Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Posted by appolus on February 12, 2021
This is my desire Lord, my bright and Morning star. To come to where you are, not to linger from afar but to press on in to you. Outside of thy presence is to wander in an aimless world that has purpose without any true purpose. You are my shining north star that ever leads me on. my hope when hope is gone, my reason to exist, my power to resist. This world with all its shining lights is forever lost to me, a loss that has set me free, taken from forever nights to walk with you in the cool of the day.
To thee I have given my all, you were my altar and I heard you call. And now I wonder at the grace that set me free, and marvel that one so blind can actually see what was there all along right in front of me, thy glorious face. The brightness of thy expression renders the sun to but a flickering candle in the wind. The vast expanse of ocean to but a single tear when thou art near. Consumed by one who once was far, my Lord my God my bright and Morning Star.
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Posted by appolus on February 12, 2021
Hab 2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
There is a great multitude today who are desperately hungry and thirsty. All over the world the people dwell in great darkness and the darkness increases every day. Hell has opened up its vaults and is beginning to spew forth its contents with increasing speed and urgency because it knows its time is short. There is a desperate darkness coming and it is coming at us with alarming speed. Yet just as in the time of Noah, the world is ignorant of the impending disaster about to befall it.
Like the children of Israel when Jesus says “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to her, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!” Jesus wept because He knew that less than forty years after His death and resurrection that the whole system would come tumbling down. The Temple would be destroyed and the Israelite’s would be no more as a nation and they had absolutely no idea.
In those days, it was unimaginable that their Temple, their country, their way of life would be swept away and that they would be scattered to the four corners of the world. It is equally unimaginable to so many that the church system as we know it today, will be completely consumed by Babylon and turn on God’s remnant children. Yet brothers and sisters, that is exactly what is coming as this great Babylonian whore church evolves and worships the anti-Christ. And despite all this, God’s children will shine brightly in the darkest days the world has ever known. Full of the Holy Spirit and walking in the presence of God.
A blood bought remnant people whose desperate desire is to follow Him to Calvary and beyond. Their eyes will see the Glory of the Living God cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. This persecution upon the saints will rend the heavens and the glory of God will fall upon them. Because this persecution will be worldwide therefore the glory that falls will fall all over the world and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. Jesus will be manifested to the world. It will be clear to the world what they are rejecting and then He shall appear. Oh for the day of His appearance when every eye shall see Him and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Posted by appolus on February 11, 2021
When you are trying to find out the condition of a church, do not just inquire whether it is evangelical. Ask whether it is an Evangelical rationalistic church that says “The test is enough,” or whether it is a church that believes that the test plus the Holy Spirit is enough. I would rather be part of a small group with inner knowledge than part of a vast group with only intellectual knowledge. In the great day of Christ’s coming, all that will matter is whether or not I have been inwardly illuminated, inwardly regenerated, inwardly purified( A.W.Tozer)
Brother Tozer in so much of his writings talks about this “inner knowledge,” as opposed to intellectual knowledge. Whenever one speaks of this it can arouse great passions in people. In fact, if you are anything of a church historian you will know that over the last 2000 years, this has been exactly the issue. Typically those burned at the stake were those who made such claims and it aroused violent murderous hatred. I would argue that every single man who ever burned another human being or gave assent to men being burned were those of the “intellectual knowledge,” class. If Saul was jealous of David, and he was, and it caused him to lose his mind and it did, then the same spirit exists in our day as it has always done.
The two groups that Tozer identified, the small group with inner knowledge and the vast majority of those with mere intellectual knowledge of the Word still exist. And this inner knowledge is not some special knowledge that only a small group know, it is simply Biblical knowledge illuminated by the Holy Spirit. And the fruit of that illumination leads to men and women who are inwardly regenerated which leads to a purity that is Spirit driven. Inside out. Changed at the core of our beings and the fruit of those changes being on display for all to see. You will know a man by his fruit and by his love for one another. Imagine such a man or woman burning to death another human being, impossible.
Now, those with an intellectual knowledge of the Bible understand that it teaches about purity and change and being a new creature in Christ. If they have no actual inner knowledge, meaning the Holy Spirit does not reside within them, then the changes must come from the outside in. The outward appearance. Aesthetics. How we dress, strict adherence to religious observance, a focus on the things we do not do, or what we are against, as opposed to who we are in Christ and what we are for. All of these things and more mark the man or woman who is trying to create a holiness and a purity by the work of their own righteousness. It is an age old trap. It cannot work.
The simplest way to illustrate the difference between the two groups would be this. Imagine a vast forest, thick and dense with no trails through it. Yet right through the middle of it runs a mighty river. The river leads to the ocean and this is the stated objective of the two groups. The river is wild and deep and its current is fierce. One group commits itself to the river. Not ankle deep or knee deep nor even waist deep but fully immersed in the depths of the river so that the current takes you where it will.
The other group cannot make such a commitment to abandon themselves to the river and allow the river to simply take them. No, they want to be in charge of their progress. So they begin the hopeless and backbreaking task of hacking their way through the vast forest in a effort to reach the ocean which they shall never reach. Yet they commend themselves on the hard work they undertake. The work itself becomes the virtue. They measure their progress by the fruitless and frenetic work that they undertake.
One group will arrive at its destination and will never be able to commend themselves, for the river did all the work, their only role was to abandon themselves to the river and go with the flow. The other group will never reach the ocean, they will merely pass the axe to each proceeding generation. They will worship the axe and build great monuments to it. To what group do you belong?
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on February 10, 2021
Heb 9:3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place.
For anyone who has experienced the presence of God everything else will inevitably fall short. In many ways it is a double edged sword. It’s not good enough to stand outside the door, it’s not good enough to remain in the courtyard, one must enter in. And the only way to enter in is to pass through the altar, the brazen alter. What will we bring as a sacrifice? How shall we humble ourselves?
The Holy place is the Holy place. God is God and He never changes. He must be worshiped in Spirit and in truth. Outside of truth there is no work of the Spirit. Without truth there can only be religion, that is true personally and corporately. Oh foolish Christendom. Where is Jesus Christ our Lord? Can you complete that which was begun in the Spirit when you walk in the flesh? Can routine and liturgy and programs and the traditions of men complete you?
Would you not exchange all of that for just one moment in His presence? One moment behind the curtain? Today is the day to turn away from whatever keeps us from entering in to His presence. No golden calf is worth the price of standing outside in the courtyard as opposed to behind the veil in the Holy place before His throne.
Posted in Daily devotional, Devotions, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on February 9, 2021
The question is “what hill will you die on?” In every battle in life whether in war or in our own personal lives there is one side holding the ground and the opposing side is attempting to take that ground. Could be a hill, a castle, a city, a town or a bridge. It could be a million things in our personal lives. Your flesh versus your spirit for example. No matter, in these battles there is the one holding on and the one attempting to displace and take.
Now, it does not really matter what position you are in, the fundamentals are the same whether you are holding the line or attempting to take a stronghold. For instance, if you are defending a village then you have a line and you are holding the line.It is very important that you hold the line. When the enemy is advancing and your line begins to break then you would scatter and retreat in chaos and the enemy advances and takes his objective.
Now, if you were attacking, attempting to take the position, the principal would be that you have to keep moving forward and put your enemy back on his heels. If you do not keep moving forward as an attacking force and get bogged down in an open position, then the defenders will be able to zero in on your position, rain fire down upon you and you have to scatter and retreat in chaos and the enemy comes out of his defensive position and comes after your retreating forces and cuts you down.
Now these principals work. Hold the line, hold the objective. Move forward and keep moving forward and take the objective. Yet like everything in life they are not hard and fast. For any plan to go awry the battle must merely commence. Once the battle begins, you have to be able to adapt to the changing conditions on the ground. The great leaders of every battle can see the battle-field and can adjust as the circumstance warrant. So, although the principle of keep moving forward is a good one, sometimes we may have underestimated the enemies strength and depth of forces. Under those circumstances do we keep moving forward?
What about holding the line? Perhaps you have a limited amount of men and ammunition and the force that is attacking you is just too great and if you continue to try and hold the line the you will be overrun and wiped out. In each case strategic withdrawals are warranted. The man who would die on every hill may have some momentary zeal and glory, but he will die and he will likely get everyone else killed. So the wise man knows when to stop, retreat, regroup and reconsider his options. Whether defending or attacking the wise man, if the situation warrants it shall sound the retreat, then regroup and the reconsider. The unwise man is not capable of this.
In the Christian world we need to understand the battles that we are involved in. Is this a hill we are going to die on? Can I suggest that we as Christians are involved in a constant war that rages on many fronts. We have been called to the battle-field not the play ground. And in the midst of these battles we already have a commander in chief who directs the battle. It is vital that we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. We can know our war manual back to front but if we cannot be directed in the heat of the battle in real time, since almost every single situation unique to you, then we shall be defeated.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a hill out there with your name on it, maybe more than one and these hills were built for us to stand or die while never retreating. But we must be led by the Word of God and His holy Spirit and not by the zeal and the passion that arises from our own desires and wisdom. So, the Holy Spirit will give you the wisdom on when to hold the line or when to retreat, regroup and reconsider your strategy.
There are the big battles in our lives and there is also the every day battles with our flesh and with our sanctification. The principles from above may be real war battles from battle-fields but they apply to our spiritual lives as well. You must have a trustworthy commander. You must be able to fight as a unit. You must be able to hear your commander so that you are able to respond to His directions. Obedience is key. Whether we understand or not is not the issue, it is whether we can hear and whether when we hear we shall obey.
This is how we win the battles whatever position we are in. Taking down strongholds or holding the line, if we follow these fundamental we shall glorify the the Lord on the field of battle. Warriors for Christ, soldiers of the cross, desiring to fight and die for the glorious cause of Christ.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on February 8, 2021
2Ch 5:14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.
The world has such a low view of God. Some kindly grandfather? A benevolent Santa Claus? A buddy? Of course He is none of these things. For the most part Christendom also has a low view of God. Can I ask you a genuine question? The last time you went to church, were you actually expecting to encounter the Living God? I am not talking about singing loud and jumping up and down. I am not talking about being really interested in a sermon and taking notes. I am talking about encountering God almighty.
The God that is high and lifted up and the train of His robe fills the temple. The God that is majestic in holiness. The God that is full of awe and is marvelous. The God that is so overwhelming that He floods our spirits with His glory and those around His throne can only cry out Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Is that what you were expecting? If not why not? Unless the people have an encounter with such a God, they will continue to have a low view of Him and worship some weak anemic cultural god of their own making.
The church in the west is starving to death and they are dying of thirst. The tragedy is, that for the most part, the majority that are called after His name do not even know that they are in the midst of a famine and a drought. I thank God for His remnant people who do know. Who agonize over the state of the church. Who cry out to God and who want nothing less than for the multitude of people to experience the majesty and the glory and the anguish and the joy of falling down before the throne. Who desire all men to be ruined for this life and to walk with the grand obsession of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is coming a time, and we may be there already, when God is calling His people, His remnant people who have experienced the presence of God, to rise up and testify to it. To testify of what they know of Him. Of how they come into the presence of a Holy and majestic God. Of how it ruins them and changes them. Of how they tremble before the throne of the almighty God.
This is what the people are starved of, this is what they are dying from. There is a famine of the Word of God in the land, not the Word preached, but the Word preached with the power and the presence of God. The crisis of the age is a lack of God’s empowering presence in our assemblies. May the glory of the Lord fill His house.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on February 7, 2021
I thank you for the living waters
You poured upon the fires of hell
I thank you that you came and died
And in the dying broke sins spell
I thank you for the rising Lord
Now death itself has no more sting
And in the rising you raised me up
My Lord, my God my eternal King
I thank you for ascension Lord
When you arose and took your seat
Now I lift my eyes to where you are
One with you I’m now complete
I thank you for the glory Lord
Your majesty it knows no bounds
A magnificent scene surrounds your throne
It’s filled with joy and glorious sounds
Praise you for the living waters
Praise you that you came and died
Praise you for the Blood that cleanses
Praise you for all that you’ve supplied.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, poetry, revival, spiritual poetry, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on February 7, 2021
As an adjective, the word imperceptible means very slight, gradual or subtle. As a noun it means something not capable of being perceived by the senses. When you think about it, that is how we live our lives, we live it in the imperceptible. Typically today is the same as yesterday and tomorrow will be the same as today. And they form units, yesterday, today and tomorrow and then yesterdays today and tomorrow and so on and so forth. They connect to one another and the days and the weeks and the months often meld into one and the process quickens the older that you get. Seasons begin to fly past and then the years. Someone once said that the days are long but the years are short. It is very true.
What breaks this up is what I call the suddenly’s. Something that happens out of the blue, an incident or incidents without warning. Everyone of us will deal with these and they often change everything. Like earthquakes, they give no warning and then shake the very foundations of our lives. And all too often, when the shaking has stopped, when the storm has passed, when the immediate damage is dealt with, imperceptibility returns. It’s a new reality, but now our yesterdays have once again become our todays and our tomorrows will be the same as today and we begin all over again and the days are slow and years rush by.
The interesting thing is when you become aware of the imperceptible life that you are living. It is almost an oxymoron to say that you are aware of something that is not typically perceived by the senses. Yet, the life that we live in the Spirit breaks up the units of time that we typically find ourselves trapped in. The Spirit of God exists outside of time and space and He bids us to come to where He is. In Him every moment becomes part of the eternal. Walking in the Spirit is to be released from the hamsters cage and taken off the wheel. Living in the imperceptible. We become aware of God and His presence and time means nothing. It loses its grip on us, the chains of its reality are broken in the eternal now.
We are no longer slaves to the tyranny of our fantasies or desires or our wishes for the future. Good or bad, our expectations set up our parameters. They are in fact an artificial horizon of our own making. Walking in the Spirit is to be walking in a land where nothing impedes our spiritual view. We know that we are walking in the Spirit when the only thing that we can see is Jesus our Lord. When He becomes our horizon then time loses its grip upon us and we are set at liberty to walk towards Him.
Even holy things become corrupted when they displace Jesus. When our thoughts have been taken captive by anything other than Jesus then we have become ensnared in the world and its ways. Time, once again becomes our intoxicant. We get lost in the imperceptible. Blinded by its dim dullness. Lord, help us to live in the glory. Help us to live in the eternal moment of your presence where every horizon is a glorious sunrise, the Son of God rising in the hearts of His children. Help us to see the one who lays the beams of His chambers in the waters, who makes the cloud his chariot and who walks upon the wings of the wind (Psalm 104)
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Posted by appolus on February 5, 2021
1 Cor 16:13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
There is a great tide of evil rising up against Gods people. You know it, you sense it in your spirit, no one needs to tell you. And yet you also know that God has a people that He has established and strengthened in the fires of affliction. He has separated a people from the system of the world and called them to Himself. A people who love God and Him alone with their whole hearts. They have been hardened and tempered to the things of this world by trial and by affliction.
They come from every walk of life, every traditional background. You are not alone. The Body of Christ is shortly to face its greatest test. Indeed the Word of God tells us that there is such a time coming, that if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived and for the elect’s sake God will shorten those days. Will you stand in the evil day brothers and sisters? Has your own independence from the world been forged in the fires of affliction?
Are you wholly dependent upon the Lord? Now is the time to be forged in the fire, to be purified, to be purged of the dross of this world. For if this world has a place in your heart, a foothold in your life, then the challenge will be so much more difficult. Are you truly ready brothers and sisters to stand in the evil day that is almost upon us? It’s time to take up the armor of the Lord. For our battles are not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the worlds rulers and the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
So let us take on Truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness. Let us walk in the Gospel of peace and shield ourselves from the enemy’s blows by our faith in God alone. And always remember that we have salvation in Christ Jesus that can never be taken from us and the Word of God that delivers and defeats all of our enemies as we walk in the Spirit.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Posted by appolus on February 4, 2021
In the land of the Lilliputians,a strange and foreign land, Gulliver, the fictional character from a series of books entitled “Gulliver’s Travels, finds himself pinned to the ground by a thousand shackles. He is in the land of the little people who are merely six inches tall. They were at first friendly towards Gulliver but in the end he refused to help them conquer and enslave their enemies. After a long swim back from enemy territory, Gulliver falls into a deep sleep and when he awakes he finds himself pinned to the ground. They could only get him while he was in a deep sleep.
Saints, are we not giants in a world full of little people? Is this world not foreign to us? Have we fallen asleep to a satanic lullaby and awoken to find ourselves pinned to the ground? Shackled by the bands of the little people, shackled by the bands of this world, held down by thorns and thistles and all the cares of this world? How could something so large and so grand like the sons and daughters of the Living God be constrained by the little things? We need to break free from everything that holds us down.
Rise up ye giants of the earth, ye sons and daughters of the King and walk through the land. Walk in the calling you have been called to. Rise up saints and walk in the Kingdom of God. Remember what God called our brother Gideon “ye mighty man of valor.” And this when he was the weakest man from the weakest clan and hiding behind a wall lest his enemies discover him. Brothers and sisters, don’t you know that you will judge angels? Now is the time to throw off all distractions, everything that will hold you down. You need to stand up, rise up and walk throughout the land.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? (Isa 14:12-17)
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Posted by appolus on February 3, 2021
Making peace with darkness is about saying in your heart “this far and no further.” It’s about holding on to something, or maybe it’s more than one thing, but your holding on to it. It is something deep in your heart that you know should be dealt with, crucified, but you say in your heart “I am not going to obey.” Now its buried deep, you would never say it out loud, in fact you do not even want to think about it, but there it is, the shadow. You may believe it to be a small thing but it will come to identify you. Why? Because you have drawn a line in the sand. You are holding this thing back for yourself.
Now, it may be that the thing is not in and of itself inherently sinful, but it has you. It could be to do with security or insecurity. How you look? A foundation of your life that the Lord wants. And you have decided in your heart that He cannot have it. And you make your peace with the darkness. You know in your heart that you are not going to obey God in this. It’s a small thing in the grand scheme of things you say, and that may be so. Yet, you shall go no further in the Kingdom and somewhere inside of you you know that this is deal you have made.
It’s offensive to say it out loud is it not brothers and sisters? Say what? “I am not going to obey you in this Lord.” But there it is and fooling ourselves like the Ostrich burying it’s head in the sand will not make it go away. It will always be there and it has stunted your growth and you are good with it. Well maybe not good with it, but you know, there it is. We rationalize it dont we brothers and sisters? It is not that you are not saved, for you are still saved but whatever way we look at it it is a declaration we have made and it is heard in the Kingdom of God. You have limited yourself. Not God, God does not limit His children. When we stand before Him, we will know as we are known and we will weep for the limitations we put on ourselves for this beggarly thing whatever it was. And God will wipe the tears away. Tears of regret.
Now brothers and sisters, if you are reading this then there is still breath in your body and you can still choose this day to break the treaty that you made with the darkness. Let’s face it, it was not a peace we made for how can the child of God truly be at peace and be anxious for nothing when there is some kind of stronghold that dwells with our chests? What is it that you know you have to give up? Sinful or not sinful but it stands as a marker, a stronghold between you and God who wants every part of you, every single part of you. Whatever it is you have held onto for yourself, the devil will beat you mercilessly with it. By an act of the will, obey God this night and let whatever holds you back die on the cross where it belongs.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on February 3, 2021
Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
As I prayed this morning the Lord laid the above Scripture on my heart. The Holy Spirit spoke to me. From the moment we are born our life is the valley and death is the shade. As we walk through the valley, death is rendered to but a mere shadow to the saints. What is a shadow? What substance does it have? Is it the real thing or is it but a trick of the light? Death itself has lost its sting, where oh grave is your victory? And how could this be? “For thou art with me.” His presence destroys the power of sin and death and renders it to but a mere shadow. We often say that a man is a mere shadow of his former self. This is what it means when we speak of death for those who walk in the presence of God, for those who can say ” for thou art with me.” Can you say that?
Moses refused to go on in the desert unless the Lord was with him. The Lord said to Moses that He would do this thing because he had found grace in His sight and that He knew him by name. Brothers and sisters, our names are written in the Lambs book of life. We who know Him know Him by grace, through faith. We found grace in His sight, glory to God. Paul counted all of his trials and his impending death as mere rubbish, because? He was found in Him. Paul could go on in a perilous and persecuted journey because death was but a shadow. What creates a shadow? Light. We who stand in the light of Christ have rendered death to but a mere shadow of its former self. This is why we can walk through the valley. This is why we look not to this world but to the next. For thou art with me oh Lord through every valley.
Every trial, every tribulation even death itself is but the means that draws us ever closer to the one who is with us.
We are more than conquerors in Him. When we suffer with Him we shall be glorified together. This is when all things work together for good to those whom He walks with who are called according to His purpose. What shall separate us from the love of Jesus? Trial or tribulation? Persecution or nakedness? famine or even the sword? For His sake we are killed all the day long, like sheep for the slaughter. Shall a virus or any pestilence or even death itself separate us from the one who is with us? No, nothing can, quite the opposite, it compels us to press on in. Saint, no matter what you are facing today, press on in to the One who is with You. He will see you through the fire. He will hold you in the flood. No matter how fierce the fire or how deep the flood, nothing can separate us from the Love of God which is in Jesus our Lord.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The Psalms, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on February 2, 2021
Jesus Christ places the strongest emphasis on faith and especially on the faith that has been tried.To have faith tests people for all they are worth. They have to stand in the commonsense universe, in the midst of things that conflict with their faith, and place confidence in the God whose character is revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ’s statements reveal that God is a being of love and justice and truth, the actual happenings of our immediate circumstances seem to prove He is not.
Are we going to remain true to the revelation that God is good? Are we going to be true to His honor, whatever may happen in our actual domain? If we are, we shall find that God in His providence makes the two universes-the universe of revelation and the universe of common sense-work together in perfect harmony. Most of us are irreligious in a crisis, we think and act like unbelievers. Only one out of a hundred is daring enough to bank their faith in the character of God(Oswald Chambers)
Can you you see what brother Chambers is driving at? There are two universes, two worlds. One that we physically stand in and the Kingdom of God that we walk in. When he says that most of us are irreligious in a crisis, he means that we act no differently than the world does when crisis hits us. Who will actually trust in God when the moment comes? The one who actually believes what Jesus taught us and the one who is obedient to that teaching. So if Chambers is right, only one of us in a hundred will trust God when everything seems to be falling apart.
So the collision comes when our immediate circumstances seem to stand against what we know in our hearts to be true. The doctor says you are going die. You come home and your house has burned to the ground. You lose a child. You lose a job. Immediate circumstances illicit immediate responses. The perfect response in all of our immediate circumstances is to stand back and lift our hands to the heavens and praise God for His goodness. To place our confidence in the character of God and His revelations through His Son and the Holy Spirit. For almost all of us this is a learning curve. Paul Himself “learned to be content,” in all of his immediate circumstances, it is a high water mark of faith and we should aim for it.
I do not underestimate the trauma of the two worlds colliding. This world and all of its circumstances, immediate or otherwise, has an enormous effect upon us because we are flesh and blood. Yet brothers and sisters, we are more than flesh and blood. We are children of the living God, born of the Spirit and born into a Kingdom. The Kingdom of God. While we are on this earth we are walking in two worlds and when they collide, our default position must become the reality of the Kingdom of God no matter how much it assaults our common sense. We respond in obedience and trust to the Word of God and to the still small voice that rests at the center of our being.
I have been saved over thirty years now but just after a year of being saved I had my first major collision. It just happened to be life or death. I was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, the results of a syndrome called Sarcoidosis. It was stage three of a stage four disease, stage four meaning lung transplant. Two thirds of each lung were covered by irreversible fibrosis. The only treatment was to take high doses of prednisone, 60-80 mg a day for the rest of my life. Common sense dictated that the pulmonary specialists treatment must be adhered to. God spoke to me shortly after. “Come away with me,” He said. “Trust me.” I was to stop taking the pills.
Boom. The collision was huge. The climax of the collision took place in the clinical office with a very angry Pulmonologist. The backdrop of that encounter was multiple encounters with extremely angry wife. Just six weeks previously our youngest son was born. He had Down Syndrome and on top of that a life threatening condition that required multiple major surgeries. Common sense, the wisdom of the world, was screaming like a category five hurricane. And here i was sitting in a cold clinical specialists office just about to tell him that “God,” had told me something different from what he was suggesting.
Now brothers and sisters, it is one thing to have the courage of your convictions when down upon your knees in your room with hands raised high to heaven and tears falling in the presence of God. It is quite another thing to simply walk out His directions in the “cold light of day.” That is the collision. That is the decision, that is where the rubber hits the road. This doctor would not be making things easy for me that day. There would be no “I respect your position.” He was very angry with me and held nothing back in his descriptions of how I was going to die and how it would be a horrific death. Now, I would be lying if I said that none of these things moved me, The truth is that they all moved me. It was a battle of enormous proportions. It undoubtedly shaped the rest of my life.
The long and the short of it was that God healed me about four months later in a spectacular fashion in a moment of time. No pills would get the glory, no doctor would get the glory, no procedure would get the glory, only God would get the glory. There is no doubt that if I had followed the doctors advice that I would now be dead or in a wheelchair. Commonsense collided with trusting God. A collision of two worlds. Now, what I have just described i not a formula to follow. The only thing that you must follow is the Word of God and the still small voice. It will often defy common sense and no one will understand you. Who would have understood Abraham as he took his son to kill him? Yet, God had spoken to him. And he obeyed. Obedience and trust and walking that out in the Kingdom of God in the midst of this world oftentimes in defiance of commonsense is the narrow path of faith. God bless you in your own journey saints.
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Posted by appolus on February 1, 2021
After David is anointed by the prophet we see an interesting situation develop. There is God’s anointed and there is also the people choice. They both exist at the same time and they both proclaim their allegiance to God. One is a man after God’s own heart and the other is a law unto himself. One has the Spirit of God upon him and the other does not. One loves to be in the presence of God and the other tries to pin him to the wall because he has no access to the presence of God. One is honorable and respectful to the other, and in return the other wants to kill him and wipe out all of his associates. One can speak to God and gain direction, the other can only rely upon his own wits.
Brothers and sisters, what I have just described is what I call “The Saul spirit.” The Saul spirit is the spirit of religion. The spirit of compromise. The spirit of the establishment. The spirit of those who would establish their own kingdoms here on this earth and kill anyone who would challenge their authority. It is fundamentally the spirit of anti-christ. We have seen such a spirit down through the ages wreck havoc on the Body of Christ. Wreck havock on all who have the Spirit of God within them. Over the ages the Saul spirit has dominated the ones who are men and woman after God’s own heart. They have hunted down the saints and time after time attempted to intimidate them and dominate them and crush them and wipe them out. Can I tell you brothers and sisters, the Saul spirit is rising.
The saints have the Spirit of God within them. We are anointed of God. We speak to God and He speaks to us. He leads us and He guides us and He directs us. He has given us great gifts that enable us to edify one another. The greatest gift of all is the gift of loving the truth. We are lovers of the truth. The truth to those of the Saul spirit is negotiable, open to compromise. In order to prevail they would trample underfoot the truth that burns within our bones. The saint cannot live without it, the religious cannot live with it. The truth demands everything and the religious man is not willing to surrender to the truth. He is only interested in the truth so far as it can serve him and his purposes. When the pressure of a demanding world comes knocking at the religious man’s door, he opens up his door and welcomes in the world.
Today is no different than it was in David’s day. There is God’s anointed and there is that which is established. There is enmity between them. So to my brothers and sisters I say “know your enemies and do not be unaware of their strategies.” You must love your enemies without compromising the truth. Know that the Saul Spirit is rising and that you cannot serve two masters. Both require you to walk under their authority, you must choose only one. How can you tell when you look back through the last two thousand years who had the Saul spirit? The Saul spirit hunts down saints and kills them. It burns them to death while telling the world it is doing the work of God. Not too hard to spot.
They have replaced the realities of God with the sacraments of men. Man made traditions that bear none of the Spirit’s power. Counterfeit. Empty traditions of men. These doctrines are the commandments of men who have laid aside the Commandments of God. They reject the Commandments of God in order to keep their own traditions. They honor God with their lips but they know not God in their hearts, and they know it and jealousy drives them mad with hatred, a hatred that is rising up and threatening to consume the saints of our day. Yet the Lord’s anointed, His saints, that is, anyone who is genuinely born again of the Spirit shall not be swayed. They shall not bow the knee to Baal or any other God other than the one true God.
Stand fast brothers and sisters, do not be fooled, know your enemy and never relent to them. Follow the Word of God and the still small voice. Bow down and offer them your heads rather than bow down to their gods. The gods of this modern world, the god of abortion and perversions are no different than the god of the ancient worlds, Moloch , Ashtoreth and Baalim. They rise again as we speak for they know the end is near and their time is short. Stand fast brothers and sister and never bow the knee to the gods of this world. God will pour out His Spirit upon you as the enemy comes in like a flood. You are His standard and He will raise you to stand on higher ground.
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Posted by appolus on February 1, 2021
Mat 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Jesus speaks of two kinds of houses in Mathew chapter 7:24-27. One is built upon the Rock and the other has no foundation. When the storm comes, when the flood rises and the winds blow, the house on the Rock still stands . The house without a foundation is swept away. Now consider this, the first word in Matt 7:24 is “therefore.” The word therefore means the answer or the explanation to a statement given. What was the statement Jesus had just made? In verses 21-23 Jesus says that not all who call Him Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, only those who do the will of my Father. So He will say to them “I never knew you, depart from me you who work iniquity.”
The test saint, is not the works that we do nor even the miracles that we are associated with. No, the test saints is how we stand or if we stand in the storm. It’s the storm that does the work. Who will praise Him in the storm? Who will do the will of the Father in the midst of the storm? To weather the storm with joy, with perseverance and with endurance is to prove which ground we stand upon. For those who stand upon the Rock, they shall not run from the storm, they shall not hide from the storm they shall stand tall in the midst of the storm in the might and the power of the Holy Spirit.
There is a huge storm raging around the world. It is the first of many such storms to come. The world will get over one storm and the next will quickly come. Yet those whose feet are planted on the Rock shall never be moved. They shall be able to enter into His presence, they shall go deeper into His heart, they shall stand upon the Word of God and the light of heaven shall shine through them like a beacon to a dark world. The Lord says that His kingdom is not of this world. We are part of His Kingdom and we do not belong to this world, we are merely passing through.
We walk in the Spirit along the narrow way and He ever goes before us. Let not your hearts be troubled but rather rejoice. The praise of the saints from the depths of the dungeon is of so much greater value than those who praise His only from the mountaintops. A man can praise Jesus in the midst of good circumstances, it does not take a foundation to do that. Only a saint standing on the foundation of Christ Himself can praise the Lord from the dungeon. What lies beneath your feet?
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Posted by appolus on January 31, 2021
In my younger years I was a bricklayer. I laid bricks for twenty five years from the age of 16. I served my apprenticeship for three years. The apprenticeship was developed by the City and Guilds of London which was established around 150 years ago but represented craftsmen and guilds that had been around for over a thousand years. I also went on to take my advanced craft course. In the course of my career I have built many arches, all kinds of arches.
Some were small, spanning windows and doors and smaller openings, and some were as large as thirty feet wide. There is a great amount of skill and knowledge required in order to erect this kind of structure. One of the critical parts of building an arch is building the temporary frame or template that would hold the arch. You can see a small example of a template in the above picture. Imagine the complexity of building a template for huge arches that span great distances and will carry great loads.
Even although I understood the forces that bore down upon an arch and how those forces were transferred outwards towards either end and onto the walls or columns at either side, I was still always nervous when removing the template or the supporting frame once the mortar had set up. Was it going to hold up? Would the structure collapse once the template is removed? Thankfully that never happened. Can you imagine what a structure would look like if the temporary wooden template remained? It would look terrible and defeat the whole purpose of the arch.
I would like to suggest that so much of Christendom consists of the frame and the template. It has never been removed. That which was supposed to be temporary while the structure was being built has never been removed. The template has become an integral and permanent part of the structure. Can I suggest that the buildings, the four walls, the organizations, the denominations and much of the frenetic activity has been at best, the mere template. The bricks and the stones themselves do not require the template to stand.
Jesus is the keystone which holds the arch together. It is the keystone which is the strength and the vital component of the arch. If you have it, the arch works and you can remove the template. If you do not have it you can never remove the template, you will have to rely upon that which was only ever meant to be temporary forever because without the keystone the whole structure would collapse upon removal of the template.
Jesus Himself is the Keystone. He is the preeminent vital part of the structure. With Jesus we need no temporary supports. With Jesus the arch is complete and the templates are removed and there the structure stands in all of its glory, just as it was designed to. As denominations fail and churches have been shuttered and fellowship have, for many, been denied, we have come to discover just who has the Keystone in their arch. God Himself is removing templates all over the world. Will your structure stand?
The remnant saints of God have discovered that with the Keystone in place, the template can be removed and the structure stands. The template has been in place for so long, we consider it part of the actual structure. The mere suggestion of removing the template has been met with blinding fear and rage. Saints, trust the structure that the Lord Himself has designed and built, it was built to stand and so it shall. It shall stand forever for the Lord Himself is the builder.
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Posted by appolus on January 30, 2021
Can the spirit of man fellowship with the Spirit of God? A rhetorical question of course. One is enmity to the other. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (2Co 6:14) Some may argue that all men and woman who gather together in churches are believers. Yet in John 8 we see that Jesus tells those who identify as “believers,” that their father is the devil. These “believers,” took up stones to kill Jesus. Its not the name that you call yourself that counts, its the Spirit of God that is either in a man or it is not that counts. While it is clear that it has never been acceptable for the righteous to fellowship with the unrighteous and indeed has caused almost all of the problems that we see in Christendom down through the ages, it gets more and more dangerous to do so as the ages draw to a close. The Holy Spirit is very deliberately exposing what is and what is not, do not get in the way of the Holy Spirit.
Listen to what Tozer says………… The spiritual man has treasures this world discounts. He has a mystic wisdom of the Holy Spirit, but the world has no way to receive this. Jesus said the world cannot receive Him “because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” (John 14:17) Just as a deaf man has no sensory organ to receive music, and just as a blind man has no organ to receive light, so a worldly man has no organ to receive the treasure of God’s mystic knowledge by the Holy Spirit. And of course, if the Christian says that he has and is sure of himself, the world is angry with him, even the religious world. They say he is a bigot, he thinks too much of himself. The Christian man has the Holy Spirit, invisible and from God, whom the world cannot receive. The Christian has heard a voice, seen the light and been able to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, while the world is just religious (A.W.Tozer-A disruptive faith)
Tozer is right, isn’t he? The world and the religious men are always angry with the man who can say with a certainty “God said to me.” They say that he is arrogant and unbending. Yet what they do not realize is that the man who has heard from God, who has stood in His temple and been surrounded by His glory and transformed forever by His magnificent presence, minds the things of God and not the things of man. He understands the vastness of God and by comparison, how small man is. Who is he going to listen to? Who is he going to be moved by? God alone. And this infuriates man and brings the man or woman of God into direct conflict with the spirit of man, the spirit of the age. Be ready saints, for the spirit of the end of the ages is strong and vicious. Be prepared and count the cost and stand upon the truth. There is a glorious reward that awaits the saint who refuses to compromise, who overcomes, who endures till the end. Find saints and fellowship with them. Be deliberate in who you fellowship with, and all the more as you see that day approaching. Do not be unequally yoked.
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Posted by appolus on January 29, 2021
Heb 13:13-14 Therefore let us go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
Jesus was found outside the camp, outside the walls, outside the gates. We are told to go to where He is. In those days, the walls represented security and belonging. To be outside the camp was to be outside of fellowship with the rest of society and to be in a dangerous place. Yet, Jesus was found in a place called Golgotha, outside of the gates. To leave the security of the walls behind us, we must be willing to find all of our security and belonging in Jesus.
The distance from where Jesus hung on the cross was not very far from the temple. Those who dwelt within the walls were convinced that the presence of God was within the heart of the temple, in the Holy of Holies. Yet tragically for those who clung to their place of worship and who ignored what Jesus had told the woman at the well, would die in their religion.
Jesus told the woman at the well when she questioned Him about where the proper place to worship should be that a time was coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24) The presence of God was not in the Holy of Holies, the presence of God, the word made flesh, Emmanuel, was hanging from a tree outside of civilized society on a garbage dump known as Golgotha.
The saints of God are sojourners. We are pilgrims in a strange land who are merely passing through. We bear His reproach from the world and from the religious. Do you worship Him in Spirit and in Truth? Can we ignore the truth and still be obedient to the words of Jesus? If we are to walk in the Spirit then we have to walk in the truth, you cannot have one without the other. In our ever changing world it is getting more and more difficult to justify staying behind the walls. We have to be where the truth is. True worshipers will follow the Spirit and will follow the truth, even if none go with them and despite the ridicule and the reproach. Remember we are bearing His reproach for here we have no continuing city but we seek one to come.
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Posted by appolus on January 28, 2021
In the natural world there is such a thing called “The empty nest syndrome.” It is well documented. You may be in that position now, or approaching it. So, the empty nest syndrome happens when your last child leaves the house and now it is just you and your spouse. On average the children period lasts for around twenty years or so. The central focus of that twenty years has been your children. You have common cause with your spouse and typically everything revolves around the children. It can be hard to tell what kind of relationship the parents have because of all of the activity and emotional investment that revolves and swirls around the children.
Then suddenly, one day you wake up and there is a strange silence through the house. Nothing is stirring, not even a mouse. And you wonder. Do we now have anything in common? Could we hold down a decent conversation? Do we love each other and do we even have a relationship? Many couples have found to their horror that they do not have a relationship with this person they call their spouse outside of an apart from their children. Sometime couples discover that they don’t even like each other. Of course there is the other type of couple. Their love is real and strong and at the center of it all was their love and devotion to each other and from that place came the strength and resolve to raise their children. And when that part of their life is over, they are ready, together, to launch into the next part with each other, hand in hand.
I would like to suggest that this empty nest syndrome is an analogy that can explain the difference between someone who is religious and someone who has a relationship with God. In the case of the people who have no real relationship and are bound only by their children, their children can represent church on a Sunday. Bible studies. Groups, organizations. If we began to strip all of those activities away what would be left standing? Would you have a relationship with God without these activities?
For someone with a real relationship with God, no matter what was stripped from them they would still stand strong in their faith. The vital love and passion that they have for God is the central focus of their life and everything that is in their life revolves around this. For the man and wife who love each other and are one in the Lord together, that will not change when their children leave the house. If a man and a woman do not love each other and have no relationship outside of their children then the marriage will not last long when the cementing force is taken away.
Love and relationship has to be at the core of who we are. It is the force that binds us together. Children come and go, birds fly the coup, activities can come to an abrupt halt like we have seen in the last year with Covid. What still stands when the smoke clears? Our abiding relationship to Jesus. With everything, or stripped of all things Jesus remains. He remains preeminent in our hearts. This grows deeper with time if it it is real. He is what defines us. And we truly see this more clearly as the trappings of this world fall away. Even as youth and strength and beauty and vigor depart from us, we know that the inner man is renewed daily and this is what the world sees. We, the children of God are no loveless empty nests, we are instead the temple of the Holy Spirit which grows richer with every passing day.
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Posted by appolus on January 27, 2021
Mat 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
I pray that every trial and tribulation I now suffer is a mile run by one who trains for a marathon. Men run with heavy backpacks on their backs to train their bodies,to discipline them to, to bring them into a place of strength and endurance. The cross that I bear, the cross that I take up, has been uniquely designed for me and for who I am. It is intricately designed to test me and to bring me to a place brokenness and strength in the Lord.
To follow Jesus is to follow the path that He trod. He blazed a trail, a narrow path through fire and flood. We must be equipped to walk through these obstacles. The cross is the equipping. No cross means no forward progress in the Lord. As we walk along this narrow path, many are the encampments of folks who have no desire to go any further. The road, they found, was too difficult. And these encampments have names. One is called Camp compromise. Another is called Camp indulgence. And again another is called Fall Away Camp.
As we pass these camps the inhabitants will come out and jeer at us. They will attempt to discourage us and tempt us to take up camp with them. Many will be hostile and throw rocks at us as we pass them by and pass them by we shall. Each camp becomes a cautionary tale. Each camp that we see only strengthens our resolve to keep on going. The cross has equipped us with all the endurance and perseverance that we need to overcome the obstacles and the temptations.
Brothers and sisters, do not look to the left nor to the right. The Lord Himself has given us the bread of adversity and the waters of affliction through our own cross. The bread has given us sustenance and the waters of affliction has refreshed our parched spirits. In the midst of our prior adversities and afflictions we have seen the Lord, our teacher. And now this all comes back to us as we approach the beginning of the end of the narrow path that lies before us. Lean on the cross brothers and sisters, take strength from it. It’s victory will carry you home.
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A Call To The Remnant 