The Blame Game

The season is intense and the challenges are subtle. And it is getting more so. In the midst of all the clamor, chaos and confusion, it helps to advance clarity and stay focused on matters that count. Really count. It provokes wisdom. The Psalmist (Ps 86) really nailed it with: “Teach me your way O Lord, that I might walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.”

Yet Proverbs points to the age-old stumbling block: “A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart.” With narratives distanced from reality. The advent of social media has raised the volume and increased the magnitude of the noise voiced by fools ….and those listening. Fools who confuse the “walking in Truth-thing” with the idols in their minds; which unchecked become a seductive delight that wandering hearts have ….along with the need to be right. AND then there are the subtleties, the underlying predispositions impacting mind-sets: victimhood, poverty-spirits.

Combined, they take us back to the misfire in the Garden ….as the man pointed the blame at the woman ….and the woman skirting her responsibility in the matter, blamed the serpent. The heart of victimhood and the poverty-spirit. AND so it started, the tendency to deflect responsibility for wandering hearts that cross the line …. and yield to the blame-game.

It’s at the core of how people of God are to process the reality that connects the spiritual world with the natural.

Biblical history notes few God-fearers who have had the courage to fully embrace the responsibility for their choices. Those who did progressed to become heroes of faith. Those who floundered, lost much, sometimes everything.

Saul justified his digressions in fear and disobedience and presumption by offering the priestly sacrifice before the battle with the Philistines. When confronted, he responded by blaming Samuel for being late along with his people who had been scattering. Instead of the leadership expected, his out-of-control blind heart cost him the Kingdom.

David, however, when confronted with his digressions involving his dalliance with Bathsheba, fully faced his consequences, throwing himself upon God’s mercy. The words of the Lord in that confrontation are relationally revealing. They were not: “you murderer” or “you adulterer,” but rather “David, why did you despise Me?”

Despite the prominence and esteem given to David’s faith, leadership and many exploits, his courage to face the reality of his digressions ….in processing this connection of the two realities ….ranks high in the example that he set. For Saul, it was victimhood. For David, reality and manhood.

The Leadership Mandate in Processing Reality
Yet despite David’s example, as both a leader and God-fearer, the majority within both the Jewish and Christian communities have fallen short …..by succumbing to the blame game. It bears on recognizing there can be no alternative to fully seeking the Lord with a united heart, with the fear of the Lord being the safety net.

Isaiah points to this theme, so central in the priorities of God’s heart, when he addressed those who “seek the Lord daily” and who seemingly “delight in His ways,” yet are puzzled when they fail to see the expected blessing from on high (Isa 58:2-3).

Isaiah points out that it seems to uniquely affect those who quibble and quarrel …..and despite the surrounding noise, whose own clamors have failed to resonate with what is expected from on High. (v4)

What Isaiah then notes represents the antidote to this age-old plague. It is in giving focus to standing up for the afflicted, while restraining this tendency of misguided tongues and pointing the finger in scorn (Isa 58:9-10). It suggests the intended leadership expected within community.

The Seductiveness of Victimhood and the Poverty Spirit
Which means resisting the lure of victimhood by getting beyond ourselves in the way we think and act. James (1:19) summed it up in admonishing the committed to be quick to listen ….and slow to speak …and slow to anger. Being slow to yielding to the emotional-level. He especially advised caution in presuming to be a voice, as in that of a teacher. (James 3:1)

The God-fearer without the courage to face their own choices is an age-old spiritual root that festered in the jealousy that overshadowed Cain. It is the generational curse that has given rise to the tribal rivalry that has morphed into the hatred dividing the generations since Isaac and Ishmael.

Viewed from a different angle, it is the displacement of faith …..yielding to the deadliness of victimhood ….and the corollary poverty spirit, the potential of which can hold a community hostage.

It being one of the more challenging hurdles for victims of persecution to overcome.

The community response to this age-old plague is the God-fearing maturity expected ….God-fearing maturity and unity from community as God intended.

Following the judgement of a generation in the wilderness, there was an overwhelming readiness to unite …..in accomplishing God’s purposes. The promise given through Joshua was the same as it had been through Moses.
“Every place that the sole of your foot will tread I have given you, just as I promised Moses.” Joshua 1:3

The Faith-Response
By now, it should be recognized that the poverty-spirit involves more than finances. It is the negative spirit that displaces faith …..faith being described as appropriating that which is not, as though it were ….with the inability to escape what darkness has suggested.

The means of appropriating the promises has been and is in embracing, obeying and abiding in God’s Word of Truth ….and resisting the subtle, lingering mindsets that yield to the poverty spirit.
“Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Joshua 1:7-8

Community was designed as God’s protection for His people. It represents the incubator through which creativity and new things are birthed on higher levels. Defiled or blended, community loses its potency and purpose. It’s the reason in ancient times, why God forbid His people from mixing with those whose foundations were from darkness ….until the Resurrection.

Community-unity for God’s people can only be fully manifested in the single-minded response to its anointed leadership. For the generation that had waited and gone through the wilderness-judgment, that response was complete and wholehearted.
“And they answered Joshua, ‘All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses!  Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.” Joshua 1:16-18

Paul, grasping this age-old purpose of community derived from the law of Moses, wrote the Galatians with the wisdom of its application:
“Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Gal 6:2

The Voice of Darkness
Paul’s point brings us back to this present-day clamorous intensity with its accompanying challenges and our role and focus as givers of Life. This is no small thing in domains rife with persecution like China, Vietnam and Iran.

Through prayer, the Kingdom-response to the sounds of darkness represents the source of change, at a societal and cultural level.

As has already been noted, the sounds of darkness can be subtle, yet distinct; driven by lies and fear. Their design is in drawing one further into the darkness by being overwhelmed … and to where responding rightly simply does not seem a possibility ….with the poverty-spirit and victimhood at its root.

Relationally the sound of darkness manifests and resonates most effectively through the seductive noise of manipulation and slander …..having the demise of freedom and opportunity in its crosshairs. All of which gains inroads and bleeds deeply into the thinking of those encountering the clutches of darkness and victimhood..

In Vietnam, in the areas most impacted by persecution, the overall thinking is overshadowed by this victimhood ….and the desperation to survive, which carries an unconscious unworthiness of the blessing of God, that manifests from a defeatist, poverty spirit.

The Power and Mantle of Light
Yet, through the anointed voices of those proclaiming God’s Truth, the darkness is penetrated with God’s light and supernatural power.

Paul forcefully dealt with this deadly influence and challenge to the blessing and reality of God in boldly, without fear addressing the sorcerer, Elmyris in Acts 13: “You who are full of all fraud and deceit, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the ways of the Lord? AND now behold the hand of the Lord is upon you!”

Psalm 37, a psalm of David, captures the contrast between those who reflect Light and those who reflect darkness ….between the righteous and the wicked. While the righteous may stumble, they will not be hurled headlong, for the Lord upholds them with His hand. However, for the wicked purveying the clamor of darkness and his propensity to undermine and destroy the righteous, his intentions ultimately will backfire.
“Although the wicked may draw their swords and bend their bows to bring down and slay those who are upright, their bows will be broken and their swords pierce their own hearts.” Ps 37:14

Ezekiel (14:3) addresses the seedbed of this dynamic, the idols of the mind or heart that tend to overshadow one’s grasp of the knowledge of the Lord and His ways.

From the beginning, God’s intention for those of His creation has been to be reflectors of His nature, to be reflectors of Life and Light. What has come to be referred to as “the law,” what Moses brought from God’s presence on Sinai are the principles on how to strengthen this “reflector” dynamic within the community of God’s people, so that the bond with God strengthens its members and makes the community invulnerable.

So it is, by God’s design, that community is a safe place. It is where individuals share a cultural identity and are prepared and strengthened, so that when confronted by evil and darkness, their response of raising the standard will bring change and victory.

This embraces the dynamic of generosity in evidence when community unity is a reflector of righteousness, or tz’dakah ….which in the Hebrew is translated as righteous charity. In Jewish tradition, one of the highest forms of tz’dakah is to help someone start a business.

A Community-Building Culture
Tz’dakah is marked by the difference between a culture that is always giving and building up, rather than taking and blaming ….and yielding to the clamor of victimhood and death. It was the point being made by Isaiah in his message to the self-serving, self-promoting community leaders whose priorities had short-circuited God’s intention for community by digressing into feathering their own nests instead of leading the way in community-building.

Jesus’ response to the woman at the well, as well as the woman caught in adultery was just the opposite to that of the Pharisees, “Neither do I blame you. Go and sin no more.” It’s the offer of freedom with redemption to displace sin, or the dark responses to victimhood. Community unity and the Mosaic practices offer the foundation and framework to be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power.

The response to the clamor of the times plaguing the West, should be not unlike the desperation of the prayer-movements that resulted in post 1975-Vietnam with the loss of their freedoms. These prayer movements embraced and underscored what are Life-giving, nation-changing Kingdom-culture paradoxes: we lead by serving, we live by dying; we advance by yielding; we gain by giving; we pray for our persecutors.

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Morris Ruddick has been a forerunner of the Joseph-calling and God’s economy message, being an international voice for the higher dimensions of spiritual game-changers and intercessors since the mid-90s. As founder of Global Initiatives Foundation, the Strategic Intercession Global Network [SIGN] and designer of the God’s Economy Entrepreneurial Equippers Program and the Jewish Business Secrets YouTube series, Mr. Ruddick’s messages equip leaders and economic community builders with strategy where God’s light is dim in diverse regions around the globe.

He is author of “The Joseph-Daniel Calling;” “Gods Economy, Israel and the Nations;” “The Heart of a King;” “Something More;” “Righteous Power in a Corrupt World;” “Leadership by Anointing;” and “Mantle of Fire,” which address the mobilization of business and governmental leaders with destinies to impact their communities. They are available in print and e-versions from www.Amazon.com, www.apple.com/ibooks and www.BarnesandNoble.com.

Global Initiatives Foundation (www.strategic-initiatives.org) is a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 non-profit whose efforts mobilize economic community builders imparting influence and the blessings of God. Checks on US banks should be made out to Global Initiatives and mailed to 3838 South Wabash Street, Denver CO 80237 or by credit card at https://strategic-initiatives.org/donate/