Col 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
When we suffer for His sake brothers and sisters and rejoice in the midst of it, then we disarm principalities and powers. We “prove,” to that old ancient liar that this is exactly what he is and we do it all by the indwelling power of the risen Christ. He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. His perfect love demonstrated through us casts out all fear and makes a public spectacle of principalities and powers.
It diametrically opposes their lie that force must be met with force, that evil must be rendered for evil for good to triumph. Jesus overcame them on the cross and He cried out to His Father to forgive His enemies. The first martyr Stephen cries out even as He was being cruelly stoned, that this would not be held against the ones stoning Him. This is the power of God that breaks ancients chains of evil and establishes the witness of Christ to the world and to the principalities and powers.Can you
You have been called to this brothers and sisters and it is a high and noble calling. It is a calling that requires our old man and woman to die. For in the flesh we are no different from anyone else in the world. We would simply be frail creatures who could laugh when the going is good, who could be happy when in the midst of prosperous circumstances and who could praise God as long as He “blesses” us. Yet in this higher ground that we have been called to we praise God not only from the mountaintops but from the lowest valley’s. We praise God whether we walk as free men on this earth or enchained with fetters of iron.
We praise God for better or for worse. We praise God in sickness and in health, we praise God whether rich or poor. We who love our spouses know that this is our commitment to them, we who love God know that His calling is on another level altogether. The marriage of the flesh is one thing and it is noble, the marriage of the spirit is high and lifted up and it is holy. We are one flesh in our marriages, we are one spirit in Jesus and when we walk according to that spirit we walk in power and in love and with a perfect peace that triumphs over principalities and powers for all the world to see. Your light is the life that draws the world to Jesus.
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!
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.
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.
The title of the last poem that that William Cowper wrote, in 1773, was “Light shining out of Darkness.” It became known by the first line “God moves in a mysterious way.” John Newton would publish it the following year. It might help to understand the original title when we consider that William wrote this poem after attempting suicide. And so the darkness that he is writing about was gross darkness indeed and how sweet the light of Christ that rescues us even if we make our beds in hell, even the darkness, shall be light unto Him. He also wrote “There is a fountain filled with Blood,” and “O for a closer walk with God.”
These words written, have comforted countless millions over the last 250 years. William, in his serious battles with depression over his whole lifetime could never have imagined the impact his life would have, how it would continue to resonate down through the centuries. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in a man who walked in the darkness of depression for much of his life. Light shining out of darkness. God indeed moves in mysterious ways, who can explain our God? I tell you this though, you rarely if ever read words like this anymore. Savor the words below, they are rich in depth and meaning as opposed to so much of the shallowness that today passes for writing.
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs
And works his sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purpose will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
the bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain:
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
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.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8)
Faith delivers what Grace provides-Don’t measure your faith, measure your God (David Legge)
If faith is the evidence of things not seen, and it is , then it is first and foremost the evidence of God. We see God in the man who walks in faith. We see God in love and hope and mercy and forgiveness. We see Him in joy and peace and self-control. We see Him in all of these attributes distilled in us and we see Him more clearly the darker the background. The more difficult the circumstances of our lives then the greater the canvas for memorializing God in the hearts and minds of the world.
And so, if the unmerited favor of God first and foremost provides salvation, justification, then it also provides us with the means of how to live out that justification. Grace gives us access to faith and faith is the evidence of the man or woman who walks in close proximity to God. The closer the walk, the greater the faith. The greater the faith, the deeper the love. The deeper the love the more abundant the hope. The abundance of hope leads to an abundance of mercy and forgiveness and thankfulness.
And finally, the greater the faith the greater the expressions of joy and peace and self-control. And all of these add up to an expression of the reality of God seen in us. An expression of the reality of the unseen God. A light that pierces the darkness of this world, the hope of this world. The measure of your faith depends upon the vastness of God in your life. An all consuming relationship with God produces the greatest expressions of faith for a dying world to see.
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ(2Co 10:5)
Its a terrible thing to be held captive by our own thoughts. How exhausting it can be when we allow them to consume us and overwhelm us. They can begin to eat away at us. They can even rob us of sleep and leave us tired and weary. I thank the Lord that He freed us and gave us the ability to take every thought into captivity and focus on Him. If a specific situation or trial has taken your mind captive today, know that there is a way of escape, you are no longer slaves to the flesh but bond-servants, willing servants to the Lord of power.
If you have been set free by the Lord then you are free indeed. You now have the power to take those thoughts captive, they must bow to the Spirit of God in you. By an act of your will, take your eyes off of that situation today and turn them to Jesus and draw close to Him and peace will flood your soul. Remember, if the Word tells us to take our thoughts captive, it is because it is possible in Him. There has been a conquest of your heart and mind and soul and in this Jesus is the conqueror. To the conqueror belongs the spoils. Your thoughts are for Him. He is a jealous God. He will have the reward of His sufferings.
Surrender any situation that drives your thoughts from the Lord. Let it die upon the cross. You take up that cross for the Lord has done the rest.. You lift your eyes to Jesus for He has done the rest. You raise your hands in worship and by the power of the Spirit you will enter into His victory. Your circumstances may not change but you will in the very midst of them. In one scenario you are a prisoner to your thoughts in the other you have taken them captive and you are victorious. Today is the day of victory. Let the Lord be high and lifted up in your heart and soul and mind, let Him be preeminent in all things, including your thoughts and you will walk in peace and victory. Enter in and take possession of the land already conquered.
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.
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.
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.
One day the Lord will rend the heavens and His glory will flow down the mountains and fill every valley with His majesty. The seas will flee away at His presence. The mountains will humbly bow and say ” Glory , glory to the risen King.” The sun will turn its face away in shame for it has been outdone by the brilliance of His illumination. A mere flickering candle in comparison to His unadulterated light. The moon and the stars will cry out ” Holy, Holy is He who was and is and forever shall be.”
And every voice from every tongue will say “Jesus,” and acknowledge the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And the beasts of the earth will fall down and cover their faces and then the lion will rise up and approach the lamb and they will lay down together. And every knee shall bow in every tribe and in every nation and even the hordes of hell will fall silent as He approaches. The earth itself will grow silent and shall be still and then a glorious noise will begin to arise and will fill the earth, it will fill the sea it will fill the night skies and it will fill the whole universe.
And all that will be heard will be the choirs of angels, that heavenly choir and the glory of God will not only cover the earth but will fill up everything that there is or has ever been. Gods saints will rise on this glorious symphony, they will arise in the updrafts of His glory and majesty and it will carry them into the heart of God. And those who rejected this magnificent glory will fall and their cries will be heard as they fall into the depths of darkness forever.
(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.
As Jesus faced down Satan in the desert he told that old liar that “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Every word brothers and sisters that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. Man needs bread to live, he has to eat otherwise he will slowly starve to death. What a ghastly sight it is to see someone in the latter stages of starvation. They lose all of their characteristics and begin to resemble one another as they waste away and gauntness takes over. As we sit in our pews week after week, no one dares disturb the sound of silence.
Despite the richness of our gifts and our callings, despite our ability to give and receive words of knowledge, to hear heavenly songs sung in a heavenly language, to hear prophecy’s and exhortations that can speak directly into the heart of what we are going through in the moment, we dare not disturb this established silence.Have we made a neon god? Do we sit in pews and worship a god of our own making? A god that has to dim the lights and break out the ice making machine to create an “atmosphere,” that was long ago lost to slick professional worship teams and men with programs.Listen brothers and sisters, if entertainment brought them in, only entertainment will keep them. Yet how long before they grow weary of the entertainment? Where do they go after the dimmed lights and the religious concerts fail to move them and the smoke dissipates?
If we could see with spiritual eyes as we sat in our pews and looked around, would we see well fed people living on the fat of a land flowing with milk and honey, living abundantly in the life of Christ, edified and well fed? Or rather would we see a people gaunt with hunger, starving for the Spiritual edification that the Lord Himself provided for us. He promised us that He would not leave us as orphans but send the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide us. What happens when the Holy Spirit is silenced and men have decided that they know best?
Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Is this what we have done brothers and sisters? No longer can we have the Lord speak to us how He pleases in the midst of the congregation. We have rejected these gifts so that the traditions of men may be kept and we now must not disturb the sound of silence, that silence being the words and the wisdom of man. And in the midst of that darkness we sit, only ever wondering what the power of God truly looks like, and the smoke slowly drifts away.
We hear a lot about the glory of God and encountering God. I have written much about it over the years and it has radically transformed me. His manifest presence is overwhelmingly glorious and jarring, and powerfully transformative. No one can encounter God in such a manner and not be fundamentally changed. If you are not changed, you did not encounter God. Every saint must encounter God and His manifest presence.
Yet, in the span of this life and by the way we measure our lives, these encounters make up a very small part of our time on the narrow walk home. They are vital, but they are like landmarks along the way. The vast majority of our time as saints is spent in the wilderness, the deserts, the high mountain plains. We journey through trials and tribulations. We spend seasons in silence. We have many times when we cry out to God. We pass through doubts and fears and deep flooded valleys.
I watched a documentary once about the Pacific Crest trail. It runs for 2640 miles from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington State. One of the hardest and most arduous parts of the trail is right at the beginning where hundreds of miles of desert have to be traversed. You will be hungry, thirsty and very cold at night and then suffer the heat of a blazing desert sun through the day.
When you eventually come out of that terrain, you will hit the mountains. The hikers stated that if they had not been conditioned by the harsh desert hike, they would never have had the stamina to make it up and over the mountain passes. Can you see how that works brothers and sisters? Without the great spiritual trials of our lives we would not be conditioned to make it up into the mountains and over them.
In a show called “Running with Bear Grylls,” the host takes celebrities on two day hikes through very difficult situations. On one of the shows they were in Norway, a very cold and rainy country, not unlike my home country of Scotland. He wanted to show his guest an exercise they do in special ops training. He made him create a burning ember on some bark from a tree. He then had to enter a freezing lake up to his neck and tread water for several minutes with this burning ember held aloft.
Now this is a test of endurance. The fight is against the body which is beginning to shut down. The burning embers will be his salvation when he gets out of the freezing water. When he gets out, he needs to have the wherewithal to take that burning ember and make a fire. After he makes the fire he has to get his compass out and set his bearings so that he knows which way to go when he is warmed back to life.
All of this is to test the ability to continue to think when all around you is in chaos, when your mind and body are in full rebellion against the circumstances that it finds itself in. Saints, we are regularly tested like this. I put it to you that the ember that is held aloft is the burning Holy Spirit and the Word of God. No matter what, it has to be held aloft. The compass is the same. No matter what the circumstances are we have to be able to set our compasses and know which way to go, the compass is the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
And then, all of a sudden, we encounter the Living God again. It can be on the mountain top, but it is just as likely to be in the depths of the valley. The Mountain will manifest itself in the valley. Suddenly the Sun rises in the depths of the darkness and warms our cold hearts. Suddenly I know He is there. Suddenly I feel strength coming back into tired and worn out limbs. My waiting has not been in vain. Like a long lost lover, He returns. The one for whom my heart ached for is there.
And for some glorious moments I am revived in every part of who I am. The journey which I thought I could not complete suddenly becomes possible again, all things are possible when my Lord visits me. And from that place I take the lingering embers of His presence and they are life to me. The Word of God is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, the long narrow path home. And I keep going, knowing that there will come again this oasis of His glory. Again and again, until I am home. Keep going saints. I love my fellow sojourners.
We were warned in 2 Cor 6:14 not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. So of course the question becomes “what is an unbeliever?” In the context of the Scriptures and the times of the Scriptures being written, a believer was someone who had trusted God with all of his/her heart.
Someone who had counted the cost. Someone who loved not their lives unto death. Someone who was willing and desirous even, to suffer for the cause of Christ, someone who would even rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus. This was a believer, and an unbeliever was someone not willing to do these things. What fellowship could one have with the other? What fellowship can hot have with lukewarm? One is desirable and the other is vomited out.
How does this apply to the modern day church? People like Tozer and Ravenhill spoke of the tiny percentage of professing believers that are actually saved. Let us be really generous and say that 30% of professing Christians are actually genuine believers, that leaves 70% who are not. Next time you go to a church building, look around and consider these numbers. The question then becomes, ” are you unequally yoked,” based upon a Scriptural model of what it means to be saved.
We are asked “what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness.” One is darkness, the other is light. Listen to the instruction given “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” Have you given serious consideration to this commandment from the Lord? What does it mean to you? Come out from what? Be separate from what? Do not have fellowship with who? These are serious questions and I cannot answer them for you.
All I can say is, if you go back to the second paragraph and see the traits of the saint, is this who you fellowship with? Jesus talks about vomit when it comes to lukewarmness. Could He make it any clearer? Are you gathering with lukewarmness? I would put it to you that you are in direct violation of the commands of God if you are. Fellowshipping with other saints is not about ticking a box. It’s not about a three minute conversation in the foyer after a “service.” It is at least two passionate like-minded individuals getting together to talk about their common passion, Jesus!!! This is what we are driven to do if we indeed have the Holy Spirit burning at the core of who we are.
We would talk about Jesus, we would talk about His word, we would talk about how He talked to us. We would talk about how He just brought us through whatever He just brought us through. We would talk about the passion of coming into His presence. We would talk about the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon us and how it was sanctifying us. We would talk about our love for one another. We would confess our faults and our failures and our sins to one another. We would talk about how He raised us up when we were down. We would sing the glories of Christ our King together.
We would talk about a word of knowledge He gave us, we would share a word of wisdom, a word in season, an exhortation. We would rebuke and correct one another. We would love one another enough to do all of the aforementioned things. The hours would fly away as we spoke about our common passion. Our bonds would grow deep and our unity would grow strong. It would not be the name of our denomination that bound us together, there would be no such thing. It would not be the four walls that we shared that would bind us together. It would be Christ alone, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that would unify us. Our identity would be in Christ alone.
We would share what the Lord had taught us and in the sharing we would be teaching one another. We would stand up and testify to His power in our lives. We would stand up and testify to the magnificent beauty of the King off Kings and of the things that we had seen in the Spirit. We would shed tears together. Tears of joy, tears of pain, tears of sorrow. When one of us suffered and testified to the suffering we would all suffer. When one would testify of great joy and overcoming an obstacle we would all have great joy together. We would pray together, genuinely pray together. We would be one in our prayers. That is the gathering brothers and sisters. I would say to you that almost none of that can or does happen when the majority of the people that we gather with live, at the very best, in lukewarmness or even outright darkness. How can light fellowship with darkness? It cannot. Consider your position saint.
If the greatest spiritual victory has Calvary as its backdrop, then what kind of backdrop will there be to the greatest victory the Church will ever know? If when Christ came it ended with Calvary and the resurrection, what will be the Church’s end be prior to His return? If Calvary broke the power of hell and death and sin and the grave what will be the culmination of it be for the Church? That same hell that believed that it could overcome Christ by means of killing the Son of God, still believes that it can over come His children by wiping them out. This will be the end time strategy of the enemy. But can I tell you something Church, it’s all black velvet. It will merely serve as a backdrop to the greatest event the world will ever know, the return of Christ. Our backdrop will be persecution. This will be the backdrop of our victory.
Will it look like victory as it plays out? Did Calvary look like victory as men beheld it? Did they not mock Jesus on the cross? Will they not mock us? Did they not kill the Disciples? Will they not kill us? Did Jesus not cry out “Father forgive them for they know not what they do?” Did Stephen not cry out for mercy for his persecutors? By the power of the Holy Spirit he told them that they were stiff necked people who always resisted the Holy Spirit and the God did not dwell in temples made by human hands? He struck at the heart of religious men and they fell upon him with a fury. We too shall strike at the hearts of religious men and they will fall upon us as well. The question will be for you and for me, can we love our enemies as Christ loved His and as Stephen loved his? Only the true saint empowered by the Holy Spirit will be able to make this kind of stand. Bold and fearless, sensitive to the Spirit and full of love.
This is our calling, walk ye in it saint. Prepare your hears for war. There have been many battles and skirmishes but the last great push is coming. Nazis called it “total war,” where men, women and children fought and died to the last. There is a total war coming against the saints and in that moment, in that time you will either be for Jesus or you will be against Him. In total war there can only be one victorious side. One side shall prevail and the other side shall fail. We are on the victorious side saints and it is going to look like Calvary. For a moment the enemy, the world will rejoice. They will believe that they have conquered their enemy and are rid of them. And then Christ. Christ returns in all His glory in the sky with the saints who have fallen in battle, who have died over the ages and those who remain alive will rise up and join Him in the sky and then the world gets to see what total victory looks like. Be strong saints and walk in the power of His might.
Psa 17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
The true power of those who walk the Kingdom walk lies not in an alleviation of circumstances but an elevation of Spiritual awareness.To enter into the Glory. Just one glimpse of His glory elevates us high above the circumstances of our lives. His Glory is the updraft that raises us high above our circumstances. To look into the eyes of Glory means to rise above the storms of this world. There is no set of chains that can restrain the child of God. There is no trial on earth that can hold our bodies down. When we see His Glory, when we fix our eyes on His majesty then no matter what our circumstances are we begin to rise up.
There is a heavenly choir of glory that beckons us to come up. The only thing that can hold us down is our own hands. When we let go of our circumstance and lift our eyes up to Jesus that name which is above every name, then we begin to rise up. Will you lift your eyes towards heaven today saint? The Lord sees you in the midst of your trial, can you see Him? Will you let go today? Will you release your grasp today from the circumstances which threaten to destroy you? No matter how terrifying this may seem, will you let go today? Glory awaits you. Lift you voice in praise today, let it rise up to heaven itself and suddenly you will find yourself in the midst of Glory.
To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:19)
A.B.Simpson says “Being filled with the fullness of God is like a bottle in the ocean. You take the cork out of the bottle and sink it in the ocean, and you have the bottle completely full of ocean. The bottle is in the ocean and the ocean is in the bottle. The ocean contains the bottle, but the bottle contains only a little bit of the ocean. So it is with Christians.”
Can you see what brother Simpson is saying? The ocean is God. Have you sunk into the depths of the ocean? The only way for a bottle to sink into the depths of the ocean and not remain just at the surface, is to be full of the ocean. The only way to be full of the ocean is for the cork to be removed. Have you removed the cork? Have you allowed the ocean of God’s being to rush into you and sink into His depths? Many followers of Jesus will remain on the surface of the ocean all the days of their lives, never truly giving themselves over to the ocean.
The cork in the illustration is the heart. Will you open up your heart and allow the Lord to flood your very being? Most of us are very comfortable existing on the surface. Yet, He has called us to the deep. The air inside the bottle must be replaced. The atmosphere has to change. We must be full of something all consuming. And that something is God. We cannot contain all of God but we can be contained by Him. The verb contain is defined as to hold or include within its volume or area.
If we are floating on the surface of the waters, then most of who we are is out of the waters. On the other hand, if we become full of the waters of life then we slowly sink into its depths and become one with the waters. We find ourselves filled with the fullness of God. This is God’s plan for His children. Open up your heart today and let Him flood in and plunge you into the depths of His heart.
I feel in my spirit that there has been a monumental shift in the world. I do not believe this virus will draw the world closer to God. Perhaps some individuals scattered across the planet will, but society has shifted in ways that we have never seen before. The Holy Spirit continually lays upon my heart that we have entered into the days of Romans one. In Romans one verse 18 it says something very profound, it says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, to the ancient world, this truth revealed was his eternal power and Godhead. They knew of this, they were all decendants of Noah. At some point they had exchanged the glory of the uncorruptible God for that of creatures and trees and things that demanded nothing of them. They created gods that would serve them rather them serving the living God.
Now when Romans one is applied to us in the modern age, we who have known the truth of God through His word and through His disciples and through the Holy Spirit, those who now hold that truth in unrighteousness are so much more guilty. We are more guilty that the ancient world. God Himself came and walked this earth and walked among men and gave to those men and those who would follow Him the Holy Spirit of the Living God. In every generation since then we have been the visible conscience of mankind. And in very generation God’s people were killed all the day the long as men reacted violently against the truth revealed by a Holy God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
This generation that is now alive, for the most part are doing everything they can to shut the mouths of the saints. Dare to stand up and speak of the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and see what happens. Dare to speak about the life-styles of people that run counter to and in direct violation of Gods word and see what happens. The truth tellers have for the most part been silenced. In this situation we find ourselves in today, with the virus that has literally shut down the whole world, is society humbled and crying out to God? I wish to God that they were. No, the story of this virus is doctors and nurses and scientists and world organisations. Not God.
We have very recent history of what happens when God is thrown of by men in favor of science. Starting with science and Darwin, then eugenics and great leaps forward in knowledge, we see a country like Germany totally embrace this and plunge headlong into the abyss on a wave of pride. When men become so proud of their own achievements and are so puffed up with their own abilities and throw of God, then hell is loosed. Can I tell you, I believe even as we speak hell is being loosed. The pride of man is the key to the gates of hell.
We see the very fundamentals of God’s creation challenged. God created man and woman. Science says no. Science says it is fluid and you can choose. God said that He made the heavens and the earth, He created it all. Science says no. It gives us various theories but what it is very certain of is that God did not create everything that exists. God created the union of a man and a woman and the world, including science says no. Science and medicine, even in the midst of this pandemic, continue with the killing of babies in the womb. God says it is an abomination, science and medicine and the world say it is merely a choice of woman and in fact, they say it is morally right.
Now, all around the world, not only do they teach these things among others, they teach it to the children. There is a generation of children around the world being raised in direct rebellion against God. Our wickedness has risen to the heights of heaven. How then shall we respond to those who hold the truth in unrighteousness? We must hold up, high, the truth in righteousness. This is the calling of the saints who find themselves in a Romans one world. It is no mistake that Paul is writing this to the Romans. To those who dwelt in the very seat of power on the earth. We saints in America are living in the modern day equivalent of ancient Rome.
Paul said that he was not ashamed of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the power of God unto salvation. Now brothers and sisters, that is the whole Gospel, not just what the world would consider to be the palatable parts. The power of God resides with the unashamed. If you are ashamed of any part of the Gospel, if you are scared of the mocking or the ridicule or the undoubted labeling that comes when you stand for the truth, then you have no power. If you are ashamed of any part of the Gospel, any part of the truth, then Jesus will be ashamed of you before His Father in heaven.
The days are upon us when the world demands that you capitulate to them and to their sin. It is not a day when we live and let live, no the enemies of the Gospel demand that we bow down to their idols. They demand that we call that which is an abomination, holy. They demand that we send our children to be taught gross error. We will come through the pandemic but God will not have been petitioned. And so, like waves on a sea that is in the midst of a building storm, the next wave will come and it will be bigger and it will be stronger. Men will celebrate their “victory.” It will seem like peace has returned and “suddenly,’ the wrath of God will be revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
Christendom is very quiet and every day it grows more quiet. The enemy demands that we shut our mouths, he screams out threatenings and has growing power to destroy the lives of all those who stand against him. Shall we remain quiet saints? Shall we be ashamed of the Gospel, the full Gospel? If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.(1Pe 4:14) There is a Spirit of glory and of God that rests upon the one who is unashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God. The question is, do you really want to move in the glory and the power of God? Then it is time to stand and make your voice heard.
A Call To The Remnant 