The present position of Christ in the gospel churches may be likened to that of king in a limited constitutional monarchy (think of Great Britain) The king, sometimes depersonalized by the term “the Crown,” is in such a country no more than a traditional rallying point, a pleasant symbol of unity and loyalty much like a flag or a national anthem. He is lauded, feted and supported, but his real authority is small. Nominally he is head over all, but in every crisis someone else makes the decisions. On formal occasions he appears in his royal attire to deliver the tame, colorless speech put into his mouth by the real rulers of the country. The whole thing may be no more than good-natured make believe, but is rooted in antiquity, it is a lot of fun and no one wants to give it up (Tozer)
This is a quote from the last piece Tozer ever wrote. It is a confession to being part of a system that had relegated Christ to being no more than a figurehead and that same system had robbed Jesus of His authority within their gatherings. In Great Britain there is a Queen. She and her family survive within what is known as a constitutional monarchy. She has no real power. The power all resides within Parliament and the Prime Minister. These of course are elected positions, the people choose. The Queen’s main role is cutting ribbons, launching ships and drawing tourists. She also is a symbol of stability, but in the end, she could be rejected from even this limited role if the people so chose.
This is Tozer’s argument. The average church in America has relegated Jesus to a limited role. Rather than a Prime Minister, we have a senior pastor or minister. Jesus is acknowledged as Lord, of course, but it practice He has been relegated and man has taken the position. The Holy Spirit, for the most part, has no role within the average American church. The Word of God is readily dismissed in favor of tradition and customs. The Protestant world readily criticizes the Catholic mass (as well they should) as nothing more than the same thing repeated every week. (laying aside the obvious erroneous centerpiece of the Eucharist) And yet, for the most part, you also know exactly what to expect every week at your local church.
Tozer blames the following two reasons for this disaster…..1. The power of custom, precedent and tradition within older religious groups. These, like gravitation, affect every particle of religious practice withing the group, exerting a steady and constant pressure in one direction. Of course direction is toward conformity to the status quo. Not Christ but custom is Lord. And the same thing has passed over into the other groups such as the full gospel tabernacles, the holiness churches, the pentecostal and fundamental churches and the non-denominational churches found everywhere throughout the North American continent.
The second cause is the revival of intellectualism among the evangelicals. This, if I sense the situation correctly, is not so much a thirst for learning, rather a desire for a reputation of being learned. Our Evangelical faith ( which I believe to be the true faith of Christ and His Apostles) is being attacked these days from many different directions. IN the Western world the enemy has forsworn violence. He no longer comes against us with sword and fire, he now comes smiling, bearing gifts. He raises his eyes to heaven and swears that he too believes in the faith of our fathers , but his real purpose is to destroy that faith, or at least modify it to such an extent that it is no longer a supernatural thing it once was. (Tozer-The Waning Authority of Christ in the churches-pages 14-16)
Tozer lays this out almost 70 years ago, on his death bed so to speak. The old prophet saw in one last sweep of history, what had become of the professing churches. Can I say brothers and sisters, it has degraded so much more so in the last 70 years. If the authority of Jesus was waning 70 years ago in the churches, it is all but gone now. So the question becomes “what must we do.” Tozer asks that very question in the last paragraph and I will leave you with his suggestions……….
What, then, are we to do? Each one of us must decide and there are at least three possible choices. One is to rise up in shocked indignation and accuse me of irresponsible reporting. Another is to nod in general agreement with what is written here but take comfort in the fact that there are exceptions and we are among the exceptions. The other is to go down in meek humility and confess that we have grieved the Holy Spirit and dishonored our Lord in failing to give Him the place His Father has given Him as Head and Lord of the Church. Either the first or the second will but confirm the wrong. The third, if carried out to its conclusion, will remove the curse. The decision lies with us.
1Co 13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Oh saints, what damage has been done by men over this scripture. In eighteen short words, religious men the world over have stripped the gifts of God out of the hands of men based on a lie. The perfect is not the canon of Scripture. Jesus is perfect and when He comes again then all the gifts that edify the still imperfect Church shall cease. In that eternal state there shall be no more need for words of wisdom. In that eternal state there shall be but one heavenly language. In that eternal state we shall no longer need prophets or those who exhort the Body because the fulfillment of all things will have occurred. Love, the eternal state, shall go on for all eternity.
In this present life, in comparison to the glories of heaven, I speak as a child. I understand as a child, I think as a child. Yet in the fulfillment of all things, when the perfect has come, I will throw of this mortal childish state. I will know as I am known. For now I only see in part, but glory to God then I will see the eternal God face to face. Imagine knowing as you are known. Ponder that for a while. If the things that I know in part are glorious, what will it be like when I know the whole? The mere glimpses that I have seen of His glory has transformed my whole life, now what will be my state as I move and have my being in an eternal gaze upon Him.
Yet even now there are countless of millions of professors of the faith who would deny the reality of the glimpse. Of the supernatural experience of God. Can those who have never glimpsed and refuse to acknowledge the supernatural gifts of God ever move on to maturity? If one is not even a child then can that one become a man in God’s Kingdom? Only children of the Kingdom of God here on earth can become men and woman of God in our heavenly Father’s eternal. The children of this world will become men and women of their father in a very different eternal state. Whose child are you of? The children of light walk in the power and experience of their eternal God now, in part. Only by being a part can one become whole.
1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
A singular focus saints. Do you have a singular focus? Is that focus the Lord Jesus Christ and Calvary? If we ever get away from this singular focus, and I would argue that almost all of Christendom has, then we are in a world of trouble. Jesus and the cross and the resurrection is the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. The modern day minister or pastor does not present himself in weakness and fear and much trembling. Why not? Well, we would despise him if he did. Rather he must be confident and self assured. He must have the ability to use persuasive words. This is the power of men but it is not the power of God.
There is a hidden wisdom of God that has been directly created to speak to the hidden aspects of man. It cannot be adequately described, it can only be experienced. There are no words to describe what it means for a man to communicate, by the power of the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Only the Spirit of God knows the things of God. And therefore only by the Spirit of God can we know anything of God. The wisdom of God has been expertly wrapped up in what the world considers to be foolish. It is therefore true that those of the world cannot discover such wisdom outside of the Spirit of God Himself who highlights, promotes and convicts all men everywhere of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Are you strong in the eyes of the world or in the eyes of your congregation or those you gather with? Do you speak with persuasive words? Or are you determined in your spirit to not know anything save Jesus and Him crucified? This is foolishness to the world saints. This is foolishness to your average congregation. Do they not rather wish to hear the wisdom of man? Tell us how to live. Tell us what God says about this, tell us what God says about that. Where are the men with the singular obsession with Jesus Christ our Lord and Him crucified? Therein lies all the solutions to every problem you will ever have. The cross. The further the cross recedes into the background, the further we get from victorious living and the more we rely on the wisdom of man which only takes us still further away. God in heaven help us to determine to know nothing other than Christ and Him crucified.
Luk 1:6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
What does it mean to be blameless before the Lord? How can an imperfect heart be perfect before the Lord, blameless in all of its ways? Are we not called as saints to live blameless lives, exemplary lives? Indeed we are. No one should be able to bring a reproach against us. This is the high calling of God on our lives. We have been so taken up with the false notion that we are just “sinners saved by grace,” that many measure the standard of their lives by the lowest possible denominator rather than Christ Himself. This has been disastrous.
Holiness. Righteousness. Is this the desire of your heart? Do you want the righteousness of Christ to shine through your lives for all the world to see? Do you want to live a holy life as unto the Lord? The Lord knows the heart, He sees the desire of it. The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hew 4:12) God knows the heart. The imperfect heart can be blameless before the Lord for He knows our motivations.
The beat of the longing heart echos throughout the ages. The righteousness of Christ rules supreme and we find our righteousness in Him alone, but the blameless heart is a beautiful thing unto the Lord. He is never fooled. He knows the intent and the motivations of His children. And all of this should cause us to come up higher as we are drawn to the beauty of His holiness. Let others be satisfied with pronouncing themselves as mere sinners, but let the saint know that the righteousness of Christ flowing through them shall reflect upon the darkness of this world. We must have a longing heart saint, a heart that above all else desires to seek Him first and His righteousness. Let us be found blameless.
The Body of Christ, has not changed down through the centuries, always at her core she has been called to be a witness, an eye-witness to God’s glory. This is the essential heartbeat of Gods Remnant bride and always will be. In this role she has been used as a sanctuary, the sanctuary, the Holy of Holy’s. She is a tabernacle in the wilderness, she is Gods temple here on earth. At the same time she has always been despised by the religious spirit because she speaks truth to power. In these last days God says in His word through His prophet Zechariah that ” In that last day a fountain shall be opened up for the house of David,” and God Himself says again through the prophet that ( speaking of Christendom) “Two thirds in it shall be cut off and die. But one-third shall be left in it. I will bring the one-third through the fire, I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say ” This is my people.” (Zec 13:8-9)
And so we see that a fountain shall be opened in that day for the house of David. Can you imagine how welcome a fountain would be in the midst of a dry and thirsty land, a land racked with drought and famine? I want us, as we consider the role of the remnant, the Body of Christ, in the last days, to look at two men of God and see what parallels we can draw. Let’s look at Noah and as we look let’s think about the context of the time in which he lived. It’s a time and a place of great wickedness and as we know, there would only be a tiny fraction saved. Noah is commissioned to build an ark over a long period of time. Now, we know that Noah faced ridicule and scorn. First of all what he was building have never been built before. Secondly, rain had never fallen from the sky and the notion that the whole earth would be covered by a flood was preposterous to all who lived then.
Every day Noah’s hammer could be heard, every day the ark took shape and was rising up. The continuous hammering would have been a great source of irritation to all around him. Noah would have to keep building despite the ridicule and the scorn and the anger because the rain was surely coming and he was being obedient to his calling. We too as Gods remnant people have to keep true to what the Lord has called us to. We are also in the ark business. There was one place of salvation when the rains of judgment began to fall, it was the ark. Can I put it to you brothers and sisters that the remnant church of God is God’s ark built by the hands of Jesus.
With the judgments beginning to fall, with the beginning of the birth pangs, it will become apparent that God has a people who have not bowed the knee to Baal. God is getting ready to reveal His ark by bringing judgment and allowing the rise of the anti-christ. This ark will be a witness to the glory of God and His way of escape. This ark will be used as a last chance for the un-redeemed of the world to be saved before final judgment. This ark will be revealed to the world by isolation and persecution, all of the world will see this ark and they will be without excuse when that day comes, for this ark is the glory of Christ here on the earth and He reveals Himself through what He has built.
Now lets consider Joseph and consider the context and the back-drop of his day. Here we have Joseph who has been called to save a remnant. “And God sent me before you to save a Remnant in the earth and to save your life by a great deliverance.” ( Gen 45:7) Before Joseph could do this he had to be scorned and ridiculed by his own. Because of dreams and visions that scorn turned to anger and hatred. He was then rejected and sold into slavery. He becomes a slave and then is wrongfully accused and ends up in prison, seeming forgotten and forsaken. Yet, God of course had never left him. This is part of the remnant path. Many will relate even as they read this. Yet God had not forsaken Joseph and even in prison Joseph moved in the supernatural and he found God’s favor. He was able to interpret dreams and visions and this would lead him to see that a great famine was coming upon the land. He was able to make provisions that would save “A Remnant in the earth.”
Can you see the pattern behind this brothers and sisters? Can you relate to the suffering and the rejection and the seeming forsakeness that Joseph surely felt as he languished in the prison, far from home and separated from everything he knew? The pattern is that when there is great judgment coming upon the land, God has a people or a person whom He will send ahead to enable whoever will, to escape that judgment. God has created such a vehicle in His remnant. And they too, just like Joseph, must be despised and rejected by the very one’s they have been sent to save. Of course, this is the divine pattern. We see our Lord Jesus walk down this path. He came from the glories of heaven and the right hand of the Father, emptying Himself and humbling Himself in order to walk amongst those who He had come to save, yet He became despised and reject, tortured and killed.
And now with the final judgment fast approaching, the ark which Jesus has been building for 2000 years is almost ready. God’s remnant church from every possible background and across all denominational lines ( artificial walls built by men and not by God) down through the last 2000 years have been scorned, ridiculed hated and despised and hunted down and killed and almost all of this was done by ” their own.” Their own being people who would profess God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. Yet God in His mercy will reach out and continue to reach out through His Body while there is yet life in them. A witness until the very end. A faithful Body and a people without excuse.
The Body of Christ is everywhere. It is in every village, every town , every city and every nation on the earth. There are countless millions of Gods own children around the world. For the most part they are swallowed up in Christendom with its multiplicity of divisions and man made walls. Yet, the closer to Christ’s return the more and more difficulty the Body of Christ will find within the dwelling places and kingdoms of men. Could a saint really stay within the confines of any organisation that has corrupted itself with the world? This will be the ever increasing pressure that will be brought to bear on the saints in the coming days. Only the individual saint can answer this question for his her self. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit must be a lamp unto our feet. Too many men’s discernment comes from what other men have spoken. As the darkness increases our need for the light that shines forth from the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit who gives us not only revelation but inspiration only becomes greater and greater.
We have a God who will never leave us nor forsake us. We must trust Him with our whole hearts. No matter how scary things become, in fact because of what is to come, we must trust Him with our whole hearts and follow His lead even if we cannot see the bigger picture. The Word of God and His doctrines were written to be understood by even the simplest among us, in fact God delights in confounding the wise by the simple. The doctrines of men are generally complicated and confusing. Stay with the Word, lean upon the Holy Spirit for understanding and insight and revelation of Christ’s glory and do all of this with your whole heart and you will not go far wrong. He did not leave us as orphans, praise God, we have a Father in heaven whom we can call Abba and He will lead and guide His children through not only good times but through the darkest valleys and the narrowest portions of the path that leads back home.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm. God’s judgment is unfolding. The sense of sacredness, the manifest presence of God is so elusive today. In part it is because the locusts of Joel have eaten everything, so to speak. And in their wake there is a devastating famine. I would argue that the locusts have done their work. And here we stand starving to death. Add a drought to the famine and its a double calamity. Most of Christendom cannot repent because they are still blind to what ails them, this also is part of the judgment. For water one must now dig down very deep. And for food one must wander far from the reservation so to speak. Famine scatters people much like persecution.
The darkness Joel is talking about is spiritual and it is literal. There was actually locusts devouring everything. How terrifying to stand and watch everything you have, everything that you need to survive, being devoured before your very eyes. The clouds of locusts blackened out the sun in the midday. In our own day, the days are darkened by the smoke from wildfires. Year after year the fires continue, they grow larger and they darken the land and pollute the air. The sun is turned to darkness and the moon to blood as we watch on helplessly.
Go into your average church this coming Sunday. Where is the sacredness in their midst? Where is their sense of His holiness that causes the people to only speak in whispers, even if they dare to do that? Are holy trembling hands raised to heaven in the glory? Are our heads bowed low by the weight of His presence? Has the locusts devoured everything and left us with nothing? I am afraid that is the truth. We cannot hold a solemn assembly to ward of the disaster, the disaster has already befallen us. All that is left for us to do now is to rend our hearts and not our garments. We must return to the Lord our God with weeping and with fasting and mourning.
This word, of course is to His remnant. The great falling away has completed its task. This thing called Christendom, with all of its garments, its buildings and its programs and its careers now stand barren in the strange noonday darkness. They stand emaciated under a blood red moon. The darkness only grows darker and the hearts are destined to grow more faint until the people will writhe in pain and all the color drains away from their faces. Yet for those who will rend their hearts and seek the Lord their God with all of their hearts, they will find Him, for His own namesake.
The locusts may have devoured the spiritual land but like a refiners fire it has done its work and will do its work. It identifies and marks out those who seek Him with their whole hearts. Whether from the early morning or from late in the day, no matter, the Lord’s hand is open and He is well able to heal that which He has wounded. He will rain down the latter rains of His Spirit upon them. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord with their whole hearts He will hear from heaven. He will pour out His Spirit upon them in a dry and thirsty land. “There shall be a deliverance as the Lord has said among the remnant whom the Lord calls.”
Rom 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
John Bunyan said “let us learn like Christians to kiss the rod, and love it………many of our graces are kept alive by those very things that are the death to other men’s soul.” Speaking for myself, I can imagine, perhaps, on my best day, kissing the rod, but loving it? It is just as well it is not my best efforts that empowers me to truly love my enemy. To walk in such a way, empowered by the Spirit of God, is to know that we have truly turned the corner on this world and see only the Kingdom perspective.
You simply cannot be walking in the world and be dictated to in anyway by the flesh if we are to kiss the rod that wounds us and greater still, love the unrepentant one who wields that very rod. Yet Bunyan would argue that many of the graces we enjoy and walk in are empowered by the very testing of our souls by the cruel actions of our enemies. Outside of the Spirit of God the actions of such cruel enemies engender rage, hatred and revenge and leave the soul embittered and dying. So to one it means death and to another, life. Shall we live brothers and sisters or shall we die? Our chains were broken and our fetters loosed on the cross, let us cling to that very cross and say with Christ “forgive them Father for they know not what they do.”
The Spirit of God is always the Spirit of liberty; the spirit that is not of God is the spirit of bondage, the spirit of oppression and depression. The Spirit of God convicts vividly and tenesly, but He is always the Spirit of liberty. God who made the birds never made birdcages; it is people who make birdcages, and after a while become cramped and can do nothing but chirp and stand on one leg. When we get out into God’s great free life, we discover that that is the way God means us to live “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Oswald Chambers)
There are two main types of garden in this world. There is the garden designed by man. Wonderful and regulated in its design, measured distances between flowers, well thought out patters that please the eye. And then there is the seed that has committed itself to the Wind of the Spirit which carries it and deposits it where it will, and there it springs up and flourishes in the garden of our God. The wide open fields of God’s great free life. The so called wildflowers that grows in open meadows or drainage ditches. or in the side-streets of slums or in valley floors or mountain ranges. Who knows where the wind of the Spirit shall deposit them. God knows.
So, shall you commit the seed of your life to the wind of the Spirit? Shall you surrender yourself to be taken wherever you shall be taken? Or shall you commit yourself to the hand of man? To the designs of men? To the relative safety found in regulation? One of those choices involves great risk but also results in great freedom. The other guarantees certainty and the price is conformity. Imagine a bird, designed to fly in open skies, trapped in a birdcage. What a tragedy. Guaranteed food and shelter but the cost is no flight in open skies. Maybe the one who constrains you lets you out of your cage every now and then and you fly straight to the window. There is something in you longing to be free as you gaze at open fields or eternal skies. It’s Gods calling. Are you free today or are you being called to freedom today?
How I long to look with optimistic eyes at the landscape of Christianity all across the world. And yet the sands of time gather around our feet in the depths of the bottom of the hour glass. For so long now we have desired to walk in unbroken sunshine not knowing that unbroken sunshine leads to deserts. And now we look out upon the landscape of our time and everything beautiful has dried up in the sun that we demanded. Century after century the desert has encroached upon the green fields and mountains and valleys, slowly consuming everything. If it were not for rivers in the desert then we would have died of thirst already. The rivers in the desert are Gods remnant saints.
If it were not for desert blooms then the all the color of life would be gone. There are precious few saints left who embrace the storm, who stand in the flood, who walk through the fire, who walk upon the water. Who are not delivered from the fire but by the fire and in the fire. Jesus weeps as He surveys the desert sands and the leanness of our souls. We have rejected the good deep soil of His sufferings and embraced the desires of our own hearts leaving behind something shallow,something lean that is without deep roots and something easily dried up by the sun, which we demanded.
And then this shallow thing turns to dust and is blown away by the wind, nothing grows and the desert comes. At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse (Jer 4:11) This ill wind that blows upon Christendom is not to fan nor to cleanse but to judge. A strong unstoppable wind that does not blow in a cool refreshing rain but rather a strong hot wind that dries up everything and turns it into desert wilderness. The shallow thing turns to dust and is blown away.
In front of our very eyes the shallow things are turning to dust. That which has no root is drying up. Those whose hearts were only ever for the cares of this world are being choked by the weeds and the thorns. Not so slowly now the good seed is being revealed that lies in the depths of good soil. Those who were planted in the depths by the waters of life shall bloom even as the desert consumes the whole world. The roots are firmly established and are held unmovable by Truth. Wisdom flows down into the very heart of them and nourishes them.
The world is a barren wasteland. There is something in the atmosphere and the world is willingly breathing it in. More insidious than any virus. They breathe it in to their very souls to their eternal damnation. Their hearts are poisoned and their spirits are totally corrupted in preparation for the terrible day of the Lord. They are only ever wicked and their thoughts are continuously for evil. As it was in the days of Noah, so is our day just as the Lord prophesied it would be.
Our sufferings is our nourishment saints. Our infirmities is His glory. Our dying to this world is the last vestiges of life. This life that comes from death is the eternal life of Christ in us, the hope and the glory. For out of the great desert, out of the gross darkness, God has commanded light to shine forth as a witness to the whole world. We are that light. As the whole world falls, we have been called to stand. As the whole world is consumed into the sinking sands of death and sin, we have been called to stand upon the solid Rock of life and Holiness. Stand fast saints, the Lord is at the door.
In Romans 1:28 we see that men are given over to a reprobate mind. There comes a time when men are given over to this mindset. The word reprobate means to be cast away, rejected, something that no longer has a value. It is a truly frightening word. I would like to argue that the world in general has been given over to a reprobate mindset. It is the final dispensation. Not to be confused with Dispensationalism. I am no dispenastionalist. When I use the word dispensation I use it in its plain simple meaning. A set order that is replaced by a paradigm shift.
I would like to put it to you that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift that is written about in Romans 1:28. It started with that which is known as the church, the great religious institutions of the world called after the name of Jesus Christ, Christians in Christendom. It has fallen, it fell first. Judgement began there. And then the world. Now the argument would be that the world was already fallen. I agree with that. It was fallen right from the beginning. It was why Jesus came. No, the paradigm shift is that men, with full knowledge, completely and utterly reject God and all that is holy. They are, in a sense, without excuse.
Right has become wrong. That which lurked in the alleyways and the shadows, now parades itself down Main St. The saints have been forcibly removed into the alleyways. Night has become day. Darkness now presents itself as light and has been embraced. The children are being slaughtered by the millions in the womb and those who are not slaughtered are corrupted by the institutions of men with the aid of willing parents. Justice has been totally corrupted and taken over by the reprobates and is now a wing of the armed all out rebellion against Truth.
There have been many “evil days,” in the history of our world. Yet there is a day written about in the Scriptures. The weapons of our warfare are such that we can stand in “that evil day.” There is a culmination of “evil days,’ and we are living in them. It is when hell spews forth its contents and drowns all the world in its vomit. It is the time of gross darkness. The kind of darkness that covered the earth when Jesus hung on the cross. It is the greatest of all darknesses and it comes before the greatest of all lights. Dawn comes in the morning but we as saints must stand in the darkest night.
We who are alive and remain today have been called for such a time as this. God equips those that He calls and He makes no mistakes. When He calls Gideon a mighty man of valor it is because that is exactly what God saw in him, even although Gideon complained that he was the weakest man from the weakest clan. It did not matter what Gideon thought, it only mattered what God stated and that God would bring to pass that which He said would come to pass. You, saint, are God’s mighty men and women of valor and you have been called to stand in such a time as this. You are a child of the living God and you have His molten Truth running through your veins. This Truth that has so captivated you will not be wrestled from you.
In this Truth is the way and the life. Your very life, your eternal life. You are so taken by it that you love not your life unto death. You stand by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of your testimony. Your testimony, your witness, is your changed life by the power of God and your all consuming love for the Truth. They may beat us down but they shall not extinguish the light. All day long they can slaughter us like lambs but our Blood cries out still and God hears.
A chosen people, a Holy generation, a royal priesthood called for such a day as this. In this final dispensation we shall see the fulfillment of the great call from Jesus in John 17 that we would be one as He and His Father are one and that we shall be where the glory is. We shall see the fulfillment of Matthew 24 that he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.(Mat 24:13-14)
The time has come to endure until the end and the world will see the Gospel of the Kingdom preached as a witness. The martyrs are called as witnesses against the reprobates. And then the end shall come.
There has been a deadly virus since the dawn of time. It infects its host and begins the process of death. It impacts every part of its target. There is no human cure, no scientific vaccine, no possibility of shaking of its side-effects. It can often times brilliantly hide within its host and to the outward eye, all seems well. In other cases the host is ravaged, but in both examples, the end result is the same, death.
There is one antidote and unless the person receives it he or she shall surely die. The antidote has two thousand years of test studies to show its effectiveness. It has never failed. It has 100% efficacy. The person that provided the antidote had the virus put upon Him, and while He carried it, it never infected Him. And now, His antibodies, found in His Blood, is the cure. It does not matter where you come from, what color you are, whether you are rich or poor, all have equal access to the vaccine.
The cost? It was paid for you by another. His name is Jesus.Your part is to present yourself to Him and acknowledge that you have the virus and that rather than death, you desire to live, you desire the gift of eternal life. The name of the virus is Sin. It is master over you and controls you. If you desire a new Lord, He is waiting for you to reject your old master and to cry out to Him. You will take man’s vaccine, will you take God’s?
Mat 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.
The Lord will not commit to those who are not committed to Him. This present generation of loud and “tumultuous,” believers are seeking to establish the Lords kingdom here on earth. The sign the Lord gave them is not good enough for them. What sign did the Lord give them? He gave them the sign of the Prophet Jonah. Jonah was swallowed whole by the whale and to any observer, was dead, yet three days later he is miraculously alive and goes on to call Ninevah to repentance. Jesus would find himself swallowed up by death but three days later He would arise and He has been warning us ever since through His word and through His people and through every soul that has been resurrected from death into His glorious light of eternity.
In the quiet of faith, the Lord will respond to His own, He always has and He always will.He will not respond to a crass church which seeks to gratify their own corrupt lusts. So all of the church’s that cry out for miracles, the Lord knows the motivations of their heart. Signs and wonders would follow. Follow what? The preaching of Calvary. The proclamation of the Truth. The bold witness for Christ. The genuine love of the lost. So, those who place greater importance on signs and wonders rather than salvation’s do so for a reason. And in doing so, they expose the fragile nature of the faith that they claim to have.
The Lord will not commit to those who have built their houses on sinking sand. This is why we see the “house,” of ”believers,” come tumbling down when faced with “unanswered prayers.” For they are not established on the solid Rock of Jesus Christ and the cross of Calvary. “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” Does your faith depend upon you seeing a miracle? Or does your faith stand upon the finished work of the cross of Calvary? Miracles are a bi-product of a glorious gospel not the primary object. That primary object is Jesus. And only when He alone is lifted up can we expect to see anything, as a byproduct of His glory.
There is a voice that penetrates the veil, that pierces the darkness of my flesh and my mind. It is amazing how something so still and so gentle, can be heard above all the noise. In a storm it is almost impossible to hear anything, as the mind is tossed by wave after wave of thoughts that comes crashing down. Then suddenly through it all, through the darkness of the storm, comes a piercing shaft of light that illuminates a treacherous sea. Life and light has penetrated darkness and death. The still small voice of God almighty says “peace be still,” and the wind ceases and suddenly there is great calm. Thank you Father for that still, small voice that rescues me.
It is useless for large companies of believers to spend long hours begging God to send revival. Unless we intend to reform we may as well not pray. Unless praying men have the insight and faith to amend their whole way of life to conform to the New Testament pattern there can be no true revival. – A.W. Tozer
That is a really powerful quote is it not? Unless men are willing to amend their ways, the way they do business with God, the way they worship God, the way they gather together, in other words if they are not willing to conform themselves to the New Testament pattern of how we live and gather then they need not waste their time crying out for revival. For that cry would in effect be “Lord come and bless the way that we do things now.” Why would the Lord do that?
If there is a problem that has led us to cry out to God in the first place should we not be committed to change that? Could it be that we really kinda like the way we do things right now but it would be a lot easier and a lot more pleasant if God would just show up. He wont do it saints. Unless the cry of our heart is truly about our present condition, unless there is a heart that acknowledges that how we do things now is an affront to God, then business as usual will continue to be business as usual.
The church in the west is starving to death and they are dying of thirst. The tragedy is, that for the most part, the majority that are called after His name do not even know that they are in the midst of a famine and a drought. I thank God for His remnant people who do know, who agonize over the state of the church. Who cry out to God and who want nothing less than for the multitude of people to experience the majesty and the glory and the anguish and the joy of falling down before the throne. Who desire all men to be ruined for this life and to walk with the grand obsession of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is coming a time, and we may be there already, when God is calling His people, His remnant people who have experienced the presence of God, to rise up and testify to it. To testify of what they know of Him. Of how they come into the presence of a Holy and majestic God. Of how it ruins them and changes them. Of how they tremble before the throne of the almighty God. This is what the people are starved of, this is what they are dying from. There is a famine of the Word of God in the land, not the Word preached, but the Word preached with the power and the presence of God. The crisis of the age is a lack of God’s empowering presence in our assemblies. May the glory of the Lord fill His house.
I consider Martin Luther Kings “I have a dream,” speech, one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in the history of Western civilization. It hung on my wall for over a decade. The notion of his children being judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin would have represented the high water mark of actual civilization, any civilization, western or otherwise.
Consider where we are today. Consider what “woke,” thought has given us, where it is taking us. It is taking us back to a place that existed prior to civilization. Tribalism. Tribalism caused death and destruction whether it was in the Highlands of Scotland, the Black forest of Germany or deep in the interior or Africa. The Gauls, the Visigoths, the Romans, the Vandals, you name the tribe. Vlad the impaler, Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes, they all were identified by their tribe and their enemies? Other tribes.
Think about the genius of what MLK taught. The content of one’s character was to be the distinguishing mark of civilized man. The goodness of a man. The intelligence of a woman. The compassion and the empathy of another soul, these were the marks by which MLK wanted his children, and society, to be judged by. It would cut across color and race, it would identify the humanity of every soul on this earth. He may have been a utopian dreamer, but if you are going to have a dream it might as well be a good one, sure beats the nightmare of the divided society that we are now living in.
Blacks, Whites, Asians. Straight, gay, transgender. Rich and poor. Middle class, working class, elites, oligarchs and moguls. Republicans, Democrats socialists. Far right, far left. White supremist, Antifa, Black lives matters, critical race theorists. All blacks are lazy, all whites are racist, all Asians are greedy. And on and on it goes. Compare all of that with the dream of MLK. What we are seeing is the unfolding of raw unabated power. Power exists and is controlled when the masses are set upon one another. While the masses are manipulated and distracted, the elites are taking over.
The industrial revolution unleashed robber barons who ruled with an iron fist and they crushed all opposition. Now, the greatest nation to rise up out of Western civilization, America, who literally saved what we call civilization from the horror of the Germans and Japanese, has been overtaken by oligarchs. The power of division has been unleashed. Purges are taking place. As a Christian, my place in society is being diminished. And in the end, that will probably be the best thing that ever happened to Christendom.
Barbarism is an ancient force. It is a spirit, a demonic spirit and it’s name is legion. It detests the notions of men like MLK. It demands division for that is the bedrock of hatred and un-forgiveness. It’s ultimate enemy is the genuine Christian. For the true Body of Christ is actually diverse and beautifully united by the Spirit of God. A Body of believers who judge a person by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
America once saved the world from barbarism, from the Nazi forces who embraced the ultimate divisions. Who would gladly destroy every single Jewish person, every single gypsy, every single gay person, every single mentally handicapped person. Every single person of genuine faith. They worshiped one doctrine and there was no place for deviation. All who disagreed with them were destroyed and purged out of society. First politically, then in the Armed forces, then in the halls of education and all the way down into all of the realms of society. Divide, separate and destroy.
I put it to you, the reader, we are in the midst of such a time. The powers that be, demand that you be separated into whatever group you belong to. And it is they who shall judge you, not by the content of your character, but by who you vote for. What you stand for. The color of your skin. The tenets of your faith. The collective is rising. And if you do not belong to it or bow to it you will be removed from society by it. In the greatest irony of all time they will call it the brotherhood of man. As they use the word diversity as their battle cry the actual war will rage against anyone who dares to be different from them. Uniformity and conformity will be the order of the day under the banner of diversity. It will be the greatest feat of gaslighting ever known to man for it will encircle the earth.
In the things of the Kingdom,progress is not automatic,for a man may only be fifty weeks old in grace even though he was saved fifty years ago. Maturity in grace has nothing to do with years but rather with prayerful obedience to the revealed will of God.
Leonard Ravenhill-Meat for men.
Can you see what Ravenhill is saying? We make forward progress in the Kingdom by prayerful obedience to the revealed will of God. What is the revealed will of God? First and foremost it is the Word of God, the Scriptures. Secondly it is the still small voice of God, the Holy Spirit. And of course, one will never contradict the other, there will always be perfect harmony between the Holy Spirit and the written Word of God. He is the author.
In 2nd John 1:4 John says that he rejoiced greatly to have found some of the saints walking in the truth having received the commandment from God. In 3rd John 1:4 John says that he had no greater joy than to hear that his children were walking in the truth. Imagine that, the great Apostle’s greatest joy was the saints walking in the Truth. Why was this his greatest joy? John knew that if we walk in the Truth, then and only then will we make forward progress in the Kingdom, overcoming trial and temptation and becoming more like Jesus. Obedience is the key to this.
Imagine you are in a small boat in the middle of a vast ocean. You have no sail and you have no motor to power you. What will happen? Without the thrust of forward momentum you will drift. The power that will move you will be the current of the ocean. It will take you where it will take you. I want to suggest to you that without obedience to the Word of God and to the Holy Spirit you will not make any forward progress on your spiritual journey.
Obedience is the outboard motor that will propel your forward. The Holy Spirit is the fuel in the motor. Obedience is the raising of the sail that will catch the wind, the Holy Spirit is the wind that will propel you forward against the forces of the current.. How mature are you? How many weeks old are you in the Kingdom? In Ravenhill’s example a man who has been saved for fifty years may be less than a year old in the Kingdom, a mere babe. God is looking for mature saints, men and woman who can dine on meat.
Psa 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
We live in days where one may hear the sentiment of this Scripture over and over again. We saints could look around the world and see it burning in the flames of sin and ungodliness. We could have ears to hear despairing thoughts as our eyes behold the ever-increasing darkness that is enveloping us like a creeping fog that rises up from the lower reaches and seems to level everything in wickedness. We undoubtedly live in times where in the secular world and in so much of Christendom the foundations of truth and life and light are being replaced by lies and death and darkness. Yet, what is the foundation of the righteous?
The foundation of the righteous is trust in God. When Davids friends or enemies tried to persuade him to ” Flee as a bird to your mountain,” he starts out by reminding them ” In the Lord put I my trust.” This is our testimony to the world is it not? That we have put our trust in God, in Christ alone for our eternal souls. Now, no matter what is coming upon us, no matter that the pillars of truth and the foundations of righteousness are being torn apart with every passing day with increasing speed and venom, still out trust is in the Lord. This is our testimony. We shall not flee to the mountains but rather we shall stand, even as the whole world is falling around us, for the righteous foundations are ours and ours alone to stand upon.
When the ungodly and the religious can no longer stand then we shall stand. As the world descends into moral and unholy chaos then it is our time to truly stand upon the foundation that belongs to us, Jesus Christ our Lord and the Word and the Spirit which He gave us. When Paul told the folks that he was headed to Jerusalem, they pleaded and prophesied to him not to go there for surely great harm would come to him. What was Paul’s reply?
You have gathered here today in defiance of darkness and tyranny. You have come here to fight as free men and free men you are, for it is I that gave you that very freedom. So you see with your eyes that you are few and they are many, you see that you are vastly outnumbered. Will you fight today?Read the rest of this entry »
A Call To The Remnant 