Author Profile
JoAnn McFatter
JoAnn McFatter is currently traveling nationally and internationally as a worship leader and/or speaker. Her ministry, Inside-Eternity, is partnering with WhiteDove Ministries, based in Foley, Alabama.
While facilitating the shift from the mind of man to the mind of Christ in word and song, she carries a twofold passion. First, to see the Bride abandoned body, soul and spirit to God and God alone. Second, to see revelation opened up as it pertains to spirit, science and art being woven together to bring Kingdom manifestation on the earth as it is in heaven.
Website: www.joannmcfatter.com | Email contact@joannmcfatter.com | Article Archive here |Books here
THIS PRESENT AWARENESS - JoAnn McFatter
As we carry on in the faith, holding to our belief systems and trusting God will move in and through us along the way, I would like to put things on pause for a moment. Yes, I would like you to push the pause button and just be aware of this very moment........... There it goes - it has already passed. Hit pause again and just try to be fully aware of this marked point in time in your life.........and there it goes again. Being fully aware of the moment is a challenge we don’t impose upon ourselves because we are often simply on automatic. Life is one continuous flow for us as the moments, sometimes hours go by without a trace of awareness of what we are to be experiencing in God. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year we are made in God’s image and created to function as one with Him at all times and in all situations, ever conscious of God in us, ever aware of this oneness.
“And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.” John 17:10-11
“I do not pray fro these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word: that they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one. “ John 17:20-22
There is a never ending flow in us that comes from the very essence of who He is as we accept Him as our personal Savior and live out our lives, filled with His Spirit. We are so tied into the physical aspect of who we are that it’s difficult for us to wrap our minds around the fact that we are first and foremost a spiritual being, made in God’s image, encased in this temporal physical manifestation. The fact that we live this life in a physical body throws off our perspective because it results in our having such a strong mindset toward the physical realm. But did you know that you as a physical being actually flicker in and out of time and space millions of times per second? It’s not so as you would notice because it happens so rapidly that our natural eye is unable to distinguish it.
It’s a scientific fact that our being is an energy flow that manifests in a physical way, just as does the bed you lie on, the table you sit at, the chair you sit on - everything. Newtonian Science held the belief that if you can see it, touch it, feel it - that is reality. With the discovery of Quantum Physics, the study of matter at the sub-particle level, we find that there is much more going on in the universe than we ever imagined. This world we live in is held together by God’s awareness of all things, in all of creation, at all times ! Amazing ! It’s astonishing what science is discovering that redefines our perspective of our existence. And yet, as christians, we should be excited that what is being revealed through all of these studies are all found in the Word !
“ While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
2 Cor 4:18
“And He is before all things and in Him all things consist.”
Col 1:17
Science has been discovering the mysteries of the gospel and unfolding them to us, if we have an ear to hear, especially in these last few decades. One such discovery has to do with the fact that we are energy. ( I have written of this before - you can check out articles on my website, www.joannmcfatter.com that can go into a bit more detail, with many more such writings to come. ) As energy we are much more pliable and have much more influence as a created human being than we are aware of. There is that word again.....aware,,,,,and therein lies the key. To the degree that we are aware of who we are in Christ and the dominion we are given we will be effective. How we influence our surroundings and are impacted by them is greatly impacted by our awareness of the interaction between our selves and the world around us, both physical and spiritual.
We must awaken to the fullness of who we are intended to be with a full awareness of the eternal and physical realms at the same time. One foot in each realm, as a spirit being encased in a physical body, yet not limited by it’s boundaries. God alone is our boundaries and our borders, not this physical realm. We need to live in the full awareness of this as we awaken to the position we hold in Him, both in heavenly places and on the earth. We are “ seated with Him in heavenly places” WHILE we are yet in these mortal bodies on the earth!
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep;
for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”
Rom 13:11
“Therefore he says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’” Eph 5:14
Both of these verses are in the context of coming out of a dullness of mind and spirit so that we do not fall into the complacency of the day, whether it be sin or unbelief. We can no longer afford to live the days, hours and moments on automatic, but must become aware of every present moment in our lives. All we have is this present moment. What is in the past is gone and what is in the future has not yet been, at least that is true of what goes on in our time and space realm. But in every moment we have the endless possibilities of how our lives can change, how our mentalities can shift and our awareness can become stronger and influence not only ourselves, but the world around us.
“Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Cor 5:16-17
Unfortunately, we are still buying into the old. We still believe we are ruled by the limitations set on man between the fall and resurrection of Christ ! Let it not be so any longer ! We have NO idea what an amazing creation we are in Christ and have been living our lives in the deafening dullness of what has been before - the way of the old man!
When words are released into our ear, it is nothing but vibrations that we have attached learned meaning to. Air molecules vibrate, sending a signal to the inner ear, which then sends a message to the auditory part of our brain where the message is relayed and
affects our whole being. If it is a language we don’t understand, we have no awareness of what is being spoken and our body doesn’t respond or become aware of what has been relayed. On the other hand, if it is in a language we recognize, we take in that sound with awareness and it influences us for positive or negative, depending on the message. It can cause a reaction at the cellular level as though you just took into your body a drug composed of chemicals! That’s how impacting our emotional and spiritual response to things can be on our body, on our whole being. Medicine is just now coming to grips with the reality of how body, mind and soul inter-relate. That is how God created us to interact with each other and our surroundings. That is why he urges us repeatedly in scripture to think on the good, the ‘whatsoever things are pure’. EVERYTHING we come across leaves some sort of impact. Any two particles that have ever interfaced are connected forever. Science is now learning just how ‘ one ‘ we all are in Christ, in whom all things exist !
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if
anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. “ Phil 4:7-8
To be aware every moment of every day of the positive things in ourselves and those around us could drastically change our lives. That, I believe, is why He urges us repeatedly in scripture to have a grateful heart. So that we can live in that place of abiding love. To be conscious at all times - in this present moment - of the flow of God in us so that we have a constant awareness of our oneness with Him would cause us to view circumstances around us very differently. I wonder if that is not what is behind Paul urging us to pray without ceasing. Perhaps that is why he found it so beneficial to always be praying in tongues to the point that he said ‘ I pray in tongues more than ALL of you ! ‘ It put him in a place of acute awareness of his oneness with God.
Yes, our own awareness of the goodness of God in these days will go a long way to bring us through some challenging circumstances. We will do well to be awakened to the reality of the Spirit realm and the spiritual truths in scripture that can overcome what we are both seeing and not seeing with the natural eye. In doing so, we put on the full armor of God as we wash over our minds and hearts with God’s perspective of things. Does it mean there are no troubles? Not at all, but we move through them with ‘ grace grace ‘ on our lips and with that same acute awareness at all times of the love and goodness of God that Paul had, loosing miracles to flow through him.
“So he answered and said to me: ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ”Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts. Who are you, o great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, Grace to it ‘“‘ Zech 4:6-7
It is time to shift our focus to things that hold eternal value so that we might be ones who will be able to bring healing and deliverance to the masses in this hour. We've heard over and over that the darkness will get darker and the light lighter, but we cannot presume that we will partake of this light if we have not looked into the Light as preparation. We are changed as we behold Him. We need to exercise our spirit man to release strength and clarity of mind as we ' set our thoughts on things above '.
“As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” Ps 17:15
To be ever present with Him is to be acutely aware in every moment that He is in us and we are in Him. Out of that present awareness, that place of oneness, we will see change in ourselves, as well as in the atmosphere around us. As we practice this presence, as Andrew Murray would say, we will begin to flow from His boundaries and borders, and not be limited any longer to our old mindsets. We will experience the realities of the eternal even while we are yet in this dispensation of time, reaching into the age to come and bringing it into the here and now. To accomplish this, we must awaken to this present awareness of who we are in Christ -- at all times. In this present moment that has just passed, the one that we are in at this moment, and the one that is to come. We are made in His image, the One Who was and is and is to come !
CALLED TO CHOOSE DESTINY - JoAnn McFatter
THEN THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO ME, SAYING: “ BEFORE I FORMED YOU IN THE WOMB I KNEW YOU, BEFORE YOU WERE BORN I SANCTIFIED YOU; I ORDAINED YOU A PROPHET TO THE NATIONS “
JER 1:4-5
YOUR EYES SAW MY SUBSTANCE BEING YET UNFORMED. AND IN YOUR BOOK THEY ALL WERE WRITTEN. THE DAYS FASHIONED FOR ME, WHEN AS YET THERE WERE NONE OF THEM. PS 139:16
As with Jeremiah and David whose call came before entering into their mother’s womb, so it is with every man and woman born. However, through the provision of free will, God has left it to each one’s choosing as to whether or not that call will be lived out. Jesus said it, Himself,
“ FOR MANY ARE CALLED BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN.” MATT 22:14
The choosing comes by the decisions we make along the way as to whether or not we are able to be a resting place for the fullness of His glory. He will not put on us that which we are not prepared to carry, lest it destroy us. Destiny calls each one of us and it is the exercising of our free will that determines the outcome of that calling. As our hearts continually respond to the voice of our Creator, “ I choose You! Above all else, I choose You! “, we navigate our way through our destiny. He is our origin and He is our destiny. We were in Him before the worlds began and we return to reside in Him, and are even now residing, as we partake of His grace by way of accepting and receiving the benefit of the shedding of His blood.
It is the journey from here to there as we ‘run the race’ that plays out the days written in His book ordained for each one of us. It happens one day at a time, one decision at a time to choose Him above all else. In this living out of our lives, turning toward Him at every juncture and, once again, consciously making a decision to ‘ choose Him ‘ we find ourselves in the middle of our destiny, for it will only be found in Him.
AND HE HAS MADE FROM ONE BLOOD EVERY NATION OF MEN TO DWELL ON ALL THE FACE OF THE EARTH, AND HAS DETERMINED THEIR PREAPPOINTED TIMES AND THE BOUNDARIES OF THEIR DWELLINGS, SO THAT THEY SHOULD SEEK THE LORD, IN THE HOPE THAT THEY MIGHT GROPE FOR HIM AND FIND HIM, THOUGH HE IS NOT FAR FROM EACH ONE OF US, FOR IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING, AS ALSO SOME OF YOUR OWN POETS HAVE SAID, FOR WE ARE ALSO HIS OFFSPRING. ACTS 17:26-28
In our western mindset we have made our destiny to be an end to a means, a job or a title that we attain to. It is a form that we desire to create for ourselves, a position to be held such as a singer, a pastor, or perhaps a banker. I’m not sure that is what God had in mind at all. For many of us it might just be the reason that our destiny seems to allude us as the years wear away on our hopes of stepping into what we perceive as our destiny. We try to create a form within which we will function. Form first, then function comes as a result of our Greek reasoning that has so enamored our culture.
Our true destiny is hidden in the function of living out the days He fashioned for us, not a title or job description. It’s not about being a prophet but rather the process of learning how to hear His voice and prophecy in love with the heart of the Father. In that functioning as a prophet we truly find our destiny, which is to become like Him. It’s the same for every job and or ministry title you can come up with. Tho we all have different days written out for us in His book, still the process of learning how to function in it is the walking out of our destiny - to be like Him, to be one with Him.
Our destiny is not the end product but rather the journey to that end, our days lived out as God, Himself, has written them in His book. OUr life lived in Him day by day is our true destiny as we become more like Him. The form in which that takes place, whether it be, as I said, as a teacher, evangelist, or a baker is secondary to the function of walking out that process. I’m afraid we lose the joy of that journey because we are waiting to attain a position or name or whatever. It’s the days that we have lived up to this point with all of the mistakes and all of the failures and even successes that make up our destiny.
I believe we get misled by regarding destiny as a noun, when, in God, it really is as much a verb as it is a noun. It is probably even more accurate to say it is a Person - the process of becoming one with the personhood of Jesus Christ. Regardless of the job the process is the same. It is in the functioning of our calling and the process that brings us to maturity concerning it that is our real destiny. It is the same for all of us.
So we are exhorted to ‘ not despise the day of small beginnings ‘ and to ‘ count it all joy ‘ as we maneuver through life, through the good, the bad and the ugly, through the gory and the glory of it all. Whether you are aware of it or not you are IN your destiny right now. All of our days are the summation of who we become in Him. The ones lived out behind the scenes are just as, if not more, important than the ones in front of people in that perceived place of successfully functioning in our calling. I find that very encouraging, knowing that this is ALL working toward the fulfillment of our destiny.
It’s about the choices we make in those days of disappointment, heart ache and being betrayed that bring us to the place of love and unity with God. We can choose to feel sorry for ourselves or to complain about where we are at and how long we are there or the seemingly bad break, that actually probably kept us from going through a door that would have led us in the wrong direction. Our other option is to look into His eyes and say, “ I choose You ! Whatever that looks like and however long that takes, above self and all else, I choose You! “
It is also about how we handle promotion, favor and prosperity. The point is not that we receive those things, it is about how we rule and reign in that position. Do we take advantage of it for ourselves or do we use it to pour out on others? Do we use our favor to strengthen and lift others in their calling, even above ourselves? In the midst of all the advantage it affords us is there still an automatic cry that comes from within, “ Lord, I choose You! You are my portion, You are my destiny! “? Song of Solomon says it well.....
SET ME AS A SEAL UPON YOUR HEART, AS A SEAL UPON YOUR ARM; FOR LOVE IS AS STRONG AS DEATH, JEALOUSY AS CRUEL AS THE GRAVE, ITS FLAMES ARE FLAMES OF FIRE, A MOST VEHEMENT FLAME. MANY WATERS CANNOT QUENCH LOVE, NOR CAN THE FLOODS DROWN IT. IF A MAN WOULD GIVE FOR LOVE ALL THE WEALTH OF HIS HOUSE, IT WOULD BE UTTERLY DESPISED.
SONG OF SOL 8:6-7
The questions asked when we pass from this life are more like, ‘Do we look like Him?’ , ‘Did we learn to love?’, ‘Did we die daily to ourselves so that it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me?’ Our true destiny is IN Him, to become like Him, regardless of our calling. That puts us all on the same level before Him no matter what our job description or calling is. As the Bride of Christ we are to take on the very nature of our Bridegroom and move through life as He did. To look like Him, to act like Him, to respond like Him, to be one in Him is our destiny, regardless of the form. He IS our Destiny!
THAT IN THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULLNESS OF THE TIMES HE MIGHT GATHER TOGETHER IN ONE ALL THINGS IN CHRIST, BOTH WHICH ARE IN HEAVEN AND WHICH ARE ON THE EARTH IN HIM. IN HIM ALSO WE HAVE OBTAINED AN INHERITANCE, BEING PREDESTINED ACCORDING TO THE PURPOSE OF HIM WHO WORKS ALL THINGS ACCORDING TO THE COUNSEL OF HIS WILL
EPH 1:10-11
As we approach this ‘fullness of the times’ there is a gathering together of those who function with this understanding. We are to be those who love as He loves to the extent that we become walking love and would be willing to lay down our very lives, preferring others before ourselves. That is our destiny in this hour. Regardless of what form our life takes, the purpose is to function in that kind of selfless love as we become one with Him in His likeness. That level of maturity, death to self, will draw His Presence.
We are called to be the Bride of Christ, fully functioning in our Destiny as we live, move and have our being in Him. It is only out of this place that He can trust us with the never before seen authority and creative word that is about to be released through those with the cry of “ We choose You! Above all others and all else, we choose You!” We have walked out our destiny as we have made Him and Him alone our boundaries and borders, a city whose walls are made of His fire. His jealousy, His authority, His very presence upon us as we become His resting place.
“FOR I”, SAYS THE LORD, “WILL BE A WALL OF FIRE ALL AROUND HER, AND I WILL BE THE GLORY IN HER MIDST.”Zech 2:5
Destiny of a Divine Nature Through Grace - JoAnn McFatter
There is a desire encoded in each of us, when we are created unto a destiny in God, one of a divine nature. Depending on our life experiences, we get in touch with this desire in vastly different ways but, as scripture notes, the blueprints are within us.
My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. - Psalm 139: 15-16
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations. - Jeremiah 1:5
Jeremiah was no exception. Each of us has a destiny of a divine nature that is wrapped up in God and binds us to Him, enabling us to walk it out as we pursue union with Him. He wove it into our DNA as He formed us, even before we were in our mother's womb.
Yes, we have heard it spoken many times from the pulpit, but has it really sunk in that we are born for greatness in God or we would not be on the earth at this time. He would not have covered us with His amazing grace if it were not so. If He had not done that, we would be lost as a goose - every one of us.
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found.
Was blind but now I see."
As we step into this destiny of ours, we do it with the knowledge deeply imbedded in us that but for grace, we would surely perish along the way. That is why this destiny we move into is of a divine nature. It will take the grace of His divine attributes to carry us into and through the process of seeing it accomplished to become overcomers in the end.
Who are you, O great mountain ? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of ' Grace. Grace to it ' - Zechariah 4:7
Thus says the Lord; "The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness - Israel, when I went to give him rest. - Jeremiah 31:2
And now for a little while grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. - Ezra 9:8
What we are about to step into is so great in relationship to the history of mankind, that He's had to "allure us to the wilderness," to show us who we are apart from His divine grace operating in and around us. If you are reading this, most likely, you have survived the sword whether it is from God or from the enemy, and you are presently finding grace in your wilderness. This truly is the year of the favor of the Lord in our lives. He WILL have His remnant. He is not a man that He would lie.
He is about to "give us a measure of revival," yes, even in our bondage, for we are not yet totally free. He is giving us eyes to see the beginnings of what is about to take the nations by storm as He pours out favor and grace upon us by sending a little help from His sanctuary to our sanctuary. As angelic help is released to us to see the supernatural operating at a level we've not experienced until now, our faith will grow and we truly will believe, even in our unbelief. This is all His idea. YOU and your destiny are His idea and He will see it through - even to the point that when you say to this mountain be moved, it will be moved.
He is saying over you, "GRACE, GRACE! ". HE'S CALLING YOU OUT into your destiny for it is upon you now with abundant grace. Though you may have grown weary even in well doing, now is the time to take a deep breath with a leap of abandonment into what you know beats inside you. You may have laid it down. You may have stepped back. You may have reined in your expectations, most likely from a lack of revelation of just how great is this enabling grace of His.
I encourage you to go see the movie "Amazing Grace." It will put a fire in you and open your eyes that were once blind to see the vision that has most likely died, and see it resurrected to its fullness. It's part of the process, as is the fact that the road that leads to the fulfillment of your destiny is probably not how you envisioned it. We need each other to speak into our destiny, to raise our arms, so to speak, when we have reached our end. But with the help of great grace, your destiny will be fulfilled in a way that "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into your heart the thing which God has prepared for you" 1 Corinthians 2:9 (loosely translated)
You were born for this hour when destiny is calling you up and out. Up and out of yourself and your circumstance and into the place where God is your boundaries and borders. Nothing less will get you there. It is impossible to please God without this kind of faith; without this kind of abandonment and without the determination to set your eye on Him and Him alone. That is what gives us the ability to see through His eyes just what and where we are called to, above the limitations and the belief system of this earthly realm. What you are called to is otherworldly and supernatural in its very nature.
I've said it before, as have so many others, but I would be remiss to not say it again.
After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ' Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.' - Revelation 4:1
We must see our destiny through His eyes. It is too great to imagine on our own. By His enabling grace our eyes will be opened and we will see into eternity to receive the faith to step into what He has called us to, as He steps into us that it might be accomplished in us and through us.
Grace, grace
JoAnn McFatter
Walking By The Spirit - Part 1 - JoAnn McFatter
It is our privilege and delight as the body of Christ to pursue the mystery of the knowledge of our God. Most are in agreement that this is a time of acceleration where the things of the Spirit are concerned. As a God-driven hunger for Spirit and Truth increases in our hearts, we are finding ourselves hitting a wall again and again as we attempt to understand the things of the spirit via the mind of man. We seem to have a problem in this present age of comprehending what it means to have the mind of Christ. We must seek God to find just what it means to live by the Spirit.
FOR WHO HAS KNOWN OR UNDERSTOOD THE MIND (THE COUNSELS AND PURPOSES) OF THE LORD SO AS TO GUIDE AND INSTRUCT HIM AND GIVE HIM KNOWLEDGE? BUT WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST (THE MESSIAH) AND DO HOLD THE THOUGHTS (FEELINGS AND PURPOSES) OF HIS HEART. 1 COR. 2:16, AMPLIFIED
We've lost the fullness of just what it means to be a new creature in Christ at our conversion to the truth that Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, shed His Blood that we might be freed from the curse that was pronounced upon mankind when sin entered through the first Adam. If, indeed, Adam and Eve lived outside of the curse before they sinned, why then are we, though redeemed by the blood of the Lamb who bore sin on our behalf, still living as though nothing happened to negate it's hold on us?
I can't imagine the world that Adam and Eve lived in before all of this happened. God walked with Adam in the cool of the day, so His glory had to have filled the atmosphere. I've heard stories of people who have been in the kind of glory cloud that was so thick you couldn't see the person next to you! It was described as breathing pure oxygen that was absolutely exhilarating. I believe the speed of light was different in the garden before the fall, as that would have made the atmosphere to contain a different level of oxygen, etc. that would have sustained their bodies in a different way. There minds would have been much more alert. Breathing a different level of oxygen increases everything in our bodies.
I imagine that they had use of a much larger capacity of their brain. If the curse has been broken, shouldn't we, at the bear minimum, be living as they did in the garden before the fall? What I ponder these days is just why we are not living in that same environment because as God was with them in the garden, He is IN us at our conversion. It seems that the atmosphere they were surrounded in would be the very atmosphere that we should be carrying inside of us - the very glory of God! Christ IN us, the hope of glory!
CHRIST PURCHASED OUR FREEDOM ( REDEEMING US ) FROM THE CURSE ( DOOM ) OF THE LAW ( AND ITS CONDEMNATION ) BY ( HIMSELF ) BECOMING A CURSE FOR US, FOR IT IS WRITTEN ( IN THE SCRIPTURES ), CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE ( IS CRUCIFIED ). GAL 3:13 AMP
THEREFORE, IF ANY PERSON IS ( INGRAFTED ) IN CHRIST ( THE MESSIAH ) HE IS A NEW CREATURE ( A NEW CREATURE ALTOGETHER ); THE OLD ( PREVIOUS MORAL AND SPIRITUAL CONDITION ) HAS PASSED AWAY. BEHOLD, THE FRESH AND NEW HAS COME! 2 COR 5:17 AMP
The old has passed and the fresh and new has come. We can now walk in His manifest glory right here and right now. When Moses was in the presence of God's glory, his face shined so that he had to wear a veil over it. Something happened to him as he beheld the measure of glory the Lord allowed to pass by him as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock. Should not that glory reside in us today? Should we not be 'leaking light' as we become more one with Him, by our spirit communing with His spirit?
As we become born again by the Spirit of God and we become one with Him, we come into alignment with who we were created to be - one who is made in the image of God. As we walk on this earth we are to navigate by allowing our mind and body to follow our own spirit man as we are led by His Spirit. I'm afraid we have no idea how to do that! We have so navigated for centuries by the mind of man, that even when we think we are being led by the Spirit we are still following our linear, rational, left-brained, Greek/western thought processes.
JESUS ANSWERED ( NICODEMUS ), I ASSURE YOU, MOST SOLEMNLY I TELL YOU, UNLESS A MAN IS BORN OF WATER AND ( EVEN ) THE SPIRIT, HE CANNOT ( EVER ) ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD. WHAT IS BORN ( FROM ) THE FLESH IS FLESH ( OF THE PHYSICAL IS PHYSICAL ); AND WHAT IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT IS SPIRIT. MARVEL NOT ( DO NOT BE SURPRISED, ASTONISHED ) AT MY TELLING YOU, YOU MUST BE BORN ANEW ( FROM ABOVE ). THE WIND BLOWS ( BREATHES ) WHERE IT WILLS; AND THOUGH YOU HEAR ITS SOUND, YET YOU NEITHER KNOW WHERE IT COMES FROM, NOR WHERE IT IS GOING. SO IT IS WITH EVERYONE WHO IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT. JOHN 3:5-8 AMP
IF I HAVE TOLD YOU OF THINGS THAT HAPPEN RIGHT HERE ON THE EARTH AND YET NONE OF YOU BELIEVES ME, HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE ( TRUST ME, ADHERE TO ME, RELY ON ME ) IF I TELL YOU OF HEAVENLY THINGS? AND YET NO ONE HAS EVER GONE UP TO HEAVEN, BUT THERE IS ONE WHO HAS COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN - THE SON OF MAN ( HIMSELF ), WHO IS ( DWELLS, HAS HIS HOME ) IN HEAVEN.
JOHN 12-13 AMP
Notice that Jesus says about Himself that He is in heaven. He's standing there on the earth, telling the Nicodemas that He is in heaven. We are seated with Him in heavenly places. He didn't say we would be seated, He said we ARE seated. That would mean present tense. The ability to be in two realms at the same time is something we need to grasp as we let our own way of thinking fall away and take on the mind of Christ. If it were not ours to have, He would not have put it in front of us the way He continually does in scripture.
We have rationalized the life out of what Jesus really said until there is no Spirit left in it - just the mind of man in his small box of what is possible and acceptable by our limited thinking and understanding, not to mention our religious ways of processing His words.
I believe God is going to illuminate our minds as we give way to His Spirit communing with out spirit man. It is a time in history when the sciences, the arts, and spirituality are coming to a shift as He allows us to see the fullness of how He put this world together for us to live in, both in the physical realm as well as the eternal realm -- AT THE SAME TIME! As we meditate on Him and His Word, He is going to help us to get our heads wrapped around these things of the Spirit.
He's going to help us step into and take on the mind of Christ. It would behoove us to ask Him to reveal just how He meant for us to live on this earth. Again I say, we need to ask Him just what was in His heart when He created man in the very beginning to commune with Him. It would be good for us to ask Him how to walk with Him, truly as a new creature in Christ, one with His Spirit, with Christ in us, living through us, with our spirit man taking the lead. It's time to break out of the limitations we have walked in for the past decades upon decades! The choice is ours as to just how deep we go into the mind of Christ.
Is. 40:13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him?
The Times, They are A-changn... - JoAnn McFatter
Bob Dylan said it well……and nobody really listened much to him, either. The times, they are a changin'. It's simply a musical phrase that has been going around in my head for some time now so I thought I would look up the words of the song. Sometimes it's a Bible verse that keeps coming to me over and over, but sometimes it's just a line from a song, such as this. I know to pray about it and ask the Lord what He's trying to say.
When I peer into it and consider the matter with God, He will expand on what He is drawing my attention to. The message in Dylan's song is as applicable today as when he wrote it a generation ago, but the song itself (though interesting to revisit) is not what I am wanting to highlight here.
I believe it has to do with the "shift" that has been prophesied over and over by many a prophetic voice that is now upon us. Not that it really took a prophet to declare that as of late, but there were those who were prophesying the shaking in years past when we had no obvious reason to think in those terms. So here we sit with much to ponder in our own lives, even to the extent of re-evaluating the standard at which we have lived our lives up to this point.
The attachments we have had to this world's economic system, mindsets, etc. have truly influenced us by way of what "makes sense" to the mind of man much more than we who have been born of the Spirit should have allowed.
" Jesus answered and said to him, ' Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ' You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.' " --John 3:5-8
He made the distinction between the flesh/mind of man and the Spirit/mind of Christ over and over in scripture. I researched vs. 8 a bit because it has always intrigued me. What I found was reference to the wind as something that we can hear and see the result of yet are not able to explain where it comes from or where it is going. It's a mystery, as is the rebirth of man by the Spirit. We see the result - the new man - but we can't really explain how it happens. Oh, that this were the testimony of our lives! Unfortunately, we have so mixed the mind of Christ with the things we have hung on to from the mind of man that it's hard to even sort it out anymore.
Someone recently mentioned that we, as the church, have become a thermometer that reads the climate of the culture as opposed to a thermostat that SETS the climate of things. I even remember Bill Gothard giving a teaching 30 years ago showing how the pendulum of the church was shifting as the pendulum of our culture was shifting. Always staying a certain distance from the world's pendulum but, none the less, moving along with it. I don't believe this to only apply to morality, but to our way of thinking as well. We hold to the ways of the flesh as we hold to the mind of man.
I am not trying to throw criticism, but simply trying to suggest that we have GOT to get back to looking at the pattern laid out to us in the scriptures….to come up higher in our thinking. The times ARE truly changing as the Kingdom of God is being made manifest on the earth. We will be lost if we are trying to navigate by the mind of man through it all. Having lost the fullness of our miraculous rebirth as we are born of the Spirit as a new creation in Christ, we are stuck in the mentality of sins that we battle because we have not had a revelation of Christ crucified once and for all to take care of the very nature of sin. We need the renewed ability to have our eyes and ears opened with hearts of understanding to the mind of Christ as we put on the Lord Jesus Christ!
And do this, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfull its lusts. -Romans 13: 11-14
My point is not even this. What I urge us to press into is the revelation of what happened when Christ gave His life freely on the Cross, shedding His Blood as the final act of sacrifice for sin! The whole lump and sum of it! The very nature of sin that would even allow us to be pulled into the sins that have beset us has been lost as we have so focused on individual sins that we have lost the revelation of the real beauty of the mystery. That Christ freed us from the very nature of sin itself - and, yes, it must be a revelation.
We have become so concerned with the sins that we have forgotten, or perhaps never even come into the illumination of the Blood of Christ washing over our sin nature so that we would not even be pulled back into the mentality of struggling with sins. What I think we have missed is the fact that the curse was broken and we no longer live under the curse that was given to Adam and Eve. It's more miraculous than we ever believed what this Christ of ours has done on our behalf! As that revelation is granted us, we can then step into the place that we need to be walking at this time in history. All of scripture has led up to this point in time that we, as the manifest sons of God, are to be walking above all of the things that we struggle with. Let us look to the Light as we are in the Light and the Light is in us! Christ in us the hope of glory!
As we move into this position of revelation that He has granted us we will begin to walk in the mind of Christ to hear the voice of the Spirit. As the voice of the Lord comes to us to show us how to navigate through this hour that we have embarked upon we will have ears that hear because we are walking by and in His Spirit and not in the mind of man.
And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. -Romans 5: 24-25
Instead, we seem to still be suckling on milk as babes rather than eating of the meat of the Word to build up our spirit man in wisdom and understanding, able to determine what the leading of the Holy Spirit is.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. -Hebrew 5: 12-14
The visitations, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the voice of authority, and much more that will be given in this hour by God will not be given to those of us who are still struggling with the milk. The veil between heaven and earth is truly at it's breaking point. The invitation is there for whosoever will - He is not a respecter of persons as He has declared by His own mouth. BUT He loves us too much to release to us what we are not prepared to walk in. Many are called, few are chosen not out of punishment, but out of His mercy and love toward us to not give us more than we can handle.
I pray that this is not taken as a rebuke, but rather a call to come up higher. That is how I have heard it from the Lord and I hope that I have portrayed it as such, even in the frankness and reality of where we are at. We are called to sooooooo much more than we are living in. Perhaps that is because of the mindsets that we have allowed ourselves to adapt as we have compromised with the mind and ways of man. I have said this before but I cannot emphasize enough that it is a time to ask for a revelation of the Cross and the Blood of Jesus Christ so that we might truly come into the authority and discernment we have been called to walk in. Revelation that the curse is broken and we no longer are subject to it must be ours if we are to move in the signs and wonders that He has saved for the very last. He has saved you to be born in this hour intentionally because you have been chosen as one who has the potential to walk this out. Allow yourself to be realigned, or perhaps even for the first time aligned, with the mind of Christ and just who we are in Him as He dwells in us.
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