Works of Righteousness?

Or works for righteousness?  There is a subtle, but very important difference.

"This living flame of love is so untouchable, so unquenchable, that it is virtually impossible for us to ever draw near without being consumed. This is why it is ultimately necessary that God Himself becomes our righteousness. We are incapable of reaching that place of purity and perfection which He requires of our own accord. And so Christ must positionally become our "right living" so that we can freely enter the love of God."      ~John Crowder

This has been a theme that's really been impressed on me in the last couple weeks.  I've been holed up at home, cleaning, organizing, sweeping, building, planting, vacuuming...you get it.  But there's been a lot of seemingly 'mundane' activities going on.  How to stay content?

Remember that Yahweh has gifted us fruit that remains (John 15:16).  And this fruit of peace, love and joy is found in His son.  It's found in focusing on Jesus.  

To 'do' works of righteousness, you need to abide.  And to abide in divine Love, you need to believe. That's why Jesus stated that the work of God could be boiled down to the effort of believing.  If we fall out of communion and try to earn our own righteousness, then we've fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4).  We've started to work for something we already have.  How crazy is that?

God wants us to be working into a labor of love.  He wants us to have such a divine sense of purpose in our lives that even sweeping the floor is fun.  There is a pleasure found in partnering with Him in even the smallest task.  You life may look pretty similar to that of an unbeliever.  The difference is that you are a friend of God within your mind (Colossians 1:21)!  The difference is that your joy can always be complete (John 15:11).  

Having your heart fixed on God, overwhelmed in Him, is enough to call the Glory down.  Staying in the Love of God is a training process, and we've got out entire lives to fully learn it (Luke 6:40).  I know I mess up sometimes.  But even our own failures ultimately point us to a greater reality, which is the limitless, immeasurable, too-good-to-be-true grace that we must be reminded to rely upon.  

"For we are Yahweh's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Yahsua Messiah, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."       ~Ephesians 2:10 

 

The Tree of Life in You

In the garden of Eden, there were two trees.  One was permitted and beneficial; one was off limits to Adam and Eve.  The One tree gave truth; the other gave knowledge.  The One gave freedom; the other gave religion.

Anyways, this post is about the Tree of Life!

"After I was baptized with the Holy Ghost the Lord gave me a blessed revelation. I saw Adam and Eve turned out of the garden for their disobedience and unable to partake of the tree of life, for the cherubim with flaming sword kept them away from this tree. When I was baptized I saw that I had begun to eat of this tree of life and I saw that the flaming sword was all round about. It was there to keep the devil away."     ~Smith Wigglesworth

Isn't that wonderful?  Jesus is the tree of life.  And He's on the inside know. We've left the covering of the Law (Gal. 3:25) and entered into the covering of the Almighty, the Garden of Eden.  In a sense, the believer embodies the garden of Eden; and Yahshua walks amongst us within.

Wigglesworth also said that he was a thousand times bigger on the outside than on the inside.  It took me a while to get a grasp on that.  But God wants us to be on the inside, looking out.  Yahweh wants us to understand just how overflowing the fullness of God can get (Ephesians 3:19).

So, what was Wigglesworth referring to when he said that?  The Tree of Life, that's what -- the expansion of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:32), the vibration of life within.  This is the tree that Yahweh prunes (John 15:1), the Tree in which we are commanded to abide (John 15:4).

See, the word starts in your spirit, planted as just a seed (John 15:4). The Holy Spirit may scatter more than a few seeds into your heart before you accept it, and that's OK ()!  Eventually, though, hearing is mixed with faith, and you've got a little tree (Romans 10:17)!

And God takes that tree and cares for it.  He protects you from spiritual warfare (Psalms 105:15).  He shelters you and allows you to grow.  And the more you grow, the more exposure there can be to the elements. Some of your spiritual 'branches' may fall outside the protection of those angels with flaming swords.

It's about when the operation of the Spirit works in you and through you that you've reached maturity. If nourished, those little branches will grow up, out, and provide a resting place for others!  If left to the Father's care, He'll cause such growth in you that your influence far exceeds yourself.

Allow God to prune you.  Allow Him to prune off the bad parts; allow Him to burn them away. Allow the cherubim to guard you (Gen. 3:24).  If you go past His instruction, the same fire that's designed to protect you might just singe a little.  Allow Yahweh to be your purifying fire (Hebrews 12:29).

It feels good to feel that burn.  Allow Him to sift through your life and make you more and more fruitful (John 15:2).  There's always room for improvement!  There's always room to grow.  God wants to give you greater territory, greater gifts, greater responsibilities.  Are you ready for it?

Snapshot: Remembering Your Mantle

A few days ago, the Lord showed me a mantle. And He reminded me that His calling on my life is not confusion or doubt, but to walk into His purposes and promises.

He also took up the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and returned and stood by the bank of the Jordan. He took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and struck the waters and said, "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" And when he also had struck the waters, they were divided here and there; and Elisha crossed over.                2 Kings 2:13-14

Mantles represent our spiritual authority--the measure of Christ in us that does the works.  It's time to remember His hope!  It's time to remember His calling.  It's time to remember what it's like to be called.

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love...                             Ephesians 4:1-2

It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to walk into our calling.  It takes the fullness of the Spirit to accomplish God's will.  And it takes life in the Spirit to bear good fruit--humility, gentleness, love--to show ourselves worthy.  We need to remember that God saved us so that we could be firstfruits.

We need to know that God's will is not unrest or anxiety.  His will is assurance!  God wants us to feel empowered, to be empowered, and to live empowered.  He wants us to remember our spiritual identity and authority in Him.

Mark Four: Sowing a Better Word

Earlier today, the Lord said "Mark 4", and told me to read it.  And so I turned there, and it was the parable of the sower!  And I realized that it was such a word in season. The Lord has led me to start gardening this Spring, in hopes of one day restoring our farm, and so the concept of sowing seeds really resonated.

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn't have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Mark 4:3-9

SOWING WITH OTHERS

All of us are spiritual farmers.  All of us can sow a seed.  And all of us should--we should all speak the truth in love so that others can hear and believe. All we need to do is lay out God's word in front of others.  The more God draws me near, the more I have a desire to sow the truth among those who have not yet heard it.   And once we share, our work is done--we can rest in the knowing that God will work!  

We need to sow goodness into those who don't yet possess the light.  We need to encourage and exhort.  And we will probably need to rebuke.  But we need to do all of this in love and in the spirit of prophecy.  We need to plant into the minds of the lost and confused good thoughts.  And all of us will feel lost and confused at some point! So we can sow truth into both believers and unbelievers.

Sometimes we may give the truth to others, only to see satan come in and steal that word away from them.  And that's sad--but we need to know that we did what we could, that we pleased God.  We are not accountable for the effects of someone else's shallow or thorny soil--we are just accountable for our own efforts to sow.  Once the Word is sown, it's up to the receiver to humbly accept it (James 1:21).

SOWING WITH OUR WORDS

So we sow seeds among those with less knowledge; among unbelievers and less mature Christians. And that's great!  But we also need to sow good seeds in our own life.  We do this in 3 ways:

1)  We speak life over ourselves 
2)  We speak life over our surroundings and families
3)  We make sure that our soil is good

Remember that the power of life and death is in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).  Let's make positive confessions accordingly!  We can speak life in many ways--by thanking God, by declaring His goodness, by claiming His promises, etc.  Praying in tongues--praying in the Holy Spirit--is also a way of speaking life.  It's a way we can speak life and build ourselves up in our most holy faith (Jude 1:20).

If the seeds sown are good, then we should ensure that our soil is,too.  We are not of the world, so our thoughts, emotions, and words should be sanctified.  We can then walk in humility and accept any seed of truth that might come along.  Anything opposing our belief of the truth needs to be cast down by the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5).  Then we can say something over ourselves or our families--something pure and true--and also be conditioned to believe it.  If we confess and believe, not only are we saved (Romans 10:9), but we will also become more and more fruitful!

SOWING WITH GOD'S WORD

We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).  And we sow into others because He first sowed into us!  We need to let Him sow. by the Word.  We need to accept His truth and accept His reality, because that is when more can be given.  We need to accept all that He has to give us.  This, too, happens in 3 ways.

1)  We receive God's written Word
2)  We receive God's personal (prophetic or specific--rhema) word
3)  We prepare our soil to accept God's power.

Step one is obvious, but it's most important.  There are so many promises in God's Word.  These are the seeds Jesus was referring to!  And many are conditional.  Just like seeds, they will not grow nor become fully manifested unless properly nourished.  So we need to read and believe the Bible, God's written Word.

Step two is also important.  God stills speaks today, so we need to continue to listen.  He gives personal promises.  He speaks mysteries and talks of the future.  He reveals to us great and mighty things, which we otherwise would not know (Jeremiah 33:3).  We need to position ourselves and spend time in the presence of the Most High.  We need to hear His loving, comforting voice for ourselves.

Step three--we need to get ourselves out of the way!  God dreams big, and I think it's very biblical to say that He also likes to show off.  Don't be surprised if He says something daunting.  Don't be surprised if a personal promise from God seems unlikely--or even impossible.  On your own effort, it is!  The solution starts with a transformation of our own thoughts into His, as we take on God's mind.  We need to have enough faith and enough trust to believe God for something great.  We need to do away with old ways of thinking and old strongholds, in order for our soil to be a nourishing climate for God's rhema words.  In short, we need to acquire from the Lord new wine skins (Matthew 9:17)!

If we receive and accept every word that God speaks, we will also receive every one of His blessings. We will become more and more fruitful in bearing good fruit!

"You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; And light will shine on your ways."
~Job 22:28

Snapshot: To Separate The Wheat from The Chaff

Yesterday the Lord gave a vision of a wheat plant.  And I saw the branches--the leaves that produce the fruit--of the plant.  Some of these leaves were doing just fine, and being left alone, while others were being sifted through a little combing machine.  This sifting machine just took the chaff right out of the wheat.  About a third of the entire plant was being sifted and sorted so that only the wheat remained.

I realized that God was showing me the work He is doing in my own life.  Sifting out the unfruitful parts, so that the parts bearing fruit--bearing wheat--have room to grow and become even more productive.

"His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."                 Matthew 3:12

Let's look at the context here.  For believers, for those already saved, this is what the baptism in the Holy Spirit and His fire does to us!  This is a work of God, not in judgement, but in refining.  God takes away the hindrances and sifts out the impurities.  He cleanses us initially, and that process never stops.

"You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you."             John 15:3

We are clean because He's spoken and told us so.  Praise God!  It's a real revelation to know the righteousness He's given us.  And then what?

"He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."                                                John 15:2

We have been clean since salvation.  But have we been perfectly clean?  Not yet, not unless God makes us that way.  We may still have personal issues that need sorting out.  We probably do!  If we have issues, then we have need of a sifting.  (Luke 22:31)  So God takes these things and combs them off, cuts them off, burns them up.  He burns them away in His purifying fire.  We don't need to have issues any more!  We can be made perfectly whole.

"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness..."
Malachi 3:3

This is what God does to all who accept His gift of grace.  He purifies us so we can give purity to Him.  It's time to accept holiness.  It's time to accept purity.  It's time to accept that biblically, we are all saints.  It's time to walk worthy of the calling with which we've been called.

"...so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God..."                               Colossians 1:10

"Do This, Do That" Versus Freedom

He who said to them, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary," And, "Here is repose," but they would not

listen. So the word of the LORD to them will be, "Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line 

on line, A little here, a little there," That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and 

taken captive.              --Isaiah 28:12-13--

The Lord led me here a few days ago....this is an interesting passage.  For me, it was a call to change. God doesn't desire to give us rule after rule; He doesn't want to make us stumble.  He doesn't want to take away all of our freedoms or surround us with impossible regulations (Lamentations 3:5).  As I said in a previous post, God doesn't desire to hand us over to a reprobate mind.  And He doesn't want to cause us to stumble.

But sometimes we need to change and return to God, and He causes us to stumble.  He does this so that we can hit rock bottom, and then turn and be healed!  He does this out of Love.  God Himself may become to us an oppressor if He knows that trials and testing will cause an eventual return.

"If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you."                 Jeremiah 42:10

God can and does change His mind.  God can and does change the way He interacts with people.  He does this based on our actions.  God wants to give freedom, but He will not give it if the receivers use it for their own glory.  For the worldly minded, God gives rules, regulations, and incessant demands.   This is what Isaiah 28:13 is talking about.  

I witness this in my own life.  When I have strayed from focusing on God, God strays from talking about Himself to me.  Instead, His direction takes a practical, even oppressive, turn.  The Lord may prompt me to do some chores or talk to someone.  He may instruct me in a way that takes away my freedom (Jeremiah 34:17).  What we are to Him, that He will become to us (Psalms 18:26).

If we are not thinking about Him, God will add to the yoke on our shoulders until it becomes to much for us to bear.  He wants us to ask for help!  He wants us to fix our minds on Him.  This is the better way.  If we are loving God, all else will be added to us.  If we are abiding by His Spirit, that's when there is freedom.  That's when there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17).  

If we are in the Spirit, then we will be instructed in spiritual things and be pointed towards God.  That is God's desire.  If we are in the Spirit, then we will have freedom to think anything good about God. We will be free to do anything God for God.  We will not be subjected by God to "order upon order", because Jesus in us has already fulfilled all of the law.  Once we are operating in the Kingdom, then can we have other things, too (Matthew 6:33).

We can be free to sing, free to express joy, free to worship God in everything we do.  Why persist in subtle rebellion?  God wants to make us slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18); He wants to give us a light yoke (Matthew 11:30).  Let's allow God to approve of us, so that He can give us freedom.  Let's show Him that the gifts He's given us are able to shine through and glorify Him alone.

Snapshot: Fruit for Discerning

In a previous post, I described how God was showing me that I need to gather and store up the gifts He gives me.  And He showed me a basket, symbolizing the vessels He gives us to store His treasures in.

Later on (earlier this week), He showed me a tree that grew a lot of fruit on it.  This tree was bearing good fruit, and I imagined myself picking this fruit off of the branches as I went.

Step by step God gave me the interpretation for this.  He impressed to me that the fruit on the tree was dates.  This takes some explaining...one of the hardest messages to receive from God involves calendar dates.  I've often struggled in accurately understanding God's timing--whether or not He wants me to do something on a particular date.  Often, but not always, receiving a clear mandate as far as when to do something is difficult.  I would consider this kind of direction spiritual meat.

"For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.  But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."     Hebrews 5:13-14

"This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words."     1 Corinthians 2:13

And I realized that this fruit on the date tree symbolized more discerning spiritual concepts--receiving from God advanced messages, themes, and ideas.  One example of this fruit would be the acquiring of calender dates from the Lord.  Get it?  Obtaining calendar "dates" from a spiritual "date" tree full of spiritual gifts?  God can be funny with words sometimes.

Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When he said this, he called out, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."    Luke 8:8

God wants to give us deep, discernible messages that bear more and more fruit.  He wants to make us more and more spiritually productive.  He is giving us more advanced messages.  He wants to speak to us with dates and numbers, with profound images and deep things.  He's ready to tell us "great and unsearchable things, which we do not know" (Jeremiah 33:3).  He's going to give us good fruit, and He's going to allow us to sort through it and throw away the bad.  God wants to give us a clear filter. He wants to give us enough discernment to quickly receive a new thing.  Let's receive discernment that allows us to dig deeper and deeper into the mind of God.

Snapshot: Threshing

Yesterday I was spending time with Vanessa and the Lord showed me a threshing fork--that He was "threshing out" the impurities in her spirituality.  I pondered on the meaning of this for a little while, and came to understand that He was separating the wheat from the chaff within her life.  He was creating in her a clean heart.

"His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."  Matthew 3:12

Now, I believe that there is more than one application to the above verse.  Believers (wheat) and nonbelievers (chaff) will be separated on that judgement day, yes, but this message can also address the particulars of a single Christian's life.  God sorts through our lives, keeping the good, fruitful parts (the wheat), and removing the sinful parts (the chaff).  The chaff is then burnt away.  

God does this in His mercy!  By His Spirit, He puts to death our sinful parts (Romans 8:13). He burns up our uncleanness with His jealousy(Deuteronomy 4:24).  He cuts off the branches within us that bear no fruit (John 15:2).  The list goes on, but the point remains the same--God desires to do a purifying act within the lives of all His own.  He wants to thresh us out.  This may be painful, but in it we still see His goodness!  In it His grace is extended.  In this we see that our Lord is slow to anger and abounding in love and compassion (Psalm 103:8).  He wants all of us to come to the fullness of repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  When we open ourselves up to this threshing, we become closer to Him.

Confirmed:  Today a word by Bobby Connor was posted on the Quickened Word.  Below is an excerpt, with bolded parts for emphasis.




What significant event is upon us now?

--A Double Portion of Intimacy

The Hebrew word translated “barn” can also be translated “threshing place.” The threshing floor is indeed the place that is being opened to us now for this most significant season ahead. The threshing floor has been leveled and made smooth. It is a place where the wheat is separated from the chaff—the place where true treasures are discovered and stored. The threshing place is the treasured place where Ruth met her Boaz, where the Church meets her God—the place of profound intimacy. The threshing place is the place where the Beloved calls out to His Bride, Grace, grace!

How do we open the lock to this place of intimacy? What is the combination? It is our love for our neighbor and our Beloved, who calls out to us, Grace, Grace, as we read in Song of Solomon 5:5.

Snapshot: Prayers of Healing Rise

I was in prayer around the beginning of this week, when the Lord gave me a vision of two apples rising.  They were green apples, and they arose from my prayers.  As I saw this, I realized that Vanessa was praying in the room next to mine at the very same time.  The apples symbolized the fruit of our prayers going up to God.

...“What is it, Lord?” And He said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.        Acts 10:4

This is what God thinks when we talk to Him.  Our pleas rise up to Him.  They are uplifting in and of themselves, but God takes this a step further.  Our prayers bring Him pleasure.


"Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!"          Psalm 141:2

God valued David's prayers, and He values ours, too, if our hearts our pure.  We are the apple of His eye (Psalms 17:8)--that doesn't change.  But our hearts need to be cleansed and our view of others perfected before our prayers become as meaningful in His sight as our lives themselves.

"Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering."     Matthew 5:23-24

David was given a revelation that prayer was offering, and intense prayer a sacrifice.  This is so true!  Earnest prayer requires us to shut out any worldly distractions, and to put aside all selfish desires.  It requires effort, but that's what it takes to draw near to God.  If prayer is an offering, then we need to be reconciled to others before we expect God to reconcile us to Himself.  We need to accept others before God will accept our desires for forgiveness, mercy, or favor.  We need to love others before we can experience His love fully.

But once we come to this point, He draws near!  He is pleased with our offerings, and He sees no hypocrisy in us.  We are kept as the apple of His eye, and our prayers themselves become fruitful.  Our conversation with Him becomes fruitful and multiplies--we ask for more, we receive more, and we have thankfulness for more.  We become overshadowed by God, and overcome by His blessings.  This is what intense prayer does.  If we believe, we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer, and often abundantly more than this.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..."         Ephesians 3:20

But we need to let Him work.  We need to access that "power that is at work within us".  We need to let the Holy Spirit work!  We need to let Him preoccupy us with prayer.  The Holy Spirit is groaning and awaiting Christ to mature in our lives (Romans 8:23 and context).  Are we doing the same?  Are we groaning and longing in prayer?  Are we eagerly desiring a blessing from God?  Are we longing to be away from these mortal bodies (2 Corinthians 5)?

If so, then our desires are coming up to God.  They are catching His attention and pleasing Him.  They are manifested out of the spiritual world as a beautiful aroma!  There is so much power in prayer.  It rises--this earth cannot contain it.  It goes to God just as fast as we say or think it--faster, even.

These are the kinds of prayers that please God.  These are the prayers that are powerful and effective (James 5:16).  These kind of prayers allow for God to heal, for God to convict, and for God to comfort.  These kind of prayers require all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength, and all of our mind (Luke 10:27).  They bring into manifestation the fulfillment of the law.  But they are worth it!

Confirmed:  A recent post on the Quickened Word website totally confirmed this.  A thread on the forum called, "Apple Tree in Bloom" was revived just in time to synchronize with the vision I received from the Lord.

Snapshot: How's the Fruit?

"Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance."  Matthew 3:8

A few days ago I started seeing fruit in my visions.  Oranges have been quickened recently--from featuring on the Quickened Word site, to randomly seeing Florida license plates (oranges).  God is funny sometimes.

And I knew that this related to the verse above.  Repentance to me means sorrow leading to heart change.  If we are just sad about our mistakes and our sins, something is missing.  We need to be changed from the inside out.  God's grace extended to us in forgiveness needs to compel us!  It needs to compel us to change our actions.  It needs to motivate us to bear better fruit.  Don't abuse His grace!

God has since started speaking to me about fruitfulness in my tasks.  If we work for Him, He'll make us fruitful.  That's the truth!  He is faithful to come in and give us the hundred-fold if we are working for Him (Matthew 13:8).  Why?  Because He wants us to bless us for His name's sake.

Then this morning, Vanessa had a vision of bunches of oranges.  Bearing fruit comes from God's goodness.  It comes when He places this goodness within us.  No good tree bears bad fruit.  So Let's dedicate everything to Him.  He will change your everyday life first, probably, and steer your attention to Him.  Then He will make your important work fruitful.  That's the second step; that's the hundred-fold.  Will you rededicate the things you care most about to Him?  He will be faithful to reward you!  God can change you from the inside out.  Let Him do the work, and let Him redeem the things that were selfishly motivated in the past.  Bobby Connor says that God has called us to "redeem the time".  How true!  Allow Him to take over your actions for His glory.