Isaiah 42:22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.
1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Exodus 23:29-31 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. 31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
Just before we went on vacation, through conversation with the Lord He brought something to my attention. I was asking Him why our new Christians were having such trouble staying the course. Was it something we were doing or not doing? Was it something they were doing or not doing? The answer surprised me and so I want to share it with you and somewhat of how the Lord began to develop this message in me.
His answer to me was to point to certain things in the lives of these young ones that kept reoccurring. With each one it was a different thing, but the results were the same. It drew them away from what God was doing in their lives. Through careful observation and review of what I knew about them, I began to see a cycle in the lives of these precious ones who really desire to walk with God but seemed caught in a cycle.
As I continued to seek the Lord on the matter, actually asking God for an answer to the problem, He began to take me over the three years I have been here and my relationship with each one of you. I began to see, in the different lives, reoccurring incidents which had the same dynamics, even through the details were different. Some had been through those particular cycles two or three times since I had come. Others, had already shared with me a measure of their past walk with God and the Lord pointed out through that review, that they too had reoccurring themes or cycles in their lives. A common factor in all of this was that is kept them from growing any more in certain areas of their walk with Jesus and their walk with His Body. In some lives, it kept them from hearing that which would be able to set them free to grow.
In discussion with several in the church I discovered these thoughts were confirmed by what they shared with me as well.
Further study of the history of the “Church of God/Body of Christ” in Watertown caused me to ask deeper questions concerning the different assemblies that had been birthed and then later, within a few years, been scattered or disbanded. Whether it be through problems in the church or something blowing it apart. I was not looking for the details but the principles as God began to show me patterns of the enemies tactics in keeping His Church divided and scattered on the hillside as sheep having no shepherd.
Here again He pointed out cycles that have held sway in this city, in the religious/spiritual life, and in the life of churches, and in the life of individuals. Cycles that have kept us trapped as it seemed no matter how hard we prayed, fasted, preached or worshiped we could not break free.
Then we went on vacation to a conference in S.C. at MorningStar. Chuck Pierce was there, a real prophet of the Lord. He spoke the first night. As he began to speak, I knew that I had been hearing from God.
Here are some of the statement he made, taken from my notes of his message.
i. Trauma can also be in the bloodline and we do not realize it.
5. He wants us to enter into a victory mindset. Guard your emotions so he can deliver you and heal your emotions.
a. Ignorance can have roots within our blood line.
i. Indolence - procrastination - laziness
ii. You know more than anyone else. This causes you to miss revelation.
iii. No illumination -
7. God is going to move us out of one level of the prophetic into another.
Dr Pierces whole word for the two messages that he ministered revolved around letting God bring us to a place where we recognized the trauma that had produced cycles in our lives, in our local assemblies and in our cities, and allowing God to deal with us to release us from it.
I have 12 pages of notes on what he said, but because God had been speaking to me already, I want to share with you what the Lord has spoken to me of these things and then pray that God would release each of us as individuals from both our trauma from childhood that has produced cyclical actions in our lives, and generational trauma that has kept us back from entering into the fullness of God for our lives.
Then I want to pray for this assembly that God would release us from the cyclical patterns that have kept this work from going ahead into the full purpose of God for it.
Then we will pray that God will release His church in this city from being subject to the religious cycles that have kept it from becoming the true light of this city.
In coming back to the dealing of God in unveiling this to me, I want us to look at several things.
After dealing with me in the above manner and confirming it through Dr. Pierce the Lord then took me to the scriptures and showed me patterns and cycles in the Word that necessitated God releasing something into His current Body of that day, in order to set them free and break the cycles.
In all of this we are talking of patterns that appear in scripture, and although we do not have time to go deeply into them, let me refer you to some we see there. We will paint them this morning with a broad brush, as it were, trusting that later God will show you applications in your life and in the life of the Churches you have observed or been involved with. He may also show you other areas of this city and it governmental operation that fit into the same cycle patterns.
3. In the history of Israel we see a pattern that continued until Israel came out of Babylon.
4. We could also carry this into Church History and see it occurring over and over in the different moves of restoration. The tendency in man is to allow these cycles to control our life and thinking.
These general overviews show us that the negative cycles are seen in scripture. If we took a deep study of the Word, much more would be seen as to how it works in our lives and how to be released from the cycles.
This morning some of you will have already recognized the patterns we have spoken of in your life.
Rather than go into details about the different manifestations of the cycles, I want to pray that God would break through and release you as individuals from the personal cycles you are caught in. If you feel that in some way you are caught in a cycle and cannot get free, stand as we pray.
Then we want to pray for our local assembly that God would release it from the religious patterns that have had this cities churches in their grasps. As we do this, please stand and pray with us.
Let us pray for the city and the cycles that have held it captive.