July 2013
 Andrea Aasen is a missionary serving on-ground with our Cambodia team. Andrea is passionate about Jesus and has a heart to see God’s justice and love released to the nations. It’s time that we begin to pour our whole selves out as love offerings, giving ourselves in true worship – as living sacrifices, allowing every work that we have built that is not of Him to be tested through the fire. Join with her in decreeing it into being.
|
There is a fresh “hunger” that has recently been released in the body of Christ, a drawing of His Spirit that has been amplified to call us closer. It’s the wooing of our Bridegroom crying out for His beloved bride, and it’s the bride that is preparing herself and making herself ready.
This holy hunger is a passion for Jesus and a desire for more of Him, and it’s coming upon believers and non-believers alike. It’s a yearning to know God and to know who we are in Him, and it’s bringing about the manifestation of the sons of God who are arising into the fullness of their destiny through the asking of more.
The good news is that God has not left us as orphans, and our Daddy will give us what we ask for. We are promised that He has filled the hungry with good things (Luke 1:53), and when we hunger and thirst for righteousness we will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6). In fact, the Lord says, “Blessed are you who hunger NOW, for you shall be satisfied” (Luke 6:21). He will fill the very places where we cry out for more of Him to reside and occupy.
God often speaks to me through music; one of the songs that I’ve recently been hearing in the spirit is a song called “Fill Me Up.” It was originally written by United Pursuit and was birthed out of a week dedicated to 100 hours of prayer. In that secret place, the songwriters began to cry out with what is now the song’s chorus, asking God to “fill them up.” The song’s chorus reads like this:
You provide the fire, and I’ll provide the sacrifice.
You provide the Spirit, and I will open up inside.
Fill me up, God. Fill me up.
These are the words that have been resounding in my heart.
The song provides a beautiful picture and summary of what is currently happening in the body of Christ. God’s grace is so amazing. We can’t even cry out for more of Him without His grace and nudging to do so. In reference to the song, this is “His Spirit that will open us up inside,” but I love what the first part of the song says, which is that when we “provide the sacrifice” He will “provide the fire.” It is in that place of laying down our lives, in that place of total surrender, when we offer our whole selves as a burnt offering so His consuming fire will come. This unquenchable fire burns up all that does not belong and prepares His temple (us), so that more of His Spirit can come and “open us up” for yet even more!
Until His return, this is the process and pattern that has been laid out and modeled. When we cry out to be filled and ask for more of Him, and as we give more of ourselves, it actually becomes as a “vortex” in the spirit. What I mean by that is that as we ask for more, at the same time God is asking for more of us, and it becomes a back and forth cry where the response is the same as the initial call. Not only that, but the responses are multiplied as they progress, creating a vacuum effect, so that the desires and the infillings only grow deeper and have greater impact. This is because as we taste and see, the hunger grows deeper and deep begins to cry out to deep (Psalm 42:7).
As we know, we’ve already received everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), so when we are crying out for more it’s not that we are crying out for more of what we don’t have (we already have everything in and through Jesus), but we are crying out for the knowledge and revelation of what we have, so that it can be made life in the places within us that are not currently consumed with His presence (i.e., those places that are not fully consumed with His fire). We want the fullness of who He is, the fullness of His Spirit and glory, to occupy every place in our whole man (our body, soul, and spirit), so that we can fully manifest Him in the earth.
When we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior our spirit was changed and made new, totally perfected in Him when His Spirit became one with us; however, our souls are still “being” transformed into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18), and our bodies have not yet been transfigured. So it is in these places of our soul and body that we are crying out for the Perfect One to fill, heal, and restore. Jesus paid the price for our whole man to be saved, that sin would not separate any part of us from the Father. As we cry out for less of “us” and more of Him, we are asking that all that is not of Him be burned up and that the fullness of His promise, the fullness of His Son, would be manifest in and through us.
I hear the Lord asking us to fully give of ourselves, to fully consecrate ourselves to Him, for it is in that place of total surrender, when we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, that He will come and fill us (body, soul, and spirit). Will you rend yourself as a burnt offering? Will you place yourself on the altar, that He would be the fire?
The ancient Israelites modeled the purpose and sacrifice of burnt offerings in what was a prophetic picture for the church today. The burnt offering was the first and one of the most significant offerings. I believe that it is a place of worship that the Lord is calling us to today, where we fully empty ourselves that we can be fully filled. This is the picture that Mary showed us when she poured out all of her “worship,” her whole self, as a love offering before Him. This is true worship, and it is much more than just singing and dancing before the Lord (although that is part of it). Worship is a lifestyle of surrender to Him that is seen in everything we do, say, think, and purpose, so that He can be enthroned on and inhabit our praises and so He can come and rest in us and be manifest through us.
It’s a time for true worshippers to arise, those who worship Him in spirit and in truth, offering their very selves as the burnt offering. Noah, Abraham, and Moses all offered burnt offerings as signs of their thankfulness, obedience, and worship (Genesis 8:20, 22:2, 22:13; Exodus 10:24-26). Then later, as stated in Leviticus, the Lord created exact regulations for the bronze altar of burnt offering, where He further outlined this method of sacrifice. In other forms of offering, sometimes the individual or the priest would receive a portion of the meat after it was sacrificed; however, when the burnt offering was sacrificed, it was totally consumed on the altar so that no meat remained.
It’s time that we begin to pour our whole selves out as love offerings, giving ourselves in true worship – as living sacrifices, allowing every work that we have built that is not of Him to be tested through the fire (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).
The corresponding words of the song “Fill Me Up” are these:
Love of God overflow.
Permeate all my soul.
What a true picture. The result of His filling is that the love of God will overflow, even that it would permeate all the soul, thereby transforming us into His very image.
So, let us cry out – Lord, fill me up!
Prayers for the Body of Christ
- Fill us with who You are. God is the great I AM. He is every good attribute. This is His character and nature, but all these good things are rooted and grounded in love, and above all He is the greatest gift, which is love. If we aren’t perfected in His love, then we won’t be able to fully express His love in the earth. Pray that we are able to comprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth of His unfailing love for us – that we would know the love of Christ and would be filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19).
- Fill us with the knowledge of You. We pray that You would give to us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation that would reveal to us who You are. Open the eyes of our heart that we would know the hope of Your calling, the riches of Your glory of Your inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of Your power toward us who believe (Ephesians 1:17-19).
- Fill us with Your desires. God has promised to give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4), so let’s pray for the desire for more of Him to take root deep within the hearts of men. Pray for the desire for greater intimacy with our King and that as we engage with Him we will grow closer to Him, so that He can engage more with us.
- Fill us with a hunger for more of You. As deep cries out to deep, let us hunger for true riches. Let us hunger to know and be known by Him. Pray that all the nations of the world would know Him and that the hunger for more of Him (the greater things) would begin to stir in every person and in every nation. Then decree that the Lord would fill and satisfy these holy hunger pains.
- Fill us to overflowing. Pray that His love would overflow and that as we pour out, He continues to pour in. That as we enter into a place of rest and worship where we render ourselves as burnt offerings, as love offerings to Him, that He consumes us with His unquenchable fire. Lord, purify our hearts that all that flows from us is You and all that is birthed through us is in love.
Prayers for CSA / XP Ministries and the XP Team
- Pray for Patricia, Ron, and their family – that they would experience more of Him and be filled to overflowing.
- Pray for deeper times of intimacy, and pray for protection over those times in the secret place for Patricia and all our ministry team and partners.
- Pray that every department, person, and activity of our ministry is rendered to Him as a burnt offering. Pray that it would be an offering unto Him and that He would be the fire that consumes that which is sacrificed.
- Pray that all of our upcoming events and ministry activities are filled with Him and the knowledge of Him. Pray that each of our hosted events and all those that Patricia is sharing at release the knowledge of Him and that all are filled with a greater revelation of His love and goodness.
- Pray for all media and resources that CSA/XP produces. Pray that the revelation contained therein fills the nations with His light and unfailing love.
- Pray that every member of our team and ministry partners would press in and tarry until, and that a hunger and desire for more of Him would be stirred and satisfied.
- Pray that love would be purified in each one of us and that it would touch all spheres of influence that the Lord has placed into our hands.
- Pray for an enlargement of territory, so that as the vats begin to fill they will not burst but expand to contain more and more of Him (1 Chronicles 4:10).
- Pray for every assignment that the Lord has called CSA/XP to birth and steward. Pray for protection over these plans and that the Lord fills each of these assignments. Pray that He is the glory in the midst of each one (Zechariah 2:5).
