Saturday, July 8, 2017

ELEVATION NORTH has NEWS for YOU!


ECSTASY!  Now don’t get all shook!!  I am not referring to the synthetic drug known by this name.  I am using this word in its purest form to give it the most concentrated and potent outcome possible.  I am simply wrapping it in the experience of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ intimately and passionately.  We are His Bride, you know!  But, let me ask just one honest question:  “would anyone know by looking at us, watching us, listening to us … that we are the Bride that the Bridegroom is coming back for?”

Listen to some of these descriptions of ecstasy, which is what we should be feeling and experiencing in our ongoing relationship with our Bridegroom as we await His arrival to sweep us away to live with Him forever!  Intense joy, rapturous delight, enthusiasm, elated bliss, fervor, a state of prophetic inspiration, heavenly.  Quite a list of words to describe how we should feel when we are in the presence of our Lord … but do we experience these amazing emotions at all?  Any of them?  Even more so, I am going to tread on sacred ground and ask very bluntly, “do those of us who call ourselves by His Name and who gather in His House to worship each Sunday … does our Bridegroom see us experiencing and celebrating this kind of joy and delight and fervor over His very presence in our midst?”  If not, “we have a problem, Houston!”

In these days as we sense the soon return of our Lord, He is drawing me more and more to the prophetic.  But we must beware as there is lots and lots of “stuff” out there, and whatever we read or hear MUST match up to the Word of God, or we must not receive any of it as truth.  If the message is truth, the contents will resonate in our spirit as we seek the Spirit of God for wisdom and discernment.  With that being said, let me share a serious wake-up call to all true believers … and then a word of encouragement!

All too often we blame the world for being the ones who are trying their best to hinder God’s work, His plan, and His next move.  But really, they are not the only ones.  Listen, listen to this.  There is a fresh move of God on the horizon.  And while the world makes a lot of noise and not-so-subtly labels the true followers of Christ with labels of “intolerant” and “out-of-touch with the changing times” – it is none other than the traditions of the churches in this world so bound by the spirit of religion that are just as dangerous to the downfall of believers.  These church people try to quiet those with genuine passion, shackling them with tradition, and eventually, spiritual death.  You see, they don’t want intercessors who are praying for the fresh move of God’s Spirit.  They don’t want prophets who are prophesying the new things that God is about to do.  They don’t want apostles who are pioneering and working to manifest the new moving of God’s Spirit.  Why doesn’t the “church” want these types of people?  Well, because the intercessors, the prophets, and the apostles are bringing down and destroying the old religious mindset of so many in this hour!  But God is calling us to spiritual freedom, not bondage, dear ones!  When churches, ministers and people turn away from the fresh moving of the Holy Spirit and start trying to make a man-made structure, they are in rebellion to the Holy Spirit.  I Samuel 15:23a says. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.”  Tradition and religion suck the life out of people physically and spiritually when it can get those shackles around their necks, and it keeps them from their God-given purpose.  Friends, we MUST distance ourselves from religion and tradition, and pursue the presence and power of God!  In Christ alone, we have life!  (Taken in part from Charisma article by Joe Dawson)

And for those of you who have felt forgotten and overlooked by God, take heart!  He has purposely had you in the place you’ve been in – cultivating something in you.  And now is the time that He is reaching in to those depths of what He has been cultivating.  When we’ve finally learned to rest, to let go, even of things He has given us … and when we’ve been completely stripped down, then He can rebuild things His way.  Nothing has been wasted – it’s all been training and development, but now we need to let go of our own efforts.  God is saying, “No longer will My people do things for Me, but with Me.  Sons and daughters, you are learning to adapt to My ways.  You cannot cling to the old of what you know – I desire for you to leap forward with childlike wonder and faith to receive what I am doing now, not yesterday.  What you think you know is about to change, so remain pliable and excited, and always dependent on Me.  You must choose to look at life from an eternal perspective.  You weren’t designed to play it safe, you were designed to adventure out with Me into the deep and expand My Kingdom in the Earth!  Return to the valiant warrior you are!  A fresh, new wind which renews your youth is coming to you now.  Take it and receive it by faith – it is not a feeling but a choosing.  The best is yet to come!  Look not at your age, for I am looking at your heart and faith.  Surely that is what pleases Me.  Act upon My promptings and I will back your faith, line things up, and take care of the rest. All I need are your steps of faith.  Your race is still yet to be won.  Set a new mindset and embrace everything I’m calling you to.  Seek Me and allow Me to cast forth before you My vision and where we are heading together next.  I love you!  Time has not passed you by … I am stirring you and shaking you!  Be willing and go with Me, that’s all I’m asking.  Let me hear your “yes”.  The best is yet to come!  My celebration is hitting the Earth!  Yes, I’ve been saving you until now and the world is about ready to declare, taste, and see just how good I am!"  (Taken from the Elijah List, exhortation by Amy Meyer)

Bride of Christ, we have an urgent mission:  to keep our love and passion for our Bridegroom burning brightly as we await His return for us, sharing His message with everyone we can, and daily stepping into our God-given purpose to head out together with Him to what He has planned next!  What will it be?  Let’s go!  What ecstasy ~ THE BEST IS YET TO COME! 

REMEMBER . . .
“Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.
Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”  


Joyfully Serving Christ . . .

Pastor Doug and Debbie

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