When all is stripped away.
Posted by appolus on July 29, 2020
Martyrdom. Not really a popular word. Suffering, another word that is frowned upon. Yet between the two words there is a tremendous amount of power. Not the words themselves you understand, but literally suffering for the cause of Christ, and actually dying for His sake. We like to spiritualize it , and it does have spiritual application. Yet if a kernal of wheat falls to the ground and dies it produces many seeds.
When Stephen fell to the ground, a seed was planted in Saul. It would germinate in Saul. It was not the dying of Stephen, for Saul had seen many men die. It was the way that he died. The men who hung Dietrich Bonhoeffer later testified that they had never seen a man die with such dignity. When Stephen is dying, in the midst of his brutal murder, he is crying out to God not to hold this against his assailants. He has an open vision of heaven. Ordinary men do not die like this and it undoubtedly shook Saul to the core. The kernal, the seed was planted and it would, through Paul, produce many more seed.
In the book of Job we see in the opening chapter a scene where Satan and the fallen angels make an accusation. He basically says to God that Job does not really love Him or respect Him, he only bows down to Him because of all the things that God has given him. Take all of that away and it was stated that Job would curse God to His face. Principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places accusing man and God that they had no actual relationship, no genuine love, just something very basic.
So for the saint, great power is manifested when this false charge is stripped down and exposed. The proof of our love, our true and genuine relationship is to be found at its most powerful, in the bottom of the dungeon, not the mountaintop. There is a reason why the very building shook for Paul and Silas. We see this perfect example on Calvary, the very last place you would expect to see love and power and victory. Yet on that cross, Jesus makes an open show of the very principalities and powers that had dared to tell God that He was wrong about Job and that Job only loved Him for what He could get from Him.
Suffering and death is the ultimate revelation of who we are in Christ. It strips away all of the flesh and reveals what is left. Could we, would we, do as Jesus did and call out to His Father to forgive those who had crucified Him? Could we follow in the footsteps of Stephen and ask the Lord not to hold this crime against those who were carrying it out? This is the disarming of principalities and powers. This power shakes the gates of hell. While it disarms our true enemies, it arms the saint. We become the perfect witness not only to the world but to the unseen world. To willingly die, to willingly suffer for the sake of the Lord and His Kingdom. We wrap ourselves in impenetrable light. The darkness is vanquished.
Remember saint, you do not suffer alone nor is your suffering in vain. You may think that your life or the things that you have suffered for His cause have been in vain and has not counted for much. That is a lie from the enemy himself. Your uninterrupted love and passion for Jesus, despite your circumstances, is precious treasure to your heavenly Father. That He may say of you, to the enemy of your soul, have you considered my faithful servant? In the world to come you will have your reward dear saint, just as all things were restored to Job, you will find in that day that your losses for the cause of Christ in this world will be great gain in the economy of the heavenly Kingdom.
A Call To The Remnant 
When all is stripped away. — A Call To The Remnant – For Such A Time As This said
[…] When all is stripped away. — A Call To The Remnant […]
BT said
The Sign of Samson to The Church
“And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes
and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles.
And he ground at the mill in the prison.”
Judges 16:21
The life of Samson
is a sign unto the Last Day Church.
These things will surely come to pass. The once proud church, persecuted and humbled, will arise out of her weakness in the strength of her God.
Like Samson, the church in North America, arrogant in its God-given strength and not having the fear of God, has done what it pleases; it will soon be reduced to the jeers and worldly sport of its enemies. Like Samson, there is coming a judgment of blindness and bondage, a result of its seduction by the world.
The Seduction and the Fall
of Samson and the Church
“And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him”
Judges 16:19
The once powerful Samson was reduced to slavery and ridicule because of his foolish love of Delilah (representing the world and its ungodly ways). As he fell under her seduction, he gave up the secret of his strength. Bound and fettered by her beguiling ways, his eyes were put out (spiritual vision) and he became a slave to the world and its ways. The careless life he lived and the reckless abandon to his selfish pursuits brought him to a place of utter bondage and hopelessness. With his God-given strength gone, his enemies fell upon him with devastating cruelty. The ungodly politics of religious leaders and the greed and lust for worldly wealth and power has impoverished the church in this hour. Jude in his epistle clearly warns us of the infiltration and influence of ungodly ones who come to defile the ways of God in our very ranks.
“For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ”
Jude 1:4
What is the result?
“Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever”
Jude 1:11-13 (ESV)
The folly and horror of the things we have allowed in our midst has become (as Samson) our undoing. God is arising to thoroughly purge His Church of all worldliness and ungodly living.
Peter declared:
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
1 Peter 4:17
Before He can judge the world of its depravity He must have a pure and holy Church. He cannot judge the world of its wickedness while His Church walks in the same abominations as the world. The judgement of the Philistines came at the hands of a Samson who had been humbled and purified from his own lusts and worldliness. In his restoration he brought judgment upon the enemies of God. The very people who carried out God’s judgment upon Samson would, in the end, fall as his strength was made new.
God’s promise of restoration and purpose for His Church will not go unfulfilled. Just as Samson, the broken ones, now fully cognizant of their sins, will find the secret of His strength once again and arise from the devastation to “possess the Kingdom of God”
“But the hair of his head
began to grow again after it had been shaved”
Judges 16:22
God’s promises hold true and His mercies never cease. The enemy, your enemy, does not know the secret ways of the Lord. God will surely “renew their strength” and in due time “they will mount up with wings as eagles” and walk in the strength of their God! It will then be a time to lift up the eyes which have been blinded by your enemy, a day to lift up the hands which hung down and to once again sing the song of the Lord with joy. It is of the Lord’s mercies to do a work in our Day of humbling; to cause His servants to arise and, as Samson, strike a blow greater in his weakness than he ever did in the days of his strength.
“Therefore also now, saith the Lord,
turn ye even to me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping,
and with mourning…”
Joel 2:12
For in our turning He will turn;
In our seeking He will be found;
In our mourning – He will be our Joy.
The glory of the Lord will arise
upon His people for the set time is come.
The Day of His recompense is upon us!
A Glorious Visitation
In our turning and in our seeking of Him there will come a visitation; a visitation of glory and an anointing to prepare His Own (as He was in Bethany) for the purpose of sacrifice and eventual victory. We are in a time of great darkness; a time of anarchy, lawlessness and bitterness. The sorrow and devastation that is coming will be such that if He does not cut it short no flesh could survive.
“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened”
Matthew 24:22
Daniel’s Horn is Rising!
There is a “horn” arising and for a season it shall make war with the saints of God and shall overcome them (even as Jesus was overcome); but it shall not last.
“I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints,
and prevailed against them…”
Daniel 7:9
Those who are to rule with Him must overcome even as He overcame. Herein will be revealed the patience (endurance) of the saints. In our being overcome so shall we overcome. It is the Way of Christ so it must also be the Way of His Body. The crown of suffering must precede the crown of Glory. May those who have ears to hear understand.
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne”
Revelation 3:21
A dark night will soon cover the earth and gross darkness will settle upon the people of the world. The righteous will be hated and the hope of many may fail. Be encouraged that as surely as the night comes so will His morning. He will arise with healing in His wings unto those who fear and honour His Name. Stand fast! The time is coming quickly; confusion, anarchy and lawlessness will abound. But the Ancient of Days will surely arise and in the end the “Saints of the Most High will possess the Kingdom”!
“Until the Ancient of days came,
and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High;
and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom”
Daniel 7:22
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“Weeping shall endure for the night,
but joy cometh in the morning”
Brian Troxel
appolus said
Very good brother!………………bro Frank