Joel - Part 8
First posted: June 22, 2025
In this series of articles, we are meditating on the book of Joel and what God is shouting to today's deaf generation through Joel's prophecy. In this article, we shall focus on Joel 1:8-9.
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Loin lamentation
In Joel 1:8, the Spirit of God declares the following:
"Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth." (Joel 1:8)
When most people (including this writer) think about "sackcloth", the first image that comes to mind is a large burlap bag made of coarse material with three holes (one for the head and two for the arms) and worn like a long "shirt" that reaches down to the knees. However, as I asked the Lord about the spiritual meaning of such an attire, I kept getting the impression that I was missing something. Slowly, the Lord began to direct my thoughts towards the word "girded", and that is when I finally began to understand what the Lord was endeavouring to share.
The word "girded" in Joel 1:8 above was translated from the Hebrew word hagar, which appears for the first time in the following verse, also translated as "girded":
"And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD'S passover" (Exodus 12:11)
The word "loins" in the verse above was translated from the Hebrew word matnayim, which appears along with hagar (i.e.- the verb "to gird") in 8 out of the 41 verses where hagar appears in Scripture, meaning that hagar "girding" is used with "loins" close to 20% of the time. As we have shared before, the number "8" speaks of regeneration, and the number "41", in a negative sense, refers to fornication. Therefore, we can say that the girding of loins refers to a regeneration of one's soul to prevent it engaging in fornication, which, as we have shared before, refers, in a deeper sense, to Amorite manipulation and misuse of others for personal gain.
The word "sackcloth" in Joel 1:8 was translated from the Hebrew noun saq, which appears in 46 verses of Scripture. Interestingly enough, its first appearance is in the following verse, which also happens to be the first appearance of matnayim (translated as "loins"):
"And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days" (Genesis 37:34)
Thus, we can discern from all of the above that Scripture establishes a strong connection between saq (sackcloth), hagar (girding) and matnayim (loins). This indicates that our more "modern" understanding of the word "sackcloth" does not correspond with its literal meaning in Scripture. Instead of being a garment that covered the torso, the sackcloth referred to in Scripture was actually a "loincloth", i.e.- a garment to cover the loins. As explained on wikipedia.org, some believe that this was the meaning of the word "sackcloth" in the Middle East centuries ago.
Given the above, we can safely say that the Lord is saying in Joel 1:8 that the "virgin" is being called to gird her "loins" with sackcloth. As we have shared before, the soul is "female" in nature, meaning that God is calling the souls in the Church to cover their "wombs" with sackcloth of lamentation. In other words, God is calling the matriarchal Church to lament over how it has allowed its souls' wombs to conceive thoughts and patterns of behaviour that come from evil spirits rather than the Spirit of God. The Church is to then long for the "husband of her youth", meaning that she is to long for the days at the beginning of her walk when she was receptive to the Spirit of God, the days when she would quickly embrace the "strange" and "new" ideas that the Spirit of God would sow into her, without all the resistance and unbelief that she eventually developed as she slowly opened her womb to matriarchal spirits.
The word "husband" in Joel 1:8 was translated from the Hebrew word baal, which literally means "owner, lord, husband". Hence, the Lord is hinting that the Church has been opening her soul's womb to other "baals", to entities other than God that she has gladly decided to call "lord", handing to them a lordship and authority that only God is worthy of having.
"8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. 10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand. 11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. 12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD." (Hosea 2:8-13)
[The word "Baalim" in verse 13 is the Hebrew plural of the word "baal". Hence, it can be translated as "lords" or "Baals"]
Grace from girding
It is worth noting that, at times, Scripture applies the idea of the hagar "girding" of matnayim "loins" to women, not just to men or people in general, as shown by the following verse, which is part of a passage where the Spirit of God describes the "virtuous woman":
"She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms." (Proverbs 31:17)
It is interesting to consider that the verse above is speaking of a woman becoming strong, a quality that is normally associated with men. The words "strengtheneth" and "arms" at the end of the verse above were translated from the Hebrew words ames and zeroah respectively. These 2 words appear together in only one other verse of Scripture, in verse 21 below, translated as "strengthen" and "arm" respectively:
"20 I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: 21 With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him." (Psalm 89:20-21)
As we have shared before, "oil", "anointing", and "holiness" are all directly related to the prophetic endowment. Hence, verse 20 above points to the prophetic. By contrast, verse 21 points to evangelistic strength, meaning that the 2 verses above speak of an impartation of the prophetic and the evangelistic endowments upon those who have the heart of David. As we have shared before, these are the two endowments most directly related to "grace". Therefore, we can conclude that Psalm 89:20-21 and Proverbs 31:17 combine to indicate that, as we gird the womb of our souls to protect it from the seeds of unrighteous spirits, the Lord God will pour His grace upon us, anointing us with the oil of prophetic anointing and infusing us with an evangelistically strong arm that can go toe to toe with Amorite strong men to tear down their strongholds.
Making space for His thoughts
The word "youth" in the phrase "husband of her youth" in Joel 1:8 was translated from the Hebrew noun naur, whose first appearance in Scripture is in verse 21 of the following passage, also translated as "youth":
"20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:20-22)
The word "imagination" in verse 21 was translated from the Hebrew noun yeser, which is derived from the verb yasar meaning "to form, fashion, frame", which appears for the first time in Scripture in the following verse:
"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7)
Hence, the word yeser for "imagination" in Genesis 8:21 above has the connotation of someone taking some "raw material" and moulding it into a shape conceived within oneself, as when a young child takes plasticine and creates a figure based on the shape that he comes up with within himself. Notice that Genesis 8:21 declares that God said in His heart that the "imagination of man's heart" was evil, which shows the intricate connection between yeser imagination and the heart.
The fact that the first use of the word for "imagination", yeser, is in the context of man's youth (naur) illustrates an important spiritual principle. When we are young, we are more open to let our hearts imagine things, meaning that we are also open to let in new ideas to feed our imagination.
Therefore, we can conclude from all of the above that the phrase "husband of her naur" (i.e.- "husband of her youth") in Joel 1:8 points to a soul that allows itself to be yasar-ed fashioned or moulded by the thoughts and ideas of God's male Spirit because it has a youthful yeser, a youthful imagination that is willing to grow and grow and grow, as opposed to becoming stuck at a certain level, convinced that it has all that it needs to know to complete its journey.
Expanding beyond the Milky Way
The above does not mean that we must be open to "anything that comes along". Instead, it means that we must understand that life in the Spirit is one of ever-growing development, one of constant expansion due to the vastness of God's nature. Anyone who tries to limit God to a set of simple doctrines and ideas does not know God and is eventually cursed by Him for daring to limit Him and what He wants to do in and through us. As discovered by Edwin Hubble, God has set the physical universe on a course of constant expansion to show us how He wants us to grow in Him. He wants us to realise that there is more to life in Him than just a limited "neighbourhood" of ideas that we can quickly become familiar with, just as there is more to the universe than the Milky Way that we have known about since ancient Greek times. Interestingly, it was also Hubble who discovered the presence of stars beyond the Milky Way, but it took humanity until 1924 to become aware of this through Hubble.
It is no spiritual coincidence that the galaxy Earth is in is known as the "Milky Way", for that speaks of being in a baby stage where milk is all we know as food. It speaks of a stage of dependence where our life is under the covering of a maternal figure. Hence, in a negative sense, the name "Milky Way" speaks of the pastoral matriarchy that the Church and the world stubbornly remain under. Convinced that there is absolutely nothing beyond the familiarity of the matriarchal understanding of things, the Church and the world shut off their yeser imagination after a certain time and stop growing. When believers' souls do this, they have effectively abandoned the "husband of their youth", and God can no longer breathe life into their nostrils, for their imagination has become sterile. It is thus ironic that, to grow out of the matriarchal childhood, you must embrace a child's imagination and remain aware that there is more to explore in the Spirit beyond what you currently understand, for God's Universe is ever expanding.
Approaching the inscrutable
It is also ironic that Hubble, the American who discovered the massiveness and expansiveness of the universe was only willing to embrace that reality at the physical, literal level. As indicated on wikipedia.org, he was raised a Protestant Christian, but, as is indicated in one of the footnotes in the Wikipedia article (footnote 43 at the time of this posting), Hubble, when meditating about God and His creation, said, "We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of a world it is – at least in its physical aspects"; and, when a depressed friend asked Hubble about his faith, he replied, "The whole thing is so much bigger than I am, and I can't understand it, so I just trust myself to it, and forget about it". This means that he decided not to expand his spiritual understanding, shrugging his shoulders instead and saying to himself that it was all too vast to even attempt to explore.
Some (especially those fully immersed in the matriarchal Church) might argue that Hubble's comment is actually consistent with verse 6 of the following passage:
"1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. 5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it." (Psalm 139:1-6)
Notice that David does not say, "We cannot attain unto it" in verse 6. Instead, he "individualises" the statement by saying "I cannot attain unto it". Hence, verse 6 should not be seen as some sort of commandment from God declaring that it is "wrong" or "forbidden" to aspire to grow in our understanding of God's vast and inscrutable nature. Instead, verse 6 is a matter-of-fact declaration of a soul who is meditating on the magnitude of God's knowledge and is overwhelmed by it, realising how infinite He is relative to our soul's limited understanding. Verse 6 is also a confession that the soul, by itself, is incapable of comprehending the vastness of God's nature. This contrasts with the matriarchal Church's "theologians" who act as if they can hover over God as they place Him under a microscope to analyse Him (and His Word) in a Girgashite way.
It is also important to note that, after the psalmist recognises God's vastness and his own limitation, he actually feels drawn to God and His vastness, as opposed to seeing that vastness as a barrier of separation:
"17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee." (Psalm 139:17-18)
Notice that the psalmist sees God's thoughts as precious to him, even after having declared in the preceding verses how inscrutable they are. This reveals that the reaction that God desires from us when we become aware of His vastness and His inscrutability is not to walk away from Him in abject resignation. Instead He desires that we become awed and intrigued by Him so that we may draw near to Him and admire His greatness. He knows that, as we do this, we will receive an impartation of His vastness, becoming partakers of His Eternal Nature in a way that transcends our limited, natural understanding.
"2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I." (Exodus 3:2-4)
"7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." (2 Corinthians 3:7-11)
Distorted grace
In the verse that follows Joel 1:8, the Spirit of God then declares the following:
"The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn." (Joel 1:9)
The phrase "meat offering" was translated from the Hebrew word minha, which literally means "gift, tribute, offering" and is derived from a Hebrew word (unused in Scripture) meaning "to apportion, bestow". Hence, it is strongly connected to "inheritance" and to the granting of ownership (of land, for example) to others. As we have shared before, inheritance is most directly related to the evangelistic ministry that "conquers" and takes possession. Therefore, we can say that minha "meat offerings" refer to surrendering something to God so that He may take over and establish His Kingship over it. In other words, minha offerings represent a heart that is not seeking to evangelistically conquer in order establish and aggrandise its own kingdom but is instead using the evangelistic endowment to establish God's Kingship on Earth.
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10)
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33)
"22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. 24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." (1 Corinthians 15:22-28)
Whereas the phrase "meat offering" in Joel 1:9 was translated from minha, the phrase "drink offering" was translated from the Hebrew word nesek, which can also be translated as "libation" and is derived from the verb nasak meaning "to pour out". Therefore, it has a strong prophetic connotation since, as we have shared before, flowing waters are most directly related to the prophetic. This connection between nasak libations and the prophetic is emphasised by the fact that libations are a figure of someone pouring him or herself out in (prophetic) sacrifice by refusing to be contained in the safety of a "vessel", choosing instead to pour him or herself away to the dry ground and "disappear". This willingness for "self-annihilation" or "self-nullification" releases spiritual manifestations into the natural realm that would otherwise be impossible. This is why the first appearance of the word nesek is in verse 14 of the following passage, translated as "drink offering":
"9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. 10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; 12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. 13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon." (Genesis 35:9-14)
Notice, therefore, how the minha "meat offering" and nesek "drink offering" refer to the 2 "grace ministries", i.e.- the evangelistic and the prophetic ministries, for, as we have shared before, the evangelistic endowment is related to "natural grace" that allows you to "win people over", and the prophetic endowment is related to "spiritual grace" that allows you to impact others with spiritual manifestations. Hence, when the Spirit of God declares that the minha "meat offering" and the nesek "drink offering" are "cut off from the house of the LORD", He is saying that the people called by His Name are using the grace that God has endowed them with for their own purposes, not to further God's. In other words, they are using their evangelistic grace to enlarge their own kingdoms and their prophetic grace to release spiritual power to satisfy their own needs and desires. Instead of providing for the spiritual "house of the Lord", they provide for their own families and their earthly ministries, all whilst claiming with self-delusion that they are doing it all "for the Lord".
Anti-God covenants
The fact that the Spirit of God says that the minha and the nesek have been "cut off" from the house of the Lord means that they did not simply "disappear" but have instead been deliberately and forcibly taken away from the house of the Lord. This means that the matriarchal Church exercises "violence" (figuratively, and sometimes literally) to ensure that the minha and the nesek are not offered to the house of the Lord, and they are willing to figuratively (and sometimes literally) attack anyone who tries to offer them.
The phrase "cut off" in Joel 1:9 was translated from the Hebrew word karat, which, interestingly enough, appears for the first 3 times in the following verses, translated as "cut off", "made", and "cut off" respectively:
"And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth" (Genesis 9:11)
"In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18)
"And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant" (Genesis 17:14)
Notice how karat is used each time in the context of covenants. In karat's first appearance, the Spirit of God uses it to speak of God's covenant with Noah to not cut off all flesh from the Earth via a flood. In karat's second appearance, the Spirit of God uses it to refer to the covenant that God "cut" with Abram to give the Promised Land to his seed. In karat's third appearance, the Spirit of God uses it to speak of the need to cut souls off from His people for breaking His covenant by not being circumcised.
From the above, we can safely conclude that, when the Lord uses the word karat to speak of the minha and the nesek offerings being cut off from the house of the Lord, He is saying that those who do this "cutting off" do so by entering into covenants with unrighteous spirits. It is the matriarchal Church's ties to these covenants that keep the minha and the nesek offerers away. Therefore, word of curse judgement needs to be declared against these covenants and those who unrighteously bind themselves to these covenants for temporary gain.
The demoted matriarchal priests
In the second part of Joel 1:9, the Spirit of God declares that "the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn". The word "priests" was translated from the Hebrew word kohen, which is derived from the verb kahan, whose last 2 appearances in Scripture are in the following passages:
"12 Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity. 13 And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed." (Ezekiel 44:12-13)
[The phrase "to do the office of the priest" in verse 13 was translated from kahan]
"1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. 2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. 3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. 4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. 5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. 7 As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. 8 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. 9 And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings." (Hosea 4:1-9)
[The phrase "shalt be [no] priest" in verse 6 was translated from kahan]
Notice how, in both passages, the Lord speaks of shaming the Church's "priests" because of how they have carried out their priesthood. In Ezekiel 44:12, the Lord speaks of how they have ministered before their idols, causing God's people to fall into iniquity. This speaks of how the Church's "leadership" have fashioned idols to the believers' souls likings, just as Aaron did in the wilderness (Exodus 32:30-35). These idols cause God's people to fall into iniquity because, at its essence, iniquity is that ancestral line of separation from God that started when man allowed the "female" soul to have dominion over the "male" spirit, which opened the door for evil spirits to fill the void left by man's subdued spirit. These evil spirits are then enabled to visit men and women from generation to generation as these men and women keep their souls in matriarchal control over the spirit.
The 3 missing things
In Hosea 4 above, the first thing that the Lord declares against the Church is their disinterest in the truth, which speaks of the Church's disinterest in God's apostolic judgements, given that truth and judgements are inextricably intertwined (when you declare something to be "true", you automatically declare everything that contradicts it to be "false", meaning that your declaration of a truth will automatically trigger a slew of judgements, whether that was your "intention" or not).
The second thing that God calls out against the Church in Hosea 4:1 is their lack of "mercy". Even though mercy can have a strong pastoral component (in the sense of having compassionate empathy and an emotional desire to stop someone's suffering), when exercised at its purest, it is strongly prophetic, given that, as we have shared before, true mercy involves giving of your very self to others who cannot provide for themselves, meaning that it requires a willingness for prophetic sacrifice. As we have also shared before, mercy can only transcend natural barriers to help others when the pastoral component of mercy is combined with the prophetic. Hence, we can say that, in Hosea 4:1, the Lord is indicting the matriarchal Church for its disinterest in the prophetic when exercising pastoral mercy.
The third thing that God calls out against the Church in Hosea 4:1 is their lack of "knowledge of God". The word "knowledge" was translated from the Hebrew word da'at, which is the noun form of the verb yada, which, in turn, is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek verb ginosko that refers to "heart knowledge", as opposed to "mental knowledge". In other words, yada conveys an intimate knowledge of someone as a person, with an awareness of what is at the heart or "core" of that person. This is why yada appears in verses such as the following, translated as "know" each time:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts" (Psalm 139:23)
"And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her" (Genesis 20:6)
"And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no" (Deuteronomy 8:2)
As we have shared before, the ministerial endowment most directly related to the heart is the evangelistic endowment, which, in turn, is the one most directly related to conquest, overcoming, and dominion. Therefore, it is no coincidence that yada appears in the following verse, once again translated as "know":
"Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else" (Deuteronomy 4:39)
Notice how the verse above implies that, when you know God in your heart, you become aware that He is the Supreme God and that no one can compare to Him. In other words, when you know His heart, you become aware of His Kingship over all and His inherent ability to overcome all.
When you do not yada (i.e.- know) God's heart, your matriarchal soul begins to think that she is "supreme" and that there is no one else besides her. This is why God says the following about Babylon, which, as we have shared before, refers to the pastoral matriarchy or the matriarchy of the soul:
"7 And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. 8 Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: 9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments." (Isaiah 47:7-9)
Thus, when your heart embraces the matriarchy of the soul, you cannot yada (i.e.- know) God's heart, and you lose the awareness of the reality of God's Supremacy and Kingship over all, making the soul think there is "none else beside me".
From all of the above, we can say the following about the 3 principles that are mentioned in Hosea 4:1:
- Truth is apostolic
- Mercy is prophetic
- Knowledge of God is evangelistic
A separating flow
Notice, therefore, how the 3 principles that the Lord God refers to in Hosea 4:1 point to the 3 "male" ministries. Hence, in Hosea 4:1, the Lord is indicting the Church for not operating in the 3 "male" endowments, meaning that God is calling her out for being "effeminised", i.e.- controlled by the ("female") soul and not the ("male") Spirit. And, as the Lord declares in Hosea 4:6 above, the believers' willingness to let the soul dominate over the Spirit is what nullifies their priesthood in God's eyes, which is why God declares to all matriarchal believers, from their pastoral "leadership" on down, that "thou shalt be no priest to me".
Notice also how the Lord declares in Hosea 4:8 that the matriarchal Church's demoted priests "eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity", which emphasises how these fallen "priests" allow the iniquitous lineage of the soul matriarchy that started in the Garden of Eden to continue "flowing" through the believers' "spiritual DNA". Instead of enabling the flow of the River of God (Ezekiel 47), these demoted "priests" enable the flow of the cursed river of iniquity. And, as they do, the Old-Covenant separation within the Church widens, which is why the Lord says, "like people, like priest" in Hosea 4:9. Sadly, the horrible indictment in that phrase goes over the heads of matriarchal believers, for they fail to realise that, as the Lord says these words, He is saying that His Church has been divided into two castes, a caste of recognised "priests" and a caste of "people" who have abandoned the priesthood that God entrusted them with (Revelation 1:6), gladly turning themselves into mere "laymen". Thinking that their "priests" will carry the "spiritual day" for them (as they focus on more "pragmatic" matters), they do not realise that their "priests" have been demoted by God and are no longer priests in His eyes. These "laymen" also fail to realise that they have become just as fallen as those "priests" that they have entrusted their spiritual future to, making themselves worthy of the same overwhelming harvest of punishment from God.
What makes you a true priest
In Joel 1:9, the Lord God says, "the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn". There is a spiritual reason why the Lord interjects the phrase "the LORD's ministers" right after saying "priests".
The noun "ministers" was translated from the Hebrew verb shawrath meaning "to serve, to minister". The fact that the KJV translators turned the verb into a noun unfortunately obfuscates what the Spirit of God is declaring here, for it turns actions into a status or a title. In other words, the noun "minister" conveys the idea of someone who has been given a title that is now painted on their "office door" or etched on their desk nameplate. By contrast, the verb "to serve" conveys the idea of someone who is being seen doing something and who will stop being the recipient of that verb the moment he or she decides to stop doing that something.
Therefore, the phrase "the LORD's ministers" in Joel 1:9, which should have been translated as "those who serve the LORD", is actually describing those whom God sees as His true "priests". To get a better sense of this, we must consider some verses that also include the word shawrath:
"And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand" (Genesis 39:4)
[The word "served" was translated from shawrath]
"And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle" (Exodus 33:11)
[The word "servant" was translated from the verb shawrath]
"And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?" (2 Kings 6:15)
[The first word "servant" was translated from the verb shawrath]
"On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king" (Esther 1:10)
[The word "served" was translated from shawrath]
Notice how shawrath is used in each of the verses above to speak of a man acting as a servant or attendant to another man. Notice also how shawrath is used in the following verses to speak of being a servant or attendant to God:
"And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried:" (Deuteronomy 21:5)
[The word "minister" was translated from the verb shawrath]
"Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me" (Psalm 101:6)
[The word "serve" was translated from shawrath]
"Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure" (Psalm 103:21)
[The word "servant" was translated from the verb shawrath]
All of this bears out what the Spirit of God is saying through the phrase "the priests, the LORD's ministers" in Joel 1:9. As we shared above, "ministers" was mistranslated from the verb shawrath meaning "to serve". Therefore, a more correct translation would read, "the priests, those who serve Yehovah". This means that those whom God sees as "priests" are those who have the heart of a "servant" or "attendant" towards God, like a waiter or a house servant who is constantly concerned with what God wants in order to please Him. Those of you who think about Him day and night, who are constantly wondering about what pleases Him or does not please Him, you are the priests of the Lord. When you act pastorally towards Him, aiming to please Him and make Him happy, waiting on Him, you are showing yourself to God as His priest. It is thus ironic that the matriarchal Church thinks of a "priest" as a "pastor to the people", whereas God sees a "priest" as a "pastor to Him". In the context of priesthood, the matriarchal Church sees the word "pastor" as a status of authority over lesser ones being "pastored", whereas God sees it as a verb describing the actions of a person with a lowly heart who is gladly and constantly serving someone greater than him or her.
Mourning priests
Joel 1:9 declares that, because the minha and the nesek offerings have been cut off, the true priests of God mourn. The word "mourn" in Joel 1:9 was translated from the Hebrew verb abal, which, interestingly enough, appears for the last time in Scripture in the book of Amos, in the following 3 verses:
"And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither" (Amos 1:2)
"Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt" (Amos 8:8)
"And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt" (Amos 9:5)
Notice how Amos 1:2 speaks of the "habitations of the shepherds" mourning. The word "habitations" was mistranslated from the Hebrew word na'a, which literally means "pasture" and is the word used in the popular verse 2 of Psalm 23 that says, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures". Hence, it is safe to say that Amos 1:2 is speaking of the matriarchal pastors who mourn due to God roaring judgements against them for the evil that they have done.
Notice also how both Amos 8:8 and Amos 9:5 speak of those who "dwell in the land", a "drowning flood", and "Egypt". All of this points to the Girgashite spirit, for, as we have shared before, the name "Girgashite" literally means "clay dweller", and it refers to the "land-bound" spirit of earthliness that causes people to drown with their blood inside of them (i.e.- unspilt in selfless prophetic sacrifice) and that prompts people to live in the spiritual dryness of "Egypt".
Therefore, we can see how the last 3 usages of abal in Scripture (Amos 1:2, Amos 8:8, and Amos 9:5) point to the connection between abal mourning and the pastoral matriarchy, which involves the unrighteous dominion of the "female" ministries of Canaanite pastors and Girgashite teachers. In other words, abal mourning is the right reaction to beholding the contamination of the pastoral matriarchy upon the body of believers, which is why that is the reaction that Amos declares shall be produced on the matriarchal shepherds and clay dwellers when God's judgement falls upon them.
From the above, we can conclude that, when the Spirit of God declares in Joel 1:9 that the priests, the Lord's servants, mourn (i.e.- abal), He is saying that His true priests will react with mourning as they behold the spiritual damage and corruption brought on by the pastoral matriarchy, and they will mourn when believers do not use their evangelistic grace to conquer things and offer them as minha meat offerings unto the Lord, and they will mourn when believers refuse to use their prophetic grace to give themselves as a nesek drink offering unto the Lord. By contrast, the "priests" recognised by man (but demoted by God) have no interest in mourning, choosing instead to continue engaging in anti-God covenants, walking around with uncircumcised hearts, for which reason the mourning of the true priests will draw the curse judgement from God to obliterate their "blessings" and cut them off forever.
God willing, in the next posting, we will continue meditating on Joel chapter 1.