"God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." ²He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. ⁷And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided." - Genesis 22:1-15.

This account of Abraham offering up Isaac has been on my heart. What sticks out to me about this passage is that Abraham didn't withold anything from God and God never withheld anything from Abraham. I believe Abraham's faith was pleasing to God, not because he proved himself by offering up his son, but because he knew that God would provide the sacrifice. Despite the fact that it didn't make sense to Abraham, he didn't suddenly change his perception of God. He knew what God had promised about Isaac and yet he still went with the full intention of slaying him on that mountain. Abraham told Isaac, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." What a picture of how God provided for Himself the offering of Christ. Anytime God asks for something, we have to look and trust that He has provided for Himself the offering, the sacrifice. Do we really believe that the Father has provided the Son for us? For every need to be complete in Him? Will we withold any good thing from the One who has promised us that He will not withold any good thing from those who trust in Him? He hasn't witheld, He has already provided, He gave His Son.

I was reading Matthew 10 the other day when Jesus commissioned his first disciples. The call to discipleship isn't one of worldly success, though we like to dress it up like that. If the Master was hated and maligned for who He was, than we can expect the same. I believe those who are serious about following the Lord should count the cost. There were multitudes who heard Him, were blessed by His miracles, but never followed Him. They loved His signs but they didn't love Him. A true disciple must receive the love of the truth, the love that the Holy Spirit puts into our hearts to show us how beautiful this Man is. Jesus will never force us to carry the cross, He beckons us, but He desires a bride who will set her affections on Him alone. She will be sustained by His love so that she can undergo persecution like Him and identify with His heart in the midst of it. As I read Matthew 10, I had to ask myself: "Am I ready for the Lord to lead me to be a sheep among wolves?" We often underestimate the evil in human hearts but Jesus saw it clearly, which makes His love all the more incomprehensible. Do we really get that there is no good thing that dwells in our flesh and that God's graciousness is the only reason why we are saved? We desire God's best but will we trust in Christ alone, that He isn't witholding any good thing and that if we truly present our Isaacs on the altar that we won't be disappointed?

I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good and I can't live without Him. What can this fading life offer that is better than knowing and experiencing the love of Christ and making Him known in all that I do? I believe the Lord is honest with us at all times and desires that we realize the cost of discipleship, He doesn't want to trick us. He even asked Peter at one point if he would stop following Him, as others did. Peter responded, "where else will I go?" I want to be so wounded by His love that I cannot help but answer the Lord, "where else will I go? Your words do something to my heart and I cannot live without You." I believe the Lord also desires to show us through revelation by His Spirit that there is a reward, that knowing Him is truly more satisfying than anything we could desire, that He is truly the answer to all that we need. We have hearts that are designed for pleasure and God knows that. The question is will we delight ourselves in Him? Times are here when men's hearts will begin to fail them from fear and others will be deceived, even the elect, I want to receive what the Bible calls the love of the truth. I want to properly understand Jesus and His heart so that I can stand in the coming days, that I can know and be persuaded by revelation of God's Spirit that my reward in Christ is incorruptible and undefiled. I want to laugh at what the world calls riches, I want to love Jesus enough that I will embrace the cross. I'm not saying that earthly blessings are all bad but I don't want to cling to any Isaacs but lay them on the altar believing God has provided for me all that I need.

Refocus me Lord, I have been sidetracked and I am sorry. Jesus, place Your seal on my heart and take the desires of my heart. I want to do Your will and I cannot do it without Your help. You said that the work of God is to believe on the One whom He sent. Jesus, grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to grow in the knowledge of You, to know the great hope of Your calling, Your glorious inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of Your power towards us who believe in You. I want You first above all things and everything else to consist in You. Jesus, draw me and speak Your words of life to my heart. Awaken me, lest I fall asleep. Help me to love You more and obey You better by the power of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

"The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be My son" - Revelation 21:7
- posted by aramis306 @ 10:29 AM (0) comments |

 
"But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts 3:18-21

One of the main differences, I think, between the modern church and the first century church was their vision. Their goal was to see Jesus return, they desired this, they eagerly waited for it and they even wanted to hasten it. We preach a gospel of just getting sins forgiven, which is good, or the gospel of being refreshed and finding "peace," which is good. Why are we trying to persuade that people need peace with God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ? So that people can know where they are going when they die? Jesus didn't define eternal life as merely going to heaven, He defined it as knowing the One True God and the One whom He sent. Jesus told us to pray for heaven to come to earth not that we will just float through this life and go to heaven. The complete gospel message that Peter preached in Acts had to do with forgiveness of sins, refreshment in Christ and the return of the Christ to rule this earth. Romans 16 says that the God of peace will crush satan under our feet. Jesus said the meek will inherit the earth, we have a literal inheritance that is more real than what we see on this earth, it is eternal and incorruptible. What kind of vision do we, the bride of Christ, live with?

I get leary when I hear preachers preaching messages about having perfect prosperity in this age. What it sounds like to me is "give me all the blessings of the kingdom but we don't want the King Himself." We don't see it as a good thing, the best thing, for Jesus to come and rule and reign forever - even when He desires to rule and reign with Him. We shoot so low and we have a low estimation of who the Man and God Jesus Christ is and so we also have a low estimation of our identities in Him. I can almost hear someone say, "now, now, we don't know the day or the hour." That really isn't the point and that scripture is often misused so people can feel comfortable with compromise. The point is that we're supposed to be praying and making disciples with the goal of having Him return. We submit to the Word of God and take an uncompromising attitude with sin in our lives and seek to live unspotted from this world and raise up our children in the fear of the Lord to prepare the way for Him. So that He can return for His bride, Ephesians 5 says that He gave Himself up for His bride so that He could wash her in His word and present her to Himself as a radiant bride. That blows my mind.

I ask myself as I read the description of God's throne room in Revelation 4 and 5, 'why is this so foreign to me when the Bible says I am a citizen of heaven?' God unfolds this beautiful drama before John's eyes as the four living creatures praise the One who sits upon the throne. In His hand He holds a scroll with seven seals and an angel cries aloud "who is worthy to take the scroll and open it?" There is a silence and no one is found worthy in heaven or earth and then the Lamb of God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah comes to take the scroll and open it. The song that the four creatures sing changes to praise the Lamb who is the image of God, the radiance of the Father's glory. When I read these words something in my heart cries out that there is so much more, there is so much more to lay hold of. Paul said in 1Timothy 6:12 to "lay hold" of eternal life, this isn't a passive thing and it won't just take place without our permitting God to do His perfect work in us and laying hold of Him.
- posted by aramis306 @ 11:56 AM (0) comments |

 
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." John 3:16
"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." Romans 8:15-17

I was thinking about these verses today and John 3:16 and I've heard them and read them but the magnitude of them really hasn't sunken into my heart. It's easy to shrug off these verses, but God giving His only Son for me because He is that loving is a deep mystery that I hope never ceases to amaze me. I stray so often from pure and simple devotion to Jesus even within spiritual disciplines. In all of my striving, I lose sight of grace sometimes. I come face to face with the fact that my strength is meager and my works are tainted but God is rich in mercy and loves me and has redeemed me not because I am at all good but because He is so gracious.

In some of my less self-absorbed moments, I realize that God is showing His abundant love for me right within my present circumstances. My pastor is like a father to me, he has taken me into his home, given me all the rights and privileges of a son and exemplified what it means to be a godly husband. The interesting thing about the word adoption in Romans 8 is that it means to be adopted into a family with all the rights of a full grown son. There is no distinction in treatment in this kind of adoption, the adopted child is now a son. I stand back in awe that God would not only give His Son for me but adopt me as His own. I told my pastor once, "you and your wife treat me as a son" and his response was "that's how we see you." What did I do to deserve to be invited into this man's home and treated with such love from him and his family? Absolutely nothing and I am a better man for the experience.

I have learned so much from my time living in his house. I have learned that discipline that isn't motivated by loving adoration is mere self-service. I have been learning to do because I am not try to perform to live up to some standards to prove who I am. I have learned that my works amount to nothing, that the only works that have value are the preappointed ones ordained by God for me in Christ. I have been learning that God loves me and delights in me because His Son lives in me. I echo what David said in Psalm 18: "Your gentleness makes me great." God loves me and I love Him, His love is deep, unfailing and cleanses me from every false way. God's love changes me, it motivates me, it creates love in me for others, it purges me from everything that would hinder me from knowing Him. His thoughts and love for me is intense, jealous because the Father loves me like He loves the Son. The Son delights in representing the Father and the Spirit guides us into all truth. God gives Himself entirely, He has given and gives of Himself entirely. He has given, gives every day and has blessings that He promises for the future.

All I can ask is: Lord, help me to love you in return. I don't want to neglect so great a salvation, purge me from every false way until Your character is perfected in me and all that You have won on the cross is worked into me. Forgive me for being ungrateful so often, thank You for Your mercy and patience. I pray that anyone who I know has never received the love of Christ in their hearts, for those who have not been adopted, that their hearts would be softened. I pray that we wouldn't choose friendship with the world and buy into a lie, that we wouldn't sell what Christ has payed for by His blood. I pray Lord that You would save us from the deception and wickedness that leads us away from Your pure love. Renew our minds and may we be found in You, unspotted and joyful. May we not despise Your gentle chastening, knowing that You are saving us from being condemned with this world. I thank You and I pray that by the grace of God that Jesus would be exalted among us and in us and we know the glory He desires to share with us. In Jesus' name, amen.
- posted by aramis306 @ 12:46 AM (0) comments |

 
Some time ago, I had the pleasure of being involved with discipling a teen in my church. He wasn't really walking with God when I first met him. There was one day when I just asked him if he wanted to practice martial arts because I had experience in it and I knew that he studied. It's amazing what God can show you when you invest in other people's lives. I will call him "Chip" for privacy purposes. Chip had a real affinity for martial arts, he had pretty good technique and he could throw good kicks. The thing is, he could learn things fast and emulate them but he lacked the patience and diligence to perfect his basics. He could throw a kick hard, high and fast but he couldn't throw kicks slowly with control. The stabilizer muscles in his legs weren't that strong, so he would easily lose his balance. I made him throw kicks slowly and stress developing his core muscles and technique. People who blow themselves out by just trying to get to the end often end up with injuries or just get tired and give up when they don't see the results that they thought would bring satisfaction. This young man gave his life to the Lord at a conference and became one of the most hungry teens for God that I had ever seen.

I checked up on him now and then and one Sunday in particular he seemed kind of off. I asked him how youth group was going and he looked down and confessed he hadn't been going. He said he had playing football with some kids and how he wanted to preach to them but he hadn't. He looked ashamed and tired. He would always tell me how he would witness to his friends and sometimes he would get frustrated when people didn't repent and receive Jesus right then and there. I emphasized knowing God and having a quiet time to be alone with the Lord and hear from Him. He wanted to throw his techniques flashy, fast and hard but he lacked stability. Too often we get away from the basics and it takes a life time of diligence by grace to master them.

Trials are necessary in this process, the book of James says to let "patience have its perfect work" in the midst of a trial. Trials are when we realize it's not about us, we're not as spiritual as we think we are and it's where God does His best work in us. Trials are an opportunity to die, to embrace the cross and know intimately all that Christ has earned for us in His suffering. Jesus said that if we are to follow Him that we are to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow after Him. I think there is a distinction between denying ourselves and taking up our cross. Denying oneself simply takes discipline but taking up our cross takes faith in God. When we deny ourselves, we deny the sinful desires of our fallen nature but in the midst of trials is when we die to self - the good and the bad and is replaced with the life of Christ. When God does a work in us it isn't merely "putting things behind us" but a replacement of what we see as good with God's best. Even our best fleshly efforts are incomplete but Romans 8 says that when we follow the Holy Spirit we walk in the fulfillment of God's law. To walk as Christ did takes dying to the flesh and full reliance on the Spirit and cooperation with Him.

Some can deny themselves alright for a brief period of time and put on a nice, exterior religious guise but their pride still hasn't been dealt with. David prayed that God would cleanse him of his "secret sins" and not to let pride have dominion over him. The pharisees knew self-denial and could put on a nice facade but they didn't abhor the wickedness of their own hearts and embrace God's remedy. The deep inner work of the cross results in the lifestyle on the sermon on the mount; finding joy in being reviled and praying for those who curse us, forgiving people, finding the Lord in the secret place, giving sacrificially - all because we desire to love God first and people second. This comes and grows and patience has its work as we are faced with trials that are too much for us to handle in our own strength and we come to the end of ourselves. New life springs up in us and we have deeper revelation of God's complete and perfect love for us. But there has to be the process of dying to self so that we aren't reliant on ourselves or how devoted we perceive ourselves to be but we have faith in Jesus and His work. Instead to trying to do things so that we can feel like we're somebody, we realize more of who God is and who we are in Him and from there come good works that are acceptable to God. Our good works should come from the place of already being accepted in Him.

Too often we lose sight of the basics but God's commands aren't burdensome - His commands are to trust Him and love people. Jesus said that the work of God is to believe in the One whom He sent (John 6:28-30). Too often we tell ourselves merely to do. To those who don't live lives of obedience, the book of James says their faith is dead not that they need to do more. Faith in Jesus will produce obedience, by the grace of almighty God it will because faith by its very nature is only expressed in action. Faith isn't merely mental acknowledge but it is an inward compulsion that grows as we know more about the object of our faith. Knowing Jesus through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is crucial because we must know Him whom we believe in order to work the works of God. And a big part of this is the spiritual process of the cross in our lives that God works in us through various trials and temptations so that we aren't just outward, flashy Christians but people who have the real presence of God in their lives.
- posted by aramis306 @ 12:56 AM (0) comments |

 

“In the light of the king’s face is life, and his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain.” – Proverbs 16:15

“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise You forever, because You have done it; and in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good.” – Psalm 52:8-9

It seems odd that the sign of God’s favor over a saint’s life is the “cloud of the latter rain.” Clouds filled with rain tend to dim the sun’s light, sometimes even to the point of making it as dark as night. Sometimes they hover for quite some time as we tense for the coming rain. Sometimes the rain never comes, other times it pours and floods the streets. Still other times we feel one drop and wonder whether it was just our imagination, or had the anticipated rain begun? Sometimes we enjoy the light of the King’s face like the warmth of the sun and seem to thrive spiritually. But then the clouds come and we wonder “why is it so dim?”

In beholding Christ we are filled with His light and are content to bathe in His warmth because we are the “olive plants” that David spoke of. We look for His rain to be poured out onto our ground. In beholding His radiance we see His heart and are assured of His love and plans but we do not see these come to fruition until the rain from heaven descends to the earth. Throughout the Old Testament the prophets saw the salvation of God in the promised coming of the Messiah. Revelation of God’s promise sustained and preserved a remnant of His people by His grace. The intercession and prophecies of God’s people had gone up (they prophesied by “the Spirit of Christ” it says in 2 Peter, so that wasn’t to their credit). After the last recorded events of the Old Testament, there was a two hundred year period in which “nothing happened.” There was nothing else written until the account of Christ’s life, death and resurrection. He came as a drop from heaven in the body of a newborn after two hundred years of cloud cover. Many missed the time of their visitation when He came. His people were oppressed by Roman rule and had little hope. They believed God would rain down in judgment on their enemies. Yet He didn’t come with the fire of heaven, but He came humbly as one drop from heaven. He came down from heaven and spent the better part of His years as a carpenter who grew in favor with God and man. At the proper time, He was released to do His work and it was quick and powerful.

When Christ rose from the dead, before He ascended into heaven He told the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. The clouds overhead aren’t a sign of despair but favor, if we will wait, just wait for the Holy Spirit. I’m not suggesting laziness, the disciples prayed together as they waited on the Lord. As David said in the above written psalm, “I will praise You forever, because You have done it; and in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good.” Christ has done it all, it’s our duty to receive, walk and give. The light of the sun gets blocked out because we would be content to sit all day like fools staring at the heavens. Christ desires to pour out His Spirit into us – we need light and water to grow. Don’t be moved away from your hope and neither should we strive anxiously to bring the rain down before God desires to pour it out. Our works and striving will not hasten the rain.

Wait, knowing that it is finished, the work has been completed by Christ. Our redemption is in Him and His Holy Spirit is our only hope to work out our salvation and to live out God’s calling on our lives as children of the King. God prepares us for His outpourings by cleaning out our temples by the inner dealings of His Spirit. As we surrender and repent, He purges us of the remnants of sinful strongholds in our minds. He does this so that His grace can labor in us effectively so that we can be sent out as laborers by His grace “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). There are few laborers who labor with God’s strength. I have tried in my own strength often but God is growing me in His grace. It takes surrender, it means putting your hope in God as the olive tree in psalm 52. The plant’s only hope is that God will rain on it, our only hope is God’s mercy. That is to be the picture of our lives, even to the extent that people don’t understand our hope. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:19: “if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

We are waiting for the resurrection of God’s Spirit in revival, which should point us to ultimate resurrection at the return of Christ to rule this earth. This will be preceded by the darkest times the world has ever seen. The patience and hope of the saints for the “latter rain” of the King of kings, which the Spirit guarantees us of, will be our only strength. The antichrist will war with the saints and will be allowed to win for a time (Revelation 13:7). It will appear that hope is lost and our only hope will be God’s mercy and the promises of His coming kingdom. Our trials and afflictions now, I believe, are exercises of that. Revivals are a small picture of the greatest revival that is yet to come at the return of the King of kings and Lord of lords to reign and rule with His spotless bride (the church).

Paul also wrote in 1 Timothy that godliness has promise for this life and the next. We cannot sever the connection between the two. I’m not suggesting we sit and wait until Christ returns, we must see the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit break through into this life. God desires to work miracles among us to show that He is presently the resurrection and that He is returning with a kingdom in which there will be no suffering or death and it will be forever. The point is to be heavenly minded and knowing God’s plans and seeking God in even the most mundane circumstances so that His life will be exalted in all that we do. The point is the reward of the kingdom and not the pursuit of the world or its passing pleasures.

The clouds hanging over our present circumstances in our individual lives and as the body Christ hold the rain that God wants to pour out so that we can ever be more effective witnesses of Him and His power. Remain in Him. Sometimes God lays a promise or a divine commission before us, neither of which we can fulfill by ourselves. Before the promised desire is realized we must tarry and wait to be imbued with power from on high by the Holy Spirit so that all the glory, honor and power in the church will be unto the Head - Christ Jesus our Lord and Bridegroom.

- posted by aramis306 @ 11:51 AM (1) comments |

 
I'm listening to "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong, it's a favorite song of mine right now. I love it because it's about Jesus and who He is and how great He is and not necessarily how good or bad people feel (I'm not knocking those songs completely). I have been reading Colossians a lot lately and I love that letter because it's all about the superiority of Christ and how in Him is wisdom, knowledge and redemption. I find it interesting that Paul said in chapter 2 that he was not only concerned for the people in the Colossian church but also in Laodecia and Laodecia was the Church in Revelation that was rebuked for its lukewarm attitude. The letter warns against listening to false teachers who tell you that you need to do something to attain knowledge, that it's only for the elite. Paul answers all arguments by preaching Jesus. For all that I hear I don't hear much about the person of Jesus Christ, I hear new methods of circumcision, new ways to "improve yourself," and other teachings that cannot be understood and done by anyone but the gifted.

I hear about people going to other countries and preaching the cross but here we discuss our higher, lofty ideas and as a Church we lack true love and power. We have added to the truth and people (and I include myself in this) don't preach Christ and Him crucified because it isn't what we have determined to know. I heard a Japanese karate instructor comment once that American students were tougher to teach because they always demanded explanations for everything, whereas the Japanese were more unconditionally obedient. I'm not saying we shouldn't exercise discernment, but unless we humble ourselves as children we will by no means enter the kingdom of God. The lifestyle that Christ talks about in the Sermon on the Mount is something anyone can do and understand but hardly anyone does it because it's too hard on the flesh. I have found my greatest times with the Lord have been when I have ceased demanding reasons and worshipped Him for who He is because that never changes. What a hope we have that we have a God that we have access to, that His love has been poured out into our hearts by His Holy Spirit. We need not go far, we have but to look to Him and find our all, every need and desire is in Him. I am grateful for the days when I feel weak and I am reminded that apart from Him there is no true peace. I pray that we allow the Lord to apply the cross to our lives, to kick the props away until all we really stand on is Him rather than have a "Christ and this other thing" type of Christianity. Let us not settle for anything less than God's complete best. Why would we? Lets forsake the immediate gratification and strive to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We have no idea what our identity is as Christ's beloved bride who He wants to show the depth of His love to and move through like no other time in history. Stir us and awaken us, Lord and we will run after You.
- posted by aramis306 @ 11:54 PM (0) comments |

 
Well, here I am again. I had just about given up on this blog and I don't know if anyone still reads this but lately I had felt stirred to share some things I had been praying and journaling about. I was thinking about lawlessness today and how the Word says that the Law was our tutor to lead us to Christ. The Law does not justify us but shows us our need for justification before God through Jesus Christ. I see our nation fast deteriorating not just to immorality but amorality. There was a time when sin was frowned upon by society, abortions and divorces weren't just "social issues" but they were seen as wrong. Sex before marriage was frowned upon, we were founded on Christian morals and ethics. The Bible says we have freedom to love and serve the Lord but our freedom is largely an occasion for the lust of the flesh and I'm not just talking about the world, I'm talking more about the Church.

The Bible talks a lot about avoiding "the harlot," she is mentioned much in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Revelation. She has more appeal than the voice of wisdom because wisdom offends people, it tells people to repent and, well, that just isn't very "nice." The voice of wisdom cries out in the streets, it says in Proverbs, begging people to turn from their ways and find true delight in the knowledge of God (Proverbs 1:20-33). I'm not arguing against pleasure, I'm saying we sell ourselves short on the dung of this world and neglect the fact that God made us to delight in Him and nothing else will come close. More than that, finding delight in other things quenches the Spirit and grieves the heart of the Lord. Our deepest need and desire to really know love and return love reflects the deepest desire of God because He is love (1John). I don't see a hunger but in a few Christians because we spoil our appetite on diluted truth that doesn't challenge us or stretch our faith. The harlot soothes with false promises of fast and easy pleasure and fulfillment. Proverbs 27:6 says "faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of the enemy." I believe we are being lulled to sleep by soothing kisses of deception, lies about who God is, that He doesn't hate sin even though He loves people. Lies that He won't judge sin in and outside the Church.

I'm not preaching to just "be holy" because that is the other extreme but I do think we need a sobering look at our spiritual maturity as a Church and as individuals. Holiness is a scary word now because everyone thinks it's impossible and it is without grace. Setting ourselves apart to receive the love of Christ in our lives and to love others as He loves us is holiness. It's walking in the Spirit so as not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, not just a set of rules about the length of your hair or what kind of music you listen to. God doesn't just frown on sin, He is personally wounded by it, He was delivered up to death because of our sin. His blood is on our hands and that can be a freeing thing or a very condemning thing. We are fast becoming a nation that embraces lawlessness and where there is no acknowledgment of law there is no need for Christ. The Bible says that "the mystery of lawlessness is already at work" (2 Thessalonians 2). It also says that Christ will not return until the man of lawlessness is revealed and there is a great falling away.

What I see happening in my life and I thank God for is His discipline. It's His awakening me, taking away the props I rely on besides Him that cause me to realize my ever deepening need for grace and mercy that He gives freely. I believe there will be a move of repentance that is already occurring that will precede revival and a great end times harvest. I see among the truly hungry a desire to simply know Jesus intimately not just to have a good ministry or a comfortable life. I see some, and they are few, seeking a very real kingdom that they know isn't of this life but one that Christ will bring when He returns. Christ is returning for a bride without spot or blemish, without compromise who has broken friendship with the world and embraced friendship with the One true God.

Trials strip us so that we get a good look of how much faith we have and how much we really desire the Lord and nothing else. What we feel is NOT a reflection of God's love for us and many believe the lie that the Lord is suddenly frowning on them and doesn't love them and their love grows cold and hard. What we're seeing is OUR hardness and our work is to trust in Jesus and stand firm in the truth. To lay down the idols, to walk away from the sin and trust that if we delight ourselves in the Lord He will grant us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37). A big part of abiding in Christ is enduring, accepting and appreciating His discipline. Jesus wants us to choose Him willingly on every level, to willingly turn aside from sin as He shines light on different areas of our lives. The Lord is waking up His bride and separating us unto Himself, let those who reject the truth do what they want. Let us come away and repent of our harlotries as the Holy Spirit reveals them - "come away from her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and receive of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4). 1 Peter 3 says that judgment must come to the house of God first, Paul also wrote that when we are disciplined by the Lord it is so that we will not be "condemned with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:31-33).

Don't resent the Lord for His discipline, it's not that He doesn't want us, He does desperately but He has to show us that in certain areas of our lives we are saying 'no' to Him and He is patient with us so that we will all come to a saving knowledge of Him. It is by His grace that He changes us but He can only give grace to the humble or else He would be violating our freewill, that is why He can't just "do it all in one shot" because He wants our most conscious decision to follow Him and trust Him. The devil is the one who wants to deceive your heart but Christ wants every part of your heart, soul, mind and body and He wants your 'yes.' Our faith delights and ravishes His heart as it is expressed in seeking Him and falling more in love with Him as we come to know how great His love towards us. The anti-Christ will come with many signs and wonders and deceive many and that spirit is already at work - it tries to get us to replace Christ as the focus of all that we live for. Let us repent because we have the freedom to do that in Christ and He is forgiving and abounding in love to those who call upon His name.

Lord, forgive us for our lack of desire and compromise. Forgive us for choosing to be yoked again into bondage rather than be embraced as Your precious children. Your love is past feeling or understanding and I pray that You would release a spirit of wisdom and revelation over Your Church and that You would draw us. We cannot come unless drawn and we cannot stir up or awaken Your love without Your Holy Spirit. Stir us and awaken us to our high calling as Your bride and by Your grace guide us in continuous repentance from this world to be found faithful and crying out in unison with the Holy Spirit "Come!" I pray that You would find faith when You return and that we would be watching and praying with eager expectancy. Come Lord Jesus and renovate our hearts and let our lives be fully pleasing to You, Jesus. Seal us with Your Holy Spirit and burn away the chaff in our lives. May we be guided by godly sorrow to repentance into the newness of life and grieve over those who don't know You. May the love of Christ constrain us and compel us to love You with all that we have and love others as You, the Lover of the ages, love us. In Jesus' mighty and precious name I pray. Amen.
- posted by aramis306 @ 10:06 PM (1) comments |