God intimately knows your ways and your thoughts, so why do you hide from His presence and flee from His appearings? It is because your carnal mind is unable to believe or understand God's absolute, total acceptance of you even in your state of unrighteousness. If you can see that the Lord accepts you and that He will never reject you, then you will stand in His presence and be changed.
For us to truly understand God's acceptance of us, we must be able to recognize the difference between acceptance and perfection. God has accepted us in our imperfection, and that is the open door for us to be perfected in Him as we receive the truth.
If the Kingdom of God is relationships, then it becomes important for us to recognize not only our need and desire for a relationship with God, but to recognize His need and desire for a relationship with us.
God's Determined Love
God has created us as a people for His own possession. We must know and be open to receive His depth of love for us; for our lives will either be spent in His dealings to give ourselves to Him or we will live as recipients of His sweet spices because we have come to know and accept that love. Our greatest ability to become and change will be our simple acceptance of what His love has in store for us.
CD includes both of the above messages by Gary Hargrave (2008-1113-2R)
This message studies deeply the flesh and how we relate to it. A real revelation of this Word will free us from condemnation.
A Revelation Of The Grace Of God
This message will open the door for you to get a revelation of the grace of God and why you need it. If you don't do your homework after you hear this, it will just be another Word.
CD includes both of the above messages by Gary Hargrave (2008-1204-1R)
You could know the exact day, the hour, and the place of His appearing and you could even recognize Him. But the issue is: Will you receive Him? It is impossible for you to receive Him unless you have broken away from your dependency, your confidence, and your sense of security in the things of this age. The Lord's return is as certain as the dawn. Instead of searching for the day, the hour, and the place, humble and prepare your heart to receive Him.
Although the Apostle Paul had experiences in which he saw the Lord and heard His voice, he lived with a drive to know the Lord. We must not be lulled into settling for experiences with the Lord yet never come into a full knowledge of Him. In this age when people are looking for signs and wonders, God is looking for people who know Him.
The Appearance Of His Appearings
We are in the time of the Lord's appearings, but He often appears in ways that not everyone can recognize. Will you perceive His appearings as judgment or as blessing and fulfillment? The difference in how you perceive His appearings will depend upon what is in your heart toward the Lord.
CD includes both of the above messages by Gary Hargrave (2009-0821-8R)
God wants us to be His temple. However, He cannot live with the flesh nature. Under your initiative, the Holy Spirit can begin the perfection process within you. Your relationship with the Holy Spirit is not a one-time experience, but it is a way of life. This leads to resurrection life.
In this Word, Gary transports us back to what it was like to live in the days of the early Church. For those early disciples, everything they had from the Lord was by virtue of experiences. After the Lord's death and resurrection, the disciples lived with His appearings, expecting His immediate return. This earnest expectation for His return dissipates because those who were added to the early Church did not expect or experience the Lord's continued appearings. For us, the renewing of our minds must include an earnest expectation of His return.
By the Holy Spirit, the days of Christ and those who related to Him are made alive. Out of this experience is brought the reality of Christ in our midst today and the need of a violent spirit to have a relationship with Him. Will you have a thirty-, sixty-, or one-hundredfold relationship? It is your choice.
Absolute Trust In God
"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). When we have an absolute and complete trust in the Lord, then we circumvent our carnal mind because we no longer depend on our own evaluations of what He is doing in our lives. If we do not trust Him, we will distance ourselves from Him.
CD includes both of the above messages by Gary Hargrave (2008-1119-6R)
In this School of the Spirit message, we studied the principle regarding the human will. Much of what happens in your life does not come about accidentally, but rather is created daily through the exercise of your will and desires.
Your Will And God's Will
We must recognize the heart of God that is behind the many Words we have received about doing His will. He is not looking for a performance on our part, but rather is desirous of a people who love Him so much that they delight in doing His will because He is their delight.
CD includes both of the above messages by Gary Hargrave (2008-1119-5R)
It is easy for us to be overwhelmed by all that is taking place in the universe around us. God, however, is relatively unimpressed by these things. His focus and attention is rather upon the people He is bringing forth to be His own possession.
A Compass For Your Heart
The Word that John Robert Stevens wrote entitled "To Be A Christian" is a compass for our hearts. Using that message as a centerpiece, we took this service as an opportunity to see that our hearts and minds are perfectly on course into His Kingdom.
CD includes both of the above messages by Gary Hargrave (2008-1113-5R)
All that God is comes packaged in the living Word we receive. The Word is His presence. When we receive a Word, we receive Him. As we hold onto that Word and it grows within us, we literally become everything that He wants to do and to be in the earth.
Living Word Publications is a ministry of The Living Word, the publishing house of The Living Word Fellowship. The Living Word was established in 1968 out of a vision to capture, preserve, and publish the teachings of John Robert Stevens. Many of Stevens' sermons have been edited and published in books, manuals, and a weekly periodical titled "This Week."
The Living Word continues in its ministry today—carefully recording, editing, and publishing teachings of Stevens' successor, Gary Hargrave, and others who teach and minister the Word.
