Signs and wonders and miracles follow those who believe. It follows the dramatic transformation of souls, which is of course the greatest miracle of all. A large majority of Christendom seem only transfixed on miracles. We see in Acts 8-9 a man called Simon magician or sorcerer. Upon seeing the power of the Apostles, he wanted the same power and desired to “purchase,” it. Of course he is sternly rebuked. He is never mentioned in Scripture again. In extra biblical writings it seems he continued in his sorcery while still being around the Christian community. He gave rise to the word “Simony,” which means “using religion for profit.” Men like Simon would never move in the power of God. May I suggest we live in an age of Simony. There is so little evidence of the miraculous power of God in Christendom because Christendom in large part is run by men who “use religion for profit.” God is still a miracle working God, therefore if there is a fundamental lack of the true supernatural power among that which names itself the church, then that is a reflection on them and not upon our Lord who never changes.
If God has not changed, and of course He has not, then why it is that there is next to no supernatural power on display in what we call the church today? Can I suggest that one of the major causes is “Simony” those who “use religion for profit.” And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? (Judges 6:13) Where are all the miracles Gideon asks? The very first thing Gideon had to do was tear down the idols of his fathers. What Gideon did, we will not do. The traditions of our fathers still stand and they are more important to us than the commandments of God. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same things over and over again and expect different results. If there is a crisis and a lack of genuine power within the ranks of Christendom, then the answer is not to dim the lights, bring on the smoke machines and turn Sunday services into secular looking concerts. The answer, as always, lies within the Word of God and His commandments. 1 Cor 14. This is the model, and if we refuse to return to the Word of God in order to maintain our own traditions and the salaries of “senior pastors and so called worship leaders” then, of course, not only will nothing change, it will only get worse.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
This glorious Scripture was fulfilled when Christ stood in the temple and expounded this verse and told the world, that this Scripture was fulfilled in their hearing. The Spirit of the Lord God was upon Jesus. It is He who is anointed to preach the good news to the poor. He may speak through us, but by the power of the Holy Spirit it is Christ Himself that speaks to the poor. Only Jesus can heal the brokenhearted. Only Jesus can proclaim liberty to the captives, and only Jesus can free those captives from their chains and He would do it all through us, the priests of the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. The dove descended upon the Lord Jesus and we must be immersed in the same Holy Spirit. We rise up in that power. We are a royal priesthood, a Holy Generation. We are the chosen ones of the Lord, royal priests in a royal priesthood.
When they see us brothers and sisters, they must see Jesus. We are a manifestation of Jesus to the world by and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Everything is done in the name of Jesus because there is no other name under heaven whereby a man can be saved. There is no other name under heaven whereby a man can be freed from His bonds. There is no other name under heaven whereby a man can be healed. There is no other name under heaven whereby the blind eyes are opened and the crushed heart is restored. We saints are clothed in the garments of salvation. We are covered by the robes of righteousness just as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Just as a garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so to the Lord our God causes righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. We are a living demonstration of His righteousness and we can do nothing more than praise Him from the depths of the inexhaustible wells of our salvation. Never forget who you are in HIm brothers and sisters.
You have to establish a non petitioning heart before you can truly petition the Lord. What do I mean by that? Does your prayer life consist mostly of petitions, meaning, is it just about you asking for things? Take a moment and reflect upon your prayers. I want to give you some examples. In Acts 16 we see Paul and Silas in a terrible situation. They were hungry and thirsty. They were seriously injured. They were held captive. They could well be killed. And here is what we know about their communications with God. ” At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.” There is nothing to indicate they were praying for their personal needs, no, rather they were praising God in the midnight hour. That very same hour, the jailer, after crying out “what must I do to be saved,” got saved, his family got saved, Paul and Silas were delivered from their bonds, the stripes upon their backs were tended to and food was set before them.
In Acts chapter seven we see Stephen in a terrible situation. He had just spoken mightily by the power of the Holy Spirit and the crowd were riled up and they had murder in their heart. Did Stephen cry out for deliverance? Did He petition God to shield him in that moment? Here is what happened “He, being full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God…..then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. That day a young man called Saul witnessed what had happened and the seeds of his own salvation was planted.
Brothers and sisters, there is much power in not giving heed to the situation you find yourself in. The Kingdom of God transcends all situations, if only we had eyes to see the glory of God through the darkest nights, the good news is that we do. Every night is like the noonday sun to those with eyes fixed upon Jesus. Now, is it right and proper to petition the Lord? Yes, of course. Yet, we all know someone who only ever talks to us when they want something, is that not right? How do you feel when you see that person approach? Does your heart not sink? Does it not sink even deeper when they pretend to be nice to you? We have names for people like that. Hypocrites? Fair weather fans? People who only come around to get what they want or to be part of a success.
First and fore-most in our lives we have been called to glorify God. No matter what our situations are, no matter what chaos the enemy might have caused, we need to stand in the power that comes from glorifying God in our prayers. We need to lift up the name of Jesus. We need to glorify the Lord our God. We need to see Him high and lifted up and then we need to lift up our eyes to that vision of Him. He is with us and He is preeminent not just in our hearts but in every aspect of our lives. Glorifying God and praising His holy name causes the foundations of our captivity to begin to shake. God is not in the business of building prisons, He is in the business of tearing them down. He does not throw people behind prison cells, He throws open the doors. He breaks the bars of captivity. He is worthy to be praised and He has given us the way. Establish the proper order. Love Him, praise Him, give Him honor and glory. Let the principalities and powers know that no matter what, The Lord Jesus Christ will be praised, before any mention of our needs.
Philippians 4:6 Tells us “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” We see a very similar text in Matt 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothes? And so we see the two sets of instructions from Jesus, be anxious for nothing, or the almost identical phrase “take no thought for your life.” What might be the primary petitions of the saint? And how are these petitions to be framed? Well we see from Phil 4:6 that they are to be framed by, or bathed in, thankfulness. It is the thankful heart that breaks through to the throne-room. And with this thankful heart we pray, we glorify God, and into this heart He pours in His desires. And His greatest desire is that we would be like His Son.
And therefore, having put the cares of this life aside we stand devoid of distractions. We cry out to God that He would help our unbelief. That He would give us wisdom, that He would glorify Himself in whatever situation we find ourselves in. Whether in the depths of a dungeon or kneeling before an angry mob who is about to kill us. Whether we face bankruptcy or the grievous loss of a loved one, how shall we glorify you in this Lord? Job’s prayer was to praise God and acknowledge that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Brothers and sisters, there is a tremendous power at our disposal if we would only lay down the distractions of this world and lift Jesus us in our minds and hearts and spirits. There are walls to be shaken. There are captives to be set free. Yet we must be free ourselves from the distractions of this world in order to be used in setting at liberty others. Is it possible to live an anxious free life and walk in the power of God? Yes it is. Is it possible to “take no though for your life?” Yes it is. Jesus commanded that we do it and we must decide to do it. It is our decision.
Isa 58:8 Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily: and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.
These are the promises of God to those who walk according to His Spirit and in accordance with His will. We shall loose the bonds of wickedness and undo the heavy burdens of our fellow man. This means that we shall aid and comfort those who find themselves afflicted by the ravages of this life and give comfort and aid to the poor in as far as we are able. This is truly the fast that God would have us do. When you walk in such light to those who dwell in darkness then your light shall surely break through like the morning sun rising over a a world in darkness. The healing balm of Gilead will be ours and it shall go forth from us as unto the nations. Our righteousness in Christ shall go before us and the glory of the Lord shall be our rear guard. When you cry out to the Lord He will answer and say “Here I am.” What greater reward is there? He has called us to lift up our voices with great intensity, like a trumpet, and speak for Him to those who have wandered far.
He will guide us continually as we continue in Him and He will water our thirsty souls whether in springtime rains or summertime drought. You shall be like a well watered garden, like an eternal spring that does nor fail. You shall build the waste place and a highway of Holiness shall be found in you. Even in old age your bones shall be strengthened, for those who wait upon the Lord. And from these waters that flow from you, there shall be established the beginnings of many generations who will rise up and call His name Holy. Jesus will be exalted through the flesh of your flesh long after you return home. God has called the holy ones, the excellent one, the Royal priesthood to be the Repairers of the breach. What the enemy tears down, God rebuilds from the ashes and the ravages of this life. You have seen it in your life, and in the lives of others and it shall be seen in the lives to come for those who fear the Lord and call Him Holy. These are the great and mighty promises of Almighty to God to His own. To you brother, and to you sister. Be encouraged today. God sees it all and your life is bigger than you think.
I would like to discuss a word that is not used very often. It is the word Godliness. It is rather a mysterious word really. What is Godliness? Are you Godly? Who decides? Can it be measured or quantified? In 2 Pet 1:3 we see that the Divine power of Jesus has given us all things that “pertain” to life and Godliness through the knowledge of Him. Now, that word pertain means to bring us close to, or nearness to. And so we could say that the power of God, through knowing Him in an intimate way, directs us to life and this thing called Godliness. It is the tightest and most succinct three words in all of Scripture that alludes to our calling, “life and Godliness.” No life, no Godliness, one must be born again in order to have the life that will enable Godliness.
I would argue that Godliness is an awareness of God in our everyday life. A constant awareness of God. Now this is not to be confused with the manifest presence of God. The manifest presence of God is the awareness of Gods actual presence. It is always dramatic, no matter how it comes. The manifest presence of God cannot be conjured up. No one controls God. It is not normative in the Christian life but it is vital that we have “encountered God,” at some point or many points along the way. Yet Godliness can be pursued. We are told in 1 Tim 4:7 that we have to train ourselves in the way of Godliness. It is up to us to constantly bring to mind the things of God in our daily lives. The Godly man has an attitude towards God that forms the core of who he is and it can be visibly seen in every aspect of his life.
We see in 2 Pet 1:5-9 that in the pursuit of a Godly life we must be diligent to add to our trust in God, excellence in everything we do for His name sake. We must be just men and women. And to that we must exercise the knowledge that we have been given and have experienced through God. We must exercise patience in everything that we do and continue on no matter what comes our way. We are those who persevere through trial and flood. Out of that comes our Godliness. We are exercised in the ways of God. His honor and His glory will be the most important thing in our lives and when we walk in this fashion then we shall be known for our love for one another. If we walk in the awareness of God then we shall never be barren, indeed we shall be fruitful all the days of our lives no matter the circumstances. In fact the circumstances will only prove the genuineness of our Godliness.
Those who walk in the awareness of God do so out of devotion to Him. What do we mean by that? We all know someone or maybe many people who are devoted to their wives or husbands. We hear the phrase “he is so devoted to his wife.” It carries all the more weight when the wife is bedridden or dying. The husband in this case spends every waking hour attending to her needs. Even although he himself maybe very tired, no matter, he is bound and determined to serve his wife to the best of his abilities with everything he has. Brothers and sisters, this is Godliness. Are you bound and determined to serve God with a love and devotion greater than we could ever have for another human being? Is He at the center of all of your thoughts? Are you constantly aware of His presence in your life day by day, hour by hour? This is Godliness and out of of this Godliness, this devotion, flows rivers of life. You must train yourself in these matters brothers and sisters. It takes diligence and a dogged desire to walk with God.
Walking with God is our daily life. Its our interactions with everyone we come into contact with. Its our first thoughts in the morning. Its our drive to work, its our grocery shopping. It is our lunch with a friend. It is everything and when He is everything to us, and in everything that we do, then we know that we are truly “walking with Jesus.” There is a great power that comes from this walk called Godliness. The power to love, the power to forgive, the power to never take up the offense. This is no mere fantasy brothers and sisters, this is our calling. When we desire to live in Godliness then everything that is in our lives that is not Godly has to go. I think this is why so few of us walk in Godliness. Godliness is to continually pray if you like. A constant awareness of His nearness that will transform your life. It is not for the lazy Christian. You wont get it by going forward in a service. No charlatan will lay his hands on you and suddenly you are Godly. No, it belongs to the diligent, the genuine devotee of God, and it will show. You cannot measure it yourself, it is something that is seen in you by others. Yet brothers and sisters, when you walk in Godliness you will realize the goal of “being anxious for nothing.” The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will rest upon your life.
Pro 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Fearing God is the beginning of all things. Man can never find relationship with God outside of a healthy fear of the one who created him. A reverence for God draws you closer. No one skips into His presence. Isaiah falls down on his face, the prophets tremble at the presence of God. We have lost all fear of God in Christendom. The world has foolishly never feared God and they will go the way of fools. Yet, what happens when those who call themselves by His name have no actual fear of God? No reverence of God, no trembling at His touch, at His majesty. He is not your mate, your buddy or your pal. He is God and He is greatly to be praised. We praise Him by our lives, by our thoughts and our deeds. Worship is a way of life, not a 20 minute song service.
To worship God is to fear God, to fear God is to encounter God. To encounter God is to be drawn deeper into our Fathers heart. We do not fear God in the sense that a man fears a wild beast that can tear him to pieces. We fear God in the inner man. We know of His reverential beauty and glory. We understand just who we are in the presence of majesty. We know that without His covering we would be nothing more that wretched men who would cry out “who will deliver me from this body of death.” And we know our Saviour who has indeed delivered us from this death. We are no longer “undone,” and our lips are no longer unclean for we have been cleansed by something greater that a burning coal from the fires of heaven. We have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb! We know the sacrifice that God the Father made in sending His only Son to die for us. We have been touched by the magnitude of this.
It has rocked our world greater than any earthquake could. The ground shifted from beneath our ungodly feet and He set our feet upon the solid Rock. We now stand, by His grace and Mercy, upon the finished work of our Lord on the cross. Who could measure the magnitude of this? There exists no such spiritual Richter scale. The Love of God cannot be quantified other than by the bloody cross of Calvary. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who perish, but unto those who are saved , it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18) Fools despise this message and they know nothing of the fear of God. Those who know God and fear Him are on the path of knowledge. True knowledge and true wisdom. The ultimate irony for the foolish who fear not God, is that they will tremble and fall down with fear when it is too late. Better to learn the fear of God now and live, than to learn it before His seat and die eternally.
Act 27:10 And said unto them, men, I perceive that this voyage will end withe disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives.
A stark warning indeed. Have you ever had a warning that you ignored? Maybe it was a check in your spirit or a direct word from a brother or sister? The centurion in this case, decided to go with the experts, the helmsman and the owner of the ship. The majority were persuaded and off they went. Human logic can be very helpful and common sense typically serves us well. Here we have a tent-maker saying one thing and the helmsman and the owner of the ship saying another. The majority went with the experts.
Isn’t that typically the case in our world? We listen to experts. It might be doctors or lawyers. It might be politicians or financial advisors. Yet in everything, to discount the word of God can be very dangerous. That word might come from the Bible. Perhaps the still small voice. Perhaps a word of wisdom from a brother or sister, perhaps even a prophecy. Yet in the end, many fall back and rely on the word and opinion of so called experts. In verse 13 of Acts 27 we see a very typical scenario play out. All seems well at first. A south wind blew, a favorable wind, seemingly confirming what the experts had said. Yet before very long, the scenario Paul had laid out began to come to pass. For fourteen long days they were tossed violently in a huge storm. All seemed lost. Now, men are ready to listen to the man of God.
The man of God has a vision and spoke with confidence. They were all going to live. Yet the most dramatic moment was just about to unfold. Paul demanded that they cut the skiff loose. It seemed to make no sense. Often times in our lives we are called upon by God to do things that make no sense in the natural. In the vital moment, will you follow the direction of God? Will you abandon your common sense and the words of experts and follow blindly the advise from God? Paul brakes bread at the height of the disaster and gives thanks to God. Can you give thanks to Almighty God even when all seems lost? Following His direction and giving thanks to God releases power, supernatural power. Follow His leading today brothers and sisters, and He will guide you to where He wants you go.
1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
Can you see what the Lord is saying through Peter? Obeying the truth through the Spirit is part and parcel of being purified. Let not anyone think that outside of obedience to the Word of God and the Spirit of God that that one will be Holy as He is Holy. He who called you is Holy, now, the Scriptures tell us, be Holy as He is Holy. Lift your eyes as high as they can be lifted and set your sights on the Holiness of God. Seek first His Kingdom so that you may be partakers of His righteousness and Holiness. Willing and desirous obedience as opposed to conformity to your old flesh or the world around you. This leads to walking in the love of God which is manifested in our love for one another and even our love towards our enemies.
In this, the genuineness of our our trust in Him is refined again and again in a process that God Himself has initiated. Even in the midst of our various trials and the grieving of our hearts and spirits, there is inexpressible joy and an encounter with the glory of God. Our God does not sit passively by in the midst of such trials and infirmites and reproaches. No, rather we are told that we are blessed by the “Spirit of glory and of God which rests upon you.” (1 Pet 4:14) The word “rest,’ here used in the Scriptures means to refresh and to remain. Imagine that brothers and sisters, in the midst of our great trials for the glorious cause of Christ, there remains upon us a refreshing. The inexhaustible waters that flows from the wells of salvation. Oh what glorious fountains flow. First from Emmanuel’s veins and then from the living waters of Heaven.
Heb 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
The Lord Jesus Christ “learned obedience,” by the things He suffered. Though the Lord was never disobedient , He had never before wore the outer garments of flesh and walked the world as a man. And in that capacity, He learned in the Garden the full weight of His calling which was to bear the cross for all mankind. We must learn from this brothers and sisters. We must understand the nature of suffering and its value to us as eternal beings. It is easy enough to say that we would never deny our Lord, it is quite another to not deny our Lord in the flames of trial and tribulation and suffering.
Just as the Lord Jesus put on flesh to come to earth, so we must put off flesh to go to heaven. We know the instructions from the Lord, take up your cross, daily. If any man or woman would follow Him, they must also follow Him by learning obedience in the midst of suffering. It is, to coin a phrase, a required class. Those who suffer with Christ will reign with Him, It is a door we must pass through, it is for the testing and refining of our faith. Blessed are those who suffer for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. The valley of Achor is the valley of tears and it is a door of hope brothers and sisters. In the wilderness and in the midst of suffering He will come to us, He will visit the very depths of our souls.
In that place you will learn intimacy in ways you could never truly understand. And in the depths of this intimate relationship you will learn to stand. You will take on Christ and the armor of God as He meets you there. You will set your face like flint for the joy set before you, for as He endured then so shall you. He endured the cross and the shame and He sat down at the right hand of His Father. By the strength that comes through suffering and by the obedience that we learn in the midst of it, we shall be empowered to radical obedience. An obedience not born of passivity but rather an active obedience. The former is good, the latter is great. Let us learn together brothers and sisters so that we can say along with brother Job, even if He kills us yet shall we trust Him.
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.
Psa 18:28 For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
What a wonderful promise we see here. God will light our candle. He is speaking to His own. He is speaking to those who walk humbly before Him. Who honor His word in all that they do. Who are merciful and gracious and kind. To them, He will be merciful, gracious and kind. He will honor those who honor Him. He will bring light to our darkness by reviving out spirits. This tells me many things. It tells me that God’s people get discouraged. It tells me that their candle, metaphorically speaking, can go out. And when it does it causes the darkness to press in and surround them. And yet even then, when we sense that our candles have gone out, yet shall we still honor God. Even when the darkness presses in on us from every side, we shall never deny our God. Even when we do not hear from Him, we say in our hearts ” I will honor Him till the day I die even if I never hear from Him again.
This, brothers and sisters, is overcoming. This is enduring. This is our manifestation of our own love for God and it is not conditioned upon anything. We know in our hearts that we worship God, not for what He does for us or will do for us. Not because we desperately desire to be relieved or delivered from our circumstances. Not for any other reason other than He is worthy to be praised. If this is indeed your heart brothers and sister, He will come to you in the night watches and all of a sudden your candle is lit. Your lamp explodes into light and the darkness is held at bay. The way ahead becomes clear and you you put one step in from of another and you keep walking down the narrow path. It is He alone who arms us with strength. He alone is our Rock. He alone is a shield to us and His word is always proven true. We can stand upon it and it is a lamp unto our feet.
Lord, your right hand has held me. You have armed me with strength for the battle. You give me feet like the feet of a deer and you set me on high places. You lift my spirit from the depths of the valley and you raise me up above the darkness. The Lord lives! Blessed be the Rock! May your name be exalted in all the earth. If your candle has went out brother or sister, keep on walking in faith. Keep on honoring Him. Lift Him up, praise Him, be merciful to others. Love as you have been loved. He will light your candle and you will burn again. The way ahead that has been so obscured with darkness will give way as He lights up the darkness, for even the darkness is light to our God. You will find your way forward. God bless you on your journey today and be encouraged.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit completes the revolution. You are powerful when He walks with you. You are victorious when He dwells in you. You now have the power to subdue the conquered land. You are the conquered land. The Holy Spirit, by invitation, has invaded your spirit. Any invasion force puts down rebellion in the natural. It is the same in the supernatural. When a man or woman is invaded by the Holy Spirit, a war is unleashed between the rebellious holdouts and strongholds within ourselves that dwell in the outer regions of our flesh and in the depths of our souls. God gave the children of Israel the promised land, but it still had to be possessed. We surrender ourselves to God but we still have regions that need to be put down.
Areas of rebellion and holdouts must be ruthlessly attacked and vanquished. Remember Caleb? He volunteered to take on the giants in the mountains in the promised land. We have giants inside of us in our high places, they have to be taken down. Remember Davids indignation at the giant? It is only by the power of the indwelling Spirit that we can take on and conquer that which would be otherwise impossible to defeat. So you must be able to answer this question, are you baptized in the Holy Spirit? It is a matter of victory or defeat. Without the Spirit of the living God dwelling in us one must make compromises with with the enemy within and with the enemies without. Shall you live your life with an uncomfortable coexistence with rebellion and sin? Or, shall you walk in the overcoming victory and power of God the Holy Spirit?
The bedrock of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possession. It is not “decisions for Christ,” but a sense of absolute futility. “I cannot begin to do it.” Then, says Jesus, you are blessed. It takes us a long while to believe we are poor, but that is the entrance. The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works. (Oswald Chambers)
Oh how this flies in the face of almost everything we think we know. We spend a lot of time and energy engaged in sophistry. We feel the pull of one camp or another. Our preconceived notions are the high places of our spirits. We make virtues out of words and ideas and notions. We promote and defend what we call virtues and in the end it is all Babylon. It is is either “Jesus said,” or its merely vacuous noise. Cultures are mere reflections of ungodly people. All cultures. We have not been called to appease cultures. We stand as an expression of the Lord Jesus Christ to a dying world. Christ in us should shine a light into the darkness of this dying world.
This knowledge of this kind of poverty comes from encounter. “Who can understand his errors? (Psalm 19:12) There is a light that illuminates the heavens. God set it in its tabernacle. And there is a light that illuminates the hearts of men. God set that light upon a hill upon a cross. It has shone out like a beacon down through the ages. The revelation of our own personal poverty, commonly known as “the end of myself,’ is the beginning of Jesus. I have crossed the frontier and been swallowed up by the landscape of the Kingdom of God when I journeyed to the end of myself. Isaiah cries out “woe is me for I am undone.” And he is swallowed up by fire on his lips and majesty. It sets his course. Who will cry out “oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?”
The carnal mind is death. So much of our speech is carnal. The camps within the camps within the camps. Each pushing and pulling and all the while being blind to our own personal poverty that is wrapped up in the high places of our preconceived notions. Its all death and it is all wretched. Yet, if you are privy to revelation and you can see your own poverty and the coals of fire are bought forth burning the dross away, then the spirit is refined and finds life and peace. And that very life and peace shall quicken your mortal bodies, empowered by the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God bears witness that we are the children of God. We are the sons and daughters of the living God, a royal priesthood, very much apart from and above the sophistry and the noise of this world and all its ways. We are joint-heirs with Christ and we shall suffer as our Lord suffered for His own cause and we shall bless those who curse us and do good to those whose aim is that we should stumble. For we know that the sufferings of our day cannot be compared to the glory that is to come. It’s is for Christ’s sake we gladly suffer. For righteousness sake. If God is for us brothers and sisters, who can be be against us? For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 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 8:38-39)
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
Only that which flows from an uninterrupted gaze on the Lord Jesus is real. Everything else is the shadow of the object. Granted, the shadow of the Lord is more powerful than all that can be seen, and one can even enjoy the heat from the sun in the shadow. Yet the glow from the face of Moses was not the glow of a man who stood in the shadows. I believe that the Lord can pour out his unadulterated light if it is not diffused by the efforts of self appointed middle men or intermediaries.
Can it be that simple? Can we simply come into His presence and be changed? Does everything begin and end with the Lord Jesus? How does one continue to look to Jesus? It is a conscious act of the will to take our eyes off our circumstances and cast them upon Jesus. This is the great battle of our lives, not our circumstances. Our circumstances can simply be doors that if walked through leads directly into His presence. It is in that place, looking unto Jesus, that we are changed. Trust is the key that opens the door. To trust in God is to walk through the opened door of our circumstances into the throne room of God.
There are two Kingdoms. The kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God. One is seen and affected by our senses and circumstances. The other is unseen and if walked in, relegates our circumstances to mere opportunities to go deeper into its depths. Now these two kingdoms compete for our attentions. You must cry out to God every day to bind up the reality of the kingdom of this world and to loose the reality of the Kingdom of God in your life. Cry out to God to give you eyes to see what He sees and how He sees it. Can you imagine the prospect of every situation you face being an opportunity to grow in grace and power? This is the Kingdom reality, will you walk in it today?
A Call To The Remnant 