THE Pattern for transporting the Ark of the Covenant is carrying poles on the shoulders...forwards 6 paces, then sacrifice.
The problem with devotionals, or "seeking God", or "being caught up in the heavenlies"...which ARE ALL REAL...and in offering terms are like the oil offering.....it's ONLY one seventh of the JOURNEY guys!!!! And already it has got DIVORCED from what we're doing on this planet. What we are doing is INSTALLING God's MERCY SEAT IN FLESH. God Coming IN FLESH. Corporately. Everything that you know coming INTO Jesus, the ALL IN ALL, and then being handed over to the Father. So JUST gazing lovingly at your Bridegroom is fine....as long as you appreciate that He is ALIVE and HE errrr MOVES. So where you were yesterday gazing in His eyes...He's...errrr...not there.He's moved. He's doing something else. This is the difference between religion and reality. What does God come in the flesh look like? Well...to be frank, when Jesus announced that His COURSE in human dynamics here on earth was over, because He knew the point had arrived when "the devil had absoultely nothing...no landing places whatever in Him"...Guess what? The disciples didn't then stand back in amazement and gaze at this fully fleshed out version of God in awe. NOPE. Jesus never looked any different to the naked eye than 24 hours previously. So DON'T confuse Spirit reality with how things LOOK. But that's what God is going for. A people so immersed in the Life of Jesus, we reach a point where the prayer that we were told to pray, has fully achieved its objective. "LEAD US NOT INTO THE TIME OF TESTING....why? Because it's now irrelevant. We've already had the Holy Spirit's assault course...so we don't need it...we are fully delivered from EVIL." This is what mature sons will look like...and may not be stunningly different to the naked eye to start with!!!However, I really wanted to stress this subject further.
Today I was reflecting on a couple of " third level operations " in the Bible:
Jesus Christ speaking through St Peter the words : This Jesus who you crucified, spoken in Acts 2.
This was the truth, and for all but 3000, it was unpalatable, but that didn't make it untrue.
A whole crowd in Jerusalem HAD CHOSEN Barabbas to be set free, and Jesus to be crucified.
The second "third level" operation was Joseph in Egypt.
His first and second levels of development as a person had involved firstly his call, which came in the form of dreams, and secondly, his being sold first into slavery, then wrongfully into prison....but when God's time came, Joesph was raised INTO the very MANIFESTATION of HIS CALLING.
Then his brothers arrived!!!!!
Now as a third leveller , Joseph, as later did Peter above, did co operate with God, as a mature son to bring his brothers into a place of full repentance....and not just partial forgiveness.
BASICALLY both saints were endowed with the task of RIPPING ALL FIGLEAVES off from their brethren and then introducing full and free forgiveness and restoration.
People in the child and young men stages want to be used in ministry. With all their heart they want God to use them. They see the glory of others being used, and they too desire this with all their hearts.
People in the charismatic bubble...that is people who are forever going to meetings, desiring to be on the ministry circuit, desiring to hold meetings.....allbeit to be a channel of blessing....
quite often simply DON'T "GET" REAL LIFE. They don't see the need for it. They think it's a bit of a mistake en route for the real spiritual stuff....meetings.
Jesus however spent 30 years just doing LIFE. Once 30, He had so much authority when He'd emerged after His time of wilderness testing, He was a continual amazement to those who knew Him.
But Jesus would, in turn, in a similar vein, give His own prescription, onto the disciples.
Preach the gospel in Jerusalem,Judea,Samaria onto the ends of the Earth.
Start where you are at.....even if...like Jesus in Nazareth , you are rejected. At least you tried.
Like a chick emerging from its shell, you have built up strength breaking out from your own environment.
When Jesus said about praying concerning harvesting men's souls, He didn't say rush into the harvest, He said Pray to the Father that He send out workers. Send out means THRUST OUT. Your own innards impel you. Your own rivers make way for yourself. "A man's gift makes way for him" Proverbs.
But where do these rivers burst forth from? Anointing? Yes. But anointing that has been roadtested, that has been brought to bear against realworld obstacles, or in Jesus case, real spiritual obstacles. And in the friction, and the wrestling (Ephesians 6 says wrestling, but the word means vibration)......the Word on the inside comes forth like an explosion....but the strength was built up in the vibration of the two opposing forces.
I suppose I would say that is the main difference between 2nd and thirdlevel ministries. 2ndlevel ministries don't really "get" what life is for. Their spirituality doesn't really encompass normal life, so they are forced to talk around spiritual matters, and meetings, and praying....but they've never really come through their own version of Romans 6-8. Their seed hasn't really been given the chance to go into the Earth and die, and so they do not know the privilege of a completely new plant springing up, packed with its own fruit producing, reproductive seed....from their insides.
You cannot manufacture ministry. It is described in Hebrews as ministering from the power of an indestructible life.....but all the while clinging onto your own, and not letting it fall into the ground to properly die.....how on earth can this indestructible Life start to break through?
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