Prophetic
The Value of Mystery
Bill Johnson
God hides things for us, not from us.
An intellectual gospel is always in danger of creating a God that looks a lot like us—one that is our size. The quest for answers sometimes leads to a rejection of mystery. As a result mystery is often treated as something intolerable, instead of a real treasure. Living with mystery is the privilege of our walk with Christ. Its importance cannot be overrated. If I understand all that is going on in my Christian life, I have an inferior Christian life. The walk of faith is to live according to the revelation we have received, in the midst of the mysteries we can’t explain. That’s why Christianity is called "the faith."
All too often believers abandon or dilute their call in order to feel better about the things they cannot explain. To allow what we cannot answer to downgrade what He has shown us is to be carnal minded. Too many only obey what they understand, thus subjecting God to their judgments. God is not on trial; we are. A true cross-walk is obeying where we have revelation in spite of the apparent contradiction in what we cannot explain. To obey only when we see that there will be a favorable outcome is not obedience. Obedience is supposed to be expensive. To embrace what He has shown us and to obey what He has commanded us, often in the midst of unanswerable questions, is an honor beyond measure. It is a great privilege to be a believing believer in the midst of a culture of unbelief. We must embrace this privilege. No Christian should be unmoved by the Lord’s question, “When I return, will I find faith on the earth?” I have set my heart to be His pleasure by living in faith.
The Power of the Offended Mind . . .
When Jesus felt it was time to minister in His hometown of Nazareth, He went to the synagogue. As He began to teach the people, they were quite amazed at His wisdom. They were also very impressed with the healings they were seeing. But when they realized they knew Him, having watched Him grow up, they were offended in their ‘reasoning's’. “It is Jesus. We know His brothers and sisters. He grew up here! How can He do this stuff? And where did He get this wisdom?” They were not offended in the typical sense; their feelings were not hurt, nor were they caught up in bitterness. They simply could not put two and two together and arrive at the conclusion – their Jesus was a miracle worker and a man of great wisdom. It didn't’t fill them with wonder and awe. Instead it caused them to become hardhearted and reject Him. This unresolved question became the mental stumbling block that was strong enough to shut down Jesus’ anointing to perform miracles and teach with power. To have questions is healthy; to hold God hostage to those questions is not. It sometimes creates an atmosphere that fulfills its own prophecy about the power of God not being for today. It shuts down the very anointing that would teach them otherwise.
Not understanding is okay. Restricting our spiritual life to what we understand is not. It is immaturity at best. Such a controlling spirit is destructive to the development of a Christ-like nature. God responds to faith but will not surrender to our demands for control. Maturity requires a heart-felt embrace of what we do not understand as an essential expression of faith.
A person’s heart is more clearly seen by what they’re willing to embrace without offense, than by their expression of faith only in what they already understand.
The Deaf Praying for the Deaf . . .
My oldest son, Eric, is 85 to 90% deaf in both ears. He has an amazing gift for life. He functions beautifully in the “hearing world” and has never had to learn sign language. His adjustments to life are miraculous, while his self-esteem is unaffected by this handicap. It is strong and Christ-centered. He is our Missions Pastor.
I was fasting and praying for his healing some years ago, and God spoke to me very clearly that He was going to heal him. It has happened in the atonement, and will be seen in my lifetime. We don’t treat it as a someday off in the future God will heal Him kind of thing. We view it as a right now word. Yet he still can’t hear without the assistance of a hearing aid.
It’s interesting that the healing of deafness is one of the most common miracles I see in my meetings and in our church. Even more interesting to note is that in the last couple of months Eric has laid hands on two people who were deaf and God opened their ears. How could that happen without him being healed first? I don’t know. But I do know that mental offense, stumbling over this apparent contradiction in our minds, will shut down this anointing. That is something we are not willing to do. Eric and I will continue to live in the understanding we have, and embrace the mystery we are required to live with, knowing that God is perfectly faithful and good beyond measure, all the time. He is worthy of our trust.
How We Learn . . .
I’ll never forget when God first began to open up the Scriptures to me. As I read, my heart leaped within me over the richness of what I was reading. Yet I couldn't have taught on that particular passage if my life depended on it. My spirit man was doing the learning and my mind would have to wait. The mind is trained through the experience of divine encounters and supernatural experiences initiated through the revelations from Scriptures. Revelation that doesn’t lead to a divine encounter will only make us more religious, teaching us to embrace external standards without the internal realities.
God is not opposed to the mind; He created the mind to be a compliment to all that He had made. He is opposed to the un-renewed mind. It is at war with God, being incapable of obeying Him. The believer who governs his Christian life through the mind is the carnal Christian that the apostle Paul warned about. The soul can only lead us into religion – form without power. It is what makes way for Ishmael's instead of Isaac's.
It’s important to understand the learning process. Our spirit is where the Holy Spirit dwells. Our spirit man is alive and well and is ready to receive great things from God. When I filter everything through my mind and remove what isn’t immediately logical, I extract much of what I really need. Only what goes beyond my understanding is positioned to renew my mind. If we can learn more about the actual voice and presence of the Lord, we will stop being so paranoid about being deceived by the things we can’t explain. Usually those who use the natural mind to protect themselves from deception are the most deceived. They’ve relied on their own finite logic and reason to keep them safe, which is in itself a deception. They usually have an explanation for all that’s going on in their walk with the Lord, but criticize those who long for more.
Our hearts can embrace things that our heads can’t. Our hearts will lead us where our logic would never dare to go. No one ever attributes the traits of courage and valor to the intellect or the strength of human reasoning. Courage rises up from within and gives influence over the mind. In the same way, true faith affects the mind. Faith does not come from our understanding. It comes from the heart. We do not believe because we understand; we understand because we believe. We’ll know when our mind is truly renewed, because the impossible will look logical.
Mystery, a Cross for the Mind . . .
What we don’t understand is sometimes as important as what we do. It’s one thing to obey when He has given us understanding about a matter, and quite another to obey while facing questions and circumstances that seem to contradict what we understand. So many fail at this point, and then bring the Bible down to their level of experience. Many do this to feel better about the fact that they are living in compromise – a compromise of their revelation from Scripture. Our challenge is instead to bring our lifestyle up to the standard of God’s Word.
To embrace revelation with one hand, and embrace mystery with the other, forms a perfect cross. This is a cross that everyone who is hungry to do the works of Jesus will have to carry. God must violate our logic to invite us away from the deception of relying on our own reasoning.
God Hides Things to be Found . . .
When my children were small we hid Easter eggs for them to find. The measure of difficulty in the search was always determined by the age and capabilities of the child. We never went outside, dug a three-foot deep hole and buried a chocolate egg hoping a two-year-old would find it. When my children were that young, we’d put the egg on a table, or on a chair. And as they got older we would make it more difficult, but never impossible. Parents delight in their child’s curiosity, and love to see them enjoy the process of discovery. Children enjoy the pleasure of the search, and revel in the affirmation of their parent’s delight in their searching and discovery. “ . . . Seek and you shall find . . .” This curiosity and delight in discovery are meant to be a part of what it is to “seek first the kingdom” as well as to “receive the kingdom as a child.”
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” (Proverbs 25:2)
People wonder why God doesn’t always speak in more open terms – audibly, with visible signs, etc. I don’t know how or why it works this way, but the Bible indicates that God receives more glory when He conceals, rather than making things obvious. It is more glorious for Him to hide, and have us seek. In the introduction to the parable of the seed and the sower we find that Jesus did not merely use parables as illustrations, but at times to conceal truth so that only the hungry would understand. It is the mercy of God to withhold revelation from those who have no hunger for truth, because if they don’t hunger for it, the chances are they won’t obey it when they hear it. Revelation always brings responsibility, and hunger is the thing that prepares our hearts to carry the weight of that responsibility. By keeping revelation from those without hunger, God actually protects them from certain failure to carry the responsibility it would lay on them. And so He conceals. Yet, He doesn’t conceal from us; He conceals for us!
But there’s another part to this equation – it’s the glory of kings to search out a matter! We are kings and priests to our God. Our royal identity never shines brighter than when we pursue hidden things with the confidence that we have legal access to such things. Mysteries are our inheritance. Our kingship, our role in ruling and reigning with Christ, comes to the forefront when we seek Him for answers to the dilemmas of the world around us.
Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.” (Matthew 13:11 NASB) We, as believers, have legal access to the realm of God’s mysteries. It’s that simple. The hidden things are placed in waiting for the believer to discover. They are ours by inheritance.
EXCERPTS from the book ~ DREAMING WITH GOD
++++ STEALING THE MYSTERY ++++
THEOLOGY
THAT TENDS
TO LEAN
TOWARDS
THE SCRIBAL
MISSES
THE BOAT
A MYSTERY SHIP
PLYING THE WATERS
OF THE UNKNOWN
PLAYFUL
ADVENTURE
LOST
TO REASON
AND FINITE
LOGIC
SCIENCE
AS AN APPROACH
TO AN IMMORTAL GOD
WHO'S WAYS, SO VAST
ARE PAST FINDING OUT
THE NEEDINESS
OF HAVING AN ANSWER
FOR EVERYTHING
THE CASE SOLVED
WITH NO CLUE
JUST HOW MANY FACTS
CAN COME INTO PLAY
WHEN TRYING TO FATHOM
THE INFINITE
OPINIONS AND RABBIT TRAILS
EVER ABOUNDING
ONLY AS THE FATHER WILLS IT
AND THEN BY REVELATION ALONE
TO THE HEART, BEYOND THE SOUL
DO WE TRULY COME TO KNOW
ANYTHING, WORTH KNOWING
THE KNOWING OF HIS LOVE
HIS PATHOS, HIS HEART
PAST KNOWLEDGE, INTELLECT
THAT LEADS TO A FULLNESS OF LIFE
EVEN BEING FILLED, WITH ALL THE FULLNESS
OF GOD
THE FATHER LEAVING CONUNDRUM
CONTRADICTION
AND PARADOX, SCATTERED, LITTERED
ALL OVER THE LANDSCAPE OF INQUIRY
BEGGING US, PROMPTING US
TO SEEK, TO LEARN, TO QUEST
TO FIND HIM
THE WAY HE DESIRES TO BE FOUND
...WHILE HIDING
HIDE AND SEEK
MUCH MORE THAN A CHILDHOOD GAME
ON HIS TERMS
BY HIS RULES
WE SEARCH
NOT OURS
NOT MANS
THOSE WHO PREFER
STEALING THE MYSTERY
WITH ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
RATHER THEY ARE THE RIGHT ONES
OR NOT...
SIMPLY TO HAVE THE SATISFACTION
OF A READY ANSWER
ROBBING THE HEARER
OF GODS DREAM
OF BEING DISCOVERED
AS HE LEADS
GENE JOHNSON ~ 2009
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ALL TOGETHER NOW'
By Gene Johnson
Psalm 50:21
There is a lot of deception going around these days. What is really of God and what is not. Both in Christian and non-Christian circles. We see it the areas of false doctrine and also in personal self-deception. The ironic and very scary thing about deception is that if you are, you don't know it because you are believing that what you embrace is both real and true, when in fact, in light of Gods word, it's not. We as His people are warned that the greatest sign that we are in the Last Days is that the level and amount of delusion, false teachers, prophets, doctrines and 'false Christ's would be at an all time high. That if the Lord did not shorten the days that even the very elect of God would be deceived.
This delusion can come from two sources. From outside of us because of the devils work in the World, the Church or cults. Or it can come from within us, as we do not live up to or do the Truth from our hearts. When instead, we retreat into denial of personal responsibility to God and others. This then leads to self-justification for, 'the way we are'. The next step is usually towards false interpretations of scripture that rectify our way of thinking about ourselves. This then derails us from dealing directly with illusions or issues that we refuse to face off, become honest about and fully own up to.
When the lie is fully formed in our minds and we embrace it as real it becomes a tomb of denial for us and more often than not isolates us from others. People who might actually take issue with our issues! So we hide from the truth, skulking into out little caves of the soul, building our little ministries and insisting we are suffering our many rejections because of the 'prophetic mantle' that's upon our lives.
Before any kind of real and lasting unity can come to the Body of Christ that is birthed of the Spirit and not of mere institutional/organizational shuffling, this issue of personal delusion must be dealt with strongly. It is this very unity that Satan fears the most because when it comes his kingdom of darkness is stunned and then turned upside down! So if he can't snare us by way of the world he will by pride, unforgiveness, bitterness, strife, malice, lust, control, fear, abuse etc. Anything that will create a false world for us, out of a false sense of self where we justify all we do no matter how little peace or joy we have while insisting on our opinions, feelings and the 'rightness' of our position. This is the same spirit that crucified Jesus and destroys unity in His Body.
Please read Psalm 50, meditate it and ask God to open it up to your heart. It is the foundation for the prophetic word I received from Him this day. I took it to heart myself and it shook me to my very core. I usually send out prophetic poems inspired by the Word and the Holy Spirit. Not this time....
This time it will be the Voice of Truth from the Heart of the Father that will speak....
and it will wax a whole lot more than merely poetic....RECEIVE THE FIRE, IF YOU CAN!
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'EXCLUSIVE/INCLUDED PART 2''
BY GENE JOHNSON
In this hour when many are crying out for a lasting revival and true move of God in our nation we must ask ourselves...what kind of church are we going to be bringing the lost souls that are won for Christ into? What will we be showing forth in the midst as they come in? It's high time for some serious house cleaning saints!!! The King is coming to cleanse the temple!
The self deception that is rife within the churches in these last days is directly the work of Satan to delude Gods people into a false sense of empowerment, one that they control. His Kingdom of Darkness can never be unseated by this false kind of manipulation of others and will never have Gods true favor upon it. Thus rendering the life of such a leader or believer ineffective. All the while deceiving them into thinking they are legitimate and proved, simply because gullible saints are easily swayed by there powers of persuasion making them seem to be authentic, even unto themselves. Nothing seems to convince like positive results and nothing succeeds like success, as they used to say. So they have a, 'sense' of power but one that is not valid. It isn't one that carries with it the weight of heavens true authority, gained only by the process of fire and trial. This is Gods purifying and molding of character in the furnace of his loving discipline. The saint that allows for this willingly and when melded into a pure golden vessel of honor, He can then use greatly. Only then can He entrust the greater magnitude of heavens blessings, the full inheritance that God intends for His mature sons and daughters.
Many have run from these fires fearing what the Cross demands of them. It commands them to give their focus of attention to hard realities no one finds pleasant or easy to work through. Like truly loving Gods people better than themselves and having a servants heart towards them instead of the that of a user/abuser/exploiter. Striving for the unity of the body of Christ and avoiding all competition and a sense of one-up-man-ship. Setting aside opinions and emotions for the greater good of the whole body.
Also and this is a larger issue in many ways, the need for facing off demons that linger to divert them from the true way, this by seriously coming to terms with past wounds of rejection, fear, addiction, abuse, control, hatred, stiff, malice, bitterness and un-forgiveness. Dealing with them, not turning from them. Most of us would avoid these things if we could and the effect they have had on our mind-sets and behavior patterns. These 'heart detours' are like nuclear fall out that poison us and everyone around us. These curses may be generational in nature at the source or just the results of many poor choices brought on by sinful habits and past irresponsibility's. It is however for all of us easier to run and hide from the issues then to face off these giants, like David going out against Goliath knowing we have a 'cause' worth fighting for, 'our eternal destiny'!!!
For many people time is running out to rectify these heart issues. To face them and fight the good fight of faith concerning them. One thing is for sure, God loves us to much to leave us where we are. He has to many wonderful things in mind for us in his plans to give us a future and a hope. The fullness of our, 'inheritance in the saints in light' awaits us and He so wants us to live out and walk out all of it. A shaking has begun in the churches to shake out all that is not of God and eternally motivated and established. Many people will not survive the process of, 'judgment beginning at the house of God' before it comes upon this wicked generation that lives in unrepentant sin. He has made us to be salt and light to the world around us but we are becoming more and more like it instead, rebellious, lustful, selfish, cowardly, maligners, full of hatred and malice. The warning in His word is clear, ''many false prophets, Christ's, and teachers will arise and deceive many''. Why? Because people love darkness better than the light. True colors and deeds are exposed there and not facing these things to fully repent and let God have his cleansing way is just to humiliating and painful. People are to proud or fearful one to be that vulnerable in allowing for the needed changes that must come for them to prove their legitimacy as true Sons and rightful heirs of the promises of God.
Only a deep aching for change and growth and a hunger for more of God and less of what we have settled for can change any of this. We have to actually really want it and cry out for it for it to come. We must 'humble ourselves and then turn from our wicked ways'. Its not giving up our ways for His that leads to this cursed state of things within the church. This is the mystery of iniquity (lawlessness) that's works in the 'sons of disobedience', making up our own laws and rules as to how God works and does things. Many are manipulating people by means of witchcraft/control and intimidation like Jezebel over Ahab, or trying to plot and scheme a short-cut to the throne room of ruler-ship like Absalom without going through the caves of testing like David to prepare them for it in humility. One resisted the Ministry of the Prophet and sought Elijah's destruction to gain and maintain control while the other sought a way to steal power as King (even toppling his own father) without the character to be worthy of it.
The shaking has begun across the nations until nothing remains intact within the churches but what God has birthed and developed. All else is about to fall out like meteors in the night sky. Jesus is shaking the dust off of His feet of those who refuse His hand having His way in their hearts and lives. Those who do not have ears to hear His last day prophets warning them of the wrath to come and the need to be ready for His imminent return...are you letting Him have his way fully in your life?
+++EXCLUSIVE/EXCLUDED+++
AND I HEARD A VOICE SAYING....
'YOU THOUGHT I WAS...
ALTOGETHER LIKE YOU'....
THAT I ACTUALLY WAS YOU
IN YOUR IDEALIZED, FANCIFUL
THOUGHTS OF ME, ABOUT ME
THE ONES YOU WANTED TO HAVE
CONCERNING ME...
YOU, PROJECTING YOU, ON ME
CREATING A NOBLE, SENTIMENTAL
IDOL OF ME, FOR YOURSELF
YOUR 'BRIGHT IDEA'' OF WHO I AM
NOT THE REAL ME
BUT AN INVENTION OF COMFORT
FOR YOU, AN ESCAPE ROUTE
FROM TRUTH
FORMED IN THE INWARD PART
AN IDOL MADE BY THE NIMBLE
WILLING HANDS OF YOUR OWN MIND
READY TO ESCAPE THE TRUE ME
FOR A LESS JEALOUS, COMMANDING LOVER
UNREADY, UNWILLING TO STEP INTO
THE FLAMES OF MY ALL CONSUMING LOVE
WHERE YOUR CONVENIENT, FANCIFUL
NOTIONS OF ME, ARE ECLIPSED BY THE FIERY SUN
MY FIRE BURNING AWAY ALL
THAT IS UNTRUE, UNREAL, NOT OF ME
FOR MY WAYS AND MY THOUGHTS TRULY ARE
NOT LIKE YOURS....
AS HIGH AS THE HEAVENS ARE FROM THE EARTH
ARE THEY, WHICH IS, A VERY LONG WAY
A VERY LONG DISTANCE, MUCH HIGHER THAN YOU HAVE KNOWN
MY WAYS PAST FINDING OUT
AND YET YOU THOUGHT YOU'D FOUND THEM OUT
AND THAT, COMPLETELY
WHEN I AM THE STUFF OF HEAVEN
OF ETERNITY
WHEN YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN
YOUR MEAGER FRAME
THAT YOU ARE BUT DUST
WITH BUT A LITTLE BREATH
FOR INSTEAD IT IS I WHO AM
ALTOGETHER UNLIKE YOU
IN SO VERY MANY WAYS
THEIR IS NO LYING, DELUSION
SELF DECEPTION, ILLUSION
DARKNESS IN ME AT ALL
FOR I AM PURE LIGHT
AND I DWELL IN PUREST
UNAPPROACHABLE LIGHT
WHICH ONLY THE TRULY BROKEN
HUMBLE AND CONTRITE
ARE ALLOWED TO COME NEAR
THEIR FLESH SEARED
AWAY BY HOLY FLAMES
ONLY BY WAY OF ATONING
BY BLOOD, BY CLEAREST LOVE
BY WATER LIKE A FLOOD
AND THEN MY PURGING FIRES
THE HEART UNHAMPERED
BY FIERCE, SELFISH PRIDE
AND INSISTENT DESIRE
FOR YOUR GOD IS
AN ALL CONSUMING FUNERAL PYRE
NO FLESH TO EVER GLORY AGAIN
IN MY FULL PRESENCE, AS SATAN
ALL WHO APPROACH ME
ON THEIR OWN TERMS ARE
LIKE A THIEF, A HIRELING
OUT FOR HIRE
TRYING TO COME UP
SOME OTHER WAY
OTHER THAN MINE
WHO REFUSE TO BE
REFINED
THE WAY OF THE THREE HOLY FIRES
TO WALK AMONG MY STONES
THE BRAZEN FIRE--THE BLOOD
THE CANDLESTICK---THE OIL
THE INCENSE----TRUE WORSHIP
SINCERE, REAL WORSHIP OF ME ALONE
THE COMPLETELY YIELDED
LIFE, WILL, HEART
GIVEN FREELY, FULLY
OVER TO ME....
AND THEN CAN COMES
MY DESIRE
YOUR FULL
BOLD ENTRANCE...
NO LONGER DANCING
AROUND THE FLAMES
BUT WALKING
THROUGH THE STONES.
GENE JOHNSON (COPYRIGHT)
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Prophetic History
I have been moving in the prophetic in my life since the late seventies.
It first began to manifest in the verbal gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues. Then it moved to the more direct gift of prophecy. There were many years of testing by God, before I came into the 5-fold ministry gift that is the 'Office' of the Prophet. Even then, the way it came forth was unique, different in it's manner than the average oracle of God. It was more of a kingly Davidic Mantle that showed itself forth in song, teaching and later counseling. The flow of prophetic song is profound in my life. It is a daily constant where I worship God in automatic songs that formed and developed on almost a daily basis. Some days I will get 5, 6, 7 songs of free flowing worship unto the Lord.
He seldom allows me the luxury of recordings and playing these songs birthed before others. They are love songs from my heart to His. On occasion He will allow these songs to come before other people, and when He does He usually says, 'That ones for my People'.
In the teaching and counseling, when I am mentoring, sharing or counseling an individual, the Word of the Lord proceeds and its more than just the Gift of Prophecy which is for comfort, edification and instruction. It almost speaks directly into the person's future and destiny. It is a call for a deep commitment to God and to stay the course of Heaven for their purpose and coming ministry.
In the days ahead, I will be writing more about these things, but for now feel free to navigate and search through the web links below. You will find a wealth of information.
There is much to learn...for there is much to know and understand, as we all discover what God has in mind, as He pours out the Latter Rain upon this Latter House...
- THE PROPHET'S CHAMBERS (Chatroom/Forum)
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