Eliminating Deadly Distractions

Eliminating Deadly Decisions

Let’s read the following – very controversial – highly overlooked -teaching in the Book of Leviticus.

Leviticus 24:10-23 King James Version

¹⁰ And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the Children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp;

¹¹ And the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the Name of the Lord, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:)

¹² And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be shewed them.

¹³ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

¹⁴ Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

¹⁵ And thou shalt speak unto the Children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin.

¹⁶ And he that blasphemeth the Name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.

¹⁷ And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸ And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast.

¹⁹ And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him;

²⁰ Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.

²¹ And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.

²² Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God.

²³ And Moses spake to the Children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

Wow! That’s Hard to Hear.

So, a few things that stand out immediately?

1. An anger issue results in a fight due to strife (v10).
2. A man being stoned to death for blaspheme against GOD (v16).
3. That controversial phrase…”an eye for an eye…” (v20).

As much as we do not want to deal with the fact that GOD gave the judgment to stone a man – for any reason – let alone in this particular cultural climate today AND for the fact that it was for blaspheme, which doesn’t appear at first hand to be that serious, right?

That’s fair. From our perspective – in the natural – this appears to be excessive and heavy-handed. But, let’s examine the text to see if there are some additional facts beneath the surface that will help us understand the LORD’s point of view in the matter. Let’s just see if we can meet Him in the middle for a moment AND learn something about deadly decisions.

1st Level Close up on Leviticus 24:10

¹⁰ And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the Children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel ‘strove’ together in the camp;

• The underlying Hebrew word for ‘strove‘ is natsah meaning to quarrel, to strive, to lay waste to, ruinous. natsah expresses extremely aggressive, disruptive and/or a manner of destructive behavior.
• Our watered down definition of strive/strove in the English language leads us to believe that the Word of GOD is talking about a struggle or trying hard to gain or achieve something. But that’s the misleading part.

English is simply not capable of capturing the core meaning of the words that are being expressed from the Hebrew or the Greek. I can not say it enough, the Hebrew is a very meticulous language. Words in Hebrew are specifically chosen to communicate levels of meaning.

All Strife is Not the Same.

There are 7 different words in the Biblical Hebrew language that are expressed as strife. This is ‘strife‘ at various degrees and levels of meaning.

In Leviticus Chapter 24, we are being taught about the level of strife known as natsah (H5327), which appears only 11 times in the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures. We are all familiar with its first appearance in the text. Exodus 2:11-14; When Moses went out to look upon the burdens of his people and saw and Egyptian smiting a Hebrew. When he returned the second day, two Hebrews were striving together and as confrontational, aggressive spirits tend to do (the one that did the wrong), challenged him and said these infamous words –in scripture… “Who made you a prince over us?”

Strife has an evil spirit attached to it. One that is rebellious and contentious. This spirit shows up next in Ex 21:22 in the case set forth of fighting (striving) with a woman, hitting her and causing her to lose a child.

At the fourth appearance of natsah in scripture (Num 26:9) we find the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram, striving against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the Lord:

Watch the Pattern of Escalation…

At the spirits first appearance in scripture, the spirit of natsah is provoking a strife with another man in such a way that Moses needs to intervene in order to protect the slave from the presence of baseless hatred. Next the spirit presents in a case causing GOD to make a ruling that anyone operating in the spirit of strife, harming a woman; causing the death of a child must be put to death. Clearly, natsah has no self control whatsoever.

When natsah appears the 4th time, he comes with a gang, an entire bloodline – and acts against another bloodline!

So there’s this wicked bloodline and this Godly bloodline that it is in opposition against – and didn’t the scripture mention that that spirit strove against GOD too?

You might as well understand now that that spirit (all wicked spirits) that come against you are really coming against the GOD in you!

It’s not just about you! It’s bigger than you!

That evil spirit hates your back-up.

The person with a spirit of natsah upon them, argues and quarrels without a cause, loves contention and strife, is even willing to take another life in order to exert absolute power, authority and control over you.

natsah is full of aggression, disrupts peace on every side, thrives on the frustration of others. natsah has an insatiable need to be right above all else, and demands everyone else to bow before them and submit. Moses would not. Aaron would not. GOD would not.

Moses thought he was a prince. As far as he knew, he was a prince of Egypt. But this spirit had no regard for who he was in the natural or the spirit.

Moses was raised knowing he had absolute authority – even as a child of the Throne. The difference between Moses and natsah, was that Moses possessed a heart filled with righteousness, mercy, justice and judgment (Gen 18:19, 1 Kings 10:19, 2 Chron 9:8, Job 8:3, Micah 6:8, Ps 9:8, 16:8, 31:9, 82:3, Prov 21:3, Isa 56:1, Jer 22:15, Hosea 6:6), and just a chapter ago we see in the Book of Leviticus 19:15…

“Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.”

Moses understood the Word before it was ever written. He had a heart of justice, mercy and faith. Instinctively operating in the image and likeness of the Most High. A fight with the spirit of natsah is a fight to the finish. It’s strong, persistent and unrepentant.

Now let’s position this spirit on the board and play some Chess…

I’m taking my time with this because you need to know what kind of spirit you are dealing with here. You are being thoroughly informed so that you will be without excuse. If you do not recognize natsah after today, you will soon realize (at some point in time) that you were not focused and paying attention.

You read the instructions and dismiss them or assumed you already had understanding, or treated the teaching as if it was something far removed from your world and like it didn’t really matter.

Strife is not a light thing…

The Spirit of God WILL NOT abide with you or anyone else in your/our strife. We first learned this from the Mouth of GOD in Genesis 6:3, and He has been very serious about it ever since. (Neh 9:30, Isa 57:16, Eph 4:30, Job 34:14-15, 1 Thess 5:19, 2 Peter 2:5, Jude 1:14-15)

Know the Pieces on the Board.

“The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” – Proverbs 4:19

I hope that I have shown you so far, by many infallible proofs – that strife is not acceptable in the Kingdom of GOD – here on Earth. Those that belong to Him, say they belong to Him, are supposed to belong to Him, are forbidden from partaking in strife.

It’s just not going to be tolerated- indefinitely.

The presence of GOD will not lift immediately, but it will lift. Man is given space and time to repent. Those that belong to GOD are aware that time is of the essence. Your spiritual work is affected immediately. Your anointing is affected immediately. Your ability to produce fruit is affected immediately. There are consequences immediately.

Just because we don’t see outcomes immediately in the natural, does not mean they are not taking affect in the spirit.

We are addressing spiritual matters. We have to keep our focus on the spirit first, not the flesh. Not the natural.

The pieces have to move together on the board. You can’t move one piece in the spirit and the other piece in the flesh. You can’t be half in and half out. You cant be all in one day – I love you Jesus, and missing in action tomorrow.

This year we are making a final decision. That’s what I’m advocating for and spending all this time to write out these teachings, so that you can study them out.

The Things We Read Right Over…

The son of the Israelitish woman and the Egyptian man… (Notice: he is of mixed birth) …went out among the Children of Israel and strove with an Israelite man – a full blooded Israelite (v10).

Their son made a deadly decision. Scripture doesn’t tell us what occurred that caused him to move in strife and blaspheme the Name of GOD (verse 11). But, even though scripture is silent on that point, this in and of itself is vital information.

¹¹ “And the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the Name of the Lord, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.“

He blasphemed the Name of the LORD AND cursed! Wow!

Then scripture adds this little memo…

“…(and his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.“

Why Is That Significant?

#1. Scripture is bringing it out for a reason. Scripture is not a story book. When scripture singles out a piece of information in this way, there’s always a reason. Consider it a signal or clue that GOD is trying to tell us something!

Let’s take a closer look at the mother’s name pronounced, “shlo-meeth” and written in Hebrew  שְׁלמִית.

The first 3 letters convey critical information and insight. Her name is drawn from its root word shalom and is translated ‘Peaceableness‘

She is the daughter of Dibri, which is a dvr in Hebrew, meaning ‘word‘ and she is of the tribe of Dan, which means ‘Judge.’

So what have we learned here!

The man who dealt in natsah (strife). He is the son of Peaceableness, daughter of the Word, of the tribe of the Judges of Israel.

One pattern I have seen in scripture is that there are a number of times that the unnamed person’s name is unspoken or removed because of their character flaws. Clearly, ‘the son’ has rejected his lineage and heritage of the Children of Israel.

He doesn’t walk peaceably with his neighbor. He is not walking in or aligned or even subjecting himself to the Word of GOD, under the yoke of His Soveriengty. His mother is a daughter of the Word, but not him.

He a child of mixed birth, fights with a Child of Israel.

He shows contempt for the Word of God and the Name of GOD. Instead, he blasphemes and curses GOD’s Name.

This is a child that has taken upon himself another image and likeness.

But there’s more…

There’s a question I am always asking you, to ask yourself when you study the scriptures… You have to rehearse this question in your mind….

Where Have I heard This Before?

Recall earlier when we revisited the 1st appearance of natsah in scripture; Exodus 2:13-14. There was an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew.

The same thing is happening again… with the same spirit at play.

Only this time, a son of mixed birth (Hebrew and Egyptian) is striving with a (full-blooded) Hebrew.

As we saw earlier, the son of mixed birth has completely rejected his Hebrew identity. He is operating in his nature and character as an Egyptian, under the spirit of natsah.

His gentile (carnal) nature is asserting itself over and above his spiritual nature.

When he should be representing himself as a future judge of Israel, a position to which he is called, he casts off his robes of justice, judgement and righteousness – he refuses the Word and he takes on that ‘other spirit’ that knows not GOD.

For all intents and purposes, he could have been treated as a stranger, but he is not. But GOD says that those who blaspheme His Name, it shall be accounted to them as if they have killed a man and be put to death.

Any outside consideration or argument that the person might be a stranger and should therefore not suffer the same consequences as a full blooded Hebrew, have been nullified. GOD says, the same law applies to them.

²² “Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger (ger) as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God.“

While we still need to examine this issue of blaspheme, we will do that later. Digest this part of the message first.

Make sure you understand the spirit of strife ‘natsah‘, how it behaves, how it operates, how it moves. Ensure you completely understand his spiritual legacy and heritage- what he refused vs. what he embraced.

Are you beginning to see why GOD dealt so harshly with this spirit?

What were the deadly distractions that cause him to forfeit his life?

He had many pieces on the board…

Strife, anger, unresolved anger issues, rebellion, disruptive, destructive behavior, misplaced aggression, resentment, an unrepentant spirit, willfulness, refusing his own birthright, refusing his spiritual legacy and birthright, his purpose and his calling… walking in the image and likeness of natsah, etc.

For starters, these are some of the self-sabotaging, self-destructive behaviors that caused him to take himself out of destiny, all because of his lack of self control or behavioral restraint.

Distracted by an evil spirit – several.

He was focused on the wrong things. Focused on the wrong spirit.

Well there’s more… so get ready!

Tomorrow… No Chess – We will continue in the text (of scripture) with the meaning of blaspheme.

MAKE ALL YOUR MOVES… GOD MOVES.

Continuing with our Chess analogies to drive home a few keys points on the art of spiritual warfare, I want you all to know that it is not necessary to learn the game of chess. Chess is the metaphor that I am using to place emphasis on the need to focus and the absolute requirement that we approach the outside world each day with intentionality of purpose, knowing that your spiritual opposition is out there – and is seeking an opportunity to devour.

Link to original post here:

The Word of GOD requires intentionality. The fact is, it deserves it more than any other area of your life in which we choose to focus.

A doctor studies for years before entering into their field of specialty. One automatically trust that their doctor consumes every available piece of intelligence on their area of expertise- especially if they have designs on becoming an expert in their field. Yet, no one ever says to them, “It doesn’t take all that!” In regards to developing your skills in spiritual matters, everyone feels entitled to weigh in and disparage, “your purpose and intentionality” when it comes to focusing on the Word of GOD in order to develop your ‘expertise’ on spiritual matters… they encourage you to lower the standard of what is required to excel.

Don’t listen to them! Don’t even entertain the thought!

(I’m encouraging you to remain committed, consecrated and dedicated to your studies in the Word. You will see signs following).

No one wants a doctor who knows a little something-something about his so called field of science, right? Your pursuit of excellence in wisdom, knowledge and understanding in the Word of GOD is the highest calling above any field of expertise on earth. I’m just taking this moment to commend you for it! Those who are in pursuit of the highest and most excellent relationship with the Kingdom of Heaven, are in the business of caring for souls, and you will know them by their fruit— as you do in any of the kingdoms of this world!

Focus and intentionality are the foundation of your ability to attain and retain access to the highest dimension of destiny in Christ. This is not just a ‘saying’ or a ‘truism.’ It’s just true.

So, find the ‘one thing’ that demands your full focus and intentionality (kah-vah-nah) and utilize it as a methodology that assist you in cultivating your focus. Chess makes me to continually seek the connections that are right in front of me. Ones that can easily become obscured due to all of the other distractions around them.

Today, I want to demonstrate this principle to you by drawing from an example in the game of chess. However, the same principle applies to EVERY field of study and practice that exist.

You have to stay focused on the primary objectives (take out the kingdoms of darkness, bind the strongman and dismantle your opponents strategies against you), and do not get pulled out by all of the DISTRACTIONS!

Put your focus on His Word and not all the other voices trying to lead you away!

It’s Your Move!

Fortunately for you, the Bishop and the Queen are lined up in UNITY, and this next move can eliminate their Dark Horse and pose a threat to his King.

The grey dots pinpoint the territory the Queen can posses. You have to look close to see that the dark horse has a target on it too.

Both your Bishop and your Queen have the dark horse in their sights. They are in a position – due to some earlier decisions – to work together.

It’s your move, so the dark horse has no options! It will be taken out of play by Your Queen or Your Bishop. Either way, you have the horseman completely immobilized and helpless.

What’s the best move to make?

What’s the Call?

You decide to deploy the Queen – take out the Dark Horse – pose an imminent threat to the King of Darkness and push him back. Amen.

Note: Your King can only make one move at a time and as you can see by the grey dots – there’s still no threat approaching the King – and there’s no need to move him – no immediate danger.

You eliminated the Dark Horse and caused the King of Darkness to back up!

Great! You sent a strong message. The enemy had to flee! How do you keep the pressure on and win the day?

Let’s look at the NEW options of Your Queen…

Excellent Decision!

With the Queen at D6; the King of Darkness is in check AGAIN and has to flee! with the Bishop is continuing to cover the diagonal plane. Now the Queen can eliminate the Rook of Darkness.

Queen takes B8.

So how does this translate to real life application?

At every stage you beheld the Queen and the Bishop working together. Unified. The Bishop laying down cover and protecting the way of escape.

You saw calculations and assessments being made in real time. No knee jerk reactions to provocations, no rash (emotional) decisions, you maximized your resources in a way that utilized their strengths and positions on the board. You eliminated threats, immobilized the enemy, held your territory and took more ground in the Kingdom.

I’d call that a Good Day in the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth!

In the next post (#3 in this series) I’m going to show you a perfect- overlooked portion of scripture (in Christendom) that provides an excellent example of being overtaken by your own self destructive behaviors and emotions.

I’m choosing what I believe will be a teaching that you have not heard before, so that there will be no preconceived notions as to the outcome or biased by any other teachings. I want you to look at a teaching with fresh eyes, so that we can address another goal of this teaching…

Eliminating DEADLY Distractions.

By virtue of hearing a teaching for the first time, all the other voices are silenced. You can learn something that the LORD wants to reveal to you without the noise.

In this teaching you are going to see someone being pulled out of their purpose and calling. Someone who was designated for destiny, but allowed provocations and anger to take it all away. They took themselves out of destiny. All the adversary had to do was find another open vessel to provoke them to wrath…

…and thats all it took for them to make a deadly decision.

In today’s lesson on spiritual chess, I spoke about getting in your own way. Becoming THE BLOCK to your own destiny.

The Children of GOD have some very powerful tools in their quiver (aka toolkit). Today’s focus….

Don’t get in your own way!

Tomorrow’s focus… Eliminating deadly decisions… you have to see the enemy coming, know the tactics, plots, plans and strategies and it has to become more than head knowledge. You have to see them in real time.

Tomorrow… No Chess – Just the text (of scripture).

Original photograph taken by Renae B on date and time and location listed above, that I promised to include. My apologies for the delay. I sent the post and then remembered I had not included it❤️