These words have unleashed a storm through the ages. In a single sentence, God named a tension that would reverberate through every generation, a battle not just of flesh and blood, but of wills, of hearts, of spirits.
The Hebrew word teshuqah can be taken two ways, and both carry weight. It may mean that the woman would still long for her husband, long for his presence, his love, his intimacy, even in a fallen world. She would ache for connection even while living under the pain of fractured relationship. Or, like the use of the word in Genesis 4:7 (“sin’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it”), it may mean that she would desire to control or master her husband. In other words, there would now be a struggle for authority, a contest of wills, her desire versus his rule. Either way, the result is the same: conflict.
“And he shall rule over you.” That one line has lit fires of rebellion in the hearts of countless women. Read it aloud to most woman and watch, there will be a bristling, a flash in the eyes, a quick retort: “Men have abused that. Men have ruled harshly. Men have crushed women underfoot.” And they are right, men have done that. I grew up in a home where it was lived out in the worst way, domination, violence, cruelty. And yet, none of that cancels what God said. God did not bless abuse, He named the consequence of sin. The harmony of Eden was broken. The man who was meant to lovingly lead now rules with a heavy hand. The woman who was meant to joyfully walk beside him now resists his authority.
Man shakes his fist at God, woman resists the man, and all of it flows from the same poisoned well: sin. The man says, “I will be captain of my own soul.” The woman says, “You will not rule over me.” Both are disobedience. Both are rebellion against God’s order.
And through it all, the serpent still hisses, “Did God really say?” “Surely God didn’t mean that.” “Surely He didn’t mean for a man to be the head of the home.” He whispers the same lies he whispered in the garden, “You will not surely die, you can rewrite God’s word, you can be your own authority.” And when a woman rejects biblical headship with fury, when the spirit of Jezebel rises up, it is not just personal, it is spiritual war. The enemy rages against the order God set in place.
Genesis 3:16 is not a suggestion. It is not cultural. It is the divine diagnosis of the human condition after the fall, and we must deal with it. Men must repent of harsh rule and love their wives as Christ loved the Church. Women must repent of rebellion and come under godly headship as unto the Lord. Both must bow to God’s Word.
The cross is where the curse is broken. The cross is where the war ends. But the first step is to acknowledge what God has said, even when our flesh bristles, and choose obedience.
The Herd Mentality and the Call to Swim Against the Current
In July 2005, in Eastern Turkey near the village of Gevas in Van province, something astonishing happened. A group of shepherds had left their flock of about 1,500 sheep to have breakfast. During that time, one sheep wandered off a cliff, and every single one of the others followed. It’s a chilling picture of herd mentality , not just among sheep, but a profound metaphor for humanity.
We see this throughout history and even in our own day. People instinctively believe there’s safety in numbers, but the crowd can and mostly are terribly wrong.
One story from 9/11 that has always stayed with me is of two men who were above the impact zone of one of the towers. Very few people survived from above the crash site. These two did, and their story speaks volumes.
As they made their way down a heavily damaged stairwell, they came upon a group of 14 to 20 people heading upward. The men pleaded with them, “Don’t go up, there’s no rescue coming from the roof.”
But some in that group were being swayed by charismatic voices insisting that helicopters would come, that rescue was possible if they just went higher. But they were wrong. Helicopters couldn’t reach the roof because of the intense smoke and heat, and the rooftop doors were locked. Everyone who followed that advice died.
The two men who chose the hard way down , they lived.
That’s the herd mentality again. A subtle, collective pull toward what seems right, especially when others are doing it. But real awareness, real wisdom, often means resisting the flow.
Nazi Germany is another sobering example. A woman in a documentary from the 1960s was asked why she attended Hitler rallies. Her answer has never left me: “There was something in the atmosphere, and we all breathed it in.”
That’s the crowd again. That’s the spirit of the age, the zeitgeist, and it’s often strong enough to sweep entire nations away. Not everyone agreed with the Nazis, but most went along. They gave the salute, kept their heads down, and refused to stand out.
I remember once the Lord said to me, “Frank, if you’re running with the crowd, you’re running in the wrong direction.”
There are two rivers in this life.
The river of God, the river of life, where we are called to be immersed, not just ankle-deep or knee-deep, but swept up and carried by the Spirit of the Lord.
“And he measured one thousand cubits, and brought me through the waters, the water came up to my ankles. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters, the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through, the water came up to my waist. Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.” — Ezekiel 47:3–5, NKJV
And then there’s the river of this world, strong, dark, and swift, and we are called to swim upstream, against its flow.
We are not meant to follow the crowd off a cliff. We are called to be a peculiar people, a royal priesthood, a chosen generation. We are pilgrims and strangers in this land, never quite fitting in.
There are two overarching paths that lie before us, as stated by Jesus. One is the broad road that leads to destruction, and many will go in by it — the crowd. The other is the narrow gate and the difficult way that leads to life, and few will find it — the remnant.
“Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” — Matthew 7:13–14, NKJV
We are those who hear the voice of the Spirit through the Word of God, who see and understand and stand, even if we stand alone.
Let us be voices that warn. And more than that, let our walk be our light and a lamp of direction to others. The word of God is a lamp to our feet, it leads us and guides us in the way that we should go.The Kingdom of God is found along the narrow path that runs counter to the world.
It is a holy thing to know who you are in the Lord. To search the chambers of your own spirit with trembling , for the flesh is relentless, and is our most cunning foe. It creeps in as a whisper, yet departs in a tempest, tearing as it goes. But the Lord, ah, the Lord He speaks not in thunder, nor in the earthquake, but in that still, small voice. It is not the volume that stirs and shakes mountains, but the weight of the Word itself, Spirit-breathed, eternal.
For passion can rage like a sea in a storm, waves rising like giants, smashing all that dares to stand. But gaze upon the Christ before Pilate, Truth wrapped in silence, power clothed in meekness. Love’s boldness stood face to face with earthly might, yet never raised its voice in pride or vanity, the power of knowing.
If the message be truly of God, then it does not waver,it is unchanging, steadfast as His own Word. But the messenger? Oh, he is tested. Ridiculed. Wounded. Laid bare. He is stripped of self until he walks quietly, humbly, unknown to men, yet known to God. His heart beats not for applause but for obedience, to carry the fire he was given.
It is sweet, yes,so sweet,to hear His voice. But to speak it? That is often bitter. Bittersweet, the flavor of the prophetic path. Yet we must be faithful. Come storm or silence, come crowd or solitude,we must speak what He has spoken.
Let the waves crash, let the world rage. But let us walk on. One step in front of the other. One day at a time. Falling down but getting back up again. We can do all of this in Christ alone. In Him all things are possible and only by the power of the Holy Spirit can the message be delivered.
Scripture is utterly radical. I love reading it aloud (as my brothers and sisters know) The other day, I imagined a family gathered around a table, long before phones and computers existed. In their hands is a letter from a beloved family member. One person begins to read, and the whole family leans in, hanging on every word. If the reader pauses, some eager soul bursts out, “What does he say next?
I’ve never understood why some read Scripture as if delivering a sorrowful obituary. There is life in the Word! And there is even greater life in reading it aloud. It moves something in the Kingdom of God. It stirs the unseen realm, sending ripples of concentric circles through the world in ways we cannot perceive. It shakes, it draws, it calls forth something of heaven’s atmosphere into the here and now.
The spirit within us—once dead but now raised to life by the power of the Holy Spirit—begins to rise, like flames leaping up when the breath of life blows upon hot coals. It ignites. It burns. It puts fire in our bones. Our God is a consuming fire and His Word kindles the fire that is within us.
If I had a dollar for every time someone said “God told me,” I’d be a wealthy man. Yet, in the spirit of generosity and assuming the best of my brothers and sisters, I recognize that much of what has been spoken to me—often with sincere intentions—has been filtered through the prism of their soul and flesh. I’m primarily talking about Pentecostals as opposed to Charismatics of whom I have limited experience. Don’t get me wrong, I believe with all of my heart God speaks to His people and they know His voice.
However, it must also be acknowledged that we tend to “hear” what we want to hear. The flesh is cunning, and it has a voice—a persuasive, insistent voice that will use any means necessary to get its way. I hear it most clearly when I’ve been wronged, when the inner narrative in my mind begins constructing its defense, justifying responses that are anything but godly.
Yet that same loud voice can also be very subtle, whispering in ways that seem harmless, even reasonable. Ways that are always self-serving.This is precisely why Scripture calls us to “mortify” the deeds of the flesh. It is why we are commanded to take up our crosses daily. The more we die to our flesh, the clearer our spiritual hearing becomes—allowing us to discern the Lord’s voice. And His voice will never contradict His Word.
Discernment begins with ourselves (our self) Learn to identify the “voice,” of your flesh and begin to oppose it. Give it no quarter, for the flesh will not give your spirit any. It is it’s mortal enemy. Mortal being the operative word, for its time is short and it knows it. That’s why it wants to “eat, drink and be merry.” Crucify the voice of the flesh, take every thought captive and you will hear the voice of the Lord, speaking through your spirit all the more clearly.
There may be real submission to the will of God while we can’t help wishing things were otherwise. God does not ask us to feel that everything is for the best, but He does ask us to believe it (Andrew Bonar)
This is a deep truth. It is learned in the deepest valleys and the sorest of trials and loss. It may be well with our souls, as the beautiful old hymn goes, but our hearts can be broken. It is in the midst of that brokenness, that pain, that loss, that we draw near to God and He draws near to us. A broken and a contrite heart O God you will not despise (Psalm 51:17) Suffering produces endurance which produces character and hope (Rom 5:3-5) Blessed is the one who remains steadfast under trial ( James 1:2 ) The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit ( Psalm 34:18 )
We are to be rewarded, not only for work done, but for burdens borne, and I am sure that the brightest rewards will be for those who have borne their burdens without murmuring (Andrew Bonar ) A thankful heart in the face of great trial, is the ultimate in believing our God, in trusting Him, it is the very essence of faith. It causes that old liar, the devil, to shut his mouth and his accusations against the most high God that His people only love them because of favorable circumstances. It is out of darkness, that God Himself has commanded light to shine forth. And that light is the very essence of glory and love. It is a tangible force that heals and restores and draws us very near to our Lord and our God.
Can these bones live? A question asked of God to Ezekiel in a great valley which represented all of Israel (Ezek 37) What great valley stretches our before us in our day? Christendom lies motionless in the valley of death, mere bones glistening in the sun. Yet in Ezekiel, these bones speak. There is enough life in them to cry out to God, according to God. “Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.” Oh to God that Christendom would have enough life left in them to cry out the very same thing.
H.Bonar, in the 19th century made four basic observations as it applied in his day from Ezekiel 37. 1. Our creed may be sound and yet we may not be Christians. 2. Our religion may be externally complete and yet we may not be Christians. 3. Our good works may be numerous and praiseworthy, yet we may not be Christians. 4. Our lives may be exemplary but we may not be Christians. ” By religion I mean everything that pertains to the private or public worship and service of God;our praises, our prayers, our sanctuary services, our family worship. What are all these without the inward breath? What is routine without life? Mechanical religion may be all right for the gods of Greece and Rome, but not for the living and true God…..Your sanctuary attendance may be regular and reverent, but what if there is no breath in it? Will God accept that?”
Men have built up great armies in our day. Vast denominations and smaller little kingdoms. They all shelter under the banner of God. Yet, without the breath of life from God these armies are but dry bones. Some may be better put together than others. Bone may have come to bone. Some may have flesh and sinews, some may even be covered in skin and have taken on the appearance of having life, but without the breath of God they are all equally dead. Men boast about how well put together their “followers,” are yet it is God alone who breathes life. And without this life we are dead and buried in the valley just as sure as the dead are buried in the cemetery.
So, can these dry bones speak? According to God they can. They can cry out. And if they cry out then God has some promises for them. He says that He will bring them out of their graves. He will do that by breathing life into them. He will cause them to rise up, just as surely as Lazarus rose up from his own grave. He will put His Spirit in them and they shall live. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is life itself and without this life, without this breath, we can do nothing. We can surely go about our routines and our dry works and be no different than the dry bones in Ezekiel’s valley. Yet, if we want to rise up in the power of God, a radiant army who marches upon its knees, we must have the breath of God in us. The valley of dry bones that is today’s Christendom desperately needs the breath of life.
I shall arise and go down to the Potters house. And there I shall hear the word of the Lord. I shall see a work upon the wheel. And the clay is marred in the hand of the Lord. And the wheel keeps turning. Brothers and sisters, have you put yourself upon the potters wheel? Have you put yourself into His hands? As it seems good to the Potter, will you allow yourself to be remade? Can I suggest the obvious? We are the clay, He is the potter and the turning wheel is life with all its circumstances.
Shall we yield to it all? Shall we allow ourselves to be broken to be remade? Or, shall we cry out to God night and day for a change in our circumstances? Shall we demand that the Lord heal us, that He deliver us, that He, in effect, serve us? If we ask for the wheel to stop turning then we shall cease to grow. When the fire comes, and it shall come, what shall we cry out? If we cry out that “even if our God does not deliver us, we shall never bow down to the gods of this world,” then the wheel keeps turning.
When we are faced with great loss and we cry out “The Lord gives and the lord takes away,blessed be the name of the Lord” then the wheel keeps turning. If we find ourselves in the depths of a dungeon with the skin torn from our backs and we begin to praise the Lord in the midnight hour, then the wheel keeps turning. Whatever is upon the wheel shall be either a vessel for honor or a vessel of dishonor. If the wheel stops turning then whatever exists upon the wheel is the finished vessel.
Jesus told us in Luke 14 that unless we love Him more than father or mother, wife and children, brothers ans sisters then we cannot be His disciples. And in Matt 10:38, in the same context as Luke 14 we see that if one refuses to take up his cross, that one “is not worthy of Me.” Is there a line in your sand? Is there a bridge too far? The day will tell that story. For when that day comes, and is surely comes for all who name His name, what cry shall we hear? “Lord please stop the wheel?” Or shall we hear the cry of the disciple “whatever it takes Lord, blessed be Your name.” For one, the wheel stops and for the other, they go on from glory to glory as they glorify Him. The choice belongs to us.
The older I get in the Lord, the more I see it’s not about answers from God. Self seeks answers. The immediate problems of life presses in and we desire to be through it. We want acceptable solutions. Yet where is God in our many graspings? What good is the glory gained on the mountaintops if it can not be seen in the darkest valleys? Should not our greatest desire in the world be that the valley is, to us, the mountaintop?
In the end, the glory of God covers everything, as the waters cover the sea. Whether that sea rages or is tranquil, should we not lie down and sleep in the boat? Shall we not sleep in the lions den? Shall we not praise Him in the dungeon? The mountaintop experience should only serve to give us the strength to reflect His glory in the valley. Did not the Lord come down from the glories of heaven? Did we not see Him glorify His Father in the deepest valley as He hung there nailed to a tree? Shall we not enter into His rest and cease from our works? Cease from our running to and fro.
Oftentimes the sadness of loss or trials becomes dark clouds that obscure the sun. Yet above the clouds, above the mountain tops there is a perpetually blue sky. Sometimes we simply need a single ray of sunshine to penetrate the dark clouds to remind us of this truth. And that ray reminds us of the glory that we reveled in and will one day spend eternity in. A shaft of light is what we must pray for when we are in the darkest reaches of the valley, and this light shall lead us through it. Our lives are like a vapor and soon enough we shall stand in eternal glory, but before that we must find the glory now.
He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies so that we may, with Paul and Silas and every other saint who suffered unspeakable losses down through the ages, glorify God in the very midst of our situations. In the light of this glory all loss is subsumed into Him and our spirits can truly say that our eternal desire is to be found in Him. The road home to glory will be a difficult one for all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus, but it will be a vital one.
See God’s glory and live. Cast your eyes unto the heavens and live. Cast your eyes to that eternal horizon and live. There is life in His glory and life more abundant. Find that now brothers and sisters, right where you are, and the road forward will open up before you, one day at a time, indeed one step at a time. The difficulties of life will become open doors to the treasures of heaven. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and the glory.
2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes life can be just too much and it threatens to overwhelm us and drown us beneath the waves of afflictions and trials. Many times in my own Christian walk I have fallen to my knees and cried out to my Father in heaven. And He heard me and He “knows.” And just knowing that He hears and knows begins to lift our heads above the waters. Sometimes we are called to walk upon the waters, other times He takes us in the palm of His hand and lifts us above the fray, lest we lose our very minds.
He will not let us go under. He lifts us up to higher ground. The Lord intercedes for us before the throne. The Holy Spirit strengthens us and enables us to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint. To rise up on wings like eagles! Glorifying God and praising Him and testifying of Him gives us strength and promotes in us joy and that joy is our very strength. We have joy where there should be no joy. We have peace when all around us is in turmoil. We love even when we are hated. We stand immovable upon the Rock that is higher than us. When life makes our head hang low, then He calls us to look up. Look up into the heavens from where our help comes from.
In all of these things we have choices. We choose to worship Him, not because we somehow are trying to manipulate the Lord, but rather from a deep wellspring of love. From out of the depths of this love we cry unto God with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a mark of the saint. A heart that is full of thanksgiving is a heart that has encountered the presence of God and in that encounter peered into the depths of Calvary. And the vision that we see infuses itself into our spiritual DNA. The “knowledge,’ of Calvary informs every part of who we are. Without this “knowledge,” we can only be, at best, two dimensional. The head knowledge of Calvary can only promote the soulish elements of religion. Yet to encounter Calvary is to “know.” And it is from this “knowing,” that our hearts are primed.
I wrote this poem yesterday while I was having chemo. It was a long day but I very much sensed the presence of the Lord, in divine appointments and also a message from a dear friend who had just recorded the message in the middle of their prayer meeting in Estonia. He prayed for me and then his dear wife prayed for me and I could hear the other saints praying in the background. I was quite overcome to think how honored and how privileged I was. I was humbled, shed a few tears, then wrote this poem. You will notice that I use the word infused a couple of time 🙂
When hope gives way to presence.
When the desire comes, it's a tree of life to me. And the tree nourishes the parts you cannot see Hope deferred causes my aching heart to long And in the longing creates in me a song.
Sing my heart, sing of all His glory Create in me the desire to tell Your story. To scale the highest mountain, just to shout your name Consumed by your majesty, ignited by your flame.
Come to me, draw me to your throne To that place I know that I am truly known And the tree of life infuses me with peace And your glory, from the depths of me, released.
Beyond the falling leaf there lies the pastures green And a heavenly river infused by glorious streams. Beyond the troubled waters you have surely come to me And you take my spirit over, to that place beyond the sea.
2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
This word weight is used both times in the scriptures with the context being very different obviously. It can mean abundance or burden or load. Now clearly sin is a burden to the soul, a load not easily carried. It slows us down, much like if we were attached to an anchor and had to drag it behind us. We have all felt it. Yet Heb 121:1 is compelling us, with a vision, to lay that burden down. Look up with spiritual eyes and see that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Those who have gone before us, the angels of heaven, the Kingdom of God. See the things that are eternal. See the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted up. When we look to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith then sin loses it’s power and its hold on us.
When we look not at the things that are seen, but rather the things which are not seen then there is a power released in us. The light of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ begins to shine forth from the depths of our very beings. This treasure that dwells in the depths of our hearts pours forth like the rising of the sun after the long night. What a welcome sight for all those who dwell in darkness to see the rising sun shine forth from us, and it draws men to God. Rather than our afflictions causing us to look down and to fall into sorrow, let our light afflictions cause us to look up and to be encompassed with the eternal abundance of His glory. With eyes to see, we peer into the glories of the world to come. We are overcome with His majesty, with His glory, with His holiness, with His joy. This power truly comes to pass in the midst of our afflictions for it is then that God has commanded His light to shine forth from the darkness.
George Matheson, the great old, blind Scottish preacher once said, “The hour of thy loneliness will crown thee. The day of thy depression will regale thee. It is thy desert that will break forth into singing. It is the trees of thy silent forest that will clap their hands .. the thorns will be roses. The valleys will be hills. The crooked will be straight lines, the ruts will be level. The shadows will be shining. The losses will be promotions, and the tears will be tracks of gold. The cup of suffering you prayed would pass from you will be your constant royal crown in the sweet by and by.”
The Lord sees us. He knows us. He comforts us. His comfort is strength and joy where there should be none. And though darkness may press in on us from every side, His light triumphs over it. Even the darkness is light to Him, and then, of course, to us. When the landscapes of our lives seem to stretch out before us in endless deserts, suddenly even the sand cries out, and the very rocks cry out, glory, glory, glory to the Living God! When the silence floods in and we struggle to hear anything above its noise, suddenly, glory to God the silence is broken. Just one word from our Lord shatters the deafening silence and our hearts and spirits are filled with His majesty.
Sometimes the thorns of life invade our lives yet from these thorns come magnificent roses. I am reminded of the Lord’s crown, and yet truly, He was crowned in a higher place. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Crown Him with many crowns, but first the crown of this life which was overcome. And now we overcome in Him. Paul once said that he considered the loss of all things as nothing, as less than nothing, for he only wanted to be found in Him. If our losses in this world lead us into the depths of Him, then we should surely be found praising Him in the midst of every situation. I praise Jesus today.
There is a cup in this life, and we are asked to take it, to take it all. Jesus led the way in the garden, and if He could take that cup, the cup that was filled with all the sin of this world and would lead to the death of the cross, then surely, in His power, and in His might, we can drink down the cup given to us. And in just one of the countless paradoxes in the Scriptures, we see that as we willingly drink this cup, there is another cup that simultaneously begins to fill and overflow………..Psa 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
For, behold, the LORD is coming forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be split, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.(Mic 1:3-4)
In the previous verse the word of the Lord says this …..”Hear all you peoples! Listen O earth and all that is in it, let the Lord God be a witness against you.” He is speaking to the world and He continues to speak to a lost and dying world. Matthew Henry writes “though God never deceives the faith of the upright, he will disappoint the presumption of the hypocrites.” The Lord comes forth out of His place, His seat of mercy, and comes down to us, the peoples of the earth in judgment. When His presence departs the temple, when Ichabod is pronounced over those who call themselves by His name, then follows judgment. It is a fearful thing for the peoples of the world to face a God before whom the very mountains melt away and the valleys melt like wax before the fire and the barbarians rise up as in a flood.
How often we have cried out to God to rend the heavens and come down? And how often has His mercies flowed down in torrential blessings? Yet that is not all that flows down. For everything there is a season. A time to live and also a time to die. A time of peace but also a time for war. A time for God’s blessings and mercy but also a time for judgement. We are surely facing such a time. A world who refuses to listen to God. A world who adamantly defies Him and all of His ways and all of His words. A world who mocks the living God. Oh that His name would be treasured in our streets but rather it is defiled. Defiled by the unbeliever and the presumption hypocrite who would presume upon His mercies while openly causing His name to trampled underfoot.
We are a world totally devoid of statesmen, it is part of God’s judgment. Our reliance upon our own strength and wisdom, as if they were mighty mountains, shall fail before our very eyes. And less we think too much of ourselves the barbarians rise up and rip the child from the womb and rape the women in front of their own children before burning them alive. And after they have finished their barbarous works the world either cheers or looks away, not willing to look into the darkness of their own souls as one who looks into the abyss. When we choose to look into the abyss then the abyss looks back and swallows us whole.
In order to expose the foundations, then all that lies above them must be torn down. The light of day, the light of Christ, the judgements of God shall reveal the underlying darkness of the souls of men and they shall see themselves in all of their rebellion and all of their true natures. As each veneer of civility is ripped away by God, all that is left standing will be the very essence of men. And it will be clearly shown that in this world there are but two kind of men. Those who have been transformed by God and those who are in rebellion against Him.
A few years ago as I was walking and praying, the Holy Spirit spoke to me a few words… “be careful about the condition of your heart, there is nothing more important.” That was it. I was left to ponder what had been spoken to me and all that it meant. So few words, so much meaning. Imagine being there when the Titanic was launched. What a magnificent sight that would have been. The worlds largest ship, a wonder of the world, stunningly beautiful in design, and filled with much opulence. This ship was built to ply the oceans of the world and power through tide and wave and storm. At its beating heart there were 29 huge boilers powered by 159 enormous furnaces. They had to be continually fed by coal, night and day. If the fires ever went out or ran low, then the engines would begin to falter. Without power, the ship, any ship, no matter how big, would be set adrift and helpless in the ocean. If a storm came along, it would sink, no matter how big it was or well built.
Christendom and all its many factions and sects is like a huge ship upon the ocean. No matter how big or impressive your church is, your denomination is, your particular “ministry,” is, without a fire at its heart it is just drifting and waiting for the storm that will take it down. We make the mistake of thinking that what we have or what we belong to could never sink, that it is too big or too impressive or too well built. I imagine those in Israel thought that about the Temple and Jerusalem. Yet if Christ does not dwell in the depths of our heart with the power of the Holy Spirit firing the furnace, then we are simply living on borrowed time. We may move about a ship that is not under power and seem that we are in no danger. Yet one storm or series of storms will simply turn us sideways and we will face the waves broadside and we shall begin to sway back and forward. One of these times the ship will go over, it will founder in the seas of this world that simply carry it along with its winds and tides and waves. Without power we cannot head into the storm, but will simply be tossed around by it. Without power we cannot steam into the waves and stay upright. Without power we can do nothing no matter how great the outward structure is.
Taking up our cross daily. Abiding in the Lord and His Word daily. Praying daily, hourly, minute by minute. Obeying the words and commands of Jesus. Drawing close to Jesus. Asking forgiveness from Jesus. Forgiving and humbling ourselves before others. All of this is stoking the fires of our heart and keeping its condition good. Not worrying about the things the “gentiles,” worry about. Not being anxious about the things of the world. Taking no thought about tomorrow but rather considering God and how He feeds the birds of the air and clothes the fields. Solomon, as the word says, was not arrayed with such glory. All of this and more is a shovel of coal in the furnace of our heart. It all begins with a baptism of fire brothers and sisters. It would do you no good to shovel coal into a furnace that it is not lit. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It’s the fire of our heart and the power that propels us on through every obstacle no matter how strong or fierce. If we indeed have this fire, let it never be allowed to burn down to just embers. “Be careful bout the condition of your heart, there is nothing more important.”
Just to be clear, when I say “Protestant,” I mean all of it, all denominations and non-denominations. Its not that I think that there are no genuine saints there, there are, in probably all of them. It is just that I was looking for a river to be carry me to the throne, to be engulfed in, and I found, for the most part, semi-dried up creeks. I was born and raised a Catholic in a mostly Irish Catholic community on the West Coast of Scotland. My whole education was Catholic, as it was for all working class Catholics, and it was free. One night my mother came home and announced that she had “found Jesus.” She was one of those “born-agains.” I was seven. My non-practicing alcoholic Catholic father was freaked out by it…… I was fascinated. They talked about God in chapel, but here was my wee mother claiming to actually know Him. I too longed to “know Him.” One thing was for sure, she was changed and she was bold.
All hell broke loose in our house. My father raged against my mother. He seemed to instinctively know that he was no longer “in charge,’ of her. There was something more important to her now than him. So he tried to beat Jesus out of her. In wild drunken nights he would rail against the Jesus that she believed in and that had changed her and won her over so completely. Black eyes and a broken jaw and nights where he almost killed her. And after fifteen years of this, at the age of forty nine, he got down on his knees and repented and gave his life over to the Jesus that he had assaulted and assailed so many times in his proxy war. He never drank again and my mum and dad retook their marriage vows and he was baptized. Such a huge thing for a man, already baptized as an infant who was raised by a staunch Catholic mother (my grannie)
So as you can see, I had saw the battle. I had saw how religion worked. I saw a genuine saint lay down her life for Jesus and be beaten black and blue for His sake. I had a ringside seat to the battle for a mans soul. So when I came to the Lord at the age of 26 I was ready to dive right in. I had only ever witnessed all or nothing. There was no middle ground in the battle of the ages. If I had metaphorically dived in I would have probably broken my neck as the church was only a few inches deep. Yet lets face it, when you had walked for almost two decades in the desert and came upon any kind of water at all, you would rejoice. Maybe not swim, but certainly rejoice. And those few shallow inches seemed so good. I saw other people come into the Pentecostal church from no church backgrounds and from dead denominational backgrounds and they all thought it was wonderful……..for a time.
There was multiple problems for me. I had such a great desire for genuine fellowship and discipleship. I wanted to be “a part,” of what was going on in the Body. Ushering and toilet cleaner or parking attendant was not exactly what I had in mind, yet for the most part, these were the “positions,’ available. Complain about that and you were simply proud. What I had in mind was what I had read about in the Bible. I had read the Word every day with a fierce thirst and hunger since coming to the Lord. As I read about the Body and every part having a function in 1 Cor 12 I wondered why we did not have such a Body. I left one Pentecostal non denominational church for another. I attended a Baptist church for a year. I went to a conservative Bible College. I went to Nazarene church for six months and I also attended IHOP (International house of prayer) for a year. Two of the aforementioned churches I stuck out for eight years and and seven years. I never found the river to swim in, only a trickle in the shadow of a dam (the dam being the Word and the manifest presence)
I saw patterns emerge in all of these churches I attended. In all of them the order of service was pretty much the same. There were variations but all within a popular theme. None of them allowed for the participation of the saints. All of them were tightly controlled by one man. This one man would appoint, for the most part, yes men for elders. In the end I had to think to myself “is this really different from the Catholic church?’ I know that will sound radical to some people, but in the end the Catholic church is all about authority and who wields it, certainly not the poor folks who sit in the pew. And what I had read in the Scriptures was not about authority at all, outside of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And if Jesus and the Holy Spirit had told us that we were to gather in a certain fashion, I could not for the life of me figure out why this ultimate authority was ignored. I was looking for the river deep, that flowed from the very throne-room of heaven.
And so I left the “organized church,”which was a semi-dried up creek, looking for the freedom of the wild river. I had studied revivals and became involved in the revival ministry. This is where I met folks from all over the world who also had a longing to see, in essence, a 1 Cor 14 gathering where all of the members of the Body operated rather than one or two and the rest sat passively by until it was time to write a check or pull out their wallets. Think about it saints, why would we want to gather in any fashion other than that which the Lord lays down in His Word? Multiple centuries of tradition had transpired and conspired against the simplicity and authenticity of the earliest Church. Its the tragedy of the ages that the Body, with multiple parts, lies unused. Imagine a car without wheels, without gas, set up on blocks where people can only stare at it, for it has not the ability to fire up the engine or go anywhere. It becomes just a dusty heirloom, and we can only read about how it used to run.
I want to name some of my findings from my studies and experiences which may help to explain why there is a just a trickle in the creek as opposed to a mighty flowing river.
.1. The senior pastor. Not Biblical, a made up position.
2. The order of service, pretty much the same in any church. Not Biblical, man made.
3. The sermon that so dominates the “service.” Not Biblical, established by man.
4. The way we “break bread,” together. Not Biblical, established by man.
5. The clergy/laity divide. Not Biblical, established by man.
6. The church building. Not Biblical, established by man.
7. Ordination. Not Biblical, established by men.
8. Where is the “two or three prophets,’ who are to speak to us? (1 Cor 14:29)
10. Where are the two or three who would speak in tongues with interpretation? (1 Cor 14:27)
11. Where are the teachings (plural) and a psalm given or a portion of Scripture? (1 Cor 14:26)
12. Where are the Apostles, prophets, miracles and gifts of healing and varieties of tongues (plural) ( 1 Corinthians chapter 12:27,28)
I want to ask you brothers and sisters. Does the above describe your gathering? How can God bless something that is so far removed from what He Himself laid down in His Word? The church as we have known it is dying. It is devoid of power and passion, and passivity is the order of the day. Let Diotrephes speak and let the rest remain silent. And the rest are quite happy to dwell in a wilful ignorance. I say wilful ignorance because they can read the Word the same as you and me. They want their Moses to speak to God and for Moses to speak to them even if the mountain burst forth with earthquakes and trembling they would fall back from it.
Will you remain silent? Will you remain passive? Will you sit by and not even question the order of service you just sat through? Did that order of service resemble anything you have ever read in the Scriptures? Do you really even care? The Word of God says this is 1 Cor 12 starting at verse 7…..But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecies, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit work all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
Do you see the richness and the depth of what has just been described. Now brothers and sisters, that is a river to swim in. That is no dried up creek. “The manifestation of the Spirit,” starts out the verse. When was the last time the Spirit of God manifested Himself among your gathering, your church, your denomination? I’m not talking about hearing a great sermon from a professional or being delighted with the professional music, I am talking about the manifestation of the Spirit. Notice that every part is “given,” by the Holy Spirit for the edification of all. These Scriptures are describing a masterful orchestra directed by the Holy Spirit Himself. Each part intimately conducted and carried out by the Conductor. It is no one man band, it is no mere trickle in a creek, but rather it is a symphony written by God Himself and it floods our souls and overwhelms our spirits and changes us as it takes us to where it wants to take us. No mere mortal can control it. Do you want to be part of the orchestra or do you want to sit by passively and listen to the tune of a one man band that entertains you for a moment?
Mat 14:28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
Peter sees Jesus walking on the water in the midst of the great storm. Jesus says to them that are on the boat to “be of good cheer, for it is I, do not be afraid.” Just seeing Jesus put their minds at ease. Our hearts are at peace when we “know” that Jesus sees our afflictions. And yet we see Peter, caught up in the presence of God. It is not good enough that he sees him from a distance, he wants to be right where He is, no matter the circumstance, and he is taken up by the Lord’s presence. In the Lord’s presence, when we are captivated by Him, then the roar of the wind dies down. The tumultuous waves that were otherwise so terrifying, cease to present any threat in the manifest presence of God. Nature itself loses all of its power as the water loses its ability to swallow whole those who stand with Jesus.
And we see what happens when Peter takes His eyes off Jesus. Immediately the noise of his present circumstances comes roaring back and would have been deafening. The waves would rise up and reach out to take him under to his watery grave. Nature comes back into its own and Peter begins to sink. Yet Jesus. He is still there even when we have momentarily lost our focus and our faith. He will not let us drown. He is faithful even when we are not. He will catch us. He will come into our boat and suddenly the storm is completely gone. And then all who witnessed this fell down before Jesus and worshiped Him. Brothers and sisters, we are called to come to Jesus. Oftentimes we are so tempted to “batten down the hatches,” yet in many cases this just delays the inevitable sinking of the ship in the great storms of life.
We must come to Jesus and follow Him. Whether out of the boat into the teeth of the storm, or out of the storm back into the boat. Where He is there is peace whether in the eye of the storm or the stilled storm. It is all the same. He is our peace. Where He is there is glory and all things are possible. Perfect peace casts out all fear and only in Jesus can we stand, whether that is upon solid ground or on the water. Let the whole world shake. Let the mountains begin to crumble. Let the seas rise up and roar. Let the skies fall down and the stars fall from the heavens. He still rules and He still reigns. No matter what you are facing today saints, He still reigns sovereign over all that exists. Look to Jesus today. Step out of the boat. Or reach out and take His hand. Or follow Him back into the boat. Wherever He goes, let us follow Him to the ends of the earth and to the gates of eternity. He shall lead us home.
Probably the most damaging feature of Calvin’s liturgy is that he led most of the service himself from the pulpit. Christianity has not yet recovered from this. Today the pastor is the MC, and CEO of the Sunday morning service-just as the priest is the MC and the CEO of the Catholic mass. This is in stark contrast to the church meeting envisioned in Scripture. According to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ is the leader, director and CEO of the church meeting. In 1 Cor 12, Paul tells us that Christ speaks through His entire Body, not just one member. In such a meeting, His Body freely functions under His headship (direct leadership) through the working of the Holy Spirit. First Cor 14 gives us a picture of such a gathering. This kind of meeting is vital for the spiritual growth of God’s people and the full expression of His Son in the earth. ( George Barna, Frank Viola-Pagan Christianity-pg 59)
The liturgy or order of service is almost exactly the same in the vast majority of churches throughout the land, whatever denomination it is. Over the last several decades, some have flirted with allowing the Holy Spirit to move among them, but have inevitably fallen back on the order of service. To follow the instructions laid down by Scripture, almost all of the so called clergy would render themselves surplus to requirements. So the clergy have always been the keepers of the status quo. A union of hirelings who have usurped the actual workings of the Holy Spirit among the Body of Christ. I would think that the vast majority of them down through the centuries have been somewhat ignorant of the fact that there is simply no clergy in the Body of Christ, and that the Priesthood of all believers cannot function and be led by the Holy Spirit where the bondage of this system exists. We can have the clergy/laity system or we can have the Holy Spirit operate among us, but we cannot have both.
George and Frank say that this kind of meeting is vital for Spiritual growth, I would agree. How can we say that we have no need of the manna that falls from heaven, but rather we have our own means of feeding ourselves? It is delusional. Spiritual growth only comes from edification. A group can grow religiously under our present system, but they cannot grow spiritually. Stagnation, with occasional bursts of energy from fires of our own making is the best that we can expect when man is in charge of the service. The numbers attending “church,” are now in free-fall all over the world. Is this the inevitable end of a system that is collapsing under the weight of its own works? I would say yes. The church system worked in a mostly religious world. We no longer live in such a world. The paradoxical difference is that while the weight of men’s works crush people spiritually, the weight of Gods presence, His Holy presence liberates them and elevates them to high and lofty places and changes them. It exhorts them, it edifies them, it humbles them.
The Lord, in His manifest presence, always speaks to the whole. If a saint needs to be encouraged, then he is encouraged. If another needs to be humbled then he is humbled. If another needs to be lifted up from the valley floor of depression and discouragement then he will find himself flying where the eagles fly and his joy shall be complete. The sinner shall find conviction that he will have to bend to, or he will have to run into the night screaming. All of this and so much more comes when the Body operates as it is instructed to operate and where the CEO is the Lord Jesus Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus must be preeminent. We must follow the dictates of the word of God or we shall simply be taken by the tide of this world and religion and be lost at sea. I would argue that for the most part, that which calls itself Christianity is lost as sea and the only way back is a strict adherence to the revealed word of God. It would not be a revival, nor would it be a reformation. It would be a revolution!!!, where the powers that be are upturned and the Lord Jesus takes His rightful place.
Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you,
Are we modern day Christians really any different from our Galatians brothers and sisters of old? Paul says to the Galatians that they have fallen from Grace, those who desire to be under anything other than the Gospel that he himself had presented to them, but now he was an enemy to them for telling them the truth. This word “bewitched,” means to be “fascinated by a false presentation.” In the Galatians case it was the law they were fascinated with and men, who should have known better, who seem to be something in Christian circles from Jerusalem, had enticed them away from the truth, away from the Spirit and away from freedom. A fall from grace is a tragedy for it is by grace through faith that we are saved and not of works, including the works of the law, less we should boast and then the free gift is not free indeed but rather debt.
We have so many in our day who are “fascinated by a false presentation.” Consider the Charismatics and their prosperity gospel? How about men like Benny Hinn with a singular obsession with healings? MacArthur and his denial of the sign gifts of the Spirit? Catholics and every other denomination who are fascinated by their own dogmas and decrees which are quite apart from Scriptures. One man rodeo shows in the non denominational systems who promote themselves. What is the one thing they all have in common with each other and the Galatians? “They zealously court you, but not for good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.”(Gal 4:17) Think about the horror of that statement. Men and systems of men set up to promote themselves and in doing so, exclude those who follow them from entering into the freedom that Christ brought for them. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. It is for bondage that men would have you zealous for them and their systems that elevate them. Jesus has been usurped.
Who is hindering you from following the Word? This is not from God. Who elevates themselves rather than the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. In the third epistle of John he writes to “the church,” in Asia Minor. He runs headlong into a man called Diotrephes. A man who had zeaously courted the church in that region to elevate himself. A man who loved the preeminence and just like Paul, John had become their enemy because he spoke the truth. Yet there were still men like Gaius and Demetrius. Good men. Men who followed after Jesus and who “walked in the truth.” There are good men and women today who still walk in the truth. God has His remnant. They are few and far between. And there are is a scourge of men like Diotrephes who would hinder you from walking according to the truth because when we do that, Jesus, and only Jesus is elevated.
There is an inevitable clash between God’s people and men who promote themselves. John would clash with Diotrephes if he traveled there. Paul clashed with the Christian religious men of his day, and even with Paul and Barnabas over what was right and what would cause men to fall from grace. If one were in MacArthur’s church and criticized him openly, the same fate would befall them as those who criticized Diotrephes. They would be removed from the church, with violence if need be. To criticize the Catholic church over 1500 years would cause one to be excommunicated and most likely burned at the stake. To criticize the reformers would have resulted in certain banishment and oftentimes imprisonment and burnings too. It is the mark of insecure men who have set up their own systems in direct violation of God’s Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And then of course there is the genuine Body of Christ to be found everywhere. Oftentimes isolated perhaps. Lonely and without a church home to call their own, but always part of the Body of Christ and the family of God. Sons and daughters scattered to the four winds but not abandoned. Faithful to the Word of God and the leading of the Spirit. Illuminated by the light of Christ and the freedom that dwells within them. At liberty to speak the truth in love despite the consequences. Seeking no office and seeking no titles. Only willing to wash the feet of their brothers and sisters and feed them spiritually. Discipling everywhere they go whether to the one or the two or the two hundred. The number is not important. I encourage you this day my brothers and sisters. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made you free and do not be entangled by the religious systems of men which causes you to become entangled by a yoke of bondage.
Walk in and according to the Spirit and men shall know you by the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, gentlesness, and self control. They shall also know you by your fierce loyalty to the Lord and to the Gospel of the Kingdom and to the Word of God. Live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and you shall avoid jealousies pride and envy. Those who sow these things shall reap everlasting life. We shall run and not grow weary, we shall walk and not faint. We shall not lose heart when we pay due attention to the condition of our heart and walk in the aforementioned fruit of the Spirit. Love the Body of Christ with a lavish and reckless love. Let us boast in nothing other than the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross upon our own backs. Let us rejoice in infirmities that God may be glorified by the excess grace He pours upon us. The world has been crucified to us, it no longer courts us. We have been crucified to the world and we no longer have any taste for its pleasures. Let the peace and the mercy and grace of God fall apon the genuine saints today and let all who read this be encouraged.
My father died on the 21st of March and I went back to Scotland for the funeral. Below is a a part of his eulogy that I gave.
A portion of my fathers eulogy………. (picture I took that morning)
On the morning of my fathers funeral I got up early and walked along the shore. In a country where it could easily have been pouring down with rain, it was cloudless. The sun rose in the sky and the air was sharp and clear. I sensed the presence of the Lord and a word came to my spirit, so tender, and so beautiful and it spoke to me. This was to be the opening of my eulogy…………………
I am persuaded this morning of the blessed hope in Christ my Lord. Just as surely as the river keeps running and the hills and the mountains stand guard over the valley, my hope in Jesus is even more sure than that. I am persuaded that just as the sun rose gloriously this morning, my father has been gloriously raised again into eternal life by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. I am persuaded that………………….God is in this place. I am persuaded that God loves each person in this room and desires to know each of you personally.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us……….Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?………..For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A Call To The Remnant 