We are entering the time of the fruitfulness of the Kingdom. Our intercession has opened the door to the Kingdom priesthood.
As God lays the guidelines before us, we realize that intercession mingled with worship actually is the Kingdom and the priesthood that is spoken of repeatedly in Revelation (Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6).
The book of Hebrews also speaks a great deal about the priesthood. Hebrews 9:11 tells us that Christ is “the high priest of good things to come.” Just before those good things come forth, this priesthood and intercession will fill the earth. It is like travail. It can be compared to the time when the Lord came down to deliver Israel, “because their cries have come up to Me” (Exodus 3:7–9).
Christ, in the days of His flesh, offered up prayers with groanings and loud cries (Hebrews 5:7), thus opening the door to the good things to come. In the same way, the violence of our intercession is opening the door to the good things to come.
When intercession is rough and demanding, it is for one purpose: to break through the barrier of the Laodicean passivity that tries to swallow up God’s people.
There is no explanation for the heaviness and dullness that comes against us, except the fact that principalities and powers and the nephilim spirits are set to prevent our breakthrough.
The warring priesthood has to break down the principalities and the nephilim. When the principalities are broken down, a vacuum is created wherever they have held things back, and we are then drawn up into the place of ruling and reigning. We are becoming a Kingdom of priests unto God, and we will rule and reign with Him through all the days of the Kingdom.
We must understand the priesthood in order to understand the period which we have been in; and we must understand the Kingdom in order to know what we are entering.
Much of our intercession has been very elementary and in a beginning stage; but now God wants us to enter into the priesthood of Christ. This is what we are reaching for. As we move into this priesthood, the effectiveness and the focus of our intercession will be perfected.
When the Lord began to restore the gifts of the Holy Spirit and people began to speak in tongues, many of them did not do much except yell and shout and speak in tongues. They did not have much interpretation or prophecy, but they came together and moved in what they had. Although many people criticized them, we should honor those pioneers who had the determination to speak in tongues until something was established in the restoration of the experience of the Holy Spirit.
The same thing is true of the violent, intense intercession. In the minds of some people it is as wild and fanatical as speaking in tongues was at the beginning. However, the Lord has emphasized repeatedly that this intercession will be the prelude to something greater: It is an actual key to the Kingdom.
As greater revelation comes, our intercession will change a great deal. This does not mean that we will sophisticate it or take the violence out of it. It means that we will, in effect, put that violence in a shell with a bullet on it, so that instead of having scattered explosions, we will have direct hits.
We will blast down principalities and powers. It is not enough just to shake them up; we will bring them down. We will see the Kingdom break through. We are not yet as effective as we will be. We must be violent, wholehearted, and intense. Matthew 11:12 tells us, “The violent take the Kingdom by force.” That is true, but perhaps “violent” is not the best word to express it. We need a word which expresses intense, total involvement of spirit, soul, and body. There must be within our hearts an intensity which drives us to see the Kingdom come forth in the will of the Lord.
Are you holding back from this intensity? If you hold back from the intercession because you are lukewarm and passive, then you are to be rebuked. If you hold back because something within your nature cannot cope with a particular outward expression of violence, but in your heart you are just as intense and violent as the more vocal ones, then may God bless you and help you.
Many people have problems adjusting to one phase or another of God’s moving. Some have difficulty adjusting to singing in the Spirit. Others have difficulty adjusting to a jubilant, free expression of worship. Others have difficulty adjusting to the violent form of intercession, in our services. Nevertheless, we must break through into a level of intensity which will prevent our lapsing back into the deadness and passivity of this age.
In the messages to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, it is interesting to note that only once did the Lord say, “Be zealous therefore, and repent.” That is in Revelation 3:19–20, in the message to the church in Laodicea. “ ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock…’ ” This message came because the Laodiceans were neither hot nor cold; they were lukewarm. God said, “I would that you were hot or cold.” When He spoke to them about their condition, He told them, “Be zealous therefore, and repent.”
To the other churches He said, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). They were to open their hearts, hear what the Lord said, and repent. Four of the churches besides Laodicea were told to repent, but to the Laodiceans He added another word, “Be zealous.”
When Isaiah spoke about the ministry of Christ coming forth in the earth, he said, “He wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle” (Isaiah 59:17).
Although the violent intercession is repulsive to many people, going completely against their nature, the Spirit is speaking very strongly that in it we are seeing the first coming of the zeal of the Lord of hosts which will bring forth the Kingdom. Do not withdraw from it. Do not despise it.
We may go into areas of this zeal that we do not yet understand, but we do know that there must be an intensity and a drive within us. Sometimes we may become so violent in our zeal for God that we cannot even speak a word. It does not have to be expressed with noise. The only requirement is that it be expressed with the totality of our spirit, soul, and body reaching into God.
Let us be flexible and ready to see everything come forth that God wants. As part of the restoration of the Church, God brought forth singing in the Spirit. God is now bringing forth a whole new dimension of singing and music.
The songs of the Kingdom are different from the songs of the Church age. However, a wise scribe takes things out of the treasure both old and new (Matthew 13:52). One of these days, when we have the full scope of musical creativity before us, we will take the best of the old and much of the new that is coming forth, and we will worship God with a variety and a scope of expression that have never been seen before.
It is not that we are reaching out to the world to borrow from it, but we must be more versatile in our expression of worship. We are to be all things to all men (I Corinthians 9:22).
The worship music of the Tabernacle of David, will draw people in.
Let us expand. Let us reach into everything that God has for us. Let us be as flexible as possible. Whatever way the Lord moves, that is the way we must move. When the Lord wants us to dance in the Spirit, we will dance in the Spirit. When the Lord wants us to sing, we will sing.
The Lord commanded, “Be zealous therefore, and repent.” Repentance and the expression of our zeal are two things the Lord uses to break the Laodicean spirit. It must be broken, once and for all time.
We cannot come to the house of God to stand and fight the passive, dead spirit of this age. It is a barrier and a wall which will prevent us from entering the Kingdom. It must be broken. Do not yearn for the “old-time religion” and the ways God met you in the past.
You will die spiritually if you try to stay there, because the Lord is cutting off the blessing. He will not feed you on that level anymore. You must open your heart to a new dimension in your walk with God. This is what the Spirit is speaking. It is something new. It is a breakthrough!
By our intercession, we are dynamiting rocks out of the way, but it is for only one purpose—to build a highway. Isaiah prophesied, “Gather up the stones. Get the rocks out of the way. Make a highway for My people” (Isaiah 62:10). Our goal is not merely to blast rocks.
First we blast the rocks out of the way; then we build a freeway. Once we break through the passivity and deadness, let us go on into the Kingdom priesthood that God has for us. Let us stand before God with a depth of worship that we have never seen or even dreamed of before.
Let us press into levels that we have never experienced of His holy Parousia—the holy presence of the King of kings and the Lord of lords who reigns over the house of God. Let us do the will of the Lord and see the Kingdom come forth in the whole earth.
By the anointing of the Spirit, the door to this Kingdom priesthood is open. We are entering into deeper worship, into the greater faith, focus and effectiveness in our intercession. We are taking on the responsibility of being the priesthood which will reign with Him. Will we have zeal? You’d better believe it! It may be obnoxious to the world; yet it will be the means to draw them in.
Jesus called John the Baptist “a burning and a shining light,” and He told the Jews, “For a season you rejoiced in him” (John 5:35).
In Mark 1:2–3, John the Baptist is called “a voice in the wilderness.”
Matthew 3:5 tells us that all Jerusalem and Judea went out into the wilderness to hear him.
In Luke 7:24–26, Jesus asked them, “What did you go to see? A man clothed in fine apparel? Those who wear fine clothes are in the king’s palace. What did you go to see? A prophet?”
John the Baptist was a burning and a shining light.
When the soldiers came to him, he told them to stop using police brutality to get what they wanted.
He told the tax collectors not to be extortionists, taking from the people more than was due (Luke 3:12–14).
He called the Pharisees “a generation of vipers” (Matthew 3:7). He did not leave anyone out, and even though their wings were singed, they were drawn to him like moths to a fire.
Isaiah prophesied, “Arise and shine, for thy light has come, O Zion” (Isaiah 60:1).
Like John the Baptist, we, too, will be a burning and a shining light. We will be a voice crying out in the wilderness of this age to bring the Word to all people, “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
It is up to us. Our intercession and our zeal may seem repulsive, but if we have that burning light, men will be drawn to it just the same. God is moving in the earth, and we can be “all things to all men.” We can win them.
While we are concerned about breaking through in intercession, we are also deeply concerned about drawing people into a walk with God.
There are many people whose hearts are hungry, and God is preparing them to walk with Him.
We may go through periods of intercession which are very difficult times when we go without food or sleep because the need to break through to God is greater than the need for food or sleep or anything else.
When we break through in these periods, then we can go into periods when our intercession and work are very scheduled.
Our intercession will continue to intensify, but we must also prepare for the ingathering, for services where there will be a free flow of song and worship and the Word.
Once we break through the barriers, we can shift gears. We can move beyond the radical steps that were necessary for the breakthrough, and we can reach out to pull people in.
Now we must break through. The explosions are necessary. We could stand before a wall and preach to it all day, but we cannot convert a wall. Instead, we have to blast it down.
A wall is to be broken down. Once the wall is broken down and the barriers are gone, then we can get down to the thing that we really want to do: speak a living Word and draw men into the Kingdom, under the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our intensity cannot be merely an outward expression; it must be an internal force that explodes from within. As this intensity explodes, it will draw people into the will of God, into the vacuum that we created as we moved up into the place God has prepared for us to walk in.
We are less dependent upon the things that we have used as the supporting framework while we were building this habitation of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22).
During construction, supports and scaffolding are necessary; but when they are removed, then the structure of the building is revealed.
The same is true as we are being built into God’s habitation. Now the supports and scaffolding are being removed. We are leaving behind the whole concept of always being on the receiving end—of being preached to, ministered to, and sung to.
People are much more satisfied to sit in front of a television and watch a game than to go out and become involved in it; however, nothing takes the place of being there and smelling the sweat, hearing the noise, and jumping up and down yourself. Just as you yourself must move in order to get into the spirit of the game, so also you must move in order to get into the spirit and the zeal of what God is doing.
What God has planted must break through the restraints and flow forth. Because of the violent intercession, we have broken through a layer of restraint and passivity, allowing what has been inside to flow up and out.
When we participate totally, we will have the liberty to create an atmosphere that pulls people into the Kingdom of God. When we move with total participation, with total reaching into God, with zealous pursuit of God, we will create such a dynamic atmosphere that people will be drawn into the Kingdom of God, into the presence of God.
We will live in the awareness of the presence of God that our hearts are demanding. The zeal can be sustained because it comes from the life source within us. When the spiritual life that God has implanted in us is released, it will become a life source to others that is sustained. A flow of Christ will be loosed to reach beyond the walls we have kicked down, and it will come with force.
We are breaking into new days. We are breaking into those good things of the Kingdom of God that the priesthood of Christ has prepared us to receive.
We are not exclusive in our thinking; rather, we are creating something that will open the door for the Kingdom realities to be loosed in the hearts of many of God’s people who are already in the preparation stage.
What will it take to loose these people?
God has been preparing them for a long time, but He is also creating a priesthood who will know what to do with them when they begin to flow in.
It would be ridiculous to bring thousands of people into confusion; therefore, God has to create through us the atmosphere into which these hungry hearts can flow.
A cycle will be created which causes the Kingdom of God to expand. People will come in and receive the Kingdom; then they will go out to disperse it in every direction.
First they receive the Word; then they go out and establish the Kingdom of God. God help us that it does not take persecution to drive us in every direction that God wants to send us.
Let us have the zeal of God so that we do not need to be thrown into intense persecution to get us moving. Let us have the zeal to move while we still have the opportunity and the freedom to work.
We are not excited enough about the Kingdom. It is time to become total. Everything we experience is designed to bring spirit, soul, and body together so that we can be intense on every level of human experience.
Spirit, soul, and body can be loosed into a total expression of the Kingdom of God that is not limited. It is to be a force of the total man, bringing the Kingdom into the proper focus, and revealing to the world that this is what they have been looking for all the time. The world has been trying to find the answer in every other place, but the Kingdom of God is the only answer.
We are a priesthood prepared to bring forth the Kingdom of God and to sweep people into the awareness of what God has prepared for them.
What greater hour could there be?
What greater opportunity could we have?
What greater cause could burn in our hearts than to manifest the Kingdom of God right now?
What could ignite our lives in any greater degree than the privilege of bringing forth the Kingdom of God in this earth?
We are being thrust into it. The Spirit of God is urging us to avoid getting into any kind of a rut, and to keep breaking through.
Nothing is an end in itself. It is only a means to another step.
The worship we have is fantastic, but it will give way to something better.
The intercession is meeting a need, but it will give way to something better.
Everything we have is giving way to something greater. We must break through into everything that God is expanding. Keep on the move! Continue to open up! Continue to go up!
How exciting is this hour! Doors are opening. The inner part of your life that has been closed is suddenly opened up. A wall comes down and you realize that you are alive to an area that you thought completely dead. You begin to live.
Life becomes synonymous with the Kingdom. Jesus came to bring life (John 10:10), but most of us do not know how to live. We are learning. Walls are shattered by the Spirit of God, and avenues of your life open up that you never even knew existed. God is glorified as your life opens up and the Kingdom of God sweeps in.
Let it happen! Throw down the walls! Throw out the barriers! Break down the restraints! Begin to relate in Kingdom-level relationships.
Let the Lord flow in; see what good and great things God will do among you. Reach into everything you can. Cast down the limitations of your own imagination and break through into that spiritual imagination that lets you view and visualize the full extent of the Kingdom that God is bringing. This is a great day. Let us break into it with all of its force.
Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” John 12:32. The lifting up of Christ from the earth is being accomplished by the intensity that God is working in our lives.
We are learning how to exalt the Lord by the total man—spirit, soul and body. As we do this, the Lord is lifted up from the earth of our own life, and He draws all men to Himself.
Exalting the Lord creates a spiritual magnet which draws those who hunger for the Kingdom of God. Because we exalt the Lord with everything that is within us, we become living epistles known and read of all men (II Corinthians 3:2). People will be drawn to us because they sense the Kingdom of God, and that is what they are looking for.
We can see the wisdom of God in the way He leads us. We cannot draw people into the Kingdom of God if we are half-hearted.
We can preach about the Kingdom and describe it all we want; but if the intensity of the Kingdom is not in us, we will not draw people to it.
That is why the Lord deals deeply with us about setting our own house in order.
We could have the greatest sermons of the Kingdom, but if the power of the Kingdom is not working within the Body of Christ, people who come in will say, “You talk well, but we don’t see the fruit.”
We are becoming the Word of God.
We are becoming the zeal and the intensity of the Lord.
When people come in and see the Kingdom within the Body, they will not walk away disillusioned; they will be met by the Lord.
In Matthew 13:52 Jesus said, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.”
We are not throwing away the old things that God has taught us, but as disciples of the Kingdom, we bring out of our treasure things both old and new.
What is the treasure?
The Christ within us. We keep the things that God has taught us, but we also embrace the new revelation. We will be more intense in the days ahead in a new and a deeper way.
God is giving us the burden for evangelism—to bring in those who are hungry for the Kingdom of God.
We must be flexible; we must not stop on any one level. When the Word of God comes, we hunger for every new level in Him. This is not a step for a few to enter. Let the whole Body receive the burden of this step. Let no one be held back on a lesser level but let all move on and follow the living Word as it leads us.
We are not imitators of the Word.
Much of Christianity has focused on the imitation of Christ, on imitating a walk with God, on imitating the apostleship, on trying to follow the Word as if it were a set of rules and regulations.
The issue is not “imitation”; the issue is “becoming.”
It is not an imitation of the Lord. It is not something that begins on the outside and works in; it is something that is planted within and comes out. An example is the fruit of the Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit is not something you attain; it is something you release. It is housed in the flow of Christ that you have received, and you release it. Realize that you have the Spirit of God and the fruit of the Spirit and release it.
We will not imitate the Kingdom of God, or a teaching, or a cycle of truths. Instead, we are manifesting the living reality of the Kingdom of God. This is what meets people’s hearts. People will feel the Kingdom of God, because we are a living expression of it. They will feel it. It will be imparted to them because we are living epistles. The Word of God lives within us.