Dearly beloved,

I  want to share some thoughts with you that have crystallized out of my own difficult (to the mind and body but not to the spirit) experiences.  The "chosen" are in for some very tough times and will have to deal with God in it because the "times of trouble"  are for His pleasure and by His Hand alone - even as with Job.  Amen - so be it!  It has already begun, this excruciatingly painful Day of The Lord.

Our God has moved His agenda from the theoretical forward to the practical outworkings, from the printed page to the actual experiencing, from thought to knowledge, from His acts to knowledge of His ways!  Those who are wise will grasp what He is doing, yield to His ways - strange though they be - with praise and thanksgiving and move with alacrity into His program with total faith in His Person. 

Here is why:  He will no longer have ministers - either to His Body or unto Him - who are immature and unbroken.  Also, He will not have ministers out in the marketplace who have NOT, themselves, walked through EXACTLY what the masses of humanity have walked through, but have totally overcome victoriously by the blood of The Lamb, and NOT through the strength of self, the arm of flesh!  In other words, He will NOT have pastors (among the "chosen") who have NOT experienced what the sheep have experienced; He will NOT have counsellors who have NOT experienced what counsellees have experienced; He will NOT have teachers who have NOT experienced what the students have experienced  - for there is no LIFE where one is inexperienced.

We must KNOW what it is to fight physical trials of the body if we are (or will be) called to counsel those afflicted with bodily ailments...NO MORE WORDS EASILY SPOKEN, but only words that are HEART- FELT because of having been forged in the fires of testing.

Christ laid aside HIS riches!  We, too, who would be in the corporate "chosen" Body of Christ must be ready to lay aside all riches (protected places in Him) and take on the "likeness of man" and lead him into the Promised Land by identification, NOT recitation.  No more "knowing" from the PRINTED page, but from the experiences of Life, overcoming and overcome by the PRESENT, ACTIVE, REAL PRESENCE OF GOD-LIFE ALONE!  Glory be to God!

So much will be heaped on us that it will be impossible to handle more than a day's load at a time.  Every man will labor under his own load and, in the end, sit under his own vine (Vine).  No man will reap from another's labor nor carry another man's bundle.  God is calling us up higher.

Those in the Body who are not able to keep up will fall by the way, for this is NOT qualification for ministry to the House, but for ministry UNTO HIM!!  These will be worn OUT (from self) until there is left NOT ONE SINGLE,  PERSONAL,  INDEPENDENT DESIRE, AIM, PLAN, SCHEME, WISH,  IDEA- - - ESPECIALLY "GOOD" ONES!  No room for GOOD ideas nor even for RIGHT ones in this fold - - - only DIVINELY-GIVEN ONES!

All "knowing" will spring forth from EXPERIENCING the depths so as to be able to relate (identify) with man and so as to be able to understand (KNOW) The Lord.  Only through experience can be understood the WHY of HIS anger, HIS exasperation, HIS repentance that He has made man;  His exasperations and "peevishness" as He experienced protracted contact with supposed "leaders" of His day; to know FIRSTHAND His bone-crushing weariness that caused Him to be unable to take another step and to sit down at the well to rest (and YET react with LOVE when "interrupted" or "touched"); to know and understand His deep repugnance for others' deeds and words, and yet break bread LOVINGLY while neither condoning nor condemning their sins - instead, building relation-
ships with them; to be called upon for the most mundane, petty needs and yet not include the personhood of the individual in those categories, treating them with equal dignity and respect; to know experientially without reservation the ugliness and self-centeredness of humankind so as to unreservedly say "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"; to feed "five thousand" who aren't about to listen to the Godly way to resolve their daily difficulties (they just want to eat:  what YOU have and what YOU have earned!), and yet experience that unfathomable Love reaching toward them - even when upset with them;  to be able also, when commanded,  to walk away with Godly indifference when HE turns them over to Satan to be buffeted or to give them - without remorse or anxiety - the opportunity to "hit rock bottom" because we know (from EXPERIENCE) how GOOD it is to be stripped so low that we learn to call and to lean upon Him and not on man.

Paul says we have an High Priest not untouched by our infirmities.  Neither must WE be untouched, because like Him, we ARE priests!  We are KINGS, too!  We learn deeper meanings of such truths as "He bore our sins", "tempted in all points such as we" as we wrestle OURSELVES with the trials of man:  obesity, physical ailments, financial difficulties (Jesus, Himself, was - at least part of the time - receiving financial assistance).  We learn the humility THAT takes.  He didn't miraculously supply His own practical needs; He, too, had to suffer in order to obey, to know personally what it was like to be needy, upset, "burned down and out" - and doing NOTHING but what He saw THE FATHER doing!  He, too, had a wilderness experience.  And while in the wilderness, He did not so much as make Himself a loaf of bread (all spiritual and figurative, too, in meaning) when hungry.  The Spirit is also driving the "chosen" into the wilderness of Life - TO BE ALONE WITH SATAN God's tool (for those with eyes to see)!

YET WITHOUT SIN!  And THAT is what must be learned:  to be perfect, EVEN AS OUR FATHER IS PERFECT.  And it MUST be do-able.  He said it!  And it must be do-able through the Spirit of the Living God as daily death (minute-by-minute) is appropriated.  He wants us to be able to heal by being able to say to the troubled and broken one who comes to us:  "I know".  THAT is LIFE AND HEALTH!  When one can truly feel the feelings of the other who comes in empathy, THAT is LIFE AND HEALTH INDEED!

There will be no Christian university to take credit for the "chosen's" knowledge.  No academic, theoretical knowledge and degrees, how-to books, tapes - no, not even knowledge of Scripture which has fooled man into believing he was possessor of ALL - only because he knew the Scriptures!  God's "man of God" will be "i", not "I",  and will have full, rich, practical knowledge of those experiences endemic to the lives of those he is called upon to touch.  That one will teach what he KNOWS, not what he was told!

In other words, the Word will become "flesh" (written on the heart!) even as The Word became flesh (the Word being worked out through practical experience:  "FLESHED" out) and dwelling among us (IN us!)  What a lowly, pain-filled meaning of those words when one gains "sight".  "Dwelling among", of course, also means "to live where they live" - whether that is in squalor, plenty, poverty, or affluence, mental anguish, in the marketplace, or on the Isle of Patmos.  This does NOT mean "living among" EXCLUDED FROM the consequences, but  "living among IN IDENTIFICATION"  wherever man who needs to be redeemed is living.

And He is not sending forth inexperienced foot soldiers in this army in this hour - The Great Day of The Lord.  THIS army will be tried and true - a humble, feeling, compassionate, forgiving, loving, gentle Bride.  THIS will be a Companion WORTHY of marrying Him ("the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready" Rev.19:7)
She will be able to RELATE  with Him because she IS lowly, not in theory or letter, but in practice and actuality.

It is a debilitating Life, but it IS LIFE!  and this Bride will walk FOR God, IN God and BY God - and HIM ALONE.

I once thought - as I am sure most others have and do - that the Christ-life would be a life of eventual ease.  I now know it is the ability to overcome all PERSONAL inhibitions in order to suffer WITH man and FOR man EVERY day - to experience the anger, but not sin; to experience revulsion, but not be incapacitated by it; to experience rejection, but not be debilitated by it; to be energized by all adversity into a higher level of holy and loving response, whether that response be forgiveness, laughter, tears, compassion, or even by answering not a word of sustenance or rebuke - all as HE leads.  And, most of all, to love The Lord and His Father - God Most High - with all of one's being.

LIFE will be our clinical experience.  When we minister to those in sexual sin, it will be as those who "dwelt among them" and overcame AFTER failing ourselves,  now to overcome by His Life alone.  When ministering to those emotionally and mentally unstable, it will be as those who "dwelt among them".  So will it be also with poverty; prolonged health problems; joblessness; nakedness; personality problems; the homeless; those in prison, unjustly accused or guilty.  IT IS ALL PURPOSEFUL.

He has given me to know that my college courses in crisis intervention will NOT be what heals people, but my ability - from EXPERIENCE - to FEEL and KNOW what the sufferer feels, ministering out of that...WITH HIM.

We will be intercessors - priests of the Most High God NOT untouched by the infirmity of the ones being interceded for - understanding THEM, understanding HIM.

Yes. He has already begun.  Severe difficulties are befalling His "choice" ones.  May He be praised and glorified.  A Body will live no longer ABOVE (aloof from)  the "common man", but walking bodily through the fire (Malachi 3) in order to show forth the power of God which is instilled in us through the fires of purifying while pouring forth sweetness to the lost.

This is NOT a lighthearted time.  It is the time of Job to each  - individually - called.  Praise His holy Name!  It is the time of "following on to KNOW The Lord".  It will be so wonderful to watch all He does in all of our experiencing!  We have to "put our money where our mouth is".  IF IT DOESN'T WORK, THERE IS NO MESSAGE TO SHARE.  IF THERE IS, IT IS IMPERATIVE TO PROVE HIM AND THEN - TO GO TELL!  

IT IS A GLORIOUS TIME FOR GOD!  HE IS PREPARING HIS BELOVED BRIDE!