No shepherd wants to see those they lead suffer. A shepherd, as Father is positioning me to teach today, is anyone among the body who has been charged with a John 10 anointing over His people — whether they are inside the four walls of a “physical church” or walking out their destiny in the market place.
Yet, the shepherd must step back… and allow the Lord to break, make and build those sheep in our midst… and tend them through process as He alone allows.
I am sharing this little portion because sometimes, sheep blame those in leadership over them when they can’t get a breakthrough in their lives. When in fact, the Lord is saying:
You must take up our own cross in Christ, constantly dying in the true process of working out one’s souls salvation. There are some things a “good shepherd” cannot protect those sheep from — like the sheering and the inclination to wander off. But that shepherd can be watchful, stepping in to bring the sheep back into the fold (of the faith – not a building) as lessons are learned. This place of breaking, making and building … is a place ordained by Father called suffering, process and SEVERE pruning. Not a single sheep can avoid it.
This walk will cost you! Sometimes that price is very dear, and very precious to the flesh. In it, however, there is a lesson that Father wants YOU to learn. Your ability to learn that lesson can very well determine HOW LONG you remain in that place.
This walk IN CHRIST, people of God, WILL COST YOU!
Judges 3:1-3 CJB says, “These are the nations which ADONAI allowed to remain, in order to put to the test all the people of Isra’el who had not known any of the wars with Kena’an. This was only so that the generations of Isra’el who had previously known nothing of war might learn about it.”
Father showed me this passage of scripture as a PUSH for the people of God into a deeper place of (1) dying to self; (2) a place of testing, and (3) a deeper place of learning to war through intercession. These “Nations” represent high places in our lives that test us — thought processes, perceptions, false beliefs.
Father is saying to you today, “There are some things in your life that I’ve allowed to remain to test you who have NOT YET learned to fight or have learn to war in the midst of this battle. It’s time to go deeper, to see further… gaining a proper perspective of this cross that I’ve given you to carry.You must come to understand the weight of this walk, the seriousness of it… as it is NOT ABOUT YOU… but about teaching those or facilitating the learning of those who are coming after you.”
You see, people of God! Everyone has a cross (an execution stake in Hebrew understanding) that they must carry IN Christ.
Mark 8:34-35 CJB, “Then Yeshua called the crowd and his talmidim to him and told them, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him say `No’ to himself, take up his execution stake, and keep following me. For whoever wants to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will save it.”
We live in a “bless-me” mentality in which we are so focused on acquiring things, power and pleasure that we MISS the type of wealth that Father really wants us to store up. So when trials come, we curse them — all of them, not recognizing the potter’s pruning process and rebuking the wine press.
Just as Christ embraced his suffering, we must learn to embrace ours. In this “bless-me” culture, this understanding is literally pulverized under the weight of this call to ministry. But I tell you, the apostles understood this! This me-me-me… and I-want-to-be-free-of-trials-and-persecutions mentality has produced a week army, an unaware army, an army of idol worshipers and merchandisers! It has produced and continues to produce generations of money-changers and sons and of hell; instead of servants and sons of God!
Galatians 3:3-5 CJB says, ” Are you that stupid? Having begun with the Spirit’s power, do you think you can reach the goal under your own power? Have you suffered so much for nothing? If that’s the way you think, your suffering certainly will have been for nothing! What about God, who supplies you with the Spirit and works miracles among you – does he do it because of your legalistic observance of Torah commands or because you trust in what you heard and are faithful to it?
OUR TRIALS exist to MAKE US, to TEACH US, to PRUNE US, to MATURE US — pressing OUT anything IN US that seeks its own! We can NO LONGER SEEK OUR OWN people of God! That I want mine materialistic mentality has infiltrated the congregation of the Lord! Our suffering…. our suffering… our suffering IS FOR THE GLORY OF GOD! He wants to walk with you through that suffering so that YOU CAN SEE HIM and OTHERS CAN SEE HIM IN YOU! He wants to INCREASE YOUR FAITH and PROVE YOUR FAITH!
Stop complaining! Stop blaming your wife, your children, your director, your pastor, your mother and other loved once for where you are right now! Look to yourself and say, “Self, what are you doing to see the FATHER in the midst of this of this situation? Ask your HELPER… Holy Spirit… to HELP YOU SEE YAHSHUAH in the midst of this situation? Ask Father to help you DRINK THE CUP that has been placed in your hand…. that cup of dying to yourself!”
This WALK will cost you!
Father is saying to you, “Stop resisting me… oh you rebellious people! Tke up your execution stake! Stop looking for the easy way out!”
I saw people who were so caught up in an old testimony they were ILL PREPARED and downright SHOCKED by the trials they are now facing. But Father wants you to understand that with each supernatural level of elevation, the tests and the trials increase — and the testimonies increase as YOU CONTINUE TO OVERCOME. Overcoming isn’t a one time thing. It is an ongoing walk in the Lord…
The plans of darkness DO NOT GO AWAY! In fact, they intensify and increase with each level of maturity! When you resist the trial, you resist your supernatural growth!
But what you must understand is that everything you have been through prepares you to withstand and overcome them to a point where — they will not affect you the way they once did…. if at all. Father is trying to get us into a place of RESURRECTING POWER in this season of our lives! This pressing through is a breaking that will increase your sight in the realm of the spirit… and fortify your trust… your faith in Him.
2 Corinthians 1:7-9 CJB says, “Moreover, our hope for you remains staunch, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, you will also share in the encouragement. For, brothers, we want you to know about the trials we have undergone in the province of Asia. The burden laid on us was so far beyond what we could bear that we even despaired of living through it. In our hearts we felt we were under sentence of death. However, this was to get us to rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead!”
Look at this! The apostles weren’t tip-toeing through the tulips in the midst of their ministries — pursuing lives as selfish merchandisers. They were in the trenches of evangelism (going out) and the ministry of making (equipping the saints.) They faced death in the natural daily… and to endure that they had to DIE IN THE REALM OF THE SPIRIT!
Father is saying, “STOP RESISTING THE COST… THE PRICE YOU ARE REQUIRED TO PAY!”
Some people are telling you that IT IS FINISHED, and that all you have to do is sit on the beach and enjoy a cold glass of Georgia tea. THIS IS A LIE! Until we are RULING AND REIGNING… we must remain in an OVERCOMERS POSTURE — alert, ready and increasing Heaven with a harvest of souls! We must use the keys our Lord left us!
You see, in 2 Samuel, David was walking out the effects of a very bad choice that had devestating consequences. Father gave him an opportunity to make that thing right BEFORE HIM and BEFORE MEN. Restoration had to come. God didn’t wipe David’s eyes and say, “It’s okay baby… gone now… and do the work of the ministry.”
No! David had to walk through the FIRE of HIS DECISIONS and error. Had he resisted God in the midst of this trial things would have been FAR WORSE than what was presented. But DAVID EMBRACED THIS TRIAL… and HE SAW GOD MIDST OF THIS HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE! He build the Lord an offering of intercessions…. and offering of dying to himself… and a rending of his heart. This man of God wanted to LEARN THIS LESSON… never to repeat it again.
When the time came to count up the cost, David had an opportunity to take the easy route. He had an opportunity to run to a man for help. And yes, this man extended his hand to David to help him… but DAVID HAD LEARNED A LESSON IN THE MIDST OF THIS TRIAL! HE LEARNED ABOUT SACRIFICE, OBEDIENCE, REPENTANCE AND PRESS! HE LEARNED ABOUT ENDURANCE and walking through the FIRE… verses trying to go around it!
This is what he to the man, the Jebusite, who offered to help him.
2 Samuel 2:24-25 AMP says, “But King David said to Araunah, No, but I will buy it of you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God of that which costs me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and Israel’s plague was stayed..”
My God! There is a deeper lesson here on being pressed into intercession, but for the sake of this teaching I want you to see that David chose a path that COST HIM! HE PAID A PRICE in the natural in the midst of this situation on many levels. The fallout of this particular sin was IMMENSE! David CHOSE not to stay there and look at this ENORMOUS problem — and it was an enormouse one… and quite bigger than the little stuff we go through today and can’t get out of bed over.
DAVID MADE a conscious choice to pay the cost… and offer to the Lord HIS BEST…
People of God, your best today, is simple this: “Taking up your execution stake! Dying to your own plans and purposes….
In 2 Corinthians 1:7-9, the Apostle Paul said clearly… that though we face death and DIE… it is worth it! We DIE not only for ourselves but for others… as Christ did. We die so that we might learn to RELY ON CHRIST and not ourselves or others. We die to leave an effective witness… examples for those who follow after us.
Father, I thank you for the witness of your death and resurrection through Christ… and that of the foundational apostles and prophets. Let MY LIFE be a witness of RESURRECTION POWER..
