A Call To The Remnant

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Archive for February, 2019

The days of the remnant are upon us.

Posted by appolus on February 27, 2019

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

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

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

Can you see what he is saying brothers and sisters. He is saying, prophetically I believe, that “impending unity will drive the religio-political kind to fury against that minority of the Spirit which will not subscribe to their ecumenical designs.” There is a minority, a remnant who will not bow the knee to the ecumenical ways of the religious world. We see unfolding before us the merging of the great religions and those who adhere to it. Listen to what the man who calls himself pope said last week when he signed a historic document between himself and the person who is considered to be the most important Imam in Sunni Islam “The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings.”

So he is saying that it is God’s will that there would be diversity of religion. Of course this flies in the face of what Jesus teaches us that there is only one way to heaven, through Him, and that all other paths lead to hell. Brothers and sisters, mark my words well, the next great push of those who design to destroy the pillars of truth, is to teach this very lie that there are many ways to God and that He loves diversity, in fact it is by God’s design.Can you see it? “Those that remain in conventional church situations, either impervious to the need or unwilling to pay the price, will settle under a deception of religious unreality, condemning as heretics and agitators those who cannot abide the same. Centrifugal forces will polarize Christendom ultimately toward two camps – persecuted or persecutors”

It is rising saints. There will come a time soon that you will be run out of the conventional churches if you do not accept the “truth,” that God has created a beautiful diverse world in which He reveals Himself to different people groups in many different guises. Could be Mohammad, could be Buddha could be Jesus, no matter, it’s all the same. If you think that is alarmist, consider where we were just ten years ago in relation to homosexuality and same-sex marriages, now there are denominations that will re-baptise you when you “change.” your gender. As Art says so prophetically, you will either be on the side or persecutor or persecuted. You will condemn people who cannot abide the church system as agitators of heretics or you will be condemned. He sums it all up as only he could “Neutrality or middle-of-the-road alternatives will be waste and void. We will be, finally and at last, compelled to be saints, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, in an age when the only other option is to wear the mark of the Beast.” Will you bow down to the gods of this world or will you stand with the minority for Christ and Him alone?

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, False Prophets, False Prophets and Teachers, false teachers, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 8 Comments »

Weapons of righteousness

Posted by appolus on February 22, 2019

About ten years ago as I was praying, I had an intense vision of sorts. I have had very few of these since becoming a Christian almost thirty years ago. As I was standing praying, suddenly I found myself plunged beneath a river and lying on my back on the river bed as the waters ran over me. The water was not deep, it covered my face by just a few inched but it was fast flowing and I was lying on the river bed which consisted of small smooth stones. I immediately panicked and held my breath thinking I was going to drown. I could not get up, but right away the Holy Spirit told me to “breathe.” Against all reason and with fear in my heart, I opened my mouth and took a breath and found that I could breathe.

Without any words, the Holy Spirit conveyed to me that these were the waters of life and that I had to submit to these fast flowing waters. They would, over time, take all the rough edges off me and I would become like the smooth stones upon which I lay. Only over time has it been possible to see the full picture of what the Lord was doing and showing me. The waters were the circumstances of life, the trials and tribulations that come upon us, the testings of our faith, the obstacles and the refining fires that forge us and shape us into useful weapons of righteousness in the hands of the Lord.

In 1 Sam chapter 17 we see the encounter that David has with Goliath. David was only a young man but even by that time he had been working for many years. And over those years as a shepherd boy he had encountered many wild animals that sought to kill and destroy the flock over which he had been called to watch over. He had proven himself loyal and faithful to his calling and in the course of events he had even killed a lion and a bear with the help of the Lord his God. David could not have known he was being prepared for this day and the days to come when he would become king.

When David announces that he would fight the giant, the world attempts to equip David by giving him the finest set or armor available, the kings own armor. David knows right away that these weapons of war were carnal and they would do him no good in the coming fight, he had no idea what to do with these weapons. Instead David goes to the river and takes five smooth stones from the riverbed. These stones were David’s weapons of righteousness. One of these stones would kill what was probably the foremost warrior in all the world. A simple stone from the riverbed becomes a weapon would take down the most formidable foe.

Right now as we speak, God is preparing a remnant army. They are not being prepared for war in any conventional sense. Maybe you can relate to the trials and the testings of life that has taken the rough edges from your life. You have been shaped by circumstances. God Himself, the sovereign Lord of all is trying you and testing you. Many times you have wondered what it has all been about. You might look back at your life and think “was it all worth it, I seemed to have achieved very little.” Can I encourage you today saints, God knows. He knows how to assemble an army that marches on its knees. He knows how to hone a weapon of warfare that is not carnal but mighty in the realms of the Spirit, able, in the right hand, His hand, of taking down seeming invincible enemies. You are His smooth stones and you must wait patiently in the river for the day that God has chosen for the army to arise. The day is coming. The enemy has been arrayed on the battle-field. Can you hear his loud boastings? Can you hear his army laugh and ridicule and scorn? On the other side of this battle God is raising up a fearless, indignant army who will overcome by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony and most importantly, because of their love and passion for God, they loved not their lives unto death. 

When Joshua, that great warrior of Israel, miraculously passed over the river Jordan he ordered 12 stones to be taken from the dry river bed. These were undoubtedly smooth stones. They were arranged in a circle and called Gilgal. This was a reminder and a monument to the miraculous. Every time these smooth stones were seen the people would know that they worshiped a mighty miracle-working God who would go to any lengths to deliver His people. God is now raising up an army that in and of itself will testify to the fact that God is a miracle-working God who takes the foolish things of this world and He uses that to overcome the might and the those who are wise in their own estimations. Praise the Living God today.

 

 



Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Will the dammed up power of God be loosed?

Posted by appolus on February 17, 2019

What would you do if your house was on fire? What would you do if your loved one was diagnosed with a terminal illness? Would you simply go about your business as usual? Or, would the pressing circumstances cause you to focus on the emergency at hand? Is it not true that when you are faced with a great calamity that your typical routine is dramatically interrupted?
 
It is not business as usual, how can it be, your house is burning down, your loved one is dying. Suddenly your life becomes simple in a sense. All of your thoughts and energies are focused on the emergency and what is truly important becomes crystal clear to you. You don’t even notice things that normally would have bothered you, you do not have that “luxury.”
 
Listen to the thoughts of Rev R.B.Meyers when describing what he saw at the Welsh revival meetings. ” Young men and women crowd the churches. The keynote is Calvary-no other aspect of the work of our Lord seems to satisfy. The personality and work of the Holy Spirit are in every prayer and on every tongue. The pent-up power of Godly people which has for too long been restrained has broken loose, and before it, ministers are silenced. One minister told me that he felt that things would never again be as they had been but that the liberty of utterance would have to be conceded to during a part at least of the ordinary services to the speech of the Holy Ghost through consecrated lips.”
 
Do you hear what he is saying, the pent-up power of Godly people, which for too long has been restrained, had broken loose. Now, who is doing the restraining? The general thought at the time is that things could never go back to how they had been. Never again could the one man system be allowed to restrain the Holy Spirit from speaking through His people and releasing a dam of power that can shake communities and nations and indeed the world. Yet all too soon the moment was gone and the silenced ministers took back the reigns of power and the Godly people, the Royal priesthood was once again silenced.
 
The opening paragraph asked the question “what would you do if your house was on fire?” Do you know that the vast majority of people killed in house fires are killed because they are sleeping? They simply never wake up, they are overcome by the smoke in the atmosphere. They breathe in what is all around them and they die. The second question asked what would you do if your loved one was diagnosed with a terminal illness?
 
Many people do not even realize they are dying. In that case there are no opportunities to put away the normal typical routine. It is in the vested interest of the Devil himself to keep people asleep. If he can keep them asleep, if he can keep them from realizing their condition then he will much more easily be able to go about his business which is of course to destroy the church and the people of God.
 
Can you see the condition of the church? Is it apparent to you that the power of God is being restrained by silencing the royal priesthood? The foundations of righteousness are being destroyed and the power that could be brought to bear is being silenced by our routines and systems. If we truly believed that we are being surrounded by gross darkness and the enemy is coming in like a flood then we would raise up the standard of the Word of God that never changes and allow the power of God to be released just as it was in the Welsh revival. Sadly, most are asleep and they refuse to be woken. Pride is a powerful anesthetic. It allows the blind to remain blind and those who are at ease in Zion to remain at ease.
 
Those in Jerusalem believed that nothing could ever happen to them because that city housed the temple. Jesus knew otherwise. The trappings and position of ministry cause those in ministry to be at ease. Tozer said that it is very difficult to persuade a man of something when his very livelihood depends upon him not getting it. It is the clergy that causes the word of God to be restrained and anointed words go unspoken and are dammed up inside the priest.
 
When that which restrains is taken out-of-the-way, steps aside, then God moves with power. Only repentance and turning from our wicked ways can change this. The Body of Christ needs to be edified and all the more so as that day approaches. God has clearly laid down in the Word how the Body of Christ is to be edified. Will we humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways? It remains to be seen.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »

Defying logic

Posted by appolus on February 14, 2019

I think if we look around the Christian landscape today, it’s all old wine-skins. Unless we have a radical departure from our modern versions of Christianity and return to the original model, we are destined to be trapped, prisoners of our traditions, each of them chipping away, slowly but surely, until there is nothing of the original recognizable. You don’t get lost by taking a single step, although it takes a single step to begin the process of losing ourselves. Today we are a lost people. Yet the strange thing is, we have a map and the writer of the map with us. Imagine complaining of being lost but refusing to retrace your steps back to where you came from, it would defy logic. It does defy logic.

Will the Lord find faith on the earth? I think it is a key question and vital aspect of our walk with the Lord. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. What is faith in this context? Trust. This kind of faith overcomes fear, it is the opposite of fear. And so when we trust Him, which in most cases translates to obey Him, then we have en encounter with Him and perfect love casts out all fear. The Lord works through His people, He requires their cooperation. When the Lord gave the Israelites the promised land, they were required to “possess,” it. We have so many promises from the Lord which also requires us to possess it. In the simplest equation it is “you do this and I will do that.” One example would be “come unto me and I will.” In this case He will give rest unto our weary souls. Another is “I stand at the door and knock.” Now, when one hears their door knocking in their house, they get up and go answer it, action is required. When the Lord compels us to return to His first love, then it is we, just as the prodigal, that have to get up and return. And when we do, we find a loving Father running to us with wide open arms. The Lord is asking His people to throw of the vestiges of their traditions that make the Word of God have no effect.

Will we have faith to throw off our old wine-skins? We can throw them off now or they will be taken off. When the Israelites had wandered too far from God He brought them back through invasion and captivity by cruel people. There is a great persecution coming for the saints and when it does, the saints of God will not have their traditions to fall back on, only God. Everything else will be swept away. It is better to prepare and be ready than to be taken captive but one way or another the Lord will find faith when He returns.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »

Pastor-will you repent?

Posted by appolus on February 10, 2019

The most extraordinary thing about the meetings I attended was the extent to which they were absolutely without any human direction or leadership. “We must obey the Spirit,” is the watchword of Evan Roberts, and he is as obedient as the humblest of his followers. The meetings open-after any amount of singing while the congregation is assembling-by the reading of a chapter or a psalm. Then it is go as you please for two hours or more. And the amazing thing is that it does go, and does not entangle in what might seem to be inevitable confusion. Three fourths of the meeting consists of singing. No one uses a hymn book. The last person to control the meeting in any way is Mr Evan Roberts. People pray and sing, give testimony, exhort as the Spirit moves them. As a study of the psychology of crowds, I have seen nothing like it. You feel that the thousand or fifteen hundred persons before you have become merged into one myriad-headed but one single-souled personality. (Journalist from London reporting on what he saw at some of the meetings in the Welsh revival-“The great Welsh Revival pg 69)

Can you see this hard-nosed journalists reaction to being caught up in a meeting where the Holy Spirit is leading and Jesus is preeminent? He talks about the oneness of the crowd, he struggles for words to describe how fifteen hundred people, for hours, can be sharing, without any human leadership at all, yet there is no confusion or disorder, in fact, quite the opposite. He says that people sang and prayed and gave testimonies and exhorted as the Spirit moved them. Now what were the results of this kind of freedom? Several hundred thousand people were saved and it turned Wales upside down. It spread all over the world and in the preceding decades countless millions of souls were saved. Have you ever experienced this kind of freedom? Why do you think that is?

The simplicity of these meetings were astounding. No man was elevated, no worship teams, no technology. In our modern times we now dim the lights, bring on the professional worship team, have dry ice, yeah really, dry ice, and all that to try and create an atmosphere. Yet the presence of God cannot be replicated. Here, one hundred years ago, with no help at all, the Holy Spirit moved in mighty power. The one thing that men had to do was to get out of His way and allow Him to move. Pastors, will you get out of His way and allow Him to move? Might be the scariest thing you ever do. Suspend all of your programs and seek the face of the Living God with prayer and fasting. Humble yourself and repent that your traditions and your position has actually been a stumbling block and an obstacle to the free moving of the Holy Spirit. See if He will not respond.

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »

Have you fallen down?

Posted by appolus on February 7, 2019


Psalm 42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted in me? Hope you in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

Are you downcast today? Has the troubles of life, the trials of circumstances mounted up and overwhelmed you? Are you wandering in a spiritual wilderness? Perhaps you even feel abandoned by God? Has the multitude of your troubles somehow separated you from the presence of the living God?Is the only water you are experiencing right now the tears that fall in the shadows of the night, the darkness of your situation?

There is a term amongst shepherds called “casting.” It refers to a sheep on its back. If a sheep falls onto its back, it does not have the ability to get upright again. The blood will begin to drain from the sheep’s legs, and the weight of its body will press down upon its lungs and it will begin to suffocate. It will slowly die. Perhaps you feel like you’re on your back today? You do not have the ability to get up again. The situation and circumstances are out-with your control. You do not feel the presence of God, you feel alone and isolated, the joy is gone and you have lost you “song in the night.”

Let me tell you what the shepherd does when He comes upon a “downcast,” sheep. First of all He begins to rub their legs to bring some of the blood back to get the circulation going a bit. Then He takes one hand and grabs the two back legs, then the other hand and grabs the two front legs and hoists the sheep up and over His head and around His neck. He then carries the sheep until it has recovered and only then does He put it back down on the ground.

If you are downcast today brothers and sisters, cry out to the Lord with all the strength that you have left in you. Remember the days when you “used to go with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise.” I pray that today is the day that your joy returns, that you will have your song in the night.

Even in the midst of darkness, may your joy be complete in Him. The good shepherd of our souls who would take your chin this day, very gently and say “why so downcast,” my child, “put your trust in me,” see now I will lift you from this place and put you on my back awhile for when you walk with me for “my yoke is easy and my burden it is light and you will find rest for your souls.”

Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 5 Comments »

Will we see another Revival?

Posted by appolus on February 5, 2019

The extraordinary thing about these meetings is their unconventional character. There is no organization, no program, no presenter and no presiding elder! Everything is left to the direction of the Holy Spirit. Preaching, in the usual sense of the word, has, for the time being, been entirely discarded, and is superseded by singing, prayers and general testimony. (The Methodist Recorder)

There is a tumult of emotion, an overpowering influence and a conviction of sin that can only be attributed to Divine agency. Personal eloquence, magnetism, fervor or mental power do not account for it. (Newspaper report)

No one led but the Spirit Himself.One after another entered the hall, knelt down and in a few minutes and intense prayer was given, or an intense chorus or verse or hymn was sung, or a text of Scripture or a chapter read, but all in the most harmony and intensity. Mr Roberts himself is as simple and natural as a child;he comes into the meetings and in no way interferes with what is going on. He waits until there is a moment’s pause, and then speaks a few strong, simple words with no apparent , but an intensity which calls forth earnest responses from the congregation. He opens the Bible, but there is too much singing at the moment, and he quietly closes it, sits down out of sight and remains silent in prayer. He has a real belief in the leading of the Holy Spirit and knows how to wait on the Lord and for the Lord

The spontaneity of the work is glorious and the lack of organization is most refreshing. It is all so novel, and so contradictory to what we are accustomed to regard as essential There is no creaking of the machinery. The stir is caused by the blowing of the wind, the breath of heaven. ((Mrs M Baxter)

What you have just read is a few first hand accounts of what was happening in the Welsh of 1904. It was a revival that swept the world. Just a couple of years later you had the Azuza St revival. In the following decades it is reckoned that somewhere between 600-800 million souls were saved because of this kind of revival. I want you to notice some of the fundamental aspects of the Welsh revival. 1. No real organization. 2. A complete reliance upon the Holy Spirit for direction.3. No program.4. No worship leaders.5 No preaching, no pastors or elders direction.

This kind of meeting or meetings terrifies a modern evangelical system which is so reliant upon polished personalities and professional worship leaders and worship teams. Think about the fact that in most cases there was not even as much as a piano or organ at these meetings, let alone professional paid musicians. How far have we fallen brothers and sisters? Everything we do in our meetings today is so well programmed, so professional. And yet, can you honestly say that you have experience even a hint of the conviction and manifest presence of God that these people were experiencing?

Where is the glory of God? Where is His majesty? Where is His manifest presence that falls so heavy upon His people that they can barely lift their heads? Where a river of tears flows from convicted hearts. Where you speak in hushed tones lest you quench the Spirit of God. Where unconverted men and women come in and are confounded by something they have never encountered and that can only be explained by the fact that it is God’s presence itself they are encountering.

Brothers and sisters, the systems and traditions of men have caused us to have fallen so far from the mark. What we need is a revolution. When a ship is caught at sea in a mighty storm and it looks like it might founder, the sailors begin to cast everything over the side. Not that they want to lose their cargo or things of value, but in the end they rightly value their life more than any thing that has been brought aboard the ship. Can i suggest that the evangelical world is foundering and the cost, if they hold on to their traditions and systems, is the very life of God in their midst. What will be more important in the end? Life itself or all the things that we have added. Without life, there is not much point in stuff.

May the Lord Himself forgive us for allowing ourselves to have slowly cast Him of, rather than everything that hinders Him and His manifest presence among us. We desperately need another movement of God that our Welsh brothers and sisters experienced. I wonder if we will humble ourselves in His sight that He may fall upon us or if pride, pride in our one man system, pride in our preaching, pride in our personalities, pride in our professionalism will win the day. It remains to be seen. We must not wait to long to act for the gross darkness is approaching and the Lord Himself is coming back. What will He find upon His return? Will He find faith or will he find His orchard has been taken over and those who run it refuse to give what is rightfully the Lords?

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