Revival is not a moment in a service, nor even one service, revival brings meaningful and lasting change. Revival is radical and alters the course of our lives and how we do everything. No revival ever takes place without first the acknowledgement that how we are living or how we worship God is deeply lacking or flawed. This is the beginning of it and the end of it is actual change. If there is no willingness or desire in us to change how we live or how we serve God or how we conduct our services then God indeed will give us the desire of our heart.
Archive for July, 2018
Why is there no revival?
Posted by appolus on July 30, 2018
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »
Being found worthy of the enemies attention.
Posted by appolus on July 29, 2018
Every great relationship with Jesus attracts the enemy. He cannot stand to see someone get close to Jesus and so he comes against that one. He has never learned, not ever, will that the more he comes against this one who has decided to follow Jesus no matter what, the more he drives him deeper into the heart of God. It must be an agonizing dilemma for the evil one, leave him or her alone and she will do great things for the Lord. Come against him/her and she will shine like the brightest star in the darkest sky, so much is the illumination that so many more will see and hear of the glories of God. Is the enemy at your heels today saint? has he come against you over and over again? Victory in Jesus, you have been counted worthy by the enemy as an enemy of his kingdom, you have been counted worthy to suffer for His name sake and you will be counted worthy to rule and to reign with Him throughout eternity. This is the word of God, anything else is the lies of the enemy. Sleep well saint, you are in good company.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 6 Comments »
Two kinds of justification
Posted by appolus on July 25, 2018
There are two kinds of justification in the realms of the Spirit. One we know well, we who are saved are justified by God. By grace through faith we have been found not guilty by virtue of the actions of another, the Lord Jesus on Calvary. Out of this springs life and that more abundantly. The other is the justification of the flesh. The flesh demands to be justified and screams loudly whenever it is assaulted or offended. It leads us quickly out of the presence of God. In order to restore the joy of our salvation, we must deny the flesh its demands. It is a hard battle, perhaps better known as sanctification, a refiners fire, a burning up of the dross in our lives. Brokenness and a contrite heart are a must if we will walk in the Spirit. We see a spectacular example of this when David is taken up with Bathsheba.
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Psa 51:3
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.(Psa 51:9-12)
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The cry of the Remnant!
Posted by appolus on July 21, 2018
“Now I want you to see three paradoxes. To be happily forgiven, and yet wounded with perpetual contrition. To be correct in the finished work of another and yet feel so sympathetic and compassionate as though the burden lay on you heart. And finding God and yet pursuing God, of having Him, yet always wanting Him.” (Tozer)
The above quote describes the Remnant church of God. Who are these Remnant souls? Well, they are those who are genuinely saved and have a hunger and thirst for God Himself. They are scattered to the four winds and the Lord knows who the hungry hearts are. The question is , have you been wounded by Christ? The remnant saint knows the pain of having been wounded at the very core of His heart. Its the pain of being in love. If you had a child or a husband who went off to war, would not your heart long with the deepest pain, to see your loved one return? Its that kind of longing only its more than that. Its the very seat of our affections.
This love, by virtue of having it, will compel you to walk a lonely path. The Truth will be something that burns in you and no matter the cost you will stand upon it. Most will never understand you. You will see things that those around you do not see. Eze 9:4 And Jehovah said to him, Go through in the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who are groaning and are mourning because of all the abominations that are done in her midst.
The people of God that were marked were the remnant. Judgment was coming but the remnant were marked on their foreheads. They groaned and were in mourning for the condition of Jerusalem. Do you groan, are you in mourning for the state of the world, the state of the church? Will you heart be satisfied with anything less than to walk in the presence of the Living God? Have you tasted of the heavenly food and drunk from the waters of life? Has it ruined you for everything? If not, do you desire for it to be so? If you have answered yes to any of these questions then you belong to the Remnant church of God. This church has been known by many names down through the centuries, the Waldenses, Albigenses, Lollards and Hussites and Brethren. Anabaptists and Moravians, the list goes on. God has always had a witness in the land, He has always had His Remnant that would not “bow the knee to Baal.” In answer to Elijah’s remarks that he alone was left, God replied
Rom 11:4 “I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
Rom 11:5 Even so then, also in this present time a remnant according to the election of grace has come into being.
Even so brothers and sisters, God has , in this present time, a Remnant.
The Remnant man or woman carries their cross. Carrying a cross is a lonely business. Its their very lonliness that compels them to seek an even closer walk with the Lord. The trials of the cross, the narrowness of the path, the desert and wilderness that often stretches out before you, a lack of fitting in, no acknowledgement of anything that you do, what you do you do in secret, you only seek to see the Lord high and lifted up. You often despair at your own walk even although people tell you what a man or woman of God you are, you hear that and it makes you cringe because you know how far you fall short of a God that you have seen high and lifted up. You continually seek Him, you live for the next encounter with Him. You know that it is only a moment but there will come a time when it will be an eternity. You long for everyone to radically encounter the Living God for themselves. You hear people say that they would like your anointing and you wonder. You wonder if they could walk through the refining fires of the living God. Would they really want their whole lives dismantled piece by piece? Would they like the bread of adversity and the waters of afflictions to be their teachers? God’s Remnant people walk this path.
Oftentimes troubled on every side yet rescued from distress. Many times perplexed but pulled from the valleys of despair. Persecuted, yet in the midst of it knowing you are not alone. Thrown down and trampled on but saved from being destroyed. Dying it seems by many troubles but the life of the Lord Jesus shining out from you despite the darkness of your many trials. All of these things, the things that would destroy most, in you they cause the life of Christ to spring forth. An abundance of grace upon your life that speaks to the glory of God and the love of the Father for His children. In all of these things we do not faint, we rise up by the power of the Holy Spirit. The outer man may ne in the process of perishing but our inner man is renewed daily to the glory of God and the amazement of a dying world.
The remnant know that just as the world hated their Lord and crucified Him, they too will be hated and killed all the day long for His names sake. And just as He arose, they know that they too will arise. As they draw nearer to “the one who was pierced,” and He pours out His Spirit on them and they become more like Him, then the same forces that came against their Jesus, hell and all its fury, will come against them. They know that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies it brings forth much fruit.
God is calling forth His remnant in these days of gross darkness. He is calling them out of dead and dying denominations. He is calling them out of Babylon, He is calling them out of compromise, He is calling them out of Sodom and Gomorrah. He is calling the saints to stand as one upon the Truth. He told us that His word was a lamp unto our feet and He is calling for us to follow the light despite the gross darkness on every side. All of this comes with cost. There is a price to pay for coming out of dead and dying churches and denominations. There is a price to pay for coming out of Babylon. There is always a price to pay for standing upon the Truth especially in the latter days when the world has truly turned against all aspects of His truth. We are living in a valley full of decisions now that the Lord is at the door, shall we falter near the end of the race or shall we finish the race that has been set before us? We are surrounded by a cloud of witness saints, therefore stand strong in Jesus. Do not be ashamed of Him before a wicked and adulterous generation. If we stand with Him n ow in the days of gross darkness, we shall stand forever with Him in the light of eternity.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, prophecy, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 10 Comments »
The conflict of the ages
Posted by appolus on July 19, 2018
“The conflict of the ages is upon us.This unbiblical distorted thing called the church, that mixes with the world and dishonours its so-called Lord, has been found out for what it is, a fraud. The true Church is born from above. In it there are no sinners, and outside of it no saints. No man can put another’s name on its member’s roll; and no man can cross another’s name off that roll. This Church of which, bless the Lord, there is still a small remnant in the world lives and moves and has its being in prayer. Prayer is its soul’s sincere desire.” – Leonard Ravenhill
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The saints are being called out of Babylon.
Posted by appolus on July 19, 2018
Hi saints. In my mind’s eye I can see the Holy City far and deep into a mighty desert.I know that in my flesh I would avoid deserts. The vision in my mind’s eye would, I suppose, be metaphorical for the narrow path that leads to life. It makes no sense to think that if I was seeking life that I would go seek it in the desert. Yet there it is, the church of God, surrounded by a mighty desert. There is no way to the heart of it but by striking out and heading deep into a place where my only resource, in fact life itself, will be God. If He does not go before me I will die, I will never get there. If He is not a cloud over my head then the sun will kill me. If He is not a fire by night then I will surely freeze to death. If He is not my rear guard, then the jackals and other predators of this hostile place will sneak up behind me and kill me. Righteous Lot was compelled to leave the city of comforts behind him and take up his dwelling place in a cave. This was too much for his wife whose heart belonged to the city where her comforts lay. How many of us would not look back when compelled to leave all that we know behind as our world descends into wickedness.
You see brothers and sisters, there is nothing attractive about the desert. It is not an alluring place, in fact quite the opposite. Now although Abraham did not dwell in a desert but I believe the choice that His nephew made is a good example of the choices that God is calling His people today to make. Lot chose the well watered places and planes of Sodom in which to dwell. Yes it was near a wicked city, but it was plentiful and life was easy there. Yet at what cost? Does the choices that we make have consequences? We may not lose our souls in the process but can it be that we would lose our walk , our intimate walk with Jesus because the cares of the world , the cares that inevitably come by living in proximity to Sodom, or being caught up in the systems of Babylon or remaining within a denomination or a church that has embraced the wickedness of the world that is was sent to seek and to save.
Now when we think about Moses and his forty years in the desert prior to the burning bush or indeed the children of Israels forty years in the desert or John the Baptist’s time in the wilderness and indeed Jesus’s symbolic forty days in the desert we begin to see a pattern. It defies the flesh to go into the desert to find life. Can there be life in the desert? Would we willingly choose to enter into a place where all flesh dies but for the Lord? Can we be drawn into a place where unless we encounter God Himself as we are stripped of all of our resources then we would surely die? God is raising up such a generation that will find abundant life in the desert. Who will find that water flows from Rock at the hand of God. That God Himself can make rivers in the desert. He can make a highway that leads to life.
Will you journey there? To journey anywhere you have to leave somewhere behind. What do you have to leave behind? Is there a desire in you to find God in such a deep way that He is life itself to you and that without Him you would surely die and have no desire to live? Can I encourage you today saints? God has made such glorious and mighty promises to those who hunger and thirst after Him with their “whole hearts.” God has made glorious promises to those who will seek Him with their whole hearts. Desert places? Yes. Yet a burning bush and some sand can and will be transformed into Holy ground, for where the Lord is, that is Holy. He is not to be found within the structures of man but He is found deep in the heart of the longing sacrificing heart. There are sacrifices to be made to come into this place. Do you desire to make such sacrifices to come into this place, for this is the place where vessels are filled with oil.
There is a generation of desert dwellers being raised, a generation of wilderness dwellers ready to rise up and come forth. A generation of saints who have counted the cost. A generation whose only desire is to seek Him with their whole hearts and His righteousness. A generation that shall be hated by the whole world. They will see the glory of their God. They will behold His glory and His majesty. And they will make declarations from that place. They will, like John the Baptist declare to the world ” Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.” Yet, this generation also gets to declare “Behold the lion of Judah that rides on a white horse with a two-edged sword in His hand. He is coming, the King is coming! Lift up ye gates ye ancient cities and lift up ye doors for the King is coming and He is coming soon.”
This is the purpose of God’s remnant saints. We will make such a glorious noise of worship in the desert to our King. We will sing hallelujahs to His glory. Paul and Silas sang such praises in the midnight hour. Despite their scourges and stocks, despite their location in the depths of a dungeon they sang out the praises of their God. As they did, all of the prisoners listened in awe that men who should be most miserable were in fact encountering the glories of God. And suddenly the power of God fell to such an extent the whole building shook upon its foundations. Now imagine the whole world shaking upon its foundations saints! Shaking because the praises of the persecuted saints have caused the heaven to be rended, the skies to split open and the power and the glory and the presence of God to come down. The anointing of the anointed one will be upon us and the world will look into the desert, the prisons, the wilderness and hear a strange and glorious noise, a noise such as they have never heard before and a light that shines out of a place where no light and no life should exist, and they will be perplexed and be confounded.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, praise and worship, prophecy, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »
Are you a burning bush?
Posted by appolus on July 18, 2018
What is the glory of God? We hear it used so often in Christian circles, but do you really know what that is? Is it just a description, an adjective, something to describe what you imagine God is like? The truth is, the glory of God is God Himself. Wherever He is, then there is the glory. It is a dwelling place, it is His dwelling place.
Moses had to put off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Now, was the ground holy before the Lord came? Was it holy after He left? What about the burning bush? When God inhabited the burning bush, the bush was no longer itself for God had inhabited it and it and could not be consumed by fire. Yet when the Lord left the bush it returned to its natural state. Does God dwell in temples made by human hands?
Is a church building holy? What is a building without the manifest presence of God? What is a person without the manifest presence of God operating in their lives? Where is the glory outside of His presence? How can the world see a manifestation of His presence if that manifestation of that presence cannot be seen in His children?
Will His glory be seen by the world today through you? Will the light from His glory radiate off you as the light from the sun reflects off the moon and lights up a dark world? The moon is a dead object yet it has tremendous influence on the world. If we die to ourselves and live for Christ then we too can have an enormous influence in the world by the mere light that reflects and emanates from us.
As you speak to people today, remember the glory, move in the glory and be led by the glory. When we are full of God to overflowing, that very overflow spills out, pours out to a thirsty dying world.
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Come rejoice now oh my soul
Posted by appolus on July 13, 2018
There is a chorus from a hymn called Christ is mine forevermore that says …………
Come rejoice now oh my soul, for His love is my reward, fear is gone and hope is sure, Christ is mine forevermore. As a writer, it is one of those lines I would have loved to have written. So much said in those couple of lines. Come rejoice now oh my soul, for His love is my reward. I rejoiced this morning, with tears as I thought about how His love is my reward. His love is Calvary and my reward is eternity. How is it that the Lord suffered and died on the cross for one such as I, so unworthy, yet this was His love. And not only am I forgiven because of what He did on that cross, I am then rewarded with eternity. His love becomes my reward and yet He did it all and i was a mere sinner, how can my soul not rejoice! And so, what the Lord has cleansed you shall not call common. We have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and that which was common is now found to be worthy in the sight of our Father in heaven. Now saints, please take a moment today and ponder this, His love, Calvary, became your reward, eternity. Eternity saints, no matter what you are going through today or in this season of your life, will you come now and rejoice oh your soul, let your spirit rise up to the heavens and come before the throne with thanksgiving in your hearts that His love has become your reward. Get down on your knees and lift your hands to the glory of God and you will arise and not be weary, you will run and not faint and you will rise up with the wings of the eagle and soar in the heavens of His presence.
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 Psalms, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »
The folly of edcuated men.
Posted by appolus on July 12, 2018
Act 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, can you see how unlearned and ignorant men turned the world upside down? Jesus told His disciples not to worry about what they would say when they came before men for the Holy Spirit would guide and direct their tongues. How far we have come from that? It is no mistake that we live in a lukewarm Christian world where learned men teach with the knowledge that they learned with their Masters of Divinity. Where are all the unlearned and ignorant men today? They occupy pews on a Sunday morning, mere spectators in this thing we call the Sunday morning service. And at the very same time, this generation is the most Biblically illiterate generation in several hundred years.
So, where did we get this notion of the educated pastor? After Constantine took over and presided at the marriage of church and state, it was required by any who wished to preach the Gospel to be licensed. If one were not licensed then you could not teach or preach the Gospel. Imagine that. We went from unlearned and ignorant men turning the world upside down while defying the state to learned men licensed by the state lulling the people into a deep sleep from which, for the most part, they have remained.
And so we have error, and upon that foundation of error we have constructed more error. Error indeed begets more error. The one man system, the educated man, has existed for so long now that the entire structure of our gatherings is fatally flawed. No where in the New Testament are we called to be educated and licensed in order to preach. More so than ever we are now primarily dependent upon the educated man. In this day and age of entertainment, the educated man must also have a powerful personality. He is the focus of the attention of men. He has usurped the preeminence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. In many churches the pastor is the beating heart of the church, take him away and the church crumbles and withers away. He makes himself indispensable, unbiblically I might add, then complains of being weary.
In 1 Cor 12 we see that we are part of the Body. Every part of the body is required and performs a function. 1Co 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? We are deliberately taught by the Scriptures that one part of the Body is not the whole and yet this is exactly how most churches operate where the one man is the whole and all “gifts,” operate through him while the other parts begin to wither on the vine for lack of use. This is course is far from Biblical. In 1 Cor 14 we see a myriad of gifts in operation being led and guided by the Holy Spirit. We see the importance of prophecy, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, a psalm, a spiritual song a tongue and interpretation of a tongue. You see how rich that is? Men and women are edified in their spirits as they hear the Holy Spirit speaking through His people.
In direct violation of the Scriptures we claim to love so much, this happens in almost no church anywhere. The people are spiritually starving. They have become dependent, for the most part, on one voice, the voice of the educated man of personality. When the enemy begins to move more forcibly against Christendom in the last days, the first to be taken will be the educated men of personality. The enemy knows the condition of the church better than most. If he strikes the head ( this should be Jesus of course) then he can scatter and put into disarray most of the Christian world because we have become lazy and dependent upon men and not God.
There are many good reasons for the Lord creating a “Body.” The elevation of one man inevitably creates schism. One will say they are of Paul and another will say they are of Appolos. The biblically functioning Body of Christ is an antidote to men following other men. Men must be taught to follow the Lord and His leadings through those He raises up and uses. God raises up and uses men who are not mighty in the eyes of the world, nor noble nor wise in their education, but instead He uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, He chooses the weak to confound the mighty. We can learn this now and get back to the heart of the Father, or we can learn this in the chaos of persecution. Either way, the Lord will have His Church the way He wants it prior to His return. Lord we repent today of ignoring your directions and commandments and foolishly thinking we know better. Our current condition is ample proof that we do not.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »
As in the days of Noah
Posted by appolus on July 10, 2018
Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Daniel speaks of a time when the saints will be worn down. I believe the process of the saints being worn down has already begun. Times have changed and wrong has become right and everything is relative. This is wearing the saints down as they struggle to come to terms with these fast changing circumstances. There has been a blitzkrieg, so to speak, in the realms of the spirit. Compromise and unrighteousness has surrounded the saints. We are an obstacle that at some point will have to be removed if the enemy is to have total dominance. More laws will be changed and we will witness more compromise by Christendom
Now we know we are called to gird our loins with truth. Satan has furiously assaulted truth in our day. Truth has become anything you need it to be, it has become relative. Of course truth is absolute, but that is no longer accepted. We are called to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Righteous living and holiness has become something of a quaint notion in our day. Cheap grace and hyper grace has, in effect, taught that holy living is a work, something legalistic, when of course it is one of the fruits of genuine salvation.
Our feet are to be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.Our hearts must be right and this keeps us ever ready to walk in the peace that comes from the truth of the Gospel which has set us free. It also keeps us ever ready to share the gospel with others. Satan has done a great job in quieting the saint when it comes to the Gospel of truth. We are constantly afraid of offending someone. The bold notion that there is but one way to heaven, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and that all other paths and religions lead to hell has become all but illegal and has become unacceptable in so many arenas of public life.
The shield of faith is one of our most important parts of our armor. It protects us from the fiery darts of the enemy. Yet in the last several decades we have seen movements like the word of faith literally destroy the meaning of the word faith. The essence of faith is trusting in God despite our circumstances, yet Satan has turned that truth on its head by teaching that our circumstances are the results of our faith or lack thereof. So, when trials come, rather than people trusting in God they begin to despair and the fiery darts of the enemy find their mark.
Lastly we have the Word of God which is the sword. We can say with great certainty that the enemy has fought this for countless centuries but in recent decades has made enormous strides in taking the sword out of the hands of those who oppose him. We are an illiterate generation. This lack of knowledge is killing us. So it is clear, in order to stand in the coming evil day we must rediscover the armor of God and wear it at all times. Cry out to God today saints, have Him help you put on the armor. It will save your eternal life.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 4 Comments »
The difference between a preacher and a messenger
Posted by appolus on July 3, 2018
There is a huge difference between a preacher with a sermon and a messenger with a message. You can take an anointed preacher and transport him back 500 years, he could preach the exact same sermons that he preaches today and it would be good. Now do the same with a messenger from today who has a message for today and he would find no place for himself in the past. God speaks to every generation by way of the prophet and yet we have no office of the prophet in most of our gatherings. Self proclaimed prophets are no prophets at all.
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 | 8 Comments »
A Call To The Remnant 