A Call To The Remnant

A few years ago I was injured in a car accident. I injured my ulnar nerve. It runs all the way from my little finger and the one beside it, right up my arm into my neck and then into the brain. The surgeon called it the “beast” of all the nerves. It is not good do to awaken this beast. Well mine was truly “woke,” and despite two surgeries or maybe partially because of them, it was determined to punish me for taking it out of its long hibernation.

One of the major problems for recovery is that over time, neural pathways are formed. This enables a portion of my brain to send pain signals down my arm. Over and over again with one of the way stations my elbow, where the nerve had been knocked out of its groove. Once these pain pathways are firmly established, it can go on tormenting you long after it heals because it has established a pattern. Like a covered wagon stuck in deep ruts, the path is determined. Unless you can break away from the ruts, then down comes the signal on its well worn path.

I thought about this the other morning as I was considering my life. My father was an alcoholic, as was my grandfather and undoubtedly one could find the same pattern over and over again looking back back in time and find the journey had always followed the well established deep ruts. One generation after another, going down that well worn path that was laid out for them. Each life being a wagon set on the course that the previous wagons had established. Your life laid out for you from the very moment of birth, being shaped by the same forces that had shaped the parents that had given life to the child.

Not far from my house there is a trail and it runs for many miles, almost forty miles. It follows a creek. This creek, for the most part has very little water flowing through it for the majority of the year. It trickles and meanders in between well worn out banks. Over the centuries the banks have become deep, carved out by the slow moving waters, determined by the lay of the land. It is the topography of the land that determines every twist and turn and with each year and the passage of time the course of this creek is more established. Deeper and more entrenched. The more time that passes, the more established the path becomes.

One day a few years ago after countless days of rain I put my rain gear on and decided to go on my walk despite the heavy rain. As I approached the trail from the elevated road, I looked down and the paved path that was several feet below was engulfed.The water had risen several feet and instead of creek contained between deep banks maybe several feet across, it was now about one hundred feet wide. There had been so much rain and the ground was so saturated that this little creek was up and out of its banks. It was no longer meandering or contained by its long established banks, it was now a raging river plotting the straightest course through a landscape that yielded to its enormous power. Everything without deep roots was simply swept away. Small bridges and structures not anchored on deep foundations, washed away. This would change the course and the direction of this creek, as banks, long established, crumbled and fell away.

For centuries now the church has laid somewhat dormant. There was the enormous flood of the reformation that changed everything. A great beast had been awakened and raged with fury, perhaps with a single nail hammered into it’s door. It took a long time to calm down and the torment of its injury would be felt for many centuries. Yet inevitably the floods receded and although new paths had been formed, new ruts set down in a saturated landscape, the earth began to dry up, and the newly formed ruts were set. The new paths for the creeks and the rivers that were formed, settled into its place and time began to deepen the new pathways that had been formed. Once again the water was contained, shaped by the deepening banks, a new topography, until it was no longer new.

Brothers and sisters can I suggest that we desperately need a flood? A lengthy period of constant rain that saturates a ground that is dry and dusty and weary. Now I believe that there is a flood coming. Nothing creates a flood better than a storm or a series of storms. Violent thunderstorms releases a huge deluge of rain that is unmatched. Sometimes these storms can produce as much rain in a couple of nights than would typically fall in a whole year. There is violent change associated with it. One thing is certain, when the storm is over nothing is the same. Now I want to stop there and emphasize a point lest you misunderstand me. The rains I am talking about is not some scenario where the Lord rends the heavens and comes down and the church is swept up in a beautiful revival. No, it is an actual storm that comes against the saints. Even now it is darkening. Yes it comes with rain, but it also comes with violence. The Body of Christ will be violently shaken and unless one has oil in their vessel, unless one has deep roots in the Lord, unless one is anchored to the foundation which is Christ Himself, that one shall be swept away by this great storm.

Yet the saints of God will rejoice. The established banks that for so long contained the direction of the flow will have crumbled. The power of God flowing through His saints will take a straight path and will devastate the order of things. There has never been a flood like the flood that is coming. There has never been a storm, that produces the flood, like the storm that is coming. It is indeed the storm to end all storms and the enemy, for a time, will prevail against the saints. Many know this Scripture well “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” This is from Isa 59:19. Now, as some of you may know, there was no punctuation in the Hebrew or Greek, this would come several centuries after Jesus. Now, go back and look at the Scripture I just gave you. Now look at this when I move the comma “When the enemy shall come in, like a flood the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.”

Do you see that brothers and sisters? Like a flood God will raise up a standard. The Lord Himself will rend the heavens and pour out life giving water on a dry and thirsty people. Spiritual drought is a judgement from God. Yet when the enemy comes in, and in our day and our age we see him coming in like we have never seen before, God Himself will release a flood of His Holy Spirit the likes of which we have never seen before. In the very midst of the enemy who seems to be prevailing against the Lords people, the Lord shall set before us a great spiritual banquet. We shall eat and drink of Spiritual food and Water. This standard He raises will be like a mighty flag that represents victory. Jesus is that victory. That banner over us will draw all like-minded men and women under it and God’s people shall stand united, ready to be martyred for the cause of Christ. This will be a witness to a dying world and His glory will cover the earth in a mighty flood as the waters cover the sea. Just when all seems lost Christ will redeem His people and those who endure to the end, those who overcome by the power of the Spirit will witness all our enemies being set to flight and finally destroyed. Stand strong brothers and sisters, the God who has delivered, does deliver will still deliver and He shall be glorified in all the earth.