"Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good." 1Thessalonians 5:19-21
"...and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints" 1Corinthians 14:33-33
"Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. But let all things be done properly and in an orderly manner." 1Corinthians 14:39-40
It is my personal opinion that the manner in which we approach and execute this next aspect of the prophetic activities of the Kingdom of God will determine the level of success and integration we will experience in our churches. There are two reasons why I believe this: 1) Most, if not all of us, have a deep desire for more than an intellectual orientation to our personal relationship with God. We want to truly experience the reality of the presence of God in our lives, as well as in the outward workings of God through our lives; 2) Many of us possess an unhealthy, almost crippling fear and intimidation when it comes to engaging ourselves in the work of God, especially as it relates to the prophetic gifts and manifestations of the Spirit as identified by Paul in 1Corinthians 12-14.
God has placed the desire to be intimately acquainted and involved with Him, on a deeply personal level, within each one of us because He created us in His image. The writer of Ecclesiastes puts it this way, "I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart..."
God has set an eternal awareness and purpose in the heart of every human being, and that eternal awareness and purpose is crying out within us, wanting to find expression because it will not be satisfied with intellectual exercises or physical and natural accomplishments. We will only discover and accomplish our God-given purpose when we set our hearts on the Kingdom of God and allow the Kingdom to operate in and through us, to manifest itself and its presence to the people we encounter in our day-to-day lives.
David put it this way, "...I remember You from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me." Regardless of how long we have been a follower of Jesus and how mature we have become, spiritually, there is more to God than we have known and have experienced. Therefore, from the depths of God Himself, He will call to the depths of our own being, drawing us ever deeper into Him. In Revelation 1, the Apostle John saw a vision of the exalted Jesus standing in front of him. As John described Jesus, he tells us that when Jesus spoke, it was like the sound of many waters...like the powerful sound of a waterfall.
If you've ever witnessed and heard the powerful sound of Niagara Falls, this is the description John gave to the voice of Jesus. "Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls," literally means that the powerful voice of God calls from the depths of His being to the depths of our being. As we experience the spiritual reality of God calling from the depths of His being to ours, and as we respond to that by gazing and contemplating Him in personal experience and prayer, it creates a fascination and a sense of awe in our hearts toward Him. This communion and communication with God creates in us, both, a satisfaction and contentment, as well as a dissatisfaction and discontentment regarding our personal experience with Him. We are at peace and content with Him but we never seem to get enough of our experience with Him to satisfy our desire for Him.
This paradox is also part of the divine plan of God for humanity. This entire experience of deep calling unto deep is a prophetic experience, in and of itself. It is the essence of prayer. It is the prophetic nature and presence of God and His Kingdom breaking into the natural world in which we live, into our own personal lives, and engaging us in prophetic communication. It is this type of prophetic activity that first leads us to the new birth in Christ, and then affects our life from that moment forward, through every other prophetic event that we experience, by the Spirit.
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Studies In The Kingdom Of God
SpiritualThis is actually 2 books in 1. The first book is "Our Father...Yours Is The Kingdom". The second book is "Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done". It is a book I have written that talks about the kingdom of God - what it is, why it is here on this...
