Manifesting Presence of the Holy Spirit

I am not a conformist, nor will I ever be. I am a transformist.

Ro 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.

2Co 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

To be transformed is to live the supernatural lifestyle of being revealed to and then moving in the new thing of God daily.

To reject conformation is not rebellion unless it is a rejection of God’s likeminded leadership, either of the Spirit directly or of Spirit laidened church leadership.

The definition of like-mindedness is to be filled with the Spirit, to hear from the Spirit and then to move in the Spirit. That is the mind of Christ. It’s what Jesus died for to provide for the church. Everything else is of the mind of man, and which is of the flesh.

Phl 3:3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh…

Jn 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

Of what value is any argument that finds its basis in what man thinks? Every word from Jesus is spirit; therefore no word of man is spiritual until it comes forth from the Holy Spirit, the bringer of life.

How can any structure be in the center of God’s will that is not flowing vibrantly in the manifesting presence of the Holy Spirit, as did the first church? If the Spirit brings life, than what are we living in if the Spirit is not in residence?

It all comes down to right submission, not religious submission, right submission. It’s a selflessness from the top down that chooses to give the reins of control to the Spirit of God for understanding, power and growth here on earth.

When I am in right submission, I am essentially yoked to the mind of Christ. The only way for this to be so is to be directly connected to the Holy Spirit – and/or – under submission to a church leadership who themselves are directly connected to the Holy Spirit. Either way, the essential element is a complete dependence upon the continuously manifesting presence of the Holy Spirit. In such a way, I am not conforming, I am transforming. In such a way, I am dependant not independent. In such a way it is about Christ, not of any person.

Now I know that what I say next might sound a bit harsh. But these are radical times in the Kingdom of God. This is our time to shine! It’s now our time to bring forth a harvest for Jesus! But I sense the time is short. We no longer have time to wallow in corporate ineffectiveness. We need to be rightly positioned to be used of in the maximum. What I say regarding the church is not out of disrespect for God’s church today. Rather, just the oposite, I so hope for the church of God in these last days to be so filled with the Holy Spirit and moving in great power to do great and mighty things.

But we must be honest about the state of today’s church. When compared to the power and effectiveness of the first church of Acts, today’s church just does not measure up. When we consider that Jesus commanded us that we were to do even greater things than he did, and when we honestly measure how much of that statement holds true in today’s church, we can only conclude that something very greatly amiss in the vast majority of today’s church. It is with these thoughts in mind that I speak these following thoughts.

Regarding our church life, we have a responsibility to depart from places of spiritual dryness, unless the Lord leads one to stay in such a place to bring light. Even so, one should not stay long. The reality is that we are not waiting on God, he waits upon us. To go deep into his presence is as easy as can be and which can happen tomorrow, anywhere. It comes down to the choice of leadership to die to self and allow God to lead. With a hunger and thirst for more of God, he comes. When we wait, he comes.

So if one is burdened to stay in a dry place, one should not stay long. For a leadership need only to choose in an instant to change. But when dryness is the order of the day, rare is it that a place changes when people are unwilling to make the change to selflessness.

Religion does not die by a sweeping move of God, religion dies by choice. Every revival that ever was came by way of a leadership that was fed up with the ways of man. Desperation, spiritual hunger, coming to the end of self, these are the precursors of revival and right change. In fact all spiritual growth finds its beginning in these ways.

Willful dryness is religion and which is independent of God. In reality, all who will not allow God to lead their meetings are in rebellion. Those who flee such places, though being accused of rebellion themselves are themselves fleeing from a rebellious atmosphere.

We rightly conform to the laws of the land and which is scriptural. Such obedience gives glory to the Father. However, Kingdom speaking, church speaking, God clearly requires of us that we be in submission to authorities who are under submission to the Spirit of God.

In such Spirit filled places, testing and approving are not from the mind of man but the mind of Christ. In such places everyone has a release according to the Spirit’s release and timing. In such places, those with no talent are equal to those with large talent. In such places, people get trashed in the Holy Spirit! Trashed… everything of the flesh gets trashed.

Offenses are crushed, joy is released, the sick are healed, the oppressed are delivered and the dead are raised to life! And unity that no person can muster ensues.

One cannot be conformed in order to test and approve, one must be transformed by the renewing of the mind, then one can test and approve.

I’ll be the first to admit my fleshly state, my immaturities and my errors. I know full well of the need for correction and encouragement in my life. I know of my idols and of my pride. I know of my fears and selfishness. I know, I need mentors and fathers to minister to me such spiritual truths that I alone am unable to attain to. I need correction and rebuke, love and encouragement. I need the whole Body. I long for such leadership over my life. However, I have witnessed a clear and definable vast difference in my spiritual growth between Spirit filled places and non Spirit filled places.

Now this has been my honest observation between Spirit lead and non Spirit lead churches that I have been a part of, as it pertains to spiritual “coverage”. I know I expose myself to the critisism of woundedness in speaking these experiences. However, this is the testimony of what happened to me so that one might gain an understanding of the differences between Spirit filled and spiritless places. In changing away from the spiritless, I have been so greatly blessed and encouraged. Words can not describe the joy and liberty that we moved in to when we did. So take this as you will. Just know that my heart is not angry, but just wanting for those locked in spiritual dryness.

In my former experiences where the Spirit was kept in check, I was never corrected, never taught, never lead, I was only tolerated. No one sought me out to mentor me. I received no word of correction or rebuke. I was expected to remain seated until I had done my time, and then after such a time there came certain releases. However it was apparent that the only test was that of time and a consistency of service and of giving. There was no challenge and very little trust to release what God placed in my wife or I to release. Our children were left out almost entirely because of the clicky nature of the youth structures we witnessed. There was no real connection to the church and no real unity because there was very little Holy Spirit, even though they called themselves Spirit filled. It was all about the one man show. It was all about the most talented people.

But where the Spirit of the Lord was manifesting, when we dedicated ourselves to that place, almost immediately, the Spirit of the Lord began to deal with my heart and my mind. He used everyone to speak into my life. I was loved with a love that was almost nonexistent in former places; a love that was intense, true, of the heart and without any alterior motives. I witnessed no judgment, but found myself on God’s threshing floor time and time again. The Lord was breaking down my fears. He was doing business with my pride. He was crushing me with waves of mercy and love that I could physically feel. Because he was manifesting upon me, my “out of lines” and “out of balances” were snapping back in line with the Father’s heart. I saw the Father’s heart for me like never before.

I recognized that no longer was it about what I did in the church that gained acceptance for me, he accepted me as I was even in my faults. I sensed his release to me even in my imperfect state. Now I understood God’s testing and approving was nothing like mans testing and approving. God was releasing me while he was working on my heart! What a new way! What trust! What love!

Now I knew that I was righteous, not being made righteous. I knew I was a son, not a servant. The words of God over me took on a substance of proof that they were real. That is to say, it was not just words but the experience that followed the words. My faith, hope and love was increasing. It became liberating to just open up to him and to people to change me. It became a welcome thing, and which remains in my heart today. I know I am not perfect. But in my imperfection, I am lovingly corrected with substance and truth rather than for the ulterior motives of religion, or the fleshly fears of man.

In having made this change away from the religious church, we have come under significant persecution. Accusations have come our way, of not being under submission to authority. We have been accused of operating in a state of woundedness from former bad experiences, of making decisions out of the fleshliness of frustration, of leaving because of not being heard.  How false and sad were these accusations. However, the Father knows that my heart is indeed his to deal with. To this I have been absolutely true.

Those that seek the deeper waters of God’s presence must know there is a price to pay. It is exactly what Jesus meant when he said this:

Lk 12:51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.

The division Jesus speaks of is between what is right and what is wrong, between what is flesh and Spirit, between the mind of man and the mind of Christ.

Such then is the difference between submission in the Spirit filled church as compared to places of dryness. The difference is a 180-degree opposite; manipulation verses love.

The dry church manipulates to favor the church purpose. The Spirit filled church hands all the reins into the hands of the Father. This church then grows out of Father’s hand of love which results in his purpose; his work, his word, his rebuke, his teaching, in his timing. This way requires a great revelation to understand it! Only those who submit to such places in faith gain such an understanding. Otherwise it would be accused of by outside observers as church anarchy with no leadership.

Bottom line is, far greater is the spiritual growth of a person in places of God’s continuously manifesting presence. Transformation happens in such places. Otherwise, conformity rules the day.

Religion is all about conformity, a submission to anything and everything at all cost. We become dependent only upon the high few who test and approve… This religious way is of the law and which denies God his right to control his church or to use “the least of these” to bring His message.

Everything about God is about the new thing, not the old thing.

To be transformed means to be changed out of something old into something new. It means to change from a lesser way into a greater way, an ever-increasing move.

To be conformed is to be changed out of some way into  “old tried and true ways”. It means to change from ways of disorder into ways of man defined order. It is always either a lateral change or decreasing or backward change. By it’s nature, it rejects the new thing of God for form of order or familiarity.

Conformation is man in control. Transformation is God in control.

I will submit and follow any church leader to the moon and back who lets the Holy Spirit control the meeting. Submission is right only when God is in control of the whole thing; only when God has hold of all the reins. Otherwise, it’s submission under the law and which stiff-arms Christ in lieu of mans ideals. It’s error and which results in religious bondage. People become crushed under the weight of the chains of mans limitations. The one tallent people are forced to go and bury thier tallent. Because, there is no place to release, no place to give or receive besides at one’s seat.

It is true that to whoever or whatever I submit, therein lies the limit of my spiritual growth. If I submit to sin, I become a slave to it. If I submit to the Spirit, I enter into the fullness the Spirit brings, namely liberty and joy, the very things Christ died to release! Whatever or whoever I submit to, and which is a principle of God, that is my limit.

Consider this…

Why drive an old worn out 20 year old car when we could be driving a brand new car?

Why settle for a tin shack when we could be living in a mansion?

Why would anyone sustain only on rice and water when God has invited us into his banqueting room full of food and new wine we have never partaken of?

Why put salve on our open wounds when God can heal them completely in an instant?

Why settle for one soul a week when we could have hundreds even thousands in a day?

Why is the church dead and full of strife when it could be alive and in great unity?

The answer is this… too much conformation and too little transformation; too much thinking and too little drinking. Too much of mans old ways and too little of Gods fresh increase. Too much mind and too little heart.

It comes down to this…. It’s time to die to self in as much as we are able to do. It’s time to give God all our reins. Then we can lead. Then we can reap. Then we can grow. Only in such a place is submission in right order. Only in such a place does submission lead to transformation.

T. Scott Morton

Ps 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Jesus took the cup of wrath for all my sins so that I don’t have to. He is my complete refuge from the wrath of God. Yes his refuge is complete, lest the Lord be a liar and Jesus having died in vane.

Though I err, if I am found in Christ, there is no wrath unless I am out of alignment with the truth of who he is and what he did on the cross, unless I choose to not believe what is true. When I err, I repent, and I am made safe. If I know Christ in the fullness of him, I am safe, even though the world might fall apart around me.

Now what are some effects of wrath? Of many evidences, here are a few: sickness, judgment, hatred, blindness to Kingdom truth and excessive persecution.

Wrath is born of the law. Wrath is the result of the law broken. Wrath is the righteous penalty for breaking the law for those living under the law. Wrath is the price for man living independent of God.

A price must be paid for every sin.

But, what about God’s heart of mercy? Mercy delays the consequence of sin; it does not eliminate the consequence of sin. Mercy simply defers the cost of sin to a later date. Or, mercy allows the price for our sin to be paid by another, namely Jesus Christ.

In the economy of God, mercy is the gift of time that allows me and leads me towards repentance! God waits in hopes that we would turn and repent. In so doing, I turn and place the cost of my sin upon the Cross. Repentance is my means to transfer my cost for my sin onto Jesus.

There is no sin that goes unpunished. Someone must pay the charge for it. That person is either upon myself, or through Father’s mercy, upon the person of Jesus Christ. I pay or Christ pays, it’s one or the other.

The cup of wrath is the very price Jesus paid on the day of the Cross for all of our sins for all time. He drank the cup of full power wrath. It is unimaginable the sorrow and separation that Jesus must have felt! This cup was far greater the pain of the Cross than the torture of it.

Praise God for what Christ did for me! He paid it all on the cross by drinking this cup of all wrath for all Christians for all time. I gain the benefit of that each time I repent.

Mt 26:38-39 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus was not in fear of the cross. He was under the weight of the knowledge that he was about to take on the full price for all the sin of all the Saints for all time upon him. In light of all the wrath released in Old Testament times, how weighty must this knowledge have been of what was about to happen! The pain of the cross was but a tiny part of the greater pain Jesus would feel. The scourging, the whipping, the hatred, all momentary in comparison to this cup of wrath he was asked to take!

But Jesus’ drinking of this cup was complete, binding and for all time. This was the result:

Ro 8:1-3a Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (wrath). For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! What a magnificent gift. But that gift did not come without a great cost. Jesus paid the price in full. He did so by taking on the cross. He did so by drinking the cup of wrath.

However, for those who do not accept Jesus, they themselves must drink the cup of wrath on an individual level, the very same cup that Jesus took for the Saints. Ultimately, God’s cup of wrath is hell.

Jn 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”  

This above scripture makes it unmistakably clear, God’s wrath remains only upon those who reject Jesus!

Therefore there is no wrath for those who are in Christ Jesus. This must be understood! There is no wrath for those who are in Christ Jesus! None!

Rev 14:9-10 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.

This cup of wrath is the very thing that Jesus was most disturbed about just prior to the Cross. Therefore it also represents the cup of ultimate sacrifice. It was an act of extreme sacrifice unto death. It was an act that God calls us all into. It is sacrifice that is a cup from which we all must drink.

However in that Jesus cup carried the penalties and price of sin, none of us need drink of it. Jesus took it all! Sacrifice unto death yes, but pay the price for sin… no! Jesus did that for us completely. Any lesser theology cheapens the Cross.

Here is a key point of this writing:

Sickness, being therefore an effect of wrath, being therefore a price for sin, is of the law. Therefore no one in Christ should suffer in sickness.

Psalms 38 proves this point. (This very chapter is a prophetic foretaste of what Christ cried out for in the garden in Mathew 26. “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”)

Ps 38:1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger

or discipline me in your wrath.

2 For your arrows have pierced me,

and your hand has come down upon me.

3 Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;

my bones have no soundness because of my sin.

4 My guilt has overwhelmed me

like a burden too heavy to bear.

5 My wounds fester and are loathsome

because of my sinful folly.

6 I am bowed down and brought very low;

all day long I go about mourning.

7 My back is filled with searing pain;

there is no health in my body.

8 I am feeble and utterly crushed;

I groan in anguish of heart.

9 All my longings lie open before you, O Lord;

my sighing is not hidden from you.

10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me;

even the light has gone from my eyes.

11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;

my neighbors stay far away.

12 Those who seek my life set their traps,

those who would harm me talk of my ruin;

all day long they plot deception.

13 I am like a deaf man, who cannot hear,

like a mute, who cannot open his mouth;

14 I have become like a man who does not hear,

whose mouth can offer no reply.

15 I wait for you, O LORD;

you will answer, O Lord my God.

16 For I said, “Do not let them gloat

or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.”

17 For I am about to fall,

and my pain is ever with me.

18 I confess my iniquity;

I am troubled by my sin.

19 Many are those who are my vigorous enemies;

those who hate me without reason are numerous.

20 Those who repay my good with evil

slander me when I pursue what is good.

21 O LORD, do not forsake me;

be not far from me, O my God.

22 Come quickly to help me,

O Lord my Savior.

Sickness is the result of the law being broken. Sickness is one effect of wrath being poured out. Sickness is the right that the devil has to bring people to a stop. The right he has to bring it is by our sin or the sins of the fathers in previous generations.

Exod 20:3-6 “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Many wonder how children get deathly sick in what seems to be good and godly families. Few people agree with the above scripture. How can God allow such a thing to happen to an innocent child? But the scripture is clear. God’s wrath visits to the third and fourth generation of those who live in sin.

What we do not believe we will not see, nor can we combat against it!

Indeed sometimes God allows sickness to a guiltless person to show his glory and power. But these events are rare and are clearly made known. People get healed that have this happen to them so that God’s glory is made known in the world! Job is a prime example. But Job happened before the Cross!

But how great is the gift of repentance!

2 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Isa 30:15a This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…”

When we repent, we appropriate upon ourselves and our children the effects of the Cross. Jesus took the cup of wrath so we don’t have to.

Now here is a key point:

What we choose to believe of the Kingdom of God is what we see and gain in the Kingdom of God. What we choose not to believe we will not see, nor will we gain the benefit of it in the Kingdom of God. In the economy of the Kingdom, what we don’t believe we do not gain. If we do not believe that Jesus took all of our wrath, we reserve some of it for us on earth. If I do not believe that sickness is an effect of the fallen world, I expose myself to it. If I believe that a dieing child is the divine choice of a merciless God, I have no power to minister healing to that child! Then what I experience becomes my theology.  We reap what we sow.

What we do not believe that is actually true in the Kingdom of God, we will not see. Therefore, what we choose to disbelieve that is of the Kingdom of God is sin. That sin therefore results in an effect. The effect is wrath. Whatever sin I choose to live in eventually has a result, wrath.

It must also be said here that there is a great deal of mercy and patience in the Father’s heart. He knows who will turn and who will not turn towards him. We all deal with levels of unbelief. My main point for all who read this is to unlock your mind to the radical truths of the Kingdom of God and believe! In so doing we prevent volumes of trouble in this life. That trouble comes in the form of oppression.

Consider the story of Zechariah who was just given a phenomenal word that his aged wife Elizabeth would bear a child. He didn’t believe it:

Luke 1:19-20 The angel answered, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.”

God had mercy on Zechariah and his speech was restored. Though we don’t hear his words of repentance, clearly his heart was repentant. This is what happened:

Luke 1:63-64 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God.

Notice that what Zechariah said that ended his punishment were words of agreement to the truth of what Gabriel brought to him. Zechariah came into agreement with the Kingdom truth that the angel brought him and to which he had first disagreed with.

When we come into agreement with what the Holy Spirit brings us today, we are then moving in what the Lord wants us to move into. To disagree with the word he brings is sin and error. The result is the inability to express what God has given us to do in this world.

Some falsely believe that God disciplines through sickness today. The main argument is that because we don’t see God healing today it must not be true for today. I know that this is false theology and the word makes this unmistakable. But to believe in such error denies what Jesus took on the Cross. He took all of the wrath for all time. Now there is no wrath for those who are in Christ Jesus. So we point those who are sick to the Cross. The result becomes healing power. Wrath falls off. The devil flees. Infirmity fails.

Sickness is nothing but the right of the devil to bring wrath to an unbelieving world. But the Cross and the power of the Cross is how we overcome sickness.

When we come into agreement with a lesser theology, such agreement becomes the right for the bringer of wrath to infiltrate. It is why there is so much sickness in the church. False theology, the law… Old Testament death!

Ro 4:14-15 For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

Therefore where the law was made powerless through the Cross, there can no longer be any wrath for those who believe Jesus! Praise the Lord God Almighty for his great favor and love! Praise Jesus for taking my cup of wrath for me!

Wrath is in the world and will be in the world for those who are not in Christ Jesus. For those who say they are but do not believe in the fullness of what he did, wrath is also in the world.

Jesus’ Cross resulted in power. We must believe in both what he did and the power that he made manifest, namely the Holy Spirit. No wrath can stand in the face of the Holy Spirit. If sickness is a heckling jackal of death, the Holy Spirit is the mighty wind that chases it away through Jesus, the Lion of life who made it happen. Both the wind (power) and the Lion (Cross) are required. If Jesus is the Word and the Spirit is the Power, then sickness must flee by the manifestation of both!

Matt 22:29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

A key point in this writing is that truth is key to moving in the fullness of the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in Heaven. Only in truth can we move in the fullness of our call on earth as Christians. Today the bringer of all truth is the Holy Spirit. How invaluable is the manifest Presence of the Holy Spirit in our churches!

John 16:13-14 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

Ro 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness…

Could it be that wherever the Holy Spirit is not welcome, Kingdom truth is being suppressed? Is this not the warning that Jesus gave in Mathew 22:29?

“You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

Is this not as warning for today’s church that claims to be in Jesus Christ?

And so I tell you the truth… wrath and all that comes with it, primarily sickness and early death, have no power over us who are in Christ Jesus.

Now therefore, God disciplines us in this world by the result of our own choices limited by our faith and by what we will not believe. We reap out of what we choose to sow. If we do not believe that Jesus took it all for us on the cross, we fall under the law and the penalties thereof. We open ourselves to sickness and extreme persecution. We reap what we sow!

If we live in the flesh, our consequences are in the flesh.

If we live in the law, our consequences are of the law.

If we live in grace, our consequences are miracles.

If we live in the Spirit, our consequences are the witness of the truth of the Kingdom of God manifesting on earth as it is in Heaven.

“Let it be unto Him according to His Faith.”

Matt 9:28-29 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”

We should know that faith has everything to do with how far the devil can go against us.

For those who live in the light and who express that light into this dieing world, persecution is guaranteed. For all of us who are operating in the Holy Spirit and who are reaping a harvest, we must know, our enemy seeks every means to come against us. But that persecution is nothing like what David experienced in Psalms 38! Jesus work is complete! That was not yet so for David.

David did not have the liberty of the cross! Therefore he came under righteous wrath.  He lived in a world that regularly felt that wrath. Had he been under the blood of Christ, he would have not had the experiences he did to the level he did, even though he might have been martyred!

Not that we have it any easier than David, it is just that the tools we have in our hands are vastly greater than his! He had love and that was enough. We have love and Love poured out! And that is vastly greater.

We are all guilty. We all deserve to drink this cup of God’s wrath, but Jesus did that on the cross completely! He took my cup for me and drank it so that I would not have to.

The Lord is not angry with us! He cannot be. All anger was fully and completely exhausted upon one man, namely Jesus at the cross. Jesus took it all. Now there is no anger for those who are in Christ Jesus. He is not angry with you even in your failings. He can’t be, it’s against his nature and his word that is his bond. He would be a liar.

This is how it was in David’s day:

Dt 9:19 I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me.

But this is how it is in our day, and since the Cross:

Rom 8:1-4 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Scripture says that there is no judgment or condemnation until the last day.

John 12:46-48 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. “As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.

So no one alive in the world is yet judged. This should be great news for all of us who desire to reap for Jesus a harvest of souls! It is not too late for anyone.

But there is no judgment ever for those who are in Christ Jesus. All our judgment was leveled on Jesus on the Cross as he drank the cup of wrath. To believe any less is to reduce what Jesus did on the Cross.

Job 19:29 you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment.”

So wrath is a judgment. Hell is the final place of God’s wrath. There will be no Hell for those who are in Christ. But for those who deny him, the fires of hell become their cup of wrath for all time.

Dt 32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below.

That’s Hell.

Two final points. First, it is our compassionate hearts that should be hungry for the harvest of souls, to lead them out of a righteous wrath into the light of love. When the wrath of God is poured out in the world we see it as an opportunity to gain the lost. We don’t fear it. It does not affect us. We don’t take it as an affront or an offense. We just know that the cup of wrath is the price that someone must pay! And so we lead people out of wrath they currently feel into the One who took it all.

Second, there is no sickness for the Body of Christ. They are in error who believes otherwise.

There is no record of Jesus ever being sick in the Bible. Just the opposite, the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus manifested out from him for healing to all who had ears to hear. He was our very literal deliverance from the bondage of infirmities. He said we would do everything he did and even greater things would we do. The apostles later proved this truth by seeing whole cities healed in Jesus name. Even today, people like Benny Hinn, Cal Pierce in Spokane with the Healing Rooms Ministries, Heidi and Rolland Baker in Mozambique and Victor Hernandez in Mexico are seeing healings by the hundreds.

Either Jesus healing power is for all the Body, or, Jesus shows favoritism and discriminates. I know, the former is true!

Now there is no wrath, no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Because perfect love casts out fear, we have nothing to fear. Now then whatever pain we endure, it is our sacrifice of self so that Jesus might be known in the world. There is no wrath for those fully in Christ. And as the church moves more and more into this truth by choice and faith, we will see healing happen more and more in this world.

T. Scott Morton

2Co 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 

God is transforming us from the old glory to the new glory for his purpose and his plan for today. Since God is ever increasing, whatever was of yesterday is not enough to manage today. 

Mt 9:16-17 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”  

The new thing is like the new wine. The church willing to move in the new thing is like the new wineskin. But a church that questions or rejects the new thing is like the old unchanged wineskin. As Jesus warned, only the new wine of God will be poured out into places able to preserve it.  Therefore unless we make a conscious effort to give God our church meetings, we are living in religious thinking and willfully stuck in past ways. As such, we choose the way of the old wineskin. 

Isa 43:18-19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. 

The Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom or liberty. The Spirit reveals all truth. So without the Spirit we are incapable of knowing or understanding the new thing that brings liberty to the captives. The Bible is the benchmark of principle and by which all things are checked for validity. The Bible however, does not contain God. The Spirit contains all that God shows us for today. Therefore He leads, not man.  

People under submission to people who will not allow the Holy Spirit to lead results in Kingdom error when such leadership figures by conclusion of intelligence. But people under submission to the Spirit leads the church into new things easily.

The new thing is revealed not concluded. The word is uncovered by the Holy Spirit and the prophesy unlocked when people have given all the reigns of control into the hands of the Holy Spirit. It is only then that right order can enter the church. Right order, therefore, is evidenced by miracles and a harvest. 

Isa 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almightywill accomplish this. 

God is and will forever be on the increase. This means that whatever happened yesterday is of no value except to be a foundation upon which the next generation builds. That which was in error is discarded. That which was of the Kingdom is built upon as a given inheritance. And the new generation hears from the Spirit the will of the Father what is the new thing he is doing. They move in it and succeed as defined not by the benchmarks of the world but by the benchmarks of Heaven, the very radical results of a church on fire! 

Finally, hear the wisdom of this parable. Jesus left it undefined, a word for us to unlock by the Spirit: 

Lk 13:18-19 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to?  It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.”  

A tree is ever growing, continuously becoming. Likewise, the Kingdom of God is forever growing, forever becoming. Therefore revelation knowledge is always required to understand what the Kingdom of God is moving in today.  If I remember the Kingdom as the sapling that it was years ago, I will not recognize the much larger tree when I see it today.  

Revelation knowledge is what God is calling us into. We must anticipate, receive and then move in the new bigger thing lest we once again form a new very limiting box of religion to place our God into.