What glory is waiting to get out of you? What fears of failure, weakness and falling
short has limited you from throwing open the gates of your heart and life to the King of Glory?
Open the Gates. Let
the King of Glory come in. Let grace
have its way in you. Shed the past in
the fires of HIS unending love. He will
meet you at the point of your desire.
OK so I am coming
clean.
I have always wanted to be the champion of those saints who
were willing to throw it all on the line.
Stepping out in faith and going for that crazy thing the Lord had spoken
to them. My understanding of the
Kingdom is that it calls out reckless abandon in the Saints as the King of
Glory enthralls them.
Why do we draw
back? What is in us that turns us away
from open heavens?
I think I as I reflect on this, that I have sought to
encourage myself. I have believed from
the first that Jesus was the only “most
valuable” thing I’ve had in life. And in
so doing I have encouraged others to live for the highest ideals of the kingdom
of God. To run after Jesus as the end
and sum total of what living is about.
To adore him and worship him with no constraints and follow him
literally in this world, in this life, is the true meaning of life and living.
As much as I have set my life to encourage that kind of
devotion in the heart of those I love and walk with, I believe I’ve only seen
the curtain drawn back partially in over 33 years of following. Nothing has made me happier than the smile
of a Saint that has been captured new and fresh with the love and presence of
Jesus. When the revelation lands on them
with joy and a smile, and the revelation knowledge that they belonging to Him
and He to them settles on them, I rejoice deeply. Heaven seems to resound in those moments.
Never before have I had the opportunity to walk into “what I
have always felt my life in His Kingdom to be about”. Today,
I am standing on the threshold. And in
seeing that doorway before me, I am completely humbled and emptied. It is not a way that I can affect. It is heaven coming to earth not earth
reaching to heaven. As I stand before
all this and “see into the heavens” the earth in me, which is such a
disappointment, rises. As the wine
press of HIS love tightens and constricts my flesh, I inevitably see the biter
and earth minded rise to the top of my life.
Again, my King scrapes away the dross and new life appropriate for the
time leaps up and envelops my soul.
There is sweet wine
on the way!
When that dross expresses itself among the people of the
King I am undone. I am talking about
the sin of not walking in the calling I’ve received for fear, the wine press
that comes with it, and sheer weakness.
I’ve not experienced weakness like I have over the past 4 months. The magnitude of revelation has dwarfed
me. I have to admit that I have failed
more than succeeded in walking in the revelation and in the new. His strength is perfected in weakness. This I know all to well.
But, I constantly want to move out of that place of weakness
and into His strength. It is here at the
foot of Jacobs ladder that I have been wrestling with the Spirit of the
Lord. My flesh rising and screaming for
prominence and my Spirit reveling in the true Son of God; day to day, I rise up
into it and slip back out.
When I am really outside my anointing and the life giving
love of Christ’s gaze, I see my actions and weep. Anyone close to me in ministry has seen my
blemishes and I repent to the Lord for those distortions of his glory. Standing juxtaposed against the amazing
revelation of the Lord and the desire to be one of HIS mighty men, dross is
painful and disappointing to the core.
Over the years I have delivered my share of dross to the table of the
Saints. My heart breaks over this. The
heart’s cry is for wisdom and understanding to teach and declare to the Saints
the beauty of the Lord and the all surpassing power for us who believe.
The revelation. I’ve tasted it. Here for a moment. Here for a day. Here for a weekend. Here for weeks on end. Revelating with the Spirit and lost in
worship, I want to walk in it every
moment. My body aches for His presence. It shudders and shakes under his power and
love. I’ve seen the vision and I want to walk in
it. It presented itself as a door
before me. I ran in. I determined to run with no hesitation; to
throw off every hindrance and abandon myself to the Love of the Son of God.
As I entered in, I found
my own limitations and fears, sins and brokenness. The wine press has kicked in and I have
failed on occasion to deliver the revelation as delivered to me for my dross
and fears. Trying to explain the deeper
things is like trying to order food in a different language. A phrase and a line but never the ability to
lay out the whole order. Kingdom calling is at times very lonely. Mercy and love triumph over judgment.
Of late, I have discovered the culture of honor is the
environment that releases the beauty of the King turning it into and
environment of glory. Everyone benefits
in an environment where failing is allowed and our goal is Christ glorified and
his servants honored in their station. Such an environment is like swimming in grace,
unity, freedom, and revelation of the inheritance we share with the Victory,
Christ Jesus.
So, the time is up.
It is time to come clean and spill my guts out. I’ve hidden in the respectable place for far
to long. I said to the Lord, “I am
willing to be your fool” and I have to commit myself to doing and saying and
speaking what he has revealed. Foolish
as it may be. Tough as it may be. I need to let out the reality of what God is
doing and not hold back. I’ve been too
interested in pastoral acceptance and the praise that comes with following the
norm and the acceptable paths of the day.
Frankly, those paths are dead wood.
The tree has but a few green branches and we are living in the
past. New revelation has come and the
prophetic word of Malachi 3:1-4 is alive and happening now in the Body of
Christ. There is a way that leads to
glory and flows out of the knowledge of the Lord and is from faith to faith to
faith. I am going to move in and let it out. I am giving up the hiding place. I am going to continue to press into all that
the Lord opens up with abandon and fire.
For me, coming clean means really letting everyone who knows
me know that I realize I am weak, poor, naked and blind. I’ve made more mistakes in ministry than in
any other sphere of life, or so it seems.
Maybe they stick out more clearly because of the equal love I have for
the Saints and the Bride. I realize that
nothing good that has ever drifted off my lips or out of my heart has had life
outside of the Spirit and the person of Jesus. It amazes me that the Spirit would use me at
all. I know what he knows, all of
it. And he is able to take that broken
tattered vessel and in matchless grace sow seeds of grace, freedom and love
into the Saints. I’ve been short
sighted and bumbled on God’s precious people.
I’ve been short or answered out of my limitations and have cut the
people of the King. I walk with a limp.
Coming clean –
sounding like a fool….yea and amen. I
need to commit to the crazy and wonderful full disclosure of what the Lord is
doing in me and through me to his glory.
I kept things quiet. I need to
step up and let some of it out.
What glory is waiting
to get out of you? What fears of
failure, weakness and falling short has limited you from throwing yourself on
the King of Glory?
Open the Gates of your spirit to the King of Glory and His
manifest glory. Let the King of Glory
come in. He will meet you at the point
of your desire.
Psalms 24 Who is
this King of Glory? The LORD strong and
mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
