It may not look much now...but this was the Demi-Lune in Amersham new town ,north-west London area.It was 1972.
The period when druggies would meet here over a coffee. We however were trying to reach them. A lady from Old Town Baptist church called Olive (around 40) and me (14). She read me this passage over some coffee.....
Isaiah 41:1-51"(
A)Coastlands, listen to Me (
B)in silence, And let the peoples (
C)gain new strength; (
D)Let them come forward, then let them speak; (
E)Let us come together for judgment. 2"(
F)Who has aroused one from the east Whom He (
G)calls in righteousness to His feet? He (
H)delivers up nations before him And subdues kings He makes them like (
I)dust with his sword, As the wind-driven (
J)chaff with his bow. 3"He pursues them, passing on in safety, By a way he had not been traversing with his feet. 4"(
K)Who has performed and accomplished it, Calling forth the generations from the beginning? '(
L)I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last (
M)I am He.'" 5The (
N)coastlands have seen and are afraid; The (
O)ends of the earth tremble; They have drawn near and have come.
and then she askedWhy do we not see this?Why are we not there?How do we get there?So in our little way we plotted world take-over that day. Before that time, it was not a concept. After that day, the pigeon-hole had already been created for Ern Baxter to slot his teaching into.And ofcourse, we are still asking this. Rob Rufus. Terry Virgo, who actually came to Amersham at around this time. Many others.......
Part of the answer came in 1972. A few months later. Not an obvious answer to left-brain English people. This came through
Merv and Merla in a Fountain Trust Conference.
Praise.Olive taught loads of us youngsters about it after she got back. We had no idea that it was a gateway to so much.
Then came the vision of the Kingdom.
A vision of the Church
The structure of the church - giftings and ministries
Then I left the area, and learned about seeking God through Ed Miller and Jorge Pradas.
How meetings can be run in the Presence of God.
But even this, wasn't really getting to it. The early blogging in Dan's Vaults talk about how I then met up with Norman's crowd and learnt the specifics of "Alphabet Soup".
See, growing up in God is not obvious. Not from a left-brain point of view. Quite how I got to Emsworth, from the campus of Exeter University wasn't obvious either. But I did.
Today, I felt God want to use me to encourage people. And as if to confirm that, the new Arthur Blessitt book came and sure enough it was the same sort of theme, in his background. More about that later, when I've read it and compared notes with Lydia Joy.
I want to encourage you all, with me to say...the same Jesus who lives in the greats we read about...lives in you and me. If you like, we are Big Name ministries...why? Because the One with the Big Name (Jesus) lives in us and ministers through us. As I wrote before...no matter what sort of stage we're at Christianwise....right now...today....a full-grown 33 year old Jesus, lives inside us by the Spirit....and we can operate today in the same order that He runs everything in...The Melchizedek Order.
Today, He can speak through a child who cannot talk yet...and say something like "You must love Jesus." This actually happened in Waterlooville, Portsmouth, in a tuning customer's house, a few days before I was tuning there. It blew my atheist customer away!!!! So if He can do that He can use you to full capacity,whenever He wants!!! I was 19, when he blasted epilepsy through my forefinger out of a French lady's life,instantly and completely John G Lake style, while we were having breakfast. (But there was a cost to this, and a price I paid, before this stuff started...more another day)
But I wanted to encourage us all again with these verses. The very things the devil hits us over the head with to condemn us...are the very things that Jesus said would be so. READ THIS.
Luke 177"Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat'?
8"But will he not say to him, '(J)Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink'?
9"He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?
10"So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'"
Similar to this in the Psalms of Ascents (which we need to look at some time) Ps 120 - 133 there is this Psalm ...
Psalm 131
Childlike Trust in the LORD.
A Song of Ascents, of David. 1O LORD, my heart is not (A)proud, nor my eyes (B)haughty; Nor do I involve myself in (C)great matters, Or in things (D)too difficult for me. 2Surely I have (E)composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned (F)child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. 3O Israel, (G)hope in the LORD (H)From this time forth and forever.
And this follows 2 very tricky psalms, 129 and 130. But now there is a quieting. A humility. An interest ONLY to get involved with what Jesus is actually doing through you
whether its Baked beans
or raising someone from the dead
or cleaning up someone who is in a right smelly state...
What it is is now irrelevant. Just the joy of knowing, right now, in my little body, the King of the Universe is doing this through me.
Such a far cry from Genesis 3:5 - You don't want to do that!!! You want the tree of the knowledge of good and evil!! You want to be gods in your own right. You want to be doing anything and everything, running yourself ragged, having the weight of the universe on your shoulders...because you are so important as independant gods in your own right!!! I thought so. Here's your death stamp ! Blam! Got you!
How different is Psalm 131. and the attitude of the servant in the above parable in Luke 17.
Jorge Pradas and Ed Miller taught us this parable in the context of praise and worship. We serve the Master until He is ready. Praise waits for you O Lord.
Praise and worship is the practice run!!! In the 3rd Level we dice with our lives. We risk our lives on Him, knowing if He doesn't show up....we're kind of stuffed...up the Swannee!
And during the period when the servant is tempted to think that nothing is happening....actually the devil is telling us complete porkies!!!! because in that precise instant miracles are being birthed in the Spirit....a Spirit Highway is being created in the heavenlies for us of the works destined for us and only us, from before the beginning of time!!!
With this in mind it is good to read John Stevens' comment to Alphabet Soup Part 2 (Alpha and Omega) without getting too bogged down.
Jesus ministered at 4 or 5 levels simultaneously ...more in future posts. But what it shows us is
- He can take a multitude and address them from scratch
- He can speak more directly to all His followers
- He can take 12 every day Joes and (Josephines) and reproduce His life more exactly in these specific few...more about this in a minute
- Then further to this I want to explore the Prophetic events. The times when the Spirit blurted out through Him....You know this is the Feast of the Pouring of the Water...well I am the Water of Life. These type of prophetic fulfilment events are recorded frequently in John...because more than the other gospel writers, he was a prophet...so particularly picked up on it.
- The last level was ofcourse the one-off events that He particularly came for, that no man will ever do again....die on the Cross to save everyone who believes on Him, ascend into heaven, then begin the whole operation again by pouring out the Holy Spirit. This level of Ministry is unique to Jesus.
But, while I respect what John Stevens has written, and it is totally in line with this blog, we must never forget that in just about the first week of the disciples walk with Jesus, He was sending them out with Power!!! To heal. To preach. To do miracles.
There are on the Earth right now very charismatic leaders like Rob Rufus, like Andy Elmes here in Portsmouth, like Morris Cerullo, like Rheinhardt Bonnke, those associated with Hillsongs.
They have all touched heaven. Andy Elmes put everything aside to join a prophet called Vaughan Jarrold (Londoner)in New York and Upstate New York...to seek God. And He caught something there, that he continues to minister from. Morris Cerullo was caught up into the heavenlies and saw footprints through which he could see people in hell....his very steps were going to be rescuing untold multitudes. And this is a true vision. After 60 years continuous ministry. Arthur Blessitt had Jesus walk with him in the late 60s and his face glowed, such that his wife knew who he had been with. When I was baptised in the Spirit, nothing happened for ages, while everyone else began to speak in tongues. I was told prophetically to act in faith, believe that I had received...and as soon as I did that things started to happen. But at that point I was given a choice. It was like another level or stage. But the obedience the Spirit was demanding was to shout at the top of my voice...Hallelujah. I'd never done anything like that...and I sensed the entire pressure of the comfortable realm of London Middle-Class Suburbia pressing down on me, telling me not to be such a fool. But in the moment I obeyed...it was like another level of fire. I became instantly utterly paralytically drunk and had to be helped downstairs. This fire and shaking continued for hours. And in the power of that anointing I went into school with others and we began preaching and turning things upside down for Jesus.
OK....got all that.....
But somehow all these people...including myself...never knew how to reproduce more than people who know how to get baptised in the Spirit. Which is kind of cyclic.But Jesus did. He knew how to minister in the 3rd level, and reproduce fathers after His own kind. Yet all the while encouraging people to move in the 2nd level of giftings and empowerings.
So let me repeat an earlier post. I am not against warehouses of Christians who are Spirit-filled. All the above ministries have the charisma to produce these. What I am saying is....while doing the warehouse thing....Jesus was also moving in these other levels also. Nor am I saying ...only move in the 3rd level....cos not everyone is ready for that level yet. What Jesus showed us is that it is possible to minister at all these levels simultaneously. And He came as a man to show us how. By the power of the same Holy Spirit.
So what is wrong with warehouse Christianity is not the thing itself....it's where it is going. If you are running 2nd level operations...that's fine...but where is your arrow pointing? If your direction is towards the 3rd level...that's fine. It doesn't matter that you are not there yet...all that matters is that you are at least heading that way. Jesus operates His Church in the order of Melchizedek. We may have structures, which change from year to year. Jesus doesn't even see those. He sees the direction arrows pointing out of people's hearts. "Blessed are the men whose strength is in thee, in whose hearts are the Highways to Zion."(Ps 84) No, what is wrong with warehouses, is if the direction arrows are only pointing to the roof of the warehouse, or for a bigger warehouse, or stadium. Paul said I come amongst you only to sense Christ crucified among you. It has an aroma in the Spirit. All these people learning Christ in them as them. How it works...individually, corporately. Anything else is stagnancy....Pretty songs...good preaching from one charismatic speaker around whom the whole great pyramid is built...a few good healings here and there.
Is that what you want guys? Obviously this blog is not for you. But if , like me, you're greedy and want the lot...well I'd encourage you to keep reading. I think God gave me this 2 week taste of 3rd level Smith Wigglesworth/John G Lake living when I was 19 just to encourage me....to impress on me that it exists...... I think a lot of the interim has been discovering the mundane bit of 3rd level life....the sort encountered by the servants in Luke 17. It's given me time to hunt down the 3rd level and hopefully pin it down a bit....like hunted quarry. But I believe Florida showed that the time for a 3rd level fully functioning worldwide corporate expression of Christ is really only seconds away. I want to be a part of it.
In the next post is a prophecy given to me in the last Portsdown Community Church Conference in May 2008 which is particularly relevant to this "lost" generation of seekers. Not lost in the sense of unsaved...lost in the sense that they disappeared from view suddenly...and never ever really emerged out the other side.
