PART 12C
JANUARY 2014
THE STAFF AND SWORD MINISTRY
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"BEHOLD, I GIVE YOU POWER..." (Luke 10:19) by Nancy-TONI Younghrandt It is interesting to see how the Holy Spirit works at different times in revealing what Jesus would have me bring focus to in these articles. Sometimes, most of the time, the Spirit of God is direct and gives me a clear word or quickening to know what the main point should be, and then proceeds to help me draw out how best to explain what it means to me and what
all Jesus has shown me to back it up. This time, however, it was more of a journey of getting a piece here, a piece there, and lastly bringing me to see the bigger picture. It started when I was led to ponder how God lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and finally into the Promised Land, each time moving mightily by His Power to ensure safe
passage and provision of all their needs, with a tight focus on how God literally removed all obstacles from their path. The most impressive of those obstacles being large bodies of water like the Red Sea and the River Jordan, both parted miraculously by God so the people could pass over dry land as they left Egypt and then as they entered the Land God had for them.
The Spirit of God then brought to mind how in the New Testament, Jesus walked on the water. This got me to ponder why did He do that so specifically? Is there a particular point being made here with these two situations? At first my focus went to the water. What does the water signify? How does it relate to our walk in Christ today? Well, to me, the Promise Land' is a closer relationship with Jesus, being one with Him, and manifesting His Spirit, even Christ Himself, more fully and completely, according to God's Will and Plan. Therefore, the water represents any obstacle between Him and me. It could be demonic resistance, carnality, the flesh, unbelief, jealousy/envy, or a particular struggle or trail standing between us and Jesus Christ. It's going to be different for each of us and yet the message is clear: these things are NOT obstacles to God.
PAGE 2 MANIFESTING CHRIST - "BEHOLD, I GIVE UNTO POWER" January 2014 Then the Lord showed me the bigger point: that in the Old Testament/Old Covenant relationship God had with His people, God moved through Moses and Joshua (with the Ark of the Covenant) to move these bodies of water out of the way of God's people. God's Power here is evident and mighty but also removed from mankind, except for Moses and Joshua. Then we look at Jesus walking on the water. Here God is revealing that through Christ Jesus, that not only is nothing an obstacle to God, but that through Christ we too can have power over all that is in this world. Not only will God remove obstacles for us, but He has made a way through His Son where we too are able to have power over — to be able to rise above and walk over — the power of the enemy, the carnality of this world, the troubles of this life, and walk in Jesus' victory over sin and death. With Jesus, God's power was no longer something "out there", far removed from us, coming down from above. But rather it became quite personal. With Jesus, He became the embodiment of our connection with God and His Power. Suddenly, through Jesus, what was far removed became accessible, became attainable, even part of our inheritance as a son of God. God was bringing all of His children into the picture in a new and exciting way then and now.
CHRIST - THE POWER OF GOD If you believe in God, as we do, you should know and accept that He is the ultimate power in Creation. He created all things and it is from Him that all life comes. Throughout the Old Testament we see God trying to have a relationship with mankind but generally being hindered in that relationship by mankind's own reluctance to deal with sin and to do what was necessary to be able to be in the presence of God, as seen in the story of Moses and the Exodus. Many of God's people didn't want God to be too close to them, but rather preferred to keep Him at arm's length — to keep an external relationship with God — and so He related with them accordingly. Fortunately for us, God was not content with this arrangement and sent His only begotten Son to be as one of us, to die for our sins and therefore provide a way for us to relate to God personally through Jesus Christ. Jesus became the direct representative of God, His Spirit and His Power. Christ is the Power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:24) In Matthew 9:6, Jesus explains that He literally has the power to forgive sins and in Matthew 28:18, He says that "ALL POWER IS GIVEN TO ME (Jesus) INHEA PEN
AND EARTH." From there, Jesus went on to share that power with the 12 disciples. It says in Mark 3:1215, "And He ordained twelve, that they should be with Him, and that He might send
them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: ".
PAGE 3 MANIFESTING CHRIST - "BEHOLD, I GIVE UNTO POWER" January 2014 CHRIST — THE POWER OF GOD continued And in Luke 10:19 Jesus said, "BEHOLD, I GIVE UNTO YOU POWER TO TREAD
ON SERPENTS AND SCORPIONS, AND OVER ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY: AND NOTHING SHALL BY ANY MEANS HURT YOU." Through Christ has come the ultimate victory, the ultimate power, made accessible to us individually. Through Christ, suddenly nothing can stand in our way. Nothing can separate us from God and His Love and His Promises for us. It is like Paul wrote in Romans 8:35, 38-39 — " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? .... For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" To me, this applies to more than just God's Love, but rather God Himself. God's love is the key and gateway to entering into all that God has for us -- our own Promise Land, if you will. The Promise Land being the fullness of Christ manifested in us as sons of God, being and doing all God has for us. After all, did not Jesus say in John 14:12-14:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on meg the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto My Father. And whatsoever y e shall ask in Mv name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it_"
The reason I share these Scriptures here are to help bring home the point that the Holy Spirit has put on my heart, and that is that God, through Christ, wants us to participate and be active members of Christ's Body, and not just sit back and wait for God to do everything Himself, apart from us. In John 1:12 it says, "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of Go d, even to them that believe on His name:"
As sons of God, we have an inheritance waiting for us, of which we can partake of through Christ. I see that inheritance this way. We can be one of two types of children — we can be like a child with a rich father whom we are just waiting upon, to give us our share, behaving in a spoiled, ungrateful, lazy, and self-absorbed manner. Or we can be the kind of son who loves and respects his or her Father and wants to learn the Family Business. We can seek to be like our Father and our older Brother, Jesus, and learn what He knows, to do as He does, who serves the Father and seeks to do His will in all things.
PAGE 4 MANIFESTING CHRIST - "BEHOLD, I GIVE UNTO POWER" January 2014 CHRIST — THE POWER OF GOD continued It is also the whole point of taking Communion. We are meant to partake of and take into our own beings Jesus Christ, His Being, His sacrifice, His everything, including His Power. So what keeps us from doing that as fully as possible? Well, I believe that the biggest reason is FEAR, with a close second being unbelief
FEAR AND UNBELIEF - OUR BIGGEST ENEMIES There are no doubt many examples in the Bible that will substantiate this statement that our biggest enemies are fear and unbelief but for this article, let's stick with events and reactions of those actually involved in the Exodus from Egypt, and then entering the Land of Canaan, the Promise Land for them, and then the time when Jesus walked on the water. Let us begin by looking at the Old Testament account. Here we see the tribes of Israel, having been brought through the Red Sea with the Lord not only going "before them by day in pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night." (Exodus 13:21); but also constantly providing for them and giving them direction in miraculous ways while they journeyed through the wilderness. By the time they reached the border to the Promised Land they certainly should have had no reason to doubt God and His Hand on their lives. It was at this time, that Moses commanded that a representative of each of the 12 tribes would go forth to spy out the land. Of these 12 spies, Caleb was one, with a few others including Joshua. They were to go forth and report back just what it was like over there. Was it good land? Was there wood? Were there grapes, and therefore good ground for growing things? Should they go and take this land or not? Well, their reaction upon returning is most enlightening. The majority were quick to report that they had spied out the land and that is was indeed "flowing with milk and honey" (Numbers 13:27), BUT - here it comes —the people are too strong and the cities are walled, basically they cry, "They are too much for us!" This, no doubt, really stirred up the people with fear, for it says in verse 30 that "Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." This in turn caused the rest of the men who spied out the land to stand stronger in their position and say in Numbers 13:31-33 — "... 'We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.' And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, `The land, ... is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof: and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight grasshoppers..."
PAGE 5 MANIFESTING CHRIST - `BEHOLD, I GIVE UNTO POWER" January 2014 FEAR AND UNBELIEF — OUR BIGGEST ENEMIES continued From there the people of Israel were only more stirred up, even wishing they were back
in Egypt. This grieved Joshua and Caleb, causing them to speak one more time, trying to encourage the people by saying, "... The land ... is an exceeding good land. If the Lord
delight in us, then He will bring us into the land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the
people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: FEAR THEM NOT." (Numbers 14:7-9) Unfortunately, the people did not rise to the occasion but rather took stones to stone them when the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. To say God was angry is an understatement. God had had it, and was ready to smite them, to disinherit them, and make a nation from a different people altogether. However, Moses interceded and brought God around to where God wouldn't go that far, but He also made it plain that those who rebelled, these who didn't believe in God's ability to help them possess the Promised Land after all He had done for them; these who were so fearful as to give their enemies more power over their lives than God, which caused them to rebel: these would NOT enter the Promised Land but would die in the wilderness. Only Caleb (of the 12 spies) would enter in "because he had another Spirit with him
(God's Spirit), and hath followed Me (God) fully, him will I (God) bring into the land whereunto he went: and his seed shall possess it." (Numbers 14:24) Now let's jump ahead to Jesus' time and when He walked on the water. Here we see in Matthew 14:22-33 that Jesus has His disciples, again 12 representatives, take a ship and go before Jesus to the other side of the sea, while He went up into a mountain alone to pray. Then evening came and with it some windy weather. The ship is now in the midst of the sea being tossed with waves. Scripture tells us it was then, in the "fourth watch", while the ship was being tossed to and fro by high waves, that Jesus goes out to them, walking on the water. And when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, what was their first reaction? FEAR. It says "they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. " (Matthew 14:26) Perhaps this may seem like an understandable response to something that unusual, but let's look at what happened next. Straightway Jesus reassures them that it is indeed Himself, saying,
"Be of good cheer; it is 1; be not afraid."
This works up to a point because Peter then asks the Lord, that if it be Him, "bid me
(Peter) come unto thee on the water. "One thing I never thought about before was why was it only Peter who wanted to go out to Jesus? There is absolutely no indication that any ofthe other I I disciples or who else was on that ship, sought to join Jesus. Like Caleb, Peter is the only one of the 12 willing to venture out. The others aren't willing to go to Jesus but likely out of fear, are preferring to stay in the safety of the ship for Jesus to come to them.
PAGE 6 MANIFESTING CHRIST-'BEHOLD, I GIVE UNTO POWER" January 2014 FEAR AND UNBELIEF — OUR BIGGEST ENEMIES continued In this they remind me of the people in Moses' time, unwilling, unbelieving and fearful to go forth to receive what God had for them. The other aspect of Peter's story that is an important reminder, is that we can't do it on our power. As long as we look to Jesus and are filled with His Faith, His Spirit, as we believe on Him, we can enter into His Promises. Without Jesus and God the Father, we will
fail. When God is for us, who or what can be against us? Nothing! Nothing can prevent us externally when Jesus is at the helm of our lives. As it says in 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
CHRIST - THE FIRST FRUITS Jesus Christ has done so much for us, and yet how little have we fully received on Him and all God purposes for us—myself included. The call I receive from the Spirit of God for all of us today is to not only press in closer to Jesus, but to receive from Him His Spirit and power in every aspect of our lives. Too many of us are hanging back and waiting for God to act in circumstances and situations that we ourselves have Christ's power and authority over. God through Christ has equipped us in ways that we are barely tapping into. Now is the time to seek the wisdom and leading of Jesus and His Spirit, to move more into what it means to be a son of God. As it says in Ephesians 3:16-20
"That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man , that Christ ma ydwell in our hearts b aith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, maybe able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, whichpaasseth knowledge. that ve might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, . .
And also in Colossians 1:9-14 Paul's prayer was this:
"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that _ye might bell/led with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; that ye might walk worth y of the Lord unto all pleasing, being faithful in every good work, and increasing in knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according too His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath
PAGE 7 MANIFESTING CHRIST - "BEHOLD, I GIVE UNTO POWER" January 2014 CHRIST -- THE FIRST FRUITS continued
made us meet to be pailakers of qf the inheritance o the saints ofli ht: Who hath delivered us from the pgjcer o darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom o ti his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. " Let us not forget what Paul also wrote in Ephesians 6:10-13 — " Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. " This is important. To be part of Jesus' Return, to be prepared and ready for His coming, the Body of Christ needs to be spiritually empowered to stand in Christ and withstand all the power of the enemy as Christ directs. When Jesus was born, just look at how the enemy moved to wipe out any potential threat to that happening. It didn't succeed but a lot of children were murdered in the process. We should expect to see no less from the enemy upon Jesus' Return. Why? Because in the end Lucifer, Satan and all their minions will lose. In the end, Christ Jesus will deliver up to God the kingdom after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power not of God. And to do this, Christ Jesus will not be alone, but those who belong to Him will be a part of this as well. It says this in I Corinthians 15:24-28. (I will quote the New International Version here as it is stated a little more clearly than the King James Version.)
"But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Him. Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For He `has put everything under His feet. 'Now when it says that `everything' has been put under Him, it is clear that this does not include God Himself, who put everything under Christ. When He has done this, then the Son Himself will be made subject to him who put everything under Him, so that God may be all in all. " There is no question, God wants us to be part of what He is doing. As Paul wrote, He has
"quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved,) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit to gether in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:5-6)
PAGE 8 MANIFESTING CHRIST - "BEHOLD, I GIVE UNTO POWER" January 2414 CHRIST — THE FIRST FRUITS continued We are not to be separate from God but, in the end, God wants to be all in all.
JESUS' WORD To Richard-DANIEL It is always wonderful to see how the Spirit of God works among His people. As I was wrapping this article up, we were sent a Word that Richard-DANIEL, one of this ministry's prophets, received with no prior knowledge of what I had been working on. This certainly came as a confirmation to me but more, another important piece of the revelation Jesus has been revealing to Chuck-JOHNEL and myself, as well as Jim-REPHAEL and Leith. JESUS' WORD of JANUARY 25, 2014 "DANIEL, THIS IS FOR YOU, AND IT IS FOR OTHERS WHO READ IT AND ARE SPIRITUALLY STIRRED BY WITNESS TO IT. ...PRAYER, SUPPLICATION, INTERCESSION AND SPIRITUAL EMPOWERMENT OF YOUR REDEMPTION IS NOW. LIVING AND BRINGING FORTH YOUR REDEEMER, SAVIOUR'S VICTORY OVER LUCIFER AND THE DEVIL, SATAN, IS THE WAY OF PREPARING FOR MY RETURN, JESUS CHRIST, YAHSHUAH H AMMASHIACK. REMEMBER MY ADMONISHMENT TO YOU IN MY WORDS TO PREPARE FOR MY RETURN. THIS IS HOW TO DO IT, AS I LEAD YOU. THE FULLEST POSSIBLE DEPTH OF PRAYER AND ITS POWER AND POSSIBILITIES IS LITTLE EXPERIENCED BY EVEN MY PRAYING ONES, LET ALONE THE CORPORATE BODY NAMING MY NAME THAT IS PRAYERLESS ON THE LEVEL THAT I REQUIRE AND WHAT IS BEST FOR THEM. YOU HAVE ONLY TOUCHED UPON ITS SWEETNESS AND JOY. NOW, AFTER YOUR HEART'S CRY TO `NOT COME UP SHORT' IN THIS LIFE, GOING BEYOND YOUR NEW HEART OF AGAPE AND MERCYICGMPASSION, I ANSWER THAT DEEP, DEEP CRY. COME NOW, ENTER-IN TO YOUR CLOSET AND BY MY SPIRIT, YOU WILL LEARN TO PRAY ON A LEVEL THAT YOU HAVE NOT TO THIS POINT. DANIEL, IT IS THROUGH PRAYER AND MY WORD THAT A MAN CAN FULLY KEEP AND LIVE JOHN 6:29. LET US NOW COMMENCE THIS WORK TOGETHER." Jesus Christ & Yahweh Abba C) a btcs a
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