Amazing Love Teaching Transcript

"Moving Up to the High Places"
by Mary Winchell
11/96 Conference - Tape Transcription

LIVES CHANGED-PROTECTED

Father, we thank you ! Thank you for sending Jesus! Jesus, thank you for sending the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, you bring us into all truth. You are our teacher and advocate.Thank you for being the sanctifier and for your patience with us. You have stood in the gap for us, defending us against the onslaught, powers of the evil one.

Thank you for your holy ring of fire around our lives, families, and loved ones. Thank you for the blood that was shed. Your blood, Christ, is upon the door of our homes and our hearts. We thank you that your blood cleanses us from all defilement. We can enter your presence cleansed by Your blood.

Prophecy: "There is a new day coming, a new season. The winds are going to blow. I am sifting, changing circumstances and people. Do not be afraid of the changes in your life or in those around you. Do not despair. Do not worry. I am taking you to a new place in Me, into the secret place. Won't you come with Me? "

REMOVING THE PAST IS TURNING THE DOORKNOB TO THE FUTURE

Prophecy: "Would you let the world go, let hurts go. Let go of the past that you might follow Me? Extend your hand, cry to Me, Father! Come into My secret place, the special place of rest, holiness,glory. Leave yesterday, don't be afraid of tomorrow."

The Word says that the pure in heart shall see God. We must cry out for God to purify our hearts. We must ask God to free us from hidden sins, from the presumptuous sins. God can illuminate our minds. He can set us free in those dark areas where torment,fear abides.

Do you want to walk in faith? Do you want to be set free from all the fears, even those you do not know about and don't talk about? Do you want to be free from your compulsive behavior? Are you afraid of change?

Cry out to God! Tell Him: "I am not afraid of change. I choose not to be afraid of change in my life. I choose to trust you, Lord, in the change. I don't want to clutch anymore. When you say let go, Lord, I want to let go! I desire my security in You,Lord. "

A WORLD IN CRISIS

As you look around the world and around your lives: trouble abounds, trouble abounds. You hear trouble, walk in trouble. You see broken hearts, people crying, families devastated.

It's like a cartoon but it' s not funny. I wish I could laugh but I feel like crying. God did not call us to look at the circumstances. He has called us to look beyond it, to walk in victory. Despite what is going on, He is the Healer, Deliverer. God is the One who can bring reconciliation to families, deliver kids from drugs, the only One.

Have you ever sensed a day when despair seems to hang over the area you live? It's like a dark cloud and you feel as if you can't get out of bed in the morning. We wonder; "Is God here?" And God responds, "Yes, I'm here, right with you, just relax,I'm here!"

TERRITORIAL HEAVINESS

I can choose to lay under that cloud or I can choose to get up, put on my army boots and start marching. I can choose to believe God above the news reports, the weather report, my friends and enemies comments. I can choose not to believe the negative reports. It is a personal choice we can make. We are either going down or up.

Go up! Go to the secret place of the Most High God! Are you tired of feeling beat up and defeated? When you listen to the world you feel fear, anxiety, depression.

GOING TO THE HOLY PLACE

Israel, oh Israel, what we see in the natural is happening in the spiritual. What you see happening in Israel is happening to the church. Do you know what they have been doing in Jerusalem? They are looking for the Holy Place. Archaeologists are digging within the temple ruins looking for the original site of the Holy of Holies.

What happens when you try to do that in your personal life? What happens when you start tunneling towards God's Holy Place for your life? All hell breaks loose around you! Guess who doesn't want you to get there? The enemy of your soul will set off bombs in your job, family, friends! Your circumstances may go crazy as you step out to do something for Jesus!

If you're not willing to fight, you're not going to make it. I did't want to tell you this, but it's true! You must make up your mind that you're going to survive, conquer, believe what God says, and seek His Holy place!

What you see in the natural is happening in the spiritual. As you seek God and that special place in Him, you'll feel many things pulling at your life. Emergencies, fears, tension, stress, money trouble, all pull at your time. Satan will use whatever will cause you to fear, be confused and loose faith.

WAIT FOR THE PROMISE

Hasn't God said He will set your family free! Did He mean it or was it just a passing thought in your mind? God's promises are yea and amen! Have you received a prophetic word 15 years ago that hasn't come to pass? Was it true? Did you believe it or did you let it go? God watches over His Word to perform it. Though the vision tarries, wait for it!

The reason God gives us a promise is because we're going to need it! When it looks like nothing is happening, we're going to need to remember that promise.

Write it down, put a date next to it, mark it so you can hold on to that promise! There will be days when it looks like nothing is happening and life is turning the opposite direction. That's when you take out your journal and read those promises.

Read the promises God has given you aloud. Remind yourself that if God said that on whatever date He did, He will do it! You're either going to believe Satan, who is the deceiver and liar or God who never lies.

That choice is up to you. It is not an easy thing to do. Did anyone say that the Christian life was an easy life? It's not easy but it is glorious. But, you'll fight for every step!

STEP BY STEP FIGHT

The Christian walk is a fight for every step forward. That's how Joshua took the land! He didn't go in and take the whole thing at one time. It was a step by step process so he would not be overwhelmed by the enemy.

God told us in His Word that every place we put our foot, we will get. The Lord told Joshua, "Be strong , be of good courage!" If God gave us the whole land at one time, our endurance level would not be built up and the enemy would circle and destroy us. The Christian walk is a step by step process.

The Lord allows certain things to come into our lives to strengthen us. Many times we rebuke the devil and it's actually the Holy Ghost. We sing songs and say prayers: "God renew my heart, renew my mind, renew my will..." and then cry when our life turns upside down. It could be God working in strange and mysterious ways, wonders to behold, answering your prayers.

Lord, help us discern the activity in our lives and determine the correct response. Teach us to recognize your hand moving in our lives, actions resulting from sin, and actions of the devil. We need to know whether to fast, pray, rebuke, or praise! We need to be able to tell the difference between God and the devil!

God desires to take down all the mountains in our lives, to remove all the high places we have built. They must come down.

Frequently when He brings in His bulldozer to take it down, we cry;" It hurts! I really don't want this!" We have things we have worshipped in our lives: children, people, things,education, jobs, businesses, spouses, all kinds of things. God created us to worship. We are going to worship something. God wants to be first in your life.

RESERVOIR- LOVE AVAILABLE

When you put God first in your life, all your other relationships start getting better. When your focus is on others to provide for you, you're invisibly pulling at them to meet your needs! God wants to be our husband, father, counselor, healer, deliverer, the first in our life. We need to get our priorities right. We need to put God first. When we do this, we are filled with His love for all the people and situations around us.

When I go to the Father, He gives me His unconditional love. Then, I can give out unconditional love. We all need that. No one has arrived, it is a process. When we give out His love, we won't need to worry about what we will receive in return. The Father will give us blessings from His reservoir. There is a little saying you may have heard in ministry, "Give all, expect nothing and if you get anything, be surprised!" I call this Habakkuk 13! The world teaches: " I do this for you, you do this for me!" God says, " give freely!"

FREE FROM LOWER NATURE

People have a sinful, selfish, nature outside of God. We have to be set free from our lower nature that we can put on His nature. His nature is like gold. Do you like the beauty of gold? God does! The streets of heaven are gold. The tabernacle was gold wood covered with gold. Gold represents His Holy divine nature free from impurities. His gold is not the ten carat, fourteen or eighteen! You may like silver. It's certainly better than base metal. But, God has better for you! Your price is far above rubies! God is calling you to come up higher and put on His nature. He has garments of righteousness for you!

CARRIED ON GOD'S WINGS

When you walk in the high places, you step out of the low muddy areas. There is a place in our faith in God that we can get to that is so glorious that we won't be able to tell whether we're still here on earth! The world is busy abusing drugs,alcohol, and prescription medications to carry them through life. God has something from heaven to carry you right through life's turmoil.

If you're troubled and depressed, you can ride the wings of God's presence, having peace that passes all understanding, peace above the storms. Your mind will be focused and remain sound despite the assaults of the evil one. Have you had friends that have gone through difficult circumstances ? You knew it was the grace of God that kept them through those times with a sound mind.

God is the healer of broken hearts, broken lives. He wants to heal our souls.

The Word tells us, "that our soul might be saved by the engrafted Word". Our spirit man can praise Jesus and be lifted up into God's presence. But as soon as we shift back into our soul ( our thoughts, emotions,will) we struggle! Our soul needs renovation. The soul can be renovated by letting go of hurts, anger, disappointments.

FALSE EXPECTATIONS IN THE CHURCH

Do you have disappointments from your experiences in the church? Did you believe the church to be perfect, able to meet your emotional, and human needs? You may have felt rejected, deceived, hurt. The church isn't perfect- God is perfect!

Sometimes when you look to people, even in the church, to meet  your needs, it becomes a high place. They walk through life,flesh and bones in a human body, with their own needs. They do the best they can, but they have problems too.

We are all dealing with the need for internal renovation. We need to remove the stress we place on individuals to make us content. When we place high demands on people to satisfy us, we are looking to them to be our source.

GOD IS OUR SOURCE

God is your source, not your parents, spouse, friend, or pastor.

Parents are not perfect! Do you remember the moment you found that out! Sometimes we're angry at our parents because they're not perfect. The Word does not tell us our parents are perfect it's not in Acts 3! The reality of this may cause you to feel disillusioned, but God never said they had that capability.

ACCEPTING YOUR HUMANITY

We are to be perfect as He is perfect. We are to be holy as He is holy. It's a progressive walk. Sometimes we haven't accepted our own humanity and we're so hard on ourselves, feeling like failures. We're just flesh and blood,being conformed to the image of Christ, so,give yourself room to fail.

The world's not going to come to an end if you fail! That's reality and truth! The Word tells us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. The truth to discover is who I am and who He is. When you accept your humanity, you accept the humanity of others. When you accept your imperfections, you can accept their imperfections.

When you understand this, the spirit of deception over lives can be broken. The distorted mirror we've looked through can be removed. God is God and man is man. Our days are like the flowers and grass that wither, fade away.

ETERNAL VISION

I need to look to the eternal one who has called us to walk into eternity. Eternity starts now, today! When I grasp this, my whole view of life changes. I'm not looking at next year and lists of obligations as much as I'm looking at eternity. Obligations are important, but my whole life, my security, isn't lost if what I'd hoped for doesn't happen.

Your life is in the eternal. You have to be in this world but not of this world. You are to daily do the best you can. Your security and identity is based on what our heavenly Father says, not what other people think, or circumstances.

This is what takes the pressure off our loved ones to preform for us and attempt to meet our needs.

It takes the pressure off ourselves! We can go through our entire life unhappy because we did not meet our expectations.

Are you disappointed in your life about things you wanted to do that never happened, things you never achieved? We all have disappointments. In the eternal plan of God for you , it's not significant. The eternal plan of God says, "Where are you now?" It is not founded in your past.

COOPERATING WITH GOD TO REACH YOUR POTENTIAL

God wants to transform our lives. He needs your cooperation. Do you find yourself saying yes, but your body actually pulls back, saying,yes, but..?

You must be willing to be conformed to the image of God, willing to release people. This will provide you with new freedom.

I want to be led by the Spirit of God, not coerced! God will not coerce us. Your soul does that! We are led by the Spirit, not driven. If you find yourself in a driven situation, being pushed, back up and reassess what you are doing. That is not God. You are led by the Spirit of God in a very gentle way. God is never contrary to His Word.

God wants to bring us to a place of a sound mind with clear thinking and peace, set free from bondages. Sometimes we don't even know we are in bondage. Our friends probably know but won't tell us! When you tell them you're set free,they sigh with relief after praying for you for 15 years!

Iverna Tompkins shares a story where she was so sick, she just told God to take her home. God said, "No, I don't want to live with you in that condition!" God wants to change you. He wants to change lives! He desires transformation! Are you ready for that change?

PROPHECY: "There are things in your lives that you have not seen yet but I am going to give you revelation. As you look to me ,I will show you those areas that you need to be set free from. I would bring you to a place of peace and rest in Me. I would not have you pushed around by the enemy in your thought life, nor would I have you deceived by the spirit of this world. I would bring you to a place of liberty, to a place of calmness, to a place of right decisions."

PRAY: "I choose to let go of the past. I ask Your forgiveness, God, for the idols in my life, the people I have idolized, the institutions I have idolized, and even idolizing myself. I take the pressure off my loved ones, and I choose to look to you as the author and finisher of my faith.

Father, we ask you to bless those people in our lives that have disappointed us. Bless our spouses, fathers, mothers, children,friends. Forgive for our grumbling and complaining when we have been finger pointing at others who have caused us unhappiness by not meeting our needs. We ask You to bless those people right now Lord, bless them where they are. We choose to set them free from any performance to meet our needs. Bless them, cause them to prosper, Lord.

We don't want to be drainers, Lord. We want to be fruit bearers, giving life, not taking life. We forgive those people who have disappointed us. We release them and ask your forgiveness to those who we have been angry at, for those in authority in our lives. Bless them, Lord, bless them. Father, we want to let go of the past and have the chains broken over us.

Father, set us free from the familiar spirits that trouble us. We command the accuser of the brethren to be silent over our lives in Jesus name and you will not accuse, defile, or steal our joy. Come, Lord Jesus, come and fill our hearts! We want to worship You alone, Lord Jesus. You are the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and the great I Am! Remove the idols in our hearts, Lord. "

GOD HEALS DISAPPOINTMENT

Praying like this heals disappointment. You're not going to be disappointed any more because we're not trusting in chariots and horses! They all fall into the sea. Our trust is in the Lord our God who is mighty in the tearing down of strongholds in our hearts and lives. Faithful is He who has called us: mighty in battle.