Five-Fold Today - Prophetic Assessment - Where are your eyes looking? - An e-mail to God - Cleansing Our Souls - Evangelism: At Ease While the World Burns - Vision for the Church - The Summit - Elijah's Mantle - Turning Wine into Water - Rivers of My Spirit
Prophetic Assessment
Cathian Surbrook
One of the problems I see in the prophetic community
these days is the desire we have to be accepted and loved
by all. We struggle and strive to make our doctrine, or
our "appearance", such that others we admire will accept
us into their circle, and perhaps lend credence to our
work. For instance if I can get XYZ ministry to approve
of me by the prophetic words I send out, then they might
even endorse me and that will make my name spread far and
wide. The inverse of this is if I am XYZ ministry and
others are seeking my approval, and by seeking it they
invest me with the power to affirm or deny them. How is
any of this motivated by the Holy Spirit? Yet we see it
happening all of the time. What is the fruit? Is it not
striving, gossip, backbiting, and slander or favoritism,
blind acceptance, unwise allegiance and loyalty to man
rather than to God?
Let's say I have a passion for evangelism, and you have a
calling to teach. Should I downplay my gift of evangelism
just to fit in with you? Should I downplay your
effectiveness in teaching just to make my gift seem
better? Or worse still, should I put down your ministry
because it is in the minority? Should I discount you to
others because you don't evangelize like I do? It sounds
ridiculous but that is exactly what is happening in the
apostolic/prophetic community. We seem to cling to one
extreme or the other. But neither one gives the
preeminence to Christ (or we give it to this weird,
exclusive amalgamation of Christ + XYZ ministry), and
both focus on who we THINK we are. We forget that we are
all parts of the same Body but we have diverse functions.
So if everyone evangelized, who would teach those new
converts? And so on...
Doesn't this attitude of selectiveness boil down to man
pleasing? How can we please Christ if we are worried
about pleasing men? Yet, when we seek to use our
God-given gifts to please men, we end up becoming false
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
And isn't this the epitome of being lukewarm? If I truly
believe something or have a passion for it, I am hot. If
I am truly turned off, I am cold. Jesus said to the
Laodicean church that He would rather that they were hot
or cold. But the lukewarm He would vomit out of His
mouth. Why? Lukewarm-ness comes from adulteration of
our passions/callings because we are afraid of man. Man
pleasing is a great cause of having a lukewarm condition.
All of us who are prophets have given a false word. We
all have prophesied out of our flesh, or our own human
spirit. It is so easy to do. From the best intention (I
won't even explore the worse ones here) we see something
that we feel SURE God wants to have happen in a person's
life (or in the life of a church) and so we use logical
deduction mixed with our own human compassion to put
together a scenario that we think is coming from the Holy
Spirit. We say it, we cross our fingers and hope for the
best. Everyone loves it, even though it may contradict
what they KNOW to be the truth. They love us because we
have said what they wanted to hear, and suddenly we are
in favor with man. It's a warm, fuzzy feeling, and we
aren't so quick to want to change it. The more we fall
into it, the deeper our sin becomes, and it is especially
hard to confess our sins to the ones we have deceived!
It is a seductive trap. Too many fall in but don't find
their way out by accident. It takes acknowledgement of
this "soothsaying" as SIN, it takes REPENTANCE, it takes
submission to God and a desire to have our mouths clamped
shut by the Spirit of God until we KNOW we are speaking
the truth. Or don't we realize that every idle word will
be accounted for?
At this point, Jesus' words to the Laodicean church are
very apropos to the apostolic/ prophetic community:
Rev 3:14-22 14 "And to the angel of the church of the
Laodiceans write, 'These things says the Amen, the
Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation
of God: 15 "I know your works, that you are neither cold
nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 "So then,
because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I
will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 "Because you say, 'I
am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'--
and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor,
blind, and naked-- 18 "I counsel you to buy from Me gold
refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white
garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your
nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with
eye salve, that you may see. 19 "As many as I love, I
rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and
dine with him, and he with Me. 21 "To him who overcomes I
will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also
overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to
the churches."' " (NKJ)
Jesus Christ is standing at the door and knocking. This
is not to nonbelievers. This is to CHRISTIANS! This is
to RELIGIOUS LEADERS, to people like US! These words of
Jesus Christ are to those of us who: * have defined
their little niche and are happy with the status quo. *
have made some sort of a name for ourselves (emphasis on
"for ourselves") and are enjoying the accolades and honor
that come with the territory. * are so stiff in our
doctrine that there is no room for the LOVE of GOD. *
are slipping around on greasy grace so that we are not
accountable to anyone in the body. * think that
holiness is equated with legalism so we don't have to "go
there." * think we have the right to do as we please
because we are "gifted" and "above" our brothers because
we have a greater revelation. * desire to build a
super church as well as to those who love to bring heavy
condemnation to their brothers to keep them in bondage to
us. * think WE are the HEAD!
I weep inside my own heart because I know that I have
been in this trap in a multitude of ways, and only
humility, sorrow and repentance will cure our hearts of
the desire to be FIRST. Yet, until we come to that place
of seeing our true nakedness, we will keep on giving
false prophecy and trying to garner the approval of man.
When we truly die to our own desires, plans, goals,
visions and let it all fall to the ground, THEN we will
be content to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord
with NO guarantee of a more "distinguished" ministry.
We apostles and prophets must stop applying the corporate
financial world's evaluation of success to our
"ministries" and move on to the high calling of Jesus
Christ. If we are going to do what HE did, we are going
to lay down our lives, open our homes, our hearts, our
dinner tables, our closets, our libraries and our pocket
books (and not expect it to be the other way around) and
we are going to tell the TRUTH! We are going to stop
hiding our own past, downplaying or over-emphasizing
certain points in an effort to gain acceptance, and we
are going to get REAL with each other.
There is not a good thing I have ever done that will
promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ unless it is Jesus
Christ in me (the test will be IF people DO see Jesus in
me, and not ME talking about JESUS!). There is not a bad
thing I have done that will make my testimony any greater
than the blood of Christ. If I lie about the magnitude
of my sins, it is as bad as if I lie about the
sinless-ness of my past. If I lie, I do not have the
Kingdom of God within me, and I must repent of my efforts
to either promote myself or promote Jesus with my
exaggeration or minimizing.
If I am enjoying prophetic or apostolic "star-status," I
will also partake in snubbing others I deem to be less
gifted than myself. I will judge according to an
unrighteous judgment, and will miss the true visitation
of the Holy One when He comes. If I think I have
arrived, I will do my best to hold my position as "king
of the hill" and I will subvert the work of others that I
consider a threat to my position. If someone comes to me
to test my words, I will shut them up with some sort of
"spiritual word" that will make them unsure of their
salvation. I will be unteachable, uncorrectable,
unsubmitted and unloving. If someone gives a message that
exposes me, I will do everything in my power (sphere of
influence) to stop them and shut them up. We've all seen
this done. Some of have done it! But whether we admit it
or not, it won't stay hidden in the darkness forever. It
will come to the light. God is nobody's fool, and we
will account for this spiritual kidnapping and murder.
Yet, if we repent, if we understand that NONE of us will
arrive without the others, then won't it behoove us to
reach out and help our brothers and sisters who are
languishing in the ditch (that perhaps we helped put
there by our false prophecies?) and begin sharing the
true life of Christ with them?
In closing, let me reassure all of us that Christ gave
the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and
teachers, and even though we have really made a lot of
mistakes, we are still called.
Eph 4:11-16
We must humble ourselves, repent, accept correction (by
which we know we are children of God) and go on with new
hearts and attitudes. There is much work to do, and He
has chosen such vessels of clay to convey His Word and to
do His works. But let us never forget that we are not
only those He called and gifted, but we are also merely
part of the Body that HE is the Head of, and we will not
get "there" without everyone else.
Let us love, share, work together and do our part so that
we as the body will grow up as God has intended, edifying
ourselves in love until that day we all come as the Bride
to be joined forever with our Bridegroom.
In love and humility I submit these words to you. I have
been a victim of these abuses, and, worse yet, guilty of
these same things, so I seek to help open eyes so that
others may see their sin and repent.
Your sister in Christ Jesus,
Cathian
Where are your eyes looking?
Alice Weeks
Psalm 123:1-2
Where are your eyes looking? Are you lifting your eyes up to heaven?
Or are your eyes looking at: your problems , your circumstances,
Other people, husband, wife, children, job etc., your wallet, your
debts, Your sickness, your faults, someone else's faults, your successes,
someone else's success, your failures, someone else's failure, your
health, your age/ too young/too old.
Where are your eyes looking ?
Are your eyes looking to the hills (ie.other gods), lottery/bingo,
material possessions.?
Are your eyes looking to Him who dwells in the heaven's? Or are your
eyes looking at the devil and what he is doing? do not put your eyes on
the devil/except to cast him out!
Where are your eyes looking? Are you looking at the works of the flesh?
(Gen.3:6 So when the woman saw...that it was pleasant to the eyes... )
Where are your eyes looking? Are they looking at forbidden fruit? That
was Eve's first mistake. First she looked, then she took and then she
ate and then she gave to Adam and he ate. The Fall began with Eve's eyes
looking at the wrong place.
Matt. 6:22-23
Luke 6:41
Mt. 5:26-29
As the eyes of servants look to their masters
A servant, looks to his master to provide for all his needs, A servant
seeks only to please his master , not himself. He is totally dependent
upon his master and his master's mercy.
We serve a wonderful master who loves us so much that He sent His only
begotten son that we might have eternal life and life more abundantly.
Where are you eyes looking?
ahweeks@webtv.net
An e-mail to God:
Stephen Gray
My spirit is yearning to be with you - A holy passion for you --
Just to rest in your presence - Draw me closer to you -
Draw me closer to your heart -
You fashion in me this thirst for you -
To drink of this water that flows from you -
I hunger for the bread of life --
These words on this Craig Smith CD seem to almost cry out for a
desperate heart for God. I find refuge, comfort in them.
THE WEIGHT OF THIS BURDEN
HUNGER FOR SELF
We get a hunger for whatever the god is that we have created or
focused on -- ourselves, books about God, family, children, ministry,
job, whatever we spend our time and give the majority of our
attention to. Our hunger for the true God weakens and fades -- and
that is almost unbearable to for those whom God has ignited with a
passion for Him. With that comes a passion for His people.
THE TEST OF A FREE DAY
The Lord has even shown me that our love and passion for God and
his word are His barometer for where we are. Do you burn with a
passion and desire for Him? Let me ask you: if you had the day off
what would you go and do? Go away for the weekend? The beach?
The mountains? Sleep, shop, work in the yard? How about pray or
spend time in the word or withdraw to a quiet place like our Lord
always did? I wonder, would following Jesus also mean we are to
withdraw often to be with God as He did?
DO YOU FEEL THE SHORT LEASH?
SURVIVAL IN REVIVAL
Saints, pray for hunger. Everything comes from a hunger and thirst
for God! The pursuit of God -- which is life itself -- travels on the
highway of hunger! Repent for a lack of hunger and passion for
your God, and then for your family and His church. God forgive us
for putting other gods before You and for losing our passion and
hunger for You! Send us the gift of hunger and thirst for You, Lord!
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
will be filled" (Matt. 5:6).
In the school of the Spirit,
CLEANSING OUR SOULS AND..........PREPARING OUR HEARTS
HOW IS THE CONDITION OF YOUR GROUND ? ( HEART )
Sharolyn Baldwin
I first draw you to me, then you come to me
I fill you with my desires, so that you will then
call out to me, to fill you with those desires.
My child, if I show you your flesh, it is so that you
you will cry out to Me, to kill the flesh. So you can
be filled with more of me.
I know, it does feel a little scary to you but trust me
to complete the work I began in you.
I promise you My child, it hurts alot more to hold on
to that which is not of Me, than to let Me cut it away.
My child, you can trust Me....For I love you unconditionally.
I love you My children.......My Bride !
Inspired: By The Holy Spirit
Evangelism: At Ease While the World Burns
A. W. Tozer
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading
through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
--2 Corinthians 5:20
The fall of man has created a perpetual crisis. It will last until
sin has been put down and Christ reigns over a redeemed and restored
world.
Until that time the earth remains a disaster area and its inhabitants
live in a state of extraordinary emergency....
To me, it has always been difficult to understand those evangelical
Christians who insist upon living in the crisis as if no crisis
existed. They say they serve the Lord, but they divide their days so
as to leave plenty of time to play and loaf and enjoy the pleasures
of the world as well. They are at ease while the world burns....
I wonder whether such Christians actually believe in the Fall of man!
Renewed Day by Day, Jan. 17.
"I'm too often at ease and consumed with my self-interests, Lord.
Open my eyes to see the tragedy of friends and acquaintances on their
way to a Christless eternity. Do it for Jesus' sake, Amen."
Read "Insight for Leaders" online at:
Vision for the Church
Gloria Shepherd
There was a desert-a place full of sand as far as the eye could see. All
across
there were leather "bags". These sacks were made to hold water, wine,
and oil.
They were empty appearing, although deep, deep inside the residue of what
they
had contained was evident and remained to this day. It is true some had
indeed
dried up, some had become rancid and spoiled and even changed from sweet
to
bitter. These bags were tough though and although wrinkled, cracked,
dried, and
worn from the time that had past; and the elements of wind and rain and
scorching
heat they had been exposed to, they had not been destroyed.
*Note the inside of these sacks was still in tack and holding what was
unseen and
hidden.
As I walked I discovered on the scene a broken rust covered chain that
looked
small and flimsy. I guess it had been forgotten and left alone. After I
picked it up,
I noticed an old ferriswheel and was drawn towards it. As I got closer,
I could hear
music still playing, almost inviting me to hurry up. I could not
understand this
since the wheel was in obvious need of repair and the chain was missing.
It needed
to be painted, and most of the seats were broken. It could not still be
useful due
to being time worn and weather beaten.
But oh, the song! It was so loud and clear and sweet and inviting. I
almost
expected someone to appear and offer me a ride!!!!!
Word from the Lord:
There are two groups of people I am approaching at this time. Both of
which have
developed according to My schedule. First I speak to My faithful ones.
Some of
you have thought I have taken to long to come and refresh you. You
attempted to
wash yourselves up, put on clean clothes, and continue on the journey.
I have
more for you. It is I who has awaited this day. It is time for you to
taste that of
which has been waiting for you. I come now to pour out My fresh water
and wine
and oil. The oil flows freely for you My faithful. By My own Hand I
remove the
tough, leathery covering that has kept you. Although you have been
encased in
safety, you have been hindered in movement. I release you in order for
the oil to
have its way within you, for then the wine shall flow freely and in
abundance with
living waters from your midst. I grant new life, moving and breathing.
Do not
laugh as Sarah did! I declare new life comes with the oil to make your
hearts
merry and to give you joy. As your heart continues to beat in step with
Mine, a
new rhythm shall be felt and heard and made evident. You shall be able
to function
as intended when first filled with the water and wine and oil of My
Spirit. Yes
some have with persistence and determination held on to what was first
granted,
Yet I say this day---let it go. Let it go and be filled a new!
You had longed for the return of My Son, and the stirring of that desire
is being
fanned by My Breadth once again. Hear My word to you. It is the
children, the
generation of the righteous whose cries I hear day and night. In your
behalf they
have turned to Me as you use to do. I come now in response to their
pleas. It is
your children who shall herald in the return of glory. They look for and
hasten the
day, each day from across the face of the earth. It is they who have led
the way to
this out pouring. I am a faithful God, faithful to all generations. The
chain you saw
so small and weak and broken in appearance is also being lubricated by
the oil of
My presence. It's name is Unity. Look now, I am being faithful to your
fathers. I
was faithful to their fathers, and to their fathers fathers. I continue
in My
faithfulness to you. I now demonstrate My faithfulness to this
generation, this
chosen generation.
As the chain of Unity is being secured in place, look. It is shiny and
bright with the
oil and polishing of My love. It is made of silver and reflects the
light of My
redemptive power. The wheel is beginning to turn in time with the sound
of
worship erupting. As the wheel turns, again it is the same song that
Moses and
Noah and David heard. It is the sound of joy in my people and victory in
their
land.
As your children sit their rightful place with Me , your "pouch" (that
bag from the
desert scene) covers the handle of the wheel and they are launched to
arrive where
assigned. They shall not spin round and round as you have done. Not
just
prophesy is being place in them--but true prophets are arising. Not just
those who
can pray for the sick--but workers of miracles are in your midst. Not
just those
trained to pray--but ones anointed with the mantle of intercession come
before Me.
Not just those who set their minds on things above--but true seers into
My
kingdom now walk the land. This is MY anointing, and it doesn't just
break the
yoke, it destroys it, never to function again over your lives, or theirs!
So come now all of you and join in the sound of the song rising to the
throne of
grace and mercy. I free you from the pain of your own judgment, and that
of one
another. I alone am the judge and My decree of Freedom is being
proclaimed loud
and clear through the bond of love now functioning in unity once again.
debbcossu@juno.com
THE SUMMIT
MARY CLARK
Today, as I was driving home, I was talking to the Lord
about wanting to advance in His will. Then I said to Him
that I wanted to reach the "summit." As soon as I said the
word, I knew that He had something that He wanted to tell
us about this word - "summit."
***
I am asking My beloved to come closer into the realm of
the living God, leaving behind all that would detract from
your advancement. Many of you desire this deep in your
hearts. You are asking Me for My assistance. You are
telling Me, "Father, all I want to want is YOU!" Beloved I
hear you. I hear the cry of anguish coming from your
heart. I hear and you may count on Me to rectify those
areas that are keeping you from touching the summit.
Beloved, beloved, it is My desire to have you come up
higher with Me. It is MY desire to have this sweet
intimate contact with you. Never doubt it! Never doubt it,
beloved. Never doubt it for a moment.
For the living God is in love with His bride, and there is
nothing He will not do to enable her to advance into
maturity. Remember this, beloved, when the trials that
beset you become cumbersome. Remember that I love you, and
I am enabling you, by the power of My Spirit working
within your willing heart, to advance you to that sweet
and wonderful place in your most loving Lord. Yes!
Beloved, remember that!!!
summit- 1. The highest peak, part, or elevation; top or
apex
the highest degree or state; acme
devoted1@digitalexp.co
ELIJAH'S MANTLE
SHELLY MATHIS
"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." Malachi 4:5-6
The spirit of Elijah has come! He is here in the land
uniting as one power the spiritual fathers with the
spiritual sons. I am now moving the spiritual fathers to
cast their mantles upon the shoulders of their spiritual
sons, even as Elijah cast his mantle upon Elisha. So, to
the Elishas of this day, I say that it is time to take up
the mantle of Elijah. You are the Sons of Glory that will
manifest My power and glory to the whole earth, fulfilling
the prophecy of Joel:"...A people come, great and strong,
the like of whom has never been; nor will there ever be
any such after them, even for many successive
generations." (Joel 2:2b) Yet, you must follow the divine
process to receive the double-portion anointing that will
be available to you. I am requiring you to be as Elisha
and sacrifice upon the altar of your heart every place of
comfort, provision, and self-rule that you have known
until now. Count the cost of this high calling and be
willing to abandon everything of old. You will then walk
in the path of your fathers, serving them in humility
while being trained to be a son. You will learn obedience
by the things which you suffer. And your faithfulness will
reap great rewards, for then you will behold My glory and
receive the double-portion anointing.
"...Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him.
And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said,
'Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I
will follow you.' And he said to him, 'Go back again, for
what have I done to you?' So Elisha turned back from him,
and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled
their flesh, using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to
the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed
Elijah, and became his servant." I Kings 19:19b-21
http://www.NothinButJesus.com
Rivers of My Spirit
GLORIA SHEPHERD
"Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth;
shall we not know it? I will even make a way in the
wilderness, and rivers in the desert " Isaiah 43:19
Rivers of My Spirit Are Flowing Over the Earth
In the dry and thirsty land and desert, I am about to
flood your lands with the waters of my spirit, everflowing
springs of living water are about to erupt over the earth
in so many places now. For I am doing a new thing upon my
earth, my children. For you have been thirsting after my
living waters in a dry desert land, and I am about to
unleash the rivers of my spirit over the earth. There will
be no spot of this earth untouched by these waters that
are going to begin to flow like the everliving springs of
my living waters spring forth like geysers over the earth.
There will be many gushers springing up over my earth now
and out of those gushers the waters will flow out to the
dry and thirsty land about it.
So prepare my children, the rivers of my spirit are going
to begin to flow with such a force now to quench the
thirst of the land about it. Come and drink of this
water, come and drink the waters of my spirit, for they
will quench your thirst and you will not thirst again, for
they are living waters of my spirit, that are beginning to
flow now through the earth. Refresh in the springs that
are about to erupt up and out of the earth, and let my
waters give you a quenching and a refreshing that you have
not had yet.
nitehawkdw@earthlink.net
http://www.angelfire.com/ga/GardenofJesus/
Turning Wine into Water
Bryan Hupperts
I'm not advocating drinking with this story but it serves as a
powerful illustration. Several friends got together to celebrate and
opted to have wine with their dinner. They purchased a 1998
California white wine for their meal and had a laugh when they
realized that they didn't even own a cork screw. Securing one
from a neighbor, they opened the bottle and clinked glasses preparing
to toast each other. A surprised look crossed all faces as they began
to drink.
Someone said quietly, "This wine tastes like grape flavored
water." The others quickly agreed and put their tumblers down. It
put a damper on dinner. After the meal, they called the number of the
winery in California, got customer service, explained the situation
and read off the identifying serial number on the bottle. It turned
out to be true. Somehow, the fermentation process had gone awry and
perhaps even reversed itself. The fledging wine had turned back to
water.
John chapter 2 tells the famous story of the first miracle of Jesus.
At a wedding, he took 6 stone water pots and by his miracle working
authority, turned the water into wine. When Jesus did miracles and
healing, they were more than mere demonstrations of God's power.
They served as illustrations of his character for anyone caring
enough to look and understand what the Spirit was saying.
The Bible declares that 6 is the number of man. These water pots
represented unredeemed humanity filled with ordinary water. Wine is a
type of His Holy Spirit that God gives to those who come to Him by
faith. This first miracle was a picture of God's deepest desire
to take mere humanity – the 6 pots – and change our
unregenerate spirits by filling us with the New Wine of His Spirit.
It is an illustration of the ultimate miracle of God transforming a
lost sinner into one of His beloved children by his miraculous touch.
It is the express desire of God to fill his people with New Wine, to
be overflowing with the presence of His Spirit so that the world can
taste of the Lord in us and see that He is indeed good!
Enter legalism. A legalist is someone who is motivated by a desire to
be righteous before God apart from the blood of Jesus. They have more
rules and regs than the army and no matter how hard you strive,
somehow you never quite measure up to their artificial standards. The
truth is they don't measure up either but are very good at
masking their actions and hearts. Because they cannot raise
themselves up higher before God, they slowly pervert within and begin
trying to tear down others to their level all they while adopting a
superior tone to those they are secretly trying to destroy.
Legalism is like an infectious sore that when left untreated, spreads
toxic gangrene killing off body limbs. When legalism gets into your
spirit, instead of relying the free forgiveness God offers through
the Cross of Jesus, you start striving to be good enough for God. A
level of demonic frustration begins to rise and you start looking for
ways to injure your brothers – for their own good, of course.
If left unchecked, legalism will kill your joy, sour the sweetness of
the Presence of the Lord, and transmute you into a stone slinging
Pharisee - all in God's name. The New Wine within becomes like
ordinary water again with perhaps a haunting after taste of the good
wine it once was.
We're warned in Proverbs 4:23, "Keep your heart with all
diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." Guard your
heart! Don't allow legalism to turn your New Wine into ordinary
water.
Bryan Hupperts © 2000
August 11, 2000
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists,
and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of
ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning
craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who
is the head-- Christ--
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint
supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its
share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
(NKJ)
cathian@surbrook.org
"Unto you I lift up my eyes,
O You who dwell in the heavens."
The lamp of the body is the eye
Are your eyes looking at the speck in your brother's eye but you do not
perceive the plank in your own eye?
Where are your eyes looking? Are your eyes lusting?
As the eyes of a maid looks to her mistress
So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He has mercy on us. Our Lord our God most high - Adonai, Elohim --
God most high - there is none - like you!
Lately I have been sitting in the "school of the Spirit" listening as our
Lord teaches me about the nature and state of idolatry in His church.
It has not been a pleasant experience, but I have prayed for under-
standing and He is giving it. The weight of knowledge of our idolatry
is so heavy. I sense God's concern for me because He knows the
weight of this burden -- He has carried it for so long. God forgive us!
Please let us see how far we have fallen. Please Lord, out of mercy
send your gift of repentance. Have mercy!
This morning in my quiet time during worship this song was
playing. I was quickly reminded of Christians I have seen at meetings.
When I talk to them they seem so preoccupied with their desires and
agenda, non-God stuff. Sometimes I find myself listening but drifting
away into the secret place where I can feel God's heart and burden.
Someone this week called me radical for God, like I was different. I
realize God is showing me how idolatry of self manifests in the lives
of His people.
God's greatest gift is a desire for Him. Hebrews 11:6 says God rewards
those who earnestly seek Him. That word "reward" in the Greek
means to render, like an artist renders a sketch. The words on this
song, "He fashions a thirst in me" -- what a picture of the blessings
of seeking God -- to be in love with the creator. It is the great jewel
of life to those who find it. Those who do, become mighty weapons
of light.
We are moving from renewal into the final harvest revival. It will
be an outpouring of God's glory -- and to walk in the glory we must
quickly learn that God will not share our attention with anything or
anyone! God is aligning priorities and agendas in all those who will
submit. Many of you feel the short leash; He is fashioning a stronger
inner witness and new desires. These may seem painful or radical,
but they are necessary to walk in His glory.
When God allowed us to move into this move of His glory in May
of 1999 the one thing He kept saying was, "Remember -- enjoy Me".
In a world with so much evil we must understand that the call to
separate ourselves is a call to "survival in revival". You see, we still
don't understand that there is no choice -- we MUST have revival.
It is the norm. To live in a world of corruption is to choose death.
Lot in Genesis 13 could not live in Sodom, and you can't either.
Living in the world will cost you and your family dearly; they will
be destroyed (as was Lot's wife). In our Lord's infinite mercy He is
fashioning the road to revival in each and every life. It is a thirst
for Him; a new passion and desire for Him.
Stephen Gray
IXOY3@aol.com
Aug 8, 2000
sharolyn Baldwin
sharolyn1@home.com
http://www.litmin.org/tozer.php3
samathis@uswest.net
SheepTrax Ministries, Inc.
www.SheepTrax.com
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