Many
Ministers of the gospel have
preached that there is going
to
be a "latter rain" revival.
There is going to be a final revival that will usher
the
sons of God into the rapture. Let's
see in the bible what characterizes
the
end of the world.
"AND
WHEN HE HAD OPENED THE SEVENTH SEAL THERE
WAS
SILENCE IN HEAVEN, ABOUT THE SPACE OF HALF AN
HOUR". (Rev.8:1)
However, concerning this silent seal, (the 7th seal)
many
scholars have concluded that whatever us going on in this silence has to do
with the rapture: How God will get his saints home, which the devil should
not
know. There is another silent spot in
the book of revelations where the
seven
thunders sounded:
"AND
WHEN THE SEVEN THUNDERS HAD UTTERED THEIR VOICES, I WAS ABOUT T0 WRITE: AND I
HAD A VOICE FROM HEAVEN SAYING TO ME, SEAL UP THOSE THINGS WHICH THE SEVEN
THUNDERS UTTERED, AND WRITE THEM NOT."
(Rev.10:4).
That was another message which was
not recorded in the bible. Apostle John
was told not to write what the seven thunders uttered.
Now
let's discuss what is going on now in the spirit. There seems to be a lull in
the spirit world which has been going on since the '70's. Everybody is waiting for the Lord to come. The silence can also be compared to what was described in the parable of the ten virgins
in Mathew 25.
"WHILE THE BRIDEGROOM
TARRIED THEY ALL SLUMBERED
AND SLEPT" (Mat.25:5).
It is a tarrying time. Remember, there was a calling
together which made the
virgins gather originally, to
expect the bridegroom. A
revival has called them
together! Now the revival
has gone into a lull; they all
just waited and
slumbered. But something was going on
while they slept: THE LAMPS
KEPT BURNING AND THERE
WAS SEPARATION OF THE WISE
FROM THE FOOLISH.
Those who have reservoir of
oil were the ones ready
when the midnight cry was
made. Similarly, something
must be going on right now
in the spirit world, at least,
to separate the wise from
the foolish. Therefore the
separation has to do with
"oil", anointing of the Holy
Ghost. This means, whatever God is doing in those
thunders, during the
silence, has to do with "anointing":
bringing up some people to
a great anointing, while the
others remain the same, or
grow colder, until the Lord
catch up the first fruits
unto God. (Rev.14:1-5). These
people who are going up in
the rapture will have higher
anointing, than the others.
But how is the Lord
implementing this? That is the
message in the thunders,
and that is what we will search
out by looking into the
events in the spirit world and
through spiritual insight
from the Lord, plus words of
prophecies from within the
body of Christ. In lsa.28.-21
the prophet talked about
the strange work which God '
will do at the end:
"FOR THE LORD SHALL
RISE UP AS IN MOUNT PERAZIM
HE SHALL BE WROTH AS IN THE
VALLEY OF GIBEON THAT
HE MAY DO HIS WORK, HIS
STRANGE WORK, AND BRING TO
PASS HIS ACT, HIS STRANGE
ACT."
What God will do. and is
doing right now, the devil will
not know until it is too
late. The devil cannot hold God
back, but the devil can
hinder the believers.
The Lord told me one time that he can receive from my
transmitter every time,
but it is my receiver that
is troubled. That means, when I speak,
God hears. Nothing disturbs Him from
hearing me. But when he speaks, we do
not hear; when he wanted to give us something, we could not receive it. The devil disturbs us from hearing the
Lord's voice.
Similarly, the devil will try to hinder the believers from
growing up to the spiritual height which God intended for them by many
means. Therefore the devil should not
know the version of the spiritual growth which God planned for his saints until
it is too late for the devil to do anything about it. That is part of the strange work the Lord is doing: to bring the
saints up to the level of anointing that can translate and go up in the
rapture. Part of the spiritual growth
is the need to "walk in the spirit".
In Gal.5:16 we read:
"This I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the desires
of the flesh." There are two types
of walking in the spirit which we can discuss.
We can talk on "being mindful of the things of God". "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you".
(Mat.6:33).
In this discussion though, I will like to talk on walking
"with" a spirit! When we walk
with Jesus, it's walking with a Spirit.
It's like having a friend in the spiritual world that walks with us, we
are talking of going in the rapture. Don't you know that to go in the rapture,
We have to be monitoring
the Lord Jesus Christ? "Enoch
walked with God and was
not, for God took him!"
To go in the rapture, we
must walk with the Master and
please him.
When Elijah was about to be taken up to heaven, he was
constantly hearing from
heaven. That is the lifestyle we
expect for Christians. "And it came to pass when the
take Elijah UP to heaven in a whirlwind, that
Tarry here I pray thee- for the Lord hath sent me
to Bethel. ....."
(2Kgs.2:1-2).
We know that Elijah was
able to hear from God as he
told Elisha that the Lord
told him to go to Bethel and so
on. They were going from one place to another
as the
spirit of God constantly
led him.
"THE WIND BLOWETH WHERE IT LISTETH, AND
THOU HEAREST THE SOUND
THEREOF, BUT CANST
NOT TELL WHENCE IT COMETH,
AND WHITHER IT
GOETH: SO IS EVERY ONE THAT
IS BORN OF THE
SPIRIT." (Jn 3:8).
We Christians at this end
of the world must be able to
monitor heaven if we are to
go in the rapture. It means
we are in two worlds at the
same time: in the spiritual
world, and the physical
world. For us to prosper in
walking in these two
realms, we must have our senses
opened to the Spirit of
God. Elijah was able to say "God
sent me to Bethel"; we
Christians must be able to hear
clearly from heaven and do
the bidding of the Lord.
Let's look again at someone
who walked with God, since
we want to walk with Jesus.
Jesus said "I will make my
abode with him"
(Jn.14:23). For him to make his abode
with each of us, he has to
talk and we hear him. In
Heb 11:5 we read: "By
faith Enoch was translated that he
should not see death".
In Gen.5:24 it said "Enoch walked
with God and he was not: for God took him". That was
similar
to what we Christians are expecting now which
we
call the rapture. How did Enoch make
it? We read in Heb.11:5-6
that Enoch pleased God. "But without faith it is impossible to please him. for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him". In order for us to please God therefore, we must believe that he is and that we can walk with him. We have to be mindful of the things of God, and also we have
to
be sensitive to the Spirit of God.
The walk with the Spirit that we are
discussing here is to bring believers to maturity. It's not how long you have been saved! It's not how long you have
been in the church! It is how much
exposure you have to the Spirit of God. This will determine your maturity.
Most
of the time, it is the handiwork of
God. You cannot get
yourself
exposed by doing certain rituals - which may
lead you
to strange spirits, "thieves and
robbers" in the spirit. It is God
that actually draws individuals close to himself as they make themselves available. We know many
prophets became prophets not by their own
choosing. God made them prophets.
Therefore God manifested more to them. They have to make themselves available
also. Once they realized God's calling on their life, they took to a lifestyle
that would accommodate God.
We,
all, have been called to be Christians. The scriptures now says, "that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service." (Rom.12:1).
Many
Christians are not doing that! Many are not presenting themselves acceptable
enough before God. This is why we need
to talk about walking with a Spirit as we discuss rapturing faith.
Prov.
20:11 separates a babe from an adult by saying "even a child is known by
his doings: whether his work is pure. and whether it be right". When we
say "maturity", we can see who is a babe and who is not a babe when
we see how you respond to things.
In
Heb.5:13-14, the scriptures say "for every one that useth milk is unskillful
in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe".
If
you hear something in the physical or in the spirit.
how
you respond to it determines how mature you are.
We
are going to talk about the discerning of spirits also.
But
we have to see before we can discern!
Let's
remind readers about the rapture. It is written: "For
the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.
with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we
which
are alive and remain shall be caught UP together
with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and
so
shall we ever be with the Lord." (1Thes.4:16-17).
This
event is what we classify as the rapture. Also in
1Cor.15:51,
it said "we shall not all sleep but we shall
all
be changed". We shall suddenly disappear to go and
meet
Jesus in the air. (1 Thes.4:13-16). But this will
occur
only to them that are ready. Part of being ready is
to
be able to hear the voice of the Lord.
There
are many other voices in the spirit world. We
must
be able to identify the voice of the Lord which he
will
use to speak to us individually. If I walk with
somebody,
there must be conversation: when I speak he
must
hear and when he speaks I must hear. From bible
example
of Enoch and Elijah, we know it is not going to
be
automatic, that "because I go to church, when that day
comes
I will just disappear"; No sir! There must be
conscious
preparation and constant monitoring of the bridegroom.
"Unto
them that look for him will he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation."(Heb.9:27). We have to look for him!
Now
What does it mean to walk in the spirit?
We
read about the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which the Lord has put in the church.
We are
to use these gifts wisely
to
our profit.
"But
the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal"
(1Cor.12:7).
Consider
all the gifts. In order to walk with a
spirit, we need
the
gift of discerning of spirits. In
1Cor.12:31,
we
read: "Covet earnestly the best gifts."
We
must have a zeal for these gifts. To
covet these gifts, we must have a desire for them, ask zealously, and be not
complacent.
We
are going to talk about our five senses, which we use in the physical world for discerning the physical. These are the same senses that the Lord can
open up with which to discern the
spirit world: Our eyes for seeing,
ears for hearing, skins for feeling, noses for smelling, and tongues for
tasting. All these senses can be
opened up by the Lord to discern the spirit world.
In
a way, we are we are locked-in into this physical body with all the senses shut
to the other world. As we walk with a
Spirit, in our own case the Spirit of God, we can be opened up, step by step.
Heb. 5:14 said, "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both
good and evil."
All
of our five senses used in the world can be opened to the spirit world. If an
angel visit you, you need to know whether he is an Angel of the Lord or an evil
angel. We will still use our senses in
the spirit. But why has the Lord not
opened every believer's senses to the spirit world? It's because every believer
is not mature enough.
Let's
think of our physical babies; even though all of them can see, they can smell,
they can taste and they can feel temperature differences. But because they are
little
children we will not want any of them to taste hot pepper. Why? It will burn
their mouth I It burns adults also, but the reaction is different. It's like giving meat
to
a baby. When I give meat to my two year old, he will chew on it for a while and
then spew it out. Even when you know it is good for him to grow by, we realize that babies just cannot handle some things. When
you give food to a baby, you may say "this is good for you; this is vegetable'" But a baby cannot
comprehend iti He wants that
"cookie". Why does the baby refuse the good food and wants the junk
food? Because he is a babe! The same thing
happens in the spiritual things. Many of the
believers are babies. If God
opens our eyes to some things, we might say "that is not God!" We
might say "God couldn't be showing me that; it has to be the devil who is
showing me that!" Therefore some things
are better if we don't see them, Some things are better if we don't hear them! Remember Apostle Paul said something about hearing "unspeakable
words": "And I knew a man in
Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot
tell: God knoweth; such an one caught
up to the third heaven. .... How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard
unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to utter." (2Cor.12:2-4.)
What are those unspeakable
words? Therefore if you are a babe,
some things should not be spoken to you.
Heb.5:11 Paul was talking
about Melchisedec "OF WHOM
WE HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY,
AND HARD TO BE
UTTERED. SEEING YE ARE DULL
OF HEARING". This is because there are some exhortations which, if you
begin to say it before certain
believers, they will
automatically classify you
as a "false" minister, because they are babies.
For example, I was talking
with a Christian couple and when the woman heard that I attended a particular
minister's church in the town, she said "I have my
reservation about that
minister". I replied her by saying "there are different levels of
instruction, even in the secular schools; take for instance mathematics:
elementary school it is
called arithmetic and in the university also there is arithmetic. But if you
bring a student from elementary school to sit in the
mathematics class in the
university, it may sound like jargons to him". It is the same thing in the
religious world. Some ministers only serve milk and baby food,
meant only for babies in
Christ. Adults that are fed with only baby food will suffer from mal-nutrition.
Let's see what Apostle Paul
called fundamental principles: (Heb.6:1-3) "Therefore leaving the
principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection;"
Now listen to what he
called basic principles: "not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead) works, and of faith toward God. of the doctrine of
baptisms, and of laying on
of hands and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment."
But those are the topics, which some ministers specialize in
year-in, year-out. Those
are principle doctrines which every believer should know and accept and be
rooted in.
We want to go on to
perfection! He said if we have time we might revise some of these things, but he said
let us go on to deeper things of God.
In some churches all they teach is how to be born again, which is
"repentance", as though nobody need to know anything more than being
born again.
In
other churches, it's faith for healing! It seems to be all they teach. But
Apostle Paul called those topics fundamental things: eternal judgment, baptisms.
He said those are fundamental things; we don't need to argue about such
things. They should be basic
knowledge. "The Lord is coming
soon". That is also fundamental thing.
We know he is coming, but how are we to prepare? Then you are going toward the meat. We have some part to play in getting
ourselves ready for his coming. The
bible said "the bride maketh herself ready". (Rev. 19:7).
Can
two walk together except they be agreed?
(Amos 3:3). We say we want to
go in the rapture, then we have to walk with God and please God like Eoch of
old. In order to walk with God, we must agree with God. That is where repentance comes in. What I am discussing in this literature is
for Christians who have repented and are born again. What we need to do therefore
is to walk with the Lord closely. If
you that read this literature is not born again, you need to first repent and
accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Bear in mind that without Jesus, any man
that is
exercising his senses into the spirit world,
through some occult practices, is walking with evil spirits. But when we are in Christ Jesus, the Holy
Ghost is in us, and we walk with Jesus.
That is why you must be born again by the spirit of the living God.
"I am the door; by me if any man enter
in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."
(Jn.10:9).
As we grow up in the
spiritual things of God, the Lord
will open some of our
senses to the spirit world.
In 1Jn.1:3 it is written
"That which we have seen
and heard declare we unto
you, that ye also may
have fellowship with us:
and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with
his Son Jesus Christ".
When we speak about walking
in the spirit, it is actually
having "fellowship
with Jesus".
What do we need to do in
order to have our senses
opened? One thing that I
usually do which has helped me
to build up my spiritual
stamina is "fasting". We can
pray specifically for one
or several of the gifts of the
Holy Spirit listed in
1Cor.12. "He that asketh receiveth".
You may have to do some
fasting in order to get some of
those gifts. But after you
have received it, it becomes
part of you. For example, the
gift of discerning of
spirits: Once you have it,
anytime things are happening
around you. it's like you
have your "other" eyes open; you
will sense what is going
on! If it is hearing, you may
even hear what is going on
in a thousand miles away.
Let me give a testimony of
what it means to have our
senses open.
I was lying down on my bed,
studying, many years ago.
The Lord opened my
spiritual ears and I heard two men
discussing outside my room
in a foreign language. It seemed I
could understand what they were discussing even though it was not any of the
languages I learnt. When I peeped
through the window to look at the men as they were rounding up the discussion,
there was nobody there! Then I realized the Lord had opened my spiritual ear to
that discussion. They could he a thousand miles away.
Someone may say "why
do I need such gift?" It could be for a prayer point! Do you realize that
occult groups can be planning evil against a servant of
God and the Lord will want a
Christian to supernaturally hear the discussion and take action, either by
prayer or by warning the servant of God? It is time the church go back to
believe in the supernatural! Remember in the bible. Elisha was warning the king
of Israel what the king of Syria planned against him on many occasions.
"THEREFORE THE HEART
OF THE KING OF SYRIA
WAS SORE TROUBLED FOR THIS
THING; AND HE
CALLED HIS SERVANTS. AND
SAID UNTO THEM,
WILL YE NOT SHEW ME WHICH
OF US IS FOR THE
KING OF ISRAEL?
AND ONE OF HIS SERVANTS SAID.
NONE, MY LORD,
0 KING: BUT ELISHA, THE
PROPHET THAT IS IN
ISRAEL. TELLETH THE KING OF
ISRAEL THE WORDS
THAT THOU SPEAKEST IN THY
BEDCHAMBER"
(2Kgs.6-.H-12).
Whatever the enemy is
discussing can be echoed into the
ears of a servant of God
that has his spiritual ears open,
So that he can resist the
devil by prayer, either to close
some windows of heaven, or
to bind some devils.
That is the kind of gifts
the Lord wants us to get from
him. You may say
"without me hearing it, the Holy ghost
can speak in tongues
through me, to do the same thing".
Yes' But when I pray in tongues, without my
understanding, my physical body is not made aware of
the situation and I cannot warn anybody. Therefore
sometime, the Lord wants me to pray with my
understanding also. so that I can also be wise in the
physical things.
When you pray and fast for the gift, the Holy Ghost will
give it And you will know that you have it when the Holy
Ghost activate it in a manifestation. Once you
experience it for the first
time. you will know you have
it From thenceforth,
you simply operate it. If it is the
gift of "word of wisdom", a simple prayer such as:
Lord.
give me insight into this
problem", may be just enough to activate it.
A gift of prophecy or
discerning of spirits, if manifested by vision of the eyes, can be activated by
simply saying
Lord Jesus, show me what I can pray about for my brethren in
England": this may roll in a
televised vision of some of them. Of
course the Holy Ghost can also interrupt your activities to call your attention
to prayer.
You
get any of these gifts, by praying and fasting for it.
The
discerning of spirit can be through smell: If an evil spirit passes by, you may
smell the bad odor. If an Angle passes by, you may smell a sweet
fragrance. If an Angel appears, you
will still need to judge what message he gives by the word of God.
As
we have said, we want to walk with God and please God so that we will be taken
up n the rapture. When we walk with God
as prescribed, our senses will be opened to the spirit of God so that we also
can hear clearly from heaven like Elijah the prophet. He was able to hear from God, step by step, until he disappeared.
Remember,
"Can two walk together except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). We must be in agreement with God in our
daily walk with him. Most of the time,
the Lord does not want to open up our senses to be seeing the two worlds at the
same time. If we are seeing the two
worlds at the same time, we have the tendency of speaking to the other
world. Suppose you are speaking to
something that is invisible to the people around you, and yet you are not in a
praying posture, they might think you are insane. Of course when we are praying, we are also talking to the Lord
who is invisible. However due to
well-known prayer-postures (kneeling, or folding of hands, or lifting up your
eyes), the society will understand when you are talking to the invisible God. If
you
are talking to yourself or to someone invisible and
hot
in prayer, the society is not used to that.
Therefore
Lord does not keep our senses open to the
spirit
world
all the time. However, the Lord can
still talk to
you
and you will hear him. He can break through the veil
anytime
he wants to speak, and the "still small voice of
he
Spirit" is commonly used; therefore we must
exercise
our senses to recognize it.
it
you are in a crowd of unbelievers and you have your
senses open, and you discern an evil spirit
will
not need to speak out loud to rebuke the
evil.
A simple moving of the lips can be read by the
Mother
important point I'll like to mention is that "don't
Rake
anything for granted". The Lord
taught me
Something:
whenever the devil utters a negative word to
my
hearing, whether through a person or through a flash
thought. I must respond to that voice by
speaking the
scriptural
verses. For example, if I am driving a vehicle
and
I pass an accident on the road; the devil may whisper
a
word such as "if you are not careful you may also run
to
an accident ahead". Immediately I
will respond to
the
voice by saying "it is written,
there shall no evil
befall
me, neither shall any plague come near my
dwelling"
(Psa.91:10). If you hear a negative
voice such
that.
whether from a person or in your thought,
always.
respond with the promise of God in the bible that
gives you victory; otherwise the devil will
think that you
are afraid of him and will try to execute the
evil he had
announced
to your hearing. "Fear has
torment!'
I
speak the word back to the devil. If it comes to your
thought,
you can respond to your mind or to the physical
world The devil will hear and will flee from you:
"Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you."
(James
4:7)
If
a person, in your presence , is voicing out all his fears, don't just keep
silent; resist those fears from coming
upon you by voicing out your own confidence in the Lord. Speak the scriptural verses that give you
God's promises. Therefore, resist the
devil by the word of God. This is an
aspect of walking in the spirit!
A
spiritual man does not ignore idle talks without resisting it. (Mat. 12:36). In the spiritual world of darkness, it has been reported that
wicked men cast demons at people indirectly, by voicing to their victim the
fear of one torment or another. Once
the victim accepts that fear as possible, then they got him. But, child of God, DON'T ACCEPT ANY FEAR OF
THE DEVIL! Reject it by speaking the
positive promises of God for the believer.
Verses such as "He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep
in all thy ways" becomes very handy. (Psa. 91:11).
In Eccle.5:6 we read, "Suffer not thy
mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was
an error: wherefore should the Lord be angry at thy voice and destroy the work
of thy hands?"
This
consciousness of what is said and should be said is a part of what you must
learn when you walk in the spirit; or rather, when you walk with a spirit - the
Spirit of God.
Remember
these things: Speak the word! Respond to the voice!
Amen!
Bro.
Julius Adewumi
Gospel
Distribution Ministry
USA