Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long with lessons in the latter days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we're living in. Recently, I held a spiritual intelligence briefing in my area, exploring the topic, how close are we to the kingdom? And I opened it up to the public.

We had no idea who would show up or the kind of response we might have. The attendance far exceeded my expectations and I was encouraged by the response. This 60-minute briefing was divided into six sections.

First, I talked about the 40-year journey that God asked me to take to prepare to become an end times navigator. Never would I have imagined this as a key part of my life's mission. Number two, I gave the audience some self-discovery exercises so they could see how genetically wired they are to hear with spiritual ears.

Number three, I shared a few keys that I have learned over the years in how God speaks because he does not communicate like you and I do. Number four, the bulk of the teaching centered on understanding God's timetable from the perspective of Jewish doctrine that's been in existence for thousands of years.

Next, I listed the seven signs that I see coming before the day of the Lord. And finally, I listed seven ways that we can get ready. Now, this in-person briefing was an important shift for me because typically I hole up in my writer's cave and I spend time alone, researching, writing, and producing.

But what made this special was interacting with a live audience to actually see how my teaching is being received. In general, the comments that I got were that people were blown away, and the question I kept getting was, why is your teaching so different? Which is the title of this episode.

Listeners often write me asking how do you study? Where do you get this insight? Why is your teaching different? Trust me, it is not that I'm that smart, but I believe I have tapped into a different curriculum that the majority of Christians do not know about.

In a moment, I'll tell you more about that curriculum. But first, for those who have been listening to my teaching for a while now, I feel the need to explain another attribute that makes up who I am, and it is this attribute that makes my teaching different.

I hear differently from others. Now, if you were to ask people who have known me a long time, they will tell you that I am different. I'm not like other people. Now, this sounds kind of out there and nebulous, so let me try to bring it down to earth. This ability to hear with spiritual ears is a God-given gift that lives on the right side of the brain.

Regarding this gift of hearing, Jesus said over and over, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." This was a command. He wasn't talking about physical ears. He was talking to those who had spiritual ears tuned to God's frequency. And he was saying to them, listen carefully because what I'm about to say can be perceived on a whole other level if you can hear it.

Now, not everyone has this wiring. As you can imagine, it is a tremendous gift. But those who do have it are often criticized, made fun of, and dismissed as useless. Jesus had this ability in spades and it defined his teaching style.

In John 7, we find Jesus teaching in the temple and John wrote, "The Jews marveled at his teaching, saying, 'How is it that this man has learning when he has never studied?'" So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If any man's will is to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority."

The word used for teaching is the word translated doctrine. Jesus was basically saying, "My doctrine, the body of material that forms my teaching, is not mine." He was teaching God's doctrine, his father's curriculum.

How did he learn it? He heard it through spiritual ears while spending hours and hours off by himself with the Father. Jesus was sent to impart instruction to mankind about things that had not yet been revealed.

That same ability to hear the Father with spiritual ears has been given to us in varying degrees. Some people are more genetically wired with this gifting to hear than others. The good news is that we can grow in this ability when we learn to use what we have.

The people who have this gifting, I call creatives. A creative is somebody who is genetically wired to hear things other people do not hear. For me, these things come as downloads, words, ideas, business strategies, or an inner knowing.

I knew very little about ideas when I began working in the business sector, for I had always been in the creative arts as a performer, a songwriter, and broadcast producer. Having someone actually pay me for ideas was a turning point in my career.

Early on I became conscious of the need to be able to distinguish one idea from another, namely to tell the difference between a good idea and a great one. And later on I became more adept at telling the difference between a great idea and an inspired one or a God idea.

It was in the early 1980s when I had my first God idea. I describe it as a conceptual tsunami that involved my mind as well as my body. It was as if a wave of light rushed into my being. And while it was happening, I had an inner knowing that this was a life-changing idea for me.

Now I say for me, because to someone else that idea may have been a passing thought, but to me, the idea was very real and very personal. Now this gift can be overwhelming when all of a sudden during this outpouring of internal light, you just see something. You know it deep in your core, and the vision of that thing becomes crystal clear, and you see the end from the beginning, which is a God attribute that the prophet Isaiah describes in Chapter 46.

It is that big picture where all the pieces fall into place aptitude that we find in entrepreneurs and visionaries. Interestingly, scientists even have a name for this experience because they can actually monitor and observe the neurotransmitters light up in the brain when a creative experiences this type inspiration. They call it bursts of neural activity.

Now, as you can imagine, this is a tremendous gift and needs to be understood and harnessed. But ironically, God gave this gift primarily to people who are not mainstream, who are different and reclusive, used to being regarded as just out there and having nothing of significance to offer.

Now, the gift comes with many dangers, too, because it can be threatening to those who don't have it. A large part of my calling has been to chronicle what it means to walk in the creative's gifting. One of my aha moments came in 2008 when I was in a very challenging MBA program.

I read about an innovation symposium on campus and I decided to squeeze it into my studies. After all, I had been an arts professional since 1970. Hearing inspired ideas and bringing those visions to life was my way of life.

So I slipped into this innovation think tank only to find 15 or so men gathered around a conference table. As the only woman, I took a seat next to one of my brilliant left-brain professors. He looked surprised and he said, "Candace, what are you doing here?" I said, "Innovation and creativity are my thing. What are you doing here?"

So over the next hour, I listened to these brilliant, accomplished business leaders and thinkers wrestle with the corporate demand for innovation and creativity, looking for how they could meet this need at the university.

At the end of the lecture, I raised my hand. I asked, "I am part of two women's groups filled with gifted, creative women. Women in Film and Television and the National League of American Pen Women, the nation's oldest organization for creative women. Do you ever advertise your need for creative thinkers to groups like ours?"

There was a long, awkward silence. Finally, the leader responded and he said, "Well, to be quite honest, I'm afraid we don't know how to manage you." Now, hearing that statement alone was worth the entire MBA tuition. Right then, I had an epiphany. That means I had an inspired download concerning two things I believe were on God's heart.

First, creative women are desperately needed in corporate America to hear with their right-brain aptitudes the ideas from heaven that can help today's businesses. And secondly, left-brain managers need to understand how to harness a creative's strengths and the contributions that we can make.

My latest book chronicles the 40-year journey to understand this creative gifting. It's called The Ancient Path to Creativity and Innovation. This would be a key book for you business leaders out there to help you recognize creatives that might be on your payroll, just waiting for somebody to recognize what they can bring to your company.

You see, God created both halves of the brain to work together. Both reflect his nature. Both are needed. But here's the three-point difference between left-brain thinkers and right-brain thinkers. Number one, the left brain is sequential, step one, step two, whereas the right brain is simultaneous.

Number two, the left brain analyzes details. The right brain sees the big picture. Number three, the left brain values reason, data, science. The right brain values revelation. Let me show you how you can see these differences in a business setting.

We had 45 people in our MBA class and we all sat in the same seats. Two left-brain men sat right in front of me. They did not get me and I did not get them. In fact, there became an adversarial sort of relationship between us, especially with one of them whom I'll call Philip.

One day our class had a breakout team assignment to analyze a Harvard Business Review case involving a company who designed and manufactured microwaves and yet they were losing money. Unfortunately, Philip and I were assigned to be on the same team.

He took the lead in our analysis and began proposing ways that the company could lower the manufacturing cost. His total focus was how to cut expenses and improve the bottom line. I took my typical observer posture and I waited for the ideas to kick in. You see, I was waiting for the revelation of an inspired idea.

And suddenly it came. I raised my hand and Philip gave me this look that said, "Now what could you possibly have to add?" I said, "I believe that one key problem this company has is that the engineers have not had the benefit of findings from women's focus groups." He shot back, "What have women have to do with this?"

With everything in me, I remained calm and I answered, "Women are the ones who buy microwaves. Engineers need to know what they're looking for. For example, one thing that would appeal to women today is a microwave that will cook meals in a hurry and yet maintain the nutritional value of the food."

Philip was quiet the rest of the meeting. He came up to me later and he said, "You know, you really brought something to the discussion I would never have thought of. And the more I thought about it, my wife would buy that kind of microwave." By graduation, he and I had developed a mutual respect for each other's differences.

Now, my life as a creative deeply affects how I teach because what I hear in my times with the Lord are things that others may not hear. Let me give you an insight from a recent Torah study that uncovered a hidden curriculum that the majority of Christians do not know about and a curriculum that by the grace of God, I believe I have tapped into.

As you may recall, around 2005, the Lord led me to study Judaism and begin honoring the Sabbath. Now, this was a huge decision in my life. I didn't know what that meant, but I was willing to learn. Each Sabbath is devoted to studying what's called the parashah, which is the section of the Torah assigned for that Sabbath.

And when you follow the parashah every week, you end up studying the entire Torah every year. Now, the portion of the Torah we're studying right now is the first five chapters of Genesis. The concept of the Sabbath is introduced to us in Genesis 2. The Torah reads, "The heavens and the earth and all of their hosts were completed. And on the seventh day, God abstained from all the work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it because on it God abstained from all his work which he had done in creating the world."

I want to dive a little deeper into this verse. First, it says the heavens and the earth were completed, meaning that nothing new was created after the first six days. Now, the sages explained that heaven and earth stood before us in their final intended state of harmonious perfection, and it was then that God proclaimed his Sabbath.

Now, the Sabbath is a whole day. It's a 24-hour period from Friday at sundown through the daylight hours of Saturday. And it is saturated with purpose. It is not just a day to be a couch potato and watch TV.

The Torah states that God sanctified this day or he set it apart from all the others. He hallowed it, he made it holy, and he blessed it because on the Sabbath, he abstained from all his work. Now what does that mean to abstain from his work? Because whatever God did on that day, he wants us to do.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for abstain is the word Shabbat. God rested, he Shabbatted from physical creation. But the rabbis explained that he created the spiritual universe that comes into being every Sabbath. Now, listen carefully to what this means.

When the Sabbath comes, a whole other world can be accessed. It is a spiritual world. And this is the world when God shows up and personally instructs his people in the Torah, which is his divine curriculum.

On the Sabbath, there is an anointing and an impartation for Torah revelation. This is what God built into this day. This is what I was referring to when I said that I noticed a whole new level of understanding once I began to honor the day that God set apart, the Sabbath.

I literally and spiritually entered into another realm of curriculum. I began to hear God's revelation as I studied the Torah in ways I had never experienced. And when I began in 2005, I had walked closely with the Lord for 36 years by then.

So I was not a baby Christian. I was seasoned in the word or so I thought. The rabbis explained that the world of the Sabbath is far above that of the previous six days, but they are not separate from each other.

Now, this may sound confusing, but the understanding is that the bridge between the mundane and the sacred, between the weekdays and the Sabbath, the bridge is man. It is us. Adam and Eve were created last just before the Sabbath because only man has the intelligence and wisdom to bring the holiness of the Sabbath into the activities of the work week.

Now follow me with this next part because it is insightful. You see, there is a difference between the word God used for completed as referring to the heavens and the earth, and the word abstained, which is what God did on the seventh day.

Completed indicates being absolutely finished with something. The word abstain on the other hand suggests that the work was interrupted. It was adjourned but not ended. This tells us there is always more to do, but that man must abstain or rest from his creative work when the Sabbath arrives.

Now, this is a key spiritual discipline that lifts us from being battered all week and raises us up into the school of Ruach Hakodesh, or Holy Spirit, being instructed by God himself. On the Sabbath, we are to be engaged in Torah study and in personally bringing matters of our work week before the Father, searching out his wisdom.

Inevitably, I end up taking a couple of short naps on the Sabbath because I am so heavy with what I'm learning, I have to go lie down. This is the universe and the curriculum of the Sabbath as God designed it. What I teach is the outflow of having spent every Sabbath all day before the Lord.

It is his day, and he and I discuss things very deeply regarding what's happening in these days, and he gives me insight from his word on the perspective that I need. It takes time to sift thoughts and concepts and truly understand something.

That is the Sabbath. An interruption of the work week for an infusion of God's curriculum. Now, I understand that most Christians think of Sunday as their Sabbath. I can only tell you I know the Bible to be true. The true Sabbath where God teaches his children his curriculum is on Saturday.

That is the day he has sanctified. Let me challenge you to put him to the test by honoring his day as he designed. Let him show you how he teaches. If you are looking for practical instruction on how to reconnect with our Jewish roots, I want you to take a look at my 17-page monograph called Jewish Roots: God's Call to Reconnect.

Now, I'm not suggesting you quit your church. I simply want to prepare you for the kingdom, which is Jewish. I wrote this monograph to explain why Christianity split from Judaism and all that the Father is doing now through the spirit of Elijah to stir up his children to return to the faith of our forefathers.

This PDF offers helpful direction in how to begin honoring the Sabbath, and your purchase helps me continue to do what I do. I'll put a link to this monograph in the description notes. If you are interested in watching the recorded version of the spiritual intelligence briefing on how close are we, which includes the seven things I see coming and the seven ways we can get ready, I'll also put a link to this recording.

It contains a lot of insight that came directly from my Sabbath curriculum. To get these resources, you go to CandaceLong.com/podcasts and click on this episode, "Why Is Your Teaching So Different?" In the program notes, you'll find links to the monograph, the 60-minute webinar, and my book on creativity and innovation. I want to thank you so much for being with me today. I hope you join me again next time for lessons in the latter days. God bless.