A Third Level approach to ministry I

"God doesn't call ANYONE INTO MINISTRY! Its a lie! Its a fake! It's also a detrimental saying...that is simply that...but gives misconceptions.

You see...if you read Matthew 10:1....He CALLED the disciples TO Him." So reads Ursula Kuba's post today...you must read it.

For different reasons Zerubbabel (see links section) would agree with her.

I don't quite....but almost. What is making me a bit speechless is that I've found myself groaning inwardly about this precise subject most of the weekend. Is it not also incredible that at 2 key UK conferences...RiverCAMP through Mark Stibbe and other leaders in Shaftsbury have felt to address this head on this very summer. It is part of the substance also of "Orphans and Heirs".

These Conference messages, from different people were talking about:
"Inward
Upward
and Outward."

Morris Cerullo would say unless you have an experience of God's Power and love...how are you going to minister it out? Inward then is this experience.
Upward is our corresponding relationship and gratefulness back to God...our God....
which leads to an outward that is God-driven not man-driven. An exact set of instructions that we KNOW we are going to be empowered to carry out. Kind of takes the striving out of it all.

We are called to ministry I believe, but like all things third level......it completely re-writes the rule book. And rule 1 can almost stand on its own like Ursula says.

Rule 1. Get called to a relationship. With Jesus. We don't have to initiate this. His arms are already open. He loves us. He loves us so so much. Unconditionally.

People know that although I love evangelical people...after 36 years I am losing patience with the evangelical systems. Last year I addressed 2 particular clients after years of serving them....because I felt as important as my job is...it may well be that no one has ever dared to break into their world and challenge them. One was quite old...so I was sensing the time to be short. The other was an ex-pastor with an invalid son. The pastor was so locked into his Calvinism....Que sera sera...that there was no way he'd ever see changes happen without being challenged about his beliefs. These situations are still ongoing...but the difference was...I nolonger remained silent!!! That at least had changed.

The same thing is happening right now with me and the second level. Again not the people...the system.
Once you see the 3rd level clearly...you will never go back. People think it's so odd,because they are still delighted with meetings with spiritual gifts......but at no point is THE PROBLEM...the ONE PROBLEM, the Genesis 3:5 problem ever addressed. People get back to Deuteronomy 28, the very real promises of God...but no further. And if you don't get to the root and you go into ministry this is what it looks like.
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Parable by Graham Pulkingham and the Fisherfolk as vaguely remembered from their 1973 visit to Amersham Old Town Baptist Church.

One day in the wild wild west a town sheriff died. He had been effective,but wise,and had carried out his duties well. It was clear to the towns people who should be his successor. Why, it was clear! It should be young Tom the sharp-shooter. Boy was he good!. He could hit a can shooting from the the other end of town. So everyone felt that to be safe as a town, Tom was the obvious guardian.

He had some funny ways...like the way he wore his badge. He was particularly proud of his badge, the one inherited from his predecessor. But there was one thing wrong with it he felt. It could be easily missed. So he got the silversmith to make him one that everyone could see.

This one was about 9 inches in diameter. He strutted around with it and made sure that everyone could see it clearly. I'm only doing this he thought to himself...as a matter of safety. Because if everyone can see it, they will be less likely to try anything on.

But one day he noticed that there were some people laughing at him over the other side of the street. He wondered what they could find so funny. Perhaps they did not realise that he was a man of importance, there to protect the townsfolk. Perhaps they could not see his badge.

So he went to the silversmith and ordered a huge badge. A badge that was so big it covered the whole of his upper body down to his knees. This will promote safety, he thought. But I need everyone to see it so they can feel safe. So they can know that something is being done hereabouts with all the badlands nearby an' all !!

One day, a bad mean looking guy walked directly into town with a fully loaded shot-gun!
I'm in charge here he hollered.

Tom, the sheriff, came out of the jail house. He motioned to everyone to stay calm! He was here. The man with the big badge of the law. The authority!

The mean guy just eyed him, and facing him from a way off just raised his gun.
Tom, raised his gun in response, confident in his skills and speed. Before the other man had time to pull the trigger, Tom let a bullet fly! But unfortunately it ricocheted off his enormous badge and entered Tom's heart immediately. Tom sunk to his knees as the awful truth hit him too late.
He'd made a huge error of judgement!

Havant,Parchment,Signing the register

Pictures and impressions that have both local and international resonance.

The purpose of this blog as a whole is not to share my own life , nor share details about my local church.

Its specific purpose is to share prophetically and by means of Bible teaching and revelation where the Body is heading. In my first post I said I needed room, more room than Dan's comment section, to systematically explore every thread and basis for a "third level" of growth.

Both corporately and individually.

You have seen that I am building off decades of revelation in the lives of many notable saints and forerunners. The Norman Grubbs, the Ern Baxters, the Ed Millers. You have also seen that from an intellectual, left-brain approach, I have not been that systematic. So, think of this a bit like the gospel of John, or some of St Paul's stuff....where the system is more thematic. Also, please respect that the most systematic description so far has been written down for us already in "Yes,Iam",Norman Grubb's last book.

I neither have permission to copy this out verbatim, nor would I wish to take away from Zerubbabel's bookstore, mentioned in the links section.

Today,however, I want to speak about some more personal and local stuff because I believe at least some of it will be relevant on a larger scale.

I refer to the Key of David meetings.

The church I attend was formed under Peter and Mariette Stott nearly 30 years ago. As they both were used farther afield, in Europe, especially Spain, also South America and America, the day to day church runnings were then managed by a good team ministry under the pastors John and Wendy Wilbraham.

A while ago, Peter felt to run "Key of David" meetings to which anybody could come. These sort of meetings are appearing the world over as the Holy Spirit directs. Locally, they are known as Key of David meetings...but many around the world would use lots of other titles. Peter has been in many. It was in such a meeting in the UK, known as "the Well" that he first met Todd Bentley.

Key of David meetings have no agenda. They come from King David's phrase "One thing I seek, to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." The meetings centre on this seeking of God. With or without music,with or without teaching,maybe in total stillness prostrate on the floor, maybe dancing your socks off in violent praise.....in whatever form..waiting on God.

In 1973, when God led a few of us in Amersham into something similar...ostensibly to train up a local prophet...the teaching God used was from Psalm123:32

Behold, as the eyes of (C)servants look to the hand of their master,

As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

So our (D)eyes look to the LORD our God,

Until He is gracious to us.
ie unless you are ready, willing and concentrated on the slightest flick of your master's hand, you will have no clue as to what he wants you to do.

And just as for us in the early 70s during these little meetings God was revealing huge swathes of revelation concerning

The Release of the Spirit

Discipleship

The Vision of the Triumphant Church

which then came out internationally 2-3 years later as taught by people such as Juan Carlos Ortiz and Ern Baxter;

So now, in these Key of David meetings, many of the bigger themes on an international scale are coming first as a "cloud no bigger than a man's hand" in these sessions.

One of these things was the 3-fold nature of Revelation 3:20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door,

1.I will come in to him and

2.will dine with him,

3.and he with Me. "

I had never noticed this before and certainly not in a 1st level 2nd level 3rd level context.

I felt this applicable to us all in the charismatic movement....but I really felt it for a couple I shall not name. Here was a couple...(incidentally the same man who refused to take the 3rd level message tape into his hand 16 years ago....he reached out for it...then at the last minute withdrew his hand quickly. It was a really odd moment. He'd just prophesied over me that just as I was restoring a grand piano project, I would be a concert instrument before many people. So on the one hand prophecying, on the other, destroying any chance of it taking place. Torture.)

Anyhow this couple is representative of a generation that have asked Jesus in, that have let Him eat them out of house and home, and to whom God was now saying "Right. How would you like to come back to My place?"

This changed in the May Conference to the Father saying it. "Come back to My Place for tea."

And sure enough...that was also the burden of RiverCAMP through Mark Stibbe's messages.

Also through a ministry later in Shaftsbury, John and Wendy told me.

Another two of the Key of David themes , also taken up in Peter and Mariette's recent ministry...for example in Paduka, Kentucky....is one of legitimacy. Peter preached on this in the May Conference here...and more recently "shame" taken from Adam and Eve hiding.

I want to explore this because of last night's Key of David meeting.

It was outwardly quite a subdued meeting, but this was strongly contrasted by the deep sense of the Lord's Presence. And the worship and adoration. And the sense of looking into the face of Jesus.

Just about the time I was getting impressions that were the Kingdom equivalent of Dr Who's tardis....and science fiction portals and worm-holes....
translated, that is the sense of Jacob thinking he was in the middle of nowhere, with a stone for a pillow ...next he is having a dream as inGenesis28:12(S)He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, (T)the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.Then in verse 17 "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

And I was feeling all this about our little Havant. Just at that moment...I think at a point of high praise...Peter blurted out verse 17 as above.

And how often is that true of us in our little anonymous places all over the world. Like Ruth, (as in Book of Ruth)we literally sell all in various ways, only to find ourselves being woven into God's history of the world.

This is particularly true of Havant. Only notable as the former centre for Kenwood, Vogue Butterick patterns, Goodmans speakers,Scalextric, and Tam Brands (Tampax).

You know, not many in the Kingdom have Phd's like Mark Stibbe and Brad Jersak. But many move from humble surroundings to achieve doctorate status later. One such local lady pastor researched Havant's history and saw prophetic parallels. Havant's history revolves around it having the largest amount of naturally occurring artesian wells in the UK...22 or so.

The water is old water as in old and deep water so pure that Havant developed into a centre for extremely pure and high quality parchment. Parchment so fine that it was the choice for the writing of the Magna Carta.(1215) and last century for the Treaty of Versailles.

This is all extremely prophetically charged stuff for the nature of the church God is building here. And last night I saw more, which ties these strands together with what God is currently doing worldwide too.

In the more subdued setting of the worship. Subdued in volume...not subdued in Presence..

I felt I was present watching the signing of a wedding Registry Book, in the same way that this generally takes place to a background setting of music.

This registry book was the one officially and legally describing the marriage of Jesus and His Bride. In a local sense, there was an important resonance with it being signed on Havant Parchment....but this is for us locally...and again showing that our little church has a certain position and importance that goes beyond what you would assume for its size.

But opening out in scale....

you can see what the Holy Spirit is doing in the greater Body too right now.

He is setting on parchment for all to see

Our total legitimacy to be heirs of Christ as in Ephesians and Colossians and Romans

Our total legitimacy to be declared a race of co-sons as preached by Rob Rufus, Mark Stibbe, Peter Stott and simultaneous innumerable others

Therefore the total and legal declaration of the Abolition of the Shame we inherited in the Garden

A parchment set out before the principalities and powers, before any other claimants false or real on our lives. (Ruth had to go through this process before legally being able to marry Boaz. Is this not what has been going on with the New Covenant since it began? And it has passed through false claimants hands (the structured man-made church who tried to make it back into an old Covenant concern again)

The Body has never really known its legitimacy. And out of this lack of knowledge has moved in all sorts of falsified versions of legitimacy. But now is the time for this parchment to be brought out, with all the correct signatures, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

saints without number from beyond the grave

angel hosts.

I believe this is the gist of what Lydia Joy is trying to say here. I myself don't have any problem with the phrase "convicted by the Holy Spirit"...but it is more like Rob Rufus described recently when on 080808 Jesus came into his room. The thing is, as Peter shared this morning if shame has been dealt with at our deepest levels....the Holy Spirit's negatives do not have the same sting...in fact they are somehow filled with honour...

because God, the God of the Universe wants to interact with me....He loves me enough to tell me off but also as Lydia would say...point us in the right direction.

If you read the last chapters of Job you can see the same thing going on. God is economical in His acts. He does a whole host of things at many levels simultaneously. With Job, we are often told about how it was the Devil putting up the challenge in the first chapter...totally unseen by the human world...only to be totally proved wrong through Job's refusal to curse God. Actually there was something else going on too. There was some "independent self " thinking going on with Job, and you can read for yourself how God firmly, but graciously, and again in a totally honoring way,

says nevertheless " Job, kid, where were you when I set the whole kit up then!!!"

We need that. We need to know...to really know in our very fibres...that without Him we are nothing..........

But then we need to know as the Parchment tells us

Christ is now our life

Christ in us is the hope of glory

We can now do all things through Christ who strengthens us

It is not I who live , but Christ who lives in me

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

While we are still hugging our proud and lofty speculations about being

successful or unsuccessful independent "lone " me's in the universe

we are hugging shame to ourselves

the shame, as Peter Stott was sharing, of being either over-projecting selves, to counteract the inner feeling of worthlessness,

or the shame of being the blushing buffoon who lacks confidence in many situations....as Saul first was when Samuel found him hiding in the baggage.

Dan was sharing about his feelings and fighting self-harm.....well if he can also start to withdraw from the fight....and see the Parchment declaration.....he should start to see that it is only

independent thinking that would drive him depressionwards.

Not that depression is not real....it's just that with any of the devil's stuff...(Since by the way, the devil is the Biggest Manic depressive ...he is the one with the biggest Bipolar condition...and really all we are doing is joining him in his condition)

whereas Christ is Hope.

His very Life lived through us is Hope. If by dying, Jesus nailed our manic depressed life to the cross, and plunged us into Him in a real baptism into His death and resurrection....it is accurate that we don't live this independant lie anymore....it's Jesus living His life through me.

Just as believing on Him for forgiveness was a step into the unknown

Just as receiving the Baptism in the Spirit was a step out on scriptures into the unknown, but richly rewarded

So it is into the 3rd Level....

It is cold. It is calculated. From the view of our former manner of life it is brutal. But when we are desperate enough, as I was....we say

OK Jesus. I believe your Word. It was not me that was doing all these things...although it suited my pride to believe that I as an independent being chose it all...like Romans 7 says...it was "never just me".....since I ,as a self-running being, is an impossibility....

I See....at last....it was SIN in me. This god-delusion thing of me running my own life has only led me into darkness, self-hatred and sin.....which is what You wanted me to see

so that now I can choose You. You are my Life. You don't get depressed. You may get aggrieved, as when John the Baptist was beheaded...but You don't drop into depression as a life pattern.

Therefore, coldly, as I chose You for salvation, totally based on Your Word...with not necessarily much feeling, I say now

The life I now live is YOU. And if I am tempted into sin, then it is me slipping back into "Just me" territory, and I will turn around and again begin believing Your Life in me.

I have no independent life, and since the Cross, on the new Marriage Parchment you have legitimately declared that my Life is now You as lived through MY SOUL

as lived through MY BODY.

My soul is OK and being renewed daily by your Spirit battery coming through it.

I do not need to be someone else. I only need to recognise that new SOMEBODY which is Christ living through me. Help me as I learn it, in the same way you taught me how to do Spirit-filled meetings. Do not let me bow to pressure to be someone different. I am me. And what you are currently doing through me is sufficient. As I believe you for more gifting, it is based on your Word, and not on some deluded self-effort thing as "an alone me".

Amen. This stuff works. And later, you may even be allowed to go to meetings and take them over for the glory of God! But for now learn how to pour out muesli into a bowl as Christ as you.

There are many testimonies of people with all manner of psychological stuff making this step in the oldest Intercessor magazines. Unfortunately only Vol 9 is now available - the latest ones containing little or no testimony.

Bring on the Body!