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We
do not
pray
to
get
the
strategy.
~
Prayer
is
the
strategy!
~
Who
we are
in Christ
surpasses
who
we are
in
"ourselves."
~
We
are not
even
identified
in
"the call"
that
is
placed
upon
our
lives!
~
Our
faith
must
mature
into
absolute
trust
so that
no
matter
what ~
we know
that
everything
that
goes on
in our
lives,
even
things
that we
would not
choose
for
ourselves,
is
shaping
&
molding
us into
exactly
who
&
what
God
wants us
to be!
|
By Bobbie Jean Merck
...Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a
man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be
born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou
hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and
wither it goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
John 3:5-8
Jesus, in speaking with Nicodemus about
the new birth characterizes it in this manner in John 3:8, "The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence
it cometh, and wither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
We know that the wind is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and that He
is talking completely about the Holy Spirit.
There is a new season in manifestation, there is a new season in
motion. The principles in John 3:5-8 that Jesus spoke are going to be seen as
never before. There will be an *uplifting,* such that there is going to be such
a distinction between that which is flesh and that which is Spirit, and we are
going to know instantly whether what is being said and done is of the flesh or
of the Spirit of the Living God.
God spoke to me in June that the mandate from Almighty God for us
who love Him is so tremendous that there is no way we can do it ~ it has to be
done by Almighty God. If we are going to go with the wind and with the move of
Almighty God, we are going to go with the Holy Spirit.
John 3:8 in particular began to open up to me in revelation on May
1, 2004. God said to me that day, "That which is born of the Spirit is a
peculiar breed." He spoke in such a magnanimous way, that it just melted me,
and I know the Spirit of God desires to let you know how peculiar you are
to Him.
I began to study the word peculiar. That word is so
outstanding, that everything about the Spirit and born of the Spirit is
peculiar. We are not like everybody else!
The first definition of peculiar identifies us as a
purchased people. God created mankind with a free will. Those who choose
Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior then become His own peculiar people. We do
not belong to ourselves anymore, for we are bought with a price, the precious
blood of the Lamb, Jesus!
We belong to Almighty God and now we
are to glorify Him in our bodies, and glorify Him in our spirits. This means
that in everything and in all things, we are to be like Jesus ' reflecting Him
in this world by saying and doing what Jesus Christ would have us to say and to
do. It means we choose what God would have us to choose.
The next definition of peculiar means special in the
sense of highly valued and unique. We are very special to God. You are very,
very special! The Church of America needs to be bathed afresh in the
awareness, "I am special."
We are not to be in pride, for we are instructed to esteem others
as higher than ourselves, but that does not mean we are not to esteem
ourselves. We must consider others and love them, as God considers us, loves
us and highly values us, and say to one another, "You are special, and I am
special."
As God distinguishes us as His own special people, we are to
treasure the Lord as special. When we exalt other things in our lives above Him,
we are not only demonstrating our lack of awareness of how special He is, and
how deserving of the utmost special place in our hearts and lives, but we are
really not carrying within ourselves the awareness of how special we are to Him.
The parable of the rich man demonstrates this principle. He was not
kept back from following God because he had money, but because he had
made money his god, that which held the most prominent, special position
in his heart. God knew he was trusting in and elevating money above God.
The man told Jesus that he had no other gods before God ~ this was
one of the ten commandments that he said he had fulfilled. Yet he did not know
his own heart, for when Jesus asked him to sell everything, this question
revealed that there was a god in his life ~ and it was money. He valued money
more than he valued God.
To be a peculiar people also means to be people
with a purpose. We have a God-given purpose, and the magna-carta of it all
is expressed in Matthew 28:19, 20 when Jesus tells his disciples, "Go therefore,
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded
you...." That is the beginning and the end of what He has commanded us to
do.
I ministered for the first time in Kings River Worship Center in
West Virginia for Pastor Ron Crum last year on intercessory prayer in the Holy
Spirit, intimacy with God in the secret place, and the supernatural church. As I
flowed out of my spirit and my well of experience, the Lord had me to share the
testimony about the 7-hours of praying in other tongues in Guatemala in July
1983 that stopped the blood-bath coups that they had been having for years upon
years upon years ~ and they have never had another since that time! (The
complete testimony is in the June 2004
Overflow.)
This West Virginian church is the first one, after hearing that
Guatemalan testimony, to hold a 7-hour prayer meeting in other tongues. All
praise and glory to God that so many others are now calling their people to such
prayer and God is moving so mightily in response! But I was so moved as I went
back to the church in West Virginia on July 4 of this year to minister, and I
heard this testimony, "We don't pray to get the strategy. Prayer is the
strategy!" If I pray in the Holy Ghost, in other tongues, I know that the
"strategies" are going to be supernaturally worked out for the people with the
purpose of God!
We are peculiar in that our identity is in Christ.
The most alarming thing to a human being is not to know who they are and why
they are on the face of the earth. We have to know who we are. We are rooted in
our identity, and these roots are the number one emotional security need of a
human Being.
Some people have fixed their identities
in a community, a nationality, a lifestyle, a job ~ there are so many variations
of things people key off of to build an identity. For the Christian, our
identification cannot be rooted primarily in any other thing or person than the
person of Jesus Christ Himself, above all other facets that may be a part of the
building blocks of our lives.
When we know who we are in Christ ~ that surpasses who we are in
ourselves. We are not identified in one another, and we are not even identified
in "the call" that is placed upon our lives!
We are identified in Christ Jesus, which means as further revealed in the Greek
that we are identified with Christ in what He is doing by the Holy Spirit
because of being baptized into His Body. In other words, we are in this body,
but not in this body ~ as Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me..." (Galatians 2:20). We have been
baptized into Christ's Body.
We have to know our absolute identity and identification is in
Christ Jesus, for we are going to lose our way sometimes in "ourselves" and the
devil can defeat us if we stand only in "ourselves" by causing us to forget we
are a special, purchased, unique, peculiar people.
When we know what we are by the grace of God, and we work all the
more, but it is not us, but it is the grace of God working in us, the devil has
lost the battle before he begins.
When Reinhard Bonnke went into a shop in Germany, someone said to
him, "I see Jesus in your eyes." Reinhard asked God what that meant, and
the Lord replied, "Well I live in you, can't I look out of your eyes any time I
want to?" We forget that. Jesus said, "If you have seen me, you have seen
the Father." We can say, because our very identity is in Christ, "If you
have seen me, you have seen Jesus!" That is peculiar!
"But ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light..." (1 Peter 2:9). First notice it is recorded that we are peculiar to
show forth His praises and His virtue! Whatever God is we "show forth" and
He is all that is praiseworthy and virtuous!
One of the descriptive words of peculiar brought out in 1
Peter 2:9 is chosen. The enemy forgets to tell us we are chosen ~
he tells us we are a nobody, and that we are not worth a thing. The Word,
however, tells us that we were chosen before the foundations of the world were
laid.
Every human being ever born has this open invitation from God
"whosoever will" may come, the "chosen" then, are those who respond to that
invitation and choose Christ. God is all powerful and all knowing, and saw who
would choose Christ.
If you and I were chosen before the foundations of the world were
laid, God had us in His heart and in His mind all that many pre-creation years.
He also knew every sin, every wrong thing about us, and He knew every weakness.
Our sin did not catch Him off guard. His gifts and His callings are without
repentance! He still chose us and saw us identified in Christ, for He is the
Lord our God whose mind changes not.
We do not have "carte-blanche" to sin, but it does mean if we
stumble into sin, and we confess that sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He then puts that sin behind His back
into the sea of forgetfulness. Why do we remember them, when God does not
remember them?
When God chose us, He called us for a purpose. Not only did He call
us for a purpose, but when Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, He
set every member uniquely in the Body where that member is supposed to be.
Is Jesus God? Then He did it before the foundations of the world were
laid. We were peculiar: purchased, special, for a purpose, Christ-like,
and chosen in God's mind then and now. If we understood that, we would
not be so hard on others, nor on ourselves.
There is a bridge, a turning point where peculiar becomes
inheritance. Deuteronomy 4:20 declares, "But the Lord hath taken you, and
brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a
people of inheritance, as ye are this day."
Inheritance means a possession to which one has received
the legal claim. Included in this certainly is our acquiring of property,
possessions, and wealth, and we can expect God to work with us to get property
and to get possessions and to get wealth. Yet God also has a legal claim on us.
Did God bring you out of the furnace and out of bondage? It is because you are
an inheritance. He inherited you, and He saw you as peculiar.
A peculiar inheritance is an heirloom. An
heirloom is priceless! You cannot put a price on you. The devil cannot buy you
he does not have the wherewithal to meet the price ~ for you are priceless!
The blood of God's only begotten Son is the all-encompassing measure of your
value to God. He accepts no other currency, for our value to God is
immeasurable, as Christ is immeasurable.
"For thou art an holy people unto the Lord
thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself,
above all people that are upon the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6).
The definition of special as used here is as His private possession which
He has personally acquired and carefully preserves, as that priceless heirloom.
We are God's inheritance, and that which He gives to us becomes an inheritance
to us and to all that concerns us. As we submit all to Him, God shapes us into
what He wants us to be.
Notice in the latter part of verse 6
"...above all people that are upon the face of the earth." Is God's word true?
Then we are above all people that are on the face of the earth! This is not to
make us haughty and look down on others in a condescending manner.
Being English did not accomplish this for me. Our earthly
nationalities cannot do this for us. But in God, we are a people separated unto
Him as His inheritance. He says, you are My inheritance, you are My heirloom.
Heirlooms are cared for with a special treatment. He sets us above all other
people.
If the sinner gets a hold of this, they will want to come with us.
There is a way that seems right, but it leads straight to destruction and it is
hell on the way. Apart from God, there is no peace, no lasting joy, and no
fullness of satisfaction.
God is not a respecter of persons ~ He is a respecter of His Word.
Those who are identified by and in His Word by choosing His Word, and thereby
are standing upon and releasing His Word; those who have faith in His Word and
are trusting in God no matter what are those whom God exalts above all others
on the face of the earth. "Whosoever will" may come and benefit from God,
anyone from any background can choose God and be raised up, but God only
raises up in Himself those who choose Him!
Hear the Lord in Deuteronomy 7:9, "Know therefore that the Lord thy
God, he is God, the faithful God...." Christianity is not complicated ~
religion is ~ but Christianity is simply knowing that God is God, that He is
love, and that He is faithful! In His faithfulness He will never fail us. When
God begins something He finishes it.
Faith may be activated by confession, but faith itself is knowing
God, and knowing that God is good. He is Who He is. Knowing God is knowing Him
in such a way that you know He will not do anything but good for you. Sometimes
we may ask for something that He knows is not good for us, and not in His will,
and in His goodness and His love He does not give that to us.
Our inheritance, because we are His inheritance, includes
everything that the Bible promises us. We also know that every promise in Jesus
Christ is "yes" and "amen." But real faith is ultimately trusting God. It
is knowing that He is good, and that He is working on our behalf even when it
doesn't look like it.
Our faith must mature into absolute trust, which means this to me,
that no matter what goes on and no matter what happens, all is Romans 8:28, "And
we know that things will work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose." When we can say, "We trust
you, God, no matter what it looks like. We trust you, God, no matter what
happens."
To me, that is higher and greater than just faith, but faith that
becomes trust ~ really it is the same, but when faith becomes a strong faith, it
is expressed in complete trust, so that we can say, "It doesn't matter, I know
You are love, I know You are faithful and You are good, and You can't do
anything but good, because Your love never fails."
God is faithful. Trust looks to the faithfulness of God. Trust
knows and says, "When one door is closed, a greater door is opened." When we
turn to God, our faith is trust. We submit and we humble ourselves under the
mighty hand of God. We yield ourselves under His hand of possession. The
absolute is: All the while - everything that goes on in our lives, even
everything that we would not choose for ourselves, is shaping us and molding us,
making us into exactly into who and what He wants us to be.
We stand out as light shining in the darkness, beloved of the
Father. The only scripture I could speak from memory as a little Methodist girl
was John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but should have everlasting
life."
Our gift back to God is everything that we are, everything we have,
everything that is valuable and precious to us ~ ourselves, and everything that
concerns us, that He might fashion us by His Spirit into His own peculiar
treasure that bears witness of Him, showing forth His praises and His virtue to
a world that stands in need of Him.
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