As we learn how to get the gateways of our spirit, soul and body open and flowing with the life of God, then we begin to hear what the father is saying and see what He is doing, so that we can co-operate with Him.
We have to discipline ourselves to have an encounter with the Lord. Discipline is all about communing with the Lord. Discipline is all about enjoyment; there is nothing greater in life than having fellowship with God where we are experiencing his presence, because in His presence is fullness of joy.
But it takes time and focus to develop a relationship with God. We have to learn how to be still and know Him. A focused intense listening, a waiting on the Lord for the revelation of perfect Fathers will for our lives.
We have to learn how to open the first love gate in our spirit, so that the Fathers love in us is flowing back to him. We have to learn how to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.
We have to enter into intimacy as the bride of Christ with our perfect husband Jesus Christ. We need to get this love flowing so that it motivates us to lay down our own personal lives, to see his kingdom expand through his perfect government in our lives.
We have to learn how to become the beloved of God, his little child that is the joy of His life. We have to learn how to become a full grown son in whom he entrusts the governmental responsibilities in the heavenly places in Christ.
We have to learn how to work out so great a salvation in our everyday life, so we have to learn how to love the learning because we are going to make some mistakes.
We are learning how to walk with God, to walk on a path that we have never walked before. We are learning how to move with God. Without him we will fall flat on our face, but through him we can do all things because the Holy Spirit never makes a mistake.
So we are learning the difference between moving in self, and moving in our spirit being filled with His. Where the life of God flows out of heaven into our spirit and out through our soul and body into the world around us.
Romans 8: 28And we know (occurring now- perceive) that all things (the totality or the whole) work together (occurring now, to work together to contribute to an end or a goal) for good (in respect to operation or influence) to them that love (continuous action, to value-indicating a direction of the will, and finding one’s joy in developing a relationship with, desiring to please Him) God, to them who are the called (appointed, invited) according (the object toward which something aims) to his purpose (determined plan). 29For whom he did foreknow (to know beforehand, to understand completely), he also did predestinate (to predetermine, decide beforehand, God decreeing from eternity) to be conformed (together with-to form, to bring into harmony or agreement having the same identity) to the image (more than a likeness-the essential and substantial form, the perfect expression and representation) of his Son (full grown), that he might be the firstborn (preeminent prototype) among (intimate union, oneness of heart, mind and purpose )many brethren (a fellowship of life based on identity of origin).
We need to love the learning that is present with every situation. When we love the personality of Holy Spirit who is our trainer and our personal mentor, we will learn faster and better, because in our learning we are becoming like him. We are learning Christ. Therefore we must love the learning so that we can overcome in all things.
When we come into intimacy with God, he uses all things, the situations and circumstances of this life for our good. He will not waste a situation or circumstance to teach us how to see and respond in the Spirit to them so that we will be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
In every situation and circumstance we look to the Lord to who he wants to be for us and to become within us. What aspect of the nature of Jesus does he want to transfer to us so that we can develop that fruit of the Spirit in our life? God wants to charge our personality, through the infilling of His life.
As we are learning how to walk with God, we are going to encounter areas of our life where we struggle with certain things that in ourselves we cannot overcome; we are going to discover our character defects and the weakness of our flesh.
In a walk with God we not only need the nature of the lord developed in us, we also need his power and abilities developed in us. So when we fall short, we do not want to focus on what we are not. What we are learning is how in our weakness to appropriate his power.
It is not the will of God that we live in or from a negative, or we will be filled with it. It will occupy our thinking causing us to be distressed. Our starting point is in Christ; we can become and do all things through him. We are encouraged to trust, and believe for Gods will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
God believes the best of us even though we are in constant transition in the time realm. We are in the process of being changed from glory to glory and are greatly loved in this process.
God sees the finished process, by one sacrifice he has perfected forever those who are in the process of change, those who are being sanctified, every area of their life being set apart to God.
It is not the will of God that we live in or from a place of weakness. Our starting point is in him. We start from a place of victory; we are not working towards it. So what we are learning is how to encourage ourselves in the Lord, to discover God’s strength to us and in us.
The grace of God is powerful towards us and in us to overrule every negative perspective or mind set.
Strength is the key to transformation; because God’s Power is perfected in weakness. This means that his strength flows into what we are not.
We boast about our weakness in the context of God’s strength. When we are weak then we can be strong, when we learn how to depend upon God and appropriate his strength. Therefore we take pleasure in our weakness, because being in Christ means that God reaches out to us and pulls us into Himself. We enter into a different dimension where God’s attributes interpenetrate us and fills that place of weakness with Himself.
It is the embrace of His Spirit that strengthens us. The Lord sees us perfect, because we already are in the kingdom realm of the spirit. As we enter into this dimension we are clothed with His righteousness, which interpenetrates us.
The lord embraces us in our weakness because he sees nothing wrong with us and intensely wants a relationship with us. The problem is that we do not see ourselves the way that God see’s us because of our weakness; we become focused upon it and what we are not.
When we are focused on our weakness in a negative way, we actually strengthen it because we become what we are focused on.
The key is learning how to boast in our weakness where our focus is not on our weakness but his strength. Weakness gives us permission to boast, because if we did not have that weakness we would not be in the position to experience his strength flowing into that space within us.
2corn 12: 9And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient (occurring now-be sufficient, satisfy, to be strong and able to assist someone) for thee: for (because) my strength (being able, capable, a spirit of strength, energy, a manifestation or instance of miraculous power. It may even mean to will) is made perfect (make perfect by reaching the intended goal, to complete) in weakness (impotence, lack of strength, courage, feebleness, imperfection). Most gladly (the superlative of sweet- in reference to eating and drinking most sweetly) therefore (now) will I rather (in preference, to a greater extent, in a higher degree) glory (rejoice, to boast of a person or thing, a testimony to) in my infirmities (weakness), that the power of Christ may rest upon ( two words 1-in 2-to dwell) ( To descend and abide upon, rest upon, or live in, abide, dwell) me. 10Therefore (on which account)I take pleasure (occurring now-1-well-good 2-to think)( to be well pleased) in infirmities( weakness), in reproaches (injurious treatment ), in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for( because) when I am weak, then (at that time)am I strong.
The grace of God is the flow of His Spirit into us; it satisfies us and strengthens us making us capable. His grace is made perfect in weakness. It accomplishes its goal in our weakness because we no longer rely on ourselves but look to Him. His strength is miracle working power enabling us to do what we could not do without him. Through our dependence upon him- It comes into manifestation and accomplishes its goal, it completes us.
As we begin to experience his grace, the flow of his Spirit into us, (as we are drinking and partaking of it) we rejoice and give testimony to who God is for us. Our weakness has opened the door for us to experience the inflowing of His strength. Most gladly (the result of drinking his presence), now we rejoice in our weakness, our complete dependence upon him, in order that we can experience the inflowing of His power into us.
It is in the moment that we realize that without him we can do nothing; it is in that moment that we can draw upon the provision of His Spirit to meet the need. When we are weak, at that moment we are strong. Just like Samson, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon us and we can do what we could not do before.
It is our total and utter dependence upon the Lord that necessitates that we come into an intimacy with the lord. It is from this place of intimacy, that we realize that we are the beloved of God, that He shares His glory with the ones He loves. His glory is his nature and abilities.
It is our privilege to go through life, fully loved. All our change procedures come through being incredibly loved. This is why we love change and the process of learning. It is the flow of His love into our spirit that motivates us to hunger and thirst after being filled with it.
If we experience all our changes in the love of God, we become excited about who God is for us, and who we are becoming in Him.
He chooses us in our weakness and loves to meet those needs with His strength. He strengthens us through His presence in those low places in our lives, those weaknesses. He does not just give us strength, He becomes our strength.
Our weakness is the low place where God steps into our inadequacy. He inhabits that place with His own courage and strength.
If He were to step out of that place that he inhabits (that space in our life where we are now filled with his presence), we would still be weak. The increase of His Spirit in that area of our life is not that He has given us something to fill in the gap, He-himself is our increase.
Relationally He inhabits our weakness, and we learn the pleasure of His Presence there. We can boast about our shortcomings, because when we become aware of where we are falling short, he can fill that shortcoming with Himself.
We are learning how to turn an inadequacy in our life, into a place where God can now inhabit.