As I was walking and praying today, the Holy Spirit dropped this phrase into my spirit, “Debilitating Doldrums.” Now, that word “doldrums,” is an old sailors term for a geographical spot slightly north and slightly south of the equator in the Atlantic sea between Brazil and Africa. It is a corridor, if you like, that in days of old, if sailors found themselves there, they could be stranded for weeks because there is no wind there. The effects of the Doldrums are caused by solar radiation from the sun, as sunlight beams down directly on the area around the equator. This heating causes the air to warm and rise straight up rather than blow horizontally. The result is little or no wind, sometimes for weeks on end. Many sailors ran out of food and water and died there.
How does this relate to the saints? Oftentimes yesterdays failures causes in us a period of reflection and regret and remorse. None of that is wrong in and of itself and in fact is a vital part of who we are as God’s children. Yet, if we get stuck there, if this inner reflection goes beyond a point that is healthy, it takes the wind out of our sails. We shall find ourselves in the doldrums. The wind of the Spirit does not blow. Our spiritual resources begin to dry up. We become morose. The only solution for the sailors of old and for those of us who find ourselves there, is for the wind to blow. We must pray that the wind will blow again as we take our eyes of ourselves and look to skies.
If the wind begins to blow, no matter how small the breeze, remember this. You have to raise the sails to catch the wind. That is our part. An unhealthy inner refection with our eyes upon ourselves brought us into this place, and raising the sails once the wind blows will take us out. Remember the four Rs. 1.Reflection 2.Regret. 3.Remorse.4. Repentance. All of these make up the corridor of the doldrums. They all come because of the direct gaze of God upon our lives and our actions. And when they have found their proper place then the winds of forgiveness begin to blow. We have to accept that we are forgiven by God then we have to forgive ourselves. We must let His forgiveness carry us from that place so that we can continue the journey. Do not die in the doldrums, rather catch the wind and live.
2Sa 15:25 And the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God back into the city: if I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his dwelling place.
What a tragic event that is unfolding in the life of David. He is no longer a younger man and yet faces civil war with none other than his own son. It must have been with the heaviest of hearts that David leaves the city. He had been through so much in his life and who could blame him if he thought “have I not had enough?” Yet we see none of that. David would not use the Ark, unlike Eli and his wicked sons, as some kind of magic talisman in times of desperation. David had learned well the lessons of what it means to take little thought for the honor of God.
No, David would simply rely upon God to restore him. And as the balanced man of God he was, he says “but if He says this: I have no delight in you, here I am. let Him do to me as seems good.” Oh how my heart longs for the saints to know and understand and trust the Lord in this manner. The will of God above all else. The voice of God that stills the seas. The commands of God that calls forth the dead. The heart of God that already promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us. Peace be still. David may have been desperately sad, but he was not desperate. He was already mourning the loss of his son. The prophet knew in his heart. He knew he would come again to Jerusalem. He knew his son would die. He knew that this momentary departure would be just that. What faith we see from the man after Gods own heart.
Do you trust Him in this manner saints? Whether you live or whether you die will you praise the Living God for no other reason than He is worthy? If your sickness be unto death will you still praise Him still? If He kills you will you yet trust Him? The idea brothers and sisters is that He is so much bigger than we even know. He is high and lifted up and sees your circumstances in their totality and at the very same time He is in the midst of them with you. Can you see the vastness of God? For in the context of that vastness are not our problems made small? In the midst of your great turmoil can you see that you will return to His dwelling place? You will. He will show you. Lift up your eyes and see.
Jud 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
This phrase “earnestly contend,” is a very rich and deep. The Greek word for it is “epagōnizomai.” Look within the word, can you see the word agonize? It is not about arguments and meaningless debates over theologies of men, its about agonizing within your very heart and soul over what is true and what is not. There is a diligence in searching the Word of God and letting the Holy Spirit speak to you in the profound simplicity of how it is presented to us. God forbid that we would change the Word or add to it or take away from it. Have you agonized over where you stand and why? Is there all diligence in you in these matters? Do you not believe you will be called to account on these matters?
Paul tells the Thessalonians that they know he was bold to speak to them about the faith, the gospel, in “much conflict.” (1 Thess 1:2) Here the word conflict in the Greek is “agōn.” There is an agony of heart and soul and spirit when one is involved with the faith and the Gospel. It is not simply some debate or a match up of wills and intellect. No, rather it is of life and death. The truth. That very substance that flows through the veins of every saint. It is our life-blood. Jesus Himself. Every single martyr down through the ages, whether they contended against the errors of a Roman church or a Protestant world, agonized in this contest between light and darkness. They could not relent, for upon the Word of Truth and the way of God was their very life. It was no longer they that lived but Christ that lived within them.
Jude tells us that certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. He likened them to the angels who did not keep their first estate, beings who wanted power and influence rather than live in the magnificent humble shadow of our glorious King. These men, Jude says were clouds without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Jude reminds them that they were foretold by the Apostles about such men, wolves and false prophets.
These are men who do not have the Spirit of God according to Jude. Recognize them saints. Build yourself up in the faith, with diligence praying in the Holy Spirit. Discern between who can be reached and who cannot in these matters. It requires the wisdom and the discernment of God. Stay within the safe harbor of love and mercy. Discern between the weak or the wilful, the Holy Spirit knows. He leads and He guides and He knows the hearts of men. If the Holy Spirit resides within you. If you have received the love of the truth, none of this will be optional. The agony is in direct proportion to the glory. People will advise you to stay quiet, keep your head down, stay of the radar. None of these things are possible on the battlefield that the Lord Himself has called you to. Stand strong saints and embrace the agony and the glory.
I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye sees You. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.(Job 42:5-6)
How many people have only ever heard of God? They grow up hearing about God. They go to their churches and hear about God. The hearing of Him has affected their lives in certain ways and directed their paths in a certain manner. They have heard words like “majesty,” and “glory.” They know about God’s power in their heads and with their understanding but in the depths of their hearts it is nothing more than information. Information does not change the heart, revelation does. It is the revelation of God that causes a man to see himself as he truly is in the light of the majesty and the glory of God. That is why the goodness and the severity of God are one and the same thing.
O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.(Daniel) I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple…… Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts (Isaiah) Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak:………Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth (Jeremiah) And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.(The Apostle John)
Behold the goodness and the severity of God when we see Him, when we encounter Him, when we have a revelation of Him. When He is no longer simply words and information. We fall down as any man would in the presence of glory. It is He who raises us back up, it is He who touches us in the depths of our hearts. It is He who changes us forever and sets our path before us. It is an agony to see God because we immediately see ourselves for who we truly are without Him. Without His touch, without His glory, without the Blood of the Lamb. And now the goodness of God as we come away from that place changed forever. Closer to the heart of God. The light of this world reduced to but a flickering candle in comparison to the impenetrable light of God which penetrates every part of who we are. Now, and only now are we ready to “go.”
A number of years ago I came across the story of the Decian persecution of Christians while I was doing research for a book I was writing. I did not include this in the book but it is interesting to consider the facts. Decian was the Roman Emperor in 250 ad. He issued an edict that required everyone in the Roman empire to perform a sacrifice. The sacrifice was to be made to the Roman gods, and also included a loyalty oath towards his rule as Emperor. (See above image) The sacrifice had to be carried out before a Roman magistrate who would then sign a certificate which would allow them to carry on with whatever business they were involved with. This certificate would enable them to buy or sell.
The particular region I was studying was Carthage. It was expected that there would be great resistance to this from the Christian community and indeed this was part of the motivation for the decree in the first place. Imprisonment and death were the penalties for those who refused to participate in the sacrifice. The Carthaginian authorities settled on the days that the city was to participate. They were totally taken by surprise by the large numbers of “Christians,’ who rushed to “get their certificate.” They had to extend the time they had allotted for the sacrifices and certificate signing.
Out of the group that refused to be involved in sacrificing to gods, many were martyred, others were imprisoned and still others went into hiding. Interestingly, at the same time as this “empire wide,” persecution, a plague had broken out and was killing up to five thousand Romans per day. This only added to the hatred of Christians as they were deemed to be in some way responsible for this. And so, when this particular persecution ended, there was a great deal of tension between those who had stood their ground for Jesus and those who had capitulated in order to save themselves.
This was not the first time this had happened, nor would it be the last. The Diocletian persecution would be the most intense staring at around 300ad and last for around a decade. Again the spit would happen. A large majority would capitulate and deny the faith, the smaller minority would be killed, imprisoned or flee. When the smoke cleared from this latest persecution, the larger group that had capitulated to the state would be the group favored by Constantine. No surprise that the Emperor would choose the group who he could count on to bow the knee to him and the State. That group were the Catholics. The minority group, the group that had refused to hand over their scriptures to the State and to bow the knee, were known as “Donatists.’ They refused to acknowledge anyone who had capitulated to Rome as a Christian. For this they were hunted down and killed.
I would just like to say that some things never change. There is and always has been a large group, a majority group, within the world that identifies itself as Christian, that will not “stand in the evil day.” It is such an evil day that separates the sheep from the goats. It is the storm that tests the foundations of the house. It is not what a man or woman calls themselves that counts for anything, it is who they actually are. Those who have received the love of the truth, who are genuinely born again, will stand in that day. They will be martyred, they will be imprisoned or they will flee. What they will not do, what they could never do, what they have never done, is to deny their Lord. As it was, so it always shall be until that glorious day when Christ returns.
2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation not to be regretted : but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Whether we are talking about salvation itself or the repenting of a genuine saint from some fall from grace we see here the same principal in operation. Godly sorrow. It precedes the repentance. Whether that be for a day, a week, a month or a season, it is the direct operation of the Holy Spirit working in the hearts and minds of people. It must have its conclusion, and if Godly, will lead to life. Now there is a counterfeit, its the sorrow of the world and it leads to death. It is not genuine sorrow, it is more akin to regret. The genuinely convicted will know and understand at his core that he has sinned against God and Him alone, and it is He that he has the issue with. Not so with the worldly sorrow which is self absorbed. Introspective narcissism does not lead to genuine repentance.
Genuine Godly sorrow has its marks as it does its work in its season. Titus reports to Paul in chapter seven that the Corinthians had an earnest desire and they mourned. It produced a diligence in them. They were persistent in their in their efforts to make themselves right with God. They had come to the throne room of God and Paul uses the phrase “what clearing of yourself,” they experienced. They cried out to God and God forgave them and this brought great joy. It brought them vindication, not from Paul, but from God Himself the only one who can vindicate us of our sin. In all things they had proved themselves to be clear in this matter. This is life changing. This is David crying our to God in psalm 51 acknowledging that he had sinned against God alone. He wanted the joy of His salvation restored. Create in me a clean heart was the cry of the warrior poet who was King David.
This is the agony of the true Godly repentance, never to be regretted which leads to life. For those who know God or who are soon to know Him understand their true state, not because of introspection and a desire to clean up their act or turn over a new leaf, but a genuine desire to be right with God the Father. And this genuine desire, this knowing of their true state is the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the saved and the those who seek to be saved. The genuine saint goes deeper into the Lord and it produces life in him and that more abundantly. Those who display the sorrow of the world, even although they may fool some for a season, always die. One road leads to life, the other leads to death.
2Co 6:1 We then, as workers together with him, plead with you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
Paul cries out to the Corinthians here in this portion of the letter. He starts the chapter by pleading with them not to receive the grace of God in vain. That is a very stern warning. You get the feeling Paul is about to really share with the Corinthians some very hard truths. He then describes the life of those who minister for the cause of Christ. Here is the list from verses 4-6. Tribulations, needs, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, sleeplessness and fastings. Here is how we arm ourselves against such things according to Paul…..purity, knowledge, longsuffering, kindness, the Holy Spirit, sincere love, the word of truth, the power of God and by the armor of righteousness.
What a list brothers and sisters. What a description of what it means to follow the Lord and to suffer for His sake. And even although you will have honor in the Kingdom, you will be dis-honored here on earth. You will have a good report in the heavenlies, but in the world, an evil report. You will walk in truth but be known as deceivers. You will be unknown in this world yet well known in the Kingdom of God. It will appear as though you are dying due to your many tribulations, but you will be alive in Christ. Your situation may cause some to feel sorrow for you but you yourself will be rejoicing. It may appear that you are poor and have nothing but you enrich the saints in the Kingdom. It looks like you have nothing but you have gained eternal riches.
This is the path of the saints, few there are that find it. Paul urges us to have fellowship with like-minded people and not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion could light possibly have with darkness? The saints are the temple of the Living God and there can be no quarter given to idols. God has promised to “dwell in them and walk among them, I will be their God and they shall be my people.” In a world where the vast majority of those who attend assemblies are mere professors and identify themselves by their unrighteousness, we are told to “come out from among them and be separate and do not touch what is unclean says the Lord.” And to those who follow this command the promise of the Lord is that “I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters.” Stand strong saints, for His grace in you is not in vain.
The present position of Christ in the gospel churches may be likened to that of king in a limited constitutional monarchy (think of Great Britain) The king, sometimes depersonalized by the term “the Crown,” is in such a country no more than a traditional rallying point, a pleasant symbol of unity and loyalty much like a flag or a national anthem. He is lauded, feted and supported, but his real authority is small. Nominally he is head over all, but in every crisis someone else makes the decisions. On formal occasions he appears in his royal attire to deliver the tame, colorless speech put into his mouth by the real rulers of the country. The whole thing may be no more than good-natured make believe, but is rooted in antiquity, it is a lot of fun and no one wants to give it up (Tozer)
This is a quote from the last piece Tozer ever wrote. It is a confession to being part of a system that had relegated Christ to being no more than a figurehead and that same system had robbed Jesus of His authority within their gatherings. In Great Britain there is a Queen. She and her family survive within what is known as a constitutional monarchy. She has no real power. The power all resides within Parliament and the Prime Minister. These of course are elected positions, the people choose. The Queen’s main role is cutting ribbons, launching ships and drawing tourists. She also is a symbol of stability, but in the end, she could be rejected from even this limited role if the people so chose.
This is Tozer’s argument. The average church in America has relegated Jesus to a limited role. Rather than a Prime Minister, we have a senior pastor or minister. Jesus is acknowledged as Lord, of course, but it practice He has been relegated and man has taken the position. The Holy Spirit, for the most part, has no role within the average American church. The Word of God is readily dismissed in favor of tradition and customs. The Protestant world readily criticizes the Catholic mass (as well they should) as nothing more than the same thing repeated every week. (laying aside the obvious erroneous centerpiece of the Eucharist) And yet, for the most part, you also know exactly what to expect every week at your local church.
Tozer blames the following two reasons for this disaster…..1. The power of custom, precedent and tradition within older religious groups. These, like gravitation, affect every particle of religious practice withing the group, exerting a steady and constant pressure in one direction. Of course direction is toward conformity to the status quo. Not Christ but custom is Lord. And the same thing has passed over into the other groups such as the full gospel tabernacles, the holiness churches, the pentecostal and fundamental churches and the non-denominational churches found everywhere throughout the North American continent.
The second cause is the revival of intellectualism among the evangelicals. This, if I sense the situation correctly, is not so much a thirst for learning, rather a desire for a reputation of being learned. Our Evangelical faith ( which I believe to be the true faith of Christ and His Apostles) is being attacked these days from many different directions. IN the Western world the enemy has forsworn violence. He no longer comes against us with sword and fire, he now comes smiling, bearing gifts. He raises his eyes to heaven and swears that he too believes in the faith of our fathers , but his real purpose is to destroy that faith, or at least modify it to such an extent that it is no longer a supernatural thing it once was. (Tozer-The Waning Authority of Christ in the churches-pages 14-16)
Tozer lays this out almost 70 years ago, on his death bed so to speak. The old prophet saw in one last sweep of history, what had become of the professing churches. Can I say brothers and sisters, it has degraded so much more so in the last 70 years. If the authority of Jesus was waning 70 years ago in the churches, it is all but gone now. So the question becomes “what must we do.” Tozer asks that very question in the last paragraph and I will leave you with his suggestions……….
What, then, are we to do? Each one of us must decide and there are at least three possible choices. One is to rise up in shocked indignation and accuse me of irresponsible reporting. Another is to nod in general agreement with what is written here but take comfort in the fact that there are exceptions and we are among the exceptions. The other is to go down in meek humility and confess that we have grieved the Holy Spirit and dishonored our Lord in failing to give Him the place His Father has given Him as Head and Lord of the Church. Either the first or the second will but confirm the wrong. The third, if carried out to its conclusion, will remove the curse. The decision lies with us.
Phil 4:11 I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content.
A dear older brother shared this story that he heard decades ago from a woman and it is one of these portions of wisdom that sticks with you. She told him that for over forty years she prayed for her circumstances to change until she finally realized that the circumstances were there to change her. This would horrify many people, especially those who are of the word of faith persuasion or the name it and claim it crowd. Yet it would be a challenge in general to all who profess Jesus as their Lord.
It is natural to want to run from difficult circumstances. It is supernatural to want to be changed by them. The fleshly man wants, above all else, deliverance from what ails him because he is at the center of his own universe. When the Lord Jesus occupies that place then the only desire is to become more like Him no matter what set of circumstances that it takes. There is a line from a worship song that says “There is another in the fire, watching over me, there is another in the water, holding back the sea.”
I suppose the question then becomes, would we rather be in the fire with God or out of the fire without Him? If we had to choose, how would we choose? Can we lie down and sleep in the boat in the midst of the storm knowing that Jesus is holding back the sea? Only the man or the woman whom God Himself has changed by the power of difficult circumstances can ever hope to be content in every situation. The key to overcoming and walking in the peace that surpasses all understanding is to give yourself fully to Jesus in the midst of the fires and the floods of life. The narrow path that leads us home is marked by fire and flood and only in Christ can we walk through them.
There is the presence of God to be found in glorious worship, the kind of worship that lifts your spirit. It can lift up the head and invigorate the heart and fill you full of joy and you leave strengthened. This is good worship. Yet there is another kind of presence of God in worship, the kind of presence that there seems to be a famine of throughout the land. The first kind of presence we spoke of lifts your heart, the second kind of presence invades every part of who you are. It falls from heaven like a heavy dew, heads are lowered and hands are raised. All becomes quiet. One barely breathes as the Spirit of God slowly descends down through our heads into our hearts and down to the very soles of our feet, and the ground upon which we stand becomes Holy ground.
The first kind of presence uplifts us, the second changes us fundamentally. As living waters pour into us then it rises up like a great river that is so full that it overflows its banks. The banks themselves begin to crumble and fall into this river of pure life as it swells up and floods every part of who we are. The landscape is being changed by this flood, the very topography of our lives is being flattened by its power and everything that is not securely rooted to its foundations is simply swept away. Changed forever. And when the flood recedes we are left with a glorious afterglow. As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, I wonder, do our hearts pant after this kind of encounter.
The Lord Himself does not need professional worship teams. He does not need people to encourage us to stand up, jump up and down and raise our hands. In the Welsh revival two young women singing either acapella or simply backed by a piano typically sang “Here is love, vast as the ocean.” And there was love, in the very midst of them, vast as the ocean, flooding the hearts and minds of all who attended. Brothers and sisters, in all our modernity, what have we lost? In the program of churches and the professional class of worship leaders and pastors we have lost the simplicity of it all. And in the losing of it we now have to entertain the people. Spirit led worship is exactly that, it is Spirit led.
In work we have a routine. In life we have a routine. Prisoners in prison have a routine. Oftentimes we are slaves to the routine, it is what gets us through life. Yet, there is nothing routine about the Holy Spirit of the Living God. He is dynamic and you can never know what way the wind will blow next. Have we sold our souls for a routine? Routine in the home, routine at work, routine at church. Routine people do not change the world. Routine people do not do wage war on the battle-fields of life. The Spirit of God is dynamic and those filled with His “dynamis,” change the environment around them because the environment inside them has been filled to capacity and is overflowing its banks. Lord fill us again to overflowing with the kind of presence that invades every part of who we are.
I grieve when I come into the average fundamental evangelical gospel church. There’s so little of the sense of God in it. You never bow your head with reverence unless you have deliberately disciplined yourself to do it because there is not a sense of sacredness. …We have secularized worship, the Gospel and even Christ. I say that it is a great tragic loss and no great man can can come out of that kind of thing. God may have to sweep it away from us and start somewhere else. (Tozer)
I wonder saints. Do we grieve as Tozer grieved? Perhaps his very grieving over this issue is why God used him so mightily and still uses him? Perhaps we do not grieve the loss of His presence, His glory, His sacredness because we have never experienced any of it? We have never had a burning bush moment like Moses. Or we have never been awestruck by the glory and the majesty described by Isaiah. Or we have never had the hand of God touch our lips like Jeremiah? Ezekial saw the heavens open and had visions of God. All of these men suffered in direct correlation to the glory that they themselves had experienced. The list of these kinds of encounters is endless in the OT and the NT.
Tozer’s recommendation for the Christian church today is to “call a moratorium on all activity and focus on coming into worship until the fire descends and engulfs us in the sacredness of His presence.” Tomorrow is the first Sunday of the New Year. How many churches will be preaching this kind of message? Or rather will we hear the endless so called prophecies of how this coming year is going to be the best year ever? I am afraid that in almost one hundred percent of the gatherings that it shall be the latter. There will be no crying out to God in great grief over the lack of His presence. No mourning over the glory never experienced.
What Moses was before the fire experience was nothing compared to what he was afterward. The great man used of God was created in front of that burning bush experience. And that fire never went out for the rest of Moses life. The experience was absolutely a crisis for Moses (Tozer) Moses had to leave Egypt behind. Forty years of laboring under the stars and among the sheep. The glory’s of Pharaoh’s court just a distant memory. The world he knew long gone. Perhaps we have way too much of the world in us? For most of us it’s not a distant memory but a present reality. I wonder is we care more for our traditions and our institutions than we do for the majesty and the glory of God experienced. If we have to choose one or the other (and I say that we do) I wonder how you will choose? It seems sure that God must, as Tozer spoke “sweep it all away.”
Ecc 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God has done from the beginning to the end.
Now there is a thing, He has set eternity in the hearts of men. What could that mean? The verse begins with “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Saints, if we could get a hold of that truth then it would transform our lives in ever way. Everything is beautiful in its time to those who bow to the God of all eternity. If I am a sculptor and take a block of stone, then the block of stone is beautiful to me because I know what is going to become of it. A canvas with just a few paint strokes on it is beautiful in its time because the artist has already seen in his heart what it shall be. Every stroke is a vital part of the whole.
Your circumstances are beautiful in its time if you shall trust the Lord your God in the midst of it. Every aspect of your life is one more thread in the tapestry that God already sees. Can you bow to that? You, dear saint, are beautiful, right now, today. The Lord already knows what He has planned for you and at this very moment you are in the midst of it. This eternity is the gulf between what is now and what was and what is to come. Like the ocean, the beginning from the end is shrouded by the horizon, but the end is already there, This is eternity in your heart. It creates the need for you to trust in the Lord your God and equips you for faith. Trust in the Lord your God this day and see the beauty in it.
Freedom is totally unconfined
And surely break the cords that bind
It set me adrift in the midst of an endless sea
It swallowed and consumed me, now I am surely free
Freedom is the reason that He came from up above
Freedom is His work and the consequences of
The Fathers love and His desire to set the captives free
And every saint in all the earth shall surely all agree
That freedom is the narrow path as wide as the Fathers heart
And freedom is the cords of love that never comes apart
It is the mighty rushing wind, an unstoppable incoming tide
It is the depths of the Fathers heart, the place where I shall hide
The Kingdom of God, my heart cries out, and calls it freedom land
It is the solid Rock in a sinking world, where I forever stand
It is the air I breath, each beat of my heart, which He gave unto me
It is nail pierced hands and wounded side that set my spirit free
Calvary alone attests to the work that Christ Himself has done
And to freedoms glorious victory that He alone has won
Who could have ever known that to nail Christ to a tree
Would destroy the power of bondage and set the captive free
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mat 16:24)
An external religion, with its rules and forms, has taken the place of an inward experience with Christ. The saints of old- Abraham, Isaac, Enoch and Job- knew and experienced God inwardly in a personal and vital way. For Christ to truly reign within you, everything must be submitted to Him without reservation. There are many who oppose such a total surrender to this reign. ( Jeanne Guyon)
Madam Guyon knew well that only the cross could bring us to this place of total surrender. Yet even here, it is we who are called to take up our cross, and daily. God creates the perfect cross for each of us. The cross you bore last year is probably not the cross you bear this year, or perhaps even the cross you bore yesterday. God knows it all. It is His craftsmanship. By means of the cross He shapes you. Like a glacier that cuts through everything it its path and leaves behind mountains and valleys, so too the crosses that we bear. It shapes us in ways that only a cross could. And it is we who must pick them up, God will not do this for us.
The alternative is external religion. With external religion there is no inward experience of Christ, no picking up the cross daily, no shaping of the inward man, just the outward shell, the thing that shall return to dust. Men and women will suffer a great deal in order to stay enthroned on their own hearts. In order to take up the cross we must abdicate this throne and see Christ take His rightful place. Do not suffer as the world suffers brothers and sisters. Suffer for Christ’s sake as His Godly reign is established in your heart through the only means available, the daily cross.
Isa 22:13 Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!
In the beginning of this chapter we see these first words “The burden against the Valley of vision.” What is this valley of vision? It is Jerusalem, surrounded by mountains and filled with prophets. A once bustling prosperous city, now quieted by the march of the Assyrians. The streets are no longer bustling with commerce, everyone has taken to their rooftops to contemplate their fate as the Assyrians devastate the surrounding regions and other nations. The valley of vision would soon become the valley of decision. What would they decide? Would they weep and mourn for the coming judgement or would they throw all caution to the wind and “eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” This is the cry of mockers down through the ages and when a nation or nations take up that mantle then the end is surely in sight.
Paul says in 1 Cor 15:32 “If the dead do not rise let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” If there is no resurrection, if there be no eternal life, if Christ was but a man who died, then this life and this life alone is all that matters. And if that were true then why would the inhabitants of the earth not make every attempt to live their best lives now? Can I argue dear saint that this is exactly the state of the world? And what a great tragedy that in a nation of vision, meaning a nation that knows the truth, that has been taught the truth, that has indeed been blessed by the truth, that this very nation would be the foremost nation in eating and drinking and being merry for they see no eternal tomorrow.
Isa 22:2 “Your slain men are not slain by the sword.” Imagine the horror of being dead but not being dead. It is said that the brave man dies one but the coward dies a thousand times. Our nation is a nation of slain men. Fear stalks the streets. A virus has shut down our commerce andour industry but its not really the virus at all that has shut the wheels of commerce down, it is the fear that stalks men’s hearts, they die every day. Cowards led by cowards. Men without faith, men given over to the world, men who should know better. The Assyrians drew ever closer to Jerusalem and commerce began to dry up and food became scarce in the cities. Can you see it saints? Can you see the hearts of men today?
Now after all of this men should contemplate their fate. They should call out to God. They should fall on their faces in mourning and weeping and repentance. The should decide. They have the Word, they have the Truth among them, now, shall they weep? God calls for weeping and for mourning but strangely He hears joy and gladness. Not the joy and gladness of a people at rest and at peace with God, but the kind of joy that comes when men have thrown of God and made a decision about their fate. They shall eat, they shall drink and the drink will cause the fool to be merry even as that same fool stands under the shadow of the gathering clouds.
Joel 2:1 Blow a rams horn in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of Jehovah comes, for it is near at hand.
So brothers and sisters, do likewise. Blow the trumpet. In Joels day they lost everything to a devastating plague of locusts. Not an ordinary plague, a devastating supernatural plague designed to call the people to repentance. In the last 20 years we have seen 9/11, a tsunami that was unknown in our times or our history books, Hurricane Katrina and then a financial meltdown that took the world to the brink. We have had wars in the middle east and now a pandemic. In Joels day they had just over 30 years before they were invaded and destroyed. They did not heed this warning from the prophet or even the judgment. They managed to get back on their feet again, just in time to be destroyed. We are laboring under the same illusion, just trying to get back to “normal.’ The decision is this. Weep and mourn and cry out to the Living God, or eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. You shall surely die for all men die, but the fool dies eternally.
Could the Chinese be the Assyrians? Could America be swept up in civil war? I hear the howls of protest. “We have fortified our walls, we are too strong.” “We are far too sophisticated to ever again be destroyed by civil war.” Wrong on both accounts. There is no “fortifications,’ that cannot be brought down. Isa 19:14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Even now the hearts of Americans are turned on each other. How much more would it take for them to tear themselves apart? It is mere pride that says these things can never be. Think of how it staggered the minds of the Apostles to learn that not one stone would be left un-turned in the destruction of Jerusalem. And Jesus wept. It is better for men to weep over their own fate for in the weeping they may find a way back to God. But when God weeps for man……woe is man. Decide today whom you will serve.
1Co 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
In verse nine Paul tells the Corinthians that they are God’s field, they are God’s building. And so what lies at the foundation of who we are? Jesus Christ Himself. He owns the land and He owns the structures and He is the foundation. As a former builder who has built many structures and have studied many structures from history I have observed the following. Foundations were typically constructed out of what what was readily available nearby. Sometimes older structures had no foundations at all. Other times trenches were filled with small stones, sometimes large rocks. Of course most foundations today are constructed from poured concrete. Yet eternal foundations are laid in grace and formed in Christ.
We are constructed by grace, the unmerited favor of God. This is the foundation of it all. Upon everything that has any eternal value you will find this foundation, the unmerited favor of God poured out on the world that He created. He sent His only begotten Son into a chaotic world that had no coherent stability. A world wracked and moved by sin and death. And the Lord Jesus subdued this inherent instability and created order by overcoming sin and hell and death. Now His creation could rise from the ashes of rebellion and chaos. The grace of God is the instruction, the grace of God is the foundation, the grace of God is the structure. For by grace you are saved through faith and this is the gift of God. Not by our own works, lest we should boast but we are His workmanship. (Eph 2:8-10)
You dear saint, are His workmanship. No man can build you, and no man can boast in you. God always finishes what He starts. He is not like fickle man. He will finish what He has begun in you, and it is a good work. And it is for His own will and good pleasure. Remember that this day. Remember the foundation upon which you stand. Remember who the Master-builder is that is constructed you. Be confident in Him. When you see this, you will know and trust in Him that He will finish what He started in you. His is a labor of love. He sees in you what you could never see. Close your eyes for a few moments. Now open the eyes of your heart and understand the foundation upon which you stand. Let this give you the confidence to stand. In the heat of the battle, in the cool of the day your Lord came into your life and there He shall stay. For He is unmovable and those who stand upon Him shall not be moved.
1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
A singular focus saints. Do you have a singular focus? Is that focus the Lord Jesus Christ and Calvary? If we ever get away from this singular focus, and I would argue that almost all of Christendom has, then we are in a world of trouble. Jesus and the cross and the resurrection is the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. The modern day minister or pastor does not present himself in weakness and fear and much trembling. Why not? Well, we would despise him if he did. Rather he must be confident and self assured. He must have the ability to use persuasive words. This is the power of men but it is not the power of God.
There is a hidden wisdom of God that has been directly created to speak to the hidden aspects of man. It cannot be adequately described, it can only be experienced. There are no words to describe what it means for a man to communicate, by the power of the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Only the Spirit of God knows the things of God. And therefore only by the Spirit of God can we know anything of God. The wisdom of God has been expertly wrapped up in what the world considers to be foolish. It is therefore true that those of the world cannot discover such wisdom outside of the Spirit of God Himself who highlights, promotes and convicts all men everywhere of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Are you strong in the eyes of the world or in the eyes of your congregation or those you gather with? Do you speak with persuasive words? Or are you determined in your spirit to not know anything save Jesus and Him crucified? This is foolishness to the world saints. This is foolishness to your average congregation. Do they not rather wish to hear the wisdom of man? Tell us how to live. Tell us what God says about this, tell us what God says about that. Where are the men with the singular obsession with Jesus Christ our Lord and Him crucified? Therein lies all the solutions to every problem you will ever have. The cross. The further the cross recedes into the background, the further we get from victorious living and the more we rely on the wisdom of man which only takes us still further away. God in heaven help us to determine to know nothing other than Christ and Him crucified.
Luk 1:6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
What does it mean to be blameless before the Lord? How can an imperfect heart be perfect before the Lord, blameless in all of its ways? Are we not called as saints to live blameless lives, exemplary lives? Indeed we are. No one should be able to bring a reproach against us. This is the high calling of God on our lives. We have been so taken up with the false notion that we are just “sinners saved by grace,” that many measure the standard of their lives by the lowest possible denominator rather than Christ Himself. This has been disastrous.
Holiness. Righteousness. Is this the desire of your heart? Do you want the righteousness of Christ to shine through your lives for all the world to see? Do you want to live a holy life as unto the Lord? The Lord knows the heart, He sees the desire of it. The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hew 4:12) God knows the heart. The imperfect heart can be blameless before the Lord for He knows our motivations.
The beat of the longing heart echos throughout the ages. The righteousness of Christ rules supreme and we find our righteousness in Him alone, but the blameless heart is a beautiful thing unto the Lord. He is never fooled. He knows the intent and the motivations of His children. And all of this should cause us to come up higher as we are drawn to the beauty of His holiness. Let others be satisfied with pronouncing themselves as mere sinners, but let the saint know that the righteousness of Christ flowing through them shall reflect upon the darkness of this world. We must have a longing heart saint, a heart that above all else desires to seek Him first and His righteousness. Let us be found blameless.
A Call To The Remnant 