I wrote this poem based on the last thing my sister said on this earth. She was lying on her death bed and holding my mum’s hand. She was unconscious but awoke for a moment and said ” mam,” and then slipped away as my mom held her hand. It’s a profound thing to feel the life of your loved one fade away. This is quite a Scottish poem so my fellow Greenockians will probably understand it better. (Whiskey was the name of our cat growing up and chip was our wee dog)
Take my hand mam
It’s time for me to leave
Why so sad mam
I see those tears upon your sleeve
Don’t cry for me mam
This life has not been good to me
Yet in just a moment’s time
I’ll finally be set free
I remember ally bally
And sitting on your knee
I remember Whiteside’s flowers
And being late for tea
I remember summers long ago
And swimming in the dam
Fires on Kilgreggan’s beach
But most of all my mam
I remember daddy kissing you
Me jumping on his back
I remember wee chip standing there
And whiskey getting whacked
I was young them mam, you know
I could never guess what lay ahead of me
Just as well, don’t you think mam
That the future’s something we cannot see
I lie here now I see your face
My hand in yours a warm embrace
He’s coming now, the Lord for me
And with Him forever I will be
Goodbye mam it’s time to go
I loved you always, this you know
Take my hand and lay it down
For I’ve exchanged it for a crown
Close your eyes and think of me
Tighter mam, now, can you see?
I’m beautiful, He’s made me whole
He’s replaced everything the locusts stole
Mam, we’ll meet again one day
When you come to the end of the narrow way
And together we’ll dance and praise and sing
The glories of our risen King.
A.W.Tozer writes “ Seven things that come to the believers in the fullness of the Spirit.”
1. Knowledge of the actual presence of God. 2. Possession of the true joy of the Holy Spirit. 3. Their words now penetrated and arrested. 4. A clear sense of the reality of all things. 5. Sharp separation between the believer and the world. 6. Their new great delight in prayer. 7. Their new love for the Scriptures of God.
I would like to add a few more of my own. A love of other saints. A love of praise and worship. And so, if we run through this list, what do we find? I would argue that we would find your very average believer in the early church and as it progressed through the centuries less and less so, apart from moments and times of “revival.” I wonder what these old writers that held a high view of the church make of the times in which we now love? Don’t you think they would be beside themselves? Men like Sparks and Ravenhill and A.B.Simpson from the turn of the last century. Lets go through the list and as we do I want you to think how this applies to you personally and to the church where you fellowship. These are my own thoughts on the seven points Tozer raises.
1. A knowledge of the actual presence of God. In other places it is described as the manifest presence of God. It used to be written about a lot but I dont find that anymore. Christendom has been so inundated by soulish activities and music that at least a couple of generations have grown up in Christendom knowing nothing of the manifest presence of God either personally or corporately. They have never felt that holy heaviness come down from heaven and rest like dew upon their heads, quieting them, lowering their heads, raising their hands in surrender and worship, not in response to the words of a ” worship leader,” but in response to the very presence of God that stills their very souls and elevates them to the throne of grace where they can only whisper ” Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty,” lest they take any attention away from a Holy God who has come down to visit. Awe and majesty and reverence accompanied by rivers of tears and a deep, deep inner sense of wholeness and all things being possible.
2. Possession of the true joy of the Holy Spirit. Now this joy is not the joy of the world or as the world knows it. It is very much related to that part of the spirit that is ever connected to the presence of God. The world’s definition of joy is ” a feeling of great pleasure or happiness.” Yet this is not the joy of the saint. The saint’s joy is not rooted in the soulish realm of feelings at all, it is an activity of the spirit which produces joy from our very relationship to the Lord. It is sensed in its greatest depths when, at least as far as the world can see, there is absolutely no reason for pleasure or happiness at all. The essence of the joy of the saint is to know that he is loved and that the Lord is with him in whatever his circumstances are, this produces an inner happiness and contentment when there should be none and it is one of the great strengths of the saints.
3. Their words now penetrated and arrested. In Acts 2 when Peter spoke to the crowd, scripture tells us that the crowd were ” stabbed in their hearts.” The Greek word for this phrase is Katanusso. A similar word is used when Jesus is stabbed with the spear, that word is nusso. Now Katanusso is a much more violent word than nusso. It means agitate, to thoroughly penetrate, to violently pierce. And so the Holy Spirit is showing us that there is greater violence taking place in Acts chapter two than even when the Lord was run through with a spear. The violence was to men’s souls. Their hard hearts were being violently penetrated by the very words spoken under the influence of the Holy Spirit. In Acts chapter two those affected cried out ” what must we do,” yet just a few chapters later when Stephen is speaking with the same power, men were stabbed in the heart but gnashed their teeth and fell upon Stephen and stoned him. In either case, men were not left unmoved by the power of the Spirit speaking though the saints.
4. A clear sense of the reality of all things. To have vision, to have an eternal vision is to have a clear sense of the reality of all things. There is a reality of this world and it is powerful, it presses in on the senses and for those outside of the Spirit of God it is all-consuming. Yet there is a greater reality that lies within the saints. It is the reality of the Kingdom of God and they walk in it. Now these two realities undoubtedly compete and we as saints must be on our guard that we do not let the realities of this world overwhelm us and rob us of the realities of the Kingdom in which we truly walk. This is the battle between spirit and flesh. The clear sense of reality therefore is truly knowing that our time here is short, and knowing that we are on a narrow path that leads us to eternity and actually knowing that this eternity has already begun and we are simply in the corruptible stage and there comes the tie soon where these bodies will be raised in incorruption. When we walk in this reality, the reality of the world loses its power and we begin to see more clearly in the spiritual than we can see in the natural and the spiritual begins to dominate everything that we do.
I wrote this word this morning after being in prayer and hearing the Spirit say ” Keep on walking.” Although I sensed it was to the Body of Christ, I also believe it is for someone specific. Be blessed …..bro Frank
Keep on Walking
Keep on walking
Through the rain and through the snow
Keep on walking
Allow the Lord to show you where to go
Keep on walking
Through the fire and through the flood
Keep on walking
Knowing that you’re covered by His Blood
Keep on walking
When there seems no way ahead
Keep on walking
Though you be lost, know that you are Spirit led
Keep on walking
Though there’s no strength to go on
Keep on walking
Through the darkness till you reach the dawn
Keep on walking
Though every instinct says give up
Keep on walking
Till the darkness ends and you see the sun come up
Keep on walking
Never stop until the very end
Keep on walking
He walks with you, He is your Lord and He’s your friend
Though today you may feel you are alone
Can I tell you from the one upon the throne
Keep on walking for I am right there by your side
I am at the door and I am coming for my Bride
I love you and I know just where you are
I am near though it seems that I am far
You are not alone I am with you all the way
I see you tears and hear your prayers each day
Walk my child come walk with me each day
Open up your heart and I will show the way
Though trials now seem so very hard to bear
Know that I am with you and that I truly care
One day soon you’ll know just as you’re known
And dwell with me eternally before my Holy throne
Do not hide from me, come and keep on talking
Get up once more, set your face, it’s time to keep on walking.
Today there is a great falling away from faith and trust in God. Paul warned about this: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [Christ’s return] shall not come, except there come a falling away first” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
In the Old Testament, the Lord gives us an example of what happens to those who fall away from faith in God’s power on their behalf. In 2 Chronicles 14, King Asa faced a million-man army of Ethiopians. But the king had great faith: “Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God” (2 Chronicles 14:11).
What happened then? “The Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa” (14:12). What great faith Asa had! For years afterward, “There was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa” (15:19). For years, Asa walked in faith before the Lord, and that brought God’s favor to Judah. A great peace fell over the land, and that peace became a witness to the world. Soon hungry people from surrounding nations flooded Judah, because they knew Asa walked with God.
Then, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, Asa faced another crisis. Israel’s king rose up against Judah, capturing Ramah in an effort to cut off all trade to and from Jerusalem. The plan was to starve Judah into submission. Asa was left completely vulnerable, but this time he didn’t rely on the Lord in his crisis. Instead of praying for God’s direction and counsel, he turned to the king of Syria. In exchange for Syria’s help, Asa opened up Israel’s treasury, emptying it of all the nation’s gold and silver.
And so Judah was delivered from their enemy, but not by the Lord. That glory went to an alien army from Syria—and Judah’s witness to the world of God’s power was gone. A righteous prophet in the land came to Asa with this scathing word: “Thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God . . . For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars” (16:7, 9).
I am convinced many Christians today are troubled for the same reason Asa was. They have war in their souls because they have traded faith for self-reliance. But the fact is, there is no way a follower of Jesus can have faith in any other source and not be troubled. (David Wilkerson)
David Wilkerson goes to the very heart of what Christians in this land struggle with. I have witnessed good people going back and forth on this issue, knowing they should not put their trust in anything else but God, but then something happens, a terrorist attack, a collapse on Wall St and so on and suddenly it is back to trusting in men. We have not been called to be puppets on strings, strings of fear that the enemy can pull anytime he wants to move us or disturb us or motivate us to do his work for him. So often it seems for so many that their lives are like a roller-coaster, each new turn and bend and hill creating another round of screaming and panic.
The days that are coming require the saints to put all of their trust in God. We will not have the luxury of circumstances to get away with having our trust in anything else. Time to get of the roller-coaster of reacting wildly and with fear to every report and every event. We saints have been called to be a light unto the world. Let others lose their heads in fear but let us keep ours in trust and peace. Hold fast brothers and sisters. Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem centuries ago but it highlights many truths that we as saints should live by………….bro Frank
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
This emerging true Church will finally grow sick of the hype and the banal predictability of a merely phraseological Christianity. It will seek the deeper reality of faith and relationship, counting the cost and increasingly taking on the visage of pilgrim, stranger and sojourner in the earth. Those that remain in conventional church situations, either impervious to the need or unwilling to pay the price, will settle under a deception of religious unreality, condemning as heretics and agitators those who cannot abide the same. Centrifugal forces will polarize Christendom ultimately toward two camps – persecuted or persecutors – reminiscent of the opposition of the Reformation churches to the Anabaptists of the 16th century! Finally, impending unity will drive the religio-political kind to fury against that minority of the Spirit which will not subscribe to their ecumenical designs.
So once again, and finally, a man will find his enemies to be those of his own household; yet, one’s love for his enemies in response to opposition and persecution will be the distinguishing mark of this consummating, remnant-martyr Church. Such a response will be the possibility of those whose conscious, determined preparation and sanctification begins now.
The light of His countenance in such a separated people will be the very factor that brings upon them, as it did Stephen, the retribution and assault of those who hate the light and prefer darkness – from without but more so from within the church. Radical apostolicity or apostasy will prove the only options during this polarization in the end-times. Neutrality or middle-of-the-road alternatives will be waste and void. We will be, finally and at last, compelled to be saints, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, in an age when the only other option is to wear the mark of the Beast.”
Mat 25:6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
The children of Israel had been given certain promises by God. Of course they were promised the land, the promised land. Yet because of unbelief and disobedience they were forced to wander and die in the wilderness for forty years. So here we have a vivid connection between disbelief and disobedience and the displeasure of God. That particular generation, all who were over 20 years of age, would not enter into that place promised by God. Now God took care of their basic needs, but they would not pass over into the promises nor would they take possession of all that God had for them.
Can I suggest that we are living in such a generation? The signs of the times are all around us. We know that Jesus told us that He would come back for His own. We know that there is a second coming and that Jesus told us about these things in Matt 24 and the parable of the foolish virgins and so on. We are given pointers from Scripture and of course we have the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide us and to show us the times in which we live. Many will casually say that the end is near, that the world is in chaos and without direction and that Jesus must be coming back soon. Yet my question is, does Christendom really believe that?
Jesus is the coming problem. Even now and for a long time, mention the name of Jesus anywhere and people get uncomfortable. You can talk about God and Allah and Yahweh or Jehovah and people are fine, mention Jesus and they start to squirm. Soon religious leaders, seeking a political solution to intractable religious problems will tell us that the three major monotheistic religions share the same founding father, Abraham. They will tell us that these are the roads to heaven, not one, but at least three if not more. People will be able to talk about God but not about Jesus. Anyone who will suggest that Jesus is the only way to heaven, the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith, will be despised. Watch as the major religions of the world come together under the brotherhood of man banner. Even now Babel is being re-built.
It is true that much church activity is thrown back upon a shaky
foundation of psychology and natural talents. It is sad but true that
many a mother-in-law is actually praying that her handsome son-
in-law may be called to preach because “he would have such a
marvelous pulpit presence.”
We live in a day when charm is supposed to cover almost the
entire multitude of sins. Charm has taken a great place in religious
expression. I am convinced that our Lord expects us to be tough
enough and cynical enough to recognize all of this that pleases
the unthinking in our churches: the charm stuff, the stage
presence in the pulpit, the golden qualities of voice….
I feel sorry for the church that decides to call a pastor because
“his personality simply sparkles!” I have watched quite a few of
those sparklers through the years. In reality, as every kid knows
at Fourth of July time, sparklers can be an excitement in the
neighborhood–but only for about one minute! Then you are left
holding a hot stick that quickly cools off in your hand.
Prophetic Preaching
If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, it must be by other
means than any now being used. If the Church in the second
half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered
in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The
proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the
priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay
and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type
who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to
everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting.
Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must
be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God
and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I
pray God there will be not one but many), he will stand in flat
contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds
dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God
and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of
Christendom. Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken
and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the
souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the
One and the salvation of the other. But he will fear nothing that
breathes with mortal breath.
“Let me point out that the victorious Christian life is not a life absent of any problems or difficulties or failures. Actually, the opposite is true. The victorious Christian life is a day by day or even moment by moment victory over enemies and situations that we confront in the way. That is why the man of God said ” For a just man falleth seven times.” We are some-times given the idea that a ” just man,” never falls at all. Because of that, we face the danger of arrogance.” (A.W.Tozer)
Isn’t that true? To live the victorious Christian life is to live your life day by day and sometimes moment by moment. And in the moment you may not see the victory, and when you’re lying on the ground it may be hard to see the victory. Yet it is grace that picks a man up of the ground and where would any of us be without that grace?
Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; (1Co 1:2-5)
Before Paul goes on in his letter to the Corinthians, a church with many deep-rooted problems, he reminds them of Gods grace and he extends peace unto them. He reminds them of the beauty of Christ and how the Lord has enriched them in an intimate knowledge of Himself. Brothers and sisters, no matter what problems you are facing today, you have been enriched by the Lord, isn’t that true? He has taken you from the gutters of life and has raised you up. Our very lives are in Him and we stand because He stands. We live because He lives. We breathe because He breathed life into us. That is who you are, that is your identity. Nothing can take that away from you.
Are you down today? Have you fallen? Have you blown it? I want you to rejoice in the fact that even although the ” just man falleth seven times,” that the Lord reminded His disciples to forgive ” seventy times seven.” Now if the Lord expected and enabled His disciples to forgive ” seventy times seven,” then how many times shall He forgive you? And so dear saint, mighty man or woman of God, rejoice today in your victorious life. For your life is not measured by the amount of times you did not fall but by the times you were enabled to get up and go on. This is part of the nature of the one who endures and overcomes. There is an enemy who screams in your ears when you fall, and he is screaming ” stay down, your out, your finished, you can never be used again.” And isn’t it true that this voice rarely comes through the people of the world?
The saint’s enemy in these matters is typically someone close who calls upon the name of the Lord. The enemy has many different avenues to try to keep you down saint but the Lord says ” Get up, look up, lift up holy hands.” He says ” lift your eyes up and cast them towards heaven and see where your help comes from. He beckons you to come up. He reaches down His hand to pull you up as opposed to those who would pull you down. So stand up today brothers and sisters if you are down. He raises you up in grace and forgiveness. And those of you who have been down many times will be strengthened by the humility that you learned there. It is better to stand up in the strength of the Lord and walk humbly before men than to present to men an image of one who has never fallen. For one who does that inevitably walks in arrogance.
We have all heard the phrase ” a perfect storm.” Perhaps many of us have seen the movie or read the book “The perfect Storm” where different meteorological events collided causing one huge and rare storm of unusual violence and strength and had catostrophic consequences for those unlucky enough to be caught at sea or live by the coast.
Here are some definitions of the phrase ” perfect storm,” ………..
A.a detrimental or calamitous situation or event arising from the powerful combined effect of a unique set of circumstances:
B.a critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors.
C.a “perfect storm” is an expression that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically. The term is also used to describe an actual phenomenon that happens to occur in such a confluence, resulting in an event of unusual magnitude.
Lets look at some of the words that re-appear in these definitions of a perfect storm. There is combined, combination, concurrence and confluence. So, under normal circumstances any single event, while bad, does not lead to the other set of words used in the definition of a perfect storm which are calamitous, critical, disastrous and unusual magnitude.
Can I suggest to you that the world is facing a perfect storm? Now one could state rightly that there have always been wars and famines and natural disasters. Yet when there is a confluence of events such as we are seeing today, can I suggest that we as Christians get ready for the greatest storm to ever hit mankind in the history of this planet. What are these events that I am speaking of? In the last one hundred years there have been more men,woman and children killed in wars than in all the wars combined since history has been recorded. We saw the unspeakable horrors of Nazi Germany where human being were gassed and shoveled into fires by the millions. We saw even more killed by the horrors of Communism and its phycopathic leader Stalin. Both these regimes were unshamedly Godless. We now see a moral breakdown in society which we have never witnessed in the world before,even all pretense is being thrown of. We have saw starvation on a grand scale with horrific famines. We have witnessed a tsunami which killed 250,000 people, an event never before witnessed in recorded history. We have witnessed massive earthquakes one of which actually moved the whole earth slightly of it axis. In the last hundred years we have seen the birth of the nuclear age with the destruction of two cities in the blink of an eye with just two bombs. Now even that technology is positively primitive in comparison to what we have today.
Now lets combine all of that, and that was only a fraction of events in the last hundred years, with a total vaccuum in leadership around the world today. The statesman cannot be found. All seek after their own. The middle East is in flames and millions upon millions of people are being displaced by crazed bloodthirsty madmen intent on barbarism. We read in the book of Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. We are told that the end of times shall be marked with greatly increased travel and knowledge. Can I suggest that we are living in that age where people now travel freely all over the world and that knowledge has absolutely exploded in the last few decades.
The perfect storm has begun brothers and sisters. The bands of rain are already lashing the world and the cultural winds are beginning to blow with hurricane force. Today, with technology, we are able to see monster hurricanes many many days before they hit land. We can see it coming and those in its path head for safe harbor or if you are on land and in the path of the storm, you begin to stock up provisions and board up your house; you may even evacuate to higher ground if the surge is forecast to be of a certain height that would overwhelm you where you dwell.
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. (Mat 25:1-4)
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.(Mat 7:24-27)
The preparation that Jesus is talking about, and He is talking about the last days ,is not about storing food and weapons and so on. Its about your vessel being filled with oil so that when the darkness comes just before the coming of Jesus, you will be able to light up the night as a light to the world. The preparation is about obedience to God and walking in His revelation and commands so that your house, your life, your walk is built upon a solid foundation so that when this perfect storm comes and the rain descends and the cultural winds blow with ferocity and evil floods the world, you shall still stand while those without such a foundation are swept away. Lash yourself to Christ and live, stand fast brothers and sisters, come up to higher ground and live.
As I was walking recently, the Holy Spirit spoke some words to me. ” There is nothing more important than the condition of your heart.” It lingered with me for weeks as I pondered those few words. All of my Christian life I have periods where I retreat into myself and kinda shut down, withdraw from the maddening crowd and simply go along on auto pilot.
In Kansas we can go months without rain. The ground gets baked hard in the sweltering heat of summer. If a rain comes it typically does not penetrate the hard ground, instead there is a flash flood. The ground is wet for a very short period of time and then it is as hard as it ever was.
There are periods when it rains every day in the spring. The ground soaks up the rain and then it rains again and again until it is saturated. When the ground is saturated it takes only a slight rain to cause flooding. The creeks and the rivers are swollen and the landscape is in danger of being changed by raging waters.
If my heart is good, if the waters that flow from heaven flow through me, if my heart remains supple and soaked with the dew that falls from heaven, then it takes very little for the glories of heaven to flood forth from me, living waters that refreshes my soul and others. If my heart is hard, it takes a lot of water just to soften me up. Oh that I would learn to remain close to the source of life itself that I might be useful in season and out of season, that I would be a source of life to others.
We are in the midst of a famine. It has been a creeping spiritual famine. The kind of famine where people really don’t realize that they are slowly starving to death. I absolutely believe it is the great falling away. Most people would not be able to stand sound teaching now, they are so far removed from it that it would be foreign to their ears. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. (2 Tim 4:3)
This is an excellent teaching on the state of the church in Britain. I would say that although it looks very different on the outside, the American church is in the exact same state. In fact, many of the points this man raises points to the general state of the church in the West.
The Apostle Paul, referring to the coming evil day, said, “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand”(Ephesians 6:13).”
This is what the Lord has burned into my spirit and bones. The phrase ” stand fast,” is what I have been using to end many of the words the Lord has given me lately. I believe our calling in the last days is to simply stand fast and there will be nothing simple about it. When persecution comes everything will be stripped away, and the process has already begun. It wont be about ministries and reputations and theologies, it will be about loving God and loving His Word and being willing to stand upon it, willing to live it and willing to die for it. When the winds of religious and secular persecution come together, it creates a perfect storm for genuine saints. Who will stand when the only hiding place is Christ and Him alone? I believe many will.
The same Spirit that burned in the heart of Stephen, the apostles and the martyrs down through the ages burns in the heart of every genuine saint. What separates us from the saints of the last two thousand years? Nothing! We are one Body. The only thing that differentiates us from them is circumstances and opportunity. It is not because they were special or we are special it’s because of the Spirit of God and the overcoming Christ. The winds of persecution that are now beginning to blow will fan the flames of the refining fires.
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. (Mal 3:2-3)
The same Spirit that burned in the hearts of the three Hebrew children burns in the hearts of genuine saints. That Spirit gave those children the courage to say that even if they die in the fire prepared for them they would never bow down to the gods of this world. And who did they meet in the very midst of the fire? Jesus. And what did the world, represented by the king acknowledge when they emerged from the fire? “There is no other God that can deliver after this sort.”
The wheat indeed shall be separated from the tares and that by fire. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Mat 24:10-14)
God is preparing his witnesses/martyrs so that the world will see and know, and then the end shall come.
The storm is raging all around
You are going to be swept away
Each wave knocks you to the ground
You won’t see the light of another day
In that desperate moment when all is lost
You lash yourself to the mast
If this ship goes down you’re going down
To this ship you have tied yourself fast
Who will you cling to when all is lost
Who is your solid ground
Who sticks closer than a brother to you
When no one else can be found
Who is a Father to the fatherless
Who gladly took your place
Who comforts you when no one’s around
Who has amazing grace?
In Christ our King we stand or fall
To you and I He’s all in all
In every dark and stormy night
He gives us strength to stand and fight
He is the Mast that we tie ourselves to
He is the air that we breathe
He is the ground beneath our feet
He is the Reward we receive
Jesus Christ is the Lord of all
He will catch us when we fall
We rise each day our course is charted
And He will finish what He has started
Take hope my child I stand with you
And I will lead and guide you through
And you shall never be destroyed
In fact in me you’ll be overjoyed
For I make beauty from the ashes
I light the night with lightning flashes
I shake the earth and still the waves
I am your God the one who saves.
Despite walking through the various valleys of life, including the shadow of death, He leads us besides still waters and He compels us to lie down in rich pastures, being fed and living life where others starve and die. While many cry out to God to take their cup from them, Gethsemane shows us the way of righteousness and embracing God’s will and directions in our lives by drinking fully the cup. It is our light that overcomes the darkness . So many people cry out to God to remove the darkness, yet the answer, the solution already exists within us, Christ in us, the hope of glory.
This piece is about coming through a trial and at the end of it being able to make a declaration. No matter what you are going through right now, in Christ, you will make this declaration to the enemy of your soul.
And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. (Ezr 9:8-9)
We know that a person’s worldview affects most of their opinions, it is through this prism that their thoughts and actions are affected. So, how you view the world then greatly determines how you live your life. If you were to look at Christendom today, Christendom meaning everything that calls itself by the name of Jesus, what do you see? Do you see something healthy and prosperous? Do you see something that has largely remained the same for centuries but is simply facing and adjusting to the modern world? Do you see the status quo? Or do you see something that is in total ruins, something all but dead but at the least, dying?
How you answered that question will determine how you live and what you make of events that are shaping our world. Are we free or are we in bondage? Is Christ almost at the door or is His return something in the far away future? Do you even truly believe that Christ is returning for His Bride? If you see Christendom in ruins and believe that Christ is at the door, then can I suggest that you are living your life radically different from someone who does not see much of a problem in the land of Christendom and that if Christ is even returning physically, then it is a far off event.
In Ezra’s time, God had called a people to come home, He had called a people to return to a place of worship and repair broken down walls. He was reviving a remnant in the midst of a very hostile world. In fact often times they would have a trowel in one hand and sword in the other as they re-built the wall. These were the ones who eyes had been enlightened by God in the midst of their bondage. Yet, it was vitally important for the remnant not to mix with the world so to speak. They were giving their children in marriage to the children of the world. In a sense they were selling their birthright to a pagan world by expressly disobeying the clear commands of God. To be separate from the world, to come out of the world was a clear directive from God. They had come out of Babylon and yet they were hurting themselves by mixing and intermarrying with the pagans of the surrounding lands.
God is calling out a remnant today, He is calling them out of the world and back to a place where they can repair the breach, build up the wall again of Jerusalem so to speak. My own worldview or churchview is that the church lies in ruins, its walls are broken down and it is in a place of desolation. The world has invaded the church and the church has given its children to the world in marriage. The consequences have been devastating.The influence of the world in the church is now so strong that what passes for the church, Christendom can no longer hold back the influence of the world. It is in the process of giving itself fully over to the world. And so God enlightens the eyes of His people to see the situation through His eyes. Burning at the heart of His called out people is obedience to Him and to His word. They are sold out to His word and His commands even although by doing so they are ostracized and ridiculed and hated.
How else can the walls be reestablished? God is calling His people out of the world and is calling for His people to take the world out of their hearts. When they do this they are rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem the place of true worship, not the physical Jerusalem but the Jerusalem of the heart. This wall will be vital in the coming days of persecution. It is this wall that will keep the enemy at bay. Behind these walls God’s people will find safety and security. This is the nail or the peg that God has established, a place of security in the midst of the storm.
The original church had such a wall. Even although the Apostles were killed one by one, they were all secure behind this wall. A place of strength and security. Stephen knelt behind this wall as he was stoned to death and cried out to God not to hold this charge against them. The martyrs in the arena knelt behind this wall even as the lions descended upon them and they lifted up their hands and prayed to God. The saints that were burned at the stake knelt behind this wall even as the flames licked about their mortal bodies but their spirits sang out in freedom and security. Gods remnant saints are rebuilding this wall and they too will kneel behind it even as the world turns on them and comes after them with a ferocity never before seen. God Himself is a wall of fire that surrounds His children and it consumes the flesh of men. What can the world do to us? They can burn our bodies with fire, they can stone us and they can remove our heads from our bodies but they cannot penetrate the wall of fire that surrounds our spirits. He who the Son has set free is free indeed.
The building of this wall is a vital work and God will complete that which He has begun. It is a high tower, a place of refuge and many will find security behind it in the coming days. It is the only secure place. The whole world is being shaken and will be shaken even more. Every single thing that is not tethered to God and Him alone will be shaken from its place. The only secure place is behind His wall. Even the stars will fall from the sky but God’s people shall not be moved. Behind this wall, fortified with grace and mercy , love and obedience and the fire of God, God’s people will dwell. More and more will come to this place until their numbers are fulfilled. The whole world will come against and surround those within these walls. Yet the walls shall never be breached. Though the body may die, the spirit shall not be taken. We do not fear those who can destroy the body, we fear and reverence the one who holds eternity in His hand. Stand fast saints, God is with you.
In the beauty of silence, in the psalm of His hand is about those moments in your life when you cannot switch your head off and all you want is rest for your mind. Click below to hear it and click here to see other similar videos on my new channel Psalms for Today
Madam Guyon writes…………….I am deeply grieved that so many in this day(she lived 300 years ago, people never change)even some good people, allow themselves to be led astray by the enemy. Has not God warned us against false prophets and lying wonders of the last days? All true prophets have spoken in the name of the Lord-“Thus says the Lord.” The enemy gains great advantage because people love extraordinary manifestations, signs and wonders. I believe the inordinate love of external signs is used of the enemy to draw people away from the Word of God and from the inward way of faith.The signs that come from God encourage you to die to yourself. Manifestations that come from God will humble, quiet, and edify you. Elijah appeared alone among four hundred prophets of Baal. These prophets were all stirred up and were attracting much attention by their loud prophesyings.But when Elijah was told by the angel that he would see the Lord in Mount Horeb, he went out and hid in a cave, and he saw the earth tremble. God was not there. Then came the whirlwind, God was not there. Then there came a gentle, little breeze. God was in the still, small voice. The only true and safe revelation is an inward revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the quiet of your spirit. ” My sheep hear My voice.”
We are living in the days of Baal and he has many prophets. The closer we get to the Lord’s return and the closer we get to the approaching storm with all of its darkness, the louder the noise becomes. It is vital saint, that you can drown out the noise of the world and its many prophets and seers. The world has them, Christendom has them and they make much noise but the Lord is in the quiet breeze. He is in the depths of your spirit. He is in His Word which has saturated your soul. Take no heed of the world but listen for the still, small voice that resides in the depths of your heart. The world has its prognosticators, turn on CNN and Fox News and listen to their “pundits/seers,” tell you what is happening and what will happen if you do not do this that or the other. On these shows you will also see politicians who also act as seers and who have their followers. All men merely chasing after the wind.
Christendom also has its prophets of Baal. They love the applause of men. They love to be admired. Their talk is almost always about miracles and money, miracles and money. They will talk to you about riches and faith as if faith itself were a thing to be worshiped and adored and sought after. They will tell you how to live your best life now and they will lead by example. While the Son of man had no where to lay His head, these prophets who worship money live in mansions bought and paid for by peddling the Word of God. They sell wisdom and faith and miracles and yet if they were truly wise they would know what their end will be for all those who make merchandise of God’s little one’s. ” Depart from me ye workers of iniquity for I never knew you.”
It is vital saints that we take refuge in the still small voice. God will speak in the stillness, He will lead and guide you in the depths of your spirit and through His Word. Saturate yourself with His Word and carve out for yourself quietness. You must get alone with God and away from the maddening crowd. Do not follow after signs and wonders let signs and wonders follow after you. The Lord Himself would attract crowds yet He almost always withdrew from them to get alone with His Father. Prophets of Baal promote themselves and chase after crowds to put on ” miracle shows,” in the crassness of their folly. The Lord did the exact opposite. When the crowd would crown Him, He would not commit Himself to them for He knew what was in the heart of such a crowd. This crown that the Lord rejected is sought after by the prophets of Baal. With this crown comes the applause of man, with the crown of thorns comes the ridicule of man. The crown of men lifts up their prophets onto an exalted platform, the crown of thorns lifts you up onto a cross. The crown of men clothes you with the finest robes, the crown of thorns strips you naked. The crown of men causes the world to love you, the crown of thorns causes men everywhere to reject you. Which crown does your prophet wear? Which crown would you wear? Choose the crown of thorns and live eternally, choose the crown of Baal and die eternally. Listen, can you hear what the Lord says? It’s in the quiet breeze.
A Call To The Remnant 