Tag Archives: Jesus

You Must Be Born Again—Regenerated

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The Bible, the God-breathed book of God, offers Jesus’ words on deliverance from sin, death, the grave, and hell. We must not refuse God’s offer of salvation through the crucifixion and resurrection of God’s Son Yeshua—Jesus. “I assure you,” said Jesus, “that unless a man is born from water and from spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh and spirit gives birth to spirit: you must not be surprised that I told you that all of you must be born again. The wind blows where it likes, you can hear the sound of it but you have no idea where it comes from and where it goes. Nor can you tell how a man is born by the wind of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8 PHILLIPS) 

Through the new birth, entrance opens to “the way, the truth, and the life” in Jesus and what was lost when Adam and Eve forfeited the tree of life for the tree of knowledge of good and evil is recovered and more. Fullness in Christ or abundant spiritual life results in freedom from bondage to the soulish and the carnal and addiction to the appetites of the body. In Christ, man regains the promise of dominion lost in the garden of Eden. (See Revelation 21-22 for the end of the history.) 

Salvation in Christ involves a creative miracle of God: regeneration. And by the new birth, the realm of the Kingdom of God opens up. Yes, there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness with all kinds of idols and false gods under its lord, satan, and the kingdom of Light under the headship of Jesus Christ. Once you are born again, you realize 1 John 5:19, “We know [for a fact] that we are of God, and the whole world [around us] lies in the power of the evil one [opposing God and His precepts].” (AMP)

What is regeneration? Take a look at Titus 3, “For we ourselves have known what it is to be ignorant, disobedient and deceived, the slaves of various desires and pleasant feelings, while our lives were spent in malice and jealousy—we were hateful and we hated each other. But when the kindness of God our Saviour and his love towards man appeared, he saved us—not by virtue of any moral achievements of ours, but by the cleansing power (regeneration) of a new birth and the moral renewal of the Holy Spirit, which he gave us so generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour. The result is that we are acquitted by his grace, and can look forward to inheriting life for evermore. This is solid truth.” (PHILLIPS) At new birth, God causes your spirit to be regenerated or formed again and connection to Him is restored. 

You become a new creation in Christ—part of a new race. From the new birth, you become a Christian with a new saint nature. Christ indwells you. You experience life as a branch connected to Christ the Vine. (Study John 15.) Now you have access to the life of God and can flow in the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control. This fruit grows as the new life of union with God unfolds. 

You now have power through the cross to enter into the crucifixion of the flesh nature with its fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, divisions, sects, envyings, bouts of drunkenness, carousings, and the like. 

“Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:21 RcV) (See the helpful book on freedom from the self, Dying to Live by Jessie Penn Lewis.)

The heart with its thoughts and intents is open and under scrutiny before God, too. Yeshua—Jesus, applied the Law to loving anyone or anything including self more than God, making anything into a god or a religion, using God’s name in vain, failing to make holy the Sabbath, failing to honor parents, refusal to forgive, holding anger and hatred towards others (having a murderous heart according to Jesus), looking with lustful eyes (adultery of heart said Jesus), stealing, practicing dishonesty and lies however slight, and coveting what others have. The verdict is Psalm 14:2-3: “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who understood, dealt wisely, and sought after God, inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him [of vital necessity]. They are all gone aside, they have all together become filthy; there is none that does goodor right, no, not one.” (AMPC) We have all failed the good person test. 

A great incentive to turning back to obedience of the Father, Your Creator, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and wise heeding of the Holy Scriptures through receiving Jesus Christ’s sacrifice of His lifeblood as atonement for your sins, is a cold, hard, look at death and hell. 

Job 18:5-14 depicts the fate of those who reject Jesus Christ, God’s “indescribable gift” to mankind: “The light of the wicked will flicker and die, not a spark from his fire will shine, the light in his tent is darkened, the lamp over him will be snuffed out. His vigorous stride is shortened, his own plans make him trip and fall.For his own feet plunge him into a net, he wanders into its meshes. A trap grabs him by the heel, a snare catches hold of him. A noose is hidden for him in the ground; pitfalls lie in his path. Terrors overwhelm him on every side and scatter about his feet. Trouble is hungry for him, calamity ready for his fall; disease eats away at his skin; the first stages of death devour him gradually. What he relied on will be torn from his tent, and he will be marched before the king of terrors.” (CJB)

Psalm 18:4-6 gives hope: “For when the spirit of death wrapped chains around me and terrifying torrents of destruction overwhelmed me, taking me to death’s door, to doom’s domain; I cried out to you in my distress, the delivering God, and from your temple-throne you heard my troubled cry. My sobs came right into your heart and you turned your face to rescue me.” (Passion)

I encourage investigate God’s Covenant, the Bible. Say yes to receiving Jesus Christ into your being as Savior and Lord. Acknowledge that He is the Messiah and risen Son of God, confess that you are a sinner or one who has failed the Bible’s (God’s Word) standards of holiness and righteousness, repent or turn from your previous ways of thinking and acting and ask for the new birth and deliverance out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvelous light. Colossians 1:13 attests, “[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” (AMPC) 

Your call now is 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (AMPC) Follow Christ through obeying the Bible and seek fellowship with true Christian believers. The cost is surrender; the gain is God Himself, heaven, and many blessings and benefits. (See Psalm 103.)

Final note from 1 Corinthians 1:25-30, “[This is] because the foolish thing [that has its source in] God is wiser than men, and the weak thing [that springs] from God is stronger than men. For [simply] consider your own call, brethren; not many [of you were considered to be] wise according to human estimatesand standards, not many influential and powerful, not many of high and noble birth. [No] for God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame. And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are, So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God. But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption [providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin].” (AMPC)

The Mirror Bible paraphrases verses 26-29, “You might as well admit it, my Brothers; it was not your academic qualifications or your good looks or social connections that influenced God to represent you in Christ. It is almost as if God deliberately handpicked the wacky of this world to embarass the wise, the rejects to put to shame the noble. The ones with no pedigree of any prominence, the “nobodies” in society, attracted God’s initiative to unveil his blueprint opinion in order to redefine man. Thus he rendered any other social standard entirely irrelevant and inappropriate. (Blueprint opinion, eklegomai, from ek, meaning origin, source, and legomai from logos, the logic of God; traditionally translated as “elect.”) Every reason for man’s boasting in himself dwindles into insignificance before God.”

Become a crier: print and distribute this flier among people in need of Truth. A heartfelt thank you!

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Zelle katherinefbell@me.com

Blessings in return—

Husbands Learning to be Wives to YHVH (the 3 in 1 Godhead)

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The breaking of soul strength so we can flow in the fullness of heart union with the Lord, 

thus, coming into the closest places with our Lover-Leader Yeshua in charge 

Lots of times, I have experienced being “guided by His eye” from Psalm 32:8-9:

“I hear the Lord saying, ‘I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with My eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you have not been before. Don’t make me tug you and pull you along. Just come with Me!’” (TPT)

And yesterday, His eye guided me to something He is trying to get at in us, inclusive certainly of me! I picked up the book Jacob I Have Loved by the late Lance Lambert and began to read right where I had left off a couple of months ago: 

Jacob and This Promised Land

“The Lord had confirmed with Jacob the covenant He had made with His grandfather and father in which He had promised the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession to them and to their seed. The problem was not Jacob’s hearing. Jacob had heard the Lord and believed Him. The problem was Jacob!”

“He was a man with such strength of natural character, such fleshly zeal, and such untiring energy that he could not leave anything to the Lord. He had to supervise the Lord’s work and make sure it was fulfilled. Men and women who have this kind of powerful soul energy are unable to wait for the Lord. If the Lord does not work, they will work for Him, with disastrous consequences. We see this clearly in Jacob. In the work that God wanted to do, Jacob was a trial to Him. Spontaneously and unconsciously, he was an obstacle to the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Indeed, it was the abounding grace of God that brought Jacob to that fulfillment, in spite of his own efforts to work in it. We must always remember that working with God is vastly different to working for God. When you work with the Lord, you are under His supervision and empowered by His strength. When you work for the Lord, you ‘do your own thing’ and seek His support.”

There it was: soul strength. Though with three-plus decades now of walking with the Lord as my Lord, resulting in significant understanding and experience of the believer’s cross, albeit the very hard way in certain lessons, I heard Him clearly: “More gentle breakings are needed to get you fully in synch with ME + the Godhead. You are, yet, getting ahead of Me sometimes with your own good ideas. I am the Captain.” 

[I reference a few key books for anyone learning the way of the cross: The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee; The Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit also by Nee; Dying to Live by Jessie Penn-Lewis; The Cross of Calvary How to understand the work of the cross also by Penn-Lewis; The Cross, and The Unity of Vision and Ministry in The Church, Which Is His Body by T. Austin Sparks; The Glorious Liberty of the Children of God by Stephen Kaung] 

This morning, the Lord focused on Romans 7:4-6, with Witness Lee’s keen notes in The Recovery Version of The New Testament. Our Bridegroom-King’s aim in all this: the full love union with His people by way of the successful marriage within in every bridal soul. Romans 7, as we know, addresses failure in the walking out of new creation life. The sin nature is in the ascendancy because self-effort still reigns. [See Romans 7:14-8:2.] As it’s been experienced, whenever a believer is in performance mode in any way, it’s self that is in the driver’s seat, and intimate union as beloved to Beloved, both son to Abba and wife to Yeshua Hamaschiach, is blocked.

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REMAINING in the LORD’S REST: AMMO IN THE WAR AGAINST DRIVENNESS

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-remember Jesus leads // the adversary drives

-remember that confession brings possession

-I have all the time I need to do all that God has called me to do (this day).

-I resist all stress and pressure in Jesus’ name.

-I bind any / all spirits that are driving / pressuring me in Jesus’ name.

-I release myself into the leadership of the Holy Spirit / the Shepherdship of Jesus.

-I release myself to be fully led by the Spirit

 -ask the Lord to free you from “shoulds and ought to’s”

  -practice continual/constant listening – radical listening

-Psalm 139:16 Living Bible “You scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe.” 

“I walk in what You have scheduled for me today.”

I let You, LORD, navigate. Spirit, You show me what to do step by step; even minute by minute. I check in with You Lord: What are You saying? What are You doing? Radical dependency. This is vital given the reality that there is an unseen realm with familiar spirits / hosts of wickedness.

Look up Eph. 6:10-20 The Message on biblegateway.com. 

“We have all heard that when we are trying to be rushed by others and circumstances, the Holy Spirit may not be the person in charge. 

Agree? With the new beginnings, we want to walk steadfastly and in pace with the timing of our Lord and in His perfect will and path. Let us humbly bow before Him and our brothers and sisters, and especially those over us,  as we come into our new seasons. Exciting these new seasons are, but we want to be prudent.” Pat Pierce 4-21-08 Wake County, NC.

Know the Holy Spirit as Helper.

Prov. 3:5-6 Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight and understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

Phil. 4:6 Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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Three Keys to Three Keys to Destiny

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My intention is not to harm you but to surround you with peace and prosperity and to give you a beautiful future, glistening with hope. (Jer. 29:11 TPT)

Find your delight and true pleasure in YAHWEH, and He will give you what you desire the most. Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust Him along the way, you’ll find He pulled it off perfectly! (Psalm 37:4-5 TPT)

Because I set you, YAHWEH, always close to me, my confidence will never be weakened, for I experience your wraparound presence every moment. Note f: It is possible to translate this section as “I have determined in my heart to be identical with the mind and heart of God. It was the heart and mind of God that had first place in David’s heart and thoughts. (Psalm 16:8 TPT) See all of Psalm 16 with the notes the Passion Translation, 2020 edition. Notes by Brian Simmons.

Main aim in life: I want to know Him inside and out. (Phil. 3:10 The Voice)

Philippians 3:9-11(Amplified Bible, Classic Edition)

9 And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law’s demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [the gift of] [saving] faith.

10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]

11 That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]. [Did this verse look forward to an Enoch-level walk that the bride/son company would attain to? The out-resurrection from the dead. See The Recovery Version of the Bible with notes by Witness Lee.] [Re: Enoch and his walk, see Michael Fickess’s books.]

Preliminaries: Recovering the Hebrew roots to the New Covenant. Knowing our Hebraic God: YHVH (Yahweh) (Abba), Yeshua (Son), Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit). Tracking with the Hebrew calendar. Identifying with Israel, praying for her, and laboring in prayer and with resources for the Jews to know Yeshua. 

The three keys that are opening up my destiny wide: I pray (1) Lord, change me as I am not all the way like the Pattern Son Jesus yet. How far can I go? From Psalm 139 (See all translations for the full effect.)“Search me and know me…” and the similar section from Psalm 19 identifying “secret, selfish sins.” (TPT) (2) How can I move in selfless love today, all day, in union with the Holy Spirit? (3) How can I be a TEAM PLAYER re: the whole born-again, connected to the Vine BODY in my region? In the world? [Instead, we will lovingly follow the truth at all times—speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly—and so become more and more in every way like Christ who is the Head of his body, the Church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly, and each part in its own special way helps the other parts, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Eph. 4:16 TLB] Am seeing amazing Divine favor a ton! Be spurred on! Many diagnostic tests and deliverances got me to this way of walking. [Say “yes” to lots of inner healing and deliverance ministry.]  And “yes” to His ongoing soul restoration program! He is perfecting us in love. I have said “yes” to majoring in 1 John Passion realities. His “Love School.” Much love in Christ-

Keys to walking in these keys:

  1. Going deep with the cross. See Jessie Penn Lewis’s book, Dying to Live, especially the chapter, “How deep shall the cross go?” Gal. 2:20. See Basilea Schlink’s Avoiding the Cross: Unwillingness to Suffer on sermonindex.net . See also Tom Finley’s site, seekersofchrist.org, for excellent free pdfs on The Victorious Christian Life and Romans 5-8 (The Believer’s Sanctification) and more. From Gift: a faithful, praying mom who walks in the spirit by Katherine Bell: Banqueting Table and Mom’s Prayer that invites Transformative Love. Email me at katherinefbell@icloud.com for these docs.

(2) A radical yielding to the directives and prophetic words and pictures from the Holy Spirit. [Major in the prophetic AND the Word.] [Mark Virkler, Liz Wright, and Virginia Killingsworth furthered me in recent seasons in the union walk that yields the accurate prophetic.] And a continual yieldedness to the Lord living and loving THROUGH me. See 1 John Passion with notes. Saying “yes” to winning souls and making disciples for Jesus. [Free tracts available from wmpress.org.] [And Boomerang University’s Soul Winning class is tops! Site: boomerangu.org.] “Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they pour into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38 AMPC) A key book is Dana Congdon’s The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Also, see cwgministries.org for attaining the flowing life in the Spirit with all the gifts by the Virklers.

(3) Philippians: Esteeming others more highly than myself. Loving others with the affections of Jesus. John 13 and the fulfillment or joy that comes from serving, going low, and washing feet or helping people in sanctification and growth in the freedom of holiness. Humility and the winning of the war of flesh vs. spirit of Galatians. Pride and rebellion crucified for full union with Christ. Gal. 2:20. See my blog post, “Caring for Christ” on lessonslove.wordpress.com. And do read: “Overcoming Pride Blindedness” on my bondslavefreedom.com. Basilea Schlink’s short text sermon re: Criticizing: Judging on sermonindex.net. And read Schlink’s other pdfs as they are very useful in preparing us for His coming back IN us and FOR us. For His habitation, He desires pure vessels / sanctified souls.

Postscript: Am pursuing the anointing as vital: 

http://joyalministries.blogspot.com/2013/03/seven-ways-to-increase-our-anointing.html

Re: the anointing and how to flow in it, the Bryan Wright YouTube videos on the anointing are most helpful and easy to follow in. Bryan is the pastor of Boomerang Church in Albemarle, NC.

If this blog blessed you, and you’d like to support my writing labors, please consider donating via PayPal or Venmo (@Katherine-Bell-micro.)

Zelle katherinefbell@me.com

Blessings in return—

Get Behind Me, Satan: Leaders Operating in the Adamic Mind

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The part of the Word where Peter speaks from his own reasoning in response to Yeshua’s disclosure that He is headed for death on a cross is key light we need right now re: the way our design and functioning truly is as vessels. Matthew 16:21-24 reveals a discernment about the unseen realm that leaders and we, their followers, must possess so as not to buy into deceiving spirits.

From the Amplified Classic:

From that time forth, Jesus began [clearly] to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders and the high priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised from death. Then Peter took Him aside [b]to speak to Him privately and began to reprove and charge Him sharply, saying, God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to You!But Jesus turned away from Peter and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in My way [an offense and a hindrance and a snare to Me]; for you are minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men.Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also].

If we truly understand verses such as John 6:53, John 15:5, and Romans 6:22 and even realize that in Genesis 3; the real sin was humankind choosing independence from their Maker vs. a dependent existence of flowing in the eternal life of God, ever drinking from the Almighty as source, we will get the scene with Peter and Jesus. 

In Eden, upon Adam and Eve’s choosing to operate by their own choice, their own reasoning and logic, satan got a stronghold and the captivity of Adam and his offspring ensued. Satan got expression in the earth which is what the evil one ever tries to do and does do again and again when leaders fail to yield and flow in the anointing or empowerment of the Spirit of the Lord. And when they fail to have Yeshua’s mind via His Lordship. “Yet not my will but [always] Yours be done” must continuously rule us if we are to have dominion over the demonic forces arrayed against our race. 

(See Eph. 6:10-20 The Message.)

Some verses revealing the radical dependence of the true Christian walk are: 

And Jesus said to them, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, you cannot have any life in you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood [unless you appropriate His life and the saving merit of His blood].He who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has (possesses now) eternal life, and I will raise him up [from the dead] on the last day.For My flesh is true and genuine food, and My blood is true and genuine drink. (John 6:53-55 AMPC)

I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples. (John 15:5-8 The Message)

But now you are free from the power of sin and are slaves of God, and His benefits to you include holiness and everlasting life. (Romans 6:22 TLB)

It’s only by way of deliverance from pride and rebellion and all idolatry of self that anyone can truly lead the way the Lord wants His sons and daughters to lead: “Pattern yourselves after me [follow my example], as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah).” [1 Cor. 11:1 AMPC] Jesus, Intercessor and Head of the church, always ministers in selfless love, and He is the Pattern Son. In 1 Cor. 13:3, we must face the truth that “without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.” (TPT)

Leaders who are not in union with the Lord, who are doing their own thing, and who are failing to give God glory as their source are often operating out of orphanhood. They do not know Abba’s unconditional embrace in Christ Jesus. Thus, they tend to performance mode. The need is for leaders to receive the love, affirmation, and attention/recognition they need as sons and daughters from the Father who called them to serve Him in the first place. We must pray that leaders fully bow before the Lord in humility such that pure Christ is released to their listeners. If they do not yield to the Lord Christ within them as they minister; the adamic mind of logic, reasoning, and control results. The human intellect dominates over the co-creativity, via spirit-to-Spirit union, with the flowing river of God happening in gatherings or one-on-one, that YHVH desires for His offspring.

A keen Rock Hill, SC sister in Christ has observed how quickly and how often believers, pastors, and other leaders proffer their own opinions and advice in ministry and counseling situations drawing upon all the books, videos, and teachings they have absorbed as opposed to listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit and only saying and doing what the Father is saying and doing like Jesus did. The Immanuel Approach, immanuelapproach.com, is a very necessary corrective to such tendencies, as by this approach, Jesus does the ministry. We must all go deep in intimacy with the Father’s heart as communicated to us in the Son and by the Spirit to come into our design as vessels meant to express the love of God. How we all need to drink and drink and drink of God’s unconditional love and acceptance to get free of any drive to prove ourselves or outdo others. The truth is the Father loves each of us as much as He loves Jesus. We are all a very important part of the Body. And the Father has scheduled the works we are to walk in before the foundation of the world. (Take in Psalm 139.) May our aim be merely to fulfill our individual callings to minister God’s love as Jesus did according to Luke 4:18. May we humbly obey the Master.

Michael Sedler wrote in Stop the Runaway Conversation, “Until I find my security in Christ, I will look for recognition from people, materialism, performance and other worldly ways. Of course, only repentance, deliverance, and healing from God will truly clean our spirits.”

Galatians 2:20 is the deliverance from self at the center: “I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (AMPC)

Deliver us, Lord, from the Diotrephes spirit. 

“I wrote to the church. But Diotrephes likes to be the number-one leader, and he won’t pay any attention to us.” (3 John 9 CEV) 

Let us wait upon the Master and stay submitted and receptive to Him. May we please Him and not idolize self, our Shepherd who gave His very life for us. (Study John 10:11-15 EXB)

The rule for the church: Likewise, you who are younger and of lesser rank, be subject to the elders (the ministers and spiritual guides of the church)—[giving them due respect and yielding to their counsel]. Clothe (apron) yourselves, all of you, with humility [as the garb of a servant, so that its covering cannot possibly be stripped from you, with freedom from pride and arrogance] toward one another. For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful)—[and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5 AMPC)

Our Abba wants us to be great by His definition: the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 23:11 records Jesus’ clear plumb-line: The greatest among you is your servant.

Postscript

Paul, the Lord’s designated master builder of the church, was “one with Christ’s inward parts, in which he enjoyed Christ as the supply of grace,” Witness Lee writes in his notes to Philippians in the Recovery Version of The New Testament. (Phil. 1:8 note 1) Paul lived subject to the cross in his inner man Lee explains. Footnote 1 to Phil. 1:21 states, “Paul’s life was to live Christ. To him to live was Christ….Christ was not only his life but his living. He lived Christ because Christ lived in him (Gal. 2:20). He was one with Christ in both life and living. He and Christ had one life and one living. They lived together as one person. Christ lived within Paul as Paul’s life, and Paul lived Christ without as Christ’s living. The normal experience of Christ is to live Him, and to live Him is to magnify Him always regardless of the circumstances.”

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil. 1:21 RcV)

Recommended Reading

Humility by Andrew Murray

The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee

The Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit by Watchman Nee

Miracles are Normal —Co-Creating Through Oneness with God by Virginia Killingsworth

Crisis in Masculinity by Leanne Payne

Listening Prayer by Leanne Payne

Union with God Madame Guyon

The Walk of Love: Walking in the Light as He is in the Light, ebook by Katherine Bell, request by email katherinefbell@me.com. 

The Harness of the Lord Bill Britton, https://www.restorationlife.org/Notes/2017/The-Harness-of-the-Lord.pdf 

Walking in the Spirit in the Church by Katherine Bell, https://bondslavefreedom.com/2015/11/19/walking-in-the-spirit-in-the-church/ 

Mom’s Prayer that Invites God’s Transformative Love

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[from Gift a faithful, praying mom who walks in the Spirit by Katherine Bell]

Introduction

Some weeks back, I asked Mom to share the secrets of her oh, so close bond with the Lord. I had noticed over the years the way she had become more and more like Christ and walked out union with Him in heart, soul, mind, and strength. I knew she had sought out many anointed teachers and had received lots and lots of prayer from believers with strong prayer lives. And I had observed her many hours of soaking up the Word and mining it for spiritual and practical treasures. Mom is often found declaring out loud the promises of God which the Word tells us are all ours to receive. God says “yes” to every one of them.

2 Corinthians 1:20-22 The Message

20-22 Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete.

But those things I knew. And they all have had a very important part. But the secret she shared with me that she said was a real, breakthrough key to experiencing deeper and deeper, closer and closer fellowship with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the Father—all three Persons of the Godhead that are in us by the Spirit—the key to letting God be her very life and flow out to others consists of daily praying the prayer below. This prayer positions you to receive God’s transformative love. [Listen to the prophet Graham Cooke’s short, YouTube video on God’s unconditional love titled “Love Encounter,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6wlClByBG8 .]

1 John 4:16 The Message

This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

Mom’s Prayer

I come before You, the God Who is love, to know You and to behold You in Your glory, beauty, and majesty. I humble myself in awe of You. I thank You that You are within me in the garden of my heart—the Eden within where I meet with You. I open my heart up fully to You. You passionately desire me to know and be known of You. You welcome me just as I am. 

Revelation 3:20 The Passion Translation

Behold, I’m standing at the door, knocking.[a] If your heart is open to hear my voice and you open the door within, I will come in to you and feast with you, and you will feast with me.[b]

Footnotes

  1. 3:20 The Aramaic can be translated “I have been standing at the door, knocking.” Jesus knocking on the door points us to the process of an ancient Jewish wedding invitation. In the days of Jesus, a bridegroom and his father would come to the door of the bride-to-be carrying the betrothal cup of wine and the bride-price. Standing outside, they would knock. If she fully opened the door, she was saying, “Yes, I will be your bride.” Jesus and his Father, in the same way, are knocking on the doors of our hearts, inviting us to be the bride of Christ.
  2. 3:20 This is likely taken from Song. 5:1–2, where the king knocks on the door of the heart of the Shulamite, longing to come in and feast with her.

James 4:8 The Message

Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time.

James 4:8 The Passion Translation

8 Move your heart closer and closer to God, and he will come even closer to you.[a] 

Footnotes

  1. 4:8 The Aramaic can be translated “and he will be touching you.”

I bring everything of myself to You. I repent or change my mindset over anything that has not been of faith, Your love, or Your perfect will—anything that has not been aligned with Your heart. I thank You for Your forgiveness. I open myself to You for the continual restoring of my soul. Work out the restoration of all things in my life. 

Isaiah 53:5 The Passion Translation

5 But it was because of our rebellious deeds that he was pierced[a]
    and because of our sins that he was crushed.    He endured the punishment that made us completely whole,[b]    and in[c] his wounding[d] we found our healing.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 53:5 See Zech. 12:10; John 19:31-37; Rev. 1:7.
  2. Isaiah 53:5 This is the Hebrew word shalom, meaning “peace, prosperity, wholeness, success, well-being.” All of these have come to us through Christ’s sufferings.
  3. Isaiah 53:5 The Hebrew word could be translated “among his wounds (bruises)” or “in his wounds (bruises).” See the split-open rock of Song. 2:14.
  4. Isaiah 53:5 The Hebrew word for wounding (“scourging”) is chaburah and means “blueness of the wounds.” But chaburah is taken from the root word chabar, which means “to join together, to unite, to have fellowship, to become a couple.” A nuanced translation of Isaiah 53:5 could be “In the fellowship of being one with him is our healing.”

I give me to You as a living sacrifice. Search me and know me and try me and see if there is any path of pain I am walking on. 

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The Greatness of Drawing Close to Christ

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John, the disciple of Christ who penned Scripture, experienced the glory of knowing God. Like King David, he drank deeply of the love of God. In Psalm 73:23-24 and verse 28 David wrote of his relationship with the Lord, “You love me! You are holding my right hand! You will keep on guiding me all my life with Your wisdom and counsel . . . . But as for me, I get as close to Him as I can!”[1] John, too, came close and drank deeply. 

There is a song with a line in it that says, “God of glory, Lord of love, Hearts unfold like flowers before You, opening to the sun above.”[2] And an unfolded heart wide open to God and His higher ways—a heart no longer crippled because it is severed from its Divine Source of perfect love—is a heart on a journey to glory and greatness because it is being restored by its Maker to His intended design. John had such a heart. In fact, so much did he draw close to Christ that he became the picture of what happens when a man enters into the closest possible places of the Lord’s heart and mind. Jesus was the lover of John’s soul as he transformed the darkness of the state of selfish ambition into the light of the state of surrendered sonship in the image of the Pattern Son. And John wrote of the mystical union we are called to find in and with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John dared to lean upon Jesus to experience His heart and know His secrets. The Father through Jesus shared with John the very secrets of agape love—the love that God is in His being and ever exudes. Finally, God called John to write of the union of God with redeemed men and women in eternal marriage in the heavenly Jerusalem in time to come. There the curse from the fall in Eden will be no more and men will so know the intense love of God for them that they will fulfill the command to “Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is in you.”[3] And the second, “Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.”[4] They will willingly serve Him as bondslaves—love slaves.

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The Doctor of Love Degree in YHVH’s “Love School”

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Certifications and degrees from top schools are prized, especially graduate degrees. In keeping with such attainments, may we welcome our Potter-Father’s diagnostic tests as He tests us to show us where we are in our yieldedness to His Son, our Head who is Love Incarnate. We are in the highest school of all as His offspring, sons and daughters being raised to be just like His Pattern Son. In acknowledgement of Yeshua, I quote: “And he alone is the leader and source of everything needed in the church. God has put everything beneath the authority of Jesus Christ and has given him the highest rank above all others.” (Eph. 1:22 TPT) One day we will face a final assessment re: our fruit production branch to the Vine. (See John 15.) And 1 Corinthians 13:2 gives us a heads up about what our Maker most wants to see in us: “And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).” (AMPC) The passage 1 John 4:7-8 concurs: “Those who are loved by God, let His love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of Him. The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love.” (TPT)

As we are slated to be Yeshua’s sister-spouse, the Holy Spirit is ever working with us to perfect us in love or get us to the place where we love like He loves i.e. we let Him love THROUGH us unhindered. The bride will be equally yoked to Yeshua as His conjugal in the spirit partner in ministry. 1 John 2:3-5 gives us the Apostle of Love’s admonition: “Here’s how we can be sure that we’ve truly come to know God: if we keep His commands. (f) If someone claims ‘I have come to know God by experience,’ yet doesn’t keep God’s commands, he is a phony and the truth finds no place in him. But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, ‘I am intimate with God,’ but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”

[Note f 2:3 Keeping God’s commands is the proof and evidence of coming to know God, not the means of knowing God.]

[And this doing of the Word IS all by grace. Paul told of superabundant grace given him by Christ as the ability he operated in as he wrote 1 Corinthians 13, our plumbline of maturity.]

We do get an “A” in YHVH’s New Covenant school of love when we function as “little Christ’s.” Thankful we can be to be among the emerging Bride/Son company who believe this 1 John level of likeness with the Godhead is possible. Thank you, Liz Wright, Virginia Killingsworth, and other mentors—disciple-makers unto our full maturity. That there is going to be a like-souled John 17 company in the earth is our good faith position. Jesus did pray in John 17: “Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that You conferred as a gift through Me, so they can be one heart and mind as We are one heart and mind.” (MSG) Do hasten to read Loved A 90 day journey into the heart of God by Liz Wright and co-author Gretchen Rodriguez with its keys to full possession by our Great Lover and Lord and Miracles Are Normal —Co-Creating Through Oneness with God by Virginia containing a map to the soul restoration necessary to flow as ONE with the Creator Himself. Both writers point us to overcoming self-imposed limits in the way of much greater change into YHVH’s image.

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Bondslave Freedom

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The reality that becoming a slave to Jesus

resulted in ultimate freedom was birthed in the days 

of the Apostle Paul and company.

Romans 1:1 “From Paul, a bondslave of Jesus Christ…”

1 Corinthians 7:23 You were bought with a price [purchased with a

preciousness and paid for by Christ]; then do not yield yourselves up 

to become [in your estimation] slaves to men [but consider

yourselves slaves to Christ].

This ultimate freedom is a freedom from the rule of self

and freedom from the rule of the sin nature 

by way of co-crucifixion with Yeshua Hammaschiach on the cross of Calvary.

Romans 6:22 “However, now, freed from sin and enslaved to God,

you do get the benefit—it consists in being made holy, 

set apart for God, and its end result is eternal life.”

Bondslave Freedom: The way whose time has come again.

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Love Profits

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“I am bankrupt without love,” The Message translation states in 1 Corinthians 13. “If I do not have love, I gain nothing,” the ESV says. But what will love profit me if I obey God’s directive to “follow after charity” (KJV) or “eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] love [make it (my) aim, (my) great quest]?” (AMPC)

Today I inquired of THE textbook on love, the Holy Bible, seeking increase to my life in God in the way of walking out agape love, the fruit that comes from remaining vitally united to the Vine, the Lord. As I have been drawing closer to Yeshua’s heart, I am ever experiencing a deeper connection to Him and revelatory insights into Holy Writ.

Let me share some verses on love in Matthew 5 from the JB Phillips translation. First, though, let’s read from 1 Corinthians 13:1-3:

If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing. 

Clearly, allowing God’s agape love to flow from within our hearts out to others is of paramount importance to God. Clearly, love is the sine qua non for us.

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