I read last night about a certain “christian” organisation…

I was very saddened by what I read…

I hate control…

Father, in Jesus Name, I pray for this “christian” organisation, an organisation which says that it represents You and I pray that You would go to the root of control in this organisation…

I pray that You would remove the root of control from this organisation…

Replace this root of control with faith in You – with a belief that You would provide…

Set this organisation free to serve You…

Whatever is not of You in this organisation – remove it…

Come Holy Spirit and fill this organisation with Yourself…

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty…

There is no control…

Come Holy Spirit and breathe on this organisation…

Fill it with Yourself…

Come Holy Spirit and remove from this organisation all control…

Open their eyes to see that we are new creatures in You…

We are not to introspect ourselves…

We are not to strive in Your Presence…

We do not need intermediaries between us and Yourself to dictate to us what Your will is…

Thank You Lord that You speak directly to us through Your Holy Spirit…

Imitate me as I imitate Christ…

Leading by example…

We join with those who we see the reality of Christ in…

Not with those who seek to manipulate us via control…

If you have to give something to receive something, i.e. “you do this and then we’ll let you ‘minister'”, then that is submitting to the spirit of control…

If anyone has a, “you do this and then I’ll have a relationship with you – I’ll ‘open up’ to you”, kind of attitude then this is not of the Lord…

The Lord says, “come and receive from Me”…

The Lord says, “I have accepted you and forgiven all your sins – come into My Presence and enjoy fellowship with Me”, to those of us who know Him…

We are in the Lord’s Presence – those of us who know Him – from the time when Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, we have the Holy Spirit abiding in us permanently – He will not be taken away from us…

When the Lord convicts us (as believers) of sin it is “sin within us” which He is removing and when He is removing it we confess it and it is gone…

It is not an “over and over” process…

Confession to others achieves nothing unless it is prompted by the Holy Spirit…

Confession of sin must come from the person doing the confessing – the desire to confess – and cannot be done in fear or in a feeling that you will “miss out” if you don’t confess…

If you don’t have peace to confess then don’t confess…

If you confess and then find that nothing has changed (i.e. you need to confess “over and over and over”) – that the root has not been broken – then your confession was not instigated by the Holy Spirit…

The Holy Spirit doesn’t bring condemnation, He brings conviction and transformation…

I have really felt the need to confess (at times) and then have suffered the loss of the relationships which I had with the ones I confessed to…

They were not able to handle my confession (or that was the way it appeared to me anyway)…

I did not (I believe) confess to these ones out of fear – I had a sense from the Lord (I believe) to confess – but they were not able to handle it (or that was the way it appeared to me) – but the Lord used my confession to honour the James 5:16 principle (show me Lord if there was fear in my confession or panic and remove it from me – do not let me fear or panic)…

Whether the people you’re confessing to “get it” or not or support you or not just the plain honesty of admitting “sin within you” in a specific and honest way – as long as it is the Lord placing this on your heart with peace and no compulsion – is enough for the Lord…

I have experienced deliverance from this sort of confession where the things I’ve confessed have been broken and as I look back are no longer a problem…

Yes, further layers emerge but you see the progress…

If I have a sense of unease or a sense of distrust towards anyone to whom I get the urge to “confess” then unless the Holy Spirit overwhelmes that and gives me His peace – I refrain from confessing anything to that individual or that group of individuals…

It appears that I have digressed but I have not…

Control loves to beat you over the head with “sin within you” and try and make you believe that it is you…

When it is not broken – because control initiated the confession (forced confession) – then it loves to condemn you and get you to doubt your own sincerity…

What control hates is the truth that we are new creations – sin within us is not us…

It hates that scripture in Romans 7 because it is that very scripture which spells its demise…

There is therefore (because of that scripture in Romans 7) now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…

To be able to hear from God we do not need to first introspect ourselves to see if there is any sin in us…

Of course there will be sin in us…

God has His own timetable for removing this from us…

We are justified in His Blood…

We come boldly to His Throne of Grace by the Blood of Jesus…

We hear from God because He loves to speak to us not because we seek Him so strongly that we twist His Arm to speak to us…

If the Lord wants to speak to us He will speak on the basis of His Grace not on the basis of our performance…

Having begun in the Spirit are we now being perfected in the flesh?

No…

Control is the enemy of true intercession…

True intercession is completed by the Holy Spirit through our new selves…

Our new selves are completely untainted by sin…

Sin is not an issue for the new self of a believer being able to hear from God and communicate with God…

Once the Holy Spirit brings conviction of “sin within me” to any area of sin in my heart then He deals with it…

I have seen this…

He deals with it…

I’m surrendered to this and He deals with it…

At the same time as He’s dealing with it He’s also given me words from Him…

It is two distinct operations going on in my life – the strengthening or growth of my new self (which starts off like a baby – but a pure baby) and the removal of “sin within me” from me…

I am not what I was before I was saved…

I died and my life is now hidden with Christ in God…

I share all this to say that if you are invovled in any organisation where that process of “forced sharing” or “forced confession” or “jumping through hoops” before you can “minister” or giving up your “autonomy” to hear from God directly to have to “hear” through others – if you are involved or committed to any organisation where this is occuring – this is not from God…

You need to get out…

I am not going to “name names”…

We all stand directly before the Lord…

Some of us have been shown more things by the Lord than others – that doesn’t give us (if we are one who has been shown more) the right to act as an intermediary between God and someone else…

That “curtain” was destroyed when Jesus died on the cross – it was torn from top to bottom…

There are no “classes” in Christianity, i.e. not an “upper class” and “lower class”…

Not a “ministering” class and a “non-ministring” class…

Not a “on the stage” class and a “sitting in the pews” class…

Not a “professional” class and a “non-professional” class…

We are all one in Christ Jesus…

Yes, there are Apostles, yes, there are Prophets, yes, there are Evangelists, yes, there are Pastors & Teachers…

But these come “underneath”, these come “underneath” to support the individual believers (or in the case of the Evangelist the individual “pre-believers”) to develop a direct relationship with the Lord…

The Apostle, Prophet, Pastor & Teacher – in the Church – are appointed to be “underneath” (like a hand “underneath”) holding the Church in the palm of their hand so to speak, lifting them up to the Lord – not a closed hand but an open hand so there is clear daylight only between each individual believer and the Lord – so each individual believer has a direct relationship with the Lord and not one through someone else…

This is the function of the Apostle, Prophet, Pastor & Teacher in the Church to make the way open for each individual saint to come freely into the Presence of God by the Blood of Jesus…

The function of the Evangelist out in the world is to do the same for the “pre-believer”…

No one can get inbetween Christ and His Church…

There are no intermediaries…

Christ is the Mediator…

No one else…