THE COMFORTHER PART 4 - THE KEY INGREDIENT FOR THE TIME TO COME

 

This devotional teaching forms somewhat of a foundational purpose for the coming devotionals that Father have placed on my heart and have confirmed in various ways, which is that of intercession.  At the heart of intercession is identification.  Let’s start with reading about the incident that occurred after the disciples came down from the mount of transfiguration into the city, or should I say valley. 

MARK 9: 17 - 31

¹⁷ And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;

¹⁸ And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.

¹⁹ He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.

²⁰ And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.

²¹ And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.

²² And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.

²³ Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

²⁴ And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

²⁵ When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

²⁶ And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.

²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.

²⁸ And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?

²⁹ And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

³⁰ And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.

³¹ For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.

I find it very significant that after this incident with this boy, we have Yeshua talking about how He will be betrayed and delivered into the hands of man and that He too would rise from the dead on the third day.  Clearly, we can see the correlation between what happened in the valley with the boy to that which would happen to Yeshua, where the enemy would do their best to destroy Him to the point where everybody would say, “He is dead”.  The reason why I named this devotional “The Key Ingredient for the Time to Come”, is because we need to understand that the time we are going in very soon, will be a time where the nations, the children of God, the left behind and Judah, will be as this boy.  The enemy will do his best to jerk, manipulate, destroy and control those on this earth that are against their plans.  It will be a time of great famine, great sorrow like never before.  The question is, “Are we prepared?  And can one be prepared for something like this?  What is Father’s method in preparing us for these circumstances? Why does He allow certain things?”  These are the questions we need to ask ourselves.  “In what way is Father personally preparing me for the time to come?”  If you know or suspect that you are a worker for this time, aware that preparation is needed, you need to be able to know what He is presently working in you now.  He never stops working, always busy working in you that character that will sustain you in this particular time to come.  Hence, why Yeshua said, “This kind”.  A distinction was made with this boy’s deliverance that is not made with all the other incidents of healing or deliverance.  He was referring to “this kind” in a prophetic context.  “This kind” that will be here at the end of the age is not of the kind that you can just by a “quick word” be able to control.  It will require of you more than all the other “kind”.  “This kind” is the kind that will bring utter destruction, “this kind” is the kind that will be at the end of the age where it will be a spiritual battle.  It has always been a battle between nations, but it will be the time of the two kingdoms that will clash, that which is the invisible with the visible.  We will be standing right in the middle of it and will have to be prepared.  Father is working very hard at this moment preparing His bride, even more so as the time nears.  It behoofs us to know exactly what He is busy with, because no time can be wasted at this stage.  We need to count the cost and think about what will befall us.  I have often been told that I have a martyr complex and find this to be one of the best compliments someone can give.  It is an honour.  However, we can say that we are willing to die for Him, but when it comes to doing it, our hearts, our lives will have to have been prepared for that.  You do not get to that point because you say so, you get to that point because you have been prepared for it.  We need to prepare ourselves and have the mindset that very possibly we will have to die.  We will have to be willing to die.  By heart we are all “Peters’ and say that we will die for Him, and then when it comes to it, we fall flat on our faces.  We do this on a day-to-day basis. 

“This kind” only comes out through prayer and fasting.  This prayer and fasting are more than just normal prayer and fasting.  How many of us have prayed and fasted and have not really seen results?  Sometimes we do, but very often we do not see results.  What kind of prayer and fasting is He talking about? If He is emphasising “this kind” then it stands to reason that the prayer and fasting needs to match up with “this kind”.  Fasting is more than just abstaining from food.  Fasting is to be set apart.  Your life needs to be a fast, which means that you abstain from that which other people consider lawful, small indulgences, not just food.  Your whole life is set apart, because you are about your Father’s business.  You are about what He is preparing you for.  You do not consider these small things that other people consider as insignificant as insignificant, but rather, to you it has great significance.  Your attitude, your habits, your body, taking everything into consideration.  The same goes to with regard to prayer.  This praying is not just the ability to make a petition, but this praying and fasting is that of identification.  At the heart of intercession is identification.  The priest had to identify with man and at the same time, he had to identify with God.  Yeshua is the mediator between God and man.  We are a royal priesthood built up in Him, woven into His purple priestly robe’s fibre by our identification.  Identification has everything to do with reality.  You will find that I often speak about reality, woven right through this teaching.  Reality is that which is true and God is reality. 

If we are going to represent Him, we are going to have to do this in reality.

When I think of this boy, he also reminds me of Job.  Job, we know, went through so much.  The Lord God asked satan what he was doing and he later told the Lord God that the reason why Job was doing so well, is because he has everything going for him.  He has a great family, he is rich, he has love and friends, having everything his heart could dream of.  Why would it not go so well with Job?  The Lord God gave the enemy permission to attack Job.  For many people this makes no sense.  The Lord God gave the enemy permission to destroy the man.  The only thing that he could not take is his actual life.  Job in the end was just short of taking his life, because it was just too much to bear.  Yet the Word tells us that through this all, he did not sin with his lips.  However, when we look at the stripping that Job went through, we see clearly that there is a type and shadow of the time to come.  What man of those against the present order and the viles of the enemy will not look like Job as well?  Being stripped of everything.  We have to be realistic of the time that lays ahead of us and it is around the corner.  We can be very excited about the things that Father will do through us, excited about the power that will rest upon us, but we must never divorce it from the realities that we will face.  It does not matter how much the power of God will rest upon you, that power carries with it responsibility, and responsibility needs to be sustained by character.  If you do not have the character to sustain this responsibility, you will inevitably abuse power.  That is what we have seen right through the ages, especially with those behind the pulpit, where they abuse the power that is supposed to come with it.  They say all the right things, but in the end the real colours come out.  We need to understand that the Holy Spirit is working very hard on our character and He has his ways of doing it.

A few months ago, I was on a very difficult fast during which Father spoke to me about Job.  He showed me in a vision me standing in a bathroom, everything white,  I had white linen on, and I fell over on the floor.  The next moment I clearly heard the words, “seven attacks”. The bathroom speaks of sanctification or purification and the falling on the ground speaks of humility and humbling myself before Him.   Needless to say, I was wondering whether I would get attacked in seven ways.  However, Father wanted to speak to me about these seven attacks with regard to Job. There probably are more than seven, but these seven areas constitute every area of our lives.

·       Spiritual – doubt/unbelief/fear/lose sight of who He is in your struggle

·       Material – finances / house / job etc

·       Emotional – anger / fear / self-pity / shame / guilt

·       Health – sickness

·       Psychological – Depression / Disorders / Abuse in different forms

·       Relational – People leave you / loneliness / disappointments

·       Life – suicidal thoughts / no hope / despair

With regard to the spiritual, we have a calamity, like a beloved dies or trauma.  Depending on where you are in your growth with the Lord, you start doubting your faith.  The enemy gets it right that you take your eyes off the Lord God.  He gets it right for you to just focus on the storm, the circumstances.  Getting it right for you to forget the mountain of transfiguration, forgetting who your God is and His sovereignty in every area of your life and every situation, because you are overwhelmed.  What happens is that your faith gets a blow and you realize just how unbelieving you are.  Just like the father of the boy said, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”  The enemy attacks our faith.  What he wants to do is to find a means by this attack to infiltrate your spirituality or walk with the Lord, in order to steal and kill.  He needs an entrance and he loves trauma.  If you do not guard that door or that area of weakness, he will find entrance and start to steal.  He wants to steal your peace, your faith, because if he can get you to lose focus on the Lord God, he can get you to look to other things.  In your struggle you start to question Him, asking why He is allowing it.  Does He not care?  You start to question your relationship, questioning yourself, the things of your life, whether you hear Him correctly or maybe you misunderstood Him or your discernment is not up to parr.  Your spirituality is attacked.

The next thing is materialistic things like your car breaking down, a leak in the roof, or the generator breaks, or a storm tears the house to pieces.  A continuous blow of one thing after the other.  You cannot get ahead financially, because there is always something else.  You always borrow and finding yourself constantly at the backfoot.  The enemy gets it right through these circumstances to once again break you down where all you look upon are your circumstances.  Just the fact that you cannot get ahead, sleeping at night worrying about “where you are going to get the money, where are you going to get the material to do it?” and it overwhelms you and your eyes are taken off the Lord. 

Emotionally he attacks us knowing our weakness with regard anger, fear, guilt and shame.  The emotional attack is that you are constantly in a place of being overwhelmed, having no peace, because you have to battle with your anger, with fear and anxiety.  This wears you down and when you are in that place, the door is wide open for the enemy to keep on attacking to keep on stealing and killing the seed sown in your life.  He is after your position in the Lord, your surety and stand in the Lord.  He wants to derail you from your security in the Lord.  He knows us so well and finds these gaps to enter.

Then we have our health where our body is racked with infirmity, always have the thorn in the flesh that never goes away.  Or it goes away, but something else always comes.  Maybe your cupboard is always packed with medicine or the people at the pharmacy know you by now.  You are always sick and depleted of energy.  This wears you down immensely.  At some stage you reach the point asking, “What’s it worth?” You end up not wanting to fight anymore.  It takes the fight out of you.  Even when we just get a normal cold or flu it can rack our body where you just feel miserable.  He uses that to come in and cause destruction and to steal.

Then we have the psychological area where we get disorders, depression, self-pity, different areas of abuse and the enemy comes and steals the peace of mind that is ours by having the mind of Christ.  He causes chaos on the inside.  You may be one of those people where everybody thinks your life is okay, but you are actually falling apart on the inside.  It has always been that way and you just have to survive, struggling to survive.  A psychological attack is huge because nobody can see it.  Emotional or spiritual abuse people cannot see, and if others do not see it, they are prone to think that it is not real.  You are silently suffering.  You are always suffering.  The enemy comes through this and steals life from you. He steals joy and peace from you.  He is after this.  If he can get you to break down completely through all these different areas, so that you in the end give up and not trust God, doubt God and have no joy, then he can just destroy you.

The other area is relational.  People leave you, those that you trusted and loved.  Family members or people that you grew up with.  They just up and leave you and have their own life to live and could not care about you.  You are alone.  All you have ever been is alone.  To be alone has a tremendous psychological affect on us.  It affects us because we were made to be in communion with one another.  It is part of what makes us tick.  Part of what make us feel loved, that we are part of someone or that somebody actually cares.  The enemy will come with that and bombards you with thoughts of “you do no matter, nobody cares or loves you, or you are not worthy.”  He breaks down your identity.   You cannot feel more alone when you feel that nobody loves you. Of course, there is a lot of self-pity that comes with that, but that self-pity is introduced by him in that place of aloneness.  He knows exactly which of his minions he has to bring in once the door is open.  

Lastly, he wants you to take your life. He introduces suicidal thoughts, manic depression and various things and with that comes all the other demons through these open doors.  These areas constitute what makes up a person’s life.  Your life consists of these areas.  This is the areas that the enemy focuses on.  They are in a way gateways to your heart, your spirit and you have to guard it with everything. 

We find the situation with Job and we wonder, “what was God thinking?” How can He just say, “Okay, I will open that door for you to go in and you can go in and plunder, kill off his family and steal.”  We think God cruel for doing so.  Coming back to what Yeshua said about “This kind” and identification, the time we are in, which is going to get much worse, we are going to be required to speak to those who have gone through all of these areas.  This will be the reality, all at once, for a multitude of people.  People will be broken, lost with no hope.  We are going to be in the midst of them and yet, we will have to be able to say to that “kind” and speak to those demons that plunder, manipulate and jerk these people and speak that word that will command them to leave.  And not be like the disciples who were not able to do it.  Thinking of what Paul went through, shipwrecks, flogging, fasting, adrift at sea, running for his life and fighting against beasts, have you ever asked yourself, “why did the Lord God allow Paul to go through all of that?”  Have you ever asked the Lord God why He allowed all His other apostles and disciples to go through that?  What was His purpose?  Yet, He used these people so mightily.  We are going to go through an “Acts 2.0” again where there will be a great outpouring of the Spirit of God and we will need the character that will sustain us in that time.  Just like Paul was in prison, we have the Dimitri Dudumans, the Richard Wurmbrandts and Corrie Ten Booms and many others that we are unaware of.  People imprisoned for Yeshua.  Enduring such pain and sorrow and yet, these people’s testimonies are so rich with God’s glory, love and provision.  We have to see the pattern here.  We have to understand that God is showing us that without suffering there can be no glory.  Already in the time that we are in, He allows certain things to happen to us and if we are not guarding those areas, knowing that the enemy has come to steal, lie and kill, and understand that nothing can happen to us unless the Lord God allows it, we will be prone to see ourselves as victims.   Remember, I am talking to those who know that they will be workers and that the Lord is preparing them.  He said that nobody will be able to snatch us out of His hand.  The reality is, where you are now in your present circumstances, unable to control it, you are STILL in His hands.  Nobody will be able to snatch you out of His hands.  However, you are capable of walking away.  You are still capable of seeing what is happening to you through your own lens or your own perspective and not know that He is teaching you or showing you things that will turn for your good.  It is imperative that we understand that whatsoever happens to us, in His grand design of all things to come, knowing exactly every single day of your life that He has purposed certain things to happen to you, because He knows what you need to learn, because He knows what you will be going through.  He knows ahead of time what you are going to face.  Does it not then stand to reason that we get down to business and ask, “Father, what is it that you are teaching me?  Show me what I am lacking in my spirit, in my character that will be to my detriment in the time to come.  Is it my impatience, my anger, my fear and unbelief?  Is it my inability to endure or my lack of love?”  He uses these things to come into our lives, using the enemy as His puppets, so that He can show us and bring these things to the surface so that we may deal with it.  This is what forms the character. 

Why were the disciples unable to drive out this demon out of the boy? This makes me think of the other account where disciples also could not cast out demons.

ACTS 19:15-17

¹⁵ And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?

¹⁶ And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Now consider this, here is the disciples in the house supposed to set somebody free from demonic possession and the next moment they are running out of this house, clothes ripped off them.  They were unable to cast out this demon, even though they used the name of Yeshua.  What is the difference between Paul and Yeshua and the disciples?  The difference is truth and reality, the difference is identification.  In all of Paul’s and Yeshua’s doing their whole life and all that they did in the Kingdom of God, never ever went without suffering. Even to the last minute.  Where as others would look at suffering as something I just need to get over with or endure, something that will pass, suffering is something that is called a gift.  A gift.  It is in that suffering that the reality of who we are is introduced to us.  When we see our weakness and poverty, our depravity and the waywardness of our heart, coming face to face with it in a situation of being out of control, it is then that we meet the true person.  Then we meet reality.  We can go about and quote many scriptures and use the name of Yeshua, but if we do not walk in reality of who we really are and that which we speak is not reality, the enemy is not obliged in any form or shape to listen to us.  They know when something is real.  They know whether you truly walk under authority, whether you have submitted yourself completely and whether you are the real thing or not. Therefore, they could say, “Jesus we know and Paul we know, but who are ye?”  It is by our identification with who we are as priests that we understand and can speak because we have dealt with those things.  We understand it.  What does this weakness do?  It causes us to cry out to Him and say, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!”  It causes you to face reality and forces you to cling with everything that is in you to Him.  That is all you want to do.  You want to hold unto Him.  You know that you cannot take one step without Him.  How often we quote John 15 that says we can do nothing without Him?  Yes, we know it, but is it reality and have He shown it to you over and over?  This is what I want to get to.  This reality is not for a season.  Just like it was not for a season for Yeshua or for Paul and all the other apostles.  It has not been a season for me.  It is your life.  It is part of the Christian walk, the narrow way where you take up your cross.  How many of us going through difficult circumstances, being overwhelmed, we understand this, we just want to take this cross off and take a break?  He did not get a break and neither did Paul.  There is no such thing as a break from your cross where you get to put it down and just live as if what is about to face you is not pivotal in how you face everything daily.  You have to daily pick up your cross and learn from your cross what you need to learn. 

The priests also identify with the Lord God, that Mount of Transfiguration experience.  The Lord God comes alongside us and reveals Himself to us in those times of weakness and other times and shows us His love, protection, guidance, truth and revelation, building us up.  Then we go down to the valley and we forget to remember. He knows that we forget to remember who He is.  Nobody is exempted from this.  All of us forget the experience on the Mount of Transfiguration in the moments of extremity when these seven areas of attack come our way   When it overwhelms us and we forget and we take our eyes off Him.  The time we are going in will need from us to stand in such authenticity and reality that when we speak to “this kind” that Yeshua spoke about, it will have to eclipse the reality of the evil entities in this time.  The authority that will back us is the authority that we in authenticity, knowing what it is, have submitted ourselves to in every single area of our lives.  The enemy knows in what areas you have not submitted to Him and I am not just talking about physical things, but also emotionally and spiritually, those that you should have submitted.  They know whether you are total towards God or not.  And in that time when you will need to be able to address these issues, will you be able to do it?  And do you understand that the time and season that you are now in is for that exact purpose to prepare you? Therefore, He cannot let up.  Therefore, He needs to allow the enemy to bring you to your knees so that you will constantly be in that place of utter dependence.  Crying out to Him.  The problem is that we come to our Mount of Transfiguration and we become comfortable.  Having an ability and not depending on the Lord God.  Saying words like, “Thank you Lord, it is only You that can do it through me.”  Meanwhile, you have started leaning on your ability, your talent or knowledge.  And without knowing, especially when we feel out of control, we start leaning on the wisdom of this world, holding onto what the world has to say.  You find yourself in a “catch 22” situation where you want to help your children or your finances and the first thing you run to is not to Him.  Yes, you pray, “Lord, please help me”, but you do not wait to hear what that help is.  Instead, you run to that which is the fastest, that which with just the press of a button you can find an answer, depending on the wisdom of this world, instead of the resurrection power of Christ in you that is able to do super abundantly above all you could ask or think.  The problem is we do not belief it. That is why we run to the first thing, because we do not belief it and we are not willing to wait.  But He has His ways to bring us to naught every time and to get us to turn to Him.  Without absolutely leaning and depending on Him, we will not make it in the time to come.  I will not make it in the time to come if I do not lean with my whole being upon Him.  He needs of us to understand this, that He has a divine purpose with our pain.  Elizabeth Elliot has a teaching called, “Suffering is not for nothing”.  I also have on the blog a devotional called, “The privilege of pain”.  He needs to break us down and break down everything that we depend upon in order to have His purpose through us.  The Mount of Transfiguration is that moment when you receive, He teaches you and reveals to you what He will do in your life, and you go down into the valley and that is where you are tested.  That is where you are shown to be the phony that you are, because you thought that you can stand, but you cannot.  You cannot handle even the slightest sickness before you fall apart.  Not saying this to insult, this is the frailty of our being.  And yet the time that we are going to go in is going to require so much of us.  It is really going to take endurance and a certain character that calls for such courage and bravery and we cannot do it without Him.  Therefore, I cannot stress enough that we take and utilize every lesson we can in this time that we are in. 

Two realities that constantly face us, the strength of God and our weakness as well.  This is what constitute a priest.  It is not just the setting apart; it is the identification.  A priest needs to be able to identify with the weakness of man and his own weakness and at the same time with the glory, beauty and holiness of the Lord God.  These two things need to marry.  We find this with Paul when he was ministering, he told the Corinthians church about how he comes in weakness to them.

1 CORINTHIANS 2: 1 – 4; 8 - 9

¹And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

² For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

³ And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

⁴ And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

Can you see the conjunction between the weakness of man with the power of God?  We have to understand in God’s economy that what He wants in turn for His strength is your weakness.  It is the prerequisite for His strength, for the power of God to work through us.  It is the demonstration of the cross and nothing else but the demonstration of the cross that will be the defining factor of whether something will leave or not leave when you command it.  Whether the cross is a reality in your life.  Whether that what you say is a reality and you have applied the cross, what the cross stands for, whether you have applied that to your life.  So that His power can work through you and so that you by the authority of the cross, standing under that authority, you can command.  It is all about authenticity.  It is all about reality.  Reality and authenticity are so close to my heart.  Because if I am not the real thing, I will be laughed at by the enemy.  We have a choice.  We can either have them say to us what they said to those disciples, “Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye?”  They were in fear and trembling.  The moment the demons saw Yeshua, he started to throw the boy to the ground.  This is what we need to understand.  We can choose.  We can have them fear us, the Christ in us or they can laugh at us.  They can say, “Who are you?  Who are you to tell me?  I know that name you are using, but I am not willing to listen to you.  You cannot make me leave.”  It is of essence that we understand that this is God’s economy.  We have to embrace this mindset; this disposition is our Christian walk.  This is the disposition that He wants to keep us in.  Yes, He takes us through seasons that He builds us up, get us to a point where we can minister to people and do various things for the Kingdom of God. Make no mistake, He wants to keep you in that disposition of weakness…always.  If He finds that you step out of that place of complete dependence on Him, He has His means to bring you back.  All for the glory of God.  This is why He says that He turns all things together for good. 

1 CORINTHIANS 2: 8 - 9

⁸ Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹ But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Think of Job.  What Job went through.  He went through so much in a very short time, but this are the words that he said at the end.

JOB 42: 5 – 6

⁵ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

(This is the identification with the Lord God)

⁶ Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

(This is his identification with his own weakness)

Who are we that the Almighty, the Creator of all things would use dust like us?   And yet, He constantly has to remind us that we are that dust.  We forget to remember who He is.  He brings us to a place of devastation, because He is a God who devastates.  Read the Bible.  He is the God who devastates.  But He is also the God who glorifies.  He says that eye have not seen and ear have not heard what He has prepared for those who love Him.  It is not for nothing.  Great glory and amazing things await us.  What He is about with us has eternal value.  I often think of Yeshua in heaven who still have the markings of the cross on His hands and feet.  This is because He is still as the Son of Man there.  He is still our great High Priest representing man and God.   He is not blasé about anything that happens to us.  He does not stand aloof when He sees we are suffering saying, “Well I hope they get it, because surely it is about time, they get it.”  He has such compassion on our suffering.  I thought the other day about the garden of Gethsemane.  He was crying out to the Father in the capacity of the Son of Man.  What horror had to go through His mind knowing that He has seen so many crucifixions, knowing every time when He saw it, He knew “One of these days…”  And the day came.  What fear and dread came over Him that He sweat blood?  He was just a man.  Yes, the Son of God, but in that moment, He was just a man that would suffer immensely.  How amazing is He identification with us?  Even in His dealings with us and even when we make the wrong choices, He is with us to help us, always.  That He may be that strength and power through us, if we will just be available and allow Him to do it.  If I think of that scripture that says if the enemy knew what would come out of the cross, I think of my life and your life.  If the enemy knew that by attacking you and what he is doing in your life and what you are learning out of it, the character that is being built and how that will be to his detriment.  The authority that is growing in you, the maturity in Christ, the greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world, the greater Christ becomes in you by your submitting under His greatness and authority.  Once the enemy realizes that all this destruction is counting against him, he would not do it.  Job received twice as much back after everything.  Nothing you go through is for nothing.  We need to utilize what He brings on our path in such a way that we have such a disposition of mind to always want to learn what He is showing us.  Once we get on parr with that, the suffering also becomes less.  I have gone through much suffering in my life and I am still going through much suffering in my life.   I had to learn that the sooner I get to understand what He is teaching me through this, the better it will be for me.  Because the moment that you know, you have focus, direction and you are working with Him, putting your self-pity to one side and you are focused.  We need to get to that point where we understand that we need to utilize every moment, because the time is ticking away.  By all intents and purposes, Christ on that cross was as good as dead in the same context as that boy was.  They all looked at the boy and said, “He is dead.”  All hope was lost when they looked upon Yeshua.  Here is the man that would have saved them, would have ruled, saved them from the tyranny and being controlled by this world, hanging on a cross and everything He said came to naught.  The word says that they were scattered.  He told them that they would be scattered.  Even with Peter who said that he would die for Him and when the first moment for him to do so came only a few hours after he made that proclamation, he had to run for his life.  What did he do?  He climbed into his boat.  He went back to his old profession.  He went back to the world, back to that which works quickly.  He wanted to go into denial, where he did not have to face who he really is.  And who waited for him on the shore?  Who told him afterwards, “throw the net on the other side” and “now that you are done with fishing, feed My sheep”?  He had to go through what he did in order to be able to have that character that will sustain him in whatever he went through from that moment he got off that boat.  In the same way we see Joseph what he went through.  Also with Yeshua, there was no hope, but there had to be a death.  There had to be utter destruction.  There had to be devastation.  Both with Yeshua and His disciples. The disciples had to be scattered, because they had to meet up with who they truly are.  It was only once that happened that they could return, knowing who they are and where He afterwards came and revealed Himself to them in glory.  This is God’s ways with us.  In Psalm 27 David says, “Teach me thy ways oh Lord and lead me in a plain path because of my enemies.  For false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breath out cruelty.”  This is one of His ways of teaching us.  It is to strengthen our character and to build us up by breaking us down.  It is important that we understand that it is not just seasonal.  The intensity might change, but He wants to keep us in that place, because He knows we need to stay in that place.  The level of pride in our hearts, our hearts is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it.  He knows our hearts and searches our hearts.  He knows how easily we will turn away from Him.  He has to keep us in that place.  We can either have the attitude of the pharisee or the publican. 

LUKE 18: 8 - 14

⁸ I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

⁹ And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

¹⁰ Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

¹² I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.  (We do not see how much like pharisees we can be.  It is just pride. The leaven of the Pharisees.)

¹³ And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

In this example Yeshua is showing us so clearly the attitude and disposition of those that He requires whom He will use mightily.  Not just for justification, but for exaltation.  He knows when you move out from reality. 

The Centurion sent his men to Yeshua asking that Yeshua would just say a word and his servant would be healed.  He said that he was not worthy that Yeshua should come under his roof and that he was familiar with authority and that He could just say a word and it would be.  Yeshua said that this man had great faith!  I never could understand why He said that this is great faith.  It was great faith because he knew what it meant to be under the subjection of authority.  You want to walk in authority and you want the enemy to listen when you speak, the best place for you to walk in authority, is to walk under authority.  The best place for you to become an overcomer, is for you to be overcome.  The best place for you to have strength is to walk in weakness in yourself.  This is God’s means.  We need to ask. “What is the disposition that is needed in the seasons when I am being tested?”  They are:

 

·       FOCUS

He wants to take your focus off the Lord, to forget to remember who Yeshua is.  He wants you to forget the Mount of Transfiguration, to forget the words He has given you.  He wants you to forget what He has brought you through.  This is why Joshua had to lay 12 stones in the Jordan river representing each tribe, so that when the children asked what the stones are for, they could testify of how the Lord God delivered them.  You need to remain focused and find out.  Remember who is your help and that nothing is impossible.  Yeshua told the boy’s father, “Everything is possible for those who believe.”  With man it is impossible, but with God nothing is impossible.

 

·       UNDERSTANDING

Understand why you are going through what you are going through.  Just like the enemy do not waist a tragedy or calamity, so the Lord God do not either.  He does not waste any opportunity that He can teach us.  Understand what He is teaching you and walk with Him in obedience. 

·       SEEK HIM LIKE NEVER BEFORE

When Yeshua was in His darkest hour, He was seeking the face of the Father.  In His presence.  When we are weak, we need the strength of His presence and we need to come into that place where He can fill us.  Worshipping Him and stand in His presence and glory.  Allowing the Holy Spirit to pour into us and invigorate us.  Sometimes the battle is long and we need to go often to be filled.  Remember that.  Remember that you can run empty and that you need to rest in Him, as well as physical rest. 

·       NOT FALL APART

Do not give in to self-pity.  Do not allow the enemy to tell you it is too late.  Remind the enemy of the boy that he wanted everybody to say is dead.  That very boy was taken by the hand and was risen up and that your circumstances are not impossible with God and that He has a purpose with it.  Stand up against the lies and viles of the enemy and focus.  Do not fall apart, but remind the enemy of the cross.

·       LEAN ON THE HIM

This means to embrace your weakness.  Embrace the season.  Acknowledge it.  Sometimes we can be so hard with ourselves and look at the circumstances and say, “I cannot believe that I have done this again!  I cannot believe that I am once again in this place after He has spoken to me so many times about the same thing… and here I am again!”  Do not do that.  He works with us in layers.  Sometimes we have not yet overcome something and He has to test us again in it.  We may have learned a lesson out of it, but we still need to be tested again.  Sometimes it is a different angle, looking like the same thing, but it is a different dimension or deeper level.  He does not waste anything and He is not disappointed in you.  He knows exactly what lies in you.  The problem is that you expect more of yourself.  What I mean by that is that you have not yet embraced or have been confronted with just how much and to what extend your depravity and wickedness of heart is.  And yet, He loves us and covers us with His blood and mercy.  His loving-kindness and His mercy are new every morning.  Every morning…Halleluyah!  We can know that we can lean on Him. 

Dependency is the name of the game.  Reality is the name of the game.  Reality in who we are and who He is.  Dependency, because we know who we are and we cling to Him.  It is this what He is requiring of us now in our season.  It is most definitely what He is requiring of us in the time to come.  Please hear the word of the Lord.

I AM PATIENT

Have I not told you to count the cost?  Have I not said to sit down and think before you build?  The cost is great for those I will use greatly.  Yes, in your own strength it is impossible, but if you lean on Me, abide in Me and I in you, I have said that you will bear much fruit.

What do you expect to find if you do not?  Why are you even surprised?  Your unrealistic expectation is the one you place on yourself and not Me on you.  You know that you can do nothing without Me and yet you still do.  Such is the way of the unrepentant.  Such is the way of those who do not walk circumspectly as those who know that much is required. 

Your walk is planned every step by Me to work in you that disposition required for your call.  Every step not just for testing, but for training.  Therefore, you have to focus on every choice you make for it determines your character which is built habitually by the laying down and subduing of the flesh. 

Therefore, as I have said, walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfil the dictates of the flesh.  Walk in Me.

Chin up! Come now, let us reason.  Is anything too difficult for Me?  Not even your inability can stop My work in you.  Only your disposition, whether you are looking to Me or yourself.

Have I not said over and over, Look unto Me?  I have.  I know it is difficult, but persistence and diligence are required of you.  Stay the course. Do not lose hope or be disappointed, but keep your steady gaze on Me as I lead the way.

One step at a time.  I am patient with you.  Did you know that?  Do you know that I wait patiently for all My children in all acts of obedience?  This does not change My requirements, but is there so you may lean on Me.  That you may lean on My Spirit, whom I have given you to comfort you and guide you.  He directs, He provides and He is ever in you to be your strength.

Prayer:

Father, I thank you that I can bring everybody who have listened to this message or read it.  Whether it is just one person or a hundred.  It really does not matter.  The only thing that matters is that it reaches that heart that it needs to reach to shift them from one place to another.  Where they will focus and have an understanding of what this hour requires of them.  That they need to have that key ingredient, which is your Spirit.  I thank you Father that you are going to work this in them so that they will be able to run with you and not lack behind.  So that they will not look to the left or the right, but set their face as a flint and look forward.  That they will understand what in this season you are busy with them.  I thank you Father for your grace and mercy. 

In the name of Yeshua

Amen.

Last week I took my dog to the groomers and we have had problems with our garage door that did not want to open every now and then.  I decided to take my front door keys with me just in case the garage door wanted to bail on me.  It just so happens that it did and I had to use my front door keys to go into the house.  Only to find out that the front door also did not want to open.  After more than 30mins of trying to open the door, I phoned my mother to open the side gate so that we at least could be with her.  We tried her keys and they too did not want to work.  My mom stood behind me and quietly said, “Open in the name of Jesus.”  And just like that when she said “open” the door opened.  I just burst out laughing, because she said it so softly.  It is not about how hard and authoritative you say it, but in authenticity.  I knew Father was speaking to me about authority at that moment. 

The next day I decided to make rusks and the recipe asked for self-rising flour. However, I used normal flour and later realized that I forgot to put baking powder in.  Luckily, I realized this just before I put it in the oven.  I added the baking powder and the Holy Spirit said to me, “You forgot the key ingredient.”  I just laughed.  The word key immediately reminded me about what happened the day before with the doors and the key ingredient is the raising agent, who is the Holy Spirit.  It is that authenticity of the Spirit of God in us.  We cannot forget that the raising agent in us is the Spirit and He needs all of us to depend on Him.  He just wants our availability so that He can do the work through us. 

Do not forget the key ingredient for the time to come.  Allow the Spirit to work in you that which will cause you to depend completely and utterly on Him.

Amen.