|
|
|
Topic: FOR THIS MOMENT IN TIME - Prophetic Articles Regarding Urgent Choices
|
|
Author
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/05/2008 at 4:12pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Like Starving Outcasts
By Ron McGatlin
I hear the Lord saying, "Get up and go after it like starving outcasts."
As we consider the famine in the city of Samaria under siege by their enemy, I want us to see the spiritual famine our nations are suffering and the potential desperate conditions ahead. Also consider how the people are responding and see how God can use the outcasts to save our cities.
In 2 Kings 6:24 -7:20, Samaria was under siege, and there was great famine in the city to the point where some were eating their children. Food prices had soared out of reach, the people disputed among themselves and cried out to the government (the king). The king had no way to help the people and blamed the prophet and swore to kill him. There were four outcast, leprous men outside the gate; and they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die?"
They knew if they entered back into the city they would die, and if they went to the camp of the enemy army they might give them food and let them live, but if not, they would only die. There was no life back where they had come from, so why not move out and do what they could to get food to live? Once the four outcast, leprous men arose and began to walk toward the enemy camp the LORD caused the enemy army to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses, the noise of a great army; the army fled leaving all their food and supplies behind. The city was saved by four outcasts who decided to get up from sitting outside the gate and do what they could in their desperation.
God is speaking today to a potential army of outcasts outside the fallen-world societies and religious systems.
We are a bunch of outcasts driven out of the city because we have the contagious disease of the real love of God and Holy Spirit-led and empowered, righteous living. We are no longer entangled with the religion of self-worship and lethargy toward God. We are no longer enticed by the worship of men of mixture and their religious systems of self-centered human authority posing as godly spiritual authority. So we are cast out; but why waste our time sitting outside the city gate feeling sorry for ourselves because we are no longer accepted in the esteemed places of the city where we once lived and served?
Our nations are under siege and the people in our cities are starving for the reality of God. Our children have been trained as cursed children. The public media, godless secular schools, greedy big business leaders, deceived church leaders, and corrupt government leaders have caused kids to believe they are supposed to be fornicators for fun. They are trained in violence and perverted living. There is not enough of the pure, holy word and power of God around to bring conviction and wake them up. They do not even know they are starving for righteousness, and certainly there is not enough real spiritual nutrition reaching them to strengthen and fill them with the power and love of God to grow out of their weaknesses and into the strength of righteousness.
The time is well past when there were options. If we sit here we will die. If we get right with God and be filled with His life and power, abandon our slothful and wicked ways, draw near to God, and move out against the spiritual enemy of the land, we may also die. However, if God is with us, we will win. We can defeat the black plague of self-seeking, immorality and lethargy. The tide of evil can be turned and the light of God can shine forth destroying darkness.
Get up out of the dust of moral contamination and fear. Shake off the fallen-world’s ways and look up to the spiritual hill of the Lord and lift up our spiritual antennas to receive the bolts of lightening power of faith to believe God is on our side, if we are on His side. God is more powerful than any slimy demon or big mouthed accusing and deceiving devil.
Throw off caution and get out of the slow moving river and set sail into the jet stream of the Spirit of almighty and living God. We are the agent of God in the world. We are the ones to call forth the power of God and multitudes of holy angels. It is no longer time to be playing in the river as kids. It is time to grow up stand on the word of God be filled with the Spirit of God and stand with our Father as mature sons ready to speak His words and be clothed in righteousness. The enemy can and will be defeated by a holy army. However, the enemy laughs at the cheating, immoral weakling trying to look and act like a man of God while speaking pompous empty words of self promotion.
The weakness of sin has taken control of the people of the nations. They are fat and overfilled with themselves and starving for God. They live for pleasure and count their foolishness as wisdom. Nations are weak with the cancer of self worshiping and pleasure seeking. Our people have gone insane with the foolishness of idleness believing that God is going to save them in their corruption and keep them in their filth. Mercy does not include pampering the devil.
God is fed up and will spew from His mouth the milk toast, sneaky, pleasure seaking, wife swapping, slime people that call themselves the children of God but never knew HIM. Wake up, you elders, and move upon the land with a broad and sharp sword. The word is here. The Spirit is here. Your excuse is not worth the air it takes for you to speak it. The world is not just going to hell; hell is coming forth here on earth because a bunch of leaders who have the truth are waiting for someone else to do something for fear they might offend their sick people, full of the devil, and the people might withhold their giving.
Many church leaders have become the most foolish of all. Spending time working up a miracle to impress people when hell is falling upon the hearts of young and old. The devil is loose and happy while Christians go about their business as usual.
If we sit here we will die and all our good stuff will mean nothing anyway. Leaders and their people are spiritually starving and dying in their fat, filthy purpose-driven, instead of Spirit-led, ministry. The power of God is available, but they would rather fulfill their purpose than follow hard after God.
We can do it. We have the power. Repent and call forth multitudes of holy angels to work with you, and multitudes of righteous-seeking young men and women will line up to receive their weapons and move with one accord against the spiritual enemy that is destroying the world.
The supernatural power of God is readily available to be released by the faith of the pure in heart, the holy men and women of God moving as one in the Spirit of the living God. Our mighty King Jesus is ready to ride with the armies of mighty sons to cleanse and purify the people of the World. There is nothing to stop the mighty hand of God from intervening now among the affairs of man.
Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts, you double-minded, and ascend the hill of the Lord. It is time to be who God has called you to be. It is time for the Joshuas and the Calebs to rise up and lead us up first into oneness with God, into holy abandonment of what will be lost anyway. The power of God is poured out and will sound as a mighty army from heaven to the enemy. Do what you have to do. If God is saying abandon and seek Him alone with your whole heart, then do it. If He is sending you to BOLDLY move out to connect with other lepers, then do it now. If He is sending you to foreign lands or next door, go now. If He is breaking your heart and filling you with abundant love and power, cry out to Him now and connect with your place in the Army of God.
If you are yet battling sin, fall upon your face, and do not get up until the Spirit of God comes upon you and burns your soul with the fire from heaven purifying you from the inside out, emptying you of the weakness of you and filling you with the heavenly creative power of God. If you are yet hung up in religious stuff, empty yourself and be filled with pure holy light from above.
But for God’s sake and the sake of the world do not sit still and die in a useless state of idleness. This is the time of the day of the LORD to bring forth the holy purified warrior Bride of passion beyond measure. Everywhere you look God is going to be there to confront you until you are fully matured in the holy fire and moving in the place of your fulfillment; now in this time. Are you feeling the surge of His life and the rise of faith that only God can give? Is it for this time you have come into this world?
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
Edited by Ron McGatlin on 06/22/2012 at 3:18pm
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/05/2008 at 4:13pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
A Different America
By Ron McGatlin
History books are written and re-written according to what someone wants to say to promote their position. I don't know what the history books will eventually say about the America that I grew up in, but I do know what I have seen and experienced over the past 75 years. In that period of time, it is like I lived in another country in those early years and at some point moved into the country that I live in now. Both from a natural and from a spiritual perspective, it is indeed a different place than the one that I knew. My hope and faith is that 75 years from now there will be a different and better nation and world than the one we live in now. I pray and believe it will be a much more godly world.
I remember sincere patriotism that was real and was deserved. The most godly nation in the world became the most powerful force in the world for good. The world was filled with bad things like Hitler and his rampage that brought about World War ll. However, America was always seen as on the side of right, fighting for freedom and liberty of the oppressed peoples. Always seeking to stop the invaders and prevent their oppression of other peoples and nations.
The churches that were on almost every other major street corner in small town America may not have had it all right but were corporately the greatest force in the world for sending the message of Christ Jesus as Saviour to all the world. Multitudes of sincere and dedicated missionaries left their families and the safety of their homeland to take the message of the cross to most every land in the world. They gave their lives without reservation to help the people of the world. To carry the gospel of Jesus Christ was a noble and highly respected service to the world.
From the fertile farm lands of America, more tons of food than anyone can count have been delivered into foreign lands to feed the hungry. Medical missionaries left potentially lucrative medical practices in America to help the suffering and carry the love of God to the remote regions of the world. We could go on and on with the sacrifices of many lives and much goods that have flowed to the world from America. Back when I was young, it really felt so good to be an American and to know that you and your country would give its all to preserve peace and freedom and well-being for the world.
In those days there were bad things in America, but not nearly so much, and at least we knew bad things were bad. A man and woman who lived together unmarried was a shame and a disgrace to their families and the community. It was called shacking up and was rarely practiced and then only by the non Christian bottom rung of immoral society. Women were moms and wives, and men worked hard to provide for their families. Meals were family affairs where much communication and informal training took place as parents passed on the wisdom of their fathers to the children.
Prisons were few, and the people who were in them were seen as different from the general population. Movies and even early TV shows were believable and taught good morals. The good guys always won, and it was not hard to tell them from the bad guys.
A child born out of wedlock was known as a bastard child and was a rare happening. Some people had pre-marital sex, but they knew it was bad and usually got married sometimes by what was called a shotgun wedding. That is the girls dad showed up with a shot gun and politely told the young man that he had taken his daughter's virginity and would find it greatly to his advantage and continued good health to marry her NOW. After the wedding he was accepted as part of the family.
Homosexuality was not tolerated and was known to be a deadly sin. None of us could have possibly imagined that this would become known as a lifestyle alternative with gay marriages. Even the word gay meant a happy excited light feeling back then and had nothing to do with sexual perversion. No one could have imagined the violent in-your-face and in-God's-face actions of homosexuals of today. Neither could we have believed the push by society to train our children in public schools in the acceptance of this life-damaging practice.
A man’s word was his bond and most would suffer great loss before they would go back on their word to someone. A written contract was not needed when a man gave his word, and a handshake sealed the deal.
When someone had need, the neighbors jumped in to do what they could to help. Welfare was not needed to be administered by the federal government. The local community took care of its own. When state-run welfare did begin, it was a shame to have to live off of someone else's money, and only people in the most dire situations would accept this charity.
Americans were among the best educated in the world. Illegal drugs were unheard of in schools and across the countryside. Only in the big city slums were drugs a problem. There was alcohol, but even that was not for sale everywhere. Many areas of the country were known as dry, and no liquor was legally sold in those areas.
Housing was modest and simple. Only the most affluent had brick homes. Fishing boats used paddles, and only the rich had boats with motors. Time payment credit plans were just getting started, and most saved their hard earned money until they had enough to buy what they needed. Children were even taught to save at school.
Most higher learning institutions began for the purpose of teaching the Bible and biblical standards of life and conduct to the people. Public prayer was normal in schools and the name of Jesus was commonly used in prayer as the Son of God and not a curse word.
I could go on and on with how things have changed in my 75 years, but I think you get the picture. It wasn't perfect, and there was bad stuff; but it was a very different America.
What happened? How has America fallen into spreading the filth of Hollywood and perversions of sin and filth to the world? How is it that young people are trained in sexual immorality and violence as pleasure? How have our business, church, and government leaders become known as greedy and selfish? How is it that the great institutions of learning have become filled with hate for Christ Jesus and the truth of the word of God? How has it happened that we have become known as the invader rather than the protector? How is it that "One Nation Under God" has rejected its God and is hated by much of the people of the world? All this and much more has come about in my lifetime.
Is it that there was always a hidden crack in our solid quest for liberty? Was our foundation of a nation under God noble and right but with an underlying flaw? In our early national history, had we preached Jesus to the native Americans while driving them from their homes, taking their land, and breaking the strength of their existence? What about the importation of Africans and treating them as chattel property rather than human beings. Yes, the strength of the church and the work of God played a big part in the continuing cleansing of the evils of oppression committed in the foundations of America.
During my lifetime there have been great strides toward righting these wrongs. But did we have deep within the fabric of our culture a remaining need that led to greed and immorality? And is that what is surfacing again as we become seen by many as the aggressor and the oppressor instead of the deliverer for the oppressed?
Is our underlying flaw a fatal flaw?
The flaw must be identified and corrected if it is not to be fatal. Perhaps many views at different levels would be seen by various people as the primary flaw. However, the need is to get to the very deepest level of the problem, recognize it, and change it. In my opinion, the Lord is in this season revealing the fatal flaw that has been the downfall of every powerful nation of history and is now in the process of taking down America and the coalition of western powers.
Our potentially fatal flaw did not originate in America. It was seeded into this nation from its European roots. The early settlers brought it with them as one of their greatest strengths. Some of you may think I have gone mad when I reveal to you what I believe the fatal flaw of America and other powerful nations over two millennia of history has been. However, please see me through and consider the full depth of this situation before you cancel your subscription or send me hate mail.
The fatal flaw is religion and religious systems. Let me explain. The only nation or power on earth that will ever remain without end is the nation ruled by God, empowered by Him and directed by Him. It is the assigned role of the church, the holy people of God, to bring forth the pure holy reality of Christ Jesus in man by the Holy Spirit to rule and reign on earth. The religious church systems failed to do this and substituted empty religion for the reality of the love and power of God indwelling the people through Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Religion has enough appearance of godliness to cause the people to think they are where they are supposed to be with God. Therefore, the people stop seeking for more of God and His kingdom. Religion is like a vaccination that keeps us from catching the real thing. When in reality, religion has only the appearance of godliness without the power and reality of God. Our nations without the power and reality of God have moved far from the ways of God and established man-centered, self-focused secular ways that were easily infiltrated with spiritual darkness.
2 Tim 3:5: having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Mark 7:9: He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
Col 2:8: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Religion instead of the reality of relationship with God is our fatal flaw. This is why our forefathers could preach Jesus to the Native Americans and destroy their lives at the same time. That is why this nation could buy and sell Africans and go to church on Sunday and pray. This is why Christian leaders fall into greed and immorality. That is why the deceptions of spiritual blindness allow this nation to be led by the greed and lust of the hearts of deceived people. That is why the western nations are becoming a violent immoral people fit for destruction.
I am not anti-American and not anti-Western and surely not anti-church. I love America, the church, and all the western nations, and I am sincerely thankful for all the value we have been. I love too much to sit back and say nothing when God is speaking and our hope depends on seeing who we really are and in what condition we really are. I love too much to not search for a road to change.
The good news is that the road has been found, and the way is open. Many people are getting up and moving out on the road to the reality of God and the establishment of His nation of holy people within many nations. People are moving out of the religious systems that are the fatal flaw and moving into Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, becoming the holy purified Body of Christ. The kingdom of God from heaven can come forth in His people on earth. A fresh new extreme abandonment of all that our greed and lust has built and a passionate to-the-death commitment to God is the way to God's power and love flowing rivers of living water into the nations of the world. There is a passion for God and for His people coming forth in people. Especially youth are giving birth to a new generation with a new level of passion for God and His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Rev 12:11: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
Kingdom revival is a passionate move of God in people that leads to the kingdom of God lifestyle in the made-alive people of God. It is the life-giving Spirit moving upon and within, transforming ordinary people into maturing supernaturally-empowered men and women of God. People in every walk of life and every part of the world can get in as the Spirit of God is moving across the world. The substitute religion is being washed away by the life-giving Spirit of Christ Jesus moving upon our hearts. Get connected to and become one with the Spirit of Christ and connect with other passionate believers; then preach the kingdom, anticipating the power of God to move through you to touch and change the lives of the people who come within the sphere of the Spirit flowing through your life. Let your faith become without limitation and speak the truth in love. Do the work set before you, and we shall see the hand of God move to bring change and heal our fatal flaw.
This is not a time of fear and despair. This is the time to do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Psa 33:12: Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.
Psa 144:15: Happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/05/2008 at 4:14pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Embracing Spirit Life
By Ron McGatlin
Where we were is not where we are. Where we are is not where we are going.
Where we have been is living in a man-based, greed and lust-driven fallen world.
Where we are going is to a God-based, righteousness and peaceful redeemed world.
Where we are now is in a process of moving through a long and sometimes turbulent journey from the old world toward the fresh new redeemed world.
In the last two articles, the Spirit was clearly speaking to us to get up and move because if we stay sitting where we are we will die. Our potentially fatal flaw will destroy our nations unless we embrace a different foundational way of life.
I believe that the Spirit is speaking now for us to grab hold of the strength, power, and wisdom to change the course of the world.
Meeting in homes and doing "church stuff" differently is not going to do it. Electing a different political party is not going to change the world. Paying less or more taxes and borrowing more money at less interest rate is not going to save us. Realistically there is nothing natural man can do to change the course of the downward spiral of our nations and the world. Even the best things natural man can figure out to fix our failing world are foolishness. Natural man simply cannot understand where we are and what is really happening, much less find a solution. While claiming to be wise, modern natural man’s thinking has become futile and darkened.
Rom 1:21-22: For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
1 Cor 2:14-15: But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
By the Spirit, wisdom and power will come forth to supernaturally change the very foundation of life on our planet.
God is calling forth a holy remnant of people to abandon lofty pride, humble themselves, and turn from the ways of their fathers unto the ways of the heavenly Father by the Spirit. The greatest harvest ever on earth is waiting for a holy people to arise and shine forth the glory of God into every facet of life on earth by the Spirit. God will work with and through His holy people young and old to supernaturally change the course of our nations and the world. In the Spirit, we can do all things. The love, power, and glory of God who set all creation in place flows through the Spirit of Christ.
Some of you stiff-necked people of God need to fall on your face before Him and cry out day and night until the Spirit comes upon you and takes over your darkened minds and fills them with the supernatural reality of the mind of Christ.
Others who have been for a long time on your face before Him and received an abundance of Holy Spirit life need to stand to your feet and move in the Spirit to do the mighty works that God has shown you by the Spirit. Walk out in the Spirit what is heard and seen by the Spirit.
Some of you who have been playing in the sand box frolicking in Fathers Love need to get up, get real, and stop playing. Lay down your toys and pick up your tools. Every tool in your hand will now become a POWER tool empowered by the Holy Spirit. All things are possible if we believe. Childishness in our responses to God does not please God. Childlikeness in our faith and trust does please God.
People, we are again in a brand new day. A day of great power and light that will quickly turn the night to day and call forth a world of foolish people from the darkness to the light. Look up to the high places of God and worship and believe. For many of you this will be your last call. The last opportunity to give up your immature past and move into the God-desired destiny for your life to be consumed in pouring out the love and the wisdom of God into whatever work you are called.
The term revival seems too weak to describe the mighty power of God that will be released on earth by His holy remnant of Spirit walkers. It is a smashing crashing crescendo of power and glory of God pouring out upon the wicked and purifying the holy.
It is a pure and pleasant peace filled with joy and flooded with His glory. It is great light and great darkness at the same time. The most extreme times in recorded history is soon upon us.
Isa 60:1-2: Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
Forget the past. Lay aside your selfish plans for your future. The glory of God is coming, and nothing else matters. This is beyond radical and beyond our imaginations. Absolute peace in a time of great noise upon the earth. Men’s hearts failing for fear and perfect peace in the storms of change.
God is Holy. The castles of lofty pride built by evil, foolish men will not be allowed to stand. The towers of lofty religion and prideful man will crumble to powder. Nothing of the lofty pride of man shall remain and the pure holy fire shall devour the stubble of man’s wicked foolishness.
Isa 2:11-18: The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up; And it shall be brought low; Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, And upon all the oaks of Bashan; Upon all the high mountains, And upon all the hills that are lifted up; Upon every high tower, And upon every fortified wall; Upon all the ships of Tarshish, And upon all the beautiful sloops. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; The LORD alone will be exalted in that day, But the idols He shall utterly abolish.
Isa 5:15: People shall be brought down, Each man shall be humbled, And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.
Isa 26:5-6: For He brings down those who dwell on high, The lofty city; He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He brings it down to the dust. The foot shall tread it down; The feet of the poor And the steps of the needy."
Wood, hay and stubble will not survive the fire, but the jewels of God shall shine forth reflecting the glory of God. There shall be peace on earth and goodwill toward man. The death and resurrection of Jesus was not in vain for the whole earth shall be filled with the Glory of God.
1 Cor 3:11-13: For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.
Mal 4:1: "For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," Says the LORD of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch.
Mal 4:2-3: But to you who fear My name The Son of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet On the day that I do this," Says the LORD of hosts.
Mal 3:17 "They shall be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him."
Let the weak now say, I am strong. Arise and become mighty sons of God and prepare; for the destiny of the world is before you. It is for this you came into the world. All who have come before and have given their lives in search of God’s city are calling for the mature sons to arise and ride with the Mighty LORD into the redeemed world of the kingdom of Heaven on earth. The powers of heaven and the heavenly host are with those who humbly stand and with a mighty shout launch the great return of the fullness of the Body and Bride of Christ fitly joined to the Head, Christ Jesus, the King in Heaven and Earth. Glory to His name! He is worthy of all glory. Hallelujah! Glory to His great name!
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/05/2008 at 4:15pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The Power of A Clean Life
By Ron McGatlin
A holy people of God are being prepared for the great fulfillment of the kingdom of God on earth. Sons of righteousness with pure hearts in whom there is no guile are being prepared to minister with the army from heaven with supernatural wisdom and power. Their clean hearts and lives will offer no hindrance or resistance to the love and power of God flowing from Father in heaven by the Holy Spirit. The maturing sons of God will not be daunted by the apocalyptic, cataclysmic events of a world being cleansed by the fire of God.
Who are these people demonstrating the full faith and power of a clean life? They are a new breed of grown up children of God that have emptied themselves and made room for God to rule in their lives. They are humble people of God who have allowed the fire of God to burn away every tendency of sin and the bondage of doubt and unbelief in their souls. They are those whose spirits are made alive and are fully redeemed to the fullness of the love and life of Christ Jesus. They are those who have no regard for the lies of the fallen world and its foolishness. They are those who have thrown off the past shroud of religious unbelief and ungodly madness of the fallen ways of a people sickened by lust and greed. They are those who are as if they had no past but live fully in the embrace of the life of Christ in the presence of God. They are people like you and I breaking through into a glorious life in the Sprit of God on shores of a new land filled with glory.
We are soon entering the most powerful and glorious time on earth. Before us is the time of fulfillment of that which the saints throughout history have sought. They gave their lives knowing it was for a future time. There is rejoicing in heaven when one is TRULY born anew as this new breed of redeemed spiritual creature into a new life of unhindered faith and power of God.
Not all will enter this new creation army of maturing sons living holy clean lives.
Many Christians believe that we are waiting for God to do something further to cause us to walk in supernatural victory. The general belief seems to be that the promises of Jesus to His people are true but not for us now.
For example, the promise that we would do the works that Jesus did and even greater works than the mighty miracles He did is seen as true but they will not come to pass until some future day when God does something more or some other event occurs from heaven.
John 14:12: Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
This common belief, I should say unbelief, is largely based on the natural reality that we do not see men around us doing these works. We need to keep in mind that our natural vision only sees what is closely around us and does not see all that is happening worldwide. Also we may not see clearly events that happen around us. Even if supernatural events happen around us we may attribute them to natural causes.
In part these erroneous beliefs are caused by the negative faith implanted in people through religious and secular training over the past centuries. Our experience has trained us that faith and power are limited and simply do not work today as they did in the first century.
People are locked in bondage of doubt and unbelief regarding the word and works of God. Many people reason that since supernatural works are done by God and not man, we are waiting for God to do something to make things happen. It is true that faith and power are gifts from God through Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit and not of our human effort or doing. However, there is no problem with the availability of the grace gifts of God. They are fully available now.
God is still all powerful and His word is still valid and cannot be changed. These provisions have been fully purchased by Christ Jesus at the cross and the delivery system has been fully established in the Holy Spirit since Pentecost. For a season after Pentecost the gifts were operative and flowing. Faith and power were supernaturally changing the world. Powerful miracles and works of God impacted masses of people and the kingdom of God was beginning to come forth on earth as it is in heaven. Supernatural power gifts came way back then and are available now?
Why should the people of God today have the faith and power of a beggar? Waiting beside the road of life begging God for a morsel of faith to get by for today. Why should we be begging for a hand-out of enough power to endure our bad situations one more day?
Gal 4:9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?
What is going on people? We are the world changers! We can have the faith and power of the first century! We can have the wisdom of God that will lead us into the kingdom of God!
Everything has been done so why should we be lacking in faith and power and continue waiting for God to send something more?
The problem is not with the quality of the gifts prepared in heaven for us. The problem is not with the delivery system. The problem is with the reception. There is not proper place in the hearts of men to receive the gifts and ways of God prepared for His kingdom people. The receiving dock and the storage rooms are filled with other things that are blocking the way. The data banks in the hearts of men are filled and the faith and power cannot be downloaded until space is cleared and existing data deleted. A decision must be made by man to make the deletions to clear space for downloading great faith and power that will bring forth the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Experiencing the fullness of Christ in us is not waiting for God to do something further. Rather, God is waiting on a people that will make room to receive the faith and power of the kingdom.
God is waiting for clean hearts upon which to write His all-wise and all-powerful laws of heavenly wisdom and kingdom reality. The hearts of the people of the world including most Christians are filled with other writings. The space for God to write is already filled and there is not place for Him to scribe the all powerful wisdom and ways of heaven.
Heb 8:10: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
2 Cor 3:3: clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
A far greater standard of holy kingdom living is being lifted up. A pure holy people of righteousness are to be prepared to walk in the supernatural kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. For the most part, mankind is not currently operating with God’s standard but has developed other standards. According to man’s standards many things are seen as good and worthy of retaining that are NOT from God and are not heavenly wisdom and truth. All that is not of God that is stored in the hearts of man and serves as standards for man is unclean to God. Even man’s best righteousness is as filthy rags in the site of God.
All natural men and many who are called Christians are filled with knowledge but lacking in truth and wisdom.
The false standards written in our hearts blind us to the powerful supernatural ways of God and prevent the reality of God being written upon our hearts. The ways of God are much higher and far more powerful than most Christians have even imagined.
Can you hear the call of God? Can you feel God pulling on your heart to turn to Him with your whole heart and leave the past to be made a witness of the things which Jesus will reveal to you? Can you see the call to be used in opening the eyes of the religionist and the secularist to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God? God is calling a people in this day as He called Paul who was one of the most religious men of His day. He was involved in the death and imprisonment of the followers of Christ. Yet, he surrendered his heart to be completely cleansed from the past and gave His all to change the course of history. He made room for God to write His way upon his heart.
Acts 26:16-18: But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/09/2008 at 7:02am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Divine Authority on Earth – The Fire of God
By Ron McGatlin
Waves of divine impartation and revelation have restored layer after layer of the supernatural kingdom experienced by the first century Apostles. Restoration continues to come forth to those with pure hearts who continue to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness as the first priority of their lives.
Mat 6:33:But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.
Luke 11:2: So He said to them, "When you pray, say:Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
A New Layer of Restoration
A new authority is coming to those who seek and pray as Jesus taught. The prayer and seeking that Jesus taught about involves the entire focus of our lives. Everything we do or say must be related to and aligned with the single purpose of God’s kingdom and His will on earth as it is in heaven. Praying seekers are receiving fresh divine impartation and revelation.
The layers of restored revelation have each brought change to the people of God. The restoration of powerful supernatural grace gifts has been exciting for those who have witnessed them over this past century. The church world has been significantly impacted by the supernatural works flowing through the Holy Spirit in the 20th century.
Restoration promises to be even more dramatic in this 21st century as we have entered the 7th millennium of biblical history and the 3rd millennium since Christ Jesus came from heaven to earth to redeem and restore all that was lost. The world is soon to experience the most dramatic display of divine authority ever seen on this planet. A holy people are being prepared to participate in the worldwide baptism of the FIRE OF GOD.
ALL AUTHORITY ON EARTH RESTS IN ONE PERSON
Divine authority on earth is the authority of God in Christ Jesus the glorified KING.
Mat 28:18-20: And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
Divine authority is very different from what was called “spiritual authority” in recent church history. What was called spiritual authority was really authority of men structured as an institutional hierarchy of offices often based on gifting or personality. The worship-like reverence of the people for the man, the church office, and charismatic gifting were sometimes exploited and used to fulfill selfish goals or needs of the leaders. It was called spiritual authority but often was really a form of human or church authority.
Divine authority in the emerging kingdom age is the love and life of Christ Jesus flowing by the Holy Spirit through His people. It is Christ Jesus the Head being fully joined to the Body establishing righteousness, peace, and joy on earth. It is the authority of Christ Jesus the anointed one in His holy, humble prepared people, by the Holy Spirit, destroying the kingdom of darkness and shining forth the kingdom of light.
Throughout history from the days of Abraham, God has been calling for a people. Since the days of Christ on earth God has been preparing a people to carry His divine authority into the world. The divine authority of Christ Jesus was experienced by the Apostles of the early church in powerful supernatural works. The glorified Christ Jesus worked with them through the Holy Spirit guiding and empowering them. The words they were given to speak brought life and immediate consequences. Multitudes believed in Jesus as Savior. Many were healed and the dead raised. Demons were cast out and works of darkness destroyed. Divine authority was evident and powerfully carried out. One couple with impure hearts lied to the Holy Spirit in the presence of the Apostles and fell dead (Acts 5:1-10).
Acts 5:12: And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people…..
Greater and more dramatic works than these may occur as the glorious manifesting of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ in “His own special people” exhorts and rebukes with all authority. His own special people are not an elite class but are those who have come to Him with their whole hearts. They are those who prayerfully seek the kingdom of God, His righteousness, and the will of God on earth as in heaven. These are the ones who no longer live but the life they now live is Christ Jesus living in them. They have passed through death of their self-lives and are experiencing the resurrected life of Christ. These are the ones through whom divine authority is brought forth on earth.
Titus 2:13-15: Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing (manifesting) of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.
Divine authority rests in Christ - in His holy, humble people of faith. The words they speak carry the creative power of God to bring forth the will of God on earth.
Mat 21:21: .....if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done.
The Baptism of the FIRE OF GOD
Luke 3:16-17: John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."
There shall in no wise enter in anything that defiles. Massive purification must come on earth. The fire of God surging forth through Christ Jesus must first purify His people from all evil. Among His own special people, no longer will there be hypocrisy, lust, or greed. No longer will any form of pride or corruption come near them. The baptism from Christ Jesus of Holy Spirit and FIRE will consume all that is not holy, first in His army of special people and then through His army, the entire Body, and then the world. There shall not anything lift itself against God on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus said to His disciples before the cross that he came to send FIRE on the earth and that He wished that it was already kindled.
Luke 12:49-50: I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!
The fire Jesus came to send is now kindled on the earth.
The Anointed One is setting on fire His scattered special people across the world. They cannot rest in this world but are at rest in the roaring fire of God in their beings: purging, cleansing, and purifying until they become the perfected Jewels of God. The dispensation of the millennial kingdom and the prepared people are coming together. There can be no dispensation of kingdom fullness without the purified holy humble people of God to carry the divine authority, and there can be no such people without the dispersing of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire through Christ Jesus from heaven.
The seated Christ in heaven is arising at the word of Father to move upon the earth for the preparation time is now and His own special scattered people are willing volunteers to be set fire and made holy. The fire has begun small and in spots but will not be quenched. It will grow to scorch the earth with purifying fire and remove all that is lifted up against the LIVING GOD OF HEAVEN COME TO EARTH. I see Christ Jesus, the Glorified King, standing in heaven extending his right arm with open hand, palm down and fingers spread toward earth sending forth FIRE and saying to His special people, “Receive your anointing of FIRE and set the world aflame. I AM WITH YOU TILL THE END OF THE AGE”
Receive the Baptism of the Fire of God
Heavenly Father, Glorious Living God, Father of all life from Whom all creation flows in abundant glory beyond our words, we humbly bow before Your glorious throne of mercy and grace. We receive Your mercy and grace. We come in response to Your call for a people to be fully sanctified to carry Your authority into the world. We lift our faces to look in adoration unto Christ Jesus our now Glorified King and with sincere heart we ask You, Lord, fully baptize us now in the Holy Spirit and Fire. Let Holy Fire consume us and Holy Spirit saturate and engulf our beings. Make us Your dwelling place aflame with Your Holy Fire to carry Your divine authority to purify and make Holy your people and Your world.
Here am I Lord, send me.
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Edited by Ron McGatlin on 04/10/2008 at 7:22pm
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 05/02/2008 at 12:08pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
God With Us - More Than Revival
By Ron McGatlin
Spiritual Lightening And Forest Fires
The fire of God has come near to earth with a mighty roaring sound to destroy the works of the devil. A bolt of lightning fire has struck in the forest of hungry humanity starving for a real outpouring of God. Multitudes of tired half-dead "beggars" (revival chasers) sitting beside the kingdom highway because they were too weak from starvation to continue the journey have been struck by heavenly lightening. The fire of God has been ignited on earth in a sudden lightning strike in Lakeland, Florida USA.
There is nothing man can take credit for or claim to have done to have brought this about. God did not choose a noble, admirable man of high esteem to receive the igniting strike of lightning. God chose one of the most naturally un-glorious preachers on the planet. Todd Bentley, a redeemed drug addict is short, stout, balding, covered in tattoos and piercings, plainly clothed, without smooth manners, who does not preach eloquently and does not mind laying a heavy hand on people. His speech often appears to be promoting as he calls for people to come to the meetings and get some of what God is pouring out.
It appears that God is igniting from this fire of healing revival, a move of God that is rapidly spreading to the world. As the fire is carried and spread by a mighty rushing wind, a sudden burst of downdraft from heaven blowing through electronic media to the world there is something far greater than the original lightning strike of healing revival that is igniting in the world.
The original fire in Florida may have been powerful healing revival. However, that which is igniting as it spreads around the world is more than revival. This is God coming to His people in a personal presence more intense than previous moves of God in my lifetime. In my opinion the fire that is spreading is NOT REVIVAL or RENEWAL but a new and greater presence of GOD WITH US. The cry is no longer, send us revival; it is come Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!
Not A New Wineskin
However, many God seekers are confused and some are not sure why. The outpouring in Florida is a fresh, new, and real substance of God with us. However, it is not being poured out through a new wineskin. The container is not fresh, new, or completely real. The glory of God is pouring through the old revival model and methods of the last move of God. However, more change is on the way. The new wineskin may not be in Florida but in spots around the world. New wineskins are coming that will properly carry the new wine in containers that will not merchandise or mix it with the old ways.
A WORD OF WISDOM
Do not allow anything about the people, the past, or the current activities prevent you from receiving the fire anointing being poured out. For God's sake, for your own sake, and for the sake of the world, don't allow appearance of the people or splashes of flesh to turn you away. Just get touched by all of the anointing that you can, however you can. It will manifest in you with purity according to your heart and according to your need and the need of those around you.
Do not seek to reproduce the model. What is coming forth is God with us and not a model for ministry or anything else. God will come upon us with fire and reality of what we have prayed for and longed for but have not really experienced. There is real healing, real miracles, and real repentance from dead works that easily result as we come into the real work and heavy presence of God. We don’’t need to fake it. God is really with us inside and outside of our beings in such a way that miracles actually become only a side event of the presence of God. And I am not talking about only at the meetings in Florida or even only while watching them. I am talking about wherever you or I meet hungry people. The anointing of fire will be there once we are baptized in the Spirit and fire. Watching the meetings and seeing the notable miracles will soon grow boring if all we do is watch. The life and anointing will fade quickly if we do not get involved. Step out in faith and follow the Sprit in whatever, wherever, and however He leads, and God will empower.
ONLY BELIEVE AND FEAR NOT
Faith is easy in the fire. In the heavy presence of God, there is full awareness that we can do nothing. However, faith goes through the roof all the way to heaven when fire ignites and all things are truly possible with great ease. Our intellect that tries to tell us things are impossible is out of commission and non-functional as the anointing of fire in the heavy presence of God consumes our natural being.
Where there is complete faith, there is no fear. Where there is fear, there is a lack of faith. Do not fear angels. Holy angels are ministering spirits sent from God. Where the heavy presence of God is, there will be ministering spirits sent to do specific works of ministry to the hungry people. Some people will be aware of them and others will not.
Heb 1:13-14: But to which of the angels has He ever said: "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?
Do not fear manifestations. When the real power of almighty God comes into direct connection with a living human body and soul, there will be extreme manifestations. Remember God is our loving heavenly Father and will not do evil to us. Do not fear the devil. Commit your way unto the Lord and trust in Him with your whole heart. Trust the Holy Spirit to guide and keep you. Please do not think you can figure God out and judge what He is doing with your wee little human understanding. Again trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Prov 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
A Season of Intense Preparation
Strong preparation is needed for future intense times. The coming fall of all the pride and loftiness of man will facilitate a great harvest and a very serious time of extreme adjustments worldwide. The supernatural powerful presence of God will be carried by an army of people to destroy the works of the enemy from people's lives and the world. The evil works done by the enemy that have tormented and restrained the people will be removed and the people healed as salvation to all who will come is brought forth in fullness. God is with us in this season preparing many in this time of preparation for the fullness of the kingdom coming to earth.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 05/02/2008 at 12:11pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Entering a New Season
By Wade E Taylor
I am satisfied with all that our Lord has accomplished within and through my life, but I am also dissatisfied, as I feel that I am not progressing spiritually as rapidly as I desire.
For those of us who are experiencing a measure of being dissatisfied with ourselves, and also with the ministries to which we relate, there is a present word of encouragement. The Lord often removes the old to make room for the new, as we are about to enter into a new season.
Therefore, we should hold this sense of being “dissatisfied” before the Lord, rather than complaining about it. When we do this, these feelings will become a prayer that will release the Lord to meet us in a fresh new way, beyond anything we experienced in the past.
The new season is before us if we will look up in faith, believing that the Lord will visit us.
“For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”
Song of Solomon 2:11-12
The dry season is past and the rain is beginning to energize the soil. It is saying, “Wake up, wake up, this is the time!” As the warmth of the latter rain (the manifest presence of our Lord) touches the seed (the spiritual potential within us), a new expression of life will spring forth from deep within us, giving expression to its true identity - the image and likeness of Jesus being expressed through us as the “flowers appearing on the earth” (spiritual maturity).
The “Son” is beginning to shine as never before, as we are coming closer to the time of His appearing. There is a fresh stirring of His desire for us to become all that He would have us to be. We are hearing a new message, beyond anything that we have heard in the past. Our part is to be spiritually open and receptive.
“He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up here, and I will show you things which must be hereafter.” Revelation 3:22, 4:1
Especially at this present time, an open heaven is becoming increasingly available to us, through which the “Son” can shine brightly to release the potential that is buried within us, so the glory of the Lord can become manifest in our midst. We must respond with anticipation, expectancy, and patience.
In the past, there were places in which there was a substantial moving of the Spirit, and many came to respond to the presence of the Lord. However, as soon as His presence lifted, they left as their interest was in being blessed, rather than in being changed.
Each time of visitation will be tested with what appears to be a drought, after the time of rain. If we will stay and press through, seeking the Lord for Himself, He will come to take us beyond anything that we have previously experienced. If we leave His presence prematurely, the Lord will also go home.
“The time of the singing of birds is come.” This “singing” speaks of the melody of heaven. As this early morning singing of birds, true worship flows in prophetic harmony. As we harmonize together as being one, the heavens will open and we will be lifted into the realms of glory. There is something in the harmony of pure worship (our voices united as being one) that not only satisfies the Lord, but also edifies us in the inner depth of our spirit.
This is beyond praise where all are shouting. Rather, it is a harmony in which divine adoration flows up to the Lord. This will cause the heavens to open and we will pass out of time into eternity. Once we have experienced this, we will never be satisfied with less, as we will have found the satisfaction that we longed for.
Many have experienced touches of this higher realm of worship and desire more, but it cannot happen in the atmosphere of rock-like music within the present day church, as this limits us to praise, but cannot lift us into the higher realms of worship in the Spirit.
“The voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” The Lord is beginning to unfold before us new levels of revelation as a “foretaste” of the age-to-come. We are being taken beyond hearing only messages that relate to the past, into the higher realm of prophetic revelation in which we are receiving a present living word.
This “voice of the turtle” speaks of our being given prophetic understanding that is beyond all that is presently known and accepted. During the 1950’s, some deeper-life Bible teachers were criticized and judged because as forerunners, they saw and understood that which was beyond what most were seeing or understanding.
As there were forerunners in that day, there are those today who are reaching into the unknown, who also must pay the price of not being understood. A “forerunner” is one who has a present experience in that which is yet to become available.
“The fig tree puts forth her green figs” (Song of Solomon 2:13a). This speaks of Israel . All that is presently happening concerning Israel is an indication that we are living in the end-time.
“And the vines with the tender grape give a good smell” (Song of Solomon 2:13b). This speaks of the present increase in the manifested presence and glory in the Body of Christ.
“Arise, shine; for your light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you. And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to you... .” Isaiah 60:1-4a
This refers to “glory” abiding upon us, so it can be visibly seen (an open heaven). At the same time, there is an increasing darkness that is covering both the earth and the people. Many only see this darkness, but there is another side of the coin - “the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you.”
May we be ready for that day “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints… .” (II Thessalonians 1:10).
Before He comes to appear “outwardly,” He must first come “within” us, so His glory can radiate out from us to affect the nations. Just as Jesus impacted the world in his first coming, there will be a powerful manifestation of His glory through a corporate body as a part of His second coming.
There is a present need to present ourselves as being “a place of habitation” for the presence and glory of the Lord, beyond anything that has previously been seen - a witness of His glory that will impact the nations.
May each 0f us pray:
“Lord, we consecrate ourselves to be a part of Your corporate body for the expression of Your presence and glory to the nations. Lord, let us become that beautiful flower, a people birthed forth to reveal your glory to this dark world.”
Edited by Ron McGatlin on 05/02/2008 at 12:12pm
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 05/02/2008 at 12:18pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
End-Time Intervention
By Wade E Taylor
There is an urgent need for the intervention of God in the Church, within His people, and in the affairs of the nations. At this present time, the Lord is seeking out those whom He can use for this purpose, for the time in which man is in control of the nations is coming to an end.
In the past, with few exceptions, the Lord moved through human agency, but was limited by the level of faith and yieldedness in those He used. However, due to the lateness of the hour and the urgency of the time in which we live, the Lord is beginning to transcend these limitations.
We are approaching the end of the sixth day, when the Church Age will close and the Millennial Kingdom will be established. We are living in the time of the Parousia (the appearing) of Jesus, when He will manifestly take His place as the Head of His Body. A continuous state of “intervention” in which “divine control” will be in effect is about to take place.
At this present time, the Lord is preparing “overcomers” - those who have yielded the totality of their being and actions to the Lord, and are responding to His voice in obedience to His end-time purposes. These are aware that something different is taking place, as they are hearing a “call” to come into a higher level of activity with the Lord.
“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up here, and I will show you things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.”
Revelation 4:1-2
As world conditions increasingly deteriorate, it is becoming evident that there is no lasting solution to world problems, except through “divine intervention.” Any possible method of dealing with these present dilemmas is so elusive that leaders must come to recognize that they are incapable of any lasting resolution of these problems. We, as intercessors, must pray that the heads of nations will acknowledge their need for a Higher Power - the Lord Jesus Christ, to intervene.
Therefore, there is a present urgent need for a “continuous state of divine intervention.” This end-time “intervention” is a state in which the Lord brings about a condition, or arrangement in the life of a person through a direct act of His sovereign power, which is independent of any ability that the individual may possess in order to bring these things to pass.
This is the time in which the Lord will “lift” into His end-time purposes all those who (as overcomers), have entered a state of rest in His presence, and are willing and available to be used as a channel for intervention, beyond any faith or ability that they may possess. This requires a high level of personal integrity and commitment. Some time ago, the Lord came and asked if I would be willing to sign a contract with Him in agreement with this requirement, in order to be used for this purpose.
There are two aspects to this end-time intervention.
The first is the calling out of a remnant (overcomers) in order to prepare them to be used as a channel for intervention in the closing out of the Church Age, and the establishing of the Kingdom Age.
During this time of preparation, there is a special grace that will lift and empower those who are being qualified for this purpose. These are seen as being seated with Jesus in His throne in a two-sided relationship – that of a bride, and also a son.
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Revelation 19:7-8 NAS
To be a part of this “bride” who is seated with her Bridegroom (Jesus) on His throne, requires a total submission to Him as our head, in which our identity becomes so “one” with His, that we become the visible expression of His life.
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God… For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Romans 8:14, 19
In becoming a mature “son,” we enter into a cooperative relationship with Jesus for the outworking of His purposes in the closing out of the Gentile Age, and in the establishing of the Millennial Kingdom.
These two positions – that of a bride and also a son can be viewed as a two-sided coin. Each side is different, yet it is one coin. As we submit to His Headship, we become His bride. As we respond to the Lord in obedience, we grow into spiritual maturity, as a son.
“Come, My beloved… Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flowers, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give you My loves.” Song of Solomon 7:11-12
As we unconditionally commit to the Lord all that we are, along with all that we ever will be, and in obedience rise above all that is less than His best for us, each of these relationships will begin to function. – Being a son, the Lord will say to us, “let us get up early to the vineyards” (the fruit of the vine [church] will begin to mature). And being a bride, the Lord will say to us, “there will I give you My loves” (His approbation will rest upon us).
This two-fold “overcoming” relationship is impossible of attainment, apart from the Lord stretching out His sovereign hand in our behalf to qualify us for these positions. Therefore, to merely read these teachings and mentally grasp them is not sufficient. They must be experientially entered, step upon step.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
To experience this level of identification with Jesus, we must unconditionally submit the totality of our being to Him - all that we are, along with all that we do, and then specifically give Him permission to deal with us, as He may desire.
The second aspect (being used in intervention) is the “empowering” of this remnant with the manifest glory and power of the Lord to bring judgment to the Anti-Christ world system. An “Anti-Christ” is anything or anyone, who exalts himself above the Word of God, or denies the anointing and power of God.
“In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.” II Thessalonians 1:8-10
This end-time intervention may also be referred to as the suspension of the ordinary law of approach to God, and the “interposition” of the divine hand to do things beyond that which can be accomplished through prayer and seeking. It is the way in which God bridges over the shortcomings and failures of His servants, and is the state in which He is the actor, and we are acted upon.
During the time of the closing out of the Church Age, Jesus will appear to His servants (Parousia) in order to prepare them for the exploits that He will do through them - altogether beyond that which they could believe for, or accomplish apart from intervention (apostolic empowering). The result of this is the elimination of all independent action through the “lifting” (enabling) of those who are fully submitted to Jesus, into a place of pliability in His hands. It is God in the lead as an aspect of His end-time workings.
The Lord made man with the “power of choice” and gave him the title deed to the earth, with dominion. For this reason, God chose not to intrude on these rights, even though man completely failed his probationary test, and as a result, forfeited his dominion authority.
Therefore, the Eternal Son bore upon the cross the curse that came upon man due to his disobedience, and paid the full debt, totally defeating the enemy. In resurrection, Jesus became the Heir of all things, and has set before those who are overcomers an opportunity to partake with Him (as sons) of these powers, now restored to their proper place.
“And he that overcomes, and keeps My works to the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron...” Revelation 2:26-27a
During the time that is referred to as “the day of the Lord,” there will be a time of great tribulation, which will bring the judgments of God. Parallel to this is the time of His Parousia (His appearing), in which those who are “overcomers” will have a role to fulfill, as they will be the instruments that are used to execute, or carry out these judgments, rather than being the victims of it.
“Now thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are to God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are being saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savor of death to death; and to the other the savor of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?” II Corinthians 2:14-16
Paul is saying that during this time, we will become a fragrant aroma to all those who have received Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Because we are the instruments for judgment to all those who do not believe, the unbeliever will be very uncomfortable in our presence, due to this aroma of life, which we receive from Jesus. They will not want to be near us, because we will appear to them as being an aroma of death.
“For the Lord takes pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people: to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron: To execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all His saints. Praise you the Lord.” Psalm 149:4-9
Glory always relates to the presence of the Lord. Thus, we are to be joyful in His presence, and let “the high praises of God be in our mouth.” We exalt the Lord by declaring Him to be whom He says He is - our Righteousness, our Sanctification, our Provider, our Healer, and the One who is present in all that we are and do.
We are not only to praise the Lord with our mouth, but also to have a two-edged sword in our hand. The purpose for this is to execute vengeance on the nations, and judgment on all people. This will be done by the saints who are singing the high praises of God with this two-edged sword in their hand, which will result in “kings” being bound with chains.
We will have a part in carrying out these judgments while we are still in our mortal bodies. In our present state, we may say, “How can this be?” However, we are not to be concerned with our apparent lack, which the enemy loves to call to our attention. Rather, we are to look for Jesus, expecting Him to come in “intervention” to manifest His presence in and throug
In preparation for His return, Jesus is beginning to personally appear to many, just as He did during the forty days before His ascension. It is of vital importance that we grasp the idea that these “interventions” will bring into clear view the method and means that the Lord will use in the closing out of the Church Age and the establishing of the Millennial Kingdom.
As a result of the impartation received during these appearances, our faith will be lifted into a higher realm, in which we will receive spiritual authority with the confirming “signs” of the apostolic - miracles and wonders happening beyond anything previously seen. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we recognize and respond to these “interventions” of divine activity.
At this present time, many are being stirred by the Holy Spirit to make themselves available to be used as an instrument in His end-time intervention - may we be found among these.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 05/08/2008 at 2:02pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Discerning The Signs
Keeping Our Focus On The Goal And Understanding The Season
God is sending a fresh wind of His Spirit across the world in this season of change. A vast vacuum exists in many of the people of the world, including most Christians. There has been a lack of the presence of God that has created a spiritual vacuum pulling upon God’s Holy Spirit to fill the void with the love and power of the presence of God to make new, heal, deliver, and transport God’s people into the next place of restoration of all things unto our God - the practical reality of the kingdom of God on earth.
God is Spirit who relates first to the spirit of man by His Spirit in the supernatural realm of the Spirit and then, flowing through the soul and body of man, manifests into the natural world to do His will from heaven on earth. Throughout much of the church and the world, there has been an extreme void of supernatural relationship to God in the Holy Spirit which has led to a lack of the manifested presence and life of God in the world.
In this season the hunger for the supernatural life of God has become acute. In recent Holy Spirit outpourings, tastes of the presence of God have been experienced and have stirred passion for the reality of the supernatural life of Jesus. The passion of the people for more of God has led to dramatic increase in supernatural occurrences and miraculous healings. Angels are appearing. Heavenly visions are occurring. Physical manifestations of trembling, shaking, and falling in the presence of God are occurring. Alcoholics and drug addicts are being set free and coming to Jesus. People are being born again and filled with fresh life of the Spirit of God. Visions of Jesus are seen by people in the Spirit. Signs and wonders are now being experienced much like in the time of Jesus and the first century apostles. Traveling revivalists, evangelists, churches, house churches, and schools are reporting dramatic increase in supernatural manifestations and miraculous healings.
What does all this mean? Why is it happening now? Where is this going?
Father, in the name of Jesus, we come to your throne of mercy and grace. We receive your mercy and grace. Father, we ask of You wisdom and understanding to discern the signs of this time, that we may not miss the glory you have prepared for those who love You. We open our hearts and minds to receive Your Holy Spirit and fire to enlighten and empower us to live in the fullness of Your presence and carry out Your will on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Many Christians have been trained to discern natural things but may have had little or no experience in discerning real supernatural spiritual things of God. Like many of the religious leaders in Jesus’ day, we may have skilled natural-mind understanding and discernment but may not be well prepared to discern spiritual things by the Spirit. Probably most of us have yet to even begin to grasp the vast reality of the Spirit of God and the great significance of the work of the Holy Spirit. And certainly, we may be clueless regarding the vast army of spirit beings called Holy Angels. These powerful ministering spirits sent from God to minister to the heirs of salvation may be a fearful mystery to many who lack mature discernment of spiritual things by the Spirit.
Mat 16:3: ....Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.
Heb 1:14: Are they (angels) not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?
The Greek word translated "signs" in the above verse is “semeion” and is also often translated miracles in the KJV. The Lord is speaking here about discerning supernatural miraculous happenings. We need to spiritually discern the “signs” of this time.
A lack of spiritual perception and full appreciation of the work of the Holy Spirit may cause us to improperly discern. The past focus and experience of the church of highly esteeming natural understanding of the Bible with a lack of full respect and grasp of the awesome place of the Holy Spirit has led to a weakness of spiritual perception and understanding. For this reason many cannot discern real signs and wonders from false. Sadly this often causes a rejection of the true by ascribing the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil.
Mark 16:17-18: And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Discerning the True, the False, and the MIXTURE
Lack of mature holiness in a gifted person causes a mixture.
Mature holiness looks a lot like humility filled with love and spiritual power in a person with a pure heart and clean hands.
Unholy looks like pride with needful desire and natural strength in a person with an unclean heart and dirty hands.
A believer in process of becoming holy often will be a mixture of holy and unholy practices. This mixture is not uncommon in the leadership of churches and ministries of the church age systems.
Most believers in the church age have sought after leaders to follow that we could esteem highly. Unknowingly, we have often looked to a respected leader instead of looking to the Christ in the leader and have become followers of a man instead of Christ Jesus. We may have not prospered in our spirits and have been disappointed and mistreated because of the lack of mature holiness in the leader. Often, we then choose to blame the leader without understanding that we were part of the problem by our not following Christ. We can be led by the Christ in any person sent to minister to a current need and situation. However, we must not follow or receive from the bad part of a mixture. Follow Christ within by the Holy Spirit and follow Christ in man but do not follow another (John 10:4-5).
John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
The false does exist and can be discerned by their fruits (Mat 7:16-18). However, what many have called false teachers, false prophets, false apostles, and false signs are not really false but mixtures. The false relates to the unholy (the harlot). The mixture relates to immature are partly holy (the adulteress). The true relates to mature holiness (the pure Bride).
The spiritual adulteress has a husband (Jesus) but is unfaithful to Him by seeking other loves. The fruit of the adulterated mixture is good fruit from God on one side of the tree, and bad fruit from the god of self and other gods on the other side of the tree. If we are NOT following the man, we can discern and partake of the good fruit of Christ and not partake of the bad fruit. However, if we reject the good fruit of Christ, we are rejecting God and His provision for us. Think about this, if it is a mixture there is some God in it. Instead of killing the wounded or immature adulterated believer and destroying the good fruit of God along with the bad, receive the good fruit and minister the work of Christ by the Holy Spirit from your pure heart to heal and edify (grow to maturity) the believer.
God is pouring out signs and wonders in this season for a reason.
The primary destination or objective of all God does on earth is the fullness of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. All things must be redeemed and fully restored unto our God. Fallen man and the fallen kingdoms of this world must become the kingdoms of our God.
Over two thousand years ago, an angel appeared to a virgin, and soon after the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and implanted the seed of God in her womb. A heavenly host of holy angels announced the birth of the Son of God and the process of the redemption and restoration of all things begun.
About thirty years later the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and the supernatural work of redemption and restoration of the kingdom of God on earth began. Jesus demonstrated the kingdom through numerous supernatural miracles including healings, deliverance, and raising the dead. He demonstrated kingdom authority over nature as he calmed a storm or walked upon the sea. Miracles, signs, and wonders made known the presence of God come to reclaim the kingdoms of earth.
The cruel work of enduring death on the cross provided for redemption of all who believe. His resurrection, ascension, and return in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to indwell believers began the work of restoration. Jesus returned to earth in the Holy Spirit to indwell mankind and do the supernatural work through His people of restoring all things to our God. And again at Pentecost supernatural signs and wonders were poured out only this time through 120 waiting disciples. The mark and the tools of the work of re-establishment of the kingdom of God on earth are manifestations of supernatural miracles of healing, deliverance, raising the dead, angelic appearances, and many other signs and wonders.
I think you have figured it out by now. The reason for signs and wonders pouring out in this season is the return of the work of Jesus by the Holy Spirit to take us to the greater fullness of the kingdom. The movement toward the kingdom has been derailed for centuries by the age of man-centered religion and the lack of the real gospel of the kingdom. The return to the recognition of the massive work of the Holy Spirit began just over a hundred years ago and is now exploding into the earth. In this season we are only beginning to awaken to the reality of the Spirit of God empowering the pure, holy people of God.
Soon there will be little or no more of the adulterated mixture as holy men and women of God clothed in humility and burning with God’s glory will set the world on fire with the vast love and power of the God of heaven present on earth.
Rev 11:15: Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"
Psa 72:19: And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
Edited by Ron McGatlin on 05/08/2008 at 2:04pm
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 05/15/2008 at 11:15am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Beyond Revival Fire
By Ron McGatlin
Miracles of healing are of great significance to one who is sick or afflicted. Deliverance is paramount to one who is living in bondage or torment. Supernatural signs and wonders are vital to proclaim the powerful presence of God. Prophesy, revelation, and spiritual discernment are of great value for guiding God's people.
As wonderful and important as all these works and blessings are, they are not the most preeminent aspects of revival. Being born again and being filled with the Spirit are absolutely essential aspects of revival and life in general. However, they are not the final goal or God's deepest reality of purpose in revival.
God's goal and purpose of revival is the formation of pure and holy receptacles for His awesome immeasurable love, people who will intimately commune with Him and love Him with all their heart and soul. A perfected Bride and army of sons to bring forth His glory and become His kingdom of heaven on earth is being prepared in part by revival-type outpourings.
Beyond revival is the mountain of God's glory filling the earth. A people perfected in His pure holy love pouring out the liquid fire of God's love covering the earth with the brilliance of His glory. God's people have experienced recent moves of God called revival, renewal, outbreaks, and outpourings. Also, over the past several centuries, God has revealed and restored layer after layer of Christ Jesus into His people. The glory of God is the objective of all these sovereign moves of God by His Spirit. God is preparing a people of His glory to show forth His glory across the earth bringing the fullness of the reality of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
The glory of God on earth is Christ Jesus.
Almost every use of the phrase "the glory of God" in the New Testament refers directly to or involves Jesus. In the Old Testament the visible glory of God often came as a cloud, smoke, or fire.
The visible glory of God came to earth at the announcement of the birth of Jesus.
Luke 2:9-14: And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"
During the life of Jesus on earth the glory was experienced in and around Jesus and through His works. The glory was seen in a person.
At the return of Jesus in the Holy Spirit, the glory was heard coming as a mighty rushing wind and seen as tongues of fire upon the disciples and then seen in the supernatural manifestations of the waiting 120 souls. Jesus was seen in the Holy Spirit in the first century apostles as Jesus worked with them by the Holy Spirit in many miracles of healing, deliverance, and revelations from heaven. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen, Mark 16:20.
The glory of God is in His purified holy people in whom Christ dwells.
2 Cor 4:6-7: For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
The glory of God is seen in the working of miracles and healing of His people.
John 11:4: When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
Jesus is glorified, not in the sickness and death, but through the healing of sickness and resurrection of the dead.
The gathering of the hungry people of God with the presence of God ignites the manifestation of the glory of Christ Jesus. As with His first coming, the glory of God is visible and hosts of holy angels (ministering spirits) are with Him.
The glory of God is with Jesus at the throne.
Acts 7:55: But he (Stephen), being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
When Jesus from the throne in heaven comes down in the cloud and fire of Holy Spirit with His holy angels and meets with Christ Jesus within believers by the Holy Spirit, ignition of the fire of the glory of God occurs and supernatural manifestations happen. This is a reality for gatherings of His true church, the church of the first-born Son among many brethren.
Preparation of the Bride involves healing, cleansing, and every form of purification in the presence of God. The formation of the Holy City - the Bride of Christ is coming down from heaven. We are in the season when the glory of the spiritual city of New Jerusalem is flowing down from heaven.
Heb 12:22-24: But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
The current outpourings of God include the culmination of all that has come before and for that reason is the greatest move of God experienced on earth since the first century. This move is not yet coming through a perfected Bride but is a part of the final stages of the process of forming a purified Bride of Christ, holy City of God - New Jerusalem to bring forth the glory of God establishing the will of God and the kingdom of God on earth. This is a Kingdom Revival.
Rev 21:2-3: Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
Rev 21:9-11: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
The previous moves of God have brought us to a season when there is a remnant multitude that is ready to accept the real kingdom of God. This company of willing sacrifices is no longer focused on themselves and their's. They are no longer seeking God for their benefit but are consumed with hunger for the melting of themselves into God as one. They will not stray to the left or the right but will follow the Lord in perfected love and obedience.
Do not be deceived; the imperfect wineskin of the current move at this writing in Lakeland is receiving the fresh powerful sovereign move to carry out further cleansing of the Bride. The wineskin of Todd Bentley and the people leading the Lakeland outpouring will be purified into the pure, holy love of God, free of religious trappings or it will not. However, the revival anointing of God that is spreading worldwide will flow into the pure holy vessels of the prepared holy remnant multitude and will be refined and increased into every facet of the ministry of God, bringing the glory of Christ Jesus to the world.
The current sovereign outpourings of abundant mercy of God in His love and power is preceding and will flow with a season of extreme purification through judgment upon all the pride and loftiness of man and all that exalts itself against God. We have entered the Day of the Lord.
Mal 4:1: "For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," Says the LORD of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch.
Rev 15:8: The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
The fire of God is cleansing and purifying first God's people and then the people of the world. No one has to be lost and the door is yet open for all to see the glory of God in Christ Jesus and repent of their past way of life, to turn be cleansed by the blood of Christ Jesus. Jesus will be exalted above every name, and the glory of God (full manifestation of Jesus) shall cover the earth. And of His kingdom there shall be no end.
Phil 2:9-11: Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
Edited by Moderator on 05/15/2008 at 5:06pm
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 05/21/2008 at 2:14pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
One King
By Ron McGatlin
Revelation of spiritual Kingdom continues to explode before us like an expanding galaxy. From horizon to horizon the landscape of the vast reality of God’s kingdom spreads out before us. The more that comes into view the more there seems yet to be viewed of the hidden mysteries of the kingdom of Christ Jesus. The more we see the smaller we become in our own eyes.
Ultimately the entire spiritual kingdom of God and all creation rest solidly on one foundation. There is nothing that God has made that was not made through Jesus the Christ, the only begotten Son of God. There is nothing that God builds on earth through man that can be built on any other foundation. All that is built on the foundation of Christ Jesus is aligned and ordered by Jesus the Chief Cornerstone that sets the alignment of the entire building. Jesus is the name above every name. He is the One King of all that lives and exist. Jesus and the Father are One and with the Holy Spirit are One God in heaven and on earth.
Col 1:13-20: He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
1 Cor 3:11: For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Eph 2:19-22: Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
The God of all creation, the One by Whom and for Whom all things were created, humbled Himself and became a man to restore His kingdom on earth. Jesus paid the price and delivered the plan and pattern for all life on earth to become the fully functional kingdom of heaven on earth to restore the glory of God on earth. Complete salvation is in Jesus the Christ including deliverance from all bondage, healing for all infirmities and deformities, and transformation from fallen-world living to kingdom-of-God living.
Acts 4:11-12: "This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
The ultimate grace of God is Christ Jesus taking up residence within His redeemed people to become our lives flowing His love, wisdom, and power into the world to fully order and govern the world according to the Chief Cornerstone Christ Jesus, King of kings and Lord of Lords. The lives of His redeemed people are to be lived in Him and not in ourselves nor in any other. The supernatural and spiritual power of all heaven is available on earth in the pure holy sons of God in whom the Son of God, Christ Jesus, lives by the Spirit of Christ formed within us.
The fallen secular world infiltrated and led by the works of the enemy cannot tolerate the name of Jesus that is above every name. The profane spiritist and new age philosophers can tolerate the word "God" or "Father" or even "Spirit," because these words can refer to any god, any father, or spirit including the demonic. However, they cannot tolerate the name of Jesus. Secularists can even tolerate public prayer as long as it is not in the name of Jesus.
It is popular in revival or outpouring type gatherings for people to spontaneously pray and lay hands on one another. Sometimes people whom we do not know will ask to pray for us or minister to us. If we do not know the true spiritual condition of the person it is wise to ask this question. “In what name do you pray for me?” If the answer is anything other than “in the name of Jesus” we should decline. Even if the answer is in the name of god or the father or the spirit, all of those could possibly refer to another name especially the name of satan or some of his false demon gods. Witchcraft, sorcery, and new age practices are cunningly devised imitations of the holy real works of God.
All creation must bow at the name of Jesus.
Mankind has sought without God to develop power and strength to rule the world. Yet, the true source of unlimited power, strength, and wisdom to successfully order and rule the world has eluded the smartest and the greatest leaders. Kingdoms, tribes, and nations rise and fall throughout history. None have established an everlasting rule on earth. The ultimate source of power, strength, and wisdom to rule the world is the everlasting kingdom in Christ Jesus.
Phil 2:9-11: Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Dan 7:27: Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.
There is the very real potential for every believer to enter abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of Christ Jesus -the everlasting kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. There are hidden secrets of the glorious kingdom to rule over all the governments, nations, and systems of all life on planet earth. This is not a system man can devise or evolve into. The pride and lofty ways of man do not lead toward the everlasting kingdom of God. It is the humble and lowly who make room for Jesus by emptying themselves of themselves.
2 Pet 1:10-11: Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
1 Pet 5:5-7: Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
Luke 12:32 "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
The kingdom of God on earth is never mankind seeking to rule over others.
This is a great paradox to natural fallen-world thinking. Wars, strife, and oppression continue as men seek with proud strength to control others to rule in the world. Aggressive business to church political struggle and family headship power struggles never have and never will bring forth the desired results of peace on earth and good will toward men. It is the humble filled with the love and wisdom of God through the Holy Spirit who serve God by serving His people and are supernaturally gifted to order the world as Christ Jesus lives in and through them.
The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17). Notice that these are both inner and outworking qualities. The kingdom abides within and flows out to order the world and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our God.
Seeking God’s kingdom in the Holy Spirit is the key that unlocks the supernatural hidden mysteries of the kingdom flowing into the natural wold and provision of all things from God.
Mat 6:33: "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
In these days preceding the fire of redemptive judgments of God being poured out upon all that exalts itself against God, it is imperative that we receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit preparing our hearts to endure the seasons of extreme transformations of Planet Earth. We need to come to the realization of all life flowing through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. All the love and power of God the Father and Jesus will be poured out through the Holy Spirit in these days prior to the tribulation of burning the old to raise up beauty from the ashes unto the glory of God in His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
The mysteries of the kingdom are being revealed and the ONE KING is coming forth by the HOLY SPIRIT. It will not be wise to not receive the VOICE from heaven
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 05/28/2008 at 5:54am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The Great Preparation
By Ron McGatlin
Many reading this were planted with the seed of faith in God many years ago. Some of us remember that in the period of time immediately after giving our lives to Christ Jesus and receiving Him as Savior and Lord, our lives were filled with faith.
It may have seemed easy for us to believe that God could and would do anything whether natural or supernatural by prayer in agreement with His will and our need. Excitement was high and faith alive though we knew so very little about Him or the Bible. Our experience with Him was fresh; our prayer times were full of life, and we loved feasting upon His word.
My heart saddens as I see mature adults who received their seed of a measure of faith many years ago and have since learned more about God, but their faith has not grown. Many seem to have less faith in the reality of the supernatural works of God than when the seed of faith was first planted many years ago.
Something is not right about this picture.
Faith is not meant to be dormant or growing pitifully little or even declining.
The seed of our measure of faith is to sprout and grow a fruitful tree of spiritual supernatural reality of the life and works of Jesus producing His kingdom lifestyle with us that flows out to the world.
An internal wall of division has developed between the written supernatural experiences recorded in the Bible and our practical awareness of life.
Some way the multitude of supernatural spiritual experiences recorded in the Bible have become to us like unreal stories of the past much like fairy tales. The people of faith in the Bible who experienced the supernatural have become like gods or fantasy super heros to us. In the real world of our day, their supernatural experiences seem very remote from us ordinary real people. We seem to have developed a subconscious belief syndrome of "that was then and this is now." The experience of the supernatural works of the Holy Spirit are not considered of great practical value in our lives of today. However, knowing the facts of the Bible and knowing about God, especially Jesus and the Father, is considered to be of great value, while the experience of life through the Holy Spirit is considered of only secondary importance at best.
Religion has caused us to move from the real experience of Christ Jesus and the Father by the Holy Spirit flowing supernatural spiritual life in and through us producing miraculous faith and works of God. Our faith has weakened, and in some, it has died because of a lack of real experiences of God in us by the Holy Spirit. We subconsciously think that the incredible supernatural spiritual experiences were for all those special people in the Bible, but we are only ordinary people.
Wake up! Mary the mother of Jesus was not a special daughter of an emperor or a goddess. She was an ordinary person much like you and me. All the disciples of Jesus in the first centuries were not super people or something special they were real and ordinary men and women of no special endowment until the Holy Spirit came upon them and brought the Spirit of Christ Jesus to live in them. You and I are not any different. Except, possibly because we have been poisoned by false religious teachings and trained by ungodly experiences in the world, we have hardened our hearts with doctrinal rocks and thorns of this life which have filled our lives and damaged or destroyed our faith in the supernatural reality of the real kingdom of God.
Consider all the works of the Holy Spirit upon or within ordinary people throughout the Bible. We would not have anything of God without the work of the Holy Spirit. There are over 150 supernatural experiences of the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Almost every chapter in the Old Testament records supernatural works of the Spirit experienced in the same world we live in. Who would Abraham have been and what would he have done without an experience from God? Who would Moses have been without almost continually experiencing supernatural reality with God from the burning bush to the parting of the Red Sea and the Mountain that burned with fire? Who would Elijah have been without supernatural experiences with God? All through the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon real people and extraordinary supernatural works took place.
What would Jesus and the first century disciples have done without the Holy Spirit?
Jesus emptied Himself of His heavenly attributes before coming to earth as a REAL MAN. His birth was from a real woman implanted with the seed of God by the HOLY SPIRIT. Yes, the Holy Spirit in a supernatural experience caused the conception of Christ. While on earth Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit and at His baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and remained upon Him. Jesus had done no mighty works until after His baptism. All the supernatural works Jesus did on earth were done by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the same Holy Spirit that has come to indwell the ordinary real people of today and transform them as Jesus is in the world. All these things are supernatural experiences. The supernatural miraculous experience of God is for His kingdom people today.
Mat 3:16 -4:1: When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
John 1:32-34: And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."
The lack of real supernatural spiritual experience is why, in many of His people, faith has waned and has not grown into powerful supernatural lives as Christ in the world by the Holy Spirit. Simply and plainly stated we have had a form without the reality of SUPERNATURAL SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. We are not speaking of flaky fleshly-oriented manifestations. We are talking about the miraculous world changing experiences like those recorded in the Bible.
Why in the world should spiritual people fear supernatural miraculous experiences of God? Is it because centuries ago religion became a form of godliness denying the power of God? The powerless form contained little or no supernatural spiritual experiences and the role of the Holy Spirit was considered as secondary as a sort of go-between messenger like an angel. Doctrines were devised and taught to justify our not having the reality of the kingdom lifestyle which further separated people from experiencing the greater works of God. Because the church was powerless without the full work of the Holy Spirit, the only visible demonstration of the supernatural in the world was the demonic false works of witchcraft and sorcery. Therefore, Christians came to believe that all supernatural activity of today was probably of the devil.
2 Tim 3:5: ... having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
In the past century, there has been some movement toward restoring faith and believing again in the real works of the Holy Spirit on earth. However, most theologically trained people of today and those they have taught do not yet see the reality of the full work of the Holy Spirit and have little or no capacity to receive the supernatural works of God flowing today by the Holy Spirit. We have become a sad, sick people who cast a dark shadow of doubt and unbelief on the supernatural spiritual experiences from God. We may say we believe but may only really believe that God did it in the past. Like the first century Pharisees, many religious people are not entering the real kingdom of God and are preventing those who would enter. The Pharisees probably did not have bad intentions but they believed in their religious systems so intensely that they were not open to the kingdom of God coming forth in the world.
Mat 23:13: But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
A great darkness of demonic deception is infecting the minds of the people of the world.
The issue is further complicated by the great amount of receptivity for the demonic in the western world. Modern culture is being shaped by the works of sorcerers, psychics, and "new age" philosophies creating intolerance for Jesus and the works of the Holy Spirit. Our religion has failed to save us from the deadly ways of the enemy. Truly, for many people of the world, good has become evil, and evil has become good. Extreme perversions are seen as normal ways of life and the name and works of Jesus flowing by the Holy Spirit are seen as hate-filled and evil oppressive elitism.
Extreme intervention of God may be required to cleanse the earth and restore the real kingdom of God.
A spiritual people walking in the supernatural are now being prepared on earth to become lights to a dark world in times of severe intervention of God’s massive cleansing judgments against all pride and loftiness of man and all that exalts itself against God. Today is a good time for all who are being cleansed from the powerless religions of the past to enter more fully into the reality of the supernatural empowerment and works of the Holy Spirit.
We have observed for decades an increasing division between darkness and light as the fallen world has grown darker. Gross darkness has become clearly manifest in the world. Now, at this present moment, there is an increasing division in the church as well.
As supernatural Holy Spirit works are coming forth in this time of great preparation, the people are dividing into those who really believe and those who do not receive the miraculous works of the Holy Spirit and have hardened their hearts toward the people who are experiencing increasing supernatural reality of God. The light of the glory of God appears as darkness to those who oppose supernatural spiritual experiences. They oppose and sometimes bring railing accusations against the miraculous works of the Holy Spirit and those walking in them.
The division within the church is becoming more intense daily. It is not possible to be a true child of God and deny the supernatural experiences of the Holy Spirit. Being born again is a supernatural experience of the Holy Spirit. There is no work of Jesus in the world without the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to give credit to the devil for the supernatural works of Holy Spirit and the holy angels (ministering spirits) sent from God. Some supernatural experiences seem more natural than others. The miraculous works are simply those that are less common to us at this time. The fire of God has come near to earth in this season and uncommon miracles are occurring more frequently.
No one need be lost, and no one need miss the supernatural experiences of miraculous preparation for the great worldwide shaking, cleansing judgments of God purifying the earth. Today God’s abundant mercy and grace are fully available through the work of Jesus by the Holy Spirit to walk through the rent veil fully into the heavenly supernatural experience of becoming one with God. Full redemption has drawn nigh to you and God’s throne of mercy and grace is yet open for all to come into the next realm of His glory. Step through the veil of doubt, and receive great faith as a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Gal 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 06/06/2008 at 5:22am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Be Greatly Encouraged
By Ron McGatlin
What God is doing in the current worldwide outpouring is many faceted and much more world-changing than we can even imagine with our existing wineskins and mentalities. Even the small portion that God has uncovered to me by His Spirit is more that I can put into writing at this time. Let me assure my readers that more is being changed worldwide in this season than any revival, renewal or outpouring has changed in the recent past. To get a glimpse of what is happening we must be in tune with all that God is changing about our hearts, our tribes, nations and the world. We need to discern that the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven is the end reality of the intense change coming into our world.
One of the primary issues God is addressing is the demonstration of the reality of spirituality or the real works of the Spirit. Even the best of us have invested FAR too much in our human brain ability to know, to become and to do godliness. Our good ministry and business ideas with the power of prayer added have been employed in the past to connect and gather human power to effect the world for God. The enormous systems we have built of gathered human effort, brain power and a touch of the Spirit are the wineskins of today that are being changed.
God is again in the process of drastically changing the wineskin. And we "charismatics" and "Christians" do NOT like it any more than the old line denominational “luke-warmers” liked it when the Wind blew in the return of Pentecost and the charismatic movement that soon followed. Keep in mind this is only one primary portion of the picture that is being changed.
God is moving on whether we like it our not.
But what about all this controversy about the new move? I am so glad you asked. I have spoken to this issue several times and will again address some parts of it. First of all, it has almost nothing to do with Todd Bentley other than God can use anyone He chooses at anytime they are available. In our current wineskins that are being changed, we were thoroughly trained to follow a man. We were trained as well to determine which man to follow by the knowledge of our understanding of how well he followed the Bible word.
A great gap is opening between those who depend upon the Holy Spirit and follow the voice of God within and those who look with the eye and measure according to their understanding of counterfeit works they have experienced or studied. Focusing on the counterfeit works will bring confusion when the true emerges. Focusing and studying intently on the true works of the Holy Spirit will give clarity when the counterfeit is seen.
The Todd / Lakeland thing is yet in an old 90s wineskin through which God has chosen to pour out a fresh thing. The fresh thing includes REAL miracles, real healings and real words with consequences. The old wineskin is still contaminating but not stopping the new real flow. However it is mixing in the old unreal. This whole situation may be temporary but will have on-going and eternal results.
The current wineskin may become purified and longevity come to the local work in Florida or maybe not. It depends on the hearts of the people involved. However, by far the more important work is the anointing and supernatural outpouring flowing out to fresh clean wineskins in you and me and in many ministries and people around the world. The flow of the power and love of God is pure and will tend to purify things where it goes and will be a world changing work when received by pure and holy people of God.
Some of the results are now becoming visible. There is becoming, among the people of God in the western world, a real ignition of faith in the supernatural works of the Spirit of God. More people in more places in the western world are beginning to shift from their rational brain beliefs to the reality of belief that God is really Spirit and is really working in their world today in supernatural and natural ways. The many recorded biblical works of supernatural miracles are becoming more believed as being real. Our trust in the supernatural power and love of God is growing. The Holy Spirit is becoming more real and more valuable to us and is being recognized as bringing the real love and the real power of God into our lives.
Be assured that the anointing will flow out to pure, non-merchandising ministries of many sorts that will become more oriented toward the new wineskin and less affected by the old. Every person and ministry receiving the fresh real Holy Spirit works of Jesus and the Father will become greatly increased in their fruitfulness. The evangelist will have more fruit. The teachers will have more anointing and see more eyes and ears opened to the true gospel of the kingdom. The shepherds will become more purified and from them will flow increased love and wisdom in caring for the young sheep. The apostles and prophets will stop building their kingdoms and networks and start raising up a holy kingdom oriented people. All of the ministries will be more endowed and empowered as they receive the fresh anointing of bold power and add other gifts of God that He is bringing.
The real presence of God by the Holy Spirit will be working within and alongside these ministries. Special ministering spirits (holy angels) will be working with each freshly anointed ministry or business. Our dependency will continue to shift from ourselves to the reality of spiritual works of God meeting needs and changing our world.
In all that is happening there is specific purposes of God. All of this is preparing a people for the times ahead including the great corrective judgments leading to much harvest and the loss of all our gods. We will endure the times of world cleansing in the strength of the Elijah cake of supernatural reality poured out to us, before entering the times of difficulty.
The great judgments and harvest are parts of the greater purpose of the kingdom of God coming forth through the purified, holy, powerful people of God led by and empowered by the same Spirit that empowered Jesus Christ in His time on earth in His natural body and the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead.
Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Rom 8:11: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
1 Cor 3:16: Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
The old tree will come down before the new grows in its place. Babylon will fall as New Jerusalem comes forth.
Even the in-your-face wild stuff of the Todd Bentley thing is part of creating a people with NO respect for religion and a radical bold strength to do things you and I could never have done for the purpose of developing unrestrained Holy Spirit led and empowered warriors that will do anything for and with God. However, again by itself it is less than complete. There must be many clean pure hearted people without motive or concern apart from pleasing God to carry the fresh anointing to the world. There will be a powerful work in the severe times ahead as we witness the destruction of every thing that is of the pride and loftiness of man. Ministries, churches, governments, and nations will be humbled under the mighty hand of God and eventually the beauty of the kingdom will be raised up from the ashes of a civilization that for the most part never knew their God.
Isa 2:11-12: The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up; And it shall be brought low.
Isa 61:3-4: To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.
I say again, receive the power anointing and the real empowerment of God flowing out into the world and do not receive the old wineskin from which it is flowing in these early stages. But become a pure clean new wineskin without any contamination of purpose within your own heart and life.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 06/18/2008 at 4:59pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The High Call Of The Spirit
By Ron McGatlin
The atmosphere seems charged with energy like electricity. There is both tremendous excitement and at the same time a since of dread. It feels something like we were preparing for a great journey, traveling by a means we have never known and going to places no one has ever been. Yet, there is a vision within of the unprecedented glorious splendor of God’s kingdom fulfillment at the end of the journey, but treacherous ominous clouds of darkness and sounds of crying out from multitudes in great distress along the way.
God's trumpets are trumpeting forth powerful messages to His people. A great call is going forth from heaven and resonating in the ears and hearts of those with ears to hear. The sound is unmist akable and the message clear. God is powerfully moving upon the earth; true kingdom-style revival and spiritual outpouring is upon us.
The people of the fallen world go about their unchanged lives listening to other voices, and some Christians with untrained ears are only hearing a confused trumpet sound mingled with the voices of the fallen world.
Something greater than the fire of revival is being poured out upon the earth to all who are thirsty and starving for the reality of God consuming their old lives and filling them with heavenly life of God Himself.
The revivals of the past and the outpourings of the 90s were awesome, but they were all tainted with earthliness. God used them to prepare the way for what is soon pouring out in this day. New Jerusalem is flowing downward in the spiritual realm, and there shall nothing enter into it that defiles. God is pouring out His power, not only shaking our bodies but the whole world can be seen shaking in the spiritual realm.
Phil 3:13-14: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The high calling of the Spirit is to come up higher and clearly hear the VOICE of God. Higher than our old lives of being involved in the things of God and at the same time in the things of the fallen world causing us to hear confusing voices. It is a call to be catapulted into the spiritual realm leaving the past behind and entering into the resurrection life where the supernatural becomes natural and the miraculous becomes normal - a life filled with the wisdom of God for dealing with all of life’s issues and needs - a life of hearing His voice and our speaking forth words of significance and consequence -a life of the Spirit of God abiding upon and within His sons - a l ife of rejoicing with joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Pet 1:8).
The high calling of the Spirit today is to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and clearly hear the voice of God in the Holy Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that the love and power of God the Father and the Son Jesus will flow into us and live in us to bring change to a desperate people.
It is by the Holy Spirit that the word of God shall be made known to us. It is by the Holy Sprit that Christ Jesus abides within us and we abide in Him. It is by the Holy Spirit that the work of God will be done on earth and His kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit.
Zec 4:6: .... Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts.
Rom 14:17: for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Our religion of the Bible word without the full work of the Holy Spirit will not carry us through the season of tribulation in judgment we are entering. This kind of powerless religion has not kept our nations from falling into the pit of greed, immorality, and pride. Without the powerful work of the Holy Spirit our historic Bible-based universities of old became training ground for faithless, godless men and women bent on removing God from our nations governments, schools, media, military, and every place of strength and authority. Systematically, God is being removed and despised by the people educated in our institutions that once sought God by the Bible word but denied the full work of the Holy Spirit and the reality of the gospel of the kingdom.
We are being called to a higher place than this today. A place of fullness of the Holy Spirit bringing the real love and power of the presence of God among us. It is by this higher way we can be led through the judgment and a pure holy remn ant remain to rebuild the old ruins and experience the real kingdom of God on earth.
Can you hear the trumpet speaking - calling "Come Up Here"?
Rev 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."
Can you hear the trumpet sounding the alarm of war?
Jer 4:5: Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: Blow the trumpet in the land.
Jer 4:19: O my soul, my soul! I am pained in my very heart! My heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, Because you have heard, O my soul, The sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war.
Heb 12:25-28: See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from h eaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
Know the comfort of the Holy Spirit and be filled with the peace that passes understanding. Experience the abundant love of God flowing in and through your life. Be blessed in the true joy of living in the Spirit that lifts us to heights of life designed by our loving Father. Experience the real love of our Father the greatest reality of life on earth and in heaven. There is none like Him. No other god in all creation like our loving Father and our Lord who is our King and our husband living within us by the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Jesus, for the great things you have provided and the access you have provided by your blood spilled upon the earth. The greatest sacrifice purchased the greatest glory of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 06/18/2008 at 5:00pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Revivals Come and Go - The Kingdom of God Is Forever
By Ron McGatlin
The powerful healing and miracle revivals pouring out over the world through media today are not a distraction to the message of the establishment of the kingdom of God. They are a part of the reality of adding another layer of restored kingdom-of-God lifestyle to the people of God. Each wave of the past has restored more of God’s kingdom to replace what the first Adam had lost and Jesus came to restore.
The glorious and powerful gospel of the kingdom that Jesus brought was soon contaminated by the impurities from the fallen world of need, greed, lust, and pride as men turned to religion to replace the Holy Spirit and established human control to replace the true Head of the church, Christ Jesus.
Godly men are continuing to seek to move into the pure holy light of kingdom and out of religion. Each fresh outpouring of God is pure and holy in its origin and brings forth another layer of kingdom reality. Yet, every pure holy move poured out from heaven has been to some degree contaminated as it flows into the fallen world systems and structures of man’s devices.
Yes, we are in a full out war to become the uncontaminated holy kingdom of God in the world. Yes, it is happening; the kingdom of God is coming forth in us and through us. Yes, there is a need to be cleansed again as fresh revelation exposes remaining areas of residue from the past uncleanness from the fallen world and religion.
The disciples of God following Jesus were cleansed by His word but yet needed to have their feet washed from the grime of walking in the dirt of the fallen world. Jesus, the Christ of God, the creator of all, the great King of kings and Lord of lords picked up the towel of a servant and washed the feet of His disciples. Yes, He preached and taught the kingdom, healed the sick, restored the lame, raised the dead and cast out demons but he also washed the feet of His followers.
John 13:3-5: Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
John 13:10-14: Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you." For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, "You are not all clean." So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."
Jesus, the glorious Son of God glowing with holy light of pure white fire wants to cleanse us today. Yes, God Almighty is pouring out Himself in the Holy Spirit to cleanse us again and empower us that we will become powerful sons preaching the kingdom, healing the sick and lame, casting out demons, raising the dead and washing the feet of our brothers and sisters. Jesus did not criticize and condemn. He humbled Himself and brought cleansing to His followers. As He lives in us will we do anything less? Our criticizing and accusing can become our own contamination robbing us of the kingdom of God lifestyle.
We must not reject the fresh outpourings of the Spirit.
God is reaching for a people who will not reproduce any of the unholy contamination of need, greed, lust, and pride that is seeking to continue to contaminate the move God. God desires for us to leave the contamination but grab on to the anointing and carry it in our pure holy vessel to be poured out to cleanse our part of the fallen world and transform the part around you and me into the glorious clean pure holy kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Outpouring of life by the Holy Spirit inspires, stimulates and activates God’s people with refreshing of heavenly life.
Revival brings change toward becoming the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Revival refreshes like a cool shower removes the grime of dust and sweat from a hot day's work in the fields of labor. Feeding upon the word in the presence of God restores our strength like a good meal at suppertime. A season of rest and peace basking in the presence of God, communing one on one with Him, fills our life with courage, strength, and clear direction for the work of the Lord in bringing forth His life and His order to redeem and change the fallen world. Restoration to the fullness of the kingdom of God on earth is the work of the ministry for all in whom Christ Jesus dwells by the Holy Spirit.
Like the historic saying that all roads lead to Rome so it is that all true ministry of God leads to the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Every child of God in the world is commissioned to seek the kingdom of God first. Our affection is to be set on things above and our hearts turned toward New Jerusalem, toward becoming the pure holy Bride adorned for her Husband.
Col 3:2: Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Rev 21:2: Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:9-10: .... "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Our captivity is coming to an end. Our wilderness wanderings are about over and the promised land is before us. The old captive slave generation is passing away and the new generation of free born obedient sons and daughters is coming of age. We are entering the promised land and the war to clear out the enemies of God has begun. There is power anointing coming upon the new generation to drive the enemy from the land and secure the rule of the kingdom of God.
Spiritual freedom from the bondage of Babylon has come and the glory of God is upon us.
Jer 51:44-45: I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; And the nations shall not stream to him anymore. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. "My people, go out of the midst of her! And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the LORD.
Jer 51:49-50: As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall. You who have escaped the sword, Get away! Do not stand still! Remember the LORD afar off, And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
Do Not Stand Still
There is a time to be still and see the salvation of our God and there is a time to move out as the trumpet sounds. We must be prepared and move as one unit forward to possess the land and become the New Jerusalem, Bride of Christ, City of God on earth. The battle is the Lord’s and we must become His willing volunteers emptied of self will and supernaturally empowered by the reality of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit. It is time to let the New Jerusalem come to our minds and move out quickly from the mixture and contamination of Babylon into the pure holy City of God.
The trumpet is sounding; the message is loud and clear. It is not a time to stand still but a time to come up higher into the spiritual reality of the supernatural intimate life with God - a time to leave the Babylonian mixture, be cleansed and truly become crucified with Christ and resurrected into His glory spreading across the earth like a tidal wave of holy fire that will not be stopped and will consume our lives, our nations and our world. The glory of God shall cover the earth and we will never be the same again.
Psa 24:7-10: Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah
Psa 72:19: And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 06/26/2008 at 7:06am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Honoring Spiritual Parents While Growing Beyond
By Ron McGatlin
Multitudes of hungry grieving people are sensing two major faith foundations being shaken. They are becoming aware that the solid ground their parents stood on is coming apart as great cracks appear from the tearing force of the great shaking of transition and transformation.
In their spirits they have seen a new land - a clean, pure land filled with the fresh, clear water of real holiness - a land of precious life arising from within them and flowing around them as peace and pure joy - a land without corruption and strife - a land where children are loved and reared in holy tenderness - a land where love fills the atmosphere like oxygen charging their hearts with energy of holy life - a land illuminated with the glory of God and no darkness prevails.
These hungering people have tasted life in the presence of God in outpourings of the Holy Spirit and cannot go back to life as before. They simply are desperate for more of the life they have tasted in the glory of God. Like the disciples gathered in the upper room at Pentecost in a moment of time, the Holy Spirit has come upon and within them, and the fire of God has supercharged everything regarding their faith and life.
The first foundation giving way is their dependence and trust in the church of their parents that they grew up in. Spiritual eyes are opening to the empty liturgy and forms of the dead or lukewarm church systems that their faith has rested in. Even many of those in which Pentecostal life has come are being exposed as a mixture containing both God’s works and the foolishness of men. Unbridled merchandising of the works of God is being exposed to the people who have seen the new holy land in their spirits. Their foundation of church as they have known it is crumbling before their eyes and causing great grief as many as the blessed, time-honored traditions are falling upon the alter of holiness and kingdom reality. The pure Ekklesia of God is coming together in spots here and there.
The second foundation crumbling is the strength of man, especially the dependency and trust in men finding solutions to solve all problems and bring pleasurable living. The trust in education to train the natural minds of people to discover marvelous scientific solutions and develop tools and weapons beyond what we could have imagined a few decades ago is failing to be a suitable foundation for life. The foundation of trust in the strengths and wisdom of men has produced haughty, proud, and lofty people at enmity with God. The foundation of trusting in man’s strength and earthly wisdom is falling with a frightening crashing sound sending the smoke of its destruction toward heaven. Human governments in which we have trusted are failing as strife and corruption erodes even the best of them. The great economies that made us rich are crumbling.
Honor Your Spiritual Parents
Eph 6:2-3: "Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth."
The temptation is to be less than honoring to the church systems and mixtures that God has used to bring many of us into knowledge of the Bible and the basic faith in Jesus as Savior. Even those who have helped us move into a greater experience in the Holy Spirit and then are uncovered as mixtures are to be honored for the works of God that flowed though them. We will not do well if we do not honor our parents and in so doing despise the works of God. We should despise the foolishness of men that was in them but must make a distinction. We must honor our parents and grow past where they were to enter the pure holy land of the reality of the kingdom of God that is before us. We must love and follow Jesus more than our parents.
Mat 10:37: He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.
The foundation of human education, endeavor, and accomplishment must also be honored as it has parented us and provided much to spread the gospel of the kingdom. Only by the God-given abilities given to man can he do anything. Yes, it was filled with the mixture of the blessings of God and the foolishness of lofty pride, greed, and lust of men. However, many of us, especially those like me who are older, would not even be alive without the works of medicine that has prolonged our lives. Without the scientific advances of the past decades you could not even be reading this electronic communication. Marvelous life-saving and communication tools are just a small part of what God has allowed the minds of men to bring forth.
Is it that God wanted me and you to be alive and wanted us to have these means of instant communication to bring forth the gospel of the kingdom to the world?
In many countries the government has provided a safe environment for the preaching of the word of God and reasonable safety to worship God. The past strong economies of the western world have provided funds to spread the gospel to the world. Yet, the corruption is there. Yielding to the temptation to despise and not honor our parents will not be good for us. Honor our parents for the good works of God that have been provided and despise the shame.
Natural parents pass away and the children live on to parent the next generation. So it is also in the spiritual. In this season of restoration and transformation, greater ways of God are being revealed and imparted. The passing of the old is part of making room for the glorious kingdom of God-life to grow into the land.
We honor the parents of the past and move onward into increased holiness and purity of God that allows the love and power of God to flow to the world proclaiming the glorious kingdom of God with signs and wonders. We must place our faith and trust into the only true foundation of life, Christ Jesus the Lord and King. There is no mixture in the kingdom of God, and there is no one who enters the New Jerusalem lifestyle that defiles.
Rev 21:27: But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie.
The godly people of each generation since the beginning of the reformation from the dark ages have been freer and less affected by the darkness of the past than the previous generation of God’s people. There has been a continuing movement through layers of revelation and restoration of the things of God and His kingdom. However, at the same time there has been, at least in recent centuries, a movement of the ungodly secular world into increased darkness and evil ways which, has also infiltrated the church systems.
Todd Bentley and The Lakeland Outpouring
At this particular moment in time, one of the most talked about and most controversial movements of God is playing out through the media of God TV around the world from Lakeland, Florida. Todd Bentley who leads this work has recently made a significant move to link to and honor those he considers to be spiritual parents of the past several decades of revival and renewal.
Never before in my long lifetime has there been more worldwide awareness and more controversy including some strong bitter criticism against a move of God. Perhaps one reason for this is that along with the supernatural manifest presence of God bringing notable miracles and healings, there is a mixture of the old ways of the past that are not yet cleansed in this powerful work that is yet tied too closely to the parents.
The powerful anointing is real and definitely from God. However, the mixture stuff is from the passing system that God has allowed in the past but that is NOT from Him. The power anointing and presence of God flowing in Lakeland meetings is purely God and is rolling across the land carrying the glory of God like a tsunami. Also like a tsunami there is much debris and trash that comes with the powerful wave as it disrupts and changes the landscape.
(I don't use the phrase "in my opinion" very often but, in this next statement I feel it must be qualified with that phrase.) In my opinion, this will probably be the last major move of God from the systems of mixture. Somewhat like a last grand finale sweeping the world and flowing through the existing channels for the last great move of the passing church age. Todd and the work of God at Lakeland that is spreading to the world are greatly used of God in bringing a great awareness and impartation of faith in the supernatural power of God. However, this is NOT the pure holy kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. It is not the pure and holy Ekklesia, but is a fresh fire contained in the old framework. (end of my opinion and back to prophetic)
There is an element of honoring parents that is important to note in all that is going on at Lakeland. God desires that we honor our parents. He has worked through the past fathers even though they were not perfected. If we allow anything to cause us to dishonor our parents, it will not be well with us. We honor the works of God flowing through all the fathers of faith including those from the early reformation until this present day of continuing restoration and transformation. However, we must press on toward the pure and holy kingdom of heaven life on earth.
The true Ekklesia is forming at ground level and can be greatly enhanced by receiving the powerful anointing from the mixed revival that is among us today. Grab the God part, and carry it to the pure and holy reality of Holy Spirit-led, powerful ministry in house churches, small groups, large groups, and spontaneous worship venues that can draw thousands into holy worship and powerful praise. Learn to worship, praise, and move in miracle anointing from the great move of the current revival.
Again, the revival anointing is from God; the system stuff is not. Make the distinction, and do not be drawn after any man back into the passing systems of men. Follow Christ Jesus in any person as far as you can see Christ flowing in them. Follow the love and the powerful presence of God. Where there is not His love and presence do not go.
Become carriers of the revival anointing and the light of God into every dark corner of secularism and religion in your area. Receive the FIRE and move out to show forth Christ and preach the gospel of the kingdom to the person next to you in demonstration of love and power.
There is a vast difference between false and mixture. If it is a mixture due to immaturity or incomplete reformation, then it is part God and the contamination may be removed by receiving the next layer of revelation and reformation from God. Only those who have moved into the next layer will clearly see the mixture from the past in a person or ministry.
False, on the other hand, has its origin in the enemy and is some form of occult sorcery or witchcraft. Calling a move false implies there is nothing of God in it, and it is not a work in process but a lying deception usually a counterfeit made to look like the real.
False is a key word used by the enemy to perpetrate his lies against the moves of love and power of God that are threatening to destroy forever the enemy's hold on the earth. His powerful tool of religion and all his works of fear, lust, and pride are endangered by the tsunami of God's Spirit upon a hungry people worldwide. The great transition is here, and it is real. Move with holy fire and love and by it first change yourself, your family, your neighbor, and it will multiply to the villages, towns, and cities of the world. Do not be deterred, and do not be slowed by the screams of the enemy that says all is false.
I say again. Receive the fresh fire anointing but DO NOT REPLICATE the wineskin and trappings of the past in your pure, holy hearts and ministries. Receive and bless the people and the anointing of God flowing within the revivals, but discern the wineskin and leave it there. Take the anointing, take the fire, take the power into your hearts and lives and continue to follow Christ as your King and Head. Continue to relate to your Heavenly Father, and do not follow another. Follow any person as far as you see Christ the Shepherd, but do not follow the ways of religion and the fallen world in any person. God is doing a NEW THING - at least new to us. True holiness, true righteous living, true miracle working power, true unconditional love, and true kingdom of heaven reality coming forth on earth at ground level or in some cases underground.
Be crucified and live. There is no resurrection except there first be a death.
If we stop to debate we will be late.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 07/03/2008 at 6:37pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Glory or Glitter?
By Ron McGatlin
A great transition is in process. This glorious worldwide change began two millennia ago in Christ Jesus. It is now, in this current millennium, culminating in the raising up of many pure holy sons of God in whom the Spirit of Christ is manifesting into the world - sons who endure their personal cross to enter into resurrection life and show forth the radiance of the glory of God. These sons are men and women who thunder the holy words of God from heaven with supernatural demonstration of His love and power. They are sent to turn the nations from seeking the glitter of self-life to seeking the GLORY of God and His kingdom reality.
Behind the leadership of America the western world has largely gone for the glitter of self-fulfillment and pleasure seeking. Worship of the created has supplanted the worship of the Creator. The great illusionist continues to divert and turn aside multitudes of deluded reprobate people given over to their own foolishness. The glitter of human endeavor and pleasure has allured nations into a carnival fun house lifestyle of lies and deception which, in reality, is a despicable den of seething darkness.
Selfish pride of life and lust for the pleasures of satisfying base human desires of the creature without due concern for the Creator has separated most of the western world from God. The ways of heaven have become foreign to multitudes including many that call themselves Christians but live as aliens to God.
Powerless, man-focused church structures have been taken over by the same deception and are of no value in turning the people and nations back to God. On the contrary, the pseudo Christian views of accepting the ways of the fallen world of enticing people by feeding their desires for pleasure and self-fulfillment are robbing God’s people of the potential of a true experience of heaven’s ways of life. Religious church infiltrated by the fallen world’s ways has become a massive stumbling block for people seeking the reality of God.
In the midst of great darkness a bright light is emerging.
God will have a people of HIS GLORY. The glory of God shall cover the earth. There will be a sea of people of God filled with His glory carrying the light of heaven exposing every den of darkness and bringing forth the light of heaven in every heart and life of every person who remains beyond the cleansing shaking of God.
God is now preparing a nation within nations. A people of His glory filled with the life of Christ Jesus empowered from heaven by the Holy Spirit – a people without fear - a people of purity, holiness, and powerful humility - a people without regard for the fallen world who hear and obey only their God – a people in whom there is no dependence on man and no independence from God. True sons of God are being prepared to lead the world into the fullness of the kingdom of God.
There is no question that the sons of God are manifesting. The question is who will these people of God be? Are you one? Am I one? Who are these hidden people who will arise amidst the darkness that is covering the nations to carry the light to those who sit in darkness? Who will be the ones who call out and receive the people abiding in dens of seething darkness? Who will be the harvesters of the harvest of God? Who will be the ones to enter the New Jerusalem City of God to rule and reign with Him? Who will be the ones to sit at His table and commune daily with Him in the midst of His glory? Do you really want to know? It is those who are doing it now.
Wake up people! Those who name His name, AWAKEN!
Arise, shine, For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you (Isa 60:1).
Jesus has returned to live in your heart – the Holy Spirit has come to you - the same God who created all life and all matter dwells with you. The same God that by His emanating power causes all things to exist abides in you. In our day the supernatural power of God is flowing through His people to cleanse, heal, and deliver the people who are now sitting in great darkness.
Mat 4:16-17: The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.
Isa 60:1-5: Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.
The radiance of the glory of God is so bright that it overpowers and exposes the glitter of self- indulgent pleasure seeking as darkness. The glitter of flesh-enhanced “worship” and man-focused preaching does not compare to the pure, holy glory of God. Man-made glitter does not compare to the beauty of a consecrated life filled with His love, humility, self-sacrifice, true righteousness, peace, and joy of the Lord. The glory of His presence causes all else to become as shadows. To know Him intimately is more than all the world has to offer. True kingdom is being birthed in the hearts of devoted servants who become sons in service and the King’s Bride in intimacy.
There is no other ultimate purpose in life. This is the reason we were made. The reason we were born and the purpose of our remaining on this small planet called Earth. There is no complete fulfillment in life beyond becoming the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Total rest and satisfaction is only in knowing Him intimately and becoming a carrier of His glory on earth – a clear reflection and reality of the life of Christ Jesus. This is the field of great treasure and the one perfect pearl of life for which we gladly sell all that we have to purchase.
Many people desire this life and cannot obtain it. Many sense the beauties of holiness in the real kingdom, and. though it is rare on earth, they may see it in another person or family. They may exclaim, “Oh how beautiful – how peaceful and joyful; I want that for me and my family.” However, when they discover the cost of selling all they have, all their glitter, all they have striven to gain, and all that gives them their earthly reputation and provision – all that their flesh enjoys, then they are NOT willing to sell all and they walk away from the glory of God.
Surely, it is the mercy of God that allows all their glitter, all their earthly accomplishments, and all in which their flesh takes pleasure to be utterly destroyed before their eyes. In this great time of loss and painful shaking many who have previously seen but turned away may turn back with their whole hearts to seek the true life in the kingdom of God. Others will blame God for their loss and curse Him. The God cursers are even now attempting to rid their nations of God and destroy His people. They will become even more inflamed against God and His people as the day of their end approaches.
Mat 23:37-38: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate.”
Rev 9:18: By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed; by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone…..
Rev 9:20-21: But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Rev 6:15-17: And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
Isa 2:11-12: The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up; And it shall be brought low.
Beyond the great shakings of cleansing of the earth, the great governing city of God and His people will come into full view to rule the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. God and His holy Bride will flow the light of the government of Christ Jesus over all the world, and the kingdoms of earth will have become the kingdoms of our Lord (Rev 11:15). Amen.
Rev 21:2-5: Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
This is not a far distant pie in the sky thing. This is available now within all who sell all to come to Him with their whole hearts. The New Jerusalem lifestyle must be within before it flows out to the world. We are the generation of the refiners fire of God coming down preparing a people to overcome the gods of this world – to retake the land of the living in the love and power of God to heal the broken, strengthen the weak, deliver the bound, proclaim the opening of the prison, the recovery of sight to the blind – to destroy the works of spiritual blindness, darkness, deception and delusion – to raise to life those trapped in spiritual death separated from their God.
Isa 61:1-4: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 07/17/2008 at 2:32pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Spiritual Church (Ekklesia)
By Ron McGatlin
We are as explorers moving day by day further into a new land – a land we have never before seen, filled with things we have not yet known. Almost every day of our journey reveals awesome sights about which we may have heard but were unable to understand or even imagine until our eyes feast upon it, and all of our senses are quickened as we examine it with great excitement. Suddenly, what we have only read about and could not fully understand now makes perfect sense as we partake of and experience the reality of that which has previously been only a promise.
The future has come to us now. The glorious reality of God and His kingdom reality is presenting itself more as we reach each new horizon and partake of the previously unseen spiritual reality of God. Truly our eyes are lifted up unto the hills of God far above the darkness of the fallen world unto the heavenly order descending from above. Truly what God has prepared for those that love Him had never entered our natural minds until this blessed day in which the Holy Spirit is revealing it to a new generation of maturing sons of God.
We are more than being revived. We are being made alive in areas where we have never lived before. Our spiritual senses and spiritual lives have been so dulled by centuries of natural living and natural reasoning and understanding that, though we were alive, we were as dead being blind and deaf to supernatural spiritual reality.
The supernatural works of God were foreign and appeared impossible to us. We relegated all current supernatural to only demonic sorcery. The supernatural gifts of the Spirit that should have been part of our daily lives were not functioning. Our natural animal instinctive living led us to look unto our own ways devised by our prideful natural minds to provide for our natural appetites, while the world died spiritually and drifted into a realm of deep darkness far from the light and life of spiritual living in God.
We made church into a human endeavor of natural functions and developed religion in an attempt to reach God with our natural efforts. We took a devious shortcut to life and developed religious forms and ways to eliminate the costly real way of the cross of self denial and acceptance of spiritual reality. In bypassing our personal cross experience, we missed the resurrection life of Jesus that came to move us out of our natural ways and into the supernatural spiritual ways of resurrection life in God.
Praise God we have come to a new horizon, and the brightness of the light of God has appeared. Forerunner scouts have returned to the camp of explorers with glorious reports of real spiritual life of God just ahead, and we are moving out at first daylight to experience the real assembling of God with His people in spiritual gatherings with God.
The Ekklesia church is not a natural thing it is a spiritual reality. The Ekklesia is made up of spiritual beings called out of the natural world and into spiritual reality gathered unto God in the Spirit - a spiritual gathering of living stones – an assembly of Spirit God, Jesus, many angels, and spirits of just men made mature in Jesus. All of our questions about headship, structure, and organization of church are dissolved as the Ekklesia comes together in the Spirit in the heavenly New Jerusalem on earth as it is in heaven.
Heb 12:22-24: But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
For many centuries the church has been, for the most part, a gathering of natural beings with only occasional visitations of the Spirit touching the spirit within mankind. For the most part, natural effort went into performing religious rituals and praying mostly faithless prayers to a perceived distant God. It became a lukewarm church primarily concerned with social order and well-being. Skilled orators preached from a level of a higher caste than the ordinary laity who sat quietly at weekly meetings. Some received a sense of guilt and need for repentance of their sins, while others day-dreamed or fought to stay awake.
Probably no one even thought or dreamed of a gathering of spiritual beings on earth together with an innumerable company of angels, God the judge of all, Jesus the firstborn, and spirits of just men made perfect. We are so accustomed to living in the natural earthly side of our natural/spiritual being that the concept of the spiritual heavenly Jerusalem gathering on earth is hard for us to even think.
I believe God is speaking to His people today to step out of our natural side into our spiritual being side and look over the next horizon into the gathering of spiritual beings with Christ Jesus, Father God, holy angels, and spirits of others redeemed by the blood and living in the better things of the spiritual realm. The Holy Spirit brings all this to pass. Our spirits come together with the Holy Spirit and the entire God family and multitudes of angels.
Can we see it? Can we allow the reality of the spiritual Ekklesia to enter into our minds? Can we prepare now to come together in our next gathering as spiritual beings and not as natural people? No longer filled with conversation and considerations of natural things but filled with spiritual things – waiting upon the Spirit, instead of natural planning. This is moving into the next horizon of the reality of walking in the Spirit, abiding in Him and He in us. This is God dwelling with His people. The light of His glory will fill the room, and our hearts will knit together with God and one another.
2 Cor 6:16: ….. For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."
Rev 21:3: And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
Rev 21:23: The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
Supernatural will become natural in spiritual gatherings. There will be no need for pumping and hype, no need for natural human intervention and control. The Spirit of God will rule as the headship of Christ Jesus becomes fully evident. It is the family of God from heaven and earth coming together, worshiping the One who sits upon the throne in perfect harmony – multitudes of angels blending their voices with the spirits of justified men in heavenly melody rising to high crescendos and flowing as a mountain stream lightly through the valley and suddenly flowing with great strength and joy into a glorious waterfall to again come into deep pools of fresh sweet clear life in perfect peace - heaven and earth in perfect harmony praising God upon the throne.
Mat 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
John 4:23-24: "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 07/25/2008 at 2:49pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Father’s Love Heals
By Ron McGatlin
(I feel the need to ask you again as I have in the past to be patient with me as you read this article. There is a very evident and in my opinion significant change taking place that will change how we view and relate to the love of God. It is not reasonable in one article to bring full evidence needed to effect change. Therefore, I ask that if some of this word is difficult for you, please allow the Holy Spirit through prayer and biblical research to confirm or deny what is said. If this confirms what is already in your heart, be blessed. If not it may be that I may not be saying it correctly. You may want to print this out and read when the time is available. – Ron)
Has God’s Love Changed?
God does not love people differently in the New Testament from how he loved people in the Old Testament. There is a new covenant and restored potential for intimate relationship with God in the New Testament, but God’s love is the same.
We probably all know that the Bible says that God is love, and we have probably all read or heard Jesus’ commandments to love God and love our neighbor. Since God is love by His nature He loves everyone. God would never do anything bad to the people He loves. However, is it possible that, like a surgeon who cuts into a person to do good to the person, that God would make an incision (wound) to change us for the better? And would not that be doing good to us?
The surgeon who operated on me five years ago when I had cancer gave me the worst wound I have ever experienced. He cut me down the middle of my abdomen from just below the rib cage downward around the belly button an on down till I was laid completely open. During the operation my blood pressure went so low that I was very near death. When I awoke the pain was just as bad from this helpful incision as it would have been from an enemy attack. They kept me on morphine and other medication to make it possible to endure the pain from the wound the surgeon had made to take out some of my organs and remake some of the connections by taking parts from one place making them into another part in another place.
God did not put the cancer in me. He never does anything that is not for our ultimate good and in accordance with His plan. The doctor who removed the cancer from me had nothing to do with putting it in there. He was a tool in God’s hands to remove it. It was God who healed me. The cancer had eaten through the wall of the organ and was expected to be in the blood stream and spreading. However, there was no cancer found anywhere else, and in five years there never has been even though we chose to not have chemo therapy.
Why did God not heal me miraculously without surgery? I waited for 6 months after diagnosis for a miracle healing before submitting to surgery. I don’t know why He did not heal me miraculously, but I am very glad He healed me.
God’s ways are higher than man’s. The way we think things should be is not always the way God does them. He has a much higher and much longer range view that we do. It is a mistake to attribute our limited way of thinking to God.
Isa 55:8-9: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
God is Spirit and is vastly more profound and preeminent in every area than the natural understanding of mankind. Therefore, it is by the Spirit that the fullness of truth is discerned. Truth and love that produces wisdom and unity is achieved by moving from natural contemplation to the much higher level of spiritual communion with God.
One of the most serious needs in God’s people is to truly know Him. Not only knowing about God and knowing how to receive from Him but personally knowing Him. Deep hidden mysteries of the mind of God are known to us through intimate relationship through Christ in the Spirit. We will know His love, how it affects us, what it is like, and the purposes of it through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Yes, His written word will confirm the knowing received from personal relationship in the Spirit. In fact, through intimate relationship parts of the Bible that were veiled to us will be opened to us.
God’s love for people and His purposes for mankind are intertwined.
Our Heavenly Father has a greater objective, a destination for His children beyond where we have been. It is His purpose, His objective of His choosing, not ours. Few if any have yet achieved the fullness of God’s objective for His children. There is a level of life in God ahead of us that we have not seen. This is where we have been headed for the last two thousand years. A portion of believers are now desperately hungering for spiritual reality with God that far exceeds anything they have known. Most may not be able to clearly define what they so intensely desire, but they feel they must have it. There must be the real – real purity and holiness – real love and power – real supernatural miraculous works – real spiritual living - real intimate oneness with God, and all without mixture.
In my opinion, over the 75 years of my lifetime there has never been such an intense hunger for God among a remnant of believers across the world. Most of the church goes on as usual while the secular world and false religions are becoming more hostile toward God.
However, there is a remnant that is not going on as usual. This remnant of God’s people can no longer tolerate the mixture of humanistic self-seeking ways of the past. They are consumed and obsessed with the desire for the reality of God in the Holy Spirit. They want to worship and love Him with their whole lives. They desire every breath, every thought to be toward God. The highest part of their lives is meeting with a few of like desire to pray and worship in the manifest presence of God. This is NOT the “Christian life” as it has been. This is the growing up or maturing of the church into real sons of God – grown up sons. We are groaning waiting for the coming forth of the real grown up sons of God.
Rom 8:18:19: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
The objective and destination God has for His children is for them to become what we have never been: the mature sons of God who are as Christ is in the world without mixture and inseparable from God.
1 John 4:17: Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
Within the heart of the objective God has for His children is intimate communion with Him. Father’s love is fulfilled as we become one with Him receiving the love He pours into us that passionately explodes within us to reflect back to Him in brilliant expressions of His glory beyond measure. His power and wisdom flow with His love into those who love Him. The first part of God’s purpose for mankind it to collectively flood massive, worldwide, brilliant expressions of His love and glory back to Him in pure holy adoration beyond human measure.
The second part of Father’s purpose for His sons involves pouring out the reflective brilliant expressions of His love – to cover all the earth with His glory, power, and wisdom. God is pouring out on earth through His firstborn Son within His many sons to cover the earth with His glory so that the kingdom of God is present on earth as it is in heaven, and all the earth is ruled by His righteousness. This is God’s purpose. This is His call to us, the great commandment and the heart’s desire of Father God Almighty.
Mat 22:37: Jesus said to him, "’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind’. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Is there anything better for people than to be fully in the purpose of God? In our personal life experiences, God’s greatest good for us is to love Him and be about our Father’s business. We know from scripture that all things work for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Truly, for man and God, this is the most blessed life on earth. This is the purpose and fulfillment of Father’s love and objective on earth. It is our highest good and the heart desire of God.
Rom 8:28: And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
God is preparing a people.
Not everyone is at the place at this time of becoming grown up sons, sons who will move on the earth as Jesus doing the works that He did and greater works than He did on earth in His earthly body. We are at different stages of maturing in Christ. Like natural people we need different food and different nurturing at different stages of growth in Him. Some of this article may not be for you at this time. If you are not experiencing the desperate hunger for more than you have seen to date and are satisfied in the place you are now living and serving, be assured God completely loves you and continue to flow the grace He has given in the place He has provided. He will cause you to move on if and when He desires and you are ready. There are different places and many jobs to be done in the kingdom.
There are those of us in this day who are being called to leave the pleasant places with our spiritual mothers and move out to become a mighty army with our LORD and Father on a perilous but victorious journey. There is a movement beginning in the people of God to become willing volunteers who will endure through the pain and suffering of taking up our cross to follow Him through the greatest change the world has ever known. These are the mature sons of God for which the groaning creation awaits.
Mark 8:34: When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
Mark 10:21: Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."
Luke 9:23: Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
God’s passion in His Sons
God’s passion is intense to have a people of His purpose on earth truly living in His image and being as He is in the world. Within us our passionate desire to be made into His full grown sons is also becoming intense. We are becoming willing to fully submit to the processes of change that requires cutting down our old tree (way of life) – our old “Christian” life structure mixed with other purposes and practices, that He may replace it with a new tree of His life for His purpose only.
In the practical reality of the spiritual process of cutting down and rooting out our old damaged and distorted life structure, there will be painful loss and separation. Our inner soul that is trained in self-survival sees that our existence as the person we were is being attacked for destruction and will fight to preserve our structure of life as is. The more we allow our souls to guide us to fight against the cutting down and removal of our old life of mixture, the more the destructive forces increase. Yes, we truly want to become pure holy sons of God in His image. Yes, we really want to be in the world as Christ is. Yes, we want to pour out to the world the love, power, wisdom, and glory of God. But first we must endure the painful loss of the old life structure as it crumbles into ashes leaving us nothing of our past imperfect damaged life of mixture.
Oh, the pain and the sorrow as we feel the mighty blows of the axe from God at the very trunk of our existence bringing down the life structure we had become. Our souls cry out. Our screams of painful resistance with the process go unheeded. Our violent rebukes of the devil that we believe is destroying our lives accomplish nothing. The seemingly merciless blows of the axe continue to cut deeper into the core of our life structure. We do not see that the passionate love of God is behind every cutting blow. Every wounding strike of the axe moves us closer to the change that we truly desire, to be conformed to God’s original intention - to be fully in His image filled with only His life and His purpose.
Our loving and all wise Heavenly Father is changing what we could not change. He is not afflicting us to teach us a lesson, nor is He angry and punishing His people. Father knows the old tree of other purposes that is bearing other fruit must be removed before the new life structure of His life, His love, His power, His wisdom, and His glory can become the new life structure to be reflected as brilliant light back to Him and out to the those around us, spreading to the ends of the earth, filling the earth with the glory of God.
Yes, God allows affliction of the old life that He might heal us and fill us with His resurrected life. There is always ultimate love and purpose in what God does. He is preparing mature sons of God for His purpose and His glory. His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven! For His mercy endures forever (Psa 136:26).
Job 5:17-18: "Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole.
Heb 12:5-7: And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
Yes, God uses various means including natural authorities and people to afflict and cut down our old life. Often He uses our friends as instruments of affliction to us. It is not always the wounds of an enemy that afflict our old self-life. It can be the wounds of a friend that are used. Our ultimate healing is the resurrection life of Christ born in us through our personal cross experience.
Prov 27:6: Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Zec 13:6: "And one will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'
God may use instruments for our affliction such as friends and He may allow the enemy partial access for a season. However, it is God allowing the wounding of the old life and God healing His people through the process of change that we desired but were seemingly powerless to accomplish. The happiest and most powerful people in the world are those who have had the old life cut down and the fullness of the life of God growing in its place. Happy is the man whom God corrects.
Truly the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Satan and his powers of darkness are masterful deceivers. Our natural mind, human compassion, and understanding are no match for the schemes designed by the cunning craftiness of the supernatural intellect of the devil.
Only with the supernatural wisdom of God by His Spirit can we accurately discern and easily see through the devious plots of the enemy. Because much of Western Christianity has historically denied the fullness of the reality of the Holy Spirit and depended upon intellectual discernment, the enemy has been able to establish massive strongholds of false beliefs regarding the love of God.
The sweet kisses of the false gospels that see the love of God as a humanistic kind of love that takes no action to change His people is deceitful and provides no healing and no resurrection life. All God does and all He allows to touch His people on earth always leads toward resurrection life of Christ in us – righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit in this life now.
Mark Reece wrote this statement of the enemy’s deception regarding the love of the Father, “God’s love is soft comforting, acceptance.” Which leads to, “You don’t have to change.” Which leads to, “you can remain independent.” We finally end up at the original lie, “You will be as God; separate and equal...”
God is preparing us to rule and reign as full grown sons. He will have a holy people on earth and the kingdoms of earth shall become the kingdoms of our God.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
Edited by Ron McGatlin on 07/25/2008 at 2:56pm
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 08/06/2008 at 6:38pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Kingdom Vaccination
By Ron McGatlin
In the natural we know that a bit of the mostly dead disease germs are planted in the body to create an immunity to the real disease. Some of these immunities can last a lifetime others may require a booster after a number of years. This has proven an effective way to CONTROL the spread of the disease.
Recently my youngest sister (mid 60s) had to have a bone marrow transplant. Before the new bone marrow could be implanted the doctors had to completely kill her existing bone marrow. She received the transplant from a younger woman in UK. One interesting aspect of the transplant is that her immune system no longer had the immunity from her childhood vaccinations. Her renewed system now made it possible for her to have those diseases that she had been immunized for by childhood vaccination.
Spiritual Immunization
Unfortunately most people who have been in church systems for a number of years (that includes most of us on this mail list) have been indoctrinated with a vaccine against the real kingdom of God. Of the many problems facing the world, I sincerely believe that this is the worst of all problems. I believe it is rudimental and causal to most other problems facing mankind since the first century.
The powerful loving reality of the restoration of all things which, was purchased at the cross and potentially implemented at Pentecost by the Spirit of Christ in the Holy Spirit is the power of God to change the world. The life giving Spirit of Christ Who came to abide within the people of God is the provision to bring the entire world into the order of God eliminating all the problems generated by sin and disobedience.
Religion has been used as a vaccine to stop or limit the spread of the real kingdom of God. Religious teaching has planted a bit of the mostly dead gospel into Christians to immunize them against the full reality of the gospel of the kingdom. For those of us who have had our spiritual immune system coded by religious teaching which prevents us from catching the real kingdom, our spiritual immune system must be wiped clean before we can hear the “word of the kingdom.” We must have a traumatic experience comparable to a spiritual bone marrow transplant. As in the natural we cannot receive a spiritual bone marrow transplant until our old spiritual bone marrow is put to death. Our spiritual immune system was programmed to reject the true gospel of the kingdom and therefore will resist to the death.
It is a big mistake to think that we can simply show someone from the Bible that Jesus and the first century disciple preached and demonstrated the kingdom of God on earth. We can show them how Jesus taught us to pray to the Father for His kingdom to come on EARTH as it is in heaven. We can quote Jesus’ words to seek the kingdom of God first and all these other things will be added. However, all of that will not get through the vaccination immunity of fallacious doctrines and half truths we were inoculated with by religious teachings.
Like natural vaccinations the mostly dead half truths have blocked the real fullness of the Holy Spirit and the real kingdom of God potential. The power that should have changed the world is not released and the world is left in bondage and servitude to the enemy. There is no real kingdom of God within us to flow from us in love and power to release the full power of the Holy Spirit to transform people and their lives to bring forth the will of God and His righteousness, peace and joy on earth as it is in heaven.
Killing Our Bone Marrow
As long as we feel that we are doing okay and are reasonably comfortable in our religious system, we will never seek the greater reality of the kingdom of God. However, when we finally realize that what we have is not working, we begin to feel there must be more. When we are loosing our children to the ways of the enemy – when our marriage is on the rocks – when those we loved the most are taken from us - when our finances don’t work out – when our things and games no longer satisfy us – when our religion seems as empty of life as a tomb - we begin to see that something is wrong and there must be more. Then when we begin to ask questions and to seek more we are rejected and treated as traitors and outcast by our religious friends and family that we loved.
Now it is wilderness time. In our wilderness experience our very core, the thing that makes our life blood, our religious bone marrow is about to be killed. We may not have a clue what is really going on. We may not know that the Holy Spirit is about to transplant in us the real bone marrow of CHRIST JESUS, the gospel of the kingdom that will infuse our lives with the life blood of Christ flowing through our bodies bringing the abundant life of Christ. All the works that He did on earth and more – the supernatural power, and love along with the wisdom from heaven will flow through us and out to the world. The KING is alive and well in His full grown sons forming His glorious Bride in His beautiful kingdom of righteousness, peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit.
As it is with individuals so it is with nations. As long as a nation is doing reasonably well there will be no turning to the reality of the Kingdom of God in the Holy Spirit. However, when our cities and nations are morally crumbling – when our national economy fails – when our armies are defeated - when our political leaders cannot make good decisions and the world turns against us, then we begin to recognize that the “church” that should have made a difference is powerless and no different from the rest of the world. Finally, we can conclude that what we have is NOT working. Here comes national wilderness time where the bone marrow of existing religious and secular systems is killed. A nation can become no longer immune to the real kingdom of God and the army of forerunners prepared to deliver the gospel of the kingdom in the power and love of the Holy Spirit can preach, teach and demonstrate the real gospel of the kingdom to the no longer immune nations of the earth.
It is easier for the non religious to enter the real kingdom.
People who have never been religiously trained have not been vaccinated with the inoculation of the mostly dead half truths and are not as immune. Once they come to Jesus and are exposed to the Holy Spirit and the true Bible word they can receive the word of the kingdom more readily without religious debate from a programmed spiritual immune system. Those who may have never been in church, never attended Sunday school, Bible College or Seminary may enter the real kingdom of God before religious people who are highly respected by the Christian community.
Jesus speaking to the chief priests and the elders in the temple said, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him” (Mat 21:31-32).
How could this be? Can it really be true that some religious systems based on biblical theology that taught us about the savior and introduced us to the gospel of salvation in Jesus and in some cases even connected us with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is not entering into the real kingdom of God lifestyle and is even preventing those who are seeking to enter. It was true in Jesus’ day and is true today. The religious Pharisees in Jesus’ day were the most sincere God seekers on the planet at that time. They were completely serious in their search of the scripture and their commitment to carrying out all they learned in every detail. No effort or expense was too great to know the written word and do what it said to the best of their knowledge and ability.
And yet Jesus said to these who diligently studied the written word of that day (Old Testament) – those who diligently sought to know God and teach others how to serve God – those of high respect in the temple, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (Mat 23:13).
A major shift was in process in that day. The shadows and types of the old covenant were drawing to a close and the new order of the kingdom was at hand. Christ the King had come to earth as a human baby and grew into the sinless anointed One from heaven now on earth. He had begun the 2000+ year process of redeeming mankind and re establishing the real kingdom on earth. This was more than the well trained religionist could grasp. It was simply to big a change from the ingrained understanding they had figured out about God. They had all their lives invested in the traditions handed down to them and their mental assessment of the written word. However, for the ordinary people who had little invested in the existing structure it was much easier to receive the true word of the gospel of the kingdom.
In the glowing first century, fishermen, tax collectors and other ordinary people were empowered by the life giving Spirit of Christ through the Holy Spirit and moved upon the known civilization carrying the gospel of the kingdom and demonstrating it with signs and wonders. There was great persecution and eventually the darkness of religion covered the brightness of the kingdom age for many centuries.
About five hundred years ago a few people were found that saw the fallacy of the religious system and began to seek more of God. Layer by layer over the past few hundred years God has restored to those who could hear pieces of the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of salvation by grace through faith was a beginning place. Many other layers have since been revealed or uncovered to be re instated including the work of the Holy Spirit to empower and more recently the avenue of intimate communion with God. The process has been and remains the preparation of a people to receive the full measure of the kingdom. At each layer there has been resistance from those invested in the past level of reformation and those yet tied to different parts of religious darkness.
The major shift of today is the same one of Jesus’ day. The shift in our day is from the remaining grips of religion into the early stages of the real kingdom of God from heaven on earth. As in the day of Jesus this shift is destined to replace the old system of the past. This is again great loss to those who are heavily invested in the past. If they could only see the great gain of the kingdom of God lifestyle, they would know it is well worth the cost.
The cost of entering the real kingdom of God can be great. It may cost loss of respect, positions, family relationships, religious relationships, personal property and more. The more we have the more the cost will be to depart from the ways of the fallen world and religion into the spiritual reality of the true kingdom of Christ. That is why Jesus said to his disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 19:23).
To a seeker who had led a good religious life of keeping the commandments, Jesus said, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Luke 18:22).
Though the cost in natural life can be great the rewards of living in the spiritual kingdom of God now is far greater. Jesus said a hundred times more.
Mat19:29: "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.”
Paul spoke of the comparison of cost and reward like this, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18).
Paul had made the major shift. He left a high place in religion to know Christ and experience the resurrection life of Christ flowing in and through Him to the world of His day. Here is what he had to say about the comparison of the cost and the reward.
Phil 3:5-8: “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowing of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ”
IN THE REAL KINGDOM OF GOD THERE IS NO MIXTURE.
Please allow me to speak plainly and personally. I have been greatly blessed through the many years in the ministry of the churches where I have been associated. In recent decades, I especially have been greatly blessed through the powerful revival ministries that have impacted my life. Through all the experiences piece by piece parts of the real gospel has been imparted to me. However, all of these ministries have now been shown to be very incomplete and mixed with a lot of trash devised from human thinking, man’s religious traditions and doctrines of demons.
I am not in the least angry or upset by all of that. Folks, this is just where we have been. We have been digging out from centuries of darkness and receiving light of the real kingdom piece by piece. Even the best ministries of recent years are laced with mixture of fallen world human ways and spots of fleshly weaknesses. This is not a negative critical comment it is the plain reality of where we are.
Now hear this. I speak by the Spirit from the throne. The time of mixture is quickly closing. The decree has left heaven and will be spoken on the earth and will be carried out without delay and without exception. Never before on earth has the righteousness of God been so visibly poured out from heaven on earth. Justice, Justice, Justice Cries from below the throne. Who shall now stand before Me, says the voice from the throne. Who shall contaminate the work of my hands with foolishness and live?
Almighty God, we bow deeply before You and we call out do not spare us, do not spare the rod. We are fallen upon our faces before you. We repent and put to death the foolishness of our hearts and ways. Let us not arise from this place until there is no mixture found any longer in us. Nothing but You God – Nothing of our old ways, pure and holy tried and true – let it me unto us. Father, in your wrath and judgment remember Your mercy but spare us not that we may live holy as you are holy. No more mixture, take us down Lord strip us and show us our shame to destroy it from us forever. We cast it from us and offer our lives as a sacrifice unto your glory…..
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 08/14/2008 at 8:31am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Change or Exchange?
By Ron McGatlin
When my old automobile had lots of miles on it and began to have problems I was faced with taking it to the repair shop from time to time. At times it seemed that I had no sooner paid for the last expensive repair when something else needed fixing. The thought of trading it in for a new one began to seem more inviting. Though the idea of spending so much for the price of a new one was not pleasant, there were some really good things about trading. The new one would be up to date, run really good without a worry, and would even have that fresh new car smell. No matter what I did I could never get the old car to have these same qualities.
Some folks consider their life like the old car. We must keep taking it to God for repair and service because no matter what we do to prevent it, things just keep breaking down and causing trouble. Things just don’t stay fixed, and they never seem to be as godly as we think they should. Temptation and troubles are often threatening to overwhelm us and prevent our moving on down the road of life in God as we should.
God never promised to fix up our old self-life and make it better. The cross of Christ did not purchase only a fixed-up better life. Also, our personal cross that Jesus said we were to take up is no help in fixing our old life. Like with the old car, it is time to make a trade. Jesus did not provide a changed life for us. He provided the potential for an exchanged life.
His Life for Ours
The process of exchange began when Jesus laid down His life for us.
John 10:15: "As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”
John 15:13-14: "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
The work Jesus came to do involved much more that laying down His life in death on the cross. The full work of Jesus would not be done in His natural body and could not be done from the grave. Jesus was sent and willingly came from heaven to earth to save the world that His Father loved.
John 3:16:17: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
Resurrected To Reign in the World
Most of us have been taught the somewhat man-focused idea that Jesus came to save us but have not been taught about His greater work to save and restore the world. There is more purpose in His saving us than to get us to heaven when we die. Although, I appreciate heaven more the older I get. However, the greater work Jesus came to do is to save the world and restore all things that were lost in the first Adam’s fall by disobedience. Jesus saved us to make the great exchange of His life abiding in us to carry out the work He began of restoring the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Christ living in us is the hope of the glory of God on earth.
Col 1:27: To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Gal 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Christ Jesus arose from the dead, ascended to the Father, and returned to this world as a Spirit to complete the exchange of His life for yours and mine. He came as Spirit to give His life to abide in those who lay down their lives in obedience to the Father.
At the cross Jesus was sown a natural body in death. At the resurrection He was raised a spiritual body of life. He became a life-giving Spirit.
1 Cor 15:44-45: It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit.
The disciples obediently waiting in the upper room at Pentecost became the first people on the planet to receive the exchanged life - the first to be implanted with the resurrected life of Christ - the “life giving Spirit”. From that moment on their old lives were finished, and the life of Christ in them began. The supernatural love and power of Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit replaced their old powerless life inherited from the first Adam.
The resurrected Christ Jesus gathered with His disciples before ascending to the Father and gave them instruction. They were sent by Jesus to do the same work God sent Jesus to do by the same power. The disciples were further instructed to not depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
John 20:21-22: So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
Acts 1:4-5: And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Prior to this time the disciples had not received the Holy Spirit. Even though they had followed Jesus and believed He was the Son of God, until Jesus died on the cross they remained of the first Adam. Because of the sinful state of mankind, they could not receive the Holy Spirit. However, it was at this moment after the cross, the sin curse had been broken, and those who followed Jesus were able to receive the Holy Spirit from the breath of the resurrected Christ. Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into them much as God had originally breathed His Spirit into Adam (Gen 2:7).
At this point redemption became a reality for the disciples who now had the Spirit of God back in their lives. For the first time since Adam, the Holy Spirit was again within men other than Jesus. However, they did not yet have the empowerment of the life of Christ Jesus within them. He was still standing before them awaiting His ascension to the Father. Christ Jesus had to return to the Father and become a “life-giving Spirit”. Only then could the Holy Spirit impart the life of Christ Jesus to dwell within and empower the disciples who would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The greater work of the baptism of the Holy Spirit which brings the powerful life of Christ Jesus to replace the old powerless life was just ahead of them.
The first reception of Holy Spirit by Christ Jesus breathing on the disciples appropriated the individual redemption from sin that was purchased on the cross. However, the empowerment to do the works of God that Christ was sent to do, and that He in turn sent His disciples to do, was yet ahead of them in the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:8: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Acts 1:9: Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
Acts 2:1-4: When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:32-33: "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.”
The empowerment of Christ in His people by the Holy Spirit was poured out and the mission for which Christ Jesus came to earth began to be multiplied in His disciples. The work of restoring the kingdoms of this world to the Kingdoms of God was empowered and the works of Christ were no longer limited to one man in one body. God’s purpose in our redemption and empowerment is to establish the kingdom of God first in our lives and in those around us. We are to live, preach, teach, pray, and demonstrate the gospel of the kingdom. It is the gospel of the kingdom that must be preached to the entire world.
The freshly received empowerment was evident as the disciples began to speak in the power of the Holy Spirit and mighty works of God began to flow through them. After demonstrations of the power of the Spirit, Peter began preaching Jesus in the power of the Spirit.
Acts 2:38-39: Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."
Acts 2:40-43: And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
As disciples of Christ we have the same charge from Jesus. We are sent with the same words: “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
We are sent to do the same job with the same empowerment of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit. The good news of the kingdom and the process of heavenly love and power to bring forth the kingdom must be carried to the people next door, throughout the village to the cities and the world. Every facet of life must become under the rule of God and filled with His purpose and life. The glory of God will fill the earth through His purified, holy people empowered from heaven by our King and Lord of all.
The process is the same for us as for the first disciples.
John’s baptism of repentance prepared the way for redemption.
Redemption comes as we believe and receive Jesus as the Son of God and give our lives to Him. At that point we are baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit for redemption.
The Holy Spirit’s baptism is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus baptized into us for empowerment.
Thus we can abide in Christ and Christ abides in us.
To be in this world as Christ is in the world we need all the grace provisions of God.
1. Repentance
2. Redemption
3. Empowerment
John 15:4: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
Our old car called revival needs to be exchanged for heavens new vehicle!
There is a lot of talk about revival. Talk about real revival or the one we are looking and waiting for. I don't believe revival is an adequate term to describe what we are truly seeking and what I believe God desires for this world.
What God is doing has little to do with what we have seen to this point called revival, renewal, or outpouring. You can scrap the showmanship and the planned meetings and crusades. You can lay away the rock bands and high powered so called praise music. The very bottom is falling out of this world and heaven is coming down in a person - the many membered BODY OF CHRIST WILL COME FORTH WITH GRANDEUR AND AWESOME POWER BEYOND ANYTHING KNOWN TO THE EARTH.
The petty thoughts and comments of men about what they think will amount to nothing but refuse. Power and beauty and grandeur of heaven will bring swift destruction to the lofty pride of men and all their gods.
We yet have no clue what it really means to be EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 08/25/2008 at 8:00am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The Price of Holiness
By Ron McGatlin
For Thousands of years human beings have lived well below their designed quality of function and order. Adam was created to live in pure holiness in the image and likeness of God. Righteousness reigned in the world in Adam and Eve. They knew no pain or suffering until sin entered their lives through disobedience. In Adam mankind lost his intimate God connection. His spiritual side died and man was locked into only the natural realm of life. Spiritual death with all its pain and suffering entered and began to rule in man.
Mankind was left to strive on His own with only his natural understanding and abilities. All those higher supernatural spiritual attributes that had made life to be righteousness, peace and joy were no longer known to man. In Adam all mankind were locked out of the access of the tree of supernatural holy spiritual living that had been the higher portion of man’s original design qualities.
In the very next generation envy, strife and murder presented into the world as one of Adam’s sons killed another one of his sons. The deep pain of a father and mother seeing one son murdered by the other and loss of both sons was known on earth for the first time. Pain and suffering has continued in mankind without the supernatural spiritual portion of his original design. As a result the combined sufferings of all mankind throughout all of history are immeasurable.
Jesus came to redeem and restore the world to the order of the kingdom of God.
Mankind has not been without accomplishments. Man’s striving has built a world of cities to the glory of man. Cities filled with great buildings and other works of grand architecture have been constructed by the natural efforts of man. Only to turn again and bomb them to destruction and kill masses of the people and then rebuild them again repeating the cycle of the lofty pride of man without God. Yet, there is a measure of temporary comfort and safety for the strongest nations. In that temporary pseudo peace mankind establishes social order of well being. For a season, quality and comfort of life increases until the next destructive war of Adam’s sons killing one another.
The world is entering the beginning season of a massive historical shift.
God is moving intensely in our world to bring forth His kingdom. By His Spirit, He has poured out powerful moves of supernatural spiritual love, healing and miracles seeking to bring people into the reality of the God Family. Spiritual outpourings sometimes called revival or renewal have been poured out into the world through less than pure vessels resulting in a mixture of God and fallen-world ways.
In this pivotal shift, God is set to cleanse the mixture and is now in the process of raising up people who will separate the precious from the vile.
In this time of mixture in churches and ministries it has been important to discern and receive the fresh anointing from God and not receive the fallen-world stuff in the mixture. However, all that is going to change as the fire of God purges all contamination from the works of God and His people.
Jer 15:19: Therefore thus says the LORD: "If you return, Then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, You shall be as My mouth….
There really is a new breed arising in the world. A new breed of pure holy people without mixtures who will not compromise and who are untouched by the lure of fame and fortune are in the making. These young soldiers of God are destined to become spiritual leaders in the world. If you know of one or two you know more than most because they are not at all in the limelight but are growing in the stature of the Lord in less visible venues of pure service seeking to bring the next level of real kingdom government. They do not seek after supernatural spiritual activity and power but along with love it is a normal developing state of being for this new generation of kingdom men and women.
These are not a part of the 90s wineskin and are not a part of the old dead one man pulpit and pew form of church. Nether can they be. They were formed in the deserts and in the mountains of separation by the Father and are sent to bring forth the pattern of God Family from heaven to earth. Without the hindrances of most of the natural world’s philosophies and religious limiting patterns they are free to move by the Holy Spirit into the realms of supernatural spiritual reality. These are men and women who will speak the vast resources of the God Family from heaven into the earth.
Most of what is behind us that has been poured out of God leading us toward the real kingdom of God is contaminated with the mixtures of fallen world ways. God has continued to pour out into impure vessels knowing the wineskin would burst but also knowing that even the bursting would pour out light and help move some of us one step further on the road to the purity and holiness of the real kingdom of God.
What we see as the failures of those who have touched the supernatural realms of God is the failure of all mankind. Our ways are not the ways of God. We have gone astray and have carried the ark of God into the doldrums of our fallen world ways of pleasure seeking, self focused lives based on ourselves, our needs, our desires and our comfort. The thing is that Christian religion, ministry and church is under a dark cloud of human natural westernized thinking and is asleep to the heavenly fire of God and in bondage to our independent self focused fallen ways. False humility covers our pride and religion covers our lust and greed. Remember, all this is mixed with the real works of God.
God will have a people without mixture and without compromise who will not stop and will not turn back and will not love their lives to the death - people who will speak with the voice of God words of consequence. Supernatural works of God will be released to bring God’s order to Planet Earth. The light of God will show forth His glory in magnificent grandeur beyond all we can ask or think.
God is preparing a holy people. If you are enduring the pain of failures in life you may be on the road to holiness.
The cost of victory is often the pain of failures. The price of holiness is the laying down of self which may involve failures in natural life. Failed dreams, failed business endeavors, failed relationships, failed ministries and other failures are painful tolls paid along the road to the victory of true holiness. These can all be a part of the return of mankind from natural existence in a fallen world into pure holy spiritual life in the higher realm of holy supernatural heavenly living.
Often those of us who seek God with our whole hearts will encounter the failure of our past lives. All that we honored and trusted in to provide what we needed and wanted in life crumbles along the road to holiness. It is like there are toll booths along the road. At each toll booth we must pay the painful cost of more failure in our old natural lives. In the seasons between toll booths we enjoy increased holiness as God fills the void created at the previous toll booth. We feel really good until we approach the next toll booth where more cost must be paid. Another failed area of natural life brings fresh pain. It is hard but the price must be paid if we are to continue on the road to holiness. Again, we feel the pain of death as more of our old life is handed over at the toll both. And again we have more of God and less of us and less of our old natural lives as we move on down the road.
After the pain and devastation of each toll booth, our lives are progressively more righteous, more peaceful and joyful. The wisdom of experience teaches us that the price of passage at each tool booth, though painful, is always followed by greater life. Soon our reason allows us to look past the next place of pain to the greater life beyond it. It is possible to actually welcome the next painful failure knowing we are moving closer to the reality of pure holy living. However, most often we are cruising along enjoying our fresh life and are surprised when we look up and see we are arriving at yet another toll booth.
Acts 14:22: …."We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."
When we asked God to make us holy, He believed we meant it and began this process.
We prayed a prayer something like this, God I want all you have for me. I am willing for You to take me and make me to be like Jesus. Give me a pure heart and make me holy. We may have thought that we would one night lay down one way and get up different in the morning. Even more common is to think that God will make us holy and then we will go on living the same natural life as before. Not a bad life, of course, but one with the same goals and same friends and same job in the same town and so on. It simply is not that way.
Please be assured that our lives can never be the same. Our lives restored by Jesus to the original design of man with full access through the Holy Spirit into the upper realm of supernatural spiritual reality will never be the same as our past life experience.
1 Cor 2:9-10: But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 08/30/2008 at 8:46pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Spiritual Leadership in a Natural World
By Ron McGatlin
What is spiritual leadership and how does it function in a natural world?
Spiritual leadership is that which continuously flows from Spirit God in spiritual heaven toward earth to be received by mankind. Leadership flows directly from God through the Holy Spirit to those who have received the gift of the ability to hear and see in the spiritual realm. Spiritual leadership involves intimately knowing God and receiving from Him his wisdom, love and power and his will regarding specific situations. Intimately relating to God is the first and primary requirement for leaders. Spiritual communication includes speaking to and hearing from God. There are many voices that try to speak into the hearts of believers. The voice of self, other people and other spirits seek to lead the minds and hearts of people.
Spiritual leadership in the natural world is the process of bringing that which is spoken from God in heaven into the natural world for people to observe and receive through their natural ears and eyes to bring change in their spirits toward hearing and obeying the will of God. The goal of this process is the mind and spirit of Christ Jesus abiding within all who will come and place themselves into a position of receiving. Christ lives in His people by the Holy Spirit.
Christ Jesus abiding within mature believers (elders) leads those who will follow the Jesus in them. My personal belief is that God will equip available people with the gifting and specific empowerment needed to meet the needs of brothers and sister in the Body.
The paradox arises that we are told to follow only Jesus and also to honor those who lead. Yes, we receive from the Jesus in one another and will follow Jesus in anyone in whom He abides and empowers to guide or lead in any given situation. We can follow the leadership of any man, woman or even a child in whom the voice of Jesus is clear and real. Therefore when we follow this natural person we are truly following the Spirit of the Lord. We should only follow a natural person as far as we can hear the voice of Christ Jesus in him. The plan is for every believer to grow into clearly hearing and following the Lord by the Holy Spirit.
John 10:27: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
What about those who due to immaturity and lack of practice do not know the spiritual voice of the Lord and therefore cannot follow? These are easily led astray by the voice of the man especially when it began as the voice of the Lord and became a mixture. This is why spiritual fathers or shepherds are needed to lead them to Jesus. Teaching-elders sometimes called fathers are always needed to lead the spiritually younger disciples into the maturity of hearing and obeying the voice of Jesus.
God will raise up elders or overseers in every household (meaning group, church, business or project) if it is a household of God. There will be gifted eldership (those in whom Christ dwells and speaks) to assist with the coordination of the work of God and see that all are moving in unity toward the mission of God for that specific entity.
Character Quality
The natural character quality requirements spelled out in 1 Timothy 3: 1-13 and Titus 1: 7-9 are the minimal requirements for character in leaders. There are even more and deeper qualities that may be present. These natural qualities or qualifications will be in place by the spiritual relationship with God producing the Christ-life within the leader. They are the outworking of the inner life of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
There is one Head of the church, the Lord Jesus. There is one source of life and leadership in the true church.
In the New Testament church, headship is never GIVEN to a human being. It is deposited in and flows through believers but it always remains the leadership authority of Christ Jesus. The life of Christ is a well of living water in us flowing out to edify the Body. We are not that living water which is Christ. We are the conduit through which the water flows out to others. We are like a drinking fountain and He is the water.
We follow the man Christ Jesus directly by the Holy Spirit or through another person elder/leader. Therefore, we follow Christ Jesus and should respond only to His voice either directly or in a brother or sister.
1 Pet 5:5: Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 09/11/2008 at 5:57pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Love Wins
By Ron McGatlin
In the onslaught of exposed lack of godly character in Christian ministers, significant questions may have arisen in our minds. Questions like: Where is discernment? Why do so many people follow impure leaders? Where are the safeguards and controls to prevent such episodes of moral failures? What can be done to fix the systems so this does not happen and the people are not misled? Where is God in all this, and why doesn’t He correct these issues?
There are some basic major answers to these and other questions that most people may not be ready to deal with. It is futile to try to alleviate the surface problems without dealing with the root causes. The need is more that dealing with the issues of the ministry by better minister training or setting up checks and balances. It is not just the fruit on the limbs of the religious systems that is sick. The entire tree from the root up has been infected and is decaying. The decaying religious systems have born good fruit in the past centuries and will continue to produce some good fruit as long as the trees are standing. Many of us were born again through the church systems or some outreach of them.
Though the systems have born fruit, they have not been able to bring forth the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. The disease has made it impossible for them to bear the desired fruit of the real kingdom of God. Since its inception around the third century, the religious church systems have had a genetic predisposition for the whole tree, from the roots up, to dry up and decay to eventually become enriched soil for the new grass of the kingdom to spring forth and blossom with the beauty of the glory of God covering the earth. Back in the early 80s when God began to pour revelation of the kingdom into me and other seed planters, He told me that eventually it would come up like grass in a field. Grass grows close to the ground and seems to come from nowhere. It is not just a few tall trees, but it is many plants all at the same ground level.
A Season of Great Historical Significance
In this historical season of God’s transformation of His people from religious systems to the kingdom of God the old is coming down to allow the new seeds of the gospel of the kingdom to grow into the world. The religious systems have spawned the secular systems that both compete and cooperate for the rule of the world. The whole adulterated world of religious and secular darkness mixed with the true light must give way to the pure and glorious light of the kingdom of God.
God is cleansing the darkness from our midst, first from the children of God and then from the world.
The core answers to the questions above regarding the corrupt leaders and lack of discernment is that the church left the reality of the headship of Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit. Discernment is by the Holy Spirit. Empowerment for holy living is by the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. When men after the first few centuries set up church government and turned to their own minds for guidance, the Holy Spirit pulled back leaving the then apostate church with only human intellect to discern the word and guide the church. Christianity became a religion, modern theology was born, and a hierarchy of men replaced Jesus as head. Doctrines were devised without the revelation of the Holy Spirit that favored the new system and shrouded the truth of the gospel of the kingdom. The void created by the loss of the Holy Spirit was filled by powerful religious spirits that have infiltrated and affected the religious church and the world ever since.
Though reformation began four or five centuries ago, there is much yet to be dissolved before the true gospel of the kingdom can be fully implemented. What we are seeing now in the uncovering of the corrupt character of ministers is a part of the major cleansing and dissolution of the religious systems that are decaying before our eyes. That which God used in the past is not usable in the kingdom age that we are entering. God is preparing a people of faith who will walk in holiness by the Holy Spirit and will be used to destroy the works of darkness and bring forth the pure clear light of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Love Never Fails – Overcoming evil with good
Is it possible that the destruction of evil is now within the potential of Christ in man? Is it not possible that the Bible word is true and that good can overcome evil? Could it be that the Spirit of Christ bringing forth His love in the body of Christ throughout the world can bring forth righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit and overcome the evil of the world?
If we look at the problem, the multitudes of evil men who are bent on destruction, and the great deceptive philosophy of seeking carnal pleasure that rules men around the world, certainly it does not seem possible to the natural mind that evil can be defeated and the kingdom of God can and is coming forth into our world. Looking at the giants in the land is exactly what the enemy wants us to do. (Num 13:32-14-1)
The victory waits for men to grow in faith to really believe the words of God. Faith grows where there is righteousness, peace, and the joy of the Lord in the Holy Spirit. Faith in God cannot be strong in carnal pleasure-seeking people. The prayers and faith of righteous people will unleash the power of God to change the world. The great outpourings of the Spirit of God upon His mature sons can bring forth revival and people will repent of their mixture of seeking carnal pleasure and seeking to serve God at the same time. Many will turn to God with their whole hearts and become holy humble servants filled with the love and power of God by the Holy Spirit.
In the same season of great outpouring of Holy Spirit revival, great shakings of purifying judgment upon all the earth will continue. We will enter the kingdom age through much tribulation, and all pride and loftiness of man that lifts itself against God will come down.
Acts 14:22: …."We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."
While at the same season of spiritual revival, the great apocalyptic cataclysmic events of the book of Revelation will destroy evil works and quickly alter the entire scheme of things in the world. Yes, it may be a bloody, fiery road to the kingdom, but God can protect and deliver His children. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God. (Rev 11:15) We will rule and reign in the earth with Him. (2 Tim 2:12) We will overcome the evil one by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. There is nothing too hard for the Lord. (Gen 18:14)
This is a miraculous transformation of God from the church age to the kingdom of God age. Only God could have ever orchestrated such an apocalyptical and cataclysmic series of events that would in the end bring forth the beauties of holiness in the glory of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Rev 12:11: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
All the rich history of the people of God – all the incredible acts of godly people – all the pain and suffering of Christ and the many who have willingly followed Him and suffered and died through the ages – all the sacrifices of the saints – all the victories that have been won – all the revelation from heaven and all the faithful service of men and women in the church age have all been moving toward the season we have just began to enter – the season of the proclamation and the manifestation of the promises of the ages for the redemption of all the kingdoms of this world as the kingdoms of our God. Christ Jesus, the rightful king of all, will fully reign with His holy Bride upon Planet Earth. And there shall be no more pain, no more sorrow, for the old will have passed away and the kingdom of heaven will be fully manifested on earth as it is in heaven.
We need not be discouraged when the unsoundness of mixture and corruption is revealed in the decaying church systems that have faithfully done and continue to do the works of God while striving with darkness of religious futility. When our own inner futility is revealed, we must count it all joy and be made holy and be made whole. The presence of God is among us to change us into the original design of image and likeness of God to rule and reign with Him in pure holiness and humility of love and power.
However, this is not just about our sanctification and empowerment; it is about our becoming redeemed sons of God to carry out the mission of restoring the kingdom of God on earth. We have a glorious and worthy mission – a mission that will only be done as Christ Jesus is formed in His Body by the Holy Spirit and we become as Christ in this world. Our mission includes the glory of God covering the earth, a goal worthy of losing our lives, that we find His life. Be greatly encouraged God is on the throne, and His love wins.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
Coordinator OpenHeaven.com
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 09/11/2008 at 6:03pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
All Things Made New
By Ron McGatlin
We have yet to grasp the hem of the garment of revealed understanding of what God is doing in our world. What God is about is much deeper and much more universally comprehensive and radically transforming than has yet been fully envisioned. A very different world exists in the spiritual or heavenly realm and is now beginning to come into view by the Holy Spirit. Natural eyes cannot see and natural minds cannot perceive what now exist in the spiritual realm. The full scope and impact of the cross of Christ Jesus has not been seen or imagined by natural minds. However, it is fully formed in the spiritual realm and is opening to those who by the Holy Spirit see and hear the glorious creative works of God in process.
1 Cor 2:9-14: But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
…"Behold, I make all things new."… (Rev 21:5)
This world order will be taken back to the core of its creation and made new in Christ Jesus - back to the pure foundation of holiness by the Holy Spirit of God Himself abiding with human beings. Our natural minds have no capacity to consider or receive such a reality of the magnitude of what God is doing in and with our world. Planet Earth will tremble with the ultimate re-creation by holy people of God walking upon it with the pure faith of Jesus bringing forth the kingdom of heaven on earth. That which is already formed in the spiritual realm can be seen in the Spirit, and by mature faith of the Son of God abiding in the sons of God, it will be brought into the natural world.
This is not a future work, but a work completed in the spiritual realm at the cross when the works of sin were destroyed and God’s people returned to the original state of the image and likeness of God – pure and holy beings with authority to speak to creation and cause it to be returned to the will of Father God. In order for this reality which, already fully exists in the spiritual realm, to become manifest in the natural realm of our lives and our world, it must be accessed by faith. We must believe to receive in the natural what already exists in the spiritual.
In holiness there is mature faith, and all things are possible to those who believe. Sanctification to pure holiness is a process of coming into faith – believing what was done at the cross. The resurrection, ascension, and return of Christ in the Holy Spirit are all for the purpose of bringing the completed work from the spiritual realm into mankind to be established on earth as it is in heaven by faith.
Sanctification by faith brings practical holiness (holy living).
Sanctification into holiness is the work of the cross of Christ coming into a human being in the Holy Spirit by faith. Holiness is by the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit, there is no holiness in human beings. The original design of mankind in the image and likeness of God is restored in the natural world as the work completed at the cross is manifested in human beings by the Holy Spirit. God dwells within His purified temple – holy human beings – mature sons of God.
Faith does not produce an image of holiness that only God can see; it produces the reality of change in natural life in the world.
Sanctification by faith is not an image or facsimile of holy living while continuing in disobedience. Faith accesses the finished works of Christ in the spiritual realm and works in our lives and our world to produce the Christ-life into natural reality on earth by the Holy Spirit. What people believe affects the decisions they make. The decisions we make can cause us to receive the works of God or cause us to miss the works of God and fail to enter into the life and works God desires for all human beings to walk in. Faith that does not produce works of God is not faith in God. The faith of the Son of God within the sons of God will change the natural world into that which is already in the spiritual world in heaven.
Gal 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
James 2:17-18: Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
There is great purpose in our sanctification beyond our own lives.
The great mystery of “Christ in you” and becoming “one flesh” with Him is for the purpose of creating the new world, the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. The complete reformation of the world and the planet awaits the sons of God who walk on the earth in the Holy Spirit - God walking on the earth in human beings. These are spiritual humans with mature faith that only exists in the faith of Christ Jesus through whom all creation was made and by whom all things continue to exist or consist.
Col 1:16-20: For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
Col 1:27-29: To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.
Rom 8:18-22: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
Faith and holiness deceptions
It is hard to believe that most of the western world including many Christians believes that holiness is boring. In reality there is no greater significant life that could ever be than to be a part of the holy people of God. There are deeply rooted deceptions regarding faith and holiness in many Christians. In my opinion, the condition of our present world systems can be directly traced to error in the church that has robbed us of the empowerment of God through the Holy Spirit to become holy as He is holy and walk in the Spirit to bring forth the works of Christ Jesus to change the world.
Faith is not a substitute for holiness it is the means of receiving the empowerment of grace to become truly holy in this life. Faith it not a free ticket to heaven; it is access to the works of God to bring heaven’s life and ways to earth. Grace is the working of God in the heart that is reflected out into the world to bring faith for godliness to reign on earth. The finished work of Christ on the cross is not a free ticket for people to live in sin and go to heaven when they die; it is the means of living holy now and bringing the righteousness, peace, and joy of heaven to earth now and eternity beyond.
Father, we come to you with great need to become your fully holy sons free of errors that have robbed us of Your provisions of empowerment to rule and reign with Jesus now on this earth. Father, we ask you to send your Holy Spirit to shine the light of truth and pure holiness into our hearts. Help us to root out false beliefs and turn to you with a whole heart cleansed of mixture. Make us to be as a new born without heritage other than You.
Father, in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit we choose to believe and to receive revelation of your words deep within us transforming our lives, that it is no longer us that lives but Christ and the life that we now live is by the faith of the Son of God. Open our spiritual eyes to see those things that wait in the spiritual realm to become manifest by faith into our lives and the natural world that you glory cover all the earth. Amen
Rev 21:5-7: Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
Mat 6:9-10: "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
Coordinator OpenHeaven.com
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 09/25/2008 at 5:30am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Desperate
By Ron McGatlin
The glory of heaven is not diminished by the crumbling of the world’s economy. On the contrary the light shines brighter in greater darkness. The victory is secure in Jesus. God and His army are not daunted by the raging multitudes. Almighty God, the creator of all that is natural and supernatural, is never worried that His heaven or His armies will fall to the destructive forces of evil.
But, woe unto those who are not on the Lord’s side, those who deny God even in the face of His passionate love. And woe to those unto whom purging must come - those who acknowledge Him but in whom evil yet remains – those who have received the lie that they cannot be holy in this life but must continue to live in a mixture of godliness and natural-life sin. The cleansing refiner’s fire has come to burn the chaff and clear the fields of stubble that the fresh new growth of the fruitful grass of the heavenly kingdom of Christ can spring forth upon the cleansed earth.
A bright new spiritual kingdom is breaking through from heaven into the natural realm – a kingdom that is not compatible with evil and will not coexist with it. The mighty king of all glory approaches. Prepare the way of the King of all glory. Prepare the gates and the doors through which the King of glory and His spiritual kingdom is coming. God’s pure holy humble people are the gates and the doors. Look up to the heavens, you people of God, with clean hands and pure hearts for your time has come. The King of glory is coming through His purified holy people. Be fully prepared and greatly encouraged. The most extreme season of powerful, dramatic, and cataclysmic events has arrived. While at the same time the most glorious season of your life and purpose is come.
Psa 24:7-10: Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah
Jesus is manifesting (appearing) within and among His people cleansing His temple (His people).
Mal 3:1-5: "Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the LORD of hosts. "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner's fire and like launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the LORD, as in the days of old, as in former years.
And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien; Because they do not fear Me," Says the LORD of hosts.”
The LORD of hosts will cleanse the world of wickedness and pride by burning and trampling until there is neither root nor branch of evil remaining.
Mal 4:1-3: "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," Says the LORD of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch.
But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this," Says the LORD of hosts.
The mountains of strong nations, kingdoms, and governments are melting before Him. The merriments of a world gone mad drunk on carnal pleasure and lofty ideologies of pride are as stubble before the cleansing fire from heaven.
All creation moans. The painful contortions of the earth – the wringing out of the Body like a wet shirt – the crushing of grain on the threshing floor separating the chaff – Can you hear the deep mournful groan of a planet and its people in deep desperation of a total cleansing process leading to godly transformation?
Nations are desperately looking for a man or a government to stop their pain and lead them to safety. People are drawn like steel shavings to a magnet by anyone who emerges as a fresh new hope for alleviation of their stress. Overnight a minister or politician who seems to have potential for filling the existing headship void will be swamped with throngs of followers.
All the world including the church is desperate for of a Hero, a King, a Savior to make things right – to return Planet Earth to sanity and make all things holy. The world is desperately waiting for the grownup pure holy sons of God who are directly connected to their Head, Christ Jesus, and fully functioning as His Body on earth. Moving in supernatural spiritual wisdom, power, and love without limits bringing forth the will and plan of God.
Rom 8:22: For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
The world is now become ripe for harvest.
The shelter of the passing church age is collapsing. The crumbling of the church walls of isolation for protection is causing many to recognize that God is no longer in what we have been doing. Suddenly eyes are opening to discern the emptiness of religious doctrines and rituals of practice and a great desire for REAL is consuming the hearts of God’s people. They are longing for real love – real power – real righteousness – the pure and holy reality of Christ Jesus within His people by the Holy Spirit.
The true ekklesia church is forming and returning to the true headship of Christ Jesus within and among the gatherings of God’s people by the Holy Spirit. Godly elders (spiritually mature ones) gifted with the powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit to serve God by serving His people are coming forth in the gatherings. The elder’s primary service is assisting the less mature to be fully connected to their Head (Jesus) and to become mature in His presence by the Holy Spirit. The preeminence of Christ Jesus over all things and the gathering of all things under Him is the purpose of the work of the ekklesia by the Holy Spirit.
Desperate people will be drawn to the Lord.
When the people of the world who are desperate for a Hero see and experience the reality of holy love and power in the true kingdom church (ekklesia), many will be drawn like steel shavings to a magnet to the living King and His kingdom – Christ Jesus the one through whom and for whom all things were created and continue to consist.
Psa 107:10-15: Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons; because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High. Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
Mat 4:16: The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.
The light of the kingdom has come and the glory of God shall cover the whole earth. All things will be gathered unto Him and delivered to the Father. The kingdoms of this earth shall become the kingdoms of our God. Hallelujah!
Even so come quickly Lord Jesus. Amen.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 09/25/2008 at 5:31am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Organic Apostolic Networks
By Ron McGatlin
Can there be a truly spiritual organic church with Christ Jesus as Head in the framework of Apostolic Networks?
To answer this we will need a cohesive understanding of the definition of the terms. Words mean different things to different people, and in this time of major shifting in the worldwide church many terms being used are not clearly defined in the minds of believers.
Human or natural thinking will never fully grasp the spiritual reality behind spoken words of spiritual concepts. The Spirit is always involved in communicating spiritual truth. Therefore, we are reaching for spiritual definition words regarding the renewed formation of the works of God on Planet Earth.
Apostles and Apostolic Networks are major terms to be considered in the current reformation. The restoring of apostles and apostolic works are serious areas of concern that are in process of being defined and understood. The natural minds of most people immediately consider networks to imply structure and organization. The term apostolic is generally construed as office of authority within the network. Very soon the chief apostle concept comes into view as a headship position in the network. And not long after that the structure of additional offices of “spiritual” authority of pastor, prophet, evangelist, and teacher become considerations.
Conflicts arise in our understanding as the Holy Spirit intervenes in our process of logical natural thinking with God’s revealed spiritual concepts such as:
· The practical reality of Christ Jesus as the Head of His church
· The clergy/laity order exposed as ungodly
· The brotherhood of all believers at one level revealed
· The exposure of the business-corporation style of church as ungodly
· The religious order of the institutionalized church exposed as ungodly
· The hideous hidden mixture of sin and godliness in Christians
· The revelation that the division of godly faith practices from practical life activities such as business, home, recreation, education, and governments is inordinate.
The list goes on as greater truth continues to be revealed and one after another of our time honored beliefs and practices are seen as faulty and in need of either being dissolved or greatly altered and purified.
Our traditional concepts of leadership and networking are challenged by the biblical and spiritual revelation of these things. Therefore, we may have begun to adjust our leadership and networking ideas to some degree but may not yet be free from the old patterns of traditional natural thinking. Giving things new names and calling it spiritual is not enough.
God is not bringing us to traditional leadership and natural networks with spiritual overtones. He is not even taking us to networks based primarily on relationships with one another. If we network based on relating to one another it is very easy to begin to esteem one above another and establish invisible hierarchical order and arrangements. Yes, relating to one another is a very important secondary part of spiritual networking. But it is secondary to the individual intimately relating to King Jesus by the Holy Spirit. A spiritual relationship with one another begins with being fully connected to God through the indwelling Spirit of Christ. There is a significant difference between networking in the HOLY SPIRIT and natural networking around spiritual things.
God is seeking a Spirit network without man’s government or man’s intervention but with man’s cooperation in the Holy Spirit.
One cannot join a true spiritual network. No one can appoint someone into a spiritual network. Human recommendations will not get you into a spiritual network. A spiritual network is a spiritual thing. One is added to the network by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual networking is a connecting of spirits of just men made perfect coming together with God, Jesus, and many angels. Jesus is the mediator, and the registration desk is in heaven.
Heb 12:22-24: But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
If this seems too ethereal for us we may need to adjust and become just men made perfect (mature). We need to grow up spiritually and be fully baptized in the Holy Spirit that our spirits may assemble with the Spirit of Christ in the new covenant reality of walking IN THE SPIRIT.
The apostolic spiritual network that God is sending down from heaven under the headship of our Great Apostle is called the New Jerusalem. It is the ruling city of the worldwide kingdom of God. The patterns of all life in the kingdom emanate from the city whose builder and maker is God. Nothing enters the network that defiles. God does not visit His people there; He dwells among them. All love, all power, all wisdom dwells with His people and is imparted to us as He wills. This is the grace imparted for the purpose of ordering the world to the kingdom of God. This is Christ in us by the Holy Spirit to rule and reign with Him now on this earth.
God is not sending a replica of heaven on earth. He is sending the reality of heaven to earth in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit in His people. God is not delegating His authority on earth. He is authority on earth dwelling in His people - His network of pure, holy, humble people who have died to the old and are alive only as Christ lives in them. In reality Christ is alive on earth living in His people who are dead and yet alive by the Spirit and abide in the Spirit of Christ.
Natural organizational gathering and networking of the church began around the third century when the Holy Spirit pulled away from the church religious systems that man had developed. Although reformation began around five centuries ago we are yet seeking to fully realign with the Holy Spirit and be cleansed of the man-made systems that have prevented the fullness of corporate life in the Holy Spirit.
All of the Christian religion group divisions of history from Catholicism’s variations to protestant religion with its many denominations and divisions such as orthodox, liturgical, evangelical, Pentecostal, charismatic, prophetic, various streams, and more recently apostolic networks have all functioned tied to natural networking. Most if not all of the historical religious groups and networks operated in something far less than the true spiritual networking of the Holy Spirit as presented in the heavenly New Jerusalem.
Most of the diverse groups of history remain today in some form, each stuck in their past experience. However, the revelation from God of restored truth has continued to advance in generation after generation toward the truth of Holy Spirit led living in the spiritual city of the living God. We are yet struggling today to return to the preeminence of Christ in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been made out to be less significant when in reality the Spirit of God is God, and without the Holy Spirit we have nothing of Jesus and the Father in our lives today. It is the season to be transformed to live in the Spirit in the New Jerusalem lifestyle.
The Vision is for all spiritually mature believers to - Pray – Hear – Obey, and for all spiritually immature believers to be trained by the more mature (elders).
Vision of possible spiritual city-wide gatherings
Imagine the scenario of no more Sunday morning weekly church gatherings with the people divided into many different congregations. Instead think about citywide or area-wide gatherings. Now, imagine that instead of traveling from church to church the apostles or visiting sent ones move from Kingdom Revival Center to Kingdom Revival Center. OK, what is a Kingdom Revival Center? A Kingdom Revival Center (KRC) is citywide or area-wide gathering of many groups. The KRCs hold meetings as led by the Spirit, perhaps monthly, but normally not weekly. Also as the Spirit leads the KRCs may hold a series of special meetings several nights in a row. Warehouses, store fronts, and other rented or donated facilities will do for the KRC gatherings.
The many groups that gather monthly at the KRC meet individually in homes or other facilities such as businesses, barns, basements, or whatever every week or more often as led, on whatever days or evenings as led, in groups called The Groups or Jesus Groups or something generic. The Jesus Groups or The Groups are not called prayer groups or fellowship groups or Bible studies or home groups because all those names point toward and emphasis for the meetings.
This is not an organization but a pattern and, of course, there are many variations as Holy Spirit leads. Probably the most central structure to this is businesses and homes. Men who may be business people or professional people or ex-ministers can help deal with administration issues in the different areas once they grasp the general pattern which will have many variations as the Spirit shapes them for each different area or city.
Okay, this is all from the vision or dreaming process, but it will check out with God and is a start to losing our old mind sets.
Where is the starting point?
· Getting the vision from God,
· Getting excited about the vision,
· Praying the vision back to God,
· Preaching the vision everywhere you preach,
· Sharing the vision with individuals,
· Write the vision and publish it,
· Move with the vision when the opportunity presents itself,
· Stay on track with no other diversionary visions.
Where are the resources for all this?
The people and the money are locked up in church buildings, operating expenses, and leadership salaries. Traditional church leaders will cooperate as they catch the vision see the work of God becoming a real organic spiritual network led by the Holy Spirit with many men and women arising from the pews and fulfilling the call on their lives in the groups. The elders would lead the immature in the groups to intimate relationship with Jesus as their Lord and Head of the church (ekklesia). These ones are trained but sitting in pews in traditional churches. These are powerful assets to be released to the Body of Christ.
The facilities already exist in homes for the group meetings and businesses or rented halls and stadiums for the citywide or area-wide gatherings of the groups.
Pray – Hear – Obey Ask God for a vision and pray for the vision He gives you. Listen and move in obedience in the next step He reveals to you. Wait upon Him, and watch for the next step to open before you.
As the declining economic conditions erode the lifestyles and available funds of families, all these things will move in the direction of the vision of God for an organic spiritual network of believers to bring in and train the harvest of souls in the gospel of the kingdom.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 10/09/2008 at 8:04am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
America’s Heart Change
By Ron McGatlin
God is still moving us toward a greater fullness of His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. What seems like it is meant for our destruction will bring further purification and cleansing. It will serve to further separate us from our fallen-world ways and help purify the beautiful Bride that is yet in preparation. The extreme events will be used as a part of the great transformation from mixtures to true holiness in preparing mature sons of God
The dark clouds coming upon the world are not without silver lining. Things may become desperate and dark for a season, but there is glorious light beyond. And even during the severe times there is peace under the shadow of the almighty. Gathered unto Him and under His protective wings, the joy of the Lord abides. Yes, we all may endure hardships and loss of earthly things, but we will know with greater assurance that our lives do not consist in the things we have.
Many of us may be amazed at how much fallen-world residue yet abides in our lives. We will experience a great increase of love within as God burns the residue out of our lives and leaves us with a tender heart filled with love and compassion, completely freed from the deceitfulness of riches. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
A major change of heart is ahead for many Americans. Value systems and life attitudes of many people are going to be changed from the inside out. Hard shells around hearts will crack and break open. Hardened hearts filled with rock hard opinions and convictions are going to be mellowed by unexplainable inner feelings of loving care and concern for others.
Ezek 36:26-27: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”
Painful losses and lack of self-indulgent pleasures will have strong affect on the emotions of people. Unstable souls will result from unstable life situations. Anger will surface as one group of people blames another for their plight. Brother will rise against brother. But all this volatility will not prevail forever. God will intervene and change the hearts of many. A supernatural reality of love poured into the hearts of believers will flow out to a broken world filled with people who are as empty cisterns waiting for something real - something pure and true - something that will fill their emptiness and heal their lives. They are waiting for the sons of God to impart rivers of living waters.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor 13:13).
Revival will be redefined as a fresh and real heart change begins to sweep across families, neighborhoods, and cities. Sorrow will break many hearts as regret swells within and haunting questions loom in the atmosphere. Why did I not take the time and make the effort to love and honor the truly precious people around me when I could? Why did I not see how empty the things were that I was striving for? Why didn’t I respond to the love of God and seek Him with my whole heart? How could I have wasted the precious love God? Why could I not see the great value of the precious lives of the people around me? How could I have been so self-focused and missed one of life’s greatest joys of pouring out to those near me and receiving them as precious jewels from God? Why was I so harsh and dogmatic instead of bringing the nurturing love of God to precious people searching for life? Feelings of pure love will rise up within like springs of living water.
John 7:38: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
Competition will give way to cooperation.
Believers will connect and cooperate for survival. Business and work in the community will cease being founded on my getting for me. It will become focused on providing for the community. Simple life will become profound, while complex fast-paced life of striving for many things will seem foolishness to the pure hearts of the people of God. Caring for others, especially the little ones will become more important than seeking more pleasure and more things. These and other heart attitude changes will occur. However, by far the greatest attitude change will be from self-sufficient independence to a devout deep dependence upon God and an increased trust in Him.
Real faith will be tried and revealed. Counterfeit or spurious faith will be tried and revealed for what it is as well. The faithless who are not in covenant with God, and who have no faith in Him will be without hope in God unless they turn to Him. The unfaithful that have made covenant with God but have chosen to not keep that covenant are also without hope in God unless they repent and turn back to Him. The unfaithful and those with spurious faith well be led by their own independent spirits or human wisdom and will be in danger. Many will recognize their condition and turn to God or turn back to God with their whole hearts.
A great harvest will come about. Multitudes will encounter the hardships of the season, and in their desperation search for the reality of life in God. God’s people of faith will be there to help get them to Christ Jesus. Those with true faith that are led of the Holy Spirit will have God’s wisdom and protection to survive the times. These will be the ones helping many come to God. They will administer salvation, healing, and deliverance to many hungry desperate people. The blood of Jesus will be applied to many lives.
True supernatural manifestations of the love and power of God will be released into the earth. The showy merchandising of prophesy and miracles of healing will cease, and the real supernatural miracles will flow abundantly through humble people of God motivated by the pure love and passion of God. Spiritual networks will connect people through the Spirit with the specific resources of God needed in each situation.
The preeminence of Christ will be revealed in the manifest presence of the glory of God. No prideful or lofty work of man or other gods will stand. The one true King will be exalted - the One through whom and for whom all things were created and continue to exist.
We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).
God is calling for you and me to be STRONG and VERY COURAGEOUS (Josh 1:7). Be strong in the power of His might. Love never fails, and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Arise and give glory to God for your time has come. The ends of the earth call for the glory of God. They call for the Son to arise upon all the earth. Here comes the Son! Arise and shout for the glory of God is risen upon you.
Isa 60:1-5: Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
Eph 6:10: Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 10/09/2008 at 8:06am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Cleansing, Preparation for Kingdom
By Ron McGatlin
Except our righteousness exceeds that of the passing ministry mixtures of both the old lukewarm church and much of the more current models of Charismatic, Prophetic, and Apostolic ministries we will not successfully enter the kingdom of God / kingdom of heaven age.
Jesus made it clear to His disciples that they could not enter the kingdom of God with the level of righteousness of the prevailing ministry leadership in the first century. The Pharisees and their scribes were extreme in their sincerity of worship, rituals and the study of the written word (Old Testament). Yet, Jesus saw their lack of righteousness in the hidden motives driving much of their religious actions. They were a mixture of God-seeking and self-seeking.
Mat 5:20: "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Mat 23:13: "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”
The major shift that we are facing today began in the first century. Jesus brought a whole new order. The kingdom of God had come from heaven to earth in Jesus. He began teaching the far greater righteousness of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 5 and 6.
The kingdom of God was and is at hand for everyone including the religious leaders of that day. It seems strange that non-religious sinners would obtain the level of righteousness to enter the kingdom before the Pharisees. Apparently the Pharisees’ religion had blinded them to their lack of righteousness. They must have thought that because they were doing their religious things they were righteous enough and did not need to look to anything or anyone else for more. However, the tax collectors and harlots knew they were in need of more righteousness and were more willing to receive the new order.
Mat 21:31: "Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.”
We are yet seeking to collectively enter into and experience the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. After many centuries, restoration of the greater revealed light of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven has come forth. And as it was in the first century, the fresh light and anointing has become tainted by men with the same old mixture of self-seeking and God-seeking. The old pattern of religious mixture is again trying to prevent those who are entering the kingdom lifestyle from going in. Most of us seeking to fully enter have been sadly disappointed as many leaders have brought real light and fresh anointing but with mixture hidden beneath the surface. Mega churches and ministries have been built and their leaders made wealthy by merchandising the precious kingdom light and anointing from God.
God has allowed the past mixtures to be profitable in bringing some light. Currently we can also prosper from seeing the negative example of the uncovered desperate need for cleansing. One after another the mixture of good and evil in leaders and groups has been exposed in recent years. Increasingly the examples have become more frequent and more visible. One recent example became a witness to the whole world through daily broadcast to over 200 nations on God TV. This mixture was blatant and “in your face” to everyone. It was a mixture of extreme supernatural anointing and extreme corruption. Some saw the true anointing from God that flowed and did not see the evil mixture in the wineskin. Others saw the blatant evil and could not see the real anointing of God in the supernatural new wine that flowed. As a result many became turned off to anything supernatural. However, afterwards some have had their eyes opened to see both the supernatural anointing of God and the reality of the hideous mixture. This same type of mixture has been in and yet remains to some degree in many current ministries.
The blatant exposure of mixture in old forms of religion and the more recent Charismatic, Prophetic and Apostolic expressions is calling for massive cleansing.
The kingdom of God is at hand. The gospel of the kingdom is again being preached on a broad a scale for the first time in almost 2000 years. The cleansing fires and shakings have begun. The cleansing fire spoken of in Malachi is approaching to burn to ashes the evil and the purging laundry soap is cleansing the mixture away from God’s contaminated people and ministries. The way is being prepared for the fuller expression of the kingdom of God. The refining processes have begun. The irresistible kingdom is coming forth in the King Christ Jesus-abiding that is taking place in the maturing sons of God by the Holy Spirit.
Kingdom Revival is not a return to the great revivals of the past two centuries. Kingdom Revival is not a reproduction of the great American repentance revivals, the Welsh revival, the Pentecostal and charismatic renewal or the big tent healing revivals in America. Nor is it a continuation of the revivals of the past several decades such as the Billy Graham salvation crusades or the Argentine spiritual outpourings, Toronto blessing, Pensacola revival or the Smithton Outpouring or any of the many other revivals and outpourings God has brought. It is the culmination of all the past moves and works of God and builds upon them.
All of the great revivals, renewals and outpourings of the past have been a part of leading us toward the culmination of the Kingdom of God reality that began with Jesus preaching and demonstrating the gospel of the kingdom in the first century. The same kingdom outpouring continued in the disciples after Pentecost as the Spirit of Christ continued to preach and demonstrate the same gospel of the kingdom by the Holy Spirit.
Kingdom revival is more than a return to first century power and total devotion. It is, in a sense, a revival of the works of the first century, but it is more. Kingdom revival is the extreme expression of the kingdom of heaven come to earth, causing a worldwide transformation from the kingdoms of man to the eventual reality of the fullness of Christ preeminent as all and in all.
Col 1:18-20: “And He is the head of the body, the church, Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
All authority on earth will be restored to Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus, the preeminent One, must reign on earth until He puts an end to all rule and all authority and all power.
The mission of the people of God is to carry the authority of Christ into the entire world, bringing all nations and all things unto the headship of Christ Jesus.
There must remain no mixture of "self" competing with the life of Christ within the sons of God. The first order of cleansing is the purification of the sons of God. As the Holy Spirit floods us with the abundance of life and light of Christ, self is dissolved. Christ working in and with the purified holy sons of God will bring the authority of Christ to the world. The sons of God speak with all authority as the preeminent Christ, Who has all authority in heaven and earth, lives and speaks by the Holy Spirit through them.
Mat 28:18-20: “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’Amen.”
1 Cor 15:24: “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.”
1 Cor 15:25: “For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.”
Titus 2:15: “Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.”
The end result is that Christ Jesus, working in and with the sons of God, will deliver the kingdom to God the Father and all the kingdoms of earth will have become the kingdoms of our God.
Mat 24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Rev 12:10-11: “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.’”
Rev 11:15: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’"
Brothers and sisters, we have entered a most glorious season of extreme worldwide change. We are fully assured of the goal and the reality of the irresistible kingdom of God coming forth on earth. We also are now recognizing that God is not bringing forth His kingdom without the participation of purified holy people of God in whom the King can fully dwell and manifest His great glory. Many are also beginning to see that what we thought was acceptable to God in the past will not get us to how we must live in the kingdom. The religious and worldly ways mixed with our devotion to God will not suffice in the kingdom age.
Now, also be aware that there are apocalyptic, cataclysmic events, according to the book of Revelation, that will occur between now and the final victory as the cleansing fire and shaking from God destroys evil works. Men’s hearts will fail as the grace and love of God prepares the way for the full expression of the preeminent Christ in His glorious kingdom. There shall in no wise anything remain which, exalts itself above the knowledge of God. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad in your trials and persecution for the Spirit of glory rests upon you. God can protect and keep His purified holy people from the fire or through the fire. Amen
For more detail word on the gospel of the kingdom, I heartily recommend the well received Kingdom Growth Guides available for free download.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 10/17/2008 at 8:16pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Fruitless Prayers
By Ron McGatlin
Many nations of the world continue to scramble to shore up their melting economies. Major decisions are being made quickly that would have been unthinkable only a few months ago. The future cost and effects of decisions being hastily made will be immense and will alter the worldwide seats of power. This is all being done in an attempt to maintain the existing pleasurable lifestyle and social order.
Prayer for the nations to continue in the economic prosperity and strength of the past are fruitless prayers. The nations for the most part have abandoned the way of peace, freedom, and real prosperity. They have removed themselves from the full blessings of God. The foundation of truth that produces freedom has been lost and replaced with a foundation of lust for pleasure. For the majority of the people in these nations, self indulgence, independence, riches, entertainment, and other fallen-world pleasures are more important than God. Pleasure seeking or self-gratification in many forms is more important than knowing God and walking in His ways of truly abundant life.
It is unreasonable and borders on insanity to pray for God to continue to bless an unrepentant nation that has turned its back on God and gone after the gods of self and pleasure. God knows that the blessings He gives will be consumed in prideful self-pleasure and not used according to His plans and purposes. It is spiritual adultery to know God and pray to Him while running after other gods for our pleasure and fulfillment.
God will not answer such prayer.
James 4:3-5: You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"?
Asking amiss means asking out of order or wrongly. For the most part the nations of the world do not know that their friendship with fallen-world ways has made them enemies of God. Especially Christians are at a loss to understand that their friendship with fallen-world ways has put them at enmity with God.
Yes, we can and should pray personally and God will hear the prayer of His humble people and meet their needs and godly desires. It is praying blessing for the prideful unrepentant nations we are talking about here. A praying remnant can turn a nation but without turning (repentance) the prayers for national blessing are amiss.
God has not changed. He still resists the proud. Pride makes this statement: “God, I know a better way than Your way. You say avoid fornication, but I say it is fun and natural. You say a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, but I say I will cleave to many women or men for a short season as I choose. You say give when asked, go the extra mile, and it’s more blessed to give than receive; but I say it is really better to do only what I must to get what I want and then keep it for my own needs and desires. You say a lot of things that seem dumb to me, for I know other ways that seem much better and more. Besides the preacher says Jesus paid for it all, so I will be ok in the end anyway. Oh yea, God bless America and I almost forgot, please send revival.”
Luke 12:16-21: Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?' So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry."' "But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
We have become as nations of rich fools.
Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. (Prov 23:5)
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6)
It is time to humble ourselves – time to stop resisting God and submit to Him and His way.
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
It is time to resist the devil - resist greed and our self-focused, pleasure-seeking lifestyles.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)
It is time to sincerely draw near to God, clean up our lives, and purify our hearts.
It is time to abandon our spiritual adultery, dump our other gods, leave the broad way that leads to destruction, and move on to the straight and narrow way that leads to life. God’s grace can return to us and empower us to conquer all of our enemies if we will humble ourselves and repent.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. (James 4:10)
FRUITFUL PRAYER
Our sincere prayers of repentance will not be fruitless prayer. Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, and our old ways of the past are dissolving before our eyes. Humbling ourselves in His presence is a step toward our being lifted again into new realms of purity, holiness, and glory of God. This can be the worst or the best times of our lives and perhaps one of the worst and best times of the history of mankind.
The holy remnant seed is among us.
The holy remnant seed are those in whom Christ Jesus dwells without hindrance – those who no longer live their own life but Christ lives His life in their bodies, souls, and spirits. Such is the temple of God on earth in whom He abides in full rest. The holy seed of the kingdom of heaven has the potential to grow to fill the earth. The holy remnant has the power and authority of the highest form of ministry. Because they sit and sup at the table of the LORD and commune with Him face-to-face, they have the opportunity to carry to Him the needs and situations of the people and the nations of the world. As they ask and wait before the LORD, they are in position to receive the response of the LORD. His wisdom, His knowledge, and His power are all available to be brought back to the world and delivered to the people and the nations.
The most powerful prayer ministry involves clearly hearing the voice of the LORD on a specific matter and bringing what He says into the world through prayer and proclamation. We speak as the oracles of God when we speak into the world what the LORD has spoken to us in intimate communion.
A New Mindset for A New Era
Kingdom principles are not complicated. They are simple but extremely profound. The economic woes and all of the other severe situations affecting nations come to rest upon one major kingdom of heaven principle: mankind is a dual being. We were created spiritual or heavenly on one side and natural or earthly on the other side. Human beings are the only beings on earth created to function in the spiritual or heavenly and in the natural or earthly realm. In the original creation the spiritual ruled from heaven and flowed through man to the natural earth. The fall of man lost the spiritual rule and elevated the natural or earthly to rule. Redemption in Christ has restored the potential for the spiritual from heaven to again rule. However, individuals must decide to walk in the heavenly rule or continue the earthly rule.
Very simply the earthly or natural rule leads to disorder and hard living such as the severe trouble the nations are witnessing in this season. The spiritual rule from heaven leads to life and peace. The earthly rule leads to a lifetime of death and strife. Most of the world is choosing the earthly rule instead of the heavenly rule and that is the source of all disorder including the crisis faced by our nations today. Even most Christians are choosing to relate to the earthly natural rule in their lives.
How can we move from earthly to heavenly rule in our lives and our nations?
Simply by changing our mindset, we can change our lives and the world around us. We can become a part of the holy remnant spreading the change to others who will carry it to others. The earthly natural rule comes by focusing on our natural mind, which leads to all the self-seeking attitudes mentioned earlier. Natural earthly rule is simply setting our desire or affection on the things of this fallen world. It is natural thinking void of the Spirit on the earthly needs and desires of self. Our mind becomes set on what we seek. The spiritual heavenly rule comes from focusing upon and seeking spiritual heavenly things. The Holy Spirit becomes engaged in this process and we are caught up into the Spirit to commune with God. It is simply which we seek and set our minds upon. Godly life and wisdom flow through the Holy Spirit of God.
James 3:14-17: But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
When we are alive in natural earthly things, we are as dead to things of the Spirit. When we are alive in spiritual heavenly things, we are as dead to things of this fallen world.
Col 3:1-3: If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Rom 8:6-8: For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
This work is carried out in the Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that we know and experience the things of God. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. God reveals Himself and His ways through His Holy Spirit.
1 Cor 2:10-14: But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Battling the symptoms aggressively with all the earthly wisdom we can muster and praying with desperation for God to bless our mess is futile.
Lifting our eyes upward to the heavenly realm and seeking the things of the SPIRIT of God will transform our lives. We will no longer find life in natural earthly things, but life will flow from the Spirit filling us with the character and nature of the life of Christ Jesus. Seeking wisdom from above will fill us with life and peace.
Mat 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 11/03/2008 at 6:18am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Awakening Courage
By Ron McGatlin
People of God, it is not time to draw back nor to be downcast. We are entering the most victorious season of earth—the season in which the wrath of God’s love will cleanse the earth and the season when the mercy and grace of God’s love will cause the righteous, mature sons to shine forth as the sun.
“We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21).
“Be Strong and Very Courageous” in Christ (Josh 1:7)
There is an awakening of faith and courage that will release humble, glowing power of Christ in His people – an awesome release of Christ’s explosive power and love within multitudes of humble ordinary people who are called nobodies in the world.
This is the time of the resurrected life of Christ in His Body on earth. Spiritual preparation that has been going on for years can be completed in an instant. Truly we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We are more than conquerors in Him. All things are now possible to those who believe. In Him we have power over all the power of the enemy.
Here is what Jesus said about the times we are entering.
Mat 13:40-43: "Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
The Ekklesia may be developing in the wilderness and may for a season be underground while the Son of Man sends out His angels to cleanse the kingdom of offense and lawlessness. Abiding in Christ and Christ in us, we will through Him reign in life. The righteous will shine forth in the kingdom.
Our greatest need as the called out ones of God is faith to believe who we are in Him and who He is in us. The Holy Spirit must reveal the powerful truth of the grace, strength, power. and love of Christ into our hearts. The written word must be opened to us by the Holy Spirit and become substance in us so that faith awakens to form the mature stature of Christ in us.
Father, we come to your throne of mercy and grace. We receive your mercy and grace and receive courage to ask of you this most desperate request. In the name of Jesus, we ask that Your Holy Spirit flood our hearts and minds – that our spirits be engulfed in Your Spirit overpowering our intellect and mentality to fill every thought with the pure life of Christ. We ask that the Holy Spirit lift the lid and remove the cover from the written word that it will become life in us changing us from mortal existence to immortal spiritual abundant life of Christ Jesus.
Father we ask that the veils be lifted from our spiritual eyes and the ears of our hearts be opened to receive truth and life. Father, we ask for a spiritual outpouring of living truth from Your written word. Quicken us to hear the extreme and powerful reality of ruling and reigning in Your kingdom with and through Christ now in this life. Amen.
Below are a few scriptures that speak of who we are in Christ if we believe. Let’s read them slowly pausing to hear each verse and continue to ask God to make them life and to birth great faith in us.
Romans 5:17b: those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:37: Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through HimWho loves us.
Genesis 1:28: Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion”
Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.
Colossians 1:9b-10a: being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might according to His glorious
power...
Ephesians 1:22-23: And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills
all in all.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
1John 3:8b: For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Colossians 2:15: Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them in it.
Ephesians 1:19, 3:20b, 6:10: and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, — according to the power that works in us, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the
Lord and in the power of His might.
Philippians 2:10: ... that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow...
Colossians 2:9-10: For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, Who is the head of all principality and power.”
Hebrews 4:12a: For the word of God is living and powerful...
Luke 10:19a: Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy...
2 Corinthians 2:14a: Now thanks be to God Who always leads us in triumph in Christ...
Isaiah 55:11: So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Hebrews 4:16: Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Mark 16:17a: And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons...
Here are a few observations from the word to consider:
What I bind on earth is bound from heaven, and what I loose on earth is loosed from heaven (Matthew 16:19, 18:18).
If any two agree on earth, they will have what they ask (Matthew 18:19).
If I believe in my heart when I pray and doubt not, I shall have what I say (Mark 11:24).
All things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23).
If I abide in Him, I ask what I will, and it shall be done (John 15:7).
I receive the finished work of the cross, proclaim liberty and freedom, and speak peace.
God, help me to realize my potential and to be who I am in Christ. Amen.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 11/03/2008 at 6:21am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The Narrow Gate To Abundant Life
By Ron McGatlin
A few days ago my friend Ken Tolliver and I were discussing this basic principle as it applies to individuals especially elders in the kingdom. Because it is a universal principle it also applies to nations, tribes and governments.
CROSS BEFORE RESURRECTION
In the light of the kingdom, God is revealing a far greater reality of this principle than we recognized in the passing church emphasis age. The passageway to the abundant life of freedom and glory is through a very narrow gate called the death of the cross.
Mat 7:13-14: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Consider this. Only that which is alive can experience death. Only those who have passed through death of the cross can be resurrected to greater life. There are two levels of death on the cross. The first level is the cross of Christ. As believers we were first made alive in coming to the cross of Christ. Identified in the cross of Christ our spirits are made alive and the process of sanctification begins as we work with God who works in us to will and to do His good pleasure in this present life. This is the second level of death on the cross. This is where our own death by crucifixion appears. We become followers of Christ and take up our own cross and die daily during the process of our own death by the cross.
Mat 16:24-25: Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
Death-by-cross is a special kind of death. Jesus was not being judged when He died on the cross. It was sin that was judged at the cross of Christ. Likewise when we take up our cross and follow him in our own death by crucifixion we are not being judged. Our sin was already taken care of in Christ’s death on the cross.
Then why must we endure our own death on the cross in this life? Glad you asked.
Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him of resurrection life seated at the right hand of God. The death of Jesus on the cross purchased for Him the far heavier weight of glory of RESURRECTION LIFE which, He can now impart within His people by the Holy Spirit. Jesus has fully become the way the truth and the life. He is the resurrection life that will indwell all who are prepared by their own cross. Our death by cross is the progressive annihilation of our old life. Our self life must be crucified to make room for the resurrected life of Christ to indwell us replacing our old life with His resurrection life.
The Narrow Gate and Difficult Way of Our Personal Death by Crucifixion
When we first receive the work of the cross of Christ and give our lives to Jesus, we experience our spirits being made alive and are much like a baby. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise and most of us can remember experiencing a season of love, mercy and grace as we were nurtured by the Spirit and fed with the milk of His word. After some time our life became like we were moving into a narrowing funnel. Much of the things that were part of our lives fell away. The strengths and values of our past lives crumbled and died. As people and things were leaving us we had to let our past life go. Piece by piece over a period of time we became less as our path of life narrowed and became more difficult.
Life can seem a never ending battle as we desire to follow Christ but try to hang on to some of the good things of our old life. The road continues to narrow until in one final devastating episode we pass through the narrow gate of death and the last threads of our old self-life are crucified. This is our personal death by the cross - the crucifixion of our self-focused independent life. Then and only then are we ready to fully receive the resurrection life of Christ flowing in and through us to the glory of God.
The resurrected life is a life of rest in Him. There is no more personal strife against sin and self. We are free to be who God designed us to be. We are no longer up and down like a roller coaster and no more round and round like a merry go round. We live in a very wide place with Him. We no longer fear man or the devil. We are free to love everyone including our enemies. We hear His voice and speak His truth. We no longer seek to please man or gain wealth and position. Whether we have much or little we have all things and can do all things through Christ Jesus. We walk in the Spirit and live in intimacy with God. However, we are never rightly understood by natural worldly or religious people.
Transformation through the Narrow Gate
We were once in a broad place of sin, self and darkness where we thought we were free and could do anything we were big enough to do and were not greatly concerned how our actions affected others. But at some point light came and we turned toward the light, met Jesus and began a journey toward the greater light of God’s real kingdom. Our journey led into many circumstances that seemed beyond our control. We continually had to lay down more and more to get through the narrow places. Finally, when we thought we were totally ruined and had nothing left we came through the tiny orifice of the narrow gate. Suddenly we stood on the other side face to face with the Lord in a wide space of light, love and glory. We had really entered into the real kingdom of God as grown sons living in glorious freedom.
Most Christians are yet somewhere in this process. Many leaders, those who should be elders are yet in some part of this process. Many who are not yet completely through the narrow gate do not believe that this total freedom is possible in this life. They have been taught that they would always have to struggle with their old self-life and fleshly desires. They were taught by teachers who have themselves not yet made it through the narrow gate. Religion is no help with this and for the most part is a stumbling block to those seeking the real kingdom.
Praise God there is a remnant generation of people growing up in the wilderness who are coming to the truth and are moving through the narrow gate into freedom in God. Our handcuffs and leg chains come off as we pass through the narrow gate of death by crucifixion. We need never again face the death of crucifixion once we are fully through the narrow gate. We will never turn back once we are all the way through. Finally we can stop turning back to repentance from dead works and go on with God to the work of bringing forth kingdom disciples to be a part of setting free the groaning creation in bondage.
Heb 6:1: Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
Heb 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
The cross is not the goal it is the gate. The cross is not the end it is the beginning of abundant life.
The cross is death. Resurrection is life. There can be no resurrection life until after there is death.
Death at the cross is passing. Resurrection life is forever.
Once the cross is fully experienced the work of sin and death is finished and resurrection life of pure holiness comes to abide forever.
As it is for individuals so it is for nations.
America and the nations of the world have been in the broad place of darkness and are now being drawn into the narrowing funnel toward the narrow gate of death by crucifixion that will do away with arrogance, pride, independence, immorality, greed and lust. This is a national opportunity to receive the work of the cross of Christ and begin to bare our national death by cross that leads to resurrection life in the kingdom of God.
Mat 4:17: …. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Heb 12:2: looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 11/06/2008 at 8:06pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Gathering in The Wilderness
By Ron McGatlin
The Holy Spirit is drawing His people who are scattered in the wilderness to connect into holy remnant relationships. These are more than fellowship groups and more than Bible study groups or even prayer groups. These are spiritual blood-related families. They are all of one Father and carry His spiritual DNA. Blood brothers and sister of Jesus are coming together in the wilderness in gatherings ranging from two people on up to twenty or thirty. Not so much coming out of the wilderness but connecting in the wilderness and together entering into the real kingdom of heaven on earth. Never again to return to religious systems, man-made traditions and organizations. These are those who spiritually drink the blood and eat the flesh of Jesus – those who partake of Christ and become one flesh with Him – bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. These are NOT those who may have even prophesied and done miracles in his name but in the end hear Jesus say, ‘depart from me I never knew you’.
These statements and the following scriptures are about more than going to heaven. We are currently transitioning into the kingdom age in this season of history on earth and the shifts are major and occurring rapidly. The statements and scriptures presented here are about personally and collectively entering the kingdom of God - the spiritual kingdom of heaven on earth. Not all who are known as Christians are entering the spiritual kingdom of heaven on earth. Not all who trust in their one time prayer of salvation, their church relationship and their religious works will enter. Some who think they will be first will be last.
Mat 7:20-23: "Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'”
Luke 13:27-30: "But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.' There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last."
Many disciples cannot hear the word about drinking the blood and eating the flesh of Jesus because this is a spiritual word and can only be spiritually discerned. The SPIRIT is the difference between those whom Jesus knows and those who only know about Him. Those who hear and perceive by the natural mind and not the Spirit are not known by Him and do not truly know Him intimately. They are always learning and never coming to the truth (2 Tim 3:7).
John 6:53-58: Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."
Eph 5:30-32: For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Bone of His Bones and Flesh of His Flesh
In Ephesians 5, Paul is teaching regarding the husband and wife becoming one flesh. He said this is a great mystery regarding Jesus and His people. The mysterious spiritual process of the Bride people becoming one flesh with Jesus is pictured in marriage and in the original provision of Adam’s mate. This is a spiritual work and not just a learning experience. All the books and knowledge in the world cannot make us “bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.” Eve was made from the flesh and bone taken out of Adam. In a similar mysterious way, the Bride of Christ is taken out of Christ Jesus.
Gen 2:22-23: Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."
Becoming Perfected In This Life
In John 17, Jesus made it clear that this is the way to being made perfect. Yes, perfect (meaning mature, complete, finished, consummate, consecrate) in the reality of truly being one with Christ. Then the world can know that Jesus is sent from God and that God loves them. NO MORE hypocrisy in the people of God – no more iniquity and lawlessness in God’s people. Praise God for the perfecting of the saints in the wilderness away from all the past duplicity and mixture of “churchianity” and ways of the fallen world.
John 17:21-23: "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
Don’t waste your wilderness pain and aloneness.
As the world continues to move away from God and toward trusting in worldly kings who feed their lustful flesh and depravity, we who trust in the true King of Glory can no longer fit in with those who are causing the cleansing fire of judgment to come. People of God continue to be led out into the wilderness. In the wilderness they often feel pain from the loss of associations and connections they once had. To mourn the past and attempt to rebuild the same thing in our wilderness will not be a profitable experience.
This is the God-given opportunity to fill our lives with Christ Jesus. Allow the emptiness of social loss in our hearts and lives to become completely filled with the love, joy, and peace of the indwelling Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit. This is our time of purification and cleansing from the infection of the sickness of fallen world ways and religion. This is the glorious opportunity to be completely cleansed of our old independent activity of gathering and building with the mixed motivation of self-serving and God-serving. Self-serving and God-serving at the same time is spiritual adultery. Through our wilderness experience we are becoming a renewed chaste virgin cleansed and renewed from our past spiritual adultery. The loss of all our neediness and pride is the road to the fullness of God living His resurrected life within us and flowing out from us to the people around us.
The pure in heart shall see God.
Mat 5:8: Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
We have spent most of our past church life listening and learning about God and most of our life in the world of work and business learning about self-improvement and self-fulfillment by gaining money and position. However, in the wilderness there is opportunity to focus on knowing and experiencing God in the Spirit one on one. By seeking Him with our whole heart and worshiping Him in Spirit and truth, we can become purified and see God and life in a whole new way. Seeking to be filled with the Spirit of God will cause us to hear His voice instead of the many busy voices of the past. God will not fill a dirty vessel, therefore a process of emptying and being cleansed by the renewing of the mind will take place. We see God for Who He really is and not that which we have conjured up in our own imaginations or received from other men’s religious ideas about God.
How we see God changes everything. Knowing and being known of Him lifts us from natural mindedness to spiritual life. We are lifted to a whole new place above the selfish pride and striving efforts of building ourselves into mighty people. The battle to make a living and save our lives is over. Our lives are forever lost in the wilderness when we see God as He is and receive His life flowing through us. Truly, only those who lose their life shall find it.
Mat 10:39: "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 11/20/2008 at 7:08pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Moving Closer
By Ron McGatlin
The nations of the world are in desperate need of major value adjustments.
Because God is a loving God and desires all men to be changed (saved) from their fallen ways, He is faithful to provide circumstances favorable for major value adjustments to be made toward His heavenly values. Considering the present godless condition of most of mankind including many who call themselves Christian, we can anticipate His intervention. Increasingly difficult times is one pressure that can foster an atmosphere conducive to major value shifts in people and nations.
Difficult times of corrective and cleansing judgments coupled with the lifting up of a holy and pure standard of Holy Spirit led and empowered people can bring many to God and alignment with His values. As more difficult times approach, there needs to be a prepared godly people in position to minister truth. God is preparing holy, pure-hearted people who will walk in the Spirit and are filled with the love, power, and wisdom of God. We are in the time of the final preparation of these holy sons of God to carry out this vital task of gathering a great harvest of maturing saints with renewed kingdom of heaven values.
There is a limited amount of time remaining to be prepared for the increasingly difficult times of cleansing judgments. The judgments are not God’s plan. They are generated by the sowing and reaping effect of nations turning away from God and His holy way to the foolishness of disrespecting the God who created them. Those who truly love God and seek Him and His ways to guide their lives by the Holy Spirit should now be considering how to be prepared for the duration of this season of intense change and opportunity.
Move Closer to God
The first order of preparation is to move even closer in intimate relationship with God. Do whatever needs doing to make your life fully available to God. Allow the Holy Spirit to fully renew Christ in your heart and make you into a spiritual person, one who lives in the spiritual realm. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Resist the devil and the things of self-life. Abide in the secret place with the most high and allow no place for worry, doubt, fear, or concern for the things of this life. "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).”
Become untangled with religion, doctrinal debates, political debates, and the values of this present world. Emerge from the troubled waters of this life and be baptized into the still, clear, fresh waters of the Holy Spirit. Be totally submerged into the realm of the Spirit. Be baptized into the Holy Spirit and rivers of living water shall spring forth from your hearts and lives.
John 7:38: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
God is Spirit. We must come to God in the Spirit. We can only relate to God who is Spirit by the Spirit and in truth. Religious and political doctrines and views are not the truth. They may contain some concepts of truth, but they are also opinions and understandings of man. Truth is Christ Jesus and all that emanates from God Who is Spirit.
John 14:6: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Truth can only be known by the Holy Spirit. All things of God can be revealed by the Holy Spirit as God chooses to uncover them to us. There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed by the Spirit of God. All that we have of Christ Jesus in this life comes to us by the Spirit. Christ lives in us by the Spirit. Being submerged (baptized) in the Holy Spirit is vital in being prepared for the time we are entering.
John 4:24: "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Move Closer to God’s Family Connections
As it becomes increasingly less and less popular to be known as a Christian in nation after nation, it becomes more valuable to closely relate to at least a few other God-family members. The Holy Spirit can locate and connect us with some other kingdom seekers who are individually losing their self-life and gaining the life of Christ within – those that are of the same spiritual DNA from the same Father.
We are not speaking of starting another human network or going back into church systems, but rather of being led of the Holy Spirit to unite in bonds of love with God-family brothers and sisters. We are simply speaking of finding family and coming together in unity seeking first the kingdom of God. This becomes increasingly more important as resentment toward Christians turns into persecution.
Unity will come by the Holy Spirit not by religion, natural family, intellectual pursuits, or natural efforts but “by My Spirit says the Lord”. The close family members will hear and obey God by the Spirit and have confirmation for clarification together.
It will not be necessary or profitable to share deep spiritual things randomly with others outside the family unless directed by the Holy Spirit. There will be and already is increasing amounts of deception and deceit among some who call themselves Christian but are affected by a different spirit. It is important to be wary of and avoid debaters and deceivers who cause stressful relationships. You will not have spiritual unity with all people but with those of the same spiritual DNA, there will be powerful unity, love, and support. Again, do not closely relate to those who through debate, deception, and deceit cause stress. As the times progress they will become a threat to you and your God-family connections.
You can trust what you hear from the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit of Truth. All else may be fabrications created by lying spirits speaking through those pretending to be brothers and sisters. As you walk and live in the Spirit, you will know who is of the Spirit and who is deceived and of another spirit. Usually those who deceive are already deceived themselves by spirits working with an anti-Christ spirit. We must know and trust the inner voice of the Holy Spirit.
John 14:16-17: "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
John 16:13-14: "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”
1 John 4:6: We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
If you know Jesus and He knows you, you will know His voice as the Spirit speaks within. If you know you hear Him by the Spirit, and others do not hear you, they are NOT of the Spirit of truth but are of the spirit of error which is deception and causes debate and strife. If they do hear you, they are of the Spirit of truth. However, none of that works for you if you do not know for certain the voice of the Lord and whether you are hearing Him or some other voice. We must move closer to Him before we can move closer to our God-family connections.
Zec 4:6: ….Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts.
We are now in a race against time to be prepared in the remaining short season of opportunity. Do not be deceived by the short season of “fair weather”; the storms are ahead.
We must lay aside every weight to run the spiritual race we are entering into in this season. When we must “run with the horsemen” it will not be good to be spiritually lame.
Isa 40:30-31: Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
In the Spirit we can be raised up as eagles and soar above the difficulties and devastation of natural life. This is not a time of fear but a time for the prepared sons to manifest the glory of God and reap a great harvest of people turning from their fallen ways to the reality of the love, power, and wisdom of God. Righteousness shall prevail. The light of the kingdom shall shine forth in your hearts, and nothing shall come near your dwelling in the Most High living and walking in the Spirit of God in eternal glory.
Psa 91:7-11: A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.
Rev 11:15 …. "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 11/20/2008 at 7:10pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Organic Organization
By Ron McGatlin
Much is being said and written today regarding the major shifting and change that is occurring in church organizations, systems, and structure. For almost two millennia the function of apostle has been considered non-existent. In recent centuries, the term apostle and apostolic has been considered archaic and of little or no significance except in referring to the first century Apostles of the Lamb.
In the first part of the twentieth century, the works of the Holy Spirit that originally came forth two thousand years ago at Pentecost were restored and began to transform much of the church. In the later part of the twentieth century, the Holy Spirit began to reveal the reality of the gospel of the kingdom. The revelation of the kingdom of God coming forth on earth within God’s people by the Holy Spirit forming the life of Christ Jesus in believers led to the beginning of the restoration of the functioning apostle and apostolic ministry.
Absolutely none of the restoration of the works of the Holy Spirit or the revelation of the gospel of the kingdom has been engineered by man. This has been and continues to be the work of God through the Holy Spirit. Yes, the works of the Spirit of God are often attacked, mimicked, and merchandised by the manipulation of foolish men, but the restoration of the works of the Spirit, including the revelation of the gospel of the kingdom, is purely a work of the Spirit and not of the minds of men.
The passing church systems and organizational structures were developed by the works of men without the full work of the Holy Spirit. They were the engineering of men not the creation of God through His Spirit. Yes, God has worked as much as possible through these man-made systems because of the multitudes of people who have sought to serve God faithfully within the systems.
The restoration of apostles and apostolic function must flow purely from Christ Jesus the Great Apostle through the Spirit of God: the government of the ekklesia and eventually the world is Christ Jesus who is the only Head of the ekklesia. Apostles do not represent Christ and do not receive special delegated authority from Christ. They are filled with Christ by the Holy Spirit, and Christ in them flows to do the work they are given to do. Christ lives in all people who are filled with the Sprit of God – those who are submerged into the Holy Spirit of God and are no longer living their own life but the life they live is Christ.
This stuff is real, or it is not real. And if it is not real, we are sadly misled in seeking to follow great error from the Bible.
The government of God by the Spirit of Christ in the people
Ekklesia is the Greek word translated church in the New Testament. It does not have exactly the same meaning as the English word ecclesia or ecclesiastic or ecclesiastical which are words pertaining to the religious order and clergy or clerical systems of the man-made church order. Ekklesia, ek-klay-see'-ah basically means a called-out gathering.
The foundational fathering quality of the gift of apostle is from Christ within by the Spirit. The speaking of spiritual truth, the gift of prophet is from Christ within by the Spirit. The gathering gift of the evangelist is from Christ within by the Spirit. The shepherd gift of the pastor and the instructional gift of the teacher are from Christ within by the Spirit. These gifts are all of Christ and flow by the Holy Spirit to build up the people to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
These gifted men are often mistakenly seen as offices of authority and control. This is a carryover of the priestly clerical order from the passing man-made church systems. This erroneous concept should not be mixed in or reproduced in the kingdom of God on earth from heaven.
I know some of this may be very difficult for many reading this to consider; real change is rarely easy. But consider carefully by the Spirit and the word, the works of Christ in His people by the Holy Spirit of God.
For understanding purposes we need to separate the gift and the man. These gifts are not forever, but God’s people are forever. The gifts are what they are from beginning to end. However, people begin in immaturity and grow into maturity. While the person is yet immature the gifts may be restrained by the Spirit and more fully released as the person is matured in the Spirit. Spiritual maturity can be boiled down to the practical reality of the death of the old self-life and the life of Christ Jesus abiding in its place. It is Christ fully living within by the Holy Spirit of God.
A biblical word for a mature person is elder. The spiritually mature are elders. Elders are leaders of the younger or less mature. Elders may or may not be gifted as apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, or teacher. They are not over a group or gathering but are among a group or gathering. Elders (the spiritually mature) are leaders. The gifts are not leaders, they are tools given to elders (leaders). Elders with gifts are not set above others. All are of Christ Jesus and are as vessels emptied of self-life and filled with the life of Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit of God. Elders are respected by “youngers” who are led by the Spirit to readily submit to the leadership of Christ Jesus in their elder brothers as they mature thereby.
God’s natural created order
None of this is structured by man. If our minds begin to envision levels or offices of organizational structure, we are thinking in the old mindset of man-made church. This whole thing is led by Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit and develops in a spiritual pattern unique to each group, city, or geographic location.
Everything of God’s creation has a natural or created order. That order is what makes it to be what it is. God uses the same basic elements to form many different things. It is the spiritual order or God’s design that produces the many distinct created things that we call natural. The word “organic” by recent usage has come to indicate that something is of God’s natural designed order and not re-ordered or genetically engineered by man.
God’s organic creation does not make exact duplicate reproductions. The leaves on a species of tree all look the same at a casual look. But upon close examination no two leaves are exactly the same. I am told that no two snow flakes have been found to be exactly the same when viewed through a microscope. All human beings have similar characteristics: two eyes, two ears, one mouth, one nose, and so on. Yet no two people are exactly the same; even identical twins will have some unique distinctions. It is man’s idea to make religious cookie cutter engineered machinery and products instead of God’s organic ekklesia.
Holy Spirit guidance and networking
In this moment of time we have the greatest technical networking tools ever available to any people on earth in all history. The internet and the cell phone allow us to connect instantly worldwide. If we are truly led of the Spirit, we have instant spiritual/natural networking. Did God design these things for the building up of the kingdom of God? Instantly and inexpensively the voice of God can be amplified across the world in seconds, if we speak with the voice of God by the Spirit. Yet, if we are not fully led of the Spirit, it is only natural human connecting.
Consider the apostolic networking and guidance of the Holy Sprit when Peter was in Joppa in a spiritual trance and saw a vision and heard a voice and was given instruction. Instantly men were at the gate and asked him to come with them. He already knew from the Holy Spirit speaking to him to go with them. Cornelius who was not yet able to hear from the Spirit had an angel appear to him and tell him to send for Peter to hear from Him. This is spiritual natural networking and guidance. The Spirit spoke on both ends and the natural people went to Peter; and the connection was made and the work accomplished. (Acts 10:10-23)
Consider how Paul and Timothy were guided by the Holy Spirit through their journey.
Acts 16:6-10: Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
The New Testament if full of examples of the apostles being led by the Holy Spirit and interacting together in the Spirit. They often received correction and direction on the spot while moving in the apostolic works flowing through them.
This is how apostolic networks come together and how they must function: always fully led by the Spirit whether there is an available internet or cell phone or air planes or not. Networking and connections must be by the Holy Spirit and subject to intervention and redirection of God by the Holy Spirit at any moment.
Edited by Ron McGatlin on 11/20/2008 at 7:10pm
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 11/29/2008 at 5:16am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Thriving in a Difficult Season of Change
By Ron McGatlin
Is it really possible to not only endure but thrive through times of extreme personal and worldwide change? As world systems crumble and life-long situations are abruptly changing, how can it be possible to not be weighed down with concern?
It may depend largely on where we are connected. Let me explain. If our life is connected to the past and dependent on how things were, we will not continue to prosper when that to which we are connected crumbles or fades away. Lives that are connected to the natural world though the passing secular and religious systems will not thrive in the time of severe shaking.
Heb 12:26-28: Whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
History emphatically teaches us that all worldly kingdoms are temporal. Any man-made worldly system that we are connected to and dependent upon is subject to major changes and even disappearing. When that to which we are connected is failing, we will not thrive but languish.
Only the spiritual kingdom of God is forever and never fails. Connecting to the unchanging kingdom of God assures us the potential to thrive even while worldly kingdoms are failing.
Those who have severed their connections to secular and religious systems and are connected into the everlasting spiritual kingdom of God will thrive. The bright light of heaven will shine within them and from them. They will be a part of bringing intense spiritual awakenings to many people. The living presence of God in their lives will draw out and rescue many that are perishing without hope. Once translated into the kingdom they too can thrive as sons of God.
Many who have trusted in fallen-world systems will be without hope clinging to pieces of the crumbling old systems. Some will begin searching for real life – searching for a solid foundation in a fluid world. Many will then be given ears to hear the real gospel of the kingdom of heaven on earth. They will turn from their old ways and come to Jesus with their whole hearts to be set free by the powerful presence of God. The effects or results of their ungodly living that had been passed down to them from their forefather’s will be severed as they are adopted into a new heritage of their heavenly Father in the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Col 1:13: He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Gal 4:4-7: But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Rom 8:14-:15: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
Changing Our Connection
For some of us this may seem impossible or unreasonable. The past systems may have been good and served us well. Our connection to secular and religious systems has been our lifeline and the key to our thriving in the world as it existed at the time. Looking to a spiritual kingdom may seem nebulous and uncertain after abiding so long connected into worldly kingdoms. Walking and living in the Spirit may not seem as solid or as real as walking in the secular and religious past. Real faith is required to be fully translated from the kingdom of this world into the spiritual kingdom of God.
We are not talking about an abstract pseudo “faith” or fantasy coping concepts to fill our minds with unreal dreamy expectations. We are speaking of a victorious faith supernaturally empowered by the Spirit of the One for Whom and by Whom all things were created and continue to consist. Real faith is anchored in intimately knowing and being known of Christ Jesus as mature sons and heirs of God in Christ.
Everyone has faith in something. We have been trained to have faith in our abilities and in the systems of the fallen world. We have faith in higher education to make us more successful. The fallen world systems taught us to trust in money and accumulated wealth. You can know what kingdom you are connected in by how your time and effort is spent. Most people spend years getting an education to be able to have more money and what it can buy. However, they spend very little time in seeking spiritual truth. For most people seeking pleasure and entertainment far exceeds the time and effort spent in seeking the spiritual things of God and godly living.
To change our connection we must change what we are seeking in life. Sadly the secular world has taught us that spiritual matters were mostly irrelevant to practical life. While religion taught many that seeking spiritual things was for the primary purpose of securing heaven after death. Little consideration has been given to seeking spiritual matters for ordering this life. For most people secular or natural things have been the primary if not the only considerations for preparing for and living this life. Religious things were usually only added in as a small part of one’s life, if at all. The people of the world have connected fully into the secular/natural reality and for the most part ignored the far greater and more important spiritual reality of God and His kingdom.
This backward self-seeking life focus characterized by need, greed, lust, and pride is the cause of worldwide economic, ecological, and political failures. The failure of the secular and religious systems will cause many people to become desperate for a different way of life. The door will be wide open for many to seek new life in the kingdom of God.
Mat 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
I suspect the greatest spiritual awakening ever may be before us as the light of the real gospel of the kingdom flowing through the powerful presence of God penetrates the darkness of the hearts of men and intervenes in world affairs. A new genuineness will come to the people of God as persecution and difficult times expose the shallowness of life based on the past secular and religious systems.
The major purpose of spiritual awakenings and revivals is more than getting people born again and more than getting them into a church and more than teaching them the Bible. The real purpose of revival and spiritual awakening is the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Revival is to lead to kingdom living now in this life, developing pure holy mature sons of God to rule and reign with Christ. The end of this matter is the return of the kingdoms of this earth to the kingdoms of our God and Christ Jesus preeminent in all things.
Recognizing Kingdom Values
Kingdom values are usually the opposite of fallen-world secular values and different from religious church system values. Stated in brief and general terms some kingdom value changes are: faith instead of fear and worry, giving instead of taking, forgiving and blessing instead of resenting and retaliating, selflessness instead of selfishness, serving instead of being served, sense of always having enough instead of a sense of need, peace and joy instead of strife and depression, rest instead of unrest, focus on heaven's ways coming to earth instead of going to heaven some day, focus on spiritual reality instead of natural: in general, God-seeking instead of self-seeking and walking in the Spirit instead of the flesh or intellect.
These are just some values that will shift in people who are connected into the kingdom of God and freed of the systems of this fallen world. All of the attributes of God are potentially available through Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit to all mature sons of the kingdom of Christ.
Some Basic Lifestyle Changes
Family and extended family will grow more closely knit instead of widely scattered and individualistic. The kingdom family will be God-focused and led by the Holy Spirit. Family worship, prayer, and family interaction will replace television, video games, and other forms of empty entertainment. Community will develop among neighbors who trust and pray with one another. Community families will not just look out for themselves but will care for one another. Competition will be changed to cooperation.
Fathers will return to protecting and providing strength and encouragement for their children. Irresponsible and random bringing children into the world or worse disposing of unborn babies will stop. The kingdom norm will be one man and one woman working together with extended family and neighbors to raise godly children and protect them from the devastating wayward lifestyle that many of the past generation grew up with. Joy will be abundant within families walking with God that is not dependant on external situations or circumstances. Children’s hearts will be insulated from devastating stress by the loving presence of God. Adversity will be about, but the solid foundation of a loving family in God’s presence will keep us during the times of difficulty.
There is much more that will change, but these are some examples of thriving in a season of difficult changes.
Isa 26:3: You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
Col 3:2-3: Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Col 3:5-14: Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom that changes the world.
The short version is that the kingdom of God works by love – the pure holy love of God in His people through Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 12/12/2008 at 4:05am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Precious Days of Life
By Ron McGatlin
God has no bad plans for you. Every day is a day in which God loves you and me – a day to experience His love and commune with Him in the Spirit – a day to be overcome in His presence and melt into one with Him in fervent love – a day to sit at His feet and absorb the wisdom and peace of His words.
God is calling this day. Come my people come to me and rest in My love and provision. You who are lonely, you who are tired, you who are in need come to Me and find rest for your soul and peace in your life. I long for your undivided affection. I desire to infuse you with strength, wisdom, and all you need to be and do heavenly works.
Lord God, I pray, please, forgive me. I have done harm to You, myself, and others. How could I have been so foolish in busying myself in endeavors of vastly less value and not have been still in your presence feeling and sharing your life-giving love. The meaning of life is lost as it fades into shadows of darkness in the day in which I have not been with You. What should be simple tasks become difficult. I feel the pressures of life closing in and soon I allow thoughts of fear. My faith is weakened and my joy fades as my hope turns into doubt.
We must not neglect communing with God in the Spirit. The kingdom of God is in the Spirit. It is a spiritual kingdom that flows into our lives and out to the world.
Rom 14:17: for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Gal 5:25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
A kingdom people are arising – a people who live and walk in the Spirit – a people who commune with God daily and carry His attributes of love, wisdom, peace, and power wherever they go – a people without fear and who will not be deceived or led astray – a people holy and pure who love God above all else and seek His kingdom with their whole hearts.
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.
1 Cor 6:9-11: Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Cor 15:33-34: Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits." Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
Gal 6:7-10: Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
James 1:16-22: Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Rom 8:9: But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Rom 8:11: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Human Goodness Posing as Godliness
We are entering a season when many will be deceived by human goodness posing as godliness. True kingdom disciples live and walk in communion with God in the Spirit and will not be deceived. True righteousness from God is imparted into us as we commune with Him. His righteousness includes heavenly wisdom, love, peace, and power – the life and attributes of Christ.
The arising deception of human good is a marriage between the political and a new brand of spirituality based on man’s view of good without the Spirit of God. It will have a widespread appeal and acceptance. Many will come to believe that it is indeed the kingdom that God had in mind all along. It is the fruit of the tree of knowledge (human understanding) of good and evil. Human goodness is pleasant to the eyes, good food and desirable to make us worldly wise.
Gen 3:6: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Much of the world will have been torn and stressed by wars, natural disasters, and economic devastation and will be ready for extreme change toward a better life and will readily accept the good-sounding philosophies and changes of the new brand of political spirituality and its moral values based in human thinking enhanced by a different spirit.
The new political spirituality will have a focus on the well-being of the people and the planet more than empire building. The new spirituality will view God as a generic force for good that may have many names and forms among different people. Unity is attempted as all concepts and forms of God are accepted and seen as the same. Hope will be increased among many people. Peace will increase as a polarized world begins to lessen national or tribal identities and take on a more one-world identity. Economies will seek a common level of more equal distribution of resources. The new political/spiritual leaders will appear as saviors and deliverers to the masses of hurting people.
Eventually anything or anyone who walks in the Spirit and has a biblical view of God and morality will be seen as an evil elitist enemy of the new human-good system. The one thing that will always distinguish this system from God’s kingdom is that it will never give true recognition, honor, or worship to JESUS as the Son of God.
The political/spiritual human good is really “good and evil.” It is from the same old tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is man seeking to rule the world with good and evil by his own understanding apart from the Spirit of God. This new age goodness that has been with us for a long time will achieve great respect as it is joined with the political governments to attempt to unify the world under one system of “human-good” rule. This will produce a season of good times, but they will be reasonably short-lived and will usher in much of the biblical prophetic events written in the Book of Revelation.
The remnant of holy men and women who live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit of God will not be deceived. Most of the people of the western world, including the old church systems and many Christians, will be deceived by this very cunning work.
Mat 24:24: "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
At the same time all of this is going on, an army of mostly unseen kingdom-of-God people will become more purified and fully prepared to bring forth the reality of the true kingdom of God and His righteousness to rule and reign with Christ. The supernatural works of Christ Jesus flowing through the Holy Spirit will transform the true saints of this time into mighty men of God – mature sons of God moving upon the earth with supernatural works of God bringing healing and restoration to bring forth beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning.
Isa 61:3-4: To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.
Rom 8:19-22: For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
Luke 12:29-32: And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Thank you Jesus, Amen!
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 01/02/2009 at 3:08pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Kingdom Intervention
Ron McGatlin
After over 75 New Year experiences, for me, this year of 2009 that will seem to rapidly unfold before us is the most exciting in the Spirit that I have yet known. Reflecting back only for a moment on 2008, the one word that comes to my mind is “wow.” But 2008 was only the beginning. It was only the sprouting of the kingdom seed and the emerging of the small tree that will grow rapidly through 2009 and beyond - eventually producing the full fruit of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
This young tree is the pure, holy people of God who truly seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness above all else. They have lost their lives. They have endured great personal trials and severe storms that removed all their old ties to the wounds of the past, all their religious rocks, the cares of this life, and the deceitfulness of riches. They are now producing kingdom of heaven fruit that contains the seed of the kingdom within that is spreading rapidly like yeast in dough across the world. Many are partaking of the fruit and are being planted with the seed (the word of the kingdom, Mat 13:19).
The kingdoms that grew from the tree of knowledge of good and evil released by Adam have produced the fallen-world ways of life that have taken this world. These kingdoms are now in a great uproar and raging against the emerging reality of the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus that is rising up in holy people of God. Their evil conspiracies to rule the world are being exposed and laid bare by the witness of holy men and women walking in the Spirit that raised Christ Jesus in resurrection life and power.
The devil behind all this knows that his kingdoms are in grave danger as the powerful sons of the kingdom mature and multiply. Discipleship has taken on a far greater perspective than past definitions. The powerful Holy Spirit impartation of resurrection life of Christ Jesus has no equal in the world. In the end the great victory of God over evil in the hearts of men will leave no place for the devil and his evil ways of deception in this world. Love and righteousness shall prevail over evil.
Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? (Psalm 2:1)
God is intervening spiritually upon and within His people in this time. The Lamb of God shall roar as the Lion of God arises and proclaims the glory of God from the permanent capital city of the spiritual kingdom of God on earth which is the New Jerusalem, the Bride people, the mature sons. God’s pure love will become vengeance to all who have oppressed His children and robbed the strength and hindered the nurturing sustenance of God from reaching the youth.
The Spirit-empowered voice of the maturing young lions of God shall be released from His Holy Mountain, spiritual Zion.
Joel 3:16: The LORD also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the LORD will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel.
Extreme Intensification of Spirit Intervention
Christ the Lamb shall become the Lion of God roaring forth, cleansing the world from its twisted ways. Exposure and devastation shall come to the rulers who have plotted vast conspiracies. Failure is inevitable for these who have taken the wealth of the world by cunning and with covert powerful manipulation have set themselves to rule the planet and rid the world of Christ Jesus the true King.
However, they shall themselves be destroyed along with all who remain with them. These who have made slaves and fugitives of God’s people and devoured them for their own pleasure will become as chaff and stubble before the cleansing fire of God flowing by God’s Spirit through the pure holy righteous children of God. The words of even a young child empowered by the Spirit of Almighty God shall release the power of heaven to bring down massive evil strongholds.
Can you imagine the foolishness of greedy evil men conspiring to remove God from His world? Yes, God will laugh in derision at the audacity of foolish men who hate Him and seek to do away with the God who made them and gave them life – the God who created all things and causes them to continue to consist – the God who loved them and gave His only Son for them – the God of all glory, power, and wisdom. What can be more foolish than denying and hating God and despising His Son Jesus?
The remnant army of pure and holy people of God who love God more than their own lives and who abide in Him and He in them shall not be moved by the threats of prideful men who hate God and His people. King Jesus reigns upon and within His holy mountain of Zion - spiritual New Jerusalem – the purified Bride – the holy sons of God on earth. For two thousand years God has waited and patiently worked preparing a people who will receive the fullness of Christ within by the Holy Spirit and make true disciples multitudes. God’s prepared people are arising in the Spirit of God. In the season ahead, the most extreme intervention of God is coming forth to return the kingdoms of this world to the kingdom of God.
Let these words of Psalm 2:1-12 come alive in your spirit. Meditate in the Spirit their reality in the light of the glory of Christ in you now in this season.
Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, "Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us."
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold them in derision.
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure:
"Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion."
"I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son; Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'"
Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
The power of Christ is being released through the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead to manifest the works of Christ into a world groaning because of adversity. Holy people, young and old, will experience surges of heavenly power and wisdom to do mighty exploits of redemption and to bring about the dissolution of wickedness.
Holy Boldness in the People of God
What we have been will not be what we are. How we have lived will not be how we will live. The limitations of unbelief and the hindrances of the cares of this life along with the deceptions of religion will be thrown off like a blanket upon awakening. Life and death will not exist together in the body. Life will come forth with such divine explosive power that death will flee. Glory is coming within God’s people in massive surges of love, power and wisdom from heaven. Like lightening from heaven the pure and holy remnant will be endued with pure power from the throne of God to speak with boldness words in the name of Jesus that will change the world.
As it was in the first century when intensive intervention was occurring so shall it be in this time.
Acts 4:18-31: And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.
And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: "Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: 'Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together Against the LORD and against His Christ.' For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.”
"Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus."
And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
Heavenly Father, Almighty God, we come boldly through the blood and in the name of Jesus, before your glorious throne of mercy and grace. We receive your mercy and grace.
We praise Your holy and hallowed name. In great humility we thank you that you have chosen us and provided all that we have needed.
Father, we come to join with our brothers and sisters of the first century as again your mighty intervention is upon us as it was upon them. We unite in asking you to fully grant to us that with all boldness we may speak Your word in power and demonstration as You stretch out Your hand to heal and that signs and wonders be done through the name of Your holy servant and Son Jesus. Let Your shaking come, fill us all with Your Holy Spirit as we speak Your word with great boldness.
We pray Your kingdom come and your will be done in our lives and into the entire world, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen
Isa 9:6-7: For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Moderator
Admin Group
Joined: 03/16/2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6133
|
|
Posted: 01/15/2009 at 8:24pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
God’s Spirit Authority
By Ron McGatlin
A New Value System
One of the major changes we will all experience at some level through this season of worldwide shifting is a new value system. Most of us reading this have probably already experienced changes in the order of things we consider most valuable. As we mature in personal relationship with our Lord, our natural values are shifting toward heavenly values. The progressively expanding rate of revelation of the kingdom of God will create such rapid major changes in how we see and value things that in comparison our previous changes may seem small.
The secular and religious focus of training for the life experience of most people, including many Christians, has created value systems with a high priority on natural things of the flesh. This has resulted in a lower priority or value on spiritual things of God. The secular educational systems placed almost no value on God and spiritual things, while the religious church educational systems primarily focused on getting to heaven after this life. In recent decades the focus for some has also broadened to include prosperity in the area of natural things.
However, with the restoration of the gospel of the kingdom a vast new spiritual reality has been opened to many. The depth and breadth of revealed kingdom reality continues to increase daily both in scope and in the numbers of people receiving.
The opening of the vast potential of the kingdom of God intervening and changing this present world in the same ways that it began in the first century is greatly changing our evaluation of spiritual things. God is restoring Spirit-empowered apostolic master builders and prophetic teaching ministers who are implanting the wisdom, power, and understanding of kingdom reality. This is bringing significant change to our world-view and value systems.
Managers of God’s Earth
Before kingdom values were birthed in many of us, we saw the goods in our possessions as owned by us. We felt that we were owners of the things we had worked for and purchased to do with as we pleased which was usually whatever gave us the most pleasure. Through recognizing our position as God’s servants, stewarding His possessions according to His purposes and desires has greatly changed our view of money and material things. Our name may be on the deed, but our God is the owner of all things. Therefore, we must know His desire in managing His things to be successful in kingdom living.
Receiving this one kingdom principle frees us of all covetousness, greed, and lust for things. This leads to freedom from the stress of striving to gain more to consume upon our personal desires. Knowing we are His and that we are fulfilling our purpose in His kingdom helps to free us from all worry and concern for personal needs. God is looking for good managers of His world. He will give more to those who do well by managing faithfully what He has placed in their hand to manage for Him.
We are NOT given to be managers of God’s people.
God is in His people, and we serve God as we serve His people in whom He dwells. We all, as God’s redeemed Spirit-filled children and servants of the Most High must answer to Him for our actions and works. Kingdom order comes from God abiding within His people empowering and guiding them. Unity comes about as oneness with God leads all to be in one accord, each fulfilling their specific part by the leadership and empowerment of God by His indwelling Spirit.
Receiving this kingdom concept frees us from all strife of competition. There are no positions of rule to seek after. Fame and fortune are not factors to seek after. There is no need or desire to control others for our advantage, and we have no reputation to buildup and protect.
The natural fallen world functions in a very different style. Order is attempted by hierarchal rule derived by competitive skill, cunning manipulation and political power. With a jungle-type mentality of victory to the strongest men jostle and battle for position to rule over others. Money facilitates power to control by giving or withholding from others. Thus personal strife and all-out war prevail in the natural fallen world that is without the inner leadership of men by the Spirit of God within.
This is what Jesus came to fix. He came restore God’s order of life by returning man to the place of intimate connection with the Father that He may dwell within His people to bring peace and goodwill to the world.
Changing How We Value the Holy Spirit
For the secular world and many Christians, the Holy Spirit is considered at a value close to Casper the friendly ghost. Some believers who say they recognize that the Holy Spirit is a part of the Godhead in a practical sense value the Holy Spirit as less than the Father and the Son.
I hope we all are beginning to grasp that the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit and that all of God we experience in this life is by the Holy Spirit. Back when we thought the gospel was all about making it to heaven after this life, the Holy Spirit was valued as the one who drew us to Jesus for salvation and sealed the deal and usually not much more.
God is Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. The same God that is all-powerful and all-knowing and everywhere present. The same God that created all that is and causes it all to continue to consist in harmony. We have only ONE God who is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one reality of existence. These are distinguishable manifestations of God in our practical reality. In the very white fire of the heart of God, all three are one and indistinguishable. Only after they move out from the white fire of the heart of God do they become recognizable as distinct manifestations for specific purposes relating to mankind and creation.
We must come to the realization that this is the Spirit of God that is regaining the kingdoms of this world, beginning with the kingdom of the hearts of His people. Our God is One and is Spirit. Those who worship Him must do so in Spirit. Those who speak to Him and hear Him in prayer must do so by the Spirit. Those who manifest the life of Christ Jesus in the world must do so by the Spirit of God that indwells. The work of the kingdom of God is done by the power of the Spirit. Wisdom and truth from heaven come by the Spirit. Without the indwelling Spirit of God Almighty, there is no salvation, no sanctification, no healing, no deliverance, and no kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Christ Jesus returned in the Sprit at Pentecost and indwells believers who are saturated and filled with the Spirit of God, to do the works of God in redeeming mankind and all that has been given to man’s hand to manage for Him. If we are saturated and filled with the Holy Spirit, we have the Son; and if we have the Son, we have the Father dwelling in our body to do the works of God.
Prophetic Word - God’s Spirit Authority, December 16, 2008
I have not sent authority of a man over another man. Dominion on earth given to all mankind in Adam included all things on earth except it does not include dominion over another man. The order of My kingdom is not produced by a man taking or having dominion over another man.
My kingdom order cannot be produced by any man including My apostles, prophets, or teachers. Order is produced by the working of My Spirit within each individual. It comes from within and not from without. It is produced only in Me and imparted by My Spirit from Father to Son/Brother to brother/son. However, kingdom order is only imparted to those who have the seed of authority implanted within them by My Spirit. There is no kingdom order without My Spirit working at the level of Spirit implantation in the hearts of My chosen people.
Flesh can do nothing in My kingdom. All that is not of My Spirit is of flesh. No human order applied externally is from my Spirit. My order is always from within and from Spirit to Spirit.
Love is the essence of my Spirit. Peace and joy are My attributes that bring My kingdom order. My love is the ruling force in all inner life that shapes and orders all my creation. You cannot build anything with human order that will stand. My love will stand in all times and in all ways.
Release all control to My Spirit, and have no part in the assimilation of teachable order of man, but yield your flesh under the order of My Spirit. This alone is the way of life, love, and kingdom order in this life now and in life to come. There is no other order of life on earth or in heaven that is spawned and blessed by My Spirit.
Soon this time will pass but My Spirit shall never pass and never fade. My Spirit is My Word. When I speak it is Spirit. My Word is Spirit and not the words of a man. The Spirit from heaven is the Spirit of Christ for Whom and through Whom all things consist. If things are not by My Spirit, they do not exist in My creation except in a state of absence.
The great eternal yes and no are only yes in My presence. As darkness is the absence of light, no is the absence of Me – the absence of My Spirit in the present. No is without my Spirit. In my Spirit is yes always.
My order is yes. The disorder of the flesh is no. In flesh there is death always. In My Spirit there is life always. I am turning you today to turn my people who hear from the death of flesh to the LOVE and LIFE of yes in my Spirit. Joy and glory that is unspeakable by any flesh awaits those who are overcome by My Spirit, and they shall reign in the glory of the joy of my kingdom now and forever.
Flesh is dying, but Spirit is living; and I this day give you life in the midst of death of all flesh and the arising of My Spirit. All things are yes (possible and assured) to him who has died to the flesh and is fully alive in My Spirit.
Again, all human order is flesh. Order by the works of My Spirit in the heart of those to whom it has been given will flow entirely by Spirit words or works unseen by any flesh. Therefore, all human order leads to death. My Spirit order within leads to life abundantly full of peace and joy in righteousness, says the Lord God Almighty.
Yes, Father, change me from within to walk fully in Your Spirit. I see my flesh as dead and Your life within flowing from heaven - Your life and not my own. Amen.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 01/16/2009 at 2:14pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Warning, Danger! Danger!
By Ron McGatlin
Recently I was awakened from a troubling dream hearing the words “Warning, Danger! Danger!” I am confident that there are some personal implications in this for me. However, after considering the word and seeking further in prayer, I am aware of a broader application of the warning.
Ignoring or improperly responding to a warning can lead to unnecessary loss. Especially a warning word from God is to be urgently attended when received. A warning of danger from God is not something to be feared but rather a blessing of caring provision from our loving Father.
The Lord is my Shepherd.
How good and safe it is to live in the flow of God. There is no safer place in the world than to be walking in the will of God led by Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Provision is always there when we arrive at the place where it is needed to accomplish His will. We can truly trust God to protect and lead us in peace even in the valley of the shadow of death. Our Great Shepherd goes before us and safely leads us through, even preparing a table for us in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23).
So, what could there be that we should be aware of that is potentially dangerous, and what preparation or actions should be taken to avoid painful unnecessary loss?
Briefly stated the danger lies in NOT fully following our Shepherd.
Especially in times of extreme change and movement it is vital to move as He leads and in His timing. Being out of time is being out of the flow of His order. Veering off from following in the path of His leading is being out of order. Disorder in our walk with God will cause disruptions and unnecessary loss of peace and productivity.
In times of change, the path of following God may not continue along the traditional ways of familiarity. Our human tendency is to desire the traditional path with which, we are familiar. Our desire may cause us to hesitate to follow His leading on to a new path. Or even worse we may choose to follow the old path and move away from the leading of our Shepherd. Sticking to our traditional paths instead of following Jesus into a different higher way will not have a good outcome. If He leads us upward into green pastures and we choose to take the old path, there may be dried up pasture, and the lack of His presence and protection can leave us vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy.
Let me speak plainly regarding current situations and changes. God is warning on a personal or individual level and on a corporate or Body-wide level that laxness in following the leadership of our Shepherd and corporate Head Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit can lead to frustrating and potentially painful experiences. We are not just speaking of a gross fleshly sinful form of getting off track. It is possible for “good” Christian people, including church leaders, to get off track with God by failing to shift or move as the Lord leads into a new direction.
In the passing church systems we learned to repetitively follow patterns and procedures usually set in place by a board of men and taught by a pastor or priest. We may have felt little or no need to know and hear the voice of our Lord the Good Shepherd and follow Him. In the kingdom of God, we are going a way that we have not been before, and it is imperative that we know His voice and follow Him. The systems of the past are being removed from us and we are free to move to higher places with God in intimate relationship with and personal guidance by Christ Jesus through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
When the voice of the Shepherd calls, if we quickly respond, there is no need for a word of warning. The urgent warnings usually only come after we have failed to respond and follow in a timely manner.
Jesus leads us individually within the Body and corporately as a whole Body.
There are personal individual paths within the spiritual networking that form the general or overall path of the whole Body. In God’s infinite wisdom and power, each of the many personal paths fit together to form the whole. The whole is moving toward the greater reality of the kingdom of God on earth. The place and timing for each person to respond to the higher call to step out of the old religious paths onto the path to kingdom will fit perfectly in the overall scope of His leading us into His New Jerusalem kingdom of God lifestyle. The eventual goal of the life of Christ in His people is the governance of all life on earth by its true King Christ Jesus.
The danger for individuals is in not making that step onto the path to kingdom when the Lord makes the call clear to the person. The danger for a nation is to disallow the call for the Body to follow Christ Jesus on the path to New Jerusalem, kingdom of God living, and eventual governance.
What hinders following Christ onto the path to kingdom?
Probably many things can be recognized as hindrances, but they can be seen as two general categories of profane and religious mindsets. Profane includes the fallen world secular systems and religious pertains to all religious systems including Christian. These systems plant the hearts of people with strong beliefs that hinder the word of the kingdom from being recognized and taking root. Jesus spoke of these things as hardened soil, rocky soil, and thorn-bush soil that prevented the kingdom of God seed from growing to fruition. These are blocks to the word of the kingdom in the hearts of people who have been trained in the ways of the fallen world or the religious church systems. When the call comes to leave the past and step onto the path of seeking first the kingdom of God, these people are greatly hindered in making that step.
The existing fallen-world and religious systems will NOT be reformed and must be replaced. This is why there is a massive movement of people out of these systems. Many are led into a wilderness for a season to be cleansed and healed in preparation to fully follow Christ into the real kingdom of God. New and more flexible systems of retraining to follow Christ by the Holy Spirit into the kingdom reality will come into being to replace the past systems. House churches, city-wide apostolic gatherings, and business training events are some of the new systems that can more easily become kingdom propagating ministries.
The predominant characteristic of the kingdom of God is love. The biggest hindrance to our flowing in the love of God is the kingdom of self. The fallen nature in natural man sets people up as their own little king. Our little self-kingdoms are threatened by the consideration of loosing the rule of our lives to Christ Jesus. Men have become skilled at devising doctrines and systems to preserve and protect their self-rule. Knowing the real love of God in Christ Jesus and being literally invaded and filled with His love in His presence by the Holy Spirit can wipe out our hesitance in yielding up the throne of our lives to the true King Christ Jesus.
Yet, for those who resist the love of God flowing by the Holy Spirit, the dissipation of their little self kingdom may come through great adversity as the self kingdom comes to its natural conclusion of self destruction. Either way the love of God is reaching out for His chosen people to lay down all else and seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first above all else in life.
Rom 5:3-5: And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Mat 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
2 Cor 13:14: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 01/22/2009 at 7:05pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Live in the Spirit – Walk in the Spirit
An Apostolic Reality
By Ron McGatlin
In practical reality, what on earth does it really mean to you and me today to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit?
Gal 5:25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
There is much talk today about Apostles and apostolic ministry and government. My email in-box daily contains words about apostolic this or that generally seeking to define and understand Apostles and the change that God is sending regarding life and government in the ekklesia. Gatherings and networks of Apostles are seeking to enlighten one another on the kingdom (government) of God and iron out the different views developing on how we should do church and function in a changing world.
The Spirit of God is grieved within me and my heart is challenged by the absence of living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit evident in most apostolic discussions. The Spirit is hardly mentioned in the considerations of the “apostolic” meanderings of teachings for aligning apostolically with one another.
Are we making the same old mistakes over again? Throughout recent church history what is deemed the lack of godly order in the people has been answered with increased human leadership imposing safeguards to stem the deviations of false teachings and unorthodox practices. Seeking to keep our doctrine and our practices pure has again and again led to more human organization, structure, and control. Preaching the word of the Bible without the power of the Spirit produces bondage and not life. In every case that I am aware of, this has squelched the Spirit of Christ flowing through the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit has pulled away.
Jesus will not be head with another. God will not share His glory with another. We will not have the headship of Christ and the headship of man at the same time. There is one head upon the shoulders of the Body of Christ.
Establishing more human accountability to other men sounds like a great answer. However, without living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit, it is just more foolishness of human government. If we live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, we are fully and completely accountable to the living Father and in full alignment with our great Apostle, the Lord Christ Jesus, and in one accord with others who do the same. It is by the SPIRIT of God, the Holy Spirit that most leaders seem afraid to receive, yield to, proclaim, and impart to multitudes of spiritless “Christians” who are seeking life in the wrong places.
The Holy Spirit bringing the awesome power, wisdom, and love of Jesus is the only way to abundant life. The living water (Spirit of God) is the answer to completely changing the people from the inside and bringing the chaos of foolish leadership of flesh to a complete end with the powerful flow of anointing of the Spirit destroying the yokes of bondage.
Read the book of Acts again. The early Apostles lived and walked in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God was the source of all the mighty works and powerful ministry of the first century including all the mighty works of Christ Jesus Himself. Yes, the mighty life, ministry, and works of Jesus were all done through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Wake up people of God! If Jesus overcame the world and demonstrated authority over the enemy and all the elements of the world by the Holy Spirit, what are you going to do with your Bible studies and apostolic teaching seminars and gatherings without the fullness of the power, love, and wisdom of the Holy Spirit of God Almighty working the life of Christ Jesus in you?????? What good is it going to do if you organize and send Apostles to appoint some elders to try to stem the tide of foolish and childish behavior of Christians who do not know the gift of God or the one who speaks to them from heaven?
Human leadership will never produce the life of God without the same power, love, and wisdom of the Holy Spirit that flowed through Christ Jesus and the early Apostles.
Our centuries of entrapment in man-altered “Christian” religious training is robbing us of the release of the fullness of the power and love of God flowing through the Spirit to powerfully impact and change the wasted people of God and align the gifted servant-leaders in the purposes of God.
Jesus is again saying to those who come to the well to seek life giving water, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you….”
I hear our Lord and Father through the Holy Spirit crying out to this generation, “Oh if you only knew the gift I have for you. Oh, if you only knew who is speaking to you and what my desire and provision is for you to flow in my kingdom into all the world. Oh, If you really knew…”
John 4:10: Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
John 4:13-14: Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
Thirsty Christians worldwide continue to cry out to God for more and are not satisfied. If we continue in desperate thirst, it is clear that we have not yet asked of Him and received from Him the fullness of the living water that will cause us to NEVER thirst again but have the water (Spirit) that will become in us a fountain of the Spirit springing up into everlasting (continuous) LIFE. How can we thirst for more of Him when His fountain of living Spirit is flowing up from within us?
This is the ultimate Joy of God and His rest from all striving. We never thirst again. Yes, we may long for others and the world to come into the reality of His Spirit also. And we may, with joy, look forward to the full reality of the New Jerusalem lifestyle forming the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven that fills the entire earth. However, we are living and fully walking in the kingdom now within our hearts as the fountain of SPIRIT of GOD flows up and out of us.
This is the life for which we gladly give up our previous Christian self-life with all its rules and doctrines of human order and accountability. This is the power, love, and wisdom that are the ministry to be imparted by the true apostolic ministry. This is the work that will stop the foolishness of fleshly teachings and practices of the people. The work of the kingdom that more apostolic structure and more Bible studies cannot accomplish. “By my SPIRIT,” says the Lord (Zec 4:6).
This thing began in the Spirit; are we going to try to finish it in human wisdom, understanding, and structuring?
Gal 3:3: Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
Absolutely not! The kingdom of God will not mature apart from our complete dependence and accountability to the Spirit of God our Father and our Lord.
There must be true Apostles pure, holy people of God who so live and walk by the Spirit that no believer will need to ask who appointed them or empowered them. They do not need a title or an organization. They will not promote and build a ministry and will not need to ask provision of any man. These are God’s gifted humble holy men and women who have no life apart from the Holy Spirit of God. They are in the world as Christ to impart life of the Spirit into many. They will not allow others to worship them and set them up as someone special above others. But will impart the same life that is in them to all who seek the kingdom of God with their whole heart.
We need an explosive life ending Spirit beginning encounter with God in the Spirit to me made alive. Then we must decide daily to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. We will not thirst again but in pure love and power we will speak the oracles of God and flow the works of Christ into the world. This gospel of the kingdom must be preached and demonstrated to all the world and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God. Christ Jesus shall be seen in great glory and fully honored as Lord and King.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 01/31/2009 at 8:28am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The Shift in Leadership – “Leadershift”
By Ron McGatlin
Headship and Leadership - These are two similar words but with distinct differences that are very important to us in this day of major shifting in the church and the world and especially in the governance of the kingdom-age church (the ekklesia). Briefly stated the difference is that the word “headship” implies supremacy and the word “leadership” implies function.
Here is a dictionary definition of the two words:
headship n. the position of head or chief – leadership, supremacy.
leadership n. the position or function of a leader – an act or instance of leading – guidance, direction - the leaders of a group.
The current kingdom shift in leadership involves exposing and correcting a significant error in leadership practice of the passing institutional church age. The deviation from God’s design for His church may seem small, but it has had a massive impact upon the church and the world.
This particular error is much more in practice than in doctrine. Probably most anyone in any branch of the many streams of church would affirm that Christ Jesus is the Head of the church. However, the forms and workings of much of the church are not actively attached to Christ Jesus as supreme leader. In the day-to-day practical reality of operation within the institutional church systems, the headship of Christ Jesus is replaced with human organization and structure.
Currently many of the fresh kingdom-age models of relationally based church are struggling to be free of the leadership errors of the past. New styles, formats, and venues bring a fresh sense of release and excited participation of the people. There may also be a sense of empowerment as the gifting of the individuals are potentially further released in the groups.
However, if there is not a full correction of the headship and leadership distinction within the group, there will be a lack of the fullness of power, love, and wisdom that should be coming through the full participation of the fully attached Head of the church, Christ Jesus. The groups may sooner or later disband, or there may be a constant excessive coming and going of participants as the people seek elsewhere to satisfy the innate hunger in their souls for fellowship in a group with the real headship of Christ.
How will the headship of Christ Jesus flow into and govern the Body, and what part do the human leaders of a group have in governance?
The supreme headship of Christ flows from the throne room as spiritual substance of God. We need to recall at this point that God is Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the one Spirit God of all creation in heaven and on earth. Christ Jesus has an earthly body but ascended to the throne, was seated at the right hand of the Father, and subsequently returned to earth as a “life-giving Spirit” (the Spirit of Christ) to indwell believers by the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor 15:45: And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
It is through the Holy Spirit that the supreme headship of Christ is connected to the Body or the group individually and collectively. The headship of Christ is not for only the human leaders. Every person has the right and potential to be carriers of the Spirit God in their bodies, and in so doing, become connected to the direct supreme leadership of Christ Jesus. This is the treasure in earthen vessels.
2 Cor 4:7: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
What then is the purpose and value of human leaders? I am glad you asked. The short answer is to help people become fully connected to the Head. This involves a number of things. One of the first parts is helping the person to be born again spiritually and then helping them to grow up spiritually. Each person must have their human spirit made alive by the Life-giving Spirit in order to communicate with Spirit God. Leaders are to disciple them to Christ Jesus. Thus one of the functions of a leader is nurturing people into spiritually mature people who know Christ and can intimately relate to Him and communicate with Him by the Spirit. Obviously the leader himself must be spiritually mature and connected to the throne by the Holy Spirit.
Since being connected to Christ Jesus involves the Holy Spirit, an important part of leadership’s nurturing is helping people to be filled and saturated in the Holy Spirit. There is a measure of the Holy Spirit involved in being born again, and there is a further work of being baptized in the Holy Spirit without which it is not possible to intimately relate to God and experience the fullness of direct headship of Christ Jesus.
Group or Body Leadership
Another part of the function of human leaders is to collectively employ the gifts of God to move as shepherds in front of the group offering themselves as examples of overcoming by the power of the Spirit. This will usually be done in groups by a plurality of leaders as opposed to one person.
All of the functions of human leadership are to be one hundred percent the work of Christ Jesus, the supreme Head, working by the Holy Spirit in spiritually mature leaders.
Human leadership is temporary. Those who nurture function in an individual’s life until the person is spiritually mature. As this happens the relationship changes to that of mature brothers walking in the Spirit together. Those who served as fathers become respected brothers to the mature sons connected directly to their Father through Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
Gifted leaders of a group or of a larger portion of the Body are to function until the group or Body is spiritually mature. At which time the brotherhood is all walking in the Spirit and being led directly by the supreme Head Christ Jesus joined fully to the group or the Body by the Spirit and each believer flowing in the priesthood and exercising their gifts. For the whole Body of Christ, this is obviously a work in process that will be completed in the future as the kingdom of God is more fully functioning on earth as it is in heaven.
This is very distinct from the continuing lifetime hierarchal rule of pastors and leaders of the man-driven institutional church systems of the past. The clergy / laity system that has been in place for centuries should not continue in the maturing kingdom-age Body of Christ.
Gal 4:19: My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.
Eph 4:11-15: And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head; Christ.
The Body of Christ has entered a new season this year 2009.
The season of the shift in the worldwide Body of Christ from two millennia under tutors (human headship) to moving into the direct headship of Christ by the Holy Spirit has begun. God is raising up groups of apostolic leaders to model the kingdom age church reality to the body. These works are not yet perfected but are on the move and worthy of our investigation and participation.
One such group goes by the name Life-messenger and is located in Melbourne, Australia being nurtured by David Orton. Leadershift is their designation for part of the ministry with impact reaching leaders in many nations. A semiannual Leadershift gathering is scheduled for March of this year. To learn more about Lifemessenger and how to get connected please go to their website. www.lifemessenger.org
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 02/06/2009 at 10:01am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The Substance of Spirit
By Ron McGatlin
The substance of God is available to abide within redeemed mankind. God’s desire is to flow His life by His Spirit from the throne in heaven directly into the hearts of His sons on earth. (Sons is not used here as a gender specific term.) Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit each have a part in the work of transference of the substance of God from the throne in heaven into the clay vessels of mankind on earth. Father is the creator and initiator. The Son is the Savior, King, and Lord. Holy Spirit is the transmuted substance of Father and Son. God’s plan and desire is to abide within and flow through redeemed mankind to redeem and govern all facets of life on Planet Earth with perfect love and righteousness.
This is the rudimental structure of the kingdom of God on earth from heaven to rule and reign on earth as in heaven. The substance of God flowing into and through man is the rule of God - the kingdom of Christ on earth. Every aspect of life in the world and every system of the planet are to be redeemed and transformed or translated into the kingdom of God. This is the gospel (good news) of the kingdom of God. The full redemption of all that was lost in the first Adam is a major part of the goal and purpose of the last Adam, Christ Jesus, sent from heaven by Father God and now flowing through the Holy Spirit into sons of God.
The great shift in the world is the beginning of the end of religion that released the power of the soul of man. And it is the maturing of the sons of God releasing the substance of God by the Spirit of God. Religion and soul power relate to the tree of knowledge of which we all have partaken through the first Adam. The works of darkness were released by Adam’s disobedience and can still be released through the soul power of men. The substance of God flowing through the Holy Spirit and indwelling God’s people relates to the tree of life. In the first Adam sin separated us from the tree of life. In Christ Jesus we have been restored to the potential of again fully partaking of the tree of Life.
Returning to the Tree of Life
In the past seventeen to eighteen centuries, the church has functioned to various degrees in soul power based on intellectual discernment of the Bible. In the period sometimes referred to as the dark ages, the church was primarily in this mode. However, in recent centuries there has been a continuing work of God moving us toward the return to the tree of life – the life substance of God by the Spirit of God. The yet incomplete process of moving from the darkness of ungodly worldliness and religion into the light of the kingdom of God has caused a season of mixture of darkness and light in much of the church.
We are now experiencing and will continue to experience an increasing work of cleansing of the people of God from the darkness of the past. The mixture must be removed. The pattern for the pure and holy “ekklesia” is coming down from heaven and being formed on earth as the New Jerusalem lifestyle.
Historically, for the most part, the substance of God was not flowing by the Holy Spirit in the past church systems. This void allowed the apostles and prophets of God to be replaced with theologians who fostered teachings that were often man-made, highly intellectual, and sometimes demon inspired. These doctrines became the framework for the church systems of man-centered religion.
The renewed flow of the substance of God through His Spirit is again giving life to apostles and prophets as humble loving powerful firebrands of truth to establish the kingdom that was begun in Christ and His disciples in the first century.
The obvious observation is that the kingdom of God cannot be built upon the foundation of the past church systems nor can it rest on the mixture present in much of the church and ministries at this time.
Much of the recent prophetic and apostolic ministry has attempted to build upon mixture and is in a precarious position. Multitudes of seekers have been misled by past religious darkness and the more recent mixtures of darkness and light. In order to gather a crowd and stay afloat, ministries continue to indulge in and give voice to the mixture from past church systems while attempting to present freshly revealed or restored light of truth.
New models and forms of church are of no value to God without the reality of the substance of Christ and the Father flowing into the people by the Holy Spirit of God bringing the good news of the real kingdom of God.
Relational groups and networks focused on growing through human-to-human relationship without flowing the substance of God is of little or no spiritual value. It is much the same as a secular support group.
A relational group based upon the past church system’s darkness or the present mixtures will not produce the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. In fact, it will lead to confusion and will come to a premature end. Among others, two factors will be present in gatherings or networking works of God. First, the Holy Spirit will be bringing the substance of God including the headship of Christ. Secondly, there will be the primary focus of seeking the real kingdom of God and His righteousness.
The cry of the Spirit of God upon the earth today is for holy, pure-hearted, gifted apostles and prophets to arise and proclaim the powerful pure message of the gospel of the kingdom. At Jesus’ baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and He began His ministry of preaching, teaching, and demonstrating the kingdom of God. At Pentecost the substance of God flowed into men and women of God by the Holy Spirit empowering them to do the works of Christ. The disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, went about doing the works of God as the Lord worked with them by the Holy Spirit.
Mark 16:19-20: So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
The glory of the latter house will be greater than the former (Hag 2:9).
If you are reading this and are still shying away from the full work of the Holy Spirit and clinging to past teachings that devalue the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is time to lay aside the past and move toward the high calling of knowing Christ Jesus in the power of His resurrection life flowing through the Holy Spirit.
It will not be profitable to continue to allow religious teachings or previous experience of abuses or mixtures to hinder us from truly becoming the full measure of the stature of Christ as a son of God. Please get this: You do not have to understand it all in your mentality, and you do not have to have seen it with your natural eyes. All of this is available today BY FAITH. What must we do to do these works of God? Only believe in Him who is sent (John 6:28-29).
Mark 16:16-18: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Heb 11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The substance of God involves the anointing of God - the power, love, and wisdom of God - the Spirit of Christ - the manifest presence of God - the very life of God and the grace of God. Grace is “the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life” (strongs G5485). All this and more is available through direct connection of the Christ in you connected to the Christ on the throne by the Holy Spirit.
The substance of God can be experienced in the manifest presence of God. God’s presence often comes into a gathering first within the spirits and souls (hearts) of God’s children. The substance of God flowing from the throne into their hearts will flow from them. The immediate atmosphere around becomes affected by the substance of God. As God’s people come together, the atmosphere can become super-charged with the substance of God releasing spiritual works and manifestations that are supernatural.
Ministering spirits (holy angels) may come to supernaturally do miraculous works among the people. Angels are drawn to the presence of God. However, demons panic and will flee easily when resisted. Gifts may be activated releasing prophetic utterances, tongues and interpretation, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and spiritual visions and revelations or whatever is needed to meet the needs of the people and glorify God.
This and more is normal biblical works of God. What many of us have experienced in the past religious church was a powerless form of godliness without the powerful reality of the substance of God. More recently we may have experienced mixtures of grace gifts of God contaminated by impure vessels leading eventually to disappointing results and confusion. Spiritual discernment sharpened by use is needed to quickly discern what is of God and what is not. With discernment we need not fear receiving from a mixture. We can receive that which is of God while at the same time rejecting that which is not of God. Yet, God is raising up a people without mixture who by the Spirit flow the substance of God into the world doing the works of Jesus.
John 14:12: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
The predominant characteristic of the substance of God is love.
Every gathering or meeting will be different when led by Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The wonderful power of manifestations will not manifest the same and may not always be recognizable within a meeting. However, love and humility will always be present where the substance of God is flowing by the Holy Spirit. Love and humility is not to be confused with human affections and social graces based in human etiquette. The love and humility flowing through the Holy Spirit is from the throne and is accompanied by righteousness, power, and wisdom of God. Peace and joy are products of love along with strength and righteousness for edification and correction.
1 Cor 13:13: And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Gal 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Eph 5:8-11: For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 02/16/2009 at 12:32pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
I See New Jerusalem
By Ron McGatlin
I awakened this morning to an awesome experience in the Spirit. I was actually feeling life in New Jerusalem. I felt the love and the peace of a world filled with the light of God. I lack the words to describe this feeling of experiencing heaven on earth. Everything was as it should be in perfect order of love, peace, and joy. Through this experience deep and solid hope was planted in me along with passion to continue on with all endurance to boldly proclaim the word of the kingdom. A new measure of faith that the New Jerusalem people of God are truly being formed on earth is at rest in my soul.
John saw New Jerusalem
A couple of millennia ago an apostle of Christ Jesus named John saw, in the Spirit, many intricate and detailed visions from heaven which symbolically or figuratively revealed the future of the kingdom of Christ coming forth on earth. John was not a man unlike others. He was not born a son of God. He was born and grew up a son of the first Adam with all the limitations and lack imposed on Adam after the fall. But Jesus came and changed all that!
Christ Jesus came, chose John, captured His heart, and John chose to follow Him. Jesus came to die for the sin of John and all mankind who will believe.
Jesus was resurrected and ascended to the throne of God in heaven and on the day of Pentecost returned to earth in the Holy Spirit to live within John and all who would believe and seek Him with their whole hearts.
The Spirit of God was within John. However, on the occasions when the visions from heaven came to John, he said, “I was in the Spirit.”
Rev 1:10: I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet.
Rev 4:2: Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.
Rev 21:10: And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.
Jesus had previously told John and the other disciples that it was better for them that He go away and the Spirit come. Jesus went on to say that He would return to them and be in them and they would be in Him.
John 16:7: "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.”
John 14:18: "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
John 15:4: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
John 17:21-23: "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one. I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
When we believe in Christ Jesus and are born again, the Spirit comes to indwell us. When we fully yield our whole heart to Him, we can be filled and saturated with the Spirit of God. The Bible refers to this as the baptism of the Spirit. By this, John could be in the Spirit that was within him and experience spiritual visions and interactions with the Lord and holy angels.
As we are filled with the Spirit within and live and walk in the Spirit, an opening into the spiritual realm is opened to us. John saw it as a door open in heaven and was told to come up and be shown things in the spiritual realm.
Rev 4:1: After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."
God continues to speak to His people. For those who will humble themselves and become holy sons the invitation is to come up in the Spirit to hear and see things to come forth into the world.
God is calling in this hour for men and women who will be transformed by the indwelling Spirit of Christ into pure, holy, humble sons filled and saturated by the Spirit of God to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. God is calling us to come up into the open door in heaven to see and experience the spiritual substance of the New Jerusalem life and become those who will demonstrate the life of God in the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. The substance of God is flowing into the earth through His chosen and faith-filled sons who will not let go of the visions they have seen but will birth them into the world.
I see the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven prepared as a bride. The substance of this spiritual vision has greatly encouraged me. To experience even a small part of the LOVE and perfect HOLINESS and the beautiful PEACE of the light of GLORY that God is imparting to His people on earth is overwhelming. I tremble and weep with gratitude at His perfect gift of Christ Jesus and His irresistible LOVE drawing and compelling a lost world to leave the past and come unto the HOLY ONE to abide in Him and He in them.
Father God will not cease this endeavor until all things are gathered to His Son Christ Jesus, our loving and glorious KING. Even as we are fully at rest in Him, our mission will not be complete until we have finished our part in being gathered and gathering into Christ all things on earth.
Can you see it? Can you feel it? A people of God in a world filled with the light of God, illuminated by the Lamb. God Himself dwelling with His people and wiping away our tears. No defilement - nothing will enter that defiles. Greed and strife will no longer have place. Competition with brethren will not exist. Love shall rule in all things. No more tyranny, abuse, and terror. Righteousness, peace, and joy in every heart. All nature in harmony and cared for by the sons of God. This and much more is the plan of God for His people on Planet Earth. (Revelation 21)
Only in the Spirit can the spiritual reality of the New Jerusalem be received and planted in the hearts and lives of the maturing sons of God.
The New Jerusalem cannot be seen by looking at the works of flesh and the devil in the hearts and lives of unredeemed fallen mankind. It cannot be seen or felt in the evening news. And it cannot be seen from the view of secularism or mixtures of godliness with religion contaminated with fallen-world drives and concepts. It cannot be seen in doctrines derived from human intellectual discernment of the Bible or sometimes from the inspiration of religious spirits.
Most all of us have been trained by systems of teaching containing mixture that were derived apart from the full light and wisdom of the Spirit of God. Thus we became servants of mixture and are yet in process of becoming washed from religious beliefs and practices that limit our ability to live in the reality of the spiritual church of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Our ears to hear Him who speaks from heaven by the Spirit have been stopped up with the words of earthly understanding. A great shaking is the result of refusing to hear Him who speaks from heaven.
City of God Heavenly Jerusalem Church
Heb 12:22-26: But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape, who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven."
God is calling to His people to choose who they will serve in life. Will we continue to serve a mixture of self and God? Will we choose to serve our needs, our views of religion, and our desire to build our own kingdom along with God’s? Or, will we choose to live and walk in the Spirit and flow the substance of God from heaven into our world? Will we seek His kingdom and His righteousness first above all else including our human feelings, desires, and needs?
Multitudes of people worldwide desperately desire to encounter the real works of God. Many would travel halfway around the world to be where the living God is flowing His love and power through just men made perfect (mature sons) – to be where multitudes of holy angels are ministering – to be where people are experiencing the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem church. This city is not halfway around the world, it is in the Spirit.
A broken groaning creation awaits the multitudes of sons of God to flow the glorious liberty of redemption of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Rom 8:21-22: …The creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
This is the gospel of the kingdom that must be preached in the power of the Spirit to all the world.
Mark 16:15: And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Mat 24:14: And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 02/19/2009 at 5:18pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Equally Yoked
By Ron McGatlin
We hear a lot today about spiritual relationships. Intimate relationship with God and relationally connected with one another as opposed to being structured in man-made authority levels and ranks. A distinction is being made between church as an organization and church as an organism.
Organization relates more to human natural thinking. It is practical and can be clearly and definitely defined and replicated by human logic and effort. In an organization personal relationships are of secondary importance while office, function, reputation, and performance are primary. This forms the basis for mostly impersonal, sterile, and structured connections.
Organism relates more to a spiritual living thing. An organism is not manufactured or made by man but somewhat mysteriously grows into being. It is mysterious only in the fact that the governing intelligence that gives structure, growth, and life to the organism is not visible to the natural eyes. Natural eyes do not see how a seed becomes a living, growing plant with intricate design and distinct characteristics which fulfill its designated function in the world. Unseen Spirit God designs the organism and designates its place of function in the world.
It is the seed of God, Christ Jesus, planted in the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit that grows the life of Christ into the “ekklesia.” The church (ekklesia) is the called-out and gathered people of God and not a man-made system, place, or organization. It is a spiritually connected gathering together of living spiritual beings forming the Body and eventually the Bride of Christ.
Each Part Nourishes
Each member has his or hers God-designated function and supplies nourishing to the other spiritually connected members of the group. In the church, every person is nourished by the Christ-life in each person to which he or she is spiritually connected or joined.
Eph 4:16: from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Col 2:19: ….holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
The fruit of the Christ-life in each person flows into others that are spiritually joined or connected. But what happens if one fully-connected member joined to the group is filled with a mixture of darkness? Mixture in believers comes from a divided heart. A genuine desire to serve God is in one side of the heart. However, on the other side are personal need, desires, and ambition which lead to self-seeking and self-serving in addition to their God-seeking and God-serving. This condition is the sin of spiritual adultery. There is a distinction between a spiritual harlot and a spiritual adulterer. A total harlot has no husband (Jesus). An adulterer has a husband but is unfaithful to Him.
- Spiritual harlotry is totally self-seeking and self-serving.
- Spiritual adultery is God-seeking and God-serving while at the same time self-seeking and self serving.
- The true Bride is only God-seeking and God-serving.
Spiritual adultery is a despicable sin of disobedience and dishonor to God. It will be very damaging to the adulterer and the Body. It opens the door for spirits of darkness to deceive and attack bringing all forms of evil including, but not limited to, greed, strife, fear, rebellion, disorder, sickness, disease, and death. Deceived adulterers do not know they are deceived and may believe their adversity comes because of their high place in God and their high level of revelation from God. Indeed, there may be real revelation, gifting, and a real call involved, but mixed with darkness this becomes very deceptive and dangerous.
The deception spreads to those connected.
What flows to those joined or connected to a person of adulterous mixture? Obviously the “nourishment” that is infused into those connected is not only that of the Christ-life but also that which can lead to many disorders and in severe cases sickness and premature death. Unfortunately, what flows from the adulterer to the spiritually connected group is the deception and oppression of the evil mixture.
The attack can take many forms and if there is any place for a toe hold the enemy will attack those connected. In the more severe cases, there will be sickness, disease, maiming accidents, and death in the lives of the people spiritually connected in a group infected by this mixture of darkness. Some of the many other visible symptoms may be strife, including marital strife, fear (including phobias), inordinate affections, stress, and lack of true prosperity. The continued spiritual battling against these things by the group will not be fully successful until the spiritual adulterer is either purified or disconnected from the group.
One classic example of functioning spiritual adultery is sometimes referred to as merchandising the things of God. It is using God’s gifting and His people to fulfill personal ambition or self-focused goals or needs and desires. This will not be like this in the purified, holy Bride church.
Do not be confused, this does not mean not to fellowship with sinners in the world. We are to fellowship by flowing Jesus to sinners, but we are not to be closely connected and receiving strength from them. We are talking here about the spiritual connection and fellowship with brothers and sisters in the true church.
1 Cor 5:9-13: I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; not even to eat with such a person.
For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."
Being Set Free
Over the past 54 years of actively seeking to serve God I have been personally involved in several groups such as described above. In my experience it is very difficult for anyone to see the deception of a group infected with spiritual adultery from within the group. However, the physical symptoms of excessive, weird and unusual sickness, premature death, and many other works of the enemy are visible to even the natural senses.
If we find that much justification is required and must be invented to explain the attacks on the people and the lack of God’s protection and ability to overcome, there is need for further evaluation. Usually separating from the connections and seeking the truth from God by the Holy Spirit will lead to the opening of our spiritual eyes and the removal of the shroud of deception from us.
Often if the whole group is deeply locked into the deceptions, the Lord will lead us to leave the group rather than try to deal with the spiritual adulterers embedded within the group. If we are sent of God to minister into such a situation we will be fully protected by God. On the other hand, if we are not sent by God, we put ourselves and our families into grave danger by entering and remaining within such a group.
2 Cor 6:17-7:1: Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty."
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Repentance will be involved in the cleansing and restoration of one affected by this attack. Something within us allowed us to be drawn into and to remain in connection with a work of mixture. Rather than blame or accuse we must deal with our own lack and needs that allowed us to be deceived.
The ultimate answer is to be so saturated and filled with the love and power of the Holy Spirit that the work of Jesus and His shed blood and resurrection life can fully cleanse, heal, and fill our hearts and lives with the glory of righteousness, peace, and joy of the Lord in the Holy Spirit.
It is the Lord who heals us of all our neediness, cleanses us from all our lack, and fills us with faith to destroy the works of the enemy and flow the victorious Christ-life to everyone we spiritually connect with. This is the fountain of living water flowing out to dry and thirsty people seeking reality of God.
The work of the gifted apostle and prophet are here for the purpose of helping us to recognize and change these things. God will have a purified Bride – holy sons to whom He can entrust His kingdom on Planet Earth. God’s holy kingdom people are being formed and will arise on earth as humble sons of God, filled with the glory of God to pour out the love of God upon the entire world.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
Edited by Moderator on 02/20/2009 at 8:27am
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 02/26/2009 at 4:32pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Measure of the Fullness of Christ
By Ron McGatlin
What would happen if we were to truly believe and unreservedly follow the Lord in perfect obedience to the word of the Father? How would our lives change? How would the world be affected? What if we threw off all restraints and hindrances and gave ourselves fully to living and walking in the Spirit? What if we truly made seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness the top priority in our lives? What would happen if we fully grew up into the measure of the fullness of Christ?
We would be as Christ is in the world (1 John 4:17). We would be mature sons of God doing the works of God that Christ Jesus did, and greater works.
John 14:12: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
How many sick days did Jesus have to take off from doing the works of the Father? How many times did He speak to the dead to arise and nothing happened? How many times did he speak to the lame and deformed to be healed and nothing happened? How much times did He waste sidetracked in sinful temptations and religious practices? I think you get the idea.
Something is missing here. Something has gone astray and urgently needs to be corrected. Why is the Body sick and afflicted? Why is the Bride tattered and torn? Why is there filth of contamination in the body? Why are the sons of God restrained from the reality of the full glory of Christ flowing to change our world? What or who is restraining the works of God in His sons to be victoriously establishing the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven?
Let’s seek to let the scripture answer this for us. [2 Th 2:6-12]
We will need to lay aside what religion may have taught that these scriptures mean and allow Holy Spirit to reveal kingdom truth. When we consider the meaning of the Greek words used in this scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal their meaning they plainly speak of a spirit of anti-Christ or wickedness against or in place of Christ that is restraining “until.” (Until what or when?)
2 Th 2:6-7: And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed (uncovered, disclosed) in his time. For the mystery (religious secret) of lawlessness (iniquity, wickedness) is already (now) at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
In this season we are seeing the uncovering of the religious secret wickedness that is restraining. The religious spirit that has replaced Christ as Head of the Body secretly infiltrated the church centuries ago and continues to restrain the supernatural works in God’s people by religious deception that causes unbelief, just as Paul had warned.
2 Th 2:5: Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
The spirit of anti-Christ working through religion and human social order has created a false ceiling of unbelief and robbed most of the church of the experiences of the power of Christ Jesus in our world.
The purpose for the current uncovering and exposing is for the destruction of the restraining iniquitous wickedness of the anti-Christ spirit. The Greek word translated brightness in this next verse is “epiphaneia:G2015” and relates to our English word epiphany. It is translated appearing every time it is used in the New Testament except this one time.
2 Th 2:8: And then the lawless (wicked) one will be revealed (uncovered, disclosed), whom the Lord will consume with the breath (spirit) of His mouth (language) and destroy with the brightness (appearing) of His coming (manifesting).
2 Th 1:10: when He comes (appears) to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
The appearing or manifesting of Christ in His people by the Holy Spirit is the power source to speak the words of God to uncover, consume, and destroy the restraining wickedness. We need to do more than speak about the restraining spirit of anti-Christ working through religion; we need to speak to the restraining spirit with the words from God in the power of the Spirit and in the name of Christ Jesus to consume and destroy the restraining spirit.
At whatever cost we must come out from under the canopy of religious deception and unbelief that separates the Body from being fully connected to our Head, Christ Jesus. In this season, there is an open door in heaven and a call of God to come up higher – to come out of religion and spiritually be raised (resurrected) into the resurrection life of Christ Jesus. It is the power of the resurrection that will do the works of Christ and greater works in bringing forth the kingdom of God on earth.
Rev 4:1-2: After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this." Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.
Phil 3:14: I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The practical reality of answering the “upward call” to “come up here” involves a change of focus that leads to a change of life, patterns, and priorities. Words are powerful when they impact change. Idle words are empty of the power to change. Words spoken from the Spirit are most powerful. Four powerful life experiences of change are spoken in this verse.
Phil 3:10: that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
- That I may know Him (intimate communion with Christ in the Holy Spirit)
- And the power of His resurrection (receiving and releasing the power of His life)
- And the fellowship of His sufferings (a precious work of becoming one with Him)
- Being conformed to His death (loss of the old life, perfect humility)
The greatest opportunity of change in this world since the first century is now opening to God’s people. Exposing and destroying the religious anti-Christ systems by the manifest power of the life of Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit and the desire of God for this historical time of transformation. God is moving upon our planet in unprecedented proportions to produce a purified, holy, humble people filled with His love, carriers of resurrection life power of Christ to establish the kingdom of God upon the ashes of religious fallacies and fallen social order.
To whom much is given much is required.
In Luke 12 Jesus told a parable of a faithful servant that the master made ruler and of an unfaithful servant who knew better but acted selfishly and abused fellow servants. The unfaithful servant was severely treated by the master and appointed his portion with the unbelievers.
Luke 12:47-51: "And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few.
For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace (to join together, prosperity, rest quietness) on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.”
Division and separation is not always bad. We know Jesus came to bring peace on earth and goodwill toward mankind. His peace and goodwill cannot come upon a people merged with wickedness and darkness. Jesus did not come to blend us with the works of satan in this present social order or the anti-Christ spirit in religion. Rather He came and is with us now to cleanse the world of evil and establish the righteousness of God in His people and the kingdom of God in the world.
People of God, arise and be of great courage! The Promised Land is before us, and a waste land is behind us. Be strong in the Lord! Be strong and very courageous! This is your time on earth to accomplish the will of God for your life. You have not been this way before, and you will not come this way again. History will record the great shift and transformation of this season into the kingdom of God, or it will record the failure to enter in and a return to wasted life of wilderness wonderings and another people in another time will enter into the land of promise.
Help us Lord Jesus!
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 03/04/2009 at 4:30am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Real Kingdom vs Virtual Kingdom
By Ron McGatlin
Many people who are seeking God have done as I did in the past and participated in church activities and services to the fullest extent possible and yet came away again and again thinking, “It seems we came so close but never quite got there.” -- all the time not having a clue where “there” was but feeling an inner need to get there. For many it was like we were in a virtual reality and trying hard to make believe it was the real thing. We went through all the motions and did all the prescribed things. Yet it seems the fullness of the promised lasting satisfaction of our souls was almost there but not quite. We made it all the way to the gate but remained just outside the gate.
Thank God for our hearts desire for more of Him.
God in His mercy will pour out His Spirit on hungry hearts. If you have ever truly experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon a group of desperately hungry believers, you know that suddenly the heart is filled and joy unspeakable floods our souls. God’s powerful love and grace flows upon us and causes us to see that we may have been looking for more of Him to fill our need, but our REAL need is for Him to have more of us - ALL of us.
Our carnal-mindedness and self-focus may be exposed in the glory of His presence. We may praise God that His Spirit has come and revival is at hand to consume us. Yet, our carnality may not yet be fully dealt with, and over time our spiritual lifestyle may begin to conflict with our carnal ways. Unconsciously, we drift into another kind of hunger, a desire for the things of our natural life, and begin to make decisions to make room for our natural human desires and appetites. The outpouring of the Spirit will not remain amongst our mixed desire for both God and our affections or desires for the things of this world (our spiritual adultery).
From Carnal Christians to Carnival Christians
(carnival n. 1. a traveling amusement show having sideshows and rides.)
The outpouring of the Spirit will soon lift because of our carnal decisions to seek this present world (self desires) along with us seeking God. After the outpouring lifts, we may maintain the ways of the outpouring with human effort in an attempt to keep it going. Our attempts to regain the outpouring without being fully cleansed from our self-seeking mixture will not be successful. We will only create a virtual reality of the kingdom and not the REAL kingdom of God. We can become like a carnival of human excitement and effort and create a virtual reality much like an animated cartoon. It will be something that may look real, but it is only a virtual reality like a sideshow at a carnival with a brilliantly lighted and colorful facade but raw lumber and emptiness behind the facade.
Dr. David Ryser recently wrote a very enlightening prophetic article called “Life vs. Animation: Are You Living a Cartoon?” Dr. David is a theologian who, through years of desert training in the Spirit, has moved through brokenness into an extreme worship love affair with Christ Jesus, which has led to greater revelation of His REAL kingdom. His article is next in this publication.
Getting Real
Our vessel must be filled with a new reality of God to replace our previous mixture in order to become vessels of honor filled with the fresh new kingdom life. There is a cleansing process before we can be refilled with the pure and holy kingdom reality.
2 Tim 2:20-21: But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
Much like preparing a dish to be served to honored guests, we must not use a dirty serving bowl. Whatever was in the bowl before must be completely emptied out, scraped, and thoroughly washed clean before refilling. Absolutely no residue of the previous food can remain to contaminate the fresh new contents. Any leftover residue becomes rotten after the second day.
God has sent fresh reality of His kingdom that is being revealed unto His people in this day.
In the Old Testament sacrifices, the flesh of a vow or voluntary offering was to be eaten the first day, but some leftovers could be eaten on the second day. On the third day any remaining must be burned with fire. It was an abomination both to the one who offers it and the one who eats it. What was good for food on the first and second day is an abomination on the next day. There is a cut-off date of the tolerance of the Lord for our eating from the previous sacrifice. There is a time when we must move on and be cleansed from the previous to become vessels of honor to carry the new.
Lev 7:16-18: 'But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offers his sacrifice; but on the next day the remainder of it also may be eaten; the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned with fire. And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering is eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, nor shall it be imputed to him; it shall be an abomination to him who offers it, and the person who eats of it shall bear guilt.
Emptying ourselves of old vows is voluntary but absolutely necessary to move into the real kingdom of His holy love. It is never enough to try to patch in the fresh kingdom way into our old garment. We are receiving a whole new garment, a pure white robe of purity and righteousness that is to be without spot or wrinkle. We cannot put the holy garment upon an unclean or unholy body. This real kingdom is righteous with nothing entering that defiles. Cleaning the outside of the cup is not enough we must be purified from within.
To continue on with a residue of unclean and self-focused or religious ways while depending on the mercy or grace of God to only get us into heaven when we die is to entirely miss the real kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. To praise God on one day and seek self-gratification in the world on the next day is to be entirely missing the real kingdom of God.
To be unequally yoked with those who are NOT being fully cleansed but are clinging to some of the old food that has rotted can seriously delay or prevent our becoming fully cleansed. If anyone is following after Jesus because of the works that He does, but are not being cleansed within, Jesus will NOT commit to them. He knows what is in the hearts of men.
We must be one with Jesus, which means our full commitment to Him and His commitment to us. Otherwise we are at risk of becoming one of the carnival Christians who may have done many works in His name but whom He never really knew. The Jesus within His cleansed vessels will not commit to all men, only to those who are becoming holy men with cleansed and purified hearts. These are true vessels of honor carrying the word and works of the kingdom of God.
John 2:23-25: Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.
God has much more for His people and His Planet Earth than a Disney World, make-believe kingdom. His desire for us is to walk with Him in the Spirit into a kingdom of supernatural, pure, and holy reality of kingdom life of His glory in His presence doing His works, experiencing PEACE beyond understanding, RIGHTOUSNESS that is beyond dispute, and JOY unspeakable and full of glory – all of this filled with and exploding His LOVE into creation.
------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------
Life vs. Animation: Are You Living a Cartoon?
By David Ryser
I grew up watching cartoons on television. My favorites were the Warner Brothers cartoons with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, the Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote, and all the others. These cartoons provided me with hours of entertainment and lots of laughs. They still do. They also fed me some benign, and even amusing, misinformation along the way (I was an adult before I knew the Scarlet Pumpernickel was actually the Scarlet Pimpernel). As engaged as I was in watching these cartoons, I never believed--even at a very young age--that cartoon characters were alive. I never confused animation with life until I became a Christian.
I had just come out of what I thought was a great worship service. The music was upbeat, and the congregation was energetic and demonstrative in worship. These are good things, and I am in favor of them. Sometime after the service, a young man in the church (who sees into the spirit more than he lets on) described the scene he saw during the worship time in words I will never forget. He said, “As the people were worshiping, I saw empty shells jumping up and down.” Hearing something like that will make a guy think, and I’ve thought about what he said for some time now.
Animation is not life. Just because something (or someone) moves, talks, acts, and mimics the other attributes of living does not mean life is present. In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam he would “surely die” if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). “Surely die” in the Hebrew text is a repetition of the word “die” (“die, die”) which intensifies what is being said. God wanted Adam to know He wasn’t kidding about this, and told him he would die immediately upon eating the fruit, not die slowly over time. Adam ate. Adam died. Adam continued to walk, talk, breathe, eat, sleep, work, build, procreate, etc. But he was dead. Adam went from being a “living soul” to being merely animated--a human cartoon character.
In numerous places in the New Testament, especially in the epistles of Paul, a person who is outside of Christ is described as dead (Ephesians 2:1, 5 and Colossians 2:13, among others). This person may show all the signs of life, and be biologically alive, but he/she is nothing more than a spiritual cartoon. And religion won’t make a person alive. Jesus was talking to God’s people (not to the Romans or the other Gentiles) when He said He had come to give them life (John 10:10).
We need to understand there is no life outside of Christ’s life in us. Paul was not using a figure of speech when he said he had died and that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Son of God’s faith (literal translation) who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:19, 20; italics added). All people, no matter what they may call themselves, are dead outside of Christ. There are only two kinds of people on the earth: those who are dead and those who are alive through the life of Christ that was planted in them expressing itself through them. Does that sound weird? What can I say? Blame the Bible and take it up with the Author--I didn’t write it.
Life in Christ involves more than coming to a knowledge of Jesus, getting our theology straight, and agreeing with a creed or a doctrinal statement. The devil knows all of these things and it doesn’t do him any good (James 2:19). We must encounter the Lord of Life and be “born again” into newness of life. And when did “born again” become synonymous with “new and improved” anyhow? If we are in Christ we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), not a renovated form of the old creation. If you give a pig a bath, it’s still a pig (and given half a chance, it will act like it). We can clean up Adam (the flesh, our sin nature), but it’s still Adam. And Adam is dead. Dead people don’t need a bath (no matter how badly they stink); they need a resurrection. Once we have been made alive, then we must allow His life and light to grow in us and displace the death and darkness of our old nature.
I wish I had known this truth when I was a pastor. I spent 14 years trying to help people to change. They wanted very much to change and become more like Jesus. So did I. The problem is that people cannot change; we’re simply not hardwired to change. If we are dead outside of Christ, we cannot change because dead people don’t change (ok, they rot/decay, but their behavior doesn’t improve). If we are alive in Christ we cannot change because the life of Christ is our source of life, and He doesn’t change (Hebrews 13:8).
Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to change--because it’s impossible. We are, however, told that we can be transformed by the renewing life of Christ in us working from the inside-out to produce a harvest of godliness in our attitudes and behavior (Romans 12:2). The Greek word for “transform” is ìåôáìïñöïù . We get our word “metamorphosis” from this word. It means to be transformed from one state (in this case, the state of death) to a new state (becoming alive) by another, more powerful, form of life forcing its way to the outside from the inside. The life of Christ is in us if we are genuinely born again. This life needs to transform us and manifest itself in our behavior.
So how do we work with God to produce this transformation in our lives? The simple, not to be confused with easy, answer to this question is that we must come into intimate relationship with Jesus. Let me be clear: I am not talking about praying a canned prayer, becoming a churchgoer, and walking in a superficial affiliation with Jesus; I’m talking about a living, vibrant, personal, passionate, and intimate relationship with Jesus. We need to allow Him, through the Holy Spirit, to speak to us (through the scriptures and directly) and shine His light into our lives. This takes courage because, if you are like me, you won’t very much like a great deal of what you will hear and see.
Once we become God’s home (1 Corinthians 6:19), then we can talk about doing a housecleaning. The light of God will shine into the dark places and reveal the condition of our hearts--and then it is decision time. It’s like when you turn on a light in a room of your home and see that the room is a mess. We can do one of two things at this point: we can turn out the light and walk away while trying to forget what we just saw, or we can get to work cleaning up the place. Fortunately we have a Helper, the Holy Spirit, to do the heavy lifting and deep cleaning.
Do not be fooled by appearances. We are not alive because we appear to be alive. And we are not alive because we are more animated than our neighbor. Such comparison is not a good idea (2 Corinthians 10:12b). We are alive only because we are in relationship with God through Jesus Christ whose life indwells us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. If we call ourselves Christians, but are living outside of Christ, we are no more alive than the Jews of Jesus’ day who refused to come to Him so He could give them life (John 5:39, 40).
Be brave. Dare to ask yourself the tough question, “Am I alive in Christ, or am I a living cartoon?” I will believe you no matter how you answer this question, but I’m not the one you have to convince.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 03/12/2009 at 7:39pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Eternal Kingdom
A powerful crystal clear message is emanating from God to the people of Planet Earth. Every living thing on earth will be impacted by the potency of the primal impartation proceeding from the throne. The eternal kingdom of heaven is beginning to overwhelm the world and eventually every knee shall bow either in worship or in judgment.
God’s Plan to Rule through Man
God decreed a contract with man at the time of man’s creation. He limited Himself to work with man in governing the planet but placed His Spirit within man to guide and empower him to carry out his function of ruling the planet God’s way. Adam broke the contract and lost the potential of ruling the planet God’s way. Jesus redeemed that potential in man that was lost when Adam fell. God is yet in the process of re-establishing His kingdom in Christ ruling through man on earth. We have come to a significant milestone in that process.
For two millennia since the Holy Spirit came to again dwell with man, God has been seeking and preparing a holy people to carry the kingdom of God in word and deed to the world. Not until this current season has there been the preaching and demonstration of the gospel of the kingdom of God coming forth on a worldwide scale. There is now a remnant of people who are dead to their self-life and alive in Christ. Christ Jesus dwells in them by the Holy Spirit and is doing the will and works of God through them. God is now finding a people in whom the fire of God and the powers of heaven are being released to cleanse and return Planet Earth to the rule of the kingdom of God.
The Dawn of Kingdom
The eternal kingdom is beginning to manifest in willing volunteers bringing forth the glory of the Morning Star. The glory of God is rising and the light of God is dawning leaving no middle ground. As the kingdom comes forth, every soul will either receive and enter the kingdom or reject it. Nothing that defiles will enter. Great darkness and strong delusions will separate those who will not leave their darkness from those who are of the light and are entering the kingdom.
Psa 110:3: Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth.
2 Th 2:11-12: And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
We all were in darkness regarding the pure, holy realm of the kingdom of God. But many who sat in darkness have seen a great light and are coming toward the light out of darkness. The light of the kingdom came to earth in Jesus and after His ascension to the right hand of the throne of God returned to the world in the Holy Spirit to manifest the light of the kingdom in Christ Jesus’ corporate body. The light of the kingdom is again beginning to shine brightly in a world of darkness.
Mat 4:16-17: The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Isa 60:1-2: Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
It is beginning.
This is not just Bible teaching. This is a current reality of the kingdom of God coming forth as Christ is being formed in His people. The brightness of His glory is encompassing and overwhelming lives of those who are being given eyes to see and ears to hear. By the Spirit the kingdom message is emanating from the throne. This is the beginning of the season of the manifest glory of God as the pattern city, the New Jerusalem, is coming down from heaven to earth. Because this is fulfillment of what has gone before, there has never been a more glorious time in the recorded history of the world than that which is beginning in this season. However, only those coming into the kingdom reality are even aware of the manifesting glory of God. Others who are not entering may mock and scoff at the revelation of the coming glorious New Jerusalem lifestyle.
Part time Christians will not be able to continue on the fence seeking to prosper from a mixture of light and darkness. No one will survive or remain with one foot in God and one in the darkness of the world. Purification and fully mature holiness is a work of Christ by the Holy Spirit for those who will come to God with their whole hearts. Abandoning all of the other gods that have been a part of life in the passing church age is part of entering the kingdom age.
Rev 21:27: But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
The primal impartation from the throne is the good news (gospel) of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. And those who truly receive it and are cleansed will enter the kingdom of heaven lifestyle. God will wipe away all our tears from the loss of all things including the loss of those who would not turn from their darkness to receive the light of the kingdom. The presence of the Lord and the Father dwelling with those who enter will be so glorious and so fulfilling that all loss and pain will be fully healed. There shall be no more tears once He has wiped them away. Love and pure worship will fill the earth and the works of evil will no longer be a factor in the glorious world of righteousness, peace and Joy.
Now is our time to lay aside all and move toward the light of the real kingdom of God within our hearts and flow it into the world around us. Our addiction to religion and religious church systems can and will be broken if we choose to seek first (above all else) the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The great devastation of all the things we have trusted in is for the purpose of turning people to the kingdom of God.
The whole earth is becoming engulfed in the birth pangs of the kingdom.
Acts 14:22: …. "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."
The great Babylon of world commerce and religion based on greed and wanton pleasure seeking must come down and may have now already begun to fall.
Rev 18:2: And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!
Rev 18:4: And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
Rev 18:8: "Therefore her plagues will come in one day; death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.
Rev 18:10: "standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, 'Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.'
Rev 18:11: "And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore:
The glorious heavenly city of New Jerusalem must come forth to rule the earth with the ways of heaven and pure worship based on love, righteousness, peace, and joy.
Rev 21:2-4: Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
The power of Christ has come in holy people (mature sons) of God to cast down the works of the enemy and overcome him. In Christ there is power over all the power of the enemy. Let the mighty army of Christ in His people arise in the power of His love. Let the whole earth rejoice; our great salvation has come and the kingdom of our God has come in the power of His Christ. Glory to God! Amen.
Rev 12:10-11: Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
God may be the only one who knows the details and timing of all the fullness of kingdom. However, we know how long His kingdom government will continue to increase.
Isa 9:7: Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
The eternal kingdom always was, now is, and forever shall be, and it shall reign on earth.
The Kingdom Growth Guides are to the best of my knowledge at this time the most comprehensive kingdom of God impartation tools available. To download all 52 kingdom growth guides free of charge, Go Here:
Keep on pursuing love. It never fails
and His kingdom never ends.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 03/18/2009 at 6:33pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The Pain of Love & The Power of Grace
By Ron McGatlin
Inner pain has a way of reducing us from our self-elevated place of reliance upon our independent, self-promoting tendency toward haughtiness. Inner emotional pain from rejection, loss, or lack of respect among peers and loved ones can be a great blessing to our lives as it tends to bring down all our self-made castles of self-sufficiency. Failure of our self-promotional enterprises can bring us to utter dependence on our Savior, Lord and King to lean our soul into the comfort and rest in His pure sweet love. Soon our hearts are melted and our strength turned to weakness as His strength gently flows into our souls. Thus the progressive death of our self-life is making room for His holy pure life of love and power to fill the place vacated by our demise.
2 Cor 12:9: And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
In a very real sense, our sorrow is turned into joy, His joy. We enter greater peace and rest in the warmth of His love, glory abounds within and flows the joy of the Lord outwardly in strength to a needy world around us. Through the sorrow of the pain of the loss of our self-focused ambitions, we become fountains of living water flowing into the dry lands of our brothers and sisters. We become lights of love and joy in the deep darkness of a world of people who have gone astray from the God who formed them. The love of God is the primary ministry of His sent ones sent into this life to suffer for righteousness sake, imparting the kingdom of God and His righteousness into the world.
1 Pet 4:12: Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
Jesus did not come to build our kingdoms.
The comforter did not come to encourage and sustain us in our pursuit of other gods and self-reliant building of our kingdoms of pleasure-seeking and the love of money and the things it will buy. Our pride in our abilities and cunning works of competitive accomplishments will be broken to pieces and dissolved before we truly enter the kingdom of heaven lifestyle. The fall of our personal and corporate Babylon is part of the death beyond which we enter the resurrection life of Christ Jesus filling our spirit, soul, and body with His supernatural life of love and power from heaven.
Father, we thank you for the pain of death that leads to resurrection life, filling us with the glorious reality of Christ’s life of pure holy love. We receive your progressive holiness clearing the land of our hearts from darkness part by part until there remains no place for the darkness of the enemy. From the inner core of our spirit to the extremities of our soul and body let your holiness progressively occupy until we are pure and holy as You are holy. Thank You, Father, that we are not trapped in sin and can truly live and walk by the Spirit in Christ with Christ fully living in our earthly bodies in holiness. Thank You for the pain of death that produces progressive holiness filling every cell of our body and every moment and movement of our lives. Amen
Man’s godless kingdoms are falling.
Our pride-filled shrines of religious doctrines designed to demonstrate our human wisdom and knowledge by dissecting and explaining our human perspectives of infinite God are crumbling. Our castles built upon human principles and concepts taken from the wisdom of God but stripped of the life and Spirit of God are imploding upon their shifting foundations of sand.
Human government based upon the earthly wisdom of man was never a suitable and workable governance for the nations of the world. Throughout history all governments have failed and all-powerful nations have crumbled. Every form and type of government has failed and democracy without God is doing the same. Even as we watch in this day, the world’s governments are failing. Powerful spirits have infiltrated and are subversively devouring the carcasses of dead religion and godless secularism that were fueled by the gods of greed and self-indulgent pleasure seeking. The wealth and prosperity of the land is being devoured as the great harlot of Babylon is burning and her smoke arising to heaven.
Holiness unto God is advancing.
The land is being cleared as the progressive holiness of the kingdom of God is being formed in pure-hearted people of God who have no respect for the past ways of Babylonian practice. This is a people who through painful death have come to resurrection life in Christ Jesus and despise their past lives in Babylon. They will not tolerate any longer the devious beliefs that sin must continue in their mortal bodies mixed with the grace of God.
They are grasping the great principle that grace is not now and never was a covering for continued existence of sin and immoral ways in their lives. Grace is not a whitewash that causes God to be blinded to the evil in the hearts of man. Grace is the influence of God on the heart overcoming sin. Jesus did not die on the cross to make it acceptable for us to continue to live with sin in our hearts. Jesus died and rose again to abide in His people by the Holy Spirit to destroy sin and all the works of the devil. Grace is the powerful influence of God to live holy now in this life apart from sin. Grace is the work of God to completely cleanse us and empower us to live holy lives as He is holy. The Greek word translated grace is “charis.”
charis, khar'-ece; from G5463; graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstr. or concr.; lit., fig. or spiritual; espec. the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude).
The grace of God is appropriated by faith. The works of grace are released by faith. If we believe, grace will work to purify our hearts from sin that Christ Jesus can fully live in us doing the same works and greater works than He did on earth in His natural human body. True faith in God does not exist without producing works of the grace of God in the heart and life of the believer.
James 2:18-20: But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe; and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
Perhaps the greatest aspect of the grace of God is the indwelling Christ totally influencing our hearts and reflecting out in our lives. Yes, it is the work of God and something that no natural man can do, but it is not a covering for sin. It is the gift of power to annihilate sin and set us free to live holy lives in this world. The mercy of God forgives our sin through the cross. The grace of God destroys our sinful ways by the resurrection life of Christ empowering us to live pure and holy lives as Christ lives in us.
Rom 5:10: For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (His life in us.)
2 Cor 4:11: For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Completed salvation by grace through faith includes cleansing from sin as well as forgiveness of sin.
Titus 2:11-14: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing (manifestation) of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
The destruction of Babylon is related to the arising of God’s holy people.
Holy people empowered in the grace of God are the catalyst for the progressive cleansing of the land. They are the sons (male and female) that are beginning to demonstrate the kingdom of heaven on earth. As the number of holy sons increases in the earth, God will cleanse the land before them. God will progressively cleanse the land as the holy people of God are prepared to occupy the land.
The fire of God will cleanse the land of all evil ways and works, the very rudiments of the wicked along with all they have done or built by their lust, greed, sorcery, evil strife, carousing, rebellion, and unloving ways, will be totally dissipated and burned. Their evil works and power will be dissolved by the fire of God's love through repentance and receiving the grace of God or by the fire of God in judgment.
Joel 2:3: A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them.
Psa 97:3: A fire goes before Him, And burns up His enemies round about.
Beauty For Ashes
The kingdom of God will arise from the ashes of destruction. The remnant of holy New-Jerusalem Bride people will occupy, heal, and restore the earth in the glory of God.
Isa 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
Isa 61:2: To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
Isa 61:3: To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."
Isa 61:4: And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.
The progressive holiness of God is moving and this whole thing may be much bigger than we have even imagined in the past. Christ in you (His pure and holy people) is the hope of glory and is very practical and real in this life now.
Isa 9:7: Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Mat 6:10)
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 03/26/2009 at 10:55am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Royal Bloodline
By Ron McGatlin
(Note: This word may need to be prayerfully meditated to grasp the magnitude of the subject at hand. I believe this to be perhaps at least one of the most important considerations as we continue through times of change and transformation into a greater reality of the Kingdom of God governance and lifestyle. – Ron)
God continues to move us forward in spiritual revelation of His kingdom through intimate relationship with Him in the Spirit. Life is like a pleasant garden of daily freshness and beauty as we commune with and partake of His life. We are transformed as we drink of His life and eat of His character and nature. The brightness of His presence reveals His absolute holiness, the depth of His love and the strength of His power. Truly His kingdom is perfect righteousness, peace and Joy IN THE HOLY SPIRIT (Rom 14:17).
Truly the meaning of His words “to drink of His blood and eat of His flesh” is glorious when heard through the ears of the spirit (John 6:51-57). True spiritual communion is intimately partaking of the life of Christ, the spiritual life-blood and the spiritual bread-of-life, which is His life, character and nature. This spiritual reality is forever pictured for us in the natural act of partaking of natural bread and wine. As Jesus broke the bread and passed the cup, He said, “Take. Eat. This is My body.” and “Drink. This is My blood of the new covenant.” This powerful prophetic picture with natural bread and natural wine is to remind us that we must also eat of the spiritual bread and wine. Partaking of Jesus is brought to our remembrance every time we eat a natural meal. Since we eat daily we are reminded daily to eat the spiritual bread and the spiritual wine by partaking of Christ in the Spirit. We are transformed in this intimate communion.
Natural life is in natural blood. The Spirit of Christ is life unto the spiritual body as blood is to the natural body. Natural nourishment and strength is in eating natural bread. Spiritual nourishment and strength is in the partaking of the character and nature of Christ, the bread of life. As we partake of Him in the Spirit, His Spirit is formed in us. The substance of His Spirit flows through our spirit-man and His character and nature permeates our natural bodies. Thus, we become of the “Royal Bloodline” of God in Christ Jesus. Selah.
We are created to be kings and priests - kings ruling in the natural world and priest relating to Spirit God in the heavenly realm (Rev 1:6). You and I are spirit beings who have a soul (mind, will and emotions) and live in a natural earthly body (1 Th 5:23). We are given the ability to function in the natural world and in the spiritual world. Only human beings have this potential. No other being is created to be a spiritual being and live in a natural body at the same time. In our natural body we have the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Natural things are patterned after spiritual things. The natural body is also patterned after the spiritual body and made in the image of Spirit God. The same five senses are recognizable in our spiritual body as are in our natural body. Selah.
Human beings are designed to relate to Spirit God and the natural world as caretakers or stewards of God’s earthly creation according to His desire and instructions communicated from Spirit God to spirit man. We are designed to be the interface between Spirit God and natural earth. We are to be intercessors between earth and heaven and interveners from heaven to earth. Therefore, through Christ we relate to God by our spirit bodies and to the world by our natural bodies. Our soul receives God’s life and order from Spirit God in the heavenly realm and receives feedback data from the natural world and then makes creative decisions that impact life on earth. Our original assignment from God as given to Adam at the time of his creation is to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion (Gen 1: 26-28).
First the Natural Then the Spiritual
Traditionally we have seen the passage below as referring only to the afterlife. However, I believe that with the revelation of the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ being formed in His people by the Spirit that we are not only of the man of dust but also of the heavenly man Christ Jesus. Christ is being spiritually formed in us to the measure of the stature of Christ (Eph 4:13). This is the mystery of Christ in you the hope of glory (Col 1:27).
1 Cor 15:46-49: However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
In redemption, natural is first and movement is toward spiritual. In original creation the spiritual is first as all natural things are created from the spiritual into the natural. Natural creation is patterned after the spiritual existence. In this way God reveals something of Himself in His creation (Rom 1:19-20) (Heb 11:3).
In the spiritually mature sons of God there is a Spirit-being filling the form of the natural bodies. The Spirit-body of Christ is filling our natural bodies transforming the natural man from the image of the man of dust into the image of the heavenly man. Selah.
Gal 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me….”
John 14:20: "At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
John 15:4: "Abide in Me, and I in you.”
John 17:23: "I in them, and You (Father) in Me; that they may be made perfect in one,”
The Resurrected Christ
Is it perhaps possible that the Spirit of the resurrected Christ-life could abide within and transform our earthly dust-body? Could it be that the spiritual substance of the life-blood of the resurrected Christ could produce the life of Christ in His people before natural death? Is there a potential life of faith appropriating the same character and nature of Christ doing the same works that Christ Jesus did in his natural body on earth? Is it real that Jesus Christ is alive and well at the right hand of the Father in Heaven and at the same time in His Body and Bride on earth by His Spirit?
If so perhaps this would explain how the early apostles witnessed the same works as Jesus through their own lives after Pentecost. It might also explain the many testimonies and reports of miracles worldwide in this season. Could this explain the mature sons of God that the whole creation is groaning and waiting for to bring its redemption?
Rom 8:18-22: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
The sufferings of this present time are a part of preparation for the glory that shall be revealed in us. God is preparing a pure holy people to become the resurrection life of Christ Jesus to redeem the kingdoms of earth. God will have sons (male and female) that will NOT merchandise the powerful life of Christ. There will be men and women with clean hands and pure hearts that will endure the sufferings of being a light of the resurrected life of Christ in a dark world and ascend the hill of the Lord.
All things considered, we have entered a most glorious time. People around the world and especially in the western world are beginning to search for a better way than they have lived in the past. Eyes are beginning to look up in search of something to trust in as their leaders, governments, economies and shallow religions crumble before them. At the same time raging fires of evil oppressors threaten to overtake them and take them into bondage.
Fear is negative faith. It is the opposite of faith in God. Many are beginning to search for faith to combat their fear. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. However, there certainly is a lot more to intimately relating to Him than the beginning repentance and turning toward Him. We are possibly entering one of the most fertile seasons of all time for preaching and demonstrating the gospel of the kingdom of God. I believe many of you reading this were born and are here for such a time as this. Arise and shine for the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
Isa 60:1-5: Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. "Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/03/2009 at 4:33am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The Path to Rest in the Kingdom
By Ron McGatlin
A troubled world seeks rest, but most people do not find it. Many troubled Christians also continue unsuccessfully to seek a place of rest in this life. A myriad of factors may be involved in the lack of rest. However, it appears that one troubling base concern is foundational to many, if not all unrest in believers. We can dig deeper and trace the path backward to its source. In other words we can uncover and recognize the path of unrest and perhaps also discover the path that leads to rest in the Kingdom of God.
The Pathology of Unrest in the Kingdom
Probably most people, if asked about what troubles them, would express some form of a sense of lack or need within their life or the world around them that they are unable to control or fix. This lack of control, or the power to fix, leads to fear concerning the potential results of the situation. The fear of lack or need may take different forms such as worry, anxiety, phobias of many sorts, jealousy, coveting, greed, inferiority, and many others.
On the flip side of fear is pride and other related heart attitudes such as arrogance and haughtiness. The flip side of fear (pride) shows up when through human strength and cunning a person is able to successfully fulfill some or all of their recognized needs. Pride is the same thing as fear only expressed differently, and both stem from lack of faith in God. The path of unrest leads backward first to fear / pride. Fear comes from a lack of faith in God, or said another way, unbelief toward God.
What is below the unbelief in God? From where does the lack of faith come? The next step backward in the path is not hearing God.
Rom 10:17: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Unbelief or lack of faith comes from not hearing God and originates in the lack of intimate experience with God in the Spirit. Not experiencing God’s love and power is the path to lack of real faith. One may have knowledge of the written word of God and build a pseudo-belief system upon that knowledge and call it faith. However, true faith will not be formed without the practical real experience of intimate relationship with Spirit God.
To look at the next step backward down this path we must ask, what is the cause of the lack of experiencing intimate relationship and interaction with God? You may not like this and want to debate it, but please give this time for the Holy Spirit to confirm or deny. There is only one basic cause of our being separated from the experience of intimate fellowship and relationship with God in the Spirit. In a word we are separated from the intimate presence of God by our disobedience.
Isa 59:2: But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
God’s love is unconditional.
God’s love does not fail yet His holy intimate presence cannot partake of our sin of disobedience. Our disrespect for His love and provision is indeed painful in His heart and causes a great loss to us. The kingdom of God – New Jerusalem lifestyle potential - is at risk when we willfully turn from His guidance by His Spirit.
God’s provision is fully adequate to reconcile us from the penalty and cleanse us from the practice of sin. Our part is to be fully willing to receive His provision of reconciliation through the cross and the cleansing of the practice of sin by the resurrected life of Christ abiding within us by His Spirit.
Rom 5:10: For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
The penalty for all our sin was fully paid for at the cross. The practice of sin is being cleansed by His life. Jesus is alive and abides in His people who abide in Him. His life is holy and without sin. We are being saved from the practice of sin by the indwelling life of Christ. Those who are of Christ cannot practice sin. We are not separated from God as a penalty to sin but by our not abiding in Christ in the Spirit. We could be counting on going to heaven when we die but be missing the kingdom of heaven life with its rest now in this life.
1 John 3:9: Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
1 John 3:5-7: And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
Jesus on the Cross paid the penalty for our sin, but that by itself does not take away our sinning in this life. His manifestation in us by His Spirit takes away our sin. Jesus in us causes us to stop sinning, thus taking away sin.
We may have received the work of the cross paying the penalty for sin but may have not yet received the further work of the resurrection life of Christ producing His life in our bodies. This separates us from intimate fellowship with God, which causes us to not be able to hear, which limits our faith, which causes fear, which causes unrest in the sense of lack of power and provision.
When Adam disobeyed God there was no Bible, no ten commandments, and no religious structures. It was not the Bible word or the church word that He heard and disobeyed. Adam walked with God in intimate fellowship and knew God’s desire and spoken word for himself and for Eve as well. Yet Adam chose to exercise his free will and disobey God’s spoken word. Adam lost his close fellowship with God. He not only lost intimate fellowship with God, but he also lost the blessings and benefits of fellowship. He lost the kingdom of God lifestyle.
God did not stop loving Adam and Eve. However, the close intimate fellowship and the blessings of life in the prepared Garden of Eden was lost, and Adam’s life became dependent upon his own strength separated from intimate fellowship and special benefits of his previous relationship with God.
Adam made a personal decision that cost him and all who came from him to lose intimate fellowship with God. All mankind has another personal decision involving obedience to God. That decision is to walk in what God has provided to restore us to intimate fellowship with Him. Deciding not to walk in the promise of the Father for our redemption and our cleansing is disobedience to His desire, which is clearly expressed in His spoken and written word. Our disobedience prevents our intimate walk with God and causes our loss of power and provision needed to overcome fear and remain in His rest.
God’s love for us does not change with our disobedience. However, our intimate fellowship with Him is broken. The blessings and benefits of that intimate communion are lost. We return to being powerless people unable to bring God’s authority to bear on situations in our life and in the world around us. We know things need to be better. We know things need to be in God’s order, and we suffer frustration or unrest because things are not in order, and we lack the power to control or fix them. Therefore, we are missing the kingdom of God lifestyle.
The Father’s Promised Provision
Jesus spoke of the promise of His Father after He was risen from the dead and before His ascension to the Father.
Luke 24:49 "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."
Acts 1:4-5: And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Immediately prior to His ascension, He spoke of them receiving power when the Holy Spirit came upon them.
Acts 1:8: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Gal 3:13-14: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Many believers are not at rest, because they have stopped at the cross and failed to move on to the resurrection and receive the resurrected Spirit of Christ in the Holy Spirit. The provision of the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, is the source of love, power, and wisdom to overcome sin and every work of the enemy. It is the power and love of Christ in us to establish the reign of the kingdom of heaven in our lives and in the world around us.
His power and love produces righteousness in us. Righteousness produces peace and joy. Rest in the kingdom of God is love, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/10/2009 at 7:57am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Is Babylon Burning?
By Ron McGatlin
Even a casual observer of fundamental world systems is struck with an impression of general deterioration and decay that appears on a course toward complete disintegration. World economies threaten to collapse, and governments are buried in debt. Moral decay is mind boggling as lasting values that have served to strengthen families and nations for centuries are thrown off.
Agrarian lifestyles that fed and nurtured people throughout history have been traded for energy dependent systems of production that cannot sustain life of the masses without huge amounts of oil and other energy sources. Already numbers of people starve to death daily in parts of our world. Even small interruptions in the flow of oil can create chaos. An extended interruption of energy flow would starve many millions of people who no longer have the natural understanding or the ability to produce the necessities of life for themselves.
Corrupt leadership continues to be exposed in big business, governments, and churches. Western world family structures continue in decay. Violence continues to increase, and terror is a factor of life worldwide. Religious strife threatens to engulf the world as powerful militant religions seek to intimidate or eradicate others.
Our planet is changing. Forests are shrinking, deserts are growing, and ice caps are dwindling. These planetary changes are disrupting patterns of weather that have been relatively stable for millennia. Agriculture suffers from these changes and is affecting the world food supply. Animal species are threatened with extinction and oceans experience depleting numbers of living creatures.
The deteriorating world conditions are the result of mankind’s decisions to order their lives apart from the provisions of God’s love, wisdom, and power. God loves this world and gave His only begotten Son to redeem it from the destructive ways of the devil (John 3:16).
The declining world situations are not because God is angry and decided to send severe judgment. They are the result of man’s ways. God created the earth and created man to have dominion on earth. God knows what will make the planet and all that is on it prosper and has provided all that is needed to manage the world in such a way that life could be sustained and blessed on earth. Mankind needs only to avail himself of the provisions of God and appropriate the ways of God from heaven into the earth to manage the earth as the kingdom of God producing righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
New Jerusalem and the Israel of God coming forth on earth is the pattern for the life of the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. There is great conflict on the earth as the New Jerusalem pattern city is in opposition to Babylon now ruling much of the planet. New Jerusalem is the city of the light of God. Babylon is the city of the darkness of the enemy. When and where Babylon’s patterns rule, there is movement toward darkness and death. When and where the New Jerusalem patterns rule, there is movement into light and life.
Is Babylon and all it has built burning?
Babylon has already fallen spiritually and became a habitation of demons. Great authority and illumination of truth has come down announcing the fall of Babylon. The illumination or the revelation of New Jerusalem as the Bride of Christ and the kingdom of heaven potential in God’s people now is making way for the final burning of the Babylonian city as the ruling pattern city of the systems of the world.
Rev 18:1: After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory.
Rev 18:2: And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison (guarding of) for every foul spirit, and a cage (guarding of) for every unclean and hated bird!
The translation of verse two makes it sound like the demons inhabiting Babylon are in prison or a cage. The same word is used for both prison and cage and means a guarding. Looking into the Greek causes us to see that the evil spirits are guarding the prisons and cages instead of being in them. Some of the works of the imprisoning evil spirits in Babylon are pride, greed, lust, coveting, competition, addictions, strife, and violence.
Rev 18:3: "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury."
What is mystery Babylon?
Some have believed the religious church system to be the whole of Babylon. Yes, the religious church systems are highly infected with and ordered by mystery Babylon. However, Babylon is much broader and has captured much more than religious systems. Yes, the wayward church system is primary because it should have been the force of the kingdom preventing Babylon from taking over the world systems. Some of the world systems taken over by Babylon are commerce, industry, family life, education, media, entertainment, recreation, world economy, and governments.
Babylon is a spiritual and universal ruling pattern city of satan’s design bringing his governance over the kingdoms of the world that fell into his hands through the fall of Adam. Fallen Babylon is now burning with fires of God for destruction of the enemy’s ruling city from domination of the world.
Rev 18:4: And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
In the natural realm fire reduces matter to smoke, gases, and ashes leaving nothing to rebuild with except those things that will not gasify or liquefy (burn) at the temperature of the specific fire. The fire of God brings destruction to evil and what evil has built. The same fire of God brings cleansing from Babylonian ways that have infected the people of God. The presence of God causes real holiness in the people of God. Pure and holy people of God become filled and empowered with the joy of the Lord to bring forth the New Jerusalem pattern of life replacing the dissolved Babylonian rule.
Rev 18:8-11: "Therefore her plagues will come in one day; death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, 'Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.' And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore.”
The New Jerusalem pattern city of God is coming forth.
Rev 21:9: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife."
Rev 21:2-4: Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Rev 21: 7: He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”
Luke 12:31-32: "But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Mat 5:5: “Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.”
Mat 5:10: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
1 Cor 6:9-11: Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Rev 21:27: But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
God has chosen to give dominion to mankind and will not intervene without the agreement of mankind on earth. The world is reaping what man has sown.
There is a remnant who are of the seed of Christ being prepared to re-seed the earth with Christ and rule and reign with Him.
The old world of evil is being destroyed, and the new earth is the redeemed and cleansed earth filled with the kingdom of heaven.
The Wife of the Lamb will bring forth children unto the Lord that will not know the fallen ways of the first Adam but will be children of God. Many sons shall be brought to glory and God will have a successful colony of heaven on earth.
All things are being made new. However, we must first see the burning or dissolving of the old - the clearing of the land in His people and then in the world.
This is not a time to hold back or hide out. This is the time to run fast out of Babylon and toward New Jerusalem. Seek the kingdom of God in the Spirit. Repent and be cleansed of old Babylonian ways and be filled with the ways of Christ Jesus.
Pray not for the old systems to stand and keep on going, but pray for the people of God to be fully cleansed and empowered. Improved modifications of evil are still evil. The burning fire of the passionate love of the presence of God will set your heart and life on fire with passion for God and for His holiness filling the earth.
The burning love from God and for God will transform the humanly weak into the powerful carriers of the love, truth, wisdom, and power of God and nothing of the enemy will be able to stand before the remnant army of God. God is calling out the people of God and equipping many sons for glory.
Come out of Babylon now, and be filled with the Spirit of holiness and alive in the passion of His love and power. Now is the day for which you have been sent to this world. Now the gospel of the kingdom is being preached to the ends of the earth. The fields white for harvest are before you now. The grain is full-grown, and the tares are being removed and burned. The harvest time is beginning now. Are your sickles sharp? This is the time of your last call to come out and enter into the time of harvest.
Father, Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Amen and Amen!
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/17/2009 at 1:24pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
The Decision to Love - The Decision of Holiness
By Ron McGatlin
The call of God is again urgently sounding to the ends of the earth. It is as though there is a mighty fork just ahead in the river of life and time, and the current is carrying the entire world rapidly toward this great divide. There is not a third stream, only the two, and all human life is being divided into one or the other. The river of life and time does not stop for pause to consider, and once in the dividing waters the choice is made final. We are only assured of today in which to decide.
The urgent call from God is CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE. All mankind is being divided into two peoples: those who truly serve the Lord God and those who do not.
Joshua presented a similar challenge to the children of Israel. It was necessary for them to abandon the gods of their fathers from the other side of the river. It is urgent today that many of us leave the gods of our past and serve the one true God in sincerity and in truth.
Josh 24:14: "Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!
Josh 24:15: "And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Come out of deception.
This is a major call to come out of the deception of our other gods and into the glorious light of pure holy life in the one true God. For generations we have been seduced by other gods into unholy deception. We have called evil good and good evil. We have made ourselves as gods and served ourselves. Self-fulfillment and personal pleasure have taken many into the depth of deception of subconsciously seeing God as our servant to provide for us as we desire according to our own independent appetites.
Our fathers invented religious teachings to cover the unrighteousness of self-centered living in wanton pleasure seeking. They devised teachings that made us to be only beneficiaries and placed all responsibility on God for our righteousness and provision.
Teachings have today become popular among many that cause people to believe that they are holy and in right standing with God while they continue to walk in sinful disobedience to God and without intimate relationship with Him.
Wake up. It is not possible to continue in oneness with holy God and walk in sin.
Erroneous teaching has moved from legalism of keeping ourselves holy by fighting against inner self desires and keeping religious rules to the other extreme of believing we have no part in our living holy lives. This current error propagates that we all continue in sin and God makes that all right if we believe that he does. In this erroneous teaching it appears that the only recognized sin is the act of believing that we have sin. According to this teaching, even while we continue to walk in disobedience to God we should believe we have no sin. Thus there is no need for repentance or turning back to God from sin.
Holiness is a work of communion with God. Holiness never was and never will be a work of man using his natural effort to stop doing wrong and start doing right. Neither is holiness pretending that God does not see our continued walk in sin and believing that He calls our disobedient walk holy.
Holiness is a decision we make to love God. It is a process that begins with responding to the love of God by turning to Him and away from self and all other gods. As we make the turn of repentance, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, and we are free to enter through the rent veil of separation into intimate oneness with God. As we continue to truly abide in Him and He abides in us, we do not sin. We are continuously made holy in the passionate love relationship of oneness. We live to please God and are empowered by His love. We live wholly for Him and are dead to the old self-life and the life of striving to be holy.
If we draw back to walk apart from oneness with God and walk in the darkness of sin and say we have no sin, we make Him a liar and the truth is not in us. There remains no further sacrifice for us than is already given. There is no more God can do for us than has been done. If intimate oneness with the living God of all creation is not enough for us, there remains no more He can do. However, if we decide to confess our sin and turn back (repent), we are restored to the potential of oneness in God. It is our decision to respond to His love and become one with Him. However, if we walk in sin and say we have no sin because Jesus died for all men or for any other reason, we are deceiving ourselves.
1 John 1:6: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
1 John 1:8-9: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Love is first a decision.
Humans are so impressed with the feelings of natural love that for the most part have come to believe that they have no control over what or whom they love. We need to recognize that we have the ability to “set our affection.” We can decide to love whether feelings are present or not in the beginning.
Probably anyone reading this who has been involved in ministry to married couples have told a husband that Jesus said for him to love his wife and heard the reply. “I am trying to love her.” This usually means I am trying to have loving feelings, but the circumstances are such that I just don’t really feel love for her anymore. They do not recognize that love begins with a decision to love. Love involves deciding to lay down your life for another.
The same things are true regarding truly loving God. Deciding to love God with our whole hearts is the most important decision of life. The feelings may or may not be present at the moment of decision. However, as we draw near to God in the Spirit and lay down our lives, the love of God will overwhelm us and consume us into becoming one with Him. This is one of the great mysteries of the kingdom of God that religion has no ability to understand. This is true relational reality of being the Bride and becoming the wife of God fulfilling the greatest calling of all life. True holiness and purity of life without sin and disobedience is the result of truly becoming one with God.
1 John 3:5-7: And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
1 John 4:16: And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Mat 22:37-39: Jesus said to him, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Holiness comes through being in love with God. It is through this relationship that the substance of Christ flows into us, and we become one with Him and have love for our brothers. Loving God is first a decision that becomes a relationship that produces real holiness.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/23/2009 at 8:19am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
Vain Imaginations
By Ron McGatlin
One of the major goals of mankind is quality and length of life. The pursuit of happiness and freedom are considered noble goals in western civilizations. From our youth, independence and self-government are presented as desirable in the pursuit of happiness and freedom. Since the fall of Adam, a primeval desire of mankind has been to be free of all restraints and to experience the pleasure of fulfilled needs and desires. Self-preservation and fulfillment in life are among the most basic priorities of every animal living on the planet including humans.
Most dreams of life are woven from our basic desires. The visions we cast as we imagine potentials for our lives will establish the priorities from which decisions are made. In modern language of today, God could be asking this question for us to consider, “How is that working for you?”
Life lived for the benefit of the one who is living it is vanity. Emptiness awaits the one who seeks fulfillment in the dust of humanity. In the end, apart from seeking the real kingdom of God, life is all vanity. Even the noblest goal of man to give their life to help others to have a better life can be empty in the end without the kingdom of God. There is truly internal reward of gratification and increased blessing in our lives for blessing and helping others. However, if we lay down our lives to help others, and the ones we help do evil toward others and do not seek the kingdom of God, then what value or worth is there in what we have done? Is it not empty of lasting or eternal value? Is not our sacrifice in vain? At the end, to have lived a life apart from seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness is to have never really lived at all.
His righteousness involves obedience to His ways.
The drive to find fulfillment and purpose in life apart from God and His kingdom leads to vain imaginations. We imagine peace and joy will come as we accomplish the next dream of our hearts. We strive and reach to have more, be more, or do more. Each accomplishment brings, at best, a momentary satisfaction. There may be a temporary thrill of victory but quickly it becomes empty, and we are left to reach for another dream. If we gather a lot of money it is never enough to bring us joy and fulfillment that endures. The secure feeling and peace of mind of having much money stored up is soon shattered as it seems to take wings and is gone in the wind. We are again left empty of the fulfillment of real significance in our lives.
Prov 23:5: Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
Eccl 1:2-4: "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever.
Eccl 12:13: Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all.
Ultimate significance in life comes as we become one with God in His purposes. Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness aligns us with the purpose of God for our lives. Walking in the Spirit of God endues us with His attributes to carry out His purposes and results in righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Spirit. There is rest in the kingdom of God. Aligning with anything else by seeking first anything else leads to unrighteousness, lack of peace, and no joy in another spirit. There is no rest for our soul and spirit outside the kingdom of God. The blessings of God are upon the person who walks in the spiritual kingdom of God.
Psa 1:1-6: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Psa 2:1: Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
Kingdom age culture is different from church age culture.
For the most part, church age culture missed seeking the kingdom first. Kingdom age culture is beginning to be developed among an emerging generation of kingdom seekers and Spirit walkers.
One of the characteristics of church age culture is the token acknowledgement of God added into the lifestyle of the people. Attending services giving offerings and paying a clergyman to do the spiritual stuff while the pew people focus on seeking many other “good” things of life first. God is honored in words but not in the practical reality of life. Seeking the kingdom first does not mean seeking church activities first. It does not mean seeking relating to others in community first. Neither does it mean seeking to be a good family man first. Some of these things and others will have significant value for all who seek the kingdom first. However, in the end all are vanity without seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness first.
Mat 15:8-9: 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'
Many if not most Christians do not have a clear view of what the kingdom of God really is and what it is not. There is need for knowing what the kingdom really is that we are to seek first in life. It may not be easy to give our lives in seeking a generic concept of vague definition that is subject to many interpretations of natural minds.
For a greater understanding of the kingdom we are to seek, I heartily recommend experiencing the “Kingdom Growth Guides” available for free download at archive.openheaven.com .
Practical Kingdom of God Living
Christians have a tendency to see everything about the kingdom of God/heaven as religious and church-related. Is seeking the kingdom of God more than receiving Jesus as saviour, reading the Bible, and praying? These things are certainly primary to seeking the kingdom, but the kingdom involves one’s entire life. Attending church services one or two days a week and tithing ten percent of one’s income is not the whole thing. God wants the other six days and the other ninety percent to seek Him as well. God is more concerned about the six days and the ninety percent than the one day and the ten percent.
Seeking the kingdom of God means, in part, ordering one’s entire life by the sovereign rule of God.
It means walking in the Spirit of God, and dying to one’s self-life to the extent that Jesus can live within and rule every aspect of one’s life.
It means allowing the grace of God to empower one to overcome sin and weaknesses in one’s life.
It means to be so in tune with the love of God that serving God by serving Jesus in others is a natural result.
It means being so filled with the life of God by His Spirit that power and enthusiasm naturally flow from the life.
It means feeling the pain of others’ needs and becoming a part of the solution to meet their needs.
It means that there is nothing that even comes close to God in our lives. It means that without Him, we would have no life. But with Him we have abundant life, overflowing life - life flowing to others and the world around us, as rivers of living water.
It means we may become very active and busy serving God by serving others. Seeking the kingdom of God will probably result in our getting up earlier, and being more active in doing whatever God has given us to do. It may result in one becoming so active serving God by serving others, that one has neither time nor desire to watch hours of mindless TV, or play hours of useless video games.
Spectator religion and sports may no longer be the focus of one’s life. Seeking the kingdom may mean getting up from one’s seat in the grandstands and getting out on the playing field of real life. Involvement in the all-consuming adventure of truly seeking the kingdom of God and His righteous way of doing and being, in the real world, is far more exciting than watching any sports team, TV program, or video game, in the fantasy world.
Seeking the kingdom of heaven does not mean seeking God as a part of one’s life (Jer 29:13). It means seeking the kingdom of God to come forth in one’s daily living and the will of God to be done in one’s entire life (Mat 6:10). It means seeking God’s direction for one’s life activities such as: education, vocation, avocations, relations and recreations; and it means seeking His power to do the things He directs one to do (Prov 3:6) (Zec 4:6) (Phil 4:13).
Mat 6:33: "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 04/30/2009 at 6:11am
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
THE LAST CALL
by Ron McGatlin
A few days ago while in prayer, I received a strong word from the Lord that caused a great burden with underlying streams of precious hope. The most significant message of modern time is coming forth from God unto His people today. There has never been a more crucial moment for the people on Planet Earth than now. God is speaking to those to whom He has given a voice to speak out to make a final plea, a last call to all peoples now.
God is calling ONE MORE TIME for the people of America and every nation of the world to turn to Him with their whole hearts – to turn from the foolish pride and lofty ways of man – to turn from denying the God that made them and rejecting the Lord who loves them - the one who has paid the price for their return to the life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
This is NOT a last call before Jesus returns. It is NOT a last call before the end of the world. This is a season of last call to the people in spiritual Babylon. This is a last call to people of every faith and non-faith, a call to all who are NOT seeking first the real kingdom of God and His righteousness. Many of which may be making a token investment in acknowledging God but live their lives according to their flesh and not after the Spirit of God. This is the last call for masses of people worldwide to come to God and repent of rejecting their savior and King, the Lord Jesus in the practical reality of their lives.
Massive deception is consuming the people of the world. False god's of false religions are rising in power while many of God's people occupy themselves in pleasure-seeking and personal gain.
Many pleas and warnings have come forth. Many signs and works of God have been sent to catch the attention of mankind. Prophets for years have been receiving words of change. Again, I am not talking about the foolish soothsayers who have periodically predicted the end of the world. This is not about the end of the world; it is about the last call for multitudes to stop going the way they are going and turn around to face Jesus and connect with the work of the cross and the resurrection life in the Spirit. God is calling one more time for people to abandon their lives of self-provision and self-protection and to trust in God to fill them with real life, receiving His provision and His protection in His kingdom now.
This is a season of the last call to abandon religious hypocrisy and be filled with the Spirit of God. This is the last call for multitudes to fall upon their faces before God in repentance of their PRIDE and LOFTY ways of building their own kingdoms according to their own need, lust, greed, violence, and strife. The nations have strayed far from the paths of peaceful living in God and His kingdom ways of provision and protection.
The time of change is near. I do not know how long this last call will continue, but I am persuaded by the Spirit that it is the last opportunity for multitudes to avoid the natural results of their self-focused, pleasure-seeking ungodly living. Prior to 9-11 about ten years ago, I received a strong prophetic dream which has been and is now coming to pass. It is recorded in Basileia Letter Number 16. Here is a portion of that word.
The Loftiness of Man and the Kingdom of God
Have you ever experienced the serenity of walking in a beautiful forest of majestic tall trees on a warm sunny day? There is a feeling of security and comfort in the cool shade of the huge trees. One feels at ease and protected by the canopy of giant branches meshing together far overhead. You tend to feel small in the presence of the giant trees and may have a worshipful respect for the magnificent, stately, ancient trees.
This is how I felt as God spoke to me in a powerful prophetic dream about ten years ago. I walked about in the most beautiful oak forest I have ever seen. The trees were huge and over one hundred feet tall. They had magnificent limbs growing this way and that, forming unique patterns high in the trees. The tree trunks were very large and covered with distinctive rough oak bark. The trees were some distance apart, but they were so large that they all entwined together forming a beautiful green canopy high overhead.
Beneath the trees, the floor of the forest was open and free of brush. There were no pesky briars or thorny berry vines, no small growth to make walking difficult. I strolled about with ease admiring the awesomeness of the giant magnificent trees. I felt they must be hundreds of years old. There was a sense of strength and personal protection realizing they had stood against the elements with no apparent damage for centuries. Though I could catch small glimpses of bright sunlight through the canopy it was wonderfully shady and comfortably cool. There was no concern for heat or sunburn in such a protected environment. It seemed it would be a good place to remain forever and enjoy its comfort and protection.
I was well into the forest when I stopped short. The sound of a rushing strong wind came to my ears. Instantly I looked up toward the north from which the sound came. High above the earth one of the trees was being thrashed about by a strong wind from the north. Suddenly I heard great snapping sounds as the high limbs of the great tree began to break and started falling. Then the giant trunk snapped, and the whole tree was crashing toward the earth. I turned quickly to the east and started to run when I saw that the entwined trees were being broken by the first falling tree. The trees were crashing in the east, and I could not run in that direction. Instantly I turned to the south and started to run. But again the trees in that direction began to be broken by the others and were falling. By now the sound was horrendous as a great roar of snapping and crashing was everywhere. I turned to the west, and it was crumbling as well. As a cloud of thick dust began to rise and fill the air around me, I instinctively ran a few steps and dove to the trunk of one of the great trees. I wrapped myself up against it and nestled up against the huge trunk as the roar of crashing continued, and the dust boiled covering the entire scene.
I was unharmed and crawled out after the dust settled through the mass of tangled broken limbs to view a totally new scene. Not one tree, not even a very high trunk, or a very large piece of a tree was left. The entire magnificent forest was only a huge area of broken smashed pieces fit only for firewood. It was still a bright sunny day with only a few wispy white clouds in the sky but all the sense of protection and comfort no longer existed.
As I awoke from this dream I was very moved and somewhat afraid. I knew beyond any doubt that the dream was a prophetic word from God and could instantly think of many negative fearful possible interpretations. But I was not previously used as a prophet of disaster and was afraid to ask God the meaning. I really was not ready to know the full meaning of this dream and waited a day before asking God to reveal the interpretation of the dream to me.
I cautiously approached God with questions like, does this involve religion? I heard “yes,” but with a sense that there was more. I asked, does this involve the economy and political governments? Again the answer, “yes.” Knowing I was now ready, God spoke on and said, “It is the pride and loftiness of man.”
For many days since this dream I was consumed with it. Many questions arose as I went to the word and continued to seek Gods guidance in more fully understanding the meaning of this word. What exactly is the pride and loftiness of man that has stood majestically for centuries and is now coming down? Why were trees used to represent the loftiness of man as opposed to great cities or tall buildings etc.? How does this relate to the glorious revival and the establishment of Gods kingdom on earth now? When is this great crashing fall, which takes away the sense of security and comfort of many people?
Zec 11:1-2: Open your doors, O Lebanon, That fire may devour your cedars. Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, Because the mighty trees are ruined. Wail, O oaks of Bashan, For the thick forest has come down.
Isa 2:12-21: For the day of the LORD of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up; And it shall be brought low; Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, And upon all the oaks of Bashan; Upon all the high mountains, And upon all the hills that are lifted up; Upon every high tower, And upon every fortified wall; Upon all the ships of Tarshish, And upon all the beautiful sloops.
The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; The LORD alone will be exalted in that day, But the idols He shall utterly abolish.
They shall go into the holes of the rocks, And into the caves of the earth, From the terror of the LORD And the glory of His majesty, When He arises to shake the earth mightily.
In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver And his idols of gold, Which they made, each for himself to worship, To the moles and bats, To go into the clefts of the rocks, And into the crags of the rugged rocks, From the terror of the LORD And the glory of His majesty, When He arises to shake the earth mightily.
This is not doom and gloom! This is a removal of the past Babylonian ungodliness making room for the kingdom of God reality!
Yes, it is an awesome and terrible shaking! But only everything that lifts itself against God is coming down. God will be exalted above all else in the minds and hearts of man and in the entire earth. It is the manifest glory of the kingdom of God that is coming forth in the earth. It is the terror and the glory of God from which man is fleeing into the caves, and that causes him to cast away his idols.
Mat 3:2: …. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"
Mat 4:17: From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Jer 18:7-8: "The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it."
ONE MORE TIME the voice of God is calling for all people to turn to Him with their whole hearts and seek His kingdom and His righteousness above all else.
Let His voice be heard through His trumpets in every house and throughout all the land.
Let every media carry the message, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!
Begin now to capture the mountains of worldwide culture.
|
Back to Top
|
|
Ron McGatlin
Admin Group
Joined: 08/23/2004
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4141
|
|
Posted: 06/22/2012 at 3:15pm
|
IP Logged
|
|
|
update
|
Back to Top
|
|
|
|
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first
login
If you are not already registered you must first
register
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
|
