It was one heart that formed the mountains
It was one heart that tamed the mighty seas
It was one heart that raised me back to life
Twas this one heart I found upon my knees
And with this one heart I am saved forever
And this one heart has opened up the door
This one heart laid the foundations of the world
And in this one heart I will dwell forever more
It was one heart that carved out the valleys
It was one heart that planted all the trees
It was one heart that formed the little babies
Twas this one heart I found upon my knees
And with this one heart I was born again forever
And this one heart will take me gently ore
This one heart created all the heavens
And in this one heart I will dwell forever more
This one heart belongs to God the Father
And the Blood flowed from Jesus Christ His Son
And by the power of the blessed Holy Spirit
We shall all stand together here as one
One heart, one soul, one mind, one Body
One purpose in everything we do
It is this one heart that holds it all together
And it is this one heart that will see us through
In much of the church we are living with the triumph of form over substance. The evidence of that is the lack of depth of Christianity in our society. We have had many charlatans that have used the power of the media and the rules of entertainment to water down the message while promoting themselves. Three of four generations into an entertainment driven church we are left with a shallowness of showmanship that engages the ‘audience.” Tozer writes “The church that can’t worship must be entertained. And men who can’t lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment.” I would argue that all across Christendom in the west we are seeing leaders who lead the people by providing entertainment.
Tragically, we have seen that as the world goes so goes the church. Of course it should be the exact opposite, yet here we are. You will hear excuses about staying relevant and keeping up with technology and so on. I personally have nothing against technology but when it becomes an integral part of the “show” on a Sunday morning then you know that the plot has been lost. Today we are being driven by the form and not the substance. The cultural winds have simply taken a hold of the church and the church is being driven along by these winds towards what destination? What is the end for such a church? The complete amalgam of the world with the church. This is a tragedy. The church was supposed to be a counter-culture not a sub-culture.
Yet if there is an enemy that seeks to swallow up the church whole by means of swamping it with the world, he has miscalculated. We see in the secular world that given enough frustration the electorate eventually rebel against the establishment that has become corrupt. This last election cycle is a perfect example of rebellion against the establishment with men like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. If the world can react against the corruption they find in the system then even more so can good brothers and sisters in Christ. As always Satan will overplay his hand and brothers and sisters will simply leave the corrupted institutions behind. The more our enemy overplays his hand the more he drives saints together and actually helps the Scriptures come to pass. Jesus prophesied in John 17 that we should be one just as He and His Father are one. We shall see this come to pass.
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ……….And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:(Eph 4:4-13)
Brothers and sisters God is raising up apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers. Not the children of the system that we see today, but genuine saints whose primary goal is the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry and the edifying of the Body until we all come into the unity of the faith. The unity of the faith is the work of God Himself through His Holy Spirit and the spirit of the world that has invaded the church will only drive the saints towards such a unity that will undoubtedly be forged in the fires of persecution. Pursue the substance of God with all of your heart and soul and mind and do not be distracted by shiny things that make a lot of noise and attract attention. The substance of God will triumph over the form of man.
Jer 10:6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
Isa 40:12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Exo 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
“You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words.” Is He not brothers and sisters? Who is like unto Him, beautiful and holy, high and lifted up, wrapped in light and beyond what our minds can even imagine. Yet, somehow, by the power of His Spirit and the humility of our God He stepped down from glory. He was, God among us and we beheld His glory and His majesty and even when He returned from whence He had come He did not leave us alone, He sent the Holy Spirit of the living God to dwell in the very heart of us that we would know what in the natural cannot be known. All praise belongs to you my King and my Lord. Let the name of Jesus be lifted up and glorified before a dying world that has plunged into gross darkness. Let the light that is in us, called Jesus, shine out all the more in this day.
Rom 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth
The lives that we lead as Christians cannot be a contradiction to what we share or preach or teach. There must be a wonderful unity in what we say and how we live, there is real power in that. I think of 1 Cor 13 where Paul clearly tells us that we can know all mysteries and even give our bodies to be burned but if we don’t have love, what do we have? Love, the love of God, is central to who we are. We cannot separate this love from what we share. In order to walk with the power of the Holy Spirit we must be lovers of God and lovers of what He loves. This is no natural love, it is supernatural. Very few Christians will disagree with what I just wrote but I have discovered that many will use this kind of love as an excuse not to say anything at all. The line goes something like this ” I am just loving them into the Kingdom.” Yet the Gospel must be preached. We cannot just be witnesses with our lives, although it starts there, we must be about our Fathers business. Too often people are silent not because they want to win souls by the life’s that they lead, but because they are too afraid to speak up and then simply spiritualize their silence.
Jesus, we would all agree, loved with a perfect love. Yet every single word that came out of His mouth also came with a challenge. His word had to be acted upon. He loves the woman who was thrown down at His feet and did not condemn her, but He told her to go and sin no more. He loved the woman at the well but did not hesitate to speak of her many husbands. He was never afraid to speak the truth but He always spoke it with love. It is the combination of truth and love that breaks the chains of bondage. It is the combination of truth and love that sets the prisoner free. When we speak to the lost we must not be afraid to speak the truth that is applicable in their own lives. The truth spoken in love will challenge the heart of the hearer to its very foundations. They will be stabbed in the heart no doubt. They may accept what you say with gladness, humble themselves and seek out the giver of life or they may react with great anger and never want to speak to you again. Speak as the Holy Spirit leads you and do not remain silent when you hear His voice. Choose rather to offend men than to offend a Holy God. Your friendship with someone who is lost will not save them. You can and should walk in holiness but a holiness that does not challenge the lost is something that is self-indulgent. Jesus walked in Holiness and He spoke the truth in love, we must do the same otherwise our love is not the love of God but merely something worldly that does not carry the power of God. It is the love of God that changes men and women.
I think that when all is stripped away and all we have left is Jesus, we discover that Jesus is all that we need. Trials and tribulations and failures bring this life into a proper perspective. This is why, I believe, that Paul identifies the major flaw that we have, in Romans 7. We discover a law in our flesh, sin. And if that is all that we had then we would be men and women most miserable, we who know Jesus.
For to know Jesus is to stand in the light, yet when we stand in the light we see our sin in ways that a person not saved could never see because they stay in the darkness so that their deeds remain hidden, not so much to the world but to themselves. And in the blindness of that darkness they cannot see their true state. Yet we saints can see it and in the natural we cry out O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
But here comes the overcoming glory, we discover by walking in the Spirit that we are no longer condemned. We no longer hide ourselves from God, indeed we do the opposite, we come to God the Father because Jesus the Son of God made the way for us. Glory to God because there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
In essence the question becomes, and has been a question asked down through the centuries, what is real Christianity? What is the Gospel? Who are the saints? William Wilberforce was famous for his friendship with John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace and of course for being responsible for slavery being banned in the British empire. He and Newton and others like them were despised by most of the “Sunday go to church,” crowd. They referred to Newton and Wilberforce and others as “enthusiasts.”
It was not a term of endearment, it was a hateful term. What Wilberforce is less famous for is the book he wrote entitled “Real Christianity.” I guarantee you that if Wilberforce were alive today and wrote that book today he would not be invited to speak at most of our modern-day western churches. He speaks against self-serving and culturally relevant churches, in the language of the day of course. He speaks against the fact that most who call themselves Christians had not actually experienced the new birth, had not actually been regenerated. Rather they were Christian in name only and by accident of birth. Their Christianity was, he says, a cultural one, a mere adornment to their lives and not a life changing regeneration.
Before him Whitfield had made the exact same assertion and Wesley preached all over the country to people who were already supposedly Christians but were merely professors. Unfortunately today we suffer from the absence of people like Wilberforce, Wesley and Whitfield who were not afraid to look at the so-called “Christian community” and tell them plainly that they knew nothing of the new birth. In Wilberforce’s book he prophesies what would happen to Britain and its empire if its people did not come to a true knowledge of the Living God. It has absolutely come to pass. In more recent times we have had men like Tozer and Ravenhill who preached a similar message and many of their own “prophecies,” have come to pass. Who has ears to hear what these men,and others sent from God, were saying to their generation and to the generations soon to come, ours.
We are living in the days that they foretold. It cannot be business as usual, Christianity is in major crisis and has all but collapsed in Europe and the major denominations that are left, for the most part, have been ravaged by their own worldliness and taken over by a cultural elite who aim to please the world and please men rather than fear God. This is why the refiners fire soon to come is a great mercy.
There is the presence of God to be found in glorious worship, enthusiastic and energetic, the kind of worship that lifts your spirit. It can lift up the head and invigorate the heart and fill you full of joy and you leave strengthened. This is good worship. Yet there is another kind of presence of God in worship, the kind of presence that there seems to be a famine of throughout the land. The first kind of presence we spoke of lifts your heart, the second kind of presence invades every part of who you are. It falls from heaven like a heavy dew, heads are lowered and hands are raised. All becomes quiet, one barely breathes as the Spirit of God slowly descends down through our heads into our hearts and down to the very soles of our feet, and the ground upon which we stand becomes Holy ground. The first kind of presence uplifts us, the second changes us fundamentally. As living waters pour into us then it rises up like a great river that is so full that it overflows its banks. The banks themselves begin to crumble and fall into this river of pure life as it swells up and floods every part of who we are. The landscape is being changed by this flood, the very topography of our lives is being flattened by its powers and everything that is not securely rooted to its foundations is simply swept away. Changed forever. And when the flood recedes we are left with a glorious afterglow. As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, I wonder, do our hearts pant after this kind of encounter.
The Lord Himself does not need professional worship teams. He does not need people to encourage us to stand up, jump up and down and raise our hands. In the Welsh revival two young women singing either acapella or simply backed by a piano typically sang “Here is love, vast as the ocean.” And there was love, in the very midst of them, vast as the ocean, flooding the hearts and minds of all who attended. Brothers and sisters, in all our modernity, what have we lost? In the program of churches and the professional class of worshiper leaders and pastors we have lost the simplicity of it all. And in the losing of it we now have to entertain the people. Spirit led worship is exactly that, it is Spirit led. In work we have a routine. In life we have a routine. Prisoners in prison have a routine. Oftentimes we are slaves to the routine, it is what gets us through life. Yet, there is nothing routine about the Holy Spirit of the Living God. He is dynamic and you can never know what way the wind will blow next. Have we sold our souls for a routine? Routine in the home, routine at work, routine at church. Routine people do not change the world. Routine people do not do wage war on the battle-fields of life. The Spirit of God is dynamic and those filled with His “dynamis,” change the environment around them because the environment inside them has been filled to capacity and is overflowing its banks. Lord fill us again to overflowing with the kind of presence that invades every part of who we are.
Have you ever been out in a dark and stormy night? There is no moon and the sky is full of dark clouds. It is quite ominous. Then all of a sudden lightning shatters the darkness and illuminates the night sky. All of a sudden the landscape is lit up and you can see the edges of the clouds as they clash together. Suddenly you have your bearings and even when the light recedes you know something of where you are. In Psalm 97 we are told that clouds and thick darkness surround him;righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Outside of the baptism of the Holy Spirit there is darkness and all we can see is filtered through the wisdom of man who in the light of God is like the darkest night. When our minds are illuminated by the light of the Holy Spirit then we can truly see His righteousness, we can exercise His justice and we can see not only the throne of God but the foundations of that throne. Someone whose heart and mind has not been illuminated by the Holy Spirit could read the Bible every day of their lives and still never be able to penetrate the hidden depth and riches that it contains. Only when the lightening flashes is the darkness penetrated. Outside of the light of God men merely stumble around and inevitably fall into a ditch and draw others into the same ditch. The question then becomes “have you been struck by lightning?”
Brothers and sisters, when I look up to the cross I see humility. I see my Lord humbled and naked for the whole world to see. Nothing hidden. When I look up to the cross I see justice. I see sin condemned. Oh brothers and sisters when I look up to the cross I see mercy, . mercy for me. I do not see my own condemnation, I see my Jesus condemned and rejected by the world, willingly taking my place.There is therefore, now no condemnation, because He took my condemnation, to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Oh what a glorious freedom. Free indeed. Free indeed to stand and fight. To battle even unto death, with my fellow freed men. I pray today that those whom the Son has set free will catch a glimpse of who they are in Christ. Royal priests in a royal priesthood. Children of the living God. Loved and redeemed and reconciled and called to walk in the beauty of holiness. That the world may know that Jesus was sent by the Father. That the world may know that we are made perfect in One and that God sent His only Son because He loves His children just as He loves His Son. That the world may see something of the glory of God which was given to Jesus and which He has given to us. Rise up and shine today saints of God, rise up and shine, for you are loved so much. How much? Look up to the cross!
Run from those who would tell you that you are simply a mere sinner saved by grace. Run from those who only ever talk about sin. Run from those who have a ministry of condemnation. Run to Jesus. Understand and know that you are a soldier in the army of the Lord. Understand and know that you are the beloved of God. Understand and know that you are the apple of His eye. How do I know He loves you like this? Look up to the cross. Look up to where your burden was rolled away. Look up to where you first saw the light. Look up to the glories of heaven and in that place, before His throne, your sin is dealt with as you confess them before your Father. Those who would focus on your sin continually are keeping theirs and your eyes on the sin and it will keep you from the throne of grace. If we look at ourselves and keep our eyes there then we shall never overcome. If we listen to those who tell us that we have no sin to deal with, that it has all been dealt with, past, present and future, then we shall never overcome nor come before the throne of grace. We overcome in the presence of God, we cannot come into the presence of God if our eyes are focused on our sin, our eyes must look up to the cross. When we look up at the cross then we are humbled, and when we are humbled we have been made ready to come before the Lord with a contrite heart. In that place and in that place alone are we forgiven and strengthened and filled with unspeakable joy, the joy of the Lord, and in this we become strong in the Lord and the power of His might.
The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles with religious persons in regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. “The Saint Must Walk Alone” A.W. Tozer
Tozer is speaking of true spiritual fellowship. That seems to be something that is very rare. I guess the very nature of being a pilgrim denotes loneliness to a certain extent. When we think of pilgrims and pilgrimage we think of long journeys , the definition of pilgrimage is ” a religious expedition.” The word expedition means a voyage or journey, typically that of exploration. Let me ask you saints, does it seem to you that you are on voyage or a journey? Have you left the world behind and struck out into unknown lands and crossed uncharted seas? Or, have you stuck with what you know?
The Christian walk is a voyage of discovery. It crosses uncharted oceans and climbs un-climbed mountains. It leaves the world behind as it journeys towards the celestial city. We are citizens of a land unknown to men. The only map that we have is to be found deep within our hearts. In order to reach this city all must be forsaken. Have you left the world behind you? Are you a mere sojourner on this earth? Does this world seem foreign to you? The saints heart will never be at ease in Babylon. It will long to be in the New Jerusalem. We shall follow the light within us as the wise men followed the star. It will take us home.
I have grown to dislike this season more with every passing year. When I was a child my poor mother would go into debt every year, not on extravagant presents but just so her children could have something. Maybe that is one of the reasons I dont have a lot of time for it. Maybe it is because every year there is less and less focus on Jesus. Around my house I am known as the grinch because I dont care much for all the present buying, in fact I tell them, with a smile on my face, that if it was up to me I would ban all present buying, but I a deadly serious, I would. My heart is pained at what this season represents to the world. I will be pleasant enough to everyone, but my heart is not in it at all. If I could just sit with a company of saints and sing Oh Holy Night and consider the day, whatever day it was, that the Lord was born and rejoice in that, that would be better than anything. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, it is simply how I feel.
I’ve seen rainbows in the waterfall
As a child I heard my mother call
He lifts me up every time I fall
It all belongs to Him
I’ve seen dolphins dance upon the waves
I’ve watched squirrels as they misbehave
I’ve seen my Lord and how He truly saves
It all belongs to Him
I’ve seen starlings playing in the sky
I’ve seen the eagles teach their young to fly
I saw my Lord, He came to bleed and die
It all belongs to Him
I have seen a little baby crawl
Then I’ve seen him standing oh so tall
When I cry my Lord He hears my call
It all belongs to Him
So when you see the setting sun go down
And all the kings have finally lost their crown
And tongues confess and every knee bows down
It all belongs to Him
The victory for the saint comes in the depths of the dungeons. Those who will prevail are those who shall endure and overcome. If we love God more than life then we shall endure until the end and not just endure but cry glory even in the midst of gross darkness. The enemy shall never silence the praises of His people even though he would try to kill every one of us to shut the mouth of Jesus. The enemy killed every child of a certain age in a great slaughter and laments were heard all over the land, but, hark the Herald angels sing, glory to the new-born King, above the weeping of grieving mothers the cries of our deliverer was heard. The enemy failed and Christ prevailed and as it was then so it ever shall be until that day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.
The greatest revelation of God in my life has come in the midst of my needs. It has not come in my wants or desires or accomplishments it has come in my needs. The greater the need the greater the revelation. The second time of greatest revelation of God in my life has come when I have sinned against Him. There is no deeper humiliation for a saint than to have failed his Lord badly. Yet, when I approached the throne of grace with my head hung low and with a spirit within that was crying out ” woe is me for I am undone,” then suddenly I am encountered with love and forgiveness even although I myself had desired punishment and penance to atone somehow for my sin. Now I am undone not because of my unworthiness but because of the realization of the depths of His love and faithfulness to me. It is His holiness that saves, it is his grace that is sufficient and it is His faithfulness that will never fail. He increases in my heart and I decrease as I realize the very source of all that I am in Him and in Him alone
And so, the revelation of the depths of God have come to me and changed me and shaped me because of my needs and my need to repent of my failure and my sin. Contrast all of that to the fundamental aspects of the faith and hyper grace movement if you will. One is that God would have you have all your wants and desires and would be glorified in you accomplishments. The other is that there is no need to humble yourself and be broken and contrite over your sin because He has already forgiven your sins, past , present and future. Now if the greatest revelations of God to us are found in the midst of our needs then would not the enemy of our souls strive to get us to such a place where there is no need?
If our sins lead to humility and repentance and brokenness before the throne where we receive a greater and deeper revelation of who God is then would not the enemy of our soul try to keep us from this place by convincing us that there is no need to come here because all sins, past and present and future are already taken care of? Do not be fooled saints, God is glorified and revealed to us in the depths of our needs, our infirmities and our failures. Should we then seek to be in need or to be infirm or to sin so that God may be glorified? Not at all. I can guarantee that you wont have to seek out needs or infirmities or sin. They will find you because you are finite and corruptible. But an infinite God will one day raise you up in in-corruption. And until that day comes His grace will be sufficient for you. He will meet you in the depths of your needs. He will be faithful to forgive all of your sins when you come before Him and confess and in all of that you are drawn ever deeper into the heart of the Father.
God is not the answer to all of your problems, He is, quite simply, The Answer. When we worship “The Answer,” then every dark problem is brought forth from the shadows as His light breaks through the darkest clouds and lights up the hearts of those who love Him. And from the deepest darkest valleys we begin to hear His praises rise. Darkness is set to flight and light is brought into every situation. We have not been called to live problem free lives, we have been called to use our problems as platforms that lifts us up from the valley floor to the heights of heaven.
It is always dangerous write about end times. There has to be a lot of humility even when you broach the subject and a willingness to agree to disagree. Anyone who tells you that “this is the way it is going to happen,” you can take with a pinch of salt. The reason I am writing this short piece ( I try to keep everything short these days, could take 1000 words just to introduce the subject) is because a few people have asked me if I think there is any significance for the end times in regards to the USA recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Short answer, yes, just because I think everything that happens to Israel and more specifically Jerusalem is significant. I think it actually might lead to a major peace deal, the one spoken of in Scriptures, a seven-year comprehensive peace deal and all the world will celebrate, but when they say “peace,peace,” there will be no peace and half way though that deal it will all fall to pieces. Let me give you the relevant Scripture from where we get the notion that there will be a seven-year comprehensive peace deal.
Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Mat 24:21-22 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
1Th 5:2-3 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
Rev 13:7-8 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
So, the typical understanding of the abomination of desolation is that it takes place in the Temple, a Temple. Of course at this moment we do not have a Jewish temple in Jerusalem so most suppose a third temple has to be erected in order for this prophecy to take place. I disagree, for a couple of reasons. First I believe the saints themselves to be the third temple with God dwelling inside each of them, each of them being a living stone. Secondly in Matthew 24 Jesus refers to the “Holy Place.” Now, the ground upon which the Temple was built was a holy place. If you do the research you will see that the site of the Temple itself had a long rich history and so was not built on a random site. So what is there now? Right now we have the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Dome was completed in 692 and this makes it one of the oldest Muslim holy places in the world.
So that is some of the history and Scriptures that allude to this topic, now back to the USA recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Many if not most scoff at the notion that someone like Trump could be part of a final comprehensive peace deal in the Middle East. I want to remind everyone that there was another President that people openly mocked and scoffed as a buffoon, President Regan. Yet he was the one that brought down the mighty Soviet empire and the Berlin wall, the symbol of separation of east and west. Now we know that God raises up the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. The recognizing of Jerusalem as the capital city is the first step towards the peace deal that we know has been foretold.
So I believe that when you see all three religious leaders of the world come together in the “Holy Place,” to combine the religions of the world then this is the abomination, the birth of the great whore church. What disaster or disasters that bring this about I cannot tell you but it will come to pass. The world will be so sickened by terrorism, perhaps after the largest atrocity the world has ever seen, that the people of the world will demand a coming together. The leaders of the religious world will meet, at the demands of the political leaders of the world, at the holy site, the holy place, the Dome as it is now. They will tell the world that each of them believe Abraham to be their mutual father of faith and that Abraham’s God is their God whether they are Christian, Jewish or Muslim. It will be a day that the world will celebrate and exchange gifts to commemorate true world peace. And the cry will be “peace and safety.”
The only people of the world who will resist this will be the saints and they will incur the wrath of the whole world. They will be seen as a cancer in society that has to ripped out. The religious and political leaders will point to them and tell the world that these so-called Christians are the source of all the worlds problems. And so war shall be made upon the saints and they shall be overcome for a time as every tribe and tongue and nation worship the one world government and the one world religion. In fact it will be so severe that if God Himself does not shorten those days then there would be no saints left on the earth.
I believe that all these things are shortly to come upon us. It is a good thing to be prepared just as Jesus prepared in the garden before the crucifixion. We are called to endure to the end saints. We are called to overcome and stand in the evil day. Our God will be with us and He will pour out His Spirit upon us so that we may have the strength to endure. He is God that keeps His promises and He shall never leave us no forsake us.
I love the fact that no matter how ungodly the world becomes, some people still maintain their devotion to God and one another. No matter how much betrayal and debauchery we see on every side, some people still believe in duty, love, and honor. God is faithful to bless those whose hearts are attuned to him. They may not be in the majority; in fact, they usually are not. But they don’t mind; they keep on doing the right thing.
Many times today, those who love the Lord with all their heart and are sincere about following him feel bereft and alone. They look around at the corruption both outside and, unfortunately, inside the church, and they say, “How can people act that way? Don’t they know any better?” The enemy often tries to get us to give up and compromise ourselves.
In such a moment, we need to hear God’s voice reminding us of what he told Elijah at a low point of discouragement: there were still 7,000 others who had not bowed the knee to the idol of Baal. Elijah was not the only one after all.
Jesus said, “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). God is looking for people in every age who choose his small gate and narrow road. They want to please him regardless of how opposite the cultural tide is running. They will be his holy remnant. On these God will pour out his abundance in surprising measure. (Jim Cymbala)
“[Elijah] replied, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.’” (1 Kings 19:10 NIV).
If you were to watch my dog Jack go for a ball you would be pretty impressed. I have a little ball throwing gizmo that helps me launch it much further than I could ever possibly thrown it. While it’s still behind my back, half way through the swing, Jack has already figured out the trajectory of the ball and is off and running without ever looking back. The ball will bounce once in front of him and while never missing a beat he leaps up and just at the very apex of the bounce trajectory he snatches it out of mid-air and lands perfectly, it is poetry in motion. Now he will do this action 100% of the time and 99% of the time he gets the ball. Yet, even when he misses it is still poetry in motion because every single time he is 100% committed, he will catch it spectacularly or he will miss it spectacularly.
There is something about the way Jack goes for this ball that speaks to me. His passion, his commitment, his expectations are all really impressive. The most impressive thing about Jack is that it does not matter that the last time he went for it he missed, he just goes for it every single time. God is always looking for a passionate people. Yes you might miss the ball sometimes but do you have the passion, the commitment and the expectations when you hear God speak? Are you off and running in the direction that God sends you knowing that there is going to be a ball dropping right in front of you? The Scriptures tell us that without faith (trust) it is impossible to please God. When He sends you off in a certain direction do you go for it, do you believe that God is in it and He knows what He is doing? Or are you always looking back and second guessing him? It is not the catching of the ball that God loves, it is the passionate pursuit of Him and His ways. You are gonna drop the ball, you’re gonna miss the mark, but that is just you, that is just natural. What is supernatural is to trust in God with all of your heart and keep pursuing Him over and over again. God loves diligence. He is not a rewarder of the guy with the biggest ministry, He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. This is what gets Gods attention.
There is roughly 12 inches between the brain and the heart. In the life of faith this distance is covered by actual experience. We can have a head knowledge of many subjects but until we experience the subject or the situation it is merely theory. I could be an apple expert, know everything about the apple and never have actually ate an apple. A faith untested is like a car never driven. The point of a car is to take us from one place to another, the point of our faith is to take us deeper into the heart of God. In addition to having a car we need the fuel to propel the car. A car without fuel would be like a bird without wings. Faith without works is dead.
The Holy Spirit is the wind that propels us forward. He is the fuel that runs the engine. He is vital to forward motion. A sail boat without wind in the middle of the ocean is carried wherever the current takes it. If we live in this life without the direction of the Holy Spirit then we will be carried by the influence of the world and by our personal natures. This is why trials and storms in our lives actually promote growth. If we allow ourselves to run with the wind in the midst of these storms we can cover great distances in a shorter amount of time. The journey from the head to the heart is a difficult one, but vital.
A Call To The Remnant 