Ministries
March / April 2006
Lynne Hammond
Dearest Friend and Pray-er,
You must position yourself for the glory. That’s what the Lord has been telling me to do in recent months.
I’ve been eager to obey Him too, because I know 2006 is going to be a glorious year. Brother Hagin prophesied that in February of 2003, before he went home to be with the Lord. And, according to the Bible, the glory of God doesn’t just burst upon us in one brilliant, stunning moment.
Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us we move into the glory a little at a time. We progress “from one degree of glory to another.”
We don’t just stumble into that progression by some kind of happy, spiritual accident, either. We must purposely and actively prepare for it. We must position ourselves to experience those ever-increasing degrees of glory.
How do we do that?
Quite honestly, when the Lord first began dealing with me about it, I didn’t know. I did remember that when brother Hagin prophesied about the coming glory, he said it would be preceded by times of divine judgment and supernatural separation. But that didn’t totally clear up the mystery for me. Although I understood something about the judgment of God, I didn’t fully comprehend the concept of supernatural separation.
What exactly does that mean? I wondered.
For a while, I assumed it simply referred to the separation God would make between His people and the rest of the world in times of judgment. When God judged Egypt in the book of Exodus, I thought, He put a separation between the Egyptians and the Hebrews so the Hebrew firstborn didn’t die of the plague. Maybe that’s the kind of supernatural separation that’s going to prepare us for the glory of God.
It made sense, but even so, it seemed there was more to it than that.
Supernatural Separation in the Book of Acts
Then one day I was reading the 13th chapter of Acts, and the Holy Spirit began to move upon the first few verses in a unique way. I knew He was trying to get something across to me through them. I didn’t know exactly what He was trying to say at first; I just knew it was important.
So I just kept reading and meditating the verses He was quickening to me.
Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. (Acts 13:1-4 NKJ)
Think of it! This group of ministers in the church of Antioch gathered together for the sole purpose of ministering to the Lord. They weren’t trying to get something from Him; they just wanted to give something to Him.
They even set aside eating and fasted for a while so they could focus completely on God. They weren’t focusing on each other. They didn’t come to give their attention to a preacher or church leader. They came to put their attention on God alone, to worship and bless Him.
I’m not even sure they were looking for the Holy Spirit to move in any particular way. But, as they ministered to God, He did. He spoke to them and said, “Separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
As I thought about that fact, suddenly the truth behind it hit me. The ministers at Antioch separated themselves further unto God. And He responded by supernaturally separating them further to His purposes.
He supernaturally separated Saul and Barnabas from the ordinary lives they’d been living and sent them on one of the most glorious missionary tours the Church has ever seen.
An Outpouring of Heavenly Fire
That’s the kind of supernatural separation we need today. It’s the kind of separation that will propel us into greater dimensions and degrees of God’s glory. But if we’re going to experience that supernatural separation of our lives, we must first do something ourselves. We must separate ourselves further unto God.
We must separate ourselves more from the distractions of this age—from the videos, the CDs, and the shopping malls. We must separate ourselves at times, like those ministers at Antioch did, from the dinner table and do some fasting.
We need to do what Romans 12:1 tells us to do and present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, devoted, consecrated, and well-pleasing to God in spiritual worship. Supernatural things happen when we do that!
Actually, supernatural things have always happened when God’s people have done that kind of thing—even under the Old Covenant. In the ninth chapter of Leviticus, for example, they were commanded by God to separate themselves by bringing certain sacrifices and offerings to Him.
So they brought what Moses commanded before the tabernacle of meeting. And all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord… And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. (verses 5, 23-24 NKJ)
Isn’t that amazing? When God’s Old Covenant people separated themselves to Him, He met them with a cloud of glory and an outpouring of heavenly fire!
A Matter of the Heart
Do you think God would do more for His Old Covenant people than He will do for us as His New Covenant people? Certainly not! God wants to pour out His glory upon us as surely as He did on them. He wants to pour His glory into us and through us. But we must make the first move. We must draw near and spend time in His presence.
We must separate ourselves and bring offerings to Him. Not just the kind of offerings we plunk in the bucket on Sunday mornings but the kind of offerings that symbolize our lives. The kind of offerings that say to God, “I give all my resources and all my life to You.”
If we’ll do that, He can move on us in His mighty power and take us to another degree of glory.
“But Lynne,” you might say, “I don’t know how to separate myself to God that way. Exactly what should I do?”
Don’t ask me, ask the Lord. Let Him show you.
This is not a legalistic thing. It’s not a matter of trying to fulfill some kind of prescribed religious obligation. It’s a matter of the heart. It’s a matter of hearing and heeding what the Holy Spirit is saying to you personally at this time in your life. As Romans 7:6 says. “…we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit…” (Amp.).
That’s the wonder of New Testament Christianity! It’s not a religion; it’s a relationship. And through that relationship, God can lead us as individuals to greater degrees of glory in a personal and unique way.
He may lead one person to get up a little earlier each morning to spend some extra time in prayer. He may lead another to fast a meal or two a week for awhile and use the time they’d normally spend eating to meditate the Word. He might lead others to spend their daily commute to work worshipping Him with songs, hymns, and spiritual songs.
God Alone Gets the Praise
In addition to separating ourselves more to God individually, I believe we need to separate ourselves corporately these days in much the same way the ministers from Antioch did in Acts 13. He’s calling us to gather together for the sole purpose of ministering to Him. He wants us to turn our attention away from ourselves and from each other and put it on Him alone.
In the American church, we place far too much emphasis on pleasing and exalting people. We tend to put our attention on the minister who is standing at the pulpit instead of on God Himself. Then, if we get blessed, we say, “Oh, isn’t that minister wonderful! He really blessed us today!”
God isn’t going to pour out His glory on that kind of attitude! He won’t send us His heavenly fire and let us give some human vessel the credit for it. God Himself is to receive all the glory and praise. Not any minister. Not any person. Just God alone.
If you want to see how serious God is about that, read the first few verses of Leviticus, chapter 10. It tells about two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who saw the fire of God’s glory fall and decided they wanted some of it for themselves. So they:
…each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified’” (verses 1-3).
One reason we don’t see more miracles in America is because we so often exalt the minister through whom such miracles come. Instead of glorifying God, we glorify men. People in other nations don’t do that as much. I’ve attended church meetings overseas where the presiding minister will simply say, “The healing power of God is in this place. Just lift your hand and receive.” Sure enough, the glory of God will sweep across the room and multitudes of people will be instantly healed.
Nobody gives the minister any credit for it. They all just praise Jesus and give Him glory. After all, He alone deserves it. No man, no minister, has the power to truly heal people and set them free. Just Jesus. He’s the only one with the power to do it. We might serve as distributors of that power, but He’s the generator. It all comes from Him.
Knowing the Word Made Flesh
If we’re going to position ourselves for the glory, we’ll have to get our eyes off each other. We’ll have to get our attention off preachers and ministers and get it back on Jesus Himself. We’ll have to draw closer and closer to Him.
“Well, I do that by reading the Bible,” somebody might say. “I put my attention on the written Word.”
Thank God for the Bible. God speaks to us through it. It points us to Jesus. But the fact is, there is a big difference in knowing the written Word and knowing the “Word Made Flesh”—the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He’s more than print on a page. He’s a real, live person. We can’t see Him but He’s real. And He wants to reveal Himself more fully to us.
But for Him to do that, we must separate ourselves more to Him. We must come to Him not just to get Him to do something for us but because He is the love of our lives. He is our all in all. He is our everything.
Let’s devote ourselves ever more wholly to Him. Let’s walk with Him and talk with Him. Let’s position our lives for the glory… and the glory will surely come.
Until I write again, keep loving Jesus. Keep loving people. And always remember that…
You are loved by,
Lynne
TESTIMONIES
USA
I want to thank God so much for using you and your friends, Lynne (Patsy & Billye), to transform my life and that of my family and friends. You are teaching us how to pray with utterance and being effective laborers in this world. In our prayer group we have started using the GPAN summaries.
--R.M.
