Gathering in the Wilderness

By Ron McGatlin

The Holy Spirit is drawing His people who are scattered in the wilderness to connect into holy remnant relationships. These are more than fellowship groups and more than Bible study groups or even prayer groups. These are spiritual blood-related families. They are all of one Father and carry His spiritual DNA. Blood brothers and sister of Jesus are coming together in the wilderness in gatherings ranging from two people on up to twenty or thirty. Not so much coming out of the wilderness but connecting in the wilderness and together entering into the real kingdom of heaven on earth. Never again to return to religious systems, man-made traditions and organizations. These are those who spiritually drink the blood and eat the flesh of Jesus – those who partake of Christ and become one flesh with Him – bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. These are NOT those who may have even prophesied and done miracles in his name but in the end hear Jesus say, ‘depart from me I never knew you’.

These statements and the following scriptures are about more than going to heaven. We are currently transitioning into the kingdom age in this season of history on earth and the shifts are major and occurring rapidly. The statements and scriptures presented here are about personally and collectively entering the kingdom of God - the spiritual kingdom of heaven on earth. Not all who are known as Christians are entering the spiritual kingdom of heaven on earth. Not all who trust in their one time prayer of salvation, their church relationship and their religious works will enter. Some who think they will be first will be last.

Mat 7:20-23: "Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'”

Luke 13:27-30: "But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.' There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last."

Many disciples cannot hear the word about drinking the blood and eating the flesh of Jesus because this is a spiritual word and can only be spiritually discerned. The SPIRIT is the difference between those whom Jesus knows and those who only know about Him. Those who hear and perceive by the natural mind and not the Spirit are not known by Him and do not truly know Him intimately. They are always learning and never coming to the truth (2 Tim 3:7).

John 6:53-58: Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."

Eph 5:30-32: For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Bone of His Bones and Flesh of His Flesh

In Ephesians 5, Paul is teaching regarding the husband and wife becoming one flesh. He said this is a great mystery regarding Jesus and His people. The mysterious spiritual process of the Bride people becoming one flesh with Jesus is pictured in marriage and in the original provision of Adam’s mate. This is a spiritual work and not just a learning experience. All the books and knowledge in the world cannot make us “bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.” Eve was made from the flesh and bone taken out of Adam. In a similar mysterious way, the Bride of Christ is taken out of Christ Jesus.

Gen 2:22-23: Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."

Becoming Perfected In This Life

In John 17, Jesus made it clear that this is the way to being made perfect. Yes, perfect (meaning mature, complete, finished, consummate, consecrate) in the reality of truly being one with Christ. Then the world can know that Jesus is sent from God and that God loves them. NO MORE hypocrisy in the people of God – no more iniquity and lawlessness in God’s people. Praise God for the perfecting of the saints in the wilderness away from all the past duplicity and mixture of “churchianity” and ways of the fallen world. 

John 17:21-23: "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

Don’t waste your wilderness pain and aloneness.

As the world continues to move away from God and toward trusting in worldly kings who feed their lustful flesh and depravity, we who trust in the true King of Glory can no longer fit in with those who are causing the cleansing fire of judgment to come. People of God continue to be led out into the wilderness. In the wilderness they often feel pain from the loss of associations and connections they once had. To mourn the past and attempt to rebuild the same thing in our wilderness will not be a profitable experience.

This is the God-given opportunity to fill our lives with Christ Jesus. Allow the emptiness of social loss in our hearts and lives to become completely filled with the love, joy, and peace of the indwelling Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit. This is our time of purification and cleansing from the infection of the sickness of fallen world ways and religion. This is the glorious opportunity to be completely cleansed of our old independent activity of gathering and building with the mixed motivation of self-serving and God-serving. Self-serving and God-serving at the same time is spiritual adultery. Through our wilderness experience we are becoming a renewed chaste virgin cleansed and renewed from our past spiritual adultery. The loss of all our neediness and pride is the road to the fullness of God living His resurrected life within us and flowing out from us to the people around us.

The pure in heart shall see God.

Mat 5:8: Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

We have spent most of our past church life listening and learning about God and most of our life in the world of work and business learning about self-improvement and self-fulfillment by gaining money and position. However, in the wilderness there is opportunity to focus on knowing and experiencing God in the Spirit one on one. By seeking Him with our whole heart and worshiping Him in Spirit and truth, we can become purified and see God and life in a whole new way. Seeking to be filled with the Spirit of God will cause us to hear His voice instead of the many busy voices of the past. God will not fill a dirty vessel, therefore a process of emptying and being cleansed by the renewing of the mind will take place. We see God for Who He really is and not that which we have conjured up in our own imaginations or received from other men’s religious ideas about God.

How we see God changes everything. Knowing and being known of Him lifts us from natural mindedness to spiritual life. We are lifted to a whole new place above the selfish pride and striving efforts of building ourselves into mighty people. The battle to make a living and save our lives is over. Our lives are forever lost in the wilderness when we see God as He is and receive His life flowing through us. Truly, only those who lose their life shall find it.

Mat 10:39: "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.

Ron McGatlin

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

Good word Ron,

The Holy Spirit has been causing me to become more conscience and aware of those who are in the wilderness in my town, and to get ready to gather as He directs us to in order to seek the Lord for more of Him kind of like the upper room just before the mass empowerment. He has also been highlighting the unsaved people in my city and stressing that this revival will be about the local unsaved people, and not about big ministries or personalities. This will be a soul-centered revival plain and simple and Jesus will send us out in power soon to reach them.

On a side note I have seen two visions recently about the local harvest. I live on the fourth floor of a high-rise and as I was looking out the window I saw wheat four stories high and the Holy Spirit said, "The harvest is all around you in your town". The other vision was when I was walking through the mall here and in the Spirit I could see all of the people walking by as different colored wheat. Some were green, others were red, some were black, and still others were white. The Lord said the green wheat were people that were ready to be saved, the red were people not yet ready to be saved, the white were those who were saved, and the black were those who refused to be saved. What surprised me were the high amount of the green wheat of people walking by that were fully ready to be saved. May the Lord of the Harvest empower His workers to go and to reap this harvest.

^{JN 4:35} Do you not say, `Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

Ron, you said:

How we see God changes everything. Knowing and being known of Him lifts us from natural mindedness to spiritual life.

AMEN!   Paul before he cried,"that I may know him" in Phillipians 3 said in verse 9, that I may actually be found and known as in Him.

I had recorded in an earlier post 'Christ within me' that something awesome is happening: despite the turmoil being experienced across the globe, a spirit of righteousness, peace and joy is permeating the kingdom of God.

This can only mean one thing: God consciousness is overtaking every other awareness we have. Our gaze is focused, our faces set like flint, our ears tuned to one frequency. What an awesome day has arrived: nothing takes our attention away from the presence of the King within.

Mark 4: 22  Things are hidden temporarily only as a means to revelation.] For there is nothing hidden except to be revealed, nor is anything [temporarily] kept secret except in order that it may be made known.

A few years ago, when we read this Scripture with a divided heart in the kingdom; the mixture in us being predominantly made up of the old man, the unrenewed mind, the Adamic nature i.e. the man of the flesh more in the driver's seat than the man of the spirit, our response was one of fear of exposure which brought transitory change only. The fear of being exposed was more about the fear of man than the fear of God.

Now, when we read Mark 4: 22 with the man of the spirit having taken dominion, our response is JOY for what is hidden in us MUST be revealed, what will be made manifest in us is CHRIST!

What a glorious promise! There is nothing to fear - the fear of the Lord has overtaken every other fear. Once the Father has seen our hearts, whom do we have to fear?

HE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO MATTERS AND WE ARE NOT AFRAID TO BE KNOWN AS OF HIM

Ron, you said:

This is the God-given opportunity to fill our lives with Christ Jesus.

Amen! Once again, we have been afforded the privelege of  intimacy with the Father, walking and talking with Him who is Life. This time, we refuse to eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. This time we choose to eat of Christ and Christ alone - the Tree of Life.

And we choose to walk in love with those who are known as in Him.

Trust is beginning to develop in the relationships we have with others who have also chosen to immerse themselves in His life, allowing His divinity to dominate and subdue everything in us that is not Him.

Paul referred to this as "possessing that genuine righteousness which comes through faith in Jesus Christ, the truly right standing with God, which comes from God by saving faith" in Phillipians 3.

Let's remain in Him. Let's choose to walk and talk with each other in love and transparency. Let's hold each other accountable to our "determined purpose to progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him". Learning to know each other is part of that process.

Love always

Prema

 Lonnie, thanks for your reply. I hear the voice of the evangelist in you.

Ron

Brother Ron,

I just wanted to say thanks for this article and the many others I have received that have been an encouragement and a confirmation that we are somehow on the right pathway to the Kingdom. I have shared with our little gathering of 30 to 40 how that time after time the thing that the Spirit is dealing with me about comes in your newsletter that very week. Thank you for your faithfulness and obedience to the Spirit of God.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B1660ube4S8/SRR2WGdzEGI/AAAAAAAAAC M/C4z2ofqqjgA/s1600-h/Harvest+Time+1440_900.jpg - http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B1660ube4S8/SRR2WGdzEGI/AAAAAAAAAC M/C4z2ofqqjgA/s1600-h/Harvest+Time+(1440_900).jpg http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tX2vUjvCXnhqLnVLJYf8Gg? authkey=29IioBk0B7s -

Tried hard to post a picture of a wallpaer I made as I am learning to use Photoshop.

The Lord shared with me two words recently: Light Unto the World and Harvest Time.

I had a very intersting dream the night before. There are things I do not dare to share. But mainly it is about who are His salt and who are His light in this hour. I never thought as if the two are to seperated, but as if He said this through the dream and my own refelctions:

Salt is from the sea and is a gift from the sea of peoples (death reignes) , it is to maintain and sustain; light, however, is from His House in the land of the living (life reigns), where He spread his table of food for all His guests who are bringing Him gifts. And if we are His sons, then we are to maintain order and to give foods to those who bring their gift. The word we speak to them is bread from Heaven, it is the light of His wisdom. We are giving light which will produce life and and give fruits.

The ministry of salt is to preserve what was given; but the ministry of light to is to create what is new. 2 Cor. 3 talked about the ministry of the Law and the Spirit. Christ is the life-giving spirit, who gives life to a new creation while the old is not to be preserved in the end.

Hope I am making some sense....When He teaches in dreams and visions, things revealed are hard to explain...

Thank you for everyone here, waht you shared are precious and very encouraging.

amen amen amen! :)

Amen Ron! Amazing and so true how God shows up and meets us in the wilderness...my greatest experiences with Him have always been in the wilderness, not so much in a church building, and yes I"ve entered into the Kingdom of God...by the Blood of the Lamb, that has cleansed me, being filled with peace, joy and Love, Christ manifesting in me...even as a young child my desire has been to see Jesus, my heart gets purified by the sprinkle of his blood just as he has promised! Just everything you have said here is so true...I"m not just knowing this from head knowledge but experiencing it!

Thanks for your wittness!

Amen, This is where we must be to prevail through the season of coming darkness. Praise God!

Mark, Welcome to OH Forums. Thanks for the kind and encouraging words. I am glad you are with us.

Ron

Bojo, Thanks for the word about salt and light and the distinction between them.

I could not get the link to work.

Ron

Dear Ron:

I just want to show you and others how the Lord confirmed His word through you and Lonnie's visions on my part. You all encouraged me greatly. Paul said in his epistle that faith can be imparted and encoruaged by being with one another . Now we are blessed with internet. One does not need to travel all the way to encourge or get encouraged. What a blessing!

I just edited a picture with red marple leaves, blue sky and a harvest time wheat field. It makes a good wallpaper.

It reminded me of my own dream of seeing the Lord blessed me with a part in a great harvest of wheat.

Would it be ok for me to share in private, I believe you can help me to gain further insight and encourage my faith and, hopefully, they will help you as well if any encouragement can be offered.

Much love......

Yours Humbly
Sun

Bojo can you send me a link to the pic or repost it here or send me an email.

Ron

Brother Ron,

  I have been in the wilderness for sometime now and your words bring much comfort and guidance.

  Love and blessings,

    Jean

susanvercelli Wrote:

Quote: Amen Ron! Amazing and so true how God shows up and meets us in the wilderness...my greatest experiences with Him have always been in the wilderness, not so much in a church building, and yes I"ve entered into the Kingdom of God...by the Blood of the Lamb, that has cleansed me, being filled with peace, joy and Love, Christ manifesting in me...even as a young child my desire has been to see Jesus, my heart gets purified by the sprinkle of his blood just as he has promised! Just everything you have said here is so true...I"m not just knowing this from head knowledge but experiencing it!

(bold mine)

Amen Susan, That is what really counts experiencing the reality and not just the knowing. Thanks for your word of encouragement to all.

Ron

Yes Susan, this has been my experience too.  The getting to know Jesus and what He's really like has taken place in the wilderness.  It's been the place of greatest growth.

Love Mandy

Mariateresatee,

I have made journal entries at various times during my wilderness time.  I decided to look back over them not long ago and was pleasantly surprised at how my attitudes and relationship with God had changed since during this time.  Although nothing was obviously visible to me on the surface, this showed me just how much had changed in reality.  Changes of eternal consequence.

It's autumn now and all the trees are shedding their leaves and things are beginning to look pretty bare.  The stripping down will continue until there is no sign of life left.  And yet, during this time of apparent deadness, there is much going on inside the plants that is not visible to the human eye.

Be encouraged,

Love Mandy

More thoughts on being in the wilderness...

Hosea 2:14

Therefore I am now going to allure her;
       I will lead her into the desert
       and speak tenderly to her.

Although I've lifted one verse out of its context, it does seem to explain what is happening to many in their wilderness experiences.

The thought came to me yesterday that being in the wilderness is a bit like being in hibernation (not that I know what that's like!).  I didn't pursue that line of thought, but have been thinking more and more recently that its like being in intensive care.  The best response being to yield to the intensive care treatment, allowing God to minister deep into our souls, rather than trying to get out and rush back to work before the neccessary treatment has been ministered completely.

Love Mandy