I think the closer to God we walk we see Him in everything. We see Him in the rains. We even see Him in the midst of our pains. We hear Him in the thunder, and in us it produces awe and wonder. We see Him in the changing seasons. Autumn is such a blessed relief to the heat of summer, and we have many reasons to consider our own lives as the leaves become vibrant and beautiful with age…..and then they fall. And when the snow covers everything, we see Him in this wonderland.
We see Him when we hear a baby laugh or see the first stumbling steps of a little calf. We see Him in the rainbow that caresses the waterfall and we see Him in the mountains that stand so very tall. The rivers, the oceans, the eagle flying high, we see Him standing with us when a loved one dies. Brothers and sisters, if you don’t see Him everywhere, do you see Him anywhere? Lord give us eyes to see your beauty all around, and give us such a heart that in you we want to be found.
No matter where we live brothers and sisters, no matter what our situation, no matter the trials and the tribulations we face, better to do it all in the loving arms of our Lord and dwell in His passionate embrace.
Oh the beauty of His manifested presence
It is all the world to me
Not to be held captive by this life
but rather unrestrained by it, and set free
My eyes have seen the King
And they now belong to Him
My heart within me burns
Brighter than a thousand suns
The celestial road opens up before me
And down this road we walk as one
And this is the path I want to be found on
Until my time on earth is done
My heart beats to the rhythm of His
And everything falls into place
I see Him high and lifted up
The beauty of His holiness, the splendor of His grace
Draw me nearer blessed Lord
that I might mortify
That I might cast upon thy cross
what thou has crucified
And in the dying comes the rising
As I lift my hands on high
And your Spirit falls upon me Lord
That I might testify.
I am undone in the presence of thy throne
Your glory has stripped me all away
All that is left is what you've redeemed
And through me your impenetrable light has streamed
Draw me closer, closer, closer every day
Every week, every month, the passing years
Closer with my heart and with my life
With my thoughts and with my prayers and with my tears.
Oh the beauty of His manifested presence in my life, daily. It causes me to take my thoughts captive, less they take me captive. When my mind is set on Him, as I walk with Him, daily, then fear flees away. Does not my heart burn within me? I see His beauty and it is high and lifted up. I rest in the beauty of His holiness. And as I do that, then the world and all its distractions flee away. My eyes have seen the King and they now belong to Him. My heart within me burns and to Him all of me turns. The celestial road opens up before me and we walk as one. And this is the path I ever want to be found on, until my time on earth is done.
My heart beats to the rhythm of His heart and everything is right with the world. In this place I take no offense for I am found in Him. And when I am found in Him I can only see Jesus. I can only sense the glory and the majesty and the beauty of His serenity. In this place there is no fear. In this place there is no worldly ambition, there is only the drawing. And once caught up in the gravity of His magnificence then I simply surrender to the pull. Letting go of the things of this world, allows me to unfurl, like a banner that flutters in the wind of the Spirit. As the old hymn goes …Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to the cross where Thou hast died; draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious, bleeding side.
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord that I might mortify, that I might cast upon thy holy cross what thou has crucified. And in the dying comes the rising as I lift my hands on high, and thy Spirit falls upon me that I might testify. I am undone in the presence of thy glorious holy throne. where in the midst, the precious Lamb and His Blood that did atone. And all of heavens host cry out “Holy is the Lamb,” as they dwell before the King of Kings, before the great I Am. Lord I would come to thee, I would draw closer every day, closer with the passing days and with the passing years. Closer with my whole heart, closer with life, closer with my thoughts and prayers and closer with my tears.
Mar 9:49 For every one shall be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
Every genuine saint shall be seasoned with fire. Now we know that we are called to be salt and light to the world and if the salt has lost its flavor, what is it good for? Its good for nothing. The fire for the saint is the seasoning of his or her life. Trials and tribulations and infirmities, this is promised to us all. How do we react under such circumstances? When the darkness comes to consume us, will it yet find the light? It is such an honor and a privilege to suffer well for the sake of Jesus. It speaks to the principalities and powers who watch your life. It testifies to the darkness. It proclaims to the spiritual wickedness in high places. The rulers of this world understand many things but they do not understand the man or the woman who has been so fully transformed that they praise God in the midst of suffering.
It is otherworldly. The Kingdom walk is no where better expressed than when we rejoice in our eternal life and the Kingdom to which we now belong. It is no better illustrated when we love our enemies and forgive those who hate us and despise us and would use us and destroy us. To count the fire as a flavoring rather than a destroyer is supernatural. It cannot be counterfeited. Many may rejoice when the “blessings,” abound. Many may give glory to God when all is going well. Yet it is the “few,” who fall to their knees amidst great loss, yet raise their hands towards heaven and cry out “blessed is the name of the Lord.” He who gives and He who takes away and He who flavors us with fire is to be praised. In the fire only the flesh is burned. In the fire only our worldly ambitions disappear. The wood and the hay and the stubble burn, but the treasures of darkness are purified and refined.
Who indeed? We humans love to deify men. We love to lift them up and glorify them. Christians in particular love to do this. It is really an abomination to God and shall not be overlooked. Diotrephes is the logical conclusion of the lifting up of men which is why the apostle Paul tackles this issue head on. If we elevate men, men will love it. If we desire to follow men, and we so often do, the very same men will love it. They will, of course, for decorum’s sake, deny any of this. Even as men lift them aloft above their heads, they will feign giving Jesus the glory, but their actions and the actions they allow in others denies this. Paul smashes into this head on in his typical style and no holds barred words. “Neither he who plants is anything, not he who waters, but God who gives the increase,” is everything. We are nothing without God, even that which we have was given to us. What then can we glory in, other than Christ? How could we ever let stand for one minute anyone who would try and raise us up? God forbid.
This month is “pastors appreciation month.” While most people will celebrate a birth “day,” or the day we were married or some other special day, here in the west we have pastors appreciation month, where they will be plied with gifts and monies and admiration. Obviously since senior pastors run their “own churches,” they factor this month into the calendar. In other words they organize this for themselves. This is a month where their salaries are boosted. It is a money getting month. I am aware that not all “pastors,” do this and that specifically, the American non denominational pastor have taken this to dizzying new heights, or rather, depths. It is so far from the Gospel, so far from the Word of God, so far from how Jesus lived, so far from the humble early beginnings of the church. A sign of the times and a marker to measure the maturity and the heart of one who claims to be a leader. To indulge in this is akin to indulging in Halloween. Entirely secular and worldly and shameful to the witness of Jesus. There is but one Body.
He who plants and he who waters are one. One Body. One work here on earth. Nothing rises above the spiritual parapet save Jesus Christ. If you look up and see a man, God help that men. If you look up and try to raise up that man to anything other than what He is in Christ, part of the Body, one in nature, then God help you. All of it robs from God who gives the increase. All of it robs from Christ who is preeminent. Its all robbery, its all theft, its all religion. Diotrephes loved the preeminence and allowed himself to be raised up and encouraged others to raise him up. Men like this make themselves indispensable . This means they steer the sheep towards reliance upon them and not the great Shepherd. Do you know anyone like this? Unless we are forever pointing men towards the Word of God and the risen Christ then we are of the priesthood of Diotrephes. Carnal in nature, carnal in spirit and if it remains so, then lost forever. Jesus Christ first, Jesus last and Jesus forever. The old enemy has caught more men in this trap then any other. More seductive than women, more seductive than money, the greatest seducer of all, power and the desire for it and the lust of it, in all its many manifestations.
My uncle was a dispatch rider in the WW2. He was a private. It was a dangerous mission so the High Command were never going to waste men of higher rank in delivering messages. In the scale of things, in the order of importance, the rider was the least important. You could always replace the rider. What was important was the message. The one sending it and the ones receiving it. It is so in the Kingdom. The one delivering the message can be easily replaced. We brothers and sisters should remember that lest we think too highly of ourselves. We are simply one. The message is all important. The message is preeminent and Jesus is the message. Jesus is the author, and by His Blood He came to deliver this message Himself. What general or high ranking officials would ever lower themselves by delivering the message themselves? Yet, the greatest communication ever delivered to men had to be delivered by the greatest one that existed, the One who ever existed, God’s only Begotten Son. Remember this with all of your hearts brothers and sisters, some of us plant, some of us water, but God……but God….but God always has and always will, give the increase by the power of the Holy Spirit.
A few years ago as I was walking and praying, the Holy Spirit spoke to me a few words… “be careful about the condition of your heart, there is nothing more important.” That was it. I was left to ponder what had been spoken to me and all that it meant. So few words, so much meaning. Imagine being there when the Titanic was launched. What a magnificent sight that would have been. The worlds largest ship, a wonder of the world, stunningly beautiful in design, and filled with much opulence. This ship was built to ply the oceans of the world and power through tide and wave and storm. At its beating heart there were 29 huge boilers powered by 159 enormous furnaces. They had to be continually fed by coal, night and day. If the fires ever went out or ran low, then the engines would begin to falter. Without power, the ship, any ship, no matter how big, would be set adrift and helpless in the ocean. If a storm came along, it would sink, no matter how big it was or well built.
Christendom and all its many factions and sects is like a huge ship upon the ocean. No matter how big or impressive your church is, your denomination is, your particular “ministry,” is, without a fire at its heart it is just drifting and waiting for the storm that will take it down. We make the mistake of thinking that what we have or what we belong to could never sink, that it is too big or too impressive or too well built. I imagine those in Israel thought that about the Temple and Jerusalem. Yet if Christ does not dwell in the depths of our heart with the power of the Holy Spirit firing the furnace, then we are simply living on borrowed time. We may move about a ship that is not under power and seem that we are in no danger. Yet one storm or series of storms will simply turn us sideways and we will face the waves broadside and we shall begin to sway back and forward. One of these times the ship will go over, it will founder in the seas of this world that simply carry it along with its winds and tides and waves. Without power we cannot head into the storm, but will simply be tossed around by it. Without power we cannot steam into the waves and stay upright. Without power we can do nothing no matter how great the outward structure is.
Taking up our cross daily. Abiding in the Lord and His Word daily. Praying daily, hourly, minute by minute. Obeying the words and commands of Jesus. Drawing close to Jesus. Asking forgiveness from Jesus. Forgiving and humbling ourselves before others. All of this is stoking the fires of our heart and keeping its condition good. Not worrying about the things the “gentiles,” worry about. Not being anxious about the things of the world. Taking no thought about tomorrow but rather considering God and how He feeds the birds of the air and clothes the fields. Solomon, as the word says, was not arrayed with such glory. All of this and more is a shovel of coal in the furnace of our heart. It all begins with a baptism of fire brothers and sisters. It would do you no good to shovel coal into a furnace that it is not lit. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It’s the fire of our heart and the power that propels us on through every obstacle no matter how strong or fierce. If we indeed have this fire, let it never be allowed to burn down to just embers. “Be careful bout the condition of your heart, there is nothing more important.”
There is a mind virus that has infected the world, quite apart from its usual Godless state. It cannot end well. The forces of anarchy and rebellion typically begin among the privileged. The ultimate example I suppose would be the third of heavens host that followed satan and rebelled against God. Educated liberal mindsets that are at the heart of rejecting every truth of God are on the march. And as they rise up, then every pillar of society begins to crumble.
What can the righteous do when the foundations are destroyed? We are witnessing the greatest assault against Truth the world has ever seen. It overcomes us slowly enough, like lobsters being boiled in a pot, that most have missed the fact that we are indeed boiling to death in the turbulent waters of chaos and darkness. In the beginning the earth was without form and void and darkness prevailed. Chaos. The words “form,” and “void,” are Toho and Bohu, meaning confusion and emptiness.
The world, having utterly rejected God and now in the midst of a virus so complete that they cannot even define what a woman is, is confused and empty and ever increasingly without natural affection. Consider America alone having slaughtered 64 million babies in the last 50 years. There is a generation rising as we speak that will do unspeakable things and devolve into a barbarity not seen on such a scale before. It’s target will be the forces that stand in opposition to darkness and confusion and anarchy.
Those who stand in the light and who stand upon the Word and who are ordered of God. So brothers and sisters, let us stand in the Light, and walk according to the Truth and let our lives stand in stark contrast to the world. Recognizing the difference between barbarism and civilization does not justify either one of its deeds, it simply recognizes that one is established by God, consider Roman’s 13. We are told that the authorities are a terror to evil does and that they do not wield the sword in vain. There is a sword to be wielded against evildoers among secular society. One of the reasons society is in such bad shape is that they have put down the sword. They are no longer a terror to evil doers. They have put down the sword because they are utopian dreamers.
And by their liberal utopian dreams they demonstrate that they deny the word of God. They believe that man is basically good when ,of course, the opposite is true. We must recognize all of that and recognize the season we are in. If we lived near the end of the Roman empire, we would know that the barbarians were at the door. If we lived in Europe during WW2 we would know that civilization itself was in danger. Knowing these things allows us to pray in season. It does not mean that we should be taken up by hatred or a desire for revenge. We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
We should neither be a cheerleader for revenge nor should we find ourselves in opposition to the sword being wielded against evil-doers. That is the challenge for us, to keep our hearts good while mourning with those who mourn and seeing the principles of God play out against anarchy and chaos.
The Spirit of glory and of God rests upon those who suffer for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. That suffering may take many forms. Fiery trials, tribulations and infirmities. Yet one thing is for sure, it is not common in Christendom. It is certainly unknown to the world. I have personally met a number of saints whom I would say the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon them. And it is those who suffer and are yet joyful. It is those who are in the throes of infirmities and yet they are the ones who minister to you. It is quite a glorious thing to behold. And as always, the glory of God, His manifest presence changes people. I would argue all genuine saints have encountered God in a manifest way. It may only have been a moment, or moments. It might just have been a glimpse, or glimpses. Yet note what 1 Peter 4:14 says, it says it rest upon those who suffer for His name sake. That word “rest,” means to remain. It settles down upon their hearts and spirits and they walk in the glory of God. They are truly the anointed ones in that sense. Quite rare I imagine.
Now consider the days into which we are headed. A day when the world turns against us wholesale. A day where God’s remnant saints are persecuted and suffer for His sake on a worldwide scale. A day when we boast in our infirmities. Where we boast in the things that we have lost for His sake and count it all as rubbish because we are “found in Him.” Imagine the light from millions saints shining in the gross darkness of a world nearing its end. Imagine the power that will rest upon us that emanates from the glory that simply remains upon us. Think about the power of love that flowed from Stephen even as he was being stoned. We know he was a man “full of the Holy Spirit,” but we do not really know what “full of the Holy Spirit,” meant in the context of the very early church where power abounded. We do know that Stephen was emulating and manifesting the power of Christ from the cross who could cry out “Father forgive them.”
Religion will be horrified at the light that comes from the true and genuine saint for it will highlight the darkness that they actually dwell in. This can only complete the separation of that which is genuine and that which is not. Darkness consumes its own, it swallows it whole. Light also consumes light and we who walk in the light as He is in the light will have fellowship one with another. There shall be no greater fellowship that that of the saints of the last days. Through the fires of affliction and persecution and a refusal to bow the knee to the gods of this world the Spirit of glory will rest upon us. Christ with us in the flames. He will never be sensed as close as He will be in the times when we suffer for His name sake. His grace is all sufficient for these times and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. And Paul uses the exact same phrase to talk about the exact same thing as Peter does in 1 Pet 1:14. Paul says “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Brothers and sisters, we have nothing to fear from the trying times to come. Those who have never actually experienced the manifest presence of God cannot possibly understand what Peter or Paul is talking about. The notion of suffering, period, is actively prayed against by much of Christendom. Weakness, as the Scriptures count weakness, is despised in many so called Christian circles. And yet the Lord says His strength is made perfect in out weakness. I would put it to you brothers and sisters, if His glory is out highest ambition, then His glory shall rest upon us in the days of our sufferings. If it is our daily habit to take up our cross, then when the day comes to suffer greatly for His sake, then we shall be well prepared. Oil in your vessel comes little by little, piece by piece, step by step. This is how we prepare for the times which are soon to come upon us.
Religion knows nothing of this. The little oil in their lamps will soon burn out when the gross extended darkness comes. Can you not sense that darkness even now lapping around us like a mighty incoming tide that cannot be stopped? Those who walk in the light, those who suffer for His sake gladly, those who take up their crosses daily, those who boast in their infirmities, those whose chief end is to glorify God, it is those who will stand in that evil day. This is how we prepare. It will not be a last minute thing but rather it will flow from the natures and character that has been formed as we walked down the narrow path. In that day when the Lord appears and the virgins are called to trim their lamps, only those who have filled their vessels in their daily walk with Jesus, season after season. In season and out of season. In good times and in bad. It plenty and in want. In sickness and in health. In having much or suffering much loss. Only these will go into the marriage feast of the Lamb.
One last thing brothers and sisters. Let us suppose that we are not that generation that sees Christ return. Let us suppose He tarries yet. The same principles above apply to our individual lives. If we are not a people who die to ourselves daily, if we are not in the habit of taking up our crosses or giving glory to God and counting it all honor to suffer for His sake, then our end days will not be good. The flesh needs to know who is boss or the flesh will not treat you well in your old age. If we live into our older years then we should be beautiful representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ here on earth. If not, then all the worse elements of the flesh will come forward and get even worse. Bitterness and ungratefulness, unhappiness. I have seen both examples. One, a life well lived in the Lord continues in the beauty of holiness, the other a life lived as unto themselves and degenerates. Let us consider our ways and how we would like to end the race. Let us, with all of our hearts, desire to finish the race strong that we might hear the most beautiful of words “well done good and faithful servant.”
Let me go out on a limb a little bit and prophesy. I see the time coming when all the holy men whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit will desert worldly evangelicalism, one by one. The house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God, a man to whom the Holy Spirit dwells, left among them (A.W.Tozer, The dangers of a shallow faith.)
This prophecy was made over 60 years ago. He goes on to say…. “as the church stands now, the man who sees this condition of worldly evangelicalism is written off as being somewhat fanatical. But the day is coming when the house will be left desolate and there will not be a man of God left among them. I would like to live long enough to watch this develop and see how things turn out. I would like to live to see the time when the men and women of God-holy, separated and spiritually enlightened-walk out of the evangelical church and form a group of their own, when they get off the sinking ship and let her go down in the brackish waters of worldliness and form a new ark to ride out the storm.”
Can I say, for the most part, what passes for the church now, has sunk beneath the brackish waves or worldliness to which Tozer prophesied. What passes for church now would be entirely unrecognizable to the men and women of God who are now the arms of the Lord. Has the prophecy come to pass as of now? No. Evangelicalism has certainly sunk beneath the waves, but those who have come out of her have not found their place yet. The time will come. Persecution on a scale never seen before will draw us together as we have never been before. It took persecution to scatter the saints in Jerusalem so that they would go out and fulfill the commands of the Lord. It will take the great tribulation to bring us back together.
We will stand before an angry world, most likely led by the sunken Evangelical and religious movements, and not be moved. They will see how a saint stands in the midst of the fire with Jesus by their side. They will see a purified bride, having been stripped of everything this world has to offer, yet covered by the glory of the risen Lord. They will see a people like Job who will fall to their knees and cry out to God in worship “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” In short, they will see the glory of God cover the earth as the brackish waters cover the sea. The worldly church, the world and everything religious in it sinks into these foul waters. The Body of Christ rises up in the pure and undefiled waters that flow from heavens throne and it is crystal clear and will stand in complete contrast to the defiled waters of this world.
A Call To The Remnant 