Can you see Levi’s name inscribed on your vesture? If so, stick your chest out now and let people see whatcha got, because few people bear this nature. But let no pride come in because all the glory and honor for who and what God has made us to be is to be given to Him. Great is our Lord and worthy to be praised!

Do we realize that He is working each name/nature of the 12 sons of Jacob in us and that Levi is one of the best we can have? Its meaning is “joined in harmony,”…. also “joiner,” and its spiritual connotation is “enlightened.” Nice, huh? When it’s established as ours, the fullness of blessing will overtake us for “How pleasant and good it is for brethren to dwell in unity, for THERE God has commanded the blessing.”(Psalm 133: 1)

The question is: “How do we acquire unity and harmony in a day when things and people are crazy mad with so many joint problems, literally and spiritually?” Any time we clash with others and don’t do what the Bible teaches, we can be sure that disharmony will show up in our bodies or cause other problems in our relationships and in work. Creativity, joy, love, productiveness and more all come from being unified within and with others, so come on: Let’s get busy being “unifiers” now, bringing healing and blessing to a world out of joint.

A message by Francis of Assisi has been one of the most life impacting ones I’ve ever heard and must be shared in order for Levi’s character to be solidified in us. I believe that for the most part, we have been a church without power because we haven’t put into practice the truth Francis taught concerning the path to joy. If you need oil for creaky spiritual joints, oil for joy, and oil for power in your life, Brother Assisi’s “view of happiness” is it. He told a story about his asking for help at a time when he was hungry and drenched in wet clothing. Instead of receiving him and giving him a warm place in which to dry, he was persecuted, thrown out into the cold, rolled in the snow and then beaten unmercifully with a knotted stick. Hear it brethren: Brother Assisi counted it all JOY,… even a prescription for joy. Would you have had the same response? If not, I urge you to take in these profound words from this holy man that have an impartation in them to change our thinking and empower us with life:

“Above all the graces and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ grants to his friends, is the grace of OVERCOMING ONESELF, and accepting willingly, out of love for Christ, all suffering, injury, discomfort and contempt; … for in all other gifts of God we cannot glory, seeing they proceed not from ourselves but from God, according to the words of the Apostle: “What have you, that you have not received from God? And if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” But in the cross of tribulation and affliction we may glory, because, as the Apostle says again, I will not glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I dare say most believers in this generation have not been taught this, much less lived it.

I don’t think there’s a more sobering message than this one. It’s as though I’ve been drunk on “Golden Dreams” and just woke up to reality. Not being a drinker, I have no idea of what the alcoholic beverage with that name tastes like, but I’m realizing that I’ve been guzzling it and a drink called “Bewitched” getting snookered without knowing it. Sad to say that I have been “out of my tree” thinking mistreatment, lack of comfort, etc. were just to be endured. I confess I have not looked at them as needful joy bringers.

So tell me: Are you ready to go to “Alcoholics NOT Anonymous” with me and let Christendom and the rest of the world know that there are a few of us no longer drunk and that the cross is the way to joy?

I wonder!