Walk Toward the Light

Welcome to 2012…a New Year that has already begun unfolding before us!

Twelve is a significant number.  It is the number of government and it
symbolizes divine accomplishment and governmental perfection.

The year 2012 is about the government of God arising.  If we want to see the government of God arise in the earth, we must first allow it to arise in us, His people, in a greater way.

Because God’s work is always a continuum, the new didn’t begin with the midnight stroke of a clock on December 31^st.  What God has been building in our lives is ongoing and eternal.  It is line upon line, truth upon truth, and experience upon experience. Therefore, we have not started something new in 2012, but we are continuing in the path He has set before us.

We must remember that our starting point is the resurrection.  We rose with Christ to a new life.  Now, THAT was a new beginning!  We begin with who Christ is in us and for us!  We are alive to Him and to all that He wants to do in establishing His government and His righteousness in us.  He is helping us learn to live and abide in our new identity.

This year, as God continues His work in us, let us allow the increase of His government in these areas:

• Receiving and then expressing His goodness daily.  You cannot give away what you have not first experienced for yourself.   So, expect and receive His goodness every day and then show someone else that aspect of His government.
• Living in a limitless way….not measured, showing God’s abundant heart towards all.
• Being more astonished at who God is for us rather than feeling overwhelmed by circumstances.
• Processing everything through God’s majesty.

This is a year to live with excitement and expectation! Expect God’s divine work to manifest through you on a daily basis. His work in us is part of establishing His government in the earth.

Romans 12:2 urges us to, not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Give up old mindsets and let them be replaced with a renewed mind.

Earlier this month, Tony and I, along with members of our family, went to the 12^th annual choral celebration, “The Sacred Sounds of Christmas,” featuring Seattle Pacific University’s concert choir, wind symphony, symphony orchestra, and other fine musicians and readers.  What a way to begin the Advent season!

The Benaroya Hall, in downtown Seattle, is a 2500 seat performance venue and it was filled to capacity.  As we were seated, my eyes were immediately drawn to the simple but elegant decorations setting the atmosphere for this beautiful event.  There were several Christmas trees with white, sparkling lights, and a huge wreath of greens with their lights.  It was dramatic in its simplicity.  The atmosphere of the season was filling the air.

As the lights went down, the members of the orchestra took their seats.  Then the conductor walked on stage, taking his center stage position.  Every orchestra member’s eye was focused on him in readiness for his first signal.  There was a pause.  He then lifted his baton, and pointed towards the wind instruments.  With the first stroke of the conductor, every wind instrument played a single note simultaneously.  They were obviously tuning their instruments so that the sound they would make for the glorious musical event of the evening would be beautifully coordinated and in tune with each other.

In my last blog I talked about identity being the key to transformation, and transformation is about moving into the next stage of identity.  Often, God uses prophetic words to bring us into a greater understanding of His view of us, which is usually something we wouldn’t have considered for ourselves.  When a prophetic word comes, it gives us a glimpse of our future, even though we may not fully see it or understand it.

It is a fact!  God uses ordinary people.  Think about Abraham.  He was a man born into a family that served idols.  Neither his background or beliefs made him a likely person for God to choose for the purpose of recovering man from his sinful situation.  At that time, Abraham wasn’t even a believer!  Yet, God’s intention for him was that through him and his descendants, God’s authority and glory would be expressed in the earth.  Amazing!

I am sure that for those who attended our recent Worldwide conference in Houston Texas, whether in person, through webcast, or perhaps by viewing DVD’s following the event, that you clearly sensed the fact that Aglow has been on a journey of transformation these past few years.

Our journey is about discovering who we already are in Christ and behaving and thinking accordingly.

The journey we have been on has been referenced in letters to the field, blogs, and through information on our website.  New life has been forming over this ministry. Something of the Spirit has been stirring up our depths with a greater desire to move into a deeper level of relationship with God and to be a greater expression of His life, His goodness and His love in the world.  While on this journey, new dreams have been forming and new life has been taking shape.

Each conference (particularly since 2003) has been filled with profound messages, and prophetic words spoken to Aglow of God’s intent for this ministry.

A prophetic word is God’s way of telling you how He views you.  He speaks into the present, from our future, and calls us into our identity.   Prophetic words connect us with the next stage of our identity.  We become pregnant with promise and promises are designed to possess us for the purpose of God.

Aglow isn’t the same ministry we were in the early days of our inception.  We had an identity then and it served a purpose.  But times have changed and God has been preparing a people for the time in which we live.

Part of the change is the establishing of a new culture…a heaven to earth culture that dominates our thoughts and changes our mindsets from measure to fullness, from limited thinking to limitless possibilities.   He wants us to open up to all that heaven wants us to be.

Our journey is about discovering who we already are in Christ and behaving and thinking accordingly.

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.  Eph 4: 23-24

Walking in your true identity is the key to your transformation.  When you realize that Jesus didn’t die for you, but He died as you, then you also realize that you now live from a different starting point.  Your former self has died and you now live from the resurrection side of the cross as a new creation.  You were in Christ when He went to Calvary and you now live from a whole new vantage point because Christ lives in you….as your life! 

Because He lives in you, you have the mind of Christ.  That means we refuse to entertain thoughts that are detrimental to our identity.  God will take the places where we struggle most and turn those places into a place of radiance.  He will transform fear, anger, impatience, insecurities and weakness into limitless possibilities.  You are His sign and wonder in the earth.  You are a witness of the truth and power of the resurrection every day!

You have a new identity!   Go to war with the things that you have allowed to coexist with your faith.  Live in your new identity.  Live in fullness.  Enjoy the limitless possibilities of who you are in Christ.  It is the time of your arising…it is the time of Aglow’s arising!