Jesus said, ‘No, This is the Model of Your New Life,’ part 1

The most profound revelation Jesus ever showed me is hard to choose. I have a top three I suppose and probably would have to choose between the Mind of Christ, Communion and Isaiah 61. The Mind of Christ is so supernatural, so far beyond people’s wildest imaginations that most Christians can’t believe it. I’ll save it for later. Communion is so important I published that book first, as an expanded version of the early chapter of this large teaching, Foundations of the Kingdom. What I call communion is enjoying active fellowship with Jesus, interactive two-way dialog, spiritual intimacy. That cannot be undervalued. It’s what I spend most of my life in ministry teaching. That will change your life. But the conversation I had with Jesus explaining Isaiah 61 changed … well, everything.

It happened in this wise …

In a short span of time I had at least three influences converge that drove me to search for and find this great pearl. Most Christians like to quote Paul, but I wanted to THINK like Paul. More than merely quote him I wanted to say what he would say from my heart not my memory. I was understanding ministering in a demonstration of the Spirit, in a demonstration of power, of equipping people to each do their part, of serving them as a leader (or leading them as a servant), of grace being power not forgiveness. I was getting a handle on how Paul thought and ministered, but I wanted more. I realized Jesus was on a higher level still and then wanted to understand how Jesus ministered, but detailed explanations were lacking. So I asked him to show this to me above what I was learning about Paul.

He first led me to read Luke 4, where Jesus read the scroll of Isaiah in his first recorded sermon, and contrary to what most preachers will tell you, Jesus said this verse is NOT for the far away millennium, or heaven itself, no. What did Jesus say?

I knew Luke 4 was just a reference to Isaiah 61, so I went there but could not understand the chapter and so asked Jesus to teach me. I was piecing together the idea of John the Baptist being sent as a forerunner to prepare the people, making the way of the Lord in their hearts straight, by preaching repentance and making them “poor” or “poor in spirit” which means being repentant basically. John was a type of Moses, both preached law, neither could enter the promised land, but only prepared the people to do so under another leader. In both cases the person who completed the journey was Joshua/Yeshua. John’s role was to prepare the people, by preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, making the people to be humbled, low, poor in spirit.

Reading Isaiah 61 I saw this language here too, this is where it comes from I think! And I understood the sentence: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor,” in a way other people don’t understand. The Poor who Jesus preaches to were those who already were baptized and repentant and so prepared for his greater message of the Kingdom. The good news Jesus came to preach was not salvation, that should have already been preached by John. The gospel of salvation is a narrow door, but what awaits us on the other side is a WIDE COUNTRY of blessings—Jesus called it the Kingdom.

The Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus preached begins with the gospel of salvation like John preached. And Ok, yes, today we do both messages in one, and combine them—we do not really need to develop more disciples of John the Baptist to do this preparation work anymore … but sadly many Christians ONLY PREACH the message of repentance unto salvation with water baptism afterwards as a sign. Yes, they do so in Jesus’ name, and rightly so! But why have so many people, maybe most people, forgotten that Jesus’ main message was not Water Baptism! The references to Jesus bringing a Greater Baptism, one of Spirit and Fire should clue you in. That John asked Jesus for this fire baptism when he saw him in the Jordan is another key. The verse that Jesus never baptized people in water, and only left it to be done by his followers, should also tell us something. The fact that even Paul was not sent to minister water baptism, ‘but instead to preach the gospel’ should be a final, watertight proof to convince you.

Christians today don’t seem to distinguish the gospel of salvation from the gospel of the Kingdom and so most only preach repentance with water baptism like John the Baptizer did and never actually get around to finding the fire baptism and the Kingdom that Jesus preached and demonstrated. Many people think salvation is the only and even the ‘Full Gospel’ but salvation and water baptism only begin the journey. It is but a preparation stage, an entryway, a narrow door. It ought to lead us into a greater experience of God that Jesus compared not to a doorway or a room but to an entire Country! And it was this ‘Promised Land’ that Jesus preached, demonstrated and commissioned us to continue spreading. Neither John nor Moses, who John represented, could enter this Promised Land or even lead the people into it either. Only Joshua / Yeshua / Jesus could. So the pathway continues from the water through the fire that Jesus unleashed upon the earth a little over 40 days after he was resurrected. It is the experience of this ‘Kingdom’ that Jesus was about to show me.

And take note that Jesus being “anointed by God to preach” bears little to no resemblance to today’s ministers being “ordained by Men to teach.” Jesus preached, and miracles happened. You don’t get the power of the Holy Spirit from an ordination ceremony or having a certification plaque hanging on your wall. So you can maybe read this first sentence then as, “The Father anointed Jesus with power from the Holy Spirit so he could demonstrate the blessings of the Kingdom to the repentant / saved / poor in spirit.” That’s now how I understand this prophecy.

Ministering the EXPERIENCE of Restoration

Then as I read the next section Jesus began to show me visions and talk to me openly to explain this verse. I later recognized about seven different blessings that he explained. It begins:

First I saw a vision of a bandage wrapping a heart which looked thin and more like a root vegetable, like a turnip! It was not fat and healthy like a normal heart but sick and wounded, and he bandaged it up! We were already very active in the ministry of inner healing and knew that by laying hands on people and praying to impart the Holy Spirit and anointing of healing that he would heal the trauma they’ve kept buried inside since childhood in many cases.

Emotional healing is the result, but the core ministry is not emotional, but a spiritual healing of the broken heart. I knew how effective this work was, and how easy. Focused inner healing ministry is what changed my life, allowing me to shift from knowledge to experience. Sitting with a person in stress who wants help from God, and praying in the Spirit for revelation as to the source of the sin or pain in their hearts will reveal the root cause of their blockage. Abuse, witchcraft, family trauma, or just simply a broken heart allows darkness to take hold inside of us. A wound in the heart festers and attracts flies–think, demons. It hurts when you touch it, so we react either reflexively or compulsively in anger or by sinning when triggered as we try to make this pain go away. So this wound causes us to act badly, to say it simply. A broken heart can be an anchor for Satan’ works to remain fixed in our lives. It is an anchor for both curses and sins.

Prophetic insight reveals this wound, and then prayer in faith to heal and impart restoration is very effective to remove the blemish and heal the heart as if it never happened. Yes, the memory remains, but the pain is gone. Jesus told me, yes it is painful to face these problems buried in the heart, but when facing them the pain only lasts a moment while the freedom you gain is eternal. We are only exposing these things in God’ healing presence to give him access to the deep wounds in our hearts so we can be set free. This is the ministry of inner healing, and here in Isaiah 61 is it what Jesus called ‘binding up the broken-hearted.’ It is a real anointing, a real transformative ministry, it is not merely figurative or symbolic language. More on this soon.

Freedom!

Then I read, “to proclaim freedom for the captives” and Jesus said, we are being sent to free the people. To free them from what? I asked. He said, “Free them FROM ANYTHING that binds them!”

I have a lot to share on this topic. You’ll forgive me for not digressing. First, we break curses. This often manifests in having areas of our lives that we just cannot change, repetitive problems, yearly cycles of sin or loss, patterns of abusive relationships, etc. We can do this by first releasing forgiveness to the person we are praying for, like we are releasing a blessing or a healing anointing, but it’s the anointing of forgiveness over them. They’ve been forgiven already, right? But they still carry the effects of sin within them because they have not experienced the ‘grace’ or ‘anointing’ of forgiveness to wash away those spiritual bonds. Until you EXPERIENCE God’s love, it’s just a doctrine or a theory, and likewise so is our freedom until we experience the grace / anointing of forgiveness which breaks through and delivers us from this evil. Does that make sense?

We release these blessings, and curses have no more glue holding them onto a person’s life. “The curse that has no cause shall not come” and so by ministering the anointing of forgiveness you remove the cause, whatever it may have been.

I had an experience with an angel when I realized this was literally true, which I’ll have to share some other time. But know that yes, we have authority on earth to forgive sins. Go pick up your mat and … do the boogie-woogie! You’re free!!

And releasing this grace or anointing has the power to nullify curses, bondages and any stubborn residual effects of sin. Simply amazing! I was in shock when my angel delivered this revelation to me. It literally blew my mind.

Then I got nervous thinking of having this kind of power! What if I forgive someone’ sins and they don’t deserve it? I can’t simply dish out the judgment of God! But Jesus calmed me down, saying something like, “That’s not your responsibility. You pray to release forgiveness when I prompt you to, and I’ll take care of what happens next.”

In fact we know Christ’s blood is enough to pay for it all, to cover ALL SIN, so why hesitate to pray for the effects of forgiveness to be liberally applied to someone suffering? We are in the ministry of reconciliation not condemnation! If someone is asking for prayer, my job is just to pray for them for healing, restoration, deliverance—if you worry like I did about the theological dynamics of wielding God’s power of forgiveness on earth, just think it through, it makes sense. Anyway that’s what he showed me, so let me go on. But also here’s some verses:

But why do we have to intentionally minister this? Why is it not just automatically enjoyed at new birth? People often do not seek specific victory in areas they struggle with for this very reason. Don’t they have ALL blessings already when they get saved? If they admit they have a bondage, isn’t that a confession of doubt and unbelief?

Well, Jesus never told me that. Instead he told me this: He was talking to me, in what I call communion, and showing me the things still wedged in my heart that were warring against my soul: insecurity, rejection, etc. And when I saw how deep and how numerous these blocks were IN ME I said, Wow, there is so much inner healing and deliverance that we still need to go through after being born-again, and he said, yes, “The Promised Land has walled cities in the best places.” Wow! The promised land is WITHIN ME! It’s my heart being transformed into his likeness! Wow!! Our freedom and maturity is being actively blocked by Satan whose main threat is us becoming transformed into Christ-likeness! It’s the process of conquering and occupying the promised land within us! It’s hard because there are walled cities in the best places, he said to me! So after being saved we have to purposefully take over this promised land within us—ALL OF IT—it is not handed over to us on a platter; we must take it by force. The kingdom advances by force / violence and he said, it’s not by physical violence, but a “violent faith” that is uncompromising, unyielding.

So freedom from bondage is released by faith. So it needs to be personally experienced, and so should be intentionally ministered, actively sought out, applied with purpose, and received with eagerness. It is not “automatic.”

Add to this the effect a broken heart has in being a kind of anchor for sin and unforgiveness and you can see the destructive cumulative effect these two areas of need have, which is very strong! But let’s get to the third part.

Sight to the Blind

The third point is that Jesus is sent to proclaim “release from darkness for the prisoners” and this is about sight. Insight really. Revelation. Enlightenment. I asked Jesus, oh, you mean like having prophecies and visions. And he said not really, “It’s not revelations—it’s THE Revelation … of Who God Is.” Wow!

Now some versions mix up this phrase and say it is to ‘release from darkness’ or release the prisons who are in darkness; but it is the same. It is enlightenment of God’s reality and his goodness. It’s seeing God as he is, not only reading books and learning from man what they say about God, it’s actually having personal spiritual understanding of God and will yes, lead to you meeting him personally—meeting him and being transformed into his image eventually, but we’ll get to that later.

And watch this, because like I often say, these first three issues are linked.

I want to give so many examples of this interaction. How these freedoms (or problems) are related. In other places I posted a story about the TB Clinic in the Philippines we cleared out by only ministering inner healing. I’ll let you find that. For now, just consider this illustration.

Let’s say you meet a mean guy, smoking, drinking, bad mouth, claims There is no God! You talk to him and find out his dad was an abusive drunk, and has a lot of bitterness from early childhood. What can you do to preach the good news to him? Probably nothing! He can’t hear you. Ask him instead if you can pray for him. ‘Sure, I don’t care, I don’t believe in that junk anyway!’ Jesus said be careful casting out demons until a person is ready. So don’t do that. Instead release the flow of the Holy Spirit to HEAL his broken heart. You may see a vision of him as a small child, cowering in a dark room, fearing the abuse, tell him what you see. Ask Jesus to show you were was He when all this was going on anyway? Say what you see Jesus revealing. He was surely there! And he will begin to unravel this dark mess. When you touch the wound in HIS PRESENCE healing will flow … this tough, angry man will start to cry. You bet! Keep letting God flow like a river through you and if you see anything like a chain, a pack of cigarettes, a knife, a bottle, any symbol of his bondage BREAK IT, release God’s love and forgiveness to him—not to his conscious mind really, he does not need to understand what you are doing. Say it out loud, ok fine, he’ll remember it later. But you are now speaking to his SPIRIT. Jesus asked me, You don’t need to be conscious for heart surgery, do you? Better if you are not. The doctors will take care of it, whether you know what they are doing or not! Same here. Just keep letting the Holy Spirit flow until God says it’s enough. Now give him a tissue, we have to use towels sometimes. Let him compose himself and then ask him now, Do you want a cigarette? A beer? Something stronger? Don’t be surprised if he says … you know what, I’ve been trying to quit for a long time, but couldn’t before but now I just don’t want a cigarette, or a drink, or whatever. Oh well then let me ask you, you told me before that you do not believe God exists? Is that right?

Well, you know, about that. … I think, yes, I’m sure he’s real, it’s just I never dared get near to him before. Yes, … I admit it now, I know there is a God! I know he is real ….

I’m compiling many experiences into one illustration here. But this is what we see being linked, these three problem areas: the wound, the bondage and the blindness—and so likewise the freedom, restoration and enlightenment God brings is also linked.

These ministries are often treated as sideshows, tangent hobbies for busybodies, but NO, this is the primary pathway towards transformation, maturity, wholeness, the promised restoration into Living Stones Jesus promised when you got saved! You just didn’t know how to do it! So instead you are told to memorize every Scripture with the word Peace. Come to our women’s retreat to discuss your attitude. Join the choir. Well, those are all good things in general. Do them! But they do not achieve these specific, focused, targeted results. This instead is the way. And it’s really the ONLY way. Not only that, it’s the fastest way, the cheapest way, and the safest way! Haphazard attempts produce spotty results. But informed, concerted, targeted, enlightened ministry in the Holy Spirit makes breathtaking progress both easy and fast.

So you see, it turns out you need God’s tools to produce God’s blessings if you want to achieve God’s results. It’s just sad that no one told us this until now! Maybe they tried to but we just wouldn’t listen? So we tried to achieve his results with our tools and methods. We see the need, which insight came from him to begin with, but should have given in all the way to the Holy Spirit to find the right solution we needed.

You see, Jesus told me that human arguments have no divine power to fix WHY a person does not believe a spiritual truth. But the power of the Holy Spirit can go right to the root, the source, and fix the underlying causes for disbelief, anger, fear … Again, that’s what Jesus explained to me one time. Think of this verse:

So we demolish strongholds and arguments not with words but the power of the Holy Spirit when we pray and lay hands on these wounded, bound, blinded people.

In truth, Jesus came to actually set the captives free, not to just talk about it. In Moses was the shadow, the symbol, the outline of the promise, but in Christ is the actual grace released to fulfill these things, the substance of it given, the reality of it received. If this is true, and it is true, then the purpose of Christian Ministry, I mean what We as His Body on Earth are empowered to do is likewise not supposed to be a matter of talk, talk, talk, but to DEMONSTRATE the Spirit and the Power of God to ACTUALLY heal the brokenhearted, release the captives and give sight to the blind, so they can EXPERIENCE the goodness of God for themselves in person. And THAT is exciting!!

This is a basic conclusion, very obvious based on the weight of these revelations so far.
But, wait! There’s more!

Favor … YAY!! And Wrath! … ohhhh. Well, it must be pay back time!

I kept reading, and I came to:

Jesus explained this, that the YEAR of his FAVOR is basically a time when he begins to answer our prayers more. Why now? Because, he said, We are no longer such a part of the problem as we were before. With heart healed, bondage broken, eyes enlightened we stop behaving so badly, stop being so neurotic, sensitive and needy, we understand Him more, this means we stop being such a nuisance! He simply said we stop being such a big part of the problem now.

How many pastors can only TALK their congregations into behaving better? Into being brave, kind, or wise? But human arguments have NO SUPERNATURAL power to change the behavior inside someone’s heart. What they need is not a sermon, or I should say not JUST a sermon, but THEN you should lay hands on them and impart the shalom of God into their hearts directly. THIS is what will change them, and will change them quickly. But you have no time, you say? Well, then just delegate this to the people in the congregation to minister to each other in small groups! It just takes a few minutes and will cause an explosion of growth and freedom in your people. More on this later, but the Kingdom of God is NOT a matter of talk, but of power. So don’t just talk about it and walk away: DO IT! Release it! Pour it out from heaven into earth. You will be glad you did!

So he explained that ‘the YEAR of FAVOR’ is a time when he begins to answer our prayers more. I suddenly looked at my watch (it’s a reflex) and asked well, what day is it now?! Is the year almost over? I think I used to have a calendar on my watch—anyway, I looked at my watch and asked God, Well, what day is it today? Is the Year almost over?! I felt like I was going to miss the ‘year of answered prayers’ because I didn’t know it had begun and it was going to pass me right by!

Jesus calmed me down and said, No, no, it’s that kind of year. Just think of it, he said, as very long time. So this YEAR, if I can just stay humble and able to receive it, can very well last for the REST OF MY LIFE! And beyond if you think about it! And I do!

The Year of Favor is not because he is showing favoritism. It’s because I’ve moved closer to him IN CHARACTER. The Kingdom of God is nearer than it was before. Nearer IN ME because I am now more like him. Thanks to the concerted effort of the ministries of inner healing, deliverance and soaking prayer I am not longer such a big part of the problem as I was before! Maybe you can relate to that!!

Then he scared the **BEEP** out of me. I read:

Vengeance, Revenge, or in the version I was reading, ‘the Day of Wrath.’

It was all so warm and fuzzy until this line and I gulped dryly and asked, cautiously, “W-w-who are you angry at?”

“Your Enemies.”

I started feeling better! I now realize that the better translation of this term is maybe not ‘wrath’ but ‘revenge’ or ‘vengeance.’ Basically, it’s PAY BACK TIME!

Feeling emboldened, I said, “But hey, why was it a YEAR of favor but only a DAY of revenge? Isn’t that unfair?” I was thinking of all the abuse and neglect I endued and felt the payback should be at least as long as his favor. Why does his favor last a Year but his Revenge—OUR revenge, really—why does it only last a day. Why is it so short lived? And this is what He told me—and I will NEVER forget it. It gives me chills to recall the way He spoke, his tone of voice was truly frightening.

Did you ever hear of God’s Wrath? Ever think of meeting an Angry God?! This is what I heard.

First of all his tone of voice dropped very low, like it dropped a few octaves from what his normal voice sounded like, it became deep and growling, like an angry tiger, like a cosmic volcano getting ready to burst! And he spoke very slowly, threateningly, clearly pronouncing every syllable—I mean it was SCARY! So you have to read this in this way and say it to yourself in a kind of deep, angry, slow and threatening voice. ‘So why is it a YEAR of Favor but only a DAY of vengeance?’

“It is only a DAY … because [his voice got louder] … WHEN I GET ANGRY … [then voice got LOUDER] … AND DECIDE TO ACT … [now he was a fearful GOD! Death rays in his voice!! LOUD! ANGRY!! SLOW and TERRIFYING POWER AND AUTHORITY and he said ]… N O T H I N G C A N S T O P M E !”

Sinners in the hands of an angry God?!! Sinners who ABUSED his CHILDREN!?! Sinners who were about to meet the WRATH OF GOD!! … WAHHH!!! It was fearful, frightful ABSOLUTE POWER—I experience the chills again just remembering it. I felt … well frankly it scared me. I sensed … I am still feeling it right now … I feel the charge of electricity of the Fear of the Lord. And wow, all I can say, DO NOT GET HIM ANGRY! … The Wrath of GOD you don’t ever want to meet!!!

Prophet Mitt Jeffords once saw a vision of the Angels in Heaven and saw their thoughts within them like trees but behind this vast landscape in their minds was FEAR, and Jesus told him the angels saw what God did to their companions who joined Satan’s rebellion and they are STILL AFRAID of God for what they saw him do to the angels who rebelled. These were their companions, don’t forget. And Hell was made for these angels, imagine a mere human falling into that severe kind of judgment! God is to be feared.

Half way there! There’s more to come in Part Two: The Model of Your New Life, part 2“