Truth Streams – GrahamCooke.Com
This guest post comes to us from Graham Cooke at Graham Cooke Ministries.
Transformation
Graham Cooke
God seeks to transform you so that His word can be fulfilled. There is simply no way around this process for present-past people except to be healed.
Joseph is a perfect example of this. In Genesis 37, we first read about the man whose humble willingness to listen to the Lord would eventually save his family and nation. But when God gave him, as a teenager, two dreams about that future, Joseph proved he was a long way from being that wise. Instead, he woke up and bragged to his older, rough and tumble brothers. They knew the meaning of those dreams, and the fact that a cocky pipsqueak expected to be in power over them. And they didn’t like it. They already had issues with Joseph, who was their father’s favorite, and who arrogantly strutted around in a fancy coat.
The prophetic dreams were clear: he would be above all of them. The reality of what happened next was the complete opposite. The brothers, tired of Joseph’s act, smacked him around, and dumped him into a pit. Now who was looking up at whom? Joseph had a prophetic word, but he had gone in the opposite direction.
To overcome issues like these, we must think about our destiny, and ask ourselves a number of questions:
• Who has God called us to be?
• What has God called us to do?
• What wisdom and direction has He placed within the prophetic words over our lives?
• What kind of person will we need to be in order for that word to come true?
• What steps do we need to take?
• What issues do we need to resolve within ourselves?
• What kind of personality will we need in order to live out our destiny?
• What depth of character will we need to develop?
If we have a significant call or anointing, we need the character to match. Any architect will tell you that the taller the building, the deeper and stronger the foundation needs to be. A building of forty stories cannot have the same foundation structure as a simple two-floor house. It needs depth and reinforcement to withstand the pressure it will face. Our spiritual foundation must provide the same security. If God wants to take you to a dizzying height, He must first take you that deep. And for present-past people, that means all of those ties must be severed by the Holy Spirit. You will have to be healed and make a choice to stand up and start moving again.
Q&A
Every month, Graham receives dozens of questions from people working through significant spiritual issues. It is impossible for him to answer every question, but in this space, Graham addresses some common queries.
Question: I heard you recently speak about present-past people. Can you elaborate on that?
Graham’s reply:
Two kinds of people exist in God’s Kingdom: those who live from their present to their past, and those who live from their present to the future.
Present-past people have to be broken of that outlook by God. All too often, we are tied to an event or issue in the past. Sometimes, it’s a wound or a betrayal or a particular sin. The truth is that if we are going to be anyone of stature in the Kingdom of God, we must learn the art of being healed. No one has the right to be wounded, only a right to be healed. Jesus bought that right with His own blood and sacrifice. He literally died so you and I could be free. Our call is to cast off our grave clothes, quit moaning or pretending to be dead, and to live the destiny God has put before us.
Present-past people have to break that backward-looking cycle before they can be accelerated into the fullness of God. If you are tied to your past and receive a word, it is impossible to move directly to the manifestation of that word. God has a process for us to break free from the past, be healed, and then move into our destiny. God will plunge you into a season of confrontation, and the revelation that could take you upwards will in fact drag you down until you and God work through these issues.
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