LIVING IN THE JOY OF THE LORD – Ron McGatlin
The peaceful and joyful life that people worldwide long for is now coming into view. Can you see it? Babylon, the pattern of life now prevalent in the world, has become filled with every evil spirit of darkness. The intervention of Spirit God on behalf of His people is now coming upon the world.
The fires of the end of Babylon are now ignited and will not be quenched.
Behind us is fire, ashes, and smoke, and ahead are green, lush gardens and peaceful forests. (Revelation 18.) (Isaiah 61:1-3).
We have sought a reality of satisfaction and peace, and mostly found strife and war, with temporary seasons of winning. Literally, fortunes are being spent on entertainment, games, and pleasure seeking to try to feel satisfaction, peace, and joy. People are hungry for real purpose and value in life. Many are reaching for the victorious life of purpose that is only found in the presence of God.
There is perfect peace in the fullness of the presence of God. The only source of total peace is through love, God’s love with and within us.
God is Love.
God’s Love is unconditional.
Unconditional love brings unconditional peace.
Circumstances cannot destroy unconditional peace.
Peace in action is joy.
Joy at rest is peace.
Circumstances cannot destroy the joy of the Lord. However, the Joy of the Lord can change circumstances.
The Joy of the Lord is our Strength. (Nehemiah 8:10.)
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PRESENCE
Spirit God is ALWAYS present everywhere, all the time.
However, we are not always present with Him. The manifest presence of Spirit God appears on earth when we collectively are in the Spirit. In the Spirit means that our conscious mind is relaxed, and our spirit fills the heart and mind with love by the Holy Spirit of God. When our hearts and earthly minds are filled with God, He is made manifest into this natural world. “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears (or manifests), then you also will appear with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:3-4.
Yes, God is manifest on earth with mankind, when two or three or more are gathered IN THE NAME OF JESUS. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20. Gathered in His name implies under His headship and not another head, and in the Spirit.
FINDING THE KING AND HIS KINGDOM
Seeking the King of the kingdom is discovering our Father in Christ and being rejoined to Him in love. Our earthly father may or may not have been a man of God’s love. Generationally speaking, he probably was not.
Only now in this coming generation, is there a widespread turning from traditional religious shadows of pseudo-love to real-love relationship with God.
Coming into divine relationship with our Heavenly Father connects us into real love with God in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Attempting to enter His presence to change our lives by the Christian disciplines of daily Bible reading and prayer, and yet continuing our old ways, is usually short-lived and often not very successful.
THE RESURRECTED LIFE OF CHRIST IN US
A resurrection can only come after a death. There had to be the death on the cross before there could be a resurrection life of Christ Jesus. It is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus that now abides in us by the Holy Spirit of God.
The resurrection life of Christ in us only manifests in us after we have died spiritually and been born again a new creation filled with Holy Spirit.
An experience of death or loss often precedes a resurrection to new levels of love with God. An end must take place in our lives. This can be by a personal end of our past personal way of life, or a vicarious experience of death in someone else, such as in a death-like loss in a career, or death in the family, or broken marriage relationship, or some other form of vicarious death experience.
We experience a personal death of our old life and are born a new creation through the cross and resurrection of Christ Jesus. We are born into the Spirit realm of life with God as spiritual babies and must mature in Spiritual life.
Maturing in Spirit life of becoming ONE WITH GOD IN LOVE is more resurrection life that can only come by more death experience in the lives we have lived as immature spiritual children. The Christian world has navigated the challenges of adolescence, including the mess-ups, scrapes, and bruises, as well as the excitement and mistakes of teenage and young-adult living. The world is just now in this season, coming into the mature reality of MATURE SONS OF GOD.
Thus, more death experiences are upon us as we are pruned of much of the way we have been living and believing as children of God. A much greater life, far above and beyond what we have had, is manifesting in and among us as we rapidly mature in love with God.
WORLDWIDE VICARIOUS EXPERIENCE IN THIS MOMENT OF TIME
Many people across the world are in this moment of history experiencing a vicarious death experience in their lives. The assassination of Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old son of God full of the zeal of God, so mirrors the crucifixion of Christ Jesus, the 33-year-old Son of God filled with the zeal of God, that it is causing a vicarious death experience in many lives. Many are now longing for and seeking resurrection life in God. Again, similar to Jesus, people are being drawn through his death toward God.
If we look around, many of us, like myself, see friends and family suddenly facing career or job loss that is like a death experience, and many families are recently burying a close family member.
Many people are witnessing their political and religious systems and ideologies fade away as the kingdom of God becomes more tangible. Religious churches have seen their numbers dwindle in recent years as people leave the religious systems, searching for the reality of the presence of God.
The shock of the changes and shakings is causing a strong desire in many for more reality and stability in this life. Many will turn to churches in search of the reality of God. Sadly, many will not find the reality of God’s life there.
FOLLOW THE LOVE
Move toward that which is of real love and away from that which is not. Often, the non-love things are rules or laws of surface behavior or limitations on Holy Spirit manifestation into real life today.
Real in-love experience is Spirit God working inside you, changing your heart’s desire to the things of God and His peaceful, joyful life of love.
Love of God within you, shared with others who are also in love with God, is the beginning of heaven on earth.
THE KINGDOM IS IN YOU, YOUR HOME, NEIGHBORHOOD, WORKPLACE …
Let your conversation be about what God is doing. Gather two or three in the name of Jesus. In the home or wherever, let joy reign as you manifest the love of God in Christ.
Speak of God in love to co-workers, business associates, and everyone you meet. Don’t preach to them, but let the joy of the lord be amplified in love.
The fire of God is the zeal of love, the unmeasured, unhindered flow of God into the world.
Gather for WORSHIP and PRAISE gatherings in community centers, auditoriums, stadiums, warehouses, and in good weather in open air.
The kingdom of God is all life, all the time. It is God and man on earth as it is in heaven. God is the King of all life. Every aspect of life is part of the kingdom of God.
Stop trying to get them to come to church system houses. Let every house and every building that God provides be a gathering place. Let no door or gate be off limits for the joy of the love of God to enter. You do not need a physical temple. You are the temple of God. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. In the kingdom of God there are no denominational church systems to separate us from one another. Being in love with God and one another will dissolve doctrinal differences. Gather with all in Christ to praise God and worship God with your whole heart and life.
God will guide us with wisdom, supernatural knowledge, and specific guidance. Follow the Spirit and you will never be lost or out of place.
You and the world around you will be amazed at what God is doing in us in this season of the world turning to God. The kingdom of God is within you for the purpose of manifesting into this world now.
“Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Luke 12:32.
Ron McGatlin
https://openheaven.com
basileia@openheaven.com