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Date: Oct 14, 2002

This word is submitted by Teresa Seputis (ts@godspeak.org)

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                 I am raising the standard

Child of Mine,  I am raising a standard of righteousness over My church 
and over each My chlidren, who are called by My name.  I am calling My
church in to holiness and purity and requiring that they be separate 
from the world.  Some things that were once permissible are no longer
so.  I am calling My children to walk in holiness, righteousness and
in love and forgiveness.  There must be a separation between light and
darkness, and My light must shine brightly through My people.

I am about to come upon some of you as a refining fire.  Do not fear.
It is not My desire to consume you or to destroy you.  Rather, I desire
to burn away the chaff, I desire to cause the purity of My spirit and
My anointing that is within you to rise up and spring forward.  I am
doing a work of purification in My people's hearts.  I am convicting
them that they might step away from the world's false standards of 
righteousness and come into My standards.  I am calling My people to 
reflect My character and My nature.  Child, I am calling you to be holy, 
even as I am holy.

And child, I am calling you to walk in love, even as My Son loved the 
world and gave Himself as a sacrifice for her.  I do not call you to 
speak words of condemnation and judgement to the world, for Jesus alone
is the righteous Judge.  He alone has earned the right to condemn.  And 
the time of His judgement is not yet.  This is a time of reconciliation, 
of winning the lost with My love.  And I am calling you to speak words 
of love and words of life and words of reconciliation.  I have not 
appointed you as My judges to condemn the word.  Rather I have appointed 
you as My witness, that many will hear the good news and believe unto 
salvation.  

In the past I have allowed some in My church to misrepresent Me as a 
hostile and judgemental God who hates those who are lost.  But I say to 
you, this is a time where I cannot allow Myself to be misrepresented, 
because we are entering a season of great harvest.  You must live My 
rightous standards, you must be a demonstration of My holiness.  But you 
must not be a mouthpeace of condemnation and judgement against those who 
do not know Me and who do not walk in My ways.  This is the season where
you must be a representation of My love to them, that many will be won 
to Me.  The words that go out of your mouth must not be designed to push 
the world away from Me, but rather to draw them unto Myself.

Demonstrate My holiness in your life and walk; live by My standards, for
I have called you to separate from the world and I have called you to be 
Holy.  Demonstarte through your life that there is a difference between My 
people and the world; and I will pour My blessings and My anointing upon 
you.  As you walk in Holiness and reflect My character, I will demonstrate 
that I take care of My own.  I will show My goodness through you, I will 
show My care and My love and My provision to My people.  Separate yourself 
from the world's standards and the world's way and walk in My way.  My way 
is holiness, and My way is love.

Yes, demonstrate My holiness and My purity in your day to day life.
But at the same time, speak forth My words of love and of life and of 
reconciliation to the lost.