The Monkey Bar Effect

If we as Christians are going to make it in these last days, we are going to have to learn the ‘monkey bar’ effect,….that’s right, it may not sound like great spiritual teaching but it is true. So what is the monkey bar effect? Simple, it is reaching out and taking hold of the next thing God puts in front of you and then,…letting go of the thing you last had a hold of. We must not be afraid of ‘losing’ the things that God has revealed to us in past seasons, or losing experiences, or revelations. God is more than able to hold on to all of our belongings, and ‘stuff’ that He has given us. But, because we are human and so very limited often times we are not able to firmly get a hold of what God has next unless we put down yesterday,…I’m not talking about putting down our faith, I’m talking about putting yesterday behind us so that we can live in the now and today of what God has for us.
Part of the mistake of the Church for the last 2000 years is that as soon as God gave the Church ‘new’ revelation concerning Himself, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or His Word, we immediately went to work trying to categorize, contain, store, and hang on to, and house all that He revealed to us not realizing that the revelation could not be housed and live. It must be ‘lived in’. We must live in the now with God and let all that He has revealed to us become a part of who we are as a people and as a Church.
To illustrate this I want to go to Matthew 17:1-9 you can also refer to Mark 9:2-9 or Luke 9:28-36 for cross reference. Just a side note; but if you visit ZionFire much at all you will find that cross referencing anything you have found in the Bible is not just greatly encouraged here but also necessary to get a full grasp of what is not only being said but also to what is being expressed. To illustrate this I want to go to Matthew 17:1-9 (you can also refer to Mark 9:2-9 or Luke 9:28-36.)

OK, Matthew 17:1-9 (first read the passage) Basically Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with Him up onto a mountain, and there He transfigures before them(He changes into a powerful spiritual form of Himself). And then Jesus is joined by Moses and Elijah also obviously in a greater form than they left this Earth in (I assume anyway), and Jesus is seen talking with them. Upon seeing this great sight of Jesus in a spiritual form along with Moses and Elijah the Disciples are so amazed, and awestruck the they feel that this is something that should be held on to and commemorated forever. You see,…they just had a new revelation of Jesus in a way they had never seen Him before! But they also had a revelation of Moses and Elijah, why you might ask is that important? Well, Moses is the author of the first five books of the Bible the section of the Bible known as the Law(the Torah or the Pentateuch), and Elijah is probably the most notable of the Prophets, and even John the Baptist walked in the spirit and power of Elijah(Luke 1:17). So Jesus was seen speaking with Moses(the law) and Elijah (the Prophet) if you read Matthew 5:17 you will see why this is so important as Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but rather to fulfill them(consider what Jesus was discussing with them in Luke 9:31 for more revelation). So to make a long story short, basically Peter, James, and John had a major spiritual(and physical) experience where Jesus(the Messiah), Moses(the Law), and Elijah(the Prophets) were all revealed to them in a powerful new and very real way right before their very eyes! This was probably a little overwhelming, I know as for myself I probably would have been very, very, done right there,…just done,…or undone however you want to look at it. What the three Disciples saw was amazing, so amazing that it caused them to make a very basic mistake, it is the same mistake the Church has been making for over 2000 years now.

What was their mistake? When the Disciples saw Jesus transfigured before them standing and talking with Moses and Elijah; Peter (speaking for the others as well) said, “Lord it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
Their mistake was that as soon as they had a new revelation of Jesus(and the Law and prophets) they wanted to put a building around that revelation in the place where they had it. They literally wanted to try to contain this new revelation and give this revelation(or revelators) a home. Isn’t that what we as a Church have done for 2000 years? As soon as God revealed Jesus, or His Word, or the Prophetic in a new way to us we immediately go to work trying to house that revelation into buildings, movements, and denominational sects. We are so sure that this revelation is the most of God that Heaven will ever reveal, and that if we don’t create a man made box to house this new glory then we will lose it forever. That’s when the war in the Church starts,and I’m not even going to get into that today.

So after the Disciples make known to Jesus their desire to build the Tabernacles, something amazing happens. A bright cloud of Glory enveloped the Disciples and the voice of God spoke to them in the cloud and He said, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!” OK,…I don’t need to say it,…but I would have been a little bit more than undone at this moment. What an awesome moment to receive direction from the very voice of God,…man what a day it was for these guys on the top of their mountain with Jesus! So what was it Jesus had to tell them that God wanted them to hear? The first thing He told them was to get up (a very important thing to do in the Spirit before moving), then Jesus led them back down the mountain, then He instructed them to tell no-one of the vision until He had risen from the dead,…why? Because Christ rising up,..not us rising is how the revelation is to be revealed to everyone else on Earth, which is important if we want them to see Jesus and not us,….are we humble enough to allow this?

I just want to take a quick recap to make everything clear. Jesus takes His closest Disciples to a high place(has He ever done that with you?) Then He reveals Himself in a new way before them, and they also have a new revelation of the Word and of the Prophets. Then the Disciples desire to build a house for all that Jesus has revealed to them(have you ever done this,..I have, and in a way I’m doing that right now). Then God interrupts the Disciples with clear direction from His very presence, though we may have not had it happen in such an amazing way, God will usually do this out of mercy to stop us from getting really stupid. The times that people were rebellious and did not listen to God things really did get stupid fast and the Church age has more than payed for those errors. Then the Disciples had to stand, and then walk down from their ‘top of the mountain’ experience with Jesus and were told not to reveal what had been revealed to them until Jesus had risen. That’s it in a nutshell.

Jesus is about to take many of us to a new ‘mountain top’ experience and there He will reveal Himself to us in a new way. Many will also have great revelation of the Word of God, and great revelation of Prophecy. This time,….forget the building, put down the hammer and nails because those are tools used for killing Jesus, not for doing His work. Leave the building projects to the Pharisees (believe me they know what to do with a hammer and nails). Wait until the Glory of God comes upon you and directs you as to what you should do with the new God given revelation. Then He,…not you,…will stand you up and take you back down(this will be hard after such a great high place experience), then when Jesus ‘stands up” we will move.

~ Daniel Paul ~