Seattle Services
Hebrews 12:25-29 Amp. So see to it that you do not reject Him or refuse to listen to and heed Him Who is speaking [to you now]. For if they [the Israelites] did not escape when they refused to listen and heed Him Who warned and divinely instructed them [here] on earth [revealing with heavenly warnings His will], how much less shall we escape if we reject and turn our backs on Him Who cautions and admonishes [us] from heaven? Then [at Mount Sinai] His voice shook the earth, but now He has given a promise: Yet once more I will shake and make tremble not only the earth but also the [starry] heavens. Now this expression, Yet once more, indicates the final removal and transformation of all [that can be] shaken—that is, of that which has been created—in order that what cannot be shaken may remain and continue. Let us therefore, receiving a kingdom that is firm and stable and cannot be shaken, offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship, with modesty and pious care and godly fear and awe; For our God [is indeed] a consuming fire.
The Lord is speaking to His Church today in such a way as to ignite the heart to bring the soul into a holy travail. He is birthing something great and wonderful. It is time for those of His Church who know how to pray, love to pray, want to learn to pray, or want to love to pray to enter into travail. God is getting ready to shake everything that can be shaken. He wants this travail to come through His Church to bring to fullness of birth the Kingdom of God.
It is amazing to me that God, being so great and powerful, has taken 2,000 years to bring forth the majesty of His Kingdom. We know that He can do it any time He wants to, but He is choosing to do it now, during our lifetime. He has truly saved the best wine for last. He is going to shake kings, queens, governments, science, educational systems—everything that can be shaken. It must be shaken because the babe must come to full birth. The earth must enter into the travail, and therefore, the Church must enter into the travail.
Consider this wonderful thought for a moment. Back in the days of Moses, when the Lord began to shake Egypt, remember that He sent the plagues against Egypt. He was shaking the foundations and the heavens of Egypt as well as breaking the strongholds of Egypt. You may not know that, but that is exactly what He was doing. All of these things had to happen for the release of the new nation. Most people look at the Exodus, and they think that it was just pure judgment on Egypt. Not so. Yes, there was judgment, and it ended up having to be wrath. It was not what God wanted, but it had to happen. But in the midst, the earth was in travail to bring forth the nation of Israel. You may say that the people of Israel were already a nation, but it was not like they were when God was finished. That nation was born through travail, and it came forth in great signs and wonders.
He is going to do again what He did then. The nation, the world, and the Church must enter into the travail of the birthing of the Sons of God. I know that years ago, back in the fifties, there was teaching on the Manifest Sons of God. Although I know little about the teaching I have heard that it turned the Church off to the whole concept as there was some false coupled with the pure. Everyone that heard the improper teaching became indifferent and cold to it, but there is a seed of truth in that the Manifested Sons of God must come forth. They are those who have entered into divine adult sonship, or “huiŏs” in the Greek. They have come to the place where the Spirit of the Lord consumes the soul and spirit, and they are walking in the Spirit of Christ in its maturity. This must happen because it is in His Word. The Sons of God will come forth through travail. How do you give birth except through travail? The Church must bow to the travail of soul and spirit to bring forth this magnificent move of God.
In the travail, the Church must arise in the purification of fire. Gone are the microwave days. You cannot bring forth what God wants to bring forth in that kind of mentality anyway. The old is being brushed aside, and the new is being born. It must happen through travail and fire. We yearn for the Lord to come and send fire into the soul to purify it so that we can stand and walk in His Presence. Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord? Those with clean hands and a pure heart. (Ps 24:3-4) The purified ones shall ascend the mountain of the Lord. They are also known as the “Crucified Ones.” Doesn't that sound like a fun name? They will be the very oracles of God to the Church in this hour.
The Church has been powerless for too long. God wants to send His power, but it is a different kind of power than we have seen before. It is the power and gift of the eternal ages that He wants to bring forth in this hour. It is power of a higher magnitude and essence, with a higher purity of spirit. It will bear more authority, and it will reveal God as He has never been revealed before. But the Church is not yet ready for this manifestation of God because we walk around with our eyes on the ground. What does the Bible say? “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28) Look up. Get your eyes off the dirt of the world and the things of the world, and look up for the redemption of this final hour. There is going to be a grand display that is more glorious than you can possibly imagine. We have never seen before what He is about to do.
I feel so sorry for the Church because when God moves across the Church and performs His wonders, we make a denomination out of it. Bless the Word of Faith people. I do not have a problem with people who want to believe the Word, so I am not trying to be critical, but I have to tell you this story because it is so true that I have to pick on them. I could pick on the Baptists, the Pentecostals, or any other group, but this is just such a good story to help you understand what the Church does. We put God in our little boxes, and it is so comfortable that we do not like Him to try to escape.
Perhaps twenty years ago, I was ministering in a Word of Faith Church. The people and the pastor were precious. They were extremely well taught in their beliefs. I was ministering the Word when suddenly, the Lord came upon me. I started feeling many aches and pains in my body for the people, and I started calling out ailments that needed healing. No one moved.
I said to the Lord, “We've given several healings now, but they're not responding. I don't know what to do.” He continued manifesting Himself in this way, but now He started pointing the people out to me so now I knew not only the ailment, but also who was bearing the burden of it. I pointed people out and told them their ailment. Each person sat there and denied having any problem because they were naming it and claiming it.
Then we came to a man who had very serious heart trouble. I pointed him out, and I said, “You are suffering serious heart problems, and I want to tell you what's happening.” The Lord explained to me everything this man was going through.
After I finished relaying it to the man, he said, “Nope. No, I'm not.”
I said, “Oh, but you are. I don't mean to contradict you in front of all of these wonderful people, but you are.”
He said, “Nope.”
His wonderful wife, who sat next to him, jabbed him in the side. She said, “You big thud. Yes, you are!”
He looked at her, and he said, “When?”
She said, “All night long this is going on! I have been praying for months. I've been getting more and more tired, and you've been asking me why I haven't been sleeping at night. It's because of you!” She was saying this in front of the whole Church. “This is exactly what you're going through all night long. I lay there in bed, and I pray, 'Oh Lord, please don't let him die! I just know it's his heart. Please don't let him die!'”
I looked at the man, and I said, “So, is the Lord going to answer her prayers or isn't He?”
He said, “We're a Word of Faith Church here.”
I turned around, looked at the pastor, and said, “You have taught them very well.” So I had to give them a whole teaching on how God works to answer prayers in services like that when they have been standing on the Word.
