Partition Wall Christianity

I have a problem with partition wall Christianity.


These are Christians who say similar things , but somehow, they are never in the same room. They speak to you from behind a partition wall. Presumably because they feel it is safer.

Do you know the first word that laid a foundation for my former Church Emsworth? It was given by Jorge Pradas, who was only in town for a holiday. The fellowship of rather adhoc charismatics met as and when, and had other churches they all were involved in.


Jorge's word way back around the early 70s was this. Are you a Church or are you a fellowship?
Because it was given in the Spirit, everyone there was pricked by an arrow so sharp, that they, in the manner of Acts 2 knew they had been pricked to the heart, and that a response was demanded.....that very night!

Now Abraham had a similar problem. It's a half in half out problem. It's a safety partition problem. He knew that Sarah his wife was going to be the means whereby he was going to be the father of many nations. Yet would he stand by her?

Nope. Whenever the pressure was on by an admiring King, he kind of let slip that Sarah was a sort of half-sister...which was also true. But not as true as the fact that he was in a married relationship with her. She was spoken for! Or should have been.

I have been reading some other intelligent blogs.
My problem with intelligent blogs is not that they are well written. Richard Wurmbrandt and Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote very well. My problem is that they have an intellectual detachment from the subject matter that is just like speaking through a partition wall. Perhaps the more scriptural picture is the one in Song of Solomon; that of speaking through a lattice.
When we come to the Lord some of us spend a while dancing a twostep around those born again ones who are telling us the gospel. We want to be sure. We ask questions. That is OK. But after a while like any good salesman, the Holy Spirit brings us around to the decision again. Do you want this Divine Life within you or don't you? He never lets us answer every single question. The fact is we will still be asking questions until the day we die. So it's a waste of time.
He lets us satisfy ourselves with several answers, but then drops the bombshell that His Life does not consist of right answers. It is Life itself. It is indeed an Answer on a completely different level. And as soon as we sign on the dotted line and ask Jesus in.....in other words a commitment has taken place....then we can know the Assurance of salvation within us that is the privilege of everyone that hears and acts on faith.
If Christianity was some lame circular thing...like this:
I believe because I asked Jesus in and now I believe I have the assurance....
How do you know you have the assurance?
Because I believe in Jesus.
Well that's a bit of lame reasoning. If any non-Christians are reading this I want you to learn something. Although this appears to be the circular nature of religion, you are missing something that actually happens halfway round the circle. The reality of the Life of Jesus Christ enters into the soul of a Christian. And that's why someone will be so stupid like me to remain a Christian for 37 years. Here are some effects. You feel brand new. Every weight of inadequacy,wrongdoing against others and yourself is washed away. You now know what you are here for. You know what your future will be. Everything around you seems brighter, more meaningful; in fact you notice things for the first time in your life, or maybe the first time since you were very small.
But here's the kicker! You love people! And not just for what they can give you. You just love people fullstop! This is all Day One stuff...and does not in any way include things like finding prayer is now a natural thing. That you actually long to be with Christians. That Church is actually one heck of a place. And if that is not enough you start getting involved in things that are just not humanly explicable....a host of supernatural abilities which you find your buddies have got as well. And so on and so on.
Back to blog observers. And the now stately Christians living among new church networks. Sipping genteely at several church doctrines.
Here again,the Life of Christ itself bounds up unannounced outside the safety of your lattice. You want to be sure that you have the right doctrines. That you are in the right network. But all the Life of Christ does is ignore what you are currently into.
Doesn't even answer your questions. They are the wrong questions.Forget right doctrines. Forget whether you are in the right network. The Life of Christ just speaks in the same way as when you were unsaved. "Your criterion is wrong. You are dead already. Life is the other side of this lattice. Life is hearing my unique voice and coming down with me to the beds of myrrh and spices."
It's not humble to say "We are trying to be the Church. We are just one church network. It's not humble to say "I am trying to be a Christian. Just give me time"
It's not humble to say " I could never go as far to say I am Christ in my form. I don't believe any of us are good enough to say that."
Just like salvation, when we commit to what God says about us, we actually put the onus on Him and the Holy Spirit within us to shape us up so we fit alongside all the other nutters who are beginning to make the same confession.
Things only start working when you come out from behind the lattice. Just like Jesus had a kind of Tourette's syndrome whereby He would suddenly shout out at Feasts and meetings, embarrassing all the religious in earshot....I shouted out at last Sunday's meeting these words:
If you believe in your heart
and If you confess with your mouth
then you shall be saved...but not just spiritually....The whole of you!! (Romans 10 declaration)
You have to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that You have died with Christ, it is now not you who live, but Christ who lives within you. (Dodgy ,they all say from behind the lattice)
You have to believe that you are the Church along with all those who call upon the Lord with a pure heart. This wishy washy half in half out stuff has to go!

From the Mystery of Sin to the Mystery of Syn V - Seeds of Peace

Martha Keys , The Fisherfolk who came to our school for a week.

I have just returned from the most beautiful place- The Inside Park -near Blandford Forum.More perhaps in another post.I was very struck on my return to blogland to read more posts on the Song of Solomon by Dan Bowen like this one.


This was striking because while I was away I have been reading more of "From Eternity To Here"by Frank Viola.




Probably the best way to understand this book is to imagine a time of praise which leads into a time of intimate worship.....like a Key of David meeting...or whatever your equivalent is...


then while some instrumentalists are playing gently....someone may be reading beautiful words to meditate on over a microphone. Those words could be any section from Frank's new book.


Let me put it this way. All of us now have the mechanics of lovemaking described and taught in biology or other purpose-built formats in school lessons. But how many take that biology book into the marriage bed with them? Nobody I think. If you take anything at all it is more likely to be poetry.


In the same way...we've heard a lot "about" the Church and Jesus. Many manuals have been written. But what I am saying is when the Presence of the Lord comes, how many of those manuals would you read from at those precious moments!!!!


No, at those moments...if you read from anything at all...it will be from the Bible itself...passages like The Song of Solomon...or Psalms.

Or from a rising tide of books that now includes "From Eternity To here."




they are books to be read...in relationship....in worship

and when God's presence comes. Individually. Corporately.


They began here and there...with Madame Guyon for example.


Then her influence touched countless but one was Jessie Penn Lewis, who in turn influenced Watchman Nee, which I guess Dan has finally got his fingers into.


This in turn led to The Divine Romance by Gene Edwards, which like From Eternity To Here, broadens the scope to capture the grandeur of the purpose of God towards His Bride from Eternity past, through and into creation, to be consummated in the heavenlies; in other words taking in the whole sweep of scripture.




And as Dan has discovered ,this includes unearthing the picture of a Jewish betrothal. Frank Viola describes the process in Chapter 10. In other words Song of Solomon describes this whole betrothal process, where there is quite a time lag between betrothal and actual consummation.




Here again is another example of where the devil-inspired world system scoffs at the very beauty of God's way of doing things. The devil doesn't understand anything other than impulse driven sex. Or worse rape even or violation. This idea that a couple would prepare for each other just is not even in the same horizon, no solar system. He only understands "try before you buy".Partnering without commitment; love without covenant.

Push and shove.

Marriage, he just can't conceive.

So little wonder that the world scoff at a Bridegroom who goes off and leaves His Bride for 2000 years and counting, while his "manservant" (to use the Isaac example) the Holy Spirit prepares a beautiful bride.



My little testimony in all this is that while waiting for the right time to bring out "Early Harvest", about 5 years ago I began to be quickened again to put a track on there about the Bride and Covenant Love. So this took me back to my roots of actually seeking out the double tape message of Ern Baxter at Capel Bible Week 1976 entitled Covenant Love: a Study of David and Jonathan. Well I googled for this and found Dan's blog in the summer of 2007. I had no idea that it would lead on to all this that has taken place. Meanwhile the 2nd cassette has been found in our attic!!!Which means that the 1st one may be in there. Last time we looked I bust the heating system!!!So we'd prefer it if someone else had a copy.




Now Frank's book has come my way....which in many ways is the verbalization of what was going on in my spirit. My task is to get some of this down musically. Over 37 years I have received 2 or 3 songs which are appropriate as well as having it in mind to link them musically.


The other link in my spirit comes from Kenneth Copeland's Blood Covenant series. If you can get these...hear them. Kenneth is part Cherokee , so the concept of Covenant agreement is in his lineage.In fact it was very much a part of why Cherokees did not get/understand Americans who in practice were such Covenant Breakers.

All these aspects of God's love for us come alive as we move out of sin...into Syn.


As we fuse with our Lord and with one another we begin moving in another dynamic.

It is revelation.

It is a way of living.

It is the true Jesus.

It is the real deal.


People who go on and on about morals. And trying to live a better and better life just haven't a clue.

We move out of sin, not to remain in some pure whitescape expanse like Greenland...marooned and guarding our "concept of purity". No I began this series by quoting the whole of Romans 12.


We are saved out of something to become part of something else. If we are not part of something else, we are deceived. If you are not connected to me and I am not connected to you...and so on and so on...the world over....we are all deceived. Jesus is real and he is One. He is not divided.




We can waffle on in churches or on blogs. But I just ask. Are we connected? If not we have a ways to go.


Rob and Ryan Rufus state we just pass through Romans 3 to 5 grace, then a repetition process of grace Romans 6-7 ,then we arrive at Romans 8.


Well two things prove whether they are correct. In Romans 8 living our environment which was formerly barren, starts to crack open. It starts to look more redeemed. We begin to set our immediate surroundings a bit freer. And in Romans 12, having had chapters 1 through 8, we can truly start to operate in this syn life....naturally...and ofcourse supernaturally...what I mean is it is not forced. We find it is normal for us. So these are the two proofs. Romans 8 and Romans 12.

In between by the way...the Jews start getting jealous!!! (More on another occasion!)



What my blog is about is that Romans 6 and 7 are real experiences also. There's a "reckoning/believing/confessing" of our spiritual realities...which often leads to a manifestation of the very opposite....until eventually the reality of the heavenlies crashes through the skies to bring a Romans 8 breakthrough for us. And in the reality of this, we can then sow into other's lives to see the same happen in them. This is the Kingdom chain reaction. This is true multi-level marketing! 2 tell 2 tell 2 tell 2etc etc. This is the picture of leaven, not as sin as in the Pharisees, but as Syn, the Kingdom leaven!




So in the spirit of this I was knocked for six by the manifestation of the love and anointing on the Fisherfolk when they visited our area and school. (1973)If ee cummings had written poetry about the reality of the Body of Christ: it would have looked like this Martha Keys poem.
-Probably my favorite poem to date on the subject of the Body of Christ .

I have uploaded the instrumental "Algeria" from Early Harvest CD1, here compressed for the internet(copyright AC Welch 1990).This contains fragments from Martha's poem, but really it is to listen to while reading the whole poem below.If you are interested in more details about Algeria, to save information overload it is put at the bottom of this post.Enjoy!



seeds of war and seeds of peace by martha keys
peace, peace, there is no peace
we've cried, we've tried
we cannot find it
not just the peace that glows inside: for that we have the power
in a flower or a little weed
i can find the peace i need inside

where is the peace
that can free me not to hide from you fearing to be found?
i see you coming down the street


paralyzed by fear of meeting another barricaded face
i pass by
on the other side
i return to the fear
i've learned
to live and sleep and breathe

peace, peace, there is no peace we've cried, we've tried
we cannot find it
we are whirling silences

touching circumferences

retreating
into our own orbits
we return
to the fear we've learned
to live and sleep and breathe

we need a strong peace
not a treaty
to keep us each
on our side of the line
we need a peace that flows between us
giving me to you and you to me
we need a very gentle peace
that reaches back
to when we were children:
peace that touches us
when we were hurt and couldn't cry

and when we cried and no one came

peace that holds us till we are loved free
of all the aching memories
that make me afraid of you
and you of me
we need a strong peace
breaking down the wall that stands between us

stone and cold and overgrown
with ancient vines
choking hope
we need the bond of peace:
unbreakable unshakable fact:

me given to you

you given to me

we are one
the old walls fall the old hurts heal

war-weary world
come
and see
maybe our lives can be a sacrament


love's presence in a world that's bent


the first foothold on the way to hope
we have learned to repent
not just relent
from doing what we want to do:
you hurting me

me hurting you

we've turned touched each other and we see
we are one
i am part of you

you're part of me

war-weary world if only you can see we live at peace
maybe the hope you've held inside
afraid to breathe
afraid to quench the fragile candle flame that flickered


in the fury of the war storm
maybe you could begin to breathe

maybe you could begin to believe peace can be as strong
as the killing and the wrong
we all have lived and died through

maybe you could see enough
to seek peace with us and trust that we are given to you

you're given to us
maybe we can be the life bread to fill the hole
that hope left when it died stabbed by jagged edges
of promises that broke
maybe we can be the phoenix risen from the war ashes
to pursue peace
with the passion
of the fury war unleashed
maybe our life can be a sacrament

love's presence in a world that's bent
the first foothold
on the way to hope
january 20 1973


just before Martha and the rest of the Fisherfolk came to my school Dr Challoner's Grammar School Amersham Bucks England with Graham Pulkingham . You can find it and a whole load of community testimonies in "They left Their Nets" by Graham Pulkingham 1973.

ALGERIA - instrumental Music : © A. Christopher Welch 1990. A TV documentary on RAI music in Algeria,(a sort of underground movement extolling wine, women etc., in a strict Muslim culture), still had an underlying futility and hopelessness, prompting this melody.Keyboard Cello and Piano: Michael Thom.Flute: AChristopher Welch Administered by No Name Ltd. 1991. Unlike Brother Andrew, I had no idea that the Muslim restlessness conveyed here would grow to threaten world stability,first in 1991, then in many of the incidents in the following years. Perhaps I was picking up the burden later expressed in Prayer for the 10/40 window.