In a walk with God, the lord does not continually lay again the foundation of things we have experienced; instead, we are constantly confronted with new levels and new problems.
The problems facing us now do not seem to go away. They are not met by some solution or deliverance; they are designed to remain. God is going to keep them there until a certain level of love is reached in our heart. There is no way out of certain circumstances until we find exactly what God is trying to work in our spirit. It is not what we can do in the way of some great miracle, but what we become as a child of God that is the real issue.
As we learn how to walk with God we find from week to week we seem to rise into a new spiritual level. Then suddenly the circumstance just evaporates. The mountain does not go into the sea nor can we see an end to our problem because we say certain words. In fact, we reach the place where the problem is no longer bothering us because God has wrought in our heart what must be done. Then the problem disappears.
We are learning what to become, the way to walk, and the way we must relate to God and to one another.
We are not so much concerned with signs and miracles as we are with the character of Christ—His very nature and beauty and wonder—coming forth in us. God wants to manifest His power and His character to the Body that is coming forth.
False prophets will arise showing signs and wonders; and if it is just a miracle we are looking for, then we can be fooled by the enemy very easily in the days ahead.
We must walk consistently, because false prophets and false Christ’s come out of the body of believers. They are the ones who are not walking consistently with the Lord.
I have seen many anointed men of God who at one time spoke under a powerful anointing, but got off course. There is no anointing on what they now speak; they do not impart the Spirit of God through their words.
The enemy will do whatever he can to take a ministry over. There are many churches that have religious spirits controlling them. They get inside those who have authority so that they can control what is ministered in a church service. Those who are in authority do not even know that a spirit has got into their mind, because they don’t know the difference between their spirit and their soul. They do not know the qualities of spirit we must maintain to have intimacy with the Lord.
Balaam was once a true prophet of God, but in the book of Jude he is referred to as one of the greatest false prophets of all times. Why? Because he wanted money, he did not manifest God’s character, but he tried to deviate and turned away from what God really wanted.
God will be testing us to see whether we will walk the dedicated life, whether we will rise to the level of pure love that He insists upon in a walk with him, or whether we will settle for only our goal: enough faith to move mountains. To have the problem removed.
If I have the gift of faith so that I can move mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing. God’s ultimate concern is not the miraculous ministry; His ultimate concern is that the manifestation of Christ and His love comes forth to the whole world.
There are many ministries that want to be in the spotlight. There is only one fact they will not be aware of: the living word and the living love which belongs to a walk with God cannot be imitated. It just cannot be imitated. I can have faith to move mountains, but if I do not have the love, I am nothing.
The need is progressive. It does not mean we have not had love; but we do not have enough love for this new level that we are to move into. A new level of ministry, of gifts and revelation, immediately demands a new level of love.
Suppose we go along as an innocent babe in Christ, unaware of the problems and needs of my brothers and sisters. I love them all. Then one day the Lord gives me a real ability to discern. I receive a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom about an individual. All of a sudden I see all their needs. What am I going to do about it?
When I see what they are really like and all the things they have been doing, it disturbs me because I thought they were perfect. The new level of revelation demands that I do something. And if I do not have love, I will start judging and denouncing them, criticizing them and rejecting them from my own heart and fellowship.
Revelation is wonderful, but love is better. Love is better. It is not enough to have deep revelation over a person; we must have a corresponding level of love to handle that revelation. This is very important.
At the present time God is allowing many things to surface and to come out. When brothers and sisters in the Lord begin to move into a new level of revelation, they are not being as tolerant and as kind in love toward one another as they expected when they had the problem.
We have had enough love for yesterday and for a year ago, but we do not have enough love in our hearts for today. For the depth of the ministry and the depth of the gifts that are coming. We are entering into the day of transparency. There will be no cover up. The deep work of the cross being done in the lives of the people who want to go on with the Lord is not allowing any veneer. Everything is being revealed.
As God deals with us in this way, it requires that we move into much deeper love. The Word says, “Pursue love, but earnestly desire spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.” Now, as the new things which God is setting before us are coming, we set this goal of love before our hearts. We pursue love.
God gives gift ministries to the church so that- As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:14, 15.
This love goes very deep, down into a consistent giving of ourselves in the name of the Lord. The fruitful flock comes forth from the love of a faithful shepherd. There will not be any fruitfulness in the flock unless there is the faithfulness and the love. The shepherds must have a motivating, driving love within their hearts. They are not living for themselves or for their own selfish gratification, but for God’s people. They are ready to lay down their lives for the sheep, ready to give themselves completely and wholly to the flock that God has put under their hand. This is all they live for. They are ready to love one another perfectly. In Christ Jesus it is faith that worketh by love (Galatians 5:6). We must have faith, but it is faith operating through the deep love of God.