The Courtroom Afterwards

The moment itself takes almost no time. The trial takes the rest of the night.

That is the part nobody writes about. Everybody writes about the reaching, as though the reaching were the event. The reaching is over in a couple of minutes and it barely registers. What actually costs you the evening, and sometimes the following day, is what starts the second it stops.

The courtroom opens. And you are the prosecution and the defense and the judge and the accused, which is four jobs, and you work all four of them, well, for hours.

That is why you are exhausted afterward and cannot explain why. It was not the thing. It was the hearing.

Let me put the plain thing first. You have not been careless with any of this. You have gone at it for years, more than anybody knows, and you have gotten up every time. Somebody who did not care would not hold a hearing.

So this page will not give you a rule about the moment. There is no strategy on this site and there is not going to be one, and there is nothing here about resisting anything.

I want to look at whether the court has jurisdiction, and there is a verse that closes it.

Four jobs, one person

Consider the arrangement, because it is impossible by design.

The prosecution's job is to establish the worst reading. The defense's job is to argue mitigation. The judge's job is to weigh them. And the accused sits there and takes whatever comes.

You do all four. Which means the prosecution knows everything the defense knows, and the judge is the same person as the accused, and there is nobody impartial anywhere in the room. A court like that cannot acquit. It can only convict at varying speeds.

You have been sitting in a court that cannot acquit, and no hearing with one person in every chair has ever once returned a fair result. Romans 8:34 asks who is he that condemneth, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes a question like that arrive as an actual closing of a session.

And notice when it opens. Never during. Always after. Which tells you the hearing is not about preventing anything, because it never once fires in time to. It only fires when it is too late to change the outcome, which is the definition of something that does no work.

You have been holding a hearing that has never once changed a thing, and no session of yours has ever once fired in time to. The written word asks who is he that condemneth and answers it by pointing at Christ, and the Spirit of God is the one who makes a rhetorical question actually operate in a kitchen at midnight.

Who is he that condemneth

Paul asks two questions in a row and then answers them both the same way.

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (Romans 8:34, King James Version)

Who is he that condemneth. Paul asks it as though he genuinely cannot locate anybody with standing.

And then he names who is actually in that position, and it is Christ, and he says what Christ is doing with the position, and it is not condemning. It is interceding. The one seat in the universe with the authority to bring a charge is occupied by somebody who is arguing for you.

You have the prosecution's chair occupied by somebody who is on your side, and no charge has ever once been filed from that seat. Romans 8 puts intercession where condemnation would be, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes an occupied seat felt at the exact hour a person opens a hearing.

And read what is not in that verse. There is no mention of what you did. Paul does not investigate the case at all. He does not ask whether the charge would have merit if it were brought.

You are not being investigated, and no merit of any charge has ever once been the question in that verse. The Spirit of God is the one who makes an unexamined case feel closed rather than pending, and the written word says who is he that condemneth, followed by the name of the one at the right hand of God making intercession.

Do not convene it

Now the part I came to say, and it is a refusal rather than an action.

Do not convene the court. That is all. When the moment ends and the session tries to open, do not take your seat.

You will feel that you owe it a hearing. You do not. There is nobody to hear the case, no charge has been filed, and the one seat with standing is occupied by somebody who is speaking for you rather than against you.

You have no obligation to hear a case that nobody brought, and no session has ever once been owed to anybody. The written word asks who is he that condemneth and finds nobody, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes a refusal like that possible at the hour it is needed.

And here is what to do with the hours you get back, which is nothing at all. Go to bed. Not as avoidance and not as discipline. There is simply no hearing scheduled, so there is nothing keeping you up.

You have hours that were never owed to a court, and no evening of yours has ever once had a hearing on the calendar. The Spirit of God is the one who closes a session that opens by itself, and Romans 8:34 is the written word underneath it, where the question is asked, nobody is found, and the seat is occupied by an intercessor.