Saturday, August 17, 2013

Our Real Personalities



I think of personality as that part of man the Scripture calls “soul,” and which is most commonly constituted as containing our mind, will, and emotions.  Before salvation, forces originating within our baser element (our bodies) are transmitted and transmuted through these three soul parts resulting in an expression which can only feign to be our true or whole personality.  Because our spirits are dead (since the Fall of Mankind) and is its own separate organ attached to our souls (howbeit without genuine animation) and comprised of three components: intuition, conscience, and communion, and each and all of these parts still function independent of their original design, they are misunderstood. Our spirit, designed only to function connected to God’s Spirit, when disconnected (before regeneration) can only misguide and caricaturize the human creature and genuine personality.

The body was never designed to inform the soul (or our spirits for that matter) because the soul is the medium between body and spirit; the spirit is designed to be directly attached to God and is therefore our paramount part, but it can only inform the body indirectly through the soul.  When we get saved, our spirit comes alive again, and begins to retake its old place as the voice which commands the soul.  It is to our spirit that God speaks to with His still small voice; thus forces originating from our spirits (in response to His voice) is that which gets transmitted and transmuted through our souls (then through our bodies) resulting in our true—but as yet—immature and emerging personality expression.

Our spirit, now reconnected and informed by His Spirit, begins to expand and influence our soul, melding its three soul components back to its three corresponding spirit components (mind to intuition, will to conscience, emotions to communion); the soul’s mind combines with the spirit’s intuition to create intellectual brilliance, the will combines with conscience to brilliantly light one’s path, and emotions combine with communion to utterly betroth us to God forever.  Only now does the full, true, redeemed, and mature personality begin to emerge.


Friday, August 16, 2013

Large, Formidable, and Entrenched Evil


There are some respected Christian researchers and theologians today who feel the church, as we know it, is only a generation away from being eradicated.  If it were because of the Rapture, I would delight; unfortunately, however, I fear it is not about that (at least for the majority of confessing Christians).  Perhaps our Laodicean-like attitude or behavior is a precursor to—or actually a part of—that prophesied event called the great falling away which is to occur immediately before Christ’s return; either that, or it is a death knell judgment leveled specifically against the superficiality of our times. 
 
Mankind’s natural bent toward rashness—impatience—is, I believe, behind many of the disasters which ultimately befall us.  King David, long ago, noted a connection between presumption and great sin; he said: “keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me; then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression” (Psalm 19:13, NASB).  Superficiality, rashness (impatience), and presumption are all poisoned fruit from one poisoned tree—and though entrenched—it springs from a shallow depth of understanding which is derived from thinking more simply than the complexity of the reality allows. 
 
A lazy self-indulgent generation commits and omits many sins; a lack of watchfulness (which ought to have been bathed in humble prayer) has made this generation particularly inert and apathetic.  Of course, God forewarned us by making an example of Israel; He told Israel to Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments… otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8: 11-14, NASB). 

Again God forewarned us by cataloging the iniquity of Sodom which is eerily similar to own iniquity.  Aside from “pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness,” in which we mirror Sodom exactly, there is the sodomy, homosexuality, and other sexual deviances that both Sodom and America are guilty of in great measure and increasing (Ezekiel 16: 49, KJV). 
     
Of course America is without excuse; she has been abundantly blessed and completely informed.  We knew, for instance, that “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11, NASB).  Unfortunately, our spiritual indolence is destroying us as we are blindly being overcome by large, formidable, and entrenched evil.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Toughts on the Book of Joel (in many parts); Chapter 1, Part 2

“The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: hear this, O elders, and listen, all inhabitants of the land.  Has anything like this happened in your days or in your fathers' days?  Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the next generation” (Joel 1: 1-3).

A Generation of Vipers

"'So he (Jesus) began saying…“You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.  Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire"' (Luke 3: 7-9).

Since myrrh symbolically represents tears of repentance, and has a very unique quality when burned by fire, it also has significance in relationship to the book of Joel and The Day of the Lord.   The formation of myrrh is produced by a process of internal attrition, a hollowing out, like as our displacement allows Christ to enlarge within us.  Myrrh is our personal residue; the cremated ashes of what remains of self life.  The phoenix that is to arise from these ashes now lay at the base of our heart.

We have endured the Dark Night of the Soul, the fiery furnace of affliction, and we are now one with our consuming fire of a God; we have so taken on the nature of our Lord that we even expand and bloom in the conflagration (myrrh comes in tears or drops of resin which respond differently than other resins to fire; whereas other resins melt or liquefy when heated up, myrrh expands and blooms).  Our tender Lord treasures our tears, but only wise men present them in the proper form of myrrh.  Myrrh is not symbolic of tears alone, but is symbolic of what they produce: godly sorrow not to be repented of.  Myrrh, like genuine sorrow, forms within the heart of trees; likewise, we as trees of righteousness must be genuinely sorry from the heart if we are to produce a final judgment that is fireproof, a repentance not to be repented of!  Tears and sorrow do more than purify, they kill; if we will, however, allow ourselves to be forever drowned by the flood (where God sits as King forever) we will forever remain baptized, forever placed into His death, and thus forever fireproofed.

The clarion call, the intensity of Joel’s voice, is so certain and strong as ought to have invoked much fear and trepidation within the elders of his day; unfortunately, they remained fast asleep, and were permanently laid to rest, while destruction and mayhem practically gnawed on their carcasses.   Their day and their father’s day saw nothing as ominous as the Day of the Lord that was fast approaching them and their sons, but the suggestion here is that they were complicitous (as we are today while our Day of the Lord fast approaches).

The three generations mentioned in verse three, proceeded by the elder’s generation and the generation of their fathers, seems to tie them into God’s warning of judgment or punishment:  “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations (Exodus 34:6-7, parts).”  Indeed, John the Baptist and even Christ Himself did not mince words with the elders of Israel, calling them, on several occasions, a “brood of vipers.”

They were the trustees of eternal life; they were the trumpet blowers that ought to have diligently kept the people alert and spiritually alive.  Thus, God’s judgment or indictment was harsher for them than others.  Likewise, when Christ railed against the scribes and Pharisees, His mercy had already been stretched to the breaking point, and imminent wrath was all that could be expected now.  If you still have any illusions about what God’s love looks like, then read the entire chapter of Matthew 23—it is a scathing indictment against the scribes and the Pharisees; here are verses 32-33: "Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” 
        


Monday, August 12, 2013

People Who Know Their God Will Take Strong Action



I received this from my subscription to The Elijah List.  Because I believe it is timely and informative, and with The Elijah List’s permission, I help disseminate it here:

People Who Know Their God Will Take Strong Action
by Rick Joyner

Aug 11, 2013

From the desk of Steve Shultz:
I like the King James translation of this verse using the word, "Exploits":

Daniel 11:32 "...but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." KJV

The definition of "exploits" is:

"A bold or daring feat: 'the most heroic and secretive exploits of the war.'"
How good it will be when we know our God more and more, such that the entire Body of Christ is anointed by the power of Jesus and His Cross; being fully indwelt by the explosive baptism of the Holy Spirit. What happens then?
GREAT EXPLOITS... "heroic and secretive exploits of [spiritual] WAR!

To find out more about the part you play in the exploits to be revealed in your life, read Rick Joyner's well-timed article.
***
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Rick Joyner: People Who Know Their God Will Display Strength and Take Action 

As mentioned previously, The Holy Spirit is "the Helper" not "the Doer." He will do His part, but He expects us to do ours. It is good to be able to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit, but we must not stop there. We must go on to seek Him for what our part is and then do it.

We cannot be the salt and light we are called to be without being engaged in these times. Jesus called those who were more devoted to understanding the weather than the signs of the times "hypocrites." To be the light we are called to be, it is crucial that we understand these times.

Because the Spirit "searches all things, even the depths of God" (see 1 Corinthians 2:10), no one who is truly led by the Spirit will be shallow in their understanding. If we are led by the Spirit, we will love the truth enough to seek it out. We will be compelled to have a depth to our knowledge.

Even if we are convinced that the rapture will spare us from the Great Tribulation, what the Lord Himself prophesied as "the beginning of birth pangs" (see Matthew 24:8) should be enough to motivate us to prepare for difficulties. However, our preparation for the times is not just for survival, but also for doing our part as laborers in the greatest harvest the world will ever see.

Display Strength and Take Action

In Daniel 11:32 we see that when "the abomination of desolation" is being set up, "the people who know their God will display strength and take action." We are not here to cower nor hoard. We are not only to seek safety for ourselves, but we are here to prepare the way for the coming Kingdom. Those who are truly following the King will display strength and take action.

The world is getting darker, fast. However, we are here for a reason. In times of greater darkness, greater light is needed and will be given. As deep darkness covers the earth, it will be our greatest opportunity of all time to walk with God and be His messengers.

Do you have the message? Are you beholding the glory of the Lord? Can others behold His glory on you? 

We are told in 2 Corinthians 3 that we should be experiencing more glory than Moses did. We have a better covenant than Moses had. We can have a closer relationship to God than Moses did, and Moses met with Him face to face. Even so, and much better than that, He has come to live in us! He never leaves us.
Do we see the One who lives within us? Do we see His glory? If we do, others will see it in us.

Rick Joyner
MorningStar Ministries
Email: info@morningstarministries.org
Website: morningstarministries.org
Rick Joyner is the founder and executive director of MorningStar Ministries and Heritage International Ministries and is the Senior Pastor of MorningStar Fellowship Church. He is the author of more than forty books, including The Final Quest, A Prophetic History, and Church History. He is also the president of The OAK Initiative, an interdenominational movement that is mobilizing thousands of Christians to be engaged in the great issues of our times, being the salt and light that they are called to be. Rick and his wife, Julie, have five children: Anna, Aaryn, Amber, Ben, and Sam.