Oh glorious fourth man in the flame
Stand with Him and never be the same
Let the world gaze on and wonder at it all
Standing firm in the furnace, standing tall
There is gold in this refiners fire
In the world you’d be covered by the muck and the mire
Yet in this place of testing and refining
There is one like the Son of God gloriously shining
Do not fear when the enemy knocks upon your door
Nor in the darkened den when you hear the lion roar
The Son of God is coming with lightning in His hand
By His power and by His grace you shall forever stand
So stand amidst the flames and know you shall not fall
Stand upon the rising storm and hear the Master call
Lift your eyes and fix your gaze on Christ and Him alone
Rise up above all earthly fears and stand before His throne
A place where every storm is stilled
A place where every saint is filled
A place that casts out every fear
A place where Jesus Christ is near.
Excerpts from David Wilkerson’s prophecy which is now 40 years old.
I see the rise of a super world church. I see the formation of a super world church council consisting of a union between liberal, ecumenical Protestants, and the Roman Catholic Church joining politically hand-in-hand to create one of the most powerful religious forces on earth. This union is going to start as a cooperative charity program and it will end in a political union. This visible super world church is going to be spiritual in name only, freely using the name of Jesus Christ, but will in fact be antichrist and political in many of its activities. This powerful church union will be deeply involved in social action, tremendous charity programs, and ministries of compassion. Its leaders will make statements about meeting human needs. They will send out a call for social action, political intervention, and a greater voice in world affairs.
There is going to be a sudden mysterious chain of events. Just when it appears the ecumenical movement is nearly dead, a rather mysterious chain of events will bring about the framework for this union. Rome is going to insist on and receive concessions from the Protestant ecumenical leaders. The Pope will be considered more of a political than a spiritual leader of this church union.
I see the rise of a super church, a supernatural invisible church, a union of deeply spiritual followers of Jesus Christ, bound together through the Holy Spirit and mutual confidence in Christ and in his word.
This supernatural church of true believers will become a kind of underground church.
While this visible super church(apostate) gains political power this invisible body of believers will grow tremendously in spiritual power.
This power will come from persecution. The persecution madness that is coming upon this earth will drive these Christians closer together and closer to Jesus Christ. They will be less concerned about denominational ties and more concerned and emphasis on the coming of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit will bring together as one people in all walks of life.
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. (Zec 13:9)
The refining fire of the Lord is to be found in the furnace which we call our lives and the world. Now there are different degrees of fire, some are hotter than others. They all refine, yet the greater the fire the greater the refinement for those in whom faith reigns. Now a man or a woman can say that he or she has faith but who can know it but the fire knows. It is in the storm and in the fire that faith blazes brighter than the flame. Does faith reign in your life? Is your trust in Jesus the essence of who you are? Can we believe our own hearts in this matter or must it be the fire that reveals all? The fire reveals and consumes the dross in our lives, if we stay in the fire.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. (Dan 3:17-19)
When the Hebrew children are confronted with he who represents the world and the world demands that they bow down to their gods, they refuse. And this refusal to bow down to the gods of this world causes fury. The heat of the furnace was increased sevenfold. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace(Dan 3:23)
The time is coming soon brothers and sisters where it will be required of the saints that they bow down to the gods of this world, in fact it has already begun. When you refuse, the fury of the world will begin to rise until it shall burn with a ferocity against us that has never been seen before and we shall” fall down,” in the midst of this fire and the world will rejoice.
And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:4-8)
Yet even when the world should think that they have overcome the saints because they have made them to fall down in the furnace of afflictions, the world will look again and they will see something most remarkable. In the midst of the great tribulation of the saints the world will see the Son of Man shining through like heavenly gold in the very center of their sufferings. And in the end the world will see the Son of God coming in His glory and they will acknowledge , just like Nebuchadnezzar that ” there is no other God that can deliver.”
So brothers and sisters. Rejoice in your triumph in the midst of your trial. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. (Zec 13:9) You see, your reward is your relationship with Jesus. You can call upon His name and the Lord hears you and speaks to you and you are His child and He is your God. And for all eternity you will look back at your sufferings and know that in choosing to suffer with the Lord and counting it as a small thing you now rule and reign with Christ forever. Stand fast brothers and sisters. The Lord sees your afflictions and is with you in the midst of them.
1Pe 3:14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;
2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
The dark night of the soul is not something pleasant to go through and does not end with a fellowship supper after church on a Sunday night. It is a grueling experience that requires an absolutely strict detachment from everything that you normally rely on so that you are only left with Christ.
The dark night of the soul separates those who are genuinely interested in following Christ from those who just have a curiosity about the deep things of God. We surely want God to do His work in our lives, but we want the lights left on. We want God to do in our hearts and lives that which will bring Him honoring glory, but we want to know and understand every step that He takes in our lives.
Darkness speaks of not knowing. We want God to do, but we want Him to do what He does within the scope of our comprehension. The dark night of the soul, however, is a work of the Holy Spirit that exceeds the ability of any man or woman to understand. When we come through the dark night of the soul, we do not know what has really happened to us, but we do know what has made it happen (A.W.Tozer)
Tozer is here talking about the dark night of the soul. This is a concept well-known to the Body of Christ. Tozer describes it very well in the above quote. I would say that for centuries men here and there have went through this experience and they have had a profound effect on the Body of Christ. It is a kind of refiners fire that purges away reliance upon anything else other than God. It has happened to individuals and small groups of people but now I want to suggest that God is taking the Body of Christ, the genuine saints, the remnant, through a dark night of the soul corporately so to speak. He is and has been and is continuing to separate his children from ailing and compromised institutions. He is drawing them out. And as they come out He is drawing them into the desert. Now the desert is typically a place of death but the saints in their dark nights of the soul, in their journey to complete dependence upon Him will find life in the desert.
Perhaps you are being drawn out? It is scary. You are full of doubt, you are surrounded by darkness, you cannot hear from the Lord or discern His purpose for your life but you are being driven. As much as you cannot see the way ahead you know you cannot stay in a place of compromise and lukewarmness. No one understands you where you are. When you speak of deeper things and desiring to take up your cross for Christ people look at you like you are an alien. So you are driven. Driven into darkness and solitude and loneliness. Driven to a place where your only fellowship is the Lord Himself and His word. This is alien at first but the longer you journey into this place the more you realize the wonder and the glory of complete dependence upon the Lord for all of your spiritual needs. He is establishing your feet upon a broad place. He is equipping you to be a light in the gross darkness to come. He is enabling you to be a source of encouragement to the Body of Christ in the age in which we live.
As the saints come out of this desert I believe God is drawing them to each other. All around the world in the days to come God is drawing His Body together after they have come through the darkness and complete separation from the world and now completely rely on Him. He is and will continue to equip the saints in every generation for what they have to face. I believe our generation will face the greatest darkness that has ever faced the Body of Christ universally. Men and woman of the past whom the Lord brought through the dark night of the soul, as few as they were, had a tremendous effect on the Body of Christ. Imagine what effect the Body of Christ will have on the world when the Lord has finished His work of taking His Church through this experience.
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts. (Mal 3:2-5)
I was awoken at 1.40 this morning by the Holy Spirit with this line ” There is a rising Crimson Tide.” I have arthritis and it is bad right now but I knew if I did not get out of bed the line would be gone and there would be no poem, so I got up and was inspired by the Lord to write this, I pray that it blesses you. Upon reading it back to myself I see that it could be sung to the tune of ” The house of the rising sun.”
There is a rising Crimson tide
That burns inside of me
Tis from my wounded Master’s side
Which flows from Calvary
This fire was set when I met Him
So very long ago
And though the years are passing me
This fire will always flow
It rises and consumes my heart
This heart He gave to me
This fire consumes my very soul
Which flows from Calvary
And from His nail pierced hands it flows
And trickles down on me
Who kneels below this Crimson flow
The cross of Calvary
And I am raised up by the tide
Of Crimson’s glorious fire
His blood it cleanses all of me
And raises me up higher
It take me all the way to heaven
To stand before His throne
I lift my hands and worship Him
For me His Blood atoned.
Consumed by a fire of molten Love
That flowed on me from up above
Igniting every part of me
Thank God in Christ for Calvary
I give you 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 . It is painful and humiliating to come before your alter with only these things Lord. Brothers and sisters, the altar has always been a place of sacrifice, we have turned into an ” all you can eat bar,” where one simply chooses what one wants. God have mercy on us and restore a right spirit within us…..bro Frank
Isa 61:3 to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the mantle of praise for the spirit of heaviness; so that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that He might be glorified.
Are you weary of externalism, and do you long after God? I long after God. This is not old age talking, and this is not the results of anything I have been reading, except the Bible. This has been growing in me through the years. The only gratifying thing I have apart from my communion with God is the knowledge that I am not alone in my journey. God has His people everywhere who are in revolt against pretense, textualism, externalism and tradition. They want to seek God for Himself, as He is in the Scriptures, as revealed by the Holy Spirit. God has His people, but there are not many of them. Are you one? ( Tozer)
The question is, are you weary of trying to change from the outside in? It is simply not possible to change from the outside in. All spiritual change comes from the inside out. It has to begin in the deepest parts of who we are. To be changed from the inside out requires an encounter with the Living God. Only this can change you. You cannot turn over a new leaf, try harder, read the Bible more, follow the traditions of your church, you have to encounter Him. This encounter takes place in the realms of the heart and soul, not in the head. It is the most dangerous thing in the world to encounter God. Why is it dangerous? Because your life will never be the same.
Your desire will be for Him and no matter what other interests you have, they will give place to Him. He consumes the soul. He fills us in ways that nothing else that exists can. Are you ready for that kind of mad passion? A passion with such intensity that it relegates all other things to second place and beyond. This kind of passion is dangerous to normal natural living. When that which is supernatural invades that which is natural then it overflows the soul. The soul is huge and not able to filled with anything that exists. Yet God is vast beyond our ability to understand. It was once said that if everything that exists, this universe and all universes beyond with all of its trillions of planets could be placed in a five gallon bucket, and we compared a five gallon bucket to the Indian ocean the Indian ocean would be God.
This of course is a limited analogy because God is more vast than that. Yet here is a thing…….That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Eph 3:17-19)
You see that brothers and sisters, we might be filled with all the fullness of God!!! The fullness of God. Somehow in our spirits we might comprehend the breadth and the length and the depth and the height of the fullness of God who is vast beyond our ability to comprehend in our heads. But the Spirit of God communicates the fullness of God to the spirit of man and that man is captivated and forever ruined for the things of this life and his drive is to continually seek out this God and know Him in His manifest presence. You will be like the deer who pants for the waterbooks but you can never be like this deer unless you encounter the reality of God in the depths of your spirit. This is where the fire is set, this is the fire that spreads to the bones and possesses all of who we are.
What have we come to, that the people of God are not shocked enough by Calvary, a man dying on a cross on a hill outside Jerusalem? And not just a man, but the God-man, dying for the sins of the world? Why does this leave them dull and unmoved? The recent outbursts of modern theatrics has now taken over Protestantism. What started in the beginning as a small seed has grown;the dragon’s seed has grown more dragons. The seekers of God do not like what is happening and the hungry-hearted saints of God do not want it, so they read with great eagerness the lives of holy men in the devotional books from centuries past. But where is the doing? (A.W.Tozer)
Tozer wrote this back in the early 60s. Can I suggest that the combination of theatrics and entertainment in general have swamped the churches of today. If there were dragons about in the early 60s, one might well argue that the dragons now reign supreme. If the seekers of God did not like what was happening back then, they must surely be beside themselves now at what has unfolded as the modern Church? If they were hungry back then, they must surely be on starvation diets now? Can I suggest that the whole process has been part of Gods plan for His people. God is found in the arena of hunger. He is found by those who thirst after nothing but the living waters. Now there are many waters and many kinds of foods but there is only one living water and only one food that ever satisfies the hungry heart of the God seeker. Both are found when we encounter Him. God has to separate a people so that He can strip away centuries of traditions of men who more often than nought simply follow the winds of the world. Are you a God seeker or a pew warmer?
I was walking this morning and praying and this thought came to my spirit. ” What does victory look like,” and the Lord spoke into my heart. Victory for the Christian almost always comes against a backdrop of darkness. Some battle against the flesh, some taking up our cross, some trial or tribulation. These circumstances, these events bring to the fore a confrontation. If we look at the biggest picture of all it is darkness against light. By the very nature of who you are in Christ you are walking in confrontation. We know that the Scriptures tell us that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”(2 Tim:3:12)
Interesting is it not that even the desire to live a Godly life will bring about immediate confrontation. Maybe you have noticed this in your own life? And why is this? Because it is fundamentally at its root a spiritual battle that we face.Living Godly lives is a disaster for Satan because of the witness that Godly lives are to the world. I want you to know that when I use the phrase Godly I mean victorious overcoming lives. In the verses that precede verse 12 we see that victorious living is in juxtaposition to people who have a form of godliness but who walk without victorious power. They are ever learning but they never come to the knowledge of the truth. The Godly man is the victorious man. He walks in the power of the Spirit and He has knowledge of the truth. Knowledge in the true sense of that word. Not head knowledge but an intimate knowledge of the Truth.
And so what does victory look like? Well it looks like Gethsemane. It looks like Calvary. It looks like an empty tomb and it looks like an ascension up into heaven where the Lord finds His place at the right hand of the Father. This is what victory looks like and this is the process that all of us who would desire to live a Godly victorious life find ourselves in. There is no other way. You will be confronted if you desire to live a victorious life. And it is how you react to that confrontation that will determine the kind of life that you will ultimately live for there is no other kind of life in the Kingdom that is a witness for Christ than the victorious overcoming life.
And so the first part of victory, for it is made up of parts, is surrender to the will of God no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. You must remember that the circumstances you find yourself is not the problem, nor are the people who play their roles in your circumstances. People will always act according to their nature. A key point to remember as you face the trial or the persecution or the circumstance is that this is for the glory of God. And please, do not get me wrong brothers and sisters, I am not underestimating the pain of your trial. Yet the darkness of your situation will become the black velvet backdrop for the glories of Christ in your trial. We know that jewelers set their diamonds and gold on black velvet because it highlights the shining beauty of the gold and the gems. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood and agonizing about the cup that He faced is our perfect example of this.
Can you hear the beat of my heart
And my tears as they fall to the floor
And the cry that comes from the depths of my heart
Oh Lord wont you open up the door?
How I long for the tabernacle of your presence
Your glorious majesty that’s there to be found
How my heart longs to be where you are
In the midst of your glory that’s all around
It can be a dry and dusty narrow path
Surrounded by desert sand
I thank you Lord for the moments in time
When I simply take hold of your hand.
These moments of glory then down comes the rain
Glory and majesty and agonizing pain
Bring on the pain and let the rain fall
As for me and mine we shall follow the call
Lord you know the beginning from the end
And in spite of myself you call me your friend
So the thunders shall roar and the mountains shall fall
No matter the cost I am gonna stand tall
For you took what was dead and wasting away
You raised me to heaven and taught me to pray
So as long as I live and the sky above is blue
I’ll walk through the fires just to be found in you.
God is found by the hungry heart
Not by the inquiring mind
God is found by those who thirst
He quenches that thirst you will find
God is found in the longing and the aching
He is found by those who seek
He is found in the depths of the needy heart
By the humble, the lowly the meek
God is an anchor for the soul adrift
He is the roots of the tree in a storm
He is the light that shines in the midst of the dark
In winter His fire keeps us warm
He is a warm embrace to the longing heart
He is our peace when all breaks down
He is our sanity in the midst of a mad mad world
He is the head that wears the crown
Come unto me ye broken and contrite
All you who dwell in an endless night
Find in Me an open door to heaven
In me you’ll be fed and truly forgiven
(Rev 3:8)I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.
Praise the Lord, He has set before this church an open door to the throne room of heaven itself. The church of Philadelphia is unique in these opening chapters of Revelation in that the Lord speaks no word against them. Philadelphia is the church of brotherly love and herein lies one of the great keys that open that door. Love for one another and unity of the Body of Christ. This group may have had a ” little strength,” but they had love one for another and there can be no genuine unity outside of love. Also, they have kept the word of the Lord and have not denied His name in the face of fierce opposition from their enemies. Now, who were their enemies that are here in this chapter described as ” The Synagogue of Satan.” Those who worship other gods, who chase after other lovers and to whom Jesus is relegated to second place or worse.
Obviously in our day the ” other gods,” are not so obvious nor named. In those days the gods could be the ashteroths or the baals, basically gods of fertility. Bottom line even in those days, people needed to put food on their table, a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs. These fertility gods were worshiped in order to produce a good harvest. In our day we are way too sophisticated to worship the gods of fertility. Yet the concerns of people today are not so different from the people of the ancient world. The main concerns of most people today are their livelihoods, their careers, the food on their tables, the clothes on their backs. What kind of car they drive, what college will their kids go to, what kind of house they live in, in short, people of today worship their lifestyles and are often jealous of the lifestyles of others.
Now in our day there is a rising tide of opposition against the saints from those of the world. Can I tell you that greatest opposition that will come against the saints will be those of the ” Synagogue of Satan.” People who name themselves after Christ but who truly worship other gods and the living God will reveal their gods in due time. The Lord will bring about and is bringing about circumstances that expose this kind of ” synagogue,” or we can replace that in our day with the word church. He is shaking the very foundations of our societies. And that shaking is revealing much. The more the pressure increases from the culture and the world in general to deny the fundamental truths of the Gospel and of Jesus, the more we see the ” synagogue of Satan,” revealed. And in the midst of all this, God’s word to His uncompromising Body is “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” (Rev 3:11)
In Galatians we see an encounter between Paul and Peter at Antioch. It has to be remembered that the initial Church was all Jewish. And even at that time the Jewish teachings and traditions were well over a thousand years old. Imagine for a moment, a thousand years of history, teachings and interpretations and ritual. You were special, Gods own called out people and everyone else were Gentiles, apart from God.
In Acts 10 we see that Peter encounters God in a vision on a rooftop. A sheet comes down with every kind of unclean animal that Jewish people were forbidden to eat and God tells Peter to rise and kill and eat. Now, this would be something like Abraham being told to take his son up the hill and burn him to death. How could this be God? This is the mental and emotional anguish that Peter must have wrestled with as he defies God three times, three times brothers and sisters. At that very moment, the servant of Cornelius the Gentile arrives. The answer to Peter’s vision just knocked on his door. How would you like a question to God to be answered so quickly? And we know what happens next, he goes to Cornelius’s house and witnesses the Holy Spirit come down on that household just as it had come down on them at Pentecost.
Now back to the Galatians. We see that Peter and others including Barnabas were taken up with hypocrisy. The revelation had been given by God Himself about the Gentiles yet Peter and the others were still afraid of those who came down from Jerusalem and insisted that the Gentiles must be like them if they were to be part of the Body of Christ. Thank the Lord that Paul, quite apart from any leadership in Jerusalem, had been taught himself by vision and revelation about the nature of the Body of Christ and so he withstood Peter and the leadership of Jerusalem and insisted that they were being hypocrites by insisting that the Gentiles must live like Jews in order to be part of the Body of Christ, they were adding to the Gospel and Paul would have none of it.
Now, before you are too hard on those early believers who were Jewish by birth, I want you to consider how your own common experience may clash with simple truth. If Peter was so bold and conflicted as to say ” not so, Lord,” ( and this is an impossible phrase is it not, how can He be the Lord of our life and we say no to Him) three times then could this not happen to you? Now what is the simple truth that I am talking about that the vast majority of Christendom say ” not so Lord?” Here it is. Read the rest of this entry »
We have only one life to live
We have only so much to give
So let’s give it sacrificially
That we may live life beautifully
Far from the grasping crowd
I’m running from all that is loud
Just want to walk with the sun and the breeze
Hands silently raised and falling to my knees
I just want to hear the rain fall
See the birds fly and listen to them call
Maybe see a deer around the bend
Talk about my passion with a friend
I see the sun in the sky-high above
As I walk back towards my first love
I’m losing everything that has weighed me down
So I can run to Him at His feet to be found.
I’m traveling light on my journey now
My heart has been furrowed by the plow
I’ve cried tears and raged at the moon
But now it’s time to walk for my Master’s coming soon.
Nothing else matters only He
Coming back to the one who set me free
My heart now longs for just one touch
To hear Him whisper in my ear would be so much
To the glory and the King of majesty
Loving and living with all simplicity
An ear to hear and a heart to sing
The praises of His glory,my risen King.
Last night my wife and I were watching American Idol. Kelly Clarkson finished the show with a raw performance of a song she wrote called ” Piece by Piece.” It left most people in the audience in tears. I recently watched a movie about the life of Amy Winehouse. She says in the movie that the thing that changed everything in her life and sent her down a path of destruction was her father walking out on them when she was nine years old. Kelly’s song relates to the same thing only she was six.
Two years ago I walked past a neighbor’s house. They had two children, two beautiful girls aged seven and five. Their father was leaving and I could hear the girls wailing, not sure I will ever forget that. He had met a younger woman. I ran into the neighbor a few weeks later just sitting in her car at a trail near our house, sitting weeping in her car, broken. She allowed me to pray with her and we both wept before the throne. The damage of divorce is untold and it ripples through the fabric of our lives and society. Well does the Bible say that God hates divorce. The pain and the agony and the lives ruined by it are inestimable.
Listen fathers, don’t you ever walk away from your children. You might not be the best father in the world or things might not be perfect in your world but don’t you walk away. You might not have all that you want in this life but does that give you the right to take away from a child everything that they have? We have one life to live and we only have so much to give, give it and give it sacrificially. God will help you do it. Walk away and the leaves will simply fall from the tree and be scattered by the wind.
What do I mean by the triumph of form over substance? Well, it typically means that content or the subject does not matter, what matters is how a thing looks. In other words the subject itself does not have to have any depth or true meaning it only has to look good and feel good.
I would argue that this current political cycle is a perfect example of form triumphing over substance. The rise of Donald Trump is the rise of form over substance. He merely taps into the mood of the people and says what he needs to say to get elected. He is an amalgam of our personality cult culture and business and now politics. This is the end result of a long process that could only truly find its successful conclusion with the rise of media and especially social media.
Now there have been notable people from the previous century that gives us clues as to how we got here. If we look at Hitler we see a man who could never have arisen without the aid of radio and the camera and of course circumstances. The circumstances are obvious. There was social unrest caused by a financial meltdown. This of course was severely aggravated with the rise of socialism and communism throughout the world. Given these fears and others, the people turned to someone who promised to make Germany great again. Someone who would face the problems of the day head on. Now they knew that he held extreme views but their fears for their present situation overcame any misgivings they may have had for him. The basic premise throughout the ruling classes was ” he would at least sort out the Communists,” which of course he did yet they had unleashed a monster.
Along with all those reasons, Hitler could still not have come to power without the aid of media. Radio of course was the social media of the day. People gathered in their living rooms and listened to his captivating speeches. They also went to the movies and saw such productions as ” Triumph of the Will.” A movie about the rise of the Nazi party that combined music and clippings of speeches and rallies. It is purported to be the greatest propaganda movie of all time and truly shows the power of media, form over substance, to move a whole nation. And of course that power has only increased exponentially over the last 80 years.
The first ever televised interview of two politicians debating was in 1960 and was between Nixon and Kennedy. Unbeknownst to Nixon, Kennedy had the heat turned way up in the studio because he knew Nixon had a tendency to sweat. When they both sat down to debate, Kennedy looked cool and collected while Nixon sweated badly. This had a great effect on the viewing audience. No matter what one of these men you liked, it could easily be argued that Kennedy knew the value of form over substance, it was less about what they were saying and more about how they were coming across to the audience.
In the church we are living, for the greater part, with the triumph of form over substance and the evidence of that is the depth or lack thereof of Christianity in our society. While we have had no Hitlers in the church(many mini ones) we have had many charlatans that used the power of the media and the rules of entertainment to water down the message while promoting themselves. Now three of four generations into an entertainment driven church we are left with a shallowness of showmanship that engages the ” audience.” Tozer writes “The church that can’t worship must be entertained. And men who can’t lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment.” I would argue that all across Christendom in the west we are seeing leaders who lead the people by providing entertainment.
Tragically we have seen that as the world goes so goes the church. Of course it should be the exact opposite, yet here we are. You will hear excuses about staying relevant and keeping up with technology and so on. I personally have nothing against technology but when it becomes an integral part of the “show” on a Sunday morning then you know that the plot has been lost. Today we are being driven by the form and not the substance. The cultural winds have simply taken a hold of the church and the church is being driven along by these winds towards what destination? What is the end for such a church? The complete amalgam of the world with the church. This is a tragedy. The church was supposed to be a counter-culture not a sub-culture.
Justice and mercy have kissed
And my heart was broken and healed
Your love which I so long dismissed
Now covers forever and seals
Oh Lord of heaven above
And of earth and sky and sea
How I rest in the warmth of your love
Once was shackled but now I am free
Your love and truth are my guiding light
And your mercy never comes to an end
Your fire and glory light up the night
While you fall down from the heavens you rend
Fill up the valley my glorious King
Flood the whole earth with joy and with praise
Look kindly upon the sacrifice I bring
That I may follow you all of my days
Oh justice take the hand of mercy
That glory may dwell in our land
IN the shadow of victorious Calvary
Where sin lost its final last stand!
“I feel like we are salesmen today and the reason is we do not pray. Everybody today is an echo. They go to a conference to hear what everybody else is saying, and then repeat it. But brother Dave Wilkerson was intimate with God, and that’s what allowed him to be a voice.” ( Pastor Tim Dilena, Brooklyn Tabernacle Church)
” Very few people are lifting their voices. All of the statistics prove, that by every measurable parameter, the Christian church is sinking. Part of the problem is what we have been fed for the last ten, fifteen, twenty years-the focus on church growth, on being user friendly, seeker sensitive. All that has opened the door to unbiblical teaching, just shallow nonsense. It’s resulted in getting away from prayer, away from the Gospel, away from loving people of all races, away from dependence upon the Holy Spirit. My editor asks, ” where are the Tozers, the David Wilkersons who’ll say in love ” that is wrong.”(Jim Cymbala, senior pastor, Brooklyn Tabernacle)
Now why is Christendom sinking, what are these pastors talking about? They identify echo chambers and a lack of prayer meetings. They identify a lack of any real reliance on the Holy Spirit. Going to conference after conference and learning nothing. Their editors bemoan the lack of people like Tozer and Wilkerson, men who were more afraid of God than they were of men. Men who were not trying to build a kingdom of their own but simply walking out the Kingdom of God.
Christendom today is, for the most part, voiceless. There is not a single voice on the national stage that is a fearless voice, a voice that has heard from God and is unafraid to speak what he has heard. A voice that seeks no political influence nor is concerned with their own ministries or money or pleasing the people, in other words, a prophetic voice. All day long men will give you their political opinions and it is often tied to raising money, but where are the men with fresh fire from the altar of God?
Men hold onto their reins in their ministries so tightly that there is no room for God to speak. The Holy Spirit has been displaced and the church has plunged headlong into disaster. To most the change has taken place slowly enough to be like a frog in a slowly boiling pot of water. A prophetic voice feels the burn, sees the consequences, shouts from the rooftops, to get out of the pot. That voice is full of love and passion and compassion and a sheer doggedness that most generations would have struggled with them.This generation cannot handle them on any level because their ears have been tickled for so long.They have been so drowned in worldliness that they must shut them down.This voice that pierces through the grey dimness that passes for light, that speaks to the bone and the marrow is missing and we should cry out to God that He would raise up such a voice and that He would remove every barrier to it being heard.
My advice to the younger generations of pastors and leaders is to yield. Step back. Discover the glory of allowing Jesus to be preeminent in your meetings. It will be the scariest thing you have ever done but to those who can hear, you know that your congregation is without power, it is without glory and has not bowed in reverential awe to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You know there has been no sowing in tears. You know there has been no agonizing and prevailing in prayer. Now that you know this, then why go a minute longer without addressing this head on. Do you want to be the pastor of a religious club? Do you want to be the leader of a social work department? Or do you want the glory? Do you want it so badly that you are willing to shut down every activity not birthed and sustained in the presence of His majesty? May God find just a few men willing to lay aside everything they think they know and invite God back. He will not ignore such a plea from hearts wide open and fully given to His glory and honor. Lord Jesus, help us to stand again in this evil day and help us to be thorn in the flesh of our enemy and be what we have been called to be, more than conquerors in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour forever.
And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. (Exo 2:2-3)
We see here a great story of faith and agony. Can you imagine that the law demanded that you kill your new-born child if he were a boy? Moses mother saw the beauty of her child and kept him hid. When she could hide him no more she made him an “ark of bulrushes,” and cast him out upon the waters. I cannot even begin to imagine the agony his mother must have suffered as she let go of that ark and let the current slowly carry her child away.
As Moses’ sister watched the ark, she saw the daughter of Pharoah arrive and discover the child. Pharoah’s daughters heart is filled with compassion. Then with boldness, Moses’ sister steps out and tells Pharoah’s daughter that she knows someone who could nurse the child. Moses mother is soon reunited with her child and Moses lives. It’s an incredible story with much to learn from.
First we see that God’s children are being persecuted and now this incredibly evil law is enacted whereby every Hebrew male child is to be killed. If that was successful, then their heritage would die out. Satan was trying to destroy the Hebrews but God had a plan. We know that Moses had an older brother so the law must have been relatively new. It is very possible that even as the law was enacted, the solution was already taking shape in the womb of Moses mother.
Now many of you brothers and sisters are facing a trial in which there seems to be no way out. I want you to imagine the pain of Moses mother. For three long months as she nursed her precious child, not one day would have went by without her knowing that at best what she was doing was temporary. Many of you are living each day as it comes, it being just enough to get up each day and get through the day. I want to reassure you brothers and sisters, God sees your affliction. Now Moses mother could never have imagined in her wildest dreams what would happen when she cast her child upon the waters. She must surely have spent the previous months agonizing over his certain death. Can you see that God can be already working on a solution to our problem long before that solution every comes to the light of day.
Sometimes we have to cast our cares upon the waters. It might be your child, your adult child, your husband or your wife. Can you let them go and allow God to take them? Believe me, I do not underestimate the agony of letting go, especially for mothers. Yet sometimes if we do not let go it would mean certain death for all involved. Trusting God is no easy thing, it comes with a cost. The innermost flesh of your heart has to be torn, it is a rending of soul and spirit. Yet the Lord has asked us to trust Him and no where is this more important than with our loved ones.
Can you imagine the pain for Moses mother as she put this ark together? This is no simple thing. She is constructing an ark of faith, piece by piece, in order to allow her child to float away with the current. The fear that must have gripped her soul, the pain that must have coursed through her with every strand of that ark, with every application of that pitch. This would have been the same pain that Abraham faced as he climbed that hill with the necessary pieces for a sacrifice, his son being the sacrifice. Imagine that, This child that Abraham had waited for twenty-five years, this child of promise, this seed that would produce a multitude greater in number than the sands of the seashore or the stars in the night sky. And yet he is compelled to take his son up the hill. Yet God had a plan.
God sees your pain today brothers and sisters but I want to assure you that God has a plan. Despite the pain and the agony of your situation the Lord is calling for you to trust Him. Will you trust Him today? Will you cast you cares upon the waters? Will you allow your cares and your deepest fears to be carried away by an act of your will, by an exercise of your faith, trusting in Him? God bless you today as you walk through your valley of tears and yet remain steadfast. A steadfast heart still bleeds. It still weeps and feels the crushing weight of circumstances yet it endures and overcomes. You will endure brother, you will overcome sister. You will overcome because you stand in the shadow of the Almighty who walked this earth and overcame so that you too could overcome.You will overcome, stand fast in the beauty of His Holiness.
There will come a time soon when the Body of Christ corporately and individually will seem like they have been cast away. Yet God has made a way for His children for He is a Father to the fatherless and a lover of those who have been outcast, those who find themselves outside the established order of things. God will supply every need as we cast ourselves upon the waters and into His eternal plans. This is the agony and the glory of faith. This is where true peace is born. There is a peace that surpasses all understanding and it is forged in the crucible of the decision to trust in God. Nothing this glorious comes without a cost. There is a Jordan river to cross in our hearts. One side is the wilderness and the other side is the promised land of rest. There are rivers to cross and cities to encompass. Those who trust in God shall see a way through the raging waters of life and see the walls of opposition crumble as we stand fast and declare His glory with a shout.
I am just a sinner saved by grace. Now I understand what people mean when they say that but to me it is firmly in the negative column and is a pendulum swing too far. We who know and love the Lord are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. We are sons and daughters of the Living God and His love and thoughts towards us cannot be measured. He has raised us up to heavenly places, He causes us to walk in His kingdom and not the kingdom of the world. Ours is no mere legal fiction, ours is a glorious living reality and I believe that the greater part of Christendom has forgotten that. When was the last time any of us heard the song ” Victory in Jesus,” or ” Stand up stand up for Jesus ye soldiers of the Cross.”
How we view ourselves is very important and no hyper grace or prosperity teacher should rob us of our glorious truth just because they mis-interpret it for fleshly gain. Our identity, who we see ourselves as, is vital. When you say I am a sinner saved by grace, you have just identified yourself as a sinner. No, if genuinely saved, you’re a child of the Living God. And if you are a child of God then the world will see the fruit of it, not perfection, but it will see the fruits of your salvation. I genuinely believe that this phrase ” I am just a sinner saved by grace,” is a phrase that was invented to explain the “carnal Christian.”
I have found that the same people who use this phrase love to talk about Romans 7. They use Romans 7 to justify their own lives as if Romans 7 was the last chapter in that book. Oh wretched man that I am is no rallying cry to the Body of Christ. I thank God that Paul continues on and says that there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We who are in Christ are free from the law of sin and death. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk after and in the Spirit of the Lord.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.(Rom 8:11)
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Rom 8:14-17)
Do you see it brothers and sisters, do you see your identity? A child of the Living God. An heir of God and joint heirs with Christ. God is our Father and we have the glorious privilege of coming before His throne and crying out “Father.”
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:30-31)
Can you see what you have been called to? You have been justified in the eyes of God and He has shared His glory with you, you have been glorified. The God of all that exists is for you, for you, not against you. This is the word of God. And do you know who desperately does not want you to ever grasp that? The enemy of your soul. He would be at peace all day long if he heard the children of God identify themselves as “just,” a sinner saved by Grace. These are not the words of warriors, soldiers in the army of God. These are the words of people who have no real desire to glorify God. We as children of the living God are sanctified vessels whose chief aim is to glorify the living God. We are called to be living epistles read of men. When men read our ” book,’ what will be the title? Will it be ” Merely a sinner saved by Grace?” Or will our books title be “To the Glory of God on High.”
Here is the thing brothers and sisters. I believe we get to title our own books. What is the title to the book of your life? Will it be Victory? Will it be glory to God? Will it be over-comer? Will it be child of the most High? Will it be Living stone? Will it be Dearly Beloved? Will it be Apple of His Eye? Will it be More than Conquerors? What will it be? Will you walk in victory? Will you glorify God? Will you overcome and endure for His namesake? Will you identify yourself as a child of the Living God who is a living stone rightly shaped to fit into the temple that houses His glory? Do you know that you are dearly beloved and the price of that love was Calvary? You are the apple of His eye, never be tempted to take on the mantle of ” sinner,” under any circumstances. You tell the world of His glory and you confess to your Father in heaven your sins. He is faithful and true to forgive His children, let us be faithful and true to give Him all the glory for the wonderful things that He has done for us.
A Call To The Remnant 