Archive for January, 2021
Posted by appolus on January 31, 2021
In my younger years I was a bricklayer. I laid bricks for twenty five years from the age of 16. I served my apprenticeship for three years. The apprenticeship was developed by the City and Guilds of London which was established around 150 years ago but represented craftsmen and guilds that had been around for over a thousand years. I also went on to take my advanced craft course. In the course of my career I have built many arches, all kinds of arches.
Some were small, spanning windows and doors and smaller openings, and some were as large as thirty feet wide. There is a great amount of skill and knowledge required in order to erect this kind of structure. One of the critical parts of building an arch is building the temporary frame or template that would hold the arch. You can see a small example of a template in the above picture. Imagine the complexity of building a template for huge arches that span great distances and will carry great loads.
Even although I understood the forces that bore down upon an arch and how those forces were transferred outwards towards either end and onto the walls or columns at either side, I was still always nervous when removing the template or the supporting frame once the mortar had set up. Was it going to hold up? Would the structure collapse once the template is removed? Thankfully that never happened. Can you imagine what a structure would look like if the temporary wooden template remained? It would look terrible and defeat the whole purpose of the arch.
I would like to suggest that so much of Christendom consists of the frame and the template. It has never been removed. That which was supposed to be temporary while the structure was being built has never been removed. The template has become an integral and permanent part of the structure. Can I suggest that the buildings, the four walls, the organizations, the denominations and much of the frenetic activity has been at best, the mere template. The bricks and the stones themselves do not require the template to stand.
Jesus is the keystone which holds the arch together. It is the keystone which is the strength and the vital component of the arch. If you have it, the arch works and you can remove the template. If you do not have it you can never remove the template, you will have to rely upon that which was only ever meant to be temporary forever because without the keystone the whole structure would collapse upon removal of the template.
Jesus Himself is the Keystone. He is the preeminent vital part of the structure. With Jesus we need no temporary supports. With Jesus the arch is complete and the templates are removed and there the structure stands in all of its glory, just as it was designed to. As denominations fail and churches have been shuttered and fellowship have, for many, been denied, we have come to discover just who has the Keystone in their arch. God Himself is removing templates all over the world. Will your structure stand?
The remnant saints of God have discovered that with the Keystone in place, the template can be removed and the structure stands. The template has been in place for so long, we consider it part of the actual structure. The mere suggestion of removing the template has been met with blinding fear and rage. Saints, trust the structure that the Lord Himself has designed and built, it was built to stand and so it shall. It shall stand forever for the Lord Himself is the builder.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 30, 2021
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 that counts. While it is clear that it has never been acceptable for the righteous to fellowship with the unrighteous and indeed has caused almost all of the problems that we see in Christendom down through the ages, it gets more and more dangerous to do so as the ages draw to a close. The Holy Spirit is very deliberately exposing what is and what is not, do not get in the way of the Holy Spirit.
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. Find saints and fellowship with them. Be deliberate in who you fellowship with, and all the more as you see that day approaching. Do not be unequally yoked.
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Posted by appolus on January 29, 2021
Heb 13:13-14 Therefore let us go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
Jesus was found outside the camp, outside the walls, outside the gates. We are told to go to where He is. In those days, the walls represented security and belonging. To be outside the camp was to be outside of fellowship with the rest of society and to be in a dangerous place. Yet, Jesus was found in a place called Golgotha, outside of the gates. To leave the security of the walls behind us, we must be willing to find all of our security and belonging in Jesus.
The distance from where Jesus hung on the cross was not very far from the temple. Those who dwelt within the walls were convinced that the presence of God was within the heart of the temple, in the Holy of Holies. Yet tragically for those who clung to their place of worship and who ignored what Jesus had told the woman at the well, would die in their religion.
Jesus told the woman at the well when she questioned Him about where the proper place to worship should be that a time was coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24) The presence of God was not in the Holy of Holies, the presence of God, the word made flesh, Emmanuel, was hanging from a tree outside of civilized society on a garbage dump known as Golgotha.
The saints of God are sojourners. We are pilgrims in a strange land who are merely passing through. We bear His reproach from the world and from the religious. Do you worship Him in Spirit and in Truth? Can we ignore the truth and still be obedient to the words of Jesus? If we are to walk in the Spirit then we have to walk in the truth, you cannot have one without the other. In our ever changing world it is getting more and more difficult to justify staying behind the walls. We have to be where the truth is. True worshipers will follow the Spirit and will follow the truth, even if none go with them and despite the ridicule and the reproach. Remember we are bearing His reproach for here we have no continuing city but we seek one to come.
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 | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on January 28, 2021
In the natural world there is such a thing called “The empty nest syndrome.” It is well documented. You may be in that position now, or approaching it. So, the empty nest syndrome happens when your last child leaves the house and now it is just you and your spouse. On average the children period lasts for around twenty years or so. The central focus of that twenty years has been your children. You have common cause with your spouse and typically everything revolves around the children. It can be hard to tell what kind of relationship the parents have because of all of the activity and emotional investment that revolves and swirls around the children.
Then suddenly, one day you wake up and there is a strange silence through the house. Nothing is stirring, not even a mouse. And you wonder. Do we now have anything in common? Could we hold down a decent conversation? Do we love each other and do we even have a relationship? Many couples have found to their horror that they do not have a relationship with this person they call their spouse outside of an apart from their children. Sometime couples discover that they don’t even like each other. Of course there is the other type of couple. Their love is real and strong and at the center of it all was their love and devotion to each other and from that place came the strength and resolve to raise their children. And when that part of their life is over, they are ready, together, to launch into the next part with each other, hand in hand.
I would like to suggest that this empty nest syndrome is an analogy that can explain the difference between someone who is religious and someone who has a relationship with God. In the case of the people who have no real relationship and are bound only by their children, their children can represent church on a Sunday. Bible studies. Groups, organizations. If we began to strip all of those activities away what would be left standing? Would you have a relationship with God without these activities?
For someone with a real relationship with God, no matter what was stripped from them they would still stand strong in their faith. The vital love and passion that they have for God is the central focus of their life and everything that is in their life revolves around this. For the man and wife who love each other and are one in the Lord together, that will not change when their children leave the house. If a man and a woman do not love each other and have no relationship outside of their children then the marriage will not last long when the cementing force is taken away.
Love and relationship has to be at the core of who we are. It is the force that binds us together. Children come and go, birds fly the coup, activities can come to an abrupt halt like we have seen in the last year with Covid. What still stands when the smoke clears? Our abiding relationship to Jesus. With everything, or stripped of all things Jesus remains. He remains preeminent in our hearts. This grows deeper with time if it it is real. He is what defines us. And we truly see this more clearly as the trappings of this world fall away. Even as youth and strength and beauty and vigor depart from us, we know that the inner man is renewed daily and this is what the world sees. We, the children of God are no loveless empty nests, we are instead the temple of the Holy Spirit which grows richer with every passing day.
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Posted by appolus on January 27, 2021
Mat 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
I pray that every trial and tribulation I now suffer is a mile run by one who trains for a marathon. Men run with heavy backpacks on their backs to train their bodies,to discipline them to, to bring them into a place of strength and endurance. The cross that I bear, the cross that I take up, has been uniquely designed for me and for who I am. It is intricately designed to test me and to bring me to a place brokenness and strength in the Lord.
To follow Jesus is to follow the path that He trod. He blazed a trail, a narrow path through fire and flood. We must be equipped to walk through these obstacles. The cross is the equipping. No cross means no forward progress in the Lord. As we walk along this narrow path, many are the encampments of folks who have no desire to go any further. The road, they found, was too difficult. And these encampments have names. One is called Camp compromise. Another is called Camp indulgence. And again another is called Fall Away Camp.
As we pass these camps the inhabitants will come out and jeer at us. They will attempt to discourage us and tempt us to take up camp with them. Many will be hostile and throw rocks at us as we pass them by and pass them by we shall. Each camp becomes a cautionary tale. Each camp that we see only strengthens our resolve to keep on going. The cross has equipped us with all the endurance and perseverance that we need to overcome the obstacles and the temptations.
Brothers and sisters, do not look to the left nor to the right. The Lord Himself has given us the bread of adversity and the waters of affliction through our own cross. The bread has given us sustenance and the waters of affliction has refreshed our parched spirits. In the midst of our prior adversities and afflictions we have seen the Lord, our teacher. And now this all comes back to us as we approach the beginning of the end of the narrow path that lies before us. Lean on the cross brothers and sisters, take strength from it. It’s victory will carry you home.
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Posted by appolus on January 25, 2021
Glorifying Jesus brings down the Spirit of God upon us and can effect our emotions. So glorifying God, raising high the name of Jesus, lifting Him up brings down the glory. In the soulish realm of much of Christendom, emotions are used to create a feeling and then that feeling is called God. Emotions in and of themselves carry no power. If they are the byproduct of an encounter with God they are a marvelous part of the “experiencing,’ His manifest presence. If they are the primary vehicle for entering into some kind of experience then you have entered the soul and not the Spirit.
Christendom is awash with this. Little men and women dancing and twirling and calling it freedom and then marveling at the “move of God.” So many generations have passed for whom the shades of grey have become to them the light of heaven. And if that light indeed be darkness, then how great the darkness? The manifest glory of God will ruin you for life. The changes in you will be profound. The weight of the glory of God will silence you. The majesty and the glory will cause you to be awestruck. You will not dance and scream and shout like you were at some rock concert with the lights tuned low and the volume set high and smoke machine creating a counterfeit atmosphere.
God help us as we drown in the mediocrity of a dying generation of what passes for Christianity. It is amazing that men and women can drown in something so shallow. It is further amazing when this kind of shallowness can rise up and take us down into the endless depths of our own souls. There is but one escape for those caught up in this and the time is drawing short. Find Jesus. Cry out to Jesus. Lift up the name of Jesus. Glorify Jesus. Exalt Jesus. Reject everything else until you have found Him. Whatever distracts you or your gathering from this, get rid of it. Get rid of your “professional worshipers.’ So many of whom are merely living out their dreams of secular success vicariously through the platform that you have allowed them to ascend among you. Let Christ arise and His enemies be scattered, let Christ let Christ arise!
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 25, 2021
Rom 5:3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
We see that we are called to glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Can you imagine that? He glories in his suffering because of what he knows that it is producing. It is producing the very elements that we need to endure and overcome. We are being shaped by the Lord. Resigning our lives into His hands is our reasonable service. A superficial faith cannot abide the thought of suffering or any kind of deprivation.
The notion that one could end up in a dungeon whipped to within and inch of ones lives and yet still be praising God and thanking God and glorifying God in the midst of all of it rather than begging God to be relieved of our circumstances is an offense to many. Paul says that the power of God rested upon him as he gloried in his infirmities in 2 Cor 12:10. By the grace of God, His strength is made perfect in our weakness. This is why Paul would rather glory in his infirmities. He was so sold out to the notion of glorifying God that no matter what it took, then he was ready for that. This is the high water mark for us saints. To follow Jesus in such a manner is to have totally abandoned the flesh. Push on in deeper saint, may we decrease and may He increase.
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Posted by appolus on January 25, 2021
Genuine saints have “received the love of the truth.” It is a gift to be accepted or rejected. Now one might wonder why anyone would reject such a gift. Receiving the love of the truth will dismantle your life. It will leave no stone un-turned. Its a driving passion that consumes every part of who you are. Saints down through the ages are easily identified by this gift. There is no part of the truth that is too small to ignore.
All of it must be consumed to be received. And it is this “all” that is instinctively known by the potential recipients. This, I believe, is the great divide. The wheat and the tares. The sheep and the goats. The saved and the lost. It all rests upon the Truth and our love and total commitment to it. A genuine saint would rather face the mouths of lions than reject that which courses through their veins.
The thing that should cause people to be afraid about this Scripture from 2Thess 2 is the context. The context is about being deceived. It is about the coming of the lawless one. It is about the great falling away. It is about a strong delusion that God Himself shall send that those who have not received the love of the truth will believe “a lie.” It is accompanied by lying signs and wonder to further delude those who have rejected the love of the truth.
To all my brothers and sisters out there who have received the love of the truth, God bless you. It has cost you much loss, much suffering but in and through it all great joy is yours. For we know that those who love the truth count it all as rubbish as long as they are found in Him even if, at the same time we are found in jail, in pain, in a sickbed in the midst of trial and tribulation. Great will your reward be in the Kingdom to come.
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
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Posted by appolus on January 22, 2021
1Pe 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
None of us enjoy suffering. That is something that we all have in common. We often go to enormous lengths to avoid suffering. It is our natural state. Yet here we see that in the process of being sanctified, there is indeed suffering to be dealt with. How we deal with that suffering is a vital part of the sanctification process. We cannot hate it, we cannot fear it, we cannot run from it and we cannot battle it. Yet that is what most of us find ourselves doing in many situations that come our way. We have to remember that we are not natural men brothers and sisters, we are supernatural. One pastor said that your salvation is either supernatural or superficial. The word superficial is defined as “existing or occurring at or on the surface.” Suffering goes deep beneath the surface. There are many things that we can replicate in a superficial manner, being at peace in the midst of suffering, having great joy despite our circumstances is not one them.
And so if we are truly interested in moving in the deeper things of the Lord, becoming more like Jesus, then our attitude to suffering must bend towards rejoicing in it. It is a difficult arc but then the road is narrow we are told and few their are that find it. Rejoicing in victories is one thing, but to rejoice in seeming defeats, at least as the world would view as defeats, is quite remarkable and supernatural. Who rejoices in the depths of a dungeon? Who glories in their infirmities? Who is overjoyed when they are counted worthy to enter in the sufferings of Jesus? The man and the woman of God. And with this there is a power that rests upon them. A power that few people know much about. Who desires this kind of power that 2 Cor 12:9 speaks of? Not many do brothers and sisters, not many. Let us be counted with the not many, with the few, that God Himself may be glorified.
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Posted by appolus on January 20, 2021
Matt 6:19-21 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth
What are the riches of our dwelling place with the Lord? Out of the beauty of dwelling with Him do we have the finest gold of unconditional love? Are the walls of our dwelling place encrusted with the jewels of forgiveness and mercy? Are the windows of our dwelling places draped with meekness and humility?
Do trophies of grace hang on every wall? Are they framed with the finest materials of patience and kindness? Do we pursue the riches and the glories of heaven with the same vigor and single-mindedness that men here on earth pursue gold and silver? And the treasures that we have attained in Christ, do we protect them with all the resources that we have?
Do we value the treasures of our heart in the same way men value their wealth? There is a direct correlation between how much we value something and the lengths we will go to protect it. Guard your hearts brothers and sisters in Christ, for we have an enemy who seeks to steal and destroy what we have. Satan knows the value of what we have oftentimes more than we do.
Posted in Daily devotional, Devotions, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 19, 2021
For those who do not know who the Praetorian Guard were, they were an elite handpicked group of Roman soldiers that would guard Roman Emperors. They were made up of nine “cohorts,” each consisting of around 1000 soldiers, so about nine thousand in all. While the legions were not allowed to come near to Rome, they had to stay north of the Rubicon river, the Praetorian Guard were barracked just outside of the city of Rome.
It is said that on Wednesday, there will be over twenty thousand national guard in Washington D.C for the transfer of power, the inauguration of Joe Biden. It has been reported that everyone of those twenty thousand soldiers have had background reports carried out on them. Hand picked men and women of a certain political persuasion? Is there a purge going on in the military? What would disqualify you?
Is it possible that we are looking at the politicization of the Army? What next, the police? This is very dangerous territory we are entering into. If the armed forces and the police become armed centers of ideology where all dissenting voices are purged out, then they simply become an armed wing of one dominant political force. You can see how that would end. Not well. Purging the institutions of society of any voice that disagrees with the dominant narrative has occurred many times in history. It never ends well.
Yet we know that saints don’t we? It does not end well for us in this world. It did not end well for our Lord Jesus. But, wait………..He rose again, He rose again!!! The enemy might kick us when we are down but we shall rise again. He arose so then shall His servants. If the Lord Jesus is for us then who can be against us? It may be dark all through the night but cometh the morning the sun rises and the dawn breaks. Jesus is our sunrise, Jesus is our dawn and at the break of the end of ages we shall be with Him as He comes again for all the world to see. Glory to God. Be of Good faith brothers and sisters for He has overcome the world.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 18, 2021
Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Are you wearied of living in fear? Fears of all kind are the enemies of our soul, indeed oftentimes fear is the opposite of faith. In the end, fear is actually sin. I do not say that to bring condemnation upon anyone, simply to identify it and highlight how it can separate us from our relationship with the Lord. God does not condemn us in this but He would that we would live in the freedom that He wrought for us on bloody Calvary.
When we run away from a situation or hide from it because of fear, it never solves the problem, it still lies in wait for us as we go around the mountain again. The obstacle must be confronted if we are to pass it by and move on upwards. Every single time we give into fear we are saying “Lord, you are not Lord of my life,fear is.” And in this we recognize the fact that we are slaves to sin and not servants of God.
We cannot be slaves and free men all at the same time. If the Lord has set me free, if He has come and opened up my jail cell, what was I doing still looking out at the world through the bars? Why had I not walked through the door that the Lord had opened? Was it safer for me to stay where I had become accustomed to?
There comes a time in our lives when we decide that we have to get up and get out of that cell. The Lord did not open it and free us just so that we could be technically free, He wants us to be actually free. I don’t know what is keeping you in that cell this day but we both know the Lord who opened the door. He bids us to step out of the shadows of the cell and slavery and to walk out and into the light of freedom. One step at a time, one day at a time, listen and follow Him one word at a time.
Step by step. As you overcome in Him you will be putting distance between you and your former cell or self. There will come a time when you will look back and be astonished how far you have come in Him and how by the power of His Spirit you have overcome. You were called to freedom. Take that first step this day and deal fear a lethal blow by being obedient to the Word of God and His still small voice.
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Posted by appolus on January 15, 2021
Probably the most widespread and persistent problem to be found among Christians is the problem of retarded spiritual progress. Why, after years of Christian profession do so many persons find themselves no farther along than when they first believed? The cause of retarded growth are many. It would not be accurate to ascribe the trouble to one single fault. One there is, however, which is so universal that it may easily be the main cause;failure to give time to the cultivation of the knowledge of God.
The Christian is strong or weak depending upon how closely he has cultivated the knowledge of God. Progress in the Christian life is exactly equal to the growing knowledge we gain of the Triune God in personal experience. And such experience requires a whole life devoted to it and plenty of time spent at the holy task of cultivating God. God can be known satisfactorily only as we devote time to Him (A.W.Tozer)
Tozer is really highlighting the fact that diligence in seeking God, or the lack thereof is the primary reason why so many seem to lack any progress at all in becoming more like Jesus. And why they never move from being babes in Christ to being mature saints. This diligence starts with the Word of God. Show me the man or woman who has little time for the Word and I will show you people who are taken up with this world and not the next. They are taken up with the kingdom of men and their place in it rather than the Kingdom of God and walking there.
Being hungry for the Word of God leads to hunger for the God of the Word. And once one has tasted the goodness of God, then it creates a hunger for more. Once one has drunk from the heavenly well, it creates a thirst like the deer that panteth for the waterbrooks and a longing soul. Therefore the Scriptures tell us that we should move on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God (Heb 6) We have to make a decision as to what world we belong to. When we seek His Kingdom first and His Righteousness then the abundant life ( spiritual) and the contented life will be ours as we walk with our God.
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Posted by appolus on January 15, 2021
Jdg 6:13 Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles which our Fathers told us about saying,”Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?” But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
After Gideon gets through with his complaints to God, the Lord speaks to him and says “Go in the might of yours and you shall save Israel-have I not sent you?” (v 14) You see how God refuses to take on board what Gideon has just complained about and again affirms His calling on Gideon’s life? Saints, take heart at this for God has called you. listen to how Gideon replies and see if this reflects your own heart. “How can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manassah and I am the least in my father’s house.” (v15) To which the Lord replies “Surely I will be with you.”
The Lord picked the weakest man from the weakest clan. It’s not about the man brothers and sisters, it’s about the God that goes with the man. If God is with us, who can be against us? This truly represents the remnant believers today. We are the weakest men and women. The reply that Gideon gave to God is the right reply in the right spirit. Without God we are nothing and can do nothing, but by the same token, when God is with us, and He says to Gideon “Surely I will be with you,’ then there is nothing we cannot do. This is the spirit of the genuine saints of God today. They acknowledge their own weaknesses.They have experienced failure and they know what it is like to feel abandoned, this has been a journey and it ends with them knowing their utter helplessness without God being with them.
I want you to remember who you serve this day. No matter what situation you face today, the God who created the whole universe and set the foundations of the earth and hung the stars in the heavens above is with you. For His will and for His good pleasure God has been working on you and He is faithful to complete that what He has started. God is raising up an end time Gideon’s army and filling its ranks with the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Genuine saint, you are a mighty man of valour, you are a mighty woman of valour. What qualifies you to be counted in these ranks? God has called you, God is with you and God will equip you.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 13, 2021
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
(Luk 1:79)
The world is a dark place. It always has been. If you dwell in the world there are various degrees of darkness and shades of grey. Various degrees of sin and pain and tragedy that adds to the existing darkness. To live a life in shades of grey mistakenly considered to be light is perhaps the greatest tragedy of them all. There is a great light in which there dwells no darkness at all. This great light came down from the treasures of heaven to walk among the darkness of men. To lead them and to guide them away from the darkness of the sin that shapes them and keeps them from the light. To open up the eyes of the blind. There is only eternal death dwelling in the shadows. One can be found in the depths of darkness or dwelling on the outer edges in shades of grey, yet it is all the one kingdom. There is one kingdom of darkness and one Kingdom of light. Each kingdom has a king. You can only have one king. You cannot serve two kings. When you die, you dwell eternally with the king that you served here on earth.
The Lord has not abandoned us to the darkness. He came from the light of heaven and traveled to the very center of the kingdom of darkness and there confronted its king on our behalf. There He was abused, tortured and killed yet He overcame it all and conquered the power of the kingdom of darkness and took captivity captive. He triumphed and He has given light to those who dwell within the kingdom of darkness. He beckons all of them to follow Him and dwell within the Kingdom of light and of peace. He stands like an immovable lighthouse that illuminates the way for those caught up in the darkness. Though the storm beats upon and ravages the lighthouse, it cannot be moved for it stands upon and is built on solid rock. Christian, you are that light. It is the very reason that you exist. May the light that dwells within you lead many up and out of the Kingdom of darkness into the marvelous light of the Kingdom of God where our God reigns.
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Posted by appolus on January 11, 2021
Many times in history, Christians have had to run and seek refuge. The Moravians fled in the late 1400s and early 1500s and again in the 1700s. The fled from place like Bohemia and Moravia to Saxony. And in the 1700s they would find refuge there under the protection of Count Zindendorf at Hernhut. Christians had fled from England to places like Amsterdam in the 1500s. These pilgrims would then move on to the American colonies from there and England and from all over Europe.
This is just some of the heritage of the Christian story as pilgrims. For this is what we are, is this not correct? We have no abiding city in this world. Think about what it meant to leave your home country back in the 1500s and 1600s. Leaving everything that you know behind, oftentimes with just what you could carry. And why endure all of this? For the freedom to worship God as they were led. It was monumental and yet they were actually living the pilgrim life. The Spirit of God was with them. They may not have had a country to call there own, but they were comforted by their convictions and by the Lord their God.
Now saints. Where shall we run to? In an increasingly hostile world is there anywhere left to run to? Do we even have a people that would be willing to leave everything behind them, including their national identity, the home of their birth, their roots? Would we be willing to uproot ourselves for the sake of being able to worship the Lord our God as we please and be able to stand upon and walk in the great truths of the Scriptures? Would we/will we have the strength of our brothers and sisters who came before us?
I believe that God’s genuine children do have that same strength because they have the same Spirit burning within them. The Kingdom of God is more important to the saints on earth than the kingdoms on earth and the places of their natural birth. I believe that the Lord is indeed preparing places for us to run to. It may be regions of the world that you would never have imagined. It will be a double edged sword of course. For as we gather together in these places as the persecution arises then we will, in the end, ultimately, be an easier target. Yet this is our calling and the Lord will be with us. Let us pray our flight will not be in winter.
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Posted by appolus on January 11, 2021
2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Do you walk in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God? When we speak of knowledge we are not speaking about information. The knowledge of the glory of God is an encounter. It is not information it is an experience. Only by experiencing the knowledge of the glory of God can we be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord
This is the heart cry of our age. To stand in “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Let us lay aside everything else until we have stood in that light and have been transformed from glory to glory. Only then can we share with the passion that inevitably comes from such an encounter. People who dwell in darkness will be drawn to Christ by the light of the knowledge of glory that is in you, that is seared upon your heart, that makes you alive to the Spirit and dead to the world. Dear Lord in heaven pour out your glory into the hearts of men.
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Posted by appolus on January 8, 2021
2Co 2:14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
Do you walk in triumph? Do you diffuse the fragrance of His Knowledge in every place? If you have not experienced the knowledge of His glory then how can you radiate and reflect and diffuse the beauty of His presence and the manifest glory of who He is? If you have not stood in the manifest presence of God and been ruined for the things of this world from that encounter then how can you effectively share the reality of Jesus in your life? Those whose hearts are veiled to this knowledge of His glory, who have not yet stepped behind that veil and experienced the glorious majesty of His presence cannot walk in the life of Christ that flows from that place.
The reality of God is manifested in His reality manifested in us. We broken vessels, broken from the things of this world, are changed in fundamental ways by His hand and by His glory. And this is the triumph in Christ. In Christ we are more that conquerors and that living reality, the reality of it seen in our changed lives is the victory. The knowledge of Jesus means the intimate reality of our relationship with Him. By this intimacy, by this “knowing Him,” then and only then are we a sweet fragrance to the world. Are you a sweet fragrance to the world? Can others, by their encounters with you, breathe in the beauty of the Lord? Most importantly are we, the children of God, a sweet smelling fragrance of Christ to our heavenly Father?
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Posted by appolus on January 6, 2021
What happened at the Capitol building was that the Ivory castle was touched by behavior that it had encouraged or ignored for six months. I detest violence, all violence and I detest hypocrisy and this country is drowning in it. Just prior to the French revolution, the peasants of Paris marched 16 miles to the palace of Versailles.
An opulent over the top palace where the elites lived, untouched by the ravages of what was going on in the rest of the country. The mostly peaceful protesters demanded that the royal family return to Paris and see what was going on because over a long period of time the elites had become hopelessly out of touch.
Saints, we are living in very dangerous times. My advice to you is to break any strongholds of the world that may exist in your heart. The world is falling apart. You can see that. A house divided cannot stand, it will fall. And by fall I mean that it will fall into the dark abyss of secular atheistic authoritarianism.
The next great enemy for the authorities to conquer is all those who oppose or stand against their ideas. That is you and me. In case you are wondering what the strategy of the devil is here through the smokescreen of political agitation, he is after this one single truth and in the end he will kill anyone who propagates it
“I am the way, the truth and the lifeand no man come to the Father but by me.” Do you want to die on a hill? This is the hill to die on. This is our line and we will hold it to the last man. Political intrigue is just that. This is Kingdom business.
So get ready. Our weapons are not carnal, they are spiritual and to be used for the pulling down of strongholds. When you are surrounded on every side, then you stand back to back and side by side. I look forward to meeting you, my fellow brothers and sisters on this battlefield, on this the final hill. A hill we shall never surrender. This is our battle.
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Posted by appolus on January 6, 2021
11 Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Have you knowledge of this glory? Can we walk as Christians if we have never experienced the glory of God? We cannot be victorious Christians outside of this “knowledge.’ Those who have experienced the glory of God walk in victory. It is this victory that allows for joy even in the midst of suffering. For those who walk in the presence of God cannot help but radiate His glory. It is not something that is achieved by effort.
If I radiate His glory it’s because I am like the moon. The moon is a dead object, yet the light of the sun reflects off the moon and lights up a dark world. And just as the moon, by virtue of its position to the sun and the earth, radiates the light down into the darkness, then those of us who come before the throne and kneel before the King radiate the light from this glorious place into the darkness of this world.
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A Call To The Remnant 