Showing posts with label Grace and truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grace and truth. Show all posts

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Coming Out of Darkness Part 20 By Gary Sigler

Facebook on Saturday, 09 April 2011 at 16:26.

God’s Loveliness Leads to Repentance

We are coming up out of the wilderness of our carnal selfish life. We are are not going to have a critical eye for anyone; we’re going to be able to see with eyes of the spirit. As I shared before, we’re going to be able to look into the eyes of a prostitute and say, "There will come a day when you will shine forth in the glory of the Father, because He has decreed it to be so." And when you learn the heart of God, and you begin to speak words like that, you will find that the words you speak will create and generate life in the hearts of those to whom you speak. It’s not a matter of their obedience. It’s a matter of your understanding that you can speak to the Seed of God in someone and cause it to come forth within their innermost being. Do you realize that you have the Seed of God in you? Do you realize what that means? I can guarantee you, friend, there will come a day when you will be so filled with God and so richly blessed—not because you have been a good child, but because you understand and have had revealed to you the love of God. That love will transform you. It will cause you to repent. Does not the Word say that it is the love of God that leads us to repentance? When men and women see the loveliness of God, when they understand why the judgments are coming, they will repent in sackcloth and ashes, even those as wicked as the people of Sodom. You will remember that Jesus said to a certain group of people, "It will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorra than it will be for you." He said that in two different instances (Mt. 10:15, 11:24)! Could that possibly mean that Sodom and Gomorra may have a chance? Is God going to throw them into an eternal, fiery hell simply because they did not have the knowledge that would have caused them to repent? I don’t think so! You need to think about these things.

I can guarantee you, friend, there will come a day when you will be so filled with God and so richly blessed—not because you have been a good child, but because you understand and have had revealed to you the love of God. That love will transform you. It will cause you to repent. Does not the Word say that it is the love of God that leads us to repentance?

Jesus said, "If the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Sodom and Gomorra, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes" (Mt. 11:21). So the reason they didn’t repent was because of the darkness. They had not the knowledge of God that came through Jesus Christ. That’s why John says, "The law was given by Moses," (and Christians today still want to live by the law) "but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). If you understand the true concept of our Father God, you will become a most obedient person through the love and the drawing attraction of His Spirit. The Christian life is effortless—because it is His life! Transformation It is just natural for you to live the human life, is it not? You don’t have to get up in the morning and figure out how you’re going to be human today. And when God begins to arise in you, you do not have to try to figure out how to live the godly life. Out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water, and everywhere that river flows, it brings life and healing and restoration. Do you have sin in your life? You can either fall under condemnation, or you can seek God until the river begins to flow in you. If you are under condemnation because the sin is there, and you feel that you are cut off from God because of your sin and your disobedience, you will never experience the flowing of His River. You must realize that no matter how far into sin you may go, no matter how much disobedience you get into, no matter how far away from God you may fall, if you can but find within yourself the faintest cry, "Oh God!" He will run to you, and out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. The Spirit is represented, beginning in Genesis, by the flowing of a river, and there are precious stones in that river—which simply means that as the river flows, it causes the stones to be transformed into precious gems. And that doesn’t happen today; it doesn’t happen tomorrow; it doesn’t happen next year. Transformation takes a very long time. What you need is not condemnation for the way you are. You are what you are, and you cannot change that. But if you get into the river, if you learn how to release from the very essence of your being the flowing of His Life, it will bring life not only to you, but to everyone who comes into your presence. You will bring life and healing and restoration. In the river of life are the precious stones. So all the years that I’ve sought after God, year after year, sometimes being in hopeless despair of ever becoming what God wanted me to be—all the time that I was seeking after Him, unbeknownst to me, the river was flowing. There were times when I would experience the joy of God. We all experience it from time to time. But the river was flowing, and in the flowing of the river is the transformation process of the spirit. And if you realize that it is not your obedience, it is not your effort, but that through the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will also realize that you can do that only in His presence. And again, if you have the concept that sin separates you and keeps you from His presence, you cannot be helped. But if you realize that there is nothing in all of creation that can separate you from the love of God, no matter how great your sin and failure, then all you need is to turn to God with an honest heart and say, "God, I need your help!"

We need a Savior every day. And He is available to us every day. And my friends, if the Life of God never arises in you, your enemies will never be scattered. But oh, it will arise in you if the Sun of Righteousness appears with healing in His wings! Let God arise, and His enemies be scattered! In the presence of your enemies of anger, and bitterness, and resentment—in the very midst of those enemies that beset you and torment you, there is a table spread out before you.








Prayer:




To Experience the Love of God O Father, we ask for the fire of Your Spirit. O God, I am so glad that You have changed my concept of an angry, vengeful, wrathful God into One who is a Father, who loves beyond all comprehension. And Father, I ask that each of us may begin to more deeply experience Your love.




Prophecy:




If You Turn Unto Me . . . And I say unto you that if you turn unto Me in the midst of any situation and any trial, if you will but turn to Me in the very midst of sin and depression and anger and hatefulness and bitterness, and cry out from deep within, "O God! I need You!", out of your innermost being will flow My transforming power. So come unto Me, all ye that labor. Some of My people have labored so strenuously to enter into My rest, but I say to you today, that it is so easy to enter into My rest. All you have to do is to cease from your own works. And realize that I am El Elyon, the Most High God, and that I have a will, a plan, and a purpose for your life. And I say to you, because I have covenanted with that Seed that is within you, I look far beyond your mind, your emotion and your will.








if the Life of God never arises in you,




your enemies will never be scattered.




But oh, it will arise in you




if the Sun of Righteousness




appears with healing in His wings!




Let God arise, and His enemies be scattered!




In the presence of your enemies




of anger, and bitterness, and resentment—




in the very midst of those enemies




that beset you and torment you,




there is a table spread out before you.








I look far beyond that natural person that you are, and I see deep within the center, the very core of your being, and I see that Seed of My Life that I placed there, and I say to you, that the Seed of My Life shall come forth. The Seed of my Kingdom shall reproduce within you, and you shall manifest My glory unto this earth.








We have been thrilled with the response we have received from these messages. The reports are coming in from all over the world that people are so excited and appreciate the love of God much more since realizing His heart as a Father. I must admit that I was somewhat surprised. The system of Christianity has given us many wrong concepts of God, which makes it very confusing and hard for some to realize that our Father will perfect His plan and purpose in our lives. Jesus said to His disciples, "It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given" (Matt. 13:11). God is revealing to His seekers in these days the reality of walking in the Kingdom of God. This revelation is not given to the masses of Christianity, but to those who have a heart-cry to know the reality of His indwelling life. God has been restoring many things to the Church since the days of Martin Luther. I believe that one of the last revelations to be given before the complete manifestation of the "Sons of God" is that the hearts of the children must be turned toward God to see him as their Father, who is perfecting them according to His plan and purpose. God has certain times and seasons in your life when He will bring to you that which you need for your spiritual growth and understanding. I will never forget when I was introduced to a book by E.W. Kenyon. I was going over my bookshelf one day looking for something to read when I found a book called In His Presence by Kenyon. I have no idea how that book was placed on my bookshelf. I was amazed at the revelation, and yet the simplicity that was in that writing. When I read In His Presence, I was so excited that I wrote to Kenyon’s publishing company and ordered every book he had written. I saturated myself in his writings for about three months and they literally changed my life. I had such a revelation of the living and abiding Word of God. After I read those books, I gave away hundreds of Kenyon’s books, but not one person that I gave them to seemed to have their lives impacted the way I did. I really believe that Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2). He brought me to a point where I could receive more light and understanding.
My burden in ministry today is to bring people out of the darkness of religion, and human effort, into the glorious light of the gospel message proclaimed by the Apostle Paul of the New Testament. I believe that God is beginning to remove the veil that has been cast over all nations (Isa. 25:7). He is beginning to reveal His heart toward His creation. No matter how much Bible knowledge we have, only God can open our understanding and our hearts to be able to receive that which He has. This is according to His timetable and not ours. As I have shared before, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming" (1 Cor. 15:22-23). God has a specific plan and purpose for every person. For some, it takes much more time and dealings by God before they will submit to His will, but eventually every knee shall bow.




To be continued

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Prophetic Word for 2011 - Mark Stibbe


Who is Mark Stibbe? Well he's proof that a ministry can flourish, blossom, grow up through and ultimately out of an Anglican Ministry. Sharing a room at college with his best buddy UK evangelist J.John, he went on to front the amazing Chorleywood Church that employed the likes of Barry Kissell, way back during our Amersham school revival in 72. An orphan himself, in recent years he has been leading the Church out of an orphan mentality into the very Fatherhood of God. From Orphans to Heirs is a bestseller. 2 years ago he left Chorleywood to establish Father's House Trust. This (and this is me talking) has a dual aspect to its Intercession. On the ground, it involves establishing real world orphanages all over the world, but in the Spirit this is all paving a bridgehead into the epidemic of Fatherlessness in the world system....and probably the church too. Like Lydia Prince who was involved in a similar work in Jerusalem, the intercession works at two interlinked levels, opening future doors. This indeed is the hallmark of all 3rd level callings.






THE TRUTH WILL OUT- Prophetic Word for 2011

Fri 21st January, 1.01pm Mark Stibbe


One year ago many people in the UK were watching the reality TV show, Celebrity Big Brother. This isn’t a programme I particularly like nor is it one that I ever recommend but at that time something interesting was going on. The film star Stephen Baldwin (a committed Christian) was carrying his Bible around the house and conducting Bible studies for those who wanted to come along. He caused a lot of controversy but he also stimulated a degree of spiritual hunger in at least one of the Big Brother contestants. When actress Stephanie Beacham was interviewed on her own in the diary room she was asked whether she would miss Baldwin if he was evicted. Suddenly she broke down in tears. When asked why she was crying she replied that it wasn’t because she would miss Baldwin. It was because she would really miss the Bible. Between sobs and the surprised admission ‘I’m not acting’, she concluded by asking for the privilege of looking after the Bible when Baldwin left the house.

On the first Sunday of January 2011 I went to preach at Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough (the church which Chris Moyles has praised so highly on Radio One). The leader of the church, Dave Smith, was running a three-part series on the Bible – ‘The Book that Changed the Planet’ – and invited me to give the first of these talks. As I was preaching, I became aware of a very strong anointing as I spoke about treasuring the truth of God’s Word. I became unusually animated and extremely passionate about the issue of Truth – so much so in fact that it surprised me. I quoted the Big Brother TV programme and made the comment that people outside the church are weeping over the Bible. I urged my listeners and indeed myself to go to a whole new level of honouring the Word of God and proclaiming the timeless truth of the Bible.

If you ask me what I think is on the Father’s heart for 2011 I think a lot has to do with the issue of truth. I’m sure that most of us are aware that this year is the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible. Radio 4 has been running some superb programmes on this great masterpiece and there has been a lot of discussion about its merits in the national Press. It seems that this is a moment in our nation’s history when people are really searching for some lasting landmarks in the unstable, shifting landscape of our times. Maybe people are becoming sick of the shallow relativism of our secular and humanistic culture. Maybe people are beginning to seek for some fixed points in a changing and turbulent universe.

In the Book of Nehemiah chapter 8, there’s a wonderful moment when the city walls have been rebuilt in Jerusalem and the people gather before their leaders. Ezra brings the scrolls of the Old Testament Book of the Law and the Levites begin to read and explain its beautiful truths. As this happens, the sound of weeping breaks out throughout the crowd as the people realise how much they love and have missed these words. As verse 9 says, ‘all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law’.

We are living in a very critical time in the UK – a time of great unrest and profound anxiety. This seems likely to increase in 2011 as Britain is gripped by storms, floods, water shortages, strikes, power cuts, unemployment and even unusual natural phenomena such as earthquakes. As everything is shaken around us, there will be a real longing for anchors that connect people with a deeper and more solid reality. The deepest and most lasting reality of all is the Father’s love and the Bible is our Father’s book; it is the only book that reveals his relentless love.

Recently I wrote The 100 Verse Bible, a small book that tells the story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It was commissioned to be published this year in honour of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. In it I choose 100 verses that confirm the statement made by St Augustine: ‘if the entire Bible could be summed up in a single sentence, then it would cry out like the resounding waves of the sea, “The Father loves you”’.

I have never seen any of my books sell like this one. Thousands are flying off the shelves. We are hearing remarkable stories of non Christians reading it on underground trains and in pubs and classrooms and being deeply affected by its message. It seems that the truth of the Word is uncontainable. The church can’t keep it within its walls any longer. The Father wants his truth on the streets. He wants to pour out the Spirit and out his Truth back on the map. As Jesus promised his disciples in John 14:15-17: "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth”.


I therefore have a strong sense that the Spirit of Truth is coming. Many churches have emphasized experience but neglected Truth. I believe this is a year when the Holy Spirit is going to bring experience and Truth together. It is a year in which many churches are going to communicate the Father’s truth in a clearer voice.

And that brings me to another thing that I sense the Father is saying about 2011. I believe this season is a season for breaking out of the church – for kicking out the walls. But - let me be very clear - I’m not talking about rebelling or about leaving church! I’m simply saying this is not a time for staying in the house and sitting passively at religious meetings. There is a breaker anointing upon many believers for this year and there will be a stunning fulfilment of Micah 2.13, ‘One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head."

As this breakout occurs, there are two things I feel will characterize it. First of all, there will be a ‘revolution of kindness’; people will carry the Truth to those outside the church but they will do so with grace. Jesus was full of ‘grace and truth’ (John 1.14). Too often we have tried to communicate Truth without Grace. This is not the way of Jesus. Jesus spoke truth in a grace-saturated way. Those who are filled with the Spirit of Truth in this season will have a heightened capacity for speaking the wisdom of the Word in a way that is merciful, tender, loving and kind. They will see time and time again that it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2.4).

The second thing I believe we will see is a release of the artists. The people that will be given an extra grace for proclaiming the truth way will be the storytellers, screenplay writers, actors, composers, singers, painters and poets – among many others. They will be the ones who are inspired and mobilised to take the Father’s Truth to the lost and they will do this in dynamic, unconventional, entrepreneurial and adventurous ways that break the traditional, religious moulds.

Just before Christmas, there was a YouTube clip doing the rounds on Facebook. In fact, it went viral. It showed a choir of people in a shopping mall in the UK. They had situated themselves all over the food hall and at a carefully orchestrated moment they all began to sing the Hallelujah Chorus to the crowds of Christmas shoppers. These spectators at first looked startled, then delighted, and finally moved by these exceptional voices. It was wonderful to see the words of the Bible brought to so many non-church goers in such an ‘out of the box way’. This was truth being communicated by artists. It was truth communicated with grace – indeed, unlike their lunches, the concert was free.

And so I return to where I began. This is a turbulent season, no doubt, but this is also a time when the Spirit of Truth is on the move. More and more will come to say;

"Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands. Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name. Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may obey your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees. Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed..."

Psalm 119.129-136

A year ago, there was weeping over the Word on Celebrity Big Brother. In the same month, I took my family to see a movie at our local cinema – a movie starring Denzel Washington called The Book of Eli, which worldwide grossed over $150 million. The film (directed by the Hughes brothers) portrays an apocalyptic landscape thirty years after the devastation of nuclear war. Denzel Washington is on a mission. He has the last remaining copy of the King James Version of the Bible which he is guarding. He has also memorised every word from Genesis to Revelation in case the book gets lost or stolen. For Eli, this book is worth cherishing and preserving. It is in fact a book worth dying for.


So, what we have here is a mainstream blockbuster about the Bible?! Something is truly going on.

Truth is being restored to the church and a longing for the Truth is stirring in the world. As Jesus said in John 8.32,

‘You will know the truth and the truth will set you free’.

References
Clip of Stephanie Beacham weeping over the Bible:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiq6T_nZEkE


Mark’s message on the Bible at Kingsgate Community Church:
http://www.kingsgateuk.com/Groups/582/Kingsgate_Community_Church/Resources/Sunday_Teaching/Sunday_Teaching.aspx

For the Hallelujah chorus in the food court see:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Selection of core messages in paid download format that God is using to set the hearts of His people free