“A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles wings, but it is a life of day in and day out consistency; a life of walking without fainting ( see Isaiah 40:31) It is not even a question of holiness and sanctification, but of something which comes much further down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness or sanctification, but a type of the life of faith- a faith tested and true, built on the true God.” (Oswald Chambers-My Utmost for His Highest)
God honors the saints who have been tried and tested. He knows, He sees, He understands. He measures the man on the inside. He measures the man or the woman on the whole span of their journey and not the snapshot that we tend to take of ourselves. The Lord is interested in the general thrust of our lives and the overall context of who we are and who we are becoming. The question is not how holy we are, the question becomes “are we still standing?” Are we still putting one step in front of the other? And even then the matter is not complete, for unless those steps have taken us through storms and fires and floods, then the journey that ends when we take our last breath is far from over, it is far from being established. And just like Abraham, we shall not see what is around the next bend. To see what is around the next bend would allow us to prepare ourselves in the flesh and of course faith is the evidence of things not seen. We shall go through our trials by who we are in Him. His strength in us carries us through the waters, sustains us in the fire and holds us in the storm. And when the waters recede, we stand. And when the flames die away we are still whole. And when the storm is gone, the foundation has held us strong.
Faith is obedience to the small still voice to go forward into the unknown. Faith is about still standing when the storm has raged and beaten upon your life. Faith is born and is watered in and by the storms of life. Faith is tempered and hardened by the fiery furnaces we are called to walk through. This is the measure of a man or a woman of God. Not their natural abilities of charisma, not their giftings not their statio0n in life, but their standing in God that gives them the strength to stand. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. This faith, faith in God, having seen His faith triumph in your life time and time again is the faith that pleases God. The broken saint, the one who has weathered the storms of life has this one thing above all, He has seen the faithfulness of God and knows that He is to be trusted above all things…….bro Frank
I thank you Lord for broken chains
I thank you Lord that our God reigns
In heaven above and the earth below
You came that all the world might know
That heaven’s gates are opened wide
And flowing waters run deep inside
And I am redeemed and forever set free
And before your throne I’ll forever be
The Lamb of God rises in my heart
The Blood of the Lamb covers every part
Of who I am and forever shall be
The Lion roars and I am free
I run to you my Lord and King
Once had no voice but now I sing
Like a bird that rises on the eternal breeze
To the one who loves and forever frees
I thank you Lord for your holiness
I thank you Lord when I’m in distress
That you are there like you said you would
And in the depths of me I am understood
The Lamb of God rises in my heart
The Blood of the Lamb covers every part
Of who I am and forever shall be
The Lion roars and I am free
The Lion roars and I am free
The lion roars and I am free
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1 NIV)
There is another word, which just means that which has escaped from slavery and is breathing free air. That is a fine picture, a fine portrait for Overcomers – that which has escaped from slavery and is breathing free air. I dare not stay to interpret that. Some of us, even in our Christian lives and histories, know what it is to escape from slavery. Oh, the old bondage of the Christian system and order, expectation and demand, all the old rota and legality! – to be free of it all! Not only to be raised with Christ, but to have the grave clothes taken off and to be breathing the free air of the spiritually emancipated! That is what this word calls a “remnant,” and that is not something extra to Christianity. It is exactly what you find at the beginning with the Church.
The Lord had cried in the midst of a burdened, tyrannized, religious nation – “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). What is the old yoke, the old burden, which has harassed and worn these people so that they are weary to death, drawing out His compassionate appeal – “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest”? It is the old yoke and burden of legalistic religion, ‘thou shalt’ and ‘thou shalt not’: ‘you must’ and ‘you must not’ – the whole system built up like that; a great burden.
“They bind heavy burdens,” He said, “and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with their finger” (Matt. 23:4). And this word for “remnant” means such as have escaped slavery and are breathing the free air. You find them in the beginning of the book of the Acts. Overcomers are those who go back to the beginning in experience. They do not take up something further which is deeper teaching or fuller light. It is the primal freshness and fullness of Christ that Overcomers represent – unfortunately, in contrast to the general situation.
By T. Austin-Sparks from: Overcomer Testimony – Chapter 2
There are Christians who are immature and always will be. They are Christians who are tossed to and fro like a wave on the ocean, running from one thing to the other, and then oftentimes back to the same thing, Christians who are continually circling around the mountain but never making any upward progress. There are believers who take two steps forward then meet a serious obstacle and take three steps back.
There is of course the reasonably rare jewel. Slowly but surely they move forward. Obstacles come yet they apprehend the power of God and actually grow in the situation.. Any backward motion or plateau is deeply felt and mourned over and repented of. Refining fires do not cause them to fall back but merely burn away the flesh bringing them ever closer to their Lord. Even in the most dire situations, when faced with personal tragedy and loss, they can say with Job “even if He kill me, yet will I trust Him.”
This of course, is the narrow path. Many are called to this path, but few there are who find it. Only by the Spirit of God can one remain on this path. You will recognize the saint who walks this path, who has walked through fire and flood. He or she does not speak with thee’s or thou’s nor in pious tones that keeps others away with their aloofness. The saint who has been tried by God is eminently approachable and much more interested in others than him or herself.
The saint who has surrendered to the broken process is like a sweet aroma, full of love and forgiveness for they are all too aware of how much they are loved and have been forgiven themselves. Heb 5:8 “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” What has suffering taught you saint? Have you learned to be more obedient? Are you closer to the Lord than when you first began? Have you traveled deeper into the heart of God?
A mature saint is a beautiful thing for he or she reflects the light of the Lord into a dark and broken world. If you could see your Christian life as a graph from beginning to now, would the line have a general trend upwards? It should. The thrust of our life should be Christlike, this is our reasonable service as servants of the most High God. It’s never too late for the saint to learn or surrender to the learning process. And no matter what stage we are at in our walk with the Lord we must always be learning and delving ever deeper into the “knowledge,” of the truth. This is not a head knowledge but rather it is an intimate intertwining of our hearts with His which leave us more and more like Jesus.
The older I get the more I realize that to be soaked in the Word of God is to be cloaked in light. Any darkness is immediately discerned, any false word is immediately identified by the lamp that gives light unto our paths. To be soaked in the word and drenched in the Spirit like Aaron’s beard and garments, is to be refreshed by the dew of Hermon wherein God commands a blessing, even life and that forevermore.
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.
Very interesting night last night. As a long time observer of politics, the only historic thing that happened last night was that the GOP held the senate and actually gained seats. The average loss for the party in power in a midterm is 33 seats. Right now the Democrats looked like the may gain the average, but may not, so certainly no blue wave.
Most of the seats gained by the Democrats were gained by narrow margins from Republicans. What does that mean? Well, it modifies behavior. This is why CNN and others are very subdued this morning. These politicians of both stripes now have an opportunity to actually do something for the country. They could come together and have a huge infrastructure bill, they could come together and take on big Pharma. Will they? Sadly I do not believe so.
Thirst for revenge is a very basic human emotion. Hatred for your enemies rather than love for your country almost always wins out because there is nothing more worldly than politics. It typically represents everything that is bad about us a human beings. It is a platform to highlight our weaknesses not our strengths. In short, it is representative of the dark side of who we are.
It is not a place where the better angels of our natures dwell, quite the opposite, it is a place where the darker demons of our natures are highlighted. I love God so much because He is above the fray. His ways are higher than our ways. His path is a path of light and leads to love and peace and forgiveness. The enemy of our souls path is one of darkness that leads to hate and anxiety and division. We saints are called to walk on the narrow path of light. Lets do that saints.
When we learn to embrace death, the death of everything we have ever known, the death to this life and all its many lovers, death to self, death to others, then we become ruined for this life. Its a double edged sword, for to touch the hem of his garment is to feel His power flow through us, to come before His throne, to bask in His majesty, yet it renders the things of the world to its proper place, all secondary at best. The former things of life loses all its color and becomes a black and white ghost that can never regain its life again. We see the Lord and His handiwork though. We see the birds flying and we know that it is Him that is the wind beneath their wings. We see the night sky and know that every single star is but an ornament in a vast canvas that His hand has painted meticulously. We witness the vastness of the ocean but know in our heart it is but a single tear from the eyes of our God who is vast beyond our minds ability to grasp. Yet we also know that this vast God of ours has made Himself known to us in such an intimate way that somehow His vastness has managed to fully fill our hearts. How can something so overwhelmingly vast, come and knock at the door of my heart and whisper in my ear in such a still small voice that He loves me? How can the hand that holds everything that exists, also hold a sparrow that has fallen? How can His heart that renders the sun to a mere spark beat for me? In my head it is all beyond even my imagination yet in my spirit I “know,” and not even know what it means to be known. One day when I pierce the veil of this life I will know as I am known. One day, and it is the knowledge of this one day that allows me to embrace the death of everything, for beyond this death lies a vast eternity of a life I have only ever glimpsed. That one day will not only be as a thousand years but will stretch on into what we know as eternity. We will simply “be,” in Him and it will never end.
A Call To The Remnant 