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New Wine for New Wineskins February 2006 |
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The 4D Life - Part Three
1 Samuel 22: 1 – 2
1 David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of
Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they
went down there to him. 2And everyone who was in distress, everyone who
was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he
became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with
him.
What attracted these people to David? The anointing! The
anointing attracts those who are in DISTRESS – experiencing anxiety,
mental suffering, anguish, those who are in DEBT – with an obligation
to repay something to someone else, and those who are DISCONTENTED –
restlessly unhappy, dissatisfied.
These guys represent REAL PEOPLE who live REAL LIVES in the REAL WORLD
and in the reality of REAL PROBLEMS. But they also represent
those who have an awareness that the only REAL ANSWER to REAL PROBLEMS
that we experience in the REAL WORLD is the ANOINTING – God’s
supernatural ability to OVERCOME!
Remember – all human beings see things in 3D – three dimensions – width, depth, and length.
If you are in DISTRESS – anxiety, mental suffering, anguish – you are
often in a situation that presents you with the feeling that your
circumstances are insurmountable – that the distance from where you are
to where you want to be seems so wide that you cannot make it!
If you are in DEBT – an obligation to repay something to someone else –
then sometimes in these days of refinancing and consolidation it seems
that the only way to go is down – until you are in so deep that there
appears to be no natural way out!
If you are DISCONTENTED – restlessly unhappy, dissatisfied – then you
are probably wondering how long your current circumstances can continue
before you are forced to change something in order to try and produce
some kind of rest, happiness, and satisfaction in your life.
Yet these guys became known as “David’s Mighty Men” – you can read
about some of their exploits and achievements in 2 Samuel 23.
They were involved in supernatural feats of courage and achieved
victory in ways that would have been impossible unless they were hooked
up with God’s anointing!
We have seen how the anointing that was upon Jesus attracted crowds of
3D people who had an encounter with 4D love that transformed their
lives. And so, the anointing upon those who – by the power of the Holy
Spirit – are a continuation of his life, an amplification of his
message, and an extension of his works still draws people!
Last time we heard some of what God is doing in the earth as Pentecost
is repeated every 25 minutes – as the nameless, faceless believers who
meet together in homes, underground, in caves, and in secret – live out
4D lives in spirit and truth and see the supernatural as natural.
Healings, deliverances and miracles – including raising the dead – are
the daily norms as the gospel is proclaimed and demonstrated!
Recently the Lord showed me something from Mark 16! After the
disciples got over their initial hiccough of unbelief and hardness of
heart they went out and preached everywhere! That is what we need!
People who just go out – and because they are anointed – they preach
everywhere they go! They are not prima donnas waiting for an invitation
to get behind a pulpit and deliver a sermon – they just preach
everywhere! If the disciples had waited for an invitation they would
never have got one! The invitations sometimes come (and sometimes
don't) when people realise what is happening through your life as you
go out and preach everywhere! Paul went out in response to the
commission given him and preached everywhere, unless the Holy Spirit
specifically forbade him. (see Acts 16: 6).
We saw also in the first two parts of this series that when we first
encountered Jesus and were born again we experienced the breadth and
the length and the depth of his love.
Ephesians 3: 14 – 21
14For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, 15from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17that
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted
and grounded in love, 18may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the width and length and depth and height-- 19to know the love
of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God. 20Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in
us, 21to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever. Amen.
And so we have recognised that there is also a fourth dimension to
God’s love – height – that is the key to our experiencing the fullness
of God’s will and provision for our lives and also to our continued
ministering out of that fullness! Remember the statistics of more
believers than there are people! Is that exceedingly abundantly above
all or what?
Ephesians 2: 4 – 7
4But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which
He loved us, 5even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up
together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, 7that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Our spirit has been made alive and we have been raised up into a brand
new place of relationship with our heavenly Father.
Most of us have some level of revelation regarding where God has taken
us from – the length, breadth, and depth of his love – but few of us
have the revelation that we need of where he has brought us to – the
height of his love!
Last time we saw that the reason that our heavenly Father wants us to
experience the HEIGHT of his love by taking us UP out of our SIN into
his RIGHTEOUSNESS; UP out of our SICKNESS into his HEALING; UP out of
our OPPRESSION into his FREEDOM; UP out of our POVERTY into his
PROSPERITY is simply because HE LOVES US and because HE CAN!
But like everything else the devil has produced a counterfeit for this
fourth dimension of God’s love – it is called RELIGION! If we
accept this counterfeit then we will spend the rest of our lives
striving to reach up and attain to some place of pleasing God through
our works.
The true 4D life is lived out in the reality of a RELATIONSHIP that has
been established through God coming down in Christ and lifting us up
and seating us with himself in heavenly places – not by any works that
we have done – or ever could do – but simply because of his love,
mercy, and grace!
Jesus brought the revelation of this 4D life to a woman that was a
complete social reject and the epitome of dysfunctionality. This
revelation changed her life and went on to very quickly change her
community!
John 4
As I have meditated upon this I have begun to see a definite relevance
and significance in the person to whom Jesus released this revelation
and the place where he revealed it. Thirsty people go to wells to
have their thirst quenched. Jesus said that rivers of living
water flow from us when we believe (John 7: 38) - when we
believe that God wants to save everybody, heal everybody, and deliver
everybody! That is why he has given us the power of the Holy
Spirit – so that we can be a continuation of Jesus’ life, an
amplification of his message, and an extension of his works, and reach
out to a world that is without God and without hope!
And so, Jesus sits down at a well with a real person with real problems
– and she is drawn to him. She wants to know what he is doing
there talking to someone like her. The tragedy is that most
sinners don’t think that Christians have any interest in who they are
or the problems that they face because all they ever project is a
‘holier than thou’ attitude that switches people off instead of turning
them on! Several years ago I took a brother with me into a place that
God had sent me to evangelise - a place where 'nice and respectable'
Christians wouldn’t ordinarily venture. As this brother was playing his
guitar and singing a woman who was present said, "That music is turning
me on!" That was the only terminology she had for what she could feel
happening to her as the conviction of the Holy Spirit pulled on her.
By asking this Samaritan woman for a drink Jesus lifted her up onto his
level. Then what does he do? He speaks right into her
pain! He touches her right where it hurts most! And how
does she react? By telling the truth! Sadly, a lot of
people in the world are more REAL than the church folks!
As the conversation continues this lady introduces a bit of religious
knowledge in an attempt to cover her pain and her shame. She uses
religious/spiritual sounding words to try and conceal her
nakedness. People have been doing this ever since the garden –
trying to cover up their sin through their own ingenuity by smart
thinking and smart talking! People can use some very spiritual
sounding words to try and deflect the probing word of God that is
living and powerful and that cuts between the soul and the spirit!
But Jesus brought it down to where it’s really at so that he could take
her into the fourth dimension. He brought her the revelation of
true worship that is the key to 4D life - worship in spirit and in
truth!
The reason that religion has failed so miserably to bring any kind of
real, relevant, or radical transformation in people’s lives is that
religion will have us worshiping an image of God that either we
ourselves or someone else has created. All idols and false gods
are 3D and so they can do nothing for anyone! When Christianity
becomes reduced to a system that is controlled and limited by manmade
traditions then it is 3D and has lost touch with the fullness of God’s
power and glory!
Remember the definition of a 4D being!
A 4D being would be a god to us. It would see everything in our
world. It could effortlessly remove things before your very eyes,
giving you the impression that the objects simply disappeared. The 4D
being can also see inside any 3D object or life form, and if necessary
remove anything from inside. The being can look inside our intestines,
or remove a tumour from our brain without ever cutting through the skin.
You can’t fit the 4D God into a 3D box! He will always blow the lid off!
God is always looking for those he can anoint as Holy Spirit
revolutionaries who will operate outside the system regardless of how
unpopular that might be! He is seeking movers and shakers who are
willing to sacrifice the popularity of the present for the future
freedom of the church from the tyrannies of manmade tradition.
Champions make decisions that create the future they desire - losers
make decisions that create the present they desire! Too many of God's
people are afraid to rock the boat and so they maintain the status quo
even though they feel dried up and complain about their lack of power.
2 Chronicles 16: 9
9For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to
show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are completely His.
If Moses had not received and obeyed God’s call to challenge the system
that kept God’s people in bondage in Egypt then they would never have
been delivered. The majority of believers are afraid to challenge the
tradition that they are bound by even though there may be a cry for
freedom on the inside of them! Many down through history have been
slaves to a system that kept them bound but were too afraid to do
anything about it! There has to be someone who is willing to hear from
God and get real honest! You can't compromise with the pharaohs of this
world if you are going to break into the 4D Life that God has destined
us to live!
Remember – Moses never exactly became Mr. Popular with the people, but
God's testimony of him was that he was the meekest, most teachable man
in the whole earth of his generation. And he certainly experienced God
showing himself strong on his behalf!
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