Archive for the ‘revival’ Category
Posted by appolus on September 11, 2020
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
What a great tragedy that all men sinned and had fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus our Lord is the glory of God. When men fall short of God’s glory they fall short of Jesus. He is our prophet, our priest and our King. The prophets had longed to see the day that the Messiah walked the earth, and now, here He was. Yet He had come not to bring righteousness to men through the law, but by grace through faith. The unmerited favor of God would be extended to all men, the Jew and the Gentile. All had fallen short of the glory that was manifested in Christ the King. Yet now all the world would be extended this righteousness of God by faith. Trust in God and believe in Him and you shall be saved. Saved from sin, saved from death, saved from darkness saved from eternal darkness.
And now we who know Him, do not fall short of His glory. We stand amazed in it. We revel in it. We children of the living God are one with the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:(Joh 17:22) We are one in Him and we have beheld His glory. We no longer fall short of it, we are immersed in it. This is our destiny, that the world will see Christ in us, that they will see His glory from afar, and be drawn to it so that they too may behold His glory and not fall short of it. If He be lifted up by sanctified saints baptized by fire, then they that are drawn to Him shall also be engulfed in the fire of His glory.
God has no pleasure in those who draw back from the glory. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.(Heb 10:38) The saints of God ever want to please their Father in heaven. God’s overcoming saints are not those who draw back. They are those who with boldness enter into the holiest by the blood of Christ our Lord. By a new and living way we draw near, through the veil, into the presence of our High priest; with true hearts and holding fast the full assurance of our faith. Men who profess His name may draw back and fall short of His glory, but we saints shall draw near and stand amazed in the glory. And the world will know that Jesus and all His glory was sent from heaven as the manifest expression of God’s great love.
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Posted by appolus on September 9, 2020
Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being.
The Lord is the very source of our lives. We breathe because He first breathed life into us. The very essence of our lives , our existence, depended upon and depends upon God, whether men know this or not. He holds it all together. Not only is He the creator but He is the very fabric of all that exists. We move because He created these bodies and we think because God created our minds. This is the universal truth of all men whether they care to acknowledge it or not.
Now the twice born man is very different from the once born man. He no longer lives, in the sense that he merely exists. It is now Christ that lives in Him. He is a new creation in Christ and is a son of the living God. The Father and the Son have taken up residence in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. So his life is now supernatural. Yes he exists, he lives, but its no longer he but Christ in him. This body of the saint that was once only a vehicle for the soul of man, is now the residence of the most High God. The life that he now lives is maintained and sustained by faith.
To move in God is to walk in the manifest presence of the Lord. In the natural, to move means to go from one place to another. In the supernatural, to move in God is to draw deeper into the heart of the Father. And from that place comes power, and so we can move in the power of God. We can move in the love of God. We can move in forgiveness and grace and discernment. Like the natural man, when the spiritual man moves, he is moving from one place to another. It is part of his spiritual journey home, from precept to precept. Ever closer, ever deeper.
Our being is our very existence. Every human being exists in time and space. Yet the man or woman who is born again now exists not only in time and space, but in the Kingdom of God that was and is and is to come. When we have our being in Him by virtue of the new birth we live and move and have our being in the Kingdom of God. We breathe rarified air. Our atmosphere is different from the rest of humanity. We breath in the poison of the world and we breath out life. In the place of darkness we bring life from the light of God like spiritual photosynthesis.
Brothers and sister, let us reckon this to be so as we live and move in this world. Know who you are and know your place in this world. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9)
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Posted by appolus on September 8, 2020
Can you hear the silence? It calls to me from the mountains and it calls to me from the valleys. From the great plains to the vast forests the silence calls to me. Come away from the noise. Are you drowning in the noise? In the silence my soul longs to rejoice. Lift me to higher ground Lord, take me up, away from the noise that everyday grows louder and louder. Everywhere I turn the noise assaults my soul. In the golden shades of glory that surrounds your majesty there is such a stillness that touches my stormy heart. The sirens call with such a din, calling us onto the rocks and disturbing our peace within. May the silence take me to the Rock that is Higher than I. May my weary soul find wings and may I fly to the glory that is you. Can you hear the silence? Is it calling to you too? Listen, listen, can you hear the still small voice.”Come away with me.”
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Posted by appolus on September 7, 2020
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith, what an incredible word. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Think about that for a moment. Things hoped for has no substance in this material world. Yet it forms the foundation upon which we stand. It exists in a realm we cannot see. Yet in the depths of our heart and the heights of our spirit we know it to be true. By this understanding we know that the Word of God Himself framed this world and every star in the night sky. The things that are seen was not made by what can be seen. It is only by faith that this can be known.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Think about that for a moment. It is a totally otherworldly statement. In this material world in which we dwell, evidence consists entirely of things seen. Yet in the Kingdom of God and the hearts of men, the evidence of things unseen is the entire basis for our existence. We believe in the unseen world. We believe in the unseen God. We believe in the unseen heaven and we also believe in an unseen hell.
This knowing that has been given to us, is the evidence of the things to come. The evidence of things not seen, that sentence absolutely runs counter to everything man is and knows. There in enmity between the heads of men and the hearts of the saints and never the twain can meet. There is a vast gulf between the two and it is impassable. The man who follows his head can only believe in what he can see. He will say “show me.” The man who follows the dictates of his heart and the leading of the Spirit will simply say, “I believe.”
Only by knowing God can these truths be known. It is in this realm of the knowing that we exist as saints. We walk in that realm. This is walking in the Spirit. We know what cannot be known. We know beyond the knowledge of man. There is an old song called “He lives.” The chorus goes like this…..He lives , He lives, Christ Jesus lives today He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way He lives , He lives , salvation to impart, You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.
Ask me how I know He lives. You see He lives inside of me. He walks with me as the old song says. He talks with me. Faith may be the evidence of things unseen by this world but I have saw the Lord high and lifted up. I have knelt before the throne of God and all His glory filled the temple and it filled my heart and it filled my very soul. I have sat at His feel and He has taught me. I have cried out in the night watches and He has wiped away my tears. I was dead in the valley of dry bones and He raised me up. He gave me a new heart and He breathed His very life into me.
Yes, I trust Him and my hope is in Him but my hope is not like the hope of this world. My very hope has substance even although you cannot see it. My hope is Christ Himself, the Christ that dwells within my heart. The Christ that raised me from the dead. The Christ who whispers in my ear. The Christ that conquered every fear. The Christ who showed me how to die and the Christ who taught me how to fly. He is my sunrise in the morning and He is the sunset of my life. The beginning and the end and everything in between.
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Posted by appolus on September 5, 2020
There is an old French phrase that is centuries old, it is “Rage Millitaire.” In essence it means a passion for taking up arms. Something that sweeps through a country or region and men take up arms and rise up with an uncontrollable rage. This was said of pre-revolutionary America. I would like to suggest that there is a Rage Millitair rising in the west. There is a rising passion for violence in the populous. It will not end well.
Right now it manifests itself in political violence, yet there is a very strong undercurrent that is the primary motivation for the uprising. The genuine saint is in the cross-hairs. The bowels of hell are readying themselves for war. Every now and then in human history hell’s fury gushes forth and and swamps humanity. It takes blood to prime the blood lust. The blood of the innocents, countless millions of dead infants, ripped from their mothers wombs, have whetted the appetites of an ancient evil.
A German woman was interviewed in the 60s. She had been a Nazi in pre-war Germany and attended all of Hitlers rallies. She was asked why she had followed something so overtly evil. She was at a loss for an explanation but as the interviewer waited, she finally said something very profound. She said “there was something in the atmosphere and we all breathed it in.” I would like to suggest that right now there is something in the atmosphere and the world is breathing it in. The hordes of hell are massing and the the devil himself has charged the atmosphere, that old serpent and power of the air.
Let there be no mistake. The targets for this coming tsunami are the saints. Right now the targets are political and the causes of division and hatred are based on race and class. Yet the undercurrent around the Western world flows violently towards and against genuine Christianity and anyone who will stand upon its pillars of truth. Hate laws are being crafted in many of the Western countries and the crime is “to incite.”
If your views run counter to the politically correct narrative of this day, then these laws will be aimed at you. You are inciting an enraged world. The world and its ruler has lost its patience with dissent and free speech. Speak Biblical truth and they will come knocking on your door. There will be no room in this world for those who follow Jesus. They will be deemed enemies of the people. They will be hated by the religious, the political and the man in the street.
The political class in Jerusalem hated the Pharisee. The Pharisee hated the Sadducee. The Romans hated all of them. Yet in the end, they all found common cause in hating Jesus. It was prudent for them all to come together and kill Jesus for the sake of the nation, for the sake of their institutions, for their own survival. It will be prudent for the world to get rid of genuine Christianity. We are a thorn in their flesh. We are manifestation of their conscience. We are a living reminder that they live in sin and darkness. We who are bearers of the light cause much anguish to those who dwell in darkness.
Yet in all of this we are more than conquerors in Christ. Just as He overcame we too shall overcome. We must ready ourselves for what lies ahead. We ready ourselves by taking up our crosses daily. As we do that we shall be fully established in the reality that nothing can separate us from the love of God. The sufferings of this present time and the times to shortly come upon us are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. We hold this glory in earthen vessels and when we are broken this glory, the glory of God pours forth. So if we are broken for Christ’s sake by the dark powers of this world then light pours forth.
The whole of creation is groaning and travailing in pain right now. It is ready to give birth to something very evil before the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. The first born of Christ groan as well, we groan for the coming of the blessed hope. The Spirit of God groans for us in holy intercession. And we know this, if God is for us, who can be against us? If tribulation or distress or persecution come against us, if all day long we are led as lambs to the slaughter, still nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
In all of these things we are more than conquerors in Christ our Lord and I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities or powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:31-39)
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on September 3, 2020
We know the Bible is true not by long painful reasoning, but by a flash of inspiration from the throne and from the Holy Ghost that brings the flash. The big problem is not whether the Bible is true. The big problem is whether it is true in you. It is not whether the Bible is true, but it is whether these things are true in you and me. (Tozer)
Do you see what my brother is saying? It is not the Bible being true, for of course it is , it is about whether that truth is revealed in you. Many men spend years learning apologetics. They have a tremendous head knowledge of the word, but the magnificent truth found in the Scriptures is not found in them, it has left their own hearts untouched. Their heads may be inflated, but their hearts remain hard.
And so the Word of God came by revelation, but the understanding of it comes by inspiration. It is not an art,neither is it a science, its the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and its proof comes by way of a changed life. Never once since I was born again by the power of God have I doubted the word of God. The same revolution that took place in my life took place in my mind and in my spirit. I knew all at once that it was all true. My journey through the Word has been led and guided by the great teacher, the Holy Spirit. I, a peasant, have sat at the feet of the Holy Spirit of the Living God. Men boast about having gone to Harvard or Yale or Cambridge or Oxford, they are mere illiterate fools in comparison to the students led and taught by the Holy Spirit.
So let me ask you brothers and sisters, are you a living epistle read by men? Can the world look at you and see the Word of God manifested and demonstrated in all its glory? You see, the word of God changes and enlarges the heart not the head. Those taught the Word by the Holy Spirit are known by their love for one another. They are priests in a royal priesthood. They are better than scribes, they are better than scholars, they are children of the living God. Renewed, regenerated, being sanctified having been justified.
You see brothers and sisters, I will know how much you actually know of the Word of God by how much your life demonstrates the life of Christ in you. You can know about the word and you may even be able to quote chapter and verse, so can the Pharisee. It is not knowing about the Word, it is about knowing the Word. This intimacy with the Spirit of God is revelation and inspiration. You can know about the Word without being intimate with God, but no one can know anything of the Word without the inspiration that comes by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
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Posted by appolus on September 3, 2020
Whatever the day brings oh Lord, then you should be right in the midst of it. Whatever the day brings, whether its a day of war, then we should war in you. If it is a day to mourn then we should mourn in you. If it is a day to love then we should love by the power of you oh Lord. Whatever the day brings then we should bring you right into the center of it. Forget about yesterday. It is done. Pay no heed to tomorrow for you oh child of God do not know if you will see tomorrow. Tomorrow does not belong to you, it belongs to the Lord. What you do have is today, this day. Lord let this day be your day and let us walk with you in this day.
Let us throw of fear brothers and sisters it is not of God and does not belong in your day. Let us throw of worry and anxiety as the Lord commanded us to, it does not belong in this day, only the Lord belongs in this day. The God of all creation. The God who laid the foundations of the earth and set the stars in the heavens. The God who feeds every sparrow and who clothes the common fields of the earth in more glory and splendor than even Solomon was ever clothed.
Saints, imagine the revolution that would take place in your life if you lived only for this day. Imagine that fear and anxiety was banished from your day, that your day was taken up with seeking first the Lord your God and His kingdom and His righteousness. Imagine the power as you threw of the shackles of yesterday. Imagine the glory as you threw of the tyranny of tomorrow which may never come. Imagine the absolute adventure of a single day with God having no thought for tomorrow. This is walking with God brothers and sisters.
This is Kingdom living. This is walking in the Spirit. It is your promise. Jesus said take no thought for tomorrow, Jesus said be anxious for nothing, Jesus said not to worry about the things the gentiles worry about. He said all that to clear the decks. Wont you clear the decks today saints? Will you not live in obedience to your Lord and your God? You do that today, you take God at His word, you be obedient to His commands and your whole life will be revolutionized.
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Posted by appolus on September 1, 2020
Even in chains Paul could rejoice. Even in the darkest dungeon Paul could praise God. Even as Stephen is being stoned he was filled with the Holy Spirit and could see heavenly visions. This is the power of the overcoming saint, the saints that endure to the end receive the promises of Christ. Faith is the power in which we live. The ability to see what cannot be seen, to trust when all around us is burning embers, when our life in the natural is falling apart, there in the midst of it all, stands our Redeemer. He stands brothers and sisters, He sees, He knows, He keeps every tear drop shed held in a bottle. He sees you wronged, He sees your pain and He wants you to know that it will not always be as it is now.
The Spirit gives us eyes to see what cannot be seen and ears to hear what no ear can hear. We see His glory and we see eternity stretching out ahead of our circumstances. There is a weight of glory that awaits us saints. You may think in your heart ” this will never end,” but it will end. The hope we have is not the hope of the world where it simply wishes things will get better. Our hope is a blessed one founded on the word and the promises of God. He has gone to prepare a place for us, if it were not so He would have told us. So lift up your eyes and gaze upon the glorious eternity that lies ahead of your circumstances, and when you do, the Spirit of God will begin to fill you heart and mind and body with the ambient glory of what you can see. Can you see His glory? Look saint, with Spirit eye, look!
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Posted by appolus on August 31, 2020
Psa 3:3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
The episode here described in this psalm of David is from one of the lowest accounts of his life. It is one thing to have enemies, its hard and we have to deal with that. It is quite another when it is a loved one who stabs you in the back. David’s own son Absalom has turned against him and has convinced most of the country to turn on David. So many of us can relate to Davids situation, he has troubles on every side. He is not a young man anymore and one could forgive him for thinking “have I not suffered enough?”
People all around him are telling him that there is no help from God. Yet this is not David’s reaction. He has learned to trust God after all these years of serving him. He says that he cried out to the Lord and the Lord heard him from His holy hill. He did cry, we see that in 2 Sam 15:30 where he and all the people who were loyal to him weep as they make their way up Mount Olivet. What a sad tragic scene.
Yet David says that the Lord heard his cries. He acknowledges that the Lord is His shield and the lifter of his head and that in the glory of the Lord there is strength and peace to be found. So much so that David could lie down and sleep. As so many of you know, in a crisis, sleep rarely comes easily. Yet David slept for the Lord sustained him and he was not afraid. He trusted God so much that he sent the Ark back to Jerusalem and announced that it would be God who would determine the outcome of this situation. Whether on a throne or on the run David recognizes that God is his shield. He recognized that there was power in the glory of God and that this power was able to lift up the hands that hung down low and lift up the head to survey the heavens, from whence his help came from.
Those around us, who do not have eyes to see the glory, many well intentioned people, whisper in our ears along with the devil himself that there is no help from God. The man whose eyes are fixed on the glory of God, he is drawn away from his doubts and fears and drawn deeper into the heart of God. He abides under the shadow of the Almighty’s wing. And so we see here a principle that was so clearly demonstrated by Peter when he walked on the water. If your eyes are upon Jesus, He elevates you above the storm. The storm is still raging yet it cannot consume you. If your eyes are upon your situation then you start to drown, you will go under.
Maybe today you face that kind of situation with a loved one, or perhaps you are just surrounded on every side by trials, or maybe it is your future that deeply troubles you for any number of reasons. Remember this dear saint, God is a shield for you and in His glory He will lift you up. You keep looking to Jesus and you will lie down and sleep. He will give you the strength to arise every morning. He is well able.
He knows your situation, just as he knew David’s. And David knew that. And in that trust that David had developed over decades of troubles, he could say with the Apostle Paul “I have learned to be content.” Be content today saint for God knows your situation. He will be with you through the fires and through the floods. He will not allow you to drown nor to be consumed by the fires of your trials.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on August 27, 2020
As I was walking this morning and praying I was telling the Lord that I was wearied of the flesh in all of its many manifestations. This daily fight can be very tiring and I was sharing with the Lord how lovely it would be when it was all over. As I rounded the corner on the path, I heard two different bird noises. I knew what they were, I had heard them before. One was a bird in distress and the other was a hawk screetching. Although I could not see what was going on, I have seen it before. The hawk undoubtedly had caught the small bird and the small bird was making very distressed noises, as were his little buddies all around him. The hawk would be unmoved by these noises and would never lose his grip on his little prisoner.
As I pictured this in my mind the Holy Spirit spoke to me, He said “Something has to die so that something can live.” It just seemed so profound to me because of the image in my mind of the hawk and its prey. Yet, this concept is fundamental to all of humanity. Every time we eat something, something had to die. It had to die that we may live. Dying and living, in that order, it is what sustains us. It is elemental.
As I walked on and pondered this, I thought about a show Angie and I watch on National Geographic. It is called “Alone.” The basic premise of the show is that they take ten people and scatter them in a rough wilderness area, and they have to survive for 100 days. This year the location was just 250 miles from the Arctic circle. A brutal place with limited resources. What actually happens is that they slowly begin to starve to death. When they do catch something, like a fish or a rabbit, they are so overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness that they often embrace the catch that they have just killed and weep. This is life and death and they know it. It seems to be a very spiritual experience, small c of course.
The relationship between death and life is so elemental to humanity, this notion that something has to die in order for something to live lies at the root of who we are. If Christ is to live in me then something has to die. There are no ways around, something has to die. I have to die, my flesh has to die so that Christ in me shall be manifested to the world. I have to d3crease so that He may increase. Jesus, of course, is the perfect example of this. In order for us to live then He had to die. Without His death we would not live. In John chapter six Jesus teaches that we must eat His Body and drink His Blood.
Jesus is the Living bread that came down from heaven. In order for us to partake of the this food and this drink then Jesus had to die. Something has to die so something can live. Jesus had to die so that we could live eternally. Now my flesh has to die, with all of the distress that accompanies that and all of the noise that I sometime make in the process. My cross taken up daily is the means that has been prepared for me by the one who bore the ultimate cross. An instrument of death that produces life. Lord, may I take up this cross daily so that something dies daily and from this death comes life.
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Posted by appolus on August 27, 2020
There are not many around today who have experienced the manifest presence of the Living God. And by that I do not mean ” the music was excellent this morning, I was really moved by it,” or ” that was such a great sermon.” What I mean by the manifest presence of God is when the music stops, when the preaching stops, when men can barely lift their heads because the holy heaviness of God has come down and laid bare their souls. Where the weight of His glory and majesty seems to even disrupt gravity.
Men and women are afraid to even whisper lest they interrupt a Holy God. Hands raised in holy adoration and men are on their knees. Tears flow like swollen rivers in the midst of spring time rains. Hearts are enlarged, hearts are melted, hearts are changed, hearts are filled to capacity then overflow. For the rest of the day, the week, the month these rain drenched swollen hearts fall with tears of overflowing at the mere thought of His presence.
The sensitivity of your touched heart is so great that even the mention of the name of Jesus ushers you once again into His presence. This is new wine, and the old has to give way to the new. We do not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God nor do we live on yesterdays memories but on today’s encounter for that gives life to your tomorrows.
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Posted by appolus on August 26, 2020
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.(Psa 2:1-3)
The world in which we live grows ever more angry against the Kingdom of God and His saints. As each day passes we see more and more that the heathen, the unbeliever and the people in general are aligned with the kings and rulers of this world against the anointed of God. The anger is rising in the hearts of men against the saints of God. Pretense is being cast away and kings and governments are showing their true colors, they are showing us who they really worship, the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air.
Yet the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords still sits upon His throne. His kingdom and His people still carry the banner of light into the valley of darkness. Though the whole world rises up in a crescendo of darkness and evil, the saints, the bearers of the light shall stand firm upon Holy ground, they will not be moved. Those who serve the Lord with fear and who tremble in His manifest presence are soldiers in the Army of the Lord. We do not fight with the weapons of this world, our weapons are mighty for the pulling down of strong-holds.
Every saint who has ever walked Godly in Christ Jesus knows something of the heathen’s rage. You know brothers and sisters, you know. God has seen your suffering and is well pleased that you have stood strong against the exploits of the people in general around you, perhaps even those of your own household. Now consider our Lord and Savior Jesus, how in His day the rulers took counsel together to destroy Him. Kings and rulers, Pharisees and Sadducees, Herodians and the mob all came together against Him. The whole world turned on Him and yet He was true to His calling until He gave up His last breath.
Though the whole world come against you dear brothers and sisters, and it will, let us follow the ways of the Lord and stay true to our calling until we breathe our last breath. Whether we live or whether we die let us glorify the Lord. And whether we are still alive or have gone on before we shall all join our Lord in the sky in that great and terrible day of the Lord. The Kings and the rulers of this world and the raging heathens and all the vain peoples will bow their knees and acknowledge the Christ and receive His judgment.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on August 25, 2020
Consider what Wayne Jacobsen says in his book “Finding Church.” In comparing meetings to gatherings he says “What’s the difference? Am I just splitting hairs here? I realize the terms can be used synonymously, but I’m not doing so. A gathering brings people together to celebrate relationship. It is heavy on conversation, often multiple conversations, because people are nor forced to follow an agenda. Meetings, on the other hand, bring people together to accomplish a task even if that task is to perform some ritual. They demand conformity and people have to cooperate for them to work. Relationships are not critical, which is why you can attend meetings for years, even small ones, and not get to know or care for others in the group….. success is measured not by the size of the group but by the quality of relationships.”
I could not agree more with this brother on that subject. For years, decades, centuries, people have sat together in meetings and had no idea who their neighbor was. Yet, gatherings promote true and genuine fellowship. People are starving for true and genuine fellowship. They desperately need to be edified in relationship. Rather than one more teaching they simply need to be heard and to be able to share what the Lord has and does through them. I am not speaking here of novices or babes in Christ, I am speaking of true and genuine saints who have been on the road for years and decades. God is raising up a last days people who long for and desire true and genuine fellowship that is bathed in love for one for Jesus and for one another.
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Posted by appolus on August 22, 2020
Shame is the shadow that follows us. A dark specter from our past, a half life of an incident or multiple incidents all seemingly running together as one. It speaks to you and pretends to be something of a friend, something that promises to keep the secret, it warns you to keep the secret. It demands that you stay in the shadows, in the hiding places. It draws you into a melancholy world, a place of shadows and quicksand, a world that keeps you in the darkness.
Then there is the light, the light of Christ, and with that light comes transparency and vulnerability, the deadliest enemies of the ever burning embers of fear and shame. Living waters poured upon burning coals. Light that floods the darkness and illuminates every dark part of what helped to form us, or deform us. The light of Christ shone into the deepest recesses of our souls and dispels the darkness and renews us.
We are renewed, brand new creatures in Christ. The mud and the muck falls from us as He lifts us up from the bottom of the bottomless pit and sets our feet down on level ground. No longer to stumble around in the dimness that passed for light, but to stand steady in the light of Christ. Grave clothes removed after rising from the dead and walking out of the darkness at His call. Can you hear Him calling us to come forth?
The stone of sin and shame that kept us captive in the grave is rolled away and the light of God penetrates deep into the darkness and delivers us. Only in Him, only in Jesus. He came to set the captives free. He came to set at liberty the crushed and the bruised and the broken. He came to take them out of the darkness into His marvelous light that they may recover their sight.
For so many, the bars of their cell, the closed door, does not represent confinement but containment. In Jesus we are neither confined nor contained, we are set free. But it is one thing to cross the river Jordan, it quite another thing to possess the promised land. The high walls of Jericho have to come down if we are to progress deeper and deeper into the promises of God. Coming to Jesus is not the end of the journey, its the beginning. The cell door being opened is the beginning. What a tragedy it would be if the cell door was opened yet we never walked on through the door, rather we felt safer within the confines and constraints of what we knew.
It would also be a tragedy if, after being delivered from Egypt, the Israelites continually wandered in the desert, too afraid to cross over into and possess the promised land because “there are giants in there.” Giants have to be engaged and defeated by the power of God if we are to take full possession of what He has for us. Walls have to come down if we are to continue the journey. What are your giants? What great walls are keeping you from taking possession of what God has for you?
In the Lord, by obedience and trust and action, we are more than conquerors. In Him we conquer fear. In Him we conquer shame. In Jesus the walls will come down. By the power of His love and the Holy Spirit death has lost its victory and the grave has lost its sting and His perfect love casts out all fear. We overcome because He overcame. We endure because He endured the cross. We are a victorious people because Jesus was victorious over hell and sin and the grave. He arose that we might arise. Arise in new birth to a new dawn that we might sing the glories of our risen Saviour. Arise today in the power of His might and slay those giants. It is your calling.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on August 21, 2020
There is an old hymn that goes something like this “Lord dont move the mountain just give me strength to climb.” I love that . I truly love that. So often in our beds of ease our cry would be “Lord remove the mountain.” Yet when He gives us the strength to climb we are at the same time plummeting the depths of His love, the depths of His glory, the depths of who He is. The narrow road that we find ourselves on requires from us things we could never do. It constantly takes us to the end of ourselves. And at the end of ourselves is where Jesus really begins to do a deep work in our lives.
Along the way we come to mountain ranges that are impassable. “Lord, help me get over. Lord if you dont help me my journey stops here.” And He says to us “put one foot in front of the other and I will take you over.” Further along the way we come to a raging river and we realize that it is impossible to get over. The Lord says to us “just put one foot in the river and I will take you over.’
One impossible mountain at a time. One raging river at a time. An ocean to cross and deep valleys to traverse and every step of the way we understand more and more about our limitations. Our self confidence diminishes. In fact everything about self diminishes. We understand that without Jesus we could do nothing. Without the Spirit of the Living God we could do nothing. He picks us up, He wipes our tears, He strengthens us when we are weak. He gives us hope when all seems bleak. He leads the way when I am lost, He lifts my eyes up to the cross. He fills me when I am depleted, He gives me vision to see Him seated, High above and on His throne and tells me that I’m not alone.
And when I near the end of this journey, so much of my flesh has been stripped away. Any confidence that I may once have had in myself is long since gone. Somehow I have decreased and He has increased. Every high mountain and wide river, every trial, every temptation, every persecution has drawn me closer to the one that I love. I have an ever deepening knowledge and assurance of His faithfulness. So Lord my God, carry me over the mountains, take me across the sea, that I would draw ever closer unto thee. Until only ever before my eyes is your presence and your glory and the realm of the impossible made possible. Do not remove my mountains Lord, just give me strength to climb.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on August 19, 2020
Php 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
This verse is one of the high water marks of our walk with the Lord. Paul says that he had “learned,” to be content no matter what situation he found himself in. This learning did not come from his studies at the feet of human teachers. This learning came from having experienced everything that life had to throw at him, or better stated, everything that he had to suffer for the cause of Christ.
Whether it was being hungry or without proper clothing, having a lot of money or having no money at all, Paul had learned. Whether he was popular or whether he was rejected, he had learned. When he was shipwrecked and adrift in the sea, he had learned. Whether he had the skin torn from his back or stoned to within an inch of his life, he had learned. Whether he was a free man in this world or whether he found himself at the bottom of a dungeon, he had learned.
What had he learned? What had a multitude of afflictions taught him? He has learned that His Lord and Savior was always with him and always took him through. When you can look back at your own life and see what the Lord has brought you through, how He walked with you through a multitude of trials and afflictions you can see that He always took you through, through the fires and through the floods of life.
Look back and see where He has brought you from. See what He has delivered you from. See how He has provided for you. Looking back is very rarely healthy, yet when we think back to how the Lord has delivered us time and time again it builds our faith. It strengthens our tomorrows when we can look back at our yesterdays and see what the Lord has brought us through and how far He has taken us. We lean not so much about our own faith, we learn and appreciate the faithfulness of God. As we learn how faithful the Lord is, it actually grows our faith. All good things flow from God, including our faith, all the glory belongs to Him.
If we have come to the place that we can rejoice when our teachers are the bread of afflictions and the waters of adversity then we can say with Paul that we have learned to be content in every situation. Bread and water is the diet of prisoners, it is designed to barely keep them alive. Yet our life comes not from bread alone but from every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. A word from God is life to us. Water is the most basic need of man, but we drink from the eternal wells of living water that flow from heaven above.
Therefore, even in chains and in the most dire of situations we can rejoice. We will always have bread from heaven and the living waters of life to revive our soul. Therefore we can rejoice in the Lord our God just like Paul and Silas in the dungeon. Paul could be content in every situation because he had learned, by actual experience, that God was with him in every situation. Dear saint, He is with you, and in this we rest.
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Posted by appolus on August 18, 2020
Jer29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
This is a very well known verse, and like many well know verses it is, for the most part, quoted without context. In Jer 29 Israel is in a very dark place, a place of judgement and captivity. It is in this context that the Lord assures His people. While all around us may be falling to pieces, while the hand of God may be moving against those who are far from Him and have turned away from Him, God assures His people. There is the danger that God’s own people will think He has turned on them, but here the Lord assures them that quite the opposite is true.
The judgement upon Israel was not for her destruction, it was for her correction. God chastens those that He loves and it is for the purpose of turning His people back to Him so that they shall call upon Him. Maybe today you find your own life is in something of a turmoil? Perhaps you face trials on every side and conflicts at every turn? You wonder does God really love you. You wonder what God really thinks about you. You are plagued with doubts. Seek the Lord and keep seeking His face with all of your heart. He shall be found by those who diligently seek Him. His presence shall be your reward. Your captivity to thoughts and doubts and fears shall be loosed.
In these times of darkness, in these days when Christendom is falling away and judgement has begun at the house of the Lord, it is critical that we seek Him with our whole hearts. Let the darkness draw you closer to the Light. Let the fear and uncertainty that is all around you draw you closer to the peace and contentment that is only found in Jesus. Seek Him with all of your heart and be found in Him. As the storm rages all around you and seems to grow more intense, let your gaze upon Him grow more intense. Situations and circumstances will do everything they can to draw you away and avert your gaze, do not look away. Endure, overcome, stand brothers and sisters and know that His thoughts about you are more than the sands of the sea. And His plans for you are to hold you and keep you in the midst of the madness. In the Lord their is hope and in Him we have our future. He is our exceedingly great reward.
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Posted by appolus on August 14, 2020
Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.(Jer 9:23-24)
In the day of your calamity where is your strength? When the doctor tells you your child shall surely die, where is your wisdom? Can your strength save the child? Can all the money in the world raise up a child from the dead? The man of God’s strength lies in the fact that he knows God and is known by God. To know God and to depend upon Him is true wisdom. To know God and to be found in Him is true strength. To know God and to stand in His presence is riches beyond measure.
In the evil day to come we shall find our wisdom in the Word of God and the power of His Spirit. In the evil day to come when all true saints are brought low and among them there is no distinction, we shall find that in Him we are stronger than we ever could have imagined. We shall discover that it is His strength flowing through us when all our own capabilities have been stripped away. In the evil day to come when the world has taken back from us all of its treasures as a measure of punishment, we shall discover a depths of riches from the treasures of heaven that enrich us with true riches.
God’s wisdom is pure and eternal and His strength knows no bounds. The treasures that He bestows upon His children will stay with them for all eternity. Knowing Him is abundant life even in the midst of death. Knowing Him is light even in the depths of darkness. Knowing Him is rivers of living waters in a dry and dusty wilderness. Knowing Him is heavenly food for a starving soul in the midst of a great famine. Knowing Him is to have access to resources that are without limit, they are are spiritual and not carnal. The Apostle Paul proclaimed that the loss of everything he ever had in this world, including its wisdom and power and riches were as nothing in comparison to the excellency of knowing Christ his Lord and to found in Him and to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.
Can we make such a proclamation brothers and sisters? Is knowing Him our all in all? Shall we gladly suffer the loss of all things to be found in Him? This is the mark of the saint down through the ages. Let us take our place with the Body of Christ that went before us , that great cloud of witnesses, and let us proclaim with them and with Paul that to know Him and to be found in Him is the all consuming treasure of our heart.
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Posted by appolus on August 12, 2020
Tozer writes “The church that can’t worship must be entertained. And men who can’t lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment.” I would argue that all across Christendom in the west we are seeing leaders who lead the people by providing entertainment. And if it is not entertainment, then it is some form of nationalism/politics.
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.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Posted by appolus on August 10, 2020
It’s not good enough to come to the cross, one must come to the cross and die. The ultimate offense of the cross is death. Jesus said that whoever seeks to save his life would lose it, but whoever loses his life for His sake would gain everlasting life. In Roman times, the one thing you knew if you saw a man with a cross was that the man was surely going to die and the dying would not be easy.
The message of the cross remains the same ” I bid you to come and die.” You cannot accept the benefits of the cross while refusing to suffer and endure the agonies of it. In order to live eternally one has to die. It is a very rare thing to hear this message today. The message for the last few decades typically begins with “All you have to do.” This is not the gospel. This is some abomination. See Jesus in the garden and see the agony. For us mere mortals the flesh will not go quietly into that good night, it will rage against the coming of the light.
It will demand to remain in the darkness and there it will make its stand. Salvation is a brutal bloody thing and the flesh must be found dead upon the brazen altar. It is the work of the cross that slays it and today Satan is still selling that old lie “surely you will not die. Bow down and worship me and you will not need to die upon a cross.” Will you die that you may live or will you live this day and bow down to the world? It must be one or the other. Cheap grace has given the illusion that there is a middle ground, there is not. The middle ground is a chasm that swallows men whole. To be found there is to be engulfed in darkness and mediocracy.
In the Kingdom of God there is no ordinary, there is only extraordinary. It is your calling to rise above the clamorings of men and do exploits for God. To simply shine your light among the darkness of this world is extraordinary. To praise God from a sickbed is extraordinary. To have a thankful heart quite apart from your circumstances is to live an extraordinary life. Being joyful, being at peace, being content, conquering fears, enduring and overcoming. These are the extraordinary and the supernatural elements of our life.
All of these things, while carrying your cross, makes the foundations of hell shake. Forgiving your brother and loving your enemies makes the foundations of hell shake. The gates of hell themselves suffer defeat by an army of fragrant saints who march upon their knees with their hands raised high to heaven and their voices raised in praise. This is why the devil and the flesh rage against the coming of the light.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
A Call To The Remnant 