Isa 59:19 When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
What a tremendous promise from the Lord in His Word. Now there are two different ways this can be read given that there was no punctuation in Hebrew. It could read “When the enemy shall come in…….like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” We often ask the Lord to flood our hearts or flood our lands will revival glory. Let the heavens be rent and pour down your mercy upon us. It’s a lovely thought, but it really does not fit the context of Isa chapter 59. The enemy has indeed come in like a flood and the saints have to raise up a standard. They face overwhelming odds and all seems lost. God will deliver His own. The Lord Jesus Christ will come again. The standard represents a flag. Every battalion has its colors, has its flags, and they flutter over every battle. Every tribe of Israel had a flag that represented who they were (Num 1:52) We the saints have our own flag and the emblem upon it is the cross. God lifted up His very own Standard, He lifted up the Lord Jesus on the cross for the deliverance of men’s souls.
The Standard separates men. It draws its own and they rally under it. The wicked reject this Standard.Their iniquities have separated them from god. His face is hidden from them because of their sin. They search for light but they find only darkness. They stumble at noonday as if it is dusk and the shades of grey overtake their minds as they grope along the wall headed towards a ditch. They have turned their backs on God, and righteousness stand afar off. For them, truth has fallen in the street. They are determined to hunt down everyone who has departed from evil and who have rallied under the Standard, the flag that represents Calvary. And when there is found no one to stand for God’s people, God comes. He pours out His Spirit upon us and He puts His words in our mouths. And the Spirit of the Living God shall not depart from us even as we march through the valley of the shadow of death. For the Lord our God walked this very path before we ever did. He broke the chains of hell and death and destroyed the power of sin. We stand eternally under the cross of Calvary where our Lord defeated all of hell’s fury. Stand today brothers and sisters, this is our call to arms.
Does the Lord dwell within a building or does He dwell within our hearts? A heart beats, it has chambers, it has blood that pumps through veins and travels to every part of the body bringing life sustaining oxygen. The Body, while complex and made up of many parts, is totally dependent upon the heart. To meet in the name of Jesus is to meet with saints who are identified by the character and the nature of Jesus. Every genuine saint has his or her place already set within the heart, within the body. The Lord Jesus Himself is building this body. Only that which belongs can enter into the system that the Lord is building. Our own natural bodies have an immune system that deals with anything that should not be there. To have a cohesive body, each part must belong there, must be placed there. There is an architect of this Body, this Temple, and His name is Jesus. Only He builds.
Many burning embers together create the potential for a great fire. Throw a log on one ember and it may catch fire after a while, throw a log onto many burning embers and it will catch fire right away. One fire, many embers greater light, greater heat. Now, gather a bunch of branches together with no fire and you will just have a bunch of branches. It could not call itself a fire for it clearly is without fire. Just because you call yourself a Christian and gather in the name of Jesus means nothing if you are not actually Christians. A bunch of dead wood is a bunch of dead wood. And for those who have built fires, they know that a fire can be smothered by piling a lot of material on top of it. The oxygen is choked out. If one hundred people gather and only ten are genuinely saved then the other 90 will not catch on fire, but the fire itself shall be smothered by the green wood.
This scripture where two or three are gathered in my name, is far more important than we know. To gather in the name of Jesus is a deeply spiritual thing for those who have been born again according to His Spirit, His character and His nature. The enemy has done his level best to dilute that to the point where any fire that existed would be smothered.Being a Christ follower means to bear the life of Christ in us. So, when two or three genuine Christ followers come together for the sole purpose of spirit being drawn unto spirit then there is a magnification that takes place. Like a magnifying glass that captures the light of the sun and turns it into something very potent, then the Holy Spirit takes the light that is within us, the two or the three or the however many and turns it into something very powerful. Darkness is the mere absence of light. It cannot be magnified. Take a thousand dark souls and gather them together and what do you have? Darkness. Take the light from two or three or one hundred or a thousand genuine saints , undiluted by the darkness of unbelievers and down comes the power of God in a unique way.
In these last days there is a purging going on. The genuine saints are being purged out of the gatherings by the Lord where the majority are not saved or are lukewarm. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion has light with darkness? Are you not the temple of the Living God? Therefore come out from among them says God. Be separate and touch not the unclean thing. In Revelations chapter two we see that the church in Ephesus hated the deeds of the Nicolations as did God. Not much is known about this group but it estimated that they were a group that took on the customs of the Romans in order to avoid persecution. The genuine saint resists the ways of the world, they do not embrace them. Yes it is costly and yes there is great loss involved. Yet what is any amount of loss amount to if we are found in Him?
We must gather together in ways that are ordered of God. We must walk according to the rhythm of Gods heart. We cannot walk to the beat of this world. Ember must find ember. There is fire in the heart of the saints. As the world closes in, we cannot yield simply because the congregation that we have always belonged to has yielded. This is everything being tested by God. In the end, where does your loyalties lie? Jesus is the Word is He not.? If you were invited to a get together somewhere but they said to you, do not bring your son, he is not welcome. Would you go? Would your heart not break for the rejection of your son? You certainly would not go where your child was not welcome. Should we go where Christ is not welcome? He is the Word. He is the way and the truth and the life. He must be the honored guest and the preeminent one at all of our gatherings. Whether two or two hundred. God is opening up a chasm. As the chasm widens, one must choose what side of the chasm we are committed to. Soon it becomes too wide. If you try and straddle both sides you will plummet into the chasm. Choose wisely who you gather with.
You have to establish a non petitioning heart before you can truly petition the Lord. What do I mean by that? Does your prayer life consist mostly of petitions, meaning, is it just about you asking for things? Take a moment and reflect upon your prayers. I want to give you some examples. In Acts 16 we see Paul and Silas in a terrible situation. They were hungry and thirsty. They were seriously injured. They were held captive. They could well be killed. And here is what we know about their communications with God. ” At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.” There is nothing to indicate they were praying for their personal needs, no, rather they were praising God in the midnight hour. That very same hour, the jailer, after crying out “what must I do to be saved,” got saved, his family got saved, Paul and Silas were delivered from their bonds, the stripes upon their backs were tended to and food was set before them.
In Acts chapter seven we see Stephen in a terrible situation. He had just spoken mightily by the power of the Holy Spirit and the crowd were riled up and they had murder in their heart. Did Stephen cry out for deliverance? Did He petition God to shield him in that moment? Here is what happened “He, being full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God…..then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. That day a young man called Saul witnessed what had happened and the seeds of his own salvation was planted.
Brothers and sisters, there is much power in not giving heed to the situation you find yourself in. The Kingdom of God transcends all situations, if only we had eyes to see the glory of God through the darkest nights, the good news is that we do. Every night is like the noonday sun to those with eyes fixed upon Jesus. Now, is it right and proper to petition the Lord? Yes, of course. Yet, we all know someone who only ever talks to us when they want something, is that not right? How do you feel when you see that person approach? Does your heart not sink? Does it not sink even deeper when they pretend to be nice to you? We have names for people like that. Hypocrites? Fair weather fans? People who only come around to get what they want or to be part of a success.
First and fore-most in our lives we have been called to glorify God. No matter what our situations are, no matter what chaos the enemy might have caused, we need to stand in the power that comes from glorifying God in our prayers. We need to lift up the name of Jesus. We need to glorify the Lord our God. We need to see Him high and lifted up and then we need to lift up our eyes to that vision of Him. He is with us and He is preeminent not just in our hearts but in every aspect of our lives. Glorifying God and praising His holy name causes the foundations of our captivity to begin to shake. God is not in the business of building prisons, He is in the business of tearing them down. He does not throw people behind prison cells, He throws open the doors. He breaks the bars of captivity. He is worthy to be praised and He has given us the way. Establish the proper order. Love Him, praise Him, give Him honor and glory. Let the principalities and powers know that no matter what, The Lord Jesus Christ will be praised, before any mention of our needs.
Philippians 4:6 Tells us “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” We see a very similar text in Matt 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothes? And so we see the two sets of instructions from Jesus, be anxious for nothing, or the almost identical phrase “take no thought for your life.” What might be the primary petitions of the saint? And how are these petitions to be framed? Well we see from Phil 4:6 that they are to be framed by, or bathed in, thankfulness. It is the thankful heart that breaks through to the throne-room. And with this thankful heart we pray, we glorify God, and into this heart He pours in His desires. And His greatest desire is that we would be like His Son.
And therefore, having put the cares of this life aside we stand devoid of distractions. We cry out to God that He would help our unbelief. That He would give us wisdom, that He would glorify Himself in whatever situation we find ourselves in. Whether in the depths of a dungeon or kneeling before an angry mob who is about to kill us. Whether we face bankruptcy or the grievous loss of a loved one, how shall we glorify you in this Lord? Job’s prayer was to praise God and acknowledge that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Brothers and sisters, there is a tremendous power at our disposal if we would only lay down the distractions of this world and lift Jesus us in our minds and hearts and spirits. There are walls to be shaken. There are captives to be set free. Yet we must be free ourselves from the distractions of this world in order to be used in setting at liberty others. Is it possible to live an anxious free life and walk in the power of God? Yes it is. Is it possible to “take no though for your life?” Yes it is. Jesus commanded that we do it and we must decide to do it. It is our decision.
Isa 58:8 Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.
These are the promises of God to those who walk according to His Spirit and in accordance with His will. We shall loose the bonds of wickedness and undo the heavy burdens of our fellow man. This means that we shall aid and comfort those who find themselves afflicted by the ravages of this life and give comfort and aid to the poor in as far as we are able. This is truly the fast that God would have us do. When you walk in such light to those who dwell in darkness then your light shall surely break through like the morning sun rising over a a world in darkness. The healing balm of Gilead will be ours and it shall go forth from us as unto the nations. Our righteousness in Christ shall go before us and the glory of the Lord shall be our rear guard. When you cry out to the Lord He will answer and say “Here I am.” What greater reward is there? He has called us to lift up our voices with great intensity, like a trumpet, and speak for Him to those who have wandered far.
He will guide us continually as we continue in Him and He will water our thirsty souls whether in springtime rains or summertime drought. You shall be like a well watered garden, like an eternal spring that does nor fail. You shall build the waste place and a highway of Holiness shall be found in you. Even in old age your bones shall be strengthened, for those who wait upon the Lord. And from these waters that flow from you, there shall be established the beginnings of many generations who will rise up and call His name Holy. Jesus will be exalted through the flesh of your flesh long after you return home. God has called the holy ones, the excellent one, the Royal priesthood to be the Repairers of the breach. What the enemy tears down, God rebuilds from the ashes and the ravages of this life. You have seen it in your life, and in the lives of others and it shall be seen in the lives to come for those who fear the Lord and call Him Holy. These are the great and mighty promises of Almighty to God to His own. To you brother, and to you sister. Be encouraged today. God sees it all and your life is bigger than you think.
Isa 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
The Lord not only dwells in the highest of heavens, He humbles Himself to dwell in the hearts of the lowliest of saints. In fact, He takes a particular delight in the contrite and the humble heart. Those who are caught up in vanity, those who have sought relief in the things of this world must then go to the world for help. For those who call themselves after the name of the Lord and seek after other lovers, the strong wind of the Lord will cast these lovers away in a bleak sea of uncertainty and there they shall go down. They will be seen to go down. What use is a sunken ship to anyone now cast adrift in a sea of unfaithfulness? Yet the Lord raises up His own above the the most troubled seas. With their eyes fixed upon Him they are taken above the storm. There they find peace where there should be no peace. There their hearts are revived even when the world has written them of.
The faithful, the broken and the contrite, the spotless bride of Christ, they find grace and favor in the eyes of the Lord.Their hearts and their spirits are revived in the intimate presence of the Lord. And because of this, they are full of thankfulness and they offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of their lips giving thanks to His name forever. God says “I create the fruit of the lips.” (Isa 58:19) From the praises of His faithful people, the Lord cultivates the good fruit in the form of a peaceful heart and out of the abundance of that heart He is praised. Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near says the Lord and I will heal him. Brothers and sisters, there is healing to be found in the Lord. There is restoration and reviving of our hearts in the Lord. These are the promises of God to the humble and the contrite. Yet the wicked are like a roiling sea, troubled, with no rest, and drowning with their lovers.
I would like to discuss a word that is not used very often. It is the word Godliness. It is rather a mysterious word really. What is Godliness? Are you Godly? Who decides? Can it be measured or quantified? In 2 Pet 1:3 we see that the Divine power of Jesus has given us all things that “pertain” to life and Godliness through the knowledge of Him. Now, that word pertain means to bring us close to, or nearness to. And so we could say that the power of God, through knowing Him in an intimate way, directs us to life and this thing called Godliness. It is the tightest and most succinct three words in all of Scripture that alludes to our calling, “life and Godliness.” No life, no Godliness, one must be born again in order to have the life that will enable Godliness.
I would argue that Godliness is an awareness of God in our everyday life. A constant awareness of God. Now this is not to be confused with the manifest presence of God. The manifest presence of God is the awareness of Gods actual presence. It is always dramatic, no matter how it comes. The manifest presence of God cannot be conjured up. No one controls God. It is not normative in the Christian life but it is vital that we have “encountered God,” at some point or many points along the way. Yet Godliness can be pursued. We are told in 1 Tim 4:7 that we have to train ourselves in the way of Godliness. It is up to us to constantly bring to mind the things of God in our daily lives. The Godly man has an attitude towards God that forms the core of who he is and it can be visibly seen in every aspect of his life.
We see in 2 Pet 1:5-9 that in the pursuit of a Godly life we must be diligent to add to our trust in God, excellence in everything we do for His name sake. We must be just men and women. And to that we must exercise the knowledge that we have been given and have experienced through God. We must exercise patience in everything that we do and continue on no matter what comes our way. We are those who persevere through trial and flood. Out of that comes our Godliness. We are exercised in the ways of God. His honor and His glory will be the most important thing in our lives and when we walk in this fashion then we shall be known for our love for one another. If we walk in the awareness of God then we shall never be barren, indeed we shall be fruitful all the days of our lives no matter the circumstances. In fact the circumstances will only prove the genuineness of our Godliness.
Those who walk in the awareness of God do so out of devotion to Him. What do we mean by that? We all know someone or maybe many people who are devoted to their wives or husbands. We hear the phrase “he is so devoted to his wife.” It carries all the more weight when the wife is bedridden or dying. The husband in this case spends every waking hour attending to her needs. Even although he himself maybe very tired, no matter, he is bound and determined to serve his wife to the best of his abilities with everything he has. Brothers and sisters, this is Godliness. Are you bound and determined to serve God with a love and devotion greater than we could ever have for another human being? Is He at the center of all of your thoughts? Are you constantly aware of His presence in your life day by day, hour by hour? This is Godliness and out of of this Godliness, this devotion, flows rivers of life. You must train yourself in these matters brothers and sisters. It takes diligence and a dogged desire to walk with God.
Walking with God is our daily life. Its our interactions with everyone we come into contact with. Its our first thoughts in the morning. Its our drive to work, its our grocery shopping. It is our lunch with a friend. It is everything and when He is everything to us, and in everything that we do, then we know that we are truly “walking with Jesus.” There is a great power that comes from this walk called Godliness. The power to love, the power to forgive, the power to never take up the offense. This is no mere fantasy brothers and sisters, this is our calling. When we desire to live in Godliness then everything that is in our lives that is not Godly has to go. I think this is why so few of us walk in Godliness. Godliness is to continually pray if you like. A constant awareness of His nearness that will transform your life. It is not for the lazy Christian. You wont get it by going forward in a service. No charlatan will lay his hands on you and suddenly you are Godly. No, it belongs to the diligent, the genuine devotee of God, and it will show. You cannot measure it yourself, it is something that is seen in you by others. Yet brothers and sisters, when you walk in Godliness you will realize the goal of “being anxious for nothing.” The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will rest upon your life.
It is a sad commentary on the established church that so little prayer, if any, takes place in their gatherings. If one were able to take the vitals of any gathering, the way the doctor takes our blood pressure and pulse, then prayer in an individuals life or a gathering would be the pulse. The heartbeat is at the center of our being and prayer is at the center of who we are in Christ. If your “pulse,” were to be taken today, would it show a healthy heart? A healthy prayer life?
When the doctor checks your pulse, he understands each pulse represents a heartbeat. There is the force behind the pulse and the regularity of the pulse. He wants to see a strong pulse because that indicates a good flow of blood to the extremities. The regularity of the pulse indicates that the heart is beating regularly. An irregular heartbeat is a dangerous thing that has to be treated. Now blood pressure measures the force of blood flowing against the walls of your arteries. Too high and there will undoubtedly be undue pressure on your arteries which will make them more elastic which in the end will decrease the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart. Too low and your bodies vital organs do not get enough oxygen and nutrients.
Prayer is the heartbeat of your personal walk with the Lord. Prayer is the heartbeat of any gathering. If it beats low we are quite ineffective. If it beats high and irregular then we setting ourselves up for failure. If our hearts stop beating we die. If there was a spiritual doctor who could take the pulse of your congregation would he find it healthy? Would He find life at all? If He ran the same check on you, how healthy would He pronounce you? Prayer is the strong and steady and vital beat of the heart of our walk with Jesus. The rhythm of the heart of God must be our rhythm. We align our hearts with His. We become one with His heart. We are strong in the Lord and the power of His might only in as much as we pray according to His heart. This is true not only of our personal walk but also of our corporate gatherings. No prayer, no life, no exceptions.
Isa 56:8 The Lord GOD who gathers the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.
What a fantastic promise the Lord makes here. He will gather the outcasts, He will gather the remnant, He will gather men and woman from every tribe and every tongue and every nation. Spartacus, a slave, a gladiator, rose up and with his slave army and took the might of the Roman army to the brink of destruction. Yet we are no slave army led by a slave. We are the army of the Lord and Jesus is our leader. He gathers around Himself the outcasts, the rejected, the overlooked. The weakest men from the weakest clans are His army. He raises up paupers to walk with Kings. He takes men and women from the ash heaps of life and He makes something very beautiful out of them. In Psalm 147:2-4 we see that “The Lord builds up Jerusalem, He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds and counts the number of the stars, He calls them all by name.” The number of His outcast army is innumerable but He knows them all by name. Great is the Lord and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite and He raises up the humble.
This outcast army, this royal priesthood, this holy nation, this special people as unto the Lord, are brought to His Holy mountain and they are made joyful in His house of prayer. A house of prayer brothers and sisters, His house shall be known as a house of prayer. And His glory shall cover it. His glory rises in the restored hearts of the outcasts, the rejected, the humbled, the remnant saints. And whether they are Jews or Greeks, whether they are slaves or free, they all have been made to drink into one Spirit and by this one Spirit they are baptized into one Body. One Body rises up. One unity comes forth. The one and only Christ is lifted up as a banner that flutters in the wind of the Spirit over the battle-field that is called life. Only one side can prevail. Only one side will prevail. What side shall we align ourselves with in this the great battle of eternity? Shall we stand under the banner of Christ and align ourselves with His outcast army? Or shall we align ourselves with the world, so sophisticated and enlightened in their own minds, mockers and ridiculers of the saints? There is one battle. One Christ. One army. One Truth. All else is but shades of gray walking in a darkened mist created by the world’s own vain imagination.
Do we allow space and time in our religious services for God to move among men? Do we have the faith to stand in silence and wait on God expectantly? Silence, for some reason, scares us. If we pray and teach and believe that God is going to come to us, then why not stand and wait for Him? Perhaps there is less faith involved in noise? Perhaps we have no real expectation of God to show up in our services? Perhaps we do not really want Him there? Perhaps all we want is a word about Him and not a word from Him? A word about Him is something we can handle, a Word from Him directly is and always has been life changing and radical. Do we really want our lives radically changed? Or are we content with what we have, content to stand at the door of our tents and watch Moses or Joshua go outside the camp and enter the tabernacle?
To You silence is praise, O God, in Zion; and to You is a vow paid. To You who hears prayer, all flesh comes. Things of iniquity are mightier than I; as for our transgressions, You shall purge them away. Blessed is the one whom You choose, and cause to come near You. He shall dwell in Your courts; we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple (Psa 65:1)
Isa 55:6 Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near:
There is a time that is called “while He may be found.” It is a mysterious thing, perhaps, “while it is yet day.” No matter, there is no doubt there is a time to seek the Lord while He may yet be found. In the broadest sense and for the most part it is life itself. Almost always while there is yet breath in our lungs, He may be found. Yet in the the very next sentence we are told “let the wicked forsake his way (note the singular nature of the word, it does not say his ways) The wicked are on a wrong path altogether and in order to turn to God they must reverse their course and go in the exact opposite direction. Yet it’s not just his way that has to change, it’s his thoughts too. It is not so much what we are saved out of, for the Lord can deliver us from the gates of hell, it is what we are saved into. The thoughts of a man make up the core of who he is. The true measure of the new man in the new birth is that his very mind has been transformed. And from the depths of who he is, God changes him from the inside out. And now we shall see, glory to God, that out of the abundance of a mans heart the mouth speaks. And it speaks of Jesus.
Now it is certainly true that God will not always strive with a man. A mans heart can be so hardened and his conscience so seared that his time has come and gone, this is a truly terrifying position. If you find yourself coming close to that place, turn and run to God with everything that is in you. He shall still be found. For He will have mercy upon that man and He will abundantly pardon. We as saints may be tempted to think we are living in a world that is beyond redemption, I have thought that thought many times. Yet here is the humility, God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.(Isa 55:8-9) And so just as the rain and the snow falls from the heavens and waters the earth and it brings forth seed for the sower and therefore bread for the hungry, so also does the Word of the God fall down upon the earth. It comes forth from His heart and it always accomplishes what He desires. To the thirsty, behold, water. To the hungry, behold, bread.
And so to those who are watered by the Lord, those who have sought Him out, their thirst is quenched to overflowing. And to those who have been fed by the Lord, they are filled to abundance. They shall stretch out the curtains of their spiritual dwellings for it shall be enlarged. They shall go forth with joy and be led out by peace and the mountains and the hills shall burst into singing before them. And the trees of the field shall clap their hands in delight to see such things. It can clearly be seen that goodness and mercy are following them all the days of their lives. And the thorns and the cares of life are replaced by fruitful trees and evergreens. And they shall always bring forth His fruit in season and they shall never wither for they are as the ones planted by the river, the river of God, the river of life and this river runs with them wherever they go.
Isa 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
What a glorious promise that begins with a “Ho.” In old England it would have been heard in the market place as “here ye, here ye.” In the Americas it would have begun “Take notice!!!” Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters! The qualification? Thirst. There are those who simply know that there is more to this world. There have always been those who find no particular pleasure in the things of this world. They are the few, although God would have that all men thirst. And so, for those who do thirst He says “come, come to the waters,” and find true abundance. God then wonders aloud and asks some questions of those who do not thirst. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread?” And why do you spend your wages on that which does not satisfy? In an age of the “American dream,” we can surely relate. Does the larger house satisfy your soul? Does the latest car fulfill you? Does your many holidays bring you peace? You spend all of your resources on these things, are you satisfied?
And for the many who have no particular sense of their need, who seem to be quite unperturbed by any issues of the soul, then for them there is no remedy. And so for the few, those who are like the deer who panteth after the waterbrooks and therefore their souls longeth after God, they will find what they are looking for. They will find the waters of life, they will partake of the heavenly wine and their souls will be enlarged by bread from heaven. For those of you who eat and drink and have tasted of the good things of God, you shall delight yourself in abundance. Your peace will be overflowing in a world gone mad. You will have an abundance of joy even when you are surrounding by the mournful wails of a society in decline. Your soul shall live even although you are surrounded by souls that are dying. And even as they die you will continue to hold out these promises of God to them. Say to them brothers and sisters what the Lord said in Ezekiel 18:31-32…… Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die……..For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
Seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. That scripture is a lovers call not a burdensome command. It calls us and woos us. It beckons us to come like the lover in the night in the song of Solomon. It caresses our hearts and our spirits. Shall we respond? Shall we walk with Him in the cool of the day? Shall we give ourselves to Him? Shall our hearts meet with His heart and shall we feel it burn within us? There are many distractions in this world, so many. Yet we must rise above them all. And we can rise, for we have been given wings that can spread out and catch the updrafts of His presence. He bids us come and it is His very presence that carries upwards, that carries us to the throne room itself. It is there, before the beauty of His Holiness, that we are changed forevermore. There before His glorious majesty that we are transformed. There before His resplendent glory that we are sanctified. It is there where all things are possible. Right there where very soon millions upon millions of saints from every tribe and every tongue and every nation shall cry with all that is within them, Holy, Holy, Holy, is our Lord God Almighty who sits upon the throne, who was, and is and forever shall be. Like a endless wheat field as far as the eye can see, moving as one like the waves of a vast ocean as the wind of the Spirit moves them in unison.
The woman with the alabaster flask in Luke’s account is possibly a prostitute. Her alabaster, being very expensive, undoubtedly was paid for by her “work.” It may even have been her life savings, her security, her future, all inside this jar which she would have clutched tightly to herself. Yet, in her encounter with Jesus, she breaks this jar open and pours out everything she has. Now, all her security, her past works, are laid at the feet of Jesus. In laying herself bare before Jesus, she finds forgiveness and enters into true intimacy and actual love, something she”s have been searching her whole life for. Those who are forgiven much, love much. Those who love this much are willing to sacrifice everything they have.
Isa 54:7 For a mere moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
There are times and seasons when it seems that we are forsaken. In our personal lives and our corporate lives of gathering, we seem forsaken and lost. In the midst of trials that seem like they will never come to an end. In the midst of a wicked world that only seems to grow more wicked every day, the sense of being alone may creep in. Lest we think we are above these thoughts consider the cry’s of Jesus from the cross. The remnant people of the Lord, scattered everywhere, often struggle mightily with these thoughts, you might be struggling with them even as you read this. God has His people and His eye is upon them. If His eye is upon the sparrow, how much more so is it on you dear saint? In the state where we are scattered and separated from Babylon, we must remember this “with great mercies I will gather you.”
We are the Bride of Christ and our Maker is our husband. We are the redeemed of the Lord and He has called us. In the midst of darkness and wrath He has hid His face for a moment. Did not He turn His face away from the Lord Jesus? Yet we know this, we are the recipients of everlasting kindness and His mercy is new every morning. The mountains may depart and the hills be removed but His kindness shall not depart from us, even if for a moment it is hidden. He recognizes our afflictions saints. He sees our troubles. O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest and not comforted (Isa 54:11) The Disciples were so tossed with tempest as they crossed over this treacherous body of water. Yet, they see a figure walking towards them on the water. In the midst of their calamity here comes Jesus. He bids Peter to arise and come join Him in the very heart of the storm. With eyes on Jesus, Peter walks upon the water and above the storm.
The remnant saints of the Lord Jesus, the Body of Christ, the Church may seem to be on the ropes as the gross darkness rises around the world and the gates of hell seemed to be loosed all about us. Troubles without, fears within, yet God. In righteousness you shall be established. God is creating a work that shall astonish the principalities and powers. This temple, this Body, this Church may not look like much and may seem to be on the ropes, but it is far from that, we are being molded in the eye of the storm. We shall arise on the wings of our Bridegroom. Our gates shall be of crystal and our walls of precious stones. And the pinnacles of our towers shall be made of rubies. The pearl of great price is the foundation of His Holy Temple, we are that temple of the Lord, built without human hands and no weapon formed against us shall prosper. Every tongue which rises against us in judgement shall find itself judged by the saints in that day. This is the heritage of the servants of God and their righteousness is Christ Himself.
Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
This is a rhetorical question by the prophet. It is an astonishment that when the Savior comes He shall be rejected. He shall be treated worse than any man. In fact, He shall be so marred as to be almost unrecognizable as a man. He was a tender plant that sprung up, but He sprung up as a root out of the dry ground. He was despised and rejected by His own. His walk would tread the path of sorrows and He would become very familiar with grief. Indeed, He would bear our griefs and carry all our sorrows. Can you imagine the weight of all the sorrows of the world? They would lay stripes upon Him, our stripes. They would wound Him, our wounds. He would be humiliated, our humiliation. They would put nails in His hands and feet and a crown of thorns upon His head, they all belonged to us. And in a cry that echoed throughout all of eternity He would cry out “My God, My God, why has thous forsaken me.” That is our cry, that should have been our absolute despair, yet, He bore it all for us.
The greater astonishment is that after two thousand years He is still rejected today. He was led like a Lamb to the slaughter and this world today would slaughter Him still. And yet even now He loves the world. He calls out to them. To those who would slap Him and mock Him and pull out His hair and spit in His face, He still says “come unto Me.” What love is this? If there is no greater love in the world that a man would lay down his life for his friend, and there is not, then what does laying down your life for an enemy mean? Are you not astonished? Should not the mouths of Kings be stopped as they stagger at this revelation? God the Father sacrificed His only Son so that we might live. Has it even entered into the hearts of man what awaits those who have rejected this sacrifice? If the Son of God Himself cried out from the cross in despair, what shall mere man do in that day as he stands before the magnificence of God? Who will believe this report while there is yet light?
Isa 52:3 For thus saith the LORD, you have sold yourselves for nothing; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
So many of the saints today have given themselves over to the world. They were not taken or bought, but freely they have given themselves to the things of this world. Remember saints, we were bought with a price, if you give something away, your giving away what was not yours in the first place. The price was already paid for you, you were purchased by something far more valuable than gold or silver, you were bought by the precious Blood of the Lamb. The coming captivity of the saints will be the refining fire that brings them back to where they belong. As the things of this world are slowly stripped away from a whole generation who call themselves after His name, then the treasure that lies within them shall come forth. The dross shall surely be burned up, but when the smoke of the refining fire clears then only gold shall remain.
Shake yourself from the dust and arise!…..Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck O captive daughter of Zion. ( Isa 52:2) Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her. Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord ( Isa 52:11) The Lord is calling His people out of Babylon and He will purify any traces of Babylon from your heart. As we take our rightful place as a Royal Priesthood, and remember that we are a chosen people and God’s special possession, then we shall indeed declare the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. He is calling out to us brothers and sisters. We are to shake of the dust and arise! We are being called to throw of all the influences of “Babylon.” And as we do, and as the dust is falling to the ground and our footsteps take us ever further from Babylon, then we shall break forth into great joy and sing together, for the Lord has comforted His people.
The Lord will make bare His holy arm as we Arise! In the eyes of all the nations it shall be seen, when the Lord restores His people without cost. The watchmen shall lift up their voices, with their voices they shall sing together as they leave Babylon behind and head down the narrow path towards Zion. For the saints shall walk in the unity that Jesus prophesied in John 17. They shall see the glory of their God and they shall see eye to eye as they walk in lockstep in the midst of the refining fire. We shall not go out with haste but with great deliberation, for we shall be a people who have counted the cost and tuned our back on Babylon forever. And we shall be a people who will overcome the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. And this last part shall be our greatest defining attribute, we shall love not our lives unto death. Though death may rage all around us, the life of Christ in us overcomes deaths power. It has no hold over us.
Isa 51:1 Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord.
Three times in this chapter God says “Listen to me.” And when the Lord repeats Himself three times we should indeed listen. First of all, who is He talking to? In the first verse we see that it is “you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord.” In verse 4 He says “Listen to me My people.” And finally in the 7th verse He says “Listen to me you who know righteousness , you people in whose heart is My law.” God is clearly talking to His people. A people who follow after His righteousness, a people whom God refers to as His own and those who “know,” Him and whose heart there is inscribed upon it, the law. He is talking to you and I. He wants to tell us two main things in this chapter. Firstly, He speaks of comfort, and secondly He wants us to stand up and put on strength.
His comfort comes in a series of promises and directions. He tells us to look to the rock from which we have been cut from. Consider where you came from and how you were delivered. And who delivered you and by what means. All of it glorious. You were delivered by the hand of God, the nail pierced hand. You were delivered from the gates of hell, from the miry clay, from the pigsty. You were delivered from death itself and born again into the newness of life. God says that He would make the waste places, the wilderness, the place of drought and death, like the garden of Eden. Where nothing grew, now stands a magnificent garden where rivers of living water flow. Joy and gladness will be found there and the sound of thanksgiving will be heard by the voice of melody. You are His garden. From this place we are a light unto the nations. His righteousness shall be near to them and His salvation will go forth before them.
Yet He also says to His people “AWAKE, AWAKE and put on strength, AWAKE, AWAKE and stand up!” Stand up brothers and sister. Rise up and put on your armor for the battle lies before us. He is the Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. Shall you be afraid of mere men, who, if you cut them they bleed, or who, when they take their last breath they die? God says ” I have put My words in your mouth, I have covered you with the shadow of My Hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and say to Zion, you are My people.” A call to arms brothers and sisters for the last days war. Arise from your slumbers and put on the full armor of God and come forward in the power of His indignation, for you are covered by the shadow of His hand. Do not worry what you shall say for God says “I have put My words in your mouth.” He has also put a sword in your hand and shield in the other. He has put upon your head the helmet of salvation and upon your chest He has put the breastplate of righteousness. You stand in the shoes of peace and your loins are girded with Truth. You stand whole and complete, ready for battle, in the salvation of your God.
The term “quiet quitting,” is a relatively new term and for the most part, would be unknown to most baby-boomers. It is a phenomenon among today’s generation and its spreading quickly. In essence, quiet quitting means not going above and beyond at work. Showing up, ticking the necessary boxes, doing just enough to cover yourself and guarantee your salary. Notions of loyalty and ambition to climb the corporate ladder are forgone in favor of pursuing that which personally fulfills you. Now some may say that this describes lazy workers that have been among us in every generation, those who do just enough to get by. That may be true of some of the quiet quitters, yet our younger generations have grown up in ease and they expect that their personal ambitions and desires should be fulfilled.
Is this what decadence looks like? We are far removed from the pre-war generation who lived through a decade of dire poverty and want. Who then passed on their attitudes to the baby-boomers and they in turn lived them out to a lesser degree but who wanted much more for their children and grandchildren. The faint echos of a bygone age are now drowned out by the aspirations of the decadent who are on the march, not helped by the fact that they are just about to inherit the greatest fortune every gathered by any generation in the history of the world. Perhaps if we knew just a little more about the Fall of Rome we would be able to see our own rapid decline in the luxurious desires of a generation that knows little if anything about struggle?
What puts steel in the backbone of any generation is a certain amount of suffering, the experience of doing without. The desire to rise up above unfavorable circumstances builds in men and women something of what we saw in “the greatest generation.” They came out of the farms, many of which had been ruined by the dust bowl, and they came out of the mean cities where one had to really compete just to put a roof over the head and food on the table. These circumstance gave us the strength to overcome the axis powers of evil and save civilization. There were no safe spaces on the battle-field. No special toilets for those who were confused about their gender. They did not have the luxury of quiet quitting. Everything was put on the line and many paid the ultimate price.
In the church today, Christendom is full of quiet quitters. Those who do just enough to get by. Who show up to a service and tick the box. Who have desires and aspirations quite apart from serving God. Who would claim that they are just not being fulfilled by their life. Who would be horrified at the prospect of suffering for the cause of Christ. Who would perhaps curse God because of great loss. Where are the warriors for Christ? Where is the Church militant? Is there any cause worth dying for in a generation that only sees God as a means to an end? Where is the generation of the cross? Where are the people who willingly step forward to go above and beyond their own selfish desires and whose highest ambition is to serve God on this battlefield of life? If your fulfillment in this life is more important to you than the job that the Lord has assigned you, and you are a quiet quitter, then is it any wonder that we live our lives in shades of grey? Chasing rainbows rather than seeking God is a sure sign that you are an entrenched quiet quitter in the spiritual walk of life.
Isa 50:4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
In Daniel 7:25 it says “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” We are living in a time when the laws are being changed. The natural laws handed down to us by God Himself are being changed by folks who speak great swelling words. Their rebellion is almost complete. The foundations are being destroyed, what shall the righteous do? The battle lines are being drawn by the prince of the power of the air, of this I have no doubt. The saints are wearied and are being worn out by an deluge of wickedness, and still the flood comes. Daniel says that we shall be given into his hand “until a time and times and the dividing of times.” Rev 13:7 says “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”
And so, a word to the weary and the worn out saints. Yes a mighty flood of evil has engulfed the world, but our Lord says in His Word that when the enemy comes in like a flood, He shall raise up a standard. He has prepared a highway of Holiness that leads through fire and flood. He has given us a tongue. A word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, a heavenly word that only the Spirit can discern. A word of encouragement. God Himself has given a learned tongue, touched by the Blood of the Lamb and coals of refining fire. Those who oppose you will increase as you continue to stand unmoved by the cultural winds that are beginning to blow with hurricane force. But you will not fall because trial and tribulation and temptations have been your lot for many years now, and your roots have went down deep into the waters of life. You have seen how God has been faithful to you through every situation and because of that your own faith has increased; to God be the glory.
Truth has consumed you and transformed you and you are a lover of it and no power that exists will wrestle it away from you. And of course the Word of God is your delight. It is the foundation upon which you stand. It allows you to stand, unmovable. It is a lamp unto your feet in the ever-increasing darkness of this world and it lights up the narrow path ahead. Stand fast brothers and sisters, the gates of hell shall not prevail against those who stand. He shall awaken you morning by morning. He is the stillness of your soul and He touches every part of your longing heart. He is in every tear that falls and in the billowing waves He hears you call. He shall be your quiet peace as the sun rises in the morning and your calm assurance in the night. He will be your laughter in the rain and your endurance through the pain. In the silence and in the noise you shall hear His still small voice and in this my brothers and sisters you shall rejoice. He rises up like the sun above the mountains, and He will refresh you from His inexhaustible fountains.
So much of the mega church and movements like Hillsong are almost exclusively based on emotions. This is where the danger lies when your music ministry is the heart and soul of your church or movement. Young people especially are swept up in a tide of feelings, their foundations of why they worship, based on how they feel.
Worshiping God begins and ends at the cross. We worship a God who died for us, who shed His blood for us. The love we discovered at the cross is all consuming. It is life and death. It transcends feelings, it is so much deeper than that. It hurtles past the outer limits of our soul and penetrates into the depths of our spirits.
Our love for our Lord is based on the firm foundation that He first loved us and that He died for us! When that is the basis of your salvation then you shall not be easily shaken. God Himself will be your life and wild horses shall not drag you out of His hand. He is your reason for living, He is the very air that you breath, He is your very sanity, In short, you know you exist solely because of Him.
There are no grandchildren in the Kingdom of God only sons and daughters. Beware everyone of you that was raised in a Christian household and raised up in a church. Shine a spotlight on your faith and examine yourself to see whether indeed you “know,” Jesus. See whether indeed you are a son or a daughter of the Kingdom. Do you love the God of all creation above all things? Does He rule and reign in your heart or does He merely exist in your head? Eternity rises or falls based on these questions.
If you are merely a grandchild you cannot stand, you will fall. You may have walked an aisle when you were four or five and have been told all of your life that you are a Christian, but the cross will tell the story. Unless the cross has penetrated and transformed your spirit, you dwell in the dim recesses of your soul. A place where shades of gray dominate. To dwell there is to have become accustomed to the darkness and perceive it to be light. The eyes are very clever and soon master the grey dimness. Yet, if you were to walk out of the dimness, out of the shades of grey and into His marvelous light you would fall back and scream as the light tears through your eyes and explodes into your heart and mind and soul and spirit.
The cross tears away a mans soul. It penetrates every part of him, nothing is left un-examined, nothing is ever the same. Now this new creature takes up his cross, in the shadow of Calvary, “knowing,’ not in the head, but in the deepest recesses of his heart, that His lord suffered more than he ever could and it is an enormous privilege to follow in His footsteps. This is salvation.
A Call To The Remnant 