Archive for November, 2020
Posted by appolus on November 30, 2020
Isa 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
The real test for us as Christians is how we walk along the path set before us. We can walk with the Lord by our side, and by that I mean we can walk with His empowering manifest presence. Not unlike the disciples that walked with Jesus after His resurrection and their hearts burned as He taught them. His very nearness and His Spirit caused their hearts to burn and glow. Or, we can walk alone, and by that I mean we can walk in our own strengths minus the awareness of His presence.
Now we know saints, as good Bible scholars, that God is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere at the same time. And as saints we know that He also dwells in our hearts. This is not what we are here referring to. We are talking about what it means to walk in the nearness of the Spirit of God as opposed to walking in the flesh. And as saints we can do both. If we would walk in the Spirit of God, walk in His awareness and therefore walk in His power, then we must, as the Lord told us to, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Every day.
We must be aware of the Kingdom and the Kingdom walk. Our eyes must be engaged in Kingdom sight. We must see things through the lense of the Lord and His word. Our mouths must be engaged in the Kingdom language, we must speak as ambassadors of the King. We must draw near to Him and not quench the Spirit of God. To quench the Spirit of God is to pour cold water upon our burning hearts. Will you throw another log on the fire and cause it to burn brighter, or will you douse it with the cold waters of the world?
A man and a wife can stay in the same house but never be intimate, perhaps even stay in two different bedrooms. Are they close? Yes, in proximity. Are they married? Yes, still married. Yet, because they are not intimate they are really no better than room-mates. One may call it a love-less marriage. Who would want to be part of a love-less marriage? It is considered by most as a tragedy. How greater a tragedy than to be room-mates with the Lord? Yes He is in your heart, yes you are saved, but you are never spiritually intimate.
The real tragedy in a marriage is if one longed for intimacy but the other never responded or had no such need or desire. Jesus longs to be spiritually intimate with His disciples. Only as a result of this intimacy can we expect to be aware of His presence. We grow together in intimacy. We become alike in intimacy. Two become one in intimacy. The man or the woman who does not understand, seek or desire to be intimate with the Lord shall never grow and his or her walk will be a very lonely shallow one.
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Posted by appolus on November 28, 2020
We have fallen from Grace
In the west there is a very low view of God. Some kindly grandfather? A benevolent Santa clause? A buddy?. Of course He is none of these things. Familiarity has bred contempt and the traditions of men have caused us to fall from grace. It has caused us to forget who God really is. He is high and lifted up and the train of His robe fills the temple. He is majestic in holiness. He is awe-full, meaning full of awe. Those around His throne can only cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty.’
It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God. (2 Chron 5:11-14)
As the people stood as one, no hierarchy observed, and the Ark found its rightful place in the temple, the glory of God came down, God Himself took possession of the Temple and it was filled with a cloud of glory. His true unadulterated presence would have obliterated these mere mortals. Impenetrable light hidden in the cloud and still the people were overwhelmed. In Job chapter 26 the righteous man of God cries out as he explains the unsearchable glories of God and says “He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.” The cloud, the glory, the manifest presence, all of this and more when the children of God become as one.
Unless the people have an encounter with such a God, they will continue to have a low view of Him and worship some weak anemic cultural god of their own making. The church in the west is starving to death, they are dying of thirst and the tragedy is that for the most part, the majority that are called after His name do not even know that they are in the midst of a famine and drought.I thank God for His remnant people who do know. Who agonize over the state of the church. Who cry out to God and who want nothing less for the multitude of people to experience the majesty and the glory and and anguish and the joy of falling down before the throne, to be ruined for life and to walk with the grand obsession that is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
For the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. Now brothers and sisters, we know that we are the house of God. We are His temple. Each one of us is a living stone. Each one of us are priests in a Royal priesthood. Has God so taken us, so fully possessed us that we could barely stand? Have you experienced God is such a way? When His presence falls upon you and there is a weight of glory where you can barely lift your head? You barely dare breathe as He fills every part of you. Tears flow freely, trembling hands find their way into the air in surrender, surrender to the glory. It is not a passing moment, rather it is a passage from the temporal world into the glory. And once you have slipped behind this veil then nothing can ever be the same again.
This is what the people are starved of, this is why they are dying of thirst. There is a famine of the Word of God in the land, not the Word preached, but the Word preached with the power and the presence of God. The crisis of the age is a lack of God’s empowering presence in our assemblies.Can we do anything outside of His presence? Unless the Lord builds the house then we labor in vain. It is very clear that the Lord has an issue with us. Every church , every gathering throughout the land should shut down their activities until they have the presence of the Lord walking in their midst, until the people know that……
“the heavens shall be shut up, and there is no rain because they have sinned against You; if they pray toward this place, and confess Your name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them, then hear from Heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel, when You have taught them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people for an inheritance.”
The people must realize how far they have wandered from the Living God. When they are desperate enough to cry out and acknowledge how far they have fallen, fallen from grace, then and only then shall they have the ear of God. Falling from grace is the result of trying to complete the Christian journey in the flesh, when it can only be completed by the Spirit. The Galatians problem was the Law, they were trying to live by the law. Christianity today tries to live by its traditions. It is as much ruled by its traditions as the Galatians were ruled by the law and the result for both groups is the same, a falling from grace.
Falling from grace is a cutting yourself of from the vital connection from Christ that gives you life. Build your life upon the law or upon the traditions of men and you have cut yourself of from the very real relationship of Jesus Christ. The traditions of men, no matter how good, are but a mere shadow of the reality. The object itself casts a shadow, and while the shadow has something of the image of the object, it has no substance. It cannot edify, it cannot sanctify, it cannot instill abundant life, and so those who rely upon the shadow begin to die. Where the shadow abounds, death abounds. Where the substance of Christ is and along with that and His actual presence, there is life and liberty, and grace to be found.
We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When the people who dwell in great darkness see the children of the living God set on fire among the cloud of glory, when they see that the glory of God has fallen upon the temple, when the glory of God fills the temple, then those who dwell in the darkness of this world will be drawn to the light of Christ that burns at the center of our hearts and souls. Will we serve the Lord our God with all of our hearts? Are we ready to throw off the things of this world and enter into the Holy of Holy’s? The Kingdom of God dwells within us.
Shall we take our place before the throne? Is the Lord inviting us to the marriage feast and tragically we are too busy? Do we make excuses as to why we do not come fully before Him? In Luke chapter 14 the call goes out to come to the great banquet and any number of excuses were made as to why they would not come, in short they were too busy living in the material world and living material lives. He is knocking at the door of your heart, will you open up your heart and let Him reign upon its throne today? Will you give Him your all today? He will have all of us or He will have none of us. To look back at the things of the world disqualifies us from serving Him.
Come brothers and sisters with our whole hearts. Come to Him and cry out with a desperate cry “Lord I die of hunger today, I desperately need your word with your power and your presence. Lord today I am dying of thirst, I have an unquenchable thirst for the Living waters of life and I desire to be fully immersed in this river and want to be taken to wherever it will take me. Lord I would rather be in the center of your will and die today, than to live 30 more years of compromise in a dry and thirsty land.”
What hinders you today brothers and sisters from entering into the fullness of God? It’s not the Lord. His desire is to possess all of you and be the Lord of your whole life. So what hinders you today? Your life, your traditions your place in the world? Lay it down and come and walk in the fullness of Him. Let His glory fill the temple. Let His glory take full possession of you. The day is coming to and end and the great persecution will soon be upon us. Unless you are filled with His glory, unless He has full possession of you, you will hear yourself making any number of excuses as to why you cannot serve Him with your whole heart and join the oneness that is also soon to come.
Persecution will burn away the kindling and the broken branches and the branches that no longer are fed by the sap of the vine. When the smoke clears there shall be the oneness left. The oneness that Jesus spoke of in John 17 where He said that we would be one just as He and His Father are one and we shall be where the glory is, the glory that He has given to us. This glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea and every nation will see it. The glory of God come down upon those who walk as one, just as they were called to. Cry out now with A desperation and repent if you have fallen from His grace. He waits, He waits to lifts us from the valley of dry bones, but He shall not strive forever with us.
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Posted by appolus on November 27, 2020
I believe our whole lives as saints is toiling in the foundations. I was a bricklayer for over 25 years, our worse job was always laying the foundations. We were underground in cramped narrow footings. Oftentimes the footings were deep and full of water and mud and the steep sides always held the possibility of collapse. Getting material down into the footings was difficult. Every step was difficult, plowing our way through the mud, we were typically wet and filthy. Yet, in order to rise up out of the ground, to break the surface and back-fill the foundations so that the structure could continue upwards, this vital backbreaking work had to be done. This is our spiritual work here on earth, laying the foundations for a heavenly mansion.
We could never do it in our own strength for unless the Lord builds this house then we labor in vain. If you find yourself in deep and difficult footings, if the circumstances of your life seem to be so more difficult than others, know this saint, it is because the structure that awaits you is large. Small houses require small and shallow foundations. Large structures require deep and difficult foundations. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad when you find yourself in the deep, for great is your reward in heaven.
Keep moving upwards. We shall break the surface of this world we dwell in and find ourselves in the glorious Kingdom of God. We will have thrown of our mortal coils. We shall be like a seed planted deep under the ground. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it produces much fruit. Our lives, brothers and sisters, is exactly like that grain of wheat. This life is the dying. In this life we find ourselves covered my the mortality of the soil that is around us. It is our place of death and life. The work of dying and the work of living is our sanctification. Breaking through the soil is to cast off the darkness of this world. Seek to live and you shall die, die and you shall be reborn and through you shall come much fruit.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on November 27, 2020
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me (Psa 23:4)
Isn’t that the beginning and end of it all? No matter what we are suffering, no matter what we are going through, as long as He is with us then we can go through it. Through the waters, through the floods, through every trial and tribulation and vexation of heart and soul and mind and body. If we are found in Him and He is in us and with us then we shall prevail, we shall overcome. And not only prevailing and overcoming but also victory. There is victory in Jesus and that is why there is and can be joy even in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death. For when He is with us, and we are aware of His presence, He is our green pastures. His presence restores our soul. His presence is our still waters.
A few years ago I needed a round of shots in my spine for old injuries from a fall in construction many years ago. I had them before, they are not pleasant. I was asked prior to the shots if I needed a valium to calm me down. Like a good Scotsman I said no. I had people praying for me. Just before going in as I waited in a room, kinda regretting my decision on the valium, the Dr came in and asked me if he could pray for me. I was taken aback. I said of course. Then when I was lying face down on the table the radio was on. Some terrible rock music was playing. I heard the Doc tell someone to turn that of.
Just a moment later, a nurse started singing a hymn I had never heard before. The presence of the Lord filled the room and I quietly shed some tears. The Lord, in His manifest presence had come into the room to let me know He was with me. The nurse finished her hymn and the Doc said to me “your very lucky, in twelve years she never sung for me.” It all seemed otherworldly. When the injections were finished and I could look up, I asked who had sung the hymn. A little black nurse said “it was me.’ She came over and I hugged her.
I find in Him I have no want, He is my all and all and He is my everything. And because He is my everything He is my path and He leads me and guides me. He anoints my head with oil and my cup is overflowing, whether in the valley of the shadow of death or the glorious mountaintops of His transfiguration. This table that He sets before me is an everlasting and eternal one. There has been served upon this table the delicacies of goodness and mercy and love and forgiveness. A feast fit for a hungry heart that pants and longs for the good things of the Lord. Saint, today is the day that you are invited to sit down at this table and the goodness and the mercy that you shall find there will follow you all the days of your life.
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 November 25, 2020
For my shallowness to be this deep, how large must my world of self and selfishness be? I would have drowned in the depths of my shallowness had it not been for the vastness of my God who is so unspeakably larger than my self. So vast is He that I realize that I am but a single grain of sand on a shore that stretches on for eternity. And He, the ocean that is larger and deeper than the universe.
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Posted by appolus on November 25, 2020
Much of America no longer desires to be Independent. They want to be part of a world order, part of an old European order where the elite reign and the peasants know their place. It’s not surprising that the elite want this, it is very surprising that the rank and file want this. I suppose it is better to be back in Egypt where you are assured of your daily rations despite the whip, than to wander free in a desert where you have to rely upon God.
It is my guess that the remnants of Feudalism still finds itself in the ancient DNA of the European peoples of the earth. So, in the natural, it would seem that escaping a slave mentality is, in the end, not really possible. I am glad that the Spirit of God set me free and he whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
We can have revolutions, American or otherwise, and observe that their so called freedom lasts a couple of centuries at best and then they slowly revert to their need to be enslaved. Yet in Christ, those truly set free are free indeed for all time. Jesus is the true revolution and the only breaker of chains.
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Posted by appolus on November 25, 2020
Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the Words of eternal life.
Where shall we go, those of us who know Jesus? To the world? Impossible. Back to the life that we came from? Who would want to be dead again and wallow in our own vomit? No, those of us who know Jesus, no matter how hard the calling, no matter how difficult the road, shall stay right there by His side for in Him is life and everything else is death. Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. His Word and His words are life to us. They sustain us in the rain, they keep us in the storm, they cover us when the darkness rages all around. His Word, His presence keeps us and upholds us.
By coming to Him, by staying close to His presence, His manifest presence, you receive His power like living waters through your pores, through your senses, through your spirit through every particle of your being right down to the very molecules that makes up who you are. You are infused by Him and by being infused by Him, by consuming Him, by being consumed by Him, you are changed by Him. And you become more like Him and worship Him more. You read the Word more and you pray more and you weep more and you live more and you love more. And most importantly, you are obedient to His Word and that still small voice.
You are more compassionate and you are more joyful and more grateful and more thankful and you witness more, not out of any legal requirement but out of necessity because your bones burn within you. Your heart is on fire, your whole body glows in the residue of your encounter. You are infused by Him and it makes you diffuse the fragrance of His knowledge in every place(2 Cor 2:14) So many men choose their own strength to try and achieve everything that can only be achieved in His presence because to come to Him, to come close to the light, it illuminates our dark deeds.
Yet eternal life dwells within His presence and it draws us and it keeps us close to our Lord. Better to come before Him in intimate confession and dwell in the light and in life, than to stay in the darkness and in the shades of grey where only death dwells.
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Posted by appolus on November 24, 2020
“Lacked you anything,” Jesus asks His disciples and they replied,”nothing.” Jesus and His disciples, for the most part were met by crowds and well wishers and those who would put them up in their homes and feed them. Indeed, at one point the people would have made Jesus their King. Now everything was about to change.
Can I suggest that Christianity in the West has lacked for nothing for a considerable time now. Everything is about to change. The Western nations and their leaders are about to turn on Christians with a ferocity. Genuine Christians are going to find themselves second class citizens. We shall be counted with the transgressors.
Jesus spoke to His disciples because His time on earth was about to come to an end. He knew that the once loving crowds, so fickle, so self serving, were about to turn on Him and His followers. The atmosphere had changed. The gross darkness which would soon engulf the land had already begun to stretch out its shadow towards them.
Can I suggest that the very same shadow is encircling the earth right now. The atmosphere has changed. Can you sense it in your spirit? Do you understand that we shall be counted with the transgressors? And the lowest of them indeed. You are just about to be hated for His namesake by all nations. It will not be a normal hatred, if there is such a thing. No, you will be hated by a satanically inspired hatred.
Jesus tells His disciples to take their purse, to sell their cloak and to buy a sword. Now, it was common for Galileans to carry swords in that day. It would protect them from robbers and such. Indeed there was found two swords among the ranks of His disciples. Two among twelve. It was not something that the disciples had given much thought to apparently. For as they went out by their twos healing and casting out demons, the people loved them. Now all that was about to change. Now they would be hated and hunted and persecuted.
Saints, we must now expect trouble. Arm yourself with this knowledge. Prepare for it in your heart. Do not count your guns. We shall not be fighting robbers and wild beasts. Arm yourself with the sword of the Spirit for it will the authorities that will be coming after you. There is no question about the fact that we shall not fight the authorities. Jesus would say to you that’s enough already. We do not have a Barabbas spirit. Our war is not a civil war. We war against the unseen forces of darkness.
Jesus reminds His disciples that what has been written must yet be accomplished in Him. He knew what lay ahead not only for Him but for His followers and He was preparing them. What has been written about us must also yet be fulfilled saints. The force behind the darkness has come to make war with the saints and to overcome them. (Rev 13:7) It is written. One’s name is either in the Book of Life or it is not. All those, of every kindred and tongue and nation whose name is not found in the Book shall be our enemies.
Now, if you take up the sword you shall fall by the sword. This may appeal to many of my brothers and sisters. I know this because it appeals to me. Yet, this is not the will of God. His will is that we should be a witness. We have been called to be witnesses against the great evil and darkness of this world. When all the world sees our witness, then the end shall come, then shall come our Jesus. It is not your choice on how you leave this planet. We have a Lord and a God and He has clearly instructed us not only in the written Word but in the Word that is written on our hearts.
So brothers and sisters. Arm yourself with the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God moving in you with power. Stand before men as the witnesses of old stood before them. Stand with boldness, stand with indignation for the name of Jesus. Arm yourself by being prepared in your heart. Understand and know the times and the seasons that you are living in and have been called to.
The Lord Himself has called our generation, I believe, to make up the number of the Martyrs, to fulfill their numbers. When I speak of the remnant, this is what I speak of. Stand strong my brothers and sisters, our God is with us. The gross darkness of this world cannot penetrate the light that is in us. We are wrapped in impenetrable light. It is to us a wall of fire. Our God is a consuming fire.
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Posted by appolus on November 23, 2020
I am not waiting on a move of God, I am a move of God. ( William Booth)
Amen! Every genuine saint is a move of God, a force of nature, supernature. We are taken up with the Holy Spirit of God and we are the light in the darkness. We are not called to be a light, it has been declared that we are the light, the light of Christ shining through us into the darkness of a world reeling from gross darkness and fear. Saint, there is power in the Blood, the blood of Christ that flows through your veins. You are a move of God!.
People who understand who they truly are in Christ do exploits for their Lord. This is no mere mental assent to an abstract truth. First and foremost, the power of the Living God in us changes us. This is a move of God. And as men see this change in us, they are drawn towards the agent of that change, Jesus. For God to move in the world, He must first move in us. You can cry out from here to eternity for a move of God but unless He is moving in you, you will not see the supernatural God moving. Stop waiting for a move of God and understand that God is waiting for you to move. Christ in you is the agent of change in the world that you inhabit.
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Posted by appolus on November 23, 2020
2Co 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
Every triumph we have we have in Christ. He is our victory and in Him we have victory. If we overcome it is because He overcame. If we love it is because He first loved us. If we forgive it is because we are forgiven by Him. When we weep, we know that He wept first. And when we give comfort to others it is because we ourselves were first comforted by Him. Every good thing, every triumph we have we have in Christ. This is why He leads us in a triumphal procession. And as we follow Him in victory then the world gets to witness the knowledge of Him and His victory over hell and sin and death.
They get to see how He broke every chain and how He healed our broken hearts. Every obstacle removed. They see a new creature in Christ who in Him has taken captive that which had formerly held us captive. We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. You see that phrase “in Christ.” This is the key to everything. We must be found “in Him.” Paul suffered the loss of all things to be found “in Him.” And when we are found in Him, then and only then is the fragrance of His beauty and glory and majesty and knowledge spread abroad in the hearts of man everywhere.
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Posted by appolus on November 22, 2020
If Peter had wanted to walk upon the water he would have sunk like a rock. It is the directions of Jesus that carry power. Whenever He directs us to do something He enables us. The glory is always His yet the first step is always ours. It is true that Peter, at least for a moment, walked upon the water. Imagine the madness of people all over the world attempting to do the same thing with the reasoning “well, Peter did it.” Yes he did, that is an abstract truth. There is no power in abstract truth. You say you believe in Jesus as the one and only begotten Son of God? So does the devil.
Giving a mental assent to an abstract truth is devoid of any power. It cannot save you, it cannot change you. It never has and it never will. Only an encounter from God can save you. Only a response to a direction from the Holy Spirit can save you. Only a response to the Holy Spirit can change you. A head knowledge of the Word of God without any relationship or intersection with the Spirit of God produces broken disappointed people. One can say they have food, but your wasting body belies that fact if you do not have any. Christendom starves while claiming to be well fed. It is the spiritual equivalent of anorexia.
This world that we call Christendom is full of anemic starving people. Their claims about themselves are merely smoke and mirrors. They say that they are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Yet, they are clearly wretched, miserable and poor, blind and naked. The good news is that Jesus still knocks upon the door. To open this door is to encounter the true and the living God.
Unless their lives intersect with the living God then they cannot be saved, they cannot change. For them, to walk upon the water is to drown. What elevates one man, drowns another. True and living faith manifests itself and the fruit of that manifestation is Christlikeness and holiness. For who God saves He changes and He does it by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Posted by appolus on November 22, 2020
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” And “Every block of stone has a statue inside of it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” “David was always there in the marble, I just took away everything that was not David.” These are quotes from Michelangelo. The block of stone is the old you. Jesus is the sculptor. Pain and suffering are the hammer and the chisel. Circumstances are the blows. God is in charge of it all and He will shape you.
We who know Jesus are a work in progress. Paul says in Ephesians that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. This word perform means to complete. The work that He has begun in you, He is faithful to complete it. I want you to sit for a moment and ponder the magnificence of that. Rest in the truth that the greatest artist of all, the one who hung the stars in the sky, the one who laid the foundations of the earth, the one who created you and breathed life into you has not finished His work with you but will finish it.
The Lord has a hammer and He has a chisel. In the process of freeing you from your former self there must be the blow of the hammer down upon the chisel and we must yield to it. The Scriptures also tell us that the steps of a righteous man are ordered of God. Your life is not some series of random events that somehow hold you capture to its surrounding circumstances. No, your life is His and He is faithful to you. The swing of His hammer is the process whereby He is setting you apart. When Jesus cried to Lazarus to come forth, the coming forth was not all that happened. Lazarus was bound hand and foot with grave-clothes. He had to be set free from them. The grave-clothes had to be taken off so that the Lazarus that was brought to life would no longer be bound by death, but released and free to live.
In 1 Peter chapter 2 Peter says that we are stones being built up into a spiritual house. Every stone is shaped by the Master. Peter also says in the same chapter that we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation a peculiar people who have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light so that we may declare the praises of Jesus. When the religious men of the day plotted to kill Jesus, they also plotted to kill Lazarus. Why? Because his very life testified to the Master, the creator of life, the one who rolls the stone away, the one who shines light into the darkness, the one who bids us come out of the darkness and join Him in His marvelous light.
You are such a one saint. Dont let the enemy fool you or lie to you. You are His creation. He created you, He breathed life into you, He called you out, He raised you up, He healed you. He forgave you, He restored you, he reconciled you. When you passed through the waters He was with you. While you were being refined by the fire He was with you, when you were down He raised you up. He died for you, He rose again for you and He ever intercedes at the right hand of the Father for you.
He has not finished with you but He is faithful and true to complete which He has begun in you. He does it all for His good pleasure. You are His, you were bought with a very expensive price. He has not forgotten you. Lift your hands towards heaven today and open your heart and let this truth flood into your very being. God bless you my brother, God bless you my sister. Keep on going, there are a cloud of witness cheering you, you are God’s work of art and all other works of art are but a mere shadow, a pale imitation at best of what the Lord is creating in you.
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Posted by appolus on November 20, 2020
Eze 47:3 And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.
There is a river that flows from heaven itself. It flows through our hearts and beckons us to come deeper. This river is spoken of in many places in Scriptures. It is the presence of God and it brings us deeper into the heart of the Almighty. There are trees on either side of this river and their roots are directly connected to the river and they are perpetually green, evergreen trees for the healing of the people and the nations. The river itself brings healing everywhere it goes. To be walking in the Spirit is to be swimming in the river of life.
As we see in Ezekiel 47, the Lord brings us to through the waters. Always the Lord, compelling His children to come deeper into Him. Not ankle deep, not knee deep or even waist deep but fully immersed in a river so vast that it cannot be crossed, it can only be swum in. We must give ourselves to the river, let go and give way to the current of the Holy Spirit. Whether you are ankle deep, knee deep or even waist deep, you are still standing on your own two feet. In many respects you are still in charge. Yet to give ourselves completely to the river we are no longer standing.
When we are fully given to our Lord. When we are yielded to the depths and the power of this vast river, the power of the Holy Spirit, only then can we truly be led. All resistance is gone in its depths. It is carrying you towards the sea, the vastness of God Himself. Ever closer, ever deeper into the Father’s heart. And the Lord says to to you “come, I will bring you through the waters into the deep.” “Seek me with your whole heart and I shall be found and you shall be rewarded for your diligence, I am your exceeding great reward.”
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Posted by appolus on November 19, 2020
Isa 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
I give you my rags, you give me wedding garments. I give you ashes, you give me beauty. I give you dry bones, you give me flesh. I give you sadness, you give me joy. I give you a spirit of heaviness, you give me a spirit of praise. I give you my failures, you give me a way ahead. I give you my temptations, you give me a way of escape. I give you my anxiety, you give me a peace that surpasses understanding.
I give you lies, you give me truth. I give you my ambitions, you give me satisfaction. I give you past hurts, you give me reconciliation. I give you my wounds, you bind them up and they are healed. I give you my perversions, you give me purity. I give you my heart and my soul and all that is within me holding nothing back. These are the things that I give you Lord, these are the things that I bring to the altar.
There is the presence of God, and then there is the manifest presence of God. To experience the manifest presence of God we must be willing to be transparent before the throne of Grace. What will you give the Lord today? What will you bring to Him? Are you willing to lay down every obstacle? Are you willing to empty yourself before His throne in humility? We know that the Lord draws near to the humble. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will raise you up.
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Posted by appolus on November 17, 2020
I wanted to look at two of the churches in Revelations that Jesus has strong words for. He says to those in Philadelphia… I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name (Rev 3:8) And to the church in Laodicea He says….. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Rev 3:20)
The first thing I want to point out may not be the obvious difference between these two churches but do you see that in the first church there is an “open door.” In the second church the door is closed. The reason for the open door in the first church is stated by Jesus. They have a little strength, perhaps meaning they were poor in Spirit therefore they shall inherit the Kingdom of heaven. Secondly they have kept His word. They have stood upon the Word of God even although they are surrounded by what Jesus calls ” the synagogue of Satan,” those who claim to be worshipers of God but are clearly not. And lastly, they have not denied the name of Jesus. They are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus. And because of all that, they have an open door.
The second church, the somewhat infamous Laodecean church does not have an open door, rather the door is closed. What has caused the door to be closed? The fundamental problem with this church is lukewarmness. Jesus says they are neither hot nor cold and Jesus, using some of His scariest language says that if this continues He would vomit them out of His mouth. Now, what led to their lukewarmness and the closing of the door? They were rich and increased with goods and in their minds had need of nothing. No doubt they imagined that their very riches was a blessing and a proof from God that they were blessed. Where have we heard that before? And yet, they were actually, according to Jesus, wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Wow. This is not meek and gentle Jesus.
I want to tell you that I have experienced an open door in the heavens. And at other times the heavens themselves were as brass. What does an open door mean? Lets take a look at Rev 4:1, just a sentence later and probably in the same breath….”After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven.” An open door brothers and sisters. Let us look through this door and see what we can see. “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.” John, in the Spirit, beheld the throne and the glorious scene all around it. This is similar to the scene we see in Isaiah chapter six where the prophet, in the Spirit, has his own vision.
In short, when the door is open, we are ushered into the glory of God. We come before His throne of grace and mercy. We sense His manifest presence. We speak to Him intimately. We are full of His joy and sing His praises. We are quick to forgive and we refuse to take up the offense, rather we take up our crosses gladly and daily. These are just some of the blessings that rains down upon us from an open door. For that door to stay open we must abide in His Word and His word must abide in us. In short, we read His word and we keep His word. And of course we must never deny Him, not only in name only but also we must not deny Him by our actions.
If you find the door closed and the heavens above you are as brass, then you must search your heart. You must do all that the church at Philadelphia were doing. And if we find that we are lukewarm, we must repent of that lukewarmness. We must submit to the furnace and seek the gold that comes not from the material blessings of this world, but the true blessings that are found through suffering. Will you suffer loss for the cause of Christ? Will you seek Him out as your only passion? Will you forego everything that possibly stands between you and your Lord? Sacrifice, surrender, enduring, overcoming. These are the flames that the Spirit fans that melts away all the dross. And out of that furnace comes gold. It is that opens up the door of heaven, an open door where glory pours forth from.
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Posted by appolus on November 16, 2020
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Posted by appolus on November 16, 2020
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.
Perhaps you have reached a crisis point today? Will you call upon the Lord who is your refuge and strength and who is a very present help in time of trouble? Do you know that God is in your midst and you shall not be moved? God will help you at the “turning of the morning.” This means “at the break of Dawn.” You have heard the phrase “things are always darkest just before the dawn,” then praise the Lord we serve a God that shines His light into the darkest of situations. No matter what you face today, no matter how dark your situation, there is a God who cares and is working behind the scenes.
And He is not distant God, like the gods of this world. He is “a very present,” help in time of trouble. He is with us. He dwells in us and therefore He is always near. Whether you sense that presence or not, He is always near. If the Spirit of God dwells within your chest, then so does your heavenly Father and His glorious Son. So yes, He is near. He is not a days journey from you, He is your very breath. He is your high tower and we run into Him. We draw near to Him. How near? The nearness of your heart for it within your heart that He dwells. He hears your whispers on the wind. He hears your anxious heartbeat. The world may rage around you, the mountains may tremble and the waters roar. Yet just one word from our God and the whole earth would fall silent.
Come now to the mountain that cannot be shaken. Stand under the shadow of the Almighty. Lie down in the palm of His Hand. Let not your heart be troubled for our God stills the raging seas, He breaks the bows o. f the strongmen and He burns their chariots with fire. He will be exalted in your situation. The heathen and the unbeliever will marvel at His faithfulness to you. So, be still and know that He is God, He is your refuge and the righteous run into Him and they are safe
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Posted by appolus on November 15, 2020
Sanctification. We could spend years speaking on the subject. The shaping of a man or a woman. Imagine a glacier cutting its way through solid granite. In its wake, mountains and valleys and paths for mighty rivers to flow.It moves at its own pace. There is no force in all the world that could stop its inexorable forward progress. It will meet the sea when it meets the sea. And when it is spent, there is a whole world created in its unstoppable often violent wake.
The thing about pain. When you hide a darkness in the deepest recesses of your heart it defies the depths and it shapes every part of who you are. You think that you have compartmentalized it, yet even the deepest chambers of our heart has fissures. No matter how tight the cell door, no matter that it lies at the center of your soul, the darkness bleeds out. It bleeds into every part of who you are.
Then suddenly the light. An impenetrable light that penetrates every part of who we are. All at once? The light of God marches towards the center of your soul. It takes captive every darkness as it makes its inexorable way to the very core of who you are. The light will not co-exist with the darkness. Sanctification will have its way. To the saint of God it is unstoppable as a jealous God takes every part of who you are and shapes you by immense forces beyond your capability of understanding.
I am 17. My wife has almost bled to death in the process of giving birth to our first born son. The cord was wrapped around his neck and she was hemorrhaging. An emergency cesarean section was carried out and our son was born. He was immediately moved to the intensive care unit and there he lay, attached to a machine that breathed for him and who knows what else. And there I sat beside him alone. A heart already darkened by a dark childhood. I will not let this child touch me.
The doctors recommended that he be taken of the life support machine. Two months premature and several minutes without oxygen, they said. The plugs were pulled. Two days he stayed alive. The nurse says “would you like to hold him?” I heard myself saying no. He was dying and I was dead and the gross darkness poured into a ship that had already overturned in violent seas. Stephen died. On the day of his burial they placed a small white coffin on my knee as I sat in the back of the hearse. I felt nothing until the hearse took a corner too fast and I felt Stephen’s body move within the coffin and a gaping hole was violently torn into the very depths of who I was. I would spend many many years plugging that hole.
Ten years later I got dramatically saved. All the years and overlays of the results of my sin were slowly but surely being removed. With every inch, the glacier was slowly reshaping me. Breaking down everything that stood it its path. The force of this change was unstoppable. And very suddenly after many years, the inner chamber was breached. I did not see it coming, I was not even aware of its existence. Yet one moment in a shower, singing praises to God was suddenly and violently replaced with cries from the very depths of my heart. This man, always in control, was not in control. I fought to control the sobs and the racking of my body.
I put my hands over my mouth but could not contain the pitiful noises that were coming from this ancient chamber, locked away for so very long. My poor wife heard me and rushed into the bathroom in time to see me clinging onto the tiled walls. I can still see that look on her face. Total confusion. More than that, she was terrified at what she was looking at. I could not articulate what was going on. Darkness and shame and guilt and pain and sorrow were pouring out of me and there was nothing to be done until it had emptied itself. And just as suddenly as it had begun, it was gone, leaving me physically and mentally exhausted. Yet, I felt so much lighter. A profound change had occurred. It was 15 years in the making but it was now God who was doing the making and He leaves no stone unturned.
The thing about pain, it leaves an indelible mark upon our soul. The thing about change, it uncovers every indelible mark. Sanctification, the process of being set apart and becoming more and more like our Lord means there is no hiding place. There is no chamber that does not belong to Him. Buy an old house and everything left in the attic and the basement belongs to you. We have been bought with a price, everything belongs to the Lord. He is Lord of all, every part of who we are. He is always in the process of changing and renewing and remaking. What could resist a glacier? Who can resist the Lord? The Potter and the wheel and the clay.
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Posted by appolus on November 13, 2020
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 and 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. 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 November 11, 2020
Oh vine, how precious are you now
I am safe within thy graft
Sap flows to every part of me
Now I am part of something vast
With every part of who I am
I in thee abide
Precious waters flow to me
Like a great incoming tide
Life, I feel it’s precious flow
And in that life I dwell
It’s deep and it’s unquenchable
To me an never ending well
Oh the depths of what has set me free
Abiding in the vine and the vine in me
Just to be part of the Olive tree
Sets my grateful soul on fire
Oh Lord my God now comes the fruit
Tis thy work alone, tis every shoot
Tis all thy work who pruneth me
Who died and rose and set me free
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
A Call To The Remnant 