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 β 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!β
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.
“As soon as they had come to land they saw a fire of coals there, and fish on it, and bread.” (John 21:9)
All night long the disciples had fished and had caught nothing, yet one word from the lord and the nets were full. Notice that when Peter jumped overboard and swam ashore, there was already fish cooking on a fire of coals and there was bread. There was food that Jesus had prepared. The food Peter was about to eat was not from his own catch. Even his own catch had been enabled by the Lord. In every way we are reliant and can depend upon the Lord.
Remember when the disciples were rowing across the waters in the midst of a great storm and were getting nowhere? They were exhausted and frightened. Then Jesus comes walking on the water through the storm and enters their boat and suddenly they were at the other side. As soon as Jesus entered the situation all their striving ceased. Have you found such rest in Jesus? Do you get caught up with this life and its constant demands? It’s exhausting isn’t it?
To be content with where you are is not to be passive at all. One can work as unto the Lord but still have the focus on Jesus. When we are close to Jesus everything becomes sanctified. Even if all my hard work does not produce the results I was looking for, there is still fish cooking on a fire of coals and bread from heaven to eat. To walk in a place such as this is to walk in a sanctified place breathing rarefied air.
In God there is peace. Shall we not invite Him in to our boat today? Simplify your life today and simply follow His instructions. By doing this, by seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. If we learn to be content with a fire of coals, some fish and some bread, then the Lord can safely fill our nets. Be at peace in Him, let Jesus be the delight of your heart and all these things shall be added unto you.
2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
King David is in a very bad situation. He has committed adultery with Bathsheba, he tried to cover his tracks when she got pregnant, but a foreign convert , Uriah the Hittite , the husband of Bathsheba was more honorable that David. Therefore Davidβs attempts to cover up his adultery was foiled so David had him killed. This is such a low state for the man after Godβs own heart. And after Nathan the prophet comes to David and exposes him, God speaks. God speaks brothers and sisters, one should be very afraid when God speaks, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. And here is the charge that God levels against David, His beloved. β You have despised me.β
Now this word despised in the Hebrew is β baw-zaw,β meaning to disesteem, to think lightly off. It is the same word used in Gen 25:34 to describe Esauβs selling of his birthright for some bread and some soup. Can you imagine selling your birthright just simply to satisfy your immediate needs? Can you imagine that food on the table would be thought more highly of than the Living God and the birthright that He has given to us? And yet, do we not live in a day and age where our immediate needs, meaning the basic needs of this world and our day-to-day living are thought more highly of than God?
Are we not encouraged to live our best lives now? Have we not allowed our desires and hungers to be elevated above our love and desire for God? And are we not blind to it, so terribly blind to it? If David needed a prophet to reveal his wickedness, and this a man after Godβs own heart, beloved of God, are we so proud as to think that we would not need this level of rebuke?
Christendom today has despised God in the fullest sense of that word. They are as blind to their sin as David was to his. And unless they hear God directly and acknowledge and repent of their sin as David did, they will be hopelessly lost to, and be entangled by the cares of this world. I praise God that He never leaves us without a witness, whether it is one crying in the wilderness or a remnant that refuses to bow the knee to the gods of this world. God will have a spotless bride, He will raise up a generation that will follow Him and Him alone.
Conscience diminishes a man as he pushes against it. It is like the turning of the lathe. The turning is the circumstances of life. You are the wood and your conscience is the blade. It will whittle you down to the nub. A man becomes less of a man in every way when he ignores his conscience. You cannot run from it and you cannot hide from it. You can try, and many men have tried, all have failed, all have been diminished in their efforts. Great loss sweeps over a man like the raging waves of a storm tossed sea. You can sear it and you can drown it out with alcohol and drugs. When you sober up, it will still be there. You can fly to the uttermost parts of the sea and you will find that it is there. You can travel lands and traverse mountains and there it is. You could even make your bed in hell and hide in the shadows of darkness and the voice of your conscience will still speak to you.
It will be the High prosecutor as you stand before God or it will be your Chief defense. When the books are open it will, with great clarity and eloquence, speak for you or against you. Your conscience is your greatest gift outside of Christ Himself, although many men find it to be a curse. To the man of God it is a blessing. It holds him steady within the veil. It is like an anchor for his soul. It is mysterious , no doubt, but the voice of God speaks to every man and therefore every man is without excuse and on that great an notable day it will be a very familiar voice you will hear as you stand before God almighty. The voice of God that has echoed through your soul all of your conscious life. Listen today and live.
There is a growing movement around the world of hungry and thirsty children of God that He has driven into the desert. I believe this will be the last great move of God. There will be new wine poured out, but not into old wine-skins. This remnant saints will come from every kind of background. The common denominator will be their hunger and thirst for the genuine presence of the Living God which promotes a prayerful obedience to the revealed will of God.
If you are a saint in the wilderness, hang in there, God is teaching you complete dependence upon Him by stripping away every form of support that you know . Do not be discouraged by your situation or your circumstances, yield to them. You know that you are lonely, you know that you do not seem to fit in anywhere. You get no pleasure from anything anymore. You have lost your interest in the things of the world. What passes for βnormal,β church has become a foul stench to you.
You can see with your spiritual eyes that there is a crisis, but few seem to see it. Business as usual is no longer an option for you, but you do not know where to go. No one seems to understand you. When you try and explain they just look at you like you are mad. You are not mad. God is calling you out. God is calling His people out. The Lord is beginning to gather the saints together for His purposes. So stay close to God, stay in His Word.
If you can find like-minded brothers and sisters, that is good, because even where two or three are gathered, He is there in our midst, but do not be discouraged if you cannot, just wait upon the Lord. He is doing a new thing. Read all of Isa 43, but know this. Isa 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
What is nearness to God? We hear that a lot dont we …”are you close to God?” Well we know it has nothing to do with time or space, the Lord transcends both time and space. Time and space cannot contain Him for if it did, He would not be God. A certain Scripture tells us that men can draw close unto God with their mouth but their “hearts are far from God.” If far in this context is not distance then what is it? Another Scripture tells us that David was a man after Gods own heart. In this context the word “after ,” means like or touching.
So, if your heart is far from God it can mean that you are not like Him. There is no communion, no touching, no encounter, no emotion, no joy, no love. The words may be there but the reality of the love of God is not present. A heart after God is expressed by obedience and by love, primarily love. Primarily love because love is the primary motivation for obedience. We can be obedient to God, at least outwardly and with our our words but our hearts can be “far from Him.” But we cannot love Him to any degree and be disobedient to Him.
Dont get me wrong, we can be disobedient to God and still love Him and be like Him, King David may be the perfect example of this, but we cannot stay in that place of disobedience for long. It will not be what we are known for. On the grave of King David they would not write ” here lies a disobedient man,” because even although he had certainly been disobedient to God in many of the things that he did, ultimately that was not who he was and he proved that by having a broken and contrite heart. In 1st Cor 13 we see all the things that we can have. We can speak with tongues, we can have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, I could be mighty in faith so much so that I could speak to a mountain and it would crumble and fall and yet, all of these things would be without meaning if I did not have love.
I could give every penny I had to the poor and even become a martyr for God yet without love none of it would profit me. Yet, if I am close to the heart of God then I will gladly suffer long, I will not envy my brother or sister, I will not think highly of myself but rather regard others higher than me, I will not be easily offended and I will think the best of others.I will rejoice in the truth and be saddened at my enemies downfall, their downfall will promote love in me for them and forgiveness. If I am moving in these areas then I am close to the heart of God because the Lord Himself came down and humbled Himself and took on the likeness of man and walked in all of these truths because He was acting according to His nature. If we would be close to Him we shall endeavor to be like Him.
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. Sarahβs 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.
I consider Martin Luther Kings “I have a dream,” speech, one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in the history of Western civilization. It hung on my wall for over a decade. The notion of his children being judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin would have represented the high water mark of actual civilization, any civilization, western or otherwise.
Consider where we are today. Consider what “woke,” thought has given us, where it is taking us. It is taking us back to a place that existed prior to civilization. Tribalism. Tribalism caused death and destruction whether it was in the Highlands of Scotland, the Black forest of Germany or deep in the interior or Africa. The Gauls, the Visigoths, the Romans, the Vandals, you name the tribe. Vlad the impaler, Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes, they all were identified by their tribe and their enemies? Other tribes.
Think about the genius of what MLK taught. The content of one’s character was to be the distinguishing mark of civilized man. The goodness of a man. The intelligence of a woman. The compassion and the empathy of another soul, these were the marks by which MLK wanted his children, and society, to be judged by. It would cut across color and race, it would identify the humanity of every soul on this earth. He may have been a utopian dreamer, but if you are going to have a dream it might as well be a good one, sure beats the nightmare of the divided society that we are now living in.
Blacks, Whites, Asians. Straight, gay, transgender. Rich and poor. Middle class, working class, elites, oligarchs and moguls. Republicans, Democrats socialists. Far right, far left. White supremist, Antifa, Black lives matters, critical race theorists. All blacks are lazy, all whites are racist, all Asians are greedy. And on and on it goes. Compare all of that with the dream of MLK. What we are seeing is the unfolding of raw unabated power. Power exists and is controlled when the masses are set upon one another. While the masses are manipulated and distracted, the elites are taking over.
The industrial revolution unleashed robber barons who ruled with an iron fist and they crushed all opposition. Now, the greatest nation to rise up out of Western civilization, America, who literally saved what we call civilization from the horror of the Germans and Japanese, has been overtaken by oligarchs. The power of division has been unleashed. Purges are taking place. As a Christian, my place in society is being diminished. And in the end, that will probably be the best thing that ever happened to Christendom.
Barbarism is an ancient force. It is a spirit, a demonic spirit and it’s name is legion. It detests the notions of men like MLK. It demands division for that is the bedrock of hatred and un-forgiveness. It’s ultimate enemy is the genuine Christian. For the true Body of Christ is actually diverse and beautifully united by the Spirit of God. A Body of believers who judge a person by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
America once saved the world from barbarism, from the Nazi forces who embraced the ultimate divisions. Who would gladly destroy every single Jewish person, every single gypsy, every single gay person, every single mentally handicapped person. Every single person of genuine faith. They worshiped one doctrine and there was no place for deviation. All who disagreed with them were destroyed and purged out of society. First politically, then in the Armed forces, then in the halls of education and all the way down into all of the realms of society. Divide, separate and destroy.
I put it to you, the reader, we are in the midst of such a time. The powers that be, demand that you be separated into whatever group you belong to. And it is they who shall judge you, not by the content of your character, but by who you vote for. What you stand for. The color of your skin. The tenets of your faith. The collective is rising. And if you do not belong to it or bow to it you will be removed from society by it. In the greatest irony of all time they will call it the brotherhood of man. As they use the word diversity as their battle cry the actual war will rage against anyone who dares to be different from them. Uniformity and conformity will be the order of the day under the banner of diversity. It will be the greatest feat of gaslighting ever known to man for it will encircle the earth.
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;
Itβs 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. βCome 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.β (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.
In the things of the Kingdom,progress is not automatic,for a man may only be fifty weeks old in grace even though he was saved fifty years ago. Maturity in grace has nothing to do with years but rather with prayerful obedience to the revealed will of God.
Leonard Ravenhill-Meat for men.
Can you see what Ravenhill is saying? We make forward progress in the Kingdom by prayerful obedience to the revealed will of God. What is the revealed will of God? First and foremost it is the Word of God, the Scriptures. Secondly it is the still small voice of God, the Holy Spirit. And of course, one will never contradict the other, there will always be perfect harmony between the Holy Spirit and the written Word of God. He is the author.
In 2nd John 1:4 John says that he rejoiced greatly to have found some of the saints walking in the truth having received the commandment from God. In 3rd John 1:4 John says that he had no greater joy than to hear that his children were walking in the truth. Imagine that, the great Apostle’s greatest joy was the saints walking in the Truth. Why was this his greatest joy? John knew that if we walk in the Truth, then and only then will we make forward progress in the Kingdom, overcoming trial and temptation and becoming more like Jesus. Obedience is the key to this.
Imagine you are in a small boat in the middle of a vast ocean. You have no sail and you have no motor to power you. What will happen? Without the thrust of forward momentum you will drift. The power that will move you will be the current of the ocean. It will take you where it will take you. I want to suggest to you that without obedience to the Word of God and to the Holy Spirit you will not make any forward progress on your spiritual journey.
Obedience is the outboard motor that will propel your forward. The Holy Spirit is the fuel in the motor. Obedience is the raising of the sail that will catch the wind, the Holy Spirit is the wind that will propel you forward against the forces of the current.. How mature are you? How many weeks old are you in the Kingdom? In Ravenhill’s example a man who has been saved for fifty years may be less than a year old in the Kingdom, a mere babe. God is looking for mature saints, men and woman who can dine on meat.
If you ever had a time when you know you have fallen short? You thought you had traveled a thousand miles and you come upon a tree and you know you have seen that tree before which means , that it seems, that you are right back where you started. Your spirit is wearied that it shall never be done with this flesh that envelopes us and is an anchor to our soul, that always impedes us. You just want to stretch your hands to the heavens and say “here I am Lord, take me into the beauty of your holiness,” and your spirit weeps. I wrote this poem/song as I mourned the fact that apart from spirit, I am also flesh and blood and my spirit longs to be away.
If I could
If I could fly into Your sunset
I would
If I could dive into your Ocean
I would
If I could, If I could, If I could
I would.
If I could be swallowed up in your majesty
I would
If I could eternally drown in your Glory
I would
If I could, If I could, If I could
I would
If I could look into your face and never look away
I would
If I could fall into your Arms forever and a day
I would
If I could , If I could, If I could
I would
If I could fall with the day when the day is done
I would
If I could rise again upon the rays of the rising sun
I would
If I could, If I could , If I could
I would..............go.
Have you ever seen a stone plunge into the water? As it falls into the water is stretches the fabric of the undisturbed lake. A hole emerges as the stone plummets to the deep and just as suddenly, the hole repairs itself and we are left with concentric circles stretching out in all directions like the rings of a tree until they reach the edge of the waters in all directions.
When you come to Christ you disrupt the waters. There is a violent reaction in the fabric of your world. It tears a hole in it and disrupts everyone around you. Jesus did not come to bring peace. His presence violently disrupted the fabric of this world. He came down from the heavens and tore a hole in the fabric of our existence. And forever more, His presence in you sends out concentric circles which disrupt the surface tension of your waters. The ripple effect causes trouble in a world that seeks to be left alone. He is the great revolutionary.
How many can say that when they came to Christ all hell broke loose around them? Amen, the war against darkness is not for the faint of heart. Jesus is a disrupter. Those at ease in Babylon will cry out in protest that their slumbers have been disturbed. Hell will violently oppose the works of Light that diminishes and sets to flight its darkness. Yet there is another kind of violence. Jesus says in Matt 11:12 that the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.
We saints violently oppose the works of darkness. We violently oppose our own flesh despite the fact that it wars against our spirits. We have battles within and we have battles without. And because we have the light of the glory of the knowledge of God emanating from deep within us, then we shall find ourselves oftentimes surrounded by darkness. We seem to have trouble on every side, persecuted, cast down. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. We are not destroyed, we are not forsaken. The light from the glory and the knowledge of God is life to us, eternal life, and it has conquered the darkness.
In us, God has displaced hell and sin and death and replaced it with heaven and holiness and life. And it is these concentric circles, these irrepressible ripples of disruption that flow from us into a dark world touching everything for the cause of Christ. Be encouraged saint, your very life, Christ in you, has disrupted the darkness and will continue to so so until we reach the ends of the earth, the end of our journey that takes us home.
In my spirit I can see the Holy City in the midst of a mighty desert, a wilderness place. Now I know that in my flesh I would avoid deserts. The vision in my spirit would, I suppose, be metaphorical for the narrow path that leads to life. Now it makes no sense to think that if I was seeking life that I would go seek it in the desert. Yet there it is, the church of God, surrounded by a mighty desert.
There is no way to the heart of it but by striking out and heading deep into a place where my only resource, in fact life itself, will be God. If He does not go before me I will die, I will never get there. If He is not a cloud over my head then the sun will kill me. If He is not a fire by night then I will surely freeze to death. If He is not my rear guard, then the jackals and other predators of this hostile place will sneak up behind me and kill me.
You see brothers and sisters, there is nothing attractive about the desert. It is not an alluring place, in fact quite the opposite. Will you journey there? Can He be found on the narrow path? Will He be found in the desert? Yes. A burning bush and some sand can be transformed into Holy ground, for where the Lord is, it is Holy. We go where He can be found. We are drawn by the Spirit to a place of splendid isolation. Not like the monks of old, not an actual physical isolation, but in the midst of our very lives. Being in the world and not “of,” it. That word of in this context drips with depth and meaning. To be not of the world is a splendid isolation. To be apart from all of its cares, all of its worries, all of its temptations and noise and distraction. To isolate yourself with God causes you to be alluring. And so, by being in the world and not of it causes you to be a light in the very midst of darkness and draws those who are lost and desperately seeking the Lord.
There is a generation of desert dwellers being raised, a generation of wilderness dwellers ready to rise up and come forth. A generation of saints who have counted the cost and been drawn away into the deep. Whose only desire is to seek Him with their whole hearts. They will see the glory of their God. They will behold His glory and His majesty. And they will make declarations from that place. They will, like John the Baptist declare to the world βBehold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.β Yet, this generation also gets to say βBehold the lion of Judah who rides on a white horse with a two-edged sword in His hand. He is coming, the King is coming! Lift up your gates ye ancient cities and lift up your doors for the King of glory is coming and He is coming soon.
This is the purpose of Godβs remnant saints. We will make such a glorious noise in the desert of worship to our King. We will sing hallelujahs to His glory. The anointing of the anointed one will be upon us and the world will look into the desert and hear such a strange and glorious noise, a noise such as they have never heard before and a light that shines out of a place where no light and no life should exist, and they will be perplexed and confounded but5 in all of it God will be glorified.
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
The work we do with God alone in the secret places changes us right down into the DNA of who we are. Difficult circumstances are merely the tests of the work that God has done in us, it is the depths of that work that is being measured by our trials and our circumstances. The work of God in us enables us to take the trials and the tribulations of this world and turn into into something that edifies us. Rather than tearing us down it builds us up. It is all at once paradoxical and counter-intuitive. The devil, who can only ever tear down, becomes an unwitting and unwilling accomplice in proving the work of God in His children.
When God has done a great work in a man or a woman, they are transformed and can now, by the power of God, take the blows and grow in their inner man even as the blows rain down. This is the secret work of God in the inner places of the man or woman of God. A work done in the wilderness, away from the rest of the world, alone with God. Consider Isaiah and the secret work of God in his life. His encounter with God humbles him in ways that only that kind of encounter could.
All the flesh is stripped away and now a mere man stands before God and sees that outside of God he is nothing. He cries out “woe is me, I am undone.” And in the undoing of the man, the new man of God steps out of that encounter. He would face many challenges in his life and would eventually be killed by being sawn in two, yet the work had already been done by God in his life and he had been enabled. The trials and the testings and indeed even his martyrdom simply became evidence of the work of God in his life.
Brothers and sisters, you have been uniquely designed to grow in the desert. In a place known for death, where nothing grows, you shall bloom. You shall bloom because God has done such a work in you. In the midst of your trial or tribulation, fall back upon your inner man. For that which causes the outer man to perish, renews and restores your inner man daily as you yield to God and give Him all the glory.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. ‘
Brothers and sisters, when I look up to the cross I see humility. I see my Lord humbled and naked for the whole world to see. Nothing hidden. When I look up to the cross I see justice. I see sin condemned. O brothers and sisters when I look up to the cross I see mercy. Mercy for me. I do not see my own condemnation, I see my Jesus condemned and rejected by the world, willingly taking my place. There is therefore, now no condemnation, because He took my condemnation, to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
O what a glorious freedom. Free indeed. Free indeed to stand and fight. To battle even unto death, with my fellow freed men. I pray today that those whom the Son has set free will catch a glimpse of who they are in Christ. Royal priests in a royal priesthood. Children of the living God. Loved and redeemed and reconciled and called to walk in the beauty of holiness. That the world may know that Jesus was sent by the Father. That the world may see something of the glory of God which was given to Jesus and which He has given to us. Rise up and shine today saints of God, rise up and shine, for you are loved so much. How much? Look up to the cross!!!!
God tells Moses to tell the children of Israel this ….”You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all the nations of the earth, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
You just read an insight into the very heart of God. He bore you up on eagles wings and carried you from captivity. He destroyed that which sought to destroy you and He was looking for His own special treasure. He was looking for a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And the qualifier for that? Obedience. It is obedience to the Word of God and to the still small voice of the Spirit that draws us near to Him. Obedience, without that we can do nothing. Who will obey the voice of God? Who will be a priest of the most High God? Who would be holy as He is holy?
You will know them by their love for one another. You will know them by their love for God. You will know them by their reverence and fear of the living God. You will know them by their obedience and their longing to live an obedient life. God saw that the children of Israel would not be that. They wanted an intermediary. They wanted nothing of the fire that fell upon the mountain. They wanted nothing of the thick clouds and the thunderings and the lightening.
It is interesting that God bore the children of Israel on eagles wings and carried them to where He was. Where was He? He was in the wilderness. He was in a place where only total reliance upon Him would bring life. Without Him there would be no water, without Him there would be no food. In the wilderness, water had to gush forth from rock. Manna had to fall from heaven. To get to Him Moses had to walk through thick darkness, probably a place where you could not even see your hand in front of your face. Would you like to ascend a mountain in thick darkness? A place where at any moment you could walk right of the edge?
The royal priests of God learn how to dwell in the wilderness. They come there for they are looking for where God is. He is not in Egypt and He is not in Babylon. He is not in the places of ease and comfort. He is well beyond our comfort zones. Thunderings and lightenings and thick clouds and the earth trembles and the mountain shakes and the trumpet of the Lord reverberates and touches every part of who we are. Could there be a greater contrast than between the place of seeming barrenness and this mountain of His presence? Total reliance and obedience to God in the wilderness brings us to the mountain of His presence.
Now the question has to be for us, shall we live at ease? The prophet cries out “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!” (Amos 6:1) We in Christendom feel safe within the cherished walls of our traditions and our heritage. Zion was considered all but impregnable. Who in their right minds would come out of Zion and go dwell in the wilderness? Those who seek God with all of their hearts. God is calling forth such a people today. Shall we be obedient to the call?
Zec 4:3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
One hot summers day as I was walking and talking with the Lord, I thought about how important it is to be filled, to be constantly filled by Him and with Him. I had been reading recently in the Scriptures about the two olive trees in Zec 4. I read that the candlestick was constantly supplied by oil from the bowl that was connected to the two olive trees on either side of the bowl.
Now, it seems clear from Scripture that these trees represent for us, Jesus on one side and the Holy Spirit on the other. And when we are connected to Jesus by the Holy Spirit, then our bowls, our vessels are filled with a never ending source of power, the power of God and the grace of God. In that same chapter we see, and it is such a well know Scripture, that βIt is not by might, nor by power but by Spirit says the Lord.β
Then Psalm 133 came to my mind. I thought about the precious oil that anoints the head of the priest. An abundance of oil, so much so that it flows down from the head, onto the beard and covers the garments of the priest. Can I ask, do you have such an anointing brothers and sisters? Do you long for it? Are you intimately connected to the source of such oil? Does it cover every part of you as it did the priest in the Psalm?
As it was early in the morning that I was walking everything was dripping with a heavy dew. Even although it had not rained for many days, the grass was totally soaked and to walk through it meant getting very wet. Here I was, in the middle of a Kansas summer, soaked by the dew that fell from heaven. This is how it is likened in Psalm 133 βLike the dew of Hermon that flows down the mountains of Zion : for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forever more.β
Oh brothers and sisters I thought about that life, that life that is in me, that abundant life that overflows out of the abundance of my heart. Unless our heart is like a vessel, connected to the two trees, how can it ever be filled? How can the light of Christ keep shining in us unless we are abiding in Him, connected to Jesus and His Holy Spirit? And how can this oil of gladness, this oil of unity, this oil of life overflow and pour down our garments unless our hearts first be filled to capacity? In this the Lord Himself commands a blessing of life. Only in this is life. Can you see the importance of the two trees? Can you see how important it is to be connected to both?
Psalm 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Brothers and sisters, even now the fires burn all across Christendom. The vandals have entered the gates of the cities. These spirits have come to invade every heart and every mind and every church in the land. These are hordes that have poured forth from the bowels of hell, foul defiling hordes. Yet, they are only the pre-cursor for what is to come. Their job is to tear down everything that is called holy. Every part of society is to be torn down stone by stone. This is the spirit behind the forces who turn wrong into right, who turn day into night. Now brothers and sisters, we can see evidence of this all around us and we see the rapid disintegration of society.
The forces that align themselves against Christianity are gaining momentum. They are making a way for their own master to enter onto the world stage. How shall we react to such forces and events? Many without eyes to see, struggle greatly against this incoming tide. As they see the loss of everything they know and hold dear they have a great desire to fight back. They want to fight against the immoral forces that are tearing down the culture that they love and have created. Fear rises up in them, panic even.
That fear and that panic compels them into the arms of many would be leaders. Some cry out that we need a great revival, others cry out that we need more Godly men in political leadership. Others even consider arming themselves for what they see as a coming cultural war. What is to be the Body of Christβs response to a society that seems to be in moral free fall? Godβs children must worship the Lord their God with all of their hearts, all of their minds and all of their souls.
They must decrease and He must increase. Now is the time for the people of God to trim their lamps and light up the way in the great darkness that is falling over us. Our singular goal must be to press in close to our Lord. He and He alone is our deliverer. Only in Him can we know true freedom, a freedom that can praise God even in captivity. Men prefer another kind of freedom but the freedom that we find in Jesus cannot be taken away by any force.
What the world gives, the world can take away. What was given to us at Calvary can never be taken from us, even if we ourselves were to be crucified. What freedom do you desire today? Choose wisely, one is eternal, the other is fleeting. One is of the Spirit, the other is of the flesh and oftentimes those who follow the flesh do not even know what spirit they are of.
Eph 6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.
Each whisper, every God-ward thought, every word spoken, each moment of silence spent in His presence is like a musical note to the Lord. The Scriptures refer to the Lord as βHe who sits above the circle of the earth.β And so He who sits above the circle of the earth, sees each and every one of these musical notes from around the world from the Body of Christ, rising up in a majestic symphony of love and worship and it is a sweet, sweet sound in His ears. This day, become part of that symphony, let your days be filled with thoughts of Him, release whispers of love to add to the music of prayer.
Simply whisper the name of Jesus all throughout the day, remind Him of how much you love Him, thank Him for the day, no matter what kind of day that youβre having. Rediscover that bond of love and joy and peace that comes simply by being in His presence. When you do this brothers and sisters, your prayer life will change dramatically, but not only your prayer life, your life itself. For when we walk in continual prayer we begin to see the beauty of the Lord everywhere. If it rains, we see His beauty in the raindrops.
When the sun shines we see His beauty as the flowers turn themselves around to face the glory of the Son. When it is cloudy we see his beauty break through the clouds in beams of light that remind us that despite the momentary darkness, He is not finished with us and that His light is ready to break through. Pray without ceasing brothers and sisters, it is not a bondage, rather a glorious privilege that enables us and empowers us to be over-comers in a dark world that is desperate for a manifestation of the light and the love of our Lord Jesus.
The nobody’s perfect card. How many times have you seen it played? The great excuse, it is often a cover for mediocrity and the life less lived. Its the great tragedy of identifying ourselves as sinners rather than saints. We have been called to be extraordinary and the path to the extraordinary is found by the words “follow me.”
We are instructed to be holy as He is Holy. He that called us is Holy and He has called us to be holy. Several hundred years ago, in times of inquisition, the inquisitor’s would come and ask the locals “who among you are living exemplary lives?” This would point them in the direction of those who were truly born again, it would identify them for martyrdom.
If we found ourselves in similar conditions, would we be identified by the locals? This call to the beauty of holiness cannot be heard if you identify yourself as a “mere sinner,” saved by grace. You will not find that in the New Testament. We who know Jesus are children of the living God. We are not sinless but neither are we “mere sinners.”
Too often that is used as an excuse for placating the world, a kind of virtue. It is not virtuous to identify yourself as a sinner. And before someone says well Paul says “of whom I am the chief,” in regard to sinners saved by Jesus, remember the context. Paul is saying that he is the chief of all saved sinners, meaning there was no worse sinner than he and despite that, Jesus saved him.
This is the humility of Paul saying that no one was worse than He , yet still he was saved. It was not that he was still the chief of sinners after being saved, God forbid. That is not how he identified himself and in fact he is bold enough to say “You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ,” in 1 Cor 11:1. This really should be the last line in chapter 10, read it in regard to Paul calling us to holiness.
We are new creatures in Christ and behold all things are new. We carry His name among the world. We bring His light down into the darkness. Our total identity is in Christ. There are no other competing identities other than being children of the light, adopted sons and daughters of the Living God, priests and priestesses in a Royal priesthood. This is what we offer the world. They can be saved from drowning in their own sins.
It is strange that all down through the ages that this has been a hated truth. The notion that we count ourselves as separated from the world brings great conviction to the world. “Who do you think you are,” has been the cry down through the ages, the initiator of it being the devil himself. He despises the sons and daughters of the Kingdom.
And so the answer to the world when they say “who do you think you are,” is not to say “we are just like you but we have this theological technicality.” No, the answer is the same as Paul’s “we were just as you are, worse even, but we have been redeemed and rescued by grace and so can you be.” “We have been delivered from the curse of sins deadly power and we have been empowered by His Holy Spirit to live such a life.” An actual witness that brings credit and glory to God because He enabled us to live such a transformed life.
A Call To The Remnant 