Positioning Ourselves for the Anointing: The Power of Being Last - David Mitts


And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. (Mat 19:29-30)

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Over the past few months we have been pressing in for love, as the key ingredient that never fails. Prophecies will fail, tongues will cease, and knowledge will be done away with.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. (1Co 13:8-10)

The question is what about prophecies, tongues, or knowledge is of the nature of passing away? How is this in contrast with love which never fails?

Well if we return to the first verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 we read:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1Co 13:1-3).

Let’s look closely at these verses. “Tongues of men and angels.” What is that? It is speaking. Is it wrong speaking? No, it’s speaking without love. So, we can say the right things but say them without the right heart. Look with me at Proverbs.

Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies; For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his heart is not with you. (Pro 23:6-7)

So, while words do reveal the heart, they do so more by how they are said rather than what is said. This is an important distinction. In the modern faith movement, we focus a lot on saying the right things about whatever changes we want in our lives. What we don’t invest much time into, is the heart that is saying it. This produces an idol of needing to be in control of our words, when the goal is to have a heart that is rooted in love.

OK. What about prophecies? Well, first and foremost, remember that prophecy is a gift. Gifts are given without repentance; this means we can speak accurately into a situation by the gift that is in us, but not have the heart of love to change the situation. Love never fails, accurate prophecy without love is just noise.

Knowledge, the third passing away, is the fruit of that ancient tree which has always been a trap. Yeshua spoke about the dangers of knowledge this way:

But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house." (Mar 6:4).

Knowing someone tends to make us lose honor for them. Gradually over time, as we see their humanity, we lose the fires of first love. Look at the word of the Lord to the Ephesian church in Revelation 2.

"To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent. (Rev 2:1-5).
Who are these Ephesians? Those who have been faithful, consistent, patient and intolerant of obvious evil. They even know how to recognize the flaws of their leadership. They don’t give up, but they have lost their first love.

First love is when you see people as new. You don’t allow familiarity to give you the complacency of knowledge. Instead, you practice and activate the first works. What are the first works? In the case of love, they are the “wow” factor! Think about getting something new. What does that feel like? What does it smell like, look like? To return to first love is to return to the place of new. You decide to believe with the heart of love. Ask yourself if you still hold on to the wows in your life or have you settled into the comfort zone of accommodation?

I have shared all of this to get to this point: It is all about the heart! We need to focus on the heart. When the heart is right, the tongues work, the prophecies matter, and knowledge is purified. So, how do we improve the quality of our heart; the love that is in us?

Let’s look through the lens of what Yeshua meant when He said the last will be first, or the least will be the greatest.

He says these words in the context of loss.

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. (Mat 19:29-30)

Last week Charles spoke about the wilderness and the alluring of the Lord, the romance to where we can hear His love talk to our heart. A few weeks ago we spoke about this scripture in Hosea as the place of the door of hope, the promise of having a destiny; a future with Him.

The alluring to the dessert is also the process of letting go of the world as we know it to be. Leaving houses, brothers, etc., is about loss. We lose to win. The 100-fold promise comes as a revelation of the heart releasing attachment to relationships and comfort and embracing trust in God to bring us to a better 100-fold place. What keeps us from that embrace?

Well if we return to the parable of the sower and the seed of the Word, we get an answer. In the parable, the seed is always the same. God’s Word is the same for everyone. It isn’t the seed that can change but the heart! Four basic conditions are described: side of the road, shallow roots, distractions and then the last condition, the 30-60-100 fold…this is the last that is first. The good soil of the heart which is all about first love.

What do I mean by first love? Often, we think of first love as the love that we call, “falling in love.”. Certainly there are qualities of first love that are similar. BUT, what I believe about the ‘first love’ referenced in Revelations 2, is the love that is first. First is not just about time but also about context. Another word for that would be the greatest.

Yeshua was asked, what was the greatest commandment: Matthew 22:34-40

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 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 22:34-40).

Here we see the connection between first and greatest. So, first love could be called greatest love.

What is the key, then, to greatest love? I believe that greatest love is unlocked by how we listen.

Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." But after that no one dared question Him. (Mar 12:28-34).

How we listen is the condition of our heart, called the ‘measure’.

Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him." (Mar 4:24-25).

In the parable of the sower, it is the last group who hear with a heart that brings about the 30-60-100 fold return. In this case, the last become first. Those with the listening heart show forth the greatest love!

Now, is this about physical hearing? NO! But it IS about hearing!

so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN." And He *said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? "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."(Mar 4:12-20)

Can you hear it?? It is the listening that is called being the last. It is also called being the least.

An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest. But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side, and said to them, "Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great."(Luk 9:46-48).

Receiving is the doorway to being the least or the last, which is the greatest or first love.

So, how do we access this? Well, we spoke a couple of weeks ago about heart coherence. The heart has been designed by God to be ONE. A divided heart is a disloyal heart. It is heart ruled by panic and fear. It is a troubled heart.

How do we practice coherence? Through thankfulness. A grateful heart is a great heart, or a first love heart. The fullness of gratitude is the last, and the least of these who becomes the greatest – not in position – but in anointing.

Look at the anointed of our age: the Billy Graham's, The Mother Theresa’s. What marks their lives? Great love and thus humility.

Greatness activation:

Let’s practice oneness in our listening. We are blessed to have a God antenna. Where? In our heart. What we have to do is learn to tune to our heart. We can trust tuning to our heart because if we are born again, we have the Voice of God living in our heart. The key is Presence. We have practice His Presence. We do that by bringing our attention to Him in an active listening mode. An active listening mode is peaceful in nature and alive with presence.

1. Quiet Yourself
2. Tune to your heart. Use your heart breath
3. Bring a concern of your life to the Lord, in thankfulness that He already has the solution for you.
4. Listen, sh’ma and release the care to Him
5. Live your life and expect your miracle

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