Corey Russell : The Glory Within

Corey Russell - The Glory Within
Book Source
It’s in the midst of days like these that God raises up voices that call the Church back to her first love of intimacy with God and focus on the interior life so that once again, our lives would emanate the life of Christ. Corey Russell is one of these voices. Corey has been on the senior leadership team at IHOP (International House of Prayer) for the last 11 years. His messages on the knowledge of God and intimacy with God carry authority and clarity.Mike Bickle IHOP


“…May your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless…” (1 Thess. 5:23). God designed humanity as an intricate, three-part reality: body, soul, and spirit. In the same way, God formed the tabernacle with an outer court, an inner court, and the holy of holies. God has designed us with an outer court (our body), an inner court (our personality or soul—the mind, will, and emotions), and a holy of holies (our spirit person). It is in our spirits that God comes to take up residence at the new birth. The very life of God is infused into us, and we receive this new nature deep within our spirits.


We are spirits who have souls and live in bodies. Who we really are is not what can be seen externally, but who we are deep within.


At some point, each of us has to take an honest look at our lives and ask: Where is the breakdown? If I have been given the fullness of the life of God, why don’t I experience it? If I have everything in Christ, why do I walk in so little love and joy and peace? Where is the breakdown? Hopefully by now the revelation of all that we have been given in Christ is creating a deeper hunger in our spirits and a prayer is growing inside of us: How can I access the life of God in me? How can I begin to see the Holy Spirit break out of my spirit and transform every area of my life—body, soul, and spirit? This question is what John 15 is all about. In John 15, Jesus states that He is the Vine and we are the branches. Think about the analogy Jesus used. The vine contains the life source—it contain...


Many of us think that when it comes to our transformation, God will do everything and we don’t have a part to play. The truth, though, is that God has a part and we have a part. We cannot do God’s part, and God will not do our part. This is a major stumbling block on the road to maturity and transformation. We are all guilty of passivity—so many of us sit around wishing that our lives were different while refusing to go on the treasure hunt to discover what we’ve been given and how to access it.


Hans Urs von Balthasar, the great Swiss theologian, describes meditation and prayer in this way: [F]irstly, prayer is a conversation between God and the soul, and secondly, a particular language is spoken: God’s language. Prayer is dialogue, not man’s monologue before God…. All of a sudden we just know: prayer is a conversation in which God’s word has the initiative and we, for the moment, can be nothing more than listeners. The essential thing is for us to hear God’s word and discover from it how to respond to him.