False Friends

(This is chapter 1 of the book The Way of Sonship: Anointed to Overcome)

In linguistics, a false friend is a word shared by two different languages that sounds the same but has different meanings. This can lead to confusion in translation. The same could be said about words shared between different cultures or traditions. In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul explains that God declared the original gospel, or good news of the blessing of God, to Abraham. Abraham the Hebrew was born more than 4,000 years ago into an altogether different culture, and the ancient Hebrews understood life in a completely different way than people do today. There is no such thing as a right or wrong culture and God chooses to work within different cultures in different ways to achieve the good news of His glorious purpose. But God’s purpose has never changed. The Apostle Paul described life as running a race, and if someone runs according to their own rules rather than the rules of the race, they will be disqualified from the prize. The danger is that different cultures do not understand the glorious purpose of God and therefore change the rules of the race of life to what they consider is a good race or good news that fits in with their own cultural beliefs and tradition. When this happens, people end up with what they think sounds like a good news gospel to them, but they run the wrong race and fight the wrong fight. Even if they think that they have won they have already lost. They disqualify themselves from the prize and the only thing that they win is a self-congratulatory crown (“stephanos“, wreath of victory in Greek) that they themselves have made. The art of communication is being understood. So, in order to avoid the possibility of false-friend confusion, it can help us to understand the eternal purpose of God by understanding how Abraham and the Hebrew prophets and Kings of old understood it within their own ancient Hebrew culture, rather than from within the culture of religious tradition today. It would be unwise to imagine that Abraham and his fellow Hebrews, the prophets and people of God from ancient times, shared exactly the same conceptual and rigidly prescribed theological beliefs and traditions taught in modern churches. The ancient Hebrews did not think the way people think today. Much of what is now considered foundational and good news would to Abraham have been not only incomprehensible but also completely incommunicable.

The ancient Hebrews had no understanding of the relatively modern, culturally Greek, theological concept of the word “spirit“. In English, the word spirit comes from the Latin “spiritus” meaning “breath“. It is the root of such words as inspire, expire, and respiration. On the Day of Pentecost, there was the “sound of a mighty wind from heaven“, in Latin this is “sonus spiritus vehementis” and the word “spiritus” is translated as “wind“. It goes on to say and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit“. In Latin, the words “Holy Spirit” are actually “Sanctus Spiritus” which means “Holy Breath“. In Latin, “spiritus” meant “breath, breathing, air, soul or life“, but it did not mean “spirit“. In Greek, the word translated spirit is “pneuma” which means to puff or blow. In Hebrew, the word translated spirit is “ruach” meaning breath or wind. For the Hebrews, the words “neshemah ruach” meant the puff or breath of life. In Hebrew, the word for name was “shem” and meant the character, behaviour, or personality of expression of the “neshemah ruach” or breath of life. Animals are animated or live by natural breath. God is animated or lives by His own incredible supernatural breath. It is commonly taught in culturally Greek modern churches that Adam or Man was created as a spirit being, who had a soul and who lives in a body. If one takes the analogy of a motor car, this is like saying that a motor car is an engine that has a transmission system that is housed in a car body. This misses the point of what motor cars are for and why they are made. If presented with a motor car, the Hebrews would see it as an integrated whole and would want to know what it was for. As such they would want to be taken for the joy of a ride or test drive to see how it functioned or performed on the road. The Greeks would see the motor car differently, they would break it down into its component parts so that they could use deductive logic in an attempt to deduce what it could possibly be for. The danger is that culturally Greek dis-integrated thinking actually misses the joy of being filled with the life’s breath of God by attempting to understand God logically (or theologically) (in Greek “theos” or god) using words (in Greek “logos” or word) of deductive reasoning rather than actually experiencing being filled to overflowing with the breath, personality or Holy Spirit of God. The Hebrews lived from their hearts and not their heads and did not see man as a disintegrated tripartite being, spirit (“pneuma” or strong breath), soul (“psuche” or weak breath) and body. The Apostle Paul mentioned spirit, soul, and body when he wrote to the Greeks in Thessalonica because he wanted them to understand what he was saying within their own culture and tradition. The Hebrews were different, they saw things as an integrated whole or totality. For them a man was a living soul or breathing being, a body with the personality or breath of life. The Hebrews would possibly have considered the Greek word “psuche” (translated as “soul“) as the weak natural life’s breath of man, and the Greek word “pneuma” (translated as “spirit“) as the all-powerful supernatural and incredible eternal life’s breath of God. The differences in the cultural understanding of breath or spirit can be seen in the translation of Proverbs 20:27. In the KJV it says “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.“, however in Youngs Literal Translation it says “The breath of man is a lamp of Yehovah, Searching all the inner parts of the heart.” On the Day of Pentecost, the sound of a violent breath or wind (“pnoe” in Greek, “spiritus” in Latin) from heaven filled the house where they were sitting. A lamp or candles of flames of fire were seen on each disciple’s head as they were each filled with the light and love of the indwelling presence or personality of the eternal life’s breath of God’s fatherhood, the Holy Spirit.

From Abraham’s perspective, the Holy Spirit is not the Third Person of the Godhead, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Son. This theological belief is culturally Greek and not ancient Hebrew culture and is actually not absolute truth. In Hebrew “Qodesh Ruach” is translated Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost but actually means “the altogether different wind of the supernatural and eternal life’s breath or personality of God Almighty“. The Holy Spirit is the living breath of God’s actual person or personality. Like the active movement of a ticking clock, the Holy Spirit is the very essence of the personality of the person of the living God, how God Himself feels, thinks, and is expressed in the way He behaves. For the Hebrews, the strength of life was in their breath. The weak were breathless and the dead were dead because they had expired and therefore had no breath at all. God’s breath is the personality of the strength of his absolute power.

From Abraham’s perspective, God’s Word is not God the Son, the Second Person of the Godhead, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. This theological belief is culturally Greek and not ancient Hebrew culture and is actually not absolute truth. God’s word is a communication or action of the very breath of His life or personality. When God speaks, he acts, he speaks by the word of his almighty breath. The Word of God is the sword of God’s supernatural breath that is wielded when God says what he does and does what he says. God spoke the universe into existence. He spoke light and there was light, he spoke, and it was so. God creates by speaking and he speaks by the breath of his life. What God has joined together, let not man separate. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were created by Him and for Him. In creation, as God began to do what he was saying it was morning, as God ended doing what he was saying it was evening. As God speaks it is called “day” or light. When God is not speaking or acting or working, it is called “night” or darkness. God’s living word separates light from darkness, and day from night. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God is love, those who live in love live within God and God lives within them.

From Abraham’s perspective, God the Father is not the First Person of the Godhead, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This theological belief is culturally Greek and not ancient Hebrew culture and is actually not absolute truth. For Abraham, God Himself became his Father when he was called by the breath of the living word of God’s promise to leave his natural father’s house. The promised blessing of God upon his life was a Father’s blessing, and the Father’s blessing for all the families of the earth (or dust of Adam’s corporate body). This was the blessing of the living word of the breath of the divine supernatural life of God’s fatherhood or Holy Spirit poured out on the Day of Pentecost.

For Abraham, the term “the Father” could be considered a false friend if it meant a label to identify a religious concept God rather than “my Father“. The term “the Son” could be considered a false friend if it meant a label to identify a religious concept of God rather than “because of God’s fatherhood that’s now me“. The term “the Holy Spirit” could be considered a false friend if it meant a label to identity a religious concept of God rather than “the blessing of the living word ‘Son of God’ spoken by God as my Father into my heart that enables me to bear His image or reflection by my personality, character or name being filled with the incredible life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood“.

When Jesus spoke of His Father, the term “the Father” could be considered a false friend if it meant a label to identify the first person of the concept of Godhead from the perspective of the second person of the concept of Godhead, rather than simply “God is my Father and through me He can become yours too“. The term “the Son” could be considered a false friend if it meant a label to identify Jesus as the second person of the concept of Godhead rather than simply Jesus and His Bride or brothers. God spoke his intention to make man in Genesis 1:26 when he said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness“. In Hebrew, one of the words for God is “Elohim” and means literally “the powers that BE“. In Genesis when God said, “Let us“, in Hebrew this was an expression of the plurality of God’s Almighty Power, not the plurality of the Persons of the Godhead because from Abraham’s perspective, there was not one. God is One, that is the number of his name. There is a popular household oil that is marketed under the brand “3-IN-ONE“. It is said that this oil “cleans, lubricates and protects“. If someone looked inside the oil can hoping to find some kind of magical marvel of modern manufacturing that enabled the 3 to independently co-exist in the ONE can in some kind of mysterious community or household of mutual equality, they would be disappointed. Within ancient Hebrew culture, God is One and there is only One, God was not deconstructed conceptually or theologically using deductive logical reasoning into component parts that fitted in with their own cultural religious belief systems or tradition. That is why it says in Deuteronomy “hear [in Hebrew “shema” or “see the name and obey“], O Israel, Yehovah our God is One Yehovah“. From Abraham’s perspective, what God does is His word, God’s word is an expression of his life’s breath or personality, the collection of God’s words are God’s ways, and God’s ways seen together with everything else about God constituted God’s name. In English, the word “personality” comes from the Latin “personalitatem” meaning “the quality or fact of being a person” or the distinctive character of someone. God only has one personality. In Hebrew, God’s personal name is based upon the verb “to be“, probably pronounced Yehovah or Y(ehov)ah or Yah or Yahweh and means “I Am“, or “I Am, I Was, I Ever Will Be To Come” or “I Am That Which I Am Being“. The word Jesus comes from the Hebrew Yeshua which is a shortened form of Yehovah-Yasha which means “I AM your overcoming victory“. When God created life, he simply spoke it into being. He said, “Let it be“, and it was so. When God created Adam, it was altogether different. For the ancient Hebrews, a true son of his father bore the image, reflection, or name of his father in the next generation of sons. God did not simply speak Adam into existence like he created animal or natural air-breathing life. God made the body of Adam from the dust of the earth but then breathed into his nostrils the breath of His very own divine supernatural life’s breath. This was God’s very own altogether different life’s breath, the breath of God’s fatherhood or Holy Spirit. When God did this, Adam became a living soul. In Hebrew the word soul means a breathing-being. Animal or natural life is a life that is animated by the natural breath of air, Adam was animated by both natural breath and the supernatural breath (in Hebrew “neshemah ruach“) of God’s fatherhood. In this, Adam bore the name (in Hebrew “shem“) the Son of God because by being filled with the life’s breath (in Hebrew “neshemah ruach“) of God his behaviour was the mirror, image or reflection of God. In Hebrew, the word for obey was “shema” which meant literally “to see the name“. Adam originally obeyed God because his whole personality literally saw the name of God as his “Father“. He became the visible image of the invisible God, the original Son of God by being continually filled with the supernatural eternal life’s breath (or “Qodesh Ruach” or Holy Spirit) of God. Adam was a God-breathing being, as such he was a divine construction able to fully comprehend both the natural realms of the universe but also the supernatural realms of God. Just as in the beginning God spoke the light of the knowledge of God into creation, Adam became a microcosm of creation by his heart being filled with the light of the incredible and amazing knowledge of the presence and personality of God. When no helper could be found for Adam, God separated Eve from Adam. She was actually hidden within Adam when he was created. Eve remained bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, they remained as one just like the mystery of Jesus and his Bride.

God is light, within Him is no darkness at all. The whole of creation was originally created good. God separated the darkness from light and God blessed all that He had made. The original son of the morning, or son of the dawn of creation was Lucifer (in Latin, light-bearer, in Hebrew, “Heylel“). Lucifer was a created being or messenger (angel) who was given the grace of God’s blessing to become a shining reflection of the glory of God entrusted with making the glorious mysteries of God known to the rest of creation. When creation saw Lucifer, they saw God because Lucifer bore the shining reflection of the image of the amazing beauty and glory of God. Lucifer became the “centre of attention” but he was meant to say in his heart “I am just a reflection, do not imagine that it is me, do not look at me, look at God“. Because of the beauty of his great God-given grace, and his understanding that creation was a love gift from God to Adam as God’s original Son, Lucifer corrupted himself with pride. He asked the mirror upon the wall of his heart “who is the greatest of them all“, and his own heart responded, “I am“. He said in his heart “Look at me. I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will become like the most High“. He saw his opportunity to use lies and his hidden knowledge to build a kingdom to pander to his diabolical and murderous pride based on the deception of promising that rebellion would bring something better than the heartfelt paradise of God. Knowledge is power and he saw that through deception and falsehood he could trade into God’s creation the darkness of lies, misunderstandings and half-truths of which he is the master. The fall of Lucifer did not take God by surprise. Remarkably, Lucifer, or Satan (meaning “adversary” or “hinderer” in Hebrew), serves the purposes of God. Satan is God’s garbage collector. Having originally been created to bear the amazing image or reflection of God’s glory, when Lucifer fell, there was nothing left that was good. He had to find other ways of remaining the centre of attention and he did so. Using lies, false promises, and his appeal to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, he is the Pied Piper of “Gehenna“. With his magical lures, he bewitches the pride-poisoned sons of rebellion or destruction to follow him out of God’s blessing to share in his ultimate doom, symbolised by the Valley of Hinnom (“Gehenna” in Greek) in Jerusalem. This was the local rubbish dump at the time of Jesus where the worms never die, and the flames of fire are never quenched.

Yehovah God said that Adam, original Son of God, was to have dominion upon the earth. Adam was called by the name, the Son of God because God as his father dwelt richly in the breathings of Adam’s personality (or soul) and had dominion within his heart. God gave Adam the crown of delegated authority to rule upon the Earth. God as his almighty Father was to be the power, Adam as his Son was to visibly display his father’s glory. God Himself was the author of Adam’s character, personality, or name, and by being the reflection or image of the invisible God, Adam wore the glorious crown of Sonship. Adam’s crown did not come from Adam himself; it was the gift of his Father. It gave Adam the authority or divine right to wield the sword of his Father’s power by speaking divinely-inspired (from Latin, in-spirited or in-breathed) words of the blessing of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control upon the Earth. The crown represented a divine partnership. Adam wore the crown of glory as God’s son, but it was the glory of God that Adam visibly displayed, not his own. Within ancient Hebrew culture the word “blessing” meant a gift brought upon bended knee. It had the same meaning as the word “grace” (in Greek “charis“) and meant benefit, favour, gift, joy, pleasure and the divine influence of God upon the heart to turn people from their wicked ways and bring the true heartfelt righteousness of living a life of both faith and love. It has a similar meaning as the word “anointed” (in Greek “chrio“), Yehovah’s anointed or “Christ” was gifted by Yehovah God with the fragrance of the anointing oil which represented the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God that gifted the anointed one to accomplish his or her purposes in God. In Psalm 105, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all described as the prophets and the “Anointed” (“Mashiyach” in Hebrew, “Christos” in Greek) of Yehovah. The original keynote of creation was the gift or incredible blessing of the absolute and complete knowledge of the light and unconditional love of God which brought success and happiness for everyone in all things. Adam and Eve became gods within themselves by disobeying God and eating forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They sowed the devil’s lies into their hearts and their eyes were opened to the pride of self-exaltation. They exchanged the truth of God’s unconditional love for them with their own self-admiring love for themselves. They said within their hearts “I will decide for myself what is good and evil or right and wrong“. They died to God by gasping out the breath of God’s life. They were no longer the Sons of God. Instead, they became self-worshipping fallen living dust, living “as god” natural puffed-up pride-poisoned lives which eventually died. This was the foundation of the “world“, or the Fall of mankind. Pride blinded the fallen human heart to God but also to the devil. In the pride the fallen “I am as god” heart, all it can see is “self“. God originally created Adam as a living “soul” and in Hebrew a living soul means literally a “breathing being“. Mankind became unknowingly and unwittingly subjected to the lying words or evil breath or spirit of the devil. However, although mankind was blind to God, fallen humanity was able to experience the blessing of the living Word of the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God. These two life’s breaths, the breath of blessing and the breath of curse, became two kingdoms of good and evil that battled for pre-eminence within the “breathings” of the personality of the hearts of men. Even though people are blind to the source of these two life’s breaths, in life they are free to choose which kingdom they prefer. The apostle Paul often taught that life was like a race, the “race of life“. People are qualified to enter into the “race of life” by being born. It was part of God’s eternal purpose for fallen humanity to be born with their hearts in darkness because into that darkness the unmerited grace and unconditional love of God can still shine, even if it is not understood. In that darkness people run the race of life “as gods” over their own sphere of influence or personal realm. They are unaware that the race of life has rules and rewards, penalties and prizes, trip wires and dead ends. God is love and He is watching closely over the hearts of men on the race of their lives to see how they will choose to behave. God gave fallen humanity the witness of a conscience. People know instinctively what is right and wrong. They know how they like to be treated and understand that others like to be treated in the same way. Even for those who do not know or acknowledge God, those who do right and bring a blessing to others, God himself will bless. Those who do wrong, sear their conscience as with a hot iron. If they continue to sow bad seed by doing wrong, they reap the harvest of the devil’s curse within their lives. The stakes are high. The prize is astronomical, but so is the cost of failure. Those whose selfish behaviour continues to break the rules of life after many loving rebukes will one day find themselves disqualified from the prize. By wilfully rebelling against the divine commandments of Almighty God, the angelic protection of their hearts is removed. This enables the devil to bring into their hearts his curse even though they do not acknowledge him as the source of their wicked and rebellious behaviour. They will have their stiff unrepentant necks suddenly broken, and that without remedy. Having shared in the devil’s rebellious pleasures they will also share in his punishment. Jesus said that it is not those who are well who need a doctor but those who are sick. Jesus did not come to call those whose behaviour was right, but those whose behaviour was wrong, to repentance. He said that the Son of Man came to seek and save those whose behaviour was lost, not those whose religious beliefs needed a reformation. On the Day of Final Judgement, the judgement of God will be based upon behaviour and not upon religious beliefs, fruit and not faith, relationship and not religion. Jesus said that when He comes in the glory of his Father with his angels, he will reward everyone according to what they have done. Everything that everyone has ever thought, said, or done has been recorded in books. On that Day, books will be opened, and the testimony scroll, or conscience of people’s hearts, will be awakened. By a supernatural act of divine revelation, secret sins, selfishness, pride, envy, and concealed lusts will become common knowledge. Every idle word, every curse, every lie, every theft, every harmful or devious act of those who were involved will be revealed to all. Every hidden thing will be openly declared, every culprit identified, every shameful act exposed. With the whole world watching, God will require everyone to explain exactly what they did for themselves or to others, and why. God will then render or give back to people their own personal harvest of the fully ripe and harvested fruit of what they sowed into their own lives or the lives of others, whether good or bad. To those who sowed blessing by doing good and seek glory, honour, and immortality, he will reward them with eternal life. To those who sowed curse by doing evil and choosing to behave badly he will reward them with the anguish and indignation that they caused. Behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection.

William Shakespeare once said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts“. The world of fallen humanity became a stage upon which the saga of God’s redemptive plan was set. Almighty God had His entrance onto the stage of this life when He sowed Himself as the living word “Son of God” into the world by being born as the “one man“, Jesus. In His time, Jesus played many parts. In His divinity, He played the part of Almighty God for that is who He really is. In his humanity, he played the part of the Son of Abraham and heir of the promised land of Abraham’s Pentecostal blessing poured out on the Day of Pentecost. He played the part of the Son of David and heir of the sovereign crown of David’s anointing and throne whose glory, power and dominion that will never end. He played the part of the Son of Man (or Adam) who died on the cross and then after three days rose from the dead. The land promised to Abraham by God is the seed bed of the hearts of those who do not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death to the pride of life. The throne promised to David is dominion over the promised land or ground or seed bed of those with good and honest hearts that receive the seed of the word of God “You are indeed my Son, with you I Am well pleased“, spoken on a personal basis into the hearts of the Sons of God by the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood.

On the cross Jesus reaped the dreadful consequences of the diabolical behaviour of fallen humanity being deceived by the devil’s lies and false promises to behave like him. Jesus died to wipe the slate of people’s hearts clean. Through repentance and faith in Jesus, the possibility now exists for people to escape inheriting a bitter harvest that their bad behaviour would have inevitably brought at the general resurrection at the End of Days. Jesus died to give people His life’s breath or the Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. Jesus died so that people could share in the name the “Son of God” together with Him. The Sons of God no longer have a relationship with what is good or evil, instead they have the eternal life of a Father-Son relationship with God. The Sons of God no longer decide for themselves what is right and wrong, they do not eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They eat from the tree of life to find their strength and source of supply. God is love, and the Sons of God live in love because God is love and God dwells within their hearts by the power of His life’s breath or Holy Spirit. They are filled with God and behaviour in life will one day become inheritance in resurrection. One day, the Sons of God will be revealed to return to planet Earth together with Jesus. The whole of creation is waiting in eager expectation for these Sons of God to be revealed; they will establish heaven upon the earth because heaven reigns within their hearts. Jesus rose from the dead to give people a fresh start, a new beginning, a new revival life through his resurrection from the dead. Through sharing in the blood of Jesus people can have a change of Father, a change of heart, a change of behaviour, a change of name, and therefore a change of destiny. The name that people bear in life, they will bear in resurrection. What people sow in life; they will reap in resurrection. Behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection. That is why Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even though he dies, and he who believes in me will never die…I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, except through me…He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God and he will be my Son“.

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