In the quietness of peace and in the beauty of Holiness we should make our way through this noisy world. Like an elegant sailing ship making its way through calm waters with a beautiful fresh wind in its sails, we should walk through this world as peacemakers, drawing men and women to Jesus. We must not simply be a believer in doctrines but rather we must be a manifestation of such doctrines. Living epistles read of men. If men could read aloud the story of our hearts would it draw them to the Father? The narrative of our spirits should be like manna in the desert and water that bursts forth from rocks. In short, we should be life among death and light that pierces through the gross darkness of this world. A lighthouse that stands tall upon the Rock.
God finds us like the wild donkey, our nostrils wide and our eyes blazing and our ears laid back, hating the touch of leather, hating the touch and smell of people. The Holy Spirit comes, takes over, and starts, as we say on the farm, breaking the colt. After that the whole nature of the animal changes. He perks his ears up and whinnies when he sees you coming. His eyes are calm now. Lay your hand on his neck and he will lean over and nuzzle you. The Spirit of God wants to do that for you. He wants to domesticate you, humble you and make you meek. The Christian who has been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into a docile, obedient, meek, trustful person has more treasure than all the wealth of the world (A.W.Tozer)
Brother Tozer uses an analogy that most of the world would hate. I can hear the protests now (mainly because my own flesh raged against the process) “what do you mean, breaking the colt.” The truth is we are much worse that any horse or mule. We rage against the light because it brings us to heel if we indeed surrender to it. The horse is broken, yet we, unlike the horse, must first surrender to the process. And if we just had to do it once that might be ok. Yet just like everything else in the Scriptures that brings life it must be abided in. We must abide in His word daily. We must abide in the Holy Spirit daily. We must take up our cross daily. We must be filled over and over again. And so, just like that, we must surrender over and over again.
Brokenness is a process of surrenders. Stronghold by stronghold, high ground by high ground, well defended positions must fall. Jericho walls must come tumbling down and it wont be by might and it wont be by power, it will be by the Holy Spirit. We cannot cause the walls within us to fall, only Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit can do that. We cannot form the cross that we take up daily, only Jesus by the power of the Spirit can do that. Just like it is not possible to strangle yourself, we could never create crosses strong enough to break us. The flesh would not allow it That is uniquely the work of the Spirit and every step of the way must be surrendered to it. We are called into the river, not up to our ankles nor our knees nor even our waists, we must be fully immersed in the river of life. We must surrender to the current. We cannot be standing on our own two feet.
You may believe that you are walking in the depths with Jesus. Yet ask yourself this saint. Are you still standing on your own two feet? Do you think you are doing good because the water comes up to your neck? In the final analysis you will be no better off than the fella that is only ankle deep. The real changes come when you are swept away by the river, everything else is religion and vanity and ashes in the wind. We have to come to the point where we are simply not in control, we are not in charge. The River, Jesus, the Holy Spirit is. He can only take you to where He wants you to go when you are fully surrendered. And now, just like the broken horse, we fall deeply in love with our Master and long to see His coming. We nestle into His loving arms and when the storms rage all around us, we see Him and we know we are safe. Will you surrender to the river today?
1Co 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love , I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
In the previous sentence Paul tells us that we have to earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet, even above and beyond the best gifts, which we have indeed to earnestly desire, we must pursue love. It is not one or the other, God forbid. That’s a lie. Not only must the man or woman display the manifestation of the Spirit, above and beyond even that, He must walk in the greatest gift of all, love. Not human love, supernatural love. The kind of love that can only belong to the born again man or woman. The kind of love that shatters the gates of hell. The kind of love that inspired God to create us in the first place. The love that sent His only Son to die for the whole world. The kind of love that pursues us even when we are yet in our sin. The love that confounds hell itself. Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. What kind of love motivated Jesus to cry this out in the midst of the greatest agony ever suffered? What kind of love would motivate Stephen to cry out the same thing even as those cruel merciless stones rained down upon his mortal body? Supernatural love. If one is truly endued with power from on high, that power will be first and foremost manifested in love in his or her life, the greatest manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Paul begins with what love does not do or what it isn’t. It does not envy. It is not boastful. It is not full of pride. It does not behave in a deliberately offensive manner. It is not selfish. It is not easily provoked. It does not think the worse of people. It does not rejoice when others fall. Love, instead, revels in the truth, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love, indeed, never fails. It never fails. For this love is the manifestation of God Himself, in His own and through His own. It can never fail because God never fails. It is eternal for God is eternal. When the end comes, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and the Kingdom of God rules and reigns for all eternity then of course we wont have to hope any more, for all hope is fulfilled. We will no longer have to trust in the God that we cannot see, for now we shall see Him face to face.
Knowledge will vanish because we shall know as we are known. When all things are fulfilled in this manner, then love still stands forever. We are yet in this world, but the world to come is coming soon. Now we are like children, then we shall be complete in Him. Now we see in a mirror dimly, then face to face. Imagine it saints!!! There is now and there is then, we still exist in the now. And now we have the manifestation of the Spirit, then, all things are complete, perfect. And when that perfect has come, then all these other things, besides love, shall fall away. Do not let anyone fool you, do not be ignorant about these things brothers and sisters. For certain men have a form of Godliness, nevertheless they deny the power of God and say that it has ceased. From such men turn away.
The Holy Spirit spoke to me the other day in answer to an inquiry as to what was going on with me. “You have been holding on for so long that you do not know how to let go.” Let go of what you might ask? Everything.
It is within my own grasp that all fear exists, and the tighter the hold the greater the fear. And so this new place that I have been walking in with the Lord is the place that appears when you let go.
And the letting go was such a foreign concept to me that the Holy Spirit had to tell me what it was. And I thought to myself “surely it cannot be that simple?” And the answer is that it is, it is profoundly simple. And the cost? Everything that you have. Let it go. Hand it over. He who the Son sets free is free indeed.
It is a beautiful thing when you begin to realize that you are God’s work. When we discover that we need only to yield to the hammer and the chisel, give way to the potters hands. The only thing that holds us back is our resistance. It is our dreams that hold us back. Our desires, our ambitions. They may all be perfectly fine dreams and desires, but not for us saints. In the end it is about walking with God and that being the desire of our heart, to be like Enoch who was like Adam, prior to the fall.
The world is full of smoke and mirrors. It is full of expectations. And for the most part, even the most beautiful expectations are tyrannical. They compete with God and God is jealous. To know God fully we have to give ourselves to Him fully. He stands with open arms, we need only cast everything else aside and walk deeper into His heart.
For God’s children, it all comes down to time. this is our most valuable commodity, and it is typically right here where we “rob” God. Where we choose “other lovers.” God is jealous for our time, for our thoughts. If I were a great artist and somehow deemed to paint you and told you that it would take many sessions to complete but in the end it would be a masterpiece and would be shown in the finest art galleries all over the world, would you show up for your sessions? Would you be easily distracted and forget about your appointments with this famous painter? And if you did forget about them, then in the end your painting would simply be incomplete. The Artist awaits, where are you?
For those who give themselves fully into the Masters hand, for His will and for His good pleasure, they become something beautiful, something marvelous. We were not much at all to start with but somehow, with limited materials, the God of all creation has crafted something outstanding. He has taken ashes and out of that He has created His own personal work of art, you. Has He finished His work in you? Are you missing your appointments? Give Him your most valuable asset, give Him your time?
Do not get distracted by the shiny objects of this world. Do not get distracted by your husband. Do not get distracted by your wife, by your family or your work. You must love Him more than all of these things otherwise you are not worthy to be His disciple, you will be an unfinished piece of work on the shelf. God wants to display His work. You are His work, His witness, His light, Christ in you the hope of glory!
As I walk each morning I am always on the lookout for deer. It is a heavily forested area I walk through and so it can be difficult to see anything. Of course you could walk at dusk or dawn and increase your chance of seeing them, but you just never know. I was walking the other day and looking into the foliage and suddenly realized that I was looking right at the deer and she was looking right back at me. It was as if just one second before she was invisible but then she just appeared before my very eyes and I wondered how I did not see her before. I took my grandson with me a few times, I really wanted him to see the deer, he really wanted to see them. I took him at the right time and the right places but we never saw one.
I thought about the manifest presence of God. I thought about seeking God. I thought about the wind and how we never know where it will blow next. It seems to me this is the way with God. If I only walked every now and again, or gave up walking because I never saw deer, it is likely that I would never see the deer. Yet, because I walk every day and seek every day, all of a sudden, there is the deer right there, looking at me. As it is with the deer, so it is with God. He is looking for those who will search diligently for Him, in fact the word says He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And the reward? “I am your exceeding great reward.” To ” know,” that He knows you, that He sees you, that He is watching over you. May our souls long after Him today and every day and if they do, all of a sudden, He is there.
Rev 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:
A door opened in heaven!! What is this, what can it mean? If such a door existed and we had access to it should we not find it and walk through it? Just a few sentences earlier we hear about the door;Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.(Rev 3:20)
There is, it seems, a door that we as children of God can open, and when that door is opened we can sit down with the Lord at His banqueting table, glory to God. Again a few sentences before that we hear Jesus say I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.(Rev 3:8)
This open door to glory, this door to heaven, this access to the throne room belongs to the child of God. The ability to come before the Father and bow down and cry out Abba uniquely belongs to the enduring overcoming child of the living God. No man can shut this door, no power on earth can shut this door, Satan himself cannot shut this door. It has been given by the hand of God to His child and no one can rob him of it.
This is the glories of walking with the Lord with an open heart, to walk in His presence and according to His ways. This is the promise of Jesus to His faithful followers, that no matter what happens, no matter how dark the hour , no matter how fierce the opposition, the saints can walk in the glories of God and have access to His throne and to His presence and that He would keep them from the hour of temptation.
Now that word keep is better translated guard. To the loving Church who does not deny the name of Jesus and keeps His word, He guards them from that hour of temptation that is coming upon the world. Temptation loses its power for those who draw near to Jesus. To draw near to Jesus we must have an open door in our hearts, our hearts must be open to His glories and then we shall have the power to stand fast and let no man steal our crown.
There is a great gulf between our perception of provision and what we think of when think of work. The Lord makes provision for His children. Does He have expectations? Yes. Yet, the context of duty must be in light of a proper understanding of His provision. As in all things, the Lord is interested in why we do a thing rather than what we do. Two identical actions, with different motivations, can be to one a blessing and light, and to another a curse and darkness. Let me try and illustrate.
I grew up in what is known as a tenement. It was a large Victorian stone building. My American friends would call it an apartment building or block but to me that seems much to modern a name for something rather dark and foreboding as a tenement building. Thick damp stone walls. Big families crammed into tiny one or two bedroom apartments, some only having one room, we would call that a “single end.” They were cold and drafty and full of mice, often times there would be mushrooms growing out of the walls. Outside toilets meant “pots,” under the bed. Old metal baths pulled out on a Sunday night for bathing. Now, that was when I grew up, imagine what it was like one hundred and fifty years before that?
Imagine living like that for generations and then making your way across a vast ocean and finding yourself in the new world. Now imagine that you find out that you can get 160 acres, for free! You could homestead. The deal you would make is that you would work the land. You would cut down trees, remove stumps, remove all stones,till the land, plant the seed, tend the fields, bring in the harvest. Store the harvest and sell what you could in town after having made provision for your family.
If that was me in those days, you would wonder what that singing was, even when the weather was terrible. It would be me, as I chopped down tree and dug up stumps. It would be me as I tilled the land. And every day I would be in wonder of how I came upon such good fortune. I would remember where I came from often. I would remember that I had been delivered from drudgery and poverty. My work would be a joy as I kept in mind where I came from. In that sense it would not be work at all, it would all be provision.
Now consider the lazy un-thankful man. Would you hear him singing in the field? Would he be angrily carrying out his “work?” Would he be constantly complaining about the nature of his work, the weather and his aching bones? In all, the homestead act in America would offer 500 million acres of land. Only 80 million acres were ever taken and of those who did take it, in many areas the failure rate was as high as 60% Now of course there would be multiple factors in the failures, but in the end it was, for many, simply too hard.
The saints of God do not fail. They know where they came from and they never forget. They know they were dead in their sins. They know they were bound and captive to them. They know that countless generations before them died in their sin. They know they have been delivered. They know how good their God is. And so, even on the hardest days, through the toughest trials, it’s all provision for the saint. He has been given this new life and no matter what, he knows it. None of it is “work,’ to the saint, rather it is a labor of love. Your life itself is a labor of love as unto God, your redeemer.
What spirit do you have saint? Is your life a labor of love? Even when it rains, even when it snows, even when the stumps are refusing to yield as you labor to remove them? It is good to remind ourselves often of just what we were delivered from and who delivered us and gave us what we have now. Glory to God in the highest. He gives good things to His children and He knows how to train them and raise them for His will and His own good pleasure. Everything becomes a good thing when we see that it is all God’s provision.
It has been almost seven years now since our grandson was taken from his mother and given to our family. He was a very broken child when he came to us. Have you ever tried to help a bird with a broken wing? It panics and is freaked out as it sees you hand approach. It cannot possibly know that you are driven by love and compassion until your hand closes tightly, not too tightly, around him and he is safe in your hand. This was what it was like when Mason first came to us as a little five year old. The power of the Lord is felt in the power of His love. His ability and patience to take that which is broken, and heal it, is truly supernatural. Here is a wee poem I wrote about that.
The boy with the broken wing.
You were a bird with a broken wing
A nightingale that could not sing
A frightened broken bird that had no choice
Little bird, who has stolen you voice .....I hear your cries.
Can't you see, can't you understand
Come to me, there is healing in my hand
I will hold you and never let you go,
until your wing is healed and love begins to flow
You may have broken this little birds wing
Yet you will hear this little bird sing
Love has put him back together
And he will now be whole...forever
A beautiful bird that love has made whole
You only ever took from him and stole
But he has risen with the morning sun and now he sings
And flies for all the world to see with two beautiful wings
I see you flying son and I can hear you sing
And to the depths of my heart it is such a beautiful thing
Touched by the Hand of God and made complete
Now fly where eagles fly and sing your songs so sweet.
1Jn 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Imagine you are crossing a great river. The world is on one side and you are headed toward the other side, the heavenly side. Each time you are obedient, each time you turn your back on sin, another stepping stone appears before you and you move forward towards your goal. One step at a time on the road to glory. It is by obedience that we make forward progress towards a deeper walk with the Lord and we overcome.
Now, there are two main categories of obedience. One is a legalistic obedience and the other is glorified obedience. Brokenness, submission, surrender and love must be the building blocks of our obedience. If we simply try to be obedient without first taking these steps, revealed to us through the word and the Holy Spirit, we will discover that there is an obedience that binds us in chains and the weight of these chains will drag us down and drown us. Yet, obedience born out of love and a desire to please the one that we love frees us and fulfills us and propels us on.
Glorified obedience, one motivated by love and awe of a righteous holy God and a revelation of Calvary is like the watering of a tree. There can be no fruit produced unless that tree is watered by the living waters of obedience. Striving to be obedient without the fruits of brokenness will lead to a desert landscape in which nothing can live. The motivations of our heart, the seat of our affections that sets our eyes upon Jesus and the Holiness of God takes us from glory to glory.
What does it mean to rob from yourself? In the natural, it would be quite impossible to rob from yourself for after all, everything that you have, according to this world, is your own. So quite naturally you cannot rob from yourself. Yet in the realms of the Spirit, in the Kingdom of God, you can most certainly rob from yourself.
Let us say that God has gifted you in some way. Denying that gift is robbing from yourself. You are taking from yourself what was given to you by God. You can rob yourself of peace. You can rob yourself of joy. Contentment, self control, holiness, all of these things you can rob from yourself. We like to blame the devil for a lot of stuff, but most people that I have ran into with this problem are simply robbing themselves. Do not get me wrong, the devil will take full advantage of the circumstances. Yet, when we take from ourselves that which was given to us we are robbing ourselves of the good gifts of God.
We can even rob from ourselves by taking what does not belong to us. Now that does not seem to make any sense, right? Bear with me. When you look into your future, whether it is tomorrow or next week or next month and you take from it and add it to your reality today, you are robbing yourself of today’s peace with tomorrows troubles. Tomorrow does not belong to you. In the realms of your imagination you have created any number of scenarios for yourself which you have no possible way of knowing if they will ever come to pass. Your taking out a loan of fear and paying a huge amount of interest on a debt that should not exist. Foolish man or woman, how do you even know you shall be alive tomorrow?
You are not only robbing from yourself but you are robbing from God, He alone holds your future. It is disobedience. Repent of that and give that borrowed/stolen burden to God right now. Take what you have been given and live it to the fullest today. Live in the glorious gifts of joy and peace and grace and forgiveness. Live in contentment with thanksgiving. Understand and know what the Lord sees when He sees you. Do not take from the past and steal from the future and nullify your present. If you do, you will be robbing from God and robbing yourself of the promises of God that are enjoyed through obedience.
In the days in which we live, that grows darker with every passing moment, we must grasp a hold of who we are in Christ. Is it any wonder that identity is front and center in society and in politics? Identity is under attack across the board and now where is this more true than among the saints. Yes, saints, that is what you are. We have to understand about His righteousness and how we have been called to walk in it. Lift up your eyes and look upon Jesus. To look upon anything other than Jesus in your life is to magnify everything that is not of Him. Do not identify yourself as a sinner saved by grace. That is not your identity. You are an adopted child of the living God. You are not a sinner you are a saint. If you do sin, the Lord Himself has made provisions for that. Do not aid and abet Sin in robbing from you that which God has provided.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8)
Do you see what Jesus is saying there? He is not primarily giving you power to witness( although you will have that) He is giving you the power to be a witness. Can you see the difference? It means that by your very life, Christ in you, the hope of Glory, will shine out into the darkness of those around you. They see you, they see your changed life, by the power of God, and they see the reality of what God can do. How He has truly overcome hell and death and sin.That is the victory, that is the promise, that is the hope to a dying mankind. Talk is cheap, any religious man can do that, but a life that exemplifies the Word of God is the power of God and the testimony of God.
Therefore, by robbing from yourself you are robbing from God and robbing a dying world that is all around you. Let the power of God be seen in you. The very least that we can do as saints is to live an exemplary life before God and before men. Quit running to the lowest common denominator and pronouncing that to be your title. There is only one entity that wants that and it is not God. The world already understands what it means to be a sinner. It is your changed life, the victory over sin that causes them to reflect upon their own life and know that there is something more, there is hope, hope for the hopeless. Live out your title, you are a precious child of the Living God. Live your life by the power of God and be His witness. The kingdom of darkness already has its representatives. Let the Kingdom of God be seen in you among men.
There has been a deadly virus since the dawn of time. It infects its host and begins the process of death. It impacts every part of its target. There is no human cure, no scientific vaccine, no possibility of shaking of its side-effects. It can often times brilliantly hide within its host and to the outward eye, all seems well. In other cases the host is ravaged, but in both examples, the end result is the same, death.
There is one antidote and unless the person receives it he or she shall surely die. The antidote has two thousand years of test studies to show its effectiveness. It has never failed. It has 100% efficacy. The person that provided the antidote had the virus put upon Him, and while He carried it, it never infected Him. And now, His antibodies, found in His Blood, is the cure. It does not matter where you come from, what color you are, whether you are rich or poor, all have equal access to the vaccine.
The cost? It was paid for you by another. His name is Jesus.Your part is to present yourself to Him and acknowledge that you have the virus and that rather than death, you desire to live, you desire the gift of eternal life. The name of the virus is Sin. It is master over you and controls you. If you desire a new Lord, He is waiting for you to reject your old master and to cry out to Him. You will take man’s vaccine, will you take God’s?
Isa 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
Perhaps you have a heavy spirit this day. You may be having a hard time imagining that things will ever change. It seems to you that tomorrow will inevitably be like today because today was just the same as yesterday, and on it goes. For whatever reason you cannot seem to shake this of. The Lord has provided us with a solution and a way of escape from every situation. He says that we should put on a “garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” If you will begin to praise Him right now, even although you do not feel like it, then the spirit of heaviness will flee.
He will lead and guide you through this difficult part of the journey. In the world, when a person is most at risk and in great danger, they rely greatly on their five senses. In the Spirit it is not so. As you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, as you negotiate the most dangerous parts of your journey, the Lord asks that you would suspend your senses, close your eyes and let Him lead you. He will lead you step by step, minute by minute, day by day and far from feeling vulnerable because you have closed your eyes, you will feel more secure than you have ever before because you have surrendered your ability to cope, and you are completely dependent upon Him
I know it can be difficult when all you can see is trouble. When all that you know is heartbreak, when everything that can go wrong seems to be going wrong. Yet if we had spiritual eyes we would see an innumerable host of angels, a cloud of witnesses, a host from heaven and most importantly, the Holy Spirit making sure that you are not crushed, that you are not overwhelmed with despair. We have, within our broken vessels, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and we see this as we gaze upon the Lord Jesus in our hearts. For we that live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Out of the darkness of our situations, God Himself has commanded light to shine forth. And so we know that all things in the lives of those who are called according to His purpose, work together so that the grace of God may abound, through the thanksgiving of the saints even in the midst of many trials, to the glory of God. These affliction that you are suffering through, while you are going through them, seem so very long, are working in you to produce an eternal glory of great significance. Lets close our human eyes and lift our spiritual eyes and look upon the things that cannot yet be seen, for they are eternal.
A poem for all the people who grew up in less than perfect households
.
He who walks upon the sea of tears.
I am fragile I can be broken
Broken by the words spoken
Can't you see your words are clawing me apart?
Can't you see how you're crushing my heart?
How my heart longed to hear warm words spoken
To be warm and whole and not to be broken
Why didn't you just reach out and touch me?
And cover me and hold me in love.
The broken child in you
Now breaks the child that you can see
Two broken children collide
Only wanting to be free
I am fragile I can be broken
Broken by the words left unspoken
And this brokenness is now a void in me
That is deeper and wider than the deepest sea
What can fix a broken heart?
And fill this vast expanse in me
What can fill an endless void?
That's deeper than the deepest sea
So many tears, enough to fill an ocean
Shed by all the children, broken
A Saviour comes and walks upon this sea of tears
He calms the stormy sea and quells the fears
I have come to mend the broken heart
To heal the wounds where you were torn apart
I have come to set the captive free
To dry up every tear that fills the deepest sea
I hold the universe in the palm of my hand
I cause the blind to see and the lame to stand
And all the stars in the heavens, I know them all by name
And I will touch you and you shall never be the same
The words I speak they are life and they are love
I know every sparrow that falls from above
I created the sun and the moon and the pouring rain
I still the stormy seas and I take away the pain
Come and bring your emptiness to me
And I will fill you with a love that's deeper than the sea
Come all you that are broken and contrite
And I will heal you and set you free this night
And so I came and took my Saviour's hand
Out of the pit on the solid Rock I stand
A broken heart replaced and reconciled
Standing whole and new, I am my Father's child
And every word spoken, they are life to me
Your love and Your kindness, they have set me free
And by thy Spirit my eternity is sealed
And by thy love my broken heart was healed.
How many times can a heart be broken
How many tears have to fall
How many times do I have to forgive
Or perhaps not forgive at all
When my steps grow tired and weary
And my sleep has vanished in the night
How can I go on living day by day
And not simply give up the fight
Where can I find the strength to go on
When it seems I have lost my way
How can I lift my head from the pillow
Even if it’s for just for one more day
Then all of a sudden I know He is here
My waiting has not been in vain
He comes to me through the fire and the flood
Through the heartache and through the pain
And suddenly I have the strength to carry on
I rise up on the wings of His love
Who knew I would rise o'r this valley of death
And find myself far far above.
I soar on the glorious splendor of Love
On the wings of the eagle I fly
I feast on the banquet He prepares for me
As I revel in the endless sky
There is a place where the setting Son
Merges sky and endless sea,
A place where different worlds collide
A place where you and I are free.
In God alone we find this place,
Where everything else is stripped away
And there I look into your face
Where endless sky meets ocean spray
Will you sail beyond horizons
In endless seas of blue
Will you fly in boundless skies above
You can as long as you are true.
Mat 14:14 And Jesus went out and saw a great crowd, and He was moved with compassion toward them. And He healed their sick.
There is a great multitude today who are desperately hungry and thirsty. All over the world the people dwell in great darkness and the darkness increases every day. Hell has opened its vaults and is beginning to spew out evil with increasing speed and urgency because it knows its time is short. There is desperate darkness coming and it is coming at us with alarming speed. Yet, as in the time of Noah, the world is mostly ignorant of the impending disaster about to befall it. Like the children of Israel when Jesus cries ” O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to her, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!”
How do you feel about the world? Do you fear the world? Do you avoid the world? Do you deliberately keep your distance from a people you know are plunging headlong into darkness? Perhaps you fear the confrontation that would take place if you challenge the world or even just stand your ground? There are a couple of things I know about the world. God so loved it that He gave His only Son for it so that they could find deliverance from their captivity and their darkness. Jesus had compassion toward the multitude, the crowd. The very same crowd He knew would be calling for His blood soon. The very same crowd He knew that were hurtling towards destruction.
Only a mere 35 years after the crucifixion Israel was destroyed as a nation. Do you love the world as our Father in Heaven loves it? Will you demonstrate that love today if the Lord points one of the crowd out to you to minister to? Be ready, the Lord is looking for wiling hearts who want to walk in divine appointments. If we hate and despise the world because of its wickedness then we will never be ready to share the good news of the Gospel. It is the heart of love, ever steadfast in the truth, that is ready for divine appointments. We can be fierce in our stance for Christ, but it must flow out of a loving heart. Lord, increase our love this day for what you love.
Rom 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
In this particular case we see that Abraham and his wife are well beyond the age of bearing a child. Sarah’s womb was dead, it could carry no life. And so in life we oftentimes run into situations that defies hope, that stands diametrically opposed to hope. All the evidence of the rational world and the finest expert opinions dash any worldly hope upon the rocks of hopelessness and despair. Yet brothers and sisters, it is a glorious thing to remember that our hope is not the hope of the world. Our hope is founded upon our God and His word, His promises. His word is not broken, His promises cannot be broken. And it is this hope that is a wellspring of joy and peace and love and a sound mind.
Abraham, the father of faith believed God that life would spring forth from death. Now from the first promise until the fulfillment it took 25 years. Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when Issac was conceived. This defied all the evidence of the rational world. In the world Abraham would have had no hope. In the world we too would have no hope, yet praise God we may be in the world but not off it. We walk according to the Spirit of God, we stand upon the Word of God. we believe in the promises of God and we walk in the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is and always has been a place of miracles and a wellspring of hope.
The birth of Issac is the birth of a nation. It is this line that would give us Jesus, the seed that would bless all the nations of the world. It sprang forth from the impossible which is the realm of the miraculous. This realm has a throne and upon that throne sits our heavenly Father. Can hope come forth from hopelessness? Yes indeed. Just as Jesus came forth from His heavenly realm and stepped into our world, then sight can come forth from blindness, joy can come forth from despair and Lazarus can come forth from the grave. Jesus is my blessed hope, all other ground in sinking sand.
2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
It’s a terrible thing to be held captive by our own thoughts. How exhausting it can be when we allow them to consume and overwhelm us? They can begin to eat away at us. They can even rob us of sleep and leave us tired and weary and walking the floor at night. I thank the Lord that He freed us and gave us the ability to take every thought into captivity and focus on Him. If a specific situation or trial has taken hold of your mind today, know that there is a way of escape, you are no longer slaves to the flesh but bond-servants, willing servants to the Lord of power.
If you have been set free by the Lord then you are free indeed. You now have the power to take those thoughts captive, they must bow to the Spirit of God in you. By an act of your will, take your eyes off of that situation today and turn them to Jesus and draw close to Him and peace will flood your soul. “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
Commit your heart to trust in Him today. Determine in your heart that you will no longer walk in fear. Give it to the Lord of hosts, let Him take the burden. He will take it if you will give it to Him. Your situation may not change but your attitude in the midst of it will. It will give you clarity of thought and the ability to focus and speak to the Lord. As your mind is drawn away from the pressing situation and the darkness of it, and you are drawn to the light of your Lord who loves you so much and is jealous for your thoughts, His light will begin to fill you. God bless you this day as you begin the task of taking your thoughts captive.
A Call To The Remnant 