Spiritual Reality - David Mitts
"For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of
God." Romans 8:14
Last week we spoke about attitudes of the heart that affect the
harvest in our lives. We recognized that
it is both the seed and the soil that affect the outcome in our lives. The seed can be the voice we are listening
to. We can either listen to the voice of
the Lord or we can listen to the voice of our carnal experience which the
scripture calls in various places, the old man, the flesh, even our own
mind. The other key element is the
condition of our heart, which is reflected in the attitude with which we
listen. Attitude is a huge part of
communication.
We looked at 4 attitudes from the parable of the sower.
Mark 4:14-20: (reader)
"The sower sows
the word. "These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is
sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which
has been sown in them. "In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed
was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive
it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary;
then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately
they fall away. "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the
thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter
in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. "And those are the ones
on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it
and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."(Mark 4:14-20
We called these attitudes:
1.
Adversarial
2.
Shallowness,
or all about what feels good
3.
Distracted
by worries, mammon, and prestige
4.
Yielded
and submitted, thus bold. Living sacrifice.
These are all different listening attitudes. Another label we can put on these are mindsets. Our attitude or mindset hardens us in these realities of the spiritual life and the harvest we are getting usually is reflective of the mindset and the voice we are listening to.
It just is a law of reality.
Whatever we are experiencing in our lives, as spiritual beings, we are
sowing seeds into a heart attitude that is manifesting that reality.
So, the good news is that we can change that reality by
changing either the thought seeds we are sowing or the heart attitude they are
being sown into and begin to manifest the 30-60-100 fold reality of the
Lord.
How do we do that?
Well first and foremost we need to become alive to a relationship with
the Word of God. Mostly, we have been
taught and trained attitudinally to treat the Word of God like a thing. By that I mean we approach God’s word like it
contains things that were said by God and that they are powerful and can be
used like weapons in a battle. This is a
kind of truth but one that tends produce adversarial heart attitudes. Using the Word of God like a sword in battle
presumes that we are in a war. There
may be a war and certainly are rumors of wars BUT, we are seated in heavenly
places in a war that has already been won.
"But God, being
rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we
were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace
you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus," Ephesians 2:4-6
So when we relate to the Word as a weapon then that has to
mean we have gotten up from the place of Shalom, peace, and entered a war that
isn’t really ours to fight. We do want
to fight a war but it isn’t that one. It’s called the fight of faith, but more
to that soon…
To walk in 30-60-100 fold return we need to recognize that
the Word of God is a person, not just words of power. It isn’t that His Word isn’t full of power
and He does watch over His Word to perform it but to walk in fruitfulness we
need to bear fruit. Fruit is called
fruit of the Spirit.
"But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become
boastful, challenging one another, envying one
another." Galatians 5:22-26
You can see from this verse that fruit bearing is the
opposite of being boastful, challenging, and full of comparison.
To bear this fruit, we need to transform our relationship to
the Word of God. The Word must be a
person! Even one step further, the Word
should become a person we enter into a deep relationship with full of intimacy
and truth. This is called the “abiding
life”.
"I am the true
vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. "Every branch in Me that does not
bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so
that it may bear more fruit. "You are already clean because of the word
which I have spoken to you. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch,
cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you
unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who
abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do
nothing. "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch
and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are
burned. "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you
wish, and it will be done for you. "My Father is glorified by this, that
you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples." John
15:1-8
So, if we read this carefully we see Yeshua speaking of
bearing fruit as an active interactive process. First He declares that we are
“clean” because of the Word He spoke and we have believed. This is a statement of forgiveness. He forgives us, makes us clean by His Word.
Fruit, however, the 30-60-100 fold comes from abiding. Now, abiding comes from the Greek word “menos”,
which gives the picture of permanence.
To abide in the Lord means to have our address in Him. This is reality of our salvation, we abide in
Him. We don’t “DO” anything to
abide. This would be mysticism and not
the salvation of the cross.
So we abide in Him and live out of that reality which
produces fruit in our lives. In that
place, we begin to have the life of God manifesting in our lives. He manifests through our intimacy with
Him. Our role in this place is simply to
trust Him.
What does it mean to trust Him?? Trust means many things to
many people but one thing is for certain, if I trust you then my heart is fully
open to you. When our heart is fully
open to Yeshua, our Spirit-man becomes alive.
The key to Spirit-man life is to enter into the Spirit, the
place of abiding in Him. This is a
permanent place meaning it is our home which is eternal in nature and so not
subject to our efforts for its creation.
God is the vine, not us. What we
DO apply effort to is choosing, focusing and activating. This is the place of humility where grace
flows into our lives.
Humility is the access attitude of heart for the 30-60-100
fold return:
""Come to
Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My
yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU
WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. "For My yoke is easy and My burden is
light."" Mat 11:28-30 (NASB)
This is a picture of choosing the place of abiding which
connects us with the flow of the life of God which produces fruit! Let’s look
at it:
1. Come=
we have to turn to Him, the true meaning of repentance
2. Weary
and heavy laden is the description of trying in our own efforts based on our
experiences, wanting to be in control, and applying our own “natural wisdom”
which is sensual, based on our sense perceptions.
a. "But
if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be
arrogant and so
lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but
is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every evil thing." Jas
3:14-16 (NASB)
b.
Notice the connection weariness, jealousy,
selfish ambition and “natural, earthly” wisdom.
This leads to demonic involvement in our efforts which is a heavy,
burdensome load to bear.
3. Rest. This is the key! True wisdom comes to us as a flow of life
when we rest in Him. We quiet our monkey
mind and in the stillness, we connect with the eternal, permanent life of God
in us and our perspective shifts from the earth to being seated heavenly places
with Him. This is the banquet table of
His provision. You should sit down,
Shabbat with Him.
4. In
this place that we labor to enter into we experience a whole new set of
perspectives that our Spirit-man in communion with God opens up to us. Our soul finds rest. This means our soul enters into the realm of
seeing with our spiritual eyes, hearing with our spiritual ears, smelling with
spiritual fragrances, tasting with spiritual goodness, feeling with a spiritual
feeling, the joy of the Lord.
5. What
do we receive in this place:
a.
His Joy!
b.
His Righteousness
c.
His Peace
d.
His Wisdom
i. "But the wisdom from above is first
pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits,
unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is
sown in peace by those who make peace." Jas 3:17-18 (NASB)
6. Activation:
a.
Let’s quiet ourselves by closing our eyes. Let’s sit comfortably and uncross anything
that is crossed including our minds.
Let’s breath a few deep cleansing breaths. Ok let’s turn to Him. Use your thoughts to focus on the joyful face
of Yeshua. See Him smiling at you with
eyes of love radiating shalom, peace towards you enveloping you with His
peace. Now in this place open your
heart and mind to Him. See Him
activating your eyes, your ears, your smelling, your tasting, and your
feelings. Feel an awakening of your
spiritual senses. Relax and experience
whatever you are experiencing. He knows
what you need and you can trust Him.
This is what Shabbat is all about.
Now as you receive thoughts you might want to write them down.
b.
OK. Let’s share.
c.
Now, Imagine you go to sleep at night just like
any other night. But tonight your dream-life takes you on an unexpected journey
that will change your life forever. In your sleep you’re taken on a high-speed
ascent, higher and higher until it seems like it will never end. Just when you
think you can’t go any higher, you burst through a clear film and immediately
come to an abrupt stop. On the other side of this film, you find yourself in an
atmosphere of overwhelming peace, calm bliss, and an awakening like you’ve
never experienced before. You have literally broken through, from one plane to
the next, and have transcended into an entirely new realm. In an instant your
mind is opened. Your state of awareness becomes a profound knowing. With this
knowing you find yourself reconnected to something that you had lost. Well,
what had been lost but later found was purpose..
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