Prophecy connects people to God

Everyone in the world wants to live a life that has worth, value, and significance. No one sets out on their life adventure intending to fail. Behind every person’s failure there is an individual needing to connect with something more and with the wisdom of the father. People are looking for attachment. They want relevance in terms of who they are, who they associate with during their journey and what they achieve in business and life.

Only the father can provide ultimate significance that satisfies every aspect of our longing to be more. He seeks a relationship with us that enables his vision of us to be realized in our hearts. His great heart is full of positives about us. He puts us into the most wonderful place imaginable. He puts us in Christ. All things are possible to us because the father has connected us to himself in and through Jesus.

Prophecy not only reminds us of that connection but also seeks to enhance the relationship at every opportunity. Good relationships occur because we are intent on helping one another become better. Friendships that seek positive increase for others are to be treasured. A positive increase occurs when we support the learning and development of another without controlling it. We can tell people what to do. We can use threatened penalties to enforce particular growth. We can use disapproval and frustration for their lack of progress to push people forward. But there is a better way. There is no substitute for loving, firm, patient and joyful support for people that empower them to think, plan and purposefully connect with their real identity.

Prophecy is a part of that context. The father is wonderfully affirming of us because he sees us through the lens of Jesus. If we are to succeed with people, we must view them from heaven’s perspective. The father has strategically placed us in Christ so that heaven can relate to the new life of Jesus in us. The father is obviously connected to Jesus. Having put Jesus in us and us into Jesus, he is now connected to us in a major way. Our old nature is dead, crucified in Christ. We no longer have a sin nature; It died on the cross. We’re not crucifying the old nature, the father has already done that in Christ. We are crucifying the flesh which is our old mindsets, our learned behavior, and our poor choices. We are killing off our old habits by positively learning to abide in our new nature.

Too many people are preoccupied with the bad things in life. This puts us more under the influence of the enemy than it does the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit deals with our negatives by empowering us to walk in a newness of life. We are dead to sin and alive to God. We kill the flesh with the strength of our abounding life in Christ. Our very alertness to the Spirit compels us to overcome our own deficiency. We never focus on any negative, it is already dead. Baptism was our funeral. Focusing on our own negatives is like continuously resurrecting a corpse! We are alive to God. We have this energy, abundance and zest for life. We are learning to overflow, to be vigorous and vital. The Holy Spirit is brilliant in this regard. He is the best personal trainer in heaven. He is energetic, cheerful, passionate, and always ready to to empower us to develop in the likeness of Jesus.

Life in the Spirit is always about displacement. When the father puts his finger on a part of our life that needs upgrading, he is pointing out the site of our next transformation. If the father has put to death the old nature, why should he deal with it as though it is still alive? That would demonstrate that he has no confidence in the power of the cross.

If our old nature is dead in Christ then we are only dealing with the residue of its previous effect. The flesh is our bad habits, which need to be adjusted to become new mindsets, empowered behavior and better, more powerful choices. Underneath the flesh is our new nature in Christ which needs to rise up within and displace the old. When God points to a deficiency it is to draw attention to what has already replaced it in Christ. He has dealt with sin once and for all in Christ. Now he is dealing with righteousness, the process of sanctification, and the wisdom of life in the Spirit that upholds and guarantees redemption (1 Corinthians 1: 30).

The focus of our life is no longer the wearying, incessant struggle against sin. It is the joyous involvement with life and being alive to God! There is no need for a “fix what’s wrong and do what’s right” approach. We are the Righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 22), which is solely achieved by Jesus taking our place on the cross.

God is not dealing with sin. He has dealt with it and destroyed it on the cross. Now, all who come to him through Jesus are placed in Jesus so that they can walk in newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are now a new creation, all the old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5: 17-18). All these new things are established in us by the Holy Spirit, who takes the characteristics of Jesus and makes them real to us (John 16; 15).

It was not God’s intention to return us to the state that Adam enjoyed, (pre- temptation), in the garden. That was the first Adam and around his race was developed a covenant in the law that was focused on continuous repentance, atonement, and sacrifice for sin.

Jesus is the second Adam who came to birth an entirely different race of people (literally a new creation that never existed before in the earth). The first Adam was a living soul; The second Adam was a life-giving spirit. Two different kinds of people. The first Adam lived through his soul where he was subject to external influences in his thinking, feeling, and choosing. The soul is made-up of our mind, emotions, will, conscience, imagination which can all be brought under domination and control of the flesh or elevated in the spirit of the New Creation.

When we are born again of the Spirit, we become a higher order of being. We are now connected to heaven through a life giving Spirit, which is Jesus the second Adam.

The first man and the old covenant were earthly and natural in their relationship with God. They depended on death, blood and sacrifice to be continually made for atonement. Natural man could have the Spirit of God come upon them and fill them, but not permanently reside in them.

In our flesh evil spirits work in us to desire when we yield to thoughts or feelings, they put it in our flesh.

The Spirit of God now works to desire in us and as we yield to that desire, he empowers us. We now are a divine human being and are supernatural in our relationship with God because we live from heaven to earth in our spirituality. All the old things have passed away and everything has become new. Now we recognize no one after the flesh. That means that we relate to one another based upon our new nature, not to the old. God is dealing solely with our new nature. He Is continually presenting to us, who Jesus is for us. The Holy Spirit reveals Christ in us, the confident expectation of glory.

In the old creation, man lived towards God, for God. In the new creation, we live from God, with God. When we are fully awakened to righteousness, we do not sin (1 Corinthians 15: 34). We are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21) ambassadors of a Covenant so powerful it’ll change the world. Hell cannot prevail against a church that truly knows by experience the full nature of God (Matthew 16: 18). The rock of the church is a true revelation of Jesus Christ as Lord over all things for all time. He is not just the God of salvation; he is the Lord of life. To be saved is wonderful; But that is the beginning, not the outcome. The outcome of salvation is encounters and ongoing experiences of God that are so awe-inspiring they propel us into an engagement with heaven on earth. We simply must taste the power of Christ within. It is the power of the age to come. We are a new creation in Christ. That means that Jesus gave life to a whole new race of people that have never been seen in the earth before.

Prior to Christ, man was a living soul, subject to eternal pressures, finding their way to God through sacrifice and atonement, living by a set of rules known as the law. Now in Christ we have no more responsibility for sacrifice; Christ has removed that in himself. We cannot move towards God by our performance as believers in obedience to a set of rules or a code of conduct.

In the New Covenant it is Christ in us which is the confident expectation of glory (Colossians 1: 27). The issue now is what are we going to do with Christ within? Before the cross, such possibilities never existed! Now in Jesus a whole new people group has emerged in every tribe, tongue and nation in the earth. We are the people of heaven living among the peoples of the earth. We are subject to a different lifestyle with amazing possibilities.

We are servants of righteousness because God only works to empower his righteousness in us through Christ within (Romans 6: 18). This wonderful standing totally counteracts the effects and deadly hold of sin.

This is where prophecy is brilliant. All true prophecy totally supports the theology of Christ within, the confident expectation of glory. Why deal with sin when the old nature is dead? When we deal with our righteousness in Christ it has the power to kill off, crucify, the bad habits of the flesh.

We always deal with a negative by reinforcing a positive. Christ within is the backbone of prophecy. Our testimony of who Jesus is for us is the very essence of the prophetic (revelation 19: 10).

Prophecy connects us to the very heart of God. It connects us to the good news of heaven. We cannot promote transformation if our attention has been taken by a negative. If we are focused on the problems we see in people, our prophetic output can be clouded by a negative. It is so important for prophetic people to be immersed in the nature of God. We need to be both highly flavored and softened by his presence in our hearts.

Obviously, God does exhort, rebuke, and admonish, but always in the context of learning, becoming more and growing. God does not punish us; he allowed the religious and political world to do that to Jesus, so that the old nature in us was crucified with him. The father develops us in a wonderful way that even chastisement makes us feel extraordinarily loved. For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, he corrects every son whom he receives (Hebrews 12: 6). If one of the purposes of chastisement is the expression of love, then how we discipline people must primarily satisfy the heart of God. Chastisement as a further revelation of God’s love must therefore be the goal of every leader, every mentor and every parent. The father loves to reveal himself. That was the purpose of Jesus: he who has seen me has seen the father (John 14: 9). The joy of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Jesus whom he adores.

Prophecy is part of that revelatory process, giving people a taste of what God is truly like. God is not a repairman; he is a restorer. He makes all things new. He is delighted with Christ and in choosing to put us into that place of delight, he can now choose to be delighted with us. His delight cannot be impaired by our struggle. The father’s focus is Jesus. He sees us through that lens. He sees Jesus in us. He is intimately acquainted with us in Christ. We are connected through Jesus! Prophecy maintains that relationship and empowers it to go higher, further and deeper.

God is not trying to fix us he wants to resource us! He has given us a new nature which overcomes our bad habits, poor mindsets, and unproductive learned behaviors. He points to Jesus as our place of acceptance (Ephesians 1: 6). We are learning to live from God, not towards him. We are enjoying being with God, not looking for his presence. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. So clearly, seeking the Lord has to be concerned with something more than just looking for him.

Obviously if we move away from an ongoing experience of his presence, then we must wholeheartedly seek to put that right and move back into the place of his delight. However, when we are actively enjoying being with him and living from him, then seeing him can only involve a greater discovery of who he is and what he wants to be for us. Life in the Spirit is incremental. We are moving into new levels and higher dimensions of involvement with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2: 6).

Life in Christ is always about guarantees. Ask and you will receive. There is no hesitancy in the heart of the father. He is not reluctant to bless us. Seek and you will find. He is wonderful and extravagant in his giving. He loves to provide. He loves us to discover his goodness. Knock and it shall be opened to you. Life is an ongoing encounter with goodness. It is an ever increasing experience of God’s permission. Everything is yes and Amen in Christ (2 Corinthians 1: 20).

Seeking is concerned with the discovery of all that we have in Christ. The father has placed us into Christ. Christ in us is the joyful exposure of Christ living in us and making all things possible. When we seek God internally, we find our truest self in him. People who spend too much time and energy on the flesh seldom discover the wonder of Christ within, and the expectation of goodness prevailing that combines with that revelatory experience.

Grace does not need to expose the bad in order to be appreciated. Grace receives more value by glorifying Jesus in us. The riches of his grace (Ephesians 1:17) are immeasurably tied in to the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints (Ephesians 1: 18). The goal of prophecy is to connect people with the heart of the father, the presence of Jesus within, the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and the ongoing experience that goes with a true knowledge of Christ.

The father has put something into us that is glorious- it is Christ within. Our goal in prophecy is to build people into that fullness of encounter. We are gladly exposing people to the reality of being in Christ and empowering them to live from that place of delight.

Speaking the truth in love is totally concerned with people growing up into all things in Christ (Ephesians 4: 15). There is a huge difference between that which is true about a person’s sin habits and that which is the truth about their new nature in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5: 16 therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; Behold, all things have become new. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

The truth is a person: Jesus Christ. Therefore, everything we say to people should emphatically upgrade their relationship with the Lord so that they are growing up into everything that he has for them. Truth is relational; it connects us to how the father sees us in Christ. Truth empowers us to become like Jesus.

It may be true that a person has a bad temper but the truth is that the father has already done something about that in Christ.

The truth sets us free to become Christ-like. When we look at people’s poor choices outside of Christ and relate to that behavior then we are dealing with the flesh, not the spirit. What is true relates to the flesh in this context. The truth relates to who Jesus is for us. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1). We do not regard anyone after the flesh. If this is true in regard to Jesus it must be equally true in the context of our new relationship in him. Those who knew Jesus as the son of man(pre-resurrection) and who walked alongside him, must now relate to him as the son of God who lives in them. It’s a breathtaking new relationship!

When we speak the truth in love we are reminding, teaching and exhorting people who they are in Christ. We are reinforcing their true identity in the spirit. We are not calling them out because of their inappropriate old behavior; we are calling them up to the truth of who they really are in Jesus.

In Christ we are a new creation. All the old things have passed away-he that is dead is free (Roman 6: 7), and all things have become (past-perfect tense) new! Speaking the truth therefore must relate to the new things of our identity in Jesus. Lovely telling people who they are in him.

Salvation is not the finishing point. It is the starting line, the entry point to a whole new territory and experience of God. It is the promised land of Christ within. We must enter it and overcome all that is present which aligns itself against God’s loving kindness. We can enjoy the fruits of the land while taking down any internal fortresses or tackling giants. God is with us and goes before us. We fight from victory, not towards it. Living from Christ makes it easier to breakthrough. Jesus has already conquered. Someone who is more than a conqueror is a person who joyfully occupies and enjoys the territory that has been established.

In prophecy we can take ground within ourselves and seal our possessions in the Lord Jesus Christ. Prophecy provides an amazing, immediate, in the moment connection that moves us into a higher place in God, or reconnects us with our place of delight in Christ.

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