Here in Texas you notice sky first! There is space between thoughts and people. That’s its strength and shadow. A high contrast place. Bold and beautiful. Nice to observe it on the way in. Clearly a leader-a big picture place.
The land teaches you that you are part of a bigger story, a grand narrative. And if you want to be Adam or Eve in it, you need to show up! Behold, be humble yourself, and know.
The sky is enormous here. First character you notice. The sky breaks through into every conversation-it’s endless with possible outcomes. A unique context to consider life within.
The native Americans felt the sky as father. Makes sense here. A long reaching view space. Long term, long horn i.e. Big authority, Peace considering from Being space. A father creator spirituality. A view on the coming storms. You can see a storm coming from fifty miles here, and consider its velocity, its pace, its potential impact.
Where I grew up you have crescendoes and a domed sky, not endless horizons; here you have operatic thunderstorms, history rolling in, present distance-Big gestures of being. No way to ignore it. The sky is humbling here.
In England, and where I grew up, you are just where you’re at, the local tells of the grandeur-the tiny reveals the whole; here,you are in the vast sweep, the endless dome of being. The rolling thunder of history-Texas, still.
“When a father is quiet at the end of the night, a whole house sleeps!”

In the spirit of Jeremiah, having to repeatedly re-write his prophecies…
I want to do a really short version of a teaching which took me three years to download. The order of cities conquered in the book of Joshua are a prophetic map for how God wants to come into and cultivate us, is also the order and nature of our own personal sanctification process.
First city, Jericho was guarded by the enemy of prostitution. The second city, the enemy was our own soul plans versus God’s perfect plan (basically, idolatry that is lifting out soul and it’s ideas above His Spirit (sin of the enlightenment); in the third, Ai, we have friendly fire. Confusion coming in from those close to us.

Whose voice do we trust? Our Shepherd or those around us–to what degree do we need to approval of man to proceed in spiritual growth? In each, we get God’s strategy of inhabiting the spiritual lands we are meant to be and ultimately cultivating; and we have the order of enemy plans against each claiming and cultivating those specific lands. The book of Joshua is a map for our times in so many ways–both internally and externally.

Crossing the Jordan of death to self, we enter the place of partnership with occupying and cultivating, unifying and harvesting, the lands meant to be our inheritance in Christ. It is a guidebook to unity, within and without. And there are battles throughout, for each new territory in ourselves and our world.
It starts with the priest artist doing the symbol actions which tell the whole story, and proceeds with the labor of love for each new aspect of the land.
What we have is a map of how God actually does sanctification. And we have a map of how He is still doing it in our times. There is a order to cities, and an order of how to overcome the enemies guarding each city.
In the art world, for instance there is the enemies of prostitution, witchcraft and sorcery. This is consistent across time. One of these comes against artist and tries to destroy or in inhibit or annihilate them. The ways of these three enemies are clearly spelled out in scripture. And we are asked to move in His Ways against them.