Birthing

Webster's Dictionary defines "pregnant" (or "pregnancy") as "having conceived"

Medical Dictionary defines "pregnancy" as "from conception until birth."[

Conception The process of development of new individuals (procreation, the act of species reproduction).

 

Text; Isa 66:1 Thus saith Jehovah, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what manner of house will ye build unto me? and what place shall be my rest?

 

Psalm 7:14 He who is pregnant with evil and conceives trouble gives birth to disillusionment.

1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

James 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.

John 3:1-10 reads as follows, "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night, and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God ." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God . That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, "You must be born again." the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus answered, "how can these things be?!" Jesus answered and said to Him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things?"

 

God gives man a spiritual vision to birth  . God reveals the purposes and objectives which will enable you to fulfill the vision. As you experience the "birth of a vision" you will become a participator instead of a mere spectator in God's divine plan.  The natural birth process which brings a human baby into the world is similar to this process

"Conception" means to create. A spiritual vision is created in your spirit by God. When God gave Paul spiritual vision He identified the source. He said, "I am Jesus" (Acts 26:15, NIV). God conceived Paul's vision.

In "embryo" form  God conceives the basic spiritual vision within you. The vision must remain the embryo from which all features develop. If you try to change the vision, it will be deformed from the perfect plan of God, or it may be aborted. When the vision explained in this series of teachings is conceived by God in your spirit it must always remain the same although you may fulfill it in different ways. The vision will grow and develop as you mature spiritually. Its features will not be the same as yesterday, last week, or last month.

It is a stretching experience just as it is in the natural world  If the vision does not develop within you it will die.  It draws from your own life source as well as from the divine source which conceived it. While it is developing, you will deny your self of certain things. As in the delivery of a child, a spiritual vision is birthed by intense mental, physical, and spiritual concentration. As you work through this concentrate on what God wants to birth in your spirit.

 

“For a dream cometh through the multitude of business.” (Ecclesiastes 5:3, KJV).  The meaning of the word "multitude" is great. "Business", according to one Hebrew meaning, is travail [difficulty].

(Isaiah 26:17-18, NIV). “As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, O Lord.  We were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind.”

(Isaiah 66:8-9, NIV). “… yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.  Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery? Says the Lord.  Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery? Says your God?”

Isaiah 53:11 that God witnessed the travail of Jesus Christ and was satisfied. A vision was fulfilled that day on Calvary

 

Travail is a painful experience, but it is only through travail that the vision can be birthed:

 

 A mother in travail hides herself from public gaze, so those in travail spiritually must be alone with God.

Galatians 4:19 KJV My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

Romans 8:26,27 KJV Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Let God take control of your life. If you try to birth the vision in your own strength it will abort the plan of God. 

Peter cried out to Christ, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man," (Luke 5:8, NIV) when he realized what Christ was calling him to do.

The Time of Transition

Transition means change. As God gives you this spiritual vision it is going to require change in your life. It will call for new commitment and dedication.  It required changes in your thought patterns and lifestyle,

 

This happened to the nation of Israel : “As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, O Lord.  We were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind.” (Isaiah 26:17-18, NIV).

 

(John 16:21, NIV).  Travail brings sorrow but it leads to the birth which brings joy: “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born again

 Abraham  tried to bring forth his God-given vision through self-effort by the birth of Ishmael. He knew God wanted to make him a great nation and he thought an heir could not come through his wife, Sarah. So he did something about it and Ishmael was born. But the heavenly vision, represented by Isaac, must be birthed by God.

Who is the source of spiritual vision?:  When asked, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?", Jesus responded, "This is the work of God", indicating that He, Himself, was the source (John 6:28-29). God is the source of spiritual vision. The vision which you will receive through these teachings is His plan. It is not a plan of man, a denomination, or an organization.  Scripture has no record of God speaking again to Abraham for thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael. Not until it was humanly impossible for Abraham to have a child did God again stir the vision within him. By then, self-effort had died.

Then came the birth of a vision, for in the perfect timing of God Isaac was miraculously born. But with the birth of God's plan [Isaac], Ishmael [self-effort] must be cast out.  It is time for your Isaac [God's plan] to be birthed in your spirit. In order for this to happen, Ishmael must be cast out.  It is a painful experience to cast out self-effort, your plans, ambitions, tradition, and organizational programs.  But God is saying to you as He did to Abraham, "Grieve not for Ishmael [self-effort], for in Isaac shall your seed be called." In Isaac the source of the vision was God.

 

Proverbs 19:21 tells us, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (NIV).

Proverbs 5:21 For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

 

1. A supernatural Impartation of God's own Spirit within us. We are his dwelling place, his Tabernacle (2 Cor 6:16).

2. A supernatural Illumination wherein the Spirit of Truth opens our eyes so that we may walk in the Light of God uncondemned (Titus 1:14; 1 John 1:7).

3. A supernatural Inspiration where there is a burning passion to worship and fellowship with God in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:23).

4. A supernatural Invigoration as the Power of God in us becomes a witness to a lost world (Mark 13:10; Acts 1:7-8).

5. A supernatural Ignition that makes and outburst of fire in the Holy Ghost in the Church by the anointing (Acts 2:3, 4:33, 26:18).

6. A supernatural Intoxication as the new wine produces excitment (Luke 5:38; Acts 2:13).

7. A supernatural Indwelling that produces the gifts of the Spirit, (1 Cor 12:4).

 

Incomplete) list of manifestations that may or may not accompany the birthing process.

There is no way to list all of the manifestations and  variants of each one. None of them are new; it's all been seen before. You can not judge any of these signs as being evil, because you can't know them  outside of their circumstances. They have different meanings to different people What God wants most to be shown is a passion for Him and his people . If the manifestation happens they'll just happen on God's timetable for God's reasons. They  confirm to our flesh that God is present and in charge. You're not spiritually inferior or superior.

 

Babbling (not to be mistaken for tongues; it's when a totally infantile sound is produced.)

Barking 'animal noises'.

Birthing, when someone sits themselves down on the ground in a position like a woman does when giving birth, and then starts groaning and writhing as if giving birth. (The sign is that once made pregnant with the Gospel, something new is being born in them -- something spiritual.)

Crunches' (keeling over like you were just punched)

Uncontrollable crying or weeping ('tears of joy', or sadness …. weeping over the spiritually dead.)

'Drunk In the Spirit' (looking, acting, and feeling like a drunk -- staggering, slurring speech, becoming uncoordinated, having to prop oneself to stand up, and getting that dizzy look to the eyes.

Fainting (loss of consciousness)

'Slain in the Spirit' (falling to the floor while conscious).

Singing in the spirit (out burst of singing in the spirit

Glossolalia (outburst of tongues by themselves as a manifestation.

Goose Bumps (sometimes exceptionally large ones, with body chills.)

Growling (see 'Barking')

Holy Dance (frantic motion, which looks like bouncing off of the walls, where there are any walls.)

Holy Laughter (can be anything from giggling to cackling to side- splitting guffaws)

Hopping or Jumping (can be done in place or by hopping all over the room/tent)

Quaking (shaking) Shaking (as the Shakers did)

Rolling (roller done on the floor)

Running (dashing around in a proper runner's stride, doing either laps or straight sprints, over and over)

Singing in the Spirit (the whole place spontaneously sings praise songs in succession, singing in tongues and spontaneous harmonics)

Spinning (usually a dizzy but circular turning, although on occasion it can be a Taz-like rapid whirling)

Spontaneous harmonic singing (when each individual starts to sing notes that fit together: Gregorian chant-like to campfire singing to New Age space-out sounds to eery and spooky-sounding,  it may well be the most beautiful of the signs).

'Braveheart', or 'Warrior' (when someone suddenly grasps their hands above their head, and then starts swinging them up and down in a slicing motion, as it they had a medieval broadsword in hand, slicing up demons. Of course, demons don't really get sliced up, but by acting this out, one's body and imagination get fully into the spiritual experience. The image is kinda violent, though.) It becomes a person's 'Warrior Anointing', in the context of spiritual-warfare talk.

Tingling (a feeling in the body's extremities, similar to that of losing circulation, only the circulation is unaffected.)

Whimpering (usually accompanied with tears)

 

The historical magnitude of impartations were not the signs and wonders but the changed  lives.:  the way people spent their money, the way they raised their children,  their concern for the poor,  their opposition to oppression;   their rejection of drunkenness,  sex outside of marriage, their support of the public rights of women;  their business practices and public administrations,  their turning away from evil,  and etc. By changing individual lives nations are affected.

 

Giving Birth

Psalm 22:10 From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God.

Psalm 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Psalm 71:6 From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you.

Isaiah 26:18 We were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth; we have not given birth to people of the world.

Isaiah 46:3 "Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel , you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth.

Isaiah 66:9 Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?" says your God.

John 3:6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

John 16:21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

James 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.

 

Spiritual consolation that overflows into the senses and into the body is a phase in the growth of contemplative prayer. Some temperaments are more prone to it than others. Some do not experience it at all. If it is especially strong, the body cannot move a muscle and time goes by unnoticed.  You can see that if you were just a little deeper, you would have no idea of time at all.  If somebody came up and touched you, you would be shaken up.  Some people may be labeled when they are  just expressing themselves  clumsily.

The spontaneity of the early Christian communities described by Paul and by the Acts of the Apostles is being rediscovered in our time After you have sung the praises of God, shared prayer together, spoken in tongues, and prophesied for a few years, where do you go from  here? It is time to do soaking prayer, periods of silence waiting on the Lord, listening to his voice. We are now better and more fully prepared to move into a more contemplative expression of walking in the spirit.

 

1. Principles of prayer based on God's conversation with Abraham (Gen. 18:17-33) We learn from this that it's not the presence of evil that puts an end to GOD's mercy and goodness, but the absence of good. The absence of good makes his patience run out.

2. The heart of the intercessor (Exod. 32:11-14,30-34) Moses demonstrated an unselfishness spirit of intercession. must prevail.

3. Joshua and his warriors step into the breach (Josh. 10:12-14)

Joshua and his warriors stepped into the breach, fighting for God's eternal purpose, and illustrating the triumph that such faith can attain in the spiritual battle.

4. God powerfully intervenes (Is. 36:1-37:8)

Hezekiah and Isaiah show the power of prayer when facing difficult times and defeating the powers of evil.

5. Intercessors link God's Mercy with human need (Ez. 22:30) God seeks intercessors who will work in the "breach", close the door to intruders and give entry to the blessings of God. The divine search for an intercessor among the priests, prophets, princes of the people of Judah , for anyone to stand in the breach, and serve as a link between divine mercy and human need. GOD still seeks intercessors who can stand watch "in the breach" and help repair it through prayer.

6. Spiritual leaders: pray and teach (Eph. 3:14-21) Know that the strength of Christ resides in our inner self, Paul prayed that Christ should imprint his nature on the mind, the will and the emotions of the people. Spiritual leaders should pray and teach their people. Paul prayed for his brother believers, knowing the power of the Spirit in the inner person. Like the boat besieged by the storm, as he had experienced once, he saw himself reinforced on the inside and tightly sealed on the outside (Acts 27:17

7. Prayer and fasting produce signs and wonders (Acts 13:1-14:28). Support by means of prayer and fasting will make way for signs and wonders, while God confirms his Word.

8. Prayer, is where our faith is proven (Acts 4:1-37) Prayer, not debate or arguments.

9. God's fire descends (II Chron. 6:12-42; 7:1) In the moment when we place our most precious offerings on the altar, God's fire comes down, and as long as we open a space for God, He will come and fill it.

10. Constant prayer is the key to deliverance (Acts 12:1-17)Great deliverance comes through prayer, at times so unexpected that it's an uphill struggle for us to believe it!

11. The Our Father (Matt. 6:9-13) is a model of prayer that contains seven topics: 1) The paternal need: "Our Father" (v. 9). When you pray, all your needs are attended to by a loving Father. 2) The presence of GOD: "Hallowed be your name" (v. 9). Enter into his presence through praise (Psalm 100:4), and call him "Father", because of the expiatory blood of Christ (Heb. 10:19-22; Gal. 4:4-6). 3) GOD's priorities: "Your kingdom come" (v. 10). Declare that the priorities of His kingdom (Rom. 14:17) will be established in you, in your loved ones, your church and your country. 4) GOD's provision: "Give us today" (v. 11). Jesus, he who supplies our needs, we should pray daily, asking him to provide for all that we lack. 5) GOD's forgiveness: "And forgive us" (v. 12). You need GOD's pardon and you need to forgive everyone.  6) Power over Satan: "And lead us not...free us from evil" (v. 13). Ask the LORD for a circle of protection around you and your loved ones (Job 1:9,10; Psa. 91). Ask him to clothe you with his armor (Eph. 6:14-18). 7) Divine society: "For yours is the kingdom" (v. 13). Glorify GOD for making you a participant of his kingdom, power and glory (II Tim. 4:18; Luke 10:19; John 17:22). This is the prayer that teaches you how to pray.

12. To pray is to be in agreement with God's will (I John 5:14,15) Immature faith tries to manipulate God; mature faith seeks to be placed under the mantle of God's will.

13. Seeking God in prayer is the way to satisfaction (John 4:34) To seriously seek God leads us to find spiritual strength and full satisfaction.

14. David asks for Joy and the presence of God (Psa. 51:1-19) David called, not only for forgiveness, but for purity; not only for absolution, but for acceptance; not only for consolation, but for complete cleansing of sin