I wanted to address something. Many people have messaged me and told me how strong I am in the midst of this cancer and how they admire my faith. I do not want to give the impression that going through cancer is easy and “all you have to do is,”……….fill in the blanks. A test is a test, a trial is a trial, not because it is easy but because it is not. Jesus is the star of this story of mine. He is strong, He is faithful, He is my high tower. I run into Him. I cry out to Him, I rely upon Him for the little strength and faith I do have. It is an honor and a privilege to represent Him no matter what my circumstances are. Consider these verses from Psalm 37. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shall you dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD; and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your ways unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him:
In this portion of Scripture we are instructed how to walk in the power and strength of the Lord. We are to trust Him and do good. We are to delight ourselves in the Lord. We are to commit all our ways unto Him. We are also told (NKJ) to ” feed upon His faithfulness.” I left that to last because this has been my primary source of strength. I feed upon His faithfulness. It edifies my very soul and gives strength to me physically.I have been through enough trials in my life that I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that He is faithful. He has never left me nor forsaken me. It is His faithfulness I celebrate, it is His strength in me that makes this weak vessel strong. I am nothing without the Lord and would have crumbled and fallen into the sea of life a long time ago without Jesus. I feed upon the faithfulness of my heavenly Father and I am well fed. It is well with my soul because of His residency there. In and of myself I am weak, yet, His strength is only highlighted in my weakness.
Deep calls unto deep At the noise of your waterfalls And in the daytime Your loving-kindness calls And when the nighttime comes Your song shall be with me And even in the darkness, I shall see.
To the Lord my Rock I run beneath thy wings And in the night watches I listen to the angels sing When darkness is all around Send out Your light to me Shackles are broken, and I am free
A very present help Though the mighty waters roar And mountains they fall down Yet your Spirit helps restore My troubled heart in times of need Within my chest it surely leaps As the deep within my soul calls out to Deep.
This is the word from the Lord that led to my last poem. This video is an update of my current sitution, may the Lord be praised through all of it………………..bro Frank
“And in the silence there is peace. It dwells above the noise and the din. Above the begging and the pleadings and the raging storm, there sleeps Jesus in the boat. Shall we too arrive at the place where sleep is not dependent upon the storm being stilled? Where trust lies down among the lions. Where perfect love casts out all fear. This is the Kingdom of God, this is the rarified air of heaven. This is the shaft of light that pierces the darkness and guides us home.”
The Lord is the strength of my life He is the ground upon which I stand And though war has risen and come after me I'm confident in the God who has set me free!
And in the secret place of His tabernacle He's set me high upon the Rock And His pavilion is a home and shelter to me I am confident in the God whom I can see.
This one thing is the desire of my longing heart That I may dwell in His house forever And behold His beauty and His marvelous grace And forever and continually seek His face
I would have lost heart, but for this one thing His beauty and the glory of His might And when everything's gone and I'm all alone I shall seek His face before His throne
Wait on the Lord when it all goes wrong When the world and it's ways presses in When the night has come and there's no way ahead Wait upon the Lord and bow your head
Fall to your knees and lift up your hands Cry out to the one from above And without any notice, quite suddenly You shall drenched by His marvelous love.
The very opening line from David in Psalm 18 is “I will love you O Lord…..my strength.” He is our strength at all times. His love for us and our love for Him creates the Kingdom of God in our hearts. It creates the atmosphere of heaven that surrounds us. It creates the light that shines forth from us to a dark world. In this particular psalm, David is writing about many years of trials and brokenness, years when he was hounded by Saul and surrounded by enemies. Years mind you. Not a day or a week or a season, but multiple years when, for all intents and purposes, he was not moving in victory. His enemies seemed to have the upper-hand. Now the question becomes “shall we be faithful yet.” Shall we still follow the Lord with all of our hearts even when our prayers are not answered? Even when we have been backed into a corner? There have been times with all the great saints of the Bible when for multiple seasons and multiple years nothing seems to be going right.
Abraham waited so very long, over twenty five years, for the child of promise to be born and with every passing year, at least in the natural, the promise became less likely. Did he stand? Jacob, on the run so to speak for multiple years, not fulfilling his destiny. Moses, all that time in the desert, having run from the Egyptians. Over and over again the story goes. Joseph and his dream, yet between the dream being fulfilled there lay ahead of him rejection and betrayal and slavery and imprisonment. And so here we are with David. Saul is dead, his most implacable enemy. God has delivered him after countless years of wilderness wanderings and betrayals and rejections and tests. And David begins His thanksgiving to God by highlighting his love for God and acknowledging His strength. He is the Lord His rock and his fortress and his deliverer. The God in whom, all through the dark days, the valleys and the caves, he trusted. God was his very shield, the horn of his salvation and his stronghold.
He called upon the Lord his God when the “pangs of death,” surrounded him. He called upon his great love when the “floods of ungodliness,” made him afraid. When the “sorrows of hell,” surrounded him and the “snares of death,” confronted him, he called upon God. In his distress he “cried out to God.” And time after time he got the breakthrough. Not necessarily from his circumstances, no, his breakthrough was “He heard my voice from his temple.” His cry had come before His Lord and even just in the knowing that God knew and saw his afflictions, there was victory in that alone and he was encouraged by living waters. How many times was Paul told not be afraid for the Lord his God was with him? The breakthrough in every situation is first and foremost to “know” that “God is with you.” Now some may say that we should always know that as His saints. I would just answer with saying that it is one thing to know something in our heads, it is quite another to recognize the manifest presence of a God who walks with His children.
Look at the response of God starting in the seventh verse, this is the response to David who was constantly crying out to the Lord His God. “Then the earth shook and trembled.” Not unlike what happened to Paul and Silas in the dungeon. A devouring fire came forth from the Lord and “He bowed the heavens and came down…………He rose upon the cherub……He flew upon the wings of the wind.” “He sent from above and He drew me out of many waters.” He saw the many situations of David and He moved on his behalf, this faithful man of God who ever cried out to Him. And in the end , after many many faithful years in the valley and in the cave, God himself delivered David from all his enemies, especially his greatest enemy, Saul. Shall He not also deliver us dear brothers and sisters? Shall He not hear our cries from the valley?
If you have been going through a long and arduous test or tests. If there seems to be no light at the end of your circumstances. If you have been surrounded by the pangs of death and great ungodliness and sorrow besets you on every side and the gates of hell themselves has come against you, keep crying out to God. He is your strength. He is the Rock upon which you stand. He is your fortress and you can run into Him. He is your deliverer and your strength in whom you can trust. He is worthy to be praised in the midnight hour. He sees the afflictions of His people. He knows, He cares, He is actively working on your behalf even when you are not aware of it. He ever intercedes for you before the throne and in truth, it is the reason you still stand. He prepares a table before you in the very presence of your enemies and in due time He shall bow the heavens and come down. He is faithful even in the midst of darkness and when we cannot see the way ahead, He is the way ahead brothers and sisters, cry out to Him today for He is your strength.
Hear my cry in the day of trouble
Lest I fall in the night, lest I stumble
Lord send me help from heaven above
And wrap me and hold me in thy glorious love
Strengthen me Lord, is my hearts desire
That I might be strong as I walk through the fire
Lift up my head, keep me from the flood
Let me stand in thy might, covered by your Blood
And in your name we shall raise up our banner
Of righteousness and holiness, your very own standard
That the world might see your strength and your power
In the darkest of nights, in an ungodly hour
And we shall remember the name of the Lord
For in our hands there's a two edged sword
It's the Word of God,our strength in the night
That enables us to go on, to stand and to fight
Some men trust in chariots and horses
Yet the children of God trust in heavenly forces
It's not by our strength nor even our might
But by the Spirit of God who prevails through the night
So save us Oh Lord and answer our call
Lift us Oh Lord when we stumble and fall
Onwards and upwards to thy heavenly gates
Where your glory and splendor forever awaits
He whispers and it is heard above the raging storm He sees you shivering in the cold, but His love shall keep you warm When you are shaken by this life He ever stands immovable When you are persecuted for His sake He is with you in the crucible
In your afflictions, He is afflicted and He knows your pain He alone can take the blows and wipe away the stains He is the repairer of the breach and restorer of your heart He comes to you when everything is falling apart
Stand and see the redemption of your Lord As He comes again and in His hand a flaming sword The grapes of wrath are crushed in the wine-press of His justice He is our great Immanuel, He is truly God amongst us.
So Lord our God we come to where you are To a high and lifted rugged cross, our bright and morning star On bended knee we cry to You and suddenly You are near Your perfect love surrounds us and it casts our every fear.
Morning by morning He shall awaken you
And be the stillness of your soul throughout the day
He shall touch every part of your longing heart
And the shield of your faith shall quench every fiery dart
He is in every tear that falls
And in the billowing waves He hears your calls
Deep cries out to deep at the roar of Your waterfalls
And Your waves crash over me
I am consumed by the mercies of the Lord forever
It lifts me up and carries me away
Higher, deeper ever closer unto thee
This journey possible for thou has set me free
You are my quiet peace as the sun rises in the morning
You are my calm assurance at the end of every day
You are my one delight in a world that's ever changing
And at the center of my heart Your glory is ever blazing.
In everything You are my laughter in the rain
And in troubled times my endurance through the pain
Because of You I shall never be the same
My heart cries out thee.
In the silence and in the ever increasing noise
I shall steal away into the secret place of my heart
Where I can hear Your still and beautiful small voice
And in all of this You give me the strength to rejoice
You rise up in my heart like the sun above the mountains
And fill the valley of my life with waters from Your fountains
Let my heart longeth after thee in this dry and dusty land
For even in this gross dark world I can still see You hand.
Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
These are words from the man who is “after Gods own heart.” A man that the Lord loves greatly. Does He not love you brothers and sisters? Could we not pray the same prayer as David many times in our lives? Cleanse me for thy sake oh Lord and I shall be clean. Wash Lord and I shall be whiter than snow. The bones that you have broken Lord, heal them within me that I may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my transgressions. Create in me a clean heart oh Lord and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence oh Lord and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation. Deliver me from my guilt oh Lord for I acknowledge my transgressions, for it is against You alone oh Lord that I have sinned.
This is the heart of a broken and a contrite man. This is what the Lord loves. A man who has glimpsed into the depths of his own soul and found himself so very wanting. Yet he does not go and hide behind a tree and a fig leaf, rather he stands there, naked before the Lord, nothing hidden. While he was hidden the joy of the Lord was hidden to him. While he deceived himself the wisdom of the Holy Spirit was removed from him. The presence of the Lord had fled away and only as he emerges from behind the tree and from behind the fig leaf is David restored. Are you hiding today brother or sister? Shall you not come out from behind the tree and stand naked before the Lord? God does not require your sacrifice. He already required that of the Lord Jesus. He simply requires a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These things God will not despise. He will surely usher you back into His presence and He will restore the joy of His salvation to You. Goodness and mercy shall follow the broken and the contrite heart all the days of their lives.
Psa 51:6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden parts you shalt make me to know wisdom.
Part of wisdom is to know who you are. The outward appearance is of little value other than it is a reflection of the inner man. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but true beauty God sees clearly. In 1 Sam 16:7 it says ” the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” To truly be a witness for Jesus, the world must see Him when it sees us. In order for that to happen we must have truth in the inward parts. The hidden parts must become visible. The true essence of who we are, in Christ alone we make our stand, must be seen. This is why we must decrease and the Lord must come forth in every part of who we are.
This is our calling. The Gospel of the Kingdom must be preached as a witness. What does that mean? The world must “see,” the truth as well as hear it. Anyone can parrot the truth, but only the saints can live it out for all the world to see. Jesus says in Matt 24 that this Gospel must be preached as a witness to all nations and then the end shall come. Its not good enough for the gospel to be preached to all nations, it must be preached “as a witness.” A witness brings forth evidence. What is the evidence of your salvation? Is it but words? Or, is it the life that you lead that gives flesh and blood to those words? “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be a witness to Me in Jerusalem, and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
A man called Witold Pileski, a survivor of the Auschiwitz concentration camp wrote this ” some slithered into a moral swamp, others chiseled themselves a character of finest crystal. We were cut with a sharp instrument. Its blade bit painfully into our bodies, yet in our souls it found fields to till. We had all become just our bare essence. A man was seen and valued for what he really was.” When we are stripped down to our bare essence what shall be seen? Who are we really? Shall not the fire reveal the gold? Shall not suffering chisel away the worthless? Shall not our souls be tilled and there the fruit of the Holy Spirit spring up? Fruit that people can see. Fruit that brings glory to God. Fruit that feeds others. Shall we resist the sharp cut, the stripping down? Let us not brothers and sisters but rather let us yield our fallow ground to the till that is held by the hand of God Almighty and pulled by the Holy Spirit. And then, and only then, Jesus bursts forth!
All flesh is grass and its beauty
Is like the flowers of the field
We are here today and still we sow
Yet tomorrow what shall we yield?
The world and all who dwell therein
Shall surely fade away
Yet those who stand in Christ alone
Close to the cross they always stay
And though all things shall fade away
His Word shall remain forever
And we who remain and are yet alive
Are taken by the crimson river
This river that flows from Calvary
Is an inexhaustible fountain
It carries us across the sea
And summits every mountain
To the lofty heights of heavens glory
His people shall surely ascend
And there in the sky they shall meet their Lord
Their King, their Master, their friend
And there He dwells with the truly contrite
With the lowly, the humble, the broken
Who stood beneath that Bloody cross
And who stood upon every Word spoken
They shall run and run and not grow weary
They shall walk and shall not faint
They shall rise up with the wings of an eagle
And there shall worship without restraint.
Hos 2:20 I will even betroth you to Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
My father died a few months ago. He was 83. My mum is 82. They were engaged for five years and married for 62 years. And just days after my father passed away, the Lord spoke to my mothers heart. He said “I will be your husband now.” It brought her so much peace. To know that every aspect of her earthly husband, protection, provision, companionship would be met by her Lord. It is not that she did not know the Lord in these ways before my father died, but in the absence of her husband here on earth, she would suffer no loss, quite the opposite. He is more than enough. He betroths us in His faithfulness and in that we become intimate with Him in the deepest recesses of our hearts. This is His vow to us. And if we know one thing about the Lord, He will do what He said He will do. And in that sure knowledge we rest, our troubled hearts lie down in His arms. Is there anywhere more secure than that?
Perhaps you have suffered such a loss? Perhaps your husband or wife is far from perfect and your hurting heart cries out to God? He knows. He sees. He cares and He listens to the heart cries of His own. The vows we make to our spouses last a lifetime. The promises we have from our Lord lasts for all eternity. In the following verse it says this “It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer says the Lord. I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth.” Is that not some of the most beautiful language you will ever hear? Though the heavens may have been silent, now they respond. The long lasting drought comes to and end and the heavens open wide and there falls a glorious soaking rain that quenches the dry and thirsty land. And oh how the land responds by bringing forth its fruit. God is the heavens and we are the earth. The rain, the deluge after the drought is His presence and His fruit in us is manifested in love and joy and peace and thanksgiving. Praise the Living God for He has betrothed us!
Those who hear His still small voice Lie down in the night in peace and rejoice Even in the midst of the midnight hour There is glory in His praises and with them brings power
He leads us beside the eternal still waters into lush green pastures He has surely brought us Goodness and mercy follow all the days of our lives To a banqueting table we can barely describe.
His table to us is His manifest presence By the Spirit of God we speak with great eloquence Words that flow from the Kingdom within From the beauty of Holiness that lies therein
Evergreen trees give their fruit in all seasons There are a million ways to praise Him and a million reasons To rise up and with the morning sun and cry holy To walk in humility, to be contrite and lowly
He has planted us beside His holy river He has established us in His heart forever And forever and a day and forever it shall be be For into our very hearts He has placed eternity.
Over many many years Absalom stole the hearts of the people of Israel. You see, Absalom wanted what his father had. He wanted the exalted place among the people. He would rise up early and stand beside the gate and those who came looking for the king, he intercepted them and spoke to them. They were not his people, they were his fathers people but Absalom, falling foul to that most ancient of sins that caused Lucifer to fall down from the heavens, desired to have what was not his to have. And so he wooed the hearts of the people away from their King.
Is that not the very essence of religion? There is one mediator between man and God and His name is Jesus. How many men and religious institutions have sought to replace Jesus over all the centuries? One pretender after another, rising early in the morning, slowly and deceptively seeking to displace God and stealing the hearts of the people away from their rightful King. And all the worse is the fact that so many of these men and institutions knew something of the mercy of God, had been blessed in many ways by His goodness and His forgiveness. They had been touched by His love and by His word which only serves to make their deception and their desire to have what He alone has all the more treacherous.
And so finally David hears of this rebellion against him. Oh what a dagger must have penetrated his heart, to know that his very own had turned on him. One that he loved and had forgiven and had showed mercy too, and he repaid all of that with hatred and animosity and a heart bent on taking what was not his. It is hard to imagine the anguish of David, now no longer a young man, having suffered so much in his life and so much of it undeserved, now as an older man, having to flee from everything that had been his. The city of David, the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant would all be left behind and he and a remnant few would flee the jealous forces that were arraigned against him. They would flee into the wilderness.
Today there is a remnant few who have fled into the wilderness. They have left the city behind with all of its religious trappings. No walls, no tabernacle, no ark of the covenant. Stripped of all the religious trappings, they have something that David had. He had the presence of God with Him. Not that which represents the presence, but the actual presence of God. While religious men hung onto the trappings and rituals and icons, for that is all they have, David goes into the wilderness, the remnant go into the wilderness with God Himself. And as he ascended Gods holy hill he wept, he and the people with him wept. With tears the seed is sown brothers and sisters, tears of sorrow for what has become of something that should have been so beautiful and brought glory to God, but has been so thoroughly corrupted by men who desire to steal the glory of God and steal the hearts of the people.
Do not despair in the wilderness brothers and sisters. In God we have peace no matter what men think about us. In God we can rejoice despite the fact that the forces of Absalom are arrayed against the remnant few. Listen to some of the things that David says in this time and be comforted…… Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice…… because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee……….I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches……….From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I……………………. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
There is an inevitable end to the forces of Absalom, those who would attempt steal the glory of God and from His King. David speaks to this very thing and to those very forces in psalm 63……But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes. But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. Glory to God saints! Is the end we shall come out of the wilderness by the power of God. The soul that weeps, the soul that thirsts after God in the wilderness shall find joy and inexhaustible waters of life even in the driest deserts and when He comes again into His rightful place then all of God saints will rise up and cry Holy.
Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made by things which are visible.
The world was made, this visible world, by that which cannot be seen! Now this drives men mad. They demand an explanation. They must know. They have to be able to explain their situation. It strikes at the very roots of science and all things natural, explaining our surroundings and how we came to be and what will become of us. And the Lord laughs. The wisest man who ever walked the earth is as a fool to God. Even that which they had was given to them. Yet before we as Christians smugly scorn the men of science who by their desire to understand and explain their natural surroundings and throw off God in the process, how do we operate? Do we trust in the invisible God for our lives? In verse 27 of this chapter we see that Moses endured, not fearing the wrath of the King , by having faith in “Him who is invisible.”
Can we walk as the great men of the Bible walked? Noah built a boat when there never had been a boat nor any rain had fallen from the sky. What he was doing was ludicrous and he was mocked constantly by the world. Could you do that? Abraham, the father of faith, got up and left everything to go …….where? He did not know. Could you do that? Moses, when he became a man, refused to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin and all the world could offer him,. Rather he chose “the reproach of Christ,” as opposed to all the treasures of Egypt. Shall we do that brothers and sisters. In the end faith is about following the invisible God and not knowing what is around the next corner. Faith is about choosing God over the riches of this world. Faith is about praising God whether we live or whether we die, in sickness or in health, in riches or in poverty. The one constant thing in the seeming madness of this world is the invisible God in whom we trust.
The word of faith folk need to be healed. They need to see their healing. They need to be wealthy, they need to be able to see their wealth and count their wealth. They need favorable circumstances, they need to be assured by them. And when they see all these things or desire all these things for themselves they call it faith but of course it is the exact opposite of faith. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Trusting in God is the evidence of our invisible God. And it enrages the enemy of our soul. For two thousand years he has sought out saints and in the tearing away of all the things that can be seen, he hoped to tear away the thing that could not be seen. The cry of faith and the heavenly song from amidst the flames of the martyr being burned at the stake is the trumpet call of victory and the death knell in the ears of the enemy of our soul. The final victory will come when all the saints are gathered to a place where God, by His own hand has built. It lies at the end of the narrow path that cannot be seen. Where the invisible cross upon our backs are removed and we see the invisible God in all His manifest glory and we know as we are known.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
It is always surprising to me just how many within the confines of Christendom deny that the Holy Spirit can be grieved. And yet here in the scriptures, very plainly, we are told not to grieve the blessed Holy Spirit. The Greek word here for grieve means to make sorrowful or to distress. Can we make God sorrowful? Can we cause Him distress? Yes indeed we can and it is the knowing of this and the proper understanding of this that creates the lines within which we walk the narrow path. Stray across the lines and we cause our Father grief. He is grieved when we do not act according to the nature He has given us but rather we act as the old man would have acted. ” Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” This is the pleas of David in his great penitent psalm 51. Now, had God abandoned David? No. Yet David had fallen from His good graces and it was required of him to come to His Lord and make confession. And there is no doubt that the joy of His salvation was restored to David.
And so we find in this chapter 4 of Ephesians two sets of instructions. We are to “put of,” all manner of conduct of the old man. And we are to “put on,” all the characteristics of the new man. It is entirely clear that the putting on and putting off is our part. This is how we cooperate with the Lord. We have been delivered from the power of the old man and we have be transformed by the renewing of our minds as the new man. Examples given for the the conduct of the old man are lying, anger, stealing corrupt words, bitterness, wrath, outcry’s and speaking evil of men with malice. Conduct of the new man are truth, forgiveness and peace, honesty, hard work, imparting grace to those who hear us, kindness and being tenderhearted. This shall be our walk until the day of our redemption when this corrupt body is raised in in-corruption. In all tender relationships there is the fear of offending the one that we love and so it is, more completely, with our relationship with the Lord. In fact, it is this tenderheartedness and love that “keeps us.” The power of law was replaced with relationship. In this the law is fulfilled. Our motivation to walk in the Spirit of God is love. Religious men know nothing of this. They are kept by the rule of the law which they fail, without redemption. We the saints are kept by our love relationship with Jesus, which we never want to grieve, but when we inevitably do, He has made provision for us before the throne of grace.
I believe God will ignore most of the Evangelical churches standing today. They have what they want, they are satisfied with what they have, and there is no room in their program for the Holy Spirit to do His thing…………………to go forward requires that we go backward to rediscover and reclaim our spiritual roots. We have abandoned our roots and are wandering helplessly in a spiritual desert………what is happening across the board cannot be salvaged from a spiritual standpoint, and the chances are pretty high that God may have to start all over again,my prayer is that it happens quickly…..I am not sure this can begin in todays church. I am absolutely sure it cannot begin in most denominations (Tozer- Alive in the Spirit)
Now can I suggest that since this was written over fifty years ago, brother Tozer could be even more emphatic than his above statements. In Psalm 11 David asks “What can the righteous do in the foundations are destroyed?” What will happen when the average Evangelical church has exactly what it wants but is given over to leanness? ( psalm 106 13-15) Can dimmed lights replace leanness? How about musical concerts? Smoke machines? What disaster has befallen us? We are exceedingly lean people wandering lost in a desert of our own request and all we have to encourage ourselves is crowds? Somehow, if we have many folks walking through the doors and three services on a Sunday then maybe no one will notice the leanness? If they do we just need to make it darker or increase the entertainment value. Lets start to teach them how to live and somehow ignore the fact that the Holy Scriptures first teach us how to die.
Our spiritual roots which Tozer advises us to go back to can only be found in the Scriptures. If the programs have become the service then the service has to end until the only program available is the Holy Spirit’s program. What? If we shut down the programs who is going to pay the light bills and the staff’s salary. Someone might whisper “maybe we could just meet in our homes,” and upon overhearing this the professionals howled in protest. Now if we are to return to our spiritual roots where would a man give a word of wisdom? Where would a woman give a tongue? Where would one give a prophecy? Obviously not in the professional gatherings, only the ordained experts and trained worship leaders can be heard there. No scripture for that but lets not let that get in the way of the fact that this is how we have always done it for decades and centuries. Tozer goes on to say ” the next generation or two will face a challenge that cannot be overcome in the natural. Throughout history God has selected certain people to come out of the established church and start over again using biblical authority. What is happening across the board cannot be salvaged from a spiritual standpoint.”
Tozer gave a dire report on the state of the Evangelical church and its denominational counterparts fifty years ago, since then they have plunged down into the depths of leanness and depravity. One could only imagine the horror of men like Tozer and Ravenhill and even Wilkerson if they saw the depths to which the established church has fallen. Lean churches produce lean leaders who produce lean converts and that’s the best of them. The others will cross land and sea to make one convert and make them twice the child of hell than themselves. What can we do if the foundations are destroyed? We must discover anew the proper foundation that is laid down in Christ and the Apostles and the prophets. We must raise spiritual walls using only the Word of God. We must be found in these days of danger in our high towers. The righteous run into to it and they are safe. The high tower, the fortress, the deliverer, my shield in whom I trust. Upon Christ alone and upon His word we must go forward, baptized in the Holy Spirit that emboldens us to stand in such a day. This is our spiritual roots.
Gal 3:26 For you are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Sons and daughters of the living God. What a tremendous privilege brothers and sisters. Having been baptized into Christ, we now put on Christ. Seems like a strange turn of phrase the Scriptures use but there it is, we put on Christ. In the morning you deliberately get dressed and go out into the world. You put on your clothes. If you are a policeman or solider or fireman or many of the trades, you put on your uniform, you put on your work clothes. A business man or woman? Probably a suit of some kind. In a sense it is part of your identity. It denotes something to others. There are standards of dress and codes that we adhere to. Yet, in the putting on of Christ, we clothe ourselves in His righteousness. We awake in the beauty of His holiness. People can see who we are in Christ oftentimes just by our countenance. “There is just something about him.” “Oh, she is the real deal.” He shines through us. We are clothed inwardly with His holiness and it shines outwardly into a dark world. We are one in Christ. It does not matter if we are “Jew or Greek.” It does not matter if we are,” slave or free.” Neither does it matter if we are male or female for we are all one in Christ! The former boundaries of who we were are swallowed whole in Christ.
We are justified by our trust in Christ and the world can see it. Those who trust the Lord walk with a quiet confidence and dignity. The treasures that the Lord has invested in our earthen vessels are plain enough for all the world to see. You are Abraham’s seed and you are heirs according to the promise made to him, glory to God. Sons and daughters. Covenant children no longer bound by the law but rather graduates in the Kingdom of God, fully qualified in Jesus to walk in Kingdom power. The law was added for transgressions till the Seed came, our glorious Savior. If the law could have given us life and righteousness then salvation would come through it, but it could not, it could but point us to Christ and when He came for those who bowed the knee, they/we were glorious liberated. Imagine going back to something that could not give you life, to a place where your own righteousness was but filthy rags! What was begun in the Spirit shall be finished by the Spirit. It is evident to you and I that Christ was crucified for us and we know this by revelation. It has transformed us. It has saved us. It has redeemed us. It has taken us up to higher ground. It makes us to walk in the greens pastures of His righteousness and holiness. Imagine how foolish it is to think that all of this, which began in the Spirit could now be fulfilled by the works of the law and of the flesh. Never! It is Christ first, last and forever, and only , ever, by the power of the Holy Spirit, sayeth the Lord.
1Co 9:25 And every one who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown; but we an imperishable.
We have to run this race in such a way that we are trying to win. An athlete is totally committed to his or her sport. They will not do anything that would undermine their ability to be in the best shape that they could be. This is a fairly simple truth which has been preached on a lot and few would disagree with the truth of it. Yet, the context of chapter nine is money. It seems like Paul is complaining about not being supported financially. He then lays out the reasoned argument as to why he should be just like some of the the other Apostles. He says things like “who plants a vineyard and does not eat of the fruit?” And again “you shall not muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain.” And then he uses the always interesting word “nevertheless.” This adverb is used in a sentence after a concession. He concedes that the rule is that he should be supported “but.” And it is the but that is interesting.
“We have not used this but endure all things lest we hinder the Gospel.” “That when I preach the Gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel.” It follows that just because you can do a thing, does not mean you should. An athlete does not have to train every day. He or she does not have to rigidly watch their diets. They have the freedom to do such things, but would it be wise? Would it hinder their ability to run the race properly? And of course, it would. This is what Paul is saying in chapter nine, which is so often used in defense of countless ministries being supported. Paul disciplines himself and refrains from what could be lawfully his “lest when I have preached to others I myself should not be disqualified.” The gospel is central to everything that Paul does. He lives and breathes the Gospel. He even goes as far as to say that “it would be better for me to die than anyone should make his boasting void.” Death would be more appealing to Paul than anyone accuse him of preaching the Gospel for money’s sake.
This passion that causes us to run the race is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! The genuine saint is horrified if he or she would do anything that would bring their Lord and His gospel into disrepute. They would rather suffer the loss. Saints, how then do we run this race? In some kind of half heart-ed measure? Shall we not run this race of life like the top athletes who disciplines their body in order to win the price? And that price is but for a perishable crown, something that can never last. Yet we for an imperishable crown! For holiness sake! For glories sake! For righteousness sake? For Christ’s sake! These are all eternal. With our eyes firmly set upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel, we run, not like those of the world who run for money and for fame and for fortune. Our treasure lies in heaven above. We store up our treasure by running the race with everything that we have, holding nothing back. Laying down every single thing that would hinder us and the Gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom. This is our calling brothers and sisters, to lay it all down, starting with our rights. Paul was laying down his right.The only right we really have is the right to suffer and die for the cause of Christ! And we know that those who suffer with Christ shall reign with Him. That is our reward, that is our “imperishable crown.”
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
This glorious Scripture was fulfilled when Christ stood in the temple and expounded this verse and told the world, that this Scripture was fulfilled in their hearing. The Spirit of the Lord God was upon Jesus. It is He who is anointed to preach the good news to the poor. He may speak through us, but by the power of the Holy Spirit it is Christ Himself that speaks to the poor. Only Jesus can heal the brokenhearted. Only Jesus can proclaim liberty to the captives, and only Jesus can free those captives from their chains and He would do it all through us, the priests of the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. The dove descended upon the Lord Jesus and we must be immersed in the same Holy Spirit. We rise up in that power. We are a royal priesthood, a Holy Generation. We are the chosen ones of the Lord, royal priests in a royal priesthood.
When they see us brothers and sisters, they must see Jesus. We are a manifestation of Jesus to the world by and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Everything is done in the name of Jesus because there is no other name under heaven whereby a man can be saved. There is no other name under heaven whereby a man can be freed from His bonds. There is no other name under heaven whereby a man can be healed. There is no other name under heaven whereby the blind eyes are opened and the crushed heart is restored. We saints are clothed in the garments of salvation. We are covered by the robes of righteousness just as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Just as a garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so to the Lord our God causes righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. We are a living demonstration of His righteousness and we can do nothing more than praise Him from the depths of the inexhaustible wells of our salvation. Never forget who you are in HIm brothers and sisters.
A Call To The Remnant 