The Reigning Ones Part 6

By Nita Johnson 

January 2009

We are continuing our message on the Reigning Ones. We must understand that it is a marvelous thing to walk where they walk so that they can help us in the days ahead.

The message that the Reigning Ones will bring to the Church will be a message out of an experiential knowledge of God. Unfortunately, because the Church is still back in the charismatic days, toting the charismata songs and doctrines, they may have trouble with the message that the Reigning Ones have been commissioned to share. The Church may get confused over some of the things that those who walk so close to God say, because it is so different from what they have learned. However, out of  God’s love,  He is sending the Reigning Ones to help those in the Church. Maturity will come to those who will humble themselves and allow their hearts to be molded and their brains to be re-wired by the Spirit of the Lord so they can understand the things being spoken. The Reigning Ones will thus help bring many sons and daughters into maturity. This will occur during a very difficult and dark time. Yet, it will also be a wonderful time, because God will be nearer than He is now and we will be changed more during this difficult time than we have ever been before in our walk with Jesus. His power is going to be there to help us, His grace will be there to change us, and His Reigning Ones will be there used by the Spirit of the Lord in His process of transforming us.

When a child gets to a certain age and suddenly realizes that they are not clinging to their mothers’ skirt anymore — they also realize she is not an extension of themselves like they had once thought. We see them roaming about and get into a little trouble here and there, and maybe even get hurt. Mommy may not be there to get them out of trouble as quickly as she did before. These years of insecurity when they are trying to find themselves and their footing may be frightening for the child. It is the same way with the Church. These are times of insecurity, times when the Church is trying to find itself and understand their Father, because He seems to be changing from what they once thought He was.

Isaiah 11: 2And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him–the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord– 3And shall make Him of quick understanding, and His delight shall be in the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord. And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, neither decide by the hearing of His ears; 4But with righteousness and justice shall He judge the poor and decide with fairness for the meek, the poor, and the downtrodden of the earth; and He shall smite the earth and the oppressor with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. 5And righteousness shall be the girdle of His waist and faithfulness the girdle of His loins.

Years ago, I went through a period of time wherein each day I would open up my Bible and read and pray that passage saying, “Lord, I want this! I know that this is about my Messiah, Israel’s Messiah, the office of our Lord Jesus Christ; so if I am praying amiss, Lord, please forgive me, but if I am not praying amiss, then please give to me this reality. I want it for my own, to be in and upon me.” I pray in this manner every single day for two years, when the Lord Jesus Christ suddenly appeared to me and said, “Nita, come and stand beside Me.” I stood up, walked over, and stood beside the Lord. As I stood beside Him shoulder to shoulder, a double-yoke bar suddenly appeared on His shoulders, then extended until it fit neatly and snugly upon my shoulders and I became double-yoked with the Lord. As that happened, all my human passions went down, down, down and out my feet. Just like water draining out through the bottom of a bottle, all of my human passions went down and out my feet. Through this, the Lord was signifying that I would have to go through a self-emptying in order for me to contain the blessing, so down they went until I stood there, utterly emptied of the self-life. Once I was emptied, everything going on inside my Lord Jesus Christ began to flow into me, so that everything going on inside of Him was going on inside of me. What was manifest in Him was the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord.

I was emptied of myself and then filled with my Lord Jesus Christ; it was as though He had unzipped my back and climbed right into my soul. When we are born again, the Spirit of the Lord dwells within our spirit and the seal of God is placed upon our forehead and He awakens our spirit to once again have fellowship with the Father. However, He cannot yet dwell in the whole of the soul, because the soul is impure, defiled by the nature of sin. He must help the believer overcome this nature in order to dwell within the soul of the believer, so that is what He does. As soon as you get saved, He begins to work in your heart, mind, and in your spirit, giving it strength for the battle.

I can remember several years ago when I was teaching on the book of Romans chapters 6, 7 & 8, word for word out of the Greek. Because of this, it took us months to get through that study. Romans 6-8 is all about the exchanged life; it literally teaches you how to enter into union with Christ so during this time, the concept of being co-crucified with Christ was very much on my mind. One night, the Lord appeared to me hanging on a cross. During this time of teaching, this desire that I live with every moment of my life – to be one with Christ – was profoundly burning in my heart especially. When I saw Him, the only thing that came out of the depths of my being was, “Lord, I want to be crucified with You. I want to be co-crucified with You, Lord Jesus, the way Paul was; please crucify me, Lord.” I began to cry out to Him like that. Finally, He looked at me, He was so pleased – I could see it in His eyes – and He said, “Nita, this is a worthy thing that you have asked, for the war over the sinful nature is the highest of all wars, the victory of which is the most noble of all victories.”

Now consider this. Some might disagree, and believe that war against evil spirits is the greatest of all wars; others might believe that warfare to bring sinners into the Kingdom is the highest of all wars; or perhaps taking Jesus’ healing out to needy people, or taking warfare into the inner ghettos. People have different ideas about what the highest war is, but out of the Lord’s own mouth He said, “The war against the sinful nature is the highest of all wars.” When you can win your own soul, you have gained the highest victory; when you can take dominion over its passions and demands, you have gained the city in God. “The victory of which is the most noble of all victories.” So the self-emptying that must occur in the life of the believer is extremely important.

At the beginning of this message I had a vision. In the vision I saw a child which represented the Church. This child was not a toddler—but maybe around the age of five or six; children at that age usually believe they are the most important person in the whole world. Have you ever noticed? From the time they are born, but especially from that age, because they are getting a little older and they are more aware of the world, they just think that anything they have to say is the most important thing you are going to hear. Can you relate to that? They think everything they are going to do is the most important thing you are going to see all day. They are just so darling and their sense of self-importance is so wonderful; you’d think these little people are the most incredible thing God has ever created. Well, that is where the Church is: it thinks that it is so important. Everyone has a thought, a dream, a vision, a problem, right? And everyone feels that their problem, thought, dream, vision is the most important thing in the world and, as another believer, you should agree that this is so, that there is not anything more significant than what they think, feel, believe, dream or want because you and them belong to God.

This is not unreasonable for a five or six year old, is it? Another thing about this age is that they feel they are so big, like they are almost grown-ups, or at least you would think it by the way they act. I can remember when my grand-daughter, Tiffany, was around two or three years old. As I was sitting and talking with my daughter, Ricci, I unconsciously crossed my legs and at the same time my daughter crossed her legs. Tiffany noticed this interesting simultaneous act of mother and grandma crossing their legs at the same time. She looked at Ricci’s crossed legs, then over to my crossed legs, and she tried to figure out how to also , but it would not quite work. With each effort, she would look at my legs, then back at Ricci’s, to judge herself on how well she was doing what she had seen done. When they get beyond toddler stage, they just feel as though they are almost grown up and they are so cute. That is the Church I was seeing in the vision. Another characteristic of a child of five or six is that every passion is so important. If they want a popsicle, it is so important for them that they will ask and ask and seem to be nearly in pain until they get what they want. For them, waiting feels like an eternity. That is where the Church is right now: every passion is so important that it must experience satisfaction now, and yet the Church believes itself to be as grown up as it needs to be. Passions are running crazy, they rule—not God.

I have a grand-niece who at three years old was just the busiest little girl I had ever seen. She would be so busy –  I would say, “Hannah, honey, what are you doing?” “I busy,” she would reply and go about her business doing this and that. Again, I would smile and say, “Hannah what are you doing?” She would put her little arms down to her side and say “I busy!” This is how the Church is: so busy, and they think that in all their busyness that they are doing what God wants. Many times, in all of our busyness, we are so far away from what God really wants us to do, but because we are trying to be good Christians, we try to remain busy about the Master’s business, even if it isn’t what God wants us to do.

I can remember hearing the testimony of a pastor of a congregation of three-thousand. When he died, he went to Heaven, and met the Lord Who was sitting on His throne. The man, seeing the Lord said, “Lord I want to go back to the earth. I have not yet finished my ministry.” The Lord looked deep into his heart and said, “You are right.” The man replied, “I know, so please let me go back; I have not finished my ministry,” and the Lord said, “You are serving in a ministry I never called you to serve in.” Then the pastor responded, “But I built a congregation of three thousand for You; how could You not have been in it?” The Lord told him, “It is your charismatic personality that built that church, not My Spirit.” I never called, nor created you to pastor, so if you will leave that position and enter into what I called you to do, I will let you go back.” He agreed. The Lord let him return and he took up a brand new ministry—the one he was created to do.

This is an example of the kind of things done in the name of the Lord, even when the Lord is not present. The Church is so busy, just like a five or six year old, and we are convinced that we are kings on the throne. The Lord looks at us and sees us for the children that we are. He knows we are young, immature, that passions rule and the Spirit does not. I cannot say that He is angry; I think He is amused. At the same time, He is concerned because darkness is coming and getting thicker, the war is getting harder, and the great darkness is quickly approaching. If I were to speak to you prophetically the things that I know, you would understand why my messages are so strong. Things are approaching more quickly than the Church could ever dream, so while the Lord may be amused at our youthful ways, at the same time He is very concerned that we are not ready for the storm that is coming.

So He has these men and women, who have been preparing themselves for years, decades even, that they might leave the world behind, go deep in God and be prepared to be used as vessels of God in this dark hour to help the Church.

Reflecting on Wisdom

One night, right here in the Sanctuary, while I was ministering on the Spirit of wisdom, in the middle of my message I saw the Lord standing in one of the aisles. He stretched out His hand to me. At this point in the message, I was fighting to hold back tears and had to stop to re-gather myself because I had seen the Lord. He reached out His hand to us; it was a beckoning call. Then, He turned to walk and He said, “Come with Me. Take My hand, and I’ll take you down the path of wisdom right into the bosom of the Father.” He wants to help us out of the immaturity of our walk, and even the weariness of our walk, and help us enter into victory and maturity where we can be useful to ourselves, those we love, and His kingdom in the dark times ahead.

Human wisdom will always lead you to do things in the world’s way, even as a Christian. In fact, if you look at the Church, it is becoming worldlier all the time. People will dress in such a way to go to church as they would to just about anything, and sometimes our women are dressed in ways in which they should never be dressed. But the wisdom of the world that has infiltrated the Church has done so because the Church has not separated herself from the world and this worldly wisdom is transforming the Church, but not in the image of Christ. A lot of it is coming from television ministries that are trying to rub elbows with the world and they want to present an image of a Church that they think is agreeable to the world. Believers watch these Christian programs and they are getting ideas about Christianity that are inaccurate and definitely not acceptable to our Father.

The wisdom of the world, which will always lead you away from the cross, has infiltrated the Church and the wisdom of God has been pushed aside. If there is suffering, the wisdom of the world will cause you to run away from it and bring you to a place of comfort and ease where there are as few challenges as possible. The wisdom of the world will convince you that living in comfort is your rightful due and that you do not have to sacrifice for the Kingdom, not in America at least. Of course, if you are called to the mission field you must sacrifice, but not in this country. As long as you are giving God a good tip, the hearty ten percent, then you are free to spend your money on whatever you wanted to spend it on and even believe for more so you can spend more money on more materialism—this is the wisdom of the world, always leading you away from the cross and therefore away from the bosom of the Father.

In contrast, the wisdom that comes from God will always lead you to the cross. I do not know if you have considered this, but I have. The cross is uncomfortable; looking at it, there is nothing inviting. When you think about being nailed to the cross, that does not sound exciting or something you would like to do on a Saturday night, amen? There is nothing about the cross that draws you; rather, it repels, and it is repugnant to your soul because it means death. It means you must be crucified because you have to die and the Spirit must live, and since the soul enjoys the ways of the flesh and the flesh enjoys the work of the soul, therefore, the thought of a cross is extremely difficult to bear. The wisdom of God will always lead you to the cross, and therefore into the bosom of the Father. The wisdom of the world will always lead you away from the cross and to the life of self. The Spirit of understanding helps you understand wisdom. King Solomon himself prayed for wisdom and an understanding heart because he intuitively understood God could give him the wisdom, but he would not know what to do with it if it was handed to him on a silver platter without also being given an understanding heart.

The Spirit of counsel is the Spirit that helps us implement the wisdom of God. When it works together with the Spirit of understanding and the Spirit of wisdom we know what to do and we know how to counsel others. These three Spirits working together help us whether we are hearing the wisdom of the world versus the wisdom of God. People in the Church can get themselves into so much trouble thinking a particular message is God, because they do not understand the wisdom of God, and lack an understanding heart. They have not learned or practiced waiting for the counsel of God, and ultimately find themselves tripping over one problem after another that they themselves have created. All this because they did not know how to discern the wisdom, understanding and/ counsel of God.

The Spirit of The Fear of The Lord

We will look at the Spirit of might, which can be seen in the mighty men of David, Samson, as well as the ministry of Moses with its operation of power and authority in a moment. However let us first take a look at the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord for just a few minutes. I do not quite understand why the Bible lists them in the order it does, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all of these other things. When you have the fear of the Lord you will understand all the Spirits of the Lord. Having the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord, or at least the fear of the Lord, is critical to your Christian walk if you want to be successful in this life in the kingdom. Now, as I said before, there are different levels of the fear of the Lord. Some people have gained it because they got saved and they have a respect for authority and since God is their new authority, they have the fear of God as their authority figure. Others possess it because they have spent much time in the Word and prayer and they understand that God is due respect and this has developed their fear of the Lord through experience and a relationship with God. Then there are those who have the fear of the Lord because God has placed it inside of them.

An experience I had at the earliest days of my Christian walk was so significant in developing the fear of the Lord in me. I was alone in my room worshipping the Lord when suddenly I began to experience the holiness of God filtering into the room, ever so slowly at first. As I continued to worship, the holiness of the Lord became more overwhelming, filling the room and saturating my being, until there was a point that I felt absolutely cocooned in the very atmosphere of the holiness of God to such a point that I could no longer sing or worship with my mouth because I was in the presence of a holy God. I suddenly realized that even my members – my mouth and my tongue – were not holy enough to worship the Lord, so I stopped singing with my mouth and sang only from my heart. I kept walking around my room until suddenly the Lord Jesus Christ Himself came in His holiness, and when He did, I was so overwhelmed that I was instantly struck down to the ground. I am telling you the truth; I do not even know how I got down to the ground. All I know is that I abruptly dropped to the ground and was lying at the feet of Jesus Christ. He was so holy, and I was so incredibly terrified, that I wanted Him to go because I was afraid I was going to die. I wanted Him to talk to me and I wanted to talk to Him, but I was unbelievably afraid that if either of these were to happen I would die. I loved Him and He loved me, but He was so holy. It was not as though I was living a sinful life, I was not; I spent all my time in prayer and in the Word and I loved the Lord with all my heart. However, I have a nature of sin, and in the presence of His holiness this sin nature became so evident that I realized I was filled with sin.

It was not like I realized that I was guilty of a particular sin like anger or unbelief. I just suddenly became so aware that inside of me, filling my entire being, was a nature of sin although I was a lover of Christ. I now lay before the feet of a holy God. He created the whole universe; everything that was created was created by Him. I knew it, and I could feel that power emanating from Him. I knew that His words held all of creation together which made Him even more fearful; the fact that He was holding me, the world, and all of Heaven together with the power of His Word, was a terrifying experience. I felt that I could not say anything to Him with my mouth because I would die if I did, but I wanted to talk to Him so badly because I love Him so much. I knew I had to say something, so I decided I would let my heart talk to Him. So I said with my heart, “Lord, I love You so much and want so badly to talk to You, but I am afraid that if I do, I will die; and Lord, I want you to talk to me, but I am incredibly afraid that if You say even one word, I will die because You are so holy and I am not.”

He began to teach me out of His Word that very moment and shared many things with me. Before leaving, He said, “Nita, I am going to come and visit My Church in this presence you are now experiencing.” I said, “Lord, soon?” He said, “Not now.” “Why?” I asked. He replied, “Because if I did, there is so much sin in My Church that many would die unnecessarily, so I will prepare my Church for this presence.” I was shaking so badly at His feet that it felt like I was on one of those old exercise machines where you put the belt around your waist and it shakes you; I was honestly shaking that bad because I was so filled with terror before the presence of the Lord. When God wants to reveal that aspect of Himself to you, it is a terrifying experience, but it was the beginning of teaching me the fear of the Lord. So from the beginning of my walk I have not been able to easily sin against the Lord; when He convicts me of sin it is incredibly difficult for me to go back to that sin because He imparted to me the fear of the Lord with that experience.

I believe that if every Christian were to see that side of Him, they would look at their salvation a lot differently than they do. The experience I described above was an impartation, a teaching by the Lord Himself on the “Fear of the Lord”, but that still is not the highest level. The highest level is to have the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord imparted to your heart. When that happens, your walk changes propelling you into a new level of maturity, and faith. Where there is the fear of the Lord, there is humility. You cannot have the true fear of the Lord together with copious amounts of pride; it requires humility. You must have humility to have the fear of the Lord, and you must have the fear of the Lord to have true humility; you cannot have one without the other. Therefore, the more humble you are, the greater is your faith. When God gives you an assignment, you are able to move forward in faith. Satan may come and shake it now and then, but faith remains strong and steady even in the midst of a storm, because the fear of the Lord is in your heart. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “How can you worship the Father when you receive praises from man.” When you have the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord you do not look for the praises of man; rather, you shun and fear them because you know they can take you from the bosom of the Father and lead you onto a false path that can be very dangerous to your faith.

When you possess the fear of the Lord, you fear God, not man; when you do not have the fear of the Lord, you fear man and not God, and you will sin against God because you fear man. Man will coax you, prod, provoke and try to control you. Human beings are human beings, and I am sure you have noticed that some of them live in the Church, and that human beings like to control one another. If you do not have the fear of the Lord, you will be controlled, because you fear man. Conversely, if you have the fear of the Lord you will not be controlled by man. Even though it may be tough you will ultimately obey God and not man. With the fear of the Lord in your heart, love becomes easy no matter what is done to you; if you do not fear man, you can love him. If you are wondering why you cannot love man, it is because you do not have the fear of the Lord, because when you do have the fear of the Lord it brings you into a place of humility.

One of the things made exceedingly real to me in this particular visitation from the Lord was His humility – a complete absence of pride. Jesus had no pride. You do not realize how much pride you have in your heart until it is removed and you are left standing there with no pride. The Bible says that Moses was the meekest man in all the earth because he had the seven Spirits of God

Psalm 119: 120 My flesh trembles and shudders for fear and reverential, worshipful awe of You, and I am afraid and in dread of Your judgments.

Just as I had been on the floor shaking uncontrollably, this verse describes the heart touched and transformed by the fear of the Lord. I experienced Psalm 119:120, just like David. When the Lord began to speak to me about His judgments here in America, I stood in fear and dread because He is the Sovereign Ruler. I took nothing lightly. I went out and began to share with the Church about the coming judgments. Every place I went, there was standing room only. Some churches would have other rooms set up to hold the overflow of people that came so they could hear the messages from the angels that I was receiving, the same ones referenced in my book Prepare for the Winds of Change.

After a year to two years of doing this, I got in contact with the pastors and asked how their congregations were doing after hearing about all that is to come. In every case, they said that right after my departure everything in their congregations changed: the way they saw God, lived for Him, how they related to the Church. However, after a short time, they went back to their old ways. I asked them why they thought this might be. They said it was because they began to perceive me as an entertainer, because I saw angels and I passed on whatever they would tell me. Because I received my information by angelic visitations, the people felt entertained. I told the pastors that I agreed with their assessment. I began to talk to believers who had heard my message or read my book asking them why it had not changed their life and why they were not listening to what is soon to come to the nation and also why it had not brought fear of God’s judgments. I could not believe that the message of impending judgment had not created in them the fear of the Lord and that people felt that as a Christian they could remain Christian in name and still live for the world. Finally, I understood that the reason was that they lacked the fear of God. Because of this lack, their flesh did not tremble at the Word of the Lord.

If you have the fear of God and you hear that He is about to bring judgment, you are going to respond like Nineveh and lay in sackcloth and ashes and repent for your nation. You are not going to treat it as a form of entertainment; instead, you will go out and tell all of your friends what God is going to do. Rather than coming to see Nita Johnson because she sees angels and the Lord, and completely forgetting about the message (which is the only reason for these visitations in the first place) you would repent for your nation.

All these years later, after all the visitations, you can go through my book and say, “Well, I can tell you when this and that happened just like she said it would.” But it was not me, it was the Word of the Lord; the judgments have come and look what they have done to America, but does the Church fear? The Church still loves its sin; why? Because they are about five or six years old and at that age one does not understand the seriousness of walking with the Lord in holiness. They do not understand mommy and daddy’s warnings not to go out into the street or not to go by the pool alone because it is dangerous.

We are moving into dark, serious, troubled times, and the Church is still playing around like a child thinking that God will take care of them and that all is well. When you have the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord, everything changes. You realize that if God is talking, He is talking for a reason, and you had better listen and change with the message. Amen? Does not this wonderful message make you want to get close to the Lord and to have the fear of Him?

Psalm 86: 11 Teach me Your way, O Lord, that I may walk and live in Your truth; direct and unite my heart [solely, reverently] to fear and honor Your name.

What must happen is a uniting of the heart. Our hearts need the work of the Holy Spirit to bring them into unity with the Spirit of God; right now, the heart is divided. I can remember one time I was ministering in a certain place I really enjoyed because I loved the pastor and his wife; they were a great couple. The pastor had a great sense of humor, so we did a lot of laughing when we were together. One day, I was getting ready to go across the ocean to minister at this church, and the Lord gave me a vision of this pastor. I saw how much he loves the Lord; he loves the Lord so fervently and passionately that he would be the envy of most. However he also loved the world with the same fervency and passion. He did not go drinking or smoking, or even other things that some ministers might do, but his love for the world was displayed in really innocent things. Nevertheless, those things were keeping him from God. He would go out and play basketball with the local kids, rather than sit and read the Bible; innocent, right? But when it keeps us from God, from growing in Him and learning about Him, it is no longer innocent and becomes dangerous. It is nothing sinful in itself; it is only sinful when it becomes a substitute for your growing times in the Lord. In the vision I saw his heart and I saw how much he loves the world and I was perplexed. I said, “Lord, I do not know what to do about this!” He said, “You cannot do anything about it, but you can pray for him so that I can do the work that needs to be done.” I asked Him, “I will pray for him, but do you want me to tell him?” He replied, “Yes, that I do want you to do.”

I shared it with him and he began to cry; he was weeping like a baby and said, “Nita, it is true. I am that way! I love God so much it hurts sometimes, but at the same time I also love going out and doing the things you saw in your vision, even though it takes me from the Word and keeps me from prayer.” I asked him what he was going to do about it, and he said, “Well, I do have this problem. I really love the things I do. I can sit here and tell you I am going to change, but right now it feels like the hardest thing He has ever asked me to do.”

I tell you this story because the hearts of so many are divided. If we are immature in Christ, it is because our heart is divided. If we find ourselves in a continual wrestling match to keep from sinning, our heart is divided. God must unite the heart to teach us to fear and honor His name. Knowing this, how are we supposed to pray? We pray, “God, unite my heart to fear and honor Your name.” Does it take inner healing? No! It takes repentance. You may have an anger problem because your mom abused you as a child; all you have to do is repent of your bitterness and un-forgiveness. Until that point, it remains up to you to humble yourself enough to overcome this problem. You must take ownership of your sin, taking it to the cross and asking God to remove its very roots, fasting and praying, pleading with Him until He does it. Every sin that has dominion in your life must be treated as your worst enemy, because it will keep you from the bosom of the Father.

Hebrews 5: 7 In the days of His flesh [Jesus] offered up definite, special petitions [for that which He not only wanted [b]but needed] and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was [always] able to save Him [out] from death, and He was heard because of His reverence toward God [His godly fear, His piety, [c] in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father].

In other words, he shrank from sin. What was he weeping, trembling, and warring over? That he would not sin against God and forsake the cross. What caused him to pray to the point of blood coming out of the very pores of his skin? It was his Godly fear of the Lord. When you have trained yourself in the fear of the Lord, and God has done a work in your heart, He is so pleased that He actually gives you the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord in your heart. When this happens and you continue to hate sin and to fear God and you have reached a place of such spiritual strength that you truly can rule and reign over sin, He then gives you the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord to posses your soul. When this happens, you will not sin; you will go to your grave before you sin against God. If there is any kind of sin, it is in ignorance—never deliberately. Eventually, the Fear of the Lord will bring you into a place in this life—you may not believe it can happen, but it can—you can come into a place in this life in your latter years where you will not sin against God.

These Reining Ones walk in this place, they will not sin. It starts with refusing to justify your sin. If you are justifying it, you are not fighting it. You grow to love God through His Word and prayer. The more you love Him, the more you do not want to sin against Him and you will want to obey Him more and live fully submitted to Him, until He brings you to a place where it is safe for Him to posses you with the seven Spirits of God. When that happens, you become fully formed in the image of Christ, which is the ultimate call of God for all of us. You were never called to remain as a five year old child; full manhood in Christ is where you want to be. You want to live in this holy place. It is the most splendid place in all of creation to live in the bosom of the Father. It is the most incredible life to live severed from the spirit of the world, to live in a state where all of your relationships are reconnected and your new matrix is God, rather than the spirit of the world. Can that happen? Yes! That is why Paul called it the co-crucifixion. Even if we never know one person on this side of Heaven who has reached that place, that is irrelevant; what is important is what the Bible says, and it tells us that this place is reachable by every man. Even so, I can tell you that there was a man named Moses who entered into that place, also a man named Enoch, as well as Elijah, Paul, John the beloved and John the Baptist; they were all owned by God. How do we know they entered into this place? Read their lives! What does the Bible say about them? I could tell you what I have been told by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, but all you need is what the Bible says; they were extraordinary men in their time.

How many men or women do you know who would say "I am willing to be separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren the Jews," or who would say on the mountain top, “If you do not forgive Israel, then blot me out of your book”?

It takes an extraordinary love to be willing to do that. These are not just stories in the Bible to make us think special things about special people. These are real truths; these men actually prayed these prayers knowing the consequences because they were before a holy God, and when you are before His presence, the secrets of your heart are opened and laid bare before you. If you do not have the capacity to allow yourself to be separated from God, you would not say that you will. The Bible says it – we are called to be co-crucified, clothed with Christ, and walking in the image of Christ; this is what we were created for. It is not just for special people; it is for anyone who is willing to pay the price. Are you? It will cost you everything, but the thing that will be the most costly is your image. Our own image is the hardest for us to give up, but it must die for the sake of the image of Christ.

In Him,

Nita Johnson