Men and women will always choose chains. They will readily accept being in bondage as long as they can exercise their baser desires. The anarchy of the heart and soul reign, and the civilized order that gave rise to the west, presents a true problem to the lunatics that have taken over the asylum. The madness that was contained within the walls of law and order and decency has broken loose. Where did we see this kind of madness in history? Caligula? Nero? In the French court prior to the revolution where the perverse plied their trade? In the halls of the English boarding school system that gave rise to all manner of perversion? And yet it was always contained. Hidden away in the shadows and the alleyways of our “decent society.” The word decent is described as conforming to the recognized standard of society, good taste, modest, as in behavior or speech.
This recognized standard is not particularly etched in stone or written down in a some constitution. It is more like an atmosphere. The prevailing wind of opinion. The rising or falling tides of what is or what is not acceptable. What is the recognized standard of our day? And who does the recognizing? Is it a collective? Once it was the religion of Christianity that defined and defended “decency.” Their decency was derived from the teachings of Jesus. It may have been, for the most part, all just religion, yet it held us together as a society and held back the purveyors of moral and spiritual anarchy. The old notions were enshrined in the law and the law was based upon the Word of God as its final arbiter, meted out no doubt by very imperfect men. Yet what was ever the alternative? To remove God, even the imperfect notion of God, from our laws and out of our national Zeitgeist? Then we had to replace it with another invisible agent. The invisible agent of self.
Self rules. Its not what displeases God anymore, it is what offends man. He does not want to be questioned nor judged by anyone. Women are equally guilty of this “self.” Men have wars and women have abortions, either way there is a slaughter. It is the children who always pay a price for the perversities of adults. Consider the last 120 years. 120 million killed in wars. In America alone, at least 64 million babies murdered. Death and destruction follow after self. 200 million souls lost in that time period. This far exceeds the deaths of all wars combined, in the history of humanity! How did it come to pass that our level of barbarism has risen to far exceed anything that has ever came before us? Yet we would never dream of calling ourselves Barbarians, but that is what we are. God is no longer the invisible agent that moves and restrains societies, self is. This is the generation that collectively worships self and has, with a very loud public voice, rejected God.
This is the great falling way. We are the Godless generation of the last days. In 2 Tim 3 this generation is described. Paul says that men would be lovers of themselves. One might argue that men have always loved themselves but Paul puts this in his descriptive list. This is a love of self far beyond anything we have ever seen before. He says that the Godless generation of the last days would be without natural affection. That phrase is the Greek word is astorgos which means to be have your heart hardened towards your own family. Consider the baby in the womb and the love of a mother for her child. A mothers love is legendary and yet the phrase that rings out from younger woman is “my baby, my choice.” Choice to do what? To kill it. Even in nature we see a mother bear would fight to the death to save her cubs, yet so much of humanity is now without even the very basics of natural affection. They are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, or even lovers of their own children.
Brothers and sisters, no matter what invisible agent the masses have given themselves to, we, the saints, have not nor ever will change. Down through the corridors of time all the way back to the cross, God has had His people, His remnant saints. They have oftentimes been persecuted by renegade societies and political and religious tyrants. Yet in all these things they have never bowed their knees to the gods of this world and the gods of this world are none other than the great god of self demonstrated in a throwing off of all restraints. Will the streets continue to be given over to lawlessness and anarchy? Yes. Will those who worship themselves trump all common decency and come after us? Yes. Yet, does God still reign? Yes He does. Does the truth still burn at the center of our hearts and flow like molten lava through our veins? Yes it does. If we are cut shall we not bleed mercy and forgiveness? Yes we shall. Does the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ still tower over all of humanity? Yes it does. Even the shadow of the cross burns into the consciences of men.
Where shall they run from this? They shall not run. They shall not hide and one day they shall come face to face with their own barbarity whether in this life or the next. We are a manifestation of Christ on the earth. When they see us they must see Jesus. Shall they fall at His feet or shall they call out “crucify Him.”To crucify His followers is an attempt to crucify Him afresh. And in those days we shall dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. He shall be to us a refuge and our High tower. With the armor of righteousness we shall stand fast in a day of culminating unrighteousness. Our enemies shall be those of our very household and but still we shall love. They will hate us with a perfect hatred but still we shall love. They will reject us and cast us out, but still we shall love. They will hunt us down and kill us, and yet…….we shall love our enemies. We shall not render evil for evil but rather we shall overcome evil in the victory of the cross and by the word of our testimony and we shall love not our lives unto death, the ultimate witness.
A sister in the Lord sent me an article about about someone who had visited a church and it was dark. Now, the author was speaking of physical darkness, the lights were turned down so low that she could not read. The irony was not lost on her that the opening song was about the Lord being the light in the darkness The last time I was at a church it was also dark. It had stadium seating as they do in the cinema. It was not dark when I entered, but soon enough the lights were dimmed, I guessed the “show,” was about to begin. Now why are countless churches operating in the dark? Could it just be a trend? Another fad? An attempt to appeal to a younger generation? Or, could it be as simple as the fact that this darkness truly represents their spiritual state? I tend to go with the latter.
“Entertainment.” Without the presence of God we must entertain the masses. So, just like the movies and secular concerts, we dim the lights and highlight the platform, put a spotlight on it. The platform in and of itself is an idol. I believe Luther tore down the idol of “The Eucharist,” and helped raise up the idol of the pulpit, the platform, the elevated place. People can sit in darkness because nothing is required of them. All the “action,” is taking place front and center and elevated. Then add the dry ice smoke machines and you have the whole ghastly package. Entertainment rules supreme, concert style worship and dimmed lights make sure the spotlight is on “the front.” Actual congregational worship and the proper 1 Cor 14 setting is dead, and in its place Hollywood rules supreme. Hollywood meaning that which is contrived is made to look real. May God bring down the curtain on this abomination.
1Co 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love , I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
In the previous sentence Paul tells us that we have to earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet, even above and beyond the best gifts, which we have indeed to earnestly desire, we must pursue love. It is not one or the other, God forbid. That’s a lie. Not only must the man or woman display the manifestation of the Spirit, above and beyond even that, He must walk in the greatest gift of all, love. Not human love, supernatural love. The kind of love that can only belong to the born again man or woman. The kind of love that shatters the gates of hell. The kind of love that inspired God to create us in the first place. The love that sent His only Son to die for the whole world. The kind of love that pursues us even when we are yet in our sin. The love that confounds hell itself. Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. What kind of love motivated Jesus to cry this out in the midst of the greatest agony ever suffered? What kind of love would motivate Stephen to cry out the same thing even as those cruel merciless stones rained down upon his mortal body? Supernatural love. If one is truly endued with power from on high, that power will be first and foremost manifested in love in his or her life, the greatest manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Paul begins with what love does not do or what it isn’t. It does not envy. It is not boastful. It is not full of pride. It does not behave in a deliberately offensive manner. It is not selfish. It is not easily provoked. It does not think the worse of people. It does not rejoice when others fall. Love, instead, revels in the truth, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love, indeed, never fails. It never fails. For this love is the manifestation of God Himself, in His own and through His own. It can never fail because God never fails. It is eternal for God is eternal. When the end comes, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and the Kingdom of God rules and reigns for all eternity then of course we wont have to hope any more, for all hope is fulfilled. We will no longer have to trust in the God that we cannot see, for now we shall see Him face to face.
Knowledge will vanish because we shall know as we are known. When all things are fulfilled in this manner, then love still stands forever. We are yet in this world, but the world to come is coming soon. Now we are like children, then we shall be complete in Him. Now we see in a mirror dimly, then face to face. Imagine it saints!!! There is now and there is then, we still exist in the now. And now we have the manifestation of the Spirit, then, all things are complete, perfect. And when that perfect has come, then all these other things, besides love, shall fall away. Do not let anyone fool you, do not be ignorant about these things brothers and sisters. For certain men have a form of Godliness, nevertheless they deny the power of God and say that it has ceased. From such men turn away.
Isa 63:3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
There comes a time in all our lives when there was no one in all the earth to help us. We are entirely alone and unless the hand of God moves in our favor then there is no hope to be found. Yet Christ alone is mighty in battle. The enemies that surrounded you, the enemies that surround you even now must reckon on the fact that your are His. He alone will deal with all of your enemies. Your ancient enemies in your own life may be anger or hatred and bitterness, long ago passed down from generation to generation. A family and a history of a family raised in chains and kept by cruel taskmasters. Yet Jesus hears the cries of the afflicted. He saw your affliction and He was mighty in battle to help those who will acknowledge their need of Him and who can see their own state.
There is coming a day soon enough when all of the Lord’s enemies shall be dealt with though it may seem that over the centuries they have been forgotten. God brings all things to justice in the end. He is a God of order and of righteousness. He is indeed long suffering with those who despise Him and mock and ridicule Him. It is entirely a blessing that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts. Yet despite all of that, there is a wine-press and the people of this world are indeed the grapes of wrath. Shall we find ourselves trodden underfoot by the King of Kings, or shall we be found at His side in that day? According to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses He should be praised. And of His mercies they are without number. Yet the world has abandoned You and hardened their hearts to Your ways.
Lord look down from heaven and see from Your holy habitation. See now the afflictions of your people and see their heart toward you. They cry out day and night for the day of your return. They long with all of their hearts to see Justice take its rightful place. Their hearts are indeed vexed like righteous Lot as he lived among a vile and unrepentant people. A people who even when blinded by the Angels of the Lord, still attempted to carry out their ever evil thoughts and desires. Are we not like Sodom Lord, are we not worse than Gomorrah? Truth lays trampled in our streets and righteousness has been banished to the alleyways and hidden places. Pride now marches down the main streets of our town and cities with their banners flying high, so proud of their utter rejection of You. Come Lord Jesus come we pray that your name may be lifted up and that all men may know that your are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and you alone deserve all the glory and praise of men’s hearts.
Today we are being driven by the form and not the substance. Jesus is the substance. Jesus is the primary object. Jesus is the preeminent one. Without Him high and lifted up, front and center, without His presence in our midst we only have a form. A religious structure built by human hands to house our own desires. We have abandoned the real Jesus and constructed another Jesus. This other Jesus serves us. He serves our needs and desires, he entertains us through his creators. This other Jesus has never carried a cross nor does he require his followers to carry one either.
This cultural Jesus is a mere reflection of his adherents. He never judges, he never corrects. He has no particular requirements. He is a genie in a bottle even although they vigorously rub and he never appears. He does not walk with them, they walk alone. He does not talk to them, they merely engage their own imaginations. He lies to them through the prism of their souls. They hear him say peace and prosperity. He is a reflection of the better part of their natures and they do not realize that the better part of their natures is like filthy rags to the true and living God.
If these people ever actually encountered the true and the living Christ He would devastate them and upturn their lives. Everything they know or thought they knew would come crashing down. A God who judges? Hear the screams. A God who calls them to enter into His sufferings? Hear the wails. A God who requires their whole lives, their whole hearts, their whole allegiances? They writhe in agony. The flesh that refuses to die is enmity to God. He bids that flesh to voluntarily pick up its cross, the means of its own death. It shall surrender or it will rage against the author of the cross.
The narrow path never deviates as it winds its way home. It is fraught with danger. It slowly strips away all of the baggage that we took with us for our journey. It tears away at the flesh and passes through refining fires and floods. It often winds it way through hot and arid deserts. The narrow path has many exits and every exist is a path of least resistance. As soon as one steps onto it one can hear the haunting intoxicating sound of the siren call as it draws that one away from the narrow path.
For those who stay the course and stay on the narrow path, every so often, always suddenly, the Lord comes to us. He reminds us that we are His, He encourages us. He bids us look down and see that the path itself is the Word of God and that the path lights up and directs us in the way that we should go. We are instructed to turn neither to the left nor to the right. The Lord embraces us in His love and His kindness.
He heals our wounds, He tenderly touches our weary hearts. He feeds the deepest parts of us and sustains us for the journey. He restores the brokenhearted and gives strength to the weary. He gives us hope when there seems to be no hope. He gives us joy when there is nothing at all to be joyful about. He gives us a garment of praise and takes away a heavy spirit. He bids us to lift up our eyes and see the celestial city, from where our help comes from. Stay the course brothers and sisters. Stand fast in the time of our vexation. Our Lord is coming soon and our journey will be at an end.
The ultimate judgement of God and the ruin of man is when God gives a person or nations up to their own uncleanness that flows from the lusts of their own hearts. They are consumed by their vile affections, so we are told in Romans chapter one. The morning has come for the nations and the day shall have its end. The rising sun of the morning casts a light upon their corruption. It is clearly seen. No longer is it hidden in the shadows. It does not skulk in the dark recesses of the alleyways. Rather, it marches boldly down Main St. It celebrates its sin openly and brazenly and not content with that, compels others to bow before it and acknowledge it as their own.
A disaster, a singular disaster is at the door (Ezek 7:5) and it will effect all of the nations. It is the beginning of the end when this disaster strikes. God will not spare, the nations shall know that He is the God who strikes. Pride budded on the rod and now it has come into full bloom. There is no longer any pretense. God is wholly and fully rejected by the nations. Once they had for a pretense an honor of God but now the halls of their power, their institutions and all their ways have become corrupted. It is one thing to conspire in the shadows, it is quite another to break into open rebellion and raise an angry mocking fist at God. And therefore God will strike, He will rob the rebels of hope and they will be overtaken with fear. Their legs will not work under them for fear and they will not be able to run or stand and fight.
Men have always sought solace in the usual hiding places. They hide within the confines of their own bravery. In their pride they hide. In rebellion and hope for tomorrow they find their last stand,but they cannot stand from the God that can and will strip them of all of these things. They have put much stock in their wealth and their prosperity. They have built castle after castle with them. Yet one by one these castles will fall as the sanctuary of their wealth is taken from them. Up to this point it has been the solid ground upon which they stood, now the very ground beneath them shall give way. In that day it will be better to have “fields of corn rather than mines of gold.” Their gold will be useless to them.
Men seek no messenger to rebuke them of their sin rather they seek council from lying prophets who will tell them what they want to hear, for a price. And these prophets promise them peace but peace shall not come. Men have despised God with rebellion and mixture, mixture being a thing that God despises. Therefore in the coming days of their calamity there shall be no help from God for He is the author of that very calamity and those who speak against it speak against God. The kings of the world shall mourn and its princes shall be dismayed but they will not repent. Rather they shall turn on God’s remnant saints. This singular disaster shall usher in the days of the great tribulation. There shall be no pre-tribulation rapture. They shall make war on the saints and the saints shall be overcome as they fall into their hands (Rev 13:7)
Yet take comfort in this brothers and sisters, the Lord Himself shall be with us in the midst of the fire. Our tormentors shall look and see and know that Christ is in us and with us. The whole world shall look and see that Christ is in us. As we are martyred then we shall be a witness to the whole world. Those who endure to the end shall be saved. The world will witness Christ in us and their guilt shall be sealed. The Kingdom shall be demonstrated to all the world as a witness and then the end shall come (Matt 24:14)
I recently heard a man, who was promoting a men’s ministry group say “come and be a better version of your self.” I shuddered in my spirit when I heard that. Not because the man was not well intentioned but because he was. Do you know what the best version of your self is? It is filthy rags before the Lord. The best version of your self would not even allow you to mount the first rung of the ladder of what God wants for you. Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, considered to be the holiest men in all of Israel, you will in no way enter the Kingdom of heaven. This would have caused the people to despair, because they had it all wrong.
Imagine someone said that unless you were better than Mother Teresa, you would never get into heaven. Most of the world would groan (for they consider her to be holy) just like the people did when Jesus stated that truth about the Pharisees. What Jesus was actually telling the people was that these religious people were not holy at all, in fact, quite the opposite. What you could see on the outside had no bearing on what Jesus could see on the inside. Dead men’s bones. Men and woman who loved to be greeted as something special, something holy. Men and women who loved to be called “teacher, pastor, nun,” and any other title you can think of. Hypocrites who actually conceal the Kingdom of God from men through a cloak of holiness and righteousness and religion. Who travel the world and make converts who are twice the children of hell than they are.
The outside of the cup and the platter is clean, they are the best versions of their self. Yet, inside they are full of hypocrisy and idolatry and uncleanness. Rotten to the core. Polluted in everything that they do. And how could it be otherwise? They have taken self and promoted it. Their best selves are living their best lives now. And this is the hook. Come and live the best version of your self now and live your best life now. Consider the calling of God. He bids you come to die. He says that the best that you have to offer is rotten to the core but He has the cure. A cross. Who will crucify their flesh to the cross? How many men would show up if that was how it was advertised? Not too many I would imagine. Your best self leads to eternal death, and the death of your flesh leads to eternal life.
We live in a world where it is all about self. It is the idolatry of the age. Its not a new thing in our time, it has just reached dizzying heights. The high place of self has exalted itself up beyond the heavens. Whether it is the worse of self or the best of self its all self righteousness and it is filthy rags before the Lord. So called men and women of God try to make people feel better about themselves. It becomes mutual exaltation. It is reciprocal in nature. The only cure is death to self, and the only instrument of death for self is a cross. This is why the Lord bids us to take up our cross daily. To follow the commands of the Lord in this is to walk to the narrow path and to thin out the crowd. The broad road to destruction has a banner over it which reads “follow this road for the best version of your self.” The narrow path has a banner over it which reads “this way to Calvary.” Shall you take the broad road or the narrow path?
A wise man once said that discontentment in the mind puts discontentment in the mouth and discontentment in the mouth puts a shackle on the neck. In America and Europe you are seeing divided populations which has led to violence in the streets. In Haiti we see an unfolding civil war. In South Africa stores and business are burning and open looting is taking place. I want to tell you brothers and sisters, a much more transmittable virus than Covid is spreading around the world. It has an incubation period that spans the human life. Discontentment rises up and sweeps over cities and nations and populations like an unseen tsunami. It has a critical mass. For the most part is is contained to local regions and smaller groups of people. Yet there was always coming a time when people would rise up and destroy themselves.
Jesus tells us in Matt 24 that in the beginning of sorrows that nation would rise up against nation. The word nation here is the word “ethnos,” it’s where we get our English word ethnic or ethnicity from. I want to use South Africa as an example. One would have thought that Apartheid was the root cause of all the South African problems. It was not. It was a problem, but not the problem. The virus runs much deeper than obvious societal problems. It is a fundamental flaw in our humanity. It awaits critical mass. It awaits to try and seize what it can never have, contentment. Once the levels reach critical mass it then needs a spark. It needs a way out. Once it is out it seeks the company of its own and garners strength in numbers.
George Floyd was a such a spark in America. His death was the spark that caused the virus to come forward. It will not be the last spark as the fire has not fully taken hold. Yet the fire is coming and we shall be consumed by it. Jesus said it and it will come to pass. In any inequitable society (every society that ever existed) the virus of discontentment is loose. There are certain forces that can contain it, for a while. Men rise up and champion its cause. Examples of its rise is without number down through history. The Chinese so called cultural revolution is one. The Russian revolution is another. The two great wars. The French revolution. The American revolution. Every war ever fought, the virus of discontentment lurks just underneath the shadows of such event.
Saints, it is a deadly enemy and will eat away your soul from the inside out. It will cause you to join its ranks, for it cannot truly exist on its own, its great strength comes in numbers. The human experience is to either be striving for riches and more riches, or to be striving to hold on to those riches once gained. It can never acknowledge any gain, it can never acknowledge that it is indeed rich or better off, lest its deadly enemy, contentment, the antidote, destroy it. A reflective heart that is bathed in thankfulness for what one has, perhaps simply the food on ones table and the roof over ones head is a highly effective counterpart to discontentment.
And so, the enemy of our souls, through his champions, must always have our eyes fixed upon what we do not have. In this scenario the glass is undoubtedly and eternally half empty. See it in every aspect of our lives. Our relationships, it is the major cause of divorce. Finances, it is the major cause of our anxieties. Politics, it is the major cause of our hatreds and divisions. Religion, it is the major cause of our divisions. A perpetual state of discontentment is perhaps one description of an eternal hell.
Now, the man or woman who has found Godliness with great contentment has found great gain. Paul tells us this in 1 Timothy 6:6-6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. Consider Gods advice to all men in regard to riches and the desires of it ….(1Ti 6:7-10) For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
And what does God say about all men who stir up such discontentment?(1Ti 6:4-5) He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. Withdraw brothers and sisters, from all men who promote discontentment with your lot in this world. That would cover just about every politician and also those who promote the ills of society for their own gain and advancement ( almost all men and women)
Thanking God in everything is the remnant’s stand at the end of the ages. It will protect us from the deadly disease of discontentment that is rising up in the world to levels we have never seen before. The “ethnos,’ are attacking the “ethnos.’ The peoples of the nations are destroying themselves as they drown in their own dark hearts. And according to Jesus, this is but the beginning of sorrows. Content in Christ, quite apart from our circumstances, is the key to an abundant life and is the solid Rock upon which we stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Can’t you see that the world is sinking? Come up and dwell together on higher ground brothers and sisters.
When my wife and I came back from vacation, we discovered that one of the plants that stands guard at our door, had been over-watered. The one on the left was fine, and flourishing, the other had wilted and the blooms were dying or dead. When we researched what had happened, it seems that if you over-water a plant to this extent then the soil will be rancid and the roots themselves will be rotting from the bottom up. There is a slight chance that you can save the plant, but only slight. It involves uprooting the plant and laying it to one side, removing all of the soil, cut away as much of the roots that you can, then replace all of the soil and replant it.
We did this and just as the research suggested, the soil was rancid, so bad that we had to wear masks as we removed it. The roots were rotten almost all the way to the top, we cut them away. And now the replanted plant will either live or die, no one knows. Can I suggest that the Western world is over-watered. We are rancid as we drown in our abundance. The very roots that held us are rotten from the top on down. The flowers of our culture are dying on a rotten vine. There is drastic change to come. There is an uprooting so that which can be saved and shall be saved. The soil which has held us will be removed. The roots of everything we know is being cut away. We shall be replanted in different soil.
Will you survive the cutting brothers and sisters? Shall you resist it? The old soil is being shoveled away as we speak. The saints of God shall be ripped away from this world and all its hold upon us. We shall be laid bare and put aside while the Master deals with what is left of this world. We shall not be watered for a time. It is vital that we “dry out.” Think not that we have been abandoned. We have not, but it will seem that way. This time of of our troubles is for our saving.
The new soil will be rich and deep. It will be watered by the blood of the martyrs. The name of the new soil is persecution. 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. Can you hear the drumbeats of war brothers and sisters? A war that for all intents and purposes will be one that we shall lose. For a time it shall seem that all is lost. Not just for a day or a week or even a month, this season shall be much longer than that. It will be long enough to make you doubt everything that you have ever believed. You will be tried in this.
Yet God has cultivated a people for Himself. They have a few banners that fly over their lives and the battles they have waged. One of the banners that flutters in the wind of the Spirit says “Even if He kills me, yet will I trust Him.” Another banner reads “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.” There are two more banners. One says ” And they loved not their lives unto death,” and the last one reads “If God does not deliver us from the fire, let it be know, we shall never bow down to the gods of this world.”
It is these saints that shall survive the uprooting. All others shall die in the rottenness that is this world. This mindset of the saint is to glorify God. It is to yield and to surrender to His will for their lives. It is what the Master wants that is all important. It is His desires that fill the hearts of the saints. It is their blossom that causes color to exist in another-wise black and white world. Shall the flower bloom? Shall it survive the trauma of the uprooting? Some will, most will not. In the end, the heart of the matter is revealed as everything is stripped away. It cannot be otherwise. The heart of the matter, the only heart that matters is the Heart of God the Father and Christ His Son. Let us be found there, even if He slays us. For the things that we see are temporal and of little value, but the will of God is eternal and flowers in the heart of His children.
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.
As Jesus faced down Satan in the desert he told that old liar that “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Every word brothers and sisters that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. Man needs bread to live, he has to eat otherwise he will slowly starve to death. What a ghastly sight it is to see someone in the latter stages of starvation. They lose all of their characteristics and begin to resemble one another as they waste away and gauntness takes over. As we sit in our pews week after week, no one dares disturb the sound of silence.
Despite the richness of our gifts and our callings, despite our ability to give and receive words of knowledge, to hear heavenly songs sung in a heavenly language, to hear prophecy’s and exhortations that can speak directly into the heart of what we are going through in the moment, we dare not disturb this established silence.Have we made a neon god? Do we sit in pews and worship a god of our own making? A god that has to dim the lights and break out the ice making machine to create an “atmosphere,” that was long ago lost to slick professional worship teams and men with programs.Listen brothers and sisters, if entertainment brought them in, only entertainment will keep them. Yet how long before they grow weary of the entertainment? Where do they go after the dimmed lights and the religious concerts fail to move them and the smoke dissipates?
If we could see with spiritual eyes as we sat in our pews and looked around, would we see well fed people living on the fat of a land flowing with milk and honey, living abundantly in the life of Christ, edified and well fed? Or rather would we see a people gaunt with hunger, starving for the Spiritual edification that the Lord Himself provided for us. He promised us that He would not leave us as orphans but send the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide us. What happens when the Holy Spirit is silenced and men have decided that they know best?
Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Is this what we have done brothers and sisters? No longer can we have the Lord speak to us how He pleases in the midst of the congregation. We have rejected these gifts so that the traditions of men may be kept and we now must not disturb the sound of silence, that silence being the words and the wisdom of man. And in the midst of that darkness we sit, only ever wondering what the power of God truly looks like, and the smoke slowly drifts away.
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 »
There is a time for shouting and praising God, but if we are ignoring the knocking, then we must stop shouting. If our lives are not reflecting the Glory of God, if we are not becoming like His Son, daily, then all of our shouting and praising God will just be so much noise. How tragic for the church of the living God if, when He looks down, He does not see praise but just a group of people making a noise.”Read the rest of this entry »
“Jesus has many who love His kingdom in heaven, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting.All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for His sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of the bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of His passion. Many admire the miracles, but few follow Him to the humiliation of the cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them.”
This is a vision that I had as I stood on a terrace in Croatia. My wife and I went there last year on our 25th anniversary. Before I went the Lord had shown me that I would meet someone there and that it would be significant, just did not know that He was talking about Himself. The whole piece was my vision, He gave me a new way of writing my testimony and of writing about coming into His presence, then the Word that He gave me for the church, I wrote in red at the end. I pray that this will challenge and convict you………….
They will gather together and throw in their gold and rise up and play, or in this case, fall down and play. You see the people are without leadership, and the Lord has with-held His rain. So the people have demanded gods to go before them, listen to what they said to Aaron…”make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. “
She put her head back against the wall and looking upwards told me that she was in no position to even try and refuse this. She was blown away that God had answered her and her husbands prayer so immediately (she did not know that I had messed around for several week) She could not wait to get home and share this with her husband. Higher critics could explain this in the natural, but the supernatural is God talking to His people, directing them and of course, His perfect timing.
A Call To The Remnant 