A Call To The Remnant

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Archive for August, 2024

When the weakness of man collides with the power of God-Increasing our capacity.

Posted by appolus on August 29, 2024

It is not that men are inherently weak, it’s that’s God is inherently all powerful. The strongest man that ever lived, whether in body or mind or spirit, finds his proper state before and all powerful God. He falls on his face as one who is dead. He would cry out with the prophet “I am undone. He would not have the capacity to stand in His presence. He would only see his unworthy state. It takes fire from the altar, to alter his state, to enable him to stand, to have the audacity to say “here I am, send me.”

In Isa 40:28-31 God speaks. He announces Himself as . The everlasting God. 2. Lord. 3. Creator of the ends of the earth. He never faints. He is never weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He is not powerful, He is power itself and the very source of it.It is His to give and He gives it to the weak. He is not mighty, He is might itself and from the abundance of His eternal strength, He gives to those who have no strength. Who are these recipients? Who are these weak people? They are the ones who have come to understand that apart from the Spirit of God, they can do nothing, therefore they wait.

Our understanding of our own weakness kicks down the door of our ego’s and allows the light of God to penetrate the very depths of our beings. Death to “self,” is an emptying process. We must decrease so that there can be an increase. An increase of what? The Lord Himself, in us. By dying to ourselves and emptying our “self,” we are creating capacity. And into that capacity flows the fullness of God. ….That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with the saints, what is the width and the length and the depth and height -to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God (Eph 3:14-21)

For those who are filled with the fullness of God, having waited upon Him in our weakness and low opinion of our “self,” shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint. And so the “weak,’ and those who have no “might,” shall fly, shall run and shall walk. In the dying to their “self,” they have increased their capacity and are therefore filled from inexhaustible fountains.

This is the making of the mighty men and women of valor. Warriors for Christ in the battle of the ages. Those who have humbled themselves. The broken and the contrite. The weak and the meek. They all fellowship with God in high and lofty places. To get there they need the wings of eagles. To run the race we need the strength of God. And to walk this narrow walk of faith we must have the power of God

Posted in bible, churches, Devotions, Fresh Fire, inspirational, Jesus, praise, revival, spiritual growth, Spiritual warfare, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Church attendance is not Discipleship.

Posted by appolus on August 25, 2024

Some poor deluded folks think that by attending a church they are being disciples. Very sad. I’ve known disciples who attend a church, I’ve known disciples who gather together in small groups, I’ve even known disciples who meet just “where two or three are gathered,” but I’ve known very few disciples. They are the few. They are the remnant. Just as the Lord said it would be. The vast majority I’ve known are church goers, which is a world apart from disciples……bro Frank.

Charles Simeon 1759-1836 wrote…………

Isaiah 29:13, “The Lord says: These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me!”

In our church services, we go through all the external bodily motions; but as to the prostration of the soul, we are for the most part oblivious and unconcerned. We think that we have done our duty to God, if we have gone through the appointed external rituals, though our heart has not accorded with the body in any part of the service. In truth, our services have been hypocritical throughout.

Had a stranger come into one of our church services, and overheard our glowing praises, and our solemn confessions, petitions, and thanksgivings–he would have supposed that we were the most humble, spiritual, and devout people in the universe!

But had he been privy to the real state of our hearts–then how little would he have seen:
of earnest ardor in our praises,
or of honest humiliation in our confessions,
or of sincere fervor in our petitions,
or of genuine gratitude in our thanksgivings!

He would see that the state of our hearts indicated that we felt nothing, and meant nothing–at the very time that we professed to mean so much and feel so much!

For the most part, he would have seen that the whole of our service was only a solemn mockery; that instead of being genuine worshipers of our majestic and holy God–for the most part, we were but insincere hypocrites!

Let me ask, in the name of God Himself: What reason you can have to think that God would accept such services as these?

If, indeed, God were like ourselves, and could see only the outward appearance, then we might hope that, being deceived by us–He would be pleased with us.

But when we bear in mind, that the omniscient God knows . . .
our every secret thought,
our every secret desire,
our every secret motive,
and that He perfectly searches our heart, and knows our thoughts–then we must be sure that our very services are an abomination in His sight!

“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me! They worship Me in vain.” Mark 7:6, 7

J.C. Ryle: In all our Christian duties, whether giving or praying, the great thing to be kept in mind, is that we have a heart-searching and all-knowing God! Everything like mere formal worship, is abominable and worthless in God’s sight. The one thing which His all-seeing eye looks at, is the nature of our motives, and the state of our hearts!

“Serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts!” 1 Chronicles 28:9

Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, Church history, churches, controlling churches | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

The activity of Christendom-and the remnant.

Posted by appolus on August 24, 2024

Old ruined building on hill side in vineyard (Architecture and Buildings) landscape,abandoned house,ruined building,vineyard,old

Isa 5:12  And the harp, and the strings, the tambourine, and flute, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. 

The lord expects good fruit from what He has planted “so He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.” (Isa 5:2) Wild grapes are sour and bitter while initially looking like good grapes. Wheat and tares also look very similar, but the tares are only good for burning.  The harp and the strings and the instruments and the wine and the feasts are all the activities of those who call themself by the name of Christ. Christendom can busy itself with many things, with much activity, yet if Christ is not at the beating heart of it, its all just motions.

“Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah,” “hear the Word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom, give ear to the Lord to the law of our God, to what is the purpose of your multitude of sacrifices to me? I have had enough burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of the fed cattle……….bring no more futile sacrifices…….when you spread out your hands I will hide my eyes from you, even though you make many prayers, I will not hear you.” (Isa 1:9-15)

There is a tower in the midst of the vineyard and atop that tower the Lord surveys what He has laid down. There must be Jesus at the beating heart of all that we do. He has called us, not to works, but rather to produce much fruit, these are our works. For it is He who broke up the fallow ground. It is He who removed the stones from our heart, it is He who created the wine-press after planting the best vines. “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away……………..if anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire.” (John 15:1-6)

The work of the Lord is to do His will, to bear much fruit, to become like His son Jesus. Unless we abide in Him and He in us, then all of our activities are abominable in His sight. It is hard for our religious minds to get a hold of that, but there it is, lest any man should boast. All of the glory belongs to the Lord, it His majesty and His holiness that we are called to lift up. What are the fruits that delight the Lord? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, gentleness, self-control. These are produced in the wine-press, in the crucifying of the flesh. He dwells with the broken and contrite. He loves those who endure, those who overcome, those who are willing to suffer for His name sake. All other measurements are by faulty scales.

Posted in bible, christian blog, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, Church history, Daily devotional, Devotions, Jesus, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Discipleship-a call to higher ground.

Posted by appolus on August 21, 2024

True Discipleship all comes down to obedience to the will of the Father,the Word of the Lord,  and obedience to that still small voice of the Holy Spirit. All three are one and the same.So, as a practical example, if I love my wife more than I love Jesus, I cannot be His disciple. If I refuse to take up my cross daily, I cannot be His disciple. If I do not forsake all, I cannot be His disciple. ( Luke 14:25-33)
 
No amount of works can change this truth. For these are the infallible words of Jesus. Much of the busyness of Christendom ( and very few of any of the things they busy themselves with are in and of themselves bad, in fact most of them are commendable) are in no way a substitute for true Discipleship.
A few examples of commendable works would be, casting out demons in the name of Jesus. Prophesying in the name of Jesus.Doing many wonders in the name of Jesus. Again, none of these things mean anything outside of true Discipleship.
 
My list of works come from Matthew 7:21-23. Yet Jesus describes these works by these people as practicing lawlessness. Now why would that be? For while these acts are being carried out, in the name of Jesus, they are being carried out by those who are a law unto themselves, not disciples.
Immediately after, in verse 24 Jesus says “therefore, whoever hears theses sayings of mine ( the instructions on what it means to be a disciple) and does them (obedience and sacrifice) is a wise man who has built his house on the Rock.
 
Those who do not, will inevitably fall as the storms of life present themselves, for in their lawlessness, they have built their house on sand. In the end, our goal is to hear “well done good and faithful servant,” as opposed to “I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Posted in bible, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, Daily devotional, Devotions, Jesus, revival, spiritual growth, Spiritual warfare, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | 9 Comments »

What is the glory of God?

Posted by appolus on August 13, 2024

The glory of God!! The light that reflects from God Himself is seen in Christ and magnified in our hearts. It has substance, there is an eternal “weight,” that is quite apart from gravity. This weight is the “train of His robe.” It fills the temple and it fills us to overflowing. It fills our deepest longings, It touches the very depths of our souls. It renders us changed forever. Who can stand in His glory? Who could even begin to fathom/know the depths of His love? Isaiah falls down as dead and his heart is rent. The old saints used to talk about the weight of His glory where their heads naturally bowed low and trembling hands are barely raised in the “atmosphere,” of heaven come down.”Time ceases to exist and for a moment or moments we are entirely “taken up,” to higher ground. And all of this ceases to be even the first sentence to describe Him because they are but human words. He is “sensed,” in our very DNA and whoever encounters this “manifest,” presence is changed forever.

God is high and lifted up. He is glorious in His majesty. In the presence of God there is fulness of joy. In this place there is nothing impossible. Our minds are lit up by His mere presence, the manifest presence of God. To come up and into this place is to dwell with Him. This is where we are changed. This is where the attractions of this world and everything it has to offer loses all of its meaning. One moment in the manifest presence of God does more good than a lifetime of struggling against sin. For in this light we see the true darkness of our souls and we long to never again walk among the shadows. This life is but a shadow and this flesh is the vehicle that must be inhabited until that happy day when the mere moments in His presence is transformed into eternity. If we desire God, if we truly desire to come into His presence, then we shall be as the deer that panteth for the waterbrooks.

Humility and brokenness is the door and the lintel that ushers us into this Holy place. Everything about our walk with the Lord is a contradiction to the world. In order to live we must die. In order to be truly rich, we must become poor to the things of this world. In order to lead we must serve. In order to ascend unto that holy place of His presence we must bow low. It is in the deepest valleys that the saint will discover the greatest mountaintops.We must stoop down low on bended knee in order to ascend that hill and truly see. The greatest danger of the one who brings trials and tribulations and persecutions upon the saints is that they create the perfect environment for the most radical encounters with the Living God that they will ever have had. This is why the saint who genuinely desires a radical encounter with the living God is such a danger to the enemy of our souls. If he pushes too hard against the saint, he pushes Him deeper into the heart of God and that becomes a witness that has a life all of itself. The Spirit of Glory that stands for all time.

Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, Daily devotional, Devotions, God's love, Jesus, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence | 4 Comments »

The opiate of modern worship.

Posted by appolus on August 8, 2024

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him. 

There are two broad categories of people within Christendom. They are not equally proportioned. One represents the vast majority and the other a remnant, a portion, “the few, as opposed to “the many.” This distressing spirit, spoken of in relation to Saul, is alive and well among the merely religious but who, nonetheless, call themselves after the name of Jesus. They seek the same comfort that Saul sought. And we see unfolding with David and Saul, an ancient battle that has always existed right from the times of Cain and Abel. In the end, one hates the other and determines to destroy the other. For the last 2000 years, the religious have mercilessly hunted down the genuine saint just as Saul hunted down David. David had what Saul did not. It really came down to jealousy.

In the beginning, Saul would get momentary relief when David played upon his harp. Modern day worship gives momentary relief to the merely religious. Its an opiate to them. Remember, the distressing spirit would leave Saul, but his relationship with God still ceased to exist. And then, of course, the distressing spirit would return. Like drunkenness, it lasts for but a short while and when one sobers up, they are distressed once again. The real malady is the malady of the soul. The only true solution is to come to Jesus on His terms. And His terms? Very simple, He requires your whole life. Those who try to save their own lives shall lose them, but those who lose their lives for His sake gain eternal life.

Therefore, feeling good when worshiping is simply temporary if you are not rightly related to Jesus. A pain killer alleviates the pain for a while but the source of the pain remains. It is only when the spirit is truly touched and changed forever that we are relieved of this deep malady of the soul, distress. God has a controversy with those who have not bowed the knee to Jesus and that controversy causes us all kinds of problems. Note that in this Scripture it is God Himself who sends this spirit and it is God alone, through His Son Jesus that can alleviate us from it. Men will try multiple religious acts to circumvent the need to be obedient to God and lay down their lives. Bonar writes……………..

“Men try rites, sacraments, pictures, music, apparel and the varied attractions of ecclesiastical ornament, but these leave the spirit unfilled, and its wounds unhealed. They cannot regenerate, enliven, heal or fill with the Holy Spirit. They may keep up the self satisfaction and delusion of the soul, but that is all. They bring no true peace, nor give rest to the weary, they do not fill they merely hide our emptiness.” Every Sunday in churches throughout the land and across the world there are a myriad of programs and liturgies and music that merely hide the emptiness of those who sit in pews, unchanged week after week.

What would have saved Saul? Obedience to the Word of God. We are called to obey the Lord our God with our whole hearts, holding nothing back. And the evidence of the reality of our genuine obedient relationship with Jesus is a changed life. You can raise your hands in worship every Sunday but without this changed life it is a futile as the worship of Saul. Saul was not worshiping God, for true worshipers obey God and are changed, no Saul was seeking momentary relief from his inner anguish. He just wanted to feel better. We may look upon the raised hands of a crowd and imagine that it denotes something, but the “Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)

 

 

Posted in Babylon, bible, Charismatic, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Church history, churches, Counterfeit Jesus, deception, Devotions, Jesus, praise, praise and worship, religion, religious, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church | 6 Comments »

He is first in all things!

Posted by appolus on August 4, 2024

It is not first holiness then peace, but peace and then holiness. The root of all holiness is peace with God. Until the clouds are rolled away and the sun shines pit, we cannot be warmed and enlightened. Until the frost is gone and the ice dissolved, the river cannot flow on and water the fields. Christ did not say  “Go and sin no more, and I will not condemn you,” but,” I do not condemn you either. Go and sin more.” ( John 8:11)

In order to live a holy life God must come in and dwell in us. He cannot do this until He has brought us into peace with Himself-until we have listened to and believed the tidings of peace that He has spoken. Reconciliation must be the beginning of all indwelling, and this reconciliation is the result of our believing His message of peace.

A saint then, is one who has listened to God, who has heard the words of peace from His Lips, who has believed them, who has been reconciled, and who k ows that he is so. Therefore, he seeks to be holy. He hates his former folly. He does not return to it. He does not make his free pardon a reason for returning to it. (Horatius Bonar)

Everything starts with God, everything. He spoke the world into existence. He first loved us. Jesus was the first, the Alpha. We follow Him in everything. He is holy therefore He has called us to be holy. Yet this holiness must be initiated by the Lord. It is He who kindles the fire, it is we who are called to keep that fire burning within us.

Beware of sin brothers and sisters. It douses the fire that the Lord Himself lit in us. Add to that fire by walking in His holiness, by righteousness, by obedience, by love and kindness, by Godliness,by forgiveness and grace and mercy. Shower your heart with these things and the inner fire will burn intensely for all the world to see.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »