Wednesday, December 26, 2012

THE CUTTING AWAY by Pam Clark

From her Website
 (pamclark@prophetic.net) 
I keep sensing in my spirit that something “shift changing” is about to happen.  I know, too, that I am not alone in sensing that.  I keep feeling alerted in my spirit that things are not going to be the same as usual, and while some have collapsed into fear over that and expect dark things, that is not what I believe the Lord wants.
Because so many others have written on this, I have refrained, but over these holidays (2012), I have sensed an increase of the alert to the point that I am seeking God about it.  It’s a good thing to be flexible in the Spirit and learn how to “ride the waves” so to speak, and then you are rested when He speaks to act.  Just because you hear something doesn’t always mean that you are supposed to act, but when He does say to act,  you want to be ready and able to accomplish the things being asked or required.
God’s Presence will often have a sense of “awe” with it, or a fear of His judgments/ transactions.  If you are sincerely doing all you know, and you have studied to show yourself approved unto God (not man), then usually when a shift or change happens, you are prepared for it.  As I was feeling His Presence the last few days and even this morning, I asked for the words to explain it, and what I got was “the cutting away is coming.”
With the approaching budget cuts and fiscal cliff, many have been concerned about the condition of America, and if you are in the world more than the Spirit, it could alarm you.  But I felt today that what is coming is for the good of America.  When we personally have to go through budget cuts, we have to prioritize what is most important to us and plan our spending around that, and then if there is more, we know what is covered and what is not and we choose wisely from that position.  If we have given, then we also have investments!  Just be sure your giving comes from your heart and not just another’s that has been paid as a tax into another man’s system.
I believe with the needs in the world, most Christians do not have a large savings, unless they have been specifically directed to do so.  God loves us counting on Him for our day to day lives, because it keeps the bond of affection going and the acknowledgement of needs met strong.  When we get too much, often we get distracted by things that don’t really profit.  We get concerns that really are not real concerns but we have become convinced they are.
Sometimes God just allows things to manifest so their full expression comes forth.  For years along with many others, I have cried out for America and not seen the results I expected for the travail.  After a number of years, I had to step back and ask, “What is really going on?”  Well, I had to seek Him more to figure it out!  He changed the paradigm of my thinking.  He was not denying my good will, but rather just the way I thought about it.  And part of that included the question of “What is really most important?”
And the logical conclusion of course starts with “What are the basics?”  And in a society of seeming prosperity, that can be a hard question.  Like children with a wish list, we can make a lot of entries on our “wants.”  But what is most important?
As I have pondered that over the years, I also realized that I needed to consider the children of Israel who escaped the bondage of Egypt, but never got the Egyptian ways out of them.  The Egyptians had been their oppressors but their ways became idols to them because it was lorded over them.  When they became more prosperous, they remembered “the ways of power” and replicated that, rather than seeking the revealed ways of the Lord.
They wanted to remain in Egypt as the head and not the tail, and not see what God wanted to do with them as Israel  and as His  holy people!  Others were so used to the hardships of the bondage that it was a struggle for them to accept any other lifestyle, and so they were afraid to allow the good will of God to awaken in their lives.  When something would “feel good”, they would be waiting for the other shoe to drop of something bad that would harm them, and so in many ways, they made pain their friend and idol.  For them, if it didn’t hurt, then it wasn’t real, but that was not God’s way.
If we want to move forward in God, we have to be open to new things that express His good will for us and be sensitive and alert to things that He says or reveals is not His will.  The world is tricky as we know, because some things that are good are presented through ways that are wrong.  Some people say that “anything goes because it is love.”  But God doesn’t say that.
Some say, “if it feels good, do it,”  some say “might makes right,”  some say “all is fair in love and war”, and some have no sensitivity at all.   There are many examples of this in modern thought, and there has been a real strong social engineering going on via the media and through other venues that have worked strongly, even through churches, to program thoughts other ways.
Thoughts lead to feelings and feelings lead to actions.  It is just how we work.  If we change our thoughts, then we change our feelings and then our actions will change, too.   But then we want to find that other “group think” and often I have found, that is the real challenge.  But more importantly, if we find “God think,” then no matter what happens around us, we will be okay.  Even in a Christian community, that can be a challenge, because of the battle and warfare waged by the enemy.  And that has been fierce, I believe many will say that, along with me.
But God has allowed some of that for a reason – the betrayals, the strippings, the fears, the ‘what if’s', the ka-zillion negative or false positive prophecies.  Your emotions can go up and down with hopes and disappointments.  But all that has allowed God’s Voice to become distinct to you.  It has caused you to say, “What is real?” and “What is right?” and “What is important?”  And certain Scriptures and mindsets come forth from that.
And now is the time for the “cutting away” of things not needed anymore.    When there is a budget cut, we have to ask, “What can we eliminate that we don’t really need?”  Of course the flesh screams at such a time but in the long run, we end up often being healthier for it.  If we have learned how to be still and hear God, then when the cutting comes, and He slices through those membranes that are so tender, yet which keep us together, then we won’t have a jerk reaction that hits the knife the wrong way.
Like a sheep getting its wool shaved off, when the process is done, we will go jumping and skipping for the heavy weight that is now off of us!  More and more, society wants to invite us in to the complex world of confusion that they themselves can’t even explain.  They blindly trust what “somebody else” says, and they follow a stranger’s voice.  But in reality, God has allowed to manifest a system that can’t support itself.
Many will go into a panic and proclaim false prophecy fears that can become self fulfilling if they persist in them.  But if we can hear God’s Voice through this, we will find a better more simpler way.  When the world starts crashing down, the people of God will still be standing.  After all, He has been feeding nature for many years.  And He has plans to redeem that, too!
The longer the confusion goes on, the bigger the crash and the bigger the stand that God will make through those who believe Him.  “Egypt” will crash, but God’s people, though seeming small to some, will have not just wisdom but also a power – a well meaning power – that will go with them.
Just as in earlier times, there will be some who will go the way of Achan and Korah and they will go the route of selfishness and the route of rebellion of self will for their own kingdoms, but they will not prosper in it.  God’s sheep hear His Voice!  And a stranger’s voice, they will not follow.
There is a cutting away coming and we do not need to be afraid.  The voice of reason with the Spirit of God will prevail!  We need to learn how to be still and know that He is God and that He will be exalted, but also know that He delights in His own people.  He will make ways where there seems to many to be no way.  He will have good when so many others only see doom and gloom.
If you hear the beat of a different drummer, be glad!  If you are seeking God with that, it can be the right and true way.  You are being prepared for, and you are preparing for the future in  God!  No one really gainsays God.  Some seem to get away with some dreadful stuff for a season, but there is a God of justice and when His Spirit rises, no one can oppose it.  It is good to be on that welcoming committee!
Yes, a cutting away is coming, a trimming, a shaving, a reduction in some things that is going to bring about good – if you stay in the right Spirit.  Let the Word of God abide within you, claim it and proclaim it, and trust Him and it will be well with your soul.

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