Isaiah, Jesus, and Whatevermike

I read. I listen. I compare. Hmm. What are the meanings of their messages? Can one discern?

Whose messages?

Isaiah, the Prophet, as he “hears the word of the Lord,” Jesus, the Christ, as He hears the word of the Lord through Isaiah, and Whatevermike, as he hears the word and anti-words of another god.

Ahh. I have distinguished already differing deities. If the messages are from the one and same “god,” then we will interpret the meaning and consider applications differently than we would if the messages are sourced in separate “gods.”

Where is this world headed? Who is at the helm?

I am currently reading the book of Isaiah. During the season leading up to Resurrection Sunday, I was nourished by the New Testament gospels. Isaiah lived probably 700 years before Christ. His writings, ancient to the Son of Man (but not to the I AM of John 8:58), present Christ’s calling card:

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor” (Isaiah 61:1-2a; compare to Luke 4:19-20).

How privileged we are to have the Scriptures, to be able to read them and hear them taught. I have not been sheltered from the Bible. God’s Word has not been canceled from my sight or hearing. But the Word has been sidelined in our society, as you well know.  In the public square it has been ridiculed, maligned, disdained, and largely rejected. Yet, its voice is not extinguished. Like invisible sound waves, its truths penetrate, rumbling beneath our feet.

What is the spirit of this age? Whose spirit is upon whom?

While working in my kitchen on Tuesday morning, April 12, I listened for a little while to a talk radio show and heard a jarring but significant social media recording which was about one minute long.  I had to look up the source. I needed to verify it. I knew this (the worldview, the force, the persons) must be faced and addressed from every place and angle within the church and society. “People need the Lord,” as Psalm 40:17 reminds us. The recording is from a post on TikTok from a site called @whatevermike. I typed out the text as follows (adding some punctuation for clarity; the text was under the face of the speaker):

“Y’all really wanna try to say there aren’t trans kids. Let me tell you what there aren’t. There aren’t CIS kids, okay. Hey, you telling your child, oh you’re a boy, you’re a girl; this is a child. This is a free spirit that has not learned any of that @## but you forced it on them. So Cisness is the wound. Cisness is the delusion. Cisness is the lie. Cisness is the place of pain. Transness is the healing. Transness is the growth. Transness is the truth. Transness is what we actually are. We are fluid. We are 70% water. We are God. God is change. God is trans. We are trans. You are forcing your kids to be boys and girls. We’re saying be whatever you are, baby. Be free. Be water. Be light. Be sky. Be god. Because, guess what? That’s what we actually are. What we actually are is trans, is change, is love. We’re not the ones doing the forcing.” A  chime, probably from a phone is heard in the background, so Whatevermike concludes, “And see, god chiming just on time.” *

Compare the spirit of Jesus (Isaiah 61: 1-2a; Luke 4:19-20) to the spirit of Whatevermike.

Could “spirits” clash any more than these? What is Whatevermike’s religion? His god? What is his world? Who does he follow? What is the source of his energy and his claims? How does he evangelize?

Jesus made His source, calling, and purpose clear that Sabbath day in Nazareth in the synagogue when He stood to read from the Isaiah scroll:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).

Stopping in the middle of a sentence, Jesus closed the book/scroll. With all eyes fixed on Jesus, he explained, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).

Let it be true in our day: the Spirit’s transformative healing through Christ.

Christ followers are “trans” of a different kingdom — the transformation of being changed, grace by grace, to be like Christ. Jesus calls us His friends (John 15:12-15). We are called sons of God (Rom. 8:12-13; Gal. 4:7). We are also the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:25; Rev. 21:9). Friends, sons, and the bride: he, she, they. This is true trans.

“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,

are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory….”

II Corinthians 3:18 

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed

by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —

His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:2

Trans. Be transformed. Reborn. Then shaped  little by little, painfully so, like a woman in labor, so that Christ will be formed in us (Galatians 4:19).  Nothing is more worth it. (For what would you trade your soul?) This is the hardest but the loveliest, handsomest, most satisfying trans life.

We will continue this deep and heavy theme in the coming posts.

Remember that prayers to the Lord are needed, and comments on JNC are welcomed!

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* I found the TikTok short video on YouTube inside a Glenn Beck video posted on Tuesday, April 12. I’m not going to link it here but if you want to look it up, Glenn’s 14 minute clip in which Whatevermike’s clip is presented is entitled “How we can force Bud Light (& others) to end its Woke Trash.” My interest is not in the Bud Light hubbub, but you’ll find the @Whatevermike clip at 8 minutes and 56 seconds into this segment. It is about one minute long.