The Inward Journey
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