The Staff and The Sword Ministry Relationship Reports
RELATIONSHIP REPORTS February 1984 to January 1985 @ 2008
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By Chuck-JOHNEL Younybrandt
RELATIONSHIP
PARTI PROLOGUE INTRODUCTION In /ate 1983, the Holy Spirit gave me insights into our make-up as God's children. At that time, I began to write a series of reports discussing these insights-I was led of the Lord Jesus to title these reports the RELATIONSHIP REPORTS. Originally, I wrote the reports expressly for the intercessors of the Net of Prayer. Over the years, however, many others have found the reports helpful in their walk with the Lord Jesus.
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The Staff and The Sword Ministry Relationship Reports
I have offered the reports in print format for some years, but now I offer the reports here on The Staff and The Sword Ministry's website to any who would h'ke to read them. The reports are reproduced here in their entirety exactly as they appear in their print counterparts with two modifications: (1) the reports as presented here are divided into 15 parts (to accommodate additional prologue and introductory text) and (2) the reports contain some formatting changes to facih'tate ease of reading on the web. While I may update and add to the reports over time (the Lord is continually refim'ng and adding to my insights), I have elected share what I have with you now, rather than delay in posting the reports. Ipray that these reports bring you closer to Jesus in your walk with Him, just as so many others before you. As judgment approaches, our individual relationship with Jesus is crucial. God bless, Chuck-JOHNEL September 2, 2008
THE SECTION COMPONENTS As noted above, the Relationship Reports are divided into 15 parts. You can navigate to all of the parts from the RELATIONSHIP main page via the clickable navigational links provided at the bottom portion of that page. I present the list of the parts here for reference purposes only (the part titles listed below are not clickable links). Although the parts can be read in any order, you may find it helpful to read them in the order presented here: PART PART PART PART PART PART PART PART PART PART PART
1: PROLOGUE 2: ORIGINAL 1983 INTRODUCTION 3: HOWTO KNOWHIM 4: THE HOWEXPLAINED 5: THE APPEARANCE 6: SOUL INTERFERENCE 7: FIRES OF ACCUSATION: DYNAMICS OF SELF 8: GRACE WHO? 9: JESUS OUR FRIEND: BEING SAFE 1o: IMAGE MAKING: A BIBLICAL & A PERSONAL 11: THERE IS LOVE & "THERE IS LOVE"
PERSPECTIVE
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' ' ' '
PART 12: BALANCE PART 13: YIELDING PART 14: FAITH: THE HEART PART 15: THE LET GO HOLD
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The Staff and The Sword Ministry Relationship Reports
RELATIONSHIP REPORTS February 1984 to January 1985 @ 2008
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By Chuck-JOHNEL Younybrandt
RELATIONSHIP
PART 2 ORIGINAL 1983 INTRODUCTION
PREFACE Allow me, dear friends, to speak to you just as I am, a brother and friend in Christ Jesus. Some time ago, I had written saying this: if you prayed and fasted and did all the Lord asked of you, but in no wise did you come to know Jesus any better personally than you did before, you would have missed the most blessed part of being in the Net of Prayer.
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When you join the Net of Prayer, you become yoked in Love for others under Jesus' direction in your prayers, concerns, fasting, and intercessions-essentially you come under Jesus IN ALL THINGS!!! Make no mistake: it is not me, Chuck-JOHNEL, that you are yoked to, it is Jesus. I only deh'ver His Word.
BURDEN OF PRAYER Let's be plain here. It is a burden to pray, but it is also a joy. Thus, prayer is called a labor of love. Next, it takes a discipline of daily prayer to rightly pray at all and lastly each of us must be yielded to pray the way the Holy Spirit shows us to pray. It is not uncommon for me to wonder at times why we pray in certain ways, and if the choice were mine, I would pray about things other than the Lord shows me/us to pray about. Thus we learn, exercise, practice "Obedience, Discipline, Yieldedness" to the Spirit of God in the Net of Prayer. All this is a Holy Spirit preparation for something much greater; for while we pray on concerns that Jesus has, thus laboring in Love of Jesus, it also serves another Holy Spirit purpose. Through Obedience, Discipline, and Yieldedness we gain the opportunity to enter into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus Himself.
WHY DON'T YOU QUOTE MORE SCRIPTURE? I did years ago. But, Jesus showed me to speak plainly by His Spirit in everyday terms and to share the Scriptural basis later. Why? Long ago, when I shared Scriptures, I saw men had a literal blindness to the most obvious meaning where man's doctrines prevailed in their minds. They would see the meaning of any given Scripture through man's view of it and be unable to see the deeper real meaning of it. So Jesus showed me to use everyday language to convey the message and then would later provide the Scriptures to back it up. When Ihad deep insights into "IN THE SPIRIT" backin 1981, lincluded these insights in newsletters and reports at that time. However, it would not be until late 1982 that Jesus would show me Ezekiel 8:3 (one of a number of Scriptures that literally describes what He had given me and others to see), Even then, others could not accept it, even when the Bible clearly said the same as we had
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experienced. Again, it was man's doctrinal views that held God's children captive, even bound. Over and over, I asked myself-Why? Jesus made it clear, these did NOT know Him. Instead, they only knew of Him through men. Sadly, it was men they knew, not Jesus. Jesus' desire was that they should all come to know Him personally.
MORE TO COME But, this is only an introduction. Iwill be writing a series of reports on this subject from what I have personally experienced and from what the Lord leads me to write. I write these reports so that each of you may, in turn, gain from what I have learned as Jesus taught me. In the next report I will discuss HOWTO
KNOW JESUS. Here's a hint: "THE YOKE IS EASY!
God Bless, Chuck-JOHNEL
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The Staff and The Sword Ministry Relationship Reports
RELATIONSHIP REPORTS February 1984 to January 1985 @ 2008
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By Chuck-JOHNEL Younybrandt
RELATIONSHIP
PART 3 HOW TO KNOW HIM HOW TO KNOW HIM??? The big question is: HOW do we come to know Jesus personally? Well, you can get a thousand times a thousand ways/methods, systems, formulas, and more from men. However, the best way to get to know Jesus is simply to abide in Him, draw near to Him, talk to Him, learn to hear Him reply to you, and have Him teach you. But, let me save you some time and wrong turns. You can fast every day, pray with utter determination, seek to do as much good as you can-and even so, you will be no closer than you were before you began. Why?
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Knowing Jesus personally has nothing to do with you, how good you are, how perfect you can be, how absolutely Scriptural you can act, etc. etc.-it has to do with Jesus! Abacksliding Christian stuckin the mire and tar of sin, can (in a moment) turn to Jesus in a humbled heart seeking His help, and find themselves surrounded by His Loving embrace and gentle peace. While the most righteous Christian around would have no way of getting as close as that-and by "righteous" I mean man's view of it. God sees the heart, men see the exterior.
FORMULA vs. TECHNIQUE The HOW is not a formula. At best, the HOW is a technique that can be modified by each of you, as you feel it necessary to modify it. The only hard and fast rule is a pretty sweet one: you need have a heart for Jesus, a love for Him, and a desire to draw near Him. Don't question if your love is real or not, if you know you have it within you, then simply accept it. Many want a closer relationship with Jesus for all the wrong reasons: they want revelation to make them famous, they seek high truths for self gain, and more. But, fundamentally these seek Jesus for something other than Him Jesus is a means to their end-He is not their "End."
THE DISCIPLINE OF PRAYER The discipline of prayer, in the N.O.P [Net of Prayer], prepares you for this step towards knowing Jesus personally. All the prayers are soundly Scriptural and designed to also help each of you get His Word into your spirit. Also, in obedience, you can learn to be yielded to the Holy Spirit. It is the undisciplined, unyielded, disobedient Christian that is blocked from a relationship with Jesus . Sadly, the church system of man in no wise prepares God's people to come to know Him.
STILL MORE TO COME But, we have only begun to scratch the surface of all this. In the next report, I will continue to discuss THE HOW. God Bless, Chuck-JOHNEL
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The Staff and The Sword Ministry Relationship Reports
RELATIONSHIP REPORTS February 1984 to January 1985 @ 2008
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By Chuck-JOHNEL Younybrandt
RELATIONSHIP
PART 4 THE HOW EXPLAINED MORE ABOUT THE "HOW" There is a lot more to know about the HOW. Frankly, I only scratched the surface on the HOWin the last report. So, let's continue and let me discuss things in more depth.
BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN "VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, EXCEPT YE BE CONVERTED, AND BECOME AS LITTLE CHILDREN, YE SHALL NOT ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." (JESUS in Matthew 18:3).
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Childlikeness is a quality that contains humility, trust, innocence, and obedience. There is more, but here I will focus on trust and innocence. If you would come into a deeper and more real living relationship with Jesus Himself, TRUST, and INNOCENCE are essential. The church system of man teaches just the opposite, for fear abounds in much Church doctrine, fear of deception which is trust in Satan's power as greater than God's, fear of failure which in one disguise is given as "humility" but it's "false humility".
I point this out, not to be critical of the church system, but that we are all made aware that as we pursue a better relationship with Jesus, that "fear" in all of us is something we have to contend with and overcome by simply placing all our Trust in Jesus to care for us, keep us, no matter what.
DESIRE OF YOUR HEART As you desire and seek a closer walk with Jesus, you need realize that Jesus Himself desires the same and has quite literally given you this "desire of your heart." In my experience, I've found that while Jesus tempers and determines the rate at which we grow in Him. Even so, the main hindrance that would stop us, slow us, turn us away is not so much Satan (although he is always willing to toss his dirty two cents in) but our selves, primarily our SELF and our SELF NATURE.
UNDERSTANDING
OUR SELF NATURE
PART of the HOW of entering into a deeper walkwith Jesus personally has to do with understanding our SELF NATURE, and either then getting around it, until we learn how to overcome it in Christ. Again, aswe drawnear Jesus daybyday, we come to see and understand parts of this SELFNATURE, and although you are likely to try and "beat it down" if you will learn from my errors you will find that you cannot "beat it down" only suppress it, and then it's like pressing down a coiled spring with your hand, you will "hold it down" until you tire, and when you tire it will recoil and throw you for a loop. As you prevail seeking Jesus' help, you will learn to let go and give it to Jesus-and although Jesus doesn't move as fast as we would like Him to (that is our SELF NATURE again-in a hurry, instant holiness), Jesus does a thorough job to the point, months or years later you will hardly be able to remember ever having that problem. From little acorns grow mighty oaks, but we are not "Jack in the Beanstalk" seeds. We grow at a rate (usually slow) set by Jesus, who know what's best. If we try and speed up the process, we will be determining the rate (not Jesus), and that outcome is sure to be far short of the potential if not a disaster.
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CHILD-LIKE QUALITIES AGAIN, being CHILD-LIKE is the essence of how to approach a deeper relationship with Jesus Himself-a child doesn't think about growing (until taught) but simply IS what he or she is, and is not worried about what tomorrow brings but enjoys and lives in the day. There is no fear of drawing close to loved ones, dad or mom, and a child will come when called or will call or seek out a parent whenever they want to, and never be ignored or turned away.You cannot approach Jesus with head knowledge of His Word, with intellect, or with what you have done-tho many try, it's best to seek Him from the heart, and from love. The qualities of being like a child we were taught to lose, and it is in us to re-gain what we lost, if we are willing to "let go" and Trust Him more than ourselves, or the system of man.
DISCIPLINE OF DAILY FOCUS ON JESUS I will give you the basic how of drawing close to Jesus, you may begin to practice it, finding what is most suitable for you, and begin learning a discipline of daily focus on Jesus. Meditation is another word for "focus"; pondering is another word for focus. The word "meditate" scares many because of the connection to eastern religions, but it's entirely Biblical, just look at Psalm 1:2, "BUT HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE LAW OF THE LORD; AND IN HIS LAW DOTH HE MEDITATE DAY AND NIGHT [emphasis added]." And what is His-Law? "THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD WITH ALL THY HEART, AND WITH ALL THY SOUL, AND WITH ALL THY MIND . . ." (Matthew 22:37) So the Lawyou meditate or focus on, or ponder, or study-day and night-is the Love of Jesus Christ, and His Law is Love. And note, you meditate or ponder or study, or focus "IN" His Law which is Love, and "IN" means abiding IN Jesus' Love, In Jesus Himself.
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN Matthew 18:3, you're converted (Believe in Christ), you will try to re-learn to be child-like (Jesus will help), so next you enter INTO the Kingdom of Heaven. Where is that? How?
Jesus spoke much of the Kingdom of Heaven and of the Kingdom of God, but in Luke 17:21 Jesus told us where it's at: "NEITHER SHALL THEY SAY, LO HERE; OR, LO THERE; FOR, BEHOLD, THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU."
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When Jesus says "BEHOLD," He means, "PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I'M SAYING"-He is EMPHASIZING SOMETHING. In our day, men are busy looking for outward signs of Jesus Coming Again, but I have learned that outward signs are only reflections of events IN THE SPIRIT and if you don't see IN THE SPIRIT you have no real way of understanding the outward signs, they can be very complex and most that are honest, admit this. The child-like Christian that enters INTO the kingdom of Heaven, does so in meditation. It is not indwelling in One's Self, that is the eastern religions version and a major ingredient is missing there. What? CONVERSION, being born again (conceived) by receiving and believing on Jesus Christ, a new life is within you, the Christ-Life. This is why Jesus referred to the Church version of born-again like conception, for as you read thru Matthew and Mark, and Luke and John when Jesus speaks of the kingdom of Heaven (or God), you will find repeated references to the kingdom of Heaven as a "seed" thus growth is involved, then a "marriage feast" a place you "enter into."
DYING TO SELF It's all within the converted believer in Jesus Christ. And, that life within us, is Christ, the Mind of Christ, and along side of it is also the former life, the SELF nature, which Paul called the "Old Man", and is also the Adamic nature. This fundamentally is the battle ground in drawing close to Jesus, for within us is an old nature, Self, that will seek to block, distract, draw us away from Jesus. This battle goes on all the time, only in meditation will you begin to get a keen and sharp view of the dimension of this resistance. What you will find is that there are two selves within you, one in Christ, one very SELF Nature that Satan influences in many ways. It's been there all along, only now as you draw near to Jesus, you will see a sharp distinction between one and the other. John the Baptist had said, "I must become less and less that He (Jesus) become more and more," this again speaks of the SELF Nature gradually becoming less and less the control influence in our lives, and Christ becoming the more and more. The battle, ultimately, is drawn to a single issue, dying to self-this is the battle, because we have an inner fear or resistance to giving up our selves for fear of losing ourselves-it seems that we are losing our true identity, but in fact the fear is false, for what we are losing is the lie and what we are gaining is our true self in Christ Jesus.
NOTHING CAN STAND BETWEEN YOU AND HIS LOVE It is Scriptural and I have experienced it. Where the darkness of Self, and Satan the power of the air, would try to keep me from entering INTO Jesus' Love but each time I did anyhow. It's His Love for us, and our Love for Him that makes it impossible for anything to stand between us-even though
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things will try, they cannot succeed unless we allow it to succeed.
MY EXPERIENCE Ibegan by reading the Bible, and praying hours each day. I would pray a time, interceding for many, would repent of my misdeeds as they came to mind, would then read aloud (Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God) a chapter of the New Testament, then settle down in a chair, and meditate on what I'd read in the Bible. Then I would draw my focus to Jesus and let go of every concern and thought I had, and filled my mind with Jesus, of what He looked like, of His Love, and gentleness and sweetness, and by daily practice I had to learn the discipline of filling my thoughts with JESUS CHRIST. When you first pray, it takes practice and time to be able to learn a discipline of prayer to where you can flow in prayer. Likewise, it takes time to learn the discipline of quieting your mind and filling your thoughts with and of JESUS, and please note, you DO NOT empty your mind and yourself, you turn off the mind-machine and fill yourself with JESUS! How do you fill yourself with Jesus? The technique I used (and I tried or experimented with a number till I found those I was comfortable with) was to follow an order of activity: 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Prayer-Intercession: half an hour or more, this breaks the "busy-mindedness" we get into in each day, our focus shifts in prayer towards God through Jesus Christ. It's proven a necessary preliminary "filling." After prayer, give up prayer concerns to Jesus, forget them now, you have prayed, trust Jesus for the answer now. Read the Bible: a chapter (your choice) and Psalms (your choice)-I especially like reading Matthew 5 aloud, and it is wonderful because it is JESUS speaking in that chapter! Sit down, settle down comfortably, and now focus on Jesus, sing a hymn or sang about Jesus you like, or speak His name over and over, or favorite prayer group song (I like singing the "Jesus, Jesus" song). Now quiet yourself like a child at its mother's breast-you sit quietly, and cease to speak, close your eyes-all designed to lower as much as possible (you get better at it with practice) your normal physical sense (sight, hearing, voice, motion of body)-but again, you mentally think JESUS, of His Love and now abide in Him.
Now all of this is both practical (a time of prayer, Bible study, hymns) and serves to draw your mental focus away from worldly concerns, and onto Jesus.
ABIDE IN HIM ABIDEIN HIM. It means rest, and more, you are Trusting Him to keep you safe in every respect,
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a child-like faith and trust counts much here, and a confident love of, for and in Jesus Christ. At first you will find yourself tending to be distracted by the smallest things-you need resist being distracted and keep your focus on Jesus.
THE MIND MACHINE Our carnal nature minds are shut-down (not turned off, but shut down to a minimal level of operation) and you will find your mind operates like a machine. It does not like being turned down, and for days, even weeks, while in a Jesus focus-meditation, you will remember things you have forgotten for many years-anything to get you to draw on the mental machine and re-activate it. Or, you will get an itch-try to ignore it and if it doesn't work, then tend to it and go back to a Jesus focus. Or you maywonder suddenly if you turned the gas off on the stove top, or "did I close the back door?" I used to be amused by what the mind came up with to get me to re-activate it or get me up and moving about. You will experience this in varying degrees, but it's normal and you will realize that you very easily can tune the mind down in a time but it takes practice, but once you learn the discipline (it takes time) it is easy. The first time around I did experience Jesus' presence, but I didn't see Him, or hear Him, it was just a very living deep feeling of love and light and peace. In a time I began to sense (actually discern) movement when I made Jesus my focus, it seemed I was traveling and it was super fast.
SATAN`PRINCE
OF THE AIR
So, what about Satan? Let me explain . . . It was after I actually sawJesus face-to-face in meditation, and shortly thereafter that I began to see things IN THE SPIRIT on a scale that amazed me. Then as I began to meditate, I began to realize that, as I drew close to Jesus, that devil-like creatures tried to block me, but they never could stop or touch me. One time a bunch of them interposed themselves in front of me and I saw Jesus ahead, and Jesus said, "COME-IGNORE THEM". So, I came to Jesus through them and ignored them. There was no battle, as a matter of fact that's what they wanted me to do was fight them, as this would distract me from Jesus. Ah, ha! In getting to know Jesus personally, getting close to Him, I came to know His Love in such a way that though demons tried to imitate Him (some pretty good jobs too) they could never remotely imitate His Love, and thus never fooled me IN THE SPIRIT.
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When entering into the kingdom of Heaven, in Jesus' Love, I learned and saw and knew things by the Spirit of God that I would find very difficult to express IN THE WORLD. Here I would find was a major hindrance, the effect my soul and SELF Nature had on what I saw and knew in Christ. In the next reports I will speak of these various hindrances, to equip you that you be able to deal with them more easily than I did (for me it was the school of hard knocks).
NOW YOU HAVE THE BASICS Now in these first . . . [parts of the RELATIONSHIP REPORTS], I have basically told you the whole of it. And, as you have a prayer discipline (with the N.O.P.-Net of Prayer) and read the Bible and Love and Trust Jesus there is no reason why you cannot begin to put into practice the HOW and to begin to draw closer to Jesus yourself. He is one fantastic teacher and more!!! As you do, and as you have questions, write me, and I will try and reply in these reports, as I am able. [NOTE.' PLEASE SEE THE CONTACT US PAGE ON THIS WEBSITE FOR A MAILING ADDRESS.] lam not trying to write this as a teaching. Head knowledge is not the key here. If you have the basics (salvation, prayer life, discipline, Love of Jesus, familiarity with the Bible), then you can start to apply the HOW. More, YOU CAN BEGIN RIGHT NOW! God Bless, Chuck-JOHNEL
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