YAHWEH OR YOUR WAY? by Pam Clark There is a well known commercial slogan for a hamburger chain in America that says "Have it your way!" And as in hamburgers and life, there is much we can have "our way." But when we consider the evolution of the human relationship with God, there is a place of advancement where we don't consider our way as greater to or equal than God's. Now, I know there is much competition for "being equal with God" but I have yet to see a human do what He can do. Man, apart from God, cannot control much of his life or death or creation. The world, even the universe, is so grand and so interconnected, that people and things are vastly dependend upon each other for survival. If anyone can tip the balances in world events, the God of nature and man can. There are many pompous prophets who will tell you they have the answers, they have the latest and the last word from God. According to them, "everything" depends on "their" word. They not only "order the globe" but try to order the lives of the individuals around them, too. They have no fear of God. But I am here to say that when God wants His glory, He will push man aside and have it. People throng to hear the "latest word" or to gain a "personal visitation" but is it true? So many places I go, the individual is so wrapped in himself that a group burden, and much less a global burden or view, does not come upon them. And while we need personal ministry and that "God is personal" as a needed revelation, I wonder sometimes what these "personal revelations" are! Because instead of being forces for good, they become forces of politics. And so we see ministries building organizations that declare who is "king of the hill." And while they don't necessarily present it that way, just try them. You will find out! People are expendable and value-less so that the "ministry" can go on. Test the spirits. Now there is a respect for order that we all must have and I am not talking about that. Some think that all challenges to authority must be "prophetic" but that is not so. There is a need and reason for authority. But not all is right, and that challenge for the right is prophetic. But it's not about tearing down so much as it is building and planting. Some things must be torn down at times, but if it comes from the Church and Spirit of God, it is so that something better can take its place for the human soul. The true "word of the Lord" will support that. I was recently invited to travel and speak at a meeting. And in my heart I didn't want to do it and I questioned why. And as I thought about it, I realized that so often the demand placed on the prophetic is for giving "personal words" and that is the reason people flock to those meetings. They don't really want "the word of the Lord", they want "a word" from the Lord that focuses on just them. Why do people feel so lost? Is it because they are? And I have been a part of the flocking myself to those meetings and if I got a word, I also found that the word I got was not always the most helpful or even correct. Sometimes they were, but sometimes they weren't, but the glory was in the "word" and not the Lord! It was great show. And as a prophetic person, I began to challenge some of that. Wow, talk about a can of worms! Those worms will crawl out of the can! We come to find out that there are several systems of the prophetic! There is the true prophetic, the false prophetic (demonic), and man's order of the prophetic (the flesh). Our biggest concern should be on the true prophetic. Give it a little time and the other two will manifest themselves. People look to the true prophetic for life. If they are deceived by the other two, in time, they will see that they will not produce life, but just the opposite. Hopefully when that is all said and done, there will still be the option for life. The true prophetic knows Jesus, talks about Jesus, and lifts up Jesus. But "Jesus" is more than just a close personal friendship between the "prophet" and the Lord. It's not a "special society" or "insider information pool." Not the real prophetic, that is. When people come to prophetic meetings, are they seeking "the word of the Lord" or "a word" from the Lord? Is it possible to get "a word from the Lord" hearing "the Word of the Lord" and being satisfied? But today it seems we must market "words from the Lord." What happened to the days when coming to a meeting was for the Presence and ministry of the Lord? Today the focus seems to be more about the manifestations (usually in the flesh) or selling books. I know when I get involved in something and the focus becomes less and less about "my will," and more and more about "group will," that sometimes "God's will" is being left out. How do I know that? Because something inside of me is dying. Again, that does not mean that things should not be in a proper order or that we should be defying authority. But when things redefine me and I am "locked in" rather than "set free" to do big things for God out of the generousity of my heart as a gift unto Him because of the gratitude for the gift of my life, something inside my heart is crying out and seeking for change, even if I can't put my finger on what I am really sensing at the time. "There must be more..." I have seen misunderstandings come because people did not recognize what was meant by things that were said. But when meetings are about "words" and the discussions are over "words" more than "Presence," then it is every man for himself. But that fruit is not God's fruit. The competition for manifestions, be it special "words" or "movements" or "experiences", often deny "experiences" of really meeting God! And how do I know? Because the experiences are related more to the meeting and the minister than to LIFE in God!!! There is a substitition. Instead of people talking about God, they talk about the minister or the meeting or the "words." There is not a pecking order when God is at a meeting. When His Presence and Spirit is there, the order is seen and just manifests, not for the latest spiritual gossip columns, but there in divine flow. The "manifestations" are the changed, invigorated, often healed lives that follow in productivity for the things that make and bless and produce life. There is an alignment presence there that aligns us for proper things. We are dependent upon the Spirit and Presence of God. The wars of the last days, and wars in general, are over "the world, the flesh, and the devil" versus the "Spirit of God manifest through man." When humans give way to spirits other than God's Spirit, wars break out. So the wars then become manifest in the flesh where these spirits are housed and hosted. But there is a Kingly order in the divine purposes of God and a Priestly order for His ministry that services that. The reason there is a war is because God chooses to be separate and apart from man in a way that gives man the choice for a dependence upon God that manifests goodness. And in the evolution of man's walk with God, worship becomes a gift to be expressed more than just a duty, because of a "personal relationship" with God through man's soul. There are things that are seen, in what is called today "high worship," where this subjection of the soul through order brings victory in life over its evil countermand. But to not give place to this worship for increase in life, brings forth the diminishing of it in individuals' souls, and life in its fuller essence is lost. The counterfeit where man rules, or the demonic where Satan rules by his spirit, is counter-productive. One is a deceit, the other is an allegiance to anti-Christ. Doing things God's way is not about man's rule but His Spirit. The true test is in the soul's invigoration, not for carnal things but for Spiritual dimensions of dominions in goodness. It's more than just power -- it's power for a creative, productive, even restorative life that can only come through the real God - Jesus - who is the Ressurection and the Life.