Heaven and Earth in One Man
Many people are often “stuck” in the church framework, and they behave in a very limited way. There are nine gifts of the Spirit, and they are wonderful. But there are gifts that go beyond the church.
Man is the most complex and beautiful creation. Apocalypse is about the inside of man. The perfect shape of the ark is not a wooden box, but a human body. The wooden box was like an image of the heavenly, like a shadow. But the human body, the likeness of God, became the ark. Think about it. The temple of God is an ark. God chose the human body to inhabit it. And the whole Apocalypse is there.
Today we stand on the threshold of new discoveries, new concepts. Several hundred years ago there was a century called the “age of discovery” – navigation, communications, electricity, architectural structures that had been hidden from human eyes for centuries were discovered then. People thought they already knew everything about the planet. Great scientists appeared to the world – Galileo, Copernicus, Newton. The laws of gravity, transformation, conservation of energy were discovered. It would seem that physicists discovered everything that was possible. But it turns out they didn’t know anything – neither about the Internet, nor about airplanes.
The world has changed a lot. And I want to say that there is more to come. We still don’t know anything, even from the point of view of the earth. They say, “do not seek for anything in music – everything has already been discovered there!” Well, we haven’t even started yet! It’s just a drop in the ocean! The Infinite God gave man the abyss of creation! Someone said that the surface of the Moon is better studied than the ocean floor of the Earth.
So today we are at the point where we need to stop saying we know everything. We need to get to the source. Because everything we know, I’m sorry, is probably wrong. Most likely. A “new Newton” will come and reveal the law that we all knew wrong. It turns out that it’s not cosmos, but a black funnel. People will have to agree. Those who can’t change and have grown old will simply “die” stubborn. Who is younger – will shift, as we have shifted from floppy disks to the Internet.
Human knowledge “falls” into the “garbage heap of history”. Someone noticed that a people disappears when poetry disappears from the soul of man, when people are not interested in art, they are on the verge of extinction. Not because of disasters, but because people become “animals”, stop loving the sublime. This is an end for the people.
We need to preserve love – in our hearts, in our churches, in our neighbors – to fight for love so we don’t disappear.
“Knowledge will cease.” All this will “roll down”, we will have to renounce this knowledge. It will all seem completely empty. But eternal things will remain.
The curse must be removed from the land in a due way, and we will talk about how it can be neutralized. Time does not heal. It does not remove sin.
We must find harmony with the land. You need to find four harmonies – with God, with yourself, with your neighbor and with the outer world. Because the air, the trees – all this was created by One Creator of both them and us. Why do we destroy what our Father has created, thinking that He will like it?! He made both the creation and me. I can’t destroy creation for my own sake. We must be in harmony with the environment. You can’t destroy creation for your own good and think that God will bless you.
Jesus said, “Go into all the world.” This doesn’t mean to go only around the globe, but all over the world – both deep, and wide, and high – to go all over the Universe. Move in all creation – in all dimensions and levels. It is also a blessing in science. “Go all over the world” – this is also a Word to scientists – to the macrocosm, to the microcosm, space, geography, poetry, culture, politics, and so on. “Go all over the world” – do not isolate yourself, but go and bring “salt” in there.
This is a completely opposite concept to what the church teaches today: take everyone out of context, have them sit and get “locked up” because Jesus is coming soon. Go around the world! Do not be afraid! Both to youth, and to scientists. Preach the gospel to all creation! “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, and he who does not believe will be condemned.”
I remember ancient engravings depicting St. Francis where he stands and instructs the fish, and they lean out of the water and listen. A story is known when he instructed a wolf who got into the habit of attacking people, and he, being put to shame by Francis, stopped doing it.
We want to get to the Father’s job. If this is what He is doing today, I agree to leave my “world” and go into His world. And His world is much larger than our world, our local community in our small town!
We need to find the vibrations, the sound, the voice of our land. We need to find harmony so that the land can breathe, that sons and daughters have come to it, so that it breathes out that, finally, “those of hers” have come. It is written, “And he called to me and spoke to me, saying ‘See, those who go toward the north country have given rest to my Spirit in the north country'” (Zechariah 6:8). So, where the spirit is rebellious, people can be misfortunate, in fears and conflicts.
The land can be blessed, and it will be felt – this is when a combination of accidents and circumstances works “for you.” But in the land of the curse this combination of circumstances is “against you.” This is a land where there is no blessing – a tree fell on a car, a wheel was pierced, an icicle fell on the head. But in the land of blessing you go and buy delicious fruits, and everything is going so as to serve you, all Angelic forces are working for harmony in order to serve God’s children. There is harmony – not the demons attacking you, but the Angels are with you, because the glory is released. This is what a blessed land and a cursed land mean.
Once I was invited to a meeting with indigenous peoples. There I met a very interesting believer. He left a vivid impression on my spirit, he was an amazing man. He had an extraordinary gift – he played all the instruments of the world. Any instrument that got into his hands – he felt its soul and in a matter of seconds “mastered” it like a mustang.
This is the ability that Apostolic Church should have, which finds peace with the land, which immediately discovers the soul of the land and joins with it. It is a gift to instantly establish peace. This is the gift of a peacemaker. Immediately catch the soul of the land and connect. It is written, “righteousness and peace shall kiss,” and the heavens shall kiss the earth.
And you and I can be mediators, a bridge, a voice of this land. If we are disharmonized because we have a malfunction, we will destroy this bridge. But if there is a great shalom in us, because the Lord dwells and reigns, we become a strong and mighty bridge and a connection of earth and heaven in us.
“… that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the Church to the rulers and authorities in heaven” (Ephesians 3:10), which means that the Church demonstrates this manifold wisdom of God to the angelic world. If you catch it, you will bring rest to the land. It will begin to bloom differently way, trees will begin to change their shape.
Once we were in Kamchatka, and I was surprised how twisted the birch trees were there. They were such in the very depths of the forest, that is, they could not be distorted by other trees. They were just ugly. And only local people could answer this question. I asked the indigenous people: “Why do you have such birch trees?” They answered that I saw it right: the trees are sick, because the land is cursed. The blood is not removed, the curse is not removed.
Let us hear this: it is the church that is the meeting place, the bridge. It is the same in man – two universes meet – earth and heaven. In the church the heavenly and the earthly meet, and we bring the heavenly to earth. “May your kingdom be on earth as it is in heaven. We bring blessing here. This is what we do when we pray and worship. This is the supply of heaven to earth. And even the grass will change its color, the rains will fall at the right time – watch! Open your eyes and look at things with faith. Open the “visor” of faith! Proclaim life in faith and bring forth heavenly things!
The earth has a language. This man I met – I realized that I can also have a gift. This gift is not musical, it is the gift of a prophet. The root system is not music, but a prophet. He just feels the essence of things. He looks at the instrument, “travels” in history as a prophet, goes back to the master, sees him and begins to make sounds of music. This is a prophet.
And we can come to earth like that. Watch what the language of the earth is. “The earth will help the woman” means that the creation will “work” for the church. All that we see around is the earth. And here we are also earth – but in which heaven is. Because our dust, our body is also earth. Dust returns to dust, but the spirit goes to God. Here is the connection.
When scientists decided to send the sound of the Earth into space, they decided that it would be the cry of a whale. I love it. Look, we recognize the pure whisper of the tree leaves, the sound of a quiet wind, we even know where it is blowing – whether it sweeps grass or sand. Switch on the sound of rain for you – and you find peace. I don’t know anything more beautiful than the sea. How the waves crush – you can listen to it forever. Breathe deeply the moisture of the sea and enjoy! This is our life! We live in this world! If a child cries, even a dog will come to lick it, because the creation will know: this child is in need. The birds are screaming and singing. The voice of man – you will never confuse it with anything else.
What have we done to our world? What have we turned creation into? We built the “Castle of Koschei” and said: “God is like that!” And God sometimes speaks through creation, as He spoke to Job out of thunder. The young man there began to reprove the elders of speaking not so right about God. He began to shout, and his voice transformed into thunder, and with thunder God began to speak with Job! Thunder was the voice of God!
Today creation speaks to us, the Lord speaks to us. We just need to cast off the “sectarian” uniform. Many of us believed in communities, and it is very scary for us to think outside the community. You’ve gone so deep into it that you no longer notice the creation.
One of the Christian thinkers answered one of my deepest questions: why is there no high creative arts in Christianity – neither in music, nor in painting, nor in literature, nor in cinema – everything is very mediocre. The answer was: because God has two goals, very important in their significance: one is redemptive work on the cross, and the other is creativeness. God is not only the Redeemer, He is also the Creator, the Artist! And beauty interests God no less than redemption. He not only wants to save the Bride, but He wants to save the most beautiful Bride.
Therefore, beauty is no less important than redemption. But theologians have distorted it. They stated that the only purpose of Christ is redemption. Creativity was removed. Therefore, people – creative artists – were deprived of motivation to create. And that part died. We don’t have masterpieces in art or science because evangelicals don’t see the point in it.
The voice of God often speaks to us through creation. Pay attention to this. A tiger appeared to one sister on my arrival. This was an Angel. Why in the form of a tiger? – I understand that. Benjamin is a wolf, and we have a tiger. He wants to bring us closer to the earth, to creation. Angels don’t grow on earth, they are heavenly creatures, and the tiger belongs to earth. But they meet in us, inside the church of Christ.
Therefore, today there is an urgent need, a vital one, to comprehend the language of creation. To recognize the voice of God through the voice of creation, to speak to creation in a language that it understands. So that we would come to the land, fall on it – face and body – and the land would say: “Finally!”, – and hug us! This is how you go to eternity, and not thinking about worms.
Heal creation. Bring healing. I am not saying that you touch the trees and tell them to grow. But why not pray for what God has created? Yes, that’s why missionaries who went to the jungle and didn’t know the language just picked up a flute, a violin and started playing. This music became a bridge to heaven for the hearts of wild tribes. They understood the language – the language of love. Everyone understands it, even animals. No translator needed. Even wild animals endure when they are rescued from a trap, because they understand that help has come.
The whole creation is waiting for redemption, it groans, waiting for the redemption and revelation of the sons of God. Give them this revelation! All creation is waiting for this revelation – about the love of Christ. Everything groans – but we don’t give it to them, we use it, we destroy it, we treat it like a consumer.
This land today is waiting for the ones “of her own kind”. I hope that our church, when it enters a land, will walk on it, and the land will feel that sons and daughters have come.
“And it shall come to pass in that day, I will answer, says the Lord; I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth” (Hosea 2:21); “Mercy and truth meet, righteousness and peace kiss.” (Psalm 84:11); “… the earth helped the woman” (Revelation 12: 16), – the earth and heaven will meet in a joined dance of the Bride of Christ.
This is a high prophetic task. One of the highest. I feel that this is one of the answers – how to bring a blessing, how to “push out” a curse from the land, where historically everything was wrong, where it was mistake upon mistake. Today we are a new generation, we are not children of “them”, we are children of heaven. We come as peacemakers and bring God’s peace to earth!