Is Christ Breaking Forth In Us?
Afternoon All,
Wanted to write some thoughts down before they fly away.
It appears that more and more folks that I talk to are heeding the voice of God regarding His desires for His people.
Today as we assembled our local body, He continued to call us to Himself. We had words including His sufficiency, His joy is our strength, and the sower’s parable (Matt 13). I really received the word on the sower for some reason. There are three verbs involved there; hearing, understanding, and bearing. We have to be successful at all three to accomplish bearing fruit unto Him. In this age of technology and busy-ness, we must “hear” Him, “understand” Him, and “bear” that Word received until it “bears” the fruit.
Really, the issue becomes do we “hear” what God is telling us to do, do we really “understand” it, and finally do we “obey” that Word until fruit is born out of it. If we are truly seeking to draw closer to Him (aka personal revival), then we will accomplish this process day in and day out.
We are seeing a time where God is drawing His Bride to Himself and constraining us to further separation from the world. That is unpopular to our flesh, our lost relatives, the world in general, and even some religious folk around us. The question becomes, “will we obey His call?” Not later, but daily.
A recent June David Wilkerson newsletter reminds me to get ready for adversity. He stated to remember that the world hated Jesus without a cause. Jesus’ virtues and works should have been the most attractive sights on planet earth. Yet, people wanted to kill Him. Guess what? When you purpose to start obeying Him, allowing Him to change you from the inside out, you will become hated too and without a cause. Are you ready for that? Can you and I handle that heat from your own flesh and people around you?
While I am mentioning Wilkerson, I felt compelled to pick up a book recently from him that was written in 1992 entitled, Hungry for More of Jesus. I just recently bulldozed into Chapter 10, Manifesting the Presence of Jesus. We must realize that Christ wants to shine or break out through us. Are we keeping Him from accomplishing this? I was smitten with conviction. My appetite for worldliness has made it impossible for Him to shine through. I have to change my appetite. As you may notice, I am working hard to stay in physical shape as of late, but am I that motivated to have my spirit man in impeccable condition to hear Him and obey? Ouch!
Back to chapter 10. Brother David made a piercing statement, “Wherever you find the presence of Jesus, you always find these five manifestations breaking forth among His people.” Let me give you a hint, it is not gold dust or angelic appearances like the current American TV preachers are advocating. No, these five manifestations have a little bit more biblical substance.
If I may, I will list them. I will refrain from elaborating on them at this time. I would rather you meditate on them and provide some feedback. I may share some thoughts on them later. So here they are,
- God’s people manifest a deep, smiting conviction of sin.
- God’s people manifest the power to destroy sin.
- God’s people manifest a spirit of holiness.
- God’s people manifest a sharing of the Lord’s burden.
- God’s people manifest an exuberant and exceedingly great joy.
So there. I can hear you now saying, Ahhhh, I know that… OK… Are you living that? How about the local fellowship that you are connected to? Are you all living that? See this is the challenge from heaven? The Lord is ready to “break forth” through His bride somewhere on planet earth. He needs a vessel to accomplish His work. He needs a body of believers (which may be as little as 2 or 3) that will purpose to see these manifestations shine forth through them. Have we had enough goofy, hokey manifestations to last a lifetime? How about the real thing?
Is Jesus really worth it? Is this Christianity thing so real to us that we will change according to His Word? My spirit is ringing with this tonight.
In Christ’s Love,
Brother Russell
