Sunday, 30 November 2008
Friday, 28 November 2008
Wahoo-a-zowie! I get Myself Back!
Norman Grubb - Yes I am- Chapter25 "I Get Myself Back"
Now we move on to the surprising and glorious effects on us of this total relationship of replacement-union. The chief one is the paradox.A person might think that this inner consciousness of Christ in me, as me, would give me an enlarged consciousness of Him and an increased glorying in Him. It does... even though He has already been, for years, my precious Christ in the love relationship of the Song of Songs. But what becomes paradoxically new to me is a totally new self-acceptance. And here, at once, we move onto "dangerous ground" — not dangerous to us, but to onlookers like the daughters of Jerusalem in the Song! Because it seems to produce a newly inflated ego —I! It does. But of course, we who have entered in and are now in on the secret know the whole key — that it is a Satan-expressing ego which has first disappeared forever in His cross, before reappearing as our new Christ-expressing ego. But it is a total reappearing of the "I"! Why? Because it has been God's fixed plan of grace from before the foundation of the world that He was going to have a vast company of fully liberated sons — liberated fully to be themselves — by whom He would fully be Himself embodied in human forms. Yet in that paradoxical relationship, unintelligible to those not initiated into it, the human "I" is its full spontaneous self, and acting as such. That is why I often say there is no egoist in history equal to our Lord Jesus Christ! He was always, I.
I—"I am the door," "I am the living bread," "I am the light," "I am the way." Emphatic self. Yet we who know Him are also aware— look within Him! — that He was always saying "I do nothing by Myself, but only what I see My Father do," and "If you see Me, you see the Father."That is precisely what happens to us. Before we know our exchanged life, while still in the struggles and self-condemnation of Romans 7, we dislike and downgrade ourselves — "0 wretched man that I am!" We are compulsively negative about ourselves and deeply suspicious of what we think are our dangerous tendencies. So now it is an altogether new thing, and may take a little time to sink into us, that so far from downgrading ourselves, because He now accepts us, wenow accept ourselves as His precious vessel, branch, body member, bride. Every part of us — our physical appetites, our soulish emotions and reasoning powers — are beautiful and wholly valuable as His outer means of manifestation. It usually takes a little time to realize this, just because we've been so used to thinking the opposite about ourselves.So now we're free to be ourselves, because we now know weare wholly His human forms. We live with raised, not lowered heads! Sure, we're not unaware of the subtle misuse today bypsychologists and many others of a false "self-acceptance" and"self-liberation to be ourselves." Indeed, this is universal,because the deceived natural man assumes he has no self except himself, and his only remedy for his self problems is the fraudulent build-up of himself as "inherently good." But just because there is a wave of modern, false emphasis on the build-up of self, that must not inhibit us from boldly accepting and affirming ourselves — we who truly know who we truly are!One notable effect of this is also another kind of paradox —in that in our normal daily living, for most of the time, we forget who we are, and just function as ourselves. It is the same principle as in our professional lives. Once we are competent in our particular profession, as we've said before, whether a cook,teacher, carpenter, engineer, or whatever, we do not spend our hours reminding ourselves or others that we are this or that,but we just go ahead being it. We don't keep saying "I'm a teacher, I'm a teacher," but we just teach! So in precisely the same way, when we know that we are really He in us, we don't keep running around reminding ourselves or telling that to others. We just do our daily job. enter into our daily conversations, etc., totally forgetting that it is He in us by us —but it is only He, all the time. So we don't have to have special prayer times to "remind ourselves," though we love any chances we have for our secret inner-love tryst with Him. Nor do we have to come to the end of a busy day and condemn ourselves for not having thought more of Him. If we do that,He tells us not to be so foolish ... for our doings and talkings were His all the time.
Can I just interject here (Chris). In the mid to late 70s a lot of the London leaders were preaching similar stuff...under the banner of "being naturally Jesus". There was something not right about it in practice...and maybe I'll do more in another post. People were calling "Jesus in them" things that definitely weren't. So what's the safeguard? Well, in the end it's living it!
You've got the Galations 5:19-21 list of the works of the flesh as a checklist for a start. You've got behaviours listed in Matthew's Gospel(5:21ff.... 6:1-27 and 23:1-36 )basically we know in our spirits what isn't Jesus...and for our blind spots we have others alongside who are also living in the Spirit.The Body of Christ...which isn't quite the same as the church structure ,by the way! In meetings we learn how to live and move as Jesus as us. All we are doing now is taking the same inner believing outside of the meeting room walls. We are checking ourselves all the time...is this Christ doing stuff through me?..am I in faith?Am I defined who is living my life right now? Cos if there is any fuzzyness...we're already slipping back into "independant just me living again" And it is this stuff that Gerald Coates,George Tarleton, Dave Mansell,John Noble and the early 70's Maurice Smith were not preaching.They were not defined. And some horrible things happened.
You have to understand...3rd level is as real as 2nd level stuff in meetings. It's not pie in the sky. After a while of living this way, you're nolonger verbalizing stuff so much...the 3rd level realities have taken hold of you...you are not holding them!!! Then when you go back into 2nd level meetings...your praise...your authority ....your naturalness with Jesus is just in another place, because you have been living there.
Think about it. David always wrote psalms. From the time he was a shepherd lad!. But having had Saul chase him around in the wilderness, then fall in adultery, then crumple broken before the Lord in Psalm 51.After all this...when he then established Temple worship ....well it was so fantastic...the very glory of God filled the place!!!! And that's where we're going folks...as hundreds of thousands start to learn about the realities of 3rd level living.(Unfortunately Norman didn't live to see it)
He continues.....
I don't think my friend, Gloria, sister of former-President Carter, will mind me telling this story about her. About eight or more years ago we were together at a Faith at Workconference in Georgia, and during the weekend the Lord revealed to her the secret that she was really Christ in her formWhen she returned home to Plains, she found a card in the mail asking her to speak on herbs at her garden club. But she told me that she knew little about herbs, so she spent the next day or two studying up on them. Then, after having given her lecture and returned home, she talked to the Lord in her room and asked His forgiveness because she had forgotten about Him those days because of her herb preparations. The answer He gave her: "What are you apologizing to Me for? I was co-herbing with you. That was My lecture, not yours!"So we actually are free persons and learn to recognize ourselves as such — free to express our opinions, to make our judgments, to do our jobs, make our choices. Dangerous? It surely looks like that, and others would tell us it is—who don't know the spontaneity of the union. But no danger to us who know our unchangeable oneness. We know that all we do is He, and we live the "dangerous life" of believing .. .which is knowing and thus recognizing that it is all He. We live spontaneously. If we cook, it is He doing the cooking. If we do our job, it is He doing it. If we have conversation, it is He conversing. Union in the Spirit is actual, factual. Where He is,we are. Where we are. He is. No hairbreadth separation between us can ever be possible.
Now we move on to the surprising and glorious effects on us of this total relationship of replacement-union. The chief one is the paradox.A person might think that this inner consciousness of Christ in me, as me, would give me an enlarged consciousness of Him and an increased glorying in Him. It does... even though He has already been, for years, my precious Christ in the love relationship of the Song of Songs. But what becomes paradoxically new to me is a totally new self-acceptance. And here, at once, we move onto "dangerous ground" — not dangerous to us, but to onlookers like the daughters of Jerusalem in the Song! Because it seems to produce a newly inflated ego —I! It does. But of course, we who have entered in and are now in on the secret know the whole key — that it is a Satan-expressing ego which has first disappeared forever in His cross, before reappearing as our new Christ-expressing ego. But it is a total reappearing of the "I"! Why? Because it has been God's fixed plan of grace from before the foundation of the world that He was going to have a vast company of fully liberated sons — liberated fully to be themselves — by whom He would fully be Himself embodied in human forms. Yet in that paradoxical relationship, unintelligible to those not initiated into it, the human "I" is its full spontaneous self, and acting as such. That is why I often say there is no egoist in history equal to our Lord Jesus Christ! He was always, I.
I—"I am the door," "I am the living bread," "I am the light," "I am the way." Emphatic self. Yet we who know Him are also aware— look within Him! — that He was always saying "I do nothing by Myself, but only what I see My Father do," and "If you see Me, you see the Father."That is precisely what happens to us. Before we know our exchanged life, while still in the struggles and self-condemnation of Romans 7, we dislike and downgrade ourselves — "0 wretched man that I am!" We are compulsively negative about ourselves and deeply suspicious of what we think are our dangerous tendencies. So now it is an altogether new thing, and may take a little time to sink into us, that so far from downgrading ourselves, because He now accepts us, wenow accept ourselves as His precious vessel, branch, body member, bride. Every part of us — our physical appetites, our soulish emotions and reasoning powers — are beautiful and wholly valuable as His outer means of manifestation. It usually takes a little time to realize this, just because we've been so used to thinking the opposite about ourselves.So now we're free to be ourselves, because we now know weare wholly His human forms. We live with raised, not lowered heads! Sure, we're not unaware of the subtle misuse today bypsychologists and many others of a false "self-acceptance" and"self-liberation to be ourselves." Indeed, this is universal,because the deceived natural man assumes he has no self except himself, and his only remedy for his self problems is the fraudulent build-up of himself as "inherently good." But just because there is a wave of modern, false emphasis on the build-up of self, that must not inhibit us from boldly accepting and affirming ourselves — we who truly know who we truly are!One notable effect of this is also another kind of paradox —in that in our normal daily living, for most of the time, we forget who we are, and just function as ourselves. It is the same principle as in our professional lives. Once we are competent in our particular profession, as we've said before, whether a cook,teacher, carpenter, engineer, or whatever, we do not spend our hours reminding ourselves or others that we are this or that,but we just go ahead being it. We don't keep saying "I'm a teacher, I'm a teacher," but we just teach! So in precisely the same way, when we know that we are really He in us, we don't keep running around reminding ourselves or telling that to others. We just do our daily job. enter into our daily conversations, etc., totally forgetting that it is He in us by us —but it is only He, all the time. So we don't have to have special prayer times to "remind ourselves," though we love any chances we have for our secret inner-love tryst with Him. Nor do we have to come to the end of a busy day and condemn ourselves for not having thought more of Him. If we do that,He tells us not to be so foolish ... for our doings and talkings were His all the time.
Can I just interject here (Chris). In the mid to late 70s a lot of the London leaders were preaching similar stuff...under the banner of "being naturally Jesus". There was something not right about it in practice...and maybe I'll do more in another post. People were calling "Jesus in them" things that definitely weren't. So what's the safeguard? Well, in the end it's living it!
You've got the Galations 5:19-21 list of the works of the flesh as a checklist for a start. You've got behaviours listed in Matthew's Gospel(5:21ff.... 6:1-27 and 23:1-36 )basically we know in our spirits what isn't Jesus...and for our blind spots we have others alongside who are also living in the Spirit.The Body of Christ...which isn't quite the same as the church structure ,by the way! In meetings we learn how to live and move as Jesus as us. All we are doing now is taking the same inner believing outside of the meeting room walls. We are checking ourselves all the time...is this Christ doing stuff through me?..am I in faith?Am I defined who is living my life right now? Cos if there is any fuzzyness...we're already slipping back into "independant just me living again" And it is this stuff that Gerald Coates,George Tarleton, Dave Mansell,John Noble and the early 70's Maurice Smith were not preaching.They were not defined. And some horrible things happened.
You have to understand...3rd level is as real as 2nd level stuff in meetings. It's not pie in the sky. After a while of living this way, you're nolonger verbalizing stuff so much...the 3rd level realities have taken hold of you...you are not holding them!!! Then when you go back into 2nd level meetings...your praise...your authority ....your naturalness with Jesus is just in another place, because you have been living there.
Think about it. David always wrote psalms. From the time he was a shepherd lad!. But having had Saul chase him around in the wilderness, then fall in adultery, then crumple broken before the Lord in Psalm 51.After all this...when he then established Temple worship ....well it was so fantastic...the very glory of God filled the place!!!! And that's where we're going folks...as hundreds of thousands start to learn about the realities of 3rd level living.(Unfortunately Norman didn't live to see it)
He continues.....
I don't think my friend, Gloria, sister of former-President Carter, will mind me telling this story about her. About eight or more years ago we were together at a Faith at Workconference in Georgia, and during the weekend the Lord revealed to her the secret that she was really Christ in her formWhen she returned home to Plains, she found a card in the mail asking her to speak on herbs at her garden club. But she told me that she knew little about herbs, so she spent the next day or two studying up on them. Then, after having given her lecture and returned home, she talked to the Lord in her room and asked His forgiveness because she had forgotten about Him those days because of her herb preparations. The answer He gave her: "What are you apologizing to Me for? I was co-herbing with you. That was My lecture, not yours!"So we actually are free persons and learn to recognize ourselves as such — free to express our opinions, to make our judgments, to do our jobs, make our choices. Dangerous? It surely looks like that, and others would tell us it is—who don't know the spontaneity of the union. But no danger to us who know our unchangeable oneness. We know that all we do is He, and we live the "dangerous life" of believing .. .which is knowing and thus recognizing that it is all He. We live spontaneously. If we cook, it is He doing the cooking. If we do our job, it is He doing it. If we have conversation, it is He conversing. Union in the Spirit is actual, factual. Where He is,we are. Where we are. He is. No hairbreadth separation between us can ever be possible.
Thursday, 27 November 2008
One of the Greatest 3rd Level mysteries of all time
is how come Wallace and Gromit : Project Zoo has been totally overlooked.
We have gameCube...but whatever the format...these can often be picked up in the bargain bins for £5 or $5. May I say, that if any of you are into Nick Park's creativity....he reminds me so much of the unrivalled creativity of the Christian children's authors Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen...who used to do great illustrations and design on the late 70s Fulness magazine.
We have gameCube...but whatever the format...these can often be picked up in the bargain bins for £5 or $5. May I say, that if any of you are into Nick Park's creativity....he reminds me so much of the unrivalled creativity of the Christian children's authors Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen...who used to do great illustrations and design on the late 70s Fulness magazine.
Well if anyone illustrates God's creativity...then Nick Park does also. The best £5 we ever spent on family entertainment was this game. There are so many hidden features. It is a mixture of light and dark humor, like the films...in fact it is virtually a film in its own right. Why all the ever so cool games review magazines completely overlook this one...well that's just one of the big 3rd level mysteries of the universe.
Or perhaps people have a life.
Monday, 24 November 2008
Speakers on Al-Jazeera Channel
One of the Christian speakers John and Wendy heard in Chorleywood talked about an interesting programme on Al-Jazeera. Some Muslims were reporting happily on the advances into all the nations in the world.....except they kept avoiding Africa. The interviewer pressed for an answer 3 or 4 times. At last, and reluctantly it was announced that the fight for Africa was being lost, because Christians had found out how to raise people from the dead. !!!!
"Can't see the join"- email from John Stevens
Got this email from John - ex Exeter Uni
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Heaven's a wild place - like it.
Today's bread: was running with a friend this morning getting shockingly cold but he's inspired to use Sun a.m. runs to share his life and interrogate me about a statement I'd made about having 1 and a half encounters with angels. Anyway I started to remember what it was like as a child listening to NT stories about Jesus at school and at church and yet not knowing anyone who could point to the reality on earth until I met a fellow under age drinker who knew the Lord. No-one in my family ever spoke about Jesus so it was all a bit bewildering. Then into a charismatic church at home and Uni tentatively teaching and exploring, as you say, salvation/baptism in the Spirit. And then wanting to reproduce the teaching in my life in greater reality receiving more through the Wimber years and at Roffey. But at Roffey having another big jigsaw piece falling into place all about being crucified with Christ not I etc Gal 2v20 Prob said all this before.
The point is that telling my friend all this reawakened that initial thirst from childhood and I realised afresh this morning that I have a chance in this life to live the very life of Jesus and just how amazing that is. In fact there is no other life to live.
Eric Morecombe (a third Level comic!) got it about right looking closely at Ernie Wise through those oversize glasses 'Can't see the join'
John
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Heaven's a wild place - like it.
Today's bread: was running with a friend this morning getting shockingly cold but he's inspired to use Sun a.m. runs to share his life and interrogate me about a statement I'd made about having 1 and a half encounters with angels. Anyway I started to remember what it was like as a child listening to NT stories about Jesus at school and at church and yet not knowing anyone who could point to the reality on earth until I met a fellow under age drinker who knew the Lord. No-one in my family ever spoke about Jesus so it was all a bit bewildering. Then into a charismatic church at home and Uni tentatively teaching and exploring, as you say, salvation/baptism in the Spirit. And then wanting to reproduce the teaching in my life in greater reality receiving more through the Wimber years and at Roffey. But at Roffey having another big jigsaw piece falling into place all about being crucified with Christ not I etc Gal 2v20 Prob said all this before.
The point is that telling my friend all this reawakened that initial thirst from childhood and I realised afresh this morning that I have a chance in this life to live the very life of Jesus and just how amazing that is. In fact there is no other life to live.
Eric Morecombe (a third Level comic!) got it about right looking closely at Ernie Wise through those oversize glasses 'Can't see the join'
John
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Time for Testimony
Not just mine.Anybody's.
A few weeks ago I brought a prophetic word about God opening up a well of Testimony. And I mean a word too!. I mean it was short. One of these short type of prophecies with only one word or phrase in, that I mentioned in a previous post.
Today the worship team took a prophetic line with songs about Jesus being a strong tower or fortress. God spoke to me. What I thought was great was it was before we'd really got going on the fortress theme...so I knew it was all part of today's package.
In 1971 Jean Darnall and other prophets called Christians together to celebrate a Festival of Light. From the coast throughout the land the old fire beacons (for messaging)were lit on every hill top. Then later Christians gathered in London. The promise given was that a great light would come in London then scatter to all the towns and villages, where the light would grow in all these regions.
Through the awakening of Christians through the fresh experience of the Holy Spirit, both old denominational churches and new churches have been growing stronger and stronger in their relationship with the Living God. I felt God saying...along the lines of various coastal prophecies given many years ago, but now featuring just about every town in Britain....
That now the fortresses had been formed. They were bases of God's power. They were strongholds of the Name of Jesus. And as fortresses now was the time "for the righteous to run in and be safe/ saved." as the song and the scripture says. So this also dovetails in with the promise of Wells of Testimony. What God has done in believer's lives ,we can still in our incompleteness, confidently declare that He can do again...myriadfold for anyone in the same kind of fixes. The power of testimony being that it reproduces the anointing for the same thing to occur again.
Some weeks ago we had a seabaptism of most of our Havant youth group, and ex-drug addict recommitting his life properly, and two of our dear friends Jed and Yvette.
Unlike other more evangelistic souls, Christine and I are generally more cautious about pushing people into praying the commitment prayer. But on this Sunday, Christine felt this so strongly from the time we got up. So at an appropriate time in the meeting we encouraged our friend Jed to do the deal, and ask Jesus into his heart. He and Yvette were baptised the same day. You can make out from the stills the glory on their faces as they came out. Jed looked 10 years younger. Forget Botox. We need Jesus!!!.
Thing is, unbelievers have no clue about how things can change the very day that you just submit your life to Christ. See, it's Jesus that does it ! If He wasn't real...what a burden to appear all happy and "Christian" with those gleamy teethy smiles.....but the thing is He is real. All we have to do is submit to Him, accept Him as Lord, and ask Him to come in and take over. He does the rest. Yvette told me today that Jed has been a very different man from this day. When he gets in from work, he nolonger has the whole world on his shoulders. People have greater respect for his role at work. He speaks with more assurance and authority. And this is in little more than a month already. The other guy baptised went the very next day to a drug rehab near Birmingham, where early reports say he is doing very well.
You can see how brave everyone was in the cold English seas. Peter Stott's opening words are "I think we should do a risk assessment of this". Many fine stills were taken by Wendy Wilbraham, but this is the internet...and sadly we cannot show them. I hope these clips that remain are sufficiently vague concerning the actual kids. The film was on my Sony Cybershot and it nolonger seems compatible with Windows programmes...I've spent ages finding edit programmes that bridge the gap. The music is Phil Keaggy : It's Personal-The Poetry of Keith Moore. Track 7 The Blood.
A few weeks ago I brought a prophetic word about God opening up a well of Testimony. And I mean a word too!. I mean it was short. One of these short type of prophecies with only one word or phrase in, that I mentioned in a previous post.
Today the worship team took a prophetic line with songs about Jesus being a strong tower or fortress. God spoke to me. What I thought was great was it was before we'd really got going on the fortress theme...so I knew it was all part of today's package.
In 1971 Jean Darnall and other prophets called Christians together to celebrate a Festival of Light. From the coast throughout the land the old fire beacons (for messaging)were lit on every hill top. Then later Christians gathered in London. The promise given was that a great light would come in London then scatter to all the towns and villages, where the light would grow in all these regions.
Through the awakening of Christians through the fresh experience of the Holy Spirit, both old denominational churches and new churches have been growing stronger and stronger in their relationship with the Living God. I felt God saying...along the lines of various coastal prophecies given many years ago, but now featuring just about every town in Britain....
That now the fortresses had been formed. They were bases of God's power. They were strongholds of the Name of Jesus. And as fortresses now was the time "for the righteous to run in and be safe/ saved." as the song and the scripture says. So this also dovetails in with the promise of Wells of Testimony. What God has done in believer's lives ,we can still in our incompleteness, confidently declare that He can do again...myriadfold for anyone in the same kind of fixes. The power of testimony being that it reproduces the anointing for the same thing to occur again.
Some weeks ago we had a seabaptism of most of our Havant youth group, and ex-drug addict recommitting his life properly, and two of our dear friends Jed and Yvette.
Unlike other more evangelistic souls, Christine and I are generally more cautious about pushing people into praying the commitment prayer. But on this Sunday, Christine felt this so strongly from the time we got up. So at an appropriate time in the meeting we encouraged our friend Jed to do the deal, and ask Jesus into his heart. He and Yvette were baptised the same day. You can make out from the stills the glory on their faces as they came out. Jed looked 10 years younger. Forget Botox. We need Jesus!!!.
Thing is, unbelievers have no clue about how things can change the very day that you just submit your life to Christ. See, it's Jesus that does it ! If He wasn't real...what a burden to appear all happy and "Christian" with those gleamy teethy smiles.....but the thing is He is real. All we have to do is submit to Him, accept Him as Lord, and ask Him to come in and take over. He does the rest. Yvette told me today that Jed has been a very different man from this day. When he gets in from work, he nolonger has the whole world on his shoulders. People have greater respect for his role at work. He speaks with more assurance and authority. And this is in little more than a month already. The other guy baptised went the very next day to a drug rehab near Birmingham, where early reports say he is doing very well.
You can see how brave everyone was in the cold English seas. Peter Stott's opening words are "I think we should do a risk assessment of this". Many fine stills were taken by Wendy Wilbraham, but this is the internet...and sadly we cannot show them. I hope these clips that remain are sufficiently vague concerning the actual kids. The film was on my Sony Cybershot and it nolonger seems compatible with Windows programmes...I've spent ages finding edit programmes that bridge the gap. The music is Phil Keaggy : It's Personal-The Poetry of Keith Moore. Track 7 The Blood.
Saturday, 22 November 2008
Preach it Dan!
Preach it Dan!
- yes it does matter what we sing!
- we sing ourselves into things
- or out of things
- what we believe in our heart and confess with our lips happens!
- if you don't believe me look at the whole of Genesis chapter 1.
- How amazing that Spurgeon wrote all that!!
Friday, 21 November 2008
The Weller's and me, and praying with folk
In case I get lost with this one, the general gist is this. Yesterday I felt very strongly to pray with an older man for his healing . I met him in the course of hunting down pianos to sell.Like so many of you out there reading this, I am at that tantalising stage of having experienced the electricity of God's anointing upon me and seeing people instantly healed, or subsequently healed thoroughly some time later. eg 10th April comment 21:32
Or at other times to feel absolutely nothing...and still see the power of God move, as in the 90 year old in a coma in France. I think this is also somewhere in Dan's Vaults.
But the rest of the time...it's like Todd Bentley's debut, or Bill Johnson. You pray.....and nothing appears to happen. These two guys prayed for a gazillion people each before they saw any flow in it all.
So like a lot of you in secular jobs, you see all these sick around and you are faced with a challenge. Dan Bowen (see link to Life on Wings)who works in a hospice for children is up against the cliff face continually. Before you experienced the anointing, things were simple. You adopted the standard UK position.....God doesn't heal today...leave it to the NHS (that's National Health Service). It's very simple in denominational Christianity. You're immature if you expect God to heal today. He probably wants to teach you something through you being sick. It's very Que Sera Sera in English church services. You bring the requests of the people to God and , if in 10% of cases some improvement occurs...well that's God blessing folk. If nothing happens or people get worse, well that's just the sovereign will of God. Quite simple really. And if challenged in their position, the vicar/priest/minister will simply adopt that patronising glare, and quietly assure you that it takes a lot more maturity to bear with the sick and see their skin waste away.
From a patience/people skills/loving service point of view they know this is almost impossible to challenge...and so for the last 100 years since the anointing for healing really became commonplace again in a worldwide if not sparsely scattered sense in the Body of Christ, there has been this Goliath versus Israel army stand-off. The Goliath in this case is the firm unyielding position that true maturity is to expect nothing...so you will never be disappointed. Just get on with mopping up the mess until the inevitable occurs.
The Israel army position in this example is to believe that healing is out there somewhere, but that Goliath Denominational traditional position does seem to have a point...and we just don't know how to get round him.
Then a David comes along armed with 5 stones! Just 5 stones. Something like....well my grandmother was virtually dead and she immediately got well. Or those three men I prayed for lost their symptoms immediately..... and armed with nothing more than the promise that God is a good God and has been faithful before....David tears down the Goliath arguments of non-faith which have been around for thousands of years. (Please understand I am not talking about me or any particular ministry , but a position we must adopt if we are to see any headway)
I don't know if I will ever know if the man I prayed with yesterday got healed. But I felt a definite inward prompt to pray. They were Jehovah's witnesses, but unlike many that I meet...they did not seem 100% locked in left-brain teachings. There was some love...some spiritual life there that went beyond treating the Bible as a textbook. And based on that , they warmly received my offer.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
If you are a piano tuner, and if you are any good...one part of your job is going to take you into stage work, or into the homes of famous musicians. You soon lose the starry eyed tendencies that celeb culture encourages. Because, other than serving these individuals to the best of your abilities.....the celeb bit means absolutely nothing. You're like a butler in somewhere like Chequers (the PMs UK Country home). You're there to do a job....and that's it. My website lists some of those I have tuned for.
From 1978 until around 1985 I lived exclusively in Christian Community. Our generation threw many many things aside to explore how this seeking of God thing worked. One thing we threw aside was TV and secular music. The good thing about that was that we experienced a clean break. We knew we were not dependant on any of the hooks that secular media plays your insides with!!! The bad thing about that was when I was called to Paul Weller's house, or more particularly his parents John and Ann's house....I had really no clue as to how important a guy he was. I discounted the whole punk thing as of the devil anyway. Listen....I wasn't even sure about Cliff Richard!!!! he used drums!!!! .......So forget Paul Weller!!
On the floor of the lounge was a mountain of letters. It was only where Paul's sister dealt with the entire Jam or Style Council fan club! Sometimes Paul was there visiting when I was tuning, but being pretty reclusive, I never saw him until one occasion. On that tuning, I chatted with him about the merits of his Dad's Yamaha Grand.
So here is some background to me and the Wellers.
I'm assuming I am the last to know....but if not, can I just say that Paul Weller has survived about 3 incarnations as a Jam band member, as part of a duo in Style Council, then since the late 80s out on his own....a total of 30+ years as a successful performing artist. Since my total ignorance of punk I have been catching up. I have also been listening attentively to Paul's stuff. While I was tuning for them he won the Ivor Novello award for Songwriting. If you've not heard his stuff you must listen to "WildWood","You Do Something To Me", and the rougher "A Town Called Malice" and "That's Entertainment". Also "Standing Out in The Universe"...well so many really..
His Dad was a rock. A manager with a lot of flair...but also a lot of will to succeed. see more here
and also here.
He reminded me of a shrewd London market trader. He had more faith for money in his little finger than I probably do now after having immersed myself in the Prosperity blessings of the Word. He was ALWAYS generous. He never once paid me what I charged him. It was always more. I enraged him once when he was looking to sell a little upright to me, and I wanted everything secure on my side of the deal. The point of business is that the one taking the risk should stand to make the greatest profit. As I've mentioned before in the episode with Rory and Wendy Alec....I can have the vision and faith of a gnat, sometimes. This intellectual UK approach to life, born out of a great education, that then as soon as possible plunges itself into the greatest possible security of a reasonably paid job in a bank, or the council, or an accountants'......well it's just the sort of middle-class narrow existence that Paul rails against in his songs. And pretty darned right! If we spend our life trying to avoid extending in faith and opportunity...all we're doing is burying our "talents" in the earth in case anything happens to them. And this aspect of Paul and his Dad ,being ones who are all about extension..... comes straight out of Kingdom thinking.....but they never knew that, because they'd all adopted the fixed atheist posture. And probably because any Christians they've ever met....have been pretty naff.
On the last occasion I tuned for them, his mum was pretty distressed. John was in hospital and was not doing well. I guess Paul was either in London or with John. I felt suddenly to go for it, so I asked Ann if we could pray. I felt to be really specific, and I looked at my watch and prayed that from that moment at 1 pm, John would get better.
I saw John and Ann a few weeks later in Bosham Walk near Chichester. John clearly did not want to know. I was ofcourse pleased because he was up and about. But without speaking how is anyone to know? You are all left with silly game-playing. He's probably thinking: that Christian twit probably thinks I am well again because he prayed for it.....when really the doctors managed to pull me through. Perhaps that is actually what happened. Or his improvement really was remarkable...but because God doesn't exist...he certainly doesn't want to do anything to fuel the mad beliefs of that twit Christian.
Who knows????????Perhaps someone who knows Paul can ask him.
John and Ann moved nearer to Paul after this, so I never did their piano again.
One thing is interesting. Paul has put some sort of track about God on his latest CD.
I hope that this post has expressed something else too. How much I hate Christianity in the UK.
Does it make it clearer in a larger size and with big letters?
How many other leading artists are to be condemned to a life of near atheism because you Oh England actually choose to run a Christianity that stinks..... want a verse for that ??? Rev 3:1"you have the name of being alive but you are dead"
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
The War Room : Salt Into Sugar
Christine has just returned from a Havant Church meeting. Sunday's evening meeting is called the War Room. This week they felt to pray at one of the natural Havant springs. There was a sense that they should take some salt. (Like when the prophet prayed over bitter water at Jericho,was it? to makethe waters sweet again) One member brought a whacking great salt container, so they agreed to empty some out and take a smaller quantity in a tupperware tub.
When they arrived and opened the pot, one of them thought the salt looked a little odd...so he tasted it...it was sweet. It was sugar. He went to the other member and said "You brought sugar by mistake". But when they were back at the church......on inspecting the great salt container...it was indeed salt.
The salt had been turned into sugar!!!! We're not that used to these sort of things yet. I think everyone's flabber was ghasted.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
My friend Michael cautioned me to clarify what I feel God is saying here. There are local resonances going on as described in Havant,Parchment ,Signing the Register.
I wrote to him"I think it is God saying...indeed I will bring sweetness to the streams...both natural and spiritual which nourish Havant."
My friend John wrote:
Interesting. The salt/sugar passage summarises my sketchy understanding of my role in preaching at my church. That's not to say that my church is bitter or that they re crying out to me as a miracle man. Just a private conviction and helps bring some shape to my role. I've only felt at liberty to mention this to one or two as it could cause offence! Lovely miracle you guys experienced - prob thinking about the salt is good. And just great to experience the sweet! I always find this - certainly up to now. When God speaks to me and I hear his word almost invariably it is sweet and reduces pressure and kicks anything like guilt or fear into touch. I still find the goodness and grace of God an unexpected thing. The normal christian life seems so abnormal until it 'happens' again then it is so obviously true and right and 'sweet'.
When they arrived and opened the pot, one of them thought the salt looked a little odd...so he tasted it...it was sweet. It was sugar. He went to the other member and said "You brought sugar by mistake". But when they were back at the church......on inspecting the great salt container...it was indeed salt.
The salt had been turned into sugar!!!! We're not that used to these sort of things yet. I think everyone's flabber was ghasted.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
My friend Michael cautioned me to clarify what I feel God is saying here. There are local resonances going on as described in Havant,Parchment ,Signing the Register.
I wrote to him"I think it is God saying...indeed I will bring sweetness to the streams...both natural and spiritual which nourish Havant."
My friend John wrote:
Interesting. The salt/sugar passage summarises my sketchy understanding of my role in preaching at my church. That's not to say that my church is bitter or that they re crying out to me as a miracle man. Just a private conviction and helps bring some shape to my role. I've only felt at liberty to mention this to one or two as it could cause offence! Lovely miracle you guys experienced - prob thinking about the salt is good. And just great to experience the sweet! I always find this - certainly up to now. When God speaks to me and I hear his word almost invariably it is sweet and reduces pressure and kicks anything like guilt or fear into touch. I still find the goodness and grace of God an unexpected thing. The normal christian life seems so abnormal until it 'happens' again then it is so obviously true and right and 'sweet'.
It's this simple...........Expansion pack.
In Thy Kingdom Come and The Land series of messages by Ern Baxter this is what we learned....
At the moment that Adam reached out for the fruit and Satan's spirit of falsehood entered, God reached down his hand and took from His chosen delegated authority of the Earth
the keys of the Kingdom
until One came that could handle God's authority in a space-time world....
His Name was Jesus.
Until that time how did God handle things? Ern said : Through His designated authorities in the earth
Prophets............. until Christ came.
Hebrews 3:1-6 tells us that ..... Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And in Revelation 5:5
we learn there is only One who is worthy throughout the whole of heaven...the Lion/Lamb Jesus.
So back to Genesis 3:5 then. What exactly happened?
Psalm 24:1 tells us that
The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
Yet, nevertheless something happened.....as we see in verse 7.
Some gates were erected....some doors slammed shut.
God could nolonger just come and go among the people He had made.
Beginning with Adam and Eve hiding...through the Israelites hiding in terror at the bottom of Sinai.....there are now doors in the Earth that should not be there. Should never have been there.
Westerners have no concept of spiritual doors. In large part because of one large erected door. The door of the left-brain...the step by step understanding...the adherence to believing only what I can see,touch and intellectually get my head round. The advantage is a tremendous resistance to wide pursuit of the occult. The disadvantage is ignorance of the Kingdom of God and how it operates.
From whirling dervishes, to clearing your mind and creating passivity in Eastern meditation, to the practice of persistantly calling for your god of choice to come
whether as an African witch doctor
South American Shaman
Northern territorial Shamen in the Arctic circle
or spiritist mediums,
or the use of mind altering drugs.....there is always a calling on spiritual powers.
This is counterfeit. But it is a door opening!!!
We on the other hand as lovers of God, are invited to call upon the Name of the Lord,
to enter His Courts with praise, to lift up and bless the Name of the Lord Jesus.And He too comes amongst us by His Spirit. Sometimes with miraculous signs and wonders. Sometimes with a strong sense of His supernatural Presence. But this is all the same thing. Door opening!!! Only He is Holy. Anything else we may call upon as humans...we are told is not Holy. Even though it may appear to be holy. (The devil loves to manifest as a seducing angel of Light.)
That's why the Kingdom is near us...even in our mouths. We believe in our hearts. We confess with our mouths. and we are saved.
We believed the gospel of Darkness and accepted the Devil into our hearts...and were eternally lost...in the Garden. His gospel was you shall not die if you disobey God...but instead you will be like God able to be free...independent beings...able to choose between right and wrong....not telling us that instead the Kingdom Gates would close on us....and that at the same time we were accepting a virus spirit...an operating programme that was absolutely irremovable...and its death effects on us would continue even after we received the new gospel of Jesus Kingdom, 2000 years ago.
But Jesus'declaration was that we can drive out this spirit of Darkness, by accepting Jesus new Spirit of the Kingdom. By confessing it with our mouths. By praying this prayer right into every last molecule of our beings...into every recess of our spirits.
Our Father, our Eternal true Daddy...not like the false one who operated us before,
Holy oh so Holy is Your Name....make Your Name even more Holy through even me,
Your Kingdom Come....Your will be done...through me, as even now throughout heaven it is being done already.
Forgive my sins even as I forgive the things that are the fruit of my fellow humans' wrong believing....fruits of their belief in an independant self...which is really the devil expressing his own seducing lusts and desires through them. ( "Hereafter we see no man after the flesh")
Lead me not into testing and temptations....pulling on my "independant desires and whims" but deliver me from evil. Deliver me from my own "landing places". As Jesus Himself was described as after being tested in all things, by the end of John's gospel the devil could find nothing in Him...no landing places.John 14:30 AMP I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.]
By using the tools of the Kingdom....our heart believing...our mouth confession
that it is Christ living in us as us
We are literally opening up the Ancient Doors of Psalm 24...that the King of Glory may come in.
Adam was made a Living soul. Dust...powered by the spirit of God's own Life.
But now in 1 Cor 15 :45 the Christ in us becomes a Life giving Spirit.The Body of Christ a fit vessel of glory...anointing...heavenly blessing and natural earthly fulness. Blessing means "heavy packed to the rafters fulness" more than we can ask or think.
Beloved......the reason God had to give us the gift of tongues was so that we can speak into being the mysteries of heaven. But these mysteries...like for instance that
Christ wants to live out His Life in us as us....are concepts so high...so fraught with potential to divide Christians....so absolutely wonderful or plain freaky to a western world which lives almost entirely in the left-brain.....that God had to get us speaking all this out without us understanding a blooming word...so it stood a chance of ever being uttered at all...and not being filtered out by "us clever clogs".
SAY AMEN!!!!
At the moment that Adam reached out for the fruit and Satan's spirit of falsehood entered, God reached down his hand and took from His chosen delegated authority of the Earth
the keys of the Kingdom
until One came that could handle God's authority in a space-time world....
His Name was Jesus.
Until that time how did God handle things? Ern said : Through His designated authorities in the earth
Prophets............. until Christ came.
Hebrews 3:1-6 tells us that ..... Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And in Revelation 5:5
we learn there is only One who is worthy throughout the whole of heaven...the Lion/Lamb Jesus.
So back to Genesis 3:5 then. What exactly happened?
Psalm 24:1 tells us that
The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
Yet, nevertheless something happened.....as we see in verse 7.
Some gates were erected....some doors slammed shut.
God could nolonger just come and go among the people He had made.
Beginning with Adam and Eve hiding...through the Israelites hiding in terror at the bottom of Sinai.....there are now doors in the Earth that should not be there. Should never have been there.
Westerners have no concept of spiritual doors. In large part because of one large erected door. The door of the left-brain...the step by step understanding...the adherence to believing only what I can see,touch and intellectually get my head round. The advantage is a tremendous resistance to wide pursuit of the occult. The disadvantage is ignorance of the Kingdom of God and how it operates.
From whirling dervishes, to clearing your mind and creating passivity in Eastern meditation, to the practice of persistantly calling for your god of choice to come
whether as an African witch doctor
South American Shaman
Northern territorial Shamen in the Arctic circle
or spiritist mediums,
or the use of mind altering drugs.....there is always a calling on spiritual powers.
This is counterfeit. But it is a door opening!!!
We on the other hand as lovers of God, are invited to call upon the Name of the Lord,
to enter His Courts with praise, to lift up and bless the Name of the Lord Jesus.And He too comes amongst us by His Spirit. Sometimes with miraculous signs and wonders. Sometimes with a strong sense of His supernatural Presence. But this is all the same thing. Door opening!!! Only He is Holy. Anything else we may call upon as humans...we are told is not Holy. Even though it may appear to be holy. (The devil loves to manifest as a seducing angel of Light.)
- A prophetic declaration has been made by Jesus.
- We have been taught a principle by Jesus.
- We have been given a prayer by Jesus.
He declared prophetically that "The Kingdom of God is at hand!". This message was passed onto his disciples and through them to us. The principle was that the Kingdom of God is near us...even in our mouth. The prayer is the "Our Father"
All these things are door opening things. Psalm 24 :7-10
Lift up your heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! 8Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. 9Lift up your heads, O gates, And lift them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! 10Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah.
So we are all under the delusion that the Kingdom is far far away. But Jesus says: you lost it in the Garden. But you can have it back now! Legitimately. By calling on My Name. By making Me your King. In your hearts.The kingdom that you thought you were living in...the kingdom of you ,was never just you. It was the kingdom of Darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. How big the deception. But now by making Me your King...You let Me live my Life through you. Just as before, in Darkness, you could not live independantly...though you thought you did, so now, you cannot live independantly...It is Me living through you.That's why the Kingdom is near us...even in our mouths. We believe in our hearts. We confess with our mouths. and we are saved.
We believed the gospel of Darkness and accepted the Devil into our hearts...and were eternally lost...in the Garden. His gospel was you shall not die if you disobey God...but instead you will be like God able to be free...independent beings...able to choose between right and wrong....not telling us that instead the Kingdom Gates would close on us....and that at the same time we were accepting a virus spirit...an operating programme that was absolutely irremovable...and its death effects on us would continue even after we received the new gospel of Jesus Kingdom, 2000 years ago.
But Jesus'declaration was that we can drive out this spirit of Darkness, by accepting Jesus new Spirit of the Kingdom. By confessing it with our mouths. By praying this prayer right into every last molecule of our beings...into every recess of our spirits.
Our Father, our Eternal true Daddy...not like the false one who operated us before,
Holy oh so Holy is Your Name....make Your Name even more Holy through even me,
Your Kingdom Come....Your will be done...through me, as even now throughout heaven it is being done already.
Forgive my sins even as I forgive the things that are the fruit of my fellow humans' wrong believing....fruits of their belief in an independant self...which is really the devil expressing his own seducing lusts and desires through them. ( "Hereafter we see no man after the flesh")
Lead me not into testing and temptations....pulling on my "independant desires and whims" but deliver me from evil. Deliver me from my own "landing places". As Jesus Himself was described as after being tested in all things, by the end of John's gospel the devil could find nothing in Him...no landing places.John 14:30 AMP I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.]
By using the tools of the Kingdom....our heart believing...our mouth confession
that it is Christ living in us as us
We are literally opening up the Ancient Doors of Psalm 24...that the King of Glory may come in.
Adam was made a Living soul. Dust...powered by the spirit of God's own Life.
But now in 1 Cor 15 :45 the Christ in us becomes a Life giving Spirit.The Body of Christ a fit vessel of glory...anointing...heavenly blessing and natural earthly fulness. Blessing means "heavy packed to the rafters fulness" more than we can ask or think.
Beloved......the reason God had to give us the gift of tongues was so that we can speak into being the mysteries of heaven. But these mysteries...like for instance that
Christ wants to live out His Life in us as us....are concepts so high...so fraught with potential to divide Christians....so absolutely wonderful or plain freaky to a western world which lives almost entirely in the left-brain.....that God had to get us speaking all this out without us understanding a blooming word...so it stood a chance of ever being uttered at all...and not being filtered out by "us clever clogs".
SAY AMEN!!!!
It's this simple..........PERIOD.
ADAM reached out an arm and grabbed a fruit.
As he did so a false spirit entered his spirit chamber.
Permanently.
At the Cross, this false spirit was ejected from our spirit chamber.Permanently. Now we reach out an arm, leg,.....anything....believing it is Christ as me...in my form. PERIOD.
As he did so a false spirit entered his spirit chamber.
Permanently.
At the Cross, this false spirit was ejected from our spirit chamber.Permanently. Now we reach out an arm, leg,.....anything....believing it is Christ as me...in my form. PERIOD.
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