Swimming Upstream ain’t Easy, but Don’t Stop Now! by Don Nori

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Swimming upstream

Swimming upstreamThe forces against you are incredible, but you were made with the strength to buck the tide. Most look at you and wonder what makes you tick. Ha! Sometimes you wonder that yourself! But you are not satisfied with things as they are. You just will not settle for less. If the truth be known, you can’t. Of course, let me say right away that you need to know in your heart that you are in the River of God’s grace and direction. You cannot expect to win when you are off doing your own thing. Now that I have that out of the way, be sure to check your heart and then keep reading.

If there is one thing the system wants you to do, it is to quit. But the Kingdom of God is dependent upon you who will not settle for less than what you know in your heart is right. Yes, I said the kingdom of God is dependent on you. It is always dependent upon the response of man. It is dependent upon the average folk who will allow Him to establish a spiritual beach head of His manifest presence in you, now.

Their advantage is huge, looking at from the natural perspective. They are organized, their techniques have been perfected over hundreds of years of deception, and they wield the authority granted to them by those whose only goal is to extend the reign of the religious system from generation to generation. So they freely judge the hungry hearts, glibly casting malcontents into hell, labeling others heretics, and openly defying the very presence they claim to serve.

Swimming Upstream

But our advantage is that our experience with what God has personally established our lives. We are not slaves to the intellectual application of doctrinal study. If what we believe does not work, we are not afraid to lay it aside to find what, in fact, does work. We know that God, like Israel of old, is with us. That is the over arching advantage of all the system can ever hope to throw at us.

Of course, our huge disadvantage is that we are alone, separated from each other. Having been preyed upon by so many for so long, our tendency is to walk in the shadows, away from man of any stripe or description. But our aloneness can be our undoing.

I recall back in the early days of Charismatic Renewal, those experiencing the baptism in the Holy Spirit were not connected, for it was a sovereign work of God. But when Logos magazine came out, folks realized they were not alone after all. That magazine became a focal point, a place of common fellowship. The realization that millions of people all over the world were having the same experience with God energized, emboldened, and encouraged us to speak more freely about those things we had seen, heard and handled personally. People came together for testimony, prayer, and mutual encouragement. I am not sure what it will take to bring us together this time. But of this I am certain, the dis-satisfaction with the status quo is much more wide spread that we are lead to believe. God is once again moving sovereignly among those who are wiling to be retaught from the ground up what it means to be a believer in Christ.

As for me I am headed in a direction of which I have no intention of turning away from. I am on a journey of eternal proportions. You are too, or you would not have read this article through to this point. This is our time. It is our time to respond to God no matter what men may say. They do not have authority over your soul. They do not have the ability to cast you into hell or even out of the church Jesus is building because you disagree with them. When you become bold, when you decide to walk in what your heart is aching for, you will change in more ways than you can imagine. But for heaven’s sake, don’t pack for religious, traditional, or doctrinal bags for the journey. There is no room in the overhead compartment for massive travel trunks!

Everything is changing…right now. Be willing to be a part of no matter the cost, for it is worth the price and much more!

By Don Nori

http://donnorisrblog.wordpress.com/