I believe we need to bring the Holy Spirit of God back into the church, back by prayer, obedience, and confession, until He literally takes over. Then there will be life and light and power and victory and joy and fruit in our lives. We can live on a different level altogether, a level never before dreamed possible. Every church has an obligation to regularly examine itself to see if what it is doing is on the solid foundation of the Holy Spirit. The tendency is to drift, as the Scriptures often warn us. I need to be careful that my life is solid on the foundation. If I am not building my life and ministry on the foundation of the Holy Spirit, I will not be pleasing or glorifying to God. (A.W.Tozer)
What a tragic statement from so long ago, that “we need to bring the Holy Spirit of God back into the church.” What is a church without the Holy Spirit? What is a life without the Holy Spirit? Well it probably looks like our own best efforts. And what will our own best efforts amount to? The very best scenario, a counterfeit to the living God. Some counterfeits are much better than others. The deadness in a lot of churches is as apparent as the nose on your face. Some hide the deadness much better. A lot of noise, a lot of shouting, dimmed lights, lifestyle sermons and motivational speaking. Yet, without the Holy Spirit, just as dead as the other churches mentioned. Tozer said “until He literally takes over.” I believe that is a bridge too far for most modern churches. How would the programs fit in? How long would the service be? “Hey, i did not hear my favorite guy speak this morning.” Toes would be stepped on and the tares would howl in protest and walk.
If the tendency is to drift, and it is, assuming there was a good starting point, where does that leave us today? Ask the average pastor how “his church,” is doing and he will tell you wonderful stories. On the whole he will be well pleased. If anything is to change there must be a revival of holy dissatisfaction. There must be desperation. Desperate times demands desperate measures. There must be honest assessments of where we are. And what blueprint shall we use for that? Do you know of another besides the Scriptures? There is none. The old paths is the Scriptures. The old paths is the Holy Spirit. The old paths leads to a place where the Holy Spirit “literally takes over.” Are we so far down the “new,” paths that we cannot even visualize what it would look like to get back to the Word and its description on how we gather and how we edify one another. When was the last time there was a manifestation of the Spirit in your gathering? Our traditions and our programs are all too often the last dying breath of what once was. They act as ventilators that artificially keep us breathing. And just as 90% of people die who go on ventilators in the world, the spiritual ventilators of our programs and traditions are spiritually killing people.
It is time for the Jesus people to stand up. Stand up brothers and sisters and cry out that the Holy Spirit of God would come back into the church, back by prayer, obedience, and confession, until He literally takes over. We were not created and born again to sit lifeless and mute and to drown in mediocrity. We were born again to be extraordinary. To be used by God to feed and to edify one another in the assembly of the saints. To cry out “Holy , Holy, Holy is His name.” What would happen in your assembly if, at the leading of the Spirit, you stood up and cried this out? Florrie Evans stood up in her Calvinistic church and declared publicly that she “loved the Lord Jesus with all of her heart.” And with that, just that simple, bold public declaration that must have horrified the religionists, revival fell. Not a revival of preaching mind you. Not a revival of programs. Not a revival of institutions, but a revival where the “Holy Spirit literally took over.” And down flowed the glory and up went the prayers. Up went the confessions and up went the unashamed declarations of Jesus. The glory fell and the tears fell and the world was changed. We worship the same God today as we did in 1904. What then hinders us? Perhaps we simply don’t want it?
Does the Lord dwell within a building or does He dwell within our hearts? A heart beats, it has chambers, it has blood that pumps through veins and travels to every part of the body bringing life sustaining oxygen. The Body, while complex and made up of many parts, is totally dependent upon the heart. To meet in the name of Jesus is to meet with saints who are identified by the character and the nature of Jesus. Every genuine saint has his or her place already set within the heart, within the body. The Lord Jesus Himself is building this body. Only that which belongs can enter into the system that the Lord is building. Our own natural bodies have an immune system that deals with anything that should not be there. To have a cohesive body, each part must belong there, must be placed there. There is an architect of this Body, this Temple, and His name is Jesus. Only He builds.
Many burning embers together create the potential for a great fire. Throw a log on one ember and it may catch fire after a while, throw a log onto many burning embers and it will catch fire right away. One fire, many embers greater light, greater heat. Now, gather a bunch of branches together with no fire and you will just have a bunch of branches. It could not call itself a fire for it clearly is without fire. Just because you call yourself a Christian and gather in the name of Jesus means nothing if you are not actually Christians. A bunch of dead wood is a bunch of dead wood. And for those who have built fires, they know that a fire can be smothered by piling a lot of material on top of it. The oxygen is choked out. If one hundred people gather and only ten are genuinely saved then the other 90 will not catch on fire, but the fire itself shall be smothered by the green wood.
This scripture where two or three are gathered in my name, is far more important than we know. To gather in the name of Jesus is a deeply spiritual thing for those who have been born again according to His Spirit, His character and His nature. The enemy has done his level best to dilute that to the point where any fire that existed would be smothered.Being a Christ follower means to bear the life of Christ in us. So, when two or three genuine Christ followers come together for the sole purpose of spirit being drawn unto spirit then there is a magnification that takes place. Like a magnifying glass that captures the light of the sun and turns it into something very potent, then the Holy Spirit takes the light that is within us, the two or the three or the however many and turns it into something very powerful. Darkness is the mere absence of light. It cannot be magnified. Take a thousand dark souls and gather them together and what do you have? Darkness. Take the light from two or three or one hundred or a thousand genuine saints , undiluted by the darkness of unbelievers and down comes the power of God in a unique way.
In these last days there is a purging going on. The genuine saints are being purged out of the gatherings by the Lord where the majority are not saved or are lukewarm. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion has light with darkness? Are you not the temple of the Living God? Therefore come out from among them says God. Be separate and touch not the unclean thing. In Revelations chapter two we see that the church in Ephesus hated the deeds of the Nicolations as did God. Not much is known about this group but it estimated that they were a group that took on the customs of the Romans in order to avoid persecution. The genuine saint resists the ways of the world, they do not embrace them. Yes it is costly and yes there is great loss involved. Yet what is any amount of loss amount to if we are found in Him?
We must gather together in ways that are ordered of God. We must walk according to the rhythm of Gods heart. We cannot walk to the beat of this world. Ember must find ember. There is fire in the heart of the saints. As the world closes in, we cannot yield simply because the congregation that we have always belonged to has yielded. This is everything being tested by God. In the end, where does your loyalties lie? Jesus is the Word is He not.? If you were invited to a get together somewhere but they said to you, do not bring your son, he is not welcome. Would you go? Would your heart not break for the rejection of your son? You certainly would not go where your child was not welcome. Should we go where Christ is not welcome? He is the Word. He is the way and the truth and the life. He must be the honored guest and the preeminent one at all of our gatherings. Whether two or two hundred. God is opening up a chasm. As the chasm widens, one must choose what side of the chasm we are committed to. Soon it becomes too wide. If you try and straddle both sides you will plummet into the chasm. Choose wisely who you gather with.
Can you remember as a child, when you first discovered the power of a magnifying glass? I remember the first time I was able to start a fire with it. Harnessing the power of the sun. The magnify glass does not change the power of the sun, it intensifies the light that shines from the sun. You can cause a dormant match to burst into flames. You can melt an ice cube with it. Scientists can harness the power of the sun and create lasers that can cut through almost anything. The Holy Spirit is our magnifying glass. For those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit He causes the love of Jesus to explode in our heart.
He magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ to us. He causes the light of His love to set our hearts on fire. That concentrated power is aimed directly at you. One is powerful, a whole gathering is incredible. His grace becomes magnified in us and we weep because of it. His mercy is intensified in our consciousness and we cry out to Him. His intensity causes our own sin to be magnified in our conscience and we cannot bare it, under the power of conviction. Upon the crumbs of our bravery and obedience He shines this light and we stand as David stood against Goliath. When we speak with the intensity of this power men are stabbed in the heart and His word does not return void. A mere thimble of compassion in us becomes a mighty raging river by the power of the Holy Spirit. What absolute madness to think we could do anything without being endued with the power of the Holy Spirit.
With a magnifying glass, you need three things to make it burn, You need the glass itself, the person and the sun. If the sun is not shining then the glass is not working, it has nothing to intensify. Yet, with the Holy Spirit, the whole earth could be covered with clouds and darkness and gross darkness.We could find ourselves in the depths of the deepest dungeon or walking through the darkest valley, yet the Holy Spirit can magnify the light of Christ into our hearts under any conditions. Where could we flee from His Spirit and His magnified presence? If we ascended up to heaven, He is there. If we make our beds in hell, behold He is there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall His hand lead me, and His right hand shall hold me. Brothers and sisters, even the darkness is light to God. His glory, magnified by the Holy Spirit is all powerful.(Psalm 39)
There is a scripture that alludes to one who would hide Himself in hell to avoid God but that the hand of God would reach right into hell and pull that one out (Amos 9:2) If indeed the hand of God would reach into hell itself for judgment, what circumstances could you face where the light of the glory of God, magnified by the Holy Spirit, could not reach you? Could not penetrate the darkness of your situation? There are no such set of circumstances, glory to God. Far too often, the flesh is being controlled by it own magnifying glass and not the Holy Spirit. It magnifies our fears. It magnifies our insecurities. It magnifies the darkness that would come against us. The Holy Spirit intensifies the light, the enemy intensifies the darkness. What will be magnified in your life this day brothers and sisters?
Have you ever stood beneath a violent storm? The lightening fractures the sky above and sends down bolts that touch earth and sky. The ground shakes as the thunder roars. The dark clouds swirl in violent contortions. Tornado’s begin to form as the earth is battered by giant hailstones. The immensity of the power that surrounds you overwhelms you. Have you ever been caught up in a storm as sea? Waves of tremendous power rise to towering heights and fall with unspeakable power. The wind howls as it drives the waves into a frenzy and the noise is deafening. You quickly understand your place in this world. Fear and humility course through your veins.
When a man encounters God he is quite simply undone. Everything he knows about himself convicts him in an instant. His very existence crumbles as he encounters the immensity of God. He falls to floor as if dead. He is man and God is God. He dare not speak unless he is spoken to. He understands that the very voice of God, a single word could totally destroy both body and soul. Does this God offend you? This is the God of the Bible. Not a kindly grandfather with silver hair. Not the “man upstairs.” He is God and you are man and when man encounters His Majesty then you are undone. In Christ alone we stand. In Christ alone we are ushered before the throne. In Christ alone we are swallowed up in the glory. Christ is the fire from the altar that has refined us and given us voice before Majesty.
God’s righteousness reflects upon our humanity. The righteousness of Christ in us reflects upon a a dark world untouched by the glory of God. Is there a fire that burns within you brothers and sisters and does the fire light up the dark deeds of this world? Does it reflect upon the shadows and the shades of grey? There is but one reason for the fire, one reason for the light. We have been called to go into the darkness of the valley. This world is the valley of the shadow of death. Yet we fear no evil, for we are bearers of the light. He has restored our souls and He leads us in the paths of righteousness for His name sake. In an ever darkening world, remember your calling brothers and sisters.
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul was always moving forward. He never lived in the past. Whether it was failures or victories he did not let them hold him back or move him to think he had arrived. He did not “count himself to have apprehended.” Apprehended what? Why salvation of course. He did not consider in his mind that he had “arrived.” This is not to say that he did not have eternal assurance, he certainly did. Yet, he did not stand upon that as a reason to sit back and coast. God forbid, he was always pushing forward, precept upon precept, glory upon glory ever coming into the likeness of Jesus.
Now how does that apply to you and me? There is a temptation to think that because you have been saved then that is it. Or there is the equal temptation to think because you have messed up then you are finished. You would be wrong on both counts. The Lord here in this portion of Scripture is telling us to forget what has already happened. He is assuming in this Scripture that you have come before Him and asked for forgiveness and you found grace and mercy. That sin is now as far as the east is from the west and has been cast into a sea of forgiveness, never again to be remembered by the Lord. He will not cast it up, only we humans do that.
Now He is urging us to reach forward to the things that lie ahead. A journey is only completed when the pilgrim keeps in front of his mind his final destination. He cannot take up residence somewhere. He cannot camp there, he must get up and get on with the journey if he is to find his way home. Camping on a particular situation or putting down roots in a place that you know is not right will come between you and the Lord. Press forward saint in your narrow path of sanctification that is your high calling. Jesus is your high calling. We have been called to be like Jesus. This is the mark. Push on saint. Win that prize, run this race like someone who desires to actually win the race. God bless you as you make your way home.
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.
The congregation, the gathered, the called out ones are, in and of themselves a set of instruments. Each a vital part of the orchestra and without such there can be no genuine praise and worship. Without the instruments of God making beautiful expressions composed by the Holy Spirit all we have is professional music and a professional speaker. The true instruments remain silent. And the one who fine tunes each and every one of these instruments is dismayed to see that they are silenced. .
The people hear manufactured music that lulls them to spiritual sleep. They have long forgotten that they themselves are instruments in the hands of the Master musician. When the orchestra of God has been silenced, when the conductor has been usurped, then all we are left with is noise, clanging symbols and sounding brass. Only as the full orchestra plays, conducted by the Holy Spirit Himself, can the hearts be pierced rather than be dulled and lulled into a state of slow death. For the symphony to rise to heaven all instruments must be engaged. This is the Body, all moving together, conducted by majesty and producing a magnificent holy sound that brings down the weight of heaven’s glory. We have been drowned by the noise of silence. Sparks rise up and dance in the darkness from the fires of our own making. Oh to God that the usurpers would fall and the preeminent One would take His rightful place.
And the remnant… shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. (Isaiah 37:31)
In the very depths of winter, spring can seem like a long ways away isn’t that right? This is also very true for our spiritual seasons for all of us will go through dark winters of our souls. Perhaps you are there right now? I would like you to consider the tree in winter. It loses all of its foliage. It stands stark and naked and bare against the cold winter sky. There seems to be no life in it at all. Yet there it stands.
All activity seems to be suspended yet the root system continues to grow as the ground temperature just a few feet below the surface is warmer. In the depths of winter, the roots grow deeper. This is the season of the remnant. We are in the midst of a long winter which will only end with the return of Jesus. This long winter is by design. God is establishing a people who cannot be moved. He is allowing everything to be stripped away. All the foliage, all the pretty adornments that we have added over countless centuries are simply being stripped away.
The traditions of men appeal to the world, it compensates for a lack of reality. Yet God has a remnant who simply must have Him. A people who, no matter what happens, will follow God and stand upon His Word. Stand firm brothers and sisters, be encouraged. You are not alone. Your trials, your tribulations and your feelings of isolation are by design. God must have an end time people who will follow Him no matter how fierce the storm. His people must have deep roots and these roots must be developed.
Yes we are surrounded by a hard freeze and all things that have no depth is perishing, but be of good cheer brothers and sisters, you have depth. That depth is the Lord Jesus Himself and He gives and sustains life even in the harshest conditions. When winter finally breaks we discover the tree has grown taller because the root system with its life-giving sap has been able to focus on that which remains. Branches and leaves, the circumstances and situations of our lives come and go but the root, the very depth of who we are remains forever and it alone is our strength.
We were warned in 2 Cor 6:14 not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. So of course the question becomes “what is an unbeliever?” In the context of the Scriptures and the times of the Scriptures being written, a believer was someone who had trusted God with all of his/her heart.
Someone who had counted the cost. Someone who loved not their lives unto death. Someone who was willing and desirous even, to suffer for the cause of Christ, someone who would even rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus. This was a believer, and an unbeliever was someone not willing to do these things. What fellowship could one have with the other? What fellowship can hot have with lukewarm? One is desirable and the other is vomited out.
How does this apply to the modern day church? People like Tozer and Ravenhill spoke of the tiny percentage of professing believers that are actually saved. Let us be really generous and say that 30% of professing Christians are actually genuine believers, that leaves 70% who are not. Next time you go to a church building, look around and consider these numbers. The question then becomes, ” are you unequally yoked,” based upon a Scriptural model of what it means to be saved.
We are asked “what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness.” One is darkness, the other is light. Listen to the instruction given “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” Have you given serious consideration to this commandment from the Lord? What does it mean to you? Come out from what? Be separate from what? Do not have fellowship with who? These are serious questions and I cannot answer them for you.
All I can say is, if you go back to the second paragraph and see the traits of the saint, is this who you fellowship with? Jesus talks about vomit when it comes to lukewarmness. Could He make it any clearer? Are you gathering with lukewarmness? I would put it to you that you are in direct violation of the commands of God if you are. Fellowshipping with other saints is not about ticking a box. It’s not about a three minute conversation in the foyer after a “service.” It is at least two passionate like-minded individuals getting together to talk about their common passion, Jesus!!! This is what we are driven to do if we indeed have the Holy Spirit burning at the core of who we are.
We would talk about Jesus, we would talk about His word, we would talk about how He talked to us. We would talk about how He just brought us through whatever He just brought us through. We would talk about the passion of coming into His presence. We would talk about the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon us and how it was sanctifying us. We would talk about our love for one another. We would confess our faults and our failures and our sins to one another. We would talk about how He raised us up when we were down. We would sing the glories of Christ our King together.
We would talk about a word of knowledge He gave us, we would share a word of wisdom, a word in season, an exhortation. We would rebuke and correct one another. We would love one another enough to do all of the aforementioned things. The hours would fly away as we spoke about our common passion. Our bonds would grow deep and our unity would grow strong. It would not be the name of our denomination that bound us together, there would be no such thing. It would not be the four walls that we shared that would bind us together. It would be Christ alone, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that would unify us. Our identity would be in Christ alone.
We would share what the Lord had taught us and in the sharing we would be teaching one another. We would stand up and testify to His power in our lives. We would stand up and testify to the magnificent beauty of the King off Kings and of the things that we had seen in the Spirit. We would shed tears together. Tears of joy, tears of pain, tears of sorrow. When one of us suffered and testified to the suffering we would all suffer. When one would testify of great joy and overcoming an obstacle we would all have great joy together. We would pray together, genuinely pray together. We would be one in our prayers. That is the gathering brothers and sisters. I would say to you that almost none of that can or does happen when the majority of the people that we gather with live, at the very best, in lukewarmness or even outright darkness. How can light fellowship with darkness? It cannot. Consider your position saint.
I have just returned from Greenock so I apologize for those who check this site regularly. We held a revival conference there and had about 500 Christians there from over 20 different countries. I believe that this is the beginning of a movement of God’s people. The best of the Evangelicals, combined with the best of the “Pentecostals.” This was no easy task and was covered in prayer. The enemy was violently apposed to even the concept of this because for centuries he has divided and conquered. Below is one man’s take on what happened in Greenock. I will be writing my own thoughts and stories of how the Lord moved. The day of the “Bapticostal,” is coming. ……………………….
God is not calling us to wage a culture war that would seek to transform our countries into “Christian nations.” To devote all, or even most, of our time, energy, money, and strategy to putting a facade of morality on the world or over our governmental and political institutions is to badly misunderstand our roles as Christians in a spiritually lost world. Read the rest of this entry »
On Wednesday evening, the 22nd of October, Paul Washer delivered a sermon that should shake the American church http://www.tenindictments.com/ Ten points were delivered and questions the whole premise of who we are and what we do and the validity of conversions. There is a coming reformation of the church and coming judgement and it will indeed begin in the house of the Lord. The preaching of Calvary and Jesus and Him crucified will return. The true power of the Holy Spirit, exemplified by the Apostle Peter as he preached to the crowd after Pentecost , will return. At Pentecost, Peter spoke with “Katanusso,” power, this is the power to “stab the hearers in the heart.” The word itself means to “violently agitate, to penetrate.” This power was so radical that the crowd cried out “what must we do.” We have seen this power in genuine revivals, now, if we are so blessed, in the coming reformation, we will see this power again.
This is an indictment that reaches across the board. To Evangelicals on the one side, and to Charismatics on the other. May the Lord move in power.
The sweet all consuming joy of His presence. This heart of a lion that beats within the chest of a lamb. This all consuming power of love that rises victoriously above all the battles of life. What battle field do you find yourself on today? Do you battle the unseen enemy of unforgiveness? Or has someone wronged you and bitterness knocks at your door?
A new moral power will flow back into the Church when we stop preaching social adjustment and begin to preach social repudiation and cross carrying. Modern Christians hope to save the world by being like it, but it will never work. The Church’s power over the world springs out of her unlikeness to it, never from her integration into it.
Modern day Christianity has lost its way, has lost its focus. The central truths upon which we have stood for two thousand years has been lost in a fog of noise and distraction and in the rise of humanism and the flesh. Never before, in the history of the Western world have we seen such an indulgent , entitlement-minded people. And since a great majority of the Church is just like the world, then we see a indulgent, entitlement-minded Church. Read the rest of this entry »
Once a nerve is removed, it can never hurt you again. Let me ask you this, do you have a nerve problem? Do you need a spiritual root canal? Perhaps it has been buried for so long that you believe it is dealt with. The thing about decay is that it is a process, it will not stop of its own accord. If it is covered up it will begin to spread and effect other areas of your life. It needs to be uncovered and dealt with.Read the rest of this entry »
The Lord will not commit to those who have built their houses on sinking sand. This is why we see the “house,” of “believers,” come tumbling down when faced with “unanswered prayers.” For they are not established on the solid Rock of Jesus Christ and the cross of Calvary. Read the rest of this entry »
That small still 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 Call To The Remnant 