What Grieves the Holy Spirit

Praise the name of the Lord, and may the Holy Spirit continue to teach and show you how to enter the presence of the King each day.

Last night as I was going to sleep the Lord told me something I hadn’t considered before – that He is more anxious to spend time alone with us than we are. When we become regular about keeping appointments with Him, and then miss a few, He feels more disappointed than even we do. Haven’t you ever missed being with someone you love very much? He feels the same about you.

With this in mind, I would like to share with you a message the Holy Spirit shared with me a few weeks ago. You may want to pull out the November/December issue of this newsletter (the one printed on green paper) to review the ten lessons the Holy Spirit taught about His role and function before you read the following message.

Some don’t know Me except as a term on the pages of their Bibles

"I am always hovering close by the spirit of the people of the Lord. Some don’t know Me except as a term on the pages of their Bibles. But when a believer reaches the point of accepting Me as a person, and begins to invite Me into their heart as a welcome friend, then I can work. Remember what I taught you about joining your will to my will [i.e. in the previously referenced KF newsletter]? Inviting Me in as a friend is how yoke-sharing begins.

"Now listen to this very closely. Once a person gets used to My friendship, My first lesson is to teach them My purpose. My joy is to help you do what the Lord wants you to do. But I can only help when the person’s will is wholly given to doing it My way. So many believers could be powerful for the Lord if they would cease from determining what they think the Lord’s will is, and ask Me to help them find the Lord’s will.

"My job is to be a Helper, and the sooner the Lord’s people realize that the spirit realm is My domain, the sooner they will realize they cannot accomplish anything in that domain by their own fleshly determinations.

"Let me illustrate. Music will not bring a person into the spirit realm unless it is anointed by Me at the time I want it played. Music is not a facilitator for spiritual power, nor am I attracted by notes from the soul. I am attracted by surrender, by those whose longing is to worship the Lord and who ask for help from Me to do so.

"I am grieved by self-reliance. I am able to work and fellowship around surrendered hearts.

"There are two types of believers: those that know Me, and those that think they know Me.

"Those that think they know Me seek experiences with Me. Those that know Me, know how to surrender their will to Me. Read Jesus’ prayer in John 17 to see what I mean. I am making people one with the Father by making them one with the Lord if the door of surrender is opened to Me.

"Start your teachings with [prayers like this], "Holy Spirit, please give me the words to speak so that the will of the King will be done in the hearts of the audience today." Start your prayers with [prayers like this], "Holy Spirit, help me to pray what the Lord wants me to pray today." "Holy Spirit, teach me what You want me to learn today."

The Holy Spirit next asked me to anoint my office with oil, which I have learned is usually a prelude to receiving some notable revelation that He wants to seal from demons. So I did, and He resumed speaking.

"Paul, I’m going to reveal something to you now which has not yet been revealed to men. I am going to show you why Holy Spirit is necessary in order to gain entrance into the spirit realm.

"There is a devil who tries to anticipate and thwart My moves. He cannot stop My moves or My power, but He can stop people from surrendering their hearts to Me so that I can work. Remember, the will rests within each individual believer, and it must be surrendered in order for Me to work [in them].

"Now then, the desire to surrender the will to the Lord comes from Me. The desire to then surrender the will to Me, also comes from Me. There is a progression, a phasing of spiritual growth. Becoming born again is phase I. Becoming yielded unto Me is phase II. Walking faithfully in that place where I am permitted to bring a person into the spirit realm and they learn to remain there regularly and often, is phase III.

Learn to stay surrendered

"In Hebrews [6:1-12], those who have tasted of this place, those who have come to this place and want to remain, must learn to stay surrendered. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. So the option is always open to enter this place. Except, those who have once entered it and then repudiated it rarely ever come back.

"Satan surrenders when you surrender to Me. He goes away for a season to regroup. There is no power greater than Me. If you would stay in My secret place in submission before Me as you commune with the Lord, satan can never touch you. Then, as you grow to dwell in your secret place, you will carry out much that will help you remain above the worldliness of the times spent outside of your secret place.

"Jesus was ethereal while ministering to the disciples on earth because He carried His secret place around with Him. For Moses, His secret place was before the tabernacle, and He traveled with the tabernacle. For David, he lived close to the temple, but found his secret place upon his bed at night.

"For you, your secret place is wherever you are when I call to you, and wherever you are when you get quiet in a solitary place to seek Me, the Father, or the Son. You don’t know how blessed you are, but it is the Father’s heart to show you more because you are a man after His heart. Never betray your secret place by de-valuing the privilege as Moses did [Numbers 20; Deuteronomy 32 and 34].

"The world must come to Me before they can come to the secret place before the Father. Before they can come to Me, they must come to Jesus, the King, and bow their knee before Him. I work to help them do this, but they must come or else be lost. It will be far worse than the flood during Noah’s time.

"Oh how Noah’s heart ached for the lost! Even those who mocked him, and whose pride scorned him so viciously! Oh how the heart of Jesus aches for those whose pride won’t let Me draw them to Him. But oh how lonely the Lord is when those who have become born again won’t let Me draw them into keeping personal appointments with Him.

Feelings are not indicators of a work of the Spirit

"When we commune together, you will never see fanfare. I don’t like raucous parties of the soul; I like quiet dinners of the spirit. Much of what people think are deeply spiritual experiences that please Me are simply self-willed extravaganzas of the soul.

"Good feelings are sought by the flesh. I don’t seek nor do I exist to give good feelings because feelings are from the soul. The Spirit will not flow from the soul. It flows into the soul. Feelings are not indicators of a work of the Spirit. Those who seek spiritual experiences are led by feelings, not by Me.

"The most notorious example of feelings-seeking today occurs from drinking un-anointed music. The greatest abuse of My heart is to take a gift of love from Me that has been anointed in song, and use it to manipulate the Lord’s children. Feelings-seeking is not the purpose of anointed music. Spirit-seeking is.

I will teach the hungry

"Sensitivity to Me is grown out of hunger for Me. Samuel was hungry for Me, while Eli was not. Samuel ministered to the Lord, while Eli ministered to himself. Samuel became a great prophet. Eli died squandering his opportunity.

"I will teach the hungry what blesses Me and what grieves Me. I am grieved by self-promotion, and [by] acceptance of glory that is due the Lord. I am grieved by the flesh. I am grieved by the soul’s desire for attention, acceptance, pride, self-satisfaction.

"I am grieved with intellectualism, religious Bible knowledge-seeking that sees not the working of Me between the lines on the pages. I am grieved by the presumption of My will instead of asking Me. I am very grieved by those who lead others away from Me instead of toward Me, even using My name as they do it, because they don’t trust Me.

"I am blessed by those who desire to know Me instead of an experience with Me. I am pleased by those who seek to spend time with Me, who trust Me completely. I am a rewarder of those who diligently seek Me – not once or occasionally – but who seek Me faithfully.

"The Father has made clear the pathway to Him. The name of this pathway is Jesus. I am the one who provides light for the path, and I invite you to come with Me for lovely walks along it. It’s so much easier to walk a lighted path than a darkened one.

"Shall we plan another walk together? I am always eager to join you.

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I urge you to get to know the Holy Spirit personally. He is a person, not a force. He is very sensitive, and is easily grieved. Though He may make a dramatic entrance, He may not linger, stepping quietly aside, waiting for you to notice.

Why not take a fresh Bible and read through the book of Acts? Underline every action of the Holy Spirit. I believe what is recorded in Acts is a mere sampling of what He can do in our lives once we get to know Him well.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, and may His Spirit continue to draw you closer to Him.

All my love in Him,

Paul Norcross

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Victories in the Lord

Our youngest son, Mikel (10) is just learning to roll out of bed and praise God first thing each morning. At first he would run through his praise vocabulary in the first five minutes. But he was the one who wanted to commit himself to do this, and so as he remained faithful to do it each morning, He began to spend more time with the Lord.

After about a week, the Lord showed him a vision of a huge drinking glass. Then the Lord showed him that just as you wouldn't give a glass with a mere few drops in it to someone requesting a glass of water, so Mikel wasn't to give the Lord just a few drops of praise in the morning. The Lord wanted a full glass!

Praise God for His goodness and grace, and for His readiness to teach us each in ways that we can understand as we grow faithful to spend time with Him. (PS - since this incident, Mikel was led by the Lord to witness to a nine year old friend. Mikel asked the Lord how to lead his friend to Him. The Lord told Him. Mikel obeyed, led him to Christ, and later also led the friend into speaking in tongues!)

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On the Apostolic Anointing

The Lord is bringing together the apostolic and prophetic anointings in a very powerful way. Last month, Peter Wagner and a number of other prominent ministers were led to host an Apostles and Prophets conference in Dallas. Other such conferences are planned this spring by Rick Joyner, by The Rock Ministries (Lloyd Philips will be one of the guest speakers along with Eric Belcher of Christ for the Nations and others), etc. Regarding this move of the Holy Spirit to bring forth the apostolic anointing within the body of Christ, I learned the following from the Holy Spirit. I believe we need to be aware of how the Lord is moving these ministries within the church.

"This is a move of My Spirit in these end times. I am calling My Church to rally under Me, and I have called apostles to provide hubs for My people to assemble. These assembly points, hubs, are not geographic. They are spiritual, and My apostles are placed over them to communicate My heart to them and provide a spiritual direction that leads always to Me.

"Unlike Churches that nurture locally, these hubs are to move with the Holy Spirit to implement and effect worldwide feeding and empowering of My people in a new way, very distinct but in synchronous motion with the local Church. There are things available through the Holy Spirit that can only be birthed via these hubs, things that are larger than the local Church. As these hubs come together under the direction of My apostles, you will see a move of My Spirit that has been pent up, awaiting this release for ages.

"In this apostolic anointing within the body of Christ, there will no longer be separate identities, denominations, or flagships within the worldwide body of Christ. There will be a suppression of self, and a rising of yielded vessels who will be recognizable one to another by the mark of the Spirit, and the badge of love. The sensitivity of My people to the Holy Spirit will increase, and the shackles of pride will fall away. Indeed, pride has been the hindrance of this move of the Spirit up until now. Those who retain it have not died to self, and they will sit on the sidelines until they repent.

I could raise up stones …

"See that you come before Me often, for without Me, you can do nothing. I could raise up stones to fulfill responsibilities I will give to those who have yielded themselves unto Me. Therefore reflect not on the task nor the vision, and reflect not on your calling and role, but reflect on Me who directs the heart into fellowship and understanding of the Father.

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Calling Forth Intercessors

I recently read a book called Reese Howells, Intercessor. It is something of a classic, and can be found with some diligent searching.

In the book, it was clear that Reese had discovered the value of praying into concretion the revelation he was given. Some very clear examples focused on World War II and stopping Hitler. The Lord had Reese and his entire college doing intercession in order to bring very specific revelation to pass. Post war historians have concluded that each of the things that God told Reese to pray for were THE KEY reasons for victory against Hitler.

In March 1938 the Lord began giving Reese clear revelation to stop Hitler because Hitler was a tool of satan specifically to keep Israel from becoming a nation. The Lord showed Reese that it was now time for the Biblical prophecy to happen regarding Israel coming back into existence as a nation.

Britain was unprepared for war in 1939, much less in 1938. Hitler's inner voice was demanding him to attack Britain in October 1938. Reese Howells prayed in deep intercession to prevail against Hitler. They received a specific word from the Lord stating that they should pray that the Lord would "bend Hitler".

The Munich pact that conceded a status quo to Hitler in return for non-aggression was seen by the world as capitulation. Neville Chamberlain was excoriated by world opinion for having given in to Hitler. I've always thought this way too until reading about what the Lord was doing with Reese and the intercessors at the college.

Hitler revealed to Chamberlain at the time of the signing, in a very bitter sounding tone, that he had never made concessions to anybody. Hitler saw the Munich Pact as a concession. Hitler fully intended to take the rest of Europe including Britain. The Munich Pact went completely against his inner voice, which had strongly advised him not to sign it, and it was also against the advice of his generals who clearly argued that there was no more favorable time for attack against Britain than October 1938. Britain would have been overrun. The Lord intervened through the Munich Pact to give England another year to prepare.

The Lord did indeed "bend Hitler", Hitler said this was the only time he ever disobeyed his inner voice. Many times Hitler obeyed his satanic voice over the advice of his generals, and was vindicated every time. This is part of the reason why his generals respected his military wisdom -- he had been "brilliantly" victorious so many times because of his evil spirit guide.

Yet, as can be seen by the following additional examples, God will give revelation to intercessors who are committed to staying faithful to praying in (into concretion) the revelation received. Revelation is indeed how the Lord will build His church (Matthew 16:13-19) and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Here are the other key revelations given to Reese to bring down Hitler.

1. God told Reese to pray for a miracle at Dunkirk to save the British army. It happened -- the one day of no U-boat patrols in the English channel happened the day of the evacuation, and the notoriously rough waters of the English Channel were unusually calm that day, enabling even pleasure craft to be pressed into service to rescue English troops.

2. God gave Reese an urgent burden to pray that the Battle of Britain would cease. Reese was called to his knees in fierce intercession the very day the British Royal Air Force was about to be destroyed by the German Luftwaffe. The British had no more planes to send up against the Germans. At the moment Howells felt a release from the Lord it was later learned that the Germans had ceased the attack and headed inexplicably (even by German pilots) for home. Another few minutes and they would have won the air war.

3. The North Africa campaign attracted Hitler. He was overrunning all of Europe, having taken France, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway. Not far behind would have been Great Britain, and the revelation was for the Lord to send a distraction. It turned out to be the North Africa Campaign.

In this campaign, Hitler ultimately lost his shirt. The decisive battle was El Alamein. Both the Brits and the Germans were bogged down. Blazing sun, no water, but the Germans were the crack troops. Morale was non-existent. The Brits were about to give up. Ten minutes before doing so, the Germans surrendered. Why? Because God had Reese Howell's entire college on their knees claiming the victory they saw ahead of time in their spirit.

What specifically God did was this: the Germans had advanced against a British position containing a newly constructed 6" water pipeline. The pipe was being tested with salt water first prior to running precious fresh water through it. The Germans overran the English troops and shot the pipe full of holes. When the Germans saw water coming out, they went crazy starting to drink it. In times of severe thirst, the senses are deadened to salt. They guzzled their fill, and became afflicted -- so much so they were forced to surrender. El Alamein decided the fate of the North Africa campaign.

4. Another key reason historians give for Hitler's defeat was the Russian winter. But the attack on Russia was another distraction prayed for by Reese by revelation. The winter killed over a million Germans alone. At a time when Germany could have headed west and taken England, they instead headed East to become wasted in Russia. Reese learned in His Spirit that God’s will was also to bring judgment against communist Russia even as the Russian winter ruined Hitler.

5. The attack on Stalingrad was nearly over, with Germans the victors. Stalingrad was the only opposition to the Caucasus mountains, on the way to Palestine. The real spiritual reason Hitler was driven to war was Palestine. Satan knew Israel was about to become a nation – creating a Jewish state had been talked about in the world press since at least 1936. If Stalingrad fell, Palestine would ultimately fall under German control.

Stalingrad's fall was certain. But literally in the 11th hour, God brought the college again to its knees in intercession. They knew from prior revelation that the Lord would reestablish Israel again shortly, and they knew their job was to birth it in intercession. So Stalingrad was a hot intercession. The surety of defeat was turned the night they prayed. It was later confirmed that the moment Reese and the college were released from praying by the Holy Spirit, that very moment the battle was won, and Stalingrad held.

6. Israel did become a nation shortly after the war. Hallelujah! The prophecy of thousands of years came to pass in our century!

My point is this. If you look at Hebrews chapter 11, you will see that every one of the "great faith" incidents was preceeded by revelation, to which the receiver continued to faithfully and steadfastly act upon. The more time you spend with the Lord, the more revelation you will receive. When He gives you something to pray for, stick with it until it becomes birthed out of the Spirit realm, into the natural realm. This is the job of an intercessor.

Consider these words from the Lord that I received a few months back regarding intercessors:

"In these end times before My Son appears to the world, there are many who must be saved. I have given to My Son the task of raising up an army of warriors for the spirit realm. Today you are seeing the first phase – intercessors. Intercessors are to the body of Christ what Caleb and Joshua were to Moses when he scouted out the Promised Land. Their job [today] is two-fold: to report back to the body

to help them overcome fear of the enemy, and to provide information to help the apostles lead the church.

"The first job – informing the body – helps allay fear of the spirit realm to the troops in the army. It gives them confidence to press forward. Remember – the weaponry carried by scouts in an army is simply a lighter version of the weapons carried by the rest of the main body. Scouts move fast and stealthily while the army follows more slowly with more firepower, with heavier weapons, and more of them. So too in the spirit realm. The intercessors move quickly, probing and often [using] "hit and run" [tactics], attacking weak points in the enemy’s camp. Sometimes the only attack needed is that of the intercessors.

"The second job of the intercessors/scouts -- to provide information to the apostles – is equally important. But you must realize that intercessors are not the army. They are the advanced party who are out ahead of the troops. The whole army must be brought into position by the apostles for the final victory. Moving (mobilizing to action) the army is a much different function than being a scout.

"Scouts/intercessors are vital to the army. But they must beware never to magnify their jobs over that of the army. Without the army, without the believers who continue to stay faithful in their churches, feeding the poor, ministering to the sick, teaching and raising up the children -- without these, there would be no reason to have intercessors. Those who stay home and those who are scouts are of equal value in the army if they each stay faithful in their calling.

We all have work to do in the Kingdom. Lets be sure we are finding out what our job is, and be diligent to do it faithfully, keeping our appointments with Him to keep learning how to go about doing it!

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