Usually I talk my mother into writing the foreword for these booklets and if you’ve read any of the last five booklets, you’ve read her writings. This time however I wanted to use the opportunity not only to say something about the book, but to also thank everyone who helps me with them.

All of these booklets have lessons in them I have either learned or that I am learning and this book is no exception. Being born into a very loving and Godly family I was raised to love God, Jesus and the "Church". My family didn’t know about the freedom of the Holy Spirit. So I grew up just loving a God I really didn’t know and fighting what I didn’t understand.

I was an adult before God saw fit to have my mother introduce me to the Holy Spirit and it was a shocker to say the least, but God’s plans and purposes will be done regardless of what we think or understand. Anyway, at that point it became the "Royal Rumble"!

I had fought with God before that on a much smaller scale, but now it was a "Royal" battle, the carnal man against the spirit man. All I had thought or been taught was being slammed to the mat and God was finally taking control of His temple.

I learned He wasn’t Who I thought He was and I learned I wasn’t who I thought I was. I learned He was in charge of everything that happened in my life, not me or anyone else, whether I perceived it as good, evil or not of God at all. He was still in charge of it and He was using it to change me, perfect me, mature me and change me into His image. So I’ve learned, "It’s A Fight, But God Wins"!

In the spirit I’m grateful, in the natural I’m learning to die and give in to God’s ways and I hope this book helps you in your path with God as well.

Now, I want to thank God for all of His patience and revelation. My mother, Evelyn La Casella, for all of her support, prayers and encouragement. My husband, Dale, for all his support and prodding. My son, Fred, for putting up with mom always being at the computer. My friends, Dewey and Eileen Drennen, for all their support and help in making these books possible, Dewey arranges my books and did the cover for this book and is the brain behind my computer for these books. And I now have wonderful angels at, Gary Sigler Ministries, to thank for their encouragement and for donating their time to make these booklets possible.

Jh.12:24-26; Heb.4:12-13; 1Cor.2:11-14; 2Cor.3:6; Rom.8:4-8; Gal.5:16, 22-23, 25.

With God’s wisdom and guidance I’m going to try to help a very dear friend understand where she stops and Christ begins. I believe that sooner or later we all come to this place of frustration in our walk with God. We find that our flesh man is never in tune with the Spirit that lives within us. It’s that place where we feel our outer man is going in one direction and the inner man is going another. Where we struggle with wanting to walk in all God has for us and the things around us seem to pull on us continually (like families, homes, jobs and wants). This is usually where we find out that our greatest hindrance (us, our flesh) does not work well with the "Seed" planted, growing and taking over inside of us! So what I’m saying is, it’s a fight, but God wins!

Rom.7:21-23, our inner man delights in God. Eph.3:16; 2Cor.4:16, plainly says we have an outer man and a God occupied inner man. That means all the power and authority of the universe lives inside of us and it is working on releasing itself to our outer man thus releasing God into the world through His "Body", or us.

I love the passage we read in Jh.12:24-26 and I’ve used it in several studies but this time as I was reading it I flipped over to verse 3. (I love how God always puts these goodies where I’ll find them). It says here, Mary is pouring very expensive oil over the feet of Jesus, so I thought I’d better look up this costly oil in the "Bible Dictionary" and it said that this oil, or (nard), came from India in very beautiful and expensive alabaster vessels that had to be broken in order to get this oil out of them. Now my mind was really going, I saw us as theses alabaster vessels and some are very beautiful to look at. Many times I have seen bottles that were very beautiful? Perfume bottles come to my mind first, I’ve known many wealthy women who collected them and showed them off in their guest bedrooms and bathrooms. I always thought it was kind of funny to see these bottles set out like trophies or centerpieces even though they were beautiful. Now it makes sense to me because it shows how people idolize beautiful things. Beautiful bodies, rippling muscles, their abilities and their knowledge, these are a few of the things people idolize. I read an article yesterday about a woman who spent $100,000 and had 11 surgeries to make herself look good for men. When we put our wants, desires and abilities above the precious oil of God that lives within us we are praising the alabaster box rather than the precious gift inside it, 1Sam.16:7. But somehow in all of this God is still able to reach us. We start wanting His change and we hunger for more of Him.

I believe we each have a different path to walk, but in the end each path will lead us into a head on collision with God. And believe me, somewhere in this walk the alabaster vessel gets broken or stripped away and its precious oil gets released. It’s the place where we find out Who is really in charge of our lives! Now I’m very familiar with the teachings that we have to come to God or He must find us. We must be born again and we must clean up our lives. Please, do not get lost or religious on me now, because I’m going to say some things that might not set well if you are not listening to the Spirit!

First of all, God isn’t lost nor am I, so we have no need to find each other. He knows where I am every second of every day and I know He is in me and I am in Him. Next, I’m God’s child, born of Him, so it says in Jh.1:11-13. Now it says here, "as many as receive Him". I had to run this word down and here receive means to "greet or welcome". It does not mean splashed, dunked, converted or born again and my Father is always welcome. The born again issue confuses the religious. I was with the Father in the beginning; Rom.8:28-32; Eph.1:4-5; 1Pet.1:2-5 and I figured I was born again when; I came through the water and the blood of my mother. Now I am being put back the way I was, or the washing of the Word is renewing me. On to that part about cleaning up my sinful life, first off, if I could do that, then I wouldn’t need God, would I? And second, my sin was cleansed and I have no sin to clean up, 1Jh.3:6-9, however, I do consider doubt and unbelief something everyone needs to take to God because in them I find my shortcomings. Like I said, you have to hear this by the Spirit, because I know the scriptures can be twisted and put us back into bondage to the law of sin and death, but that is not what God has for the new creation man! Like I said, this is fight, but God wins!

Believing the truth, growing in faith and obedience I do believe I have a part in. Faith! That one is easy, I got my start in that from my Father, Rom.12:3 and it increases as I hear His words, Rom.10:17. Believing what God says is only hard when we believe and trust religion and man more than we believe and trust God. Obedience; I believe that is a suffering and learning process. That was how Jesus learned it, Heb.5:8, and I believe He made the way for me to learn it. The teacher (the Holy Spirit) is the same, He taught Jesus and He will teach all of us. God’s teaching methods haven’t changed; His goal in each lesson is to break the outer man in order that the inner man will be seen, 1Cor.4:7-18 and Jam.1:2-4. Our problem at the present is, that as much as we are like God, we are also in these human bodies and we fight at the first sign of trouble or change. We never stop to consider or ask, "What is God going to accomplish in my life by allowing this"? Or, "How much closer will this take me to Christ likeness"? We never take the time to see that each "test" isn’t to hurt us but to perfect us. And we never consider the fact that our Father had this all planed out before we ever arrived on this earth. We act like it has never happened to anyone but us. We sound just like the Israelites in the wilderness, bitch, mown, grow and complain. Where does that count it all joy, come into practices?

We did a study before on the "Cross". The cross we concluded was for killing the natural man in order that Christ would be seen in him. Believing the truth, growing in faith and obedience should lead us to the "cross of human destruction". In that walk to that cross we will lose all the things that meant so much to us. Things like our pride, self-love, putting our loved ones and their problems above what God has asked us to do. Our opinions and mans wisdom all have to go, they have no part in God. When we start seeing these changes in the way we think, do, act and react then we will know God is busting through and the shell (or alabaster vessel) is being broken or destroyed. Saving us from this cross in not God’s plan or purposes, everything in our lives comes from the Father, Jh.1:4; 1Pet.4:11-14 and Col.1:16-17. So then, God has allowed everything in our lives, good or bad, for one purpose; that we might die so that His life would be expressed through us! Ignorance and religion teach us we are here to be good human beings, to go to church, love our spouse even when they won’t follow God, take care of our kids forever, work hard and kill ourselves, die and go to heaven. I don’t believe this is God’s way and it surely is not going to save us. We are to live for Him. So anything else would be lies! 1Sam.12:13-15 & 25; Eph.5:22-26; I believe this gives us the right to not bow down to authority when it will not bow down to God first.

I can hear the wheels turning; I know what some of you are thinking. This can’t be true! Ignorance is bliss! It is a great cop out and I’m sure we have all used it. Judging everything from the "Tree of good and evil" makes us feel somewhat safe and secure. Staying quiet, submissive and hiding God’s gifts in the background seems like bliss too. But it is not reality! Scary, frightening and hard would be more in the lines of the reality realm, which always seems to include a weird inner peace. Will we all be taken down this road? I’m not sure, I only know where God is taking me and it seems to be down the "Road of hard knocks". But Praise God, because He placed a "Seed" (or He placed Christ) inside of me and He put a goal for that high calling in me and I know that all that is within me is reaching for that mark. I also know that because He put it there, because He put the desire in me to be in His presences and He put a hunger in me for all of Him that I can get, that one day it will be Him the world sees and there will be nothing left of me, Jh.3:30 and Gal.2:20.

There is a time when God will have His way in you, He started it when you were born (actually before creation) and He will bring it to completion, Philp.1:6; Heb.4:11-13 say it real clear. Job, Daniel, Jacob, Moses, Joseph, Jonah, Jeremiah, Paul and Jesus were all tried in the furnace of affliction. Each was put into God’s "Wine Press" at his appointed time and each chose to live for God, not themselves. Religion, knowledge, doctrines and laws keep God sort of bound up in us until we believe and accept the truth. God is a Spirit; He created us to be His Body so that He could touch the world. We are His Voice, His Hands and His Feet in this earth. His Spirit moves through us, to glorify Him!

Sometimes we see all this better when we look at someone else, it’s easier than looking at ourselves. You know what I mean? We hear one thing coming out of someone’s mouth and everything else about him or her is saying something totally different. We can tell right away they are hiding something, or they know the written word but don’t have a clue about the Living Word! Living! Live! A Living God should be having an effect on us if we have truly been touched by Him! Since He is Living, He should be accomplishing His purpose in our lives. A living thing produces life! It has results! God said His Word was Living, it was never empty or void, and therefore it will do what He sent it to do! His Word should be piercing and dividing us, the outer man or flesh man, from the Spirit of God who lives within us. We don’t need to understand God or what He is doing, we only need to know He has chosen, called and ordained us to participate in it! Besides, every time you think you understand God, He will show you, He isn’t in your box, but you are in His!

If you know in your heart that you have let God deal with each area He has exposed, then know also that you are being changed. If you are still fighting God in an area, know this, He will win! When God exposed Paul’s arrogance and pride in himself and in his religion, on the road to Damascus, Paul didn’t just say, "Oh, yes Lord I’ll deal with that later". God’s Light and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit knocked him off his donkey, touched Paul’s life and changed him forever! Has God knocked you off your donkey yet? Trust me and pray that He will! It’s a good thing!

In 1Sam.15:22 it says to obey is better than sacrifice. Saul was rebellious, his motives were wrong and God knew it. To bring this obedience thing around to the New Testament and a second witness, go to Mk.12:32-33, God looks at the motives and intents of the heart, not the flesh. God knows our weaknesses, He wasn’t dumb when He created us in His image and then sent us here in these earthen vessels. He had considered it in great length and then He had an advantage planted in us. And He knew what He had planted inside each of us would one day bust out and be set free!

Well, I hope I haven’t confused my friend or worse, not answered her question at all! But I’m confident of this, God gave me this, I wrote it and God will touch someone through it. You may have been hit by His Light tonight and knocked off your donkey or you may have been able to touch Him. Whichever way it was, my prayer for you is that it was God that touched you and that you are forever changed! Now, I hope you can see that it’s a good thing God always wins!

2-21-02

Consecrate means: "Set Apart" for the worship and purpose of God. To be ordained for holy service and sanctified. Sanctified means: to be consecrated, purified, holy and set apart as sacred. Sacred and set apart for a holy purpose! This is what God says we are! This is supposed to be us! The sons of God!

God shook me up a little this week by showing me all of this. So with His help, I’m going to try and hopefully He will, shake you up a little too. God had me everywhere from Revelation to Exodus looking at the "Priesthood". So be ready to jump around here with me tonight. First lets go to Rev.1:6; Rev.5:10; 1Pet.2:5 and 9. So, did this describe you? Well as much as I believe all of this, I didn’t feel I had arrived here either.

We are chosen by our Father, made and born to be His priests. Yes, us! Priest unto The Most High and Holy God! Created by Him to worship and serve Him. This wasn’t some-thing new He had thought up just because He liked us. He had planed this from the beginning, so I decided to take a look at the priesthood of Aaron. I thought he portrayed Jesus the best and we are to be like the Father, which Jesus portrayed the best, so this had to be a good starting place. So turn to Ex.19:4-6 and Ex.28:1, Aaron was born to be a priest, not just any priest, but a high priest and this position was ordained for him by God. Just the same as you and I. The only difference was, Aaron’s came through religious rituals of blood, set down by God, and ours comes through faith and trust in a Living God!

Priests were concerted to the Lord, they were trained to understand cleansing and sacrifice. They were born to enter into God’s Holy Presence! Now if that hasn’t got you thinking I’m going to start worrying about you.

In Ex.19:16-25 God makes it clear He wants to be with His people but that there will be boundaries. Verse 22 says the priests had to consecrate themselves. Ex.30:17-21 and Lev.8:6-12 explained this pretty well. This kind of made me think of David in Ps.51:7-12. Which reminded of Jesus, which reminded me of us. They were stripped and washed clean in the water. God has either stripped us or is stripping us of the world and He is washing us in the Water of His Word, Jh.15:3-4; Eph.5:26 and Jh.17:17. We were told the blood of Jesus cleansed us, and that to a large degree is true, but that blood was shed long ago and it has now become the Living Word of God that contains all that the precious blood of Jesus did. But what blessed me more than anything here was the fact that God Himself, had consecrated and washed me.

I looked at Lev.14:5-7 and Lev.16:14 and many more verses, I found that the first covenant, or the natural covenant, used a lot of blood and water on everything that came before God. Then I went over to 1Jh.5:4-9 and found the (spiritual meaning) behind the second or new covenant. Water was used in the natural to represent the Word, which is Spirit. The blood of the Old covenant was really all about the Blood of the New Covenant. But it’s all really about a personal relationship with the Father. Taking up our cross, hating our lives in this world and becoming One with Him. Not two! Not doing our thing and His thing when it’s convenient, 1Cor.6:17.

Next the priests were clothed, Lev.8:7. But they didn’t put their clothes back on, they were clothed in holy garments, Ex.28:2-12. They had to be priestly new garments made according to God’s orders and according to His design "for glory and beauty". They had to show forth like the glory of the Lord and in the beauty of His Holiness. These garments were made by the master craftsmen’s of that day, but what blessed me more than anything here was I knew that the Master Himself had made my new clothes. He made me a "New Creation" clothed in His Rightness.

Every pieces of Aaron’s priestly clothing spoke for the children of Israel. Their names were on his shoulders, the place of power and strength. The twelve stones represented the twelve tribes of Israel. Aaron bore their judgment on his heart, the place of mercy and love

Ex.28:30. This was the natural, now our High Priest reigns in us in righteousness, love and mercy. We are justified through Him, Heb7:25-27.

In the past God forgave His people as they brought sacrifices to Him. But since He had anticipated our needs, knowing the beginning from the end, He saw our need for the Cross. And as He is not a stupid God, He knew there would never be enough animals to go around, no, He knew animals in the natural realm could never take away the sins of the world. He knew the "Cross" was a necessity and it would also vindicate and declare Him to be Righteous, Rom.3:21-26. Do I think its necessary to offer our bodies a living sacrifice? Rom.12:1-2. I think I need to as I’m going for all God has for me and my flesh has to get with the program. What blessed me most about this here was the fact that bulls and goats were needed to save Israel whom God loves so much and yet He let Love and Mercy come down and be sacrificed for us.

So back to these priestly garments, this wasn’t just a change of clothes. Turn to Zech.3:4 and Ps.132:9 and 16-18, do you see it? It’s a whole change of who you think you are (your nature, talents, abilities and thoughts) turned over and given to God. Then a whole new us, a real us, the One that’s been waiting for the truth, in order to be set free! Col.3:8-10. We were created for God’s pleasure, He made us each in His image and put us in these bodies so that He could renew, restore and recreate us into what we were with Him in the beginning. He is bringing us to the place of "The True Priesthood". It’s the place where what we see and what the world sees will be the NEW CREATION! As God’s elect we are to be clothed as our High Priest was clothed in Col.3:12-13.

I don’t know if you are getting a hold of what I’m saying or if this is becoming revelation, but to fill this awesome office of a priest, that God has chosen for us, we must accept who He says we are and then give ourselves over completely to the Lordship of the Spirit of God, because only the Spirit can enable us to minister to those God places in our paths. Having a form isn’t enough; we’ve had form forever, (worship, praise, preaching and teaching) but we haven’t seen limbs grow; blind eyes opened, deaf ears hearing and the dead brought back to life. It takes the Spirit of God reaching into the Heart of God and taking the things of God and bringing them back into this realm. Our righteousness, truth and doctrines are nothing compared to the Spirit of God that indwells us.

As I’m writing this I was stopped in my tracks by these words, (limbs that were crippling, eyes that couldn’t see, ears that couldn’t hear, and dead brought back to life). I felt God was trying to say more than one thing here. I felt He was saying, that what I was writing about in the natural realm, were the very things that were wrong with His Body in the spirit realm. Are we spiritually crippled, blind, deaf or worse dead? Is this the healing that must come forth to fulfill the prophecy, there will be no feeble among us? Is this the reason it is so imperative that we believe and accept what God says about Him and us?

O.K. I’d better get back to Aaron and the priesthood or I’ll go off here on this subject. Lev.8:9 and Ex.28:36-38, This says Aaron’s mind, thoughts, and the way he lived his life were all devoted to a Holy God. All this clothing wasn’t to exult Aaron; he wore it to please God and to keep God’s people before God as he entered into the Holly of Hollies. It was a confession that said, because of my high calling; I’m devoted to God, His purposes, His people and the ministry in which He has placed me, but this is not about me. I believe Jesus said something similar in Jh.17:19. Shouldn’t we, who are called to go further with God, be saying something along these lines? God has done all the work, we wear His mark, so shouldn’t our lives and mouths be speaking Life to the crippled, blind, deaf and dead?

Aaron is anointed with oil in Lev.8:12 and Ex.29:7. You knew I’d get to that "Precious Oil", didn’t you? Ps.133 says it best, I think. Jh.3:34 says, God gave the Spirit without measure. What will it take for God to get us to believe that we are partakers of this same precious anointing our High Priest is anointed with! It flows down on us from the Head and Beard of the Holy of Holies, the King of kings, the Ancient of Days. It has never stopped! We have just not believed what He said!

Christ offered Himself. This offering replaced all future offerings; Ps.40:6-8; Heb.7:26-28 and Heb.10:12-17. His offering was greater than any offering that had ever been or that ever would be. Aaron was consecrated in the natural with the water from the laver, by the blood of animals and with the oil from the olive tree, Lev.8:22-30. We however have all of this through the Spirit of Truth and by the Living Word! We did nothing to get it; it was ordained by God before time, that we should walk in His footsteps, or the paths He had prepared. I saw something in Lev.1:3 that said Aaron had to do all of this of his own free will. I started backing up at that "free will thing", it’s been an issue around here, as in; do we have a free will once we accept what God says. But God just kept on going; showing me that everything we have in Christ is such an awesome privilege and precious gift that it scares His people. They have become so comfortable in their skepticism they won’t allow themselves to believe and step over into what He has ordained.

Being the gracious and understanding God that He is, He has allowed this to be a decision that we each must make, so I guess that is our free will. I really wanted to hear Him say something that would spin me around so I get it like Jesus had it at Gethsemane. You know it would have been great to hear, "Sorry My child, you have no choice" or "My child your will is Mine, weather you like it or not", I sort of felt that was how Jesus may have felt that night in the garden. Then it was clear, (and don’t listen any further if your religious). We are Christs’ Ex.7:1; 1Jh.4:17, we are holy for our Father is Holy, Rom.11:16, we are sanctified and we are concreted to God and that is the part of us that wills to do Gods will. However, we are still trying to get our natural man to understand and accept what God says in the same way Aaron did it, in the natural realm. Our problem is we are not all natural as Aaron was. We are part of God and that my dear friends is where our confusion lies.

We know we were made in His image and His likeness. We know we are holy because He is. We know we are sanctified through the Word of Truth and that we are consecrated and set apart by God for His Holy purpose. So why don’t we accept it? Is it doubt and unbelief? Is it possible we believe man more than we believe God?

Then God took me over to 2Tim.2:21, I got knocked off my donkey (enlightened) right here. When I first read this I thought it said, "I had to cleans myself (the flesh man) from the letter or the law". I thought, "Boy is that the truth!" I read it again; it said, "latter" or "former". Aaron’s priesthood represented everything in the natural realm, trying to cleans and purify its self; this was the latter or former way to reach God. Our priesthood exists in the spirit realm, its always pure and clean and God does the work through these vessels of honor, which He sanctified, prepared and set apart for the Master Craftsman to use for every good work! 1Thess.5:23-24.

Once again God is right! We need to believe only Him! Accept what He says and then He will do what He has purposed since the beginning of time and that is to have a people who will do what He created them to do, serve Him and be totally ready for His use: Mk.9:23 and Ps.118:8.

I pray God shook you and I pray you will start trusting in Him and His Word, which will include, believing and accepting that you are an extension of Him here in the earth with the same precious anointing of our Lord in Heaven! Amen

3-15-02

The "New Creation" man, blessed with grace and the very wisdom of God, fails and fears to make the Holy Spirit their ever needed and necessary Guide, for this walk through the wilderness of life. Men fear the desire born in him, to let the "Life of Christ" become their only focus, so this leads them to choose an easier life in a religion, a church, a ministry or the world and they let that establishment lay down the laws or rules by which they will live their life.

Let me remind you once again; I’m not against any of these establishments, "if" they are bringing you into a closer walk with the Father and a life in Christ. But "if" they are not doing this, then I say, they are against God and the purpose for which they were ordained. Their whole purpose for being was to lead Gods people to the Truth Himself and away from the world and the rules of men. They are suppose to be preparing you to walk with the Father in the freedom of the Spirit, however this seldom seems to be the case, and that is because they fear men more than they fear God!

I got fired up a few weeks ago after a young man told us we needed to get back to the true ministry of the first century church. He was saying things like, we needed to start kissing the "Mother Mary’s" picture, we needed to come to his church and have "The True Apostle" lay hands on us and loose us into our ministry (which by the way God has done fine with for 13 years). He even thought that wearing the robes, crosses, and chanting prayers was better than believing in all this freedom in the Spirit, that we believed we had and have held so high and that we needed to get back to truth and reality. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, "I’m not against any religion, I’m quite sure they all have a piece of truth". What set me off here was his arrogances in saying, this was the only way to be right before God! Now its possible this young man was not explaining himself correctly or what he believes in, quite properly, but never the less, all of these things he wanted us to do and this one man being the "only" apostle able to set us into what God had ordained and set us into, did not set well in my spirit. Nothing he was saying was pointing me in the direction of a personal relationship with my Father. And somehow, as hard as I looked, I couldn’t find anything in what he said that centered around Christ, either. Now, I wanted some clarity on all of this, so I started with the most excellent ministry I knew.

Heb.8:6, right now, right this minute, there is a "Glorified Body" reigning from the most powerful throne in Gods’ universe and He is there to fulfill, 1Cor.15:24-28 and Heb.9:11. Go over to Zech.6:12-13, who is this? It’s the Lord, Himself, Heb.3:1, He is the root out of dry ground, Isa.53:2 and Jh.15:5. In that "Vine" there are many branches and they are joined to Him! Not to pictures, paraphernalia, traditions, rituals or denominations.

In Christ we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and a peculiar people, 1Pet.2:9. God purposed us to "reign in life", to be vessels of mercy and to minister life to others! Not to a religion or an order! Religion or carnality always wants to set themselves up on Gods Throne, but God crowns who He wills, 2Cor.1:21.

Jesus showed us the way! That way, always led to the Father and always revealed the Father, Jh.17:6; 1Jh.2:23; 2Jh.9-11. So it is the Father I must be pointed to and point others too!

The blessings of Abraham might have come to the Gentiles through Jesus the Christ, Gal.3:13-14, but do you know what the best blessing was? That we might receive the promises of the Spirit through faith, Eph.1:13-14 God’s guarantee! God’s message to all is pretty simple; stop trying to build walls that God has already tore down, through the price paid at the "Cross". God sees no difference in any man He came for all! But it is the Spirit of God that brings forth His holy people, that holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, this Mt. Zion and it’s Him who completes it all, in all its fullness and perfection! It is not a man, a picture, a book or any other religious thing! Heb.12:22-23 and Eph.4:8-16.

We just read the parable, of the wheat and the tares, a few weeks ago. Do you remember what Matt.13:28 said? It said, "An enemy has done this". God’s enemy and ours is the carnal mind! Rom.8:7; Col.1:21; Rom.1:18-23; 2Cor.10:3-6. God is gathering all of the (tares) or corruption out of His Kingdom and that includes those who are teaching His people to look to mans ways rather than to God alone! And then the righteous will shine forth as the Son in the Kingdom of their Father, Matt.13:41-43. He is going to reap a harvest from the Kingdom! Not start another one!

We learned in the book of Hebrews that we have a much "Better Way", made for us in the "New Covenant" and no where did it say, man was leading the way, Heb.9:11-15. But the enemy of God, the carnal mind must die first. As we die, God becomes our source, and carnal man loses the grip it and all these other things had on us, Col.3:20-23.

The Father has set up His Kingdom in the hearts of men, but it’s brought to perfection through tests, trials, suffering, learning and growing spiritually, then we will manifest Him and become His perfect sons, Rom.8:16-19. This is called overcoming; it’s done by not bowing down to man’s ways. Heb.9:16 the Man part of the God Head (Jesus) had to die that the Spiritual part (the Holy Spirit) could come forth and I ‘d say God hasn’t changed His mind any about that.

So, if your focus is on the "say part" (rituals, pomp, ceremony and doctrine) rather than the "do part" (leading people to the Father), then perhaps you have never experienced "The Father" for yourself. Maybe you have only met the "Book" and never been introduced to the "Author". Or maybe you’ve bought the lies and you’re following some man and what he has said or taught, rather than hearing God and what He says!

Perhaps because God’s people don’t fully manifest all that is the "New Covenant" just yet, it causes others to look to or turn to religions and cults, but it doesn’t mean God goofed. Nor does it mean there is no "New Covenant"! Nothing can alter or change anything God has started! This also explains why the Holy Spirit is still here in the earth and why Christ is still not fully manifested. And why our Husbandman continues to wait for the precious fruit of the earth. Jesus had to walk this walk first and make the way straight for us, because it’s the only way we will be able to walk it and Paul says this well in 2Tim.2:3-7.

Christ has all power and authority to bring forth the perfect "Church", the perfect people, the perfect sons, and the perfect fruit because He is "The Perfect". We just need to know, that it is all His Work not ours! Heb.9:11.

All that we have studied and explored here took me to the prayer Jesus prayed in John 17, but I’m saving that for next week or we would be here till midnight. So read it this week and you’ll enjoy next week even more. And remember its Christ in you the hope of glory, not what some man says the way to glory is! Don’t listen to anyone who is saying (go here, go there) or this is the only way, because they say and do not do. Listen for the voice that leads you to truth, freedom and the Father, because those voices are God’s doers!

3-28-02

I think God wants to encourage and bring us into a better relationship with Him, because that was exactly what I found in reading, John 17. I believe I’d call this a privilege, because as I saw it, God was allowing us to see into the ministry of the Man, who had made a more excellent way for us, and into the Heart of the Father as well. I felt Jesus spoke here as though He were already glorified and setting at the Father’s right hand. As though He has already fulfilled His earthly ministry, and I believe He spoke this way because He was allowed to see what was done in the Heavenlies. His mind was set and He was ready to face what He had ordained before time began, but only because He loved us so much.

If you have ever doubted your walk with God or found yourself wondering what your life was really all about, or if you have ever wondered if God would bring His Word to completion in you, then you need to read John 17. It will renew your spirit; strengthen your faith and your belief in your "High Priest", as well as reassure you that God will finish what He has started. So lets read Jh.17:1-26 and see how a Man, like us, became the King of Glory!

Verse 1, can you imagine the Father holding His Son’s hand and both of them knowing that they were finely going to finish what had been done since before the foundations of time. That finely they would fulfill the Covenant. This made me think of Isa.42:4-6. "And give Thee for a Covenant to the people", to fulfill this He had to be glorified. In verse 8 here, God says He will not give it to another, but Jesus asks for it. Why? Because He knew He wasn’t going against God, but that He was the vessel that would shine forth God’s glory first, Jh.1:14. He knew He had not come to reveal Himself, but to reveal the Father. He had been faithful, obedient and had relied solely upon God in His walk as a Man. He had won the victory and overcame the world. He had regained all that the first Adam had lost. Jesus never kept God’s Glory for Himself; He always returned it back to the Father. In all that He did He gave honor and praises to the Father, Jh.14:6-7 and Jh.13:31-32.

It’s now time for Him to leave this realm (the realm the world is in) and start His Heavenly realm ministry, so He prays that He might be glorified in this Heavenly ministry as He was in the perfect work or ministry here in the earth. Thereby glorifying His Father once again in both realms.

Verse 2, authority over all flesh and power to bring His Covenant people into a life everlasting. Most of God’s people can’t even begin to understand Christ’s present reign here, going on now, through His people. So its no wonder God doesn’t give us much revelation about what is about to happen, the next age, or what is going on in Heaven now, we couldn’t bare it.

He is enthroned now, He is committed to bringing life to a people chosen by the Father and given to the Son, and very soon they will be a people in total obedience to the Father just as Jesus was. Why God’s people ever thought it was something they had to do, or why they think they have so much to do with it, eludes me! It says by the obedience of "One" we make it. It is not us! It is Him! No matter what He asks or requires of us the only way to please Him is to know we can do nothing apart from Him.

Verse 3, It is pretty self-explanatory if you can get past that little blockage religion puts up and step over into the flow of it, with Christ. Theology defines truth, within its boundaries, but the "River of Life" has no boundaries and can carry you right to the Heart of God! Eternal life isn’t just, existing in Heaven, it’s knowing who your Father really is! You’re not going to find Him in books, meetings, buildings or paraphernalia. You find Him as you walk with Him and He begins to flow through you. Start now! Explore Him! Learn of Him! 1Cor.2:9-10 and Eph.3:14-19. If all you know is the "Book" and not the "Author", I suggest you put the "Book" down until you fall in love with the "Author", He is waiting and He loves you more than anything you can begin to imagine.

Verses 4-5, Jesus had finished His redemptive work here on earth, He had shown the world the Father and now it was time to bring forth sons and manage His Kingdom, Jh.1:14 and Gal.4:4-7. He wants to be immersed in the glory that He had with the Father before time, because He was going to need it to finish His work. In His mind the work of the "Cross" was finished and now He had to set the foundation to bring all of us into the same glory that we had with the Father and the Son before time was. He was building the bridge for us to cross over, back to where we had begun, Eph.1:4-5.

Verses 6-8, Jesus prays for His disciples. Jesus had come to show them the Father and to reveal His Name. He didn’t come to explain Jehovah-Jirah, Shalom or Niece. He came to reveal the nature and character that made up the "Great Jehovah"! In everything that He did and said, He revealed and glorified the Father and who He was.

Verses 9-10, Jesus is praying, but not for the world, yet He died for the world. That through Him all might live. Not through the "Churches", but through coming into a oneness or union with Him. Christ through the Holy Spirit would prepare disciples who would represent Him here on earth the same as Jesus represented Him. We saw that the Father was glorified in the Son and now as our, High Priest, He prays that He will be glorified in His people. God has set everything in motion! Nothing can be stopped! The work here will not be hindered, interrupted or stopped in anyway or by anyone. So as surely as the Father was glorified in the Son so shall the Son be glorified in His people! Here in the earth!

Verse 11, this verse here could get the religious all bent out of shape. They could use it for more bondage and say that it says, we must gather together in congregations and prove to the world that "Church" really works, and we are all in one accord. However, I choose to believe that this is speaking of "unity of the Spirit" which has nothing to do with churches, theology or fellowships getting together and acting like they love each other. All He was saying here was, Father make them one with the Spirit, that they can be one just as We are One! That we would walk, talk, obey, love and do as Jesus had done on earth, in unity with the Father.

Verses 12-16, Jesus was leaving this realm, but His people were staying. While He was here with them He had taken care of them, taught them and He had done His job perfectly. Now, He wants His people to be able to have His peace and His joy as they walk in this earthly realm. He goes on to say that His people (us) have nothing in common with this world, that as we follow Him we will be hated, and we will even make other Christians jealous. I’d assume this happens because our walk with Christ makes God’s people take a hard look at themselves, which then makes them accountable to God. They have found it more comfortable to have their idols and to believe they can make God cater to them. Christians for some reason have a hard time believing they are at war with the world, that the world is not their friend and that it is also against God. This, if you are God’s child, should make it very clear to you, that the world is your enemy too!

Jesus goes on to say, that His people need to stay in this realm, that they might be perfected just as He was, but to go through this they will need God to keep them, lead them and teach them. This could only be accomplished through His leaving and the Spirit of His Father coming. He goes on to pray that the Father will keep us from the evil one, 1Jh.5:18-20 and Jam.1:27. He asks God to keep us unspotted by the world. If He asks the Father to do these things, do you really think, that God would not do what He has asked? And the best part is, He says we are not of this world, just as He was not of this world, Jh.15:19; 1Jh.5:1; Rom.8:29; 1Pet.1:2 & 5.

Verses 17-19, Jesus is praying that the Father makes us holy and that He sets us apart onto Himself by the "Truth". Some churches make sanctification look like its something you get, lose and get again by seeking God and crying out for forgiveness. But Christ is our sanctification, 1Cor.1:30. When Christ is our life, we are sanctified once and for all! Heb.10:9-10; Eph.5:26; 1Pet.3:15-16 it’s our inheritance, it’s an ongoing work in our hearts, done as we grow into the fullness of Christ and He becomes Lord of all we are! He never had to clean up His life, He was pure and clean, but for us He sanctified Himself. He made us pure and clean out of His love and obedience to the Father’s will. He sent us into the world not into the churches. (No offense intended, they have done a great work) But God prepared a sanctified people, separated unto Himself and they are going to make an impact on the world just as Jesus did, only this time it will be greater, because He has gone to the Father and now there are many sons.

Verses 20-21, the only oneness that God wants, is that we have the same kind of union with Him that the Son had, has, and will forever have! This union with us is how God will show the world that Jesus was the Son of God. When man has done all he can do, has used every effort to reach the world, then God will send forth His many sons into the world and then the world will know, that it is God doing it! That means this is not going to be done by religion, doctrines, denominations or churches, it’s going to be done by God!

Verses 22-23, we become "One" by the glory of God and by the glory He placed upon Christ and His people, God’s glory abides in us, His Temple! And it’s the same glory that lived in Jesus! Only now it’s no longer the fullness of God in His One Son, but it is the fullness of God in His many sons. Perfect, complete and mature, that is what He is now ministering to us through the Spirit. Until we come to the unity and knowledge of the Son, unto a perfect man, complete in Christ, Eph.4:13-14. This wasn’t an option it was a promise! Yes, it’s impossible for man, that’s why Jesus prayed, He knew the "One" who would make it all happen! But it has to be done in the manner it is being done so that God gets all the Glory for it! Mk.10:27.

Verses 24-26, how much clearer does He have to make it? He wants us with Him all the time! His greatest desire and the cry of His heart is that He will become real to us! 1Jh.2:24; Jh.8:31-32; Jh.14:16-19. There is no "sweet bye an bye", it’s a lie! There is however, "Now"! That future walk in glory, forget it, the Father wants us to walk in glory, here and now!

The greatest and deepest desire of our High Priest is that the same "Love" that the Father had for Him, would be shared with us! That is why Jesus had to come to earth, He had to reveal the Father and manifest the Father and it was done this way, so that we could come to know Him as the Father? Now we can partake of this love, in all its fullness, thanks to Jesus and the "Love" of the Father, making this whole walk possible.

It’s so simple! If we never know the Father we will never know "Love". Jesus’ whole purpose was to bring man back into a relationship with the Father, to close the gap Adam had allowed. In Heavenly terms, the Father is "Love" and in earthly terms, He is the very air we were created to breath, Eph.3:14-19. In Christ’s care and through His intercession the Father will bring forth a people in the earth who will manifest His love, just as Jesus did. Our High Priest knows and wants us to know, that the Father’s answer to His prayer for each one of us, was and always will be, "YES and AMEN"!

If we cannot see others and ourselves as Christ sees us, we need to go to the Father and set at His feet, until He gives us this revelation! When we have that revelation, it will give us a new life, fresh air, and the truth and freedom that is all ours, but we must believe! Folks, it doesn’t get much better than this! So, if all you can do is set there after reading this and still believe that your life is worthless or there is no hope for you, then my guess is you have a serious problem and need God’s intervention or deliverance from a lying spirit! Because I know that when my "Eldest Brother" prayed this prayer, my Father heard every word and He will bring it to pass in His time! Rom.8:28-39, it’s done, it’s written and it’s established in the Heavens and so it will be done in (me and you) this earth!!!!!!!!!! Amen

This week as I was reading, a couple scriptures intrigued me, and found myself on another one of my little trips with God. I had been asking Him about all of the problems His elect have in doing and giving what He tells them to do, give or say and why when they finally do it, do they seem to get all puffed up (or prideful), or they turn right around from a glorious moment with the Father to run right back into their comfy little religious hiding places? This seems so childish, yet we all do it, and it’s because these are some of the problems we have with the flesh. I felt this also included the mindset that God only cares about the great things ministries do and why most of us feel like God has left us to fret over the small stuff all by ourselves. I know this is true, I’ve watched it with most ever ministry I know, including this one when it started. But somewhere in all of this I knew God’s purpose was for us to find the closeness we need with Him so that our walk with Him becomes as effortless and natural as breathing.

1Kings 4:33, Solomon’s wisdom and insight expanded from the great and mighty Cedars to the small and lowly hyssop. Cedars were great and magnificent and throughout the scriptures they are spoken of as powerful, great and useful in everything from building the temple of God to its furnishings. We studied before about the furniture that was in the temple and how it was made of the great cedars and covered with gold. But what was up with this hyssop? And why was God showing it to me? So let’s go find out.

The Bible has a lot to say about the great Cedars, how stately and glorious they were, but when it talked about the hyssop I could only fine it associated with sacrifice and with references to the contrite heart and humility. Maybe this was what God was trying to tell me! Hyssop is a small plant that grows in dry places and does well in rocky ground. I’ve read where this herb like plant was compared to mint and grew everywhere the Jews were in Egypt. It has small blue-purple flowers and a sweet smell, but its’ taste is very bitter. I believe my information is pretty correct, as the Israelites had no trouble finding it, when it was needed to put the blood on their doorposts so that death would pass them by, Ex.12:22-23. Hyssop was in Ps. 51:7 were David asks for a thorough cleansing. It was used by the priests in their sacrifices onto God and also in Jh.19:29 and Heb.9:19. I saw here that a truly great man was small enough to care about the little things. Solomon cared enough to write about the hyssop and Jesus cared enough as He saw every little thing that pertained to man. And I saw where the hyssop was used in so many ways that represented the death of Jesus. So, I gathered that true greatness wasn’t measured by how great a ministry one had, but by the amount of love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness one had. I’m sure the world and religion would consider this small and weak, but then I’ve found everything in God’s Kingdom is backwards. Meek is strong, we die to live, in is out and up is down. God says the meek inherit the earth, Matt.5:5. So why would God want it that way? If we are meek or (weak), we are not depending upon our strength or abilities for anything, so we’ve grown and learned through trials that we are totally dependent upon the Father for everything. That’s why He does it that way!

Now if this is true, which I believe it is, then the world or (carnal realm) is the place where the true weaknesses of men can be seen. Because the carnal man always uses man’s power and abilities to further their kingdoms that they might glory in it. While the meek just lets "Truth defend Itself", putting themselves in God’s Hands and letting Him take care of everything, which makes sure that God gets all the glory!

This makes me think about our little group that meets here every week. Some of you travel many miles to get here, but you are always here. We seem small and insignificant as far as the "Church" or the world are concerned. Yet something "Great" keeps us coming together every week and it’s not just the fellowship. Perhaps it’s because this little group and those who fellowship with us, from here to Dewey’s and clear out to California, have been learning "God’s little ways", Rom.12:6-21. I believe we are learning these things and I also believe that is why God is accomplishing so much in and through the lives of our few. How long will He keep us meeting like this? None of us know the answer to that question, but I’ve learned this week from studying the hyssop, that once it has done its job it was thrown away. Don’t panic here; I’m not saying God is going to throw any of us away. I think we should look at this as God stripping our carnal man away for His Glory. I’m saying God made the hyssop to know sacrifice and sacrifice requires a heart after God and knowing what God is saying to us so that we know what to do next. Keep in mind here, God doesn’t ask us to do anything hard, not if He is the "One" doing the work! Hyssop may seem lowly and not of any great value, but the hyssop knows and hears God, Matt.16:24-25 and Matt.13:15-17. It knows it has a purpose in the Kingdom!

To the world, our God and us (the lowly hyssops), might look small and weak, 1Cor.1:23-29, but to those who know Him, finely His ways of doing things are making since. We have even begun to see how He will do great and mighty things to confound the world through us, the ones He has chosen to grow up from out of the lowly hyssop of humility into mighty Cedars of His Love. If you’re stumped here or need more proof take a look at Noah and the Ark or the crossing at the Red Sea. There is also the feeding of the five thousand, Daniel in the lion’s den, the children in the fiery furnace and don’t forget Balaam’s donkey. Also, look at your life! Where you are now and where you were and at how many times God spared your life or took you through something awful. God always was and always will be the God of the impossible! So if you are having trouble accepting the fact that God does use the foolish things (the lowly things) as well as the impossible situations in our lives, then read the Book and talk with the Author! He has filled it from cover to cover that you might receive and believe!

We serve a Mighty and Great God, who has hung the universe in it’s place and He will not stop nor allow what He has purposed to be hindered, Isa.55:9-11. The world may not see it, we may not see it, but everything is hanging there from God’s invisible thread just as sure as we are setting here, because everything exists in Him! For in Him we live and move and have our being!

In order for us to get a hold on what God is doing, we must let Him renew our minds! I’m not sure if it’s a critical thing when people resist the "Truth" or even if it’s worth arguing over, because sooner or later God will have what He has spoken! However, I do think it’s important that those of us who do know the "Truth" walk in His ways! Don’t worry or fret about the other people, it’s not their time yet, just take courage in the fact God will get them taken care of in their time 2Cor.9:10, but you God has required to go further with Him.

Becoming Christ like is my hearts desire and becoming the bread of life I believe is really your innermost hunger too. To just become bread for the hungry and water to the thirsty soul! But the bread like the hyssop must go through a process before it becomes bread. The grain is brought in from the field of time and then it is ground in the mills of circumstance that God has prepared for us. It’s then mixed with the "Oil and Water" of the Holy Spirit and kneaded or pounded into shape, left (so to speak) to rise, placed in the "Fire" and baked till done. It’s at that point that the seed finely become bread.

God knows our desires, He put them there, but it’s when we acknowledge that these are our desires and that we can do nothing with the little we have, that He can take them and multiply them, because we have acknowledged it’s His and we’ve brought it to Him, Matt.14:15-18. When will God’s peoples learn that it isn’t in raising more money, building bigger buildings and having more programs, that we will feed the multitudes? It will be done when we put it in God’s Hands and become one with Him. It’s in being broken and mixed with His Spirit that we will produce the life giving bread. Our little can only be multiplied as it is placed in His Hands! This ministry we just saw in Matthew wasn’t that big, just twelve men, a boy, five loaves, two fish and the humbleness to place it in the Fathers Hands!

Gideon’s army is another good example of great and small, Judg.7:2-13. The dream said they were nothing more than a loaf of barley bread, but that little loaf took the armies of Median that numbered as many as the sand. They were few in number, but in Gods Hands, Gideon became the "Sword of the Lord". From thousands of great and mighty men Gideon’s army became nothing more than a small loaf of bread!

Most of God’s people don’t connect suffering with God’s great ways and they need to stop and regroup! The ones who don’t see that they are doing anything for the Kingdom and the ones who have suffered and feel they have accomplished very little if anything for God, these are the ones doing some of God’s greatest work, Matt.25:34-39. They have been planting seeds everywhere they have gone and they were not even aware of what God was doing through them. Dale and I have heard many times that Dale’s health problems are because there is something wrong in his walk with the Lord. We’ve prayed and we know that this is not true. But it was great when his doctor told us, "That what people were saying was a lie from the pit of hell because the only people he had seen with as many problems as Dale, were the ones doing all they could for God".

God plants the seeds through some of us, some of us water those seeds, but we don’t often receive joy from it Ps.126:5-6. I think that is because God has ordained for some of us to identify with the ground the seed is sown into, or as Al says, "Be the lesser of the least". Keep in mind that to minister more effectively it might have been necessary for you to walk in or experience what someone else is living in or trying to come out of. It’s hard to understand what you haven’t experience, Heb.9:16. What looks like death and destruction to the sower became good seed in the Hands of God!

Why does God do things so that we don’t always see the joy and glory of it? Well perhaps the seed is so precious, God just saves it until nothing of man can be seen in it, then only His Glory will be seen! Remember John the Baptist had to decrease so that Christ could increase. Stephen was stoned so that Saul might become Paul. Paul was put in prison to learn how to be free and Jesus died that the world might live. So be prepared and allow God to have His way in your life. You want what He wants, so expect the unexpected! This isn’t the "Yellow brick road" to Oz. It’s a life given over to God to do as He wills with it!

We read in (Ex.12:22) about the blood applied to the doorposts with the hyssop and I wanted to look a little closer at that. Great were the Cedars of Lebanon, great were the mountains the Cedars had come from and great were the buildings and things made with the Cedars, but the small and lowly hyssop could not boast of any such greatness only of sadness. So why had God picked it? I believe it’s because it was so ordinary and because it could be so easily reached by everyone. There are no great "I’s" and no little "U’s" in God’s eyes, no one is above, better, or greater than another. Yet the hyssop seems to scream from the pages of history about mans humility before a great God. It’s only bitter medicine to the carnal mans sickly mind, but the killing of the carnal man is a sweet aroma when it comes before God, Lk.18:10-14 and Isa.40:29-31.

Sometimes it’s the simplest act of obedience that puts the hyssop into our hands and causes us to experience the unexpected benefits of God, our spirits feel a release and we stumble into the freedom of His love and mercy. It happens ever so easy, we don’t even see it coming, but when we bow at His feet in love it happens! It’s just like Mary who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears. It was out of love for Him, not because she wanted a position, ministry, or anything else. Just know and believe that every time this happens God is right there with you and He smells the sweet fragrance of the lowly and insignificant hyssop and He sees that your heart is set on loving Him. He also knows that you want nothing more then to be in His presence, to be like Him and that you don’t really mind the cost or whether He chooses to make you great or small, you just want ALL of Him! Amen?

God’s character probably isn’t something most Christians think about, but then I don’t consider any of you (either here tonight or reading this) the average Christian. I on the other hand, believe that, knowing the character of the Father will help you and I to understand His Kingdom and His creation in a much better way, 1Jh.4:4-21. I also believe that His Kingdom will one day reflect His character as it says in, Rom.14:17.

The Father is Love and He loved us so much He sent His Son. Jesus came to set up God’s Kingdom (here on earth) within the hearts of men. To strip all sin from their hearts, walk in total obedience to the Father; tear down the veil that kept us separated from the Father and to reveal the Father in the earth. He came to ensure this walk for us, that we would all be able to walk it. He had to come into direct contact with this world and it’s kingdoms, the flesh, the devil and still be able to refuse being entangled with it or them, Jh.18:36. Jesus the man, never came to rule over anything; He came to show all men the Father so that we could come to know and love the Father. He also came to make the "Way" so that all men could walk with the Father just as He had. He came, He sowed, and He conquered all, so that one day we could!

Matt.24:35 says, "Heaven and earth will pass away", so why would He come to set up a Kingdom that would pass away? He wouldn’t of course, Dan.2:44, His Kingdom is forever, it never passes away. He came to bear witness of the "Truth", Jh.18:37. Righteousness is ministered to the hearts of men through the Holy Spirit so that grace can reign through righteousness unto eternal life. It’s a spiritual inward thing, not an outward "look at me" thing. Apart from righteousness given through the Holy Spirit there is no real peace much less joy, Rom.5:19-21. The "Church" seems to base its righteousness more on worldly principles. I believe, "Joy" is what the world desires much more than they desire God and it seems to me the "Church" is right behind them.

The "Church" wants the people and the tithe, the people want the pleasures of the world, so the "Church" compromises by designing programs after the world’s ways. Trust me on this one; I’ve been in many "Churches" where they have Halloween or Harvest Parties, as they like to call them, dress in Bible costumes and it’s ok, but they still have all the worldly trimmings. When the pastor dresses up like Frankenstein and encourage the youth to participate, what’s the difference? None! I took my youth group to a Christian Concert and some of the groups were really great, but then they brought out a heavy metal band and invited the kids to the mush pit. (None of us) could understand a word they were yelling, the other kids there were all slamming into each other until they were bleeding and they called this a Christian conduct! What was the difference? None! Ps.4:2. They call it "Joy", they say it’s to help bring in the young people, but I’m sorry righteousness is not the work of people! 1Cor.1:29-31.

I’m not speaking against good works, they are needed, but they are not righteous works in God’s eyes, except they are of Christ Himself. Men can have all the impressive programs they want in their "Churches", they can even get involved with programs in other "Churches", but if it’s "man" doing it and not Christ then we are not "one with God", all we have is mans good intentions or just plain compromise. In their pursuit for joy and peace God’s people have let the spirit of compromise have its way. They have done as the world has done until they have made idols of most things, ministry, home, family, job, money, etc. etc. Man’s desires may be good, but when it takes all their efforts trying to bring things about it then becomes an idol. If we let the Holy Spirit keep a check on our hearts then we will know if we are trying to compromise the truth just to make ourselves or someone else feel good.

Matt.10:34-39, if Jesus came not to bring peace but a sword, then we too are going to have to confront the world, the "Church", our families, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and everything else in between. (And swords are not like, user friendly!). If you believe, as I do, that Jesus made the way through this world with all of it’s pit falls, then you believe also that He made it for us that we could follow Him and make it through too. God had to do it this way because His Kingdom is based on His righteousness and His wisdom and not on anything of man. God’s wisdom is gentle and easy, harsh but not cruel and never compromising. Those with a heart after God will manifest love, mercy, gentleness and above all truth. They will love righteousness and hate what God hates, they will pretty much ---- (upset) the world and carnal man real regularly and that’s because the truth most always does! Acts 17:3-7.

Well I guess I got lost, I was talking about "Joy" somewhere back there. The joy of the Lord is not the joy of the world. Joy is the fruit of the Spirit. Joy is the fruit that grows out of us the branches, but it comes through the "Vine of Truth". We do not produce or manufacture it; this "Oil of Joy" can only flow from the "olive" that knows the crushing of the Father. Paul found joy in his chains; Jesus found joy in the "Cross", where will you find your joy? Happiness comes and goes as we go through each circumstance, but "Joy" is found in that place where we are one with the Father and it’s never far away in our times of trouble, (if we have a relationship with Him).

2Cor.3:5-9, Paul says, that the Old Covenant was a ministry of death, not because the Law was wrong, but because man was weak. So what should have brought "Life" brought only death. Now our High Priest has made a better Covenant for us and He has all power in heaven and in earth to minister and impart righteousness into our hearts, right here, right now, through His Holy Spirit! Why? Because He lives in us! What could be better? 2Cor.13:5.

Jh.2:19 Jesus was the temple of God when He walked this earth, He is now the Chief Cornerstone of a very large temple (us) and this temple will bear His glory,Eph.2:19-22. The earthly priesthood had to be changed because it ministered death, so through the death of Jesus God ended the old order forever. Now as our High Priest Christ carries the fullness of the Glory of God and He has transferred it to us through the New Covenant. What the Law could not do God was able to do through the Spirit, 2Cor.3:8-9 and Rom.8:2-4.

So what I’m wondering now is how many of God’s people really know Him as Lord of All? I know the "Church" teaches, we are all His children, but is God really their Father? Are they mothered by the "Harlot Church" and know not their Father, 1Cor.6:16-17? If all they have ever known is Jesus and the Cross then I doubt very seriously if they have know their true Father! Yes, I believe Jesus brings us to the Cross, but I believe it is our cross as well and I believe we need it to destroy our carnal thinking. Once we find this truth and can face our "cross of human destruction" we should be seeing and saying things the way our Father sees and says things. Not stuck in religion, Jesus, the Cross, and the devil all the time. We were placed here by the Father to rise above all this worldly stuff, just like Jesus did!

For whatever reason the Father has let the spirit of compromise have it’s way in His people for a time. After all He made time for our perfection not His. In looking at His people I fear they are just about totally blind to this, but the Father has "eye salve" if you really wish to see. However, I think God’s people choose to be blind and believe they can see which puts them in charge and gives them the feeling they are not accountable for anything. They seem to be captivated by the spirit of Jezebel, letting her seduce them into fornicating with the world, Rev2:19-20. I’m not saying they don’t belong to God, that they are not being saved or don’t have some of the "Truth". I’m saying they are being deceived because they will not go to God for themselves, they keep sucking on "mommy or the Harlot Church" instead of going to "The Father"! We are not here to remain babies our entire life we must grow up into Christ!

In (Ezek.13:1-16) God is angry with the prophets because they were not doing as God had commanded them, but were seducing the people with their lies. We all love prophecies when they exhort, but would we love them if they ever caused us to fall on our face as the secrets of our heart are revealed? 1Cor.14:22-25. I’ve read stories of men who spoke under such an anointing, but I myself have not seen it but once. Maybe its because to much "Holy Ghost Fire" would destroy the comfortable "Church" and it’s lifestyle at this time and God knows what is needed and when it will be needed and He will have His way soon.

God wants us to know He dwells in temples that are not made with human hands. Man’s heart is the only dwelling place God has ever desired for Himself. So don’t be surprised when the "God of All Glory" walks into His Temple "you" and overturns your tables. It’s because we bought and paid for all those things we have furnished it with. He didn’t furnish it His way and He doesn’t want anything in His Temple that was put there by man! 1Cor.3:16-19; 1Cor.6:19-20; 2Cor.6:16; Jh.2:14-17.

Man wants to be the builder of the temple and the owner of the storehouses used to keep the precious seed, but God wants to build His Own Temple and scatter the seeds. Satan thought he had beaten God when Jesus went to the "Cross", but all he had done was scatter and multiply fulfilling God purpose, Acts 6:7 and Acts 8:4, we were not put here to build that job belongs to God alone. Jesus never came to build anything in this realm; He came to build in the realm of Heavenly realities. The purpose of true ministry is to bring life, to set people free; it was never intended for us to build lost sheep factories. God never lost anything! This world that we see is the real "Matrix" and if you don’t know what that means, it means that the world your eyes see is not reality!

Perhaps that is why, right now, God is raising up "fathers" after His own heart. Fathers who will not settle for anything less then what He says. Fathers who will minister life to God’s people and turn their hearts back to "The Father"! When will we realize that we are the "Church" and that it’s not the buildings? The "Church Buildings" have nothing to do with any of this! And if you’re fooled into thinking the "Church" knows this, than ask yourself why they are still collecting money and building bigger buildings while they continue to ignoring the needs of God’s people and they are doing it all in the name of God! Not! All they are really doing is putting God’s people in bondage to tithing and joining themselves to the "harlots". (Perhaps you need to find out what the true fast is and what the true tithe is, Isa.58:6-9; Jam.1:27; Deut.14:28-29). Trust me here, I’ve told you stories before about a widow woman who couldn’t be buried where her husband was because as she grew older and her health got worse she had to go to a closer "Church" because no one from her first church would come and pick her up. So of course she had stopped tithing to her first "Church" and then she was told, she couldn’t be buried in their cemetery next to her husband because she hadn’t been tithing there. They were robbing God; they were to take care of that widow woman! Then there are always the ones who wouldn’t leave their "Church" even if God did because they were raised there. They helped build it and by God they are gona die there! You know, they could be right! "So as a man thinks in his heart, let it be done onto him accordingly."

The early "Church" was simple, Acts 2:42-47. Their meeting places were in homes; they had one purpose and one goal and that was to be the "Church"! They knew they needed fellowship and they were wise enough to know that if two of them were together they had fellowship and God was with them! Matt.18:19-20. I didn’t say Jesus encouraged small meetings He spoke to multitudes, He spoke here about the power of the Kingdom that binds and loosens when two or three agree in "one mind" with the Spirit. When we come together in the Spirit, in the mind of Christ, He is always there with us, leading us and enjoying His people the way it was meant to be. He desires to experience life through us! Do you desire to experience "Life" through Him?

I’m not saying don’t go to a "Church" or rent a building if you know God said do it. I’m saying use what God has provided and be just as ready to leave it when God says go. Then rest in the fact that buildings have nothing to do with His Kingdom, what is important is Christ in you! Rev.3:7, God is doing it all, He opens and He shuts, He holds the Keys and He has planned eternity. Knowing the Father is the most important point I’ve tried to make here, because we are "Him" in the earth. It’s time to stop being so consumed in the affairs of the world and realizes that the Father is in His Temple and His Temple is you!

I’m setting here talking to God and He says, "My people are a work of art". Now if I didn’t still have a bit of carnal in areas I’d have said, "Yes Lord Your body really is a work of art". But the truth was my flesh was laughing. I knew the Father was referring to us as His great work of art or maybe not. Maybe He was thinking like me, more along the humorous lines of us being a real piece of work!

Anyway what brought this all about was what I was reading in Lev.14:2-7. The verses didn’t really speak to me, but the "water, blood and hyssop" did. As the body of Christ we seem to be consumed with the cleansing of the blood. Yet we try everything to rid ourselves of the burdens of our sins, rather than accepting what God says and simple believe it’s done. Now as hard as I tried to focus on the "blood, water and hyssop, God kept me looking back to the word "leper" so I started digging and went to 2Kings 5:1. This was where I found out what God wanted and the title for this study.

I felt Naaman truly portrayed the body of Christ. Naaman was a great, honorable and mighty man, but he had a disease that was eating his flesh. In the Spirit the body of Christ is great honorable and mighty also, but they too have something eating at their flesh. Let’s read the story of Naaman in 2Kings 5:1-15. God was showing me that the body of Christ is so burdened down with weights that should not be theirs and this was causing leprosy in the "Body". While I was writing this the phone rings and it’s a young man saved and filled with the Spirit, but he is so weighted down with worries, regrets and doubt that he feels there is no hope anywhere for him or his family. In other words, there was something really eating at his flesh!

Now if our steps are really ordered of the Lord, then this young man should have been resting in that and embracing his promises and not all worked up and stressed out about what God was allowing in his life. I believe the "Body" acts just like this young man, believing they are in control of their life somehow, when actually they are very out of control! The truth is we are not at any point in control and we need to accept that. Don’t freak out here thinking I’ve reached this place in my walk, I haven’t yet! I’m learning however through many trials to rest in my Father’s arms and ask what is it I’m to learn from these tests. In other words I’m learning to embrace my promises and not my trials, which attacks or kills my carnal man and delivers me from being eaten alive by the leprosy.

I think another thing Naaman and God’s people have in common is not understanding that our lives are not ours, but belong to and are appointed by God for a purpose. It isn’t based on who we think we are or who we think we are not. It isn’t based on what we do or how much we do to please God; we can never repay God for anything. All He wants is for us to just love Him and obey Him!

The next thing here is Naaman’s master tries to get help by going to the most important person, the king, but the king couldn’t do a thing for him. The king was at least smart enough to know he wasn’t God and he could do nothing (that’s better then most Christians) and I’m sure he was grateful when Elisha stepped in. Next Naaman was quite put out when Elisha, the great man of God, didn’t even come out to see him. How many times have we followed a great man or ministry for a word, a touch or a healing and never even got close enough to see the man? Knowing full well the "Answer" lived within us!

It’s as simple as the hyssop we spoke of in one of our studies; God has put it within our reach if we humble ourselves before Him and draw from His Heart that overflows for the broken and contrite heart. Sometimes it does take extremes, but God knows what it will take to reach each one of us and He only applies what is needed to perfect us. In Naaman’s case and often in ours the answer was in "God’s Word." If it’s a true Word from a man of God he won’t make a big deal of it. Elisha didn’t put himself in the spotlight he sent God’s Word through his messenger. Why? Because sometimes like Naaman we have to be humbled, you know, get mad, think about it and finely give up, be humble and then submit to God and do what He wants!

How many times have we here in this room, labored under condemnation? Or found no rest because we refused to bow to God’s message or to what He was doing in our lives? How many times have we felt others have wronged us or blamed us? And how many times have we blamed someone else for our mistakes? Then we need to come to the place of being humble enough to go to that person or persons (include yourself here) and say, "I’ve been wrong, or my attitude has been wrong towards you please forgive me. Or we’ve held things against ourselves that we need to let go of." Lk.10:19 and Prov.16:6-7, nothing can harm us if we are right before our Father. It’s not our circumstances or the people we see or love that we need to worry about, it’s, is there peace within me and am I right before my Father! If I’m at peace with my Father then all is well with me regardless of my circumstances.

Evil is all around us, but God has our every circumstance in His Hands, that includes the good, the bad and the painful ones. And He is the One who turns every one of our circumstances around and defeats our enemies with them, if we will let Him, Rom.8:28. Doctrine, legalism, lies and works have tried to replace God for centuries, but God has always been a step ahead them by having those who would listen to believe and hunger for more of Him. To many times religion has laid aside everything that God had for His people believing that none of it was attainable at least not in this lifetime. But God says what He has for us is attainable here and now if we just believe. As we learn to embrace the promises of God our flesh will be cleansed of what’s been eating it. I also think that what we have done to ourselves is worse than what religion has done to us in that we believed the lies and deceived ourselves.

We need to seek God for that higher realm we have in Him and never be like the religious holding onto traditions and doctrine, which gives us excuses for ourselves. If we do, we are saying we can never reach what God says is available for us, or we are saying it’s God’s fault not ours! But when we chose to obey God and lay aside all those excuses we will find truth and true rest. The humble in heart embrace "The Word" and they will always be glad they did. Don’t become so comfortable and complacent with the deception that you become blind to your bondages and the lies. That’s how we have been, blind, never able to see just what it was that was interfering between God and us and how it spiritually has been eating our flesh. Never let your carnal mind set on the throne in God’s holy temple! You are His temple and it is His throne so let this mind be in you that was also in Christ!

I want to look again at that cleansing for the leper in Lev.14:2-7, two birds alive and clean, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop. Everything here signifies something in the Spirit. The two birds could be flesh and Spirit, death and life or it could be the Lord as He walked to death and the Christ as He arose. Man and God joined as "One" and that is even greater than the Great Cedar! Scarlet was the color of His sacrifice. One bird slain in a clay vessel over running water, to me this was the Living Water flowing through the Blood filling these dry vessels. The Blood and Water mingled together becoming "One" in us His vessels of clay. I’m sure we could find a hundred more beautiful things here, but I wanted you to see the cleansing for the leper or for what has been eating your flesh. It was God’s Son, (our Brother) that made us clean through the Blood and the Water and who freed us from all we have done or will ever think or do. Praise God!

So from now on instead of seeking to justify or condemn our lives by letting religion or doctrine water down God’s Word. Let’s ask God to help us, and then let Him apply His hyssop of humility to our lives so that He can lift us up into His Realm, after all, it’s where we were born to be! If we don’t do this we are saying something that I know none of us ever want to say. And that is we belong to God, we are filled with His Spirit, but we do not believe that God can or did cleans us from all sin, all guilt and all condemnation!

Heb.9:13-14, Paul’s question here doesn’t need an answer, because the question is the answer "How much more shall the Blood of Christ?" This goes way beyond forgiveness, as far as I’m concerned, but how are we to understand this unless we learn to look at ourselves as God looks at us? In order to accept this total consciences cleansing we must see ourselves as God sees us otherwise lies will continue to eat at our flesh! I think most of our troubles in this area come from how we were raised and the "Church" background we have. I think these two things have taught us to minimize and limit not only the cleansing work of the Spirit, but God as well! It said here in verse 14, "that (the Blood) is powerful enough to cleans our consciences of dead works, to serve the Living God". Now, either it is or it is not! Either the Blood was enough or He died for nothing, which is it? Make up your minds!

I really don’t understand how God forgets things so easy, when we find it so easy to remember all the bad stuff, but then I remembered Philp.5:2, "Let this mind be in you"! That is our answer! God has this mind and can forget, because He sees through the Blood and He is in His right mind! While our consciences retains the carnal mind which is the enemy of God and eats at our flesh! But watch out conscience the mind of Christ is taking over and you are going to loose your hold on us! Amen?

Is there a possibility that the "Church" has forgotten like David did in 2Sam.12:13? But David couldn’t have forgotten; because it says right here Nathan reminded him, "The Lord has also put away your sin". So David knew the truth just like the "Church" knows the truth, but it was there in his conscience just like the "Church" keeps us holding onto it in our conscience. Forgiveness without cleansing leaves the conscience defiled, but God has given us more than enough provision through the Blood to clean even our conscience, if only we believe! Don’t be like David and let your sin be ever before you, its like leprosy, it gives you no peace and it will forever eat at your flesh!

Rom.6:11, Paul says to reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin. I wish it were so easy, but everyone I’ve ever counseled has reckoned and reckoned over and over again and not accomplished it. Paul went to great lengths in Romans 6 and 7 to let us know about deliverance and God had him write it so we could see it with our own eyes, plus all the reasons we have just discussed! The carnal mind cannot help you find victory on the other side of the "Cross"! It can only take you to the "Cross"! So I think we must repent and ask forgiveness for all our doubt and unbelief. Then forgive ourselves for all we’ve held against ourselves and others. To me, this would be the right direction to head in for a full restoration in God. Then we must accept that what God says is true and that what we have believed was not true. This should then eliminate our excuses for the devil and ourselves also.

It isn’t Adam’s fault, our parents, our grandparents or the devils; it isn’t a fault thing at all! It was and is ignorance and it’s time to bring it to an end! And I believe, facing the truth will set us free; the hyssop is right at our feet, but we have bow, pick it up, dip it in the cleansing Water and apply it to our hearts. It’s called truth! Ps.51:7-17. I know hyssop isn’t necessary just the Blood, but what I’m saying is it’s all available to us in the "Truth".

We should look at this as a blessing and allow God to show us that all of the things that are eating our flesh can be traced right down to the depths of our hearts. This will also help stop the condemning tongues and the pointing fingers. So lets all go dip in the "Water of the Holy Spirit" seven times if need be and let Him cleans our hearts and renew our spirits! We have let the lies and unbelief of leprosy eat our flesh long enough. Our Father wants us free in Him so let’s go to Him and forget all this religious and worldly stuff and just be whole in Christ! Amen?

Before I quit this study I want to make one thing clear, God is killing our carnal man! So don’t think I am in any way suggesting that God does not want our flesh under His control. The leprosy I speak of here is what the world, circumstances, religion, and family try to put on us through condemnation and guilt. So if your religious feathers got ruffled here, Praise God! It’s time you had a serious talk with the "Father of Love", the "One" who forgave ALL!

I was reading in Lk.24, about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, when verses 25-32, seemed to leap off of the page at me. God had my attention once again, but I thought it was more on what we had studied before regarding not rejecting Christ no matter what form He chose to appear in. But God had other plans and soon my focus was centered on the "broken bread".

Why hadn’t Christ revealed Himself sooner to these men? He had been with them for quite awhile. He had opened the "Word" of God to them for most of the trip. So why had He waited until the bread was broken to reveal Himself?

I spoke a few weeks ago about being the "Bread of Life" and the process the wheat must go through to become the bread, but now my focus was on the fact that we have to be willing to let the Father break the bread! Donald said it all one night at study, when he said, we need to ask the Father to help us be willing to go through the purifying fire now rather than wait for Him to make us go through it later, Rev.6:16. We all agreed we would rather God dealt with us now and helped us become willing rather than to wait until later when things would definitely be a lot rougher on God’s people. I believe God is showing those who have eyes to see that this is a step or piece of our destiny that we have overlooked and it’s time to take a closer look, now!

We studied in Matt.14:18-19 about putting what little we have into His Hands and in 1Kings17:11-12, about the widow women who had only a handful of flour and a little oil, but as she brought it to God her whole life was changed. Did you catch the key? It must be brought to God by you and then placed into His Hands? All these scriptures just kept popping off the pages so I believe God wants us to get a hold of something very important here and I’m sorry if you think it’s just something God wants me to get a grip on. I would agree with you that I do need it, but when God cuts something He does it with His two edged sword and that’s done so that we all may benefit from it! Amen?

I know God is telling us that all we think we have or can do will never make a dent for Him in the Kingdom, not until we willingly take our little and place it into His Hands! I believe ministry has been blown way out of the water, ministry is not what we go and do to please God; our ministries are what God has created us to be! To understand this we’ll have to go back and look at the priest who had to go and stand in the Jordan while God’s people crossed over into their promise. Notice here, the priests didn’t go in first even though they served God faithfully. They bridged the gap or became the broken bread for God’s people. Joshua had to bring God’s people into their inheritance before he could enter into his promises and Jesus had to experience death that we could experience life! These men understood being the "broken bread". They brought their little (or their all in the case of Jesus) and willingly placed it in God’s Hands, there by allowing God to do as He had purposed to do with them since the beginning.

Paul says to Timothy in 2Tim.4:5, "endure, this life here and fulfill the ministry that God has brought you here to be", ( Rexie1:1 translation). I’ve done several studies using the bread in one form or another lately to show us there is a process to everything God has done (or for some of us what He is doing or is going to do). I say it’s done; we are just now, or soon will be walking into it! We’ve looked at how the wheat was grown and fertilized, winnowed and ground. We’ve looked at how the "oil and water" were added and then the rising and baking process, but I don’t believe we have really dealt with the "breaking of the bread" at any great length.

I looked up several scriptures concerning the bread. The first scripture I found was in Gen.18:1-8. In verses 5-6, Abraham is almost begging the Lord to let him bring Him (the Lord) bread. Like an offering brought to the Lord, as in Rom.12:1. The scriptures I found went from here to bread offered in the Temple, to the bread placed in the Hands of Jesus, who blessed it and broke it. On to Jh.6:35 where Jesus says, "He is the Bread of Life". The bread is broken again at the "Last Supper" and finally in Acts 2:46, where the bread was broken and shared in agape love or the "love feast" as some call it.

After all this searching, I was sort of dumb founded, that the "Church" hadn’t taught us about this all along. It seemed quite clear to me that we were to offer ourselves back to God as soon as we realized it was Him, just as Abraham had done in Gen.18 and that from there we would accept that once in God’s Hands we would be broken just as God had done all through the scriptures. If Jesus is our example and we are to follow in His footsteps, then we too are to become the "bread of life" or "love feast" for the world. (As in Christ through us).

Bring what you have before the Father. You are the living sacrifice. Offer yourselves up to the Father as Jesus did. Ask Him to help you to allow Him to use His winnowing fan in your life and separate from you all that is not of Him. Let Him pour in the "Oil and Water" (the anointing of His Holy Spirit and the cleansing or washing of His Word). Then He will bless you, break you and use you for His purpose!

So with all of this sounding so simple and the Bible speaking about it from cover to cover I just had to ask the Father, what’s up with this? And don’t you just know how He loves to mess with my thinking, but this time I feel He is going to mess with you too! Jh.4:34 and Jh.6:27 & 38. If the Bible is true and Jesus came to make the "Way" then why can’t God’s people believe that this is their destiny, that God will finish what He started from the beginning and that He will do it through us! Or is that, begin what He had finished from the foundation of the world? Mk.9:23! Either way He finishes it through the sons that He sent into this world. (Us!) It’s God’s plan, first Jesus the First Son and then us the many sons.

It’s so simple, but we make it so hard! The Anointing Lives inside of us! Everything Jesus was and more lives inside of us! (I say that because He is with the Father now and there are many of us and because of Jh.14:12). He was broken and lifted up by the Father and then He became Life for us. So that we would allow the Father to break us of the carnal man, lift us up into the spiritual realm that we would become life for others through the Christ that Lives in us! Donald said it so beautifully, "just ask the Father to help you allow Him". I know I don’t want to go through pain and suffering without the Father and I don’t really think any of you do either! So let Him help you, let Him break you and use you as He has purposed. He sent you here so that He could do what was needed in the world and that would be Him living through you! It’s time we believed and accepted that we were sent of God to this earth to do a job and we are not who we were taught we are! We are Him in the form He has chosen to walk this earth Jh.14:9-11. Don’t believe the doctrines of devils, it’s time to hear for yourselves, so start talking to and hearing from God for yourselves! Jesus said, He had to go in order for things to take place here, Jh.16:7-18. He said, He came to bring many brothers to Christ Jh.1:11-13. He said, we are bought with a price and we are not our own and we are the Holy Temple of God 1Cor.3:16-17. It’s Christ alive in us! It has nothing to do with parents, families, houses, jobs, fun, laughter, shopping, money, the "Church" or having it all, it is all about God living through us!

" For we have come down from Heaven, not to do our own will, but to do the will of "The Father" who sent us"! (Rexie 1:1) and Jh.6:38. Allow the Father to break you and then live for Him!

5-7-02

I was sitting with God the other day and looking at the "Church" and the "Kingdom". I was wondering and asking Him, since we are all His people, why does there seem to be such a gap between the "Church people" and the "Kingdom people"? It was like I was looking at two totally different cities, yet they were encompassed by a larger and much "Greater City," also the people in these two cities were all born of the same Father. As I looked at this, I felt these two cities and these people should have had a whole lot more in common than what I was seeing. It seemed to me as though these two cities and the people within them were either in continual turmoil or continual searching. The "Great City" which held them all was not in turmoil nor did it seem to be struggling or searching for anything. I also saw that some were searching for the secrets of the "Greater City", while others received nothing at all from it. Most seemed oblivious to all it’s great resources and to the fact that it was what held them all together, thus my title. I guess I could compare this to our bodies and our spirits. Our bodies want to be in charge and so do our spirits and both are contained within the Father. Yet the body and spirit struggle to be in charge while the truth is we are not of this world nor are we our own. We are spirit and the world and our bodies are part of God’s training field, so both live in a type of turmoil, with the one continually seeking for the truth. Both live and move within the Father of all, with one continually oblivious and the other continually seeking.

In the "Kingdom" God’s people are to operate in "Love" only. While in the "Church" realm "Fear" operates openly. Since I don’t believe the "Church" is where it will be eventually, I see it as the second city, separated at this time from the "Kingdom" city. I believe the "True Church", (the Virgin Bride, the New Jerusalem) is in operation, but it’s in the "Kingdom" realm. At this time there is also the false "Church" (the Harlot or Mystery Babylon) operating in God’s people. This is so easy to see in the spirit, but not so easy to explain in the natural, so bare with me. As always I’m not against any of God’s people or where God has them I see things and try to let others share in them the rest is up to God. Perhaps explaining what I feel would help here. In my opinion the false "Church" operates under human wisdom, is influenced by the world and more or less brings bondage and death to all it touches. While the "True Church" operates under the power of God’s Spirit and produces life, freedom in the Spirit and the mature man or "Manchild" that will bring "Life" to the rest of God’s "Body". I hope that this will help you rather than confuse you.

Now both of these "Cities", as I am calling them, are made up of God’s people, but unfortunately most are refusing knowledge, to one degree or another, Hos.4:6-7; 2Tim.3:5&7; Titus 1:15-16. Whether or not they do this through lack of truth being taught in their "Churches", which I believe God calls ignorance and unbelief, they all seem to be oblivious to the fact that they are prisoners of the "not so great city of Babylon". This city is the "Harlot" of the religious system and "She" is loved and honored by men, (God’s men). They have accepted "Her" invisible bars as security rather than a prison and they are angered easily when a true son of God speaks out against "Her", Rev.17:4-6 and Rev.18:1-5. The "Church" is blind and either cannot or will not see "Her" faults at this time. Nor the danger "She" places God’s people into, Heb.5:12-14. God’s people will grow it’s ordained. They will not stay bound! I see no other way of coming into maturity and perfection, or of being filled with God’s fullness, nor of becoming "One" with Christ, if we do not grow! Choosing to believe and accept the invisible prison, to remain blind, or to stay bound, produces only babies who do not grow. Nor do they have the freedom that is Christ. Which means they have no hope or do not see any hope of maturity, which comes from experiencing the Father, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Growing in Christ and experiencing the Godhead requires that we leave the baby level. God spoke of this level in 1Pet.2:1-3; 1Cor.3:1-3 and Heb.6:1-2. Babies are very precious to God, but they are also very carnal and divided in their spiritual walk and growth.

In my walk with the Lord, I’ve seen how this "baby stage" has held many wonderful people back. I praise God here that He took me past this level and that I didn’t remain in that bondage. And as silly as it sounds I’ve even asked God if we were really His at this stage. Not because the people are so bad or rebellious they actually do "act" like Christians, but because they just didn’t seem to grow or have a true revelation on the cleansing power of the "Blood of Jesus". Hard set on a lot of other things, but never really sure of who they were in Christ or how to stay in His good graces! Being lost one minute and saved the next, for years, makes for a very confused and insecure person and God does not want that for any of His children!

Next, I believe God brings us into that zealous level where we always want to do something for God and where we are positive it is what He wants. I’m not against this growing hunger, I’m all for it as a matter of fact. It’s a blind kind of faith that I think pleases the Father. Like when your child takes those first steps or says their first words. It’s a wonderfully oblivious, free and trusting place and I don’t believe the "Church" likes it, so they do their best to put out your fire and keep you bound.

I remember when Dale and I were at this place in our walk and how the good "Christian leaders" were always putting water on our fire (not holy water either). Thank God He didn’t let them sway Him or hold us back. He kept His angles and saints around us. They encouraged us continually to go on and grow in Christ and they also stayed in prayer keeping our fire fed. I really think finding out there was so much more for us in Christ is what really fed our fire and created that greater hunger within us, but all of this caused us to out grow the dead churches we were in. (Not that they were bad churches or unnecessary, just dead for us at that time in our walk). I truly believe that once you taste the power of the Holy Spirit you never want to go back to just being a "Christian", because there is always a drive within you to go onward and upward! Not being able to move and grow in Christ would, to me, seem like a prison or a ball and chain. To me, being bound to a weight that only wants to drag me back into the world and away from God would truly be hell!

I don’t want to be like those I see everyday trying everything just to find peace for a moment and never really finding it and I don’t believe the world or religion have the peace people need or want! It can’t be found in the world or what it has to offer, it isn’t found in a person you think you love and it isn’t found in a building called a "Church"! It’s found in a relationship with the Father, which comes through a true revelation of Christ! And that means we have to go past the "Cross" of Jesus! And if you are religious you won’t like that one either, but I believe Heb.6:1- through whatever, discusses that well enough for anyone to understand.

Next, I believe would be the "Spirit Filled" level. Not that you can’t receive the infilling of the Spirit at the other levels, but this level of the Spirit is where we learn submission and obedience to the Father. It’s where we are filled continually with the Spirit, die daily, learn to walk, live, speak and press into the Spirit of God and experience Him as He has experienced us.

I do not believe this level is in anything I’ve mentioned as yet even though all were given sanctification in Christ, called to be saints and did not have lack in the gifts, such as Paul mentioned in 1Cor.3:1-3, yet they all lacked maturity. The level I’m speaking of now goes way beyond what we have gone over and where most Christians have dared to go. Because I believe this is the level where the Father will possess those of us who go there, just as He possessed Jesus, and once there, we will manifest Christ. It’s where the supernatural becomes a way of life and where the carnal mind and its divisions have no place.

Most of God’s "Church" and "Body" at this time are divided, self- righteous and very wrapped up in their religions. They have brought the Pentecostal experience down to a doctrine taught by men rather than an experience with the Father!

Acts 20:35, says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive". [Strongs #3107, says, this is an adjective, suggesting a condition in which congratulations are in order]. So, I figured that since receiving the Holy Spirit and all that comes with Him (learning, growing and being changed into God’s image) was such a great blessing, that giving or ministering "Truth and Life" was really going to be something, in the Spirit that is, because the carnal man cannot see it or feel how awesome it is, flesh can only see and feel the pain of it. Jesus knew the pain, but He walked in the glory that was within Him and was able to receive how awesome it was. We need to get to this place as fast as the Father will take us there!

It is at this level that God shares with you the same things He shared with Jesus. God is no respecter of persons and what He shared with His "First Son" He hungers to share with His other sons. 1Cor.2:4-5; Gal.3:4-5 and Heb.2:4, it’s God that works through us as He ministers His supernatural powers, as He wills, just as He worked them through Jesus. It wasn’t any power Jesus had and it won’t be any power we have either. It belongs to God and it always has! Just as Jesus "the Man" walked on water, cleansed the lepers, healed the sick, raised the dead, multiplied the loaves and the fishes and demonstrated the "Life and Power" of God flowing through Him, so shall the rest of God’s sons do. As God directs them!

This happens as we grow, learn obedience and are transformed into His image and it isn’t a private place for only a few, it is for His many sons. It’s also from here that we may move on from the servant used of God to the willing servant and where we will see the Spirit without measure, Jh.3:34 and Jh.7:16-18. It’s the place where I know we are all hungry to be. Where we walk and think as Jesus did and even greater, Jh.14:12-14. It’s the place where we will use the "Father’s Authority" and wisdom. And it’s the time of "Adoption" (you will have to go back here to our study on adoption and how adoption meant being placed into the fullness of our inheritance at the time of our full maturity). This is where we will finely operate in the "Mind of Christ". It’s where the two men in the bed (one carnal, one sprit) become the spiritually mature God man. The carnal is totally removed and we become "One" with the Father! It’s also the place where we finely understand the true meaning of being an "Overcomer"! Thank You Lord, because I have always wanted to find this place!

When we reach this place in God, or should I say, when God has totally retrieved what was His (us), then His "Church" will be delivered from Her bondages to the world and it’s religious systems. It will be at this point that God Almighty will be revealed in His glory through His perfectly matured sons or the "Manchild", if you can receive that.

It will be the babies and the young in Christ who will reach this perfection if they will hear the call, come out of Her, be separated and follow Christ not man. Accept this challenge and you will experience the Father and He will make you "One with Him".

The "Church" and the "Body" will also grow up and be brought out of bondage and into the "Kingdom of God". Where finally they too will experience the Father and become "One with Him". So hold on, believe what the Father says and press in with all that you have. He will do the rest and it will happen right on time! He has always been an on time God; just keep in mind it’s not our timing it’s His!

After studying this and talking with God at some length I decided I wasn’t where I had hoped I was in my walk with Him. It was disappointing to say the least, but it wasn’t a bad thing. I just hope this study will help you to discover where you are in Christ and then check yourself and see what it is that you are pressing into.

If you feel as though you are out in left field just press on toward the higher calling in God. Aim for the fullness of God and let Him have His way in you and your so-called life. You are not lost, not cut off and not separated from God! You are facing your cross, daily dying to self and laying down all for Christ! Know and believe that God is bringing you into the promise of "Oneness with Him". Keep your focus on Him because you are ascending the "Hill of the Lord" and you will fulfill your destiny because God has made the way! And that destiny is to be "One Great City with our Lord and God"!

God is ever moving forward and His plans include us! He has a (time-frame) waiting for each one of us to step into. My hearts cry is Col.1:27, Christ in me! Christ in you! The hope of glory! Finally without hesitation it will happen, we will have learned to listen to and obey the Father. We will touch that which He says touch, heal whom He says heal, free whom He says free and raise the dead when He says do so. None of this is done in its fullness and glory (as it was through Jesus) until we have become fully mature sons and Christ is fully manifesting Himself through us. If you’re waiting for me to say it’s a choice, I can’t. Somehow choice doesn’t mean much when my whole being is aching and waiting to be made complete. I pray that is where you want to go too.

At what point do we say, "Enough is enough?" At what point do we say to God, "Ok, God, I have had all I can take and I can take and I want no more. There has to be an end to this situation. There has to be a stopping point!"

Father, I have had enough! I have had all I can handle! So, since You will not change, I am willing to make the changes, cause I have had enough. My love for You has made the natural things of the daily grind too much to bear or handle. The only constant factor in my meager life is You. I cannot continue the fight within. I want the flesh to die and the spirit within to fully emerge and consume the flesh. I want what I had before I came here to this putrid life on earth. There always seems to be a severe battle with this flesh, and some days it just wants to smother my spirit. I wish I could release the spirit within, so it would be on outside, and the flesh would be on the inside looking out. However I’m not willing to cop out and die to achieve this. That would be an easy way out, which is a total opposite, of what You created man for. I just want to know how and what I must do to be the overcomer of my flesh monster. There must be a halfway point to the achieving of this goal. So at what point does my flesh, crawl away and die, and my soul and spirit step up, and totally regain, so that what is within becomes the controller of my desires, my wants and my needs? Father, at what point does the Christ in me become the ruler of all I see and all I am to possess? At what point in time do I lose all desires for anything in this earthly realm and Your will is my only will? I am so tired of the fleshly struggle to stay alive in the natural; I want this struggle to be over! I want the Christ in me to emerge and control my flesh! When, when, WHEN do I lose this earthly desire of satisfaction of what is natural? Father, inside I cry out WHEN?? Oh Father, bend an ear and hear the plea of a son to a Father! Hear me Father! Look! Here am I! You, Father, You said, "I will establish your footsteps". If I have to walk this walk longer, then show me the proper steps. I must have all of You and nothing of this world. Hear me! Hear my plea! Help me to give up the things of this life. You said we were reborn children; but some days You feel so distant. I feel so alone, so naked, so unworthy and so incapable of existing in this life. Some days I feel that the farther I go the farther behind I get in my spiritual walk. Some days I feel as a mere infidel, and my confidence of who I am in You seems to be just a twinkling and a mere shadow of all the possibilities of that which is true and of You. Some days I desire to do all I can do for You, and I end up doing only that which my flesh desires. How long can I go on like this? When does Your grace and mercy consume me? I want to be like no one I know (and some that I know are awesome). To be a copy of them would not be what You created me for. If I have to be a copy of someone, then Father, let it be Christ. That is the model I would hope to be. When do I realize when enough is enough? Why does my faith seem to run the opposite way, and doubts of this world seem to control? You said, "My ways are not your ways." But I ask, if I have the mind of Christ, at what moment in my life will I have the totally MANIFESTED mind of Christ, so that my ways WILL be Your ways and Your will, Will be the only will I have? When is enough, enough? And when does it happen…that total consumption of the Christ in me? When do I go back to the potter’s wheel and You reform me and fill in all the cracks and nicks I have put into this vessel You formed and created? If I am in Your image and Your likeness and have Your nature, PLEASE allow it to take over. PLEASE! How long must I wait? Give me a quickening of Your love and transformation from this flesh monster that always wants to control. Is it wrong to ask, to have hope, to have desires? Is it wrong to ask to be loved and cherished…to be held to Your bosom? Is it wrong to want to hear Your voice, to feel Your touch and Your warmth? Am I wrong to want so much? Is it wrong to want to know You so deeply that I can hear You breathe, or even to hear You cry, to feel Your love of me so tremendously that I feel all things as You do? When do I release all the doubts the world has put on me and I have accepted? When do I finally feel the fullness of You? And then…I stopped…a thought came to me. What if I am not asking the questions, but God is??

Son, when do you let Me enter so deep that I can feel you? When do I truly rule and reign in your clay vessel? When do I become truly become your only desire and your only will? When do you release the baggage and let Me tote the bag? And when do you allow Me to do My wondrous work in your life? So I ask you… when is enough, enough? Not all of it is My decision at this time. You want the fullness of Me? Get rid of the garbage. It is only when you release your unwillingness that I can give you My willingness. As I told you before, for every reaction there is an action. For every agreement, there is a condition. For every moment of hate, there is an opposite moment of love. So, I ask you again, do you want all you are asking for? Then I say to you, "you have your answer". So, when is enough, enough? That is your decision. So, I guess that when enough is enough for your enough…that is enough! Then My enough is enough and we can go from glory to glory and from emptiness to glorified fullness. I love you.

Al White

6-02

I have always wondered what I would do

When I finally stood in front of You.

Would I cry or would I laugh?

And would You really not remember my past?

The time is coming someday I’m sure

Will I stand up to that test?

Will my hands lift up and my knees be strong

Give me courage to enter Your rest.

Donald Holt

April 2002

Dale & Rexie’s home

When you’re not a religious person.

And have to worship God alone.

Setting there at your kitchen table.

With a Bible to make it home.

You pray for His hidden mysteries

And you wait for His inner light

You pray for His mighty mercies

And thank Him when seeing the "Dove" in flight.

Donald Holt

1992

The sentence of death was given to me,

I didn’t know it at the time.

Chained and necked, I was lead away

Giving up what I thought was mine.

Being desperate and in agony I walked

Taken to a dark cold cell.

As I was being thrust through the door

I realized I was in Satan’s hell.

I fell on my knees in prayer that night,

Asking God for just one more chance.

And being the "One" that can pardon me,

My captor was destroyed by the "Spirit’s Lance".

Donald Holt

Well, I think that this life is over,

I’ve come to the end of the road.

And I wonder if it’s worth the effort,

Why must I have such a heavy load?

Sometimes I think, "Is this all there is"?

Must I live such a long hard life?

Forgetting the love of my parents,

And failing to love a good wife.

Sometimes the thoughts are hard to bear.

Memories of a young child’s face.

The lingering burn of teardrops

Smooth satin and frilly lace.

Where all my days are yesterdays

And hope has vanishes into the past

My soul is like a thread a flame

Oh God, it is burning mighty fast.

Donald Holt

1992 Pat’s place

Just stop and look at yourself and the world today.

Look at a $20 bill. If someone took that $20 bill and asked everyone if they wanted it, no strings, they would all say "yes"!!! Who wouldn’t want free money? What if they crumpled the money up, would you still want it? "Yes"!!! What if they threw it on the ground put their foot on it and pushed it into the dirt, would you still want it??? YES!!!

There is a message here can you hear it????????

My friend, we could all learn a very valuable lesson from this. No matter what was done to the money we still wanted it. Because it never decreased in value, it was still a $20 dollar bill and it was still free.

Now in your life you have been dropped, stomped, crumpled and even ground into the dirt by circumstances that came your way. You may even have felt worthless to everyone and everything, but no matter what you have felt like or been through YOU will never lose your value in God’s eyes. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely pressed you are still priceless to God!!! He loves you more than you can imagine and His love is unconditional and free.

The worth of our lives is not measured in who we know or in what we have done, but its measured by "Who’s" we are!!! Every spirit and soul is special to God!!!

Count your blessing not your problems. Remember all your problems go in the SFJTD box for God to handle as He sees fit and in His time not ours. And it’s all free, 7days a week 24 hours a day.

(Lisa Marler)

Stop and think!!! You don’t own anything!!!

I know you might be questioning that, but think. God is the "One" that gave you everything. Good or bad (in your eyes), but for one reason or another you asked for it or it was a learning lesson!!!

"Good morning", (this is God speaking) and today "I" will be handling all of your problems!!! Please remember that "I" do not need your help!!! Even if the devil happens to deliver a situation that seems hard do not attempt to resolve it by yourself. Kindly put it in the box marked "SFJTD", (Stuff for Jesus to do). It will then be addressed in "My" time not yours. Once the matter is placed into the box please remove your hands, do not hold onto it or remove it!!! This will only delay the solution to your problem.

If it is a situation that you think you are capable of handling, please consult "Me" in prayer to make sure that you have the right solution as "I" do not sleep nor do "I" doze off. So there is no need for you to lose sleep over it, just rest in "Me" "My" child and watch. If you need to contact "Me", "I’m" only a prayer away, you always have "My" attention. Never be afraid to try something new, "I’m" new every morning!!! You can do nothing about the length of your life, but you can do something about its depth.

Remember as you see it, amateurs built the Ark and professionals built the Titanic, but it was all done with "My" hand in it. "I" can give and "I" can take away. You see this as good and bad, "I" see it as lessons to help you grow.

Love God

(Lisa Marler)