NOTE VIA HIS MESSENGER: The Lord put me in the public eye beginning in 2004 and even that has been on a very limited scale. Reaching only thousands and not millions however His message has always been the same (via this messenger): HE LOVES YOU - COME AWAY WITH HIM - TO DO SO YOU MUST DIE TO SELF - ALLOW HIM TO CRUCIFY YOUR FLESH - IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU - NOTHING IS YOURS, IT'S ALL HIS - BE WHOLLY HIS - LET HIM MOLD YOU AND MAKE YOU ON THE POTTER'S WHEEL - LET HIM CRUSH THE YOU OUT OF YOU ON THE THRESHING FLOOR SO THAT THERE IS NO MORE YOU ONLY HIM THROUGH YOU - NO COMPROMISE - COME OUT FROM THE WORLD AND BE TRULY SEPARATE - IN AND OF YOURSELF YOU CAN DO NOTHING - IT IS HIM THROUGH US....
And this message OFFENDS. Most so-called "Christians" are like "HUH? No one else preaches this; no one else does this, why should I? I love God....but this isn't part of the deal..." "He wants us to have an abundant life - a life of happiness and joy NOW"
Why is it that no one realizes that to have an abundant life - that the "all these things shall be added unto you" parts are MORE OF HIM! HE IS OUR REWARD! OUR TREASURE! That it's not about this world - we are not even FROM this world - but instead our joy - our reward - our treasure - our abundance - is more more more of JESUS!
Ah but the few places He has permitted me to speak His truths as His prophet? The people are offended by the 'death-to-self-it's-not-about-you' message - the people delete "me"; even so-called fellow prophets are offended because the Lord has me admonish them to NEVER SPEAK IN AND OF THEMSELVES FOR THAT IS THEIR FLESH - AS JESUS DID, WE MUST ONLY SPEAK WHEN HE GIVES US UTTERANCE, FOR JESUS ONLY SPOKE THAT WHICH HE HEARD THE FATHER SPEAKING (WHILE DOING ONLY THAT WHICH HE SAW THE FATHER DOING). We do not have the right to deviate - to do things differently, separate, apart from the way HE DID THEM! In fact, there is to be no "I" "me" at all - just HIM HIM HIM!
The utter horror of it all is that they are REJECTING HIM. BUT they believe they are not only His own, but that they HEAR HIM!
In two days it will be my 25th year with Jesus - I will never compromise, but continue to submit unto Him, allowing Him to rule and reign through this vessel, to continue to preach His truths as He gives utterance - it's only about Him, nothing of self. The so-called Body of Christ can reject His truths, reject "me" until His return - it doesn't nullify His truths, His message, which is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus never once drew attention to Himself - He came so that He could reveal the Father. As a reward for His job well done - as His reward for being a faithful Servant unto the end - we now submit OURSELVES to death to self so that it is no longer us but Christ through us - we should reveal ONLY JESUS - else we are not really His.
THE FOLLOWING WAS SENT TO ME VIA EMAIL TODAY - THE ABOVE WAS SENT TO CHARISMA MAGAZINE AND LEE GRADY - BUT IT STANDS ON ITS OWN AS HE SPEAKS....:THE LOST MESSAGE of CONSECRATION
-by Lee Grady.
From reading some old books I've discovered a missing spiritual
dimension. The Lord is inviting us to reclaim it.
A few months ago I went on a special diet. I put aside all newly
published books and limited my reading to a small collection of
Christian classics, mostly devotional works by Andrew Murray,
Watchman Nee, E.M. Bounds, Charles Spurgeon, A.B. Simpson
and Corrie Ten Boom. I knew God had a message for me in those
musty pages.
I had noticed a similar theme in all these books, but it took me a
while to crack the code. These writers from the 19th and 20th
centuries wrote from a spiritual depth that I rarely see in the
church today, and I wanted to know their secret. I slowly began
to figure things out while reading A.B. Simpson's book, A Larger
Christian Life, which he wrote in 1890 when the Holiness
Movement was at its zenith in the United States.
Simpson often preached about Abraham's offering of his son Isaac
on the altar at Mount Moriah, and he called Christians to the place
of self-sacrifice. Mount Moriah, Simpson wrote, "signifies the deeper
spiritual experience into which the fully consecrated person must
come. In this act of obedience, the sanctified self is laid on the
altar just as Isaac was."
I read similar comments about consecration, or full surrender, in
Watchman Nee's The Release of the Spirit, which was first
published in China in 1955. Nee taught us that the path to
spiritual fruitfulness—and to true, intimate knowledge of the
Lord —is the brokenness of the outward man. He explained that
God uses tests and trials in our lives to break our selfish nature
so that Christ's nature can flow through us.
Nee wrote: "No life manifests more beauty than the one who is
broken! Stubbornness and self-love have given way to beauty in
the one who is broken by God."
Perhaps the reason I find so much nourishment in these old words
is that I don't hear much today about the crucified life, suffering,
brokenness or surrender. We rarely talk of altars and we avoid
altar calls. We don't invite people to a deeper spiritual realm
because few even know about such a place; often even our leaders
are too busy using God to boost their egos or to amass personal
wealth.
Today's shallow, "evangelical lite" culture focuses on self, self and
more self. Christian books today are mostly about self-improvement,
not self- sacrifice. We teach people to claim their "best life now"—
and to claim it on their terms. Our message is one of self-
empowerment: God wants to make you happy, so just add a
little bit of God to your life (on your terms of course) and He will
bless you, prosper you and make all your dreams come true.
How strange that message seems when contrasted with the old
hymns Christians used to sing back in the days of holiness
revivals. This song written by Adelaide Pollard in 1907 seems
eerily foreign today:
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay;
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting yielded and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.
The woman who penned those words was an itinerant Bible teacher
who was discouraged because she didn't have the funds to make
a missionary journey to Africa. She found great comfort when she
put all her plans and desires on the altar and freshly surrendered
to God's will for her life. The song that sprung from her anguish
blessed millions, but today it has lost its popularity because we
simply don't relate.
I believe we must reclaim the forgotten message of consecration.
It is not enough to know Christian doctrines or to paint a nice
Christian veneer on the surface of our lives. God wants our hearts.
We must embrace the cross daily. It is not enough to simply avoid
the sins that our Christian culture says are the "worst"; we must
also allow God's knife to slay the pride, the self-will, the self-
confidence and the self-glorification that our backslidden Christian
culture encourages.
I invite you to reclaim this lost message by praying a "dangerous
prayer" of consecration. Let God assume the throne of your life
while you abdicate. You can pray something like this:
"Lord, You are the potter and I am the clay. Forgive me for my
selfishness. I consecrate my life to You afresh today. I give You
permission to break me, mold me, bend me and make me
according to Your perfect will. This is all the work of Your grace.
I choose to embrace whatever circumstances You must send into
my life in order to rid me of pride and self-will. I choose to live
on Your altar. As I empty myself, I ask You to fill me with Your
Holy Spirit. Amen"
-J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.
