Elevations that Make a Difference Among Believers 2

As we learned from post one, the Church is being brought to understand the difference between spiritual elevations within the body so it can effectively work together in unity, and this way, become a force to be reckoned with. For this reason, the Lord is issuing a clarion call to some to come up higher in altitude. From this new plane, they will learn about the higher ways of the Kingdom. This call, however, is not for the masses. It is for a chosen remnant that is already feeling this tug at their heart to come out from under the influence of the spirit of this world and make their way to Zion (the Church). 

Zechariah 2:6-7 

“...Tell all the Israelites to hear My message: “Up! Flee from your oppressors in the north. I have scattered you far across this earth, as if you were the four winds of heaven, and now I call you to return .” Then tell My people in Jerusalem to hear My message: “Escape from subservience to daughter Babylon and go to Zion!” VOICE

Isaiah 55:1-3 also beckons,

“...If you are thirsty, come here; come, there’s water for all. Whoever is poor and penniless can still come and buy the food I sell . There’s no cost—here, have some food, hearty and delicious, and beverages, pure and good . I don’t understand why you spend your money for things that don’t nourish or work so hard for what leaves you empty. Attend to Me and eat what is good; enjoy the richest, most delectable of things. Listen closely, and come even closer. My words will give life, for I will make a covenant with you that cannot be broken, a promise Of My enduring presence and support like I gave to David.” VOICE

This remnant are waking up to the reality that the enemy they trusted and followed wholeheartedly has actually kept them bound to a yoke of oppression. These people have endured injustice and the denial of their rights to be loved and valued. They have been taken advantage of in many ways and have suffered betrayals by those they once trusted. In turn, many of them, out of the leaking out of their wounds and hurts, have lived their lives rejecting, betraying, and giving to others the same treatment they received.  

The twisted and convoluted view they had about themselves and others that the enemy exploited by hardening their hearts, led them to make allegiances with him and his idolatrous ways for greed and a false sense of power. In the end, all they found was more confusion, darkness, and chaos with no apparent way out. But in this hour God is awakening them to His love for them with encounters through dreams and visions and angelic visitations. This revival is already ignited around the world for no one is too far from the reach of the Lord Jesus who died on the Cross for them. 

Psalm 139:1-8 

“O Eternal One, You have explored my heart and know exactly who I am; You even know the small details like when I take a seat and when I stand up again. Even when I am far away, You know what I’m thinking. You observe my wanderings and my sleeping, my waking and my dreaming, and You know everything I do in more detail than even I know. You know what I’m going to say long before I say it. It is true, Eternal One, that You know everything and everyone. You have surrounded me on every side, behind me and before me, and You have placed Your hand gently on my shoulder. It is the most amazing feeling to know how deeply You know me, inside and out; the realization of it is so great that I cannot comprehend it. Can I go anywhere apart from Your Spirit? Is there anywhere I can go to escape Your watchful presence? If I go up into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in the realm of the dead, You are there.” VOICE

The awakening of this remnant to the depth of God’s love for them does not mean that He doesn’t love others. But that a chosen few will respond to His invitation to come up higher in the ranks of His body (Revelations 19:9). Those who respond will learn to build their lives on the foundation of the Kingdom of heaven and be governed by peace and ruled by righteousness (Isaiah 60:17-18). Nevertheless, this call will be identified by the effects of the shakings they will experience which will expose the lies the enemy used to lure them into darkness and idolatry. 

Isaiah 10:12-13

“When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.” ESV

A remnant is defined by the Anchor Bible Dictionary as “What is left of a community after it undergoes a catastrophe.” 

Isaiah 10:20-21 

“In that day the remnant left in Israel, the survivors in the house of Jacob, will no longer depend on allies who seek to destroy them. But they will faithfully trust the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return; yes, the remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.” NLT

God promised that His confrontation of the enemy of His purpose and will for His people will prove by a mighty demonstration that only He is the One True God (1 Kings 18:24-39). As a result, some in this remnant that left the Church and forsook His ways will return to Him and learn to follow Him faithfully and live by the truth of His Word. Their steadfast pursuit of the Lord and His ways to be made whole, will also expose them to greater understanding of Him and His Kingdom that will allow them to walk with pure hearts and clean hands in His sight.

Psalm 24:3-4 

“Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.” NIV

Also, as they seek to know their identity in the God of their salvation, they will shift from their once set attitudes and beliefs in the twisted and dark things of the world to knowing they are children of the Most High and live set apart for Him and His purpose for their lives. They will accomplish this by learning to identify the areas where they have raised idols and worshipped any false gods that they will topple to give the Almighty His rightful place in the pedestal of their hearts as they commit to trusting Him completely.

1 Peter 2:9-10 

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” ESV

The revelation of their identity in Christ will also help them become disciples that pay the price to walk as the chosen ones of God. Their recognition of their two-fold part inheritance as royal priesthood (ministers of God that extend His love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion to those around them), and of their kingship to defend and expand the Kingdom of God in their spheres of influence and authority, will also lead them to master the art of warfare by their training on the battlefield. In addition, their passionate determination to be cleansed from the ways of darkness will turn them into vessels that shine with the light of God’s glorious presence—the atmosphere of heaven—as they partner with Him to turn things on earth as they are in heaven.

Ephesians 1:17-18 expands this understanding,

“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might,” ESV

This way, these students of the Almighty will walk in His peace, no matter the circumstances around them (Isaiah 54:13). The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom, which means welfare, health, prosperity, peace, favor, and safety, which can only happen when they learn to fellowship with the Lord through prayer, worship, and studying His Word which will move them to fulfill the greatest commandment to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. This means that they will reverentially submit to His Lordship over their lives. Doing this, will also enable them to grow strong in their love for their neighbor as they love themselves. 

Luke 10:27 

“And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’” ESV

In essence, God is calling the lost, His prodigals and backslidden children to come out of agreement with the things of darkness, and respond to the invitation of His Holy Spirit to fulfill the royal law of liberty by being reconciled to God, learn to receive His love for them and then extend it to others (James 2:8-9). Hence, they will see that what the enemy of their destiny meant for evil, is turned around for their good because they are called to accomplish His purpose—that is, to be conformed to the image (character) of His Son.

Romans 8:28

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” ESV

And as always, to God alone be all the glory.*

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Elevations that Make a Difference Among Believers 1

 

1 Kings 18:41-44

“Then Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.’ So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, ‘Go up now, look toward the sea.’ So he went up and looked, and said, ‘There is nothing.’ And seven times he said, ‘Go again.’ Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, ‘There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!’ So he said, ‘Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’” NKJV

There is a rarely mentioned aspect of the dynamics of the Kingdom of God, and it’s lack of awareness, has caused some people to engage in unnecessary divisions and strife. Many times, the problem is a matter of altitude. In the Scripture above, we see an example of the difference in spiritual altitude of two people that could not see eye to eye initially. There wasn’t a dispute between them in this case, but Elijah and his servant could not see the same thing due to their difference in elevation which kept one from seeing what the other could already see.

This didn’t make Elijah the prophet, whose spiritual elevation was of the mountain top level, better than his servant in the eyes of God. But Elijah’s spiritual altitude, demonstrated in the Scripture above by a natural altitude, showed that he could see things before his servant could see them, and for this reason, it might have taken his servant some pressing in to be able to see what the prophet could see. 

Elijah’s spiritual elevation allowed him to hear that an abundance of rain was coming. However, he needed his servant’s due diligence to ensure he would see the cloud, at least a small one. This would prove that the rain was coming in the natural and would help him agree with the one that could already see and hear it in the spirit and was preparing for its manifestation with prayer. 

I remember when my son was still young, that we shared an apartment with one of my sisters. One November morning I was praying and the Lord told me to start packing because we were going to move. After I heard that, I told my sister what the Lord had just told me and proceeded to start gathering items to start packing. My sister responded that she would not start packing until she heard the Lord say that to her. 

Indeed, my smart sister was not just going by my word. I needed her agreement to prepare for the move but didn’t push her to do what she did not hear at that time. Well, not until March of the following year did she hear the Lord tell her to start packing, and when she did, she started right away. The also curious thing about that is that we all had to wait two more months before we knew where we were going and heard Him say that it was time to get a moving truck.

I was patient with my sister who didn’t think I was crazy—she just wanted to hear the word of the Lord for herself and I gave her room to do that. That way, there was no strife or dishonor between us. In the same way, the Scripture says that it took Elijah’s  servant seven tries to reach the altitude of his mentor that enabled him to see the rain cloud that was going to end the famine in the land because the root cause of the famine had been dealt with.

Elijah already had faith for the rain to come because he could hear the sound of the torrential from where he stood spiritually. But he also waited patiently for his servant to follow his instructions until he too could have the faith for it. This is something that the body of Christ needs to learn to recognize whenever two or more cannot see eye to eye about an issue. 

The disparities between what some can see or hear spiritually and others don’t yet see or hear should have some asking in what lies the difference and to what could they attribute the lack of agreement and unity. The answer to the first question could be our different positions or ranks in the body of Christ. The second answer is that we need to learn about our differences in altitude and levels of maturity due to our positions in the same body. 

However, a position of leadership in the body does not guarantee the highest spiritual elevation. The highest ranks like the apostolic and the prophetic offices have the highest spiritual altitudes, but they also have the greatest amounts of responsibility towards the body and they exercise their faith according to what they see or hear from their top of the mountain level.

This can very easily cause misunderstandings with others that ignore this characteristic about the body of Christ. Nevertheless, this fact doesn’t excuse them from having to seek to understand others and apply their faith for solving the issues they’re disagreeing about with those who see things differently. We cannot apply faith for the issues we relate to more and rely on walking only by sight about other things when the Bible says that the just shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2:4 says, 

“Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.” NKJV

Unfortunately, many in the body are willing to dispute about an issue they don’t understand, without inquiring why others see what they see. Getting to the point of understanding the issue and even reach some level of agreement requires that we first hear a word from the Lord about it. That can only happen when we seek Him to know His perspective on the situation. 

That way, we can hear what God has to say about it which can help us grow our faith levels because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). When we choose to live by faith in the Lord because we heard Him speak about the issue to us, and seek to respect how God speaks to others and what He may be saying to them, we can avoid unnecessary strife and dishonor.

During times like this, we cannot play doubting Thomas who was skeptical because he had not seen that Jesus rose from the dead. Before he could experience His resurrected presence for himself, he rejected the testimony of ten of his fellow disciples who had already experienced the presence of the Savior. Therefore, Jesus Himself met him at his point of unbelief and rejection of the testimony of others and came to show him the evidence of His resurrection.

John 20:24-29 tells us this,

“Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, ‘Peace to you!’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and  reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be  unbelieving, but believing.’ And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” NKJV

Verse 27 says that Jesus admonished Thomas for his unbelief. And in verse 29 He calls blessed those who have not seen and yet have believed. To this, another question we could ask ourselves is what is influencing what we see or hear, or our lack of seeing or hearing in the spirit realm that is causing the disagreements? Another way of stating this question is what manner of spirit are we really being of? 

Luke 9:51-56 discloses,

“When the time was coming near for Jesus to depart, he was determined to go to Jerusalem. He sent some messengers ahead of him, who went into a town in Samaria to make everything ready for him. But the people there would not welcome him, because he was set on going to Jerusalem. When James and John, followers of Jesus, saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy those people?’ But Jesus turned and scolded them. [And Jesus said, ‘You don’t know what kind of spirit you belong to. The Son of Man did not come to destroy the souls of people but to save them.’] Then they went to another town.” NCV

Whose narrative can we say we’re focused on hearing? Is it that of the Spirit of the Lord or one that comes from the demonic, from fear, pride, or from a reluctance to be a changer of the status quo? Compromise with idolatry kept the people of Israel from escaping the famine that was in the land. For that reason, the passionate prophet asked them how long would they remain torn between one minute agreeing with God’s side, only to find themselves the next minute following the side of the idolaters. 1 Kings 18:21 explains,

“Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people [of Israel] did not answer him [so much as] a word.” AMP

Thus, we have learned here that our spiritual elevation and maturity as well as what influences us, has a lot to do with what we see or hear spiritually. It also has to do with how much we’re willing to understand the perspective of others about the situation, and whether or not we can accept and believe that what they testify to, does indeed come from God. 

As always, to God alone be all the glory.~

Images from a Google Images.