What are we intended to be? We are intended to be in our experience, in our spiritual life, in our presence here, a living proof that Jesus is the Son of God, not just declare this as a tenet of our faith and creed, but to be here as children of God growing up into Sonship (T.A.Sparks)
Is there a difference between those who declare the tenets of our faith and who agree upon the creeds, and those who are sons and daughters of God ? A living reality as opposed to a set of truths. The Galatians are a great example. Paul says to them “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another…………..but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any gospel to you than which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” This is intense. Paul is leaving no room for doubt. Anything other than Spirit led experiential transformation, is a gospel of works and is perverse and no gospel at all and those who teach it are accursed by God Himself.
The works of the law were being presented to the Galatians by those from Jerusalem. They had begun in the Spirit but now they were resting on the flesh, the works of the law. Paul calls them fools who have been bewitched. In most of modern day Christendom it is not the works of the Jewish law that bewitches men, although there are whole sects of folks who will tell you that you must keep the law and the feasts and so on. No, it is our own mental assent to orthodoxy that has replaced the living reality of sons and daughters of Christ. No experience necessary. A mental assent to a series of abstract truths is all that matters. This represents to the genuine believer today, what the Judaizers were to Paul and the saints. It is in conflict with the saints. It is amazing that the same truth can be what divides us. One is a living example of it, the other is a mere professor of it. And the one who professes it almost always resents and comes against the one who has been changed by it from the inside out.
How many times has it been said to you, in a resentful fashion, when you give your testimony of being born again “well, I never had any such experience, I just grew up in the church.” Or, if you relate any kind of supernatural experience and transformation there are any number of people who will resent you. Sparks says this ” our testimony must not be …I was brought up in a Christian home, and sent to Sunday school and taken to church and instructed in these things and given a sound Bible teaching. There has to be something more than that.” Of course, the something more is Christ Himself burning at the center of who are by the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not share abstract truth, we share a living experiential Jesus. Anyone can agree that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The devil himself knows that to be true. What the world needs to hear is a first hand account of the living Christ living in us, speaking to us, leading us and guiding us and changing us.
Brothers and sisters, we are a living proof of the risen Christ. We share with people who we know, not what we know. Now, can a man or a woman come to Christ by the Spirit of God and then fall away into mere orthodoxy, relying on the arm of the flesh to come to maturity? Yes indeed. Of course they never shall come to maturity. Teachers of every stripe will woo you away, they will want you to be zealous for them. Your church shall replace Jesus. Your pastor shall replace Jesus. Your favorite teacher will replace Jesus. Only by continuing on in the Spirit can you grow from mere babes in Christ into maturity and sons and daughters. Why is so much of Christendom stuck on the rudimentary elements, sharing milk week after week? It is because they have replaced the living reality of the Spirit of God with the mere orthodoxy of men. The orthodoxy and the truth of it is not the matter here, for genuine Spirit filled and Spirit led saints will be among the most orthodox people you will ever meet. The matter is being Spirit led.
The path of least resistance is to tick the boxes of orthodoxy without being a living reality of what that very orthodoxy teaches. It is one thing to believe that we have been called to be salt and light, it is quite another thing to actually be salt and light. You see the difference? Now apply that to every other aspect of what we believe. In order to live out what we believe we have to be led forward by a very real Holy Spirit. In almost every church up and down the land the folks are led, not by the Holy Spirit, but rather by men, who, for the most part will be teaching orthodox teaching of the basic kind. The systems of men has become another Gospel. It is like the sacraments in the Catholic church. Vacuous rituals devoid of any power. The words and the teachings and the sermons of much of Christendom, devoid of the actual power of the Holy Spirit, have become nothing more than sacramental activity, promising something without the power to deliver.
Sons and daughters of the Lord will always be in conflict with the merely religious. A mental assent is no match for a living reality. One has power and the other has a mere appearance. One is playing a character, the other is the real person. We used to say, back in the day, that there were no grandchildren in the Kingdom of God, only sons and daughters. Christendom has been swallowed up by the grandchildren. By osmosis and an accident of birth, there are millions of false professors all over the world and yet we know the words of Jesus from Matt 22 “many are called but few are chosen.” The many that are called prove themselves to be unworthy of the calling by the fact that they consider the calling a mere religious adornment. They busy themselves with the things of the world and disqualify themselves. Therefore, God finds for himself the few. He clothes them in righteousness and this clothing is worn to the marriage feast.
In the days to come, the divisions will become much deeper, much more apparent. The lifeless orthodox church will become more and more powerful as they ally themselves to the world and its system. It will reach its zenith in the one world system to come. The great whore church and the one world order will unite in an unholy alliance against the saints who shall refuse to acknowledge their authority and the authority if the evil one to come. The delusion shall be so great that only those sons and daughters, led by the Holy Spirit, will be able to see what the rest of the world cannot see or refuses to see. The marriage feast is coming brothers and sisters and only those clothed in the righteousness of God that is attained by the power of the Holy Spirit shall enter, the few. The many, in an attempt to save their lives here in this world, will lose their eternal lives in the world to come. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
There is a tectonic shift taking place in the realms of spiritual darkness and the prophetic calendar. The plates and the under-girdings of the world as we know it are moving. I wrote last week about the word the Lord gave me about a singular disaster that is about to change everything. https://acalltotheremnant.com/2022/02/26/a-word-from-the-lord-a-singular-disaster/ There is a new world order incubating, and following its birth it will come forth and be the deadliest enemy of the saints. All of the religions of the world will fall in line and form the great whore church.
In the run up to the WW1 we see rising and declining empires. When this happens huge wars typically follow. The 19th and 20th Century saw it all. There was the Napoleonic wars, where Napoleon sweeps across Europe, ultimately destroyed by the Russian winter. The American civil war where 600,000 were killed and slavery abolished. There was the Austrian Hungarian Empire (the old so called Holy Roman Empire) The Prussian and the Russian Empires. The British Empire of course and the Ottoman Turks. Towards the end of the 19th century we see many of these empires compete against each other while some were in decline and others were rising. At the same time the Industrial revolution was in full swing and science and technology were exploding. Automatic weapons of all kinds, and mechanized weapons were invented, and of course chemical warfare. All would be used in the coming war of the empires.
We face such a time once again. The empires are different yet in many ways still the same. We have what is left of the old Soviet Union. The Americans, The West and of course, China. Some are on the rise, well at least one. Most of the rest are in some stage of decline whether militarily, economically and certainly morally. A moral collapse has left them weak and vulnerable. We too in our age have seen a revolution, computers and technology has far outstripped anything that we saw in the last two centuries combined. Weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons and biological weapons. Information has risen to dizzying heights as one of the greatest of all weapons of all. Yet, just like our ghosts from the past, we will use all the weapons at our disposal as well. It is what we do, we are fallen.
When the smoke clears and the plates stop shifting, this world will have given itself over to a reprobate mind. War shall be openly declared on the saints, not the religious, the saints. 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 (Rev 13:7) Only those who walk in the Spirit will survive spiritually intact. They may be martyred, but they will pass through the fire with Jesus. In order to find gold in the earth a massive amount of earth has to be moved. It is referred to as overburden. Heaven and earth shall be moved and the saints will be brought forth. The great sifting and separating. Fires and floods, we shall walk through them all with Christ in us the hope of glory. Stand strong saints, in the power of His might. He is coming soon.
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)
A number of years ago I came across the story of the Decian persecution of Christians while I was doing research for a book I was writing. I did not include this in the book but it is interesting to consider the facts. Decian was the Roman Emperor in 250 ad. He issued an edict that required everyone in the Roman empire to perform a sacrifice. The sacrifice was to be made to the Roman gods, and also included a loyalty oath towards his rule as Emperor. (See above image) The sacrifice had to be carried out before a Roman magistrate who would then sign a certificate which would allow them to carry on with whatever business they were involved with. This certificate would enable them to buy or sell.
The particular region I was studying was Carthage. It was expected that there would be great resistance to this from the Christian community and indeed this was part of the motivation for the decree in the first place. Imprisonment and death were the penalties for those who refused to participate in the sacrifice. The Carthaginian authorities settled on the days that the city was to participate. They were totally taken by surprise by the large numbers of “Christians,’ who rushed to “get their certificate.” They had to extend the time they had allotted for the sacrifices and certificate signing.
Out of the group that refused to be involved in sacrificing to gods, many were martyred, others were imprisoned and still others went into hiding. Interestingly, at the same time as this “empire wide,” persecution, a plague had broken out and was killing up to five thousand Romans per day. This only added to the hatred of Christians as they were deemed to be in some way responsible for this. And so, when this particular persecution ended, there was a great deal of tension between those who had stood their ground for Jesus and those who had capitulated in order to save themselves.
This was not the first time this had happened, nor would it be the last. The Diocletian persecution would be the most intense staring at around 300ad and last for around a decade. Again the spit would happen. A large majority would capitulate and deny the faith, the smaller minority would be killed, imprisoned or flee. When the smoke cleared from this latest persecution, the larger group that had capitulated to the state would be the group favored by Constantine. No surprise that the Emperor would choose the group who he could count on to bow the knee to him and the State. That group were the Catholics. The minority group, the group that had refused to hand over their scriptures to the State and to bow the knee, were known as “Donatists.’ They refused to acknowledge anyone who had capitulated to Rome as a Christian. For this they were hunted down and killed.
I would just like to say that some things never change. There is and always has been a large group, a majority group, within the world that identifies itself as Christian, that will not “stand in the evil day.” It is such an evil day that separates the sheep from the goats. It is the storm that tests the foundations of the house. It is not what a man or woman calls themselves that counts for anything, it is who they actually are. Those who have received the love of the truth, who are genuinely born again, will stand in that day. They will be martyred, they will be imprisoned or they will flee. What they will not do, what they could never do, what they have never done, is to deny their Lord. As it was, so it always shall be until that glorious day when Christ returns.
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.
Heb 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
There are two broad categories of people within the realms of Christendom. One group is very large and the other fairly small. The smaller group are the folks that the above scripture alludes to. The other group are religious, with all its many facets. The good, the bad and the ugly but of course in the end its all darkness to those who cannot discern the voice of God. Those who cannot be moved by His Spirit, who do not have the laws of God written upon their hearts and their minds will always stumble and become the antagonist towards those who are so moved.
Let me give you a hypothetical. Abraham has his son of promise. Oh how long he waited. He and Sarah finally had what they knew that God had promised. Of course Abraham had told others of this child and the promises associated with him and the nation that would be born in him. And one day, seemingly out of nowhere, God tells Abraham to take his son and kill him. Now imagine what his closest friends would make of that. Imagine what his own wife would make of that. Can you hear their arguments? “Abraham you’re mad. God would never contradict Himself. You have misheard. Under no circumstances must you do this.”
And here we have the difference between those who know the voice of God and those who merely know truth. It is all true what they would say. Isaac was certainly the child of promise. Everything that God had promised Abraham would come to pass. Yet Abraham knew the voice of God. And in the end, those who shall be led by His Spirit will know the voice of God, for His very will is written upon our hearts. We must obey God even when we do not fully understand. There are plenty of men who only know the truth as it is written, but it has not be written upon their hearts.
The Holy Spirit is not leading them and guiding them and inspiring them to know and understand the words written. Outside of the Holy Spirit there is but a two dimensional understanding of the Scriptures. The revelation of the word of God can only be discerned by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Everything else is religion. Common wisdom would say that Isaac should not be taken up the hill. If Abraham had not taken his son up the hill then he would not be the father of faith. Yet, as always, the just shall live by faith. And the deaf? They shall stumble in the darkness.
Fifteen years ago my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We decided decided to go to the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia and use that as our headquarters and travel for 16 days through-out the region. Shortly before leaving for the trip the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He told me I was going to have a significant encounter and that it would change everything. I assumed I was going to meet someone. We rented a house that was actually attached to the walled city, it was part of the stone drawbridge and had a magnificent stone terrace that overlooked the enchanting harbor of the city.As I stood there one day, basking in a warm sun that was rising majestically from behind ancient mountains, a glorious and indescribable presence enveloped me. I had experienced the manifest presence of God many times before but nothing like this. It seemed to permeate my very DNA. Every part of me was alive and captivated, from my head right down to my toes and all around me.
Suddenly I was in another place.I was looking at what I could only describe as some kind of amalgam of the old testament Tabernacle and Solomon’s temple. In a grand square there was a great number of people. I asked who they were and was told they were the vast majority of people who called themselves Christians.They were standing in what I was told was the court of the gentiles. A great sadness came over me as I witnessed a tremendous amount of activity going on in the court. I wondered why they were not passing through a low door that was in a wall that led to the inner sanctuary. I was told that they would not bow down which would enable them to pass through the door. I could see what was behind the door in the wall, it was the inner sanctuary.
There was first a brazen altar. It was a foul-smelling place but was deeply loved by God. The few who came though the door brought sacrifices of sin it seemed to me. They were coming forward not to get something but to give up foul-smelling sins that had so easily beset them. It took great humility to come before this place and acknowledge these secrets of their heart but they were readily burned up in a fire that continually burned. People sacrificed rags and were clothed in fine white linen. People sacrificed perversions and were given purity. Lies were sacrificed and truth was given. All manner of sin was replaced by holiness and purity.Then they moved forward to the lavar bowl where they washed themselves before moving on to be fed by shewbread which filled them in a way that they would never again hunger. Then they stood in the light of the lampstand, no longer ashamed but washed clean and made pure and able to stand in the light of God for He had cleansed them. Lastly their prayers began to rise up like incense and come before the throne of God Himself.
I looked again at the vast crowd outside of the manifest presence of God, engaged in much activity in the court of the gentiles and I was amazed that they would not enter. So close to entering in, but so unwilling to give up the things of this world, too proud to bow down and enter through the door, too ashamed to give up their innermost foul-smelling sin.Suddenly I was back standing on the terrace. I looked out over a motionless sea where it met a cloudless sky and the rising sun warmed me with such a fierce intensity. In this fire of His presence I was alive with a life I knew would never end. This was my promised encounter with my glorious indescribable Jesus. This was when my writing began in earnest. I knew that the time was short and that I was to write to and encourage the remnant saints of God, those who had bowed down and enter into the glory.
I was to encourage them and also to encourage anyone in the court of the gentiles who would have an ear to hear, to bow down and enter in and leave the court behind. To come away, come out from among them, and to enter into a place that required all of our hearts.I was to stand in the midst of the Jordan, so to speak, and encourage the saints as they passed through from the wilderness into the promised land. Like all the pilgrim saints experience , the long narrow way home is often a lonely, weary and exhausting road. But we have glimpsed something glorious have we not? We have in our mind and soul and spirit saw something of our eternal destination.
It is high and lifted up. He is high and lifted up. The Lord Jesus is not only our companion along the way He is our destination. Don’t ask me to explain that. He is behind me and He hedges me around about, He goes before me and He dwells within me.Yet my destination is the unadulterated presence of the living God where the flesh is no longer a barrier that limits the glory. A place where this world is no longer a distraction nor competes for my attention. To finally dwell in a high and lofty place where I know as I am known. Oh to know as I am known, tis another world indeed, it is our world, it our home, it is our destination and every step we take is another step closer. Keep on walking saints though the road seem hard and lonely, keep on walking and lift up your head and see the glory. It is closer than you think.
Psalm 78:8 A generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
This is a clear warning as to what happens when you do not “set your heart,” properly, you spirit will not trust in God. Consider this saying “they set not their hearts aright.” This is a clear indication that it is incumbent upon us to make sure the conditions of our heart is good. This can only come in cooperation with God, He will not do this for you. And the beginning of a right heart is fear of God and thankfulness for what He has provided.
In this psalm it is recorded that they were delivered from Egypt. The sea was parted, they had a cloud over their heads by day and a fire by night. Water gushed forth from the rocks and bread fell from the heavens. Yet, they were not thankful, they still did not trust God. And they “tested God in their heart,’ their un-thankful hearts and asked for “the food of their fancy.” (v 19) They wanted more, they wanted better and they wanted it now. Does this not remind you of the prosperity gospel? And so we are told that God rained down meat on them “like the dust.” Feathered fowl more than the sands of the seas. How they must have thought, for a in time, that they were blessed of the Lord forgetting all the lessons of Job.
And so they ate and were filled, they gorged themselves and He gave them over to their own desires. “They were not deprived of their cravings.” (v30) Their desire and their obsessions were not for God but for the things that filled their stomachs. In our day it is houses and cars and status and that same “fancy,’ food. Yet even while it was in their mouth the wrath of God was stirred. And in verse 33 we see that “their days were consumed in futility and their years in fear.” To seek after the things of the world is to spend your life in futility. If your heart is not right with God you will spend your life in fear.
Yet the Lord has for Himself a people that He has taken possession of and they have found their Zion. A thankful people, a people who have set their hearts to trust in their God. Who, no matter what, are a thankful people. An obedient people. A people whose cravings and grand obsessions are not for the fancy foods and material possessions of this world but for God Himself. And He has set a King over us and His name is Jesus, the only begotten Son of God and the glory of God. And we are shepherded by Christ Himself, glory to God. Watch the condition of your hearts saints, keep it right, keep it watered by the living waters of God.
Psa 33:10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the nations to nought: he maketh the plans of the people of no effect.
In all the affairs of men, they merely bleat with the noise of a thousand sheep upon the hill. It makes no difference to the fate of sheep how much they bleat, man will do what man will do with them. God will do what God will do with men. Even now as we watch the actions of the wisest men in the world, at least in their own estimations, we see their plans coming to nothing. Savage men of the baser sort hold the strings of power over the strong and sophisticated. The wisdom of the wise is utter foolishness to God. He raises up the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. No king is saved by the multitude of his army for it is God who fashions the hearts of those who are ripe for judgement. They may run to and from but if they escape from the lion they shall run headlong into the bear. If somehow they escape from the bear and make it home, they enter in and give a sigh of relief, just as the viper strikes.
Shall God’s people be afraid when the Lord comes down? Why should they be afraid even though the mountains crumble and the great seas mount up and recede? The wind may gasp and hold its breath but the Lord’s anointed dwell safely within His pavilion. The earth will surely shake when He rends the heavens and comes down. The beasts of the fields will stop and raise their heads and the trees shall clap their hands. The thunder will thunder and the lightning shall strike. The princes of the earth shall be brought low and wicked men shall cry out in despair. Yet the children of God shall be be safe within His pavilion and they shall not be afraid. They sought the Lord and He heard them, and delivered them from all of their fears. They looked to Him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed. Stand fast saints and let your faces shine out into the darkness to the praise and glory of our God.
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?
Many many years ago my mother and father attended a Baptist church, and they would go to the prayer meeting. The minister was quite a strict man and gave firm instructions that no one was to pray for “personal,” issues. The prayers were to be on whatever the subject of the teaching had been prior to the prayers beginning. As someone who has”operated,” in the prayer ministry over the years, I understand where the minister was coming from. It can often be frustrating to hear someone pray for what an old friend of mine used to call “aunt Flo’s big toe.” Prayer meetings can devolve into praying for all the different body parts. A long list of peoples ailments. The whole world can be in flames and the church can be falling away, and yet, even if you are fortunate enough to have a prayer meeting, aunt Flo can play a prominent roll in it, or at least her big toe can.
One night at the prayer meeting, before I was saved, my mother “felt the calling,’ to stand and pray for the salvation of her son. It was so strong she could not resist. So, she stood to her feet, trembling, and very clearly breaking the rules, she prayed for something that was very personal to her. She felt what she called “the breakthrough.’ She knew something had happened in the realms of the Spirit. Very shortly after that I got saved, a man on the brink of suicide and ravaged by sin and the lashes of a a dark world.
I think it is great to have structure. I think it is great to have direction. I think it is great to have some kind of instruction. Yet in the end, all of that must be held very loosely or we shall certainly miss the mark. The tension between man’s order and God’s moving is a perilous one. It has to be revisited over and over again. Whether in a prayer meeting or a Sunday morning service, get it wrong and the preeminence of God is usurped. Outside of His preeminence there is only shades of grey at best, which is nothing more than darkness masquerading as something that it is not.
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.”
The persecution of the saints worldwide is beginning to appear on the horizon. There is no mistake in the timing. God has been preparing us for the time that will soon be upon us. We will be like a well watered garden spiritually. In many ways we will be glad that the world shall no longer be pretending to be tolerant. All the cards, so to speak, will be on the table. It’s a time of revealing, on both sides, and there will only be two sides. The wheat shall be one side and they will be a people who have counted the cost, and the price? Total separation from a world that has turned on them. We shall pass through a veil of tears and a garden of Gethsemane. And then, the world will put its hands on us and take us, yet we shall be surrendered in it.
If you find yourself wearied right now, by the world and by it’s attitudes towards us, what will you do when all the pretense is gone and their hatred is in no way veiled? If the very thought of coming persecution causes you to lose your peace, what will the actual persecution do to your mind? You must do the business of Gethsemane before they take a hold of you. You have to pass from agony and despair to total acceptance and surrender in the sure knowledge that you have been called, and equipped, for such a time as this. For the joy that is set before you, for the fulfilling of the will of God, let us set our face like flint, as our Lord did. Flint is hard and resolute, let us be strong and resolute is our cause.
Our primary focus in life, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, must be the glory of God. This rends the heavens and fills our heart with the power that we need. Paul and Silas did not cry out in the dungeon that God would release them. They did not cry out “woe is me, help me Lord.’ They sang praises unto God. And the power of God came flooding down and the the jail was shaken to its very foundations. This is power, for the hour of our testings that is to come. This is instructive to the saints. Praising God when everything is stripped from us is how we glorify God, it is a sign of our unconditional love for Him and it disarms the enemy of our souls and it looses the shackles of this world.
I would encourage you today, not by telling you that all of our problems are behind us, indeed they are not and the greatest challenges lie just ahead. No, my encouragement to you is that our souls will be like well watered gardens even in the middle of a wilderness desert of persecution. The greatest fellowship you will ever experience, as many now so desperately desire, will be yours as the enemy comes in like a flood and the Lord raises up a standard.
Your depth of relationship with the Lord will exceed anything you have ever imagined, and after the wheat has been separated from the tares, your fellowship with your fellow brothers and sisters will be sublime. Let us run with the footmen now and not grow weary, and in the running let us rather be conditioned and strengthened. And when the swift horses of persecution comes we shall be swifter. We shall run and not grow weary, we shall walk and not grow faint and we shall rise up with the eagles and soar in the updrafts of His presence that surely falls upon us when we praise Him in the midnight hour.
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trusted, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?(Jer 12:5)
Hi saints. In my mind’s eye I can see the Holy City far and deep into a mighty desert.I know that in my flesh I would avoid deserts. The vision in my mind’s eye would, I suppose, be metaphorical for the narrow path that leads to life. It makes no sense to think that if I was seeking life that I would go seek it in the desert. Yet there it is, the church of God, surrounded by a mighty desert.
The only way to the heart of it is by beginning the journey and heading deep into a place where my only resource will be God Himself and I will surely die without Him. If He does not go before me I will die, if He is not my rearguard I will die. If He does not feed my I will die. If He gives me no water I will die. If I have not His cloud over my head I will die. If there be no fire by night, I will die. Death is the prominent theme, all is death, only God is life.
We are told that Lot chose the well watered plains of Jordan which was in close proximity to Sodom and the cities of the plains. Well watered? Yes. An abundance for his cattle to graze? Yes. Did it make practical sense to dwell there? Room to grow his business and prosper there? Yes. Yet, he would find spiritual famine there. He is in a place of abundance and yet he is dying spiritually. What does it ultimately cost us to live with a soul that is perpetually vexed?
Does the choices that we make have consequences? We may not lose our souls in the process but can it be that we would lose our intimate walk with Jesus because of the cares of the world? The cares that inevitably come by living in proximity to Sodom, or being caught up in the systems of Babylon or remaining within a denomination or a church that has embraced the wickedness of the world that is was sent to seek and to save.
Can there be life in the desert? Would we willingly choose to enter into such a place where all flesh dies but for the Lord? Can we be drawn into a place where unless we encounter God Himself as we are stripped of all of our resources then we would surely die? God is raising up such a generation that will find abundant life in the desert. Who will find that water flows from Rock at the hand of God. That God Himself can make rivers in the desert. He can make a highway that leads to life.
Will you journey there? To journey anywhere you have to leave somewhere behind. What do you have to leave behind? Is there a desire in you to find God in such a deep way that He is life itself to you and that without Him you would surely die and have no desire to live? Can I encourage you today saints? God has made such glorious and mighty promises to those who hunger and thirst after Him with their “whole hearts.”
God has made glorious promises to those who will seek Him with their whole hearts. Desert places? Yes. Yet a burning bush and some sand can and will be transformed into Holy ground, for where the Lord is, that is Holy ground. He is not found within the structures of man but He is found deep in the heart of the longing sacrificing heart. There are sacrifices to be made to come into this place. Do you desire to make such sacrifices to come into this place, for this is the place where vessels are filled with oil.
There is a generation of desert dwellers being raised. A generation of wilderness dwellers ready to rise up and come forth. A generation of saints who have counted the cost. A generation whose only desire is to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. A generation that shall be hated by the whole world. That very same world will see a manifestation of His glory through His called out saints.. The saints will behold His glory and His majesty. And they will make declarations from that place.
This is the purpose of God’s saints. There will be a glorious noise of worship in the desert to our King. We will sing hallelujahs to His glory. Paul and Silas sang such praises in the midnight hour. Despite their scourges, despite their fetters and chains, despite their location in the depths of a dungeon they sang out the praises of the living God. As they did, all of the prisoners listened in awe that men who should be most miserable were in fact encountering the glories of God. And suddenly the power of God fell to such a degree that the whole building shook upon its foundations.
Now imagine the whole world shaking upon its foundations saints! Shaking because the praises of the persecuted saints have caused the heaven to be rended, the skies to split open and the power and the glory and the presence of God to come down. The anointing of the anointed one will be upon us and the world will look into the desert, the prisons, the wilderness and hear a strange and glorious noise, a noise such as they have never heard before and a light that shines out of a place where no light and no life should exist, and they will be perplexed and be confounded.
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.
The congregation, the gathered, the called out ones are, in and of themselves a set of instruments. Each a vital part of the orchestra and without such there can be no genuine praise and worship. Without the instruments of God making beautiful expressions composed by the Holy Spirit all we have is professional music and a professional speaker. The true instruments remain silent. And the one who fine tunes each and every one of these instruments is dismayed to see that they are silenced. .
The people hear manufactured music that lulls them to spiritual sleep. They have long forgotten that they themselves are instruments in the hands of the Master musician. When the orchestra of God has been silenced, when the conductor has been usurped, then all we are left with is noise, clanging symbols and sounding brass. Only as the full orchestra plays, conducted by the Holy Spirit Himself, can the hearts be pierced rather than be dulled and lulled into a state of slow death. For the symphony to rise to heaven all instruments must be engaged. This is the Body, all moving together, conducted by majesty and producing a magnificent holy sound that brings down the weight of heaven’s glory. We have been drowned by the noise of silence. Sparks rise up and dance in the darkness from the fires of our own making. Oh to God that the usurpers would fall and the preeminent One would take His rightful place.
A Call To The Remnant 