Prayer is not begging, of course. Same as if you had a best friend who would keep asking you all the time – it seems to me he would become the worst very soon, wouldn’t he? One, who never gives anything in return. And when we keep asking things from God, why should He keep answering you all the time? That would be very strange. What do we also give to God?
A couple revelations according to our good tradition.
“An Angel of God gave a new shofar to the man of God, which had not only sound come out of it, but a whirlwind as well. The man of God was blowing the shofar, and as he was blowing, the whirlwind joined with the trumpet sound of heaven, which reinforced the whirlwind. Some were hiding from this whirlwind, others were running at the whirlwind and the sound.”
This is interesting. The sound of shofar… blow your shofars. But here it says about the voice of the spirit, about the Galgal that comes out of our womb. Receive this sound and release new sound, new dimension, new waves. Create new thing, don’t live by the old day, but create all things new. Create new understanding of God, new you, new faith – all things new.
A night dream: “it was shown how the man of God was painting a picture on a big piece of material, which was stretched from the east to the west and stood vertical, it goes high up and deep down. The man of God has brushes in his hand, with which he is painting a wondrous picture of amazing beauty, which has not only depiction, but fragrance, sound and depth one can enter and feel things depicted, and even eat it and drink it.
There is a huge rainbow next to the man of God with one end, reaching heaven so that you can’t see where it touches with its other end. It draws its colors from heaven in the upper part and from the earth in the lower part. They get mixed inside and break into seven colors. The man of God takes colors from the rainbow with his brushes and puts them on the canvas. When the painting was finished, the man of God took part of it and covered the mantle with it, which was stretched from the East. He cut the remaining part according to the blueprint into many pieces and put them into his bag. Some parts had people’s names, others- names of the nations, names and maps of cities and maps of the countries and parts of the earth.”
As we hear these wondrous revelations, we may think, what do I do with that? Beginner’s levels of revelations lead to action, doing things. But when we enter in assurance and trust, there’s no more such primitive question, “what to do”. The question that stands – “what is?” The Lord said “I AM WHO I AM”. It’s hard to catch a strategy here, because you simply contemplate the Perfect One, and you realize that everything is complete. That is the peak of contemplation, when all things are complete. And the Lord said on Calvary “It is finished”.
It is a wrong question “what to do?” concerning these revelations. Once the disciples asked the Lord “what should we do?..” Jesus answered them: “This is the work of God, that you believe…”
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“It was shown how the breath of the Creator and the Almighty was all over the universe. And in that breath all things were alive and were breathing, not only the earth and creation, but also the burning stars and all the planets”. Isn’t that true? How come there’s no life on Saturn or Jupiter, when all these are created? Of course, it breathes. There’s nothing in the Universe, which is dead.
If we take a substance from another planet, it might be strange, with new formulas, but it breathes!
“And even in Sheol was His breath, even in the very depths of its darkness. The Creator Himself was breathing everywhere, filling the entire Universe and its realms with Himself.
Then it was shown how the breath in the man of God began to permeate the breath and rhythm of all this creation in the universe, as if his lungs began to expand and his breath became deeper. Each breath expanded and filled not only him, but also began to go beyond him.
The breath of the man of God began to join with the breath of the Almighty, and he began to penetrate into how to breathe, and what breath rhythm the holy Angels had, as well as other heavenly beings – cherubim and seraphim.
He began to penetrate the breath of the Eastern Gates – how they breathe, what is their rhythm. Then he began to penetrate into how fiery stars and planets in the Universe breathe, into their breathing rhythm; then – into the breath of the spirits in the fire of the underworld, and what their rhythm is.
Then he began to penetrate into how all living things breathe in heaven, on earth and under water, what rhythm and breath of the Almighty everything breathes – from the macro world to the micro world – right down to the molecules and atoms in the Universe. And in this breath, in the rhythm, in everything and everywhere there was the Almighty Himself.”
“Why do we need this? How does this relate to our events?” Strange questions. Why are then first several chapters of the book of Genesis given? They speak of different days of creation. How to apply that?
So that you can see God! So that you understand who He is.
It has to be understood that the heart of God’s people must be converted. Understanding conversion is not just about turning from sin. I am more interested not in what I turned from, but in what I turned to. I don’t turn away from anything, I’m not very interested in what I left behind. I want to be turned to something and Someone.
Pay attention to this – what is your heart turned to? Let it be turned to beautiful flowers, to the rainbow, to God, first of all, to the church, to God’s people (how can one love God and not love His people?), and also to people, to man, to person.
Lately I’ve been interested in nameless people – about whom little is written and little is said. The Scripture says that such people are much more important. Those that are presentable are not covered either in winter or in summer, the face is not covered. But our unpresentable are covered, carefully guarded, because it is indecent to unveil them; if one does this, he brings disharmony.
I want to understand God – why He told us so little about them. He has a different story with them. For example, it is said about Enoch that God liked him very much, he pleased Him very much, and He took him. Prophets and Apostles penetrated into this. The Lord loved him so much that he simply took him to Himself – from his wife, from his children. In the body or not in the body, it doesn’t matter. The women were unhappy, so were the children, but God took him, that’s what He decided.
“After Abimelech, there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in the mountains of Ephraim. He judged Israel for twenty-three years, and died and was buried in Shamir” (Judges 10:1-2).
This is not Samson, this is not Deborah.
Deborah ruled for forty years. And this man ruled for more than twenty years. Tola translates as “purple snail.” It is amazing! God’s anointed, the judge of Israel is a snail! I think this is one of the coolest mystics ever, and he’s purple. Tola!
The least has been written about him. There is no description of his actions. But he came to power after Abimelech, who did many wicked things. He came to save Israel, to restore Israel after such wickedness. It is believed that his period was very quiet. Peace and prosperity. And in every riddle there is a key – he was from the tribe of Issachar. The Lord chose judges from the tribes according to His lot. I think there was a redemptive prophetic process going on there. There were not very good prophecies that Jacob released to his sons before his death, and the Lord brought redemption by choosing the judges from among the tribes to restore the balance.
This has been happening for centuries. And God’s prophets see higher, wider, bigger. When Jacob was giving prophecies to his sons before his death, Issachar received such a word: “Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between two burdens;he saw that rest was good, and that the land was pleasant; he bowed his shoulder to bear a burden, and became a band of slaves (began to work to pay to pay toll).” (Genesis 49:14-15) That is he always lived in debt. This is not a blessed life – to work in order to pay tolls, not for your own prosperity, but to hand in what you earn into other people’s hands.
And Tola rose up – he was to take time, he was not to speed up things, but do a solid work, lay and heal foundations, and then erect beauty. You know, it may be more expensive to make repairs than to build a new thing, and Tola did this. He was raised for the redemption of the tribe of Issachar, to redeem Israel, to restore the lost authority of his tribe as it was in disgrace.
And today I call heroes to arise for the purpose of redemption and to remove the shame from the church. Today the Lord wants to raise the purple snails to remove the shame from the church, because there’s a lot of shame in the church of Christ today. There’s neither strength, nor glory, nor heavenliness, but there are many things that take grace down to serving us in everyday life, so that we are comfortable in financial regard. No problem about that, but that is no goal at all.
We have an amazing word: “In Him you have been made full (you have all fullness)” (Col.2:10). And we spoke that if I live and behave as if I had not the fullness, then the quality of my life is lost. If I act as if I didn’t believe I had certain things, this lowers my concentration, stability, confidence and peace – my lifestyle changes. And if you listen to what preachers preach on YouTube, you will find that 90% of them teach that you don’t have fullness in Him. They will be persuading you that you still have to do something, in order to have fullness.
Why was Jesus so confident in the Father? Not only because He pleased Him in all things He did, but simply because He was the Son – this is enough. Today I move in this sonship. I am a son. I have fullness in Him, because I am a son – this is the priority ground.
We often forget this and shift into sphere of sensation, your own logic, personal built up doctrine, which often smells sectarianism. “I don’t feel it” or “I didn’t please Him today” – it means God turned away. Such primitive things as if God’s only thing to do on His throne was to turn away…
Sometimes in church we have a culture of religious slavery, when we are not able to express our love. Love is the apogee of all things, the bond of perfection. Out of all qualities and spirits and powers love is the most powerful of all. Yes, it may be soft and tender, but it’s stronger.
And freedom and love go together, they are inseparable. Someone said that love dwells in freedom only. You can’t imagine love being love without freedom, this is a pathology. And the culture of the Kingdom is love. And the church is the accumulation of all the divine blessings, beatitudes, but sometimes we make it a place where you don’t want to be. That is amazing how evil can reign that much in the holy place. We’ve come to think that to express love may be wrong – how can it be? If I see a sister or a brother beautiful in God, how God loves them, and I can’t express my love, because I am full of complexes myself and scared? Why don’t we create a culture of showing affection, encouragement and support? Instead of that we’ve made up a culture of seeking “correctness”. We still have a chance to correct this – begin demonstrating love. This is so wonderful! We break the culture of slavery and come to the Kingdom culture.
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I was interested in meditating and answering this question – “who am I?” This turned out to be not that simple. Of course, I am a pastor, but this is too little for me, this is boring. A also have a DD document and a certificate of an Apostle, but I am really interested in different things.
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1John 3:1-2)
And this interests me – who am I? What would you answer to such question.
They asked Jesus, “Who are you?” This question interested them greatly, they were tormented by this question. Even his close people, Peter and apostles, they walked with him, and after years they still asked Him, “Who are you?” Because He was at the same time both the Son of Man, a hundred percent, and the Son of God, a hundred percent.
And this is going to influence your testimony directly – we continue this vast topic “of renewed testimony”. So what would you answer honestly, not considering what people expect from you. Most of people speak of their profession or things they occupy themselves with, or their hobby, or education or age… But who are you for yourself? And who are you for other people? And who are true you?
When I think of Christ, I think of who He was. Yes, He came as the Son of Man, He manifested the Son of God, but He became the Messiah. He didn’t give eternal life before His suffering, but after His crucifixion and resurrection He was perfected into the Messiah. And I have these two question arising: who are you now and who are you to become? This is not about being yourself. This is about the Way. Because you are the one, whom God sees from the beginning, and He has taken you, in order to put you there in your place. See what mystics.
There are way, strings, paths that are above logics or “correctness” of people’s works, the way they establish the communicative lines. And only people of creative spirit, people of intuition, people of prophecy – they are able to leave those structures, and move like birds in the heavens. I want to begin walking such ways – I am answering the question, who am I, for myself.
I think, Jesus was this way. He never played people’s games with their rules. “You need to pay the temple tax? Go get the fish and pay” He walked on water, He went through the walls… This topic is mystical and fascinating, it sweeps away.
So who are you? A church attendee, a ministry member, an evangelist or some other? And this other I pull out on this day of Pentecost!