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Archive for October, 2018

It’s at the name of Jesus

Posted by appolus on October 31, 2018

One of my favorite stories from the New Testament is from Acts 16 where Paul and Silas are in the dungeon. I have lost count of the number of times I have shared different aspects of that story. There is such a richness and depth to the fact that when we are in great darkness, when we are surrounded by trial and tragedy, when life has whipped us good, then down comes the Lord as we cry out to Him and begin to praise his in spite of our circumstances. I want to share another aspect of this story.

When Paul and Silas found themselves in the lowest dungeon, having been scourged and now shackled and at the midnight hour, they did not begin to preach and teach theology to the other prisoners around them. They began to lift up the name of Jesus. They lifted His name on high with their praises and all the other prisoners could hear them. How they must have marveled at what they were hearing. This was not natural, this was something supernatural. And yet something more dynamic was just about to happen. A great earthquake occurred, the very foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors of the prison were flung open. Can you see the richness and the symbolism of what is going on here? Praise releases power. Lifting up the name of Jesus brings down the presence of God. When the presence of God comes down then men are released from their captivity.

Now we know that the jailer assumed, when he saw the cell doors flung open, that all the prisoners has fled. It is a perfectly reasonable assumption. Prisons in those days were not pleasant places, they were places of extreme darkness and despair. If a prisoner suddenly found his door flung open and he could make good his escape then of course that is exactly what he would do. Yet on this occasion, every man was still where he was. None had fled. Now why? Brothers and sisters I will tell you why, they were now no longer held captive by doors and prison cells, they were held captive by the presence of the living God. Enter into the presence of God and no man in his right mind would ever want to leave that place. Can I ask you, have you been so captivated by the presence of God?

The presence of God is life itself. Imagine having dwelt all of your life in sin and darkness and suddenly you are surrounded by His marvelous light. Think of the women at the feet of Jesus having been forgiven for so much now loving so much that her very tears can wash the feet of Jesus. Imagine the woman with the issue of blood reaching out and grabbing onto the very hem of His garment and suddenly power, healing power is flowing and coursing through her whole body. This presence of God, once experienced can never be forgotten. We are now no longer captives of this world, we are now captivated by the beauty and the holiness and the majesty and the glory of God. And when that happens, we are going to stay right there, right where He is.

Do you want to be personally revived? Lift up the name of Jesus, glorify Jesus, speak of Jesus, testify of Jesus, raise Him up, look up to Him, remember and bring to mind everything that He has done for you. Praise Him in the midnight hour of your life and down will come His marvelous light. Do you want to be revived corporately? Lift up the name of Jesus. Stop all your programs and seek our His glory. Lift up His name and praise Him for all His marvelous works. Throw open to your gathering opportunity to stand and testify of His glory. Ask the saints to simply stand and tell everyone what He has done in their lives. Dont do it for five minutes, if you genuinely do it time will lose its meaning. You will suddenly look at your watch and hours and hours will have passed by because in His presence time does not exist. People will not want to leave. People will not have to be encouraged to come to a gathering where the name of the Lord is being raised up and His presence has come down. Do you really want it brothers and sisters? It is that simple and that profound.

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 Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »

Is it well with my soul?

Posted by appolus on October 28, 2018

2Co 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

I am sure we can all agree just how radical this is. Paul takes pleasure in his sickness, in his persecutions, when he is distressed, when people come against him. The pleasure comes from the fact that when he is weak in his flesh, when he is in great need, when he is suffering, then Christ rises up in Him and therefore he becomes strong.

Now what is the key to this? For we know that especially in today’s Christendom this is far from normative? In much of Christianity today when one is sick it is not normal to take pleasure in it, in fact, quite the opposite. We are taken up with thoughts of getting relief from the sickness, getting delivered, getting healed. How many of us revel in the fact that this experience is going to make us stronger in Christ? Yet is this not exactly what Paul is saying?

The same thing applies to persecutions and trials and tribulations. How radical would it be to enter into a trial thinking ” I am going to come out of this stronger in Christ.” It is totally radical but I put it to you brothers and sisters, that having this mindset is the key to not just surviving a trail or a tribulation or a sickness, but it is the key to thriving in the very midst of it.

It comes down to choice. In every single situation, every single one of them, we can choose to be blessed in it. We can choose to take pleasure in knowing that Christ in me the hope of glory will arise out of the darkness of this situation and bathe me in His marvelous light. Where this is this light the darkness has to flee. Can we say today brothers and sisters “It is well with my soul.”

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 »

You are not alone

Posted by appolus on October 25, 2018

You may feel very lonely saint, but you are not alone
There is one who walks with you and sits upon His throne
You may feel very tired, this old world has got you down
But the one who dwells within your heart will always be around

You may be troubled on every side but know you will survive
For remember you were dead in sin but now you alive
The light that dwells within you is the light from up above
He breathed into your very lungs and filled your heart with love

You may have battled with despair but joy comes in the morning
The darkness tries to lie to you and fill your heart with mourning
Yet deep within your very heart sits the one upon His throne
And then when all seems lost to you, you’ll find your not alone

He is our very present help in the times we are in need
For the one for whom the Son sets free is surely free indeed
Free to call upon His name in the darkness or in the light
He’s with us through deep waters and He guides us through the night

So precious saint consider this, consider His great love
Consider He came down to us from the glories of above
He loves you so He died for you He’ll never leave you alone
He forever intercedes for you before His Father’s throne

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 presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Mercy in the midst of wrath.

Posted by appolus on October 24, 2018

In Jeremiah 27 we see the prophet coming up against the false prophets of the day. The chapter is set against the backdrop of a devastated Jerusalem where the temple has been sacked by the Babylonians and many of the vessels, the means of sacrifice and worship, have been taken away to Babylon. There are a few vessels left, a vestige of what had been, a reminder of the former days of glory.

We see a people who are in the very midst of judgement. God’s hand has moved and will move further still as He breaks down the hard clods of the people’s hearts who for a long time had wandered far from Him. Now in this chapter we see two entirely opposing positions. As hard as it is to believe, most of the people are still blind to their condition, it is true that the heart is deceitfully wicked and blind to its own condition. On the one hand we have Jeremiah telling the people that this invasion and destruction from Babylon is the hand of God moving and it will move further still. On the other hand we have the false prophets telling the people that this was not God but the enemy at work and that God will bring about a revival of His people and restore them to their former glory, by destroying the king of Babylon and returning the vessels of the temple which would restore the sacrifice and the worship.

Brothers and sisters, I want you to put yourself in the place of the people of Jerusalem. Judgement has certainly been unleashed. They see devastation and destruction all around them. Their whole system of worship and sacrifice has been almost completely destroyed by the world. There is little left to hold onto. One man stand up and tells them it is only going to get worse because this is the hand of God judging them, other men stand up and tell them no, things are going to get better, everything is going to be revived and restored and all of their enemies are going to be slain. If they listen to the first man they would have to look at themselves and then acknowledge that God was judging them, they were the perpetrators of their own destruction. If they listen to the false prophets, they would fool themselves into thinking that God was going intervene on their behalf and bring this all to an end and restore and revive them. Would you have ears to hear Jeremiah? Or would you, along with the false prophets, pick up stones to stone him?

Today Christendom is in the midst of judgement. For so many, that same wicked deceitful self-serving heart is still fooling them. They cannot see that God is not happy with the whole system and has come down to judge it. They harken after the “prophets,” who tell them that God is going to restore and revive their whole system. Wishful thinking does not move the hand of God. The hand of God is found in the midst of captivity and judgement. The prophet Habakkuk cries out to the Lord that in your wrath remember mercy. This scripture comes in the midst of great judgment. In these examples we see that God’s mercy is found in the midst of captivity and defeat. His mercy as well as His wrath brought about the defeat and destruction in the first place. Only in this place is the people’s hard and proud hearts brought low enough to cry out to the Living God. God dwells with the broken and the contrite.

One of the most famous Scriptures that well-intentioned people use to cry out to God to bring revival is 11 Chronicles 7:!4. The oft quoted verse says If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Yet, as happens frequently, the proceeding verse, for context, is left out. 2Ch 7:13  If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; You see, God is saying that if, when judgement has come, if His people, having suffered the full consequences of that judgement whether it be drought or famine caused by locusts or death cause by pestilence, should then humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways, then He would hear from heaven and heal their lands.

Brother and sisters, we are in the midst of judgment. There are false prophets who will tell you that God will move in revival and restore the fortunes of Christendom. It shall not happen, what little Christendom has left will be removed and it will be given into the hands of a wicked world. God has a purpose in this. He is separating unto Himself His people. A people that even if He slays them, yet shall they trust Him. A people whose trust is in Him and not in institutions. The Body of Christ. The gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church. In the midst of His refining fire the Body of Christ is sanctified. The cares of this life are merely burned away in the fire that God sends.

The religious are those who love this life and their ways, they will cry out to God to restore and reserve the way of the life that they have known and have pride in. God people will cry out for refining fire that burns away all the dross and all the wood, hay and stubble. Habakkuk says it best and describes exactly what mercy in the midst of wrath looks like Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. (Hab 3:17-19)

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 | 4 Comments »

Revival or Baptism in the Holy Spirit?

Posted by appolus on October 15, 2018

“Now see, we try to take that concept of “revival” and we apply it to things that are dead, things that are outside of the Ekklesia – our church buildings, our religious programs, our church services, our membership – and we hope that through “revival” we are going to increase our ministry, enlarge our church, get more people saved, or whatever the goal is. But my point is that the Ekklesia does not need revival. You are trying to raise something from the dead with revival, but the Ekklesia is living.” (Chip Brogden)

What Chip says there is really quite profound. When Paul Washer spoke to the 5000 Baptist youth, I imagine that there would hardly have been an eyebrow raised if he told the crowd they needed revival. Yet he told them to consider the fact that they had never been alive in the first place. When you consider men like Ravenhill who claimed only about 7% of professing Christians in America were actually saved, then rather than revival, we would need the kind of power that Peter spoke with at Pentecost.

Peter spoke and the people were “stabbed in the heart.” They were not revived, they were stabbed in the heart, hearts that were hardened and dead through sin but convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit and life sprung up from death and thousands were saved.

What is there is a desperate need of today in Christendom? The power of the Holy Spirit, the same power that came upon Peter, yet, as we know, almost all of the denominations and the majority of churches throughout the land deny Him His place in their midst. Now, if one wanted to repent, there would be a good place to start. Leaders repenting that they have usurped the Holy Spirit and robbed Jesus of His preeminence.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »

Draw ever closer

Posted by appolus on October 7, 2018

Anoint me Lord for all my days
That I may walk with you a ways
Not just to follow where you led
But walk to where you died and bled

To walk with you sets my heart on fire
To walk with you lifts me ever higher
Not only shall I take your lead
But stand and fight and die and bleed

For I could follow from afar
And you could be my true north star
But when we walk both hand in hand
Forever on the Rock I stand

Tis one thing Lord to follow You
Believe the Word every part be true
It’s another for the world to see
That you Oh King doth dwell in me

For then I am both salt and light
And they behold your glorious sight
Your perfect love casts out all fear
When you to me are very near

Draw nigh to me then I to you
With power from on high endue
Then you shall walk each day with power
And know you need me every hour

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 remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »

My thoughts on Truth

Posted by appolus on October 5, 2018

A truth revealed by God is a fire released into the bones. This fire can never be extinguished. A truth heard and agreed with is a spark created from a fire built by man. It will not last nor stand the refiners test. I have seen it myself in men that I love dearly, they always gravitate back to the religious. They are not bad men, they simply lack the fire that cannot be extinguished and that fire is a revelation.

As a Scottish boy growing up in a housing scheme high up on the hills of the Clyde Valley looking down on the estuary below, I walked into the wind and the rain a thousand times. Not just ordinary wind, but a driving wind that seeks by force to hold you back and impede your progress and all the time being soaked to the skin by rain and chilled to the bone by cold. No one in their right minds wants to walk into the wind and the rain, it is so much easier to have the wind at your back. More often that nought, when the Lord gives you a word, fire from the altar, to carry it forward you must walk headlong into a driving rain and a force ten gale. This wind, this rain this uphill battle is the efforts by man, fueled by the enemy, to try and extinguish the fire in your bones. In order to carry a message from God you have to die to this world and any desire to please it. Pleasing man is one of the deadliest of all temptations, it manifests itself in a million different ways but always has the same result, God is relegated to second place in our lives.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »

He is sufficient for you today.

Posted by appolus on October 3, 2018

As a people, Americans in general are self-sufficient. It was one of the first things I admired about them when I moved to Kansas from Scotland. It seemed that no matter what obstacle they faced, they came up with a solution by their own resources and by their own hand. I have no doubt whatsoever that living in the vast plains of North America for the last couple of centuries only enhanced their abilities to come up with solutions to problems that would typically require a new part or a replacement. These things were usually weeks away.

This, I would suggest, is a blessing and a curse. The self-sufficiency of man may work very well in the world, but in the realms of the Spirit it serves to hinder us. This is a nuanced problem as it requires balance as do almost all things in life whether in the world or in the Spirit and the balance would be to be self-sufficient and resourceful in the world but in the Spirit be completely reliant upon God. The problem is that when we are self-sufficient in life, we tend to have less “need,” for God. And as we have less need for Him we begin to drift away, slowly but surely.

For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life 2Co 1:8. It seems that the Apostle Paul is learning dependence upon God at levels few of us ever have to.

The Apostle Paul, a man esteemed above most others in the Christian world, here, with remarkable transparency and raw honesty tells us that he despaired even of life. Have you ever been so desperate and so in the depths of despair that you thought you might die? It seems strangely out-of-place in our modern world of heroes who valiantly face each and every danger with stoic strength and immovability. Yet, the ability of recognizing our dependence upon God is our very strength and the greater you are tested in this the deeper is your depth in Him.

And so trials and tribulation and sufferings tend to hammer home our need for God. We are told that we will not be tempted more than we are able and that the Lord would give us a way of escape. Many folks tend to think this means that we will avoid the very situation that Paul is speaking of in the above Scripture. Yet here the eminent Apostle Paul himself finds himself seemingly tempted more than he was able, so much so he despaired of life itself. The overall situation was above and beyond his capability and strength, spiritual or otherwise. Does this then contradict the Scripture that He would never tempt us more than we are able? Not at all, He has given us a way of escape, God Himself is our way of escape.

Maybe you find yourself in a place where you are in despair? You cannot see a way ahead. You cannot fix something no matter how resourceful and self-sufficient you are. No friends or loved ones can help, your pastor cannot help. God is your way of escape this day. He and He alone is your life-line. Fall upon Him today and humble yourself by acknowledging, just like Paul, that you are in despair. You will discover that the Lord your God is faithful. He is calling out to you and He is drawing you in, deeper into His heart. Will you take His hand this day and lay down your burdens?

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, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »