"PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE"
“PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE”
Sunday, February 2, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
In my world, 2014 roared in not only with powerful storms of nature, but storms sent to distract and distress the Body of Christ.
This is not a day to confer with flesh and blood. We do not need the empty logic of man’s reason to press into this “Wind” of change. When the Lord Jesus sends His Holy Wind, it is to catapult His church into His way, His will, and His Kingdom purposes. I am sure I only speak for myself, but I prefer the comfortable life of the gentle breeze of the pastoral pasture over the turbulence of sudden change. We can’t pray for the miracle of God’s “suddenlies” and not accept the mighty wind of the Holy Spirit who ushers in that suddenly.
In order to usher in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring the church into Kingdom authority and reigning, we must begin to rule with Christ in this life. May the dynamite of God’s Spirit blow us all out of our “comfort zones” into the realm of the supernatural!
Too many Christians’ theology revolves around self-comforts and selfish promotion.
1. There are people who promote themselves.
2. There is the man who is promoted by God. That man or woman will always be the one who is promoting God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. He or she will never promote themselves!!!! It is. God who gives promotion!
The Lord Jesus is catapulting His church into another realm of glory and supernatural power. The people He has prepared have become a habitation of the Holy Spirit and are resting on the solid foundation of the Word of God.
God is searching the remnant for a habitation of purity. We have received the Holy Seed of the indwelling Christ. All that God “IS” is contained in that seed. All that the King of Glory is and all that the King does dwells in you and me. Only God can plant it, and only God can make it grow.
The earth is the Lord’s (Ps. 24:1). God has everything in the palm of His Almighty hand. Jesus is King! Jesus is Lord! He knows everything that is happening not only in the world system, but in your life and mine. This is the day that He has made! Too long we have spent our time, talent, and treasure for that which does not satisfy. Let us turn from the futility of religion and the never-ending pursuit of carnal ambition. The sweat of the first Adam has produced one man-made kingdom after another.
We must give ourselves to the Word of God, which is the will of God. We must learn to watch God and only do what He does. Whether you are a business man, teacher, medical doctor, minister of the gospel, politician or engineer, etc, your life can be led by the Holy Spirit even in the world systems. I don’t know how people survive in the world without being led by the Holy Spirit. It is only as we are led by the Holy Spirit that we will find the joy of being an overcoming Christian. God has given us love letters, the Scriptures, that we might know Him personally and intimately; and he is involved in our lives with His omnipresence.
“According as His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and Godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we may be partakers of the Divine Nature.” (2 Pet. 1: 3-4).
The natural mind is a fighter and a taker. Greedy ministry appeals to greedy people. The Mind of Christ is a Lover and a Giver. The natural mind is centered in self-rule. The spiritual mind is centered in God-rule. The carnal mind walks by sight and not by faith. To be carnally minded is death! To be spiritually minded is life and peace! If we think like God, we can only think life and talk life. There are no negatives in the realm of the Spirit. There is no more night, and the realm of death is passing away.
That which is of God is eternal and permanent! The realm of the Spirit is the real world! We who are the children and heirs of God are not to think like the world. We are not to act like the world. We have by-passed our human “genius” and have heard something in the realm of faith! God has a people in the earth who have seen the realm of the Spirit! Death is not working in them, but rather the Life of Christ. There is an endless increase that flows from Him; and His Kingdom has no limitation (Isa. 9: 6-7)!
The kingdoms of this world are going crazy, but we are resting in the Kingdom of God in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Isa. 60:2: “Behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you.”
“…the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day.” (Prov. 4:18)
The Day of the Lord is dark and gloomy. But it is also like the Morning that is spread upon the mountains (Joel 2: 1-2). This Day is burning like an oven, but to those who fear God, he is rising with healing in His wings! We have nothing to fear (Mal. 4: 1-3).
Isaiah said for us to “Arise and shine; for you light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.”
Shake off bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness and unbelief. It has hurt the people of God too long and it will kill you. The light is shining more and more. The Lord is bringing forth a people who are blind to the realm of death. Their eyes have been opened to behold Him, and He is Life!
“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb. 11:5).
Enoch was translated into a realm where he did not see the realm of death. He could not relate to a realm of death. God has a schedule that is only interrupted by faith, and Enoch walked in the powers of an age to come.
Hebrews 6:4-5: “…those who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come…”
Enoch was the seventh from Adam. “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years” (2 Pet. 3:8). We are in the seventh day from Adam and the Third day from Jesus.
Enoch was of the patriarchal era and dispensation. His translation into Heaven is the “blessed hope” to that era of the resurrection and eternal life. I spoke last week that the Resurrection was illumined in the Mosaic era (the dispensation of the Law) by the departure of Elijah. The crowning triumph over death for the Church era is the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a man child company arising on the earth who are moving into a realm of the spirit who will walk in the powers of the age to come.
Enoch could not be found! Likewise we are dead and our life is hid away in Christ in God (Col. 3: 1-3. We are dead to our trespasses and sins. The first one who will notice that you are missing out from among the fearful and unbelieving is the devil. He is seeking after you, but he cannot find you.
He cannot devour the people of God who with Paul in 2 Cor. 4: 17-18 are looking at invisible things, the eternal things of the Spirit. There is a faith-walk in the Spirit for the overcomer, for:
Job. 28: 7-8: “There is a path which no fowl knows, and which the vulture’s eye has not seen; the lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it”.
There is a highway. There is a heavenly path. There is a high calling. There is nothing on that path for the devil. The vulture cannot feed on life. The vulture feeds upon death. He feasts upon death, disappointment, sorrow, sickness, sin and poverty.
If we look with the eyes of our flesh, all we see is the darkness. In the world systems, the devil is running rough-shod over everybody! I cannot see it. I am looking unto Jesus and His brilliance is so dazzling I am blind to anything else! I have been translated into a realm of life. I am walking by faith and the lion’s whelps (demons) have not trodden this path, nor the fierce lion passed by it. There is only one way to access this path and it is through the Blood of Jesus, faith and the Holy Spirit.
God has saved our spirit and is progressively taking us from glory to glory and from faith to faith receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (1 Pet. 1:9)
Enoch was translated into a dimension where he did not see death. That is what is written in the word. Enoch’s name means “one who is initiated; to discipline, dedicate, or train up; narrow.” It is training time for reigning time, “and few there be that find it”. (Mt. 7: 13-14)
There is a doctrine being taught that when one is born again, “he got it all”. Well, it just didn’t happen that way for me. My walk of faith has been progressive, growing, training, learning, and dying daily. The man who says he has it all, I ask, are you healing the sick? Are you living and moving in the realm of the Spirit? Are you controlled by circumstances or do you live in the realm of the Kingdom of joy unspeakable and full of Glory? Are you living in Divine Love, Divine Life, Divine Miracles, and Divine Health. Until we come into the fullness of Christ’s indwelling power within us, we are still being changed from glory to glory and still dying to the realm of death. We are dead to sin and alive to God. A dead man has no rights. A dead man does not argue. A dead man doesn’t complain. A dead man is an overcomer!
Should we ignore a groaning creation and let folks be content to just make it? The realm of life is joy unspeakable and full of glory. We are called to be overcomers. That means there will be something we have to overcome. Come over that wall. Mount that obstacle. We are the light of the world (Mt. 5:14). We can run or break through every problem because of the strength and the joy of the Lord. (Neh. 8:10).
“He turned the sea into dry land; they went through the flood on foot…for you, O God have proved us; you have tried us, as silver is tried. You brought us into the net. You laid affliction upon our loins. You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but you brought us out into a wealthy place”. (Psa. 66:6; 10-13).
His Body is disjointed. His army lies fragmented (Ez. 37: 1-4); hurting, bruised and wounded, but something is happening! The walls are coming down. The cry and travail of broken humanity and the nagging, haunting travail of a groaning creation is causing us to forget our petty differences. The army that is standing is an army of overcomers. This is the Day of the Lord. The fire of His Word is burning in this Day. He is trying everything by that fire, and shaking everything that can be shaken. Only his Kingdom will remain. Only that which can stand the test of His Word will survive.
The same hot fire will harden the clay, but it will melt the gold so that it will flow. The fire is the Word (Jer. 23:29; Jn. 1;1; Heb. 12:29). The clay is the old nature. The gold is the new nature. Are you hardening, or are you melting and flowing in His Divine Nature.
The Word of the Lord in the Day of the Lord is revealing the nature of each one of us. The purpose of the fire is to reveal what we are.
Are we clay or are we gold?
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Rev. 12:11).
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
I entered into the labors of Prevail, a Handbook for the Overcomer by: Kelley Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Brother Varner.