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June 2004
Dear Friends,
Greetings in the love of Jesus! Thank you for your prayers and support of this ministry. It is my desire for you to be richly blessed with fresh visitation from the Lord. We are about to enter a New Day in which we will see a great opening of the Spirit for a fresh walk with Him. The hungry will meet the Lord in surprising and fresh ways. May the Lord prepare your spirit and draw you with hunger and faith into this New Day.
INDIA
What a wonderful time of answered prayer we are experiencing for India. As a great surprise to all the BJP government that has been sympathetic to the militant Hindu cause has been defeated and a new national government led by the Congress Party has been seated. This political party has historical been secular in nature, guaranteeing minority rights. This will be a great help to the church in India that has been facing the greatest persecution in recent Indian history.
Sonia Gandhi stepped aside from taking the Prime Minister position causing many in the nation to see her as a servant to the nation without personal ambition. This will give her great political influence in the days to come.
I am expecting to see a fresh harvest for the church to follow this governmental change. It is time to strengthen the church of India for the days ahead. This nation is in a cultural revolution and experiencing great economic growth. In just a few years it is expected that India will overtake China as the largest population of any nation. Today they exceed 1.1 billion people.
It is so important that we continue to touch this nation and the church of India as we have for the past 30 years. The Church in Gujarat (one of the more persecuted areas) has sent leadership asking for us to return to fan the flames of the great revival they attribute to this ministry. In a period of 5-6 years and estimated 11 million people came to Christ. Now they are coming through a great time of persecution with beatings, church and home burnings, and even death. They are asking for us to minister to them again to rekindle and fan the flames of revival among them.
I want to give the Lord thanks for this answer to prayer for the nation of India. His sustaining grace for the church, its continued growth, and now this fresh opportunity is awesome in scope and significance.
PHILIPPINES
Our recent trip to the Philippines for the Leadership Conference on the island of Mindanao was a wonderful time in the presence of the Lord. The Leadership was hungry for a fresh move of the Spirit. Along with the Leadership Conference there was an evening outreach that touched many with the power of the Holy Spirit. Each night God met the people with His Word, confirmed with signs following. At the same time there was a Youth Camp with 1600 young people. I had the opportunity as well to minister to this wonderful group of youth. The future is with the young people.
The former national coordinator for Ralph Mahoney World Map Ministries met me after the Conference and spent 4 hours pouring out his heart for the Philippines. He shared how God brought such a wonderful move with the Charismatic Renewal. However, he said in the mid-nineties it lifted and the church has scattered so that everyone is doing their own thing. Many false doctrines have taken hold. There is a need for Apostolic ministry to help the church in this nation. This man is part of a nationwide leadership group that shares this concern. He said they will be in contact with me for ministry to the top leaders of the nation. It was interesting as he said, "Roger, we are not interested in your money, but your message. We need your message."
The OVERALL PRINCIPLE of the HOLY OF HOLIES is seen as the THIRD REALM in God and represents the 1000-year KINGDOM AGE and the NEW DAY that is about to dawn.
This THIRD level of Christian maturity is the realm of the FULLNESS OF THE SPIRIT (John 3:34) and the FULLNESS of our INHERITANCE, which is ALL THINGS in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Peter 1:4). It is the realm of ETERNAL SALVATION (Hebrews 5:9), the FEAST OF TABERNACLES, the 100-FOLD, and the FATHERS of 1 John 2:14. This Most Holy Place is the realm of God's Presence and THRONE and represents the OPEN HEAVEN (John 1:51). This inmost place is also referred to as the ZION of God, for David placed his tabernacle and the Ark on Mt. Zion (2 Chronicles 5:2). This realm is the dimension out of which an enthroned Jesus Christ ministers and is the realm of NO limitations, failures, sickness, or death, for it is the realm of NO CURSE.
There is a higher realm of relationship and worship than the church has touched yet. A new day is coming to the church when God will bring worshippers into union with Himself. In that third day we will risk everything that we might stand before Him wearing the covering of His glory.
God desires a church that has moved from praise into worship, and from worship into union with the Lord of the harvest. This is part of the new day God is bringing to the church, moving from praise to worship.
Worship concerns His person, not simply as a Benefactor. It requires total submission, giving reverence to Him, pouring out upon Him our deep love. It can only flow from a cleansed heart, one that has experienced deep repentance. Worship involves reverence for the greatness of God, a desire to exalt and glorify His name, and it requires our total life style.
Praise as an act of faith creates an atmosphere for the presence of God, often as a sacrifice.
Worship is a response to the presence of God. It involves recognizing His presence, responding to His Word, responding to the Holy Spirit, and receiving His life and anointing. It is an expression of love.
A day is coming when the Lord will manifest His glory before a PREPARED PEOPLE. With this manifestation will be the restoration of the Word of the Lord and a personal encounter with God for each person who ascends the Mountain.
Those who see His glory will fall to the earth in worship. Worship will include intercession for all of God's people. As a result the church upon whom the presence of God rests will overcome the nations.
As nation after nation is touched by the Spirit of God and by those who have come into union with the Lord of harvest we will see the knowledge of the glory of the Lord cover the earth.
Numbers 14:21b
21b The earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord
The following story illustrates something of the character of the people of God in this coming day.
King David had many wonderful expressions of a life that touched the heart of God. The secret of David's life included the fact that he was a man who deeply loved God, and each time he discovered one of God's principles, he ordered his life accordingly. One of those principles is illustrated in these verses. Here is an example of worship.
2 Samuel 23:13-17
13 And three of the thirty chief went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam: and the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim.
14 And David was then in an hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.
15 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!
16 And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD.
17 And he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.
These three also displayed their courage by obtaining water from Bethlehem for David while he was being besieged in the harvest (end time) by the Philistines at Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1). So touched was David by their valor that he refused to drink the water but poured it out as an offering to the Lord.
David LONGED (earnestly desired) for a drink from the water of Bethlehem (house of bread) - John 19:28; Psalm 69:21; Jeremiah 31:29.
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His cry "Oh" pictures intercession (John 17).
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"That ONE" - (Choice one of Song of Solomon 6:9, the OVERCOMER).
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"Would give me drink" (John 4:7; 19:28).
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"Of the WATER of the WELL of Bethlehem" - Deuteronomy 16:3; Day of Atonement.
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"Which is by the gate" - praise (Isaiah 60:18).
These three mighty men broke through the Philistines camp and brought the water. David had every right to drink the water. He realized the cost with which it had been obtained. At that moment the Spirit of God lifted David and he touched a principle of God. David had a legal right to drink that water, but when he received it, he realized there was a higher principle then drinking it and satisfying himself. David took the water he had asked for, water that had been brought to him for the purpose of satisfying him and fulfilling his desire, and he poured it on the ground in an offering to the Lord.
What did the three mighty men think as they watched the water poured out for which they risked their lives? They might have thought they risked their lives in vain. The disciples had this attitude about the alabaster box, "What a waste." (Matthew 26:8, 10-13).
Because we have many needs, we tend to become need oriented in our approach to God. We must learn to take everything He has given us and pour it back in worship unto Him.
To be a worshipper one must know what it is to give up their rights, to pour out the deepest desires of the heart in worship unto the Lord. David would defeat the Philistines, reign as King over Israel and see the realization of God's covenant with him. But first David learned that a desire is never really satisfied until it has been given unto the Lord, and has been poured out in worship at His feet.
Again we learn about this worship through the life of Abraham.
Genesis 22:1-5
1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
On the third day (resurrection) Abraham saw a place "far off." As he viewed the land, he knew that whatever lay ahead, he had no choice, He MUST FOLLOW.
GOD IS BIRTHING A NEW DAY IN THE CHURCH - the new day will surely involve the laying down of many an "Isaac" and many of our God given rights. In view of the joy of coming into fullness of relationship with Him, the sacrifice is of no consequence.
Calvary demonstrated the eternal principle of pouring out. Just as Isaac was offered on Mt. Moriah, Jesus was offered on Mt. Calvary. Just as the alabaster box was broken, Jesus was broken. As the water from the well of Bethlehem was poured out, Jesus was poured out into the earth. Today we see the life, which sprang from the earth, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He that was willing to be poured out is now multiplied in the nations of the world. We can pour out ministry, friends, possessions, desires of the heart, and ourselves. We can give up legal and legitimate rights to possessions, ministry, and friends to become seed grain to bring forth much fruit.
Here Abraham was parting with everything of possibility for the fulfillment of God's promise except for the intervention of God. But faith triumphed through obedience, and that very Mount Moriah subsequently became the site of the temple, the House of God.
The Church of God is built by the continuous laying down of its own soul, letting go of its own soul, letting go of its own life in obedience and in faith. When all is dark, when all seems hopeless, some course of obedience is required, calling for us to do that which seems to be without prospect or hope, and which involves the laying down of our lives. It is the way of building.
As young men and women have laid everything in ashes so far as this world's hopes and prospects are concerned, the Church has been built.
Often the House of God is delayed and arrested in its progress by the withholding of something on which the Lord has laid His finger and said I WANT THAT. Abraham believed God, and that great triumph provided God with the site for His temple. That which is in the very heart of God and His presence, to which He commits Himself, has to know this kind of stripping. This involves a deep work where faith is brought to perfection through testing.
This passage also is the first place the term worship is used. As such it teaches us the basic elements of true worship before God.
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Abraham believed God. We need faith to worship God. Hebrews 11:6.
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Abraham obeyed God's command and came apart to sacrifice or worship. Obedience and worship are related. Sin separates.
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Worship cannot exceed the depth of commitment and responsible relationship. Abraham prepared himself to worship. We must come apart from the world and separate ourselves unto the Lord to truly worship.
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Abraham gave something (Isaac) and he called it worship. To worship means to give something to God.
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Paul and Silas - Acts 16
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Hannah - 1 Samuel 1:27-28
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Mary and the alabaster box - John 12:3
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Worship involves faith, obedience, commitment, relationship, preparation, separation, and sacrifice.
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John 4:19-24 - true worship is from the heart, not connected with a place.
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