Desert wisdom bears living witness, in the Spirit, to ineffable returning in Christ, who is from God and to God he is returning. Christ names the Name from God, and imparts the Name for our returning. Coming forth from the Father, Christ bears witness that he and the Father are one (John 10:30). Returning to the Father, he bears witness that the Father is greater than he (John 14:28). Johannine ‘I AM’ sayings with predicates like, ‘I AM the way, the truth and the life,’ (John 14:6), impart names from God for returning to God. ‘I AM’ sayings without predicates, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM,’ (John 8:58), unveil the Name from God, to return to God above all names. Light from light with predicates supports light returning to glory beyond predicates, communicating the divine-human Name of grace, proceeding from saving theophany to hallowing christophany.
For the Fourth Gospel, Christ is both truly divine and truly human. At its heart, the Beloved Disciple bears clear witness in the Spirit that Christ and his mysteries are wholly divine and wholly human. The Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and abides in the Son, returns in union with the Son to restore all glory, wholly divine and wholly human, to the Father. Prophecy in the desert is witness to ineffable proceeding and returning, purification of the heart through uncreated illumination proceeding to deification in uncreated glory. Distinguishing the generation of the Son from the procession of the Spirit, prophecy and prayer bear witness in the Son and in the Spirit to the profound meaning of ineffable returning, ‘from God to God,’ prophecy by communicating the Word that names the Name, prayer by assimilating the mysteries of the Name as glorification in the awakened heart.
Ineffable returning mirrors the Spirit’s proceeding. The Spirit proceeds from the Father to abide in the Son, so that in union with the Son, ineffable returning may restore all glory to the Father. In the Spirit, grace from the Father initiates returning by grace through the Son. Abiding with the Spirit in the Son, ineffable returning restores all glory to the Father. Proceeding and returning are the Spirit’s gift through the Only-begotten Son, communicated from God to sustain glorification of God. Holy Trinity inspires Thrice Holy Name hallowing to initiate ineffable returning, wisdom embracing incompleteness with glory’s all-embracing completeness. The procession and return of the Spirit give prophecy its inspired, dynamic energy and prayer its profound efficacy, working mysteries of ineffable glory in the Name. The Spirit’s unceasing prayer in the heart rescues, ransoms, releases and restores as it returns, just as the Spirit’s prophetic witness pierces hardness of heart, rescuing, ransoming, releasing and restoring as wisdom returns from God to God with efficacious, deifying power. Desert teaching on the Kingdom of God lives from God and returns to God, extinguishing all idolatrous, oppressive confusions in favour of wholistic, all-embracing union, ineffable communion returning as it restores and releases into ineffable completeness.
Desert prophecy employs throne symbolism to explain ineffable returning, the energy of deifying glory turning all idolatrous God substitutes and oppressive power structures inside out, empowering the desert to live out of the liberating sovereignty of the revelatory Name. Throne symbolism in desert prophecy exposes fake gods and demonic powers, often at great cost, sometimes redeeming with red martyrdom, more usually releasing with white. Desert theophany was always a truly costly christophany, uniting holy autonomy with hallowing theonomy. There was a hidden seed of theocratic democracy in the desert, challenging all idolatrous human autocracies, whether political or ecclesiastical. The Name ‘I AM,’ who is, who was and who is forever coming, liberates awareness to be aware of glorifying presence. Ineffable returning is liberating rescue and redeeming release. Coming from the Father, freedom returns freely in freedom to the Father. The Father turns out to be the Alpha of the liberating Name from God as well as the Omega of ineffable returning and release.
The desert centres, here, in the Name, the revelatory Name of the Father, but generation and procession do not go out from God and get lost in dissipating dispersion; they return, restoring all glory in Christ to the Father. Desert wisdom is mysteriously circular in this respect, as well as in others, although these mysteries transcend all human, created analogies. Wisdom’s hallowing polemic exposes all addictive God-substitutes, freeing the heart for liberating rescue and release. It is misunderstood if it is reified and deifying wrath is divorced from love. The Name ‘I AM’ exposes all fake gods, vainglory with the vanity of vanities they spawn, undoing false mystification to initiate mystical awakening, hallowing mysteries of wisdom and glory in the Name.
Prophecy in the desert safely unveils Emmanuel, God with us, directing awareness back into unfathomable presence, unveiling presence of God’s glory in the midst. The Name renews creation by undoing confusion to heal separation, bearing witness to liberating restoration of all things in God. When idolatrous confusion reigns, hallowing communion is driven away, so oppressive division sets in. Desert wisdom cuts through division, which is diabolical delusion, leaping right over mountains of fixated separation and divisive control. Prophecy purifies the heart for the Spirit’s unceasing prayer in the heart, the emancipating mysteries of illumination and glorification. When heaven descends to earth in the covenant dispensation of the Name, the desert welcomes it by hallowing the Name on earth, as the Name was always hallowed in heaven. When wisdom encounters satanic inversions, she re-inverts them, restoring covenant communion. Vainglory is transformed back into deifying glory, the fruit of the Spirit’s procession and return.
The Spirit proceeds from the Father to enlighten hearts in the Son, awakening light to glory through the Son. Christ is from God and to God he is returning, in communion with the Spirit’s own unique procession and return. The Spirit is from God, revealing completeness in the midst of incompleteness, uncovering timeless presence at the heart of temporal awareness. Restoring all glory to the Father, the Spirit unveils timeless awareness in the heart of temporal presence. Christ is from God, receiving the Name from God, and returns, imparting his saving Name to us, generating ineffable release. The Spirit is from God, bearing witness to completeness, ineffably returning to God, rescuing, redeeming, restoring incomparable glory, revealing timeless completeness.