In the Cycle of Things
by Pam Clark

There are cycles and patterns to the Spiritual walk, and if we don't catch on to them, we can miss making progress in the Spiritual Kingdom.

Very basically, there are dry seasons where a real hunger is developed and the soul cries out for "More! More!" and nourishment. Most began their Spiritual walk this way and after spurts of growth, more nourishment is needed to maintain the Spiritual body and soul.

After truly hungering and crying out, God responds and will impart fresh manna or rhema. Because He is designing something unique, the food is often a little bit or sometimes even a lot different than the times of refilling before. Refreshing will bring a renewal of things, revival will bring a resurrection of things, but maturity and growth will bring on "the new thing."

The problem is, once "the new thing" is here, we wrestle with it because we have come to a place where we have not been before. It's change and we have to adapt and "accustom" ourselves to it. It is here that I find, as a prophet, the biggest challenge.

As being part of the vision and the eyes of the Church, as one who is bent and gifted toward seeing ahead, I have to run ahead and discern if the new vision is a thing from God or the enemy, or sometimes the flesh. If it is from the flesh, it usually depletes itself rather quickly and tamely, but if it is the enemy with a planned attack, there is usually a lot of warfare, because he has sought to gain an advantage over God's people.

I have a friend who is like a close younger brother to me who has a fairly new girlfriend. On the surface she seems like a really nice person. She has her act together, goes to church, is a giver and has a disciplined life. She even seems really friendly, but suddenly I started noticing some things.

My friend has a full time ministry call and gift upon his life in music, but this lady never involved herself with his ministry. Seems she always had something else going on when it was key times for his ministering. At first, we thought nothing of it. She was so friendly and seemed to really like all of us, but it continued.

He was falling for her and then we noticed that we were seeing less and less from him. Well, that too, can be normal in relationships. He was considering marrying her, but knew he was not quite ready yet. (Thank God!)

Then the group who had been a big part of his Godly circle of friends and loving accountability compared notes and noticed he was not keeping in touch much with any of us at all! He was developing a new set of friends but his life was not really taking off in his ministry calling, but was rather going more in secular directions and not prospering.

More and more his Spiritual accountability became less and less until we all got concerned and began to pray for him. Reports of increased physical activity between him and this woman began surfacing (no outright sin reported but obvious dangerous ground) and so several of us sought him out (and it was difficult!) and confronted both of them as nicely as we knew how.

It seemed to help somewhat and we are still praying for this gift to the Body of Christ! It seems even he is noticing that he is not hearing from God like he used to, but he sure likes this girl! She "loves his music" and says she would not do anything to stop him, but she does not encourage him! Any old job will do from what we've observed! It looks good on the surface but is pulling him from the anointing.

You then begin to realize you are dealing with the subtlety of the serpent. Looks good, sounds good, tastes good, will make you look and feel good, but is it God??? A good case of reasoning can even be made in the natural. But the whole thing is set up to cut off the life of the body.

The flesh is loving it and saying, "Amen! This is God!" But it's not. When the enemy sees his grip loosening, he will compromise, "OK, you can do this. Oh sure, you can and should do that! It does make you happy, doesn't it? It does make you feel better. Of course we want that!" But all the time, the enemy is targeting his timing for attack and conquer.

Prophets are usually the ones who will pick this up first. It's just their gifting at work, and I am glad that God has raised up a company of prophets as a team in ministry. We are all needed. It's the flesh that will cry out against the prophets who confront them and then the demon spirits if they have gotten a foothold or a stronghold.

Then it's war all the way, and all resources from reasoning, to binding and loosing, and application of Scriptures must be employed. Some battles are easier than others. Some will almost kill you!!!

Religious spirits will tell you that you are doing it all wrong. They will tell you that you are not following order and common sense. There is a lot to be said for order and common sense, but some of it will lead you away from the Cross and your hope and call in salvation.

There is much argument on this because the enemy wants to see how close to the edge he can get you, in case there may be an advantage he can gain to knock you off!

But the other changes in the Christian life can be good, even though it requires adjustment. This kind of change will lead you to get into the Word again and see things that you never saw before in it. It will make you want to learn how to use this new knowledge and power and revelation in the appropriate way of wisdom so that you might be most effective and Godly with it. It draws you to the Word not away from it.

It is true Spiritual growth and after adjusting to it, God will then make you hungry again for more of Him and then the cycle continues for new growth and increased maturity.

------