Psa 77:2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing: my soul refused to be comforted.
Your soul will refuse to be comforted when only the Lord will do. Its the spirit within you that compels the soul to be unsatisfied with any natural solutions, especially when there are none to be found. Its at these times of desperation when our spirits are overwhelmed that we realize that nothing other than God Himself will do. We peer into the darkness, the abyss, the gross darkness that is all around us and we desperately seek the light. Picture the Lord when He is nailed to that cruel old tree, and the gross darkness descends and He cries out in anguish, the greatest anguish ever felt, thinking that He had been forsaken. Oh the agony of it. And then the moment of complete victory and the Lord gives over His Spirit into the hands of His Father.
The moment of victory comes at the end of darkness. When our hands are stretched out to heaven, without ceasing. I will not lower these trembling hands until I commit it all unto Him. Our poor Jesus could not lower His outstretched hands. They were held aloft for you. And then comes the light. You begin to remember all the works of the Lord in your life. You meditate on the goodness and the mercy of God that has followed you all the days of your life. You see the wonder of it. The waters of the deep see it and they are afraid, the Scriptures say. The depths tremble at His majesty. The skies cry out and the arrows of lightening flash across the heavens in a stupor.
And then, like the children of Moses, the sea parts before you, before your impossible situation, The darkness begins to recede as the light comes roaring into view on chariots of fire. It flees and is consumed by the utter holiness of our God. Lift those trembling hands tonight saints, is there anything too difficult for our God? The light from His glory causes the sun to look away in shame. He will flood your soul with living waters and you will cry Holy, Holy Holy. My anguish is drowned in glory and my anxiety is swept away by the tide of grace and mercy. Oh, the indescribable unfathomable atmosphere that is His presence. And suddenly. I am at peace.
Psa 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek ; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
This is the answer to life and to our walk right here in this verse from the 27th Psalm. One thing I have desired. One thing brothers and sisters. This is what my life will be. That I would seek the Lord and that I would dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Its not that I would “get,” to heaven. It has nothing to do with getting anything in that sense, it is all about dwelling. Oh to God that men would seek to dwell rather than seek to get. Get into heaven, get out of hell. Sordid self seeking its own. It is the Lord I shall seek.
I will seek Him to behold His beauty. I will seek Him early in the morning and in the noon day. I will seek Him in the evening and before I retire to bed. I will seek Him as I lay my head upon my pillow. He is my all in all. When we have this singular mind then, and only then, in the time of trouble shall He hide me in His pavilion, in the secret place of His tabernacle. He shall set me high upon a rock.
As I dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, then I know of His grace. I know of His mercy. I have been delivered by His righteous right hand. He has hid me from my enemies. Even when all have forsaken me, even as it suggests in the Psalm, forsaken by father and mother, then the Lord has been a Father to me. These things I have known in my walk with the Lord. I would have lost my heart if I had not seen the goodness of the Lord in the here and the now. My Father is not watching from some far away distant heaven. My Savior did not simply come and then leave. They are here, right here, right now by the power of the Holy Spirit. What is your one desire? If it is the Lord then you will have an open door to heaven which no man can shut.
Hos 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
The same God that brings us to our knees, also raises us up. Oh that we had no need to be broken, no need to be smitten, yet in the depths of who we are we are fatally flawed. Adam in us. In the flesh we bear the sin of Adam, we stood guilty before a Holy God. Yet in us too was a light, a smoldering ember in the depths of who we are. It speaks of our guilt. When the wind of the Spirit blows upon this tiniest of embers, the God given conscience, then it bursts into flames. “You crucified the Christ,” Peter cries out as he spoke with the power of God. Men’s hearts were rent and their blindfolds fell to the ground as they gazed upon their crime and saw that their very own sin crucified Jesus. He bore their punishment.
Imagine this. You are driving down the road and you check your phone, or you text someone. And in that split second a child runs out and is run over and killed by your car. The child is dead, and you are guilty. There is no doubt about your guilt. You are racked with that guilt. You cannot think, you cannot concentrate, you cannot live. You come before the judge and you plead guilty and you desire that he throws the book at you for you know you deserve to be punished because you killed an innocent child. Nothing can deliver you from your agony. Now imagine another scenarios, your eyes are opened by the wind of the Spirit. You see that it is indeed your sin that killed a willing and innocent Jesus upon the cross. And why was He willing? To fulfill the will of the Father that He should suffer in your stead. And in the very midst of your guilt, you “know,” that despite this, He loves you. “What must I do,’ you cry out as you heart is ripped open and you are smote with the sure knowledge of your sure guilt and the agonizing realization of His love.
“Arise in repentance,” the Lord would say “and I shall give you life”. I will bind up your wounds and set you free from the captivity of this guilt. I will raise you up from death to life that you may live. For my going forth is established as the morning and I will come like the rain, the latter and the former rain. Brothers and sisters, this is how we were saved and this is how we shall live. He still tears and He still heals. He molds us in the fires of sanctification. He scourges all those that He loves and the flesh is burned up in the fires and in this He raises us up in Holiness. Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap (Mal 3:2) He purifies His sons and daughters and purges them like gold and silver. Come brothers and sisters, let us return to the Lord.
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)
Psa 3:3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
The context of this psalm is that David is fleeing from his own son. David is not a young man anymore. In his lifetime, David has seen much trouble. And one would think that when you get to a certain age and have battled many battles that you get to retire into your dotage and leave all your troubles behind. If you are reading this and have lived long enough, you will know this not to be true. David cries out to God that he is surrounded by those who trouble him. They rise up against him, even from his own family and would seek to do him harm. He is mocked for his troubles and people say out loud that there is no help for him from God, surely God must have abandoned him.
They are all wrong of course. David would indeed once again flee just as he had fled from Saul but it is a very different, older, wiser David. He acknowledges God in the midst of his troubles. He testifies that God is a shield to Him, the glory and the lifter of his head. He lays down and sleeps. He awakes with the morning and he is sustained. He says that even if ten thousand people set themselves against him, he will not be afraid for his faith is in a God who hears him.
Maybe you had thought all your troubles were behind you? Maybe you have fought many battles in this life and thought that they were also behind you? Yet here you are, in the middle of maybe one of the greatest battles of your whole life. Sleep is a luxury that you know little of. You wonder if God has abandoned you. You have cried until there is no tears left to cry, as David once did. And you know people whisper and wonder “where is his/her God.” I want to assure you today that “from His holy hill,” the Lord has heard your cry.
He is a shield for you. You stand because of Him. He has picked you up more times than you care to remember. He is the glory of your life. His glory and His majesty lies at the very core of who you are. He is the lifter of your head, He has lifted it a thousand times and He will lift it again. You will lie down and sleep, even this night for you are lying down in the very palm of His hand. It will not go well, in the end, for those who oppress you and would see you fall. Remember this saint, and it is more costly than any earthly treasure, His blessing is upon you. Stand strong in the Lord today, for great is your reward in heaven.
Rom 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
John Bunyan said “let us learn like Christians to kiss the rod, and love it………many of our graces are kept alive by those very things that are the death to other men’s soul.” Speaking for myself, I can imagine, perhaps, on my best day, kissing the rod, but loving it? It is just as well it is not my best efforts that empowers me to truly love my enemy. To walk in such a way, empowered by the Spirit of God, is to know that we have truly turned the corner on this world and see only the Kingdom perspective.
You simply cannot be walking in the world and be dictated to in anyway by the flesh if we are to kiss the rod that wounds us and greater still, love the unrepentant one who wields that very rod. Yet Bunyan would argue that many of the graces we enjoy and walk in are empowered by the very testing of our souls by the cruel actions of our enemies. Outside of the Spirit of God the actions of such cruel enemies engender rage, hatred and revenge and leave the soul embittered and dying. So to one it means death and to another, life. Shall we live brothers and sisters or shall we die? Our chains were broken and our fetters loosed on the cross, let us cling to that very cross and say with Christ “forgive them Father for they know not what they do.”
The greatest revelation of God in my life has come in the midst of my needs. It has not come in my wants or desires or accomplishments it has come in my needs. The greater the need the greater the revelation. The next time of greatest revelation of God in my life has come when I have sinned against Him. There is no deeper humiliation for a saint than to have failed his Lord badly. Yet, when I approached the throne of grace with my head hung low and with a spirit within that was crying out ” woe is me for I am undone,” suddenly I am encountered with love and forgiveness even although I myself had desired punishment and penance to atone somehow for my sin.
Now I am undone not because of my unworthiness but because of the realization of the depths of His love and faithfulness to me, one who is so unworthy. It is His holiness that saves, it is his grace that is sufficient and it is His faithfulness that will never fail. He increases in my heart and I decrease as I realize the very source of all that I am in Him and in Him alone. The encounter itself dramatically increases my intimacy with my Lord. It solidifies in my mind who He is and who I am in the presence of the Almighty.
If our sins lead to humility and repentance and brokenness before the throne where we receive a greater and deeper revelation of who God is, and they do, then would not the enemy of our souls do everything in his power to keep us from this place? And the easiest and most effective way to do that is to convince us that we never have to seek that place out. Do not be fooled saints, God is glorified and revealed to us in the depths of our needs, our infirmities and our failures. Should we then seek to be in need or to be infirm or to sin so that God may be glorified?
God forbid. I can guarantee that you wont have to seek out needs or infirmities or sin. They will find you because you are finite and corruptible. But an infinite God will one day raise you up in in-corruption. And until that day comes His grace will be sufficient for you. He will meet you in the depths of your needs. He will be faithful to forgive all of your sins when you come before Him and confess them. And in all of that you are drawn ever deeper into the heart of the Father.
1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
Eze 47:3 And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.
There is a river that flows from heaven itself. It flows through our hearts and beckons us to come deeper. This river is spoken of in many places in Scriptures. It is the presence of God and it brings us deeper into the heart of the Almighty. There are trees on either side of this river and their roots are directly connected to the river and they are perpetually green, evergreen trees for the healing of the people and the nations. The river itself brings healing everywhere it goes. To be walking in the Spirit is to be swimming in the river of life.
As we see in Ezekiel 47, the Lord brings us to through the waters. Always the Lord, compelling His children to come deeper into Him. Not ankle deep, not knee deep or even waist deep but fully immersed in a river so vast that it cannot be crossed, it can only be swum in. We must give ourselves to the river, let go and give way to the current of the Holy Spirit. Whether you are ankle deep, knee deep or even waist deep, you are still standing on your own two feet. In many respects you are still in charge. Yet to give ourselves completely to the river we are no longer standing.
When we are fully given to our Lord. When we are yielded to the depths and the power of this vast river, the power of the Holy Spirit, only then can we truly be led. All resistance is gone in its depths. It is carrying you towards the sea, the vastness of God Himself. Ever closer, ever deeper into the Father’s heart. And the Lord says to to you “come, I will bring you through the waters into the deep.” “Seek me with your whole heart and I shall be found and you shall be rewarded for your diligence, I am your exceeding great reward.”
It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. (Lam 3:22-24)
Notice this verse from Lamentations 3. It is a very grave chapter where the afflicted are overcome with fears and are surrounded by troubles. Yet right here in the middle of the chapter we see our great hope. Indeed the Lord’s compassion never fails, His mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness. We have hope because He is our Lord. There is a tyranny of yesterday and fear for tomorrow and they are chains which are designed to drag us down.
Oftentimes the older we get the heavier the chains are because many are our yesterdays and fewer are our tomorrows. Yet, praise the Lord the antidote to these fears and these tyrannies is the now. We serve God today and we are assured that His mercies are new every morning. It is the enemy that reminds us of our yesterdays, it is the enemy that sows fears in our heart for tomorrow. And why? He wants to rob you of today. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not guaranteed. All we truly have is now. Live and walk in the Lord today and forget yesterday and care not for the morrow for Christ is in you today. Today is the day of our salvation.
If the enemy has stolen from you yesterday, do not allow him to take tomorrow as well. Awake each day and give glory to God. Our circumstances may not change but we will. Arise with the sun tomorrow morning and know that the Lord Himself directs the tides, makes the moon to rise and the sun to set. He holds it all in His hand and remember this more than anything, He holds you in His hand. You are His servant for His purposes and you are called to rise every day and seek the Lord and serve the Lord. In this is peace and from this peace springs joy and that joy, the joy of the Lord is our strength for a brand new day.
The title of the last poem that that William Cowper wrote, in 1773, was “Light shining out of Darkness.” It became known by the first line “God moves in a mysterious way.” John Newton would publish it the following year. It might help to understand the original title when we consider that William wrote this poem after attempting suicide. And so the darkness that he is writing about was gross darkness indeed and how sweet the light of Christ that rescues us even if we make our beds in hell, even the darkness, shall be light unto Him. He also wrote “There is a fountain filled with Blood,” and “O for a closer walk with God.”
These words written, have comforted countless millions over the last 250 years. William, in his serious battles with depression over his whole lifetime could never have imagined the impact his life would have, how it would continue to resonate down through the centuries. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in a man who walked in the darkness of depression for much of his life. Light shining out of darkness. God indeed moves in mysterious ways, who can explain our God? I tell you this though, you rarely if ever read words like this anymore. Savor the words below, they are rich in depth and meaning as opposed to so much of the shallowness that today passes for writing.
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs
And works his sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purpose will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
the bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain:
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
As I walk each morning I am always on the lookout for deer. It is a heavily forested area I walk through and so it can be difficult to see anything. Of course you could walk at dusk or dawn and increase your chance of seeing them, but you just never know. I was walking the other day and looking into the foliage and suddenly realized that I was looking right at the deer and she was looking right back at me. It was as if just one second before she was invisible but then she just appeared before my very eyes and I wondered how I did not see her before. I took my grandson with me a few times, I really wanted him to see the deer, he really wanted to see them. I took him at the right time and the right places but we never saw one.
I thought about the manifest presence of God. I thought about seeking God. I thought about the wind and how we never know where it will blow next. It seems to me this is the way with God. If I only walked every now and again, or gave up walking because I never saw deer, it is likely that I would never see the deer. Yet, because I walk every day and seek every day, all of a sudden, there is the deer right there, looking at me. As it is with the deer, so it is with God. He is looking for those who will search diligently for Him, in fact the word says He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And the reward? “I am your exceeding great reward.” To ” know,” that He knows you, that He sees you, that He is watching over you. May our souls long after Him today and every day and if they do, all of a sudden, He is there.
Rev 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:
A door opened in heaven!! What is this, what can it mean? If such a door existed and we had access to it should we not find it and walk through it? Just a few sentences earlier we hear about the door;Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.(Rev 3:20)
There is, it seems, a door that we as children of God can open, and when that door is opened we can sit down with the Lord at His banqueting table, glory to God. Again a few sentences before that we hear Jesus say I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.(Rev 3:8)
This open door to glory, this door to heaven, this access to the throne room belongs to the child of God. The ability to come before the Father and bow down and cry out Abba uniquely belongs to the enduring overcoming child of the living God. No man can shut this door, no power on earth can shut this door, Satan himself cannot shut this door. It has been given by the hand of God to His child and no one can rob him of it.
This is the glories of walking with the Lord with an open heart, to walk in His presence and according to His ways. This is the promise of Jesus to His faithful followers, that no matter what happens, no matter how dark the hour , no matter how fierce the opposition, the saints can walk in the glories of God and have access to His throne and to His presence and that He would keep them from the hour of temptation.
Now that word keep is better translated guard. To the loving Church who does not deny the name of Jesus and keeps His word, He guards them from that hour of temptation that is coming upon the world. Temptation loses its power for those who draw near to Jesus. To draw near to Jesus we must have an open door in our hearts, our hearts must be open to His glories and then we shall have the power to stand fast and let no man steal our crown.
Php 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
The question is, are you content? I would argue that the whole world is looking for contentment. I certainly thought when I became a Christian that the Church would be packed full of contented people, you can imagine my disappointment. It seemed to me that most folk that I met in the church were very much like the world when it came to contentment. The world makes every mistake possible while attempting to achieve contentment, yet so do many Christians. Many people in the world believe that contentment comes through material possessions and good personal relationships. While these things are nice, they could never possibly bring the deep kind of contentment that Paul is talking about.
Now some good Christian folk would argue that your personal relationship with Jesus brings you the kind of contentment Paul is speaking about in this particular Scripture, it’s simply not true but it makes it possible. In fact only through Jesus is it possible, but He aint doing it for you. Paul had to learn to be content. It was not a question of his relationship with Jesus, rather it was a question of enduring and overcoming as he walked through fire and flood. There are choices to be made as we move along the narrow path of life. We choose to endure. We choose to give thanks. We overcome much as Jesus did in the garden when He submits His will to the Father’s.
The key word I would argue in understanding this is “learned.” He had learned to be content, there was no magic wand. No one came along and laid hands on him and suddenly he was full of contentment. Paul, time and again had to walk through the fire and continue to praise God. We see in another Scripture that we are admonished not to be anxious at all but to pray and give thanks and make supplication to God and if we did that, something supernatural would happen, a supernatural peace that passes all understanding would actually stand guard over our hearts.
Can you praise God today in spite of your circumstances? If you learn to do this, if you walk through the fire with your hands held high, trusting in God, you will come to the place that Paul came to. You will discover that peace and contentment will have nothing to do with your circumstances, which are ever-changing, but have everything to do with praising and trusting in God who is never-changing. Choose to praise the Lord in the lower reaches of the dungeon, and you will learn to be content.
One day the Lord will rend the heavens and His glory will flow down the mountains and fill every valley with His majesty. The seas will flee away at His presence. The mountains will humbly bow and say ” Glory , glory to the risen King.” The sun will turn its face away in shame for it has been outdone by the brilliance of His illumination. A mere flickering candle in comparison to His unadulterated light. The moon and the stars will cry out ” Holy, Holy is He who was and is and forever shall be.”
And every voice from every tongue will say “Jesus,” and acknowledge the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And the beasts of the earth will fall down and cover their faces and then the lion will rise up and approach the lamb and they will lay down together. And every knee shall bow in every tribe and in every nation and even the hordes of hell will fall silent as He approaches. The earth itself will grow silent and shall be still and then a glorious noise will begin to arise and will fill the earth, it will fill the sea it will fill the night skies and it will fill the whole universe.
And all that will be heard will be the choirs of angels, that heavenly choir and the glory of God will not only cover the earth but will fill up everything that there is or has ever been. Gods saints will rise on this glorious symphony, they will arise in the updrafts of His glory and majesty and it will carry them into the heart of God. And those who rejected this magnificent glory will fall and their cries will be heard as they fall into the depths of darkness forever.
Luther did not invent a new doctrine when he announced that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works. He rediscovered it and presented it to a church that had long ago forgotten this most fundamental and vital aspect of what it means to be saved. This most basic fundamental truth was lost in religiosity and liturgy many centuries before. The clergy had robbed the laity. Century after century Christendom slowly drifted away, each generation losing something from the previous generation until they were totally adrift from the Truth. Once they were totally adrift from the truth then with every passing century the errors solidified and grew in strength. Walls like Jericho rose up and stood, formidable.
Then comes Luther and as he hammered that nail into the door, the whole of Christendom shook. A bloody revolution then ensued as the clergy, keepers of the error and the status quo, fought with all of their might against this upstart priest of no account who was challenging their religion and their liturgy. I believe a similar revolution would have to take place today in order to rediscover the truths of 1 Cor 14 and how we interact in gatherings. The sign gifts and their purpose of edifying the saints and the unsaved and the unlearned have fallen into disuse and have been forgotten. God help this starving and dying generation. If we do not have eyes to see then we cannot be fed. The walls of Jericho were rebuilt after the reformation. Brick upon brick, stone upon stone, error upon error.
We need to rediscover, once again, the fundamental truths of our faith as it is plainly written in the Scriptures. Who has dared to bypass or take away from the Holy Word of God? Do they not know that they shall be removed from the book of life? The walls of religion and the devastating clergy/laity divide need to come down. And if they will not then the saints need to abandon those strongholds. We need a mass exodus from behind those walls. We need to allow God Himself to be a wall of fire around us. Dear saint, you must follow the fire by night and the cloud by day and not the doctrines of the Nicolations. You cannot be immersed in the culture of religion, which is a mere reflection of the prevailing culture around us, and serve God at the same time.
This is the kind of love that would wait for a thousand years
The kind of love that would fill an ocean with tears
The kind of love that was birthed in heavenly places
The kind of love that shines upon a thousand faces.
This is the kind of love that would die for you instead
The kind of love that was crucified and bled
The kind of love that redeems you from all wrong
The kind of love that loved you all along
This is the kind of love that will never let you go
The kind of love that never says I told you so
The kind of love that keeps no record of wrongs
The kind of love that the birds sing in their songs
This is the kind of love that never seeks its own
The kind of love that never leaves you alone
The kind of love that forever seeks your best
The kind of love that gives your weary soul some rest
This is the kind of love that for you was crucified
The kind of love that was broken, beaten and died
The kind of love that did all of this for you
The kind of love that covers like the morning dew
This is the kind of love that never ever fails
The kind of love that would prove itself by nails
The kind of love that is crowned by a crown of thorns
The kind of love that will weather all of your storms
And in the end it is love that shall remain
It opened every door and has broken every chain
That you may live for all the world to see
That as a child of God the Son has set you free
This kind of love sets my heart aflame
This kind of love heals the blind and the lame
This kind of love means you shall never be the same
It is time to fall in love.
(Rom 6:6-7) Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.
In the emptying process He removes the stones and rocks and the clods from our hearts and refines the flesh. The desires of this world loses all of its allure as He draws us to Himself. If we yield to the process then He draws us closer. I would love to say that in my experience it has been a one-time yielding, but no, not so simple. Time and again the calling comes. The deeper and the closer we come, oftentimes the deeper the cut. Shall we yield to the surgeon’s knife? Shall we yield to the sculptor’s chisel? I would say that only a vision of heaven itself could draw us to such yielding. It is not just a matter of revelation, inspiration is a vital aspect of our relationship with the Lord.
Just one moment in His presence. Can a single moment ruin us for the things of this world? Is it possible that after that moment the world turns to black and white? Then another miracle happens. As we begin to look at the world through those captivated eyes, the color begins to return but it’s not the color of the world, it’s the color of heaven. Now one truly sees the sunset because one has been intimate with the artist. I can see a waterfall and my spirit soars because I know the hand that crafted it. The mountains raises me up to higher places, to the place where they were born. The stars in the heavens draw my eyes upwards and my spirit follows the path of my gaze and I find myself in higher places. The hand of a child, a single ray of sunshine through the clouds, a wave that crashes onto the shore, soon enough I see my Lord in all of it. I see His beauty everywhere.
Yet the darkness prevails and time and time again it comes against the light. Yet, out of that moment, out of His presence there is born an eternal longing that no darkness can quell just as no hand could hold back the tide. He comes. Yes and He comes again to those who would wait upon Him. How long shall we wait? However long it takes. This is the kind of love that would wait a thousand years. The kind of love that would fill an ocean with tears. The kind of love that was birthed in heavenly places. The kind of love that shines upon a thousand faces. And so we yield, and so we die to this world. And we are drawn ever closer to the next until the day comes when we step over into the world that has touched us and called to us.
There is glory in all of it. It is a grand tapestry and we are but a thread. Can we see the vision of the artist? Can we see the vision of the sculptor? It is not so important to see the vision of the artist or to see the finished sculpture, it only really matters that we see Him, Him who creates it all. And in seeing Him we see everything in a single moment. Now with eyes that have gazed upon the Master we see it all so differently. Have you seen Him? Can you see the world through the eyes of Him who made it all? It’s a glorious vision and it continually draws us.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
What does it mean to hear God? Seems like such a simple question. You would imagine that no Christian would object to “hearing,” God speak to them. That still small voice, the voice of the shepherd speaking to His sheep, and His sheep recognizing His voice. The Holy Spirit whispering into the hearts of believers. The Holy Spirit leading and guiding and magnifying the Lord Jesus in our hearts.
A man went into the supermarket to buy his wife a rose. It was his practice to do this every week. He picked the rose that he wanted and made for the checkout lane. As he walked toward the line, the Holy Spirit spoke to him, that still small voice from the Shepherd. “Give the rose to the old lady over there.”Immediately the man resisted. “Lord that makes no sense. What if she thinks I am hitting on her? What if she thinks I am crazy? What if others hear and think I am a weirdo?” There was great resistance in his flesh, yet he knew the voice of the Lord, and he knew he had to be obedient. So, he took a deep breath and walked over to the lady and said to her “The Lord wanted you to have this rose.”
The woman looked at him for a second, then looked at the rose, and as she reached out to take it, she began to weep. She explained. ”My husband died several months ago. Every week, for years, he would buy me a rose. This morning I was feeling so lost and forgotten, I cried out to God and asked Him if He had forgotten me, I told Him that I needed to feel loved.” The man cried too. You see how the Lord loves us? You see how He speaks to His people?
God not only hears the cries of His people, He speaks to them and they know His voice and they hear Him. We need to pray for ears to hear and eyes to see what the Lord is saying and doing. God knows His sheep. He sees you. He hears your cries, he sees your afflictions, he sees the tears that no one else sees, He knows. He Himself was despised and rejected, He was a man of sorrows, He was well acquainted with grief. He bore all our griefs and sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him according to Isaiah 53. By all of theses things He secured for us peace and healing for our sins and transgression. The sheep had gone astray and now, by His stripes the sheep were healed of their transgressions. Now we know His voice and He bids us to follow His lead. Perhaps if you asked for a rose today you will find yourself in a garden. Listen for that still small voice today, He often talks to us in ways we do not expect. His word is a lamp unto our feet in the darkness and His still small voice assures us that we are known and that He sees us.
Rom 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
In this particular case we see that Abraham and his wife are well beyond the age of bearing a child. Sarah’s womb was dead, it could carry no life. And so in life we oftentimes run into situations that defies hope, that stands diametrically opposed to hope. All the evidence of the rational world and the finest expert opinions dash any worldly hope upon the rocks of hopelessness and despair. Yet brothers and sisters, it is a glorious thing to remember that our hope is not the hope of the world. Our hope is founded upon our God and His word, His promises. His word is not broken, His promises cannot be broken. And it is this hope that is a wellspring of joy and peace and love and a sound mind.
Abraham, the father of faith believed God that life would spring forth from death. Now from the first promise until the fulfillment it took 25 years. Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when Issac was conceived. This defied all the evidence of the rational world. In the world Abraham would have had no hope. In the world we too would have no hope, yet praise God we may be in the world but not off it. We walk according to the Spirit of God, we stand upon the Word of God. we believe in the promises of God and we walk in the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is and always has been a place of miracles and a wellspring of hope.
The birth of Issac is the birth of a nation. It is this line that would give us Jesus, the seed that would bless all the nations of the world. It sprang forth from the impossible which is the realm of the miraculous. This realm has a throne and upon that throne sits our heavenly Father. Can hope come forth from hopelessness? Yes indeed. Just as Jesus came forth from His heavenly realm and stepped into our world, then sight can come forth from blindness, joy can come forth from despair and Lazarus can come forth from the grave. Jesus is my blessed hope, all other ground in sinking sand.
As I was walking recently, the Holy Spirit spoke some words to me. ” There is nothing more important than the condition of your heart.” It lingered with me for weeks as I pondered those few words. All of my Christian life I have periods where I retreat into myself and kinda shut down, withdraw from the maddening crowd and simply go along on auto pilot.
In Kansas we can go months without rain. The ground gets baked hard in the sweltering heat of summer. If a rain comes it typically does not penetrate the hard ground, instead there is a flash flood. The ground is wet for a very short period of time and then it is as hard as it ever was.
There are periods when it rains every day in the spring. The ground soaks up the rain and then it rains again and again until it is saturated. When the ground is saturated it takes only a slight rain to cause flooding. The creeks and the rivers are swollen and the landscape is in danger of being changed by raging waters.
If my heart is good, if the waters that flow from heaven flow through me, if my heart remains supple and soaked with the dew that falls from heaven, then it takes very little for the glories of heaven to flood forth from me, living waters that refreshes my soul and others. If my heart is hard, it takes a lot of water just to soften me up. Oh that I would learn to remain close to the source of life itself that I might be useful in season and out of season, that I would be a source of life to others.
A Call To The Remnant 