Archive for January, 2018
Posted by appolus on January 31, 2018
Jer 10:6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
Isa 40:12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Exo 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
“You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words.” Is He not brothers and sisters? Who is like unto Him, beautiful and holy, high and lifted up, wrapped in light and beyond what our minds can even imagine. Yet, somehow, by the power of His Spirit and the humility of our God He stepped down from glory. He was, God among us and we beheld His glory and His majesty and even when He returned from whence He had come He did not leave us alone, He sent the Holy Spirit of the living God to dwell in the very heart of us that we would know what in the natural cannot be known. All praise belongs to you my King and my Lord. Let the name of Jesus be lifted up and glorified before a dying world that has plunged into gross darkness. Let the light that is in us, called Jesus, shine out all the more in this day.
Rom 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on January 30, 2018
The economy is doing really well across all the different measurements, whether that be unemployment ( the lowest since the 90s) or the stock market ( records being broke daily) house prices are way up and consumer confidence is high. Growth is strong and is somewhere between 3 and 4% a quarter. I shared with many of the saints a number of years ago that I believed that in the end times the economy would be booming. It’s one of the few things I have disagreed with bro David Wilkerson on. Here is why. A booming country is a proud country. In the history of Israel they ran into more problems when everything was going well because they let their need for God slip away and their confidence was in their own strength and power. So, economic prosperity aids and abets the great falling away. Prosperity intensifies the choice the saints will have to make when it cones to the mark. The more people have, the more they have to lose. If you have nothing then it would make your decision somewhat easier, but, if like the rich young ruler, the more you have the more difficult it is to give it all up. I believe that most of the saints at least in the West but also in places like China and south Korea will be prosperous when the time comes to make the choice. History has shown that when Satan can’t beat you, he attempts to buy you. So, the more the saints have to lose as persecution rises, the more they will be tempted to compromise their core values and beliefs in order to hold onto their status in the world.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, prosperity gospel, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 26, 2018
The living Jesus empowers us to die. The cross is the symbol of sacrifice and death. To live for Him is to die to ourselves and the world. In the Spiritual we came, we died and we rose again as a new creature in Christ. As we move towards and become like Jesus, we die to ourselves. And so there is an important intertwining of dying to ourselves and living the resurrected life. It is the heads and the tails of the same coin.
If you focus on just one aspect to the detriment of the other, you will become imbalanced in your walk. We surely must pick up our cross daily. It is important to realize that this will produce an abundant spiritual life in Christ and while you may die to the flesh internally, the world should see your joy expressed externally and wonder and marvel how such a thing could be. This is pleasing to God.
The proof of our new life , our resurrection from the dead, our authentic faith is not a large house or a $2000 suit or a prosperous life in this world, these things prove nothing in the Spiritual. The proof of our faith is how we react to carrying our cross. In the midst of death to ourselves does the love of Jesus pour forth? Do we minister to others when we ourselves are in the midst of trial and testings? Have we found the secret of being content in every situation?
The cross does not lie. There is no hypocrisy on the cross. Tozer said that you knew one thing about a man carrying a cross out of the city, you knew he was not coming back. The cross signifies death to self and death to the world. Its only by taking up our cross that we can crucify the flesh. The flesh wars against the Spirit. The flesh must die, it dies only upon the cross, it thrives on indulgence.
The walk of the cross is a lonely walk. Yet in every generation, across denominational lines, brothers and sisters will be called out. They will know each other when they meet. They will be people who have rejected the “norm.” They will be a people who are seeking a deeper walk with Jesus. While the crowd run after the latest craze and those that tickle their ears, these people will find themselves on an ancient narrow path.
This path begins at Calvary and ends at the throne. It is a very difficult and lonely path but all the saints who have come before you have walked this very path. Be encouraged today saints, God has seen and sees the afflictions of His people. He has not left us as orphans, we have the Holy Spirit who can take us to a place that Jesus has prepared for us. He is our high tower and the righteous can run into it and be safe.
There is a place beneath His ”wings,” that is ours. He has given us ” wings,” in the Spiritual so that we can fly to this place. And in this prepared place we can discover joy where there should be no joy. We can discover peace where there should be no peace. We can discover love where hate should be. We can be fed although a famine has overtaken the land. He is our fountain in a land that is dry and dusty, in a land where there is no water.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 24, 2018
Daniel slept in the lion’s den
Peter slept in a prison
Jesus slept in the midst of a storm
Aren’t you glad that He has risen
Come lie down in your lion’s den
Sleep if you are in prison
Rest your head in the midst of the storm
For by His Blood you are surely forgiven
It flows when there is no way ahead
It flows when all seems lost
It flows when you are overcome
It flows by a terrible cost
Look up and see the price He paid
Look full upon Calvary’s hill
Then know that when there’s no way ahead
Just stand, covered, and be still
Be still and see the glory of our God
Be still and stand amazed
Sing with all your heart before heavens throne
Lift you voice and let Him be praised
And as you praise in the lion’s den
You will rest in the midst of the storm
You will thank our God in heaven above
For the day that Christ was born.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, The Psalms, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 24, 2018
The lives that we lead as Christians cannot be a contradiction to what we share or preach or teach. There must be a wonderful unity in what we say and how we live, there is real power in that. I think of 1 Cor 13 where Paul clearly tells us that we can know all mysteries and even give our bodies to be burned but if we don’t have love, what do we have? Love, the love of God, is central to who we are. We cannot separate this love from what we share. In order to walk with the power of the Holy Spirit we must be lovers of God and lovers of what He loves. This is no natural love, it is supernatural. Very few Christians will disagree with what I just wrote but I have discovered that many will use this kind of love as an excuse not to say anything at all. The line goes something like this ” I am just loving them into the Kingdom.” Yet the Gospel must be preached. We cannot just be witnesses with our lives, although it starts there, we must be about our Fathers business. Too often people are silent not because they want to win souls by the life’s that they lead, but because they are too afraid to speak up and then simply spiritualize their silence.
Jesus, we would all agree, loved with a perfect love. Yet every single word that came out of His mouth also came with a challenge. His word had to be acted upon. He loves the woman who was thrown down at His feet and did not condemn her, but He told her to go and sin no more. He loved the woman at the well but did not hesitate to speak of her many husbands. He was never afraid to speak the truth but He always spoke it with love. It is the combination of truth and love that breaks the chains of bondage. It is the combination of truth and love that sets the prisoner free. When we speak to the lost we must not be afraid to speak the truth that is applicable in their own lives. The truth spoken in love will challenge the heart of the hearer to its very foundations. They will be stabbed in the heart no doubt. They may accept what you say with gladness, humble themselves and seek out the giver of life or they may react with great anger and never want to speak to you again. Speak as the Holy Spirit leads you and do not remain silent when you hear His voice. Choose rather to offend men than to offend a Holy God. Your friendship with someone who is lost will not save them. You can and should walk in holiness but a holiness that does not challenge the lost is something that is self-indulgent. Jesus walked in Holiness and He spoke the truth in love, we must do the same otherwise our love is not the love of God but merely something worldly that does not carry the power of God. It is the love of God that changes men and women.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on January 15, 2018
I think that when all is stripped away and all we have left is Jesus, we discover that Jesus is all that we need. Trials and tribulations and failures bring this life into a proper perspective. This is why, I believe, that Paul identifies the major flaw that we have, in Romans 7. We discover a law in our flesh, sin. And if that is all that we had then we would be men and women most miserable, we who know Jesus.
For to know Jesus is to stand in the light, yet when we stand in the light we see our sin in ways that a person not saved could never see because they stay in the darkness so that their deeds remain hidden, not so much to the world but to themselves. And in the blindness of that darkness they cannot see their true state. Yet we saints can see it and in the natural we cry out O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
But here comes the overcoming glory, we discover by walking in the Spirit that we are no longer condemned. We no longer hide ourselves from God, indeed we do the opposite, we come to God the Father because Jesus the Son of God made the way for us. Glory to God because there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 14, 2018
I know what a great privilege it is
For one such as thee to incline thine ear to me
To look upon one without much honor
Not upon what i am but what you would have me to be
You lead and guide with your mercy
And with such perfect grace you deem to look upon my face
I who am the least of the weakest clan
And the very air that I breathe is your exhaled grace
Father in heaven how i love you
You have heard my pleas whilst down upon my knees
I live because of your good pleasure
And have discovered a love that’s deeper than the waters of the seas
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The Psalms, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 6, 2018
In essence the question becomes, and has been a question asked down through the centuries, what is real Christianity? What is the Gospel? Who are the saints? William Wilberforce was famous for his friendship with John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace and of course for being responsible for slavery being banned in the British empire. He and Newton and others like them were despised by most of the “Sunday go to church,” crowd. They referred to Newton and Wilberforce and others as “enthusiasts.”
It was not a term of endearment, it was a hateful term. What Wilberforce is less famous for is the book he wrote entitled “Real Christianity.” I guarantee you that if Wilberforce were alive today and wrote that book today he would not be invited to speak at most of our modern-day western churches. He speaks against self-serving and culturally relevant churches, in the language of the day of course. He speaks against the fact that most who call themselves Christians had not actually experienced the new birth, had not actually been regenerated. Rather they were Christian in name only and by accident of birth. Their Christianity was, he says, a cultural one, a mere adornment to their lives and not a life changing regeneration.
Before him Whitfield had made the exact same assertion and Wesley preached all over the country to people who were already supposedly Christians but were merely professors. Unfortunately today we suffer from the absence of people like Wilberforce, Wesley and Whitfield who were not afraid to look at the so-called “Christian community” and tell them plainly that they knew nothing of the new birth. In Wilberforce’s book he prophesies what would happen to Britain and its empire if its people did not come to a true knowledge of the Living God. It has absolutely come to pass. In more recent times we have had men like Tozer and Ravenhill who preached a similar message and many of their own “prophecies,” have come to pass. Who has ears to hear what these men,and others sent from God, were saying to their generation and to the generations soon to come, ours.
We are living in the days that they foretold. It cannot be business as usual, Christianity is in major crisis and has all but collapsed in Europe and the major denominations that are left, for the most part, have been ravaged by their own worldliness and taken over by a cultural elite who aim to please the world and please men rather than fear God. This is why the refiners fire soon to come is a great mercy.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 5, 2018
There is the presence of God to be found in glorious worship, enthusiastic and energetic, the kind of worship that lifts your spirit. It can lift up the head and invigorate the heart and fill you full of joy and you leave strengthened. This is good worship. Yet there is another kind of presence of God in worship, the kind of presence that there seems to be a famine of throughout the land. The first kind of presence we spoke of lifts your heart, the second kind of presence invades every part of who you are. It falls from heaven like a heavy dew, heads are lowered and hands are raised. All becomes quiet, one barely breathes as the Spirit of God slowly descends down through our heads into our hearts and down to the very soles of our feet, and the ground upon which we stand becomes Holy ground. The first kind of presence uplifts us, the second changes us fundamentally. As living waters pour into us then it rises up like a great river that is so full that it overflows its banks. The banks themselves begin to crumble and fall into this river of pure life as it swells up and floods every part of who we are. The landscape is being changed by this flood, the very topography of our lives is being flattened by its powers and everything that is not securely rooted to its foundations is simply swept away. Changed forever. And when the flood recedes we are left with a glorious afterglow. As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, I wonder, do our hearts pant after this kind of encounter.
The Lord Himself does not need professional worship teams. He does not need people to encourage us to stand up, jump up and down and raise our hands. In the Welsh revival two young women singing either acapella or simply backed by a piano typically sang “Here is love, vast as the ocean.” And there was love, in the very midst of them, vast as the ocean, flooding the hearts and minds of all who attended. Brothers and sisters, in all our modernity, what have we lost? In the program of churches and the professional class of worshiper leaders and pastors we have lost the simplicity of it all. And in the losing of it we now have to entertain the people. Spirit led worship is exactly that, it is Spirit led. In work we have a routine. In life we have a routine. Prisoners in prison have a routine. Oftentimes we are slaves to the routine, it is what gets us through life. Yet, there is nothing routine about the Holy Spirit of the Living God. He is dynamic and you can never know what way the wind will blow next. Have we sold our souls for a routine? Routine in the home, routine at work, routine at church. Routine people do not change the world. Routine people do not do wage war on the battle-fields of life. The Spirit of God is dynamic and those filled with His “dynamis,” change the environment around them because the environment inside them has been filled to capacity and is overflowing its banks. Lord fill us again to overflowing with the kind of presence that invades every part of who we are.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, praise, praise and worship, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized, worship, worship music | 5 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 3, 2018
Have you ever been out in a dark and stormy night? There is no moon and the sky is full of dark clouds. It is quite ominous. Then all of a sudden lightning shatters the darkness and illuminates the night sky. All of a sudden the landscape is lit up and you can see the edges of the clouds as they clash together. Suddenly you have your bearings and even when the light recedes you know something of where you are. In Psalm 97 we are told that clouds and thick darkness surround him;righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Outside of the baptism of the Holy Spirit there is darkness and all we can see is filtered through the wisdom of man who in the light of God is like the darkest night. When our minds are illuminated by the light of the Holy Spirit then we can truly see His righteousness, we can exercise His justice and we can see not only the throne of God but the foundations of that throne. Someone whose heart and mind has not been illuminated by the Holy Spirit could read the Bible every day of their lives and still never be able to penetrate the hidden depth and riches that it contains. Only when the lightening flashes is the darkness penetrated. Outside of the light of God men merely stumble around and inevitably fall into a ditch and draw others into the same ditch. The question then becomes “have you been struck by lightning?”
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 2, 2018
Brothers and sisters, when I look up to the cross I see humility. I see my Lord humbled and naked for the whole world to see. Nothing hidden. When I look up to the cross I see justice. I see sin condemned. Oh brothers and sisters when I look up to the cross I see mercy, . mercy for me. I do not see my own condemnation, I see my Jesus condemned and rejected by the world, willingly taking my place.There is therefore, now no condemnation, because He took my condemnation, to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Oh what a glorious freedom. Free indeed. Free indeed to stand and fight. To battle even unto death, with my fellow freed men. I pray today that those whom the Son has set free will catch a glimpse of who they are in Christ. Royal priests in a royal priesthood. Children of the living God. Loved and redeemed and reconciled and called to walk in the beauty of holiness. That the world may know that Jesus was sent by the Father. That the world may know that we are made perfect in One and that God sent His only Son because He loves His children just as He loves His Son. That the world may see something of the glory of God which was given to Jesus and which He has given to us. Rise up and shine today saints of God, rise up and shine, for you are loved so much. How much? Look up to the cross!
Run from those who would tell you that you are simply a mere sinner saved by grace. Run from those who only ever talk about sin. Run from those who have a ministry of condemnation. Run to Jesus. Understand and know that you are a soldier in the army of the Lord. Understand and know that you are the beloved of God. Understand and know that you are the apple of His eye. How do I know He loves you like this? Look up to the cross. Look up to where your burden was rolled away. Look up to where you first saw the light. Look up to the glories of heaven and in that place, before His throne, your sin is dealt with as you confess them before your Father. Those who would focus on your sin continually are keeping theirs and your eyes on the sin and it will keep you from the throne of grace. If we look at ourselves and keep our eyes there then we shall never overcome. If we listen to those who tell us that we have no sin to deal with, that it has all been dealt with, past, present and future, then we shall never overcome nor come before the throne of grace. We overcome in the presence of God, we cannot come into the presence of God if our eyes are focused on our sin, our eyes must look up to the cross. When we look up at the cross then we are humbled, and when we are humbled we have been made ready to come before the Lord with a contrite heart. In that place and in that place alone are we forgiven and strengthened and filled with unspeakable joy, the joy of the Lord, and in this we become strong in the Lord and the power of His might.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »
A Call To The Remnant 