Christ in you - (Danny Walters)

There is something that has become fundamental for me since first sharing on it a few days ago. I am seeing it as truly foundational for the state of advancement before us. The fundamental is “the Lord, the Spirit’s” incarnation of our beings. And I know that we have all embraced that Truth, and yet I’m not convinced, based on my own experience, that the understanding out of which we are operating is that which is divinely wrought and worked out of Wisdom’s operative Mind, but that some of our understanding of this Truth may still be held in the adamic’s rational mind, supported by its cast of reason, imagination, feelings, and the emotions or sensations of our sentient being. Those elements of our understanding regarding any Truth have no root in the essence of our being, and therefore no real power to effect what the Truth inherently has the omnipotent power to effect with regard to the transformation of our being.

 

Certainly in one sense it seems a bit ludicrous to be going down this road with sons-in-the-making, but speaking from my own experience, I’ve come this far in spite of myself. And I am persuaded that I am not alone in this. Now, I’m not suggesting that everyone is where I am, but am sharing this as a matter of reflection for those who are.

 

I believe we are at times operating according to doctrines that are founded on heavenly Truths, and that’s somewhat analogous to referring to adam after the fall as a manifestation of God’s likeness. And this perhaps subtle difference can make all the difference at this point of things. For I believe we’ve come to a place in the journey where in order to advance any further, our ‘skills’ have got to be honed. I’m seeing that we’ve come to the limit of what all the training we’ve had up to now, is able to get us. We’re up against something akin to the sound barrier which before it was broken seemed impossible, or the 4-minute mile, or any other of a number of invisible barriers that no man can pass, until one does. I believe in myself, that we’re up against that barrier. We could spend the rest of our days up against this wall like the generations and generations before us, all of which had a remnant that could see into the other side, but could not break through. But I believe we are the generation destined to break through and therefore certain secrets are and will be revealed to facilitate the opening of the womb, through and into the manifestation of His glorious intention.

 

So while I’m writing about one secret, another insight was just revealed – the embracing of doctrine in the rational mind versus the embracing of Truth in our core spirit-essence – and so I will just quickly comment. It is the diabolical nature of the rational mind to usurp for itself, preeminence in every regard and over every domain. And as we were taught that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved, the rational mind has snatched the Truth in that scripture and created a doctrine to which every church member stands and pledges their allegiance, and having done that, the Pledge is given to understand that his membership in good standing with that church makes him a member in good standing in heaven. That may be a gross example of the difference but an accurate sample of the impotence of doctrine as I’m defining it, and the inherent power of the Spirit of Truth. But we can’t stay there today – let us just receive a cautionary word that for the power of Truth to have its full, supernatural affect on the natural, it must be an operative principle in the celestial faculty of Wisdom’s Mind. In other words, using the example above, the Truth is that you’ve been redeemed by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, but until that Truth is embraced in the core of your inner man, the inherent transforming power of that Truth has no matter upon which to exercise itself. Wisdom’s Mind holds all the keys for release and application of Truths power, and while the rational mind puts on a good front as just as capable, it is under the same sentence of death as the rest of the adamic man’s members. Remember Amos 1:10: “I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre (type of adam) and it will consume her citadels.” ‘Her’ in this scripture is referencing adam’s own rational mind, with whom he committed adultery against his covenant-spouse, Wisdom’s daughter.

 

And so moving on, an understanding that is seemingly very difficult for us to comprehend is the fact that ‘we’ are spirit. But this understanding is really core to our apprehending that which we’re pursuing. So if we’re unable to come into the Mind that we are spirit, how are these spiritual things going to find their application?

 

Maybe a good way for us to approach this meditation is to ask ourselves a few questions. First of all, where do you ‘see’ Christ in relation to yourself, or how do you see Him? Close your eyes and tell me, where do you picture Him? Is He ‘out there’ somewhere, or within? Are you ‘looking within’ when you pray?

 

If you are seeing Him within, where are you in that picture? Are you looking in at Christ but seeing yourself still in your physical body? Okay, well if in Truth, you are spirit, where should you be picturing yourself? Aren’t you joined to Him, who is Spirit, within your inner man?

 

You say, my goodness, why are these things important? In my estimation, these things are important because we have a destination in mind. And the better you’re able to see, the more likely you’re going to end up where you intended, on time.

 

Okay, so how should we be seeing things? Well, I believe we should be seeing Christ within, seated in the heart or throne of our new man, which is deposited within the soul of our being. And we, as spirit, should be seeing ourselves as joined to Him, seated in Him on that throne. We have been made one Spirit with Him, and He has become our Lord. And so we sit in Him as passive matter, coalesced in His Almighty essence.

 

Now let us remind ourselves again Who He is. He is the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), unto Whom we have been joined and made One (1 Cor. 6:17), and into Whose image we are being conformed; the One who said: “Lo, I AM with you always…” (Matt. 28:20).

 

We need to be coming into a Mind where we see ourselves in Him, in us – that new coalesced ‘us’ that is being founded in His essence and made in His likeness.

 

Now what that says is that we are becoming One with the holy Spirit. Yes? We are becoming One with the holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Son sent into us by the Father (Gal. 4:6). And since the Spirit of the Son is the Spirit of the Father, it might be better to acknowledge Him in this application as the Spirit of sonship, or the Spirit conforming us to the image of the Son (Rom. 8:29), or the Spirit of adoption; the Spirit of God sent into the sons for the purpose of full redemption, spirit, soul, and body. Now this understanding should be received by us at this stage of our understanding as more or less pabulum. So why don’t we see ourselves as spirit (spoken to those of us who don’t)?

 

And that’s the point of this meditation. I believe that the Spirit of Wisdom is giving us insight into the fact that there are many things that the rational mind has seized and by doing so, is hindering our advancement. And as such, we need to be taking those things from the rational mind as the Spirit gives us insight, and put them into the hands of Wisdom that they might lend us the proper Mind of things (and thereby spiritual vision), and as well, have full reign within to apply all their inherent transformative power upon our being that we might come into that which we’ve been destined to become.

 

It was mentioned above that we are coalesced in His Almighty essence. That understanding can have manifold impact on us. For one, simply consider God Almighty within you – it’s mind-boggling.

 

For another, seeing ourselves as coalesced in God’s Almighty essence establishes a certain frame for the stature of a son, growing up into Father’s image.

 

And another, would be seeing ourselves becoming instruments of His Almighty power. Recognizing that God Almighty Himself has taken up residence within us, and that we are being essenced in His Almighty essence begins to put wheels on destiny’s vocation, as we look into His Mind for the sons.

 

And being of a Mind to become One with the holy Spirit of the Godhead has huge ramifications, which we won’t look into today.

 

But I do want to share one other thing. Yesterday I was meditating and praying, saying God, Your Almightiness is within me, Your Almightiness is within me. And as I was meditating on that a storm had been brewing – and we’re in the dry season, meaning typically no rain – and the LOUDEST crack of thunder I’ve ever heard in my life shook the walls and ceiling of our apartment. I’m not kidding. I started laughing and laughing and laughing and had to admit that I was unable to picture Him in ALL His majesty and Almightiness, within me. Ha! But as those stupendously loud cracks of thunder continued to sound I went out onto the balcony and looked out over the quiet lake and into the dark and ominous clouds overhead and just took in the Magnificence of our Great, Great God. And I believe I understood a message that He was sending – which is that as hard as it is to imagine, that AWESOMENESS of God in us, is our heritage, as sons of the Almighty, Awesome God of all creation.

 

To sum things up this morning, this meditation is put forth to make us properly Mindful, and to encourage us to be aware and open to being brought into right Mindedness about His things, to the glory of His great purpose. And the reason? We’ve got an invisible barrier to break through. And He’s got the secrets that will enable us.

 

Thus says the LORD to …His anointed, whom I have taken by the right hand, ‘I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, Jehovah, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.’ (Is. 45:1-3).

God's Love against Our Other "Lover's" - (James Jarju)

God's Love is manifested and known in His nature . It is a manifestation of His will and desire independent of the nature or state of any being , yet it change the nature or state of the being to it's will , nature and likeness and separate it from all other Lover's to His Love.

It forgives the contrite repented offender with infinite mercy , and this mercy sees not the past but the present heart condition . The mercy manifested is a preparation for the manifestation of God's Love , and an end of all former lover's of the soul.

The true Love of God in the soul will Kill all other former Lovers (works of self, love of worldly pleasure and fashion etc) of the soul. It will not spare , nor pity but kill through the ministration of condemnation through the flaming sword before passing into the ministration of Life.

We cannot Know what God Love is, until we know what the Love of our fallen nature is. Our fallen adamic nature , have its own Love,  which are works of self like  pride , lust, ambition, and love of the things of the world etc.It loves and pray for those that Love it and hate does that hate it. When God nature is in us,  it will go against the love of our fallen nature and produce God's Kind of Love in us. When God love is manifested in us , it will produce a hatred of the things our fallen nature loves. Yet it war not with flesh and blood but the fallen power in flesh and blood , and so it will seek the good of it human "enemies" not there harm  , with a forgiving heart, to all wrong and injustice manifested against it.

The Manifestation of God Love

To produce and manifest the true Love of God in us , we must know how death reign from Adam to Moses (the law) and how the flaming sword is remove in Christ in a practical way in our daily lives, through the trials of our faith.

Adam (our sinful nature)  is what we are in nature ,  Moses (the law or the ministration of condemnation ) reveals what we are called to be , but Christ (the ministration of Life ) makes us what we are called to be , by giving us His divine Life and strength. Only Life experience can teach us the difference between Adam,  the ministration of condemnation (Moses) and Life (Christ) not just head knowledge. We are not talking about a history about Adam, Moses or Christ but a practical reality of this ministrations in us.

Sin in us reveals Adam. Failing after knowing God will reveals the ministry of condemnation (Moses), and doing God will even in the midst of trials and adversity without falling reveals  the power of the ministration of Life in us (Christ). This is a process , and at the end it will reveal how  Christ overcame death (works of self) in us , in a practical reality and we will no longer fear adversity, trials or temptation but like  paul and every victorious saint of all ages, we will rejoice in our weakness and infirmities because we have find a savior that manifest His strength and power in us as we daily seek His face and strength even in our weakness.

How many times have we fail during trials and adversity even after knowing God mind or will but because of some clouds or some seemingly silence of God , doubts, complaining , or doing our own things creeps in . This is the ministration of Condemnation, the flaming sword , is there to guide against Adam , least he enter into God kingdom of Life. Here we know how much of Adam is still in us , and the need to end Him in the Cross the only place Christ gave us His life. When Christ manifest His Life in us,  the flaming sword is remove because Adam is no longer  there and we partake in the divine tree of Christ Life and strength. The secret of victory is reveal here , and a new song is heard and we sing along (not literal but unspeakable joy and peace ), the door of the kingdom become open and that of hell closed , because the keys that will close the power of death and hell are only in Christ not Adam or Moses. The fruits of hell and death are works of self and all abominations . the power to close this works is only in Christ . Christ our Life , Victory and King. No failure to fear , when the Victor abode and live in us because we seek His strength and Life daily.

"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:


 I [am] he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."   (Revelation 1v17-18).

God Love is nothing but Christ Life being manifested in us , we cannot find it in the fruits in  fallen Adam, for it war against it and reprove it  and cannot remove His flaming sword until Adam is fully dead and gone . This takes trials. Any place Adam has His foot in our soul the sword most war against Him, not entertain Him until He is gone. Loving Adam whose fruits are lust, worldly pleasure, pride , carnality etc  is against the Love of God.This is the True work of the Love of God, that is , to free us from the works of Adam (self ) in us. Amen.

Simplicity of Serving Him

My Dearest Brothers and Sisters in our Lord,

I praise God for each and every one of you. We are so very blessed!; For we are filled with the very spirit of the Deity that created us for His good pleasure. And because He experienced our carnality through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, He understands the need to be in contact with others of like faith.

How we hunger to hear from others who worship our God and Lord, in the way we do. How we long to hear of the pristine love that flows from others of like faith, and sharing it all in the spirit of glorifying our Father. None of us desires to be found except in Him. No longer do we have to worry about our flesh raising its ugly head, trying to become something we were never meant to be. But preferring one another, by letting our self to be the least among the brethren; for this is the way of the cross, and the desire of our heart is to glorify our God, and our King, and to be found purified in Him. This is our heart’s desire.

God has made us all in His own image, and yet has created us as individuals so that we become one particular facet of Him. Just as a diamond has many facets, so is God. And it is His good pleasure to give unto His children a part of Him, yet His fullness. Each of us clothed with His glory, pressed down shaken together, till the pressure of the things of this world, causes a life giving affect turning carbon into diamond. A jewels whose light reflects and refracts the light of the life given whom dwells within us. When coming into this understanding, cause us to sell and give away all that we could be in this world to obtain that jewel ourself; the jewel of God Himself; everlasting life.

I feel compelled by God to share something with you, something so very precious to me, and yet what is happening in my private life is in such parallel with what is happening in our group right now. I would share a part of my private life with each of you to show many things that God has taught me of Himself; which  is coming forth in the dynamics of my own family.

To give you a brief background of our family, I have shared this already with some, but want to give you my background again. My husband and I were married on January 28, 1977. Within the second month of our marriage, I became pregnant with our first child; Norman Benjamin Maxwell, 111, who was born December 3, 1977. Before I became pregnant, Norman and I wavered between wanting five children or eight and had this matter before God. So while I was pregnant with Ben, God gave me the names of each of our five children to be born, and in doing so, He gave the order in which they were to be born. Now in my carnal mind, I wished for boy, girl, boy, girl, boy. But God had another plan. These are their names.

Norman Benjamin Maxwell, III (Deceased June 16, 1994 at the age of sixteen due to drowning)
Micah Aaron Maxwell
Nathaniel Isaac Maxwell
Cassandra Angelique (Maxwell) Cecil
Jessica Renee’ Maxwell

Now all of their names have specific meanings of which I will share with you at a later date, but one in particular I want to focus on is that of Jessica Renee’. Jessica being the fifth born, five being the number of grace, her name Jessica also bears the meaning of God’s grace. And her middle name Renee’ means to be born again.

Upon the revelation of her name, Father spoke to me and said, I have given you five children, eight would be a burden. So we knew in that hour that we would have five children, no more, no less.

On November 22, 2000,my husband of 23 years passed away of a massive heart attack.

A promise was given to me of God when I became pregnant with Ben, our firstborn. God planted a seed within me by speaking to my heart and said, “Your family will be an example to the world.” I have held onto the promise all of my life, and have instilled it into my children. Let me explain.

When my children were growing up, we choose not to have a TV in our home. We spent day in and day out with our children. We did not have babysitters, after all, who would babysit for five children? When the world began to encroach upon our family through schooling, I prayed and God gave me release through my husband for me to homeschool our children.

Because I did not work, because I took the commission of being the mother of our children to heart, we often lived in or below poverty level. Yet God provided for us. I have to say, no matter how hard times were, we never went hungry. Not only that, but He blessed us abundantly, over and over again.

Through the years, I watched my family grow up and move away. When I was younger in my faith I became anxious about this promise. Not giving up, but not understanding either when things did not developed as I thought they were going to.

I must say here that everything, and I mean every dream, every word, every vision that God has given to me, directly to me, or through others, has come to pass. Those things which God prepared my heart for, and allowed me to receive, they have become life within me. But this word of our family, I never saw come to fruition.

But through the years, family life was the most important thing to me inside of God. With God’s help, and that of the Lord Jesus Christ, I nurtured my children, and raised them up in the way they should go so they would not depart from God. So it was stressful to see my children grow up, and begin to leave the nest, not seeing the word of knowledge that God had given to me concerning my family.

So in the course of events, I let go, and let God. I let my children leave, let them follow their own pursuits, and gave them up to God. But in doing so, the family always maintained contact with each other, even if it was stressful at times. But the gift that God gave to me, that I had faith of a mustard seed, allowed the word of knowledge, a promise that God given to me to be planted and nurtured in the hearts of my children.

Not quite a year ago, my children called a family meeting for all of us to be together to hash things out. I was at a very low point in my life, and my children came together to work out what could be done. This past year has been a growth in that. But just this past week, something came up in our family, I guess you could say, “all hell broke loose”, and so once again we found ourselves in a family pow-wow yesterday.

This speaks volumes to the power of God. For as some families would have their feelings hurt, stomped on, it would most likely result in everyone going on their way. But God has given a gift to our family not allowing us to shy away from our problems, but to confront them and work them out.

What came of yesterday’s meeting is something so powerful that I cannot really express to you, but to say that I saw the Lord in each and every one of my children. God called this meeting, and He facilitated this meeting. What needed to be accomplished was accomplished, and we came out on the other side victorious.

God has made things so much clearer today about that meeting, but the one major thing is that my children are looking to me to lead them. They feel that I have stopped leading them. They feel I have given up on them.  But the reality is, God had to do a work in each of us, and that takes time.

So as I awoke this morning, God told me to never let a day go by that I do not communicate with each one of my children; to set the standard of staying in constant communication with them. My heart is overflowing with my love for them, and it is not only my love, but the love of God.

But it parallels with what we too are experience in our spiritual family: communication. Now is the time to let God be heard in each one of us. Now is the time to rise up into that which He has given. We have need of one another, and if we have this need, how much more does the world need  not only what we have, but the need for us to share it with them? God said that they would know that we belong to Him because of our love one of the other. I know that it is hard to always share what is within us. Many of us have been hurt in the past by sharing deep from our heart, only to be shot down by others. But God is bringing us to a point where we understand, that unless they say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, they will not see Him. And how can they see Him if we do not share Him with the world.

Please do not think that I am saying that anyone is at fault. Heaven forbid. Unless we have the unction of the Holy Ghost, we cannot move into anything. And what God is saying to us now is to share with one another, and build up one another, and hold up one another in prayer. This is the body ministry that God has given us. But there will come a time when it will begin to spill over to others. It is a natural law that God has put into place, because when the vessel is filled, it will spill over, because God is ever increasing. So He will not hold back what He gives to us. But also, He adds to the church daily as He sees fit, so He will have other vessels prepared to receive of the life that we have to give. We are merely the vessel in which He uses. Molded and created for such a time as this.

I now want to refer back to the email that brother Danny shared with us concerning prayer. I must confess to all of you of something. When something becomes too commonplace, too methodized, too structured, too complicated, too much of anything, I shy away from it all. So I ask God to give me wisdom on how to share with you what I am about to share with you.

I have always been a free spirit, ever since I was a child. I always looked at life with hope in my eyes. I always believed in great things. And I suppose I was like a princess, waiting for my prince to come and carry me away. I looked for him my whole life, and I must tell you that I have found Him in Jesus Christ. And He has taught me of His Father, our Father, whom I have come to love, honor, and respect with all of my heart.

When I fell in love with Jesus, it was like having a friend. I talked to Him about everything. I asked hundreds of thousands of questions throughout my lifetime. I shared with Him things I could not share with anyone else. And He always came to my rescue if I ever strayed away.

But something changed in my life. I no longer desired to stray away. I wanted to be with Him all the time. I wanted to ask Him how I was to handle a situation. I asked Him for words to speak. As our relationship grew, He brought me to His Father’s table and I ate there often. And His Father became my Father. And Father began to teach me Himself. How thankful I am to Jesus Christ  for His obedience to Father, and for His sacrifice. I do this because I truly do love him, and it is His due honor. How thankful I am to God that He chose me before the foundations of the world to be the bride of His Son.

So I have shared all of that to say this, I have never sat in prayer. When others had prayer groups, in the beginning I joined because they asked. But I could never agree with their prayers, they were foreign to me. I view God differently then what they did, and I felt that if I had to sit for hours on end, praying, praying, praying, then I would never measure up to what God wanted of me.

But later I came into a different understanding. A liberating understanding.  You see, the Spirit is the only one that knows how we are to pray, and we have to be sensitive to the spirit to hear what He is saying.

When I feel lonely, and I want to communicate with God, and I feel He is not near,  I follow what my bridegroom has taught me about how pray. Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed would be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven. Give me this day my daily bread, and forgive my trespasses as I forgive others. Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil.

For me prayer is about honoring God above all. I express to Him that which I hold in my heart that I know there is no other God but Him. I acknowledge His supremacy above all. And pray for the advancement of His Kingdom within myself so that I may be a vessel overflowing of that which He has deposited in me. I praise Him for His many blessings daily, because I know that He will takes care of me and my needs without asking. I ask for forgiveness if I find my spirit at aught with someone asking God to make my heart right so I may forgive others for what they have done to me. For I know that I have not always done things right, and being a son of God does not give me the right to say, “How dare you!”

For me, prayer is my communication with God in humbleness. Knowing that I am His vessel, and that I must hear from Him what it is He would have me to do. Always giving honor to Him in ALL things whenever I have the opportunity, even if no one is around, I thank and give Him praise. Because we all are supposed to work out our own salvation, and the only way we can do that is to fall in love with Him.

My relationship with our God is a simple one, because I have fallen in love with Him. I speak with Him all the time, and when I do not hear from Him, I sit quietly at His feet waiting upon Him. I no longer ask for anything for myself, nor for others, knowing that God is in control of all things and He will bring things to pass in His own timing, or give me unction to what to do, say, or pray.

I found long ago to pray for things we know nothing of is to pray amiss. Yes how we long to see someone healed, or someone set free from their infirmities. But God has a plan that includes each and every one of His creation. And He interferes in the affairs of men as He sees fit. He is a Master Weaver, and He weaves the patterns of our lives to interact one with the other; good and evil; spirit, and carnality; life and death.

How can we pray for anything to come to pass the way we want it to when we do not know what it is God is bringing to fruition? We have never been in control of people or situations. Only God has that control, as controls the interplay of everything.  What does it profit us to pray that someone be healed if that is not what God has planned for that person? We end up praying amiss and looking foolish in the eyes of others. Therefore they begin to doubt our relationship with God at all which could cause them to miss their opportunity in Him through us. Where we could be the one to sew the seed, it would then be given to someone else to do so.

So getting back to my free spirit, it is a gift from God. It has kept me always seeking and searching for the truth. While others become bogged down with methodism, I rebel time and time again and will not become a part of that. I have to be free in Him to be who I am in Him. So I never set aside a time to get on my knees and pray to Him.  But I will give you a brief history of my prayer life.

When I was a child, I would go out into the fields or the woods on my dad’s property, and speak to God, and commune with nature for hours on end. I had not friends, and I was taught at an early age, that Jesus was my friend. So I confided in Him about all things.

But as I began to grow up,  I found my prayer life become selfish. It was all about me. Father, bless me with this, Father, bless me with that. Father, I need this, Father I need that.  But when I was filled with His Holy Spirit, and accepted Him as Lord, I stilled prayed selfishly, but it was to bring glory to His name. Father, bless me with this gift, bless me with that gift so I might show the world of you. I would pray over my family, pray over our situation, sometimes God would answer my prayers, sometimes He would not.

But as I grew and matured in Him, my prayer life began to change. My prayers became more centered on God, and my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Father, thank you! Jesus, thank you for being faithful to that which God called you to.  Father, what can I do for you today? Father what would you have me to do for you today? Then again it changed to Father, use me as you would today to glorify you.

But now I find myself so much one with Him, I am cognizant of Him always. I speak with Him always. I awake to find myself smiling and telling Him good morning. I find myself at night before I fall asleep thanking Him for the day, telling Him that I love Him, and telling Him good night.

But now my prayer life has changed again. He is my Father, my God, my Lord, my bridegroom. I am in love with Him. Every breath I take, it is unto Him. Every move I make it is to glorify Him. Every action I take it is to be about His business. I no longer stress over my communication with Him. I love Him with all of my being, and everything inside of me lives and breathes and has my being in Him. I do not desire to do anything that would bring any shame upon His name. I honor Him with in my daily life with every fiber of my being.

Am I perfect? No, but He is. Do I make mistakes, yes, because I still have this fleshly cloak upon me. But in Him, I am perfect as He is perfect. Sin is not present within me, because it is not present in Him. My whole being, my heart, my soul, my spirit is His heart, His soul, His spirit, because I was purchased with His blood, and I belong to Him. It is no longer “I” but Christ that is within me.

I thank God that I was born into this world a female, because I know that submission was easier to me learn than most. I accepted the role of being female, learning to submit at an early age to my headcovering. First my earthly father, who taught me of our Heavenly Father. Then to my husband, and again to my second husband. Now I totally and completely submit to Jesus Christ my Lord, and to my Father, God.  For I am a widow of the church, and no longer have a man in which to submit to. To learn submission at an early age made it easier to see and understand the submission required to serve God. I thank God for this gift. I was born to serve. I never wanted to be in the limelight, always preferring to be in the background serving. Yes, my flesh craved recognition for my part, but I never wanted to be that front man.

But to wrap this all up, I don’t know what all of your prayer life is like. All I know is that for me, it is just speaking with my Father God, and my Lord daily. Serving them in whatever way they have need of me for that day; having total trust and faith in them, not needing to ask for anything. And yet if I do become anxious for something, I merely say something like, “Father, you know the hot water heater needs to be replaced, I know you will supply my every need.” I speak it once, and then I trust and believe that He will take care of it in His timing. I do not stress over it, I do not repeatedly ask for it. I just simply believe, period.

To know God is to trust and have faith in Him. To know God, we understand that God knows us inside out, and therefore knows our needs. To know God means that as our Lord taught us, if he clothes the birds so graciously, how much more will He take care of our needs. What we need to be cognizant of is being about our Father’s business. Let God take care of the rest.

In this then the body has ONE mind, ONE vision, ONE hope, ONE course, ONE movement, ONE God, ONE Lord, and we are blessed to be a part of His body at this time. Praise God for His gift of predestinating us by His grace to be a part of the firstfruit company. Praise God that our journey upon this earth will end with the transformation and the gift of our new bodies. For it has not been without a transformation in us. We have willingly run the course of our race, denying everything but Him, to receive the mark of the high calling.

To honor God we must always keep Him in the forefront. He is the mark; His life within us. That is our goal that is what we are after. And even though there is a deepness within God, and He shows us very many deep understandings, that liberates us and causes us to rejoice; the act of serving God is not a complicated one, it is an act of simplicity. One of love, having the opportunity to serve our God, and our Lord daily; being in submission to them, to be hungry to sup at our Father’s table of everlasting life. To be transformed by the renewing of our mind through our Lord Jesus Christ. And in all of its complexity, serving God becomes very simple; as simple as ALWAYS preferring God, and our Lord above ourself, loving them with all of our fiber and our being. Always bringing glory to our Father, and loving Him above all!

That is the key, loving God above ALL. There is nothing more important than Him. He is everything, always has been. There is nothing above Him. His is all that exists, and He has given us our existence in Him. So all that we are, all that we do, all that we have become, all that we will become, it is to show our love, our honor to our Father God, for all that He has given to us; the ability to live; the ability to be in existence, the ability to give back to Him ALL that we are, in our service to Him. Never being ashamed of, but ALWAYS honoring Him in ALL our ways.

This is the law of circularity. We are because He made us. Therefore we give honor to Him because He made us. We love because He first loved us, and we love Him because He made us. We live because He gave us life, and we live for Him because He made us.

He has given to us, therefore we give back to Him everything that we are, because we are His beloved, we belong to Him. Amen.

Love,
Lenella

Our Expansive Spiritual Nature (Danny Walters)

Last night in a brief exchange with Albert, something came out that has kept my attention as I’m meditating. It was said that “what we’ve got of Him on deposit isn’t worth measuring yet.  But oh, as Paul said, to be found in Him, that our measure would be found mixed in the fullness of His cup. Now, that will be a day of rejoicing.”

 

As I give consideration to this statement, I’m sensing Life, so here I’ve stayed for awhile. I’m led to look up prayer and our disposition toward it and the Spirit’s instruction regarding it. And I see a number of times where it’s obvious that we are to be “devoted to prayer”. I don’t need to reference all the passages for you to recall that that was the heart of the apostles from the beginning (Acts 1:14, 6:4), and continued to be their line of counsel throughout. But then as I looked at these scriptures there seemed to be some sort of understanding about prayer that was second-hand to them – I mean it was somehow a knowing they had and walked in; not something they had to teach on or coach one another about. It was an understanding that they had that as far as I can see, we don’t have. And it’s stated quite clearly in Ephesians 6:18, and I think maybe Darby says it best:

 

“praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication, in Spirit”.

 

And I know I’ve read that verse hundreds of times but for some reason, now, it is compelling me to give another look. What I’m hearing is that there is to be a heart-and-time devotion given to prayer. And that is not the sitting down and open-mouth monologueing with the God that is out there somewhere, but a devotion of our being to an in-Spirit communion with our Spirit-God.

 

And so as to keep from going into a presentation of the dozen or so scriptures I looked up, there was a second pivotal verse with regard to this topic; Romans 8:26:

 

“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us…”

 

Adding this verse to the other was lending a thought that was coupled to our current Mind of being coalesced in Spirit with Him; that thought giving way to two descriptions. One description is of our being organically joined to His Life in the seed within our being, and the other being a dynamic of spiritual fellowship. In other words, we are always organically conjoined in Spirit, but we are not always coalesced in Mind, due to the consciousness of the adam man. Therefore there is a need for us to be devoting our consciousness to our Spiritual union with the Christ within.

 

And then I discovered in this verse in Romans, a unique verb that’s only found in the Bible twice, and it is a Greek word with three elements that means: ‘to take hold, ‘together with’, and ‘reciprocally’. The other account of this word’s usage is in the place where Martha is wanting Mary to come and help; for Mary to come and do her part, to do ‘her share’ of the labor in the kitchen. But we see this Greek word really exercising the fullness of its meaning in this verse in Romans, describing what is supposed to be the dynamic of prayer’s operation – the dynamic for effective fellowship and communion with our Spirit-God.

 

With Christianity having so authoritatively taken the reigns of Truth out of the hands of the Spirit and renaming it ‘doctrine’, and the ‘churched’ having ignorantly presumed that the mantle was passed rather than usurped, Truth has become mixed with the rationalizations of the carnal mind and these misunderstandings have become somehow canonized in our come-from. We come at these scriptures with a settled position based on what we’ve been taught, rather than the unmixed and unadulterated divinity of Truth’s essence, and as such we often times wander through, walking almost sideways regarding these things.

 

Now if I may, these two verses encapsulate a truth held in all the other verses I was given to examine, and this first one says it plainly while the second verse adds clarity and substantiates the truth in the first, and so I want to put them side by side:

 

1.       “praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in Spirit”.

2.       “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; …the Spirit Himself intercedes for us…”

 

Now we’ll typically pass over these scriptures as speaking of things we understand quite well, having long been in the way of these things and having had them further settled by the persuasion of our own study as we’ve looked into these verses, in the context of what we were taught. And of course I’m referring to ‘praying in the spirit’. But if we just step back and allow the Spirit to speak into us on these things, apart from what we already ‘know’, I think a door will be opened to a reality that goes deeper than the gifts of the Spirit, and into a reality of living out of a certain state of Life.

 

The first part of the first verse I’ve listed says as the Word says in many other places and in several different ways: ‘pray without ceasing’. And the second part of the first verse just sort of adds onto that first part an understanding that is threaded everywhere else, but is seldom said in those words: “in Spirit”. Pray at all times and in all seasons, without ceasing, in Spirit.

 

This is a place where you have to appreciate having an Interlinear translation which gives every single Greek word in the original – every if, and, but, and so on. As you are aware, not every word in the original finds itself fitted into the English translations, but more troublesome are the many times when extra words are added based on the subjective understanding of the translators. And in this instance we find the case of the latter. In most of the versions, whether KJV, or NASB (my standard), or NIV, or the 23 others that I have, only the Interlinear and the Darby leave out the word, ‘the’, as in Praying at all times ‘in the Spirit’. The Spirit’s original wording is “in Spirit”. Pray at all times, without ceasing, “in Spirit”.

 

So as I was considering this – what it might mean to be “in Spirit” – I came across the Romans 8:26 passage, and then in that scripture verse the unique verb giving clarity to our understanding; the English word ‘help’, or ‘helpeth’ in the KJV, which is supposed to be giving expression to the original Greek meaning of: to take hold, together with, and reciprocally, or mutually.

 

And so we have: The Spirit helps our weakness; …the Spirit Himself interceding for us: taking hold of us and the need and together with us, as we have submitted ourselves to His headship in our union, a prayer of mutuality ascends, giving voice to our now joint concern. But ONLY the holy Spirit of God, that pure essence of His God-life deposited within, is able to come from the right place regarding the need, and therefore address it according to the Divine, foreknowing intention, whether the need be internal or external to us. And as we properly take our humble position as passive matter in the infinite, eternal, explosive quality of His Life in the seed, our come-from regarding the need is properly aligned, and our hearts properly adjusted, and our thoughts properly established.

 

So what does it mean to be ‘in Spirit’. Well, I don’t think I have to go far to suggest that when John stated in Revelation that he was ‘in Spirit’ on the Lord’s day, that he was speaking of a state of being, a consciousness, a place in Spirit. The apostles devoted themselves to prayer and in fact at one point were given counsel by the Spirit as to how to free themselves from the daily ministration of the Body-needs, that they might devote themselves completely to prayer and the Word. And even though they may have spoken in tongues more than we all, we can’t imagine that the extent of their intentions was exercising anything, but faith and patience. There was a place they needed to spend more time, a realm they felt drawn to and compelled to enter and abide, for when ‘there’, they were where He was, still walking with Him as before, still learning of Him as before, but now their abiding with Him had transitioned from where they were, to where He was. And to enter into THAT place required a different abiding. Separation from this world and all its concerns was required, to enter into His. The key for entrance into that place was a holy passiveness and humility as they sat quietly, as if before Him. A door would then be opened in heaven and then an invitation: “come up hither and I will show you things…”

 

There is a sense I’m getting that I want to put forward. We are all the time concerned with our progress, our growing up into Him in all aspects, our maturing, our becoming as He is, in this world. But this meditation has brought what for me is a heightened sense to that mind of things, and it’s this: We are becoming spiritual again, being transformed from adamic men of flesh to enChristed sons of God. But we’ve more or less seen that as new wine being poured into this old wine skin – well, a new wine skin but more or less of the same design, just transparent in nature. I’m not saying this well but what I mean is that the essence of ‘we’ is not our bodies, whether physical or spiritual. And so as ‘we’ become as He is, being coalesced in His infinite, eternal, explosive essence, a body giving representation in this realm of things cannot possibly contain all THAT. And so what I’m ‘hearing’ is that our becoming as He is will be much more expansive than we have considered, and that we will actually be moving in Spirit, through these new bodies, but that as the Temple in the wilderness could not contain but a representation of the fullness of God, neither will any body represented in the earthen realm be able to contain but a sample representation of what it is we will have become in Christ.

 

My point then is that my come-from regarding growing up in Him is shifting from one in which I become a perfect man, as how I perceived my Lord Jesus to be – walking this planet in His resurrected body – to one in which I am becoming an expansive infinite, eternal, life-giving Spirit (as coalesced in Christ), which will have authority and vocation to be as He is, in this world. And He at different times said such things about Himself, and at one point in particular said while standing in their midst: “I am no longer here” (John 17:11). And we are becoming of that same Spirit, that spiritual seed that when planted in the earth produced more than just another seed (even a ‘glorified’ seed), but a whole plant of multiple ear-producing corn; this explosiveness of Life coming from out of that seed of Life planted, a quality of Life so profound it could not be contained by so simple an expression of the husk of its humble beginning.

 

There is so much more in Mind for us than a glorified body. In fact, that is for them! WE ARE SPIRIT! Our transfiguration is a witness or their destiny, a symbol, a shadow of what is before them. And it is a testimony to the fact that His Life within is the power by which their destiny is reached.

 

But for us, we will have become AS HE IS, and THAT cannot be contained by a temple representation on this earth.

 

So the point of this meditation this morning, the challenge really, is to embrace all that He intends for us, to “let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and…, and…” (Isaiah 54:2-4).

 

To know the power of His resurrection is a greater pursuit than walking this earth in glorified bodies. The greater understanding is found in what Paul prefaced that statement with: “oh, to be found in Him”, that our measure would be found mixed in the fullness of all that is Christ.

 

Be devoted to prayer, the kind of prayer He means: that Spiritual communion, that intimate Spirit to spirit fellowship, set apart unto Him. Put on Christ; be only that holy passive and humble matter in the coalesced Life. Be swallowed up in His expansive Self.

 

And then one last thought. You know, as my sister Lenella pointed out, there is ample reason to esteem our relationship to one another as members of one another, in Christ. And I’m not speaking so much of our hearts of charity toward one another as I am of our comprehension of how God’s designed the working of the thing. He’s so designed it that we NEED one another, as connected to Him. And as we give ourselves over to that heavenly designed working of things, and present ourselves graciously and humbly to one another, we find His Spirit working through each one into the other. We have not recognized the potentiality for increase that finds its release through our interconnection. But it’s becoming increasingly clear to me, as evidenced once again by what came of a simple exchange with my brother, that Christ is thereby administering measures of Himself into each part through the dynamic of our Spiritual relatedness.

 

Glory to our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Becoming All-One (Danny Walters)

So this kind of sharing is really quite personal and I would imagine new for everyone – it certainly is for me. But I have something I want to share again this morning as I continue in this same vein of things, and as I consider sharing the message, I am before the Lord first, as to whether or not it is something I should share, and then secondly, how I should bring it forward. I am endeavoring to share only out of Christ as He wants things shared, and not presume or assume anything. But as I’ve mentioned, the Lord has put a strong body-sense in me and so I have become ‘naturally’ disposed to this Mind of sharing right now. Still, I am continuing cautiously, (trying to learn) endeavoring to only move as His Spirit leads. 

Anyway, I had a dream yesterday morning that was one of those ‘hit me between the eyes’ kind of experiences. And the reason I consider sharing it is that I have probably received this message before but was closed off or not ready for the interpretation, and so didn’t get it. It seems though that the Spirit is somehow ensuring I’m understanding the things brought forward in this moment – maybe being forceful with me to some degree to ensure this moment becomes foundational or maybe substantially incremental to what He’s building, and not just another time I passed through. It is in that regard that I thought perhaps I should share the message of the dream, as it may relate to something the Lord is speaking or has spoken to others. And the message is SO important to get, to really embrace. I mean, I know the message is for everyone, whether or not you’ve had a dream or a sense along this line – it’s something that those ‘in the way’ of His things should get a hold of.

And it seems the place to begin in relaying the message is at the punch line – the last thing the Spirit spoke before my eyes were opened. The scenario plays out like the two walking the road to Emmaus with resurrected-Jesus as their companion, completely unaware that they’d been walking with their Lord until their eyes were opened. In my dream a whole scene plays out that’s analogous to walking the road with Jesus, unaware, and then I wake up and as I’m considering it, all of a sudden I get the interpretation (analogous to: ‘THAT was Jesus’) and it more than surprises me, it shocks me, it astounds me. And then when that settles in, I’m brought to my knees with a revelation that is both humbling to my core and at the same time answering every present desire of my being with a warm and utterly satisfying knowing (analogous to the revelation of the Truth that He’d been speaking to the two along the walk, hitting their spirit’s core and answering every one of life’s questions in that moment).

So I’m starting with the, “THAT was Jesus” moment and will get to the personal utterly-satisfying touch of Truth’s revelation in a moment.

The revelation was: “where you are, is My gift to you”.

As I said, that put the entire train of life with every car full and weighted down with years of experiences and people and circumstances and situations pressing forward with all of its combined push, at full-stop. Where I am, where I find myself in this moment, is God’s gift to me – a present, maybe in some way a reward.

Now, I had to give consideration to where I was. And to the adam-man I’m cut-off from life as I’ve always known it, and separated from the future that I had always imagined with my children and grandchildren, living on a foreign continent in a foreign culture, in virtual isolation given circumstances, language, and security concerns, frequently without electricity or running water, and the list goes on.

But if it’s a gift, and a gift from God, then I’m in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, with an apartment whose bedroom balcony overlooks one the largest lakes on globe, a lake surrounded by mountains, and the water of the bay we’re sitting in is always as glass, picturesque, tranquil, captivatingly beautiful. And our apartment has a measure of security, and our landlord likes us and treats us like family and gives us grace on our rent, and we’ve been here now for ten months without earning income and the Lord has continually provided for us. And Grace and her daughters and Venuste, our live-in domestic worker (whose been with us for a year and half now), give me much love and respect. And as my bent these days is to stay before the Lord 24/7, I have no interruptions; no visitors, no TV, no radio or iPod or books (other than my Bible). And more, so much more. It’s a worshippers dream!

And considering all that, I am humbled. In fact, I am remorseful and repentant for not being more appreciative for having been perfectly placed and situated to fulfill, DESTINY. I mean, that’s what it’s all about right? Not retirement; I’m not looking for retirement, unless you mean retirement from the cares and demands of this world that I might give myself over to a full-time vocation of following the Spirit into Destiny; yes I want that. And that’s what I’ve been given.

Surprise. And the reason it’s a surprise is, while I would tell you that I am of a mind to understand I’m being kept by the power of God and am in the way of His keeping, yet at the same time I’m still somehow half-way (or more than half-way) about the rent and whether or not we’re in the right place and doing the right thing. And then there’s all these seemingly inherent concerns that are a result of our culture and upbringing, things that have to do with what family thinks and friends think and associates, and our testimony and how it reflects upon Christ and so on, because there’s much more to all these bullet points of life than what I’ve shared for brevity’s sake. Sheesh, ‘I’ can certainly complicate things.

But to hear that where I am is God’s gift to me, well, that just changes the whole perspective doesn’t it. I mean, now, I have no worries. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to be doing, and doing it with whom I’m supposed to be doing it (and that includes you with whom I am doing this – Ha!). And the really big thought behind this revelation, is PURPOSE, because THAT’s what we’re all about; that’s our Thing. And if I’m in the place I’m supposed to be, by God’s hand, and my whole heart and mind is wrapped up in fulfilling the Lord’s intended purpose for my life then gosh, I’m PERFECTLY placed for THAT by the PERFECT PLACER – the same One who placed the adam in His garden has placed me here! This place has become Eden to me; the place where I will come to literally walk with God.

So this understanding is big, it’s paramount, and it’s restful. In this understanding is peace, confidence, and assurance. And certainly if it is for purpose, this understanding then is coupled to supernatural things – His things – for that’s what we’re talking about: His things having become the sum total of our things. Therefore this understanding is coupled to the supernatural power and driving force of His will, His love, and the related objective(s) that He has in Mind. And we are caught up in THAT – ALL OF THAT! As mentioned, this understanding, or revelation, is big.

But there was one thing bigger for the two on the road to Emmaus. As big as it was to see resurrected-Jesus and talk and walk with Him for a couple hours – to get THAT revelation – what was bigger was what He left them with. The dawning of the fact that they had just been with Jesus was a powerful moment, but what would carry them through for the rest of their earthly lives was the revelation of Truth personally imparted by the very Spirit of Truth personated in Christ along that walk. And this next thing is what melted me. That first thing LIBERATED my consciousness, but what came next has enlivened me; it has seemingly breathed new and heavenly breaths of life into me that will keep me and sustain me until Destiny is reached!

But how do I convey it? I’ve not given you enough context for it to grab you as it grabbed me. And that’s how God is: He’s personal. He’s personally intimate with each one of us. His messages go deep into our person because He as no other, knows us to that depth and can relate to us out of that depth – the deep of Him speaking into our deep. But it’s powerfully significant so I’ve got to try to communicate what was personally powerful to me that you might be able to at least relate to its significance.

You know how I mentioned yesterday that I was seeing our One God in all of His manifestations, all of the various ways that God has given character to Himself for creation’s sake? Well, it was through one of those personations of Himself that He touched me in the quick of my heart. I mentioned that in the dream, God said: “where you are, is My gift to you”. Well, at this point I’ve got to share a bit of the dream with you.

In the dream, in the midst of the busyness of life, my birthday was coming up and my wife was planning something but even though she’d communicated some things, none of it registered with me. And so a day had arrived where seemingly in the busyness of life, our SUV is jam packed with people, adults and children, and I’m driving us up into the mountains on some excursion. Now for days my wife has been walking around with this little book in her hands, opened to the centerfold where there’s a map. And as it’s been, she’s still clutching this little book, sitting in the front passenger’s seat with kids and others overflowing up into our space with all their animation and noises of life, and as we’re nearing the first stop she has highlighted on this map I pull over for some reason, whether for directions or for ice-cream – I don’t remember – but I stopped and my wife and I got out and walked up to the walk-up counter of this Tastee-Freeze and there were a number of people in line ahead of us and I’m trying to see how I might get the attention of the guy inside while standing in the midst of all these others who are vying for his attention, and of course all the while my wife is pointing to the map in the little book and trying to get me to understand something when, all of a sudden, I had an epiphany. It suddenly dawned on me that all the busyness that she’d been busy with and all the things she’d been doing – and I realized that she’d made significant preparations, arrangements – my goodness, this was all for my benefit! And I told her that I was sooo sorry; I hadn’t realized – I hadn’t noticed – she’d spent so much time and energy on getting everything ready for this time, gone ahead to every spot on the map and made special arrangements at every location – everything was set in order: situations where people and circumstances would be waiting, and there would be gifts and blessings and then clues that would lead me to next spot that she wanted me to arrive at – I was at a loss. I said I was so sorry and asked for forgiveness and said: “I didn’t realize that everything you were doing was for me”. And she said “yes, it is all for you”. And then I woke up.

And I could feel the Lord so strongly and I realized all that I’ve already told you. And as I was laying there I was thanking God and praising Him and asking for forgiveness for being so dense and was still in awe about the revelation and was thinking about all that I’ve come through in the last four or five years or so, all the people and circumstances – it’s been a whirlwind. And then I was thinking about my wife – my wife in the dream – and I didn’t recognize her. And as I was thinking about that and trying to draw parallels and so on, that’s when I heard: “where you are, is My gift to you”. And I immediately knew that she was the daughter of Wisdom, my covenant bride.

I practically fell out. And stepping aside from all I felt and how I reacted and what followed, I want to tell you why that revelation was so powerful to me. The reason is simply because adam had rejected wisdom and chosen to couple with his own rational mind, and I knew at that point that his covenant bride withdrew, meek as she is, and was lost to him. It was more than shocking to me to find out that Wisdom’s daughter was abiding with me, and more especially that she’d been with me for some time and that I was unaware.

So I considered and realized that yes, I have for some years now rejected the seeing, feeling, hearing, imagining, reasoning mind of adam, but what I hadn’t realized is that what I had embraced by doing so, was Wisdom. Until recently I’d always thought Wisdom was that God-perspective of things. I hadn’t known Wisdom as a member of God’s personhood. Understanding God as Spirit, and all His attributes as spiritual attributes still had not really given legs to the understanding that Wisdom was not just the caliber or elevated capacity of the Mind of God, but is the spiritual organ of His Mind, as reason is to the adamic man, and that when we reject the rational mind, we are embracing the Mind of Christ, which is that spiritual organ of Wisdom.

So what was melting me was that I had become, in some measure, both male and female, in essence. You know what I’m saying – not literally – but in the God-essence of things, Wisdom was back in my being. That spirit-counselor betrothed to me as a covenant partner – the daughter of her Mother through whom the worlds were fashioned – she was back. And the fact that the Lord had revealed that to me was carrying some heavy weight. And the revelation that Wisdom had been guiding me for some time toward a destination that God had intended for me, and that I had followed that Spirit – that I had somehow aligned myself to His Spirit of Wisdom – it was revolutionary!

You see what I’m saying: we are becoming! Rejecting the seeing, feeling, imagining, reasoning organ of the rational mind and embracing by faith, the leading of Wisdom’s Mind, we are becoming all-one again, as He is, in this world! That’s what melted me – God revealed THAT to me – ‘Let Us make man in Our image’, is happening – the essence of who He is and has always been is becoming the essence of who we are – men, essenced in His essence.

And so again, maybe a witness to you of what the Lord is speaking, or revealing…