Covenant Love on my mind!

I want you to read this excerpt. It wasn't written by John Noble or Gerald Coates or Maurice Smith in a Fulness magazine in the mid 70s and illustrated by crazy drawings or plasticine models at the side by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen. But it is virtually identical. It is written by Jamie Weeks here. And it is very similar to the blogpost Lydia did on reflections of Hong Kong.

They describe what I call Covenant Love meals. You know the sort Jesus had just before His death...and then subsequently on the road to Emmaus at which the two disciples experienced that glowing warmness ...no burning feeling they had...and they knew it just had to be Jesus!!
These and the times we now experience, are mini fulfilments of the Feast of Tabernacles/the Feast of Booths. It's the reality of the Body of Christ lived!!!
I am believing that all our Sunday meetings are going to become more and more like this. Again, how can I be so confident? Because that is what is happening in Havant. Christine said the Key of David meeting was awesome. It was Jesus Himself coming with a fresh revelation of His Grace.
In the afternoon Peter and Helen were describing some of the practical mechanics behind running these meetings. The history is that they felt to explore as a worship group and a few others, how you ascend the hill of the Lord. They wanted a safe place to learn and to make mistakes, away from the main congregation. It was here they learned about pressing in through the second level of principalities and powers, until a breakthrough occurs and they know something of a manifestation of the glory of God. Its like the 3rd heaven breaking through into earth realm.
These became monthly meetings open for outsiders to come. But then Florida happened and ever since, our Sunday meetings have been becoming more and more like the Key of David meetings. Not quite on the same level...but today , which I actually got to, was very precious.
We have to be free to learn these things...without resorting back to the familiar...the comfort zone...the tried and tested...the boring.Peter and Mariette are exporting our findings usually with teams from our church into Spain and USA and wherever they feel God calling.

Back to Jamie's excerpt.If you've not seen it read this!

But here is what I want to somehow attempt to express: We heard marvelous truths taught during the conference. We knew God was choreographing events because many of the subjects our small group discussed privately would be touched on later by either Steve or Paul. Incredible! And Steve and Paul pushed into the deeper truths of what it means to have Christ formed in you. This was no milk for babies or for the easily offended. This was meat for those who know that CHRIST IN US should eventually be CHRIST AS US! YES!!!!But still...it wasn't those moments of confirmation that were the miracle of our week-end.Nope, as gooood as they were.It was sitting at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sitting in the bar or standing around waiting to start. Just talking. Just sharing our hearts. Just being the Church.And questioning everything we've ever been taught about what we, the ekklesia, should look like.Questioning manmade structures be they buildings or set programs. Questioning giving and being missional. Questioning and challenging and trusting the Christ in each one of us to show us truth.And that was the miracle. Seeing and being Christ to each other! Being the Body of Christ.Without a pastor, a building, a sermon, an offering, a structured agenda, or any hierarchy. Just the Body trusting the Head to keep us and grow us. We ministered to each other!! THAT IS A BIG GOD THING!!What if the reason the modern church is in crisis is because the modern church is too afraid to trust God and just step out in relational fellowship??? What if we REALLY CAN trust Christ to be our Head and the Holy Spirit to lead us into all Truth through each other???What if??I for one was forever changed. And I'm not going back.

Helen Rubio and the Russian Dolls

This post is not Helen's latest chart-topping CD with a backing band from Moscow...this is her message which came more or less after Peter Stott's block buster on the 17th May at the Conference last year.
It throws up a link between 3rd heaven and 3rd level. About 2 years ago I was talking with Peter Stott after a Key of David meeting...and he made the link between what I refer to as 3rd level living and the 3rd heaven. I was not sure about this at all. I could not comment. What I'd received from the Lord 20 years ago was all I'd received...and I was just getting on with it. How it flowed with anything else I hadn't a clue and I could not be responsible for...because I'd received nothing on it.
But through Dan's input last year...and him pointing to Rob's Church in Hong Kong...and being introduced to the sessions with Josh Mills which anyone can download from the City Church archives 2008...this and Helen's own admiration for Josh Mills...this forced me into seeking to get light on things. A few posts ago I put up the results of my musings...to see that all these things are mirrored by the furniture in the Holy of Holies. Josh Mills takes us into the glory Presence of God and often experiences visible gold dust falling on his body straight out of the heavenlies. This is like the glory Presence above the Mercy seat and between the cherubim. The 3rd level living that I am talking about is like the furniture below this...The Mercy Seat in which is the Ark of acacia wood covered on the inside and out with gold. This is us living Christ as Me...in my form...in my shape...with our inward believing of who we are in Christ. It is not an intellectual knowledge. This is revelation to our insides. Now Helen at the moment would not talk about 3rd level living as a phrase....but in this message you can see where she's going. And she does make the direct link between 3rd heaven and our walk on Earth. I include this post for all the comments it will hopefully provoke...which I was going to discuss here...but it was a 2 track CD message...so I guess it will have to be another post. So, please feel free to comment about anything these last 5 Conference posts throw up...things you find good...things you are not so sure about...sometimes the problem areas force greater understanding.
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What I’ve been feeling in my heart as I’ve been preparing for the conference is very much part of my journey…..I love sitting and hearing Peter and others preach. That today was just like hearing Peter declare prophetically what is happening in the church. But I am the sort of person that will go and say, “Where does that leave me in the middle of that?”….”When I go out of here now and I go home…what does that mean??” So it is in my heart to share some keys….. to share some tools with you.
maybe this is little faith, but I believe that is the extent of it…but I believe it is very important. These are keys and these are tools that I have kind of tested over the last couple of years. I am not 100% proficient in them , but I am learning.

Do you remember either last year or the year before we talked about the journey of ascension through praise and worship? First heaven, second heaven and third heaven and the journey of praise. (Chris:For blog readers…I have not covered this yet, but you can get the outlines in Peter’s message preceding this post : Lift Up your heads 1-4)
We had praise gathering type songs in the first stage, we had spiritual warfare going on in the 2nd heaven and then we have the 3rd heaven where God inhabits. he is ofcourse everywhere, but His natural habitat , where His throne is , is the 3rd heaven.
The heaven of heavens. What we have discussed is that as we go in worship to that place, the 3rd heaven begins to be manifest in the Church…we begin to see the supernatural we begin to see manifestations of the supernatural Presence of God.We begin to see healing, we begin to see really effective intercession because we are interceding (from our true position) of heaven back down to earth.

But I was thinking about all this…we often think of it as an outward journey.here we are the Church… the congregation…we are on this journey…this ladder…(like Jacob’s ladder) into the Presence of God…and it’s external. in my head that’s how I visualise it.

But I felt that God showed me there was a correlation between this journey and our own spiritual being. And what I saw is that right in the middle there we have the spirit. Then here we have the soul, the will and emotions…(Chris writes, I’ll come back to that). and outside you have got the physical body. So the body is kind of like the first heaven where we dwell in our physical reality…The emotion or soulish area is relates to the area of spiritual warfare. Then the spiritual area of me is where God dwells. But it is not an outside place. It’s an inside place. So the same way I need to make this journey of ascension , this outside journey, my journey in this life is to make an inward journey all the time. And just as where we’ve lived for a long time as churches is …here (the outer levels), in our outward physical things and in our emotions and in our soul. And where God wants to teach us to live from is there…in our spirits. But I would go so far as to say that our ability to operate as a church here…moving in the 3rd heaven…relates consistently to our ability to live here…from our spirits. So our journey as a congregation or as church together is directly related to our ability to live from our spirits.( Chris says he can feel the grace hackles rising here…so we’ll come back and look at this…panic not!! Don’t excommunicate Helen yet!) She continues: All very good…in theory!!!

I was thinking about Brother Lawrence, (reference to Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence)bless him (said with meaning) and I said to the Lord…because I have these frank discussions with Him… and I actually said to Him, “ It’s alright for Brother Lawrence! if all I had to do all day was to stand and do the washing up…I reckon I could have a pretty good stab at focussing on being in the Presence of God all day.I think I could probably do that…at my kitchen sink….looking out the window… I could be in the Presence of God. Thanks to my mum I have a dishwasher now…so I don’t even get that time now…

I get up, I get the breakfast, I get the children ready for school, I get myself ready, I get myself off to work, I teach young people with challenging behaviour most of the day…(said at lightning speed) then I go home do the cleaning the cooking look after the car look after the house look after the garden do the worship team do the music da da da… da da da….when do I get time…in my understanding of what living from my spirit means WHEN DO I LIVE FROM MY SPIRIT? I’m so caught up with what I have to do all the time. When do I live in that authority? When do I live in that Presence and Power of God? How do I do that? how do I really do that?

I have really struggled with that. (Yup…and I bet many reading this blog would identify. See, it’s easy for the secular person and the cessationist Christian. You don’t know the power of God can actually surge through you today. So for you there is no option. Once you discover that yes….the Holy Spirit is still around doing what He did in the gospels and Acts…this presents a major problem!!! John Cleese said,”Despair I can live with. It’s the hope I can’t take!!”)

And I’ve spent the last few months up until a couple of months ago getting an understanding of it…but not completely… So I would be thinking “I’ve gotta make time…to access the Presence of God…I’ve gotta make time to understand that authority and understand His Presence…and I need to find time and that’s what the answer is. But ofcourse my life on days gets busier and busier. And when I wasn’t getting that time I was getting frustrated. Oh that means I’m not living from my spirit. I’m not being a spiritual woman. All this….condemnation…..you know…

I had a revelation one day. It was very interesting because Kaye (Gill…the one referred to in Havant Parchment) prayed for me a few months ago. As she prayed she said shefelt something shift in my head – (Probably my brain just getting into gear!!!)
And nothing much happened after that. and a couple of months ago I’d got to the point where I’d actually taken a couple of weeks off work. I was really having such a difficult time. I just got before God…and as I was doing this I got this revelation.
It was from John 14 …and I just felt something in my brain just shift!!! have you ever had that? When you get a revelation. if you haven’t ever had it then begin to seek God for it because there is truth in the Bible that God wants to reveal to you..and we need to give time to that…and when it comes…when it clicks…you’ll know! And you’ll know that you know that you know!!!

I could suddenly see that I had a place of abiding in Christ. I want you to turn to John 14 and I am going to bring out somebody to help me. I could do with a few volunteers……….

You know God’s way of doing spiritual warfare is radically different to the way we think spiritual warfare is done. I have been in so many meetings where there is lots of shouting…and I’m not saying there isn’t a place for that…but in those days that was all our understanding of spiritual warfare was. I want to read you what I believe is God’s definition of spiritual warfare. Jn14: 9Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? (M)He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
10"Do you not believe that (N)I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? (O)The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.
11"Believe Me that (P)I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise (Q)believe because of the works themselves. Then in the next verses He speaks about the works and the greater works….he’s been talking about how He is in the Father and the Father is in Him…..but He is saying all this in the context of spiritual warfare and authority. So Jesus sees that the Key to both these things is the Abiding in the Father. Now this is where I need some helpers. Quick quick quick.
You’ll have to give me a bit of poetic licence here. This is God the Father…..Disguised cleverly as a Russian doll….just try and imagine…(said with intent)
This is Jesus. And then I need one more person. This is me. There you are mother. And this is the Holy Spirit. Thanks Emma.
Now Jesus says I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit. So that’s me with the baby Russian doll inside – the Holy Spirit. This is not a magic trick by the way. I am not going to magic a dove out of thin air! Right. OK.
Then it says I am in Jesus. See. Then Jesus says I am in the Father. Where are you in the middle of all of that? What does the Enemy see when he looks at you? Not a Russian doll…thankyou Clive. (Jackson of Shaftsbury who should know better - Lots of laughter.) How to ruin a good sermon!
When the enemy looks at you he sees the Father!!! If we remain in Him. Wow!!
But Jesus has done the work. He didn’t say…once you’ve done this, and once you’ve done that…and the other…when you come to church every Sunday…when you pray for an hour every day…then that’ll mean you remain in Me. He just says “I am in you. And I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. It’s all there!!”
So what’s the point of me spending time with yYou then, God? I don’t mean to be heretical…I was just following a train of thought. Why do I find that need then to come and spend time? And I just felt the Holy Spirit say really clearly, “When you come and give that time to Me, you begin to experience that abiding. You begin to experience all that that means.You begin to connect with it and then begin to receive all the benefits of that. You receive the love. You receive the comfort. You receive the strength, the joy the peace. Everything that you need.”
“But when you move out of that place, nothing has changed. Your position has not changed.You’re still abiding . You are still in that place. But you just plug into it for that time.”
And so the challenge then is to know that we are abiding for all that time, and by abiding, we have that authority. How do we stay conscious of that…in all the busyness and activity?
One of the keys is to just keep coming back. ( In returning and rest you shall be saved) And the other key is to just turn our minds…just say “ Lord I thankyou that I am abiding in You.I am in You” and to thank Him for that.
But there are certain keys that enable us to go deeper. Because the biggest amount of daily warfare that goes on in our lives, is not against huge demons and principalities and powers. The biggest battle that goes on is here …pointing to the soul realm. Over my flesh (sinful pulls) my soul, my emotions. How I actually am. So we are on this inward journey…so how do we stay inward?
These are five things that I find useful
quiet
contemplation and meditation
worship and beholding
discipline
waiting and soaking
Proverbs 3:5-6 trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. This is about us coming and doing these seemingly insignificant things…yet we trust that God is the One who is in us doing the things He needs to do.
He KEEPS US ABIDING…we keep trusting He keeps us abiding. The more that we understand that we are abiding…that we’re in Him that He is in us…that therefore we have His authority. Therefore we can deal with all the things that come up in my life…in my flesh…in my job..in my family.
Quiet. So very quickly…it says in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.
And here I mean Quiet. A lot of us have got into using Cds …but I believe there is a place for quiet…. it’s an outward silence…but what needs to happen is that there needs to be an inward silence. And if you start to practice this…the first thing you will notice is the amount of noise there is – inside. As you keep going with it…eventually you learn to still all that internal noise. Just be patient. we used to call it Quiet Time. Listening. Jesus constantly took time out in a quiet lonely place. Solitude is really important.
Contemplation and meditation. ps 119 I meditate on your statutes. It’s about understanding the ways of God.
A lot of people have heard the prophecy about the Unknown Way. I call you to a way that is unknown….Quite often on this journey, we don’t know what is happening on the next day.But if you know your God…if you know how He works…how He thinks…you will be secure. use crafted prayers. When you hear something from God…write it down…then maybe later when you don’t feel in the same place…use what has been written down before.because this lines you up with what your spirit is saying…not what your changeable emotions are saying.
Worship and beholding
If you play an instrument. if you sing. Sing! put on a cd. At home . In the car. Sing in tongues. become focussed on the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to you.That you can gaze upon Him. That you can behold Him. Because that really is the place of transformation. And we become part of that circle of intimacy. we love the Father. the Father loves us. The Father loves Jesus. Jesus loves us…..
Discipline
Discipline is a key to authority. Not as a heavy religious thing. But as a pursuit out of desperation to see something different in my life. making time to pursue this inner journey. A commitment that is carried through with persistence…as with anything we undertake in our life. Maybe a commitment to a regular 10 minutes. A lovesickness.We make dates and appointments to be with special people in our lives.Make appointments to be with Jesus. Nope…sorry I’m busy then…I have a prior appointment …with Someone Important!!
be aware that IT IS A JOURNEY. It is a process. God said to me the other day “I am not preparing you for an encounter. I am preparing you to understand how you live with My Glory” So many of us are looking for that encounter, that experience…that moment … but actually God is training us to be a people that know how to live and work and move in His glory. So if you think this is all taking time…it’s because this is not just for a quick encounter…this has got to be something that is sustainable. and the more that you go on this journey…you will find there is a hunger arises in you. be prepared as he is training you for this spiritual authority…the first thing He is going to deal with…IS YOU. So all the things that you have kept hidden away. all the things that you have got away with over the years.The first area that God wants to establish dominion is in your heart, your house…your family.We say oh the church…the church…but who is the church. We are.
It is a hidden way. Sometimes for long stretches you will not feel anything. This is where trust is important. He is working!!!
Waiting and soaking.
God is after our hearts not just our emotions. Be content sometimes to just wait!!!!
When you are in a marriage you are in it for the long haul…even if on some days you feel quite cheesed off with each other.
Showing the Russian dolls…this is not process…this is fact…we are hidden in Christ. The process is for me to bring my will and my emotions into line so that I live this stuff! hen we begin to live experiencing these already established truths then everything that Peter was preaching this morning will begin to manifest. But this takes obedience to step out in faith with what God shows us to do.