What does it mean to have faith? What does it mean to exercise faith? And what does it truly mean to trust in the Lord? The words faith and trust are often used interchangeably, yet Scripture distinguishes their shades of meaning. The Greek word for faith, πίστις (pistis), carries the sense of conviction, fidelity, and steadfast belief , a firm persuasion of the truth and character of God. It is not vague optimism but anchored certainty rooted in who He is. The Greek term for trust, πεποίθησις (pepoithēsis), flows from pistis and means confident reliance, settled assurance, and inward persuasion. It is faith extended through endurance, faith that has matured under testing. Thus, pistis believes what God has spoken, and pepoithēsis continues to rest in that promise when sight fails and the storm gathers. Both are born of the same root: confidence in the unchanging nature of God. This is the foundation upon which all true preparedness stands, the faith that acts and the trust that endures.
Faith, then, is the spiritual substance of what is unseen, the invisible made certain in the heart of the believer. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). It is not mere belief that God exists, but confidence in His goodness, His promises, and His Word. Faith does not rest upon sight or circumstance; it rests upon the immutable character of God. It looks into the unseen and says, “Thou art faithful.” It is the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters within the veil where Christ Himself has gone before (Hebrews 6:19–20). Pistis is not a feeling to be maintained but a conviction to be lived by, it sees the eternal in the midst of the temporal and moves the heart to obedience.
To exercise faith is to act upon that conviction. Faith untested remains theory; exercised faith becomes testimony. The one who believes that winter is near cuts his firewood before the frost. His pistis (faith) moves his hands; his belief produces action. But the frail widow, who has no strength to lift the axe, exercises faith in another form. She cannot labor, but she trusts , her pepoithēsis (trust) clings to God’s faithfulness, believing He will make provision where she cannot. In both, faith lives and breathes. The strong man acts upon what he believes; the widow rests upon what she cannot see. Faith is not idleness. It is obedience moving in harmony with the will of God , for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:17). Yet these works are not self-reliant striving; they are the fruit of divine persuasion , the evidence that pistis (faith) is alive within the heart.
To trust in the Lord , to walk in pepoithēsis (trust) , is to place one’s full confidence in His sovereign care when reason falters and outcomes remain hidden. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6). Trust is faith stretched through time; it is the steady endurance of the soul that refuses to doubt the character of God though all outward things collapse. Job, sitting among the ashes, spoke this divine paradox: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15). That is trust refined in the fire , pepoithēsis (trust) at its highest expression. Faith says, “God can.” Trust declares, “God will.” Love adds, “Even if He does not, He is still my God.”
What, then, is our part in this divine partnership? Scripture tells us to “put on the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11), to take up the shield of faith, to gird our loins with truth, and to shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. These are commands of readiness. The armor is given by grace, but it must be worn by choice. The believer must take up what God has provided. Preparation is not unbelief — it is the living demonstration of faith’s reality. The man who sharpens his sword before battle is not denying God’s help; he is aligning himself with it. Our pistis (faith) equips us; our pepoithēsis (trust) steadies us. The one is the conviction that moves; the other is the confidence that endures.
And did not our Lord Himself prepare? The supreme pattern of readiness is found in Gethsemane. Beneath the olive trees, Christ waged the invisible war before the visible cross. “And being in agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). The disciples slept, but the Captain of our salvation fought alone. The struggle was not with men but within His own humanity , the surrender of His human will to the divine. And when the moment came — “Not my will, but Thine be done” , the victory was secured. From that garden He rose, His face set like flint (Isaiah 50:7), and for the joy set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2). The battle of Calvary was the outworking of the triumph of Gethsemane. Pistis (faith) led Him into prayer; pepoithēsis (trust) carried Him through obedience.
What, then, does it mean for us to be prepared? It means to cultivate a heart steadfast in pistis (faith) and anchored in pepoithēsis(trust). The prepared soul is not caught unaware when the storm descends. It has stored the Word in its heart, for the Word is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). It has guarded its thoughts with the helmet of salvation and girded its life with truth (Ephesians 6:14). It prays without ceasing, for prayer is the breath of faith (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It stands ready with the gospel of peace, for readiness itself is part of the armor. Such a soul walks neither in fear nor presumption, but in quiet confidence. The unprepared are like those who wait for winter with no firewood; but those who live by faith have already kindled the flame within their hearts.
The battle, as the Lord showed us, is won not first in the field but in the heart’s preparation. “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:1). Victory begins in surrender. When a believer bows in the secret place and whispers, “Not my will, but Thine be done,” the triumph is already assured. From that hidden Gethsemane he rises clothed in divine strength, able to endure the cross set before him, whatever form it takes. Faith has believed; trust has endured; preparation has secured the victory.
To have faith is to believe. To exercise faith is to act. To trust is to endure. To prepare is to triumph before the battle begins. And when the soul, through pistis (faith) and pepoithēsis( trust), comes to that holy place of surrender, it finds, as Christ did, that peace flows where agony once reigned. For the Lord who prepared Himself in Gethsemane now prepares His saints likewise , that they may stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand (Ephesians 6:13). Praise be to the Lord, for the battle is His , yet He trains our hands for war and girds us with strength for the fight (Psalm 18:34, 39).
Scripture Appendix
I. Πίστις (Pistis) — Faith, Conviction, Persuasion
Hebrews 11:1 – Faith as substance and evidence of the unseen.
Romans 1:17 – ‘The just shall live by faith.’
Ephesians 2:8 – Faith as the gift of God in salvation.
Romans 10:17 – Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.
Galatians 2:20 – Living by the faith of the Son of God.
James 2:17 – Faith without works is dead.
Hebrews 11:6 – Without faith it is impossible to please God.
2 Timothy 4:7 – ‘I have kept the faith.’
II. Πεποίθησις (Pepoithēsis) — Trust, Confidence, Assurance
2 Corinthians 3:4 – ‘Such trust have we through Christ to Godward.’
Philippians 1:6 – Being confident that He who began a good work will perform it.
Philippians 3:3–4 – Having no confidence in the flesh.
Hebrews 3:14 – Holding the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.
2 Corinthians 1:9–10 – Trusting in God who raises the dead.
Ephesians 3:12 – Boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.
Faith (pistis) is the seed; trust (pepoithēsis) is its fruit. One believes God’s word; the other continues in that belief when all else fails. Together, they form the unshakable posture of the prepared soul , believing, enduring, and standing firm until the end.
A couple of days ago, I found myself praying through the pain. The weight of chronic suffering pressed hard against my body, sleepless nights, relentless aches, and then came the news: my mother, already fragile, had fallen again, twice in three days. Now she lies in a hospital bed back in Scotland, and I feel the ache of distance more deeply than the pain in my bones.
But in the middle of this storm, our little fellowship had just been walking through Colossians 1, and Paul’s words struck deep: “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” Oh, what a mystery! That in our weakness, we are strengthened, not by our own feeble will, not by grit or determination, but by all might, according to His glorious power. It is Christ. It is all Christ. His strength, His might, His glory. He initiates, He enables, and in Him, we become more than conquerors. And as this truth ignited my spirit, a prayer rose from the depths, a cry not of despair but of victory, and it thrilled my soul and lifted me high, far above the valley, to a place where joy and power meet on the mountaintop of faith. Glory to God!
……………………This was my prayer……….
When every last breath is torn from my lungs, still, I will give You the kiss of life. When I have tasted no food for many days, my soul shall yet feed the hungry. When the sun has hidden its face and the heavens remain cloaked in silence, I will lift my face to You, and You, O Radiant One, will shine through me. And when my heart is heavy with sorrow and anguish drowns my soul, I will break the alabaster jar of joy and pour it out upon the weary. O Lord of Heaven and Earth! Even in the testing, even in the fire and the fury, even in the shadow of death and in the long-suffering of my pain, let me be a blessing. Let me bless them from the prison of that pain. Let me lift them from the depths of my own valley. If they are halfway up the mountain and I am still far below, let them hear my song rise from the depths:Glory to God. Glory to God!
And may the valley blaze with the light of that glory. Let the darkness tremble. Let chains be shattered. Let the echo of praise thunder through every cavern, For You, O King, are worthy in fire and flood, in feast and famine. Majesty in the valley. Majesty on the mountain.
I find myself increasingly dismayed by the widespread lack of discernment concerning not only the papacy but the Catholic Church as a whole. Speaking as a former Catholic, one who departed from the Church upon experiencing a genuine conversion, a born-again encounter with Christ. I am particularly troubled by the growing acceptance of Catholicism among Protestant and Evangelical circles that, only a few decades ago, would have maintained a clear separation. The shift over the past 25 to 30 years is both significant and concerning.
Research indicates that there are at least 20 million former Catholics in the United States alone. Of these, studies suggest that approximately 80–90% departed after undergoing a born-again experience. If we extend these figures to South America, the number nearly doubles, approaching 50 million individuals across the Americas who have left Catholicism for similar reasons. When extrapolated globally, the figure could be closer to 100 million. There is, therefore, a profound and deliberate reason why so many now identify as “ex-Catholics,” myself included, and I do not hesitate to affirm that designation.
The widespread failure to recognize these realities, in my view, correlates closely with the phenomenon commonly referred to as the “Great Falling Away” a time marked by diminishing spiritual discernment, widespread biblical illiteracy, and the dilution of Protestant witness, which has become but a shadow of its former vitality. This erosion continues largely unabated.
The idea that the head of the Catholic Church, the Pope, could be regarded as a born-again believer is, in my estimation, theologically untenable and historically absurd. This is to say nothing of the longstanding doctrinal errors promulgated by the Catholic Church, foremost among them the dogma of transubstantiation. The claim that a priest has the authority to transform a piece of bread into the literal body of Christ not only defies plain scriptural teaching but also strains credulity to the utmost. Such a claim, divorced from biblical foundations, highlights the extent of the doctrinal chasm.
Given these concerns, I have deliberately refrained from engagement with recent papal funerals, elections, and public commentary surrounding the pontificate. I am personally persuaded that the figure of the Pope, whether the present or a soon-coming successor, will fulfill the prophetic role of the False Prophet, one who will direct the world to the Antichrist, declaring him to be the true Christ. In a world that increasingly regards the Pope as the de facto figurehead of Christianity, reverently referring to him as the “Holy Father” and the “Vicar of Christ,” such developments seem to me to be falling into place with alarming predictability.
Then Moses stood, trembling before the living God and cried, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here!” What use is a promised land without the presence of the Lord? What use victory without the Victor? Better to die in the wilderness with His presence than to live in palaces void of His presence. Moses didn’t crave gold or glory—only God. “How will they know we have found grace in Your sight unless You are with us? For it is Your Presence that sets us apart from all the peoples of the earth!”
This plea came after the shame of the golden calf. God had said, “I will not go in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” Judgment hung heavy. But the people responded with brokenness, they stripped themselves of their ornaments, the very gold they once used to craft an idol. What was once an object of rebellion would now be set apart for worship, given for the building of the tabernacle. Out of ashes, something holy would rise.
God, moved by the bold and broken cry of His servant, said to Moses, “I will do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
Oh, the wonder of being known by God, not just as a face in the crowd, but as a beloved child. Your name, spoken from His lips. The same voice that formed the stars knows your name.
But Moses was not satisfied. He wanted more. “Show me Your glory!” he cried. The cloud wasn’t enough. The fire wasn’t enough. The voice on Sinai wasn’t enough. He longed to see God Himself. Do we? Do you long for His presence with such desperation? Is this one desire the fire that burns in your bones?
David knew that longing. “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved… for in Your Presence there is fullness of joy.” Not a taste, not a whisper, not a portion-fullness. The very life of the soul. Like a deer pants for the water, so our souls should pant for Him. We cannot go forward unless He goes with us. We need the cloud by day, the fire by night, and the glory that changes everything.
David cried again in Psalm 27, “One thing I have 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 inquire in His temple.” His heart was not set on fame or fortune, but on this one thing—to dwell with God, to see His beauty, to be near Him. In the time of trouble, God would hide him, lift him high upon the Rock.
To Moses, God replied, “I will make all My goodness pass before you… but no one can see My face and live. Still, there is a place by Me. Stand on the rock. I will hide you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand. Then you shall see My back.” What a mercy. What a gift. Moses stood on the Rock, hidden in the cleft, shielded by God’s hand, and he saw the glory of the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you stand upon the Rock? Are you hidden in the cleft? Has the hand of God covered you, and have you glimpsed His glory? Has it changed you from the inside out? Like Isaiah, who saw the Lord and was undone. Like Jeremiah, who burned with His word. Like Ezekiel, who fell before the wheels of glory. Has His fire touched your lips?
This is no ordinary walk. This is the baptism of fire. For Jesus said, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, oh, how I wish it were already kindled!” Our God is a consuming fire. He burns away the flesh, the pride, the idols, and reveals His glory in the soul that longs for Him. Let that fire fall.
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.
The beginning of the vision was a loud booming voice calling all Christians to awake , “Awake you sleepy Christians.” “Who will ascend Gods Holy Hill? Those with a pure heart and clean hands.”Then I saw thousands of baby turtles heading from the dunes towards the sea. Darkness was falling and there was a full moon that illuminated the broad beach. Before most of the turtles could cross the beach and reach the safety of the water, they were attacked by screaming seagulls. The power of the air had come to attack them, seagulls by the hundreds making a horrendous shrieking noise as they feasted on their helpless prey.Then from the dunes came raccoons and critters of every kind to join in the frenzy and drag these hapless baby turtles away. Just when I thought the slaughter could not get worse, out from under the sand came ghost crabs which tore into the turtles and dragged them down into their holes in the sand to be devoured. As all of this was going on, I could see Scripture framing this whole scene. “Many are called but few are chosen,” “Broad is the road that leads to destruction, narrow is the path that leads to life.” A handful of the turtles made it to the water.
Then suddenly I am looking at a stadium. On its platform was a sword embedded in a rock. In the stadium were thousands and thousands of young people. Teenagers, young people in their 20s and 30s. Jesus walks onto the stage and goes to the rock and pulls out the sword and turns to address the crowd of young people. Below the stage was a line of older men and women, mature saints, standing and silently praying. Behind them, between them and the stage, were thousands of flags fluttering in the wind. Jesus addresses the crowd and challenges them to come down and take up their crosses and join the fight against the great tide of evil that has deluged the land. First they must come and be prayed for and then come towards Him to join Him. In order to do that they would have to pass through the sea of flags. Then I saw that there were words written upon upon every flag. I looked closer.
On hundred of them was the word lust. On hundreds more was hate. And then there was ambition, suicide, bitterness, un-forgiveness, rebellion, greed, materialism and on it went. The call is made to the crowd by Jesus. “Will you come forward and die to these things this day?” They respond to the call to arms and begin to move forward in obedience to the call with great trembling and weeping. They kneel and pray with the men of God and then get up and move past them and with pure hearts and clean hands. They make their way towards the flags that represents what they have just laid down, they pull up the flag and they break it over their knees and throw it to the ground. Freedom rings out into the night sky, the rejoicing rises up into heaven itself. The gates of hell begin to shake as Jesus receives the reward of His suffering and the young people rise up with one voice in adoration of their King.
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.
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?
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.
The gifts of the Spirit in the church today are not only desirable but absolutely imperative. It is extremely necessary that we should have the gifts of the Spirit in the church and let me show you why…….Un-gifted men can do religious work, but it is only the human mind doing a human work. Mortality is written all over the church of Christ today because men are trying to do in the power of their own genius , what only the Holy Spirit can do. Genius cannot do immortal work, genius can only do mortal work…often talent alone runs the church today not the gifts of the Holy Spirit as intended (A,W.Tozer)
When we have a corrupted priesthood, it leads to the birth of Ichabod. If indeed God has departed then what do men do? They keep on going in their own strength. They cannot acknowledge their own corruptions, they cannot give up the power and the prestige they so desire but at the same time they cannot have God in their midst. So, the anointed is replaced by the appointed. In the absence of God we appoint men and women of talent. We try to recreate the giftings and the moving of the Holy Spirit. It never occurs to men to simply fall back on the Word of God. We are several generations into appointed men in leadership, men who are appointed by other men and not anointed of God. Men and women of talent. They have the gift or oratory, in fact it was a required qualification. They can sing like angels, in fact it was required of them before they were appointed. They can take the Word of God and teach it, for they were taught how to do this very thing in their Bible schools and seminaries.
All day long the Sauls of this world rise in our churches and the Davids are left in the fields. They are tall and handsome, they are beautiful and talented just like the world and that is what they wanted. They are appointed men and they have not the anointing of God. And without the anointing it can only ever be a house of talent and not a house of victory. The giants of this world are left to roar at us and mock us and come against us for we lack the David spirit. The appointed try to figure out how to survive with the least amount of damage as the Philistines roar. The anointed run to the battle and care not whether they live or die for they are full of the Spirit of God. The appointed worry about offending the people because they were appointed by the people and in order to keep their position they must please the people. The anointed speak as they are moved to speak by the Holy Spirit. They are not hirelings and they do not run from the wolves and the bears.
The appointed employ all the ways of the world in order to “build,” their own kingdoms. What else could they do? They use talented people, they use pop psychology and business methods. They employ sales techniques. And the latest addition to the appointed is technology. Dimmed lights, blackened walls, smoke machines, theatre seating and concert style worship. The anointed may not have any oratory skills at all. They may not be able to fit into skinny jeans. They may not be the most confident people. They may not desire to have any position at all. Yet it is God who does the anointing. He chooses whom He will use and He builds His church not on methods of the world but by the gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit and upon the Word of God. The appointed must rip out whole chapters of the Bible in order to survive and the anointed simply stand upon the Word, even if it means a congregation of twelve.
Men always appoint men who will serve their purposes. God anoints those who will serve His purposes. In order not to share His glory with anyone He raises up paupers to walk with princes. He takes the teenage shepherd boy to replace the peoples choice. He takes the weak and the lowly, the contrite and the broken and He raises them up to high and lofty places to dwell and to fellowship with Him. The anointed walk, not in their human talents and genius, rather they walk in the anointing. In the power of the Holy Spirit. In the giftings of God that do not come through natural birth but rather come from the second birth. And by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. How can we tell an anointed church from an appointed church? You will see the gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation in Gods anointed. Could it be that simple? Is the word of God difficult to understand? Does it all come down to that in the end, obedience to the Word? It always does, whether in our personal lives or our corporate gatherings. There is life in the anointing. There is activity in the appointed. While there can be activity in the anointed, there can never be life in the merely appointed when the appointment is of men.
So much of the mega church and movements like Hillsong are almost exclusively based on emotions. This is where the danger lies when your music ministry is the heart and soul of your church or movement. Young people especially are swept up in a tide of feelings, their foundations of why they worship, based on how they feel.
Worshiping God begins and ends at the cross. We worship a God who died for us, who shed His blood for us. The love we discovered at the cross is all consuming. It is life and death. It transcends feelings, it is so much deeper than that. It hurtles past the outer limits of our soul and penetrates into the depths of our spirits.
Our love for our Lord is based on the firm foundation that He first loved us and that He died for us! When that is the basis of your salvation then you shall not be easily shaken. God Himself will be your life and wild horses shall not drag you out of His hand. He is your reason for living, He is the very air that you breath, He is your very sanity, In short, you know you exist solely because of Him.
There are no grandchildren in the Kingdom of God only sons and daughters. Beware everyone of you that was raised in a Christian household and raised up in a church. Shine a spotlight on your faith and examine yourself to see whether indeed you “know,” Jesus. See whether indeed you are a son or a daughter of the Kingdom. Do you love the God of all creation above all things? Does He rule and reign in your heart or does He merely exist in your head? Eternity rises or falls based on these questions.
If you are merely a grandchild you cannot stand, you will fall. You may have walked an aisle when you were four or five and have been told all of your life that you are a Christian, but the cross will tell the story. Unless the cross has penetrated and transformed your spirit, you dwell in the dim recesses of your soul. A place where shades of gray dominate. To dwell there is to have become accustomed to the darkness and perceive it to be light. The eyes are very clever and soon master the grey dimness. Yet, if you were to walk out of the dimness, out of the shades of grey and into His marvelous light you would fall back and scream as the light tears through your eyes and explodes into your heart and mind and soul and spirit.
The cross tears away a mans soul. It penetrates every part of him, nothing is left un-examined, nothing is ever the same. Now this new creature takes up his cross, in the shadow of Calvary, “knowing,’ not in the head, but in the deepest recesses of his heart, that His lord suffered more than he ever could and it is an enormous privilege to follow in His footsteps. This is salvation.
Today we are being driven by the form and not the substance. Jesus is the substance. Jesus is the primary object. Jesus is the preeminent one. Without Him high and lifted up, front and center, without His presence in our midst we only have a form. A religious structure built by human hands to house our own desires. We have abandoned the real Jesus and constructed another Jesus. This other Jesus serves us. He serves our needs and desires, he entertains us through his creators. This other Jesus has never carried a cross nor does he require his followers to carry one either.
This cultural Jesus is a mere reflection of his adherents. He never judges, he never corrects. He has no particular requirements. He is a genie in a bottle even although they vigorously rub and he never appears. He does not walk with them, they walk alone. He does not talk to them, they merely engage their own imaginations. He lies to them through the prism of their souls. They hear him say peace and prosperity. He is a reflection of the better part of their natures and they do not realize that the better part of their natures is like filthy rags to the true and living God.
If these people ever actually encountered the true and the living Christ He would devastate them and upturn their lives. Everything they know or thought they knew would come crashing down. A God who judges? Hear the screams. A God who calls them to enter into His sufferings? Hear the wails. A God who requires their whole lives, their whole hearts, their whole allegiances? They writhe in agony. The flesh that refuses to die is enmity to God. He bids that flesh to voluntarily pick up its cross, the means of its own death. It shall surrender or it will rage against the author of the cross.
The narrow path never deviates as it winds its way home. It is fraught with danger. It slowly strips away all of the baggage that we took with us for our journey. It tears away at the flesh and passes through refining fires and floods. It often winds it way through hot and arid deserts. The narrow path has many exits and every exist is a path of least resistance. As soon as one steps onto it one can hear the haunting intoxicating sound of the siren call as it draws that one away from the narrow path.
For those who stay the course and stay on the narrow path, every so often, always suddenly, the Lord comes to us. He reminds us that we are His, He encourages us. He bids us look down and see that the path itself is the Word of God and that the path lights up and directs us in the way that we should go. We are instructed to turn neither to the left nor to the right. The Lord embraces us in His love and His kindness.
He heals our wounds, He tenderly touches our weary hearts. He feeds the deepest parts of us and sustains us for the journey. He restores the brokenhearted and gives strength to the weary. He gives us hope when there seems to be no hope. He gives us joy when there is nothing at all to be joyful about. He gives us a garment of praise and takes away a heavy spirit. He bids us to lift up our eyes and see the celestial city, from where our help comes from. Stay the course brothers and sisters. Stand fast in the time of our vexation. Our Lord is coming soon and our journey will be at an end.
If our evangelism has become shallow, then it is only because our Christianity has become shallow. If our evangelicalism has become mechanical and predictable, then more than likely so have our lives as believers. If our proclamation of the good news is merely verbal and formalized, then that it is a sure sign that truth has become mere words and formulas in our daily walk. I cannot draw someone to a place I am not in myself. We can always speak the proclamation, to do so requires only that we remember the correct words. However in order to move men, we need also to be the proclamation, and that requires a life immersed in the Spirit of Truth (Art Katz, The Spirit of Truth)
Can you see what our dear brother Art is saying here? It is not good enough to make a proclamation, one must be the proclamation. Another pastor said that “I am not waiting on a move of God, I am a move of God.” Can you see the difference between mere intellectual assent to abstract truths and those whose lives are the truth? One knows about it, the other walks it. Jesus is the word made flesh. If we are to draw men to Jesus we must be in the place that we seek to draw them too. We cannot speak of coming to Jesus if we do not dwell in the glory. Our lives must be a manifestation of Jesus. It is not good enough to just talk to someone about Jesus ( I wish we really had that problem) they must see Jesus when they see us. After all, are we not living epistles read by men?
In the last several generations of Christendom, one shallow generation has followed after another. Each generation shallower than the one that went before them. What a tragedy that the church has been slowly and surely all but swallowed up by the world. In politics either the Liberals or the conservatives say something like ” I did not leave the party, the party left me.” This too could be applied to much of Christianity. Denomination after denomination has fallen and left its true believers behind. No longer could they be a part of the most shallow generation of Christianity that has ever walked the earth. And if shallowness was its only problem, that would be bad enough, but it is outright wickedness that walks the halls and assemblies of men today.
There must be a manifestation of Jesus on the earth today. He has to manifest Himself in us and He only does that in willing obedient servants. He has His people still, He is never without a witness. They are people who not only know the Word but who are themselves living epistles easily read by men. They are not “just a sinner saved by grace,” God forbid. No, they are sons and daughters. The Word of God is in them and by the power of the Holy Spirit the Word becomes life. It does not become life in the hands or mouths of those who are spiritually dead, that is the realms of religious men and pharisees. Life begets life. Glory leads to glory. Love and mercy and grace leads to the manifestation of love and mercy and grace. The talents given to each saint are multiplied by their willingness to share what they have as they are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, we stand like well fed men and woman in a land that is dying from famine. The fat on our bones, so to speak, speaks to the life that is in us. Can men see that you are well fed? Do you stand out among the dead and the dying? Are they drawn to you because of the depths of Christ in you? Are those who dwell in the shallow places drawn to the deep? We must ask ourselves these questions for our calling is but salt and light. If we are not salt to the world, then what is our purpose? If we are not light to the world, then why are we alive? Tragically, over the generations, the people in the shallow end, the world, have drawn many to them instead of the other way around. We must fulfill our purpose here on earth. and we can only do that by dwelling where the the glory is for all the world to see.
For the last six months, I have suffered, almost non stop, from two pinched nerves. I have lived with chronic pain, but this is something “special.” Please, and don’t be offended by this, but please do not comment on the pain, my condition or express sympathy or remedies. My interest is in an analogy. The moments when, for no particular reason, there is no pain. It is overwhelming and quite emotional as I revel in the short window. The heavens seem to open up and I am surrounded by such satisfaction and appreciation for “normal.”
It occurred to me how much this experience is like the presence of God. That moment when all of a sudden and entirely unexpectedly my Lord is with me in His manifest presence. How, all the noise of the world just seems to melt away and I am in my “normal,” place. A place of no pain, no sadness, a place of radiating overwhelming beauty. I know it won’t last but I only know that afterwards. For eternity is always eternity even if it’s only for a moment. One day, one day soon, eternity will be moments no more.
I will wait for Him.
If I had to wait a thousand years,I would wait for Him. He is my all in all and I am swallowed whole by wholeness and it changes me. The world grows ever dimmer and the bright impenetrable light of His soon coming, beckons me. It calls to the depths of my spirit. I learned a long time ago that even if all the heavens above me are covered by clouds, that above those clouds there lies an eternal blue sky. And every now and then, the clouds part and a shaft of light engulfs me and renews my spirit and warms my soul.
Job 2:10 ….shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?
Brothers and sisters, this matter drives at the very heart of who we are. We are much more likely to discover who we are in the depths of adversity, than in any other state. So much energy in Christendom is expended in the stand against adversity. Rather than embrace it, as we certainly embrace the good, we fight it, often with everything that is in us. The adversity, and how it affects us, becomes the towering idol in our lives. Shall God not praised in any circumstances? Shall He not always be our primary focus? Should our eyes ever be moved from a gaze upon Him? In all my years walking through the corridors of Christianity, this single issue is the most pervasive. Our attitude towards infirmity or dire circumstances ultimately shape us and identify us. The fundamental core of who we are must be, whether we live or whether we die we shall praise the living God. Every other issue, if it is allowed, draws us away from God and towards ourselves. Rather than being fixated with God, we become fixated on ourselves and our circumstances.
In this verse Job addresses his wife. She, because of their circumstances, expresses what happens when circumstances are more important than God. She encourages her husband to curse God, abandon God, abandon his faith, abandon his life. For her, the circumstances of their life was more important than God Himself. She is a foolish woman and has been branded as such in the eternal word of God. Paul learned to be content whether he was hungry or full, in sickness or in health, in liberty or in the dungeon. He learned this. He learned that all loss, is mere rubbish, in comparison to being found in Him. In the end brothers and sisters the only thing that matters is being found in Him. Everything else, if we allow it, is idolatry. It is the curse of the last one hundred years that much of what identifies itself as Christianity, demands that God heals them and prospers them. This is the foundation of their so called faith. Madness and foolishness to stake your faith on the circumstances of your life rather than the holiness of a God who not only gives us good things, but also gives us adversities. Shall you accept that saint, or shall you rage against God and die in the wilderness?
Act 19:2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?
How could something so simple, become so controversial? Paul is asking some disciples he happened upon in a certain region if they had received the Holy Spirit. Every professing Christian must ask themselves the same question. The answer will be between them and the Lord and the Word. How honest these disciples were , they say they have never even heard of such a thing as the Holy Spirit. That very ignorance was to them an advantage, and our modern day knowledge of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God can actually work against us. We have head knowledge of the Holy Spirit, we can read about Him and be taught about Him and not deny Him and somehow this passes for having received Him.
In Matt 3:11 we see that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. What does that mean to you? Jesus says in Acts 1:5 that not many days from now you shall be “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” In verse 8 Jesus tell us that we would receive power and become witnesses after the Holy Spirit has come upon us. In Acts 2 we see those gathered together in the upper room be baptized with the Holy Spirit as represented with tongues of fire, fulfilling Matt 3:11. In Act 4:31 we see the disciples filled again. In Acts 6 we see that Stephen was “full of the Spirit.” In Acts 10 we see the Gentile believers receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then of course in Acts 19 we see those who have never even heard of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We see this doctrine fundamentally established over and over again. And of course there were signs of such a baptism. I would argue that boldness was the primary sign, boldness and power to be a witness. Other signs are well documented, among them being tongues and prophecy.
Now brothers and sisters, these things cannot be denied. To deny them is to deny Scripture. So the question remains “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” It is a fundamental question and only you can answer it. Without this baptism you shall be powerless. You cannot possibly be a witness for Christ on the earth without this power, and these are the Lords own words. With the evil day fast approaching we must know that we have oil in our lamps. We shall not be able to stand without it. Without it we shall stand in darkness. Only by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit can we be a light to the world and a witness to the Kingdom of God. We cannot possibly stand in our own strength. We can do many things by our own might and power and much of Christendom is established upon the might and power of men. Yet, what men establish, men can tear down. That which is established by the Spirit cannot be moved for it is founded upon the solid Rock of Christ.
Act 4:2 Being greatly disturbed that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the priests and the captain of the temple were greatly disturbed that disciples taught the people. This was their first crime. When was the last time you greatly disturbed someone? Who were these unlearned peasants who dared to teach the people? The religious folks of the day were grieved in their spirits that they were being usurped. If the ordinary folks were listening and being taught by other ordinary folks, where would that all end? They were, of course, particularly grieved that they taught that Jesus was the Christ and that He was alive! Now, the rulers and the elders and even the high priest had the disciples set before them. Outside of the Romans, these were the most powerful men in all of Judah. They demanded to know by what authority they spoke. It is always about authority.
Peter stood up, and, filled with the Holy Spirit told them boldly and plainly that it was in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ they spoke “whom you crucified.” And then, to hammer home the point about Jesus being the Christ says “there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved.” Unlearned men, untrained blue collar workers. Their only qualification, which was recognized, was that they had “been with Jesus.” Praise the Lord. When they were commanded by the rulers to never speak of Jesus again, the disciples rebuffed them by asking, who should we listen to, you or God? Oh for a tiny portion of that boldness in our own days. Never in the history of the Church has this kind of boldness been more needed.
The same religious men in our days have attempted to silence “the unlearned and the untrained.” And for the same reasons. Authority. They desire the authority and the preeminence. If every ordinary man or woman could preach or teach or give a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge or a tongue or a prophecy then where would that leave the religious leaders? Probably out of a job. If Christians this day had the same boldness to stand and be counted for the cause of Christ as the disciples did, not afraid of what might become of them, then we would have a Church like the early Church. And when the disciples went back and recounted what had just happened to them, their brothers and sisters prayed over them for even more boldness “and when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spake the word of God with boldness.” Would to God that we would pray that same prayer and experience that same shaking and filling.
A Call To The Remnant 