We have been projected into a Kingdom level where we received much impartation from the Lord. Initially, this had to be accepted by faith; but now we want to find out what really happened to us. There were a number of things which we had not experienced before. We are experiencing quite a different atmosphere and climate.
We do not want a spirit of fear; nor should we be ashamed when we are experiencing persecutions or other problems. As long as Satan can prey upon your soulish emotions or get you to reason with your carnal mind, he can keep you from the purity of being led by the Spirit. Sonship means that your spirit is so in tune with God that you are actually led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14). Then you cannot be moved by the input of emotions or by circumstances round about you.
Pure faith does not move on the conclusions of reason, but on the Word of God.
Faith is reasonable when you look back on it, but it is never reasonable when you are facing or experiencing a situation. It did not seem reasonable when the men of God in the Scriptures stepped out by faith to do what they did. Elijah—the prophet of fire—is one example. In his confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he had twelve barrels of water poured upon the sacrifice (I Kings 18:33–35). That was not at all reasonable, was it? It would be hard enough to pull fire out of heaven, without pouring twelve barrels of water on the slain bullocks beforehand. What he did was not reasonable. Neither was it reasonable for the Lord to spit on the ground, put mud on a blind man’s eyes, and tell him to wash in the pool of Siloam (John 9:6–7). How reasonable was it to expect a blind man to find his way through the city to that reservoir? That blind man had to move by faith, not by reason.
For a long time the word of wisdom has been the key in the teaching of this walk, but the Lord has shown that now the gift of faith will be the key. Since we received that revelation, nothing has seemed reasonable anymore. Wisdom from God does not seem to be the answer. Instead, we simply believe and watch the things change because we believe God. There is no way to figure them out or work them out by wisdom.
If a spiritual gift is to work, we will have to move in with real faith. We cannot have fear or timidity. We cannot have the fear of man; nor can we be shamed because we go through something.
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. II Timothy 1:7–8, NASB.
Sufferings are the escalator to the throne. “If we suffer with Him, we will reign with Him” (Romans 8:17; II Timothy 2:12).
We are heading into the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19–21). We are becoming aware of things that God is doing in us. We have reached a new level. We are breaking through to the time in which the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead will quicken our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11).
Satan will do everything he can to assault the stronghold of the carnal mind and thus keep the flesh—all of your physical processes—as well as your soul, your emotions, in captivity so that they do not break into resurrection life or into spiritual renewal. We must break through to the place where in our pirit we take dominion over all of the assault that is coming against the mind and the emotions. This is not mind over matter, but spirit over mind and matter. In the spirit, all things can be controlled. It is in that level where we worship. The Lord seeks people to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24). It is in that level where God will receive in His sons everything He is looking for.
Paul wrote to Timothy: And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. II Timothy 1:6. The use of the word “kindle” is significant. You kindle a fire. The gifts of the Spirit should be interpreted as the fire by which God destroys and by which He brings forth His Kingdom. Hebrews 12:27–29 tells us: “Our God is a consuming fire. And when all things are shaken, we will receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.”
Paul continued, verse 7: For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline (a disciplined mind).
In God, your spirit will discipline your mind. You are transformed by the renewal of your mind. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ” (Philippians 2:5).
Oneness does not come from a mental level; it does not come from conciliation. It is never achieved by trying to get everyone to be agreeable. Oneness is unity of spirit.
Unity of the faith does not come because everybody reasons out the Scripture. Unity of the faith comes by the Spirit. We endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4:3), and eventually we will come to the unity of the faith.
When you reach the place where in your spirit there is a total submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have arrived at the threshold of the Kingdom where everything in your life is controlled by the will of God. And that is what you want. In that mature place as sons you are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14). God has given us a spirit of love and discipline.
The love aspect must be considered very carefully. When we move aggressively, with faith and with no timidity, we can still be hurtful, if we move without love. In I Timothy 4:12–13, Paul again speaks about the gifts and about moving in the supernatural; and again he emphasizes love: Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. After speaking about love, Paul exhorted Timothy: Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you … Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching, persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. Verses 14–16.
Chapters 12, 13, and 14 of I Corinthians deal with the Body ministry of Christ, with love, and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In I Corinthians 14:1 the gifts are mentioned, as well as prophesying and love: Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
Notice that we are told to pursue love. Do not seek to do a miracle; instead, seek for the love. If there is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in love, you can do a miracle, even if you do nothing more than quote John 3:16. There are no mechanics of the gifts of the Spirit that are not embraced in the simple Scripture which tells us that in the new creation it is “faith that works by love” which avails something (Galatians 5:6).
Faith that works by love means that we constantly exhort one another to believe and that we constantly evidence the love of God. Have you noticed that the people who talk the most about love are often the ones who do not seem to show much love themselves? Yet they are always asking somebody else to show love.
In the realm of spirit, what you are and what you do takes predominance over what you say. On the lower level, what you say takes precedence. On the spiritual level, it is what you do or what you have become.
Looking through the Scriptures, we see that the preaching in the book of Acts was not exceptional. Far greater preachers have come forth during the Church Age. They could preach circles around Peter or Stephen or any of the others mentioned in the Bible. But the men in the Bible were so full of faith that when they preached, something happened.
Rarely was a sermon in the New Testament ever concluded with a benediction. But there were riots (Acts 13:50; 21:30–36). Sometimes people questioned, “Men and brethren—what shall we do to be saved?” (Acts 2:37.) We read of men gnashing on the speaker with their teeth and throwing rocks at him (Acts 7:54, 58; 14:19). Various things happened after the sermons were concluded, and sometimes the sermons were interrupted, but rarely were they finished with a benediction. What did they finish with? Signs and wonders (Acts 8:6–7). That is why Paul said, “I do not want to stand before you with enticing words, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith will stand on the power of God and not on the wisdom of man.”
And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. I Corinthians 2:4–5, NASB.
As wonderful as the teaching of this walk with God has been, we have reached the place where it is not going to set the world on fire until you have kindled again that gift. You could say the same words that have been said for thirty years; but if you say them with faith and say them with love, they will change the whole world.
This is not a matter, however, of merely mouthing again the truths that have become so real and such a revelation to our heart, because anybody can do that. I do not think that the playing of tapes will help you until you listen to a tape enough that the spirit of it comes through to you, and you find yourself voicing it in the Spirit. In fact, you could have a disciplined program of reading the Bible, whereby you read it through several times a year. That is fine, but when is the Word going to leap off the page and set your heart on fire? That is what we are waiting for. Paul wrote, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Colossians 3:16). Paul exhorted Timothy not to neglect the gifts, but to continually give attention to them, to be absorbed with what God was saying.
We have learned that some of the finest ministries of revelation come out of the communal homes. We have learned also that a good Kingdom business will produce prophets of God. Why is this? It is because the people are in constant proximity to each other. That is why I am concerned that all of the ministries pray together and have faith together. In their constant association, they will find the leading of the Lord. The tenth chapter of Hebrews emphasizes the need for this contact: “Cease not the assembling of yourselves together, and so much the more as you see the day approaching” (verse 25).
You will never make it into the Kingdom unless you are constantly absorbed with the Word of God. It is not enough merely to tolerate coming to church once in a while, yet keeping the bitterness, the rebellion, the resentment, and the withdrawal in your spirit. You know that you should be doing better, but you are not too motivated to do it. That will get you nowhere. You must continually be giving yourself to the Word. Out of that will come the miracle.
Do you remember the way a prophet was made in Bible times? Often he actually lived with a man of God. Timothy lived with Paul. Elisha lived with Elijah for years, and was a personal servant to him. Joshua was in constant attendance to Moses during the time in the wilderness. Without question, he practically lived with Moses. One cannot help but wonder what kind of family life a man could have if some young prophet decided to live with him.
Sometimes people have many problems. Yet we realize that forcing them to come into a higher spiritual level by themselves can be a good thing. When young prophets are breaking through together, their constant association with one another is necessary; however, their association with a man of God must be limited. This is also necessary. This does not mean that they will not be one with him; the problem is how much of him can they take? Not too much. He can give them enough teaching in one service to keep them busy for a long time, trying to absorb that teaching so that it becomes a part of them. If he keeps giving them more and more, they will never get their “homework” done. They have to work at it. He must repeat the same truths again and again. Often we have to reiterate again and again the teaching that has been brought.
Refuse to let any day go by that you neglect the ministry that God has given you by impartation, or give priority to any other thing except seeking after that ministry. If hands were laid upon you and God gave you something by impartation, believe that you received it at that very moment.
The day will come that your sons will be as “plants grown up in their youth” (Psalm 144:12). The Scripture says, “The plowman will overtake the reaper” (Amos 9:13). This means that within the same day the seed will be sown and the harvest will come forth. In one service you will find somebody come in, so completely open to the Lord, that by impartation so much will be done in his spirit that he will walk out the door with as much from God as it would ordinarily take him years to learn. The plowman will overtake the reaper. Sons will be grown up in their youth. We have yet to see time eliminated and that process come forth as the way by which spirituality or maturity can come.
I think God has many people out there that He has been working on, and He has brought them to a place of devastation where the climate is like the chaos of Genesis, chapter 1 (verse 2). The Spirit is brooding on the chaos. And all God has to do is say, “Let there be light” (verse 3), and there will be a miracle. A new day will come forth for their lives. I believe there are many people like that. Do you believe it?
Would you resent it if somebody came into your midst and as much happened to him in one service as it has taken you so long to receive? Would you resent that? Remember—the Lord talked about this very situation in a parable (Matthew 20:1–16). One fellow who had been working all day received the same wages as the man who went out to work almost at the end of the day. He complained, “That isn’t fair.” How can anyone say what is fair? What the Lord does is right, and I would not oppose it if I were you. Never form a union against the great Lord of the harvest and tell Him what to do. Never go on strike. Never withdraw. Just do what you are told. Have faith. Press in.
First of all, we want to pursue love (I Corinthians 14:1). Our love is still too shallow. We have talked much about love, but when you reach this Kingdom level, have you noticed that at times you react very unlovingly? You do not realize how much venom is in the old carnal mind and nature and how it refuses to be submissive one to another. This step will remove from us the things that have made our oneness only a theory so far. Oneness is good, and people have to decide just how close they are going to be.
Consider a situation on the human natural level involving a boss and all of his employees. They face a certain level of problems. But what if those individuals are all supposed to be brothers and sisters in the Lord. Then you multiply by ten the problems involved. Then suppose some of them live in a communal home; again you multiply the problems by ten. Then suppose that two of these individuals fall in love; then you multiply the problems by one hundred. And if they want to have a Kingdom marriage again the problems multiply.
There is no end to the things that God requires as He begins to bring about the oneness that must be. Realize that you should not be married to a person and expect a Kingdom-level marriage unless you each come down the aisle with “a hammer and nails” in your hand, dedicated to the work of the cross in your mate-to-be, ready to finish the job. In the final analysis, the work of the cross cannot be accomplished without a brother or a sister helping you, but it is accomplished even better by a husband or a wife.
Raising children in the Kingdom is even a more difficult problem. The whole thing becomes a matter of possession. How much do you possess your children? How much does the Lord possess them? How much do you possess each other? How much does the Lord possess you? And what is the quality of that possession? Is it selfish, or is it a mutual submission one to another that the Lord has worked in you?
In the Kingdom, anything can happen. The things that are going to happen will be so supernatural that they can only be accomplished by the synergistic action of our unity and oneness that comes forth. Where oneness has been accomplished between people, the effectiveness of their prayers, of their proclamation and prophesying, will be far greater. What they prophesy will come to pass.
We are approaching a new level of the Kingdom of God; and for us to be one will require above everything else that there be deep love and great faith.
All that your love has envisioned, your faith can bring to pass. Even though you love your brother, there are times when you do not see how the things you have envisioned for him can come to pass. That is when you recognize that the bottom line is not faith in that person, that he will come forth as you want, but faith for that person. You become an agent of God to see that happen.
In the final act of the sons of God coming to maturity, you will be surprised to see how each one of you will find your own hands being creative in producing the miracle of sonship in one another. That creative oneness will come to pass regardless of your own problems or your areas of inadequacy.
Another Kingdom Proverb will help you: Steadfast, faithful love is the outcome of faith, not of emotion. The emotion of love may not be sufficient. You need that steadfast, faithful love which may be the result of your own faith, somebody else’s faith for you, or the faith of a lot of people for you.
That is why we encourage everybody to participate during a wedding ceremony. We say, “Everybody proclaim your faith—not just your love, but your faith for this marriage.” That is what brings about the thing that God is trying to do.
Do you realize how much love will be required in this new Kingdom level, how much attention and devotion to it there must be, and how vicious the battle is going to be? These things that you are now being told are so essential; and if you do not do them, you will experience one battle after another. Instead, you want to soar above them.
The prophecies have said that in the Kingdom level we will soon find omitted the level of warfare to which we have been accustomed for many years. We are not to go through the rest of the Kingdom in warfare. We were raised up by the Lord to break through to a higher level.
This is the time of almost a last-day stand on the part of principalities and powers. I know we are over the threshold, into this level of the Kingdom. God is showing us that we are to destroy the enemy.
Where principalities and powers and nephilim have controlled almost every phase of human existence, that is going to be over with, as we upset the whole balance of the spirit world. And it will be done because of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and His victory, and a few people who will believe it.
So, why hold back? What is the difference if you encounter a few personal problems? As long as you grumble and gripe and complain and murmur and withdraw and go through things on a human level, you are acting like mere human beings and not like sons of God who have the very divine life of Jesus Christ in them, who are set to glorify Jesus and bring forth His very life (I Corinthians 3:3, NASB).
Why be sensitive? Die out to the lower level. Have the love, have the faith to believe God. Have the love, the faith, the persistence to do His will. Forget about the lower level of intrigues and cliques and everything else. Just come together and worship with deep love and faith for one another. It only takes a handful of people in a little assembly of the saints to bring this about. It does not have to be unanimous. You would be surprised to know how a few can bind a whole group over to love and to the will of God. It can be done. Have real faith for yourself. Have faith for one another.
Have faith for, not in one another. You do not have faith in one another’s flesh; you have faith for one another that God will bring forth His will, and your love can then be manifested. It is good to love each other, but you must also have faith for each other.
If you have faith in a brother, and he disappoints you, this puts a strain on the love, and it tends to decrease. But if you have love for him, nothing that he does can strain that faith, and nothing he can do will change that love.
Let us determine to follow this Word carefully so that we will break through into the new Kingdom level. We could compare it to breaking the sound barrier; only this is breaking the spirit barrier, right into the presence of the Lord.
We are reaching into a new level of the Word, a new level of love, a new level of faith, where we are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (I Corinthians 15:58).
Pure faith does not move on the conclusions of reason or the motivation of emotions, but on the Word of God.
When reason has no answer for your life, look for a revelation in His Word.
Sufferings are the escalator to the Throne of Christ.
The Kingdom is not mind over matter, but spirit over mind and matter.
The Gifts of the Spirit are the fires of God; keep them kindled and burning brightly.
Faith without any fear can still be hurtful if it is also without love.
Do not seek for a miracle, but for love with faith; you will have your miracle.
Say the same words that have been spoken for thirty years; but speak them with faith and with love, and they will change the whole world.
Love has the vision that faith brings to pass.
Steadfast, faithful love is the outcome of faith, not of emotion.