The worship rain

We were all worshipping on a Friday night. We were singing that 'song'- 'only you can satisfy my soul,' and people started singing all their own words and harmonies, but we were still all singing in unity. Then Stephen Brown started putting up all these different words on the projector, and people were singing them and it was glorious. People were smiling and laughing with the joy of the Spirit. Then when the worship finished I looked down to the lobby doors. They were soaked with rain- but they're indoor doors! It was the rain of the spirit. Awesome

There have been times when God has manifested himself visibly in times of worship. It's happened a few times that I have looked out over the people during worship and seen the cloud of God's presence. There was also this one time where we were having a prayer meeting and the whole room smelled like roses (which for our church building is fairly miraculous). I recall a time when Josh and I were praying together on a sofa in the Escape during a meeting and we both felt a rushing wind on our faces.

All these were joyous occasions, and were cool in and of themselves. But they were more cool because they showed that the Lord was really there. It proved his word that he inhabits the praises of his people.

The rain speaks of new life, refreshment and joy. So often recently I've looked out and seen the people weeping and crying out to God, which is great- don't get me wrong, I know God's moving and people are being broken of their old nature to receive the wonderful promises of God. But there's something going on here. The bible says that 'In the presence of the Lord there is fulness of joy.' I know that joy doesn't always mean that we are happy clappy and smiling, but the joy of the Lord shines from peoples faces, even when they are covered in tears.

The Lord has been speaking to me about burdens. Jesus said that his burden was light and his yoke was easy. But so often we see Christians weighed down by the 'Lord's burden'. Something doesn't add up. The Lord said this to me:

A worldly burden will drive you into the ground
My burden will drive you into my arms.

A worldly burden will cause you despair
My burden will cause you to pray with faith.

A wordly burden will sap all your energy
My burden will energise you, like a refreshing rain.

The equally-brightly coloured flower

Yay! Fiftieth post!

The scene is set. The clam and the brightly coloured flower. Another really bright flower springs up next door. It's pretty hot looking. The clam slides on over there and this flower begins to drip into it. It doesn't drip the nice pure fruit juice though, it drips something far darker- it's poisonous. You can tell to look at it that it's dangerous, but the clam can't. His little clam eyes are closed, as he enjoys the feeling of this refreshing liquid raining on him. But then the poison kicks in and he dies.

You see the enemy isn't stupid, and when we start getting our satisfaction from God alone he will offer us a pretty good looking alternative. But it won't look all that alternative- it might look just the same. It might be an out of body experience, or that feeling of elation you get when you worship. But it's not pure. It's poisonous. And eventually it will kill us.

It will be plain for all to see that this is not the Holy spirit, but if we have our eyes closed then we won't see it. In the words of a very wise man- 'don't kiss your brain goodbye'

On the flip side though, I'll give you this analogy.

When the American government were training special agents to track fake money they sat them in a room full of real money for a few weeks. The agents learned how the money felt, how it smelled, the exact formation of markings on the notes. Then after a few weeks they threw a fake note in there. The agents all spotted it straight away because they knew exactly what the real stuff was like.

You see, we don't study all the crap so we can see it when it comes against us. If we know our daddy then we won't let anything else sneak in. Learn what it is like to be with him and you won't be easily deceived.

The rotten old tree

There is a big tree, bigger than all the other trees in the forest. However the other trees don't worry about it because it is dead- it doesn't take any water, it doesn't compete for sunlight, it's just dead wood. Consequently they keep growing, but they can never be as big as this other tree. They're stronger for sure, but not as big.

But then this big tree splits in two, right down the middle, and from the stump a little green shoot begins to sprout. It grows faster than is biologically possible, but it outgrows the last big tree and all the other trees in the forest die because this is sucking all the water and sunlight. They fall over at the base of the big tree.

The church is dead wood. It is bigger than almost any other organisation in the world- it is older and more engrained in culture than any other religion or institution. But it's dead, it is no threat to the other trees. But the structures will fall. The man made facade will die. And from within will shoot up an organism with real life- not just a church, but a kingdom. It will defy all the laws of growth, it will grow explosively and expansively, and then every knee will bow and every tongue will be forced to confess- Jesus is Lord.

The ship

The church building floating in a huge ocean. There are a few people hanging off the edge kicking furiously trying to get this thing to move. Most though are just hanging out, happy enough to float without any real direction.

Something happens and the people arrange themselves into a big tube. This hangs off the back of the building, and air just rushes though it, propelling it powerfully through the waves.

Too many of us are happy just to sit around and hope the church goes somewhere. Robert Donnell prophesied this yesterday-

Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, And trust in Mount Samaria. Amos 6:1

It is not when we kick furiously at the water that we begin to move though- it is when we allow the Lord to work through us- as a body. Let every part doe it's job, in order that we may be a fully functioning body.

Unless the Lord builds the house, the workers labour in vain.

The brightly coloured flower

The same flower from yesterday is bent over dropping water into the clam. As the water is poured out the flower is no longer weighed down and it springs up so that it stands up straight. Once there it is hit by the sunshine and opens out fully. The clam begins to pour out its water at the base of the plant, watering it and strengthening it.

Ok, the flower is Jesus, and we are that clam. The Lord is actually weighed down by the things of the Spirit which He desires to release to us! As long as we refuse to receive that which He has already purchased for us, we hold the Lord back. We restrict Him by our refusal to yield. But as soon as we accept and begin to operate in the anointing which He has for us He is glorified. Then we use that anointing to praise Him- as we pour out that which he has given us as an offering to Him.

'To you I give the gifts
Your love has given me
How can I hoard the treasure,
that You designed for free?'

'If you could see all the riches of My Kingdom, you'd be embarassed at how poor you are.
If you could see how much I paid for you, you'd be embarassed at how worthless you feel'

The clam

This may sound unimpressive- but to me this is so awesome.

A drop of water falls from a brightly coloured plant, it lands on a clam- tightly shut. When the water falls on to it the clam opens slowly, and then water continues to drip onto the flesh inside the shell.

Only You can satisfy my soul...

No explanation today- let the Lord open this one to you.

The diamond heart

There's a pool blood. Something emeges from it, covered in blood. Electric sparks come from this thing and apparently make it come alive. It begins beating, like a heart. It passes through a pool of water, washed clean- it's a diamond. Incredibly beautiful, and big- really big. Then a stream a stangely coloured fluid falls onto it, but actually falls through it, it is refracted in all directions, and distributed to different areas around about.

1 John 5:8- three bear witness on Earth- the Spirit, the water and the blood.

This was a real confirmation of what Isaac said on Friday night- it was cool that God gave us completely different revelations about the same scripture, but the Lord really confirmed Isaac's words to me through this vision.

The life is in the blood. It is that which brought this diamond to life.

It is through water that we are baptised into Jesus- we identify with him in everything- his death, his resurrection and his glorification. That is why this is a diamond- it speaks of God's kingdom- like a precious diamond.

It is the Spirit which bears witness with us that we are his children. It is then, when we accept that we are accepted, that we can begin to operate in his Spirit- discipling and equipping others- generally being a blessing, and bearing fruit.

Oh yeah.

The tar pit man

There are little spots of dim light breaking through complete darkness. They are moving. It becomes apparent that these little spots of light are actually uncovered pieces of a man, who is coated in tar. He has just come up out of a pool full of the stuff into a pitch black night. You can just make out his outline by the little spots of light here and there on his body. It begins to rain, really freaking heavily. The dried tar breaks off of him revealing that he is burning brightly beneath, the water gushes until he is completely clean and burns so brightly that the whole area is illuminated. Then a hose fires water into one of the guy's ears, it doesn't come out the other side- there's clearly a blockage. He cries in pain forcing himself to stand still to endure this trail. Evenually the blockage gives and the water breaks through the other side and comes out his other ear. When this happens the water stops and fire bursts forth from his mouth devouring all in his path.

This speaks on two levels.

1- We are that man. Covered with the filth of this world, we provide a dim light in the darkness. We told in Timothy that any man engaged in warfare does not entange himself in the affairs of the world. We are to be unspotted by the world. As we are cleaned of all our worldly desires, all our worldly attitudes, and all our worldly structures we will begin to be effective in the world. Also the mind must be completely cleansed- to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. This is a painful process- we will be broken of everything we know and trsut- but if we want to be fruitful we will go through the pain for the joy set before us.

2- The Holy Spirit is that man. Bound up in worldly doctrines and forms we have lost a lot of the power of the Holy Spirit. As we have tried to legislate for what this all-powerful force can accomplish we have limited what the Holy Spirit can accomplish. By saying that the Lord will only act in certain ways, and despising certain manifestations of the spirit, we are limiting our access to his unlimited power. It is only when we break ourselves of all these preconceptions, false doctrines, and fomulated spiritual techniques* that we will see the limitless power of God.

*By this I mean teaching people that by praying "this specific prayer", or doing this "prayer and fasting regime" they can unlock certain parts of the spirit. The Spirit is not governed by such laws. It is governed by the Lord- our loving father who gives good gifts to his children, who gives to ALL, LIBERALLY and without reproach.

That is the Law with which we are concerned- the Law of liberty- God's perfect love.

ONLY YOU can satisfy my soul...

UPDATE
Forgot about this bit, which is strange because it's freaking sweet. The man starts swimming around the underwater forest. Every unfruitful branch catches fire and brurns to crisp. Nothing but fruitful branches now. That guy is going to have an underwater feast- does that sound like the "Lamb that was slain receiving the reward for his sacrifice"? I think so...

only MY ALL can satisfy his heart...

The underwater forest

It's the same tree from yesterday's post. The fruitful branch is still dripping with the juice of the fruit. A droplet of this juice falls from the branch and drops to the bed of the water. When it hits the sand another tree springs up where it landed. This tree has two fruitful branches. The same happens again, and all of a sudden trees are springing up all over the place, each more fruitful than the last, until eventually a tree is birthed with no unfruitful branches.

As Jesus prunes us we will become more and more fruitful, and the fruit which we bear will be so much more fruitful itself. The fruit which we bear will birth life in others, and we will see more and more fruitful lives unfolding as we disciple more effectively.

Now any scientist will tell you that nothing can grow without a supply of oxygen. But that single drop of juice contained everything which the tree needed to grow. It was blood-red and it contained a little pocket of air. Our lives should be so permeated with the presence and love of God that it can easily bear fruit in others when watered by the spirit.

Here's a thought to chew over. John says that three bear witness on the earth- 'The Spirit, the water and the blood.'

Interesting eh?

Please don't let me be the only one who get's this...

The Branch

There's a tree. There is just one branch covered in a rich red fruit which is dripping with juice. This branch stems not from the trunk of the tree, but goes down through a hole in the trunk and into the heart of the tree near the roots. The tree itself is planted in deep water, not just covered up to the low branches, but completely immersed.

This branch is the fruitful church. The Lord has promised that we will be transformed in the next few weeks, and as a wonderful person reminded me today-

"I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me."
Acts 27:25

Jesus promised that if we should abide in him, we would bear much fruit. But it is not enough simply to be joined to the trunk. It is not enough to merely associate yourself with a church. It is not enough to act all spiritual in the hope of bearing fruit. We have to get to the heart of the Father. We must be close enough to him to hear his specific word to us his children in order to walk the most proifitable path and therefore bear the most fruit.

But the tree is planted, nay, immersed in the water- the word of God. Robert Mearns spoke on Sunday about the importance water from the deep. Surface water is bacteria ridden, death-water. But water from the deep well is pure and life-giving. Ezekiel spoke about water up to the ankles, knees, waist and water in which to swim.

Why are we so satisfied with the shallow water? This is why I am so obsessed with the deep things of scripture- because herein is found the life source of our faith. This is where the keys to prosperity and fruitfulness are found.

I'm diving in...

The pier

A pier sticking out into the ocean. It's dark. A flash of lightning. The pier is illuminated and there are heavy sentry guns posted on the end facing in all directions. It looks like a scene from a WWII movie...

Another flash of lightning. A wave swamps the pier and it collapses and destroys the guns.

We wrestle not with flesh and blood but powers and principalities. (Eph 6:12)

The enemy is trying to get us to fight this battle on his terms. It would be very easy to come against his heavy artillery with our own big guns, but any human means of attack is worthless in this battle. That is why the Lord is overcoming the enemies attacks with the word. Any temptation to use man-made structures, formulated gospel, psychological warfare or manipulation must be overcome if we are going to unlock the true power of the word of God.

But notice that this was a shore line defence- not an attack. It's time to stop being defensive in our faith- let's take some ground- it's the gates of hell which are going to fall, not just the advancing armies!

Rev 12:11

The glass supports

I see the table-top church again. The rickety old wooden supports beneath the table have been replaced by glass rods, which form a glass surround for the central support beam.

God is removing our external supports, tearing down our safetly nets. But it is not his desire to leave his people in weakness. He makes us into these strong glass poles, which are barely visible to the people in the church. His power works through us not so we can be seen, but so that we are obscured by his glory. Not only can the people see through the glass- but it magnifies the central column. Our purpose is to give glory to God, to place our trust in God alone and encourage others to do the same.

Something I heard again today- May the lamb that was slain receive the reward for his sacrifice. God is worthy of our whole hearted service and devotion whether we get anything out of it or not. We are not blessed with the gifts of the spirit to make us look good, or so that we can have a good ministry- they are for his Kingdom. We are made strong to bear the burden God places on us.

Notice that the glass is below the table- it is beneath the church. It bears some weight now- God does place his burden on his people, but the people in the church don't see that, they see through the glass to the central support. No trust is placed in the glass, just in God.

Make me of no consequence in this world, that I may carry weight in your kingdom. Make me a window to heaven.

The table-top church

I see a tall table, with a house built on the top of it. There are people living in the house. The table has a big, thick support beneath it, right in the centre, holding it up. There are also rickety old sticks around the outside which aren't taking any of the weight at all. I see the people in the house looking over the edge of the table and seeing these rickety old sticks, which appear to them to be strong and beautiful, and which appear to be supporting the table.

I see stars and fire and lightning being sent forth from the central support, which wow the inhabitants of the house. They think this all comes from the sticks, because they can see it passing from beneath the table, through the sticks themselves.

But then the sticks collapse. They are taken away. The people, who have set up a watch man to observe these sticks all begin to panic at his report- the sticks are gone- we're going to fall! Some of them jump over the edge to die faster, but others stay around to await their fate. When they realise they are not moving, they check under the table and see that central support which has been holding them up the whole time.

The church is currently relying on men and man made structures for their provision. People see a man or woman with annointing, and immediately base their life on this one's teaching, or attribute the success of the church to that one's gift. They are impressed by the action of the Spirit, which seems to emanate from these annointed ones. They are indebted to the latest government plan which helps them protect their children, or the latest law which allows them to practice their religion.

But God is breaking all these things. The Spirit does not come from man- it is from God- it just happens to act through people. He is destroying our reliance on men and man-made structures which have destroyed our dependence on Him.

If we are of the attitude that we cannot operate without this one person, or we cannot hope to have a good youth group unless we do what the government tells us to do, then we are powerless.

Someone said something to this effect recently:

'It is naive in this day and age to believe that you can rely on God to provide everything for your minsitry. You have to cover your own back legally and practically.'

I would rather be naive and faithful, than 'wise' and powerless.

Burn up my safety nets.

The earthquake

This seems to bring together the posts from the last two days.

I see the field- the fallow ground. There is an earthquake, and the ground breaks up. Plants shoot forth in the freshly ploughed field. I look up, the moon is moving in the sky, this is what caused the earthquake.

As we draw closer to God, he breaks up the fallow ground. Jason Upton once said that to be efficient in God was to spend time with God. To bear fruit in him, we must be close to him. At the start of this week I was under a lot of condemnation over the fallow ground in my heart. but I accepted it as the conviction of the Holy spirit. Last night when I was hanging out with the Lord, He said

'That condemnation was making me very upset, because I could see that it was holding you back from being fruitful, but worse, you thought it would make you fruitful, and you thought it was from me!'

There is no amount of strength will force fruit to grow. No amount of manufactured spiritual fervour or discipline will cut it. All we can do is decide to be close to Jesus. Then he makes us fruitful.

I wrote this in my song book last year.

'Battle of submission and resistance: I may have free will, but only one decision matters- whether to live for God or myself... let Your kingdom come, Your will be done.'

The moons

I see a completely black sky. A tiny pinprick of light appears in the centre and gradually other little sparks light up. I'm standing there thinking that this is quite unimpressive- there's not much light. But then that central light, followed by those around it, begin to grow bigger. I realise that they are in fact getting closer to the earth on which I am standing. As they get closer the light is blinding, and I begin to see that these are actually moons, reflecting the sunlight. Light fills the sky, the Earth is bathed in the reflected glory of the sun.

We are called to reflect the glory of God. If we are far from God, or far from the Earth we will not be providing much light to the world. We won't be overcoming the kingdom of darkness with our light if we are just tiny pinpricks of sunlight. But as we draw closer to Jesus we will reflect his sunlight more intensely.

There is also a warning here. There is little value in being a hermit for Christ. If we are so far removed from this earth that we never actually provide light then we are making little or no impact for his kingdom here. I have always abhorred the phrase

'He's so heavenly minded he's no earthly use'

as I believe we have to be utterly heavenly minded to be any use for God's kingdom. But I see an element of truth. If you don't live in the real world, you won't effect the real world. If you lock yourself in a prayer room for the rest of your life, you might make an impact on the spiritual realm, but I think far more can be done by preparing yourself each day in that prayer room, and then impacting the world. Aren't we called to go into all the earth, making disciples...? Aren't we called to be in the world, and not of the world?

Your kingdom come, Your will be done.

The field

I see a field. There is a plastic sheet covering the ground. It is secured at the edges so that it can't be moved. There are bulges here and there where plants have obviously tried to break through. The design on the plastic is one word- Revival.

We are so obsessed with the packaging of revival, this great move of God which is coming, that we are actually missing out on the revival itself. The revival isn't the plastic sheet- it's the life found beneath. But it can't break through because of our preconceived ideas and attitudes.

In Hosea God commanded his people to 'break up your fallow ground'. This was the hard ground wherein nothing was growing. It was literally the hard ground which was so tightly pressed and compacted that there was no way life could break through. It was to be ploughed up so that the fields would be alive again.

We are the same. Finney suggested that breaking the fallow ground meant repenting from every individual sin in our lives, and contemplating our failings for a while. While I respect the guy, I think this is not exactly what we are called to do. Our sins have already been paid for, they're gone forever. But the unfruitfulness which comes from dead works in our lives is that from which we really need to repent. It's easy to identify sin in our lives, but it is often difficult to see what is unprofitable. Let's really consider what in our lives is really worthwhile, what is truly life giving and useful, and break the fallow ground which hinders our growth.

Revival fire fall...

The Ignition

I see the church during a time of worship on a Friday night Fire. There is petrol flowing out from underneath the stage, and flooding the church. The fumes are making people a little bit high, and they are beginning to worship in a more intense way than ever before.

I see myself standing on the stage. I lift my hands up to heaven, and then bring them down, as if calling something down from heaven. I see a tiny little ball of fire, hurtling down through the roof of the church. It hits the gas. Big explosion.

I now see the village from above. Fire goes out from the building and consumes the surrounding area.

OK. So it sounds a little OTT. But it's what I saw.

But here's the deal. That wasn't petrol. It was water. Living water. God has been pouring his living water (the word) on out in abundance in this last while. By now we are saturated in it. But there's more than this. His fire will set all this fuel alight. There shall be an explosion of God's presence in our area. We shall set this world ablaze for Jesus.

See you at Friday night fire. Why not tonight?

The Burning Sword

There is darkness all over the earth. A giant flaming sword comes into view over my right shoulder. I turn around to see from whence it has come. Behind me I see something similar to what the first creation must have looked like. Life springs from every place. Water courses through the valleys, plants spring up and flower, men and animals appear in the wooded areas.

I turn to see the advance of the sword. As the sword advances, the life spreads to wherever is illuminated by its light.

The sword is the Kingdom of Heaven. We were praying about the Lord going to war for us this morning. Yesterdays vision was about the church going to war. Last weeks visions were all about the prohphet- girded in armour and trained for battle.

But God does not just send one warrior in to the battle. He doesn't even send an army. He throws his whole kingdom into the fray. It is the Kingdom of God which overcomes the kingdom of darkness.

The Lord spoke to me a lot about the Kingdom around about September/October time of last year. Zoran Spazovski prophesied to me at that time that the Lord would use this fresh revelation about his kingdom to great effect, and I would do something significant with it if I allowed the Lord to use me in it. It was therefore very tempting to harp on about the kingdom, even when I felt that the Lord was speaking to me about different things. But I submitted to the spirit, and now I feel the time is right for me to wield these weapons more effectively.

I'll try and set up another blog and post some Kingdom teachings.

Until that time, remember the Armoured Dinosaur- Seek ye first the Kingdom, and all these things shall be added.

The Armoured Dinosaur

I see the head of a dead dinosaur. Then I see the sun-bleached skeleton of the same dinosaur lying in the desert, surrounded by young people speaking to it. Their words appear to me like binary- computer coding. These streams of numbers are going into the dinosaur skeleton and it is coming to life. (I just so happened to be reading Ezekiel 37 today as well as seeing this vision.) The dinosaur comes to life, and it's an armoured dinosaur, programmed for warfare by the words the young people were speaking.

Then I see the young people running into a battle, but the dinosaur is left behind. They are coming up against serious attacks, and yet cannot overcome, because they've left this huge weapon behind.

I asked the Lord for confirmation of this word, and I very briefly saw a picture of a dusty cannon, locked in a shed.

The spirit of prophecy is being awakened in God's people, especially the young people. No great news there. That prophecy is given for a reason though. We are to build up the church. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:4- Prophecy is for the edification of the church.
We can't use the gift of prophecy as a weapon in itself- to prophesy to the enemy is worthless! But if we use prophecy to edify the church, all of a sudden we have a armoured dinosaur with which to fight!

With this in mind, the Lord speaks further to to his prophets. Don't seek after a word. Don't seek after an experience. Don't seek after a vision. Seek my kingdom, seek the building up of the church. Then the prophecies will bear fruit. In a sense, the Lord's word (both prophetic and scriptural) is the new covenant law- He speaks, we do. Therefore, let's be doers of the Law, and not hearers only.

Remember the prophet's belt...

The one-eyed old man

I am walking out of an airport waiting louge, carrying my bible. I see an old man standing at one end. As I am going through the door I hear him announce to the room,

'Who will stand with me for Jesus?'

I am about to keep on walking when I look down and see my bible. Convicted, I walk over to him and lay my hand on his shoulder.

'I will stand with you,'

Some other people in the room also stand up where they are and say 'I will stand with you.'

I look at the guy, and something in me prompts me to ask

'Are you blind?'

There was nothing unusual about this man's apperance or demeanour to make me think that he was, but I asked nonetheless.

'Only in one eye.' He replies.

I prayed with him to receive his sight.

So many people are crying out for someone to stand with them for Jesus. Especially those who are on the edge of Christian circles. So many will say 'I will stand with you,' but few will actually stand, and even fewer will get along side the old man and put their hand on his shoulder.

But what the old man ultimately needed was not someone to stand along side him, but someone to pray for him to receive his sight. I remember seeing a look on his face when I asked if I should pray, which was almost along the lines of 'I can see out of one eye, what's the point in praying for the other one?'

What is the significance of the second eye? Well, first of all, it speaks of perfection and excellence. Why not see out of both eyes? Isn't that what God intended?

But secondly it speaks of a spiritual sense. Millions of christians across the world have been blinded by the enemy- they talk about walking by faith and not sight, but in reality they don't know what it means to walk according to the spirit and not the flesh. It's this spiritual 'sixth sense' which is the key for people to begin to walk in true 'normal christianity'.

Notice that there was no reason for me to know this guy was blind. I just knew. This is the prophetic spirit at work. As we see a spiritual need we must empower people to walk in true christianity. There was no point in me telling this guy he was blind if I didn't heal him.

Lord, send revival. Start with me. For I am one of unclean lips...

The locked door

Sorry for the late update- the Matrix was on...

I see the prophet practising with his sword. He is in a dreary world, with little light. His eyes are closed and he is moving the sword slowly, expertly manoeuvring the tip in mid air. He catches something in the fabric of the air and slowly slices open a doorway. Light pours in through this new window.

I see a monk, a Presbyterian minister, and an orthodox priest. They are locking a doorway in mid air, just like that which I saw above. One of them has a key which fits in a lock called 'joy', one a key which fits in a lock called 'love', and one called 'worship'. The three locks were within a lock called 'spiritual gifts'. The three men lock their locks, and 'spiritual gifts' locks along with it. The door is shut and remains locked.

Love joy and worship have been locked by tradition, false doctrine and legalism. As these spiritual realities are destroyed, so are the spiritual gifts which empower and enliven them. We are able to break into the fruits of the spirit relatively easily. It is something we have done to a large extent already. Now we are beginning to unlock of the power of the spiritual gifts. This is the key for us to unlock the fruits of the spirit in others' lives. There is little point in being able to operate in these things ourselves unless we can benefit the body of Christ in some way. As we learn to use the spiritual gifts like a beautifully balanced sword, we will unlock the realities of the Kingdom of God for ourselves, and for the Bride of Christ.