Fresh Oil Releases
Deja Vu
Déjà vu - The phrase "deja vu" is French for "already seen" and is used to refer to when a person experiences the feeling that they have seen, experienced, or been someplace before even when they are sure that that is not really true. So, for example, a person who arrives at a new city they have never before visited may experience deja vu on a street, experience the intense feeling that they have been on that street at some point in the past.
Last night the Lord kept me awake until the wee hours of the morning. He showed me His people at a traffic intersection where the light was red for them. It seemed that it was staying red forever and they were growing impatient as they knew where they wanted to go, could see the long-awaited destination straight ahead, after the crossing - but the rules of the road required them to remain stationary until the light turned green. Frustrated as they were, the waiting time gave them time to look at the scenery around them and they had a strange sense that they had been at this particular crossroads before. In fact, the more they pondered, the more they realized that their life seemed to have gone in a circle, bringing them back again to this red light, where every door to their progress was halted. Round and round the same mountain. “ I have already learned this lesson” they silently shout to the Lord – “been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. I can’t understand why I have landed up here again. I thought I had followed all Your directions and was coming to the entrance to the manifestation of my promise and I seem to have made no progress at all. Just give me the green light to go ahead Lord, I have wasted enough time already”.
Then the Lord began to speak, “what happened last time you were at this place and the traffic light turned green and you took off at top speed towards your promised land?” The truth of it was an unexpected attack from the enemy had caused major damage, a road accident of large proportions, personal wounding and even innocent bystanders were hit by flying debris. The in-between years had been spent recovering strength, faith and confidence in God and healing from the damage inflicted yet doggedly pressing on in determination to access the promised land which could be seen up ahead. However the cost and the toll had been great.
Then I heard the Lord gently begin to minister understanding as to what He is doing by keeping the traffic light red. He is able to turn it to green whenever He feels it is safe for you to proceed but He loves you too much to watch you go through the same destruction all over again. He wants you not to keep your gaze fixed on your destination up ahead at this point. You have been brought to a halt in order to check your rear view mirror. If the eyes of your heart are open, it is simple enough to see what is ahead. However it is hindsight that brings the wisdom necessary to move you safely forward past all hidden dangers and enemy attacks that lurk in traversing the crossing ahead. He also wants you to check your blind spot. In order to do this thoroughly, you will need to adjust your gaze and turn your head away from your destination to check for any other vehicles or pedestrians presently hidden from view. Your destination is not going anywhere. It really is in front of you but the enemy of your souls is determined to destroy you as that light changes and you traverse that crossing – just as the dragon crouches to destroy the man-child as it is coming forth in Revelation 12. If you do not do these checks while God has brought you to a place of rest, your crossing will have the same result as the last time you found yourself at this particular point.
God did not lie when He said He would restore the years the locust has eaten. However He can only do this successfully by bringing you to a halt, turning back the clock so to speak and ministering revelation to you that brings hindsight or wisdom and understanding about the path of your life up to this particular moment. The feeling of deja vu is because God in His mercy wants to reveal to you that the very same blind-spot that caused the last train-wreck in your life has as yet not been discerned by you. You have been so intent on making up for lost time and opportunity that you have been breaking all the simple rules of the road that were set in place for the safety and wellbeing of both yourself and those around you. If you had seen this particular blind-spot in yourself, you would have dealt with it years ago because of your desire to be pleasing to the Lord and to make yourself ready. But you are quite unaware of it because your eye has been so fixed on your destination by faith.
Actually the Father has been trying to speak to you about it for years but you thought it was just the voice of the accuser and rejected it as persecution for righteousness sake without even considering it. The truth of the matter is that in every accusation of the accuser, there is at least one grain of truth. This is the way he works, whether it comes through the mouth of your brother in Christ with whom you disagree or your enemy.
In Zechariah, when Joshua stood before the high priest, he was in filthy clothing and satan stood at his right hand to accuse him. The accusation was based on the state of his garments. Even Zechariah as an observer could see he was dirty as accused. He also observed the Lord’s response to the accusation. Joshua was given clean garments by the Lord who acknowledged he was in a pretty bad state having just come out of the Refiner’s fire - but at the same time He rebuked satan and confirmed that this was indeed a vessel chosen by God in spite of the state he was now in. The thing about the refiner’s fire is that it brings all the impurities to the surface so they are painfully obvious to everyone observing you.
Even you are able to look down at your garments and see their state and repent before God – but one thing you cannot see is the state of your turban - which is a picture of what is wrapped tightly around your mind. You would have to look in a mirror to see that and there isn’t one in the throne room…or is there? Notice it is Zechariah who calls for a clean turban for Joshua. His brother in Christ can see what Joshua cannot see, that his mind is bound by something unclean. Zechariah does not speak out of intention to judge or criticize Joshua but to participate in his cleansing and full restoration. Remember that after this the Lord speaks about bringing forth His servant , the Branch. All the restorative and cleansing processes described here must happen in order to demonstrate how God goes about bringing forth this corporate Branch that will bear much fruit!
Even in present times, when out in public, we are grateful to a friend who tells us our label is hanging out at the back or we have a black mark on our face. These are things we can’t see ourselves and we know it out of love and in order to rescue us from humiliation and disgrace that they mention it to us. Concerning our spiritual state, God has been trying to show us what we are unable to see ourselves for years by using one brother or sister after another to try and show us the thing lurking in our blind-spots. However, because it has come in the form of a rebuke, has not always been spoken in love, it has appeared to just be an unfounded criticism and we have not received it and seen it as the enemy using them to persecute us unjustly.
Whatever situation we are in, there is always both the voice of the accuser and the voice of the faithful High Priest who speaks the truth in love. The brother or sister who, like Zechariah, hears what the High priest about this brother obviously clothed in filthy garments, is considered fit to participate in the restoration process. It is not spoken from a heart of judgment but of joyful and purposeful participation in what God has already begun to do. “He needs a clean turban too. Bring it” Zechariah decrees.
In this season of waiting at the red light, God is releasing faithful Zechariahs into your life, who have seen your real spiritual state and heard both the voice of the accuser and that of the faithful high priest. They have observed the removal of the old garments and now God will use them to speak into what you cannot see yourself. They have been sent to minister into your blind spot and reveal it to you. They speak the truth in love. At this point, do not make the mistake of thinking this is the voice of the accuser. Satan has been accusing you in your mind for years telling you that you are unclean and not fit to be used by the Lord. That is not true, you are chosen by the Lord …but you are also in dire need of a change of garment AND turban!
The voice that comes in this season may be observing the very thing that you cannot see for yourself, the last stronghold that keeps your mind from accessing the full freedom of the sons of God. Do not cling to your filthy old turban. Let it be taken off your head by a brother or sister who loves you and is able to show it to you without condemnation or an intent to hurt you further. This is to set you free. Receive the ministrations of the true friends that God has positioned in your life in order to complete the restorative process. Once you see how dirty that turban is, confess your faults one to another that you may be healed. Proverbs tells us ‘faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are lavish and deceitful’. And for those God desires to use as a Zechariah in the life of those you love, remember that Proverbs also says ‘he who rebukes will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue’. Speak the truth from a heart of love with the intention of setting your brother or sister free! Once they know or see for themselves that truth, freedom is instantaneous! They will hurl that filthy piece of binding cloth far from themselves.
I also believe this time of Sabbath rest; this interlude where one’s progress forward has been halted by the red light, is a time in which God desires to heal the wounds the Body of Christ has inflicted upon itself by accusing and harboring unforgiveness toward one another. Sometimes what your brother has against you is valid. There is perhaps just a grain of truth in His accusation - but our own spiritual pride causes a blind spot and we see no need to make amends for what we are not guilty of! However, this is the season of adjusting our focus, checking blind spots, looking in the rear view mirror at the path you have already traveled under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit. This is the season for the outworking of the following verses on a large scale as brother seeks to reconcile with brother and the family of God is healed.
Mat 5:23 So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, Mat 5:24 Leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift. Mat 5:25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.
Lets consider Jacob, who on leaving Laban, is on the journey home to the area his brother lives…and he knows his brother hates him. He knows he needs to make peace and he is afraid. So he sends gifts and even sends the women and children over the river first!! Then in Genesis 32, we find him wrestling all night with God and prevailing. Then God asks him his name. In other words ‘what do others call you?’ How have others described you in the past seasons? Is there a characteristic that has stood out in their accusations? Jacob means ‘supplanter, swindler’. In other words, he took a position that wasn’t his to possess. He had ambition and he wanted what was rightfully his brother’s and was prepared to use any means of deception at his disposal in order to lay his hands on the inheritance of the first-born. Wow, was Jacob looking in a mirror as he wrestled with the answer to that question! What people called him was true. He was what people said he was! Ouch! He was face to face with himself for the first time. And then as he scanned over the time with Laban, he saw he had reaped in the same measure he had sown. He had deceived his father and had in turned been deceived by Laban. Until that night of wrestling, he had been so intent of obtaining the inheritance that he disobeyed all the rules of common decency and integrity. But praise God, with that revelation and light-bulb moment, God changed his name and his character, ‘ Israel ’ means ‘straightened of God’ or ‘he will rule as God’! And as he left that place with the sun rising upon him, limping from the touch of the One he had wrestled with, he went on to cross over and face his former adversary; the brother he had defrauded in his relentless quest for the inheritance, the brother who had something against him. And the proof of his changed heart is seen in his words as he met Esau:
Gen 33:10 But Jacob replied, No, I beg of you, if now I have found favor in your sight, receive my gift that I am presenting; for truly to see your face is to me as if I had seen the face of God, and you have received me favorably.
The season we are presently is that in which God desires to so heal our spiritual vision that we see the face of Christ in our former adversary in the Body of Christ. His accusations were not baseless – you have wronged him in some measure and even though he may be amplifying and exaggerating the fault in you, he has something against you! And now its time for you to be reconciled! As you read on in Genesis 33, you discover that God has also been working on Esau’s heart in the interim and he has already forgiven Jacob! The rift is healed, the wound mended. Only the limp remains!
Eph 2:14 For He is [Himself] our peace (our bond of unity and harmony). He has made us both one and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us, Eph 2:15 By abolishing in His flesh the enmity caused by the Law with its decrees and ordinances [which He annulled]; that He from the two might create in Himself one new man [one new quality of humanity out of the two], so making peace.
The above verses were written describing the enmity between Jew and Gentile until the cross. How much more will the outworking of the power of the cross remove the hostile dividing wall between brother and brother as we forgive and embrace one another, having agreed with our adversary. We are exactly what they call us and praise God for the blood of the Lamb that can wash us white as snow and deliver us daily from the power of that sin!
Notice also that in the letters to the seven churches, every time Jesus tells them what is good in them and then He says,” but I have this against you…”. To those who overcome, there are specific rewards offered. But what does overcoming look like? Well, first it starts with agreeing with the one who has something against you – acknowledging that the fault does exist! Then follows repentance and seeking of forgiveness and being reconciled. Notice especially the counsel fo Jesus in Mat 5:24 ‘Leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift’. I believe this is a specific instruction for us at this place of waiting. Now is not the time to be exercising your gift. Leave it at the altar and sort out these issues both with your older brother Jesus and your brothers and sisters in Christ. Then as an overcomer, you can cross over and receive what is promised you! If you don't agree with your adversary at this point, you will be handed over to the Judge and imprisoned for not following the rules of the road, instead of released into all God has planned for you.
The Body of Christ which comes out of this Sabbath rest, this enforced stop and wrestling with God until we acknowledge what He already knows and allow our hearts to be changed and our filthy turbans to be removed, will come out operating in resurrection power, with the deep wounds and tattered flesh healed, just as Jesus, the First-born from among the dead did. The estrangement and deep tearing in the Body of Christ will be made whole, the dislocated joints restored to their rightful places. Only the scars on hands and feet and side will remain as evidence that this is indeed the true Body of Christ – these are those who were wounded in the house of their friends! Wounded in order to be made whole, torn down in order to be rebuilt, raised up after two days and on the third day living in the light of the favor of God as He comes as the heavy latter rain in the earth (Hosea 6).
May our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. May our lives at last line up with what our mouths are so quick to preach. May our blind spots at last be revealed to us and our hindsight fully equip us to make the necessary adjustments in our driving style as we see that light turn green and proceed cautiously across the intersection, moving in the newfound wisdom we have acquired. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). (Ephesians 4:15)
For He is our peace, our bond of mutual unity and harmony!
Selah
Christine
freshoil@polka.co.za
_______________________________________________
FreshOilReleases mailing list - by Christine Beadsworth
Subscribe
http://lighthouseprophecy.org/mailman/listinfo/freshoilreleases_lighthouseprophecy.org
No comments:
Post a Comment