1. Agreeing with God’s Adjustments
By Ron McGatlin
Major adjustments are being made within and among God’s people. We are being moved from a lifetime of coping with life in the world as it was, to the new day of life as it is now becoming. The perimeters and ceilings that once existed and that we had adjusted to are being moved, if not eliminated.
Beyond the old boundaries areas exist for us to move into and adjust to that are unfamiliar to us. The new areas can be a source of significant blessing or a place of serious difficulty if mistakes are being made in our adjustments and alignments in the new areas.
In this changing environment we cannot rely on our old patterns of actions and responses. What may look to our minds to be one thing based on how it has been in the past may be something very different and may require a very different response on our part.
Personally, it appears to me that the people seeking the greater fullness of God’s kingdom life on earth now have a brief window for adjustment in preparation for the next phase of moving into greater realms of the Spirit than we may have been accustomed to in the past.
The inner working of the Holy Spirit flowing fresh love and fresh life into our hearts is the agent of God to help us to be changed. The fresh light of His love is elevating our spirits to levels of righteousness, peace, and joy beyond where we have walked in the past.
Although greatly pleasurable this change may seem rather strange to us within ourselves. However, it may seem completely unbelievable when we begin to experience this level of seemingly sudden change in others. Relational actions and reactions that have been formed as natural habits within our minds may not fit and may not work in relating to the changed people.
Prison Doors are Open
The doors to our limiting prisons within our minds were opened wide a long time ago. Yet we may have remained as though the doors were still locked. The great new life moving into our hearts and the freedom to become all God has intended for us has been there since the time of the cross, the resurrection, and Pentecost.
It may have been ourselves and the misleading influence of religious spirits and spirits of darkness that have blinded our spiritual eyes to the reality of the kingdom of God life that is available to us in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Ghost bringing the empowerment of Christ in us was out of reach through our theological prison bars. The ministry of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit was outside the boundaries of our limited understanding.
The Inner Awakening
There is a season of fresh awakening within many of God’s people. This change deep within involves the death of who we were in our prison days and the awakening of the awareness of Christ within by the Holy Spirit. Truly the Spirit of Christ in the Holy Spirit is breaking out of the restraining lockbox in our minds in which our religion has tried to restrain Him. The Spirit of Christ out of the box is alive in us abiding where we once lived, and the life of Christ is becoming our only life.
This is shocking enough within ourselves as our understanding proves inadequate to fully grasp what is happening within us. Now think about this: how in the world do we handle all of this change in someone else? We may have known a person as a religious, stumbling block type person who we dared not trust - one who continuously was a thorn in the side or worse to those seeking the reality of the kingdom of God. What do we do, and how do we respond when suddenly the life of Christ is released from the lockbox within them and begins to manifest the love, power, and wisdom of Christ in their lives?
I suspect the first knee-jerk reaction might be something like the Christians in the days when Paul was converted after having persecuted the believers, casting them into prison and being a part of their being put to death. Suddenly someone hears that Paul is now one of us and is coming to town. Real panic caused by doubt and fear may be the initial natural response that arises in them based on how things had been in the past.
Religion and self-needs have in the past invaded many of us who began truly seeking God. Yet without receiving the fullness of the work of the Holy Spirit to release the real life of Christ in us, we may have been overtaken by the inner needs of natural life and guided by religious beliefs.
Death of the old leads to resurrection of new life.
When the fire of the Holy Spirit invades our inner man, a death process can take place that leads to the resurrection life of Christ Jesus living where we once lived. Christ living in us will bring forth, not just that which man thinks is good, but the love, power, and wisdom of God manifesting into our lives and out to the world around us. The gifts of the Spirit that were once merchandised or traded for the favor of men are released from us to spread the real love of Christ like yeast in dough.
After the death experience is complete, we may no longer be the favorite sons of our communities or spheres. The place we once thrived in may no longer exist for us. There will no longer be in us an inner need to be the life of the party. We may no longer desire to be involved in social, political, and religious scenarios. The demand for insincere social etiquette and political correctness to fit into the order of this world will no longer affect us. Some who would not be caught dead in political correctness are unknowingly deeply entangled with religious correctness. Selah.
All of this man-pleasing social, political, and religious correctness is crashing to the ground in flames like a scene of a World War ll battleship shooting down attacking enemy aircraft. The planes burst into flames and spiral toward the ocean leaving a trail of black smoke and soon crash into the ocean to be swallowed up and forever to remain at the bottom of the sea.
The “nice” but corrupt man-made order of deceptive words and practices designed to placate the souls of people in order to gain favor with them to accomplish our own agenda and satisfy our desires is headed for a fiery crash. God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, is delivering His people ahead of the worldwide crashing end of the false glory of man.
Willingly submitting to the works of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives brings death in us to our old life. At the same time or shortly thereafter, the resurrection life of Christ Jesus arises within us by the indwelling Spirit of Christ in the Holy Ghost. Then and only then are we truly able to become pure and holy mature sons of God. We are no longer who we were but who He is.
Our Most Precious Sacrifice
God did not give His second best when Christ Jesus became the most precious sacrifice above all sacrifices of all time. All of the offerings and sacrifices of the past were not even close to being equal to the supreme sacrifice of the most precious and perfect life of the Son of God from heaven. Not only was Christ Jesus our substitute on the cross, He also is our example – the way in which we are to follow.
We are to give our most precious possession as a living sacrifice acceptable unto God as a reasonable service and be not conformed to this world.
Here is a question for us. What is the most precious thing that we have to become a sacrifice? The only worthy things we could have would be what God has given to us. To answer that question with our lives as our most precious sacrifice is correct but may not be adequately descriptive of what that really means to us today.
Please allow me to speak from personal experience for a moment. Long ago I made a real and clear sacrifice of my personal life and personal desires. Some of those things were NOT given to me by God; they were things of the flesh upon which I had placed a high value.
Then some of the good things that God had given me became sacrifices. Some of these things I struggled with for years back and forth. When I would fully turn to God abiding in His Spirit, things would not work with my family. First my parents and siblings and then my wife and children would turn against me and would remain that way until I would turn away from life in the Spirit.
My wife of 33 years, our five children, their spouses, 34 grandchildren and the now 20 great grandchildren that God had given me eventually became as a sacrifice. They were all professing believers and some were very devout church people. Yet when the manifestation of the real kingdom began to come forth, they could not stay closely connected with me.
God also gave me a multi-million dollar business back in the time when a million was at least ten times what it is now. This was a great learning experience and funded the work of many ministries. Also it indirectly funded the ministry God had put in my hands for around thirty years even after it was passed on. However, this business too became a sacrifice to be passed on. Being a corporate president of a business that God had built with me was a really good feeling. Having, a large family was also very rewarding. These were really good gifts from God that were eventually called of God as sacrifices.
Perhaps to me one of the greatest gifts God had given me was the early pioneer revelation of the kingdom of God with its New Jerusalem ruling city lifestyle coming forth now in this world through Christ in us by the Holy Spirit. The ability to teach the most awesome GOOD NEWS of the gospel of the kingdom was and is one of the most wonderful gifts and experiences of my life and truly a divine calling.
Very recently again God has called for another great sacrifice. You have probably already guessed it. Yes, he called for me to lay down the teaching of His kingdom as a living sacrifice. That which had been a reason for my living here on earth had to be laid down upon His altar. The books and articles God has had me write through the years continue to teach the principles and workings of the kingdom of God. And I am still allowed to draw on that to minister to specific situations as they arise by the Spirit. I am now to stay tuned to the Spirit and write what He is giving me relative to what God is doing in this day instead of teaching the knowledge of the kingdom. This is much more demonstration and real life experience by the Holy Spirit instead of a lot of knowledge of kingdom understanding.
What God has us to lay down always takes us to a deeper place with Him. Walking with Him in the Spirit only gets sweeter and sweeter as the years go by.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit – Gal 5:25.
Live in the Spirit, Walk in the Spirit,
Ron McGatlin
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basileia@earthlink.net
2. When Church Tradition And The Holy Spirit Disagree
By Charles Carrin
In a significant–but unfortunate–way, my 65 years of ministry can be divided into two equal parts: In the first half I never once saw a drug addict, alcoholic, suicidal person, or anyone with similar problems, be miraculously delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit. It did not happen. Nor did I expect it. Like most other pastors, my main concern in ministry was being doctrinally correct. Physical or emotional problems were always directed to secular therapy. I had nothing else to offer. But when my own crisis came and neither doctrine nor secular therapy could help, I was left totally without hope.
Most of us young pastors in the 1940's were taught that portions of the New Testament lost their validity when the Apostles died. For example, I was instructed to ignore teachings about the Holy Spirit’s miraculous gifts in I Corinthians 12 and 14. Chapters 11, 13, and 15, were o.k. but not the others. Had I disobeyed and taught them anyway, I would have been excommunicated. As a result, I lost nearly thirty years of precious time before I fought my way out of that dark tunnel of unbelief. It only happened then because of tragedy.
On a momentous November day in 1977, the Holy Spirit forever changed my life. Walking across the parking lot at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, I faced its ominous building with a bit of apprehension. My destination was a young prisoner whom I had been counseling--but with whom the sessions had undergone a strange reversal. It was I, not he, who needed help. Secretly, I was in a black hole of suicidal depression.
A few months before, my wife, Laurie, had been in a tragic automobile wreck, suffered 13 broken bones, a concussion of the brain, collapsed lung, and so many injuries she could not be moved. She was slowly recovering but I was not. For the first time in my ministry I faced the stark reality that something vital–something strategic–was lacking in me. My doctrinal preaching was not meeting the need. As if looking into a bottomless pit, the wreck had shown me my spiritual void–which I felt helpless to change. My prisoner-friend saw it long before I and lovingly pointed me to the solution: I needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8. Every time he witnessed to me, however, two violent forces fought for control of my mind. First, I had been thrust into the most frenzied search for God I had ever known–a search where every effort seemed to fail. Secondly, a tidal wave of unstoppable depression crashed down on top of me.
For months I wept, sought God with every breath, but found no break in the despair. Slowly, I began to realize if I were going to survive that hellish nightmare, I would do so only by receiving the power of the Holy Spirit. The demon of religious pride screamed at me not to do it. But that November day was the absolute worst day of my life and I could not go on. Exhausted, I suddenly dropped face-down before the prisoner and he laid both hands on my head. As if I were listening from a thousand miles away, I heard him quoting Ananias’ words to Saul of Tarsus, "The Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you came has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Acts 9:17.
The scene must have been baffling to the Mafia inmates and wives who were watching. I was a well-dressed pastor–but one broken and unable to suppress my grief–and seeking help from a convict. Our roles were completely reversed. The prisoner had been miraculously born-again the year before, delivered from drug addiction, suicidal depression, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
The effects of his laying-hands on me were phenomenal. As soon as I got home I was snatched from the grip of depression like a child snatched from the path of an onrushing car. Anger, pain, confusion, wrong attitudes, that had stock-piled in me since boyhood were suddenly gone. Like believers in the Book of Acts, I was filled with the Holy Spirit. Spiritually, I stood under an invisible Niagara Falls with all the water of the cataract pouring into me. In a moment’s time the depression was gone, never to return. That was not only the most awesome day of my life--but it was the beginning of an amazing, new ministry. The Holy Spirit roared into my life like a Kansas storm and began doing His works through me. For the first time, I experienced God’s promise that "All Scripture (not part) is given by inspiration of God." 2 Timothy 3:16.
Soon after that, miraculous things started happening. People would sometimes shake my hand or hug me and drop to the floor under the power of God. Many were healed, delivered, filled with the Holy Spirit. Some of these fell publicly in malls, hotel lobbies, restaurants, parking lots--anywhere I went with the anointing of God on me. God didn’t seem to care where it happened. In the beginning, I knew nothing about this experience occurring in the ministry of Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Alexander Campbell, Augustine, the Puritans, early Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, and others throughout Christian history.
This I did know: Truth was in the Scripture; power was in the truth. That realization took me into another spiritual dimension; only as I looked back retrospectively did my personal history begin to make sense. Theologically, I went into over-drive in the attempt to understand the Holy Spirit’s radical manifestation. And many of them were very radical. Acts 2:12,13. The Glory that invaded me that bleak November day when the prisoner laid-hands on me was producing amazing results. Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." And it happened! He came, I received, and the power rushed in. Acts 1:8.
As I had expected, my Ordination Credentials were canceled and I soon lost most of my pastor-friends. These were men I dearly loved and still miss 35 years later. But, God was gracious and began filling the emptiness with wonderful new brothers. I soon met Derek Prince, we became friends, and he asked me to become part of his Ministry Team for Pastors Conferences in Moscow, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. Our trips together were wonderful. Jack Taylor, the Spirit-filled former Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention became my soul-partner. God brought R.T. Kendall, then concluding 25 years as pastor at Westminster Chapel, London, into my life.
R.T. invited me to preach at the Chapel and we witnessed intense manifestations of the Holy Spirit. He, Jack, and I, became inseparable brothers and soon began conducting Word, Spirit, Power, Conferences from London to Alaska, New England to Florida, and points in between. We have conducted more than 60 of these Conferences. John and Carol Arnott, pastors at The Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship–now "Catch The Fire," Canada, stepped into my life in an incredible way. I have preached a number of times at this church that has drawn more than 5,000,000 visitors from around the world and is impacting churches everywhere. Thank God, my wife recovered from the accident and supported me in intercession until her death in 2012.
Would I go back to my former ministry? Never! I miss the old friends but where I experienced consistent failure in the past I am now seeing thousands of lives be miraculously changed by the Holy Spirit. I want no more powerless preaching! One personal revelation that transformed me and has been translated into my preaching is this:
(There is much more to this powerful article. For the full article, Go Here.)
3. News Headlines
Daughter of Egyptian military intelligence chief left Islam - 3/12/2014
As a child she was taught to believe the Jews were monsters that wanted to kill Arab children. By God’s grace, she overcame a culture of hatred and found a new reason for hope after she settled in the United States. “I grew up in a culture of jihad and martyrdom.” She watch a Christian TV program and was very touched by the message. “Why are you crying?” her daughter asked...
Israel: Miraculous healing stuns doctors - 3/12/2014
When Therese Daoud arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital with a huge cancerous tumor, doctors said her only chance of survival would be to amputate the leg. What happened during the following months has left the medical staff and the nation speechless. “If someone had told me the story of what happened to Therese, I would have said they are crazy.”
Ukraine's Christians Standing in the Gap for Peace - 3/12/2014
Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov, a man of deep faith and prayer, is in the center of the storm in Ukraine. Turchynov is seeking an increase in the country's armed services as he has called on parliament to turn Ukraine's interior ministry troops into a national guard to defend the nation against aggression. "He is a born again Christian and loves God."
Controversial Third ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’ Conference Kicks Off with a Full House One Conference Attendee from Jordan says: “I am not for the Palestinians or Israelis. I am for Jesus. As a Christian, I love everyone.” - 3/12/2014
“Christ at the Checkpoint III: Your Kingdom Come,” draws from the Lord’s Prayer to ask how Jesus Christ would approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today. Topics covered include the Palestinian Church, religious radicalism, Christian Zionism, Jesus' teachings amid conflict, the Kingdom of God, peacemaking and reconciliation.
Steve Hill Passes Away After Miraculous Life - 3/12/2014
Perhaps best known as the evangelist for the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Fla., Evangelist and Pastor Steve Hill went home to be with the Lord on Sunday March 9. Steve lived every day with eternity in view. From 1995 to 2000, Hill served as the evangelist of the Brownsville Revival. The meetings drew over 4 million from more than 150 nations to the revival in Pensecola.
Christians in Egypt hope for peace in upcoming election - 3/12/2014
When Egypt’s government stepped down Feb. 24, the action made small ripples in a nation now accustomed to major political upheaval. Army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is running for presidential office and peacefully resigned from military power. Christians hope to trade the revolutionary change promised by the Arab Spring for the peaceful lives they lived before.
South Sudan refugees in bad shape - 3/12/2014
10,000 people and 234,000 people have fled fighting but became Internally Displaced People. The number of people who have fled from South Sudan to neighboring countries has increased to 226,000. 3.7 million people now face extreme hunger or starvation. As the story faded from the headlines, a potential genocide has gone under the radar.
Florida Election Victory a Referendum on Obamacare? - 3/12/2014
A special election victory Tuesday has Republicans celebrating a winning strategy: Florida voters chose an opponent of Obamacare to be their new congressman. Congressman-elect David Jolly made repealing the law a centerpiece of his Florida congressional campaign. When all the votes were counted Tuesday night, the Republican was declared the winner.
Kim Jong-Un ‘orders 33 people to be executed’ because they made contact with Christian missionary, say South Korean press - 3/11/2014
‘Kim Jong-un is fast gaining a reputation for brutality and destroying those closest to him “The Koreans have landed themselves in hot water after it emerged they had worked with South Korean Baptist missionary Kim Jung-wook and received money to set up 500 underground churches. It is understood they will be put to death in a cell at the State Security Department."
News From British Isles, Ireland, Europe and Worldwide - 3/13/2014
Northern Ireland violence could re-emerge - Re-evangelising secular Europe - Ukraine: Rival protests escalate amid military tensions - China: Bibles for China looking forward to May - Venezuela: Churches attacked in' ongoing unrest - Israel: Teargas and rubber bullets on the streets of Bethlehem - Evangelicals back No More Page 3 campaign - Much More>
MORE NEWS HEADLINES
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Topic: OpenHeaven.com Digest March 13, 2014
