According to God’s law of reproduction, everything brings forth after its own kind (Genesis 1:24–25). Dolphins can communicate with humans by responding to certain whistles and other sounds. They are very intelligent; they have a brain similar in size to the human brain. On the other hand, dinosaurs supposedly had a tiny brain; some speculate that this is the reason they became extinct. But regardless of brain size or mental capacity, they are both limited—dinosaurs could bring forth only dinosaurs; dolphins can bring forth only dolphins.
This principle from Genesis 1 is also true in the spiritual realm. We tend to be limited to the spiritual plane that we are born into. For example, a sinner who is drawn into a Baptist church and born again will probably end up being a good Baptist. It is unlikely that he will go directly from there to become a Charismatic believer, and almost certainly not a prophet or an apostle, in just one more step.
Our walk with God was birthed at a peculiar time; it was born at the end of the Church Age, but with a vision and anticipation of experiencing the Kingdom of God. It would be difficult to explain to others the course of repentance and devastation that the Lord has set before us for several years. It has happened not because we are so evil, but rather the Lord is making a deep preparation in our lives for something greater. Does this mean we should go now and produce things for the Kingdom? Should we go out and try to fulfill the many prophecies about Kingdom evangelism? What would we produce? We ourselves are half-born, in the middle of a great transition. How would you like to see our churches overflowing with people who are in the same situations and limitations you are in? We still have to undergo more of this transitional process before we can even see the Kingdom, or clearly understand the words we could use to try to explain the Kingdom, much less produce the things of the Kingdom. You cannot move in a realm that you know little or nothing about. How can you explain to a fish what it is like to fly in an airplane?
The things that are happening to us must have some significance and purpose beyond just trying to win others and bring them into our present spiritual level. Nearly everything that has happened to us has been designed by the Lord to bring us to the end of one level, and to open our hearts to move into the next level. We are being exploded into the Kingdom.
Moving into successive spiritual levels as God brings them forth always involves this one great difficulty: We do not grow automatically; nor are we led from one level to another by logical, systematic teaching. This is why I have stressed repeatedly that unless you have a revelation of it, you cannot come into a true walk with God. If it is possible for someone to talk you into a walk with God, someone else can talk you out of it. If I brought a Word which you could receive, just on the basis of your mental understanding, would there not be thousands of other Christians embracing it as well?
There are indeed many people who love the Lord very much; yet have you noticed that when you talk to them about what God is actually doing in the earth today, they have little or no idea of what you are talking about. They are on one level, and something like a cloud prevents their seeing the next level. They simply cannot comprehend it. This is why those who preach only salvation are usually preaching against those who teach the baptism of the Holy Spirit; and those who preach the baptism of the Holy Spirit are preaching against those who have begun to walk on into sonship; and those who have begun to walk into sonship have reservations about the Kingdom.
God always has a higher level for you to move into, but Satan may have locked you into your present level. In some way, the Word must become creative so that it will literally release you and bring you into the next level. That is the purpose of this message—to help you to move out of your present level. Have you been hoping for a solution to all of your problems? Problems are not that important. We can bypass them by opening the door to the next level.
Some of the things the Lord has revealed about this new level are so shattering that after you read this message, you may feel that you would prefer to remain on your present level. You may not be prepared yet in your heart to say, “I am desperate; I am sick of this level. I must break through into something new!” Has the Lord brought you to the end of yourself on your present level so that you are prepared in your heart for the next step, or are you at least desperate enough for it? Are you quite satisfied where you are? Or do you feel, “I came into this walk with God for something that I have not yet found. The Lord has given me prophecies and revelations, and I would like to see them all fulfilled! I do not want to be disillusioned. After coming this far, I refuse to accept that this is all there is for me. I want to break through to the next step in the Kingdom!”
As we become conditioned to a certain level, our thinking automatically conforms to that level. We cannot criticize a turkey because it thinks like a turkey. A turkey is a turkey. Why not encourage turkeys to be more productive and fruitful, and thereby “possess the land”? (Isaiah 61:7.) Then the land would be filled with turkeys; is that what we want? Would it be better to encourage the turkeys to produce eagles? (Isaiah 40:31.) Remember—everything brings forth after its own kind (Genesis 1:24–25). Roman Catholics produce Roman Catholics, Baptists produce Baptists, “turkeys” produce “turkeys.” Furthermore, if you told turkeys to produce eagles, they would not even know what you were talking about. The level they are on locks them in. Does God intentionally limit His people in that way, too? No, it is simply that “like begets like.”
What are we capable of producing now? We ourselves are half-born and in the middle of travail. We must break through to the next level. Would you like someone to explain what this next level involves? How can I explain the reality of the Kingdom? That level is foreign to you. You could not even understand the language. You are still “turkeys.” Are you thinking, “Oh, but we know all about the Kingdom! We have already heard many messages about it.” But are you in it? “Oh, yes we are! Gobble, gobble, gobble …”
This is the most momentous time we have faced in years. We have had many years of teaching. We have had many, many hours of intercession. We have experienced travail, and you have prayed for me. What was the result? Ironically, God brought me into deep devastation, but that part of it that is obvious does not indicate the depth of what He really did. Why did God put us through all of that? He was setting me free; He was setting you free. You were praying for the Lord to bless me and thrust me into resurrection life, but there can be no resurrection unless someone dies first. There is no resurrection without a death.
I am leading up to something which I want you to receive with all of your heart. Our years of intercession brought us into a situation which is very difficult for us to understand: We have interceded ourselves right into end-time persecution. There was little persecution against us when we started interceding. We had few troubles. Now it looks as though we have all kinds of troubles; churches are being shaken and everything seems to be falling apart! But this is only an indication that we are walking on! Sons are come to the birth (Isaiah 66:7–8). Perhaps you feel as if you cannot endure this any longer. You can, and you must. Travail is a necessary step in order for new life and new levels to come forth.
Would you like to know what your travail has brought forth? First, it loosed me from many conditionings and responses. I did not realize how conditioned I had become over the years. It was necessary that God set me free. The messages I bring contain progressively more revelation, creativity, and impartation. How did it happen? Through devastation. Devastation is never easy, but because of it I now can see things I never saw before. Suddenly I am aware of a whole new dimension to explore. Before that I was a turkey, and I thought like a turkey and reasoned like a turkey (I Corinthians 13:11).
How do you stop being a turkey? First you declare a “Thanksgiving Day.” Then as you become aware that the Lord is sharpening the ax, you may still protest, “But I have persevered; I have been so faithful!” Do you want to continue “persevering” on this level for the rest of your life? Is this the level that you anticipated when you first said, “I will walk with You, Lord”? We are walking into the Kingdom now. Forget about what you had before. You were in a real walk with God; but remember that when you walk, it leads you someplace. You start at one place, but you end up in another place. The most amazing thing about our walk with God is that it started at one point in the Church Age, and it brought us to the threshold of the Kingdom. However, no turkeys shall enter into the Kingdom. There is no verse of Scripture that says, “Blessed are the ‘turkeys,’ for they shall see the Kingdom of God.”
How do we, as turkeys, move out of where we are and into what God has? Must we first have all of our problems solved? No, there is no way to solve a turkey’s problems. You may protest, “Maybe if I tried a little harder, then I could succeed.” However, diligent turkeys can do no better than lazy turkeys. Then how can we reach into the Kingdom? We must experience something almost like a new birth. Jesus said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3b. Some may protest, “Oh, but we know that our present walk is of God! Look at all of the wonderful Living Word we have heard. All of these marvelous things could not be happening if God were not with us.” But you must realize, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the soul is soul; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit; that which is born of “the walk” is “the walk” (John 3:6).
How do we stop reproducing ourselves on our present level and break through to this next level which we originally signed up for? We enlisted in the army of the Lord (Joel 2:11; Revelation 19:14). We enlisted for the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). We enlisted to see the downfall of Babylon (Revelation 18:2). We enlisted to see principalities and powers fall (Ephesians 6:12). We have seen many things happen as a result of our faith and intercession, but we have not yet really brought forth the sons of the Kingdom.
The Lord has revealed the formula for each church to move out of its present level and into the next. First of all, you must understand that there will be an explosion, but also something that is creative, something that imparts to you. You cannot reason yourself into it; you cannot stretch yourself into it. It will happen as creative changes come.
The first step, the turning point, comes when the pastor, by his submission, in effect turns his church over to me to open the door to a new level. From that time on, the Kingdom of God becomes more and more a reality for that church to walk in. Let one of our pastors tell you what happened when I went to take the spiritual oversight of his church.
We had been waiting for years for the apostolic ministry to come. Many of the people had never even seen him. I was all excited about his coming, and had made a long list of things I wanted him to check. The first thing that happened was that my list got lost somewhere! It is difficult to impress your people with the apostolic ministry when he does not do many of the things you told them he would probably do. However, one fact was established: He was moving as a servant of God, rather than as an extension of our imaginations.
Soon the people realized that this servant of God, who has been raised up by God, is something more than an administrator, more than a good friend of the church; he is a channel of the Living Word who can impart to us a new level. An impartation of the Kingdom of God was coming to us. The precepts of the Kingdom were coming through; it did not matter whether or not we understood them. The Spirit of God took over every service we had so carefully planned, drawing the church into a spiritual focus so that the problems we had and the routine of worshiping God that we had developed over a number of years were dealt with very quickly.
Then the congregation was told, “I am going to take your pastor away.” Two days later as I was leaving, the elders came up to me and said, “Don’t you realize that you are leaving the church in a turmoil, while you are running off?” Then I realized that the pastors and the elders too were being thrust into a new level in the Lord. But before we could walk on that level, God had to break every rut we have had.
Our concepts and our thinking concerning what an apostle is also had to be torn down. It seems as if God is even destroying the position of apostle, so that the pure Word of Christ can come forth freely to lead us into this next level. God must completely reconstruct our thinking. He is speaking to us. However, I am still shocked at myself for not knowing more, for not discerning where we really are spiritually. What happened was beautiful, but it took us off guard—we were faced with the unexpected, even though it should not have been unexpected. We have been caught in an uncanny web that Satan has woven to battle the Word, to battle our relationships, to battle our understanding of where we are. We have been caught unaware, facing this Kingdom level. It is now before us, like a long brick wall reaching up to the sky; and there is no way we can maneuver around it. That in itself is a miracle.
The Kingdom is invading us. The Word of the Kingdom is coming through impartation, to project us into the Kingdom. Our hearts must be open to receive it. What happened was marvelous; we will never be the same. An explosion came on the plane of spirit which defies our carnal understanding; it defies the mind. This is probably the best thing that can happen to us when we are turkeys. God needs to bring something on the plane of spirit which explodes our present plane. The Words of the Lord are coming to create explosions and changes, to upset everything and stir us up. We are on the threshold of the Kingdom. Our walk with God was born for this hour. The churches have been brought to birth for this hour. This is the hour of entering into the Kingdom.
Can you sense that a transition is coming? There will be an absolute, total change in the churches. God is not really interested in correcting the problems of a particular church; He is more interested in orienting that church to the Kingdom. This is the change that God is seeking. If these are only empty words to you, it means that you are still thinking like a turkey. But you will stop “gobbling” and break through when you open your heart to receive an impartation which can project you into this new level. Have a man of God lay hands upon you to project you into it.
There is always a difficulty in moving from one level to the next. Would you like evidence of this? In the days of the Reformation, who persecuted the first believers professing a born-again experience? The Catholics. Then who persecuted those who began to preach sanctification and true holiness before the Lord? The very ones who had been preaching the born-again experience. Later, among many precious believers in holiness who praised and worshiped the Lord, some began to speak in tongues—and they in turn were rejected. They were called Pentecostals. Who persecuted them? The Holiness movement. Then came this endtime walk in the Spirit which leads to sonship. Who persecutes us? The Pentecostal movement. Why does this process take place? Why is it that in each successive move of God, those who persecute and reject it are the very ones who should have the most revelation?
Some hungry Episcopalian or Roman Catholic may come into a true walk with God more readily than a Pentecostal, even though the Pentecostal’s teaching actually should have prepared him for it. He already believes in the Holy Spirit, and he has been exposed to tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Each successive move of God is persecuted by those who immediately preceded it. Why is this, when they only need to move one level higher? They must have a hunger and an openness to God, as well as a creative quality in their spirit, before they will be able to discern and recognize that God is moving on to that new level.
Now can you understand what God is trying to do within us? He must devastate us so that we will not overly exalt the limited way in which we have walked with the Lord, so that we will not think that we are “the people” and that all wisdom will die with us (Job 12:2). God must teach us, like the mother eagle teaches her young. When it is time for the baby eagle to fly, the mother stirs up the nest. Like the young eagles, we must become uncomfortable and desperate enough so that we are willing to soar into another realm, another level. How does God do that for us in the realm of spirit? He does it by impartation. If you are open in your spirit, you can be brought into that new level by hearing a Word from God or by having hands laid on you.
After hearing what our persecutors have said, perhaps you question whether or not you can trust the vessels of the Word. That is something you will have to work out for yourself. Do you feel that the answer to your need is receiving a deeper revelation? Revelation brought you into a walk with God, but too much revelation can blow you out, too. When someone is confident that God has given him the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the discerning of spirits, and all kinds of revelation, he may feel equipped and qualified to be exposed to the rigors of a prophet’s training. Do you know what may happen if he is? The Lord may reveal things to him which could cause him to slide back into a state of criticism and rebellion greater than he has ever known. Why? Because he still thinks like a turkey.
You must realize that God is bringing much revelation, but only to open the door so that you can believe, with much love and faith, that He will meet the needs He reveals to you. Have you been seeing things that you were not aware of before? Good for you! Then what did you do with what you saw? “Oh, I became so critical and bitter, gobble, gobble, gobble…”
Why do you have problems? You would not have these problems if a Living Word had not come to open your heart to the things of God. As your revelation increased and you reached for more discernment, criticism arose because you became aware of needs and problems. Why do you think I have prayed for God to give me so much love? Because I can discern turkeys! When I minister and I see the need, I do not put anyone down. I always try to help. I do not want to ever beat down a man with my words, no matter what is wrong in his life. I want to always give a word of faith to build others up. God did not give me the deep insight of the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge or discernment so that I should criticize, but rather that I should help. Neither should you criticize each other! When you see a need, do not fail to move on it with faith! If you need to repent concerning your lack of love, then get busy with it!
The churches in each geographic area exhibit a spirit entirely different from those in other areas. In one area there were many good little local churches, but all of them were pulling in different directions. I have never seen God make a “harness” like that, where every “horse” is pulling in his own direction. The Lord directed me to take the spiritual oversight of these churches, set them in divine order, and then turn them over to other commissioned ministries. The door must be opened for something greater than each man walking according to his own opinion (Deuteronomy 12:8). Factions will exist until the local church is brought under divine order, which in turn is submissive to the Living Word of God.
A church in another area has been a center of deception. This is the subject we will address for the remainder of this Word. Behind this deception is a demonic force that tries to hold people back from hearing the Word of the Lord and from bonding with the vessel of the Word. Throughout that entire church there are some who have tried to relate to me, but they could not. The conflicts in the church were based on relating to me. The realization of this came as a shock to them, because they thought they were one with me. Even though they expressed their love for me in many ways, still they were not bonded with me in the oneness in Christ. They would have continued to have problems if I had not taken the spiritual oversight of the church for a period of time. The local church will not be an organization, or something of that nature, continually under my direct tutelage. I actually exert very little control over a church; once I set it into the Kingdom pattern, other brothers are commissioned over it.
When you are influenced by the demonic spirit of deception, you hear the Word, yet you do not hear it. What good would it do to present a vision of the Kingdom to an assembly of turkeys? Am I being critical of you? No, if I am devastating you, it is only to make you decide if you want to stay on your present level, or if you want something imparted to you and created within you so that you can move on to the next level. None of us want to see a church continue on a merry-go-round. We have gone around this mountain long enough (Deuteronomy 2:3).
You may feel quite self-assured about your own walk with God, but is this because you are locked into a limited level? I suggest that you read again a This Week entitled, “Are You Locked In?” (November 25, 1979.) Then fast and pray about it. Am I speaking too harshly? I must get your attention. You will go on in your present level until you bond with a door-opener ministry who can set you free from your present level. Rise up and as one we will all bind this spirit of oppression, this principality that has come to create a disturbance and a perversion of the Living Word.
Some church members may protest, “Oh, we are one with you; we love you. It is another brother that we are criticizing.” Every ministry in authority over you is there because the Lord sent him. You cannot accept me without accepting every one of them. “He that is begotten of God loves also that which is begotten of Him” (I John 5:1). If you love the Lord as you say you do, then you must also love those who are begotten of Him. You may insist, “But there is a difference between you and the others.” Of course there is a difference. Not one of these ministries whom God has raised up imitates me. That is a good, healthy sign. All the well-known evangelists have raised up others who imitate them and use their same style. No one imitates me. These brothers strive for only one thing: to receive the Living Word and speak it to you with the same anointing as I do.
We must rid ourselves of every demonic force and deception that has locked the churches in. The door must open now—not ten years from now. People cannot bear this frustration which is like a deep heartsickness, because of hopes being deferred (Proverbs 13:12). You must walk on into what God has for you. This is a time for miracles. This is a time to make sons of the Kingdom out of turkeys. First we must bind the spirit that keeps us from really hearing the Word of the Lord.
Many of you are thrilled with the Word—up to a certain point; then you no longer hear it. You simply do not grasp it. Yet your devotion to the Word is unbelievable. Why can’t you hear it? It is because of a demonic force. This particular area is the center of deception, of unbelief, and soulishness. I prayed about this, asking the Lord why you cannot rise into this realm of spirit. Then I realized that in this area, the soulish realm has been so magnified that you cannot break through it. Your situation is analogous to being fogged in, where people can see only the fog layer itself; they cannot see over it. In such a situation, all airplanes are grounded until the fog is dispelled. In the same manner, you cannot break through to the upper realm of spirit until we dispel this demonic “fog.” How do we dispel this soulish deception, this locked-in situation which holds people back from walking on into the things of God? First we identify it as satanic. Then we exercise spiritual authority over this demonic situation. Believe! You are being set free!
Would you like to have more understanding about being set free? Let me tell you what the Lord did for one brother. He had been remodeling his church building. He spent six months in the basement, with other brothers occasionally coming in the evenings to help him. It became a prison to him. The ministry he had walked in dried up totally. He was devastated. He had no Word. He was locked into the local level. This time of remodeling could have provided a good excuse to draw other brothers in to minister; but the truth of the matter was that he did not have a Word to minister. He was in a prison. Then one Word opened the door and released him from that “basement,” and I have not heard one “gobble” from him since!
Do you too feel as though you are locked in a basement someplace? that you are on a treadmill? No matter how much you try, you will not go anyplace until this satanic bondage is broken. Once it is broken, then should you set about to solve all the problems? Forget the problems. Walk away from them. Leapfrog over any difficult situation.
Do you still have a few questions that you must have settled in your mind and in your heart? Heed this exhortation carefully: If what you have been through has left any bitterness in your spirit, that in itself is the wrong response to the steps that God has ordered for you. It shows that you did not learn your lesson. Regardless of what happened to you, if it did not open your heart to walk in a deeper level with God, you have missed God’s whole purpose in it. God never leads a “Job” through trials unless He has a double portion prepared for him; but if that man becomes bitter, he ends up with nothing.
Is this a warning to you? Yes. Within every one of you there is too much of God that is doing nothing; it is not coming forth. God’s preparation within us for the Kingdom is analogous to constructing a watch. If you were to place all the parts of a watch into a box and shake that box all day long, this would not produce a watch. Those parts must be carefully assembled in a certain sequence in order to get the watch to work. Likewise, everything that God has done in our lives has been in preparation for His Kingdom. We know that in the process, our numbers have been reduced by God’s siftings. There are not as many of us anymore. Is that bad? No, for we are becoming the “little flock,” and “it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
Are you somewhat discouraged? Shame on you! Why did you come into this walk with God? Did you want to be a part of some great religious movement? Were you expecting to become glorified Methodists or Baptists, or did you really want to be the sons of the Kingdom? Were you truly looking for that which God intended all along? Were you truly looking for sonship? I am; that is why all our organizational structure has been eliminated. It was moving toward denominationalism, and fast. It was a setup wherein the local churches were becoming like little feudal castles. No one was really grasping the reality that he had to relate to the Kingdom of God.
God has anointed me to do one thing; to bring forth the reality of a walk with Him. After spending over thirty years preaching these truths to you, I refuse to allow you to passively sit back, idly entertaining dreams that will never be brought to fulfillment. This move into the Kingdom will be very real to us.
The issue of judgment is not what you may think it is. Elijah stood back and voiced judgment, saying, “If I am a man of God, let fire fall on these men” (II Kings 1:10). But when Moses voiced judgment, he put his life on the line. He told Korah, “Let God reveal Himself and determine which one of us is of God and which is not” (Numbers 16:5). Moses committed himself. This is the way God is moving now. You must commit yourself in your dedication to the Word.
If you are not hearing the Word in the way you need to hear it, you are not committed to it yet. Like Moses, you need to lay your life down for it first. There must be a very real commitment to the Lord in your life. The judgment of God came to Korah because Moses committed himself to the Word of the Lord (Numbers 16:28–32). He was first submissive to the Lord. There must be that same total submission in each of our hearts to the Word of the Lord. Issues are not the issue. What we think is the issue of judgment is not what God is really after at all. The issue is this: Are you ready to put your life on the line and say, “I am dedicated to the Living Word that God is speaking right now”?
We will never make disciples of all the nations until we exercise, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, all authority in heaven and earth against these demonic powers (Matthew 28:18–19). Let us claim the promises in Malachi that in this day the Lord will reveal the difference “between him that serves the Lord and him that serves Him not” (Malachi 3:18); that “ashes under the soles of your feet” will be the portion of those who stand against the will of God (Malachi 4:3).
You cannot come into this hour of the eternal judgments of God unless you are willing to lay your own life on the line. God has impressed me so deeply with this. I am not afraid of death. At times I have looked death in the face a dozen times a night. I am not afraid of it. I can shake hands with death and not be concerned whether I live or die. If I feel that way about my own life—if I give it so totally to God—then I certainly feel the same about you too. I commit you to the course irreversibly to seek first the Kingdom of God.
What about your priorities? There is only one: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). What about your problems? There is only one—your focus. Your focus may be too distracted, too diverted. I am assuming spiritual oversight only so that I can turn your focus to the Lord. If I can reach your spirit to deliver you, and if you are submissive, this Living Word will open up the greatest revelation of Christ to you that you have had in your entire life. The centrality, the focus of all of this, is that Jesus is Lord. He is King. This is what the Kingdom of God really is.
What is the next step? We will be freed from being locked into local churches. God has many people who are locked into these churches. They are living on many different levels, yet they are open to be led on to new levels. God will draw all of us together. This is a day for the Body of Christ to come together. We never wanted to be a denomination anyway. We want to be one with all of God’s people. In the future thousands of things are to come forth in the expansion of His Kingdom, but these can start only as God sets us free.
Comment: A concentration of spirits can come against your spirit like a witchcraft to keep you from hearing as you ought to hear. A similar spirit hit the Galatian church and cut them off from Paul. He responded, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (Galatians 3:1.) He practically pleaded with them, saying, “You received me as an angel of God, and even as Christ Himself. By telling you the truth have I now become your enemy?” (Galatians 4:14, 16.) They had received Paul as an angel of God—as Christ Himself. Then a spirit came in and began to cast doubts and insinuations about him. When it came down to the bottom line—to their submission to the vessel (to Paul) and to the Word that was coming through him to actually direct their lives and set them into the will of God—the Galatians backed off and the Word was shut off. We too will not hear the Living Word until we are one with the channel of the Word.
Another Scripture tells about Paul and Silas walking down the streets of Philippi. Day after day, a very psychic fortune-teller, who was filled with a spirit of divination, followed after them crying out, “Oh, these are bond servants of God. Listen to them; listen to them!” Finally Paul turned around and commanded the spirit to come out of her, and it came out at that very moment (Acts 16:16–18).
Those demonic spirits! If you have friends like that, you certainly do not need enemies! Like that fortune-teller, someone in the church may adulate the pastor, saying, “Oh, isn’t this man marvelous? Isn’t he wonderful?” When the average preacher gets sucked into that trap, he agrees, “Oh, good! They do have some revelation of me! They sense something awesome within me.” That flattering divination (Ezekiel 12:24) was designed for only one thing: to blind the preacher, and at the same time blind the people so that the Word would not come through to them (Proverbs 26:28; 29:5).
When Paul exposed that spirit and cast it out, the demonic realm turned on him so fast that the woman’s masters immediately dragged Paul and Silas to the town square before the authorities, where they were beaten and thrown into prison (Acts 16:19–23). Do not be deceived; not everything that says “Oh, this glorious Living Word, the Living Word …!” “Oh, our dear, dear apostle …!” is what it appears to be.
Paul was able to discern that spirit because its words did not convey his own spirit. In the same way, you can discern a word by whether or not the spirit behind it has the spirit of the apostolic ministry. If a word to the sheep does not have the spirit of the Lord, it comes from a spirit of perversion of the Word. Many may come in the name of the Living Word or in the name of a particular apostle; but you must discern whether or not they have the same spirit (John 10:27; I John 4:1). Let there be judgment upon the spirit of witchcraft that would pervert the hearts of God’s people, that would pervert their spirits, in their oneness in Christ, from being purely bonded to the apostolic flow and the apostolic ministry.
The Word of the Lord is coming to put His Church in order. It is not the way we had expected it would be. It is not coming to bless our little churches; it is coming to devastate them. We must hear what the Spirit is speaking now. You may have agreed with every apostolic Word, every message that you have ever heard or read. Now, when this same anointing comes in our midst to rebuke our lives and put them in order, we must accept this too.
The rich young ruler understood all the Jewish doctrine, but he still had to come to the Lord to learn how to obtain eternal life. The Lord told him to keep the commandments. He responded, “But I have kept all these commandments.” However, he had not really kept the spirit of them. Because the Lord loved him, He told him, “One thing you lack. Go and sell everything you have, give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow Me” (Mark 10:17–22). Jesus “nailed” him. He exposed his heart. Jesus identified the one thing that was holding him back.
This is what we need, too, to get into the Kingdom. In a sense we are “fat cats”; we feast joyously upon message after message, but when it comes to our having an actual revelation that a man of God has a Word over our life, a Word to tell us what to do, right now, we are remiss. When he takes over an area, he is not taking over simply some geographic area—you are that area! What will you do if he points to you and says, “Now you do this, you do that”? You will not truly hear the Word of the Kingdom until you submit to what the Lord directs you to do through the vessels that He has raised up. This divine order is what is being challenged now.
You may wonder, “Exactly what will have to be done to get me into this new level?” Let me tell you about a man who was once in the same position as ours. His name was Saul of Tarsus. He was moving along very zealously, thinking everything was fine because he was going after what he thought was the will of God. He was walking on the level that the Lord had once shown him.
Then suddenly one day God knocked him off his feet. God blinded him on that level, and when He finally opened Saul’s eyes, Saul was on a whole new level (Acts 9:4–19). When he recovered, he no longer saw like a turkey. After the Lord had blinded Saul, He gave him very specific directions about what he was to do. God drove him into a time of fasting and prayer, meanwhile saying of him, “I am going to show Saul what great things he will suffer for My name” (Acts 9:16). The Lord told Saul exactly what he would do, right down the line, and before the book of Acts ends, we read that he was preaching. Later he told King Agrippa, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). Paul always positioned himself under the Lordship of Christ, whereby Christ ministered to him, directing his path.
How does this apply to us? The apostolic authority of the Kingdom will reach into our very lives and shred our plans. It will tear to shreds that “will of God” which we have determined over our own lives. By a confirmed Word from the Lord it will say, “Here is the true will of God,” and it will position us so that we put our lives on the line: Either we serve the Lord or we do not (Malachi 3:18). There will no longer be those shady areas in which we are actually running our own lives in the name of “submission.” God’s shaking in our lives will become very real and very direct.
Change is a real part of this. God’s demand that we change draws us out of the nebulous realm of responding, “Oh, wonderful! Wonderful! A new level in the spirit is coming!” Instead, it confronts us: “Will you move on in this level? Will you submit to this level? Will you open your heart to the change that is coming?” It brings this Word of the Kingdom right down to the personal realm and says, “Will you make the transition?”
The name of the game in the Kingdom is discipleship. This is the key: in order to be a disciple, you must be “discipled” by someone. You must have some master or teacher who has been through the process himself, who can teach you and who can take dominion over the blind areas of your spirit and point out to you, “You are missing it here; you are missing it there.” God will not automatically take dominion over your life; you must first cry out to Him, “Lord, deliver me from what I am. Take authority over my spirit.”
I am no longer involved with administration; someone else can handle those details better than I. But where true authority is concerned, I am beginning to move. You must understand that henceforth you will not see me after the flesh; likewise, you will not see one another after the flesh. After we take dominion over the demonic spirit of deception, your next step is moving into deep worship. That is exactly what you are doing when you submit on this new plane. As you worship the Lord and thank Him for His chosen channels, and submit yourself anew, you are shifting your focus from the man to the Lord.
God has been destroying our entire fleshly concept of leaders in order to prepare us for the Kingdom. The image and position of pastor is disintegrating. No one is concerned about it anymore. We are becoming simply a flock of sheep whom God is leading into the Kingdom, a little flock to whom He has given the Kingdom (Luke 12:32). You will hear far less talk about apostles, prophets, and pastors, and far more talk acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord over people’s lives. Jesus will be absolute Lord over our lives.
It would be very wrong for you to think you understand what is happening, because you do not. Yet it is happening. It is not based upon your knowing or understanding it. Change is taking place because God has opened the door, and His anointing has released the flow that will accomplish what He has desired to accomplish. Your understanding will catch up with it somewhere down the line.
However, now you must cry out to God for deliverance from the thing in your own spirit which has opened the door for this demonic spirit to function. This root of bitterness needs to be dealt with in every one of our hearts. It must be completely eradicated from our preconceived attitudes toward the Living Word, or toward circumstances that we have faced or gone through, or anything that has allowed us to be defiled in some way. This root of bitterness has allowed us to be defiled so that we might be maneuvered by a demonic spirit; and now it must be judged.
Some may protest, “But it is the principality that is causing these problems!” Yes, but even a principality must establish some groundwork within you in order to be able to function. The groundwork, the deception, the perversion comes only where there is already a root of bitterness (Hebrews 12:15). Bitterness can lead to rebellion, which is as the sin of witchcraft (I Samuel 15:23). Deal with it in your heart. Cry out to the Lord about this and be deeply concerned about it, rather than about whether or not you understand.
Be completely emptied out so that you are ready to receive the Lord as you did at the beginning of your experience in the new birth. When you came to the Lord, you did not understand what you were receiving. You opened up and you were born again—only because you were ready to receive the Lord. This new level too is a birth—a birth into the Kingdom.
Perhaps you have had your hopes built up many times, and you have often been disappointed. Then you cope with that. Deal with it, because you must come into a fresh expectancy of what God is going to do.
Each of us can make it. God did not bring us this far only to abandon us. Even so, it will not be easy. Not very many turkeys are seeing angels; not many are seeing the vision of the Kingdom. God will change that. Determine that God will create in you the spirit of a son, and the spirit of a turkey will leave. This change is the one answer to all of your problems.