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Archive for December, 2015

The Essential Christian loneliness

Posted by appolus on December 30, 2015

The man who has passed on into the divine presence is actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles with the religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. But he should not expect things to be otherwise. After all, he is a stranger and a pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart. He walks with God in the garden of his own soul-and who but God can walk there with him? He is of another spirit from the multitudes that tread the courts of the Lord’s house. He has seen that which they have only heard and he walks among them somewhat as Zacharias walked after his return from the altar when the people whispered ” He has seen a vision.” (Luke1:22) (Tozer)

Tozer rightfully identifies the loneliness of the walk of the saint who has stepped behind the veil so to speak. Certainly it has always been this way. Yet in these days this loneliness the saint feels, this isolation that plagues him can only get worse. For part of this loneliness has always been associated with separation down through corridors of time. In every age every group of saints has faced the challenge of their time and they faced it, for the most part alone or in smaller groups.

Now why do I say that it can only get worse? I believe that it will only get worse because this world is growing darker, darker than it ever has been before. There is coming a time such as has not been before. Before it is all over right will have become wrong, day will have become night and every saint who has walked in the garden of the Lord’s heart will be more isolated that any group of saints ever have been in the past. Can I suggest that when a saint is compelled deeper into the heart of God then that is a deep blessing. Yes in the natural sense of the Body of Christ we yearn for fellowship, deep genuine fellowship. Yet there is a an even more powerful force that grips us. This force lies at the center of who we are. If we were to drill into the center of who we are we would find this here. If we could see with spiritual eyes into the deepest parts of who we are we would see this. What is it? Its a gift that we received upon which everything stands. It is the Truth and our love for it.

And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2Th 2:10-12)

It is such a serious thing is it not, the truth? By it we stand or fall. Those who receive the love of the truth are saved, those who do not, perish. Now, if you have received the love of the truth, nothing will compel you to give it up. You have received it as a gift from God Himself and it burns in your bones. This is why there is more loneliness ahead in this world for the saint. For the world and indeed much of Christendom has turned its back on the truth. They are willing to trade the truth for the love of man and the acceptance of the world. We know that perfect love casts out all fear. This love, which we saints have received will do its perfect work. It will keep us in power and give us a mind that is not shaken by circumstances, a heart and a mind that stands upon the unshakable Word of God. Yet not just the Word of God but the dynamic reality of the presence of God.

And that is the separation. Only in like-minded saints can we ever find fellowship. Only that kind of fellowship moving forward will be acceptable. The reality is that there is an ever-widening gap between those who call themselves followers of Jesus and those who, as Tozer would put it, have seen as opposed to heard.  On the road to Emmaeus two saints said ““Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” The Holy Spirit opens up the Word to His saints as they encounter the living God in their hearts. He leads them and He guides them and at the bottom of it all is Truth and the saints love for it. What is Truth? Jesus is Truth and in that Truth He give us life and that more abundantly and He shows us the way. If that way leads us down the dark and narrow road of circumstances and loneliness, then that will not stop us from going down that road.

And so the gap indeed widens for the genuine saint who has received the love of the truth. The world and all of its ways have forced itself into Christendom and demands allegiance. Not total  allegiance to begin with for that old serpent is far too wise for that. Just a foothold, juts a little foothold that’s all, today, but tomorrow comes the stronghold and then the stronghold becomes the base from which total dominance of all the land becomes a reality. The genuine saint flees away from all of that and will find less and less places of refuge until at last he has no where else to run. Yet the man or the woman of God has found a hiding place that can never be conquered or taken. It is the high tower of the Living God. It is the shadow underneath the wing of the most high. It is the secret garden of the heart of promise given to us. There we walk saints. It is a place where we know. It is common to us. I have met saints from all over the world who ” know,” this place. And my spirit witnesses with theirs and theirs with mine.

Before this dark old world is finished with us saints we will have gathered there as the reality of this present world comes. There are but two worlds, two realities. This world and the Kingdom of God. When the Lord returns, which world will He find  us in? Each world is exclusive and demands total loyalty. We are witnessing the stripping away of all of the pretense of this world. There is more stripping to come as the master of this world exposes himself for who and what he is. And antidote to this world and the father of lies is the Truth and our love for it. Let us stand fast in the coming days and follow the passion of our hearts no matter where it leads us.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

Two classes of Christian

Posted by appolus on December 23, 2015

For those of you who have followed my writings over the years, you will know that I have spoken a lot about the coming of the Lord, the great falling away and the separation of the sheep from the goats. In one shape or fashion I have covered those subjects a lot and of course spoke about the Remnant of God, God’s witness here on the earth being separated by times and circumstances from everything religious.

In this piece I want to speak about the differences within genuine Christianity and the basic theme of this message is to all genuine saints ” seek the Lord while He may be found with your whole heart.” And so, I would like to suggest that there are two broad categories of saints. Now, remember, these are broad categories and within these categories are degrees and measures and overlaps. But for the sake of clarity I want to speak about the two broad categories to bring understanding to who we are as a Body right now and what that means moving forward as the darkness continues to descend and the evil one is mustering all of his forces for his last stand before the Lord comes back.

Andrew Murray writes in “The Two Covenants,”……………..

Not only among the Galatians but throughout the Church there are to be found two classes of Christians. Some are content with the mingled life, half flesh and half spirit, half self-effort and half grace. Others are not content with this but are seeking with their whole heart to know full deliverance from sin and the abiding power for a walk in God’s presence that the New Covenant has brought and can give. May God help us all to be satisfied with nothing less.

Can you see what brother Andrew is saying? He mentions the Galatians who of course had begun in the Spirit but were now attempting to walk out their salvation in the flesh, good works, ordinances , special days and weeks and sabbaths and so on. These were Christians all right, but Christians who had not continued in the Spirit but now walked in the flesh. I want to suggest that a great deal of Christendom is walking in the flesh, trying to figure things out in their own wisdom, falling back upon what they know. If we go back to the father of faith, Abraham, we see an insight into what it means to try to figure things out for yourself. We have Issac and we have Ishmael. One is the child of the flesh the other is the child of the Spirit. One is an attempted answer to the promise figured out by natural means, the other is the answer to the promise delivered by supernatural means. One gives life and birth to a blessing for all the nations, the other is separated and cast out and becomes an enemy to the child of promise. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, prophecy, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 6 Comments »

The paradigm is Shifting

Posted by appolus on December 21, 2015

Our paradigm is shifting and all the wise men in their own wisdom or the wisdom of old wine still desperately cling to the past. What made sense in the old paradigm makes no sense in the new.

God is doing a work, walls are falling, structures are crumbling and the Kingdoms of men are shaking. This rolling stone of the gospel has gathered much moss and muck over the millennia and has been rolled into the mire of the world and its ways and its systems until it has become unrecognizable.

Now, God is shaking all that can be shaken. All the moss and the muck is being shaken off and only that which is pure shall be left before the shaking has ended. The world and all of its ways are like muck and it gets everywhere. You can’t get near it without eventually being covered by it. Yet, the rivers of life shall wash away the muck or sweep away that which does not stand upon the foundation.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, prophecy, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 14 Comments »

Take my hand mam

Posted by appolus on December 17, 2015

I wrote this poem based on the last thing my sister said on this earth. She was lying on her death bed and holding my mum’s hand. She was unconscious but awoke for a moment and said ” mam,” and then slipped away as my mom held her hand. It’s a profound thing to feel the life of your loved one fade away. This is quite a Scottish poem so my fellow Greenockians will probably understand it better. (Whiskey was the name of our cat growing up and chip was our wee dog)

Take my hand mam
It’s time for me to leave
Why so sad mam
I see those tears upon your sleeve

Don’t cry for me mam
This life has not been good to me
Yet in just a moment’s time
I’ll finally be set free

I remember ally bally
And sitting on your knee
I remember Whiteside’s flowers
And being late for tea

I remember summers long ago
And swimming in the dam
Fires on Kilgreggan’s beach
But most of all my mam

I remember daddy kissing you
Me jumping on his back
I remember wee chip standing there
And whiskey getting whacked

I was young them mam, you know
I could never guess what lay ahead of me
Just as well, don’t you think mam
That the future’s something we cannot see

I lie here now I see your face
My hand in yours a warm embrace
He’s coming now, the Lord for me
And with Him forever I will be

Goodbye mam it’s time to go
I loved you always, this you know
Take my hand and lay it down
For I’ve exchanged it for a crown

Close your eyes and think of me
Tighter mam, now, can you see?
I’m beautiful, He’s made me whole
He’s replaced everything the locusts stole

Mam, we’ll meet again one day
When you come to the end of the narrow way
And together we’ll dance and praise and sing
The glories of our risen King.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, spiritual poetry, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Do you move in the power of the Spirit ?

Posted by appolus on December 14, 2015

A.W.Tozer writes “ Seven things that come to the believers in the fullness of the Spirit.”

1. Knowledge of the actual presence of God.
2. Possession of the true joy of the Holy Spirit.
3. Their words now penetrated and arrested.
4. A clear sense of the reality of all things.
5. Sharp separation between the believer and the world.
6. Their new great delight in prayer.
7. Their new love for the Scriptures of God.

I would like to add a few more of my own. A love of other saints. A love of praise and worship. And so, if we run through this list, what do we find? I would argue that we would find your very average believer in the early church and as it progressed through the centuries less and less so, apart from moments and times of “revival.” I wonder what these old writers that held a high view of the church make of the times in which we now love? Don’t you think they would be beside themselves? Men like Sparks and Ravenhill and A.B.Simpson from the turn of the last century. Lets go through the list and as we do I want you to think how this applies to you personally and to the church where you fellowship. These are my own thoughts on the seven points Tozer raises.

1. A knowledge of the actual presence of God. In other places it is described as the manifest presence of God. It used to be written about a lot but I dont find that anymore. Christendom has been so inundated by soulish activities and music that at least a couple of generations have grown up in Christendom knowing nothing of the manifest presence of God either personally or corporately. They have never felt that holy heaviness come down from heaven and rest like dew upon their heads, quieting them, lowering their heads, raising their hands in surrender and worship, not in response to the words of a ” worship leader,” but in response to the very presence of God that stills their very souls and elevates them to the throne of grace where they can only whisper ” Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty,” lest they take any attention away from a Holy God who has come down to visit. Awe and majesty and reverence accompanied by rivers of tears and a deep, deep inner sense of wholeness and all things being possible.

2. Possession of the true joy of the Holy Spirit. Now this joy is not the joy of the world or as the world knows it. It is very much related to that part of the spirit that is ever connected to the presence of God. The world’s definition of joy is ” a feeling of great pleasure or happiness.” Yet this is not the joy of the saint. The saint’s joy is not rooted in the soulish realm of feelings at all, it is an activity of the spirit which produces joy from our very relationship to the Lord. It is sensed in its greatest depths when, at least as far as the world can see, there is absolutely no reason for pleasure or happiness at all. The essence of the joy of the saint is to know that he is loved and that the Lord is with him in whatever his circumstances are, this produces an inner happiness and contentment when there should be none and it is one of the great strengths of the saints.

3. Their words now penetrated and arrested. In Acts 2 when Peter spoke to the crowd, scripture tells us that the crowd were ” stabbed in their hearts.” The Greek word for this phrase is Katanusso. A similar word is used when Jesus is stabbed with the spear, that word is nusso. Now Katanusso is a much more violent word than nusso. It means agitate, to thoroughly penetrate, to violently pierce. And so the Holy Spirit is showing us that there is greater violence taking place in Acts chapter two than even when the Lord was run through with a spear. The violence was to men’s souls. Their hard hearts were being violently penetrated by the very words spoken under the influence of the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter two those affected cried out ” what must we do,” yet just a few chapters later when Stephen is speaking with the same power, men were stabbed in the heart but gnashed their teeth and fell upon Stephen and stoned him. In either case, men were not left unmoved by the power of the Spirit speaking though the saints.

4. A clear sense of the reality of all things. To have vision, to have an eternal vision is to have a clear sense of the reality of all things. There is a reality of this world and it is powerful, it presses in on the senses and for those outside of the Spirit of God it is all-consuming. Yet there is a greater reality that lies within the saints. It is the reality of the Kingdom of God and they walk in it. Now these two realities undoubtedly compete and we as saints must be on our guard that we do not let the realities of this world overwhelm us and rob us of the realities of the Kingdom in which we truly walk. This is the battle between spirit and flesh. The clear sense of reality therefore is truly knowing that our time here is short, and knowing that we are on a narrow path that leads us to eternity and actually knowing that this eternity has already begun and we are simply in the corruptible stage and there comes the tie soon where these bodies will be raised in incorruption. When we walk in this reality, the reality of the world loses its power and we begin to see more clearly in the spiritual than we can see in the natural and the spiritual begins to dominate everything that we do.

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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 5 Comments »

Keep on walking!-A word from the Lord

Posted by appolus on December 10, 2015

I wrote this word this morning after being in prayer and hearing the Spirit say ” Keep on walking.” Although I sensed it was to the Body of Christ, I also believe it is for someone specific. Be blessed …..bro Frank

Keep on Walking

Keep on walking
Through the rain and through the snow
Keep on walking
Allow the Lord to show you where to go

Keep on walking
Through the fire and through the flood
Keep on walking
Knowing that you’re covered by His Blood

Keep on walking
When there seems no way ahead
Keep on walking
Though you be lost, know that you are Spirit led

Keep on walking
Though there’s no strength to go on
Keep on walking
Through the darkness till you reach the dawn

Keep on walking
Though every instinct says give up
Keep on walking
Till the darkness ends and you see the sun come up

Keep on walking
Never stop until the very end
Keep on walking
He walks with you, He is your Lord and He’s your friend

Though today you may feel you are alone
Can I tell you from the one upon the throne
Keep on walking for I am right there by your side
I am at the door and I am coming for my Bride

I love you and I know just where you are
I am near though it seems that I am far
You are not alone I am with you all the way
I see you tears and hear your prayers each day

Walk my child come walk with me each day
Open up your heart and I will show the way
Though trials now seem so very hard to bear
Know that I am with you and that I truly care

One day soon you’ll know just as you’re known
And dwell with me eternally before my Holy throne
Do not hide from me, come and keep on talking
Get up once more, set your face, it’s time to keep on walking.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, spiritual poetry, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

A great falling away-David Wilkerson

Posted by appolus on December 9, 2015

A great Falling away-David Wilkerson

Today there is a great falling away from faith and trust in God. Paul warned about this: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [Christ’s return] shall not come, except there come a falling away first” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

In the Old Testament, the Lord gives us an example of what happens to those who fall away from faith in God’s power on their behalf. In 2 Chronicles 14, King Asa faced a million-man army of Ethiopians. But the king had great faith: “Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God” (2 Chronicles 14:11).

What happened then? “The Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa” (14:12). What great faith Asa had! For years afterward, “There was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa” (15:19). For years, Asa walked in faith before the Lord, and that brought God’s favor to Judah. A great peace fell over the land, and that peace became a witness to the world. Soon hungry people from surrounding nations flooded Judah, because they knew Asa walked with God.

Then, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, Asa faced another crisis. Israel’s king rose up against Judah, capturing Ramah in an effort to cut off all trade to and from Jerusalem. The plan was to starve Judah into submission. Asa was left completely vulnerable, but this time he didn’t rely on the Lord in his crisis. Instead of praying for God’s direction and counsel, he turned to the king of Syria. In exchange for Syria’s help, Asa opened up Israel’s treasury, emptying it of all the nation’s gold and silver.

And so Judah was delivered from their enemy, but not by the Lord. That glory went to an alien army from Syria—and Judah’s witness to the world of God’s power was gone. A righteous prophet in the land came to Asa with this scathing word: “Thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God . . . For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars” (16:7, 9).

I am convinced many Christians today are troubled for the same reason Asa was. They have war in their souls because they have traded faith for self-reliance. But the fact is, there is no way a follower of Jesus can have faith in any other source and not be troubled. (David Wilkerson)

David Wilkerson goes to the very heart of what Christians in this land struggle with. I have witnessed good people going back and forth on this issue, knowing they should not put their trust in anything else but God, but then something happens, a terrorist attack, a collapse on Wall St and so on and suddenly it is back to trusting in men. We have not been called to be puppets on strings, strings of fear that the enemy can pull anytime he wants to move us or disturb us or motivate us to do his work for him. So often it seems for so many that their lives are like a roller-coaster, each new turn and bend and hill creating another round of screaming and panic.

The days that are coming require the saints to put all of their trust in God. We will not have the luxury of circumstances to get away with having our trust in anything else. Time to get of the roller-coaster of reacting wildly and with fear to every report and every event. We saints have been called to be a light unto the world. Let others lose their heads in fear but let us keep ours in trust and peace. Hold fast brothers and sisters. Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem centuries ago but it highlights many truths that we as saints should live by………….bro Frank

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, prophecy, revival, signs and wonders, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »

Polarized Christianity-Art Katz

Posted by appolus on December 6, 2015

This emerging true Church will finally grow sick of the hype and the banal predictability of a merely phraseological Christianity. It will seek the deeper reality of faith and relationship, counting the cost and increasingly taking on the visage of pilgrim, stranger and sojourner in the earth. Those that remain in conventional church situations, either impervious to the need or unwilling to pay the price, will settle under a deception of religious unreality, condemning as heretics and agitators those who cannot abide the same. Centrifugal forces will polarize Christendom ultimately toward two camps – persecuted or persecutors – reminiscent of the opposition of the Reformation churches to the Anabaptists of the 16th century! Finally, impending unity will drive the religio-political kind to fury against that minority of the Spirit which will not subscribe to their ecumenical designs.

So once again, and finally, a man will find his enemies to be those of his own household; yet, one’s love for his enemies in response to opposition and persecution will be the distinguishing mark of this consummating, remnant-martyr Church. Such a response will be the possibility of those whose conscious, determined preparation and sanctification begins now.

The light of His countenance in such a separated people will be the very factor that brings upon them, as it did Stephen, the retribution and assault of those who hate the light and prefer darkness – from without but more so from within the church. Radical apostolicity or apostasy will prove the only options during this polarization in the end-times. Neutrality or middle-of-the-road alternatives will be waste and void. We will be, finally and at last, compelled to be saints, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, in an age when the only other option is to wear the mark of the Beast.”

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, False Prophets, Jesus, new wineskins, pentecostal, prophecy, revival, Spiritual warfare, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 4 Comments »

Will you light up the world in this midnight hour?

Posted by appolus on December 2, 2015

Mat 25:6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

The children of Israel had been given certain promises by God. Of course they were promised the land, the promised land. Yet because of unbelief and disobedience they were forced to wander and die in the wilderness for forty years. So here we have a vivid connection between disbelief and disobedience and the displeasure of God. That particular generation, all who were over 20 years of age, would not enter into that place promised by God. Now God took care of their basic needs, but they would not pass over into the promises nor would they take possession of all that God had for them.

Can I suggest that we are living in such a generation? The signs of the times are all around us. We know that Jesus told us that He would come back for His own. We know that there is a second coming and that Jesus told us about these things in Matt 24 and the parable of the foolish virgins and so on. We are given pointers from Scripture and of course we have the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide us and to show us the times in which we live. Many will casually say that the end is near, that the world is in chaos and without direction and that Jesus must be coming back soon. Yet my question is, does Christendom really believe that?

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Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Eschatology - Study of the 'End Times', Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »