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!

Fasting: Lifting the Veil and Removing the Blockages

Recently God's revealed to Vanessa and I something that we feel have been overlooked within the Church today.  It's not a 'fun' topic, and it's not something that gets talked about often, but it should be talked about nonetheless.  This topic is fasting.

Remember that Jesus said "when" you fast.  Jesus said "when" you pray.  When, and not if! Christians today have come to realize the importance of prayer, and that's awesome...but what about the importance of fasting?

“And now about fasting. When you fast, declining your food for a spiritual purpose, don’t do it publicly, as the hypocrites do, who try to look wan and disheveled so people will feel sorry for them. Truly, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, put on festive clothing, so that no one will suspect you are hungry, except your Father who knows every secret. And he will reward you."                                                                 Matthew 6:16-18   TLB

Fasting eliminates the distractions caused by over-indulging in food.  Fasting causes hunger, and that leads to desperation.  Fasting causes desperation, and desperation leads us to seek God.  And a hunger for God leads us to rewards from the Father!

Fasting is something we do for our own good!  Fasting feeds the spirit, not the flesh.  It feeds the Spirit of God within us, not our own flesh.  Fasting gives the Holy Spirit free reign.

When we fast and pray, revelation starts to flow.  We can see and hear God more clearly.  We can feel His heart without normal distractions!  It becomes our food to do the will of the Father.  And when we do the will of the Father, He gives us our daily bread and we become satisfied by Him.

FASTING BRINGS BREAKTHROUGH

Right now, there are barriers between us and God's will.  There are blockages, delays, and obstacles opposing what God wants to do.  There are things hindering us from being blessed, and there are things hindering us from overcoming.  There are problems in our life that don't seem likely to ever go away.

Remember, there are some problems that only go away with prayer and fasting.  When desperation is mixed with faith--when fasting is mixed with prayer--breakthrough happens!  When we draw near to God, we can ask for anything in His name.  And when we ask, He allows us to receive for our problems the right solution.  Fasting removes the blockages.

FASTING BRINGS UNDERSTANDING

Right now, there are things we don't understand.  There are situations that we just can't figure out. But we need to remember that Jesus lifted off the veil.  Jesus paid for our spiritual discernment, and He paid in full for our wisdom and understanding.

Now, God does not promise us all knowledge.  But if something impacts us, it's within our area of influence, and it's within our inheritance to understand.  It's within His power to cause us to know.

Fasting allows us to live in a place where we experience wisdom.  We can validate by the Holy Spirit that Jesus really did tear the veil!  We can validate by our walk in the Spirit that Jesus really does give the spirit of prophecy.  We can receive God's perspective on things if we are spiritually hungry enough to attain to it.

There's a time for everything, and for you, it may not be time to fast.  But I believe this is a word in season, and I believe that fasting, combined with prayer, is something that the Church is missing right now.  Imagine what would happen if we all fasted and prayed and became closer to God!  Fasting may be hard, but it's worth the rewards.  And I believe we're missing out.