Staying in the Rhythm and Tempo of the Spirit

A Doulos Listens

8/24/2024

Notes from a conversation this afternoon:

XY horizontal living: Pray, pray, pray. “Okay, I’m all done praying.”

Z-life: You’re wrestling in the spiritual realm. You’re praying constantly in the Spirit in the background. This is a Z axis conversation.

If you are living on XY, you will be “bored” if you don’t have something “to do” in a day or evening. However, you will not be bored on the Z-axis if you don’t have something “to do” in this matrix world, because you aren’t living on that plane of things “to do” in the first place. XY would be to read Habakkuk in eight minutes. Z would be to be so cut to the heart and looking at how to apply Habakkuk that it would take three days to read. It’s not even SEED when you speed. But a slow XY does not equal Z. Only cut to the heart with personal application equals Z.

ChatGpt summary of the above: What is written above draws a contrast between two modes of living and interacting with spiritual matters: the “XY” plane, representing a surface-level, action-oriented, and time-bound approach, and the “Z” axis, representing a deeper, spiritually-engaged, and reflective state.

**XY Plane**: This is characterized by tasks, speed, and “doing.” Someone on this plane might quickly read scripture or perform spiritual practices as a routine without deep engagement. The focus is on efficiency, ticking off spiritual boxes, and moving on to the next activity.

**Z Axis**: This represents a state of being where spiritual engagement is deeper, more reflective, and transformative. Instead of rushing through tasks, time becomes irrelevant as the heart is deeply involved. Reading a short passage like Habakkuk might take days because the person is cut to the heart, reflecting on how to personally apply the message. The focus is on transformation, not just information.

The metaphor of “wrestling in the spiritual realm” implies that even in seemingly quiet moments, a person on the Z axis is constantly engaged in spiritual activity, which may not be outwardly visible.

The difference between the two isn’t about speed (a slower XY approach doesn’t automatically become Z), but about the depth of spiritual engagement and personal application. True spiritual growth occurs when one’s heart is genuinely touched and changed by the spiritual experience, not just by going through the motions.

This is a call to move beyond superficial spiritual practices into a deeper, more meaningful and transformative engagement with one’s faith.

8/26/2024

This is part of another conversation an hour ago over the phone. These notes, though not doing it true justice, are also regarding XY religious life versus Z Spirit life:

Paul and Elijah weren’t “monks” living a religious life of uninteresting unenjoyable things. Period. Jesus Life is “I don’t do anything I don’t see the Father doing or say anything I don’t hear the Father saying.” This is a Z-axis discussion of the ages...!

XY is either “I can do whatever I want (I’m god)” or “I can never do anything ‘fun’ or what I want.”

Jesus doesn’t initiate words of His own flesh. That’s very different from “I shouldn’t say anything. I should just put duct tape on my mouth.”—XY. Or I shouldn’t do any art, swimming, golfing, or anything I like. That’s like saying “Jesus should put duct tape on his mouth because He doesn’t want to say anything the Father isn’t saying.”—XY.

I’m a DOULOS.

Maybe I wanted to do a hobby this afternoon. Maybe I would have. But I’m doing what God wants me to do instead. I didn’t get to do what I maybe “wanted” to do this afternoon, but I’m at peace with that because I’m a slave. I don’t resent that. I’m HIS. It wasn’t even a battle. And I don’t feel cheated. It doesn’t matter because I was in His will, and He is in me.

If I tried to squeeze in the hobby instead of staying with the metronome of God’s Spirit (tick...tock...tick...tock), I am automatically disobeying and out of the Spirit.

Do I “enjoy” the hobby? Sure. But there’s no way I could do that this afternoon, even for ten minutes, and keep the metronome exactly where it needs to be. I’d be “striving”—throwing in 16th note triplets, busy and between beats, doing something I “want” to do, because I’m out of the Spirit. Why would I even want to do that? I don’t. The regret of the dissonance and loss of tempo and rhythm was far from what might have allegedly been “enjoyable.”

Staying in the Rhythm and Tempo of the Spirit

If one ignores the metronome of the Spirit, acting without Z axis harmony—then it’s disobedience to “do whatever you want to do.” It’s not in the Spirit, even if it might have been “lawful.”

I’m a slave. I don’t care. I’m not trying to do what I want for myself and then put on a Jesus sticker.

“I will not have this man to be king over me.” That’s what people say when they want a figurehead king. They want no consequences and can just do what they want.

I WILL have this man to be King over me is what Jesus did with the Father. It’s not XY choices of what’s legal and not legal.

But instead listen to the metronome of the Spirit!

You sacrifice your thing for the Right thing. “We make it our goal to please Him” not just to choose between so-called “legal” and so-called “illegal” things to do with our time, our money, our bodies, or our affections.

If you get so-called “free time” and you throw 16th notes and triplets in and over-flow the measure—now you are a striver, out of the rhythm, and totally disobedient with the “legal” thing. If I have stepped off the Z-axis and justified an XY decision, I’m now “disobedient”—as surely as if Jesus had said a good or right thing but DIDN’T HEAR THE FATHER SAYING IT. It’s not about duct tape over the mouth versus being a yacker without consideration, “as long as you don’t say anything technically wrong.” It’s about the rhythm and the tempo of living in the Spirit and only speaking what the Father is currently speaking.

Christ IN you the hope of Glory...I CAN LISTEN LIKE JESUS LISTENS. Because He is IN me. I can see it like Stephen Seeing Jesus standing in an open heaven at the right hand of the glory of God. I can smell the aroma of Christ versus the stench of death. I can hear the metronome. My king rules over me. I want to be in the symphony of God’s Spirit.

You are God’s symphony, His poem, His woven perfect tapestry (Romans 1:20, Ephesians 2:10) created from the beginning to be HIS MUSIC. Watch the Director! Listen to the beat, find the harmony and the countermelody. THAT is where Jesus Lives, in the music, in the waft of the aroma of the Bread of Life, the Z-axis... not the duct tape over the mouth of “not talking for fear the Father wasn’t saying that or might be unhappy” blah blah.

Not legalism. Not freelancing inside of the lines. But “conscious of God.”

Most people have a figurehead king Jesus—and they ignore Him except for whatever they consider “the big things” in their culture or preferred lifestyle.

We have a Real King, and we are His doulos, His slaves.

There’s no such thing as “free time” for a doulos, slave, is there really? Or are they always 100% on call, with no such thing as clocking in or clocking out?

Now on XY, that sounds terrible.

But on Z... You’re watching. You’re listening for the music. And you never violate the metronome. That’s Z. Tick... tock... tick... tock

If you’re listening for God and welcoming Him as if He is our only breath, it’s the symphony. It's the whisper in the garden or the kick in the shin if required. It's the aroma of bread in the oven that we smell and follow the scent. That’s what it means to walk by the Spirit. That is why Jesus didn’t use duct tape over His mouth so that He wouldn’t say anything the Father wasn’t saying, or do anything the Father wasn’t doing. He was experiencing the music and following the metronome of Spirit-life.

Christ in you the hope of glory. Withheld for ages and generations, now revealed in us.

Tick...tock...tick...tock. Listen for the rhythm of the metronome. Always. Zoe life is not about legal things and illegal things. “Take kill and eat.” Zoe life is as Jesus lived and we can now live: in the anointing, in the aroma, in the symphony that we were created in advance to be a part of.

Thank you for sending this. I still feel like a lot of time I just don’t HEAR the music very clearly. I’m just going about day to day stuff and not hearing the whispers. I don’t FEEL like I’m Hearing but ignoring MUCH (though there are clear times for sure with unsanctioned desires for taste or a “break”)... But is there something else to be watching for to better hear the Music?

And not all decisions are “big decisions.” Just understand that motives drive the motor and be sensitive to that fact. What’s the motive?

Also, it seems like the Music is heard when I am “lifting my Sails” and looking in His eyes — connecting to Him and the fact that I am HIS. The “what to do” takes care of itself if I am doing that (in addition to the dealing with any self-motives).

Once I’ve rooted out a weed of self, that simple turning to heaven has to be there. I can’t just try to “sort my motives” and “want to do what is right” without actually turning to Jesus. He is a person that I am BOUND in Covenant with.

Z-axis is an analogy for ZOE life... So there can be no Zoe Life without HIM at the center, obviously. I can’t think that I will Hear His Music if my head never lifts to heaven, to HIM. If I ONLY dig down in the dirt for my motives on a horizontal xy level, or do the whole “My motives seem fine. No motor here. So anything I do should be good to go,” then I will obviously miss Zoe life in that realm, too.

That brings us back to the difference between the “I’m done praying” and the “praying constantly.” One is a religious act, and one is Connecting with our very Life source. If the bulk of your “life with God” is that you “sit down and pray,” but you do not find yourself lifting your eyes to heaven or turning your heart toward Him or asking Jesus for insight or help in the moments of your days, then you are probably not hearing much Music--because HE is the MUSIC.

Without Him at the center... without our building a relationship with our Covenant Man... Without Pneuma... then I’ll just be like a “christian”-Ghandi or something, always “rooting out self” in order to be a better XY human.

Listening for the Music is the bulk of MY LIFE. I am not hearing audible voices, but in my posture before God, I am acknowledging all throughout my day that I am not my own and letting Him know that I want to be LIKE Him in all His Fullness so I don’t want to just respond out of my self with the children or with work or in whatever circumstances I find myself in. So I remind myself WHO I belong to as I turn to heaven in My moments, acknowledging that HE is my LIFE force, my WAY to BE.... and to BECOME LIKE HIM.

I have to turn, turn, turn from self and its tendency of independence all day and instead I acknowledge and love on and connect to Him. All day. And the music comes when that beat of my tick…tock… is:

I’m....Yours....I’m....Yours....I’m....Yours....

What do you do when you don’t get sick and you probably should have based on exposure? What do you do when something goes really well? What do you do when children respond well to your instruction? What do you do when something happens that is unexpected and particularly bad?

The answer to each of these things is exactly the same—if you are walking in the Z-Axis of God, His sovereign direction, and His love. You IMMEDIATELY REFLEXIVELY NATURALLY UNRELIGIOUSLY talk to him and thank him, and ask him for what you need to understand, what will help you grow, and help you to help others.

Natural Zoe.

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