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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Remnant church is, at it’s core and most fundamentally, God’s witness here on earth. Truly we have been called first and foremost to be a witness. Now most saints know that this word in its Greek form translates to martyr. Does that mean that every saint, every witness since the beginning of the church has been called to martyrdom? Certainly not. Yet let us not forget brothers and sisters that in every century God’s people here on earth have been persecuted and martyred for their faith. The danger for us saints in the Western world in the last 100 years has been that we have not been so-called. Other saints around the world cannot say that, whether that is Africa or Asia or China or the Middle East, they have continued to be persecuted and martyred for their faith. For most of Europe and North America, this has not been the case with some noticeable exceptions during periods of war and so on. Now, one would imagine that living in an atmosphere where one is allowed to worship freely without any state or religious interference that Christendom would thrive, yet, if we look at the state of Europe and North America we see something that at best, is a shallow faith. In the case of Europe we definitely see a post Christian society. In North America what is predominant is a cultural Christianity, a cross-less Christianity and a Christ-less Christianity and some cross-pollination or in many cases a hybrid of the all of these. Cultural Christianity would be a Christianity that is simply shaped to suit our culture. In this kind of Christianity Jesus would rarely be mentioned and God would be seen as some kind of Santa Claus. A cross-less Christianity would cover movements like the prosperity gospel, name it and claim it groups, Word of faith believers and health and wealth believers. Or again, a hybrid of all three. A Christ less Christianity would cover dead denominations for whom the Word of God has ceased to be authoritative even in pretense and where all things are acceptable, this would include things like gay marriage and gay ministers, abortion, divorce and so on.
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.(1Pe 4:13,14)
Brothers and sisters, I want you to notice the above scripture, especially the highlighted portion. Can you see what the Holy Spirit is saying? He specifically talks about the ” spirit of glory.” What is this spirit of glory that ” shall be revealed?” Obviously the context of 1Peter is suffering, For those who can rejoice in the midst of suffering there is a specific kind of glory revealed. Just like the refining fires reveals the gold that lies within the rock, then the refining fire reveals the gold that lies within the saint as it burns away the rock and the dross and we are left with pure gold. We see in Habakkak, in the midst of terrible suffering and judgement this scripture “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab 2:14)
Despite the vastness of the universe, we know that the Lord holds it all in the hollow of His hand. Our minds simply cannot conceive of the vastness of our God. How can it be possible for mere humans to know God? And what is this ” knowing?” The Scriptures in Ephesians three are not saying that we can know about Him, it is saying that we can know Him and the fullness of Him. As I read Ephesian’s three I penned the song/poem below. To know God is the most intimate of terms. The Scriptures tell us that Joseph did not ” know” Mary until after Jesus was born. Of course this was a reference to physical intimacy, which of course makes the husband and the wife ” one flesh.” This coming together is of course a sacred thing and this one flesh is a mysterious thing. Now consider the even deeper aspect of this ” knowing.” The spiritual knowing is something very mysterious.
To know and be filled with the ” fullness of God,” is a supernatural thing. There is nothing physical about it, it is above and beyond that. So one may ask this very legitimate question of all who profess to be Christians ” Do you ” know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:19) One must ” know,” the love of Christ, not know about it ( because the scriptures say it passes knowledge) if one is to be filled with the ” fullness of God.” This is the Christian man or woman. The man or the woman who can say ” For we do not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty( 2 Pet 1:16)
To know the unknowable you
Is all I want to do
To plunge the depths of your love
Is to soar in the heavens above
Oh to know what cannot be known
It to kneel before your throne
The Remnant’s role has changed down through the centuries, but always at her core she has been called to be a witness, an eye-witness to Gods glory. This is the essential heartbeat of Gods Remnant bride and always will be. In this role she has been used as a sanctuary, the sanctuary, the Holy of Holy’s. She is a tabernacle in the wilderness, she is Gods temple here on earth. She is a place for the weary and the lost and forsaken. At the same time she has always been despised by the religious spirit. These are people who confess God with their mouths but who have not received God’s glory, who have never encountered the glory of the living God. In these last days God has a special role for His Remnant people and of course this will only increase the hatred by those of the religious spirit. God says in His word through His prophet Zechariah that ” In that last day a fountain shall be opened up for the house of David,” and God Himself says again through the prophet that ( speaking of Christendom) “Two 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 ” This is my people.” (Zec 13:8-9)
The flesh is a brutal thing and it certainly wars against the Spirit. In many situations I have been shocked to discover the depth of my own flesh. It makes me realize and know for a certainty that without Him I would plunge into the abyss. Thank you today Jesus for your unwarranted favor upon my life, I know what I deserve, I know for a certainly what i deserve even now and yet you have redeemed me and even when I am not faithful, you are.
Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me. (Matthew 11:6 ESV)
Dear ones – the Lord never minces words does He? He never pretends things are different than they really are? There is a spirit-scraping-bone honesty about everything He did and said while on this earth. He desires truth in the inner-most being, deep down, and unlike religious men and the church by and large today, He is satisfied with nothing less.
In this age of hyphenated, small “c” Christianity, the deep, purposeful, emptying work of the cross, has not only been lost, it have become somewhat of an offense to so many who name His name. Paul travailed for these babes, until “Christ be formed in them.” We have made the gospel so much about self-affirmation (humanism in short), not what the Word reveals it to be – self-negation. We have turned sanctification largely into a work of renovation rather what it truly is – demolition and the building up (the filling up unto fullness) of Christ in the empty shell that remains.He emptied Himself to come down and then He went willingly up to the cross of death to pour Himself out for us unto life, and He is the way; the pattern – so why is it different for us I wonder?
This link http://www.box.com/shared/6dc0jj6eao is a recording made in 2010 from a Tuesday night prayer meeting that we have. It explores the meaning of justice, what does it mean, what does it take to forgive our enemies? How many times? Should we pursue justice? Deep questions, hard answers and lessons. The first 30 minutes is the message.
A Call To The Remnant 