Archive for December, 2025
A word against those who kindle their own fires!
Posted by appolus on December 27, 2025
Posted in Babylon, Charisma Magazine, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, End Times Eschatology, Extreme Prophetic, Extreme Prophetic TV, False Doctrine, False Prophet, False Prophets and Teachers, false teachers, heresy, Jesus, leaving the church, lies, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence | 3 Comments »
THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION.
Posted by appolus on December 27, 2025
In Corinth, Paul lifts the veil and speaks of glory.
In Corinth, Paul lifts the veil and speaks of glory. Even the law, etched upon tablets of stone, a ministry of death, bore a splendor from God. Yet if such a ministry shone, how much more shall the ministry of the Spirit blaze. If condemnation itself arrived clothed in glory, then righteousness must surely outshine it all. Praise be to God.
(2 cor 3:7,9)
Now see the glorious transition Paul teaches in Romans.
For when we enter Romans 7, the apostle stands exposed, a man laid bare beneath the weight of his own inability.
“O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?”
No pause, no philosophy, no remedy of self. Only the one solution.
“I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This is like dawn breaking upon a battlefield, the cry of despair yields to the trumpet of triumph.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
What wonder is this. What glory unimagined.
The ministry of condemnation dissolves into the proclamation of no condemnation at all. The Old Covenant had passed, and the new one was born in Christ Jesus, and Him crucified and resurrected!
Let none suppose that Moses trafficked in darkness. Far from it. The Law was holy, its purpose sure, its season appointed. It revealed the blazing holiness of God, gave sin a name and a measure, set boundaries against the flood of evil, and pointed every soul toward Christ.
The fault lay not in the Law, for the Law was perfect.
The fault lay in us.
Flesh, frail, rebellious, unyielding.
So Christ came in flesh, and that flesh was lifted upon the cross. There it was nailed, restrained, undone. The cross was no swift end. It was a long and gasping death. The flesh struggled. It fought for breath. Yet dying it was, all the same.
We wrestle still, not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers. And yes, the flesh wars against the Spirit. But the war is already decided.
The sentence has been overturned. The gavel has fallen. The court stands adjourned.
There is therefore now no condemnation. Saints, this is what victory looks like. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus “HAS,” set me free from the law of sin and death.
(Rom 8:2)
Not will set me free…….has!!!!!!
Posted in bible, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, Daily devotional, Devotions, gifts of the spirit, God's love, Jesus, remnant church, revival, spiritual growth, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence | Tagged: bible, Christianity, faith, God, Jesus, no-condemnation, set-free, the-law-of-the-spirit-of-life | 5 Comments »
This is a follow-up to the post, “Does the nature of our life here on earth as saints, determine the nature of our life in eternity?”
Posted by appolus on December 24, 2025
It is offered for those who are weary, confused, or quietly faithful under a weight that has not been lifted. It is for saints who have prayed, waited, endured, and still do not see why the path has taken the shape it has. What follows is not meant to explain away pain, nor to minimize it, nor to offer quick comfort. It is meant to affirm that suffering in the life of the believer is not meaningless, not forgotten, and not without purpose, even when that purpose remains hidden. If you are walking through trials whose cause you cannot name and whose end you cannot see, He sees. You are not overlooked. You are being worked upon by a faithful hand, and He will finish what He has begun.
Suffering in the life of the saint is not incidental, nor is it merely something to be endured until relief comes. It is the means by which the soul is shaped. Every trial, every pressure, every season of pain works upon us with intention, even when that intention remains hidden. What appears unsightly in the present, what feels uneven, broken, or unfinished, is not evidence of failure but of formation. The pain is real, and the cost is real, yet so is the work being done. Something beautiful is being brought forth under the hand of the Master, even when the process itself obscures the outcome.
God does not abandon what He begins. He finishes His work. The shaping that takes place here is not undone later, nor replaced by some new process in eternity. What is formed in time is what is revealed there. Though the saint may never understand the purpose of a particular sorrow while living through it, it does indeed have both cause and design. The soul is being prepared for a purpose beyond this life, and what is produced here will not be wasted there. Eternity will not correct what earth has shaped in faith. It will receive it, complete it, and set it into its rightful place.
Scripture speaks of us as living stones, built into a spiritual house. Life in Christ does not remove us from the process of shaping. It commits us to it. Stones are not ornaments; they are substance. They are not shaped after the structure is complete, but beforehand. They are tested, cut, measured, and fitted in advance. No wise builder waits until the walls are rising to discover whether the stones are ready.
God Himself both shapes us and sets us. The work is not divided between different hands, but between different seasons. The shaping belongs to this side of eternity, where the soul is worked upon through time, suffering, and endurance. The setting belongs to the age to come, where what has been formed is placed into its appointed purpose. The same God who allows the blows now is the God who will establish the result then.
The shaping often occurs out of sight, through repeated pressures whose purpose may not be apparent at the time. Each trial removes what cannot remain if the soul is to be fitted for what God has prepared. So it is with suffering. Every trial, every persecution, every test presses upon the soul with intention. Not one thing the saint suffers is wasted. Not one moment of pain is without design.
This is why resistance only deepens the fracture. To resist the blow is not to escape the shaping, but to contend against it. Surrender does not soften the strike, nor does it hasten relief; it submits to the work being done. Too often the saint is preoccupied with reducing the pain, seeking relief from the very means God is using to form the soul. In resisting the hammer, one may unknowingly resist the hand that wields it. We must learn to kiss the hand that wounds us. The purpose is not immediate comfort, but transformation. The shaping must be allowed to run its course.
The shaping is precise. It is personal. It is governed not by chance, but by Christ Himself. God does not adjust His purpose to fit the soul as it is. He forms the soul until it is fitted for what He has prepared.
The foundation bears the weight. The stones form the substance. Each life is being prepared for its place within what God Himself supports. This life is the season of shaping, where the soul is made ready. Eternity is not the time of reshaping, but of fulfillment. What is prepared here is set there. What is formed in weakness is revealed in completion.
When this life draws to a close, the shaping ceases, not because God’s work is unfinished, but because it is complete. What falls away is not what God has formed, but what could never last, corruption, frailty, and the limits of mortal flesh. What remains is the soul as it has been shaped.
So yes, the nature of our life here does determine the nature of our life in eternity, not by earning, not by merit, but by preparation. Heaven does not replace what earth has formed. It receives it. Glory does not undo the work of suffering. It reveals it.
This life is not a meaningless delay. It is a deliberate preparation. So, my brothers and sisters. Rejoice. Be glad. In all things give thanks, for the Lord your God sees your afflictions. He knows your pain and He would never ask you to suffer that which He had not suffered Himself. Our great High Priest knows. He sees you. He alone is shaping you, for His will and for His pleasure.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, Daily devotional, Devotions, Jesus, revival, Spirituality, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The Psalms, the remnant | Tagged: bible, Christianity, eternity, faith, God, gods-purpose-for-our-suffering, how-shall-we-live-in-eternity, Jesus, life-after-death, our-role-in-heaven, suffering-is-not-in-vain, the-purpose-of-suffering | 6 Comments »
Does the nature of our life here on earth as saints, determine the nature of our life in eternity?
Posted by appolus on December 21, 2025
As a builder, I know the most critical part of any structure is the foundation. Everything depends on it. It is hidden from view, slow to complete, costly, and difficult. It requires going deep, sometimes all the way to bedrock, contending with water, unstable soil, resistance, and delay. Yet whatever rises later stands or falls on what is laid first.
When Christ speaks of many mansions in His Father’s house, I do not hear a promise of size or luxury. I hear a description of lives shaped and capacities formed. The mansion is not constructed after death. What awaits us in eternity rests upon what has been forged here. Heaven does not replace the foundation. It fulfills it.
This is why Psalm 23 speaks so deeply to the human condition.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”
I no longer read this as a passing season. This life itself is the valley. We walk through it from our first breath to our last. And yet, even here, God makes us lie down in green pastures. Even here, He leads us beside still waters.
Joy is not reserved for the mountaintop. The mountaintop comes down into the valley. We are not blessed by the absence of enemies, but in their presence. Not by the removal of hardship, but by the transformation of the heart that walks through it. We have been equipped for joy now, not later.
Paul and Silas understood this when they sang in the dungeon. Job understood it when devastation stripped him bare and he fell to his knees in worship. “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.” Even, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” These were not men spared from suffering. They were men formed by it.
This life in Christ is the furnace.
It is the fire.
It is the forging.
Here, courage is shaped. Patience is learned. Humility is refined. Gratitude is born. Unshakable joy is formed, not in the absence of pain, but through faithful endurance within it. Heaven is not the place where these virtues are forged. Heaven is where they are revealed, filled, and brought to completion.
When the furnace is finished, the shaping is complete. When we take our final breath, what has been formed has been formed. What is lost in that transition is not the work God has done in us, but only the corruptible flesh, the weakness, decay, and limitation bound to mortality. Eternity does not re-forge the soul through suffering. It unveils and fulfills what time has already shaped.
We have gone down to the potter’s wheel.
We have yielded to its turning.
We have surrendered to the hands of God as circumstances pressed, shaped, and refined us.
This life is the valley.
This life is the foundation.
This life is the wheel.
And heaven is the home that rests upon what has been made.
Posted in bible, Charismatic, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, Daily devotional, Devotions, Jesus, remnant church, revival, spiritual growth, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence | 1 Comment »
The Persecuted Saint
Posted by appolus on December 19, 2025
Many years ago I was asked to write a piece for the ministry “Persecution Watch,” founded in part by my dear brother Blaine, now gone on into glory. I believe that every genuine saint will soon enough face bars and chains. This is to encourage the saints. Please share if you are led by the Spirit.
Posted in Christian, Christianity, remnant church, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church | 1 Comment »
It’s in the hidden places!
Posted by appolus on December 19, 2025
There is a holy pattern woven through every life the Lord redeems: our brokenness, or the lack of it, always reveals how much of our nature we have allowed Him to transform. Wherever the self remains unyielded, untouched, unbroken, pain gathers there like a storm waiting to burst forth. For the measure of our troubles is so often the measure of the self we have held on to. We hold onto much of the the old nature, and the pieces of our old self becomes the sharp edges that wound us. The keeping of self becomes the birthplace of our sorrow, and the refusal to be broken becomes the soil where so much of our pain takes root.
There is a mystery here, one the Spirit teaches slowly: wherever the self is protected, trouble multiplies. Wherever the flesh remains alive, unmortified, unchallenged, it rises with its old strength and lays claim to the inner life. And from that unyielded ground springs turmoil, not random, not surprising, but the predictable fruit of a nature not yet surrendered. Look closely at the landscape of any life, and you will see it: the unbroken places are the breeding ground of unrest and much pain.
But where the Spirit is welcomed, where the self bends low, where the inner man yields to the hand of God, there the breaking becomes a kindness. In the surrendered places, the Lord breathes His life. What once was hard ground cracks open beneath His touch, and from those very fractures new life emerges. For the Spirit does not revive what is meant to die; He resurrects only what has been laid down.
And so the breaking is not destruction, it is invitation. It is the mercy of God pulling us away from the life we keep trying to preserve. In every part of us surrendered, transformation takes root. And the soul learns, slowly and deeply, that what we lose in yielding becomes the very ground where His life begins to grow.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Devotions, healing ministry, remnant church, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church | Tagged: bible, Christianity, death-to-self, faith, God, Jesus, life-from-death, no-condemnation, oh-wretched-man, sanctification, the-inner-man | 1 Comment »
Can You Hear?
Posted by appolus on December 19, 2025
Can You Hear?
To breathe in the beauty of God’s creation, while walking with the Creator, is to inhale something of the rarified air of heaven. To listen to the quietness is to set our spirit at ease. Noise is the great distraction of this world, the noise of current events, the noise of the TV and the radio, the never-ending noise of the device in our hand, now intimately connected to our ears in a constant stream of stimulation. It dulls the soul and renders the spirit deaf to the still, small voice of the Master.
It is the great tragedy of our age. In such a place it becomes impossible to “seek ye first the Kingdom of God,” for the Kingdom of God is fundamentally still. Who, in our age, has ears to hear what the Spirit would whisper to our souls?
Tell me… can you hear the willows whisper on the wisp?
Can you hear the wings of the swallow as it sweeps through the soft-dying light of dusk?
Can you hear the river murmur as it winds its ancient path beneath the gathering dusk?
Can you hear the sigh of the pines as the evening wind passes through their crowns?
If you can hear these things, then perhaps you can hear the beating heart of God
and find His rhythm.
Many years ago, I walked with a very heavy burden of a particular situation, the constant noise of it filling every step. I did not even notice when the Lord was no longer in the midst of my thoughts, so completely had the season overtaken me. Then, breaking through that long silence of my spirit amidst the great noise of my flesh, came a still, small whisper: “I miss you.” Its simplicity undid me. Only then did I see how long the noise had carried me away. Through tears I answered, “I miss You too.” And in that sacred moment, after a season of distance, we were together again.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, Christianity, Devotions, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church | Tagged: bible, Christianity, faith, Frank McEleny, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the remnant, the-peaceofgod, the-remnant, the-still-small-voice, the-voice-of-god | 3 Comments »
Expressions of Love
Posted by appolus on December 18, 2025
Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, Christian poetry, Christianity, Daily devotional, hope, Jesus, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant | 2 Comments »
The Systems of Men
Posted by appolus on December 18, 2025
“The system of fathers of the world church, the clergy system of the state church, and the pastoral system of the independent churches are all the same in nature. They are all Nicolaitans. In the Bible there are only brothers. There is the gift of a pastor, but no system of pastors. The pastoral system is man’s tradition. If the children of God are not willing to return to the position of that in the beginning, no matter what they do, it will not be right.” (Watchman Nee)
The tragedy of it all is this, so many who rose from the hippy fires of revolution, men and women who once swore they would never bow to establishment or institution, have now become the very thing they once defied. And worse still, they sit enthroned within the organized church, clinging even more fiercely to their positions than the generation they accused of rigidity.
For real change, holy, seismic, God breathed change, would demand a repentance so deep it would shake the marrow of their bones. It would require them to stand before the mirror of truth and confess the hunger for platform, the thirst for influence, the desire for a throne that was never theirs to claim. And then, having confessed, to lay it all down, not into the hands of their children, not into the waiting arms of their handpicked heirs, but into the hands of a generation chosen by God Himself.
For when the prophet cried, “Is there no other?” it was not the polished sons of privilege who answered, it was the forgotten shepherd boy in the back fields of obscurity, smelling of sheep and wilderness, overlooked by everyone but God. And he was the anointed one.
I do not see this one man system surrendering. Men have woven their lives, their reputations, their small kingdoms and fragile thrones, into its very fabric. Their identities, their incomes, their sense of worth, each is wrapped around this man made construct. To dismantle it would be to unravel themselves.
And yet… if God calls for it, He will raise up His Davids from the hills again.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bible, Christianity, faith, God, Jesus, systems-of-men, watchman-nee | 3 Comments »
True peace
Posted by appolus on December 18, 2025
True peace is found, not when temptations and trials cease, for surely He prepares a table before us in their presence? But when the heart is surrendered, hushed, and anchored in Christ. Temptations reveal our weaknesses and trials expose our need; and both become our teachers, if we will allow them.
The flesh is diminished when the spirit yields to God moment by moment, refusing to complain, trusting that Christ Himself is the victory. Suffering becomes the school of faith, because our flesh is never louder when it is seeking relief. Yet these trials are teaching us to rely wholly on God, and brings the heart into a deeper, quieter union with Him. Our life, in its entirety, is the valley. How then shall we walk through it? He has to make us lie down in green pastures. He causes us to sit beside the still waters.
And in these places we would never go by ourselves, He restores our soul.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, Daily devotional, Devotions, Jesus, praise, remnant church, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant | 5 Comments »
A Call To The Remnant 