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
http://archive.openheaven.com/ - mailto:basileia@earthlink.net -
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