Honoring Spiritual Parents While Growing Beyond
Ron McGatlin
Multitudes of hungry grieving people are sensing two major faith foundations being shaken. They are becoming aware that the solid ground their parents stood on is coming apart as great cracks appear from the tearing force of the great shaking of transition and transformation.
In their spirits they have seen a new land - a clean, pure land filled with the fresh, clear water of real holiness - a land of precious life arising from within them and flowing around them as peace and pure joy - a land without corruption and strife - a land where children are loved and reared in holy tenderness - a land where love fills the atmosphere like oxygen charging their hearts with energy of holy life - a land illuminated with the glory of God and no darkness prevails.
These hungering people have tasted life in the presence of God in outpourings of the Holy Spirit and cannot go back to life as before. They simply are desperate for more of the life they have tasted in the glory of God. Like the disciples gathered in the upper room at Pentecost in a moment of time, the Holy Spirit has come upon and within them, and the fire of God has supercharged everything regarding their faith and life.
The first foundation giving way is their dependence and trust in the church of their parents that they grew up in. Spiritual eyes are opening to the empty liturgy and forms of the dead or lukewarm church systems that their faith has rested in. Even many of those in which Pentecostal life has come are being exposed as a mixture containing both God’s works and the foolishness of men. Unbridled merchandising of the works of God is being exposed to the people who have seen the new holy land in their spirits. Their foundation of church as they have known it is crumbling before their eyes and causing great grief as many as the blessed, time-honored traditions are falling upon the alter of holiness and kingdom reality. The pure Ekklesia of God is coming together in spots here and there.
The second foundation crumbling is the strength of man, especially the dependency and trust in men finding solutions to solve all problems and bring pleasurable living. The trust in education to train the natural minds of people to discover marvelous scientific solutions and develop tools and weapons beyond what we could have imagined a few decades ago is failing to be a suitable foundation for life. The foundation of trust in the strengths and wisdom of men has produced haughty, proud, and lofty people at enmity with God. The foundation of trusting in man’s strength and earthly wisdom is falling with a frightening crashing sound sending the smoke of its destruction toward heaven. Human governments in which we have trusted are failing as strife and corruption erodes even the best of them. The great economies that made us rich are crumbling.
Honor Your Spiritual Parents
Eph 6:2-3: "Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth."
The temptation is to be less than honoring to the church systems and mixtures that God has used to bring many of us into knowledge of the Bible and the basic faith in Jesus as Savior. Even those who have helped us move into a greater experience in the Holy Spirit and then are uncovered as mixtures are to be honored for the works of God that flowed though them. We will not do well if we do not honor our parents and in so doing despise the works of God. We should despise the foolishness of men that was in them but must make a distinction. We must honor our parents and grow past where they were to enter the pure holy land of the reality of the kingdom of God that is before us. We must love and follow Jesus more than our parents.
Mat 10:37: He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.
The foundation of human education, endeavor, and accomplishment must also be honored as it has parented us and provided much to spread the gospel of the kingdom. Only by the God-given abilities given to man can he do anything. Yes, it was filled with the mixture of the blessings of God and the foolishness of lofty pride, greed, and lust of men. However, many of us, especially those like me who are older, would not even be alive without the works of medicine that has prolonged our lives. Without the scientific advances of the past decades you could not even be reading this electronic communication. Marvelous life-saving and communication tools are just a small part of what God has allowed the minds of men to bring forth.
Is it that God wanted me and you to be alive and wanted us to have these means of instant communication to bring forth the gospel of the kingdom to the world?
In many countries the government has provided a safe environment for the preaching of the word of God and reasonable safety to worship God. The past strong economies of the western world have provided funds to spread the gospel to the world. Yet, the corruption is there. Yielding to the temptation to despise and not honor our parents will not be good for us. Honor our parents for the good works of God that have been provided and despise the shame.
Natural parents pass away and the children live on to parent the next generation. So it is also in the spiritual. In this season of restoration and transformation, greater ways of God are being revealed and imparted. The passing of the old is part of making room for the glorious kingdom of God-life to grow into the land.
We honor the parents of the past and move onward into increased holiness and purity of God that allows the love and power of God to flow to the world proclaiming the glorious kingdom of God with signs and wonders. We must place our faith and trust into the only true foundation of life, Christ Jesus the Lord and King. There is no mixture in the kingdom of God, and there is no one who enters the New Jerusalem lifestyle that defiles.
Rev 21:27: But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie.
The godly people of each generation since the beginning of the reformation from the dark ages have been freer and less affected by the darkness of the past than the previous generation of God’s people. There has been a continuing movement through layers of revelation and restoration of the things of God and His kingdom. However, at the same time there has been, at least in recent centuries, a movement of the ungodly secular world into increased darkness and evil ways which, has also infiltrated the church systems.
Todd Bentley and The Lakeland Outpouring
At this particular moment in time, one of the most talked about and most controversial movements of God is playing out through the media of God TV around the world from Lakeland, Florida. Todd Bentley who leads this work has recently made a significant move to link to and honor those he considers to be spiritual parents of the past several decades of revival and renewal.
Never before in my long lifetime has there been more worldwide awareness and more controversy including some strong bitter criticism against a move of God. Perhaps one reason for this is that along with the supernatural manifest presence of God bringing notable miracles and healings, there is a mixture of the old ways of the past that are not yet cleansed in this powerful work that is yet tied too closely to the parents.
The powerful anointing is real and definitely from God. However, the mixture stuff is from the passing system that God has allowed in the past but that is NOT from Him. The power anointing and presence of God flowing in Lakeland meetings is purely God and is rolling across the land carrying the glory of God like a tsunami. Also like a tsunami there is much debris and trash that comes with the powerful wave as it disrupts and changes the landscape.
(I don't use the phrase "in my opinion" very often but, in this next statement I feel it must be qualified with that phrase.) In my opinion, this will probably be the last major move of God from the systems of mixture. Somewhat like a last grand finale sweeping the world and flowing through the existing channels for the last great move of the passing church age. Todd and the work of God at Lakeland that is spreading to the world are greatly used of God in bringing a great awareness and impartation of faith in the supernatural power of God. However, this is NOT the pure holy kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. It is not the pure and holy Ekklesia, but is a fresh fire contained in the old framework. (end of my opinion and back to prophetic)
There is an element of honoring parents that is important to note in all that is going on at Lakeland. God desires that we honor our parents. He has worked through the past fathers even though they were not perfected. If we allow anything to cause us to dishonor our parents, it will not be well with us. We honor the works of God flowing through all the fathers of faith including those from the early reformation until this present day of continuing restoration and transformation. However, we must press on toward the pure and holy kingdom of heaven life on earth.
The true Ekklesia is forming at ground level and can be greatly enhanced by receiving the powerful anointing from the mixed revival that is among us today. Grab the God part, and carry it to the pure and holy reality of Holy Spirit-led, powerful ministry in house churches, small groups, large groups, and spontaneous worship venues that can draw thousands into holy worship and powerful praise. Learn to worship, praise, and move in miracle anointing from the great move of the current revival.
Again, the revival anointing is from God; the system stuff is not. Make the distinction, and do not be drawn after any man back into the passing systems of men. Follow Christ Jesus in any person as far as you can see Christ flowing in them. Follow the love and the powerful presence of God. Where there is not His love and presence do not go.
Become carriers of the revival anointing and the light of God into every dark corner of secularism and religion in your area. Receive the FIRE and move out to show forth Christ and preach the gospel of the kingdom to the person next to you in demonstration of love and power.
There is a vast difference between false and mixture. If it is a mixture due to immaturity or incomplete reformation, then it is part God and the contamination may be removed by receiving the next layer of revelation and reformation from God. Only those who have moved into the next layer will clearly see the mixture from the past in a person or ministry.
False, on the other hand, has its origin in the enemy and is some form of occult sorcery or witchcraft. Calling a move false implies there is nothing of God in it, and it is not a work in process but a lying deception usually a counterfeit made to look like the real.
False is a key word used by the enemy to perpetrate his lies against the moves of love and power of God that are threatening to destroy forever the enemy's hold on the earth. His powerful tool of religion and all his works of fear, lust, and pride are endangered by the tsunami of God's Spirit upon a hungry people worldwide. The great transition is here, and it is real. Move with holy fire and love and by it first change yourself, your family, your neighbor, and it will multiply to the villages, towns, and cities of the world. Do not be deterred, and do not be slowed by the screams of the enemy that says all is false.
I say again. Receive the fresh fire anointing but DO NOT REPLICATE the wineskin and trappings of the past in your pure, holy hearts and ministries. Receive and bless the people and the anointing of God flowing within the revivals, but discern the wineskin and leave it there. Take the anointing, take the fire, take the power into your hearts and lives and continue to follow Christ as your King and Head. Continue to relate to your Heavenly Father, and do not follow another. Follow any person as far as you see Christ the Shepherd, but do not follow the ways of religion and the fallen world in any person. God is doing a NEW THING - at least new to us. True holiness, true righteous living, true miracle working power, true unconditional love, and true kingdom of heaven reality coming forth on earth at ground level or in some cases underground.
Be crucified and live. There is no resurrection except there first be a death.
If we stop to debate we will be late.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin
Glory Or Glitter
Ron McGatlin
A great transition is in process. This glorious worldwide change began two millennia ago in Christ Jesus. It is now, in this current millennium, culminating in the raising up of many pure holy sons of God in whom the Spirit of Christ is manifesting into the world - sons who endure their personal cross to enter into resurrection life and show forth the radiance of the glory of God. These sons are men and women who thunder the holy words of God from heaven with supernatural demonstration of His love and power. They are sent to turn the nations from seeking the glitter of self-life to seeking the GLORY of God and His kingdom reality.
Behind the leadership of America the western world has largely gone for the glitter of self-fulfillment and pleasure seeking. Worship of the created has supplanted the worship of the Creator. The great illusionist continues to divert and turn aside multitudes of deluded reprobate people given over to their own foolishness. The glitter of human endeavor and pleasure has allured nations into a carnival fun house lifestyle of lies and deception which, in reality, is a despicable den of seething darkness.
Selfish pride of life and lust for the pleasures of satisfying base human desires of the creature without due concern for the Creator has separated most of the western world from God. The ways of heaven have become foreign to multitudes including many that call themselves Christians but live as aliens to God.
Powerless, man-focused church structures have been taken over by the same deception and are of no value in turning the people and nations back to God. On the contrary, the pseudo Christian views of accepting the ways of the fallen world of enticing people by feeding their desires for pleasure and self-fulfillment are robbing God’s people of the potential of a true experience of heaven’s ways of life. Religious church infiltrated by the fallen world’s ways has become a massive stumbling block for people seeking the reality of God.
In the midst of great darkness a bright light is emerging.
God will have a people of HIS GLORY. The glory of God shall cover the earth. There will be a sea of people of God filled with His glory carrying the light of heaven exposing every den of darkness and bringing forth the light of heaven in every heart and life of every person who remains beyond the cleansing shaking of God.
God is now preparing a nation within nations. A people of His glory filled with the life of Christ Jesus empowered from heaven by the Holy Spirit – a people without fear - a people of purity, holiness, and powerful humility - a people without regard for the fallen world who hear and obey only their God – a people in whom there is no dependence on man and no independence from God. True sons of God are being prepared to lead the world into the fullness of the kingdom of God.
There is no question that the sons of God are manifesting. The question is who will these people of God be? Are you one? Am I one? Who are these hidden people who will arise amidst the darkness that is covering the nations to carry the light to those who sit in darkness? Who will be the ones who call out and receive the people abiding in dens of seething darkness? Who will be the harvesters of the harvest of God? Who will be the ones to enter the New Jerusalem City of God to rule and reign with Him? Who will be the ones to sit at His table and commune daily with Him in the midst of His glory? Do you really want to know? It is those who are doing it now.
Wake up people! Those who name His name, AWAKEN!
Arise, shine, For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you (Isa 60:1).
Jesus has returned to live in your heart – the Holy Spirit has come to you - the same God who created all life and all matter dwells with you. The same God that by His emanating power causes all things to exist abides in you. In our day the supernatural power of God is flowing through His people to cleanse, heal, and deliver the people who are now sitting in great darkness.
Mat 4:16-17: The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.
Isa 60:1-5: Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather together, they come to you; Your sons shall come from afar, And your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you shall see and become radiant, And your heart shall swell with joy; Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.
The radiance of the glory of God is so bright that it overpowers and exposes the glitter of self- indulgent pleasure seeking as darkness. The glitter of flesh-enhanced “worship” and man-focused preaching does not compare to the pure, holy glory of God. Man-made glitter does not compare to the beauty of a consecrated life filled with His love, humility, self-sacrifice, true righteousness, peace, and joy of the Lord. The glory of His presence causes all else to become as shadows. To know Him intimately is more than all the world has to offer. True kingdom is being birthed in the hearts of devoted servants who become sons in service and the King’s Bride in intimacy.
There is no other ultimate purpose in life. This is the reason we were made. The reason we were born and the purpose of our remaining on this small planet called Earth. There is no complete fulfillment in life beyond becoming the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Total rest and satisfaction is only in knowing Him intimately and becoming a carrier of His glory on earth – a clear reflection and reality of the life of Christ Jesus. This is the field of great treasure and the one perfect pearl of life for which we gladly sell all that we have to purchase.
Many people desire this life and cannot obtain it. Many sense the beauties of holiness in the real kingdom, and. though it is rare on earth, they may see it in another person or family. They may exclaim, “Oh how beautiful – how peaceful and joyful; I want that for me and my family.” However, when they discover the cost of selling all they have, all their glitter, all they have striven to gain, and all that gives them their earthly reputation and provision – all that their flesh enjoys, then they are NOT willing to sell all and they walk away from the glory of God.
Surely, it is the mercy of God that allows all their glitter, all their earthly accomplishments, and all in which their flesh takes pleasure to be utterly destroyed before their eyes. In this great time of loss and painful shaking many who have previously seen but turned away may turn back with their whole hearts to seek the true life in the kingdom of God. Others will blame God for their loss and curse Him. The God cursers are even now attempting to rid their nations of God and destroy His people. They will become even more inflamed against God and His people as the day of their end approaches.
Mat 23:37-38: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate.”
Rev 9:18: By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed; by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone…..
Rev 9:20-21: But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Rev 6:15-17: And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
Isa 2:11-12: The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, And the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up; And it shall be brought low.
Beyond the great shakings of cleansing of the earth, the great governing city of God and His people will come into full view to rule the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. God and His holy Bride will flow the light of the government of Christ Jesus over all the world, and the kingdoms of earth will have become the kingdoms of our Lord (Rev 11:15). Amen.
Rev 21:2-5: Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
This is not a far distant pie in the sky thing. This is available now within all who sell all to come to Him with their whole hearts. The New Jerusalem lifestyle must be within before it flows out to the world. We are the generation of the refiners fire of God coming down preparing a people to overcome the gods of this world – to retake the land of the living in the love and power of God to heal the broken, strengthen the weak, deliver the bound, proclaim the opening of the prison, the recovery of sight to the blind – to destroy the works of spiritual blindness, darkness, deception and delusion – to raise to life those trapped in spiritual death separated from their God.
Isa 61:1-4: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.
Keep on pursuing love.
It never fails.
Ron McGatlin