I Desire Your Heart

By Denise Jordan Have you ever watched a horse that has been trained to do certain tricks? At their master’s every tug, they perform the action they are trained to perform. My child, sometimes you are a bit like that horse with me. You think that I am a master who tells you what to do and what not to do. You try to fulfill all that I have asked you to do, by just performing the right action so that you would win the prize at the end, says the Lord. My child, this is not what I am asking of you. I do not need you to dance to the right tune or perform the right action at the right time. All I ask of you is your heart and your submission to me and my will, says the Lord. I much rather would have you be like a wild horse that runs with abandon through the fields. The wild horses that run through the fields look so strong and they are so determined and passionate. Those qualities my child are so much more important to me than your actions. As you find your passion and your strength in me, we can work on getting you to do the right thing. Because as you surrender to me out of love and out of passion, those things will come automatically. It will no longer be an act that you perform to get my approval, but you will become that different person because you love me and because you are passionate about me.

To Know Him is to Love Him!

"For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." - 1 Corinthians 2:2

To know anyone takes time and commitment. We can never be intimate friends with those we only have a casual relationship with.

We may know a lot about them, but nothing that others do not know. How well do you know Jesus? How much time do you spend in His presence? How much time do you spend meditating upon His Word?

He is calling you and I to the NEXT level of surrender, so that He may claim more of your heart for His Kingdom. How willing are you to surrender your will for His?

We choose, every moment of every day, whether we will draw nearer to The Lord, or further away from Him. What have you been choosing that matters more to you than the Lord's will for your life? Yet, despite our half steps and back sliding, The Lord is continually beckoning each of us to come closer to Him.

Most of God's people know a lot about Him. They can quote His Word and may even serve in some capacity in the church. But, few take the time to sit quietly at His feet, to listen to His voice.

God created us to live in continual communion with Him. But, because of ignorance or laziness or unbelief, few of have a real or intimate relationship with our Lord.

The purpose of surrender is not so that you can boast about how close you are to the Lord. The purpose is the manifestation of God's will in, and for, your life.

When you truly know the FATHER's heart, you will share His burden for the hurting and the lost. You were created for the purpose of sharing God's love for the hurting and the lost, with those who live in darkness and need to know of His great Love for them!

Don't allow your time and treasure to be spent on worldly pursuits-the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Surrender all that you are to receive His Life. That's the least that any of us can do for the One who surrendered everything (including His life) for you! Surrender always leads to exaltation, just as it did for our resurrected Savior!!!

True Intimacy Begins With Total Surrender

How surrendered are you to the Master's will and way? It's easy to say, "yes", when He asks us to do things that are easy. I can love my neighbor, as myself, because chances are that being kind to someone I barely know does not require as much from me as loving my stubborn spouse or an obstinate child. 

The more time that we spend in His Presence, the more that we begin to see ourselves, just as we are. When He shows us ourselves, He wants us to acknowledge our weakness and to rely upon Him more for His grace (enabling power). 

We understandably fear the place of total surrender because it means less of what we want and more of what He wants! Yet, this is exactly what He asks from all of us. He asks us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. Follow Him where? To the place of "death"! 

How easy is it for us to die to our will when He asks us to give up the very thing that we cherish most in this life?

If you have true intimacy with Him, the place of surrender is the place where we give Him our plans, dreams, schemes, and wills, in exchange for His.

He is calling all of us to that next level of surrender, will you say, "yes!"

The Surrendered Heart

"Not my will, but Thine!"

One of the most difficult tests to take is one in which there is a clash of the wills: God's will versus ours! The Lord's will, and way, must always prevail. 

What the Father asks of us does not always make sense. Neither does His way or His timing. But, this is the choice that we must make, every second of every day: God's will, or mine? God's way or mine? God's timing, or mine?

The Father is not expecting sinless perfection from any one of us. But, He rightfully expects us to surrender so that He can use us for His purposes, instead of ours.

God is not as concerned about what we do for Him, as He is about our love for Him. The test of our love is our willingness to sacrifice whatever He may ask us to. The more yielded we are to His will, the more He can use us. 

The more that we "die" to our wants and desires, the more territory He can claim within our hearts, for the advancing of His kingdom on this earth.

A Season to Return to our First Love

Kari Browning:

A Season To - Return to Our First Love

We are in the season on the Hebraic calendar that is called "Teshuvah," which means to repent or return. It's a 40-day period that begins on the first day of the month of Elul and ends on Yom Kippur (which is September 14 this year). Elul is an acronym for "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine" (Song of Songs 6:3).

During this season, we are exhorted to repent and return to the Lord: Come, let us return (teshuvah) to the Lord; Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. Hosea 6:1a, 3a

In the beginning, Adam and Eve had unbroken communion with the Lord and each other. In the Garden, they were clothed in light and there was no shame.

However, they listened to the lie of the enemy and did not heed the Lord's instruction to refrain from eating of the tree of good and evil. As a result of their sin, they became ashamed and hid. They were expelled from the Garden and the ground was cursed and began to produce thorns and thistles. Unfortunately, to this day, we can still be listening to the lies of the enemy, living in shame, and hiding from God and one another.

The Curse Has Been Broken!

Have you ever wondered why Jesus appeared in the Garden after the resurrection and Mary thought He was the gardener?

There is a rule of Biblical interpretation called "the law of first mention." It requires one to go to that portion of the Scriptures where a doctrine is mentioned for the first time and to study the first occurrence in order to get the fundamental inherent meaning of that doctrine.

Jesus was crucified on a tree, was crowned with thorns and thistles, and then appeared in a garden. Because of the law of first mention, I think He was communicating a deeper truth – the curse had been broken through His death on that tree and His resurrection from the dead!

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree").Galatians 3:13

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians15:22

The Bible began in the Garden and it ends in the Garden.

On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2

The Good News of the Gospel is that we can be restored to what it was like in the Garden before sin entered in. We can be delivered from shame, be clothed in light, and eat from the tree of life. We can experience the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.

Repent and Return

Instead of experiencing this reality, however, many are still trapped in a religious system that brings death instead of life. Some are still eating from the wrong tree. Dead religion is based on self-effort and trying to keep rules and regulations that can produce pride and self-righteousness. Let's not be like the Pharisees who Jesus rebuked in Matthew 23. They didn't enter the Kingdom of Heaven themselves, nor did they let others enter either.

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you'll recover your life. Matthew11:28, Message

If we repent and return, we can experience the Kingdom of Heaven on earth that produces life, love, humility, peace, and joy.

John the Baptist's message was: "Repent (teshuvah) for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Matthew 3:2

Jesus preached the same message: Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent (teshuvah), for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."Matthew 4:17

In Revelation 2, the Church at Ephesus was told to repent and return to their first love. During this season of Teshuvah, let's repent from any dead religion and return to our first love.

Kari Browning

Director of New Renaissance Healing & Creativity

Inviting The Lord Within: Seeking His Manifest Presence

At this present time, the Lord is especially dealing with those who have been seeking "something more" without understanding what they are searching for. Many of these are thinking, "What is happening to me?" This is because they are being drawn away from any dependence upon, or satisfaction with, that which is less than the Lord's best.

Many have been content with only knowing the Lord as their Savior, and are satisfied knowing that someday they will be in Heaven. Some have gone further and know Him as the One who provides their needs and uses them in ministry. However, the Lord greatly desires to take us beyond these levels of experience. He is, through intervention, beginning to make Himself known to us as a Person who desires both our fellowship and our cooperation with Him in the outworking of His present-day purposes.

All too often we become satisfied with the "things of God" rather than going beyond this and coming to know the "God of the things." All too often, we get so taken up with our involvement in working for the Lord, or in being concerned about our problems and needs, or the needs of others, that we fail to notice when He comes to seek a time of personal fellowship with us.

We become satisfied with abiding in the fact of His Omni-Presence rather than taking time to seek His Manifest Presence. Our Lord is a seeking God who will draw us into a personal, intimate relationship with Himself, if we will respond to His seeking after us.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. Revelation 3:20

In the past, the Lord graciously allowed us to remain satisfied with our own ways. However, the hour is late and the need is so urgent that the Lord is moving in intervention to bring about a correction. In order to accomplish this, He may intentionally withdraw Himself from our spiritual activities, and stand in the shadows, outside of the "room" of our present spiritual experience. This truth can be found in Song of Solomon 2:9-10:

My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, He standeth behind our wall, He looketh forth at the windows, shewing Himself through the lattice. My beloved spake, and said unto me, "Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away." Song of Solomon 2:9-10

The (Seeming) Withdrawal of the Lord's Presence

It is important for us to understand that the (seeming) withdrawal of the Lord's presence from us, and from anything that we attempt to do for Him, is a blessing meant to draw us up into a higher realm of relationship with Him.

In order to bring about this ability within us, the Lord will begin to make Himself known to us as a Person, trusting that we will notice Him. He, the Lord of Glory, will reluctantly remain apart from us because He desires something better for us. He longs to manifest Himself to us and spend time with us in fellowship and communion. If we will notice and respond, it is here that we will begin to intimately know Him and come to understand His ways. Only then will we be able to rightly serve Him.

The Lord is grieved when we do not recognize and quickly respond to His desire to make Himself known to us. Many of us fail to respond because we are satisfied to remain within our past spiritual experience, sufficiently satisfied with all of the blessings that He has provided.

The Lord will patiently continue to wait without until we begin to recognize that we need something more than all these things that He has been amply providing, and invite Him to come within our spiritual experience to abide with us.

Because thou sayest, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing"; and knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Revelation 3:17

The Lord is not satisfied for us to be content with all these things alone. He longs to bring us into the experiential reality of personally knowing Him, and abiding in His manifest presence. This relationship transcends anything that He could ever do for us.

Experiencing His Presence

He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. John 14:21

This experience of "His manifest presence" is conditional upon our having and keeping His commands. Only as we relinquish our self-nature to the Cross, and come into an experience of oneness with the Lord, will our obedience be possible. As we die to our self-will and respond to Him in obedience, He will be released to manifest Himself to us, and then to others through us.

The word "manifest" means that He causes us to become aware of His revealed presence through one, or a combination of, our five natural senses. His manifest presence begins at the point where we pass from the "letter" of the Word into the "Spirit" of the Word. When we enter into His manifest presence, He will make Himself experientially known to us.

He may lead us to quietly wait upon Him in His revealed presence. He may make known to us something that He desires to accomplish and our part in its outworking. He may quicken us in a special understanding of His Word. He may share with those who have experienced in some measure the "Fellowship of His Sufferings" a specific burden of prayer or intercession.

The possibilities are manifold, and they are marvelous to experience. The Lord greatly desires to reveal Himself to us as a Person having feelings and desires. "Manifestly" means that He does this, not in type and shadow, but as a present reality, made known to one or more of our physical senses. The Lord cannot remain satisfied with our continuing to relate to Him only as the One who produces within us a feeling of anointing, or power.

"Rise Up, And Come Away"

My Beloved spake, and said unto me, "Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away." Song of Solomon 2:10

The Lord has something far better to offer us if we will respond to His call to "rise up" with Him into a higher realm of spiritual reality. To this urgent call, He adds a word of encouragement.

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. Song of Solomon 2:11-12

We are living in the time of the birthing of a new day. Herein is the cause of our wondering, "What is happening?" as we feel the birth pains of this new day. All that Jesus did in a single body during His first coming, He will again do through a corporate Body. Presently, he is preparing those who have been called apart for this purpose.

Winter speaks of a time of barrenness in our spiritual experience. It is a period of time during which the Lord is (seemingly) absent from us, and in which there is little or no moving or quickening of His presence within us, or in our ministry. The "winter being past" speaks of a present opportunity for us to be birthed into a new realm of spiritual life and experience.

The "flowers appearing" speaks of our spiritual growth with the resultant fruit of the Spirit. Our repentant response to the withdrawal of His presence from us has produced a spiritual breakthrough within us – the initiative for our life and ministry has passed to Him. We are abiding in Him and He in us. Our lives and ministry are producing results that were never before seen, as we are being lifted from the gift realm into the spirit realm.

The singing of birds speaks of "worship" that flows up to the Lord from deep within us. The voice of the turtle speaks of our becoming "prophetic" and speaking forth His Word with substance and power. This especially applies to prophetic worship that will release the manifest presence and glory of the Lord.

This experience will not come through an intellectual comprehension or understanding of His Word alone. It requires the anointed impartation of His life to us, as we fellowship (sup) with Him.

He is presently without, looking through the window of our spiritual experience, waiting for us. We must quickly respond to His call to "Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away." It is essential that we invite the Lord to come within, and give Him full control over our lives and all that pertains to us.

Nothing that we could obtain, while remaining in a lesser realm, could compare with this.

"Come, My beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee My loves." Song of Solomon 7:11-12

Wade Taylor
Wade Taylor Ministries / Parousia Ministries

Come up Higher!

Father God is calling His bride to come up higher in Him, to receive divine revelation, truth and counsel. We can only go higher in Him as we go deeper in intimacy with our Lord.

God does not want us to listen to or obey Him out of a sense of duty or obligation. He will not make us listen to Him or obey what He tells us to do. If we worship Him we will delight to do His will because we will choose to remember what He has done for us and will serve Him with thankful hearts. That is true worship.

The prophetic flow of revelation and obedience to what we hear the Holy Spirit telling, or directing, us to do leads us into deeper realms of revelatory understanding of who God is, as we are obedient to do what He tells us to do.

To shift into the prophetic realm we must be transformed to think differently and to sharpen our spiritual ears to hear what the Father is saying. We are either listening to the voices of the flesh, the world, the devil, or the Almighty.

The revelatory Truth of God has always been, and will always be as streams of many waters flowing from the very throne of Almighty God.

Can He Trust You?

Learning to hear His voice is the key to learning the foundational truths of the Kingdom of God. True fulfillment will only be realized in our lives when we obey the Father’s will. The will of the Father must be more important than our own will, or the will of those who are around us. We abort God’s promises when we do not embrace God’s Word and refuse to wait on God’s timing to bring the promise to pass. When this happens, we are tempted to fulfill God’s promise in our own way.

The Father will test us to see if we can be trusted with the eternal truths of His kingdom; the true riches of His glory. He will test us to see if we will be faithful, willing and obedient to do whatever He tells us to do, to say whatever He tells us to say, and/or go wherever He leads us to go!

When the Father speaks to us, we must respond, “Lord, help me to be faithful to what you’ve said to me.” The Father is not pleased when we simply do whatever we want to do to advance His kingdom on this earth. He is only glorified as we are obedient to do what He tells us to do, to go where He tells us to go, or to say what He tells us to say.

The Necessity of Intimacy!

God wants intimate communication with His children. Intimacy happens when we know the Father’s thoughts, and He knows ours. We cannot have intimate communication with the Father without sharing our deepest feelings with Him. The Father also wants us to desire Him and to want to know His thoughts and His feelings. God wants to be known.

True intimacy occurs when there is no more resistance, or hesitancy, toward the work of the Holy Spirit within our hearts. True intimacy is to desire the Father’s will more than our own, no matter the cost. It is total surrender. Like any other relationship, true intimacy is not instantaneous, but takes place over time.

The Father is waiting for those who are willing to come away and spend time alone in His presence. It is only as we spend time in His presence, and are not distracted by the cares of this life, that God can impart revelatory understanding of His will and His ways, to us. It is very important that we allow the Father to share His perspective concerning our lives and the lives of His people, as we pray in agreement with His will for all of us.

As we listen to the Living Word and allow that Word to lead us, by yielding to the Holy Spirit’s gentle nudges and promptings, we will be led, then propelled by the Spirit into a new place of freedom and victory in Christ Jesus. As we listen, yield and are obedient to the Living Word, the Spirit of the Living God will shift us into greater dimensions of usefulness to Him and for His kingdom.

Why we don't Hear His Voice

When we do not hear from God, it is frequently because sin has dulled our ability to hear His voice and blinded our eyes to receive His Truth. We don’t hear from God when we allow anxiety, the cares (or distractions) of life, busyness and difficulties to drown out His voice. This is why we are to be anxious for nothing and to cast all of our cares upon Him.

It will be difficult for us to hear the Lord when we are distracted by the people and circumstances of our lives that hinder us in our walk of faith and war against the Spirit of the Living God, who indwells us. We need to hear the Lord’s voice in this last hour in which spiritual warfare has intensified. We must resolutely and intently listen for and expect to hear His voice after a season of seeking Him.

Often, we cannot hear Him because we do not want to hear Him. We do not want to hear Him because He is not saying what we want to hear and/or we don’t want to take time to listen to His voice and learn from Him.

We can no longer afford to be lukewarm in our faith, or bound by the religious traditions of men. We must be delivered from every person, place or thing that hinders our fellowship with the True and Living God. Our hearts cry must be for more of the presence of the Lord. Our desire must be aligned with His desire to transform our minds and to conform us into the very image of Christ, by the Spirit of the Living God.

Hearing His Voice

The Father speaks to every individual in ways that are unique to the person. The more that we surrender to the Father’s will, the more He can use us. The more of our lives that we’re willing to surrender to God the more of His life will be manifested through us. When we let go of whatever keeps us from drawing closer to Him, He takes control and claims new territory, within our hearts, for His Kingdom (Himself). Surrender is never simply for the one who surrenders, but for others who need the light of Christ and the revelation of His love for them. Surrender leads us to our God-ordained purpose and divine destiny.

The more time that we spend with God, the more we will recognize His voice. The more obedient we are to what He tells us to do, through His Word and His Spirit, the more He will trust us. The more trustworthy we are the more revelatory understanding God will grant us to know what He is doing, and is about to do on this earth and in our lives.

God Speaks!

God has been speaking since the beginning of time. God created us to communicate with us. The prophetic flow is God communicating His thoughts, desires, plans and purposes for His creation to those who are willing to hear His heart. In this present age, the Lord continues to release fresh revelations of His plans, purposes and will to those with ears, and a desire, to hear what He has to say.

We enter into the prophetic flow of Life and Truth as we: (1) listen to the Living Word of the Living God, and (2) as we submit to the direction, or leading, of the Holy Spirit through that Word. God is longing for those who are willing to draw closer to His heart, listen to His voice, and carry His heart to those He wants to touch in this earthly realm. We must hear what the Father is saying and do what He is telling us to do in this last hour.

New Breed

There is a new breed of Christian arising from the ashes which are the present-day church. These will be on fire for the Kingdom of God and will no longer be content to “play” church, but to be the church. “You are God’s house, you are God’s building.” These have a passionate hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness and God’s Words. These carry the seed of His Word in the womb of their spirit, to birth forth the Lord’s will and purposes in this earth. These will not turn aside to the left, or to the right, but their hearts are fully surrendered to the Master and their spirits are completely yielded to the leading of His Spirit. Their hearts beat with His, for they have surrendered the whole of themselves to the Master, without reservation or hesitation. These seek the glory of the Lord and are crossing over to new realms of revelation concerning the Father’s will and ways. These have shifted into supernatural realms (supernatural provision, protection, and revelation), the heights of which are beyond finite human reasoning or the sense realm.

What is Holiness?

"Be holy for I am holy." - 1 Peter 1:16

The LORD our God is holy. He tells His people to be holy, as He is holy, in the Old and the New Testaments. What does it mean to be "holy"? How are we, as mere mortals, to become as holy as our God?

The Hebrew word for "holy" is qadash. It is defined as clean, pure, consecrated, or dedicated. Many Christians have interpreted this definition as something that we do externally. However, while holiness may be manifested externally, it is more a state of being that is an internal (i.e., in our hearts, our minds, our souls and our spirits) reality.

Consider our Lord's discourse with the Scribes and Pharisees, during His earthly ministry.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like white washed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. - Matthew 23:25-28

Jesus referred to many of the religious elite, of that time, as "hypocrites". They appeared to be religious on the outside because they did all the things that made onlookers believe that they were super spiritual, or religious, but it was only to gain the approval of man. God was not impressed! That may have been because they needed an inner transformation to become what they could only pretend to be externally.

The same holds true for the modern day "saint" of God. Holiness must first become an inner transformation that leads to an external reality.  That can only happen by the grace of God, as we submit and commit ourselves to Him to do the work, within each of us, that only He can do.

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but, as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." - 1 Peter 1:13-16