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. They are radically converted from a world of sin to a world of light. This radical conversion is seen in their walk. They are a living testimony of the power of God to change lives. They are a living testimony , read of men. And God gets all the glory. The man who has never encountered God can only recite the Scriptures. He can only mimic what he sees. He can only try and be obedient in his own strength and there will be varying degrees of ” success.” And the more ” successful,” they are the more self-righteous they become. They begin to look down on others, demand that others live as they are living, they begin to thank God that they are not like others.They begin to consider themselves elite and they become aloof.The end of all self-righteous men is failure, whether in one year or fifty. The flesh can only take you so far and even the distance that it does take you is repugnant to God. These men have a ministry of death.

The man who has genuinely encountered God always keeps his eyes upon Jesus, not himself. Others may flatter him but he never takes those words to heart because he has stood in the shadow of majesty. The foundation of his life will be love, for he himself has been swallowed up by love. He loves what His Lord loves. 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, 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 conformed to the image of God which is the Lord Jesus. He loves because he himself has been 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. We cannot say that we love Him and think nothing of His commands.

The deepest lessons on faith come in the midst of the fires and the tribulations of life. The basic accusation of the enemy against God is “they only love you and follow you for what they have been given or for what they can get.” Therefore the greatest expressions of faith, trust in God, comes in the midst of endurance, a less than popular word, when all has been stripped away. Think of Jesus, our highest example. From the glories of heaven where the host bow down and cry Holy, to the lowest depths of the earth where He stripped and hung naked on a cross and mocked and humiliated by mere mortals. He endures all of this and never denies His Father and stays right there on the cross because of His love and obedience. This is trust in God in action. The Word becomes flesh and light conquers darkness.

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luk 18:7-8)

Such an interesting Scripture. The last part of this particular Scripture tends to be the focus, but the context is often overlooked. The context is The Lord coming to avenge His own elect, His saints. And it seems that they cry day and night for justice. This ties into what we read in Rev 10 – And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? So when the question is asked in Luke 18:8 “will the Lord find faith on the earth,” when He comes again to avenge the saints and all those who have went before, the implication is that no, He will find very little faith here on earth.

Given what the Lord asks here about faith, then it is clear that above all else it is faith that the Lord is looking for from the end time saints. Above all else they must trust Him. In the darkest time of the history of the ages they must trust Him. When the great falling away is taking place they must trust Him. When all around is falling and is being shaken, they must trust Him. And in every latent stage of the birth pangs, more are sifted and more more fall away. They begin to believe that Jesus is never coming back, they have stopped looking for His soon coming return. Their loss of faith is proceeded by their loss of hope, their hearts fainting for fear, their inability to stand as the evil day unfolds.

Isa 49:14  But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. This is the cry of the many in the day of our afflictions, in the great persecution to come. Love and obedience and faith, trust in the Lord our God and His word is the word becoming flesh in us. This is how we overcome, this is how darkness is conquered by light, by the Blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto death. This is the oil in the vessels of the over-comers, this is where the Lord will find faith on the earth when He returns, not among the multitude found on the broad path leading to destruction, but among the few on the narrow path that leads to life.

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.

For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. (2 Cor 4: 15-16)

Lord I pray that my heart would be forever fixed upon the horizon of Thankfulness. I can see how love and joy and peace and contentment and life are all attached to a heart that is fixed and focused upon thankfulness to God. When we take our eyes off of this horizon, when we deviate to the left or to the right from this perspective then the floodgates crack open and into the fields of our hearts bitter waters waters begin to seep. Discontentment begins to rise, roots of bitterness begin to break through the surface. All this begins to happen when our horizon changes, when thankfulness and gratefulness are no longer our dominant state of mind. We all know folks whose hearts have been flooded with bitterness. They have no peace. They have no joy. They are quick to anger. They cannot appreciate anything they have, they are consumed with the things that they do not have, the things that they have missed out on or lost in life.

And they begin to die, spiritually. The bitterness that seeped into the innermost fields of their hearts begin to seep out to the surface. What was once hidden away in the heart begins to manifest itself on the outside. Family are the first to suffer, then co-workers and friends. They do not see someone who is filled with the love of God and the light of His life, but someone who is embittered and filled with darkness. Unless thier eyes are drawn back again to the horizon of thankfulness then there can be no hope. Those afflicted with this malady, this disease, lets call it what it is, this high crime, will wander in the wilderness and they will die there.

The antidote to all of this is a life of thankfulness and a heart that always leans towards being grateful in every situation. Give thanks to God in all things. No matter the darkness of your surroundings you give thanks to God. As a saint you have the greatest gifts of all, you have the treasures of heaven, you have eternal life in heaven bought for you at a terrible cost. We could live a thousand lives and never be able to repay the cost of the cross. Run to thankfulness when you are hard pressed on every side. Run to thankfulness when you have been crushed by circumstances. Focus on the light when darkness presses in all around you. With your dying breath give thanks to God. This decision of the heart, this deliberate act of the will, is the power of God in your life. This is overcoming. This is enduring to the end. This is the fire. This is your sanctification, this is your narrow path that leads to life. Find it, walk in it and keep your eyes fixed upon its horizon.

The true power of those who walk the Kingdom walk lies not in an alleviation of circumstances but an elevation of Spiritual awareness that enables us 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 lifts 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 up your eyes towards the King 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, there is glory that 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.

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.(Rev 13:7)

This scripture alludes to the darkest time of all the ages. There is a coming war against the saints and the saints are overcome. The great tribulation to come will produce this situation which is why the Scriptures warn us over and over again that it is those who overcome, who endure to the end who will be saved. Let us consider a time in history where we see such a darkness over the earth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.(Mat 27:45) From the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was a gross Satanic darkness that engulfed the world. Somewhere between three hours and four hours. At the end of this Satanic darkness Christ Himself cries out my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Mat 27:45) This is not only the darkest hour materially, but also the darkest hour spiritually.

We who are alive in the great persecution soon to come, will have to face this same kind of Satanic darkness, a period of time where it appears that we have been abandoned by God. It wont be for a few hours, it will more than likely be for a few years. Think not that if the Lord Jesus Himself cried out this agonizing cry in the midst of gross Satanic darkness, that somehow we saints shall avoid coming to this same moment. This three or four hours of Satanic darkness, I am convinced, symbolically represents the time alluded to in Rev 13:7. A time, when we have, just like our Lord, been handed over to our enemies. Judgement begins at the house of the Lord.

Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.(Jer 30:10) God Himself is the affecting agent on Israel as they are taken into captivity to Babylon. The Lord says in verse 11 that I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. If judgment indeed begins at the house of the Lord, and it does, it is necessary for the Lord to do it. Imagine if you will a a man on your street who has spoiled undisciplined children. He then comes across your children doing something wrong and he severely disciplines them. He who does not discipline his own has no authority to discipline others.

God is not like men. He does discipline His children. He scourges those He loves. And so we see in Jeremiah chapter 30 that even although His children are going into captivity, He has not forgotten them. Even although they deserved punishment, lest they lose hope in the midst of their captivity,God promises them that He would save them from afar. At the end of the gross darkness on Calvary, the Lord cries out to God once more and He says “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” You see, He now addresses God as Father. The doubt is gone, the victory is won and the intimacy has returned. We too shall be driven into the deepest intimacy we have ever known as we pass through the valley, the deepest darkest valley ever known.

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 overcoming, enduring 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 will 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.

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.Isa 26:20

When the indignation of the Lord comes, when the Lord steps down and the judgement begins, then we shall enter into our chambers. The children of Israel in the Passover not only had to have the blood of the lamb over the lintels of their doors, they had to be inside their chambers. This word chambers is from the Greek word cheder which means innermost. In the time of our troubles we must enter into the innermost chambers of the Lord. We must be found in the Holy place, the place of holiness. The Lord our God is a shelter to His children, He is a strong tower that protects us from our enemies. We shall abide in His tabernacle and trust in the cover of His wings. The name of our Lord is our strong tower, the righteous run into it and they are safe (Prov 18:10)

This is a call to come out of the world and enter into your high tower, enter into your chambers, the innermost depths of your heart. Come away from everything of the world, everything that is not of Him and in this place you shall be safe. Do not be found with the world for you shall be judged with them. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.(Psa 27:5) This high-tower, our high-tower, is the Lord Jesus, He is the Rock upon which we stand, He is the tabernacle in which we fellowship.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.(Col 3:2-3) In order to stand in the evil day, in order to overcome and endure until the end we must be hid in the Lord Jesus. The seat of our affections, everything that we hold dear must be in Jesus and Jesus alone. If you set your mind on the things of the world, if there has been no clear separation from the things of the world then when the world is shaken and everything begins to spin out of control you will be tossed around like a wave upon the sea driven by the cultural winds. Only those whose sails are fully unfurled will be able to be controlled, not by the cultural winds but by the wind of the Holy Spirit who charts a course into the depths of the Father’s heart where we will be safe.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.(Joh 14:6)

There are many earth shattering moments when Jesus spoke. Moments and words that changed everything. This scripture is among the most profound truth ever written. This is why in the end of end days it will become the most infamous of all Scriptures. This will be banned and become illegal to share in our life time. It will be deemed as hate speech and once that occurs, almost all of what Jesus spoke will be considered detrimental to the spiritual health of the population at large. His words will then be cherry picked and the rest will simply not be spoken about, much like the Jewsih people who ignore Isaiah 53.

Let us affirm this truth. Jesus is the only way to heaven and every other road leads directly to hell, whether that be the Islamic road or the Judaic road or the Hindu road or the Buddhist road. The only way to God is through His son Jesus. He is the way. And in the depths of that meaning we are shown that it is not good enough to say that you are His or that you believe in Him, there must be fruits of your salvation. We will know a saint by the way that he or she walks. In the days of the inquisitions, many saints were identified for persecution because it was said of then that they lived “exemplary,” lives. This is the way of Christ. We live and we strive to live as He did and taught. The truth is the word of God. It is not open for debate among saints, starting with the above Scripture. Jesus is the Truth and Jesus is the word made flesh and we stand upon it, even with our very lives. It burns at the center of our souls, it is a fire in our bones and flames upon our lips. The truth spoken in love scorches a Godless earth. To the ungodly it is a fire that must be extinguished.

Finally He is the life and no man truly follows Him without having His life in Him. His life in us is joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. It is peace when all around us is turmoil. It is joy even in the depths of despair. It is love when we should hate. It is self control and meekness. It is a giving of ourselves and a crucified life. In all of this we are long suffering and the very least those around us will say is that we are good people. And so saint even in these ever darkening days let us stand upon the fundamental truth of our Lord and never waver even as the inevitable assaults come flooding in. He is true and let all men be liars.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 

What a great tragedy that all men sinned and had fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus our Lord is the glory of God. When men fall short of God’s glory they fall short of Jesus. He is our prophet, our priest and our King. The prophets had longed to see the day that the Messiah walked the earth, and now, here He was. Yet He had come not to bring righteousness to men through the law, but by grace through faith. The unmerited favor of God would be extended to all men, the Jew and the Gentile, for all had fallen short of the glory that was manifested in Christ the King. Yet now all the world would be extended this righteousness of God by faith. Trust in God and believe in Him and you shall be saved. Saved from sin, saved from death, saved from darkness saved from eternal darkness.

And now we who know Him, do not fall short of His glory. We stand amazed in it. We revel in it. We children of the living God are one with the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:(Joh 17:22) We are one in Him and we have beheld His glory. We no longer fall short of it, we are immersed in it. This is our destiny, that the world will see Christ in us, that they will see His glory from afar, and be drawn to it so that they too may behold His glory and not fall short of it. If He be lifted up, the Christ, our Lord, the name of Jesus on the lips lips of sanctified saints baptized by fire, then they that are drawn to Him shall also be engulfed in the fire of His glory.

God has no pleasure in those who draw back from the glory. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.(Heb 10:38) The saints of God ever want to please their Father in heaven. God’s overcoming saints are not those who draw back. They are those who with boldness enter into the holiest by the blood of Christ our Lord. By a new and living way we draw near, through the veil, into the presence of our High priest; with true hearts and holding fast the full assurance of our faith. Men who profess His name may draw back and fall short of His glory, but we saints shall draw near and stand amazed in the glory. And the world will know that Jesus and all His glory was sent from heaven as the manifest expression of God’s great love.

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith, what an incredible word. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Not the hope of man that comes out of the abundance of his worldly desires. Faith is a foundation, its a complete reliance upon the the Word of God whether written or spoken. Jesus told us that He was the Son of the Living God. Peter believed it, we believe it. Not in our heads but in the very depths of our hearts. The world tells us to put our money where our mouths are. They mean to say ” show us how much you believe in something.” Jesus says that if a man tries to save his life he loses it, but if he loses his life for the sake of the King of Kings then that man has put his life where his mouth is.

That is how much he believes it. With everything that is in him. Whether in riches or in poverty, whether in sickness or in health whether clothed or naked, hungry or full, it matters not for we have cast our all upon the altar of God. That right there destroys the so called word of faith movement. It utterly shatters the health and wealth movement. True faith, like the love between one man and one woman, is for ever, no matter what comes our way. What God has joined together, our hearts with His, let nothing separate it. Job, having lost everything and sitting atop a pile of broken pottery scraping the boils that covered his whole body refused to give up on his God, would not curse him. He says that even if God slays him, yet will he trust him.

Trust, faith, belief. The Holy Spirit has given His saints a love of the truth. The things that we hope for are eternal. The things that we hope for, the desires of our hearts are His hope and His desires, that is why we know. This knowing that has been given to us, is the evidence of the things to come. The evidence of things not seen, that sentence absolutely runs counter to everything man is and knows. There in enmity between the heads of men and the hearts of the saints and never the twain can meet. There is a vast gulf between the two and it is impassable. One reasoning belongs to the world, what they can see, and the other “knowing,” belongs to the Kingdom. Do you know?

Mar 8:33 But when He had turned around and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not mind the things of God, but of the things of men.

How many times have you heard people say “There there, everything will be okay.” Having lived long enough, I know that not to be true, yet still people somehow cling to that notion and draw comfort from it. When Peter , hearing Jesus talk about the things that He must suffer, rebukes Jesus and tells Him these things shall never be, Jesus uses the same rebuke that He used with Satan when Satan tempted Him. And so, those who mind the things of the world will always be offended at the notion that we have been called to suffer. We know that all who live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer, yet we also know that there are many who would rebuke us for these thoughts. And why? Because they mind the things of this world and do not mind the things of God. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.(James 1:2-4)

Here we see the connection between our various trials and our sanctification. Trials are the testing of our faith and our grade is measured by the joy that we experience in the midst of it. Many many things can be counterfeited in the Christian walk, but joy in the midst of suffering is not one of them. It is not natural, it is supernatural. I have a brother in Christ in hospital right now, he is very sick and has had tests and is waiting to see if he has cancer. One of the nurses requested him as a patient because of his wonderful attitude as a patient compared to others in the same situation. He told me that whether he lives or whether he dies he wants to glorify God. He wants to finish strong. You see, patience is working in my brother because he is able to count it all joy. He is lacking in nothing for Christ is his all in all. When we surrender to the things that we have no control over and we determine in the midst of it to glorify God and revel in His presence then we are as a light that shines forth from darkness. Witnesses to an astonished world that there is something more important than our lives and the circumstances of them. It is God and His Glory. To know that and to walk in it is the key to our lives as saints. It is also the key to joy and peace by the power of the Holy Spirit.