Rom 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
In this particular case we see that Abraham and his wife are well beyond the age of bearing a child. Sarah’s womb was dead, it could carry no life. We oftentimes run into situations that defies hope, that stands diametrically opposed to any solution. All the evidence of the rational world and the expert opinions of men dash any chance upon the rocks of hopelessness and despair. Yet brothers and sisters, it is a glorious thing to remember that our hope is not the hope of the world. We are not left to chance. Our hope is founded upon our God and His word and His promises. His word is not broken, His promises cannot be broken. And it is this hope that is a wellspring of joy and peace and love and a sound mind.
Abraham, the father of faith believed God that life would spring forth from death. Now from the first promise until the fulfillment of it took 25 years. Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when Issac was conceived. This defied all the evidence of the rational world. In the world Abraham would have had no hope. In the world we too would have no hope in certain situations, yet praise God we may be in the world but not off it. We walk according to the Spirit of God, we stand upon the Word of God. We believe in the promises of God and we walk in the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is and always has been a place of miracles and a wellspring of hope. His will, whether to raise us up or slay us, towers above the dictates of men. In that, we rest, not as the world rests.
The birth of Issac is the birth of a nation. It is this line that would give us Jesus, the seed that would bless all the nations of the world. It sprang forth from the impossible which is the realm of the miraculous. This realm has a throne and upon that throne sits our heavenly Father. Can hope step into hopelessness? Yes indeed. Just as Jesus came forth from His heavenly realm and stepped into our world, then sight can come forth from blindness, joy can come forth from despair and Lazarus can come forth from the grave. Jesus is my blessed hope, all other ground in sinking sand. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. When darkness veils his lovely face I rest on His unchanging grace. Rest today saints, rest.
For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:(Col 2:9-10)
You are complete in Him. In Jesus we find fulfillment. We find everything that we need to live this life. In Jesus dwells the fullness of God and that fullness dwells in us. Circumcision was the sign of the Old covenant, and in the new our hearts are circumcised. The proof of this circumcision of the heart is found in verse seven. It says that those who are in Him are rooted and grounded in Him and established in Him. And it says that they are abounding in thanksgiving. That word abounding in the Greek means to “superabound.’ Its an excess, filled to overflowing, flooded. If you are complete in Him one of the major signs of this will be a life lived in extravagant thankfulness.
A thankful heart is a healthy heart. One who is abounding in thankfulness is rooted and grounded in the reality of what the Lord has done for them. It dominates their thinking. It directs their emotions. It counteracts self pity. It focuses the mind. It keeps the smile on our faces despite our circumstances. It affect the countenance. A thankful heart shines out from our face and it radiates light into the darkness of every situation. It gives us a youthful spirit. Thankfulness leads to joy. And this joy, the joy of the Lord is our strength. We all know people who are not thankful, who are in fact grumblers. They abound in grumblings. They are self focused. They are miserable. They are fearful. They are angry and discontent.
Brothers and sisters, beware lest anyone steal away your thankful heart. In verse eight we are warned where this theft could come from. Philosophy. We get out word sophistry from this word. And in this case it was Jewish sophistry. Much talking and arguing and debating. This will steal away your thankful heart and draw you away from the simplicity of the faith that was established in you. The traditions of men, whether it was Jewish traditions or whether it is the traditions of religious men who are professors of Christianity today and in the last several centuries and millennia, are nothing more than the basic principals of this world. Only as we find fulfillment in Christ alone shall we walk in thankfulness. It is by revelation and not the clever arguments of religious men. One is supernatural and bound in Christ, and the other is natural and bound in the vain imaginations of men. One is life, the other ids death. Beware brothers and sisters and guard your thankful hearts.
2Co 1:8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
This scripture is often overlooked, passed over rather quickly I think. Perhaps we do not want to think of someone like Paul being in such dire straits? Paul faced death many times in his life but here we see something far more intense, far more spiritual. It touched him to the depths of who he was. Even Paul had to find out that the extremities of this life is the opportunities for God Himself to show Himself strong. If we serve a God that can raise the dead, and we do, then surely we must be able to trust Him to bring us back from the kind of despair that sees only one way out. He has made us able and we can trust Him.
I love Paul’s honesty in addressing this subject. It takes humility and a great deal of security to acknowledge this level, this depth of despair. We see very little of this kind of raw honesty with one another. We are covered with layer over layer of flesh and blood and pride and ego. It is no mistake that we hear this admission from a man that has had, literally and spiritually, the flesh torn from his back. Paul could not only show you his actual scars, he could also tell you about the assaults upon his very mind and soul. So brothers and sisters. If the darkness has come to you and threatens to swallow you whole, there is a light that shines in that darkness. A brilliant shaft of light that pierces even the gross darkness of our hearts and minds, it is the light of God Himself. He has a way of escape for you, even from the gates of hell.
Paul says this a few verses earlier…..For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ…..as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolations. Brothers and sisters, God Himself will come to you and console you. He will comfort you and one day you will comfort others with this same comfort. And share with others how the Lord Jesus came to you like a shaft of brilliant light in the darkness and raised the head that hung low. That lifted up trembling hands as if to touch heaven itself and then be filled with its glory. This is a promise to the saints. You have not been left as an orphan brothers and sisters. I can personally testify to the truths here written and what he has done for Paul, and what He has done for me, He will do for you. God bless you saints. Let us stand together and encourage one another.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? (Act 2:36-37)
The phrase “cut to the heart,” comes from the Greek word katanussō. A better and more appropriate reading would be “stabbed in the heart.” It is a very violent phrase, when you consider the word nusso was the word used to describe Jesus being run through with a spear. Imagine a word used by the Holy Spirit to conjure an image of something even more violent than the death blow of a spear. Why the violent reaction from the crowd? Well, Peter gave a marvelous sermon by the power of the Holy Spirit and ends with him telling the crowd that they themselves crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. As this truth from the Spirit violently pierces the hard hearts of men, they cry out in agony and anguish over the realization that they have indeed caused the death of Jesus and yet…….there was mercy to be found, love and forgiveness from God as they repented.
We see this again with Stephen. He gives a marvelous sermon in Acts chapter seven. It is all encompassing and is a sweeping story that spans the ages and the crowd are engrossed, until the stabbing comes. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers………… When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth (Acts 7:51-54) You see the same phrase cut to the heart, only in a slightly different form, this time it means to saw asunder. So when anyone is faced with the knowledge that they themselves, through their sins, crucified the Christ, they are violently agitated by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Can I put it to you that we, for the most part, stop well short of Peter and Stephen. In the end it is often what we do not say that makes the difference. And why do we not say such things? Why are men and women today rarely confronted by the reality that they personally crucified Jesus? Fear of man. Fear of losing the relationship. Unwilling to risk it all by sharing the truth that would actually lead to many being saved or lead to us ending up like Stephen. How does this work out practically in our lives today? In our families we shall go so far and no further. We will often excuse it by saying we are loving them into the Kingdom. Was Peter lacking in love? How about Stephen, the man full of the Holy Spirit? The opposite was true. They were so full of love for Jesus and that He would have the rewards of His suffering that they spoke the truth in love. How about you and I? Do we have this king of love? Do we speak with this kind of power? I challenge you today saints. When the opportunity arises, speak the truth in love and risk it all for Jesus, for He already gave His all for you.
The church system is antithetical to genuine fellowship. If the leadership is a one man band and only he “ministers” then why would we imagine that they would not reproduce after their own kind? A multitude of starving folks, starving from lack of edification, starving from genuine fellowship centered around a common passion…..Jesus.
Genuine saints are driven in the depths of their spirits to find others who have the same overarching passion as they do. The saint is not looking to “make friends,” like the world, they are seeking the called out ones. When they find them, these folks from a thousand different backgrounds, they find not friends, but genuine brothers and sisters, centered around a common beating heart. It is the heart of our heavenly Father and it beats with the rhythm of the Kingdom. Our hearts beat together as one and the bond is unbreakable.
1Sa 2:8 He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory:
This is part of the magnificent prayer of Hannah. Hannah of course was without child in. Year after year she had prayed and wept before the Lord for a child. Year after year she was mocked and ridiculed by her husbands other wife. We come across Hannah in the temple, praying with all of her heart, being watched by Eli. It is no wonder that he mistakes Hannah for being drunk for he and his sons were so far removed from genuine prayer and worship.
Eli and his wicked sons represent the dying and corrupt nature of our modern day Christendom. Hannah’s rival certainly represents the mockers of Gods people. Hannah herself represents the hope of the remnant Church on earth who have not bowed down their heads to Baal. And Samuel, the answer to all of Hannah’s prayers represents the end time prophets of God who will speak the truth in love to a dying world and replace an old and corrupt system, fattened by the cares and the riches of this world.
Hannah says in her prayer that the Lord “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes and makes them to inherit the throne of glory.” In another Scripture we are told that the Lord raises up the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. God’s remnant saints on the earth at this time are mocked by the religious who represent a dying system. The Lord Himself who set the world upon it’s pillars will guard the feet of His saints and will cause the wicked to be silent in darkness. He raises up His servants from the dust and and from the ash heaps and causes them to walk in high and lofty places. He will exalt the horn of His anointed. Keep praying saints, keep weeping like Hannah, for the wicked priesthood of Eli will fall and God will raise up His own Royal priesthood for His own purposes in these latter days.
The reason that we do not have more repentance is that we repent for what we do instead of what we are. Remember, repentance for what you do goes down deep, but repentance for what you are goes deeper ( Tozer) The presence of God, the manifest presence of God is a two-edged sword. In the incalculable light of God our Father, that reflects from the face of Christ our Lord, we see first ourselves and then we see God. We understand just how far removed from the perfection of our creator we are in the light of His glory and grace. We understand all the more the nature of our humanity and it stays with us. David’s eyes were opened by the prophet of God and he is horrified. He understands the depths and the nature of his crimes, yet his heart cry before God is the realization of where those crimes originated from. He knows well, in the light of God, that God requires truth in the inward parts, where the sin originates.
This is why Tozer is saying that repentance for what you are goes deeper than repentance for what you did. Both are required, one is seldom sought. The Catholic goes to confession ever week and confesses the same sin over and over again yet the heart remains the same. Many evangelicals do the same, just in a different format and typically alone. The real work in the heart of a man and a woman lies in the depths of their hearts. Only by coming into the presence of God, before the throne, a way made for us by Jesus Himself, can we ever truly be changed to the depths of our hearts. David acknowledges his transgressions and then says that his sin (singular, meaning the sin nature) is ever before him. If we would diminish the power of the sin nature, we would use the gift of reconciliation, given to us by Jesus and come before the throne in true and deep repentance. We can never leave that place unchanged. He waits for you.
2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
The concentration camp was a proving ground of character. Some……..slithered into a moral swamp. Others…..chiseled themselves a character of finest crystal. We were cut with a sharp instrument. It’s blade bit painfully into our bodies, yet in our souls it found fields to till. We had all become just our bare essence. A man was seen and valued for what he really was (Auschwitz survivor Witold Pilecki, 1945)
God is looking for the bare essence of a man, the bare essence of a woman. God commands light to shine forth from darkness. We are the darkness. In our unbroken state we are covered with this veneers. And the multitude of these thin veneers makes for a formidable barrier that is in opposition to Christ’s work in us.
These veneers are legion and vary from person to person. Pride, arrogance, airs and graces, civility, morality, insecurity, security are but a few. All of it is flesh and when the veneers are burned away we are left with who we truly are. And for the saint who we truly are is so far removed from God that it horrifies us. The light of God shines into the darkness. It breaks us in ways we cannot even begin to imagine. It consumes the darkness in us and fills us with His light. It is this light that shines forth from darkness. It is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The glow from Moses face was the glow of condemnation. The light we find in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ is the transforming light of reconciliation.
It bursts forth from broken earthen vessels. These earthen vessels are the bare essence of men and women. Jesus is truly seen, we are truly witnesses of Him when we, in our broken state, shine forth the light of Christ from hearts that have been renewed and restored to fellowship with the Father. There was nowhere that this more illustrated than on Calvary. The darkest of darkness. As Jesus hung there, even the natural light fled away as the world was consumed by gross darkness. And out of that gross darkness God the Father commanded that light would shine forth. Leaving the empty dark tomb behind, Jesus stepped out into glory. Victory won the day. He arose. We too arise in the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The best of man is still filthy rags to God, but the righteousness of Christ triumphs in the hearts of men over the gross darkness. Men and woman of God are seen for who they truly are, vessels filled with the light of Christ which is the glory of God.
The farmer in the natural engages in what is known as animal husbandry. He is involved in every aspect of the animals under his care. No matter the weather, he takes care of them. Night or day, the coldest winter or the hottest summer, in his own sickness and in health, for better or for worse he is there. He protects them not only from the weather but from predators and wolves. The Lord’s shepherds do the same. If you are a shepherd of souls then it does not matter if you are sick or tired, the sheep still need to be fed. It does not matter how the shepherd “feels,” the sheep still need to be fed. Such is the calling upon the lives of the servants of God. And into the heart of the shepherd is gifted a supernatural love for those under his care, the shepherd will gladly lay down his life for the sheep.
Feed my sheep. This is what the Lord says to Peter. It’s interesting that for the most part you don’t feed sheep as such. You do lead them to green pastures where they then feed. The leading is the feeding. That is what it means to feed the sheep, you lead them to green pastures. The Lord Jesus Christ is green pastures. His work in our lives is green pastures. His Word is green pastures. His fellowship is green pastures. His Holy Spirit is green pastures. The place before His throne is green pastures. Forgiveness is green pastures. Loving your enemies is green pastures. All of these things and so much more are food to the heart and the mind and the spirit of the sheep. And they have to be reminded and led to these places that feeds their souls. First and foremost led to Jesus. Pointed to Jesus. Reminded that He is the way the truth and the life. That He is preeminent. The green pastures could be forgiveness, forgiveness from God reminded to forgive their enemies , forgive their loved ones, forgive themselves. Even though they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, still the shepherd leads them to and makes them lie down in green pastures. This is feeding the sheep.
Psa 149:4 For the LORD takes pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.
I was around the age of twenty the first time I ever flew on a plane.. As a boy growing up in Scotland, overcast skies were normal. In Scotland you can often go a month without seeing a blue sky. Imagine my surprise when we broke through the clouds and I discovered that there was an eternal and perpetual blue sky. Growing up with almost endless cloud cover had conditioned me. I reveled in this blue sky. I would never look at the clouds the same way again, for I now knew what lay just beyond them. Imagine the tragedy for saints who labor under a perpetual cloud cover. To never know the intimacy of God. To never, in a sense, see His smiling face.
The barrier between God and us is more often than nought self made. We often forget the pleasure that God has in us. We forget that the whole purpose of our existence is for His will and for His good pleasure. Tozer suggests a few titles for the man made barriers that keep us from seeing the smiling face of God. He calls it a wall of obscurity. 1. Self will. 2. Ambition. 3. Fear. 4. Self love.. 5. Money. 6. Fear of people and what they think. There are more to be sure and each one mentioned would take a long time to expound, but you get the idea. Just one of them, or some combination of them, form a barrier between us and the smiling face of God. Almost all of our activity in our walk revolve around them and they are a major distraction to who we are and the God that loves us.
I want you to ponder on this for a moment and do not confuse this with cheap grace. God loves His children, God loves you. His face towards you is smiling. He loves you. He saved you. He took the ashes of your life and He is making something beautiful out of it. His thoughts towards you are more numerous than the sands of the sea shore. He knows you by name and your name has been on His lips. The walls that you have erected that obscure the light of His glory shining down on you must come down. The wind of the Spirit must blow again in your life and that wind shall blow away the clouds. If you reach out your hand to Him He will take it. If you seek Him with all of your heart then you will stand under a beautiful blue sky with your hands raised toward heaven as you bask in the warmth of His love. Today saints, today is the day and now is the time.
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
It’s sometimes hard to sleep when our thoughts have been taken captive by anything other than Jesus. Paul said that he was troubled on ever side but not distressed. Perplexed but not despairing. Persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. He had “learned,” to be content in every situation. No magic wand, but trust. He had walked through enough fires to have learned there was another in there he could see. He had been through enough waters to know the One who was holding back the sea. Taking our thoughts captive by lifting our eyes to Jesus. Anxiety is swept away and we are flooded with a peace that surpasses all understanding.
There can be no doubt that faith is forged in the fire and the tempering of our spirits happens when we are plunged into the waters. When the wind and the waves have done their work, and only that which was anchored remains, then we begin to see the saint come forth. Come forth from the fire, come forth from the storm, come forth from the grave clothes. Jesus stands and beckons us to “come forth.” When nothing should survive then we come forth and thrive by the power and the will and the good pleasure of the righteous hand of God. If you are in the fire today, do not cry out to God to quench the flames, rather pray that God Himself will sustain you in their midst. If the storm threatens to engulf you, do not pray to be rescued from it but rather to be sustained in its depths. If there is a mountain that stands in your way, do not pray for its removal but rather pray for the strength to scale its heights. In this way the mountain is removed and God is glorified and the saint lies down and sleeps in peace.
As I was walking and praying today, the Holy Spirit dropped this phrase into my spirit, “Debilitating Doldrums.” Now, that word “doldrums,” is an old sailors term for a geographical spot slightly north and slightly south of the equator in the Atlantic sea between Brazil and Africa. It is a corridor, if you like, that in days of old, if sailors found themselves there, they could be stranded for weeks because there is no wind there. The effects of the Doldrums are caused by solar radiation from the sun, as sunlight beams down directly on the area around the equator. This heating causes the air to warm and rise straight up rather than blow horizontally. The result is little or no wind, sometimes for weeks on end. Many sailors ran out of food and water and died there.
How does this relate to the saints? Oftentimes yesterdays failures causes in us a period of reflection and regret and remorse. None of that is wrong in and of itself and in fact is a vital part of who we are as God’s children. Yet, if we get stuck there, if this inner reflection goes beyond a point that is healthy, it takes the wind out of our sails. We shall find ourselves in the doldrums. The wind of the Spirit does not blow. Our spiritual resources begin to dry up. We become morose. The only solution for the sailors of old and for those of us who find ourselves there, is for the wind to blow. We must pray that the wind will blow again as we take our eyes of ourselves and look to skies.
If the wind begins to blow, no matter how small the breeze, remember this. You have to raise the sails to catch the wind. That is our part. An unhealthy inner refection with our eyes upon ourselves brought us into this place, and raising the sails once the wind blows will take us out. Remember the four Rs. 1.Reflection 2.Regret. 3.Remorse.4. Repentance. All of these make up the corridor of the doldrums. They all come because of the direct gaze of God upon our lives and our actions. And when they have found their proper place then the winds of forgiveness begin to blow. We have to accept that we are forgiven by God then we have to forgive ourselves. We must let His forgiveness carry us from that place so that we can continue the journey. Do not die in the doldrums, rather catch the wind and live.
2Sa 15:25 And the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God back into the city: if I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his dwelling place.
What a tragic event that is unfolding in the life of David. He is no longer a younger man and yet faces civil war with none other than his own son. It must have been with the heaviest of hearts that David leaves the city. He had been through so much in his life and who could blame him if he thought “have I not had enough?” Yet we see none of that. David would not use the Ark, unlike Eli and his wicked sons, as some kind of magic talisman in times of desperation. David had learned well the lessons of what it means to take little thought for the honor of God.
No, David would simply rely upon God to restore him. And as the balanced man of God he was, he says “but if He says this: I have no delight in you, here I am. let Him do to me as seems good.” Oh how my heart longs for the saints to know and understand and trust the Lord in this manner. The will of God above all else. The voice of God that stills the seas. The commands of God that calls forth the dead. The heart of God that already promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us. Peace be still. David may have been desperately sad, but he was not desperate. He was already mourning the loss of his son. The prophet knew in his heart. He knew he would come again to Jerusalem. He knew his son would die. He knew that this momentary departure would be just that. What faith we see from the man after Gods own heart.
Do you trust Him in this manner saints? Whether you live or whether you die will you praise the Living God for no other reason than He is worthy? If your sickness be unto death will you still praise Him still? If He kills you will you yet trust Him? The idea brothers and sisters is that He is so much bigger than we even know. He is high and lifted up and sees your circumstances in their totality and at the very same time He is in the midst of them with you. Can you see the vastness of God? For in the context of that vastness are not our problems made small? In the midst of your great turmoil can you see that you will return to His dwelling place? You will. He will show you. Lift up your eyes and see.
A Call To The Remnant 