The Liberty Of The Spirit

[Psalms 48:8]; As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it forever. Selah.

How vs What You Hear

The Bible in this scripture does not say, ‘what we have heard so have we seen in the city of the Lord.’ It could have said that what we have heard, so have we seen in the city of our Lord. It says as we have heard so have we seen in the city of our Lord.

If it was to say that what we have heard is what we see, it would mean that the total sum of how much is spoken to you is the total sum of how much you see. But here God says, as we have heard. It means that to the degree of our hearing in what is given to us, so have we seen in the city of our Lord. God draws a distinction between how and what you hear.

In the gospels, there is a place where the Bible tells us to take heed of what we hear [Mark 4:24]. This means that primarily, the witness of what every Christian receives in their soul must be aligned to divine truth. If a man says, ‘I need the anointing’, the question is, what are you hearing? When he says, ‘I need to increase in knowledge’, the question is what are you hearing?

He says, take heed what you hear. Some people think that you can listen to every preacher as long as he is Born Again. However, as you start to grow up in God, you realise that you do not listen to everybody. Anybody can teach you but you don’t learn from everybody. We have to have a place of humility to be taught by anybody and the maturity to minister comfort to those who are not necessarily teaching us, but we don’t learn from everybody. That is why when Paul is talking to Timothy, he tells him to take hold of that word of life, knowing from whom he has learnt. In this world, you have to know who teaches you and who doesn’t.

In another account however, the Bible goes deeper and says, take heed how you hear [Luke 8:18]. It is good that you are hearing the right word but are you hearing it the right way? It is good that you are hearing the right message but are you receiving it the right way? If you lose that picture, then you lose a much bigger picture.

Now then, psalms 48:8 makes sense when it says ‘as we have heard, so have we seen.’ At this point, the scripture takes us to another level; that a man cannot see if he has not understood the ‘hows’ of responding to what is ministered to him. ‘What’ pertains to the measure of the thing heard. ‘How’ is the place that presents perception in the life of the man. You will never see in the word until you learn how to hear the word because the place of ‘what’ is the one that distributes measure for you to launch deep while the place of ‘how’ is the one that distributes perception-vision in the things of the word.

In psalms 48:8, the city of the Lord is the New Jerusalem, the line of promise where men live in the fullness of all things.  That experience is not for men who only listen to the right message but for men who yield to the degree that is necessary for them to see the things that they must see because the ‘hows’ of the word position a man to the perception of the spirit through the word of God.

The spiritual realm is a place where God has created a flat plane for every man to determine their way and make it prosperous. However, because of how men do not see the way they should see since they did not hear the best way they ought to have heard even though they heard the right word, many people carry frustrations. Such frustrations are simply because of how they yield to the things of the spirit; how they yield to the word.

Milk with No Cows, Honey with No Bees

Let us study an example in the scriptures. When God appeared to the children of Israel, he told them that he was going to take them to a land flowing with milk and honey. He did not say that he was going to take them to a land with cows and bees. If he had said he was taking them to a land with cows and bees, it would have meant that they did not need to ask whether there would be milk and honey because the entities that produce those products would be available. If I give you a cow and you see that its adders are swollen, you don’t worry about milk because it is a cow.

This God who calls the things that are not as though they are says, ‘the land I am taking you into is not going to have cows or bees but I promise you that it is going to have milk and it is going to have honey.’ That is the total sum of the life of every Christian. Sadly, certain men get into that land and look for cows and when they do not see cows, they ask, ‘God why is it that I have believed you for all these years but I see nothing? I have prayed and fasted in vain.’ Having prayed, they get back to the situation and when they see no cow, they go back to God and cry that there is still no milk. To such, the reasonable explanation for them is that when God promises milk there has to be a cow or where they expect honey, there has to be a bee. Welcome to the world where milk and honey flow when there is no cow or bee but brother, it has to flow. Such is the life of the spirit. With such a mindset, I wake up in the morning and have to believe for milk where there are no cows and for honey where there are no bees. God tells me that I do not need a bee to get honey and I do not need a cow to get milk.

Others are waiting for products (milk and honey). That is why Christianity has become legalistic rather than revelational. Many people think that every man who carries the product in his spirit must have a certain process. However, God frustrates process because as you grow in the dimensions of the spirit, you realise that there are shortcuts.

A Different Spirit

[Numbers 13:27-30]; And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. And 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.

Spies were reporting what they saw and Caleb stopped them immediately. He knew something was wrong with what they were saying. He instead said, ‘let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able.’ He meant, ‘Do not say we are unable. He sent us there.’ It means that God cannot send you where there is no victory. How can you say that the giants are bigger? Do you know that there are people who give excuses for why they are not a success? They blame everybody except themselves. They say, ‘I would have been this, but for my auntie. I would have done that but for my uncle.’ If what your uncle or auntie is doing to you cannot kill the kind of cow that gives milk in this sense or this bee in Canaan, you cannot be stopped. I am not referring to physical bees that you can spray and they die. What I am trying to tell you is simple; if I carry milk and you cannot see my cow, there is no way that you can frustrate me because I have an affirmation of the kind of cow I carry.  This cow is not physical but when you drink the milk, brother, you will know it is milk.

God is about to do things in your life that men cannot explain. He is going to put something upon you that people will say of it that it is not on any man but only on you. They will not know the cow that produces your kind of milk. We are going to flow in a grace whose sources men cannot explain. In the name of Jesus.

The Affirmation of Things

[1 Timothy 1:6-7]; From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

Of the Places of Our Affirmation

The Bible says that men who desire to teach the law do not understand what they say or from where they affirm. There are things you might never be able to explain but yet know how to do them. I might not know how to explain to a man how to heal the sick and I might also not carry the understanding of how the sick are healed but I must carry the affirmation in my spirit of how it works.  It is possible depending on who you are ministering to and what kind of thing you are dealing with. It is natural that certain people in this world might not have the understanding of the things they do (even though it is not a good thing) but it is okay if the man does not have the understanding but carries the affirmation. I might not have an understanding of what I give but I must carry the affirmation. When I say we are going to do such and such a thing next year, I know it is going to happen. That is the confidence that we have in Christ. When you tell someone that you are not going to die next year, you ought to know where it is coming from. It is not coming from healthy living and a good diet. Man of God, when you say, ‘I am rich, I am blessed and increasing,’ do you have the affirmation and do you carry the understanding?

The Pendulum

The affirmation of the spirit swings on the pendulum of two things. The first is the revelation of the mind of the spirit pertaining that issue; not your idea. If you have a financial issue, what is the mind of the spirit? If you are sick, what is the mind of the spirit? The place of affirmation means that you carry the revelation pertaining that particular issue. The second thing is that the man receiving it ought to carry the stability to judge matters and the knowledge to execute. I need the mind of the spirit to confirm and explain to me whatever I am dealing with but I also need the stability in the spirit to reconcile judgment and knowledge on that issue.

I may have the mind of the spirit but if I do not have knowledge and judgment to deal with the issue, the stability in my spirit, it means that I might not get the desired results. It is one thing when pharaoh has received the mind of the spirit pertaining the famine. It is another when he does not have the stability of the spirit to carry both judgment and the wisdom to execute which is why he needed Joseph.  

You say you are rich, are you sure you are rich? You say that you are blessed, are you sure you are blessed? You say that you will get married this year, are you sure? You might say, ‘No. I am walking by faith.’ Really? Faith is substance. Do you have the substance to make it happen?

Look at the people who desire to preach the law. It means that they neither carry the affirmation, the stability nor the mind of the spirit revealed to them. That is what Peter means when he talks about they who are unlearned and unstable; they twist those scriptures of Paul like they do others to their own destruction.

The mind of the spirit in every child of God revealed in every circumstance is a learning; then comes the stability of things which is the place where a man is well placed in the things of the spirit both to carry judgment and the knowledge of execution.

Of the Fear of the Lord

These men who desire to teach the law know not from where they affirm and end up in endless meats and genealogies. Let me show you an example in Isaiah 29:12 -13. It says;

And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.

Men were separated and alienated from the life of God that when you spoke of the fear of the lord, they taught it by the precepts of men. If you want to understand what I mean, ask a number of Christians why they fear God. What do you do because you fear God? You will realize that it is the precepts of men and not of God.  Now if you miss the mind of the spirit, if you are not learned in this, by the time you get to the place of stability, you might not be able to interpret and explain certain things.

There is a preacher who once said that men ought to stop sinning because God is a consuming fire. As a result of such a teaching, someone will say, I will stop sinning because I fear God. If you fear God and desist from doing something because you fear him, do you realize that it does not remove the desire to do that thing? Since it does not remove the desire to do the thing, God ups the game and tells you that if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has committed adultery. If I do something because I fear you yet with my eyes and my mind, I have seen a woman and lusted after her, does it mean I have not committed it? I have.  It only means that I have not done it physically.

Do you have the power to deal with that from within when it is a nature issue? You cannot because it is inherent in your system.

Look at Psalms 103:3-5;

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

This is the mind of the spirit on how men ought to fear him.   Why is he doing all that? Why does he find a man with issues and just seeks to forgive all his weaknesses? What is his mind on forgiving? The answer is in Luke 7:47. It says; Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

God knows that if a man is forgiven too much, he is going to love much but if a man is forgiven little, he is going to love less. That is why in Psalms 130:3, he says; but there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. According to God, the reason why men fear him is because he forgives a lot but the precepts of men teach that men fear him because he is a consuming fire.

Israel rebelled against God every day and he smote them. They rebelled and he smote them again. He smote them and they still rebelled some more. Up to date, Israel is still rebellious. No amount of beating will change your child. A woman who is forgiven when she wrongs her husband will love him more. However, if he beats her up so that she does not do that wrong thing again, she is less likely to love him.  If you beat her up for her not to do it again, it does not mean that she will stop doing it. One day, some people get cold blooded and say ‘I know they are going to beat me but let me do it any way.’ How do you fix that? You cannot win men over by anger. You can only win them over by love. 1 Corinthians 13:8 is clear; love never fails.

I do not understand how a man can refuse to receive the grace of God. Its purpose is simple. It is to remove sin out of you without effort. They claim that we tell people to do nothing because Jesus finished it. Yes, he finished it. He said so. Just receive. He says that we which have believed have entered into rest. I am rested that I am okay. I am rested that my finances and my marriage are okay. Everything is okay.

Do I mean that in salvation there is no struggle? Salvation can either be hard or easy. Choose what you want.