I will open rivers in the desert heights I will illuminate the darkness on the darkest nights I will be a cloud to you in the heat of the day Follow me my child I will show you the way I will make the wilderness like a pool of water I will strengthen you though ye be like lambs to the slaughter When they hang you high I will raise you higher You will praise My name in the midst of the fire When they put you in the dungeon and throw away the key You will sing songs of glory for I have set you free There are no chains that can ever hold you down For I have robed you in glory and placed upon your head a crown Streams of heavenly glory flow down to you oh man I saw you born again, I saw when it all began No child of mine shall beg nor ever sell his own birthright Rather stand he in the battle, he will stand and fight We do not fight with flesh and blood, rather principalities and powers We pull down every stronghold and demolish demonic towers The Lord has called us to righteousness and He will hold our hand And by the power of His glory, we shall forever stand.
Archive for the ‘The Psalms’ Category
In the desert heights
Posted by appolus on June 24, 2021
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of england, church of scotland, inspirational, intimacy, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »
Handing it all over.
Posted by appolus on June 24, 2021
The Holy Spirit spoke to me the other day in answer to an inquiry as to what was going on with me. “You have been holding on for so long that you do not know how to let go.” Let go of what you might ask? Everything.
It is within my own grasp that all fear exists, and the tighter the hold the greater the fear. And so this new place that I have been walking in with the Lord is the place that appears when you let go.
And the letting go was such a foreign concept to me that the Holy Spirit had to tell me what it was. And I thought to myself “surely it cannot be that simple?” And the answer is that it is, it is profoundly simple. And the cost? Everything that you have. Let it go. Hand it over. He who the Son sets free is free indeed.
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, God's love, God's voice, inspirational, intimacy, Jesus, revival, spiritual growth, Spirituality, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »
I count it all trash.
Posted by appolus on June 17, 2021
Isa 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
I give you my rags, you give me wedding garments. I give you ashes, you give me beauty. I give you dry bones, you give me flesh. I give you sadness, you give me joy. I give you a spirit of heaviness, you give me a spirit of praise. I give you my failures, you give me a way ahead. I give you my temptations, you give me a way of escape. I give you my anxiety, you give me a peace that surpasses understanding.
I give you lies, you give me truth. I give you my ambitions, you give me satisfaction. I give you past hurts, you give me reconciliation. I give you my wounds, you bind them up and they are healed. I give you my perversions, you give me purity. I give you my heart and my soul and all that is within me holding nothing back. These are the things that I give you Lord, these are the things that I bring to the altar.
There is the presence of God, and then there is the manifest presence of God. To experience the manifest presence of God we must be willing to be transparent before the throne of Grace. What will you give the Lord today? What will you bring to Him? Are you willing to lay down every obstacle? Are you willing to empty yourself before His throne in humility? We know that the Lord draws near to the humble. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will raise you up.
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Love motivates obedience.
Posted by appolus on June 16, 2021
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
The freedom to do what is right, towers above the prison and the chains of commandments. One is initiated by love, the other is enforced by the whip. Holiness comes from freedom and freedom comes from love . And this love inspires and draws us and compels us to honor and respect and obey our Father in heaven. His love is the very air that we breathe. The air before His throne is rarified air and if we cannot breathe this air then we die. The impetus for us to follow the commands that are written upon our heart is love. It is more powerful than the commands that were written upon tablets of stone. Those who would sin without conviction and use some kind of legal fiction (cheap grace) to excuse or justify their actions simply do not have the laws of God written upon their hearts.
The grace of God is such a beautiful and dynamic and fundamental part of our relationship with the Lord. It is never a license to sin, God forbid. It is the very opposite for those who know Jesus. When we sin there is a separation between ourselves and the one that we love. We cry with David “restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” The blood bought heart can never be at peace when there is any kind of distance between it and his Lord. Love compels us to humble ourselves, broken and contrite, and come before our Lord in confession so that we may once again walk in the beauty and closeness of His presence and holiness.
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Pressing towards the mark.
Posted by appolus on June 9, 2021
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul was always moving forward. He never lived in the past. Whether it was failures or victories he did not let them hold him back or move him to think he had arrived. He did not “count himself to have apprehended.” Apprehended what? Why salvation of course. He did not consider in his mind that he had “arrived.” This is not to say that he did not have eternal assurance, he certainly did. Yet, he did not stand upon that as a reason to sit back and coast. God forbid, he was always pushing forward, precept upon precept, glory upon glory ever coming into the likeness of Jesus.
Now how does that apply to you and me? There is a temptation to think that because you have been saved then that is it. Or there is the equal temptation to think because you have messed up then you are finished. You would be wrong on both counts. The Lord here in this portion of Scripture is telling us to forget what has already happened. He is assuming in this Scripture that you have come before Him and asked for forgiveness and you found grace and mercy. That sin is now as far as the east is from the west and has been cast into a sea of forgiveness, never again to be remembered by the Lord. He will not cast it up, only we humans do that.
Now He is urging us to reach forward to the things that lie ahead. A journey is only completed when the pilgrim keeps in front of his mind his final destination. He cannot take up residence somewhere. He cannot camp there, he must get up and get on with the journey if he is to find his way home. Camping on a particular situation or putting down roots in a place that you know is not right will come between you and the Lord. Press forward saint in your narrow path of sanctification that is your high calling. Jesus is your high calling. We have been called to be like Jesus. This is the mark. Push on saint. Win that prize, run this race like someone who desires to actually win the race. God bless you as you make your way home.
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A work of art in the Master’s hand.
Posted by appolus on June 6, 2021
It is a beautiful thing when you begin to realize that you are God’s work. When we discover that we need only to yield to the hammer and the chisel, give way to the potters hands. The only thing that holds us back is our resistance. It is our dreams that hold us back. Our desires, our ambitions. They may all be perfectly fine dreams and desires, but not for us saints. In the end it is about walking with God and that being the desire of our heart, to be like Enoch who was like Adam, prior to the fall.
The world is full of smoke and mirrors. It is full of expectations. And for the most part, even the most beautiful expectations are tyrannical. They compete with God and God is jealous. To know God fully we have to give ourselves to Him fully. He stands with open arms, we need only cast everything else aside and walk deeper into His heart.
For God’s children, it all comes down to time. this is our most valuable commodity, and it is typically right here where we “rob” God. Where we choose “other lovers.” God is jealous for our time, for our thoughts. If I were a great artist and somehow deemed to paint you and told you that it would take many sessions to complete but in the end it would be a masterpiece and would be shown in the finest art galleries all over the world, would you show up for your sessions? Would you be easily distracted and forget about your appointments with this famous painter? And if you did forget about them, then in the end your painting would simply be incomplete. The Artist awaits, where are you?
For those who give themselves fully into the Masters hand, for His will and for His good pleasure, they become something beautiful, something marvelous. We were not much at all to start with but somehow, with limited materials, the God of all creation has crafted something outstanding. He has taken ashes and out of that He has created His own personal work of art, you. Has He finished His work in you? Are you missing your appointments? Give Him your most valuable asset, give Him your time?
Do not get distracted by the shiny objects of this world. Do not get distracted by your husband. Do not get distracted by your wife, by your family or your work. You must love Him more than all of these things otherwise you are not worthy to be His disciple, you will be an unfinished piece of work on the shelf. God wants to display His work. You are His work, His witness, His light, Christ in you the hope of glory!
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Personal holiness
Posted by appolus on June 3, 2021
1Pe 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
The Lord’s Holiness is seen in men and woman who have encountered the Living God. This radical conversion is seen in their walk. They are a living testimony of the power of God to change lives. The man who has never encountered God cannot be Holy. He can be self-righteous, he can be religious, he can be sanctimonious and legalistic, but he can never be holy.
The man who has genuinely encountered God always keeps his eyes upon Jesus. Others may flatter him but he never takes those words to heart because he has stood in the shadow of majesty. He has had the impenetrable light of Christ penetrate every part of who he is. He knows that outside of God he is undone. The foundation of his life will be love, for he himself has been swallowed up by love.
The religious man can reproduce many things in this world for a time but he cannot replicate genuine love. He can seem to many to be upstanding, as were the Pharisees, yet God has considered the inside of the cup. This outward appearance is everything to the religious man because ultimately he fears man more than he fears God. His greatest fears are what others think of him, its what motivates him in all that he does. He is an actor and full of guile, yet, God has considered the inside of the cup because he looks upon the heart.
The child of God is not conformed by the thoughts nor the expectations of men. He is not moved by the tyranny of expectations no matter how good those expectations are. He is conformed to the image of God which is the Lord Jesus. He loves because he himself has been and is loved. He is merciful because he was and is the recipient of mercy. He forgives because he himself has been forgiven. He has joy because he has been ushered into the very presence of God.
This joy is his strength. This love is his strength, this mercy is his strength, the forgiveness he finds is his strength. His greatest strength is his love for His Lord. And he knows that even this he only has because he himself was first loved. And this love is the singular motivation for all that he does. Out of genuine love flows obedience. It is the motivation of the child of God. He has called us to holiness and the path to holiness is paved by a loving obedience and a desire to be like the object of our grand obsession, Jesus.
Posted in christian blog, christian living, Christian quotes, Christianity, Daily devotional, Devotions, Jesus, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
A crucified life.
Posted by appolus on May 31, 2021
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Gal 5:24)
This is a very well known passage of Scripture. It is important to know, that despite the fact that your flesh has been nailed to the cross, it does not mean that your flesh is dead. It does mean it is defeated. Now the question is “shall you surrender to the nails?”
Now, crucifixion is, by design, a long , slow death. In this, the Romans were barbarically ingenious. They had designed a means of death that would take a very long time. So, although we often understand our need for the flesh to be crucified, we have little understanding of the process. Many theologians will simply say that the flesh is crucified therefore it no longer has any influence over us. This is wrong. It is important to remember that a crucified man is not a dead man as such, he is a crucified man. Death will come, one is indeed dying, but how long the death? That would depend upon our fight and our struggle against the nails.
In the end, this life that we lead is a crucified life. It is life on the cross. If we could see men with Spiritual eyes, we would see the men and the women of Christ with a cross upon their backs. It is the mark of the genuine saint. Victory comes on the cross. It is the ultimate victory to be able to say from a cross “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.’ There is no sanctification unless there is a cross upon your back. So saint, this day I ask you, shall you surrender to the nails? Let go and commit your spirit to the Lord this day. You can struggle or you can surrender.
Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, God's voice, inspirational, Jesus, revival, spiritual growth, Spiritual warfare, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
All of a sudden He is there!
Posted by appolus on May 28, 2021
As I walk each morning I am always on the lookout for deer. It is a heavily forested area I walk through and so it can be difficult to see anything. Of course you could walk at dusk or dawn and increase your chance of seeing them, but you just never know. I was walking the other day and looking into the foliage and suddenly realized that I was looking right at the deer and she was looking right back at me. It was as if just one second before she was invisible but then she just appeared before my very eyes and I wondered how I did not see her before. I took my grandson with me a few times, I really wanted him to see the deer, he really wanted to see them. I took him at the right time and the right places but we never saw one.
I thought about the manifest presence of God. I thought about seeking God. I thought about the wind and how we never know where it will blow next. It seems to me this is the way with God. If I only walked every now and again, or gave up walking because I never saw deer, it is likely that I would never see the deer. Yet, because I walk every day and seek every day, all of a sudden, there is the deer right there, looking at me. As it is with the deer, so it is with God. He is looking for those who will search diligently for Him, in fact the word says He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And the reward? “I am your exceeding great reward.” To ” know,” that He knows you, that He sees you, that He is watching over you. May our souls long after Him today and every day and if they do, all of a sudden, He is there.
Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Devotions, God's love, hope, Ignited Church, inspirational, intimacy, Jesus, revival, signs and wonders, spiritual growth, Spirituality, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Do they see God in me?
Posted by appolus on May 28, 2021
Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, God's love, inspirational, intimacy, Jesus, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Take possession.
Posted by appolus on May 26, 2021
Posted in Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, faith, God's love, God's voice, new wineskins, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »
The shallow thing turns to dust.
Posted by appolus on May 25, 2021
How I long to look with optimistic eyes at the landscape of Christianity all across the world. And yet the sands of time gather around our feet in the depths of the bottom of the hour glass. For so long now we have desired to walk in unbroken sunshine not knowing that unbroken sunshine leads to deserts. And now we look out upon the landscape of our time and everything beautiful has dried up in the sun that we demanded. Century after century the desert has encroached upon the green fields and mountains and valleys, slowly consuming everything. If it were not for rivers in the desert then we would have died of thirst already. The rivers in the desert are Gods remnant saints.
If it were not for desert blooms then the all the color of life would be gone. There are precious few saints left who embrace the storm, who stand in the flood, who walk through the fire, who walk upon the water. Who are not delivered from the fire but by the fire and in the fire. Jesus weeps as He surveys the desert sands and the leanness of our souls. We have rejected the good deep soil of His sufferings and embraced the desires of our own hearts leaving behind something shallow,something lean that is without deep roots and something easily dried up by the sun, which we demanded.
And then this shallow thing turns to dust and is blown away by the wind, nothing grows and the desert comes. At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse (Jer 4:11) This ill wind that blows upon Christendom is not to fan nor to cleanse but to judge. A strong unstoppable wind that does not blow in a cool refreshing rain but rather a strong hot wind that dries up everything and turns it into desert wilderness. The shallow thing turns to dust and is blown away.
In front of our very eyes the shallow things are turning to dust. That which has no root is drying up. Those whose hearts were only ever for the cares of this world are being choked by the weeds and the thorns. Not so slowly now the good seed is being revealed that lies in the depths of good soil. Those who were planted in the depths by the waters of life shall bloom even as the desert consumes the whole world. The roots are firmly established and are held unmovable by Truth. Wisdom flows down into the very heart of them and nourishes them.
The world is a barren wasteland. There is something in the atmosphere and the world is willingly breathing it in. More insidious than any virus. They breathe it in to their very souls to their eternal damnation. Their hearts are poisoned and their spirits are totally corrupted in preparation for the terrible day of the Lord. They are only ever wicked and their thoughts are continuously for evil. As it was in the days of Noah, so is our day just as the Lord prophesied it would be.
Our sufferings is our nourishment saints. Our infirmities is His glory. Our dying to this world is the last vestiges of life. This life that comes from death is the eternal life of Christ in us, the hope and the glory. For out of the great desert, out of the gross darkness, God has commanded light to shine forth as a witness to the whole world. We are that light. As the whole world falls, we have been called to stand. As the whole world is consumed into the sinking sands of death and sin, we have been called to stand upon the solid Rock of life and Holiness. Stand fast saints, the Lord is at the door.
Posted in Babylon, Charisma Magazine, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, Church history, church of england, church of scotland, churches, delusion, discernment, End Times Eschatology, inspirational, intimacy, New World Order, prophecy, revival, Spiritual warfare, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
The holy sound of heaven here on earth.
Posted by appolus on May 24, 2021
The congregation, the gathered, the called out ones are, in and of themselves a set of instruments. Each a vital part of the orchestra and without such there can be no genuine praise and worship. Without the instruments of God making beautiful expressions composed by the Holy Spirit all we have is professional music and a professional speaker. The true instruments remain silent. And the one who fine tunes each and every one of these instruments is dismayed to see that they are silenced. .
The people hear manufactured music that lulls them to spiritual sleep. They have long forgotten that they themselves are instruments in the hands of the Master musician. When the orchestra of God has been silenced, when the conductor has been usurped, then all we are left with is noise, clanging symbols and sounding brass. Only as the full orchestra plays, conducted by the Holy Spirit Himself, can the hearts be pierced rather than be dulled and lulled into a state of slow death. For the symphony to rise to heaven all instruments must be engaged. This is the Body, all moving together, conducted by majesty and producing a magnificent holy sound that brings down the weight of heaven’s glory. We have been drowned by the noise of silence. Sparks rise up and dance in the darkness from the fires of our own making. Oh to God that the usurpers would fall and the preeminent One would take His rightful place.
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The final dispensation.
Posted by appolus on May 22, 2021
In Romans 1:28 we see that men are given over to a reprobate mind. There comes a time when men are given over to this mindset. The word reprobate means to be cast away, rejected, something that no longer has a value. It is a truly frightening word. I would like to argue that the world in general has been given over to a reprobate mindset. It is the final dispensation. Not to be confused with Dispensationalism. I am no dispenastionalist. When I use the word dispensation I use it in its plain simple meaning. A set order that is replaced by a paradigm shift.
I would like to put it to you that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift that is written about in Romans 1:28. It started with that which is known as the church, the great religious institutions of the world called after the name of Jesus Christ, Christians in Christendom. It has fallen, it fell first. Judgement began there. And then the world. Now the argument would be that the world was already fallen. I agree with that. It was fallen right from the beginning. It was why Jesus came. No, the paradigm shift is that men, with full knowledge, completely and utterly reject God and all that is holy. They are, in a sense, without excuse.
Right has become wrong. That which lurked in the alleyways and the shadows, now parades itself down Main St. The saints have been forcibly removed into the alleyways. Night has become day. Darkness now presents itself as light and has been embraced. The children are being slaughtered by the millions in the womb and those who are not slaughtered are corrupted by the institutions of men with the aid of willing parents. Justice has been totally corrupted and taken over by the reprobates and is now a wing of the armed all out rebellion against Truth.
There have been many “evil days,” in the history of our world. Yet there is a day written about in the Scriptures. The weapons of our warfare are such that we can stand in “that evil day.” There is a culmination of “evil days,’ and we are living in them. It is when hell spews forth its contents and drowns all the world in its vomit. It is the time of gross darkness. The kind of darkness that covered the earth when Jesus hung on the cross. It is the greatest of all darknesses and it comes before the greatest of all lights. Dawn comes in the morning but we as saints must stand in the darkest night.
We who are alive and remain today have been called for such a time as this. God equips those that He calls and He makes no mistakes. When He calls Gideon a mighty man of valor it is because that is exactly what God saw in him, even although Gideon complained that he was the weakest man from the weakest clan. It did not matter what Gideon thought, it only mattered what God stated and that God would bring to pass that which He said would come to pass. You, saint, are God’s mighty men and women of valor and you have been called to stand in such a time as this.
You are a child of the living God and you have His molten Truth running through your veins. This Truth that has so captivated you will not be wrestled from you.
In this Truth is the way and the life. Your very life, your eternal life. You are so taken by it that you love not your life unto death. You stand by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of your testimony. Your testimony, your witness, is your changed life by the power of God and your all consuming love for the Truth. They may beat us down but they shall not extinguish the light. All day long they can slaughter us like lambs but our Blood cries out still and God hears.
A chosen people, a Holy generation, a royal priesthood called for such a day as this. In this final dispensation we shall see the fulfillment of the great call from Jesus in John 17 that we would be one as He and His Father are one and that we shall be where the glory is. We shall see the fulfillment of Matthew 24 that he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.(Mat 24:13-14)
The time has come to endure until the end and the world will see the Gospel of the Kingdom preached as a witness. The martyrs are called as witnesses against the reprobates. And then the end shall come.
Posted in Babylon, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church, Church history, church of england, church of scotland, churches, deception, delusion, discernment, End Times Eschatology, Eschatology - Study of the 'End Times', heresy, revival, Spiritual warfare, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Caught up in the glory!
Posted by appolus on May 21, 2021
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Rev 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:
A door opened in heaven!! What is this, what can it mean? If such a door existed and we had access to it should we not find it and walk through it? Just a few sentences earlier we hear about the door;Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.(Rev 3:20)
There is, it seems, a door that we as children of God can open, and when that door is opened we can sit down with the Lord at His banqueting table, glory to God. Again a few sentences before that we hear Jesus say I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.(Rev 3:8)This open door to glory, this door to heaven, this access to the throne room belongs to the child of God. The ability to come before the Father and bow down and cry out Abba uniquely belongs to the enduring overcoming child of the living God. No man can shut this door, no power on earth can shut this door, Satan himself cannot shut this door. It has been given by the hand of God to His child and no one can rob him of it.
This is the glories of walking with the Lord with an open heart, to walk in His presence and according to His ways. This is the promise of Jesus to His faithful followers, that no matter what happens, no matter how dark the hour , no matter how fierce the opposition, the saints can walk in the glories of God and have access to His throne and to His presence and that He would keep them from the hour of temptation.
Now that word keep is better translated guard. To the loving Church who does not deny the name of Jesus and keeps His word, He guards them from that hour of temptation that is coming upon the world. Temptation loses its power for those who draw near to Jesus. To draw near to Jesus we must have an open door in our hearts, our hearts must be open to His glories and then we shall have the power to stand fast and let no man steal our crown.
September 16
Posted in bible, Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, hope, inspirational, intimacy, Jesus, revival, scripture, spiritual growth, Spirituality, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
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 »
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 »
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.
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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.
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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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A Call To The Remnant 