I would like to encourage you to move forward and follow God. There is much more available to you than you can imagine. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand--that means you can reach out and take hold of it. I'm not saying that you should try to run ahead of God. I'm saying that we all need to live according to the promises of Scripture, not according to the limitations that some preacher puts on those promises. The promises of God are "yea and amen." Only believe. That's all God asks.

God has been very good to me in showing me His mind, both in Scripture and in the Creation. I was working in my basement yesterday and using a tin snips to cut a round duct. When you cut a round duct, it is a bit of a trick to get a straight cut around the duct. This duct had been cut off previously, and the old cut was very uneven. I was cutting and watching the uneven cut and trying to make the new cut straighter than the old cut. I believe that the Lord gave me some instruction on this, and a word came that said to make the new cut straight and to ignore the old cut. So, that is what I did. I was amazed at how straight I was able to make the new cut.

Here is the spiritual application. If we look at the mistakes of our past or someone else's past and try to do better, we don't have the ability to do better. Perhaps we just assure that we will make different mistakes this time. Looking at the old mistakes actually impairs the ability to walk in the Spirit. If I look at my brother's mistakes, it actually keeps me from walking in the Spirit. If I dwell on my past mistakes, I'm not listening to the direction of the Spirit. These are distractions from the enemy of our souls. The battle, at this time, seems to be for the mind. Will I submit my mind to God? Will I trust God, or will I lean on my own understanding?

As we walk, we hear God's voice through the Bible as it has been revealed to His holy prophets and apostles in this age. We immerse ourselves in the teaching that God has made available to us. We hear this teaching on Sunday mornings as every joint supplies, speaking the truth in love. And God speaks to us in very specific ways about our own lives. As prophecy comes forth in the service, we find that God speaks to the very details of our lives... but this is only true if we discern the Body of Christ. If we don't recognize Christ in our brother or sister, then we receive nothing from the Lord. We also find that we can carry that same Anointing throughout the week. He guides. He corrects. He gives light for the journey. He gives power so we can obey His voice. He actually does the works through us as we learn to obey. We find that those things that are not of Him, those things that are from our old carnal nature are just sort of falling away. They were there. Now they are not there. It's not that we are on some sort of self-improvement program, setting up a bunch of rules to follow. It is that the light of His Spirit, His holy presence, is flowing through us, cleansing us by His very presence. When light strikes darkness, there is no darkness. Flowing water has a cleansing effect. Oh Spirit of God, let Your cleansing river flow. Don't let us drift off to ignoring you, the Fountain of Living Waters. Don't let us try to store Your Living Water in cisterns, because the cisterns of our mind are broken and cannot hold the Water of God. The Manna from Heaven cannot be stored up but must be renewed constantly and perpetually. Lord, speak to us and cause us to have willing ears and willing hearts before You. (some caveats about hearing God's Voice)

When we get concerned with trying to set up a system of rules or even to adopt the Old Testament laws that are holy and just and good, we find that trying to walk by the law is impossible. When we get concerned with the shortcomings of our past, we find that this also works against our ability to walk in the Spirit. It is a trick of the enemy. When we look at the shortcomings of our brother and sister, we take our eyes off of Jesus, and we fall short once again. It becomes impossible to walk in the Spirit. We need to keep our eyes on the heavenly vision. Let's agree to keep our focus there.

I would like to quote from the Feast of Tabernacles:

WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS?

What then? Are there no limitations to the measure of power which the saints may appropriate? Yes, indeed; but they are the limitations that they themselves erect in unbelief. With God all things are possible; we know that is true. But Jesus as, "Al things are possible to him that believeth." When a certain man brought his lunatic son to Christ, and the son wallowed on the ground in torment, the father said to the Lord in anguish of soul, "If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." But Jesus turned the whole responsibility back upon the father, and said, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." (Mk. 9:22, 23). The if-thou-canst is a condition which must be directed at your faith and mine; it is not a question as to God's ability or His willingness to do the things of which we speak. But the glory of it all is this: "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." And therefore if we, in this the greatest hour of Church history, will but hear the Word of God~that is, give it a place in our heart and life, then faith will spring up, overcoming faith, faith that will enable us to take possession of our heritage in Christ Jesus.

The extent to which we might reach out in the Spirit, an the limitations of our heritage, are very clearly taught in the Word. God said to Joshua, "Every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you, as I said to Moses" (Josh 1:3). It is not a case of "How much will God give," for He has already given us "All things,"`even accounting to us a heritage with Christ "in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). Henceforth the question remains, "How much can I appropriate?" God says, "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you..." An lest there are some fearful saints, who think the measure of our heritage must be confined within certain limits, then God tells us exactly what those limitations are:

"... And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places..." (Ephesians 1:19, 20). There is the measure of the power that is available to the saints! Not the power that Moses exercised in Egypt, or at the Red Sea; not the power that Elijah had when he locked the heavens for three and a half years, and then opened them again; or when he called fire down from heaven; or opened the Jordan river that he might pass over; not the power that Elisha exercised when he caused the iron to swim, the waters to be healed, the hungry to be fed, the dead to be raised; not the power that David had over wild beasts, to slay the lion and the bear singlehanded; and not even the power that Christ exercise in His earthly ministry when He healed the sick, cast out devils, walked on the sea, called the dead back~even from corruption. But even the "working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places..." And still we could go on~for Paul continues to enlarge upon the immensity of this power which Christ has and which is ours; power and authority over all principalities an powers both, both in this world an the next, power to put all things "under his feet," even His Church, for He is the Head, and we are the Body.

(End of quote)

It is clear that God is calling us from our present state of being into a new state of being. He is calling us higher. He desires that we stop walking beneath the privilege Jesus already purchased for us on Calvary. He desires that we not only take full authority to walk in healings and miracles and divine wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, but also to walk into divine health and finally into divine life. He wants to remove all pain an to bring us into a level of being where there is no possibility that anything could hurt or harm us in any way. He wants to bring us to a state where the fruit of the Spirit is the only fruit that grows on the tree--where we can say, "the prince of this world comes but he has nothing in me." God wants to bring us to a place where it would be impossible that we could sin or be tempted into sin. The fact that this is so far from our present state of being that it seems almost silly is not a reason to deny the Word of God. He says, "You must be Holy as your Father in Heaven is holy." That is a promise.

It seems that God is asking us to keep our eyes on Jesus and to seek Him with the whole heart. We cannot afford distractions at this time. Looking at the crooked cut of the past is a distraction.

In the end, the only thing that makes any difference is the manifestation of the sons of God. The only thing that really matters is that we keep moving from glory to ever-increasing glory by the Spirit of the Lord. Our whole effort of life is to bring the body of Christ to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Every goal and task that we do is really for the end result of the redemption of our bodies, that placing as mature sons of God to rule and reign in the Kingdom of God.

Let's all commit to walk with Jesus. Let's all lay the errors, pains, impositions, neglects, deceptions, or any other crooked cuts of the past--let's lay them at the cross and leave them there. Let's seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and that will solve all the other problems.

Amen?

Topic: Growing in Christ

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