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.
For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. (Isa 54:6-8)
The times in which we live are like no other times in history. We are approaching the end of ages and the birth pangs have begun and everything that can be shaken is being shaken. This is true not only of our denominations and institutions, but also our secular institutions and governments. Arab springs and Donald Trump, the times that we are living in are certainly tumultuous.
Now, what is true for institutions and churches is also true for individuals. God’s people are being tested in ways that they have never been tested before as individuals and in their personal walk with the Lord. Are you feeling forsaken today? Your faith in God maybe steadfast but you feel forsaken. Not only do you live in a barren land but that barrenness has also touched your own soul. Not only do you feel barren but trials have mounted one on top of the other and it seems that you are under judgement. I want to encourage you today saint, the afflictions of the land is touching your soul. You do indeed live in a barren land and your righteous soul is vexed, could it be any other way? If judgement indeed begins at the house of the Lord, that judgment will affect you. Perhaps you have had to leave your church? Or, perhaps you are still there and are totally dismayed by the worldliness that surrounds you? Either way, you seem to be in a place that is hopeless? I want you to read the promise of God quoted above.
But with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.
And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat. (1Sa 1:6-7)
Can you see the agony of Hannah? She herself was surrounded by fertile women but her womb was closed and this caused her to be ridiculed by her adversary. Perhaps there is little or nothing to show for your own walk with the Lord? Perhaps you hear the enemy whisper in your own ear that all you strivings and longings have produced nothing? If we look at the state of Israel in the midst of Hannah’s troubles we see something very disturbing.
1Sa 3:1 And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.Read the rest of this entry »
We need to remember that God is allowing us to live on two planes at the same time. He lets us live on this religious plane where there are preachers and song-leaders and choirs and pianists and organists and editors and leaders and promoters and evangelists, and that is religion. That is religion in overalls-that is the external garb of religion and it has its own place in God’s work and plan. But, brethren, inside that and beyond that and above that and superior to all of the externals in our religious experience is the spiritual essence of it all- and it’s that spiritual essence for which I am pleading, and what I want to see enthroned in our communion and fellowship in the Church of Jesus Christ……If we do not see beyond the visible, and if we cannot touch that which is intangible, and if we cannot hear that which is not audible, and if we cannot know that which is beyond knowing-then I have serious doubts about the validity of our Christian experience ( Tozer)
If our Christianity is not supernatural then it is superficial ( David Legge)
At the beating heart of everything that we are and do must lie the Golden chalice of Christ Himself. Our relationship with Jesus quite apart from any religious externals must be the driving force of our lives. Externals can change and even fall away but our relationship with Jesus never changes. He walks with us daily, He comforts us hourly, He intercedes for us at all times. It is Jesus that is the centerpiece of who we are.
I know people, good people who will say things like, and with all sincerity, ” you must come to my church, you must hear my pastor, you must come and see our worship team,” and so on. I have said it before and I am sure many readers have heard it and said it before as well. What happens when your church fails, when your pastor falls, when your worship leader runs off with the youth pastor? Now hopefully that will never happen and I say it tongue in cheek but you get my point. Each one of us should have such a relationship with Jesus that if we ever happen to have an opportunity to speak to anyone about eternal life and eternal death matters then we should be able to talk about the Jesus we know.
I say that we are for the most part, a spiritually impotent generation. And let me say first and foremost that it is our own fault. Each of us who know Jesus have the ability to share with others. Remember that the steps of a righteous man and woman are ordered of God. If you ” happen,” to be speaking to someone and that conversation turns towards the spiritual then know that God knew that and the fact that you are speaking to that someone is no surprise to God who brings order to the universe. He knows that person and He knows you. He makes no mistakes.
Yet, the very overalls, the religious externals, have grown to discourage that kind of sharing. We have made professionals out of our churches whether it be our pastors or our worship leaders. Only they teach, only they lead, only they or something connected to them is ever shared from the pulpit. The dividing line between the clergy and the laity has fundamentally weakened Christendom. It has served to disenfranchise the believers and has turned most of them into pew warming spectating tithers whose main purpose is to pay the bills and play their part in a religious spectacle that typically serves to promote the professional pastor and the professional worship leader so that they can build their kingdoms and franchise their organisations. And since we now have the technology, when it is franchised then they can simply pipe in the original ” team,” into another location thus nullifying the prospect that anyone may rob them of any of the glory they have so dearly sought while typically hiding it under a mask of humility.
If our denominations and churches only exist on the plane of external religion, then how can they ever make any significant impact on our communities? If our communion, our fellowship, is not enthroned upon the Spiritual, if the central aspect of our gatherings is around anything other than a supernatural Jesus who gives sight to see that which is not visible and gives ears to hear that which is not audible then what do we have? If we are left only with the religion externals then all we have is religious entertainment of one sort or another, a building or an organisation that only truly exists to perpetuate itself and promote certain individuals. We must cry out for Jesus and for Him to once again be preeminent in our gatherings. If we make Jesus the centerpiece, if we allow Him through His Holy Spirit to be central in our gatherings then I believe we would then be truly equipping the saints to be witness to His glory in season and out of season and especially in this day which could very possibly be the end of the ages.
There is a kind of suffering known only to the Christian. It is voluntary suffering deliberately and knowingly incurred for the sake of Christ. Such is a luxury, a treasure of fabulous value, a source of riches beyond the power of the mind to conceive. And it is rare as well as precious, for there are few in this decadent age who will of their own choice go down into this dark mine looking for jewels. But, of our own choice it must be, for there is not other way to get down. God will not force us into this kind of suffering. He will not lay this cross upon us not embarrass us with riches we do not want. Such riches are reserved for those who apply to serve in the legion unto death, who volunteer to suffer for Christ’s sake and who follow-up their application with lives that challenge the devil and invite the fury of hell. Such as these have said good-bye to the world’s toys; they have chosen to suffer affliction with the people of God;they have accepted toil and suffering as their earthly portion. The marks of the cross are upon them and they are known in heaven and hell.
But where are they? Has this breed of Christian died out of the earth? Have the saints of God joined the mad scramble for security? Has the cross become no more than a symbol , a bloodless and sterile relic of nobler times? Are we now afraid to suffer and unwilling to die? I hope not but I wonder. And only God has the answer.( Tozer, The radical Cross)
Interesting questions Tozer presents. Has this breed of Christian died out today? Do we even, in our modern age, understand the notion of what it means to ” mine the darkness for jewels.” Are we afraid to suffer and unwilling to die? Is security, that which the world highly values, is that what we seek? To be honest, if you listen to those who supposedly represent Christianity today you would have to conclude that above all else security is prized. Whether it is financial security or national security or even social security. We have insurance to cover almost every possible scenario. I do not say that there is anything wrong with security and insurance in and of itself. Yet, when it rules us, when it dictates our actions, when we lay all our hopes into its tenuous hands then we will undoubtedly find ourselves in trouble.
We cannot be ruled by these fears and at the very same time serve the living God effectively. To answer Tozer’s question about whether this breed of Christian has vanished from the earth, I say no. I see saints in war-torn countries continue on serving God and being martyred for their Lord, they are such a breed. I have met countless saints from all around the world whose desire in this world is to serve God, they only live to serve God. I have met and heard from so many American saints, ( American saints often have a bad press around the world) who love the Lord with all of their hearts and who have willingly suffered for His sake and who would suffer more is asked, they are of this breed.
I see a time ahead, not in the too far distant future, where God will raise up out of the shadows such a breed as Tozer spoke of. A people who have been taught by God Himself and who have been enriched by the treasures of the ” dark mine.” They have been taught obedience and reliance upon Him. They have been honed by the hammer and the chisel to rightly fit into the plans of God for such a time as this. They have been secretly drawn into the desert and there, where no life should be found, they have found life and that more abundantly. This abundant life is not the abundant life spoken of by heretical teachers of health and prosperity. No, this is the abundant life of the cross-bearers; Those who willingly suffer for His sake and would have it no other way and have found an abundant source of joy and strength to endure and in enduring, overcome.
God has His people. And whether they live or whether they die their aim is to glorify God, it is their chief all-consuming desire. As the world plunges into darkness and chaos, and all around are losing their heads, there is a breed of Christian who have learned to walk among such darkness with a peace that surpasses all understanding. God has mighty plans for such a breed of people. Not the plans of the false prophet who tell the people of a glorious future in this world and only speak of peace and prosperity. No, the Lord will bring forward a breed of people to lead the Body of Christ in the way of the cross. A people who will show that there are mountaintop experiences to be had in the very depths of the deepest valley’s. Their light will shine in such darkness for their light is the light of Christ Himself and when He and He alone is lifted up then men and women shall be drawn unto Him.
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. (Isa 45:2-3)
We have so degraded our religious tastes that our Christian service is largely exhibitionism. We desperately need a divine visitation-for our situation will never be cured by sermons. It will never be cured until the Church of Christ has suddenly been confronted with what one man called ” mysterium tremendium,”- the fearful mystery that is God, the fearful majesty that is God. That is what the Holy Spirit does. He brings the wonderful mystery that is God to us and presents Him to the human spirit. ( Tozer)
It is very sad to see the present state of politics in America. It started out with such high ideals and yet here we are, thoroughly corrupted from start to finish. Greed and corruption and vanity has ruined the whole system. And now the people, in general, who know it is so, are so desperate that they would even consider a man like Donald Trump to be their leader or a man like Bernie Sanders. Desperate people who long for something better make desperate decisions.
Christendom on the other hand faces its own crossroads. If the honest man can say to politicians ” where are the statesmen?” then Christendom might well ask ” where are all the Godly men?” Or a better question may be ” where is God in all of this?” Christendom in general has lost sight of God. They have lost sight as Tozer would put it of the ” fearful majesty that is God.” They have lost sight of the mystery that is God.
In our high-tech gadget driven slick churches where professional musicians entertain the masses and offer something far far lower than God Himself, the people are starving to death. It is a dreadful thing to see a person who suffers from anorexia just waste away to nothing in front of you. And the horror of it all is that they look in the mirror and see an overweight person looking back. Spiritual starvation mimics anorexia to a certain extent. While the vast majority of Christendom is suffering from spiritual starvation, they look in the mirror and see something healthy looking back.
The major difference between someone with anorexia and a spiritually starving person is what people say to them. When we see a person with anorexia we are horrified. We try to convince them that they are wasting away. We seek help for them. We have interventions with them. The people who are spiritually starving have quite the opposite experience. Week after week they are told they are fine. They are told that tomorrow will be their best day, the next year will be their best year. There will be no intervention for them.
How horrifying would it be if there were whole churches full of anorexic people? The congregants were anorexic, the pastor was anorexic, the worship leaders were anorexic, the ushers and the elders, all anorexic, all thinking that not only were they not wasting away, but in actual fact believing they were overweight. And yet we live in a time and a country where church after church is full of spiritually anorexic people. A people wasting away and having no idea at all what is happening to them. They have conditioned their leaders to tell them only good things.
There are two great things God can do for a people. He can reveal Himself to them and He can show a man his true state. We desperately need both in our age in either order. Only God Himself can reveal the true state of Christendom. I believe that God will not stop reaching out to those who call themselves by His name until He returns. He is shaking everything that can be shaken in order to show us what kind of ground that we are standing upon. He is compelling all of us to consider what, if any, foundations that we truly have. He is raising up men and women who can see and compelling them by a fire in their bones to speak and not remain silent.
For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
(Isa 62:1-4)
True prophets of God will not hold their peace, they shall not remain silent until God’s people rise up in righteousness and that righteousness shines forth with brilliant brightness for all the world to see. The gentiles will see this brightness, they may not like it, they may despise it, they may run from it or try to destroy it, but they will see it. His Church will be the crown of His glory and be like a royal diadem in His hand. No matter how desolate or forsaken God’s people seem to be, they are not forsaken and out of their desolation, out of the great darkness that will try to swallow them whole there shall come a great light that will pierce the very darkness.
And the remnant… shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. (Isaiah 37:31)
The Lord must have something which cannot be carried away, which cannot be removed, cannot be shaken, and certainly something which cannot be rooted up. That is His remnant. That, He must have for His own glory, and, that being so, He will take every measure with His remnant to have them after that kind, with roots downward. Of course, unto fruit upward. We speak much about the upward side of things, life in the heavenlies, sitting in the heavenlies, and our warfare and work – the fruitfulness of our life in union with the Lord. That is only possible as our roots are downward. In order that that might be so, we have to get into a place of unshakeableness where the roots have got such a grip that nothing can overthrow. And I believe that explains a very great deal of what the Lord is doing with His own spiritual people in these days.
It is true that the true children of God are going through a time of intense trial and testing spiritually in these days; everywhere it is so. Why? Because the Lord must have something against which hell is impotent and by which He demonstrates to the universe that strength of His might which causes to stand and withstand, and having done all to stand. If one were asked what the last issue for the Church in this age is, I would say that it stands, and that is saying a tremendous thing. Oh, you say, that is surely limiting things, are you not expecting much more than that? Progress, advance, sweeping movements?
The Church will have all its work cut out in the end to stand, but its standing will be its victory. Just to be able, through testing, trial, when everything is blowing round you like a blizzard; when everything is dark, mysterious, and even God seems far away and unreal, and faith is tested and you are being assailed on the right hand and on the left, and there is every reason outwardly for your moving, giving up, falling down, surrendering, lowering your standard, just to stand and not be moved in your faith is the greatest possible victory…. We are passing through deep experiences, the enemy is doing it and the Lord is not preventing him, but we are coming to a fuller knowledge of the power of our God and a deeper rooting beyond all previous shakeableness. And the Lord is seeking to have a people who cannot be shaken, against whom hell with all its demonstration of arrogance and pride, is impotent. “And the remnant… shall again take root downward.” That is what the Lord needs.
A Call To The Remnant 