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https://robinkyle.com/single/33180/perfectly-aligned
The First Step we teach at the FREEDOM! retreat is described well in Paul’s words to the Thessaloniams…
“….you TURNED from idols to serve the living and true God.“
Or in the words from Robin’s song, released March 22, with the number 22 serendipitously in the background visual, and our March 22 Oswald Chambers calendar reading in the kitchen above!
“……you’re never going to die, when you’re perfectly aligned.”
The song says, “……. life creates the conditions for Life.” for it is in learning to appropriate the grace to rightly respond in faith to the ‘death’ conditions life creates, that the TURNING (also called repentance) takes place, that brings us face to face and into perfect alignment, with “the living God.”
March 22 was also the date when this other TURNING word was given and brought to my attention…
I referenced John Larson’s book, THE TURNING last week. I was prompted to order 2 copies. They arrived the next day, just minutes before two brothers arrived at the house. I knew the two copies were meant for these men. Yesterday I was prompted to order another 2.
Would that be another 22?
I don’t orchestrate these signs. Our Father points them out when he wakes me during the night : – )
22 is the number for “Sons of Light“** whom our Father is bringing forth in these days.
That process involves our being made aware of the ‘idols’ of our heart and then ‘TURNING from idols.’
The final instruction in John’s first epistle seems rather cryptic,
“Dear children keep yourselves from idols”…….. and yet this is in fact the gospel in a nutshell!
At the FREEDOM! retreat I do a play on the word ‘idol’ in this way…
“…..you turned from I (is the) DOL(l) ” In slang to be “a doll” means to be the object of affection. God’s plan is that we turn from every other thing that could claim our affection ahead of Him in our lives.
That “heart idol” could be My wife, My husband, My children, My church, My denomination, My theology, My opinion, My perception, My hobby, My team, My career, My profession, My ministry, My dream, My appetites, My politics, My ideology, My health, My race, My money and so forth……………
As we receive the gift of repentance and God TURNING us from these things which we have allowed to become “idols” in our lives, we can again come face to face with “the living God” and experience our DEAR-ness to Him as His CHILDREN, His Life in this life as we choose again to delight in Him even as he has without wavering been delighting in us!
Embracing with joy our true identity ‘in Christ’, we are then made ready to be raised up in due season as ‘sons of light’ for this is the final step of our HOPE………
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1 Pt.1:3)
” …we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this HOPE we were saved.” (Rm. 8:23,24)
“Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your affections on the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Col.3:2,3)
The first step in this blog was Robin’s song about this aspect of the journey, the last step is a song I was given a few years ago. The lyrics and arrangement are simpler, the message wonderfully similar!
** From The Biblical Meaning of Numbers by Dr. Stephen E. Jones
Twenty-Two (kaph-beth)
Sonship, Sons of Light
To write twenty-two in Hebrew, they wrote two Hebrew letters: kaph-beth. These signify the open palm in the act of giving something to the house or household. It speaks of the Fruitfulness Mandate in Gen. 1:28, “be fruitful and multiply.”
Twenty-two is the number of Sonship, or the Sons of Light.
This is the first promise of Sonship, which, along with the Dominion Mandate, formed the Birthright. This Fruitfulness Mandate was later given to Joseph when Jacob said in Gen. 49:22, “Joseph is a fruitful bough” [ben, “son”], the builder of God’s household.
Ed Vallowe’s book, Biblical Mathematics, pages 138 and 139, says that 22 is the number of light, but Psalm 22 does not support his interpretation. Vallowe says,
“TWENTY-TWO is the number that is connected with LIGHT. There were TWENTY-TWO bowls to hold oil in the candlestick in the Tabernacle… The purpose of the candlestick with its lamps was to give light.
“The saved are called the children of LIGHT…
“In the Gospel of John the word LIGHT is used TWENTY-TWO times.”
Certainly, 22 includes the idea of light, because the overcomers—the sons of God—are the children of light. But the meaning of 22 is more inclusive than just light. It includes all aspects of Sonship, including authority, as we will see shortly.
As Vallowe says, there were 22 almonds on the 7 branches of the candlestick in the tabernacle (Ex. 25:31-37). The candlestick gave light to the Sanctuary and is a picture of Christ, as John 1:9 tells us,
9 There was the true light which coming into the world, enlightens every man.
But this is also connected to the concept of authority. In Numbers 16 we read about the Korah rebellion. Korah disputed the authority of Moses and Aaron. After God judged him, the next chapter establishes the authority of Aaron and the tribe of Levi in general. The princes of each tribe had to bring their rods of authority to the tabernacle, where they were laid up over night in the sanctuary. Num. 17:8 says,
8 Now it came about on the next day that Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms and it bore ripe almonds.
In this we see that almonds have to do with divine authority. So the almonds on the candlestick speak of those God has chosen to be the light of the world and to rule in the Kingdom of God. That highest Authority is Jesus Christ, but it also speaks of those called as priests of God to rule with Him (Rev. 5:10; 20:6). Thus, the candlestick is more than light; it is authority as well. Putting them together, we see that these things characterize the sons of God. So 22 is the number of Sonship.
In Num. 3:39 there were 22,000 priests of Levi that redeemed the firstborn sons of Israel. A thousand is the number of glory, so 22,000 speaks of “the glorified sons.” Thus, these 22,000 priests of Levi represented all of the firstborn sons. They represented the manifested sons of God, the true children of light, whom God has set apart to teach the word and to administer the law to the people by the mind of Christ.
In 2 Chron. 7:5 Solomon offered 22,000 oxen when he dedicated the temple to God on the eighth day of Tabernacles. This again speaks of the 22,000 overcomers dedicated and given to God, who are the glorified firstborn sons. In this example there is no mention of light. It speaks of oxen. Oxen speak of strong servants, the overcoming sons of God.
In the New Testament, Saul is mentioned precisely 22 times in the New Testament, all in the book of Acts. The reason for this is because he is an example of Sonship. Saul was converted and his name changed to Paul. He shows us the way to go from Pentecost to Tabernacles. The 22nd time Saul is mentioned is in Acts 26:14, where he tells King Agrippa of the glorious manner of his conversion:
14 And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
Most people do not understand this last statement, because they do not know the Hebrew language. The word for God is El, which is spelled aleph and lamed. Aleph is an ox, a symbol of strength. Lamed means an ox goad, a symbol of authority over the ox. El thus means the strong authority. So when Jesus told Saul that it was hard for him to kick against the goads, He meant that Saul was fighting God Himself, the strong Authority, the Sovereign One.
Thus, when Saul was forced to recognize the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, he was converted and ultimately began to go by the name Paul. Paul means “little,” and it contrasted with what was said about his ancestor, King Saul, who was tall and stood head and shoulders above everyone else (1 Sam. 10:23). When Saul became little in his own eyes, he stood taller in the eyes of God.
The 22nd time that Abraham is mentioned is in Gen. 25:5, “ Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac.” Isaac was the inheritor of the promise, and he was a type of Christ in this regard, for after He died and rose again, He ascended, and the Father put all things under His feet (authority). And the sons of God are co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).
Likewise, the 22nd time Joseph is mentioned is in Gen. 37:4,
4 So Joseph found favour in his [Potiphar’s] sight, and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house and all that he owned he put in his charge.
Joseph, the type of Christ in His second coming, was given authority over all that Potiphar owned. Even so, Christ the Head and the Body of Christ will be given authority over all that He owns—the creation itself. This speaks of ruling as Sons.
Joshua is another great type of Christ, since he had the same name as Jesus (Yeshua). The 22nd time Joshua is mentioned is in Deut. 31:7, where he was given authority over “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38) and was charged with the duty of giving them their inheritances:
7 Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance.”
The 22nd time David is mentioned is in 1 Sam. 17:34, where he tells Saul that he delivered a lamb from both a lion and a bear, so why should he fear Goliath? As a type of Christ, David delivered the lambs from death. Jesus, the antitype, delivered the lambs (people) from death as well by giving His life for them on the cross.