Soar Like An Eagle…Spiritually is a collection of Bible studies prepared and taught by Rexanna Raymond. In these studies she has endeavored to bring the student from being spiritually flightless to reaching new heights in Christ.

As you will discover, these studies are well founded in the scriptures. So get your Bible and "soar " with the author.

Evelyn LaCasella

Now don’t get excited here I’m not saying we are birds, but I read a short story the other day while I was getting my hair done and it really started me thinking about how God uses the strange things of this world.

The story was about a farmer who stumbled upon an eagle’s nest with an egg in it. Not wanting the little eagle to die he took it home with him and places it under one of his chickens that was setting eggs. But right from day one the little eagle didn’t fit into the barnyard scene even though that was all he had ever known. All he was sure of was somewhere deep inside something was telling him, "This isn’t home". The farmer kept his wings clipped in hopes he would become a pet so unable to fly he set on a post in the barnyard looking up into the sky. His body confined to the earth his heart in the heavens. He didn’t know why nor could he understand his feelings, but he knew there that something deep within him that wanted to be free. As time went by the farmer forgot to clip the eagle’s wings and one-day as he set on his post looking upward a great gust of wind caught him under his wings and he was lifted from his perch. With a scream of victory and freedom he left the barnyard seen forever and soared into the heavens to meet his own kind.

Isa.40: 31, I loved this story and saw how it related to all we have experienced and are experiencing in our walk with the Lord. Eagles here are symbolic of certain Christians. The "mount up" process is important and necessary for those who are called to go higher, Philp.3:14. To those who are willing to wait in His presence, Ps.27:14; Ps.37:34; Ps.62:5; Rom.8:25. Not everyone who enjoys God’s blessings, grace will want to destroy the idols of this world that have been set in the temple of their hearts. Nor will they want to pay the price to soar with the Father. Only those who know they have been called to a higher calling will want to consider this.

Chickens are earthbound, they keep their eyes on the things of this world, Jam.4:4; 1Jh.2:15-16. They scratch out an existence and never lift their heads to look any higher then where they are. They scratch in the dirt, eat whatever is thrown to them and search greedily in their crowed barnyards for more to fill their bellies, much of it unclean. By nature chickens are an unclean bird, they are bound to their existence and are satisfied with it. But not the eagle, he has an inherited nature that will not survive confinement. To fulfill his purpose in life he must be free to soar the heavens. It may look lonely up there because not many will dare to rise to such heights. But the eagle doesn’t care; it’s not in his nature to need the approval of the majority.

Deut.32:11; Its time for these "willing eagles" to soar and our "Mother", the Holy Spirit, is the one who will make our nest very uncomfortable. Just like the mother eagle that tears up the soft bed of her little one and breaks the twigs so that the jagged ends stick him. In short his life becomes miserable in the place he was once comfortable and safe. Are "Heavenly Parents", do much the same things in our lives in order to get us to do what is best for us, thus fulfilling our purpose for being here or should I say, fulfilling the will and purpose of our Father.

1Cor.13:11; Gal.4:1-2; Heb.5:12-6:2; Has your place in the Father, the place that once met the needs in your life now seem rough, tight or uncomfortable? Don’t worry; your Father is just getting you ready to be pushed off a cliff and into new heights. Are the jagged edges of that which was once such a comfort to you now starting to prick you? Maybe you have even asked if you were in the Fathers will. Well, wonder no more, except it in faith, because a great work is about to come forth in your life and it’s not the Father’s wrath its His love and wisdom, making you willing to take the next big step, off that cliff. By nature we love security so God has to make us sick of our "nest", so that we will willingly let Him take us on our spiritual journey.

Unfortunately some do not want to leave the nest. When the little eagle rebels the mother eagle starts to beat her wings and the wings that once protected him from danger have now become his enemy. To escape this danger the little eagle climbs onto her back and now wherever she goes, he will go. He holds on for dear life as his mother soars higher and higher when suddenly without warning she dives out from under him. He screams and falls; instinctively his wings stretch out to try to catch the air but try as he must he feels like all hope is gone, then out of no where mother eagle swoops under him and carries him up on her wings. Ps.139:10; Josh1:5.; But just as the little eagle feels safe once more the bottom falls out from under him and the process starts all over again, until he finely learns to soar.

Sometimes the flutter of our Fathers wings makes us think He is going to beat us to death but the bible says if we do not receive correction we are not His sons, Heb.12:5-8. When we are willing He takes us to great heights. Then sometimes when everything seems wonderful the bottom suddenly drops out from under us again and we wonder Father where are you? But just who do you think that is holding you up and restoring your strength? Only to find out this process may start all over again as we grow, until we come into that fullness He has prepared for us, the place where we learn to soar in the Father. Eph.4:13-16

When a baby eagle flat refuses to learn after all of his mother’s attempts to teach him she takes him high into the heavens and lets him fall to his death as she screeches in pain, knowing he must either fly or die on the rocks below.

In the kingdom there are those who flat refuse to grow, Jer.10:2; Matt.11:29-30. They resent the furnace of affliction and its purifying fire, Isa.48:10; Pro.17:3; Heb.12:29, they love the safety of the nest but hate the discipline. But God is always patient, 1Cor.13:4-8; Jam.5:7; 2Thes.3:5, and long-suffering. He works with them, giving them chance after chance. Until He finely let’s them fall to the rocks of religion, worldly desires, or home to save their souls, Isa.57:1-2. If Jesus had to learn through what He suffered then so will all of us, Heb.5:8. We have seen some of these great ministries come in, soar and then crash. This does not lessen the true revelations they received or the gifts they walked in. But the word says Lk.9:62, it would have been better for them if they had stayed with the chickens in the safety of the barnyard. God’s tests are carefully designed to show us what is in our hearts and to bring our rebellion to the surface to be dealt with. Heb.4:12; Jer.17:9-10;.

God’s chosen are coming through these fires. I loved what Isaiah said when he saw his heart, Isa.6:5.

Don’t worry chicken’s don’t fall far, maybe off of their roost, or out of a tree but they never fall far because they never rise to any great heights. But when an eagle falls, he falls a long way and it seems he is seen by many in his fall. This however is necessary for those who are called because they cannot afford to be rebellious, Isa.30:1; 2Tim.4:2-5. In the barnyards they sing, "I’ll fly away…" and dream of a rapture that will carry them from this sin cursed world, to some wild blue yonder, to a dinner all laid out for them. They know nothing of God’s purpose, nor do they know Him. But in time they will because the Spirit is revealing the hidden secrets to those who are called to a higher calling and in time all will know it. Learning to move in heavenly places is sometimes terrifying. But the Father is always there with us, we are always in His presence, Acts17:28; Heb 13:5-6.

Chickens just won’t fly, barnyards are to confining, they sleep in one place, lay eggs in one place, they eat from the dirt and it doesn’t matter if it’s a Baptist pen, Pentecostal, or Methodist pen; they can put whatever name they like on the door. They can cackle and crow about whatever advantage they think their barnyard has. You just have to remember your place and be sure you stay within your confinements.

But no barnyard can hold the eagle; he will die if he isn’t free. He is only alive in the freedom of the heavens, as we are only alive in the freedom of the Spirit in our Father. There is always room where the willing "eagle saints" gather. Unlimited revelation and truth flows like a river. There are no creeds, by-laws, or rigid beliefs to separate the body, only heavenly worship, freedom of the Spirit, deliverance and love. The dull boring routine of the "barnyard" is a thing of the past for those who will rise on the wings of eagles and fly into the Father.

Have you ever watched chickens in a rainstorm? They run around like nuts looking for shelter but they seldom find it. They huddle together in their misery, fearing every clap of thunder and lighting bolt. Not so with the eagle, the same storm that pounds down on the earth bound, produces the wind that lifts the eagle above the storm clouds. God is delivering many today from their earthbound existence and lifting them by the Spirit of revelation into heavenly places. When we allow God to consume us we no longer will fear the storms, Rom.8:15; 2Tim.1:7; Rev.2:10, so do not fear what the Lord is doing in your life, He is with us every step of the way.

Job.39:29, Great vision is another asset of the eagle and a great asset to those who can believe for things others cannot see. Because they don’t have their eyes on the things of this earth, they are allowed to see far beyond this realm.Pro.20:18, Sharp vision is also discerning, no one ever deceived Jesus, He knew the thoughts and intents of the heart. Heb.4:12. So be led by the Spirit as Jesus was and you won’t be deceived.

The bible talks in many places of how swift the eagle is, Deut.28:49; 2Sam.1:23; Job.9:26; Matt.24:27-28. Now God is doing a swift work in us here. He will use those who are swift to hear, swift to believe, and swift to obey. The time is here; the call is going forth to let go of everything that holds you bound to this earth, to lay aside ever weight and rise on the wings of eagles into your Father where you belong. You knew you were different and now you know why. Amen!

Jh.4:23-24; we are now beginning to enter this realm or place in the Spirit. To be able to experience this we have to believe the Spirit of the Living God is filling His temple, which we are.

Many Christians were taught some things that are not necessarily a truth and we can see some of them in the songs churches sing. "I’ll fly away oh glory", "In the sweet bye and bye", "When we all get to heaven"; these give the wrong mindset. We were taught that death was the only way to win this battle of the flesh. (You know live the best you can, die and go to heaven). Almost everyone wants to be one with God but they’re not willing to let God have His way in their flesh, they don’t like looking at themselves and they don’t like the truth.

Jesus tried to make it very clear for us by saying things like, Lk.17:20-21. You can’t see it with your physical eyes, but the truth is, "The kingdom of God is within you".

1Cor.6:17; if we are one in the Lord, if His Spirit has renewed and regenerated our spirit we must be with Him. This should be simple but it’s been taught wrong and that’s what has made it so hard for us to get a hold of it.

To worship God in truth we have to walk in the Spirit, the place where the flesh doesn’t have control or should I say, (where God walks in and through us). Truth is seeing the life of the King coming alive in us, Col.1:27; Rom.8:10. Maybe we don’t look much like Christ but with the baptism of the Holy Spirit He started changing us and our carnal nature started falling away. It mite be just a little at a time but don’t worry that’s what God has planned for you. Have you ever noticed that God’s promises were to the carnal man? They were for His Seed! 1Jh.5:1; 1Jh.3:9.

Rom.8:6, was one of the few promises I found that applied to the carnal man. It was never in God’s plan for our intellect to be godly. God has never been interested in making our carnal nature something beautiful, all it’s good for is dieing so that the seed within us can be seen.

2Pet.1:3-4, this promise is to Gods Seed. If we don’t understand this we will always be trying to make our carnal man look better, while God has been trying to expose it so we could see it. We need to see ourselves for what the world and religion has made us, carnal now its time to see what God sees, the truth is Christ alive in us.

As Christians we are either living the carnal nature or the Christ nature. Don’t get lost here, we can be a Christian (born again) and still be living the carnal life. You know, going to church and doing all of the religious things. That’s why Jesus said, "we must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth". Or we could say we must come into His presents through the Christ that lives in us; we can’t come into His presents through our good works, our abilities suck. We have nothing but ourselves to offer Him, and that’s already His.

Cain and Able are a good example of this; Cain out of his own abilities tilled the ground. I’m sure he brought the best his hands could produce to God but God rejected his offering. Why? Because he tried to come to God in his own abilities, his own goodness, he tried to please God through his carnal efforts and expected it to be good enough for God.

Able realized he could offer God nothing from his abilities, or himself. He knew that God was not interested in his goodness or his abilities and God received what Able gave from a pure heart. We in the natural cannot be obedient; oh it’s great that we have the desire but anyone with the Spirit of the Living God in them will have this desire. God put it there, it doesn’t go away, deep down we want all God has for us, we want to be what He has created us to be. That is our Christ nature at war with our carnal nature. What we have to see is that we are not making this flesh godly and that the Spirit is trying to kill it.

The church has had the wrong concept of holiness for to long, and has put God’s people in bondage more then they have taught them freedom, Matt.23:15. Some of the extremes of bondage that I can think of are, the long dresses, no makeup or jewelry, not cutting you hair, no smoking or going to movies and this is only a few. We have been taught in order to be holy we have to do and say certain things, or don’t do and say certain things. You know what I’m saying, read your bible so much, pray so much, give your 10%, act like a good little Christian and that list goes on and on. Only thing this teaches God’s people is this walk is an outward condition, your abilities and holds them under the law.

But when we try to clean up the outside we are being like Cain. We feel more worthy to enter God’s presents, never realizing its this attitude that keeps us from entering into this place of Spirit and Truth, 1Pet.2:4-5. Stop trying to make the outside acceptable to God. Jesus didn’t go to the Cross to make our flesh acceptable to God, He took this carnal flesh man with all its faults into death and He left it there, Eph2:1-6. Now Christ is our new nature, the old man is dead. If God says we are dead! Why do we keep trying to make the dead look good? We cannot resurrect something God says is dead! We are not grater then God! When God puts a period we want to change it to a question mark.

I have a wonderful friend filled with the Spirit of God, who moves and flows in an awesome way when moved on by the Spirit but who is in bondage to keeping the outward man looking good so that the religious spirits think everything is all right and God is happy. Wrong! My friend cannot experience the realm of truth because they are living the religious lie. How can truth come from lies? It can’t, so they stay bound by the belief that they have to make everyone including them self believe they are o.k. or they will be confessing unbelief, (bull stuff)! Holiness has nothing to do with your carnal man looking good to others. Holiness is God in you!!

If you’re filled with His Spirit and God is not being formed in you and if the Spirit of the Living God is not flowing from you, then there is a problem. Because holiness is the Person of Christ living His life through you, holiness is not us performing. Your either holy or not, it’s not something your going to become, we are holy because God says we are, 1Jh.4:17. Holiness is wherever God is!! Go to Ex.3:3-5; the ground wasn’t holy until God was there, so wherever He is, its holy!! Is He in you?

Eph.1:17-19; let the eyes of your understanding be opened. When you see Christ in you and can realize that this is your TRUE nature you will begin to live and move in Spirit and Truth. Christ in you will grow and swallow up everything else. God put His Seed in us, 1Jh.3:9, and that seed as it grows will change us into His image. But to get here we have to expose what’s hidden, we have to be able to say, "Show me my heart Lord". Jesus grew and learned through the things He suffered, Heb.5:8. He was tested and tried and dealt with everything that we have to. God showed Jesus how and God will show us what has us bound; doubt, unbelief, hate, jealousy, unforgiveness and this list to goes on and on. God has to show us ourselves; otherwise the flesh will fight to live. Pretending these things are not there when God shows them to us is not what God has in mind. He shows them to us so that we can look at them, get past them and become naked before Him. Remember the refiner of silver; God’s reflection will be seen in you when you are finished. Only the religious run around pretending all is well with my soul, if it is then why do they feel like there in Hell every time God points something out to them?? They should rejoice that He loves them enough to show them and then He’s there to help get rid of it.

We are being renewed brought back to the place where we started out (one with the Father) except that now the Father is here in us. We are back in Him and He is moving and doing here in this earth, (YOU). We were saved at Calvary. Gal.2:20, at the Cross-the world, sin, flesh, and the devil were all defeated, terminated, finished! But to the religious it is all still very much alive and well. The author of the book "Coming Out Of Darkness" said it something like this, " If you cut a rose from its bush, the moment you cut it, it loses its life supply and is dead. But to the human perception the rose is still very much alive". At the Cross-our flesh lost its life supply, so learning that you are one with Christ will help you put the flesh back at the cross where it belongs and then this revelation will come alive in you. You will see the carnal nature lose the hold it’s had on you. After all dead men can’t talk, walk or feel.

As God renews our spirits we come alive, God touches us and we are never the same. The trip from the Cross-to the Throne takes a long time but time was made for our processing, (tests and trials) for bringing to life the seed that is in us. With it comes the understanding that we cannot do this through works, maybe that was what Paul was telling us in Rom.4:5; Philp.2:13; and Philp.1:6.

As God’s seed grows in us our faith in Him grows, we learn to trust in His abilities, His plans and His purposes, whether we understand them or not (we just know its His will). When God has us ready to receive He puts the ability in us to be able to look at and deal with the areas in our lives that need His transforming. We are still His and we are still justified, God says we are, 2Cor.5:19; Rom.8:29-30. We don’t have to look, feel, or act any certain way; we are just what He says we are, justified, through Him.

I know we have read these verses a hundred times but because of religion and what we’ve been taught by denominations, there has never been any power in them. Well, I can’t say never, because a few have pressed in and found the Truth and when they did God let them experience Him. Those of us in this room are being brought into a much greater revelation and understanding of what God is doing, right now with us His church! And that revelation is (God is filling His temple), which temple you are with His presence!

We have all tried (some of us desperately) to be the perfect Christian but we failed. Not any more, truth is now becoming understanding our eyes are being opened, these dry desert’s are going to spring forth with the water of the true Word, Isa.35:5-6. God never intended for us to be kept ignorant there’s no way that can be, not when His Spirit comes alive in us Rom.8:9-10. So walk in the Spirit, Gal.5:16, be lead by the Spirit, Rom.8:14, for you are spirit, 1Cor.3:18. We have all been trying to be and do something only God can be and do through us.

Zech.12:1, show us a picture of creation: the heavens, the earth and the spirit of man. God created the heavens and the earth so that He could create man and have a way to express Himself (LOVE) and physically (dwell) in us and this world’s system has conned God’s people into believing (that the best they can do is quit, die and go on home to heaven). When Truth says, God wants to come into this earth (us) and live and express Himself through His people, Eph.2:21-22.

God is Spirit, His substance is Spirit and He put that substance in man. When God renews our spirit His substance comes alive in us or we wake up, Rom.13:11; Eph.5:14, my God people, there is a sleeping Giant in you, (wake up mighty men)! It’s not natural and it has nothing to do with Adam. We were created out of the very substance of God, His divine essence; His life and nature are within each of us. Does this help bring, Rev.14:1; and Rev.22:4 to life. His name here represents His character and some of you here in this room have been renewed in the spirit of your minds and the name of God is being written on your foreheads. You are being transformed into His character and nature; you are becoming the fullness of God and finely Gal.2:20 makes since.

This is what the gospel is all about, its not what we do after we are saved. It’s not about making the natural man better. We each work out our own salvation by sitting at His feet, learning to here and obey His voice. Just knowing this is not enough, you must experience it, Jh.15:4-6. Abiding in Him is not making ourselves better people, its being like Him and bearing His fruit, 2Cor.5:17 a new creation, not the old made new. Col.2:9-10, nothing in the natural, we are only complete IN HIM. If He is the Vine and we are the branches, then we are NOT separated one from the other, we are one! If you cut a branch from the vine in the natural it dies, just like the example of the rose. So what God is trying to tell us here is, God and man are one not two. The church has taught us to feel separated from God because of Adams fall. Adam has nothing to do with us!!! Your fruit isn’t determined by how many you witness to or get saved, (they are ALL His and He died to save ALL men). Your fruit is His nature and character: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, meekness and self-control, flowing out from you. So if we still have unforgiveness, bitterness, hate and doubt you’re not abiding in Christ. Feeling you have a right to hold onto these things isn’t Christ either making the choice to forgive and then turn it over to God so that Christ in you can swallow up all of those feelings is Christ. So now Christ is being formed in you. Praise God?

Are flesh may not like a lot of things, (I don’t think Jesus did either) but like Jesus we to can make a choice to let the Father’s will be done and love because He is LOVE. We can learn to stand against our feelings and see Christ in everyone. If God doesn’t hold us accountable for our failures, where do we get off holding anyone accountable? Matt.18:32-35; 2Cor.5:19.

2Cor.6:16, when you can really believe and accept that you are the dwelling place of God, (not with your intellect but in reality) when your character takes on His character and you know your abiding in Him. Then you will worship Him in Spirit an in Truth. Praise God!

8-7-00

Dan.12:4, Knowledge has increased greatly in these last days, not just in the world but also spiritually. However knowledge without any change does nothing but puff people up and deceived. Knowing the Father as our Life, Truth, and the only Way, does not have a thing to do with our head knowledge, Ga1.1:15 & 16, Paul didn't just know about Him, God's Son was in him. When the blood was applied to Paul's life, Gal.2:20, he wasn't just forgiven he was delivered from the evil nature in him that caused what he did in the flesh. Paul exchanged his body of death for God's resurrected life. Rom.5:l0.

In Ex.12:7,12,&13, the death angel couldn't touch the houses that had the lambs blood applied to them. Without the blood they would suffer the same as Egypt. It wasn't going to do Israel one bit of good to know all of this and not sacrifice the lamb, knowing doesn't get us anywhere. Demons know that Jesus died for the world, didn't do them any good did it? Its not the knowing but the believing in ones heart that counts, Rom.10:9&10.

Ex.12:8 & Jh. 6:53-57. If we are what we eat, as they say, give me the Tree of Life to eat!!" Jesus didn't say "he who has eaten My flesh", He said, "he who eats " or continues to eat. So

we continually need to partake of Him and abide in Him and Him in us, to be one with Him. He is our true "Manna", Jh. 6:58. Just like Israel had to gather manna every day, so do we! We must fellowship with and be in His presence every day. Old revelation, what the preacher said last week, what you learned last year, none of it is going to feed us today. Setting aside one day a week for Him won't work. Reading your Bible once a day won't work. David knew how to seek God, Ps.63:1-8.

The drinking of His blood and eating of His flesh is symbolic of His Life and His Body (the church). The ritual of the Lord's Supper was a reminder not a substitute, I Cor.10:16&17. Communion was originally two words; Common and Union; in Greek= Koinonia, meaning (the using of a thing in common). It isn't the bread and wine that brings us together but what they represent. The Blood and Body of God. So when we partake in communion we are in common-union with Christ.1Cor.71:23-30. Paul is saying discern the body of Christ rightly. 1Jh.1:7. Fellowship Koinonia=Communion, Paul says the ritual is no substitute for the real thing. He also says being properly joined to the body of Christ, is not an option if true Life is going to flow through and out of us we must be properly joined to the Head. If we are joined properly to the Head we will be properly joined to the body. Eph.4:15&16.

Ex.12:9&10, God didn't give them any options on where or how and He doesn't give us any options when we say yes Lord, we have to take all of Him even the parts we don't like or want; things like (sell all you have and go; leave all you know and go where you know nothing; you lose a loved one for no reason you can understand; a loved one uses you over and over and its on you; etc. etc.). Matt. 13:44, this man sold all he owned so he could buy the field in which the treasure was found. God expects the same from us, to grow in Him until we want His will and accept all of Him, not just what we like and sometimes what He says or wants threatens us but its what we need even when it hurts us. He must be Lord and accepting Him as Lord starts our deliverance from self, if you say He is Savior and Lord but still act like you want to your deceived. Man's biggest problem has been making himself his own lord. The world has always looked up to a self-made man but God sees a self-made man as a deceived. Luke 9:25, Salvation without surrender is most likely without salvation. There has to be a change. Matt,16:25&26, There is no compromise if we want His Life we must be willing to share His Death. Remember Job had to loose everything before he realized all he ever needed was his Lord. When we can stand needing nothing but Christ, we’ll be free of bondage from anything or anyone but Him. Heb.12:29. The body of Christ (the church) is looking bad, not at all like the perfect body of Christ. Everyone wants to be the eye, arm, hand, etc, etc. The church has assumed they had the freedom to choose which part of the body they were willing to accept. To partake of the Lord's body, we must "eat the whole thing" Ex.12:8-10. Having only a piece of the truth has caused division in the body, it has caused the church to limit an unlimited God! The church was never meant to draw men in by all their programs, classes, and alter calls about death and hell, it was meant to minister to and equip men, once God has drawn them to Himself. King David saw a Truth about the body in Ps.133. When the church, in Spirit anoints the Head with worship and devotion, the oil will run down over the whole body of Christ. The church can have no pree-conceived ideas, its all God's way; He wants us free from the leaven of religion.

I Cor.5:6-8, and Matt.16:6. Most of the body has been quit spiritual yet not known Christ, Matt.7:22 & 23; John 15:4-8. To be joined to the church through Christ is Life. But seeking a union with the church (religion) is vain. Paul said deceren the body rightly and there are basic truths we must agree on to walk together; the reconciliation of God and man through the death of Jesus and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, Titus 3:5-7.

Satan's greatest victory over the church has been denominations (divided). Matt.18:19, but what awesome power God has for us when we agree when we no longer accuse our brothers when we are no longer divided over things that don't even matter, when we can agree in love we will be complete in Christ. I Cor.l:l0; 2 Cor 13:11-14. One mind, unity, grace, love, and fellowship.

I prayed for an ending to this study but God said there is no end. Because now it’s between you and Him. What will you do with what He has revealed to you?

Heb.12:26-27 This judgment is to remove anything that is not God. It's also to establish and purify what is God's, so that it can stand.

The Lord is not coming back to condemn the world, He's coming to build and establish His Kingdom and He won't build it on what is here.

It must first be cleansed of everything that He did NOT build. Matt.15:13; Pet.4:17 This judgment starts with the household of God, us! And it comes to us first because #1 the church has always pointed a finger at the world for its sins, while living in idolatry and self-centeredness from behind its clean church doors. #2 When the world falls apart we will be established in the strength of Christ, (we’ll know who we really are) and be able to minister life and healing.

Idols aren’t always things we worship its anything we trust in or give most of our attention to then God. The church has been lulled to sleep by a false security; one NOT founded on Christ but on the world and its systems. Our Lord isn't impressed with our religious programs, anyone can teach a dog to set. The Lord paid for us with His blood, so we should not live for ourselves but for Him anything less is idolatry, Gal.2: 20 we should learn from Paul here.

When the rich young ruler came to Jesus in Lk.18:18-23, Jesus

didn’t offer him a compromise to save him and He doesn't offer us one, Lk.14:33; Jam.4:4; Mk.8:34-38; Matt.10:34-39; Rom.8:17; Phil.1:29; 1Pet.4:12-19, no room their for compromise. The church has tried to candy coat the WORD, so that little or nothing is required from us. But God requires everything from us, read the instruction manual. Lk.14:25-33. The church has made cripples out of God's son's, by teaching a watered down, false, self-centered gospel. Heb.5:12-14. The church has made spiritual babies and when judgment comes and it will, these babies are going to find the WAY to hard. They will fall away saying, " this can't be God 1Tim.4:1. Only those who have truly lost their lives to Christ will be able to stand in what is coming on the church first then the world. 1Pet.4:11 God is going to shake everything that can be shaken Heb.12:26-29 and there is not a church, ministry, or person who will not be touched by the fire. We will all be humbled before our Lord. Pride started the fall and its removal from the church will end her fall and begin her glory.

In Ex.32, is the story of the golden calf that Israel made in the wilderness, why did they do this? Because they didn't like waiting= self; they wanted a nice pastor and didn't want to be accountable to God themselves= self; they wanted it there way= self; they didn't want to spend the time with God= self. Carnal, ignorant, self-centered=SELF. How many golden calves do we need to get rid of? Jobs, money, children, husbands, wives, homes, anything the world has to offer. The Lord is going to grind all of our substitutes for Him into powder, Lk.20:17-18 The seven churches in Revelation were a look at church history. Laodicea was the last church wrote to, Rev.3:14-22 and because I feel we are the last day church I looked at these scriptures very hard. I felt God was warning us and I didn't like the lukewarm part, I guess I didn't want to see us like that but look at the definition of LUKEWARM= neither hot or cold, halfhearted, indifferent, not enthusiastic. Looks like it to me.

The church on the other hand sees itself wealthy and in many ways it is as far as history goes, but in true life and power it is poor, blind and naked. Poor in spirit, blind to the truth, and naked to the world, because the world sees we have nothing better then they do, they wonder where our God is and what power? But I also saw the greatest hope for this last day church in the promise; IF she overcomes the luke warmness that’s been generated by religion and gets out of her comfort zone the Lord will move. In v20, The Lord stands knocking at her door, He's seeking to come in to them and change them. And today He is seeking to enter and give us more revelation and truth then any church in history, God has given this church the printed Bible and books with every revelation printed for us to read. He's given us Pastors, Evangelist, Teachers, Prophets, Apostles and the Holy Spirit to teach us. We have been given more truth and knowledge then any other church but have we appreciated this great blessing? The Apostle Paul would have given anything to live now. So why are we lukewarm? Why is the leaven, laws, and lie's still in the church? (SELF, PRIDE)

God has given us power and authority never seen since the early church. Not because of our righteousness but because He has chosen this time and this people and to those who overcome the spirit of luke warmness, they will see things talked about in the Bible and more. The Lord has saved His best for last and that’s us, Hag. 2:9.This doesn't mean the (house, body, church, us) is greater, it means the glory in us will be greater, (HIS glory in us

Some things to look at: Jh.3:30; Rom.8:14; Rev.3:18-19; Gal.2:20; Matt.10:39.

The Lord in His mercy will send a clear warning to us to judge ourselves. The Lord loves to show us His mercy; He wants our DISCIPLINE to be as easy as possible. But if we refuse to repent, (because of His love) His wrath will follow. 1Jh. 1:9-10; 1Cor.11:31-32.

All through the Bible we are urged not to be ignorant, Rom.10:3; Rom.11 :25; 1Cor.14:38; 1Cor.12:1&10: 2 Pet.3:5 so don't believe the lie that ignorance will excuse you. All will hear His warning; even those caught up in self and self will cost a terrible price. Neglect always cost, no one will have an excuse. Right now is the time to repent for being lukewarm and self-centered. Its time to hold on tight to our Lord and our commitment to Him. Its time He was Lord. Its time for Him to consume us, spirit, soul, and body. Take this revelation and never let it be watered down or candy coated AGAIN, never let it be stole by religion again.1Cor.6:20. We are God’s; lets start acting like Him.

The "WAY" isn't a formula, it’s a PERSON; the "TRUTH" isn’t knowing the Bible, it’s a PERSON. We won’t know the true WAY or the TRUTH if we don't know Him as our "LIFE" Its a relationship not facts and written pages and only that relationship can prepare us for what is to come.

CHRIST IS OUR ONLY ESCAPE!

Again God is showing me types and shadows; I said something to Dale Saturday about a friend of his, I felt God was saying his friend was wasting his wilderness experience. The more I thought about what I had said, the more it convicted my heart, how many times had I wasted my wilderness experience?

1Cor.10:1-7; The Bible tells us Israel was delivered from Egypt through the Passover, through the baptism of the Red Sea, and under the power of the cloud (or God) and they were joined to the Father through Moses. We have this same experience, Rom.6:4-14; the cross, (our Passover) that delivered us from the world, (or Egypt) took us through the baptism of water, (our Red Sea) then we follow the presence of God, (the cloud) and we are joined to the Father through Christ.

Lk.12:49-50; Water baptism was not what was distressing Jesus here. He was speaking of His crucifixion. Remember what He said to James and John in Mk.10:38. To be baptized with His baptism, is to be conformed to the purpose of His death and to lay down our lives for others. 2Tim.2:11-13; Rom.8:16-17; Phil.3:9-11; Phil.1:29; 2Cor.4:8-11; Jh.16:1-4; need anymore proof? Jesus made it clear; if we partake of His life we must partake of His death. It’s the only way we are His totally.

After passing through the Red Sea the Israelites must have thought they were home free. But they were far from it and had no idea that God’s greatest miracles are only seen when His people come to the end of their abilities. That is why we all must go through the wilderness experience, so that we will come to the end of our abilities.

Ex.3:8; God promised Israel the land of milk and honey. But after the Red Sea He takes them to a place that has no water, this confused them. It continues to confuse many that follow the Lord today. I am sure you know the place between the Promise and the Fulfillment; it’s our wilderness experience. No matter what the promise, there will always be a place that requires real faith. Abraham, Joseph, David, and the church were all promised things by God and all had to wait in faith. The church has waited 2000 years to rule and reign with Christ. Why? Because we must be "Prepared." Israel’s experience was to mature their faith and to build a place so that God could dwell with them. In our wilderness experience we will become a dwelling place for God. Our wilderness will hold some of our greatest difficulties, but it will also hold some of the most awesome experiences. Like Israel, we will have to know thirst before we will drink from the Rock, Ex.17:6. We must also be hungry before we will taste the manna from heaven, Ex.16:8-15. Our wilderness is not a curse, as most of us believe, but rather a blessing. It is a place where the world will lose its grip on our hearts and our minds will be renewed, Eph.4:23-24. A place where our carnal nature is broken and the Lord start's ruling our lives. This is the place where we become the Lord’s captives. It’s a time when our Father is really being our Daddy; He is teaching, training, correcting, encouraging and holding us up.

Once we are able to get a grip on all that is being done for us in our wilderness experience, maybe we will truly understand Jam.1:2-4.

I found a great piece of revelation in Paul’s wilderness experience and I hope it will become revelation to you to. After his conversion Paul went into the wilderness for a time, Gal.1:11-17. No man taught him there the Father revealed His Son in him, not to him. In our wilderness we come and abide in Him and He in us. This was one of the things Jesus asked the Father for before His death, Jh.17:20-23. Do you think that Father would deny Jesus this request? NO!!!!! Thus the reason why He takes us through our wilderness experience.

Could you imagine two million people and thousands of herds of animals kicking up dust and not having any water for days? I could understand why Israel started complaining. This test God had designed was also to be a great opportunity for Israel. The greater the test the greater faith it brings. True faith doesn’t stop because of disappointment; true faith will be strengthened by it. True faith knows how to turn lemons into lemon-aid. True faith looks and sees that God is doing the testing. Israel reacted to their trials with grumbling and complaining rather than with faith. The wilderness is meant to test our faith; if we are not tested we can’t grow. We must learn to take every opportunity to grow in our wilderness experience, and I’m sorry its not meant to be easy.

The distance from where Israel left Egypt to their promise land was about a 12-day journey on foot but they didn’t get through it that fast. Their lack of faith (their complaining) was a big part of why it took 40 years and the death of an entire generation. Unfortunately this hurts many Christians today who have made the same mistakes. 1Cor.10:1-5, those who have died (or gone on into the Father) were not lost they were a type and they experienced salvation either through Passover or the Cross. They experienced baptism through the Red Sea or into Christ. They were even God’s priests and ministers but they never entered their Promised Land.

There is far more to our purpose in God than just being saved. The Lord didn’t bring Israel out of Egypt just to save them from slavery. His purpose was to use them as His vehicle to save the entire world from slavery. I guess it was far better for us that they died in the wilderness then if they had never left Egypt, wouldn’t you agree? Most Christians today, having decided to separate from the world, wonder somewhere between this world and their Promised Land. But God did not call us out, to perish in the wilderness! It’s not our home. God doesn’t want us there any longer then its necessary. God has called us out of Egypt (the world), but we must get past all of the grumbling and complaining. These two things caused the Israelites major problems and they will cause us major problems too. First it destroys our faith, then it destroys the faith of those around us, 2Cor.3:2. Israel caused God to become very angry with all they’re complaining, Num.14:27; and they would not trust God to do what was best for them. We do the same thing, we think we know what is best for us and we don’t! We must stop fighting against God and let Him do what He has purposed for us, Heb.3:7-19.

Faith moves God, faith is our path to fulfillment, and unbelief keeps us in the wilderness, Heb.11:6. How many times have we seen God’s hand move, and still doubt? Israel did it to and it angered God, Num.14:11-12 &22-23.

Ps.22:3; If God inhabits the praises of His people, then complaining is not the language of praise. In our wilderness we will learn to praise and God will come in and dwell with us. It’s the place where we learn how to believe, and where we will give Him true praise.

God has ordained the wilderness for us to go, through it. Why? Because that is where God separates us from ourselves. Where we find out what faithful means. There won’t be any pretenders in the promise land. When we start this walk not many of us have much faith, but in the wilderness many of us will become truly faithful, and full of faith. God has a purpose for everything in our lives. His purpose for our wilderness experience is to separate us from everything the world has taught us. Then He will perfect us, Phil.2:13-14. To know truth we must be truth. If we want His glory, we must be cleansed and stripped of this world. Pain and suffering don’t clean us up, but the faith we gain in that wilderness experience will help us endure, 2Cor.3:17-18.

Did you ever hear an altar call where the preacher said "Come to Jesus, all you who have sinned and Jesus will wreck your life." Well neither Have I, but maybe they should say something along those lines. Because we have a room full of people here who are living proof that this is not a cakewalk. It’s not meant to be a picnic like the Church has made it out to be. I haven’t seen a place in the Bible yet where it didn’t cost everything to follow Him, Lk.14:26-33. We will all be taken through the wilderness experience and the "Church" had better start telling people the truth, Matt.23:15. For far to long the Church has tried to make people fit where they were never meant to fit, (into this worlds system) and its time for the lies to stop, its time for the truth, Jh.8:31-32.

I read once about a man who was killed in one of Hitler’s concentration camps, he said a very hard thing, "When Jesus calls a man, He bids him to come and die." I thought this sounded a lot like Matt.16:24-27. The Lord never said His way was easy, only that it would be worth it all. There is only one path to the Promised Land, and it goes through the wilderness. This is the hardest road to walk, but He promised He would never leave us or forsake us. So buckle your seat belt, shut your mouth, and hold on to His hand. This is no "E" ticket ride, this is where we come into, Eph.4:13-16. No longer babies, no longer children, having God’s love in us, His mind in us, doing what we were put here to do, being made a "perfect man". We do not belong to ourselves; we are not who the world has taught us we are, 1Cor.6:20. We are His, bought with His blood.

Growing up is never easy; we have to learn many hard things. But as we grow we will learn to look for the treasure God gives us in all things. We are to be like our Father, and nothing bothers, scares, or takes Him by surprise. His footprints are very big because we are still growing. But we are growing everyday and in every way into Him. That is why some day we will be able to say what our brother in, Jh.5:19; Jh.14:10. So thank Father for His promises and put on your seat belt.

I’m either stuck on this wilderness thing, or in Exodus. A few weeks ago we took a look at a hard thing, (our wilderness experience). But even when we felt we couldn’t go on, God was there with us. He always comes through, not always the way we want Him to. After a big test or trial all we want is God’s peace, a time of refreshing but God doesn’t always come through for us right when we want Him to. He’s there but not in the way we think He should be and most important we learned we need to accept whatever it is God gives us. Because it is just what we need, whether we like it or not. It’s still necessary to our walk.

People today don’t see things this way; they expect things to always be safe, peaceful, comfortable, and convenient, 1Thes.5:3. But oh contraire, God has planned many difficulties for us and most if not all will be beyond our understanding, Isa.55:8-9. God’s ways have always and still do challenge the Church and its Theology.

When people are assured by their Church, belief, or teachings, that they are out of here in a rapture, gone before any trouble comes, they had better take some time out and talk to God, Matt.24:6-13. Even if they were out of here before it all comes apart, this say’s "the beginning". So enduring the beginning is going to blow some major holes in their theology. V13, Endure to the end! Oh contraire, bad things do happen to good Christian people, even if the modern day Church doesn’t want to believe it. They need to read their Bible’s (through the Spirit) and build a relationship with the Father, or they will never understand anything He is doing on their behalf. Having an open, (conversing) relationship is what helps us endure the hard things, knowing He is right there with us is what gets us through it.

We are members of God’s household, Gal.6:10; Eph.2:19(AMP). How can judgment begin with the household of God if it doesn’t start with us? 1Pet.4:17-19. V19, according to the WILL of God and His judgments. The word judgment in Greek is krisis {kree'-sis} Strongs #2920 which gives us our word (crisis). Webster’s says crisis is "the point in a disease when it is determined if a patient lives or dies." (A good definition I thought.) Because that’s where the Church is. They can believe what they hear from man or they can believe what God says, life or death. The troubles that we go through and the troubles that are coming upon this earth are not punishments, they are however preparing us for to endure. They are meant to help us endure and show God’s light in the darkest of times. Our lights are meant to shine in the darkness, not in the light; Isa.60:2. Oh no, God, judgment, us, oh contraire, a good God wouldn’t discipline His children, would He?

Enduring brings promotion in the Kingdom. Oh contraire, each test we pass we gain more spiritual authority and then we qualify for a greater test. What fun, huh? God’s testing of His faithful is and always has been more intense than His testing of the faithless. God knows what we can handle and His tests will be hard for those who religion has brain- washed into believing "nothing but good comes to those who say they love the Lord." Remember what Jesus said, Matt.7:13-14 ; Matt.7:21-27.

After God gave Israel manna from Heaven, He gave them instructions for the Sabbath, Ex.16:22-29. Learning to enter God’s rest is our key to receiving fresh manna. There wasn’t any rest in the day God chose but the rest was and is in Him. God told Moses in Ex.33:14, that He would give him rest. Or in Him Moses would have rest. But if we are not one (yoked) with God how can we hear from Him? Yoked should mean (made ready for work), but not with God, Matt.11:29-30, when we are yoked with God it is His energy and His strength that gets the job done, not ours. Col.3:23, Paul says our attitude toward doing things in this world should be as onto the Lord. He says to do things as if we were doing them for the Lord. If in every thing, our job, our words and our actions, we would put God first we could have a glorious time of worship with our Father every day. Things become a burden, boring or painful when we do them for ourselves, as a personal favor, to gain money or things, or if we do it out of guilt. When we put on any yoke other than God’s we will get tired because we are using our energy not His. Oh contraire, God surely wouldn’t do that to those He loves. Yes He will!

It is not an accident God gave Israel the Sabbath when He gave them the manna. Because only in Him, in His rest can our manna be fresh everyday. Only in Him can we live and move and have our being, Acts17:28; apart from Him, we can do nothing. Jesus said He was the bread of life, our fountain of life, He was the manna in the wilderness, Jh.6:48-51. We learned in our wilderness experience study that we must hunger and thirst for Him. To live we must have water, this is the revelation of Christ and it is hard for most to understand, Col.1:16-17. Knowing God’s ways leads us to His rest, Ps.103:7. Moses was something else; he got right in God’s face so to speak, when God wanted to destroy Israel Moses had the confidence to stand between the Lord and His people. In Num16:47-48, When the plague came into the camp, Moses made intercession and took his stand between God and Israel again. There was no law or doctrine that said incense and intercession would stop a plague. Moses knew what to do because he knew God’s ways. Look how Moses spoke to God, it wasn’t doctrine or religion; Ex.33:12-14. Oh contraire; having the right doctrine is not going to help us, saying the right scriptures won’t help either. Nothing works if God isn’t there with us. Moses knew this and he never moved unless God did, he knew God’s heart because he had taken the time to build a relationship with Him. If Jesus is our pattern, so is Moses, neither said or did anything without God’s presence there with them, (To have that with God is my prayer! I hope it’s yours.)

Most people can go days without food but not long without water. If Christ were removed from this earth everything would die, even those who don’t believe He exists. He alone holds everything together. Christ is our Rock and we must learn to draw water from the rock, 1Cor.10:4; in our wilderness, we will learn, He is our Rock. We will learn we’re not here to please men, Eph.6:6-8; Gal.1:10; 1Thes.2:4. Oh contraire, we are here to do His will and to serve where He says, we’re not here for our own pleasure.

If all God wanted in the garden was obedience, I don’t believe He would have given Adam and Eve a choice. He didn’t put the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" in the garden to temp them. So it must have been for their perfection. Oh contraire, otherwise He would have made them so they couldn’t disobey Him. The angels had to make a choice too, to serve God or follow Satan. It seems to me in order for God to receive obedience from our hearts; He had to allow us a choice. I’m sure the greater our choices the worse off we could be in the natural, but imagine how proud our Father is when we chose to obey Him from our hearts. I believe this helps build our relationship with Him too. Take a look at the Pharisees, devoted to the Scriptures, but an enemy of the Word Himself. We can see the same thing today in the religious, the way they outwardly protect what the Scriptures say making them an enemy of the Truth, oh contraire, The Church or the (modern-day Pharisees) try to control the body of Christ through intimidation and condemnation. But when we have a relationship with the Father and we know the Father knows us, we will not be controlled or manipulated because we will know the TRUTH and He will set us free.

Another place the religious have tried to take us is the "prosperity message" you know, where God gives houses, cars, boats, money, etc. etc. to those who do His will. But God showed me, Rom.14:17. It’s spiritually NOT what we have in the natural, its what we have in Him, the righteousness, peace and joy, oh contraire, religion messed it up again.

God has shown us so many things in this walk Israel had to make through the wilderness, some were wonderful, some were painful and some have opened the written word for us. I think, with all the tests that Dale and I are going through along with all the testing those around us are going through God knew we needed to take a good long look at the Israelites in their wilderness, so that we would better understand what He was doing with us in our wilderness and where He is taking us. Hopefully God will open our eyes to see, our ears to hear and our hearts to repent for our doubt and prepare Heb.4:12-16. Spend time alone in His presence, sit at His feet, worship Him, He loves you so much, it’s time we give up this world and what it tries to offer us and it’s time we take our places in the Kingdom of God. We have done our thing long enough, religion has had us far to long. We were not put here to do our thing, oh contraire, we were put here to do God’s thing, Eph.1:5; 1Cor.6:19-20; 1Cor.7:23. We are bought and paid for, we are not our own, nor do we belong to this world, men, or religion. We are God’s special people, His possession and His private property. Oh contraire!

Jh.14:1-6; Boy this got my attention; Jesus said, "In My Father’s House ARE many mansions". (Mansion = In Greek = Meno = abiding place; home, or abode) But check this out, the mansions are already there. If we are Christ’s abode then He must have been speaking of those who have gone on home into the Father. That would make many abodes or mansions already there. (ABODE =the place where one abides, dwelling place, habitation, or home.) Jh.14:23; 1Cor.6:16-17; Eph.2:22; 1Cor.3:16-17. So when Jesus said, "I am going to prepare a place for you". He sure wasn’t talking about the mansions already in His Father’s house, was He? Boy, they never taught this where I went to church. Lets look at v3 and v6 again in Jh.14, now go to Jh.4:24, it plainly say’s "God is Spirit". Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God, Col.1:15. Now I’m going to substitute a word here in Jh.14:6, Jesus said, "No one comes to the Spirit except through Me". So what the Father is, is what we are coming to, but to get there we must go through the "Way," the door, Jesus. Don’t get lost, I’m not saying dead and gone here but alive and well on planet earth in these bodies.

This house from heaven is far greater in its abilities then this fleshly tent we have with its limits. In Acts 8:26-40, is the story of Philip and the Ethiopian, look at v29 and v39, we can see through the Spirit’s help what these bodies are capable of when God has need of them. Gen.18:1-33, is about Abraham speaking with and eating with Spirits who had taken on a human form. Again we can see what great things the spirit realm holds. 2Kgs.2:11-12; Elijah was and then he was not. Heb.11:5; Enoch, was a friend of God and he was and then he was not, for God translated him into the spirit realm, or into Him. The bible is full of stories about the unlimited power of the spirit realm, Jh.20:26, Jesus just walked in on them, through locked doors and windows. Nothing could keep Him out; He went from the spirit realm to touchable realm.

Jh.14:11-12, we wonder about these words and I think maybe we have even taken them lightly, or as impossible. Did you ever notice the word "because" in there? It means (that which follows is the reason why), "Because I go to My Father". That is why its possible for us to do the same things and greater. But where did Jesus have to go? I’m sure there were some puzzled faces looking at Him when He said this. He had just said in v11, "The Father was in Him and He was in the Father" then v12, He says He is going to the Father. But if we substitute the word Spirit for Father again it makes since. It then reads, "Believe Me that I am in the Spirit and the Spirits is in Me", "…because I go to the Spirit". So because this physical Jesus went into the Father or Spirit realm, we will do greater works. Why? Because (the Spirit), is now in us. At Pentecost that Spirit was poured out on the church and great things happened. Now that same Spirit has been poured into us, Jh.14:17. Why was all this necessary? Because; God could NOT come into sinful flesh. So through Jesus’ death, God cleaned us up, making us holy vessels for the Spirit to come into and dwell.

I heard someone say, " God made the universe to put the world in. He made the world to put man in. He made man to put His Spirit in." I never really understood that until now, awesome.

Paul had wonderful revelations from God, one of them is found in 2Cor.5:1-8. Paul saw more then most men and he groaned for this to come. He understood Col.1:27 well. Think on this, God is building this house, a house not made with human hands, a home for Him. But when all of these houses come together, what will God have? A City!! "A Holy City." That excited me.

Lets take a look at that word groan Paul is always using. Groan = (to utter a deep moan of annoyance, grief or pain.) I thought Paul was more annoyed, so I looked up, Annoyance = (the state of feeling or being, vexed, irritated, or a nuisance.) I think Paul felt all of these things. Because he makes it real clear he wants into the Father. Rom.8:22-23AMP, now we are not literally walking around all sad, groaning and complaining that God isn’t getting this done fast enough for us but inside we have anticipation, a wanting, a growing hunger, for what God is doing, and a desire to see it come quickly. We want to see the manifested sons of God, we want the unveiling, the adoption, we have an eager anticipation. Lets go back to 2Cor.5:2-4, Paul says, "Clothed with", sounds like a garment to me. Something we can put on over what we already have. He uses house too, but that clothed thing got my attention, if I’m clothed with it, I can’t be found naked. This opened a can of worms for me. Adam and Eve walked with God, they disobeyed and they were naked. Was this what had happened to Jesus? Was this where other "realm travelers" came and went from? Enoch, Gen.5:24, he was, then he was not, Elijah, 2Kgs.2:11, he was there and then he was not there. There have been many and still are many, they are here and then they are not. (The Realm of the Spirit clothed = not seen. Naked = seen) something to think on. Paul knew so much, he had all of the gifts working through him, and he had healed the sick, raised the dead and preached the gospel. But he said there was more he wanted. (People, I believe we haven’t seen anything yet! 2Cor.5:5AMP, is our guarantee we will see it all!)

Heb.9:24-26AMP, Christ has entered into the invisible realm, the presence of God. Heb.6:19-20, Why did He do all of this for us? Because we could not get there until He went and prepared us a "place, the WAY". He took His body of flesh into that realm, into His Father and made the "Way" for other bodies to come into that realm, Acts 17:28.

The bible makes it very clear that we have something very special in us, 2Cor.4:7; 2Cor.4:16-17; Isa.40:31;Eph.1:4 and a million more scriptures. In our earthen vessels, tents, houses, abodes, we have the presence of the living God! So let us have this same attitude, Phil.2:5-8AMP.

We all have a picture in our minds of what God may look like; I’ve heard some say, a grandpa type figure, others, the UNTOUCHABLE GOD. But He is far bigger and much more awesome then what we can imagine. He doesn’t have a physical body, that was reserved for Jesus Christ, Rev.3:14; and He was the beginning of creation, Adam was only an avenue, (through the fall), by which God could put His life into mankind, (through the Son). Jh.14:28: and Phil.2:6; I’ve always heard it taught they were equal, but Jesus just said, His Father was greater then Him. I could have wondered about this one awhile, but I know God is Spirit, so I knew what Jesus meant. The Spirit was greater then the flesh. Jesus was in His fleshly body at this time and He knew that the kind of existence that His Father had was far greater then what He had here on the earth in human form. Jh.17:4-5; "before the world was," before creation, He had glory in the Father. But He did not have it here on the earth and He wanted it back! Phil.2:7AMP, says Jesus emptied Himself and was made like us, even to being born of a woman. Jesus was the nature of God, but He took upon Himself the nature of man. He had no body before this He was Spirit. Heb.10:5AMP; Says, a body was prepared for Him. So when He was crucified and resurrected, He not only got His glory in the Father back He also took His body back with Him. A piece of flesh came from out of the realm of glory and died for us, why? To rent the veil, to open the door, to make the way, so we could come into the place prepared for us, into the likeness of God. He didn’t die on that cross because He could not get off of it, He died to finish His Father’s work and make "The Way". His glory with the Father was the very nature, likeness, and substance of God Himself. This was what Jesus had in the beginning and He wanted it again. Jh1:1-3AMP. Now don’t misunderstand me here, Jh.1:14, says, "they saw His glory", the glory of the Son of God. But not the Glory He had in the Father. Rom.8:1-11, says it all, Amen! Man was once there, but now we have been birthed out of death into life, no longer to be controlled by the flesh but by the Spirit. In Jh.1:14, where it says, "the Word became flesh", flesh here is "sarx in the Greek", meaning a holy nature not a sinful nature. Rom.11:16; 1Cor.3:17; 1Pet.2:5; Eph.1:4; Col.1:21-22.

All of this made me look at the Tabernacle in the wilderness. The Tabernacle held the glory of God and it was covered with skins, white goatskins, dyed red ram skins, and badger skins of dark brown. I saw this as a symbol that God would put His glory in men of different colors. Then I looked at the Temple Solomon built. The first thing he did was to put all of the furniture from the Tabernacle into the Temple. To me this was a symbol of the glory that is going to be in our new bodies (our glorified bodies) already in us and in time it will be manifested greater. We have everything we need but it all belongs to God. I’m so glad God didn’t wait until I had that "house from heaven" before He could put His glory in me. He did it while I was still in this unglorified body, covered with skin, what an awesome God.

There were so many wonderful points to the Tabernacle but I’m only going to share a few with you, then you can speak to the Father about them on your own. Outer Court (mans abilities). In the sanctuary where the candlestick is, it measured 2,000 cubits. Candlestick = Church = Church Age, 2,000 cubits = 2,000 years. The next area in the Tabernacle, was the Holy of Holies, it measured 1,000 cubits, and held the Glory of God, the very presence of God. 1,000 years will we rule and reign in the very presence and glory of God. Rev2:26-29; but I saw a great mystery here too, to rule and reign during this 1,000 years we must put the final enemy under our feet. That enemy is death. This left me with things running through my mind. Things I did not want to look at now. Rev.20:4; could give you something to talk to God about.

I’d really like to spend more time looking at the tabernacle of David here but it would take another three pages, so I’ll save it for another time. But I will give you a little peek, Amos9:11; Acts15:16-18. God is speaking about end times here. Have a talk with Him.

Meditate on these things, 1Jh.3:9; 1Pet.2:4-5&9; Eph.4:6; 1Cor.3:17. In Jh.14, Philip asked to see the Father, basically the answer here is, "LOOK AT ME"! Look at each other!

A LOOK AT JESUS

Its time we came to the knowledge of who we are and what God is doing within us at this time. It’s time for some deep revelation on the purposes of God. To get this done I started with a look at Jesus.

Why did He come to earth? What did He do here? Who was He? What did He leave here? If we never get past Calvary, we may think all He was, was a sacrifice to appease an angry God. Let’s see what we can find in the written word.

Isa.9:6, Israel knew God was going to send them a Deliverer. All of their prophets had declared it. But they didn’t know Him when He came to them. Isaiah had plainly told them, "a child, a Son, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace". To understand why Israel didn’t recognize Jesus as their Deliverer we only need to look at the majority of those who call themselves Christians today, because they don’t know there Prince of Peace as the Mighty God or Everlasting Father either. So who are we to come down on the Israelites so hard? Their religious leaders led them astray and so have ours. Rev.21:7, Sounds simple, overcome, He will be our God and we will be His sons. But without the Holy Spirit to give us revelation what a mess the carnal mind makes of it.

We all know Peter’s historic answer to who Jesus was, Matt.16:16. But there was so much more to Jesus that they never knew, until after His resurrection. Doubting Thomas couldn’t believe that Jesus had risen until he saw and touched Him. (I liked Thomas, he didn’t just believe what anyone said; he wanted to know that he knew. Maybe he was a lot more like some of us in this room then we may have though; we won’t swallow just any preaching or doctrine, not until we get a personal revelation from the Holy Spirit.) The church has always preached that Thomas was wrong to this, maybe because they are still stuck in bondage and Thomas’s way left them to many holes for freedom in the Spirit. Thomas never knew or received Jesus as God until Jh.20:27-28. God always meets the hungry heart wherever it is, so make sure you keep yours hungry.

The Apostle John tells us in Jh.1:1&14, that the Word was God and was made flesh and lived among them. Jh.14:9, Jesus said if you see Me you have seen the Father. Jh.10:30, Jesus says again, the Father and I are one. 1Jh.1:1-2, says, Jesus was from the beginning. 1Jh.5:20, calls Him the true God. Acts2:36, says, Jesus is both Lord and Christ. Paul says in Eph.4:6, One God and Father of all. Paul’s, understanding of Christ was about the best I can find in the bible. In 1Tim.3:16, Paul says a lot. Heb.1:8, Says a very interesting thing also. Rev.1:8, The Lord Almighty, Rev.4:8, the four beasts call Jesus, "the Lord God Almighty".

Jh.14:6-11, now look at v8, Philip ask Jesus, "show us the Father", Jesus seems a bit put out that Philip still doesn’t have a revelation of who He is. He tells them He and the Father are one. He says when you’ve seen Me you have seen the Father.

God’s purpose has never changed; God has always wanted a family, a people who would be in His likeness and image, birthed through Him and the Holy Spirit. Rom.8:29; Eph.1:10-12; 2Cor.3:18; "as in a mirror, a reflection" or as " looking into". So as we behold the glory of the Lord we are continually being transformed into His image by the Spirit, whom Jesus left here with us so that He could go back to the Father and stand in the gap for us. We then with ever increasing glory will reflect what we behold, the Father. So Jesus came to restore us back to the Father, to cleans us from sin and have His life once again through us, 1Cor.3:16-17; 1Cor.6:19; Eph.2:21-22.

1Cor.15:45-47; makes it sound like only two men ever existed on earth. The first man, Adam, formed by God through the dust of the earth or the soul realm and the second Adam, Jesus, when the Word became flesh or the "Life giving Spirit", bringing us back to the Father through the Son in the same manor as He was birthed, Jam.1:18Amp. We have been birthed and translated into His Kingdom; we are not of this earth nor are we a part of the first Adam, but part of God through the second Adam, Jesus. Born of a woman, through our Father "God" and our Mother the "Holy Spirit", restoring us back to the Family of God. What a great inheritance, Rom.8:17-18, we are joint heirs with the Father and with Christ. Rev.21:7, says, we inherit "all things". But check this out God has an inheritance in us too, Eph.3:9-10Amp, that He might make known to principalities and powers, through the Church, the unfathomable wisdom of God. Where will Satan and all of his principalities and powers see this glorious Church, manifesting God? Well, I’ve heard the Church will never see this perfection until it gets to heaven. That’s rich; I can just see God bringing Satan and his entourage to heaven so He can parade His Church before them. I don’t think so. Or maybe God will take the Church on a field trip, "to hell and back in 3 days", Not! Then where? Right here on this earth is where I believe it will be. Not now, not yet, but soon, because God is bringing forth His eternal purposes. He is perfecting His body, the Church. Then here on earth, on the field of battle the victory will be displayed. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Eph.3:11-19.

1Pet.1:3-5, "Ready to be revealed in the last days." God made everything to produce after its own kind, Gen.1:21, 24-25, 28. So fallen Adam could only produce those in his image, who would fall to the world and its soulish realm. So it is with Jesus, He can only produce sons in His Fathers image, sons who have a life giving spirit in them and are called to a higher realm then fallen man. Jesus never intended for us to be stay in the image of the "Man from Galilee", sinless but limited. Rom.8:15; makes it very clear when it says, we have received the Spirit of adoption, or the Spirit that produces sonship. To produce sons who will bear all of His eternal glory, Jh.17:20-21, Jh.16:7. This however could only be done when His work was finished here, Jh.12:24. He had to die, be resurrected and be glorified in order to pour out His Spirit and produce children in the likeness and nature of His Father.

Our destiny is to be One with Him in His glory, we’re not just here to use His gifts. The gifts lie in the realm of faith and have been used by many that never came into the realm that we are headed into now. Praise God!

Perhaps these end time sons will have dominion once again over all of God’s creation, Gen.1:26. Maybe they have been called to restore this earth back to its place of beauty and life. Maybe they are truly the "Overcomers" and will destroy every enemy, Rev.3:21. Then perhaps they will be the ones to turn the true Kingdom over to Jesus the Christ, making Him the Head that will have a glorious body. Perhaps their mission is to fulfill Matt.8:20.

I believe Jesus laid aside everything He had to save us, including His glory with the Father, to do a job that only He could do. In Jh.17:5, we hear Jesus asking His Father an awesome thing, "To be glorified with the Father once again." God did glorify Him, He restored to Him all He had laid aside, and now He is perfecting the body, His Body, His Church and His sons! He guaranteed it Eph.3:19-21. Let me do one of my Rexie 1:1 things here; before the world existed, Jesus was, what He was and what He is, is so great I don’t think we comprehend it yet. But whatever He was, He laid it aside and came to earth to be just like us and by His doing this we could be changed into what He is, 2Cor.5:21. And He did this for us because He loved us. He became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. He left His glory, to bring us into the Father’s glory.

We are Gods people and we will not get out of here one minute before God is ready. So drop the "I’ll fly away" and "I’m out of here before any trouble starts", attitude. Get rid of the "I’ll be satisfied with a little cabin in the corner of heaven", attitude its religious. Rom.8:17, Says, "were joint heirs with Christ." If this is true we are in for more than we can imagine, think on that for a moment, joint heirs with God. Awesome! We are going somewhere and we are going to do more then we can dare to believe for, through (the Spirit, the anointing) and the Father in us Acts17:24-31.

Job.38:22-23, This got my attention, God is challenging Job from out of a whirlwind when all of a sudden God shows him the end times, the "great tribulation" the perfected body of Christ. Eph.6:13, calls it the "evil day", Heb.10:25, says "the day", Joel 4:5 says "the day of the Lord", and Matt.24:21, calls it the "great tribulation". Whatever its called it seems pretty clear that the over comers will be here on earth on that day. Religion has tried to get us to believe and accept that we will be out of here before that "Day". I guess they don’t want God’s people to know they have the power of God in them and are able to stand and overcome. That "day" should not hold any fear for the sons of God because they are God’s special treasures, kept by Him in His storehouse, so God has you right where He wants you. Nothing can happen to you unless God allows it.

Ezekiel 13:5; Jer.23:22, seems to be a warning to those who would teach or preach half-truths. When God’s people are taught things like the "I’ll fly away, rapture doctrine" or "Just get saved, that’s all you need", they are being deceived, those who tell these half truths have not gone to the throne for there revelation, they have not made up the hedge so that God’s people can stand in this battle or in the "Day of the Lord". Ezekiel 13:9, says God’s hand will be against those who lie to His people! God wants you to know you are His special treasure hidden in an earthen field and that there is Someone Awesome in there with you, Matt.13:44; 2Cor.4:7, He formed you and He owns you, all this stuff about you being lost is nuts, He knew exactly where you were every minute of ever day even when you didn’t think He did. If He put you in your mothers womb, trust me He knows where you’ve been every second of your life, Ps139:13; Isa.44:2; Gal.1:15. God paid a great price for us He is in us and He isn’t ignorant so why would He leave us ignorant? 1Cor.6:20, Jesus didn’t lose anything when He bought and paid for these earthen fields, He just transferred His riches from the "Bank of Jesus" to the bank of "The Body of Christ", of which He is the Owner. I don’t believe Jesus is a bad businessman and He isn’t going to lose anything He has paid a Kingly ransom for.

So lets get to that snow part now, Micah 5:7, says we are like the dew from the Lord. Ps.76:6, says Christ is like the rain. What is snow? It’s rain transformed or changed into a different form by conditions in the heavenlies. (The encyclopedia says a snowflake comes into being when the ice particles form around tiny particles of dust floating in space. The microscopic particles become the nuclei for the flake). To me this sounded like an earthbound human who is drawn into the heavenlies by the pull of the Life giving Son and valla, a transformation takes place.

I have no doubts in my mind at all that God’s people are going through a transformation; a change is taking place at this time in the body of Christ. Which brings me to our first scripture, (in the natural the sun draws moisture from the earth up into the heavenlies, this forms clouds that produce rain and snow, this is called evaporation). In the Spirit the Son draws (dust particles) or people from an earthly life into the heavenlies where they become the "cloud of witnesses", this is called transformation. Dry clouds have no life giving substance, the bible talks about these as being false ministers and men with false gifts. You know it better as those who put on the appearance but deny the power there of. You’ve seen plastic snowflakes for the Christmas trees haven’t you? Pretty but fake, counterfeit, well that’s what we have in some churches, plastic, phony Christians, don’t get angry here, we meet phony people ever day and never think twice about it. Christians are no better just saved. Under the right conditions clouds bring snow; they also bring thunder, lightning, tornadoes, etc. I think this great cloud of witnesses is going to stir up a lot of these kinds of things only they will be spiritual and they are going to shake this planet to its core, through the Father. In order to stand while all of this is going on we will need to know our God, we will have to be able to hear from Him on our own and we will have to know it is God doing (or allowing) all things that will happen.

Have you ever been woke up by the snow falling on your roof? No, of course not, because the snow comes softly, quietly. You just wake up and its there, covering everything. In small amounts its beautiful, but a lot can bring down the roof. Quietness like humility can fool people. There isn’t a lot of noise with snow. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with some of the ministries today, a lot of noise but no Holy Spirit. The sons of God should be learning the Spirits qualities, like humility and quietly laying your life down without all the complaining.

The secret of the snowflake is how they join with other flakes and become a great corporate snowfall. When snow first starts the flakes hit the ground and melt and you wonder if they will ever stick and cover the ground. But the secret is the first flakes prepared the ground for those that are coming and then the ground can be covered. Can you see this same process taking place with the sons of God? The first pioneer’s came and were rejected the earth wasn’t ready yet. But they kept coming, softly bringing the word of truth. There ministries were not in vain, they prepared the ground and now its time for the earth to be covered. Have you ever seen the snow when it covers everything as far as you can see; even the fence posts are covered. You couldn’t tell where one mans property stopped and another’s started. Well God is going to do that when He opens His treasure houses of snow, there will be no more man made boundaries to separate God’s people. No barriers like Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc.etc. Because the boundary lines man has made will be covered by the treasures of snow. No more lines, we will be a body, ONE body for One HEAD. You won’t see what is under the snow, whether it’s beautiful or ugly and that is what God wants, all of the differences that divided His people gone forever.

Snow helps the earth, as it melts it gives the earth needed moisture. This is why it’s so important that the sons of God be willing to lay down their lives; the earth (God’s people) need to be soaked it the water of His truth. One snowflake by itself can’t cover the earth or give it the water it needs. Neither can one ministry, regardless of its size; it takes the body working as one. No big I’s or little U’s, God has given us all a piece of the truth we just need to come together as a body to have the whole TRUTH. What’s really great about snowflakes is they are all different just like fingerprints just like the body of Christ no two are alike. But as different as we are we need each other to be complete, we all lack something that another member of the body has and that is why God is going to tear down things that man has made, so that He can bring His body to completeness, into oneness with Him. Just like the snow the morning after it falls there will be no individual flakes, they are all melted together in perfect unity to cover the earth. I hope I’m not loosing anyone here.

Next was the hail, Job 38:22, treasures of hail. Like the snow, hail is simply rain transformed by conditions in the heavens. Hail of any size can be destructive, Ex.9:18-19; Josh.10:11; Isa.30:30. God used hail to punish Pharaoh, and to kill Israel’s enemies. The Old Testament refers to hail as God’s judgments over a wicked world, as it was always used in reference to the destruction of God’s enemies. So I wondered how was this a treasure? Or Lord where was the beauty in this treasure? And God said I always tear down first so that I can build something beautiful for Myself. Destruction = restoration, so God will destroy this worlds wicked system and restore it back to the beauty it had with Him. So these treasures of hail are in reserve for what is coming. Isa.28:17 says all of the devil’s lies will be exposed, all the lies we have believed and accepted will be exposed, God hates division and separation and He is going to destroy it all. 1Thes.5:2-3; Ezek.13:2-3 & 10. God has allowed these walls of separation for a time but these walls are coming down, they won’t be able to stand when God turns loose the hail and who are these great hailstones? It’s the ones who come out of that great cloud of witnesses, transformed by the conditions in the heavenlies and prepared for this war, God’s remnant, the sons of God, 1Cor.6:12, and like the hail stones in the natural, once they have done their work they will melt and water the whole world and God’s glory will be seen.

Rom.11:19, God is shaking everything, Heb.12:26-27, the Lords judgments are coming and have already started. Lets read Jer.50:28-29; Ps.149:5-8, these are God’s saints doing these things. Jer.51:6-9, implies we would have tried to heal Babylon, (the church, the world, the whore). We all know the truth about how sick the world and its system is but how many times have we prayed, "God heal our land", or "God bring revival to our church" our city, or our country. I’m sorry but God is not going to heal her, He is going to destroy her with fire and hail, Heb.12:29. He is building things His way!

What do these sons look like; well look at the snow and the hail again. They are pure, free from sin because they believed what God said, 1Jh.3:9, they know the power of the blood. They have found out Satan has no power over them. Barriers (divisions=denominations) will not divide them any longer; they are no longer looking for glory from men only truth and love. They have a spiritual beauty carnal man cannot see, they are ready to lay down their lives for there brothers. Their destiny is to be one with the Father, they are a humble people made up of the foolish things of this world, 1Cor.1:27-28, yet God calls them His Battle Axe and His Weapons of War, Jer.51:20, for with them God will bring judgment to the nations.

As soft and gentle as the snowflakes are in their compassion to lift the body of Christ, so the hail is hard and unyielding as they attack the lies of Satan and man. The hail, snow and rain all have a life giving quality to water the earth in God’s love. Have you seen any of this yet or experienced it? Well, hang on you will, this is no "E" ticket ride. It’s the ride of your life.

God is in control and we all know the ending! The results of which will be God’s Kingdom set up here in the new earth and all of creation restored to Him, Rev.5:10. I expect this to happen in my lifetime. But if it doesn’t, oh well I can watch it from there, either way I win and I will be a part of it. How about you?

There is so much for those who will press in and so many mysteries to be revealed as we become one with the Father. Nothing is going to stop what the Father has started, so keep your ears opened to hear His voice, your heart opened to obey, keep your eyes on Him and learn of His love. There has never been a people like the people God is bringing forth now. We are blessed and God has chosen us for such a time as this. We are His "Treasure House of Snow and Hail".

I know in my heart that as God’s children we are not to fear, yet I hear, see and feel the fear in Christian’s today as they worry and wonder at what God is doing in these last days.

I have to wonder here, where have we been as a church? God has given us His Son; He has given us His Spirit, His grace and His mercy not to mention He has given us His book full of promises. We have been given the privilege of coming into God’s very presence and speaking with Him and the most awesome of all, He has given us the ability to hear Him. All of this and He meets our needs too. Then why all the doubt and fear? Where is our trust? We have it 100% better then God’s first people or church had it.

I’ve been reading about the different movements of the church down through history and realized that the Apostle Paul had answered a lot of my questions in the letters he had wrote to correct the first churches. My light came on and I saw that nothing much had changed, religion, laws, fears and brother against brother. Why has God allowed this? Why has the church not grown? Mostly because it wasn’t time yet and from what I can see we haven’t learned much either. Matt.12:48-50; Matt.7:1-6; Lk.6:30-42;

Matt.10:24-26, Jesus used these words to teach a lot of different things. To me, He was saying them again to us His body, today. If we want to mature, these four scriptures will help train us. In the Greek, Katastizo= (kat-ar-tid-zos) to set in order, equip, complete what is lacking, and made fully ready. It comes from two words, Kata= "down" and Arttos= "complete or fitted". I believe this is what is taking place in the body now. In the past God allowed the errors because they helped us grow but only if we would learn from them. Yes it hurt a lot of God’s people, but there were reasons. God’s reasons!

With each move of the Spirit came a counter move from the spirit of the world. Each move brought revelation and error. From silly things like snake handling and holy rollers, laws and religion, to the sick things like incest and immorality. But the church kept increasing, (with people, buildings and money) while the supernatural kept decreasing, (in miracles, revelation, gifts and truth of the Spirit). Through all of the error God sill set into order many things that have stood the test of time. Things like the ministry of the gifts (lying on of hands, miracles, tongues, etc. etc.). Truth about the ministry of the Apostles and Prophets, not the (demon boards, bishops, and congregational elections of pastors). Also a strong desire was birthed to see the children of God, become a body and a righteous hate for the things like denominational walls and religious bigotry, that keep the body divided. I see now why denominations fight all of this so hard. Most of them won’t allow the Holy Spirit into their services, because then He would have His way and they would be in fear of their jobs and their paychecks. It would also blow holes in a lot of their theories, such as the "escape rapture" theory. This has driven a giant wage into the body of Christ. But my belief is God likes killing "sacred cows" and delivering His people from things that He never gave them.

God has always gotten done what was needed when it was needed and nothing has ever taken Him by surprise, none of the wild beliefs or doctrines nor the exulted spirits of greed or lust that came with the "prosperity message". OOPS another "sacred cow". God allowed it for a time then exposed it and stripped away what was not from Him. Or maybe God just likes to Barbecue a lot.

Let’s look at some of the errors of the first church. Col.2:18-19, In spite of all the glory experienced in this church, or maybe because of it, they were getting puffed up. You may know it as "super spiritual". They wanted things to center around them; they wanted others to experience their revelations. Their focus was on themselves not on God. Col.1:18-20; Col.2:9-10, Men caught up in the glorious move of the Spirit, getting the idea they were something important and they lost sight of their Lord. It happened then and it happens now. Many are hurt because their eyes are on these men, but God moves on and Jesus endures the rejection once again. (Grace and Mercy) But all is not bad in this, because these things bring the true sons of God to their knees in prayer and cause them to die to self even more, knowing this pleases God and help heal the body. (More grace and mercy)

Error comes when Christ is not the Head of the whole body and the church isn’t concerned with being a body at present. But we will come to see Christ in each other; we have to because we are His Body! Jesus, God nor the Holy Spirit has ever exalted one person, one fellowship, or one doctrine, above another. God says in His word ALL people, Jh3:16; Lk.2:10&14; Col.1:19-22.

Eph.4:15-18, Paul lets these here know that they are not coming into this glory alone and if they have real LOVE, (God’s love) they will want to edify the whole body. Ex.32:10, what an opportunity Moses had here, instead of Abraham, it could have been "Moses the father of many nations". But look what Moses does in V.11-14, Moses knew his place in the body, he knew God’s promises and His grace, so he pleads with God for the people. I believe God wanted Moses to say this to Him and I believe God wanted it written for us to see. Because His true sons will put others first, (check yourselves before you wreak yourselves), 1Jh.4:8; Heb.10:24-25; Jh.15:13.

We have the extreme churches today; the ones who put God’s people in bondage through blind obedience and submission to the church its pastor and the elders instead of God. This however is dictatorship not freedom in the Spirit. Some have even threatened their people with things like excommunication, to burning in hell. (I had a little old lady come in for a manicure one day and of course we talked about God and soon she was crying. I finely found out, she was getting to old to drive herself to the church she had gone to all her life and was going to one next to where she lived. Now the church she had belonged to told her she could not be buried next to her husband in their cemetery because she wasn’t going their any more and was not tithing to their church anymore. She was tore up over this, she had no way to get to that church it was to far away and no one from either church was willing to help her.) None of this was God’s love or mercy flowing out of His people. No man can take away what God has freely given, our salvation doesn’t hinge on being in one building every time the door is open. It is a gift from God, Lk.3:6; Jh.10:28. The churches that do these things to God’s people are pushing mans theory not Gods; and He will hold them accountable for the hurt they cause.

1Cor.4:6-21, This church was full of pride and Paul is trying to humble them, then he uses tenderness and finally his fatherly toughness as he does not want them to feel he is rejecting them. (More of Gods grace and mercy). Maybe they were like the churches today, the ones that seem to get way out there in the "twilight zone." They have such zeal and they love the gifts. But they’re just out there a little to far. I’ve been in a few that I thought took the cake. In one of them you might as well of got in line at the door to have demons cast out of you because that is what they were going to do anyway. It was all silly stuff, none of which can be backed up with the written word of God. Yes, I do believe in casting out demons. But not in naming them, giving them an offering or speaking with them, other than get out in the name of Christ Jesus! I believe in communion and I reverence it. But I don’t lick up the crumbs from the floor when the bread or cracker is broken and I don’t believe I’ll burn in hell for partaking in the communion, Jesus paid for my sins. But there are those who believe that these things are right and true. They have gone to far, none of this is important to God or to what He is doing in this hour. This is all mans self-centeredness.

Philp.2:1-11, this church was selfish so Paul used Jesus as an example and appealed to them to humble themselves. V3 There is a spirit that shows itself in carnal man and it demands its rights and wants it way. But Jesus said we must die to self and its wants. That we are to think of others above ourselves, Pro.25:27; 1Jh.3:16-17. Remember God’s ways are not men’s, (up is down, in is out, and we die to live). God always does it different than men think. Men have a hard time trusting God to take care of them and because of this they look to themselves, which causes pride, vanity and self-exalting. We see it today in the church; they touch the realm of glory, receive a revelation or feel the anointing from God, all of which is good, good until self gets in the way. Then in comes that self-seeking vain spirit and stops what God would have done with that church or that person. But it’s good because God shows them just like Paul showed this church, what is really in their hearts. It doesn’t stop God’s plan He just moves on to the next step and that church either repents or looses for the time being.

We must hold on tight to God, (build a relationship with Him and know Him, not just know about Him). We must put our brothers above ourselves then others will see a crucified people anointed of God moving in the deep things of God, imparting life, grace and mercy, flowing in the fruits of the Spirit. Then there will be a great cry go up from the earth… "Let us go up to Zion." We need each other; we need to see God in each other and we need what God has set in the body to perfect it. (Much more grace and mercy). Hold fast, you are getting richer in ALL of His ways. 1Thes.5:1-26.

This is a time of equipping, building up and uniting. It is a time of completeness and perfection, a time where we live and breathe God’s mercies. It is not a time of fear, but of reverence and a deep relationship with our Father 1Jh.4:17-21. We will change (mature come into His fullness) and with this the church will change. It will become His body without spot or wrinkle. We have His promises on it, a whole book of them made to His seed, us! Col.1:27 comes to my mind first. How many do you know? How many do you stand on in faith?

Most people would say the Bible is one of our greatest gifts. I agree it is a wonderful gift, but because it is so great a gift it is extremely easy to make an idol out of it, 2Cor.6:16. When the Bible is allowed to take the place of a living, talking, growing relationship with the Father, it becomes an idol. The Pharisee’s and other religious leaders at the time of Jesus did just that, Jh.5:39, and it still goes on today. People don’t believe they can have a relationship with God or they do like the religious and the Bible becomes their God.

Have you ever wondered why every religion has, "Its Bible", "Its doctrine" and "Its beliefs"? It looks like God allowed each one to have a piece of the truth. But He couldn’t allow any one of them to have all the truth. Why? Because man is to full of himself, full of pride and self centered. God knew what man would do with it so He just gave a piece to each one, think what will happen when God’s body comes together in unity and each one gives his piece of truth for the good of the body; Valla, the true Church!! Amen, hallelujah!

No church was ever split up over a fault in the scriptures; splits only come because of the way the scriptures are used. For to long the church has overreacted and denied the truth and this has distorted the scriptures. Ask Jesus, His coming was plainly written and they distorted and twisted it the same way they did His body.

Scriptures don’t need our approval, defense or correction. When we have a relationship with the Father and we read the written word with a humble heart we will never have to worry about being deceived. The Bible is a means, not an end; it’s our history book, or our book of remembrance, as Al says. We were not called to know the Book; we were called to know the Author. The Bible does not say, "be conformed to the image of the scriptures", it says, "be conformed to the image of the Son". It’s not the Bible in you the hope of glory! It’s Christ in you!! Col.1:27; 2Cor.3:18.

Jesus did many things; He set things into motion that were not written in the "Law". He stood on the written word and messed with the religious ruler’s way of thinking, Lk.20:2-8. Jesus added the church, the offices of apostle, evangelist and pastor. Again more then was written, God is new every morning, Isa.33:2; Lam.3:23; He does new things, Isa.43:19; Isa.48:6-7.

Many people use the Bible to condemn what they don’t understand or don’t agree with just like in Jesus day. Neither of which is Christ like and isn’t that what we are suppose to be striving for? Unfortunately this makes those who do this as guilty as the ones they are condemning, Rom.2:1.

Some of the churches worst traditions have no example in the written word, they are therefore of men and not of God, yet the church defends them more then they do Christ. The church building, Sunday school, the church government, missionary and deacon boards, church membership, books and tapes sold in church lobbies, what about the way we worship? Would Apostle Paul agree with it? Tithes and offerings are not done according to scripture in most churches and the list goes on and on.

Most of us have been taught the "Old Testament" was the "Law" and the "New Testament" is "Grace". The "Old Covenant" was the "Letter"; the "New Covenant" is "Spirit". But if we read the New Testament with an old covenant heart, it can only put us back under the Law, where we have no business being, 2Cor.3:6; Rom.2:29; Rom.7:6. All we will get from that is dead religion, especially when righteousness is based on the written word and not on a live and living relationship with our Father.

2Cor.3:17, says there is liberty in the Spirit. So when someone uses this liberty and we don’t understand why they are doing something or we don’t really understand where they are coming from, don’t reject them. Take your right to judge their fruit, in love, Lk.6:43-45, pray and seek God for an answer. Jh.1:17, Grace and truth; (Rexie1:1) "Grace" is the freedom to try, and "Truth" is the realization that the fruit of what is tried is "Tested". Amen

I was looking at Acts15:28-29 and I started wondering, why hadn’t the early church addressed things that were more serious then these. Which made me feel real silly in front of God, as I had been reading and writing the answer for at least two pages; "Freedom not Law." The early church was and all of us are called to walk in freedom and obedience to the Lord, not to the Law. Freedom however leaves a lot of room for those who chose to abuse it. But from what I can see, God wanted it that way. The whole process of our rebirth, renewing and our remembering is to be a heart thing between the Father and us. So freedom to obey from the heart or the freedom to disobey from the heart, were given to us by God, so make your choice.

Jh.16:13, The Spirit was given to lead us back to the Father, through Jesus of coarse, then scripture, or what ever method it takes to get us where God wants us. To a point man can change his outward behavior, we have all done that for one reason or another but only God can change the heart of a man. When we learn to walk in the Spirit we will keep our eyes off of the religious junk and off the outward form, which will keep our focus on what we are here for, God’s good pleasure, Phil.2:13. Knowing all the right moves and all the right scriptures does no good if there has not been a heart change. A man would be better off not to know scripture at all and have a right spirit, Ps.51:10; Eph.4:23. I’m not saying don’t respect the written word, 2Tim.3:16. Jesus used the written word when Satan came after Him but it never took the AWESOME place of His Father and it can never take the place of our personal relationship with the Father.

When the written word stops becoming like new wine, stops becoming fresh or renewing to us, we better check our relationships with the Father, not with the Bible! When we draw close to the Father the Bible will lose its religious and historical hold on us and become God’s love story, written to and about us. If you don’t cry when you read Ps.139 or Eph.1, and many more, something is really wrong. Check yourself before you wreck yourself again!

Ex.12:10, when Israel was commanded to celebrate the Passover Feast, they were told to eat All of the lamb. If we are going to follow Christ, we must also eat All: Ps.119:160, "the entirety of your word" All. It cost All when we partake of All of Him, we also gain All. Lk.14:33; 2Cor3:18; Mk.8:36. ALL means ALL of Him, His Word, written and spoken, All of Him; the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, His gifts, His love, good or bad (to our way of thinking) All things, Jh.1:3. Rom.11:22. Man has always looked at God through a tunnel, one way or another, never wanting to see ALL of Him. But to understand God we have to see " All of Him". God is LOVE, but a love very different from the one most of us know. If we want to understand God’s kind of love we will have to look at both the good and the bad (to our way of thinking) at the same time. Example: When God takes a loved one home, most of the time we don’t understand that this is His love, it doesn’t compute in our pain. When we think He is testing us beyond what we think we can endure and He calls this love, but it does not compute in us. I looked at Moses again, I only saw one goof up in the wilderness, he hit the rock twice. I’ve messed up far more then that. I thought God was a little hard on the Israelites to, I can ‘t count the times I’ve grumbled and complained, maybe Dale can, and what about poor David, God took his child and the sword of the Lord never left David’s house. How many people do we know who have done or thought the same or worse then David did? But God loved every one of them. His love is unexplainable but we need to learn to love like our Father, teach us Lord!

Jh.17:23, Jesus prayed we would be "perfected in unity". So you can see how very important it is that the Body comes together in unity so we can receive the whole truth. Its time to stop listening to just one preacher, one prophet, or one teacher, you will be missing a lot of truth. Amos 3:7, says "prophets", plural, many, more then one. The whole truth won’t come from any one man. It’s a body ministry and it takes the whole body.

Using certain scriptures to build doctrines without using it all is wrong. Either get under all the Law, or get under all of Grace. Pro.25:2, The Lord desires searching, He loves those who’s hearts have a hunger and desire to know Him. Remember I’m not telling you to reject scripture, just don’t add anything except the Father reveals it to you. Knowledge is good, but it’s not everything. Knowing Him isn’t just some facts or a few truths about Him. The more we know about Him and His ways the bigger He gets and the smaller we get, until nothing is left of us and its All Him. Praise God!

Our goal should be love, 1Tim.1:5, we can take a stand in love with those who believe in the things we do fairly easily. But we need to be able to protect the liberty of those brother’s who see things a little different, as long as we can agree on what’s important to God. If we can’t learn to do this, unity and truth will be very hard to come by. Nothing is impossible for God and it would have been very easy for Him to make everyone believe the same way. But He did NOT, because it was more important to Him that we love one another in our as different as each of us is, so is our Father and He has placed in each one of us a little piece of Himself. Our goal is love, to love like the Father, not fight and argue over the Bible, like the religious, Eph.4:13-16.

Mk.1:14-15, Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is moving and bringing change, it’s not "Nirvana" or unconscious nothingness. It is life and action!

The coming of the Kingdom makes repentance a must. The Greek word for "repent" is "metanoia" or "a change of mind". It means a lot more then sorry, it implies a transformation or change of the mind, thus activating the mind of Christ, which brings life into this death realm. This must all happen because the human mind cannot receive the things of the Spirit, Rom12:1-2; Rom.8:6-7; Rom.8:27.

Jesus came to demonstrate the Kingdom of God, but He started out by preaching it, Rom.10:17. In Mk.1:22, the people who heard Jesus were amazed, because He taught like no one they had ever heard, why? Because it was God in Him who taught. In the first chapter of Mark, Jesus does many things; He cast out demons, healed the sick, cleansed the leper and sought to be alone and fellowship with His Father. He did nothing apart from God, Jh.5:19; Jh.12:49. As sons of God this is our demo record, cut for us by Jesus and we are to fellow it. The Kingdom is moving, Isa.11:9; Habak.2:14, its not standing still, it’s full of mover’s, shakers and peculiar people.

Jesus didn’t just preach the Kingdom He walked in it, and our citizenship is their and its time to take our place. Col.1:12-13. No work necessary, it is a translation, an inheritance, a deliverance from darkness and redemption through His blood. All we have to do to get this is believe and receive and then legally we are in the Kingdom. But walking in this Kingdom comes through much tribulation and dying to self. God through Paul puts it to us real plan in Acts14:22, this isn’t a transformation it’s a day-to-day experience, it’s not an easy road, "much tribulation" means just that. We have all wondered about our trials and tests, but look at what God said through Peter in, 1Pet.4:12-13. Yes it’s hard, yes it cost, yes there are times we feel as though we can’t go on and we question God because the pain or burden is so great so we feel, but it’s still necessary. Don’t feel bad, Jesus asked too, Lk.22:42, and again God speaks through Paul real plan for us, 2Cor.4:16-18; Rom.8:17-18. "If we suffer with Him". Stop right there, WITH Him. Ps.16:8-10; Ps.23:4; Ps.145:14; Isa.43:1-3; Heb.13:5-6. So no matter what it feels like in the natural, He is WITH us in it. Holding us up, carrying us through it, whatever it takes, He is WITH us. If we could only see what the Father was doing through our trials, maybe for a moment we would understand what, "light afflictions" and "count it joy" really mean. Tribulation is our door into the Kingdom, it’s the door Jesus went through and it is the one we will go through as sons. It will happen as we allow the Holy Spirit to have full control of our lives the same way Jesus did, Heb.5:8-9. He had to learn perfect obedience by giving God full control of His life; He was transformed into the very nature of God Himself. I’m not talking about His obedience to Calvary or Pilot’s court, Jesus had learned obedience long before that or He never could have endured the end.

Suffer means to "allow it to be so". "Suffer the little children, to come unto me", simply means, "allow" them. To walk in the Kingdom Jesus received discipline, He allowed God to correct, change and work through His life. God never forced Jesus and He doesn’t force us. We must "ALLOW" it; we must accept the discipline of God if we want to walk in the Kingdom.

This Kingdom is not only preached and interred (walked in); it must be lived and manifested to the world through us. The Kingdom life is a walk of holiness, 1Pet.1:13-15; 1Pet.2:5; Eph.1:4; 1Cor.3:16-17. Holiness will become as natural as breathing if we submit. Through God’s grace we can do this, Titus2:11-15, God’s grace will teach us to live godly in this world. God’s desire has always been to have His people manifest His holy nature. Look at v.14, a peculiar or special people, (segullah = she-goo-lah = Strongs #5459) Possession, personal property, special treasure, this is how God sees us, and His nature is being brought forth from within us to do good and love others, Acts10:34-38, Jesus laid down the pattern. His zeal was to do good and deny evil this was His life, the Kingdom, His Father’s will. The Kingdom is not a doctrine; it is the life of God lived through us, 1Cor.4:20, or Rexie 1:1, The Kingdom is lived and its action its not talk!

In addition to preaching, entering and living we must be ministers in this Kingdom. God’s divine nature, which He has placed in us, will flow out of us just as naturally as water from a fountain. We will become a fountain of life to everyone around us, Jh.7:38. This is the Spirit that is in each of us. The Kingdom never becomes stagnate with the fleshly desires of men trying to build their kingdoms. This Kingdom is continually moving, active, pouring out the life of God, bringing forth an obedient people to do His will. God is our fountain of life, Ps.36:8-9; Jh.4:14, and those who walk in this Kingdom will minister life. We have all gone to the places that say all the right words, they preached up a storm about life but ministered death, they couldn’t serve, (you know get down in the trench’s) they could talk the talk but they couldn’t walk the walk. I believe God spoke it well through Jeremiah in Jer.2:13. These were broken cisterns. In a broken cistern, when the anointing falls and saturates it, the cracks let the life run out of them making them unable to help any one. Then there are cisterns that just hold the anointing for themselves. But the Kingdom life is a living fountain, continually flowing. Continually getting and pouring out the life of the Father, Prov.11:24-25. Jesus always did for others, He wouldn’t turn stones into bread to feed Himself but He turned water into wine to serve others, Mk.15:31, was perfectly right, He could save others but Himself He could not save. Jesus came to minister, not to be ministered to, Matt.20:28. A true minister comes to bless you, pour out life to you and be concerned about your walk with God, (your future not your past) and he doesn’t ask you for anything for himself. To have his needs met he will seek the Father and the Holy Spirit will move on you or someone else to supply his need, why? Because he was a fountain not a cistern, he poured out the life of God to you. Jesus is our pattern to be a son of the living God. These things written in the scriptures were put there so we would know how a son acts, what a son is like and so that by believing we might have this same life in us, Jh.20:21.

Jesus never came to do His own thing, He came to do the will of the Father, Lk.2:49; Jh.4:34; Jh.5:30; Jh.12:49. Jesus never came to lead us to Himself, He came to lead those with ears to hear to the Father; 1Jh.3:1; Jh.14:6-7. 1Jh.2:15.

A major key to our Kingdom walk lies in, Lk.12:29-32. "Seek the Kingdom of God", don’t worry and don’t fear. Why? Because it is our Father’s desire to give us help, to provide for us, to care for us and train us up into Himself. How? When we seek Him (the Father) with all of our heart.

There is so much more to this but for now I hope this is enough to stir you up. I know it sounds hard but so did getting saved, delivered, or filled with the Holy Spirit. But we found out when we let go and let God all things were and ARE possible, Matt.19:26; Mk.9:23; Lk.18:27.

God’s Kingdom is a Kingdom of priests who will shepherd the nations with a rod of authority. Let’s agree together to let Him have complete control over our lives. Amen!

Sin, it’s a word I’ve questioned a lot. There are many many scriptures that say we are or were sinners. But there are also many that say we are not sinners any longer, Rom.5:13; 1Jh.3:9; 1Jh.5:18, to name a few.

Then why do we see so much (sin for lack of a better word or shortcomings) in the body of Christ? As believers we say, we are free from the power of sin we are redeemed. Yet we hold onto our lusts, bitterness, bad habits, lifestyles or whatever you would like to call them, we know they are not of God. Don’t even ask who does these things. Just look around this room or around your church next time your there, they are all around us and we are included. James3:10, out of the believer’s mouth comes both good and evil. Oh we all try to get rid of the trash in our lives, we ignore it, we pray, we might even seek counseling, we hid it, but it just keeps coming back.

Rom.6:1-2, so how come we keep doing what we know we shouldn’t? This made me look at a few things, Jimmy Swaggart, being one of them. When he fell and made the headlines, it was not the first time he had lusted after young woman. He had fallen many times to this sin. But his so called friends and associates (Christian brothers) told him he was O.K. just don’t do it again, pray and it won’t happen again. But it kept coming back, until it couldn’t be hid any longer. His sin didn’t just go away because he prayed it took over the throne of his life, why? Because the root had never been removed. It affected his conscience, he lost his ability to discern, and his what’s right and wrong got all fuzzy. With all the help he got to ignore it, I’m sure he slowly began to justify it. His so-called Christian friends may have even given him scriptures to help him feel better about himself and they told him God still loved him. None of which helped him, other then God did love him very much, because He exposed Jimmy.

So don’t go getting all-defensive when a true friend confronts us with something, God is trying to warn us and if we don’t listen we won’t like what God does next. No one ever has at first, not until they understand why God has done it. Now if we have the Holy Spirit to help us, we’re to have victory over the enemy and we have God’s promises to break every bondage, then what’s up with this? Maybe we aren’t sick enough of whatever it is that has us bound. Without our full cooperation the Holy Spirit is not going to free us from it’s grip. Oh we can believe the "fairy tail" that the church preaches, Jimmy did, he sat back and indulged his lust while he waited for God to do something. I believe David understood this best, Ps.139:23-24; Ps.51:10-11. Rexie1:1,(Lord, is there anything in me You don’t like? Please deal with me on it, get it up and out of my life. I don’t want to wait for it to just go away, get rid of it now Lord I pray).

Not fearing God could be a real major reason why Christians keep their "pet sins" so long, Prov.16:6; Prov.14:27; Ps.19:8-14. I guess no one ever taught them the fear of the Lord. We should tie ourselves to God in Holy fear. Fear the Lord; that’s another one of those things I question a lot. As a kid I was scared to death of God, maybe that was good. But as a Spirit filled believer I’ve found out how much He loves me and how special I am to Him. I’ve learned to talk to Him about everything and I’ve learned to listen to His voice. I still fear Him, but it’s very different from when I was a kid and I believe somewhere in this is our answer to get and stay free from our "pet sins".

Rexie’s Layman Dictionary: Deff. For "pet sin" =Things we do that we know we would never do if God was standing there. Hidden lusts, desires and weaknesses we want to leave hidden.

Maybe because the world has become so self-centered, the church has decided that preaching the fear of the Lord would chase away the big wallets. I’m not real sure on that so don’t quote me. But I do know we don’t hear much about it in the church. It’s like accountability has been wiped off the face of the earth, Ps.36:1-4. That reminded me of the movie (Poltergeist) "Their back". 2Tim.1:7; 1Jh.4:18; Rom.8:15, all are wonderful verses, but they refer to the fear of men or Satan, they have nothing to do with "The fear of the Lord".

I think Jer.32:40-42: says it best, I believe God was talking about the new covenant here. He is talking about all the wonderful things He is going to do in us. I believe He saw the things He was going to do, like sending His Spirit to live in us and giving us a new heart. His power going through us to do His work and the ability to kill our flesh. Then He (the Holy Spirit) will cause you to do MY good pleasure. To make this very simple, the Holy Spirit will change the way we look at our "pet sins". God knows that as long as we take our lusts lightly, we will never be completely free for His use. So He makes us sick of what we do and when we are sick enough we will run to Him, starved to walk in righteousness. Like when David asks God to search his heart. I believe God shot arrows of flaming conviction at David’s heart to show him what was there. God will do the same thing to us, through the Holy Spirits convicting power. He will show you every, ugly, dirty, sick, or painful thing in you that has to go. He will only take you through what you can endure at that time; He can deal with other things later, as you are ready. And don’t go getting your religious spirit all riled up, and quote me Rom.8:1, because that is missed used to much. We all love "there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus". But we skip "who do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Our lusts or "pet sins" are after the flesh, so how can we claim "no condemnation," if we feel condemnation or guilt. It could very well be God at work in us but He doesn’t condemn us He exposes us. Praise God, He loves us so much and His grace is here for us.

Things that are hidden, I’ll have to use myself for this example: When I got filled with the Holy Spirit, God delivered me from a lot of junk. One of the things was four-letter words, or so I thought. I had quit saying and thinking them and for years I really thought they were all gone. But then God gave us Fred, and for months it was wonderful, then he started doing everything wrong he could find to do and out of my mouth came every four-letter word that I have ever known. They were not gone, as I had thought only hidden away. It took a lot of years of crying out to the Lord and a lot of prayer to finally get them out. Not that my flesh doesn’t go looking for them, its just (the real me) does not ever want to hear them again. But God had to expose them, show me they were still there in order for me to deal with them. God will show you your heart if you ask Him to.

Anger, hate, prejudice, our vocabulary, dirty books and movies, hurts, pains, and thoughts, etc., etc. These are usually hidden, sometimes even from us. We think we have gotten past them but then God puts them in our face, so we will have to deal with them, Prov.4:23. Like I said, everything hidden will be exposed, we have a choice to let God deal with it or try to keep it hid from Him, (Ha-ha). God wants it dealt with and them out of our lives; He wants to bring us to a place where we will want it out of our lives. It’s like fellowship with Him, it’s a partnership, and it takes two.

The longer we try to keep our "pet sins", the more danger we are in, Heb.3:12-13. Maybe at one time you listened more to God and maybe you cried when you heard a sermon that you thought God had preached just to you. But then you started flirting with your "pet sin", thinking about it, or listening to or telling old war stories. Maybe even doing it, enabling it to work its way into deceiving you, at this point even God Himself, would probably have a hard time trying to get your attention. If we truly feared God, we would be able to see our heart hardening. We would know that everyday we continued to indulge in our "pet sin" our conscience becomes seared, or dead and our "pet sin" becomes less and less obvious to us. This can lead to the big bang, like Jimmy Swaggart, or David, when he took Bathsheba. A big mess, you can find it in 2Sam.11and12, as great a man as David was, the sword of the Lord never left David’s house because of his "pet sin", 2Sam12:9-12. God gives David an awesome word in Ps.89:30-34, and I’ve heard this one miss quoted to often (that means they quoted verses 33-34 real good but never looked at verses 30-32). We have studied in several of our bible studies, that God chastens or corrects those He loves. As bad as we may think David got it from God, God loved David greatly. David tried hard to hide and justify his sin, so God had to send His prophet to expose David. Some how I think David was relieved it was out of the bag. But Nathan (the prophet) had to tear apart all of the excuses David thought he had before David could see his sin. The rod of correction is always applied in love but it still hurts. In this case, it not only hurt David; it hurt all those he loved. Look how David cry’s out to God in his pain, Ps.51. I pray we never are taken to the depths that David was and I pray if we ever have to go there God will allow us to see it before it goes that far, so that we can repent and turn.

If we do not deal with our hidden "pet sins" we cannot have real peace and rest in the Father is hard to find. I know God’s, love, forgiveness, grace and mercy will get us through, but I’m not here to just make it through. I’m here to do the will of my Father, to be used by Him for His purposes. But how can He use me if I won’t surrender all? Don’t say it can’t happen, it did to Saul, 1Sam.13:13-14; it did to David, we just read it, it did to Jimmy and it has to many more and it can happen to us. I don’t ever want to be in that place, I hope you don’t either.

Don’t be afraid when God convicts you; rejoice that He loves you enough to still correct you. Look what’s possible when we get it right; Acts 9:31. They walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. We will have peace in our minds, our bodies and in our souls. This is where I want to be when everything around me is coming apart, what about you? I can think of nothing worse then standing before my Father and hearing Him ask me, "Why didn’t you do what I ask you to do?"

Yes His gifts and callings are without repentance but I want to please my Father, I want to be all He has purposed me to be and that requires that I deal with things I’d rather leave hidden. God can use me that way, He used Jimmy and David but look at how much closer there walk with the Lord was after God cleaned out the trash. That’s what I want, how about you?

I know you’re tired. I know you feel overwhelmed. You may even feel as though this crisis, problem, this hard time will last forever. It won’t.

You are almost through. You don’t just think it has been hard; it has been hard. You have been tested, tried, and retested on what you have learned. Your beliefs and your faith have been tried in the fire. You have believed, then doubted, and then you worked on believing some more.

You have had to have faith even when you could not see or imagine what you were asked to believe. Others around you may have tried to convince you not to believe in what you were hoping you could believe for. You have had opposition. You have not arrived at this place with total support and joy from those around you. You have had to work hard, in spite of all that was going on around you. Sometimes you were motivated by anger and sometimes fear.

Things went wrong…more problems occurred than you expected. There were obstacles, frustrations, and annoyances en route. You did not plan on any of this being in your path. Most of this has been a surprise; some of it has not been at all what you desired.

Yet, it has been good, a part of you, the deepest part knew the truth, it sensed it all along, even when your head told you that things were out of control and crazy, that there was no plan or purpose to any of this, and that God had forgotten you.

So much has happened, and each incident… the most painful, the most troubling, the most surprising… has a connection. You are finely beginning to see and sense that, but not with your understanding.

You never dreamt things would happen this way, did you? But they did. Now you are learning the secret…I’m in control, and this was meant to happen this way, and this way is good, you’ll see its better then you think. You didn’t believe it would take this long either…did you? But it did.

You have learned patience. You never though you could have any, but now you know you do. You have been led to this place. Many were the moments when you thought you were forgotten, when you were convinced you had been abandoned. Now you know you have been guided by Me. Now things are coming into place for you. You are almost at the end of this phase, this difficult portion of the journey. Your lesson is almost complete.

You know the lesson; you fought, resisted, and insisted you would not learn. Yes, that’s the one. You have almost mastered it. You have been changed from the inside out. You have been moved to a different level now, a better level.

You have been climbing a mountain. It has not been easy, but mountain climbing is never easy. Now you are near the top. A moment longer and the victory will be yours. Steady yourself; pull your shoulders back, breath deeply. Move forward in confidence and peace. The time is coming to relish and enjoy all that you have fought for. That time is drawing near. I know you have thought before that the time was drawing near, only to learn that it was not. But now the reward is coming. You know that deep inside. You can feel it. Your struggle has not been in vain. Nothing I have set in motion will be in vain.

For every struggle on this journey, there is a climax, an answer. Peace, joy, love, blessing, and reward are yours on the earth. Enjoy! There will be more mountains, but now you know how to climb them. And you have learned the secret to what is at the top…life in Me!

I LOVE YOU,

I AM with you, Dad, i.e. God

PRAYER

Today Lord, help me accept where I am and continue pushing me forward. When You have me in the midst of a learning experience, help me, that I will stand firm in my faith and trust in You. Father help me to understand that despite my best efforts to live in peaceful serenity, You will give me mountains to climb. Help me also to quit blaming my mountains on everything around me. And accept that You are taking me to another level. Help me Father to never look at my circumstances, but to always look to You. This I pray in your Mighty Name Father, Amen.

A few days ago I got an e-mail from my friend Jo. She wanted me to check out a web site and see something awesome. When I got it up on my screen and began reading, she was right, it was awesome! It was saying everything God has been saying to us in our bible studies. Things like we would be tried and tested. That we wouldn’t understand it all right now "nor" would we like it but to know it was Him doing it all.

James 1:2-4, "count it all joy", I’ve never liked that "JOY" part, I guess because I thought I was suppose to feel good about hurting, dying and things along those lines, (emotional things). But God does not need our emotions. He just wants us to trust Him and go through whatever it is with Him. As my friend Jo says " its attitude". A deliberate intelligent appraisal of the situation from God’s perspective, not from ours. How do we get this done? By holding onto Him tightly, knowing He is taking you through it. Testing is like our ladder to perfection or maturity in the Father or into Christ the Head, Heb.6:1. Contrary to popular belief, I could not have gone through surgery let alone walked into the hospital if I were not positive that God was there with me holding my hand. Me, knives, needles and doctors do not mix, no way, no day, no how. Ps.23:4; Isa.43:1-2. Knowing God is in control, then learning to submit and obey. And that’s where I got the, We Bulls (stubborn) wobble (and we did) but (in submitting) we won’t fall down (anymore, we will just bend to God’s will).

Jer.15:15-21AMP, "separate the precious from the vile", good from evil, belief from unbelief, spiritual from worldly. That is why all the testing. We are tried, tested, taught and prepared, so that we can move into maturity or perfection. To do this God must separate, "the precious (our spirits) from the vile (what’s been added to us by the world). But the "church" just seems to be content with the baby basics, get saved, get through life the best you can, die and go to heaven. It’s a lie! And they bought it, they are deceived, they cannot hear the voice of God above their circumstances. Heb.12:26-29, So God is shaking the worlds system (set up by Satan) off and out of us. He is removing all that is not from Him, (worldly, temporal) so that He can bring us into perfect order, v.27AMP. Then what is from Him, (that is what is spiritual and everlasting) will remain and continue.

We are not what we see or think, we were shaped by what I call the "UNGODLY 5". #1. The world or Satan’s system.

#2. So called family or friends.

#3. Jobs and or schools.

#4. Words that damage.

#5. Religion and tradition i.e. "the church".

All set up by Satan to deceive God’s people, Satan could care less how many times we go to church, read the bible or pray. He cares not how much we love our families or try to do what’s good; as long as we stay ignorant of the truth he is happy. But we are spirit, we are God’s private property, how could we have bought such a lie? That’s easy, the ungodly 5 fed us, we ate and it was a time of growing. But now it is time for the truth. Time to be reborn into truth and the truth is; all of the things God allowed in our lives were allowed to shape us for His use. So now He is shaking loose everything He don’t want. All we have to do is submit and obey and let Him finish what He started before the foundations of the world, Eph.1:3-6.

In my life I have seen many things going on in the natural realm that reflect what is going on in the spirit realm. Babies having babies, earthquakes and micro burst in the most unlikely places. But when I read Heb.12:26, "I shake not only the earth, but also heaven". Could this be referring to our earth, (these vessels) and our heaven, (our minds)? All of which to this point in time have been pretty worldly. Haggai 2:6-7, I believe this is saying the same thing we were talking about. Look at v.7. "And I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord". When everything that the ungodly 5 have fed us is shaken loose, then God says He will fill us with His glory!! He will have His perfectly ordered mature temples, us! That He built with His hands and nothing of the world, filled with His Glory. Praise God! The fullness of Christ, the mind of Christ, God’s will being done in earth as it is in heaven, Matt.6:10.

The first church was glorious; it literally shook nations and brought down kings. But in Haggai 2:9, it says, "the glory of the latter house (or temple) shall be greater then the former, says God". Joel2:23, "God will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain". Again God is doing it; is this rain His glory? I think we could say yes. The first church was filled with His glory at Pentecost, the former rain. But this latter (or last one) us, this church, starting with the remnant is going to be greater. Can you even begin to imagine?

A true body working together at last, now that "in the first month" part, just made me wonder. I knew the Feast of Tabernacles was in the seventh month, Lev.23:34 and in the bible dictionary they used the word "Abib" for the first month. I found "Abib" in Ex.13:4; and Ex.12:1-2. It also said its what we refer to as "March-April" or the Jewish Passover. This word "Abib" (an ear of corn) was changed to "Nisan" (which see). So I assumed God was giving us insight as to the season this rain would take place. Of course this only added to my questions for God and I hope to yours as well. But I did get a clear message through all He was saying and that was preparation, (Preparation for perfection). So this latter rain is going to be poured out on those God has brought through the fire of perfection, His fire consumes all that has been perverted. He is the consuming fire and He delivers us IN it, Not before it. God has made it very clear He is the one doing it all, the breaking, building, filling and perfecting. Matt.16:16-17; Joel 2:28; Col.1:19-20; Isa.43:2&7. God is the one doing the shaking unto perfection; He is the one building His church, His way. We belong to Him and our only job is to say, "Yes Lord yes to Your will and to your ways, yes Lord yes I will answer and obey".

The truth is we have to stop blaming our wilderness (our testing our illness, our families, lack and problems) on everything around us. Its God doing it all the way, He is the one in control of our lives, nothing or no one else. Sounds so easy just let go and let God, Not! We all know how hard our flesh fights for control. But God is Greater and knowing that "with Him, all things are possible" helps us through all things.

Every generation has been deceived and the walls that have been built are thick, so its going to take a lot of that stuff we love, (breaking, shaking and tearing down), to destroy what the ungodly 5 have built. So Praise God He has given us His Spirit of Truth, He will help us during this breaking, He is our comforter.

Matt.22:37-39, God gave me a key here in V.37, He summed up all moral obligations in one word, LOVE. And this is where God showed me a major hole in us. Look at v.39, "you will love your neighbor as yourself". We (the broken body of Christ) does not love itself. We have been so beaten up, we are battle weary, so wounded, broken and full of holes it’s a wonder we try at all. The ungodly 5 did it, but we have made it this far and we will continue. We Bulls wobble but they won’t fall down. I think the Body of Christ should be strong in spirit, strong in our beliefs and in character but because we had bought the lie we could barely stand let alone love. Oh we have tried, we have reached out in what we thought was love, only to draw back a stub, or have our hearts ripped out. So above all else we must learn to see the world through the eyes of God and we must start with ourselves. For the most part we have only seen ourselves through the eyes of the ungodly 5 and we are not what they say. We are not that dirty, ugly, thing, we are not ignorant or stupid, we are not the reason for our dads, brothers or families failures, we are not that piece of dung that will never amount to anything, we were never born a loser, we are not accidents and we were never born to be "Pecks Bad Boys". We are however a purpose, put here by our Father. We are in this world but we are not a part of it so whatever the world has said is a lie. Maybe we better spend some quality time with our Father in front of a mirror, until we can see who He sees. Then we will love what He loves the way He loves. We then can love the unlovable (we will see them like He sees them) we will be able to reach out to the world without pulling back a stub, (because it will be our Fathers love and His hand, not ours). We didn’t have anything to really give before because we didn’t have real love, it was just a hunger inside that drove us. We stumbled around wounded and hurt knowing there was something more but never quite finding the truth. Our walls of pain, hurts, pride, unworthiness, doubts and trying to survive all stacked on top of a sandy foundation laid by the ungodly 5 caused us to reject what was truth and truth is what God says, not man’s interpretation of what God says, that’s why we need the Spirit of Truth living in us.

The ugly path we have each taken to get here was a necessary evil, so to speak like in the Garden. It has to be, because it helped prepare us for the tree of Life. But Praise God, our foundations are now ROCK solid, we bulls wobble put they won’t fall down. We have learned to bend with the winds of adversity and not break down. Our renewing, reshaping, repairing and restoring are all are rebirth into the Head. No longer will we be the tail; we are a Body for the KING of KINGS.

We have learned through our trials and we can now say, Father, take everything I have that is not from You and be positive, that when He does take something, He replaces it with Himself and nothing can shake that. We will be able to stand firm in Him while everything around us is crumbling. Our God is an AWESOME God and He is taking back everything that is His. His Glory will soon be seen in this earth, through His Body!!