When I am at the IHOP Atlanta Awakening Meetings, I often find my heart and mind enraptured in the Presence of the Living God. Sometimes, I can only sit in a chair - overwhelmed with the pleasures of His Spirit. There are no spirits of heaviness and I am not insecure or aware of myself. In those moments, I deeply long for the moment to never end. There is a day coming when Jesus will set me free from the confines of flesh. Until then I must remember there is a war in and around me, and typically my battle begins as soon as I leave the House of Prayer.

In spite of the sin nature against me and the domain of darkness ceaselessly throwing thoughts and emotions that I must take captive, I have a promise that is sharper than a two-edged sword. This promise allows me to partake of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4): I am in the New Covenant by the blood of Jesus Christ.

I have spent the past few months reminding my soul the promises the prophets gave concerning the covenant established by the blood of Jesus. Jeremiah prophesied that God would forgive my sins and put His law in my heart and bring me to the knowledge of Himself (Jeremiah 31:33, 34). Jeremiah also said the Lord would make the covenant everlasting (without revocation), putting the fear of Himself in me that I would not turn from His ways (Jeremiah 32:40).

Ezekiel declared the covenant would come with a new heart and a new spirit - having the heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).  God would give me His Spirit so that I may follow His ways (Ezekiel 36:27). This promise was to Israel first, but has now come to the Gentiles that we would provoke Israel to jealousy (Romans 11:11). How can we provoke Israel, however, unless we walk in the fulfillment of the promise to their fathers? Like having a check and never depositing it, so we treat the blessings of the New Covenant if we don’t receive them.

Jeremiah once said, “The heart is more deceitful than anything else and desperately sick - who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Could it be this is one of the reasons that the center of the New Covenant is the giving of a new and free heart? Inside of the new heart He has put His Spirit and the fear of Himself, that we would walk in the ways He has written in us. Now I can fulfill the greatest commandment, to love Him with all of my heart (a heart not sick or deceptive) and with all of my being.

This is where those moments after the Awakening Meetings becomes just like my time at the meetings. The Spirit that washes me in the times of unified gathering is the same Spirit that abides in me now as a testimony of the New Covenant. I just remind myself of the everlasting covenant in which I am joined, and my heart is refreshed once more. I encourage all to take some time to delight in His eternal covenant of love and mercy,  and “guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life” (Proverbs 4:23).