The farmer in the natural engages in what is known as animal husbandry. He is involved in every aspect of the animals under his care. No matter the weather, he takes care of them. Night or day,Β the coldest winter or the hottest summer, in his own sickness and in health, for better or for worse he is there. He protects them not only from the weather but from predators and wolves. The Lord’s shepherds do the same. If you are a shepherd of souls then it does not matter if you are sick or tired, the sheep still need to be fed. It does not matter how the shepherd “feels,” the sheep still need to be fed. Such is the calling upon the lives of the servants of God. And into the heart of the shepherd is gifted a supernatural love for those under his care, the shepherd will gladly lay down his life for the sheep.
Feed my sheep. This is what the Lord says to Peter. It’s interesting that for the most part you don’t feed sheep as such. You do lead them to green pastures where they then feed. The leading is the feeding. That is what it means to feed the sheep, you lead them to green pastures. The Lord Jesus Christ is green pastures. His work in our lives is green pastures. His Word is green pastures. His fellowship is green pastures. His Holy Spirit is green pastures. The place before His throne is green pastures. Forgiveness is green pastures. Loving your enemies is green pastures. All of these things and so much more are food to the heart and the mind and the spirit of the sheep. And they have to be reminded and led to these places that feeds their souls. First and foremost led to Jesus. Pointed to Jesus. Reminded that He is the way the truth and the life. That He is preeminent. The green pastures could be forgiveness, forgiveness from God reminded to forgive their enemies , forgive their loved ones, forgive themselves. Even though they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, still the shepherd leads them to and makes them lie down in green pastures. This is feeding the sheep.
Psa 149:4 For the LORD takes pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.
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I was around the age of twenty the first time I ever flew on a plane.. As a boy growing up in Scotland, overcast skies were normal. In Scotland you can often go a month without seeing a blue sky. Imagine my surprise when we broke through the clouds and I discovered that there was an eternal and perpetual blue sky. Growing up with almost endless cloud cover had conditioned me. I reveled in this blue sky. I would never look at the clouds the same way again, for I now knew what lay just beyond them. Imagine the tragedy for saints who labor under a perpetual cloud cover. To never know the intimacy of God. To never, in a sense, see His smiling face.
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The barrier between God and us is more often than nought self made. We often forget the pleasure that God has in us. We forget that the whole purpose of our existence is for His will and for His good pleasure. Tozer suggests a few titles for the man made barriers that keep us from seeing the smiling face of God. He calls it a wall of obscurity. 1. Self will. 2. Ambition. 3. Fear. 4. Self love.. 5. Money. 6. Fear of people and what they think. There are more to be sure and each one mentioned would take a long time to expound, but you get the idea. Just one of them, or some combination of them, form a barrier between us and the smiling face of God. Almost all of our activity in our walk revolve around them and they are a major distraction to who we are and the God that loves us.
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I want you to ponder on this for a moment and do not confuse this with cheap grace. God loves His children, God loves you. His face towards you is smiling. He loves you. He saved you. He took the ashes of your life and He is making something beautiful out of it. His thoughts towards you are more numerous than the sands of the sea shore. He knows you by name and your name has been on His lips. The walls that you have erected that obscure the light of His glory shining down on you must come down. The wind of the Spirit must blow again in your life and that wind shall blow away the clouds. If you reach out your hand to Him He will take it. If you seek Him with all of your heart then you will stand under a beautiful blue sky with your hands raised toward heaven as you bask in the warmth of His love. Today saints, today is the day and now is the time.
2Co 4:9Β Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;Β
It’s sometimes hard to sleep when our thoughts have been taken captive by anything other than Jesus.Β Paul said that he was troubled on ever side but not distressed. Perplexed but not despairing. Persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. He had “learned,” to be content in every situation. No magic wand, but trust. He had walked through enough fires to have learned there was another in there he could see. He had been through enough waters to know the One who was holding back the sea. Taking our thoughts captive by lifting our eyes to Jesus. Anxiety is swept away and we are flooded with a peace that surpasses all understanding.
There can be no doubt that faith is forged in the fire and the tempering of our spirits happens when we are plunged into the waters. When the wind and the waves have done their work, and only that which was anchored remains, then we begin to see the saint come forth. Come forth from the fire, come forth from the storm, come forth from the grave clothes. Jesus stands and beckons us to “come forth.” When nothing should survive then we come forth and thrive by the power and the will and the good pleasure of the righteous hand of God. If you are in the fire today, do not cry out to God to quench the flames, rather pray that God Himself will sustain you in their midst. If the storm threatens to engulf you, do not pray to be rescued from it but rather to be sustained in its depths. If there is a mountain that stands in your way, do not pray for its removal but rather pray for the strength to scale its heights. In this way the mountain is removed and God is glorified and the saint lies down and sleeps in peace.
As I was walking and praying today, the Holy Spirit dropped this phrase into my spirit, “Debilitating Doldrums.” Now, that word “doldrums,” is an old sailors term for a geographical spot slightly north and slightly south of the equator in the Atlantic sea between Brazil and Africa. It is a corridor, if you like, that in days of old, if sailors found themselves there, they could be stranded for weeks because there is no wind there. The effects of the Doldrums are caused by solar radiation from the sun, as sunlight beams down directly on the area around the equator. This heating causes the air to warm and rise straight up rather than blow horizontally. The result is little or no wind, sometimes for weeks on end. Many sailors ran out of food and water and died there.
How does this relate to the saints? Oftentimes yesterdays failures causes in us a period of reflection and regret and remorse. None of that is wrong in and of itself and in fact is a vital part of who we are as God’s children. Yet, if we get stuck there, if this inner reflection goes beyond a point that is healthy, it takes the wind out of our sails. We shall find ourselves in the doldrums. The wind of the Spirit does not blow. Our spiritual resources begin to dry up. We become morose. The only solution for the sailors of old and for those of us who find ourselves there, is for the wind to blow. We must pray that the wind will blow again as we take our eyes of ourselves and look to skies.
If the wind begins to blow, no matter how small the breeze, remember this. You have to raise the sails to catch the wind. That is our part. An unhealthy inner refection with our eyes upon ourselves brought us into this place, and raising the sails once the wind blows will take us out. Remember the four Rs. 1.Reflection 2.Regret. 3.Remorse.4. Repentance. All of these make up the corridor of the doldrums. They all come because of the direct gaze of God upon our lives and our actions. And when they have found their proper place then the winds of forgiveness begin to blow. We have to accept that we are forgiven by God then we have to forgive ourselves. We must let His forgiveness carry us from that place so that we can continue the journey. Do not die in the doldrums, rather catch the wind and live.
2Sa 15:25Β And the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God back into the city: if I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his dwelling place.
What a tragic event that is unfolding in the life of David. He is no longer a younger man and yet faces civil war with none other than his own son. It must have been with the heaviest of hearts that David leaves the city. He had been through so much in his life and who could blame him if he thought “have I not had enough?” Yet we see none of that. David would not use the Ark, unlike Eli and his wicked sons, as some kind of magic talisman in times of desperation. David had learned well the lessons of what it means to take little thought for the honor of God.
No, David would simply rely upon God to restore him. And as the balanced man of God he was, he says “but if He says this: I have no delight in you, here I am. let Him do to me as seems good.” Oh how my heart longs for the saints to know and understand and trust the Lord in this manner. The will of God above all else. The voice of God that stills the seas. The commands of God that calls forth the dead. The heart of God that already promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us. Peace be still. David may have been desperately sad, but he was not desperate. He was already mourning the loss of his son. The prophet knew in his heart. He knew he would come again to Jerusalem. He knew his son would die. He knew that this momentary departure would be just that. What faith we see from the man after Gods own heart.
Do you trust Him in this manner saints? Whether you live or whether you die will you praise the Living God for no other reason than He is worthy? If your sickness be unto death will you still praise Him still? If He kills you will you yet trust Him? The idea brothers and sisters is that He is so much bigger than we even know. He is high and lifted up and sees your circumstances in their totality and at the very same time He is in the midst of them with you. Can you see the vastness of God? For in the context of that vastness are not our problems made small? In the midst of your great turmoil can you see that you will return to His dwelling place? You will. He will show you. Lift up your eyes and see.
Jud 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
This phrase “earnestly contend,” is a very rich and deep. The Greek word for it is “epagoΜnizomai.” Look within the word, can you see the word agonize? It is not about arguments and meaningless debates over theologies of men, its about agonizing within your very heart and soul over what is true and what is not. There is a diligence in searching the Word of God and letting the Holy Spirit speak to you in the profound simplicity of how it is presented to us. God forbid that we would change the Word or add to it or take away from it. Have you agonized over where you stand and why? Is there all diligence in you in these matters? Do you not believe you will be called to account on these matters?
Paul tells the Thessalonians that they know he was bold to speak to them about the faith, the gospel, in “much conflict.” (1 Thess 1:2) Here the word conflict in the Greek is “agoΜn.” There is an agony of heart and soul and spirit when one is involved with the faith and the Gospel. It is not simply some debate or a match up of wills and intellect. No, rather it is of life and death. The truth. That very substance that flows through the veins of every saint. It is our life-blood. Jesus Himself. Every single martyr down through the ages, whether they contended against the errors of a Roman church or a Protestant world, agonized in this contest between light and darkness. They could not relent, for upon the Word of Truth and the way of God was their very life. It was no longer they that lived but Christ that lived within them.
Jude tells us that certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. He likened them to the angels who did not keep their first estate, beings who wanted power and influence rather than live in the magnificent humble shadow of our glorious King. These men, Jude says were clouds without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Jude reminds them that they were foretold by the Apostles about such men, wolves and false prophets.
These are men who do not have the Spirit of God according to Jude. Recognize them saints. Build yourself up in the faith, with diligence praying in the Holy Spirit. Discern between who can be reached and who cannot in these matters. It requires the wisdom and the discernment of God. Stay within the safe harbor of love and mercy. Discern between the weak or the wilful, the Holy Spirit knows. He leads and He guides and He knows the hearts of men. If the Holy Spirit resides within you. If you have received the love of the truth, none of this will be optional. The agony is in direct proportion to the glory. People will advise you to stay quiet, keep your head down, stay of the radar. None of these things are possible on the battlefield that the Lord Himself has called you to. Stand strong saints and embrace the agony and the glory.
A number of years ago I came across the story of the Decian persecution of Christians while I was doing research for a book I was writing. I did not include this in the book but it is interesting to consider the facts. Decian was the Roman Emperor in 250 ad. He issued an edict that required everyone in the Roman empire to perform a sacrifice. The sacrifice was to be made to the Roman gods, and also included a loyalty oath towards his rule as Emperor. (See above image) The sacrifice had to be carried out before a Roman magistrate who would then sign a certificate which would allow them to carry on with whatever business they were involved with. This certificate would enable them to buy or sell.
The particular region I was studying was Carthage. It was expected that there would be great resistance to this from the Christian community and indeed this was part of the motivation for the decree in the first place. Imprisonment and death were the penalties for those who refused to participate in the sacrifice. The Carthaginian authorities settled on the days that the city was to participate. They were totally taken by surprise by the large numbers of βChristians,β who rushed to βget their certificate.β They had to extend the time they had allotted for the sacrifices and certificate signing.
Out of the group that refused to be involved in sacrificing to gods, many were martyred, others were imprisoned and still others went into hiding. Interestingly, at the same time as this βempire wide,β persecution, a plague had broken out and was killing up to five thousand Romans per day. This only added to the hatred of Christians as they were deemed to be in some way responsible for this. And so, when this particular persecution ended, there was a great deal of tension between those who had stood their ground for Jesus and those who had capitulated in order to save themselves.
This was not the first time this had happened, nor would it be the last. The Diocletian persecution would be the most intense staring at around 300ad and last for around a decade. Again the spit would happen. A large majority would capitulate and deny the faith, the smaller minority would be killed, imprisoned or flee. When the smoke cleared from this latest persecution, the larger group that had capitulated to the state would be the group favored by Constantine. No surprise that the Emperor would choose the group who he could count on to bow the knee to him and the State. That group were the Catholics. The minority group, the group that had refused to hand over their scriptures to the State and to bow the knee, were known as βDonatists.β They refused to acknowledge anyone who had capitulated to Rome as a Christian. For this they were hunted down and killed.
I would just like to say that some things never change. There is and always has been a large group, a majority group, within the world that identifies itself as Christian, that will not βstand in the evil day.β It is such an evil day that separates the sheep from the goats. It is the storm that tests the foundations of the house. It is not what a man or woman calls themselves that counts for anything, it is who they actually are. Those who have received the love of the truth, who are genuinely born again, will stand in that day. They will be martyred, they will be imprisoned or they will flee. What they will not do, what they could never do, what they have never done, is to deny their Lord. As it was, so it always shall be until that glorious day when Christ returns.
The present position of Christ in the gospel churches may be likened to that of king in a limited constitutional monarchy (think of Great Britain) The king, sometimes depersonalized by the term “the Crown,” is in such a country no more than a traditional rallying point, a pleasant symbol of unity and loyalty much like a flag or a national anthem. He is lauded, feted and supported, but his real authority is small. Nominally he is head over all, but in every crisis someone else makes the decisions. On formal occasions he appears in his royal attire to deliver the tame, colorless speech put into his mouth by the real rulers of the country. The whole thing may be no more than good-natured make believe, but is rooted in antiquity, it is a lot of fun and no one wants to give it up (Tozer)
This is a quote from the last piece Tozer ever wrote. It is a confession to being part of a system that had relegated Christ to being no more than a figurehead and that same system had robbed Jesus of His authority within their gatherings. In Great Britain there is a Queen. She and her family survive within what is known as a constitutional monarchy. She has no real power. The power all resides within Parliament and the Prime Minister. These of course are elected positions, the people choose. The Queen’s main role is cutting ribbons, launching ships and drawing tourists. She also is a symbol of stability, but in the end, she could be rejected from even this limited role if the people so chose.
This is Tozer’s argument. The average church in America has relegated Jesus to a limited role. Rather than a Prime Minister, we have a senior pastor or minister. Jesus is acknowledged as Lord, of course, but it practice He has been relegated and man has taken the position. The Holy Spirit, for the most part, has no role within the average American church. The Word of God is readily dismissed in favor of tradition and customs. The Protestant world readily criticizes the Catholic mass (as well they should) as nothing more than the same thing repeated every week. (laying aside the obvious erroneous centerpiece of the Eucharist) And yet, for the most part, you also know exactly what to expect every week at your local church.
Tozer blames the following two reasons for this disaster…..1. The power of custom, precedent and tradition within older religious groups. These, like gravitation, affect every particle of religious practice withing the group, exerting a steady and constant pressure in one direction. Of course direction is toward conformity to the status quo. Not Christ but custom is Lord. And the same thing has passed over into the other groups such as the full gospel tabernacles, the holiness churches, the pentecostal and fundamental churches and the non-denominational churches found everywhere throughout the North American continent.
The second cause is the revival of intellectualism among the evangelicals. This, if I sense the situation correctly, is not so much a thirst for learning, rather a desire for a reputation of being learned. Our Evangelical faith ( which I believe to be the true faith of Christ and His Apostles) is being attacked these days from many different directions. IN the Western world the enemy has forsworn violence. He no longer comes against us with sword and fire, he now comes smiling, bearing gifts. He raises his eyes to heaven and swears that he too believes in the faith of our fathers , but his real purpose is to destroy that faith, or at least modify it to such an extent that it is no longer a supernatural thing it once was. (Tozer-The Waning Authority of Christ in the churches-pages 14-16)
Tozer lays this out almost 70 years ago, on his death bed so to speak. The old prophet saw in one last sweep of history, what had become of the professing churches. Can I say brothers and sisters, it has degraded so much more so in the last 70 years. If the authority of Jesus was waning 70 years ago in the churches, it is all but gone now. So the question becomes “what must we do.” Tozer asks that very question in the last paragraph and I will leave you with his suggestions……….
What, then, are we to do? Each one of us must decide and there are at least three possible choices. One is to rise up in shocked indignation and accuse me of irresponsible reporting. Another is to nod in general agreement with what is written here but take comfort in the fact that there are exceptions and we are among the exceptions. The other is to go down in meek humility and confess that we have grieved the Holy Spirit and dishonored our Lord in failing to give Him the place His Father has given Him as Head and Lord of the Church. Either the first or the second will but confirm the wrong. The third, if carried out to its conclusion, will remove the curse. The decision lies with us.
There is the presence of God to be found in glorious worship, the kind of worship that lifts your spirit. It can lift up the head and invigorate the heart and fill you full of joy and you leave strengthened. This is good worship. Yet there is another kind of presence of God in worship, the kind of presence that there seems to be a famine of throughout the land. The first kind of presence we spoke of lifts your heart, the second kind of presence invades every part of who you are. It falls from heaven like a heavy dew, heads are lowered and hands are raised. All becomes quiet. One barely breathes as the Spirit of God slowly descends down through our heads into our hearts and down to the very soles of our feet, and the ground upon which we stand becomes Holy ground.
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The first kind of presence uplifts us, the second changes us fundamentally. As living waters pour into us then it rises up like a great river that is so full that it overflows its banks. The banks themselves begin to crumble and fall into this river of pure life as it swells up and floods every part of who we are. The landscape is being changed by this flood, the very topography of our lives is being flattened by its power and everything that is not securely rooted to its foundations is simply swept away. Changed forever. And when the flood recedes we are left with a glorious afterglow. As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, I wonder, do our hearts pant after this kind of encounter.
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The Lord Himself does not need professional worship teams. He does not need people to encourage us to stand up, jump up and down and raise our hands. In the Welsh revival two young women singing either acapella or simply backed by a piano typically sang “Here is love, vast as the ocean.” And there was love, in the very midst of them, vast as the ocean, flooding the hearts and minds of all who attended. Brothers and sisters, in all our modernity, what have we lost? In the program of churches and the professional class of worship leaders and pastors we have lost the simplicity of it all. And in the losing of it we now have to entertain the people. Spirit led worship is exactly that, it is Spirit led.
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In work we have a routine. In life we have a routine. Prisoners in prison have a routine. Oftentimes we are slaves to the routine, it is what gets us through life. Yet, there is nothing routine about the Holy Spirit of the Living God. He is dynamic and you can never know what way the wind will blow next. Have we sold our souls for a routine? Routine in the home, routine at work, routine at church. Routine people do not change the world. Routine people do not do wage war on the battle-fields of life. The Spirit of God is dynamic and those filled with His “dynamis,” change the environment around them because the environment inside them has been filled to capacity and is overflowing its banks. Lord fill us again to overflowing with the kind of presence that invades every part of who we are.
I grieve when I come into the average fundamental evangelical gospel church. There’s so little of the sense of God in it. You never bow your head with reverence unless you have deliberately disciplined yourself to do it because there is not a sense of sacredness. …We have secularized worship, the Gospel and even Christ. I say that it is a great tragic loss and no great man can can come out of that kind of thing. God may have to sweep it away from us and start somewhere else. (Tozer)
I wonder saints. Do we grieve as Tozer grieved? Perhaps his very grieving over this issue is why God used him so mightily and still uses him? Perhaps we do not grieve the loss of His presence, His glory, His sacredness because we have never experienced any of it? We have never had a burning bush moment like Moses. Or we have never been awestruck by the glory and the majesty described by Isaiah. Or we have never had the hand of God touch our lips like Jeremiah? Ezekial saw the heavens open and had visions of God. All of these men suffered in direct correlation to the glory that they themselves had experienced. The list of these kinds of encounters is endless in the OT and the NT.
Tozer’s recommendation for the Christian church today is to “call a moratorium on all activity and focus on coming into worship until the fire descends and engulfs us in the sacredness of His presence.” Tomorrow is the first Sunday of the New Year. How many churches will be preaching this kind of message? Or rather will we hear the endless so called prophecies of how this coming year is going to be the best year ever? I am afraid that in almost one hundred percent of the gatherings that it shall be the latter. There will be no crying out to God in great grief over the lack of His presence. No mourning over the glory never experienced.
What Moses was before the fire experience was nothing compared to what he was afterward. The great man used of God was created in front of that burning bush experience. And that fire never went out for the rest of Moses life. The experience was absolutely a crisis for Moses (Tozer) Moses had to leave Egypt behind. Forty years of laboring under the stars and among the sheep. The glory’s of Pharaoh’s court just a distant memory. The world he knew long gone. Perhaps we have way too much of the world in us? For most of us it’s not a distant memory but a present reality.Β I wonder is we care more for our traditions and our institutions than we do for the majesty and the glory of God experienced. If we have to choose one or the other (and I say that we do) I wonder how you will choose? It seems sure that God must, as Tozer spoke “sweep it all away.”
Ecc 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God has done from the beginning to the end.
Now there is a thing, He has set eternity in the hearts of men. What could that mean? The verse begins with “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Saints, if we could get a hold of that truth then it would transform our lives in ever way. Everything is beautiful in its time to those who bow to the God of all eternity. If I am a sculptor and take a block of stone, then the block of stone is beautiful to me because I know what is going to become of it. A canvas with just a few paint strokes on it is beautiful in its time because the artist has already seen in his heart what it shall be. Every stroke is a vital part of the whole.
Your circumstances are beautiful in its time if you shall trust the Lord your God in the midst of it. Every aspect of your life is one more thread in the tapestry that God already sees. Can you bow to that? You, dear saint, are beautiful, right now, today. The Lord already knows what He has planned for you and at this very moment you are in the midst of it. This eternity is the gulf between what is now and what was and what is to come. Like the ocean, the beginning from the end is shrouded by the horizon, but the end is already there, This is eternity in your heart. It creates the need for you to trust in the Lord your God and equips you for faith. Trust in the Lord your God this day and see the beauty in it.
Dan 12:7 ….and when the power of the holy people have been completely shattered all these things shall be finished.
In Daniel chapter 12 we see the prophecy of the end times. by the angel. There will be a “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.” At the end of all of that there shall be a great deliverance for “everyone who is found written in the book.” Yet first there will be a “complete shattering.” The identifying aspects of this time, according to the angel is “many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.” The phrase here used in the scriptures “to and from,” means to travel. So, a time when travel is greatly increased and knowledge is greatly increased. I would like to suggest that this is the time in which we live.
All of this prophecy takes place on a river bank. One angel on one side, the second angel on the other side and the “man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river.” This “man,” is certainly Christ. And the question asked of the Christ is “how long.” And we see that the sign of the end of the ages is much knowledge, much travel and a complete shattering of the holy people whose names are written in the book. The saints are the holy people. The book is the book of life and now is the season. In Matt 24:3 we hear this similar question asked of Jesus “Tell us when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age.” The disciples are asking this question of the man who they had personally saw walking above the waters.
And in verse nine Jesus says that they “will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my namesake.” In Rev 13:7 we are told that at the end of ages “it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them……….all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world.” The power of the holy people will be completely shattered. The devil shall prevail against them….for a time. In that time saints, this is when the faith that our lives are founded upon and the freedom that we have been granted, will be tested.
I am writing this to the overcomer’s. To the holy people of God.To those who will endure to the end, the very end. The wisdom of God shall cause you to “shine, like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.” (Dan 12:3) The man of Linen stood above the waters. The Lord Jesus stood above the waters. When the storm was raging and the waters very tumultuous, Christ was above it and He calls us to rise above the stormy waters in faith. It seems certain that Isaac would die and Abraham’s vision and promise from God would be shattered, but not so. It seemed certain that the Son of man was dead and buried and the promises of God dead and buried with Him, but not so. It will seem certain that the Holy people and the power of God is defeated, but not so. Wait, saints, wait…..wait….overcome….endure….be refined in the fires of affliction and shine like the stars in heaven, for the Son of man shall find faith on this earth when He returns.
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luk 18:7-8)
Freedom is totally unconfined
And surely break the cords that bind
It set me adrift in the midst of an endless sea
It swallowed and consumed me, now I am surely free
Freedom is the reason that He came from up above
Freedom is His work and the consequences of
The Fathers love and His desire to set the captives free
And every saint in all the earth shall surely all agree
That freedom is the narrow path as wide as the Fathers heart
And freedom is the cords of love that never comes apart
It is the mighty rushing wind, an unstoppable incoming tide
It is the depths of the Fathers heart, the place where I shall hide
The Kingdom of God, my heart cries out, and calls it freedom land
It is the solid Rock in a sinking world, where I forever stand
It is the air I breath, each beat of my heart, which He gave unto me
It is nail pierced hands and wounded side that set my spirit free
Calvary alone attests to the work that Christ Himself has done
And to freedoms glorious victory that He alone has won
Who could have ever known that to nail Christ to a tree
Would destroy the power of bondage and set the captive free
Isa 22:13 Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!
In the beginning of this chapter we see these first words “The burden against the Valley of vision.” What is this valley of vision? It is Jerusalem, surrounded by mountains and filled with prophets. A once bustling prosperous city, now quieted by the march of the Assyrians. The streets are no longer bustling with commerce, everyone has taken to their rooftops to contemplate their fate as the Assyrians devastate the surrounding regions and other nations. The valley of vision would soon become the valley of decision. What would they decide? Would they weep and mourn for the coming judgement or would they throw all caution to the wind and “eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” This is the cry of mockers down through the ages and when a nation or nations take up that mantle then the end is surely in sight.
Paul says in 1 Cor 15:32 “If the dead do not rise let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” If there is no resurrection, if there be no eternal life, if Christ was but a man who died, then this life and this life alone is all that matters. And if that were true then why would the inhabitants of the earth not make every attempt to live their best lives now? Can I argue dear saint that this is exactly the state of the world? And what a great tragedy that in a nation of vision, meaning a nation that knows the truth, that has been taught the truth, that has indeed been blessed by the truth, that this very nation would be the foremost nation in eating and drinking and being merry for they see no eternal tomorrow.
Isa 22:2 “Your slain men are not slain by the sword.” Imagine the horror of being dead but not being dead. It is said that the brave man dies one but the coward dies a thousand times. Our nation is a nation of slain men. Fear stalks the streets. A virus has shut down our commerce andour industry but its not really the virus at all that has shut the wheels of commerce down, it is the fear that stalks men’s hearts, they die every day. Cowards led by cowards. Men without faith, men given over to the world, men who should know better. The Assyrians drew ever closer to Jerusalem and commerce began to dry up and food became scarce in the cities. Can you see it saints? Can you see the hearts of men today?
Now after all of this men should contemplate their fate. They should call out to God. They should fall on their faces in mourning and weeping and repentance. The should decide. They have the Word, they have the Truth among them, now, shall they weep? God calls for weeping and for mourning but strangely He hears joy and gladness. Not the joy and gladness of a people at rest and at peace with God, but the kind of joy that comes when men have thrown of God and made a decision about their fate. They shall eat, they shall drink and the drink will cause the fool to be merry even as that same fool stands under the shadow of the gathering clouds.
Joel 2:1 Blow a ramΒs horn in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of Jehovah comes, for it is near at hand.
So brothers and sisters, do likewise. Blow the trumpet. In JoelΒs day they lost everything to a devastating plague of locusts. Not an ordinary plague, a devastating supernatural plague designed to call the people to repentance. In the last 20 years we have seen 9/11, a tsunami that was unknown in our times or our history books, Hurricane Katrina and then a financial meltdown that took the world to the brink. We have had wars in the middle east and now a pandemic. In JoelΒs day they had just over 30 years before they were invaded and destroyed. They did not heed this warning from the prophet or even the judgment. They managed to get back on their feet again, just in time to be destroyed. We are laboring under the same illusion, just trying to get back to “normal.’ The decision is this. Weep and mourn and cry out to the Living God, or eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. You shall surely die for all men die, but the fool dies eternally.
Could the Chinese be the Assyrians? Could America be swept up in civil war? I hear the howls of protest. “We have fortified our walls, we are too strong.” “We are far too sophisticated to ever again be destroyed by civil war.” Wrong on both accounts. There is no “fortifications,’ that cannot be brought down. Isa 19:14Β The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Even now the hearts of Americans are turned on each other. How much more would it take for them to tear themselves apart? It is mere pride that says these things can never be. Think of how it staggered the minds of the Apostles to learn that not one stone would be left un-turned in the destruction of Jerusalem. And Jesus wept. It is better for men to weep over their own fate for in the weeping they may find a way back to God. But when God weeps for man……woe is man. Decide today whom you will serve.
1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
A singular focus saints. Do you have a singular focus? Is that focus the Lord Jesus Christ and Calvary? If we ever get away from this singular focus, and I would argue that almost all of Christendom has, then we are in a world of trouble. Jesus and the cross and the resurrection is the beginning, the middle and the end of the story. The modern day minister or pastor does not present himself in weakness and fear and much trembling. Why not? Well, we would despise him if he did. Rather he must be confident and self assured. He must have the ability to use persuasive words. This is the power of men but it is not the power of God.
There is a hidden wisdom of God that has been directly created to speak to the hidden aspects of man. It cannot be adequately described, it can only be experienced. There are no words to describe what it means for a man to communicate, by the power of the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Only the Spirit of God knows the things of God. And therefore only by the Spirit of God can we know anything of God. The wisdom of God has been expertly wrapped up in what the world considers to be foolish. It is therefore true that those of the world cannot discover such wisdom outside of the Spirit of God Himself who highlights, promotes and convicts all men everywhere of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Are you strong in the eyes of the world or in the eyes of your congregation or those you gather with? Do you speak with persuasive words? Or are you determined in your spirit to not know anything save Jesus and Him crucified? This is foolishness to the world saints. This is foolishness to your average congregation. Do they not rather wish to hear the wisdom of man? Tell us how to live. Tell us what God says about this, tell us what God says about that. Where are the men with the singular obsession with Jesus Christ our Lord and Him crucified? Therein lies all the solutions to every problem you will ever have. The cross. The further the cross recedes into the background, the further we get from victorious living and the more we rely on the wisdom of man which only takes us still further away. God in heaven help us to determine to know nothing other than Christ and Him crucified.
Heb 10:16Β This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;Β
There are two broad categories of people within the realms of Christendom. One group is very large and the other fairly small. The smaller group are the folks that the above scripture alludes to. The other group are religious, with all its many facets. The good, the bad and the ugly but of course in the end its all darkness to those who cannot discern the voice of God. Those who cannot be moved by His Spirit, who do not have the laws of God written upon their hearts and their minds will always stumble and become the antagonist towards those who are so moved.
Let me give you a hypothetical. Abraham has his son of promise. Oh how long he waited. He and Sarah finally had what they knew that God had promised. Of course Abraham had told others of this child and the promises associated with him and the nation that would be born in him. And one day, seemingly out of nowhere, God tells Abraham to take his son and kill him. Now imagine what his closest friends would make of that. Imagine what his own wife would make of that. Can you hear their arguments? “Abraham you’re mad. God would never contradict Himself. You have misheard. Under no circumstances must you do this.”
And here we have the difference between those who know the voice of God and those who merely know truth. It is all true what they would say. Isaac was certainly the child of promise. Everything that God had promised Abraham would come to pass. Yet Abraham knew the voice of God. And in the end, those who shall be led by His Spirit will know the voice of God, for His very will is written upon our hearts. We must obey God even when we do not fully understand. There are plenty of men who only know the truth as it is written, but it has not be written upon their hearts.
The Holy Spirit is not leading them and guiding them and inspiring them to know and understand the words written. Outside of the Holy Spirit there is but a two dimensional understanding of the Scriptures. The revelation of the word of God can only be discerned by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Everything else is religion. Common wisdom would say that Isaac should not be taken up the hill. If Abraham had not taken his son up the hill then he would not be the father of faith. Yet, as always, the just shall live by faith. And the deaf? They shall stumble in the darkness.
Zec 4:6 Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts.
This is such a well known Scripture, probably quoted millions of times a year around the world. How much consideration or perhaps even knowledge of the context of this Scripture is brought to bear when this is quoted? The context of course is the vision of the lamp-stand and the two olive trees. The lamp is vitally connected to the two olive trees. While the connection remains, the lamp can never burn out. Are we not vitally connected to the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit? No lamp has any real value without the light that it produces. Our power and our might cannot light the lamp, only the oil can.
What happens to the lamp when it is disconnected from the source of oil? The light goes out. What happens to you saint when you are disconnected from the Holy Spirit? I hear the howls of protest at the mere thought that somehow we can disconnect ourselves from the Holy Spirit, or that we can quench the Holy Spirit in our lives. King David famously cries out in psalm 51 “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” We can quench the Holy Spirit in our lives, we can disconnect ourselves so to speak when we sin and when we hold onto that sin.
Let me give you this example. As a married couple has there been times when you and your spouse have not spoken? You are still married, still living in the same house, probably still sleeping in the same bed, but not talking. A “distance,” has been created. Even in bed, staying to your own side of the bed. A emotional distance, a physical distance a break in the relationship. Yet, still married, still cohabiting. So, this “distance,” is the problem. The Scriptures recognize “distance.” We are told to “draw near,” to God and He will draw near to us, is that not right? In that very same scripture (James 4:8) James tells us to “cleanse,” our hands and purify your hearts. Humble yourself, he says, in the sight of the Lord and He shall raise you up.
Humility is the key to vital connection. You cannot be vitally connected to God and walk in pride. A man and a wife cannot come back together again until someone humbles themselves and asks for forgiveness. Only then does the oil begin to flow. Only then does the darkness flee as the Light begins to break forth. Only then does the communication begin afresh and closeness is reestablished and intimacy is restored. Only by the Spirit of God can there be light. Only by the Spirit of God can there be communication, and most importantly, only by the Spirit of God can there be intimacy. When the oil is flowing, every obstacle is laid low. Not even a mountain can stop you, for it shall crumble before you with shouts of grace, grace, marvelous grace!!!!
Haggai 2:3a Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory?
Here we see in Haggai a reference to the “second,” temple, the one that would be rebuilt. The first temple had been destroyed and Israel was taken captive to Babylon. Now, several decades later, a “remnant,” had returned. When given the opportunity, about a third left the comfort and the relative luxury of Babylon to return to Jerusalem. They of course found the temple broken down and it was in their hearts to rebuild it. Most of them knew nothing of the glory of the temple in its original splendor. They had heard tales of course, but the reality of what they found and the hostile nature of the territory meant that for almost twenty years, little to no progress was made in the rebuilding of the temple. The people were too busy living their own lives and attending to their own house-holds to attend to the temple.
In our day, brothers and sisters, we too have a remnant. We too live in a hostile environment. We are often too busy to be invested in the Body of Christ, the true and living temple. Who among us can remember a day when you walked into a gathering and the presence of the Lord was so evident that you dare not speak, not even whisper? There was an “awareness,” of His glory. There was no need for dimmed lights and smoke machines. His presence compelled you to your knees. Nobody had to tell you to raise your hands, they simply took their rightful place, aloft and surrendered to the glory. There was a “holy heaviness,” where one could barely lift their heads. Tentatively a song would rise from a lowly saint and then the whole congregation would join in as waves of glory would wash over them until a word would come forward, a testimony, a scripture and the waves would continue to come.
The Lord says to the people of Haggai “so my Spirit remains among you, do not fear…..once more I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all the nations………and I will fill this temple with glory….the silver is Mine and the gold is Mine…..the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former….. and in this place I shall give peace.” (Haggai 6-9) God is raising up a temple here in these last days, a temple built without human hands and He shall fill this temple with such glory that it shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Out of this temple shall flow the knowledge of the glory of God. His peace shall rest upon His people even as they are surrounded by hostility. The greater glory of the Lord as manifested to men still remains to be seen. We, brothers and sisters, are living stones in that very temple. Rejoice and be glad today for the Bridegroom cometh for the Bride and the temple is being made ready.
The Body of Christ, has not changed down through the centuries, always at her core she has been called to be a witness, an eye-witness to God’s glory. This is the essential heartbeat of Gods Remnant bride and always will be. In this role she has been used as a sanctuary, the sanctuary, the Holy of Holyβs. She is a tabernacle in the wilderness, she is Gods temple here on earth. At the same time she has always been despised by the religious spirit because she speaks truth to power. In these last days God says in His word through His prophet Zechariah that β In that last day a fountain shall be opened up for the house of David,β and God Himself says again through the prophet that ( speaking of Christendom) βTwo thirds in it shall be cut off and die. But one-third shall be left in it. I will bring the one-third through the fire, I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say β This is my people.β (Zec 13:8-9)
And so we see that a fountain shall be opened in that day for the house of David. Can you imagine how welcome a fountain would be in the midst of a dry and thirsty land, a land racked with drought and famine? I want us, as we consider the role of the remnant, the Body of Christ, in the last days, to look at two men of God and see what parallels we can draw. Letβs look at Noah and as we look letβs think about the context of the time in which he lived. Itβs a time and a place of great wickedness and as we know, there would only be a tiny fraction saved. Noah is commissioned to build an ark over a long period of time. Now, we know that Noah faced ridicule and scorn. First of all what he was building have never been built before. Secondly, rain had never fallen from the sky and the notion that the whole earth would be covered by a flood was preposterous to all who lived then.
Every day Noahβs hammer could be heard, every day the ark took shape and was rising up. The continuous hammering would have been a great source of irritation to all around him. Noah would have to keep building despite the ridicule and the scorn and the anger because the rain was surely coming and he was being obedient to his calling. We too as Gods remnant people have to keep true to what the Lord has called us to. We are also in the ark business. There was one place of salvation when the rains of judgment began to fall, it was the ark. Can I put it to you brothers and sisters that the remnant church of God is Godβs ark built by the hands of Jesus.
With the judgments beginning to fall, with the beginning of the birth pangs, it will become apparent that God has a people who have not bowed the knee to Baal. God is getting ready to reveal His ark by bringing judgment and allowing the rise of the anti-christ. This ark will be a witness to the glory of God and His way of escape. This ark will be used as a last chance for the un-redeemed of the world to be saved before final judgment. This ark will be revealed to the world by isolation and persecution, all of the world will see this ark and they will be without excuse when that day comes, for this ark is the glory of Christ here on the earth and He reveals Himself through what He has built.
Now lets consider Joseph and consider the context and the back-drop of his day. Here we have Joseph who has been called to save a remnant. βAnd God sent me before you to save a Remnant in the earth and to save your life by a great deliverance.β ( Gen 45:7) Before Joseph could do this he had to be scorned and ridiculed by his own. Because of dreams and visions that scorn turned to anger and hatred. He was then rejected and sold into slavery. He becomes a slave and then is wrongfully accused and ends up in prison, seeming forgotten and forsaken. Yet, God of course had never left him. This is part of the remnant path. Many will relate even as they read this. Yet God had not forsaken Joseph and even in prison Joseph moved in the supernatural and he found Godβs favor. He was able to interpret dreams and visions and this would lead him to see that a great famine was coming upon the land. He was able to make provisions that would save βA Remnant in the earth.β
Can you see the pattern behind this brothers and sisters? Can you relate to the suffering and the rejection and the seeming forsakeness that Joseph surely felt as he languished in the prison, far from home and separated from everything he knew? The pattern is that when there is great judgment coming upon the land, God has a people or a person whom He will send ahead to enable whoever will, to escape that judgment. God has created such a vehicle in His remnant. And they too, just like Joseph, must be despised and rejected by the very oneβs they have been sent to save. Of course, this is the divine pattern. We see our Lord Jesus walk down this path. He came from the glories of heaven and the right hand of the Father, emptying Himself and humbling Himself in order to walk amongst those who He had come to save, yet He became despised and reject, tortured and killed.
And now with the final judgment fast approaching, the ark which Jesus has been building for 2000 years is almost ready. Godβs remnant church from every possible background and across all denominational lines ( artificial walls built by men and not by God) down through the last 2000 years have been scorned, ridiculed hated and despised and hunted down and killed and almost all of this was done by β their own.β Their own being people who would profess God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. Yet God in His mercy will reach out and continue to reach out through His Body while there is yet life in them. A witness until the very end. A faithful Body and a people without excuse.
The Body of Christ is everywhere. It is in every village, every town , every city and every nation on the earth. There are countless millions of Gods own children around the world. For the most part they are swallowed up in Christendom with its multiplicity of divisions and man made walls. Yet, the closer to Christβs return the more and more difficulty the Body of Christ will find within the dwelling places and kingdoms of men. Could a saint really stay within the confines of any organisation that has corrupted itself with the world? This will be the ever increasing pressure that will be brought to bear on the saints in the coming days. Only the individual saint can answer this question for his her self. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit must be a lamp unto our feet. Too many menβs discernment comes from what other men have spoken. As the darkness increases our need for the light that shines forth from the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit who gives us not only revelation but inspiration only becomes greater and greater.
We have a God who will never leave us nor forsake us. We must trust Him with our whole hearts. No matter how scary things become, in fact because of what is to come, we must trust Him with our whole hearts and follow His lead even if we cannot see the bigger picture. The Word of God and His doctrines were written to be understood by even the simplest among us, in fact God delights in confounding the wise by the simple. The doctrines of men are generally complicated and confusing. Stay with the Word, lean upon the Holy Spirit for understanding and insight and revelation of Christβs glory and do all of this with your whole heart and you will not go far wrong. He did not leave us as orphans, praise God, we have a Father in heaven whom we can call Abba and He will lead and guide His children through not only good times but through the darkest valleys and the narrowest portions of the path that leads back home.
A Call To The Remnant 