Behind the Stone: Abiding in the Will of God

By Richard A. Porter

With both eyes searching and with one finger typing, I heard through the Spirit, This book will be the best of its kind. The problem with spelling out the truth is that many churches will not handle the weight of this book's convictions. Our faith does not always correspond with the Gospel's truth. However, a "new crop" is here and will awaken believers to the Gospel promises. Through the revelations the Holy Spirit puts into their hearts, they will have the ability to stand upright in Christ.

Prepare your ground for the young men and women who will be highly favored by God.

Smaller in number are the evil standing against our Father's perfect design, but their unity overpowers Christianity plagued by division. These pages present the opportunity to become one with our Holy Father in becoming one Behind the Stone.

My story tells the importance of staying obedient and is a must read for those desiring to live a fruitful and sanctified life in our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886443288

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Introduction

Part 1

Chapter 1: The Vision

Chapter 2: Judging Ourselves

Chapter 3: Faith via Faithfulness

Chapter 4: Testimony of Redemption

Chapter 5: Just Take Note

Chapter 6: The Happy-Go-Lucky Churches

Chapter 7: Having a Repentant Heart

Chapter 8: No Godly Faith in Self

My Heartfelt Prayer

Chapter 9: Divine Love through Baptism Prepares Us for Battle

Chapter 10: Meekness, the Wisdom Which Battles

Chapter 11: Abiding in Christ for Battle

The Oppression of the Free

A Quick Summary

Chapter 12: Freedom in the Vine

Chapter 13: Where Are God's People?

Chapter 14: Freedom, the Seed of Change

Chapter 15: The Freeing Truth behind this Book

Chapter 16: Thy Will Be Done

Chapter 17: Grace that Heals and Delivers

Chapter 18: The Disobedient Child

Chapter 19: Walking in the Knowledge of the Lord

Chapter 20: Sanctified by Grace

Part 2: The Prophecy

Chapter 21: The Grace of Salvation

Chapter 22: Without Love, Religion Is a Dangerous Place to Be

Chapter 23: The Book of Balance

Chapter 24: The Cultivation Begins

Chapter 25: The Word of Faith Church

Chapter 26: The Joy and Boldness of the Free

Chapter 27: The Last Chapter; The New Christian Crop

A Short Summary

About the Author

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Behind the Stone

Abiding in the Will of God

Richard A. Porter

ISBN 979-8-88644-327-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88644-328-8 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Richard A. Porter

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.

—John 7:17 (NKJV)

For questions or comments, contact pastor Rick Porter at [e-mail]. In Jesus, we are highly blessed.

Introduction

The first revelation the Holy Spirit placed deep in my heart wasn't on divine healing, being made the righteousness of Christ, nor was it about forgiveness; it was Man built up what I, Jesus, came to destroy, religion. Most people of faith believe religion is a good thing, believing, If only others came to know the faith practiced by us, the world would be better off. Some Christian denominations believe their rituals are the only path to heaven. The next revelation wasn't how much our Heavenly Father loves us, how He longs to have an intimate relationship with us, or on sanctification, but Worship is not an event. Worship is a way of life. The Holy Spirit revealed to me that worship needed to come out of the hands of men and put into the Father's hand of grace.

God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24 NKJV)

Before the Holy Spirit led me into various churches, the Lord revealed that our religious traditions had stagnated God's living Word. It is the Lord's will—and it is my hope—to expose to the Body of Christ how little we understand the magnitude of our Father's grace.

However, to understand the great extent of grace, we must learn to be led by the Holy Spirit to manifest faith in all the Gospel promises. We must learn to follow the Lord's peace, being filled with His joy no matter what trials, tribulations, and persecutions we travel through. The Lord is calling us into His rest, and it starts with improving the imaginations of our hearts. We begin this process with the revelation that salvation and being made righteous are one. The power to be free from the dominion of sin is to see ourselves righteous in Christ. Repentance happens when our hearts are sincerely fastened onto the Lord for the Holy Spirit's conviction and deliverance by being made righteous in Christ.

In Christ, we shall find our rest on the Father's right hand far above all dark principalities. This is the rest our Lord is calling us into as the Bible clearly states, Because as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17 NKJV). Abiding in the heavenly places in Christ is our sanctification and where God's grace lies in its fullness. I hope this book will aid the Holy Spirit in His quest to take us into this higher realm of grace. I hope my story makes an easier path to freedom, which I can now share with you. To give you a hint on what this last sentence means, I would like to leave you with the following: if nothing can be as freeing as following the Holy Spirit's promptings, where will the total disregard to His promptings lead to?

With sincere love within our Lord Jesus Christ,

Rick Porter

Street Pastor and Evangelist

We must learn to follow the Lord's peace, being filled with His joy no matter what trials, tribulations, and persecutions we must travel through.

Part 1

Chapter 1

The Vision

Religion wars against our souls. It is the Spirit that gives life. Religion does not understand the genuine nature of our Father's unconditional love. Religious spirits knowingly and unknowingly foster control and manipulation over a kingdom created to be free. This book counsels Christian hearts that, through the gift of salvation (being made the righteousness of Christ), our Father will work His freeing truth and love through us.

My journey with the Lord has been an adventure, sometimes filled with hope, mysticism, and freedom but at other times filled with disobedience and bondage. The Holy Spirit is calling me to be brutally honest. Searching my heart since the day of my baptism, I always believed in Jesus, but I would run from God's grace. In other words, I have been freed from the condemnation of this world into the glorious liberty found in Jesus Christ. To feel the weight of God's law, being born a gentile, I was not part of in the first place. We who believe in Jesus Christ are no longer under the world's condemnation, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Galatians 5:18 NKJV). There is much in this paragraph, but for now, the Holy Spirit has dealt with me concerning this. Not having a healthy fear (obedience to our Father's will) of the Lord is why the blessings bestowed upon me did not keep me in the steadfastness of faith. Being disobedient to God's will, I have not always allowed the Holy Spirit to lead me. I never stopped believing in Jesus as the Son of God, but I have not always abode in God's Son.

The Holy Spirit will have me start by writing about my second vision received as a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. Although I had supernatural experiences as a young boy, I'm about to write as a Christian anointed with the Holy Spirit. To me, visions and prophecies come by being sensitive to the spirits in seeing what is beyond the natural and hearing things others could not, but they do not always come from God. Therefore, I write very little about these things. However, I was in my late twenties when I realized most people didn't have this same ability. I now believe everyone baptized in Christ received this ability. I also think most gifts come to exist by developing an intimate relationship with our holy and righteous Father through the Lordship of Christ.

Over twenty-five years ago, this vision came to me concerning our Lord's church. On my knees by a pyramid of rocks, where the Holy Spirit inspired me to pile as a place for prayer and worship, I found myself on a hill looking down upon a church. What was unusual about this church were the two smaller separate doors almost exactly underneath the church steeple. From my right, coming in twos, looking the same in dark-gray robes, were people marching into the right-hand door I knew to be spiritually impoverished or dead. Simultaneously walking out of the left-hand door and turning left were the same unchanged people as when they went in. From my vantage point on top of the hill, both lines were as long as I could see.

This vision could change if more of the church's leadership understood the depth and richness of God's grace.

Many, not all, are pastors, teachers, evangelists, and prophets called into ministerial duties; but only a few of these vessels traveled through the purifying fire to be our Lord's anointed. We must learn to recognize the anointed through their worship, displayed by their faith, humility, and spiritual love felt sensuously flowing through them. One may think that this is too harsh and judgmental to be from God, but the Lord will have you meditate on these scriptures:

You [Lord] prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anointed my head with oil, and my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:5–6 NKJV)

How one becomes an anointed vessel does not necessarily come by educational means. They have learned that the gift of salvation constitutes being made righteous and can lead others down the same path. To stand tall in the presence of our enemies without wavering from the source of life, trusting in Jesus Christ and the Gospel He preached, is a sign of being anointed. Anointed Christians are not afraid of darkness. Steadfast faith will stand against it, for we have the power to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19 KJV). Making disciples who can follow the Holy Spirit to preach in our streets while not having a church controlled by numbers and good works is a sign of the pastorally anointed. Overflowing with God's goodness through the power of the Holy Spirit is our anointing.

Because of the Holy Spirit's led Reformation, the devil lost some of his energy of oppressing religious societies through paramilitary and parliamentary law, power, and greed, severing the freedom found by abiding in the preeminence of Christ. Losing some ability to control, the devil decided to mask himself in other ways. One way is in the misguided perception of grace. Grace comes by the cleansing blood of Jesus, but God purposely did not disenable His law. God's law is our counterbalance, keeping us faithful to the grace found in Jesus Christ. God's law wars against our souls, but it teaches the necessity of our inheritance being made the righteousness of God in Christ, where sin becomes powerless. When the church understands the fullness and richness of God's grace, there will be less abuse of it. Those who receive much would love much, and love fulfills the law. We fulfill the law by abiding in Jesus Christ, shackling the power of sin so our Father can accomplish His will through us.

It becomes imperative Christians learn to judge the Spirit or spirits we are following, written about in the next chapter, Judging Ourselves. Our hearts should know when preachers teach the Truth (Jesus) in Truth (Spirit), for we must follow after God's wisdom. Wisdom is of the Spirit. Wisdom is the life we follow when baptized in the Spirit. We will know those who not only publicize the Spirit but are baptized in Him; for freedom reigns when fellowshipping in a healthy, holy, and spiritually led environment.

We must learn to recognize the anointed through their worship, displayed by their faith, humility, and spiritual love felt sensuously flowing through them.

On is our contact for those whose hearts received the gift of righteousness through the power of the cross.

He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36 KJV)

In Matthew 25:1–13, all ten virgins believed in the bridegroom (Jesus). However, when the cry came forth, the Lord is here! five had our Father's light (His love through His righteous Son) in their hearts. Five did not. The five who had their oil lamps lit went with our Lord to the marriage. The others tried finding oil for their lamps, but it was too late.

The door shut. (25:10)

In Luke, Jesus warns:

The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looked not for him, at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. (12:46 KJV)

Before I understood the heart of our merciful Father, whom I now serve wholeheartedly, I abused grace. I squandered precious time building walls from His presence by not being committed to the Lordship of Christ.

I'll simply repent toward the end of my life and live harmlessly.

But the Holy Spirit spoke against me when He revealed to me this scripture: He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathers not with me scatters (Luke 11:23 KJV).

At first, I believed God was having me write for some form of restoration of the divided, powerless, and, in many cases, the faithless and disobedient church. His purpose is not to restore. Our Holy Father plans to draw a people onto Himself through Christ, who will climax into the next Reformation battling for our cities, towns, and world. There will be a movement, and this movement has already begun—an awakening of the saints, the joining together of our souls into the one Body of Christ, and a rolling of the cornerstone, crushing some while releasing others.

The stone will be rolled by us because we have the power to do it. The stone can move on His own, being Jesus Christ, who is the cornerstone and is all-powerful. But He is waiting, along with the rest of His creation, for us to move Him. In reality, the stone does not roll. It builds and expands; however, when the stone moves, let us be behind Him and not caught in the middle when the two forces of earth and heaven collide. These two forces, good and evil, have surrogate names called light and darkness. It is time for all believers to turn their light switches on. Those living in darkness will have to find the switch while others must examine its position. We do not want to be in the dark when the Lord opens the door because it will quickly close.

What is exciting, beautiful, and powerful about the Holy Spirit's upcoming outpouring is accomplishing the will that God purposes for His children. Those behind the stone will be one in Jesus Christ, in whom dwells the fullness of our Father's everlasting love. The glory of our Father is the light bringing salvation to our neighborhoods. Light comes to fruition by abiding in the Holy Spirit through the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Outgoing ministries are doing great work reaching and delivering the good news of the Gospel, but our neighborhoods are growing distant and dark. And this, my brothers and sisters, is why our Lord called me to write. The Lord says to stop being complacent and grow in the fruit of the Spirit! For faith is abiding in our Father's Holy Spirit.

Those behind the stone will be one in Jesus Christ, in whom dwells the fullness of our Father's everlasting love.

Chapter 2

Judging Ourselves

In preparation for receiving the purpose behind my story, I asked the Lord, Why? Why are You having me set this book's tone with such a harsh and integrated subject as judging ourselves?

In prayer, I found that the Lord's purpose is twofold. First churches that have stopped judging themselves had plateaued while those who continually judge their relationship with Christ press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14 KJV). Churches that have plateaued will not achieve their heavenly calling, for leveling off is not following. We are to unify underneath the Lordship of Jesus, but this will never happen as long as we are plateauing. Christians will unite past theological differences only when united through our Father's Spirit of wisdom and truth. God is now calling us to evolve into the image revealed by Him in the witness of His loving Son, Jesus, through the Gospel of truth.

Secondly only now are we learning to tap into the authority we have as the children of the living God. But our Father's divine nature will never come into fullness without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's motivation is to lead us to the quiet but forward-moving voice of our kind and faithful shepherd, Jesus. Many Christian leaders lack the faith Christ came to empower, but the Holy Spirit will lead us away from the bondage of contradictory voices. Contradictory voices weaken the church, silenced and influenced by a pagan world. Christians are to unify behind the Spirit and voice belonging to our Lord Jesus Christ. Unity can only come into being by judging the Spirit or spirits we follow. We must ask ourselves, Are God's words coming alive, or are they words of plagiarization? Are we hearing from the same Spirit, or had many different voices infiltrated the church? The obvious answer is yes. There is more than one spirit leading the church, for there is hardly any recognizable harmony within our Christian faith.

God calls us to exercise the same faith in Him as Christ taught and shown. To accomplish this, we must be willing to open our hearts. He is asking His people to look deeper into our souls, allowing the purification process, made possible by the blood and righteousness of Jesus, to sanctify our hearts for the upward manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will lead with one voice in the manifestation of the Truth, but we must allow our Lord's righteousness to stabilize us. God does not want to keep visiting our hearts. He intends to lodge or, better yet, anchor Himself in our hearts, where His love will magnify the glory we have in Christ. Christ redeemed us to be holy through His righteousness, but it is the love of God working through us that becomes our perfection. The anchoring of the Holy Spirit for the manifestation of God's love is why we must take time to repent, sanctify our hearts in Christ, and judge the Spirit or spirits we are following. Through our righteousness in Christ, we will find the empowerment of God.

Many Christian leaders lack the faith Christ came to empower, but the Holy Spirit will lead us away from the bondage of contradictory voices.

Why has God allowed darkness? Why has darkness consumed the earth? Can it be for mankind to acknowledge how much we need Him? To acknowledge, without His Spirit, peace and harmony are an impossibility? Yet for His presence and peace is why God commanded, Be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy (Leviticus 19:2 KJV) and why our Father sent His Son to die for our sins. Isn't it true that the purity found through the blood of Jesus cleanses for this purpose of holiness? Christ came to purify so our Father's Spirit can walk and lead mankind. The Holy Spirit is the still, quiet voice (wisdom), whose desire is to lead the Body of Christ through all this world's demonic bondages. Bondages such as adulteries, envy, poverty, anger, hatred, and desiring ungodly earthly pleasures are things that should not belong to us. We go through trials in the hope of receiving an understanding, loving, and purified heart by becoming strong in His Spirit. Within God's inexhaustible Spirit, we will find joy and miraculous freedom.

The Holy Spirit is making us worthy of being called the disciples of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is revealing to us all things it hears, hoping, in hearing, we will hear and, when seeing, we will see to be exceedingly blessed at the judgment seat of Christ. The grace of salvation came into the world, empowering us to become the image of God's dear Son and to maintain and do good works, finishing the work that Jesus began. But Jesus asked this question: When I come back, will I find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8 KJV).

To be found faithful, we must first learn to judge. The Bible in 1 Corinthians 2:15 (KJV) states, But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet no man judges him. To become our Supreme Judge's (God's) advocates, we become spiritual by humbling ourselves to the Lord. Then a spiritual being makes righteous judgments on all things through the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit reveals the judgments of God. We cannot judge the heart of a fellow believer, meaning where they are in their relationship with Christ, but we must learn to seek judgments for our own hearts. Neither can we cast judgments, for all judgments come from the Lord. But we judge the Spirit or spirits we desirously follow. We will know the hearts anointed by the Holy Spirit into leadership positions; our Lord's peace and power will be witnessed in them when we open our hearts to God, who will always judge righteously.

Jesus said, Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven but those who do the will of my Father (Matthew 7:21–22 KJV). Later we will probe more into this scripture; but for now, the apostle Paul wrote, No man can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 121:3 KJV). John wrote, Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him (1 John 1:15 KJV). If what Christ, Paul, and John said is true, it is not only Spirit but will that destines us into God's everlasting kingdom. We are empowered by His Holy Spirit to solidify our faith to fulfill God's preordained will so that we may abide forever.

All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:16–17 KJV)

God is a God of justice and truth who gave us His Spirit to guide and lead, but He will not dictate our will. Many people will be absorbed by a spirit of grayness, finding it easier to put faith in humanity's wisdom when the anointing from God gives all believers the ability to discern the Spirit (or spirits) we are following. By being followers of only Jesus through the Holy Spirit, we will magnify the glory of our Father's eternal light, becoming His light of the world (Matthew 5:14–16).

We cannot judge the heart of a fellow believer, meaning where they are in their relationship with Christ, but we must learn to seek judgments for our own hearts. Neither can we cast judgments, for all judgments come from the Lord. But we judge the Spirit or spirits we desirously follow.

We tend to promote and follow preachers with natural communication abilities, and this is why the church is filled with different spirits, such as life coaches: Explore your God-given talents, becoming the best you can be! or Plant a seed, and God will bless you a hundredfold. Yet I have learned that God uses the abilities we trust the least, our inadequacies, to confront the wisdom of this world, In weakness, you are made strong, leaving our carnal nature for the freeing world of God in Jesus Christ. As we trust in our own abilities, the church will never find her rest. To abide in our Lord's rest, we must learn to put our faith in our Heavenly Father, whose declarations are not only to bless us with the truth but to make us become the conviction of a world that doesn't know the truth. However, we have been oblivious to the spirits throughout the centuries by not seeking God's righteous judgments on the revealing truth of His written Word. Having our hearts, ears, and eyes open to His truth is why Jesus said to us, Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment (John 7:24 KJV).

God led me to churches where there were Christians who were saying insulting words to or about others, who may not have had the ability to dress to their standards, or whose form of Christian worship may have been different. These Christians were able to quote many scriptures, but they didn't know the Word of God.

If one would just mention how prideful and hurtful some of their sayings can be, they would angrily declare in their defense, Who are you to judge? Then they would quote, Jesus said, ‘Judge not! Or you, too, will be judged!'

Even with all their pride, these churches displayed confidence believing their souls were all right. They would argue over scriptures and were constantly jockeying with each other over more esteemed positions. But God is a merciful and a just God who knows we are only human. Arguing over the meanings and the motivations behind certain scriptures, one may think they can be right.

I should buy some history books and grab onto the essence of how life was back then. After all, I'm smart. I love history, and I can add my gained knowledge. I might even be able to solve the argument over whether or not the eye of the needle is an actual needle or the name of a gate made for camels to crawl under.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church:

Brethren, I could not speak unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal [earthy, unspiritual], even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither are you able to now. For you are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not yet carnal and walk like men? (1 Corinthians 3:1–3 KJV)

As I was writing this chapter, a friend invited me to