Stiff Neck..:(

Yup that's right. For the 5th time within the last two years I have managed to some how give myself what most people would call a stiff neck, also known as a major pain in my neck in the physical and literal sense of the terms. It's a muscle spasm that won't away, limits your peripheral vision, makes you a robot of sorts and drives you absolutely crazy. So needless to say having a stiff neck in the physical sense is at minimum not fun at all and at the opposite extreme completely debilitating and demoralizing. 


So how can this be applied to us spiritually, after all the purpose of this blog is to offer some spiritual refreshment in the middle of the day no matter what the season, even a stiff necked season. 


What better way to find out the spiritual significance than to look to the Bible... so I did a search for verses in the Bible reference a stiff neck. Depending on the translation, you get roughly 15-20 results of verses that reference a stiff neck in relation to to rebelliousness and stubbornness of God's people, the children of Israel. Actually though, we are the same in nature as they are and we should have no trust in ourselves. Rather we need to continually come to the Lord and receive Him into our being. And for this we need some flexible, pliable, supportive necks that match our Head. 


So what exactly are the functions of the neck anyway? We don't really think about these things until it it stops functioning in the proper way. But for the most part the neck...

• Attaches the head to the trunk, or the rest of the body. (Wow...very significant if you look at in from the perspective of the Body of Christ. The neck is what connects the head, Christ, to the body, the church.)
• Supports the head and facilitates its movements (also significant, since without the neck the body can't move or support the head. God needs us for His move.)
• It is a conduit for: the respiratory, digestive and nervous system (That means our neck can affect our breathing, eating, feeling/sensitivity.)
• It accommodates the larynx, endocrine glands (It also affects our speaking and proper growth.)
• Conducts arteries, veins and lymphatics to/from the body to/from the head (Finally, it affects the circulation and fellowship of the body to the head and the head to the body)

I know I could be totally off in these things, but I think there may be something here. (The Lord cover me. I'm not preaching this as a doctrine or anything.) However, it does seem to me that our spiritual "neck" so to speak is very much related to our relationship with Christ our head and the His body, all the other believers on the earth. What we need in our spiritual life is a neck that is beautiful and flexible. This is a matter of our transformed (or our being transformed as we speak) will, which is submissive and obedient to the Lord. If we have such a will, there will be no pain for the Head or the Body...and wouldn't that be nice? I can't really remember, where I got this stuff, but I'm hoping that it is something that has been constituted into me from the ministry of our dear brother Witness Lee. Anyway...may the Lord soften our "necks" for His purpose and my physical neck also, unless it is working out something for His purpose.