Father uses two ways to develop us. They both take the same amount of time, energy and discipline. The route we take is always set by the Lord. We can ask him for our preference, but he will choose the route that he believes is most beneficial for us at this time.
The first is an impartation that suddenly launches us into a whole new area of favor and authority. For a season, things are wonderfully fluid and easy, eventually it slows down and moves us into the process, where we will be tested on what the father has given or become to us. Testing is vital for our development because it establishes our experience into truth that remains.
The truth now becomes values and principles that we live by continually as part of our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
The second route is a process that leads to divine acceleration. The father begins to open up truth about life in Jesus. As he does so, the Holy Spirit begins to apply that truth to areas of our life. Process is about learning relational joy. All process is relational. In process, our comforter is our tutor. We learn about the nature of God because he applies his heart to ours.
I adore process – the action of discovering God’s nature for me in stepping into the truth of it. Process is about obedience and choice. We learn obedience by what the Spirit takes us through in our circumstances. We make choices based on who God is for us and what he wants us to be.
Generally speaking, both routes work this way. Impartation works from experience into the truth. Process works with the truth towards a place of encounter. The impartation route works well with our emotions. We have an encounter with God that enables and empowers us to feel his presence. We enter into a joyous experience that we enjoy absolutely. After a season of that, the process kicks in. Our emotions are sidelined. The feelings disappear, and now we have to learn to believe that God is still present. Process, then, is about thinking properly. It is about being renewed in the spirit of our mind.
The impartation has given us the experience; now the process has to establish its reality when the feelings have disappeared. In warfare, the enemy attacks our emotions and our mindset. Both need to be strong. We need to be able to receive under pressure, and this is fabulous training.
The process route works well with our thinking. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he – Proverbs 23: 7. In process, the Holy Spirit develops our thinking so that we can choose to believe. Whatever God shows us, he gives us faith for that interaction. Process is about working with God on our issues and our lifestyle. It is transformational thinking – Romans 12: 2.
It is also about receiving promises and enjoying the Holy Spirit as he processes the truth into our hearts. The process route is about learning to think from our heart, not our head.
The natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. To his natural way of thinking, they seem foolish and hard to understand. They are not logical or rational, but spiritual; therefore, normal ways of reasoning do not apply –1Corinthians 2: 12 – 15.
When we do not live from our heart, then there is an absence of brightness in our thinking and perception. Our heart becomes dull. We are slow to learn and understand. We can lack clarity and sharpness in our thinking. Our spirituality becomes cloudy and dim. The effect on our life is that we become downcast and cheerless. When we see and hear from our heart, we understand what is happening and have every potential to be renewed – Matthew 13; 14 – 15.
The whole point of process is to maintain our heart connection with the father, in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. As our heart increases, we develop our thinking and move towards accelerated input.
We practice obedience in our hearts – Romans 6: 17. The word is in our heart, and our mouth confesses what our heart receives – Romans 10: 8–10. The father has prepared many things for us which can only be seen and heard as we live in our heart, our inner self in the spirit –1 Corinthians 2:9–10. The person who stands firm in heart, has authority over his own will – 1 Corinthians 7: 37. God writes on our hearts – 2 Corinthians 3: 3 – so that we can do his will from our inner man – Ephesians 6; 5 – 6. Our heart is always fully accessible to the process of the father – Hebrews 4; 12. It is our heart that empowers us to draw near in full assurance of faith – Hebrews 10; 22, because it is confident when under the rule of the spirit. It is the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God – 1 Peter 3; 4.
Divine acceleration comes to a heart that is engaged with process. We find ourselves being touched by God and coming into impartation and release. We can now have an experience of what the Lord has already established in the truth of our heart.
An impartation that does not lead to process means we do not get to keep the experience we have received. What is introduced by manifestation must be established in hiddenness.
A process that does not result in impartation means that we have not encountered the presence that increases the truth. Process that moves into impartation creates enlargement.
When someone becomes a spiritual warrior, things open up. As we practice being in the presence of God, we are able to be taken into enemy territory without being harmed. He begins to trust us with the warfare that his presence provokes. He knows we will stay connected to him and aligned with his purposes, even in difficult times.
Every believer is a soldier of Christ, but not everyone is a spiritual warrior. Warriors are on assignments specific to God’s commands against the enemy. God wants to raise people who will live from the right motives and who can be trusted. He will not give this privilege to someone who has not passed his test. If we have not conquered the ground in our spirit, we will not be able to take anything from the enemy. It all starts with a choice within each of us – do we trust God more than our own nature? The father can only trust what he sees manifested of his son within each of us.
Assignment – have you recently had an impartation, a divine encounter with God? If you are still in it, then enjoy it! If the feelings/sense of God’s presence has faded, do not try to recapture it. You cannot manufacture in your soul what the Holy Spirit has put into your inner man of the heart/spirit. You have now entered the process of learning to think from your heart. God is still present, but now you must believe the truth of it. What is the father doing in your life that will upgrade his presence in your character and lifestyle? Choose what needs an upgrade and get to work in your heart. Remember; work from your place of encounter into the truth and the sense of his presence will return.
Commission – you are in process. Follow the teaching of the Spirit. Open up your heart to thinking, hearing, and seeing. Then you will understand everything. You are losing your grip on logic, reason, and rationale. You are not a cerebral believer – you are a heart person enjoying the Holy Spirit. Enjoy the journey. As you learn something, take it into the place of praise, rejoicing, and Thanksgiving. Intimacy establishes reality. Truth is best established in celebration. As you put time aside to celebrate what you are learning and becoming, then you are attracting the presence of God to you. Encounter will surely come. Move towards it!