Saturday 31 December 2011
All in All
In this next period we are entering...which is simply "the shaking of everything that can be shaken" you'd better know ahead of time that your reliance on linear thinking...Animal Farm's 4 legs good, 2 legs bad isn't sufficient anymore. You are going to have to know the Truth who is a Person.
It just is not a question of free choice anymore to live from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil as "gods" trying to make your own way in the universe.
Take Israel. If you are in linear thinking, you are either a neo Nazi or like the majority , so shocked by Ausschwitz that you are super sensitive to anti Semitic speech. Both are linear thinking.
And both are wrong. Israel is a picture for and of the Christian life. Embedded in Israel are some of the worst individuals planet Earth has ever known. Embedded in the same nation are the best individuals,largely ignorant as yet, and some don't know God at all as yet. And both things are true simultaneously.The only way, you will ever know is in the phrase: "By their fruit shall you know them." But taking some either/or position on Israel with linear thought , just won't do! Chris Welch Facebook 31/12/2001
Yesterday I posted a post on baptism in the Holy Spirit which said you aren't really born again until you are baptised in the Spirit.I also read virtually the opposite on "Mystery Revealed,Facebook Group" saying ,as the work has been all done,and in Him we live move and have our being, we sort of are born again, but just don't know it. This is my Facebook life tiptoing through it all.
Kathy DesVoigne, Magda Pieters and Cindi Estep like this.
Donna Crowley I knew at a young age that I needed a Savior. I knew He was faithful and saved me at this young age. I have no doubt. His Spirit was evident in me at such a young age. I didn't know anything about the baptism of the Holy Spirit until I was an adult. It was and still is a turning point in my relationship with God but not the beginning. I think we need to be willing to say that God is faithful to us even if we are ignorant to all that He has available in the Spirit. Oh and i was not physically baptized with water until after I was baptized with the Spirit so I guess I really mess up most doctrines that people have. I know the Spirit of Christ was residing within me from a very young age.
3 hours ago · Unlike · 2
Chris Welch Am I phased? Well what Ken Raggio writes, what gets written in Mystery Revealed are all just words. Windows on truth. Leftbrain black and white sentences leading us through descriptions of God stuff. In Jesus there is only one reality,one substance and it isn't leftbrain. We have within us spirits designed to feed on and pick up the Person of Jesus...the real One...not the words "about" the real one. Some of us were born with venteuse,some forceps, some were shot out like rugby balls, some by C section,some were practically found in the bed it was so quiet and easy.
3 hours ago · Like · 1
Chris Welch After 12 years gestation in a Methodist church followed by 1 year of giving up, and being an atheist instead, I know the day I was born again. Some 6 weeks before being inundated with the power of the Spirit. Whether your Jesus experience looks anything like Andre Rabe's description, or Ken Raggio's....the Spirit realities are not black and white letters, they are perceived by other Body members in the Spirit...and they are part of a variety of features all described by (Paul) in Hebrews as passing through the Tabernacle in the heavenlies. The thing you can be confident in is the same Spirit is on your case. He will guide you into all the same Truth, however your earthly experience registers it. One Lord. One faith.One baptism.
3 hours ago · Like · 2
Chris Welch I was baptised in the Spirit 4 weeks before being baptised in water, and about the same before speaking in tongues, yet all around me rattled away instantly. I think I had Norman Grubb seizure of the leftbrain...leftbrain intellectual lockjaw. And being infant baptised as a Methodist caused no small mess when the real stuff started happening. Anglicans, Methodists,Lutherans and Catholics will have to explain themselves to the Lord one day, if they don't repent here on earth. There is no such thing in the Spirit as infant baptism. Its called spiritual rape.You are not allowed to stir or awaken love until it please. Arranged marriages are illegal.
3 hours ago · Like · 1 Facebook 31/12/11
The New Creation ..Norman Grubb.. Facebook note by Merrill Thompson on Saturday, 31 December 2011 at 14:04
Faith, so far from being works, is really only the flash of recognition of what is: in this case ."Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 18:3 God forever gives, man forever receives. In the glory of His grace, that is what God never ceased to do. "He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again." Therefore salvation, just as much as creation, is every iota a gift. And man, of whom it is said concerning his creation, What hast thou that thou hast not received?, can never experience the abc of his recreation in Christ until he is brought back to the act of simple reception. As Jesus said, "Except ye become converted and become as little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." Every iota of works, of self-effort, has to disappear. Faith, so far from being works, is really only the flash of recognition of what is: in this case, already redeemed, if we only knew it. I hope I have made this clear, because it is the first infant experience of the lost secret of humanity, a secret we shall never outgrow and never replace, for it is humanity's sole basic capacity.The Creator gives all by giving Himself, the creature receives all; and the faculty of receiving is so simple, obvious, natural and automatic that it can hardly be called an action at all. It is the first activity of a newborn babe, receiving air, receiving nourishment. It is the continued activity which sustains all life. And that is faith. The repentance side of faith is in essence the breaking down and giving up of a false faith which we have received from Adam, a faith in our own self-righteousness, our own religion, our own philosophy; the receiving of a false self-reliance as a basis of living. Thus it is the negative side of faith, the saying no to an illusory faith. The Deep Things of God
Friday 30 December 2011
The Baptism Of The Holy Ghost Why everybody needs "The Comforter" By Ken Raggio
The great eternal Spirit of God is our Father and Creator........
A great article endorsed by many readers here, on the role of the Holy Spirit. Ken Raggio's website contains a lot of information about many other subjects which people ought to know, and gives details of his upcoming books and DVDs
Meet Lynelle : Brown To Green,Dead To Alive
Brown to Green, Dead to Alive from Eternal Dance Blog
Thursday 29 December 2011
Wednesday 28 December 2011
Can a Christian be a libertarian? By Norman Horn
Post source
Christians in American politics have argued for years that God endorses the political agenda of Republicans or Democrats, but is there a third way to think about the relationship between God and government?
Christians from the left and the right are increasingly turning to libertarianism not because it is a “middle ground,” but because it is an entirely different way of thinking about government and power.
The core of libertarianism is the non-aggression principle: that the initiation of force against person and property is immoral, and it is in many respects a kind of political corollary to the Golden Rule. Thus, Christian libertarians think that government power should be limited, sound money and truly free markets should return, aggressive war must cease and civil liberties must be preserved. Despite objections raised by other Christians, many Christian libertarians have found a friend in Texas congressional representative, presidential candidate, and lifelong Christian Dr. Ron Paul, because he also believes in these important principles.
Libertarianism treats man’s sinful nature realistically. James Madison famously quipped that if men were angels no government would be necessary. Christian libertarians take this a step further, saying that it is precisely because men are not angels that government must have extraordinarily limited powers. God does not show favoritism nor does he give special privileges of position. Everyone is accountable to the moral law in the same way. When governments and politicians extend their power so that they can abridge people’s natural rights with impunity, they have crossed the line into immorality. Rep. Paul’s message is that the United States government has been far across this line for decades and the remedy is to follow the Constitution. The Founders created the boldest attempt in history to limit state power, yet presidents and congresses, both Republican and Democratic, have repeatedly refused to adhere to their own rules. True, lasting change can only be found in reducing the power of the federal government.
Libertarians talk a lot about economics, and rightfully so. Money is central to a healthy economy. Christians are also concerned about money; in fact God talks frequently about money in the Bible. God’s warning against unjust “weights and measures” in Leviticus 19 is a warning not to tamper with the market ecosystem of money and trade. Rep. Paul acknowledges the Bible’s concern for honest money as well in End the Fed : “The Bible is clear that altering the quality of money is an immoral act… It is dishonesty in money that has been a major source of evil throughout history.” If the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, as 1 Timothy 6:10 says, how much more seriously ought we to take how our society views the control over the supply of money? If it is true, as many libertarians contend, that the Federal Reserve is the primary cause of the economic crisis we have today, then the only solution is to restore honest, sound commodity money, free from political machinations and special interests.
It is truly unfortunate that modern American churches seem to think the state’s means of “spreading democracy” through aggressive war is more important than spreading the peaceful message of the Gospel of Christ. Jesus came to bring “peace on earth, good will to men,” and by extension the Christian’s goal ought to be the same. Rep. Paul wrote in Liberty Defined : “It’s a far stretch and a great distortion to use Christianity in any way to justify aggression and violence.” War kills the innocent, destroys property, and bankrupts nations. Christian libertarians believe that a non-interventionist foreign policy of peace, commerce, and honest friendship is more consistent with how God expects us to interact with world neighbors.
Libertarians think that everyone should be free to do as they will provided they do not infringe upon the rights of others. Christians can recognize the importance of this principle by simply observing history, recognizing how often that other Christians have been prevented from practicing their religion as their conscience requires of them. If we do not afford others the freedom to live their lives as they choose, how can we expect to receive the same freedom to do as we choose? Rep. Paul explains that government does not make people good in The Revolution: “The law cannot make a wicked person virtuous… God’s grace alone can accomplish such a thing.” God created us to be free to carry out the dictates of conscience. We cannot continue to demand state control to restrict people’s personal activity and yet assume our liberty is safe.
Through libertarianism, many Christians have found a way to move past their previous beliefs about politics and embrace a more consistent, more biblical political philosophy. The message of abolishing government power is powerful on its own. In Ron Paul, many Christian libertarians see a leader who points to principles that conservatives and liberals have long forgotten: “A system of government without limit, if unchecked, will destroy production and impoverish the nation. The only answer is to better understand economics and monetary systems, as well as social and foreign policies, with the hope that they will change once it becomes clear that government policies are a threat to all of us.” Libertarianism is not going away, and it surely will take an increasingly prominent place in the political discussion of Christians for years to come.
Norman Horn is the founder and editor of LibertarianChristians.com.
Post source
Post 15th December - The Bill of Rights
Today is the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights being passed. Cato-at-Liberty surveys the current state of these safeguards, and it is not particularly pleasant to consider how pathetic this rogue government has become.
Let’s consider each amendment in turn.
The First Amendment says that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.” Government officials, however, have insisted that they can gag recipients of “national security letters” and censor broadcast ads in the name of campaign finance reform.
The Second Amendment says the people have the right “to keep and bear arms.” Government officials, however, make it difficult to keep a gun in the home and make it a crime for a citizen to carry a gun for self-protection.
The Third Amendment says soldiers may not be quartered in our homes without the consent of the owners. This safeguard is one of the few that is in fine shape — so we can pause here for a laugh.
The Fourth Amendment says the people have the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. Government officials, however, insist that they can conduct commando-style raids on our homes and treat airline travelers like prison inmates by conducting virtual strip searches.
The Fifth Amendment says that private property shall not be taken “for public use without just compensation.” Government officials, however, insist that they can use eminent domain to take away our property and give it to other private parties who covet it.
The Sixth Amendment says that in criminal prosecutions, the person accused is guaranteed a right to trial by jury. Government officials, however, insist that they can punish people who want to have a trial—“throwing the book” at those who refuse to plead guilty—which explains why 95 percent of the criminal cases never go to trial.
The Seventh Amendment guarantees the right to a jury trial in civil cases where the controversy “shall exceed twenty dollars.” Government officials, however, insist that they can impose draconian fines on people without jury trials.
The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. Government officials, however, insist that a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense is not cruel.
The Ninth Amendment says that the enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights should not be construed to deny or disparage others “retained by the people.” Government officials, however, insist that they will decide for themselves what rights, if any, will be retained by the people.
The Tenth Amendment says that the powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states, or to the people. Government officials, however, insist that they will decide for themselves what powers they possess, and have extended federal control over health care, crime, education, and other matters the Constitution reserves to the states and the people.
Norman Horn
Tuesday 27 December 2011
Monday 26 December 2011
Christmas Crackers and Internal combustion engines
- Paul Anderson-Walsh@Chris, I like that... "The Christmas-'cracker" life, is a cracking life. The other thing that occurs to me is that inside each cracker is a riddle (a dark saying as they're referred to in the Proverbs) these little cryptic clues are clue ...to the divine, more than this, beside the gift that nestles inside each cracker is a crown, a crown of life one might say, that is place on the head of all who are broken in Christ.See more21 minutes ago ·Chris Welch I'll amend my blog.Like it.It was really hitting me tho, what Fred Pruitt has been saying so much. And Brian Coatney. "This treasure in an earthen vessel". You see charismatic life claims to be spiritual by saying "I'm believing for healing, for money, for a nice job and a nice wife and kids"....and they're like static "possessions". It is true in many cases, these things have been believed for by faith....reaching against all odds into the unseen. So as first fruits of faith you cannot gainsay it. But it is still seeing "after the flesh". Categorising and pigeonholing into a "looks good pile" and a "looks bad pile". Whereas the 3rd level way of seeing is catching what God is doing through everything....even a cracker that now doesnt look its best...because it's not actually meant to...it has gone bang, and is now yielding up its inner fruit.5 minutes ago ·
Sunday 25 December 2011
Christ’s Mass By Fred Pruitt
By Fred Pruitt
Israel was not allowed to make images of God because God is not out there where we can look at Him.
Jesus came so that we would all come into the image of God in which we were created. We are the only image of God. God is the Only One Person Who is all of us. There is no other person. The same One Image in each.
Although I suppose it is necessary, I tire of even my own constant effort to make sure that, theologically, a distinction is always clearly made between the “created” and the “Creator.”
Let everything I have written heretofore on the subject stand as witness that I have ever held this “distinction,” and still do.
Nevertheless, there is only one image of God — the Christ of God reflected in you and me. No other image of God, no other likeness, can I find. The life of resurrection is the resurrected Life of Christ in our normal selves.
For a time God has winked at our ignorance. He allowed, no purposed, that the Church of Christ in her infancy and growing up would only know Him in an outer sense. He allowed, no purposed, that a priesthood would arise (“Catholic” or “Protestant” — same difference), an earthly priesthood, that still in a dim way reflected, and still today reflects heavenly mysteries. That the people, the “laity,” (“Catholic” or “Protestant” — same difference), would be much as the children of Israel, dependent on the the priesthood to intercede with God for them, and dependent on rituals (“Catholic” or “Protestant” — same difference), to feel close to God or forgiven. And always, with God separate and apart from the people.
But the call of today is the prayer of Moses: “Would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!” (Num 11:29). And of course this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, Who by His sacrifice not only delivered us from sin and sins, but has also made us, in this present moment, a holy royal priesthood, kings and priests unto God – everyone of us who is in Christ. We are now “Emmanuel.”
The concept of “laity” apart from the “priesthood” is henceforth declared null and void. Thus saith the Lord.
This doesn’t mean that everybody now walks off their jobs and leave their spouses and children and buy tents and take up the sawdust trail. It means that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, in the present moment, you are the outpouring of the Grace of God.
You are the image of God that shines in your world. God enters the world by you. You are His opening to the world of Himself as He really is.
It has nothing to do with how well you behave according to the appearances of the flesh, or how many scriptures you know, or if you have all your doctrines lined up. He is Love. John says if we love our brother, we are in Him, for God is love.
“No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12)
No man has ever seen God. John says this to our ears in plain English. But then “what” is God?
He is You and Me loving each other.
We will never take it any farther than that.
There will never be a more “objective God” than the love you live in that flows from you out of your belly.
When it says it flows out of your belly it means that it is a natural outflow of the life you live. The individual members of the Church grow up in their consciousness into the Head, which is Christ, and become organically One Person. To be organically One Person means that we spontaneously bear the fruit of the Vine in the relaxation of simply being ourselves, having trusted the Invisible One to manifest Himself into visibility by the spontaneous flow of the Sap from the Vine into the Branches which we are.
It means that you forget yourself. The scriptures say that, “when my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.” (Ps 27:10). This has more than a fleshly meaning. Our “father and mother” are our earthly dependence. We rely on them to support our earthly life, to insure our survival. But only until adulthood. When we are adults in this world, we are expected to go out into the world and leave the dependence on our mother and father and make our own lives.
To be an adult means that the focus of our lives, in maturity, becomes focused not primarily on our own survival but on giving life to and sustaining life for others. You become secondary to yourself and those to whom you are given are primary. You live to insure their lives. That is human life in maturity.
Spiritually, it means that our “father and mother” are whatever supports of self-will or repositories of self-reliance that we might have thought we’d reserved for our own welfare are gone, that there is nothing in this world or the next, that can hold us up, except the Invisible God, Who is our very Own Self.
“Whosoever he be of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:33-35) The ONLY “thing” we have is what we take to be “ourselves.”
To forsake “all” therefore is to forsake everything there is, everything we see, everything we know, everything we are, everything we’d like to see, to forsake EVERYTHING that we perceive or possibly could perceive, for the Invisible One Who is Nothing to our senses or perception or human minds.
It is to be “crucified,” to see that “we are dead.”
Our lives are hidden in Christ in God, and when we see Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Oh my goodness.
It means that He is not “lo here or lo there.” It means that “it” is “within you,” which means that God has no geographical location, except as manifested in You.
You cannot look around and catch any glimpse of Him.
And it means that EVERYWHERE you look He is all you see.
You are Him. You are you. The Same person.
Bingo.
This is the true “Christ’s Mass.”
Merry Christmas to all, and God bless us everyone!
Saturday 24 December 2011
Possessing Our Possessions: On the Brink - Fred Pruitt
By Fred Pruitt
(Author’s note: This is written specifically for and about what I am calling a “generation” of us who have now, at this time, come to the brink of that “new day” that we have been seeing for years, for which the Spirit has prepared us all our lives, for just this time now. I do not know what lies ahead, except that I sense that there is a wave of the Spirit that is just at our doors, a Divine Intervention, the aspects of which I am still at a loss to fully see. But let me further say, that what I have written below identifying a “generation,” really means “whosoever will,” and “he who has ears to hear.”)
“But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame ….” (Obadiah 1:17,18)
John Bunting has been saying, for quite a while, that there IS a day of graduation.
There comes a day when we realize our heritage, and who we are because of it.
What we have sought, we have found. What we asked for, we received. Where we knocked, doors opened.
It may have been by a circuitous route, and our doom may have been forecast by many, both within and without. At times we may have believed it ourselves. Doom at times seemed far easier than facing the coming day. “Ah, blessed-to-me accuser, sweet condemnation, my bosom friend! You think you are my enemy, but you keep me on my toes and remind me every day I am I and He is He and He and I are one.”
“Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me.
The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.
The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.
I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.” (Ps 118:13-18)
It comes to me to speak about being at the brink of the Jordan, and was Israel in Deuteronomy, and at the same time the image comes to me of the doubtless thousands of sermons and exhortations there must have been regarding this same point of embarkation. The temptation in that is to think that I have slipped into an easy metaphor, a preacher/writer finesse of some passage of scripture to enlist in my attempt to massage the ears of the listeners, to take them some “place” I want to take them to.
We trudge on anyway. The only answer to that daily temptation is to disregard it.
Above I mentioned, “point of embarkation.” I am talking, figuratively anyway, of a “place” where we “gather” in order to begin a new chapter, to go into an unknown but we expect to be a fruitful land, once we make the journey to get there. But we cannot get to the end of the journey, unless we start at the beginning, at the “point of embarkation.” That is where we make the final decision to leave the safe surroundings of the edges of all we have known, for the sake of the prize we see at the end.
In our US’s westward expansion in the 1800s, during the “wagon train” era, the pioneers came from all over to meet at Independence, Missouri, a little town a few miles south of the Missouri River, close to the Kansas border. They came by the thousands. Think of these masses who gathered in Independence. They were from every state in the union as well as from other countries in every continent. They represented every race, every religion, every craft, every economic strata, and every possible dream in the heart of human longing.
It was no small feat, to move to the West. One didn’t simply saddle up his horse and trot off to Oregon or California. For many, maybe the majority, it took everything they had. Everything. They sold houses, businesses, farms, worked and saved up, gambled, finagled – however they did it – they were gathered finally in Independence, with fees paid, equipment bought, and signed up for a wagon train headed out in the great wide open, where the sky was the limit, and they all said they were “bound for the promised land.”
And then here we are now. A big crowd from everywhere, all prepared and ready to use the equipment they have taken up along the way, ready to head west! I am sensing, and have been for a long time, that that which has come to many of us as a lifelong commission – the raising of the consciousness (in knowledge, wisdom and understanding) of the body of Christ, into the “Head … even Christ,” is moving into its completion phase. Paul sums it up perfectly in the great Ephesians passages of 4:12-16:
“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
A new day has arrived. In this time and place, in this earth, this is fulfilled in us in this present time.
Long ago we heard our commission – “Give my Life out,” and we took it to heart and sought and strove with all our might to do it. That which was in us acted as an inner urgency from the very day we met Him. It was the inner urgency of love, which we could not explain but only felt as an up-bubbling joyous love being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given unto us. It was of a miraculous sort, this love which we first knew, and we knew it was.
The love of God led us beside still waters and green lush pastures, and through the valley of death. The love of God did not abandon us in our frustrations and despairs. The love of God did not see when we slipped and fell, sometimes disastrously, because the love held us the same there as the love had always held us. If we erred still the love did not err, and has done all things concerning us perfectly. If we strayed still the love did not stray, and always kept us to our course that the love had laid out from the Eternal. As off-beam as we may have gotten, because the love has guided us every step, we have never really been off-beam from the eternal side of things.
The “valley of the shadow of death” is where we took into account the “cost” of our commission. Like green soldiers who only dream of the “glory” of battle (not knowing yet its horrors), we blurted in our prayers – “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar” – “Here am I, Lord, send me” – “In the volume of the book it was written of me, lo, I come to do thy will, O God” – not knowing for what we prayed to receive. (I remember in my beginning days, “seasoned” older saints I ran into, more than once told me, “Be careful what you pray for, because you will get it!” They were right!)
In the privation of that time we discovered Him where He had always been but we did not know it, until the day came that He revealed Himself “in” us. Not just in a corner, but as the inner Truth and Person behind and sustaining all, including and most especially ourselves, so that we have seen that He has made us “one” in the Beloved, and that we walk as He walks in the world, talk as He talks, love as He loves.
All of that has been the preamble to, the preparation for, the Spirit’s move in our time now. We stand at the brink. On the other side of that brink is that land of Promise, revealed in a new way and lived in a new way, from the “fatherhood-king-priest-intercessor” level.
We might even say there are more than one enterings into the “land” in the various stages where the Father currently has us.
In the most “total” sense, we entered the “land of Promise” the moment Jesus kicked out our old slave-boss and moved in and took over our lives. He Himself IS that Land, and when we are in Him, we are “in” His land as well.
But we do not know it yet. We were only in the beginning, and in the beginning we start out in separate-mindedness, still flesh or “earthly” minded, and know only to rejoice that our sins have been wiped clean, forgiven and forgotten, that we now have an inner relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and that we are experiencing a totally “new” life which we now realize IS Life, because by the Spirit’s revelation in us we know that we came out of “death.”
That set up that walk for us, out of Egypt and bondage, cleansed by the blood, baptized in the Spirit, to head for the land of our “fathers,” and there to take that which has been provided for us, to “possess our possessions,” i.e., all the fullness and riches of Christ, to be USED in our final commission from the Father.
What does that mean, to “possess our possessions”? It means that there is a gap between our possessions being provided for us to possess, and we showing up to pick them up and start using them.
Consider this analogy. Imagine a father when his son is born into the family. On the date of his birth the father sets up a bank account for him and puts a million dollars in the account. Now of course as long as he is an infant or a small child, he knows nothing of banks and accounts, so there is no need even mentioning it, even though he has a million dollars waiting for him down at the bank.
The older he gets, the more knowledge and understanding grows, and at some point the father tells the son about the million dollars. He has not given his son full access to it yet, but the son begins to grow in awareness and appreciation of the heritage awaiting him when he comes to adulthood. The father even lets him use some of the account from time to time, to give him understanding and experience in using it and drawing from it. So during this time the son, still having not come to his majority, knows “of” his account, and just the knowing of its existence is a great source of future security for him, and makes the present more tolerable, just knowing what will one day be his.
But the day comes eventually, that the entire account is put at the disposal of the son, to do with as he pleases. He now, “possesses his possessions.” That is where we are now.
On this side of that “brink,” we are now being called to put aside all the condemnation and double-mindedness that have dogged us for so long. We are now called finally to stand with full faith in Who we are and His keeping, nothing held back, in full assurance that “as He is in this world, so are we.” No more waffling; no more spirals downward when a doubt assails us and we’re pulled back into that “maybe I am, maybe I am not” mode where we are often waylaid. The Spirit is our perfect Upholder!
We perhaps found the second “Promised Land” experience when we first began to know we are in union with Christ, that He and I are one. Coming into that initial understanding was for many of us like being born again, again. Scales dropped from our eyes, and our tears were flowing as we realized that He was fulfilling His own promises IN us, that He is the doer, He is the Life, He is the Wisdom, power, He is the Love, and that grace upon grace, He is all that in us in our continuous walk, and that as we are working out our own salvation “in fear and trembling,” we found Him in us, to “will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Phil 2:12,13)
And now we are here for this final push, this final taking up the possessions the Lord God has provided for us, and it is a good thing that we pause here and consider somewhat that which has brought us to this point, and that to which we are headed.
End Part One
Next we will look into our firm foundations, so that we are not caught out as in Hebrews 5:
12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
No, we are not stuck here, but are ready to move on as in Hebrews 6:
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this will we do, if God permit.
Friday 23 December 2011
Sunday 18 December 2011
Saturday 17 December 2011
Son Day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as Son Day
God spoke this into my heart this week....(Facebook status)
"The Lord's Day was never Sunday. It's the devil who mixes Sun worship with Son worship. Like pyramids with In God We trust. And Santa with Christmas.Oh no Chris has gone Seventh Day Adventist! No, Jesus, being Jesus and just above it all, said this week,that although Sabbath truly began on the eightth day, we are not allowed to celebrate it on the 8th day, because it hasn't ended yet!It's just Sabbath, period!"
http://www.andykazie.com/Landscapes/Spring-to-Life-1/15754831_3W8rrR/1/1181237779_X78c6#1181237779_X78c6 |
The Sabbath
Jesus did many of His healing miracles on the Sabbath. They prefigure how He as the Sabbath would heal and restore mankind by His death and resurrection. Every healing success demonstrating the efficacy of the cross. By one of the many wonders of the Spirit the Sabbath comes alive in Christ so that we relax into a person and not a specific day.
Another pertinent question in this context is why the Jews performed circumcision on the Sabbath. This tradition plainly foreshadows that in Jesus the old man is cut off. Circumcision also denotes our nothingness and impotence, that is, without Him we can do nothing. It is at this juncture we face a two way temptation. “A temptation "up," to see "this thing" as God and in God and at work for Divine purposes out of our inner oneness; or a temptation "down" in which our sight is locked into the temporal appearance as something in itself and "we" as "something in our selves" (separation) responding to this "thing" as if it is outside God, along with us outside God, too. Alone” (Fred Pruitt).
It was Sabbath when Jesus formed clay and put on the blind man's eyes so that He became seeing. Clay in this context equals union because it was His saliva mixed with dust (we are made from dust) that constituted the mixture. The dust and the saliva become one. He in us and we in Him. Both components giving definition to the clay. It is impossible to know where dust begins and saliva leaves off. The amazing thing is that it is the dust we see, but in a new transformed version in oneness. The dust has become the Sabbath in which it rests from its own works.
It is worth noting that it is Jesus who molds and fashions the clay so that it becomes a unique expression of Christ. We are not responsible to form ourselves. We are safe in His loving hands to become exactly what we are meant to be according to His Divine purposes perfectly manifesting the Father in all things. The dust hasn’t lost anything when it is mixed with Christ. It doesn’t either appear as merely an improved version of itself. No, it has become something new, something never seen before.
"AT THAT particular time Jesus went through the fields of standing grain on the Sabbath; and His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick off the spikes of grain and to eat." The plain truth is that Jesus is our food. He is the One who satisfies our hunger. He comes and calls us not in accordance with human traditions and assumptions, but most often contrary to reason and the natural mind. Those paths He takes us along have to contradict appearances and circumstances or else faith would be void and of no meaning.
“And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). It can't be said much clearer than this. God lives wholly for his creation and gives himself unrestricted to it so that it in all things can be restored to its original paradisaical state. He is like the sun which rays of light and warmth can only bless and which gives itself wholly to those it shines upon.
It was Friday when Jesus took His last breath. It was Sunday when the Spirit breathed His life into Him again. But death reigned the entire Sabbath. The shadow died so that the substance by faith could enter into human consciousnesses.
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- Craig Castleman Tremendous insights, truth and parallels conveyed here so beautifully Ole, thanks so much. Consequently, I am a little freer for having read it! Blessings.16 hours ago · · 1
- Ole Henrik Skjelstad Wow! Thank you dear friend! You are a perpetual source of encouragement. Blessings!15 hours ago ·
- Vicki Leventhal-Highet FrydrychYes! On the first sabbath the Lord completed all His work which He had done (Gen 2). The sabbath - the rest that remains (Heb 4) - is for each believer in Christ today. It is the time where the work He did in us becomes complete - it is finished (Jn 19) - and we get to rest in Him, who is also at rest. God looks at the heart (1 Sam 16) and when we accept the cross - our sin paid for AND - us, the sinner killed receiving His life within us (Gal 2, Rom 6) - the life we live by - we are finished.14 hours ago · · 3
- Ole Henrik Skjelstad I read Ez 37 yesterday, and it became very clear to me how finished we were until God made us alive again.14 hours ago ·
- Craig Castleman I wish I had known the glorious truth that 'I was finished' years ago, would have saved me (and some other folks, ha) lots of trouble! ha.14 hours ago · · 1
- Ole Henrik Skjelstad Sure thing, but it seems like all of us need a period of conditioning in the wilderness, taken there by the Spirit - we have all been stuck in Romans 7 until we surrendered.14 hours ago · · 3
- Craig Castleman http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=OrrIO_rXNO8 13 hours ago · - Elaine Fitzpatrick Sneed"AT THAT particular time Jesus went through the fields of standing grain on the Sabbath; and His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick off the spikes of grain and to eat." The plain truth is that Jesus is our food. He is the One who satisfies our hunger. He comes and calls us not in accordance with human traditions and assumptions, but most often contrary to reason and the natural mind. Those paths He takes us along have to contradict appearances and circumstances or else faith would be void and of no meaning.
" love this Ole...so true...it has to be different to us not the copying of someone else.13 hours ago · · 2 - Craig Castleman Yes, Elaine, Jesus is our very food for 'He would feed us with the finest of the Wheat' (Ps 81:16 & 147:14)13 hours ago · · 2
- Elaine Fitzpatrick Sneed I wrote a short about the need to make bread for yourself not instead of buying from a bakery but in the intimacy of it as a metaphor for relationship with my Jesus. You have to try Him for yourself! Taste and see.....you won't regret.13 hours ago · · 1
- Elaine Fitzpatrick Sneed I know you already have...just carrying on the metaphor.... =)13 hours ago · · 1
- Cathy Rheeder Oh how i love the bread of life! Thanx ole for always giving us the bread of life.mmmmm i love it.