Summary: Jeremiah 6: 16 tells us to seek out the ancient paths. What path are you on? What is the pathway of the ancients? What power awaits you on the pathway of God?

Spiritual Pathways Part 1

Establishing the Landmarks

(With accreditation to Dr Tayo Adeyemi on whose revelation I base this talk)

· Over the past couple of months we’ve had input that has said a few different thins: we’ve said that the church is a gateway to heaven, we’ve said that we have the power and authority as Christians to shift things, change things in the spiritual realm, because everything that happens in the physical has a parallel or root in the spiritual

· We have said that the Kingdom of God is near, and simply needs to be accessed and that when we pray, and when we worship and when we suffer persecution, all of these things cause a shift in the heavenlies – like Elijah and the rain – something is released in the spiritual, but by persistence and consistence in our prayers we can make that manifest here on earth in the physical

· What I want to now look at over the next 4 Sundays is the fact that there are people in the Bible who did certain things, lived a certain way, that accessed something in the spiritual realm and it gave them an authority that was not seen on everyone – a rare authority and power.

· Today I want to look again at Jacob and then also at Abraham, and see what things they did that we can learn from, and we can see that there are certain spiritual pathways we can take that have spiritual impact, that cause an open heaven.

Jeremiah 6:16

· ‘Ask for the old paths where the good way is’

Proverbs 22:28

· ‘Do not remove the ancient landmarks’

· These two verses speak pf the fact that there are way to God that have been mapped out, land marked and secured and that we are not forget these landmarks and that we are to seek out the ancient pathways, those times when we had an encounter with God.

· Heaven is near, God is near, but he needs to be accessed – it’s like this neighbourhood at the top of this road – Clover Hill is just at the top of this road, but you will need to find a road to get there.

· We can access God in our prayers, and yes He is all around us and with us – but I’m talking about accessing His power and authority, having a deep encounter with God which is possible

· These verses we read speak of the fact that there are pathways to God, and likewise pathways away from God, and that when we have had a revelation from God we need to landmark that place, nail it down so that we can refer back to it, return back to that place for sustenance.

· Ancient landmarks help us to locate spiritual pathways

· When Jacob had the dream of the stairway to heaven, he woke up saying surely this is the gateway to heaven - he was so impacted by what he had encountered that he needed to landmark it, so that he could return there.

Genesis 28:18

· He takes the rock that had been his pillow and says ‘this place is going to be land marked, because I had an encounter with God in this place’

· God recognises our efforts to make spiritual landmarks – Genesis’ 31:13 – He acknowledges it and names Himself after it

Genesis 35:1

· God tells Jacob that he needs to return to the landmark he had made because there would be a fresh anointing and encounter.

· Later in V13 it says that God went up from Jacob – for Him to go up He must have also come down – where did God meet with him? At Bethel – he had found the ancient landmarks and marked out the spiritual pathway.

· Now – you might say how on earth does that apply to us? How do we set up landmarks of our encounters with God? Well, I’m glad you asked!

· We all have had encounters with God – to a greater or lesser degree – a time when you gave your life to Jesus, when He blessed you, when something happened that marked your walk with God – a stand-out occurrence, a moment of significance.

· We need to landmark those times, those occurrences so that we can find them again and return to them and see what it was that gained us access to \god there ton that degree.

· God is saying ‘mark where you found me so that you can come back to me’

· Nail this moment down because one day you are going to need to return to it.

· But not just us – others will learn from our experiences with God, by reading and finding our spiritual landmarks.

· So how do we make a landmark?

· By memory – if you have ever been shocked by an electrical appliance, as time goes by you might forget what shocked you, but you remember the shock – the pain made a landmark

· When you know God is calling you to be revived, to be freshly inputted, look for the landmarks you have left, but remember this:

· We can’t go backwards and try to recreate situations – it wasn’t the song that was being sung that did it, it wasn’t the sermon or the prayer you prayed, it wasn’t the atmosphere that did it – it was the condition of your heart that caused God to do something

· We have said before that God opposes the proud heart, but the contrite humble heart He will not turn away

· But more than the condition of your heart at the time, He looks at the cost – the pain I spoke of with the electric shock

· The pain of cost – what did it cost you to get to where God wanted you to be – what sacrifice got you to a place of breakthrough?

· What did you put on the altar you built at that occurrence

· Jacob took the rock he had used as a pillow and turned it into an altar – how do we know this? Because he put a sacrifice on it –precious oil

· Oil was vital in those days – used for making bread, cooking, as a salve for wounds – he took what he had that meant something and he poured it out – at that point the rock became an altar.

· What did you put on the altar that got God’s attention? The pain of the sacrifice marks the place

· It cannot be an altar without a sacrifice – an altar without a sacrifice is not an altar – it’s a monument.

· We are not about building monuments – we are marking spiritual landmarks on our spiritual pathway, and everytime, we felt the pain of sacrifice to God he met us there and took us to another level in Himself

· For a sacrifice something has to die

· Our land marks have to be places where we have died – if you want to locate a spiritual pathway you will have to die to things, because where there is a death there is a sacrifice, and where there is a sacrifice there is an outpouring of God – God came to Jacob and then went up from him.

· If you want to find the ancient landmarks on the ancient pathways of your spiritual walk – look for the places that are marked by sacrifice, where have died to self, died to our agenda, died to our way and our stubbornness, and learned to yield ourselves to Him – there will find the landmarks.

· Mark things that God says by writing them down – you’re nailing it down for later reference – my notebooks and Bibles are full of landmarks – places where I have been impacted by something, and I go back over them all regularly

· Make notes in church – nail things down, commit them to memory – things that God has shown you so that when you feel that you need to have a fresh encounter with Him, look at your landmarks, your places of contact and be inspired by what God has done – when we see what God has done we are encouraged for what he can do

· It reminds me of His ability, His faithfulness and His greatness.

· God is near – He is not far away – we can access His blessings through prayer, worship, tithing and persecution

· And the fact is, when we have had a breakthrough, mark it – you’ve discovered a spiritual pathway for how God wants to bless your life

· For how He wants to work in your life

· For what He wants to do with you and through you

· Sacrifice bears fruit – set up those spiritual altars and see God move in your life.