The New Creatures

Prologue

Abba had seen the end from the beginning.

He caused all His angels in the entirety of their population in the Heavens and earthly realm to share His pleasure in praise. Every angel understood what Abba had seen. They began to sing and rejoice for those who had received their redemption and salvation. For those who had remained faithful; for those who had won the battle over the flesh; for those who had sacrificed their houses, brothers, sisters, and children to follow Abba; for those who had forsaken their all to follow the right path; for those who had turned their back on all manner of evil; for those who said YES to Jesus and NO to the devil...

These were angels skilled in the playing of every manner of musical instrument known on earth – and those not yet known. This was a symphony; a marriage between the myriads of sounds from the lyre, flute, trumpet, cymbals, strings, harp, tambourine...

So great was their joy that all the spirits of all creation on the Earth praised their maker: creatures in the sea and ocean depths; wild animals and all cattle; small creatures and flying birds; lightning and hail; snow and clouds; stormy winds and rain; fruit trees, shrubs and all cedars; mountains, hills and all valleys; kings of the earth of all nations and people of all gender, age and origin gave praise as they all sang the GREAT ADORATION song:

He – the Omnipresent God

Sees through our eyes

Dazzles with our vision

Works through our minds

Meddles with our thoughts

Creates through our hands

Fiddles with our creation

Moulds through our imagination

Springs with our revelation and

Science comes forth

Emerging with technology

Like dust and ribs

Like the rainbow

He – the Omnipotent God

Creates with words

What science can’t fathom

Without the big bang theory

Performs miracles

That technology can’t decode

Like the creation in six days

Like the red sea parting

Like the rubble of the Jericho walls

Like the virginal conception of His Son

Like the earthly life of His Son

Like the death of His Son

Like the resurrection of His Son

Reels out numbers mentally

Like the number of seashore sand

Like the number of head hair

Like the number of stars

Like walking on water

Like unmuting the deaf

Like opening sight to the blind

Like enabling the lame

Like transforming impossible to possible

Fought victoriously without an army

Fed five thousand with five sandwiches

Changed era of civilisations

Through death

Through shorter life spans

Through language,

Through a forty day and night flood

Through diversity and religion

Through planned plagues and viruses

Through natural disasters

Through science and technology

Through the power in Jesus Christ’s name

Through the blood of Jesus

He – the Omniscient God

Puzzles the brains of scientific geniuses

Defies their reasoning

Undermines their theories

Baffles their intelligence

Mocks their wisdom

Dislodges their assumptions

Deflates their ballooned powers

Mystifies their understanding

Confuses their solutions

Perplexes their musings

Dissatisfies their curiosity

Unwinds their ramblings

Tampers with their findings

Teases with their dissertations

Toys with their notions

Faults their knowledge

Their concept of the Trinity

He – the Almighty Abba God

Blows their feathered confidence

Baffles their curiosity

Unnerves their conclusions

Displays their limitations

Stirs their confusion

Invokes their philosophy

Inspires their quests

Unquenches their thirst

Expands their motivation

Expends their energies

Conquers their conquests

Dissipates their strengths

Authors their talents

Probes their quests

With their carnal minds

As man battles man

to disprove the claims of God

To deny His existence

To pervert His art

To disqualify His abilities

To refute His origins

To unclaim His blessings

To forsake His ways

To destroy His credibility

To mislead generations of mankind

With their poison of

Hatred and sin of unbelief

He – Jesus, God personified, in miracle and marvel

He – God of Revelation

He – God of Redemption

He – Father, Son and Holy Spirit

He – Omnibenevolent God

He – the Creator of life and all

He – God of Heaven and Earth

He – Faithful, Holy God

He – God of Love

He – God of Glory

He – God of Salvation

He – Kings of kings, resurrected King

He – Lord of lords, Lord over death

He – Crown of Victory

He – God of Transcendence and Immanency

He – God of Goodness

He – God of Grace and Graciousness

He – God of wisdom

He – God of Truth

He – God of Praise

He – God of Mercy

He – God of Compassion

He – God of All and Everything

Your breath in every man

Your favour in Your pleasure

Your creation in Your will

Your Holy Spirit is invisible

Tremendously mighty

In stillness, power, and calm

The light of the soul

Enshrouded in Your desire

You hold mystery in your hands

You awe man with Your laughter

Like a mother coos to her amused infant

You keep the mystery of You

Unveiled and unlocked

Till time in eternity with You.

AMEN

Chapter 1

Why is your soul cast down?

Psalm 42:5

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

30-33BC

‘Eliana, I have been thinking. Let me ask you; do I not please you? What can I do?’ Lucas asked in a low tone as he rolled back to his side of their bed, feeling a sense of disappointment and frustration. He gathered his loin cloth, wondering what his wife would say in reply. Something was wrong somewhere. This was not the way he usually knew his wife to respond in their intimacy. She lay beside him on their bed, and through the wan darkness he could see that her eyes were shut. ‘Eliana, you heard me?’ He turned towards her.

Eliana had heard him. This was so unexpected! She did not understand at first what her husband had meant, and she did not want to ask. It was a delicate time of the night. She had always assumed that Christian married women were to remain silent, saintly, passive, pious and as virtuous as a virgin during the act of coitus, even if they enjoyed the experience. She believed that the more passive a wife was in the marital bed, the more pious she was thought to be in the eyes of God. She imagined that some wives were even fully clothed – at least she was half clothed, wearing a baggy, long-sleeved, knee-length gown, and her hair was free.

She was perplexed. She was no longer living the life of Miriam, the prostitute, who had broken all sexual protocols and taboos with regard to Jewish women and lovemaking. No inhibitions. It was the way of the red trade.

She pondered the matter a few seconds before answering. Keeping quiet meant accepting guilt for something she was still in the dark about. ‘My lord, I don’t understand you. Are you speaking in parables?’ It was a whisper. Everyone had come to realise that Lord Jesus had mostly spoken in parables when He was alive. His words and messages had a double meaning with a hidden message. Surely Lucas had a hidden meaning here?

‘No! Why would I speak in parables?’ he asked in surprise, moving towards her with an embrace. ‘You know we are followers of our Lord and the new life. Eliana,’ he sighed, ‘I am not speaking in parables. You know very well what I mean, considering we have just made love.’

She suddenly imagined how Zara must have felt over twenty years ago, having not known the Lord. Zara had come to her as Miriam for advice on sex tricks because a client had complained. Now Zara was a new creature in the Lord, and had reverted to her original name, Joanna. Was Joanna also having this problem with her own husband? What did Lucas mean? Was he indirectly complaining? Who could she turn to for help? Was he regretting their reconciliation after ten years apart? Her continued silence must be sending him the wrong signals. She felt panicky, but when she heard herself speak, she sounded completely calm. ‘My lord, you know how much I love you. You please me. I hope you are in turn happy with me!’

‘Not since Dinah,’ he murmured quietly, stroking her long, silky, luxuriously rich hair. Thinking of Dinah, and remembering the way she used to make love with him almost ten years ago, stirred up his passion in a sudden flood of strong currents. Before Eliana could answer, he asked tenderly, ‘Or... are you with child, Eliana?’

She noticed his voice was husky with passion and longing. ‘No,’ she answered softly. Was she? Their twin sons had turned a year old a few weeks ago. ‘No. It could be that I am still reacting to the pain of the loss of our beloved brother in Christ and remembering Lord Jesus.’

She looked down, knowing she had just lied. Oh dear! Where was all this leading? She couldn’t help thinking again of Zara, coming to meet her back when she was Miriam. What had Miriam advised Zara then? Did she need that advice now? No, that was not the right way of lovemaking for a married woman and a new creature. Zara and Miriam were prostitutes. She needed to concentrate and remember what she had given to Lucas, all those years ago when she was living in the personality of Dinah, before she was Miriam. She could not focus. Her husband was speaking again.

‘You could be pregnant again, you know. We’ve been living together for thirteen months now. You remember how it was with our Levi, Logan, and Luke? You conceived immediately I touched you. Maybe this one is female, Eliana.’

Lucas paused. He was hot and hungry for the kind of sexual love Eliana used to give when he knew her in the personality of Dinah, a sinner. Without waiting for her comments, he suddenly drew her closer and thrust himself into her. Squeezing and massaging her buttocks in strong rhythmic waves, he muttered into her hair, telling her how much he loved her. His chin nuzzled her forehead, then her nose, and then he made for her mouth.

Eliana did not realise when she unconsciously slipped into the personality of Dinah. She responded with a deep sigh of pleasure and felt her own desire for her husband rise with equal fervour and heat from the bottom of her stomach’s pit to the apex of her heart. She clutched her husband’s neck and hungrily kissed him as she released the bottled-up, unbridled passion for just the fourth time in thirteen months.

It had been so difficult to train her body in this new discipline in line with the new faith as she understood it. Her body had been so pampered, so free to feel things for over twenty years when she lived in the personas and bodies of Reubena, Safirah, Dinah, and Miriam. Freedom of love was sweet. As her body slipped deeper into its old mode, the heat of her passion engulfed her, bursting out with all her suppressed feelings and yearning for intimacy. She heard herself weeping in response to ecstasy as she told her husband how much she loved him and wished this moment would never end...

Afterwards, though, she quickly reverted to ‘holy’ Eliana, with feelings of guilt and remorse assailing her on all sides. She trembled when two new assailants joined her adversaries: shame and fear. She felt defeated and humiliated, even worse than the way she had felt fourteen months ago, when, wearing just a slip of a transparent negligee, her hair all loose and her taut nipples peeping through the thin material, she had been expecting Josef, a client who had become a friend. However, when she opened the door, there stood Rachel, her ‘new’ mother, with Mother Abigail and Mother Ahuva. She was mortified and ashamed, and even now clearly recalled the strong scent from her heady perfume pervading the nostrils of her visitors, leaving them in no doubt as to her true intentions.

Oh my God, she thought now. What have I done? God, what are you thinking about me now? Look into my heart. I am so sorry. And Lucas? What is he thinking right now about me?

The answer came immediately. Lucas grabbed her trembling body, planted a kiss on her forehead and muttered, ‘Now I know my Dinah has come back to me.’

Soon he was sleeping the deep sleep of the contented.

***

His answer did not restore her peace.

Dinah! Did he just call me Dinah? Why? I don’t wish to remember the past. The old ways. I hope Lucas is not like Asher, my father, deep inside. Surely, he knows that my new faith means I am dead to the old way of life? I know I just slipped back into the old ways. Lucas too must have slipped back, but I know I did not do so deliberately. Did he mean to call me Dinah, or was this in error? This is the first time; I will wait and see if it happens a second time. I will tell him to never call me by that name again!

Eliana was certain that Lucas was like Kazim – a rich client of her old self as Miriam, the prostitute. Kazim was married yet he regularly visited Miriam’s House of Pleasures. Lucas had tasted the forbidden fruit. His eyes were open. He had never been into a harlot’s den, like Kazim, to get initiated; instead, Dinah, a harlot, had come into his own den and initiated him into the wild pleasures of the red lady. His flesh had been hungry for exotic pleasures, which only the likes of Dinah and Miriam could provide. Could this be the reason why Lucas had accepted her back? Or was he going to be temped like Kazim to go and look for ‘exotic pleasures’ outside the home? Here she was, training her body to be disciplined, trying to subdue the old ways of her flesh so that the new would stay for good.

This could not continue. There is no use keeping this to myself. I’ll first discuss it with...

Her thoughts came to a pause. Whom could she confide in? It had to be someone who would not judge her: someone who would not have any doubt that she was not the old creature hiding under the skin of the new creature; someone who would not reason that she had backslidden or that she was still of the old life and had not killed her fleshly desires because they were too sweet to let go. Whom could she turn to? The Centre did not seem to have mothers one could turn to. She remembered a few occasions when mothers were approached, and they would themselves go and seek counsel from the disciples of the Lord. Even Mother Mary would talk to Lord Jesus and His disciples. Now Lord Jesus was gone, and within this last year after His death most of his followers had faced persecution. Some of his devoted disciples had been killed! Eliana felt tears come to her eyes. Dear Apostles James and Peter! She would have to carry this burden alone and hope she and Lucas did not slip back into the former ways of the flesh.

She wondered to herself. Could she possibly be the mother who changed an old, erroneous belief – that sex should solely be for procreation and not for the pleasure of married women? What a misconception. She could start a counsel group for married women. She would let them know that sex should be enjoyed by married women. They should feel free in their natural desires and to enjoy what God provided. After all, why did Solomon have to marry 700 wives and 300 concubines until he found true love in the Shulamite woman?

If she spoke to Razi about this, would Razi become more protective of her husband Josef in order to protect him from her? What of Joanna? Would Joanna understand and not mock her or laugh behind her back with Mother Abigail? If she spoke to her own mother, Rachel, would that be confirming her father’s attitude towards her? Besides, her mother had never revisited that shameful incident when she found Eliana dressed as a prostitute, seemingly waiting for a client. Her mind went to her father, Asher, and she sighed. This problem was her cross to bear for now. She tried to talk to Abba but couldn’t find words.

It was the first crow of the early cockerel that sent her into a light sleep.

***

That same night, in another area a walking distance from Eliana’s house, another woman’s mind was heavily occupied and sleep kept far at bay.

Dawn came suddenly, heralded by the cock crowing. Rachel knew she had not slept well. This was not the first time; it was, in fact, becoming a pattern. Most nights she would listen to her husband snore in his sleep beside her. This morning, though, she didn’t realise that her husband, Asher, was also wide awake and ruminating on thoughts similar to hers. A lot of things weren’t right.

Rachel kept her mind awake thinking of her life now that she was reconciled with her husband. After how many years? Eliana’s age was the yardstick: thirty years! She ought to be happy and excited considering how, in the space of thirteen months, she had found her daughter, Eliana; and she had been reconciled to Asher, her husband. Her family had grown. Asher had another family from before; he had married a woman named Tisha, who had died two years earlier. She had given him two sons: Dan and Tobiah. They were married, but Dan, his wife Keziah, and their three daughters lived in the same house with Asher and Rachel. Dan was very much like his father: a traditional Jew, who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah.

That was not why Rachel was unhappy, though. Hers was not the only home or family with such a structure. Her unhappiness stemmed from two facts. Firstly, Asher did not want to hear the name of Lord Jesus in his home, and so she was not free to enjoy her new faith. Secondly, he did not share in the excitement of being reconciled to their daughter, Eliana. To Asher, Rachel discerned, their daughter was an outcast to the family because she had been a prostitute. He did not say this openly, but his actions towards Eliana were rather cool. Rachel thought that by now there would have been a change, but Asher never visited Eliana, even when the twins were born. It was always Eliana and Lucas visiting them, but they had not visited in over six months.

Whenever Joanna visited her daughter, Asher was distant towards her almost to the point of malice. Last month he had accused her of being over imaginative, blaming her faith. Anything she did ‘wrong’ was attributed to her faith.

As if her practice of the new way of life as taught by Lord Jesus was a taboo!

Rachel had travelled to visit Mother Mary to seek her counsel on the matter. Mother Mary had in turn prayed for her and assured her that it would be best to hear what the