Archive for the ‘the gospel’ Category
Posted by appolus on February 17, 2020
1Th 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
Most of us have a concept of prayer that is all about talking. We start of by giving thanks, then we make our requests, we pray for family members and before we know it has become ritualistic and barren. Prayer should be much more like breathing. When was the last time you thought about breathing? Youβre probably not even conscious of your breathing yet you do it continually and it sustains you and gives you life. Prayer is our relationship with God. They are one and the same. If we attempt to separate them then we will get lost. There are no formulas, no secret methods, prayer is being in the presence of God.
Prayer times and quiet times are good. For many this is our moments when we connect with God. In the morning and in the evening before we go to bed. Yet if we have neglected His presence all day, our prayer times will not be as effective. In our minds we must take God every-where we go, whispering to Him all through the day as we face the challenges, trials and temptations that come with life.
Begin to see God everywhere. Don’t simply walk out the door and leave Him behind to pick Him up again in the evening. Let the Lord invade every part of your day. You will be amazed at how this will change everything. You will not just be talking to Him in your prayer times and quiet times, He will become an integral part of everything that you do and think and say. Remember, He is the reality, the world we go out into every day is but the shadow, walk in the reality of God.
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.
Wont you become part of that symphony today? Let your day 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 and thank Him continually for the day, no matter what kind of day that your 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, 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. If the sun shines then we see His beauty as the flowers turn themselves around to face the glory of the risen Son. If it is cloudy we can 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 the darkness of our situations and this world. When we fly above the clouds we discover that there is a perpetual blue sky. In the same manner brothers and sisters there is a table set before you. Can you see it? Goodness is the meat to the hungry soul found in the Word of God and mercy is the living waters of life to the thirsty saint found in His presence. It is His promise that these shall follow you all the days of your life.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 21, 2020
The uniqueness of genuine Christianity is found in the refiners fire. When a precious substance is tested by fire the only thing that is burned up is the dross. The purity of the substance is brought to the fore by the intensity of the fire. The crucible is our lives, our families our reputations, our place in society and our religious affiliations. This is the place of testing where the fire is applied. The fire shall discover the dross. It will be separated from the precious substance and in the end all that shall be left is the essence of who we are in Christ.
The very first believers stepped directly into the fire. The word believe in the Scriptures is very different from what we now perceive it to be. It is no mere mental assent to some abstract truth. In the context of John chapter three verse sixteen “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,’ that word believe means to put one’s trust in, to commit fully to, to have faith in the object, to entrust one’s spiritual well being and life with it. You see how big that word believe is? And to those who truly did all that, they were born again. And immediately they stepped into the crucible. The fire burned upon every aspect of their lives changing everything and in so many cases costing everything including their lives.
The giving up of everything that you know, starting with your lives, is the entrance to the Kingdom of God. It is a baptism of fire. Those who are baptized in this fire are known by their love of God and their all consuming desire to please Him. They have an eternal perspective because they have glimpsed eternity and such a glimpse is a burning fire in their spirits. A flame that never dies. A light that causes this world and all that it has to offer to be at best, shades of grey. God has His witnesses, His saints, His children in every village, every town and city, every nation and kingdom in the world. No matter the rise of gross darkness, God’s children burn with the same fire that covered the children of Israel by night in the desert.
The fire and the cloud was leading them to the river Jordon and over into the promised land. Our fire is leading us home. Through a desert no doubt where all around us is death, but in Christ we walk in light and life. John the Baptist dwelt in a wilderness and in that wilderness was ministered to and received revelation. And the revelation was this “repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.” We saints today stand in the midst of a great wilderness, a place of famine and drought. The people starve for lack of Spiritual food, the Word of God. And they die of thirst for lack of living water. Yet we do not hunger neither do we thirst. He ministers to us. What is our message coming out of the desert? “Repent for lo, the Lion of Judah, the Christ returns.” The first messenger to come out of the desert with revelation had his head cut of. The world recoils at such a message and they turn their fury upon the messengers.
Every genuine saint has a fire upon him and in him. He or she burns with indignation for the name of Jesus. They burn with indignation that His name is trampled in the streets. They burn with indignation that the truth has been turned into a lie and that the foundations are being destroyed. The wicked bend their bows and take aim for the heart of the righteous. Yet the shield of faith covers the righteous heart. For those who trust in God with their whole hearts, who believe in Him have armor that the enemy cannot prevail against. The Lord our God sits upon His throne and sees the works of men. Soon He will send a different kind of fire. Not the baptism of fire that purifies the hearts of saints, but a storm which no man has seen before that rains down fire upon the heads of the wicked. If a man is wise he would flee the fire to come and run into the crucible of the new birth.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on January 19, 2020
We accept radical behavior in many areas of human endeavor. Why can’t we accept radical behavior in a heart that is panting and longing after God?(A.W.Tozer) Can you see what Tozer is saying? In every area of life, whether it be sports or politics or career or philosophy, being radical, being sold out AND striving, typically brings success and honor. Yet the man or the woman who longs for the heart of God will not receive such honor from the world. Success in the paradoxical world of the Kingdom of God looks nothing like the success of the physical world. In the Kingdom, the greatest man is the servant of all. In the Kingdom the brave man is the man who loves his enemy. The Kingdom man or woman does not know how to make friends and influence people, he or she is simply who he or she is in Christ. Their heartbeat is closely aligned to the heartbeat of God. They move to the rhythm of the Kingdom which is why they are so out of step with the world. They are misfits in the truest sense of that word, they simply do not fit in. In ancient days if a man set out from England to travel the silk road, in every nation, in every town, in every village it would be immediately apparent that he was not from those parts. His speech, his mannerisms, his ways, EVEN his clothing, everything would be different about him. They would know he was a sojourner.
Going deeper into the heart of God is always radical in this world but perfectly normal in the Kingdom. The man or the woman whose hearts pants and longs after God is always a stranger to the world. They are separated by their devotion because their actions are of another world, another Kingdom. Attempts to gain influence in this realm as opposed to the Kingdom of God can only draw us further from God. When the world looks at you, can they see that you are out of step with them? Would they consider you a misfit? Does your speech and your mannerisms and your countenance point to the fact that you are “not from around these parts?” We of the Kingdom are merely passing through, and the world will see our radical love and devotion for God.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 4 Comments »
Posted by appolus on December 27, 2019
Rom 6:14Β For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
The freedom to do what is right, towers above the prison and the chains of commandments. One is initiated by love, the other is enforced by the whip. Holiness comes from freedom and freedom comes from love . And this love inspires and draws us and compels us to honor and respect and obey our Father in heaven. His love is the very air that we breathe and the air before His throne is rarified air and if we cannot breathe this air then we die. The impetus for us to follow the commands that are written upon our heart is love. It is more powerful than the commands that were written upon tablets of stone. Those who would sin without conviction and use some kind of legal fiction (cheap grace) to excuse or justify their actions simply do not have the laws of God written upon their hearts. The grace of God is such a beautiful and dynamic and fundamental part of our relationship with the Lord. It is never a license to sin, God forbid. It is the very opposite for those who know Jesus. When we sin there is a separation between ourselves and the one that we love. We cry with David “restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” The blood bought heart can never be at peace when there is any kind of distance between it and his or her Lord. Love compels us to humble ourselves, broken and contrite, and come before our Lord in confession so that we may once again walk in the beauty and closeness of His presence and holiness.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on October 7, 2019
Jer29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,β declares the LORD, βplans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
This is a very well known verse, and like many well know verses it is, for the most part, quoted without context. In Jer 29 Israel is in a very dark place, a place of judgement and captivity. It is in this context that the Lord assures His people. While all around us may be falling to pieces, while the hand of God may be moving against those who are far from Him and have turned away from Him, God assures His people. There is the danger that God’s own people will think He has turned on them, but here the Lord assures them that quite the opposite is true.
The judgement upon Israel was not for her destruction, it was for her correction. God chastens those that He loves and it is for the purpose of turning His people back to Him so that those who will, shall call upon Him. Maybe today you find your own life is in something of a turmoil? Perhaps you face trials on every side and conflicts at every turn? You wonder does God really love you. You wonder what God really thinks about you. You are plagued with doubts. In these situations, those who are the Lord’s turn to Him, they cry out to Him, they seek Him with their whole hearts, they wait upon Him and the Lord said that those who do this will find Him. He shall be found by those who diligently and with purpose endure and draw close. His presence shall be their reward and their captivity, captivity to thoughts and doubts and fears shall be loosed.
In these times of darkness that we face, in these days when Christendom is falling away and judgement has begun at the house of the Lord, it is critical that we seek Him with our whole hearts. Let the darkness draw you closer to the Light. Let the fear and uncertainty that is all around you draw you closer to the peace and contentment that is only found in Jesus. Seek Him with all of your heart and be found in Him. As the storm rages all around you and seems to grow more intense, let your gaze upon Him grow more intense. Situations and circumstances will do everything they can to draw you away and avert your gaze, do not look away. Endure, overcome, stand brothers and sisters and know that His thoughts about you are more than the sands of the sea. And His plans for you are to hold you and keep you in the midst of the madness.
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Posted by appolus on August 7, 2019
If you do not enter into His sufferings you will not be caught up into the glory. (1 Pet4:13, Ph 3:10,Luke 9:23, 2 Tim:2:12) It is in the garden where your will is submitted to His. It is there that the decisions are made in the lives of the saints. There will be many of these moments in your lives brothers and sisters, some smaller, some more overarching, but all are important in our walk with the Lord and all follow the same pattern. For us mere mortals, time and again we shall be faced with the decision to bow the knee to God. To count the cost and then to cry out “not my will but thine be done.” After every garden encounter comes the cross. The cross is where we put flesh on the bones of what we have agreed upon with God. The cross is a place of great suffering, yet without that suffering for the cause of Christ we can never be caught up into the glory. In order for life to arise in victory then first comes the humiliation. It takes humility to draw close to God, it is a part of the pathway to glory. God says that He dwells with the broken and the contrite. He loves a humble spirit, He revives the humble spirit and gives life to the hearts of the broken ones (Isa 57:15)
We are not without the power of God when we walk out of the garden. Once we have made the decision to follow Him to Calvary and beyond, incredibly, in spite of what lies ahead for us or even in the midst of it, we are empowered by Joy. We are told that Jesus, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame and was then sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2) We know that the joy of the Lord is our strength. We are strengthened and enabled to endure all things for His sake. We are not like the Israelites who stood before a mountain that could be touched, something external and dark and frightening such was their experience at Mount Sinai. We saints ascend the spiritual mountain of Zion to draw near to God. It is altogether wonderful and marvelous and this my soul knows well. It is impenetrable light invading every part of my being, filling me with a light that dispels the darkness that has come to peer at this oddity full of joy. In that presence there is fullness of joy, we do not draw back from it, we press on in (Heb 12:18-22)
Can you see beyond your sufferings dear saint? Can you see the glory? Can you see the throne-room of His majesty? This is the garden, the Cross and the glory. Can you say with Paul that you consider the loss of all things as nothing in comparison to the excellence of the knowledge of God? To be found in Him.To know God and Him crucified and Him glorified. The man or the woman who comes out of the garden, humbled and obedient to the calling of the cross, is the man or the woman who can and will revel in the glory of God and endure the cross that is set before Him with joy. A place where the darkness of mourning should reign supreme, but is conquered by the glorious light of majesty. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.Β (Psalm 30:11-12)
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on June 21, 2019
Who is on the Lord’s side?
In Exodus 32 we read a very disturbing story. Moses leaves the people and goes up into the mountain to be with God. It was not long at all before the people come to Aaron, his brother, a priest, the religious head, and demand from him an idol to worship because Moses was seemingly gone and would not return. Aaron, rather than stand his ground, placates the people and gives them what they want. He gathers from them gold and from that gold he makes a calf, the very god that was worshiped in Egypt, and the people fall down and worship this calf as they give this false god credit for taking them out of Egypt.
We are living in a day when the Lord’s presence has all but departed from our gatherings, our meetings, our churches. The people have come to the religious leaders and demanded that they ignore divorce. They have demanded that they recognize gay marriage. They have demanded that they recognize trans-genders. Every form of sin one can imagine the people have demanded the religious leaders legitimize. And once they got it the people have risen up and played the harlot with other gods while the King of Kings is relegated to a mere afterthought and a slogan.
Now, when Moses returns and confronts Aaron, listen to what Aaron says to Moses. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf (Exo 32:24) Aaron has not only completely ignored his role in the whole affair by blaming the people, he lies through his teeth. He says that he throws all the gold that was gathered, into a fire, and out pops, as if by magic, a golden calf. Yet we know from the previous verses that this of course was not so.
And all the people break off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.(Exo 32:3-4)
You see? He fashioned the idol with a graving tool. He, very particularly created the very god that they had been delivered from, the god that was worshiped by the Egyptians and under whose name they had been enslaved and treated cruelly for hundreds of years. They had fallen back into slavery. When Moses found them they were naked, they had been involved in every kind of sexual sin as they had thrown of all the restraints of a Holy God.
Now, the religious leaders of many of today’s denominations have thrown of all restraints. All over the world we see denominations embrace sexually sinful lifestyles for the same reason that Aaron did. Aaron feared the people. He was not a leader at all, Moses was. He feared that the people would reject him or kill him so he not only gave them what they wanted, he himself crafted the very gods that the people were bowing down to and rising up to play in the name of.
We see that the punishment was severe. Three thousand were killed by the hands of the Levites. Now we know that God could have slain them, He had slain others before who had been involved in rebellion. Yet here, the Levites must decide whom they serve. Undoubtedly they were called to slay those whom they knew, family members, friends and the like. Today, we must decide whom we shall serve. We are certainly not called to kill anyone but we are called to discern with whom we shall fellowship with.
Brothers and sisters do you dwell within an organization that is run by religious leaders who have capitulated to the noisiest and basest of people? Will you partake of their sin? We know from our reading of Scripture that not all the people indulged in this rebellion. In verse 26 Moses calls to the people “Who is on the Lord’s side?” The question for Christendom today is as relevant “Who is on the Lord’s side?” Will you be found standing upon the Lord and His Word or will you be found fallen and naked before the golden calf? The rebellion that we see in the Christian camp today all over the world is as serious if not more serious than what we read in the scriptural account here in Exodus. There comes a time when you must make a stand, you must decide if you will follow the people and what seems right in their eyes or will you follow the Lord and His Word even if it means that you will be despised and rejected by the world. As Moses learned a long time before it is better to ” suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” (Heb 11:26)
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 4 Comments »
Posted by appolus on June 18, 2019
Heb 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
There is such a profound and deep truth in this scripture in regard to the subject of clergy/laity. Outside the camp, this was where the tabernacle was. the place of meeting God, the presence of God and that culminating in Jesus being sacrificed outside the camp, outside the walls.
And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.(Exo 33:7)
And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. (Exo 33:8)
Moses met face to face and the people worshiped from their tent doors. There was a distance between God and man. Moses was their intermediary. Now in our modern church system, the pastor has become the intermediary in so many cases and the people stand at a distance at their tent doors. But as a royal priesthood we were not called to worship from a far with a man in the middle, unless that man is the man Christ Jesus. We have been called to be face to face.
We see in verse 7 that “every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.” Most stayed by their tent doors within the camp. There is in an inherent risk going outside any camp, there is safety among the group, yet the ones which sought the Lord, face to face had to go outside of the camp.
Every single servant leader will point you in this direction. He will point you to Jesus, He will elevate Jesus and his greatest desire will be to see every single genuine saint come into a very deep and meaningful relationship. If possible, the servant leader would work himself out of a “job.” He would constantly be desiring to decrease so that the Lord our God would increase in the hearts and minds of the saints.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on June 1, 2019
The Church cannot be a religious theater where paid men perform for the religious amusement of the people who pay them. The Church is an assembly of redeemed people who have been called out and they are called by His own name. Moreover, He is taking out of the world a people for His name, and time waits while grace operates. The Lord says He will call out of the nations a people for His name, and after that, He will return. I am going to believe that. I am not going to let anybody argue me out of that. Then our Lord will come back, and when He comes back again, the big question will be, are we ready for His coming? I do not believe that we are automatically ready. A Bride is now being prepared for our Lord, in a secret place. The idea that there is an automatic legal aspect, that if you have your citizenship in heaven, you are all ready, I do not believe for a second. God is not going to allow His carnal, lustful, money-loving, pleasure-seeking children to go rushing pell-mell, singing gospel boogie, into the presence of the Holy God. Something radical must take place to shake them loose from their carnal appetites (A.W.Tozer)
Tozer was definitely speaking prophetically there. He says something radical must take place to shake the church loose from their carnal appetites, from the hold that the world has upon them, from the presumptuous mindset that tells them that they are ok. God is a Holy God and He is looking for people who will seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. In order to do that we must be blind to the temptations of the world and the distractions that it causes. We must have a singular eternal mindset. The lives that we live must be lived in the context of the eternal Kingdom of God. So what is this radical thing that must take place that shakes the Church loose from the grips of the world? I believe that this radical thing is that the world itself rejects the Church and turns upon all those who refuse to bow down to their gods. There is coming a dividing line and on one side is black and on the other side is white and there is no grey middle ground. This may seem like a judgement to the Church but it is in fact a mercy from Heaven. This refining fire will be God ordained and its purpose will be to make the Bride ready. Tozer says that there is a Bride being prepared “in a secret place.” Amen, I believe that. God has a remnant up and down the land and in almost every church and in every nation. The time is coming soon when they will be called out. A pure spotless Bride called out from among the religious with no walls of denominations or barriers of membership. They belong to Christ Himself. One can only imagine the gross darkness of religious gatherings when the Lord Himself removes His own from among them. The secret place is our hearts and the something radical is persecution……….bro Frank
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Posted by appolus on May 23, 2019
If they go ahead an impeach President Trump, they have set the bar so low that it will be a fatal blow to this Republic. This once proud country will be reduced to a mere banana republic where political opponents are pursued and imprisoned rather than voted out of office. I might remind the Democrats that almost 50% of the voting public voted for President Trump.
There is a tinderbox situation in the States right now. A country fractured along lines that cannot be repaired. People who want to be allowed to kill babies up to and even after birth, now call those who would like to ban all abortions “extremists.” Imagine, those who are drenched in the blood of the innocents calling those who would save the innocents lives extreme.
I believe the lines have been drawn, the hearts are set and nothing outside of God could ever bring them together. This has all the makings of a civil war. The only difference being that rather than the lower classes rising up and taking on their oppressors , it is the elite that are mobilizing their forces to crush their foes and enforce their agenda.
Now where does that leave genuine Christians? What is your role in all of this? Beware saints. This war of words and political battles are the strongholds of Satan. He desires to embroil every saint to darken their hearts and corrupt their souls. The subject matter is irrelevant to him. It is your heart and your testimony he is after.
We, as a Body, have been called to be a counter-culture, not a sub-culture. We battle not against flesh or blood, but against principalities and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. This spiritual wickedness knows that it’s time is short. This is why we see hundreds of millions of babies slaughtered in the wombs of their mothers across the world and our children being corrupted in the classrooms of the world.
The war is coming, the saints and their children are the targets of the darkness. This is the strategy of the wicked one despite it being masterfully cloaked in wars and culture wars. He is building an army to come against the saints in one last push. Think of Hitler and his wars. Yes they were political and the fall out of the first world war, but the real beating heart of Hitler was his maniacal and demonic hatred of the Jewish people.
In that time period, the very atmosphere was charged with pure evil as tens of millions of people were slaughtered all over the world. This blood-lust, this shedding of human blood was like gasoline on the fires of hell and intensified it to a degree never seen in the annals of human history.
Saint, the atmosphere we are now living in is once again being charged. Only this time it is the blood sacrifice, on a scale never even imagined in the times of Moloch, of innocent babes in the womb that is fueling this. There is a time coming soon that will be so evil that it will make the men and woman of this world long for the “quaint times” of the second world war.
The culture of death is all around us no matter where you live in this world. It is an ever growing darkness, gross darkness, and it is enveloping the world. It is so important for the saint to know that there can be no reconciling this. There can be no political victory that can save this world from impending disaster. There comes a time when we have to face up to the reality of the times in which we live.
Thinking we can somehow save the world and ourselves from this darkness is actually part of the darkness. It is the prophetic calendar that determines the outcome of all things. The Lord has given us insight through His Word what will happen in these days. His instructions to us is to put o the whole armor of God so that we may stand in the evil day.
And so that is what we have been called to for such a time as this. To stand. Stand for the truth is the day of lies. Stand for light in the day of darkness. Stand for purity when all around have been given over to a perverse mind. Stand for righteousness when wickedness abounds. Stand upon the Lord and His word when the world has gone after the devil and his lies.
None of this is for the saving of the world. We are the conscience of the world and for what is about to come upon this world , the conscience must be seared. The world will sear its conscience and we as the saints are the physical manifestation of the Lord himself and His word. So brothers and sisters, stand now, in the armor of the Lord and having done all, stand. Many who are called after His name will fall, but you stand. You will lose everything in this world for your stand in the coming days but the Lord Himself is your exceeding great reward.
God bless you my brothers and sisters for what you are about to face in the coming days and years. Stand now and you will stand for all eternity in the presence of the Living God. Fall away now and you will fall into eternal darkness forever separated from the Lord our God. The promises are to him who overcomes, to him who endures to the end.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 8 Comments »
Posted by appolus on March 27, 2019
Rom 8:1Β There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
The presence of God changes everything; it ruins us for this world brothers and sisters. It drives us deeper into the Fatherβs arms, it drives us deeper into the word of God, and it causes us to walk in holiness and to walk the narrow path. In the presence of God we can shout and rejoice even in the midst of great tribulation, this is the test of the presence of God and of those who walk in the Spirit and not the flesh.I believe that the Kingdom of God is our true reality which exists outside of time and space. We uniquely walk in both worlds, our spirit in the world of the Spirit and our flesh in this world. Each world has a draw. Since in this body we are dominated by the five senses, it has a tremendous ability to distract us make demands upon we men and women of the Spirit. Resist this world with its demands and distractions and we are drawn further into the Kingdom of God which was and is and is to come, meaning it exists in the now.
Indeed, we are always called to look away from this world and come away with the Lord to walk with Him, not according to the flesh, this world, but according to the Spirit, His Kingdom. It is from this place that we posses all victory and all the promises. Only from there can we sing the praises of Jesus despite being in a dungeon. Emptying ourselves of all worldly ambition and desires we are making room to be filled. Surrender, emptying, obedience are all stepping-stones that allow us to cross over the river Jordan and enter into His promised land to us, His rest, His Kingdom. The great saints down though the ages understood this well. They left the world behind and with eyes that could see the glory of God walked on into the glory, a place of no condemnation and a place of great purpose, the Kingdom of God.
Can I suggest to you that those who genuinely seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness are not driven from God by circumstances but are actually propelled deeper into His arms when trouble comes. They experience Him and all His beauty and majesty all the more deeply. Surely nothing can separate us from the love of the Lord? What a magnificent plan and majestic wisdom that causes the trials and the tribulations of this life to drive us deeper into the heart of God. It confounds the enemy of our souls. It is paradoxical to this world and to the flesh. The flesh cries out, the spirit bows down. The flesh demands attention and satisfaction, the spirit says not my will but thine be done. Those who are ruled by their flesh are taken up with the things of the flesh but those who seek out first and foremost the Kingdom of God mind the things of the Spirit. One is life, the other is death. One rejoices in all things, the other can only rejoice in the good things. One has a spirit of bondage to fear and anxiety and the other has the spirit of adoption whereby we can cry out to our Father in heaven and discover that no matter what our circumstances are, His grace is more than sufficient for us. Those after the Spirit revel in His grace, those who walk according to the flesh are taken captive by fear and can only find relief in alleviation from their circumstances.
What kind of saint do you desire to be this day brothers and sisters? In order to walk in the Spirit we must pass through walls of fire and bodies of water. Yet the Lord says in His word that He would be with us when we pass through the waters and when we walk through the walls of fire. Come brothers and sisters, let us enter into His Kingdom by way of entering into His sufferings, they will not destroy us, they will refine us. Isa 43:2Β When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Posted by appolus on March 18, 2019
Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Are you wearied of living in fear? Fears of all kind are the enemies of our soul, indeed oftentimes fear is the opposite of faith. In the end, fear is actually sin. I do not say that to bring condemnation upon anyone, simply to identify it and highlight how it can separate us from our relationship with the Lord. God does not condemn us in this but He would that we would live in the freedom that He has made us free with. When we run away from a situation or hide from it because of fear, it never solves the problem, it still lies in wait for us as we go around the mountain again. The obstacle must be confronted if we are to pass it by and move on upwards. Every single time we give into fear we are saying βLord, you are not Lord of my life,fear is.β And in this we recognize the fact that we are slaves to sin and not servants of God.
We cannot be slaves and free men all at the same time. If the Lord has set me free, if He has come and opened up my jail cell, what was I doing still in the cell looking out through the bars at the world? Why had I not walked through the door that the Lord had opened? Was it safer for me to stay where I had become accustomed to? Even although it was a slavish miserable place, was it still preferable to me than to go beyond the horizons of what I had ever known? Yes, for many years it was. I was like the Israelite’s, threatened by armies or thirst or starvation, who wanted to turn back to Egypt with the rationale that at least in Egypt, at least in slavery, they could count on certain things. That was me.
There comes a time in our lives when we decide that we have to get up and get out of that cell. The Lord did not open it and free us just so that we could be technically free, He wants us to be actually free. I don’t know what is keeping you in that cell this day but we both know the Lord who opened the door. He bids us to step out of the shadows of the cell and slavery and to walk out and into the light of freedom. One step at a time, one day at a time, listen and follow Him one word at a time. Step by step. As you overcome in Him you will be putting distance between you and your former cell or self. There will come a time when you will look back and be astonished how far you have come in Him and how by the power of His Spirit you have overcome. You were called to freedom. Take that first step this day and deal fear a lethal blow by being obedient to the Word of God and His still small voice.
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Posted by appolus on March 17, 2019
The first chapter of Deuteronomy is one of the most tragic chapters in the Old Testament. We see in this chapter a people redeemed from the world by the mighty arm of God. He has supernaturally led them out of Egypt and opened the very sea before them and destroyed the mightiest army in the world on their behalf. He has fed them with food from heaven, He has caused water to flow from rock to quench their thirst and He has led them directly Himself by the Holy Spirit in the form of a cloud by day and a fire by night. That fire and cloud has led them to the promised land and now God has told them to cross over and go in and possess the land. Here comes the tragedy and it mirrors the tragedy that we are living out today. They ignore the voice of God, they ignore the direction of the fire and the cloud and they form a delegation of twelve. It was not good enough that God Himself had commanded them to go in and possess the land, they now want the opinion of men. Moses, tragically, goes along with this. He picks a representative from each of the tribes of Israel and sends in twelve spies. They majority come back with a fearful report. They tell the people about how fearful the land is and how it is full of giants. So, they decide to ignore the direction of the Holy Spirit and the very word of God and follow the word and the direction of men. Only a remnant, a minority of the twelve believe and trust God and want to go in and possess the Land. Two of them to be precise. Joshua and Caleb. Now, out of that whole generation, including Moses, only two would enter into the promised land.
Today, for the most part, Christendom follows the advice and the direction of men, like the ten fearful spies. We have abandoned the fire by night and the cloud by day. We have ceased to heed Gods word and we directly violate it choosing rather to follow the traditions and directions of men. Now what happened to that generation that rejected the Word of God and the direction of the Holy Spirit in Deuteronomy chapter one? Rather than being led into the promised land by the fire and the cloud of God, they were led into the wilderness by fearful men who had allowed their fears to usurp the preeminence of God in their midst. Can I say that this is exactly the position we find ourselves in today? Christendom, for the most part, languishes in the wilderness and is led of men and not the Holy Spirit. Yet, just as in those days, God has a witness. He has a remnant of Joshua’s and Caleb’s who at some point, will lead God’s people in the last great war to possess the things that God has promised. In the latter days of this world, rather than possessing land the remnant saints will be led by the fire by night and the cloud by day into a place that the Lord has prepared for us. He will lead us to a place where we shall stand against the powers of darkness. He will lead us as a light that will shine brightly in the midst of gross darkness. He will lead His army against the giants of the principalities and powers. This mighty army will march upon its knees illuminated and guided by the fire of the Holy Spirit. This army, who loved not their lives unto death, covered by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony will be victorious over all the powers of hell and darkness and Christ will come in the very midst of it all and destroy all His enemies and rule and reign forever.
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Posted by appolus on March 4, 2019
Jer 18:2-4 Arise, and go down to the potterβs house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potterβs house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 
Will you arise and go down to the Potters house? Will you come to the Father and place yourself in His hand? Will you allow yourself to be marred and to be ruined for this world? Can you abandon yourself to His wheel and allow Him to create in you what He will? He will not compel you . He bids you come to Him with the fullness of your life, holding nothing back and allow Him to mar you, to ruin you. Will you step forward and open up your heart and allow the King of Glory to come in all of His fullness?
We come to the Lord as pieces of clay drawn from the earth. He takes us and He rearranges us. Who we once were is crushed and broken and reshaped on the potter’s wheel. Upon the potter’s wheel we are the clay. We are in His hands and there is a process. How wild it is that we, the clay, would ever question the potter? Every part of who we are as genuine saints is shaped and molded by the potter and it is all in His hands. The steps of our lives are ordered of God. We are His. Do you think saint that this fiery trial that you are going through is out-with the bounds of the potter’s wheel ? It is not. So if you are tempted this day to question the Lord about the circumstances of your life, know that every part of your life has purpose.
It is never pleasant to be thrown down upon the wheel, to be taken in His hand and crushed, to be pounded and molded into something entirely new and useful for the potters own purpose. And even then we have to consider that the firing is yet to come. The furnace into which we are placed that hardens us and makes us strong. Yet those who yield to the potters hand is in the end shaped into something marvelous. I want to encourage you today saint. There is purpose in your suffering. You are being shaped into a vessel entirely useful to your Lord.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Posted by appolus on February 17, 2019
What would you do if your house was on fire? What would you do if your loved one was diagnosed with a terminal illness? Would you simply go about your business as usual? Or, would the pressing circumstances cause you to focus on the emergency at hand? Is it not true that when you are faced with a great calamity that your typical routine is dramatically interrupted?
It is not business as usual, how can it be, your house is burning down, your loved one is dying. Suddenly your life becomes simple in a sense. All of your thoughts and energies are focused on the emergency and what is truly important becomes crystal clear to you. You don’t even notice things that normally would have bothered you, you do not have that “luxury.”
Listen to the thoughts of Rev R.B.Meyers when describing what he saw at the Welsh revival meetings. ” Young men and women crowd the churches. The keynote is Calvary-no other aspect of the work of our Lord seems to satisfy. The personality and work of the Holy Spirit are in every prayer and on every tongue. The pent-up power of Godly people which has for too long been restrained has broken loose, and before it, ministers are silenced. One minister told me that he felt that things would never again be as they had been but that the liberty of utterance would have to be conceded to during a part at least of the ordinary services to the speech of the Holy Ghost through consecrated lips.”
Do you hear what he is saying, the pent-up power of Godly people, which for too long has been restrained, had broken loose. Now, who is doing the restraining? The general thought at the time is that things could never go back to how they had been. Never again could the one man system be allowed to restrain the Holy Spirit from speaking through His people and releasing a dam of power that can shake communities and nations and indeed the world. Yet all too soon the moment was gone and the silenced ministers took back the reigns of power and the Godly people, the Royal priesthood was once again silenced.
The opening paragraph asked the question “what would you do if your house was on fire?” Do you know that the vast majority of people killed in house fires are killed because they are sleeping? They simply never wake up, they are overcome by the smoke in the atmosphere. They breathe in what is all around them and they die. The second question asked what would you do if your loved one was diagnosed with a terminal illness?
Many people do not even realize they are dying. In that case there are no opportunities to put away the normal typical routine. It is in the vested interest of the Devil himself to keep people asleep. If he can keep them asleep, if he can keep them from realizing their condition then he will much more easily be able to go about his business which is of course to destroy the church and the people of God.
Can you see the condition of the church? Is it apparent to you that the power of God is being restrained by silencing the royal priesthood? The foundations of righteousness are being destroyed and the power that could be brought to bear is being silenced by our routines and systems. If we truly believed that we are being surrounded by gross darkness and the enemy is coming in like a flood then we would raise up the standard of the Word of God that never changes and allow the power of God to be released just as it was in the Welsh revival. Sadly, most are asleep and they refuse to be woken. Pride is a powerful anesthetic. It allows the blind to remain blind and those who are at ease in Zion to remain at ease.
Those in Jerusalem believed that nothing could ever happen to them because that city housed the temple. Jesus knew otherwise. The trappings and position of ministry cause those in ministry to be at ease. Tozer said that it is very difficult to persuade a man of something when his very livelihood depends upon him not getting it. It is the clergy that causes the word of God to be restrained and anointed words go unspoken and are dammed up inside the priest.
When that which restrains is taken out-of-the-way, steps aside, then God moves with power. Only repentance and turning from our wicked ways can change this. The Body of Christ needs to be edified and all the more so as that day approaches. God has clearly laid down in the Word how the Body of Christ is to be edified. Will we humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways? It remains to be seen.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »
Posted by appolus on January 27, 2019
Is Jesus not enough? And the sad fact is that for many He is not. Can we worship the Lord Jesus and Him alone despite any outward circumstances? Many will gladly follow the Lord Jesus to the mountaintop, how many will follow Him to the cross? So many desire His blessings but not many are interested in His sufferings. We desire to feast but we shy away from the fast. We want to be clothed in garments of righteousness and beauty but we dont want to appear to this world in what they perceive to be rags.
The riches of Christ, the depths of His glory are found oftentimes in the darkness of our circumstances. The treasure is found buried in the field. The field is the word of God, Christ made flesh, and who among us will give our all to attain this field and then set about to dig, to excavate to mine? Is not the honey found within the honeycomb? The Lord has laid down the terms to purchase this field. It requires our lives and our whole hearts.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 6 Comments »
Posted by appolus on December 30, 2018
I was writing a book of devotions but have decided to put them on a specific page called “My Highest for His Glory.” I will publish three a week, one at the beginning, one in the middle of the week and one on a Friday. If you want to read them, click om the link below and then “like” the page, and feel free to share with anyone you think might need to be blessed. https://www.facebook.com/My-Highest-for-His-Glory-1520600β¦/β¦https://www.facebook.com/My-Highest-for-His-Glory-1520600074738714/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on December 6, 2018
The bones are rising in the valley
The wind of the Spirit’s drawing near
Like a flood He is raising up a standard
That sweeps away every doubt and fear
An army’s rising in the desert
A broken people devoted to His name
At their head rides the Lord of all salvation
For since they met Him they have never been the same
Their songs of battle rises to the heavens
And all the world is shaken by the noise
The gates of hell begin to crack and crumble
And the hosts of heaven marvel and rejoice
Listen closely ye soldiers of the valley
Overcomers in the name of Christ the Lord
We are marching onwards unto glory
Behind the one who ever wields the sword
So march on my brothers and my sisters
And stand now for all the world to see
In lockstep we shall ever stand together
We are marching right on to victory
For we know the outcome of the battle
And we know what surely lies ahead
For we, the army of the risen
Once lay broken, battered cold and dead
Now we are the dry bones risen
To the heights of heaven we have scaled
The breath of life came down into the valley
He breathed out life and His soldiers all inhaled.
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Posted by appolus on November 28, 2018
I thank you Lord for broken chains
I thank you Lord that our God reigns
In heaven above and the earth below
You came that all the world might know
That heaven’s gates are opened wide
And flowing waters run deep inside
And I am redeemed and forever set free
And before your throne I’ll forever be
The Lamb of God rises in my heart
The Blood of the Lamb covers every part
Of who I am and forever shall be
The Lion roars and I am free
I run to you my Lord and King
Once had no voice but now I sing
Like a bird that rises on the eternal breeze
To the one who loves and forever frees
I thank you Lord for your holiness
I thank you Lord when I’m in distress
That you are there like you said you would
And in the depths of me I am understood
The Lamb of God rises in my heart
The Blood of the Lamb covers every part
Of who I am and forever shall be
The Lion roars and I am free
The Lion roars and I am free
The lion roars and I am free
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Posted by appolus on November 18, 2018
There are Christians who are immature and always will be. They are Christians who are tossed to and fro like a wave on the ocean, running from one thing to the other, and then oftentimes back to the same thing, Christians who are continually circling around the mountain but never making any upward progress. There are believers who take two steps forward then meet a serious obstacle and take three steps back.
There is of course the reasonably rare jewel. Slowly but surely they move forward. Obstacles come yet they apprehend the power of God and actually grow in the situation.. Any backward motion or plateau is deeply felt and mourned over and repented of. Refining fires do not cause them to fall back but merely burn away the flesh bringing them ever closer to their Lord. Even in the most dire situations, when faced with personal tragedy and loss, they can say with Job “even if He kill me, yet will I trust Him.”
This of course, is the narrow path. Many are called to this path, but few there are who find it. Only by the Spirit of God can one remain on this path. You will recognize the saint who walks this path, who has walked through fire and flood. He or she does not speak with thee’s or thou’s nor in pious tones that keeps others away with their aloofness. The saint who has been tried by God is eminently approachable and much more interested in others than him or herself.
The saint who has surrendered to the broken process is like a sweet aroma, full of love and forgiveness for they are all too aware of how much they are loved and have been forgiven themselves. Heb 5:8 “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” What has suffering taught you saint? Have you learned to be more obedient? Are you closer to the Lord than when you first began? Have you traveled deeper into the heart of God?
A mature saint is a beautiful thing for he or she reflects the light of the Lord into a dark and broken world. If you could see your Christian life as a graph from beginning to now, would the line have a general trend upwards? It should. The thrust of our life should be Christlike, this is our reasonable service as servants of the most High God. It’s never too late for the saint to learn or surrender to the learning process. And no matter what stage we are at in our walk with the Lord we must always be learning and delving ever deeper into the “knowledge,” of the truth. This is not a head knowledge but rather it is an intimate intertwining of our hearts with His which leave us more and more like Jesus.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 8 Comments »
A Call To The Remnant 