Transition and Its Dangers
God is bringing about a noticeable move of His blessing and favor, first to a remnant, then to the entire Church.
With that move (blessing) comes enormous responsibility, as no flesh can touch what the spirit is doing.
This wave of increase is wonderful in and of itself, but must be attended to by a watchful eye.
We must be as a weaned child (Psalm 131), remain steadfast to move in this blessing ONLY as the spirit leads.
My failures in the blessing are legendary, as the article below was written in November of 2003: I am still learning how to walk in the promises of God when they manifest in my life.
I hope this old article will bless and prepare you for what is soon to happen in the lives of many.
Clay
Transition and it’s Dangers
Recently I purchased a new dirt bike to evaluate timber and land values on real estate projects that I am being blessed with. I had not been on a dirt bike in 23 plus years, yet knew physically and skillfully I could still ride having raced them some years back.
As I took to the woods for the first time, in less than an hour I went down while jumping a log. As I laid on the ground, pinned underneath the bike, I remember thinking “No big deal, I’m not hurt, but I am pinned in such an awkward position that it will be difficult to get out from underneath the weight.”
In relative short order, I began to simultaneously feel a burning sensation on my left leg and literally smell burning flesh (my flesh)!
The motorcycle I had previously been unable to move, I now moved with ease as adrenalin enabled my body to do what was necessary. In a matter of seconds, the bike was moved and I was standing looking at hole the size of my fist in my burned jeans.
I dreaded to look at the burn sensing the serious nature of the injury. Denial set in and I continued to ride the rest of the day, though in a great deal of pain.
The following week I fought infection, sleepless nights and more pain, ultimately going to the Doctor for treatment to stop the infection.
As I prayed about this misadventure, God began to speak to me about the “new place” and the ultimate requirement of burning flesh.
It is exciting to see and experience God’s promotion. In the new place we are being taken we will have to corral some of our exuberance.
Excitement and exuberance can be just as intoxicating as discouragement and fear, and even more deadly because of the unrecognizable detour they are capable of producing.
The “new place” will produce the joy and excitement of knowing that God’s hand brought you to this place, yet with the excitement we must maintain wisdom anticipating what to expect as we arrive.
The “new place” will present us with some unavoidable opportunities, figuratively speaking, to allow (our) flesh to burn. All new positioning in God will expose new flesh.
The key, however, is to recognize the importance of the fact that any new position will expose new flesh, some of which will have to be burned.
Burning flesh is part of our growth into the “new thing” and should not be confused as God’s resistance, or a setback into the ‘old.’ Much of the flesh that must be burned in the “new place” is our old traditional mindsets.
The Body of Christ is now in the beginning stages of making an enormous transition. All within the Body now find themselves in one of three places:
- Those who are stuck in the rut of sameness and not moving anywhere,
- those who are beginning to see the “new place” and know where they are headed, and
- still others who have begun to make the journey toward the “new place.”
This transition is corporate in nature, yet flows to us as individuals, as our personal appointments are now being seen with greater degrees of clarity.
All transition in the Kingdom will involve change, both internal and external – new revelation resulting in new thoughts, new ideas, new direction, resulting in greater levels of God’s power.
Make no mistake about it; these are unctioned by the Spirit of God. Once the internal is fixed and our faith strong, then will come the physical change of expanding boundaries – new people, new geography, new territory, new opportunity, new power.
What an exciting time this is, yet what a dangerous time this is. As we begin to walk into new levels of power in the Church, corporately and individually, we will begin to notice that new areas of flesh are being exposed in us, much of which MUST touch the fire.
Said differently, the transition now taking place in the Body of Christ will require that we walk in a “new place” in God’s appointed power.
This “new place” will expose new areas of flesh in each of us, and this revelation will provide us with an opportunity to deal with the exposed flesh on our terms, or as an alternative, allow God will deal with it on His.
When we recognize that our character needs dealing with, we must have the courage to address it. As Arthur Burt says, “You must own it, to disown it!”
To deepen this understanding, I think it important to know that some flesh, even that which we recognize, can only be dealt with by the fire of God.
We have all heard the phrase “Higher levels, bigger devils,” and now that the entire Body is moving toward its appointed position and all hell has been unleashed to stop it.
As always, God has the upper hand against Satan, and even though he is a force to be dealt with and will contend for every piece of new ground, our real enemy in this advance will be OUR VERY OWN FLESH (traditional mindset).
What most of us face as we first experience God’s blessing is PRIDE and SELF WILL. It seems almost paradoxical that the God of all blessing would bless us, allowing us to become prideful and full of ourselves!
But is God ALLOWING our pride and self will, or simply EXPOSING it?
I strongly maintain that God will bring about changing circumstances in our lives to expose what is in really in us. God is not nearly so concerned with getting us into heaven as He is getting heaven into us!
No one knows what would happen should they awaken one day and find five million dollars in their checking account.
No aspiring evangelist knows what he would do if one day he awakened to international fame from some miraculous crusade, or a struggling youth pastor with hundreds to minister to.
Until you have been exposed to a new position due directly to God’s promotion you may think you know what you would do, but you truly do not know until you are there.
Two things I feel safe in saying from the prophetic motive that rest within me – one, promotion and unity is coming to the Body of Christ, and two, new flesh is about to be exposed.
It is up to us individually and collectively to deal with the rottenness that dwells in our very own being.
As I have often said, “Circumstances do not make the man, they simply reveal him to himself.”
There are many within the Body, mostly in the Word of Faith movement, who perceive anything other than man’s perceived “perfect blessing” as not being from God; often citing a lack of faith or disobedience as the cause of some malady, sickness, or financial failure.
To those who believe this way, I offer no argument as to the incident I suffered, but to those who have ears to hear, let me shout it from the housetops, as you transition into the greater calling and destiny of God, you will recognize flesh that you did not know existed.
Deal with it!
It is part of our growth and total submission to our loving heavenly Father, and part of the process of getting us prepared for the greatest move of God this earth has ever seen.
~ Clay Sikes
Clay Sikes ~ Lighthouse Prophecy.