Archive for December, 2019
Posted by appolus on December 30, 2019
Things that are common to the genuine saint #5 ….
In the life of a genuine believer, he or she is clearly separated from the world. This leads on from point number four. When we see and know and walk in the Kingdom reality, it necessarily separates us from the world for we will be Kingdom minded, our hearts and thoughts will be eternally focused. The closer we walk with the Lord, coming into His presence and dwelling before His throne, the dimmer the world becomes. One by one the things of this world begin to lose their savor. None of these things are necessarily bad in and of themselves, they simply do not have eternal value. The currency of heaven and its eternal treasure is what captivates the heart of the saint. This is a process and as each year passes in the life of a saint, as he or she becomes mature, we begin to see this decided lack of interest in the things which tend to captivate the world. Yet, lets not confuse separation from the world with separating ourselves from the world. We go into the world every day as we should do. We do not run from the world and hide behind walls seeking some kind of holiness away from the world’s influence. It’s in the very midst of a dark and dying world that we have the most impact as Kingdom minded saints who walk in a very different reality. We bring that reality everywhere we go. We bring our light into the world’s darkness. We are a city set on a hill, a light for all the world to see. This is our calling.
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Posted by appolus on December 30, 2019
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.Dan 6:10
Wicked men who hated Daniel and who were jealous of him came up with a decree that they persuaded the king to sign. This was a trap. By decreeing that no man or woman could petition their God for thirty days they knew they could either control Daniel or destroy him. Now Daniel certainly knew this. What he did was instructive for us today. Now perhaps many of us would go home and shut our windows and pray to God anyway despite what had been decreed. Maybe some of us would follow the decree and rationalize it by thinking that it was only 30 days, what harm would it cause? Daniel went home, and with his windows wide open, prayed unashamedly to the one true God.
Now saints, we are living in a day when many traps are being set for us and there will be many more to come. The enemy will not be satisfied with “30 days.” If Daniel had relented, then another decree would come along more intense and longer in duration than the one before. It is not good enough for the enemy to see outward compliance. He will demand much more than that. He will demand that you bow down to him and acknowledge the lie as truth. Compromise leads to disaster. It is one step down a slippery path that at its end lies destruction. The two wonderful aspects of Daniel’s story was that he unashamedly, in the face of certain death, refused to deny God or bow down to the decrees of this world that demand we deny our God and His truth. The second wonderful part was the fact that God was with Daniel in the lions den. What was decreed for his destruction only strengthened Daniel in the end.
What is pressing upon you saint? What decree is the world demanding that you compromise your faith for? Do not do it. Like a paid blackmailer, it will not end there it will only get worse. Better to go down into the lions den and meet God there than than to please the world, your family, your job or your career, and stand alone. One is temporal and the other is eternal. If you cannot run with the footmen now without being wearied, how then shall you contend with the horses when the world is drowning in gross darkness? Stand upon the truth saints and do not be moved.
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Posted by appolus on December 27, 2019
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
The freedom to do what is right, towers above the prison and the chains of commandments. One is initiated by love, the other is enforced by the whip. Holiness comes from freedom and freedom comes from love . And this love inspires and draws us and compels us to honor and respect and obey our Father in heaven. His love is the very air that we breathe and the air before His throne is rarified air and if we cannot breathe this air then we die. The impetus for us to follow the commands that are written upon our heart is love. It is more powerful than the commands that were written upon tablets of stone. Those who would sin without conviction and use some kind of legal fiction (cheap grace) to excuse or justify their actions simply do not have the laws of God written upon their hearts. The grace of God is such a beautiful and dynamic and fundamental part of our relationship with the Lord. It is never a license to sin, God forbid. It is the very opposite for those who know Jesus. When we sin there is a separation between ourselves and the one that we love. We cry with David “restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” The blood bought heart can never be at peace when there is any kind of distance between it and his or her Lord. Love compels us to humble ourselves, broken and contrite, and come before our Lord in confession so that we may once again walk in the beauty and closeness of His presence and holiness.
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Posted by appolus on December 27, 2019
Things that are common to the genuine saint #4 ….
An eternal perspective. Understanding the Kingdom reality of our lives and knowing it is like a vapour.. There is a reality of this world and it is powerful, it presses in on the senses and for those outside of the Spirit of God it is all-consuming. Yet there is a greater reality that lies within the saints. It is the reality of the Kingdom of God as they walk in it. Now these two realities undoubtedly compete. We as saints must be on our guard that we do not let the realities of this world overwhelm us and rob us of the realities of the Kingdom in which we truly walk. This is the battle line between the spirit and the flesh. The clear sense of reality therefore is truly knowing that our time here is short, and knowing that we are on a narrow path that leads us to eternity.
When we walk in this reality, the reality of the world begins to lose its power. We begin to see more clearly in the spiritual than we can see in the natural and the spiritual begins to dominate everything that we do. Day by day, precept upon precept, a process of sanctification, all of these things that are led by the power of the Holy Spirit should cause the scales to fall from our eyes. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.(Mat 6:22) The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of light in which there is no darkness. When we walk in the light as He is in the light then we truly have fellowship one with another.
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Posted by appolus on December 26, 2019
Things that are common to the genuine saint #3 ….A genuine saint now speaks with authority. In Acts 2 when Peter spoke to the crowd, scripture tells us that the crowd were “stabbed in their hearts.” The Greek word for this phrase is Katanusso. A similar word is used when Jesus is stabbed with the spear, that word is Nusso. Now Katanusso is a much more violent word than Nusso. It means to agitate, to thoroughly pierce, to violently agitate. And so the Holy Spirit is showing us that there is greater violence taking place in Acts chapter two than even when the Lord was run through with a spear. The violence was to men’s souls. Their hard hearts were being violently penetrated by the very words spoken under the influence of the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter two those affected cried out “what must we do,” yet just a few chapters later when Stephen is speaking with the same power, men were stabbed in the heart but gnashed their teeth and fell upon Stephen and stoned him. In either case, men were not left unmoved by the power of the Spirit speaking though the saints. Every genuine saint is going to agitate those around them. Loved ones, friends and associates will be drawn or they will recoil. There is no apathy for the saint. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. The genuine saint is part of an army that presses in. They will live and they will die, they will suffer and they will endure. They will fight with everything that is within them. They stand in the authority of God and upon His word and they do not relent. They have found a pearl of great price and hell itself will not wrestle it from their hands. With the armor of God and a two edged sword in their hands and the power and authority of the Holy Spirit, they will overcome.
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Posted by appolus on December 24, 2019
Things that are common to the genuine saint #2 …..Having the genuine joy of God. Now this joy is not the joy of the world nor as the world knows it. It is very much related to that part of the spirit that is ever connected to the presence of God. The world’s definition of joy is “a feeling of great pleasure or happiness.” Yet this is not the joy of the saint. The saint’s joy is not rooted nor does it spring from the soulish realm of feelings. It is an activity of the spirit which produces joy from our very relationship to the Lord. It is sensed in its greatest depths when, at least as far as the world can see, there is absolutely no reason for pleasure or happiness at all. The essence of the joy of the saint is to know that he is loved and that the Lord is with him in whatever his circumstances are. This produces an inner happiness and contentment when there should be none and it is one of the great strengths of the saints. It is also a testimony to the genuine nature of their relationship with the Lord. It emanates out from the spirit, though the soul and manifests itself in the flesh for all the world to see. This kind of joy cannot be counterfeited. Whatever is dominant in the life of the saint will be seen by all when the fire burns the hottest. When the smoke clears the world will know who is His.
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Posted by appolus on December 23, 2019
An awareness of the actual presence of God. In other places it is described as the manifest presence of God. It used to be written about a lot but I don’t find that anymore. Christendom has been so inundated by soulish activities and music that at least a couple of generations have grown up in Christendom knowing nothing of the manifest presence of God either personally or corporately. They have never felt that holy heaviness come down from heaven and rest like dew upon their heads, then filling every part of who they are. Quieting them, lowering their heads. Raising their hands in surrender and worship. Not in response to the words of a “worship leader,” but in response to the awareness of Gods presence. A presence that stills their very souls and elevates them to the throne of grace where they can only whisper “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty,” lest they take any attention away from a Holy God who has come down to rest upon them. Awe and majesty and reverence accompanied by rivers of tears flowing from their very depths and a deep, deep inner sense of wholeness and of all things being possible.
This is “the knowing.” It is not a matter of the head, no not at all. It is a matter of the heart. If you have encountered the resurrected Christ, the Son of the Living God, then you will have experienced the burning glow of His glory in the very depths of your heart. A woman from my hometown, who had just very recently got saved but had known nothing of genuine Christianity described her salvation in this way “it is as if someone has lit a candle in my heart.” How wonderful, what a perfect description of a new heart in a new creature. Has the Lord Himself lit a candle in your heart? Has your heart burned in the presence of God? The awareness of God, an essential element of true and genuine Christianity. Perhaps not in perpetuity but certainly along the way.
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Posted by appolus on December 16, 2019
James 1:2-4 Dear brothers and sisters,[a] when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Trials and tribulations will ultimately bring out the best in genuine Christians and the worse in the religious man. The harder the circumstances get for the genuine Christian, the more he is forced to his knees and driven deeper into the heart of the Father. He is humbled and contrite as he understands how weak he is and how much flesh he still has. Ultimately the results of this is more love, more peace, more forgiveness and more understanding. The harder the circumstances become for the religious man, the more bitter he becomes. He has no joy or peace. He will not forgive his enemies and his hatred for those he perceives to have caused his sufferings increases dramatically. So, the trial and the deep valley is death to one and life to another. The flesh dies and the spirit rises.
The genuine saint faces the same danger as the one who has never known Jesus if he reacts in the same manner as that one. The difference will be their love for the word of God and their love for God Himself. A saint is motivated by His love for God and his passion for the truth that is written, not only in the Word but upon his heart. It is the driving force of his life, his very heartbeat, the essence of who he is. Nothing else matters when sin disturbs this, it has to be put right for the alternative is distance between him and the one that he loves. When you find yourself in the midst of troubles of any kind dear brother and sister, resist the flesh’s desire to run into a dark corner and react as the world reacts. Do the opposite of the flesh, draw near to God and He will draw near to you and you will grow in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on December 11, 2019
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job
Can you even begin to imagine brothers and sisters, the Lord saying “Have you considered my servant…..” fill in the blank with your own name. What glory and honor that the Lord of all creation would testify of His servant before the throne-room of heaven, before the heavenly hosts. God is well confident in his servant. The accuser on the other hand has nothing at all to accuse Job of therefore he turns to the motivations of the heart of Job. And so unfolds the story of humanity. The Lord knows you, He knows you through and through. The same enemy of Job is the enemy of your soul. And the same accusation that he made against Job he makes against you. In the eternal spiritual courtroom, God stands accused by Satan that no one actually loves Him, they only follow Him for what they can get from Him. This is Satan acting according to his character, nasty and vindictive, the father of lies distorted with hatred for God and for His children.
You, dear saint, are a witness in this case. You are called to testify. Your testimony is your life in God and the motivations of your heart. Every moment that you praise Him, give thanks to Him, rejoice in Him, glory in His majesty, you continue to make the case against Satan. You are part of the truth and he is all of the lie. Truth is victorious over lies. Your life is a testimony to love. God’s love for you and your love in return. This glorifies God, this is your primary purpose here on earth. And the darker your circumstances, the greater more powerful the witness. To glory in God and to give thanks to Him in the midst of trials and tribulations is your greatest contribution to the reality of your relationship with God. So brothers and sisters, never stop thanking God, no matter your circumstances. You may not think that no one knows about your situation. God knows, the heavenly hosts knows and the fallen angels know. They know and they watch. This is why the promises are made to those who overcome and endure till the end. For love endures. It overcomes all obstacles and it even willingly dies for the object of its love. This is the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been called to follow Him.
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Posted by appolus on December 9, 2019
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
How many of us are living our lives taken up with our immediate concerns? And as we do, life just continues to pass us by. We are so busy with the concerns of life, one after another, day after day, that life is literally passing us by. The glory and the splendor of life itself, the majesty of Gods creation all around us, yet all missed as the minutia of so much of our lives dominates everything. There is a tyranny involved here. There is a slavery involved. The Lord Himself told us to ” seek ye first the Kingdom of God,” in our lives and all those other things shall be added to us. The Kingdom of God is a living reality and it is ever-present.
The antidote to the tyranny of time is the freedom that is found in His presence right here in the present. It has to be sought out and there is a diligence in the seeking but there is also a reward in the finding. To seek we have to suspend. Suspend what? The worries and the concerns of life must be put to rest. Just seeking God every day is a huge step away from the tyranny of this world brothers and sisters. When we leave the concerns of this world behind by faith, then we begin the journey into the heart of God. We begin to see His beauty that is all around us, we begin to be aware of His grandeur. And then suddenly He is there. No one can predict it and no one can formulate it for it can never be bottled and sold.
His very presence is our ever-present help. Our seeking His Kingdom and His presence is the narrow path in the journey of life as we make our way from the valley’s of this world to the mountains of His Kingdom. Once you establish yourself on this path, you will jealously guard against all distractions. Walking the path will become your way of life, your very purpose for living. It will turn it all around. You will be living in and for the eternal purposes you were called for. We have to eat and we have to drink but the primary reason for being alive is life, eternal life in Christ and the Kingdom life of God that is found in the ever-present God. Take a moment, reflect upon your routine then deliberately set it aside. For in setting it aside you are seeking first the Kingdom of God. This is where you will find your refuge, your strength and your very present help in in times of trouble. Let the dominant routine of your life be this-seeking His face.
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Posted by appolus on December 6, 2019
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
Oftentimes we find ourselves troubled on every side. Many times we are perplexed. Many of us have been persecuted, perhaps not in the sense of living in a hostile country, but maybe within our own families. We have been thrown down and trampled on . Often dying it seems by many our many troubles. All of these things and more are the things that would destroy most, but in you they have caused the life of Christ to spring up from the darkness of your situations. An abundance of grace has been poured out upon your life that speaks to the glory of God and the love of the Father for His children.
When we have been troubled on every side we can testify that we have been rescued from distress. When we have been weighed down with the perplexities of life, the Lord Himself pulls us up from the valleys of despair.In the midst of our persecutions and feelings of isolation we have discovered that we are not alone. When we have been thrown down and trampled on the Lord Himself has saved us from being destroyed.
In all of these things we do not faint, we rise up by the power of the Holy Spirit. The outer man may be in the process of perishing but our inner man is renewed daily by the glory of God and the amazement of a dying world. The world sees that out the darkness of our situations that God Himself has commanded light to shine forth. You may not be able to fully articulate the Roman road to salvation but the world does see that out of you, out of your many trials, your sorrows, your afflictions and your infirmities, there shines forth the light of Christ Himself. Be encouraged saints, you are a mighty witness for Christ. Perhaps the world will never know your story, but the Lord knows and the mouths of the principalities and powers are closed by the testimony of God in you, your hope and your glory.
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Posted by appolus on December 4, 2019
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace,” they said, “the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up(Daniel 3:17-18).
Above is either side of the one coin of faith. You cannot have one without the other. If your faith relies on a positive outcome then what you have is positive thinking but it’s not faith. If on the other hand you have counted the cost and are willing to praise God no matter what comes your way, you have found true faith. Everything must be unconditional, including our faith. You see, many people have faith in faith. Lets just replace the word faith with trust. Would it make sense to have trust in trust? You just have to exercise your trust? Faith, we are told in Hebrews 11, is the evidence of things not seen. To believe in something that you cannot see is the essence of trust. Without this kind of trust it is impossible to please God. How do we please God? By trusting in Him.
You see it is easy to trust in the Lord when everything is going our way, when all is right with the world. Yet when we are suddenly caught up in darkness and we cannot see the way ahead, this is when the flesh is put upon the bones of what we have confessed. The word becomes flesh as we raise our hand to God in the darkness and seek to grasp His. Our Father is a rewarder of those who diligently trust Him in the darkness. This is faith-Even if He slays me, yet shall I trust Him. Consider Jobs words and actions right after he learns that he has lost everything and that all his children are dead. Remember, the accuser of the brethren had said that he would curse God. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshiped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.(Job 1:20-22)
Enoch was a man who was considered to have great trust in the Lord. All we really know about him is that he pleased God. And if we cannot trust God it is impossible to please God. We also know this about Enoch “Enoch walked with God.” (Gen 5:22) So, how do we follow God in a way that pleases Him? Walk with him and trust Him, especially in the darkness. There must be more you might think. There is not. For those who walk with Him and talk with Him daily and trust Him in all things despite not knowing the outcome are obedient to Him. When someone says to you in a dire situation “just trust me.” They are asking you to follow their lead and do what they tell you to do. Follow Jesus and do what He tells you to do. Trust Him and you will have the pleasure of the King.
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Posted by appolus on December 3, 2019
The spirit of man, the spirit of the age. What is the spirit of man? In Mat 16:23 Jesus says to Peter “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. In the Good News translation it goes like this “Get away from me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my way, because these thoughts of yours don’t come from God, but from human nature.” Human nature, the things of men, the soul of a man, the spirit of man. It may be many things but it is not of God. We find ourselves in an age where men are led by their human nature, what comes naturally to them.
Their thoughts are from their own vain imaginations. Its their feelings that lead them, not the Spirit of God. If what they feel clashes with the truth then the truth is abandoned and attacked. They are driven, not by the Holy Spirit, but by their emotions, their soul, their own spirit. In the example above, we see Peter being repulsed by what Jesus was sharing with them. Jesus told them that He would suffer many things at the hands of men and then be killed. Peter’s spirit said no and he found himself in direct conflict with God Himself, the Truth, and is severely rebuked.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man(Joh 2:23-25) Jesus knew what was in man, He knew the spirit of man, He would not commit Himself to them. Who? The ones who believed in Him only because of the miracles that they saw. So we see that there are whole groups of people only following Jesus because they want to see a miracle. Or they want their own miracle. They are enamored by miracles. Speak to them and their obsession soon shows itself. This is the spirit of man. And the spirit of man loves power, especially miracle working power. No one who abides in the Word is distracted by miracles. For those who abide in the Word are the disciples indeed and they know the truth and they walk in the Spirit and not the flesh. Other men just desire power and are motivated by it. Simon Magnus was such a man.
Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.(Act 8:17-21)
See how Peter rebukes him so harshly. He had learned the hard way himself and now he is rebuking Simon in the most severe terms and exposes the heart of Simon,the spirit of the man. How many Simon’s do we see today in the pulpit and on the TV? The spirit of man desires not the things of God, his heart is not right in the sight of God. He chases after the things that will impress the world. And the followers of such men are driven by their own spirits and their hearts are not right before God. They do not mind the things of God. They are followers of men and not God and therefore since you cannot serve two masters, they will love the one and hate the other. You might wonder how men who claim the name of Jesus, supposed followers of Him could so viciously turn on others who actually follow Jesus. Consider John chapter 8.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.(Joh 8:31-32) What a wonderful truth Jesus delivered. So much so that to this day even the world will say “the truth will set you free.” Of course Jesus actually said ” you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Its the knowing of the truth that sets you free. If you know Jesus, then, and only then, shall you walk in the freedom that was wrought for you on Calvary. He whom the Son (The Truth) sets free is free indeed. Now, how did the “believers,” of John 8 react to this profound saying of Jesus? They railed on Him, falling back upon their tradition and claiming Abraham as their Father. Jesus reacts to this and says… Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do(Joh 8:44) They then in turn “took they up stones to cast at him.” (Joh 8:59)
So we see that in Christendom we have millions of men and women claiming to be believers. Yet when confronted by the truth, they lash out. They do this because they are men driven by their own spirits, it is the spirit of man. And if the spirit of man would pick up stones to kill the Holy Son of the Living God, what will they do to you saint? As religious men are confronted by saints driven by the Holy Spirit, then this sets up a clash of spirits in our age and in the end of ages. Truth is the target. Those who stand upon it, abide in it, have it flowing through their veins like molten lava, will find themselves confronted by the ice cold water of evil. The spirit of man is the spirit of the world and the world has invaded what passes for the church.
Can the spirit of man fellowship with the Spirit of God? A rhetorical question of course. One is enmity to the other. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (2Co 6:14) Some may argue that all men and woman who gather together in churches are believers. Yet in John 8 we see that Jesus tells those who identify as “believers,” that their father is the devil. These “believers,” took up stones to kill Jesus. Its not the name that you call yourself that counts, its the Spirit of God that is either in a man or it is not. The days are upon us brothers and sisters where it is unacceptable for any attempt for the righteous to fellowship with the unrighteous. Light can have no communion with darkness. It is God Himself through the power of the Holy Spirit who is exposing darkness and unrighteousness in our midst. Once that it exposed, it is your job as saints to follow His word.
Listen to what Tozer says………… The spiritual man has treasures this world discounts. He has a mystic wisdom of the Holy Spirit, but the world has no way to receive this. Jesus said the world cannot receive Him “because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” (John 14:17) Just as a deaf man has no sensory organ to receive music, and just as a blind man has no organ to receive light, so a worldly man has no organ to receive the treasure of God’s mystic knowledge by the Holy Spirit. And of course, if the Christian says that he has and is sure of himself, the world is angry with him, even the religious world. They say he is a bigot, he thinks too much of himself. The Christian man has the Holy Spirit, invisible and from God, whom the world cannot receive. The Christian has heard a voice, seen the light and been able to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, while the world is just religious (A.W.Tozer-A disruptive faith)
Tozer is right, isn’t he? The world and the religious men are always angry with the man who can say with a certainty “God said to me.” They say that he is arrogant and unbending. Yet what they do not realize is that the man who has heard from God, who has stood in His temple and been surrounded by His glory and transformed forever by His magnificent presence, minds the things of God and not the things of man. He understands the vastness of God and by comparison, how small man is. Who is he going to listen to? Who is he going to be moved by? God alone. And this infuriates man and brings the man or woman of God into direct conflict with the spirit of man, the spirit of the age. Be ready saints, for the spirit of the end of the ages is strong and vicious. Be prepared and count the cost and stand upon the truth. There is a glorious reward that awaits the saint who refuses to compromise, who overcomes, who endures till the end. Stand fast.
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 | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on December 2, 2019
Psa 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
In the Lord Jesus we find true love and forgiveness. Not as the world forgives, for His forgiveness is untainted by human imperfection. In 1 Cor 13 we discover that true love keeps no record of wrongs. I first heard that at a wedding I was attending. I was not saved and I was drunk. I heard the minister read this out and thought what a load of nonsense. One can maybe forgive but never forget. That was what i thought until I myself became the recipient of such love and forgiveness. Now, it took me years to fully realize the magnificent truth of this. Raised in the Catholic tradition of punishment and penance and purgatory, the notion that the Lord had not only forgiven me, but had now cast my sin into a sea of forgetfulness never again to be dredged up was transformative. The tyrannical forces of guilt and shame were dealt with head on.
The antidote to shame and guilt is an intimate confession to a holy and loving God. Then when that is done we must believe that when the Lord forgives us He keeps no record of our wrongs. He casts them into a bottomless sea. The problem is that we judge and gauge the Lord our God by our own standards. But of course His ways are not our ways. He is higher than we. His love is beyond the grasp of the mortal mind of man and can only be grasped by the inspiration of the Spirit. Encounter God and touch infinite beauty and love. Encounter God and stand in a place of inexpressible awe and majesty. When we grasp something of His vastness, then we are able to grasp the fact that not only has He forgiven us, but that He never keeps a record of our wrongs. They are cast into a sea where it is impossible to plum its depth. The chains of guilt and shame that for so long have imprisoned men are broken asunder by the love and mercy of God that we encounter before the throne. Today is the day for your encounter. This is the day for your chains to be broken.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
A Call To The Remnant 