My hope is in the Christ that dwells within my heart. It also lies within my Lord who quenches every dart The Christ who came and died for me and raised me from the dead And who for you and me , gladly died and bled My hope is in the Lord my God who whispers in my ear The Christ who by His very walk conquered every fear The Christ who showed me how to live and also how to die The Christ who taught me how to run and also how to fly He is my sunrise in the morning at the breaking of the dawn And by His hand transformed me and forever He holds on He is my sunset in the evening at the end of every day He came to show me how to walk, to walk a different way He is the beginning and the end and everything in between He is the power that transformed me, by His Blood I was made clean Rising from the ashes of sin and death and hell He raised me up to where He was and there forever I shall dwell.
Archive for the ‘The presence of God’ Category
Rising from the ashes.
Posted by appolus on May 20, 2021
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, God's love, inspirational, poetry, spiritual poetry, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
In Him is everything.
Posted by appolus on May 19, 2021
Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being.
The Lord is the very source of our lives. We breathe because He first breathed life into us. The very essence of our lives , our existence, depended upon and depends upon God, whether men know this or not. He holds it all together. Not only is He the creator but He is the very fabric of all that exists. We move because He created these bodies and we think because God created our minds. This is the universal truth of all men whether they care to acknowledge it or not.
Now the twice born man is very different from the once born man. He no longer lives, in the sense that he merely exists. It is now Christ that lives in Him. He is a new creation in Christ and is a son of the living God. The Father and the Son have taken up residence in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. So his life is now supernatural. Yes he exists, he lives, but its no longer he but Christ in him. This body of the saint that was once only a vehicle for the soul of man, is now the residence of the most High God. The life that he now lives is maintained and sustained by faith.
To move in God is to walk in the manifest presence of the Lord. In the natural, to move means to go from one place to another. In the supernatural, to move in God is to draw deeper into the heart of the Father. And from that place comes power, and so we can move in the power of God. We can move in the love of God. We can move in forgiveness and grace and discernment. Like the natural man, when the spiritual man moves, he is moving from one place to another. It is part of his spiritual journey home, from precept to precept. Ever closer, ever deeper.
Our being is our very existence. Every human being exists in time and space. Yet the man or woman who is born again now exists not only in time and space, but in the Kingdom of God that was and is and is to come. When we have our being in Him by virtue of the new birth we live and move and have our being in the Kingdom of God. We breathe rarified air. Our atmosphere is different from the rest of humanity. We breath in the poison of the world and we breath out life. In the place of darkness we bring life from the light of God like spiritual photosynthesis.
Brothers and sister, let us reckon this to be so as we live and move in this world. Know who you are and know your place in this world. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9)
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, Jesus, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church | 1 Comment »
An eternal source of blessing.
Posted by appolus on May 17, 2021
Psa 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The heart of those who receive the word with gladness, in whom the seed finds a ready and deep soil, is the tree planted by the rivers of water. The good tree is good in any season by virtue of its closeness to the eternal resource of the river of the living God. Dear saint, do you meditate on the Word of God every day? Do you hide it away in your heart and absorb it into your very soul until it becomes a very part of you? Are you like the branch abiding in the vine? Jesus tells us in John chapter eight that if we continue in the Word, which means to abide in it, remain in it, stand on it, endure with it, dwell in it, then you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.
The word “know,” here is of particular interest. In order to be free we must daily walk in and with the Word, and when we do that we shall “know.” To know Christ is to be free. It does not say to know about Him or to know off Him, it says to know the Truth. We must be intimate with the Lord if we are to walk in the freedom that He had gained for us on Calvary. Jesus gave us many instructions. We were to take up our cross daily if we were to be His disciples. We were to abide in His word daily if we were to be His disciples. And so, when we do these things we begin to grow in maturity. We are able to draw from an inexhaustible source of power and love and mercy and forgiveness. We are able to draw from it because of our proximity to this power for we are like a tree planted by the rivers of life.
Because of this, we become a source of blessing for others in season and out of season, for we are evergreen trees. In the darkest coldest winters we still retain our foliage. We saints whose delight is in the Lord and His Word and His commands, become vessels that hold and retain grace and love and mercy and forgiveness because it is flowing in and through us directly from Christ Himself. He waters us that we may water others. He comforts us so that we may comfort others with that very comfort He comforted us with. It is the cycle of our Spiritual life in the Kingdom. He invests in us all these things, not to bury them or greedily keep them to ourselves, but to gladly and with great joy share them with others. Freely you have been given and now freely you must give.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, inspirational, intimacy, Jesus, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
One in Spirit and in victory.
Posted by appolus on May 14, 2021
Col 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
When we suffer for His sake brothers and sisters and rejoice in the midst of it, then we disarm principalities and powers. We “prove,” to that old ancient liar that this is exactly what he is and we do it all by the indwelling power of the risen Christ. He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. His perfect love demonstrated through us casts out all fear and makes a public spectacle of principalities and powers.
It diametrically opposes the powers that be who lie and would have us believe that force must be met with force, that evil must be rendered for evil for good to triumph. Jesus overcame them on the cross and He cried out to His Father to forgive His enemies. The first martyr Stephen cries out even as He was being cruelly stoned, that this would not be held against the ones stoning Him. This is the power of God that breaks ancient chains of evil and establishes the witness of Christ to the world and to the principalities and powers.
You have been called to this brothers and sisters and it is a high and noble calling. It is a calling that requires our old man and woman to die. For in the flesh we are no different from anyone else in the world. We would simply be frail creatures who could laugh only when the going is good, who could be happy only in the midst of prosperous circumstances and who could praise God only as long as He “blesses” us. Yet in this higher ground that we have been called to, we praise God not only from the mountaintops but from the lowest valley’s. We praise God whether we walk as free men on this earth or chained with fetters of iron.
We praise God for better or for worse. We praise God in sickness and in health, we praise God whether rich or poor. We who love our spouses know that this is our commitment we make to them, we who love God know that His calling is on another level altogether. The marriage of the flesh is one thing and it is noble, the marriage of the Spirit is high and lifted up and it is holy. We are one flesh in our marriages. We are one spirit in Jesus. When we walk according to that spirit we walk in power and in love and with a perfect peace that triumphs over principalities and powers for all the world to see. Your light is the life that draws the world to Jesus.
Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Do you live in Him?
Posted by appolus on May 10, 2021
Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being,
If we are passionate worshipers of Jesus, then everything else is secondary. If Jesus is the primary object of our passions, then everything else becomes the by-product. If we ever get that wrong, we cease to be effective. If soul winning is our primary object, we cease to be effective soul winners. If faith is our primary object then we cannot be faithful. If Holiness is our primary object than we cannot be holy. If revival is our primary object then we will never see revival. Outside of Jesus being the primary object of our lives then we immediately begin to lose ground in every aspect of our walk, whether we are pastors or teachers or whatever role we have in the Body.
I would argue that the saints who have rocked this world for Jesus are the saints who have walked in intimate communion with Him. He is the source of all love and majesty and glory and power. Only by abiding in Him ( Him being our primary object) can we walk in forgiveness and mercy and grace. Out of the abundance of the passion that we experience as we walk with Jesus as our grand obsession comes the overflow that changes those around us and brings light into a dark world. Are you being ineffective in your walk? Have you wondered why? Is Jesus the primary object of your life? Is there joy in you life? Is there glory in your life? Are you an over-comer? Do you have a thankful spirit?
Listen saints, if Jesus is truly the primary object of your life then what flows from that is love, joy, peace, faithfulness, thankfulness, forgiveness and so on. How often have I heard a saint say, on any one of the aforementioned issues “I need to work on that.” That is quite exactly wrong. No amount of “work,” can muster up joy nor thankfulness nor love nor any of the issues of the heart. He must be our all in all. In Him we live and move and have our being. Jesus Himself is the answer to any problem you are having, any problem. The answer lies in Him alone, the answer lies before the throne.
Whatever you seek to achieve in the Kingdom of God comes directly from the depths of your relationship with Him. Find a man who is passionate about sports and he will bore your pants off speaking about it. Find a man who is passionate about politics and he will rip your shirt of telling you all about the latest policies and issues and the state of the world. Find a man who is truly passionate about Jesus and you will find a man who is changing the world. Out of the abundance of our passion flows the power of God.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, inspirational, revival, spiritual growth, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Is your hands clean and your heart pure?
Posted by appolus on May 9, 2021
The Holy Spirit does not become my spirit. He invades my spirit and lifts my personality into a right relationship with God. That means I can begin now to work out what God has worked in. The Holy Spirit enables me to fulfill all the commands of God and I am without excuse for not fulfilling them. Absolute almighty ability is packed into my spirit and to say “I can’t,” if I have received the Holy Spirit is unconscious blasphemy. (Oswald Chambers)
What Chambers is teaching here flies in the face of most modern Evangelical teaching. He reaches up to the highest mark and tells us that we are without excuse when we cry that we cannot reach it. Compare that to modern Evangelical teaching that reaches down into the lowest mark by telling people that they are merely sinners saved by grace. Can you see the difference? Chambers makes the bold statement that those who say they can’t are unconscious blasphemers. I might say that he is being generous by using the word unconscious.
The Holy Spirit, when he enters into a man or woman, invades them. We understand the word “invade.” It has violent connotations. It is a takeover. And as with every successful invasion, all rebellion must be put down. It is the same with us. The flesh wars against the Spirit. Our own personal spirits are willing, but our flesh is weak. The Holy Spirit empowers us to overcome the flesh until we understand that we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus through the power of His Spirit.
If we indeed have been invaded by the Holy Spirit and delivered out of captivity, captivity from what? We have been delivered from the power of sin. This teaching, in all its many facets, that Jesus came to deliver us from hell is not true. That might be a byproduct of our salvation, but it was not nor is the primary object. The primary object is that we were delivered from the power of sin and its consequences, it’s consequences being death, eternal death. We were guilty of sin and we were already condemned. The crime was sin, the punishment is hell. The gift is deliverance from sin and the reward of that is eternal life with God.
Imagine being delivered from the power of sin and you go right on sinning and you excuse it by saying “I can’t stop it.’ If that is your mindset that I would have to question whether you have actually been delivered. I would question whether you have been invaded by the Holy Spirit. I am a city boy and I know nothing about trees. For the most part, I cannot identify them other than them being green and having branches. Yet, I know what an apple looks like. If I see apples hanging from a tree, then I can, with all the confidence of a tree expert, tell you that it is an apple tree.
If you have been delivered from sin, I will know that by the fruits I see. In otherwords you will be known by your fruits. If you have no fruits and all you have is “I am just a sinner saved by grace,” then I would consider you to be on very shaky ground. Listen to what Chambers follows up with to the above quote……………
“Do you mean to tell me that God can search me to the innermost recesses of my dreams, my innermost motives, and find nothing to blame? That God Almighty can bring the winnowing fan of His Spirit and search out my thoughts and imaginations and find nothing to blame? Who can stand before God and say ” My hands are clean, my heart is pure”? Who can climb the hill of the Lord ( see Psalm 24:3-4) No one under heaven, saving the one who has been readjusted at the cross of Christ. That one can stand before the scrutiny of God and know with a knowledge that passes knowledge that the work of God’s Son in her or in him passes the scrutiny of God. No soul ever gets there except by the sovereign grace of God through the Atonement.”
When was the last time you heard that kind of preaching? You have everything that you need in Christ Jesus through His work and by His Spirit to live an exemplary life and to be an extraordinary witness for His glory. You can walk this walk with clean hands. You can walk this walk with a pure heart. Psalm 16:3 speaks of the saints of the earth, they are describes as the excellent ones, the magnificent ones, the noble ones on the earth. This is our calling and this is what we have been enabled to be. To deny this is blasphemy. you are denying the power of God that has invaded and conquered your willing hearts.
And now that we have been conquered, He enables us to be conquerors, in fact more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. The question in Romans 8:35 is “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ”? The context comes in the next few words. Shall tribulation? Shall distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? These are the battles of the noble ones, the saints on earth, and yet in spite of all these things we conquer, in fact we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. We are saints on the earth, we are God’s excellent ones and nothing that exists, whether angels or principalities of powers nor anything in your life right now nor anything to come can change who we are and who we love and who we are loved by. No matter how high we ascend or even if we found ourselves in the depths and death has come knocking at our door, nothing can separate us from the love of God which has, forever taken up residence in our hearts through Christ by His Spirit.
Your calling is a high one brothers and sisters. Never let anything persuade you otherwise. Will you walk according to your calling? Will you walk in the nobility of Christ who lives and reigns in you? Will you present to God clean hands and a pure heart? What would stop you from doing so? Whatever it is you have been empowered to overcome it and walk in the beauty of Holiness. Begin today to walk in the holiness of God through Christ our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, God's love, inspirational, new wineskins, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Learning to be content.
Posted by appolus on May 7, 2021
Php 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
The question is, are you content? I would argue that the whole world is looking for contentment. I certainly thought when I became a Christian that the Church would be packed full of contented people, you can imagine my disappointment. It seemed to me that most folk that I met in the church were very much like the world when it came to contentment. The world makes every mistake possible while attempting to achieve contentment, yet so do many Christians. Many people in the world believe that contentment comes through material possessions and good personal relationships. While these things are nice, they could never possibly bring the deep kind of contentment that Paul is talking about.
Now some good Christian folk would argue that your personal relationship with Jesus brings you the kind of contentment Paul is speaking about in this particular Scripture, it’s simply not true but it makes it possible. In fact only through Jesus is it possible, but He aint doing it for you. Paul had to learn to be content. It was not a question of his relationship with Jesus, rather it was a question of enduring and overcoming as he walked through fire and flood. There are choices to be made as we move along the narrow path of life. We choose to endure. We choose to give thanks. We overcome much as Jesus did in the garden when He submits His will to the Father’s.
The key word I would argue in understanding this is “learned.” He had learned to be content, there was no magic wand. No one came along and laid hands on him and suddenly he was full of contentment. Paul, time and again had to walk through the fire and continue to praise God. We see in another Scripture that we are admonished not to be anxious at all but to pray and give thanks and make supplication to God and if we did that, something supernatural would happen, a supernatural peace that passes all understanding would actually stand guard over our hearts.
Can you praise God today in spite of your circumstances? If you learn to do this, if you walk through the fire with your hands held high, trusting in God, you will come to the place that Paul came to. You will discover that peace and contentment will have nothing to do with your circumstances, which are ever-changing, but have everything to do with praising and trusting in God who is never-changing. Choose to praise the Lord in the lower reaches of the dungeon, and you will learn to be content.
Posted in church, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, discernment, gifts of the spirit, hope, inspirational, New World Order, pentecostal, revival, spiritual growth, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
The glory and the majesty!
Posted by appolus on May 6, 2021
One day the Lord will rend the heavens and His glory will flow down the mountains and fill every valley with His majesty. The seas will flee away at His presence. The mountains will humbly bow and say ” Glory , glory to the risen King.” The sun will turn its face away in shame for it has been outdone by the brilliance of His illumination. A mere flickering candle in comparison to His unadulterated light. The moon and the stars will cry out ” Holy, Holy is He who was and is and forever shall be.”
And every voice from every tongue will say “Jesus,” and acknowledge the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And the beasts of the earth will fall down and cover their faces and then the lion will rise up and approach the lamb and they will lay down together. And every knee shall bow in every tribe and in every nation and even the hordes of hell will fall silent as He approaches. The earth itself will grow silent and shall be still and then a glorious noise will begin to arise and will fill the earth, it will fill the sea it will fill the night skies and it will fill the whole universe.
And all that will be heard will be the choirs of angels, that heavenly choir and the glory of God will not only cover the earth but will fill up everything that there is or has ever been. Gods saints will rise on this glorious symphony, they will arise in the updrafts of His glory and majesty and it will carry them into the heart of God. And those who rejected this magnificent glory will fall and their cries will be heard as they fall into the depths of darkness forever.
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Rejecting the Nicolations.
Posted by appolus on May 6, 2021
Luther did not invent a new doctrine when he announced that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works. He rediscovered it and presented it to a church that had long ago forgotten this most fundamental and vital aspect of what it means to be saved. This most basic fundamental truth was lost in religiosity and liturgy many centuries before. The clergy had robbed the laity. Century after century Christendom slowly drifted away, each generation losing something from the previous generation until they were totally adrift from the Truth. Once they were totally adrift from the truth then with every passing century the errors solidified and grew in strength. Walls like Jericho rose up and stood, formidable.
Then comes Luther and as he hammered that nail into the door, the whole of Christendom shook. A bloody revolution then ensued as the clergy, keepers of the error and the status quo, fought with all of their might against this upstart priest of no account who was challenging their religion and their liturgy. I believe a similar revolution would have to take place today in order to rediscover the truths of 1 Cor 14 and how we interact in gatherings. The sign gifts and their purpose of edifying the saints and the unsaved and the unlearned have fallen into disuse and have been forgotten. God help this starving and dying generation. If we do not have eyes to see then we cannot be fed. The walls of Jericho were rebuilt after the reformation. Brick upon brick, stone upon stone, error upon error.
We need to rediscover, once again, the fundamental truths of our faith as it is plainly written in the Scriptures. Who has dared to bypass or take away from the Holy Word of God? Do they not know that they shall be removed from the book of life? The walls of religion and the devastating clergy/laity divide need to come down. And if they will not then the saints need to abandon those strongholds. We need a mass exodus from behind those walls. We need to allow God Himself to be a wall of fire around us. Dear saint, you must follow the fire by night and the cloud by day and not the doctrines of the Nicolations. You cannot be immersed in the culture of religion, which is a mere reflection of the prevailing culture around us, and serve God at the same time.
Posted in Christian, Christianity, church of scotland, False Prophets, False Prophets and Teachers, false teachers, healing ministry, hope, intimacy, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, spiritual gifts, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Provision versus work.
Posted by appolus on May 4, 2021
There is a great gulf between our perception of provision and what we think of when think of work. The Lord makes provision for His children. Does He have expectations? Yes. Yet, the context of duty must be in light of a proper understanding of His provision. As in all things, the Lord is interested in why we do a thing rather than what we do. Two identical actions, with different motivations, can be to one a blessing and light, and to another a curse and darkness. Let me try and illustrate.
I grew up in what is known as a tenement. It was a large Victorian stone building. My American friends would call it an apartment building or block but to me that seems much to modern a name for something rather dark and foreboding as a tenement building. Thick damp stone walls. Big families crammed into tiny one or two bedroom apartments, some only having one room, we would call that a “single end.” They were cold and drafty and full of mice, often times there would be mushrooms growing out of the walls. Outside toilets meant “pots,” under the bed. Old metal baths pulled out on a Sunday night for bathing. Now, that was when I grew up, imagine what it was like one hundred and fifty years before that?
Imagine living like that for generations and then making your way across a vast ocean and finding yourself in the new world. Now imagine that you find out that you can get 160 acres, for free! You could homestead. The deal you would make is that you would work the land. You would cut down trees, remove stumps, remove all stones,till the land, plant the seed, tend the fields, bring in the harvest. Store the harvest and sell what you could in town after having made provision for your family.
If that was me in those days, you would wonder what that singing was, even when the weather was terrible. It would be me, as I chopped down tree and dug up stumps. It would be me as I tilled the land. And every day I would be in wonder of how I came upon such good fortune. I would remember where I came from often. I would remember that I had been delivered from drudgery and poverty. My work would be a joy as I kept in mind where I came from. In that sense it would not be work at all, it would all be provision.
Now consider the lazy un-thankful man. Would you hear him singing in the field? Would he be angrily carrying out his “work?” Would he be constantly complaining about the nature of his work, the weather and his aching bones? In all, the homestead act in America would offer 500 million acres of land. Only 80 million acres were ever taken and of those who did take it, in many areas the failure rate was as high as 60% Now of course there would be multiple factors in the failures, but in the end it was, for many, simply too hard.
The saints of God do not fail. They know where they came from and they never forget. They know they were dead in their sins. They know they were bound and captive to them. They know that countless generations before them died in their sin. They know they have been delivered. They know how good their God is. And so, even on the hardest days, through the toughest trials, it’s all provision for the saint. He has been given this new life and no matter what, he knows it. None of it is “work,’ to the saint, rather it is a labor of love. Your life itself is a labor of love as unto God, your redeemer.
What spirit do you have saint? Is your life a labor of love? Even when it rains, even when it snows, even when the stumps are refusing to yield as you labor to remove them? It is good to remind ourselves often of just what we were delivered from and who delivered us and gave us what we have now. Glory to God in the highest. He gives good things to His children and He knows how to train them and raise them for His will and His own good pleasure. Everything becomes a good thing when we see that it is all God’s provision.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, faith, God's love, inspirational, Jesus, revival, Spiritual warfare, Spirituality, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
This kind of love
Posted by appolus on May 3, 2021
This is the kind of love that would wait for a thousand years The kind of love that would fill an ocean with tears The kind of love that was birthed in heavenly places The kind of love that shines upon a thousand faces. This is the kind of love that would die for you instead The kind of love that was crucified and bled The kind of love that redeems you from all wrong The kind of love that loved you all along This is the kind of love that will never let you go The kind of love that never says I told you so The kind of love that keeps no record of wrongs The kind of love that the birds sing in their songs This is the kind of love that never seeks its own The kind of love that never leaves you alone The kind of love that forever seeks your best The kind of love that gives your weary soul some rest This is the kind of love that for you was crucified The kind of love that was broken, beaten and died The kind of love that did all of this for you The kind of love that covers like the morning dew This is the kind of love that never ever fails The kind of love that would prove itself by nails The kind of love that is crowned by a crown of thorns The kind of love that will weather all of your storms And in the end it is love that shall remain It opened every door and has broken every chain That you may live for all the world to see That as a child of God the Son has set you free This kind of love sets my heart aflame This kind of love heals the blind and the lame This kind of love means you shall never be the same It is time to fall in love.
Posted in Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, god, God's love, healing, hope, inspirational, Jesus, new wineskins, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
The kind of love that yields
Posted by appolus on May 3, 2021
(Rom 6:6-7) Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.
In the emptying process He removes the stones and rocks and the clods from our hearts and refines the flesh. The desires of this world loses all of its allure as He draws us to Himself. If we yield to the process then He draws us closer. I would love to say that in my experience it has been a one-time yielding, but no, not so simple. Time and again the calling comes. The deeper and the closer we come, oftentimes the deeper the cut. Shall we yield to the surgeon’s knife? Shall we yield to the sculptor’s chisel? I would say that only a vision of heaven itself could draw us to such yielding. It is not just a matter of revelation, inspiration is a vital aspect of our relationship with the Lord.
Just one moment in His presence. Can a single moment ruin us for the things of this world? Is it possible that after that moment the world turns to black and white? Then another miracle happens. As we begin to look at the world through those captivated eyes, the color begins to return but it’s not the color of the world, it’s the color of heaven. Now one truly sees the sunset because one has been intimate with the artist. I can see a waterfall and my spirit soars because I know the hand that crafted it. The mountains raises me up to higher places, to the place where they were born. The stars in the heavens draw my eyes upwards and my spirit follows the path of my gaze and I find myself in higher places. The hand of a child, a single ray of sunshine through the clouds, a wave that crashes onto the shore, soon enough I see my Lord in all of it. I see His beauty everywhere.
Yet the darkness prevails and time and time again it comes against the light. Yet, out of that moment, out of His presence there is born an eternal longing that no darkness can quell just as no hand could hold back the tide. He comes. Yes and He comes again to those who would wait upon Him. How long shall we wait? However long it takes. This is the kind of love that would wait a thousand years. The kind of love that would fill an ocean with tears. The kind of love that was birthed in heavenly places. The kind of love that shines upon a thousand faces. And so we yield, and so we die to this world. And we are drawn ever closer to the next until the day comes when we step over into the world that has touched us and called to us.
There is glory in all of it. It is a grand tapestry and we are but a thread. Can we see the vision of the artist? Can we see the vision of the sculptor? It is not so important to see the vision of the artist or to see the finished sculpture, it only really matters that we see Him, Him who creates it all. And in seeing Him we see everything in a single moment. Now with eyes that have gazed upon the Master we see it all so differently. Have you seen Him? Can you see the world through the eyes of Him who made it all? It’s a glorious vision and it continually draws us.
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The plateau of peace.
Posted by appolus on May 2, 2021
Recall the conception that you had of holiness before you stood, by the grace of God, where you stand today. It was the conception of a breathless standing on a pinnacle for a second at a time but never with thought of being able to live there. Yet when the Holy Spirit brought you there, you found it was not a pinnacle but a plateau, a broad way, where the provision of strength and peace comes all the time, a much easier place to live that lower down.
The security of the position into which God brings His saints is such that the life is maintained without ecstasy. There is no place for ecstasy and manifestations in a normal healthy spiritual life. The emotions that are beyond the control of the will are a sign that there is something not in the secure position, something undisciplined, untrained. (Oswald Chambers-Biblical ethics)
Brother Oswald just said a lot. And it would be worth just re-reading it a few times to see where he is coming from. It is in the context of the will and what part the will plays in our lives. If the emotions rule the will, or over-rule the will then there is a problem. Emotions are wonderful things and I fully embrace them. Yet, more often that not, they are like the waves of the sea driven by winds that we cannot see. The ocean becomes broiling and heaving and destruction is never far from hand in the midst of this kind of sea.
So brother Oswald contrasts a pinnacle to a plateau. A plateau or a Mesa. A mesa is an isolated flat topped elevation or ridge which is bounded from all sides by steep hills or rock faces and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. It stands above the plain. It is not so high as a pinnacle, but it is still high enough to separate it from its surroundings while still in the midst of its surrounding. You cannot last long on a pinnacle but you can live on the broad plain flats of an elevated plateau.
Jesus is our plateau. When our eyes are upon Jesus then we are elevated above the noise and the din and the waves of the roiling sea. Peter discovered that it was not good enough for Jesus do walk upon the water, to be elevated above the storm just for a moment, we were born from above to occupy the high ground. And our focus on Jesus is the answer. Consider these things from Scriptures that describe Jesus. He is our High Tower. He is our Rock and our Fortress. These are all places of deliverance. The righteous run into these places and they are safe.
Can you say that you live above the fray of your emotions? What wind drives you? The gales of insecurity and fears? The hurricane force winds of disaster and persecution and loss? Or are you driven by the wind of the Holy Spirit? Do you stand upon the plateau, the broad place that elevates you above the storms of the plains below? You will notice that Chambers is talking about the way that our lives are “maintained.” The everyday life. He is not denying that people have emotions or that even men and woman can have ecstatic moments in their lives, but he describe them as pinnacles as opposed to plateaus.
The Lord Himself said in John 14 that He would not leave us as orphans but rather He would send us the Holy Spirit. He begins the chapter by addressing the troubles that we would undoubtedly face in our lives. “Let not you hearts be troubled.” And again in verse 27 He says ” Let not your hearts be troubled, neither be afraid.,” because “my peace I give unto you, not as the world does.” Jesus gives us His peace. His peace is our plateau. It is quite apart from anything the world has to offer and it is very much apart from the troubles of this world.
If you find yourself without this peace brothers and sisters, then look up. Look up into Jesus. Come away with Him above the troubles of this world. He has prepared a place for us, not just in eternity, but now, it is the plateau of peace. It takes discipline and obedience and trust to climb the high walls that lead to this place. It is not for the faint of heart and it is not for the nominal Christian, whatever that means. The will, your will, must yield to His will and you must trust Jesus implicitly.
Every foothold is a victory. Every ledge is a place of rest. Looking up and not looking down is a must. Who will find themselves scaling these heights? Who among us will master their emotions by the power that the Lord has given us? When we come to this place we will find that the emotions have found their proper place. The broad place of God’s peace that surpasses all understanding gives us standing on a firm foundation, on the Rock, upon the mighty fortress of our God. High atop the high tower in the midst of the plains for all the world to see. In it, but not of it. This is our place saints, this is our place, this is His peace. Journey on my fellow pilgrims.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, discernment, God's love, healing, inspirational, intimacy, Jesus, new wineskins, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Slowly starving in the silence
Posted by appolus on April 29, 2021
As Jesus faced down Satan in the desert he told that old liar that “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Every word brothers and sisters that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. Man needs bread to live, he has to eat otherwise he will slowly starve to death. What a ghastly sight it is to see someone in the latter stages of starvation. They lose all of their characteristics and begin to resemble one another as they waste away and gauntness takes over. As we sit in our pews week after week, no one dares disturb the sound of silence.
Despite the richness of our gifts and our callings, despite our ability to give and receive words of knowledge, to hear heavenly songs sung in a heavenly language, to hear prophecy’s and exhortations that can speak directly into the heart of what we are going through in the moment, we dare not disturb this established silence.Have we made a neon god? Do we sit in pews and worship a god of our own making? A god that has to dim the lights and break out the ice making machine to create an “atmosphere,” that was long ago lost to slick professional worship teams and men with programs.Listen brothers and sisters, if entertainment brought them in, only entertainment will keep them. Yet how long before they grow weary of the entertainment? Where do they go after the dimmed lights and the religious concerts fail to move them and the smoke dissipates?
If we could see with spiritual eyes as we sat in our pews and looked around, would we see well fed people living on the fat of a land flowing with milk and honey, living abundantly in the life of Christ, edified and well fed? Or rather would we see a people gaunt with hunger, starving for the Spiritual edification that the Lord Himself provided for us. He promised us that He would not leave us as orphans but send the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide us. What happens when the Holy Spirit is silenced and men have decided that they know best?
Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Is this what we have done brothers and sisters? No longer can we have the Lord speak to us how He pleases in the midst of the congregation. We have rejected these gifts so that the traditions of men may be kept and we now must not disturb the sound of silence, that silence being the words and the wisdom of man. And in the midst of that darkness we sit, only ever wondering what the power of God truly looks like, and the smoke slowly drifts away.
Posted in Charisma Magazine, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, delusion, discernment, end times, faith, false teachers, gifts of the spirit, God's voice, healing, heresy, inspirational, intimacy, manifest presence, new wineskins, pentecostal, praise and worship, revival, spiritual gifts, Spiritual warfare, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
The boy with the broken wing.
Posted by appolus on April 26, 2021
It has been almost seven years now since our grandson was taken from his mother and given to our family. He was a very broken child when he came to us. Have you ever tried to help a bird with a broken wing? It panics and is freaked out as it sees you hand approach. It cannot possibly know that you are driven by love and compassion until your hand closes tightly, not too tightly, around him and he is safe in your hand. This was what it was like when Mason first came to us as a little five year old. The power of the Lord is felt in the power of His love. His ability and patience to take that which is broken, and heal it, is truly supernatural. Here is a wee poem I wrote about that.
The boy with the broken wing.
You were a bird with a broken wing A nightingale that could not sing A frightened broken bird that had no choice Little bird, who has stolen you voice .....I hear your cries. Can't you see, can't you understand Come to me, there is healing in my hand I will hold you and never let you go, until your wing is healed and love begins to flow You may have broken this little birds wing Yet you will hear this little bird sing Love has put him back together And he will now be whole...forever A beautiful bird that love has made whole You only ever took from him and stole But he has risen with the morning sun and now he sings And flies for all the world to see with two beautiful wings I see you flying son and I can hear you sing And to the depths of my heart it is such a beautiful thing Touched by the Hand of God and made complete Now fly where eagles fly and sing your songs so sweet.
Posted in bible, Charisma Magazine, christian blog, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, Devotions, gifts of the spirit, God's love, healing, intimacy, Jesus, poetry, revival, spiritual gifts, spiritual poetry, Spirituality, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
He who walks upon the sea of tears.
Posted by appolus on April 18, 2021
A poem for all the people who grew up in less than perfect households . He who walks upon the sea of tears. I am fragile I can be broken Broken by the words spoken Can't you see your words are clawing me apart? Can't you see how you're crushing my heart? How my heart longed to hear warm words spoken To be warm and whole and not to be broken Why didn't you just reach out and touch me? And cover me and hold me in love. The broken child in you Now breaks the child that you can see Two broken children collide Only wanting to be free I am fragile I can be broken Broken by the words left unspoken And this brokenness is now a void in me That is deeper and wider than the deepest sea What can fix a broken heart? And fill this vast expanse in me What can fill an endless void? That's deeper than the deepest sea So many tears, enough to fill an ocean Shed by all the children, broken A Saviour comes and walks upon this sea of tears He calms the stormy sea and quells the fears I have come to mend the broken heart To heal the wounds where you were torn apart I have come to set the captive free To dry up every tear that fills the deepest sea I hold the universe in the palm of my hand I cause the blind to see and the lame to stand And all the stars in the heavens, I know them all by name And I will touch you and you shall never be the same The words I speak they are life and they are love I know every sparrow that falls from above I created the sun and the moon and the pouring rain I still the stormy seas and I take away the pain Come and bring your emptiness to me And I will fill you with a love that's deeper than the sea Come all you that are broken and contrite And I will heal you and set you free this night And so I came and took my Saviour's hand Out of the pit on the solid Rock I stand A broken heart replaced and reconciled Standing whole and new, I am my Father's child And every word spoken, they are life to me Your love and Your kindness, they have set me free And by thy Spirit my eternity is sealed And by thy love my broken heart was healed.
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The never weaned church.
Posted by appolus on April 16, 2021
Can you imagine what it would be like if we witnessed 20 year olds being breast fed by their mothers? Consider how offensive it would be to see adults being breast fed. We would recoil back from that in horror. Yet we have, for the most part, a never weaned church. Here is the definition of weaned-accustomed to managing without something on which they have become dependent or of which they have become excessively fond, or-accustom (an infant or other young mammal) to food other than its mother’s milk.
Most children by the age of one, have been weaned from the breast. In the past and in some cultures it could be two or three years olds, but certainly young children have begun to eat solids early on. They develop a stomach for solids, for meats. Imagine only ever drinking milk gleaned from your mother. If you can imagine that and the undoubted physical and psychological problems that it would create, then you can imagine a building full of people who are reliant upon one man, other than the man Christ Jesus. This is the un-weaned church.
First and foremost, we as Christians must be completely reliant upon Jesus our Lord and the Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to teach us and to bring us into all truth. The Holy Spirit would never feed one of His children on an all milk diet. As babes, yes. As children, as young adults, as mature saints, no, never. Getting meat is a far cry from drinking milk. In the natural our milk comes from our mothers breast, a cow or a goat. Getting meat requires a hunt. One must track something down, patiently employ skills across a broad spectrum, endure weather and deprivation, and all that just to trap or kill the animal. It then has to be skinned, broken down and carried back.
The church has become dependent on something they are very fond of, and is in and of itself the path of least resistance. To sit week after week and allow another to feed you and make no efforts to feed yourself is akin to being a baby. The notion of getting meat and devouring it is alien to this modern day church. It is also alien to society in general who rather than have to hunt for food, simply go to the supermarket. Or to the fast food restaurant, and even then, the drive through. If this system ever breaks down, tens of millions of people will starve to death. If the one man system of church ever breaks down, the same would happen spiritually. I would argue that it is happening, a long slow starvation on a vast crowd of adults who have no “protein,” in their diet.
A man needs to know how to hunt. A man of God needs to know how to communicate from and learn from and hear from God. If the man cannot hunt, he is reliant upon the systems of this world to feed him. If a man who claims to know God but cannot hear from God, cannot learn from God and His Word, does not have the wherewithal to desire to diligently seek out His Truth, then he is reliant upon the one man systems of churches to feed him.
If you have only ever had milk, then you cannot stomach the meat of God. You must wean yourself from the milk and go out and hunt for the meat. If you only know milk you will undoubtedly be carnally minded. You will say you are of this church or that church. You will elevate a man up onto a pedestal. That man, probably your pastor, will become preeminent in your life. When you meet other people and have a chance to share about Jesus, you will share about “your pastor.” You will say things like “you have to come to my church,” or “you have to hear my pastor.’ Your milk diet will exclude the possibility that you simply share about Jesus. Whoever is preeminent in your life, that is who you will share with others.
God calls people out from behind the walls of their strongholds. Outside the camp. Out into the wilderness. Places that require you to be dependent upon Him alone. He will teach you how to catch fish and you will rejoice and praise God for the fish on the line. He will teach you how to trap meat, and you will rejoice that He will bless you with meat. You will become strong and dependent upon Him. You will help to feed others with meat and show them and share with them how you caught it and how they too can get this meat.
None of this will happen while you reside on your mothers breast. None of this will happen when you are dependent upon another to do your hunting for you. Will you diligently seek Him and where He may be found? Or will you sit, week after week and be fed on fast food? Even it were not fast food, the fact that you would become dependent upon another to feed you would mean that you would become atrophied in your spirit man. Overweight or starving, an eating disorder all the same. Stand up, be a man, be a woman and allow God Himself to teach you how to find meat and how to eat meat.
Posted in Charisma Magazine, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, controlling churches, discernment, God's love, God's voice, intimacy, new wineskins, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
From the valley to the glory.
Posted by appolus on April 8, 2021
How many times can a heart be broken How many tears have to fall How many times do I have to forgive Or perhaps not forgive at all When my steps grow tired and weary And my sleep has vanished in the night How can I go on living day by day And not simply give up the fight Where can I find the strength to go on When it seems I have lost my way How can I lift my head from the pillow Even if it’s for just for one more day Then all of a sudden I know He is here My waiting has not been in vain He comes to me through the fire and the flood Through the heartache and through the pain And suddenly I have the strength to carry on I rise up on the wings of His love Who knew I would rise o'r this valley of death And find myself far far above. I soar on the glorious splendor of Love On the wings of the eagle I fly I feast on the banquet He prepares for me As I revel in the endless sky There is a place where the setting Son Merges sky and endless sea, A place where different worlds collide A place where you and I are free. In God alone we find this place, Where everything else is stripped away And there I look into your face Where endless sky meets ocean spray Will you sail beyond horizons In endless seas of blue Will you fly in boundless skies above You can as long as you are true.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, gifts of the spirit, God's voice, healing, healing ministry, inspirational, intimacy, Jesus, manifest presence, new wineskins, pentecostal, poetry, praise and worship, spiritual poetry, Spirituality, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
The crisis of the age!
Posted by appolus on March 31, 2021
The church in the west is starving to death and they are dying of thirst. The tragedy is, that for the most part, the majority that are called after His name do not even know that they are in the midst of a famine and a drought. I thank God for His remnant people who do know, who agonize over the state of the church. Who cry out to God and who want nothing less than for the multitude of people to experience the majesty and the glory and the anguish and the joy of falling down before the throne. Who desire all men to be ruined for this life and to walk with the grand obsession of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is coming a time, and we may be there already, when God is calling His people, His remnant people who have experienced the presence of God, to rise up and testify to it. To testify of what they know of Him. Of how they come into the presence of a Holy and majestic God. Of how it ruins them and changes them. Of how they tremble before the throne of the almighty God. This is what the people are starved of, this is what they are dying from. There is a famine of the Word of God in the land, not the Word preached, but the Word preached with the power and the presence of God. The crisis of the age is a lack of God’s empowering presence in our assemblies. May the glory of the Lord fill His house.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church, Church history, church of scotland, churches, end times, End Times Eschatology, False Prophets, false teachers, Fresh Fire, god, God's voice, inspirational, intimacy, Jesus, New World Order, pentecostal, prophecy, religion, religious, revival, Rhema Church, spiritual gifts, the crucified life, the deeper life, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
Without love, what would I have?
Posted by appolus on March 29, 2021
What is nearness to God? We hear that a lot dont we …”are you close to God?” Well we know it has nothing to do with time or space, the Lord transcends both time and space. Time and space cannot contain Him for if it did, He would not be God. A certain Scripture tells us that men can draw close unto God with their mouth but their “hearts are far from God.” If far in this context is not distance then what is it? Another Scripture tells us that David was a man after Gods own heart. In this context the word “after ,” means like or touching.
So, if your heart is far from God it can mean that you are not like Him. There is no communion, no touching, no encounter, no emotion, no joy, no love. The words may be there but the reality of the love of God is not present. A heart after God is expressed by obedience and by love, primarily love. Primarily love because love is the primary motivation for obedience. We can be obedient to God, at least outwardly and with our our words but our hearts can be “far from Him.” But we cannot love Him to any degree and be disobedient to Him.
Dont get me wrong, we can be disobedient to God and still love Him and be like Him, King David may be the perfect example of this, but we cannot stay in that place of disobedience for long. It will not be what we are known for. On the grave of King David they would not write ” here lies a disobedient man,” because even although he had certainly been disobedient to God in many of the things that he did, ultimately that was not who he was and he proved that by having a broken and contrite heart. In 1st Cor 13 we see all the things that we can have. We can speak with tongues, we can have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, I could be mighty in faith so much so that I could speak to a mountain and it would crumble and fall and yet, all of these things would be without meaning if I did not have love.
I could give every penny I had to the poor and even become a martyr for God yet without love none of it would profit me. Yet, if I am close to the heart of God then I will gladly suffer long, I will not envy my brother or sister, I will not think highly of myself but rather regard others higher than me, I will not be easily offended and I will think the best of others.I will rejoice in the truth and be saddened at my enemies downfall, their downfall will promote love in me for them and forgiveness. If I am moving in these areas then I am close to the heart of God because the Lord Himself came down and humbled Himself and took on the likeness of man and walked in all of these truths because He was acting according to His nature. If we would be close to Him we shall endeavor to be like Him.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, god, God's voice, inspirational, intimacy, pentecostal, revival, sanctification, spiritual growth, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
A Call To The Remnant 