Connecting In The Spirit With A Lost And Hurting World

Feb12
by Michael King on February 12, 2016 at 7:29 am
Posted In: spiritual connections
connecting

Connecting In The Midst Of War

The wars that we hear about in Syria and with ISIS are simply outward symptoms of a continuing war in heaven.  This war was started by Lucifer in Eden.  The Devil introduce his sin into present world by uttering the words, “Hath God said.” Fallen angels do their best to kill, maim, rape, and psychologically torture human beings through other human beings because they hate, with a malevolence we cannot fathom, God’s greatest creation.

God unites us through bonds of love

In this time of wars and rumors of wars, we must be connecting with each other through the Holy Spirit.  We must allow God to unite us through His bonds of love so that we may join together and become the Body of Christ. Against this satanic darkness only the glory of God can stand.  In order to see in this night we must become one as Christ was one with His Father.

What does this connecting mean?  It means that we must consciously decide to give way to the Holy Spirit and seek out those He wishes to join us with.  Lay aside all the cares and worries of this life and seek out our brethren, offering them the hand of fellowship.  Let’s concentrate on God in others rather than everything that surrounds them.  We must go out into the highways and byways of this world and compel them to come with us to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Isolation is opposite of what God’s desires for His body

Isolation is not an option.  No longer can we afford to be men and women who dwell alone in the wilderness.  Against this fall of night there is only one safety and that is in each others arms of fellowship and love.

I watched a documentary where a woman related how she and others were tortured.  I remember the unearthly calm she projected as she described the most horrific abuse imaginable. One by one she and others were taken out of their cell and subjected to things no human being should ever face.  When asked what they did when, one after another, tortured victims were brought back to the cell she simply replied there was a lot of kissing and holding.

Convention giving way to compassion

Struck by how, in that moment of gravest human need, conventions gave way to compassion, I wept. Humanity savagely stripped away from each one of them, they still held and loved one another. In the face of true horror their humanity prevailed by connecting through the touch and care of another’s beating heart.

In a very real way, those emerging in the Spirit are being tortured by Satan in the most ungodly ways. The Elect are ripped apart spiritually and subjected to spiritual abuse beyond imagination. Sometimes they wish for death, but it eludes them for God has plans for us which the devil  cannot stop.

People need real, connecting love

Make no mistake about this, people need to be held in the arms of Jesus when they suffer such things. Those who are, as it were, thrown back into the cell bruised, bleeding, and barely able to breathe need to be held and loved by those who have yet a little strength.  We are the manifestation of the sons of God.  As God manifests us, comfort those who are wounded for His name’s sake.

It is time to be connecting with our brethren or risk losing everything in this wilderness of Sin.  Isolation is killing our spirits and allowing the devil to pummel us daily without mercy.  The Jesus we need is living in our brethren and the comforter we so desperately long for is in them.

When will we wake up to the fact that, as Christians, God wants to love us through each another?

Brother by Needtobreathe

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Are You A Burning Bush?

Feb10
by Michael King on February 10, 2016 at 10:07 pm
Posted In: contemporary christian issues
Are You a Burning Bush?

Everyone has heard about the burning bush

God says,

“ And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.”

Exodus 3:2

The day Moses noticed the burning bush

One day Moses was tending the flocks of his father in law Jethro on the back side of the desert.  In that place, there was a certain mountain called Horeb which was reputed to be the dwelling place of God.

Moses looked up from his work and saw a bush that burned. It was a strange bush because, though it burned, it was not consumed by the flame. We call it the “burning bush.”

Why that bush Lord?

I was thinking on this the other day and I wondered why God chose that particular bush.  Was there something about that bush that was better than the bush next to it? Was it a bigger or greener bush than most?  I don’t actually know but I suspect it was a bush pretty much like any other.  In fact, I don’t think there was anything special about the bush at all.

A shrub in the right place at the right time

It just so happened that by coincidence that shrub was in the right place at the right time in relation to what God wanted to do. However, I think there may be another, deeper more profound reason that God chose that bush to speak out of.  I think God chose that bush because it was ordinary.  I think the angel of the Lord wanted to demonstrate that He could manifest His glory out of anything, even a common bush that was like a million other bushes. In fact, often in scripture, wood represents man. Therefore, a lesson to learn is that God can dwell in and speak through anything or any man.

God makes an ordinary burning bush special

The bush did not choose God but God chose the bush. The bush did nothing during the meeting between Moses and God except be a bush. Likewise, men, being made of the dust of the Earth, are nothing in and of ourselves. Only when we are chosen by God to manifest His glory do we become something special.

This gets to the heart of the issue with God and mankind.  A man or women is simply a bush like every other bush.  We can do nothing to be more than we are but when God chooses to use us we can become something greater in Him.  All the world knows about that bush simply because God chose to reveal Himself to Moses through it.  Likewise, as we reveal the nature of God to those around us we, like the moon, reflect The Son.

What do you do after you have been a burning bush?

That bush, which hosted God, simply went back to being a bush when God left.  It became, once again, just like any other bush in a hundred miles of that hallowed place. In fact, no one could have known that God Himself had been there after He had gone.  Ministers forget that someday, when the anointing moves from them to another, that they will simply be an ordinary bush again. While God is manifesting through them it feels good but when God is gone they have a crisis of identity. At that time, it is important for us to remember that it is OK to be a bush and that we don’t have to be anything more than a bush.

John the Baptist became a burning bush, for God says,

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:”

Malachi 4:5

And then,

“He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.”

John 1:23

But,

“John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.  Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him...”

…He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John 3:27,28, 30

And finally,

“And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?”

Luke 7:19

He must increase and I must decrease

What happened to John?  Malachi foretold John’s coming.  The voice in the desert was the Elijah which was to come. The man clothed in camels hair knew Jesus was the Christ when He baptized him, yet later he sent his disciples to ask if Jesus was the Messiah.

What happened is that God burned brightly through John for a time and by revelation, John knew that Jesus was the Christ, but when the anointing of God lifted from John to rest upon Jesus, John diminished and became only a common bush. Yet Jesus said of John,

“For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

Luke 7:28

Be a burning bush!

In conclusion, we are all just bushes. We may be a little different in size, color, gender, or age but no one really notices us unless God burns brightly in us. If a bush aspires to be something more than a bush let him or her aspire to be a burning bush. If we allow God to dwell in us and reveal Himself through us we can be more than any bush could ever hoped to be by the presence of the Almighty. We will be remembered throughout eternity because God dwelt in us. Therefore I say to you most emphatically, “be a burning bush!”

Surrendered To Your Will By Steven Padilla

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