Job 3:25Β For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.Β
This portion of scripture is often presented in some sort of negative fashion, especially by the Charismatics. They see this as an admission of a lack of faith and somehow blame Job’s very fears for bringing upon him his calamities. This of course, is totally false. We already know that Job was a blameless man of integrity, who, under severe trial, held fast to his integrity and honor of God. Now rather than this being a negative, it is actually very much a positive. Job never took anything for granted. He had a very healthy fear and reverence for God. He feared for his children that somehow they may dishonor God and sin. He would arise early and make sacrifices to God and pray for each of His children.
The question is, brothers and sisters, do we have the same kind of fear and reverence and integrity that Job had? Do we take our many blessings for granted? Do we presume upon the blessings and the mercies of God? How then shall we live? With our eyes wide open to a world that is full of possible distractions and temptations. Not just for ourselves, but for the children that we raised. What are we sacrificing for our children? What burnt offerings could we present before the Lord as wise and faithful servants? Perhaps the preferred career could be sacrificed in order to make more time for that which is truly important? Perhaps there is no real need for the great big house or the latest car? The story of Job reminds us that all of a sudden, an ill wind can blow and our circumstances radically change in a very short period of time.
One small comfort for Job would have been to know that he did everything a good father could do for his children. It guarantees nothing, but it is something to stand upon. If we had a sick loved one and we did everything that we could do for them, in their passing there would be no recriminations. There is a wonderful peace to be had by doing the right thing with a cheerful heart. This is part of our love and integrity. This is how we should serve the Lord our God. With everything that is in us. It will not prevent adversity touching the hems of our garments, but it gives us a peace within to know that with all of who we are, we strove to serve the Lord our God with reverence and Godly fear and integrity. What can the storm do against such a man or a woman. Imagine, for a moment, God saying “have you considered my servant …………Β (fill in your name) Treasure beyond measure.
Job 2:10 ….shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?
Brothers and sisters, this matter drives at the very heart of who we are. We are much more likely to discover who we are in the depths of adversity, than in any other state. So much energy in Christendom is expended in the stand against adversity. Rather than embrace it, as we certainly embrace the good, we fight it, often with everything that is in us. The adversity, and how it affects us, becomes the towering idol in our lives. Shall God not praised in any circumstances? Shall He not always be our primary focus? Should our eyes ever be moved from a gaze upon Him? In all my years walking through the corridors of Christianity, this single issue is the most pervasive. Our attitude towards infirmity or dire circumstances ultimately shape us and identify us. The fundamental core of who we are must be, whether we live or whether we die we shall praise the living God. Every other issue, if it is allowed, draws us away from God and towards ourselves. Rather than being fixated with God, we become fixated on ourselves and our circumstances.
In this verse Job addresses his wife. She, because of their circumstances, expresses what happens when circumstances are more important than God. She encourages her husband to curse God, abandon God, abandon his faith, abandon his life. For her, the circumstances of their life was more important than God Himself. She is a foolish woman and has been branded as such in the eternal word of God. Paul learned to be content whether he was hungry or full, in sickness or in health, in liberty or in the dungeon. He learned this. He learned that all loss, is mere rubbish, in comparison to being found in Him. In the end brothers and sisters the only thing that matters is being found in Him. Everything else, if we allow it, is idolatry. It is the curse of the last one hundred years that much of what identifies itself as Christianity, demands that God heals them and prospers them. This is the foundation of their so called faith. Madness and foolishness to stake your faith on the circumstances of your life rather than the holiness of a God who not only gives us good things, but also gives us adversities. Shall you accept that saint, or shall you rage against God and die in the wilderness?
Outside of God there is no moral authority, without Him everything begins to come apart at the seams. We become a law unto ourselves where the ends, the vain imaginations of our own dark hearts, justify the means. Abortion is the primary example of our lawlessness. The ideologies of feminism and rights and freedoms, come together like a ghastly witches brew. In order to believe that there is something higher than the sanctity of life, then we have to elevate ourselves to be gods. If our lives are so important that it justifies the taking of another life, and not just any other life, the life of our own child, nestled in the womb, then we have reached a level of idolatry not seen since the ancient world.
In Lamentations chapter four we see women greedily consume their own children in order to save their own lives. They, of course, did not arrive at that soulless place overnight. This is the ends result of idolatry not the beginning of it. This is why we in the modern world are at the end of our rejection of God and His ways. We have reached our zenith but it is not to be measured in height, rather the abyss is to be measured in depth and darkness. To the world, God is dead, and they are no longer bothered or bound by His Word.
Having abandoned God and rejected Him out of hand, we have also, necessarily, rejected absolute truth. The new laws that we make in this state spring forth from the wicked imaginations of dark hearts. So therefore there is no depth or bottom to our depravity. The only measure is the darkness of the human heart which we know is deceitfully wicked. We are not just rebels, we are wicked and the vain imaginations of our heart are wicked and it was only ever somewhat restrained by the notion of an eternal judgement to come. Therefore, when we throw off the notion of God and eternal judgement then the bowels of hell itself are loosed.
The complicating factor in the west at least, is that at the very same time we have abandoned God we still claim to serve Him. Since we worship and serve ourselves, we proclaim our ideologies to be Godly, to be an expression of the God we claim to serve. In the ultimate act of perversion we say, in our willful self delusion, that we are moral and our ideologies are moral. We hijack the word and actually use it against anyone who dares to stand against our opinion. Now it is no longer possible to simply disagree with someone, that someone is challenging your very deity and they are therefore immoral and irredeemable.
These people, living outside of God, are lawless and will crush anyone who does not worship the god made in their own image. Politics begins to get infused with theological words for truly it is the religion of the world. Now every foul force, living out their Godless lives, claims God as their author and creator and in a sense they are right, but its not the God of the Bible and absolute truth, its their own god made in their own image. When the most powerful man in the world pronounces that the freedom to murder children is a God given right, then you can no doubt hear the creaking of the gates of hell as they are flung open.
The freedoms that men believe they have, quite apart from a just God and an eternity where justice is established and completed, is tearing men to pieces. How could it do anything otherwise? All of this is for the grasping of power and control and an independence from the Living God. The very desire of the devils heart. Men must choose for the time draws near. We either worship God and follow Him, or we worship ourselves and we follow that dark descending road that leads all the way to the bottom of the abyss.
Job 2:3……….. and still he holds fast his integrity.
We see here the progression of God’s truth about Job and the exposing of the lie of Satan. Job has just lost every single possession he owned in the world. All of his children had just been wiped out. And when he hears of this he famously replies ” naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return : the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” I want to suggest that this is the high water mark of service to the God that we love above and beyond all other things. God himself says, that even after all these things “still he holds fast his integrity.” God is impressed with His servant and we see this only makes the Devil angrier. The love of God for His servants and their love for Him, even in the face of terrible loss and tragedy only makes the enemy of our soul even angrier.
Have you suffered loss brothers and sisters? Can you say with all of your heart “blessed be the name of the Lord.” This is what Job says in the midst of worshiping His Lord. To be supernaturally enabled to walk this kind of walk we must have eternal vision. We must have glimpsed something of His majesty and His glory. This is no mere stoic behavior in the midst of profound loss, this is love and glory and majesty and vision. It is not natural. If it were natural and all we had in this world were the things of this world then we would join with Job’s wife and curse God for our losses. No brothers and sisters, this is supernatural. For those who have eyes to see what the Spirit sees, we see a magnificent eternal horizon set ablaze by the impenetrable light of Christ. Remember this. The very thing that God commends, that Job still holds fast to his integrity, is the very thing his wife challenges. She says to him “do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Remember brothers and sisters, oftentimes those who are closest to you, whether it be your friends or a loved one, may be the ones who challenge you the most. For in the end, it is but you and God. This wilderness that to one degree or another every saint finds himself in, is the testing ground. It is about identity. How will you come out of the wilderness? Jesus’ identity was tested in the wilderness by the devil himself. Your identity will be tested to by the same enemy. In the end, we are identified by who we serve and who we love above all other things. This wilderness will identify if you love God above all other things. Will you hold fast to your integrity? In the deepest depths of the darkness will you “fall down and worship God?” The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Even if He slay me, yet shall I trust Him. This is the finest gold forged in the hottest furnace. This gold will adorn the temple of God not built by human hands.
Job 1:8Β And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one that fears God, and shuns evil?Β
Satan hated Job. He hated Job because he knew what God thought about His servant. God thinks about His sons and daughters the same way He thought about Job. Satan also hated Job because Job was indeed what the Lord had said about him. He was happy in his service to God, content to be a servant of the most high God. Pleased to be pleasing to God. Job was everything that Satan was not. And so, if you walk with God with purity of heart you will indeed incur the wrath of the enemy or those in his employment. They will hate your joy for they have none. They will hate your sincerity and your purity for they have none. Your witness of the righteousness of God reflects upon their unrighteousness.
If you study the Salem witch trials, many of those accused were the Godliest women in the villages. Oh how Satan and the wicked hate the man or the woman of God. Hated by the darkness because the light in you highlights the darkness in them. It is our role brothers and sisters. Our righteousness in Christ reflects upon the wickedness of this world. And as the world grows darker and more bold, then so we, the Light of this world (for Christ dwells in us) shall be tried and tested. The stripping away. The tearing down. Until all there is left is the truth. And the truth is this, that in the eyes of God we are blameless and we love Him even at the loss of all things. A total refutation of the lie that dared to be uttered before the throne. God is true and all men and devils are liars. Let the truth in your life stand brothers and sisters, for in this, we are a witness, which is what we were called to be.
Act 27:10Β And said unto them, men, I perceive that this voyage will end withe disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives.Β
A stark warning indeed. Have you ever had a warning that you ignored? Maybe it was a check in your spirit or a direct word from a brother or sister? The centurion in this case, decided to go with the experts, the helmsman and the owner of the ship. The majority were persuaded and off they went. Human logic can be very helpful and common sense typically serves us well. Here we have a tent-maker saying one thing and the helmsman and the owner of the ship saying another. The majority went with the experts.
Isn’t that typically the case in our world? We listen to experts. It might be doctors or lawyers. It might be politicians or financial advisors. Yet in everything, to discount the word of God can be very dangerous. That word might come from the Bible. Perhaps the still small voice. Perhaps a word of wisdom from a brother or sister, perhaps even a prophecy. Yet in the end, many fall back and rely on the word and opinion of so called experts. In verse 13 of Acts 27 we see a very typical scenario play out. All seems well at first. A south wind blew, a favorable wind, seemingly confirming what the experts had said. Yet before very long, the scenario Paul had laid out began to come to pass. For fourteen long days they were tossed violently in a huge storm. All seemed lost. Now, men are ready to listen to the man of God.
The man of God has a vision and spoke with confidence. They were all going to live. Yet the most dramatic moment was just about to unfold. Paul demanded that they cut the skiff loose. It seemed to make no sense. Often times in our lives we are called upon by God to do things that make no sense in the natural. In the vital moment, will you follow the direction of God? Will you abandon your common sense and the words of experts and follow blindly the advise from God? Paul brakes bread at the height of the disaster and gives thanks to God. Can you give thanks to Almighty God even when all seems lost? Following His direction and giving thanks to God releases power, supernatural power. Follow His leading today brothers and sisters, and He will guide you to where He wants you go.
Act 20:29Β For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.Β
For almost four years, Paul warned, night and day, with tears, of the wolves that will come from outside of the Body of Christ, and those false prophets who would rise up within its ranks. From without and from within. The powers of hell and all of its fury would rise up in opposition to the children of God. If any saint thinks that this was just for that time, they would obviously be mistaken. In the last one hundred years, I would argue , the activity of the wolves and the false prophets have never been more active. Tearing away at the fabric of the truth, despising those who hold to it and warring against the Word of God. An all out assault on every front that has indeed led to the great falling away. Charismatic craziness. Word of faith, prosperity gospel, cheap grace. Adoption of the standards of the world. Dead denominationalism. And so the barrage rains down. In war, prior to an attack, there will be a bombardment from artillery. This is a sure sign to the soldiers that a full frontal attack is imminent. The bombardment was to soften them up.
The country of Israel have what is known as the iron dome. It is like a shield, a force field, that intercepts incoming missiles and stops them from reaching their target. We too, brothers and sisters, have such a defense. It is the truth. The Word of God. And when it is in place in our lives we are safe from the attacks of the enemy. Though lies and perversions rain down upon humanity and they are slowly destroyed by it, we who stand under the banner of faith and upon the solid ground of the truth, shall not be moved nor destroyed. When God struck the Egyptians with a darkness, a gross darkness that was so “thick,” that it could be felt, the Israelites had light in their dwellings. We too have light in our dwellings. The light of Christ that dwells in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has commanded light to shine forth from darkness. You are that light brothers and sisters. Through these earthen vessels light shall shine forth and rivers of living waters shall flow.
What are we intended to be? We are intended to be in our experience, in our spiritual life, in our presence here, a living proof that Jesus is the Son of God, not just declare this as a tenet of our faith and creed, but to be here as children of God growing up into Sonship (T.A.Sparks)
Is there a difference between those who declare the tenets of our faith and who agree upon the creeds, and those who are sons and daughters of God ? A living reality as opposed to a set of truths. The Galatians are a great example. Paul says to them “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another…………..but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any gospel to you than which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” This is intense. Paul is leaving no room for doubt. Anything other than Spirit led experiential transformation, is a gospel of works and is perverse and no gospel at all and those who teach it are accursed by God Himself.
The works of the law were being presented to the Galatians by those from Jerusalem. They had begun in the Spirit but now they were resting on the flesh, the works of the law. Paul calls them fools who have been bewitched. In most of modern day Christendom it is not the works of the Jewish law that bewitches men, although there are whole sects of folks who will tell you that you must keep the law and the feasts and so on. No, it is our own mental assent to orthodoxy that has replaced the living reality of sons and daughters of Christ. No experience necessary. A mental assent to a series of abstract truths is all that matters. This represents to the genuine believer today, what the Judaizers were to Paul and the saints. It is in conflict with the saints. It is amazing that the same truth can be what divides us. One is a living example of it, the other is a mere professor of it. And the one who professes it almost always resents and comes against the one who has been changed by it from the inside out.
How many times has it been said to you, in a resentful fashion, when you give your testimony of being born again “well, I never had any such experience, I just grew up in the church.” Or, if you relate any kind of supernatural experience and transformation there are any number of people who will resent you. Sparks says this ” our testimony must not be …I was brought up in a Christian home, and sent to Sunday school and taken to church and instructed in these things and given a sound Bible teaching. There has to be something more than that.” Of course, the something more is Christ Himself burning at the center of who are by the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not share abstract truth, we share a living experiential Jesus. Anyone can agree that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. The devil himself knows that to be true. What the world needs to hear is a first hand account of the living Christ living in us, speaking to us, leading us and guiding us and changing us.
Brothers and sisters, we are a living proof of the risen Christ. We share with people who we know, not what we know. Now, can a man or a woman come to Christ by the Spirit of God and then fall away into mere orthodoxy, relying on the arm of the flesh to come to maturity? Yes indeed. Of course they never shall come to maturity. Teachers of every stripe will woo you away, they will want you to be zealous for them. Your church shall replace Jesus. Your pastor shall replace Jesus. Your favorite teacher will replace Jesus. Only by continuing on in the Spirit can you grow from mere babes in Christ into maturity and sons and daughters. Why is so much of Christendom stuck on the rudimentary elements, sharing milk week after week? It is because they have replaced the living reality of the Spirit of God with the mere orthodoxy of men. The orthodoxy and the truth of it is not the matter here, for genuine Spirit filled and Spirit led saints will be among the most orthodox people you will ever meet. The matter is being Spirit led.
The path of least resistance is to tick the boxes of orthodoxy without being a living reality of what that very orthodoxy teaches. It is one thing to believe that we have been called to be salt and light, it is quite another thing to actually be salt and light. You see the difference? Now apply that to every other aspect of what we believe. In order to live out what we believe we have to be led forward by a very real Holy Spirit. In almost every church up and down the land the folks are led, not by the Holy Spirit, but rather by men, who, for the most part will be teaching orthodox teaching of the basic kind. The systems of men has become another Gospel. It is like the sacraments in the Catholic church. Vacuous rituals devoid of any power. The words and the teachings and the sermons of much of Christendom, devoid of the actual power of the Holy Spirit, have become nothing more than sacramental activity, promising something without the power to deliver.
Sons and daughters of the Lord will always be in conflict with the merely religious. A mental assent is no match for a living reality. One has power and the other has a mere appearance. One is playing a character, the other is the real person. We used to say, back in the day, that there were no grandchildren in the Kingdom of God, only sons and daughters. Christendom has been swallowed up by the grandchildren. By osmosis and an accident of birth, there are millions of false professors all over the world and yet we know the words of Jesus from Matt 22 “many are called but few are chosen.” The many that are called prove themselves to be unworthy of the calling by the fact that they consider the calling a mere religious adornment. They busy themselves with the things of the world and disqualify themselves. Therefore, God finds for himself the few. He clothes them in righteousness and this clothing is worn to the marriage feast.
In the days to come, the divisions will become much deeper, much more apparent. The lifeless orthodox church will become more and more powerful as they ally themselves to the world and its system. It will reach its zenith in the one world system to come. The great whore church and the one world order will unite in an unholy alliance against the saints who shall refuse to acknowledge their authority and the authority if the evil one to come. The delusion shall be so great that only those sons and daughters, led by the Holy Spirit, will be able to see what the rest of the world cannot see or refuses to see. The marriage feast is coming brothers and sisters and only those clothed in the righteousness of God that is attained by the power of the Holy Spirit shall enter, the few. The many, in an attempt to save their lives here in this world, will lose their eternal lives in the world to come. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Psa 13:2Β How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long shall I suffer Lord? Every day I search my heart and reason within me and yet I find nothing, only sorrow and suffering continually. David is at a loss. He has no one else to turn to. The comforts that he had known before have fled him. The good man suffers greatly in his affliction. He searches himself and tries to find remedy and yet there is none. At the very same time he knows that God is good and greatly to be praised. The knowledge of this adds to the mans sorrows for in his heart he knows it is a madness to complain before God. It goes against his spiritual DNA, and so we come to this place of crying out.Β God hears your cries.
Brothers and sisters. Are you in this place? Have you been in this place? It is like a certain spiritual death where sleep may overwhelm us. David cries out to God to consider him and bring light to his eyes. A certain kind of malaise, a melancholy has insidiously crept in. And now he cries out for light. He reminds himself that he has trusted in the mercy of God. He remembers how the Lord, in all of his ways, has dealt bountifully with him and this causes him to sing unto the Lord. Trust in the Lord your God brothers and sisters. Cry out to Him, do not remain silent. Remind yourself of how far the Lord has brought you and how much grace and mercy He has given to you. I cannot say how much longer you may suffer, but we know this. We know that no one suffered more than our Lord and that He also felt the despair of being seemingly abandoned. Rejoice in your salvation today, for the Saviour of your soul knows and sees your suffering. He committed His Spirit into the hands of His Father, you do the same.
Act 19:2Β He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?
How could something so simple, become so controversial? Paul is asking some disciples he happened upon in a certain region if they had received the Holy Spirit. Every professing Christian must ask themselves the same question. The answer will be between them and the Lord and the Word. How honest these disciples were , they say they have never even heard of such a thing as the Holy Spirit. That very ignorance was to them an advantage, and our modern day knowledge of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God can actually work against us. We have head knowledge of the Holy Spirit, we can read about Him and be taught about Him and not deny Him and somehow this passes for having received Him.
In Matt 3:11 we see that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. What does that mean to you? Jesus says in Acts 1:5 that not many days from now you shall be “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” In verse 8 Jesus tell us that we would receive power and become witnesses after the Holy Spirit has come upon us. In Acts 2 we see those gathered together in the upper room be baptized with the Holy Spirit as represented with tongues of fire, fulfilling Matt 3:11. In Act 4:31 we see the disciples filled again. In Acts 6 we see that Stephen was “full of the Spirit.” In Acts 10 we see the Gentile believers receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then of course in Acts 19 we see those who have never even heard of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We see this doctrine fundamentally established over and over again. And of course there were signs of such a baptism. I would argue that boldness was the primary sign, boldness and power to be a witness. Other signs are well documented, among them being tongues and prophecy.
Now brothers and sisters, these things cannot be denied. To deny them is to deny Scripture. So the question remains “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” It is a fundamental question and only you can answer it. Without this baptism you shall be powerless. You cannot possibly be a witness for Christ on the earth without this power, and these are the Lords own words. With the evil day fast approaching we must know that we have oil in our lamps. We shall not be able to stand without it. Without it we shall stand in darkness. Only by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit can we be a light to the world and a witness to the Kingdom of God. We cannot possibly stand in our own strength. We can do many things by our own might and power and much of Christendom is established upon the might and power of men. Yet, what men establish, men can tear down. That which is established by the Spirit cannot be moved for it is founded upon the solid Rock of Christ.
We are people of the Word, of the Spirit and who have a singular passion and His name is Jesus. We are the way and the faith and we are to be found everywhere, from every culture and from every color and from every background. A carved out people, called out of darkness into His marvelous light. Living a simple life of purity and total dedication to Jesus that cuts across cultural traits and transcends centuries of behaviors, it is the calling of the Spirit. We are sons of daughters brought to glory by the Kings of Kings.
This is what the enemy hates above all. Our calling from God. We, who were not a people, now sons and daughters of God in a mysterious royal priesthood. There are many pretenders. Many are called, few are chosen. Only something original and valuable is ever counterfeited. Satan has done some of his best work in counterfeiting the saints. Yet upon close inspection, his imposters (who do not know they are imposters, the best deception is when the deceived have no idea they are deceived) are lacking in two primary and absolutely vital aspects of genuine Christianity. Passion for Jesus, a grand obsession that eclipses everything else in life, and primarily , the Holy Spirit who gives such a passion.
It is not children that God is looking for, it is sons and daughters. We come as children, we grow into sons and daughters. He is looking for those who go on to maturity. He has no pleasure in those who turn back. No pleasure in those who start out with gladness but have no root and when the sun comes up, when the trials of life come, what little root they have withers in the shallow ground. No pleasure in those who get choked and caught up in the cares of this life and the desire for riches and they are without fruit. Yet there is good ground and God loves it. A ground that was no longer fallow, a ground that had the rocks and the stones and the clods removed. A ground that was tilled. Good servants, good soil, sons and daughters, much fruit.
The days are growing darker brothers and sisters. The great whore church is rising, stocked by the great falling away. The flesh wars against the spirit. The flesh has risen up to dizzying new heights and it is nearing its zenith. The time for all out war against the saints is at hand. We are people of the truth and the truth shall be the primary weapon. First to identify us and then to destroy us. Truth shall be banished and the lie shall be crowned in its place. All shall be made to worship the lie. Only the sons and daughters shall not. They shall never bow down to the gods of this world and the gods of this world are rising. They are corrupting our children and an army shall rise. A generation that shall be without natural affection. They shall be false accusers and fierce with it, totally sold out to their corruptions and they shall despise what is good. They will be proud and boastful and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and all the time having a warped form of Godliness.
Yet, for the sons and daughters of God, it will be their finest hour. The same Spirit that burned in the hearts of the three Hebrew children burn in ours. We shall never bow down to the gods of this world and we shall experience the presence of God as we have never done before nor any generation that has proceeded us. Jesus shall be with us in the midst of the fire. He shall raise us up to higher ground as the enemy comes in like a flood. His banner shall fly and flutter in the wind of the Spirit over every bloody battle-field around the world and thus His glory shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. All the world shall witness this, the Kingdom of God in operation, so that they are without doubt and without excuse, and then comes the Son of Man in all His glory.
Everything about my faith was an experience. The most dramatic of which was the day I surrendered. A day that will live in infamy for my flesh, never to be forgotten. A day of great rejoicing for my spirit, never to be forgotten. I have experienced love, I have experienced joy, I have experienced forgiveness. I have experienced transformation. I have experienced cleansing. I experienced opposition. I experienced warfare. Obviously you see the word that comes up over and over again. Experience. I knew nothing of doctrine when I was got saved. I knew nothing of the Scriptures nor did I know the great essentials of the faith, but I now knew Jesus. He spoke to me, I experienced that. He taught me, I experienced that. He led me and He guided me, I experienced all of that. After about seven months I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and this was a whole other level of experience.
If you climb to the top of a mountain, it is a very definite experience. It separates you from all others who have not. It joins you to all others who have. You can read books about climbing, and watch videos and documentaries and be filled with head knowledge about it, but unless you have experienced the peak then you are not a mountaineer. Sit among a group of them and discuss climbing, they will soon figure out you are not a climber. By the same token, listen to a group of climbers speak about climbing and you will be able to pull up a chair and sit down with them, if you yourself are a climber. It is that way with the Body of Christ. It is a mysterious thing, a spiritual reality birthed in actual experience. New creatures in Christ recognize each other, they speak the same language.
Those of the head knowledge persuasion are dead set against the word “experience.’ Theologians and schoolmen and whole denominations have made themselves the deadliest enemy of experience. And on the other side there are those who endlessly speak about their own personal experiences such as roaring like lions and rolling around the floor or barking like dogs. Both of these sides serve a common purpose for the enemy of the saints. To tear down the Body of Christ, those who have actually experienced transformation. Tick six boxes of mental assent to abstract truth on one side, or get dirty rolling on the floor with the other. None of this means anything in the end. For those who have scaled the lofty heights and peaks of glory, in encountering God, live on and in their experiences walking with Jesus and transformation. The Word of God is His magnificent roadmap that leads us home through valley and mountaintop. And no matter the lofty heights or peaks or the chains and dungeon, those who have encountered Jesus, experienced Jesus, experience joy inexpressible and there rests upon them the Spirit of God and of glory.
Every now and then, in a glorious symphony of realization, my heart is overwhelmed by the music of my Saviour’s love for me. I am swept up in its majesty! It carries me with the substantial fullness of a raging river and yet with the gentle sound of a thousand doves wings flapping in the wind. I am undone by it all. Every doubt and all the rocks of my flesh are removed and suddenly the river is in full unabated flow and all I want is to be taken. Time loses its meaning as I am swept towards the vastness of my Jesus. An ocean so vast that I am swallowed whole. Everything returns to its simplicity. All the barriers are broken down and I glimpse and am engulfed, once again, by the glory of it all.
1Pe 1:22Β Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:Β
Can you see what the Lord is saying through Peter? Obeying the truth through the Spirit is part and parcel of being purified. Let not anyone think that outside of obedience to the Word of God and the Spirit of God that that one will be Holy as He is Holy. He who called you is Holy, now, the Scriptures tell us, be Holy as He is Holy. Lift your eyes as high as they can be lifted and set your sights on the Holiness of God. Seek first His Kingdom so that you may be partakers of His righteousness and Holiness. Willing and desirous obedience as opposed to conformity to your old flesh or the world around you. This leads to walking in the love of God which is manifested in our love for one another and even our love towards our enemies.
In this, the genuineness of our our trust in Him is refined again and again in a process that God Himself has initiated. Even in the midst of our various trials and the grieving of our hearts and spirits, there is inexpressible joy and an encounter with the glory of God. Our God does not sit passively by in the midst of such trials and infirmites and reproaches. No, rather we are told that we are blessed by the “Spirit of glory and of God which rests upon you.” (1 Pet 4:14) The word “rest,’ here used in the Scriptures means to refresh and to remain. Imagine that brothers and sisters, in the midst of our great trials for the glorious cause of Christ, there remains upon us a refreshing. The inexhaustible waters that flows from the wells of salvation. Oh what glorious fountains flow. First from Emmanuel’s veins and then from the living waters of Heaven.
2Jn 1:4Β I rejoiced greatly that I found some of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.Β
In 2nd John 1:4 John says that he rejoiced greatly to have found some of the saints walking in the truth having received the commandment from God. In 3rd John 1:4 John says that he had no greater joy than to hear that his children were walking in the truth. Imagine that, the great Apostle’s greatest joy was the saints walking in the Truth. Why was this his greatest joy? John knew that if we walk in the Truth, then and only then will we make forward progress in the Kingdom, overcoming trial and temptation and becoming more like Jesus. Obedience is the key to this.
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Imagine you are in a small boat in the middle of a vast ocean. You have no sail and you have no motor to power you. What will happen? Without the thrust of forward momentum you will drift. The power that will move you will be the current of the ocean. It will take you where it will take you. I want to suggest to you that without obedience to the Word of God and to the Holy Spirit you will not make any forward progress on your spiritual journey.
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Obedience is the outboard motor that will propel your forward. The Holy Spirit is the fuel in the motor. Obedience is the raising of the sail that will catch the wind, the Holy Spirit is the wind that will propel you forward against the forces of the current.. How mature are you? How many weeks old are you in the Kingdom? We make forward progress in the Kingdom by prayerful obedience to the revealed will of God. What is the revealed will of God? First and foremost it is the Word of God, the Scriptures. Secondly it is the still small voice of God, the Holy Spirit. And of course, one will never contradict the other, there will always be perfect harmony between the Holy Spirit and the written Word of God. He is the author.
Can you remember as a child, when you first discovered the power of a magnifying glass? I remember the first time I was able to start a fire with it. Harnessing the power of the sun. The magnify glass does not change the power of the sun, it intensifies the light that shines from the sun. You can cause a dormant match to burst into flames. You can melt an ice cube with it. Scientists can harness the power of the sun and create lasers that can cut through almost anything. The Holy Spirit is our magnifying glass. For those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit He causes the love of Jesus to explode in our heart.
He magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ to us. He causes the light of His love to set our hearts on fire. That concentrated power is aimed directly at you. One is powerful, a whole gathering is incredible. His grace becomes magnified in us and we weep because of it. His mercy is intensified in our consciousness and we cry out to Him. His intensity causes our own sin to be magnified in our conscience and we cannot bare it, under the power of conviction. Upon the crumbs of our bravery and obedience He shines this light and we stand as David stood against Goliath. When we speak with the intensity of this power men are stabbed in the heart and His word does not return void. A mere thimble of compassion in us becomes a mighty raging river by the power of the Holy Spirit. What absolute madness to think we could do anything without being endued with the power of the Holy Spirit.
With a magnifying glass, you need three things to make it burn, You need the glass itself, the person and the sun. If the sun is not shining then the glass is not working, it has nothing to intensify. Yet, with the Holy Spirit, the whole earth could be covered with clouds and darkness and gross darkness.We could find ourselves in the depths of the deepest dungeon or walking through the darkest valley, yet the Holy Spirit can magnify the light of Christ into our hearts under any conditions. Where could we flee from His Spirit and His magnified presence? If we ascended up to heaven, He is there. If we make our beds in hell, behold He is there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall His hand lead me, and His right hand shall hold me. Brothers and sisters, even the darkness is light to God. His glory, magnified by the Holy Spirit is all powerful.(Psalm 39)
There is a scripture that alludes to one who would hide Himself in hell to avoid God but that the hand of God would reach right into hell and pull that one out (Amos 9:2) If indeed the hand of God would reach into hell itself for judgment, what circumstances could you face where the light of the glory of God, magnified by the Holy Spirit, could not reach you? Could not penetrate the darkness of your situation? There are no such set of circumstances, glory to God. Far too often, the flesh is being controlled by it own magnifying glass and not the Holy Spirit. It magnifies our fears. It magnifies our insecurities. It magnifies the darkness that would come against us. The Holy Spirit intensifies the light, the enemy intensifies the darkness. What will be magnified in your life this day brothers and sisters?
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.(Rom 8:1)
The flesh presents the greatest danger, not when it is acting according to its nature, but when it rises up and defends us when we are wrongfully accused, or when we are sinned against. We know that the flesh wars against the spirit within us. The battle lies within. There are very obvious sins of the flesh that need no description, they are usually tied up in our appetites and our desires. And there is danger in this of course. Yet the greatest danger comes when we have been wronged and your flesh rushes forward to defend you. We need to stop right there, in the moment, and realize the flesh will take you down. It is no ally of yours. It rushes to defend you only because it knows that this is your weakest point, your desire to defend yourself. It will have its way in this less obvious action and take you down.
In Romans eight we are told that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. What is this “walking in the Spirit?” What does it mean to “not walk according to the flesh?” In Romans 7:17 and 20, Paul says something quite remarkable “It is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells in me.” A cursory reading of this would give the impression that Paul is making an excuse for his sin, a defense of it. Yet it is quite the opposite.He is mounting an attack on it. He identifies a “law in his members,’ which wars against the law in his mind. And so it shall be until this corrupt flesh of ours is raised in in-corruption. The willingness of our spirits, empowered by the Holy Spirit is the law of our minds. The Royal law which is written upon our hearts. There is no condemnation for those who walk according to the Spirit and the Lord has provided pardon for the weakness of the flesh.
Sin, although it remains is us through the flesh, is not triumphant, rather it is overcome and defeated, time and again by the willingness and desire of our spirit. This willingness and desire is a very real reflection of what God has given us by the Holy Spirit and those who are baptized in Him. The flesh yet wars but it well knows the war is lost. We see its power degraded as we continue to walk in obedience to the royal law written upon our hearts. It is slowly but surely starved and rendered weaker and weaker. And its final humiliation is death itself, yet the spirit lives on. The outer man is perishing, and it knows it, yet the inward man is being renewed daily. Glory to God. Remember this saints. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.(Rom 8:18) We often groan within ourselves as we await the full redemption of these weak vessels within which we journey. Yet don’t forget that in all these things we are more than conquerors. It is a given here in the scriptures that you are conquerors, yet we are told we are even more than that through Him who loves us. And nothing that exists, in this world or the next, can separate us from this great love.
Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him (Jas 1:12)
There is here a blessing for the saint who endures his or her trials. Not just here on this earth in the midst of your trials, which of course is supernatural and draws the attention of all who witness this to Christ, but also a crown of life in the next. And therefore, those who are tried and endure are those who are crowned with life. These promises are made to those who love Him. A sure sign of our love for Him is how we conduct ourselves in the midst of our trials and suffering and temptations.Β It is the measure of us saints. And love is the key. Without an overarching love for God and His Word, then there can be no enduring with joy in the midst of the fires and floods of life.
There are three broad categories of saints in this life, and if you have lived long enough you will have met them all. There is the man and woman who are ruled by their souls. Then there are those who are ruled by their heads. And finally there are those who are ruled from their hearts, the seat of their affections. Where does you spirit dwell saints? Does it roam the endless seas of the soul where it is driven by the winds of emotions? Typically driven onto the rocks or near enough to hear the ancient sirens call that would lure them away unto destruction? Or does it roam the endless corridors of the mind where the brain rules supreme. Each door in these endless corridors having to be opened in the futile task of trying to figure everything out. Or, does it dwell in the throne room of your humanity, the heart, where the throne of the Lord dwells?
The soulish man loves himself and is driven by his emotions, self love. Self love cannot endure trials, rather it cries out in anguish and torment. The man who is ruled by his head is driven by his intellect, self love. This self love cannot endure trials and torments for it cannot figure out the purpose of it all, and therefore ends up like the soulish man or he stoically endures and love is driven from him by circumstances. Those who are ruled from the heartΒ where Jesus rules supreme, and loving Him means obeying Him and seeing Him high and lifted up, endure with joy and to them there is promised the crown of life. We know that we have been called to confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts. The Spirit speaks to us, not in the soulish realm nor in the realms of the intellect, but via our spirit which dwells in the new heart that the Lord gave us. TheΒ royal law is written upon our new hearts. Only those who truly love Jesus will follow His commands and be His witnesses, and to them is promised the crown of life.
There is a tectonic shift taking place in the realms of spiritual darkness and the prophetic calendar. The plates and the under-girdings of the world as we know it are moving. I wrote last week about the word the Lord gave me about a singular disaster that is about to change everything. https://acalltotheremnant.com/2022/02/26/a-word-from-the-lord-a-singular-disaster/Β There is a new world order incubating, and following its birth it will come forth and be the deadliest enemy of the saints. All of the religions of the world will fall in line and form the great whore church.
In the run up to the WW1 we see rising and declining empires. When this happens huge wars typically follow. The 19th and 20th Century saw it all. There was the Napoleonic wars, where Napoleon sweeps across Europe, ultimately destroyed by the Russian winter. The American civil war where 600,000 were killed and slavery abolished. There was the Austrian Hungarian Empire (the old so called Holy Roman Empire) The Prussian and the Russian Empires. The British Empire of course and the Ottoman Turks. Towards the end of the 19th century we see many of these empires compete against each other while some were in decline and others were rising. At the same time the Industrial revolution was in full swing and science and technology were exploding. Automatic weapons of all kinds, and mechanized weapons were invented, and of course chemical warfare. All would be used in the coming war of the empires.
We face such a time once again. The empires are different yet in many ways still the same. We have what is left of the old Soviet Union. The Americans, The West and of course, China. Some are on the rise, well at least one. Most of the rest are in some stage of decline whether militarily, economically and certainly morally. A moral collapse has left them weak and vulnerable. We too in our age have seen a revolution, computers and technology has far outstripped anything that we saw in the last two centuries combined. Weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons and biological weapons. InformationΒ has risen to dizzying heights as one of the greatest of all weapons of all. Yet, just like our ghosts from the past, we will use all the weapons at our disposal as well. It is what we do, we are fallen.
When the smoke clears and the plates stop shifting, this world will have given itself over to a reprobate mind. War shall be openly declared on the saints, not the religious, the saints. 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) Only those who walk in the Spirit will survive spiritually intact. They may be martyred, but they will pass through the fire with Jesus. In order to find gold in the earth a massive amount of earth has to be moved. It is referred to as overburden. Heaven and earth shall be moved and the saints will be brought forth. The great sifting and separating. Fires and floods, we shall walk through them all with Christ in us the hope of glory. Stand strong saints, in the power of His might. He is coming soon.
Heb 5:8Β Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
The Lord Jesus Christ “learned obedience,” by the things He suffered. Though the Lord was never disobedient , He had never before wore the outer garments of flesh and walked the world as a man. And in that capacity, He learned in the Garden the full weight of His calling which was to bear the cross for all mankind. We must learn from this brothers and sisters. We must understand the nature of suffering and its value to us as eternal beings. It is easy enough to say that we would never deny our Lord, it is quite another to not deny our Lord in the flames of trial and tribulation and suffering.
Just as the Lord Jesus put on flesh to come to earth, so we must put off flesh to go to heaven. We know the instructions from the Lord, take up your cross, daily. If any man or woman would follow Him, they must also follow Him by learning obedience in the midst of suffering. It is, to coin a phrase, a required class. Those who suffer with Christ will reign with Him, It is a door we must pass through, it is for the testing and refining of our faith. Blessed are those who suffer for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. The valley of Achor is the valley of tears and it is a door of hope brothers and sisters. In the wilderness and in the midst of suffering He will come to us, He will visit the very depths of our souls.
In that place you will learn intimacy in ways you could never truly understand. And in the depths of this intimate relationship you will learn to stand. You will take on Christ and the armor of God as He meets you there. You will set your face like flint for the joy set before you, for as He endured then so shall you. He endured the cross and the shame and He sat down at the right hand of His Father. By the strength that comes through suffering and by the obedience that we learn in the midst of it, we shall be empowered to radical obedience. An obedience not born of passivity but rather an active obedience. The former is good, the latter is great. Let us learn together brothers and sisters so that we can say along with brother Job, even if He kills us yet shall we trust Him.
A Call To The Remnant 