Box Canyons And Dead Ends
Ron McGatlin
God continues to release increased light in this time of shaking and change. Situations that we have viewed for a long time seem to be illuminated more clearly almost daily. It is like a cover is being removed and the view of the kingdom materializes in the people's vision. The pieces seem to come together with precision and clarity. Much that we have known and practiced is being shaken. It is being exposed as inaccurate or incomplete in light of the kingdom. Even some strong beliefs that the church in general has held on to for hundreds of years are being clearly exposed by the Holy Spirit and altered or replaced with kingdom truth. We are on an amazing journey and have reached a pivotal point in this spiritual journey that began in the first century.
Referring back to our previous analogy of the covered wagons crossing the USA to settle the west and our spiritual journey, the Spirit is speaking some things relative to making it through to the end of our journey to kingdom. There are enemy forces that will do all they can to stop people from participating in the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. The enemy employs many devious schemes using many snares and diversions to hinder or stop the people in their journey toward New Jerusalem lifestyle on earth. There is a strong resistance to the kingdom.
Mat 11:12: "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.”
Jesus Is the Way
Christ Jesus is the trail, the road, the highway that we must follow. He is the leadership that will guide us unto the Father and all He has promised. Jesus is the strength and the wisdom to make the journey into the kingdom of God lifestyle.
John 14:6: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
It is the Spirit of Christ living in us by the Holy Spirit that enables each of us to lay down our life to the death of our self-life and become one with God. Abiding in Christ and He abiding in us releases His resurrection life into us and through us.
Rom 8:9: ….the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Rom 8:11: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Rom 8:14: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Our journey involves the process of Christ in us overcoming our self-life and all that the enemy has planted into us of the fallen world’s ways. This is a journey we must willingly volunteer for and fully give our entire hearts and lives into.
Taking a Wrong Trail
Along the trail of life headed toward the kingdom of God lifestyle one of the devious schemes of the enemy is to cause us to take a wrong turn off the trail onto another. One of the most serious mistakes that can be made is to take a wrong turn into what looks like a good trail that appears to go in the direction of the desired destination. However, the end of it is a box canyon with steep walls in all directions leaving no way to move ahead. The only option is to turn around and go back to where the wrong turn was made. This can be a long journey of wasted time, strength and resources of life. The enemy will set up many spurious dead-end trails to divert travelers from their course.
If we follow any other trail other than Christ Jesus, we will not arrive at New Jerusalem the ruling city of the kingdom of God on earth. If we are following after a religion with its forms, rules, and future projections, we are not on the way to New Jerusalem. If we are led by political philosophies and agendas or worldly wisdom and natural reasoning, we are not moving toward the kingdom of God. If we follow after or seek anything first in our lives above the kingdom of God and His righteousness, we are on the wrong trail traveling into a box canyon and will arrive at a dead end.
The Religious Trail
Many believers have come to a place in their religious church experience where they say within themselves something like this, “There has got to me more. This can’t be all there is. There must be more to God than what I am experiencing.” They have come to the end of a box canyon and cannot move forward.
There journey may have begun on the right trail and started really well in coming to know Jesus as Savior and learning the Bible. It was exciting to hear of the love of God that caused Jesus to go to the cross to die to save us from our sin. Life got a lot better and fellowship was good. There was a fresh cleanness and sense of well-being at meetings. It was the time between the meetings when old sinful habits and fleshly desires wore away our goodness and caused us to slip again and again. Our focus was consumed with our daily battles and temptations.
Finally, for some of us after falling away and becoming in disfavor with our group we came into contact with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and received power to resist our temptations. Then we learned to praise and experience God’s presence in meetings and were thrilled with the joy of it.
Yet, we were still absorbed in ourselves, our joy, our healing, our sacrifices and eventually our ministry to others. We felt really alive when we ministered to others powerfully. So why in the world were we still not truly satisfied. How could it be that even in all this our thoughts were that there must be more than this? Still something was missing and we knew not what. Soon there was no place further to go and we cried out to God for more, more revival, more of His presence, something to help us with our lack of deep inner satisfaction.
We turned to other things to fulfill our needs for joy and satisfaction. Many turned to “acceptable” worldly pleasures and entertainment for excitement. Some turned to gathering worldly possessions and expensive toys. Some built big churches or big ministries with lots of prestige and great offerings. Many slipped into romantic involvements that brought temporary excitement. Soon every foolish, lustful, sinful practice of the fallen world was being perpetrated to restore excitement and pleasure to our lives. While we were doing it we were keeping up a Christian religious facade. Were we trying to replace the loss of the fresh exciting spiritual life of moving onward toward the real kingdom of God?
(Author’s note: I use the first person because I am part of the church and not altogether from personal experience.)
Of course, I know this was not exactly the same for everyone but in general many have lost vision and find the trail they were following has ended in a box canyon experience.
Moving back to following Christ Jesus and seeking the kingdom
All religion followed to its end leads to a place of being walled in on all sides. The early church began on the good trail to the kingdom of God. A wrong turn into religion was made not long after the first century apostles left the scene. There is both a church-wide many centuries old religious trail that departed from the trail of Christ Jesus and His gospel of the kingdom. There is also for many a current individual scenario taking place. Both of these have come to a dead end in a box canyon.
We have all been involved in this journey down the wrong trail. We are either yet in the canyon and moving toward the dead end wall or we have turned around and are coming back out. From this deep box canyon there is no view except straight up. Those who settle here can only wait for Jesus to come and lift them out to heaven. There is no view of Christ and His kingdom now on the earth available to those who settle in the canyon. As far as some can see this world is only a dead end. All hope for victorious life is in heaven after this life or in the bodily return of Christ to take them to heaven.
Some believe this world and all that is in it belongs to the devil. They are only waiting to die or for Jesus to come down and lift them from the dark box canyon of no hope for kingdom in this lifetime.
Others who would not settle have received great light that there is more but it cannot be seen over the religious canyon walls. The horizon is very near on three sides blocking the view. However, God has sent His messengers with the great news that there is a real kingdom beyond their limited horizon. This is one of the most glorious happenings of modern times. The glorious truth of the reality of intimate relationship with God and Christ Jesus as the way to the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven is being restored to the called out holy people of God. The bright light of the kingdom is again shining forth on earth and many are leaving the darkness and coming to the light.
The only way out of the box canyon is to turn around and go back down the trail until we reach the place where the wrong turn was made and get back on the right trail. Back to Jesus and out of religion. This means leaving behind much of what we had received while on the wrong trail. Like the journey into religion the journey out is made one step at the time. Without the Holy Spirit to comfort and empower us and bring increasing enlightenment of the kingdom we would not make the journey back to following Jesus and seeking the kingdom first.
The journey out can be more difficult than the journey into religion. For me personally it was like a death experience. Until I received the fresh light of the gospel of the kingdom, no one could have told me that portions of what I believed and taught had been derived from intellectual discernment of the Bible and doctrines of demons or traditions of men passed down from the ages of darkness through religious systems that functioned without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Much of what I had fought to defend and to keep pure was actually fallacious doctrines. The false teachers and false prophets I thought I was fighting against were no more false than much of what I had been taught and was teaching to others.
Back On the Right Trail
The view is awesome. The horizon is far away and the kingdom reality is in view and already functioning in our lives. There are no more walls of limitation. Life is no longer without purpose and is no longer about us or for our pleasure. It is all about Jesus and His pleasure. We are so fulfilled and our part in the kingdom becomes clear. We are a part of the Body of Christ bringing forth His kingdom to change the world. The power of God working within us causes our lives to be productive and a sense of significance in the work God gives us to do. Actively putting Christ and His kingdom first in our lives causes us to be humble servants with a sense of fullness, satisfaction and rest in our lives. His presence through the Spirit fills us with joy and even in persecution we are not beat down but fully at rest in Him.
Following Jesus and seeking the kingdom brings hope and victory into our lives no matter what our situation. We are strengthened to do the mighty works of God bringing hope to all who will receive.
Mat 11:29-30: "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Mat 6:33: "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Mat 6:10: Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
For more on the journey from religion to relationship in the kingdom, the Kingdom Growth Guides and other books are available on this site for free download.
Keep on pursuing love. It never fails and His kingdom never ends.
Ron McGatlin
Leaving On A Journey
Ron McGatlin
June 11, 2009
Many of God’s people are just now leaving on a journey that God has been preparing them for all of their lives. It is a spiritual journey that is manifested into the natural realm. It is first experienced in the spiritual and is worked out in the natural. Though the destination is not completely clear, enough is known about it to call us forward to seek to fully experience the promised destination of a greater new life. There is no turning back allowed on this journey.
Luke 9:62: But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
Not everyone who is going will make the journey at the same time. However, individuals should be led by the Spirit to gather in groups to make the final preparation and leave on the journey together. It would be very hard if not impossible to complete this journey alone. However, much of the individual’s initial preparation may be made with only the Lord as companionship and fellowship.
This is a journey from religion and religious systems to spiritual kingdom relationship – a journey from doing to being – from formality to reality – from part-time Christianity to full time oneness with God – from giving ten percent to being one hundred percent consumed in God – from living by the Spirit part time to walking in the Spirit every moment – from a life of saying we believe to experiencing the reality of God. This is a journey into a fresh new lifestyle that is empowered by an intimate love relationship with God and works out of us to impact and change the world around us.
I am reminded of the early settlers of America who left their native lands and established a new life in the eastern parts of the nation. Afterward, hearty pioneers set out in small groups of covered wagons to settle in the west. My own great, great grandfather came from Ireland to America and headed west up the old Oregon Trail and settled in the then wild-west country of Frankfort, Kansas. Our spiritual journey into the new land of kingdom of God living as pioneers and settlers can be compared to the pioneers and settlers of western America.
Everything that is not useful for the journey must be sold. The familiar home and all its furnishings will be left. The neighborhood and the friends that were treasured since youth who are not going on the journey are left behind. The places of treasured memories where couples fell in love and were married and where the children were baptized must be left behind. Even the memories will fade as a whole new reality is experienced on the journey. Many things that seemed so very vital and foundational to past life cannot make the journey and are left behind as a new landscape and new priorities come into being in the new life of transition to the new world.
One group after another will start the journey and then another and another until many are on the trail making their way toward the promise of a new life with God. There are many unknowns about the journey, but they do know that it can be very difficult at times with many perils.
The folks that are remaining in the old land often seek desperately to dissuade people from leaving on the journey. With sincere and loving concern, they warn of potential peril in traveling through wilderness areas toward a largely unknown destination. They sincerely believe that everything needed is there in the old land and even though corruption has invaded the people and threatens to bring them all into seasons of lack and loss of freedom, they still say it is better than leaving the known for the wilderness travels toward a promise only seen in the spiritual realm by spiritual eyes.
Yet the Spirit draws, and those who will follow God hear clearly the call to the new land - the spiritual city of life beyond all they have known before – life as it was intended to be from the beginning – a life completely free from sin and any of its results – a life in the presence of God as He walks among the people and fills their lives with the light of His glory. He will wipe away every tear caused by the sometimes painful experiences of leaving the past and the perilous wilderness journey.
A Spiritual Journey with Real Dangers and Unprecedented Rewards
The earliest travelers on this journey paid a great price and many did not make it through. They did blaze a trail as far as they made it, so that subsequent travelers can follow it to assist them in their journey. As more travelers travel the trail it is more clearly marked and improved. Each group may add some logs in a bog or discover a better river crossing. Some have left devastating monuments beside the trail of their burned-out, wrecked vehicles and shallow graves of those who were attacked and overcome by the enemy along the way.
Since the earliest pioneers there has been an increase of called-out ones selling out and journeying down the faint but increasingly marked trail. Only in the past few decades has there been a dramatic increase in those setting out on the potentially perilous journey. The call of God is reaching many more people including young people who desperately hunger for the promise of abiding in the presence of God in a holy place among holy people. The tragic weight of sin and its awful penalties have become an unbearable burden to these who are selling all, and with God-given strength and determination are leaving the past to make the journey. These are road builders who will prepare the way for the multitudes to come after them.
The trail will be made into a Highway for the masses who will make the journey behind them. Those leaving now are sent to prepare the way for the people of God to move from the past church-age mixtures into the pure and holy kingdom of God, New Jerusalem lifestyle. The road builders must have their personal valleys exalted and their mountains and hills made low within their own lives. They must have their crooked places made straight and their rough places made smooth. The highway is built as multitudes follow and become a straightened, smooth, and level highway of holiness for God.
Some of us are hearing the call, the voice crying in the wilderness.
Isa 40:3-5: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Leadership for the Journey
A new and different leadership is being formed for the transition. The new Leaders have traveled the trail and know the terrain. They are prepared, gifted, and sent to help lead the holy kingdom highway building.
The new leaders walk among the group and not above it. All are on the journey together. The new leaders have been further along the trail and experienced more brokenness, cleansing them from all the mixtures of the past.
Gifted apostles and prophets are sent by God for transitional leadership. These humble leaders have been emptied of self and the resurrection life of Jesus imparted into them by the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. Christ Jesus has unhindered free reign to flow into and through them. The supernatural works flowing through them are only surpassed by the presence of the wisdom of God that formed all creation and the love of God that overcomes evil in its presence.
Isa 35:8-10: A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, though a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
The End of the Journey
For each of us and collectively all of us, the end of the journey is fully becoming the Bride of Christ pictured as the New Jerusalem of God and ruling and reigning with Him in a renewed world transformed by His love, wisdom, and power.
Rev 21:9-10: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem,
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."
On a broader, worldwide scale beyond the journey of the highway of holiness people, the transition of the world will be catastrophic and cataclysmic as the pride and loftiness of man and all that lifts itself against God will be dissolved by fire and the land resettled by the holy, pure Bride of Christ people ruling and reigning with Christ. And of His kingdom there shall be no end.
Mat 13:41-43: "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Isa 9:7: Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Keep on pursuing love. It never fails
and His kingdom never ends.
Ron McGatlin
www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net