The season before us is a time of truly becoming real in God.
Personal Purification
Unfortunately a key word in describing the practice of Christianity in much of the world today, as it has been for many centuries, is the word mixture. Religious and fallen-world values and practices enhanced by networks of spirits have so infiltrated the lives of many Christians that we are in need of massive purification.
What is real purity, and how do we get there from here?
The old time revivalist of the past brought the message of sinners falling into the hands of an angry God. The wrath of God was genuinely proclaimed. Repentance and coming to the cross of Christ to receive forgiveness of sins was the clear message to being saved from an eternal hell. With great anointing and very powerful oration, the message was loud and clear and there were seasons of many responding in great revivals. As powerful as the message was, it was woefully incomplete. In a relatively short season, the return to dry religious practices allowed drifting again into the fallen-world’s ways.
Progressively, in spiritual waves over the past few centuries, God has intervened with man and brought more of the message of His reality to spiritually hungry and needy people. The Bible-teaching, born-again fundamentalists were followed by the powerful Holy Spirit move of Pentecostalism that led to the Charismatic move of gifts that flowed into the prophetic speaking gifts emphasis and the outpourings of Holy Spirit manifestations of the Father’s love movement into intimately relating to God and has finally led to the present move of the apostolic governance, bringing again a fresh new wave of faith and power. All of these major waves and other lesser ones were each sent to bring to us a fresh next step in becoming real in God. Yet, in every case the deceptive mixture has continued to infiltrate and, in my opinion, increased in intensity and shrewdness.
Potential spiritual power has increased with each wave. As the power has increased the mixture has become more dangerous and devastating. The dual ingredients of past religious and fallen-world ways mixed with the powerful and respected gifts of Prophet and Apostle is the most potentially dangerous attack ever on the kingdom of God. People and money can be easily amassed and controlled by the gifted men with mixture. Entire regions of the world can be taken and brought into the rule of apostolic and prophetic networks of mixture.
However, the ministry of the purified Apostles and Prophets contains the most potentially powerful forces given by God to bring forth the glorious kingdom of God through Christ Jesus and spread the glory of God across the world. These were the missing ingredients in the past revivals.
The flow from the throne of God is pictured as a crystal clear stream. Rivers of living water are promised to flow from within the people of God. This flow of God becomes the river of life of God flowing into the land bringing the kingdom of God and its life of purity into the world.
Rev 22:1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
How has the stream of God’s river flowing become so contaminated with religion and fallen-worldly ways, and how can it be purified? Obviously the problem is not with God and not with His gifts or His pure river of life. The problem is within the people of God who flow from their innermost parts rivers of living water contaminated with debris.
Physical or natural things are often used to illustrate spiritual things. The process of refining gold and silver with intense heat causing the dross (mixture) to be separated from the pure metal. Filtering with wind can purify grain from the chaff after breaking it down with traumatic beating. Nature shows us the great water purification process of distillation as contaminated water on earth is vaporized into the air and returned as purified fresh water. Contaminated surface water is also purified as it filters through the sand and crust of the earth becoming purified underground streams of fresh water. It is my opinion that all of these methods of purification are coming upon God’s people including the gifted leaders to prepare a pure and holy people to rule and reign with Him in the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Yes, the fires can be, in part, intense persecution and devastation of many forms that make our strengths molten and liquid and refines away the mixture. Yes, the crushing of the grain can be the hard blows that come against us, breaking us loose from our outer hard shell. Yes, the winds of adversity can blow away the chaff. Yes, the purified flow of the water of the Spirit can be distilled as we are lifted up into the heavens with Him and changed. And yes, the flow is going to go underground deep below the contaminated surface life until the stream becomes pure holy rivers of water flowing underground to again resurface after the fires of destruction and winds of adversity have removed the religion and fallen-world ways from the land. The land will again flourish as the pure water flowing from the people of God nourishes the earth and beauty of holy life comes forth from the ashes of purification fires. The mountain of the Lord shall be above all mountains and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God.
Man shall again become the pure holy love of God spiritually as Christ is in this world.
God is love and God is pure.Love produces purity.
Sadly there are well-meaning men today who are attempting to deal with the mixture in others without the love of God and are doing damage to the kingdom of God in their efforts. Seeing the mixture they condemn the good with the bad. Remember, if it is a mixture, then it is partly of God and one can find themselves coming against God by attacking the move or the people of God. How sad that while seeking to purify, we can become a part of the stench of impurity in condemning the work of God. Truly the parable of the wheat and tares is happening among us as some strong-willed men with some truth launch out in attacks on the tares and destroy the wheat in the process. The uprooted wheat plants are the works of God in progress of growing into fruitful plants (Mat 13:24-30).
My heart goes out to both those being attacked and those who are attacking. Both are bringing devastation to the people of God who are searching for love and purity of God. God is bringing purification, and it has long since begun as the fires of purification are burning and the lifting of the vapor of our spirits into the heavenly realm is removing us far from the contamination of religion and fallen-world’s ways into the love of God reality.
It may be time to hear again the words, Come out from among them and be separate, touch not the unclean and I will be a Father to you.
2 Cor 6:17-18: Therefore“Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.”
That word does not say come out and then stone the place you came out from. But speaking the truth in love leads to righteousness and justice.
Truly, love never fails and justice will prevail. God is love.
(Written some time before 2005)
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net