The Spirit Of Oppression

Exodus chapter 16







Today we are walking in: The Spirit of Oppression




Exodus 5:1




And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. H4057












WILDERNESS








Today we look to the word-WILDERNESS-H4057 midbar--wilderness pasture; uninhabited land; a pasture (i.e. open field, whither cattle are driven)--an uninhabited plain fit for feeding flocks, not a desert--a pasture













The Torah testifies...............




Numbers 9:1




And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness H4057 of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,











The prophets proclaim..................






Jeremiah 31:2




Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; H4057 even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.










The writings bear witness...........................






Joshua 1:4




From the wilderness H4057 and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.










The Spirit of Oppression




You cannot hold a man down without staying down with him. -Booker T. Washington




Wake up! Wake up! You slaves, wake up! It's 4:30 and time to wake up!"




"You there! You have been privileged to help your filthy friends raise Pharaoh's pylon today, so get your filthy carcass up to the overseer now, or I will help you with the whip!"




It must have been something like that to live in Egypt when Israel was held in bondage. The only way the slave drivers got people to work was with a whip. Oxen weren't given a shower or time to "brush their teeth," so neither were Pharaoh's slaves- who were no more than simple beasts of burden to Pharaoh and his evil overseers. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be awakened by a whip?




Once they were aroused from their sleep, the Israelites were driven into the field with whips, where they bent over all day to make bricks out of mud and straw. They hated it. The work imposed on them just added to their hatred of their enforced bondage. This is the reason why the oppressed have a negative attitude toward work even after they are delivered. It reminds them of their oppression. People who have been oppressed or have lived under the spirit of slavery develop a dislike for work.




Every time Israel took a rest, they had to be whipped to get them back on the job. The slave drivers wanted work, not rest. The children of Israel became overwhelmingly tired as the sun baked their skin and sweat poured down their faces and aching backs. Still the whips cracked over them constantly to keep them on the task. "Keep working! Keep working, you miserable slaves, or I'll give you something you can really feel miserable about!"




Two Names, One Enemy: Oppression And Irresponsibility




When people are oppressed-in any generation or any people- they develop a spirit of irresponsibility and a hatred for work. Many individuals today are carrying the baggage of their former oppression. Work isn't viewed as an opportunity to glorify Yah and receive His promotion; it is viewed as an obligation-merely a way to pay the bills.



After a while, the Israelites believed work was equated with pain. It was accompanied always by pressure, distress and the whip-which caused such pain. When they were finally delivered, they equated their deliverance to the absence of work and greatly rejoiced (Exod. 15:1, 20). In their "retirement," they thought, We made it! Retirement time! Fishing boats, hammocks, golf courses, tennis courts-no more work! And that's just how so many think today. Historically, formerly oppressed people always dream of going to a type of heaven where they will finally be free. Some even dream about getting a million dollars so they can quit work. If you think that way and do stumble across the money, Yah will probably take the million from you to send you back to work, because work is not a curse. It's the first thing You Gave man to do (Gen. 2:15).




Don't hate work. Love work. Develop a passion for the thing that Yah gave you to do. Do it the way Yah usha did it."`My food,' said Yahusha, `is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work"' (John 4:34).




When your work becomes as important as three meals a day, you are becoming a responsible person. When they have to pull you away from your work to eat, you are coming close to the spirit of responsibility. But if you can't wait for lunch time, you have the wrong spirit. If you start work at 9 A.M., and you can't wait for the coffee break, you have the wrong spirit. If you stretch out your break and read the papers until it's lunch time, you have a slave-minded spirit.




People who hate work can't handle time. They become irritated and depressed when they have time on theirhands, because time demands the responsibility of deciding how to spend it. They love it when people drive them and tell them what to do, because they have the spirit of the slave. And because nothing a slave does is for his own good, people who have been oppressed for years have difficulty with productivity. Most Third World and developing nations are suffering from this today.




Do you know how the prosperity of a country is measured? It is measured by the Gross National Product (GNP). The wealth of a country isn't measured by how much money they have in the national treasury, but by how much the people are producing. When the majority of your people have lived their lives under the whip of poverty and oppression, productivity suffers and the country stays poor. GNP simply means the collective productivity of the nation's citizenry.




Oppression Produces Laziness




Another effect of oppression is laziness. People who have been oppressed suffer from a spirit of laziness because they equate work with suffering and pain. If one has been forced to do a particular task all his life, as Israel was, and then is released from that obligation, that person will stop doing everything that was once forced upon him to do. The Israelites only did what they did twenty-four hours a day because they were forced to do it. Yet many of the things they were forced to do were good. It is possible for constructive, necessary things like housecleaning, yard work-even personal hygiene-if forced upon a person in servitude, to become unwelcome, disdained kinds of work. Even when that person is no longer forced to do those things, they may remain activities to avoid.



This kind of laziness is a product of the oppression itself. People don't want to be lazy. But they do become lazy from being the managed instead of the manager. They lose their energy and enthusiasm because of oppressive restraints put upon them that keep them from being self productive. Oppression actually conditions people to be unproductive, and laziness becomes a lifestyle. Lack of self-motivation and initiative prevail.




In Egypt, the children of Israel didn't have to find their own food. They didn't have to pay for their own houses.They didn't have to find their own water. They didn't have to find their own clothes. They didn't have to find anything because Pharaoh provided everything to keep them on the job. The oppressor provides everything for the oppressed in order to protect and maintain his investment.




Then when Moses led them out of Egypt, they had only been in the wilderness a few weeks when they started murmuring and became angry. What was their complaint? They "had no food!" They "had no water!" So they complained to Moses:




If we only had died by the LORD'S hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.

-EXODUS 16:3




The Israelites equated existing for a little while without food as a premeditated attempt to kill them. Why? Oppressed people are quick to accuse when they are no longer receiving the provisions of their servitude. They can't handle tough times. They can't handle a little lapse in the system of welfare. In this manner, oppression makes people lazy.




FEAR




People who are oppressed are also full of fear. They are fearful because everything they see is painful to them. Everything that happens to them is viewed as a power play to force them into doing something they don't want to do.So they avoid responsibility and live in fear.




Fear also comes from not knowing what your oppressors are going to do to you. Every time one of Pharaoh's soldiers showed up, the Israelites began to shake. Every time they saw a whip, they started trembling. And that spirit of fear didn't leave just because they left Egypt. They stayed and wandered forty years in that little patch of desert I viewed during my Israel-to-Cairo flight, when it could have been crossed in one short month. Fear kept them bound to that ground outside of Canaan, just as it keeps millions bound to their own oppression and poverty today.




Oppressed people are afraid of everything, even their own people. They cringe at the thought of anyone gaining power over them, especially those who were once oppressed with them.




Bearing all of this in mind, oppressed people view their employers as taskmasters bearing the whip. So they are intimidated by what they perceive as the oppressor when the boss walks into their office. As soon as he or she shows up, they feel unimportant. What's wrong? They're still intimidated. Fear lives in them even in freedom.




OPPRESSION AND DELIVERANCE-THE MIND AT WAR




This same thing happens spiritually after people have been delivered from sin. They see someone they used to hang out with or take drugs with-and fear comes in because they feel that they might be weak and go with them. They sometimes resist new ministry leaders in ministry and hideout from volunteer work. This is why Paul told Timothy, "Yah has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7, NKJV). Yah has not given the believer a spirit of fear, but we must believe it.




Once we submit to the redemptive work of Yah in Hamachiach Yahusha, we need to admit that we used to be bound. But deliverance is not freedom, so we must embark on the adventure of learning to walk in the kind of responsibility that will actually set us free. As we will examine in coming chapters, the wilderness is a place of preparation for freedom, but too many die there without ever being free.




This spirit of oppression in the ministry environment is deadly because it stops people from doing what Yah created them to do. They fear the thought of stepping out into the new territory-the very territory that will bring them freedom.




Unless revelation changes the mind of a new believer, when that person is delivered from a lifestyle of sin, he or she will continue to do exactly what sin had conditioned him or her to do. That's the power of oppression. Even adelivered and released man is afraid to be productive because he is afraid of going beyond the barriers that boundhim during his oppression.




Low SELF ESTEEM




Low self esteem is another effect of living under oppression. If someone has been oppressed, he begins to believe that down is where he belongs. If he is invited up, he will give a list of reasons why up is not the place for him.




I've observed this feeling of low self esteem in many people. People can be oppressed by law through some oppressive regime or by a parent. Then, when they gain a measure of deliverance, they still have to deal with a spirit of low self esteem. If you invite them to a nice place, they say, "That's all right, you didn't have to do that." If you buy them something nice, they will tell you that you didn't have to do it. They will try to hand it back. And if you can get them to receive it, they will apologize for receiving it.




If an oppressed person goes to a palace and is served caviar at the table, he can't eat it. He's too busy describing the tablecloth and looking at the gold forks. He doesn't believe he can eat with such nice things. He doesn't believe he deserves the best.




The free, confident man may use his good bone china every day. But the oppressed man who has never had anything won't-the good bone china stays in the china closet. He has difficulty believing that he has any value, so valuable things appear in his own eyes as too valuable for him. I dare some of you reading this to take out those expensive dishes you've been saving for company and start using them. Why? You deserve to use them.




I told my kids they are going to use everything. Why? I don't want them to look at certain dishes as if those dishes were too good for their use. That's the thinking of an oppressed person. The king doesn't put his golden chalice in a cupboard and drink out of plastic cups. He figures, "I'm a king. I deserve a king's cup."




This may seem a minor issue, but you may not be completely free until you can use your wedding dishes again. You may not be free until you can put salad in that expensive bowl and tell your children to eat with the silver forks every day. Go ahead, wear out your bone china. It isn't reserved for some prince in France. Use it. You're the prince.




Do you have rooms in your house into which no one goes? For whom are you reserving them? Walk on that carpet; sit in that chair. Wear that thing out, and Yah will provide another one. Don't go into debt and cause your family pressure, but if the Lord blesses you, go ahead and appreciate the blessing. Enjoy the benefits.




The oppressor will never allow those he oppresses to be equal with him because this minimizes his superiority, which he used in his oppression of others. He has to reduce those he preys upon to less than who they really are so he can justify his oppression. Therefore, oppressed people are so low in their estimation of themselves that they don't believe they deserve anything good. Low selfesteem plagues their lives because the oppressor gave them an estimation of themselves that made them look insignificant and small.




Poor Self-Concept




The next deadly fruit of oppression is poor selfconcept. Some people are told all their lives that they are nothing and that they will never amount to anything. After a while they believe it. Once they believe it, they are in trouble, because it takes an entire generation to remove the spirit of a poor self concept and low self worth, except by a divine interruption.




It is important to remember that every human is created equally in God's image and likeness, and all are therefore inherently the same in value.




No one can make you a human. You were born a human. Therefore, no one has the right to assign value to you-or to devalue you. Human value is not dependent upon what others think about us. It is inherent in who we are because of our creation by God.




The value of the gold ring on my finger isn't determined by what you think about it. You may say the ring is stupid or worthless, but it's still gold. You may say it's plastic, but it's still gold. You may say it's retarded, depressed and ugly, but it's still gold. What you think about it has nothing to do with what it is.




Civil rights can legally grant a ring to sit on my finger while the value of the thing is still in dispute. So don't confuse civil rights with human rights. In America, Martin Luther King, Jr. was only a deliverer, but the freedom to which he opened the legal right must still be possessed.




The principle issue is not civil rights, even though this is important. The true issue is human rights. It is human rights, not civil rights, that set people free. I could give you permission to vote but still look at you as inferior and inhuman.




Your value is not determined by what people think about you. It is determined by where you came from-and you came out of God. You were made in His image.




Selfishness




Oppression also produces the spirit of selfishness. If an oppressed person who never had anything suddenly gets something, he hangs on to it with his life. This is how oppression promotes selfishness, and this is why oppressed people can be very dangerous. If they ever get a position of power, everyone is in trouble. Oppression breeds greed.




When those who are oppressed in their minds get something they never had before, they protect it. They build a wall around it with barbed wire and hire lookouts. If you come into their little world, they will attempt to destroy you. Greed breeds more greed. "Things" begin to represent a false prestige and power, and those who threaten their accumulation are viewed as pests worthy of elimination. If you don't believe me, look at world history-countries have gone to war over treasure and land. The spirit of selfishness also manifests itself in the mind-set (attitude) of immediate gratification. This is the desire to demand instant pleasure and satisfaction. Oppression makes the status symbol of the oppressors to be the object of pursuit for the oppressed at the expense of development, personal growth and maturity.




Lack Of Creativity




One of the most defeating aspects of human oppression is the dull thinking that comes with it. The spirit of irresponsibility that comes from oppression brings a lack of creativity. If you have been told what to do all your life, you stop using your mind.




Oppressors don't want those they oppress to think for themselves. So they try to keep them ignorant, and they do everything in their power to keep them from getting a good education. The oppressor doesn't want the oppressed to expand their minds and get knowledge. It is ignorance that gives and maintains the power of oppression, so they use it as a tool.



When things get tough, our brains should kick in creatively. It is then that we figure out how we are going to put food on the table. But if we never have to figure things out, our brains shut down. It is in those tough times that free thinkers will sew those dresses, cook that rice or sell those cakes. We'll do something. Yah will make us industrious when He pulls Pharaoh's support out from under us.




Yah wants us to be inventive. Once we are delivered, He will give us a revelation of how creative we can be. I mean, Yah may turn our electricity off just so we can remember how to make a fire and how to cook in an open pit.




For most, as soon as we turn the gas stove on and it doesn't work, we get irritated and transfer this responsibility to someone else. Try thinking instead. Stop and think for a minute when a problem arises. Cut some wood and kindling, break out the matches and start your fire. Use your brain. Be responsible.




If you lose your house, don't sit down and cry. You didn't have one before you got the one you lost. Rent another one. Start over again. Do something. Don't just throw the towel in and say, "That's it." Too many people wander aimlessly after their deliverance. Yah Gave us fantastic brains, so be creative. In deliverance, Yah will allow many challenges so that He can once again activate our creativity, initiative and intellectual potential. Oppression destroys creativity and breeds dependency.




Yah Gave you the ability to deal effectively with everything that comes against you. This is why Paul writes:




Yah is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

-1 CORINTHIANS 10:13




The apostle Paul probably grew up in one of the most modern and well-provided-for homes of his day. He was a full Roman citizen and a full Hebrew. He had doctorates in law and theology from the top academic school of his day and a thriving career in Hebrew government.




Then one day Yah Pulled the rug out from under him. Suddenly he had no home and no job, and he had lost all his old well-to-do friends. But that was fine with him, because he was also finally free. "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty," he wrote to one of the many ministries he started. "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:12-13).




Paul was an oppressor who found out through his deliverance how oppressed he really was. So after his deliverance, he had to change his way of thinking. If he could do it, so can you. Suddenly his salary was dependent upon Yah and Yah alone. He was highly educated, but the keepers of the temple had no use for a washed-up Hebrew convert such as he. Soone day he had a thought: tents. Paul remembered that he knew how to make tents. And that is what he did to support his new life.




Yah won't allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle. And even if you do make a mistake, Yah knew you were going to make it before you made it. But He also knew that He put in you the ability to work your way out of that mistake. Paul certainly made his share, but he grew from them all-and so can you.




Some people who have been delivered but who still battle oppression must be shown how to do everything. Their creativity level is so low that they can't take an assignment and put it into action through their own resourcefulness.




An oppressed person with no creativity may acquire land, but he can't think how to use it. So a man comes and buys the land from him for $50,000. Oh, what a lot of money, the seller thinks. But the man from Idaho grows potatoes, and the land becomes worth $15 million. The oppressed man wasn't creative enough to see beyond the dirt's $50,000 worth, so he takes the $50,000 and lets the management-minded thinker make an annual mint.




The spirit of irresponsibility always says, "This can't be done; this has never been done. No one ever did it like this; we can't do it like this. This can't happen here." But management's spirit of responsibility knows all things are possible. The spirit of responsibility knows there is always a way to accomplish everything.




Sometimes we ask Yah to fix something, but Yah wants us to use our brains to maximize ourselves. "Listen!" He says. "I've given you a brain with ten billion cells. I've given you imagination. I've given you knowledge. I've given you wisdom. I've given you insight. I've given you foresight. I've given you hindsight. I've given you sight! So why are you still coming to Me, wanting to know how to fix it? You fix it! Put your free- thinking management cap on. Think!"




The Holy Spirit will work with a human spirit as a member of His new creation management team. That's why He is called the paracletus. A paraclete is "one who comes alongside to help." He doesn't move in to take over your business, and He doesn't muscle in to take over your home or your dreams. He comes to help you make things happen and to manage them, because He is the Helper.




Are you waiting on God? Maybe His Holy Spirit is waiting on you. He's a helper; He's an assistant. But He can't assist a man who isn't doing anything! Remember Hamachiach 's wisdom in recognizing resources and the resource trading servant in the parable of the talents? Birds and flowers teach us God's love and trusting faith. His parable teaches us that we have unknown resources within us that Yah wants us to recognize and develop. So put on your management thinking cap. What can you do today to improve your situation? The Holy Spirit will help you once you decide to get up and move.




DISTRUST




When people have been oppressed, they learn to distrust their brothers because of the spirit of survival. The spirit of oppression and slavery also produces jealousy, distrust, suspicion and hate. When you are oppressed, all you want to do is make it through the day. You'll use anybody to get ahead and to survive life's miseries with more comfort.This is why people who have been oppressed usually fight each other. They don't trust one another, especially when one of them starts to move ahead. They are fearful of a power play, so they band together to pull any achiever back down.




Lack Of Initiative




Because of all the restrictive and inhibiting effects of oppression, the nonthinking tendencies of this condition naturally take the initiative from a person. It is that initiative that would drive him to do things for himself. People who have been in bondage for a long time have almost no personal drive left. They are told when to get up, when to go to this spot, when to chip these rocks, when to rest, when to eat and drink and when to stop. Then they are told when they can go to the bathroom, when they can go to bed and when to get up. "Get up! Time to make more of Pharaoh's bricks!"



When the oppressed obtain their deliverance, they still want someone to tell them what to do. When Yah says, "Work out your own salvation" (Phil. 2:12, NKJV), they panic and groan, "Yah usha, I thought You were going to work it out for me!"




If an individual still suffering from the spirit of oppression doesn't receive an opportunity to develop his or her potential after deliverance, that person will become a parasite who looks to others to take responsibility for his or her life. Yah usha leads and guides us and tells us how to do things. But He gives us the responsibility of doing our part. So if we don't pray, read the Word, stay in fellowship, follow God's direction, read good books, listen to good tapes and build ourselves up, we will drift.




Oppression's instilled selfishness, fear, laziness, poor self concept and hatred for work have ruined many lives. But the good news is that irresponsibility can be turned around. Yah wants to improve the skills of the responsible and give new abilities to those who have none. He wants to make managers out of mismanagers, and responsible adults out of all of His children.




We need to act on our faith. Once we come to Hamachiach , we must resist the oppressive thoughts of our past and decide to rid ourselves of any former laziness. We must decide to get up earlier to read those books we keep putting off or to go jogging. We must decide to get that mind and that body back in shape. The choice is always ours to get up earlier, pray a little longer and strengthen our relationship with God. When we do, the Holy Spirit will help us. But the act of choosing is always up to us.




Now, let's move on into chapter six to look at some lessons the Hebrew children teach us through their wilderness exploits.




The greater the obstacle overcome, the greater the personal development.




THE SPIRIT OF OPPRESSION




1. When your work becomes as important as three meals a day, you are becoming a responsible person.




2. Oppression actually conditions people to be unproductive, and laziness becomes a lifestyle.




3. Oppressed people are quick to accuse when they are no longer receiving the provisions of their servitude.




4. Oppressed people are afraid of everything, even their own people.




5. It is human rights, not civil rights, that set people free.




6. The spirit of responsibility knows there is always a way to accomplish everything.




7. The spirit of oppression and slavery also produces jealousy, distrust, suspicion and hate.

LEARNING TO MANAGE FREEDOM

Genesis chapter 1






Today we are walking in: Learning To Manage Freedom








Exodus 5:1


And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. H4057








WILDERNESS






Today we look to the word-WILDERNESS-H4057 midbar--wilderness pasture; uninhabited land; a pasture (i.e. open field, whither cattle are driven)--an uninhabited plain fit for feeding flocks, not a desert--a pasture









The Torah testifies...............


Numbers 9:1


And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness H4057 of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,







The prophets proclaim..................




Jeremiah 31:2


Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; H4057 even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.








The writings bear witness...........................




Joshua 1:4


From the wilderness H4057 and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.







Learning to Manage Freedom


What lies before us and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what is within us.


In this teaching we are going to look at some important principles of management and mismanagement that will add some depth to the management elements covered in the second teaching. Nothing makes the owner of a company angrier than a manager who thinks the company and its resources belong to him personally. So we will start in principle with the irresponsible realities of mismanagement.


If you want to get fired very quickly on any job, go ahead-I dare you to act as if you own it all. Take the paper and paper clips home when you feel like it. Take the computer home for your daughter's history report. "Borrow" the fax machine for a few weeks. Just act as if you own everything, and see what will happen. You'll be fired so quickly you won't know how to manage the disappointment.


The owner can take whatever he wants out of the office, whenever he wants, because he owns it all. But the manager can't. So if you mismanage the owner's resources, he will replace you. He has the right to come and get his resources anytime he wants, no matter where you put them. In essence, the manager is accountable to the owner. Stewards must be faithful to their proprietor.


PUNCHING THE TIME CLOCK FOR YAH


In the larger scheme of life, Yah owns His resources-the earth and everything in it. If we mismanage them, He will fire us and give them to someone else.


Yahusha gave us an excellent example of this in His parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30). In this teaching, a master left some of his resources-in this case, money called "talents"-for his servants to invest while he was away. When he returned, he asked his servants to give an account for the resources he left in their care.


The servant who was given two talents doubled them to four. The servant who had five given to him doubled them to ten. But the servant who was given one mismanaged even that one. He buried it and didn't even earn interest on it. His master therefore commanded, "Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents" (Matt. 25:28).


The master could deal with these men in the way that he did because they were investing his talents. When the third servant mismanaged the talent, the master took it from him.


Let's take a look at four principles of management that can be gleaned from this important teaching of Hamachiach 's.


The Four Principles Of Management


1. Yah created everything (stewardship is not ownership). In the beginning Yah created the heavens and the earth.
-GENESIS 1:1


First of all, we must understand that Yah created and owns everything. He claims the right to it all, and He can therefore give it to-or take it from-whomever He wants,whenever He wants. Those of us who follow Him don't possess the right to claim anything we own as being ours. The minute we think we obtained it by our own ingenuity, Yah will make other arrangements with His investment. Yah owns; we just manage. Therefore, as long as we mismanage the resources entrusted to our care, Yah, who created and owns everything, will keep His resources from us.


2. Yah organized before He gave His best (order and organization are the foundations of management).


And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of Yah moved upon the face of the waters.
-GENESIS 1:2, KJV


In this second sentence of the Bible's revelation about earth and man's origin, the scripture says the earth was without form. That means it was out of formal order. The Hebrew word tohuw, translated "without form" in this verse, literally means "confusion." It speaks of the disorder of things. The word implies that nothing was in formal order.


The Hebrew word for void is bohuw; it literally means "empty or void." It implies "chaos, confusion." So the earth was without a formal order or position. It was confused, disorganized and steeped in chaos.


A third word in this verse is darkness, which is translated from the Hebrew word choshek, and it means exactly what it says. But it also implies an absence of knowledge and revelation. Things were out of order; therefore, confusion reigned.


As you read Genesis 1 carefully, you will see that Yah created nothing between verses 3 through 26. Everything mentioned was already there. Verse 1 says, "In the beginning Yah created the heaven and the earth." As you read the text carefully, you will find that water initially covered all dry ground. You will also see that when dry ground was added as an earth component, the clouds, which were already present, had probably fallen from the firmament to rise up as a mist to water the ground. So although the heavens and earth had been created, they were disorderly and disorganized. Nothing yet was in its proper place.


Let's look at an example of something in a disordered, chaotic state like this. Let's suppose that you invite me to stay in your home for two weeks while you are on vacation. I accept, but I really don't like the way you have arranged your house. So I put the kitchen appliances in the bedroom and move your bedroom furniture into the bathroom. I change your living room into a bathroom and put your bathtub in the dining room. I change everything without taking anything out of the house. But my rearranging has taken everything out of formal order.
When you return home from vacation, you want to take a shower. So you go to the area that used to be your bathroom and find your bedroom furniture crowding the place. You look for the refrigerator, but it's not in the kitchen anymore. The result? Everything is present and in the house, but it is in the wrong place. This is the principle of disorder.


Disorder causes confusion-this is what void means.You don't know where everything is; you are in the dark about what is going on. This is how I see the Genesis account. In the beginning everything was present, but it was misplaced and out of order.


Yah saw the disorganization, but He had something special in mind. So He said, "I have this ultimate dream to create a being in My image and likeness who will rule and reign as a king over creation for Me. He will be My manager over the whole planet. But I can't bring My best until I organize the rest."


So Yah turned the lights on to see the mess when He said, "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:4).


If your life is disorganized in the areas of finance, marriage, children or your job, don't keep stumbling in the dark. Stop and turn the lights on. When you do, you will see problems, and you won't like what you see. But you have to see your problems in the light before you can fix them.


Yah needed to shine the light on the confusion of creation so He could see what needed to be put into place. So He turned the light on and took a look. Then He pushed the clouds back up into the firmament and moved the water to produce dry ground. The water and land were there after creating it in Genesis 1:1; they were just in the wrong place.So He reorganized it. He raised up the ground and blew on it, and it dried up. Then He separated the salt water from the fresh water to make the lakes and the sea.


And Yah said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So Yah made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. Yah called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning- the second day. And Yah said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. Yah called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And Yah saw that it was good.
-GENESIS 1:6-10


Yah also spoke to the soil and the water, because He knew what was buried in them. He said:
Let the land produce vegetation.
-GENESIS 1:11


Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.
-GENESIS 1:20


Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds.
-GENESIS 1:24


In the ground Yah had created a wealth of trees, plants, fruit, birds, animals and all the great creation that mankind enjoys today. Yah just reorganized everything. And the Bible says that when it was all finished, "Yah saw that it was good" (Gen. 1:25).


Yah is a Yah of order. He loves organization and detests confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). So Yah withheld His best-the creation of man-until He was organized. He would not create man, who was the apex of His creation, until everything was in order.


And when all was ready, Yah gave Adam an organized garden and said again, "It is good" (Gen. 1:31).


So here is the initial management message of Genesis for you: If you want Yah's best in your life, don't ask for the best- organize for it. Organization and order attract Yah's favor, blessings and resources.


3. Yah delegated management over the earth to man (man was created for the management of the earth).
Our third principle of management speaks of delegation. Man was created for the management of the earth. Man was given rulership, not ownership, of the earth. Genesis 1:26 says:


Then Yah said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Yah granted man dominion and entrusted him with the resources He placed within the earth. Yah didn't give man the title deed to the earth, as some have taught, because He is the owner. Only He holds the title deed to everything we have right now. So Yah-who owns it-can take it back whenever He sees mismanagement. His written will and testament states, "The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein" (Ps. 24:1, KJv).


Yah owns your car. So if you don't want Him to take it away from you, clean it, service it and use it to bring people to the house of Yah. Use it to bless your children so you can say, "Yah, I'm using this thing, not just leaving it for display in my garage." Manage it.


Did you lose your house? If you did, it may not be the devil who took it. The bank repossessed your house because you didn't pay. Why didn't you pay? It wasn't the devil who had your money. Luke 16 says if you cannot manage another man's property, who will give you property of your own? So if He gave you your own house and you mismanaged it, He will put you back on another man's property to teach you management all over again. When you recognize setbacks in this light, you will see new opportunities instead of failure.


The New Testament writer Paul gives us a good teaching on delegation in the Book of Galatians. In Galatians 3:26 he tells us, "You are all sons of Yah through faith in Hamachiach Yahusha." Then he continues in Galatians 4:1-2, "As long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father."


The message of these verses tells us that children of inheritance are treated like employees in regard to their inheritance when they are children. Why? Children don't manage things well. If you give a child a jar of peanut butter, it will soon be all over his face, head and eyes. He doesn't manage the peanut butter; it manages him as he puts it everywhere it shouldn't go. Give your child a beautiful diamond ring, and he will chew on it for a while. Then he will spit it out or throw it through the window where the dog will pick it up and run off with it. A child is a mismanager. So, even though Yahusha Hamachiach is Lord, and we are His sons through the re-creation of our spirits by faith, Yah doesn't trust any of us with His estate until we are mature. Yah will give you what you can manage, not what you ask for.


What is the key to His giving you more ownership in the estate? Let's look at what parents do. They don't release authority until children are capable of managing the authority.


The earth is the Lord's, and the Lord is your Father. And since you are His son, you are heir to the gold, silver, trees- everything. But we can't just walk around waiting for Yah to dump stuff in our laps. We must learn how to manage in order to receive from Yah.


One of the most mismanaged areas in the lives of believers who need Yah's light today is the area of personal finances. Many Hebrews borrow money continually and never stop to realize that they don't own themselves anymore. The next time someone comes to you and asks you for money, ask that person to whom else he owes money. Why? Because people never ask the person they already owe for more money. They create bigger problems by going to new people with the same old problem. They perpetuate their own darkness and stumble around, never stopping to turn the light on.


If you are deeply in debt, don't get nervous about the thousands you owe. Stop. Take a good look at your situation. Don't be afraid to see that you owe money to half of the folks in your family, ministry or community. Realize why you avoid those you owe and slip through the back door. Be honest with those you owe. Turn the light on and confess your obligations. This will start the training process through which Yah can mature you. Integrity is the key to everything we do.


First, hold yourself accountable to Yah, who delegates all. Then, enlighten yourself to see how much you owe. Take a piece of paper and add up all the amounts you owe to people. Then, because debt doesn't go away by avoiding it or hoping your debtors don't call, hold yourself accountable to call each debtor and check the numbers. Let them know you're sincere about paying back every cent.


Have you noticed that you can't pray phone bills out of existence or cast light bills out in Yahusha' name? Being filled with the Holy Spirit doesn't cancel any debt. Unless there's a miracle, you still owe the money.


Prosperity is not dependent on the resources Yah gives you, but on your delegated management of what you are given. So never pray for things you are not willing to manage. If you don't feel ready or qualified to manage something, don't waste your prayer, because Yah will withhold from you what you will mismanage .


When a child inherits money, it is placed in the management of a guardian or trustee until he or she is mature enough to handle it wisely. The same is true of your inheritance on earth. Yah gave you rulership, not ownership, so He can always take back what you mismanage. The problem is, when He withholds or removes resources from us, He usually gives it to people who are not too far from where we live. And many times those people may not necessarily be committed to His kingdom, although they are good managers.


We have this funny idea in the ministry that everything is for the righteous. Proverbs 13:22 does say that "a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous," but let me tell you, if you mismanage, Yah will give it to the unrighteous. Oh, Dr. J, what are you saying? I can hear you thinking. But listen: Yah allowed the devil to have the earth. We can see that in Luke 4 when Satan offered Yahusha the kingdoms of the world with their wealth if Yahusha would bow down and worship him. "For it has been given to me," the devil said (Luke 4:5). Yahusha didn't bow, of course, but neither did He dispute the devil's claim that the world and its kingdoms had been given over to him.


The devil will hold on to whatever is yours until Yah trains you to manage it. As you will see in coming teachings, you must raise the cows for the milk and scoop the honey out of stinging beehives to get your milk and honey in the land that Yah has promised you. And until you can take them from him, the devil will hold on to your goods.


Using this Promised Land allegory, the wicked of this earth are guardians holding on to the wealth of the righteous until the righteous are ready and qualified to manage it. They have been placed in these positions by Yah, but what they have doesn't belong to them-it belongs to us. Remember the scripture: "The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just" (Prov. 13:22, KJv). But the question is: How did the wicked get the wealth? And, does Yah know they have it?


Some people are bitter toward the rich. They hate "those wealthy people." When they pass by their two-story houses up the street, they get jealous thinking about their crowded, little house with its small kitchen. Stop being jealous. Those people learned how to manage and earned your dream house. You've been trying to fast and pray it out of their hands, but it hasn't moved because Yah doesn't move resources as a result of prayer. He moves resources as a result of efficient management. When you prove faithful over a little, He will make you ruler over more (Matt. 25:23). Management attracts resources.


4. Yah gave clear assignment and instructions (you must understand the assignment and instructions).


The fourth management principle we want to deal with has to do with understanding the will and objectives of the one for whom you are managing. Yah clearly told Adamhis assignment: He was to work, cultivate and protect (Gen. 1:28). Then He gave Adam the instructions: He was not to eat of one particular tree (Gen. 2:17). Adam had no question about his assignment or instructions. He was directed to manage the earth, and he was to obey Yah implicitly.


The forbidden tree wasn't a setup to trick man. With His instruction to avoid the one tree, Yah established a fulcrum where man's conscience and will power could be activated and come into obedience. Adam was not a robot but a creature of will with the power of choice. He was a free agent. The power of "will" is activated by the power of choice. Therefore, the tree was forbidden in order to activate Adam's will power-not to destroy it.


Yah was Adam's Creator, Father and Boss. It is impossible for you to be a proper manager if you don't obey the boss. You can't manage the company any way you feel like doing it. You have to stay in touch with the boss's vision and the company's vision. If you manage Kentucky Fried Chicken,you can't decide you want to make hamburgers. You can't manage without obedience to the authority in the company.


Every time you mismanage, your incompetent reputation will follow you. If you get fired from a job because you've mismanaged the company's resources and you apply for another job, the first question they usually ask is who your former employer was. So don't think that you can mismanage and start over fresh. Yah will always take you back to where you stumbled until you learn to manage right.


I was recently talking to a young man who had mismanaged his business and was in financial straits. I told him to accept whatever job he was offered, no matter how humbling it was. He used to be in business for himself. But now, because of poor judgment, he needed to go back to the bottom so he could regain his credibility and work himself back up to the top. I told him to start over again so his employer could see consistency, faithfulness and management to rebuild trust. Then I told him that when Yah saw his new diligence, He would entrust more to him once again. The young man was teachable, so I know he will be fine. Some I have counseled to humble themselves again at the bottom haven't been as teachable as he was. They want to start where they blew it, but restoration doesn't work that way.


Every Hebrew believer has a clear responsibility to manage Yah's resources well. People who keep jumping from problem to problem will never be given much. Yah knows right where those people are. Every time they show up, He is there waiting for them. When they ask for something, Yah tells them no. Why? Because Yah protects His resources from mismanagers- including mismanagers who are full of the Spirit, speak in tongues and know the Bible.


Sin Is A Product Of Mismanagement


If Yah's fundamental purpose for man is management, man's fundamental problem is mismanagement. And that's true. Why are three-fourths of the world's people living in poverty? Why are you having such a hard time living on your meager salary and struggling to keep a job? If you are a business owner, why is your business having such a hard time? Why don't people have the money to buy your product? The answer: mis management.


When you look at the Scriptures with your management hat on, you will see that man's number one problem is not sin. It's mismanagement. Sin is the result of Adam's mismanagement. Let me show you what I mean.


The introduction of sin to humanity was actually a mismanagement problem. Yah's first man was given a job to oversee the Garden, and he literally sold out the company to an illegal entity, the devil. Adam made the worst of deals. And because of Adam's gross mismanagement, sin, with all of its destruction, was unleashed within the earth. Yah's command to Adam was: "Have dominion over the earth and everything in it." The word dominion means "to govern,rule, control, cultivate and order." In essence, Yah gave Adam the management contract for earth. Another word used for management is stewardship.


If Adam would have managed his affairs properly, mankind as we know it would have remained as he once was. But Adam mismanaged. And since the loss of Adam's management commitment in the beginning, all of mankind has followed in his footsteps as incompetent mismanagers. We've mismanaged the environment so that many lakes and rivers are contaminated. Earth's air is full of contaminants. Our water teems with pollutants. We've poisoned earth's fish with lead and other toxins, and on occasion we murder our entrusted livestock through "accidental" poisoning. We've mismanaged the whole thing to the point that our actions are killing ourselves. Greed has overshadowed our common sense. Fallen man prefers to line his own pockets with his greed-gotten gain instead of ensuring that the environment is safe. Yah has been trying to reinstill His management perspective into the human race since we lost it in Genesis 3.


Mankind was created to be managers, but now we're experts at mismanaging. This is why our Third World countries today have such problems. Many Third World leaders are responsible for countries that are rich in natural resources, but the people stay poor due to mismanagement. When people mismanage, Yah protects His resources from them.


Every time you spend a dollar without being aware of the value of that dollar, Yah will take another dollar out of your control. I believe Yah is frugal, and that every time you spend money on something for which you cannot justify its reasonable value before Yah, you give Him the right to take that money from you. I know this because of my dealings with Him.


And I will tell you, Yah will bless you financially if you are in the center of His will, managing wisely the resources He provides you. If I were to misuse the provision designated for Fiveamprayer on a whim, He would find someone else to bless. He would take our ministry dollars and give them to someone else. This is why people who mismanage always get poorer and poorer.


Many governments, and the nations they oversee, are poor because of mismanagement. Haiti is the oldest republic in the Caribbean and was the first country to gain independence, yet it is still the poorest country in the region.


Trinidad has oil, Jamaica has bauxite and Guyana and Nigeria are rich with gold. Yet every one of these countries is borrowing money and is a victim of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Why? Because of greed, misplaced priorities, mismanagement, distorted ambitions and personal agendas. Poverty is ultimately a product of mismanagement.


Yah created everything, and He will not have it mismanaged. He will keep it from people if they don't oversee their resources with intelligent oversight.
Some people have so much money they'll never spend it in their lifetime. I heard of a baseball player who received a contract for $91 million over five years to play baseball you know, hitting a little ball made of leather with a piece of wood. I couldn't cheer that announcement because I think about the millions of poor people who need that $91 million. And I'm sure Yah isn't excited about that.


No wonder Yah allows the earth to be cursed. No wonder we have so much tension, crime and difficulty. It's because the earth and its resources are mismanaged.
The poor of this earth deserve a better life. But Yah will only give people what they won't waste. People who have much get more because they manage well, and the poor who are poor because of laziness and mismanagement will probably always be jealous of them.


These mismanagement principles are eternal. If you don't learn them, the results and the consequences of violating them will be evident. You will always be poor and depressed. You will always live as a beggar below your privilege.


Now that we have defined the problem, let's look in more detail at some mismanagement principles from Genesis. Any management-minded person will want to avoid these principles. Remember, the first syllable of management is "man," because it is his destiny and design.


Five Principles Of Mismanagement


I. Misuse of resources produces mismanagement.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. -GENESIS 3:6


First of all, let us notice that in the Garden, Adam and Eve abused the fruit on Yah's one forbidden tree. They did with it what it was not made to do-they ate it. So, they mismanaged it. Whenever you misuse resources, you have become a mis manager.


If you dump junk food and harmful substances into your body, which was entrusted to you by Yah as His holy temple, that's mismanagement. And when you mismanage what Yah gave you, you will lose it. Eventually your health will begin to fade, and on the day you planned to celebrate your wedding anniversary, your spouse may be attending a funeral instead- yours. Why? Misuse leads to mismanagement.


2. Misappropriation of resources brings disqualification and guilt


Have you ever prayed for a need, perhaps for some money, and you received it? Maybe you received an unexpected check in the mail from something you did five years ago. Or perhaps you told the Lord you needed an extra $200 to pay for a specific thing, and the money came in. But when the money came, the specific thing you needed it for lost its importance. Suddenly all those other things you had been wanting seemed more important, and you misappropriated the money. This kind of misappropriation will disqualify you for management. Whenever you misappropriate material, whether it's money, property or people, you become disqualified to manage that resource. Yah will no longer trust you. He will put a hold on your spiritual account until you pass Management 101. The principle is: "Whatever you mismanage, you will lose."


The same is true with borrowing. Have you ever borrowed money for something specific, then spent the money on something else like shopping, groceries or taking a trip? If this happens, the next time you ask for something, Yah will remember what you did with the last thing He supplied you. In this case, your misappropriation will put you out there on your own with you and you alone to pay back the loan.


When Adam and Eve disobeyed Yah's command and misappropriated His property and resources, they were disqualified. They were kicked out of their own Daddy's company! And if Daddy puts you out, you're in real trouble.


Do you think it's possible that effective management can be more important than sonship to Yah? I don't know about you, but the simple idea of it all spins my head. Adam was made in Yah's image and in His likeness. He was Yah's "son," yet Yah put him out of the Garden of Eden. Why? Because he mismanaged Yah's property. It's frightening to think about, but being a child of Yah doesn't qualify you for Yah's blessings. Yes, you are brought into the family, but it is your ability to manage the things of Yah that qualifies you for His blessings. If every Hebrew was guaranteed success simply because of conversion, we would see the results. Everyone would be full and prosperous. But we don't see that, and I believe that management is the key.


Don't worry, Yah will forgive any of your mismanagement episodes, but He won't trust you again automatically. If you've sinned by mismanaging your time with the wrong people, or if you've damaged your body and mind with corrupt materials, come to Yah and ask for His forgiveness, and He will forgive you. But He will want to see you grow up in His wisdom before He trusts you with anything again. If you sinned with His money by spending it on new clothes instead of the rent, Yah will forgive you. But he won't give you more money until you learn to pay the rent.


People who are disciplined in this area attract Yah to them. Yah increases their resources everywhere they go. Why? He lets them have things because they don't misappropriate them. He trusts them. Yahusha stressed the importance of management as a prerequisite for trust in His statement: "The meek shall inherit the earth." The word meek denotes self-control and self- discipline. The result is rulership over earth's real estate.


3. The responsibility of management cannot be transferred.


This principle points to the fact that because you are breathing, it is you who are responsible for the management of your life. You cannot abdicate your responsibility and hold someone else accountable for your daily affairs.Whenever anyone tries to shift his life over to another's care, Yah literally takes what he had from him.


Let me show you what I mean. Adam tried to transfer his management responsibility to Eve. We do the same thing. We may watch a television program and buy into those advertisements that hype new sneakers, clothes, perfume or cars. People buy into them because they appeal to their lusts and covetousness. As a result, we buy something we don't need.When someone asks us why we bought that item, pointing out its expense, we respond, "I saw it advertised on TV, and it just seemed right."


When anyone engages in this kind of behavior, that person is transferring the managerial responsibility of his life and resources to some hype-driven marketing company. When called to accountability, the person attempts to avoid taking responsibility for his irresponsibility. "This woman," he says, "jumped out of my TV, grabbed me by my suit, dragged me down to the store, slapped me a couple of times to make sure I still wanted the item, MADE me buy it, then took me back home and said, `Now be satisfied."' But when he is not satisfied, and he is sorry he made the purchase, then it wasn't his fault-the lady in the tight jeans on TV made him buy it!


If you're not careful, the poor (or those who are called poor) can cause you to mismanage Yah's money irresponsibly. I met a young man who was begging for money at a stop sign one day. "Oh, you're a pastor," he said. "I know you are a good woman of Yah, so you will surely give me something." He was about twenty-nine years old, but he looked more like thirty- nine-or even forty-nine. I even knew the guy. We went to school together. "Come on, preacher," he continued, "you are a woman of Yah, I know you can't say no."


So I looked at him and asked, "How old are you?"
"You know me. We went to school together," he replied.


"You're right," I answered. "So if I were to give you any money, I would be making you poorer, and I would be abusing Yah's resources."


The man looked confounded and asked what in the world I was talking about. So I continued, "Hop in my car. When we get back to my office, I want you to clean my car. And if you do a really good job, I'll pay you for your work."


"What are you talking about?" he complained in astonishment. "I didn't ask you for a job! I want some money!"


"No," I answered. "In the name of Yahusha, NO." He was so shocked he couldn't even curse.


I looked into his glazed eyes and said, "You don't need money; you need work."


The man didn't want a job; he wanted to manipulate me into a handout, so he hurried off. If I had given that man some of the resources Yah had entrusted to me, he would have certainly run off and used it to finance his irresponsible lifestyle. I would have been held accountable for contributing to his condition.


We have to be careful that we aren't manipulated by other people through our emotions, because that could lead to the misappropriation of our money. We might be giving to a drug addict's illegal drug fund and to various other causes of people whom Yah calls wicked. What a waste; what a shame. That young man had a brain, talent, energy, gifts and strength-I knew it because I knew him-but he was a mismanager. If you support and finance a mismanager, you become complicit in his foolishness and can become part of his mismanagement sin.


Nothing in the world attracts me like people who are trying hard to make it. When people are really trying hard, it makes me want to dig down inside my pocket and bless them. The great King Solomon says in his proverb: "Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth" (Prov. 10:4).


I am compassionate toward the genuinely poor. I make myself available to help them get out of their situation. But when someone is lazy and trying to get something for nothing, it really turns me off.


Yah has called us to work, so I try to make it available to those who need it. Look at what Paul said in reference to ministry widows in 1 Timothy 5 (Paul took a tougher stance than I do, believe it or not): "Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.... As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list" (vv. 3, 11).


Paul tells Timothy to take care of the older widows who have no one to help them. But he tells the younger widows to stop being busybodies, get remarried, keep house and get to work. (See verses 13-15.)


"Help me, I lost my job," a young widow could have told Paul.


"Well, come and let me introduce you to Orpheus who may know someone who could give you another one,"Paul answers. "And if that doesn't work out, you can clean my house."


"I ain't no maid!" she shouts while stomping off.


"Then you don't want any blessing," the apostle says while shaking his head.


This may sound particularly rough. But you can't transfer responsibility for management to other people,even if your circumstance is as unfortunate as a poor young widow's. You, and you alone, are responsible for what you are supposed to manage. Yah will give you the opportunity, but you must receive. You were created to manage effectively your intellect, body, mind, creativity, time and relationships.


4. Whatever you mismanage, you will lose.


This mismanagement principle embodies the saddest words in Scripture: "So the LORD Yah banished him from the Garden of Eden" (Gen. 3:23).


When Adam mismanaged his job assignment in the Garden, he not only lost his job-he also lost his home. He was kicked out of the Garden. To whom did Yah give the Garden? He gave it to man. Who took the Garden from man? Yah did. Who put him out? Yah did. Let's get that straight again. The devil didn't put Adam out of the Garden-Yah did.


In fact, Yah is so serious about management that He may even assign angels to guard His property from you because of your mismanagement. That's what He did with Adam, so why wouldn't He do it with you?


After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
-GENESIS 3:24


Yah doesn't waste His property. He also apparently values it so highly that He will use angelic intervention to protect it from abuse. Angels holding flaming swords could very possibly be guarding the way back into squandered ministries and businesses at this very moment because of the foolishness shown by those who mismanaged them.


Yah intelligently uses His resources to their fullest and expects the same from man. What did Yahusha instruct His disciples to do after He fed the five thousand? "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted" (John 6:12).


Yahusha said, "Pick up every crumb. Nothing here is to go to waste." Why? Because Yah doesn't sponsor mismanagement.


Yahusha possessed a management mentality. He detested waste. If you want to attract much, manage the little.


5. Mismanagement may be "personal," but it is never the"private"


This fifth mismanagement principle tells us that when you mismanage, you are not the only one affected. Adam mismanaged just one man-himself. He did it personally, but it certainly wasn't a private issue because his sin has affected every man and woman on earth. Because of Adam, Moses tells us, "[Yah] does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation" (Exod. 34:7). And the apostle Paul writes, "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin" (Rom. 5:12, NKJV). There is no such thing as a private sin. All men today are fallen because of one man's mis management .


There is a very revealing law in economics that says that you can tell mismanagement is taking place in a nation when the nation's people have to pay more taxes. Whenthere is corruption in high places, or when there's mismanagement anywhere in government, it is the people who have to pay for it. This demonstrates clearly that people pay publicly for personal and private mismanagement.


Let's bring this down to where you live. Say you bring home a stapler from your job. They won't miss it, you rationalize. They're a big company. They have two hundred staplers. But when there are ten thieves on staff (just like you), and they decide to steal "privately" (just like you), now ten staplers are gone. But no one of the ten knows the other nine are doing it.


OK, so you think you got away with the theft of the stapler. Now you take home some copier paper, just a hundred plain sheets. No problem, they have ten thousand sheets. But a hundred other employees are also doing it. All of a sudden the company sees that their profits are being used up by the unauthorized disappearance of materials. So next year the boss says, "Last year we lost money because we had to replace a hundred staplers, a hundred thousand sheets of paper and about fifteen thousand staples. So this year we are going to have to lay off three people. You, you and you. In addition, there will be no bonuses this year. And by the way, there will be no raises. We are also going to freeze all salary increases for the next three years until our company gets out of the red and back into the black."


Now your "private" acts have put three people in the unemployment line. The company has streamlined its investments and isn't buying materials from the community because it's smaller now. The businesses who sold them paper aren't making as much, so they, in turn, must lay people off. Your thefts have contributed to putting all those people out on the street.


Let's push this up to an even higher extreme. Because these people who were laid off due to curtailed business can't find jobs, they break into your house. Now there is a crime problem, thanks to your theft of the stapler and copy paper. The government has to hire more police, and they have to tax everybody more to pay the salaries. When the police apprehend these former clerks and cashiers (now turned thieves), there isn't any room in the prisons. So more tax money is needed to build another prison. Where do you think all the money is going to come from? From you! Who else? When the new prison is built, they need new guards, new administration, new food and new cooks for the prisoners. So there's more taxation to support this prison.


Do you get the picture? The cycle of mismanagement that began with the theft of one stapler never ends. In this same manner, the corrupt mismanagement of one-or twenty government official works itself down to enslave people's lives. The Third World is reeling from such "private" sins. Mismanagement may be personal, but it is never private, because it affects everyone.


You may mismanage your body personally by sleeping with someone in "secret." No problem. You had a good time, and no one knows. Right? Wrong! Because one day, all of a sudden you have a sore on your nose. The doctor says you have a little infection, so they do some blood tests and find out that you have the HIV virus. "Oh, you're married?" the doctor asks. "Bring your wife tomorrow." So you do, and because your wife is pregnant, now you have a wife and child with HIV. Your personal sin is not a private issue.


"But it was so private, Yah!" No, it wasn't. And because of your irresponsibility, generations to come will be contaminated by your private mismanagement.


Think about the resources Yah has given you. Are they still in your possession, but out of their proper place? Turn the lights on in your marriage, children, job, house and car, and start to think organizationally. Make this confession right now: "Heavenly Father, I am sobered by this reality, so please, help me to grow in my management calling. Ipromise to manage better from this day forward." Let's move forward now in the Bible's redemptive history to visit with and learn from the children of Israel. Their pilgrimage from oppression to freedom has many lessons for each of us. It was their struggle with the management issue that caused them to forfeit the Promised Land.


Principles Of Management


1. Yah created everything (stewardship is not ownership).


2. Yah organized before He gave His best (order and organization are the foundations of management).


3. Yah delegated management over the earth to man (man was created for the management of the earth).


4. Yah gave clear assignment and instructions (you must understand the assignment and instructions).


Principles Of Mismanagement


1. Misuse of resources produces mismanagement.


2. Misappropriation of resources brings disqualification and guilt.


3. The responsibility of management cannot be transferred.


4. Whatever you mismanage, you will lose.


5. Mismanagement may be "personal," but it is never "private."


Yah is more interested in your character than your comfort.


LEARNING TO MANAGE FREEDOM


1. Yah owns; we just manage.


2. Man was given rulership, not ownership, of the earth.


3. Yah will give you what you can manage, not what you ask for.

4. We must learn how to manage in order to receive from Yah.


5. Prosperity is not dependent on the resources Yah gives you, but on your delegated management of what you are given.


6. Yah gave you rulership, not ownership, so He can always take back what you mismanage.


7. The devil will hold on to whatever is yours until Yah trains you to manage it.


8. Management attracts resources.


9. Mankind was created to be managers, but now we're experts at mismanaging.


10. When people mismanage, Yah protects His resources from them.


11. Poverty is ultimately a product of mismanagement.


12. Yah will only give people what they won't waste.


13. Whenever you misuse resources, you have become a mis manager.


14. Misuse leads to mismanagement.


15. If you support and finance a mismanager, you become complicit in his foolishness and can become part of his mismanagement sin.


16. Yah doesn't waste His property.


17. Mismanagement may be personal, but it is never private, because it affects everyone.
Genesis chapter 1


In the beginning Yah created the heaven and the earth.


2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Yah moved upon the face of the waters.


3 And Yah said, Let there be light: and there was light.


4 And Yah saw the light, that it was good: and Yah divided the light from the darkness.


5 And Yah called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.


6 And Yah said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.


7 And Yah made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.


8 And Yah called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.


9 And Yah said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.


10 And Yah called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and Yah saw that it was good.


11 And Yah said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.


12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and Yah saw that it was good.


13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.


14 And Yah said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:


15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.


16 And Yah made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.


17 And Yah set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,


18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Yah saw that it was good.


19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.


20 And Yah said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.


21 And Yah created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and Yah saw that it was good.


22 And Yah blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.


23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.


24 And Yah said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.


25 And Yah made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and Yah saw that it was good.


26 And Yah said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.


27 So Yah created man in his own image, in the image of Yah created he him; male and female created he them.


28 And Yah blessed them, and Yah said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.


29 And Yah said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.


30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.


31 And Yah saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Irresponsibility: Freedom's Deadliest Enemy

Genesis chapter 1

Today we are walking in: Irresponsibility: Freedom's Deadliest Enemy

 In the beginning Yah created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Yah moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And Yah said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And Yah saw the light, that it was good: and Yah divided the light from the darkness.

5 And Yah called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6 And Yah said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And Yah made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And Yah called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And Yah said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And Yah called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and Yah saw that it was good.

11 And Yah said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and Yah saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And Yah said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And Yah made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And Yah set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Yah saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And Yah said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And Yah created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and Yah saw that it was good.

22 And Yah blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And Yah said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And Yah made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and Yah saw that it was good.

26 And Yah said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So Yah created man in his own image, in the image of Yah created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And Yah blessed them, and Yah said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And Yah said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And Yah saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Irresponsibility: Freedom's Deadliest Enemy

You are where you are because that is where you have subconsciously chosen to be.

Nothing in society is more destructive than irresponsibility. The mismanagement of Adam has affected every generation of mankind since he partook of the forbidden fruit with his wife and tried to cover it up. Today, because of Adam's six-thousand-year-old transgression, the world in which we live is under the spell of this irresponsible spirit. Because of this, it is on a immovable collision course to its own self-destruction.

The reason we have such conflicts and debilitating experiences in the world today is because the world is filled with people infected by the irresponsible spirit. The word irresponsibility means "not answerable to authority." Does that sound familiar? Many people in the world today don't want anyone telling them what to do. They want to do what they feel like doing, and they want to do it as long as they want to do it.

Irresponsibility also means "lacking a sense of accountability or not liable or able to answer for consequences." Many people don't want to be accountable to anyone,including God's household of faith. When sin is confronted, the message is too often transferred to the next person. Our defensive line of thought is, I pray for forgiveness, and He forgives me every time, so get off my back. Few want to hear a pastoral rebuke. Many Bible-toting, pew-warming people are living unclean lives; they don't want anyone to reprove or correct them. This is the spirit of irresponsibility.

The word irresponsibility also carries with it the meaning of "lacking conscience" or "unable or unwilling to respond to conscience." It is mankind's conscience that allows us to distinguish between right and wrong. When a lifestyle of irresponsibility is allowed to increase, the voice of conscience is progressively silenced. Some people are doing unbelievable things, yet they have no sense of guilt or remorse after they've finished. People are shooting each other. Husbands are beating their wives. Fathers sleep with their daughters, wake up, shower, eat breakfast and go off to work as if nothing has happened. Conscience has died throughout much of the world's society because we have inherited a spirit of irresponsibility.

To be irresponsible also means to be "fickle and changeable." Irresponsible people can be flighty, thoughtless, rash, undependable, unstable, loose, laxand immoral. They can have an unpredictable, unreliable and untrustworthy character. And it's not just the "world's problem"; this spirit is also wild today in the Hebrew ministry.

The Blame Game

Irresponsible people are experts at transferring blame for their own irresponsible actions. Remember Adam's defense: "God, the woman You gave me ... remember, it was You who gave her to me ... she gave me the fruit, and because You gave her to me, and she gave me the fruit ... both of You ... NOT ME ... made me eat it! I'm innocent, God! Leave me alone!"

Everyone in our world today is an expert at blaming society for our own problems. People are caught in the mentality that takes no responsibility for their behaviors,decisions or the situations in which they find themselves. It all goes back to Adam's mismanagement in the Garden.

As we look at these definitions of irresponsibility, we see many of our communities in full disastrous bloom. The entire world is suffering under the destructive influence of an irresponsible humanity. We live in an irresponsible generation that believes the world owes it something. People refuse to take personal responsibility for their lives, decisions and actions. Can they turn to the ministry to help them find their responsible purpose in life? Yes, but the ministry must be established in her own responsible life.

THE ORIGIN OF IRRESPONSIBILITY

When did this spirit of irresponsibility enter our society? Again, the answer is simple. This destructive spirit was released in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis we find that the first man-who carried all men in his loins-violated his stewardship. Adam was given trust and responsibility for the entire earth. He had the responsibility to maintain the righteousness and holy standards of Creator Yah on this planet through obedience.

And Yah blessed them, and Yah said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

-GENESIS 1:28, KJV

The word dominion literally means "to lead, to manage, to control, to keep under and to be a steward over." God's command to Adam makes it plain that mankind was created to be managers over the earth. We were given responsibility to manage from the beginning. So we must look back at what happened in the Garden of Eden to understand where man's current plight began. Each of God's instructions to Adam fulfilled a specific purpose for mankind. Let's look at them.

BE FRUITFUL THROUGH WORK

When Yah gave Adam the Garden of Eden, the first thing He told Adam to do was to work.

The LORD Yah took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

-GENESIS 2:15

Yah didn't tell Adam exactly what to do. He just told him to be productive. When Yah spoke to Adam, He was speaking to every generation of human descendants in his loins. When Yah said, "Adam, work," He was telling everyone to work. This indicates that work is a natural result of God's endowed responsibility.

Work is not a curse. It existed in the Garden when man was in perfect relationship with God. Therefore, if you don't like to work, you are resisting God's natural will for your life.

When Eve met Adam, he already had a job. So the first thing a man needs is not a wife, but a job. And a woman should never marry a man who doesn't want to work.

The word fruitful means "to produce results; profitable." To be fruitful, one must take out that which is hidden in a seed to let it flourish and grow. God's instruction to be fruitful wasn't limited to having children. Yah wanted Adam and Eve to be fruitful in everything. He placed "fruit" in the seed on the planet and commanded them to get the "fruit" out. The same is true for us. "And Yah blessed them, and Yah said unto them, Be fruitful" (Gen. 1:28, KJv).

This is why Yah never made a chair for Adam. Instead, He hid the chair in the tree. He never made a table for Adam; He put the table in the tree. He never made a car for Adam; He put the car in mountain ore and left the rest up to us. Yah simply gave Adam the raw materials, but it took Adam's ingenuity and productivity to be fruitful with the raw stuff.

Then Yah told Adam to name the animals (Gen. 2:19). He knew this would activate Adam's mental ability. Adam had a brain that had never been used, so Yah wanted Adam to try it out by naming all the animals. Can you imagine? There are millions of animals, and Adam's brain named every one of them. Before long, the first man began to realize he had potential that hadn't yet been tapped. This is management-maximizing the resources under your care.

This is why Yah always gives you something to do-so you can discover what you are able to do. Responsibility is the "ability to respond" to your God-given ability. So the only way to find out what you are able to do is to give yourself something to do.

Multiply

To be fruitful in filling the earth, there had to be human reproduction. So Yah put Adam, who was the source of all humans, to sleep.

So the LORD Yah caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD Yah made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

-GENESIS 2:21-22

Then Yah took Eve out of Adam's side, and He told them both to multiply and fill the whole earth.

Multiply means "to take what you produce and duplicate it so it can be disseminated." Replenish means "to be full of and accomplished." It also carries the meaning of"to distribute." To do this, Adam was to take what he did in the Garden and reproduce it in other places. That was God's plan.

Yah put Adam and Eve in Eden. The word Eden means "a location" or "spot." Yah took a spot on the earth and made it perfect. He also put His presence there, and everything in it was perfect. Then He told Adam to duplicate his spot all over the planet until the whole world looked like it. If man had succeeded, he would have dominated the earth. This is what Yah wanted. Yah wanted man to replenish the earth by filling it with what was entrusted to his care. Yah wanted Adam to multiply the Garden so it would fill the earth.

Have Dominion

Yah blessed our human parents and said, "Have dominion." He gave them responsibility to rule over the earth: "And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:28, KJV).

This is the process of God, and it is no different for you or me. In God's management perspective, you don't dominate until you first become fruitful and productive. After you are fruitful, you have to reproduce or multiply what you produce. Then, after you multiply, you have to duplicate or distribute it until it fills your home, town and region-until it fills the whole earth. It is then that you have dominion.

The best way to keep people poor is to restrict their fruitfulness or productivity and to make sure they can't duplicate what they produce. The spirit of poverty causes people to be stripped of the power Yah gave them to multiply and to replenish the earth with their gifts. Greedy people will try to steal your idea to keep you from multiplying it. And when you are not being fruitful, productive and multiplying, you will be poor. Remember, when the Israelites were in Egypt, they produced only what the Egyptians said they could. So any creative gifts they might have had were oppressed.

MAN-THE FOUNDATION OF THE HOME

Man is the foundation of the home because Yah began the human race with him alone. He was first, and he was created with every human descendent who was ever going to be born in his loins. This is why Yah didn't return to the soil when creating woman; woman was already made within Adam's being. Yah made one man from the soil and never went back to the soil.

Once Adam was formed, Yah instructed him about the tree. The "No Trespassing" sign was posted for his eyes alone. So get ready, men, because here comes a heavy burden of truth- Yah never told Eve about the tree. When the command about the tree was given, Eve hadn't even been fashioned fromAdam yet. Yeh Instructed the male, which meansYah laid the foundation of the family in the male. It was the male who was responsible to keep his family away from that tree and to teach them about the commands of God.

If you want to destroy a building, do you break a window? No, you can break the window, but the building will stay intact. Can you knock a building into rubble by pulling a plank from the wall? No. Can you do it by tearing the roof off? No, that won't do it either. The only way you can effectively destroy a building is by wrecking its foundation, and the foundation of mankind's family is the first made human-the male-man.

So if the foundation is faulty, the rest of the house will come tumbling down. Millions of women have suffered because Satan has always known that the male was the secret to the home. That's why the devil will try to keep the husband away from his wife. He will send the husband off or tempt him to abandon his wife and family. Why? Because as long as the male is not in place, the house is in despair. The mismanagement of the male factor is the source of our family crisis.

Over the years as I have counseled families I have learned that if you want to heal the family, you must reach the man. Women are often the first to make their family problems known. But the answer for healing lies in the man of the home, because he is the foundation of the family.

Yah gave the male all the instructions because He wanted the male to be the responsible manager and head of the home. Head does not mean "boss"; it means "the one who is responsible." When you are in charge of something it doesn't mean you created it; it means you are responsible for the management of it. If your home falls apart, as a male you are responsible for it. It is in this way that Adam was responsible for his family. But Adam stood there and watched as Eve fell prey to the tempter's snares. He should have stood up for his assignment and commanded the serpent to leave.

The man is responsible for sustaining whatever comes out of him. This is why the Bible never tells the wife to support or sustain the husband. It consistently instructs the husband to sustain the wife.

The Transfer Of Responsibility

Adam didn't sustain his wife; he irresponsibly neglected his position of leadership. Satan was then able to creep in and negotiate with Eve, thus successfully tempting her.

 But it wasn't Eve that Satan was after. He was after the foundation of the human race-Adam. Wait, you say, Satan went after Eve. Oh, really? Let's look carefully at what the Bible says in Genesis 3:6.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

When Eve picked the fruit-nothing happened. When she ate the fruit-nothing happened. When she swallowed the fruit- nothing happened. So, when the woman sinned-nothing happened.

But then the Bible says she took the fruit and gave it to her husband, who was the foundation. And when Adam ate of it, death and all of mankind's mortal judgments entered in.

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

-GENESIS 3:6-7, EMPHASIS ADDED

When Adam ate the fruit, suddenly everything fell apart. Death entered in. Their purity and holiness were gone.

But the LORD Yah called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

-GENESIS 3:9-11

Please note, Yah did not ask for Eve. He asked for Adam. Yeh Demanded accountability in His questioning of Adam, just as He questions us today when we fall down in life: "Did you do what I told you not to do, Adam?" "Did you do what I told you to do, Robert?" Yah makes a demand on the delegated responsibility He gives to His children. He wants to know if we have obeyed His directives or if we did our own thing. If we obey, there will be no need to run and hide.

Today, all men and women outside of Hamachiach are hiding in fear from God. So are many Hebrews who are mismanaging their daily affairs. When most people break the law, they hide from authority as Adam did. Have you ever run a red light, then quickly glanced in the rearview mirror to see if a policeman saw you? When you broke the law-even if it was through oversight-what did you do? You checked for an authority. Fear came upon you. When you fail to keep the law, you condemn yourself. Yah never asked Adam if he was afraid. Adam volunteered the information before Yah Questioned him on his obedience: "Did you eat from the tree, Adam? All this time I have been coming into the Garden you have never hidden from Me. You never ran. Yet all of a sudden you are afraid. Did you act irresponsibly?"

It was then, when Adam started blaming everyone but himself, that the spirit of irresponsibility and blame entered the human race. "The man said, `The woman you put here with me- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it"' (Gen. 3:12).

Not only had Adam neglected to establish and uphold God's "No Trespassing" command, but after he watched Eve, Adam transferred the responsibility for his fruit-eating decision to the woman, who had offered the fruit. "God, the woman You gave me... remember, it was You who gave her to me ... she gave me the fruit. And because You gave her to me, and she gave me the fruit,both of you-NOT ME-are responsible for my decisions and actions!"

Now, if the woman had knocked him out, shoved the fruit in his mouth, pushed it down his esophagus into his stomach and made sure it got digested, then he could say she was responsible. But she didn't; it was Adam's choice.

I see people go to restaurants, eat all they can and then ask for a diet soda. I wonder, Why drink a diet soda? You've already stuffed yourself. It seems as if they're saying all that food jumped off the plate into their stomachs without their permission, so they're going to punish that food by giving it a diet soda.

Responsibility is a serious issue, but it's transferred too easily. "The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (v. 12). Adam even shifted the blame to God. In essence he was saying to God, "Why did You have to give her to me, God? Everything would have been OK if You had left things as they were. Now look what You've both done to me!" This pathetic transfer of responsibility has echoed throughout the human race for thousands of years since.

The Blame Game

Yah told Adam to be the dominator of the earth. When Adam failed in that responsibility, his first reaction was to blame someone else. Ever since that day, man has transferred blame to someone else. All of us are professional blamers. No one wants to take responsibility for his actions, decisions, situations or circumstances. We blame others for our predicaments. Americans have ridiculous " Blame Game " television shows, on which the most abominable people appear a n d blame everyone but themselves for their miserable mistakes.

Today, more than ever, we are experts at blaming the past for our present. We are experts at blaming our parents for our habits. We are experts at blaming our preachers for our ignorance. Those of us who can't work algebra blame the educational system. When we had an opportunity to learn, we quit school or played hooky. Now we're algebra-ignorant, and we blame the teachers for our ignorance.

We love to blame sickness (instead of our poor judgment and eating habits) for our health problems. We eat poorly for thirty years, get high blood pressure and blame the devil because we don't feel well.

We blame our children for social problems. We say, "The youth do this, and the youth do that." But whose youth are they? If we as irresponsible adults produce irresponsible children, how can we blame our children for the problems in society? They are our children. So if our children are rotten fruit, we are the rotten trees from which they came.

We blame cigarettes and the tobacco companies for our cancer. I was shocked to hear a news story recently in which a woman sued a tobacco company because she acquired cancer through smoking their product. I can't understand that. She decided to smoke. She sucked that stuff into her lungs and got cancer all by herself. She chose to suck cancerettes when she was a teenager-she decided to do it! No company came to her door, tied her up and jammed a cigarette in her mouth!

Yet she cried, "The tobacco manufacturer made the cigarette, and now look at me. It's all their fault!" How can someone who has the power of choice-the ability to refuse to smoke-remove the responsibility from herself and put it on the company that manufactured the product? Ask Adam! What an irresponsible lawsuit. And there are many other legal blame-game suits today in which the actions of the plaintiff are responsible for his or her own damage.

I've never seen a cigarette walk up to a guy and say, "Hey, buddy, smoke me." It's a decision that we make. Tobacco plants aren't the problem. The spirit of irresponsibility is what causes us to transfer our negative experience to the plant. If we could only get rid of that filthy plant, we say, then we could solve the nicotine problem. But the plant is not responsible for the problem. The human heart is the problem.

A drunk may blame the company, store or tavern that sold him the alcohol for his alcohol addiction. Yet if this same man never took a drink, he never would have become an alcoholic. It's amazing how alcohol jumps out of a bottle into a person's stomach. Some people spend twenty years guzzling the stuff, and finally end up in the doctor's office to get their liver fixed.

Then they blame the doctor and sue him for malpractice when he fails.

How many men have been unfaithful and completely irresponsible with their families-then blame their wives' poor cooking for her grouchiness? Listen, brother, if she is grouchy, it is your fault because you have been a bad husband. Don't blame your wife for your irresponsibility.

Many men blame their wives for their waywardness.They say, "If you don't treat me right, I'll run around." And when they do, it's all their wife's fault. "She didn't do this right, or this enough. . . " And the reality of the situation is that the man allowed the spirit of irresponsibility to lure him away from his own responsibility, and he destroyed the foundation of his home.

Irresponsibility is freedom's deadliest enemy. People in every walk of life and from every ethnic background fall prey to it. Black people blame White people for their problems, just as White people blame Black people. The poor blame the rich. Citizens blame their government for unemployment. But can a government stop us from being productive if it allows the free choice of its people? So instead of waiting for the government to supply a job, why don't we use the brains between our ears? Yah gave us each five billion brain cells. It doesn't matter if you live in the ghetto of a Third World country. Even if the people in power are trying to restrict your productivity, one thing they can never do is rob you of your ability to think. When you submit your mind to Yah and put on your management cap, He will give you abilities, creative ideas and concepts that will astound your countrymen.

The government's job is not to provide employment.The Bible says government's function is to carry the sword of protection so the righteous can be productive.(See Romans 13:3-4; 1 Timothy 2:1-2.) Yah expects us to be in an environment where we can be productive without having to depend on the government to provide us with jobs.

The criminal blames society for his behavior. The homosexual blames his or her hormones for their perversion. Citizens blame their representatives for their nation's corruption. But if leaders are corrupt in a democratic republic,the people are at fault because they voted them into power. We produce after our kind.

We are experts at blaming our leaders. If your leader is blind, don't fall in his muddy hole and ask, "Why did you lead me here?" Don't blame the leader for the way you follow him; just stop following him.

How many people say they aren't going to be a Hebrew because they have seen too many hypocrites? So the sinner blames the hypocritical preacher for his own personal damnation. But blaming one's damnation to hell on a hypocritical preacher is foolish and irresponsible, because Yah never tells anyone to follow a hypocritical preacher. He tells us to follow Yahusha. We must be responsible for following Him.

LETS TAKE CHARGE OF OUR LIVES

A new day has dawned for the twenty-first-century believer and for every human to rise up to the task of taking our responsibility. So many people have become lazy because of the charismatic faith message that contends that if we say a certain prayer, Yah must "ante up"regardless of whether we are managing our assignment properly or not. Divorce is running rampant, and many are being told that simple ministry attendance will make them rich. But Yah isn't making pew-sitting, faith movement people rich because many have been mismanaging God's affairs in the home and on the job. Yah is not a game show host with a jackpot prize for religious contestants.

Yah is saying, "Irresponsibility is freedom's greatest enemy. Get back to responsibility. Men, take your place in the home. Manage My affairs and serve equally with your wife in My organizational structure. Organize your family according to My Word, and then increase your garden spot throughout the earth."

No matter what has happened in the past, we can take charge of our futures right now. Today is a new season of responsibility in which Yah is saying to each of us, whether you are poor, Black, White, rich, Indian-no matter who or where you are-"Stop blaming the system.Stop blaming the authorities. Stop blaming your parents.Stop blaming your pastor. Stop blaming your past. Get your act together, and become responsible managers, because this is God's will for you."

We can't change the past, but we can determine the quality of our future. We might not like the family into which we were born, but we sure can determine the kind of home in which we rear our children. The responsible choice is always ours, and when we choose to obey the ways of God, when we choose to nurture and obey His perfect spot of salvation in our hearts to replenish and fill the earth, He will back us up. The spirit of oppression produces the spirit of irresponsibility. Freedom demands responsibility.

Freedom-understanding its principles and the costs involved in irresponsibly mismanaging it-is what life is truly all about. In the next few chapters we are going back to the children of Israel's infamous days in the wilderness to examine the difference between deliverance and freedom from God's point of view. Let's begin by taking a closer look at how important it is to learn to manage the freedom that Yah wants each of us to experience in our own life.

Today, more than ever, we are experts at blaming the past for our present.

IRRESPONSIBILITY: FREEDOMS DEADLIEST ENEMY

1. The entire world is suffering under the destructive influence of an irresponsible humanity.

2. Work is not a curse.

3. This is management-maximizing the resources under your care.

4. The best way to keep people poor is to restrict their fruitfulness or productivity and to make sure they can't duplicate what they produce.

5. The mismanagement of the male factor is the source of our family crisis.

6. Today, more than ever, we are experts at blaming the past for our present.

7. Irresponsibility is freedom's deadliest enemy.