I Thess 5:14-23
14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
15 See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.
16 Rejoice evermore.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
19 Quench not the Spirit.
20 Despise not prophesyings.
21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I would like to thank each one of you that took the time to write or call us to express your feelings concerning our last article on "Better Sacrifices". It was overwhelming to hear from so many of you that have been in dire straits and perilous circumstances and in need of a greater understanding of why these things happen to the faithful of the Lord. I have decided to write a second part to "Better Sacrifices" that has been in my heart since the last newsletter.
I have been hearing a word spoken to my heart over and over again and I feel it goes along with our original thoughts on "Better Sacrifices". The word is "sanctification". Sanctification is a very familiar word that has been used with great frequency in our religious language and I thought I knew what it meant but now I am aware that I only had a shallow knowledge of what God meant it to truly be. I think this is the case in so many instances of our usage of certain terminology. Many words get used so much that they tend to lose their original impact and even lose their original meaning.
Sanctification is a word that I grew up hearing in church testimonial services. In the Pentecostal circles that I was in as a young Christian we had a time during the service that was set aside for "popcorn" testimonies, which are short testimonies that sometimes were given in a perfunctory fashion with a half-hearted effort, the idea being that everyone had to say something for the Lord even if they didn't mean it. The standard testimony, given mostly by rote, was as follows: "I thank God that I am saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost and on my way to heaven". If I had a dollar for every time I said that exact testimony, I would be living on easy street today.
I have always associated the word "sanctified" with those early testimonies, which left an indelible impression on my mind that "sanctified" meant "clean living", which in turn meant you didn't smoke, drink, cuss, chew, or run around. You were leading a "sanctified" life. Now, the original meaning for the word "sanctified" did mean "pure”, but, as it happens to be so many times, that is not all that the word means.
The Greek word for sanctified is Hagiazo. Strong's Concordance gives this definition: 37 hagiazo (hag-ee-ad'-zo);
from 40; to make holy, i.e. (ceremonially) purify or consecrate; (mentally) to venerate:
KJV-- hallow, be holy, sanctify.
It comes from the word, Hagios. 40 hagios (hag'-ee-os);
from hagos (an awful thing) [compare 53, 2282]; sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated):
KJV-- (most) holy (one, thing), saint.
As you can see, the original meaning for sanctification does have an aspect to it of cleanliness, and purity. I Thess. 4:1-7 illustrates that there is a need for physical righteousness and an abstaining from filthiness and evil. It is, however, a concept that goes much further than physical holiness. The Greek language gives it a meaning of being "awful", or to be held in awe of something. Sanctification was used by God in the Old Testament to enable a holy, awful God to have fellowship with unclean mankind. Everything that came in contact with God had to go through a process of sanctification in order to remain intact. For instance, when God descended upon the mountain, He gave orders that neither man nor beast should come in contact with the mountain lest they should be killed. Yet, Moses was able to walk up into the mountain and converse with God without the effects of death. Moses was sanctified by God as His mouthpiece to the people of
Israel
. The related Greek words for sanctification in Strong's Concordance, #37 Hagiazo; #38 Hagiasmos; #39 Hagion; and #40 Hagios all deal with being set apart from the world and being found holy unto the Lord. To be sanctified means to be given a higher state of existence, to be taken from a state of commonness to a state of sacredness.
In John 17 Jesus says this about His sanctification and how it is to affect the disciples.
John 17:14-19
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Throughout the scriptures you will find that we are sanctified through the truth of God's word as it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Truth in this particular verse means "the unveiled reality" which resides at the base of our existence in God. Truth is not merely what we think we know as truth, but truth is what is true in God. The outer realm of existence, the material, physical realm, is not what is true, but the invisible, ethereal realm, the realm where God has His being and where He abides in truth and reality, is the truth that sanctifies us, sets us aside from the earthly carnal things, and gives us an existence as God has existence. He has sanctified us with Himself! We are OF God, not of this world, and so He prays not that we be taken out of this world through a physical relocation, but that we may be sanctified from the evil of it, or set apart into a safe place in God.
To be sanctified means so much more than just doing righteous acts. It means that you have become holy ground, untouchable by common things. It means that God has set you in the earth as a holy representative of His reality, and as such you are an influencing force in the earth. This is a great revelation for us, one that can change our lives and change them from a mundane existence to a sacred, holy purposed existence.
At the root of our being we are holy as God is holy. Wrapped around this holy thing is layers upon layers of diminishing holiness. I know we like to think only in threes because of the scriptural references of things in threes, (outer court, holy place, most holy place; body, soul, spirit; etc.), but, in fact, there are many layers within these 3 major compartments that must be clothed upon by our inner reality in order for our true self to be revealed. Our redemption does not happen from the shedding of our outermost garment first, that is to say, our physical body, but rather we are clothing our inner parts first, working outward from the point of inner redemption and continuing until arriving at a final "swallowing up" of this last, final garment, our body.
We are sanctified, but as the scripture at the beginning of this article so plainly states, there is a further need of sanctification, until we are "wholly" sanctified. I believe there to be a sanctification available to God's people that has not been manifest as of yet. Even with our obvious change in lifestyle and speech, I think we would all have to be honest and testify that there are still times of failure in us. We have confessed and professed until we are blue in the face, but we still see the wrong fruit produced every once in a while. It speaks to me that there remains a final step of sanctification in our vessel. There exists, deep within the recesses of our being, the remnants of a nature that although it has been cut down, there remains a seed of it that continues to germinate and revive itself. Rest assured, God will not halt the process of sanctification until every vestige of the old self is made holy and sacred.
This further process of sanctification is what our "better sacrifices" are all about. Through the giving of the old life we sanctify ourselves for the obtaining of the new life. We start to see more than just an inner sanctification, but we begin to work outward until all that we are is in a sanctified, set apart, holy, sacred, state of being and our outer life starts participating in this fellowship with those invisible things that also have been sanctified. Holy things must have holy things to fellowship with. It is like drawing a circle around yourself and then widening the circle until it encompasses everything that comes into contact with you.
Right now, we don't see too much evidence of our sanctification in our physical world. We know through the scriptures that we are sanctified, or, in true original language terminology, we are now being sanctified, but it is a process not of attainment, but of revealing. We are not trying to be sanctified, we are desiring to show our sanctified selves. This is accomplished by a swallowing up of our outer, limited life by our holy, sanctified inner life, which is life as God has life. God has throughout the scriptures sanctified many different things. He has sanctified people, places, things, times, and Himself. Indeed, everything He involves Himself with must be sanctified. This does not necessarily mean that those things He sanctifies are themselves holy, but He has imparted unto them a holiness that He can fellowship with. We, the elect of God, are different from the material, or inanimate things in this respect. We were sanctified by Him from the beginning through our relationship with Jesus Christ. As I said before, our base existence is existence as God has existence, our base life is Zoe Life, or life as God knows life. We are originally OF God. Before we ever partook of the original sin, we had original life with God.
One of the differences between Jesus and us is that He is the first-born among the brethren. Before the foundations of the world He identified Himself with us and died for us and redeemed us. All of this happened before we were found subjected to vanity. Because of that distinction, He is seated in the highest seat of glory and at HIS name every knee will bow and every tongue confess that HE is Lord! But in our base self, we are brethren, kinsmen, kind of same kind, sons of God. Jesus has given to us everything He received from the Father. We rule with Him, we sit in the throne with Him, we judge with Him, we are kings with Him, we are priests with Him, we suffer with Him, we reign with Him, we die with Him, we live with Him. We are commissioned with His commission, sent as He was sent, foreknown as He was foreknown, sanctified by Him and sanctified with Him.
Heb 2:9-3:1
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
12 Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.
II Thess. 2:13
13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:(KJV)
We are sanctified, but there is a further step to this. We must be able to sanctify others. I pray that we can grasp the significance of this statement. We are saved, but we must be able to save, we are redeemed, but we must be able to redeem. Whatever we are through Jesus Christ we must be made that to the world. He is appearing in His Saints.
II Thess. 1:10
10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.(KJV)
The Greek word for saint is #40 Hagios, the same word used for sanctified, which gives us the literal meaning, He is coming to be glorified in His sanctified ones. The truth of being sanctified in the beginning with and by Jesus Christ is just the first step. We must now believe God to enlighten us in the process of sanctifying ourselves in all of our layers of existence. I am sanctified at the base of my real self, but I must continue the process until I am sanctified within and without. So many of our dear saints today have settled for the inner reality of who they are and they have given up on any further working of the spirit of God in the outer man. I am afraid that some of us have settled for just knowing the message of life and are not following through with obtaining the life we know about. Jesus is the door and the gate through which all must enter to have life. We must not be caught standing on the wrong side of the door preaching WHAT He is and never walking WHERE He is! He has made a way of entrance for us into the holy of holies, not just to give us something great to preach about, but to actually be found where He is.
We must be able to sanctify our outer existence with the holiness of our inner self. We are not meant to live our whole life as a sanctified entity struggling through a world that we have surrounded ourselves with, a world made up of common, earthly things. Truly sanctified things sanctify everything they come in contact with. Sanctification begets sanctification. Notice that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and everything that was contained therein. After 6 days, (cycles of time), He had finished all of His work. He then set aside a seventh cycle of time and "sanctified" it, making it unique and different than all the other days before it. (Gen. 2:1-3) The book of Hebrews tells us that there is a rest that remains for us to come into, that as God rested from His works on the seventh day so must we also come into a cycle of rest from our own carnal works. (Heb 4:1 –11) There are many lively debates that go on between those that believe we are in the 6th, 7th, 8th (or more) day of God. I would submit to you that the day that Hebrews is talking about is not a day that we come to, but a day that we become.
WE ARE THE DAY! The Day of the Lord is not a 24 hour day we come to, but a day that we bring with us. It is time to think properly concerning these things. The day of God is a people, not a dispensation but a generation. There must be a convergence between a set aside time and a set aside generation. God blessed the first 6 days, but He sanctified the 7th day, and it remains to this generation to be entered into. The 7th day will not be given to any other generation except that generation that He sanctifies for it. We are a sanctified generation, visited by Almighty God with a holy visitation to preach the everlasting gospel to every age, and to visit them with His visitation.
Following this line of thought, I would like to state that there remains a sanctified Day of the Lord, a seventh day of rest, that has been held back in God until it meets up with an equally sanctified generation. Indeed, one can envision this great Day of the Lord presenting itself to each generation since the beginning of generations, seeking its predestinated marriage with a people. Of course, it has already united itself with our elder brother and forerunner, Jesus Christ, when He became the generation, or the gene, that became the day star of God in the earth. Still, as we have been proclaiming throughout this series, the plan of God is not to have a single son, or priest, or king, but to have a nation of priests and kings. "Abba Father, I shall be a son indeed" is how the song states it. Following on with this line of thought, that first son was received into heaven, united with the Day and taking His place with the Day, set aside, out of reach and held back from lesser things, awaiting a generation of sons that would have the same name, or nature, as the first son, and through this sameness, they would be united, or married, with the Day of the Lord. This is how we become the Day. We are sanctified for it.
Since Jesus, the heavens have been filled with an expectation of the eventual appearing of a chosen generation that would become one with the Day of the Lord. With each birthing of a new generation the Day would appear to the called out ones of that generation and present the rays of truth that it held. My belief is that each generation had a seed of truth in it. However, the seed could not come to full term by reason of the sanctification of the Day that made its appearance. God had reserved a generation back in Himself that was the determined match for His 7th Day of Sabbath rest. Each generation continued to walk in partial truth and shadows of life, until now.
The generation that lives in earth now is, in my opinion, the perfect match for the Day to become one with a people. We have been partakers of more movements of God in this generation than all of the generations combined since the time of Jesus walking on earth. The great revival days of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the century, the Latter Rain movement in the middle of the century, the birthing of the sons of God movement were all forerunners for us. Some of us have walked with ministry that were eyewitnesses of these great moves. I can recall hearing from the elders of days gone by how that some were years ahead of their time. When others gathered in
Canada
to receive the revelation of the early rain, some men and women of God came away from that gathering seeing the Feast of Tabernacles. They jumped ahead of the seasons and were like Paul, born as though out of season. We must be sanctified dear ones! The Word we minister must be sanctified, the gifts we operate in must be sanctified, our ministry must be sanctified. By this I mean, they must be taken out of the hands of men and put into a holy, sacred place where flesh cannot enter in! Too much is at stake, too many lives have been given in faith that a generation would come that would do what must be done to bring the message into a viable life. The message is no good without a fulfillment and manifestation of it. We must become what we believe.
God showed me recently that I was walking horizontally when I should be walking vertically. God lives and moves in the heights of reality and we must move from glory to glory, not horizontally but vertically. It is not how far we have come, it is how high we have come. Horizontal distance doesn't mean a thing in this day. What you know will not get the job done on this plane of ministry. You can have an eloquent ministry horizontally and be able to preach until the break of day, but after you are done preaching all of your wonderful revelations, take a look around you and see that nothing has really changed. Two minutes of vertical ministry will do more than two days of horizontal ministry. Jesus lived and ministered on a vertical plane. He used the same words that everyone else in His day used, and did the same acts as others had done, but His words and His acts had eternal consequences because they were vertical words and vertical acts. Horizontal words and acts look good and sound good, but they don't accomplish anything eternally.
You don't have to wait to try to find something different to preach or try to do some exotic unknown act to bring God's life to the people. Just take the words and actions vertical, to a higher plane and see what God can do! Jesus wasn’t the first man to die for the sake of God. Others before Him had died righteous deaths, but Jesus died a death that was sanctified from the beginning. Lazarus rose from the dead, just like Jesus did, but Lazarus didn't bring life to the world. Jesus rose and sanctified us with His sanctification. Are you ready to quit living your life in the midst of commonness? You are sanctified and now you must sanctify everything that contacts you. Sanctify your home, sanctify your children, sanctify your husband or wife, sanctify your time, sanctify your existence and bring it higher, vertical, to a new and higher reality. Nothing you do will ever be looked upon as trite and inconsequential again. When you ascend and bring everything else with you, your life will be a river that brings life to everything it touches.
Are you sick? Go vertical and turn that sickness into a sacrifice of life until God delivers you! Are you having financial problems? Go vertical and let God sanctify your bank account and watch Him bless you in ways you never knew was possible! You can do the same acts, work the same job, but bring it higher into God's reality and that same job will reap a larger harvest. It is the sanctified seventh year, wherein you are no longer gleaning from the sowing of your own labor, but you are now living off the increase of God! Oh glory to His name! Break through the heavens, go through the door, quit just preaching about it and do it!
I am praying for you right now, whoever is reading this article, that from this minute onward you will be living a sanctified life that will swallow up every other part of your life and bring it into a higher existence. Quit going farther and start coming up higher. New life, new purpose, new garments, new thinking, may this all be created in them right now, dear Father, and may your Holy Spirit sanctify them by your truth. Praise Him dear hearts and feel the victory. Your day of mourning is over, no more will you think of yourselves as afloat on the sea of humanity, but I speak destiny into you and declare a new beginning for you. Ho, Ho, come forth and live all of you who have been in your graves and said our hope is lost, for we are cut off from our parts. "Come up hither, in the Son realm, where no dragons can abide, for the sure word now is spoken, and in Him we have our life, For the kingdoms of men crumble, have no fear just trust and see, that the kingdom of our Father, is brought forth in you and me."
My heart is full of compassion for those that have been touched by God and who have found themselves in a place that is out of the beaten path. You have felt alone and unable to fit in with other crowds, always feeling different and strange. Don't look now, but these are the same feelings I believe the Lord Jesus had on earth. He couldn't relate to the other religious people. They were serving God horizontally and He was walking vertically. What His eyes saw, and what His ears heard couldn't be spoken. A man of sorrows, and of grief, lonely in His divinity, set aside in His destiny. But lo, I hear the voice of the Father saying to us, welcome home! Behold, Mt Zion, and an innumerable company of angels, the ecclesia of the firstborn, the general assembly, spirits of just men made perfect. Not farther out there, not over in this church, or in that state, or in that group of people, but just a little bit higher than where we have been standing. Just above this sphere of terrestrial glory, there is a celestial glory filled with fellowship and kinship. This is where the life comes from.
Take a drink of this living water and soothe your parched soul. It is here, just a little higher. In fact, everything is here. Our new body is here. Not that bruised, hurting body you've been living in, but that beautiful, glorified body. It isn't coming from some place farther up ahead, it is here, in the heavens. Don’t look out, look up, not up as in altitude, but up as in attitude. In this realm you're not strange at all. In this realm you are whole and well. Stay here for a while and rest. Later, after you are strengthened, start to bring this place into your everyday life. Bring it into your existence on earth and watch it change everything around you. Shadows will flee, fear will be dissolved, love and joy will cover you from morning to morning. What I have just ministered is a ministry of leaven. Not in the negative sense of what Jesus warned the disciples about concerning the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, but the mirror image of that principle. Take the negative connotations of what Jesus said and flip it over to the positive. Leaven, if introduced to the lump, even though small in amount, will eventually leaven the whole lump. It is the nature of leaven to leaven everything that it touches. We know that this holds true in the negative, since all men have been leavened with the corruption of Adam. But remember what I said before, that before our partaking with Adam, we were OF God.
The funny thing about leaven is that it needs something to get it started. Like water, or in our case, spirit. Now, we have been leavened with Jesus Christ also. Adam's leaven has been started since birth, but we are being birthed in God and we are being leavened by that life of Jesus Christ. His leaven does the opposite from Adam's leaven. Adam's leaven corrupts, Jesus' leaven un-corrupts. Isn't it glorious? Adam's leaven kills, Jesus' leaven makes alive. Same actions, one is horizontal, the other vertical.
In part 1 of "Better Sacrifices" we tried to convey to you how there are some in our midst who have been through horrific trials that are being used in a vertical sense. Their sufferings are not because of disbelief, or sin, but they have been chosen and set aside, sanctified, to shed a blood, or life, that will be the catalyst to free creation. This higher understanding of our situations and why God has allowed them to come our way, will, in my opinion, be the turning point in bringing the glories of heaven to the earth plane. It will, without a doubt, be the fulfillment of what Jesus accomplished. His life was given, not that we might now die also, but that we might die and be raised with Him. He is our forerunner, our pattern, our firstborn. We must follow Him.
“Be of good cheer. In the world you will have trials and tribulation, but I have overcome the world.” This simple statement sets the course. He hasn't overcome the world to take you out of the world, but you will be in the world as He was in the world, victorious. I think it is wrong for us to tell people that if they are living for God they should never have anything bad come their way. So many preachers put so much emphasis on this carnal life. Our days are filled with scenes of the good life, being rich, healthy, fulfilled in every way according to this world. But I must say, this all seems at times to be pitifully shallow and full of vanity. Did you give your child everything they wanted all the time? Did you never hold anything back from them to teach them lessons of character and behavior?
If I was to think of one word to describe the average Christian today, the word spoiled comes to mind. We have lost our values somewhere along the way. Is this all there is to life, is to feel good and have all of our needs met? Or do we recognize that there is a higher purpose to this existence, and that we have stored in heavenly places riches in glory that cannot be robbed or corrupted? Rev. Ike made a name for himself when he created a catch phrase, "pie in the sky", and I know that false martyrs are alive and well in the world today that wouldn't trade that veil of tears for all the tea in China, but down deep in my heart I do believe in a place not of this dimension, a place of such wonders and sights that we would all fall like dead men if we saw it with these earthly eyes. I do believe that there is a throne, and upon that throne one sits with hair like white wool and eyes of fire and feet like brass with a voice as the sound of many waters. I do believe that all those that have come before me are in that dimension in various states of maturity and that some are privy of this dimension and at times they can be seen and heard by us. I do believe in layers of heavens, Paul having been caught up in the spirit to the third layer and there he heard and saw things that gave him the strength and faith to finish the course. How childish it seems in the piercing light of this heavenly reality to hear me complain because I can't make my house payment, or I'm facing discomfort in my body at times. Lives have been given, blood has been shed, not so that we can feel good every day of our carnal life, but so that life eternal can be realized on every hand and hell will be made to give up the dead. 0 sanctify us Lord, sanctify us wholly, sanctify us as the day of God, breaking forth the first rays of morning over a creation that has been living in the dark of night.
Right now, I just want to minister to you dear ones that have been watchers in the night. Your tears have been shed and your bones are weary and it seems that the morning will never come. I know that it gets hard and wearisome in the watch for the morning. It seems that everything is worse in the night. I have noticed that if I have the flu or a cold, I feel even worse when the sun goes down and there have been times the night was spent in long hours of agony just waiting for the rays of morning to hit my bedroom window because I knew somehow that I would feel better when day break arrived. I want to tell each one of you that are suffering right now that the night has indeed been long, but take hope and gain strength for the morning is at hand and you will begin to feel the release that you have been waiting for.
The Father is showing me how some of you have been humiliated by your present circumstance because in days past you were so strong and never sick or afflicted. Don’t feel this way child of God. You have been brought low to bring others higher. Your steps are ordered by God and if He has brought you to this place of suffering He will also be faithful to not leave you in hell, but you will come forth, not by yourself, but with a host of others. No one ascends alone in this hour of resurrection. We are bringing others with us. I can see how some of your so-called friends have been less than gracious with you. Don't be bitter. Forgive them and leave them to God. They also are humiliated for you and they are reacting out of fear and anger.
Hide away in God. Go to the secret place and abide there. Morning is dawning. Light is casting its rays of hope and clarity through our earth and things that have been half truths and dim realities are becoming plain to us. It is important for you to know that you are not the only one that has been sacrificed. You are not the only one that has been made to cry out, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Sanctify yourself. Wash your face and change your clothes. Put on your beautiful garments and prepare to rejoice. A song is even now welling up in your throat, the song of the redeemed. Only those that have been redeemed can sing this song. It is the most distinct song in heaven. Only those that have been released from prison can sing it. Only those that have walked through the dust and come out free can know its melody. Some through the fire, some through the flood, some through great testing, but all through the blood.
You can’t be an overcomer unless you have come over something. Most Christians are serving God today because He has blessed them and met all their needs. More blessed are they who have served Him through good times and bad. You are a rock, a firm place in God. You will not be moved. Storms may come, strong winds may blow, but you are as the cedars of Lebanon, you are a walled city, a tower of strength in the Lord. You will not fail, you will not quit, you will overcome. God is mighty within you. He is your buckler, your shield, your anchor in the raging sea. He is a force of will and purpose in you that will not rest until you are a praise in the earth. You will breathe His life in as you do the air around you, filling your soul with hope and faith.
Darkness leave, fear give way, doubt vanish, this is a child of the King, a tender root of His substance. Be gone scars of the past, seeds of despair, thoughts of death, this is a brand plucked out of the flames, a voice in the land that will not be silenced. Open up you doors of utterance that have hitherto been shut, cry aloud, keep not silent 0 messenger of good tidings, preacher of the good news, minister of righteousness. Paint the portrait of God's salvation with strokes both true and strong. Put His tender mercies on open display and announce to the world His enduring love and grace. Bridge the gap between fallen man and redeeming God. Tell the story, sing the song.
Fall away 0 fetters of bondage, bands of wickedness in high places, the Lord, True and Faithful, has come suddenly to this temple and will save to the uttermost. Gain strength you feeble joints and weak legs and may youth be restored as a flood. Wake up and be revived all you cells of this body. Hear the word of the Lord and live and die not. Be restored and renewed by God's vivifying life. May His spirit come up on you suddenly, consuming, and lighting you with the fire of His presence. Come alive all you dead places and live in His sight. I heal you, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet, completely, body, soul, spirit. You are a new creature in Christ, a new species of His substance, not of this world, but of the world to come. I bless you in the name by which all heaven and earth is named, The Lord Jesus Christ.
Everything in heaven awaits your manifestation. Our God has brought us to the day of better sacrifices, and the heavenly things themselves will be sanctified by your sacrifice. Nothing else will do. Only your blood-life will release them from the invisible into the visible. Heavenly things, flying angels, trumpets that talk, 24 elders gathered around the throne, martyrs under the altar, all of heaven awaits your sanctifying sacrifice. Lose your life, gain His life. Let it go! Don't hang on to it. Refuse to live the life of fallen humanity, and grab hold of the life from behind the veil.
Hold on to the truth that God has deposited in your heart. This present trial will pass and work its curious work in our heart and then in the creation of God. Take your place, position yourself in the heavens. Stand up, sit down. Higher, child of God, always higher 0 Eagle saint, mountain dweller. God will equip you for this new walk. My lovely wife received a song a good many years ago that illustrates God's ability to give us feet made for mountain climbing and a new nature for a new life.
"I've made thee hinds feet,
So walk up the highest mountain you have seen,
And with your new life, go break strife,
With a rod that's pure and clean.
For no corruption - shall live within this place Where you now dwell,
I have a people to shine through, And in them, there is found no hell."
I pray that this message will stimulate your faith in God and give you a greater understanding of the workings of God's spirit in our midst. We are a peculiar people, different, unique. We cannot measure ourselves to the surrounding orders. God is handling us in a special way, and sometimes, it seems, a hard way. He knows we can handle it! On my last trip out, I asked the Lord to show me where I was in the kingdom of God. I wanted to see how far I had come. The spirit instantly carried me away and I was brought to a throne room and although I looked very hard, I could not find myself there. I was very disappointed, as I always thought I was destined for the throne room. I then was taken to all the places of honor and authority, and in each palace and in each room I was not to be found. I then was taken to an obscure place in the kingdom, to a little frail house. As I walked through the door I noticed broken pots and vessels on the floor. Some looked like they had been worked on but were never completed, and others were broken and cracked. I then was taken to the very back of this little, humble house and in a back room I saw a flat wheel with a lump of clay on it. The wheel was turning and a potter was working the clay with strong, but tender hands. I started weeping before the Lord and I was broken in a way that I hadn't been for many years. I wasn't where I thought I was, but I knew I was where God wanted me to be. On the potters wheel, turning under the keen eye of the potter, not finished, but not discarded either, turning and molding, the total focus of the potter on the work at hand, making me something, what? I know not, but something glorious and beautiful I knew, for the potter was spending an inordinate amount of time and care in my making. Then, I knew that I would be in the King’s special service, a cup that would be lifted to His own lips, a cup that would pour out the blessings of my Father to all that was thirsty, without the taste of flesh. At that moment, with tears flowing down my cheeks, only one thought, only one desire was in me. Please, Lord, keep that wheel turning, and don’t take me off, until I’ve been made whole.
May you be wholly sanctified, body, soul, and spirit.
