimes but that doesn't make it smooth - just straight.

Add to that the fact that I am not a gifted hairdoer. I just want to get it done.

Twice in my adult life I've had people who could cut my hair well consistently. I miss them and am again on the search for the person who can cut my hair.

I've been going through this stuff ever since I was an adult who wanted to wear my hair some way besides just long.

So I was looking at the titles in his video library and saw one that said BAD HAIR. Of course I had to hear it.

And here's what I love...he did not offer a pat answer. He didn't say that if you this..... then this.
He reminded me that there are really no coincidences in the lives of Gods children. This is something that I absolutely believe and believed before I ever heard of him. We are citizens of a different kind of world - the kingdom of heaven - and what goes on with us here is the outer-working of what is there. Also he took into consideration the fact that everybody's experience is personal and gave some pointers as to where to look for answers and highlighted some principles of the heavenly kingdom.

Now my heart is open to hear whatever Father might want to say to me about me or some circumstance of my life. Strange huh. But this is my approach to so many things in my life - I can't believe I haven't approached my hair issue this way already.

Now, for anyone reading this please don't feel like I'm trying to toot Burk's horn and say that all people should be "following" him. No there are many good teachers in this kingdom. Bear in mind that this is my forum for airing my thoughts and this is my was of saying thank you Father for this gift you give.

Thanks for the teachers

I appreciate teaching. Maybe because I am a Redemptive Gift Teacher and it so permeates me that I have always leaned in that direction. When I was younger I wished at times that I had pursued being a teacher. I find it hard to give a simple answer - there must be an explanation. I make my daughter crazy with long answers. I am unsettled when there is a question yet unanswered and I will talk around and around the subject until finally I either have found a satisfactory answer or am forced to acknowledge that I will have to wait til the answer reveals itself.

I love the teaching process - the line upon line, precept upon precept process. I even love that it takes years sometimes for subject to be taught/learned.

I've had some teachers in my life that I really appreciate. I appreciate my Father for always bringing the teacher I need at the right time.

I don't mean my school teachers. None of them made much of mark. Maybe Mrs. Hood. But then she was also my Sunday School teacher so maybe I felt a connection. A good teacher knows how to reach the student. Think of the movie "Mr. Hollands Opus". Or would that be a gifted teacher. Of course, I didn't understand HOW to be a student either - in school, I mean. I know now that if you know how to be a student then the teacher doesn't even have to know he's teaching.

Specifically I mean the teachers that Father brought into my life at different times to deal with different stages of my growing.

First let me speak of the two pastors I had in the early years of my Christian life. I didn't really learn anything about Christianity until I was married. So I was a blank slate for Brother M. and Brother B. continued where he left off. Thing is, I wouldn't walk to closely to either of these men now. They remain part of the institutionalized church that I no longer relate to. The more I learned to think for myself the more I understood that I was really in disagreement with these men and often, back then, I couldn't have really told you why. Still there's no denying that to the baby me and the young me the things they taught made a difference. People that you disagree with actually contribute a lot to your growth because they make you test your theories and ideas so even as I was exiting relationship with them I was growing in understanding. So I am thankful for them.

Besides them there's actually three that stand out to me among the many. I can see the progression of learning as I review in my mind what these teachers taught.

First one - Watchman Nee. A Chinese pioneer pastor who died before I was born. His sermons on various subjects were compiled into - usually - small, easy to read books. I loved his mode of expression. While I do believe he was a pastor in the traditional sense, his teachings in the books I read (save one) had nothing to do with church. He opened up to me the reality of the kingdom and my spiritual self. He challenged me to see beyond the facade of the natural world that my eyes see to see what eyes of faith see. I was reading his books during my last years as a traditional church going Christian and I'm sure that his teachings helped me to learn to think - to weigh what one person was saying against what another person was saying and then what the Holy Spirit was saying within me.

Second one - a couple named John and Paula Sanford. God revealed many things to them concerning the inner landscape of his human creation - what makes them weak and what makes them strong. What HURTS and why. They ministered and eventually taught to the body at large what we call inner healing. It was their teaching that God turned me to when I said to Him that day - "I didn't think Christians could be depressed but you say that's what this is, so show me how I got here and show me how to get out". The first thing I read was a chapter called the forgotten functions of the spirit. Who knew that journey would take 10-15 years? God did and I believe still that that prayer I prayed was breathed by him. He could have healed me quickly but then I wouldn't know what I know now. I have read or listened to much of what they taught and it gave understanding to my journey.

At the same time I began learning about deliverance from many teachers and I applied those principles to myself and sometimes others - mostly to myself.

Third and present one - Arthur Burk/Plumbline Ministries. When I speak of the redemptive gift this or that, it's something I learned from him. I love this man's ministry very much and I think it's because he comes with the revelation of a fearless prophet and speaks with the order and clarity of a teacher. He is not afraid to go to uncharted places in the kingdom. He looks in every corner he can think of for more understanding and his approach to living all this out is very much in agreement with the way I think it should be. He's never left one area of knowledge of the kingdom for another he simply incorporates all that God has taught him over his lifetime and blends them - or not - as needed depending on what God wants to accomplish at the moment. He doesn't tell me how to live, he simply reveals the kingdom and lets me and God work it out.

Besides these three there have been many others - Books I've read, Tapes I've listened to, Someone in my life for a period of time and then they're gone, One time in one place hearing someone speak a word that was timely for me, That prayer that lady prayed over me that one time in that one service. I cannot tell you how impacting the wisdom of that one prayer was for me and how it resonates in my life to this day. Always Always the Holy Spirit breathing into that which he wanted me to absorb and learn from. He's the real teacher - without him to empower the words of the others there is only confusion.

God is a father who is in the business of instructing his children on how to live as citizens of the spiritual kingdom that we see with eyes of faith. He heals us and transforms us and brings us deeper and deeper into this place called heaven. We live there now if we desire and the quality of the life that we live there is dependent on our embracing our understanding of what it's all about. That's what teaching does for me. It gives me that understanding I need to live.

So thank you Father for the teachers.