Abibe, Imbibe, Believe Jesus

¹⁷ for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:17

Father, I thank You that Jesus is our great Shepherd. In this season, in which we live, in the midst of the tribulations, You are the One Who is leading. You are shepherding and feeding and bringing us to those fountains of living water. We agree, that this is what You delight in doing in the natural—to unlock the waters on earth, as you delight to do in the hearts and homes in this state. You are unlocking the waters. We declare that You are able, beyond our ability. We cannot, but You can. We have nothing, but You have everything. You can do everything and anything! So, Lord, pour out of Your Spirit water! Pour out of the atmosphere, water! Pour out of the wellsprings, water! Unlock deep reservoirs that have been undetected deep within the earth and deep within Your church. Release the waters. Lead us to the fountains of living water. You are our Shepherd.

Who is actively leading us now, today into the fountains of living water. Jesus, we receive you now, in the midst of us, as we are in the midst of You, in the midst of Your throne room. We receive now, the opening of the waters in the heavens and in the earth, and in the body of Your living church. In Jesus Name, amen.

These verses are for our personal study time, in order to get what the Lord wants to teach us into our hearts.

• 1 Corinthians 2:14-16,
• 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 (Distinguishes the spiritual believer, the natural believer and the carnal believer),
• Romans 7:7-22 (Speaks of the goodness of the law of the holiness and the just, and the wonderful spiritual law that we were given through Moses, but the impossibility that we can live it, because in our flesh dwells no good thing and it only activates the sin within),
• Revelation 7:9-17 (Read it as not one day being there, or some special people get there, but it is a place we can actually be living from today – because we would have to ask the question, “Why are you hungry and thirsty if you are in heaven?” and “Why would He have to lead you to fountains of living water if you’re in heaven?”)
• Romans 8:12-17 (Those being led by the Spirit are the sons of God)
• Romans 4:17 (Life is given to the dead in His presence—In the presence of Him Whom he believed.)

The seed falling into the ground is where we have entered into any point of death. We will, if we are a believer…God makes sure that we get to. It is for glory. Even Jesus, said in John 12

²⁷ “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”

When we get to this point we must say, “Not my will but Your will”. Jesus was asking them, “Should I say get Me out of where I am being led by God?” He said, “No, Father, glorify Your name.” Then Father spoke from heaven saying that He glorified it and will glorify it again.

Something wonderful is coming in our lives. Glory is coming to our lives!

In referring to Galatians 3, the context of this verse is how we find freedom. Some of us find freedom by finding new rules. They help us in one way, but they actually only cage the beast. But, God is trying to exchange the beast for His divine nature. It is an entirely different dynamic. It is a lifetime journey to become; but it is the one we all signed up for when we got saved.

Let me show you four words in Galatians5: 16-26. There is a word called ‘walk’

¹⁶ I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴ And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:16-26

Let’s look at the words walk, Led, :

1. Walk

¹⁶ I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

In this verse, Walk in the Spirit literally means to tread all around. That is to walk at large, especially as a proof of our ability. For example, it would be like inheriting a big piece of property and then went to go find out what it was all about. We went and walked the land. It is the ability to go someplace, see something, and explore. This is the first thing that we are told to do in order to disengage from the flesh. An antidote, for the lust of the flesh, is to walk at large in the Spirit.

2. Led

¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Verse 18 says if we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law. The word Led is to lead, or to bring. But it could also mean to drive, or be brought under the influence. It’s the picture that when we are in the things of the Spirit and we are beginning to learn, observe and experience, in a worship service, or prayer. Here something catches our attention—the wind blows by us, the light illuminates, the scripture is brought to our remembrance. It is where all of a sudden we are being carried somewhere, or we are agreeing to follow the Lord into a place of direction, of discovery.

It is different than just exploring. It is a delightful thing we all need to do. It is where we start every day. But now, something has caught my attention and I’m being led by the Spirit. This shifts me into an entirely different realm because now I am being led by the Spirit. So the law has no power to contain me in its old restraints.

This is so important, because as we are spiritual people we have to allow God to oversee or override what becomes limiting thought. Otherwise, we can’t heal people on Sunday and we can’t eat unless we wash our hands. Law, by humanity, always gets smaller so that we can keep it. It is a control mechanism. Therefore, God is always saying, “Hey, why can’t you eat without your hands washed? And why couldn’t you heal on the Sabbath?” He is enlarging.

So, when we are led by the Spirit, we are disengaged from what has been our limitations, or what we have known to be limitations.

An example of this would be: Peter saying that he couldn’t eat anything unclean. God had to continue to challenge that thought by a vision and an experience until Peter could say, “Ok. I now begin to perceive that God says all things have been made clean through Jesus.” He then began to open his spirit, and the voice of God began to come out of his mouth. As he spoke to Cornelius’ house, the Spirit of God came once he said that Jesus brought remission of sins. Holy Spirit said, “That’s all I need. They are believing everything you are saying because of the whole experience that Cornelius had. Now that they were believing that Jesus was the remission of sins, all of them got Spirit-filled and spoke in other tongues. Peter said, “I guess we had better baptize everyone because obviously God has brought them into the same experience we’ve been brought into.”

• The whole New Testament Church is an experience based church.
• Without an experience, it is questionable whether what we have perceived is ours yet.

Therefore, the whole of the Spirit is so important.

¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Romans 8:14.

3. Live

²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:25

To live is this idea now that we begin to resource. This is the place we draw our life from – the Spirit of God.

The Kingdom of God

• The Kingdom of God is not food and drink
• It is not things that we can observe and touch or taste or handle.
• It is not actions that we actually do.
• The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
• It is the realm of God

Therefore, when we are in the Holy Spirit, we are in the Kingdom of God, in all of its dimensions and realms. What the kingdom means is the realm of God. This would be an easier way to probably grasp what it is that the kingdom of God is, or how we might step into it.

We can begin to live in that realm. We access it and become aware that we are drawing life from here. We are living in the spirit. That is what it means – living from the Spirit; living in the Spirit.

John the Beloved said, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” And the word in is to be inside in rest, or to be in union. Now, some of us are in the flesh on the Lord’s Day. This is okay because we have to start from where ever we are. But there was something about the fact that John could distinguish and recognize that on this particular Lord’s Day, he was in the Spirit and suddenly… And the whole book of Revelation unfolds.

So being inside, in rest, in union, in oneness, is a dimension in which we learn to live from. We can live longer and longer at times there, and less and less time out in the natural world that we are pulled by and resourcing from. So much of what I’m trying to teach is: “From where are each of us resourcing from?”

Where are we pulling our strength to do what we must do?

1. To get up in the morning

2. To face the day

3. To go through the difficult relationships

4. To do the job we have been given

5. To walk through that test

Where is the resource coming from?

1. Does it come from your will?

2. From your integrity?

3. From your promises that you made?

4. From the fact that there’s no other choice but you must?

Those are all noble. But they are all inside the scope of law and rules. They will not sustain us to victory. In fact, the place where Jesus is taking us, is so much more demanding than anything we have ever previously perceived.

• To, start loving our enemies.
• Do good to those who hate us.
• Bless those who are cursing us.
• Pray for those who are spitefully using us.
• For those who strike us, offer them another chance to hit us.
• For those who are demanding things from us, give them more than they ask.
• To those who come along side and ask any thing, we have to give.
• From those who take, we don’t ask back.

We walk in this kindness of God that shows kindness to the wicked, to the unthankful. We become as sons and daughters of Father. Don’t try to do this on your own strength. It will destroy you. I have stories upon stories of having
perception, revelation and saying “yes”….then trying to go forth, in my own decisions that I made in the presence of Almighty God, only to sorely destroy me. Because what I heard became a law for me to try to observe.

The law means something that is parceled out. Revelation can become law. Anything can become law. Once it is observed, as though it is an absolute to which we must observe at all times, in the exact same way, it has become not spirit, but law trying to be coupled with flesh. All it pulls out of the flesh is our inability to do so because of the sin that is so laden there. And it just makes our life miserable.

But be happy. Because we have to do this in order to value Holy Spirit, and the freedom Jesus brought us. Just to get free from sin is easy. To get free from righteousness? That’s hard. Self-righteousness is so much more deceitful than self-destruction. Sin is destructive; but when it gets inside of the canopy of religion, we can quickly become slaves of it. We can live there decades, until we have exhausted our attempt at trying to become righteous and look up. There, our Lord looks and smiles as He says, “Come on now, let’s run.” We leave the carcass of religion that we have been in, the one we were in, not the one our neighbors were in. Until it is ours, it isn’t anybody’s anyway.

Freedom comes when it is all about Jesus,

• Coming to me and
• Talking to me about me, and
• Me seeing something about me that I could never see before, and
• Me seeing something about Him that I never saw before;
• Letting what I see of Him become what I receive from Him and
• What He shows me, to let go of that.

We then go into a new place.

When the Spirit of God engages us and we follow Him into a journey,

• We will attempt in our own abilities
• We will make our many mistakes
• We will try to be righteous and
• We will learn to live more and more from the Holy Spirit.

Abiding Prayer

This is abiding prayer. This is why we take time to spend time with God every day.

• An abiding prayer lasts about a day.
• It is like watering a flower or eating a meal.
• It is not petition prayer, supplication prayer, intercession for nations and things of the future.
• It is not revelation.

It can contain all of that.

• But what it really is, is union.
• It is establishing the union that is been given us in Christ and drawing life from that union.
• It is drinking.

4. Walk

²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:25

That is a different walk than the first walk that we found in verse 16. It is like the word from where we get ‘staccato’—to arrange in a regular line, to march as in military formation, to keep step.

Basically, this is the experience we have all gone through hundreds of times. We have all experienced it. We enter into a realm of God. It is like watching the sun set on a winter day at the beach. We start drinking it in and we partake. Then we begin to explore some part of that experience and we begin to grow. We are being led out. In this being led out, there is so much attraction that is drawn to us. Hell meets us on the journey, but we are holding our place. We learn to live from this place. The longer we live from this place, we are learning to keep returning to that place of living.

Because at some point in time, we begin to have the ability to hold that place,

• Not by the law
• Or by the will
• Or the strength of man
• But simply by an abiding and imbibing presence of God, that we have learned to dwell in

Every day we start with:

• I want to see what my Father is all about today.
• I want to go explore the vast realm of heaven that God gives me in prayer.
• I want to be in His presence.

Then I am aware that at some point in my time with Him, He will lead me into something.

• It may be what I was into the day before
• It may be in my bible
• It may be into a vision
• It may be into an experience with fruit or something in my worship

I can feel the wind pick me up and I begin to move in that direction. From there I live; and I begin to find that there is a life. There is a feast. There is a fountain. That is why Jesus continues to be our Shepherd.

From this living posture, the more often I learn to live here, the more I learn to have a place to keep myself in when hell comes against me.

But, it is not that we get to one place as if that is the goal to live and walk in military formation. It is the daily discovery.

• Every day starts with a discovery
• Every day we enter into being called and led away
• Every day is to drink of that fountain
• Every day is to eat of what is being prepared
• Every day is then to hold that as long as I can until the next day starts…

It is an everyday experience over and over and over.

But many times we get swept into the Spirit by an experience of God. We say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes” but we have no idea how to hold that place. So, as soon as we come to our senses, we begin to make rules to guard what we just received. As soon as we make rules, we are an antithesis to the very things we experienced. We kill it. We dissect a frog, I tell you one thing’s for sure—the frog is dead. It is healthy at times to learn about the anatomy of a frog, but it is a dead frog.

So, the law is like this and revelation is like this.

So let me finish. God gave me the title for Sunday’s message and I said, “Ok, I’m good with that. I’ll figure out what You mean by that in a little bit…”

The word abide means that dwelling together. Imbibe I’ve known for many, many years because of teachers that I’ve heard. We learn, we receive things so many ways. We hear something, see the body language and we receive the spirit of what is being said. Somebody can say, “I love you, honey,” and inside they’re like earthenware covered with silver.

Fervent lips with a wicked heart Are like earthenware covered with silver dross. Proverbs 26:23

They don’t love you for anything. They are just being sweet. David spoke of people that would come to him at his bed of sickness, only to gather more details as to his iniquity that led him there, so they could speak evil of him when they left. Not everything people say is true. Often, their body language will give that away. If not, then we have to learn to discern the spirit.

Ed Cole said, (This is the man, who is now with the Lord, who was my mentor) that there are some people that are excellent bible teachers, but he wouldn’t listen to them because the spirit they carried, he would not want to imbibe. This was because they had a bitterness, or they had an anger, or a criticism, or a judgment.

You see, what I do is open up my spirit and let God begin to flow. If there is a filter of me in there, there is less of God and more of me. But opening our spirit is a very vulnerable thing. When we open our spirit in the presence of God, it is a safe place, and we can really receive. But at the same time, there is a vulnerability that is just because we opened our spirit.

It is ME who is before God!

This is why the second heaven is often coming to contend against our position in the third heaven. And hell wants to come and accuse each of us before God. Trust me, Satan does not come up to God’s throne in the third heaven
every day and say, “Hey, I’d like to tell You of all of Your children, what they did wrong yesterday.” He has no voice there.

• He has no sound.
• He is a useless, isolated individual that does nothing other than what God would allow him to do for the benefit of the kingdom.
• He is powerless.
• He is a useless being.
• This is what Jesus reduced him to.

But when he stands along side of me as I come into the presence of God, and he speaks into my soul, into my mind, and into my emotions, through accusation, before God…

The Blood of the Lamb and my testimony

You see it is me who is before God! We have to learn Revelation 12:11.

¹¹ And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Revelation 12:11

I am here by the blood of the Lamb—not what I did or didn’t do.

So, whatever I have to say—Talk to the Blood!

At the same time, I have to learn to be able to say, “It really doesn’t matter what you are speaking over my future. All that matters is what I heard from heaven—what I have seen and heard!

This is my testimony! Your testimony is the great experiences – yes, it is a witness to something that happened. But the greatest testimony is what you see and hear in the spirit, in heaven. That is John 3—Jesus’
own words of what a testimony is. Testimony is what you see and have heard from heaven, which is why God keeps beckoning us in. He beckons us in so we can see and hear His voice, His spirit.

What we see and hear is ours for eternity, even if we go through hell to see its maturity…and we will, because hell sees what is happening. Hell is aware of transactions. Hell is aware of what happened today. Hell is aware of what these buckets of offerings mean. Hell is aware of our response initiated. Hell is more aware than we are, because it has been at this thing for a long time.

Satan is the religious leader of the world. That is why he is anti-Christ. That is why he becomes beast, image, and worship. It is all about that for him. He wants attention. He wants obedience. He wants conformity. He wants numbers. He wants nothing to happen without his approval. He is all about a counterfeit kingdom. It is so invasive in the earth right now, and it seeps into our minds. If he can get us into any form of that, he gains authority that we carry in Christ.

So, I come into the presence of God. There I am standing, and there he comes along side me to accuse me before God. I am before God. He can’t come before God. But I am before God and he wants to whisper attention to my faults, my sins. He then he wants to speak evil of my future according to my decisions and what appears to be a lack of response from God. He wants me to capitulate the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of Jesus Christ in my life. With those two, we can somehow keep holding.Eventually, we have to face the fact that we just can’t be afraid to die. Because if we are afraid to die, whatever we are afraid of will come upon us. And, it will always keep us from doing what God told us to do. Whether it is embarrassment or martyrdom of any sort, it is all death. And it all has to be dead for us to be free.

Jesus destroyed him, who had power of death (Hebrew 2). The word ‘destroy’ means He made him into a useless thing, a non-existent being of no consequence. That is utter humiliation to an egomaniac. The suffering he gave
Satan is to leave him on the planet, leave him functioning knowing he has lost everything and has no capacity to be anything—it is ignoring him. But yet, he can access our souls, and accuse us before God. We come into agreement and he re-acclimates himself back inside.

But God sees it as our training for reigning. God sees it as part of the ability to rule. We can’t rule if we have never had opposition. We can’t overcome unless we have had something to undergo. So God allows, and knows that in all the things that we will step into, we will be pressurized (those things will come).

But Jesus, when He was resurrected in the bowels of hell, destroyed him who had power of death, that is the devil, and took from him the keys of hades and death so that He could deliver us who through fear of death were in slavery all our lives.

So, if God is delivering us from the fear of death, then obviously part of our victory is to not be afraid to die. It isn’t that we don’t have to be afraid because nothing can happen to us. No, a lot of things can happen to us. Just go find out. A lot of things are going to happen to us. A lot of things are going to break in and steal, kill and destroy. A lot of betrayal. And if we are going to follow the apostle Paul, who in his maturing said, “This is all supposed to happen so that the life of Christ can come out.” Then, that is even worse—to think that we are supposed to die so that Jesus can live. And I can do it every day. Or He can do it every day with me. This is scary. This is why we have to keep coming back to the source of Life, which is the presence of God. I don’t live in the past. I live in the presence. I’m not trying to get to my future. My future is inside of me – the presence of God—the dwelling there.

So, when we are endeavoring, we go exploring because we can.

The blood of the Lamb and the work of Jesus Christ.

The veil of His flesh – His death, burial, resurrection, ascension gives you access in a moment. Immediate access.

Yes, you have to learn to say, “Shut up devil. I don’t care what I did yesterday. I’m here because of Jesus.” The flesh is always going to want to live its way, but if you’re in the presence of God, your flesh loses its strength because the presence of God is so much better. The Spirit is so much richer. And then I’m in the Presence. I’m beholding the Lamb. I’m looking into the scripture. I’m hearing the voice of God. I’m endeavoring to make contact with my spirit to Spirit. I’m learning to worship in Spirit and in truth. And when I make a contact, I engage, I have an encounter. The encounter is where the leading of the Spirit begins. It may be in a worship service where He tells us to dance because we are depressed. We don’t want to dance until we have victory, but He says to dance and then we will have victory. We argue in our souls. This is to be led or not led. This is the natural mind which is the soulish mind that thinks this would be foolish. Our soul wants to be the quality control of God.

When we get led, we get lifted out of the limitations that are currently holding us, those laws that have captured us. We begin to live from fruitfulness, that life giving imbibing. It is to practice intentionally and here we learn to value the smallest movement of God. –Those little whispers, the little wind, the little sound. When we begin to live and hold that place it builds within us a formation. This is the idea of being conformed into the image of Jesus—THIS is the army that is rising up on the earth today! It is not an army that is concerned with natural change for supernatural gain. We have no need of natural change to have gain. Jesus Christ IS the gain! He can access anything, at any moment, in any way He chooses! But the truth is, until I am free, why bother changing my circumstances, because I would just go back into my captivity.

Upcoming Events

Sunday, March 29, 2015, 9am: Gino will share, “I Have No Idea”. Moving from a place of control and fear to abiding in utter dependency.

Sunday, 10:20am: Join us for the Nations Prayer – Now is the time of sitting with Christ in His victory, praying for His nations, in His will. Join us and let your prayers be heard.

Sunday, 11am: I will be sharing “The House Jesus Built”.We are Jesus’ house, a spiritual house, a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. But what does that mean to us? It means hope, presence, power, and praise for us and the world.