In Him - and in fellowship with one another - you yourselves also are being built up [into this structure] with the rest, to form a fixed abode (dwelling place) of God in (by, through) the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22 Amp.)
BLANCHE REYNOLDS
KINGDOM VOICE MINISTRIES
END-TIME MINISTRY
TO THE BODY OF CHRIST
INTRODUCTION
Dwelling in the Lamp Lamb. God is calling a people to dwell in the Light of Truth - to reside - be at home in the presence of God.
Our lives are unfolding daily through the things we have given ourselves to - when we choose to serve Jesus. He begins to teach us His ways. As His ways are being understood, we must change from worldly holds and powers of control.
Jesus is the Light - God's Lamb - that is the Truth, the Life, and the Way. "Therefore you are no longer outsiders - exiles, migrants and aliens, excluded from the rights of citizens; but you now share citizenship with the saints - God's own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself; and you belong to God's [own] household." (Ephesians 2:19)
Blanche Reynolds
Kingdom Voice Ministries, Inc.
DWELLING IN THE LAMP LAMB
The twelve tribes of Israel each have a name with a meaning that is an attitude or a characteristic nature that could be found in each one of us. Zebulun means "dwelling in." It means "an enclosure, being enclosed or kept in a place of growth, protection, and security, to reside, to live in the Spirit." There is a Christ-like nature in those who are "dwelling in" the things of God. This characteristic is present in those who know how to live and learn in the presence of the Lord.
Moses prophesied to Zebulun in Deuteronomy 33:19 saying, "They shall call the people unto the mountain..." This mountain is symbolic of living in the Spirit or in the high place where we see the Lord. We are going to dwell in the light. Dwelling in this light, we are going to know it is the light that makes vision possible. We are going to see the things of the Lord. If we are going to live we have to understand the principles of living.
Genesis 2:7 says, "Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life; and man became a living being." In the natural realm, we know how to live. We know how to come in out of the rain, how to get dressed in the morning, and how to pay our bills. We know how to live and we are learning how to live in the Spirit so we can dwell in that living arrangement with God.
The word living in Genesis 2:7 means:
1. To cause to rescue
2. To keep
3. To make alive
4. To be whole in God
5. To have the entire package
It means to dwell in that place, or enclosure that God has planned that is total peace, rest, truth, and perfection. To dwell in that living arrangement with God is to arrive with every detail of life, to understand, know, and to live in the Spirit. The Spirit life is living in that place where the Lord God chose for us to reside. Residing means, "being at home."
When I get home, the first thing I do is kick off my shoes so my feet can be comfortable. The next thing I do is open the refrigerator door to see if there is anything I can snack on. When I am home, I am comfortable. Being at home in the Spirit realm is coming into the presence of God and residing with Him so that we are "surely whole in Him." There is a kind of comfort and well being so you feel your life in God is becoming complete.
Most of the time in this growing process of learning how to live in the Spirit, we are viewing God through a glass darkly. (I Cor. 13:12) We get a peek here and there of the great and mighty things of God. However, we often find in the nature of our humanness, we fall right back into our old way of life. It is like the veil of flesh is dropped and we are going through frustrations, hindrances, circumstances, and trials again and again. In this last day, we are understanding truth in such a way that we are beginning to command that darkened veil of ignorance of the Word removed. When this happens, our heart, mind, and being can be stayed upon Jesus. We are living in the eternity of the eternities. We are at home and comfortable in the presence of the Lord. We are living in that place in God where the problems just cannot minister to us any more because they are not there. We are overcomers and we are coming over. The hurt, the tearing, the brokenness just does not have a place any more. We know the facts of living in the Spirit and dwelling in the presence of God.
Deuteronomy 5:26 says, "For who is there of all flesh, who has heard the voice of the Living God speaking out of the midst of fire, as we have, and lived?" They were about to be introduced to the Great and Mighty God and they had seen the awesomeness of the glory of His preparation. They had seen His deliverance and they knew the pillar of fire by night and the cloud of smoke by day. They knew when the presence of God hovered over the tent of meeting and when the voice of God spoke. There was a trembling time when man would hear God speak and yet still live. This living understanding that we are talking about is living in the completeness, the perfectness, the wholeness, and the holiness of the Lord.
The majesty and the deity of the Lord is awesome. We seem to be so far from that glory because our humanness, weaknesses, and problems often become bigger to us than our understanding of God in us. There is pain that does not go away, but meets you in the morning and is there to fight you in the night. Beloved, there is a place of living in God. Even though the circumstances are there, God is working His living arrangement in us so we are overcomers coming over. We are to be His message and His messengers, delivered to the utmost. Salvation means "deliverance."
Salvation is setting us free from the decay and corruption that belonged to the death realm. It is living a resurrected life - life that is out of death, living in the presence of God, and dwelling in Him, like a Zebulun characteristic. We are dwelling and residing in the presence of Almighty God.
Joshua 3:10 says, "Joshua said, Hereby you shall know that the Living God is among you, and that He will surely drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorities, and the Jebusites." Each of these nations has a distinct personality or characteristic in a people that is to pull you down like a veil in the flesh. It is like a problem in your being that would keep you from seeing clearly your way before the Lord.
Joshua told the children of Israel that they would know that the Living God was among them. This is a problem with the church today. They do not realize that the Living God is among them. Most of the time we handle our problems and we fight the battle. We will call several people to pray and we expect them somehow to get through the brass heavens and get a word through for us. This is an attitude in the church. Beloved, we must have a knowledge of the Living God in order to live in that supernatural glory life that is living in the eternities. Like the Melchizedek order, it is the power of an endless and indestructible life.
When there is mixture in our containment, we are not residing in that total understanding of living in the Lord. We need deliverance so we can be set free from the areas where we have been held in the bondage of captivity. When bondage is there, our living arrangement is not a restful residing place in the Lord continually, like it is suppose to be.
Our language is inadequate to express the majesty, the splendor, and the deity of the Lord God Almighty, but Beloved, this understanding must come. The power of God vestured in you and me as an heir to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is being established in the dwelling place of the King. It is to be living in the throne room, sitting down on the throne while the Lord your God makes all your enemies your footstool. Beloved, this is living in the Spirit of the Living God.
When we are dwelling in that place, here comes the battle, yet here comes the Lord. When that old sly fox, the devil comes, where are you? You are residing in the Spirit. When the devil comes you will say, "Just you again?" Beloved, this is an attitude that the church needs to have. What has the devil got in common with us who know the Living God? Remember Genesis 2:7 said that "man became a living being." We have got to learn how to live with the Lord.
We have been viewing God through all kinds of circumstances, trials, and situations. The Lord is so kind and His intent is to see that we get it right. He sent His Son, Jesus, so we might see a word picture of how to live a life out of death and in the Spirit. Every word, act, and deed was for edifying, building up, and strengthening that life force, that resurrection quality. Remember when Jesus went into the synagogue and read to them what Isaiah said in the sixty-first chapter? "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the Gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives, and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord - the year for His favor - and day of vengeance of our God..." Jesus closed the book, sat down, and said in Luke 4:21, "Today, this has been fulfilled in your presence."
By living in the Lord and fulfilling God's Word, we are the message of truth in this hour. We are "a word of life" to the world. We are living in the eternity of the eternities because God planned it so with us in mind. God's intention for us is to know, even as we are known. We are going to dwell and reside in Him so we have a nature and a resting place in God because of the knowledge of who we really are in Him.
When that old sly fox, the devil comes and tries to knock on your door to gain entrance, or tries to take your mind and time off of the things of the Lord, he will not get a foothold. When he tries to cause you not to know the "Lamp Lamb," to see the sacrifice, to see the covenant and what God has done for you, your eyes will not be dim. We are not groping around and hoping we can hang on somewhere until the end. We are going to live in the presence of the Lord - living in Him.
Psalms 69:27-28 says, "Let one [unforgiven] perverseness and iniquity accumulate upon another for them [in Your book], and let them not come into Your righteousness or be justified and acquitted by You. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and the book of life, and not be enrolled among the uncompromisingly righteous - those upright and in right standing with God." The Word is saying, let God's indignation be upon those who are rebellious, full of the gall, the poison, and the bitterness that causes death. Beloved, we must understand the commitment of Calvary and the table that was spread with the bread of the face. It was also called the bread of the presence, which is symbolic of Jesus, the bread of life. Jesus said in John 6:35, "I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never be hungry and he who believes on and cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me will never thirst any more - at any time."
We must understand the covenant so we can know what the Lord God has done in our behalf. Let us be the living book that is an epistle read by all men. God's Word must be so tended to that none of this "blotting process" can take place in our lives.
Psalms 84:12 says, "How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul yearns, yes, even pines and is homesick for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out and sing for joy to the living God." As we give ourselves to the Lord, there comes a condition in the midst of us. In our fleshly container, a desire and a hungering after the things of God comes to dwell in our being.
We need to be very conscious of the worship when we come together. We must never let what we do be considered entertainment. We must never just mouth the words. We come into the presence of God to meet with Him, to open our being to His praise, fellowship, and worship. We yearn for Him so that in resting in that living arrangement in the presence of God, our needs are met there. Unfortunately, most of the time when we come together, we are thinking about where we parked the car, if we turned off the coffee pot, or will the kids get home on time. Our mouth is singing, "Hallelujah," and in our mind we are unplugging the coffee pot or thinking someone's dress does not fit right. Our mind has been a run away renegade, but we have got to learn how to behave if we are going to live with the Lord.
You cannot live with one foot on the earth and the other foot in heaven. We are heaven people and we are bound for the glory of the completeness and the perfection of God's Word fulfilled in the midst of us. As sons, the attributes of the Living God have been birthed within us. We are a people who are the heirs of salvation, joint heirs with Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:17) In that living arrangement, our living must be attended to.
There is a song that I can hardly stand for people to sing. It says, "Just give me a cabin next door to Jesus." It just grieves my heart that people would try to sing this song and call it worship when it is so beneath the privilege of worship. Living in God is being purified, cleansed, and washed holy. Then there is no thought, action, or deed that could occupy your thinking process when you come to be joined like the Levitical priest. That is what Levi means, "to be joined together." We are to be joined together as a body of believers, which is living "in the Lord."
The Psalmist said, "my soul yearns." You need to know there is a difference between your spirit and your soul. Your soul is made up of:
1. The mind
2. The will
3. The emotions
4. The desires
Psalms 84:2 says, "My soul yearns for you Lord, even pines and is homesick for the courts of the Lord..." Beloved, that is not going to happen in you as long as the soulish realm of your flesh is being lifted up, petted, and given in to. When you are living after the desires of your wants and will, you are like a rebellious renegade. Beloved, that yearning process will not be complete when you are allowing your soulish realm to be courted. When this happens, you are being controlled by your mind, will, emotions, desires, and wants you think you have to have.
What you give yourself to, in order to get what you think you have to have, makes this natural realm seem pleasant and wonderful. What God wants us to know is He has birthed us out of this death realm to glorify and praise Him. This is how we are complete in all of His Word. As we seek after Him and yearn for Him with all of our being, we are going to be living in the presence of the Lord. We are going to yearn for the courts of the Lord and cry out as the Psalmist did when he said, "My heart and my flesh cry out and sing for joy to the living God."
When we open our mouth, we are going to worship the Lord. According to Webster's Dictionary, worship is:
1. To adore
2. To honor with extravagant love and extreme submission; as a lover
3. To perform acts of adoration
4. The act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being
5. The reference and homage paid to Him in religious exercises, consisting in adoration, confession, prayer, thanksgiving and the like.
When we worship, we are not thinking about who is standing beside us who sings better, or who sees which teeth are missing when we open our mouth to sing. We are not looking at any of those things, but we are going to worship the Lord when we come together. "To sing for the joy of the living God." To live in worship and live in magnifying the Lord. No entertainment, but living where people hear Jesus being lifted up and magnified as we come together and are knit together in the harmony of music and song.
Mark 12:24 says, "Jesus said to them, Is not this where you wander out of the way and go wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?" This is one of the things I believe is keeping us from dwelling in, or living in the spirit. This scripture tells us why we are not living in or residing in the presence of God. Jesus told them they did not "know the scriptures or the power of God." Beloved, if you are going to reside in the presence of God, you are going to have to begin to understand His power, His nature, and His very being.
There are things in us that would occupy our mind and coat over whatever whitewash the world provides. Beloved, these things must be removed because we are to reside in the presence of the Living God.
Continuing in verse twenty-five, "For when they arise from among the dead, [men] do not marry nor are [women] given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. But concerning the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, [in the passage] about the [burning] bush, how God said to him, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of [the] dead, but of [the] living! You are very wrong. Then one of the scribes came up and listened to them disputing with one another, and noticing that Jesus answered them fitly and admirable, he asked Him, Which commandment is the first and most important of all (in its nature)? Jesus answered, The first and principal one of all commands is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord..." In living and residing in the presence of the Lord, we must understand this first commandment. We have got to hear, O Israel. We have got to hear the Word of God. When we are hearing, there is not going to be a whole lot of other things going on. There will not be a lot of other noise in our vessel of "Give me this," and "I want that," and "Did you hear what they said? They don't like me any more." We are not going to be listening to those kinds of words or hearing those kinds of sounds when we are residing in the presence of the Lord. Those things will have no place in us when we are dwelling in the Spirit of the Living God and living in Him.
Jesus said in John 14:2, "I go to prepare a place for you." In that place that has been prepared, He said, "That where I am, there you may be also." We may know about it, but we have not arrived in that place where we know we are living in that glory that has been prepared. Beloved, it is coming. It is a place in the midst of you where the glory of God is so magnified because you are residing in the Living God, Who is a Living Being. We are living because He has put breath and life in us. This allows us to have a supernatural life contained in the midst of us NOW, so we may live in His eternal purpose.
Flesh and blood cannot reveal this to you. Problems in your mind such as worries and frustrations are not going to let you know this Truth. However, when your being is commanded to reside in the presence of the Lord, no moth, mildew, rust, corruption, or all those earth bound things will be in that living place God has prepared for you, here and now.
How do we live? We have to hear, O Israel. Israel means "he who contends or seeks and is tenacious, who does not give up or quit." Israel is those who continually seek after the things of God and are listening so that they might hear.
"The Lord our God is one God," the scripture tells us in Mark 12:29. He is THE Lord, the ONLY Lord. He is the God Almighty. He is the King full of Glory and Majesty. He is omnipotent and to be magnified, and He is our Lord.
As we begin to hear, we can begin to understand. Hearing and understanding belong together. As we hear and understand, it is no problem to get rid of the things that have separated us from the plan of God in our life. It is no problem to take a bath in the Spirit and wash away the junk, in the Name of Jesus. Once we have heard and understood, it is no problem as we move in our inheritance by dwelling and residing in the presence of the Lord. The place is already prepared.
Jesus is the word picture that walked out this dwelling in the presence of God. Jesus was "the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us," so that we, like Him, might cause this flesh man in us to become the Word. We are going to be like Him.
We have been contained in the iniquity of our generation man. We have had all the personality weaknesses and strengths of our namesake. However, when we met Jesus Christ, the breath of the Holy Spirit of the Living God, came into our being. We then began to understand that there is more to life in the Spirit, than the tangible sense realm of feeling has given unto us. As good as it has been to contain us in this natural realm, Beloved, we begin to realize there is morel We have been born again by the Spirit, a supernatural being to live in the presence of God. The moment resurrection took place in your life and mine, we were born a kingdom seed to live in the very presence of the Living God.
We cannot live in the presence of God until we meet His conditions, and Jesus gave us that key. He said, "You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God." This is why so much of the psychic phenomena goes on in the church. This is why so many people are full of problems and hurt. They come into the church sick, and they go home sick. The Lord is saying to us, "We have got to learn how to live in the Spirit so we can hear, understand, and receive." We are not sitting still, we are not trying to hold on until the end, and we are not going to have a cabin somewhere in glory land. We are going to live in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the head and we are the body.
Continuing in Mark 12:30, "And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart, and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind - [that is] with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding - and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment."
We have just spoken of having the breath of the Living God in us. This is a process that is making us whole. With our whole being we are going to love the Lord. That does not mean coming into the meeting and being double minded in our praise and worship. This has got to stop. Because of this very reason, people leave wounded and hurt, just like they came. Our mind has been on so many other things besides the things of the Lord. Instead our mind should be saying, "Here I am Lord. I have come to praise You." We must be wholly given unto the Lord, A SURE HOUSE.
When a man builds a house, it must have a firm foundation, so the wind will not blow it down. However, with all of man's capability and what he can accomplish, it is not even minutely compared to the majesty and splendor of the plan of God for our life!
You cannot love the Lord with a double mind. You cannot love the Lord and be full of worry, stress, and anxiety. When you come to praise the Lord, you come to worship Him in Spirit and Truth, like the Word says in John 4:24. When we come together, we may not sing all the right notes, but we are praising the Lord. Our conscious and subconscious being can come into the fact of dwelling in the Spirit of the Lord.
Continuing in verse thirty-one, "The second (commandment) is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Beloved, if you cannot do the first commandment, you surely cannot do the second commandment. We mouth a lot of words and we are quick to say, "I love you." We do not really mean it, because we have not been able to do the first commandment yet.
I am waiting to see a time like I have experienced in years gone by, when the people praise the Lord and the glory cloud comes in. When this happens, God moves supernaturally because we get out of His way. Knowing the scriptures and the power of God are conditions that must be met before we are able to live in the Spirit and dwell in the presence of God.
Luke 20:38 says, "Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for, to Him, all men are alive [whether in the body or out of it]; and they are alive [not dead] unto Him [in definite relationship to Him]." Please understand this. The God we serve is not the God of the dead, but He is the God of the living. This makes me want to say something I have said before. You have got to stop your stinkin' thinkin'. You have got to stop living to die. You have got to stop thinking in that realm of corruption and begin to think in the life realm where you are living and expecting God. It is in that place that you are expecting God's glory and expecting Him to move in your behalf. When you look at the natural, you can do nothing, but glory to God, we have the quality of the supernatural. In the Spirit, our God can do anything. In the Spirit, we are born to be contained in Him, and Him in us.
Once you belong to Him, Romans 8:35-39 says, "Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or persecution, or hunger, or destitution, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long, we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us. For I am persuaded beyond doubt - am sure - that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, not depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Living and dwelling in the Spirit, we are living in Him because we are alive in Christ Jesus.
Continuing in Luke 20:39, "And some of the scribes replied, Teacher, you have spoken well and expertly - so that there is no room for blame. For they did not dare to question Him more." When we do not know the Word, we are going to live in doubt and unbelief. Doubt and unbelief are two of the tools that satan uses so successfully against the believer. Doubt and unbelief cause faithlessness which causes the curses of Deuteronomy twenty-eight to be in effect in our life. When we are absent from our understanding of who we are "in Christ Jesus," the enemy comes in like a flood. His intent is to keep us ignorant. When we are full of doubt and unbelief, not knowing who we are in Christ Jesus, that is when the enemy can make us like wanderers, vagabonds, and sojourners in the land. Satan's goal is to uproot us and to try to destroy us.
Beloved, we are a people who have been born to live forever. We are living in this moment because the Lord intended it that way. We are going to keep awake and alive with the Word. The intent of God is that we live in Him and have our being filled with the breath of eternal life.
Understanding the covenant is to know the Lamb Light, Jesus Christ who died, that we might live. According to Revelation 1:5, Jesus is the first born of the dead. In receiving Him, we have been born out of death into life. We have been born to live forever. In that living arrangement, we are residing in the dwelling place of the Lord. We are flinging away those things that keep us controlled in doubt and unbelief. It is because of these things that the sleep of death has such control in the human containment. In the Name of Jesus, salvation and deliverance changes it all. We have a definite relationship in the realm of life.
In John 6:47-48, Jesus says, "I assure you, I most solemnly tell you, he who believes in Me - who adheres to, trusts in, relies on and has faith in Me - has (now possesses) eternal life. I am the Bread of life - that gives life, the Living Bread." Jesus, being the Word made flesh, was a sign of the covenant of bread in the tabernacle. The bread in the tabernacle was baked fresh every Sabbath. There is no decaying process or death in the dwelling place of God, but only the Bread of Life, or the Bread of the face.
In I Samuel 21, David came with all his men to Ahimelech, the priest and said, "Please, do you have any thing for us to eat?" The priest said, "All we have is the bread of the presence, the bread of the shew bread table." David knew there were twelve loaves laying there. All he asked for was five because he was a shadow and type of Jesus Christ, the Word which was to come. Five is also symbolic of the five-fold ministry. Ahimelech told David his men could have the bread, "If your men have kept themselves from women," (or from satisfying the delights of the flesh).
Beloved, there is a sacrifice, a commitment, a place of purifying, and praise and worship unto the Lord with our very being. This is a place where God would speak to us so we could understand that Jesus is the Bread of Life. We cannot eat any other kind of spiritual nourishment and expect the glory of life to be revealed. You cannot come into a service and eat what is put before you if it builds up somebody's personality and self. You cannot eat the doubt and unbelief or the things of man's creeds and doctrines. Beloved, it is time for the church of Jesus Christ to eat, believe, trust, and know the Word. The church must know what the Word of God says and what their inheritance and privilege as the sons of God is now. God has bequeathed unto us the Bread of Heaven - His Name is Jesus. He is the Bread of Life and He alone gives life.
Most of the time, the church views God out of the eyes of death. They expect the worst. They turn to people instead of trusting the Lord in their situation. They worship God with their back to the altar. The Lord is saying in our day, "Where are My people who have come out from among them? Where are My people who are peculiar to the natural realm and are living in the glory of the Bread of Life?"
John 6:49 says, "Your forefathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and [yet] they died." Beloved, there is a dying plate being served in the church today. They call it manna, but all it brings forth is a wilderness experience.
Continuing in verse fifty, "[But] this is the Bread that comes down from heaven, so that (any) one may eat of it and never die." We are talking in the Spirit here. Jesus said in verse fifty-one, "I [Myself] am this Living Bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever..." We are living now. This is whole living, w-h-o-l-e and h-o-l-y living. Living in the presence of the Lord. The verse continues, "the Bread that I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh (body)." It was not given unto them to understand, by the Spirit, what Jesus meant by this. Beloved, you cannot view the Word of God outside of the revelation of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth. The Word of God is being revealed in a supernatural way in this great and mighty day we live in.
John 6:63 says, "It is the Spirit that gives life - He is the Life-giver; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever there is no profit in it." No matter how much our flesh is petted or exalted, or how sensational the person is who stands before the people, there is no profit in this old flesh. This flesh is scheduled to be done away with. What is happening? As the forerunners of this last day, you and I, like a foot company, are bringing the body in. We are the generation that all the prophets longed to look into. We are this last day generation of eternal life people. We have been given the understanding to overcome the flesh and to live in holiness by residing in the presence of God and living in the Spirit.
Romans 8:2 says, "The law of the spirit of life has freed us from the law of sin and death." By the natural, we are bound to that law of life, the tangible sense realm. By the Spirit, we are set free from the law of sin and death. I Corinthians 15:26 says "Death is the last enemy to go." We just read in Mark 12:27 that God is the Lord of Life. We are given unto Him and in Him there is no death. He is the sum total of life and we are living forever in Him. By the Spirit, we can begin to understand this. There is a transfiguration process that rents the veil of the flesh. I believe that time will come for each one of us when we get the Word right in our heart and understand what God is saying. It will be like taking off our dress and putting on our "jamies" at night. We just shuck this old human container because it is cramping our style.
When we are living in the presence of God, His Word sets us free. God's intention was for us not to be bound in the death realm where the demonic forces have had their sway. Our bloodline has been contaminated by the sin principle of ancestors who have "sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." However, we have been given the privilege of living in the Spirit, so the death realm no longer has dominion over us. We have the authority, dominion, and right to judge ourselves. Jesus said, "The whole matter of judgement has been given unto Me." What are we doing as we take on His image? As we see His likeness and seek to become like Him, how are we doing it? We are judging ourselves by the pattern of Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh. We are judging ourselves by the Spirit of the Living God. The Spirit of Truth is revealing, edifying, and strengthening us in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Oh, that our heart and mind could receive the privilege of our inheritance. This dwelling in of Zebulun is a nature and an inheritance of residing in the presence of God. It is coming to the mountain and knowing what it is to climb to the top so we can enter into that place God has prepared for us. Line upon line and precept upon precept, it is God's Word hidden in our heart and mind. Oh, that we might not sin against the Lord, but that His Word would be "a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path." His Word is given so we might understand and only eat what He has prepared as nourishment for our body. It is given so we might know this last day Savior and Deliverer, and truly live in the Kingdom of the Living God.
What God has prepared for us, will surely come to pass. We have been viewing our living through a cloud. Like the close of the day, we have been looking through the shadows. We have not understood what it means to be made alive and to have the privileges of being an heir of the Father.
II Timothy 3:1 says "But understand this, that in the last days there will set in perilous times of great stress and trouble - hard to deal with and hard to bear." Beloved, if this is going on in your life, you are normal. This is going to happen, but the question is what is happening in us? It is not going to move us, if we know the Lord has given victory over this death realm. There is a great darkness scheduled for this earth. Do you know what that darkness is going to do? It is going to illuminate the light in you and me so the world will be drawn to Jesus. In the blackest black, the tiniest light can be seen clearly. What is happening as all this darkness is being revealed? A light company, the Lamp Lamb is coming forth.
We are like a letter from Jesus to the world. We heard the call, "Hear, O Israel," and we have understood. The Word of God is revealed through this light company living in the midst of perilous times of great stress and trouble. There are so many people in the church worrying about Post-Trib, Pre-Trib, and getting out of the Tribulation. People want to be caught up so this old flesh does not get bruised or hurt. They have not understood the principle of light in the midst of darkness. The darker it gets, the brighter the light. The Lord is revealing Himself unto a people who will stand in this last day under every kind of conflict and win the victories. Yes, the church will be wrestling, but we will be winning!
Continuing in II Timothy 3:2, "For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered..." Being self-centered is like pulling the shade down on your window. You cannot see anything because you only want what self can feed on and be gratified in. The people will be "lovers of money," and we see this continually. So many people are being hurt and bruised because men love money more than they love God. This is a hard word, but we have got to recognize this.
The Word says the people will be "aroused by an inordinate (greedy) desire for wealth..." Praise God these things are being revealed so those brothers have a chance to get it right. When you see these things exposed in ministries, know that this is God's mercy to that man. To let him see what he is doing so he can repent and get it right before the Lord, is God's intent. We are not to condemn him, but to pray that he will come to repentance. God lets this bloom and boil out of him so he can dump that cup of greed and selfishness and get rid of that junk in his life.
In these last days the people will be "proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters." Out of those flesh pots, many have been deceived. Man has wished and longed for his own desires, rather than God's desires. They have asked for "things," rather than asking for more of Jesus. We have prayed selfish, greedy, scared prayers, and this must change. The mixture is spilling out of us. Praise God, that is God's mercy intact in our life.
"They will be abusive..." There are more hurting people outside the church than inside, or vice versa. They have come out because they have been hurt so badly. The people are hearing abusive words. They are being cut down and lied to, by so called prophecies from false prophets who have spoken. These spoken words have taken the people out of the Word of God because they are trying to get a confirmation and have their personal prophecy worked out. What is this doing to the church? It is making dwarf Christians who are stunted in their growth. They are having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.
Beloved, if the Word of God is not hid in your heart, you are not going to be able to stand in this last day. We have to know who we are and understand this living arrangement. We are living in the Spirit and dwelling in the Lord. God made us to be a living being. We were designed to live in the presence of the Lord.
Sometimes as parents, we have spoken abusive words to our children. We have said, "You dummy, can't you understand?" We have said, "You know you will never amount to anything." We have even said this to ourselves because it was said to us. We have hurt and we have been hurt.
We are a people who are getting honest before the Lord. We are looking into the containment of our being. We are finding every area that is hidden, and covered over by the whitewash of our lack of knowledge of who we are in Christ Jesus. The mind has heard so many hurting words that subconsciously we have laid them down. When a problem comes however, we are hurt and bruised by it because we are looking through the bruise, trying to get to the Lord. The bruise is operating in the realm of our feelings. Our feelings have been so hurt that when we are abused, we cry and pet that part of the flesh and the self-pity spirit comes in. He has a lot of little brothers and sisters like, timidity, shyness, insecurity, and selfishness. There are all kinds of things that begin to surface when we get to the place where we are honest before the Lord.
I was raised in an orphanage part of my life. I wanted to be loved because that is an instinct within our humanness. I needed a "mama" so badly. I experienced such abusive, hurting words. Every time I tried to accept real love from someone that cared or wanted to be my friend, I did not know how to handle the love. In my rejection, I held on too tight. I wanted all their time and I wanted them to be committed to our friendship. I would not loose them to have all the friends they wanted. The rejection caused me to have a warped understanding of the reality of real love. I did not know how to love, so how could I understand what real love was all about? Real love, just like God's love, is unconditional.
Being abused is like a bruise in the flesh. A bruise changes the flow of blood, but it does not break the skin. We have the identity of the bruise of the natural man. Every one of us have been bruised, hurt, and wounded in life. "Mamas" and "daddies" have hurt us. Mine gave us away because they thought they could not raise us. They did not understand or know the need for love from the parents that is so special and so important to children. That need is more important than food in their mouth sometimes. It is a process of shaping, molding, and balancing that special little life. When this process is accomplished, in time to come, it will not be destroyed in battles that come against the flesh.
Children in the classroom that have a good living arrangement, with both parents, are smart and learn quickly. Their eyes are open and they do not have all the frustrations, the intimidations, or feelings of not belonging or hoping they can make it. They do not have that kind of understanding, because they have been set free in their emotions. Unfortunately, this is not the norm any more. There are too many people who are hurting because of this having happened in their life.
Abusiveness must be dealt with in our vessel. In the authority of the Name of Jesus Christ, we have the right to break the curses - the things that have kept us in bondage and separated us from who we are in Christ Jesus, and the knowledge of His precious love.
We are going to break every curse that has caused us to be self-centered, lovers of money, disobedient, rebellious and ungrateful people. Curses that have caused inordinate desires, pride, abusiveness, and blasphemy. We are going to break the curses of profanity that have been spoken against us. We are going into battle. This is a holy time of residing in the presence of the Lord. Jesus said, "In My Name, you will cast out devils." We have been under demonic attack. We have come to the point where we must understand that, as living resurrection people, we have the authority to be set free.
Pray this prayer with me: Lord Jesus, I surrender. I ask you to be in me all you want me to be. I ask you to teach me and reveal to me every area in my life that does not line up with Your Word. Now Lord Jesus, I take the authority of Your Name You have given me. I break every curse for ten generations on both sides of my family line. I command all witchcraft, deception, legalisms that belong in satan's kingdom, canceled. I command you to loose me, in the Name of Jesus. I break every curse of blasphemy that said I was not any good, I would never make it, I was dumb, I could not remember, or I was fat or lazy. I break those curses off of me, right now in Jesus' Name. Every word that defamed my character, I cancel it, in the Mighty Name of Jesus. (Now take a deep breath and begin to deal with it.) I call it out, in Jesus' Name, and I command it to loose me. (You are the priest in your tabernacle. You say what goes on in your vessel.)
In the Name of Jesus, I command all the hurt and wound to loose me. (If you have to cry or holler, do whatever it takes to push it out.) I command every bit of the hurt to come out by the roots. Every word that made me feel less than what I needed to be, I command it to loose me in Jesus' Name. All the rejections, the heartbreak, and the spirit of shame, I command it to loose me. The spirit of distress, being torn apart, sadness, guilt, and the self sacrificing spirit of self-pity, I command you to go, in Jesus' Name. I break all the hurt and wound of people's words. I break the curse of every man or woman's words that said I am less of a man or woman. I call it out. I call out the spirit of self-pity that does not let me be real, in Jesus' Name. I come against selfishness, bitterness, and resentment, in the Name of Jesus. I go back again, ten generations on both sides of my family, and I command bitterness, resentment, hatred, anger, frustration, strife, and premature death to loose me, in the Mighty Name of Jesus. (Arthritis is one of the ways of attack in this area. It comes from bitterness and resentment in the generation man.)
This is dealing with the spirits and commanding them to go. Every deliverance is not the same and it is not a one-time thing. Deliverance needs to take place many times. We must get honest before the Lord, command our being to His attention, and deal with the things that have to loose us, in Jesus' Name.
Father, take every area I have emptied and fill it with the Holy Spirit that I might begin to live in Your presence daily, in Jesus' Name. Amen.