A Revival of "Being"

“Be ye” the words struck me as a knife, sticking in my heart, in my conscience, and in my spirit. I read it again over, and over, and over, as if it had been the first time I had read it and it’s profound meaning was just beyond my grasp.

BE, not merely the action of doing, fulfilling a task, performing a duty or accomplishing a goal; but the conduct of BEING, of existence, a way of life, the “conversation” of our living, the character of our survival in a world that is an opponent (not merely in opposition to, but IS an opponent, a contender). A change from verb to noun.

I know these things, I have read these things and heard these things preached before. Yet, now there is a different sound to the chord, a harmony in my heart that, though resounds familiar, strikes me with nuances of captivating pitch I had not REALLY perceived before. The quieter tones of the second soprano that blend so well with all the other sounds that it is barely distinguishable, yet without it the fullness of the chord is... missing something.

Yes, for many years the words of Hebrews 12 “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” has been a key verse in my heart: Lord, CORRECT ME!; Break me, Melt me, Mold me, Fill me; Teach me Thy ways, Oh Lord, lead me in Thy truth and teach me; cleanse me, O God, send a revival and start the work in me!; WASH me, purify my heart, renew my mind, keep me from frustrating your grace, lead me in the way that I should go. GOD, I want to buy from YOU gold refined in the fire, show me how! white garments to be covered with, and eye salve that I can see.

The winds came, the rain beat upon the house, it was shaken and the windows blew out, the roof tore off, the siding peeled away, a wall came crashing down, a tree fell upon the house breaking another wall; but the foundation that is so sure stayed strong, the river did not overwhelm it, and the fire did not consume it. And though battered...... it was not completely destroyed. Yes, there was plenty of rubble to be disposed of, plenty of weeds to be removed, plenty of clean up, of restoration, of sturdier walls to be built by the Master Craftsman, better doorways and windows, gates and fences (outer walls) to be replaced. The Master knows just how to build, He alone can take the marred vessel, as Master Potter, and make it into what HE wants it to BE.

Revive Your people into a state of being that belongs to YOU, alone. Whatever it takes.

BE YE
therefore followers of God as dear Children. and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us...
... not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is
doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves
also patient; establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh
holy as I am Holy
all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous
But the end of all things is at hand; BE YE therefore sober, and watch unto prayer
(just a few be ye’s)

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), proving what is acceptable to the Lord.......
Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light’
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is....
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting to one another in the fear of God.”

"And He beheld them and said, 'What is this then that is written, "The stone that the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner"?
Whomsoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."

Lord, may WE not wait for that great Rock to grind us to powder; but may we fall upon that stone and be broken. As that same grace that would break us would rebuild us, renew us, restore us, REVIVE us into [u]dear children of God[/u]!

That the world may see the reflection of the Son in the face of His beloved, His body; that they may see our love for one another; that they may see our honesty about our own inability to DO the work of God; but the GREAT ability of GOD to DO in us what we can not do for ourselves, what is impossible for us to grasp with our own hands...... to MAKE us into the image of His own Son!

That by BEING His people, His body, His ambassadors we will impact those around us with the love and grace of our great God!!!

Love in Christ!

RE: Bread
"Jesus answered thema nd said, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.....

This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent....

For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world...

He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst...."

Spiritual BREAD indeed! AMEN!

May we all be willing to give HIM our loaves and fishes that HE would do according to His good pleasure!

Thank you for the post!

Love in Christ,
Lori

Break Thou The Bread of Life:
Mary Artemia Lathbury 1877 St.1&2
Alexander Grove 1843 St.3

Break Thou the bread of life, Dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;
My spirit pants for Thee, O Living Word!

Bless Thou the truth, revealed this day to me,
As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee;
Then shall all bondage cease,All fetters fall;
And I shall find in THee My All in All!

Spirit and life are they, words Thou dost speak:
I hasten to obey, but I am weak;
Thou art my only help, Thou art my life;
Heeding Thy holy Word I win the strife.

[i][b]Beyond the sacred page[/b][/i], more than simply a reading of spiritual verbage that does no profit to the reader.... But words of [b]life[/b] that when ingested change us into His likeness!

I often wonder if as the children of Israel gathered their manna for the day, every day (save the consecrated day in which they were to have gathered double from the day before per God's command); and if they tried to save it, to eat leftovers the food then stank and was full of worms, how good is the bread I had from yesterday? Last year? Ten years ago?.

I know that it is good to consider the wonderful bread of yesterday, but the most nutritious, best for consuming bread must be day by day; lest the staleness of the old bread become your standard!

"I am that bread of life." John 6:48

When once the bread of life becomes our life, when the Prince of peace IS our peace, when the Savior is our ONLY means of Salvation, when every breath I breathe comes from the hand of God ALONE;
When no other love is as dear as that love which comes from God through His Son; oh how different the view of this life!

There will always be strife, as we are in the midst of a war. Yet, when I see that the end, the answer to ALL my tears, ALL my HOPES, ALL my prayers is to SEE HIM, to BE with Him, to unhindered by any human weakness [i]BLESS His HOLY name[/i]; what else would there be in this life that would hold more sweetness in it? What corroded piece of metal could I wish to hold? What moth eaten piece of fabric?

[b]oh, how we need the revival of SEEING properly! [/b]
OH, how we need the longing of our first love REVIVED!!
WE NEED a revival of tears, not tears for the sake of some emotional outburst; rather the heart felt, broken, humiliated view of ourselves as the weak, selfish, indifferent, slaves to flesh and sin that we are!
WE, all myself included in every word, NEED to have the fire of the HOLY Spirit revive in us a LOVE for the Word, a heart trained in RIGHTEOUS practices, a LOVE for our brother and sister, a LOVE for the lost and dying all around us, hear that will hear and OBEY the Word that we have heard!

Numbers, crowds, stadiums, filled out visitation cards DO NOT matter! All that matters is that WE have the fresh taste of the Bread of Life in our mouth, that when we speak those whom the Lord has drawn hear, will respond!

Wicked men will grow worse and worse deceiving an being deceived, can you stop it? I think not. You BE the light that reproves when it shines, walk as children of light, get the mote of our eyes, be humble and willing to yield, the truth will shine forth!

Do you weep over the enemies of the cross?
Do you weep over the hardness of mens hearts and minds?
Do you cry out to God for the mothers and fathers and children heading to hell?
[i][b]Brethren, pray that holy manna will be showered all around![/b][/i]

Please forgive me for my long post, and have patience with this weak member.

Love in Christ

Hi Lori,just finished reading your post.It sure is good to "read" your voice! A few quotes came to my mind as I read,
There is no greater power to move people for God than the example of a holy, godly life.
Robert Peterson
A holy life, governed by love, is the most powerful weapon on earth at God's disposal.
Keith Daniel
Instead of fretting and complaining about what the church should BE....BE THE THING that you would like to see.
My Father-in-law
Jim Murry

I would also like to add that I see at the heart of this ministry(sermonindex),a pure desire to see a revival of "being".I saw this reflected in the preaching that took place at the 2007 conference in Canton Ohio. It was very evident in the messages that I heard,that what we need is to be willing to let God have His way in us and that we need to be absolutely surrendered to God so that we can "BE" salt and light,so that the world isn't "throwing us out to be trampled on". It is as we receive the revelation of "BE ye followers" that we will have the impact that God intended for us to have on the world,and the church that so desperately needs revived. Compromising christianity (starting in the home),truly is the greatest tradgedy in the church,and the greatest stumbling block to the world!
bonni

HI Bonni!
Thank you for your posts, I appreciate them greatly!

It is as we receive the revelation of "BE ye followers" that we will have the impact that God intended for us to have on the world,and the church that so desperately needs revived.

Yes, no doubt we ALL need the eyes of our understanding opened up that we might see that we are not only followers, of some human form of religious tradition, or of some thought that originated in the heart of some "good" person; rather we are to be followers of God.

I guess that when once we are a born again Christian my previous sentence should be redundant. The issue seems to be that we are having trouble "seeing" properly, as "Seeing" and "Being" do seem to go hand in hand.

For how long have we desired to properly see ourselves in the light of God? and when once we [b]do[/b] see our sin, our error, the strength of our flesh, the pride of our own lives, the fear, the self protection and defense, the ability to criticize another and yet not be willing to recieve the same from another, doubt, on and on... so often we go through "soulical excercises" seeking to rid ourselves of what we determine is "wrong".

When the entire time God is simply desiring us to throw our hope and faith completely on Him, to receive the correction that comes from His hand (however that makes itself manifest) and just simply "trust and obey".

To me, it is the "as dear children" that seems so outside of the reach of we humans. We have hearts trained in covetous practices, we have so often been rebellious children, selfish children, peevish children, spoiled children, acting like children without proper reproof; that the revelation- the proper seeing of- "dear children" is an absolutely necessary part of becoming!

When once the simple day to day things in our lives [b]become[/b] the training, becomes the refining fires of our experience, becomes the Masters hand changing who we are; then we can have that:

what we need is to be willing to let God have His way in us and that we need to be absolutely surrendered to God so that we can "BE" salt and light,

I believe there are many who are doing just that, becoming, that is; and the more we "see", the more we trust, the more we lay aside those sins that easily beset us the more we will "become".

In this day of compromise, this day of great deception, this day of great sin we truly need to have as your signature quote is: the more we need to become like Christ Himself. Since we know that where sin abounds grace does much more abound- we recognize that there is an abundance of grace available to make us into what we need to be!

God Bless!
Love in Christ,
Lori

God is causing us to SEE that He truly does give us abundant grace so that we can BE. I thank God that He is so patient with us, even though we are not very patient with others and even with our own progress. It is our job to abide, and His job keep us and to conform us to the image of Christ.

Thank you Lori for this post it is very encouraging.
Love your sister,Bonni

bonni wrote:
God is causing us to SEE that He truly does give us abundant grace so that we can BE. I thank God that He is so patient with us, even though we are not very patient with others and even with our own progress. It is our job to abide, and His job keep us and to conform us to the image of Christ.

AMEN!!
I am thankful for that as well! I believe that as we pursue Christ, pursue correct vision, pursue abiding in THE VINE, then the fruit [b]will be[/b] as the article on this forum discussion by Johnathon Goforth suggests in the "Price of Revival" [b]will[/b] take place.

As our eyes will see what needs to be prayed for, prayed over and pray with the fervency of the Holy Spirit according to the will of God!

The Lord Jesus Christ will have the proper preeminence in our hearts and lives and will make an impact on those around us!

No idol will be sacred, but brought out to be destroyed, in full! (Break down every idol, cast out every foe, now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow!)

We will LOVE the Word of God and hold it in our hearts as a light unto our path, and have it in our mouths as words of grace to all!

And as one of our favorite books "The Power of the Spirit" by William Law continually confirms- we will by the power of the Spirit alone DO the will of God as we will BE what God ALONE has made us!!!

My dear sister, I am so thankful to have this place to have the opportunity to have long distance fellowship with you! It makes my heart QUITE glad!!

My love and prayers in Christ,
Lori