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Openheaven.com

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Posted by: JG


Kingdom Revival Portal

Revival and Renewal are being used of God to take many of us to a new place of intimacy and loving communion with God. In the Father's manifest presence we are changed by His love and become more as Christ is in the world.

The church is developing a "kingdom of God focus" - seeking the kingdom personally and corporately, in the home, the Marketplace, and the city. OpenHeaven.com IRN CRC is focused on seeking the kingdom of God first.

Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Mat 22:37 -40:


Vision, History, Belief


Ron & Barbara McGatlin
OpenHeaven.com is a web based communication network connecting and encouraging the Body in kingdom/revival.

"Spiritual revival/renewal is returning the heart of the church to an intimate love relationship with God."

Ron & Barbara McGatlin are part of an army of men and women sent to fan the flames of revival/renewal and spread the gospel of the kingdom. Revival/renewal fires have ignited multitudes of small groups worldwide. They are seeking to inform, encourage and connect groups and ministries in the fire of revival/renewal and the Word of the kingdom.

Ron has over 50 years of seeking to serve God in ministry and business. Barbara has served in pastoral and Christian education positions for over 10 years. They currently make their home in the foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, USA. Ron has written 5 books on revival and the in-breaking kingdom of God and continues to speak occasionally at revival meetings and conferences.

http://www.openheaven.com/


Posted by: bluecatkeeper

Thank you for referring this link Pastor Jerry. I think it is a wonderful supplement to what we have here.
GOd Bless!


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

Captivated by His Love - Ron McGatlin

Many today are both captured by His holy presence - prisoners of His love, and at he same time set free to ascend to new heights of spiritual experience enraptured into a realm of His glory. Faith has become reality as forerunners of the new day of renewal and reformation move into the deeper river of love and experience of His glory that leads us toward the reality of the kingdom of God from heaven coming forth in our lives to touch the world.

Experiencing the depth and passion of His love constrains us to pure obedience to His will. Passion motivates His forerunners to fully give up their ways of living and conform to His kingdom lifestyle.

God has always loved His people and we have had a love for God. So, you might ask, "What is so different now?" The difference is the level of intense intimate passion. God has come near and is drawing forerunner people into intense closeness with Him and increased love for one another.

Forerunners are chosen for the purpose of bringing forth the new day. This intense passionate love connection is for every one of His children. There are no elite and no hierarchy of men ruling over this new day. Yet while the new is coming forth the old is yet standing and the process of changing from the religious past to the greater reality of pure holiness in His passionate love is taking place as a forerunner people are freely selling all to purchase the perfect pearl and giving their lives to gain the field of treasure - intimate relationship with God.

2 Cor 5:14: For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

2 Cor 5:15: And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

This is not a head thing. Many Christians believe that they should not live for themselves but should live for Him. They know the truth but in reality they yet live a life mixed with carnal desires and pleasure-seeking. Unknowingly many are seeking from other gods of this world what they should have in the joy of intimate passionate relationship with God. They are missing the greatest life of all - a life laid down for Jesus and intimately connected with the Father - a life of passion in God.

The passion of the Father can become jealousy for the affection of His children. We serve a jealous God that will not forever look away as those whom He loves turn to other lovers (gods). He will do all to turn His people back toward His love. Yet, He will not violate the free will given to His people to choose to love Him. Now is the time of unprecedented outpouring of His passionate love to His people. Multitudes are being drawn by His love into the inner chambers of His heart as the Tabernacle of David is being restored on the earth.

Deu 4:24: "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Amos 9:11: "On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old.

The presence of God is again meeting with His people in the joyful and sometimes loud worship and praise of the people of God in the Tabernacle of David. Hearts are both overwhelmed with joy and broken as deep loving intercession cries out for all of God's people to respond to His passionate love.

Lots of Love,
Ron McGatlin

For more Major Revival Articles by Ron McGatlin and others, Go Here: http://www.openheaven.com/articles/...ticle.asp?id=58http://www.openheaven.com/articles/...ticle.asp?id=58


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

The power of Weakness

By Ron McGatlin>

1 Cor 2:3-4: I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

2 Cor 12:10b: ...For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Standing before the Fire of God brings weakness to the soul and supernatural power into the spirit. For those who have entered the open door of 2004 into the presence of God there is an abundance of supernatural reality to be poured out in 2005. This is the year of the sons bringing forth the supernatural reality of the Christ life. Not just miracles of healing and raising dead but wisdom and power from the Fire of the throne that will affect every area of life.

Many will be astonished as they experience the purity, wisdom, and supernatural power of the people coming forth from the throne room having been touched of the Father and saturated in His love. People will know that Christ is within them and that they have been with Father. Purity and holiness will prevail and nothing shall attach to them to drag them down. The word of their testimony shall be of the kingdom of God from the throne of God. They shall have no love for their lives nor regard for the temptations of this world.

The inner joy of the Lord within them will not be diminished by their tears of respect and awe for their God nor by the river of tears of compassion for their brothers and sisters entrapped by a world gone crazy. The weakness of brokenness opens the highway of holiness for the supernatural love and power of God to flow through them into the world.

Now we need no longer speak of the harvest to come for the harvest has begun.

Be sure to check out our newly updated site: http://www.openheaven.com

Year of Fire - More Alive in 2005

Ron McGatlin
Coordinator, Openheaven.com IRN CRC

International Revival Network - Since 1995

http://www.openheaven.com


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

That email addess didn't come out to good. I will try again in case anyone wants to send me an email. ******************

Thanks,
Ron McGatlin


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

What is Soaking?.

By Ron McGatlin

During previous revivals people would use the terms "waiting on the Lord" or "tarrying" as they lingered expecting God's revival blessings. Although soaking includes waiting on the Lord, in this present move of Holy Spirit it means so much more. To soak in God's presence is to rest in His love rather than to strive in prayer.

"SOAKING PRAYER" is a key to Revival.

Watch for more to come from OpenHeaven.com on this timely and vital subject.

Be sure to check out our newly updated site: www.openheaven.com


Posted by: akabezalel

Welcome Pastor Ron!

I have not gone to your sight yet because I just found the thread.

Please! Join us in praying for Revival here in Tacoma WA!

If you get a chance come visit!

You will be welcomed here!

WELCOME!


Posted by: eagle4him

Bless all of you for your efforts in bringing revival. I know the Lord has a special annointing for those who answer the call.

REVIVAL--Renewed zeal to obey God! Conditions:
Humility, Prayer, Fasting, Drawing Near to the Lord, Fear the Lord, Confess
your sins, repentance of sins, and dedication.

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will i hear from heaven and forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chron 7:14

"I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite (broken hearted)." Isaiah 57:15

Rend your heart Return to me with all your heart with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts and not your garments." Joel 2: 12, 13

Read Isaiah 58 the 20 rewards of true fasting

Bless all of you!


Posted by: czynka

Thankyou for this link, for the teaching. God bless you !


Posted by: Sulten

Dear Ron,

Welcome to this site and thankyou so much for posting these wonderful inspiriting messages. I really hope to hear more of them!

With deep appreciation,
Bonnie Åsheim


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

pastor/missionary Daniel Tieh
Bamako,Mali west africa

===============================================


We the pastors and missionaries working in the Republic of mali in West Africa are believing God for a revival for our land(Mali)We meet every last Friday of every month to have allnight prayer for God to do some thing in this country.

We will like to be in your prayers and hope together, we can work for revival for every parts of the earth to exprience God's Presence.We are od the opions that in the future,you may send someone to help us flame the Fire of God in Mali.God bless you all as we anticipates reply from you the brethren in Christ.

Yours pastor/missionary Daniel + Maye Tieh


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

Heaven's Deepest River - Ron McGatlin

We have entered the time of transition to the kingdom of God. God is sending forth His sons empowered from heaven to establish His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Many are having supernatural encounters with God today! - Encounters for empowerment to establish the kingdom of God on earth.

FOR THOSE WITH AN EAR TO HEAR - TODAY - THIS DEEPEST RIVER FROM HEAVEN CAN BE IMPLANTED IN YOU AND YOU WILL BE TRANSFORMED and EMPOWERED. TODAY, GOD WANTS TO TAKE YOU INTO THE DEEPEST RIVER OF HEAVEN.

The supernatural empowerment to establish the kingdom of God is in this deepest river - all the power - all the life - all the wisdom - everything needed. God is now taking His sons to a new place IN HIM.

At this writing I am almost 69 years old and have sought to serve our Lord for 48 of those years. I have had many experiences with God and a few major encounters. What happened to me a few weeks ago exceeded all my previous experiences with God.

One of the most significant past encounters with God happened almost 20 years ago. To help understand what I am about to say, here is a very short nondescript account of some of what happened at that time.

I stood before the boiling fire of Father God and the Lord stepped out from the fire carrying a large sword and said, "Receive your anointing." He touched me three times with the sword and stepped back into the fire of the Father. Two giant hands of the same fire appeared in the fire. One hand held a large vial like a cup or beaker filled with liquid fire. The other hand held a tall thin empty vial somewhat the shape of a test tube. I heard, "I am going to fill you with my love."

The Father began pouring the liquid fire from the large cup into the test tube like vial. As the level rose in the vial, liquid fire filled me to the same level starting at my feet and rising up my body. When the liquid fire reached my arms it flowed down to my hands and streams of liquid fire began to flow out the ends of my fingers onto the ground. I was concerned that the liquid fire of God's love was being wasted. I was told not to be concerned, that there was an endless supply and that I would never run short and to go ahead and be sloppy with it. As the level rose to the level of my eyes the liquid fire began to flow out of my eyes in two small streams just like was flowing out the ends of my fingers. Soon it began to ooze out the pores of my skin and I glowed all over with the liquid fire of God's love. Though I have not been a perfect carrier of the liquid fire, this experience had a profound impact on me and radically changed my life.

The feeling that nothing greater could ever happen to me was shattered recently as I experienced an even greater encounter with God.

A few weeks ago at a Thursday night prayer meeting at World Revival Church, I was lying on the floor before the altar in the Spirit and God began dealing with me. I began to feel a great desire to be in the fire with God and not just standing before Him. I had never even had this thought before but now it was burning in me. The Word came to me that we have not because we ask not. I remembered that almost 20 years ago prior to that encounter I had asked to see the Lord and to receive anointing.

I asked God to take me into Himself - into the fire with Him.

Immediately I was transported into the fire of God and my life is forever changed. Everything of me is totally ruined for anything but God. I wept inside continuously for weeks and outwardly often. I am consumed.

Heb 12:29: For our God is a consuming fire.

I now have an idea what Paul meant when he said, "And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell." (2 Cor 12:3-4)

I had never dreamed what it would be like to really be literally in the Father - in Jesus and in the Holy Spirit - to literally be in the actual Fire of God.

To come to Jesus is awesome. But we need to remember that it is a primary purpose of Jesus to take us to the Father. And that He and the Father are one.

I was exposed to a brief glimpse of the unfiltered pure heart of the Father. I was not prepared for the shock of knowing His heart - His feelings about His children - His desires - His responses to His children - the very affect we have on the heart of Father God astonished me and broke me to nothing.

What I encountered in the heart of the Father has taken my life.

I am about to try to tell you the thing that ruined me for any life other that pleasing and serving Him - The thing that has made me to hate disobedience (sin) with a passion - The thing that has generated an intense passion to bless Him. This is the thing that has removed all shallowness and self focus and replaced it with a passionate depth of love, obedience, desire to serve Him, desire to worship Him and praise Him, and to see His kingdom established on earth.

The first thing that overwhelmed me was the indescribable intensity and vastness of the love of the Father for His people. It is absolute purity and absolute passion an unending unstoppable immeasurable flow of God. I have no words to describe the experience of becoming one with the love of God. It is inexpressible love.

The next thing that I experienced is the thing that killed me. Personally, I believe that this next thing may be one of the things Paul spoke of when he said, in 2 Corinthians 12, "He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell." Could it be that it was not then time for this to be told but that the time has come?

The next thing I experienced in the heart of the Father was unfathomable intense pain - immeasurable sorrow - deep distress beyond measure caused by the indifference of those He loves. The lack of response or improper response to this awesome love has created a vast brokenness in the heart of the Father.

The deepest river in heaven is the broken hearted ness of Father God.

Our Father, the source of all love - the one that is love - the one with love beyond all we can imagine has a broken heart filled with painful desperate passionate longing. One cannot be deeply hurt by those whom one does not love deeply. The more deeply one loves the more deeply one can suffer pain from that love. The love of God for His children and His Bride exceeds all love.

The casualness of God's people toward His complete passionate love has created immeasurable pain in the heart of God. God's heart is breaking for His disobedient unresponsive Bride who chooses to ignore His great passionate love and to seek romance with other things of this world.

The pain of His immeasurable love was clearly felt and spoken in the Garden of Gethsemane. The exceeding pain and deep distress in God's heart is the same pain felt in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus only did what he heard and saw the Father doing. Our God is one. The distinct characteristics and work of Christ and the Holy Spirit become very apparent as they move out from the Father. But inside the Father they are one. The feelings of grief of the Holy Spirit and the deep sorrow of Christ are felt in the heart of the Father.

What was happening in the heart of the Father at Gethsemane?

Mat 26:36-39: Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."

Those among us who have loved someone very deeply and felt the pain of that person pulling away from us may begin to grasp the depth of painful longing in God's heart caused by those whom He loves. Those who have known His love and then allowed their affection to move to something or someone else causes great pain in God's heart.

Inner pain mixed with genuine forgiveness becomes and increased intensely passionate flow of real love. But if it is mixed with resentment it can become intense bitterness in the heart. God has complete forgiveness and therefore no bitterness. The pain in God's heart becomes an increased flow of extreme passionate love for His people. This love flows like a deep and mighty river toward all mankind.

God is pouring out his love to all mankind equally. He loves all people unconditionally. He loves those who love Him and he loves those who hate Him. He loves His friends and enemies all the same.

But all do not respond to His love the same. Some come closer and others move further away. Those who come closer receive more because they choose to draw near to God and are greatly blessed. Others, who choose to move away to live in darkness, are cursed by the same love that blesses those who come to His light. Those who do not receive and respond to the love of God offend the love of God.

One definition for jealously is love offended. God is jealous when His love is offended by lack of proper response from those He loves. God refers to Himself as jealous several times in the Bible. Jealousy leads to wrath caused by the love of the husband for His wife.

Exo 20:3-6: "You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."

Deu 4:24: "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

God speaks of His wife having other gods as committing spiritual adultery. A man destroys himself when he chooses to not respond to the love of God and has affection for other things.

Prov 6:32-35: But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away; for jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is.

God's love offended becomes jealousy. Jealousy arouses wrath and is an expression of the intense passion of the love of God for His people.

God's pain and sorrow began even before He created man. Lucifer and the angels, who rebelled, greatly dishonored and shamed God in His own home territory of heaven. Perhaps this has something to do with the creation of man in Satan's home territory of earth. Man was created, in part, for the purpose of restoring honor to God by properly responding to His love. We are just now beginning to grasp that God has an awesome need for us to respond to His love.

Christians today are generally accustomed to looking to God to meet their needs. For centuries we have trusted Him to meet our need for a savior to save us from the penalty of sin and more recently many trust Him to save them from their sinful lifestyles. Many have learned to trust Him for financial provision; healing and other practical needs as well.

But for the most part, we are just now catching on to the reality that we exist to be an object of the love of God and thereby meet the need of God's heart. Our purpose is to receive and respond to the love of God.

Many revived Christians today have discovered the unconditional love of God and some have erroneously concluded that because Father God has such great love for them that they will be no repercussions for their lack of response to His love. They have not known the pain they cause in the heart of God by frolicking with the Father and then walking away and entering into disobedience to Him.

It is true that God's mercy is endless and at the cross our sin debt is fully paid. It is also true that the cross must again be visited and the blood applied because of our disobedience. Our "little sin" or disobedience may seem insignificant to us. We know forgiveness and redemption is available for us in the cross. But we do not know the pain in the heart of God every time the cross must again be applied and we crucify the Lord afresh in the heart of God. We greatly pain our loving Father with our carelessness.

The glory of the next great outpouring of God upon the Eastern USA and eventually the world is dependent on the people of God responding to God's love by drawing close to Him and stepping into the all-consuming fire.

God is greatly pleasured when love arises from earth to Him in heaven. When we respond to God's love and send it back to Him with our commitment, our obedience, our praise, worship, and honor giving prayer, our sacrifice of fasting, and sacrificial offerings - when we become living sacrifices to Him.

When we respond to His love, the more we give the more we receive. God is so pleased and so gratified when filled with the love response of His people that he pours out blessings of everything we need and more. He comes with His presence in great glory and manifest among His people. He pours out special anointing of healing, deliverance, and miracles of many kinds. We have all the money, all the goods, all that we need to fulfill His plan and more when we respond to His love by giving our lives as a living sacrifice.

We must fill His heart with our total love for Him. We must give Him generous expressions of that love. Those who will sacrifice their self-life to live only for Him and will come all the way into His consuming fire of love bless him. We must fill His heart with joy by properly responding to His unconditional immeasurable love.

The greatest result of all this is that we actually become a blessing and a giver to our loving Father. But surely the next greatest blessing is that as we give we release the deep river of power, strength, wisdom, gifting, miracles, and all that is needed to establish His kingdom on earth. Every apostle and every prophet, pastor, evangelist and teacher of God who fully enters into this fire and sacrifices all as a gift to God will have the empowerment to establish the kingdom of God on earth now.

The powerful love of God will flow through leaders and whosoever will abandon this life and move into the fire of God. All flesh will leave, only powerful spiritual sons will remain, and nothing will be impossible to us as Christ is formed within. Even if we have great revelation of many facts, times, and things they will not profit unless we are put to death by the awesome love of God.

It is time to pray for God to finish us off - to go ahead and kill us now. That we may enter fully into the very heart of God through our brokenness.

There is today an open door without veil before the church to walk into the holy of holies - the fire of the Father himself and it will only be done through brokenness.

We can forget accomplishing anything with our gifts and intellects. In the fire of God, only our weakness of brokenness will provide the flow of power to make our revelations work to change the world to the kingdom of our God.

All aspects of life will be affected as people are consumed by the love of God. Those who minister will do so by the supernatural power of the kingdom of God. Those who work in government will begin to rule according to the power of the kingdom of God. Those who work in business will begin to work by the principles and power of the kingdom of God. Those who do anything will do it for the kingdom of God, by the supernatural power, and according to the principles of the kingdom of God. This is the season of change from the ways of self centered greed based life to the serving giving love of the kingdom of God ruling all life.

Sons will be raised up in all walks of life and service. They will receive and respond to the love of God and order their lives and all they possess or influence by the kingdom for God ways. There will be many fathers and many teachers in the land bringing forth the truth of God by the living example of the clear word of their testimony.

This is the season of the transition. The source of power for the transformation is the love of God. The method is our responding fully to the love of God by taking that final step into the very fire of God rather than just standing nearby.

Ron McGatlin
http://www.openheaven.com


Copyright © 2003-2005 OpenHeaven.com. All rights reserved


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

Prayer Initiative ... Pastor Williams For 2005
An Evasive Prayer Strategy to Stop the Enemy from Carrying Out His Plan to Launch a Major Terrorist Attack Against the East Coast This Year, 2005.

During a time of worship in a very strong flow prophetic utterance, I was strongly impressed that the enemy fully intends on launching a major attack sometime during the course of this year. At this present time, he is already strategizing on this horrific attack against the East Coast.


We believe that the Lord has great plans for the East Coast in the course of 2005, a mighty outpouring of His spirit. During a time of prayer, the Lord showed me in an open vision the East Coast lit up with the Fire of Revival. This fire began in Maine, (which appeared to be lit up the most), then continued down to New York, and then engulfing the entire East Coast. This Fire of Revival then continued to circulate around Florida reaching the entire coastline of Texas. No doubt, the Lord has great plans. We need to comply with Him and set our self in agreement with His divine purpose.

We must remember the Word promises us that no weapon formed against us shall prosper. He assures us that He has given us power over all the power of the enemy and that nothing by any means shall harm us. However, He did command us in the Word to resist the devil and he would flee from us. We are the occupying force of God’s Kingdom in the Earth. He told us to occupy until He comes.

We believe this attack can be avoided. So now is the time for us, the Body of Christ, to stand together in prayer and supplication and see the hand of God protect our nation. So Saints of God, let us pray and agree that the hand of the enemy will be bound and the spirit of God will move in our nation with great revival.

Dan Williams


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

AFRICA IS HOME TO GREATEST GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW, ACCORDING TO CALVIN COLLEGE PROFESSOR

February 15, 2005 -- In 1900 there were about 9 million Christians in all of Africa. By the year 2000 that number had grown to 380 million.

Calvin College provost and professor of history Joel Carpenter says that Africa is home to the greatest growth of Christianity in the world right now.

Pray for Africa.


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

The Editor of Northwest Revival News "nRn", a regional network of related ministries in northwest USA, recently posted a notice regarding the direction God was leading nRn. A few emall from people regarding their experiences and needs regarding the church were also posted. A request was made for others to share their story on the subject.

I believe you will find as I did, the resulting emails from this to be enlightening and heart touching. Perhaps you have a story that you could share with us on this fourm about this important subject.

Below is the original email sent by nRn and some of the replies received to date.

Ron McGatlin

--------------------------------

A New Heart Cry Being Heard

We at nRn News have been on a hiatus waiting for direction from the Holy Spirit. Recently you received a few posts from nRn News. We are still not entirely sure of the direction that the Spirit is taking us, but we are beginning to sense a direction. Please bear with us as we move forward with new posts.

Editor

A ministry in relationship with nRn News received this e-mail in January 2005. “I just browsed your website and am wondering if you have any contacts in the my area with churches that have God's power and are open to the Holy Spirit. I know I have a calling on my life and have loved the Lord since I was 5. I am now 60 and can no longer stand dead, program orientated churches. I feel alone and sad. I don't want to die and not have fulfilled my mission. Can you help?”

I talked with an nRn News subscriber in November 2004 who said, “I talked with my mother the other day. She is in her 70’s and has been in church most of her life. She is reading a popular book about Christians having a purpose for their life. She said she hopes this book helps her find her purpose because she feels like she has not done much for the gospel. It’s sad and I’m not sure how to help her.

I talked with another nRn News subscriber in December 2004. He said, “I recently met a business man who has spent many years in the church. He has left the church and has decided to look elsewhere for assistance in fulfilling the call of God in his life. He knows he has a purpose and calling but can’t seem to find it in the church. I’m putting him into contact with prophetic people who can help his discover his destiny and help him on his journey.”

If you have similar stories, please consider sharing them with nRn News for possible publication. We’d be interested in hearing more on this important topic. We will lean on the leading of the Holy Spirit when we consider which to forward to the nRn News list.

Grace,
nRn News.

--------------------------------------------------------

Replies:

Here are some replies from the post “A New Heart Cry Being Heard”:

Reply #1:

Recently a gentleman said to me, “there is a deepening hunger for the Lord and people are leaving the church in droves to find Him." I am 62 years of age and my cry to the Lord is to please take me home. It is way too painful to hear His name blasphemed in this land, to know that He is not recognized in our midst, to be part of a culture bent on legalizing the breaking of His commands....... to hear His Holy Word compromised, watered down so as not to "offend"
Canada

Reply #2:

The stories you report touch my heart. I've also had many, many older people talk to me about the wasted years as I've traveled and spoken around the country. This is a great part of the work I've been doing for the past 35 years.....helping Christians find out what God is saying to them and then guiding the to begin doing it. It's partly a Western problem. We tend to wait and wait instead of just beginning to do what the Lord instructed all believers to do. Our backgrounds and training will oftentimes play a great role in building hesitancy in us when it comes to following someone you cannot see....God. Somewhere along the line, we all have to trust the Holy Spirit in us. We live in a nation of self-made people doing self-made things. For all of it's blessings we often forget that there was sacrifice. This God fearing sacrifice must be continued in each life longing to be used by God. At this time, I'm working with a webmaster to put Bible series and other studies dealing a great deal with this topic on an Internet site. I will watch your site with interest to see how the Lord leads you as well.
Kent, WA

Reply #3:

...Note: The words in quotes " " are not necessarily appropriate/accurate words, but are provided so as to communicate as clearly possible in this message...

My husband and I are "in covenant" with our local brothers and sisters in The Lord. These bros and sis’s are composed of a group of people originally from different "organized church bodies," who came together in one "organized church body" between six and eight years ago. About four years ago, our "organized church body" moved out of the building in which we had been meeting, because the building was sold by its owner. At that time, we agreed in The Lord that we were not to pursue meeting in a building. We are in the process of learning (and probably always will be!) how to walk with/in The HS in this new place...aka the environment/being of the NEW WINESKIN(S?)! Several in "leadership" believed we were to become "house churched" people, although the "vision" of that seems to continue in "adjusting re-vision" (some man, some God ... sovereignty ALL GOD!). The often-occurring "two sided" ministry has come about ... the "prophetic-and-warfare oriented" and those "said to be desiring the prophetic - but not really wanting it" orientation. We are NOT DIVIDED (as the Word warns against), but SEPARATED FOR A TIME, as best that I can see (however, the prophetic/warfare folks may possibly be "shut out" to some extent by the "other side"). (no city listed)

Reply #4:

BELIEVING IS EASY, THE HARD PART IS WAITING

I returned from Vietnam 34 years ago, an unbeliever and discovered that my parents and sister had a relationship with a Jew that I knew not. I did not like this new relationship of theirs and I resisted being introduced. I could not avoid contact because Mom, Dad and Sister were very committed. It was nearly six years later when I learned that I am a product of a promise made to my Dad..."believe on the L_rd with all of your heart and you shall be saved and your house..." (paraphrased).

I cut a deal with G_d over 25 years ago and promised to serve HIM if He’d get me out of the fix I was in. I lay in jail charged with three felonies and two misdemeanors. HE rescued me when I cried out to HIM. HE never failed nor did HE forget the promise I had made. HE pursued me as I ran at break neck speed away from HIM! When I stopped running and turned back to meet HIS Son I did not have very far to run because HE was right on my heels and THEY plunged into my heart.

As I read your email I am fixated on the similarities of myself to many others. I remember when the CALL came to me. I remember how easy it was to believe. FATHER began revealing HIMSELF to me, and HE confirmed HIS Word from the mouth of no less than two or three witnesses. There were times when spiritual things blasted forward with the energy of a teenager, which makes it difficult for me today.

I have been outside "church" walls (organized religion) for over 22 years and it has been a difficult time with persecution from inside the walls. It has also been rewarding as FATHER continues to keep me aware that HE chose me out of a multitude. I've been directed to do things that would have never been allowed or ordained by religious institutions; the hardest part has been waiting for marching orders from the King.
Coulee Dam, WA
------------------------------------------------------


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

A New Heart Cry Being Heard From Alaska:
I don't know how many personal testimonies you want to come in but I thought I would share mine with you. The Lord drew my husband and myself out of the institutional church system about ten years ago. I came out kicking and screaming with my heels dug in. I found the Lord when I was just six years old and we are in our late 50s now so I had been in "church" for a very long time. It was all I knew. And for all of us it is the same. We are told, "This is the church and this is what you do if you are a Christian." So to leave that took a paradigm shift. And yet I was so hungry and not being satisfied within the institutional church. I remember asking the Lord, "Is this the Church you said you would build?" I knew it had become pretty man-run and man organized. I knew man was trying to do his best to do what God wanted in building and running a church. But I could see that the pastor had been pulled out of the five-fold in Eph 4:11 and put over the congregation. Where was the Apostle, the prophet? They didn't fit into the system.

So, where has that brought us? The wilderness. We still are in the wilderness. I hear of home churches and would probably try to be a part of one but there are none in our town. We used to be a part of a home Bible study that met during the week but I was finally asked to not say anything about the Church Jesus is building and the fact the institutional church may not be that. The leaders were still attending a [denominational] church and they hoped to get some of the other people attending there as well. My husband said we would not go back. He felt I could not promise and tell God what I could and couldn't say. We have at times had prayer meetings in our home but have found that people are not committed to that. And so we wait. I know Jesus is building His Church. Just at the moment I do not know what that will look like nor be like. It is like we are in this interim period. I know what is NOT, I just don't know yet what IS. But during this wilderness time I grow closer to Him. I love Him more now that I ever have. Folks within the organized church think we have erred and have no head over us. They think Satan will pick us off because we are out of fellowship. I cannot explain it to them. Only God can reveal this to a person.

Thank you for opening your hearts to us who are out here. It is good to know we are not alone. When we first left the system Satan taunted me and told me we had really gone off base. But now I know many, many others have heard the same thing from God and have left the church system too. We are all standing on tiptoe just ready to step into whatever God is going to do in the very near future. We will not have to step out of anything to step into. We are already here waiting. May God richly bless you.
B. in Alaska


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

From Connecticut:

I tried to skip over this e-mail as I had a bout 30 or so others to read but as the Lord would have it I accidentally clicked on it! The new thing the Lord is doing in our midst certainly echoes a clear message.

I am currently a member of the [denominational] Church. I live in Connecticut. With the ordination of the new gay bishop in New Hampshire a little over a year ago came a huge outcry from faithful Christians in this church. A deaf ear was turned to us. At the same time of this happening my own son announced to me that he is gay. He is twenty-five. I became so despondent that I asked God to take me home so I could pray better because I was at a loss for my situation.

It seemed like this new message of acceptance in the church could be my way out, just cross that line and all could be solved and my heart at rest. I wrote a frantic letter to the Bishop in New Hampshire asking to see him and explaining my situation and my need to reconcile God's Word to homosexual behavior and lifestyle. I was that desperate to think he would answer me. My e-mail was sent to some address in Concord and I thought into a recycle bin as well. BUT- in a week or two came a response from a priest who had picked it up; he called me concerned about my despondent and suicidal thoughts. We talked and he told me he would forward on my e-mail to the Bishop. Within minutes I received an e-mail saying the Bishop would be happy to meet with me. I had an appointment within the week.

I met with the bishop in the diocesan house in New Hampshire. The bishop is a kind man and extended his counsel to me. That counsel comes from his own mind and heart and I am sad because he believes the lie of the enemy of God and offered that to me as comfort. We met for over an hour during which time biblical references to homosexuality we discounted as though they existed for others in a different time and not for us now. Homosexuality, I was told, is not a sin and I should not pray for my son to change because that is praying against how God made him. I was told that God is taking me through this desert to change my heart and make it bigger. I was told that the sin God judged in Sodom was not homosexuality but the sin of lack of hospitality (what ever that means)? Imagine being wiped out because you were not hospitable. None of us would be here. In the end the bishop looked at me and asked me this question, “Wouldn’t you like to go home and tell your son that God loves him and receives him just the way he is and accepts his homosexual behavior because God made him differently?" I looked at the bishop and said," Yes, Bishop, I would like to relieve my own guilt and my sons and tell him that, but I can't tell him or you that because that is not what God's Word tells me." I asked the bishop who was going to stand before the Lord and give an accounting for all those who lose faith and fall because of this issue in the church? He told me, “God will send someone for them."

This is what the church is facing from the shepherds who are hirelings. They do not really care for the sheep and will run when trouble draws close. They will leave the sheep unprotected. I understand this message that I almost skipped over. I remain in my little church because the shepherds we have told us the Truth and stand by God's Word as our foundation. Many have left us, some because this issue is distracting us from moving forward. We are in a battle and it is not for the weary of heart, although mine is at the moment. I am waiting for my orders as well and I will not hesitate one moment longer than it takes for me to hear what that is.

In the meantime I write letters and see as many bishops as the Lord opens doors for. I have received a response from the Arch Bishop as well. I will continue to cry out for the only Standard of Truth I know. My King lives and because He lives I also have Life. My prayers of deliverance for my son will prevail because God's Word tells me that my household shall be saved!

A long letter just to say thank you to the writer of this message. I want you to know I understand this message.
V. in Connecticut. A sister who has ears.


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

Here are more replies from nRn to the post “A New Heart Cry Being Heard”:

[Replies may be edited for clarity and names removed]

From Belfast, Northern Ireland
We are hearing that same heart cry here in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The experience leaving you feeling desperate for an awakening of Jesus within our lives? I feel a dullness in my life- in every area nearly. I need fire- Holy fire, Jesus Fire.

We have questions here, so many questions and so few answers. My own life has been turned upside down, inside out, right way'd up finally, and now I finally know the Jesus I never knew and yet there is still lack...why? What is happening to the church? Where is the church? I know its us, me and you and all these others on this Jesus journey- but where is that thing we are all looking for?Many blessings, Dorothy

From Washington:
I've read the replies to A New Heart Cry Being Heard. Last year our church participated in the 40 days of Purpose program. Over eleven hundred people signed up and attended small groups. I believe it was evidence that the vast majority of people want to experience God in a more real way. We go to church and go through the motions yet where is the church of Acts? Where is the connectedness to God that we long for? I don't blame it on organized church because I believe that there is a key that will unlock it all. Somehow, I think it's going to come from the saints seeking God with everything they've got. There are people who live the God connected life. They've found the answers. They should be sharing the “how to's”. Or, maybe God isn't ready for the Acts church just yet. The proof that it is possible is there in the bible and the problem is either with us or it isn't God's timing yet.
Everett, WA

From the U.K.
Thank you so much for your e-mail and the replies. They have been very encouraging.

We have only just started to receive your newsletter and are so blessed. I don't know if you have received many replies from the UK but I presume you have since it seems to be the experience of many people. We have been back here and in East Yorkshire since 1998 believing we'd heard the Lord to do so. During that time we have tried so hard to find a church - oftentimes thinking yes this is the one- lead by the HS - and been full of enthusiasm, only to find once again it's been a dead end.

We've become 'church hoppers' but really now with nowhere else to hop. As so many others have shared - it's always 'our fault, we won't come under authority, are rebellious'. We are isolated feeling useless with wasted lives but stuck. As someone else has shared we know where we're not to be but not where we should be. It's really tested our faith which I must admit has been found wanting.

From little whispers I hear around it seems there are many who have just dropped out of church but are still believers - yet we don't seem able to come together - too many differing ideas - too many damaged people. After a while it’s hard to trust - to try again.

Personally I would guess there are more believers OUTSIDE the 'church' in this country than in it. Everyone just seems to be building their kingdom with the congregation supposed to be slaves to make it happen. I'm afraid I've not explained myself very well and possibly sound bitter - possible - certainly lost, not quite sure can trust our own 'discernment' anymore, crying out to the Lord for a purpose and direction.

God bless you all and thank you for sharing. We now know we're not alone and maybe after all we're not supposed to be in a 'church' and should just accept the fact and get on with seeking God himself.
UK.


From Washington
My husband and I have been out of institutional church for over 3 years now. Throughout the years we've been very involved in worship/prophetic and women's ministry. It has been the best of times in regards to our relationship with the Father. We have grown more in love and refreshed in Him than ever before. (We were saved in our teen years during the Jesus movement and are now in our late forties/early fifties.) We have also been lonely at times...we do open our home to others for fellowship on a regular basis, but our community life is not strong. The last church we were involved in was filled with loving folks. The pastor and his wife are loving, grace filled people. We knew it was time to move on as there was tension in relationship with what we saw (lack of hunger and desperation for the Holy Spirit to move freely).

It saddened us to see that the first time the church was called to a corporate prayer time at the church building was for the possibility of a new building. Priorities were misplaced. Building God's Kingdom was not the number one passion. The programs and Sunday morning service were lacking so much of the presence of God...and the leadership wasn't concerned about this, because they weren't even realizing how asleep we were.

We went to a two days leaders retreat and we spent about 5 minutes during the retreat praying, the rest of the time was spent on finding new ways to get people involved in the work of the programs...how sad it was. Seeking the Father's face was not the number one priority.

The program based church and the "one man band" CEO type pastor role is all around us and we don't fit into this type of wineskin anymore. The Father is waking up His bride. He’s shaking us out of our slumber...He's calling us into deeper intimacy with Himself and richer communion with the Holy Spirit. He's beginning to birth in His bride a deep compassion for the lost, broken and poor in our neighborhoods, cities and nations.

He's brought many out of the institutional church because He is developing leaders who will be Father's to the poor, and outcasts. These leaders will not be interested in title's, positions, or recognition by people. Their driving ambition will be to please the Father and bring glory to His name, and His name alone. They will not hold on to people, but nurture them and send them on their way to do the Father's business. These leaders will be thrilled to see those they disciple go further and be used more greatly then themselves as they will have a fathers heart.

This is why I believe that the Lord is drawing some into the wilderness. He is preparing a mighty army that will be used like no other in our history who have developed character through being in the secret place of the Most High. I believe it is the hand of God drawing a host of folks away from the church system as He is going to bring a new wineskin - this old wineskin will not be able to contain the fresh wine He is going to pour out in abundance.

Many will be persecuted and criticized when this wave of revival takes place. This persecution will be coming from many church leaders who will lose control.

This time in the wilderness is greatly needed as the Father is preparing a new host of leaders and they will only learn what they must learn in a place of hiddenness. The words spoken against these God commissioned, Holy Spirit raised up leaders will not matter to them because they've been refined through the fire of adversity and learned to find their identity in the Father instead of in what they do for the Father. They will be fearless of men, but have a holy fear of God. They will be known for their humility and love of God and compassion for the poor and broken. They will be used greatly to heal the sick, cast out demons, and many signs and wonders will take place as the Father will be able to trust them with His glory...the only reason revival is not taking place yet, is that He cannot trust us with His glory...break us oh God, that we might be a people You can trust with Your glory.
J.T. in Washington


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

To Everyone In Ministry and Friends of Solomon Buckley
Please lift up upcoming meeting in Kansas City Mo / Ks Area on May 15,2005.
That a Mighty move of god willl break out.

On the 13th and 14th of May I will be attending some Outpouring Meeting for Impartation and just more of the Lord.

I just want to encourage those that are in Ministry to pursue God for the Outpouring and for Renewal to hit your community.

I have been very encouraged by a lot of people concerning Renewal coming to Kansas City Mo Area we need it bad especially in differant parts of the Neighborhood.

Those that have ministries that understand what I am talking about Please pray for me as I minister to a Congreation that is hungery for Revival, Renewal and The Prophetic.
Also I have a Soaking Prayer Fellowship lift this up to the Lord also We want to see City Wide Revival not just one church but everyone affected by this.
Anyone whom has Intercessor Groups or Citywide Prayer Meeting please pray for me.

From Solomon Buckley


Posted by: Christian Commando

Lord- We pray that revival breaks out with a tremendous move of the Holy Spirit in Kansas City. Lord we pray for a wonderous move of hearts to be brought to Salvation during this revival. in Jesus Name- Amen!!


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

OpenHeaven.com Ron McGatlin

The End-Time Model of Evangelism - Public Healings and Power Encounters - A Model For All Believers

By William Lau

A “public power encounter” is a ‘violent’ encounter (usually in public view) between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan involving supernatural manifestations where the power of God overwhelms the power and destroys the work of the enemy and God’s name is glorified. Jesus drew many souls to Himself by performing many public power encounters---especially miraculous healings--- and preaching the gospel.

Christ has given to believers a measure of authority over disease and demons to confirm the gospel to unbelievers. We speak directly to demons and disease and command them to go in the name of Jesus. The basis for healing is the atonement... And the purpose of that anointing is “to preach good news to the poor.” (Is. 61) Malachi 4:5 “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes."

Before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Lord will send to the Church the “spirit of Elijah,” that is, the spirit that He put within Elijah and which empowered him to minister. I Kings 18: "At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: ... Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!”

Only when the people saw the visible demonstration of God’s power did they acknowledge the Lord as God. Jesus Christ used this same approach to prove that He was Son of God and Savior. Luke 4:32-39: "Then they were all amazed and spoke among them- selves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region... Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them." Jesus knew what authority he had from the Father, and ministered with confidence. He understood without a shadow of doubt the messianic authority he had been given to destroy the works of the devil: sin, death, disease, and bondage to demons. 1 John 3:8 "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."

"So Jesus said to them again, 'As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.'” (Jn 20:21) -As the Father sent Jesus into the world to minister with authority over demons, disease, and to forgive sin, Jesus has sent us his disciples into the world with a measure of this same authority to minister and complete the work that he began. As the Father sent the Holy Spirit upon Jesus, Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit through whose power we will destroy the works of the devil---sin, disease, and demonic bondage---as we preach the gospel.

John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the WORKS that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.“

Miraculous signs will help people to believe, and Jesus has given us the authority to perform them. It is good to have the leading of the Holy Spirit when we minister. But where we seem to lack the leading of the Spirit, we are not helpless; we can still accomplish the job with the authority and mountain-moving faith the Lord has given us for the sake of the gospel. The release of power and anointing does not depend on our feeling the anointing or our feelings of self-worth or merit in God’s eyes. Rather it is a function of God’s desire to save the lost and our understanding of the authority He has given us to heal and deliver as signs to confirm the gospel. Some need to see miracles before they can receive Jesus as Lord. But then again, some will not believe even if they see someone rise from the dead.

For the wicked, adulterous, and hypocritical Pharisees and teachers of the law, he would perform no special miracle. Jesus knew they would never believe. But for those who would, Jesus indeed performed many miracles. Hypocrites will not believe even when confronted with miracles. But on the other hand, some people will believe ONLY when they see miraculous signs.

According to Matthew and Isaiah, atonement from sin includes physical healing, since the ultimate cause of sickness is sin. Where sin is forgiven, sickness can be healed. Thus when the atonement is preached to the lost, physical healing can accompany it.

Jesus did not pray for the man’s healing, nor did he plead nicely with the demon to leave the man alone. Instead, he quite ‘rudely and sternly commanded the demon to ‘shut up’ and ‘get out.’ We must learn to speak to demons and disease in this same manner--- sternly, without civility. In his time, Jesus considered disease and demons to be the work of Satan, and in no uncertain terms he destroyed them without mercy. Jesus commanded the leper to “be clean,” and he was healed. Demons and disease shrink back also when believers invoke the name of Jesus with authority. Luke 9:1 "When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. …So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere."

After giving them authority over demons and disease, Jesus sent the Twelve out to preach the gospel and to demonstrate its veracity by healing the sick---not by praying for the sick. There is a world of difference between the two. Asking the Lord to heal the sick is risk-free; whatever is the outcome is not our responsibility. By contrast, healing the sick is exactly what Jesus did---commanding the sick to be healed using authority. When we disciples of Christ attempt it, there is the possibility of failure: the sick person is not healed. Thus for the most part the Church no longer obeys the command of the Lord to heal the sick, preferring instead to “trust the Lord” and to ask Him to heal the sick. What about us disciples who are not apostles? Luke 10:1 "After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. …Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

The seventy-two were also given this authority. This was not a special “gift of healing,” but simply standard equipment for those who advance the Kingdom of Christ. Note in verse 9 the Lord’s command apparently was to heal the sick even before proclaiming the kingdom of God. When the Lord commands us to heal the sick, it means that it’s His will to heal when His kingdom is being proclaimed to the lost--- many of whom demand to see a demonstration of His power before they believe.

Christians must be set free from this spirit of fear of failure so that they will obey the Lord’s command to heal the sick to confirm that the kingdom of God is near.

TESTIMONY from William's HEALING ENCOUNTER Class

A ministry leader writes: Thursday night was my regular monthly ministry time at our church's healing room. So I decided I would try to apply the principles I was learning in the Healing Encounter class. The first person we prayed for had a sore back that had been hurting for a great number of years. My teammates prayed more of what I would call “petition” prayers asking Jesus to take away the pain, asking Jesus to remove generational curses, etc. I watched them pray for a bit and then when they sort of paused for a bit, I began “authority” prayer [that is, to speak directly to the pain with authority]. As soon as I began that style prayer, things started happening. First, the pain began to move. All of us on the team knew moving pain meant a demon, so we all began to command the demon to leave. It had started in the lower back, and worked its way up the spinal cord and eventually was gone. The spirit of infirmity did not have a chance, with the three of us evicting it and commanding it to leave. The spirit had stayed hidden during the petition prayer and did not manifest until we began the authority prayer [that is, to command it directly to leave]."

With utmost confidence and boldness we exercise authority over demons and disease that oppress people because Scripture says we have been given that authority. However, authority by itself is not enough. If a believer wavers in doubt as he rebukes disease and demons, they will not leave even though he has authority. The commands must be spoken forth with no doubt, with the faith of God, with complete conviction. Does God have “faith that moves mountains?” If He should speak to a mountain and command it to move, would He ever doubt that the mountain would obey Him? When God said, “Let there be light,” did He have any doubt that the light would obey His command? When Jesus spoke to the fig tree, did he entertain any doubt that the fig tree would obey him and die?

God does not doubt when He issues a command, for He knows His authority as God; all things must obey Him. This is the “faith of God.” Jesus knew he had been given authority, and so when he gave commands he had no doubt that they would be obeyed. We also have a measure of authority over disease and demons given to us by Jesus, and we must not doubt that they will obey us when we command them to leave. This is the “faith of God” that releases the power and anointing to accomplish the miracle for the sake of the gospel. This measure of authority varies from believer to believer.

MORE TESTIMONIES of "COMMANDING" Faith

William Lau writes: "On the third day in Vietnam there was a large Evangelistic Crusade where non-believers were invited to come to hear the gospel and receive healing prayer. My wife and I were taken to a hall completely crammed with thousands of people who had been waiting an hour before the start of the meeting. There was no place to sit down even for us. People with various debilitating infirmities had been physically carried to the meeting.

One of the pastors who had attended our Healing Encounter training was so stirred that he read to the crowd the New Testament account of blind Bartimaeus who had been healed because of his faith. He then told the sick in the crowd to cry out to the Lord by faith as he prayed over them. The Lord Jesus began to minister as never before seen by anyone in the crowd, perhaps as never before in the history of this country. Miraculous healings broke out "spontaneously" in the crowd. Cripples, paralytics, and stroke victims began to walk; some had not gotten up or walked in years. Many people were healed directly by the Lord without anyone laying hands on them or praying over them. A man deaf and dumb for over forty years could hear and speak, an emaciated woman with terminal cancer who had been carried to the meeting by eight people walked up to the platform with arms raised to Heaven to testify that she was healed. The crowd roared with delight and gave praise to God."

Gideon S. writes: "I met you at John Thomas' in his home before I took a team to India. As you prophesied God used me to minister healing at the "mass level." It was awesome. I was in complete shock to see team members even 17 years old healing the sick and driving out demons."

Chris D. writes: "After you taught about healing at Pastor John Thomas' house several weeks ago, I went to India to minister there at meetings organized in the villages in Tamil Nadu. The Holy Spirit moved mightily there and after the Word was preached, I asked for people who were sick to come forward and I laid hands and prayed for every one of them (I spent several hours). I saw instant healings; pains---chronic and acute---leave them. Many came to know the Lord in those meetings after the word was preached... The youth were set on fire that night."

The measure of authority given to every witness can be compared to the differing measure of talents that the Lord entrusts to each believer according to his ability. If the witness is faithful in using his measure of authority for winning souls, he or she will receive more authority and will be able to do greater works. However, if he is afraid” to use the authority to heal the sick for fear that “nothing will happen,” that authority might be taken away.

In this model based on John 14:12, "ordinary" disciples of Christ will preach the gospel and minister miraculous healing if desired in low-budget, low-profile, relatively small (or even one-on-one) meetings. When the listeners see the miracles and hear the gospel, their hearts will be open to accepting Christ. The new believers will be followed up or discipled by the concerned friend, family member, business associate, or acquaintance who brings them to Christ at the meeting. Such personal follow-up of new believers will be more effective than the impersonal follow up after large mass crusades. This kind of evangelism involving miraculous healings and the demonstration of the Spirit's power is through ordinary disciples.

William Lau

The Elijah Challenge

OpenHeaven.com Ron McGatlin


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

2006 A Year of The At Hand Kingdom

OpenHeaven.com - IRN International Revival Network

By Ron McGatlin

The kingdom of God is being revealed. The reality of the issues of
the kingdom of God are becoming more apparent to many more pure
hearted sons of God.

From the valley of decision the mountain peak looms ahead beyond the
foothills that are immediately before us. The easier path of less
resistance would be to continue in the valley of non-decision. But
even that is a decision to not make the decision to ascend the hill
of the Lord. The hill of the Lord is an upward walk of increased
resistance but one that promises the great reward of the New
Jerusalem kingdom of God lifestyle.

Heb 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of
angels,

The glorious mountain of the kingdom of God is within sight. It is
at hand and may be approached by those who will turn and change
their direction upward toward it. A generation that has continued
the downward slide of previous generations into the corruption of
prideful self life and man focused religion now has the opportunity
to stop, turn, look upward and see the glorious light of the kingdom
of God coming into view through the thinning clouds of deception.


A new holy and humble generation is coming forth.


A people made holy by the indwelling Christ in the Holy Spirit. A
people reborn, in whom all things are fresh and new. A people with
pure hearts in whom there is no guile. These are the people who can
see the kingdom of God in view and at hand. These are the people who
will ascend from their past lives of religion and self worship to
press upward into the righteousness of God.


Psa 24:3-4: Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may
stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart,...


Religion has made a mockery of being "born again". Those who are
truly spiritually born again have a totally new and different life.
Natural birth was from the corruptible seed of the first Adam.
Spiritual birth is from the incorruptible seed of Christ through the
living Word of God. A mature spiritually born again soul is purified
by the Spirit of Christ into pure love.


Only those who are really born again can even see the kingdom of
God. And only those who see the kingdom of God will turn from their
path of pleasure seeking self life and man focused religion to move
toward the glorious light of the New Jerusalem lifestyle in the
kingdom of God.


John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to
you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."


1 Pet 1:22-23: Since you have purified your souls in obeying the
truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one
another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of
corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which
lives and abides forever,


Many people who believed they were "born again" when they joined a
church or prayed a prayer or completed some other religious form but
have continued living a self focused life are seeing their need for
more. Some are now being truly born again into a life of spiritual
intimate oneness with God in the Holy Spirit. These are the ones who
can see the New Jerusalem kingdom of God potential and are moving
toward it with strength and abandonment of all else.


Seeing the "at hand" kingdom motivates people toward real
repentance. Real repentance is a total death to all that is not of
God and a true new birth (resurrection) experience into the pure and
holy life of Christ in the Holy Spirit. Repentance is a life of
leaving the past and pressing on toward the goal of the high calling
to become one with God. And to intimately know Him and be intimately
known of Him - to be really born into the God family as mature sons
of God - to be in the world as Christ is in the world.


Enough is enough.


God and His new generation of pure hearted people have tolerated the
weak idolatrous religion and the resulting immoral pleasure seeking
corruption spawned by it long enough. In the past there seemed to be
hope and a continuing space for repentance for the perverted systems
built by the self focus of misguided spiritual adulterers. But now
that the kingdom of God is in view there is no more room for
tolerance of evil ways and passivity toward the kingdom of God and
His righteousness. Human compassion for the dead must become
spiritual passion for the living. Let the dead bury the dead. The
kingdom is in view and it is not our part to bury the dead systems
that fathered us into spiritual adultery. Our part is seeking the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. We must follow Jesus into the
New Jerusalem kingdom of God life.


Mat 8:22 But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury
their own dead."


Luke 9:60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but
you go and preach the kingdom of God."


The love of Christ compels us to follow Him and take up our cross of
repentance from dead works including dead religion. Christ died for
all and rose again, that those who live should no longer live for
themselves but instead the resurrected Christ should live within them.


2 Cor 5:14-15 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge
thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all,
that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for
Him who died for them and rose again.


Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself for me.


The love of Christ flows through the lives of the "Christ in you"
people.


God's love is the foundational and most powerful force of the
kingdom. It is the only force that will destroy the darkness of evil
and fill the earth with the glorious light of righteousness. To
combat hate with hate and evil with evil only produces more hatred
and more evil.


God is love and in Him there is no darkness at all. There is NO evil
in Christ. There is no death in Christ. There can be no sin and no
sickness in the resurrected Christ. Christ Jesus is life. He
suffered death at the cross but in the resurrected Christ there is
no death. It is not the Christ on the cross that indwells sons of
God, It is the resurrected Christ that abides in true sons and it is
the resurrected Christ in whom they abide.


Phil 1:19-21: For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance
through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall
be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ
will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to
me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.


In the truly born again son, the new life is Christ. Therefore there
is NO evil in the new life. There is NO sin in the Spirit of Jesus
Christ and the Spirit of Christ is the new life of the born again
son of God. Those who say they are born again and love God but
continue in internal sin are deceived and liars. Those who yet carry
hatred for a brother or the inner attitudes of self, pride, and
arrogance, which spawned the hatred, do not have the Spirit of
Christ and are not fully born again.


Repentance is a process of death to self and life to Christ.


Repentance and death to self-will and self desires is a process.
Being born again is a process of repentance or death that leads to
life. We daily meet the cross of death (repentance) and daily
participate in the resurrection life of Christ. In this process sin
is fully dealt with and has no reign over us and no part in our
inner lives. Lust and pride are destroyed in the continuing process
of repentance (death) and the continuing experience of new birth
(resurrection).


The inner evidence of the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and
joy in the Holy Spirit. The outworking evidence of the kingdom of
God is the rule and reign of righteousness, peace and joy of God
manifested into the earth through the fully born again sons of God
in the Holy Spirit. Christ living by the HOLY Spirit in mature sons
governing the earth with the love and wisdom of God.


The gospel (good news) of the kingdom is in the Christmas message.
The same message the angels announced at the birth of Christ Jesus,


Luke 2:10-14: Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all
people. "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a
Savior, who is Christ the Lord..... And suddenly there was with the
angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward
men!"


Pursue Love, It Never Fails,


Ron McGatlin


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

2006 A Year of The At Hand Kingdom

By Ron McGatlin

The kingdom of God is being revealed. The reality of the issues of the kingdom of God are becoming more apparent to many more pure hearted sons of God.

From the valley of decision the mountain peak looms ahead beyond the foothills that are immediately before us. The easier path of less resistance would be to continue in the valley of non-decision. But even that is a decision to not make the decision to ascend the hill of the Lord. The hill of the Lord is an upward walk of increased resistance but one that promises the great reward of the New Jerusalem kingdom of God lifestyle.

Heb 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,

The glorious mountain of the kingdom of God is within sight. It is at hand and may be approached by those who will turn and change their direction upward toward it. A generation that has continued the downward slide of previous generations into the corruption of prideful self life and man focused religion now has the opportunity to stop, turn, look upward and see the glorious light of the kingdom of God coming into view through the thinning clouds of deception.

A new holy and humble generation is coming forth.

A people made holy by the indwelling Christ in the Holy Spirit. A people reborn, in whom all things are fresh and new. A people with pure hearts in whom there is no guile. These are the people who can see the kingdom of God in view and at hand. These are the people who will ascend from their past lives of religion and self worship to press upward into the righteousness of God.

Psa 24:3-4: Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart,...

Religion has made a mockery of being "born again". Those who are truly spiritually born again have a totally new and different life. Natural birth was from the corruptible seed of the first Adam. Spiritual birth is from the incorruptible seed of Christ through the living Word of God. A mature spiritually born again soul is purified by the Spirit of Christ into pure love.

Only those who are really born again can even see the kingdom of God. And only those who see the kingdom of God will turn from their path of pleasure seeking self life and man focused religion to move toward the glorious light of the New Jerusalem lifestyle in the kingdom of God.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

1 Pet 1:22-23: Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

Many people who believed they were "born again" when they joined a church or prayed a prayer or completed some other religious form but have continued living a self focused life are seeing their need for more. Some are now being truly born again into a life of spiritual intimate oneness with God in the Holy Spirit. These are the ones who can see the New Jerusalem kingdom of God potential and are moving toward it with strength and abandonment of all else.

Seeing the "at hand" kingdom motivates people toward real repentance. Real repentance is a total death to all that is not of God and a true new birth (resurrection) experience into the pure and holy life of Christ in the Holy Spirit. Repentance is a life of leaving the past and pressing on toward the goal of the high calling to become one with God. And to intimately know Him and be intimately known of Him - to be really born into the God family as mature sons of God - to be in the world as Christ is in the world.

Enough is enough.

God and His new generation of pure hearted people have tolerated the weak idolatrous religion and the resulting immoral pleasure seeking corruption spawned by it long enough. In the past there seemed to be hope and a continuing space for repentance for the perverted systems built by the self focus of misguided spiritual adulterers. But now that the kingdom of God is in view there is no more room for tolerance of evil ways and passivity toward the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Human compassion for the dead must become spiritual passion for the living. Let the dead bury the dead. The kingdom is in view and it is not our part to bury the dead systems that fathered us into spiritual adultery. Our part is seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We must follow Jesus into the New Jerusalem kingdom of God life.

Mat 8:22 But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

Luke 9:60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."

The love of Christ compels us to follow Him and take up our cross of repentance from dead works including dead religion. Christ died for all and rose again, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but instead the resurrected Christ should live within them.

2 Cor 5:14-15 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

The love of Christ flows through the lives of the "Christ in you" people.

God's love is the foundational and most powerful force of the kingdom. It is the only force that will destroy the darkness of evil and fill the earth with the glorious light of righteousness. To combat hate with hate and evil with evil only produces more hatred and more evil.

God is love and in Him there is no darkness at all. There is NO evil in Christ. There is no death in Christ. There can be no sin and no sickness in the resurrected Christ. Christ Jesus is life. He suffered death at the cross but in the resurrected Christ there is no death. It is not the Christ on the cross that indwells sons of God, It is the resurrected Christ that abides in true sons and it is the resurrected Christ in whom they abide.

Phil 1:19-21: For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

In the truly born again son, the new life is Christ. Therefore there is NO evil in the new life. There is NO sin in the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christ is the new life of the born again son of God. Those who say they are born again and love God but continue in internal sin are deceived and liars. Those who yet carry hatred for a brother or the inner attitudes of self, pride, and arrogance, which spawned the hatred, do not have the Spirit of Christ and are not fully born again.

Repentance is a process of death to self and life to Christ.

Repentance and death to self-will and self desires is a process. Being born again is a process of repentance or death that leads to life. We daily meet the cross of death (repentance) and daily participate in the resurrection life of Christ. In this process sin is fully dealt with and has no reign over us and no part in our inner lives. Lust and pride are destroyed in the continuing process of repentance (death) and the continuing experience of new birth (resurrection).

The inner evidence of the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The outworking evidence of the kingdom of God is the rule and reign of righteousness, peace and joy of God manifested into the earth through the fully born again sons of God in the Holy Spirit. Christ living by the HOLY Spirit in mature sons governing the earth with the love and wisdom of God.

The gospel (good news) of the kingdom is in the Christmas message. The same message the angels announced at the birth of Christ Jesus,

Luke 2:10-14: Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord..... And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

Pursue Love, It Never Fails,

Ron McGatlin
www.openheaven.com


Posted by: Ron McGatlin

The Relational Church

By Ron McGatlin

In this article we will discuss some aspects of the relational church in comparison to some aspects of the traditional religious church. Let me be very clear that God has used the religious church and will continue to do so. There are many transitional models of different degrees of mixture of relational and religious local churches. We praise God and give Him glory for His works and blessings in every form and fashion of people gathering in the name of Jesus. The current reformation or great shift that God is bringing is not for everyone at this moment. If you are blessed and fully satisfied in your current place in a religious church setting, it is not the intent of these words to move you. God is fully able to lift up and to put down. He does not need any unloving fleshly critical and negative efforts of man to bring change toward His kingdom way.

God works with us by His Spirit and changes the desires of our hearts as we abide and delight ourselves in Him. When it is time for us to make a change, we know it from inside by the Spirit. It may suddenly become that we just cannot stand one moment more where we are and we may not know exactly why. We may be filled with an extreme hunger and thirst for something more of God and may or may not know what it is for which we are so passionately hungering. We must follow God by the desires he plants in our purified hearts. (Psalm 37:4 & John 15:7)

There is no set model of church meetings and programs. To feel that everyone should do church our way is a sure sign we are moving into religion again. When we speak of relational church versus religious church we are not talking form, style, venue or programs. These things may all change; but what we are addressing is the spiritual reality of the relationship of God and man.

There are many kinds of relationships.

In the spiritual realm, as it is in the natural realm, there are different types of relationships. In the natural there are categories of relationships such as family, business, and friendship relationships. Within the categories there are different kinds of relationships; for example, in the family there are spousal, parental and sibling not to mention extended family and, in biblical days, servant relationships. There are, of course, many different kinds of business and friendship relationships as well. So when we speak of relational church as opposed to religious church, we might need to define what it is that we are talking about.

The relational church is a spiritual body and cannot be defined or understood apart from the spiritual relationships of heaven.

God chose to define Himself to man in terms of family relationships. The great SPIRIT GOD who is beyond description and "omni-everything" chose to be spoken of as FATHER. In Scripture, heavenly relationships are spoken of in terms of family. FATHER has one first-born SON who was with the Father from the beginning. The FATHER, SON, and HOLY SPIRIT are all ONE GOD in heaven. If it were possible for you to spiritually stand in the fire of the heart of God, the three would be there, but there would be no distinction, for the three are truly ONE GOD. The Holy Angels relate in the heavenly household as God's holy servants.

What is missing from this picture? The WIFE of God and many more Sons! Wow! This is getting huge! Are we about to discover why God spoke the earth into being and made mankind in HIS OWN IMAGE and breathed HIS BREATH into man. Is it not the purpose of God that the earth be a colony or extension of heaven filled with many sons among whom FATHER DWELLS and from whom His beautiful BRIDE comes forth to become the WIFE of God.

Rev 21:9-10: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

Rev 21:2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Let us be reminded that God is SPIRIT and God is ONE, and the Family of God is a Spiritual Family that is being described in terms we can assimilate into our understanding. The main thing for us to grasp is that God desires intimate relationship and has destined mankind to be the fulfillment of that desire in His heart and being. All the godly family relationships on earth are replicas of the Spiritual Family of God and His design for Himself and mankind. He is the only Father of all His sons. And the only object of our worship, honor, and our deep intimate adoration and affection.

Jesus is the original eternal SON, the first-born among many brethren (brothers). Jesus the SON came to earth. He was born of a woman on earth to become the SON-of-God and Son-of-man making it possible for the sons-of-man to become Sons-of-God, joint heirs with Christ. Jesus came to bring many Sons to the glory.

Rom 8:14-17: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

This gives us the true patterns for the relational church: One Father, One first-born SON, with many younger brothers in intimate relationship with Father through the redemption in the SON by the Holy Spirit. It is the New Jerusalem pattern. The relational church is the called out and assembled Body with Jesus as Head gathered with the Father by the Holy Spirit in the presence of angels. The relational church must eventually replace the religious church structure that has stood in either ignorance or defiance of the purpose and design of God for many centuries.

Heb 12:22-24: But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Heb 2:10-12: For it was fitting for Him (Jesus), for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: "I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You."

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear (or manifest), we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

1 John 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
This is the season of the day of His manifesting in His Body of many Sons on earth by the Holy Spirit. The relational church is a part of the mystery of "Christ in You."

Col 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The predominant characteristic of heavenly family relationships is the LOVE OF THE FATHER. Love is the structure and the cohesiveness of the relational church. The manifest presence of God fills the atmosphere of the family with pure holy love. Order and peace are by love. Faith is by love. Hope is in love. Love, God's love, is the core of the relational church and always produces the right kind of connections and the right kind of honor and affection for God and one another. Men should never replace God in our affection. And our adoration for God is never lacking in the heavenly order of God's true relational church.

The Father And Son Perversion

Mat 23:9 "Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

Jesus clearly was not speaking about natural fathers. He was speaking about the positioning of men over men in religious order and structure. He did not say call only the men who are servant-type, non-controlling leaders your father. We can see why Jesus was so specific about this when we understand the heavenly relational church. It becomes a big problem to have another spiritual father instead of the ONE FATHER.

In this same passage Jesus includes to not be called, or call anyone, by the titles of Rabbi, Master, or Teacher. Titles and positions are the religious foundation for the deeply ingrained perversion of clergy and laity. Father and son is the most benign sounding version of separating brothers into class levels, and therefore it is the most deceptive. The clergy is set apart as a different class of Christian and stands between men and God to vicariously represent God to their people. This class division robs the Body of most of its potential.

Jesus was talking to the future church, the multitudes, and His disciples. He was instructing them that His church was to be different from the religious order of the old covenant Jewish religion and especially the Pharisee sect. Jesus said that these religious leaders were a hindrance to the kingdom of God. They were not entering in and were preventing others.

Mat 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

One of the greatest hindrances to the reality of the kingdom of God coming forth on earth is religion and especially the religious leaders who continue to see themselves as "over the people" to vicariously bring them the things of God. In the early stages of the current apostolic reformation, the error of the apostle calling himself "father" and calling other mature people of God his "sons" is again carrying forward the devastating error of clergy / laity.

Nothing is more devastating to the kingdom of God than multitudes of people who should be mature believers who are still seeing themselves as a lower class of Christian that is not supposed to do the works of God. The kingdom waits for the people to become mature sons of God and not sons of a man. Jesus makes it clear that we are all brothers. There are mature brothers and immature brothers. It is the place of the mature brothers to mentor the younger into maturity but not to be a father over them. They are to be sons of God and not sons of their brother. God has no grandsons. Even Jesus who is King and Lord of all, our great Teacher calls his disciples "My brethren."

Mat 23:8 "But you, do not be called 'Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.

Mat 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me."

John 20:17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.'"

Brothers mentor one another. Elder brothers mentor younger brothers. We never become the father of our immature brothers. Always we are all sons of our heavenly Father.

The relationship to very young or immature new believers is similar to a parent child until the younger brother grows up. There must be a point at which they become our brother and sons only to their heavenly FATHER. As mentors of the children we function more like mothers than fathers. We feed and nurture the new believers as a mother, then as they mature turn them over to their Father. Mothering is for the immature and not for the full-grown spiritual person.

Spiritually immature people should remain under the authority of tutors until released to their heavenly father. The person is spiritually mature when they can hear God on their own and have the ability to relate with the FATHER in love and obedience, through Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

Honoring a brother as father can bring disorder and devastation.

We do a great disservice to our brother when we worship him with the adoration and honor that belongs to our Lord and our heavenly Father. Brothers flowing in the servant gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher are often objects of a form of "hero worship" that can put them into a different class and become a stumbling block for them. It can feel really good to us to have someone over us that will see after us. And that is a good thing as long as we are yet immature. But when we become a man we must put away childish things and relate to our heavenly Father. And relate with our brothers in a real sharing relationship with each of us flowing our part to the other.

What about covering?

Covering in the institutional church is a permanent fathering thing that is out of order. A valuable reality of support does exist in the relational church and it might be called "covering" but it consists of covenant relationship and agreement with our brothers - not a father or head over us. The only headquarters of the relational church is in heaven. Connection and relationship with one another are essential to the health and strength of the body.

What about Submission?

We are first to submit to God and then to one another. We are also to be subject to the authorities God has established. There are institutions of which we may be a part. If we choose to enter a man's house we must choose to go by the rules of the house. Which means we can be out of order with God and man if we do not align with the authority of the house. It is our choice to enter and to remain, or not to remain. But if we are a part of an institution or structure, we must align with the authority of that structure. God may desire for us or may not desire for us to be a part. But if we choose to remain and partake of its privileges, we will be out of order if we do not align with the rules of the structure. Also, be aware that we will share in the blessings and/or the judgments from God of that which we choose to be a part.

Probably the greatest thing of all life on earth is the opportunity of gathering as a part of the relational church "of the first born," the church of Jesus with the FATHER and our brethren in the company of angels by the Holy Spirit. I cannot believe there is any greater joy in all life. It really doesn't seem to matter if there are few people or thousands, there is indescribable joy and fulfillment in relating intimately in the presence of heaven on earth.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Mat 6:10

Keep on Pursuing Love,
It Will Never Fail,

Lots of Love,

Ron McGatlin


Posted by: Chris Logan

I haven't had a chance yet to read all of these postings but this one here is an awesome word from the lord and needed as such a time as this!!

this is what so many people are looking, yearning and striving to find in the body of christ and it hits the nail on the head so to say for the answer to so many whom are running to and fro trying to find jesus and his love in and through the ones whom are called by his name and are gathered together.

may the body of christ rise up and take heed to this word and become all the father wants and would have us to be and that is to become more like him and not follow after any man, his teachings, his callings, his title or his ministry!

we are only to follow the model of christ for he and he alone is worthy to follow after and he and he alone is the only one we are to worship and adore!

he and he alone is the only one greatly to be praised and he will not share his glory with another for he is a jealous god and his anger and wrath will not be subdued forever!

worshipping man or men is the same as worshipping idols and is a reproach in the sight of the lord! it is the same as spitting in our lord's face and saying "he is not enough!"

he is more than enough and the idols that men have made in their image are going to start falling down and all those whom worship these men are going to see their kingdoms fall!!

they will no longer put themselves higher than the lord nor will man worship them more than the one true and holy god; for all those whom are striving and receiving mans praise and glory are going to be revealed and either they be changed by the face and hand of god or they will be removed from all their self exalting ministries and brought down to nothing but mere human flesh and their ministries will be destroyed by the lord our god!


Posted by: Chris Logan

this website is awesome and full of the truth and knowledge of our lord!

check it out and watch the video on peace! will make you cry!

thank you pastor jerry and ron for this anointed prayer board and also this openheaven website!!

a rightly word for such a time as this!!

thank you jerry and may the lord continue his work in and through you for his honor and glory and namesake!! and be ye healed in the name of jesus!