The Love Inside

"Change ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Master....

Whom the heavens must receive until the times of Restoration of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."

~Acts 3:19, 21

The beautiful thing about Yahshua's life is that refreshing has come.  Refreshing takes us on further. We must be refreshed and let God love us into existence - true existence, where we are awakened to Him and to us, to how we should see Him and to just how He sees us.  Christ wants to shine brighter on you (Ephesians 5:14)!

Our Heavenly Father wants a culture shift.  He wants our own personal refreshment to trigger widespread restoration.  He wants us to realize that Christ in us (Colossians 1:27) is the Kingdom Leaven (Matthew 13:33).  He wants us to realize that we, by virtue of His presence, are contagious. We are the carriers of His Glory; we are those He's entrusted to changing the world. One step at a time and one person at a time - from the inside out.

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Vanessa posted a musical project this past week detailing Yahweh's movement in her life.  And He's shone us that this video will produce a massive cultural shift in the perception of the Love of God. He's shone us that this video is going to change our lives, so that we in turn can be positioned to change the lives of others and work for their good.

I was praying about this project recently, asking God to bless it and send revival.  And He told me not to pray for that.  He told me to pray for a culture shift instead!  He showed me that in past times and seasons, culture has not supported revival!  Instead, revival has fizzled out under the oppression of a dark, godless society and culture.

A widespread, unquenchable cultural change must occur first.  We're just on the brink of it.  If culture is inclined to our Heavenly Father, then and only then can we have lasting change.  If our culture loves and is Loved by Yah, then we can have His presence abide. Then He can teach all of us all things (Hebrews 8:11); then He can produce lasting goodness in this world (John 15:16).  Messiah will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).

So, here is Vanessa's video - or rather, Yahweh's video presented by Vanessa.  It's essentially her personal testimony with one or two dramaticized parts (she never did heroin).  There are a few twists in there...enjoy, and may you come into contact with the presence of God like never before.

Resurrected into Eternity

Yahshua said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies."

~John 11:25

Everyone who believes has already been born again.  Born from where?  Born from above, into God's family, into the Heavenly realms.  Anyone who believes is, spiritually speaking, existing in two places at once - both here and in Heaven.  

We've been instructed to pray that way: "on earth as it is in Heaven".  Our new birth is a reason for that!  Don't you know who you are?  You are a perfected, forgiven child of God.

From the first moment of belief onward, you've been hidden away.  You've been hidden with Messiah, hidden within God - hidden in a place of shelter and peace.  You've been born into the most secure place possible. From the moment you first believed, you've been resurrected.  

Every believer has entered into resurrection life.  You have entered into an inescapable God.  The evil one, the accuser, "touches you not". And he can't touch you, because there's endless amounts of God between the two of you!  There's no more pain for you after this new birth, only the appearance of punishment.  

In this new life, the passing of time loses much of it's meaning.  We're free to live in the now.  We're free to be instead of do; being instead of doing.  The past doesn't hold us down, and the future doesn't worry us.  Instead, both the past and the present and the future give us hope.  

Life becomes timeless, and we find ourselves on a very "ancient path" without really knowing how we got there.  We find ourselves in a place that feels at once very old and very new - a place that's being renewed daily.  Eternity is now.  

Sometimes we forget that Yahshua was our bridge into, well, everything, in this new life that He payed the price to provide.  Yet it is the Son of God Himself that becomes our marker of events, and all of time is bound up in a single moment where we realize that we know Him.  The passing of time grows strangely dim, and we may no longer perceive it like we once did.  

"To live" ceases to become measurable by our cosmic props of times and seasons.  "To live" becomes a person - Jesus.  To live is Christ, and to die is even better.   Time becomes swallowed up by the limitless, unchanging essence of God.  

Heavenly Father, set us free from the perceived constraints of time, from the constraints of our habits and schedules, and let us enter in to unbroken fellowship with You today. 

"Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent."

John 17:3

Mount Hermon

"Come with Me from Lebanon, My bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir,

the summit of Hermon, from the lions' dens and the mountain haunts of leopards"

-Song of Songs 4:8

We know that Jesus was transfigured on the Mount, but do we now where?  Many scholars believe that this event happened on Mount Hermon.  When I first learned that, it seemed significant to me.

Hermon means sacred.  It's root words mean 1) prohibited / set apart and 2) sifted / captured 

(For extensive info on these root meanings, see here).

Isn't that interesting?  I find that everything in the scriptures is both symbolic and literal.  Returning to the passage from Song of Songs, we see that there is a call down from the mountaintop.  Our Heavenly Father calls us up, but He also calls us down.  He comes down with us - "come with me", 

He says.   that experience was amazing, but let's move on to another.   And the glory experienced from that spiritual high rests on us, just as it did with Moses, so that we can move forward in the world.  

We have to be set apart and sifted to go higher with our God, and we also have to be humble enough to be willing to come down.  With great power comes great responsibility - which is why so few lay hold of the Way.  

Paul said, not that I have already attained to it, but I press on to take hold of that which Messiah already took hold of for me. But praise Yah that all of us have been already ordinated as priests!  There will be many mountaintops and many valleys to go, but God will allow us to carry His presence thru it all.

Koinonia

"I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ."

~Philemon 1:6

A couple days ago I was praying in the spirit and kept hearing a distinct word: koinonia.  I thought it sounded familiar, and soon enough, the Holy Spirit began bringing me teachings and explanations of the term.  That was enough to make me realize that I'd already been living out the concept of koinonia recently in my own life.  Cool!

God wants us to live by this faith and with this word written on our hearts:  

"On earth as it is in Heaven".  

He wants us to experience Him and talk to Him, and then attract others into this blissful realm.  When Yahshua was transfigured on the Mount and talked with Moses and Elijah, He pulled others right into the Heavenly realms with Him.  Peter and John and James were included in this glory, even though it was almost too much for them.  

Heaven has to get out somehow - why not through you?  Once you're there, and only once you're there, can you freely give.  Only then can we talk to others within the confines of Yah's Heavenly Kingdom. Others can learn from us, and we can learn from others!  Contentment is key to pure communication.   If we rely on the contentment of God, than we can be content to flow out to others.  There's an attraction to God within somebody.  This is a fruit that can't help but be fruitful: the fruit of love.  Here's what Francois du Toit has to say about it:

"The Koinonia (communication) of our faith is ignited by the acknowledging of every good thing that is in us in Christ!"


Heavenly Father, let the cry of our hearts be for us to experience more of Your Love, and for us to love You back in turn.  Increase the hunger of our spirits within us and the calling out of our souls.  Let Your presence in us draw us to the right people in the right places at just the right time.  Let us always be a magnification of Your Love, and stretch us and mold us to conform to Your glory.  Draw us to friends who can stretch us and teach us new things, and let us live and talk and think in the light of Your Presence. Make us like you, Lord, and teach us something new today.  

Hunger

Spiritual hunger, that is.  Let's see what John G. Lake had to say about it:



"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

~Matthew 5: 6

Hunger can be a good thing. It is the greatest persuader I know of. It is a marvelous power. Nations have learned that you can do almost anything with a populace until they get hungry. But when they get hungry, watch out. There is a certain spirit of desperation that accompanies hunger. I wish we all had it spiritually.

I wish we were desperately hungry for God. Wouldn’t it be glorious? It would be a strange thing, if we were all desperately hungry for God, if only one or two got filled in a service.

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.”
Righteousness is the rightness of God. The rightness of God in your spirit, the rightness of God in your soul, the rightness of God in your body, the rightness of God in your affairs, in your home, in your business, everywhere. God is an all-around God. His power operates from every side. The artists paint a halo around the head of Jesus to show that there is a radiation of glory from His person. They might just as well put it around His feet or any part of His person. It is the radiant glory of the indwelling God, radiating out through the personality. There is nothing more wonderful than the indwelling of God in the human life. The most supreme example that God ever performed was His taking possession of men. By the Holy Spirit He comes in and takes possession of those who are hungry.

I will guarantee to you that after the crucifixion of Jesus there were 120 mighty hungry folks at Jerusalem. If they had not been exceedingly hungry they would not have gotten so gloriously filled. It was because they were hungry that they were filled.

“Blessed are they which do hunger.”
We are sometimes inclined to think of God as mechanical, as though God just set a date for this or that event to occur. But my opinion is that one of the works of the Holy Ghost is to prepare the hearts of men in advance by putting within them a strong hunger for that event that has been promised by God until it comes to pass.

The more I study history and prophecy, the more I am convinced that when Jesus Christ was born into the world He was born in answer to a tremendous heart-cry on the part of the world. The world needed God desperately. They wanted a manifestation of God tremendously, and Jesus Christ as Deliverer and Savior came in answer to their soul’s cry.

Many look forward to the second coming of Jesus as though mechanically, on a certain date, when certain events come to pass, Jesus is going to appear. I do not see it that way. I believe there must be an overwhelming hunger for the Lord’s coming in the hearts of men so that a prayer such as was never prayed in the world before for Christ to come will rise to heaven. And when it rises to heaven on the part of sufficient souls, it will take Jesus Christ off the throne and bring Him down to earth.

Daniel says he was convinced by the study of the books of prophecy, especially that of Jeremiah, that the time had come when the Israelites should he delivered from their captivity in Babylon; the 70 years were fulfilled, but there was no deliverance. So he diligently set his face to pray it into being (Daniel 9).

If deliverance were going to come to pass mechanically on a certain date, there would not have been any necessity for Daniel to get that tremendous hunger in his soul, so that he fasted and prayed in sackcloth and ashes that deliverance might come. God’s purposes come to pass when our heart and mind get the real God-cry, when the real God-prayer comes into our hearts and the real God-yearning gets hold of our nature. Something is going to happen then.

No matter what your soul may be coveting, if it becomes the supreme cry in your life, not the secondary matter, or the third or fourth, the fifth or tenth, but the supreme desire of your soul, the paramount issue—all the powers and energies of your spirit, soul and body are reaching out and crying out to God for the answer—it is going to come!

Freedom: It's Contagious

"...That the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."  

Romans 8:21

Based on this verse, our freedom goes out from us.  It begins within, in Yah's presence, and is released through us.  Freedom is contagious,more contagious than sin or disease.  Our Freedom has the ability to purify our natural environment.

When we are experience fullness of freedom as children of God, when we are celebrating who we really are -- that's when the Kingdom advances.  It's just like the implanted word (James 1:21) and the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31). Your Heavenly Father wants this presence within you to grow and grow and grow until others find shelter with you!  He wants to expand your tents and increase your authority (Isaiah 54:2).

The truth is that we are so free that our freedom liberates our surrounding -- even nature.  The creation itself will be set free from the natural order of things by coming into contact with His offspring.  By coming into contact with YOU!  This is the "Kingdom Leaven" that Yahshua spoke about (Matthew 13:33).  He wants to bless others through you.  He wants purity, holiness, and conviction to flow out through you.  He wants you to cause atmosphere shifts. Like a peacemaker (Matthew 5:9)

How many of us have really experienced this?  Vanessa and I have experienced weather miracles many times now.  We've seen how our Father is is control of the climate and the wind and even all the creatures He's made.  We've seen how animals respond to the good news of Messiah (Mark 16:15)-- it's fun talking to birds and cats and bunnies!  But have we made this confidence in God a way of life?

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Yahshua Messiah took hold of me."

~Philippians 3:12

FREEDOOOOMMM!

Last night God gave me a dream where I was undergoing a teaching.  It was on freedom.  In the dream, the Holy Spirit showed me Romans 8:21:

"...that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."  

Glorious freedom.  Thank you Father.  Do any of us really know what that's like?  Do we understand what it means to possess glorious freedom?  I don't think so, not yet.  Not with a full measure, yet this is exactly what Yahshua has promised (Luke 6:38).  He wants us to know; we're His family, kings in His kingdom (Proverbs 25:2)!

In my dream, there was such a liberation.  I instantly knew that God had just given me a key to abide. When I heard Romans 8:21, it was written on my heart in a new way.  It was so powerful, and the power was there to effortlessly provide.

That's what our Heavenly Father gives us power for -- to get closer to Him.  It's not for our giftings or callings so much as it was for Him.  From Him for me for Him!

It was an awesome experience of peace and contentment.  If you haven't already, ask Elohim to give you heavenly dreams!  He is faithful, and He will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).  Let's all taste and see that Yahweh is good (Psalms 34:8).

You Have Received

A few days ago, the Spirit spoke to me, saying,

"Thomas, you have to realize that Christianity is a religion of receiving, not of giving."

Huh.  That was an interesting way to put it; there was some context involved here! Recently I've been studying the major differences between Christianity and other belief systems.  While the differences seem clear (and are!), it's been a good, important review of things.

We need to remember that Yahshua said, "freely you have received".  We tend to overlook this message in our impulsive attempts to overemphasize the second half of it.  We make His command more a message dictating us than an essence pointing to Him.

It's not about us, it's about Him (though He thinks you're wonderful, and you should too)!  However, for things to be about Him, blessings must also be directed to you.  Don't you realize that you're an extension of Him?  It's about getting ourselves aligned with the perspective of God.

Once we're aligned, we'll realize that this reception of Yah's goodness will lead to thankfulness, joyfulness, happiness, peace, love.  His mind couldn't lead to anything else.

If we focus on the receiving of Heaven from Him, then we'll be able to freely give.  Why?  Because we won't even think of it?  We'll be so distracted by God that we can't help but give.



Other religions might be summed up like this:

Give to others, so that you may receive from God.

Or,  Become Holy, so you can be like God.

Or,  Pray as much as you can, so you can be near to God.



In true Christianity, this trend is reversed.  It's time to take our focus off of ourselves and be overwhelmed by our Heavenly Father.  It's time to focus more on receiving -- all that we have, will, and want to receive -- so that we can believe enough to have an overflow to give from.  Christianity says

You are like God, so be holy.

Or,  You are near God, so pray to your heart's delight!

Or,  You have received, so continue receiving even while you give.  It's not about your efforts, it's about His.

Do Not Light a Fire on the Sabbath

"Do not light a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath day"    ~Exodus 35:3

God has been showing me that this still has application for today.  All scripture can be literally, spiritually, or symbolically applied to today (2 Tim. 3:16).  We live in a time where we get to see just how the Old Covenant has always been intended to point us to the new (Colossians 2:17).  That's exciting!  The laws and codes and regulations given by Moses were not written to us, as much as for us.

How do we translate the essence of Exodus 35:3 to modern Christian culture?  By letting scripture interpret itself!  There is a message behind all of these little bylaws that still remains.  We can see what David said about it -- he was ahead of his time in that He lived by faith in a Savior that hadn't yet come:

"You, oh Yahweh, keep my lamp burning; my Elohim turns my darkness into light."            

 ~Psalm 18:28

There's a big message here.  Other translations describe it this way: "You light my lamp".  We need to let God do the lighting, especially on the Sabbath.  We need to let God set us on fire, especially because it's He who brought us into the realm of Sabbath-day rest.  He is both the fuel and the fire itself.

I believe this whole concept of lighting fires on the Sabbath amounts to our own self-religious efforts to get to God.   In ancient times, getting a fire started could be hard!  The time invested in gathering wood was pretty significant.  In the same way, our lengthy, compulsive, and/or mundane spiritual templates are not rewarded by the God who paid the price to give you rest (Hebrews 4:1).

We can't just go through the motions to go up with God, nor can we come into Him with self-righteous ideals. Don't forget that Messiah is the substance (Col. 2:17) and the method of connection (Hebrews 2:11).  Let Him awaken inner passion for you.

It's up to Yahweh to "set us on fire" and purify us.  It's up to Him to draw us closer to Himself. Trying to start something with God by our own hard work is not smart (Songs 8:4); more than that, it distracts us from the appreciation of what God wants to do.  Trust and faith, on the other hand, will magnetize yourself to God and draw His power into you.  He wants to do it, and He is able!

Overtaken and Into God's Rest

I've been realizing that there is a higher realm out there available to us in the Christian life.  There's a life beyond temptations, struggles and "falling from grace".  There's a life where God make things easier.

"For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His."

Hebrews 4:10

This verse has taken on a newer, deeper meaning recently.  I think the Holy Spirit wants to shine on us so that the meaning of all scripture is always evolving and progressing into the Heavenly mind.  

Naturally speaking, life is hard.  Even for Christians -- sometimes, life is hard!  It may be hard to not lose it when your brother says something annoying; it may be hard to stay peaceful when everyone is crowding the kitchen, it may be hard to avoid all semblance of road rage...it may be hard to pray for a stranger in the grocery store.  These are all mindsets we've gotten stuck in somewhere in our past.

Truthfully, though, this isn't the most accurate way of thinking.  It's not God's way.    To the extent that we are not tapping into God's way, we are denying the fullness of what Messiah did for us on the cross.  If the majority of what we experience as a Christian seems hard, then we are living under an illusion.

To rest from your own work takes a lot of power.  Not your own power, though!  It takes the power of the Ruach inside you to propel you onward independent of yourself.  That's what we need -- to live in the Spirit.

I've been seeing that there are degrees in this life in the Spirit.  God wants to overpower you, He wants to overshadow you, He wants to overtake you and overwhelm you.  I think this is what the prophets were talking about when they said, "the hand of Yahweh was heavily upon me".  

God wants to expose you to the weight of His glory and compel you into Himself.  He wants to consume you until there is no self-effort of self-thought left.  He wants to possess you: mind, body, and spirit.  Isn't that interesting?  It's the truth.

The point at which life becomes easy for us, when faith becomes restful, when pain turns blissful, when natural conditions burst out into the supernatural, will occur when God within us has full control.  It's not as hard as it sounds.  The only effort involved in us is the race towards believing.  If we've believed, we've entered into God's way, and if we stay in His Way, we'll have it easiest.