The Inward Journey

By Douglas B. Clark

Recently I was at a conference where someone had a vision of a golden calf positioned at the front of the church and all the people in the audience were gathered around this golden calf worshiping it. The person who had this vision then asked the Lord what the golden calf was and the Lord told her it was “self.” The vision was shared with the group and the leader began to ask everyone if they had any idols in their lives. The thought did not occur to him that the network he is trying to build was the golden calf!

So what is the connection between the golden calf and self?

When the children of Israel built their golden calf they accomplished it by melting together their individual pieces of gold. Gold can symbolize what God gives each of us of Himself.

Revelation 3:18 says: “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”

We often emphasize that it is by grace we are saved, but in Revelation 3:18 we are asked to buy gold that has been refined in the fire. Why would God ask us to buy something from Him when His gift of salvation is free? The implication is that He has something of Himself He desires to give us, but it will come at a cost! Most of us know this well and have paid a price to receive God’s precious gold.

So how does the gold that God gives us become a golden calf?

Read the rest of this entry »

By Douglas B. Clark

“He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “ “ When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!

I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” Luke 15:16-24

Like the prodigal son, we desire to receive our inheritance NOW so that we may indulge “self” with the spiritual gifts that come from God. Our squandering and misuse of our inheritance leads to spiritual famine. This brings great dissatisfaction that reduces us to brokenness. Here we learn to be content eating from the servant’s table. From this place of servitude our heavenly Father will call us unto Himself and prepare a feast — imparting His life unto us.

Over the holidays I was in Florida on vacation. My wife, Diana and I were on our way to Sanibel Island after visiting a new friend in Sebring. While we drove down the road my thoughts wandered to another friend who had moved to Florida seven or eight years ago. I had not spoke with Ray in over three years and had no idea how to reach him. I wondered what part of Florida he lived in and whether it was close enough to where we were at for us to go see him.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Douglas B. Clark, March 31, April 3, 2006

Recently I came across a disturbing article on the Internet concerning the “out of church” folks. I believe the brother who wrote the article is sincere and loves the Lord with all his heart. I believe God is using him and that he recognizes a great many things that are not of the Lord, and is not afraid to speak up about them. But, on this issue I believe his perception is incorrect and hurtful.

My prayer is that this brother will rephrase what he has said, but most of all I pray that those who have been wounded by his words will be encouraged and know that God is doing a work in their lives and that He has not forsaken them.

Here is one paragraph of what this brother wrote concerning the “out of church” folk:

“For some people the ‘Out-of-church’ Revolution is “new”. But for me it is very old, and after 20 years observation there is one simple thing I can tell you: IT DOES NOT WORK. It does not transition into real New Testament ‘Body Life’. It does not lead to Revival. It does not transform the church. It “scatters” instead of gathering, and leads to what I call “amorphous blob” Christianity. -In other words, the Body of Christ becomes an unfocused mass of individualists without form or direction - “each man doing what is right in his own eyes.” I don’t know if we can find much more of an opposite to true body life than that.” End quote.

Here is what I believe the Lord has given me in response to my brother’s accusations:

While in prayer I saw the breath of the Holy Spirit, gently breathing on His people. I thought of how different this was from Him coming as a “mighty rushing wind.” As I was looking for a passage of scripture, I heard this, Ezekiel 37:9

“Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.” Ezek 37:9-10 NIV

I believe this passage of scripture is a representation of what God is doing at this time.
There are many “out-of church” folk who have been slain by the trials and difficulties they have faced. They are completely poured out and have nothing left to give. They feel void of all spiritual life. I know this to be true for I was one of them. If you judge after outward appearances you will easily come to the conclusion that this group of lone rangers, have missed the voice of God and have fallen into complacency.

But I declare to you by the Holy Spirit, that the breath of God is gently breathing on these dry bones. For there are many who have been slain by the difficulties they have faced and have given up on their pursuit of righteousness, but My breath shall come upon them, and cause them to become alive, for it has been My hand that has orchestrated the difficulties in their lives. I have purposely hid what I was doing so that they would bare the reproach of the cross, and be utterly broken before me.”

The last portion of the scripture in Ezekiel refers to a vast army. I believe the army God is raising up at this time is not Joel’s army as many think. A more accurate picture of what is now happening is Ezekiel’s army of dry bones coming to life.

Some of you have thought your day had come and gone, while some have been holding on to what God spoke into your hearts so many years ago. Be encouraged, the Holy Spirit is about to breathe upon you. When He does you will see that He has been with you throughout your journey. Not for a moment has He left you!

Another scripture that comes to mind is: 1 Kings 6:7.

“In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

When the blocks for Solomon’s Temple were made, all the hammering and chiseling took place in the quarry. It was only after each stone had been shaped into the right dimensions so that it could fit perfectly with the other stones that it was brought to the temple location to be assembled. What a wonderful picture this is of God’s work in our lives!

The hammer blows upon us are many as God shapes and chisels us into living stones that fit properly in the house not made with human hands. God is building a masterpiece that will fit together perfectly! But as each of us knows from experience, it is in the quarry where God is preparing us, and not in the glory of His temple.

There are a great many new ones that are being called out unto the Lord at this time. They are being taught directly by the Holy Spirit, but they will need true ministry that will encourage and confirm what God is speaking into their life.

As God unfolds His masterpiece I believe we will be amazed with the detail of His plan and the synchronization of all that He is doing. God is going to revive many of His lone rangers, while His kingdom is propagated throughout the earth, neighbor-to-neighbor, friend-to-friend. This Holy move of God will also bring judgment on the false ministries that have been birthed from the soul of man. The judgment will NOT be angry prophets shaking their fist, calling down fire from heaven. What will bring the judgment is the bright light that will shine on all that God is doing, as it contrast the darkness and futility of all of man’s efforts.

God’s government and kingdom does not resemble any kingdom of this world. It is not the hierarchy that many self-proclaimed apostles and prophets would declare. There will be no emphasis on leadership other than the leadership of hearing His voice. God’s government will have only one head, and that will be the mind of Christ, and any apostle, prophet or pastor will not dictate the laws of His kingdom, but they will be written on the hearts of men.

God has called us out of Babylon, but what a long process it is to remove Babylon from within us! Do not look to Jerusalem or physical local, for it is not any geographic location where you will find the administration of God’s government, for the kingdom of God is within you!

Over the past thirty years I have experienced many precious moments in the Lord along with many dry times where the heavens were as brass. I confess that I have not always cooperated with the Lord through the many trials I have faced. I have not done anything of myself that would give the right to lay claim to being some great spiritual authority, or leader. For the last eight years I went through depression, anger and finally acceptance of the difficulties I had faced.

It was at a moment when I felt completely spiritually dead, without one bit of His life in me, that the Holy Spirit began to breathe upon me. He has awakened His spirit inside me, and is speaking with me daily. He has caused me to walk upright before Him in victory, and in His rest, but it is not because of anything I have done. It is only because He chose to breathe His life into these dry bones.

Pay attention to the gentle breath of the Spirit that is now breathing upon His people. This is not the time for the mighty rushing wind, but for the gentle breath of God. This is a time of substance and a time of great truth and understanding. Then will we see a display of His power.

Douglas B. Clark
info@theinwardjourney.net

By Douglas B. Clark

On Friday, June 30th I drove to Battle Creek Michigan to meet some friends at Don Pablo’s for dinner at 5pm. I estimated it would take me one hour and forty-five minutes to get there. Unfortunately I left ten minutes late, plus I had to get gas, take an alternate route due to construction, and to top it off, I got behind a slow moving farm vehicle for about five miles. Driving down the road I kept picturing my friends sitting at the restaurant waiting for me. As I got closer I was surprised at the time. I realized I wouldn’t be as late as I had imagined. Reaching my destination I pulled into the parking lot and found a parking space. After putting the car in park I glanced at my watch as I turned off the ignition to see the time and it was five P.M. to the second! In a thousand attempts I could not have made that happen. There were so many variables, yet I managed to arrive at the appointed time.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Douglas B. Clark
May 16, 2006

Do you ever get the feeling of anticipation that something big is coming? You know, the sense that God is really going to use you in a big way! When I reflect on this idea and look back over the past thirty years I see a very different interpretation to these thoughts than I once had. I use to think I would have a powerful ministry that would accomplish great things for the Lord. But time and time again the Lord in His graciousness has dashed my dreams to the ground. I would watch others being raised up and given platforms to minister while all my efforts continually failed. My heart was crying Abba, Father, but I was interpreting this cry with natural thinking, rather than the understanding that comes from the Holy Spirit.

The truth is that God has placed within each of us a desire to serve Him, but this must be tempered with our need to know Him! For it is out of knowing Him that we are able to minister His life. Any other ministry is nothing more than a form of godliness. Our desire to serve Him often leads us to attempt to do things in our own power and ability. Buried deep in the heart of man is the desire for self-preservation. This desire is so strong and intuitive that “self” finds a multitude of ways to reinvent itself so it can survive. Understanding this truth is crucial to our growing up in Him.

When we hear the clarion call to come out of Babylon God opens our eyes to the mixture of flesh and Spirit that exists in the religious systems of man. For many the journey stops a few yards from the church door. We may come out and become separate, but there is often a failure to go further.

Why is that?

There was a movie out a few years ago called “The Sixth Sense.” Bruce Willis played the main character, a psychologist who had a patient who saw the spirits of dead people. The psychologist didn’t believe the boy, and so the whole movie was about him trying to help the boy overcome his hallucinations. Finally, at the end of the movie the psychologist realizes that the boy is actually seeing dead people. Then comes the interesting twist. The physiologist begins to realize that he is one of the dead people! What a revelation! First the psychologist couldn’t see the truth about the boy. Then he finally realizes the boy does see dead people and then at the very end he finds out he is one of the dead people!

Sounds a lot like our journey. We begin as most church folk not recognizing all the spiritual death around us. Then we begin to see it in our surroundings as the Lord calls us out and unto Himself. Finally, if we continue on in our journey to know Him He shows us the death is in us!

How easy it is to see the Babylon within the Institutional Church while overlooking what in us needs to be overcome. It is true our eyes need to be open to our surroundings, but I declare to you by the Holy Spirit that until the Babylon in us is exposed we will not grow in our journey to know Him! The same spirit that gave birth to the mixture of flesh and Spirit in the I.C. is alive and well in us. Right now it is trying to figure out ways it can pervert what God is doing in this hour so that it can escape its own demise! This spirit I am speaking of is called “self”-preservation and he is in the temple of God seeking a way to sit on the throne of God, ruling in place of the true King. This is why some home fellowships encounter the same old problems we dealt with back in the system. Babylon is in us!

How often do we fail to see that the calling of God to come out of the religious systems of man is only the beginning of our journey? It is a much longer process removing the spirit of Babylon from us! That is why in our journey to know Him He often strips us of ministry and gifts for service. His gifts and anointing often become diffused with our carnal reasoning and self-efforts. This is the confusion that is defined in the name, Babylon. Can we not see that in this place we encounter the spirit of anti-Christ? That part of our Adamic nature that seeks “self” rule?

In Hebrews the writer tells how the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb 4:12)

Every time we receive a revelation or new understanding from God it is but a part of the process of growing in Him. He gives us a foretaste of new truth and then He has us walk it out so it can become part of us. In this process His word in us begins to discern our thoughts and intentions, and the Holy Spirit exposes the hidden “self” that opposes all that is of God!

When Jesus walked the earth and preached about the coming Kingdom, the people who surrounded Him did not understand the truth He shared. They knew the scriptures foretold of a coming Messiah, but they were looking for a Savior from the tyranny of Rome and not the tyranny of “self” rule. Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world. He said that His Kingdom was within us. In the realm of His Kingdom the enemy was not Rome, or even the devil, it was “self” rule that opposed Him. I do not deny that there is a devil who roams the earth, seeking whom he may devour, but I tell you that the root of the problem is more often “SELF.”

The idea that God wants to change the heart of man rather than his environment is too much for the carnal mind to accept! In order to be changed from within something must die to make room for His life. How many times have we prayed asking God to change things without when He wants to change what is within? It is because of the self-preservation in each of us that we cannot see the truth of the Kingdom! That is why Jesus said, “To him who overcomes I will give the HIDDEN manna.” (Rev 2:17) Manna itself was food from heaven. All believers can partake of God’s spiritual provision, but here Jesus is saying that there is a hidden manna that He has reserved for those who overcome. There are many things He wants to show us but we must be willing to lay down our human reasoning. For deep within our human reasoning “self” is there, waiting to reinvent “self” as it seeks a way to survive.

Believers, who continue in their journey to know God, see one consistent theme from Genesis to Revelation. Christ in you, the hope of glory! The Kingdom of God within us! Starting with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life we see a picture of the internal dilemma each of us face as we decide which tree to eat from. Our natural instincts are no different from Adam’s, so by nature we will choose to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When God calls out to us to feed from the tree of Life then we must first walk through the flaming sword, for no flesh (self) can partake of the Divine nature. All that is of “self” must be severed from us and consumed in God’s refining fire!

As we continue our journey we see that God’s dealings with Abraham have a great significance to our inheritance that we receive by faith. Continuing on we see all of God’s dealings with Israel speak to us about our journey to know Him. We begin in the land of Egypt (the flesh) and are led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Because of our unbelief and carnal nature we are unable to immediately enter the Promised Land so we circle the mountain until we learn cease from our own “self” efforts and enter His rest. It doesn’t stop here. Each of the feasts that Israel partook of speaks of our spiritual development and His kingdom within us. Great spiritual realities are hidden in the symbolism of these literal events.

First we come upon the Passover Lamb without blemish that takes away our sins. Next we partake of the first fruits of the Spirit at Pentecost. Here we experience His power to be a witness to the world. Then as God calls us to experience the Feast of Tabernacles we learn to be still before Him in the confines of the limited space He has given us in our individual booths, usually in the wilderness.

As we continue on we see how God instructed that the Tabernacle be made to the exact pattern, and then we find out that pattern is a shadow of the reality found in Christ. Moving on to the life of Jesus we read how at His crucifixion He cried out, “It is finished,” just as the veil in the temple was torn. What Divine synchronization took place that day as reality over took the shadow displayed through natural Israel and the first covenant that was written on tables of stone.

How often in the ministry of Jesus was he speaking of a spiritual truth while the natural man stood by interpreting with the human reasoning that comes from the knowledge of good and evil, rather than the understanding that comes from eating from the tree of Life. When he spoke to Nicodemus and told him he must be born again poor Nick was trying to comprehend how a man could possible reenter his mother’s womb. When Jesus spoke of the temple being destroyed and then raised up again on the third day he was speaking of His body, but those who heard His words could only see an earthly temple.

How many times have you heard someone declare from the pulpit, “Isn’t it good to be in the house of God this morning.” When the Bible clearly teaches that God does not live in temples made with hands?

Can we not see that the truth of God is spiritually discerned? I don’t care how many times we read the Bible or how well we understand the Hebrew and Greek language. Without the anointing of the Holy Spirit it is a dead letter, and will bring forth nothing more than a form of godliness. When will we lay aside the carnal doctrines and interpretations regarding the Kingdom of God and allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds?

Before us all stands the tree of Life, but until we are willing to fall upon the sword I declare to you that we will not eat God’s hidden manna! We cannot even orchestrate our own death to “Self”. It has to be all Him!

The believer, who has moved beyond the experience of simple chastisement to be scourged as a son, sees a picture of our journey in Christ, while reading John’s revelation of Jesus Christ. For what God has done in the Son will be manifested in the “sons,” His many member body. That is why He was the firstborn AMOUNG MANY BRETHERN. “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing MANY SONS unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” Heb 2:10

This is why when some read about the man-child that was a picture of Jesus being birthed from Jerusalem that they also see a picture of our development in Christ, as we are birthed from the church realm into the wilderness. The work that was accomplished at the cross will be manifested in us. That is why Paul said: “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Rom 8:17

If we are truly called out unto God we no longer look outward, but we see the reality of God’s kingdom within His us. Do not be deceived by carnal understandings that would direct our attention outward, away from the dealings of God. Unless we learn to rule and reign over our individual earth (us) we will not be partakers in the Divine nature that will set creation free.

For those who are seeking the Kingdom of God, everything in the Bible points to the inward journey to know Him and to overcome all that is not of Him! Do not be deceived by the spirit of anti-Christ that is constantly seeking a way to direct our attention outward so that “self” can go undetected, all the while reinventing “self” so it can fit the latest religious trend as it continues to look for ways to rule in the temple of God.

When the Holy Spirit speaks to us let us not be like those who could only see the natural and therefore miss what God is doing. The purpose of this article is not to give an answer, or to teach the latest end-time doctrine. I believe that the Holy Spirit’s intention is to cause us to ask questions that only He can answer. May the Holy Spirit illuminate God’s truth in each of our lives. Learning the truth without the anointing has no more life than learning a lie, for the truth, is more than a teaching or belief, it is the living persona of Jesus Christ, the anointed one!

Douglas B. Clark
info@theinwardjourney.net