“Unbridled” by John L. Moore

"If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless."  James 1:26

"Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well."    James 3:3.

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I make no claims of being a master horseman, just a fair-to-middlin' badlands cowboy, but I know some real horsemen and I disagree with them somewhat on the matter of bits.

For those of you who don't know, bits come in many forms, shapes, sizes and functions. Most trainers begin with an O-ring snaffle and progress slowly through a series of mouthpieces -- shanked snaffle, low-ported curb, grazing bit, and others -- until they find a mouthpiece the horse adapts to best, or, they adapt a horse to the ultimate bit, a Spanish spade of which there are several varieties.

My horses have always "told" me that they hate bits, and yet, they are required as a training tool.

The Law is our early bit. It jerks our head around when we want to go our own way. In other words, the Law "plow-reins" us. Gradually, we learn to respond to the Spirit and the Lord can "neck rein" us. Instead of being forcibly pulled we respond to a slight push. There are important spiritual lessons in this.

Horses and horsemanship seem to carry important messages at this time. A number of people I know have been having dreams or visions about horses, and red horses in particular. Interestingly, Secretariat's nickname was "Big Red."

Paul Keith Davis has been teaching all year on the spiritual messages found in the life of the great race horse, Secretariat. If you have not heard any of these messages I would invite you to go to whitedoveministries.org and purchase the teaching, Destiny of a Generation, or read his August newsletter. Secretariat, physically, had an unusually large heart, yet this mountain of horseflesh, this was controlled by an O-Ring snaffle, one of the mildest of bits.

Yet, I would say there is even a higher way.

Recently I purchased a Bitless Bridle for my good young gelding, Simon. A Bitless Bridle is a new concept, it is not similar to a bosal or mechanical hackamore, and Simon, who has a very sensitive mouth, responds to it well though he will require more schooling with a bit to develop his skills first. Yet, as I said earlier, I am convinced horses hate bits, but the good ones learn to tolerate them. To cowboys, bits are all to often simply a symbol of pride and well-crafted ones may cost a thousand dollars each.

Still, there is a higher way yet, and that is being "unbridled." (See Chuck Pierce quote above.)

If we learn to allow the Spirit to control our mind and tongue we change from being plow-reined to neck-reined. The more we respond to the slightest pressure of the Spirit the less necessary pressure becomes. When the "mouth" is sanctified the bit is no longer required and we move into a "bitless" bridle because there is still need for control over our head (mind.)

When our head (mind) is in synch with our Master we are allowed to be "unbridled."

One friend recently sent me the link below then quickly two confirmations  came: one, a magazine I occasionally write for has this horsewoman on the cover this month and it sits on the desk here beside me, and, two, another prophetic intercessor emailed me to say she'd watched this performance below recently. 

Watch and enjoy this brilliant example of communication between horse and rider, then stop and consider; imagine yourself as the horse and the Holy Spirit as the rider.        

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7v8Ck1crg

 www.johnlmoore.com