Manifesting Presence of the Holy Spirit

Hearts Revealed
(And Right Leadership in the Church)

John 16:13-14 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

When Jesus was here walking on earth, he was all about the business of revealing hearts. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He knew whose hearts were hungry and whose hearts were cold. His Presence offended most of those whose hearts were cold.

Today, the Holy Spirit is being restored back into churches that will receive Him. The gospel is being restored in unison with the Power of the Cross, as it should have been since the first church. The Word is beginning to be revealed by the manifestation of the Presence of the Lord who is the Holy Spirit, and Whom is necessary for revelation to attain to its’ fullest.

He, the Holy Spirit, the power that lowered Christ to Mary, the power that raised Christ from the dead and the power that restored Christ back to the right hand of the Father, is manifesting the Word of the Son and the Glory of the Father to those willing to invite Him.

Jesus declared that the Spirit would not act on His own. He would speak only what He hears from Jesus. The Spirit would reveal the very heart of the Father thru the word of the Son in power. Jesus said that signs and wonders would follow those that believed and that these powerful things would testify to Him and the Father.

So as the Spirit is being restored into the church today, the Spirit is expressing the heart of the Father by way of the mind of Christ and by the power of the cross. This is right progression of revelation. Not to limit God here in any way. But generally speaking…

The Father wills a thing, the Son speaks the thing and the Spirit reveals it.

When the Holy Spirit moves in the church in power, it is Jesus who is being revealed in power, but when Jesus is revealed, the will of the Father is also made known. The bridegroom is made ready for the bride. The Father heart of God is made known to us, His sons and daughters. This is a beautiful dance of communication that happens thru an intimacy that is expressed from Father to us, from us to Father, and then back to us again. It’s a wonderful beautiful circle of love that starts with Him.

It is all about the heart when the Spirit falls.

In the days Jesus walked on earth, His Presence was either received or hated. But when He did the miracles, those who hated Him hated Him all the more. His miracles not only released those in bondage, they tested those who witnessed them.

This is a key understanding. The Father is always in the business of testing the witnesses to see if faith and love is there. He is testing the faithless and the faithful. He is wooing the faithless and lovingly examining the faithful. So long as we are on this earth we will be tested by the Father. In all things, will we or will we not believe? In all things is it about Him or is it about me? For it is so, in the economy of the Lord, all things require faith first, based upon a dependency upon Father God. Every single thing that is spiritual requires faith first if we are going to see it.

So it is today and will forever be in the church in days ahead. As the power of the cross manifests, church parishioners and church leadership will be tested of the heart. Among many testings, the most important test of all is to see who is in control of the church and of the church meetings. Those that follow will be tested to see if they believe. Those that lead will also be tested for faith but even more to see who it is that is in control. The Lord wants to know who is leading the meetings, the Lord thru the Holy Spirit, or leadership and the agendas of the soul, however good sounding.

The Father knows our motivations, every single one. He looks past the mind into the heart for what motivates us. Therefore we must be pure of heart. We must bring our minds into submission to His will. We must not come into agreement with anything of this world, however good sounding. We must die to self. We must know who we are in His unlimited perfect love. We must agree with Him and submit.

We must be willing to receive a new wineskin every day. We must be forever willing to be shifted into a new thing. The Lord is forever doing a new thing. We must not be focused on the old thing. We must not be looking backwards but forwards if we are ever going to be able to see the new thing.

It’s what we come into agreement with that counts.

In the church that God is now building, leadership must examine their hearts deeply. We must understand what is meant by the word that says:

Prov 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

The Lord is saying something very important thru this word. It applies as much to the church as it does to the world. Actually, I would argue that this scripture is more important for the church. Simply put, there are two ways of going, the way of our mind or the way of His mind. Or better said, by the “natural” mind of man or by the “spiritual” mind of Christ. It is of the way of our own minds that this scripture references.

Though God gave us a mind to be used. The fullness of His intent is that we first die to our mind before we use our mind. The problem is that even with the best of intentions, fear tends to force us to go with what seems right to a man. Or, with the worst of intentions, it would be pride that motivates man by the mind of man.

There is such wisdom in the letting go of our minds and allowing God to have full control. When God is given the reigns of our minds, the anointing comes. Then we are able to lead easily as the Father wants. It is a trusting, an act of faith. It means stepping out of the natural and into the spiritual.

Ezekiel chapter 37 references a vision of the restoration of many dry bones of many dead returning to life; the valley of dry bones suddenly rattling together, being revived from death to life.

The dead and lifeless church that is emerging from the bed of dry bones must be spiritual in the days ahead. In such a church, if Jesus truly reigns, then we must give Him our reigns!

The only way for this kind of church to emerge is that the Holy Spirit be fully restored into the church. The only way for the Spirit to be restored into the church is that man be out of the way of Jesus and that we willfully give Him all our reigns. This is critical.

What is it that causes man to choose in ungodly ways but by fear or pride? Really pride is rooted in fear, the fear of being accepted, or a fear of being rejected. Both fear and pride are erroneous. But perfect love casts out fear.

I Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

And the Deliverer of perfect love is the Holy Spirit, the “Councilor” who leads us into all truth.

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

In fact the very spirit (Holy Spirit) of renewal is the testimony of the Father heart of God and the revelation of the bridegroom Son. It’s all about perfect love! Therefore we need His Presence desperately in order to overcome in anything.

The mentality that it is about what I do that overcomes is coming to an end in God’s End Time Church. No man is able to overcome a greater power than himself! Therefore we must be living in the power of the Almighty by way of the Holy Spirit in order to overcome the power of the ruler of this world!

Lest the church be operating in the power of the cross in the days ahead, it is destined for ineffectiveness, lost and without direction in the ocean of failure.

It’s time for the word to be coupled with the power of the cross! It’s time for the gospel of the Lord to be rightly yoked to and with the power of the cross. The word in and of itself is nothing but a bunch of written words lest it be backed with power, signs miracles and wonders as the scripture attests.

The Offense

Any offendability that remains in us must die. That is to say that whatever happens to us will absolutely require that we never take up an offense. In order for this to come to pass, the flesh must be absolutely held in submission. I must be dead to myself. I must know in my inner man that it is not me or my mind that controls anything. A leadership that flows in this way will be able to hear anything from anyone any time, and without fear or vexation. Then whatever is said from whomever it comes can be dealt with in righteousness and in love.

An offense bids love. And love casts out the offense.

The taking up of an offense is an act of ungodly defense. Being offended means that I must defend a position of my own power. It places the mind of man above the will of the Father.

To become offended means to be vexed or to become resentful. It is a state of feeling of indignant displeasure or persistent ill will at something regarded as a wrong, insult, or injury. It is to take up an insult.

Here are a few scriptures that speak to us regarding the offense:

Prov 19:11 A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

Matt 13:57-58 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

To take up an offense is to be lacking in faith. It is a way of man that must be in control rather than releasing God to control. To not be offendable is an act of maturity that says that Father is my justice and that He is the one who will bring about right change in His timing. Here Jesus says that a prophet is without honor in his home town.

I would add that most the martyred prophets throughout the ages were killed because the word they brought fell upon offendable ears. They did not want to hear what the prophets had to say. So they were put to death for even bringing such a word to light.

This brings up a very important issue. The church will need to hear from the prophetic people within her walls and from the apostolic and prophetic people outside her walls to whom the church submits. The Word says that the Lord does nothing without first speaking it though His servants the prophets. But the prophetic word always announces the need to come out of one way into a new way. Will we have ears to hear the words that will come, or will we be offended by those words that come.

The Bible is the word of God that defines who God is, what He does and how He does it. Likewise it has deep meaning within the words that speak to our state and future state. BUT since the scripture says that God is always doing a new thing, we must hear of it through the word of the prophetic voices.

There are so many values and purposes for prophetic words. But in general, we must know that prophecy is as important as the word. But prophecy MUST align with the word of God. A good way to think of it is that the Bible defines God, it does not contain God. Therefore we need both, by which prophesy is in submission to the revealed word.

We can see then that offenses silence the prophetic flow. If the prophetic flow is silenced, then how can anything new happen in the church?

John 6:60-61 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?

Much of the word to come will not be comfortable feel good words! What is going to come will be every form of correction that will cut out that which has been keeping the church in spiritual death for generations.

In this hour of culling, much hard word will come. If the hard word is not received, it will continue to come until it is received, or the Lord will move on. This is not an easy thing. He is bringing about great changes in the days ahead that will so kill us that it truly will be nothing of us and everything of Him!

And for those who are dead and those who are about to die, this is a joyous thing! For those who have ears to hear and for those who will give up the right to be offended, it will be so worth it!

Prov 18:19 An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city, and disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.

The boxes we keep our God in through religious ways and un-yielded minds are what is being spoken of here. The power that keeps those boxes in place is the offendable will.

Matt 15:12-14 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Being offendable puts a man in the same class as the Pharisees who are blinded to truth. Oh how strong a warning is such a word as this! I must let go of my need to be right in order to let Him be right through me.

Prov 17:9-10 He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool.

You see “perfect love” is so powerful! It is so warming. It has a way of establishing a change without the sting of anger or hate. It takes away the blinders. It crushes fear. Perfect love is selfless. It means that I can operate completely outside of my needs and serve others. Perfect love overcomes every offense. It is what the church is supposed to be operating in.

Perfect love takes the work of the flesh or the devil out of discipline and discipleship. Perfect love is a way of going that allows God to minister a correction thru me rather than from me. It takes me completely out of the picture. The Spirit is given reign to establish a change. Correction is ten times easier to give and ten times easier to receive.

How we respond then is key. Do we respond to an event or issue from a state of offendedness or do we respond with encouragement and love. There is a huge difference and of which is easily recognizable by even the most casual of observers.

The receipt of a correction or rebuke becomes easy when we are unoffendable. I am made able to grow and hear things I would never be able to hear when my soul is no longer offendable.

We are entering a day in which the Lord will bring volumes of correction and protection into the church. He will use “iron to sharpen iron” so that the church will always be on the cutting edge of the Lord’s new thing. He will forever be bringing correction and steering into a church leadership in order to see who is in control and if the church is willing to turn into the new thing. With each new thing that comes, it requires a stretching and a willingness to be moved into something that we have never seen before. This will happen in the church almost on a daily basis in the last day church.

How then will we ever be able to see the new thing if we have an offendable spirit? How will we ever be able to move from glory to glory if we do not have eyes to see and ears to hear? The bottom line of it is this, if we are offendable, we can only be but blinded to the new thing. Because the new thing of the Lord will always come in the form of a test to see if we are in His way! This is so important!

I hear the Lord saying in this hour, and as clear as a bell, “Time to die to everything you hold dear! Time to die to what you think is right and let me show you what is right. Time to give up your right to be right.”

This is a hard word. But I would respectfully ask, and in as kind a way as I know how, that if these are offensive thoughts of which I speak, my point is confirmed. Anything that is offensive in the days ahead will block the church from growth. For whatever offense is taken, it will be in the same measure that growth will be missed.

Perfect Love Casts out Fear

The manifestation of the Holy Spirit is first and foremost a manifestation of perfect love, or Kingdom love. It’s like a little bit of heaven coming down into our rooms. The air is thick and weighty, and the Presence is felt in the form of love and joy in the Holy Spirit.

But the very Spirit that heals the heart is the very thing that is rejected by a heart that is manipulated by fear. The Holy Spirit is all about the new thing. Fear turns us away from the new thing and binds us to the old thing. Fear holds on to the familiar. Fear causes us to look backwards and not move forward. Fear is a key strategy of the flesh and the devil. Fear keeps the fire out. That is exactly what the devil is after. Fear is the basis behind religion.

So long as we reside in the old ways, that which casts out all fear is left out of our meetings. The result can only be what is left, talent, charisma and the mind of man.

As goes the leader, so goes the followers. As goes the leader, so goes the church. In the days ahead, the Lord will examine our thoughts and intentions continuously, in particular, church leadership. There is no fear in this testing though. He will look into and test our hearts. However, if we fail this test, the warning here applies:

Lk 1:51 He (The Lord) has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

No man can avoid this examination. And God’s examination manifests in the form of a test. Not only are we tested, but we also must test all things. But, how then can we possibly attain the right mark of truth in any testing (either testing or being tested) if the Holy Spirit is not freely flowing revelation into that place? How can one rightly test a thing if one is not being ministered to by the Holy Spirit in power?

Consider these passages:

Deut 13:1-4 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere.

Exod 15:24-25 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.

Rev 2:2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.

1Thes 5:19-22 Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophesies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

We are tested so that we can rightly test. It stands then that if we are not willing to be tested, how then can we rightly test another?

The question then stands, are we testing from our minds or are we testing from the mind of Christ? Without the Holy Spirit flowing within the walls of the church or the walls of our hearts, our judgments can only be but flawed. This too is important. If we are testing from our minds, we are certain to eventually silence what which is a right work of the Lord thru people. What seems too radical is then silenced, when in fact it was a God thing. This, I am certain is the very reason previous revival fires have been put out.

For how can we possibly know what is “good”, as in 1 Thes 5:21 above, if we do not have the mind of Christ? What is “good” must be Kingdom good, not mentally good. Here is a key scripture:

1 Cor 2:14-16 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

And how can we have the mind of Christ if we are not being continuously filled with the manifest Presence of the Lord? How can we possibly know the right way if our minds are not being renewed day by day?

A place without the fullness of His Presence is like an archer that is blinded. His chance of hitting the center mark of spiritual truth is slim to none. But when the Spirit falls, when we experience Him, the blinders are taken off, we see clearly and are now supernaturally anointed to hit the center mark of truth easily.

There is no understanding worth anything without the fullness of the Spirit’s revelation to make known what is right. As far as I am concerned, I don’t want to even make the slightest move if the Spirit does not confirm it, not by my mind but by the Spirit who lives in me and rests upon me. So must it be in the church.

Jesus was always in the business of offending the wise and the prideful. He was always in the business of checking the condition of people’s hearts. When the people saw the spiritually radical, they either said, “this is God”, or they said, “this is not God”, even worse, Jesus was accused of being a demoniac. They either agreed then submitted to Jesus’ headship and control. Or, they willfully rejected what they were witnessing with words of accusation based upon a good sounding argument. These arguments were false declarations based upon the condition of their hearts within. They were mental arguments based upon what was seen rather than what was unseen.

We can expect many arguments in the days ahead that sound logically flawless but which are spiritually foolish.

Today, as the Spirit is being released to those who have eyes to see, the Lord is once again checking the hearts of those who are witnessing it. Once again we are beginning to witness that which has been previously unseen. The radical things of the Lord are being systematically restored into certain church meetings. Once again, through these heretofore unseen things, the Lord is testing the hearts of the witnesses, but very particularly, leadership. The Lord is asking the ultimate question, “Will this be your thing, or will this be my thing? Will you be like the control driven Pharisees and reject the witness of the power of the cross? Or, will you give me control so that you will be first hand participants in this great End Time move?”

I believe the Lord saying to the End Time church, “Everything beyond this point is spiritual, and will only be understood in the Sprit.”

There are some church leaders who would say, “We have no agendas here, so keep yours at home please.” In many cases, what is really being said is, “Don’t bring your agenda here because our agenda is what we are doing.”

However it is not the agendas of the followership that the Lord is looking at. It is the agendas of the leadership that the Father is scrutinizing. It is the agendas of those who are in places of responsibility that are at issue because of the principle of authority.

Followers do not lead the church, leadership does. Power is released through right flowing authority. If those in authority are not in line with the ultimate authority of the Holy Spirit in the church, there is no power in the church. The Spirit becomes grieved, then leaves. The church is left to rely on the talents of man rather than the anointing of God. The spirit of excellence takes over, and then it is nothing but a show of talent and charisma.

God is doing away with “excellence” based upon talent. He is replacing it with spiritual excellence based upon anointing born from self-death and non-offendability. It is not talent that breaks the heavy yoke, it is the anointing that breaks the heavy yoke.

It is not willful error in the followership that damages a church Body, and which is why right discipleship is so important. Among other purposes, discipleship teaches the followers how to overcome, then how to lead. But when people are released into leadership, it is then that these people become responsible over those they now lead. It is the willful sin of a leadership that does damage in a church or ministry. When the harvest is reaped, there will be tons of sin in the church! It’s not sin in the church followers that the Lord is so much concerned about. More so it is the sin within a leadership that grieves the Holy Spirit in a church or ministry. Consider the case of Moses who for one sin was not allowed to enter into the Promised Land.

But, many right-hearted leaders are in fear of making a mistake that grieves the Spirit. They tend to be walking on eggshells for fear of making a mistake. The main question that must be asked is this; is their heart truly desireful to see His will come to pass in the meetings? If the answer is yes, then this work of doing what is right becomes so easy. There is no fear in it when the Father’s heart is revealed. It truly is a childlike way of going.

The Lord does not charge anyone for error that they are not willful in.

Sin is not sin unless it is known and which is why the law was given. It is when we act willfully against the known will of the Father thru the Spirit that we endanger ourselves and those that we lead. We simply just listen to the leadership of the Spirit and obey it in our meetings.

We do not fear what man might think when the Spirit manifests in power. Operating in renewal is far more simple than many are making it.

To fear what people might thing when the Spirit falls, for whatever reason, must be addressed in leadership and done away with. For many will be offended when the Spirit falls in power. The devil and the flesh are radically displaced when that happens. It is inevitable that some, even many will leave the church when the Spirit falls. Of the many reasons the Spirit is so needed in the church, this is indeed one of the greatest.

The manifestation the Holy Spirit will offend many. This is inevitable. This is because He comes to test our hearts and offend the flesh. Right order in the church or ministry will not look like what the world or the mind of man thinks it should look like. Therefore we must not fear what people might thing or express when the Spirit falls. One thing is for certain, revival will be come against every time it appears.

What is in our hearts? Is it anxiety or fear of loosing people? Are we worried what people might think of our decisions? Is it a fear of missing the tithe or running late in a meeting? Did we prepare all week for a message and are sure it is a burning word for the hour?

Are we willing to let all of these things go if the Lord, by His Holy Spirit says so?

In every revival that ever was, I am certain in my mind of this, the fires were put out by willful disobedience of a leader to the known desire and direction of the Holy Spirit. There came a point in time when enough was enough. The Spirit said to go one way, the leader willfully went another way. Then renewal was over.

I heard it said best in Toronto by the Pastor of that great revival, John Arnott. Right in the middle of a preaching, he stopped. There were people “ho-hoing” on one side of the room. Some were laughing uncontrollably in another area. There were certain people crying under the influence of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

Right in the middle of his sermon, Pastor Arnott stopped. He said this (paraphrased), “You know, some of you here might be a bit concerned about all this noise while I am preaching. You might be wondering why I don’t intervene and tell these people to become silent. You might be wondering why I don’t use my authority as pastor to stop what might appear to you as interruptive. Well… I know that some of this might be of the flesh. But if God is in this house, then who is in charge here, me or God? If I go over there and stop that person from laughing, I might be getting in the way of the Lord. Who is God in this house? And if God is God in this house, of what concern is the devil or the flesh? My God is bigger than the devil. I don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit. So I will not get in the way besides what the Spirit has led me to do.”

This alone is the very reason revival has lasted now since 1994 at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. It will be the way that the Spirit remains in His End Time church in the days ahead. It just simply is all about a leadership who will not be in the way of the Holy Spirit when He manifests in a place, however radical that manifestation might be. Combine that with solid intercession and the devil will have no foothold in a place where the Spirit is manifesting in power.

I am absolutely convinced that the Father never intended for the Spirit to leave the church after the event of Pentecost. Though it is true that church business changed in the afterglow of each revival in history, that result was always the spiritual result of the Spirit’s outpouring. It was never a move of the Lord besides the desire for Him to love on His bride and be loved on by His bride.

We tend to think that each outpouring preceded a move of God. It is the only way the mind of man could possibly explain such outpourings. I believe that each outpouring was simply based upon a hungry and thirsty leader who wanted more of the Lord. The result of revival was a church changed. Oh how much the church has forfeited in the lack of His Presence in the church!

So the key is right-hearted leadership. But what of the leadership and how do they gain wisdom for the days ahead? The answer is found in the fullness of release to the apostolic and prophetic ministry over a church. I see this as absolutely critical in this reformation of the church today. The Spirit is waiting for the fullness of the structure of the apostolic to be prepared for the coming harvest. As the Spirit is being poured out, the apostles must be ready. How quickly the fires will be put out if there are no apostles to lead the churches into the future. We can clearly see the propagation of the first church thru the right leadership and teaching of the Apostle Paul.

Particularly as the Spirit is being poured out in the world, now more than ever, leadership must come under right apostolic order. For without this right order, a church has no correction, wisdom, fresh understanding nor the prophetic word rightly ministered into leadership. This is important in this hour.

Truly the church is in a state of new reform. In fact this apostolic reform includes the full release of three functions, the intercessory, the prophetic, and the apostolic. All three working hand in hand will be critical to the church in the days ahead. The church without these things flowing over and through them will be in danger of missing or failing in the move of the Lord that is at hand.

As has always been the way of Jesus all thru the years since the cross, every single heart in leadership has been constantly tested to see who it is that would be in control. When they failed the test over time (and I am convinced, only after their hearts were clearly willfully in opposition to His direction), the Spirit up and left.

I am also convinced, the Lord does not charge for error that was not heart generated. If a leader’s heart is for His manifest Presence, but makes error in judgment as to His direction, there is great mercy. It is when a leader willfully goes against a known direction of the Lord that there is great danger.

Lk 2:34-35 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

The Lord is carrying a sharp double-edged sward in His hand right now and He stands before all disciples and all leadership of Spirit filled churches and He is saying, “Are you willing to have your soul pierced too? Will you really give this to me, lock, stock and barrel? Or are you going to remain comfortable in your yesterdays?”

We must know that whatever we operate in of yesterday becomes as a swampy salty bog whose stagnant lifeless waters we drink. The Lord wants us forever drinking the new wine of our tomorrows. Lest we understand this issue, we won’t even get out of the starting block of what the Lord has in store for us in the days ahead.

If we judge this End Time move of the Lord by anything that we have experienced in the past, we will miss the bigger thing, the “ever increasing” of the Lord that lies just ahead.

The crossroad is here now and the Lord says we will have to choose our direction, to the left or to the right. The road to the left is a glittery highway with enticing road signs that say, “Church Size, Fame, Ministry, T.V., Wealth, and yes Excellence.” The road to the right is a narrow one-lane road with no signs. It looks dangerous to me, but I know that this is the road that Jesus is leading us down.

Ec 10:2 The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.

He says, “This road to the right is the road of My End Time Church. It is the road of My Presence, the road of My demonstrated power, the road of effectiveness, the road to the nations. But there are only two prerequisites to go down this road. You must seek My face like never before and you must die. You must die to all you are holding on to, all agendas, all ministries, all religious ways and all your yesterdays.”

This is the only way for the End Time Church to succeed in the days ahead, all of which will be centered around the perfect love of the Father that heals all wounds.

Now the only thing that remains are right choices born from a willing heart. We are told that in these last days the love of most will grow cold and that many brothers will be deceived by good sounding arguments. This is why we need the Kingdom on earth, the manifestation of His Presence, the release of perfect love, the experience that changes us! If the Spirit is the Councilor who leads us into all truth, how then can the church ever be fully revealed to love? How will the church ever know His way? If this then is truly based upon right choices of leadership, how weighty then are their decisions!

A church leadership is not accountable to the church Body. If they are, they are destined to be the church on the left, a place that speaks to their parishioners itching ears what they want to hear, and a seeker friendly place.

The church is a part of a Kingdom by which there is no democracy.

But a leadership who truly is accountable to apostolic coverage who themselves are attached to the voice of the Father is the place in which the Spirit will do great and wonderful things in the days ahead. The enemy and the flesh will be displaced from the church, healing, deliverance and the raising of the dead will happen in power. Theirs will be the residence of His glory and the residence of a love that will change our nation and the nations of the world. Theirs will be the harvest.

Now that which remains if faith, hope and love. Faith starts it, hope matures it, and love binds it all together. Faith in every spiritual Kingdom thing, hope that sustains our walk, and revelation love which is the power behind it all. These three things happen when we let go, and then when the Spirit comes. Save for our letting go and His Spirit’s continuous coming, we will be like a ship without wind in our sails, foundering on the sea of ineffectiveness.

T. Scott Morton