by General Deborah Green

I speak unto thee this day and I say that I the Living God will tell you why that I desire community, I say that I will tell you why that I desire my own Holy Tribal Nation. I say that it is because my people are meant to live in me continually. I say that my people are not meant to visit me, but they are meant to live in me. I say they are meant to live in the fellowship one with another that comes of knowing me. I say that is why I the Living God desire community, I desire my own Holy Tribal Nation because my people are meant to abide continually in me. I say thank me, praise me, thank me, praise me that you have been given the privilege to fulfill me, to fulfill my desire for my people.

—Word of the Lord 2-8-07

WE ARE LIVING IN A TIME when men and women have neglected the desires of God to go after their own desires. No longer do men and women earnestly cry out for the will of God in their lives, tarry before the altar, and seek His face and His counsel. Far too many are seeking merely their own way, realizing not that it is satan who has given them the thoughts and the desires for their own way.

     If we go back to the original sin, Eve took in the suggestion of the devil, then she thought that she could come to her own conclusions and really become something of herself. What she became was a cursed fool, for God is not mocked and because she and her husband chose to “use their own minds” rather than obeying the mind of the Lord. They played right into the devil’s hand and became the slaves of sin because they were no longer blessed but became cursed through their independence from the Word or command of God.

     How stupid we can become when we yield ourselves to darkness under the guise of being “enlightened” or simply “independent”. God does not want His people independent nor does He want them enlightened with false light, but He wants His people to cling to the truth and rejoice in the same.

     God did not call His people to be living as they please, where they please, how they please, but He called them to be living to be pleasing unto Him. Now where God puts a man is obviously not where a man would put himself. But men left to themselves will self destruct because they will only act out the intentions of the devil and be fulfilling that which is the destination of damnation. God does not want His people separated from one another and from Him, but He wants His people as one, moving and living in Him continually. He never calls us to have visiting rights with Him on Sundays, or even possibly Wednesdays, but He calls us to seek to be continually abiding in the strength, the power, the glory of who He is. He wants us to walk in the truth continually, not just receive a small dose here and there.

     It is strange that in this wicked and perverse generation that God’s own people, or at least the ones who are saying that they are His, are so conformed to the world—in their dress, their language, their lifestyles, their appetites, their attitudes. They see absolutely nothing wrong with taking on the attributes and attitudes of worldly entertainers and celebrities. They do not in any way seek to be conformed to Jesus Christ other than in name only. Then these same ones will be the first to mock those ones whom they consider to be the extremists who take God at His Word and seek to be pleasing Him. The worst enemies of the real believers are the professing religious who make a show of their Christianity but do not live, nor work, nor sacrifice, nor love according to Christ’s commands.

     Now I myself was not born a community person, in fact I was far from that. But as I have sought the Lord I have been led into a lifestyle whereby my life is not my own but it is a part of a whole, in fact, God’s Holy Tribal Nation, and because my citizenship is above and not below, I have learned to love His way.

     Of ourselves we are as easily deceived as was Eve in the original sin, accepting the devil’s suggestion and thinking that it is our own thought, our own way, our own will. Reality proves differently, for what we buy from the devil has an extremely high price tag and we never seem to make the payments on time. Therefore we are in a place of slavishly trying to please ourselves instead of pleasing the Lord. Reality again is that it is not ourselves but really Satan posing and working through the mechanism of self to lead us right into the trap he had set all along.

     God intends that His people would be as sheep led forth in His flock, not straggling and struggling “on their own”. When we will go God’s way we will find His Shepherd’s love is ever present to lead, to guide, to direct, to protect. God does not want us to be a cursed people but a blessed people who are ever seeking for His life to be lived in us and in our midst. When we live in the community way that God intends for us, we actually regain the place of communion that was lost in the Garden because it is God who dwells in our midst. It is a blessed thing to obey God and to go His way, and let Him have the control of our lives that we can be well pleasing unto Him as our master.

     If we are His people then we should yield all of our lives to Him that He can use us as He pleases and we can live our lives according to His will and not our own. God’s way is always best, and blessed; the only thing that makes us think contrary is the suggestion of the devil that we accept as our own opinion. We have learned to yield to His way and find His blessedness poured out day by day. We have found the blessedness that comes of communion with the Lord on a daily basis. We have found that the Lord does dwell among His people as we are willing to be His completely.

     God has said it that He desires His people to be His community, to be His Holy Tribal Nation. That call is given by God to fulfill His heart, His desire, His longing. How many will yield themselves to Him rather than the devil? Stop and examine your life, are you living for the Lord or are you living for the devil while you think you are doing what you want to do? Life is too short to be lived for one’s self. We need to live fully, completely and totally for God. Because what we think we keep for ourselves will kill us, but what we give to God will enrich us and others likewise.

     Is it true that God wants community for His people? What flock could be led forth by the shepherd that is divided and separated in physical location by blocks, and even miles, each sheep living as it pleases? No, the sheep know His voice and another they will not follow. Let us be what God wants us to be and we will find the joy of the Lord fully brought forth in our lives. As it says in His Word many times, we are to serve Him with gladness and rejoicing all of our days, dwelling together in the presence, the goodness, the mercy of the Lord. Amen.