When are you the closest to God? For me, what works best is pacing. That’s right! That movement keeps a strong focus going. It functions a bit like Tongues, blotting out all the junk while breathing in fresh new inspirations. Oh, and it’s very compatible with Tongues!
An important caveat to working at something else while God is trying to get something through to us is that our fleshly mind always wants to distract us. We can train ourselves to recognize the difference, though, between our hanging with God for fellowship and love vs. our stubbornly refusing to listen when there’s an important revelation coming.
Dear You,
What would it take to get you to listen to Me ALL the time? A billion dollars? Or, take all your money away and throw you in prison? Or, something in between? If you EVER took the plunge and gave up ALL human pride, giving your-SELF over to Me, we could live a glorious life right here, right now, in a mansion or in a prison.
W.A.M.L.,
God
“Moses represented all of Israel, and went and met with God. He took the ten commandments of the law covenant and put them in the ark of the covenant, and then …put that ark in the taberacle, in the Holy of Holies. God’s Presence dwelled in that place. In the new covenant. God made a similar covenant with Jesus. This covenant is perfect. Jesus met with God and represented all of mankind. He took your heart, wrote on it God’s new covenant law of love, and put your heart and mind into the ark of the covenant in heaven, which is God’s throne, the mercy seat. You are so joined to Jesus in the new covenant, that nothing can break that. The only way would be to remove your heart from the ark, and God is sitting on that. Your trapped!”
_____ NOT IN YOUR STRENGTH
______ (by Dr. Robin Starbuck)
Moses knew that he was a Jew, in spite of Cecil B. de Mille’s rendition of “Moses”! (Exo. 1-4; Acts 7:20-25) He knew what his life purpose was from God – to lead his people, the Jews, out of the captivity of the Egyptians. But Moses, like a lot of us, sought to do the will of God in his own human strength. God had an entirely different plan in mind – that of carrying it out supernaturally. After all, why would God even think in such limiting terms?
When we ask God for something, let us think big – let’s imagine beyond human frailties. Moses thought he could use his position and power to carry out God’s plan. He even went so far as to kill a man in a display of his own natural strength. it was patently wrong minded, and he paid the price for it. Sometimes it’s hard for us to grasp the fact that God doesn’t need our “tooling around” as if we ourselves were the almighty. First, find God’s will; then find out what His plan is.
We have an awesome God. Let’s be a little bit awesome ourselves by putting everything in God’s hands. He is equal to every challenge and worthy of all the glory.
Baptism is another issue that invites much unnecessary debate. It is a ritual that had its purpose and function before the cross. John Crowder’s* insight lends much needed elucidation:
The “baptism” of the Spirit is not a separate thing where first you only had Jesus, and now you get the Spirit. It just means to get dunked, immersed or have your senses tangibly “filled” or flooded with the Spirit Whom you had all along. After all, He is the “Spirit of Jesus.” Col. 2:10 says “By your union with Christ you are filled with the Godhead” … that means you already have the Spirit … you even have the Father in you too! So “infilling” is not a “second work,” rather it’s about a continual enjoyment – a daily dunking – and experience of the Spirit we already have. Not a one-time or two-time event, but Paul says, “Be ye continually filled …” Eph. 5:18. It’s an abiding relationship – He remains in you.
So, in trying to decide whether or not to undergo baptism, bear in mind that the fear-mongers have no place in this decision. Thankfully, we don’t “need” a ritualistic, public dunking to get us into the Holy Spirit. We have it in spades already on the inside of ourselves!
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* JOHN CROWDER – John loves to push the envelope and provoke God’s people to extreme joy! He is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and advocate of supernatural Christianity. John is on the forefront of a fresh renewal movement marked by ecstatic experience, miracles and recovering the foundational preaching of the cross of grace.
When the Truth is crystal clear, there’s nothing left to do.
Faith does do something! . Something very big! . But maybe not what you thought….
Simon Yap explains
Your faith does not save you. It merely ushers you into a reality [of] which you were ignorant before. The truth is that your sins and flesh had been taken away on the cross.
Now we need to make a distinction between ‘having faith’ and ‘believing’. When you know something to be true, factual, undeniable, there’s no need for faith: the fact simply is.
Simon Yap continues
Your believing thus brings you to a realization that you are already reconciled to the Father.
Sadly when you don’t believe this truth, you live as if [Jesus’] work was never done for you and never finished for you.
You can have faith that your friend will call, as he has for the past 10 years: that’s faith. You can believe that 2 + 2 = 4. It just is!
Now here is Simon Yap’s conclusion and supporting scripture for the need to believe that which is patently obvious:
It’s Jesus who saved you!
1 Timothy 4:10
That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
“THEY THAT BE WITH US ARE MORE THAN THEY THAT BE WITH THEM.” = IS ONLY TRUE WHEN YOU SEE BEYOND THE PHYSICAL SENSES INTO THE SUPERNATURAL REALM.
2 Kings 6:8-16 KJV
Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. [9] And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. [10] And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. [11] Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? [12] And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. [13] And he said, Go and spy where he is , that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. [14] Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. [15] And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? [16] And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. “THEY THAT BE WITH US ARE MORE THAN THEY THAT BE WITH THEM.” PROVES TRUE WHEN YOU LOOK BEYOND THE FIVE PHYSICAL SENSES.
Another inspiration to be gleaned from staying alert to an extra-dimensional impact on our realm is when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue and hit on something that ruffled the feathers of the Pharisees:
Luke 4:28-30 KJV
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, [29] And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. [30] But he passing through the midst of them went his way, WHAT DID JESUS DO ? . HE PASSED THROUGH THE MIDST OF THEM [UNNOTICED] AND WENT HIS WAY !!!!
Walked right through the midst of his enemies … and went his way!
I’ve been grappling with this question for some time now: “What if nothing about you nor anything you ever did were a mistake?” What if everything were exactly as it was supposed to be?
Everything we’ve been through has set us up for where we are now; and, I don’t know about you, but I’m thrilled with where I am now spiritually!
It’s not a matter of God giving us pain and suffering to prompt us on; but we can look back and observe that our greatest leaps forward – in discovering who we are in God – seem to have come out of our finally seeking His help while abandoning our own.
Dear God,
Sometimes you give me so many wonderful insights that I can hardly stand it! I want to shout them from the rooftops!
…. and
……… and
…………… and
I want everyone else to “get it” immediately. I tend to forget that I had been grappling with that very issue for a pretty long time. . .
I want everyone to have an automatic upgrade to my newly discovered awareness. Good grief! Help me to get over myself once and for all!!!
Recently you showed me that when I’m fully plugged in, I just love and understand everyone so much that my eyes get moist with joy.
Let me not beat my friends over the head with a superabundance of … well … uh … of … “love”!
It doesn’t do any good to speak aloud what you want if you haven’t ever put any faith in God’s words. You’ve got to have the Word of God take over in your consciousness. Let His Word recreate you as it were so that the perfection of His Word takes over your entire being. When you let the Word of God take charge over your very feelings, that’s when everything changes and your life starts to measure up to the divine. You won’t want things that could pull you back down again because the desire to have things that were designed to throw you off your course . . . you’ll simply see through them and have a little chuckle. You’ll want more and more of God and you’ll have more and more of God almost simultaneously! And oh yes it will be thrilling! You just have no idea how much power you wield from the inside of you – it is mind-boggling! so much junk will fall by the wayside and you will speak with authority, dignity and power. The very next step is to remove the word “will” from everything above (and below). We’re talking about a here and now hands on reality!! Take Mark 11:23 for example and speak to your mountain – but do not turn to the fleshly mind to choose something to test it with. Your prayers must line up with the obvious will of God. At this moment I’m sure you can’t imagine how reassuring it is to know that you must align yourself with God’s will and that God’s will is very obvious and clear. As a matter of fact if you would give all prideful considerations over to God right now – every last one of them – you’ll suddenly feel infinitely lighter and you’ll realize that you are on the King’s Highway right now!! You will absolutely learn to have faith in your own words at this juncture. It will all be so compelling to you! First and foremost turn to your Bible and let the Word of God in. Its impact must reign and rule in your heart: your desires will undergo a metamorphosis as you trust the Bible to feed you and re–form you. It will be more thrilling than your first kiss! Your first kiss won’t even be able to hold a candle to what you will experience when you truly, truly listen to the Holy Spirit who resides on the inside of you! The righteousness of your own prayers will dazzle you and the immediacy of the Word will utterly disarm you of all else. Did you really wonder where you got that supernatural confidence and supernatural faith from? Really? You didn’t know? That’s you! That’s the real you! That’s the God-within-you You! I wonder if you will drop all else and let the Word of God direct you in e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g !!!
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. [8] The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. [9] The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. [10] More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. [14] Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”
Psalm 19:7-10, 14 KJV
