Von Trapped

 

Julie Andrews in Sound Of Music

"Nonnberg Nunnery kept meticulous records, and yet there’s no mention of Maria having attended there." writes Sue
 Von Trapped by Chris Welch
For many of us who were around to see Sound of Music as youngsters it presented to us this incredible ideal, that those of us who then later found Jesus Christ and got caught up in the rediscovery of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit which swept through all the denominations in the 50s,60s and early 70s, was still some kind of signal to us of a Christian family all singing together.


I actually have clients on my round that do play music together as families. While still single for a while I was caught up in the environment of the incredible Levtov family locally here in Bognor Regis, themselves emigres from Russia in 1979 at the height of the Cold War.

Incredibly, as a player of 3 instruments myself you would have thought I'd have pushed for this myself in my own family, as I know my friend Marcus Roberts has done. But  I was never sufficiently "sold" on the idea as an ideal in its own right. And that is really the subject of this blogpost. Von Trapped doesn't just mean "affected by the Von Trapps", it really describes being "Trapped" by an identity that is not quite real.



First Bible House in New Brighton Rd, Emsworth

Winsley House,Emsworth

Living in Christian community and having a policy of daily and sometimes twice daily worship gatherings here in this Emsworth house, and later in Winsley House, we really did have a "greenhouse" for creativity. No less than 4 to 6 of us were writing songs regularly, and others did on occasions. The local primary teachers noticed the high musicality of the primary school children living in the community. This was entirely a spinoff of community Christian Life, and is similar to the launchpad given to the great American song artists by their black gospel choirs.
For those who don't know, singing together generally is a powerful thing, but singing together from the heart of deeply shared beliefs is quite something else.We actually believe God meant what He said when He commanded praise. A secular person often describes this as a weakness in God who needs to be praised. Far from that rather, it is to rescue us from our inherent default since the Fall to be locked up in ourselves, in our leftbrain,totally unable to comprehend anything beyond what is immediately within our 5 sense range. Music is a primary parameter for conveying to our senses something of the glorious Presence of heaven. So God commands that we enter His Presence with thanksgiving and praise, focussing our view on the One True Life and Existence in the Universe.



But AS GLORIOUS as a life of music is together, and in our case we were among the first generation to explore the territory Ed Miller had pressed into which is complete abandon to the worship and adoration of God, and which he, and even more so, Jorge Pradas taught in all their churches.....

As glorious as this is there is a truth to be discovered from the daughter of Baron Von Trapp's first marriage,Maria Agatha Franziska Gobertina von Trapp , who after spending a life on stage with her other brothers and sisters, living the image of the film, suffered a cruel nervous breakdown. It should be said she always wanted to get married, but had no personal confidence in ever meeting and living with a "male outsider".

Unbeknown to most ouside Germany it should be added at this point that the "perfect idyllic" image of family conveyed in Sound of Music is not SO FAR REMOVED from the blue-eyed blond ideal of Hitler. You see for his enemies he was the sadistic arranger of the Holocaust, but internally he was the kindly avuncular protector of his people,seeking to right the "wrongs" of the Treaty of Versailles and very much a promulgator of the "good life", of "education", of "culture" of "family". Emsworth Community was a strange mixture. A mixture of philosophies. On the one hand we were expected to seek God as youngsters. Many of us had our first living experiences with how the Body of Christ gathers round and nurtures lives as they are literally stripped down and rebuilt in God's presence. This too, I discovered was the WAY the sisters of Mary had discovered in their community in Darmstadt near Frankfurt. When I visited in the summer of 1974, I was staying with the Lutheran Brothers of the Community. One was a Canadian ex teacher who, one year after arrival was only just beginning to find himself again as God was rebuilding him after virtually breaking down in the community.

But in the hinterground of all Spirit communities is still the lingering presence of the flesh life, because in secondlevel communities they still have not been to the rock bottom of Romans 7. They still think of themselves as "someone in their own right." This hubris we picked up in the Fall. So guess what? Where there is Satanlife still going on there is also the finger of the Accuser of the Brethren. Always this feeling that if you are ever schmuck enough to actually do what you are meant to be there for and let the Holy Spirit get to the root of all figleaves, you have some how "let the side down".And this is the peculiar mishmash in first and secondlevel churches right round the globe. As Jesus said of Pharisees and Sadducees....Do as they say....but don't do as they do.
We are looking for God Communities where people have the whole blueprint of Romans. Where the leaders have been through the whole process, not just part of the process.

In real Spirit terms, it's as natural normal and understandable as a seed breaking open in the Earth so the REAL THING CAN HAPPEN.

I think it's fair to say most of those "baptised into the grace message" of Romans 3 to 5 , and freely transmitting this message among Holy Spirit churches, do not have the first clue about Romans 6 to 8, and onwards into Paul's thirdlevel descriptions of intercession, in his case with regard to his own Jewish people.


Chapters like Matthew 25 which describes the parable of the 10 virgins coupled with the Parable of the Talents in which both demand "an increase in oil" and "an increase in talents" are a real problem to them.
But to people who understand that the Jesus life in them is a naturally productive life....and that this is now the sole Life we live from, don't have any problem with these scriptures whatsoever.
But there must be a falling into the ground.
"Unless a seed falls into the ground" says Jesus.
It's impossible to make this look flash and acceptable to the Pride of Life. This is why the devil just laughs it to scorn, as he did with Jesus on the cross.
In real Spirit terms, it's as natural normal and understandable as a seed breaking open in the Earth so the REAL THING CAN HAPPEN.

And this is the issue raised by the Von Trapp family ever circumnavigating the world with this "image" of perfect idyllic family life on the concert stage, but actually preventing the life stories of each Von Trapp from fully unfolding. Instead, more like Hitler, it becomes something very sinister and haunting.



The same thing is happening in Christian families, where the expectation is of this obedient,smiley, Flanders-esque family that is ever a presentation of what life is expected to be, rather than a belief in and a trust in our own spontaneous life to ever get us to the place we'd always dreamed inwardly that we wanted to be.

If we have "pulls" to the good or the bad....we cannot simply "push them down" and carry on in hiding as though they are not real. They are real for us. That doesn't make all of them right. But we have to find Jesus here...right here...not in an image of ourselves where we would like to be. Again, while not saying, sin is Jesus, I am not saying that. But I am saying Our story is Jesus story. He took us on. He knows causally why everything about us is so. What Jesus is bringing forth in us is so much greater than the muddy soil in which it is forming....the actual flowerbed becomes irrelevant. Nobody ever says, Oh what a lovely muddy texture that flowerbed is, they only remark on the plants and the flowers.....Unless they are gardeners!!!!

People have been laughing at the "round robin" letter that has taken shape over the last few years inside Christmas Cards. They have been venting about the sort of letter that tells of how proud parents are that Tarquin has done his Duke of Edinburgh award, and that Sophie has got her place in the first violins in the National Youth orchestra....and how utterly bad other parents feel when the only accomplishment they can immediately think of is breaking and entering an enemy stronghold in Call of Duty Black Ops 50 in the shortest amount of time.The point isn't to diss the Leftovs who have done such a singlemindedly fantastic job, but there's no family I know yet who really knows how to bring up their kids according to the overall 3rd level vision of Living our whole lives as Him in a living spontaneous way. This is the way Jesus alone found Himself "growing as a flower in desert parched land", and as we become established in it we can model it more and more clearly for the next generation.

Grateful Letter to Kanaan, Darmstadt

Sisters,and Brothers, I do trust that you have continued according to the Word entrusted to Mother Basilea and Mother Martyria, and then you are all pressing on in the wonderful internal knowledge of Jesus Christ as our sole and only Life, expressed through our unique personalities. I pray that if you are still maintaining outer forms of Lutheranism, and the various forms given to you in particular, your countless songs for example, that you are all using them to find Jesus Christ, and that those forms are not using you for themselves, such that you regress in your revelation of Him.

I want to give you some feedback from a Jugendhelfer 74 and explain a little the fuller picture of your help to me, but I hope to stimulate your faith also, for the Holy Spirit has indeed been leading us ever onward since those days 40 years ago.

The Lord Jesus Christ has been made Lord and Christ by the heavenly Father, and He has been pleased to be hungered for over millennia, and has deliberately planned in the progressive revelation of Himself that mankind say, "But you have saved the best wine for last." The devil would like us to concentrate on the huge noise he is making, to distract from the noonday glory of the Sun of Righteousness rising in the Bride of Christ worldwide.

I always digress into the bigger vision, it is how God made me, and it frustrates my wife!!!! So let me begin by personal detail.

I was a Methodist in England in Berkhamsted and Amersham near London, until 12. At that time I OVERACHIEVED. I received 11 Grade A's in class at school and was shocked to realise that internally I didnt feel any happier. Methodism had seemed to show me that God did not in fact exist, so I became an atheist for a year until at 13 I heard Billy Graham preach in a film shown to young people.

This was 1972. There was a wave of revival throughout England, and even my wife, totally independent from me, and from a totally non-Christian family, also became a Christian and then was baptised in the Holy Spirit in the North of England.

The Lord Jesus Christ sovereignly, meanwhile, in our town, directed two individuals from two different churches to hold a Holy Spirit and evangelism teach- in day for youth. I have believed ever since that that is the context for the power of the Spirit.

Many have heard of the Toronto Blessing or the Father's Blessing as it really is....well , I got mine 22 years earlier and like in Acts 2, was paralytically drunk, so I had to be helped downstairs, but the glory was evident upon my face. I have tried not to get too sober since.I took this anointing into school and for a while we had revival in our year group in our posh state grammar school called Dr Challenors GS in Amersham.


That was a couple of paragraphs to help you. So by this time I was in Old Amersham Baptist Church, which was one of the first renewed Baptist churches in England. Don Basham passed through it in 1967. This was the charismatic move, and very exciting.

But others came through our church continually. Including your sisters from Radlett. But also Graham Pulkingham and the Fisherfolk.And also notably Richard Wurmbrand.


Now Mother Basilea's books, Richard Wurmbrand, Watchman Nee, Bonhoeffer all stood out to me and I got hungry to know what was different. Because I could tell being a musician and artist personality like Mother Martyria, that there was something more going on in these others than in the rest of the charismatic movement.

You should know two things. One of my best friends who was 6 years older, Marcus Roberts was in that bus that somebody drove into a bridge, and had to have the roof taken off. This was the bus from JLF or Jesus Liberation Front that went to witness at the Munich Olympics. And they returned via Darmstadt. Kanaan received them wonderfully, even though they were all complete hippies for Jesus.

The second thing was that my close friends with whom a lot of young people related in Amersham had magazines from America called New Wine, but also the Catholic charismatic one called New Covenant. So around this time I was sitting and reading an incredible article that said Christianity wasnt just

believing in Christ

being filled with the Spirit.

It said instead that there was another level, or stage. That Christianity had three levels to it. As in 1 John 2:12ff Children,young men, and father level. Nobody was saying this. And now in 2012 not many are saying this either.

But a lot of us are. And in 1976 I believe I was able to see with my own eyes an early example of a community starting to live 3 level Christianity, only ofcourse Mother Basilea never called it that.

But I knew when I went back to the UK I had received things in the Spirit of God that nearly nobody else was saying in Britain at the time.

The last thing you really need to know is WHAT I HEARD in Kanaan. Well I heard and experienced many things from your culture that Jesus has raised up among you, again based on Lutheranism, but then added to as Basilea "saw" things in the Spirit of God. Mother Martyria talking on Mathaus Grunewald as an early example of Expressionist art for example.The garden of Jesus Remembrance. The fruit teas. The songs. The services.

But you should really know what was occurring at this time. Somehow Basilea got to hear of Chairman Mao's secret plans to mobilise an army on the whole of Europe and a bit frustrating to me, she left during the Jugendhelfer period to fast and pray. Today, if you read Jung Chang's book on Chairman Mao, his plans to invade are mentioned. The next thing the world knew however was Nixon and Kissinger visiting China instead. Which to us who were in the know was absolutely stupendous. You see the rest of the world had NO IDEA that a war on Europe was even in his mind.


So after a good time away fasting and praying Basilea returned. Then she immediately called us in with 2 messages from God. And they had such anointing on them, it was a bit like Moses coming down from the mountain.

She preached on "Seek the face of God as did Jacob at Peniel."

And she preached on Revelation : Go the Way of the Lamb, for it is a Way of Great Power. And as far as I could see over those couple of years or so, I thought, she's not joking! Fancy being able to stop a dictator in his tracks!

A third thing that was key. Do you remember that sometimes Basilea or Martyria would do the opposite of a Promise box? So we had to pray and pick out of a box what the Lord was going to show us was our worst sins.

I was expecting like most males it would be lust.

But you know what? Mine was worse than that. Mine was INDIFFERENCE. And I was so angry, I stayed up until late praying to prove how wrong it was. I fell asleep.

You've got to bear in mind, that I had been baptised in the Spirit at 13.I'd been a "good" Methodist boy before that. Didn't swear, until i became atheist.

But in the coming years I was going to fall into adultery (before I married at 40), I was going to be driven mad by pornography and lust, even within a Christian community....

UNTIL I truly realised that Romans 7 is an experience for Christians....not non-Christians.

Jesus lives our life. Jesus lives our Christian life. He Himself is formed in us, and He lives through our souls and our bodies.

Some separate soul existence, independently powered, is the lie in Genesis 3. When the devil said our eyes would be opened, these were the eyes of our soul, eyes that dont actually exist. The only real eyes are our spiritual ones, and our body ones...but the idea of us living as independent souls in our own right as independently powered gods comes straight out of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, which are the description of the delusion the devil is in.

Now we are talking 40 years later here, and Mother Basilea to my knowledge never talked with this spiritual clarity, but from what I saw, she knew a lot of this stuff on her insides. Norman Grubb, who , like Basilea and Martyria, were University trained brains coming under the Lordship of Christ and His scriptures, has written one of the clearest books so far called "Yes I am". Norman Grubb wrote the most famous intercessor book called Rees Howells Intercessor.


I was reading one of my friends' phrases this morning, She is called Nancy Gilmore. Now Nancy is like that famous book "Hi Mr God this is Anna". Nancy like smoking and dancing, so there was no way she was going to be accepted in Christian America. But through direct fellowship with the Lord she has the same if not more penetrating insight that Basilea did. She was born in 1934, but was only ever a housewife, marrying at 19.


This is how she explains what happened to all of us at the Cross.


"Spirit-spirit union is like 2 magnets joined together....CHRIST is the True Self joined to the created self (here Ole Henrik)Two as one spirit....The created Ole never becomes Christ. Christ is AS Christ in this world as Ole Henrik. The emphasis is always Christ."

You see if we say we ARE GOD we cross a line into New Age thought. But if we say we aren't God in our form, this is just as bad because scripture is clear there is only One Life in the universe, as Paul declared in Him we live and move and have our being.


Satan rose up in heaven itself, and declared himself a "separate being". He's behaving as a separate being, but he isnt really , he is just twisting God's own "self poured out for others life" back in on himself as a "self for self", or egotistic existence.


But as Basilea alluded, there is a Cross in the heart of God. He has forever decided to be a Covenant Lover. A lover that "swears to His own hurt". The only thing Basilea didnt really stress strong enough in 1974, when she was talking about going the Way of the Lamb....is that that IS THE ONLY LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE. Anything else is not the Life that Christ came to give. As soon as we are born again we receive this same quality of life, it's just like Abraham we think there's a middle realm still.


When things get tough Abraham resorted to the socalled "middle realm", claiming his wife, the very vessel by which the child of promise was going to come, was in fact his half-sister.

And this is what Christians do until they are mature. They live as functional atheists, blending in with the world's own delusion of being a self-powered self. We know there is something wrong, but we cant put our finger on it.

But "Yes I am " by Norman Grubb puts his finger on what is going on.




You see when we all died spiritually at the Cross, spirit which is us, died. Then the Bible uses great words in the Old Testament and the New Testament which both are like wound cords of thread.

Those that wait upion the Lord shall renew their strength etc....

Wait means in Hebrew Quavah or bind together

When it says our lives are hidden together in Christ in God, it's the same meaning but this time in Greek.

This is what makes John 15 to 17 about abiding actually work, when we "see" by revelation, I have died, it is NOT I that live anylonger, it is Christ.

But we cannot strut around the world saying I am Christ, or else they'll put us in a mental home. and this is because a worldly person sees everyone after the flesh. So they assume when we say "We are Christ but in our outward forms," that we are trying to say our soul is Christ, and that immediately spells mental problems.


No, we are saying we have been born again from on high, our created spirits are so entwined in Christ, as His was in the Father, we haven't a clue where one begins and the other ends. And all this , like a lightbulb, shines through the lampshade of our soul and body.


If you meet a mature Christian who has, like a seed, allowed to put them into the ground and raise them up in resurrected form, they are all the same...there is NO MIDDLE MAN. They are ALL like Gideon's smashed pots, with the Light of THE ONE LIFE of the Universe shining through.


Apart from personality, there is fundamentally no difference in the quality of Life shining through Mother Basilea, Richard Wurmbrand, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,Madame Guyon, Watchman Nee, Witness Lee,Graham Pulkingham, Corrie Ten Boom.
This is all Jesus Christ in mature form in pots of clay.


And with much greater clarity now on how we work as human beings, coupled ofcourse with all the spiritual tools and power that the Holy Spirit gives, you can begin to see how from those early days, God is building an international army that will chase the devil off God's Earth, as is spelled out in Daniel 2 and other places....it's just that in those days we didnt understand what St Paul did about Jesus doing it through the Church, and we were all waiting around at a busstop for the secondcoming of Christ. Far greater is He who is in us than we ever imagined.




Thanks for letting me communicate something. I hope you now understand that you have been used more than you think in many of our lives as a Light of something that was barely appearing anywhere on earth in the 70s.

Love in Christ