Job 2:10 ….shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?
Brothers and sisters, this matter drives at the very heart of who we are. We are much more likely to discover who we are in the depths of adversity, than in any other state. So much energy in Christendom is expended in the stand against adversity. Rather than embrace it, as we certainly embrace the good, we fight it, often with everything that is in us. The adversity, and how it affects us, becomes the towering idol in our lives. Shall God not praised in any circumstances? Shall He not always be our primary focus? Should our eyes ever be moved from a gaze upon Him? In all my years walking through the corridors of Christianity, this single issue is the most pervasive. Our attitude towards infirmity or dire circumstances ultimately shape us and identify us. The fundamental core of who we are must be, whether we live or whether we die we shall praise the living God. Every other issue, if it is allowed, draws us away from God and towards ourselves. Rather than being fixated with God, we become fixated on ourselves and our circumstances.
In this verse Job addresses his wife. She, because of their circumstances, expresses what happens when circumstances are more important than God. She encourages her husband to curse God, abandon God, abandon his faith, abandon his life. For her, the circumstances of their life was more important than God Himself. She is a foolish woman and has been branded as such in the eternal word of God. Paul learned to be content whether he was hungry or full, in sickness or in health, in liberty or in the dungeon. He learned this. He learned that all loss, is mere rubbish, in comparison to being found in Him. In the end brothers and sisters the only thing that matters is being found in Him. Everything else, if we allow it, is idolatry. It is the curse of the last one hundred years that much of what identifies itself as Christianity, demands that God heals them and prospers them. This is the foundation of their so called faith. Madness and foolishness to stake your faith on the circumstances of your life rather than the holiness of a God who not only gives us good things, but also gives us adversities. Shall you accept that saint, or shall you rage against God and die in the wilderness?
Outside of God there is no moral authority, without Him everything begins to come apart at the seams. We become a law unto ourselves where the ends, the vain imaginations of our own dark hearts, justify the means. Abortion is the primary example of our lawlessness. The ideologies of feminism and rights and freedoms, come together like a ghastly witches brew. In order to believe that there is something higher than the sanctity of life, then we have to elevate ourselves to be gods. If our lives are so important that it justifies the taking of another life, and not just any other life, the life of our own child, nestled in the womb, then we have reached a level of idolatry not seen since the ancient world.
In Lamentations chapter four we see women greedily consume their own children in order to save their own lives. They, of course, did not arrive at that soulless place overnight. This is the ends result of idolatry not the beginning of it. This is why we in the modern world are at the end of our rejection of God and His ways. We have reached our zenith but it is not to be measured in height, rather the abyss is to be measured in depth and darkness. To the world, God is dead, and they are no longer bothered or bound by His Word.
Having abandoned God and rejected Him out of hand, we have also, necessarily, rejected absolute truth. The new laws that we make in this state spring forth from the wicked imaginations of dark hearts. So therefore there is no depth or bottom to our depravity. The only measure is the darkness of the human heart which we know is deceitfully wicked. We are not just rebels, we are wicked and the vain imaginations of our heart are wicked and it was only ever somewhat restrained by the notion of an eternal judgement to come. Therefore, when we throw off the notion of God and eternal judgement then the bowels of hell itself are loosed.
The complicating factor in the west at least, is that at the very same time we have abandoned God we still claim to serve Him. Since we worship and serve ourselves, we proclaim our ideologies to be Godly, to be an expression of the God we claim to serve. In the ultimate act of perversion we say, in our willful self delusion, that we are moral and our ideologies are moral. We hijack the word and actually use it against anyone who dares to stand against our opinion. Now it is no longer possible to simply disagree with someone, that someone is challenging your very deity and they are therefore immoral and irredeemable.
These people, living outside of God, are lawless and will crush anyone who does not worship the god made in their own image. Politics begins to get infused with theological words for truly it is the religion of the world. Now every foul force, living out their Godless lives, claims God as their author and creator and in a sense they are right, but its not the God of the Bible and absolute truth, its their own god made in their own image. When the most powerful man in the world pronounces that the freedom to murder children is a God given right, then you can no doubt hear the creaking of the gates of hell as they are flung open.
The freedoms that men believe they have, quite apart from a just God and an eternity where justice is established and completed, is tearing men to pieces. How could it do anything otherwise? All of this is for the grasping of power and control and an independence from the Living God. The very desire of the devils heart. Men must choose for the time draws near. We either worship God and follow Him, or we worship ourselves and we follow that dark descending road that leads all the way to the bottom of the abyss.
Job 2:3……….. and still he holds fast his integrity.
We see here the progression of God’s truth about Job and the exposing of the lie of Satan. Job has just lost every single possession he owned in the world. All of his children had just been wiped out. And when he hears of this he famously replies ” naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return : the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” I want to suggest that this is the high water mark of service to the God that we love above and beyond all other things. God himself says, that even after all these things “still he holds fast his integrity.” God is impressed with His servant and we see this only makes the Devil angrier. The love of God for His servants and their love for Him, even in the face of terrible loss and tragedy only makes the enemy of our soul even angrier.
Have you suffered loss brothers and sisters? Can you say with all of your heart “blessed be the name of the Lord.” This is what Job says in the midst of worshiping His Lord. To be supernaturally enabled to walk this kind of walk we must have eternal vision. We must have glimpsed something of His majesty and His glory. This is no mere stoic behavior in the midst of profound loss, this is love and glory and majesty and vision. It is not natural. If it were natural and all we had in this world were the things of this world then we would join with Job’s wife and curse God for our losses. No brothers and sisters, this is supernatural. For those who have eyes to see what the Spirit sees, we see a magnificent eternal horizon set ablaze by the impenetrable light of Christ. Remember this. The very thing that God commends, that Job still holds fast to his integrity, is the very thing his wife challenges. She says to him “do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Remember brothers and sisters, oftentimes those who are closest to you, whether it be your friends or a loved one, may be the ones who challenge you the most. For in the end, it is but you and God. This wilderness that to one degree or another every saint finds himself in, is the testing ground. It is about identity. How will you come out of the wilderness? Jesus’ identity was tested in the wilderness by the devil himself. Your identity will be tested to by the same enemy. In the end, we are identified by who we serve and who we love above all other things. This wilderness will identify if you love God above all other things. Will you hold fast to your integrity? In the deepest depths of the darkness will you “fall down and worship God?” The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Even if He slay me, yet shall I trust Him. This is the finest gold forged in the hottest furnace. This gold will adorn the temple of God not built by human hands.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one that fears God, and shuns evil?
Satan hated Job. He hated Job because he knew what God thought about His servant. God thinks about His sons and daughters the same way He thought about Job. Satan also hated Job because Job was indeed what the Lord had said about him. He was happy in his service to God, content to be a servant of the most high God. Pleased to be pleasing to God. Job was everything that Satan was not. And so, if you walk with God with purity of heart you will indeed incur the wrath of the enemy or those in his employment. They will hate your joy for they have none. They will hate your sincerity and your purity for they have none. Your witness of the righteousness of God reflects upon their unrighteousness.
If you study the Salem witch trials, many of those accused were the Godliest women in the villages. Oh how Satan and the wicked hate the man or the woman of God. Hated by the darkness because the light in you highlights the darkness in them. It is our role brothers and sisters. Our righteousness in Christ reflects upon the wickedness of this world. And as the world grows darker and more bold, then so we, the Light of this world (for Christ dwells in us) shall be tried and tested. The stripping away. The tearing down. Until all there is left is the truth. And the truth is this, that in the eyes of God we are blameless and we love Him even at the loss of all things. A total refutation of the lie that dared to be uttered before the throne. God is true and all men and devils are liars. Let the truth in your life stand brothers and sisters, for in this, we are a witness, which is what we were called to be.
Act 27:10 And said unto them, men, I perceive that this voyage will end withe disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives.
A stark warning indeed. Have you ever had a warning that you ignored? Maybe it was a check in your spirit or a direct word from a brother or sister? The centurion in this case, decided to go with the experts, the helmsman and the owner of the ship. The majority were persuaded and off they went. Human logic can be very helpful and common sense typically serves us well. Here we have a tent-maker saying one thing and the helmsman and the owner of the ship saying another. The majority went with the experts.
Isn’t that typically the case in our world? We listen to experts. It might be doctors or lawyers. It might be politicians or financial advisors. Yet in everything, to discount the word of God can be very dangerous. That word might come from the Bible. Perhaps the still small voice. Perhaps a word of wisdom from a brother or sister, perhaps even a prophecy. Yet in the end, many fall back and rely on the word and opinion of so called experts. In verse 13 of Acts 27 we see a very typical scenario play out. All seems well at first. A south wind blew, a favorable wind, seemingly confirming what the experts had said. Yet before very long, the scenario Paul had laid out began to come to pass. For fourteen long days they were tossed violently in a huge storm. All seemed lost. Now, men are ready to listen to the man of God.
The man of God has a vision and spoke with confidence. They were all going to live. Yet the most dramatic moment was just about to unfold. Paul demanded that they cut the skiff loose. It seemed to make no sense. Often times in our lives we are called upon by God to do things that make no sense in the natural. In the vital moment, will you follow the direction of God? Will you abandon your common sense and the words of experts and follow blindly the advise from God? Paul brakes bread at the height of the disaster and gives thanks to God. Can you give thanks to Almighty God even when all seems lost? Following His direction and giving thanks to God releases power, supernatural power. Follow His leading today brothers and sisters, and He will guide you to where He wants you go.
Act 21:13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
How many times, brothers and sisters, have we been advised by saints not to do this or to do that? Everywhere Paul went it was clear that all knew that when he went to Jerusalem that he would suffer. Yet Paul was of a different sort. He knew right from the beginning that he would suffer. Never tell anyone not to do something just because you “know,’ it will not end well. It may not end favorably as we measure it by the flesh or by our own emotions, but the providence of God overrides what we believe to be right or wrong.
Oftentimes we are simply adding to the difficulty of the one we are trying to help. No doubt Paul, like the rest of us, would have had fears and apprehensions about what was to happen to him when he went to Jerusalem. In his spirit he was bound and determined to go for he was “ready not only to be bound but also to die.” I think if we do not have that kind of spirit, we must never try and persuade someone not to do something on the basis of our love for them or the fact that we would never do what they are now bound and determined to do. Our love for someone and our emotions, cannot be allowed to override the direction of another. That other is the servant of the most High God and God alone must determine his fate.
If we are going to err, let us err on being determined to serve God no matter what. If someone is dying of cancer, don’t tell them what to do. If someone is going to move half way around the world with their family, to a dangerous country, do not advise them not to. Jim Elliot died on the remote bank of a river in the middle of nowhere. Imagine you knew that before he left to go to the jungle. Is it your job to dissuade him? In your human reasoning you it makes no sense, but of course Jim was willing to be bound or to die for the cause of Christ. Who could ever have foretold how that story would end, how the whole tribe would be saved, how the very man that killed him would be saved. The providence of God. The mysterious works of God. All He needs is willing servants who “love not their lives unto death,’ but rather, who stand upon the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
As He is, so are we in the world. Let that sink in for a second brothers and sisters. As He is, so are we, in the world. This does not mean we are Christ, as erroneously taught by charlatans and wolves. No one loved more than Jesus. He loved His heavenly Father. He loved the multitudes. He loved the lost. He came to set sinners free. He came to set the captives free. He came to be the expression of His Fathers love for the world and He proved this in glorious fashion on the cross. Now, those who know Jesus, who have the Spirit of God dwelling in them, love the Father, love what God loves. They fear God but they are not afraid of God. The world should be afraid of God. They should tremble at the thought of standing before God at the judgment seat.
Yet brothers and sisters, we are not afraid to stand before the judgement seat of God. Perfect love has cast out that fear. We are taught that “we may have boldness in the day of judgement.” For the unsaved world there shall be torment for they do not know the love of God because they do not love God. Yet we, who have responded to God’s great love, expressed on Calvary, shall rather, boldly approach the throne because as He is, so are we. We are one in Christ as He and the Father are one. This great love shall have its expression in this world. They shall know us by our love for one another. They shall now us by our love for the lost. They shall know us because we shall love what God loves. Most of all, we shall be known for our love for God. Our grand obsession shall be for Jesus. We are Jesus lovers.
And whether we are rich or poor, whether we are in sickness or in health, for better or for worse, none of that shall change our love. Whether we live, or whether we die, we shall glorify God. In sickness Jesus says to Paul, in his answer to his prayer for healing “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul is so affected by this that He responds “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Who today seeks this kind of power? Those who know “that as He is, so are we in the world.” No one suffered more than Jesus, yet we are called to “rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” (1Pet 4:13) When Christ is revealed, not only shall we not be afraid, we shall be glad with exceeding joy. With boldness we shall stand in the day of judgement “because as He is, so are we.”
Act 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
For almost four years, Paul warned, night and day, with tears, of the wolves that will come from outside of the Body of Christ, and those false prophets who would rise up within its ranks. From without and from within. The powers of hell and all of its fury would rise up in opposition to the children of God. If any saint thinks that this was just for that time, they would obviously be mistaken. In the last one hundred years, I would argue , the activity of the wolves and the false prophets have never been more active. Tearing away at the fabric of the truth, despising those who hold to it and warring against the Word of God. An all out assault on every front that has indeed led to the great falling away. Charismatic craziness. Word of faith, prosperity gospel, cheap grace. Adoption of the standards of the world. Dead denominationalism. And so the barrage rains down. In war, prior to an attack, there will be a bombardment from artillery. This is a sure sign to the soldiers that a full frontal attack is imminent. The bombardment was to soften them up.
The country of Israel have what is known as the iron dome. It is like a shield, a force field, that intercepts incoming missiles and stops them from reaching their target. We too, brothers and sisters, have such a defense. It is the truth. The Word of God. And when it is in place in our lives we are safe from the attacks of the enemy. Though lies and perversions rain down upon humanity and they are slowly destroyed by it, we who stand under the banner of faith and upon the solid ground of the truth, shall not be moved nor destroyed. When God struck the Egyptians with a darkness, a gross darkness that was so “thick,” that it could be felt, the Israelites had light in their dwellings. We too have light in our dwellings. The light of Christ that dwells in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has commanded light to shine forth from darkness. You are that light brothers and sisters. Through these earthen vessels light shall shine forth and rivers of living waters shall flow.
What are we intended to be? We are intended to be in our experience, in our spiritual life, in our presence here, a living proof that Jesus is the Son of God, not just declare this as a tenet of our faith and creed, but to be here as children of God growing up into Sonship (T.A.Sparks)
Is there a difference between those who declare the tenets of our faith and who agree upon the creeds, and those who are sons and daughters of God ? A living reality as opposed to a set of truths. The Galatians are a great example. Paul says to them “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another…………..but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any gospel to you than which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” This is intense. Paul is leaving no room for doubt. Anything other than Spirit led experiential transformation, is a gospel of works and is perverse and no gospel at all and those who teach it are accursed by God Himself.
The works of the law were being presented to the Galatians by those from Jerusalem. They had begun in the Spirit but now they were resting on the flesh, the works of the law. Paul calls them fools who have been bewitched. In most of modern day Christendom it is not the works of the Jewish law that bewitches men, although there are whole sects of folks who will tell you that you must keep the law and the feasts and so on. No, it is our own mental assent to orthodoxy that has replaced the living reality of sons and daughters of Christ. No experience necessary. A mental assent to a series of abstract truths is all that matters. This represents to the genuine believer today, what the Judaizers were to Paul and the saints. It is in conflict with the saints. It is amazing that the same truth can be what divides us. One is a living example of it, the other is a mere professor of it. And the one who professes it almost always resents and comes against the one who has been changed by it from the inside out.
How many times has it been said to you, in a resentful fashion, when you give your testimony of being born again “well, I never had any such experience, I just grew up in the church.” Or, if you relate any kind of supernatural experience and transformation there are any number of people who will resent you. Sparks says this ” our testimony must not be …I was brought up in a Christian home, and sent to Sunday school and taken to church and instructed in these things and given a sound Bible teaching. There has to be something more than that.” Of course, the something more is Christ Himself burning at the center of who are by the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not share abstract truth, we share a living experiential Jesus. Anyone can agree that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The devil himself knows that to be true. What the world needs to hear is a first hand account of the living Christ living in us, speaking to us, leading us and guiding us and changing us.
Brothers and sisters, we are a living proof of the risen Christ. We share with people who we know, not what we know. Now, can a man or a woman come to Christ by the Spirit of God and then fall away into mere orthodoxy, relying on the arm of the flesh to come to maturity? Yes indeed. Of course they never shall come to maturity. Teachers of every stripe will woo you away, they will want you to be zealous for them. Your church shall replace Jesus. Your pastor shall replace Jesus. Your favorite teacher will replace Jesus. Only by continuing on in the Spirit can you grow from mere babes in Christ into maturity and sons and daughters. Why is so much of Christendom stuck on the rudimentary elements, sharing milk week after week? It is because they have replaced the living reality of the Spirit of God with the mere orthodoxy of men. The orthodoxy and the truth of it is not the matter here, for genuine Spirit filled and Spirit led saints will be among the most orthodox people you will ever meet. The matter is being Spirit led.
The path of least resistance is to tick the boxes of orthodoxy without being a living reality of what that very orthodoxy teaches. It is one thing to believe that we have been called to be salt and light, it is quite another thing to actually be salt and light. You see the difference? Now apply that to every other aspect of what we believe. In order to live out what we believe we have to be led forward by a very real Holy Spirit. In almost every church up and down the land the folks are led, not by the Holy Spirit, but rather by men, who, for the most part will be teaching orthodox teaching of the basic kind. The systems of men has become another Gospel. It is like the sacraments in the Catholic church. Vacuous rituals devoid of any power. The words and the teachings and the sermons of much of Christendom, devoid of the actual power of the Holy Spirit, have become nothing more than sacramental activity, promising something without the power to deliver.
Sons and daughters of the Lord will always be in conflict with the merely religious. A mental assent is no match for a living reality. One has power and the other has a mere appearance. One is playing a character, the other is the real person. We used to say, back in the day, that there were no grandchildren in the Kingdom of God, only sons and daughters. Christendom has been swallowed up by the grandchildren. By osmosis and an accident of birth, there are millions of false professors all over the world and yet we know the words of Jesus from Matt 22 “many are called but few are chosen.” The many that are called prove themselves to be unworthy of the calling by the fact that they consider the calling a mere religious adornment. They busy themselves with the things of the world and disqualify themselves. Therefore, God finds for himself the few. He clothes them in righteousness and this clothing is worn to the marriage feast.
In the days to come, the divisions will become much deeper, much more apparent. The lifeless orthodox church will become more and more powerful as they ally themselves to the world and its system. It will reach its zenith in the one world system to come. The great whore church and the one world order will unite in an unholy alliance against the saints who shall refuse to acknowledge their authority and the authority if the evil one to come. The delusion shall be so great that only those sons and daughters, led by the Holy Spirit, will be able to see what the rest of the world cannot see or refuses to see. The marriage feast is coming brothers and sisters and only those clothed in the righteousness of God that is attained by the power of the Holy Spirit shall enter, the few. The many, in an attempt to save their lives here in this world, will lose their eternal lives in the world to come. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Psa 13:2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long shall I suffer Lord? Every day I search my heart and reason within me and yet I find nothing, only sorrow and suffering continually. David is at a loss. He has no one else to turn to. The comforts that he had known before have fled him. The good man suffers greatly in his affliction. He searches himself and tries to find remedy and yet there is none. At the very same time he knows that God is good and greatly to be praised. The knowledge of this adds to the mans sorrows for in his heart he knows it is a madness to complain before God. It goes against his spiritual DNA, and so we come to this place of crying out. God hears your cries.
Brothers and sisters. Are you in this place? Have you been in this place? It is like a certain spiritual death where sleep may overwhelm us. David cries out to God to consider him and bring light to his eyes. A certain kind of malaise, a melancholy has insidiously crept in. And now he cries out for light. He reminds himself that he has trusted in the mercy of God. He remembers how the Lord, in all of his ways, has dealt bountifully with him and this causes him to sing unto the Lord. Trust in the Lord your God brothers and sisters. Cry out to Him, do not remain silent. Remind yourself of how far the Lord has brought you and how much grace and mercy He has given to you. I cannot say how much longer you may suffer, but we know this. We know that no one suffered more than our Lord and that He also felt the despair of being seemingly abandoned. Rejoice in your salvation today, for the Saviour of your soul knows and sees your suffering. He committed His Spirit into the hands of His Father, you do the same.
Act 19:2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?
How could something so simple, become so controversial? Paul is asking some disciples he happened upon in a certain region if they had received the Holy Spirit. Every professing Christian must ask themselves the same question. The answer will be between them and the Lord and the Word. How honest these disciples were , they say they have never even heard of such a thing as the Holy Spirit. That very ignorance was to them an advantage, and our modern day knowledge of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God can actually work against us. We have head knowledge of the Holy Spirit, we can read about Him and be taught about Him and not deny Him and somehow this passes for having received Him.
In Matt 3:11 we see that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. What does that mean to you? Jesus says in Acts 1:5 that not many days from now you shall be “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” In verse 8 Jesus tell us that we would receive power and become witnesses after the Holy Spirit has come upon us. In Acts 2 we see those gathered together in the upper room be baptized with the Holy Spirit as represented with tongues of fire, fulfilling Matt 3:11. In Act 4:31 we see the disciples filled again. In Acts 6 we see that Stephen was “full of the Spirit.” In Acts 10 we see the Gentile believers receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then of course in Acts 19 we see those who have never even heard of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We see this doctrine fundamentally established over and over again. And of course there were signs of such a baptism. I would argue that boldness was the primary sign, boldness and power to be a witness. Other signs are well documented, among them being tongues and prophecy.
Now brothers and sisters, these things cannot be denied. To deny them is to deny Scripture. So the question remains “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” It is a fundamental question and only you can answer it. Without this baptism you shall be powerless. You cannot possibly be a witness for Christ on the earth without this power, and these are the Lords own words. With the evil day fast approaching we must know that we have oil in our lamps. We shall not be able to stand without it. Without it we shall stand in darkness. Only by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit can we be a light to the world and a witness to the Kingdom of God. We cannot possibly stand in our own strength. We can do many things by our own might and power and much of Christendom is established upon the might and power of men. Yet, what men establish, men can tear down. That which is established by the Spirit cannot be moved for it is founded upon the solid Rock of Christ.
Act 18:6 And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.
God will not always strive with men. I think we forget that in the days in which we live. Paul testified to the Jewish people in Corinth and they “opposed him and blasphemed.’ At this point he confronted them and told them clearly “your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean.” Let us observe two things from Acts 18. First Paul was “compelled,’ by the Spirit to share the Gospel with the Jewish population in Corinth. And after he was obedient to that calling, and the message was not only rejected but was rejected with blasphemy, the sharing was over. We are not called to promote blasphemy in men. Men have free will and have a perfect right to reject God. Then, Jesus Himself appears to Paul and tells him not to be silent. He was to preach the Gospel to those who would have ears to hear, the gentiles, and not to worry what the Jewish people would do to him. And what was the antidote to the obvious fear Paul must have had? “For I am with you.’ The presence of God gives us the courage to share the gospel where we are led to share.
The key thing, brothers and sisters is this. In the sharing of the Gospel we must walk in the presence of God and be led by His Spirit. We must know when to speak and who to speak to. We are certainly not called to continue to cast our pearls before swine and have God blasphemed. This may be the greatest challenge to the saints of our generation. We live in a day an age of unabashed wickedness. I would argue that we are living in a Romans chapter one age. What do I mean by that? There is a time when God can give a man up to his own “vile affections.” These two words in the Greek mean “infamous disgraceful passions.” I would further argue that we are living in such a time when a whole generation around the world have been given over to a reprobate mind. This word reprobate in verse 28 of Romans means ” worthless, castaway, rejected.’ As with Paul, we must be led by the Spirit of God in everything we do and say, and not say, if this indeed is the direction of the Holy Spirit.
The marvelous thing about being led by the Spirit is the direction, oftentimes precise direction. God may well have you share with someone who appears to be the vilest of all, yet God alone knows the hearts of men which is why we must be able to say “He is with me.” We must be able to hear His still small voice. We must believe that the steps of a righteous man are ordered of God. Speak to one man, “shake you garments,” over another man, God knows. Mat 10:14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. That dust shall be as a witness to those who despise the Gospel and blaspheme it. The time is short brothers and sisters, with His presence and His direction, use the time that we have left wisely. The good news is for those who know they are sick, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Mark 2:17) Those who are righteous in their own eyes and have no need for a Saviour, shall not find the Lord.
We are people of the Word, of the Spirit and who have a singular passion and His name is Jesus. We are the way and the faith and we are to be found everywhere, from every culture and from every color and from every background. A carved out people, called out of darkness into His marvelous light. Living a simple life of purity and total dedication to Jesus that cuts across cultural traits and transcends centuries of behaviors, it is the calling of the Spirit. We are sons of daughters brought to glory by the Kings of Kings.
This is what the enemy hates above all. Our calling from God. We, who were not a people, now sons and daughters of God in a mysterious royal priesthood. There are many pretenders. Many are called, few are chosen. Only something original and valuable is ever counterfeited. Satan has done some of his best work in counterfeiting the saints. Yet upon close inspection, his imposters (who do not know they are imposters, the best deception is when the deceived have no idea they are deceived) are lacking in two primary and absolutely vital aspects of genuine Christianity. Passion for Jesus, a grand obsession that eclipses everything else in life, and primarily , the Holy Spirit who gives such a passion.
It is not children that God is looking for, it is sons and daughters. We come as children, we grow into sons and daughters. He is looking for those who go on to maturity. He has no pleasure in those who turn back. No pleasure in those who start out with gladness but have no root and when the sun comes up, when the trials of life come, what little root they have withers in the shallow ground. No pleasure in those who get choked and caught up in the cares of this life and the desire for riches and they are without fruit. Yet there is good ground and God loves it. A ground that was no longer fallow, a ground that had the rocks and the stones and the clods removed. A ground that was tilled. Good servants, good soil, sons and daughters, much fruit.
The days are growing darker brothers and sisters. The great whore church is rising, stocked by the great falling away. The flesh wars against the spirit. The flesh has risen up to dizzying new heights and it is nearing its zenith. The time for all out war against the saints is at hand. We are people of the truth and the truth shall be the primary weapon. First to identify us and then to destroy us. Truth shall be banished and the lie shall be crowned in its place. All shall be made to worship the lie. Only the sons and daughters shall not. They shall never bow down to the gods of this world and the gods of this world are rising. They are corrupting our children and an army shall rise. A generation that shall be without natural affection. They shall be false accusers and fierce with it, totally sold out to their corruptions and they shall despise what is good. They will be proud and boastful and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and all the time having a warped form of Godliness.
Yet, for the sons and daughters of God, it will be their finest hour. The same Spirit that burned in the hearts of the three Hebrew children burn in ours. We shall never bow down to the gods of this world and we shall experience the presence of God as we have never done before nor any generation that has proceeded us. Jesus shall be with us in the midst of the fire. He shall raise us up to higher ground as the enemy comes in like a flood. His banner shall fly and flutter in the wind of the Spirit over every bloody battle-field around the world and thus His glory shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. All the world shall witness this, the Kingdom of God in operation, so that they are without doubt and without excuse, and then comes the Son of Man in all His glory.
Act 15:39 And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
This is a well known incident. Paul and Barnabas fall out with each other, so much so that they change their plans and Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus leaving Paul behind. The plan had been to go back and revisit the brothers and sisters in every city and encourage them. It was a good plan, but the personalities of these very Godly men got in the way of the plan that very well was their own. Has this ever happened to you? Has you temper or some other personality trait caused you to fall out with someone and it seems that you have completely blown it? I have lost count over the last thirty years how many times it seems that I have “stepped on,’ the plan of the Lord. It never left me unaffected, quite the opposite. I would aid and abet the enemy in beating me up.
I am sure that as Paul watched Barnabas and Mark sail away, he must have regretted his “sharp contention,’ with his dear brother in the Lord. They had been through so much together. Barnabas must have looked back as the ship sailed away and had similar thoughts, the Holy Spirit, no doubt, convicting both for their parts in the contention. Yet I want you to see something. Despite us, despite our many failings, God has a plan and He is working it out. Paul decides to take Silas in the place of Barnabas. Little did not Paul know that he and Silas were about to live out one of the most famous incidents in the New Testament. Very shortly after leaving, they find themselves in the bowels of a dungeon, whipped to within an inch of their lives and in stocks.
And despite the previous failings of Paul, we see God had a plan. I believe that plan was for the jailer and his whole family to be saved. Silas was probably the perfect guy for this job. We find them both praising the Lord at the midnight hour and all the prisoners listening to them and then, a great earthquake. God came down. The doors flew open and the men, taken by the presence of God no doubt, stayed right there in their cells. The jailer, supposing the very opposite is about to kill himself but instead he gets saved and all of his family and goes on to have a house church in that city. Gods plan. Remember, God had forbidden them to preach the word in Asia, they also being refused permission to go to Bithynia. Then they had a vision of a man pleading for them to come to Macedonia. You see how every step of the way, God had a plan and He was bringing it to pass? Paul and Silas were on a need to know basis. Brothers and sisters, more often than nought we are on a need to know basis. I would imagine that knowing they were going to be scourged and put in stocks would not have helped them along.
If you have messed up and missed the mark, take heart brothers and sisters. You have no idea what God has in store for you. He uses imperfect individuals to carry out His perfect will. It is always about His plan and never about ours. We may go crashing ahead sometimes with what seems to be right, and yet it is completely wrong, its is simply our own plan. God will interrupt our plans. He will use what is useful to Him and bring you to where He wants you to be. My only advice is to listen for the direction or as in this case, the redirection of the Holy Spirit. Stay humble and broken and contrite and no matter what, move in forgiveness. Be quick to forgive those that have wronged you. After all, we are but vessels in the hands of the Lord, and if we are quick to forgive then He is faithful and just and merciful to forgive us. In the end, it is all His work and it is all His glory and it is His story. Keep walking brothers and sisters, God will use you.
1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Before we knew the Lord we dwelt in darkness. We were called out of that darkness into the marvelous light of Christ Himself. In darkness we were not a chosen generation, we were a condemned people. Now in the light of Christ we are His chosen generation. In darkness we were no priests, yet now in His marvelous light we are royal priests in a royal priesthood. In darkness we did not belong to God, yet in His light we are now His peculiar people. That does not mean we are odd or strange, it means we are purchased and privileged, we are exclusively His. And by virtue of belonging to God we have been called to publish and to celebrate the one to whom we belong. The words “shew forth,’ is ex-ang-el’-lo. We are His angels so to speak, His messengers, called to go forth and praise Him and tell the world of the glory of God who called us.
Brother, sister. This is who your are. The devil himself will come against you with a fury when you walk in your true identity. That word we hear so much about today, identity, so much lies surround it in regard to gender and so on, the truth of that is self evident and needs no elaboration. The real battle lies in the true identity of the saints. We indeed changed identities. We were once dead in sin and now we are alive in Christ. We once dwelt in darkness with no heavenly purpose, now we dwell in His marvelous light with a singular eternal purpose. We have been called out to “shew forth,’ His praises. To noise abroad His glory. To shout from the rooftops of His majesty. To witness to a dying world the Kingdom of God and its King. We once walked in our unholiness and now we walk in His holiness. And as we walk in such light, as He is in the light then we shall have fellowship with others of the light. We are one, brothers and sisters as He and the Father are one, and in that we behold His glory.
Everything about my faith was an experience. The most dramatic of which was the day I surrendered. A day that will live in infamy for my flesh, never to be forgotten. A day of great rejoicing for my spirit, never to be forgotten. I have experienced love, I have experienced joy, I have experienced forgiveness. I have experienced transformation. I have experienced cleansing. I experienced opposition. I experienced warfare. Obviously you see the word that comes up over and over again. Experience. I knew nothing of doctrine when I was got saved. I knew nothing of the Scriptures nor did I know the great essentials of the faith, but I now knew Jesus. He spoke to me, I experienced that. He taught me, I experienced that. He led me and He guided me, I experienced all of that. After about seven months I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and this was a whole other level of experience.
If you climb to the top of a mountain, it is a very definite experience. It separates you from all others who have not. It joins you to all others who have. You can read books about climbing, and watch videos and documentaries and be filled with head knowledge about it, but unless you have experienced the peak then you are not a mountaineer. Sit among a group of them and discuss climbing, they will soon figure out you are not a climber. By the same token, listen to a group of climbers speak about climbing and you will be able to pull up a chair and sit down with them, if you yourself are a climber. It is that way with the Body of Christ. It is a mysterious thing, a spiritual reality birthed in actual experience. New creatures in Christ recognize each other, they speak the same language.
Those of the head knowledge persuasion are dead set against the word “experience.’ Theologians and schoolmen and whole denominations have made themselves the deadliest enemy of experience. And on the other side there are those who endlessly speak about their own personal experiences such as roaring like lions and rolling around the floor or barking like dogs. Both of these sides serve a common purpose for the enemy of the saints. To tear down the Body of Christ, those who have actually experienced transformation. Tick six boxes of mental assent to abstract truth on one side, or get dirty rolling on the floor with the other. None of this means anything in the end. For those who have scaled the lofty heights and peaks of glory, in encountering God, live on and in their experiences walking with Jesus and transformation. The Word of God is His magnificent roadmap that leads us home through valley and mountaintop. And no matter the lofty heights or peaks or the chains and dungeon, those who have encountered Jesus, experienced Jesus, experience joy inexpressible and there rests upon them the Spirit of God and of glory.
A Call To The Remnant 