Because of Me

“And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I'll be there."

Why is it such a brain freeze to think apart from continued revelation (remember Jesus said, “Upon this revelation I will build my church”), that it is pretty much a sure thing that any new expression of getting, meeting together as believers will somehow still strongly resemble the only template we have ever known, or got to know?

What is the “church” the called out ones, called out from anyway if its not the reality of being transferred out of this religious world’s direct influence and according to our brother Paul, “[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”

I believe that from the very beginning, there has always been in one form or another a true expression of what it means to BE the church, but, because the over riding distorted influence of the spirit of this age then and now, every time a glimpse of His reality defining us as His church was evident, it came under great opposition.

I see the Father using all things including this anti-Christ spirit of religion to bring forth in a tangible living way, His glorious church.
All and any nuances, variations from the religious matrix are being used of the Father to generate a absolute loathing of trying to mix law with grace, and until the appointed time of the Father, we are put under tutors and governors. He already knows those who will come to themselves, as did the prodigal sons, at least one of them did.

Rich

I love what Austin Sparks has to say on this matter.

"... that I might preach him." Everything hangs on that. "It pleased God... to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him," or proclaim Him; underline the last word "Him," that goes to the heart of everything, that interrogates everything, that weighs up the value of everything, Him! Since Paul's day so very much of Christian activity has been the furthering of a movement, the propagating of a teaching, the furthering of the interests of an institution. It is not a movement, nor to establish a movement in the earth and to get followers, adherents, members, support. It is not an institution, even though we might call that institution the Church.

The Church has no existence in the thought of God apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it is judged according to the measure in which Christ the Son of God's love is in evidence by its existence. It is not a testimony, if by that you mean a specific form of teaching, a systematized doctrine. No, it is not a testimony. Let us be careful what we mean when we speak about "the testimony". We may have in our minds some arrangement of truth, and that truth couched in certain phraseology, form of words, and thus speak about "the testimony"; it is not the testimony in that sense. It is not a denomination, and it is not an "undenomination," and it is not an "interdenomination". It is not Christianity. It is not "the work" - oh, we are always talking about "the work": "How is the work getting on?" - we are giving ourselves to the work, we are interested in the work, we are out in the work. It is not a mission. It is Christ. "... that I might preach HIM."

If that had remained central and pre-eminent all these horrible disintegrating jealousies would never have had a chance. All the wretched mess that exists in the organization of Christianity today would never have come about. It is because something specific in itself, either a movement, a mission, a teaching, a testimony, a fellowship, has taken the place of Christ. People have gone out to further THAT, to project THAT, to establish THAT. It would not be confessed, nevertheless it is true, that today it is not so much Christ as our work. It is true! Now beloved, an inward revelation is the cure of all that, and all that - am I saying too hard a thing, too sweeping a thing? - the existence of all that represents the absence of an adequate inward revelation of Christ.

If Christ the Son of God's love is central and supreme in the heart of the believer so much else goes down, it must go down. Dividing things will go, insofar as they are things which are not controversies with the Lord. Controversies with God will divide, but those artificial things, those things resultant from man's activity and his projecting of himself, insinuating of himself into the interests of God, those things cannot abide where there is an adequate inward revelation of the Lord Jesus; they cannot be. These two things are before us: one, because of the revelation of Jesus Christ in our heart we have a passion for Him; on the other hand, because of the absence of a sufficient revelation of Christ in our hearts we are out for other things which we would say were in His interests, and for Him, but which can never, never satisfy God's heart. It is the satisfaction of the heart of the Father which is in view.

Life - or a System?

What is it that brings definition into our lives as sons of God? Is it a religious system or is it Life - His life in us, as us, as our only life? Remember, we are “in the world but not of it.”

Within and throughout the worldly systems and institutions, there are living sons (seeds), that God has fathered by His word alone. Whatever the institution of this world: automotive, educational, nursing, law enforcement, food processing, drug testing, religious, etc. etc., God the Father has secretly invaded them all by birthing many sons after the glorious image and likeness of His only begotten son, Christ Jesus.

After listening to a recent podcast by a brother about the origin of the “church,” I could readily see how his definitions muddied up the already blurred and out of focus picture of the Church, which is His body on earth. As far as I know the “government” of His church which IS His body, is still resting upon His shoulders alone and not upon some man-made criteria. I’ve often wondered why so many who are moving away from one form or another of the religious establishments, end up once again imbibing in the residing matrix of religion within them by simply creating through the energy of fleshly wisdom the same old thing, only painted up and marketed in a different format! This can take many forms – one of them being a ‘home church’. After a while, the same old hierarchies emerge. They’re only given different titles. Can anybody smell the stink rising from the diabolical sweating of man’s flesh?

Many moving away from the “institutional” establishments are eager to try and clone a facsimile of the first century church as being the most perfect template there ever was. Why? Why is it necessary to clone anything? Isn’t He, Jesus, the one who dared to say, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” fully able to define what and where the church is supposed to look like according to His infinite direction and wisdom?

I realize that in the book of Acts it says, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved,” but it is important to understand that in my opinion the church that was in its beginnings was a far cry from what it was about to become. For example, consider Saul of Tarsus: “Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” Consequently there was a great dispersion that unfolded scattering the early believers in every direction. It is my opinion that until (Saul), Paul showed up on the scene, at best what was happening in Jerusalem, what many call ‘the early church’, was nothing more than a “Jewish Boy’s Club”!

What the Father did in birthing His life into lifeless humans, transforming them into His sons, was not the product of a new and improved hybrid version of Judaism! Even at this time before the scattering of believers occurred, being a “Christian” was shrouded, veiled, and cloaked in the grave clothes of religious Judaism. It was the Holy Spirit who revealed this to Paul, giving him a living blueprint of who and what the church was, and what it was going to be. The “Church” as an entity as well as the modern day definition of “Christian” has been so badly disfigured by the earthly, natural, demonic logic of those who do not have eyes to see or ears to hear what the Spirit is doing in the hearts of His body, which is the Church.

Father continue to give us, your Church, a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the “true knowledge” of your Son. Open the eyes of our heart to see, let us be flooded with the light and glorious true knowledge of Whose we are.

Rich

New Wine

"When a person sews a patch over a hole on an old coat, he never uses a piece of cloth that is not yet shrunk. If he does, the patch will {shrink and} pull away from the coat. Then the hole will be worse. Also, people never pour new wine into old wine bags. Why? Because the old bags will break. The wine will spill, and the wine bags will be ruined. But people always pour new wine into new wine bags. Then the wine and the wine bags will continue to be good." (ERV)

None of us likes to give up something familiar or comfortable. This is even truer when this "something" has been the controlling point for our view of reality, morality, and religion. So we have a tendency to plug in something we like in a new experience or religion into our old religious context and make it fit. Jesus' point here is that what he brings cannot be made to fit in the old order and old forms of religion with which they were familiar. No, to do that would be destructive to both the old and the new. What Jesus brings is new, fresh, and transformational. It will rip apart anything that tries to force it into another way of doing, perceiving and experiencing. The Kingdom Family is God's way of doing life, not just another religion to be thrown into the world mix of faiths.

I’m convinced that so much of the intense consternation unsettling so many that are being awakened to the taste and reality of this new wine, Christ in you the hope of glory, is because of what is shared in the above thoughts!
It describes (and without revelation this to is but mere words) this One who has invaded our lives as such; “For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.”

This Prince of Peace (Heaven) has not come into the believers life to bring peace, but a sword, and that sword, His word, is in direct opposition to anything that tries to make Him fit in as an add-on to what they all ready know!
Without the inner transformation, the renewing of the mind the reality of Whose we are will be nothing more than intellectual titillation.

Rich

In The Beginning Was The Concept

It appears to me that so many because of an ingrained residual fear, are trying to warm up to God being their Father more as a platonic conceptual mental dance than being willing to embrace what is theirs freely given by revelation.

Rich

Disguised

According to Paul formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, “he saw his life being consistent with the Law and found blameless,” until his life was derailed in a head on collision with the resurrected and glorified Christ, the embodiment and fulfillment of the LAW!

If it took this head on collision to bring Saul/Paul to a beginning place of humbly acknowledging his total ignorance of this one who was addressing, confronting him, how is it that we apart from some kind of real catharsis, crisis, and possibly many more crises, is it possible for any of us to experience the living reality of Christ in us as us?

It so often appears to me that for many, it’s simply a choosing, a decision they make to leave the “church” life they have been a part of for however long, a lot like a New Year’s resolution or something. As if its simply turning over a new leaf in coming into a proper alignment to God our Father without having to experience the explosive reality of Him in us as us, colliding with all of the religious shit that has defined us apart from Himself. As if this new phase is nothing more than simply adding grace (as an add-on) to our new walk with the Father.

I am seeing and have been seeing for some time now with the reality of Him making Himself known to his sons that there is a major cataclysm set into motion as a result of this encounter of the most holy kind, turning our religious and orderly world amuck.
Without the God and Father of all grace making Himself known to us in this agonizing time of upheaval, we are ripe for that which appears to be disguised as ‘grace’ nothing more than tips and techniques.

I like what Steve McVey said when questioned about his dramatic and unsettling encounter with the Lord as to whether this was a “second’ work of grace in his life. He replied, I have no idea about that, but it seems it has much more to do with the initial work of grace that apprehended me that I knew nothing of in its fullness.

Rich

Why are we Imprisoned?

“I pray and ask you to join with me that He would open to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”

Are we the prisoners of circumstances and situations, or are we His whether we live or die? Are we anything like our brother Paul in how he described himself as an, “ambassador in chains?”

For most of us our geographical surroundings may not be as Paul’s’ often were, incarcerated behind bars, but there are more than one type of bars and for that matter many different kinds of prisons as well.

I ask you, where did Paul want to portray the mystery of the gospel, Christ in you the hope of glory, if it wasn’t right there where he WAS in front of or behind the bars?
Doesn’t it begin pretty much in our own back yard versus the supposed “calling” on my life to some proverbial “mission field?”

It takes what it takes to bring each of us to see from our true placement In Christ seated far above all powers and principalities in Christ at the Father’s right hand that anything that was used in having us sold or sent into some form of imprisonment was the Father sending us. Also we begin to see that which was purposed for evil, spelling our hurt and demise was the Father using it all for our good!

Why is it that we fail to see that He is fully able to make me and you a “witness” unto Himself right where we are at?
Set a barn, house on fire and men will come from miles around to witness such a site!
Is His life in us as us provoking folks unto such a craving, longing, thirst for what is real now and forever? Or are we more concerned about my/our own comfort?

Folks there is NO spiritual “kink” in the hose when it comes to our Father ruling and reigning and in charge of everything that ‘appears’ to be so out of control.
We are we where we are, for one purpose, that we might discover what we so easily, glibly mouth, “He loves me” to experience the resurrected One in us as us, to be embraced by this insanely loving Father, to drink in deeper than anything we have ever known, much like a dusty dry sponge.

In becoming saturated in and with the greatness of His love for us, we become a living oasis in a barren and arid wilderness, and by word of mouth faster than a speeding bullet, the good news leaks out for all who thirst and want Him!

Rich

Untold Wonder

Imagine with me if you will, you have been somehow magically transported to the very top of a mountain you didn’t even know it existed until this very moment, and you’re standing where no human has yet to stand, if ever set foot on before now.
Your guide is somewhat of a mystery in that you can’t with your senses seem to detect their actual presence, and yet that somehow seems totally irrelevant to this dizzying and intoxicating panoramic breathtaking view.

Your movement seems to be more of a floating than the movement of appendages, you are being brought ever so slowly through what appears to be a thick misty like curtain that is drawing back as in welcoming your very presence, as if this had all been planed just for you. Suddenly before your very eyes a sight so amazing, you’re enveloped within the dancing colours that resemble an aurora borealis; you dare not breathe, lest you cause this moment to dissipate into thin air.
What is this, you say to your self, only to distinctly hear from your rather translucent guide, this is bit one of so many untold wonders I see, and yet until this moment apart from you, no person even knows of its existence.

Maybe it was the extremely thin air at this elevation that seemed to make this group of flowers I was beholding appear to be more than just flowers, and somehow quicker than that thought came, it shot away from my mind like an Olympian thrown javelin.
Once again I heard the voice of my guide, what you are privy to is but one example of that which I and I alone know of, the untold beauty such as this, and yet this pales in comparison to an inner glory, wonder and rapturous splendor in some of the ones I am so fond of scattered through the hellish sink holes of this world you live in.
Apart from their captors, I alone see, drink in the awe of their delight in me as they slowly waste away with inhuman cruelty being their daily portioned ration of contempt.
There is no way the world will ever see this on the news, it will not be on Face Book, or My Space, or Twitted about on cell phones, and yet I tell you they are clothed in an inner finery that Solomon could only dream of.
As you go back and awake in the morning remember and believe what you have observed, encourage those you are yet manacled to lies they were born with, that I see them and I long to open their eyes to see the unspeakable pleasure I have IN them!

Could this have simply been nothing more than a wild and fanciful dream I mutter to myself as I yawn and stretch waking slowly to the early morning rays of the sun dancing on my bed? As I step down onto the floor heading toward the bathroom, somewhere from deep within, I sense an overflowing pleasure that seems to be directed toward me that I have never known, and mysterious as it all seems, I know this is but the first steps of freely giving it away to names and faces of people that seem to be flooding my mind. As I look longingly into my mirror, I see what I have been given is so far beyond having the golden touch; I have been given the very words of life!

Rich

What is Real

In light of some recent thoughts I have posted on both of my blogs, I want to put a link to Alex blog especially this piece he put up recently, it is well worth the read.
Reality Strikes, read it here.

Rich

The Cross and the Way of Life

Why is it that there are so few that can identify with what is happening in the lives of so many of our siblings that are going through such utter desolation?
Maybe it’s because they have never experienced having been in His crucible themselves. Like Joseph, there are those He has sent ahead for this (His) purpose. “God did send me before you to preserve life” (Gen. 45:5).

Rich

What rich encouragement these words are to me from Austin Sparks.

And that leads us to the peculiar cost and deep way by which such a function is fulfilled; for in type there were few in the Old Testament dispensation who knew more deeply the meaning of the Cross than did Joseph. Yes, the Cross was planted very deeply in his life. He suffered in a measure all that the Lord Jesus suffered later: the suspicion of his own brethren after the flesh, the prejudice, the ostracism, the hatred, the malice, the jealousy and the murder. Joseph went through it all, cast off among the dead, lowered into the pit as one slain, put into the dungeon and left by men, forsaken, cast out. And it says, “His soul entered into the iron” (Psa. 105:18). Poor Joseph! And he did not know what it was all for. He did not know what was coming. He did not know of the glories that should follow. He went through it in utter loneliness and if the Cross means one thing more than another, that is where we feel it most, the utter desolation of soul where no one can go with us in understanding.
Yes, there was peculiar cost in suffering, in experience, bound up with this function. We can say that others do not go that way; even others of the Lord’s people do not go that way. It is for this particular kind of instrument. It goes by a particular kind of way and it has so much that a multitude of Christians know nothing about. Their Christian life is more like a playground than a winepress.
Yes, Joseph knew the Cross deeply and terribly. Disliked, suspected, cast out, hated, killed, made to suffer immediately by them of his own family, and made to suffer resultantly at the hands of the world. You get the interpretation. I need not say more.
You can read the whole article this was taken from here.

The Grace of Wrath

Consider the following phrase: “having a form of godliness, but having no power”. What does that mean to you? Could ‘having a form of godliness’ have anything to do with the anti-Christ spirit which seeks to transform a person into something resembling a well mannered, domesticated house pet?

I can personally attest to the toxic corruption of religion and its influence being used to keep me tightly bound up while giving the illusion of being free. To clarify: as believers are being unplugged from the matrix of religion, anything which to any degree has established within them a false identity is going to be targeted by the Father of their spirit. It has nothing to do with them “processing” anything as much as it is Jesus Christ in them as them, He being their only life, processing them. In being “birthed” of the Father (not created like Adam and Eve), they received an indestructible life, the very life and nature of the Father. This unshakable life is designed to shake everything that can and will be shaken.

I love the following line spoken by Morpheus in the movie The Matrix: “Welcome to the real world, Neo”. Prior to being disconnected from the Matrix, Neo like everyone else had been living (if you could call it living) in a dream world. Similarly, as our loving Father begins to extricate us from the lies of the religious leaven we have consumed, which established our so-called “Christian” identity, we are going to feel much like someone coming off prolonged drug or alcohol addiction… only worse.

This is one of the reasons the beginning steps into freedom from the bonds of religion are so precariously fearful. As we are being set free from all life-support props that previously made us look and feel good, once again we begin to hanker after going back, even though we know how harmful this could be for any further maturation. No one likes the stigma attached to or associated with living outside of the religious camps. I like how a friend of ours has described this season of the journey as “living in the leper colony.” What we do not see or know yet with any sobriety or clarity is that we are in fact being stripped of anything that motivates us at an unconscious level to “boast in our fleshly ability.” For those who say that they have escaped this process, cool. But hear me: He has a specific and unique arrangement set up just for you as well. He’s so good at what He does!

I want to end my thoughts by including this quote from my dear brother Oz Chambers:

“Unless we get hurt right out of every deception about ourselves, the word of God is not having its way with us. The word of God hurts as no sin can ever hurt, because sin blunts feeling. The question of the Lord intensifies feeling, until to be hurt by Jesus is the most exquisite hurt conceivable. It hurts not only in the natural way but in the profound personal way. The word of the Lord pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, there is no deception left. There is no possibility of being sentimental with the Lord's question; you cannot say nice things when the Lord speaks directly to you, the hurt is too terrific. It is such a hurt that it stings every other concern out of account. There never can be any mistake about the hurt of the Lord's word when it comes to His child; but the point of the hurt is the great point of revelation."

"Have you ever felt the pain, inflicted by the Lord, at the very center of your being, deep down in the most sensitive area of your life? The devil never inflicts pain there, and neither can sin nor human emotions. Nothing can cut through to that part of our being but the Word of God.”

Rich