Separation?

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you onions… ehh. Oh no. It may be asking you to peel back layers of your soul.

I’ve had a hard time understanding some of the “holiness” or “separation from the world” verses in the Bible because they seem so idealistic. They seem impossible to achieve.

It's as though the more one focuses on saving the world from spiritual darkness, they abandon saving themselves and the more one focuses on saving their own soul from spiritual darkness, they abandon the world.

This could also be said for physical well being. The more a nation aids others, the less it aids itself and vice versa.

What is a person to do?

A person could have loving intentions jumping into a prison to save people there. Another person could have loving intentions ascending to Heaven to save people in prison.

The early apostles had a high standard for their Churches. Perhaps that’s because they had something so great. They were strong on separation from the world while still living in it. There was no middle ground, either you were in or out of the road of transformation. That’s a hard thing to govern. They sometimes had to kick people out. Yet Paul still said...

Romans 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

Samuel and Elijah didn’t have a Church of random citizens, they had a Church of prophets fully devoted to God and when Saul barged into Samuel’s Church or gathering, he couldn’t handle the dense, rich power moving there.

1 Samuel 19:22-24 Then he [Saul] also went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is at Sechu. So he asked, and said, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “Indeed they are at Naioth in Ramah.” So he went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

I think the apostles and prophets in Acts 13 had this. A very concentrated degree of the presence of God. Then from there they were sent out when the Spirit of God spoke. So first concentrated, then diluted to the wider circles.

If a group of mechanics invented a machine that could transport a person from China to Angola in 50 seconds, for the first few years of its existence, only about 100 people in the world would know about it.

If a group of scientists invented a new version of some drug that only had minor improvements, they could release it to the world the next day.

The more precious a thing is, the slower it has to be revealed, I believe.

Here a little, there a little.

Yet what is precious in 2023 may be so common in 2053. That’s the goal. Steady growth. If what is precious in 2023 becomes even more precious in 2053, the human economy has been falling in between those times.

When I was a kid, they warned me not to stare at the sun because if I did, I would go blind. Defiantly, I chose to stare at it. Nothing happened. But staring at it changed everything I saw. Sunglasses work as veils to protect the eyes.

The more an organisation expands, it will most times have less and less depth. This was the unfortunate case with the Pharisees that probably started off beautifully…

Matthew 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Anyone can fall into that trap. There’s no “evil” human, in my opinion. Just unaware or irresponsible. What is our response to the good and evil that arises from free will? A person has to make their own choice. In the spectrum, there is little right and wrong except for the extremes maybe. It’s mostly love and reason. Just an individual’s wisdom which God, who sees the heart, will weigh. That is when God doesn't speak.

I think this is the same case with “being good” or love. Pure love would probably blind us or kill us. God said to Moses “You cannot see me and live.” That can probably be interpreted as “In your current state, you can’t handle what is 143 levels above stepping into you.”

So there has to be a degree of separation or concealment from the world because

1. Protection of the thing.

2. Protection of the masses or preparation of the world for it.

Protection from and for the world.

Of course, there’s another evil or self-seeking side of keeping an invention separate i.e. the desire to dominate or selfish ambition. So one seeking to aid the world would first seek to aid their soul from darkness.

In this way, a person chooses at what level they want to aid the world. To what degree can you aid the world within? To what degree can you acknowledge its need for change? To what degree can you know that it has been transformed sufficiently for a great work ahead?

There’s no upper limit. God isn’t 143 levels above, He’s just above at every level. So will we ever see God?

In rising, motives are tested. Let it be love at every increase.

It’s like the pure in heart shall continually have God revealed to them. Though it isn’t assured that one who is pure in 2023 will be pure in 2031. Life is tough, we can all make wrong choices. There’s repentance. But it’s not as though they will be downgraded in their sight of God. The gifts and callings of God are not taken away.

So, love at every increase.