What does the Mountain mean to the Apostle?
I would like to begin by looking at exactly what the mountain is. What is the mountain? What does it represent in the apostolic calling?
What is the Lord saying to you when He says, "I am calling you up my mountain?"
To put it very simply, the mountain is a time of separation. Each of you is going to experience this sooner or later in your walk. And perhaps by the end of this chapter you will be able to gauge where you are in this process that the Lord will take you through.
A Unique Call
There needs to come a time of separation from the world. This is where the Lord can draw you to Himself for a time of intimate training, change and teaching, and the face-to-face relationship. You cannot move fully into the Apostolic Office until you have had this time of separation. This is because until you are able to hear the Lord's voice for yourself, you cannot move into all that He has for you.
If you, standing as an apostle and leader in the Body of Christ, are not able to hear the Lord's Word clearly and precisely, and know exactly which step to take next, you are not going to make it as a leader. At the first sign of opposition of deception, you are going to fall.
So this time is probably the central point of your apostolic training. It is going to dictate where your ministry is going to. It will show you what function your ministry will have and what track you are going to run on. Even now I can already see you in your mind starting to put the pictures together.
You are likely thinking to yourself, "I wonder what that means to me? I wonder what the Lord is going to show me? I wonder what track He is going to put me on?" It is important that you think in this way, because every apostle is different. Although our training is the same, each one of you is unique in the way the Lord has brought you to this point. You are unique in the way you think, speak and minister. There is no universal pattern, because there is a pattern just for you!
A Solitary Climb
You need to have a time of solitude. And one of the first conditions of climbing the mountain is that you climb alone. This is very important, because there comes a time of confusion where you feel that everybody has left you, and that you are the only one still going on. You feel alone and isolated.
Perhaps this is the Lord calling you aside to that time of separation, because when you climb up the mountain you climb alone. Nobody can tell you how to climb, and nobody can tell you how to hear the voice of the Lord. These are things that you as an apostle have to learn for yourself, because until you have learned them, you cannot teach them to others.
Until you can hear His voice, you cannot tell the people, "Thus says the Lord ..." Until you have received direction, you cannot lay out the pattern for the people. So you climb alone. And it is a lonely and sometimes misunderstood walk. You need to realize that if this is what you are facing in your life right now, this could very well be the Lord saying, "I am calling you to the mountain. Let it go and come aside alone with me so that I can share with you."
The Pull to Get into the Spirit
You need to be taken out of your natural circumstances. You need to be taken away from the things that influence you every day, and get into the spiritual realm.
When you are going to work, when the kids are nagging you, or when your wife is giving you a tough time or your husband is saying, "Do this or that," it is very difficult to get in the Spirit. When your boss is yelling at you and you are having pressure from all external influences, it is not easy to walk in the Spirit. It is not very easy to hear the Lord's voice.
That is why this time of separation is so very important. It is to shut of external stimuli that are pressing down on you and your mind, and confusing the message that the Lord is trying to get to you. The only way that you can get away from it is for a time of complete separation; perhaps even a time of fasting and prayer. The Lord will pull you away totally from all your natural senses, your templates, your daily schedules - everything that gives any kind of external influence on you from the outside.
If this is happening to you right now, then be encouraged. The Lord is putting you into a special, secret place, where He is going to build you up to be a magnificent leader for the Kingdom of God! But you must realize that you have to be pulled out of the natural. You cannot remain having those natural things coming at you, and still receive the Spirit of the Lord.
Hearing His Voice
Up until now you have not been able to hear His voice quite as clearly as you should be hearing it. As a prophet, if you have moved in the Prophetic Ministry you have come to a degree of hearing His voice and speaking in prophecy. But there comes a deeper level in the Apostolic Ministry, when you move beyond speaking for the Lord to speaking as the Lord.
This is why the words that you speak as an apostle are firstly very important because they bear on the situation, and secondly you had better speak right! You cannot afford mistakes standing as a leader in the Kingdom of God. Yes, do not worry, mistakes will come, but the Lord will bear you up in your mistakes. But there needs to come a clarity in your hearing from the Lord. That is why you need to be pulled out of your natural circumstances.
A Clean Slate
There is another condition that is probably more difficult than being pulled out of your natural surroundings. This relates to the fact that when you go up the mountain you cannot take anything of this world with you. When Moses climbed the mountain, he did not take his tent, his wife or his cattle. He didn't even take any food and water! At least we have it lucky and get to keep our food and water.
He left everything that he was, everything that he had and everything that he had accomplished in this life. Even the people that he was leading were left behind. He could not even take them up! He had to leave them to their own devices.
As you go to the top of the mountain, you will not be able to take your degrees, your doctorates, or your great leadership skills. You are not going to be able to take your great ability to influence people with emotion. You will not be able to take up your great big shows of supremacy and your ability to speak so well. You cannot take them with you. Because you see, God sees right through that.
You are not going up there to seek the face of man. You are going up there to seek the face of God, and He does not look at what degrees you have. He does not look at how well you speak or how magnificent you are. He looks at your heart. If you think you are going to approach God with, "Oh Lord, I'm such a great leader, and look what a wonderful thing I've done in your Kingdom," expect to trip over the first stone! That is one of the first things you are going to leave behind.
You are coming to God on your hands and knees and with your face on the ground. That is how you are coming to God - as Moses did, in humility. You are not coming with your great speech and your eloquence. You are not coming with all the accomplishments that you have done in the Kingdom of God. In fact, I will tell you this now by the Spirit of God. Take everything that you have done in ministry and in your life up until this point, and scratch it! This is because before the mountain and after the mountain are two different lives.
Take everything you have accomplished in ministry, and everything you have accomplished in life and in this world, and just sweep it to one side, because it does not exist anymore. When you come down from the mountain, the old you will not exist anymore, therefore that old life will not exist anymore. You are coming down in new glory! You are coming down in power! Do not expect that what happened back then and what worked back then is going to work now. You are going to come down a different man or woman of God.
Receiving the Things of the Spirit
Why does the Lord call us to this? 1 Corinthians 2:9 and 10 says:
However it is written, No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those that love him. But God revealed [them] to us by the spirit: the Spirit investigates everything, even the deep things of God.
Why do you need the mountain? Because you need to get into the Spirit, apostle of God. You need to put away the soulish mind, because the soulish man does not perceive the things of the Lord.
You cannot approach this with your mind. This is not something you can comprehend with intellectual thinking. This goes way deeper than the mind! It goes into the Spirit. For you to touch the spiritual realm of God, you have to bring your spirit into control to dominate your flesh and your soulish mind. And sometimes it is the most difficult thing to bring into submission.
You can force the flesh to submit. You can fast, and with willpower you can put yourself beyond into extreme situations. But to control the soulish man is an entirely different area! Perhaps even now as you are reading this, you are facing death in your mind, emotions and will. You are having to let go of that intellectual way of thinking, because the soulish man does not perceive the things of the Lord.
What is the Lord saying to you when He says, "I am calling you up my mountain?"
To put it very simply, the mountain is a time of separation. Each of you is going to experience this sooner or later in your walk. And perhaps by the end of this chapter you will be able to gauge where you are in this process that the Lord will take you through.
A Unique Call
There needs to come a time of separation from the world. This is where the Lord can draw you to Himself for a time of intimate training, change and teaching, and the face-to-face relationship. You cannot move fully into the Apostolic Office until you have had this time of separation. This is because until you are able to hear the Lord's voice for yourself, you cannot move into all that He has for you.
If you, standing as an apostle and leader in the Body of Christ, are not able to hear the Lord's Word clearly and precisely, and know exactly which step to take next, you are not going to make it as a leader. At the first sign of opposition of deception, you are going to fall.
So this time is probably the central point of your apostolic training. It is going to dictate where your ministry is going to. It will show you what function your ministry will have and what track you are going to run on. Even now I can already see you in your mind starting to put the pictures together.
You are likely thinking to yourself, "I wonder what that means to me? I wonder what the Lord is going to show me? I wonder what track He is going to put me on?" It is important that you think in this way, because every apostle is different. Although our training is the same, each one of you is unique in the way the Lord has brought you to this point. You are unique in the way you think, speak and minister. There is no universal pattern, because there is a pattern just for you!
A Solitary Climb
You need to have a time of solitude. And one of the first conditions of climbing the mountain is that you climb alone. This is very important, because there comes a time of confusion where you feel that everybody has left you, and that you are the only one still going on. You feel alone and isolated.
Perhaps this is the Lord calling you aside to that time of separation, because when you climb up the mountain you climb alone. Nobody can tell you how to climb, and nobody can tell you how to hear the voice of the Lord. These are things that you as an apostle have to learn for yourself, because until you have learned them, you cannot teach them to others.
Until you can hear His voice, you cannot tell the people, "Thus says the Lord ..." Until you have received direction, you cannot lay out the pattern for the people. So you climb alone. And it is a lonely and sometimes misunderstood walk. You need to realize that if this is what you are facing in your life right now, this could very well be the Lord saying, "I am calling you to the mountain. Let it go and come aside alone with me so that I can share with you."
The Pull to Get into the Spirit
You need to be taken out of your natural circumstances. You need to be taken away from the things that influence you every day, and get into the spiritual realm.
When you are going to work, when the kids are nagging you, or when your wife is giving you a tough time or your husband is saying, "Do this or that," it is very difficult to get in the Spirit. When your boss is yelling at you and you are having pressure from all external influences, it is not easy to walk in the Spirit. It is not very easy to hear the Lord's voice.
That is why this time of separation is so very important. It is to shut of external stimuli that are pressing down on you and your mind, and confusing the message that the Lord is trying to get to you. The only way that you can get away from it is for a time of complete separation; perhaps even a time of fasting and prayer. The Lord will pull you away totally from all your natural senses, your templates, your daily schedules - everything that gives any kind of external influence on you from the outside.
If this is happening to you right now, then be encouraged. The Lord is putting you into a special, secret place, where He is going to build you up to be a magnificent leader for the Kingdom of God! But you must realize that you have to be pulled out of the natural. You cannot remain having those natural things coming at you, and still receive the Spirit of the Lord.
Hearing His Voice
Up until now you have not been able to hear His voice quite as clearly as you should be hearing it. As a prophet, if you have moved in the Prophetic Ministry you have come to a degree of hearing His voice and speaking in prophecy. But there comes a deeper level in the Apostolic Ministry, when you move beyond speaking for the Lord to speaking as the Lord.
This is why the words that you speak as an apostle are firstly very important because they bear on the situation, and secondly you had better speak right! You cannot afford mistakes standing as a leader in the Kingdom of God. Yes, do not worry, mistakes will come, but the Lord will bear you up in your mistakes. But there needs to come a clarity in your hearing from the Lord. That is why you need to be pulled out of your natural circumstances.
A Clean Slate
There is another condition that is probably more difficult than being pulled out of your natural surroundings. This relates to the fact that when you go up the mountain you cannot take anything of this world with you. When Moses climbed the mountain, he did not take his tent, his wife or his cattle. He didn't even take any food and water! At least we have it lucky and get to keep our food and water.
He left everything that he was, everything that he had and everything that he had accomplished in this life. Even the people that he was leading were left behind. He could not even take them up! He had to leave them to their own devices.
As you go to the top of the mountain, you will not be able to take your degrees, your doctorates, or your great leadership skills. You are not going to be able to take your great ability to influence people with emotion. You will not be able to take up your great big shows of supremacy and your ability to speak so well. You cannot take them with you. Because you see, God sees right through that.
You are not going up there to seek the face of man. You are going up there to seek the face of God, and He does not look at what degrees you have. He does not look at how well you speak or how magnificent you are. He looks at your heart. If you think you are going to approach God with, "Oh Lord, I'm such a great leader, and look what a wonderful thing I've done in your Kingdom," expect to trip over the first stone! That is one of the first things you are going to leave behind.
You are coming to God on your hands and knees and with your face on the ground. That is how you are coming to God - as Moses did, in humility. You are not coming with your great speech and your eloquence. You are not coming with all the accomplishments that you have done in the Kingdom of God. In fact, I will tell you this now by the Spirit of God. Take everything that you have done in ministry and in your life up until this point, and scratch it! This is because before the mountain and after the mountain are two different lives.
Take everything you have accomplished in ministry, and everything you have accomplished in life and in this world, and just sweep it to one side, because it does not exist anymore. When you come down from the mountain, the old you will not exist anymore, therefore that old life will not exist anymore. You are coming down in new glory! You are coming down in power! Do not expect that what happened back then and what worked back then is going to work now. You are going to come down a different man or woman of God.
Receiving the Things of the Spirit
Why does the Lord call us to this? 1 Corinthians 2:9 and 10 says:
However it is written, No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those that love him. But God revealed [them] to us by the spirit: the Spirit investigates everything, even the deep things of God.
Why do you need the mountain? Because you need to get into the Spirit, apostle of God. You need to put away the soulish mind, because the soulish man does not perceive the things of the Lord.
You cannot approach this with your mind. This is not something you can comprehend with intellectual thinking. This goes way deeper than the mind! It goes into the Spirit. For you to touch the spiritual realm of God, you have to bring your spirit into control to dominate your flesh and your soulish mind. And sometimes it is the most difficult thing to bring into submission.
You can force the flesh to submit. You can fast, and with willpower you can put yourself beyond into extreme situations. But to control the soulish man is an entirely different area! Perhaps even now as you are reading this, you are facing death in your mind, emotions and will. You are having to let go of that intellectual way of thinking, because the soulish man does not perceive the things of the Lord.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Apostle J.C. Francis on
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Thank You Brother Apostle What A Mighty Word! A Rhema Word! Im Feeling The Separation Right Now & I Thank God For Using You As A Vessel Of Honor! I Certainly Thank God For You. What A Blessing You Are To Body Of Christ. God Bless You Brother Apostle Stay In The Spirit
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