Ecclesia – the mystical body of Christ; a people called out from the world to God. a people ruled by the government of God’s indwelling spirit. Citizens of another realm. Ambassadors of the eternal kingdom, of heaven.
Introduction
There is a body of people rising up in the earth, destined to be the counterpart of God himself. Flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, birthed from his side, made in his very image and likeness.
Eve came first. Fashioned and formed from the rib of Adam. In the makers heart he saw a distant day when his bride to would be born. This time from his side.
Behold the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the earth. For us!
To have and to hold from this day forth. We are the joy that was set before him as he endured the agony of the cross. We are his inheritance. We are the object of his desire.
His passionate, consuming love held the nails in place that day. As he poured out his life, he paid the ultimate price to have you as his own. As the spear pierced the side of the second Adam a new creation was born, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, made in his very image and likeness. Behold the wife of the Lamb. The bride of Christ! you!
The invitation
We are rising out of the ashes of pain and powerless religion to become a pure reflection of God in the earth.
Every one of our hearts is holy ground. Every single one of us belong to Jesus; we are the reward of his sufferings, the joy that was set before him as he endured the agony of the cross. We are his inheritance.
The enemy works so hard to take possession of our hearts because each one is the inheritance of God and, as the Bible tells us, out of it flow the issues of life.
The Bible also tells us that as a man thinks in his heart so is he. The beliefs we hold create the choices we make, bringing forth the life we live. We were created to walk in perfect unity and oneness with our father, to be an expression of his life in this realm. The enemy knows this; he knows who we are and that we are made in the image and likeness of God. He knows the power we have over him when the eyes of our understanding are opened and we comprehend this profound truth.
So he uses whatever he can to damage our hearts to cause us to come into agreement with lies about God, our identity, our purpose, our value, our security, to infect how we interpret reality. His objective in all he does is to separate us from our God to cause us to operate out of a wrong worldview and so, isolated and estranged, separated from our father, the source of all life and truth, to bring destruction into and through every aspect of our lives.
Jesus longs for us to live in the power and freedom of all he provided for us at the cross. He wants to lift us out of all remaining deception, removing every lie that still entangles our life; closing off all access points to the realm of darkness as we recognize and rest in the strength of his indwelling presence.
He wants to reveal to us the deeper things of his heart, healing and maturing us as he keeps us in awe and enthralled by the beauty and majesty of who he is.
He wants our hearts overflowing with hope as the reality of who we really are begins to explode within us, providing us with an undefeatable strength and excited expectation for our future. As we are transformed by his love we begin to express our true nature, discovering that holiness is our original design.
I pray as you read this book that the tangible life changing love of Jesus would overwhelm you to a level beyond anything you ever dreamed possible, and so enable you to know fully your own incredible worth and the power of your true identity in Christ.
I pray that where life’s circumstances, the brokenness in others, or the enemies lies have defined you, that as you read the heart of Jesus contained within these pages, that the eyes of your understanding would be flooded with light and you will begin to experience a level of freedom you never thought possible.
This book is really a letter of hope for you from the heart of God. It came through many encounters and visitations as I walked through years of sickness, abuse, divorce, depression, and lack, into the heart of Jesus and the purpose he always had for me.
I can honestly testify to the truth that he can take the ashes of any life and make something beautiful. The redemptive power of his blood is absolute and transforms any and every situation as we give it to him and choose his presence over everything else. He is the desire of my heart, as I know he is yours. We are the object of his love.
There is much more. We are rising out of the ashes of pain and powerless religion to become a pure reflection of God in the earth. Our destiny, as Paul tells us, is to be fully filled with God himself.
Ephesians 3:19 – to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Jesus longs for each of us to experience a vibrant living connection with him, an inner awakening of the heart. He wants to release a cascading torrent of his spirit without measure, in and through his people as he becomes this very real experience inside of us. To touch and restore every broken life and bring them home into the loving embrace of our father.
Jesus will meet our need for significance, security, love, purpose and self-worth to name just a few. His will is for us to be fully alive in him, to live the abundant life he released to us when he died. He Wants to become again the strength of our life, and so fully fill us with his Spirit, empowering us to live as a new creation; our true eternal identity.
Philippians 4:19 – my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
He is bringing alignment between who we are in heaven. Our life hidden in Christ Jesus is going to be manifest in the earth. Like Jesus so will we release the nature of his being, literally becoming a gateway between heaven and earth through which his life flows.
He is displacing all the lies where the enemy has resisted us and defined us by our weaknesses for so long. Jesus is changing our perspective now, enabling us to see more clearly as heaven sees. As we stay connected on the inside to his beautiful powerful Spirit, our thoughts increasingly flow from the mind of Christ. We become fruitful as we remain in him and so build our life on an immovable foundation of truth.
Jesus said: John 14:30 – Satan has no claim on me. (He has nothing in common with me; there is nothing in me that belongs to him, and he has no power over me).
Jesus is bringing us forth as a victorious people without spot, blemish or wrinkle, as his counterpart. His blood and the absolute victory and power of the cross will be understood and appropriated by our generation. The relentless love of Jesus will be experienced and we will be liberated from all bondage. Like him, we will shine and see that there is no darkness remaining within us. No agreement with the enemy will remain.
It is a new day and his hand is extended to each of us now to become fully yielded and filled vessels of his power and glory. To understand who we are as his ecclesia, then ultimately to provide the world with the truth, bringing to them the extraordinary gift of life, in the kingdom of heaven on earth!