As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:14-16.
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? 1 Corinthians 3:1-3.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
It is time. Time for you grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. You have stayed at the baby level, that is, spiritually immature believers, long enough. It is time to go beyond that state, it is time to step up and make your life what I meant it to be. It is time you took your dominion authority seriously; it is a responsibility to steward the earth to align with the Kingdom.
I asked you to begin by praying, “Your Kingdom come, your Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” It starts with prayer and a desire in your heart to release My power, My Spirit in you as rivers of living water, to manifest the goodness of My Kingdom in the earth. You are to be enforcing, that is binding and releasing into the earth, those things that are bound or released in Heaven. You should be manifesting the Kingdom of Light over the kingdom of darkness. Every time you undo a work of the devil, that is, when you override his work with the manifestation of My Kingdom on earth, you are bringing My Kingdom and My Will, which are the same, into the earth. When a person trapped in the curse is set free by you releasing My power to heal, raise the dead, deliver, protect, save, correct, provide, and prosper, the Kingdom has manifested through you upon earth. And this happens when you are mature in Christ. If you are still fighting among yourselves, complaining, blaming, envying, seeking your own glory above Mine, you are mere babies and you are seeking only to meet your basic needs and not the good of anyone else. You only take and never give, but it is then your brook will run dry, for in My Kingdom you must sow to reap. Sow mercy and you receive mercy. If you are bound up in selfish ambition and try to manipulate all to care for you, then you are not seeking the Kingdom first, that is, the manifestation of My goodness, presence and power to release those oppressed and bound by the devil from slavery to the freedom of My children, the children of God. And that is immaturity.
Please listen to My heart in this: IT IS SELFISH TO REMAIN SMALL WHEN I HAVE STOOPED TO MAKE YOU GREAT.
Do not misunderstand what I am saying. I am not telling you to seek the fame and fortune of the world or the spotlight as those who are of prestige in the eyes of this world. The praise of men is not what you should be after, for things that are of importance to men are often very unimportant and even sinful in My sight. I am talking about knowing who you are in Christ and stepping up to do the works He did and greater in the earth as He commanded you to do. You are not to pull back from whom I have made you to be in Christ. You are not to step down from the authority that I have clothed you with and entrusted to you in Christ Jesus your Lord. He is your head, but you are His body, and that means you walk in a delegated authority of greatness and nobility. He has released you from your sins by His blood and made you a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart called out of darkness into My own marvelous light. Light. Release it and the kingdom of darkness cannot overcome it. Know who you are by knowing whose you are.
You are Mine. And I take care of those who are Mine. Not by your power or might, but by My Spirit in you and on you. I have anointed you for good works that I prepared for you in advance that you might walk in them.
The Israelites I redeemed from slavery and was leading to the Promised Land to conquer did not see themselves as conquerors. Instead they saw themselves as grasshoppers, that is, weak and unable to perform the mission I had entrusted to them. But I saw them as mighty heroes, more than conquerors, overcomers, and empowered by My Word, but they pulled back and lived as grasshoppers for their entire lives on earth. And this cut short their lives by that weakness they envisioned in themselves, that is, a wrong self-image based merely on your five physical senses of what you see, feel, and hear in the world can stop you from your destiny.
It grieved Me to be so limited in what I could do for that first generation of Israelites out of Egypt. I wanted to accomplish wonders with them. I told them, “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.” Exodus 34:10. I promised them that but they would not go forward and obey My Word.
I am with you and I am the God of wonders. And My power is working in you who have received My Son as Lord. Do you not perceive it? Do you not know that Christ is in you? Do you not know My Spirit is in you? My beloved John was very much aware of this, he wrote, “We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” 1 John 3:24.
Jesus told you that you who believe would do the works He did and greater. John 14:12. He told you, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” John 14:12-17.
So how do you do the works He did and greater? He has commanded you to do them. He told His disciples: “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.” Matthew10:7-8. Does that sound like your day as you go along the way of your life? So how do you begin to step up to His life in you? First, you believe in the Name of the One I sent, Jesus, as your Lord, and the power and authority you have in that Name which I have given you, the only Name by which you can be saved, and that goes for every situation. John 6:28-29; Acts 4:12. Next, you walk in love. 1 John 3:23. Next, you ask in His Name. John 14:13-14. And finally, you obey My Words. John 14:223. And when you obey you are filled with My Spirit in you and on you. Acts 5:32 (“And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”). I have given the fullness of the Spirit without measure to those who speak and keep My Word. John 3:34.
You have to start exercising your faith. Begin by praying My Kingdom to come and My Will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Nothing moves on earth without prayer, for prayer authorizes Me to enter the world that I have given leasehold authority over to you. And then the key is obedience to My Word. And as I sent Jesus so He sends you—to undo the works of the devil and manifest My Kingdom on earth. To seek out and save the lost. To reconcile all with Me. To go about doing good and healing all those oppressed of the devil.
I told YOU who believe in My Son’s Name to cast out demons and lay your hands on the sick to release My power so that they will recover. Do you obeying? Or are you acting like a grasshopper?
Obedience is more than the Ten Commandments. No one has ever kept all those perfectly but Jesus, and He kept them even at the higher level He gave you in His sermon on the mount, which went to the very heart of the flesh issue. But He summarized them in two commandments: Love God and love neighbor as yourself. A higher realm. The realm of walking in love, that is Kingdom living. And finally, I took it to believe in the Name of My Son and love one another as He gave command. 1 John 3:23.
Besides prayer, which is primary, there are Kingdom assignments. Doing the works of the ministry, which are those like Jesus and greater works as members of His body on earth. He has commanded you who follow Him to be His witnesses in your homes, neighborhoods, nations, and out to the ends of the earth, to preach the Gospel, to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cast out demons, and to reconcile men to Me. In other words, you are to manifest My Kingdom on earth. Remember Jesus told the Pharisees, “If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” Luke 11:20.
The early church community understood what they were to do as salt and light in the earth. Peter and John began right at the gate of the Temple when they raised up the lame man to perfect health by the Name of Jesus, and faith in that Name. Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, was working miracles and wonders among the people. Philipp went off to Samaria and cast out the demons from an entire town and healed the lame and then was flown down by the angels and the Spirit to witness to an Ethiopian official. Peter’s shadow healed those upon whom it fell as he passed by. Handkerchiefs touched to Paul healed the sick and cast out demons. My Words became their very lives and their lives were powerful and extraordinary. And you have the same spirit of faith, the same Words, and the same Holy Spirit, and above all, you have the Name above every other Name. What are you doing with the tremendous treasure I have entrusted to you of My very own Spirit? I have poured My love and power into YOU. You have a sacred trust.
Why is your life not where I have empowered you to be? Same reasons that stopped the Israelites—disobedience, complaining, fighting among themselves, selfish ambition, self-promotion, lack of knowing Me due to rejection of My Words as truth, resentment of their leader, disrespect, words against My promises based on earthly appearances, not going deeper to know Me but leaving that to Moses, wrong self-image, unrenewed minds still back on the things of Egypt, and walking in the flesh (no self-denial in that respect). Those among them of a different spirit, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of faith, lived very different lives and had very different ends. Like Joshua and Caleb.
You are sitting on a goldmine and yet you will not dig deeper. Tremendous power is at your disposal but you let it lie dormant when you could be setting people free from the oppression of the evil one.
Why?
You have rejected knowledge. You have the heard the good news but did not unite it with faith. So it was vain for you. Do not receive My grace in vain. Get up and do something with it. Think of the parable of the master who gave talents to his servants to invest. Which one are you?
Jesus did the works He did as Son of Man, not as Son of God. He emptied Himself of His powers as God and operated only as you do. He did them in My Name and by the Holy Spirit in Him and on Him. Why then as no one ever quite equaled what He did when you are to do greater? Because no one else has ever been as totally yielded to the Holy Spirit as He was. Satan never was able to penetrate into the soul of My Son or have any part in Him. Have you yielded to My Spirit, to you speak only My Words, do you take your thoughts captive in obedience to My Word? Jesus shows you it can be done with the help of the Holy Spirit and a very close relationship with Me. He told you that He had come down from Heaven but that even on earth He was in Heaven. How was that? You access the Kingdom within and you can live in a higher realm. He prayed for you that you would do that. He did not take you out of the world but prayed that you would be protected from the evil one. He told you to cast him out by the divine power in you and He told you to pray that you do not undergo temptation, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Do you pray that every day? “Let us not succumb to temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
I love you. I want to give you your full reward. I have reconciled you to Myself and given you My Spirit as a pledge. If you are not seeking to reach out to bring others into reconciliation, what is the purpose of your life? If you are not drawing those around you back into Me, what are you doing for them? What can you show before the judgment seat of Christ? You are saved but the Word will judge your reward. Do not come with empty hands and a bitter heart. That is not the promise, I told My people that they would not go out of Egypt to the Promised Land empty-handed but laden with silver and gold and not a feeble one among them. Release My shalom, My Spirit, into every place you go, if My shalom, My Spirit, cannot find a person to receive, then My shalom, My Spirit, will return to you, but keep sending until there is a landing place, like Noah and the dove, and if you speak the Word and release My Spirit there will be a heart who will receive, but if you won’t how can they come?
According to the grace of God, which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:10-16.