Greetings;
I believe that we are living in a time where the grace of the Spirit of knowing is at work in the hearts of men and women in the earth. This is not informational knowledge, but a knowing of intimacy with God and with one another. Advanced information only propagates lies and is a counterfeit to the truth of God’s grace in this present hour. There is a fresh vulnerability coming into the hearts of people and it is meant to reveal the true testimony of the people of God in the earth. God is going to affect the communities of he earth with the community of God though His passion and compassion, but there will be a testimony of God’s heavenly power to change the character, nature, way, power, and authority of humanity. I believe a revelation of the grace of the Spirit of Knowing is causing a thunder to be heard among the nations. A testimony of God’s grace is being revealed because a further revelation of God’s grace is knocking on the doors of human hearts in the world. Another aspect of the sevenfold Holy Spirit is at work in the hearts of men and it is causing a grassroots revolution to move among the nations. This move of grace is bringing about a new level of intimacy with God and with one another. As leaders we have a responsibility of not only embracing the now move of God’s Spirit at work in the earth but also of facilitating that move in our areas of responsibility before God.
Psalms, chapter 29 reveals seven thunders heard in the earth as the God of glory moves over the waters of humanity. I believe that we are presently in the middle of a thirty-year birthing of the grace of the Spirit of Knowing and another thunder of grace is being experienced in the earth. This sixth thunder is revealed in verse 9:
Psalms 29:9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth, and strips the forests bare; and in His temple everyone says, “Glory!” NKJ
Psalms 29:9 The voice of Jehovah painted the oaks, And maketh bare the forests, And in His temple every one saith, ‘Glory.’ YNG
In this verse, the word for “deer” can also be translated as “oak”. Hebrew symbolisms are not like Western logic thought. Whereas Greek or Western thought looks at objects for what they are, Hebrew or Eastern thought looks at objects for what they are in essence or what they emotionally reveal. The “deer” or the “oak” are the strength of the forest. They represent the strength of what is hidden in the woods. The forest is the generational habitation of the deer and the oak, but this verse reveals the strength of the forest making room for a new generation. Something strong from the past becomes vulnerable and weak, and a new testimony of life is revealed. Hiding places are stripped and something new is being birthed in the community of trees.
Last week I presented that God doesn’t just offer forgiveness for iniquity, transgression, and sin; He offers the cure to the root of our sin. He promises to “visit” the area of weakness in our hearts that has been inherited from our fathers in the flesh (Ex. 34:7). He promises to be God to the future generations of our family and to ultimately heal the manifestations of sin in our family DNA.
The iniquity in the human heart is the weakness that leads to transgression and sin. It is the vulnerable place within us that needs a visitation of God. It is the place of weakness within us that must discover God’s manifest presence and healing. God is releasing a grace whereby the hiding places of the strength of the flesh are being transformed to the strength of the Lord that only comes from the habitation of God in our hearts.
The iniquity of our hearts is like a characteristic within us that has the potential of causing us to embrace a character that is not like God in its expression. We have a choice of embracing our flaws as our character or embracing being vulnerable to God and allowing Him to transform the area of our weakness to a testimony that can only come through true dependency upon Him. In the same way, Christ in us is the hope of glory, but we must embrace the characteristics of Christ in our hearts and find the grace for them to become the character of our lives.
When iniquity is a characteristic the Hebrew language uses the word “avon” (HSRN 5771). It is an internal characteristic of weakness. It is a bent, a crook, or a flaw that makes us vulnerable to transgression that will ultimately end in sin. It is the flaw within us that causes us to come to sin. It is the weakness, or the propensity to transgress that leads to sin. If we allow the characteristics of our weakness to become the character of our lives there is another Hebrew word for iniquity used. It is the word:
H5766 – ‘ewel; or ‘avel; and (feminine) ‘avlah; or ‘owlah; or ‘olah; (moral) evil – from H5765 – ‘âwal; a primitive root; to distort
I believe a good way of understanding this word is it is the distorted truth in our lives when we allow a characteristic of a crook or a bent of weakness to become the character of our lives. When we do this we think we are being real to who we are, but it is a distortion of who we were meant to be. Each of us are responsible to turn to the Lord in our hearts and see God transform our iniquities to testimonies of His healing grace.
Ezekiel 18:1 The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, 2 “What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? 3 “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. 4 “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die. 5 But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right;… …9 If he has walked in My statutes and kept My judgments faithfully— He is just; He shall surely live!” Says the Lord GOD.
The key to the healing of the iniquities of the human heart is for each individual to turn to the Lord in their hearts and let God give them back what was supposed to be theirs, even though it may have been stolen in the generations of their family line.
2 Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
This Scripture doesn’t just say that where the Spirit is there is liberty. It says that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. The manifest presence of the Lord in our hearts gives us the correct desires of life. He gives us boundaries that define the flowing force of life within us and He gives us the flowing force of life within that forcefully manifests through the boundaries of life. Flowing water without boundaries is a flood. A flood is a force of water, but the end result is destruction of some kind. Water within boundaries without an outlet is a lake, a pond, a reservoir, or something of the sort. It can produce recreation or even be a resource of some kind, but it doesn’t carry a flow of destiny. A boundary without flowing water is a rut, a ravine, a canyon, or even a grave. Flowing water within boundaries is a river and it can be a means of transportation, power, or some form of flowing destiny. This is the way of the Spirit of the Lord in our heats. This is the life of the New Covenant. Our character is not defined by what our internal weakness demand we become. Our character is determined by who God intended us to be. Christ in us is the hope of glory and it is the manifest presence of Christ within us gives us the boundaries of life and the force of life for becoming truth as God sees it.
We cannot look at our internal weaknesses and seek to fashion and form a God in our likeness and image. We must look to the strength of Christ and allow Him to cause us to become a testimony of His likeness and image in the earth. This is the true testimony of life.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
