Embracing and Shifting

These two terms are heavy in my spirit today. While I was in Kenya recently the pastor spoke to his people of capturing what the Holy Spirit is saying, yesterday while speaking with a pastor he mentioned the same thing, that his people wanted to capture what the Word was saying to their lives. All of a sudden my spirit leaped within me. Is it possible that many believers have gone to church for years but never captured what God was saying to them? Could it be that we have become professional christians, people that come to church, hear the Word, sing the songs, dance the dance, and yet leave unchanged? We're constantly looking for the next level, wanting to go where we've never been, and yet, many have never learned the lessons of their present level. My question is why should God send us to another level if we haven't done anything with the one we're at? Another thing is that each level of life we find ourselves at requires more of us and often involves less people. A case in point is the Tabernacle of Moses, any one can enter the outer court, and there will always be a crowd there, and it will be eventful and loud...but the closer you get to God, when you finally arrive in the Most Holy Place...the crowd is gone, it's not as loud, and the level is no longer about you, but Him! Rick Joyner wrote an interesting book several years ago called "The Final Quest", it is a vision of climbing a mountain that eventually leads him into the presence of God. One of the interesting notes is that fewer and fewer people go with you once you enter that intimate place with God...It's just a thought. The other word in my spirit is Shifting...I need to look it up in Webster's, but since this is my blog, you'll just have to trust me...God is bringing the Body of Christ into a time of shifting, a place of adjusting, transitioning, a divine movement that cannot be calculated by men. I see people being positioned and repositioned, often in manners that they have been shifted and do not initially recognize it. There are changes taking place in ministries that on the surface appear insignificant, but in the Kingdom agenda they are phenomenal. People who have always been right where they are will find themselves dissatisfied and sense the need to regroup, nothings wrong, they won't leave their church or ministry as much as they will realign themselves within the place they're presently at...perhaps it could be called "Divine Restructuring" Several years ago I heard a minister talk about the earth is groaning in preparation for the new heavens and new earth that are to come. I sense this is that time of shifting, it is both exciting and frightening, or should I even add frustrating, because we don't understand or comprehend all that God is doing. May I suggest this truly is the time for spiritual men and women to step up to the plate and let them that have ears hear what the Spirit of God is saying to the church? My close friend and mentor, Pastor Ernie Brown of The Christian Center in Arab, Alabama says that he has determined to spend the first 5-7 minutes of his day just listening, not asking or saying anything...just listening. In fact, he teasingly said he might just tattoo the number of minutes he's going to listen on his hand between the thumb and index finger as a reminder...he probably won't...but it's the thought that counts. Getting ready my friends...God is on the prowl!