Tearing Down Our Idols, Part 2 By Mike McClung

Save me, O God, by Your name, and vindicate me by Your strength. Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. For strangers have risen up against me, and oppressors have sought after my life; they have not set God before them. Selah. (Psalm 54:1-3)

What does it mean to be “vindicated” by the Lord? I have found myself praying the prayer of the Psalmist for vindication for several years now. There have been literally years of misunderstanding, slander, offense, etc, that I and Lionheart Ministries have been on the receiving end of. Some of what has been said is deserved, as many mistakes and weaknesses have been exposed over the years. But most has been accusation that is beyond plausibility for rational thought. This type of regressive warfare and stress (friendly fire) begins to take its toll on the spiritual, mental, emotional, financial and physical health of both individuals and a corporate covenant community. In light of these “momentary light afflictions,” one begins to cry out to the Lord, as the Psalmist did, for “vindication.” Is it righteous, Christlike vindication that one seeks? It is now my experience that what I thought it was to be vindicated by the Lord is actually the seeking of human retribution, at least at some motivational level. Such is the insidiousness and subtlety of the deception of the “idol” of self-preservation.

Hedged In By Mike McClung

Hosea 2:6-7; 14-16: Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and wall her in, so that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them; yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.’ Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.” And it shall be, in that day,” says the LORD, That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘My Master’….

We have entered a new season of restoration (Acts 3:19-21) in which the full purpose of God in restoring His fullness and glory in the earth will come to fruition.

Several years ago, the Lord gave me the scriptures, Joshua 3:1-6 and Joshua 5:1-12, as templates of the activities of the Holy Spirit that will lead the body of Messiah up to a “crossing over” into a final season of restoration. This will ultimately culminate in the bodily return of the Lord Jesus to earth. For the last twenty years, we have been in the process of becoming “Presence-focused”, with intimacy, worship and intercession taking central place in the body of Christ. As with Joshua and the nation of Israel (see Joshua 3:3), this focused pursuit of His Presence (the Ark) is what will lead us through the “Jordan” – a death to self – in order to enter into His fullness in this last season. Part of the process of preparing for this new season and entering this inheritance will entail a “circumcision” of flesh in the lives of a generation that has been brought up in a religious wilderness for the past 50 years (see Joshua 5:1-6). The Lord’s sharpened flint “knife” is coming!

First Steps in the New Season of Restoration - By Mike McClung

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Cor. 10:4-6)

One recent morning I awoke with this thought: To fully enter this new season of restoration, all illusion must be relinquished. You cannot have any disillusion in your life any longer. We have truly moved into a new season (some are calling a new “era”) which the scripture describes as the “season of the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). Moving into and occupying a new season, just like moving into a new place, are two different things. We must not just enter the season, but we must “occupy.” We cannot occupy this new place (new wineskin) with old patterns over which the flesh, the world or the enemy had dominion. These places must first be surrendered and then demolished. Then full recovery and restoration can be released and these new seasons in the Lord can be fully entered and occupied.