Archive for the ‘wilderness’ Category

GOD’S JEWELS

Posted: April 5, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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As the Israel of God (the church, “ecclesia”) attains practical obedience and holiness through inner empowerment of the grace of God, the Bride of Christ is prepared. Now is the time for the church to make herself ready and become the perfected Bride and City of God on earth. The religious church for the most part has thought that the kingdom was not for today, and has focused on getting in the gate and hanging on until Jesus comes or until we die and go to heaven. Therefore, we have multitudes of Christians hanging around the gate in the outer court. We’ve expected these neophytes to demonstrate the “Christian life.” It is no wonder most of the church has decided to disregard kingdom teaching as not being for this time since, seemingly, no one has the power to realistically live it. Therefore, we have reasoned, the kingdom must be for heaven when we die or some future day.

Another beautiful, figurative word God uses to describe His mature “sons of the kingdom” is “His jewels.” His children are being perfected into beautiful jewels. It is so amazing that God, who has all the gold and precious stones in the world, considers His kingdom people as jewels, jewels now being perfected, cut and polished to reflect His glory.

Malachi 3:17a: “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I make them My jewels.”

Isaiah 61:10b: For as He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has covered me with robes of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.

The remnant church is being prepared as precious jewels to reflect the glory of God. The spotless, perfected Bride Church will reflect the glory of God in every facet of life. There must be no internal imperfections or flaws if we are to perfectly reflect His glory. Each facet must be cut to perfect shape and polished to perfection, if we are to become one of the jewels of New Jerusalem one of the adorning stones set on the foundation of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

In God’s pictorial language, the twelve tribes of Israel are the “gates” of entry to the city of God. The purified church (the Israel of God) is the “gateway” as it brings forth the ministry of Jesus in the world. The twelve apostles of the Lamb are the “foundation” of the spiritual city of God.

Revelation 21:12, 14:Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates,and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Revelation 21:18-23: “And the construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the forth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light.

Isaiah 62:1,3, 5b: “For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

As God is perfecting us the finished jewel may be much smaller than the initial, damaged, rough stone. But when He is finished, there will be no impurities to impede the glorious light of God from flowing out every window or “facet” of our lives. If there are imperfections yet within us which indicate a need for further healing or dying to self, they will block or hinder the flow of God’s glory and keep it from being reflected in one or more of our “facets.”

Another word demonstrating the unimpeded ability to “flow” the glory of God from all the facets of our jewel is freedom. In the natural dimension, a cut diamond that has an impurity in it, such as a carbon deposit, is not free to “flow” the light out of some of its facets. Additionally, if the diamond is not cut properly or has blemishes in its surface, the light flowing through it will be distorted. In the spiritual if we, the children of God, have some spot of impurity remaining in our hearts, we will not be free to “flow” the glory of God in that area of our lives. Also, if we are not yet perfectly cut and polished, we are not free to “flow” His light without distortion. The process of being formed, cut, polished, and purified might be considered very difficult by the diamond that is experiencing the cutting and grinding.

The overcomer will want to locate these imperfections and allow God to deal with them. Jesus came to fix our imperfections and repair the damage inflicted upon us by the devil and by our own foolishness. We can learn to recognize problem areas by the lack of the glory of God flowing through a particular area or facet of our life or daily walk. There are seven easily defined general areas or facets of freedom in each of us.

Zechariah 3:9, Amplified.: “For behold, upon the stone which I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or facets “ [the all-embracing providence of God and the sevenfold radiations of the Spirit of God]. “Behold,I will carve upon it its inscription,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day.”

Freedom is having all hindrances to receiving and reflecting the light of His glory removed. If freedom in a certain facet does not exist, we will know to look in a corresponding area in the heart for impurities or imperfections to be healed or removed. We must know how to appropriate the ministry of Jesus to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free. We must allow Him to burn out impurities or cut away a portion of our stone to eliminate the impurity in our jewel. In love He may use the chisel and hammer of traumatic events and abrasive relationships to cut and polish our jewel.

In the natural realm, the facets of a jewel are “windows.” Light flows in through some and out through others. When the jewel is moved, the light shifts from window to window and sparkles brightly as it reflects the light from each facet. The jewel has no light of its own, but does a beautiful job of reflecting available light.

The major facet of our jewel is obedience. Usually the major facet on top of a jewel receives the light in to be reflected out the other smaller facets. We will reflect whatever light we turn our obedience toward. If we turn our obedience toward evil, we will reflect the darkness of evil. If we turn our obedience toward God, we will reflect His glory. Freedom is both freedom from reflecting evil and freedom to reflect good.

SEVEN FACETS OF FREEDOM

Seven facets of freedom are obedience, contentment, prosperity, enjoyment, harmony, health and service. Probably all needed areas of freedom are defined under these seven headings. If we have these freedoms, we can walk in the kingdom of God, New Jerusalem, purified, Bride-of-Christ lifestyle.

Freedom is both freedom from reflecting evil and freedom to reflect good.

OBEDIENCE IS FREEDOM

Freedom from rebellion, stubbornness, self-will, perversion, arrogance, compulsiveness, impulsiveness, pride and impatience.

Freedom to be submissive, yielding, faithful, loyal, humble and repentant.

CONTENTMENT IS FREEDOM

Freedom from want, lust, needs that cause stress, fear, doubt, worry, anxiety, insecurity, suspicion, distrust, hopelessness, nervousness, tension and confusion.

Freedom to be satisfied, thankful, fulfilled, secure, trusting, believing, hopeful, peaceful and stable.

PROSPERITY IS FREEDOM

Freedom from lack, poverty, wastefulness, fruitlessness, loss and not having enough to complete God’s plan.

Freedom to be adequately supplied to complete God’s plan, fruitful, flourishing, receiving, increasing and conserving.

ENJOYMENT IS FREEDOM

Freedom from ungodly pain & sorrow, torment, guilt, boredom, condemnation, depression, self-pity, shame, withdrawal, loneliness and frustration.

Freedom to be experiencing pleasure in God, delighting in the Lord, being joyful.

HARMONY IS FREEDOM

Freedom from strife, contention, jealousy, envy, hostility, discord, rejecting, rejection, resentment, retaliation, criticizing, hate, selfishness, manipulation and gossip.

Freedom to be unified, compatible, in accord, friendly, open, in fellowship, accepted and accepting.

HEALTH IS FREEDOM

Freedom from (physical, emotional, or spiritual) sickness, disease, wounding, disorder, malfunction, malformation, perversion and weakness.

Freedom to be (physically, emotionally, or spiritually) whole, well, healed, strong, in order, sound, able-bodied and hearty.

SERVICE IS FREEDOM

Freedom from unproductiveness, slothfulness, uselessness, incapability, lack of purpose, worthlessness, futility, vanity and hindering.

Freedom to be productive, purposeful, providing, useful, capable, valuable and helpful.

Remember:We must turn our facet of obedience toward the light and away from darkness. We will reflect whatever light we turn our obedience toward. If we turn our obedience toward evil, we will reflect the darkness of evil. If we turn our obedience toward God, we will reflect His glory.

If we have impurities in our jewel, we feel very uncomfortable when we turn fully toward the light. The bright light generates heat within as it contacts impurities and is blocked from flowing out. For comfort’s sake, some will turn their “obedience facet” away from the light, away from focus on closeness with God. They may turn away from intimacy with God and instead turn toward religious forms and rituals.

Romans 6:16-18:Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slave whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Some will lift up a shield of religion or unbelief and self-deception to keep the light from burning within them. The enemy will provide the shield for us if we will use it. He has a whole suit of armor for those who will obey him.

Luke 11:20-22: “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when one stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.”

The armor of Satan is the opposite of God’s armor. Those who obey the enemy have their waist girded with lies, a breastplate of unrighteousness, their feet shod with the bad news of conflict. They carry the shield of unbelief and self-deception. They take the helmet of damnation and wield the sword of evil which is words of accusation and condemnation.

Self-deception begins with replacing what God has said with human rationalization and self-justification. Rather than repent and change, some will attempt to alleviate uncomfortable feelings of guilt with self-deception by denying their own guilt and blaming others.They accuse and condemn others for their own inner impurities and imperfections. The enemy will assists them with his religious belief systems and doctrines, which will seem to justify one’s faults rather than change them.

Only by directly turning toward the light of God and continuing to move toward the light, can one’s inner-impurities and imperfections be exposed and dealt with. Only by repenting and allowing the power of God to change us will we become purified. Belief and obedience cause man to be conformed to God. Unbelief and self-deception attempt to conform God to man.

If we are to become the jewels of God, there are things in each of our lives that must be overcome. As we journey toward becoming His jewels, the damage previously done to us by the enemy and the resulting negative life patterns must be overcome. We must become overcomers by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony and not loving our lives to the death.

Rev 12:11: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Keep on Pursuing Love,
It Will Never Fail.

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

OUTER DARKNESS

Posted: April 4, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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Matthew 25:30: “And cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Revelation 21:27: But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes abomination or a lie.

Matthew 8:12: “But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The illustration we used earlier of the king-dome helps me to understand about outer darkness. You remember the gigantic glass dome filled with the presence and light of God. The light flowed out in all directions and dispelled the darkness. Everywhere the light is, the darkness must flee. But everywhere the light has not yet reached, the darkness remains. Envision the light reaching out in a large circle around the dome. As far as it reaches, there is light; at the point where the light stops, the darkness begins. These outer regions from the dome could be referred to as “outer darkness”.

The powers of darkness lurk in that darkness around the light, waiting to do their dirty work. They concentrate in the area around the light to try to prevent people from entering the king-dome light. That is why Jesus said the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. There is a “pressing” involved in entering the kingdom – not a violence from or force toward, God, but a violence from the enemy and a pressing or taking it by force by those who enter.

Luke 16:16: “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.”

Matthew 11:12: “And from the days of John the Baptist till now, the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”

If disobedience is found in us, even though we are sons and are well into our journey in the light toward the Holy City, we are returned to outer darkness for more suffering. God loves us and is faithful to allow us to repeat this cycle as many times as is necessary to bring us to purity and holiness as mature sons of the kingdom. The devil is predictable and will always be waiting for us in the outer darkness to inflict fresh pain upon us until we are able to reckon ourselves dead to self that Jesus may be manifested in us. Then, with repentance and fresh love, we return to our journey into the light toward the Holy City of God.

This does not mean we are eternally destroyed. The powers of darkness mean their dirty work for our death; but, God limits what the enemy can do to His children and all these things work together for our good (Romans 8:28). It is not for our death; it is for our purification.As we walk closer and closer to the dome, the light becomes brighter exposing impurities or imperfections that we could not see in the lesser light.As these imperfections are exposed, we always have two choices. We must repent and allow the light to purify us further, or deny the fault and blame someone or something else. If we do anything other than quickly repent, we again are on our way to outer darkness for more pain and suffering. In the pain of outer darkness, we may think something like this, “It sure didn’t hurt this much back in the light. I believe I will become obedient.”We repent, die to self some more, and are returned to the light on our journey to the king-dome.

I am very sorry to say that, in my own experience, it has required many of these cycles to deal with my independence. The secret is to very quickly and humbly repent. If we do not quickly repent, while we debate it in our minds we are already slipping back toward the darkness.

It is very easy, once we are out of the suffering stage, to begin again to feel our muscles and go back to the independent stage. We think something like, “Wow! I’m glad that’s over. I’ve got it now. It’s all working again now. I can really do it this time”. Here comes the man of faith and power for the hour. Guess what stage we are just about to enter again?

Revelation 21:27: But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes abomination or a lie.

Matthew 8:12:“But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 22:11-13:“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

Revelation 7:13-17:Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 19:8:And to her (the Lamb’s wife) it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

The wedding garment we must have on is “the righteous acts of the saints.” True righteousness is the white robe washed in the blood of the Lamb. The wedding garment customarily was furnished by the host, the lord of the feast. The man who is not wearing the garment is without excuse. It is by his independent thinking that he elects to refuse the offered garment and provide his own. Self-righteousness in its purest form will not be good enough to enable us to walk into the Holy City. The Pharisees did not make it. The spirit of Pharisee will not enter the kingdom walk and, unfortunately, will hinder all that it can from entering. Religion and its pharisaical laws and traditions are part of the darkness that must be pressed through. The kingdom disciple can expect violent resistance from people affected by the spirit of Pharisee.

Matthew 23:13:“But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for, you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”

As we enter and continue our progress, we must continue to become less and less that Jesus the Christ may live in us more and more. Christ living in us provides all the love and power of heaven to work God’s obedience in us. This is the only garment, the white robe of fine linen that we must wear on our journey to becoming “New Jerusalem”, and living the overcoming life.

Keep on Pursuing Love,
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Live in the Spirit – Walk in the Spirit

Posted: April 2, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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An Apostolic Reality
By Ron McGatlin

In practical reality, what on earth does it really mean to you and me today to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit?
Gal 5:25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

There is much talk today about Apostles and apostolic ministry and government. My email in-box daily contains words about apostolic this or that generally seeking to define and understand Apostles and the change that God is sending regarding life and government in the ekklesia. Gatherings and networks of Apostles are seeking to enlighten one another on the kingdom (government) of God and iron out the different views developing on how we should do church and function in a changing world.

The Spirit of God is grieved within me and my heart is challenged by the absence of living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit evident in most apostolic discussions. The Spirit is hardly mentioned in the considerations of the “apostolic” meanderings of teachings for aligning apostolically with one another.

Are we making the same old mistakes over again? Throughout recent church history what is deemed the lack of godly order in the people has been answered with increased human leadership imposing safeguards to stem the deviations of false teachings and unorthodox practices. Seeking to keep our doctrine and our practices pure has again and again led to more human organization, structure, and control. Preaching the word of the Bible without the power of the Spirit produces bondage and not life. In every case that I am aware of, this has squelched the Spirit of Christ flowing through the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit has pulled away.

Jesus will not be head with another. God will not share His glory with another. We will not have the headship of Christ and the headship of man at the same time. There is one head upon the shoulders of the Body of Christ.

Establishing more human accountability to other men sounds like a great answer. However, without living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit, it is just more foolishness of human government. If we live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, we are fully and completely accountable to the living Father and in full alignment with our great Apostle, the Lord Christ Jesus, and in one accord with others who do the same. It is by the SPIRIT of God, the Holy Spirit that most leaders seem afraid to receive, yield to, proclaim, and impart to multitudes of spiritless “Christians” who are seeking life in the wrong places.

The Holy Spirit bringing the awesome power, wisdom, and love of Jesus is the only way to abundant life. The living water (Spirit of God) is the answer to completely changing the people from the inside and bringing the chaos of foolish leadership of flesh to a complete end with the powerful flow of anointing of the Spirit destroying the yokes of bondage.

Read the book of Acts again. The early Apostles lived and walked in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God was the source of all the mighty works and powerful ministry of the first century including all the mighty works of Christ Jesus Himself. Yes, the mighty life, ministry, and works of Jesus were all done through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Wake up people of God! If Jesus overcame the world and demonstrated authority over the enemy and all the elements of the world by the Holy Spirit, what are you going to do with your Bible studies and apostolic teaching seminars and gatherings without the fullness of the power, love, and wisdom of the Holy Spirit of God Almighty working the life of Christ Jesus in you?????? What good is it going to do if you organize and send Apostles to appoint some elders to try to stem the tide of foolish and childish behavior of Christians who do not know the gift of God or the one who speaks to them from heaven?

Human leadership will never produce the life of God without the same power, love, and wisdom of the Holy Spirit that flowed through Christ Jesus and the early Apostles.

Our centuries of entrapment in man-altered “Christian” religious training is robbing us of the release of the fullness of the power and love of God flowing through the Spirit to powerfully impact and change the wasted people of God and align the gifted servant-leaders in the purposes of God.

Jesus is again saying to those who come to the well to seek life giving water, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you….”

I hear our Lord and Father through the Holy Spirit crying out to this generation, “Oh if you only knew the gift I have for you. Oh, if you only knew who is speaking to you and what my desire and provision is for you to flow in my kingdom into all the world. Oh, If you really knew…”

John 4:10: Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

John 4:13-14: Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Thirsty Christians worldwide continue to cry out to God for more and are not satisfied. If we continue in desperate thirst, it is clear that we have not yet asked of Him and received from Him the fullness of the living water that will cause us to NEVER thirst again but have the water (Spirit) that will become in us a fountain of the Spirit springing up into everlasting (continuous) LIFE. How can we thirst for more of Him when His fountain of living Spirit is flowing up from within us?

This is the ultimate Joy of God and His rest from all striving. We never thirst again. Yes, we may long for others and the world to come into the reality of His Spirit also. And we may, with joy, look forward to the full reality of the New Jerusalem lifestyle forming the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven that fills the entire earth. However, we are living and fully walking in the kingdom now within our hearts as the fountain of SPIRIT of GOD flows up and out of us.

This is the life for which we gladly give up our previous Christian self-life with all its rules and doctrines of human order and accountability. This is the power, love, and wisdom that are the ministry to be imparted by the true apostolic ministry. This is the work that will stop the foolishness of fleshly teachings and practices of the people. The work of the kingdom that more apostolic structure and more Bible studies cannot accomplish. “By my SPIRIT,” says the Lord (Zec 4:6).

This thing began in the Spirit; are we going to try to finish it in human wisdom, understanding, and structuring?

Gal 3:3: Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

Absolutely not! The kingdom of God will not mature apart from our complete dependence and accountability to the Spirit of God our Father and our Lord.

There must be true Apostles pure, holy people of God who so live and walk by the Spirit that no believer will need to ask who appointed them or empowered them. They do not need a title or an organization. They will not promote and build a ministry and will not need to ask provision of any man. These are God’s gifted humble holy men and women who have no life apart from the Holy Spirit of God. They are in the world as Christ to impart life of the Spirit into many. They will not allow others to worship them and set them up as someone special above others. But will impart the same life that is in them to all who seek the kingdom of God with their whole heart.

We need an explosive life ending Spirit beginning encounter with God in the Spirit to me made alive. Then we must decide daily to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. We will not thirst again but in pure love and power we will speak the oracles of God and flow the works of Christ into the world. This gospel of the kingdom must be preached and demonstrated to all the world and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God. Christ Jesus shall be seen in great glory and fully honored as Lord and King.

Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

The King’s Business is Love

Posted: April 1, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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The King’s Business is Love

By Ron McGatlin

Spiritual transformation of the natural world is beginning to affect every person and every aspect of life on the planet. The whole world is in the process of beginning to experience the intervention of the fire of God. The boiling cloud of the fire of His Presence has been gradually moving closer to the earth for decades. Since the 1990s, the fire cloud of His Presence has been hovering near the earth sending streamers down that touch here and there on the earth. The full cloud of His fire coming closer now is just barely beginning to touch the world and will soon fully set upon the earth.

Today, in this immediate season, there are bolts of fire like powerful lightning proceeding from the cloud, striking humble pure-hearted forerunners among God’s people with the fire of the kingdom of God on earth. Immediately electrifying them and quickly flowing to all that are gathered with them. No one in the gatherings that is fully impacted by the lightning strike can ever again be the same as before. In these lightning struck gatherings across the world, all that remain are instantly filled with the potential to carry the kingdom of God and impart it to many others who are prepared to receive. The spiritual lightning strike welds the people who are in the gathering together in love. Relationships are formed in a day that will last forever. A nation/tribe can be formed in a day.

Love produces liberty and freedom.

The predominant characteristic and major principle of the kingdom is God’s love. The kingdom is held together by love. Love brings purification leading to holiness. Love is the most powerful motivational force in the world. Love causes us to serve one another. The love of God in Christ consumes us and causes us to desire Him and to serve Him with all we are and all we have. His love flowing through us fulfills all the law and produces perfect obedience. Love destroys all fear. Love opens the way for us to prosper in all endeavors of life.

Faith (believing) is the second greatest characteristic or principle of the kingdom of God. Faith works by love. Love prepares the way for faith to operate. Faith allows us to know and relate by love in the spiritual realm that we cannot see with natural eyes. Faith working through love can release supernatural power of God to function and flow in and through us. Power to fulfill the will of God and bring forth His righteousness in His kingdom on earth comes by faith through love.

Peace and joy are never far behind righteousness produced by faith and love. Because of faith through the love of God, hope (positive expectation) fully endures even the darkest valleys of the shadows of death remaining in this world.

Living the kingdom lifestyle sets us in liberty from all fear, anxiety, worry, striving, resentment, jealously, envy, anger, hatred, and all other forms of stress. Freedom from these death and disease causing factors allows us to be healed and move into greater wellness in our bodies. In the kingdom lifestyle, greater prosperity of our spirits, souls, and bodies increases our potential for prosperity in all of the King’s business that we are given to steward for and with Him.

Babylon is Falling – New Jerusalem is Forming

The message of the ministers of fire, reaching to every high-rise mega city, to the mountain villages and the caves of the forest lands is in part, “come out of spiritual Babylon my people. Set your heart toward spiritual Jerusalem. Make haste! For the time has come for this great harlot religious, political, and economic system with all its patterns of life to be judged of God, and it is coming down.”

The patterns of Babylon must be dissolved before the patterns of New Jerusalem can rule the whole world. The people seeking to enter the city-of-God lifestyle must have the Babylonian patterns and ways broken, removed from their lives, and replaced with New Jerusalem patterns. The Babylonian system has been deadly to the saints of God. Many have fallen, and many are in captivity to Babylonian ways. God’s people are warned to come out of Babylon lest they receive of her plagues.

Revelation 18:2-4: And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”

The time is short. God will do a quick work. Forerunners, struck by this lightning, will be quickly transformed and quickly moving in the power of the Spirit to carry the fire of the kingdom of God to multitudes fleeing from the crashing of Babylon.

The great roaring cloud of the fire of God touching earth will soon fully be upon the earth and will leave only smoke and ashes of Babylon. The call of the hour is gather in relational kingdom seeking gatherings and be transformed in the presence of God. Run out of Babylonian style religious and secular, social, economic, political gatherings and connections. Run toward the New Jerusalem presence and power of God and seek to empty your head, heart, and life of all the ways of Babylon. Christ Jesus by His Spirit will guide us and empower us to transition into the reality of Spirit-led powerful yet humble ways of His life in us.

Do not be deceived by the relatively short season of seemingly peace in Babylon. Do not believe the false words of peace, peace when there is no peace in Babylon.

The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God, and we will be a part of it by the love, wisdom, and power of the Spirit of God in us.

All things are possible to those who believe the words of God.

Luke 4:18-19: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Keep on pursuing love. It never fails
and His kingdom never ends.

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

SEVEN STAGES OF KINGDOM

Posted: April 1, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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Spiritual birth and the maturing process into the kingdom of God lifestyle are taught in the Bible in parables of the natural. Remember, we can receive insight and understanding of spiritual things by looking at natural things. Again, the figurative language of Scripture speaks of natural things to communicate spiritual, kingdom-truth to those who have an ear to hear. We can identify seven stages of development into the maturity of kingdom living by looking into the Word and comparing natural development.

Each of us must go through a process of becoming obedient and holy or growing up in the kingdom walk. It is not enough to be born spiritually, any more than it is enough to be born in the natural. Before ruling as a natural man, one must go through a growth process, being nourished and trained in order to grow from a baby to manhood. Likewise, in the spiritual realm, we cannot rule or even walk in the kingdom of God as babies.

Jesus said we must enter the kingdom as a child. He said that we must be born into the spiritual kingdom as we were born into the natural world.

Matthew 18:3: Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

John 3; 3, 5-6:Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again(or from above), he cannot see the kingdom of God. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

IN THE WOMB STAGE

In the natural, there must be conception before there can be birth. Life does not begin at birth but at conception in the womb of the mother. There must be a mother and a father coming together in intimacy. A seed from the father comes together with an egg in the mother and conception occurs; life begins. Is the new life in the world at this point? Yes, it is in the world. It is in the womb of the mother who is in the world. But it is not yet birthed or released into the world by itself.

When the church is properly related to God, that intimate communion produces spiritual children. We can relate the natural process of conception and birth to the spiritual. The Seed (word) from the Father is planted in the heart soil of a person and if mixed with faith, a living spirit is conceived. God’s people are the mother (church) that is to carry the new life in her womb, the Holy Spirit, until the time of birth into the kingdom.

The seed of the Father is always perfectly holy. We are born with a heritage of the first Adam through our spiritual mother and therefore must grow through a process before becoming holy, mature kingdom of God sons.

Hebrews 4:2: For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

If you received Christ as an adult you may remember a short season after first receiving the Lord in which everything seemed to be perfect. If you remember, the season probably lasted about nine months. You were being formed in the womb of the Holy Spirit.

Life begins when the Word and faith come together, but the new life must be protected and nurtured in the womb because it is unable to sustain itself. It is dependent on the mother (God’s people) to breathe for it, receive and digest food, provide protection from the elements, and flow love, comfort, and acceptance to it. The embryo cannot walk in the kingdom on its own. It can only go where the mother carries it in her womb.

Galatians 4:26: …but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Isaiah 44:2 Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord Who made you and formed you from the womb, Who will help you.

When the Word comes and is received in faith (believed), we repent of the old and are conceived as a new creation. We should then go through a season of being formed and developed in the womb before being birthed into the kingdom. Remember we are talking about walking in the kingdom lifestyle that Jesus taught, not just getting into heaven when we die. In relation to kingdom living, what we may have viewed in the past as being born again may actually be conception.

WITH THE MOTHER STAGE

Birth is that time at which we begin to breathe on our own. Spiritual breathing is spiritual communion, praying to and hearing from God on our own. In natural birth, we are suddenly pressed forth from our warm, protected environment in the womb into the real world. For the first time, we will feel the exhilarating rush of life-sustaining air into our own lungs. We will, for the first time, begin to taste food given to us in our own mouth.

As it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. We are birthed into the kingdom life when we begin to spiritually breathe on our own, when we can first begin to speak to God and hear God for ourselves. People who cannot yet hear God on their own are not yet birthed into the kingdom. Religion has caused multitudes to not be completely birthed into the true kingdom of God on earth now. Many have been made to believe that they must depend on someone else to hear for them. They have been conceived by receiving the Word in faith but are not living the kingdom of God lifestyle. In a sense they are stuck in the birth canal. Again, we are not speaking about going to heaven; we are speaking in reference to the kingdom of God lifestyle on earth now.

There is a season of growth after we are birthed and can hear God on our own when we continue to need nurturing and training by the mother. We are not yet mature enough to live on our own. We are eating on our own but could make some bad decisions regarding what to eat. We yet need the wisdom of our mother and our Father. This season of learning to accurately hear the Father and obey Him more perfectly with the help of our mother, is a time of rapid growth and a time of receiving further instruction.

Isaiah 46:3: …all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb.

Genesis 49:25b: Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

Isaiah 66:8b-11: For as soon as Zion travailed, She gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth and not cause delivery says the Lord. Shall I Who cause delivery shut up the womb? says your God. Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her breasts, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.

Remember, we are on a journey to the holy place, the City of God. We are moving through the process of maturity and holiness that will lead to the establishment of the kingdom (ruler/dominion) of God in our lives and then in the world.

THE INDEPENDENT STAGE

Well, we’ve finally made it! We’re ready to move out and begin to minister on our own. We can leave the close confines of the mother. Our intense training period is over. We’re ready to go out to save all the lost and conquer the world or make our fortune. Our life is filled with the excitement of doing and building. Our goals are clear and our ambitions and confidence are high. We know beyond any doubt that we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us.

We are really doing great. We have the respect of everyone — those we minister to, our peers, and our authority. Everyone seems to want us on his or her team. We’re really cruising. Almost all our ideas work. We think to ourselves, This kingdom life is great. I’ve got to remember to try to be humble, and to be kind to all the little people.

We flex our spiritual muscles and with firmness let the world know that we have arrived. Our convictions are even more firm than our muscles. If there is anything we don’t know, it probably isn’t worth knowing anyway. Our doctrinal position is so rigid and complete that nothing can be changed or added. It is inconceivable that anyone would be dumb enough to have a different position. Surely, part of our calling must be to correct all those older, fuzzy-minded men that seem to border on being foolish. We know we have it right. After all, haven’t we accomplished more in the one year we’ve been working than they have in their thirty-plus years of service?

Sadly, we are blind to the fact that our harshness and lack of real love may be tearing down as much of the kingdom as our wonderful preaching or intense labor is building. While we are out pounding people with our Bible, the wife and kids are trying to get over the wounds of neglect and rigid authority we’ve harshly administered to them. What does it profit a man to save the whole world or make a great fortune and lose his own family? Our empire will surely crumble. Thank God He does use us some even in spite of ourselves.

Praise God for His mercy. No one could tell us the truth, that we’ve not even entered the real kingdom of God walk yet and that our real training is about to begin. Oh, yes, we’ve heard those sermons on suffering and the testimonies of enduring hardship; but we surmise that in some way those guys must not have things quite right. Quickly we learn to deal with backbiters and to kick the devil off our heels. So we think we are overcoming warriors, mighty men of valor!

THE SUFFERING STAGE

Acts 14:22: We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.

It seems so strange! It doesn’t make sense! I was doing everything right! My desire was to serve God! I thought they would like me!

Suddenly, we are cut to pieces and run through the stomach with a sword – not through the back, but right to our face — from those close to us — those we’ve helped and even loved. Then, the big rocks begin to smash us even from above. The authority that was so pleased with us suddenly does not seem to understand us any more. We are accused and abused from every direction. We are chewed to pieces with razor-sharp teeth of steel. And the more we do, the more we say to try to let them know that they are making a mistake — that we really didn’t do anything wrong, the worse it gets.

Now we are really about to enter the kingdom walk. Remember, we enter and walk in the kingdom by obedience. And though we are sons, we must learn obedience by the things we suffer. We will never really know the love of Christ until we’ve learned to love those who persecute us. This is our great opportunity to really die to self and see the love of Jesus manifest within us. The love, the great blessing, the presence of God in our lives that will come through this experience is the manifestation of the glory of God.

Luke 24:26: Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?

Hebrews 5:7-9:…Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.

1 Peter 4:12-14: Beloved do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you: but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Matthew 5:10-12: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10: My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

1 Thessalonians 1:4b-5: …for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulation that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer.

1 Peter 2:19-23: For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer for it, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps; Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth, Who when He was reviled did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.

Romans 8:18: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

In the suffering stage, our motives are further purified. If we are serving God for comfort, fleshly benefit, or out of a guilt motivation, we will not endure this stage except our motives be changed. If there remains a need for healing from the past in our hearts, we will experience bitterness being formed from the pain we are suffering. If we are not dead to self in any area, we will react or revile in return when the pain becomes severe.

We may not be able to stay on top of things and remain up in our spirit or emotions during severe suffering. We may wish to die and despair of our lives, but let patience have her perfect work. Endure suffering as a good soldier. When the Man Jesus suffered to the limit, He cried out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matthew 27:46).

In 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul said, For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia; that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.

Elijah, in 1 Kings 19:4: prayed that he might die, and said, It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life.

After we are broken, through the endurance of suffering, and have no further kingdoms of our own to build, we are ready to be used by Him to build His kingdom. All our independent desires and inner needs must die. His desires must replace those that drove us during the independent stage. When it does not matter to us whether men respect us or not, when we really are completely fulfilled in knowing that the Lord is pleased with us, then we are free to follow the Lord and are not moved by men. Man, the world, or the devil has no place in us to hang their hook of control. When there is no fear in us except the fear of disappointing our loving heavenly Father, we are very dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. If we fear men, we do not yet fear God. If we truly fear God, we have no fear of anything else.

THE OBEDIENT STAGE

When our motives are right and our hearts are being healed, the pain we feel is converted into love and not bitterness. There is no other way to have and know that we have the perfected love of Jesus manifested in our everyday life. Being persecuted, suffering wrongfully, being wronged, and patiently enduring and forgiving, is the method by which we have love. Pain plus forgiveness equals love. Pain plus resentment equals bitterness. When we really love our enemies, God’s love is perfected in us. This perfected love causes us to obey the commandments of Jesus and to do the will of the Father thereby entering by obedience into the kingdom of God walk.

John 15:12: This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

1 John 2:5: But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

1 John 5:3-4a: For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.

Galatians 5:14: For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Our obedience and pure motives make us worthy or trustworthy to receive the kingdom of God. We can be trusted with the riches and power of God. He can safely release to us secrets of how to rule in the earth. We will use all He gives us to serve Him according to His directions. The enemy will be unable to tempt us to use the power of God to provide for our own needs or wants. Our love for Him and our desire to please Him will so outweigh any other wants or needs in our lives that we would sacrifice everything, even our own lives, to obey Him.

Love is the greatest law of the kingdom. Every other law or principle is held together by love and works by love. It is the strongest force in creation. By love, one can be motivated to pay the supreme sacrifice and do what one would not do for all the riches in the world. The kingdom of God is characterized and held together by His love. We can truly thank God and call it all joy when persecutions and suffering come to break us down to love.

THE SERVANT STAGE

Now we are ready to really accomplish something in the kingdom, not from our own zealousness, as in the independent stage, but from a love motive to serve. We serve Jesus by serving His people. We really become humble servants serving from the heart, producing heartily and reaping great blessings as a result. We no longer are trying to build our dream or do our thing. As He pours out His grace to empower us and His wisdom to guide us, we are more humbled.

Matthew 25:34-40: Then the King will say to those on His right hand, Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry and fed You, or thirsty and gave You drink?… And the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly, I say to you,inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.

Business in the kingdom of God is serving.It is serving God by serving His people. The more profitably we serve, the more we rule. Through the love of Jesus made perfect in us by suffering, we become obedient, which causes us to become profitable servants to God as we do only His will. The Father can specifically direct our lives through the Holy Spirit when our self-desires are dead and Christ is formed in us. Then, we are able to hear His voice and receive direction that will cause us to align with His desires and become prosperous servants in the kingdom.

THE SEATED STAGE

Matthew 8:11: And I say to you that many will come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven.

We shall not be seated until we have entered the “king-dome” where we will be seated at the table of the Lord. We will sit in His presence and have suppertime communication with the Lord. The goal of the entire journey has been to be spiritually seated at His table in His kingdom — to sit down and cease from our own labor. Our soul is to be completely at rest while His life flows through us. Our goal is to be intimately present with the Lord and to faithfully carry out His will, to rule and reign with Him.

The seated-in-the-kingdom stage is the mature-son stage, the time of entering into the rest of God. It is the time for ruling in the kingdom on earth from that special spiritual place of closeness to the throne of God. It is leading the people of God and interceding for them before God.

Galatians 4:6-7:And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts … Therefore you are no longer a servant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Romans 8:14: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are (full grown) sons of God.

Romans 8: 18-19: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the (mature) sons of God.

The world is groaning and waiting for us to become the holy, purified, obedient, mature sons who will release the power of God to restore the kingdom of God on earth. It is waiting for us to heal and deliver our planet from the rule of darkness and oppression — to forever break Satan’s cruel bondage from the earth and to establish the reign of righteousness, peace and joy, the kingdom of God. Thus, we, as the mature sons, are to extend the king-dome and its light to the world (Romans 8:21-22).

The seated stage is a time of resting in closeness with God. We are no longer in the outer court or cast into outer darkness. We now serve as a pillar in the temple of God. We have a quiet, confident assurance as the power and love of God effortlessly flow through us to heal the brokenhearted, set the captives free, and rebuild the ruined cities.

Hebrews 3:18:And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?

Hebrews 4: 6b, 9-11: …those to whom it was preached did not enter because of disobedience. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

In the seated stage, faithful servants become rulers in God’s kingdom. We serve by ruling after having faithfully served in obedience to God in smaller matters.

Matthew 25:21: His lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.

Luke 19:17: And he said to him, Well done, good servant: because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.

Luke 12:44: Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has.

Luke 22: 26b-30: …he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I (Jesus) am among you as the One Who serves. But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

The highest order of ruling is intercession. Those who are seated at the table of the Lord have the opportunity and the responsibility to make intercession; to serve as an advocate for the Israel of God. It is bringing the people of God with their needs to Jesus, and bringing ministry from the Lord to His people that they may also be brought to the table of the Lord. As seated, mature sons, we reign with Jesus Christ on earth.

Romans 5:17b: … those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 2:12: If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.

Revelation 5: 9b-l0: … and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.

Jesus has provided and is providing full redemption and restoration.It is more than spending eternity with Him in heaven and missing hell, though certainly this would be more than sufficient reason to endure. But the Word says that by His abundance of grace and gift of righteousness we will reign in life with Him if we endure (overcome). Jesus has provided and is providing all we need to reign as kings and priest on the earth as He ever lives to make intercession for us. He is bringing many sons to glory (Hebrews 7:25).

Hebrews 2:10:For it was fitting for Him, for Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Seeing the goal of ruling and reigning with Him in this life encourages us to continue during the difficult life purification and reformation processes. Though we are sons on our way to the seated stage, we may encounter experiences of what the Bible refers to as outer darkness.

Keep on Pursuing Love
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

ENTERING THE KINGDOM

Posted: March 31, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, Revelation 21:27

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Matthew 7:21

Jesus taught much about entering the kingdom and walking or abiding in it. Jesus preached and taught more about what the kingdom of God is like, how it works, and how to enter it, than any other subject. The parables that Jesus taught in the four Gospels are the richest teaching on the kingdom of God in the Bible. However, what the kingdom of God(the ruler/dominion of God) is like and how it works spans the entire Bible, and is the predominant theme of the Word of God.

Jesus was not greatly concerned with teaching us how to live in heaven someday. His great concern was revealing to us how to live on the earth in this life now. God’s plan is the establishment of His kingdom on earth in and through redeemed man.

Many people have great difficulty really understanding the good-news message of the kingdom of God because they must first lay aside their strong convictions (rocks in the heart) that “kingdom” means only heaven someday or a future millennial reign. This mentality leads to a focus on what we refer to as the “salvation” or “born-again” experience, after which, we do the best we can to “hang on” until we die and go to heaven or until Jesus comes to rescue us. In Matthew 13, Jesus referred to these types of strong convictions as “rocks” in the heart-soil that prevent the fruit of the kingdom from coming to completion.

The gospel of the kingdom does not do away with the gospel of being born again. It includes the gospel we have preached in the past, as well as all true Bible doctrines. Jesus focused on preaching the gospel of the kingdom because it encompasses all the parts of revealed doctrines and is the umbrella that covers them. Some doctrinal groups have referred to themselves as “full gospel,” because they received and incorporated into their structure the latest revelation. God is still restoring His message on earth. As each new area is restored, we are tempted to think we now have it all. However, about the time we get comfortable with what we have, He again gives us more. When He provides more light, some of the error we previously believed was accurate and complete begins to melt away.

We must come to grips with the reality that entering the kingdom does not mean only going to heaven when we die. We are not waiting for Jesus to come back to earth to establish His kingdom. Jesus has already returned to earth in the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower the people of God to rule and reign, to overcome, and to retake and possess the land. Yes, He is coming back as Lord of lords and King of kings to receive His prepared Bride. Yes, His bodily return to rule and reign with His purified Bride is the fulfillment of the kingdom. But the establishment time is now! Jesus has already done all that is necessary to defeat the devil and his rule. He now lives in us by the Holy Spirit to empower His purified Bride to overcome. According to Romans 14:17, the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Is it any wonder why there is so much conflict, confusion and controversy about the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It is easy to see why the enemy so fiercely comes against it, when we recognize the role of the Holy Spirit in walking in the kingdom of God potential now. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The potential for experiencing the Bride of Christ life now is in the Holy Spirit.

The kingdom of God potential first returned to earth in Jesus at the time of His baptism. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and remained on Him, in an experience of spiritual life of a different dimension that had not been known before. The heavens opened to Him. Jesus saw into the spirit realm, the heavenly realm. The voice of God spoke clearly to Him, affirming Him as His Son, and expressing His pleasure in Him. The kingdom of God age came into the earth. The potential for man to intimately communicate with God returned to the earth into Jesus, in that moment.

The Baptized was to become the Baptizer and baptize many with the Holy Spirit, opening to them the potential to walk in a new level of obedience and power, and enabling them to walk in the glorious Bride lifestyle. John the Baptist, the last great prophet of the captive kingdom, did not experience the greater kingdom life available to us.

Matthew 11:11: “Assuredly. I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

Mark 1:7-8:And he (John the Baptist), preached saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew 3:16-17:Then Jesus, when He had been baptized, came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him, and suddenly a voice from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

John 1:32-34:And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

From this point forward, the kingdom was now on the earth in Jesus. Jesus was empowered to demonstrate the kingdom authority, and His earthly ministry began. When He later left the earth, the kingdom potential went with Him. However, before He left, the King promised His disciples that He would soon return with His kingdom.

Matthew 16:28: “Assuredly, I (Jesus) say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

Luke 9:27: (And Jesus said), “But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”

These verses plainly and emphatically state that some of the people present were going to be alive and see Jesus coming in His kingdom, the kingdom of God. Jesus made it clear that He was going away and coming back quickly, bringing the kingdom with Him. This is a strong statement by the Lord that He was returning to earth, bringing His kingdom with Him, during their lifetime. When did this happen? Or did it not happen as the Lord said it would?

In the past, the only way I could get around this statement was to assume He was speaking of the mount of transfiguration when the disciples caught a glimpse of His glory. It was always a bit of a stretch for me to believe that the brief glimpse of Jesus in His glorified state was what He had in mind when He said they would “see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” The revelation of “kingdom” brings much seemingly difficult scripture into such sweet harmony.

Jesus returned to earth as a “life-giving Spirit” at Pentecost. How many Gods do we have? We have only one God! He manifests Himself in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus made it clear that “if you have Me, you have the Father, and if the Holy Spirit dwells in you, so does the Son and the Father.” Many Christians will quickly tell you that Jesus lives in their heart; yet, they don’t realize He could not be in their heart if He had not returned to earth.

1 Cor 15:45: And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

When Jesus walked on earth as a man, He could be in only one place at one time. He bodily went to the right hand of the Father and then returned as Spirit; now He can be everywhere at once. He can indwell all believers at one time, empowering us to obediently walk in His kingdom lifestyle. Thus, the will of God can be done on earth as it is in heaven. Many are yet looking for Jesus to return to do what He has already done or is now here to do.

In John 14:15-28 and John 16:12-25,Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit that is to come after He (Jesus) goes back to heaven. He makes it clear that He will return to His disciples. When He says, “I’m going away and coming back to you”, He does not mean to their descendants thousands of years later.

John 14:18: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

John 14:20: “At that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”

John 14:21: “I will love him (those who love the Father) and manifest Myself to him.” (Or “manifest myself in him”)

John 16:14: “We(Jesus and the Father) will come to him and make Our home with him.”

John 14:28: “I’m going away and coming back to you.”

John 16:14: “He (the Holy Spirit) Will take of what is Mine (or Me) and declare to you.”

Jesus finishes up the discussion in John 16:23-24 by saying, “In that day you will ask me nothing … whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you.” Obviously, the day he is talking about is today, not some future day when He bodily returns.

Jesus came to earth, reclaimed the kingdom, was crucified, resurrected, ascended to the right hand of the Father, returned to earth in the Holy Spirit, and now lives in believers to establish His kingdom on earth. Yet, He is still at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. Though Jesus possessed the fullness of the kingdom potential after His baptism with the Holy Spirit, He was not omnipresent in His natural body on earth. Now that He has returned to earth in the Holy Spirit, He is omnipresent.

Christ Jesus in us by the Holy Spirit will produce righteous obedience to God. Real holiness which includes true righteousness and perfect obedience is the only way to enter the fullness of the kingdom of God and become the Bride of Christ. Positional righteousness does not in itself cause us to enter or become the purified Bride. Only practical righteousness and practical obedience will enable us to live on earth in the kingdom of God. We enter and walk in the kingdom by obedience to the will of the Father.

Matthew 5:20: “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

Matthew 19:17b: “…But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

Remember, we are not talking about being born again; nor are we talking about going to heaven when we die. Those are “parts”, but what Jesus is talking about in these verses is entering and living in the kingdom of God now. We enter and walk by obedience to the Father. Only Jesus, by the Holy Spirit living in us, will always obey the will of the Father. Because Jesus is seated in heaven, He is available to carry out miraculous works of God through His disciples on earth.

Mark 16:19,70: …He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

Luke 17:20-21: “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed the kingdom of God is within you (or in your midst).”

As Christ Jesus manifests Himself in our being, we truly become the body of Christ, a body for Jesus to live in on earth. Jesus the Christ has returned to earth and lives in His people. We now have the potential to rule and reign over the kingdoms of the earth as His glorious life, His love, His power, His wisdom, His peace, and His faith rule and reign through our being. We can now take dominion over all the earth and over all the powers of darkness. We can reclaim every area of the kingdom. Nothing is impossible to Jesus in us.

When God’s messengers receive the “kingdom of God now” truth in their hearts and proclaim it with their mouths to the world, then the kingdom of God will be established. But as long as it is preached as a “someday kingdom”, it will not be fully established on earth. The other kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, can continue to run the governments, businesses, finance, religion, arts, music, media, sports, educational systems, entertainment industry and all other aspects of our world. Evil can continue to poison the minds of our people, inflicting pain, perverting, killing, and destroying men, women, and children of our land.

Wake up, Christians! Wake up, preachers! The saints who have gone on to heaven are not going to take back the earth, reclaim it and establish the kingdom of God on the earth. Yes, they are cheering us on. Yes, their work is made perfect in us. We are establishing what the great men of faith have begun — building upon the foundational heritage of generations of men of faith. But, only those alive on earth have the opportunity to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts to bring forth the work of Christ. Only then will the Spirit of Christ Jesus can come forth in their lives in glory and power sufficient to overpower the kingdom of darkness and establish the kingdom of light. This new generation has the potential to see the kingdom of God established in hearts today, individually, and then in the earth.

All who have gone before and paid a great price are looking to the people of God on earth today to make perfect their works and sacrifices by bringing forth the kingdom of God on earth.

Hebrews 11:37-40:They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented – of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

1 Corinthians 10:11: Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends (purposes) of the ages have come.

Each of us is in one kingdom or the other. Either the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light rules us. We are bringing forth, from our hearts, either one kingdom or the other into the earth.

There is great conflict between the two kingdoms and keen competition for the hearts of men. The propagation of either kingdom depends on the hearts of men. Men must cast the deciding vote as to which kingdom will rule the earth. Only in the heart-soil of man is the potential for ruling the earth. Whichever kingdom rules the hearts of men rules the earth.

Boiling it all down; man has one great continuous “yes and no” decision to make. He must decide “yes” to the kingdom of light and “no” to the kingdom of darkness. Many generations ago, mankind decided “yes” to the kingdom of darkness and “no” to the kingdom of light.Men need make no further decision to remain in the kingdom of darkness. A decision not to come to the light is a decision to remain in darkness.

God will furnish all the power, all the direction, and do all the work to establish His kingdom; but man must decide with his own will. God has given us dominion on earth and has chosen not to overrule our will. What we bind is bound and what we loose is loosed.

Matthew 16:19, “And I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

The Bride of Christ is prepared by practical obedience and holiness. Now is the time for the church (ecclesia) to make herself ready and become the perfected Bride, the New Jerusalem. Each of us must go through a process of becoming obedient and holy, or “growing up” in the kingdom walk. We must receive true understanding of the kingdom of God by spiritual revelation of the Word of God.

For anyone who might have a tendency toward thinking “this is something I can humanly do,” please be aware that it is all by the grace of God. The grace of God is the empowerment of Christ within the individual to live righteously. The grace of God is not a whitewash covering for our continued disobedience.

Grace is freely given but never forced upon an unwilling individual. Our part is to become willing to lay down our own way, our selfish desires, our religious order, our inner needs, to empty ourselves of ourselves that the Spirit of God may fill us with Christ. God will do it all. The grace of God can even make us willing but we must be willing to be made willing.

Keep on Pursuing Love
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Kingdom Impact

Posted: March 30, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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(Note: Revelation and impartation of the reality of the kingdom of God manifesting on earth continues to uncover what is sometimes shocking truth that adds more light to some of our traditional applications of scripture. Kingdom light is bringing fresh life for this life on earth that we had supposed to only have application in the final death and resurrection of our natural bodies. If you encounter fresh application of eternal life now in this article, please be patient and truly seek the Lord in the Holy Spirit to confirm what the Spirit is saying. Truly, we have NOT come this way before. There is much more scripture and teaching regarding these things that cannot be brought forth in this brief article. – Much love and respect, Ron)

Kingdom Impact

By Ron McGatlin

Trading Our Limitations for His Supernatural Life

Becoming One Spirit with Christ Jesus is no small matter. It is beyond our imagination – far greater than we could ask or think. It has not entered into the hearts or minds of natural man’s understanding. However, in this new season of emerging kingdom, God is revealing it to us by His Spirit.

In a moment of time we can be transformed by the Holy Spirit – changed in the twinkling of an eye by the powerful impact of the in breaking kingdom of God in the Holy Spirit. This is new, and we have not come this way before. Christ, by His Spirit, indwelling our spirit-being is transforming our weak spirit into His powerful Spirit that is HOLY HOLY HOLY.

No more mixture and no more falling back. What we could not do, Christ in us will do as we truly become one with Him. We no longer live but He lives His pure, holy life of love, power and wisdom where we once lived.

Yes, there may have been many years of “here a little and there a little” – years of three steps forward and two steps back – years of tearing down our foolish self-focused pride filled lives – years of our erecting our own castles in our own kingdoms – deceiving ourselves with religious platitudes from a god of our own making. We built precept upon precept and line upon line to be snared in our own works only to fall backward and be broken.

Isa 28:13: But the word of the LORD was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” That they might go and fall backward, and be broken And snared and caught.

In the passing church emphasis age we, for the most part, did not experience the kingdom impacting us, changing us in the twinkling of an eye. In this new kingdom emphasis age things are not as they were.

Judgment is coming swiftly to chasten and turn believers toward the now visible kingdom and away from our self-sufficient, do-it-ourselves lifestyle. Judgment of God is always for cleansing. Falling upon our faces in true repentance and crying out to God are often brought about through the severe disappointments of the devastating failure of a crumbling life under cleansing judgment of God. If everything kept on working well for us in our less-than-holy living, we would not be searching for change.

When our corrupt lives of mixture are being judged, a space for repentance is an awesome gift from God. In this emerging kingdom age, God provides a space for repentance for us to turn to Him with our whole hearts. Otherwise, there would be no transformation for us. We would continue in desperate disappointment and miserable life.

Are you getting this? Are you feeling the surge of kingdom impact upon your life? Are you sensing the magnitude of what we have walked into?

I tremble in awe at what God is doing in this day. I don’t know that I could have kept going if I had fully seen beforehand how big this change is in this time. I do not know words big enough to describe what it is like to realize that we are alive on earth in this season of the manifesting kingdom of God with its potential of transforming us instantly. God is renewing our bodies to be able to stand and carry the awesome power of the life of Christ Jesus. Our strength is being renewed to host the explosive fire of God.

Our limitations are dissolved in His supernatural life that abides in our spirits. Our spirits are consumed by His Spirit that permeates our souls and bodies changing who we are. Supernatural reality of Christ is available in all who are willing and believe. Supernatural life is not something to be sought after; it simply comes with becoming One Spirit with Christ.

Living Containers Made of Clay

Our bodies and souls are simply a container we live in – a vehicle for our spirit-beings to function in on earth. When our spirit-being is saturated and filled with the Spirit-being of Christ, we are transformed. Our spirit is no longer dominant within our living container (soul and body). Our spirit-being (who we are) is no longer who we were. The far more dominant Spirit-being of Christ becomes one with our spirit-being much as air entering a container becomes one with the air in the container.

We must decrease, and He must increase

There must be room available in the container for the new air (Spirit) to come in and permeate the air (spirit) in the container. There must be death (crucifixion) of the self-life that has been who we were. The cross experience of Christ Jesus truly becomes our experience. We are identified with the cross of Christ as we painfully die to our independent life that is no longer our own. Nothing we are – nothing we have is any longer our own. We no longer have any possessions, goals, ambitions or dreams of our own. There is no longer strength to stand – no willingness to get up from our face to the floor posture of emptiness. Emptied of ourselves we are ready for His new life.

Resurrection Life Only After Death

Actually, our spirit becomes dormant in this death event. We have no strength or ability to figure things out and make things happen. We do not even have a desire to do so. We have come to our end and find no reason to try to fix things again.

The Spirit of Christ Jesus can now enter our empty container.

The new air (Spirit) in the container becomes the fresh new life of Christ Jesus. Our dormant spirit becomes alive in the Spirit of Christ Jesus. It is His dominant Spirit bringing the kingdom of heaven life to our once dormant life that is now filled with His life. We cease to exist as we were, and now exist in Christ and He in us. We have literally become ONE SPIRIT with CHRIST JESUS.

We own nothing, and yet we have everything. We are now joint heirs with Christ. We are crucified with Christ, nevertheless, we live. Yet it is not we who live, but Christ in us. The life we now live is by Him – by His love, power, and wisdom. It is not even by our faith but by His faith we live. We walk on this earth as Christ, and the kingdom of God has come from heaven to earth. The Spirit of Christ within permeates our soul and body and our corruptible and mortal body has put on Christ.

What was corruptible has put on in-corruption. Mortality has put on immortality.

Eternal life does not begin after the end of our time on earth. Eternal life is now in the manifesting reality of Christ in you (us). The kingdom of God is in full view as we each turn this major corner in our journey toward “our Father’s farm” – the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Keep on pursuing love. It never fails
and His kingdom never ends.

Ron McGatlin

www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

UNDERSTANDING KINGDOM

Posted: March 30, 2011 in disciples life, teaching, wilderness
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The rich understandings of the kingdom of God are hidden in the Word of God, veiled in figurative, symbolic language that can be revealed to the mind only by the Spirit of God. For centuries we have read and studied the Bible; yet, the understanding of kingdom will be revealed to us only at the level we are ready to receive it and in the season that God desires.

The Bible often uses a natural word about a natural thing to represent a spiritual thing. Once we have the spiritual meaning of the natural word, we can use that word to communicate the spiritual thought. For example, we have referred to the Bride of Christ several times. We all know that we are not referring to a literal bride. A natural bride is one female person who is being married to a husband. The Bride of Christ is a figurative term representing all purified believers who are intimately related as one with the indwelling Christ. The believers may be male or female, old or young, of any heritage, and of any number. Yet, they can all be collectively described in the term Bride of Christ. When the Bible speaks of the milk of the Word, we know it is not talking about a white liquid in a bottle. When it speaks of the meat of the Word, it is not talking about a beefsteak.

John 16:25: These things I (Jesus) have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.

John 16: 12-13a: I (Jesus) still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all trut …

Matthew 16:17b.19: … for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Mark 4:22-23: For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

There are key words that unlock the figurative, symbolic language of the Word and open vast areas of kingdom revelation. Many of these symbols and types have been revealed for many years. But some have been more recently revealed; and, most of those we have known for some time have a deeper, freshly-revealed kingdom meaning.

In the figurative Biblical language, much is revealed from simple symbols — from the sea (unstable masses of unsaved without structure), to the fruitful plains (the saved stable Christians), to trees (men’s life structures), to hills (authority structures), to the high mountains (great structures of authority), and on to the highest mountain (the ultimate, authority of God).

To understand the word of the kingdom from the Bible, the disciple must be able to hear the spiritual meaning of the figurative or symbolic language from the Holy Spirit. When I study a passage of Scripture, I pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give me revelation of the hidden, symbolic, spiritual meaning of the words. Then I meditate the passage allowing quiet time in my spirit and mind while waiting to hear from God. After enlightenment or understanding comes, then I begin to check out the concordance, Greek and Hebrew dictionaries, and other Scriptures for confirmation or clarification.

The following are a few possible examples of symbolic language to consider. Try using these as you study and meditate the Word.

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Mountains-Great structures of authority; may be godly or ungodly.

Hills-Structures of authority as mountains; except lesser.

Fields-Lower structures of authority, but still firmament. Usually indicate those saved, as opposed to the sea of lost. As such, they are the fruitful, production areas where grain, fruit trees, etc., are grown.

Valleys-Lower structures than fields, often fertile and well watered by neighboring mountains. May also indicate a very low period — a time of difficulty and hard decisions.

Sea-No structure at all, fluid, blown about, sometimes roaring, unsaved masses of people.

Trees-Natural structures of life; individual men and their life structures, ranging from great men or rulers as great cedars, strong and stable men as mighty oaks, olive and fig trees as prophets or ministers, fruit trees and vines as fruitful Christians to insignificant bramble bushes and ungodly thorns and briars.

City-A corporate structure of life; a spiritual community for the protection and well-being of its citizens, governed by spiritual laws, ruled by spiritual powers, which determine the personality of the city and the quality of life within the city. A city is structured by patterns of life. A great city is a capital or ruling city, whose patterns reach out beyond its city walls or limits to govern a greater area.

Israel-The overall church, including its ruling city, its many different cities, and wilderness areas.

New Jerusalem-The purified, holy, renewed ruling city of God; the remnant Bride Church, the Bride of Christ without spot or wrinkle.

Babylon-The ruling city of the kingdom of darkness; the great soulish system of man characterized by covetousness, immorality, and sorcery; the mother system of harlots and adulterers.

Bride and Wife-The obedient, perfected, faithful and true, ruling city portion of the church where reproduction takes place and mature sons are brought to glory. She is God-seeking and God-serving.

Harlot-The unfaithful, rebellious mistress (person or church) who sells her purity to fulfill her own desires and meet her needs; she does not seek the true God, but is self-seeking and self-serving.

Adulteress-The unfaithful part of the church who has a Husband and pretends obedience to Him, but has other lovers. She seeks to fulfill her desires and meet her needs from sources other than her Husband. She has a divided heart, and her desire is both self-seeking and God-seeking, self-serving and God-serving.

Assyrians, Philistines, Canaanites, etc.-Evil, enemy spiritual forces, demons.

Dragon, Serpent, Roaring Lion, Wild Beast, Fowls of the Air, Adverse Wind, Storms, etc.-Satan and/or demon spirits.

Seed-A living pattern, word, thought, idea, vision; also the offspring made from the pattern. A word or vision from God is a good seed. A bad seed would be the same, but from the enemy.

Soil, Land-The heart of man; the spiritual/natural interface through which seeds from the spiritual realm are planted in the fertile creativity of the heart to be brought forth into the natural realm.

Holy Spirit may be represented in His different aspects or facets as, Oil, Water, Wine, Strong Drink, Light, Rain, etc.

Oil-Comfort, healing, joy, anointing.

Water-Cleansing, washing, or life-giving Word or Holy Spirit.

Wine-Revelation from God, a rhema word from God, unveiled truths of God’s Word by the Holy Spirit.

Old Wine-Revelation from the past; usually a taste has been acquired for it. It is smooth and comfortable to the taste and can put one to sleep.

New Wine-New revelation from God. It is fresh and exciting, but may be very different to the taste and cause discomfort for those who have not yet acquired a taste for the new. It can be intoxicating if we take too much of it by itself. One must continue to feed on the bread and the meat along with the new wine.

Strong Drink-A hard word such as, correction, rebuke, or warning, etc. by the Holy Spirit.

Light-Understanding; discernment; life giving, growth-stimulating word or revelation by the Holy Spirit.

Rain-Outpouring of grace gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Rivers-Continuous flow of spiritual life; flow of Holy Spirit.

Wineskins-The container, or framework, of the inner organized filing system for the revelation of God.

Cloth-A woven network of understanding of life, which may contain intricate patterns of design, each thread fitting together to make the whole.

Flood-A great outpouring of damaging words.

Jewels-Perfected sons or daughters of God.

Fire-Intense adversity for purification or judgment; judgmental or critical words.

Stars-Spiritual persons; men of God.

Heat-Correction or judgment; the heat of the sun, particularly, is intense light that brings correction from God the Father.

Angels-Sometimes symbolizes men of God sent to the church, ministers, messengers, preachers of the message from God.

Trumpets-Sometimes are the voices of the prophets speaking forth the message of God, calling an assembly, focusing attention, and especially blasting forth the judgments of God.

Grain and Grain Fields-Production, particularly annual or periodical production.

Green Grass-Production of the fields, including grain.

Birds-Spirits, either godly or evil.

Crowns-Authority to rule.

Temple-A permanent dwelling place of God, the eternal heart of man where God dwells.

Tabernacle-A temporary dwelling place of God.

Consider the meaning of the figurative words used in Luke 5:36-39. The Lord speaks of patching new cloth onto old and of putting new wine in old wineskins. He also mentions that a man having drunk old wine does not immediately desire the new. Using the key words, it is easy to discern what He is saying spiritually.

What is being said in Isaiah 55, when the mountains and hills are said to break forth into singing, and the trees of the field clap their hands?

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One of the most devastating mistakes people make when seeking to know God through His Word is taking every passage, which can be literally interpreted and applying only literal interpretation to it. The spiritual man learns to literally interpret the true spiritual meaning of the passage through the figurative language of the Holy Spirit. Often there is both a literal meaning and a spiritual meaning. Much prophecy has had a literal, historical fulfillment and a greater spiritual implication. One might think of this as a railroad with two tracks running side-by-side. One track is the literal meaning of the passage; the other track is the spiritual. Many Old Testament terms and passages have a very literal, natural meaning, and may also have a vital spiritual meaning to New Testament believers about the kingdom of God. Many Old Testament events were recorded as examples to us.

1 Corinthians 10:11: Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

Natural Israel And Spiritual Israel
The nation Israel is extremely significant as God’s chosen people. It was through this nation and the Jewish people that the Son of God came and the Bible was written. The many prophetic writings and historical events of Israel all have spiritual meaning to the church. God has chosen Israel and its ruling city, Jerusalem, as a living message to the world. God’s dealings with natural Israel and natural Jerusalem become spiritual messages to spiritual Israel and spiritual Jerusalem. The spiritual kingdom, the Israel of God, is a new people, a spiritual people to whom origin of nationality, race, color, social cast, or political standing is of little or no significance. It is a kingdom in which all are adopted by the heavenly Father and become true brothers and sisters.

Galatians 3:7,14b, 29: Therefore know that those who are of faith are sons of Abraham … that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 6:15-16: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy upon them, upon the Israel of God.

Spiritual Jerusalem or New Jerusalem is the ruling city of spiritual Israel just as natural Jerusalem or old Jerusalem was the ruling city of natural Israel. As old Jerusalem was the natural figurative mother, that birthed the kingdom into the earth, so now the New Jerusalem is the spiritual mother, the wife of God, the Bride of Christ that is birthing the spiritual kingdom of God into our world. The New Jerusalem is the Bride of Christ, the holy, purified, overcoming portion of the church.

Revelation 21:9-11: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

Revelation 21:2: Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride for her husband.

Galatians 4:25b, 26: Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Revelation 19:7-8: Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

New Jerusalem is now coming down from the spirit realm and is now beginning to be formed on the earth. It is the Bride Church, the holy, purified, kingdom people of God. Just as it is possible for a person to be in the nation of Israel, but not in the city of Jerusalem, it is also possible to be in the church, but not yet in New Jerusalem. Not everyone in the country of Israel is in the city of Jerusalem. Neither has everyone in the church become the purified, holy Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem.

In the beautiful, illustrative, figurative language of God, which is characteristically used by the Holy Spirit to communicate spiritual truths to mankind, God describes the kingdom of God lifestyle in the picture of New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 & 22:1-5.

In the New Jerusalem lifestyle, we continuously live in the presence of God as the tabernacle of God is with men. The glory and light of God fills our lives. Pain and sorrow are gone as God wipes away our tears. No more death as eternal, abundant life prevails; we pass from life to life. Righteousness and holiness prevail in our lives as pure gold and clear crystal. There is no night; there are no dark, threatening seasons. There is no more curse. We are under the dome of His protection, and there is perfect peace. We serve Him and rule over the circumstances of life.

Isaiah 62:5b, 12: …and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. And they shall call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord; And you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.

In Isaiah chapter 60, Isaiah begins to picture and describe the glory and prosperity of The City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. (v. 14)

THE KING-DOME

Let me share an illustration that helps me understand the concept of the spiritual city of New Jerusalem. Imagine a giant, glass dome filled with the glorious presence and light of God. Inside this huge, spiritual dome everything is as it should be. Everything is in perfect obedience to God’s laws, and nothing that defiles can enter in. The environment is perfectly controlled like a greenhouse. Those who overcome enter and abide inside the dome where they enjoy all the victorious aspects and attributes of New Jerusalem. The enemy has no part and can do no harm inside the dome.

The bright light inside the dome flows out to the countryside in a large circle around the dome. Everywhere the light reaches, the darkness must flee and cannot return unless the light is lessened or drawn back.

People who sit in darkness may see the light from a distance and begin to move toward it. At the point where they actually leave the darkness and enter the light, they have entered the Israel of God, but have not yet reached and entered Jerusalem, the city of God. They have come out of darkness into the light and must continue to journey to the dome. Their goal is to enter the king-dome, the New Jerusalem-purified-holy-Bride-of-Christ lifestyle.

Matthew 4:16: The people who sat in darkness saw a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.

Hebrews 12:22: But we have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born…

We must, through a purifying growth process, come to maturity and walk into the New Jerusalem lifestyle. Many people in the church are now beginning to see the kingdom lifestyle and are moving toward the Holy City.

Just as it is possible to be in the nation but not in the ruling city, it is possible to be in the outer court of the tabernacle but not in the holy place. Many have entered the tabernacle into the outer court, but now must be purified to enter the holy place. The presence of God is in the holy place; all the promises of New Jerusalem are in the holy place. We must come in the gate and partake of the brazen altar, the blood sacrifice for our sins, the atoning blood of Jesus. Next, we must be washed by the water at the brazen laver in preparation for entering the holy place. We must journey on to the candlesticks of the Holy Spirit ministry and on to the showbread being broken before arriving at the altar of incense and the Holy of Holies, the intimate communion with God (the king-dome).

Walking in the kingdom of God lifestyle is all about intimate relationship with God. It is becoming one with God through Christ by the Holy Spirit. It is the five virgins with oil in their lamps entering into the wedding with Christ the Bridegroom. Holiness is produced by the indwelling Christ living in us by the Holy Spirit. It is the mystery Paul spoke of as “Christ in you the hope of glory”.

Psalm 15: Lord, who will abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart….

Hebrews 12:28: Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Keep on Pursuing Love
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

Posted: March 29, 2011 in disciples life, teaching, wilderness
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Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom. He sent the twelve and the seventy disciples out to preach the gospel of the kingdom and instructed all His disciples to preach this same gospel.

Is the gospel of the kingdom any different from the gospel of salvation or being born again?

We have preached the cross and personal salvation in Jesus for many years. Is that the gospel Jesus preached? Is it the gospel that the twelve and the seventy preached?

Shouldn’t we be preaching the gospel Jesus preached?

God has been restoring revelation to His church in waves or layers. After one wave comes and men receive it and that layer is in place, then another wave of restoration brings another layer. The newer layer does not replace the last one; it builds upon it.

The gospel of being born again is the first part of the gospel of the kingdom. Although it is vital and completely necessary, it is only a part. One must be born again to see the kingdom of God. To stop at the first part of being born again is stopping and forever remaining just inside the door of the vast kingdom and never experiencing the bountiful life and treasure of the kingdom prepared for us before the foundation of the world.

Most of the teachings of Jesus were focused on what the gospel of the kingdom is and how it works. Vital, basic, foundational principles of the good news of kingdom living on earth are contained in the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament gospels. We will explore these powerful kingdom principles in later sessions.

In recent years, the gospel of the kingdom has been widely restored. The gospel previously preached focused on missing hell and getting into heaven when we died. For the most part, there was little or no real help for living life today. We tended to write off this life and looked forward to dying to have victory or to Jesus’ coming back and rescuing us from this mess. Certainly, the Lord’s bodily return and Heaven, with all its wonder, are primary to our Christian faith. However, the gospel of the kingdom focuses on restoring the rule of God from heaven on earth.

The gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached focused on heaven’s ways coming to earth more than our going to heaven. (“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”) He taught how to live in the highest order of life that would bring peace on earth and goodwill toward men. There is, however, another being on earth that desires his will on earth and not God’s. I wonder who would like to cloud our minds and prevent us from seeing the potential of the will of God being done on earth.

Gospel means “good news”; kingdom refers to“ruler/dominion.” The gospel of the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God means “the good news of the ruler dominion of heaven, or God”. Or another way to say it is, “the good news of the government of God from heaven on earth.” The good news is that the blessings of God’s rule are potentially available to His children now in this life.

Jesus announced the blessings of His kingdom in that portion of Scripture we call the Beatitudes. He had been preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing the sick, and casting out demons all about Galilee. And seeing the multitude, He began to speak to His disciples, telling them that the needy people were blessed now. The kingdom is finally here, and those who are entering are blessed. Before the kingdom, those who mourned simply mourned. Now they will be comforted.

Matthew 5:3-6: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Let me illustrate the difference between the gospel of being born again just to go to heaven and the gospel of the kingdom with this story.

A man had set out to cross a large swamp in a small boat. He paddled well into the swamp and was attacked by several large alligators. The attack was so vicious that the small boat was damaged and sank. The man was left standing in about waist-deep, murky water with only his paddle to fight off the alligators. The fight was so fierce that his paddle was broken. He was now left with only a stub of a paddle with which to jab and beat the alligators.

A voice heralded from a distant shore, “Hey out there! I’ve got good news for you. An important government man was here a while back and looked at this swamp. He promised to come back someday with a big crew to drain it.”

Jesus’ coming back and the “heaven someday” message is good news. But the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached can also help us with our alligators now. Let’s continue our story.

A man in a boat appeared and glided quickly to the man in the water and asked, “Do you need some help?”

“Yes! Please help me!” the man anxiously replied.

The man in the boat commanded the alligators to stop their attack. Immediately, the alligators swam away. The man in the boat helped the tired, wet and bloody man into his boat. He gave him dry clothes and medicine, which quickly healed his wounds. They immediately were at their destination.

As mankind sees the reality of the kingdom message and its overcoming power the devil will be made powerless. This is why the kingdom of darkness so violently opposes the kingdom of God now message. There is a violent pressing involved in entering the kingdom of God walk. It is not a pressing or violence toward or from God, but from the opposition, the kingdom of darkness.

Luke 16:16: “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.”

Matthew 11:12: “And from the days of John the Baptist till now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”

Often there is more opposition toward the kingdom message than any other. The devil is much less threatened by a message of “heaven some day in the future”. Our seeing the rule of God only in the future allows the devil to continue his dirty work now. The simple message of Jesus, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand,” the kingdom-is-now gospel, draws violent reactions from anyone who, in some way, is infected with or influenced by the opposing kingdom. Religious people and those of one’s own household often become the most violent. The Lord spoke of kingdom rising against kingdom and nation (or tribe) against nation (Matthew 24:7).

Matthew 24:10-11: “… many will be offended, will betray one another and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Matthew 10:21: “Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.”

Matthew 10:34,36: “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. And a man’s foes will be those of his own household.”

Remember that the conflict is between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness” (Ephesians 6:12).

The spiritual battle is for the prize of entering and walking in the kingdom of God lifestyle, not just being born again, nor just going to heaven when we die.

Keep on Pursuing Love,
It Will Never Fail,

Lots of Love,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Heaven’s Deepest River

Posted: March 28, 2011 in disciples life, Parents, teaching, wilderness
Tags: , , , ,
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We have entered the time of transition to the kingdom of God. God is sending forth His sons empowered from heaven to establish His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Many are having supernatural encounters with God today! – Encounters for empowerment to establish the kingdom of God on earth.

FOR THOSE WITH AN EAR TO HEAR – TODAY – THIS DEEPEST RIVER FROM HEAVEN CAN BE IMPLANTED IN YOU AND YOU WILL BE TRANSFORMED and EMPOWERED. TODAY, GOD WANTS TO TAKE YOU INTO THE DEEPEST RIVER OF HEAVEN.

The supernatural empowerment to establish the kingdom of God is in this deepest river – all the power – all the life – all the wisdom – everything needed. God is now taking His sons to a new place IN HIM.

At this writing I am almost 69 years old and have sought to serve our Lord for 48 of those years. I have had many experiences with God and a few major encounters. What happened to me a few weeks ago exceeded all my previous experiences with God.

One of the most significant past encounters with God happened almost 20 years ago. To help understand what I am about to say, here is a very short nondescript account of some of what happened at that time.

I stood before the boiling fire of Father God and the Lord stepped out from the fire carrying a large sword and said, “Receive your anointing.” He touched me three times with the sword and stepped back into the fire of the Father. Two giant hands of the same fire appeared in the fire. One hand held a large vial like a cup or beaker filled with liquid fire. The other hand held a tall thin empty vial somewhat the shape of a test tube. I heard, “I am going to fill you with my love.”

The Father began pouring the liquid fire from the large cup into the test tube like vial. As the level rose in the vial, liquid fire filled me to the same level starting at my feet and rising up my body. When the liquid fire reached my arms it flowed down to my hands and streams of liquid fire began to flow out the ends of my fingers onto the ground. I was concerned that the liquid fire of God’s love was being wasted. I was told not to be concerned, that there was an endless supply and that I would never run short and to go ahead and be sloppy with it. As the level rose to the level of my eyes the liquid fire began to flow out of my eyes in two small streams just like was flowing out the ends of my fingers. Soon it began to ooze out the pores of my skin and I glowed all over with the liquid fire of God’s love. Though I have not been a perfect carrier of the liquid fire, this experience had a profound impact on me and radically changed my life.

The feeling that nothing greater could ever happen to me was shattered recently as I experienced an even greater encounter with God.

A few weeks ago at a Thursday night prayer meeting at World Revival Church, I was lying on the floor before the altar in the Spirit and God began dealing with me. I began to feel a great desire to be in the fire with God and not just standing before Him. I had never even had this thought before but now it was burning in me. The Word came to me that we have not because we ask not. I remembered that almost 20 years ago prior to that encounter I had asked to see the Lord and to receive anointing.

I asked God to take me into Himself – into the fire with Him.

Immediately I was transported into the fire of God and my life is forever changed. Everything of me is totally ruined for anything but God. I wept inside continuously for weeks and outwardly often. I am consumed.

Heb 12:29: For our God is a consuming fire.

I now have an idea what Paul meant when he said, “And I know that this man–whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows– was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.” (2 Cor 12:3-4)

I had never dreamed what it would be like to really be literally in the Father – in Jesus and in the Holy Spirit – to literally be in the actual Fire of God.

To come to Jesus is awesome. But we need to remember that it is a primary purpose of Jesus to take us to the Father. And that He and the Father are one.

I was exposed to a brief glimpse of the unfiltered pure heart of the Father. I was not prepared for the shock of knowing His heart – His feelings about His children – His desires – His responses to His children – the very affect we have on the heart of Father God astonished me and broke me to nothing.

What I encountered in the heart of the Father has taken my life.

I am about to try to tell you the thing that ruined me for any life other that pleasing and serving Him – The thing that has made me to hate disobedience (sin) with a passion – The thing that has generated an intense passion to bless Him. This is the thing that has removed all shallowness and self focus and replaced it with a passionate depth of love, obedience, desire to serve Him, desire to worship Him and praise Him, and to see His kingdom established on earth.

The first thing that overwhelmed me was the indescribable intensity and vastness of the love of the Father for His people. It is absolute purity and absolute passion an unending unstoppable immeasurable flow of God. I have no words to describe the experience of becoming one with the love of God. It is inexpressible love.

The next thing that I experienced is the thing that killed me. Personally, I believe that this next thing may be one of the things Paul spoke of when he said, in 2 Corinthians 12, “He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.” Could it be that it was not then time for this to be told but that the time has come?

The next thing I experienced in the heart of the Father was unfathomable intense pain – immeasurable sorrow – deep distress beyond measure caused by the indifference of those He loves. The lack of response or improper response to this awesome love has created a vast brokenness in the heart of the Father.

The deepest river in heaven is the broken hearted ness of Father God.

Our Father, the source of all love – the one that is love – the one with love beyond all we can imagine has a broken heart filled with painful desperate passionate longing. One cannot be deeply hurt by those whom one does not love deeply. The more deeply one loves the more deeply one can suffer pain from that love. The love of God for His children and His Bride exceeds all love.

The casualness of God’s people toward His complete passionate love has created immeasurable pain in the heart of God. God’s heart is breaking for His disobedient unresponsive Bride who chooses to ignore His great passionate love and to seek romance with other things of this world.

The pain of His immeasurable love was clearly felt and spoken in the Garden of Gethsemane. The exceeding pain and deep distress in God’s heart is the same pain felt in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus only did what he heard and saw the Father doing. Our God is one. The distinct characteristics and work of Christ and the Holy Spirit become very apparent as they move out from the Father. But inside the Father they are one. The feelings of grief of the Holy Spirit and the deep sorrow of Christ are felt in the heart of the Father.

What was happening in the heart of the Father at Gethsemane?

Mat 26:36-39: Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Those among us who have loved someone very deeply and felt the pain of that person pulling away from us may begin to grasp the depth of painful longing in God’s heart caused by those whom He loves. Those who have known His love and then allowed their affection to move to something or someone else causes great pain in God’s heart.

Inner pain mixed with genuine forgiveness becomes and increased intensely passionate flow of real love. But if it is mixed with resentment it can become intense bitterness in the heart. God has complete forgiveness and therefore no bitterness. The pain in God’s heart becomes an increased flow of extreme passionate love for His people. This love flows like a deep and mighty river toward all mankind.

God is pouring out his love to all mankind equally. He loves all people unconditionally. He loves those who love Him and he loves those who hate Him. He loves His friends and enemies all the same.

But all do not respond to His love the same. Some come closer and others move further away. Those who come closer receive more because they choose to draw near to God and are greatly blessed. Others, who choose to move away to live in darkness, are cursed by the same love that blesses those who come to His light. Those who do not receive and respond to the love of God offend the love of God.

One definition for jealously is love offended. God is jealous when His love is offended by lack of proper response from those He loves. God refers to Himself as jealous several times in the Bible. Jealousy leads to wrath caused by the love of the husband for His wife.

Exo 20:3-6: “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

Deu 4:24: “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

God speaks of His wife having other gods as committing spiritual adultery. A man destroys himself when he chooses to not respond to the love of God and has affection for other things.

Prov 6:32-35: But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away; for jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is.

God’s love offended becomes jealousy. Jealousy arouses wrath and is an expression of the intense passion of the love of God for His people.

God’s pain and sorrow began even before He created man. Lucifer and the angels, who rebelled, greatly dishonored and shamed God in His own home territory of heaven. Perhaps this has something to do with the creation of man in Satan’s home territory of earth. Man was created, in part, for the purpose of restoring honor to God by properly responding to His love. We are just now beginning to grasp that God has an awesome need for us to respond to His love.

Christians today are generally accustomed to looking to God to meet their needs. For centuries we have trusted Him to meet our need for a savior to save us from the penalty of sin and more recently many trust Him to save them from their sinful lifestyles. Many have learned to trust Him for financial provision; healing and other practical needs as well.

But for the most part, we are just now catching on to the reality that we exist to be an object of the love of God and thereby meet the need of God’s heart. Our purpose is to receive and respond to the love of God.

Many revived Christians today have discovered the unconditional love of God and some have erroneously concluded that because Father God has such great love for them that they will be no repercussions for their lack of response to His love. They have not known the pain they cause in the heart of God by frolicking with the Father and then walking away and entering into disobedience to Him.

It is true that God’s mercy is endless and at the cross our sin debt is fully paid. It is also true that the cross must again be visited and the blood applied because of our disobedience. Our “little sin” or disobedience may seem insignificant to us. We know forgiveness and redemption is available for us in the cross. But we do not know the pain in the heart of God every time the cross must again be applied and we crucify the Lord afresh in the heart of God. We greatly pain our loving Father with our carelessness.

The glory of the next great outpouring of God upon the Eastern USA and eventually the world is dependent on the people of God responding to God’s love by drawing close to Him and stepping into the all-consuming fire.

God is greatly pleasured when love arises from earth to Him in heaven. When we respond to God’s love and send it back to Him with our commitment, our obedience, our praise, worship, and honor giving prayer, our sacrifice of fasting, and sacrificial offerings – when we become living sacrifices to Him.

When we respond to His love, the more we give the more we receive. God is so pleased and so gratified when filled with the love response of His people that he pours out blessings of everything we need and more. He comes with His presence in great glory and manifest among His people. He pours out special anointing of healing, deliverance, and miracles of many kinds. We have all the money, all the goods, all that we need to fulfill His plan and more when we respond to His love by giving our lives as a living sacrifice.

We must fill His heart with our total love for Him. We must give Him generous expressions of that love. Those who will sacrifice their self-life to live only for Him and will come all the way into His consuming fire of love bless him. We must fill His heart with joy by properly responding to His unconditional immeasurable love.

The greatest result of all this is that we actually become a blessing and a giver to our loving Father. But surely the next greatest blessing is that as we give we release the deep river of power, strength, wisdom, gifting, miracles, and all that is needed to establish His kingdom on earth. Every apostle and every prophet, pastor, evangelist and teacher of God who fully enters into this fire and sacrifices all as a gift to God will have the empowerment to establish the kingdom of God on earth now.

The powerful love of God will flow through leaders and whosoever will abandon this life and move into the fire of God. All flesh will leave, only powerful spiritual sons will remain, and nothing will be impossible to us as Christ is formed within. Even if we have great revelation of many facts, times, and things they will not profit unless we are put to death by the awesome love of God.

It is time to pray for God to finish us off – to go ahead and kill us now. That we may enter fully into the very heart of God through our brokenness.

There is today an open door without veil before the church to walk into the holy of holies – the fire of the Father himself and it will only be done through brokenness.

We can forget accomplishing anything with our gifts and intellects. In the fire of God, only our weakness of brokenness will provide the flow of power to make our revelations work to change the world to the kingdom of our God.

All aspects of life will be affected as people are consumed by the love of God. Those who minister will do so by the supernatural power of the kingdom of God. Those who work in government will begin to rule according to the power of the kingdom of God. Those who work in business will begin to work by the principles and power of the kingdom of God. Those who do anything will do it for the kingdom of God, by the supernatural power, and according to the principles of the kingdom of God. This is the season of change from the ways of self centered greed based life to the serving giving love of the kingdom of God ruling all life.

Sons will be raised up in all walks of life and service. They will receive and respond to the love of God and order their lives and all they possess or influence by the kingdom for God ways. There will be many fathers and many teachers in the land bringing forth the truth of God by the living example of the clear word of their testimony.

This is the season of the transition. The source of power for the transformation is the love of God. The method is our responding fully to the love of God by taking that final step into the very fire of God rather than just standing nearby.

Keep on Pursuing Love,
It Will Never Fail,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com

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