by Lorrie Myers

Study includes:A. Prophetic Encouragement
B. Devotional Teaching
C. Weekly Scripture Meditation
D. Resource Corner

A. Prophetic Encouragement

God's call has gone out – He will have a company of righteous believers filled with light that will invade every aspect of the darkness. In them will be no spot or blemish – a glorious church that will draw many to its shining.

They will have clean hands and a pure heart and will ascend the holy hill of the Lord. They will demolish works of darkness; no darkness will be found in them. This troop will not be cut down in mid-battle by hidden sins and unbelief. They will walk in all humility and grace, knowing their source of righteousness comes from Christ alone and is not the work of their own hands.

Soak in His righteousness and then walk in all truth. Clothe yourselves in all that God has provided through Christ. Throw off the lies of the enemy that have hindered you in the past – toss them aside as a runner would throw off excess weight, and do not come under their heavy yoke again.

It’s time for a revival of righteousness – for Christ’s glory, grace and truth to shine through each and every believer, so that the world will see a Kingdom set apart for Him and His Glory.

B. Devotional Teaching

There is such a strong cry in the Body today – for God’s people to rise up into their full destiny, to walk in the glory realm in a greater and greater measure, and to spread that glory into the darkness! With all our hearts, we respond with, “Yes Lord, so be it!”
Along with this cry, God is sending His holy fire to purge, cleanse and empower each believer to walk in holiness and righteousness. We must embrace this fire in order to release a greater glory into the earth.

I will never forget what Jason Westerfield shared at one of our conferences last spring. If you’re not familiar with Jason, he walks in a level of the glory and signs & wonders in the simplicity and purity of Christ like few I’ve ever seen. When he was asked if he could pray an impartation to others, he tearfully shared how the Lord had told him: “You better not go your own way, because the anointing that’s coming on your life will kill you – it’s not for your own use, it’s for people. If you go your own way, it will be destructive against you. There is a price to pay with a level of integrity and character and righteousness – that’s what He’s looking at. He judges where our righteous standards are, so we can handle these things and they won’t take us out.”

The weight of what he shared was almost tangible in the room. Ah yes, our hearts long for a greater release of the glory and power of God, but might there be things in us that would take us out? Oh Lord, give us the fear of You in this! God, we freely and fully submit to your FIRE – burn out any impurities and sin and unbelief within us. We want a revival of righteousness that can bear the weight of this glory You are releasing!!!

The Righteousness of Christ
I remember a time in my life when God imparted a deep heart revelation about the righteousness we have in Christ. It felt like being born again, again. Wave and wave of the truth of what Jesus did on the cross entered my being: I wasn’t a sinner struggling to live the Christian walk. At my core, I was the very righteousness of Christ, having been empowered to walk in victory. 

This revelation of our Christ-righteousness must be at the foundation of our lives. Grab your Bible and start to decree all the passages in the New Testament about the righteousness of Christ. Ask Holy Spirit to burn these truths in your heart, so they become a fresh revelation that brings truth to the inward parts. You are a spirit-being, regenerated and empowered by Christ, and you already have everything you need for life and godliness residing within you. Yes, we’re a new righteous breed on the earth!

Once this truth is in place, the only thing that can block it from being experientially lived out is the lies that we believe, either about God or about ourselves. And it’s easy to spot these lies – just take note of the “junk hanging out” when your buttons get pushed. You see, it’s quite easy for us to mentally subscribe to a truth, such as “God is our Provider,” but then have a little freak-out session when the economy takes a down-turn. Or perhaps we have just soaked in the glory atmosphere of God, but then destroy the atmosphere in our own home with a little hissy fit of anger. Maybe we feel deep peace in one moment, but then the next we go on a spending spree to scratch some faint inner itch.

It’s at these “flesh hanging out” times that we need to realize that we’re operating in what James called double-mindedness & instability – believing two things at the same time. But what we say we “believe” isn’t true belief – it’s only a mental assent to something we’d like to believe.

For you see, the very word “belief” really means “by life” – so what we are actually modeling by our life’s responses is what we truly believe in our hearts. “As a man thinks within himself, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7); these false heart beliefs must be brought to the surface and dealt with. And what brings the dross to the surface? FIRE!!!

The Fire of God
The fire of God will purge and purify us like none other. Pray for God’s holy fire to be increased upon your life! “Oh God, burn out any dross in me – burn out any unbelief within me! Purge me of any beliefs that are not in alignment with your heart of purity and love. Burn, fire of God, burn.”

This fire can come in many forms – it may be a one-time encounter with the Spirit of holiness and purity, when we’re changed from one degree of glory to another.
Or it may be that God just “turns the heat up” in the situations we’re going through, and what is hidden deep inside comes to the surface. But if some old junk shows up, no worries – it’s just time to let Jesus scrape off that dross to remove all that ugliness and show us the source of the false belief hidden in the depths of our hearts, so He can replace it with His truth.

Perhaps that ugly anger seeping out is masking feelings of unworthiness:  the husband asks the wife why she’s doing something a certain way, and she bursts out in anger, thinking he’s accusing her of being stupid, but what she really believes in her heart is that she is dumb and can never do anything right.  Or man falls sexually, but if he allows the fire of God to reveal His heart, it really wasn’t about the sex, it was about his own feelings of inadequacy that never got dealt with at the very core of his being.  Oh, how we need truth & righteousness in our inward parts!

Grace and Truth
When we sin, it’s time to ask ourselves, WHY we do what we do?  Trying to “just stop sinning” is like snatching one apple off the tree, thinking that we’ve taken care of the problem, when in fact, the next apple is just waiting to appear.  But go to the root and Jesus, by His grace, will bring truth to the deepest places in our heart.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen HIS GLORY, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of GRACE and TRUTH. (John 1:14)

You see, Jesus came to us with grace and truth - two common words, but they pack an amazing one-two punch!!!  Grace is simply “God’s enabling power” and truth is simply – well, TRUTH!!! We need God’s enabling power to bring His and light into all the hidden and dark areas of our hearts.

And God is definitely turning up the fire in this season!  Why?  Because He is restoring the temple of our lives in order to display His glory on the earth.

Ezra – God Restoring the Church to its Glory
The book of Ezra is a wonderful picture of where the church is in this process today.  In chapters 1-8, God has miraculously provided for the temple to be rebuilt and the people are basking in His presence - a true move of God’s Glory among His people.
BUT…. we see in chapters 9 & 10 that God’s chosen people had not fully aligned themselves with the things of God - they had not kept themselves pure. They had joined their hearts to things not belonging to the Lord by marrying into other blood lines.

To marry someone is to “become one with”, to merge and create a new identity based on that coming together.  The Israelites had mixed the holy with the profane and fallen short of the highest God had to offer them – their purpose and destiny had become impure.

And this is where the people of God are right now – we’re in one of the biggest moves of God to restore His Glory to His people in the earth.  God is rebuilding the temple, wanting His church to walk in the fullness of all that He desired and planned from the beginning.  Power, might, fullness of purpose, destiny, giftings, callings, miracles, signs and wonders, healings, open heavens. - you can feel the realm around us pulsating with excitement and a yearning for a greater release of His glory.  It’s the restoration of the Glory of the God in His temple, the Bride of Christ being made ready.

But we have mixed the holy with the profane – we have mixture in our hearts. And just like in Ezra’s time, the leaders are as guilty as the rest of the people (Ezra 9:2). And in the mist of this restoration of the glory of God, WHAM - some are knocked down by the weight of this unholy mixture in their hearts.  As Jason said, this glory will kill us if our hearts are not clean before Him.

But there is hope (Ezra 10:2) and it’s called a Revival of Righteousness!!!  God, in His great love and mercy, has “been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary” (Ezra 9:8) He’s calling us to press into the holy fire of His presence and be purged of all that is holding us back.  Why?  For a greater release of His glory and love in the earth! Oh, how we long for that!!!

Right now, there is grace upon grace, to release truth in the inward parts – His holy fire is destroying all that is within us that would hold us back from the fullness of His glory.
When this goal of greater glory is before our eyes, the “be holy as I am holy”  command comes from a place of joyful submission. “Yes Lord, I want your holy fire to purify me as never before! Burn through me with your revival of righteousness in order that Your greater glory may be manifest in the earth!”.

 “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.”  Psalm 43:3

C. Weekly Scripture Meditation

Week ONE - Ezra, specifically Chapters 9 &10
Week TWO - Psalm 51
Week THREE - Psalm 43
Week FOUR - John 1:14

D. Resource Corner

DVD Teaching - Revival of Righteousness by Patricia King
CD Teaching Set - School of Deliverance by Patricia King
Book - Transforming the Inner Man by John & Paula Sandford
Book - God’s Power To Change by John & Paula Sandford
Book - Letting Go of Your Past by John & Paula Sandford

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And remember, God loves you with an everlasting love!