A true apostolic gift will explain the past and point to the future - it will lay a foundation and provide the purpose of the building. Many Christian Internet writers, especially in the prophetic community, offer their view from an often-dogmatic perspective. I think we are sometimes amiss when we do this. As with this article, we are to lay it out there for you to judge. Let the message be tested by your spirit. Judge it and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you if indeed it is designed for your ears to hear. God will confirm His word by the witness in your spirit. I am so often wrong that I can little afford to be pragmatic.
With that said, I offer the following from what I sense to be an apostolic perspective. I know very little about this office and gifting, but sense another dimension to the prophetic gift that has operated for several years. Again, I humbly submit this as a word from the Lord.
A human spirit that is only developed in the outer court will remain in and among ministries and people that speak and minister to the outer court, also known as the soul of a man. Watchman Knee in his popular book Release Of The Spirit describes man as a three part being - he is a spirit, who has a soul, and lives in a body. The spirit is the deep inner part of our being in which God's Spirit commingles with our spirit, the place of communion with God. The soul is the place of our mind, will, and emotions and the place from which most of us obtain guidance and direction, the exception being those who are truly led of God's Spirit.
Much of the modern day church is comprised of outer court ministry, or ministry that ministers to the soul.
As with the Prodigal Son, who had not yet come to the end of himself, so too are those who are trapped in the outer court. Until the pressures of life situations and circumstances FORCE US to seek deeper meaning and greater levels of truth, we will remain in an outer court environment.
The challenge is to conquer the "attachment" of our human dimension, thus enabling us to submit to the Spirit of God that lives and moves within us: but is this possible without the fires of tribulation? With much scriptural support, I think the answer is"NO!"
'We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God' (Acts 14:22).
'Now if we are children, the we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we also share in His glory' (Romans 8:17).
'In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering' (Hebrews 2:10).
Our trials are our Gethsemane. Geth means press, to press the life out of something in the sense of a winepress being used to squeeze the juice out of grapes. Semane is a derivative of the word semen, which means to produce life. God will allow"Gethsemane" type experiences through tribulation and difficulties that will produce the life of God within us. It is the place in which we truly come to the end of our self and say, "Not my will, but thy will be done."
A true Gethsemane type experience is the place of great exchange - our life for His. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abides alone, but if it die it brings forth much fruit" (John 12:24). Our suffering is designed to produce growth as sure as the sun produces light.
With this much discussed foundation now laid, let us begin to place in perspective why many have faced and endured so much difficulty in their Christian life. To the Church as a whole these people have appeared to be cursed and doomed, and without God. Many have heard the often-loud whispers of church leaders and fellow congregants whose 'Word of Faith' doctrine cannot explain the chaos and difficulty. Hence, it is explained by the seemingly spiritual with statements like, "They must have hidden sin, they have not developed their faith, their heart is wrong, and they do not give enough."
For those suffering, many similarities exist with Joseph's life. Though these similarities began with years of difficulties, perhaps we will see prophetically that the similarities ("type and shadow") continue far beyond the dungeon. Perhaps, like Joseph, we will face a God-appointed irony in which the very ones who falsely judged us and tossed us down that symbolic well are the very ones God is appointing us to rescue when famine comes. . . and famine is coming!
It is interesting to note that Jesus did not come to rescue His people from the oppression of the Roman Empire. He had many opportunities to confront the Romans, yet there is no place in scripture to indicate that he did. Jesus came to deliver the people from the religious leaders of that era. God's people were captured by a"religious system" ruled by "religious" leaders, not Rome. I suggest you read Matthew 23 if you want to truly understand the word pragmatic. In confronting the religious leaders of His day, Jesus was pragmatic to put it mildly.
God is calling men and women out of the existing"religious church system." Many of these"called out" ones, much like Joseph, have faced circumstance upon circumstance in which the fires of difficulty have raged, in many cases for years. Like Joseph, the fire is forging the character of God in them. Like Joseph, the fire is preparing the"Josephs" of today for just such a time as this.
The modern day Josephs are now storing spiritual grain or revelatory truth in the storage bin - truths that will bring deliverance and set the captives free, truths that will open the door for every need to be met. As the famine begins in the church through the fires of difficulty and hardship, and the exodus begins, there will be food for a starving people.
Only the fires of difficulty can cause the famine, and like the prodigal son, these fires will cause many within the walls of the"church system" to come to the end of themselves. Though this is happening in small numbers now, it is more a sign of additional Josephs in the making than a sign that the true exodus has begun. However, these numbers will dramatically increase in the future; therefore, the Josephs who are now in place need to prepare as the Holy Spirit directs.
We are about to experience the greatest move of God this earth has ever seen as Christ prepares His bride for His return. Be not deceived, we are now in the beginning stages of final preparation and preparation always precedes visitation.
Our spirit appointed preparation is the symbolic gathering of grain into that symbolic storage bin OF TRUTH. How much truth can we hold or embrace? The size of our bins and the quality of our grain will determine the size and quality of our harvest. God will use what we have allowed Him to store.
As I finished this writing I felt the Word of the Lord come up from within me:
"PRESS INTO ME," SAITH THE LORD,"AND I WILL REVEAL TO YOU THE PREPARATION PROCESS. I WILL RELEASE AN ANOINTING IN YOU TO PREPARE AS YOU GATHER SEED FOR THE STORAGE BIN. I WILL DIRECT YOUR PATHS AS YOU SEEK ME EARLY WHEN I CAN BE FOUND. STUDY JOSEPH'S LIFE TO KNOW YOUR ROLE. AS IN JESUS' DAY, THE RELIGIOUS ORDER WILL PERSECUTE THIS MOVE WITH GREAT VENGENCE - THINK IT NOT A STRANGE THING, BUT LET IT SERVE AS CONFIRMATION THAT YOU ARE IN MY WILL."
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