Glen Hartline

A More Excellent Way

About 13 years ago I set out on a journey to see the power of God flow through me for miracles and to see the sick healed. And I can say that over the past years I have not been disappointed. Whether it is seeing deaf ears open, broken bones healed instantly, or someone getting a new heart; watching God touch His children never gets old. I must admit however, it wasn’t always this way. In the beginning I didn’t really see many instant miracles or healings, I really didn’t understand how this all worked. The only thing that was consistent was every time I stood before someone, and many times just looking at them, I would feel God’s love for them. It would be so intense at times I would just start crying as I felt how their pains and torments were hurting God. He is their Father and hurts immensely when His children are hurting; not because they have some sin in their life, but because It hurts Him to see his children in bondage and pain. At that time I didn’t have the understanding of what God was trying to do in my life. I was even told this was the beginning or elementary aspect of ministry and that I would move beyond to seeing the power. With those “words of wisdom” I pushed beyond the emotions and set my singleness of sight on seeing the power manifest when I prayed for others. I got what I sought after.

Thirteen years later as I write this I again weep. This time not because I feel the Fathers heart for others but because I’ve realized I missed what my Father was trying to teach me. He was trying to show me the more excellent way, He was trying to show me the way of love.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. ^3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

He was trying to show me His heart, and how to move and act out of love and compassion. By allowing me to feel his love and compassion for others He wanted me to understand that He would withhold nothing from them. He was showing me that it didn’t matter what we do, we are already accepted because of Jesus (Eph. 1:6), and that He has already given us everything we need. (2Peter 1:3) It is because He is love that He created us, and because of love that He has saved us. He wanted me to see what He saw, He wanted me to see their created value. He wanted me to see that the reason Jesus came was to set us free from the lie and deception we were in bondage to and to redeem us back to our original value; a son of God. He created us in His image. We were made to be like Him, our Daddy; to walk, act, think, and be just like Him. We are the apple of His eye, His focus, and His whole heart longs to be with us. Jesus accomplished that by reconciling the world back to Daddy, and you can be reconciled to Him if you will receive the free gift of Jesus, you can become love just like Him.

Looking at people in this light allows you to understand why we can never be angry at, hate, despise, be offended, or even hold a grudge against someone. When we see their created value and how much Daddy loves them we hurt, not because of what they did or said, but because they don’t realize who they are. We are compelled to go to any length, lay down our own lives, in order for them to see their value, to experience His love. Yes, I still pray for the sick and see miracles; but now not because I want to see the power of God manifest, but because I want them to know how much they are loved.

Fresh outpouring

I keep hearing people talk about and cry out to God for a fresh outpouring of His Spirit, or another visitation of His presence. That really sounds wonderful and tantilizes every emotion we have. After all who wouldn’t want God’s presence, who wouldn’t want Him to move and revive our nation? It brings back memories and emotions of the time I heard God’s audible voice, the times of visions, and visitations. Those are wonderful times, who wouldn’t want to feel those things again.  Even though I would be first in line to get anything God is dishing out, I’m sorry to say those prayers are not biblical and even inhibiting the progression of the Kingdom of God in our nation.  Let me explain.

1. God has already poured out His spirit. Peter clearly declares in (Acts 2:16-17) that what the people experienced and others were witnessing over 2,000 years ago was God pouring out His Spirit. If it is already done, why do we think God needs to do it again. Why are we saying that God has been holding out on us all these years so we need to beg Him to finally give us what we need to see things change.
2. To get another outpouring implies that we may need more than what we have been given. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says that if we have been united with Him then we are one spirit with Him. We have been given the fullness of Jesus in us. (Colossians 2:9-10) What else do you need? God has already poured out His Spirit and poured Him into us. Now we are to walk in all authority and power as Jesus did. That makes it sound like the problem is with us and not God. Exactly! We need to stop asking God to do what He has already done. Stop begging Him to do what He has commanded us to do.  The so-called leaders of the church in America need to stop blaming God and the non – christians for what is wrong with this country and start taking responsibility for their inaction. Yes every believer is to blame but those who have embraced leadership take the bulk of the responsibility for their lack of action and for teaching others the error of their own ways.
3. Another implication of asking God to pour out His Spirit again is that you are saying that the Holy Spirit is no longer with us. You can not give something that you have already given. There are not two Holy Spirits. He promised to never leave us or forsake us. If He was poured out way back then, He is still with us.

We need to quit prophesying what should happen then think we actually did something. That is like me declaring that I will feed my kids but never fix anything to eat. I’m not against prophesy, we need it. It is the testimony of Jesus. We should never despise the proclaiming of what our Father is saying to us. However, to prophesy without acting on that prophesy is like faith without works. If God warns us of a tornado, earthquake, catastrophe of any kind we need to understand what He is saying. He is declaring to us the plans of the enemy, with the implication that we are to then act like the sons of God we are and stop it. We have been given dominion over this earth with the authority and power to execute that dominion. We need to stop declaring the enemies plans as if they are the will of God. This nation, and even the world for that matter, will never change until we stand up and act. Stop acting like a spiritual welfare state, always expecting God to bail us out, and do what He has empowered us to do. The kingdom of God is within every believer, we must teach and demonstrate to them what that means and how to act like kings in this Kingdom so that we will see the transformation that everyone is begging God for.

Israel, Jews, Christians and the heart of God

These past couple weeks with everything that have been going on concerning Israel, I’ve had quite a few people ask me my opinion on Israel and the Jewish people, and MANY others offer up their personal opinions in God’s name concerning the subject. This has led me to seek God and try to discern His heart concerning Israel the land, the Jewish people, and how we as Christians should feel and act. This is His response to me.

CONCERNING THE LAND

    The whole earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness. For whatever reason He decided to give that portion of land to the Jewish people and declare that it was their land forever. The only division of the land He allowed is the division between the tribes. Now I realize that the Jewish people have not always controlled or even lived in the land, before or after God gave it to them. That doesn’t matter; the land has always been the Lord’s and His to do with as He pleases. Now people who preach grace, I’m definitely one of them, will tell you that the Old Testament scriptures are valid as long as the go through the cross. That is they must be read in the light of Jesus’ sacrifice. What the Lord has shown me is that the giving of the Land is a promise that was not changed by the cross. This was a promise of a natural place to a natural people and the new covenant has no effect on that promise. The will of God IS for the Jewish people to inhabit ALL the land they have been promised.

CONCERNING THE JEWISH PEOPLE

    All men were created by God. He is the potter and we are the clay. He can create us to do or be anything He desires. With that it was his sovereign will to predestine the Jewish people to be His chosen people. They had nothing to do with it, He decided it and that was that. So what were they chosen to do? It wasn’t that they were chosen to be the ones to be saved, but that through them salvation would come to the whole earth. God predestined that through the Jewish people Jesus would come and bring salvation to ALL the earth. Like I said before, they didn’t have a say in it but that calling subjected them to be persecuted more than any other peoples on the earth. They would have to suffer so that we might be saved. This is no different then what the Lord spoke to Paul when He said He would show him all that he must suffer for the name of Jesus. It’s no different than what ALL the apostles discovered, and really any true believer will discover, that there will be persecutions. Does this mean that the sufferings of the Jewish people endured attributed to their righteousness or brought them special salvation? NO! They still must believe with their heart and confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord to be saved. No different than anyone else. It just means that they were called to suffer so that we could become sons of God. So as Christians we have NO right to boast that we are saved and they are not. They have paid a price so that you could receive salvation. The natural branch was not spared so that YOU could be grafted in, and if the wild olive branch can be grafted in how much easier will it be for the natural branch to be grafted in when their eyes are opened. We should all be thankful for what the Jewish people have done for us. They may not have done it with those intentions, but still they suffered and endured just the same. How can anyone with the heart of our Father feel anything but gratitude for what they have done?

CONCERNING THE CHRISTIAN

    Much of what I wanted to say was said above in the Jewish people section but there are a couple more things. We are not born again into the Jewish nation. We are sons of God, and a new creation. In the kingdom of God there is neither Jew nor Gentile, but one new man. We should pray for the Jewish people just as we are to pray for all people. The Jews need salvation just like any person that has not made Jesus lord and savior. We should pray that all of God’s will and promises be established on earth including the promises concerning the land of Israel. We must stand and pray will ALL peoples who are being persecuted.

CONCERNING JUDGEMENT

    This is a subject I have written on before and really didn’t want to deal with it here but the Lord says it is crucial to understanding what is going on, so if you want a greater explanation of judgment read my judgment blog. First of all we must look at all scripture in the light of the cross. Jesus took ALL judgment from God against sin onto Himself so that we will not be judged. If you understand God is no longer judging individuals then it’s easy to understand He is not judging nations. So why do bad things happen when we go against His will. Easy, why do you get sick or bad things happen to you when you sin. You open the door for the devil and he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. So when we come against God’s will for Israel, satan comes in to do what he likes to do and bring pain and suffering. He gets to do it in a timely fashion and God gets the blame. So you may say, “bad things happen, what does it matter if we say it’s the judgment of God or the work of the devil?” It matters a WHOLE lot. First of all you tell the world we serve a God that doesn’t care that much about His children. Let a national official say something wrong and God will kill a bunch of people, many who are His children who love Him. Why would I want to serve a God like that? Is that Love? Is that long suffering, forgetting when someone does you wrong, is that protecting? Love does all those things and God IS love. How can you have any assurance of salvation, healing, providing for our needs, when you never know when God is going to destroy your life? You see the problem with attributing the disasters to God? Another thing is people will start praying for Israel out of selfish desires to prevent God from judging them. We have established God’s will through His promise to the Jewish people so we pray so He won’t strike us down. You may think, “well, at least we are praying for them.” The reality is we should pray for the land because it is God’s will and the people because they are being persecuted. It is God’s love for them that should compel us to pray. If we pray out of fear, we will pray for Israel and the Jewish people only, but if we pray because we have the heart of God then we will pray for ALL peoples that are being persecuted. There are thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, many Christians that are being persecuted all over the world. It is God’s heart that we pray and stand up for them all.

Enough is Enough

I received a call the other evening and on the other end of the line was someone I have been mentoring for just a couple weeks. They have been going through some very difficult battles and are trying to walk in the authority and power given to them through Jesus. This is a very new concept for them and they are looking for answers everywhere. They had been praying and decided to sit down and watch television. When they turned it on, a channel they never watch was on and they began watching an evangelist and wanted my opinion on what they were hearing. As I listened to the evangelist preaching about faith and favor, the Spirit of God rose up in me and I became extremely disgusted at what I was hearing and the condition of the body of Christ.

Now I understand that this evangelist was trying to raise money, and I have no problem with that. It’s not the raising of money, but how he was going about it. He was telling us that faith moves God, and that we can open the heavens over our lives and the lives of our family if we give a sacrificial gift in faith. That it was the gift that would cause the favor of God or His grace to flow. He then went on to give heartwarming accounts of how giving sacrificially unlocked a miracle in his life and then in lives of others. Then as if on cue the phones began ringing and people began giving.

First of all let me continue by saying this is a complete mockery of the sacrifice of Jesus. It is teachings like this that give an appearance of the gospel but are actually anti-Christ. Anything that diminishes what Jesus did by making you add to it is anti-Christ. God does not move based on our gifts or actions. God moved based on Jesus’ sacrifice alone and nothing else. It is not your faith that moves God, but you receive through faith what He has already freely given. It is no different than salvation. He doesn’t wait to save you when you receive Jesus as savior. He had already saved you, you just had to receive it by faith. His grace and favor was poured out through Jesus and He has already freely given us all things. We just have to receive it. As children of God we give because we love Him and we love others. We should give so that others will hear the gospel and give to those who feed us spiritually, not to get something but because we, like our father, are generous givers. We don’t need to sacrifice or plead to get God to open the heavens over us, because it’s not the sacrifice that makes things happen, it’s the faith in Jesus and the fact that we have the kingdom of God within us, we have the fullness of Jesus in us, why would we need anything else? Unless we as the body of Christ stop acting like babies and start developing our own relationship with our Father and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, we will continue to allow people like this to play on our emotions and fleece us for everything we have. We MUST STOP giving to messages like this, because by doing so we are condoning it and encouraging these people to continue in their soulish manipulations. I don’t put the blame entirely on this evangelist, but on the rest of the body for allowing them to spoon feed us this sewage. They are only giving us what most of the body is crying for and paying for. It is time for the sons of God to say enough is enough and start being the body Jesus paid the price for us to become.

Passover

As we enter into the season of the spring feasts I start getting questions about do Christians need to keep them? Let me start by giving the quick answer NO and then I’ll explain what I mean.

Many years ago I began learning about the feasts of the Lord and trying to follow them mainly because they fascinate me. To me they speak of how big God is and how He knows the end from the beginning. He can institute a feast that meticulously describes an event that will take place thousands of years later- that really blows my mind! Anyway, I started associating with others that kept the feasts, mainly so I could learn more, but as time went on I became aware that my new acquaintances believed that if you are a Christian you must keep the feasts or you will not see God’s favor or His blessings in your life. Still being new to all this it was having a greater impact on me then I realized. Then one night the Lord woke me up saying, “you are starting to go down a very slippery path.” He then said, “Why do you desire to go back under the law?” Now understand that He wasn’t saying that by keeping the feasts I was going under the law, but the instant I started believing I could earn God’s grace or had to earn His grace by keeping the feasts, that was when I was putting myself under the law and not His grace. It’s all a matter of the heart. Why do you celebrate the feasts? I believe they are great and declare the greatness of my Father! They all point to Jesus, and if not, you are wasting your time. So if you celebrate, I want to remind you of one little thing as you celebrate Passover.

Col 2:16-17

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. (NKJV)

Like I said before, the feasts are only shadows of what was to come; the reality of them is Jesus. He is the reason for the feasts because they point to Him and what He did. In Exodus we read that the Israelites placed the blood of the lamb (representing Jesus) on the door posts so that death would pass by, but what happens next is what I want to show you. Right after that Pharaoh set the Israelites free after having been slaves for hundreds of years. And when they left, there was NONE FEEBLE among them. They were all healed and healthy! The only burden they had was that of carrying their prosperity.

Ps 105:37

37 He also brought them out with silver and gold, And there was none feeble among His tribes. (NKJV)

Now if just the shadow of what Jesus did healed all the people, dare to believe what the reality can do. Jesus is that reality and He has paid the price so that you can be healed. You can be free of any physical, mental, financial, dis –ease you may be struggling with. Be healed in Jesus’ name!

Judgment

Luke 9:51-56

Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. 54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”*

55 But He turned and rebuked them,* and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.“* And they went to another village. (NKJV)

1. Disciples wanted to call down fire because of an offense like Elijah had done.
2. Jesus rebuked them because they wanted to act out of a wrong spirit.

What could be wrong with wanting to act like one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament? You hear everywhere you go people saying they are called to be and act like Elijah, Elisha, David ect, but Jesus rebuked His disciples for doing what many Christians today are trying to do. The men and women of the Old Testament did not have their sins forgiven. They did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They only knew God who was at war against their sins, and they related to Him and others accordingly. Jesus rebuked them because God is no longer judging us according to our sins. Jesus took all sin and all judgment to the cross and forever satisfied God’s wrath.

John 12:30-33

Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die. (NKJV)

1. The world is being judged and it’s ruler (satan) is being cast out
   
2. The word “peoples” in verse 32 was not in the original Greek. It should read “will draw all to myself”
   
3. Jesus talks about His crucifixion.
   

Since we know that the subject in verse 31 is “judgment” and verse 32 He was speaking about how He would die. Jesus wasn’t saying that if you preach about my crucifixion everyone will come, He was talking about His upcoming death. In light of this we see that the subject in verse 31 carries over to verse 32 and so Jesus was saying,” If I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all judgment to Myself“. He was saying that when He died He would take all God’s wrath and judgment towards sin and all men to Himself! God isn’t about to judge you, Jesus has already been judged for you!

I am NOT condoning sin or saying that God does not care if you sin! Just that He does not change the way He relates to you based on if you are sinning or not. It is not based on your actions, but based on Jesus’ sacrifice. There are consequences to sin! When you sin you give a place to satan to come in and destroy your life. If you yield yourself to sin you yield yourself to the author of that sin (satan). (Rom 6:16) Satan will destroy you but God isn’t judging you. When you realize the free gift we have been given through Jesus you would have to be stupid to yield yourself to sin and allow satan to destroy you. But God loves you stupid!

Why do we need to know this?

1. Otherwise you will believe God is the problem, causing or allowing sickness as judgment and punishment.
   
2. You will always wonder about God’s will and never be truly able to be in faith. As long as you are not sure, you will always be on a rollercoaster of faith or unbelief.
   
3. You will be problem-focused instead of solution focused (Jesus).
   
4. You will judge people instead of ministering to them.
   
5. You will become purely works-based, prescribing things the person needs to live up to before God will move on their behalf.
   
6. You will minister condemnation and guilt which leads nowhere good.
   
7. You will confuse people.