Heb 6:4-6Β 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.Β
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 overcomeΒ 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 ceasedΒ 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?Β 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 2:1Β 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.Β
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.
Toby Mac
Phil Wickham
For king and country
Brandon Lake
Rebecca St James
Chandler Moore
Maverick City Music
Kirk Franklin
Chris Tomlin
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This is the secular world and the world of so called Christian entertainment intertwined. The fact that they were even there tells us all we need to know, let alone the fact that none of them walked out. Men and women, dazzled by lights and fame and fortune, sitting in perfect harmony with filth, perversion and satanic inspired entertainment. What fellowship has light with darkness? What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? Unequally yoked with unbelievers or can we say its all just unbelievers? The chasm grows wide brothers and sisters and no man can straddle it, those who try will fall headlong into the abyss.
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 youβre trying to help, but it wonβt 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 hadΒ always chosen men and relationships over me, and most of my care throughout my life came from my grandparents. Yet, the one who didnβt 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 wasnβt. But that was just how it was. She was always mad at me for something I didnβt 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, βthis is like our flesh, it refuses to die, but it must.β It does everything it can to hold onto the soul, it doesnβt 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 spiritβs 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 momβs 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 1:29Β For unto you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;Β
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.
Many evangelical churches and most pentecostal or charismatic churches you go into today, raise their hands in worship. Like everything else in Christendom, there can be the mechanical act of doing something because it is supposed to be done, or there can be the true living dynamic response to the very presence of the Living God. Every single aspect of the natural worship of Christianity can be reduced to some dusty empty ritual that has long since replaced the living reality of God’s manifest presence. It is interesting when you watch secular concerts that you see arms aloft all over the stadium or concert hall, swaying to the rhythm of the song. Good music entertains us and can move us, Gods manifest presence invades every part of who we are and never leaves us the same. It creates in us a thirst that can never be quenched by anything other than His presence. It tears down and builds up, it raises us up from the dark valley floor to the lofty heights of His glory.
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There is the presence of God to be found in glorious, enthusiastic and energetic worship, the kind of worship that lifts your spirit. It can lift up the head and invigorate the heart and fill you full of joy and you leave strengthened. This is good worship. Yet there is another kind of presence of God in worship, the kind of presence that there seems to be such a famine of throughout the land. The first kind of presence we spoke of lifts your heart, the second kind of presence invades every part of who you are. It falls from heaven like a heavy dew, heads are lowered and hands are raised. All becomes quiet, one barely breathes as the Spirit of God slowly penetrates our very being and the ground upon which we stand becomes Holy ground. It saturates our very DNA.
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The first kind of presence uplifts us, the second changes us fundamentally. As living waters pour into us then it rises up like a great river that is so full that it overflows its banks. The banks themselves begin to crumble and fall into this river of pure life as it swells up and floods every part of who we are. The landscape is being changed by this flood, the very topography of our lives is being altered by its powers and everything that is not securely rooted to Godly foundations are simply swept away. Changed forever. And when the flood recedes we are left with a glorious afterglow. As the deer pants for the water-brooks, I wonder, do our hearts pant after this kind of encounter.
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The Lord Himself does not need professional worship teams. He does not need people to encourage us to stand up, jump up and down and raise our hands. In the Welsh revival two young women singing either acapella or simply backed by a piano typically sang “Here is love, vast as the ocean.” And there was love, in the very midst of them, vast as the ocean, flooding the hearts and minds of all who attended. Brothers and sisters, in all our modernity, what have we lost? In the program of churches and the professional class of worshiper leaders and pastors we have lost the simplicity of it all. And in the losing of it we now have to entertain the people. Spirit led worship is exactly that, it is Spirit led.
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In work we have a routine. In life we have a routine. Prisoners in prison have a routine. Oftentimes we are slaves to the routine, it is what gets us through life. Yet, there is nothing routine about the Holy Spirit of the Living God. He is dynamic and you can never know what way the wind will blow next. Have we sold our souls for a routine? Routine in the home, routine at work, routine at church. Routine people do not change the world. Routine people do not do wage war on the battle-fields of life. The Spirit of God is dynamic and those filled with His “dynamis,” change the environment around them because the environment inside them has been filled to capacity and is overflowing its banks. Lord fill us again to overflowing with the kind of presence that invades every part of who we are.
Eph 4:30Β And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.Β
It is always surprising to me just how many within the confines of Christendom deny that the Holy Spirit can be grieved. And yet here in the scriptures, very plainly, we are told not to grieve the blessed Holy Spirit. The Greek word here for grieve means to make sorrowful or to distress. Can we make God sorrowful? Can we cause Him distress? Yes indeed we can and it is the knowing of this and the proper understanding of this that creates the lines within which we walk the narrow path. Stray across the lines and we cause our Father grief. He is grieved when we do not act according to the nature He has given us but rather we act as the old man would have acted. ” Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” This is the pleas of David in his great penitent psalm 51. Now, had God abandoned David? No. Yet David had fallen from His good graces and it was required of him to come to His Lord and make confession. And there is no doubt that the joy of His salvation was restored to David.
And so we find in this chapter 4 of Ephesians two sets of instructions. We are to “put of,” all manner of conduct of the old man. And we are to “put on,” all the characteristics of the new man. It is entirely clear that the putting on and putting off is our part. This is how we cooperate with the Lord. We have been delivered from the power of the old man and we have be transformed by the renewing of our minds as the new man. Examples given for the the conduct of the old man are lying, anger, stealing corrupt words, bitterness, wrath, outcry’s and speaking evil of men with malice. Conduct of the new man are truth, forgiveness and peace, honesty, hard work, imparting grace to those who hear us, kindness and being tenderhearted. This shall be our walk until the day of our redemption when this corrupt body is raised in in-corruption. In all tender relationships there is the fear of offending the one that we love and so it is, more completely, with our relationship with the Lord. In fact, it is this tenderheartedness and love that “keeps us.” The power of law was replaced with relationship. In this the law is fulfilled. Our motivation to walk in the Spirit of God is love. Religious men know nothing of this. They are kept by the rule of the law which they fail, without redemption. We the saints are kept by our love relationship with Jesus, which we never want to grieve, but when we inevitably do, He has made provision for us before the throne of grace.
I believe God will ignore most of the Evangelical churches standing today. They have what they want, they are satisfied with what they have, and there is no room in their program for the Holy Spirit to do His thing…………………to go forward requires that we go backward to rediscover and reclaim our spiritual roots. We have abandoned our roots and are wandering helplessly in a spiritual desert………what is happening across the board cannot be salvaged from a spiritual standpoint, and the chances are pretty high that God may have to start all over again,my prayer is that it happens quickly…..I am not sure this can begin in todays church. I am absolutely sure it cannot begin in most denominations (Tozer- Alive in the Spirit)
Now can I suggest that since this was written over fifty years ago, brother Tozer could be even more emphatic than his above statements. In Psalm 11 David asks “What can the righteous do in the foundations are destroyed?” What will happen when the average Evangelical church has exactly what it wants but is given over to leanness? ( psalm 106 13-15) Can dimmed lights replace leanness? How about musical concerts? Smoke machines? What disaster has befallen us? We are exceedingly lean people wandering lost in a desert of our own request and all we have to encourage ourselves is crowds? Somehow, if we have many folks walking through the doors and three services on a Sunday then maybe no one will notice the leanness? If they do we just need to make it darker or increase the entertainment value. Lets start to teach them how to live and somehow ignore the fact that the Holy Scriptures first teach us how to die.
Our spiritual roots which Tozer advises us to go back to can only be found in the Scriptures. If the programs have become the service then the service has to end until the only program available is the Holy Spirit’s program. What? If we shut down the programs who is going to pay the light bills and the staff’s salary. Someone might whisper “maybe we could just meet in our homes,” and upon overhearing this the professionals howled in protest. Now if we are to return to our spiritual roots where would a man give a word of wisdom? Where would a woman give a tongue? Where would one give a prophecy? Obviously not in the professional gatherings, only the ordained experts and trained worship leaders can be heard there. No scripture for that but lets not let that get in the way of the fact that this is how we have always done it for decades and centuries. Tozer goes on to say ” the next generation or two will face a challenge that cannot be overcome in the natural. Throughout history God has selected certain people to come out of the established church and start over again using biblical authority. What is happening across the board cannot be salvaged from a spiritual standpoint.”
Tozer gave a dire report on the state of the Evangelical church and its denominational counterparts fifty years ago, since then they have plunged down into the depths of leanness and depravity. One could only imagine the horror of men like Tozer and Ravenhill and even Wilkerson if they saw the depths to which the established church has fallen. Lean churches produce lean leaders who produce lean converts and that’s the best of them. The others will cross land and sea to make one convert and make them twice the child of hell than themselves. What can we do if the foundations are destroyed? We must discover anew the proper foundation that is laid down in Christ and the Apostles and the prophets. We must raise spiritual walls using only the Word of God. We must be found in these days of danger in our high towers. The righteous run into to it and they are safe. The high tower, the fortress, the deliverer, my shield in whom I trust. Upon Christ alone and upon His word we must go forward, baptized in the Holy Spirit that emboldens us to stand in such a day. This is our spiritual roots.
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.(Eph 4:4-6)
There is one Body and one Spirit and that’s the plain truth of it. Whoever attempts to divide the Body is on a fools errand. The catastrophic failure of denominationalism flows from the root failure to understand our calling. To walk as one in Christ, this is the hope of our calling. We endeavor to keep the unity of Christ which means we diligently work to tear down walls of separation just as the walls that separated the Jews from the Gentiles were torn down on the bloody battle-field of Calvary. The Body of Christ spans the world and churches and denominations. Christendom, all that calls itself after Christ is not the Body, but for the most part the Body dwells within the confines of Christendom. Christendom needs them but they do not need Christendom. For by our new birth we were born into Christ, into the Body and it is one. One faith, one baptism and one God the Father who is in us. If the Father is not in you then you are not in the Body of Christ, no matter what “church,” you belong to. If the Father is in you then you belong to the Body of Christ no matter what “church,” you belong to.
Being a member or an attendee of a “church,” is of no consequence to those in whom the Father does not dwell. Circumcised or uncircumcised has no spiritual value. Church goer or non church goer has no spiritual value outside of the Spirit of God that dwells with us. Among the true Body of Christ there are some apostles and some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. TheirΒ purpose is to bring the saints to maturity and toΒ edify the true Body of Christ until Christ comes again. They are not for the amusement or the hiring of the unsaved or the religious. No one outside of the Body can be edified by those whom the Lord calls, for the calling is to the one true Church. In Christendom we see “the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” (Eph 4:14) The plotting is always in association with self-serving. Every wind of doctrine is employed by the trickery of men to build themselves up, and build for themselves a kingdom. Yet God will always have those of the Body who shall speak the truth in love, seeking only to edify and protect the Body. It is incumbent upon you, O saint, to discern these things by the Word of God and His Spirit.
What does it mean to be delivered? What does it look like for God to take full possession of us? Did He not purchase us? Did He not redeem us? He surely did and He will have all of us. One Wednesday night many many years ago at a church I used to attend, I was ministering to a young man in his 20s. He had been in the army. As I prayed for him I heard myself telling him that this was a battle. He had to fight his way to the very center of all of the madness and take this flag that had been planted in the depths of his heart and break it over his knee. “This is what victory looks like to you,” I told him. As I was driving home the Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly clearly. “That was a good prayer…. how about you?……what about your battle?” And in that way that only God can do, I heard Him speak without speaking. I had a flag planted in the depths of my heart. It was planted there when I was a child. The devil himself, through my earthly father had planted a flag in my heart and it denoted ownership. There was a part of my heart that I could not have articulated to you. Oh I knew I had anger. I knew there was rage in me still, even after coming to the Lord, but it was buried deep. It would come out in flashes and would shock me.
As I continued driving home in the midst of this revelation, the Holy Spirit told me to go home, go to the basement where my father would be, he was visiting from Scotland. Turn of the television and look him right in the eyes and say to him “I am going to tell you something and I do not want you to interrupt me. I love you dad. As far as I am concerned there is no past between us, there is only now and I forgive you.” And when the Holy Spirit was finished speaking to me I was totally horrified. There was an inner scream in me. I was supposed to say this to the man who crushed my heart and broke my spirit? I would rather be roasted over hot coals. Its not that I did not want to say it to him, its that I simply could not. That was a bridge too far. And in my thoughts I screamed “I could never do this.” And immediately, the Holy Spirit very firmly said to me, out of my own mouth no less, in a way that could not be argued with “yes you can.” And so I drove home, trembling. Fear rose up in me. A fear I had not felt since I was a child dealing with the rage of a drunken father who hated God. I was literally drowning in my fear. There was no place to run and no place to hide. There was a flag planted in the depths of my heart and this very night God was going to tear it down.
I arrived home. I asked my wife where my dad was. I was half hoping he was not in the basement. Maybe I could convince myself it was not God that spoke. “He’s in the basement watching TV. ” I approached the stairs like a man walking towards his own funeral. Thoughts and memories rushing through my mind, memories I had suppressed all of my adult life. With every stair I went down I could hear the insults. “Fucking idiot.” Another stair, “You useless piece of shite.” Another stair “stick that fucking knife in me right now.” Another stair “go on you fucking poof.” I was descending back into a hell I had long since left behind. And there he was. And there I was. The man that had crushed my heart and broken my spirit and robbed me of my childhood, and had never been confronted in any way. The giant that ruled over my childhood land with ruthless domination. All of a sudden, there I was, speaking word for word what the Holy Spirit had told me to say. And the flag was uprooted and broken in two. The stronghold fell. I hugged my father and wept on his shoulder. And when it was over it was over. I would like to tell you that it had a fairy tale ending. That we had this marvelous relationship after that. We did not. Yet, the power had been broken. The work had been done. Listen brothers, listen sisters. God wants all of you. He knows the very depths of your heart. He knows you better than you know yourself. He will do a work in you. He will take what is His. He will shape you and mold you. Never fight it. God bless you in your journey.
Gal 5:1Β Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.Β
In Galatians we see a real encounter. Paul faces them head on. How often do we see this nowadays? A traveling “apostle,” or “prophet,” will come to your church and tell everyone how good they are and how blessed they are going to be in the coming year. They will not be invited to visit near the end of the year, for that is when the resident senior pastor encourages everyone to give in order to getΒ a tax break. An end of year giving. Yet when that year is over, here comes the wolves. Its bonus time. They invite each other to each others churchesΒ to come and “speak a word.” Listen to the word Paul speaks to the churches in Galatia, people that he had brought to the LordΒ himself. 1. O foolish Galatians who has bewitched you? 2. How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage. You observe days and months and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. 3. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth. 4. I have doubts about you. 5. You have become estranged from Christ (let that sink in) you who attempt to be justified by the law, you have fallen from grace. 6. You ran well, who has hindered you from obeying the truth.
That’s the diagnosis and it is a devastating one. Now here is the remedy. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. It seems incredible that this has to be restated. And there is no doubt that Paul is somewhat astonished at how far they have fallen, in fact, they had fallen from grace. The unmerited favor of God had been replaced by their own attempts to create merit and standing before God. This is not only a refutation of the truth, this is a denial of Christ Himself and Him crucified. Had they suffered so many things… in vain? Was it all for nothing? Were they merely dogs that had returned to their vomit? No, but they were in great danger of that. They must now repent and remember that it was the liberty that Christ gained for them on Calvary that had set them free and He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. The flesh wars against the Spirit brothers and sisters. It would rather rule over itself in bondage than to be vanquished and the spirit set free. We must decide these things. Shall we not trust in the finished work of the Lord? Shall we not consider this established fact that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh? That we have been called to be more than conquerors through Him who loved us?
Nothing that we can do can establish our righteousness in Christ. Our call is simply obedience to the Word of God and the Spirit of God and this shall produce love and joy and peace and long-suffering. Goodness and faithfulness and gentleness shall be our mark. Self control shall be our way. For those of us in Christ have crucified the flesh with all of its passions and desires. The world will see something of Christ in us. They will see a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God’s special possession called out specifically to declare the praises of Jesus who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God. Sons and daughters who move and breathe and have our being in His grace and in His mercy. We live by His grace and in this are justified by faith. If we indeed live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit brothers and sisters. Let us not deceive ourselves for God is not mocked. What a man sows he reaps. If we sow to the Spirit we shall reap everlasting life as opposed to the flesh which reaps corruption and death. Let us not boast in anything other than the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to us and we to the world. Stand fast brothers and sisters.
Burdens are the celestial stairs
That surely lift me higher
For it's right there where I meet my Lord
Who shall take me through the fire.
Trials are the wings I need to fly
To fly to higher ground
I'll meet the Lord up in the air
To sing with choirs a heavenly sound.
Sufferings draw me ever closer
I am weak and He is strong
And in the depths of my infirmities
You shall surely hear my song.
It is the song of songs of Calvary
Where my Savior bled and died
And rose again three days hence
And now is glorified.
The daily crosses that I bear
To the world they seem a trial
But they sharpen me in the inner man
For they'll only last a while
Soon enough I'll breath my last
I'll lay down the burden of my soul
Then stand before the King of Kings
Where I'll be finally whole.
A long time ago, I remember flying into Glasgow Airport. Now Scotland is a country that spends a significant amount of the year under cloud cover. Yet here I was, above all the clouds, in a perpetually blue sky, about to descend into and below not just dark clouds but a storm system.
It suddenly struck me that no matter what kind of darkness or grayness or however driech ( good Scottish word for overcast) it was, or whatever storm was raging, that just above that storm or darkness was a perpetually blue sky. The answer was and always has been to come up higher. To rise up above every situation and come into and dwell in this perpetually blue sky.
It’s there in the deepest darkest valleys. It’s there when there seems to be no light and no way ahead. It’s there, it’s there, He’s there, He’s always there and He has given His children wings that they may fly through the gross darkness into His marvelous light. Wings strong enough to fly through the fiercest storms.
Spiritual wings that elevate us from even the deepest of dungeons that can create a way through the darkness. That can disrupt that very darkness with the turbulence of His holiness that pierces the darkness and causes light to fall to earth so that they who dwell in that very darkness can see this great light. The beauty of His holiness in mortal men. A beauty that points to immortality and the eternal. A beauty that penetrates the impenetrable light of God Himself.
Our role in the coming days (lengthy)
The Body of Christ has not changed down through the centuries. Always at her core she has been called to be an eye-witness to Godβs glory. This is the essential heartbeat of Gods remnant bride and always will be. She is a tabernacle in the wilderness, she is Gods temple here on earth. At the same time she has always been despised by the religious spirit because she speaks truth to power. In these days God says in His word through His prophet Zechariah that β In that last day a fountain shall be opened up for the house of David.β God Himself says again through the prophet that (speaking of Christendom) βTwo thirds in it shall be cut off and die. But one-third shall be left in it. I will bring the one-third through the fire, I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say β This is my people.β (Zec 13:8-9)
And so we see that a fountain shall be opened in that day for the house of David. Can you imagine how welcome a fountain would be in the midst of a dry and thirsty land, a land racked with drought and famine? I want us to look at two men of God and see what parallels we can draw. Letβs look at Noah and as we do letβs think about the context of the time in which he lived. Itβs a time and a place of great wickedness and there would only be a tiny fraction saved out of this. Noah is commissioned to build an ark over a long period of time. We know that Noah faced ridicule and scorn. What he was building have never been built before. And, rain had never fallen from the sky and the notion that the whole earth would be covered by a flood was preposterous to all who lived then.
Every day the people could hear Noahβs hammer. Every day the ark took shape and was rising up. The continuous hammering would have been a great source of irritation to all around him. Noah would have to keep building despite the ridicule and the scorn and the anger because the rain was surely coming and he was being obedient to his calling. We too as Gods remnant people have to keep true to what the Lord has called us to do. We are also in the ark business. There was one place of salvation when the rains of judgment began to fall, it was the ark. Can I put it to you brothers and sisters that the remnant church of God is Godβs ark built by the hands of Jesus. The Body of Christ.
With the judgments beginning to fall, with the beginning of the birth pangs, it will become apparent that God has a people who have not bowed the knee to Baal. God is getting ready to reveal His ark by bringing judgment and allowing the rise of the anti-christ. This ark will be a witness to the glory of God and His way of escape. This ark will be used as a last chance for the un-redeemed of the world to be saved before final judgment. This ark will be revealed to the world by persecution. All of the world will see this ark and they will be without excuse when that day comes. This ark is the glory of Christ here on the earth and He reveals Himself through what He has built.
Now lets consider Joseph and consider the context and the back-drop of his day. Here we have Joseph who has been called to save a remnant. βAnd God sent me before you to save a Remnant in the earth and to save your life by a great deliverance.β ( Gen 45:7) Before Joseph could do this he had to be scorned and ridiculed by his own. Because of dreams and visions, that scorn turned to anger and hatred. He was then rejected and sold into slavery. He is then wrongfully accused and ends up in prison, seemingly forgotten and forsaken. God of course had never left him. This is way of the remnant. Yet God had not forsaken Joseph and even in prison Joseph moved in the supernatural and he found Godβs favor. He was able to interpret dreams and visions and this would lead him to see that a great famine was coming upon the land. He was able to make provisions that would save βA Remnant in the earth.β
Can you see the pattern behind this brothers and sisters? Can you relate to the suffering and the rejection and the fact that he seemed forsaken? Joseph was surely plagued by this as he languished in prison. The pattern is clear. When there is great judgment coming upon the land, God has a people or a person whom He will send ahead to enable whoever will, to escape that judgment. God has created such a vehicle in the Body of Christ. And they too, just like Joseph, must be despised and rejected by the very oneβs they have been sent to save. This is the divine pattern. We see our Lord Jesus walk down this path. He came from the glories of heaven and the right hand of the Father, emptying Himself and humbling Himself in order to walk amongst those who He had come to save. He became despised and rejected, tortured and killed.
And now with the final judgment fast approaching, the ark which Jesus has been building for 2000 years is almost ready. Godβs remnant church comes from every possible background and across all denominational lines. ( artificial walls built by men and not by God) Through the last 2000 years they have been scorned, ridiculed hated and despised and hunted down and killed and almost all of this was done by "their own.β Their own being people who would profess God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. Yet God in His mercy will reach out and continue to reach out through His Body while there is yet time. A witness until the very end. A faithful Body and a people without excuse.
The Body of Christ is everywhere. It is in every village, every town , every city and every nation on the earth. There are countless millions of Gods own children around the world. For the most part they are swallowed up in Christendom with its multiplicity of divisions and man made walls. Yet, the closer to Christβs return is, the more and more difficulty the Body of Christ will find within the denominations of men. Could a saint really stay within the confines of any organisation that has corrupted itself with the world?
This will be the ever increasing pressure that will be brought to bear on the saints in the coming days. Only the individual saint can answer this question for his or her self. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit must be a lamp unto our feet. As the darkness increases our need for the light that shines forth from the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit who gives us not only revelation but inspiration only becomes greater and greater.We have a God who will never leave us nor forsake us. We must trust Him with our whole hearts.The Word of God and His doctrines were written to be understood by even the simplest among us, in fact God delights in confounding the wise by the foolish things of this world. The doctrines of men are generally complicated and confusing. Stay with the Word, lean upon the Holy Spirit for understanding and insight. Do all of this with your whole heart and you will not go far wrong. He did not leave us as orphans, praise God.The Holy Spirit will lead and guide His children through not only good times but through the darkest valleys and the narrowest portions of the path that leads us home.
2Co 12:9Β And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.Β
How many people that you know, glory in their infirmities? This chapter of 2 Corinthians highlights the difference between the one who boasts in order to elevate themselves, and the other who boasts in their weaknesses so that Christ might be elevated. There is a great chasm between the two camps. We see clearly in 2 Cor 12 that the power of Christ is manifested not by dreams or visions or even out of body experiences to places such as ” the third heaven, but rather the power of Christ is manifested in his humbled servants who can see and are not ashamed of their infirmities. Now why would this be? Surely the fantastic element of the supernatural would draw people? Yes indeed it does, but not to Christ. It draws them to the one who “boasts,” of them. Paul’s greatest desire is that the power of Christ may rest upon him and that all men would be drawn towards Jesus, not himself.
If you are looking forΒ the difference between a true shepherd of Christ, or a hireling, listen to what they say. Many elevate themselves by telling stories of spiritual “adventures.” They want to show you how important they are in spiritual matters and will boast, over and over again, about these matters. Paul does the opposite. Listen to what he says that he takes pleasure in for Christ’s sake.1. Infirmities. 2. Reproaches. 3. Needs. 4. Persecutions. 5. distresses. He has fully grasped the tremendous spiritual truth that when we are weak then He is strong. The power of Christ rests upon those who understand that His grace is sufficient for us and His strength in us is “made perfect” by our weakness. The name it and claim it folks, the prosperity people cannot understand this. To them, healing is everything because in the end it is all about them. They desperately want the healing and their very lives are a denial of the sufficiency of God’s grace.The hirelings they follow desperately want any healing so that they can boast in that and elevate themselves.
Consider Paul and Silas in the dungeon. Were they not weak? Were they not reproached? Were they not persecuted? Were they not in distress? Yes indeed and so much more. Yet, incredibly, Paul says that he takes pleasure in these things. And this very incident in the dungeon proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gods word through Paul was more than just words. He lived this life. The power of Christ did rest upon him for this very reason. And this in no way inhibited the supernatural power of God, quite the opposite. It is from a place of glorifying God, whether we live or whether we die, that His perfect strength is demonstrated in us. Why do we see so few miracles? Because we do not embrace the sufficiency of His grace. We, self, must have what we want, what we consider we need. Our very lives seem to be all important when in actual fact all that is important is the glory of God. It’s in this glory that God operates. Brothers and sisters, when we can glorify God in our infirmities (The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord) then we can manifest His perfect strength through us and show the world what it truly means to walk in the all sufficient grace of God as His power rests upon us.
Last night was a sleepless night for me. There was two lines that came to me in my sleep. “I’m walking in the shadow of an already setting sun.” I knew if I did not get up, that these words would not be remembered in the morning. Typically when I write a poem, the Holy Spirit will give me a line that represents the meaning He wants me to convey in words. It’s not usually in the middle of the night. It was a struggle as I was so desperately tired, but eventually I got up at about 3am and went downstairs and wrote the lines. This morning it seemed clear to me what the Holy Spirit was saying. He was speaking to someone, perhaps many, who look at their lives or a particular situation and it seems hopeless. It seems no good thing can come out of this despite your desperate prayers. So, this poem/word is to someone who has specifically asked the LordΒ a question about what shall become of their desperate situation. The old adage “its always darkest before the dawn,” seems to fit here. There is a dawn coming, the sun will rise in your situation, but in the depths of the longest night it is often hard to believe. To you who asked the question of God, He says to you “the victory is already won, right now your just walking in the shadow of it.”
I'm walking in the shadow
Of an already setting sun
I'm walking in the shadow of
A victory already won
And in that victory I'll arise
O death where is your sting?
I'll stand before the Lord of Lords
And this is what I'll sing
Hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah to my King
Hallelujah hallelujah
O death where be thy sting?
Now I look back at the shadow
And the shadow is no more
It's been swallowed up in victory
As I walk on through the door
It's an open door to heaven
A door no man can close
For the one who holds it open
Is the one who took the blows.
A Call To The Remnant 