By Mark Foster
I was driving along the rural two-lane Louisiana road, only half paying attention, when I noticed the guy in front of me slowing dramatically. We were approaching an intersection and the light was green, but he came to a complete stop. I was wondering, what’s going on buddy? Then I realized that he was looking at a small sign on the side of the road. He was oblivious that the light was green or that anyone else was on the road. He was in another dimension.
After politely honking to get his attention, I had an epiphany that caused me to think, what dimension are we living in? Are we stopped at a green light?
Take for example the person who says, “What great services we had Sunday. Pastor preached so good Sunday morning, and we had several filled with the Holy Ghost. And Sunday night, wow! Wasn’t that powerful! What a move of God; the pastor didn’t even get to preach. The choir was singing, the Spirit was moving, the worship was outstanding, and then old Brother Joe got turned loose. Folks got to dancing and talking in tongues, and you could feel the electricity. I haven’t felt that good in a long time. I got just what I needed.”
Often this person will repeat this process week after week without reaching out to others. Some think the service described above is the pinnacle we experience at church, and they do not even think of the salvation of friends or neighbors. They look at their own spiritual restoration as the height of their relationship with God. God desires for us to go deeper. He has turned the light to green and wants us to go beyond where we arc, but often we sit still at His green light. The reason for this is that we arc living in the wrong dimension.
Three dimensions in Matthew 16:13-19 describe the nature of our relationship with God.
The first dimension is what someone else has told us about Jesus. Jesus asked, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” They answered, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.”
The second dimension is our personal revelation of Jesus. “He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is the dimension where most of us live. We have had a personal revelation. He is not just the second person in the Godhead; He is not just a part of God. He is the mighty God. The second dimension is wonderful, and it is the source of our strength. But there arc some things that cannot be accomplished in this dimension.
The third dimension is reached when we go beyond knowing who He is and let God tell us who we are. “I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter.” God reveals to us who He sees us to be. Will we listen? Will we obey? Will we acknowledge Him? Will we individually and collectively move and act in who He says we arc, or will we continue to sit still at the green light of destiny?
We must shake ourselves and wake up to who we are in Christ if we arc to have the revival we desire. When we have the Holy Ghost we have power. We are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Peter 1:23).
Many of us never get beyond the second dimension. We shout and get excited about who He is, but we never grasp who He says we are and what He wants us to do. We must understand that real living is in the third dimension. God has given us the green light to move into the third dimension, but many of us are sitting still. Satan wants to keep us stopped at the green light.
The road to revival is always under construction. There are roadblocks on the journey. Many roadblocks are in our mind. We are adamant about who He is, and we will not deviate from that revelation, but we must let God show us who we are.
It is comfortable living in the second dimension. We live in who He is. We live in one God. We live in Acts 2:38. We live in holiness. But many will not accept their responsibility to go to the third dimension and live in unity. We get upset if we do not get our way. We get out of sync with our brothers and sisters or our leaders. If we are not careful we can become authors of discord with our words, spirits, and attitudes.
We cannot have apostolic revival if we do not love one another and have unity. Lack of unity and always wanting our way can leave us sitting at a green light when we should be moving forward.
Bitterness is a huge roadblock the enemy has placed at the intersection of the third dimension. Some people will not get over what someone said about them or how they have been treated. We can harbor bitterness in our hearts and live in the second dimension. We can have divisive spirits and bad attitudes and live in the second dimension. We can be prayer less and live in the second dimension. We can be guilty of all the above and still love Acts 2:38. Some people believe that just because they feel the Holy Ghost everything in their spirit is okay. This is not true.
In order to walk in the revival that God has destined for us, we must get to the third dimension. We must pray and praise our way through the roadblocks.
Are we using the Holy Ghost in our lives the way it was intended, or are we using it merely as a Sunday high? If we are going to impact our world, we must live in the third dimension where we are walking in who God tells us we are. We must refrain from stopping at the green light. We must move on to the third dimension.
My wife, Paulla, is a diligent and hard-working woman whom I love much. Sometimes when we are preparing to go somewhere I find myself sitting in the car in the garage waiting on her. We have an appointment, but she is trying to get just one more thing done before we leave. I wonder if God is often at the green light waiting on us to go while we are sitting still dealing with trivial things saying, “Hold on God, I’ll be there in a minute.”
Jesus said, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Ghost was given not just to save us or just for our enjoyment but also to help us fulfill the third dimension of our destiny in reaching others. Are we using it the way God intended, or are we stopped at the green light?
It is time to come out of the fog of distraction and stomp on the gas pedal and speed into the open road of personal destiny. Today, make up your mind to stop sitting still and start becoming exactly what Jesus says that you can be.
From, “Pentecostal Herald”/February 2009/Page 34-35, by Mark Foster
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