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Making Disciples of All Nations

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The Rising Remnant

9/25/2020

1 Comment

 
There's a remnant that's rising in America. They don't want platforms or stages. Their motivation is not to sell a book, a song or anything the Lord has given them. They aren't concerned with retirement. They don't care about owning a house. They don't desire money, wealth, fame, notoriety or anything the world has to offer.

They want to be pure and holy, pleasing to the Lord. They want to see His glory cover the earth like the water covers the sea. They are separating themselves from the culture of the world, but at the same time, loving those who are stuck in it.

They operate in God's kingdom... away from politics, especially politics in the church. They stand on the Word of God and live that way because they know it is truth. They trust the Lord fully. They share the gospel of the kingdom with BOLDNESS and fresh revelation of the Spirit. The gospel is confirmed with signs and wonders, persecution and many coming into the kingdom.

They worship in Spirit and in truth. 

Are you part of this remnant? You don't have to "be there yet." Let me give you some practicals:

Rest.
Abide.
Repeat.

What?? That's it? what about praying, sharing the gospel, preaching, working, even eating!

REST
Hebrews 4 says this: 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

If you backup to Chapter 3 and into 4, the people didn't enter His rest because of unbelief. How many times do we worry, not trust, or do things in our own strength (because of unbelief)? Do we really trust Him? Just looking at my life, many, many times.

So, how do we live and act out of rest? It seems backward to us. Look, God doesn't get the glory when we do things in our own strength.  EVEN GOOD THINGS.

Matthew 7
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

These people prophesied, cast out demons and performed many miracles... but they did it in their own strength. God gave them gifts, and they abused them. He worked through them mightily, but they didn't know Him. Many people are frightened by these verses, but again, stand on the Word... God did not give us a spirit of fear.

How do we know Him? Jesus defined eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son in John 17. We know Him by abiding.

ABIDE
Merriam-Webster defines abide as this: to wait for, to bear patiently, to accept without objection, to remain stable or fixed in a state, to continue in a place, to conform to.

John 15: 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

Jesus is the vine and God the Father is the vinedresser. We don't have any life apart from Jesus. We get food, breath and life from the vine. The Father prunes our fruit-bearing branches (which can be very painful), and He gets rid of branches that don't bear fruit. If we are abiding in the vine, God is glorified and we bear much fruit.

Well, that sounds like God gets glory by letting Him do all the work?! EXACTLY! God the Father prunes! Jesus gives life and sustenance. It's totally opposite of our human nature. We want to have success, have numbers, look good to everyone else.

We have pride. God's way is opposite. It doesn't matter how it looks to man. How man defines success is not God's success. It can look terrible to everyone and still be God's plan. His ways are not our ways.

It's all to Him, through Him and for Him. It's not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit. We can do nothing apart from Him. Why do we try? Stop striving! 

A remnant is rising.
They are preaching the gospel boldly.
They are being persecuted.
The Spirit is confirming the gospel with signs and wonders.
They are turning the world upside down.
Many are coming and will come into the Kingdom.
1 Comment

A New Thing in New Wineskins

9/15/2020

2 Comments

 
I’m going to try to cover some ground here that God has been speaking to me. There are a couple topics I have felt God highlighting recently and I believe they are connected. So, I’m going to try to process through them and find that bridge. Okay, let’s get going...

God is on the move and is orchestrating a work that is completely new; something that has never happened before. I know this deep down in my spirit, you know, that place that knows things before our minds completely understand.

We were meeting for our weekly prayer time with the prayer warriors at The Nest a few weeks ago and I opened my Bible to Isaiah 42.
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vs 9: “Indeed, the former things have come to pass, now I declare new things; before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

I read this to the group and prayed through it and the few verses before. As I finished, a few of them burst into song. It was an old hymn type song which I had never heard. When they finished they explained that it was written by one of their members years ago and based out of Isaiah 43. However, the theme was exactly the same as what I had read. Here are those verses from chapter 43:

vs 18-21: “Do not remember the former things, or ponder the things of the past. Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field will honor Me... because I have given waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. The people whom I formed for Myself will make known My praise.”
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God is doing a new thing and we are all going to be forced to decide if we want to jump into the rivers He is forming in the desert. The decision is yours and yours alone. Will you join in with what God is doing? There is no middle ground in this next season. God is inviting us to release all things of the past and fully embrace what He is doing. It is an all or nothing decision...

And, that leads us to the other theme God has been showing me: old vs new wineskins.
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Wine in the bible often represents the anointing of God. Jesus discussed wine and wineskins quite often in His teachings. In fact, His first public miracle was creating wine from water and His wine tasted far better than the older, aged wine. In that miracle, He was prophetically stating that He was bringing a far better anointing (wine). In Luke 5, Jesus addresses trying to use old wineskins to hold new wine (anointing). He said it doesn’t work. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will expand and burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

Let’s connect that concept to the former one of the season we are in: God is doing a new work. He is pouring out a fresh anointing that will grow and expand until the glory of the Lord covers the earth like the water covers the seas. The new wine of the Holy Spirit is coming and we have the opportunity to make our hearts and lives like new wineskins that are capable of holding the anointing. Which means we have the choice to embrace new wineskins or to hold onto the old wineskins in our lives.
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I had been reading through Jeremiah and a verse sorta stopped me in my tracks. I read it and didn’t understand it at all, but I knew it was significant. Maybe it will be immediately clear to you, but it forced me to do a quick cross-reference study. Here it is:

Jer 48:11: Moab has been at ease from his youth; he has also been undisturbed, and settled like wine on his dregs, and he has not been emptied from one vessel to another, nor has he gone into exile. Therefore his flavor remains in him, and his scent has not changed.

Not immediately clear. I couldn’t tell if it was good or bad until I read the next verse:

vs 12: “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will send to Moab those who will tip him over and who will empty his vessels and break his [earthenware] jars in pieces.”
​
Now it was perfectly clear that what was going to happen to Moab was not a good thing for them. The question is, what was Moab guilty of? The cross-reference I found was for Zephaniah 1:12,
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“It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps and I will punish the men who [like old wine] are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will He do evil.’”

Old wine! Moab was guilty of holding onto old wine and old wineskins, never willing to pour it out. They refused to embrace new wineskins. God is pounding the point home!
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What were the acts that God highlighted about Moab that shows old wineskins? He says that Moab has been at ease, undisturbed and settled. He has not poured himself out. He holds onto his things and they remain with him.

Traditions, systems, structures, buildings, methods, strategies, styles, even the Holy Spirit inspired things of seasons past,.. all can represent old wineskins. God is doing something new and we need to be able to lay aside EVERYTHING to follow Him. He is moving and He is making His name known on the earth. However, it is just going to look different than anything we have yet seen.
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We cannot be led by traditions. We cannot be led by systems. We cannot be led by strategies or methods or styles or even something that worked really well in the past. God is inviting us into a deeper relationship with Him where everything we do is completely dependent on Him. Everything. We must let go and step fully into this move of God.

There is great risk to live this abandoned life. But, I believe there is greater risk if we choose to hold onto a piece of the old. At best, we miss the move of God in this moment of history. At worst, the destruction that came to Moab will come to us. There is no middle ground. There is no place for holding onto things of the past for comfort. God desires to be our only comfort, our only option, and our only dependence.
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He loves us that much.

Love, Mary
2 Comments

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