Releasing Ministries, Destiny and Purpose

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

Prayer can act as expressed Prophetic Intercession and Declaration.

The way we are going to understand the prophetic power in this is through looking at the following:

Luke 1:37

Mary said - prophetically declared -

For nothing is impossible with God.

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Now the literal translation from the greek is as follows:

No word (rhema) from God is without dynamic

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- the Greek does not use Logos as in the eternal Word but Rhema as in the revealed, manifest, birthed or applied Word.

Now lets convert this in the positive, so that this statement can be read -

"EVERY WORD FROM GOD HAS POWER" -

So. Ok - I pray and I feel like my prayers do not reach the sky and fall back to the ground - No, every prayer is heard in Heaven and answered - but not necessarily in our preferred timeline or in the way we expect, desire or anticipate.

How do we know this? Because we have two witnesses in line with Hebrew tradition which was prophetically instituted-

Witness 1. Jesus is continuously interceding for us in Heaven - Hebrews 7:25 and in Incarnational reality - Heaven and Earth are bound together and we are in and with Him and He is in and with us simultaneously through John 17 - so our prayers are His prayers and His prayers are our prayers through the work of the Cross - when He said I am the way, the truth and the life (to a deep prayer relationship with the Father and a deep relationship lived in and with the Father and the Commun ity of the Trinity - they all bear witness to each other so there are always two witnesss in the Trinity) and noone comes to the Father except through Me - He meant the Cross - your prayers go through the Cross.

Witness 2. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in Us - praying with, in and through Us.

Romans 8:26, 27:

26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

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So - how do I become released in prayer as prophetic intercession and declaration so that I can be used to birth heavenly Realities in the earthly places and in Human situations.

Right - we are now going to study the Incarnational Dynamic - Heaven and Earth bound together through Him - whatever is bound and/or loosed (released) on Earth has already been bound and/or Loosed in Heaven.

We are going to use Jeremiah 22:29 - here is a man standing alone in the wilderness (the world) and God says cry out - speak out my word into the wilderness so that it becomes pregnant with divine purpose - and something is birthed in the heavenly and earthly places - this is what it means to bring fire upon the earth.

Jeremiah 22:29 -

29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

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This is filled with Divine prophetic intention:

Isaiah 55: 11, 12

11

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so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

We then start to receive His ecstatic Presence in your prayer life and liquid fire is kindled inside of us -

Isaiah 54:12

We will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

And the fulfillment of this type of prayer from Jeremiah 22:29 is

Matthew 28:16 -20

The Great Commission</B>

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (and to Us through Him).
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

So when we pray we prophesy and an incarnational dynamic is released that touches Heaven and Earth and what do the witnesses do - they bear witness which is a form of prophetic action - for a prophetic action is a form of heavenly substance -

Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen

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How do we know that when we pray we prophesy, because -

Revelation 19:10 says -

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

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Who does He testify through? Us - how - through our prayers -

So, try the following spiritual exercises:

1. Pray in tongues for 15 minutes every day.

2. Treat every prayer as prophetic intercession and declaration and audibly speak it out - declare each prayer to the Heavenly and earthly places.

3. Go out and Go up (Great Old Testament Command - go up and ... I am with you) into places in your neighbourhood and declare blessings - speak them out over people, houses, streets, shopping malls and declare His manifest presence and you will start to see some action and reaction.

Be released into this - right now!

Amen.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

Here are some thoughts on Prophetic Intercession and Declaration through Meditative Prayer.

Firstly, know this - the Lord will always restore the Locust Eaten Years in our Lives -

Joel 2:25a (AMP)

And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten

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The next thing I would like to do is use a focusing tool - this is a quote from Juanita Bynum:

We must always remember that a person's Life is transformed not just by a word from the Lord, but a word loaded with fruit - especially the foremost fruit of Love.

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When we engage in prophetic intercession and declaration in meditative prayer - we are fishing out in the deep of our souls - the Mind - the cognitive faculty I would like to concentrate on is our use of the imagination to engage prophetic symbolism and speak it into our lives.

David said in Psalm39:3 -

as I meditated, the fire burned

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and in Psalm119: 15 -

I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

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Now the purpose of this is - Romans 12:2 -

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and perfect will.

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It is a spiritual discipline that renews our minds.

So - how do we do this - well,we take a passage say from the Gospels, put ourselves into the scene and ask what Jesus is doing and saying to us -

Lets jump in -

Mark 5:24-34

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes?

31You see the people crowding against you, his disciples answered, and yet you can ask, Who touched me? 32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

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</FONT>Now, we are going to imagine we are the Woman with years of suffering - reaching up to touch the Hem of His Mantle in a visual way and simultaneously in the Spirit and in this practise His Presence and His goodness flowing into us - when we do this an impartation takes place that cleanses and revives the perceptual filters of our Minds -we start to see clearly and understand how He is speaking to us-

His calm substance starts to flow into our turbulence and we feel Him filling us - our thoughts catch fire with and in Him - as we meditate on this, the fire burns brightly -

So what are we really doing? We are clothing our Minds with His power - through ministering to Him by reaching out in faith - we come into His Presence broken and incompleteand reach up and grab hold of His Mantle and He passes into Us through the Spirit and we become increasingly whole - we have clothed ourselves with Christ - Galatians 3:27.

That goodness that flows into Us -which we "put on" - sinks into the core of our perceptual "self image" and starts to prophesy,intercede and declare - it starts to connect - with the imago dei (the Imageof God) in us - and in this the New Adam and the New Eve emerges -

Then we start to pray in our thoughts like this -

Lord,keep pouring your goodness into me, I want to soak in and soak up your presence - to be remade anew - cause my thoughts and inner face to be alight,on fire with your presence, may all the virtues of your presence find a home and cometo rest, abide and reside in me.

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Our thoughts start to become alive with an inward and spiritual work of grace. There are five words that are important in this process - our thoughts convey through what we engage as we reach out for His Mantle - they convey (transformative intercession); they bear (presence bearing as a form of prophetic declaration); they point (they act as a witness and testament), they manifest (which is an expression of symbolic reification or making something substantial and real) and they behold ( they come into the Life of Jesus and He fills them).

Now I want you to practice this because it is imporant in understanding dreams and visions - with wisdom, knowledge, understanding and discernment.

Genesis 40:8b - Then Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams."

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The other thing I would like you todo is to imagine that Living water is always - I mean always - flowing through your mind - by meditating on this verse - Isaiah 41:18

18 I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.

I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.

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and on this -

John 4:10, 13,14

10Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
13Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

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Now in the name Lord of the Lord Jesus Christ who opens every door, may every perceptual faculty you possess be opened now! In the name of Jesus, let the Living Water of His Presence well up in You. Right Now!

Amen.

Mark

SavedByGrace3 · Mar 7, 2005

talitha said:
Mark, praise the Lord! I left the Episcopal church years ago, discouraged at what was and was not going on there, at least where I was. I am greatly encouraged that someone with your vision has remained. I bless you in the name of Jesus!

I also left the Episcopal Church some time ago but have sometimes felt a strange draw back that way. I born and raised Episcopalian. My childhood church is a part of the US church (Massena NY) that voted to ordain gay ministers. I was saddened by this because it has divided my home area so badly. There was even talk of a breaking away. Even tho I have little in common with the US Episcopalian Church.. I still feel like I am a part of them because I was baptized, confirmed, and took my first communion there.
My mother even has a stained glass window dedicated to her.

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

The Lord is going to do three things in your Life and in your ministry.

1. He is going to open Your Vision - this will be very Christocentric.

2. He is going to baptise you with Fire.

3. He is going to give You a special Covenant and Sign - which will release resurrection Life and power into your ministry.

The Lord wants to open your Vision so that whatever you see in Heaven and prophetically declare on earth will become established and take effect - For Faith is a Heavenly engine with an Earthly manifestation.

Hebrews 11:1 -

Now faith is the substance</B> of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (KJV).

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Proverbs 4:26B -

Let all your ways be established

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- Now! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Lord release us all into Vision, place each of us in your side, so that through You we can see into the Heavenlies, the invisible, the unseen and declare those things You release us to see into the earthly places and command them to be birthed, take root and grow in Your name, Lord Jesus Christ. Right Now! Receive this as Your Destiny and Calling in Him!

Lord, say to us - "Come Up Here"! Now! and let us pass through the narrow place in your Side into Vision.

Hebrews 11:3 -

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

No -one can enter Heaven or the Heavenlies except through the narrow way, the eye of the needle, the narrow place of His side, between the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, that cleft in the Rock opened for us - from which the water , blood and honeycomb flow - that revives our side and we are lifted up into His Presence.

Deuteronomy 32:13 -

The Lord has made a place for You in His side so that You can ride on the heights of the land and from His side You will be fed with the fruit of the Tree of Life. He will nourish You with honey from the Rock, and with oil from the flinty crag.

1 Samuel 14:27 -

I reached out the end of the spiritual staff that was in my hand by the will of the Lord and dipped it into the honeycomb. I raised my hand to my mouth, and my eyes brightened.

John 14:6 -

Jesus will aleways answer us, I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father (who is in Heaven) except through me.

Matthew 3:16 -

At that moment heaven was opened for us.

2 Kings 6:17 -

And Elisha prayed, O LORD, open his eyes so that he may see. Then the LORD opened my eyes , and I looked and saw.

Revelation 11:12 -

Then I heard a loud voice from heaven saying to me, Come up Here!"

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In the warfare of Faith, to receive the Impossible You must first see the Invisible. I release You to see the Invisible in His name! Right Now! Through Faith! It is only when we see the invisible and get ready You are going to see Angels and many other things - the invisble realm through Faith, that we engage in victorious warfare and in and through Him cast down every high thing - every principality, power, throne, dominion and ruling force at Calvary - through standing and abiding in His side.

Seeing into the invisible is the key to victorious praying- the discerning of heavenly and spiritual issues - which are more substantial than earthly issues - I release God's perspective into Your ministry and your Life - see things from His perspective and catch Fire!

Revelation 1:10 -

On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit

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- John, the Divine was in the Spirit - the literal greek translation reads - Enenomehn Ehn Pneumati - to Become (More Substantial) in Spirit - In the presence of Jesus - You are going to be filled again and again and again and released and released and released in the Holy Spirit into Vision and You are going to increase in substance and I name You with the great Puritan Divines - A Divine - walk before Him - who walks among the seven golden Lampstands, be Holy, Righteous, Pure, Merciful, Loving and Compassionate.

Now, You are going to be changed - to live in and through this, You have to understand that every High thing was cast down at Calvary including our Ego, our Self Image, the pride of man and the lust of his eyes - so that we might be filled with His image and receive His eyesight and live through and out of His perspective - I release this in You and I commission You into this ministry as a proven, trusted, tested, good and faithful servant and the Spirt in the inner Life of the Trinity bears witness.

John 3:30 -32a, 34 -

He must become greater; we must become less...The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32He testifies to what he has seen and heard, ...his testimony. 33The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God[k] gives the Spirit without limit - get ready, You are going to receive the Spirit without limit.

Philippians 2:7a -

He made Himself nothing

- we have to descen to the lowest place in Him and with Him. Do You understand this - and will You receive this calling - I declare that You do and You will - to the glory of the Father - under whom the Son will bring all things in submission in the Spirit.

Ephesians 1:23b -

Receive the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Amen.

Now, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit I baptise You with Fire and I declare that the Fire of the spirit will well up in You, flow through You and be released through your ministry - You wuill have aburning Heart and the Fire on the altar will burn continuously - it will never go out!

Daniel 7:10 -

A river of fire was flowing, coming out from me.

Leviticus 6:12 -

I declare that a perpetual Fire will burn on the altar of your Heart and in your ministry and that it will not go out.

Now the Lord has decided to enter into a covenvant with You to strenghten and sustain you in Faith -

Numbers 17:1 - 10

The Budding of Aaron's Staff

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1 The LORD said to Moses,

2 Speak to the Israelites and get twelve staffs from them, one from the leader of each of their ancestral tribes. Write the name of each man on his staff.

3 On the staff of Levi write the name of my servant, for there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral tribe.

4 Place them in the Tent of Meeting in front of the Testimony, where I meet with you.

5 The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites.

6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their leaders gave him twelve staffs, one for the leader of each of their ancestral tribes, and Aaron's staff was among them.

7 Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the Tent of the Testimony.

8 The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron's staff, which represented the house of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds.

9 Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the LORD's presence to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each man took his own staff. 10 The LORD said to Moses, Put back Aaron's staff in front of the Testimony, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious.

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Into your hands I place Aaron's staff and declare You to be a Chief in the House of Levi and that this spiritual staff will be a symbol of resuurecrtion power in you ministry and whatever, you stretch out your spiritual staff over will receive and become full of resurrection Life and Power.

The Lord's covenant with you is this - every time You see a Cherry tree or any Fruit or Nut tree in full blossom it will be His covenant and sign to You that His hand is stretched out over your ministry with resurrection power and authority.

Receive this impartation and release - Right Now, in the spiritual authority vested in me in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

The Desert is a place of Fire and water and a narrow place, a crucible called Kerith - do you know that the Israelites took Communion every day for forty years - the Manna represented the bread of His Body and the quails represented the Wine - the Blood He shed at Calvary - there is nothing deeper than Communion - can you imagine that - every day for forty years and they could not see it - they even ate from the Honeycomb -

Matthew 7:13 -

Enter through the narrow gate - the Narrow Place which is His side.

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Exodus 16:31 -

The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey

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Exodus 11-13 -

in the morning you will be filled with bread (He is the Living Bread - which is the Living Word). Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.' "
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew (the Spirit) around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor (our Hearts in transition).

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In the Desert, you do not live by bread alone (human economics) but by every Word of God (the Living Bread, Him, the Honeycomb- which is a heavenly substance with an earthly presence).

Matthew 6:10,11 -

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us today our daily bread - the Living Heavenly Bread - the Honeycomb - the Living Word - who is Jesus.

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John 6:30-35 -

So they asked him, What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

32Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

34Sir, they said, from now on give us this bread. 35Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

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When You reach into His side at Calvary - You eat from the Honeycomb.

Judges 14:8,9 -

He turned aside to look at the lion's carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, 9 which he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along

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Graham Cooke - "Hiddeness is when God is building something into you, Manifestation is when God is releasing something through you".

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The deep things of God are learnt in the crucible called Kerith, the fiery furnace of the Desert. It ids here that God digs deep wells of His Spirit into our life. In the Desert He builds himself into Us and Like John we live on the honeycomb.

The mantle of Robert Murray McCheyne is laying on the ground and I am picking it up and putting it around the shoulders of anyone who reads this and receives a witness in their spirit - receive it in faith! Amen.

Robert Murray McCheyne - I am a Debtor

When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon glaring sun,
When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o'er life's finished story,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know -
Not till then - how much I owe.

When I hear the wicked call
On the rocks and hills to fall,
When I see them start and shrink
On the fiery deluge brink, -
Then, Lord, shall I fully know -
Not till then - how much I owe.

When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own,
When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinning heart,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know -
Not till then - how much I owe.

When the praise of heav'n I hear,
Loud as thunder to the ear,
Loud as many water's noise,
Sweet as harp's melodious voice,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know -
Not till then - how much I owe.

Even on earth, as through a glass
Darkly, let Thy glory pass,
Make forgiveness feel so sweet,
Make Thy Spirit's help so meet,
Even on earth, Lord, make me know
Something of how much I owe.

Chosen not for good in me,
Wakened up from wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Saviour's side,
By the Spirit sanctified,
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show,
By my love, how much I owe.

Oft I walk beneath the cloud,
Dark, as midnight's gloomy shroud;
But, when fear is at the height,
Jesus comes, and all is light;
Blessed Jesus! bid me show
Doubting saints how much I owe.

When in flowery paths I tread,
Oft by sin I'm captive led;
Oft I fall - but still arise -
The Spirit comes - the tempter flies;
Blessed Spirit! bid me show
Weary sinners all I owe.

Oft the nights of sorrow reign -
Weeping, sickness, sighing, pain;
But a night Thine anger burns -
Morning comes and joy returns;
God of comforts! bid me show
To Thy poor, how much I owe.

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Receive it in Faith.

Amen.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

If You pursue His presence - You are going to be released into an ever deepening understanding of Jesus as the Living Word in Scripture - through His Rhema - the revealed, applied and active Word at work in our Hearts - You are going to crossover from a world driven by Chronos or worldly time into Kairos time - which is the very substance of prophetic reality and ACTION! This is a place where You shape and speak reality in and through prophetic declaration - you will see it shift and flow around You and You will see with You will see the Spirit resting on people.

The word Kairos comes to us from the Greek word for time. Contrasting with chronos, meaning ordinary or chronological time, kairos means holy or God-given time, time laden with meaning and choice. Kairos signals a time of crisis and new possibilities, a time of repentance, renewal and decisive action - a birthing time, a gathering time, a strategic time in His Heart.

Kairos in the prophetic changes Time and Space - it is reality in Him and through Faith we see and live in, through and out of this.

I bless You in this and I ask the Lord to continually deepen this work in You and your ministry.

Some of the material forthis post was sourced from http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/who/kairos.asp

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

THE PROPHETIC IMAGINATION BEGINS WITH OUR CAPACITY TO HAVE COMMUNION IN OUR HEARTS, OUR SPIRITS WITH JESUS - IF YOU PRACTISE THIS - THEN WHAT YOU IMAGINE IN HIM WILL BE RELEASED IN THE HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY PLACES - IT IS A FORM OF BINDING AND LOOSING.

Be released in this - right now! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

I would like to deal with how we use Rhema - Greek for Jesus as the Revealed, Applied and Activited Word - through the ministering work of the Holy Spirit rather than Logos - the Greek for Jesus as the Eternal Word - through Warfare Devotions.

1 John 3:8

The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

We can use texts taken from scripture and ask the Holy Spirit to prophetically release them as Rhema through us through praying them in to our ministries -

Devotion: Submitting to the Lord - through our love walk with Him.

Genesis 3:8

the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day

- the Garden is our Hearts, Eden and Gethsemane simultaneously - ask him to walk with You - to reveal in You - His love walk with You - His relational intimacy.

Romans 12: 1,2

Living Sacrifices
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will ishis good, pleasing and perfect will.

So through practising our love walk as an act of our submission to Him - it becomes an act of spiritual worship - which presents our bodies as living sacrifices and renews our minds in the wisdom, knowledge , understanding and discernment of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Mark

talitha · Mar 7, 2005

THE PROPHETIC IMAGINATION BEGINS WITH OUR CAPACITY TO HAVE COMMUNION IN OUR HEARTS, OUR SPIRITS WITH JESUS - IF YOU PRACTISE THIS - THEN WHAT YOU IMAGINE IN HIM WILL BE RELEASED IN THE HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY PLACES - IT IS A FORM OF BINDING AND LOOSING.
Be released in this - right now!

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I need that! I receive that! woOt! woOt!

blessings
tal

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

The first thing that the Lord wants me to do is to proclaim and declare over and into your Life the words - "Release Them! Release Them and Let Them Go - In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ!" in releasing your future.

The next thing He wants to say is that no Sparrow in His Hands falls to the Ground and You are in His Hands - He has His Hands around your Life.

The third thing He wants you to know is that he is not concerned about the ninety -Nine sheep who are safe, but the one who is Lost and He is coming for You - He is searching for you, will find you and bring You Home rejoicing - singing over You.

Luke 15 :3 -6

3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninetynine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.

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Now in Healing Your Past and Releasing your Future, we are going to do some stuff on releasing the following virtues in your Life:

Understanding How to accept your Identity in Him and Live out of Him as the source
Being secure in social situations
Developing strong inner connectionsbetween Feeling (Heart and Emotions), Thinking (Mind) and Problem Solving (Mind and Will).
Engaging in Social and Conversational appropriateness -

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD , my Rock and my Redeemer.

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Psalm 19:1,14 NIV

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Prayer:

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Dear Heavenly Father, I love you today and am grateful for all of Your goodness to me. Please forgive me when I have not spoken kindly of others. Help me to guard my mouth from speaking any kind of evil. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. Lord, I cancel all words that I have spoken that have not agreed with the Word of God. I also cancel all evil words that have been spoken against me, my family or my ministry. Lord, please forgive those who would speak amiss against us. May Your people everywhere be careful to guard their tongues. Help us all to speak Your words and to be gracious and kind to one another. I ask this in the Holy name of Jesus. Amen.

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Growing into an unshakeable identity in the Lord Jesus Christ and being His Presence Bearer, Presence Proclaimer and Presence Breaker - Breaking open His Presence wherever You go.

Now, I want You to take the following actions:

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the "root cause" of your hurting heart. Your Life has been woiunded and it is manifested in your hurting heart. This revelation may be in the form of a memory, picture, impression, thought, awareness or some other form of knowing in your spirit through the Holy Spirit testifying directly to your spirit.

- Luke 8:17

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.

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2. Ask Jesus to reveal His Presence there with You. The Presence of the Lord changes things. He heals every broken things and speaks Life and wholeness into all things.

3. Tell Jesus what you are thinking and feeling in this revealed time, place and experience. Listen to His response.

Psalm 91:14 -16

14 "Because they love me," says the LORD , "I will rescue them;

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I will protect them, for they acknowledge my name.

15 They will call upon me, and I will answer them;

I will be with them in trouble,

I will deliver them and honor them.

16 With long life will I satisfy them and show them my salvation."

4. Ask Jesus to reveal what the Fahter intended for this time in your Life. Jesus comes to showe us the Father. He comes to care for, meet and heal your developmental needs - to heal you, to redeem all that was lost to You and to restore You to ALL He created You to be -

Jeremiah 29:11

11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

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5. Now I want you to forgive your parents and all those who have wounded you - Ask Jesus to hold your hand and pour His strength and assurance into you as You do this.

6.Take Authority in Jesus' name over any demonic oppressions or influences in your Life that the Lord has revealed. Command them to leave in the authority of Jesus' name.

Luke 10:18,19 -

He replied, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

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7. Break and crush any agreement with the lie planted in the wounded place in your Heart - and ask the Lord to uproot it. Embrace the truth that has the power to set you free, the word of God - Proclaim the promises in God's Word - they are His answers to your need - take ownership of them - identify with them -

John 8:31,32 -

31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

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8. Receive Father God as Your Eternal Father and receive your inheritance of Life in the Lord Jesus Christ -

1 John 1:2 -

2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

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Matthew 15:13

13He replied, Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

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9. I want You to seek the father each day and ask Him to "father" you and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you how to walk in the "Newness of Life".

Receive Your Healing in His Name and In His Love.

Amen.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

Releasing Prophetic Intuition in Apostolic Governance - Receiving the Wisdom of Solomon

How we develop and release Prophetic Intuiton in Apostolic Governance - which is in effect asking to receive the Wisdom of Solomon - which is the birthright and ingheritance of all Spirit- Filled Believers.

Firstly where does prophetic intuition reside in a Spirit - Filled believer?

I hold that that the Human Spirit has three attributions - Conscience (Witness, Moral Energy, "Understanding" - the ability to engage and speak to the rightness and wrongness "in things in themselves" as opposed to normative abstraction); Intuition (Intuiting, Spiritual Discernment, "knowing", "knowledge") and Communion (Hebrew: Yarda - Heart Knowledge, "Wisdom" - knowing gained through relating - relationship - the being "in and with" one another as ultimately expressed in our hypostatic union with the perichoretic community of the Trinity) - this is Proverbs 2:1- 6, Proverbs 4: 23, Proverbs 20: 5 and 1 John 4:13.

So intuiton is a property of the human spirit - which becomes prophetically alive when we are filled with the Holy Spirit -

So, How do we activate and increase in Prophetic Intuition?

1. By meditating on and praying in scripture into our lives -

Proverbs 2

1 My daughter, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,

4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

5 THEN you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

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Colossians 2:2,3 -

My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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Pray these verses into your spirit - imagine you are eating them - consuming them and absorbing them - start saying "Lord Jesus please release your wisdom, knowledge, understanding and discernment in and through my ministry to your service and for your glory and BELIEVE THAT HE WHO HAS STARTED A GOOD WORK IN YOU WILL TAKE IT FORWARD TO COMPLETION.

Now I declare that You will be will given the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that she may know that Jesus is the LORD , the God of Israel, who summons her by name - Isaiah 45:3 - even before she was conceived - Psalm 139: 15

I also want you to pray this Heart Prayer regularly - either in parts or as a whole -

Heart Prayer (Based on Ephesians 1: 17 -19):

Father, my all consuming passion, my burning desire is that I receive more of the fullness and release of the Holy Spirit in my life, the Spirit of wisdom, insight, knowledge (yarda - Hebrew for relational knowledge - knowledge gained through intimacy), understanding and discernment and that you draw me further in and further up, from shadow to substance, that you draw me deeper into our love relationship, which is your opening of your self to me and my submission to you.

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Lord Jesus Christ, less of me and more of you, cover me with your grace, rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in you and experience you manifesting more of yourself in me. Please draw me further and deeper into the reality of your presence and into the transformation of your likeness so that my love may be complete! Through your presence Holy Spirit in my spirit, I commit myself to be governed, taught and led by You as You are the Spirit of increasing and unfolding Revelation, who is at work in my life, changing me from glory to glory.

Holy Spirit, I welcome you, I call to you, I am reaching out for you, I am on fire for your fullness and release in my life, sweep through me Breath of God like a mighty rushing wind, I want to be caught up in your slipstream - please remove any influences, obstacles, hindrances, strongholds, barricades, barriers, thoughts, mindsets, worldviews, beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, behaviours that may resist you Holy Spirit from consuming everything, filling me totally and dwelling in me, from flowing in, through, around, over, under and out through my life - let your fire fall right now and purify me, sanctify me.

Please grant this to me by your shed blood Lord Jesus that I may be supernaturally equipped, enabled and released to know you beyond mere rational abstract informational knowledge - open my heart, your word is truth, pour your self into me and enter in as I enter in to you, as I am with you and in you in the Jordan in the presence of the Trinity. I want you to grab hold of me Lord Jesus Christ and pull, so that I may know you in an ever deeper relational way as my closest friend, just as I am known by you and deeply loved by you. Holy Spirit be my counsellor, be my comforter, be my paraclete - throw your mantle of fire around my shoulders, this eternal weight of glory, let it be all consuming, but not consumed - do not let it fall to the ground.

Now I ask Father that in your loving tenderness, you open the lens of my heart and through the Lord Jesus say let there be light as the Holy Spirit fills my "inner man", my inner being, my spirit with your love, your word, your presence and your increasing revelation as I draw closer and closer to you. Quicken your word in me, Lord Jesus, you are the word become flesh at work in me, help me to grow more like you.

Fill my heart with your loving kindness, your glorious presence, Lord Jesus, let your glory pass by through me, so that I can know the hope, the testimony, the witness and promise of your goodness, power, humility and strength - your calling, purpose and destiny in my life. Thank you for the increasing joy of your presence as you sing and call to us - grace me now, as I shout back grace, grace to you the cornerstone - I want to be plunged into your mighty river flowing through me.

I declare that I will have an ever deepening relationship and receive the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in your face as I see you face to face - Lord, I am the jar of clay in your hands, the treasure is within - this wellspring, this fount of wisdom, insight, understanding and discernment - well up, fill me and overflow - pour your self through me, Holy Spirit and pour me out in your service, make me a living well of revival.

I also pray that the light of your word, Lord Jesus will flood my whole being - my "inner man" and my "outer man" - so that I may know and experience the surpassing greatness of your power towards me. Lord give me a powerful inner life and make me a believing believer. I call this forth in my life, as your servant and witness and I declare I will follow the Lamb all the days of my life and win for the Lamb the rewards of his suffering, for the honour, glory and greatness of your name, in the earthly and heavenly places, as it is all being summed up in you Lord Jesus Christ and you will fill everything."

Amen.

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Now on the issue of the important role of Women in Apostolic Governance -

On Apostolic Ministry today - :

Kenosis - including releasing ministries, transferring mantles, church planting, working in miracles, signs and wonders, releasing the potential of others.

Doctrine - including the defense, promotion, teaching, proclamation, preaching, upholding, inculcation and living out of the Apostolic Doctrine which is the Gospel.

Governance - including setting things in order, governance - but in this mercy triumphs over judgement - this is not ideological or pharisaical.

Sufferings - including the witness, the Apostolic Sufferings, the travails, enduring all things in the fruit of the Spirit for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fathering and Mothering - we are called to be Fathers and Mothers and to work with the Youth - AS EQUALS- in bringing them to maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Authority - By the blood shed at the Cross and the work of the Resurrection we are all vested with the full authority of the Lord Jesus Christ through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit - it is the abuse of this authority which places you in danger of being excluded from the Kingdom or your works coming to nothing.'

Now - we move into Apostolic Govwernance by standing on our Inheritance - i am going - by faith to release the Apostolic Mandate given to Women through the Power of the Seed (Jesus) into your Life - Right Now! - so that it starts to grow up in You and manifest in your Ministry - with Wisdom, Maturity and Authority in Christ -

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Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.

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Jesus identified with us at the Fall through being the incorruptible Seed in Eve. Out of Eve came a righteous line -sent out through Abel initially - until the Devil murdered him through Cain - for as Jesus said in

John 8:44 He was a murderer from the beginning

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and then through Seth down to Mary, Luke 3:23 - 38.

Now the incorruptible seed present in Eve and the righteous line out of Eve and what C.S. Lewis calls the "Daughters of Eve" is at work in all christian women.

They have an unique apostolic authority to be life bearers, life proclaimers and life releasers - (male apostolic authority at the Fall was expressed by 'going outside the camp' through Adam leaving Eden and through Moses going outside the camp to the tabernacle -

Hebrews 13:13

So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach -

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but that is for another thread) - when a christian woman speaks into your life in Christ she is testifying and calling to the 'incorruptible seed' at work in you through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit - who is transforming you from an acorn into an oak of righteousness - 'Deep is calling to Deep' - Psalm 42:7 and something will be released in you - you will receive an anointing that comes through the ministry of Women of God - christian women - because what was a seed in Eve and birthed through Mary is Life in Abundance - His life in us and our lives in Him - Christian Woman are life bearers and wherever they go they speak life into things - even dead works in the Church - because they are living witnesses to the incorruptible seed in Eve and at work in them.

We need to recognise that the priesthood is changing and that we are all prophets, priests, kings and queens.

In the Old Testament we see that there were three offices among the people of Israel: Prophets, Priests and Kings. They were all called by God. Samuel was called to be a prophet, Aaron called to be a priest, David called to be a king...

These three offices of prophet, priest, and king foreshadowed the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Apostolic in this context is the authority to proclaim, declare and release life - in effect releasing ministries and living out of the Power of the Seed who is Jesus expressed through the Holy Spirit in us.

It was James Brown who sang

this is a man's world but it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman.

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...and Esther was called to be a Queen.

IN THE NAME OF HIM WHO HOLDS HEAVEN AND EARTH IN HIS HAND AND WHO WILL RAISE THE DEAD AGAIN - RECEIVE YOUR ESTHER MANDATE! AMEN.

Now I bless You - Increase in everything you are and do -

Genesis 24:60 (KJV) And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions (On us - the righteous line from Eve through Jesus - 'What have we become? Micpar (Hebrew). Large. Innumerable') and let thy seed (the righteous line sent out from Eve) possess the gate (a symbol of governance and government) of those which hate them (the world, the flesh and the devil).

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Amen.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

The Lord wants to release His purpose in your Life - the desire for purpose is quintessential to Human identity, value and significance.

I would like to do a spiritual exercise together to establish identity, value and significance in our lives then we can look at how Vision creates or births Purpose.

Can we take the following verses -

Matthew 3:16, 17

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.

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Now, we are going to imagine that we are simultaneously in and with Jesus as He is baptised and that the Holy Spirit as a Dove is descending on Him and Us and that the Father is speaking over Him and Us - then we are going to pray in -

This is my son, this is my daughter - (in this we receive our identity) - whom I love (in this we receive our value and security) and with whom I am well pleased (in this we receive our significance and worth).

After praying this into our lives - we are going to live out of this source - this prophetic declaration regardless of adversities and circumstances.

After this we need to ask the Lord to release Mission, Vision and Purpose in our lives -

Now we are going to totally identify and align ourselves with the following verse which deals with Mission and Purpose -

1 John 3:8

The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

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Next - we are going to ask for the release of Vision -

Proverbs 29:18a (KJV) -

Where there is no vision, the people perish

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So - we are going to take this as a mandate to ask for the release of Vision in our lives and pray it in -

Then we are going to ask for Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge in our lives to engage our Mission, our Vision and our Purpose.

Proverbs 2:1 -6

1 My son, my daughter if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,

4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

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Having done this we are then going to believe and walk in the faith that -

Proverbs 4:18 (NASB) -

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

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You will then start to cross over into Mission, Vision and Purpose through having Faith that He who has started this good work in Us will complete it.

Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Graham Cooke - "Hiddeness is when God is building something into you, Manifestation is when God is releasing something through you".

In receiving our Purpose we start in Hiddeness and move to Manifestation.

Receoive your purpose in the Lord Jesus Chrisrt - Right Now! Amen.

Blessings.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 7, 2005

I am going to make aprophetic declaration that as you read this the Holy Spirit to open the Springs of His Deeps in your Heart - for refreshing, revitalisation, strengthening, vision, equipping, anointing and the building of Christian Character.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience (longsuffering, forbearance, perseverence), gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Revelation 22:1,2

1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Jeremiah 17:8

They will be like trees planted by the water

that sends out their roots by the stream.

They do not fear when heat comes;

their leaves are always green.

They have no worries in a year of drought and never fail to bear fruit.

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Revelation 21:6

6 He said to me: It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To whoever is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

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I want you to practise the following spiritual exercise - everytime you spend time with Him - I would like you to imagine that you are soaking in the River of Life and ask the Holy Spirit to open the springs of your Heart and allow the River of Life to flow through You and out of You.

I also want you to read through this Heart Prayer and strip it down as you wish and start praying the whole prayer or parts of the Prayer into your Life -

Heart Prayer 1 (Based on Ephesians 1: 17 -19):

Father, my all consuming passion, my burning desire is that I receive more of the fullness and release of the Holy Spirit in my life, the Spirit of wisdom, insight, knowledge (yarda - Hebrew for relational knowledge - knowledge gained through intimacy), understanding and discernment and that you draw me further in and further up, from shadow to substance, that you draw me deeper into our love relationship, which is your opening of your self to me and my submission to you.

Lord Jesus Christ, less of me and more of you, cover me with your grace, rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in you and experience you manifesting more of yourself in me. Please draw me further and deeper into the reality of your presence and into the transformation of your likeness so that my love may be complete! Through your presence Holy Spirit in my spirit, I commit myself to be governed, taught and led by You as You are the Spirit of increasing and unfolding Revelation, who is at work in my life, changing me from glory to glory.

Holy Spirit, I welcome you, I call to you, I am reaching out for you, I am on fire for your fullness and release in my life, sweep through me Breath of God like a mighty rushing wind, I want to be caught up in your slipstream - please remove any influences, obstacles, hindrances, strongholds, barricades, barriers, thoughts, mindsets, worldviews, beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, behaviours that may resist you Holy Spirit from consuming everything, filling me totally and dwelling in me, from flowing in, through, around, over, under and out through my life - let your fire fall right now and purify me, sanctify me.

Please grant this to me by your shed blood Lord Jesus that I may be supernaturally equipped, enabled and released to know you beyond mere rational abstract informational knowledge - open my heart, your word is truth, pour your self into me and enter in as I enter in to you, as I am with you and in you in the Jordan in the presence of the Trinity. I want you to grab hold of me Lord Jesus Christ and pull, so that I may know you in an ever deeper relational way as my closest friend, just as I am known by you and deeply loved by you. Holy Spirit be my counsellor, be my comforter, be my paraclete - throw your mantle of fire around my shoulders, this eternal weight of glory, let it be all consuming, but not consumed - do not let it fall to the ground.

Now I ask Father that in your loving tenderness, you open the lens of my heart and through the Lord Jesus say let there be light as the Holy Spirit fills my "inner man", my inner being, my spirit with your love, your word, your presence and your increasing revelation as I draw closer and closer to you. quicken your word in me, Lord Jesus, you are the word become flesh at work in me, help me to grow more like you.

Fill my heart with your loving kindness, your glorious presence, Lord Jesus, let your glory pass by through me, so that I can know the hope, the testimony, the witness and promise of your goodness, power, humility and strength - your calling, purpose and destiny in my life. Thank you for the increasing joy of your presence as you sing and call to us - grace me now, as I shout back grace, grace to you the cornerstone - I want to be plunged into your mighty river flowing through me.

I declare that I will have an ever deepening relationship and receive the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in your face as I see you face to face - Lord, I am the jar of clay in your hands, the treasure is within - this wellspring, this fount of wisdom, insight, understanding and discernment - well up, fill me and overflow - pour your self through me, Holy Spirit and pour me out in your service, make me a living well of revival.

I also pray that the light of your word, Lord Jesus will flood my whole being - my "inner man" and my "outer man" - so that I may know and experience the surpassing greatness of your power towards me. Lord give me a powerful inner life and make me a believing believer. I call this forth in my life, as your servant and witness and I declare I will follow the Lamb all the days of my life and win for the Lamb the rewards of his suffering, for the honour, glory and greatness of your name, in the earthly and heavenly places, as it is all being summed up in you Lord Jesus Christ and you will fill everything."

Amen.

We have already gone through the veil - this is an opening and awakening time - a time for growing in intimacy with Him -

Receive this in Faith - in being released into your Ministry.

Amen.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 8, 2005

One of the vivid prophetic decarations the Lord Jesus used to describe the Abundant Life is that of "rivers of living waters" - our ministries are rivers of Living waters following from the Tree of Life - the Cross.

As Jesus declared, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'

In 2 Chronicles 32 the people of Judah were threatened by the invading army of Assyria (this invasion scattered the northern tribes of Israel in 722 B.C.). As a defensive tactic, King Hezekiah of the southern kingdom of Judah, "consulted with his leaders and commanders to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city; and they helped him. Thus many people gathered together who stopped all the springs and the brook that ran through the land, saying, 'Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?' And he strengthened himself, built up all the wall that was broken, raised it up to the towers, and built another wall outside. . ." (v.3-5). Because of the arid conditions of the land, water supply was of critical importance.

What is not recorded here is that Hezekiah's workmen accomplished a great engineering feat--they dug a tunnel from the spring of Gihon (that supplied Jerusalem with fresh water) and routed it underground to an upper pool within the walls of the City of David. While enemy soldiers would be without water, the inhabitants of Jerusalem would have access to it!

[It so happens that this tunnel was rediscovered in 1880. An inscription inside it testifies of the difficulty of this project: "It was cut in the following manner. . . axes, each toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, the voice of one man calling to the other was heard, showing that he was deviating to the right. When the tunnel was driven through, the excavators met man to man, axe to axe, and water flowed for 1,200 cubits from the spring to the reservoir. The height of the rock above the heads of the excavators was 100 cubits" Wow!! (cubit=about 18 inches)]. [1]

The workers went to a lot of trouble to ensure a safe, continual water supply.

The comparison to the Christian life is significant. God has taken great and successful measures to ensure the believer's continual supply of "rivers of living water." The Christian must have sustaining GRACE to live as he or she is called to live. So our Lord promises us that, "He gives more grace. Therefore He says: 'God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.'"(James 4:6).

But, we allow the "springs" to become blocked up like in the case of the conduits outside the walls of Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit always seals and empowers us in Christ, but we can create hindrances and strongholds in our lives to His ministering and empowering presence.

What are the causes of this "blockage?

First, our springs can get stopped up by SINNING against the Lord or harbouring unforgiveness in our Hearts. Because the Spirit of God is a PERSON, He can be grieved: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph 4:30). For example if the Christian husband treats his wife unkindly, his prayers will be hindered (1 Peter 3:7; It seems safe to assume that this principle applies to the wife also). Likewise, as the Spirit prompts us to do His will we are to cooperate with Him, lest He be quenched: "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thes 5:16-19). Confessing known sin restores unhindered communion with our Source of grace (1 John 1:9).

Second, We may "block our springs" through UNBELIEF. How easy it is to view God, others, and ourselves through the lens of circumstances, feelings, and opinions. Instead, we need to renew our minds with God's Word. Rather than regarding ourselves "according to the flesh" (2 Cor 5:16), we are to view ourselves IN CHRIST. This glorious position has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Him (Eph 1:3) As a believer you are God's child, a new creation, the temple of the Holy Spirit, and a saint ! (John 1:12; 2 Cor 5:17; 1 Cor 6:19; 1 Cor 1:2). As we take God's Word for it and walk by faith, our values, attitudes, words, and actions will tend to reflect our spiritual identity.

Ruth Paxson wrote of the significance of our position in Christ:

"To be 'in Christ' is to share what Christ has. All that Christ possesses we possess. Every spiritual blessing in Him--joy, peace, victory, power, holiness--is ours here and now. If we are a child of God, then we are His heir and a joint-heir with Christ, so that all the Father had given His Son, the Son shares with us. . . Do you believe you are a spiritual millionaire? Are you living like one? . . . Most of us live like spiritual paupers. . .To be a Christian is to have Christ the Life of our minds, hearts, and wills so that it is He who thinks through our minds, loves through our hearts, and wills through our wills. It is to have Christ filling our life in ever-increasing measure until we have no life apart from Him. Does He so fill you?"

Christ is our wellspring of spiritual life!

Third, we would also be wise to avoid the blockage of PRAYERLESSNESS. Since Christ lives in us and He modeled the life of spiritual fullness, we should value His example. Jesus totally depended on the Father to live in and though Him; likewise we are to totally depend on Christ, by the Holy Spirit, to love HIS life through us (John 5:19; Galatians 2:20).

As the perfect man the Lord Jesus demonstrated the way prayer expresses complete trust and unhindered communion with the Father. For example, Christ prayed at His baptism (Luke 3:21), before choosing the twelve apostles (all night intercession--Luke 6:12), when the crowd tried to force Him to be a political king (John 6:15), the night before Calvary (John 17), and even on the Cross (Luke 23:34,46). If the sinless Son of God needed to have ongoing verbal communication with the Father, how much more are WE in need of being "online" spiritually! As Paul instructed us, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thes 5:17).

When the Lord convicts us of "blockages" to the springs of His Grace, we are to take these issues to the Cross; then we will continue to find God's supply of living waters more than adequate for the difficulties of life.

Ruth Paxson gave this example of trusting Christ as our source of Life:

"For several weeks I lived in a boarding house kept by a little woman who weighed only eighty-five pounds. She was kept from falling into a heap by a brace worn at her back. She had lived on the third floor for two years with no outlook but the blue sky above and a patch of green grass a few feet square below. But her eyes shone like stars. Upon her face was a smile that the affliction and adversity she suffered could not remove, and mirrored in her countenance was a radiance that one never sees on land or sea except where the Light of the world dwells in undimmed brightness. Christ was the Life of her life."

Of Mt. Zion's dignity it is written, "Both the singers and the players on instruments say, 'ALL MY SPRINGS ARE IN YOU.'" (Psalm 87:7). How much more can the one indwelt by the Holy Spirit find continual resources of grace:

"S/He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper." (Psalm 1:3).

Are "all your springs" in the Lord Jesus Christ? Then keep drawing joyfully and with purpose from the wells of salvation! (Isaiah 12:3) - they are wells of personal and community revival.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I command the wells and springs in the spirits of anyone reading this to be opened, well up and burst forth - let every blockage be removed - right now. Amen.

Mark

psalms 91 · Mar 9, 2005

this is powerful mark and i pray you will continue your work here. god bless

Mark Downham · Mar 11, 2005

Daniel 2:35 -

35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing-floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

Deuteronomy 5:4 -

The LORD has been speaking to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.

Isaiah 2:2 -

In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

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When you see His face in the uncreated eternal light of the fire on the mountain - you are seeing the mountain within the mountain, the inner substance not the outer form. You start to see - see into the real nature of things and see into the real substance of nature itself, discerning shapes, purposes, presences which are all expressions, shadows, types of his shape, presence and purpose -that are at once and at the same time both on the Cross and at the heart of the world, both physical and eternal, earthly and Heavenly, Incarnational and Incarnated. The eternal sun within the physical sun, the new earth within this present earth, the new heavens within these present heavens - His face within our faces. His immortality within our mortality. The mountain within the mountain.

The incarnational imagination is prophetic in as much as it is a faculty for seeing - for what you see - is, rather than inventing - both involve making and becoming - but the first deals with the inner substance, while the second manipulates the outer form.

The creativity in incarnational symbolism is that a door is opened through Jesus, from the patently visible to the latently visible as you walk towards His mountain within You - through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. It extends the beam of the spiritual eye - that quickening and diffusing ray of eternal uncreated light - through the sensual into the realm of the spiritual through the Cross - where sunlight has the substance of eternal uncreated light. The imagination, when it functions prophetically, registers on the retina of the soul, the rays of uncharted light, uncreated eternal light with which the 'bush' of creation is burning without being consumed. The prophetic imagination is the eye of purity of Heart, that place of purity in your Heart - the fire of His presence in the Holy Spirit on that inner mountain - without this purity, the ever active carnal mind and imagination engage in perceptual and symbolic confusion - constructing disjointed thoughts and representations that bear little resemblance to reality. Such images and symbolisms debase rather than dignify, they vandalise and violate rather than draw people closer to the spiritual Logoi - His Living Words - Let there Be Light - which ever testify, intercede and prophesy to the external moment of the recreation of creation, your recreation in Him and that moment lasts forever.

Everything that is Alive. Flows.

A Prayer for those who are climbing His Mountain and want to see - I mean really see the uncreated eternal light, the inner fire of His Face.

I muse on the eternal Logos of God
and all creation is lit up with His Rhema,
I muse on the eternal uncreated Light
and every person is lit up with the fire of His Presence,
I muse on the Eternal Life in and through Him
and God's heaven is lit up to my spiritual eye,
I muse on the beloved disciple at the Last Supper
and God's sacrament is lit up in my hand,
I muse on the beloved mother and apostle at the Cross
and Christ's church is lit up with the Tears of Heaven,
I muse on the risen Lord Jesus Christ at Lake Galilee
and all our Easters are lit up with the Radiant Light of His Real Presence,
I muse on the Eternal Lamb of God
and all Eternity's tenderness is lit up in my heart,
I muse on the radiance of the rising Eastern Light of the Cross
and pray that it becomes the transforming glory of the West,
I muse on His eternal Life flowing through me
and see that Jesus' blood is transforming me in all that I see.

Amen.

You are reading this by His Eternal Design - there is a destiny and a purpose in this - I proclaim and declare that you are becoming a Glory Releaser! A shining Light on the Mountain! Right Now! In Faith! Let His Eternal Uncreated Light, His Eternal Uncreated Glory be released and flow through You like a laughing leaping torrent! Now! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may your spiritual eyes be opened! See - I mean See! Him - the Desire of Nations and the Morning Star! The Light walking in Eden at nightfall and streaming from the Cross in the darkness at noon - through you! Through your face! Right Now! Shine! Receive it in Him! Be filled with His Eternal Uncreated Light and become a Light on the mountain where towers have fallen and strongholds have been demolished! Be filled with His Light and become a shining Light in this present darkness!

Amen.

Exodus 34:6,7a -

For he has passed in front of You - in reading this - proclaiming, "The LORD , the LORD , the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

Now unto Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will fill everything in every way.

Amen.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 11, 2005

Bill 16652

Thankyou for your encouragement. Jesus' Blood never fails me. I am covered in the stuff of Calvary. Every drop a Tear of Heaven and in every drop His Presence, His Uncreated Eternal Light - ever testifying, ever interceding, every prophesying His Life into me.

I love your thread - a wonderful and glorious ministry.

Love.

Mark

Mark Downham · Mar 11, 2005

This Fountain, This Wellspring of Transforming Tears:

For us Tears are transformative . The Lord Jesus Christ was incarnated through our tears and His heart burst open on the Cross and rained down the cleansing and transforming Tears of Heaven over us. When we cry we are in the midst of Lamentations - something is being birthed in us and simultaneously in the heart of heaven - tears are a form of binding and loosing (Matthew 16:19) - they are a form of prophetic intercession, declaration and action - we are binding and loosing what has already been bound and loosed in heaven - everytime Sandy Millar, the Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton (the Founding Church of the Alpha Course) told John Wimber he had planted a new Church - John Wimber cried right there and then - can you imagine that - he just cried - it was the most beautiful anointing and blessing a man can give to an act of birthing - Jeremiah was the weeping prophet but everytime he cried, God caught his tears (Psalm 56:8) - they were so precious - every tear a prayer capable of transforming and healing some part of the world - they overcame the devil by the word of their testimony (tears) and the blood of the Lamb- all revivals, including the Welsh Revival are birthed through weeping - prayer as weeping - tears are a river of life. Repentance is expressed through tears. Martin Luther called tears of repentance, 'heartwater' - the springs of the deep (Genesis 6:5-8, Genesis 8:2, Psalm 42:7). Tears of repentance are symbolic of inner cleansing (Psalm 126:5,6, Matthew 26:75, Luke 7:36 -38, 2 Corinthians 7:10,11, Revelation 21:4) They transform you, they start to heal your heart and they move you from coping strategies to a transformative encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eugene Hardy: ' I can assure you that rivers of tears ran down David's cheeks. Out of that lake of tears emerged a new man. He was new in his sensitivity to God and to sin. He was new in sensitivity to others and their feelings. (Luke 10:27). That's why the bible says David was a man after God's own heart (1Samuel 13:14, 1Samuel 14:7 (Ephesians 6:10-18), 2 Chronicles 17:6).

'Jesus wept' (John 11:35, 38 - 44).

Isaac the Syrian -"Tears are to the mind the border, as it were, between the bodily and the spiritual state, between the state of being subject to passions and that of purity'.

St. Ambrose -' There are two conversions in the Church - water and tears. The water of baptism and the tears of repentance'.

That He would open the Deeps of your Heart that you might be released to cry a Fountain of Transforming Tears.

Mark

talitha · Mar 11, 2005

Mark, thanks so much for calling my attention to the part about the mountain and seeing. I was going to say you can't imagine what encouragement it was, but that would sort of negate what was written there, wouldn't it? Thanks...........

Do you have all of this stuff written down? it should be published! Seriously!

blessings
tal

Mark Downham · Mar 11, 2005

Tal

Thank you for your encouragement - I have - there is so much that could be said - I have some things to say on forgiveness and demolishing strongholds - You just press in Tal - watch for the stuff on Prophetics and Spiritual Elders - probably after Easter.

It will be for You.

Blessings.

Mark

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