1. Walk in the Spirit – Walk with Christ
By Ron McGaltin
Many believers today desire and need more of the powerful, supernatural life of Christ in their lives. In the near future we may have even greater desire and need of increased supernatural guidance of God. The “day of the Lord” is coming against all that lifts itself against God (Isa 13:6-9).
In biblical history there have been many “day of the Lord” interventions of God. The “day of the Lord” is said to come against a people, tribe or nation for purifying God’s people through their repentance and turning to Him. Cleansing of the earth takes place as God’s people and those who will turn to Him are purified. A godly remnant always remains. Also the earth is cleansed by the destruction of the wicked, ungodly people, tribes and nations who will not turn to God. In all of the “day of the Lord” events recorded in scripture cleansing is involved for His people and destruction for the ungodly people and all they have built. (For more on “the day of the Lord” see Chapter 8 of “The Seventh Millennium” free download book. For more on fiery judgments study Chapter 7)
In the coming season of worldwide turbulent conditions caused by corrective and earth-cleansing works of God, it will be important to accurately hear and obey the intimate communication of our Lord by the Spirit. The righteous will want to accurately hear and follow the leading of the Lord by His Spirit in all areas of life and business. It will be important to be in the right place at the right time both spiritually and naturally to fully receive the provisions of the Lord.
Continuous Abiding
At Jesus’ baptism the Holy Spirit descended like a dove on Him and remained. Never before had the Holy Spirit permanently and continuously abode with anyone. Before Christ, the Spirit came upon people and empowered them for special purposes for a season. God often sent angels as messengers, and with a few such as Moses, He met with them personally apart from the rest of the people. However, not since before Adam fell has God permanently dwelled with anyone until Christ Jesus.
When Christ Jesus walked upon the earth in the Spirit, a number of disciples walked with Him as He went from place to place doing the works of God by the Holy Spirit. As the disciples followed Christ Jesus on His journeys and ministries, they followed the leadership of God in Him and observed the empowerment of God flowing through Christ. They also heard His words of heavenly wisdom and supernatural knowledge and understanding as He spoke and creation obeyed. When He sent them out alone and breathed the Spirit on them, they also were empowered to do the works of God.
Walking With Jesus
Every born-again, Spirit-filled child of God has the potential to walk in the Spirit and thereby walk with Christ Jesus in this life now. Every person reading this has before them the opportunity to be truly re-birthed as a new spiritual creation to walk with Christ Jesus in the Spirit observing Him do the works of God and speak powerful creative words of heavenly wisdom into the world. The potential reality of walking in the Spirit with the abiding Spirit of Christ within us is even more intimate than the disciples walking with Christ in His earthly body. Jesus was with the disciples, but after His spiritual return in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, He was in them just as He had promised them. Yet, He was still bodily seated at the throne of God.
John 14:17-20: "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. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
The Spirit of the Lord dwelling in His people is the confident expectation of the glory of God on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God potential is now dwelling within His people on earth. A generation is being formed that will live by the Spirit to walk in the Spirit carrying the reality of Christ in their mortal bodies to do the will and works of God on earth as it is in heaven. A generation is being transformed as we see the glory of the Lord within and manifest before us. The glory of the Lord is seen in one another as the Spirit of the Lord manifests His life among us.
2 Cor 3:18: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Gal 5:25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Christ Our Leader and King
Our lives are to be completely bowed before Him. Our independent self-life is never to arise again. It is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus that arises within us to stand strong and mighty with all love and assurance of peace and all power, humbly administrated to bring peace and goodwill toward mankind and Planet Earth. The people of God will see the glory of the Lord even as the fire of God dissolves all that lifts itself against God.
The light of God shall shine forth upon and through the mature sons of God and all who completely bow their lives to the King, even while deep darkness of cataclysmic fiery earth-cleansing judgments are upon the earth.
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.
No earthly man can lead us through this coming season of both worldwide turmoil and glory of God at the same time. Christ Jesus will lead us by His Spirit within and among us. True apostolic and prophetic people, gifted with a mature abundance of Christ Jesus manifesting in their lives, will help with foundational leadership. Every child of God must build upon the foundation with their lives in complete obedience to the Spirit of Christ within themselves.
Christ in us is not only the hidden mystery of the confident expectation of glory; it is also the light of the world. Follow the light of Christ within and in the God-sent apostolic and prophetic leaders. Do not follow any man or system that is not the light of Christ. We will know the difference only if our self-life is totally bowed before Christ Jesus and His resurrection life has arisen within us.
If we continue to have any amount of trust in systemized religion or secular ungodly men and their teachings, we will be not recognize the God-sent, light-bearing leaders. We will not have the clear light of the risen life of Christ within. We will be deceived and suffer swift chastening and must quickly repent and bow only to the Lord and King Christ Jesus.
God is raising up a new generation of kingdom leaders.
Keep on pursuing love. It never fails
and His kingdom never ends.
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
2. RECONCILIATION
By Kriston Couchey
MY FATHER AND I
It was 3:00 AM when my brother burst in to my dorm room with the news that my father had been killed in a plane crash. My father was an apostle in function, planting churches wherever He went, but unrecognized in a church organization that did not believe they existed anymore. His plane went down in Homer Alaska while on his way to another small group of believers He was discipling.
As I look back today on the days of my father's life and our relationship, I cannot help but feel both sadness and joy. Sadness comes from the incident at around 4 years old. My father was angry, and when he shoved me I accidentally smashed into a door frame. I was going to please him by cleaning those greasy shoes, but all I got in return was anger and pain. Pain that kept me from bonding with him for years. Even after this incident his anger quenched my ability to express my own feelings. I know he had grief over my lack of affection toward him after that.
The joy came with his attempts to try and reach me. In my high school years he took guitar lessons with me just to get close to me. He played cribbage and Othello with me with a vengeance. When I graduated from high school we became golfing buddies. But the real joy I had was my opportunity to honor him the summer before his death in the fall of 1987. I was 22 and commercial fishing in Alaska. The Spirit of the Lord came on me while at sea and I wrote a letter to my father. I had never written my father at all, but I wept and wept as I wrote to my Father how proud I was of him. I remember writing: "I want to be half of the man you are". That letter was healing to me. I was able to express to him the love and honor I had never been able to fully express. Little did I know it would be the only letter I would ever write him. He wrote a letter back with love and encouragement. My father was my spiritual as well as earthly father, and I am proud to be called his son.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. ~Heavenly Father~
A PARALLEL SAGA
I have experienced the same type of dynamic in the church that I experienced with my own father. I remember trying so hard to be submitted and pleasing, yet finding that any reality I received from God was a threat and caused anger. I was doing what I thought was right and helpful. It is hard to be rejected and even mocked by those who were meant to raise you up into maturity. After a time you become cool toward the fathers and their ways in order to not be hurt anymore. Any relationship is cut off and no bonding happens. You go somewhere else where there are no fathers and all are orphaned sons. I see this in the church today and it makes me weep. The sons who should have been trained gently have been driven away by the insecurity of fathers who have never been fathered themselves in a healthy way. The pain goes both ways.
The question I have is: where is the love of God? It is because of offense the the love of the body has grown cold. But, could it be that the sons could win back the hearts of the fathers they have spurned because of offense? Or vice-versa? Could it be that the kingdom of God is about a God kind of Love that does not live out of reaction to hurt, but shows the love and honor of Christ to one who has offended or has been offended?
THE KINGDOM IS NOT JUST REVELATION BUT RECONCILIATION
I must confess I have had a heart change and repentance lately. Many have been waiting for a wave of kingdom outpouring that will sweep the nations. I tell you without question it is a wave of Love that lays down it's life for others. Don't try to impress me with your prophesies, impress me with your ability to tear down the stronghold of the hearts of men with Love! Father is not asking us to compromise the truth of the gospel of the kingdom for anyone, or submit to fleshly and religious ways. But if we are not a living expression of the kingdom, what good does it do to preach the kingdom. I don't know about you, but I am done with the pointing of the finger. I am done with ruminating on the wrongs done me by the "organized church" and it's fathers. I choose to lay my life down for them. I will cry out REPENT! But it will not be with a heart of anger over the way in which I have been treated, it will be with a heart of brokenness for the way in which the enemy has killed, stolen and destroyed the people of God.
There are men and women of God who have persevered for years that have been faithful in what they have been given and are still held in a measure of bondage to religion. I have been moved by the Spirit to love and honor people such as these. I have seen that my dishonoring them through finger pointing and speaking accusingly of their lack does nothing to further the kingdom. While I cannot build as they build, I can build what measure of relationship and trust they are willing to build. God is building with love and relationship. Religion is building a structure that will inevitably fall. Let us build with love, and when the walls of religion fall, the structure built with love will be a place of refuge for all.
In His Love
Kriston Couchey
Topic: OpenHeaven.com Digest May 27, 2010
