Groaning For The Glory

Each one of us are called to live out the Isaiah 61 mandate within our own sphere of influence. The Mirror Translation captures this passage so beautifully, “The Spirit of the Lord us upon me, because he has anointed me to announce glad tidings to a starving people; he has commissioned me to announce the freedom of forgiveness to those held captive at spear-point by their guilt and shame; also the blind many now look up and be restored in their sight! I am anointed to send out those who are bruised and traumatized, into the freedom of their redeemed innocence. I announce that the Jubilee year of the Lord has come! This is the liberation celebration of the Lord, embracing humanity home”. What is the promise? Jesus is our hope! He is the hope of the nations. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory, the hope of things to come (Colossians 1:27). Francois du Toit of The Mirror says it like this, “He is not hiding in history, or in outer space nor in the future, neither in the pages of Scripture — he is merely mirrored there to be unveiled within you! What God was now able to disclose in the saints is immediately equally relevant in the nations! Christ in the nations is the hope of glory!! This is the mystery of the ages! This is what we were waiting for.” Romans 8:19 in The Passion declares, “The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious sons and daughters!” The earth is groaning for the authentic sons and daughters to rise up. What is being unveiled? The Trinity is taking us back to the Garden where it all began. They’re restoring the garden in our heart; They’re restoring us back to the original design. We are being restored in Their image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). We are being restored and transformed to the place where we do life from, from a place of partaking from the The Tree of Life vs. the mindsets, paradigms and misalignments that attempt to cause us to partake from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He’s restoring communities, regions and nations backs to their original design, their original DNA; He’s setting things back in motion. What are we being unveiled with? The glory of Jesus Christ! Christ’s glory comes to us, enters us, fills us, envelopes us, then is revealed through us as partakers of the glory. I’ve heard people say that God will not share His glory with “any other” (Isaiah 42). We are no longer “another” for we are one with the Father, with the Son and and with the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus, just as we were with the Them back in the garden in the very beginning where it all began. When we look at Jesus dying on the cross, ultimately, it was to give the Father back His right to cover the earth with His glory. Ephesians 2:6 has given us the perfection and authority to be co-seated with Him. Jesus keeps looking at us, not as we see ourselves through our own filters and lenses, but turns and looks at us in the heavenly places seated with Him, gazing and focusing on us as complete and whole. A fresh baptism in the Holy Spirit, one of of fire and glory, is coming to encounter us and take us deeper into the heart of the Father—one that sets communities, tribes and nations back into their original design where they live from the place of fullness and glory. From this, God is forming new wineskins in us for the New Wine that He is pouring out like never before. Get ready for the overflow in your life from the intimacy and sustained connection in His heart that this new vintage will yield. May Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit in Hebrew), the Spirit of Truth, continue to set our souls on fire as we partner with him as He continues to lead and guide us into all truth. Love,           Joel