For the last six months, I have suffered, almost non stop, from two pinched nerves. I have lived with chronic pain, but this is something “special.” Please, and don’t be offended by this, but please do not comment on the pain, my condition or express sympathy or remedies. My interest is in an analogy. The moments when, for no particular reason, there is no pain. It is overwhelming and quite emotional as I revel in the short window. The heavens seem to open up and I am surrounded by such satisfaction and appreciation for “normal.”
It occurred to me how much this experience is like the presence of God. That moment when all of a sudden and entirely unexpectedly my Lord is with me in His manifest presence. How, all the noise of the world just seems to melt away and I am in my “normal,” place. A place of no pain, no sadness, a place of radiating overwhelming beauty. I know it won’t last but I only know that afterwards. For eternity is always eternity even if it’s only for a moment. One day, one day soon, eternity will be moments no more.
I will wait for Him.
If I had to wait a thousand years,I would wait for Him. He is my all in all and I am swallowed whole by wholeness and it changes me. The world grows ever dimmer and the bright impenetrable light of His soon coming, beckons me. It calls to the depths of my spirit. I learned a long time ago that even if all the heavens above me are covered by clouds, that above those clouds there lies an eternal blue sky. And every now and then, the clouds part and a shaft of light engulfs me and renews my spirit and warms my soul.
Pro 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Fearing God is the beginning of all things. Man can never find relationship with God outside of a healthy fear of the one who created him. A reverence for God draws you closer. No one skips into His presence. Isaiah falls down on his face, the prophets tremble at the presence of God. We have lost all fear of God in Christendom. The world has foolishly never feared God and they will go the way of fools. Yet, what happens when those who call themselves by His name have no actual fear of God? No reverence of God, no trembling at His touch, at His majesty. He is not your mate, your buddy or your pal. He is God and He is greatly to be praised. We praise Him by our lives, by our thoughts and our deeds. Worship is a way of life, not a 20 minute song service.
To worship God is to fear God, to fear God is to encounter God. To encounter God is to be drawn deeper into our Fathers heart. We do not fear God in the sense that a man fears a wild beast that can tear him to pieces. We fear God in the inner man. We know of His reverential beauty and glory. We understand just who we are in the presence of majesty. We know that without His covering we would be nothing more that wretched men who would cry out “who will deliver me from this body of death.” And we know our Saviour who has indeed delivered us from this death. We are no longer “undone,” and our lips are no longer unclean for we have been cleansed by something greater that a burning coal from the fires of heaven. We have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb! We know the sacrifice that God the Father made in sending His only Son to die for us. We have been touched by the magnitude of this.
It has rocked our world greater than any earthquake could. The ground shifted from beneath our ungodly feet and He set our feet upon the solid Rock. We now stand, by His grace and Mercy, upon the finished work of our Lord on the cross. Who could measure the magnitude of this? There exists no such spiritual Richter scale. The Love of God cannot be quantified other than by the bloody cross of Calvary. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who perish, but unto those who are saved , it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18) Fools despise this message and they know nothing of the fear of God. Those who know God and fear Him are on the path of knowledge. True knowledge and true wisdom. The ultimate irony for the foolish who fear not God, is that they will tremble and fall down with fear when it is too late. Better to learn the fear of God now and live, than to learn it before His seat and die eternally.
Mar 1:12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
As soon as the Spirit descends upon Jesus, He is “driven,” into the wilderness. He is separated from everything He has known up to that point and He finds Himself in a desert. Paul, after his own encounter, did not go to Jerusalem, but rather he goes to Arabia. Paul too was separated, separated from the Pharisees of his former life, and also separated from the leadership of the saints in Jerusalem. Jesus would deal with His identity in the wilderness. The Devil will seek to cast doubt into His mind. He asks “if you are the Son of God,” he asks that twice. When Jesus stands His ground he is tempted with all the kingdoms of the world and all of their glory. Yet Jesus knew of a much greater glory, the glory He shared with His Father. He knew of the glory and the majesty of union with God.
Paul’s own identity would undoubtedly be challenged in Arabia. He was no longer a Pharisee. He no longer belonged to the religious order. He was stripped of his earthly titles and positions. Through all this he would discover exactly who he was in Christ. He would emerge from this “isolation,” with the confidence that can only truly come by encounter. Paul was not taught by men, He had revelations from God. He was taught by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. A very different man comes out of Arabia than had went in. He carried the authority of God because the encounter and the revelation changed him. Man did not promote Paul. He did not climb ecclesiastical ladders. His position was established by encounter. His identity was established.
What is your identity brothers and sisters? How were you established in your walk? Did you walk through barren landscapes away from the eyes of man? To be driven into the wilderness is to begin a journey of identity. To “know” who you are in Christ. To have stood your ground against the lying enemy. To be taught by God Himself. To be supernaturally ministered to by the hand of God. To know in the very depths of your being that you do not live by bread alone but by every word from your Fathers mouth. To find yourself, quite apart from men and their establishment and order. When God establishes a man, that man carries the authority of the very God who established him. He does not need titles. He does not have to curry favor from any groups. He or she simply are who God said they were and who God made them to be. Stand fast in your calling brothers and sisters, alumni of the wilderness.
1Ki 8:35 When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain,
Solomon prays to God for what is to come. He does not say “If the heavens are shut up.” He says “when heaven is shut up.” The inevitable nature of rebellious man is so predictable. Mankind, in its general state, does not change. Confessors of Jesus, in their general state, do not change. What do I mean by their general state? I mean when they forget God. When they forget where God took them from. When they forget that everything they have comes from the hand of God. When they forget that without God they are merely rebellious creatures. Drift away from God and see that the high tide of humanity comes roaring in and overwhelms you. I would argue, that this is the general state of Christendom today. Heaven is shut, there is no rain. There is a famine of the Word of God preached with power throughout the land. Men are dying of thirst and starving to death.
Solomon gives the remedy in verse 38-39 “when each one knows the plague of his own heart and spreads out his hands towards the temple, then hear in heaven, your dwelling place and forgive…” When each one knows the plague of his own heart. The definition of plague is “an epidemic disease that causes high mortality, pestilence.” If one has a plague in his heart, then you can be assured that the multitude are affected by this epidemic. We are in the midst of a plague, an epidemic. We are plagued by unbelief. We are plagued by lukewarmness. Much of those in Christendom are practical atheists. Practical adulterers. They say one thing, but they live as laws unto themselves. Solomon says “when each one knows.” One has to know their state in order to repent of it. There are no specific calls to repentance, for in doing that there would have to be an acknowledgement of sin and a heart riddled with plague. The pestilence of our age is worldliness.
Verse 47 “Yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent and make supplication to you in the land of those who took them captive…….and when they return to You with all of their hearts and with all of their souls in the land of their enemies……….forgive your people who have sinned against You.” Father in Heaven, hear the prayers of your saints in the land of their captivity, in the land where the heavens have been shut and famine and pestilence stalk the land and the hearts of those who profess your name are sickened. Hear from heaven Father and give us eyes to see the sickened and dying hearts that they may confess and repent to you and that you may heal them for your own names sake one last time. Glorify yourself Lord in all the earth. May Your glory cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind.
God finally speaks to Job! Not in a still small voice, but out of a whirlwind. A tornado! Most people are absolutely terrified by tornadoes. Often when they glimpse it, they are mesmerized by it, so much so they cannot move. It comes down from the clouds and touches the ground. It moves and nothing stands it its way. Whatever it encounters is broken down and taken up. The sound, they say, is like a freight train. It commands the attention of all who see it. When God speaks, men take notice. When God speaks from the mountain to the children of Israel, they cry out for Him to stop as the thunder claps and the lightening fractures the skies above. God says to Job “Now, prepare yourself like a man.”
When men speak, it is all too often just noise, a light breeze on a summers day. Job’s friends have spoken much, and convinced no one of anything. Job has spoken much and has not convinced his friends that they are wrong.Elihu has silenced Job but not convinced him. Now God will speak and all men will be silent when God speaks. Brothers and sisters, do not argue your case before men, do not try and convince men of the rightness of your case. Let God justify you. Nothing that Job said or could have said would have convinced his so called friends. Nothing they could have said would change Jobs mind, so in the end its all just noise. Now God speaks and Job gets it. His response is, not unlike Isaiah’s “Behold I am vile, what shall I answer you, I lay my hand over my mouth.”
God continues to ask Job rhetorical questions. The majesty and glory of God pours forth from the “questions.” Job is being taught by God Himself and it lays him bare. Finally Job answers and says “I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from you……..I have uttered what I did not know………..I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you, therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes!” What a transformation from a man God had already pronounced to be blameless. Before, he only knew of God, now he has seen Him high and lifted up and he is changed forever. And of course, the man of God is justified in the end, not by his own defense, but by God Himself. “God says to Jobs friends ” My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends for you have not spoken of me what is right as My servant Job has.”
In the end, God has justified His precious servant. Justice belongs to the Lord. And the Lord demands that the three friends offer burnt offerings for themselves and then go to Job and have him pray for them. They are humiliated but their humility and the prayers of Job save them. Now, Job must pray for them as commanded by the Lord, (pray for those who despitefuly use you) and when he does, Job’s losses are restored, and more. Remain silent brothers and sisters and do not try and justify yourself to others. Walk before the Lord in the sure knowledge that all these things are in hand. Pray for those who would condemn you. Lift your eyes to the heavens and consider who laid the foundations of the earth. Praise Him, for the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Even if He kills us, yet shall we trust Him.
Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
Incredible words from Job in the very depths of his torment. He has now lost any hope in restoration in this world. And so, his eyes turn towards the latter days and the world to come. Surely Job speaks prophetically when he announces that he knows his redeemer lives and that in the last days He shall stand upon the earth. After Job’s flesh is destroyed, he declares that in his flesh he shall see God! We now know that our bodies shall be redeemed, Job did not know that, only by the Spirit. His heart yearned within him for such a time as this where he shall see His redeemer. He even cries out “oh that my words were written, oh that they were inscribed in a book, engraved upon a Rock with an iron pen and lead, forever. Job could not possibly know that this is exactly what would come to pass.
In the very depths of his torment, Job now truly sees. He sees the fleeting nature of this life and yearns for the life to come. He understands that redemption does not mean to be restored to his former glory, but that redemption is to be found in God alone. What does Job want above all things? Not the things that he has lost, but rather, to speak to God. To fellowship with God. To walk with God and to talk with God and to be redeemed by God. He knows that His redeemer lives. Despite what was happening to him, despite the loss of all things, despite being despised by everyone, He knows that His redeemer lives and he desires, above all things, to speak to Him. Brothers and sisters, what do you desire most in your life? Is it to be found in Him? Job was so sure about what he was about to say that he wanted the words to be written in a book. And, lo and behold, that is exactly what God did. Job declared God to be His redeemer. He was declaring that He had standing with God and that standing meant that ” I shall see God.” We have the same standing!
Cutting the Gordian knot is an ancient story related Gordius to the king of Phyrgia. He is said to have tied his cart to a beam with the most incredibly intricate knot. An oracle proclaimed that the man who could untie this knot would rule all of Asia. Along comes Alexander the great and he is presented with the knot and the story. He studies the knot for a moment, takes out his sword, and with one blow, cuts the knot and releases the cart. And so the phrase has come down through the ages to represent incredibly intricate unsolvable situations. In the end, only drastic and swift action can cut through the maze of intricacies and unsolvable problems.
I would like to suggest that Christendom presents such a situation. It has become a monstrous maze of religion and denominations and hatred and bigotry. Much of the Body of Christ wanders in and has been swallowed up by such a maze. What man, or group of men, could ever solve the problem, could ever extricate the Body of Christ from the maze of Christendom? There is no such solution, only the sword can cut through the Gordian knot of impossibility. Only this time, it will not be an Alexander or an earthly sword, but Christ Himself that shall cut the knot. The knot, in this case, is a man made abomination and only the sword can solve the problem. The knot cannot be undone, it can only be cut asunder. Jesus tells us that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Its the sword that frees.
When the sword is applied then the knot is destroyed. The knot is Christendom and it has enveloped the Body of Christ. Cut the knot and the Body is released from its entanglement. There is violence in the cutting no doubt. A mans enemies shall be those of his own household. Jesus did not come to send peace into the world, but rather a sword. The truth divides. A man shall find himself the enemy of his own household, denomination, community, nation and world. He will discover that if he loves any of these things more than he loves Jesus, he is not worthy to know Jesus. He will lose his life. Yet, if he is determined to know Jesus above all these things, he shall find eternal life. When the sword of the Lord is wielded, the simplicity of the truth of God is unleashed. The Body of Christ is free as it wields the sword, it is forever entangled if it attempts to undo the knot.
Job 13:20 Only two things do not do to me: then I will not hide myself from you.
What are these two things Job desires in order to come before the Lord? We find them in the following verse. 1. Withdraw your hand far from me. While Job was in the very midst of his agonies, it would have been very difficult to focus. If you have ever suffered terrible chronic pain, you will know that it is almost impossible to focus in the midst of it. Yet even in this state Job manages to make one of the greatest declarations in the history of man “Even if He kills me, yet will I trust Him.” And, of course, it seemed to Job, that he was being killed, first by losses that would destroy almost any person. And then afflicted in his body with boils from head to toe that would not have given him a moments peace.
2. Let not the dread of you make me afraid. Job instinctively knows what Isaiah found out to be true. To come before the throne is to fall unto your knees and tremble as if dead. Isaiah cries out “woe is me for I am undone.” And so, therefore these are good requests. Job knows he needs to talk to God, he knows his very existence and survival depends upon it. In the end, no matter what our circumstances are, we need to speak to God, it is the answer to life itself. It is unlikely, as a Christian, that if you fail to pursue God when your circumstances are favorable, that you will pursue Him when they are dire. To forget God in the midst of a peaceful life does not bode well for you. We must never forget or neglect our relationship with the Lord, He is the key to life itself and without a vibrant relationship with Him, then we are mediocre people at best. Job was never such a person which is why, for him, there is so much confusion in this situation.
After a lot of research, it seems that Job was written around the time of the patriarchs. Imagine the effect this would have on them, hearing the story of Job. A cautionary tale indeed. Job, by virtue of his standing and wealth, would have been known far and wide. And therefore, news of his seemingly disastrous fall would have have spread quickly. Everyone would know the story of Job. Before any Scriptures were ever laid down, here is the story of Job, written. God is teaching some of the most valuable lessons ever taught. Everything is not always as it seems. Do not be quick to judge. Do not apply certain truths to a situation when you do not know the back story. Only speak as you are led. Often, very often, it is better to say nothing and simply wait upon the Lord. Never assume that material blessings are somehow a sign of God’s pleasure, and by the same token, never assume that a lack of material blessings are a sign of God’s displeasure. In the end, the only treasure worth having is a relationship with the Lord.
Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:
This is the high water mark of faith. Only those who know the depths of the valley and have suffered through many seasons, can truly make this declaration. To suffer, to experience loss, to have God fall silent, not just for a day or a week or a month or even a season, is to be in the position to make this declaration. The three Hebrew children expressed similar faith when they declared to the king that even if they burned up in the fire that they would never bow down to the gods of this world. They were, of course, facing imminent death. Praising God in the dungeon as Paul and Silas did is an expression of this faith. Singing spiritual songs as the flames licked around their mortal bodies as the martyrs did, was an expression of this kind of faith.
Trusting God. Having faith in God is an absolute. It makes no inquiries. Many saints know this in the depths of their beings and if the time ever came, then out comes this treasure and flesh is placed upon the bones of our declarations. God breathes and men live. The power of the Holy Spirit that enables His saints to stand. The breath of God blows upon the embers of what lies deep within the depths of who we are. Spiritual flames burst forth and consumes the fears and the ordinary state of man. It has to be there in the first place. Decisions must be made. It is we who must decide whom we shall serve. It is the outward circumstances that shall reveal whether the words that we have spoken are true. To the saint who already knows that he shall trust his Lord whether he lives or whether he dies, he will burn and be consumed by the glories of God. Circumstances shall become opportunities to prove that above all else and despite the loss of everything, they love the Lord their God with all of their heart and soul, mind and strength. He who willingly gave everything for them, they now willingly give everything for Him.
Job 3:25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
This portion of scripture is often presented in some sort of negative fashion, especially by the Charismatics. They see this as an admission of a lack of faith and somehow blame Job’s very fears for bringing upon him his calamities. This of course, is totally false. We already know that Job was a blameless man of integrity, who, under severe trial, held fast to his integrity and honor of God. Now rather than this being a negative, it is actually very much a positive. Job never took anything for granted. He had a very healthy fear and reverence for God. He feared for his children that somehow they may dishonor God and sin. He would arise early and make sacrifices to God and pray for each of His children.
The question is, brothers and sisters, do we have the same kind of fear and reverence and integrity that Job had? Do we take our many blessings for granted? Do we presume upon the blessings and the mercies of God? How then shall we live? With our eyes wide open to a world that is full of possible distractions and temptations. Not just for ourselves, but for the children that we raised. What are we sacrificing for our children? What burnt offerings could we present before the Lord as wise and faithful servants? Perhaps the preferred career could be sacrificed in order to make more time for that which is truly important? Perhaps there is no real need for the great big house or the latest car? The story of Job reminds us that all of a sudden, an ill wind can blow and our circumstances radically change in a very short period of time.
One small comfort for Job would have been to know that he did everything a good father could do for his children. It guarantees nothing, but it is something to stand upon. If we had a sick loved one and we did everything that we could do for them, in their passing there would be no recriminations. There is a wonderful peace to be had by doing the right thing with a cheerful heart. This is part of our love and integrity. This is how we should serve the Lord our God. With everything that is in us. It will not prevent adversity touching the hems of our garments, but it gives us a peace within to know that with all of who we are, we strove to serve the Lord our God with reverence and Godly fear and integrity. What can the storm do against such a man or a woman. Imagine, for a moment, God saying “have you considered my servant ………… (fill in your name) Treasure beyond measure.
Job 2:10 ….shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?
Brothers and sisters, this matter drives at the very heart of who we are. We are much more likely to discover who we are in the depths of adversity, than in any other state. So much energy in Christendom is expended in the stand against adversity. Rather than embrace it, as we certainly embrace the good, we fight it, often with everything that is in us. The adversity, and how it affects us, becomes the towering idol in our lives. Shall God not praised in any circumstances? Shall He not always be our primary focus? Should our eyes ever be moved from a gaze upon Him? In all my years walking through the corridors of Christianity, this single issue is the most pervasive. Our attitude towards infirmity or dire circumstances ultimately shape us and identify us. The fundamental core of who we are must be, whether we live or whether we die we shall praise the living God. Every other issue, if it is allowed, draws us away from God and towards ourselves. Rather than being fixated with God, we become fixated on ourselves and our circumstances.
In this verse Job addresses his wife. She, because of their circumstances, expresses what happens when circumstances are more important than God. She encourages her husband to curse God, abandon God, abandon his faith, abandon his life. For her, the circumstances of their life was more important than God Himself. She is a foolish woman and has been branded as such in the eternal word of God. Paul learned to be content whether he was hungry or full, in sickness or in health, in liberty or in the dungeon. He learned this. He learned that all loss, is mere rubbish, in comparison to being found in Him. In the end brothers and sisters the only thing that matters is being found in Him. Everything else, if we allow it, is idolatry. It is the curse of the last one hundred years that much of what identifies itself as Christianity, demands that God heals them and prospers them. This is the foundation of their so called faith. Madness and foolishness to stake your faith on the circumstances of your life rather than the holiness of a God who not only gives us good things, but also gives us adversities. Shall you accept that saint, or shall you rage against God and die in the wilderness?
Outside of God there is no moral authority, without Him everything begins to come apart at the seams. We become a law unto ourselves where the ends, the vain imaginations of our own dark hearts, justify the means. Abortion is the primary example of our lawlessness. The ideologies of feminism and rights and freedoms, come together like a ghastly witches brew. In order to believe that there is something higher than the sanctity of life, then we have to elevate ourselves to be gods. If our lives are so important that it justifies the taking of another life, and not just any other life, the life of our own child, nestled in the womb, then we have reached a level of idolatry not seen since the ancient world.
In Lamentations chapter four we see women greedily consume their own children in order to save their own lives. They, of course, did not arrive at that soulless place overnight. This is the ends result of idolatry not the beginning of it. This is why we in the modern world are at the end of our rejection of God and His ways. We have reached our zenith but it is not to be measured in height, rather the abyss is to be measured in depth and darkness. To the world, God is dead, and they are no longer bothered or bound by His Word.
Having abandoned God and rejected Him out of hand, we have also, necessarily, rejected absolute truth. The new laws that we make in this state spring forth from the wicked imaginations of dark hearts. So therefore there is no depth or bottom to our depravity. The only measure is the darkness of the human heart which we know is deceitfully wicked. We are not just rebels, we are wicked and the vain imaginations of our heart are wicked and it was only ever somewhat restrained by the notion of an eternal judgement to come. Therefore, when we throw off the notion of God and eternal judgement then the bowels of hell itself are loosed.
The complicating factor in the west at least, is that at the very same time we have abandoned God we still claim to serve Him. Since we worship and serve ourselves, we proclaim our ideologies to be Godly, to be an expression of the God we claim to serve. In the ultimate act of perversion we say, in our willful self delusion, that we are moral and our ideologies are moral. We hijack the word and actually use it against anyone who dares to stand against our opinion. Now it is no longer possible to simply disagree with someone, that someone is challenging your very deity and they are therefore immoral and irredeemable.
These people, living outside of God, are lawless and will crush anyone who does not worship the god made in their own image. Politics begins to get infused with theological words for truly it is the religion of the world. Now every foul force, living out their Godless lives, claims God as their author and creator and in a sense they are right, but its not the God of the Bible and absolute truth, its their own god made in their own image. When the most powerful man in the world pronounces that the freedom to murder children is a God given right, then you can no doubt hear the creaking of the gates of hell as they are flung open.
The freedoms that men believe they have, quite apart from a just God and an eternity where justice is established and completed, is tearing men to pieces. How could it do anything otherwise? All of this is for the grasping of power and control and an independence from the Living God. The very desire of the devils heart. Men must choose for the time draws near. We either worship God and follow Him, or we worship ourselves and we follow that dark descending road that leads all the way to the bottom of the abyss.
Job 2:3……….. and still he holds fast his integrity.
We see here the progression of God’s truth about Job and the exposing of the lie of Satan. Job has just lost every single possession he owned in the world. All of his children had just been wiped out. And when he hears of this he famously replies ” naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return : the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” I want to suggest that this is the high water mark of service to the God that we love above and beyond all other things. God himself says, that even after all these things “still he holds fast his integrity.” God is impressed with His servant and we see this only makes the Devil angrier. The love of God for His servants and their love for Him, even in the face of terrible loss and tragedy only makes the enemy of our soul even angrier.
Have you suffered loss brothers and sisters? Can you say with all of your heart “blessed be the name of the Lord.” This is what Job says in the midst of worshiping His Lord. To be supernaturally enabled to walk this kind of walk we must have eternal vision. We must have glimpsed something of His majesty and His glory. This is no mere stoic behavior in the midst of profound loss, this is love and glory and majesty and vision. It is not natural. If it were natural and all we had in this world were the things of this world then we would join with Job’s wife and curse God for our losses. No brothers and sisters, this is supernatural. For those who have eyes to see what the Spirit sees, we see a magnificent eternal horizon set ablaze by the impenetrable light of Christ. Remember this. The very thing that God commends, that Job still holds fast to his integrity, is the very thing his wife challenges. She says to him “do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Remember brothers and sisters, oftentimes those who are closest to you, whether it be your friends or a loved one, may be the ones who challenge you the most. For in the end, it is but you and God. This wilderness that to one degree or another every saint finds himself in, is the testing ground. It is about identity. How will you come out of the wilderness? Jesus’ identity was tested in the wilderness by the devil himself. Your identity will be tested to by the same enemy. In the end, we are identified by who we serve and who we love above all other things. This wilderness will identify if you love God above all other things. Will you hold fast to your integrity? In the deepest depths of the darkness will you “fall down and worship God?” The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Even if He slay me, yet shall I trust Him. This is the finest gold forged in the hottest furnace. This gold will adorn the temple of God not built by human hands.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one that fears God, and shuns evil?
Satan hated Job. He hated Job because he knew what God thought about His servant. God thinks about His sons and daughters the same way He thought about Job. Satan also hated Job because Job was indeed what the Lord had said about him. He was happy in his service to God, content to be a servant of the most high God. Pleased to be pleasing to God. Job was everything that Satan was not. And so, if you walk with God with purity of heart you will indeed incur the wrath of the enemy or those in his employment. They will hate your joy for they have none. They will hate your sincerity and your purity for they have none. Your witness of the righteousness of God reflects upon their unrighteousness.
If you study the Salem witch trials, many of those accused were the Godliest women in the villages. Oh how Satan and the wicked hate the man or the woman of God. Hated by the darkness because the light in you highlights the darkness in them. It is our role brothers and sisters. Our righteousness in Christ reflects upon the wickedness of this world. And as the world grows darker and more bold, then so we, the Light of this world (for Christ dwells in us) shall be tried and tested. The stripping away. The tearing down. Until all there is left is the truth. And the truth is this, that in the eyes of God we are blameless and we love Him even at the loss of all things. A total refutation of the lie that dared to be uttered before the throne. God is true and all men and devils are liars. Let the truth in your life stand brothers and sisters, for in this, we are a witness, which is what we were called to be.
Act 27:10 And said unto them, men, I perceive that this voyage will end withe disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives.
A stark warning indeed. Have you ever had a warning that you ignored? Maybe it was a check in your spirit or a direct word from a brother or sister? The centurion in this case, decided to go with the experts, the helmsman and the owner of the ship. The majority were persuaded and off they went. Human logic can be very helpful and common sense typically serves us well. Here we have a tent-maker saying one thing and the helmsman and the owner of the ship saying another. The majority went with the experts.
Isn’t that typically the case in our world? We listen to experts. It might be doctors or lawyers. It might be politicians or financial advisors. Yet in everything, to discount the word of God can be very dangerous. That word might come from the Bible. Perhaps the still small voice. Perhaps a word of wisdom from a brother or sister, perhaps even a prophecy. Yet in the end, many fall back and rely on the word and opinion of so called experts. In verse 13 of Acts 27 we see a very typical scenario play out. All seems well at first. A south wind blew, a favorable wind, seemingly confirming what the experts had said. Yet before very long, the scenario Paul had laid out began to come to pass. For fourteen long days they were tossed violently in a huge storm. All seemed lost. Now, men are ready to listen to the man of God.
The man of God has a vision and spoke with confidence. They were all going to live. Yet the most dramatic moment was just about to unfold. Paul demanded that they cut the skiff loose. It seemed to make no sense. Often times in our lives we are called upon by God to do things that make no sense in the natural. In the vital moment, will you follow the direction of God? Will you abandon your common sense and the words of experts and follow blindly the advise from God? Paul brakes bread at the height of the disaster and gives thanks to God. Can you give thanks to Almighty God even when all seems lost? Following His direction and giving thanks to God releases power, supernatural power. Follow His leading today brothers and sisters, and He will guide you to where He wants you go.
A Call To The Remnant 