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

This scripture is where two worlds collide. You have heard of the many paradoxes that are found in the New Testament. One has to die to live. One has to be a servant to lead. The heart has to be hungry or it can never be full. The paradoxes are many and it is because the Kingdom of God operates in an entirely different way than this world does. We as saints walk physically through this world but we already exist in the world that was and is and is to come. The Kingdom clashes with this world where flesh meets spirit. I live in Kansas and the jet stream is often right above us. The warm air from the south clashes with the cold air from the north. Canadian cold air verses warm gulf air. It creates violence. Dramatic storm systems that produce tornadoes that have such destructive power that literally no structure can stand against a direct hit.

The substance and the evidence of faith only exists in the Kingdom of God but it supernaturally manifests itself in our world. And when it does, all hell can break loose. Whether it is in the mind, as the flesh battles against the spirit, or whether it is actions we take directed by our faith, they are violently opposed by those who know nothing of it. Our blessed hope in Christ is only substance to those who have been born again. Only we can see it. The unsaved cannot see it and it cannot be explained to them, only demonstrated, and even then it is beyond them. It may draw them into the Kingdom and they can see it for themselves or it may cause them to violently follow after their flesh and everything they know to be real. We have faith in Jesus. He is our blessed hope. We cannot see Him with our human eyes but we can see the substance of Him through the eyes of our faith. We can come before the throne of God and see God high and lifted up and the Lord Jesus sitting at the right hand of glory.

And so, what is most real to us, the saints, and what we would die for because it is so real is the substance and the evidence of our faith. It is directly contradicted by a world ruled by what they can see with their physical eyes, what they can observe, measure and replicate. The evidence of things seen. The substances that can be observed. We saints are entirely different and should never be ashamed of that or make apology for it.  Men of science are very much limited by what they can see. We see what they see but we also see beyond what they see. And so by believing we see Gods Kingdom. And by seeing we are convinced. Convinced of the invisible God who frequently violates the natural order of this world by the supernatural order of the Kingdom.

We are not of this world but we must be in it. And while we are in it the storm shall rage. It must rage for two entirely different forces are at work and something must give. Any man made structure, whether its an invention of his mind or a physical invention will fall when it meets it meets the supernatural. We who walk with God cannot be overcome even by the worse excesses of this word for we walk in the Kingdom reality. The most violent storm, the most violent clash of two elements the world has ever seen was when Christ Jesus stepped down into it. The vain imagination of their big bang theory pales in comparison to the collision of the seen and unseen world. Everything changed.

(Heb 10:19-20) Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Jesus is our new and living way. He made a way for us to enter into the actual holy of holies. Now we all know that, we have read it a thousand times, but I want to ask you this. When was the last time you entered the holy of holies? Have you ever? The veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom thus revealing the shadow, the room within the temple. Jesus flesh was ripped and torn and sacrificed for us on the cross, outside of the temple, outside of the city, outside of the walls and by His death and resurrection He made a way for you and me to come before the throne of the Living God and cry our “Abba Father.’ So therefore, since the cost was so great, it is not an impertinent question to ask the question “have you come before the throne?” Have you entered the holiest? Have you drawn near to God with a true heart and in full assurance of faith?

In coming into this place, this place of glory and of majesty and of holiness we are reminded just who we are in comparison to who God is. Outside of the Blood of Jesus we could never come into this place. Outside of His sacrifice we could never come and fall upon our face. And cry holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty! Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. We here on earth are the Church militant and in heaven we see the Church triumphant. Yet I am afraid that much of the Church has lost its militancy. Our boldness. Our unwavering faith in the face of increasing hostility seems to be wavering. There is a reason we come before the throne, first and foremost Jesus made the way there and secondly we are emboldened in the presence of God, of His glory and His majesty and that translates directly in how we walk our walk. The Church used to talk in military terms all the time, they knew they were in a battle, and yet just as the greatest battle is looming, we waver. We do not want to offend the world. Some old hymns…………….

Stand up , stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross, lift high His royal banner it must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory His army He shall lead, till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed. Onward Christians soldiers marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ the Royal Master leads against the foe, forward into battle see His banners go. Soldiers of the cross arise and put your armor on. A mighty fortress is our God, the battle belongs to the Lord. There is power, power wonder working power in the Blood of the Lamb and the Blood will never lose its power for it reaches to the highest mountains and it flows to the lowest valley, this Blood , this precious Blood of Christ gives me strength for each new day. Like a mighty army, moves the Church of God, brothers we are treading where the saints have trod. We are not divided, all one Body be, one in hope and doctrine, one in charity. So I’ll sing of the cross, that old rugged cross where I first saw the light, where the burden of my heart rolled away, it was there, right there, where Christ died for us it was there that He made the way.

Heb 8:13  In that he says, “A new covenant.” He has made the first old. Now that which is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. 

A new covenant! And in this new covenant He puts His laws in our minds and writes them on our hearts. We are infused by His desires for us and His commandments for our lives, the Word made flesh. We are now taught by the Holy Spirit for we know Him. We do not need an earthly priest to know Him. We do not need a teacher in order to know Him, we know Him because He knows us. We are known by God and in the knowing we walk in the beauty of His Holiness by the guidance and the direction of the Holy Spirit. Our hearts and our minds are illuminated by the power of God. Our knowing does not reside within the realms of our heads, rather we know Him in the innermost depths of our heart. In our unrighteous state we found mercy and our sins and unrighteous deeds? He forgave us of them all, praise Jesus.

Jesus became our mediator of a better covenant. The old covenant was fatally flawed and we were the flaw. The old covenant could never bring a man or woman righteousness, it could only show us how helpless we really were and how we were in desperate need of a Savior. And Jesus became our High Priest. He offered up Himself once, and for all time. His perfection became our salvation. We are saved by the perfect Son of God and by the Blood He willingly spilled for us. He is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. The true tabernacle.  And so brothers and sisters we became a Royal priesthood and Jesus is our High Priest. We are His special people. A called out people. A chosen generation. We have no clergy/laity divide, that is purely a religious construct. It stands in defiance of the Word of God and the reality of our High Priest, Jesus. It is but a vestige of an old religious system that was swept away 2000 years ago. Let us fulfill our priestly roles as we minister to one another.

(Heb 6:19-20) Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence within the veil; where the forerunner has for us entered for us, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Hebrews chapter six is so dramatic and the contrast it presents could not be more stark. In the end, there is really only two kinds of people. Those who endure to the end and those who walk away. There are promises made by God and these promises are the blessings of God. As saints, we have this promise, we know that Jesus Christ our Lord is the anchor of our soul. Does the anchor hold? Yes He does! Now brothers and sisters, how many know that waiting upon the Lord in the midst of a storm can be very very difficult? We have our hope, we have our faith, we trust in Jesus. Then the wind blows from a category one hurricane to a category three. Then it intensifies again and now its blowing a category five. Anything not anchored down is getting ripped from its moorings and carried away by mountainous waves. Are we still with Him? Do we still trust? Where is our faith? Abraham was promised a son, and this would lead to the blessing of all the nations. There’s a blessing coming. There’s a blessing coming. Twenty years in, how is Abraham doing? Only after twenty five years did the fulfilment come. How about Jospeh and his dreams? Was he still enraptured by his dream at the bottom of the pit? How about when he is falsely accused of rape? How about when he was languishing in prison? Twelve years later comes the fulfilment.

Its easy to love God in the moment, in the first flushes of our relationships. When all is new and we have hopes and dreams and visions for our lives. Then life begins to play out. We have pressures at work, putting a roof over our heads. We have hard times in our relationship with our spouses. Children come along and we have hopes and dreams for them that often do not come to fruition. We suffer losses, disappointments, illnesses, and deaths come knocking at our door. Have we stuck close to Jesus the whole time brothers and sisters? Just in the world and by reason of my gray hair I have lived long enough to see two groups of folks in the world, whether Christian or not. I observed them go through really tough times and one group, by far the larger, begin to crack and to fracture under the pressure. They drink more, they smoke, they take anti-depressants, they begin to isolate themselves, they grow apart from their spouses and they eventually get divorced. It’s sad enough to see it in the world, its tragic when you see it in professing Christians. There is the second group. The ones who pull together. The trial brings them closer to God, it brings them closer to their spouses. Their love grows deeper as they face the battles together, back to back. They become seasoned like fine wine. They grow wise and mature and they empathize greatly with others and they are kind and patient, loving and forgiving.

The fact is, that in every storm, the saint has an anchor and His name is Jesus. We are out there in the roiling seas and He is the forerunner. He goes before us into the harbor and draws us in. In ancient times when the sea was too stormy to enter the harbor and giant waves would crash against the harbor walls and the ships would drag their anchors and be in danger of overturning and being swamped, they would lower a skiff, a forerunner. The anchor would be placed on the small boat and the boat would make its way into the harbor and the anchor would be dropped in calmer waters ,then the boat would be pulled into the harbor. Jesus is our forerunner, Jesus is our anchor and He has went before us and prepared a place for us. A place of peace and stillness, His very presence speaks to the storms, be still! When you flee to Jesus He shall be our Rock, our strong high tower. Come to Me, He says, and I will give your weary souls rest. God and His Word are immutable, that is to say unchanging over time, any time, eternity even. God is unchanging and the Words that He speaks are unchanging. He never lies and this immutability, the Word says, is so that we “might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” There it is, its right there, take a hold of it, grab onto to it, never let it go, let it take you into the still calm harbor of His presence so that you might survive the storm. Take hold of this brothers and sisters, and you shall not drown.

Heb 6:4-6  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost……………….If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. 

This maybe the most powerful warning in the New Testament to those who follow Jesus. The word impossible leaves very little wriggle room. And to whom is the author speaking ? He is speaking to those who were once enlightened. To those who had tasted of the heavenly gift. To those who were partakers of the Holy Spirit ( an associate or companion) To those who had tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. We, the saints, are clearly being spoken to. And of course these verses in Heb 6 are written in the context of the first five chapters. Take the most earnest heed, lest we drift away. (Heb 2:1) How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? (Heb 2:3) But Christ as a Son over His own House, whose house we are “if,” we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. (Heb 3:6) Beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God. (Heb 3:12) For we have become partakers of Christ “if,” we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. (Heb 3:14) So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. (Heb 3:19) Therefore since a promise remains of entering His rest, “let us fear,” lest any of you seem to have come short of it.(Heb 4:1)

Multiple warnings climaxing in Heb chapter six. I would say along with brother Paul that I am confident that most genuine saints would never fall away. That not only are they saved but their lives demonstrate the fruit of the Living God who dwells in them by the power of the Holy Spirit. They are enlightened and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, Christ being magnified in their hearts. They have and do taste of the heavenly gift of Christ their Lord who dwells richly in them. They have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, meaning that they have been baptized by the Holy Spirit and endued with power from on High which makes them very bold in their faith. The Word of God is a lamp unto their feet and light unto their narrow path. They rejoice in all things. They forgive as they were forgiven. They love as they are loved. They remain steadfast, they endure, they overcome  by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and they love not their lives unto death. Whether they live or whether they die they know that the main goal of their lives is to glorify God. This brothers and sisters, I would put it to you, is a very great contrast to the people that is spoken of in the first verses of this chapter. Those who crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame by their lives and by their words.

(Heb 5:8-9) Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

How can the perfect Son of God be made perfect? How can the perfect one, the one who never was disobedient, learn obedience? Jesus came down from the glories of heaven and took on flesh. Nothing was lost, He has taken on flesh. And in that flesh He would be called to die, not just to die, but to die the death of the cross. None of this would ever happen in the glorious of heaven. There would be no Gethsemane in the realms of eternity. There would be no rejection there. There would be no pain there. There would be no darkness there. And yet the Father called Him to this world where He would have to face all of these things. His will, being fleshed out by His obedience. Brothers and sisters, we have to flesh out His will for our lives and in doing so we learn to be obedient. In suffering we learn to glorify God quite apart from our circumstances. Our faith and trust in God is alive and it breathes. It is no mere philosophy. It is not an abstract construct. It is not a mere mental assent to abstract truth. Faith in God is tested like gold is refined in the crucible.

The crucible of life is the fire of our circumstances. God is looking for gold. We learn eternal lessons in the fires of life. We are schooled, as students, in the classroom of suffering. Most will reject this, which is why many are called but few are chosen. Its the narrow way of the cross as opposed to the broad highway of the world. For as much as Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves brothers and sisters with this same mindset and when you do, you will walk in the beauty of holiness. And in doing so we no longer live the rest of our lives in the flesh and by the flesh and for the flesh, and for what it lusts after, but rather we shall live our lives according to the will of God. (I Pet 4:1-2) Is there another way? No, No. Its the way of Jesus. It is the way of the cross. Your sufferings that you are going through brothers and sisters at this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, the gold, that shall be revealed in you. (Rom 8:18) Our afflictions are light and but for a moment in the context of eternity and they add weight to the eternal glory. (2 Cor 4:17) We have been called to suffer for His sake (Phi 1:29) and take up the cross in order to be counted worthy of Jesus (Matt 10:38)

And so brothers and sisters, Jesus is the example for us in His sufferings and we have been called to follow His footsteps. ( 1Pet 2:21) Shall we follow as obedient sons and daughters? Shall we love and forgive those who so terribly mistreat us? Shall we cry out to God to forgive them for they know not what they do? If the Lord Jesus Christ Himself had to walk this path and “learn,’ the things that He learned, surely it must be obvious to you and I that we must walk the same path? We can never suffer as He did. We did not begin perfect. Sin was something common to us all. Yet not the Lord. His suffering was on such a higher plane because of His perfection. And if in that state, the Lord was obedient and learned through the fires of His afflictions, then how about you and me? He is our glorious High Priest who walked through every fire of hell on this earth and therefore is well able to intercede for you before His Fathers throne. Let us walk worthy of our calling, not to live our best lives now but rather to enter into His sufferings and by our obedience to Him we shall become that for which we were empowered to be, a witness to His eternal truth and glory.

(Heb 4:9-11) There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he that has entered into his rest, he has also ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

How many entered the promised land from the original 1.5 million who escaped slavery? Two. Joshua and Caleb. Ponder that for a moment brothers and sisters. Disobedience and unbelief was the order of the day among the rank and file of the Jewish people. Yet, this is not the rest the writer of Hebrews speaks of. There remains a rest for the people of God and we have been called to labor and be diligent to enter into that rest just as God rested on the Sabbath. In that place we have ceased from our works, it is an eternal Sabbath. Every day is as unto the Lord. Can anyone fool God? The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword we are told. It pierces even to the division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Can we work our way to heaven? Can we construct Jacobs ladder and ascend into the heavenlies? We cannot. For those who believe, who actually believe and are obedient to that heavenly calling, they have ceased  from their works and now rest upon the works of Jesus, so meticulously carried out in His walk on this earth and ending at the garden cross and the tomb and the resurrection.

If we have truly ceased from our works then what is the labor? What are we to be diligent about?  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. Heb 11:6 Weary souls are called to rest in the holiness of Christ and in His finished work. The religious spirit roams around like a lion, waiting to tear into anyone who thinks they, by their own works, can enter into His perfect peace. We rest in Him brothers and sisters. Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden (who carry heavy burdens) and I will give you rest. When the striving ceases and our hearts and our souls perpetually long after Him, this is the diligence, this is our work. And His presence is our exceeding great reward. In His presence there is rest and fullness of Joy. See the open arms of Jesus. In order to take hold of them we must lay our burdens down. We must not be anxious nor must we take care for tomorrow. Was not that the sin of the children of Israel? They did not continue to believe that the one who feeds them today, would feed them tomorrow. They did not believe that the one who sent a cloud by day and a fire by night would continue to do so.

To put it simply, trust, they did not trust God and when we do not trust God then we strive to do everything for ourselves. Lack of trust must lead to the taking up of burdens, there is no other way. Trust God for tomorrow and you will sleep well tonight. If we do not trust God then we walk in a certain wilderness. We look back to the world. Even although it is bondage, we tie ourselves with cords of misery to the ways of the world. By our own bootstraps we seek to pull ourselves out of any number of situations. And when we do this, the manna melts away, the water ceases to gush forth from the Rock. The night is cold and fearful and the heat of the day wears us down in its unrelenting oppression. Without leadership we rise up and play. We begin to raise up idols in a vain empty effort to replace God. Drink? Drugs? Men? Women? Money? And all the while the burdens increase and in some kind of crazy vicious circle we do more of the same expecting that it will bring relief. It will not. Lay it all down brothers and sisters. Come, come to Jesus and lay it all down and you will find rest for your weary soul. And the rest you will find is a greater treasure than all the wealth of the world.

Heb 2:1  Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 

This is such a dire warning. It comes in the light of what has just been told to us in chapter one. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The majesty of His person. How He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.He is the brightness of the glory of God and the express images of His person. Brothers and sisters, this is who we serve! This is the pearl of great price whereby a man should sell everything he has in order to attain this. This is high and lifted up. This is our grand obsession, this is Jesus. How could we drift away from such glory? Paul says in 1 Cor 9:27 that he “disciplines his body lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.” I think most of us know what it means to be disqualified. And so, one way to slip away is not to discipline or mortify the flesh. Most of us know that there is a battle that takes place between the flesh ans the spirit. Ignore that battle at your peril.

What would be an example of this? David. He looks at Bathsheeba from across the rooftop. The flesh, every part of his flesh, wanted her. Its called a distraction. If the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Remember, a third of the angels fell and where did they dwell? In the glories of heaven. Now brothers and sisters, if we could slip away from glory due to negligence and distractions and disobedience, what then sharpens our spirits to keep our mind on God? “To make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and he who is being sanctified are all one.” Listen brothers and sisters, we who enter into His sufferings shall rule and reign with Him. Our sanctification is life itself. That is our life in Christ, being sanctified by the one who sanctifies. Sons and daughters take up their crosses daily. It’s the cross that kills the flesh. When you bear a cross upon your back, you will nor be distracted by the flesh but rather you will cry out to God above. We are told that Jesus was made “perfect through sufferings.” Shall we not enter in and go the same way as our Lord?

Another thing about the early church worth meditating on was a sharp separation between them and the world. In fact the world refused to associate with the church because of the convicting power being exercised among them. There was absolutely no compatibility between the church and the world in those early days (A.W.Tozer)

Maybe you some clips of the Grammy’s the other night? Maybe you were very fortunate and you did not. It was all out pornographic filth and evil, where multiple men were portrayed as urinating on the singer in a men’s bathroom. And that was just a small part of it. Oh how the crowds lapped this up. A deep dive into pure evil and all our perversity celebrated by the world. And one might say well that’s just the world.” If only that were true. The following list of so called “Christian artists,” were there, and apparently there were many more.

I recently wrote a few pieces about the flesh and death. I wrote that the flesh that demands deliverance in the here and now, will not die easily. The flesh hates pain. It hates sickness. It hates hunger. It hates to be controlled, but most of all it hates to actually die. For death is the end of it. The corruptible flesh we now walk around in, will be raised in in-corruption. And therefore, flesh, in all its strength, will rage against its own inevitable end. I argued that this is why, for the most part, much of Christendom desperately desires healing miracles. It’s driven by the flesh and not by the Spirit. And so we see professing Christians go to enormous lengths to avoid death. They will travel thousands of miles and spend a lot of money to attend some kind of “healing,” services with the latest Benny Hinn type. Even into old age they will ravage their body with chemo in order to get six more months or six more weeks.

Enough to say that those who are earthly minded have a desperate need for miracles and so on because this world and everything in it demands to be satisfied in the here and now. Those whose minds are set on the things of heaven, know that the flesh and this life here on earth is but a vapor and in those saints, passing from this world to the next becomes something very beautiful because long before they die their flesh had been starved of its own self importance. Christ in them increased, and their flesh decreased. And so they pass on easily and beautifully into the next world as opposed to those who have been dominated all of their lives by their flesh and their emotions, who would never dream of “taking up their cross daily,” because they have fed themselves on a daily diet of how to “live their best lives now.” And so the last line of one of my posts said “This is life, all else is merely the flesh making loud the noise of its death.” And because of that line, a dear sister in the Lord, who I know very well and who shall remain anonymous, wrote to me and told me of her personal story that dramatically highlights this truth. This is what she wrote to me…….

I just read your Facebook post. That last sentence, “the flesh making loud the noise of its death,” made me think of the morning I watched my mother die. (her mother was a professing Christian of the Charismatic persuasion) My mom did not have peace in the last months, weeks and days of her death. She was an obstinate woman who refused to surrender wholly to God’s sovereignty over her life. The whole experience of watching my mother be consumed physically by her illness and slowly dying, both physically and spiritually, before my eyes, is not something I can really put into words. Deep down inside, my mother harbored resentment toward me and it only served to make her like a wounded coyote that you’re trying to help, but it won’t let you help it, it will just try to bite you.

Abandoned by my father and despised by my mother. Yet, in the economy of God and in ways that only He works, He brought my mother back to me in the last few years of her life. I put a roof over her head and I cared for her needs. She had  always chosen men and relationships over me, and most of my care throughout my life came from my grandparents. Yet, the one who didn’t care for me, my mother, was the one God chose for me to take care of. The whole thing seemed like a tragic, yet strangely fitting irony. The last time I saw her while she was conscious and awake was the day she moved back to her home State to die. She was furious with me because in her mind, I incorrectly wrapped one of the items she was taking with her. Of course I had not but this was an echo of our relationship.She thought I was mocking her. I wasn’t. But that was just how it was. She was always mad at me for something I didn’t do right.

The morning she died, we watched her stop breathing. We began to weep as she lay there for what seemed like an age. Then her body violently gasped for air. My siblings and I were startled. Then she stopped breathing again. We thought this was it. Yet, about a minute later, she violently gasped again. It was loud and violent. It was totally macabre and disturbing. The whole thing was surreal because you instinctually want to help, you want to fix it, save them. I watched her body try desperately to hold on, literally to her very last breath. There was nothing I could do but watch it happen. Watch “the flesh make the loud noise of its death.” And as I watched my mother refuse to die, I remember thinking, “this is like our flesh, it refuses to die, but it must.” It does everything it can to hold onto the soul, it doesn’t want to let go. It keeps gasping for air, desperate to hang on, dragging us back down to the earthly plane. But it must die. We must let it die so that we can fly into His presence.

To experience first-hand, the terrible hold that the flesh has upon the spirit is terrifying. Only Christ could break a grip like that. I saw the human body desperately cling to the spirit within it, refusing to let go. Like a callous machine, it forced her to keep breathing with cruel disregard for the spirit’s longing to be set free. Death is the ultimate surrender. And my mom hung on to the bitter end. The spiritual battle that took place those last few days was fierce. The day before she was incapacitated with meds, she cursed God. I got there the next day. Much of my mom’s resentment toward me was because I belong to the Beloved. I have belonged to him since he knit me in her womb. There was always an underlying tension between us and I never understood it until later in life. It seems mind boggling how God chooses his hidden ones. The very womb I came from rejected him to the end. Yet, I still have hope that in her last moments, she did, in fact, surrender. In the end, we will all surrender, one way or another.

Many years ago, in the depths of a very dark situation with my oldest son, I received a vision of his deliverance (14 more years would pass before its fulfillment) It was a clear word from the Lord to me and I hung onto that with all of my strength, with everything that was in me. Day followed day and the months rolled by and then the years passed. Long days and short years. And with every passing year the situation got worse and my strength was failing me. It was then that I suddenly realized that I was not hanging onto Him, He was holding on to me. There is a hand that holds you brothers and sisters. It is the hand of Jesus. Take courage today, He is the one holding you and He shall never grow weary.

Php 1:29  For unto you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; 

This is a challenge to most saints. Yet it is the mind of God and the Spirit. How often, when we hear the word “granted,” do we associate it with suffering? People are granted wishes. Others are granted pardons. Requests are granted. And so here we read that it has been granted to us, we have been given the unique privilege of, suffering for Jesus. When you suffer or have suffered in the past, did you consider it an honor? Did you think to yourself “oh how marvelous, I get to suffer for Jesus sake and in doing so glorify His name?” I think if we are honest with ourselves, very few people in our day think like this, yet here it is written. Paul, writing from his chains of arrest, refers to them as “my chains are in Christ.” And because of his prevailing attitude in the midst of suffering his chains actually act to encourage other saints and embolden them. This is our calling brothers and sisters. Nothing has changed since the days of the disciples, who, after being scourged, celebrated the fact that they were counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ.

In the Kingdom of God, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Whether we live or whether we die we have been called to glorify God. To magnify Christ in the eyes of the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is our calling. Not just Paul or Peter but you and I. We have the very same calling and we are led and empowered by the very same Holy Spirit. We know that the work that He has begun in us He is finishing in us to the very day we are called home. We are a work in progress, ever striving to be like our Lord. We above all people should have a great desire to go home to be with Jesus, and this, tempered only by our desire to serve Him here for His will and for His good pleasure. Therefore, we saints, whether in chains or whether in ill health or whether in poverty, should always have the same mindset. That we should stand in one Spirit, with one mind and one heart and soul striving together for the faith of the Gospel. And if we find ourselves in chains or impoverished or in sickness unto death, we should stand strong and in no way be terrified, for this is proof to the enemy of our soul that our words carry little value. Let us stand and be a witness to God’s glory in whatever situation we find ourselves in and whether we live or whether we die.