Ministries of Wayne Weaver > Blog > 2017 > August

Contusions in the Sanctuary (3)

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By arlen
On August 30, 2017
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While Satan desires to make us feel like continual failures, the truth remains secreted within the sanctified ones. It is the quiet voice of the shepherd that acknowledges the treasure in our earthen vessel. There are simply no devices nor contrivances which Heaven has designed to devastate that which He fills the saints with. These are purified ones, having their vestures dipped in the blood of Jesus for constant redemption. These saints of God don’t worship upon other altars. Their cry is deeper than a shallow soul can perceive. They are the neediest of spiritual humanity. They have forsaken the criticism of constant disapproval from the treacherous souls of men and devils. These sanctuaries of God could be focused entirely on pain, hurts, and the utter rejection which has been inflicted upon them, leaving contusions as evidence of their woundings. Instead, their heart speaks of healing, blessing, and overcoming victory. This is their victory cry, and their mission. It is what flows out of them because it is what is within them. The true saint often faces trouble on every side of life because there is so much life within him. The fullness of the flow of life within him comes from having overcome so many obstacles and clever traps that were set up for his demise. He is hated by opposing forces that seek to destroy his inner life.

These sanctuaries of God do have faults at times, especially in the eyes of the carnal man. Faults are simply interpretive, that is why they are not really classified as sin. I do not believe God classifies mere faults as sin. James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. Here it never suggests that faults need forgiveness from God. Faults cause personal hurts and pain at times. The tender conscience that has developed within the saint receives extreme crushings and buffetings from Satan at times. This is usually accomplished through persons in whom the saint has placed their trust. Peter did this very thing to Jesus when he suggested that the death of the cross was nonsense. These darts are designed to wreak heavy destruction upon the heart. But the one who surrenders to the cross does not go into distress easily. He often becomes bewildered by perplexities, but his trust in the Lord will not let him fall into hopeless despair for he knows the cross well. While persecution is a close companion of his, he does not forsake nor is he forsaken. This spiritual man is often cast to the ground but not by his own sin; these sanctuaries suffer for righteousness’ sake, not for evil doings. He survives, and with some time and patience will overcome the intended destruction. Yes, he may suffer and tangle with difficulty for extended periods of time, but will prevail because of His master shepherd who already knows how to overcome.

2 Corinthians 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; V.9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; V.10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. V.11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. V.12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

Paul’s experience was identical as he writes to the Corinthians. What is often so difficult for the saint is to have understanding and spiritual comprehension as to why he is going through these valleys with shadows of death all around. Sometimes we must die to our need of understanding. Can we rest in the fact that we might never know nor understand? Maybe that is in itself the trial we are to endure. Is it the fact that the Holy Spirit wants to walk with us to deepen our dependence with Him? One thing is clear: the Holy Spirit is our comforter and glorious strength through joy. The Holy Spirit will never, never, leave the saint alone because within him is His sanctuary. One of the supernatural attributes of the Holy Spirit is that He can be fully at rest and in complete power within His sanctuary; in His silence, He can seem completely hidden, yet the next moment He is gushing forth in power, purity, and the heavenly overflow from His fountain of love and excellence. A human that is wrapped around the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit is like the wind, not knowing for sure what’s next. The wind is blowing and you hear many sounds, but you don’t know for sure where it’s coming from or where it will end up going.

Contusion of the soul or complete healing, however it may be at this moment with you, there is one thing you must fully know: The Holy Spirit is always completely present within His sanctuary when He is welcome to set free His power to fulfill all the promises of God for His glory. John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.    

Hallelujah!

Activities Within the Sanctuary (2)

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By arlen
On August 26, 2017
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There are people who live under the constant guilt of personal imperfection simply because they pursue to perfect themselves under competing pressure. The intensity of this battle is in being under constant maintenance, the focus being on the output of man’s works and performance. This may be perceived by some as an honorable token of spirituality, but it carries the seal of the defeat of self-righteousness. This is not what God is looking for, regardless how spiritual it may seem. We must consider this fateful dilemma within our soul, lest we become bound by it in blindness.

We are all prone to love our own product of performance. While the saint troubles himself with the carnality of such noble fraud, it is humbling to note that God wants no part in it. These are tactics of the enemy to cause us to take our eyes off God and focus within. Now we become a miserable escalation of ugly defeat. The more our eyes focus on our self, the more vicious this battle becomes. The constant defeat of this battle creates an atmosphere within the saint where the Holy Spirit is not welcome. Once the Holy Spirit is not welcome, there goes our joy and strength. This vicious cycle is almost humorous once we see the picture. However, the true saint is honest, and will at some point come to the truth of this messy self-criticism. Why? Because within he is a sanctuary temple of heavenly royalty that God will not forsake.

2 Corinthians 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. V.3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. V.4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up by life. V.7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight)

Many of these conflicts that war within us, turn us to the utmost and only spiritual resolve. Hope becomes a discovered treasure and the only source of dependence on God’s grace and mercy. Here, we lose—He wins, and the picture is perfect! So in essence, we lose—He wins—we win, and all win! Thus are the conversation and picture that form upon the page of experience as a true sanctuary of victory! Hallelujah!

Found within us is this noble interaction between victory and being crushed. This creates an environment of contrition and brokenness that are draws to prayer, meditation, and vehement desire for more of Heaven and less of me. These longings lead us through the path of His righteousness. These personal places are mountains of valleys, or valleys of mountains, that offer a sanctified climate of spiritual strength and dependence. These private experiences bring a form of interaction from Earth to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth. It is the sanctuary of God’s interaction with man and it is the exact place God desires to be. Heaven is God’s throne and Earth is where His feet rest. May we be to Him a sanctuary so His presence can rest and not fight us? Isaiah 66:1 Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? where is the place of my rest? V. 2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Being spiritually poor here means saddened, even a bit depressed, in mind or circumstances. The Hebrew meaning for contrite is: maimed, dejected, crushed. Trembleth means: “reverences His Word”. God is looking to live in the heart that has these conditions. These are conditions often found in the spiritual and effective saints. These true refined saints have few instructions for other people. They are vessels that God alone is glorified in. The fountain that flows out of these is so rich that many reject it and cannot drink. Their discourse is for God’s glory alone. They have the refinements and victories of Job. These saints know no double life. They are a sanctuary where the attributes of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are exceedingly present.

Psalm 96:6 Honor and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Within the Heavenly Sanctuary (Part 1)

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By arlen
On August 16, 2017
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I want to write a series of messages on what transpires within the heart of the true saints of God. Throughout 32 years of ministering to these saints of God, I have found a mass of concerns that have defeated far too many well-meaning saints. I have noticed that in the last four years there is an overpowering plague that has troubled the finest of God’s people. These are things we need to understand lest we be brought to a place of complete despair.

The marvel of the holiness of God reigning in a previously sin-plagued human being, is one of the great achievements of the power of Jesus. This heavenly ambiance within an earthen vessel where the righteousness of Christ reigns, is an exhibition so powerful that Satan relentlessly pursues to bring heavy destruction upon it. God will at times use these abrasions in times of trouble and even sorrow, to bring sanctification to a saint through the Holy Spirit. However, we must take note that not all is sorrow and heartache within the heart of the redeemed. Often, the saint of God can lose his joy when the enemy pursues his soul. The idea that God is constantly chastening us and finding fault with us is simply not the truth of His ways. God Almighty from Heaven is all about building us up and bringing us to a deeper walk with Him through His redemptive ways. If the god you listen to is always tearing you down and overpowering you with inductions of guilt and irrelevant pressure against your soul, know one thing clearly: it is not the Father Elohim.

Satan can transform himself to appear as an angel of light, making us think that it is God that is speaking or chastening us. When God chastens us, He corrects us; this is exactly what He achieves. God truly does chasten those whom He loves, but that is not all He does. Some saints allow themselves to go through a continual beating for years until even their desire for God becomes jeopardized and soured. My friend, this is simply not God!  God’s love does not damage your passion for Him. God’s loving conviction does not tear you down. Jesus said, “I will give you rest under my yoke”. God’s love does not spiritually destroy His saints. God chastens us when we need to be correctively loved, then He moves on leading us into deeper things of faith, joy, hope, grace, and love. God does not damage the saint. Satan is out to destroy, damage, kill, and deceive. When God corrects us, He does it by convicting our soul through the Holy Spirit. When God rebukes us, He does it with a full disclosure of love and perfect timing. Yes, God does lead us to brokenness but not by obliterating us into a cloud of constant condemnation of despair.

There are angels that are transformed, appearing as light that can speak swelling words of understanding or pretense of light. They seek to destroy the soul of God’s effective ones and bring them into the bondage of condemnation. They inflict words that cause great harm and offer nothing redemptive. These thoughts pursue the slight faults of the saints seeking to obscure their view of God. These thoughts from the disguised are utterly sinful and they seek to tarnish the spirit of a clean saint. The Holy Spirit always has the right timing when He speaks, instilling trust in His care. The angel of light has the wrong timing, inflicting despair.

Why does God call Satan a pretending angel? These angels seem super-spiritual whether in thoughts or in ability to speak into a situation. The problem is clear — that it brings the heart into deep constant despair and condemnation. These thoughts, whether they come through man or to man, are very destructive and anti-Christ. They hold themselves as bearers of light or revelation. These punitive thoughts appear to be out of concern, therefore going easily undetected because they seem so spiritual. The saint in his purity has a sensitive conscience to reverence God in honor and to maintain the fear of God. This makes him vulnerable and an easy target.

These people or thoughts are ‘wondering stars’, as Jude describes them. They rove and move but are wanderers in the desert of defeat and ensnarement. There is a carnal tendency for the saint to sense that God is constantly against them. This is never the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will never issue such antagonistic influence of constant despair upon the saint. Satan, as an angel of light, will certainly do so, but it needs to be quickly understood that this it is not the Holy Spirit. Does a godly loving father castigate his son for several years in an unrelenting way? Then how could we perceive that God does this to us? These are tactics to rob the joy of the saint and can never be received as being from God, regardless of how spiritual they may seem.

Proverbs 3:11 My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: V. 12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, [Greek: convicts] even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

Spiritual Eclipse

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By arlen
On August 9, 2017
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Jesus is the only direct power that overcomes blindness because He is the Light. Jesus said if our eye is single our whole body is full of light. Luke 11:35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If we have what we think is light within us, yet it puts everything out of focus, then we are full of darkness although we think we have light. A single eye is when our two eyes see one thing. An evil eye is when we’ve lost our focus, having two eyes and seeing two different things with nothing in single focus. Jesus said that the light of the body is the eye. I understand that Jesus made this statement to make a spiritual point.

Jesus is the Light of the world and there is no darkness in Him at all. Jesus instructs us to walk in the light as He is in the light, and have fellowship with others. When we walk in darkness, we will not desire fellowship because our minds have an obstacle between us and the Son. This is a spiritual eclipse. Many Christians have this because of a religious blemish or personal prejudiced rites. When we have this, there are simply none as good as our self. No one sees as clearly as I, no one has it together like I do. But deep within this proud heart there is a condition of false humility and discontentment.

When we are in a spiritual eclipse, we place ourselves higher than others. This darkness is generationally devastating and will affect future generations. Now no one is good enough to be a friend anymore; others simply don’t get it. It becomes threatening to learn from anyone outside of our specific religion or biases. This cryptic man becomes a person on a lonely island. This friendless person has a spiritual odor of disapproval that makes even the most personable people sprint. Why does this happen? Our minds have created an obstacle between us and the Son. 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. The condition of one walking in the light will be the same as the one that fellowships with one another; it will be the same condition as the one that has all his sins forgiven, (not just a few that can be easily acknowledged). This condition is concluded as total transparency before God and man. Once we cannot fellowship with one another, we must conclude at once that we have a spiritual dilemma. Once we cannot acknowledge mistakes, faults, or sin, instead justifying our issues, we have no more singleness of eye. The dilemma is that we have removed ourselves from fellowship. Now we walk no more in the light of Christ. The blood of Christ no more cleanses us from all sin. We are convinced that we have it all, know it all, and really have need of nothing, but secretly approve those that would be just like our self.

The last part of this verse says, “And the blood of Jesus Christ his SON cleanseth us from all sin”! When we are in the spiritual eclipse of walking with an obstacle between us and the Son, we are deprived of light, fellowship, and sin cleansing.

What causes spiritual eclipse? A fundamental obstacle? We have allowed something to move between us and the Son of God. It often comes from bitter envying and striving within the heart. It is something earthy, sensual, and devilish. It places us where His light is not upon us. It shines around us but not through us. We are now replacing spiritual hope with idealism and without realizing it. It is an awful condition that everyone can become drawn into and become snared in. It can last a short time, a long time, or even a lifetime until it is acknowledged or repented of.

Jesus said in John 12:35 Then Jesus said unto them, yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. V.36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.

To prevent a spiritual eclipse, we must believe in the Light and walk while we have light that shines upon us. If we don’t walk in what we have, darkness will come. Things will come between us and God.

2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

1 John 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

Permissive Conditions Before a Fall (Part 4)

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By arlen
On August 2, 2017
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I understand that the permissive conditions in the heart before a tragic failure are pride and envy. It seems that pride and envy are the highest forms of iniquity, and nurture secret rebellion even in the presence of Almighty God. I understand this to have been the element of iniquity in the being of Lucifer before the greatest fall known to man. It was a desire to be that which he admired, worshiped, and paid service to. He was a covering angel and was the music-maker of Heaven. He was created in beauty and full of wisdom. He walked upon the holy mountains of God’s glory. Ezekiel 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. This angel with majestic ability and heavenly prominence, was created perfect in all his ways. In his perfection, his heart was lifted up because of his splendid magnificence. In the midst of this high calling, within him was found a devious sin. It came from a desire formed in a secret place. The desire was to exceed his calling and what he was created for. He realized his created ability, or as the Bible calls it, “his merchandise”. His heart was lifted up because of his beauty. This perfect angel now corrupted his wisdom by his ability to reason. Ezekiel 28:17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. How can something so perfect become so corrupt?

Now this angel had corrupted wisdom. He came to the first two perfectly created human beings in Eden. He asked questions of Eve and it tarnished her trust into reasoning. Ezekiel 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick. Here we see that Lucifer had now accumulated a substantial amount of iniquities and he defiled God’s hallowed places by peddling reasonings. This is the most evil strategy of Lucifer. He desperately pursues the defilement of holy places. He seeks to stake out where God is doing marvelous works. He hates the presence of God’s Holy Spirit. Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Satan does not need a lot to cause horrific evil. He just needs a stitch of thread inside a heart to cause pride or envy. These anti-Christ insults within a heart can evaporate the love of God in a heartbeat without a dramatic sense of the presence of evil. Actually, it might seem assertively spiritual and even reasonable. It only explodes after it gains capacity in trafficking. Look at the Garden of Eden. What would the number one opponent of God want with a tree that man was told not to touch and not to eat?

When the natural man is forbidden of something, he becomes curious in his imagination. Once curious, he becomes a lucrative target for failure. This is the intensely vulnerable point of entry to the imaginary. There is only one escape for the saint in this profound yet subtle heap of temptation: it is the cross. The unwillingness to lay down our life in this susceptible state will create an open door for the grand deception of reason. The reasoning powers of the human mind now become infected with the overshadowing of Satan’s influence amid considered reasonableness.

When a spiritual picture is so clear that faith is no more needed, then we can be assured that Satan is in the details. Eve had faith to obey what God said until she was overshadowed by her reasoning of it. All Lucifer needed to do was to suggest. That single question, “has God said?”, seemed so reasonable to respond to. The response caused human reasoning against the spoken word. Satan knew that with reasonings he could control all of God’s human creation, bringing them under his authority, if Eve could be beguiled. Satan’s response to Eve was that God knows if you eat, you will be as gods. Eve said wow, rather than woe is me!

Satan hides in the things that are forbidden by God. In Eden, it was a tree of knowledge. This tree of knowledge was the inflammation of Eve’s imagination. It is within this flattered heart that lies the passion to become someone we are not. Here we want someone else’s calling, gifts, treasure, purpose. Satan wanted to sit in the seat of God. Eve wanted to be like gods.

What are the permissive conditions hidden before an epic fall? They are pride, and envy that is saturated with reason.

1 Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: V.9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.