Ron McGatlin
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Posted: 09/28/2009 at 3:16pm
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Slavery – God’s Children are Being Sold
By Duane Stewart
Sorrow, great sorrow has entered the heart of God because rejection continues to exist in the hearts of the Christian community in the form of religious rules and laws. These rules and laws are of the sort that deny the power of God while replacing His power with doctrines of humanism, instituted by man, under the banner that these doctrines are God’s final word to man. In this, they continue to rebel against the continual revealing of God’s desire to make Himself known in a greater way.
To make Himself known in greater measures, God reveals and gives understanding concerning the mysteries that were once hidden, but purposed to be made known in these last days. It is in the rejection of these revealed truths that causes great sorrow to be felt in the heart of God and His body of people. Why is it that such a place of rejection exists among such a large portion of the Christian community? Will not God’s word speak to us and uncover a mind-set which is embedded so deeply in man’s hearts that it finds strong feelings against further revealed truths from His word?
Has it not been heralded across the land, that God has purposed to usher in His greater glory, in bringing forth another generation that would serve Him in the fullness of spirit and in truth? For this cause, there is an enemy, an enemy which opposes all that is called God. This enemy wars against this next generation, seeking to keep them from being birthed into that place of God’s intended glory.
In recognizing this truth, let’s consider the children of Israel, the example God uses in revealing to the church the many defeats or victories that the church would and does encounter. Because of continuous rebellion against God, the children of Israel were taken into captivity to serve the kings of Babylon. This captivity continued until Persia’s king captured Babylon and in their capturing Babylon, God eventually gave Israel favor in the eyes of Persia’s king, who then gave instructions for Israel’s return to their own land (that is for those who desired to return).
In their return, instructions were given to rebuild the temple and restore the proper teachings on temple worship. This time of restoration began to uncover the many sins that existed, which were the cause behind Israel’s captivity, sins that remained and continued to oppress these Israelites. It was during the revival which was taking place that righting wrongs were required by God, in that He might continue to increase His blessings on them.
Herein, the spiritual house of Abraham, the church, must also, with open eyes, see the oppression that rest upon the people of today and that which causes such a state of spiritual lifelessness. In this, we must consider the words of the prophet Malachi as written in Malachi 4:5-6, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse”.
Let us now consider the natural and the spiritual order of things and then know that the fullness of God’s divine purpose is taking place in God’s progressive enlightenment to bring forth a victorious church without spot or wrinkle.
Why did such a condition of oppression exist?
First, rebellion against God’s order became the springboard that led to natural Israel’s captivity and it birthed another famine in the land. Among God’s people today, the spiritual house of Israel, we are likewise experiencing a famine because of a like kind rebellion and captivity. Not a famine in natural crops alone, but a famine concerning the word of God. Amos 8:11, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord”.
Another condition that existed and was uncovered in natural Israel during this time of restoration was the existence of unjust rulers. These rulers were found to be of those who misused and corrupted God’s laws to finally forsake them completely for individual gain. Nehemiah 5:1-2, “And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren. For there are those who say, we our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that they may eat and live”.
Having a need for food to sustain themselves, they expressed that need that they might live. This word “live”, a Hebrew word meaning, “to live, to stay alive, be preserved; to flourish, to enjoy life; to live in happiness; to breathe, be alive, be animated, recover health. Live continuously”. This word is speaking of a life-style which God intended for His people to dwell, one that was to touch not only the natural people of God but likewise the spiritual house of God in our day. A life-style which touches the natural and spiritual until fullness comes to bring the whole man, spirit, soul and body into God’s fullness of purpose.
Therefore, according to the need of our day, restoration is taking place and as with the children of Israel, a time of restoration is revealing fallacies that exist which have also led the Christian community into captivity as well as a famine. While some would ask, how so, we would ask, where is that powerhouse church which came out of the upper room on the day of Pentecost? Where is the church that is to do the greater things of God?
In this we declare a time of restoration is now upon us as we are called to move higher and higher into God’s glory which again, means that fallacies are being uncovered that need to be addressed and corrected. As we continue on in Nehemiah 5:3-5 we see the greater need, “There were also some who said, we have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine. There are also those who said, we have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards”.
“It is not in our power to redeem them”, a statement of fact because any power and authority to bring redemption has been taken from them as the result of their rebellion and the famine. This is the same famine which caused the slavery in the first place. Lands, vineyards and houses mortgaged because of the famine. A famine brought on because of the various many forms of rebellion against God’s divine order. Why was it that the children became slaves? Was it not because the famine brought about a need for food, a lack of spiritual revelation and understanding, therefore establishing a vicious cycle of resorting to slavery that some might receive a small morsel of food, some type of existence. A cycle that is and has been passed on from generation to generation to continue this cycle of slave mentality.
Is this not the established cycle that exist among the Christian community today?
While God desires an intimate relationship with His people, simple head knowledge of knowing about Him only is resident, putting the Christian community, for the most part, because of various rebellions against God, into that same cycle. This vicious cycle is the fruit of fallen man which establishes for himself a religious community ruled over by the dogmas of fallen man, denying the power of God while establishing doctrines and traditions which shackle the people from a life of freedom in God.
This error continues as rebellion against God’s divine order is passed down to each following generation, selling their off-spring into slavery, producing the same results, “it is not in our power to redeem them”. Why? Because the order of fallen man has possession of our lands, vineyards and houses, they have taking from us that which is our inheritance.
Why then is this prison house mentality, which is the results of slavery, allowed to continue on in sending and encouraging our children, the next generation, to partake and become like minded slaves? Through each generation the results of such a mind-set has brought forth certain results which affect the establishment (home, community and society in general).
Know that God has established His purpose long before the fall of man and for this cause the spirit of the Lord God is hovering over and moving among the populace to call forth those He chooses in establishing His kingdom of life, liberty and freedom. With the Holy Spirit moving to establish God’s kingdom, He causes these certain results in the fallen establishment. One result is that, because freedom and liberty of the life of God is not exercised in prison houses of slavery, there is a degree of rebellion which exists against such a life-style of slavery. Meanwhile some parents as well as leaders remain dogmatic in trying to teach, train and promote the established slave mentality in trying to force their offspring to remain a part of such prison houses.
But, praise is to God; He has purposed and made available an antidote which He has placed within the hearts of a remnant company of Priest/Kings which are coming forth in the power and authority of their God. These anointed ministries and centers of freedom and God-life are beginning to feed the people. In the eating of the food from God’s table the people are finding and knowing deliverance which is freeing-up man’s spirit, soul and body. Nehemiah 5:11 shouts out loudly, “Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them”
Unto the early church and through Christ disciples the power and authority was given and that same power and authority anointing dwells among us today. Thus, a sent forth anointed ministry, with God ordained centers are effectively ministering such deliverance. Matt. 10:7-8, “And as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give”.
Thus, that which had it’s beginning in the early church shall also be restored to this end-time ministry, even in a greater measure, among the body of Christ to re-establish the people of God which make up His kingdom in all the earth. In this we should recognize that even as the Christian community has been enslaved because of rebellion against God’s divine order, the condition of the world’s kingdoms likewise remain kingdoms with a slave mentality.
Where are your children today? What have you done to encourage them? Have you made them slaves or is freedom coming forth because freedom, liberty and the law of life is now being manifested through you, the parents who have gained freedom, liberty and life. The Christian community must understand that as goes the condition of the church, so goes the wicked condition of the world. Let’s again hear God’s word through Malachi, “he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers”. This verse is also speaking of those who are the spiritual fathers purposed by God to establish an order of god-life, liberty and righteousness so the children might also pursue their intended purpose.
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Topic: Slavery – God’s Children are Being Sold - Duane Stewart
