You cannot appease God by working for Him. You cannot become spiritual by keeping very active in some form of church activity, or the like. Gods cry and longing throughout the ages of eternity has been for a home, a resting place in a people made in His own image…. and God will not allow you to find rest in your own works. God will not allow you to rest until you find that rest in UNION WITH HIMSELF ALONE. (George Warnock, Feed My Sheep, pg 7)
You see what George is saying? God is looking for a home. He is looking to abide not just in the individual believer but in the Body of Christ that stands as one. No amount of work or activity can make this come to pass for unless the Lord builds the house then we labor in vain. What house does God want to abide in? He wants to abide in the Body of Christ. A collection of stones does not make a temple. Yes we need the stones and they must be cut from the quarry of this world and they must be taken and shaped.
I’m just lookin for some higher ground
But life keeps tryin to drag me down
When your walking with your face into the rain
Sometimes you wonder if you’ll see the sun again
Eyes down, one step in front of the other
Until you think you can’t go any further
Then the rain gets heavier and begins to take its toll
Until your stripped down to your very naked soul
The waters rise and cover all of me
Until there’s only waves and nothing left to see
I am dying there somewhere beneath the flood
Covered by the waters and feet caught in the mud
And suddenly a hand appears from up and out the waves
And a man walks on the water, the storm He calmly braves
He takes my hand and stills the storm and suddenly there’s no sound
And all at once I find myself alone on higher ground
I hear His voice, He speaks to me, it’s time to journey on
In the darkest storms I have discovered just where faith is born
Transfigurations on the mount are such a glorious sight
They give me strength to journey on into the darkest night
We are called unto the battle of this there is no doubt
The faith that’s born from every storm enables us to shout
When the battle it is raging and the enemy’s all around
We know that we are standing with Him on higher ground.
“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).
Many in the church today try to determine the nearness of Christ’s return by reading the signs of the times. We see such signs in specific; for example, the return of the Jews to Israel. Yet one of the clearest statements Jesus makes about His second coming is contained in the verse above. The end will come only after the gospel has been preached to all the nations as a testimony. The word that Jesus uses for ” witness,” in this verse is the same Greek word for ” testimony.” In short, He says the Gospel we preach is effective only if it is backed up by a life that testifies to its reality. ( David Wilkerson)
Do you see what David is saying here? It’s not about the Gospel preached, it’s about the Gospel lived. The Gospel lived out is a testimony to the power of Jesus to transform men into new creatures. It’s not so much the correctness of the doctrine, although doctrine is important, it’s about the reality of the witness. The genuine saint living a life empowered by Jesus is a witness to the world. Can we say that Christendom today is a witness to the world? In the average church in America, all the stats of the world on matters of divorce and such are simply the same. The world cannot tell the difference between themselves and Christianity. So, not only is there not a witness for Christ, there is a vehicle for mocking.
Below are the poems and songs I wrote in 2013 all in one place. I pray that they bless you…………..bro Frank
TO HELL AND BACK
How to keep your soul
From burning in the fire
Sometimes to walk this world
Is to wade through muck and mire
To see what Spirit sees
Would drop man to his knees
And in agony look up
And see Christ drink the cup
All the hell in all the world
Came together in one place
Yet even in the midst of hell
There was love upon His face
If we could see this hell
Then what would be the toll?
Shattered in the night
And forever lose our soul?
Hell is fought by Christ alone
And we can look into His face
And as we look we’ll see it there
Tis mercy and tis grace
If you have been to hell and back
And survived to tell the tale
If you would laugh and love again
You must be found behind the veil
He that conquered death and hell
And broke those deadly chains
Is the one that can deliver us
Despite the awe-full pains
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TO BE FOUND IN HIM
Just to meet you in the darkest night
Sets my soul on fire, it gives me light
To meet you on the highest peak
Is to feed my soul, tis all I seek
Whether high or whether low
Is neither here nor there
For you alone I want to know
I want to see your face so fair
Can a valley be a mountain?
A prison cell a sanctuary?
Can a man in chains and fetters
Claim to be completely free?
There is a freedom wrought by man
He fights and kills to see it done
There is a freedom wrought by God
On Calvary’s battle-field was won
So whether in the darkest night
Or transfiguration on the hill
I’ll walk by faith and not by sight
I shall not run, I shall be still
Be still when all around are crying
Stand fast when all are set to flight
Know the Lord, and in the dying
His presence overcomes the night
Darkness ends and has no power
And Christ outshines the brightest sun
He is our Rock and strong high tower
No more to fight, the battle won.
— Read the rest of this entry »
Lord you are worthy and the weight of your eternal glory is a holy heaviness that is an anchor for my soul that keeps me in the midst of the storm.
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You never truly appreciate the wind at your back until you have walked into the eye of the storm.
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Many people I know spend their whole lives planning for tomorrow. The problem with tomorrow is that it is always tomorrow. Don’t let tomorrow rob you of today.
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The efforts of men cannot knit hearts together. The Holy Spirit knits the hearts of men for the glory of God through Jesus. He does not bond churches together, he bonds saints together and the saints form the Church.
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Its a terrible thing to be held captive by our own thoughts.
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You cannot be lovers of the truth unless you are a lover of the Truth.
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Men will always strive to maintain that which puts bread on their table or keep them in their current position. They are the keepers of the status quo because they are recipients of the status quo. Status quo is Latin for ” the current state of affairs.” This becomes more apparent when things are changing.
Christendom has become a labyrinth. The faith has been split into a thousand little parts and you are made a heretic if there is one of them you do not accept….What can help? Only the one thing needful; return to Christ, looking to Christ as the only Leader, and walking in His footsteps, setting aside all other ways until we reach that goal, and have come to the unity of the faith (Eph. 4:13). As the Heavenly Master built everything on the grounds of the Scriptures, so should we leave all particularities of our special confessions and be satisfied with the revealed Word of God which belongs to us all. With the Bible in our hand we should cry ; I believe what God has revealed in this Book ; I will obediently keep His commands ; I hope for that which He has promised . Christians, give ear! There is only one Life, but Death comes to us in a thousand forms. There is only one Truth, but Error has a thousand forms. There is only one Christ, but a thousand Anti-Christs…..So thou knowest, O Christendom, what is the one thing needful. Either thou turnest back to Christ or thou goest to destruction like the Anti-Christ. If thou art wise and wilt live, follow the Leader of Life. But you, Christians, rejoice in your being caught up…hear the Words of your Heavenly leader , “Come unto me,’…..Answer with one voice, ” We come! (The Voice of the Morning , 1660)
There has been an ancient battle which will soon unveil itself once again. There are the genuine saints and then there are the religious, the people of the world. In the Reformation, Luther made a fatal mistake. He rejected the notion of a church of “believers,’ in favor of the State church. The State church gave aid and false comfort to the general population at large. It lulled them into a false sense of security, in effect it said “peace, peace, where there was no peace.” The State church today is represented by a thousand denominational and non-denominational churches. In the average church in America for instance, almost half of every congregation is divorced, yet the hirelings remain silent. Materialism and worldliness is rampant, yet again, silence. This modern church model is based on the Catholic model where the power lies in the hands of the priest, which we now call the minister or the pastor. It is true that he does not claim to turn the bread into the body of Jesus or the wine into His blood, but none-the less, the power resides within the one man, who relies on the people to put food on his table.
When this structure is swept away, then the genuine priesthood of believers will arise. This sleeping body of people will awake and walk in their giftings. Now Satan has always violently opposed the genuine witness of the the Lord Jesus here on this earth, and he has typically used the religious man and woman to do it, this tactic will not change. What now simmers under the surface, resentment of the religious man toward those who have a genuine faith and walk in the holiness of the Lord, will come boiling and bubbling to the surface and Satan will seek a “final solution, for the “Christian problem.” Yet, as the enemy comes in like a flood, so the Lord will raise up a standard, He will pour His Spirit out upon His children and they will walk in a biblical power that the world has not seen for a long time. The Lord always enables those that He calls, He equips us for what He calls us to do. And all of this is surely at the door. What will be the catalyst for this change? Only the Lord knows……………….brother Frank
The emptying process. He removes the stones and rocks and clods from our hearts and refines the flesh. The desires of the world lose all their allure as He draws us to Himself. If we yield to the process then He draws us closer. I would love to say that in my experience it has been a one time yielding, but no, not so simple. Time and again the calling comes. The deeper and the closer we come, oftentimes the deeper the cut. Shall we yield to the surgeon’s knife? Shall we yield to the sculptor’s chisel? I would say that only a vision of heaven itself could draw us to such yielding.
Just one moment in His presence. Can a single moment ruin us for the things of this world? Is it possible that after that moment the world turns to black and white? Then another miracle happens. As we begin to look at the world through these captivated eyes, the color begins to return but it’s not the color of the world, it’s the color of heaven. Now one truly sees the sunset because one has been intimate with the artist. I can see a waterfall and my spirit soars because I know the hand that crafted it. These majestic mountains and stars that fill the heavens raises me up to higher places than them , to the place where they were born. The hand of a child, a single ray of sunshine though the clouds, a wave that crashes to the shore, soon enough I see my Lord in all of it. I see His beauty everywhere.
Yet the darkness prevails and time and time again it comes against the light . Yet, out of that moment, out of His presence there is born an eternal longing that no darkness can quell just as no hand could hold back the tide. He comes. Yes and He comes again to those who would wait upon Him. How long shall we wait? However long it takes. This is the kind of love that would wait a thousand years. And so we yield , and so we die to this world. And we are drawn ever closer to the next until the day comes when we step over into the world that has touched us and called to us. There is glory in all of it. It is a grand tapestry and we are but a thread. Can we see the vision of the artist? Can we see the vision of the sculptor? It is not so important to see the vision of the artist or to see the finished sculpture , it only really matters that we see Him, Him who creates it all. And when we see Him the yielding is simply a matter of trust and of longing, of hunger and of thirst as the deer panteth for the water-brooks.
This phrase “against all hope,” or “contrary to hope,” can be found in Romans 4:18. In this particular case we see that Abraham and his wife are well beyond the age of bearing a child. Sarah’s womb was dead, it could indeed carry no life. And so in life we oftentimes run into situations that defy hope, stand diametrically opposed to hope. All the evidence of the rational world and the finest experts opinions dash any worldly hope upon the rocks of hopelessness and despair. Yet brothers and sisters, it is a glorious thing to remember that our hope is not the hope of the world. Our hope is founded upon our God and His word, His promises. His word is not broken, His promises cannot be broken. And it is this hope that is a wellspring of joy and peace and love and a sound mind.
Abraham, the father of faith believed God and life sprang forth from death. Now from the first promise until the fulfillment it took 25 years. Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when Issac was conceived. This defied all the evidence of the rational world. In the world Abraham would have had no hope, in the world we too would have no hope, yet praise God we may be in the world but not off it. We walk according to the Spirit of God, we stand upon the Word of God, we believe in the promises of God and we walk in the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is and always has been a place of miracles.
It is life itself to me to know the King of Kings who sits upon the throne and the train of His robe fills the temple but who also is the Shepherd who takes me in His arms and carries me when I am wearied. He never sleeps and is never wearied and I love Him. And when I wait on Him I can find the strength to run and the weariness is left below as I am caught up in the updrafts of His presence and I am carried up into His arms. Wait upon Him saints , He sees your distress, He shall come and you shall walk and not faint.
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those with young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured out the heavens with a span? And who has shut up the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
(Isa 40:11-12)
The authentic saint is founded upon relationship not theology or doctrine. That is not to say that the authentic saint does not study theology or have doctrine. What it does say is that their entrance into the Kingdom of God came by way of encounter, not by information. One is of the head, the other of the heart. One radically transforms, the other puffs up.
Hi saints, I have been writing a lot about the desert recently. The Lord has been inspiring me to write about the desert and about abundant life, overflowing rivers, rivers that rise up and out of their banks. It seems that these are two entirely different subjects but in actual fact, they are one in the same. Now, the desert life certainly applies to every genuine saint and always has done. If we think about Romans 6,7 and 8 we can certainly see the walk of the saint down through the ages. Romans 6 would be about coming out of the world, leaving Egypt behind and passing through the sea. Romans 7 would then be our journey through the wilderness, through the desert where we learn that our own efforts only lead to death. And Romans 8 we see victory in crossing the Jordan into the promised land, an entering into rest.
Yet I now believe we are witnessing something very unique in our day. Not only is there a personal desert that all saints must be tested in, there is also a corporate desert for the Church of the end of ages. I believe that all of Christendom has entered into a corporate desert. This is a final place of testing prior to the Bridegrooms return. This is a valley of decision, a time to count the cost. Shall we move forward? I believe that this place of corporate testing will separate the true Church from that which calls itself the church. Now in the Scriptures we know that a promise was made to Abraham, that he would father a child and that child would represent the seed that would bless all nations.
Hi saints, here is a link http://media.sermonindex.net/24/SID25004.mp3 to a sermon on what it means to Gods remnant saints to walk in the power of unity and in His presence. The unity of God’s people in the end days will be a fulfillment of the high Priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17.
Hi Saints, in a previous post https://acalltotheremnant.com/2013/07/19/the-city-in-the-desert/ we talked about the Church in the desert. We talked about how it was counter-intuitive to go into a desert to find life, but that this indeed was what God was calling us to. And of course it is entirely Biblical. We can see this pattern time and again of being called into the desert, to be stripped of the flesh, sanctified, and learning complete dependence upon God. We see that if we can learn to live a thankful obedient life in the desert, then the joy that we find when we enter into that place of rest, when we cross over the Jordan, is a joy that is full because God, in His full-ness, has been found by the heart that is wholly given to Him.
Now, how much life we garner in the desert has a direct correlation to our life eternally. Jesus taught, in relation to His coming and life eternal, that to “everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will abound. But from him who has not, even that which he has shall be taken away from him.” (Mat 25:29)
What do we have? Have we not love and forgiveness and mercy, do we not have joy and peace? When Jesus spoke of the talents, so many people construe that to be connected to money or actual talents when of course, this was the analogy , the parable, to prove the point. We have made the analogy the actuality, we are mistaken.
All through the Scriptures and down through the corridors of history, we see many patterns. Recently we spoke about the patterns of God calling His people into the desert to find life. Of course this, like so many of the patterns we find in Scripture are counter-intuitive. That is because, one is of the flesh , the wisdom of man, and one is of the Spirit, the wisdom of God that confounds man.
I want to speak this morning about one of these patterns. We see in Scripture, when God calls a man or a people, there is always a competing element that comes against that which He has called. We see that with Cain and Abel and Saul and David, Jesus and the Pharisees , the Catholic church and the martyrs and so on. We saw it with Isaac and Ishmael. One was of the promise and the other one was birthed in an attempt to fulfill the promise by human efforts. One of the flesh, one of the Spirit and the flesh would come to persecute the one of the Spirit. We see it again in Jacob. To him was the promise yet he attempted in his flesh to fulfill that which was already promised. Even although there were two brothers in the same womb, and even although one was the elder,and the Scriptures say that there was two nations within the womb of Rebekah, to only one was the promise. Jacob would eventually flee from his rightful place because he feared the vengeance of his brother.
In a vision I saw the Church of God in the depths of a vast desert. In our flesh we avoid deserts. The vision , I suppose, is metaphorical for the narrow path that leads to life. It makes no sense to think that if I was seeking abundant life that I would seek it in the desert. Yet there it was, the church of God, surrounded by a mighty desert. There was no way to the heart of it but by striking out and heading deep into a place where my only resource, in fact life itself, would be God. If He did not go before me I would die, I would never get there. If He is not a cloud over my head then the sun would kill me. If He is not a fire by night then I will surely freeze to death.
There is nothing attractive about the desert. It is not an alluring place, in fact quite the opposite. Lot chose the well watered places and planes of Sodom in which to dwell. It was near a wicked city, but it was plentiful and life was easy there. Yet at what cost? Does the choices that we make have consequences? We may not lose our souls in the process but we certainly can have leanness of Spirit, the very opposite of the abundant life. The cares of this world, the proximity to Sodom, or the ease we have in Babylon certainly factor into our walk with the Lord. Only when asked to leave this place or give it up can we know what hold it has over us. Lots wife would have had doubts, but in the turning round to look back at what she was leaving, the question was answered. The desert was not for her.
Dear sister Lynn writes……………..”truly the weight of his glory was there, and he among us. I can not express just how precious the whole three days were, some very special brothers and sisters drawn together. Blessings, lynn ” This comment is from a dear sister who attended our remnant meetings last weekend.
I would say this would sum up our meetings very well. The weight of His glory fell upon us. From the beautiful still silence of His rest arose a symphony of praise to our God. His presence fell upon us like the dew of Hermon that fell upon the mount of Zion. And just as the Lord commanded the blessing, we found life, abundant life in the river of God that flows from His High and lofty place. There is much noise in the land brothers and sister. There is much professional worship that makes a great noise. In the world’s eyes it sounds great and is somewhat familiar to their ears because much of it is fashioned after the music of the world. It is designed to entertain. Yet, can I suggest, that if the Lord does not inhabit it then it is merely noise and it actually drowns out the small still voice that would whisper to us ” He is beautiful beyond description, to marvelous for words, to wonderful for comprehension, like nothing ever seen or heard, who could grasp His infinite wisdom, who could fathom the depths of His love. He is beautiful beyond description, majesty enthrones above.”
As God gathers His people together, a hush will fall upon their hearts. They will catch their breaths as the King of glory comes in, comes in in all of His fullness. As He begins to flood the dry creek beds with a mighty rushing river then the saints will begin to rise up and minister in the overflow of His presence. There is a fresh wind beginning to blow in the hearts of Gods saints. There is a fountain rising in their hearts. And the source of this fountain is God Himself in all of His majestic glory. And out of this river flows an everlasting abundant love. It fills us with light and this light is the life of men. Look unto God and see what it truly means to live an abundant life in Christ.
For many saints today, as they survey the land and as they walk through many trials and tribulations, it is not always easy to rest in the fact that the Lord delights in you. Today I want to take time to encourage you. You know that in you is a burning word. You cannot keep silent. You cannot relent as others seem to. Even although much of Christendom is mocked by the world and rightly so. Even although the Lord is blasphemed by those of the world because of the low condition of Christianity, God still has a people who cannot remain silent. The Lord says to you today ……………
I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, who will not always be silent all the day nor all the night; you who remember Jehovah, do not be silent. And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.( Isa 62-6-7)
Brothers and sisters, this is Gods word to us in this day. Do not remain silent even although you may have suffered much for your stand. Continue to come before the Lord and give Him no rest until He establishes and brings to pass His will in His people. God has commanded that we give Him no peace. He has encouraged us to keep coming to Him and praying for the Church, even although as we survey the land we see great desolation. Can I tell you today that God has given us great promises for His own. He says, so it shall come to pass, that the her righteousness shall go forth as brightness and her salvation will be as a lamp that burns. He tells us that we have a crown of glory and that we shall be as a royal diadem in His hand. When the world looks at the church they shall no longer mock or laugh derisively.
A Call To The Remnant 