Many I have talked with recently have had the same feeling in their spirits that something has shifted. There is an excitement stirring in the spirit realm. I asked God about it recently as I was talking with a friend. He had asked me if I felt it and knew what it was. What amazed me was the answer He gave me as I sought clarity.
- Love
Sometime around the mid 70’s to early 80’s God created a catalyst. An explosion in the spirit with enough raw power to create a momentum. The purpose at the time was not revealed, but what it started off with was a renewal of discovering God’s perfect love for his most prized creation. People. We started getting more revelation of His love for us in complete relationship with Him. As we discovered how much He loves us, we began to see how much He loves others in our discovery of our value and worth to Him.
“One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The lord our God is the one and only lord. And you must love the lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31 NLT)
As you can see, we can only love others at the measure we love ourselves. As we discover how much God loves us, our value and love for ourselves increases in capacity to then love others at this new greater measure.
- Power
The second movement that has come out of this catalyst has been an increase in His bride walking in His power regarding the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
“A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages,while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. “ (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)
As you can see, 9 categories of spiritual gifts were given. These include wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues, and interpretation of tongues. Similar lists appear in Ephesians 4:7-13 and Romans 12:3-8. The gifts of the Spirit are simply God enabling believers to do what He has called us to do. 2 Peter 1:3 says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” The gifts of the Holy Spirit are part of the “everything we need” to fulfill His purposes for our lives. Jesus did miracles and walked in power not only to help people, but to demonstrate who He is.
These gifts have increased in power and become more common-place than before as His bride has increased in her knowledge of her identity in Him as you will see below.
- Identity
God’s church has started more recently to slowly realize who she is and who’s she is. Once a believer begins to realize that they are called to walk in the authority of Christ, and their mindset begins to be renewed into that of Christ (Ephesians 4:23), we start to realize that we are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), and are called to do not only the things Jesus did, but to do greater things (John 14:12)! We are the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are slowly beginning to believe the truth that we are under the authority of God, but also are to walk in authority as we are His heirs though His bloodline. As a prince becomes a king, so are we to walk in confidence as His sons and daughters under His calling on our lives.
- The Great Awakening
So, as we have seen, Papa saw it fit to break off the old chains of religion, law, and bondage to slowly awaken His bride from her slumber. The lies the devil has told us have come into the light. We are now starting to walk under Love, Power, and Identity to show the world who Christ truly is. As we walk in Love, we demonstrate God’s love for people. As we walk in Power, we demonstrate Jesus is who He said He is. As we walk in identity, we show the world who He has called us to be in confidence, to display His majesty and righteousness to bring people into relationship with Him. This three-fold-cord is meant to continue to gain power and momentum to awaken His bride from her slumber, and to bring an exponential amount of people into a deeper relationship with Him. No longer are we boring, dull, or irrelevant as the world has slowly come to see us over the centuries, but they too will have their eyes opened to a God who loves them more than they ever thought possible.
