Five-Fold Today - Breakthrough! - Expand - Recognizing Your Source - Working Lovers - The Fiery Furnace - Stay in the Secret Place

January 19, 2001

Breakthrough!

By Doug Fortune

As we read through 1Chron. 14 we find some very relevant truth for the Church today, as God is raising up a Davidic people, a Davidic Tabernacle of worship and a Davidic Throne of authority.

First we see that David PERCEIVED that the Lord had made him a King. Perception is one of the most important elements that determine whether we fulfill our destiny. "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye (PERCEPTION) be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." (Matt.6:22) Our vision, our perception of the finished work of Christ literally determines whether we are overcomers, whether we function in kingship and priesthood. We will never walk as kings in this world until we PERCEIVE that we are now of the blood-line of the King of kings. Our old blood-line of the first Adam was cut off as the Last Adam was crucified (Rom.6:6). That death made possible the resurrection Life of the Second Man, of which Jesus is the Head and we are the Body. This Second Man is the lord (the authority, the king) from heaven. "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven."(1 Cor. 15:47). Phil. 3:20 tells us that we are citizens of heaven, 1Cor.12:27 tells us that we are the BODY of Christ, and 1Peter 2:9 tells us that we are royalty, kings and priests.

Some in the Body of Christ are beginning to PERCEIVE that God has made us kings in the earth. This perception is the beginning of walking as a ROYAL priesthood. Now just as surely as it happened to David, as we begin to perceive our kingship, we will have some Philistines to contend with! As long as we don't know the power and authority we have, and don't know how to use it, we are no threat... the Philistines leave us alone. Once we begin to gain understanding, we become dangerous to the enemy.

I believe this attack of the Philistines is God-ordained and it generally happens fairly early at the outset of our PERCEPTION of our kingship. So, why on earth would God allow this attack, and why would He allow it when we're just beginning to get a grasp on our destiny? I believe He does it in order to activate within us a Breakthrough Anointing! "David smote them there. Then David said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters: therefore they called the name of that place Baalperazim (Lord of breaking through)."(1 Chron.14:11). You see we can't have a Breakthrough Anointing till we have something to BREAK THROUGH! I believe He allows the attack at the onset of our perception so that we KNOW it is not of our own strength. If we were well established in our authority, we might possibly think it was wrought by our own hand. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying we stand back and do nothing. David said "God hath broken in upon mine enemies by MY hand...". In other words, he's saying God DID it, but it was by MY hand. I believe that most of the time we must actively participate in the breakthrough, as God is operating through us.

For example, we had a specific financial need; the Lord had me perform a prophetic act and declare a release over the checkbook. However, then I didn't sit back and do nothing, I went to work (I still work a full-time job). Since it was a natural physical need, I provided something in the natural for Him to bless... a conduit of sorts to transfer the provision in the spiritual realm to the natural realm. It is the principal of sowing and reaping, there must be a seed in order for there to be a harvest. Granted, there are times when He tells us to "...stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day... The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."(Ex.14:13-14), however I believe that the norm is for us to be involved. Too many times our victory is delayed or forfeited altogether because we do not follow through with our part. Remember, He has given US the keys of authority; "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."(Matt.16:19).

Notice also that David says God has done this "like the breaking forth of waters". The picture I get is like something dammed up and the pressure builds up until the dam breaks. You see, our answer, our provision, our defense and offense is in the spiritual realm; "...who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ"(Eph.1:3). In fact we even pray this way, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."(Matt.6:10). However there are spiritual forces at work to dam up the manifestation in the natural realm. We are on this side of the dam in the natural realm and can't always see what pressure is building on the other side of the dam. When we quit doing our part the pressure many times will subside and breakthrough is thwarted. Let us continue to press in through our declaration and honor Him as Lord of the Breakthrough!

Also, a major part of the breakthrough of our perception of kingship may be in our OWN MENTALITY! Through inaccurate religious mentalities, false humility, and the lies of the enemy we may be all dammed up. Remember, He is Lord of the Breakthrough in every area and our part is to "the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ..."(2 Cor.10:4-5)

My friend, submit your PERCEPTION to Him that He may show you your kingship, your authority. Know that the Philistines are right on the heels of renewed PERCEPTION and let Him activate the Breakthrough Anointing He has placed within you. Don't sit back and do nothing and don't look at the natural circumstances on this side of the dam... and get ready to get WET as the Lord of the Breakthrough bursts forth as the waters!

info@DougFortune.org

Expand

Marsha Burns

Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes; you are going to expand to the right and to the left. I say, get ready for expansion in a number of areas. Let Me first expand your vision to see more of My kingdom and your purpose and position in it. Let Me expand your heart to believe and receive all that I have prepared. For indeed, I have gone before you and prepared the way. I have established your going out and your coming in, and I will lead you in the paths that have been made ready. Let Me expand your willingness to reach beyond what has been familiar and comfortable, and let Me remove the fear that would hinder your progress and keep you in the safe zone. I tell you the truth, nothing ventured; nothing gained.

Faith Tabernacle
Kremmling, CO
http://ft111.com
ft111@ft111.com

Recognizing Your Source

by Undrai Fizer

Every man has a measure of faith. Whether or not that faith is motivated by God is another thing, however. Whatever is the source or motivator of your faith will be your god.

Faith is the belief and conviction in something not seen. It is a deep commitment to the evidence of the invisible. Every man has it. A man will listen to the source of his "commitment" or faith.

Some of us have faith in a job. In clothes or looks. Some have faith in themselves only. Some of us are benefactors of the faith of others. But, when we stand face to face with God's faith, we cannot listen. We do optional things to get the same outcome, but the results are empty and with no substance.

Is God the Source of your faith or is another source (god) effecting your faith in God? Is God the Source of your faith or is your faith the product of another? Whoever owns your faith is your god! Whoever owns your faith, owns you! You will listen and obey whatever is supplying your faith.

Your source is your supplier. If you are the supplier of your faith, when God speaks to you, you will not listen effectively. Why? Because you will only heed the voice of your supplier. Whoever or whatever supply's for you, is whom you will listen to and trust.

If God is your supplier, you will not listen to or need another source. If your friends are your supplier, you will not hear God, you will hear your friends. (Good friends will lead you to the True Source.) If your finances are your supplier, that is what will be the dominating factor of every decision in your life. God must be the dominating factor of your life.

Your vision must be from God who is the Supplier of Life. If you are the supplier of your dream, you will faint in adversity. Your "god" will cause you to fight God. It will become the battle of the voices. This will cause spiritual torment and abuse. It will make you open to abuse and misunderstanding.

God is the Source of your supply. In Him is all you need. He should be the Source of faith. He says that "without faith (in Him, and knowing He is the Supplier), it is impossible to please God. You must believe that He is (the Source of all things), and that He will reward those who seek Him with passion (diligence and conviction), Hebrews 11:6.

You will listen to whatever supply's for you. You can say that God is your Source, but yet find it hard to listen to Him because He is not the main supplier. He may be one of many options in the scheme of things. He may not be the dominating factor of thought and life as of yet.

You will listen to whatever birthed your present identity. If it's a person, you will listen, you will heed the voice of the person. If it's a thing, you will listen to the thing. The "thing" will determine your planning and your process. If it's an emotion, you will heed the emotion instead of the Word.

Prophetic words given to people who have other "sources," will cause problems. They will not be able to move in God because their "god" has made it plain that they cannot. God has to break the spirit of those who have "other gods," and other sources. He does not want any other source before Him. He's very jealous, not because of insecurity, but because He hates to be given the credit for what another source has supplied!

He does not want to share an identity with another source. It does not make Him all. When you can receive the blessings and yet cannot move in destiny, you make blessings the source. Blessings, while yet being Uncommitted, will cause you to be stagnant. You will listen to what supply's for you.

That is why we are feeling this inner turmoil and spiritual nausea. God is exposing other sources in our life. He is making our "dealers" bankrupt. We are on the corner of despair in our spirits, feeling hopeless. We have no joy because our other source has been robbed of it's power and we had no idea of the crime.

Our other sources gave us the ability to "be friends with God," and HE did not like it. When our "source" demanded our attention, we left the one Who is the True Source. God was not our motivator, something else was. When something else supplies for you, the Word becomes nothing but a dream world or fantasy land. It loses its reality. You will find no joy in the Word anymore.

God does not have space for other "sources." There is only room for the two of you. He does not need anyone else to pay the expenses or "foot the bill." He is the Source of your miracles.

You will listen to the motivator or source of your "miracles." You will listen to the voice of your "drive." What is the source of your dreams and miracles? Who or what activated them?

You will not offend your supplier because you do not want to fail or die. You will not allow the source of your living to run free with reckless abandon. You will protect it and value it with your life (because it is the source of yours).

There is way of freedom from "sources," but it will be a painful process. Those things have "adjusted" themselves in our thought patterns and emotional makeup. There will be a tearing way and a rotting away. Some things will not grow anymore. If you can submit to the "pulling up" of the old things and go through this "period of bankruptcy," who will come out awesomely made and anointed.

You will see the joy, finally! You will bear the shame of being stripped by God. You will slowly watch the other "suppliers" lose their power.

Then you will be free..

Undrai Fizer
www.ExploringTheVision.org

Working Lovers

By Mike Bickle

God wants you to be a lover. And He wants you to be a working lover. Who you are is the lover, and what you do is the work. You are not to be a worker who struggles to love God. Instead, you are to be a lover of God who can't help but bear fruit because she is connected to the vine.

Being lovers is our very identity. It's who we are. We are lovers of God who happen to work, not the other way around. God wants us to BE something before He wants us to DO something. Our fallen nature makes us want to do something in order to be someone. God wants the opposite: He wants us to be lovers so that we do work.

It is extremely important that what we do flows out of who we are. It is also important that we do not live from the self-centered motivation of trying to be something and seeking to achieve more. With minds that are not renewed, we work to feel important and to appear significant in the eyes of others. God expects just the opposite of that. We are not first warriors; we are first a bride. We are first lovers, and then we do the acts of war.

God wants us to be relationally oriented first and achievement-oriented second. Yes, we are to fulfill the Great Commission, but who we are IN Him is far more important than what we do FOR Him. In fact, who we are will dramatically impact what we do.

Christ's kingdom is established in this way. He does indeed want us to sow spiritual seed and cultivate a spiritual garden. But to know we are loved, to actually feel God's affection, is more vital to our becoming a wholehearted lover of God than sowing. This is our life source. This is the essence of true success.

Once we are successful in this spiritual sense, then we can serve Him in ministry with deeper obedience and perseverance. He cares a great deal about productivity, but He cares about it second. Too many of us put it first. He wants us to be loved and a lover first, and then He wants us to disciple the nations, starting with our families and with our neighbors.

When we are relationally oriented first, we do not work in ministry because of a need to feel successful. We already feel successful because of our relationship with Jesus.

Instead, we launch out and do the work of the Great Commission from a foundation of success. This sense of success equips us to continue working even when we face adversity. But if we work because we are trying to achieve success, we will burn out quickly through added temptation and strife. Lovers will always serve more willingly, easily and tirelessly than workers ever do.

Adapted from "The Pleasures of Loving God" by Mike Bickle, copyright 2000. Published by Creation House.

As published in Spirit Led Woman
http://www.spiritledwoman.com

The Fiery Furnace

Olivia Reitz

"Remember how the Lord your God led you ALL THE WAY in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands." Deut. 8:2

"But He knoweth the way that I take; when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Job 23:10

When My wilderness people, My faithful ones stood up and said NO and were determined to go all the way with Christ, you figured correctly that you would be thrown into the fiery furnace. However, the heat has been much hotter than you had ever imagined it would be, nevertheless, what I did with Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego, I will also do for those who have allowed the affliction in the furnace. You have suffered greatly, as you continue to "do right." My Son was the supreme example of suffering wrong in well-doing, for though He was My Son, yet by His suffering He learned obedience ... For the key is Obedience... You have felt the heavy weight of your cross, and at times you begged for My help, tears flowing for days, even weeks on end. You tried reading the Word, you tried speaking scriptures. You felt that I had forsaken you, thinking what did you do to bring such agony and despair. For some of you, your finances have dried up, and you are in severe financial straits. For some, health is an issue, pain being your constant companion, you need a healing. You read the accounts in My word of Job's testing and in the end what I did for him. You read of Joseph, sold by his own brothers and attaining to the heights of power. You have read of Daniel, who had such faith, he "slept" in a den of ravionness lions. Of Esther, who was willing to sacrifice herself for her people. You have read about them all, but still your pain is overwhelming. You say, yes but those were bible saints, My Beloved, they were men and women, just like you. You have found yourself in a place where you think there is no way out, there is nothing that 'you' can do ... but AH, MY BELOVED, this is where I want you, for you will know that it is ONLY "your God" who is able to deliver you. But even in the midst of all this pain, I have been enabling you to begin to see the world through the loving eyes of Jesus.

My wilderness people have determined to lay hold of Christ at all cost, going on with Him and with that decision they placed themselves in the hands of the Potter. I called you into the wilderness, but I also said "There is a Price!" And you have paid a "high" price for the anointing I have for you. You have had to die daily, to your fears, to your control, to religion, to your reputation, - a multitude of deaths in choosing to be a true disciple of Mine. My chosen vessels going through the crushing by the Potter's hands. The clay being molded and remolded. When I took you from the wheel and put you on the shelf, everything "appeared" to go wrong. You felt that I wasn't there and you asked "Where are You, Lord?" So much about the wilderness, you don't comprehend. You feel alone, you once had your family and friends in support of your decision, now they don't understand. You say: "is it me, did I hear wrong, did I make a mistake, did You really choose me Lord?" AH, My children, even the greatest, My Son, had to go through the wilderness testing. You have now learned that it doesn't matter what man may think - or - have need of his approval, only your relationship with Me is what matters. FINALLY... FINALLY... you say "If I have to stay in this wilderness forever, I will" for it's only Me that you want or need. NOW, BELOVED, NOW, I will take you out of the wilderness. And your heart races in excitement and anticipation and you say "Let's go, I am ready!" But to your dismay, you see what's coming next - "the firing." Now you are in the "kiln" and you are not alone, for it's here that the impurities are taken out of My vessels - bitterness, resentment, anger, jealousy, competition, as the fire continues to get hotter and hotter. The persecutions come - family, friends, job and even the church. But after you get out of here, you are not finished yet and you wait, once more, for the final step - "the glazing". It is here, you are afraid to step out in anything for fear of judgment. Now, I begin to poke and prod, do you settle for what you have or do you want more of Me and to finish the process? Your excitement surfaces again. Now the separation begins. I apply the glaze, and you enter "The White Hot Glory Fire", where "ALL that Can be stripped WILL be stripped." It is here, where the coal will be placed to your lips and I bestow anointings, healings, giftings and from this whole process of death comes "resurrection." A resurrection to move in the authority that comes from the anointing. Sending you into the world to reflect My Glory. What I have started, I will finish. In the wilderness, you heard My promises and somehow - and sometimes you wondered how - you stuck it out, waiting for the manifestation. For even at this time, your GOD is still in control though everything else in your life isn't. You have come to realize that you never did have a view of "My plan" for your life, until I took you into the wilderness - and you now realize it is not your humanness that will allow you to overcome, it's My godliness. While in the wilderness, you have truly learned how to lean on Jesus, never to be without hope, love or strength for He has become your strength.

You know, the truth of My Love, and that I Am a God who is JUST. I AM the "ultimate power and authority" and you can be positive that I "WILL" use them. You are part of an elite group. While you have been going through the fiery furnace, you had two choices: you could quit OR you could go on to Spiritual Maturity. You have been noticing the subtle changes that came along the way, changes in you that you never thought possible. Why? You pressed into your God and the people that know their God will be strong and carry out great exploits. I AM a faithful God, and I require you to be faithful and walk humbly with Your God. Your heart cries out for the injustices you see around you and in the world. But haven't I said that I have overcome the world? I AM a God of justice, hating injustice, and I will use you as My instruments to seek justice and rescue the oppressed and you will be empowered to do so - reaching out to a hurting, abused and dying world. I say to My wilderness people, My Remnant, My chosen ones - you are walking out of the furnace, without the smell of smoke upon you, led by the fourth man. For I am more real and more powerful than "any" force on the face of this earth. And I am with you all the time, 'right' on time.

{"When God permits His children to go through the furnace, He keeps
His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat."
Warren Wiersbe, bible teacher/preacher.}
My Brothers and Sisters - "His eye is on the clock"

Olivia Reitz
email: mreitz@penn.com

Stay in the Secret Place

A.W. Tozer

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up. --Psalm 5:3

Retire from the world each day to some private spot, even if it be only the bedroom (for a while I retreated to the furnace room for want of a better place). Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart and a sense of God's presence envelops you. Deliberately tune out the unpleasant sounds and come out of your closet determined not to hear them. Listen for the inward Voice till you learn to recognize it. Stop trying to compete with others. Give yourself to God and then be what and who you are without regard to what others think. Reduce your interests to a few. Don't try to know what will be of no service to you. Avoid the digest type of mind-short bits of unrelated facts, cute stories and bright sayings. Learn to pray inwardly every moment. After a while you can do this even while you work. Practice candor, childlike honesty, humility. Pray for a single eye. Read less, but read more of what is important to your inner life. Never let your mind remain scattered for very long. Call home your roving thoughts. Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul. Practice spiritual concentration. Of God and Men, 128-129.

"Lord, I need all of these practical suggestions. Direct me today to those things that would most enhance my walk with you, and enable me to serve You better. Amen."

_______________________________________________________________
Read "Insight for Leaders" online at:
http://www.litmin.com/tozer.php3

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