Dear Saints
I want to highlight something that the Lord revealed to me and which it is key to be aware of during this month of September. Apostle Chuck Pierce brought a word to our church recently in which he spoke about the importance of knowing the timings for things, and the importance of unblocking the flow of God’s promises in your lives by addressing the hidden issues that have somehow managed to remain. In this message I want to share keys for unblocking the issues that have hindered breakthrough. Now is the time to come into your promises! Many of the Lord’s people have put in an effort to pray consistently and have been disciplined in seeking breakthrough, and yet they still feel like they are stuck. I want you to know that this does not mean that breakthrough is not coming. Rather it is a sign that it is time to learn the patterns of breakthrough and what it looks like from beginning to end.
Understanding Resistance and Breakthrough It is vital to recognise that whenever new ground and new territory is being taken, there will be a time of resistance. This may manifest as a moment in time where it feels like your strength is gone, and as though your power has been sapped by some sort of Kryptonite. It is in this very moment that you need to push through and aggressively pursue God and look for the stirring of a fire inside your spirit. This fire will focus you for purification and consecration and propel you again before God. If you haven’t been to this place before it may feel unusual at first, as it is a place in which your spirit sees something happening that has not yet shown up in your circumstances. However, as you embrace this fire of God and allow yourself to live within it, you will find yourself changing and becoming more sensitive to the things of God. You will begin to see more clearly the signs that God is using to point you in the right direction, and notice the smaller breakthroughs along the way that He is using to strengthen your heart and your resolve, and to guard you from deception and discouragement.
Discerning the Moment of Resistance Our example comes from Exodus 31:18 and 32:1-2. Moses had gone up to the mountain of the Lord to receive the Law. In a Divine encounter, the Lord was handing to Moses the blueprint for the nation of Israel. The people at the bottom of the mountain, however, did not see this, nor did they appreciate what was taking place. The people had an expectation for the time of Moses’ return and when that time had passed ever so slightly, the children of Israel allowed the mindset and culture of the Egyptians that had tagged along with them to rise up in the form of a voice demanding a god to worship. They went to Aaron the priest with the demand, and straight away he had an idea in mind as to how to create one for them! This is shocking, but let’s explore it and see what went wrong. The moment of delay in Moses’ return and the uprising of the people with an inappropriate demand was the moment of resistance. It came just as a historical breakthrough for an entire nation was about to be revealed! Aaron was the rightful priest and was called to his office, but he did not recognise the meaning of the moment or what to do.
God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt supernaturally with signs and wonders, and these had been given to the people to assure them of God’s plans and promises and to ground them in His truth. At this point, Aaron was meant to have discern the moment, and point the people back towards the truth of God, reminding them of the signs He had given and of the help He had given them this far. He was meant to bring alive the testimony of their nation to them anew, to strengthen them, and to bring their minds back to the words of Moses and to the instructions given to them for their period of waiting. However, Aaron buckled in the face of the demand and gave in without any argument. It was as though his strength was gone. His mind was drawn into what was immediately before him and he was distracted from the big picture. Rather than allowing the fire of truth to stir in His spirit, he sided with his circumstances and became ensnared in an idolatrous scheme in which a different kind of fire was used to melt the gold of people to produce something abhorrent.
Validating Truth The pivotal moment came when Aaron used his voice to validate the voices of untruth that had risen up around him. What does this mean for us in this season? I believe the Lord is really warning us not to use our priesthood to validate any voice that is contrary to His voice or truth. Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth (Zechariah 8:3). We need to know clearly what the Lord has spoken in this hour to each and every one of us and hold to it. The priesthood in us needs to discern the moment we are in, and if there is a delay in the breakthrough we are praying for, we must be careful not to validate whatever voices of untruth are present in our surroundings. The Egyptians in the midst of the Israelites represented those that have attached themselves to the move of God, but without commitment to the purpose of the journey. In life there are those who latch onto the move of God in another person’s life but are not themselves committed to the godly character that is required to sustain the move. In their impatience they simply want to see something happen and to have another one of their needs or demands met, whether it preserves truth or not. If you as the priest and person of God are not strong enough, you may give into their demands and give permission for an idol to be created. You must avoid this by all means. An idol may momentarily take away the need to wait on God and so offer temporary relief, but in return it will make you wait forever for a real breakthrough, as this is not something it can provide. God shapes us and gives us His strength, but idols take our strength to shape them. Idolatry will substitute the truth of God for whatever ideas you are able to come up, and His glory for whatever you can create by your own means. After all the Israelites created the idol using their own gold and craftsmanship, but it could do nothing for them in return.
It is also important to understand the dynamics amongst the people that led to the situation. When fear or anxiety or any other emotional torment grips a person, they want to make it corporate. They do this by looking for others with similar fears or anxieties to align with. When this happens, a kind of cabal is formed, and that cabal can become a voice calling for something that is completely contrary to the mind of God, because it arises from a wrong spirit. If this voice is allowed to prevail it can bring progress to a halt. This sort of coming together is not an agreement for change or for transformation. Rather, it’s an agreement for false comfort, for shelter from unmanaged emotions, or even for revenge against someone or something that has caused wounding. Be careful not to be drawn into such relationships that are about affirming your negative emotions or experiences. These things create chains rather than break them. If you really want to break your chains, draw close the fire of God! Do not cleave to crowds that reinforce your problems, but press into God and through your personal Gethsemane, so that you can move forward to occupy His promises.
Service unto God Alone Our service is unto the Lord and He is breaking idolatry out of His Church right now. This includes the idolising of the things of our own strength, of our giftings and the things we are able to do. The purpose of the Church is to be found in serving the Lord, not in grouping around giftings or giving voice to the hearts of the wounded who are too impatient to see God move in truth. It isn’t about appeasing people with our ideas and skills, but rather pointing people towards the signs of God’s work and the burning mountains of His revelation. Every gift and talent needs to be laid at His feet and we need to be careful not to create idols of people. Such things provide a kind of empty satisfaction but not the revelation that brings freedom.
The priesthood is called to validate truth, and although that truth will sometimes be hard to swallow, the journey you have taken with God should give you the confidence to stay the course. As a priest, your purpose is to point people towards all that God has done so they can enter into that same confidence and lift their eyes towards the One that can really help. Delay does not mean denial. Stand in your office and teach those around you about the fruit of the Spirit instead of allowing their impatience to move you into building something that is in complete opposition to the blueprint of Heaven. In every movement of God there will be people that feel pulled by their own circumstances or wounds. In recognising the authority that God has placed in your life, they will gather around you and look for you to validate their needs and demands. You need to make sure that you do not yield to their dysfunctions, but rather help them to break free from what has enslaved them. If you don’t, you may find that you yourself are entrapped by their mindset and their ways, and that the movement becomes hindered. If we serve God, then the anointing breaks the yoke. In this day, God is raising up a company that will not validate dysfunction but will rather move in the authority that can shift nations. Look for the fire that brings transformation, as that is what this hour requires.
Prayer
Lord, I pray that Your people will be stirred by the fire of truth that brings about purification, consecration, and breakthrough, and never again go towards a strange fire that makes idols of their own wealth and giftings! Let Your Body be a kingdom of priests that ministers to You in truth, laying down its gifts to adore You in worship, and never taking those same gifts as objects to be worshipped. Let idolatry be removed from the midst of Your People! Let Your priests always validate Your voice and Your Word, and never again validate an ungodly voice that causes compromise. In Jesus’ mighty name!
Adored Rev Betty King