This is a post about the "middle realm", the contest for the Holy Place, the fight and struggle that goes on in the "second heaven" and the surprising realisation that at least a part of that realm, and the key part is inside us. We're going in via Andre Rabe, via Carol Decker and via a song of mine.We're going to learn what the "fullness of the times "is and the present reality of the typology of the Tabernacle.You'll never think quite the same about the Parable of the Sower either. From the Chapter "Apprehended" from Secret Of Contentment ISBN 978-0-9563346-0-2 - Andre RabeWhat is this strange ... yet familiar attraction
this awareness of Your person that draws me beyond myself
It's not a desire for pleasure or any type of reward
it's a hand upon my spirit that pulls me toward
a consciousness of our union
without distraction.
What will You say ...
Where will You take me ...
You are utterly unpredictable yet completely dependable
and I revel in this uncertain security.
Uncertain, because You continually surprise me.
Secure, because I'm at home in Your embrace.
The more intimate our acquaintance
the greater the intrigue
of Your boundless person and infinite mind.
Here I belong; here I will abide.
I found the secret of satisfaction
yet there remains this mysterious magnetism
to explore Your height and depth,
to open my spirit eyes as wide as You.
And as I experience a vision of Your greatness,
I expand beyond the narrow confines
of earthly logic and my natural mind
to perceive what cannot be understood
and know for certain what cannot be explained.
END
This morning I felt to write on Facebook:
Brokenness is a phrase Gene Edwards and Ed Miller used a lot. I think it's a secondlevel word. We're in a new generation now. It gave too much prominence to the pot. I think Daniel Yordy's diagram is far more accurate.How many remember the lyrics of China in Your Hand by Carol Decker of T'pau?Lyric writer Carol Decker explained that it is the effect that if you hold a china cup to a light, you can see your hand through it - therefore 'china in your hand' means something that is transparent.[1]
China in Your Hand
From the album Bridge of Spies by T'Pau
Written by Carol Decker and Ron Rogers...
It was a theme she had
On a scheme he had
told in a foreign land
To take life on earth
To the second birth
and the man was in
command
It was a flight on the wings
Of a young girls dreams
That flew too far away
And we could make the monster live again
Oh hands move and heart beat on
Now life will return in this electric storm
A prophecy for a fantasy
The curse of a vivid mind
Don't push too far
Your Dreams are china in your hand
Don't wish too hard
Because they may come true
And you can't help them
You don't know what you might
Have set upon yourself
China in your hand
Come from greed
Never born of the seed
Took life from a barren hand
On eyes wide
Like a child in the form of a man
A story told
A mind of his own
An omen for our time
We take a flight on the wings of fantasy
Then you push too far
And make your dreams reality
Yeah! china in your hand
But they're only dreams
And you shouldn't push too far
When asked what the lyrics meant, Ron Rogers co-writer said he wasn't sure, but Carol said it's about Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"..... So it's saying something like : what originally began as a theme in an author's mind could in these days of genetics take on outer form as we juggle around with life itself. We could make the monster live again.
But on another level this speaks of
that diaphanous layer below the conscious mind that conjures our future, that draws our future to itself. It can and MUST be invaded by the Holy Spirit, lest we draw to ourselves many outer forms of the monster that was always the design of the devil to draw to earth. But conversely He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. Here world means kosmos(Greek): the limited world of those (as Ern preaches) moral intelligences submitted to the devil's lying reign.
Can I briefly press this home as it is related to the scheme of this post?
Our first position as non-Christians is to ignore or possibly categorically deny any Devil. This is falsehood.
Our second position as Christians , and more so Spirit-filled Christians, is to absolutely be aware of the devil. He can scare us witless...and we like many Christians go around spouting about the "god of this world", thinking world means the same one God created and includes everything within it. This too is falsehood.
As Ern preached: The Earth is the Lord's and the Fullness thereof.
The more we "see" God in all, even and especially the bad things, the more we pull the rug out from underneath the devil's slender and lying claim to how things are run on Earth. But this seeing goes on underneath our conscious thought level. It's our instinctive level. It's where we really "see" everything in our life from.
Here's three examples of people who outwardly are one thing but underneath something is going on that affects them more, one positive two negative:
A man I tune for lives in a large house in a large wooded acreage near Ascot. It is near London.It is not too far from the Queen's outer London residence in Windsor and Windsor great park. You can only imagine the cost of such a house and property. He loves landscaping his property and adding lovely features. Every time I go there is something new. Yet this man is sad. Not at the surface level, but underneath. He seems to live a life of total depression. Possibly, because he knows all his money comes from shredding flesh- or the manufacture of weapons to kill people efficiently. And, up until recently, this involved virtually blank cheques from our government.
Meanwhile, when I visited Kenya in 86, my parents and I were taken for a tour round a hillside forested property by the 16 year old daughter of a Salvation Army Captain who was mostly absent and working among the slums of Nairobi. The daughter was virtually a second mother to his children. She was not bitter. She had a beautiful, pure spirit. Her inner eye which shone out of her outer eye was bright and beaming.They had virtually no money, yet at any time as she did with us, she could pull down the most amazing bananas, lemons,limes,oranges and mangoes fresh from their trees. The water in their stream was crystal clear and fresh, and they lived in a small community of neighbours who shared responsibility between them for care of the children, when others were at work or needed to study.
Stephen Fry is constantly referred to as our national treasure as one of the most articulate and knowledgeable of souls, yet at the level I refer to in this post he is constantly riding the rollercoaster of a bi-polar condition. There is always the danger that too soon there will not be a Stephen Fry.
Finally, in this introduction, where I am collecting together component materials, I want to refer to the post's title. My only connection with Carol Decker of T'pau is to do with a particular song I wrote called "Give It all You've Got." Originally it was written with Carol in mind because it is the same theme as a lot of T'Pau's songs, and also apart from Suzi Quattro, she was one of the only sassy female vocalists you used to hear back in the 80s. It was just prior to Margaret Becker's emergence with Charlie Peacock.
My song was written during the optimistic period of "The Only Way is Up" by Yazz, and it was in this period some of us were discovering the heady atmosphere of multilevel marketing or MLM with Companies such as Amway. Just as America has taken team power to a totally new level in recent centuries, the discovery that marketing needn't always be linear but could be multi layered, revolutionised the whole way sales could be operated. So , in less jargon, instead of having a traditonal marketing force with one sales manager managing a traditional pyramid of a line of salesmen under him....you can have an infinitely(almost) changing layered pyramid of sales people each earning commission from those they have in turn told and explained the product to.
This is the simple genius behind 2 tells 2 who tell 2 who tell 2 who tell 2, and pretty soon you are living from a small commission payment coming from an awful lot of people.
As people's jaws drop to think that I could ever be involved with such a thing, I'll move on after just these sentences.
MLM is mathematics;neither good nor evil. It is democratic, because anybody can have a team under them. When the marketplace becomes flooded, you pick another innovation or productline and start again.
MLM cannot function well while each and every individual is living in self for self mode.MLM referred to this as "survival mode". MLM only works in self for others mode, what MLM called "contribution" mode. Having just read "Yes I am" by Norman Grubb, I couldn't believe what these business people were saying. Not to put too fine a point on it, in the late 80s and 90s like Caleb and Joshua we saw the future, but it was ripped away from us because carnal minds labelled the system as evil, without seeing that what was evil was the compounded spirit of self for self that was evil. The system itself just is. 2times 2 times 2 times 2 times 2 times a monthly commission of say £50 from each makes £16000, whether it's a Christian £16000 or a mafia £16000. But that isn't what this post is about.
When I came to record "The Blood Song" on my double CD I wanted a section encouraging a response to this, so I wrote to Carol Decker to see if she'd be up for it. I made my position clear, and as a Leftie Labour agnostic/atheist she made hers clear, so it never happened. Helen Burgess of Ellel Ministries helped me instead. The song then leads into a psalm Francois Du Toit quoted a few weeks ago :Psalm 36
Youtube notes:First written for Carol Decker of T'Pau during the heady days of Multi Level Marketing and Yazz "the Only Way is UP" Give It All eventually ended up sandwiched on my CD1 of Early Harvest as part of a long track entitled the Blood Song. It ends with a version of Psalm 36(dated22/7/94) that came during a time of waiting on God.. Band includes Nick Beggs of Kajagoogoo and Iona, and also musical director of Belinda Carlisle on bass,Steve Cyster on guitar, John Graham (Rev James Graham's son and friend of Roy Castle" Recordbreakers") and Helen Burgess of Ellel Ministries sharing vocals with me AC Welch, recorded at River Studios London 1997 and Mango studios Chichester 1998.
The Holy of Holies
Ephesians 1 and 2 and Colossians 1 are an open proclamation of the secret hidden for ages, namely Christ in Us the Hope of Glory.
These passages are Spirit passages. They are Life and Truth. They are not religious niceties. They are reality and Spirit reality is infinitely more real than anything a few molecules with massive holes between them could contain. Our present material world has more gaps in between the substance than substance.
They are the FIRST thing that we as mature Christians, by the Spirit, by the supernatural gift of utterance lay in the lives of one day old believers.
The incomparable Christ :- Colossians 1:13-29
And because he is who He is, he has caught us up together with Him.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
It is a gift. It is not of ourselves. It is lavished on us.He has caught us up into
"an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth." From a throne point of view the fullness of the times was the point in history when everything turned on its hinge. The hinge was the Cross. The intersection of glory and judgment. We do not say "who will go up for us?" or "who will go down into hell for us". It was a done deal at that precise time. This was the fullness of times.
When we get caught up in Christ's reality we are being caught up in what is eternally true : The fullness of the times. And we are told what that is.
The summing up of all things in Christ.....hmmmm....things in the heavens....and things on the earth.... like as if they were one thing ? Before this they were never one thing.
Psalm 85
In the 70s I got 3 songs from Psalm 84 and 85. I wasn't looking for them. They landed on me !
One was from Psalm 85: 8-9 RSV Bible: Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his saints, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
[9] Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
And it goes on
[10] Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
[11] Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
This is connected with the ladder ascending into heaven that Jacob saw, and the subject of this series Psalm 24.
Note:1) it is God's NORM that glory may dwell...remain...hang around....on our land.
2) God speaks PEACE to His people. What peace? The peace of Ephesians 1 and 2. The dividing wall of hostility is broken down. He Himself has made peace. Peace between the rebellious person and the right demands of the Law and Covenants. Peace between Gentiles and God. Peace between the sons of the covenant , the Jews, and those who were far off (us Gentiles) who have now been brought near.
3).How can God be sure Faithfulness will spring/is springing up from the ground. Transplanting the seed of the Kingdom is nothing less than Christ Himself. Having come here and overcome as a Man, Jesus comes again in the Person of the Holy Spirit into every single believer....He is faithful, and it is His faithfulness springing forth in believers who learn the truths of grace and the reality of Jesus living our life as us.
4) All these things are NORMAL for those who turn and keep on turning to the Living God who speaks this peace, and they turn in their hearts. It is a heart religion. "Out of the heart flow the issues/ the outflowing rivers of life."
The KINGDOM is NOW
We don't preach a Kingdom that is future. We preach the Eternal Now. We preach the I AM.
God refers to Himself as the I am...because it's like a blank cheque. He can be for us all things. He can be for us what we need for Him to be right now.
"The Kingdom is near you even in your mouth."
We believe in our heart, we confess with our mouth.
The Practice Run In 1972 we asked ourselves some big questions. How do we ever get to the bigger picture of revival? God answered totally (we felt) counter-intuitively by teaching us the way into His Presence through praise and worship. I was thinking this week about my attitude at the time .
I think I felt I was doing God a favour by learning to praise Him. But the more we obeyed in this, what started out as a "new liberating activity" soon became a door on a whole new world.
A way of being.
A conversation.
A language.
A Presence of the Holy One Himself.
The more we learned the less we knew. The cocksure way of presenting ourselves in praise and worship activity gave way to an increasing sense of awe that we'd ever been invited to this party in the first place. Yes definitely the more we learned the less we knew.
In Amersham in little house gatherings, then in Paderborn,Germany with a new German friend who had just returned from travelling with Judson Cornwall (trained by Ed Miller) through to a "coincidental" personal arrival later in Emsworth Church where Ed Miller was at that time a frequent visitor , we were learning that there are stages we pass through even in worship meetings. Here, I am talking about meetings with "flow"....not the micromanaged meetings where songlists dominate, or where "anointed" showmen do their entertainment spots. I mean meetings where the I AM God is actually no.1 on the agenda.
Helen Rubio has spoken of the 1st , 2nd and 3rd heaven realms where we enter into God's Presence. We enter into His courts with praise. We praise because it is a command. No matter what is going on.No matter how we feel. Not some sort of Hitler command, because we are responding to God first loving us. He instigated our ability to have a relationship with Him. But particularly because we are fallen beings, we awaken from our slumberous state where we slip back into blaming God for our situation, we rise up and speak the truth again...that at all times He truly is worthy of praise. He just is. He is glorious and cannot help it!!!
There are often extraordinary battles in meetings at this point, but as we press through this "2nd heaven" waging warfare against soupy,heavy,treacle like atmospheres, it is like a plane rising through the clouds breaking into God's eternal sunshine again. You can often feel exactly the point where a meeting changes gear. And from here we are able to get direction for the rest of the meeting.
Now, if we pray for somebody, it is from a position of inner knowing that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. It's a different kind of prayer!
What I particularly want to highlight is the nature of these Amersham,Paderborn,Emsworth and now Havant Key of David meetings. After praise , so many times there is a time of intimacy "one on one" us and Jesus,but together. In the Argentinian manner we would seek Him on our face. Deep issues in our lives would be touched. Many would cry. Deep spiritual mysteries may suddenly become clear. Stunningly clear direction for problems that have long eluded us.New songs. Paticularly in Emsworth, some of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard came right here among something like ten of us particularly, or from sister churches in this way in Argentina,Spain and France. We never really sang UK songs, we had too many of our own.
Gradually we'd be up on our feet again but this time the worship would be purer,deeper...just more awesome.
Why I want to highlight this particular section of the meetings is particularly relevant for our discussion of Psalm 24. Remember,this was the practice run. This was the meeting version of what we are now to live fulltime in opening up the gates for our King!!!
What is that time on our face before God?Sometimes an extended silence, or being quiet while an instrument plays softly? What is contemplation? Meditation?
Let's answer obliquely with this parameter. It's the Holy Place. Not the Holiest Place yet. It's the middle place. Absolutely anyone can enter into the courts of the Lord. Only priests enter the Holy place. We have all been made priests but only in Christ by the Holy Spirit's power. Now in the Holy place there are NO WINDOWS. This is not a place for natural wisdom and light. This is a place of revelation. Of light coming from the candlestick. From the Holy Spirit.
This is also the place of the Shewbread. This is the place where 3rd level/father level ministries impart Jesus to those in the second stage of growth. Eating the shewbread, is related to the eating of the Body of Christ. The Blood cuts us off from our past and brings total cleansing to us. Eating the Body of Christ is literally nourishing ourselves with the Truth of who Christ has now made us. We have died. This false illusion of having a separate exstence - being self-empowered, which was really always Satan-I, has died too. We now become increasingly aware of our total Union with Christ. This is where we learn it. This is where we get nourished. This is Christ becoming us, from our insides out. see Psalm 45:13NASV "The King's daughter etc..."This is why, even in these meetings, when we get up again, when we enter deeper into worship, we feel cleaner, transformed, lighter inside. We find it easier to worship unhindered. I want to talk about this precise thing but in the wider context outside of meetings.
The Israelites had "practice runs" too. Their wilderness experience was a practice run for the Land. The walk they developed (or didn't) in the place of harsh conditions and lack, built into them the inner qualities needed for going properly into action later.
Jericho was a practice run. Yes ofcourse it was also the real thing....but spiritually, having to walk silently round a city six times and on the seventh holler and blow trumpets...was all a practice run for what they would STILL DO spiritually but next time with natural equipment too. They had to learn it was not the natural equipment that was saving them!!!
Another spiritual practice run was in Chronicles when the army had to stand still and see the salvation of their God....only allowed to use the method of praise!!!
In the practice runs we develop the internal sense of the Presence of God, of our conversation with God which is a language of the interior. It cannot really be articulated. It is like a catching fire on your insides.
TheREAL THING
The real thing is a people who have developed in the Holy Place, the 2nd stage of "young men" as it says in 1 John 2:12 ff, and are now fixed in their knowing. They KNOW that they are Christ in their form, their personalities, their bodies and now they become walking talking representatives of all the furniture and typology that we see in the Holy of Holies, the third stage of growth as Paul describes in the book of Hebrews.They go into action with their armour as in Ephesians 6:10.
We take a break while Nancy Gilmore shares some very interesting impressions on Facebook.
**********************
"His body is on location for Christ" Nancy Gilmore
speaking of Bryan Coatney and his poetry." I see that's what our body is. It is a Temple for the Living God to live in and through on location . . a branch which the sap hatches it's fruit on. The Lord showed me my body once in a vision, I could see through my body, it was transparent. I could see out of both sides of my head with limitless ends, and I saw scales falling off my eyes through the back of my head and down my back with my neck and jaws being fixed in a locked position. . .and I was soaring upward. As God would have it, I just happened to be alone with Norman Grubb as we were talking about being 'whole' people in the Lord. When I saw the vision I said to Norman. OH Norman, I just saw myself in ascension! As calm as could be, he replied. "Oh my dear, that was Christ as you!" END
************************
Every church meeting that runs genuinely in the Holy Spirit is WEEKLY proof that the "place " that Jesus has prepared for us is in fact HERE, NOW. The fullness of the times is here. The Kingdom is here. We just don't perceive it. Which is why Jesus gives us a framework in which to learn it. What would that be?
When two or three are gathered in My Name, I will be with them. But when we go apart? When the meeting is over, nothing has changed. The Kingdom is no less among us. It's just our perception.
So where is this all happening then? And what are the gates that need lifting up for the King of Glory to come In ? Jesus spoke of roots and soil and WORD.
The Parable of the Sower Re- examinedMark 4:1-20Matthew 13:1-23Luke 8:1-15
Many of us that were brought up in church would have a cast iron template for this parable. We think in terms of different sorts of people. Even worse than this with religious specs on, we can get to thinking I in my "independent self position "am good soil. I am not like that riffraff over there!
There's a word for this: self-righteousness.At the very least this parable is saying we are nothing without "the seed". And this seed is an entirely grace form of seed. We don't earn it. We don't do anything for it. We don't buy it. The only thing we do is Hear it.
And obey it , but by faith. A faith that comes from the very Divine seed itself.This is grace.
Whether or not this parable does mean different types of people in a born-again grace type understanding, it also is referring to what ONE INDIVIDUAL LIFE has to go through in order to become a John 15 "fruitbearer"
At the beginning we have no ears to hear. Yes, we have flappy things on the side of our head, but no inward capacity to hear. The capacity to hear comes by hearing the Word.
Sometimes it just seems to be a bit of dry head knowledge. I know a lady who got born again in Brighton through the cult "The Children of God". They only preached John's gospel. She was born again through a supernatural encounter with John 3:16." God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whosoever believed ON Him should have eternal Life." Everyone else just heard words. She heard Word. And Life became Eternal in her. Two weeks after this, her new Life told her to leave that cult immediately.
Later we have Word, but no root. Without root, which is the subject of this post, we have no strength to live that Word. We do a good meeting, but we're not living there full time yet.
So ofcourse, to get us living it full time God gives us another BIG ZAP of anointing and everything is wonderful and we live happily ever after...and we marry the prince or princess and the sun shines for ever more! THE END.
Nope. That's not what the parable of the sower says. The final stage before we get to pure soil is rocky soil, with harsh jagged weeds and thistles. We are told what these are.This time, not so much the previous persecutions, but some things that are more subtle and insiduous:
1. Life's worries
2. Riches
3.Pleasures
For these sort of things, the testings are outside the meeting room. It is NO coincidence at all that there is a whole wave of Christian people worldwide that don't go to church and many are on Facebook.This kind of development doesn't happen anywhere near meetings. This kind of development comes as a Romans 12 "laid down " life goes around in the world and has these great asteroids coming at it Pacman style.
Life's worries are what Norman calls things I don't like. Squeezes. Demands being made of me that I know, looking at my inventory ,I am never going to meet. Ouches. Pinches. But only in that environment do I learn they are in fact God's negatives.
I wasn't long into reading "Yes I am" when I met a Branhamite. (William Branham - the Last great prophet Elijah kind of thing) Now this guy was a former Pentecostal pastor who now had advanced Parkinson's, and consequently could not hold down his previous position...or rather his flock were certain he couldn't! So abandoned, he was now at the mercy of UK Social security.Isn't the Christian life just so loving!
But both he and I believed in healing. I was there tuning many times. I'd seen a lot of healings at the London Morris Cerullo outreaches in the early 90's, so "full of faith" I prayed for him. But ofcourse I wasn't full of faith I was full of enthusiasm from the London meetings, and.....nothing ever happened. Now at this point a "secondleveller" doesn't know how to cope. He's meant to get healed when I pray!!!
Now we know God is doing amazing things in this day, using folk in healing as never before. We also know from Barbara Rogerson's testimony that you can be quietly toddling along learning about Christ as you in normal life situations, when all of a sudden someone transmits to you one of the many transferable anointings that are going around these days. The Toronto Blessing or Father's Blessing was highly transferable!!!! Went right round the UK within weeks. So Barbara began to experience a facility in praying for things the second beforehand she'd never have dreamed of tackling.
In Bible House (see relevant Google label below)some issues surfaced in people's lives that were then dealt with in days or weeks. When they weren't, most were stumped. We were secondlevellers!!! There were longstanding situations that were prayed through and the breakthroughs were pretty outstanding.
However I knew my situation was hopeless in Emsworth and just knew that no leader was going to help. In the end I pressed in myself, and like so many that are on Facebook who have found their answers outside the system, we learned the true meaning of Romans 7 and started to experience our very own Romans 8.
2.Riches and 3.pleasures are very subtle. Because they need not be sin. And many times it is God meaning you to experience these blessings. But as in Judges 7:5, Gideon's 300 distinguished themselves by lapping at the water with cupped hands with one eye open for the enemy, so now God's people are distinguishing themselves by instinctual behaviours that mark them out, give themselves away, as being set apart for the next big operations that are up ahead. Remember, the 30,000 knew of the selection process, the 10,000 had no idea at all!
The key is not to develop behaviours. The Key is to have your Holy Place invaded by the Holy of Holies. To submit to the truths of the "Fullness of Times" and the total victory won for us at the Cross.
The Battle for the Holy Place
1.Why? Because if you are born again Jesus has already completely taken over your spirit.In fact according to the Old Testament twofold image of the 2 goats, you and I have died and our false spirit has been driven into the wilderness never to be seen again. You can't get a more graphic picture of annhililation. We are now Christ-us in our spirit centre. Any deliverance issues or problem issues are not here.This is the Holy of Holies. In you it's where Christ dwells.
2.The Problem is moving heaven from the Holy of Holies(the one inside you) out into the rest of your being.God's got a double technique here. Firstly , the experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. This is available on the day you believe...,though most Christian leaders never tell you. And this was no different in Acts.On two occasions the apostles had to ask "Did you receive the Spirit when you believed?" And on both occasions it was a negative reply. So the apostles prayed for the saints and in both instances they knew they were filled and they also began speaking in other languages praise unto God. So there is really no room for controversy here. you know when you are filled and you begin doing things that have no natural explanation. (Yes ,I'm aware psychologists try)
This is clearly not the whole thing though, or else why would there be the Parable of the 10 virgins. All ten had oil. Did you get that. All Ten had oil, but there was another supply that only five bothered purchasing. I believe that is what is being talked about in this post and the parable uses the phrase "I don't know you" of the five with insufficient oil.
Be Lifted Up you gates, be lifted up you ANCIENT doors.
A unique thing is happening in our day. The doors that slammed shut inside people from Adam's day onwards are now being challenged. A few saints saw this thing about "separation" and the need for us to be "single-eyed" again, but today it is being broadcast around the world to those who will hear. In Genesis 3 an existence so spurious, so ridiculous was spun by a lying devil, that it has taken until now, millennia later for numbers to see it. There IS NO separate existence as humans. We are either empowered by a sin spirit or by Christ's own Spirit of Life. Where this became complex was as Christians, who having Christ at their centre, still by their own ignorance or stubborn refusal to hear in the Spirit, carry on in the belief that they are self-empowered people with a bit of Holy Spirit anointing on top (if they're lucky). This one false belief system has disastrous consequences. Just as we could not live the Christian life before asking Jesus in, we still cannot until we acknowledge by faith the existence of One sole Spirit operator beneath our unique personalities and bodies
namely One Jesus Christ. It is not I (at my spirit centre) who live, it is Christ who lives within me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD.
What is revelation?
Revelation is a deeper knowledge than the sort taught in UK schools. Our surface thought patterns/ ways of thinking are best thought of us an amoral tool. Neither good nor bad. Step by step thinking.
Below this is the mesh, the filter system that drives us, that is where we are really at. What is so confusing for the person particularly locked in the "surface of things" is to have a prophet address the bit underneath. When we see in the Spirit, we see clearer and clearer the bit underneath, and we groan within because we know all the surface talk in the world can go on for years or decades, while the sludge underneath remains untouched. So naturally we can't stand the thought of someone having to go on suffering endlessly....so a prophet tends to want to act impulsively and clear the whole (what he she sees as a total waste of years)thing up and be done with it. Ask any prophetic/creative/artistic type and they'll tell you the disruptions they've caused around these types of issues.
Nowadays we are helped by a (slightly) clearer understanding of how our minds work. First the period after Jane Austin's writings, then Freud and Jung, then onto the 1963 book
"The Games People Play" by Eric Berne, and onward to PET brain scans of the current day, people can be helped through deeper issues with courses of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
But to really know ourselves through and through we Christians say we need the Light of the Holy Spirit. Psalm 36: In His Light we see Light. At this depth surely this is the only safe place for us.
The Holy Place and the Soil
Christians have spent decades attending "healing of the hurts" seminars. Morris Cerullo tends to pooh pooh this type of ministry because of its seeming endless navel-gazing nature. Both are wrong.
Jesus only took 3 years to transplant His life in the twelve disciples. Two things need to happen to move at this speed. We preach the positive of Christ living His life through us. But there has to be an equivalent experience of a Holy Place/ secondlevel period where we at the "young men" stage "take " the overcoming Word of Testimony and loving not our lives unto death make it ours. Become fixed in it. Whether through soaking. Through sensitive Holy Spirit meetings. Through contemplation on our own. In some way, we have to do what Jesus said:
Go into your inner room and SHUT your door....and meet with your Father in the secret place. (more on this in the 1989 3rd level message)
We have to allow Jesus to sift our soil. He wants to KNOW us. To know our Union with Him.
If we are going to be fruitful producers of His seed, that soil needs to be pure, simple soil.
Not Jesus and.
Single-eyed.
Seeing God only .(Rich Novek series)
As Carol Decker sang, we need to be careful about "pushing too far"...we don't know what we might set upon our selves....because in this realm, as Jacob found, we can faith in speckled and striped sheep....but it's not necessarily anything to do with God's higher plan for our lives.
Yongghi Cho faithed in the biggest church building in the world in the 80s having very nearly a million members....
But that's not how God builds churches...
that's how Americans build Ford cars.
God builds the Body by that which every joint supplies. He didn't even specify a building or any kind of externals. God is ONLY interested in transferring Word, transplanting seed.
ScrawlingsEzekiel 8 and especially verse 10
So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.
Where are we seeing "more than God"?
Fears. Things we don't see God in. Things which appear overwhelming.
Riches/pleasures. The Pride of Life. Areas where we are not saying inwardly Psalm 100:3 It is He who made us and not we ourselves.
Rich Novek, myself and many others have found it so hard that we've all been in circumstances where even what we feel are the basic male roles of supplier, and success model have seemed to be removed from us....big time. I don't know of anything more embarrassing than having my wife fill in a lot of the gaps in these days.
Also, this Saturday I am about to go to my first grammar school reunion after 34 years. Usually only the "successful" ones bother turning up. I'm going for different reasons.
Ed Miller used to say beware the churches that are not a mess. They are the ones where the mess is covered over and is not allowed to show itself. Daniel Garcia one of the main leaders now of Los Rios de Vida, Buenos Aires said a great thing. He said, "at the start of a construction project all the mess is on show, but gradually as construction continues, rooms are created to deal with some of the mess so that after a while disruption is managed better."
Left-brain intellectual reasoning concerning the events surrounding Jesus and the disciples have little sense of meaning. You have to hear these statements in the Spirit. Jesus was slamming wrong spirits that were uttered by the twelve as they happened. His words would have stung like lightning because they were not aimed at their understanding but were fired at this sub-mesh of "wrong seeing" that is like the scrawlings on the wall of the Temple.
Here are some examples:
when they offered to call fire down from heaven on a rebellious (as they saw it) town
"You don't know of which spirit you are"
Wow we're the kiddies we were casting out demons sick were being healed
"Careful, remember I saw Satan himself fall like lightning out of heaven itself because of such pride"
Keep away kids, only grown ups allowed here
"Let the children come for they are a picture of the sort of people that make up the Kingdom."
And so on. Similar to male circumcision , this was circumcision of the heart going on here. Equally if not more painful. Literally ripping down some of the scrawlings from the walls of their Holy Place.
Conclusion
Since the momentous day two or three weeks ago when Daniel Yordy posted his first part of Psalm 24, and I before reading his, had a lot of the revelation above hit me in one fail swoop that very afternoon, perhaps the greatest feature is Daniel's point that our spirit is not buried in our centre but is in all of us. I am not sure about his conclusion that our will is turned over completely to Christ. Probably all our component parts go through stages of yieldedness, maybe three levels of them.
But for those like myself and Rich and possibly earlier Daniel, that came to rockbottom over the fact that we just flat out DID NOT WANT the WILL of GOD no matter how much people tried to reason and sermonise...but we discovered these two incredible verses...
Rich discovered All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if ON SOME POINT YOU THINK DIFFERENTLY (the hinge), THAT TOO GOD WILL MAKE CLEAR TO YOU . Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Phil 3:15-16)
For me it was the liberation that came from the verse "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philip. 2:13)
There are some that make too big a thing of the work of clearing scrawlings off the wall of the mind. There are some that make too light a thing. The work that Francois Du Toit is doing is to point out that the Word is now to us a Mirror of Christ who has come to live His kind of Life in us.He is going to get us there. That is why Christ'sLife in us is called the (definite/firm) HOPE of GLORY and why the FIRST things that we preach are the basis, the foundation for all else:
The APOSTOLIC FOUNDATIONS and certainties of the Epistles
and especially
Ephesians Chapters 1 and 2 and Colossians 1.
Left-brain Post-Notes
Andre Rabe's poem and the reference to brokenness try to get us beyond the realm of sermons and note-taking, and the traditional talk of how much "brokenness" is occurring...by getting us to concentrate our inward eyes on the Living Jesus, and a very real relationship with Him
Carol Decker's song and the verses of Give It all (my song) are included in order to introduce the idea of a mystical side of our thinking which has the power of drawing into itself what it "sees". That in order to "go for it" (my song again) an internal decision has to be made below our surface thinking.
We need to change our thinking when we refer to "world" and be clear which of two Greek words we mean.
The reality is that the veil was torn in the Temple from top to bottom supernaturally at the very point that Christ died signifying our total acceptance in the HOLY of Holies. When we become born again,Christ comes into our spirit and expels the previous spirit we lived by.This is effectively our Holy of Holies at our centre.
Psalm 85 speaks of the ONE THING that God has joined together out of "things in earth and things in heaven" Ephesians 1 speaks of the peace God has supernaturally created."The walls of hostility are broken down"
The Kingdom is NOW. Our "practice run", particularly in the last 40 years has been learning sensitivity to the Presence of God in Spirit-filled meetings. This has become a reality....but what about outside? The Kingdom is just the same....it's just our perception , "our seeing" that changes.
The level that our "seeing" occurs is in the unseen layer below our conscious thinking, but above our spirit which remains in constant union with Christ. So what we are calling reality at our "seeing" level is really a lie. This is why Jesus said "If the (very)light that is within you turns out to be darkness ....how great is that darkness...in other words can you see how powerful that darkness has been and how it has eluded detection for all this time.
A re-definition of the Parable of the Sower this time as the steps in one life towards becoming a fruitful soil.
Going Into our Inner room to relate with our Father and also to take a good look at the scrawlings on our Temple walls, and removing or replacing them as God gives us instruction
I
made a few notes from a book on 2 Thes a few years ago. Below I
expanded these notes (can't remember the book, but the thoughts have
been developing and I thought its time to share some of them)
2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 (New King James Version)
6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation
those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us
when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in
flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on
those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power,
What does 'eternal destruction' mean in this context?
Paul, speaking to believers who are facing persecution, assures them
that God would vindicate them, for "... it is a righteous thing with God
to repay with tribulation those who trouble you" When "the Lord Jesus
is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire", they
will receive a just penalty, namely "eternal destruction".
But does this, as some translations imply, mean an eternal seperation from the presence of God?
They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from
the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power(NIV) Eternal exile from the presence of the Master and his splendid power is their sentence.(MSG)
The Greek, just like the English word 'from' can sometimes mean 'away
from' and other times simply refer to the source as in 'proceeding
from'. So for instance we have Is 2:10: Enter into the rock, and hide in
the dust, From the terror of the LORD. And Rev 6:16: and said to the
mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who
sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! In both these texts
the verb 'to hide' determines the correct translation of 'from'. But in 2
Thes 1:9 we don't find any such verb that would indicate that 'from'
means 'away from' When Paul speaks about the 'presence of the Lord' in
verse 9 he obviously has in mind the Lord's appearance 'in flaming fire'
as described in verse 8. So when he speaks about destruction, it does
not mean destruction away from the flaming fire, but destruction that
proceeds from the flaming fire.
Verse 2 "grace to you and peace
from God the Father" means the peace that proceeds from the Father, not
peace away from the Father! The presence of the Lord is the flaming
fire, which is the source of and brings about this destruction.
Destruction away from the flaming fire - the presence of the Lord -
makes no sense. Reading into this text the idea of eternal separation
from the presence of the Lord, is reading into it something that is
simply not there.
So what does this eternal destruction mean?
Let me focus first on the word 'eternal, although the word 'punishment'
will also be explored. The same word 'eternal' is used a number of times
in relation to punishment ... eternal punishment. The greek scholar and
theologian, William Barclay says: 'in all Greek literature kolasis
(punish) is never used of anything but remedial punishment'. This word
originally meant the pruning of trees to make them grow better.
According to Barclay therefore 'eternal punishment' is literally that
kind of punishment which only the eternal God can give. Being remedial,
the punishment is intended as a means of correction, a means to the end
of eternal life; and so an eternal means of correction. It is eternal in
the sense that its source is the eternal God and in the sense that its
corrective affects lasts forever.
Let's look at the word
'destruction'. Paul uses the same word 'destruction' in 1 Cor 5:5:
deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Interestingly he does
not mean the total annihilation of this individual, but rather
destruction and salvation are presented as two sides of the same coin!
A few observations regarding this text, The sin with which Paul is so
disgusted is 'of the kind that is not even found among pagans' (5:1) The
punishment he prescribes has a real retributive flavour: 'he who has
committed this act must be removed from among you'. Paul then continues
to pronounce judgement on this individual and orders the Corinthians to
hand him over to Satan! Given the harsh tone of Paul's remarks - as
harsh as anything we read in 2 Thes - we would never have thought that
Paul intended this for the man's own good ... had he not explicitly said
so.
In Paul's thought every 'vessel of mercy' was at once
stage a 'vessel of wrath' and it is precisely in the destruction of the
vessel of wrath that the vessel of mercy is manifested. Wow I'm getting
excited - just think about it - Paul himself was guilty of the same sin
described in 2 Thes - persecuting the believers - over which he
pronounces such a strong sentence. Was the light of God's presence not
the flaming fire that eternally destroyed Saul ... and birthed Paul!
Extract from 'He comes like lightning': (http://hearhim.net/wordpress/2011/12/01/he-comes-like-swift-lightning-to-you/)
Here's a man, breathing threats and murder; a man who was gratified by
witnessing the brutal and violent death of Stephen (Acts 8:1), on his
way to search out more people to persecute. He is not just biased
against these people, he zealously pursues them to destroy them.
What kind of revelation, what kind of understanding, can transform this
man, to so love and so care for the very people he hates, that he will
lay down his live for them?
Jesus doesn't come to argue with
you, to gently adjust your thinking, to comment on your live and hope
that you will take some of His comments to heart. He comes like
lightning. He wants to strike a death blow to your carnal, natural
mindset. He comes to reveal how blind and deaf all your thoughts have
been in comparison to what He knows.
It is so insightfully said
in verse 8: ... when his eyes were opened he saw no one. Everything
Saul knew about man was erased in this one strike of lightning! Later
Paul writes: ... from now on I cannot look at any man from a human point
of view. (2 Cor 5:16)
The coming of Jesus Christ, the
revelation of Jesus Christ to Paul, physically blinded him for three
days, but it forever changed the way he saw every person.
Andre, as you know,I've come
from things at an oblique angle to you...but they marry right here. I
come from the direct experiences of Ed Miller triggering very real
national and local revivals and the one he taught who broadened the
"corporate experience of Body Living"
Jorge Pradas. Both had an understanding of taking a "meeting" by the
scruff of the neck THROUGH the flaming swords that GUARD the Tree of
Life. And both regarded meetings totally transformatively in the manner
of the MIRROR showing Jesus Christ in our own person.They would have
loved Francois' translation. In fact they would have used it in what I
am going to say next.
You
can read the whole story of Ed in Argentina in his books Google
R.Edward Miller. As a pentecostal missionary he was getting nowhere in
Argentina. (In my terms he was a 2ndleveller getting frustrated) So, a
brave move in those days, he told God he
wasn't going to do another thing until God did something. So he did
nothing apart from seek God. Nothing. Then after ages doing that and
nothing outwardly happening he requested a sign whether he should
continue. One convert by Friday. At 11.55pm someone came to his door and
asked to know the Lord! So he continued. The rest is in the book. How
the Holy Spirit came in like a wind to their room where they were
praying etc. What isn't in the books is Ed's ministry and Jorge Pradas
who he taught...
You
see Ed didn't call it the third level....he probably called it the
Throne Room, or the glory or something...but both of them sought to run
their meetings there. So this is what happens when the Holy Spirit runs
meetings. Obviously He never does
anything twice because He is an economist! He always move to purpose.
But roughly speaking His meetings run in an arc like the Lord's prayer.
They begin exulting the Lord, then there's a time "like the flaming
swords", like " eternal judgment". It's the time, maybe on your face,
standing, sitting, whatever...when God shows you Jesus in the Mirror.
Jorge Pradas's song (one of 1000 in Spanish) was "IN YOUR IMAGE I
AWAKEN". The Holy Spirit takes you inside to show you Jesus, but "like
lightning" He reveals the stuff on our insides that is NOT AUTHENTIC TO
US...and in that instant He rips it out. Now sometimes its gentle.
Sometimes it lasts longer than a meeting. Some of these things are so
core to us, it feels like our insides are busting. The Old Testament
describes it as a woman in labour. But what is coming through, is the
AUTHENTIC, without any of the other things attached anymore. Then like
the last bit of the Lord's Prayer (see my blog post the Apocalypse of
Chrust, the Unveiling of Christ) the whole Body goes into action
again...but this time Without reference to sin.(Understand me
please..the Holy Spirit does not want that we go into meetings sin
conscious...but your average "young believer" does....but all that is
blown away...and what we experience is an incredible release...like the
final declaration "Yours is the Power and the Kingdom forever and ever".
Another thing it's like is the huge power invested in the final Ascents
Psalm 134, when standing by night...the people Cry...We BLESS YOU OUT
OF ZION.... feel that....another powerful wave is sent round the earth
to accomplish another set of God's purposes. Well that's meetings..
Oh...just
to say...in a genuine 3rd level meeting the old Catholic idea of the
homily or sermon which Frank Viola describes in Pagan Christianity, is
blown out the window. Now it's not that you or Francois and others
having a gift of utterance dont share.
We know Paul shared so long and powerfully, a little boy fell out of a
window. But the whole sharing thing is in the context of what the Holy
Spirit is doing amongst us today. People who preach have to be
completely re-programmed by the Spirit in the 3rd level.Nothing is the
same. For a start, every member knows they are Christ in their form, and
at any moment the Holy Spirit may be bringing forth something in the
Body....anyhow that's a snippet...this is what happened next.
30 minutes ago ·
Chris WelchThat
was meetings. But God birthed this vision through Ed and Jorge of Casa
Biblicas, or Bible Houses. This was a prototype of the 3rd level church.
A return to how it was for the disciples with Jesus. Where God in and
through His Body, all day long, all week long, all year long was doing
the stuff he was doing in 3rd level meetings, but in Life as we lived
together
Similar
to YWAM, but God showed us at that time He wanted us to learn a new
way...so we did very little evangelism, we just sought God. Guess He
knew if we did evangelise we'd slip back into the 4 spiritual
laws...rather than learning the new way
which is more like John4 at the well....anyhow I digress. See, we didn't
have the articul;ation we have now online, but we had the Spirit and
this is what it looked like. God sovereignly spoke through prophets
(Jean Darnall and later Harry Greenwood) that He was going to have a
church at Emsworth whereyoung people, with teachable hearts, who would
be brought in and then sent all over the world. Like nearly all
prophecies, the opposite happened. There was scarce a young person on
the horizon for 5 years. Then all of a sudden, from Argentina, Spain,
France and England, me sovereignly told to down tools immediately at
Exeter university, Marcus Roberts told to come across from Haywards
Heath where he was a teacher. And many others older converged too. In
fact around Waterlooville other Christians were saying it's a
cult...they believe Jesus is going to come back in Emsworth!..... Well
He did come but not as anyone thought.
So,
30 of us in a single house (3 storey Swiss style ...then later moved to
Winsley, a small mansion. Now the "eternal/judgment" grace process
never happened simultaneously with all 30...phew....praise God...About 3
or 4 would be really going through
stuff at any one time and it was interesting how supernaturally everyone
else would be carrying them until it was over. Some couldn't take it
and left. I now know that the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and He knows
how much we can take and when...and His grace never tires!!!!Though I
was a lot more "2nd level and disciple like in those days"...remember
how the disciples were in the gospels...always condemning people and
writing everyone off...you get the picture.
Here's
one story. Christian girl is cutting herself when she came into the
house. Her Christian Dad had sexually abused her.We watched as the Holy
Spirit (we didn't know details) stripped her right back inside her, then
rebuilt her totally from within out. He
used the scripture Psalm 45...."The King has desired your
beauty.....and with gold shall you be led before the King". Well, I tell
you, she then began singing songs of the Lord...like a flood. I've
probably not heard worship songs like it too may times since. Incredibly
beautiful. The ones we captured, we continued to sing here and in
Argentina and Spain. So in repeated temporary cycles the Body would use
the Body to bring people through. I have never seen so many people in
one place so radically transformed over such a short period a time.
That's why I have been so strong with the Zerubbabel crowd.
Now imagine
such a Holy Spirit process with an articulation as clear as yours and
Francois and some of the others on here. I tell you all, you simply have
no idea how fast 3rd level Holy Spirit churches work. We are all so
used to the traditions of men...people like Nancy Gilmore cannot even
imagine it here on this earth. But this is what I am saying. I've lived
the prototype. I was there. This stuff exists on planet earth. But it
has to be God-raised up. God prepared people. God processed Life
together...we even had our own God raised up industry....God processed
meetings....God financed....It makes the the whole of YWAM look like a
sausage making machine by comparison.
Facebook
snaffled all this, so I had to do the whole lot twice. Now i forgot to
mention another thing that dovetails in with what Andre just wrote about
Eternal Judgment. The Holy Spirit's idea of a local church(not the
human idea at all) is where He lifts from out of the Old Testament the
illustration of the city of refuge. The Body of Christ is a city of refuge.
See, if you've committed adultery or murder...or many other such
things....the natural order of things meant you would die! Or you spin
into operation at least a whole load of negatives. But instead of
judgment, a city of refuge was and is a place where God spins the
judgment around, and cuts into a whole cycle of events to begin a
totally new history! One example: My old pastor was just about to
get divorced before he got saved. Divorce ran like a curse through their
whole family. But part of the City of refuge experience for him at
Emsworth was HIS DAD AND MUM re-married and got baptised in the sea at
Emsworth. I tell you the Body of Christ is one crazy place!
about a minute ago ·
Chris WelchI should say this was after 20 years divorce! So both his marriage and his parent's marriage were saved.
There is a kind of thread here....thrown together from various notes on Facebook today. It's getting very similar to meetings run in the Holy Spirit, but this ofcourse comes live out of the hearts of believers all over the world, not one single meeting in a geographical area.
Andre Rabe - IMAGINEThere
is no such thing as the original and complete Word of God in written
form! The only original Word is what John wrote about in 1 John 1:1: “In
the beginning was the Word”. This Word is unwritten and unspoken … and
its ultimate destiny was not a book or a religion or an institution,
but flesh! The most accurate translation happened when the Word became
flesh in Christ Jesus.
In every religion and
philosophy, word remains word – religion remains a theory and
philosophy remains a guess. But in Jesus Christ, the Word is made
flesh, reality is revealed – God’s thought is concluded in human life.
The ultimate destiny of the Word, was never a doctrine or an
institution, but the image and likeness of God displayed in human life!
Oghenakheranimoh Seann Enigimi-Julius
Pleroma
Class yday, the bible study I hold for uni students which is what I
consider ministry. I taught yday on the love of God and how we deserved
it cos He made us and he made us beautiful and to be desired so he
desired us and used Jesus to get us back. Twas so revolutionary to the
we are unworthy but he makes us worthy. No we have never been unworthy.
He made us by the creation worthy of all he spent on us. See faith
rising. U deserve all u get from God. He loves us. Amidst other things
but I jus wanted to share that for now! I love u all mystery revealed. U
all rock. I was called a heretic by a man of God here and it moved me
that one could be so closed minded cos he had achieved a lot in
ministry...indeed ministry is being open to receive from Jesus no matter
who is speaking and I ma...de a mental note never to be so big that I
would ignore glaring truths of the word cos of the vessel being used
to share it is younger or not as experienced as me. God's word trumps
our experiences...I was told abt those who's given their lives for the
gospel cos of the impending condemnation on men's live and how it would
seem wasted if what I was teaching is true and he was sure I
wasn't(okay this was his member talking not him)she reported me to her
pastor.I asked what mattered more,the llife they had given for the
gospel or Jesus' life that he gave for the saalvation of the world. And
yet we sing that to live is Christ. What matters more? If I found that
out that I missed it wouldn't it be better to turn around than get
angry at Eramoh for saying and telling the truth? I'm sure u know the
answer. I also told them that God was more interested in dem knowing
his love than in their service(now, this was to my group not to pastor
know-it-all!)See more
LikeUnlike · · Unfollow postFollow post · 3 hours ago via Mobile
Colin Lagerwall and Fay Gillbanks Lagerwall like this.
Chris Welch
Part of the Fall was disobedience,part of the Fall was a setup.A
God-allowed setup, so that we would find grace super abundantly.But a
setup nonetheless.The devil never told us more than 10% of the deal,
because he is a con merchant , a liar.I am absolutely not going to take
the rap for being his container,because at no point in the deal did he
mention that. At no point did he say in his sales pitch that taking
that fruit meant that I would nolonger be a container for God, but a
container for a sin spirit.Then, he makes me feel terminally
ashamed....but only a part of it was ever my shame...the bulk of the
shame I feel is the devil's own eternal shame that he just lumbered me
with by moving in.The first great law of MK Mindcontrol(see Google) as
used by the devil, is to get the subject involved in something which
they feel as though they instigated and let them carry the full shame
so they never feel they can turn to God.Well Adam never instigated the
"permanent container" for the devil bit of the deal, that bit was snuck
in in the small print.In choosing Christ, I am choosing to be a
container for my original indweller/owner, and being born again means
you cannot contain both....AND THAT IS IN THE LARGE PRINT right here:
Galations 2:20 from the original Greek
"with Christ I have been
crucified, and live no more do I, and Christ doth live in me; and that
which I now live in the flesh -- in the faith I live of the Son of
God,"
I have used Youngs Literal because it seems
to be the only one that isn't contaminated. It says the truth. "I live
by the faith OF the Son of God....not the weak and weedy NIV which says
only"I live by faith in the Son of God,"......demons have a certain
faith "in the Son of God". No we have the faith OF the Son of God.
OUR SINGLE MIND by RICH NOVEK
“For who has known the “Mind of the Lord” that he may instruct him?” But we have the…Mind of Christ.(I Corinthians 2:16)
The “human” container was specifically designed by God to be His perfect Dwelling Place!
“For it is God which worketh IN you both to will and to do (work) of His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)
It
is pleasing to God for Him to dwell IN us, His chosen temple, the
place where His Spirit does all of the work! “Taking each thought
captive” and “taking no thought for tomorrow” are evidence of the wonder
of who He created us to be and our only True purpose! (II Corinthians
10:5, Mathew 6:34)
We are NOT schizophrenic!
We do not have two minds!
We just need to listen to our brother James:
But
when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who
doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That
person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a
person is “double-minded” and unstable in all they do.(James 1:6-8)
By
believing the “two mind” lie, the only thing the believer can look
forward to is a life of total instability, spiritual and otherwise!
We
cannot think His thoughts and our own thoughts! It is an
impossibility! We were not designed to “see” more than One, any more
than we can “serve” more than One!
The light of the body is the
eye: if therefore thine eye be “Single“, thy whole body shall be full
of light. But if thine eye be evil (seeing more than God), thy whole
body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is IN thee
be darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two
masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will
be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God
and money. (Mathew 6:22-24)
This passage is NOT about serving
money, as much as it is about seeing and serving more than One! This
is Jesus reminding us of WHO we are, and HOW and WHY we were created!
Now take a look at the next passage of scripture in Mathew:
Therefore
I say unto you, take NO THOUGHT for your life, what ye shall eat, or
what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is
not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? (Mathew 6:25)
The
reason why we no longer have to walk in anxiety concerning our life,
is because we are NOW completely finished trying to figure out what it
is we are doing, or should be doing! We have His Mind, the same Mind
that was filled only with His Father’s thoughts!
After His 40 day
trek into the wilderness, Satan came before Jesus, tempting Him to
think His own thoughts, and do His own works, but He refused!
“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing IN Me; (John 14:30)
You have Nothing IN Me!
And the reason? Because He was filled with His Father! In the exact same way we are NOW filled with His dear Son!
We have His Mind and only His Mind!
And
because we are “Single” minded, we no longer need to struggle or
strive in trying to figure out how to live the Christian life! There is
only One who can live the Christian Life, Christ Himself!
Only God Only Now is the One able to live our His own life through us, His chosen temples, branches, and vessels!
By
faith we simply step into the flow NOW already prepared for the people
of God, His marvelous Rest! And because we have His Mind, we are able
to enter into His Rest! Even though we may not know or believe this
to be true, it is His thoughts alone that now make up our life!
Jesus
Himself never had even one independent thought concerning His own self
preservation! So if it is God who is working IN us, then what are we
to do we do while He works?
We simply Rest IN His finished work! He works and we Rest!
And
if you want further evidence, just take a look at our modern day
stress filled lives. It is documented fact that around 90 percent of
the hospital beds are filled because of stress, or could we say for
those who refuse to enter into this already prepared Rest!
He has
appointed another day calling it “Today!” Today if you hear His voice
(because you have His Mind) do not harden your hearts…(toward the truth
of who you are IN Him and who He is IN you!) (Hebrews 4:7)
“The steadfast of (His Single) Mind You will keep IN perfect peace, because he trusts IN You.(Isaiah 26:3)
This was the Conference where Andre Rabe was sharing insights from what became his book "Imagine", and I talked for the first time on the Two Goats Message.
Scrawlings
Ezekiel 8 and especially verse 10
So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.
Where are we seeing "more than God"?
Fears. Things we don't see God in. Things which appear overwhelming.
Riches/pleasures. The Pride of Life. Areas where we are not saying inwardly Psalm 100:3 It is He who made us and not we ourselves.
Rich Novek, myself and many others have found it so hard that we've all been in circumstances where even what we feel are the basic male roles of supplier, and success model have seemed to be removed from us....big time. I don't know of anything more embarrassing than having my wife fill in a lot of the gaps in these days.
Also, this Saturday I am about to go to my first grammar school reunion after 34 years. Usually only the "successful" ones bother turning up. I'm going for different reasons.
Ed Miller used to say beware the churches that are not a mess. They are the ones where the mess is covered over and is not allowed to show itself. Daniel Garcia one of the main leaders now of Los Rios de Vida, Buenos Aires said a great thing. He said, "at the start of a construction project all the mess is on show, but gradually as construction continues, rooms are created to deal with some of the mess so that after a while disruption is managed better."
Left-brain intellectual reasoning concerning the events surrounding Jesus and the disciples have little sense of meaning. You have to hear these statements in the Spirit. Jesus was slamming wrong spirits that were uttered by the twelve as they happened. His words would have stung like lightning because they were not aimed at their understanding but were fired at this sub-mesh of "wrong seeing" that is like the scrawlings on the wall of the Temple.
Here are some examples:
when they offered to call fire down from heaven on a rebellious (as they saw it) town
"You don't know of which spirit you are"
Wow we're the kiddies we were casting out demons sick were being healed
"Careful, remember I saw Satan himself fall like lightning out of heaven itself because of such pride"
Keep away kids, only grown ups allowed here
"Let the children come for they are a picture of the sort of people that make up the Kingdom."
And so on. Similar to male circumcision , this was circumcision of the heart going on here. Equally if not more painful. Literally ripping down some of the scrawlings from the walls of their Holy Place.
Conclusion
Since the momentous day two or three weeks ago when Daniel Yordy posted his first part of Psalm 24, and I before reading his, had a lot of the revelation above hit me in one fail swoop that very afternoon, perhaps the greatest feature is Daniel's point that our spirit is not buried in our centre but is in all of us. I am not sure about his conclusion that our will is turned over completely to Christ. Probably all our component parts go through stages of yieldedness, maybe three levels of them.
But for those like myself and Rich and possibly earlier Daniel, that came to rockbottom over the fact that we just flat out DID NOT WANT the WILL of GOD no matter how much people tried to reason and sermonise...but we discovered these two incredible verses...
Rich discovered All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if ON SOME POINT YOU THINK DIFFERENTLY (the hinge), THAT TOO GOD WILL MAKE CLEAR TO YOU . Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Phil 3:15-16)
For me it was the liberation that came from the verse "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philip. 2:13)
There are some that make too big a thing of the work of clearing scrawlings off the wall of the mind. There are some that make too light a thing. The work that Francois Du Toit is doing is to point out that the Word is now to us a Mirror of Christ who has come to live His kind of Life in us.He is going to get us there. That is why Christ'sLife in us is called the (definite/firm) HOPE of GLORY and why the FIRST things that we preach are the basis, the foundation for all else:
