OpenHeaven.com Digest
1. Pain of Change
By Ron McGatlin
Some of you reading this fully know what the Spirit is saying in this writing. Others may need to receive this as a kind of warning or encouragement to not be taken aback by events involved in the massive painful changes taking place in our lives and the world in this season.
We all can rest in the assurance that by the Spirit of God in us and among us, we will not only endure and survive but shall also be changed to be more than useful sons and daughters who serve our Lord. Beyond the pain of change we will also become mature Sons of God presenting the life of Christ into our world becoming the New Jerusalem, Bride of Christ, living city of God – ruling and reigning with Him in the initial days of the kingdom of heaven coming forth on earth.
Loss of familiar life including people and things that we have given to and received from causes a vacant place of feeling in our hearts as life as we have known it gives way to something very different and often unpleasantly hard. Even harder is the reality that we have to be the one to put some of the things of the past to death. Memories of the past can create longings much like the Israelites who after being set free from the bondage of Egypt longed to return to the past familiar life.
The Bible warns that one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is not worthy of the kingdom of God. We must look through the pain of the change to the result of a world redeemed to God through Christ – to a world of love and truth – a world on this earth as it is in heaven – a world in heaven now coming down.
We must set our mind and affection on things coming from above and not on the things of our past lives. Not even looking back to just one day ago with longing for what no longer exists. Our lives are today, and there is enough to consider in this one day without looking back to what was or looking to tomorrow with fear or dread. Truly this is a day that the Lord has made, and we will rejoice in it. Look up to the higher place, the mountain of God from which comes our strength for endurance.
In reality the painful worldwide transition is from a world in bondage into a new world fully set free under the King and Lord of all, Christ Jesus. Our minds cannot conceive how massive and how deep the rule of darkness has affected Planet Earth including the atmosphere and stratosphere around it.
With our natural minds we cannot fully perceive how massive this change is from darkness to light for all of Planet Earth. We are only beginning to see in our spirits the GLORY of the planet and all associated with it fully ruled by Christ Jesus in and through His purified holy mature Sons on earth.
When we experience the destruction or dissolving of a familiar world, there will be severe shock to our humanity that will include pain more than we could endure in our natural minds. Only as we live and walk in the Spirit will we overcome and remain to become a part of the rebuilding of the world into the kingdom of God.
We will never be alone on this journey from worldwide bondage to darkness into the glorious light of the new world; literally multitudes of powerful holy angels are with us to supernaturally bring about the massive task of renewing Plant Earth and all that is on or in it to the original design of God with man ruling and reigning as it is in heaven.
Our strength for life is in relationship, our relationship in Christ Jesus and He in us. All of the possessions or accomplishment of the world add nothing to us without intimate relationship in Christ and Christ in us.
Do not faint or grow weary in well doing the good will of God. We shall reap if we do not abandon the planting of the Lord. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give His little flock the kingdom of love, power, and wisdom from heaven on earth.
Let righteousness, peace, and joy fill your day this day.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit – Gal 5:25
Ron McGatlin
archive.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
2. Relationship in the Kingdom
By Rolland and Heidi Baker
Pemba, Mozambique
Our years in Pemba have been tumultuous, intense, filled with demonic attacks, violence, threats, opposition from the government, discouragement, theft, loss, disappointments, failures, staff turnover, and the constant, unrelenting demands of extreme poverty and disease all around us. It almost always seemed that our capabilities and resources were no match for the challenges we faced every day, resulting in a level of chaos and stress that literally threatened our health and lives. Intense witchcraft and a lack of exposure to familiar standards of right and wrong made our work in this very remote part of the world seem all the more impossible. Heidi and I remember many times when we did not know how we could continue, often wondering if we really had good, lasting fruit that was worth the sacrifice.
We are often asked what the overcoming key to our ministry and growth is. We don’t think in terms of keys or secrets, but of the simplest truths of the gospel. We have learned by experience that there is no way forward when pressed to our extremities but to sacrifice ourselves at every turn for His sake, knowing nothing but Jesus and Him crucified. We must die to live. It is better to give than to receive, and better to love than to be loved. We cannot lose, because we have a perfect Savior who is able to finish what He began in us, if we do not give up and throw away our faith.
In years past we did not think we could identify with Paul like this, but now we understand more of what he meant: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:8–9).
Heidi and I get overwhelmed by our awareness that we are only jars of clay, very fragile and finite, capable of only giving out so much, and with very limited understanding and strength. But we have come to be encouraged by this very state of affairs, because God’s power and glory will become obvious in our weakness: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Cor. 4:7–10).
In Pemba we just started another three-month Bible school session with new student pastors from the bush, many of whom are barely aware of any Christian doctrine and still confused about so much. But three of them have already raised the dead and given their testimonies in class! The Holy Spirit is opening hearts and bringing in the harvest more than ever, in spite of our weaknesses. Our churches are monuments to the grace of God. We are asked how we keep them all together, organized and feeling like a unified family, but we can offer no adequate human explanation, in spite of all our efforts. We have learned that He is able to melt hearts and keep people connected in spirit by His own power, and build a hunger for the Savior that conquers every obstacle. This is His revival, His church, His display of glory, and He qualifies us to do His work.
What motivates us to keep going? What puts energy into our spirits when we run out of answers and resources? How do we stay patient and upbeat when the outlook seems bleak, yet again? Where does our power to live, serve and give come from? The question is important, because missionaries do get tired, discouraged and down. Christians of all kinds run out of motivation, no matter how much they have. Leaders with huge responsibilities lose their peace and joy. Ministries become more like businesses, and preachers more like sales managers. But what makes the Kingdom run? What is the fuel that fires us effortlessly? What is the real thing?
Every day we find out more of the answers to these most fundamental questions, and every day we learn that what used to motivate us is no longer enough. We are going higher, pressing on to what lies ahead. We keep learning what Jesus is interested in, and lose interest in what we used to pursue. And we learn that unless Jesus is interested in what we are pursuing, the going gets tougher than we can bear.
But there is a secret place, a hiding place, a lower place, a holy place that exceeds our dreams. It is not found in anything external and impersonal. It is not found simply in activity, sacrifice and dedication. It is not found in goals, projects, productions and progress. It is not found in finances and growth. It may be missed entirely even when preaching, teaching, training and discipling. It may be forgotten completely when evangelizing and praying for the sick. The greatest and most powerful gifts don’t necessarily contain it. Even ministry to the poor may become an impersonal effort that misses that greatest and most intensely motivating creation of God, that supreme display of His glory: relationship!
Love is a gift of relationship, not just self-sacrifice. The secret place is not necessarily found in a prayer closet or a posture of soaking, or in battling for a just cause, or in a massive prayer and fasting effort. Even the most amazing miracles can leave us lonely and without relationship. We can run out of motivation advancing the most noble ideals and working at all levels to transform society. We can minister until we have no more strength, and still go home and lie in bed without the relationship for which our hearts are made.
Everything is okay with relationship. It is all that Jesus cares about, all that motivates Him. He could do many more amazing miracles and dazzle the world with His powers, but He is interested only in relationship. The entire creation, all the grandeur of the physical world, and all His works are designed to serve one thing: relationship. Revival has no content without it. Renewal and manifestations are pointless apart from it. Miracles only find their meaning in it. Joy is shallow and groundless unless rooted in it. Without relationship we are the living dead.
There is no pressure in genuine relationship. When it turns into work, it is gone and finished. It is effortless to maintain. It is not the goal of struggle, but the fire of life. It brings the utmost peace, and washes away all tension. It is the point of living, the substance of existence, the atmosphere of heaven. It motivates to heroic heights, bringing out our best. In relationship we know we are alive, we have arrived, we are satisfied. When we turn away from relationship to pursue anything else, we lose. We have no strength to give and love without it. It is a haven, a rock, a river of living water, the perfect source of motivation to keep going.
As our Perfect Savior, Jesus provides us with relationship. For this He died and rose again on our behalf. He provides not only His Word, His promises and His gifts, but also freely fills our lives with relationship in response to the desire He has put in our hearts. No guilt and condemnation can keep us from drinking in all the relationship with Him that we desire. Nothing in our past can block us. No attitudes in others can prevent us from tasting and seeing that He is good. And from this tree of life that is our Savior, we can branch out into more and more relationship with those all around us. He takes away our loneliness. In Him we end our search and find our destination.
So in this experience of revival in Africa, our values have been refined in the fires of pressure, opposition and disappointment. Thousands of churches and testimonies of supernatural power do not keep us motivated. Huge feeding projects are not enough for us. We need more of a goal than to target people groups and disciple followers. Education and development don’t keep our hearts alive. Mobilizing world-wide support still falls short. Academic missiology lacks the energy that Africa needs.
No, our hearts must have perfect relationship, a perfect union between us and our Savior, in the Holy Spirit. We were never meant to be alone for a moment. Our whole motive is to live life and do everything together with our God, to take pleasure in His company always. Our power to live comes entirely from our satisfying relationship with Him, and to stay there is to stay in our own private revival that cannot be disturbed by anything else. Only when that relationship is golden, incandescent and pure enough do we have the power to delight in all that God has richly provided for us to enjoy.
Therefore in Him we do not pursue revival, but rather revival pursues us! Church growth and miracles pursue us. His presence pursues us. He Himself follows us, responds to us, and takes pleasure in making us happy, for we make Him happy. We care how He feels. We satisfy His longing. To stay close to Him is no effort, but a relief, a release, a door to freedom. To get a miracle is never the point, but in our relationship with Him miracles are a delight for Him to perform on our behalf. In fact, we cannot live without miracles, and in the normal Christian life we recognize that everything is a miracle, “for in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Love in Jesus,
Rolland and Heidi
https://www.irisglobal.org/
3. Christ In You, The Hope Of Glory - Excerpt From Arthur Burt’s Book, ’No Ebb’
A mystery hidden for ages, but now revealed.
“I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints...” Now a mystery that’s made manifest is no longer a mystery.
It “has been revealed to His saints,” “...to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
The mystery is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” “Greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world.” “Father, Thou in me, I in them...” “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” It’s not imitating Christ, it’s not seeking to be like Christ! “But Christ lives in me.”
“He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” The emphasis is on in; He lives in me and in you. Now this is the mystery which is no longer a mystery and is revealed now: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” But there’s a price. I am not going to improve. For many years, I believed I had to improve. Now I see God does not want to improve me, He wants to remove me. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” And as I go out, Christ comes in. Jesus prayed to the Father on our behalf, “...as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe....” “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one.”
John had got it right, “He must increase.” But there’s a price. Only as I decrease, can He increase. And the measure of the one is the revelation of the other. God does not want to improve me, He wants to remove me. And in that day when He looks inside me and says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” He does not mean Arthur Burt. He sees Jesus living in me and He says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Now that’s back to Genesis! “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
Jesus extends His Kingdom in His people and His people are His Body. As you and I recognize this, He increases and I decrease. The loss of identity is vital. My “himself ” has to go. “I can of mine own self do nothing.” What is the pattern? He declared, “I’m going. And as I go, He will come.” This ‘He’ is the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus said He will come. He is a Person, He’s not an influence. He’s a Person. He has a ‘Himself that does not operate: “He will not speak of Himself but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. He’ll show you things to come. He shall glorify Me.” Jesus explained it, “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” So is this the pattern? The Father said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” What is the image? What is the pattern?
Clay Sikes
www.lighthouseprophecy.org
4. News Headlines
Sudanese Christian Mom Now Free, Arrives in Italy - 7/24/2014
Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who nearly died for refusing to recant her faith, is now a free woman. Ibrahim, 27, arrived in Italy Thursday. "The United States needs to show more concern about religious hostility and persecution abroad, in particular the case with Meriam Ibrahim, where I think the response of the US has been woefully inadequate,"
'Islamic State' Launches Beheadings and government Projects - 7/24/2014
During the past month, the group has consolidated its hold over a 435-mile-stretch of territory from Syria into Iraq, seizing money from Iraqi banks and capturing almost all the major oil and gas fields of eastern Syria. They've been seizing the homes of Christian. they've unleashed Islamic Shariah law, killing perceived offenders.
Islamic State militants who ordered all Christians in the Iraqi city of Mosul to leave the city over the weekend or face execution. - 7/24/2014
The Islamic State gave Christians an ultimatum over the weekend: (1) stay and convert to Islam, (2) pay Islamic tax (which is too much for most families to pay), or (3) leave Mosul taking nothing but their clothes. Christians who stayed would be executed. Most Christians left Mosul. Christians had to leave everything behind (cars, gold, money, mobile phones).
EU Calls for Hamas to Disarm: Israel "Pleasantly Surprised" - 7/24/2014
European Union foreign ministers echoed Jerusalem's demand that Hamas and its terrorist allies be disarmed as an outcome of the current Gaza war. "The EU calls on Hamas to immediately put an end to these acts and to renounce violence. All terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm," read the first clause of a joint statement issued following a meeting in Brussels.
Presbyterian Church USA Criticizes Israel, Ignores Christian Persecution - 7/24/2014
Before the Israel/Hamas conflict erupted, the Presbyterian Church USA withdrew $21 million worth in investments from Israel because "the Israeli government’s actions harm the Palestinian people.” "why is it that "Christians" ignore the horrific Islamic persecution of Christians, while grandstanding against the Jewish state defending itself against the same ideology?
News From British Isles, Ireland, Europe and Worldwide - 7/24/2014
Indonesia: Bibles delivered to village by new airplane funded by volunteers - Britain’s youth fighting in Syria - Abortion at 39 weeks prompts outrage - Ukraine: Evangelicals persecuted - Ukraine/Russia: Western values are at risk - Ukraine/Russia: Western values are at risk - International: Protests supporting Gaza - Iraq: Christians told ‘convert or die’ - More>
Human Shields: 'Hamas Wants Israel to Kill Their Children' - 7/24/2014
GAZA BORDER -- Seven Israeli soldiers have been killed in a confrontation with Hamas infiltrators disguised as Israeli soldiers wearing suicide belts inside the Israeli border. The IDF killed most of these infiltrators. So far, the Israel Defense Force has destroyed more than 20 tunnels and killed nearly 200 Hamas terrorists since the start of its ground operation.
BETHLEHEM, Israel -- As the war in the Gaza Strip continues, some fear a third intifada (armed Palestinian uprising) may be brewing. - 7/24/2014
Forty-six miles away from the fighting against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, there's another battle some say is being dangerously ignored by the world. "My big concern right now is this -- is that the West Bank is being neglected with the riots that are being done every single night, almost now 13, 14 nights in a row," Several people have been killed and some injured.
He survived a brutal father and the most violent cellblock at San Quentin - 7/24/2014
Beatings by his father put him in the hospital at a young age. “State-raised,” he was incarcerated intermittently from the seventh grade onward, until he reached the most dreaded cellblock at San Quentin. A broken dryer full of wet diapers led Ed and Allison to church and Jesus Christ. Many years later, Ed became an ordained pastor and a prison chaplain.
A "Walking Miracle," Teen is Glad that against All Odds, His Mother Refused to Abort Him - 7/24/2014
Zachary mother was counseled to abort at six months pregnant. Doctors believed there was no hope for her unborn son with a severe heart defect. When she refused and Zachary was born, doctors told her he would die within days. This year, 18-year-old Zachary graduated from high-school, and is working two part-time jobs to save money for college
MORE NEWS HEADLINES
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Topic: OpenHeaven.com Digest July 25, 2014 a
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